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Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Many an Apparition Is Seen by More Than One

In three previous posts I discussed many cases in which multiple witnesses reported seeing the same apparition. The three posts are below:


In this post I will discuss additional cases of this type.  I will give links that will usually take you directly to the exact page I am quoting or citing. 

On page 20 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account of an apparition that appeared as a "phosphorescent cloud" shortly after the death of someone named Cognet. We read this account by someone named Texier:

"Suddenly I saw a glow which made me utter a cry of terror. My father got up and took me into bed with him. The glow persisted; it was a sort of phosphorescent cloud, without definite outlines....My father pronounced these words in a loud voice: 'If you are Cognet, strike three blows on the chest of drawers.' This piece of furniture, marble-topped (it is still in my possession) was in the room giving on to the alcove. Three loud and measured blows were then struck upon the marble of the chest of drawers. Then, little by little, the glow thinned, melted, and I saw nothing more."

On pages 27-28 of Volume 6 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of a husband and wife in a locked room who saw an apparition of the husband's father, a man who had died long ago. 

"I saw a gentleman standing at the foot of the bed, dressed as a naval officer....I looked at my husband and saw that his face was white and agitated....I was by this time exceedingly agitated too, but remembering that the door was locked, and that the mysterious visitor had not gone towards it all, remarked, 'He has not gone out by the door !' But without pausing, my husband unlocked the door, hastened out of the room, and was soon searching the whole house. Sitting there in the dark, I thought to myself, 'We  
have surely seen an apparition !'....Sitting upon the bedside, he put his arm about me and said, 'Do you know what we have seen ?' And I said, 'Yes, it was a spirit. I am afraid it was Arthur, but could not see his face' — and he exclaimed, 'Oh ! no, it was my father!' My husband's father had been dead fourteen years."  


ghost sighting

On pages 120-121 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account that a child in Italy named Mimi was suprised to see what appeared to be her living father, who she thought was in Austria. A moment later she could no longer find such a person.  Mimi states, "The next day a telegram reached the school: my poor father had died at half-past seven in the evening, at the hour at which he had appeared to me."  Mimi also tells us this regarding her father's apparition:

"He appeared not only to me but also to my grandmother....There were three of them in the dining-room: my grandmother, her second husband, and my grandmother's daughter, when the door opened and my father came in. My grandmother exclaimed: 'There you are! How splendid that you got well so soon!' There was no one there. My grandmother said: 'Let us pray! He is dead.' "

On page 134 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account by Charles Tweedale of an apparition seen by three people:

"I saw, suddenly, a form appear in front of me, before the panels of the cupboard. Indistinct at first, it gradually grew clearer, until I recognized the face of my grandmother. I had been observing it for some seconds, when the vision melted away gradually, and disappeared in the moonlight....The morning of the next day, at breakfast, I was beginning to tell of the apparition of the previous night, when to my great surprise my father left the table abruptly. He was most agitated; he went out of the room hastily, leaving his breakfast almost untouched. I asked my mother for an explanation. She silenced me with a gesture. When the door was closed once more, I repeated my question. Then my mother answered: 'Charles, I'm going to tell you the strangest thing I 've ever heard of. This morning your father told me that he had waked up in the night, and that he had seen his mother standing near his bed, but just at the moment when he wished to speak to her she had disappeared.' This scene and this conversation had taken place about half-past eight, on the morning of Saturday, January 11th. Before noon we received a telegram announcing that my grandmother had died during the night. But that was not all, for my father next learned that his sister, who lived about thirty kilometers from our home, had also seen my grandmother appear. Three persons, therefore, had the same vision independently, and each attributed it to an hallucination." 

See here for this account as it appears in a very interesting book by Tweedale. The pages that follow include the testimonies of three witnesses. 

On page 168-169 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account by Countess Amelie Caeandini of an apparition seen by two people:

"One evening, about nine o'clock, every one in the house was still up and about. When my sister, aged seventeen, was walking through a hall of the apartment, she was stupefied to see a tall, beautiful girl standing near her under the lighted gas-jet. She did not know this girl, who was dressed in the costume of a peasant. Astounded, she uttered a cry, and the phantom vanished. She wept with fright, and my mother scolded her. Next morning, the cook, a girl of about twenty-five, came to my mother and told her that that evening, when she had got into bed, she had heard a sound of breathing, and felt on her face something that was like a breath; that when she had opened her eyes she had seen, standing near her bed, one of her friends whom she had known in her native place: a tall, beautiful girl dressed in peasant costume. 'That beautiful girl,' said the cook, 'was in the habit of behaving badly; I often gave her good advice, but it didn't have any effect.' She had died on the previous day." 

On page 227 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account by Caroline Judd:

"One morning in October, three weeks after her death, I saw my grandmother distmctly — her face, as always, calm, and her big eyes looking at the old clock as usual. I closed my eyes for some seconds, then opened them again, and still saw her. I closed my eyes a second time, but when I opened them she was no longer  there. Since my family sometimes called me a dreamer, I took care not to breathe a word about this vision. On the following evening my sister, who is not at all dreamy, but most practical, told me in confidence, before we got into bed (her bed was beside mine) : 'If you'll promise not to make fun of me, I 've something to tell you.' — 'What?' — 'Well, I saw my grandmother this morning.' The details which she then gave me were in entire accord with what I had seen myself.' " 

On page 228 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account of a woman who saw an apparition of a friend's dead husband.  The woman reported that soon thereafter the friend reported seeing the same apparition.  On the next page is an account of an apparition of a deceased husband being seen by a wife and the wife's children. 

On page 247 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account of an apparition seen by more than one:

"My mother and my sister — about a month after my mother's brother-in-law, our uncle, had died — were witnesses of an apparition of him. They saw this on different dates — my mother about a month after the death, and my sister fifteen days later still. My mother saw it spontaneously, without previous warning. As for my sister, she was on this occasion alone in a room. She was astonished to hear some one walking in a hall near my mother's room. She went into the hall and found herself in the presence of the apparition, which vanished immediately."

On pages 93-94 of Volume 2 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1905), we have the following account of an apparition seen by multiple witnesses, occurring at the time the corresponding person died:

"St. Petersburg, May 4th, 1891.-- This is the phenomenon which was witnessed by the whole of our family. It was at St. Petersburg, in 188o, when we were living in rue Pouchkarska. One evening in the month of May, about 6 o'clock, my mother (now Madame Telechof), was in the salon with her five children, of whom I was the eldest (I was then 16 years of age). Just then an old servant of the house, whom we treated as a friend (but who was at that time no longer in our service), had come to see us, and was engaged in  conversation with my mother. Suddenly the merry gambols of the children stopped and the general attention was turned towards our dog 'Moustache,' who had rushed, barking fiercely, towards the stove. Involuntarily we looked lo the same direction, and saw on the cornice of the great stove, made of porcelain tiles, a little boy, of about 5 years ef age, in his shirt. We recognised the boy as the son of our milk-woman -- Andre --who often came to our house with his mother to play with the children ; they lived quite near us. The apparition left the stove, passed above us all, and disappeared in the open casement. During all this time-about fifteen seconds-the dog did not cease to bark with all its might, and ran and barked, following the course of the apparition. The same day, a little later, our milk-woman came to the house and informed us that her son Andre, after a few days' illness (we knew that he was ill), had just died ; it was probably at the moment when he appeared to us." 

Below the statement in this journal, we have the names of three witnesses who attested to such an observation. 

On pages 63-64 of Volume 3 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1906), we have an account of a deceased priest whose apparition was seen by three different people.  We are told, "three out of the five Passionist Fathers who occupied the Ardoyne Monastery had seen the apparition and recognised it, and as they had been acquainted with the deceased during his lifetime, they were able to testify to the fact."

On page 85 of Volume III of the Annals of Psychical Science (1906), we have an account of an apparition seen by a dying woman and three other people, all of whom identified the apparition as being the deceased sister of the person who was dying. 

On page 372 of Volume 10 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of an apparition seen by three or four people, an apparition of a godmother:

"My youngest sister, since dead, was called to my mother, and left Devonshire, where she was staying with friends, to come home. Then she arrived at home, she entered the drawing-room, but rushed out terrified, exclaiming that she had seen godmamma, who was seated by the fire in my mother's chair. Godmamma had been dead since 1852. She had been my mother's governess — almost foster-mother ; had lived with her during her married life, been godmother to her eldest girl, and when my father died, had accepted the duty of taking his place as far as possible in the family, to shield her from trouble and protect her — a duty which she fulfilled nobly. My other sister went into the drawing room to see what had scared K , and saw the figure of godmamma just as K had. Later in the day, the same figure stood by, then sat on the edge of my mother's bed, and was seen by both my sisters and the old servant, looking just as she had when alive, except that she wore a grey dress, and, as far as we could remember, she had always worn black. My mother saw her, for she turned towards her and said, 'Mary' — her name." 

On page 432 of Volume 7 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1908), we have an account of an apparition seen by more than one, and heard by many:

"A man named Jules Cenabrita, who had died a few days previously, appeared leaning out of a window of the house in which he had lived, and was thus seen by various persons living in the house opposite. This was the only visible apparition of the deceased man. But the spirit continued to manifest, speaking with its own voice, conversing with people in the house, and declaring that it did not again make itself visible simply to avoid frightening them.  This phenomenon was repeated for two months, and numerous reputable and credible persons have not only been present when it occurred, but have also taken part in the conversations with the invisible Jules, who had been, and still seemed, gay and pleasant, and always began by singing or praying." 

On page 178 of Enigmas of Psychical Research by James Hyslop, we have this account of an apparition seen by three people:

"About the end of November, or the beginning of December, in the same year (1872), I was disturbed one morning before it was light, as near as may be between 5 and 6 a. m., by the appearance of a tall figure, in a long dress, bending over the bed. I distinctly recognized this figure to be no other than my sister-in-law, Mrs. W., who, as I felt, distinctly touched me. My husband, who was beside me asleep at the time, neither saw nor felt anything. This appearance was also made to an aged aunt, residing at this time at Theydon Bois, near Epping, Essex. She told my husband as recently as the 4th inst. (1885), that the appearance came to her in the form of a bright light from a dark corner of her bedroom in the early morning. It was so distinct that she not only recognized her niece, Mrs. W., but she actually noticed the needlework on her long night-dress ! This appearance was also made to my husband's half-sister, at that time unmarried, and residing at Stanhope Gardens. The last-named was the first to receive the announcement of the death of Mrs. W."

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