This University President Said He Saw His Wife's Ghost at Least 20 Times, Having Long Conversations

Below is the first third of a long remarkable account that appeared on the front page of the mainstream Evening Public Ledger of Philadelphia on December 22, 1919. The witness is almost as prestigious a figure as you could have found in that city at the time: Russell H. Conwell, the president of one of the city's main universities (Temple University):

Below is the second third of the account:

You can read the start of the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1919-12-22/ed-1/seq-1/

The rest of the account can be read here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1919-12-22/ed-1/seq-20/

At the link above we read this account of the first of Conwell's sightings of the apparition of his deceased wife (Sarah):

"The figure, or apparition, persisted for a few moments -without change of position, and as the conviction grew that he was really face to face with a discarnate spirit he endeavored to concentrate his mind on the message or words that the spirit was uttering. Little by little the voice became faintly audible and finally became fairly distinct. 

Then suddenly the form disappeared.

This, and subsequently, was always accomplished instantly and without any preliminary indication of departure....In all the spirit, or apparition, appeared at least twenty or more times." 

We read this about the second appearance of the apparition:

"The following morning the figure was seated on the side of the bed when he awoke, just as it had been on the preceding morning. Convinced now that he was facing a disembodied spirit and not a figment of the imagination, he concentrated all his faculties on the voice and words of his visitor. The voice was unmistakably that of his departed wife. She spoke just as she had done while alive....She spoke with the same knowledge of his affairs, the same intimacy, and the same deep personal interest in his work."

We next read this account of the wife's apparition engaging in long conversations with Conwell:

The conversations were apparently about earthly matters, and Conwell says in the newspaper account that he regrets not asking more questions about life after death. 

Next we read of a remarkable test. Conwell's maid hid a pen in the house, in a spot Conwell was not aware of. Apparently asked to indicate where the hidden pen was, the apparition reportedly indicated the correct spot where the pen was hid:

After this experimental triumph, the apparition was never seen again. Conwell states in the article that the events happened four years earlier. 

A web page at Temple University says this:

"Temple's first president, Russell Conwell, was pastor of Grace Baptist Church and founder of Temple College. The temporary Board of Trustees elected him president of the faculty October 14, 1887, and he served until December 6, 1925, the date of his death."

Another page at Temple University make it clear that Conwell was the founder of Temple University, which started out as Temple College.  We can understand why he might have wanted to keep quiet about this series of apparition sightings. In academia there is a taboo against making reports of apparitions, and in many parts of academia there is also a taboo against seriously and fairly studying such accounts in a thorough and scholarly way. Moreover, members of the Baptist congregation at this time typically did not believe that the souls of the deceased survived, but believed instead that the dead are silent and unconscious, awaiting a physical resurrection that will occur in the Last Days. 

All in all, the account must stand as one of the most powerful pieces of evidence against the hallucination theory of apparitions. We have an extremely credible and prestigious person not just claiming to see one time an apparition of his wife, but claiming to see such an apparition 20+ times. In almost all of these cases extensive conversations seem to be occurring. The witness reporting this was a high-functioning and very prestigious member of society, who we can safely assume was not psychotic while these events occurred. The successful test with the hidden pen (with a location unknown to Conwell) is some nice "icing on the cake." 

Russel H. Conwell was so weighty and accomplished a figure that in 1926 (a year after his death) there appeared a 474-page biography of his life, which you can read for free using the link here. The biographer seems to have never read the newspaper account mentioned above (or seems to have made no mention of Conwell's apparition experiences).

Below is a photo of Conwell's wife Sarah, who died in 1910. If you believe Conwell's account, we should regard her as being one of the most talkative ghosts in the history of ghosts. 

Cromwell is not the only respected academic figure and reverend to report seeing an apparition, and to report having a long conversation with an apparition. The newspaper account below refers to two  apparition sightings claimed by the Reverend Isaac K. Funk, who is the same Funk in the famous Funk and Wagnall's dictionary. He claims to have seen the ghost of the famous preacher Henry Ward Beecher, and to have also had long conversations with an unidentified apparition: 

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025294/1903-04-04/ed-1/seq-6/

Funk was the author of the long very interesting account of paranormal experience entitled "The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena," which can read online for free using the link here. 

Apparently quite a few people claimed to have seen the ghost of Henry Ward Beecher, the same figure who Funk said he saw as an apparition.