Dr Wickland’s Wimhurst machine delivered mild electrical shocks that were applied across the base of the patient’s skull and spine. While the shocks were not painful to the patient, they had the effect of “driving” obsessing discarnate spirits out of the patient’s aura. The accounts of the effects these electrical shocks had on the spirits ejected from these patients is often dramatic, and even humorous in some instances. These accounts are quite consistent throughout the scores of dialogues throughout the Wickland book.
After driving the earthbound spirit out of the patient’s aura, the doctor was immediately able to speak to it through his wife, Anna who was a trance medium. To my knowledge, this couple represents the only example of a collaboration between a trance medium and a psychiatrist in an attempt to treat psychiatric disorders.
Spirit: It’s that woman, she talks and talks and talks. (Patient, Mrs. Burton, who talked constantly.) She never can keep still very long at a time. I felt sometimes like shaking her good. We just had some new company come in. (Other infecting spirits.) They talk and talk. It makes me sick; they make me get out. They are the worst I ever saw.
Dr: What made you leave?
Sp: Lightning played around my head, until I didn’t know where I was. (Electrical treatment given patient.) I thought it was far distant, but, my God and Stars in heaven, how it hit me!
Dr: What did you want to do at such times?
Sp: I wanted to get hold of that lightning and try to stop it hitting my head, but the lightning strikes every time – it never misses. Lightning used to be different; it didn’t always strike, but now it never misses. I never saw anything like it. There are stars before your eyes, and it feels terrible, but even while the lightning strikes that woman keeps right on talking. (Patient talked throughout treatment.)
These obsessing spirits were of the ignorant variety, and not especially evil. They were all simply confused and unable to understand that they themselves were dead and now their spirits were imprisoned within the aura of a living person. Since neither the living patient nor the obsessing spirit was able to distinguish whose thoughts belonged to whom, the obsessing spirit caused the patient to “act crazy” while at the same time the spirit would become confused and frustrated.
Once Dr. Wickland’s “lightning” had driven the ignorant spirit out of the patient’s body, it would be attracted to the aura of Dr. Wickland’s wife, Anna who in a hypnotized state acted as a medium, allowing the infecting earthbound spirit to speak using her vocal cords. With the help of Anna’s spirit controls (today called spirit “guides”), Dr. Wickland was eventually able to convince these spirits to leave the earth sphere and enter into the mainstream spiritual world. After all the spiritual influences had been eliminated, the patients were able to live normal lives free from their mental illnesses. In addition, the spirits themselves were freed from the shackles of their own ignorance.
Modern readers may think that this would be a silly exercise in self-delusion, but in fact, the treatments worked! Patients who had been declared irreversibly insane were permanently cured of their mental illnesses. All were able to go back to living normal lives after their treatments. Furthermore, much veridical (historically accurate) information about a previously unknown dead person was later verified. For all practical purposes, the couple performed what might be called modern day exorcisms using spiritual and psychiatric methods instead of religious ritual. They successfully treated psychiatric patients for over 30 years, and the information they gained was quite consistent throughout their careers.
Today, the medical establishment will dismiss this type of treatment as a form of Voodoo or magic, however it is important to note that no one since the Wicklands has ever done any form of research to prove whether it works or not! As a matter of fact, any physician who attempted to show the efficacy of spiritual therapeutic methods would probably loose his or her license to practice because of the atheistic atmosphere surrounding our culture. Pity!
The dialogues in the book offer a fascinating glimpse into the conditions on the transitional plane where these earthbound spirits had been confined until they became entangled in the aura of a susceptible patient. The spirits’ personalities are all unique and are a fascinating study in themselves.
Monologues from Anna’s more advanced spirit controls (guides) also give a glimpse into the conditions in one of the segregated societies within the Summerlands. Anna’s spirit guides were well-intentioned and intelligent spirits, but still heavily tied to the dogmas of their earthly spiritual beliefs. They speak the truth as they see it, but it is apparent that they have not yet come into contact with higher spirits of different religions and different spiritual philosophies. They appear to remain in a segregated and insulated group, and this is the reason that I believe them to be residing in a segregated society within the Summerlands.
The Wicklands dealt with numerous patients who displayed all the symptoms and hallucinations of people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other dysfunctions of the human mind. They cared not a whit for the anatomic or physiologic brain defects that might be causing them. Unlike modern psychiatrists and neurologists who prescribe drugs that can only mute or mask the symptoms, Carl and Anna Wickland were able to affect CURES for their patients working under the assumption that the hallucinations were the result of obsession by discarnate spirits who were unaware that they were dead or that they were obsessing a living person.
The fact that the couple had been doing this work for over thirty years, scoring tremendous success with their patients, and were, during all that time never “debunked” or shown to have fraudulent intentions is quite a testament to their integrity and dedication. Furthermore, in many cases, the information provided by the infecting discarnate, and unknown by anyone present was later verified through independent sources.
Thirty Years among the Dead is essential reading for anyone interested in survival of the spirit after death. It provides some of the finest descriptions ever produced of the conditions on the transitional plane and also demonstrates spiritual laws as they actually affect the spirits. It demonstrates graphically the way that spiritual interference can affect the mental health of living persons and is a very important source of information on an essential element of the spiritual world; namely the existence of earthbound spirits (ghosts), a subject which many modern mediums are loath to discuss. That’s why I reference the Wickland material in other parts of this book.
I believe that spiritual infection is a very important factor in the aberrant behavior of many of the people who “make the headlines” in our modern Western society. The huge increase in drug and alcohol addiction among our young people as well as the breakdown of our families and the growing acceptance of political violence creates an environment that is ripe for spiritual infections. Of course not all violent acts are caused by spiritual infections, but the next time you see a headline about a serial rapist, a school shooter, or someone who has never committed a crime but suddenly commits an unspeakable act on someone else, keep this in mind!