25 Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death
25 More Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death
Scientific American's Very Lame "Ghost Explanations"
They Also Were "Ghost Told" of a Death"
More Accounts of Veridical Apparitions
Even More Cases of Veridical Apparitions
When Apparitions Serve as Announcements
Even More Cases of Veridical Apparitions
When Apparitions Serve as Announcements
In this post I will discuss additional cases of this type. The links I will give will usually take you to the exact page of an account that I discuss or quote.
"I was surprised to see my brother coming to meet me. He
had on his velveteen shooting jacket, and walked in his usual manner. It was quite light, and I distinctly saw him. I turned my eyes away for a moment to look at the gate, and then he was gone....I was much struck with the apparition, but I passed it off my mind and went to the cliff, and heard some people singing for about half an hour when a boy said to me, "Have you heard of the accident to your brother at Northrepps Hall?' I replied, 'No, but if an accident has happened to my brother, I know he is dead.' "
On page 15 of the same volume, we read about a sister basically learning of her brother's death from an apparition:
"Miss M. W. P., who was in no anxiety about her brother, was wakened by hearing his voice call her several times. She sat up and saw him standing at the foot of Jier bed. Apparition said :
'I could not go without telling you good-bye,' and
disappeared. Miss P.'s sister testifies that the above was mentioned to her and to several schoolfellows next day. About six weeks later, news arrived of the brother's death by drowning..."
On page 74-75 of Volume 6 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read the following account by A. McDougall:
"I met no one on the road till I came to the Greystoke pillar, about a mile from Penrith. There, driving slowly as I was about to turn into a narrow lane, I was deeply shadowed from behind, and upon looking back to see what caused the shadow I saw my friend Broome, bending over me with an expression of the most tender affection upon his countenance. I spoke to him, pulled up the horse, and alighted. I walked round the gig, called him by name, begged him not to play tricks at midnight, but to come to me and come home with me. I had, of course, to go without him. At home
I inquired if Mr. Broome had called. The answer was No. I then told my wife that I had seen him near the Greystoke pillar, that he must be in the town, and would be sure to call in the morning. Three days passed, when we received intelligence that Mr. Broome was [dead], and strange to tell he had died at the very hour at midnight at which I had seen him near the Greystoke pillar."
On page 172 of Volume 6 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read about two cases:
"Miss M. E. Godwin, when a child, was walking out with a friend when both of them saw a gentleman whom she knew well ; she spoke to him, and he answered. Next day they heard that he had died from the effects of an accident exactly at the time she had seen him....Mr. and Mrs. Cleverley hear footsteps, and Mrs. C, going out to investigate, sees apparition of her son in another room. He was drowned at the same time by the sinking of the ship Eurydice,"
On page 244 of Volume 20 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, which you can read here, we read the following account which doesn't quite qualify as being "ghost-told," because no apparition was seen.
"The writer then describes how on September 2, 1916, between 10 and 11 a.m., whilst in her room dressing, she was suddenly seized with a sensation of terrible distress accompanied by a feeling of suffocation. She said to her daughter that some great disaster had befallen her son, Rene. Two days later she was informed by the chief of his squadron that her son, a pilot in the flying corps, had disappeared over the German lines near Verdun on the day and at the hour of her distressing experience."
On page 100 of Volume 22 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following November 1913 account by C.H. Thornton:
"On the evening of October 20th, 1913, between ten and eleven,
I was lying in bed at Duff House, Banff....I was lying on my left side, reading a novel, when the feeling of a presence in the room made me turn on my back. There standing at the bottom of the bed on the right side was a figure. I thought I saw the head and shoulders of a man outlined against the white wall-paper and clothed in a long and shapeless black garment. I could see no face, owing I thought to my short
sight, but the shape of the head and shoulders was, I believed, that of my husband, and I felt no doubt at all that it was he. He gazed at me and I gazed at him for some seconds...The next morning Dr. Spriggs came to break the news to me that my husband had died suddenly while doing duty at St. Edward's Church, Cambridge, on Sunday evening, Oct. 19th."
On page 91 of Volume 3 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account that does not involve a visual apparition, but which does seem to rather qualify as a case of being 'ghost-told' of a death:
"On the evening of Sunday, August 20th, 1874, I was strolling on the downs skirting Marlcombe Hill, composing a congratulatory letter, which I proposed to write and post to my very dear friend W., so that he might have it on his birthday, the 22nd, when I heard a voice saying, 'What, write to a dead man ; write to a dead man!' I turned sharply round, fully expecting to see some one close behind me. There was no one. Treating the matter as an illusion, I went on with my composition. A second time I heard the same voice, saying, more loudly than before, 'What, write to a dead man ; write to a dead man!' Again I turned round. I was alone, at least bodily. I now fully understood the meaning of that voice ; it was no illusion. Notwithstanding this, I sent the proposed letter, and in reply received from Mrs. W. the sad, but to me not unexpected, intelligence, that her husband was dead."
On page 92 of Volume 24 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account:
"The evening before I was to go, I was sitting by the fire in my small parlour about 5 p.m. There was no light in the room except what proceeded from the fire. Beside the fireplace was an armchair, where my cousin usually sat when she was with me. Suddenly that chair was illuminated by a light so intensely bright that it actually seemed to heave under it, though the remainder of the room remained in semi-darkness. I called out in amazement, ' What has happened to the chair '. In a moment the light vanished and the chair was as before. In the morning I heard that my cousin had died about the same time that I saw the light."
On page 133 of Volume 25-26 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account by a Mrs. Finniecome, regarding a Baroness who died on April 29:
"Now I must tell you that a very strange thing happened to me on the night of April 29th...On the Tuesday evening I went to bed feeling very tired about 9 p.m. and fell sound to sleep. About ll p.m. I awoke with some one pressing a kiss on my forehead, and on looking up, I saw the Baroness standing by the side of the bed, she looked as though she desired to say something, or was waiting for me to speak or answer, but I was so startled, not to say, afraid, I was speechless, so after gazing at one another for a minute or two, the Baroness turned and vanished. Her expression was so sad and enquiring I cannot forget it. What I have just written you is not an hallucination but real fact. I related it to Mr Finniecome on the Wednesday morning, and he said ' you were dreaming.' However now the news has come of the Baroness's death, Mr Finniecome is convinced that really I saw what I related to have seen. I only wish I knew what it was the Baroness wished to ask or tell me—for I am sure she wanted to know something....I really saw the Baroness as clearly as I see the paper I am now writing on and I was wide awake."
On page 135 of the same volume, we are told, "The time of Baroness Liebieg's death (11.20 p.m.) therefore corresponds exactly with the time fixed by Mrs. Finniecome for her vision."
On page 35 of Volume 27 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account by a W. W. Grundy:
"On Saty. [Saturday] last (Nov. 15) my wife was upstairs in bed with a cold. I was out of doors somewhere and my wife's sister was quietly reading a novel downstairs, awaiting tea. Suddenly she had a vision of her aunt, an old lady of 81, in the doorway : she had known this aunt to have been ill recently although she had got over many such attacks before and the recent news has been on the whole v. [very] reassuring. She looked at her watch : it marked 4.45. That evening—about 7.30. we received a wire handed in at
6.29 p.m. saying that her aunt had passed away ' this afternoon.' By this (Monday) morning's post at 11.00 a.m. a letter arrived to say that her aunt had passed away at exactly 4.45 p.m. on Saturday."
Next is something that may not be strictly speaking a ghost sighting, although it qualifies as an apparition sighting. On page 72 of Volume 33 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account:
"The vision seen was of Mr Eustace Neville Craig, a close friend of Mrs Dick-Cunyngham. The latter, writing to Mr Fawcett recently, said in reference to her experience : 'I did not even know that he had been suddenly taken ill (operation). One Sunday I had gone to church in London with my mother. Suddenly I got the clearest vision I have ever seen. It was like a shutter opened slowly and then closed again slowly. For two seconds I saw Eustace lying quite motionless on a bed. His eyes were closed, he was as white as a sheet. There were two nurses in white caps ; one was advancing holding a glass of medicine. Then the vision vanished. I came home and said to Dickson [her maid], I believe Mr Craig is ill '. The following Tuesday his death was in the Times. Afterwards I heard he had never recovered consciousness after an operation.' "
On page 207 of Volume 6 of the Journal of the Society of Psychical Research, we read the following:
"Mr. J. R. S. when a boy saw an old schoolfellow, B. M., standing in his bedroom. They had agreed some years previously that whichever of them died first should appear to the other. The apparition was seen by gaslight. B. M. died at the time, Mr. S. not knowing that he was ill."
On page 280 of Volume 6 of the Journal of the Society of Psychical Research, we read the following:
"A sister of mine went to South America, and married there. One morning I was in bed about 11 o'clock, when there was a knock at ray door ; thinking it was the house-maid with hot water, I said 'Come in.' No one came in. There was another knock ; again I said 'Come in,' and turned to- wards the door. My sister was standing there. I, thinking she had returned unexpectedly, said 'What, you, Elsie ?' She then vanished. When I went downstairs I told my husband, who said 'Don't tell your mother, or she will think something has happened to her.' We heard a month later that she
had died, after a few hours' illness, about that time."
On page 9 of Volume 5 of the Journal of the Society of Psychical Research, we read the following account by J. H. Kennedy:
"My cousin, Miss Amy Flint, passed by the side of my bed several times from the foot, disappearing at the head, and carrying in her hand, with her arm stretched out, a virgin's lamp. After she had passed several times I started up in bed...I dismissed the thing from my mind, till about 10 o'clock, when my cousin's brother called to say his sister had passed away just at the time of my vision."
On the next page of the same volume, we read the following account by a Mr. Myers:
"On the 7th June, between one and three o'clock in the morning, I woke with the sensation that half my life had been taken from me (I can only describe the feeling in this vague way). I sat up and pressed my side in wonder at what was happening. I then saw
most beautiful lights at the end of the room ; these lights gave place to a cloud, and after a few moments the face of a dear sister, then living (as I believed), appeared in the cloud, which remained a little while and then gradually faded away. I became much alarmed and at once felt I should hear bad news of my sister, who was living in London and had been very ill, though the last accounts we had received had been better. I told my husband what had happened, and when a telegram was brought by a friend at 8 o'clock that
morning I knew what its contents must be. The telegram contained the news of my sister's death during the previous night."
On page 14 of the same Volume 5 of the Journal of the Society of Psychical Research, we read the following: "Mr. G. Fitzmaurice tells us in 1889 that his grandmother, Mrs. Watkins, saw the apparition of Miss Griffiths coincidently with that lady's sudden death," and also that "the Rev. J.J.Dyson tells us in May, 1887, that a rector's wife told him that her grandmother saw the apparition of an absent son at the time of his death."
A very substantial case of being literally "ghost-told" of a death can be found near the end of the appendices to Chapter IV (page 376) in Frederick Myers "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death." I will quote from that book (which can be read here) an account written by Karl Dignowtty:
Dober und Pause, Schlesien, December 12th, 1889.
About a year ago there died in a neighbouring village a brewer called Wünscher, with whom I stood in friendly relations. His death ensued after a short illness, and as I seldom had an opportunity of visiting him, I knew nothing of his illness nor of his death. On the day of his death I went to bed at nine o'clock, tired with the labours which my calling as a farmer demands of me....I fell asleep as soon as I lay down. In my dream I heard the deceased call out with a loud voice, "Boy, make haste and give me my boots." This awoke me, and I noticed that, for the sake of our child, my wife had left the light burning. I pondered with pleasure over my dream, thinking in my mind how Wünscher, who was a good-natured, humorous man, would laugh when I told him of this dream. Still thinking on it, I hear Wünscher's voice scolding outside, just under my window. I sit up in my bed at once and listen, but cannot understand his words. What can the brewer want? I thought, and I know for certain that I was much vexed with him, that he should make a disturbance in the night, as I felt convinced that his affairs might surely have waited till the morrow. Suddenly he comes into the room from behind the linen press, steps with long strides past the bed of my wife and the child's bed; wildly gesticulating with his arms all the time, as his habit was, he called out, "What do you say to this, Herr Oberamtmann? This afternoon at five o'clock I have died." Startled by this information, I exclaim, "Oh, that is not true!" He replied: "Truly, as I tell you; and, what do you think? They want to bury me already on Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock," accentuating his assertions all the while by his gesticulations. During this long speech of my visitor I examined myself as to whether I was really awake and not dreaming.{376}
I asked myself: Is this a hallucination? Is my mind in full possession of its faculties? Yes, there is the light, there the jug, this is the mirror, and this the brewer; and I came to the conclusion: I am awake. Then the thought occurred to me, What will my wife think if she awakes and sees the brewer in our bedroom? In this fear of her waking up I turn round to my wife, and to my great relief I see from her face, which is turned towards me, that she is still asleep; but she looks very pale. I say to the brewer, "Herr Wünscher, we will speak softly, so that my wife may not wake up, it would be very disagreeable to her to find you here." To which Wünscher answered in a lower and calmer tone: "Don't be afraid, I will do no harm to your wife." Things do happen indeed for which we find no explanation—I thought to myself, and said to Wünscher: "If this be true, that you have died, I am sincerely sorry for it; I will look after your children." Wünscher stepped towards me, stretched out his arms and moved his lips as though he would embrace me; therefore I said in a threatening tone, and looking steadfastly at him with a frowning brow: "Don't come so near, it is disagreeable to me," and lifted my right arm to ward him off, but before my arm reached him the apparition had vanished. My first look was to my wife to see if she were still asleep. She was. I got up and looked at my watch, it was seven minutes past twelve. My wife woke up and asked me: "To whom did you speak so loud just now?" "Have you understood anything?" I said. "No," she answered, and went to sleep again.
I impart this experience to the Society for Psychical Research, in the belief that it may serve as a new proof for the real existence of telepathy. I must further remark that the brewer had died that afternoon at five o'clock, and was buried on the following Tuesday at two.—With great respect,
Karl Dignowtty
(Landed Proprietor).
(Landed Proprietor).
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