Poltergeist: A Classic Study in Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson

he called “Sleeping Margaret” because she put in an appearance when Margaret fell asleep. This personality seemed to be able to see into the minds of all the others. She also claimed to be a spirit or guardian angel who had come in reply to the prayers of Doris’ mother for someone to protect her daughter.
    So the personalities in Doris’ body seemed to form a kind of hierarchy or “ladder.” At the top was “Sleeping Margaret,” the “guardian angel.” Next came the mischievous and childish Margaret. Then Doris, then “Sick Doris,” then the “tape recorder,” Sleeping Real Doris.
    Margaret could “eject” Doris at a moment’s notice. Sometimes, Doris would be half-way through a sentence when suddenly her expression would alter, and Margaret would take over, with her typical mischievous grin. But Margaret was unaware of the “guardian angel” and on one occasion when she had unceremoniously forced Doris out of the body, the guardian angel got angry and forced Margaret out. Later that day, Margaret reappeared and confided to Prince that there must be someone else in this body because someone had thrown her out.
    In the security of Prince’s household, Doris improved steadily. The personality called Sick Doris began to fade out; she became virtually an idiot, and she and Prince took a final walk together and had a touching leavetaking. Then she reverted to babyhood, and “died.” As an experiment, Prince tried encouraging the “tape recorder,” seeing if he could turn her into something more like a human being; she responded so well that Prince decided it would be unwise to carry on. She also faded away.
    Margaret also began to “grow backwards” as Doris’ confidence increased, becoming more and more child-like and using the German pronunciations of Doris’ childhood. Her senses seemed to fade, and her visual field narrowed until she could only see directly in front of her—like a baby. Then she too faded away.
    The “guardian angel” never faded away; she remained around, and sometimes emerged after Doris had fallen asleep, and had long and interesting talks with Prince. In 1916, when someone suggested that Doris should go to New York to sit with a medium, Prince was dubious until “Sleeping Margaret” assured him that Doris would be perfectly safe in her hands. She was as good as her word, and the result was a remarkable series of séances in which the spirit of Doris’ mother—or someone who claimed to be—wrote out long messages that showed an intimate knowledge of Doris’ background. Doris’ “mother” also insisted that all that had happened to her daughter was simply a case of “benevolent possession.” And it has to be admitted that this explanation fits the facts amazingly well. For, on the whole, Doris’ experience of multiple personality was not unpleasant. Margaret, although mischievous, was a good-natured and happy child, and the other personalities seem to have been basically harmless. Prince was disposed to believe the assertion of “Sleeping Margaret” that she was a guardian spirit who had come in answer to the prayers of the mother.
    It can now be seen why Prince thought it possible that the Amherst case involved dual personality. He was more than half convinced that the Doris case of multiple personality was actually one of benevolent possession, so in suggesting that Esther was a dual personality, he was, in effect, hinting that this could be a case of non-benevolent possession. At the same time, his position as a well-known psychiatrist meant that, for public consumption, he was bound to lay most of the emphasis on the purely psychological explanation—of both the Amherst and the Doris cases.
    And what is the psychological explanation? It depends, basically, upon the recognition that we are all, to some extent, multiple personalities, divided selves. Part of Esther Cox wanted to be seduced by Bob MacNeal, but the personality structure induced by her