In previous posts in this intermittently appearing "Spookiest Years" series on this blog (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), I had looked at some very spooky events reported between 1848 and 1876. Let me pick up the thread and discuss some spooky events reported in the years 1877.
On page 51 of the February 2, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an example of an early account of a near-death experience. The previous page tells of a William Tennet of New Brunswick, New Jersey who seemed to sink into a death-like state lasting many hours or days. Tennet finally recovered, and had speaking difficulties, requiring rehabilitation. Eventually he told this story of what happened during his death-like experience:
" ‘ I was conversing with my brother,’ said he, on ‘ the state of my soul, and the fears I had entertained for my future welfare. I found myself in an instant in another state of existence, under the direction of a superior being, who ordered me to follow him. I was accordingly wafted along, I know not how, till I beheld at a distance an ineffable glory, the impression of which on my mind it is impossible to communicate to mortal man. I immediately reflected on my happy change, and thought, well, blessed be God, I am safe at last notwithstanding all my fears. I saw an innumerable host of happy beings surrounding the inexpressible glory, in acts of adoration and joyous worship, but I did not see any bodily shape, or representation, in the glorious appearance. I heard things unutterable. I heard their songs and hallelujahs of thanksgiving and praise with unspeakable rapture. I felt joy unutterable and full of glory. I then applied to my conductor, and requested leave to join the happy throng, on which he tapped me on the shoulder, and said, ‘ You must return to the earth.’ This seemed like a sword through my heart. In an instant I recollect to have seen my brother standing before me, disputing with the doctor. The three days during which I had appeared lifeless seemed to me not more than ten or twenty minutes.
The idea of returning to this world of sorrow and trouble gave me such a shock that I fainted repeatedly.’ He added : ‘ Such was the effect on my mind of what I had seen and heard, that if it be possible for a human being to live entirely above the world, and the things of it, for some time afterwards, I was that person. The ravishing sounds of the songs and hallelujahs that I heard, and the very words that were uttered, were not out of. my ears when awake for at least three years. All the kingdoms of the earth were in my sight as nothing and vanity, and so great were my ideas of heavenly glory, that nothing which did not in some measure relate to it could command my serious attention.’"
We have here (from a man who beyond doubt had a very close brush with death) a near-death experience account very much like the near-death experience accounts reported in 1975 and later years, including the "you must return to the earth" element so commonly found in such accounts. The account is one of quite a few such accounts I have collected dating from before 1975. You can read the other such accounts using the link here, and continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right.
On page 67 of the February 9, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we have another account that should interest those who study near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences. We have an account by William Q. Judge claiming that he was able to willfully produce out-of-body experiences or telepathic interactions with others. He states this:
"In my sleep at night, through intense desire and will, I have gone long distances. Once, while down in New Jersey, sixty miles from here, I have come up to this city, and been visible to friends in Mdme. Blavatsky’s house. To her house in spirit I have frequently gone.....Now here I have to take the evidence of others. They say that while my body snored, my double, or simulacrum...or whatever you may name it—that is, a visible counterfeit presentment of me—could be seen walking down the passage to the kitchen.... And now as to another kind of experiment. The projection of my mind upon others seemed a good thing to try. Accordingly, I seized every chance that presented itself, and success often rewarded me. Many times have one or two persons whom I had not previously mesmerised been perfectly aware that even from a distance I was directing my mind upon them, and I have often compelled my child to do certain little things by only looking at her, and mentally commanding the things to be done....A man owed me some money, and failed to pay as agreed. One day, resolved to compel him, I stood up, and for fifteen minutes directing myself to wherever he might then be, I commanded him violently, as it were, to come down and pay a certain part of it. The next day he came in and paid that sum; and, on questioning him, it appeared that at the time I tried the experiment, he suddenly thought of me, went out to collect a bill in order to pay me, and succeeded."
On page 115 of the March 9, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we have this account of prophetic dreams that came true:
"Macnish, in his Philosophy of Sleep, quotes a curious dream of his own, which bears on the question of clairvoyant or prophetic dreams. Being in Caithness, he dreamed that a near relation residing three hundred miles off had suddenly died. He awoke in a ' state of inconceivable terror.' He wrote to inquire, and, till he heard, was in a state of 'most unpleasant suspense.' Three days elapsed before an answer came, and then it was to the effect that the person in question had had a fatal attack of palsy the very day on the morning of which he dreamed his dream. He was in a perfect state of health before the stroke. It came on him like a thunderbolt. The death of Mr. Perceval, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was foretold by a prophetic dream, thrice repeated to Mr. Williams, of Scorrier House, near Redruth, in Cornwall, on the night of May 11th, 1812...Moore, in his work on Body and Mind, relates that an intimate friend of his own, a diplomatist, had engaged a passage to South America by a steamer which was to leave May 9th, 1856. A few days after the passage was taken a lady, well known to both, dreamed of the loss of the vessel. The dream was very vivid, and was twice repeated. Circumstances prevented M. de S. from going by that particular vessel, which was lost in accord with the dream. This was told to Moore some weeks before it was verified....Gerald Massey, in a lecture reported May 17, 1872, says, ' On waking up at seven o’clock my wife informed me that my mother was dead. Asked how she knew. She said she had seen in a dream the black-edged envelope put under the bedroom door. At eight o’clock the veritable letter came.' ’’
On page 266 of the June 8, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we have this account by G. W. F. Wiese of events at a seance occurring about a month ago:
"3rd sitting, May 2nd (five persons present).—Raps were heard distinctly after we had sat about a quarter of an hour. The table rose above the ground, waving and undulating to the right and left. The medium asked whether the spirit could lift the table free off the ground, if we did not touch it at all. This was answered in the affirmative by three raps, and half a minute afterwards the table rose free from the ground up to our hands, which we kept joined about a foot above the surface of the table. This was repeated twice. The spirit promised to produce musical sounds on the cords of the 'zither' after three more sittings. A question put in thought by a lady was answered to her satisfaction."
This is one of innumerable accounts from the 19th century of observations of levitating tables, and one of countless accounts saying that a question asked only in someone's mind was answered correctly. In the typical such account the claim is that after the question was asked, the alphabet was repeatedly recited, and note was made of mysterious raps that were heard after particular letters were spoken, with the sequence of such letters being read as an answer to the mentally posed question. We are told that in the meeting on May 4 "The table rose up and floated in the air whilst our hands were joined about a foot above it, nobody touching it.." We read this account:
"We now felt a cool wind touching our hands and afterwards our heads at various times, coming back to us when we asked for it. Then the table rose by itself from the floor till it touched our hands, and floated to and fro underneath for a short time."
On page 271 of the same edition we have this interesting account by H. G. Atkinson:
"A gentleman has just relating to me the case of a friend with an arm cut off from the shoulder, who is certain that he has a spiritual arm, which lie sees and actually feels with his other hand. He can touch anything, and even pull up things with the spiritual or phantom arm and hand. He says the spirit pervades the whole body, and has the same form, so will exist after the body dies. His surprise is that others do not see the spirit arm as he does. The relator says he has inquired of another person whose legs are cut off, and who has exactly the same impression in respect to his legs, that though bis body cannot stand upright his spirit still can. Neither the relator nor the maimed persons know anything of Spiritualism."
On the same page Charles Long gives this account:
"Suddenly, I perceived among the trees in front of us, and a little to the right, a misty transparency like a column of smoke. It gradually seemed to condense, and glided, while yet undefined, upon the pathway before us, where it appeared almost instantaneously to take shape as a gentleman of the last century. The apparition was dressed in a three-cornered hat, a red velvet coat with targe lace ruffles at the breast and sleeve...After thus standing on the path for perhaps a minute, the ghost (if such indeed it was) dissolved into mist, which slowly faded away. My companion did not see anything, but felt a cold shudder run through him, though I had not then informed him of what I saw."
On page 65 of the August 10, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an account by a chemist named A. Comera, who gives his address. Comera tells of seeing an apparition that was seen repeatedly, for long periods of time. We read this:
“ The facts I allude to took place about fifteen months ago. My wife, waking me up suddenly in the middle of the night, cried out, 'Michael, Death !’ I opened my eyes and beheld V----- on his knees on my chest, looking fixedly at me. Without being the least put out by the unexpected apparition, nor astonished at the singular fashion in which it presented itself, I cheered my wife, saying, ‘ Holloa, why here is my friend V—— ! What brings you here ? ’ I then begged V----- to get off me, and to sit down; for, in fact, he incommoded me dreadfully; he weighed so heavily on my chest. V----- sat himself down on the side of the bed, and told me that he was just dead, and as soon as it was over he determined to pay me a visit on account of our old friendship. Then he added, ‘I will come during three days and three nights, and will teach you the key twist (tour de cle). You know I mean that Italian fencing thrust {coup d’escrime) which you never could get hold of at the time when you were my pupil. This thrust will be of service to you, for before very long you will be challenged to a duel, and this thrust will get you out of the affair (te tirera de I’affaire).' "
Comera then says he saw this apparition by his side "the whole of the day," and soon learned that this V----- had died just before the apparition first appeared. Comera says he learned a fencing maneuver from the apparition, which soon came in handy because of a sword fight Comera got into. You could entitle the whole account "The Ghost Who Taught a Fencing Lesson."
On page 131 of the September 14, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we read this:
"The following phenomenon was witnessed at the death-bed of an old lady who recently died in this city, and was related to the writer by two members of the party present. Between the hours of four and five in the morning, while four women were watching in the chamber of death, loud knockings were heard by all of them on the head-board of the bedstead. Soon beautiful music was heard outside of the back window, which approached nearer and nearer, until it entered the room and filled it with melody. After these sweet sounds had entered the room, one of the ladies asked another if she heard anything. ‘ Yes,’ said she, 'I heard beautiful music.’ The two other watchers heard it distinctly ; so did the dying one, who feebly spoke and said, Sweet music ; sweet music."
On page 162 of the October 5, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, we read a Thomas Colley give a long report of viewing astonishing phenomena. He states this, using some rather "purple prose":
"I have just witnessed the most marvellous materialisation phenomenon I have ever heard of or can conceive....Dr. Monck, under control of ' Samuel,' was, by the light of the lamp—-the writer not being a yard away from him—seen by all to be the living gate for the extrusion of spirit forms from the realm of mind into this world of matter: for standing forth thus plainly before us, the psychic or spirit-form was seen to grow out of his left side. First several faces one after another, of great beauty appeared, and in amazement we saw, and as I was suffered to stand close up to the medium, even touching him, I saw most plainly—several times, a perfect face and form of an exquisite womanhood partially issue from Dr. Monck, about the region of the heart. Then, after several attempts, a full formed figure, in a nebulous condition at first, but growing solider as it issued from the medium, left Dr. Monck, and stood, a separate individuality, two or three feet off, bound to him by a slender attachment as of gossamer, which at my request, Samuel in control severed with the medium’s left hand ; and there stood embodied a spirit form of unutterable loveliness, robed in attire spirit-spun—a meshy web-work from no mortal loom, of a fleeciness inimitable and of transfiguration whiteness truly glistening....I saw him receive back the lovely birth of the invisible spheres into his very person ; and, as I gazed for the last time on the sweet face of the disintegrating spirit, within three or four inches of the features, I marked its fair aspect, eyes, hair, and delicate complexion, and kissed the dainty hand, as, in process of absorption, it dissolved, and saw the angel face disappear and fade, as it was drawn, positively, into the bosom of the medium. Gazing thus closely, with awe and breathless interest, did I, there-fore, watch the departure of our angel friend, and, through the living gate and avenue of the medium’s very self, did I, with feelings indescribable, mark the steps of her progress to regain, through the living organism and body of Dr. Monck, her home in the viewless spheres."
This rather sounds like the same phenomenon that was documented very carefully by Schrenck-Notzing in his 1923 book Phenomena of Materialization, as I discuss in my post here. Schrenck-Notzing spent four years investigating Marthe Beraud (referred to in the book as Eva C.) under very carefully controlled conditions, and produced an extremely detailed book describing a vast assortment of inexplicable phenomena he observed in her presence. The book includes more than 50 clear photos of the seemingly paranormal. Schrenck-Notzing makes frequent reports of things such as "spirit hands" appearing and disappearing, "materialized heads" appearing out of parts of Beraud's body, and equally astonishing things. Schrenck-Notzing took careful precautions to prevent fraud, such as placing the medium in a small "cabinet" (actually just a small corner of a room with a curtain in front of it) that was always carefully checked, and even often arranging for a full body examination before the phenomena were produced. Under conditions that should have prevented all possibility of fraud, the most inexplicable phenomena were produced on many different days. Below is a photo from that book (from the page here).
In the October 12, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, page 174, we have this account by Alfred Russel Wallace (co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection) of seemingly miraculous writing on a slate:
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