The Patience Worth Phenomenon Today
The story and writings of Pearl Curran/Patience Worth are little known outside of occult circles today. Most of the writing is out of print, except for a few print on demand publishers who specialize in public domain works.
Irving Litvag's Singer in the Shadows, written in 1972 and reprinted by Back-In-Print publishers, offers a thorough and accessible chronicle of the Pearl Curran/Patience Worth phenomenon.
In his book Immortal Remains. The Evidence of Life after Death Stephen E. Braude thoroughly examines the case of Patience Worth and concludes that Pearl Curran was probably a highly gifted child whose talent for writing was smothered by her mother, who wanted to force Pearl into a singing career. In the alter ego of Patience Worth her subconscious could revive that talent. Patience also had a sharp tongue and was highly suspicious and critical of organized religion and formal education. She also was contemptuous of the various forms of academic and religious posturing. Braude argues that these were in fact personality traits of Pearl that she couldn't let out at that time.
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Famous quotes containing the words patience, worth, phenomenon and/or today:
“She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The worth that worthiness should move
Is love, that is the bow of Love.
And love as well the foster can
As can the mighty nobleman.
Sweet saint, ‘tis true you worthy be,
Yet without love nought worth to me.”
—Fulke Greville (1554–1628)
“When the ice is covered with snow, I do not suspect the wealth under my feet; that there is as good as a mine under me wherever I go. How many pickerel are poised on easy fin fathoms below the loaded wain! The revolution of the seasons must be a curious phenomenon to them. At length the sun and wind brush aside their curtain, and they see the heavens again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The great majority of people in England and America are modest, decent and pure-minded and the amount of virgins in the world today is stupendous.”
—Barbara Cartland (b. 1901)