Carl Jung: It would help our psychological research considerably.

To Mark Wyman Richardson

Dear Dr. Richardson, 14 June 1934

Thank you very much for kindly sending me the offprints of the Margery case

I know the case from the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, but I'm indeed very glad to have the whole collection of offprints, as the Margery case has interested me to an extraordinary extent.

The phenomena you have observed are really most illuminating, particularly from the philosophical point of view.

For many years I'm closely following the progress of mediumistic research, but I must say that I hardly ever came across a more wonderful case of mediumism than the Margery case.

Though I appreciate the enormous contribution to science which is due to the exact observation of mediumistic phenomena, I always miss the ideological, i.e., psychological side of the reports of such a case.

I would be very much interested to know something about the personal biography of the medium and at the same time whatever the medium knows about the spiritual agencies involved in her mediumistic performances.

I'm not afraid of unaccountable spirit messages because I'm interested in their psychology which provides material to me for comparison with what I already know of the contents of the unconscious.

Would it be possible, for instance, for the medium to write a careful biography of herself, f.i. in the way Mrs. Esperance has written a story of her life?

Her little book is a most valuable psychological document and I wish we could possess more of such honest and straightforward statements.

It would help our psychological research considerably.

At all events I'm most indebted to you for your kindness in letting me know of the results of your observations.

They truly throw a light upon the darkest and yet most important side of the human soul, namely upon the spot where it touches transcendent reality, I quite agree with you· that such observations enlarge the horizon of man and give him a deeper insight into the [ . . . J ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 166