Hartford, Conn., March 2nd, 1892.
...Miss C. is often in my study and consults my books freely, so that her dream was not remarkable. The dream of Mrs. L. (my wife) was also ordinary in character. The coincidence in time of the dreams may have been merely a coincidence. But that after these occurrences Mrs. L. should suddenly, without the least premeditation and without hesitation, take the right book and open it at the right page with the certainty of a somnambulist, seems to me strange....
These events took place yesterday, last night, and this morning.
F. S. Luther
(Prof. Math., Trinity College).
Mrs. L. and Miss C. live at the same hotel and meet daily. Miss C. is engaged in writing an essay upon Emerson, and expresses to Mrs. L. her wish to obtain some particulars as to Emerson's private life. Mrs. L. regrets that she has no book treating of the subject. During the night following this conversation Mrs. L. dreams of handing Miss C. a book containing an article such as is desired, and Miss C. dreams of telling Mrs. L. that she had procured just the information which she had been looking for. Each lady relates to the other her dream when they meet at breakfast the next morning. Mrs. L. returns to her room, and, while certainly not consciously thinking of Emerson, suddenly finds in her mind the thought, "There is the book which Miss C. needs." She goes directly to a bookcase, takes down vol. xvii. of the Century Magazine, and opens immediately at the article, "The Homes and Haunts of Emerson." Mrs. L. had undoubtedly read this article in 1879, but she had never studied Emerson or his works, nor had she made any special effort to assist Miss C. in her search, though feeling a friend's interest in the proposed essay.
After receiving the book and hearing how it was selected, Miss C. relates her dream more fully, it appearing that she had seemed to be standing in front of Mrs. L.'s shelves with a large, illustrated book in her hands, and that in the book was something about Emerson.
Still later it is found that Miss C. had actually noticed the article in question while actually in the position reproduced in her dream. This, however, had happened about a month previous to the events just narrated, and before she had thought of looking up authorities as to Emerson, so that she had entirely forgotten the occurrence and the article. Neither did she, at that time, call Mrs. L.'s attention to the article, or mention Emerson.
According to the best information attainable, Miss C. was not thinking of her essay at the time when Mrs. L. felt the sudden impulse to take down a certain book. And perhaps it should be added that the volume is one of a complete set of the Century variously disposed upon Mrs. L.'s shelves.
[This account is signed by Professor Luther, Mrs. L., and Miss C.]
Of special interest are a few cases where the actual mechanism of some brief communication from the spiritual world seems to suggest and lead up to the mechanism which we shall afterwards describe either as ecstasy or as possession.