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Dr. & Mrs. Carl Wickland, a husband-wife medical team of trance-mediumship, for 40 years, serving confused spirits who did not know that they were dead.
Dr. Carl & Anna Wickland
In 1897 Minnie Morgan, who had lived a wild and profligate life, finally died of morphine poisoning. Wandering in darkness as a spirit, she was helped toward a better realization by the Wicklands. Twenty-five years later Minnie returned to thank the husband-and-wife team and to report of her progress:
July 26, 1922, Minnie Morgan speaking to Dr. Carl Wickland, facilitated by trance-medium Anna Wickland. She explains how her loose living had progressed from bad to worse:
sow your wild oats, throw your sins onto Jesus, then stride proudly into heaven - and other fantasies
"I made up my mind that I would have a good time while I could and then, when the time came to die, I would be ready to go, because at the last I could throw my sins on Jesus and be washed as white as snow. I started out in life with that belief. I said: 'Why can't I have a good time like others? The future will take care of itself.' With that thought many persons go out to sow their wild oats, thinking that when the proper time comes they will be prayed for, and that then they will step into the glory of Heaven… In the way of the world I lived very fast. I went to church once in a while to be sure my soul would be taken care of. I paid money to the church so I would be all right, and then I drowned myself in the glory of the world. It was all right for a while. Each time I had glory, as I called it, I suffered both physically and mentally. I tried to shake it off and go on a little longer. I fell by the wayside. After a while my physical body wore out and I had misery and sickness."
Editor’s note: Minnie’s earlier shocking attitude of expediency, a cynical view of “sin now and be cleansed by a BlackRobe later,” came crashing down for her when she met reality upon entering the spirit world. The venal mindset of Minnie is well in line with many of my childhood, some of the worst, who lived their acid-mouthed religious lives in cavalier manner, believing that the Nice Young Man at Church would wash away, while you wait, indiscretions with a magic hand-sign. Church clergy who teach this kind of hideous immorality risk a reservation in the rat cellar. See scores of such cases.
Minnie continues her account. She speaks of her sufferings as a wayward ignorant spirit:
"You wander like wild cattle on the battle field of selfishness and jealousy. Love is so little understood. You do not know what real love is, because God is Love, and God dwells in Love. The majority of people only believe, and think there is some place in the sky to which they go when they die… That is what I thought. I tried to live a life of glory -or what I thought was glory. What does that mean? It means to have a good time, to live, and not care what becomes of one's soul. I said, 'Let us have, a good time while we can!' and I started out in life that way. I had my sorrows and I had my good time, as I called it, but that is not a good time.
"We cannot for one minute step over the laws of nature except we suffer in some way or other. If we go too far in anything we suffer for it both mentally and physically. We keep on going and going; sometimes our good time is better, sometimes worse. I lived a very fast life and called it a glorious time, but grief and adversity came… Each time I had glory, as I called it, I suffered both physically and mentally. I tried to shake it off and go on a little longer. I fell by the wayside. After a while my physical body wore out and I had misery and sickness.
"At one time I was considered a very pretty girl. I had my beaux and all that goes with a good time, but I went down and down to the very lowest. I was a physical wreck… I died in that terrible condition. My physical body was gone. I had worn it out, just worn it out. Then I was operated on (post-mortem) but I still lived. I wanted to get to my body. They operated on me, and after a while I felt that something was picking me to small pieces (dissection). I cried and I fought, because I wanted that body so I could satisfy my very soul. I was burning up…
substitutionary sacrifice, a false doctrine
"I found I could not throw my sins on Christ. He was our teacher, but we must live our own lives, as He taught us to live, and not throw our sins and troubles on Him. That is a false doctrine…
"What would I have been if I had not been given an understanding of how to overcome my desires? I would have been an earthbound spirit and … I would have lived in the earth sphere for years and years if I had gotten into that condition. I would have ruined one and then another, and so I would have kept on.
"Find out what belongs to the soul and what belongs to the body. If this were done we would not have so much trouble and crime, nor so much sickness…”
Editor's note: Elsewhere I’ve stated that the more advanced forms of mediumship offer a direct access to reports from the spirit world, unfiltered by the mind of the psychic. One of the best is the direct-voice mediumship – for example, that of Leslie Flint, Emily French, and John Sloan – facilitating “voices” from Summerland; many hundreds of these, which have been tape-recorded or transcribed by stenographer.
The service work of the Wicklands, their trance/spirit-attachment mediumship, offers another form of this direct, unfiltered access to discarnate entities. While rereading the Wickland's book – see a copy free, online – it occurred to me that, in a sense, these reports are even more valuable and instructive to us than those via direct-voice.
I say this because reports from Summerland, while not always issuing from the spiritually sane, are usually marked by a certain level of civility. But the Wicklands were dealing with confused spirits still on the Earth-plane, which automatically suggests that these had a reason to hang around; often, with motivations centering about not just unfinished business but addictions and criminal activity.
As we “listen” to Dr. Wickland interview these recalcitrant-unrepentant, we receive viewpoints laced with raw egocentrism, tendencies toward violence, all manner of ill-repute. But then, it struck me how valuable this is: Note carefully how these insane ones speak – in one sense, they sound very ordinary, just like any troubled person around us all the time, every day, and being interviewed on tv in the news – but take note of the excuses, the victimhood stories, the hard-done-by accounts, the blaming and scapegoating, the slanted story, the evil eye, the bloodthirsty cravings for revenge.
by way of contrast
I said all this is valuable and instructive because, if we listen very carefully, we will gain insight, by way of contrast, to every precept of natural law, all of the good rubrics, which rule the “better neighborhoods” of Summerland - and reflect the mind of God.
We see the diamond more clearly against a background of black velvet cloth.
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