Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1920-03-11
OUIJA WRITING
CALLED RESULT
OF MINDS ACT

eyes. / believe in ouija boards. DR..
Clarke l.. Hull. head of the psychology
cal experiment laboratory department
of the University CT Wisconsin,, put
/ do not believe that any disembodied
spirit ever used one to get message
to the living. / am willing to admit
a good many ouija operators are sin
cere in their assertions that they be-
lieve spirit is moving their hands
as the little three cornered carriage
glides about the polished surface and
either write words or points out let
tiers from printed alphabet. But
am confident that no answer was ever
written by an ouija board that was
not in the mind OF the operator. sub
lime or consciously"
t.Dr. Hull" his questioner said, I'VE
understand that you had a young
woman who studied under you who
wrote things while in a trance and
when she was through writing could
remember nothing Of the occurrence,
was surprised at things she had writ
ten, the chirography of which was
quite different from her ordinary hand
writing. Was it true?"
EYES," this materialistic psycholo-
gist answered, "but not because any
disembodied spirit, futtering back
from another existence, was guiding
her hand I will tell you the story OF
this young woman. She was a neu-
rotic. I suspect she had what stu
dents of psychology call a split per-
sonality' I suggested to her that
every night she would hold a pencil
in her hand for five minutes, keeping
her hand limp, to see ii the hand
might not automatically start writing.
For two nights she did this without
result. The third night her hand
wrote in a strange. angular chirog-
raphy, often nearly unintelligible, a
number of sentences which she be-
Eeves cryptic in meaning.
mot long before, she had lost a
brother by death. She tried this auto
matte writing many times and finally
began thinking the things she penned
We're messages from him.
Or. Hull explained that split per-
sonalities are merely an exaggeration
OF what most people possess. That is
one man may be elated and joyous at
times and at other times all tenn
pered and detected, and this indi-
Gates that he has two conflicting
influences In his makeup. 1t these
conflicting powers appear in ex-
aggerated form what happens during
the ascendency Of one influence is
not recollected when the other con-
trolling power is in command of the
body. DR.. Hull said an extreme case
Of this is illustrated by an individual,
known by psychologists to have ex-
listed, who had the following expert
ence. When he was about to do
certain piece of work he might be
in a lighthearted mood Nevertheless
he could feel the conflict in his mind
that precursed the dominance of his
mood OF depression. That he might do
the work he had planned, he would
pin written instructions to his knee
and in his succeeding STATE would read
them, and although he would not re-
member having written them, would
follow them and when his alternate
Mood arrived would not know that he
had done SO except by results.
CDR Hull" his interviewer asked,
doesn't that sound like the cases de-
scribed in the Bible where an indi-
vidual became possessed Of an evil
spirit and remained under its influence
for at time, until the spirit was driven
out by exorcists or disposed Of some
other way, and the man proceeded with
his occupation unaware of what hap
pened during the interim when the
evil spirit was in ascendency? Wasn't
Saups possession by evil spirits and
their exorcism by the sweet music OF
David, along those very lines?"
There's no possession by evil spirits
involved in the split personality idea
at all, DR.. Hull answered. 1t is per-
fectly natural psychic happening
that two influences should alternate
in control of single personality, and
it is not necessary 10 resort TO demon
ology or other supernatural theories
to explain it
Il have no doubt whatever, that
many so called mediums, clairvoyants
and clairaudients. honestly believe
they are possessed Of spirits because
they do not remember what occurred
while their second personality was In
control The difference in style Of this
handwriting under the control of the
Nv rsonalitia3 does not prove that
any influence outside normal ones are
controlling the hand
INDIANS VISIT
GOVERNOR Philip