They Said They Saw a Relative's Ghost or Materialization

In the newspaper article here, we read of a woman testifying in court that she saw the speaking apparition of her dead father:

Parents normally die before their sons or daughters, so cases of someone claiming to see the ghost of a son or daughter are much less common that cases of an offspring claiming to see the ghost of a parent. But there are quite a few cases to be found of parents reporting an apparition of their sons or daughters.  Below is one, from page 693 of the November 3, 1933 edition of the journal Light, which can be read here.  The narrator is Shirley Eshelby. 

"My son, who passed over on 12th July, 1933, after an operation for appendicitis, has visited me four times. I have seen him three times, and he has spoken to me in direct voice once. (I cannot see and hear [him] at the same time.) 

The first time he appeared was on 16th July, the day after he was buried, the fourth day after his death, at 7.15 in the morning. When I opened my eyes I saw a cloud over my bed filled with vibrating specks. As I watched it, the specks moved faster and faster until they looked like a spinning coil of wire which gradually became smaller until there was nothing left, but in the place where the ' spinning coil'   had diminished into nothing, the face of my son gradually appeared. The forehead and eyes came first, and then the rest of the face appeared. At first the eyes looked abnormally large and bulged a good deal, but they immediately became normal when the face was completely formed. He looked rather pale but strong and well. After a few seconds he vanished. 

He came again on 6th September and seemed to have less difficulty in 'getting through.' The cloud was there again, but the vibrating specks did not form into a 'spinning coil'  like wire, they simply darted about in the cloud for a second until the face was completely formed and perfect. His third visit was on 30th September. This time he had no difficulty in getting through. There was no cloud and no specks ; he was simply there, and then not there. Each time he came he looked more manly and stronger. 

At the time of his death he was very slim and rather over-grown looking, hut when he appeared the third time he had completely lost the overgrown look and had developed into a fine, strong, well-built man. A few days later he spoke to me in direct voice. This was his fourth visit. I could not see him, but could hear his voice, which was slightly raised so that I could hear every word clearly (I am rather deaf). He spoke right into my ear."

Then there are the cases of parents who report a materialization of a deceased relative. In such a case the witness may report being right in front of a form as solid and lifelike as a regular living human. Here is one such account written by E. G. Pierce of Fort Wayne, Indiana (USA), and appearing on page 132 of the document here. 

"In another seance my daughter materialized in the centre of a large room, not two feet from me and my wife, where the gas light was strong enough to distinguish anyone in the room. Starting with a small white spot upon the floor, slowly ascending like a column of mist to the proper height, the body consolidated itself, and I saw every feature of the face form as plainly as I could wish. When she spoke she told me what no one in the room knew but ourselves. She passed from me to my wife, through the strong gaslight, about four feet, several times. I had her in my arms ; she was as material as I. When she said she would have to go, I grasped her hand, determined that nothing material should escape me. She began to dematerialize, and as I bent forward toward the floor, still holding her hand, with a smile she disappeared through the floor, and my hand was empty."

The account below is told by a noted author, and can be read on page 3 of the document here. The author claims to have seen materializations of three of his relatives at a time when his mother was near death. 

Some of the most convincing evidence for the paranormal is evidence reported by those who have no sympathy for accounts of the paranormal. An example of such evidence appears on page 174 of Volume 41, Issue 242 of the Cornhill Magazine (1916), which you can read here. The very respectable author is Sir Laurence Gomme. He reports going to a seance not long after his father died. Gomme reports being unimpressed by what he saw. But upon returning home, his wife and other relatives reported seeing the apparition of his father, at the very hour the seance occurred. Here is the full account:

"About this time I was being pressed by an official friend to attend a meeting at his house, for the purpose of taking part in a spirit rapping ceremony, but had always declined, because I did not believe in the phenomenon. However he particularly pressed me to come on account of my father’s recent death, saying I should be certain to learn something. Perhaps my nerves had been worn by recent events. In any case I consented to come, and I remember wearing my father’s watch chain and seal for the first time, to attune me to the atmosphere. I told no one at my house that I was going for this particular purpose. They thought I was simply going out to dinner in the ordinary way. My object in this silence was obvious. It was not to disturb the minds of those at home.

On arrival at my friend’s house we had dinner and then adjourned to the drawing-room. The whole company sat round a largish table holding hands. Several members of the company described certain experiences and conducted conversations with spirit manifestations. But I was absolutely unmoved and looked upon the whole thing as unreal and made up. I left the house angry with myself for giving way to such nonsense.

Reaching home, not very late, I let myself in with my latch-key, and was immediately met by my wife, my mother and sisters having retired, who was strongly agitated and troubled. The explanation was that about ten o’clock she was working in the library as usual, and looking up from her seat she saw the form of my father seated in his usual way in his old chair. And ten o’clock was the time when I, an unbeliever in spirit manifestations, had been seated at the round table gathering of spirit believers. The coincidence is remarkable, and I have ever since been deeply impressed by it, but it has not made me a believer in spirit manifestations."

We have here an example of the incredible stubbornness of skeptics. Sir Laurence reports that at the very hour he was attending what was apparently the only seance he ever attended, his wife reported seeing the apparition of her father-in-law, Sir Laurence's dead father. But this does not convince our skeptic to become "a believer in spirit manifestations." I would imagine that nothing he could ever see would have. 

The 1875 newspaper account below by Isaac Kelso is one of very many accounts of materializations witnessed at a seance. The author uses the term "apparitions" for what he saw. But since he reports an event of the cutting off a lock of hair from one of these apparitions, it seems more appropriate to use the term "materialization" for what is reported -- or perhaps the term "materialized apparition."  We read an account of a type of wonder I cannot recall reported elsewhere. The account says a lock of hair was cut from an apparition. Later the lock of hair reportedly floats up to rejoin the apparition's hair, at the exact point where it was cut. 

You can read the account here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=q78yAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=apparition&article_id=3540,2537826#v=onepage&q=apparition&f=false

The case of the apparition of James L. Chaffin appearing to his son is one of the best documented cases of an apparition appearing long after death. The case was first documented on page 517 in Part 103 of Volume 36 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 1928, in the November 1927 article "CASE OF THE WILL OF MR. JAMES L. CHAFFIN," which can be read on page 517 of the document here.  The facts and narratives were all entered as testimony in a legal case. 

James L. Chaffin had four sons, and on November 16, 1905 made a will in front of two witnesses, giving his farm to his third son, Marshall, with his widow and other three sons getting nothing. On the 16th of January, 1919 James L. Chaffin made a new will, dividing his property up equally to his four sons, with instructions that his widow be taken care of.  The new will said that it was written "after reading the 27th chapter of Genesis."  James L. Chaffin told no one about the second will, which was placed in an old Bible of his father's. But James did put instructions sewed up in the lining of an overcoat, instructions telling where the second will could be found. James L. Chaffin died on September 7, 1921.  His son Marshall was granted possession of the farm on the basis of the first will, the second will being unknown to the wife or children.

One of the sons of James L. Chaffin (a son named James Pinkney Chaffin) gave this testimony in court about seeing an apparition of his father about four years after the father's death:

"Some time later, I think it was the latter part of June, 1925, he appeared at my bedside again, dressed as I had often seen him dressed in life, wearing a black overcoat which I knew to be his own coat. This time my father's spirit spoke to me, he took hold of his overcoat this way and pulled it back and said, ' You will find my will m my overcoat pocket,' and then disappeared."

James Pinkney Chaffin retrieved the coat from a brother twenty miles away, to whom the coat had been given. Inside the coat (sewed up in its lining) was a piece of paper in the handwriting of James L. Chaffin stating, "Read the 27th chapter of Genesis in my daddie's old Bible."  Accompanied by some witnesses, James Pinkney Chaffin retrieved the old Bible, in which was found (in a spot matching the 27th Chapter of Genesis) the second will of James L. Chaffin. James Pinkney Chaffin filed a court case, giving the testimony above, and demanding that the second will be declared as the valid will. In the middle of the case the opposition to this claim was dropped, and a jury found that the second will (the one found in the Bible, apparently found with the help of an apparition) was the valid will of James L. Chaffin.  The case stands as one of the best-documented cases of an apparition appearing long after someone died. 

The account is told in the 1930's newspaper story below, which draws upon the 1927 account on page 517 here. 

Below is a newspaper account from 1889:

At the link here you can read a newspaper account entitled "Ghost Tells Her." We read of a woman swearing under oath to have seen an apparition of her dead mother:

"Mrs. Lillian Higgins, the mother, startled the court by announcing that her dead mother's spirit came to her and told her of the boy's whipping. "It was half past eleven on the Wednesday night after Raymond was whipped that, as I lay awake on my bed, that my dead mother came to me and held up a card on which was
written: 'See what they have done to my boy's legs,' and when I asked who, the words "Ethel Barker' appeared on the card."

The article here from the Chicago Tribune has the arresting headline "Court Took Ghost's Word." We read of a man reporting the apparition of his brother. The latter part of the article is hard to read (being old print). But it seems that some authority found the testimony convincing. 

If the topic of this post interested you, you may want to check out my free 435-page book "Spookiest Years," now available on www.archive.org using the link here. The book discusses phenomena such as spiritual manifestations, seance phenomena, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, apparition sightings, materialization reports, deathbed visions and precognitive visions.  Using the native www.archive.org file viewer in single-page mode,  you can conveniently read the whole book by finger swiping. Scholars who are interested in following the links may prefer to download the book as a PDF file, which will allow opening links by right-clicking on a link. 

The online book includes my account of spooky events in the year 1874.  I thought that post had "touched all the bases" regarding spooky reports in that year, but apparently in that year there were many more reports of spooky events that my post did not mention.  For example, a Chicago Daily Tribune article from 1874 discusses the following: