In the 2008 book After Death Communication by Emma Heathcote-James, we read on page 38 an account by Karen Browne saying that she saw her grandfather in her bedroom at 6:00 AM, saying that he was going away. She went back to sleep, and discovered in the morning that the same grandfather had died. Later she found the grandfather had unexpectedly died of a massive heart attack about 6:00 AM.
On page 41 of the same book we have an account by a Mrs. Collins who was watching a Shirley Temple movie at a movie theater when something very strange happened. Suddenly she could see the image of her cousin Beryl where the screen had been. It was 8:00 PM. Later in the evening she found that her cousin Beryl died around 8:00 PM on the same evening.
In the same book on page 50 we read of a Mrs. Wyborn who saw a "very bright light at the foot of the bed and experienced a 'feeling of inexplicable happiness and well-being.' " She later learned that her mother had died "at the very time she had the experience." Another account on the same page tells us of a similar event, one involving a mysterious blue light seen at the time of someone's death elsewhere.
In his 1985 book Life First Class! Kenneth Thurston Hurst states that he suddenly awoke at 1:30 AM to see his mother, who lived 3000 miles away. He says, "She faded away." The next morning he received a telephone call telling him that his mother had died at 7:30 AM -- a time that was the same as the 1:30 apparition (given the differences in time zones).
In her 2005 book Beyond These Four Walls, Mary Rose Occhino states on pages 45-47 that her father saw an apparition of his mother in a mirror when he was shaving at 7:30 AM. He described the apparition to his wife, saying he did not know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. The wife then got a call from a Lily who said that the same woman (the father's mother) had appeared to a Rene to say goodbye. Upon arriving at a hospital where his mother had been for some time with a serious illness, the father was told his mother had died about 7:30, which was the same time the mirror apparition was seen. Apparently an apparition of the mother was seen by two witnesses.
In an 1863 book we read this:
"Mrs. Crawford, in the 'Metropolitan Magazine' in 1836, tells us that the then Lord Chedworth was a man who suffered deeply from doubts of the existence of the soul in another world ; and that he had a friend, very dear to him, as sceptical as himself. Whilst one morning relating to his niece. Miss Wright, at breakfast, that his friend appeared to him the night before, exactly as he appeared in life, and told him he died that night at eight o'clock, and that there was another world, and a righteous God who judgeth all — and whilst Miss Wright was ridiculing the idea of the apparition — a groom rode up the avenue bringing a letter announcing the fact of his friend's sudden death at the time stated by the spirit. Mrs. Crawford adds, ' The effect it had upon the mind of Lord Chedworth was as happy as it was permanent ; all his doubts were at once removed, and for ever. ' "
James S. Pollack wrote his extremely interesting book Dead and Gone around 1874, at a time before the Society for Psychical Research had clarified how common are so-called "crisis apparitions," in which an apparition of someone is seen when such a person suffers great danger, great injury or death. On page 198 Pollack tells us this about someone he knew well:
"A person well known to me, told me that she was staying in the house of an aunt, with her two cousins. One of them one morning was low-spirited and moody. At last, going up to her aunt, she burst into tears, and said, ' I saw grandfather last night.' ' Nonsense, child, you know he is not here ; don't be fanciful.' ' But I did see him.' ' Then you were dreaming.' ' Aunt, I was quite awake, and he came in at the window and stood at the foot of my bed : he looked just as he always looks, but I was frightened, and covered my head over with the blanket. When I looked up again he was still there, but the third time he was gone.' The grandfather died, as they heard afterwards, just at that very hour when she saw him."
A wraith is defined as "a ghost or ghostlike image of someone, especially one seen shortly before or after their death." The fact that such a word exists is testimony to how common it is to see an apparition at about the time when someone died. A writer named William Henry Harrison records getting a letter from a John Carson of London who states that a James Sutherland saw a wraith not just once but twice:
"A few years ago, Mr. James Sutherland, when in my employ in Melbourne as clerk, came into the shop from the back yard ; he was so much agitated that he was asked if anything was the matter with him. He replied, ' Yes, I have just seen Loutit's wraith.' The following morning the report reached Melbourne from Geelong, forty miles distant, that a holiday party pleasuring on the Bay had upset their boat. Mr. Loutit, a bank clerk, was drowned. The accident happened at the time Mr. Sutherland saw his intimate friend's appearance at 11 AM...The same gentleman, while in charge of a sheep- station for me, went to an out-station with two men to count the sheep looked after by a man and his wife. The party arrived in the evening and found the woman very ill, so they camped out some little distance from the hut. At daylight, one of the men asked Mr. Sutherland if he would go and see how the woman was. He answered, 'She is dead, I have just seen her wraith.' The man went to the hut, and found that the woman had just expired."
In the same book we have this account of a wraith:
"In the year 1857 I sailed as apprentice in the ship 'Tinto,' of Bridgewater, from Hull to Bombay. Our second mate (to whom what I narrate occurred) was a grave, and, for a sailor, unusually consistently serious and religious young fellow, of some twenty-four years — one who in several voyages with him, I never knew to even distort the truth...When I went into the berth my friend was, to my great surprise, leaning against the door, looking as white as a sheet, and apparently hardly saved from falling by holding on to the bunk. He appeared unable to reply to my queries at first, but on my fetching him a drop of spirits from the saloon he rallied, and then told me, that immediately on entering his cabin, he saw his father as plainly as he saw me, dressed as usual, standing in the middle of the floor. 'I knew in a moment,' said he, 'that it could not be himself, but was his spirit — and I know he is dead.' ' How long did he remain ? asked I. 'For about a minute,' he replied — ' in fact, until I heard you coming, and then he seemed to melt away suddenly. I was thinking of nothing less than him when I came in, for I thought of nothing but that ugly bank of clouds' — (a cloud bank on our port-beam that portended a squall all our watch). We took the exact time in writing when he saw the appearance ; it was, by the ship's chronometer, 8 minutes past 12 midnight, the 18th August (or rather 19th properly) 1857. Soon after reaching Bombay, a letter from home informed him that (computing for the difference of longitude) at that very day, hour, and minute, his father had died in his house at Patrington, passionately longing with his last breath that he might be allowed to see his son."
A nineteenth century author of quite a few books stated that he had often heard his mother tell the story of seeing her brother appear to her wordlessly and then leave. Sensing something very eerie about the appearance, she soon found that the brother had been killed by a knife at about the same time she saw him. A more famous author (John Henry Newman) gives the following account about a Catholic saint:
"It was a calm night, and suddenly a great light was poured down from heaven, which absorbed all the darkness, till the night became even more radiant than the natural day....While the Saint stood gazing on this vision he saw a fiery sphere traversing the brightness, and ascending up to heaven. It was borne by angels, and in it St. Benedict discerned what he recognized to be the soul of Germanus, bishop of Capua...Forthwith St. Benedict dispatched some one from the neighboring town to the city of Capua, where he learned that the holy Germanus had departed to a better life at the very hour at which the Saint had been favored with the vision."
The poet Byron stated that he heard a ship's captain say that at night he saw an apparition of the captain's brother, dripping with water. The captain said the apparition vanished. The ship captain later found that the brother had drowned at a distant location, on the same night the apparition was seen.
A nineteenth century work gives this account of a wraith:
"Prebendary Salter, A.M., curator of the son of the late Bishop Fisher, asserted to various acquaintances that he saw his father's apparition. His wife, awakened by her crying child, previously beheld the apparition at her bed's foot. Roused from sleep by Mrs. Salter, he perceived his father's form and dress. Both particularly noticed the peculiar usual plaiting of the shirt. In a short time a special messenger arrived to announce his decease."
In another nineteenth century work we have this account of an apparition of a church official seen by a famous queen who was not aware at the time that the official had just died:
"The king was at Avignon on December 23, 1574, when Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, died there. The queen (Catherine de Medicis) retired to rest earlier than usual, having present at the time, among other persons of rank, the King of Navarre, the Archbishop of Lyons, the ladies de Retz, Lignerolles and Sauves, two of whom confirm this narrative. As she was saying ' good-night,' she leaped on her bed, put her hands in front of her face, and, with a violent cry, appealed for help to all who were present, pointing out to them the cardinal close to her bed who had held out his hand to her. She cried out several times : 'Monsieur le Cardinal, I have only to do with you.' The king of Navarre sent one of his gentlemen to the cardinal's room, who reported that he had expired at that moment."
An account such as the one above is always inferior as evidence to an account written by the person who saw the apparition. That is why in my many posts about apparition sightings listed below, I have always tried to get the first-hand accounts in some book or paper written by the person who saw the apparition. We have such an account in the book Burma Past and Present by Albert Fythce. On page 177 Albert tells us this:
"A remarkable incident occurred to me at Maulmain, which made a deep impression upon my imagination. Believers in the supernatural are laughed at in these days of material science ; ghost stories are especially derided ; and yet, whilst I was residing at Maulmain I saw a ghost with my own eyes in broad daylight, of which I could make an affidavit. I had an old schoolfellow, who was afterwards a college friend, with whom I had lived in the closest intimacy. Years, however, passed away without our seeing each other. One morning I had just got out of bed, and was dressing myself, when suddenly my old friend entered the room.
I greeted him warmly ; told him to call for a cup of tea in the verandah ; and promised to be with him immediately.
I dressed myself in all haste, and went out into the verandah, but found no one there. I could not believe my eyes. I called to the sentry, who was posted at the front of the house, but he had seen no strange gentleman that morning. The servants also declared that no such person had entered the house. I was certain I had seen my friend. I was not thinking about him at the time ; yet I was not taken by surprise, as steamers and other vessels were frequently arriving at Maulmain. A fortnight afterwards, news arrived that he had died, six hundred miles off, about the very time I saw him at Maulmain. It is useless to comment upon this story. To this day I have never doubted that I really saw the ghost of my deceased friend."
According to her account here, in 1985 one day Kathleen Belanger had a strange feeling of dread. Later that day she saw her son with a big grin on his face. She was about to ask him a question when she suddenly found he was no longer there. Later that day she was notified that the same son had died in a logging accident.
These are just additional examples of a phenomenon often reported in the West: that of someone seeing an apparition of a person he did not know had died, and later finding out that the person had died on the same day, often at the very hour the apparition was seen. You can read about hundreds of such "wraith cases" by reading my posts below:
An Apparition Was Their Death Notice
25 Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death
25 More Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death
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