The Earliest Accounts of Out-of-Body Experiences (Part 2)

 In Part 1 of this two-part series I described the earliest accounts of out-of-body experiences, discussing account appearing between 1864 and 1911. Let us look at some more of the earliest accounts of out-of-body experiences, resuming the narrative from the early twentieth century. 

The image below shows the beginning of a much longer 1905 newspaper account you can read here. We have a very rare type of account of distinguished witnesses reporting they saw in the Parliament of London an apparition of a man (Sir Carne Rasch) who was sick and far away.  The witnesses include Sir Gilbert Parker and Sir Arthur Hayter. You could consider this an out-of-body experience involving Sir Carne Basch, alive at the time of the report. 

 

On the page here of the 1918 book Man Is a Spirit by J. A. Hill, we have an account of an out-of-body experience.  It is a second-hand account, but since many similar accounts have been collected since then, and since reports like this were all but unheard of in 1918, we have a strong reason for thinking the account is accurate. We read this:

"Some years ago I became acquainted with a stalwart ex-soldier of our Civil War. He was an artilleryman, and was sitting on the ammunition chest of his gun when it was hit by a shell from the enemy's guns and exploded. The man was thrown into the air and his body fell to the ground. He said that he was up in the air, looking down at his own body which lay upon the ground at some distance from him. He seemed to be yet connected with the body by a slender cord of a clear silvery appearance, and, while he looked on, two surgeons came by, and after looking at the body remarked that he was dead. One of the medicos took hold of an arm and turned the body on its side, and remarked that he was dead; and they both passed on and left him. Soon after the stretcher-bearers came along and found there was life in the corpse, and carried him to the rear.

After the turning of the body, he said, 'I came down that silver cord and returned to the old body and reanimated it, although my body was blind as a bat and my right arm was torn from my shoulder'; and he showed me on his face and chest forty-eight scars caused by the bursting shell. This man was living at St. Petersburg, Flo., and I think is yet living."  -- G. B. Crabbe.

On page 69 of the same 1918 book, we read this first-hand account by Beryl Hinton:

"I want also to tell you of my one and only psychical experience. Years ago, when only seventeen, I was, in Calcutta, put under chloroform to have a number of teeth out. I presently felt I, myself, was in space above my body, round which were the doctors, dentists, and my mother, and I remember wondering why I was not being judged, since I was obviously dead. I had been brought up as a strict Roman Catholic and taught that individual judgment followed death. I had never read any psychical books or experiences. I was afterwards told that my condition caused alarm, as I would not come back to consciousness. I've never forgotten that dream (?) and, when put under chloroform in September for my very serious operation, was anxious to see if anything of the same sort happened again. But it did not. I had no dream, and this time took the chloroform well. So it does look as if the soul had lifted from the body that long-ago time."

Later she says this, recalling the same experience:

"There was I, above my body, around which were gathered the people present. I could not talk to them, and I remember so distinctly wondering, 'If I am dead, how is it I am not being judged?' That I was out of the body I do not doubt. I am told they had some difficulty in restoring me to consciousness. In the long years that have passed since that experience, when doubts as to the future have assailed me, it has gone farther in my own mind to prove survival than all the books on faith I had read."

On pages 71-72 of the same 1918 book, we have an account by John Huntley:

"About five years ago I woke from sleep to find 'myself' clean out of the body, as the kernel of a nut comes out of its shell. I was conscious in two places — in a feeble degree, in the body which was lying in bed on its left side; and to a far greater degree, away from the body (far away, it seemed), surrounded by white opaque light, and in a state of absolute happiness and security (a curious expression, but one which best conveys the feeling).

The whole of my personality lay 'out there,' even to the replica of the body — which, like the body, lay also on its left side. I was not conscious of leaving the body, but woke up out of it. It was not a dream, for the consciousness was an enhanced one, as superior to the ordinary waking state as that is to the dream state. Indeed, I thought to myself, 'This cannot be a dream,' so I willed 'out there' (there was no volition in the body), and as my spirit self moved so the body moved in bed."

Doing an experiment involving what he described as "illusions of levitation,"  an experimenter in 1918 may have produced evidence for out-of-body experiences. His research is described in a later book:

"I cannot do better than summarize the interesting articles of Mr. Lydiard H. Horton, which appeared in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (April, 1918 ; June, 1918 ; August, 1919), in which he attempted to prove this fact — that such illusions of levitation may be so produced — even without sleep ! He induced a number of experimental subjects to lie upon a bed or couch, and relax completely. Upon the degree of relaxation thus attained depends the success of the experiment. If the patient can induce this complete relaxation of the muscular system without falling asleep, he will often experience an 'illusion of levitation.' ' Out of the thirty subjects who relaxed completely, and of the twenty or so who retained consciousness after they had completely relaxed, eight of them reported illusions of levitation.'  The following are typical experiences of this nature :

“ One of them jumped out of the chair and was afraid to continue the experiment, so realistic was his apperception of a soaring motion.

" Another, this time a woman, gripped the chair in the momentary belief that she was floating away ; two others reported that they felt ‘ caught up ’ by a wave, but that their reason reassured them at the time.

" One other...reported himself ‘ just floating away,’ the sensation being overwhelmingly real. ...”

On page 46 of the February 8, 1919 edition of the periodical Light, which can be read here,  we hear an account by Captain Gilbert Nobbs of getting a severe head injury during World War I. He says, "I seemed for a moment somewhere in the emptiness looking down at my body lying in the shell-hole."

The 1919 book "Modern Psychical Phenomena" by Hereward Carrington had a Chapter IX entitled "Projection of the 'Astral Body' " that you can read here.  The chapter begins like this:

"One of the latest achievements of 'psychical science' — which is constantly making new and important discoveries — is the voluntary projection of the 'astral body' of man — the expulsion of the human 'double' or etheric counterpart of the physical body — by methods under control of the human will. Occult science has long since proved that — besides this physical body, which we know — there is also a more subtle and refined envelope — the 'spiritual body' of St. Paul — and that this body is capable of being detached, at times, and of being ' projected' — leaving the physical body entranced, while the subtle body journeys and makes itself manifest to others at considerable distance."

On the page here of the Carrington book we have a sketch showing the idea of astral projection, one that shows the "silver cord" reputed to connect the astral body and the regular physical body. 

The chapter has some interesting instructions on how a person can attempt to perform a voluntary out-of-body experience. But we have no testimonies by people who claim to have performed such experiences. A 1920 work by Carrington ("Higher Psychical Development") has a chapter entitled "Projection of the Astral Body." On page 282 Carrington makes this remarkable claim: "It is estimated that about 15,000 persons now living 'see' more or less on the astral plane; and that about fifty persons can consciously go out into that plane at will." The reference to going out into the astral plane is a claim of willful out-of-body experiences. 

The 1923 newspaper article here attempts to summarize a long book by M. Pierre-Emile Cornillier, one entitled "The Survival of the Soul and Its Evolution After Death." I have been unable to find the book on sites such as www.archive.org. The article makes it sound as if the author had out-of-body experiences. 

In 1925 a very long French work appeared on out-of-body experiences, one by Charles Lancelin entitled "Méthode de dédoublement personnel : extérioration de la neuricité, sorties en astral," which translates as "Method of personal doubling: exteriorization of neuritis, astral projections."  (The book is listed on www.archive.org with a publication date of 1925, although it may have been published earlier.)  At its end on page 504 we have the photo below, which has a French caption, which translates as follows: "Miss B's splitting following a serious cholera-anaemia condition lasting three years." The author apparently is claiming to have a photo capturing an "astral body" projected during an out-of-body experience. As I don't read French, I cannot say much about the credibility of this author or whether the photo should be taken seriously. 

The next major account of out-of-body experiences occurred in the 1929 book "The Projection of the Astral Body" by Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington, which you can read online here. Muldoon begins his account like this:

"When my first out-of-the-body experiences occurred I was but twelve — so young and immature in mind that I did not realize their magnitude. The occurrences came about involuntarily and repeated themselves frequently, until I became so accustomed to them that, as a matter of fact, I soon regarded them as nothing extraordinary and seldom mentioned them even to members of my own family, to say nothing of keeping a record of them, although I had been urged to do so by many interested persons.

I had been told, by persons professing to know, that conscious projection of the astral body was nothing unusual, and that many psychics could produce it at will. I, too, wanted to be able to produce it at will, and I admit that I was envious of those who (I had heard) could do so. So I began a search for some one who could produce the phenomenon voluntarily. But my search proved fruitless, and eventually I concluded that I could not find that 'some one.'  Thus I began to experiment with the phenomenon myself, and in this book you will find the results of my experiments."

The term "projection of the astral body" that Muldoon uses is a term equivalent to "out-of-body experience," although the term "projection of the astral body" has more of a connotation of something that happen from willful effort.  The term "projection of the astral body" also is a more dogmatic term, as it involves the doctrine that there is such a thing as an "astral body," a term that is pretty much equivalent to "spirit body." 

On this page the co-author Carrrington explains the term:

" The Astral Body may be defined as the Double, or the ethereal counterpart of the physical body, which it resembles and with which it normally coincides. It is thought to be composed of some semi-fluidic or subtle form of matter, invisible to the physical eye. It has, in the past, been spoken of as the etheric body, the mental body, the spiritual body, the desire body, the radiant body, the resurrection body, the double, the luminous body, the subtle body, the fluidic body, the shining body, the phantom, and by various other names. In recent Theosophical literature, distinctions have been made between these various bodies ; but for our present purposes we may ignore these distinctions, and speak of the 'Astral Body' as some more subtle form, distinct from the organic structure known to Western science, and studied by our physiologists.

The broad, general teaching is that every human being 'has' an astral body just as he has a heart, a brain and a liver. In fact, the astral body is more truly the Real Man than the physical body is, for the latter is merely a machine adapted to functioning upon the physical plane. But it must not be thought that the astral body is held to be the Soul of man either. That is a mistake often made. It is said to be the vehicle of the Soul — just as truly as the physical body is a vehicle — and constitutes one of the essential connecting links between mind and matter."

The idea may seem less fantastic when you consider that the modern astrophysicist claims that a spiral galaxy has essentially two bodies or forms: a visible body or form of regular matter, and an invisible body or form consisting of dark matter. 

On the page here Carrington argues for the plausibility of Muldoon's accounts of out-of-body experiences:

"I should like to draw the reader’s attention particularly to the fact that no wild or preposterous claims are anywhere made in this book as to what has been accomplished during these 'astral trips.'  Mr. Muldoon does not claim to have visited any distant planets — and return to tell us in detail their modes of life ; he does not claim to have explored any vast and beautiful 'spirit worlds' ; he does not pretend to have penetrated the past or the future ; to have re-lived any of his past 'incarnations' ; to have read any ' Akashic Records' ; to have travelled back along the stream of time, and reviewed the history of mankind, or the geologic eras of our earth. He asserts, merely, that he has been enabled to leave his physical body at will, and travel about in the present, in his immediate vicinity, in some vehicle or other, while fully conscious. This is perfectly rational, and is precisely what we should expect, on the theory that these 'trips' are actual experiences. "

On pages 116-117 of a 1936 book Sylvan Muldoon describes his first out-of-body experience:

"Slowly ...I was moving toward the ceiling, all the while lying horizontal and powerless. Naturally I believed that this was my physical body as I had always known it, but that it had mysteriously begun to defy gravity...Involuntarily, at about six feet above the bed, as if the movement had been conducted by an invisible intelligent force, present in the very air, I was uprighted from the horizontal position, to the perpendicular, and placed standing upon the floor of the room... where I remained for two or three minutes, still unable to move of my own accord... I managed to turn around. There were two of me! In the name of common sense — there were two of me! There was another 'me' lying quietly upon the bed. It was difficult to conceive of this being real — but there I was, fully conscious, fully able to reason and know what I saw was actual. The next thing which caught my eye, explained the curious sensation in the back of my head — for my two identical bodies were joined by means of an elastic-like cord, one end of which was fastened to the medulla oblongata region of my phantom counterpart, while the other end centered between the eyes of my physical counterpart. This cord extended across the space of probably six feet which separated us."

Muldoon's 1929 book includes this illustration depicting the idea of an astral body floating outside of a physical body, with the two connected by an elastic-like cord. 

Quite a few examples of people reporting the existence of such an elastic-like cord can be read in my post here. The author of a 2023 PhD dissertation ("Investigating the Nature and Psychological Impact of Out-of-Body Experiences") performed an online survey of 213 people who claimed to have had an out-of-body experience (page 156).  He states that 11% reported "seeing a ray of light, cord, ribbon, or rope connecting the nonphysical self to the physical self" (page 450).

Bozzano's Pioneering Study of Out-of-Body Experiences

Out-of-body experiences became a well-known topic once the topic of near-death experiences became well-known in the 1970's, largely due to Raymond Moody's best-selling book on the topic (Life After Life). But the study of out-of-body experiences dates from well before the 1970's. One of the first serious works on the topic was a 1937 book by the Italian researcher Ernest Bozzano, one entitled "Les Phénomènes De Bilocation" or "The Phenomenon of Bilocation."  The book has attracted little attention, both because it has never been translated into English (to the best of my knowledge), and because instead of using the well-known phrase "out-of-body experience" in its title the author used the rarely recognized word "bilocation" (meaning to be in two different places at the same time). 

An encyclopedia article on Bozzano (link)

Using Google Translate, I can translate the very interesting cases Bozzano cites, which are mainly cases that appeared in English publications. The book I have at www.archive.org is a French translation of an Italian work. As I wish to avoid whenever possible  using Google Translate to translate the French into English (which would often end up being a possibly unreliable affair of going from Italian to French to English), I will track down whenever possible the original English text of the papers Bozzano is referring to. Luckily this is possible because Bozzano was very good about citing his sources, and the www.iapsop.com site is very good about preserving such sources. 

The type of experiences Bozzano documented were largely the same as what are now called out-of-body experiences.  If you have an experience in which your soul or spirit seems to float out of your body, and goes away from your body, you can either call that an out-of-body experience or a case of bilocation (being in two places in the same time). 

Early on the Bozzano book cites the very interesting case below, which sounds more like a typical out-of-body experience. The case is found on page 288 of the July, 1894 edition of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which can be read here: 

"Whilst arguing with myself as to whether I was asleep or not, I suddenly seemed to divide into two distinct beings. The force that occasioned this was that which I have described above. One of these beings remained motionless on the sofa ; the other could move some little distance, and could actually look at the motionless body on the sofa. There existed between these two ' beings' an elastic force which prevented the one from severing its connection with the other. At will I could make the second ' being' lie on the floor, or move some distance about the room. As the distance between the two beings became greater, so did the elastic force seem to become more powerful. A limit was soon reached at which no effort of will could effect a further severance. This limit was about two yards. When this limit was reached, I could feel resistance to the separating efforts in both ' beings.'  During this time, as before, I retained perfect consciousness of what was happening in the room. De B. had returned. I saw and heard him come in ; he commenced to play the piano again, and H. was making wry faces at the music. After a great effort I managed to call H.'s name. He looked round and went on writing. Afterwards he gave as his reason for not answering that he thought I was ' fooling ' him. The dual condition continued for five minutes more. Then fusion seemed to set in. I resisted the feeling of fusion. It could be prevented at will. Eventually, with a curiosity to know 'what was going to happen next,' I allowed it to proceed. The two beings then rapidly united again. I tried to get into the dual condition again. This seemed to be prevented by the same force that ' inhibited ' me at first. I then began to think out a theory to account for all these sensations, and during this time the inhibiting force grew weaker and gradually disappeared. There was no sensation of waking, but simply a slow cessation of the conditions. The whole time I was actively engaged not only in theorising, but in recording events in the room, to see whether I observed them accurately or not. As it turned out, my observations had been minutely correct. I continued to remain in the same position on the sofa ; I was anxious to see 'if anything more was going to happen.' Nothing did happen, so in the course of ten minutes I got up and related my experiences to my friends. They were much amused, but very much inclined to doubt the whole affair. Their idea seemed to me to be that I had been all this time manufacturing something to tell them."

We have here an account that is entirely consistent with long-standing theories that each human has an "astral body" that is connected to the physical body by a seemingly elastic cord that is sometimes called "the silver cord."  Many similar accounts would later be collected by Robert Crookall, who was the main researcher of out-of-body experiences in the period between Bozzano's 1937 book and the rise of interest in out-of-body experiences occurring during the 1970's. In my post here I quote some very interesting passages from the works of Crookall, in which we hear of people describing such a "silver cord" or elastic band connecting a physical body and what has been called a spirit body or astral body. 

Bozzano then cites an account which can be found on page 34 of the January 17, 1903 edition of the periodical Light, which can be read here. The author is George Wyld MD.

"One day in the year 1874, as I took chloroform to relieve the intense agony I was suffering from the passage of a renal calculus, I suddenly lost all pain, and as suddenly saw my 'soul-form’ standing and contemplating my body as it lay motionless on the bed, about six or seven feet from where my ‘spirit-form’ stood. The revelation was only for a few seconds, but it was sufficient to convince me that I saw my soul-form outside the body. Shortly afterwards I called upon three medical men who were accustomed to administer anaesthetics, and they all said they had frequently heard their patients make the same remark as to their experiences as I had done. I also called at the Dental Hospital, and my experience was further confirmed, but the view there taken was that it was an illusion. But I knew it to be an experience, exactly such as happens in cases of drowning, when by manipulations the lungs are emptied of water, and the soul then returns to the body. If this be so, then we have in the use of anaesthetics a scientific means of proving the existence of the soul as an individuality external to the body, and the question that has engaged psychologists for thousands of years is solved ; and if so it is the most momentous discovery ever made. Impressed by these ideas I wrote to the editor of ‘ The Lancet ’ one day in 1895, and much to my surprise he replied that he would be happy to insert a paper from me on the subject, which he did, also drawing the attention of the profession to my views. Seeing that there are probably twenty thousand medical men who read ‘ The Lancet ’ ; and as perhaps not fewer than one thousand patients are placed under the influence of anaesthetics weekly in Great Britain, I expected to see an extensive correspondence in ‘ The Lancet’ on the subject; but, on the contrary, no serious notice was taken of the matter."

What Wyld encountered here is the senseless tendency of scientists and doctors to ignore important clues about nature which defy dogmas they were taught in school.  Such a tendency has been the most terrible impediment to the advance of science and knowledge. 

Bozzano then refers us to the article "Astral Excursions" by Franz Hartmann MD, which appears on page 159 of the March 1908 Occult Review, which can be read here. It begins with a third-hand account of an out-of-body experience, which I won't describe. Then Hartmann gives a first-hand account:

"To this I may be permitted to add a similar experience of my own which I had at Colombo (Ceylon) in 1884. I went with my friend B------ to a dentist, to have a tooth extracted. I took chloroform, and after getting under its influence I soon saw myself standing beside the dentist’s chair in which my body was lying. I appeared to myself just the same person as when in my normal state. I saw all the objects in the room, heard all that was spoken; but when I tried to lift one of the instruments on a little table next to the chair, I could not do so, as my fingers passed through it. Since then I have occasionally seen myself stepping out of my physical form, and this occurs in two ways; namely, if, while this separation takes place my consciousness is centred in the physical body, I see myself in the astral body standing before me at the side of my bed, and if my consciousness is centred in the astral body, I see my physical form lying in bed. I have never made consciously any astral excursions to distant places, but such experiences may be sufficient to convince one that man has an astral body capable of existing independently of the physical form, and to those who have experienced such things the doubts of those who have experienced nothing may appear quite as unworthy of consideration, as would the arguments of one who had never seen railways and were in consequence to deny their existence."

Next Bozzano quotes from an account that appeared on page 46 of the February 8, 1919 edition of the periodical Light, which can be read here. We hear an account by Captain Gilbert Nobbs of getting a severe head injury during World War I. A bullet passed out through his left eye, and he was permanently blinded. He gives this account of what happened:

"I hesitate to tell what followed. But as I am trying to record the sensations experienced at the time of receiving a head wound I will describe the next experience simply and leave the reader to form his own conclusions. 

 I was blind then as I am now : but the blackness which was then before me underwent a change. A voice from somewhere behind me said : ' This is death , will you come ?' Then gradually the blackness became more intense. A curtain seemed to be slowly falling ; there was space ; here was darkness blacker than my blindness ; everything was past. There was a peacefulness, a nothingness ; but a happiness indescribable . 

I seemed for a moment somewhere in the emptiness looking down at my body lying in the shell-hole, bleeding from the temple. I was dead, and that was my body ; but I was happy ! 

But the voice I had heard seemed to be waiting for answer. I seemed to exert myself by a frantic effort, like one in a dream  who is trying to awaken .  I said , ' No, not now ; I won't die .'  Then the curtain slowly lifted ; my body moved and I was moving it. I was alive ! There, my readers, I have told you , and I have hesitated to tell it before . More than that, I will tell you that I was not unconscious; neither did I lose consciousness until several minutes later , and then unconsciousness was quite rent.

I have told you how clear was my brain the moment I was hit, and I tell you also that after the sensation I have just related my brain was equally clear, as I will show you , until I became unconscious. Call it a hallucination , a trick of the brain , or what you will. I make no attempt to influence you...Whatever it was, I no longer feel there is any anxiety about death. Nor do I dread it." 

On pages 57-58 of the book we read that Mrs. Nathalie Annenkof wrote the following about two out-of-body experiences she had:

"You asked me to write down the two cases of 'exit from my body' that I told you about. I will try to do it as accurately as possible.   It is 4 years since the first case took place. I did not know then that it was possible, having no idea about such things. In the spring of 1926, on a very beautiful and warm day, I was sitting in the cemetery, on the edge of the grave of my little girl, whom I had just lost. I was depressed and sad, but in good health. I remember very well that while I was watching the bees gathering honey from the flowers I had just planted, I felt myself becoming light, then lighter and lighter physically and mentally. My first impression was that my legs and arms were no longer heavy, then my stomach, then my chest. And suddenly I found myself above and next to my body, which I saw sitting on the edge of the grave. I looked at my tired face. I even noticed that my coat was stained with dirt. And I had the sensation of hovering above my body in complete bliss. I had the sensation of a great and luminous joy of living, as if I were living a thousand lives at once, and of complete tranquility.

I could not move and did not feel the need to. But I could see, understand and feel an inner and happy life. My body looked like a rag, like an abandoned thing. I thought: 'This is death!' And yet I had the joy of living.

I saw the cemetery guard approach my body, touch it, feel it, call me and run away. He told me later that he had gone to call for an ambulance, and that my hands and face were starting to get cold.

When I saw him leave, I understood that he thought I was dead and suddenly I was seized with fear. 'This is death,' I thought. 'How will my husband live without me?'

But I felt so alive that I said to myself: 'I must get back into my body.' I tried to get back into it and was afraid of not being able to do so.

I began by feeling heaviness, then the pains, the little discomforts to which we are so accustomed that we no longer notice them. Then came the sadness and the desire to cry. I walked home.

Two weeks ago the same thing happened again. I was reading a cheerful book one evening in bed, laughing to myself...Suddenly, I had the impression of leaving myself, and I saw my body lying down, book in hand, while I felt myself in the air, very happy, with a feeling of inner life. I looked at my body, I found it good and I said to myself: 'It's a pity to die so young!'  I approached my lying body and tried to enter it. I immediately felt that it absorbed me, like a sheet of blotting paper, or like a sponge absorbs water.  My husband rang, I got up to open the door for him."

On page 63 of the book, we read an account by Joseph Costa:

"I had the clear and precise sensation of finding myself with my thinking 'self' alone, in the middle of the room, completely separated from the body, which continued to lie on the bed. I saw - if it is permissible to designate thus the sensation that I experienced - the things around me as if a radiation penetrated through the molecules of the objects on which my attention was fixed, as if matter had dissolved on contact with thought....I saw my body perfectly recognizable by its particularities, its profile, my figure, but also bundles of veins and nerves vibrating with a luminous tingling....My thinking 'me' was weightless, or, to put it better, without the impression of the force of gravity and the notion of volume or mass. I was no longer a body, since my body lay inert on the bed: I was like the tangible expression of a thought, of an abstraction, capable of transporting me to any place on earth, sea, or sky, faster than lightning, in the same instant that I would have formulated it at will, and without even the notion of time and space. If I said that I felt free, light, ethereal, I would only be expressing from afar the sensation that I felt in this moment of infinite liberation....I can assure the reader that until this moment, I had not read or heard of spiritualism: spiritualist theories, phenomena of bilocation, splitting of soul and body. Mediumistic experiences and spiritualist sessions were completely unknown to me. I can therefore absolutely exclude the hypothesis that for me it was simply a phenomenon of suggestion. Nor could it be a question of a dream, because of the enormous difference in the sensations remaining in the memory of the images provoked by a dream and those too dissimilar in their sensitive reception, which I had present to my mind at that moment. In fact, I did not encounter in this memory that nebulosity, that indistinct sensation between the chimerical and the reality that the impressions of a dream have. Because finally I never had such a vivid sensation of really existing as in the moment when I felt separated from my body."

Bozzano then cites the account on page 515 of the 1908 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, which can be read here. A woman describes an out-of-body experience that includes a life review.  On page 70 Bozzano quotes Eugenie Garcia as having an out-of-body experience, apparently while being hypnotized:

"I saw myself suddenly standing in the middle of the room where I had just been put to sleep; 'Look, it seems to me that I was sitting only a moment ago; so I got up without knowing it, let's see.'  I cast my eyes on myself: 'Look! I am luminous, transparent, light as a feather.'  Suddenly, I saw my body lying motionless in an armchair. Three or four people surrounded me, watching me attentively. What are they looking at me like that? Let's see. I come closer and look at myself too. doing like everyone else. I could clearly see the inside of my body, I could see the heart beating, the blood circulating, the networks....Then I looked around me, but, instead of meeting with my eyes an opaque and non-transparent surface as houses or movable objects usually are, I saw everything clear as glass. I saw my neighbors' people and apartments as if we lived in a crystal house."

The report of being able to see inside a human body was one quite a few times reported by people hypnotized during the nineteenth century. In the literature of the time, such an ability was sometimes described as lucidity, clairvoyance or clairvoyant lucidity.  As discussed here, clairvoyants such as Alexis Didier passed very many successful tests in which a similar ability was demonstrated, with Alexis many times identifying what was inside the contents of locked boxes and folded pages inside sealed heavy envelopes. 

Bozzano then cites the case below, found on page 40 of the January 22, 1932 edition of the periodical Light:

"DOCTOR'S OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCE 

An out-of-the-body experience which brought assurance of conscious life after death is related by Dr. Overend G. Rose, of 8 Roval Well Terrace, Cheltenham, in the first issue of the new and enlarged series of The Spiritualist, the organ of the Spiritualist Community, London, of which Mr. Ernest Hunt is now in editorial charge. Dr . Rose relates that, after being thrown from a horse and badly injured, he was ' picked up for dead ' by two men who witnessed the accident and five hours passed before he regained consciousness. 'Although I was insensible,' Dr. Rose writes, ' I could see my body lying there on the ground. I could see the men pick me up (heard them say I was dead) and carry me into the house. I was able to see the doctors trying to bring me ta, and all the time I was able to see myself lying there. I seemed to be floating in a summer sea. I cannot describe the sensation of peace and happiness and yet someone seemed to tell me I had to go back. And that is why I told the doctors I was not going to die.' Commenting on his experience, Dr. Rose writes : 'Now, the points I wish to make are-first, I had never seen the men who picked me up before and have never seen them since, as they were strangers to the district, just riding through. Yet I was able to describe them even to their clothes, and also their horses, which they had tied to the fence when they went to pick me up. Secondly, although I was totally unconscious, I was able to tell the doctors everything that had taken place, and what my injuries were. I am convinced that I was outside my body, yet I was able to see and hear. It makes me certain there is a life after death, which does not require a material body for us to be able to see and hear, and that we shall retain our personality.' " 

On page 79 Bozzano quotes an account of an out-of-body experience:

"I lay down on the bed and began to read. It was then that I was suddenly invaded by a wave of sleep which I could not resist. This upset me greatly, for I was reading Amiei's Journal, which interested me greatly, and I would have liked to continue. But it was all in vain, and I fell asleep suddenly. I immediately felt as if I had left my body. I turned over, and seeing my body curled up in an uncomfortable position, I wondered how one could fall asleep in such a posture. I had the idea of ​​leaving and I went into the corridor by going through the door, but this was evidently by force of habit, since I could just as well have gone through the wall, seeing that I did not open the door, but went through the wood. I did not move my feet, since to go to any place, I only had to desire it. Which did not prevent me from seeing myself in possession of legs, arms and body, and from feeling better than usual. There was no one in the corridor, except a negro who was polishing the floor. I confronted him, but he did not seem to see me. I understood that I must have become invisible, which increased my curiosity all the more. I then amused myself by passing in front of him, behind him, around him, brushing against him, but he never glanced at me. The thing amused me. But then I suddenly had the thought that if someone came to get me, and that my body should be awakened from its sleep while I was out of it, complications might result, probably not very pleasant. I immediately returned through the wood of the door and when I was near the bed, my body 'sucked' me imperiously, 'sheathing' me by the feet! It was fortunate that this idea came to my mind, because immediately there was a knock at the door and Mrs. Canfield, the landlady of the inn, came in and asked me permission to take my dressing gown."

On page 81 Bozzano quotes this account of an out-of-body experience:

"While I was ill in the great hospital of Pittsburgh, I was subjected to a serious operation. For the first time in my life, I had to be given an anesthetic. Scarcely had I begun to breathe it than I experienced a wonderful sensation of well-being and beatitude. But, to my great surprise, I found myself in the company of the doctor and the nurse, and in front of me, lying on the operating table, I saw my body inert and lifeless. I noted the surgical instruments and bottles placed next to it, and I even noticed that one nurse had her cap askew, which was rather comical.

I was led to look up and I saw coming towards me, through the ceiling, my dear grandmother, dead ten years ago. She approached me and took me by the hand, saying that I must hurry, because the time available was very short. We passed through the ceiling together, as easily as we would have passed through a smoke screen. We found ourselves outside, in a luminous atmosphere where my grandmother drew my attention to a landscape that was familiar to me, showing me where my home was, which emerged from magnificent trees. While I was ecstatic at this perspective, my grandmother exclaimed: 'We don't have time! Now we have to go back into your body!' And before I could even answer, I woke up in my bed and saw a nurse leaning anxiously over me.

This is what I have been able to report about my experience of out-of-body experience, which was for me a powerful revelation: If what happened to me must be repeated at the moment of death, then there is no point in fearing death."

When Apparitions Get Multiple Witnesses

Let us look at some cases of apparitions seen by more than one witness. 

Below is a report of several workers seeing an apparition of a worker (Herman Neitzell) who recently died at their work site:

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059523/1903-09-26/ed-1/seq-1/

Here is a newspaper account of an apparition seen by two different witnesses, both of which claimed to have seen the apparition of Fred F. Lange. There is a strange additional detail of 3 photos taken of Lange's corpse, which all come up blank. 

You can read the account here:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85059663/1914-04-18/ed-1/?sp=6&r=0.045,0.234,0.642,0.26,0

Here is another newspaper account of an apparition seen by two different witnesses:

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016810/1923-07-07/ed-1/seq-2/

Below we read of an apparition of a Colonel Brice. In the account a professor says he saw the apparition once, and that an associate saw the apparition three times. The professor says the apparition was transparent, and walked through the professor's bed.

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-11-10/ed-1/seq-48/

Below is a rather chilling story of multiple witnesses seeing an apparition, not just once but multiple times, apparently:

Below is an account of an apparition seen by six witnesses, including an ex-Congressman:

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89053684/1902-03-21/ed-1/seq-7/

Below is another case of an apparition reportedly seen by multiple witnesses:

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/1907-01-12/ed-1/seq-3/

Below we have a very dramatic account of an apparition witnessed by a very sick child's father and the child's stepmother. The apparition reportedly had an appearance matching that of the child's deceased mother. 

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91064011/1910-04-14/ed-1/seq-9/

Below is a quote from a scholarly article, in which the author quotes an account he heard on TV. The witness claims that he and five other people saw an apparition corresponding to a person who was at the time close to death. It's one of the rare cases of an apparition of the living, which tend to occur when the person matching the apparition is having a close brush with death. 

"In recently watching the Jonathan Ross show again on the 29th October, quite unexpectedly, another guest and poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, presented another experience for all to hear. Following asking about attitudes towards Halloween, Ross, already primed with information on his guests, asks Zephaniah, 'am I right in thinking that you had a sort of supernatural experience once?' Drifting into thought and recollection, he replied, 'Yes, I had a very, very weird experience, and interestingly y’know, a lot of these experiences happen in the night when there’s shadows y’know and stuff like that, but this happened in broad daylight. Me, and five other people, were in a house in Birmingham. We were waiting for cousin to come home. She walked in [through] the front door, through the front room, and out the backdoor. And we went to see her, and she wasn’t there.'  The other guests on Ross’s show clearly shocked with stunned reactions at this point. He continues, 'And we all saw her. Later on that day, we found out that she’d been hit by a car, died for about five minutes or whatever it is, and came back to life [Ross lets out a ‘wow’ with his eye fixated on Zephaniah], and it wasn’t just me, like I said there were five others who witnessed it… And I’m not really one of those people that believes in that stuff, I’m into science y’know, but I also understand that there is stuff that we can’t prove.' Ross remarks that normally he would dismiss that sort of thing, and yet, it was hard to with Zephaniah’s account as it sounds so convincing, especially as sober and level headed gentleman." 

In the 1914 news account below, we have quite a few prisoners in the same jail claiming to see the same apparition, an apparition of John F. Jones, who hanged himself in the same jail in 1896. We read of nine prisoners pleading guilty, and the article suggests that more than a dozen confessed because of the apparition, saying, "Investigations of the reasons brought out the story of the 'ghost' and also the remarkable fact that in the past ten years twenty murderers had made confessions of guilt urged on by the same cause." 

You can read the account here:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn99021999/1913-03-09/ed-1/?sp=21&r=-0.096,0.518,1.055,0.427,0

The account here is quite the "haunted house" account. There are many details of people seeing spooky things in the house. We hear that a Mr. and Mrs. Siegal several times saw a ghost walk through their living room. But the second-hand nature of the account means it is not first-class evidence of an apparition. 

On page 136 of the document here, we read that some paranormal investigators said they saw an apparition of a man holding a baby. 

In a previous post I briefly mentioned the case of Mary Goffe, writing only this:

"The case of Mary Goffe was one of the earliest reports of an apparition of a living person.  On her death bed in 1691, Mary Goffe claimed that she had seen her children who had been entrusted to the care of a nurse far away. She claimed 'I was with them last night, when I was asleep.'  The nurse swore that she saw Mary Goffe appear at two o'clock, and that she visited the children. The nurse said, 'If I ever saw her in all my life, I saw her on this night.' "

My discussion was rather lacking, in that it did not refer to the original source material, which should always be cited whenever possible.  I have since found the original version of this account. It is on page 147 of the book The Certainty of the World of Spirits, published in 1691. On page 147, and the next few pages, we have the original account, which occurs in the form of a letter written by Reverend Thomas Tilson, dated July 6, 1691. I would quote the whole account exactly as it appears in its original form, except that it would be hard to read in the original because of all the antiquated typography in which the letter "s" is printed as "f." 

But luckily the 1691 letter from Thomas Tilson  is quoted exactly in a 1929 facsimile in the January 12, 1929 edition of the journal Light. Here is the account as quoted in that edition, which matches the original text:

"Mary, the wife of John Goffe, of Rochester, being afflicted with a long illness, removed to her father’s house, at West Mulling, which is about nine miles distant from her own; there she died, June 4th, 1691. The day before her departure, she grew impatiently desirous to see her two children, whom she had left at home, to the care of a nurse. She prayed her husband to hire a horse, for she must go home, and die with her children. When they persuaded her to the contrary, telling her she was not fit to be taken out of her bed, nor able to sit on horseback, she entreated them however to try....The next day this dying woman told her mother, that she had been at home with her children. 'That is impossible'  said the mother, ' for you have been here in bed all the while.'  'Yes'  replied the other, 'but I was with them last night when I was asleep.' 

The nurse at Rochester, Widow Alexander by name, affirms and says, she will take her oath of it before a magistrate, and receive the sacrament upon it, that a little before two o’clock that morning, she saw the likeness of the said Mary Goffe come out of the next chamber (where the elder child lay in a bed by itself, the door being left open) and stood by her bed-side for about a quarter of an hour : the younger child was there lying by her; her eyes moved and her mouth went, but she said nothing. The nurse, moreover, says that she was perfectly awake; it was then day-light, being one of the longest days in the year. She sat up in her bed, and looked steadfastly upon the apparition; at that time she heard the bridge clock strike two, and awhile after said,  'In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, what art thou?'  Thereupon the appearance removed, and went away; she slipped on her clothes and followed, but what became of it she cannot tell. Then, and not before, she began to be grievously affrighted, and went out of doors and walked upon the wharf (the house is just by the riverside) for some hours, only going in now and then to look at the children. At five o’clock she went to a neighbour’s house, and knocked at the door, but they would not rise; at six she went again, then they arose and let her in. She related to them all that had passed; they would persuade her she was mistaken, or dreamt: but she confidently affirmed, ' If ever I saw her in all my life, I saw her this night.' One of those to whom she made the relation (Mary, the wife of J. Sweet) had a messenger who came from Mulling that forenoon, to let her know her neighbour Groffe was dying,-and desired to speak with her; she went over the same day, and found her just departing. The mother, amongst other discourse, related to her how much her daughter had longed to see her children and said she had seen them. This brought to Mrs. Sweet’s mind, what the nurse had told her that morning, for till then, she had not thought fit to mention it, but disguised it, rather as the woman’s disturbed imagination. 

The substance of this, I had related to me by John Carpenter, the father of the deceased, next day after the burial. July 2nd, I fully discoursed the matter with the nurse, and two neighbours, to whose house she went that morning. Two days after, 1 had it from the mother, the minister that was with her in the even, and the woman who sat up with her last that night: they all agree in the same story, and every one helps to strengthen the other’s testimony. They all appear to be sober intelligent persons, far enough off from designing to impose a cheat upon the world, or to manage a lie, and what temptation they should lie under for so doing, I cannot conceive." --

 Thomas Tilson. Minister of Aylesworth, near Maidstone in Kent, Aylesford, July 6, 1691

We have here high-quality evidence for the reality of this astonishing appearance of an apparition of a dying person. A very important fact is that the testimony has been written down within about a month after the claimed events, with the writer being someone who interviewed most of the relevant witnesses, including the nurse who claimed to see the apparition. According to the account, both the nurse and one of Mary Goffe's children saw the apparition, so we may classify this case as one of the cases of an apparition seen by more than one. 

A Google search for "Soyuz 7 angels" produces quite a few web pages claiming that astronauts on the Soyuz 7 mission of the Soviet Union in 1969 saw apparitions of angels or mysterious beings outside of their space station.  I have been unable to yet track down the original source of this account, or any firsthand testimony from any of these astronauts. So I don't know whether this claim is reliable. 

For other cases of apparitions seen by multiple witnesses, see my posts below:

When an Apparition Is Seen by Not Just One

When an Apparition Is Seen by Multiple Observers: 17 Cases

When an Apparition Is Seen by Multiple Observers: 17 More Cases
More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Observers
Many an Apparition Is Seen by More Than One
Still More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Observers

More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Witnesses

When Multiple Witnesses See the Same Apparition

Yet More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Witnesses

Many Said They Saw Nelly Butler's Apparition

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy my free online book "Spookiest Years," which can be accessed here. After pressing the [] icon at the bottom of the viewer, the entire 435-page book can be very conveniently read by finger-swiping. 

Some More Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

 What if your whole earthly life is the mere infancy of your soul's existence? Then when you die, it may be like progressing from being a baby to being a toddler. 

In the series of posts listed below I gave many examples of people who saw an apparition of someone they did not know was dead, only to soon learn that the person had died about the same time the apparition was seen:

An Apparition Was Their Death Notice

25 Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

25 More Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

Yet Another 25 Who Were “Ghost-Told” of a Death

Scientific American's Very Lame "Ghost Explanations"

They Also Were "Ghost Told" of a Death

More Accounts of Veridical Apparitions

Even More Cases of Veridical Apparitions

When Apparitions Serve as Announcements

Still More Cases of Veridical Apparitions

When Apparitions Act as News Bulletins

They Too Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death

They Seemed to Ghost-Learn of Someone's Death

It Seemed Her Suicide Was Not Her End

Veridical Apparitions Are Not Very Rare

Let us look at some more cases of this type. Here is an account of someone "ghost-told" of a death, with the interesting twist that the ghost viewer then died:

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85040614/1908-12-04/ed-1/seq-2/

The account below is from the newspaper story here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064537/1885-08-22/ed-1/seq-8/

The account below seems to qualify as a case of being "ghost-told" of a death:

The full newspaper story can be read here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1926-12-10/ed-1/seq-22/

The account below was told by  Doctor Elliot Coues, a biologist member of the National Academy of Sciences,  in a story printed in 1900 in the Washington Post. Although in the same article Coues refers to "death wraiths," which he says appear "a little before or a little after the death of the sender," it is not quite clear whether he knew of the death of the person mentioned below before the apparition was seen. 

The full account can be read below:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026965/1900-02-14/ed-1/seq-2/

Later in the same article the biologist makes these interesting statements:

The National Academy of Sciences biologist then makes this startling claim:

The volumes referred to are Volume One of Phantasms of the Living, which can be read online here, and Volume Two of the work which can be read here. A significant fraction of the 700+ cases reported in that two-volume work are cases in which someone reports seeing or hearing an apparition of a particular person they did not know was dead, only to find out later that just such a person had died on about the same day or exactly the same day (and often on the same hour and day).

The 1872 newspaper account below appeared with a title of "Seeing a Sister's Apparition and Then Hearing of Her Sudden Death."

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027008/1872-10-10/ed-1/seq-1/

Here is yet another case of being "ghost-told" of a death:

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1931-11-15/ed-1/seq-21/

On page 592 of the document here, we read a Dr. Coleman state the following case of a young boy who saw the apparition of a teacher who had very recently died, a boy who had never been told of the teacher's death:

"The day before the little boy died he and his mother and the nurse were alone together in the room. The child said his Sunday school teacher was in the room with them, told how she was dressed,

etc. At the time this took place the teacher, who had suddenly died, was lying in her casket. The child had not been informed of her death."

The next case in this post does not quite qualify as being "ghost-told of a death" as no one at the time knew that either a ghost had been seen or that a death had occurred. But the case does seem like evidence of an apparition of a person appearing near a relative at about the time of that person's death. The case is found as Case #  242 in Volume I of the famous work Phantasms of the Living, and can be read on the page here: 

"October 30th, 1885.

(242)  In the month of August, 1864, about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I was sitting reading in the verandah of our house in Barbadoes. My black nurse was driving my little girl, about 18 months or so old, in her perambulator in the garden. I got up after some time to go into the house, not having noticed anything at all — when this black woman said to me, ' Missis, who was that gentleman that was talking to you just now ?' ' There was no one talking to me,' I said. ' Oh, yes, dere was, Missis — a very pale gentleman, very tall, and he talked to you, and you was very rude, for you never answered him.' I repeated there was no one, and got rather cross with the woman, and she begged me to write down the day, for she knew she had seen someone. I did, and in a few days I heard of the death of my brother in Tobago. Now, the curious part is this, that I did not see him, but she — a stranger to him — did ; and she said that he seemed very anxious for me to notice him.

"MAY CLERKE."

On the same page someone else corroborates the tale:

"I well remember that on the day on which Mr. John Beresford, my wife's brother, died in Tobago — after a short illness of which we were not aware — our black nurse declared she saw, at as nearly as possible the time of his death, a gentleman, exactly answering to Mr. Beresford's description, leaning over the back of Mrs. Clerke's easy-chair in the open verandah. The figure was not seen by any one else.

SHADWELL H. CLERKE."

On pages 547 to 559 of Volume XI of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1895), which can be read here, we have a most unusual and complex report of being ghost-told of a death. In this case the witness does not report seeing an apparition of someone she knew (as typically occurs), but of someone unknown to her. Reportedly the apparition made a series of predictions that were verified, such as that the witness would learn of the death of a child who was buried in a particular graveyard she would soon visit. The case seems to have been diligently checked out by members of the Society, who found quite a lot of corroborating evidence. But the account is too complex for me to summarize here. 

A drawing from an old newspaper story

The great majority of accounts in this post and the posts mentioned at the top of this post involve cases in which someone reports seeing an earthly apparition of someone he did not know was dead, and then soon learns the person died at about the time the apparition was seen.  A very similar type of account I have rarely heard of may have a form such as this:

(1) Person X may have a near-death experience in which he reports seeing some person who he knew had died, perhaps in some mystical realm. This Person X may also report seeing in such a place a Person Y who he did not know was dead. 

(2) It may then soon be confirmed that this Person Y had died, unknown to Person X when he had this near-death experience. 

The quote below from a 2024 article seems to describe a case of this type, which we might describe as "spirit-told of a death" rather than "ghost-told of a death":

"A young nine-year-old boy named Eddie was seriously ill in a hospital. Recovering from a thirty-six-hour fever, Eddie immediately told those in the hospital room that he had been to heaven, recounting seeing his grandfather, an aunt, and an uncle there. But then his startled and agitated father heard Eddie report that his nineteen-year-old sister Teresa, away at college, was in heaven too, and she told Eddie that he had to return. But the father had just spoken to Teresa two days prior. Checking with the college, the father found out that his daughter had been killed in a car accident the previous day, but that the college could not reach the family at their home, presumably because of Eddie’s hospital stay!"