The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-SeersCrowe, Catherine
Religion
The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Crowe, Catherine
Ghosts; Parapsychology
for the theories above suggested, it is then that, the sensuous
functions being in abeyance and the external life thereby shut out from
us, the spirit would be most susceptible to the operations of spirit,
whether of our deceased friends or of appointed ministers, if such there
be. Jung Stelling is of opinion that we must decide from the aim and
object of the revelation, whether it be a mere development of the
faculty of presentiment, or a case of spiritual intervention; but this
would surely be a very erroneous mode of judging, since the presentiment
that foresees a visit may foresee a danger, and show us how to avoid it,
as in the following instance:—
A few years ago, Dr. W——, now residing at Glasgow, dreamed that he
received a summons to attend a patient at a place some miles from where
he was living; that he started on horseback; and that, as he was
crossing a moor, he saw a bull making furiously at him, whose horns he
only escaped by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal,
where he waited a long time, till some people, observing his situation,
came to his assistance and released him. While at breakfast on the
following morning, the summons came; and, smiling at the odd
_coincidence_, he started on horseback. He was quite ignorant of the
road he had to go; but by-and-by he arrived at the moor, which he
recognised, and presently the bull appeared, coming full tilt toward
him. But his dream had shown him the place of refuge, for which he
instantly made; and there he spent three or four hours, besieged by the
animal, till the country people set him free. Dr. W—— declares that,
but for the dream, he should not have known in what direction to run for
safety.
A butcher named Bone, residing at Holytown, dreamed a few years since
that he was stopped at a particular spot on his way to market, whither
he was going on the following day to purchase cattle, by two men in blue
clothes, who cut his throat. He told the dream to his wife, who laughed
at him; but, as it was repeated two or three times and she saw he was
really alarmed, she advised him to join somebody who was going the same
road. He accordingly listened till he heard a cart passing his door, and
then went out and joined the man, telling him the reason for so doing.
When they came to the spot, there actually stood the two men in blue
clothes, who, seeing he was not alone, took to their heels and ran.
Now, although the dream was here probably the means of saving Bone’s
life, there is no reason to suppose that this is a case of what is
called _supernatural intervention_. The phenomenon would be sufficiently
accounted for by the admission of the hypothesis I have suggested,
namely, that he was aware of the impending danger in his sleep, and had
been able, from some cause unknown to us, to convey the recollection
into his waking state.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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