If we presume (and why may we not?) that the wild Irish woman possessed strong psychological powers; that Martha Goodwin was easily subjectible to psychological control; that her brothers and sister were so too, and that they were all naturally sympathetic, then we can see that nothing more occurred, even if the whole that is told be literally true, than falls within the scope of such psychological forces as have in recent years been manifested by embodied, and, we may add, by disembodied minds. If in her anger the old woman forced or found rapport between her own sphere or aura and that of Martha Goodwin, way was opened for injection of germs of suffering to the girl's system, and the systems of others in rapport with her. Way was opened through which the tormentor could, though absent, send upon the child ugly wishes that would keep torturing her so long as the old woman kept the wishes active; as perhaps she did in many of her waking hours. The account says, "One or two things were _very remarkable_. All their complaints were _in the daytime_, and they slept comfortably _all night_." When the old woman was asleep, and her resentful feelings were dormant, the children also slept.
A passage-way so opened as to admit the entrance of one, usually admits others of the same kind to follow. Where the old woman's subduing will-force had entered and gained sway, that of her sympathetic, and many other spirits, might do the same; and could make the children's outer forms either accept or reject, at the controller's pleasure, any books or class of literature which should be offered for perusal. Catholic spirits, or any spirit, liking a little fun, might keenly relish the work of astonishing Cotton Mather and his ilk, by showing preferences antagonistic to his own righteous ones.
The case of Philip Smith, a very intelligent, efficient, and highly respected citizen of Hadley, Mass., exhibits analogous phenomena. We shall not go into that case in detail. It occurred 1685, and is very instructive. Being sick, sensitive, clairvoyant, and pining away, "he uttered a hard suspicion" that one old Mrs. Webster, _who had once been tried for witchcraft_, and also had taken offense at some of Smith's official acts, "had made impressions with enchantments upon him." His "suspicion" and sufferings fired the minds of young men in the town to go "three or four times" and give that old woman disturbance. Drake, in Woodward's "Hist. Series," No. VIII. p. 179, presents the following account: "It is said by a reliable historian that the young miscreants went to her house, dragged her out, and hung her up till she was almost dead. They then cut her down, rolled her some time in the snow, and then buried her up in it, leaving her, as they supposed, for dead. But by a miracle, as it were, she survived this barbarity. Still more miraculous it was, that the sick man was greatly relieved during the time the helpless old woman was being so beastly abused." Mather, in his account (ib. p. 177) says, "All the while they were disturbing her, he was at ease, and slept as a weary man." This is all possible, and not improbable. The man was obviously very susceptible to psychological influences, and could trace felt malignant forces to their source. She, no doubt, was a turbulent and odd old woman, for she had been tried for witchcraft, and was probably a natural psychologist. As long as rough handling caused her to call in, and keep at home, and concentrate all her thoughts and forces for self-defence and protection, no emanations from her went out to the sick man, who then consequently dropped into quiet sleep.