Paranormal Luminosities

On page 48 of the document here, we read a physician describe seeing this when a patient died: 

"The head of the body became suddenly enveloped in a fine, soft, mellow, luminous atmosphere. . . . The brain began to attract the elements of electricity, of magnetism, of motion, of life and of sensation into its various and numerous departments. The head became intensely brilliant; and I particularly remarked that just in the same proportion as the extremities of the organism grew dark and cold, the brain appeared light and glowing.” 

 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."

 

In the book Occult Science in India and Among the Ancients by Lewis Jocolliot, a distinguished Chief Judge, we have many reports of seeing the paranormal. On page 246 we read this account:

"As he uttered these words, he imposed his hands above one of those immense copper platters inlaid with silver such as are used by wealthy natives for dice playing, and almost immediately there ensued such a rapid and violent succession of blows or knocks that it might have been taken for a hail-shower upon a metal roof, and I thought I saw (the reader will observe that I do not express myself positively in this respect) a succession of phosphorescent lights (plain enough to be visible in broad daylight) pass to and fro across the platter in every direction."

A professor of chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg, A. Butlerof wrote up an account in which he claimed to have witnessed the most astonishing paranormal phenomena while testing a medium named Williams, while the medium was tied up in a hotel room of Butlerof and a Mr. Aksakof.   Below (dating from 1875) is an excerpt:

"Presently phosphorescent lights were floating in the air, and immediately the form of John King became visible. This apparition is accompanied by a greenish phosphorescent light..."

Another witness reported seeing something similar when seeing an apparition of his brother, one that appeared about the same night the brother died very far away:

"His  death  took  place, or  rather  he  fell,  though  he  may  not  have  died  immediately, on  the  8th  of  September,  1855. That  night  I awoke  suddenly  and  saw  facing  the  window of  my  room  by  my  bedside,  surrounded  by  a bright  sort  of phosphorescent  mist  as  it  were ... my  brother kneeling."

In his memoir Beyond Coincidence: One Man's Experiences With Psychic Phenomena, the late psychic Alex Tanous says on page 123, "On several occasions, I saw a shapeless mist drift away from a patient when he died."  Tanous says that he could create with his mind balls of light.  On page 2 he says "I have created floating balls of light in totally dark rooms." On page 53 he says, "I've been able to project balls of light into my hands or into the room, in otherwise absolute darkness." On page 101 he says, "I discovered I could project not only balls of light, but actual images, images which could be seen by everyone in the room."  On page 110 we read that many witnesses saw a ball of light mysteriously near Tanous. 

The book The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism states this: "There are so many stories of holy priests who lit up a dark cell or a whole chapel by the light which streamed from them or upon them, that I am strongly inclined in adhere to the more literal interpretation." The book then gives several accounts of such cases.

In his long and very interesting work Human Survival After Death, Charles Tweedale gives many first-hand accounts of the paranormal, some including anomalous light phenomena. On page 218 he indicates the variety of what he saw in the quote below:

"These  manifestations  continued  several  years  with varying  degrees  of  power,  frequency  and  interest,  up  to about  a year  ago,  when  there  began  to  be  a marked  falling off,  though  occasionally  we  still  get  remarkable  manifestations. This  occurred  so  late  as  April- June  (1918),  when  a wonderful  materialised  apparition  appeared  seven  times, six  times  in  daylight,  seen  on  one  occasion  by  my  wife, myself,  and  my  son  together,  and  on  others  seen,  heard and  felt,  by  myself,  wife  and  daughter,  also  in  daylight. These  experiences  have  covered  the  whole  range  of  psychic phenomena  : apparitions,  materialisations,  etherialisations, lights,  pillars  of  fire,  the  direct  voice,  very  loud  and  in daylight,  appearances  of  animals,  automatic  writing, psychic  photography,  movements  of  furniture  and  other objects,  volleys  of  bell-ringing,  remarkable  warnings  and prophetic  forecasts  of  coming  events  accurately  fulfilled, sometimes  to  the  day,  hour  and  minute,  and  many  evidential messages  from  my  ' dead '  relatives  and  friends,  a very remarkable  guardian-angel  attitude  shown  by  the  manifesting intelligences  of  the  utmost  service  (page  139),  sometimes warning  us  of  danger,  and  on  one  occasion  saving  life  ; and  many  other  phases  too  numerous  to  mention."

A woman recalled seeing a strange light when an apparition of her dying father occurred:

"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."

In his autobiography Incidents in My Life (which includes many a fascinating account), the medium Daniel Dunglas Home describes a case of a paranormal luminosity:

"The family had retired to rest, and I at once went to my room, which was so completely filled with the moonlight as to render a candle unnecessary. After saying my prayers, I was seated on the bed, and about to draw the sheet over me, when a sudden darkness seemed to pervade the room. This surprised me, inasmuch as I had not seen a cloud in the sky ; and on looking up I saw the moon still shining, but it was on the other side of the darkness, which still grew more dense, until through the darkness there seemed to be a gleam of light, which I cannot describe, but it was similar to those which I and many others have since seen when the room has been illuminated by spiritual presence. This light increased, and my attention was drawn to the foot of my bed, where stood my friend Edwin. He appeared as in a cloud of brightness, illumining his face with a distinctness more than mortal. His features were unchanged except in brightness, and the only difference I saw was that his hair was long, and that it fell in wavy ringlets upon his shoulders. He looked on me with a smile of ineffable sweetness, then slowly raising the right arm, he pointed upward, and making with it three circles in the air, the hand began slowly to disappear and then the arm, and finally the whole body melted away. The natural light of the room was then again apparent.  I was speechless and could not move, though I retained all my reasoning faculties. As soon as the power of movement was restored, I rang the bell, and the family, thinking I was ill, came to my room, when my first words were, ' I have seen Edwin — he died three days ago at this very hour.'  This was found to be perfectly correct by a letter which came a few days afterwards, announcing that after only a few hours illness, he had died of malignant dysentery."

On page 94 of a July 1951 edition of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, we have this account of a paranormal luminosity:

"I was sitting in my living room reading. It was about 7:30 in the morning on a nice clear day. Suddenly the room seemed to be filled with brilliant light—not light seen by the physical eye but a quality of light akin to ecstatic joy or triumph, and yet with the physical radiance of light too. In a moment I 'heard’ Carl Morgan telling me it was wonderful, that he had always believed that death must lie something like this. He was free now and so happy he could scarcely believe it. The experience lasted for about two minutes and was so vivid I can recall every detail. I did not hear a physical voice but the words seemed to speak inside my head somehow and were unmistakably Carl Morgan’s in ‘voice’ and intonation. My sister-in-law taught in the same studio with me at that time and as soon as we met there (about 8:30 that same morning) I told her of this experience. She insisted that I write it down and that we both sign it before we tried to check on Carl Morgan’s condition.”

On the next page we read this:

"Going to considerable trouble, the two women finally learned that Carl Morgan had died in a hospital in their city early on the morning of the experience, after having been in coma for some hours. They never were able to ascertain the exact moment of death (for he was found dead by a hospital nurse), but it seems reasonably certain that it occurred within a half hour to two hours before the auditory apparition was experienced." 

Another woman recalls seeing a dramatic luminous sight when her father died:

"I was  just  about  to  slip  quietly  down  into  the  bed  when on  the  opposite  side  of  it,  that  on  which  the  nurse  was  sleeping, the  room  became  suddenly  full  of  a beautiful  light,  in  the midst  of  which  stood  my  father  absolutely  transfigured, clothed  with  brightness.  He  slowly  moved  towards  the  bed, raising  his  hands  as  though  to  clasp  me  into  his  arms,  and  I ejaculated,  'Father.'  He  replied,  'Blessed  for  ever,  my child,  for  ever  blessed.'  I moved  to  climb  over  nurse  and kiss  him,  reaching  out  my  arms  to  him,  but  with  a look  of mingled  sadness  and  love  he  appeared  to  float  back  with  the light  towards  the  wall  and  was  gone.  The  vision  occupied so  short  a time  that  glancing  involuntarily  at  the  window again  I saw  the  morning  dawn  and  the  little  bird  just  as  they had  looked  a few  minutes  before.  I felt  sure  that  God  had vouchsafed  to  me  a wonderful  vision,  and  was  not  in  the  least afraid,  but,  on  the  contrary,  full  of  joy  that  brought  floods  of grateful  tears,  and  completely  removed  all  anguish  except  that of  having  lost  my  father  from  earth."

In 1918 Alexandrina  M'Gillivray reported the very unusual sight of seeing a strange luminosity on the night her sister had an unusually vivid dream of her late mother:

"Once  when  sharing  a room  with  a sister  I could  not  sleep. I was  looking  towards  her  bed  when  I saw  a luminous  cloud hovering  over  her  head.  It  did  not  frighten  me  in  the  least so  I did  not  waken  her,  but  in  the  morning  she  told  me  that she  had  had  a very  vivid  dream  of  our  mother  who  had  died some  time  previously — so  vivid  that  she  could  hardly  believe my  mother  was  not  present."

On page 141 of the document here, a woman recalls a strange experience with light, one occurring three weeks after her husband's death:

" I woke up with a rushing noise of wind in the room, as if all the windows were open and everything in the room was swirling round and round as it does at sea in a storm. But the strange thing is, I was not in the least frightened ; only I knelt up in my four-poster to see if the windows were really shut (as they were) and to look at what was happening. . . . Then I saw a small light by the fireplace and it grew bigger and brighter. . . . All on a sudden, before one could think, the whole room and all in it— I myself and the bed— everything was enveloped in a perfectly gorgeous light, like the most wonderful, bluish opaque light— opaline— lovely ! It seemed clear, and yet I cannot remember being able to see through it.  I fell back on my pillows saying: 'Oh! don't go ! ’ It seemed to bring so extraordinary a rest. . . . Remember there was not the least fear in my mind from the beginning ; only the feeling one could go on watching this fight for ever. . . . It was so peaceful— so full of bliss— no least atom of fear.  I kept on saying : ‘ Oh ! don’t go ! ’  But it went. While the whole room was illuminated it suddenly went. It went as it came, only more quickly, for it began with a small light that spread. . . ."

Below is a quote from Professor Charles Richet, who won a Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1913, describing a human form seeming to appear from a luminous orb: 

"I see something like a white luminous ball of undetermined outline suspended above the floor. Then suddenly there appears, emerging from this white orb of light as from a trap-door, the phantom 'Bien Boa.' It is of moderate height. He is draped in a flowing garment with a belt around his waist.  One cannot say whether he walks or glides...Without opening the curtain he suddenly collapses and vanishes on the floor. At the same time one hears the noise of a body falling on the floor. Three or four minutes afterwards the same white orb appears in the opening of the curtains above the floor, then a body is seen quickly rising straight up and attaining the height of an adult, and then it again collapses on the floor." 

This was observed in a place that had no trap-door. A similar account by Richet can can be found here.  Richet's very interesting book "Thirty Years of Psychical Research" can be read online here.

In the account here a witness reports both a shockingly inexplicable paranormal luminosity and also a sudden drop in temperature, often reported when paranormal phenomena are witnessed:

"On  the  night  of  19th  December  1907  my  wife  was awakened  by  a feeling  of  intense  cold,  and  by  a strong  cold breeze  blowing  upon  her  cheek.  She  turned  her  head, raising  herself,  and  saw,  to  her  amazement,  standing  at  the foot  of  the  bed,  and  on  my  side  of  it,  a tall  column  of  white cloudy  light  reaching  from  the  bed’s  foot  right  up  to  the ceiling.  She  gazed  at  it  spellbound  (the  cold  wind  blowing the  whole  time)  for  a minute  or  more,  during  which  period she  noticed  that  the  light  illuminated  the  bed  coverlet,  and she  could  see  its  pattern  distinctly,  and  also  the  dressing table  and  mirror  by  the  light,  and  then  becoming  terrified she  buried  her  head  under  the  clothes,  and  on  looking  up after  a considerable  time  found  the  room  in  darkness.  She described  the  light  to  me  when  I awoke  as  like  a column of  muslin  wrapped  in  spiral  swathes,  with  a strong electric  light  in  the  midst  and  shining  through  it."