The Washington herald., 1922-03-19

altered state Of consciousness aud possibly inHu
enccd by dscarnate agency The Investigators
conclusion that Mary Ellen-or rather her other
personaity-set the fires is based circumstantiai
evidence. She had the opportunity She was always
in the house when Immediately before the blazes
were discovered. No FIRE. the walls elsewhere.
occurred at point which could not be reached by
person of Mary Ellen's height, which is five feet
No fire occurred in any part of the house that was
visible from the neighborhood Of the kitchen stove
the common meeting place of the family on the
nights when the fires broke out. DIR. Prince found
match which he is was used to set one Of
the fires; and spirits he seems to- think, cannot
use matches. V
"Dr. Prince, IN describing the girl whom he
holds physically but not morally responsible for
the mischief, says she is very young mentally but
happy, fun loving child who, her foster mother says
has always been good child Strangely enough
of the cases in which poltergeist has seemed
to be at work had child usually girl, as their
leading figure Hetty Wesley and Eliza Rose
the centers of celebrated psychic mysteries;
and girl of II was the main actor in the Cock
Lane ghost affair, although that deceit made
of whole cloth.
"Why children chosen the particular me-
dunn of these uncanny happenings, some of which
have not been as satisfactorily explained as the
Antigonish case? Is it because the young uniformed
evil personality which comes to the top and
then, the everyday personality and raises
hob with the individuals surroundings? That there
such secondary personalities science no longer
doubts. There Jekylls and Hydes and cases
of Becky in real life.
observers of psychic phenomena have won
dered why, in the many examples of dual conscious
which have appeared, the secondary person
ality has been almost always of wicked bent The
l. H.
full becomes when inhabited by her other self.
maker of mischief and sometimes Of serious dam
age. Were the ancents to be blamed for accepting
demoniac possessions a fact? But may disre-
gard the devil and consider the secondary person
ality's bad habits illustration Of what man
might be if it were not for custom, love and re-
lgion. The primary personality is what have
become through the ages The secondary, which
occasionally appears above the surface in case
like that in Nova Scotia, is the wild soul of the
period.
"But are there ghosts? That is what many
readers, disappointed by DIR. Princes findings, will
ask. The doctor himself leaves the gate Open
Possibly he says, Mary Ellen influenced by
discarnate agency Like most wise who have
tried to sound the psychic Depths he does not ad-
NIT that there are ghosts nor does he deny their
existence. Men of all the ages and all the climes
have believed through instinct rather than
ing that consciousness is not limited to the walls of
the brain. Most men have felt rather than thought
that the earth and its inhabitants are not isolated
from the consciousness of those billions that in
their narrow cells forever laid.
Whether may find the psychic truths
he seeks he WILL in the case of Mary Ellen, keep
on trying. If he can solve the mystery of the
mischievous personalities that take possession of
mortals perhaps he track consciousness
after it has deserted the tenement of the hesh
Whence, why and whittier? is the great riddle and
every angle of it is fascinating"