Watseka Wonder – The Possession of Lurancy Vennum

Lurancy Vennum claimed to hear voices calling out her name, experienced terrible abdomen pain, and went into trances where she witnessed spirits and angels.

For 5 months, Lurancy Vennum was possessed by the spirit of a deceased woman, Mary Roff, who seamlessly slipped back into her previous life while claiming to heal Lurancy’s soul.

Is this possible? Could it be demonic? Listen now to find out.

The Possession of Lurancy Vennum – The Watseka Wonder

Can human spirits possess people?

Is it possible that possession could lead to healing?

Did Mary Roff possess Lurancy Vennum?

What is up, Bizarros?! This week we are diving into the possession of Lurancy Vennum, also known as, The Watseka Wonder.

This is a possession story, and we are going back almost 150 years ago to 1877. So, as you can tell by the name, this involves a girl named Lurancy.

Sources: bump in the night, travel channel, Mysterious universe, national library of medicine, and dark histories.

What Is The Watseka Wonder?

The Watseka Wonder is the case of the alleged possession and spiritualist phenomena that happened in Watseka, Illinois, in the late 1800s. Lurancy Vennum reportedly exhibited strange behavior and claimed to be possessed by the spirit of Mary Roff.

According to reports, Lurancy would sometimes speak in a different voice and exhibit knowledge and behaviors that only Mary Roff would know. She also claimed to have memories and experiences that belonged to Mary, even though she had died several years earlier. 

Let’s take a look at the two ladies in the story.

Mary Roff

This goes back a little further to the 1860s.

As a baby, Mary Roff often had epileptic fits, and they only got worse as she got older.

When she got old enough to speak, she told her parents that she constantly heard voices and was able to speak with these spirits during her trances or spells, where she seemed to lose consciousness or awareness of her surroundings.

This was just the beginning of her abilities. Apparently, she was able to read any book while completely blindfolded and had hour-long fits where she had so much strength and her body convulsed so badly that it would take multiple men to hold her down.

Her family and doctors did not know what to do with her, so she was sent to an asylum.

She continued hearing voices in the asylum and complained about a deep pressure in her head. She started using a knife to cut herself as a way to remove the unbearable pressure.

Unfortunately, she fatally cut herself with a razor and died at the age of 19 in 1865.

This sent her family, and especially her father, Asa, into a deep depression.

Lurancy Vennum

So, this story takes place in Watseka, Illinois, in 1877. It was a rural and peaceful town.

Characterized by neighbors knowing each other well, everyone getting along, and nothing really bad ever happening.

All of that changed in the summer of 1877.

Lurancy Vennum was a young girl, reportedly 13 years old.

Everything on the outside seemed normal and healthy with Lurancy, and no one suspected a thing. However, one-day, Lurancy went to her mother and told her that she was having difficulty sleeping.

When her mother asked her what she meant, Lurancy said that she would hear voices desperately calling out her name.

“Rancy, Rancy.” – short for Lurancy.

But it wasn’t when she was sleeping. It was while lying down in her bed, wide awake and frightened. She looked around the room, her hands shaking and gripping the blankets, trying to identify a source of this paranormal event.

But there was no one there.

It was these voices she heard calling out that prevented her from falling asleep, leaving her too afraid to fall asleep.

Naturally, the lack of sleep took a toll on her body, and she started becoming ill.

About a week after telling her mother about the voices, Lurancy was helping her stitch a broken seam on a carpet when she stood up and very simply told her mom that she wasn’t feeling well.

A moment later, she fainted and didn’t regain consciousness for 5 hours.

This freaked out Lurancy’s parents, but they were hoping the worse was behind them.

Shortly after that incident and after telling her mother about the voices, Lurancy started developing epileptic seizures and immense stomach pains.

In her unconscious state, she started to murmur and whisper about strange visions of beings that she just referred to as “angels.”

Some reports claimed that while not everything she said was audible, her language was switching back and forth between different languages, though they could not be identified.

When she would awaken from her fainting spell or seizure, she would have no recollection of what she said.

The only thing she retained was these visions of angels and heaven.

These episodes would go on for hours at a time, where she would sprawl out on the ground, having an epileptic seizure, only to lose consciousness for extended periods of time.

The belief started switching from her seeing angels in heaven to other spirits.

It was reported that she claimed, “There were persons in my room last night, and they called out to me, and I felt their breath on my face. I saw heaven and angels and a lot of other ghosts who talked to me.”

She started pointing out and speaking to spirits in a room, spirits that her family could not see.

They almost felt like trances at this point, where Lurancy would become hyper-fixated on the spirit and what she was experiencing.

Common behaviors and characteristics of Lurancy’s trances include:

Unusual physical movements: Lurancy was reported to have experienced sudden and uncontrolled movements, such as convulsions, twitching, and tremors.

Changes in speech: she was said to have experienced sudden and dramatic changes in her speech, including speaking in different voices and using languages she was not previously familiar with.

Altered consciousness: Lurancy was reported to have experienced altered states of consciousness, including periods of unconsciousness and catatonia.

Unusual displays of strength: Lurancy was said to have displayed sudden and unnatural displays of strength, such as lifting heavy objects with ease and resisting the attempts of multiple people to hold her down.

The actions obviously upset her family, but the frequency with which these was occurring was even more alarming.

At this point, her family felt that they had to make a decision for the sake of their daughter and her well-being.

They initially took their daughter to medical professionals. But after various examinations and tests, they were unable to identify any sort of illness in her.

So, that left the final and very heartbreaking decision for Lurancy’s family – to consider having her sent to an insane asylum.

[It should be noted, due to the callous tone of that comment, that there is nothing wrong with caring for your mental health or wanting to get help by checking into a psychiatric facility or mental health center.]

What I want to emphasize is that in this period of American History, these facilities were less about helping you get better or overcoming mental challenges and more about keeping the “burden” of these people away and essentially rotting while banished, never to enter the outside world again.

Not that it should have mattered, but the Vennum family started feeling outside pressure, too.

Remember, it was a quiet yet connected community that they lived in, and Luracny’s situation was anything but normal. The family, Lurancy’s behavior, and symptoms became the town gossip.

Everyone in the town started forming their own opinions on the matter.

Many in town pushed for her to be sent to an asylum to undergo treatment.

Unfortunately, her parents made the preparations to send Lurancy to one.

However, Asa Roff, Mary’s father, caught wind of this and decided to intervene.

Asa Roff, The Father Of Mary

Asa Roff asked to speak with Lurancy’s parents before they had her sent away.

He told them the story of his daughter, Mary, and how she had similar experiences like Lurancy and how much regret he felt for sending her away.

Since the passing of his daughter, Asa became a devout follower of Spiritualism and believe that Mary wasn’t insane at all.

Instead, he believed that she, like Lurancy, had a very unique gift.

He believed they were both spirit mediums, albeit an untrained spirit medium.

They were misunderstood by locals, friends, and family, who mistook their gift as an illness due to the girls struggling to hone their abilities at such young ages.

He begged them not to send Lurancy away to the asylum, if for no other reason than her well-being and life.

The parents understand and appreciated his empathy but didn’t know another solution.

Asa mentioned that he knew a physician and Spiritist, Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, that could help alleviate some of her painful and disturbing symptoms.

This spiritualist physician was regarded as a very cultured, religious, and empathetic physician and was well-known for his spiritualist beliefs.

For the sake of their daughter, the Vennum family accepted.

Meetings With Dr. Stevens

On her very first meeting with Stevens, he noted that her behavior was definitely unusual.

He described her as “curled up on the chair, eyes staring, looking in every way like an old hag.”

It was common during their meetings for Lurancy to launch into trances and to claim to be possessed by various spirits.

She would even change her voice and mannerisms.

She would instantly shift from sad and morose to joyful and claim she was on joyous trips to the heavens with angels.

On one occasion, she said she was Katrina Hogan, a 63-year-old woman from Germany, and another time she became a young boy called Willie Canning, and during these trances, she was able to give incredibly vivid portrayals of these people’s lives.

She even started making predictions about future events during these trances, which ranged from earthquakes to hurricanes.

She divulged information about people that she had no business knowing.

Additional people, she claimed to be included Caroline Eaton, a deceased woman who apparently died from a fall. And Sarah Renico, a woman who said she died from a heart attack.

However, one particular session was very different from the rest.

Like usual, Lurancy entered her trance and seemed to be possessed by a spirit. The spirit told Lurancy that she was a young, dead woman who claimed she would be able to help Lurancy.

However, unlike the other meetings, where Lurancy would snap back to herself post-trance and begin to put the pieces together of what she just experienced – this time, she seemed different.

Not like herself. Her behavior was different. Her demeanor was different. Her mannerisms were different.

It’s like it wasn’t Lurancy sitting in front of him.

Dr. Stevens, again being coveted as a spiritist, took a few pauses to study Lurancy and thought carefully about his next question.

Eventually, Dr. Stevens looked at Lurancy and asked her to identify herself.

She replied, “My name is Mary Roff.”

———

Upon this revelation, The Roff family was immediately notified of what was going on and Dr. Steven’s findings.

They made their way to the Vennum household with a healthy amount of skepticism, especially Mary Roff’s mother.

However, once they were able to spend time with, quote, Lurancy during this time period, all of the skepticism melted away.

While channeling Mary, Lurancy was able to immediately identify them and went through a long list of facts and information, and recalled stories that only their lost daughter could have possibly known.

Beyond simply making it clear who she was, Mary told everyone that she wasn’t here to replace Lurancy; rather, she was here to help.

She would be the one controlling Lurancy’s body and temporarily taking over while Lurancy’s spirit rested and healed from her symptoms.

However, during this time of healing, Mary wished to visit her family.

Not only did this come as a major surprise to the Roff and Vennum families, but the news of this possession and the remarkable re-emergence of a deceased girl also spread to the local townspeople, neighbors, and relatives.

Somehow, Mary had come back – in the form of this ill girl.

Those that had disbelief were dumbfounded when Mary proved that she could identify things that only the true Mary should have known, recognize landmarks and family members, and whisper family secrets.

Living With The Roffs

It was so amazing and so remarkable that they decided to take it a step further than simply adhering to Mary’s wishes of seeing her family.

They were so convinced that this truly was their daughter, Mary Ross, possessing Lurancy, that they made arrangements for an experiment of sorts.

Lurancy, as Mary, was to actually go live with the Roffs. One, to satisfy her wishes, two, because the Roff family was awestruck, and three, to test if there was any chance this was just a powerful impersonation.

The experiment was instantly a success.

To the family, it almost felt like a temporary reincarnation of their daughter.

While there, she slipped fully into the Mary persona, knowing every detail of the house and where everything was, as well as picking up skills that Mary had had, such as playing the piano, all the while interacting with her family as if she had never left.

It was as amazing as it was scary and unnerving.

It felt real, yet made no sense at the same time.

One fact that seemed just as strange as Lurancy recognizing all of Mary’s friends, family, and belongings was the fact that Lurancy seemed to have no recollection of her real family.

Under the possession of Mary, they were just strangers she happened to run into during meetings between “her” family and Mary’s.

A quote from Asa Roff would say:

“Mary is perfectly happy; She recognizes everybody and everything that she knew when in her body 12 or more years ago. She knows nobody nor anything whatever that is known by Lurancy…

Mr. Vennum has been to see her, and also her brother Henry, at different times, but she doesn’t know anything about them.

Mrs. Vennum is still unable to come and see her daughter. She has been nothing but Mary ever since she has been here and knows nothing but what Mary knew. She has entered the trance once every other day for some days.

She is perfectly happy. She attempted to play and sing as of yore. The songs were the ones of her youth; As we stood listening, the familiar notes were hers, although emanating from another’s lips.

The effect, however, was only partially successful. Tuning with a smile to the family present, she remarked, “I can not make my fingers work just right.”

This experiment lasted about 5 months, which is just absolutely insane and feels too long for someone to fake it til they make it.

Then, one day “Mary” bid her family a tearful goodbye and returned to the Vennum house.

Upon her return, the presence of Mary inside Lurancy disappeared forever; Lurancy was back to her old self.

But not just her old self; she was different. The voices were gone, and the fits and trances were gone.

Mary, it seemed, had followed through on her word – she healed Lurancy.

Dr. Stevens wrote the following:

“The meeting with her parents at the home was very affecting, and now she seems to be a healthy, happy little girl, going about noting things she saw before she was stricken and recognizing changes that have since taken place.

This is a remarkable case, and the fact that we cannot understand such things does not do away with the existence of these unaccountable manifestations.”

Dr. Stevens said this was the most amazing case of spirit return and manifestation ever recorded in history and famously dubbed this case the Watseka Wonder.

Lurancy would go on to live a reasonably normal life until passing away in 1952 at the age of 87, having never been bothered again by any sort of spirit, possession, or trance.

Theories About The Watseka Wonder

Here are some of the theories regarding Lurancy’s story:

Possession

Essentially, this theory believes that what happened is exactly what we heard and what Lurancy and Mary’s family claim to have experienced.

Lurancy had medium-like abilities and was possessed by multiple spirits.

The evidence in this is that she was able to assume the identity of a deceased woman and claim details and mannerisms from people she had allegedly never met.

Channeling Spiritual Energy

A little different than straight-up possession, this idea is that Lurancy was uniquely a vessel for other spirits to channel their energy through.

Less of a possession and more of a manifestation of energy by the spirits

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Essentially, this is what used to be called having multiple personalities. Great movie with John Cusack about this.

Some folks believe that Lurancy Vennum may have suffered from dissociative identity disorder (DID), a condition in which a person experiences multiple distinct identities or personalities.

This suggests that Lurancy’s behavior was the result of a split in her consciousness rather than supernatural possession.

Conversion Disorder

Another theory is that Lurancy may have suffered from conversion disorder, a condition in which psychological stress is expressed through physical symptoms such as seizures, tremors, and changes in speech.

So, this theory believes that her behavior was actually a manifestation of psychological distress rather than alleged possession or channeling of spirits.

Hysteria and Impersonation

Psychologist Frank Sargent Hoffman regarded Vennum as “a typical case of hysterical impersonation” and claimed there was no evidence that she had knowledge she could not have obtained by normal means.

In addition, he claimed it was possible that the grieving Roff family did everything in their power to encourage Lurancy that she was actually their Mary.

Also, it is believed that hysteria can cause some of her early symptoms, such as convulsions, altered consciousness, and changes in speech.

Is The Watseka Wonder Real?

What do you think, Bizarros? 

Did Mary Roff’s spirit possess Lurancy?

Is it possible to be possessed by a human spirit?

Or does this mysterious story have a more logical explanation, and the Roffs were simply seeing what they wanted to see, and Lurancy was pretending?

Let us know in the comments what you think!

Or was it all some extremely vivid dreams?