In the early twentieth century, after the sudden death of Carrie Rafferty, her close friend and traveling companion Charlotte E. Dresser of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Carrie's husband, Fred, turned to automatic writing in a bid to communicate with her. In the years that followed, Dresser became recognized as a proficient automatic-writing medium, associating with the likes of psychiatrist Carl A. Wickland and his wife Anna (also a medium), writer Arthur Conan Doyle, and other psychical-research luminaries.
Using the nicknames "Sis" (Charlotte), "Dee" (Carrie), and "F.R." (Fred), Dresser wrote down messages from "Dee" and "Mary," a deceased American who claimed to lead a circle in the spirit world that assisted new arrivals struggling to understand why they often suffered in confusion and darkness, while others reported joyous lives beyond anything we can imagine. The aim was to help both the living and the dead understand that life continues beyond death, and the communications culminated in two books: Spirit World and Spirit Life (1922) and Life Here and Hereafter (1927).
The books reveal a wide cast of deceased characters-including earthquake victims, young children, a sportsman, a businessman, an alcoholic, undeveloped spirits, a criminal, and an unjustly executed prisoner.
In the vein of the writings of the direct-voice medium Emily French (via Edward C. Randall), Carl Wickland, and the deceased Catholic priest Hugh Robert Benson (via medium Anthony Borgia), these communicators share with the reader how physical life sets the stage for the next act-the soul's journey through the spirit world.
Charlotte Elizabeth Dresser (1845-1930) was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and worked in Santa Ana, California, where she was a music educator and composer. She socialized and traveled with her close friends, Carrie-Bell Richards Rafferty and Fred Charles Rafferty, until Carrie Rafferty's death in 1917.In her later letters, housed at the University of Michigan's William L. Clements Library, Dresser wrote about her experiences with automatic writing and meetings with other Spiritualists, including the writer and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; parapsychologist and founder of the Boston Society for Psychical Research Walter Franklin Prince; and psychologist Carl A. Wickland and his wife, the medium Anna W. Wickland.In 1922, Dresser published "Spirit World and Spirit Life," and in 1927 "Life Here and Hereafter," both in collaboration with Fred Rafferty, who acted as editor.
