Thirty Years Among the Dead

Thirty Years Among the Dead contains dozens of detailed accounts of patients treated by psychiatrist Carl A. Wickland with spiritualist methods, with his wife acting as the medium for the patients involved. Through transcripts taken during the treatment administered by Wickland, we read firsthand the behaviors of the patients who have agreed to undergo a seance. Many describe feeling a sudden change in their mood and consciousness, and are upset that their lives have been disrupted in such a way and desire relief from such a disequilibrium. The ghosts which are communicated with often express surprise that they have died; most feel existence as vividly as when they were living, breathing people. Wickland explains that ascertaining the temperament and attitudes of the spirits is a crucial first phase to helping the patient. Often they are quite recently dead; few of the ghosts Wickland heard from through his patients had been deceased for more than a century.