It is well-known that the dying often report apparitions of deceased relatives. Such events are generally referred to as deathbed visions, and are discussed in my series of posts here. What is less well-known is that healthy observers at a deathbed may report seeing spooky phenomena such as a strange light or the room having a strange glow or a strange mist or a spooky cloud being seen. The healthy deathbed observer may even report seeing an apparition at the time of death. My previous post discussed some cases of such phenomena. Let us now look at some more.
The following quotation is from page 134 of the book The Sacred Book of Death, which you can read here.
"Another Hindu girl, watching with her mother by the deathbed of a dying and dearly beloved sister, says, when the end came, she distinctly saw a delicate mist rising from the dead body. When they asked the priest about it he said: 'You saw life departing visibly from the physical form.' This was at Benares, India. How many times have persons been present at the beside of a dying friend. The eyes closed, the last breath ceased and they thought their friend was dead. Suddenly the eyes opened; light came back to them; then a look of surprise, admiration, inexpressible; then it passed away. This phenomenon, or the passing of soul, can be witnessed at the deathbed by any one who can properly induce the condition which is commonly called clairvoyance, or, in other words, by the withdrawal of all the attention from other objects and affairs and the concentration of thought and sympathy, as well as sight, on your dying loved ones and friends. You can then clearly see the separation of the spiritual body from the dying physical form, as clairvoyance is finer and farther reaching than the sight of your dull physical eyes."
The book From Matter to Spirit (which you can read here) was published in 1863 under a pen name of C.D., with a long preface written by a person using a pen name of A.B. The author was Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan, the wife of the leading mathematician Augustus De Morgan, who was the A.B. who wrote the long preface of the book (a preface considered a classic of evidential analysis when dealing with the mysterious or unexplained). On page 128 the author quotes this account from a healthy witness who seemed to see an apparition at the time of a child's death:
"When I was sixteen years old, I was nursing a child of seven who had been ill since his birth with disease of the head. He had been for some days expected to die, but was quite sensible. About noon I left him in a little back parlour on the ground floor. His mother and a friend were with him. I was returning from the kitchen to the child, and had just reached the top of the staircase, when I saw, coming from the door of the room, the form of a little child. It did not step on the ground, but immediately went up over the staircase and disappeared from me. The bed on which the sick child had been lying was close to the door of the room, and that door was not more than about a foot from the top of the staircase which I came up. As I entered the room, his mother said, ' He is just gone.' The figure that I saw was a little child, fair and fresh-looking, and perfectly healthy. It looked fatter and younger than the little sick boy, and had a very animated, happy expression. It was like a living child, only so light."
On page 128 we have this account by the author (Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan):
"I was myself once standing with a person who had sometimes the gift of spiritual vision beside a bed on which lay one whose life was departing. The breathing was ceasing slowly when I noticed a thin white mist which seemed to rise two or three inches above the bed. My companion appeared also to be looking at something. Her eyes, which always had a strange glitter when they encountered any object unseen by others, were raised gradually from the recumbent form to the top of the bed ; then, returning, seemed to rest half-way between, gazing, as far as I could see, on vacancy. This earnest gaze lasted more than a minute. I looked at her enquiringly, but she did not speak. She told me a few minutes after what she had seen, thus : ' I was looking at a mist which seemed to be rising from the bed, and which I have noticed some time, when my attention was drawn upwards, and I saw a pillar of light, between sunshine and moonlight, rising three or four feet. Within this was a still brighter light, becoming more brilliant at the centre ; and from the centre to the circumference, from within outwards, it was all working together with intense rapidity. I saw it once again, but slightly afterwards, just as the last breath was drawn. It seemed then to pass off by the top of the bed.' The seer has been a trusted friend of my own for many years ; her character for truthfulness is quite above suspicion."
"One night, or rather towards morning, the poor girl awoke suddenly and saw a strong light rising to some height above the sick woman, from whom it seemed to emanate. It passed away in an upward direction, and disappeared. The girl in great terror called out to her mother, but received no answer. She then ran to a friend (a confidential servant of my informant), and told her what she had seen. Her friend returned to the cottage, where they found the mother quite dead. The late Miss W , well known at one time in the mesmerising world, told me that she once nursed an uncle through his last illness. As he died, a very small bright cloud, appearing to come from the nostrils, passed away, and rising while she watched it, disappeared by the ceiling."
The account below appears on page 21 of an edition of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, the January 1921 edition you can read here,
"A case reported by M. Belbeder of the 6th Colonial regiment
is similar. Having a few day’s holiday he spent them in the
country at the house of one of his friends, near Riberac (Dordogne). He had been in bed for about half an hour, and had just read his paper, and put out his candle, when, at the corner of the mantelpiece which was opposite the bed, he saw a white and transparent mist gradually detach itself, advance toward the bed and bend over him. Belbeder states that he clearly heard it say: 'Always be a friend to my son.’ The misty form then retired slowly as it came. ' I clearly recognized' adds the soldier, 'the mother of one of my best friends, whom I had left in the best of health. When I returned home, I was very surprised to learn that she had died just on the day when I saw the apparition, an hour or two before it approached my bed. I did not go to sleep until after I saw this.' "
On page 154 of the document here, we read this: "Others have described, in similar terms, how they saw a faint violet mist rise from the dying body, gradually condensing into a figure which was the counterpart of the expiring person, and attached to that person by a glistening thread."
Below is an excerpt from pages 184 to 185 of The Problems of Psychical Research by Hereward Carrington.
"Dr. Baraduc had prepared a camera beside the bed of his wife, and, at the moment of her death, photographed the body, and shortly after developed the plate. Upon it were found three luminous globes resting a few inches above the body. These gradually condensed and became more brilliant. Streaks of light, like fine threads, were also seen darting hither and thither. A quarter of an hour after the death of his wife, Dr. Baraduc took another photograph. Fluidic cords were seen to have developed, partly encircling these globes of light. At three o’clock in the afternoon, or an hour after her death, another photograph was taken. It will be seen from this photograph that the three globes of light have condensed and coalesced into one, obscuring the head of Madame Baraduc, and developing towards the right. Cords were formed in the shape of a figure eight, closed at the top, and opened at the point nearest the body. Thus, as the globe develops in one direction, the cords seem to become more tense, and pull in the opposite direction. The separation becomes more and more complete, until finally, three and a half hours after death, a well-formed globe rested above the body, apparently held together by the encircling, luminous cords, which seemed also to guide and control it. At this moment, the globe becomes separated from the body, and, guided by the cords, floats into Dr. Baraduc’s bedroom. He speaks to the globe intensely; the globe thereupon approaches him, and he feels an icy cold breeze, which seems to surround and issue from the ball of light. It then floats away and disappears.
Frequently, within the next few days after these experiments, Dr. Baraduc saw similar globes in various parts of the house. By means of automatic writing, obtained through the hand of a non-professional psychic, he succeeded at last in establishing communication with this luminous ball, and was informed that it was the encasement of Madame Baraduc’s soul, which was still active and alive within it!"
The photos referred to can be seen below and on the page
here.
On the 68th page of the document here, showing page 182 on the printed page, we have an account from the March 25, 1922 edition of the publication Light. The account is pretty good from an evidence standpoint. It is an account of what was seen two months earlier. The author (Dorothy Monk) is named, and she tells us that there were eight witnesses of one of the reported anomalies (a spooky mist at a deathbed). We read this account by the author of seeing her mother's death.
"About seven o’clock that evening mother’s lips parted and from that time we gradually saw a thick white mist collect above her head and spread across the head of the bed. It came from the top of her head, but collected more thickly to the opposite side of the bed to which she was lying. It hung like a cloud of white steam, sometimes so thick we could scarcely see the bed rails, but continually it was varying although it moved so slowly as to be scarcely perceptible. I and my five sisters were still with her all saw it distinctly, also my brother and one brother-in-law. The blue lights continued about the room, also tiny flashes of yellow, like sparks, appeared sometimes. All this time mother’s lower jaw gradually fell a little. For some hours we saw little difference except that a halo of pale yellow light rays came round her head; there were about seven in number; they varied in length from twelve to twenty inches at different times. By midnight every-thing had cleared off, but she did not die until 7.17 on the morning of January 2nd."
On page 42 of Sylvan Muldoon's The Case for Astral Projection, he states this:
"In this connection I might mention at this juncture that only a few weeks ago an orthodox Methodist minister of irreproachable character, who has been well known in my neighborhood for years, confided in me that while at the bedside of a dying friend, early this spring, he saw a cloudlike light rise up out of the body of his friend just as the latter expired. The light, he stated, floated up into the air and disappeared."
On pages 85-87 of the document here, a Mrs. E. reports seeing a blue luminous mist in her room, one that scares her. She reports then seeing the eyes and brow of Mr. Rose. She then states this:
"That day Mr. Rose came to see me, and before telling
him anything of my experience, I asked him what he had been doing the night before. His answer was, 'I went to my room early and concentrated all my thoughts in trying to send my astral body here.' "
The account is corroborated on pages 87-88 of the document, in which Fred W. Rose states that on the corresponding night he had attempted to project his soul or spirit to Mrs. E. He states, "Having read of cases of spirit projection, I resolved, without mentioning the fact to any one, to endeavour
to send my astral body to Mrs. E." The reported event is not an example of a deathbed phenomenon, but it tends to partially corroborate accounts of spooky mists observed at a deathbed, under the hypothesis that at either death or deliberate "astral projection" there may occur an event in which a soul, spirit or "astral body" leaves the physical body, and is detected as a mist.
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