"I have never doubted it from that moment. I had not heard of
her being worse. The last account had been good, and I was
expecting to hear that she was at Torquay. In the course of the
next day (the 11th), mother told me that she had died on the
morning of the 10th, rather more than twelve hours before I
heard her voice."
A case reported by Mr John E. Husbands, of Melbourne House, Town Hall
Square, Grimsby, is interesting:
"I was sleeping in a hotel in Madeira in January 1885. It was a
bright moonlight night. The windows were open, and the blinds
up. I felt someone was in my room. On opening my eyes I saw a
young fellow about twenty-five, dressed in flannels, standing
at the side of my bed, and pointing with the first finger of
his right hand to the place where I was lying. I lay for some
seconds to convince myself of someone being really there. I
then sat up and looked at him. I saw his features so plainly
that I recognised them in a photograph which was shown me some
days afterwards. I asked him what he wanted. He did not speak,
but his eyes and hands seemed to tell me that I was in his
place. As he did not answer, I struck at him with my fist as I
sat up, but did not reach him, and as I was going to spring out
of bed he slowly vanished through the door, which was shut,
keeping his eyes upon me all the time. Upon inquiry I found
that the young fellow who appeared to me died in the room I was
occupying."
There is, too, the famous case of Mrs de Fréville and the gardener Bard.
The percipient, who had formerly been in the employ of this somewhat
eccentric lady, who was especially morbid on the subject of tombs and so
forth, was in the churchyard of Hinxton, Saffron Walden, on Friday, 8th
May 1885. He happened to look at the square De Fréville stone vault,
when, to his amazement, he distinctly saw the old lady, with a white
face, leaning on the rails. When he looked again she was gone, although
it puzzled him to know how she could have got out of the churchyard, as,
in order to reach any of the gates, she must have passed him. Next day
he was told that Mrs de Fréville was dead. As the apparition was seen
about seven and a half hours after death, it could, as I have suggested,
be considered a telepathic impression transmitted at the moment of death
and remaining latent in the brain of the percipient; otherwise, the
case belongs to the category of Haunting, which we will glance at in the
next chapter.
CHAPTER VII
ON "HAUNTINGS" AND KINDRED PHENOMENA
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account