The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

256 Thompson/Gifford Obsession
hervey hysloP. The case proved to Hyslop, and to many
others, the reality of spirit obsession.
Frederic L. Thompson was a 39-year-old metalworker
and weekend artist who first visited Hyslop in
January 1907. Thompson claimed he was under the influence
of the late R. Swain Gifford, a noted landscape
painter in the late 1800s, experiencing tremendous
urges to paint and sketch trees and rocky coasts that
he had never seen. Although Thompson had met Gifford
one summer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and
had contacted him in 1898 to ask for a recommendation
to Tiffany Glass Company, the two men were hardly
acquaintances, much less friends. In 1900, Thompson
moved to New York, where he was employed in metal
and jewelry work. He did not know that Gifford died on
January 15, 1905.
By the late summer and fall of that year, Thompson
was overcome with strong impulses to paint. He did not
understand these urges but began to visualize pictures
he knew Gifford had painted on the New Bedford coast.
He referred to his artist alter ego as “Mr. Gifford,” a fact
confirmed to Hyslop by Thompson’s wife, Carrie.
But, in January 1906, Thompson saw an exhibit of the
works of “the late R. Swain Gifford” and realized for the
first time that Gifford was dead. Fascinated by the similarities
between Gifford’s paintings and his own recent
efforts, he could almost feel the fresh sea breezes. Then a
voice said to him, “You see what I have done. Go on with
the work,” and he blacked out.
Thompson continued painting, as his private life and
finances deteriorated under the ever-increasing compulsions.
He believed he was becoming insane—two physicians
diagnosed him as a paranoid—and finally visited
Hyslop after hearing of the doctor’s work in psychical
research. Hyslop was intrigued but at first believed
Thompson was suffering from personality disintegration.
But if there were any truth to Thompson’s claims, Hyslop
believed consulting a psychic would shed light on the
situation. He and Thompson met with Margaret Gaule on
January 18, 1907.
Gaule immediately sensed the presence of an artist,
although Hyslop had given her no information about
Thompson, even introducing him as “Mr. Smith.” She
described landscape scenes, much as Thompson had detailed
them to Hyslop two days earlier. On March 16, Hyslop
took Thompson to Boston, to sit with Minnie M. Soule
(referred to in Hyslop’s papers as “Mrs. Chenoweth”),
judged the most talented medium of her day. Her spirit
communicator, Sunbeam, gave her information about
Gifford’s personal habits, even his clothing and rugs—
items later confirmed by Gifford’s widow—and vividly
described a certain scene of gnarled trees overlooking the
water that had haunted Thompson for days. The medium’s
communications convinced Thompson he was not
becoming insane, and he left for the New England coast
to try and find the pictures in his mind.
Throughout summer and autumn 1907, Thompson
traveled over Gifford’s favorite island haunts, recognizing
scenes he had been compelled to paint, hearing music and
even the voice he had heard at the Gifford exhibition. On
one of the trees Thompson sought, Gifford had carved his
initials, R.S.G., 1902. By early 1908, Thompson was completing
large paintings and selling them. Prominent art
critics who viewed the works agreed they bore uncanny
resemblances to Gifford’s works. Hyslop still harbored
suspicions that Thompson was merely cultivating longharbored
desires to be an artist, and that his association
with Gifford had influenced him more than he realized.
To prove whether Thompson was obsessed with the
spirit of Gifford or had merely incorporated his style in
his own work, Hyslop decided to establish contact with
the dead artist. After an initial sitting with Gaule, Hyslop
took Soule down to New York from Boston so that he and
Thompson could meet with her regularly. During the séance
of June 4, 1908, Soule appeared to be receiving communications
from Gifford, and she finally revealed that
the artist was elated over his power to return and finish
his work through Thompson. Later séances revealed hundreds
of communications about scenes and colors that
indicated Gifford’s influence.
Back in Boston, Soule met with Hyslop alone on July
15. During the séance, the supposed spirit of Gifford
revealed he had sent a dream of the angel of death to
Thompson. When Hyslop returned to New York, Mrs.
Thompson visited Hyslop, worried about a dream of
death her husband had recently experienced and then
sketched. Hyslop felt he was close to establishing real
contact with Gifford’s spirit, which had yet to identify
himself. Hyslop attended no more séances on the Thompson
case until December 1908. At that time, he consulted
Mrs. Willis M. Cleaveland as the medium. Cleaveland’s
first sessions were disappointing, but on the morning
of December 9, she sat with Thompson alone. Her communicator
addressed Thompson, telling him that he had
given his work to him and telling him not to neglect it.
Through automatic writing, Cleaveland first tried to
write initials, then began sketching scenes of the Massachusetts
coast that Thompson had visited the summer
before. The spirit reminisced about his childhood and
early paintings, then admonished Thompson to continue
with the work and not to forget him. Finally, the spirit
told Thompson he had to leave and scrawled R.S.G. using
Cleaveland’s hand.
Hyslop firmly believed that he had found a true
case of spirit obsession in Frederic Thompson/R.Swain
Gifford. Later investigations, some alleging fraud or
supertelepathy, never quite refuted Hyslop’s earlier
conclusions. Gifford’s spirit reportedly never bothered
Thompson again, but Thompson left his metalworking
career and became a full-time painter, joining the thenprestigious
Salmagundi Club for professional painters
in 1912. He worked out of New York for a few years