Patience Worth
A St Louis housewife sat down at a Ouija board, and a voice from 300 years before began to dictate poems and novels: four million words in all.
What was reported
In July 1913, Pearl Curran, a woman in St Louis with little formal education, was playing with a Ouija board with a friend when it spelled out: 'Many moons ago I lived. Again I come. Patience Worth my name.' Patience said she had been an Englishwoman of the 1600s.
Over the next 24 years, Curran produced, first through the board and later by speaking, poems, plays and several novels in Patience's voice, written in an old-fashioned English. Visitors gave her topics, and she composed on the spot. Her books were reviewed seriously, and some critics praised them highly.
Explanations offered
Researchers found no evidence that Patience Worth existed. Most see the writing as Curran's own remarkable creativity, perhaps released through a dissociative or trance-like state. Linguists noted that Patience's English didn't match any real period exactly. How Curran produced so much so fast remains striking.
- When
- From 8 July 1913
- Where
- St Louis, Missouri, USA
- Witnesses
- Pearl Curran and many visitors to her sittings
- Status
- Unexplained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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