In the "Proceedings of the Society" there is a case which, according to Mr Stead, "appears to suggest that the deceased are continuing to take an interest in mundane affairs." The story is communicated by Miss Dodson. On Sunday, 5th June 1887, close upon midnight, Miss Dodson was roused by hearing her name called three times. She answered twice, thinking it was her uncle. The third time she recognised the voice of her mother, who had been dead sixteen years. "I said," continued Miss Dodson, "'Mamma!'"
"She then came round a screen near my bedside with two children in her arms and placed them in my arms and put the bedclothes over them, and said: 'Lucy, promise me to take care of them, for their mother is just dead.' I said: 'Yes, mamma.' She repeated: 'Promise me to take care of them.' I replied: 'Yes, I promise you,' and added, 'Oh, mamma, stay and speak to me, I am so wretched.' She replied: 'Not yet, my child,' then she seemed to go round the screen again and I remained, feeling the children to be still in my arms and fell asleep. When I awoke there was nothing. Tuesday morning, 7th June, I received the news of my sister-in-law's death. She had given birth to a child three weeks before, which I did not know till after her death."
Professor Sidgwick says, as the result of an interesting conversation with Miss Dodson, that the children were of the ages corresponding with the ages of the children of her sister-in-law; they seemed to be a little girl and a baby newly born. The only way an ingenious sceptic can get round this case is by supposing that a telepathic impulse from the living brother might conceivably embody itself in the form of his mother. But the idea of a brother in Belgium being able to transmit a telepathic message in the assumed shape and with the voice of his mother, who had been dead for sixteen years, and also to telepath into existence in London the two little children who were living in his house at Bruges, is rather a clumsy hypothesis. But what other have we?
"Mr Theobald, an Australian, forwards to the Society a paper discovered amongst the effects of his uncle, now dead. The apparition, as will be seen, occurred on October 24th, 1860, and the account is endorsed on 9th November by the percipient's father. Further particulars sent to Mr B—— by the percipient (who is here called Mr D——) are dated November 13th, 1860. The first account seems to have been sent by the percipient to his father, and by the father to Mr B——"
The percipient had been identified, and confirms, as will be seen, this early narrative, which is as follows:—
"On the evening of Wednesday, October 24th, 1860, having retired to bed about nine o'clock, I had slept, I conclude, about two hours, making it then about eleven o'clock P.M. I was awoke from my sleep by a hand touching my forehead, and the well-known voice of Mrs B—— pronouncing my name, E——. I started up and sat in bed, rubbed my eyes, and then saw Mrs B——. From the head to the waist the figure was distinct, clear, and well defined; but from the waist downwards it was all misty, and the lower part transparent. She appeared to be dressed in black silk. Her countenance was grave and rather sad, but not unhappy.
"The words she first uttered were: 'I have left dear John.' What followed related entirely to myself, and she was permitted by a most kind Providence to speak words of mercy, promise, and comfort, and assurance that what I most wished would come to pass. She came to me in an hour of bitter mental agony, and was sent as a messenger of mercy...."
Occasionally there is a curious variant, when the phantasm is auditory and not visible. In the case published in "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," vol. iii. p. 90, Mr Wambey heard a phantasmal voice as though in colloquy with his own thought. He was planning a congratulatory letter to a friend, when the words "What, write to a dead man? write to a dead man?" sounded clearly in his ears. The friend had been dead for some days.
Gurney was much impressed by the unexpectedly large proportion of cases where the percipient informed us that there had been a compact between himself and the deceased person that whichever passed away first should try to appear to the other. "Considering," he adds, "what an extremely small number of persons make such a compact, compared with those who do not, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that its existence has a certain efficacy."
A characteristic case is thus reported by a Mr Bellamy:
"When a girl at school my wife made an agreement with a fellow-pupil, Miss W., that the one of them who died first should, if divinely permitted, appear after her decease to the survivor. In 1874 my wife, who had not seen or heard anything of her former school friend for some years, casually heard of her death. The news reminded her of her former agreement, and then, becoming nervous, she told me of it. I knew of my wife's compact, but I had never seen a photograph of her friend, or heard any description of her." (Mr Bellamy told Gurney in conversation that his mind had not been in the least dwelling on the compact.)
"A night or two afterwards, as I was sleeping with my wife, a fire brightly burning in my room and a candle alight, I suddenly awoke and saw a lady sitting by the side of the bed where my wife was sleeping soundly. At once I sat up in the bed and gazed so intently that even now I can recall her form and features. Had I the pencil or the brush of a Millais I could transfer to canvas an exact likeness of the ghostly visitant. I remember that I was much struck, as I looked intently at her, with the careful arrangement of her coiffure, every single hair being most carefully brushed down. How long I sat and gazed I cannot say, but directly the apparition ceased to be, I got out of bed to see if any of my wife's garments had by any means optically deluded me. I found nothing in the line of vision but a bare wall. Hallucination on my part I rejected as out of the question, and I doubted not that I had really seen an apparition. Returning to bed, I lay till my wife some hours after awoke, and then I gave her an account of her friend's appearance. I described her colour, form, etc., all of which exactly tallied with my wife's recollection of Miss W. Finally I asked, 'But was there any special point to strike one in her appearance?' 'Yes,' my wife promptly replied, 'we girls used to tease her at school for devoting so much time to the arrangement of her hair.' This was the very thing which I have said so much struck me. Such are the simple facts.
"I will only add that till 1874 I had never seen an apparition, and that I have not seen one since.
"Arthur Bellamy."