Writers from the afterlife

This article explores the extraordinary cases of writers who claimed their work was inspired by spirits. Pearl Curran, known as the "genius of the Ouija board," created a series of novellas dictated by the spirit of Patience Worth. Another author, James Merrill, used a Ouija board to write an acclaimed poem, and Rosemary Brown composed music supposedly under the direction of dead composers. This phenomenon raises numerous questions about the limits of human creativity and the possibility of communication with the afterlife, as well as how paranormal phenomena can influence art.

Despite her limited education, Pearl Curran managed to write a series of novellas, which she claimed were dictated to her by a spirit calling herself Patience Worth. She was soon hailed as the "genius of the Ouija board."

When you hear about someone supposedly possessed by a spirit, the first thing that probably comes to mind is a tortured, insulting creature, jumping up and down, perhaps with its head spinning around. This is certainly an unpleasant type of possession.

However, there are also cases of people claiming to be possessed by more docile spirits, or that they work through them in astonishing ways. These spirits don't speak a long-extinct Druidic language, nor do they cause the chests of those possessed to levitate—they possess more creative and artistic things in their minds, such as books, poetry, or pieces of classical music.