PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD.
As I have already stated, I think earth-bound spirits of the dead are confined to people whose animal propensities were far in excess of their spiritual—that is to say, whose thoughts were entirely centred on matters appertaining to the material world.
I do not suppose for one moment all such spirits would be compelled to haunt certain localities, but only the spirits of murderers, of carnal-minded suicides, of misers and other people who, when alive, were attracted to one spot by some special vice or peculiar hobby; the spirits of criminal lunatics, and vicious imbeciles, and of particularly gross and sensual people, whose phantasms are, according to some authorities (a view I do not altogether take), as bestial and savage in appearance as the people, when alive, were lustful and cruel in disposition, need not necessarily haunt one spot. That the earth-bound spirits of murderers, suicides, and grossly sensual people haunt certain localities in the shape of certain animals has been firmly believed for many centuries. According to Hartshorne, a man, who committed suicide at Broomfield, near Salisbury, came back to earth in the form of a black dog; whilst legend says that the spirit of Lady Howard, of James the First's reign, who got rid of four husbands, haunts the road from Fitzford to Oakhampton Park, in the shape of a hound.
Many spectral dogs, supposed by some to be the souls of evil-doers, are alleged to haunt the sides of pools and rivers, particularly in Devon. Mr. Dyer, in his Ghost World (p. 107) gives an instance of a haunting near Tring, where the spirit of a chimney-sweep, who murdered an old woman, was frequently seen on the site of the gibbet, on which he was hanged, in the form of a black dog. As, however, the phantasms of so many murderers and vicious people have been seen in forms more or less resembling those people when alive, I am inclined to attribute the apparitions of animals either to the earth-bound spirits of the animals themselves, or to Impersonating and Vice Elementals, whilst to the latter I attribute the entire sub-human and sub-animal type of psychic phenomenon—such, for example, as the pig-headed ghost of Guilsborough.
THE SOULS OF THE GOOD.
Whilst the spirits of bad people are thus held to be reincarnate, in the shape of animals, in some countries there is a belief that the souls of the good remain on earth for an indefinite period in the guise of birds. In Bulgaria, for example, all souls are supposed to leave the body in the form of birds—a belief that was at one time prevalent among certain North American Indian tribes, whilst in Denmark and Germany there was at one time an almost universal belief that the advent of infants was heralded by the appearance of a stork, who brought the child's soul with it (vide Thorpe's Northern Mythology, i., p. 289). To my mind, it is a significant fact that from time immemorial psychism has been closely associated with the bird which, in Egyptian hieroglyphics and other symbols of the Ancients, signifies the soul.
Apropos of psychism and birds, a very curious incident happened this spring to a relative of mine with whom I was staying in the village of G——. Early one morning a large bird came to his bedroom window, and by violent tappings and flappings of its wings against the glass, attracted his attention, when it at once flew away. The previous day an old and dear friend of his (to whom he was very much attached) had died, and he subsequently learned that on the day of her funeral a dove had come to the window of the room in which the dead body lay, and had behaved in precisely the same manner, flying away directly it had succeeded in attracting attention. The visitation of these birds may, of course, only have been a coincidence, but if so, it was a very curious one—indeed, I am inclined to believe that in each instance the bird was a benevolent Elemental that appeared with the sole object of intimating to my relative and to those around the dead body of his friend that the soul of the latter was still alive.
Though I think it quite possible that the souls of the virtuous and spiritual-minded remain earth-bound for a short space after death, I do not think that, when once they are removed to other spheres, they can, under any circumstances, return. There can be no going back when once they have begun the slow, but sure process of spiritual evolution which will lead them to Paradise.
FUTURITY FOR DUMB ANIMALS.
There is, in my opinion, abundant evidence to show that dogs, horses, and birds have spirits that survive death, and this being so, it is only reasonable to suppose that there is a future existence for every kind of animal and for everything, in fact, that possesses any sort of mind—though I do not believe that their spirits all go to the same sphere. A relative of mine, once a year, always hears the sound of barking over the grave of a very favourite fox-terrier, whilst another relative has on more than one occasion seen the phantasm of a black spaniel to which she was very much attached. Mr. Harper, in his book of Haunted Houses (Chapman and Hall, 1907), gives a very interesting account of the alleged haunting of Ballechin House, Perthshire, by the phantasms of a number of dogs that had been shot on the death—and at the express desire—of a Major Stewart, the late owner of the property; whilst a lady correspondent of mine tells me that her eldest nephew has, from the time he was three years old, seen, occasionally, two thin dogs like greyhounds. To quote her own words: "They seem to come and look at him, he says. He is a most matter-of-fact person, and I do not think he has any belief in psychic matters at all. He was born in the North West Territory, where there are no dogs of that kind, and did not come to England until he was over four years old."