I have been asked by a leading member of the Psychical Society to write down what I can remember of a strange experience that occurred no less than twenty-seven years ago. I now do so as simply as I can, and to the best of my recollection.
In October 1864, I was travelling to India, going to rejoin my parents, from whom I had been separated twelve years, a kind friend—a Mrs. E.—having undertaken to chaperon me as far as Calcutta. She was going out to join her husband, Major E., of the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. We started by a P. & O steamer—the Ceylon—from Southampton, and travelled by the overland route, via Alexandria and Cairo, to Suez.
We landed at Alexandria, and went by rail across the desert to Cairo. There all passengers had to sleep the night before proceeding on to Suez. Shepherd's Hotel was the best hotel then, and there was consequently a great rush to try and get rooms in it; but Mrs. E. and I, finding we could get no corner, decided, with two or three other passengers, to get accommodation in the Hôtel de l'Europe. We felt somewhat nervous at the swarthy visages of the Arabs all round us, and for this reason selected our quarters on the very highest storey, thinking we should be more out of reach of robbers and thieves than if we were on the ground floor. This is an important point to remember, as no one could have effected an entrance into our room from outside. It was a bright moonlight night when we went to bed, and I can recollect as if it were yesterday this fact, that the shadow of a "pepul" tree was reflected on the wall opposite our beds—the leaves of the tree were trembling and shaking, as the leaves of a "pepul" always do, making the shadows dance about the wall.
Before we finally retired to rest we made the grandest arrangements for personal security! The window looking out on to the street below was much too high up to be at all unsafe. So we left that open (I think) but we closed our door very firmly indeed! It was a large folding door, and opened inwards. We locked it carefully, leaving the key in the lock; pushed an arm-chair against the middle of the door; and, to crown all, we balanced a hand-bag on one of the arms, with a bunch of keys in the lock thereof! so that if any intruder should venture to open that door, we should know of it at any rate!! (But no one did venture, and we found everything in the morning exactly as we had left it.) I remember that Mrs. E. was very careful about tucking her mosquito curtains all round, but I disliked the feeling of suffocation they gave, and put mine up; not realising, of course, in my inexperience, what the consequences would be for myself; for these small plagues of Egypt (!) soon descended upon me, nearly eating me up, and absolutely prevented sleep. This is another important fact to remember, for had I slept I might have dreamed, but, as it happened, I was wide awake. I was looking at the shadows of the tree shaking on the wall when gradually they seemed to merge into a form, which form took the shape of a man, not of an Arab, but of an English gentleman. Then this form glided into the room, advancing towards my chaperon, stretching out his hands as if in blessing, turned round, looked at me, sadly and sorrowfully (so I thought), and then vanished again into the shadows as it came. I do not remember feeling terrified, only awed—the face was so kind and human, only the moonlight made it look very white. I did not wake Mrs. E., as she appeared to me to be asleep. I felt sure I had seen a vision, and something that had to do with her.
The next morning, while we were dressing, she remarked how odd I looked, and quite apart from the mosquito bites, I know I did. We had a good laugh over my comical appearance, for I had not scrupled to scratch the bites, until my forehead and face resembled a plum bun! I believe I then told her it was not strange that I should look odd, for I "had seen a ghost." She started violently, and asked me to tell her what I saw. I described it as best I could, and she said she had seen "it" too, and that she knew it to be the form and face of a valued friend. She was much disturbed about it—as, indeed, so was I, for I had never indulged in "hallucinations" and was not given to seeing visions.
We proceeded next day to join our ship at Suez, and when on board, it was a great relief to us to be able to tell it to a kind fellow-passenger. He was an absolute sceptic in all matters relating to the invisible world, but he was obliged to admit that it was the most extraordinary thing he had ever heard.... I should like to add that I have never, before or since, had any kind of vision.
Our experience at Cairo had this sequel, that Mrs. E.'s spirit-friend happened to be, at that very time, in great perplexity of mind—most anxious about some very important event in his life. He was sitting in his room one night in the month of October 1864, and a most intense yearning came over him for her advice and assistance—so great was it, that he felt as if an invisible power had drawn him into some spirit-state, in which he could and did see her.[224]
For a somewhat similar case, that of the apparition of General Frémont (too lengthy to quote here), I may refer the reader to the Journal S.P.R., vol. v. p. 54. The crisis there is the removal of long and wearing anxiety; the self-projection into the home-scene which now at last the General felt assured of being able to reach alive.
VI. F. From Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. pp. 104-109. The following case was especially remarkable in that there were two percipients. The narrative was copied by Gurney from a MS. book of Mr. S. H. B.'s, to which he transferred it from an almanac diary, since lost.
On a certain Sunday evening in November 1881, having been reading of the great power which the human will is capable of exercising, I determined with the whole force of my being, that I would be present in spirit in the front bed-room on the second floor of a house situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in which room slept two ladies of my acquaintance, viz., Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged respectively 25 and 11 years. I was living at this time at 23 Kildare Gardens, a distance of about three miles from Hogarth Road, and I had not mentioned in any way my intention of trying this experiment to either of the above ladies, for the simple reason that it was only on retiring to rest upon this Sunday night that I made up my mind to do so. The time at which I determined I would be there was 1 o'clock in the morning, and I also had a strong intention of making my presence perceptible.