Still More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Observers

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

When an Apparition Is Seen by Multiple Observers: 17 Cases

When an Apparition Is Seen by Multiple Observers: 17 More Cases
More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Observers
Many an Apparition Is Seen by More Than One

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. Such cases help to discredit all claims that apparitions are seen merely because of hallucination, there being no clear reason why multiple witnesses would have a hallucination of the same person. 

The Bangor Daily News reminds us of an apparition seen by multiple witnesses long ago. It states the following:

"In the winter of 1799, in the small coastal town of Sullivan, Maine, began what is known as the first documented haunting in the United States. During this series of hauntings, numerous residents of the town claimed they saw and heard the ghost of Nelly Butler, a young woman who died three years before."

At this link you can read "Immortality Proved by the Testimony of Sense" by Abraham Cummings, which has many of the testimonies in this case, particularly following page 41, where we have dated witness statements from quite a few people who give their names. On page 31 we read this summary about the same apparition:

"Sometimes she appeared to two or three ; then to five or six ; then to ten or twelve ; again to twenty, and once to more than forty witnesses. She appeared in several apartments of Mr. Blaisdel’s house, and several times in the cellar. She also appeared at other houses, and several times in the open field, as already observed. There, white as the light, she moved like a cloud above the ground in personal form and magnitude, in the presence of more than forty people. She tarried with them till after day-light, and vanished : not because she was afraid of the sun : for she had then several times appeared when the sun was shining." 

On page 117 of Volume 12 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we read an account of two brothers who both saw a ghost claiming to be a dead person. We are told that after it delivered very specific information, "the apparition vanished." Part of the information was later confirmed.  Page 124 refers to "the apparition having been seen by both the brothers collectively." 

On page 452 of Volume 21 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we read an account of the appearance of an apparition seen by multiple observers. One of the observers was the famous Daniel Dunglas Home, a person connected with a long series of reports of paranormal occurrences reported by many reliable witnesses.  Here is the account:

"I will therefore mention a case when the supposed 'spirit form' was seen by several sitters. On the evening of February
9th, 1869, Lord Adare, Captain Gerard Smith, and Dr. Gully
of Malvern assembled together with Home in Lord Adare's rooms in London. The company were sitting in a small room
the objects in which were made dimly visible by the faint
light that came in from the window near which Home was
'impressed' to place himself, saying: 'Sacha will try and make
herself visible to you.' And then another form beside his
own—that of his late wife—grew into distinctness.
Her form (wrote Lord Adare the next day) gradually became
apparent to us : she moved close to Home and kissed him. She
stood beside him against the window intercepting the light as a
solid body, and appeared fully as material as Home himself: no one could have told which was the mortal body and which the spirit. It was too dark, however, to distinguish features. I could see that she had her full face turned towards us, and that either her hair was parted in the middle and flowed down her shoulders, or that she had on what appeared to be a veil. At Lord Adare's request Captain Gerard Smith wrote to him certifying that he had also seen the 'spirit-form,' and describing the apparition as follows : 'Home rose and stood at the window with his right arm extended, and the spirit seemed to sweep down, until it rested with both hands on his outstretched arm, looking up into his face. From the position
in which I sat the profile of the face was perfectly visible to me,
and when the two faces approached each other to kiss, there was no apparent difference in the degree of density of the two figures.' "

On page 310 of Volume 9 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we read an account of the appearance of a semi-transparent apparition seen by multiple observers. The account is by Mrs. Crookes, wife of the world-class scientist Sir William Crookes. She states this:

"The accordion was immediately taken from his hand by a cloudy appearance, which soon seemed to condense into a distinct human form, clothed in a filmy drapery, standing near Mr. Home between the two rooms. The accordion began to play (I do not remember whether on this occasion thei'e was any recognised melody), and the figure gradually advanced towards me till it almost touched 
me, playing continuously. It was semi-transparent, and I could see the sitters through it all the time. Mr. Home remained near the sliding doors. As the figure approached I felt an intense cold, getting stronger as it got nearer, and as it was giving me the accordion I could not help screaming. The figure immediately seemed to sink into the floor to the waist, leaving only the head and shoulders visible, still playing the accordion, which was then about a foot oS the floor. Mr. Home and my husband came to me at once, and I have no clear recollection of what then occurred, except that the accordion did not cease playing immediately. Mr. Serjeant Cox was rather angry at my want of nerve, and exclaimed : 'Mrs. Crookes, you have spoilt the finest manifestation we have ever had.'  I have always regretted that my want of presence of mind brought the phenomena to so abrupt a termination."

On page 121-122 of Volume 1 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account of an apparition seen by multiple observers:

"In 1739 Mrs. Birkbeck, wife of William Birkbeck, banker, of Settle, and a member of the Society of Friends, was taken ill and died at Cockermouth,while returning from a journey to Scotland, which she had undertaken alone -her husband and three children, aged seven, five, and four years respectively, remaining at Settle...One morning, between seven and eight o'clock, the relation to whom the care of the children at Settle had been entrusted, and who kept a minute journal of all that concerned them, went into their hedroom as usual, and found them all sitting up in their beds in great excitement and delight. 'Mamma has been here!' they cried...That same morning as their mother lay on her dying bed at Cockermouth, she said, ' I should be ready to go if I could just see my children.' She then closed her eyes, to reopen them, as they thought, no more. But after ten minutes of perfect stillness she looked up brightly and said, 'I am ready now; I have been
wth my children;' and then at once peacefully passed away. When the notes taken at the two places were compared, the day, hour, and minutes were the same."

On page 129 of Volume 1 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of an apparition seen by three observers within about a day of someone's death. On page 132 of the same volume, we also have what seems to be a case of apparition seen by multiple observers. 

A modern sighting often called an apparition was the sighting of a mysterious figure atop a church in Zeitoun, Egypt in 1968 to 1971.  A mysterious luminous figure was seen by countless thousands of people at such a location. 

On page 353 of Volume 10 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we are told this by a Miss R.N. : 

"In July of 1885, I was staying in the country, and was reading in the garden (Helen's Babies) one day, when, suddenly looking up, I saw my aunt standing in front of me, she having died in the October previous. In a moment or two she passed on out of my sight."

On the same page, we are told the apparition was seen by other witnesses:

"The apparition was first seen in 1884, —soon after the aunt's death, —collectively by C, A. and a friend, Miss G., as stated in their accounts, and soon afterwards on the stairs by Miss G. and A. N. together. It was seen later by a cousin, Miss S. ; by a servant who had formerly been the deceased lady's housemaid, and afterwards by Miss R.N., as she relates."

On page 228 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account by a Miss Lister who saw an apparition of her friend's dead husband, and who said the friend reported seeing the apparition of her husband a few minutes later.  On the next page we have an account of children and a wife all saying they saw an apparition of their dead father. 

On pages 141-144 of Volume 2 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of an apparition seen by three different persons on three different occasions. The apparition was of a woman whose head and shoulders were wrapped in a cloak or shawl. The first witness reported the apparition "gradually vanished...I mean she grew by degrees transparent." 

On pages 283-284 of the book Apparitions and Thought Transference by Frank Podmore, we have an account of an apparition seen by both a father and his son, on the same day (July 11, 1879) that the father's father died:

"I entered the house a quarter to seven o’clock, Friday evening, July 11th, 1879. I was very tired, having been receiving and paying for staves all day, and it being an exceedingly sultry evening, I lay down by Artie on the carpet, and entered into conversation with my wife — not, however, in regard to my parents, Artie, as usually was the case, came and lay down with his little head upon my left arm, 
when all at once he exclaimed, ‘ Papa! papa ! Grandpa I'  I 
cast my eyes towards the ceiling, or opened my eyes, I am not 
sure which, when, between me and the joists (it was an old- 
fashioned log-cabin), I saw the face of my father as plainly as 
ever I saw him in my life. He appeared to me to be very pale, 
and looked sad, as I had seen him upon my last visit to him 
three months previous. I immediately spoke to my wife, who 
was sitting within a few feet of me, and said, ' Clara, there 
is something wrong at home ; father is either dead or very 
sick.' She tried to persuade me that it was my imagination, 
but I could not help feeling that something was wrong. Being 
very tired, we soon after retired, and about ten o’clock Artie 
woke me up repeating, ‘ Papa, grandpa is here.’ " 

On pages 74 to 75 of the 17th century book Miscellanies by John Aubrey, we have a tale that makes a heck of an interesting yarn. We are told that in Florence a Caisho Burroughes began a passionate affair with a beautiful courtesan who was the mistress of the Grand Duke, and that when the Grand Duke found out about it, the threatened Caisho fled to England. We are told that the courtesan killed herself partially from sorrow about the departure of Caisho. We are told that afterwards the ghost of the courtesan repeatedly appeared to Caisho, and was also seen by two other males who were in bed with the handsome Caisho. 

On page 82 of the same book we are told that Henry Jacob died at Dr. Jacob's house, and that a week later Dr. Jacob saw an apparition of Henry Jacob, one that was also seen by his cook-maid.  On pages 76-77 of the same book, we are told that a Mr. Mohun appeared to his mistress at the time of his murder in another location, and that his phantom also appeared to his sister and her maid about the same time he was killed. 

On page 39 of Volume 19 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,  we read, "The most remarkable of the experiences which have been reported to us was an apparition of Captain Bowyer-Bower which was seen by his half-sister Mrs. Spearman in India, within a few hours of his death." On page 41-42 we have this account by Dorothy C. Spearman:

"My brother appeared to me on the 19th March, 1917....I saw my brother Eldred W Bowyer-Bower. Thinking he was
alive and had been sent out to India, I was simply delighted to see him, and turned round quickly to put baby in a safe
place on the bed, so that I could go on talking to my brother;
then turned again and put my hand out to him, when I found
he was not there. I thought he is only joking, so I called him
and looked everywhere I could think of looking. It was only
when I could not find him I became very frightened and the
awful fear that he might be dead."

On page 222 of Volume 27 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we are told the following about the same individual:

"An example of such test-proof evidence to my mind, if we agree (as Mr Saltmarsh appears implicitly not to agree) that latency is hardly likely to endure for six months, is the Bowyer-Bower case (Proceedings, xxxiii. 167). Captain Bower's apparition was seen not only at the time of his sudden violent death, but also six months later (by his mother and again by his fiancee). The details of development and behaviour are strikingly suggestive of the operation of an external intelligence."

Tracing the reference made in the quote above, I find that on page 172 of Volume 33 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research we have this quote by a relative of this Captain Bowyer-Bower, concerning her small daughter:

"One morning while I was still in bed, about 9.15, she came to my room and said, 'Uncle Alley Boy is downstairs,' and although I told her he was in France, she insisted that she had seen him. Later in the day I happened to be writing to my mother and mentioned this, not because I thought much about it, but to show that Betty still thought and spoke of her imcle of whom she was very fond. A few days afterwards we found that the date my brother was missing was the date on my letter."

We are told on page 172 of this volume that "Alley Boy" was a "pet name" for this Eldred W. Bowyer-Bower.  So apparently we have an apparition of this person appearing to two people at the time of his death or disappearance. A third person mentioned on page 173 had a "certain and awful feeling...that he was killed" before learning of his death. On page 174 we have an account of an apparition of this Eldred W. Bowyer-Bower appearing months later. His mother Mrs. Bowyer-Bower narrates it as follows:

"I watched, not at all nervously, and something like a crumpled filmy piece of chiffon unfolded and the beautiful wavy top of Eldred's head appeared, a few seconds and his forehead and broad,
beautiful brow appeared, still it waited and his lovely
blue eyes came, but no mischievous twinkle, but a great
intensity. It all shook and quivered, then his nose came. More waiting and quivering and then his tiny little moustache and mouth. At this point he turned his head very shghtly and looked right into my face, and moistened his lips slightly with his tongue. I kept quite quiet, but it quivered and shook so much and no chin came, and in my anxiety I put out my hands and said :  'Eldred, I see you,' and it all flickered quite out, light and all."

On page 175 of the same Proceedings, we have an account by the fiance of this Eldred, who tells us the following happened months after his death:

"Afterwards I woke up and looked around and saw Eldred on the bed beside me, he was wearing his blue suit. I sat up and started talking to him....I then tried to touch him, but my hand went through him, and like a fool I started to cry, and he disappeared."

So we can see why the writer quoted earlier called this case "test-proof evidences": the quotes above establish that this apparition of Eldred W. Bowyer-Bower was seen by four different persons in different places: his sister, his mother, his fiancee and a small child.