Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism

Besides the normal Mollie Fancher known to those who visited her in the daytime, her very intimate friends, and in particular her aunt, were acquainted with no less than five other Mollie Fanchers, who manifested themselves with varying frequency. One of them persisted for nine years (1866 to 1875), during what she was accustomed to refer to as her "great trance," but when that crisis was over, this personality never came to the surface again. During the nine years period spoken of, her right arm was rigidly bent in such a position that the hand was fixed over the back of the head. She had some control of the thumb and index finger, and in order to do her work of flower making, sewing, etc., she had to bring up her left arm, of which she retained full use, to meet the right hand at the back of her head. The work which she learned to do in that position, … was extraordinarily delicate and minute. When, however, this condition passed, she remembered absolutely nothing of all that had happened to her during those nine years, and the skill which she had acquired in her craftsmanship was as if it had never been. She had to begin to learn her flower work all over again.

Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism

Mollie Fancher was born in 1848.  Her life was spent at her aunt's home in Brooklyn, New York, and she died in the same house shortly before the end of the last century. She seems to have been a tuberculous subject from childhood, but as the result of two very serious accidents in 1865 and 1866, not long after leaving school, she became an incurable invalid and never for more than thirty years quitted her room or, practically speaking, her bed.

Her lower limbs, being bent under her, became twisted and atrophied, and this was followed by permanent blindness and a complication of nervous disorders which had curious manifestations. For long years she was incapable of swallowing and lived almost completely without food, but in this crippled state she developed remarkable clairvoyant faculties.

It was alleged that she often discerned what was happening in distant towns, that she had knowledge of the contents of sealed letters, that she could read books with great rapidity by passing her hand over the printed page, and it seems certain that she executed the most delicate artistic work in a position over her head-the only position which her paralysed arm rendered possible-where even the full use of her eyes could not have served her. Further, many witnesses attest that she could distinguish, with unerring accuracy, by touch alone the colours of the worsteds, the wax sheets, and other materials she employed in her work.

In addition to this there were manifested in her four separate personalities, each with distinctive characteristics and a handwriting which differed from that of her normal state. She never in any proper sense slept, but these personalities revealed themselves during the night-not, apparently, in the daytime-their appearance being ushered in by violent convulsions and a trance condition which was frequently cataleptic.

What lends exceptional importance to Miss Fancher's experiences is the fact that she had no interest in, or sympathy with, anything which bore the name of Spiritualism. She seems to have been a very religiously minded woman, and several of her most trusted friends were ministers-either Presbyterian or Baptist-in whose eyes any attempted communication with the spirits of the dead savoured of devilry.

Padre Secchi, S.J., 1877, from the Observatory of the Collegio Romano

I never knew a more truthful, sincere and intelligent girl than she has proved herself from the very first of our acquaintance. ... I have spent my life in study and I have devoted much of it for the past twelve years to Mollie Fancher's case.

Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism

The book in which the available testimonies are printed, a book which is unfortunately almost the only available source of information regarding Mollie, was compiled by "Judge Abram H. Dailey."

This title seems to imply some sort of official legal position, but whether on account of the writer’s advanced age or some other reason, it is not the kind of book which one would expect from a man accustomed to marshal evidence and estimate its value. The narrative is confused, ill-written, full of repetitions and by no means free from misprints, especially where dates occur.

If the volume represented nothing but Judge Dailey's impressions one might be pardoned for thinking the whole record worthless. But the author, partly, perhaps, to save himself trouble or to swell out the volume to a respectable bulk, has thrown together pell-mell a number of testimonies from the friends and acquaintances of the invalid, and there seems no reason to suppose that these have not been printed as they were written, for the contributors of the statements in question were nearly all living when the book was published. Some of them certainly were men of standing and intelligence. For example, Professor West … delivered, in 1882, an address entitled "Fifty years of Progress."

From a copy of this brochure of 150 pages, which I have been able to consult at the British Museum, one is led to infer that the writer was a man much respected among his fellow ministers of religion, and the essay also gives proof of intelligence, wide reading, and a religious spirit.