In previous posts on this blog I have discussed very many cases in which witnesses claimed to see an apparition of a person who recently died. People sometimes report seeing an apparition of someone who is still alive. We get an account of such a sighting on page 212 of Volume IV of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, where we read the following, told by the distinguished evolution expert G. J. Romanes:
"Towards the end of March, 1878, in the dead of the night, while believing myself to be awake, I thought the door at the head of my bed was opened and a white figure passed along the side of the bed to the foot, where it faced about and showed me it was covered head and all in a shroud. Then with its hands it suddenly parted the shroud over the face, revealing between its two hands the face of my sister, who was ill in another room. I exclaimed her name, whereupon the figure vanished instantly. Next day (and certainly
on account of the shock given me by the above experience), I called in Sir W. Jenner, who said my sister had not many days to live."
On page 48 of his book Death and Its Mystery: At the Hour of Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we read of another case of an apparition of someone who was still alive. He quotes this report from an English correspondent:
"For some days a report has spread that a suite of the House of Commons, giving upon the speaker's courtyard, was haunted. Nothing was said as to whether the specter had ever ventured into the lobbies of the House. Several members of Parliament grew uneasy. The truth was at last discovered. The phantom is not a ghost, but the double of a person still living. And this person is none other than the wife of one of the principal office-holders of Westminster Palace, Mr. Archibald Milman, secretary of the House of Commons (at a salary of 38,000 francs). Mrs. Milman tells in these words the story of her specter: 'The strangest thing about it is that it is true. It has lasted for years. I am afflicted with another self, that people meet in places where I am not. The other day a friend took leave of me in the work-room in which I give myself up to a passion for binding books. Scarcely had he stepped out at the door, when he found me again on the landing of the stairway. Dumbfounded, he shrank aside to let me pass. I had not stirred....This very day a young woman living with us saw me in the courtyard, without my having left the house.' "
On page 69 of his book Death and Its Mystery Flammarion cites another such experiment. A male tried an experiment in which he tried to project his image to a female. The female saw an apparition corresponding to the male, and was so shocked that she fainted. On page 70 Flammarion discusses a similar experiment in which an experimenter attempted to project an apparition of himself to another illustrious figure of him time, Stainton Moses. Moses reported that the experiment succeeded, and that at the time such an attempt was made, Moses saw an apparition of the person. Based on these accounts and others he cites, Flammarion stated this on page 66: "It can no longer be doubted that human beings possess fluid phantasms which may, under certain conditions, become visible and tangible."
In the August 1906 volume of the Annals of Psychical Science (page 113), we read a paper entitled "Experiments in Bilocation." The paper reports a successful attempt of two men to project an apparition of themselves. We read this:
"The first experiment took place at Kherson (in Southern Russia) where my brother was completing his studies at the college. His class-mates frequently visited our house; and as my mother was studying psychic matters, in which we were all interested, we determined one evening to try an experiment. We therefore arranged that, on the following night, two of these young men, M. Stankewitch and M. Serboff should endeavour to send their doubles to us ; the former at 11 p.m., the latter at 11:30 p.m."
Later in the narrative we read this:
"He pulled out his watch and said it was just 11 o'clock. The hanging lamp in the dining-room gave light enough to make it possible to distinguish objects in the bedroom. At the same moment I felt something push against my shoulder and I saw at my side, very distinctly, the form of M. Stankewitch; I could distinguish his dark uniform with the white metal buttons. At the same moment my brother said, ' There he is, beside you,' adding, almost immediately, ' Did you see him ? ' for after the first remark the apparition had disappeared."
Later in the narrative we read this:
"My brother then wrote out the results of our experiment, in detail, on two sheets of paper, enclosed them in envelopes and sealed them. The following day at the college my brother asked his two friends whether they bad not forgotten their promise. They at once described, in the presence of their comrades, details which corresponded exactly with all that my brother had written."
On page 126 of the book Contact with the Other World by James H. Hyslop, we have another account suggesting the idea of an apparition of someone appearing before the person died:
"My friend Madame Turban was taking care of a younger sister who was ill... Soon they lost hope of saving her. One Sunday afternoon she expressed to her sister her great regret at never having heard her fiance, the pastor several leagues from there, preach. She fell into catalepsy, and lay for two hours as one dead. When she awakened she told of having seen her fiance, and of having heard him preach in such and such a way. She died the next day. After the burial Madame Turban asked the fiance if on Sunday afternoon he had preached on such and such a subject. Stmck by her question, and very much surprised, he asked, 'How do you know that!' — 'Your fiance told me.' — 'It's very strange,' he answered. 'Just imagine — in the middle of my sermon I thought I saw a white form enter the church, which resembled my fiance; she sat down in an empty seat in the midst of the assembly, and disappeared toward the end of the service.' "
W. T. Catleugh reported seeing an apparition of his still-living daughter, six weeks before she died:
"I turned at once thinking that the child required something when I distinctly saw the spirit form of the child rise from the bed. This made me afraid that the child was dead, and I at once put my hand on her forehead, but found it warm and her breathing regular."
On page 103 of Volume 2 of Frederick George Lee's The Other World, Or Glimpses of the Supernatural we have an account of a dying woman who was eager to see her children, who were being cared for far away. On the morning of her death she exclaimed, "I have seen them all." Their children reported seeing an apparition of their mother at the same time:
"All of a sudden their mother, as she usually appeared, entered the larger room of the two, pausing, looked for some moments at each and smiled, passed into the next room, and then vanished away. Three of the elder children recognised her at once, but were greatly disturbed and impressed at her appearance, silence, and manner. The younger and nursemaid, each and all, saw a lady in white come into the smaller room, and then slowly glide by and fade away."
An account very similar to the account above is given here. Again we have a dying mother eager to see her children far away, with the children reporting the mother mysteriously appearing. On pages 202-203 of a book by William Henry Harrison, we have a description of a hypnotist who encourages a hypnotized subject to mentally travel to a particular distant place and touch someone there on the shoulder. A witness at the place later reported being touched on the shoulder by a ghost when this experiment was done.
On pages 204-205 of the same book, we have an account of a man very surprised to see an apparition of his half-uncle. He later found that "on the night and at the very hour" that such an apparition was seen, the half-uncle attempted to commit suicide far away, but did not succeed. A report such as that is consistent with reports of near-death experiences, in which people very often floating out of their bodies during close encounters with death.
In a much more recent account (pages 106-107 here), one witness said he saw what he thought was a particular female named Cheryl, who was seen "gliding." The witness "walked right through here." Another witness saw what she thought was a male named Peter, but could only see half of his body. Nine days later Peter and Cheryl were killed in a plane crash.
On page 474 of the document here, we read this account:
"My daughter also has often told me and now repeats the story, that one day when living at home before her marriage she was passing my study door, which was ajar, and looked in to see if I was there. She saw me sitting in my chair, and as she caught sight of me I stretched out my arms, and drew my hands across my eyes, a familiar gesture of mine, it appears. I was not in the house at the time, but out in the village."
The following account appears in a nineteenth century book:
"It was hot, the door of the small building was wide open, and one of the party who sat looking down the aisle could see out into the meeting-house yard, which was shaded by tall trees. Suddenly, to his intense surprise, he saw the absent brother approaching through the trees, enter at the chapel door, walk up the aisle, come to the very door of the pew itself, and lay his hand upon it as though he would take a seat with them. At that moment others of the family saw him also, but at that instant he vanished. This strange occurence naturally raised sad forebodings, but in course of time a letter arrived, and it appeared that the brother was alive and well. He was then written to and asked if anything peculiar had happened on that Sunday. He replied that it was odd that he should remember anything about a Sunday so long passed, but certainly something had happened on that Sunday . He had come in over-powered with heat and had thrown himself on his bed, fallen asleep and had a strange dream. He found himself among the trees of a country chapel; service was going on ; he saw them all, the door being open, sitting in their pews ; he walked up the aisle and put his hand on the pew door to open it, when he suddenly, and to his great chagrin, awoke."
Alma R. Clarke reported the following:
"When my son, Mark, was six years old I woke up one night to find him standing next to my bed ... He slowly disappeared and I went back to his bedroom and found him peacefully asleep."
A woman recalls seeing an apparition of her father before his death:
"A day or two before his death, somewhere between the 4th and 10th of December (the day of his decease), when he was lying in an unconscious state in a room on the ground floor, and I was sleeping on the second floor, I was awoke suddenly by seeing a bright light in my bedroom — the whole room was flooded with a radiance quite indescribable — and my father was standing by my bedside, an etherealised semi- transparent figure, yet his voice and his aspect were normal. His voice seemed a far-off sound, and yet it was his same voice as in life. All he said was. 'Take care of mother.'’ He then disappeared floating in the air, as it were, and the light also vanished. About a week afterwards, that is to say between the 12th and the 17th of December, the same apparition came to me again and repeated the same words."
In Catherine Crowe's long fascinating work The Night Side of Nature, we have an account by a man who saw an apparition of his half-uncle on the night his uncle tried to kill himself. On page 40-43 of his book Death and Its Mystery by Camille Flammarion, we have an astonishing case of an apparition of a living person. According to Flammarion's account, 13 girls saw an apparition of a school teacher named Emilie Sagee, right next to her physical form, so that there was "one beside the other." "They were exactly alike, and going through the same movements," according to Flammarion, who states, "All the young girls, without exception, had seen the second form, and agreed perfectly in their description of the phenomenon." Later, according to his account, 42 pupils saw an apparition of Sagee in a school at the same time Sagee was also observed picking flowers in a garden -- as if there were two copies of Emilie Sagee. According to the pupils, the apparition "gradually vanished." Flammarion reports, "The forty-two pupils described the phenomenon in the same way." Such observations may possibly be evidence for the idea that each of us has an "astral body" different from our physical body. The apparition observed may have been a rare sighting of such a thing appearing before death.
Postscript: On page 204 of the document here, we have a possible case of an apparition of the living. A person relates this story:
"That reminds me of a strange experience I had one night on board. It was the 27th of December, and we were about two days out from port, homeward bound. I woke suddenly to see a dark-haired woman in white night attire standing by my berth, just discernible by the light from the passage and the pale beams of the setting moon seen through the port-hole. Thinking it was my wife, I asked her— ‘ What is it ? Can’t you sleep ? ’ The figure remained motionless. I then tried to touch her, when she completely vanished. Thoroughly aroused and rather alarmed, I switched on the light, still thinking it was my wife, and got up and saw her calmly sleeping in the berth below ! It was clear she had not stirred, and was much surprised when I woke and questioned her. I was never able to account for the strange apparition, and am certain I was not dreaming, and did not imagine it.”
On page 200 of the document here, we have another possible case of an apparition of the living:
"While I was at Philadelphia in the year 1888 I was walking through Chestnut Street at 11 a.m., when suddenly I saw the image of my friend Mrs. B------ M------- floating in the air in the bright sunshine about ten feet above my head and in front of me. This lady was at that time in London, and I did not think of her at that time. About an hour afterwards I received a cable dispatch from her, urging me to come to London to meet her."
On page 283 of the document here, we have another account of an apparition of the living:
"A notable instance of one of these experiments occurred in connection with the Rev. Stainton Moses, M.A., the well-known writer and lecturer. A friend of this gentleman's, a Mr. D---- -, resolved to appear one evening to Mr. Moses in his ' soul body,' without letting him know of his intended experiment. Shortly before going to sleep at about 11.30 p.m., he concentrated his mind intently on Mr. Moses for some time and willed that he should appear in that gentleman’s house some miles away and be seen by him. With this desire he fell asleep and slept very soundly the whole night and remembered nothing of his dreams or any unusual occurrence when he awoke in the morning. That afternoon he chanced to meet Mr. Moses, and inquired if anything had happened to him the previous evening. 'A great deal happened,' replied the clergyman, ' a most astounding occurrence which I could not have believed possible had I not seen it with my own eyes ' ; and then he related that he had sat up late talking and smoking with a guest who had dined with him that evening. A few minutes after twelve this friend left, and Mr. Moses saw him off from the hall door. When he returned to the sitting-room he found the chair just vacated by his guest occupied by a figure wearing a greatcoat over its clothes, and a black hat, and carrying an umbrella, and at once recognized the figure as Mr. D -----. ' Hullo I how on earth did you get in here ? ' he had exclaimed in astonishment, as it was quite impossible that any one could have passed to enter the room without being seen. The figure made no reply, but took off its hat and laid it down on the table. Mr. Moses, greatly puzzled, inquired the reason of his visit at that late hour. Again there was no reply, and the apparition bent forward and extended its hands to the fire as though warming itself. The percipient of this strange occurrence then began to feel rather uncomfortable— there was something uncanny about it which he could not understand. ' Shall I put t your hat and umbrella in the hall ? ' he then asked, 'and please take off your greatcoat, it will be more comfortable.' At that the figure raised its eyes to Mr. Moses’s, looking him full in the face for a moment, then snatched up its hat— and vanished ! Two weeks later the experiment was repeated, but this time the ethereal self of Mr. D----- appeared in evening dress, minus overcoat and hat, and, sitting beside the fire, carried on a conversation with Mr. Moses for quite a long time, and then vanished suddenly in the middle of a sentence. Though Mr. Moses did not see him move, the figure simply was not there."
In an interesting 19th century work on psychic phenomena, the influential writer Allan Kardec states the following:
"The spirit of a living person isolated from the body can appear the same as that of a dead person, and have all the appearance of reality...It is this phenomenon called bi-corporeity that has given foundation to the stories of double men, that is to say, individuals whose simultaneous presence has been verified in two different places...St. Alphonse de Liquori was canonized before the usual time, for having been seen simultaneously in two different places, which passed for a miracle."
A 1949 book states this:
"The idea of ghosts of actual live people sounds even more fantastic than ghosts of the dead. And yet many well-attested reports are on record of precisely this phenomenon. Often the vision comes at a time of crisis in the life of the person who is perceived, just as it does so often at, or shortly after, the moment of death, in the examples narrated in an earlier chapter. For example, a lady, who was especially close to her father in temperament and affection, told me that one night she awoke and saw her father looking at her sadly with outstretched arms. She had been asleep, she said, but at that moment was wide awake. So startling and so vivid was the brief vision that next morning she telegraphed, to find out if her father was well. The reply was that during the night he had been suddenly seized by a heart attack so severe that the family had given him up. Finally, however, he rallied and was recovering. In this instance death had been narrowly averted."
The case of Mary Goffe was one of the earliest reports of an apparition of a living person. On her death bed in 1691, Mary Goffe claimed that she had seen her children who had been entrusted to the care of a nurse far away. She claimed "I was with them last night, when I was asleep." The nurse swore that she saw Mary Goffe appear at two o'clock, and that she visited the children. The nurse said, "If I ever saw her in all my life, I saw her on this night."
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