"May 31st, 1890.
"When my little boy came upstairs and told us he had seen John Blaney, we thought nothing of it till some hours after, when we heard that he was dead. Then, for fear of frightening the children, I avoided any allusion to what he had told us, and asked every one else to do the same. Probably by now he has forgotten all about it, but it certainly was very remarkable, especially as only one child saw him, and they were standing together. The place where he seems to have appeared was in the passage outside the pantry door, where John Blaney's work always took him. My boy is a very matter-of-fact sort of boy, and I never heard of his having any other hallucination."
The interval in this case between the death and the vision may probably be explained as due to the telepathic influence received from the dying boy having remained latent in the percipient's mind, awaiting a favourable opportunity for emerging to consciousness. But it seems possible that the message may have come, not from the dying boy, but from some member of the household who was aware of the death. It is to be noted that Miss Gore Booth did not share her brother's experience.
Hallucinations Affecting Two Senses.
So far we have dealt with hallucinations of one sense only. In the next two cases, it will be seen, both sight and hearing appear to have been affected.
No. 76.—From the REV. MATTHEW FROST.
"BOWERS GIFFORD, ESSEX, January 30th, 1891.
"The first Thursday in April 1881, while sitting at tea with my back to the window and talking with my wife in the usual way, I plainly heard a rap at the window, and looking round I said to my wife, 'Why, there's my grandmother,' and went to the door, but could not see any one; and still feeling sure it was my grandmother, and knowing, though eighty-three years of age, she was very active and fond of a joke, I went round the house, but could not see any one. My wife did not hear it. On the following Saturday I had news my grandmother died in Yorkshire about half-an-hour before the time I heard the rapping. The last time I saw her alive I promised, if well, I would attend her funeral; that [was] some two years before. I was in good health [and] had no trouble, [age] twenty-six years. I did not know that my grandmother was ill."
Mrs. Frost writes:—
"January 30th, 1891.
"I beg to certify that I perfectly remember all the circumstances my husband has named, but I heard and saw nothing myself."
The house (seen by Mrs. Sidgwick) in which Mr. Frost was living when the event occurred stands some way back from the road in a garden, and the door into the garden opens out of the sitting-room, so that he must have got to the door much too quickly, if he went at once, for any one to have got away unseen by him.