K
NO. 7
VOL. XLI
rOHTLAXD, OREGON. SUNDAY JIOKMNG, FEBRUARY 12, 1922
" .... - i 1
I he Girl Wh
10 Has foD; x""""
priori ze
Bernice Redick, Nineteen-Year-Old Ohio Girl, Con
trolled by a Dual Nature Which, She Says, Includes
the Soul of Her Dead Twin Sister, Every Few Hours
Lapses Into an Unruly Child of Four.
PSVOHOLCH1ISTS the world over
re interested in tbe strange cas
of Hernice Rvdick. a 19-year-old
inmate of the Ohio State Bureau ot
Juvenile Research at Columbus. Two
personalities dwell in her body. One
moment she is Kernlce. quiet, refined
and lovable. The next moment she is
transformed into Polly, an' infant in
mentality, an unruly child in con
duit. While her normal self she it
fond of music and books. While
under the spell she playa with dolls
and toys and acts like a willful, head
strong toddler of four. She even
walks with the uncertain steps of
childhood when under the strange in
fluence. And there seems to be only one
remedy hypnosis. Dr. Henry H. God
dard. director of the bureau at Co
lumbus a psychologist of wide re
pute, has broucht about a decided im
provement in the girl's condition by
placing her mind under the influence
of his own and then directing her to
banish the Polly nature from her
body. Little by little, Pr Uoddard
sayg. he is killing the Tolly spirit,
lie hopes In a short time to have
Bernicc free of the inordinate condi
tion. Kxtraordinary as the case sounds in
the telling, there neems to be an ex
planation of it In Edward Knob
lock"a recently withdrawn play. "One."
In which Frances Starr appeared. Nor
can this hint of the truth of the con
dition of the girl with the double per
sonality be passed over lightly in view
of the fact that Misa Redick her
self, who never heard of the play,
ascribes her trouble to Just such a
condition as the playwright imagined.
It Is. in short, that twins have only
one soul and that when one body dies
the soul passes Into the other, which
It only shared before.
"I do not know much about such
things." says Mlse Redick. "But I
feel that the Tolly being in me is the
soul of my dead twin Bister, who died
ten years ago. I can account for it In
no other way. I believe that there Is
a link between twins that even death
does not and cannot dissolve. While
one twin lives the soul of each, or the
one soul they share, finds shelter in
the one body."
This remarkable statement, com
ing as it does from this girl, recalls
to those who saw the Knoblock play
that it Is. In substance, Just what the
physician In the drama said when he
Informed the one twin that unless ihe
died her sister could never be a suc
cess in the world of music. The phy
sician pointed out that the one sister
had mechanical ability to play a
piano, but the other held the neces
sary spirit which was needed to pol
ish the technique. And in the play,
when the one twin takes her life by
willfully contracting pneumonia, her
s"ul goes into her living sister, who
Immediately becomes a great pianist.
And Bernice Redick believes that
that is Just what happened to her.
"I often dreamed about my dead sis- sister. But 1 am trying hard to make
ter." she said to a recent visitor. "I her leave me. to allow me to finish
looked so much Itke her that my own my life as one person."
parents couldn't tell us apart. I cried She turned away, in custody of an
for a week when she died. She was attendant and started to go to her
almost years old at the time. But room. As she did so the fit came
1 believe that the little girl who lives upon her and in a moment the ha'.l
ia me ia the spirit of my dead twin echoed with snouts of: ' "I won't!
1 I Hill
J3j JYe. asz ?fjys
closed, face exceedingly pale, tears bureau, who has a wide reputation
running over her cheeks. Her hands as a psychologist, has her under con
picked nervously at her waist. Btant observation. He lias named the
"It is Polly dying." said Ur: God- child personality Polly, and declares
dard. "Every day this happens. L.it- that she is a child of 4. On a single
tie by little Polly is going away." day during the first two months of
Where formerly the spells lasted her stay at the bureau she changed
several hours, now they only con- into the child Polly on 11 different
tir.ue 15 minutes, as did this one occasions. These changes are without
which ended after that duration by warning and instantaneous.
Bernice sitting up in bed and quietly Once she was primping herself, put
asking if she could have something ting the last touches on her pretty
tc- eat. coiffure. Without a sound she Slid-
Bernice lost her twin sister ten denly became possessed by "Polly"
jears ago. when they were nine. AW and the next moment was on the
that time these twin children played floor of her room dressing a teddy
with dollies and toys, finding in pic- bear, completely oblivious to those
ture books and make-believe house- about her.
kteping the pleasure that most chil- While she was employed as a
dren that age enjoy. Bernice took nurse' she learned to drive the auto
hard the death of her twin. For they mobile belonging to her mistress,
had been as close as only twins can She was "talking automobiles" to a
be, sharing each childish joy, com- nurse' in the bureau when she sutl
forting each other when something denly slid into the "Polly" person
happened to mar happiness. But ality and a minute later was scamper
fcraduallv. under the kindly attention ing. across the floor astride a .kiddie
o; her parents, she recovered and be- car much as a child of 10 would have
came a normal child, and exhibited a done.
genius for music. . Improvement by Hypnosis.
Then, at the age of 15, she received Reading one evening from a best
another blow. Her father died. Two seller under the soft glow of a table
years later her mother also passed lamp in the individual quarters al-
away. She found herself an orphan, lotted to her. she again passed into
without means of support. So she her juvenile existence and discarded
left her town o Lisbon, Columbiana the book for Mother Goose rhymes,
county, and went to Cleveland, whtre Dr. Uoddard states that improve-
she entered a family as nursegirl. ment in Miss Redick's case was ob-
Begina to Play With Holln. served after he tried hypnotizing her.
Two years of domestic work re- "Invariably, when I placed Miss
vealed no indication to those with Redick in a hypnotic . state, I found
whom she came in contact that she that the 19-year-old personality pos-
was in the slightest degree abnormal, sessed her," said Dr. Goddard. "I
To the contrary, she was very bright, was then able, for the first time, to
Then, all at once, she was observed 'introduce' the Polly personality to
playing with the dolls belonging to the Bernice personality. I did this
her little charge, and when her em- by telling her all about the 4-year-
ployer tried to end what she thought old Polly and how she acted when, she
was playfulness acted as a child of was Polly.
9 or 10 would act, and a dull-witted "I impressed upon her that no
one at that. Several times this re- young woman with her education,
curred, the spells lasting several talents and refinements would want
hours. Then she would snap back, to be a little 4-year-old girl. I made
as it were, into the personality of her understand that when she came
the older girl, declaring, in answer out from under the hypnotic influence
to queries, that she remembered she would remember Polly,
nothing except those things inci- "This proved to be the case. After
dental to the particular task she had each hypnotic treatment, when she
been engaged in doing when she suf- became her normal self again, we
fered the lapse which changed her could see that she was coming to
Into a child. Finally, fearing the have a better understanding of her
111 tell mamma. I won't do it!"
The -sedate Bernice had been
changed into a kicking, hysterical girl insane, the ramily turned her other personality ana wren tc a ae-
chjlj over to the Cleveland hospital au- termination not to let the Polly'per- into the Polly state became less and we very seldom, except In case of ex
Attendants hastened to her. She thorities, who in turn sent her to sonality possess her.' less frequent. treme fatigue, find her in the 4-year-was
carried to her cot. kicking and the Columbus bureau, where she "As her nervous system began to "By suggestion and re-education, old condition of mind. Miss Redick
hitine Finally havinsr sobbed her- now is. . mend, and her other general health we have been able to bring the two is practically cured. It is now a
self to exhaustion, she lay there, eyes Dr." H. H. Goddard, director of the improved, her lapses from normalcy personalities together so that, now
(Concluded, on F&sa &.)
ID'I i rr r