It is to be regretted that it is not now possible to ascertain whether the child's experience were of the nature of a dream or a borderland hallucination. But the ambiguity does not affect either the interpretation or the significance of the incident.
In the next case the two apparitions were not only different, but were seen in different rooms. The time in each case appears to have been within an hour of midnight. It will be noticed that each percipient is doubtful whether to class her experience as a dream or a waking vision. If dreams, they were certainly of an unusual type, since they included in each case an impression of the room in which they occurred.
No. 86.—From SISTER MARTHA.
Account, signed by herself, which Sister Martha (Sister of the Order of Saint Charles) gave to M. Ch. Richet at Mirecourt—
"On Friday, 6th March 1891, I was called to nurse M. Bastien. At night, when I had been dozing for about five minutes, I had the following dream—if I may call it a dream; I think I was sleeping. A light, a sound came from the fireplace, and a woman stepped out whose appearance I did not recognise, but who had a voice like Madame Bastien's. I saw her as distinctly as I see you. She approached the bed where Cécile was sleeping, and taking her hand, said, 'How sweet Cécile is!' I followed her—in my dream, crossing myself as I went. She opened the door and vanished.
"I cannot say the exact hour, but it was early in the night, between 11 P.M. and 1 A.M.—I do not know exactly, for I had not a watch. I awoke immediately after this dream. I did not waken Cécile, for I did not want to say anything to her about it, but as the dream impressed me very much, I told it to her the following morning when I awoke. I can give no further details about the dream except that the lady carried a candle and had coloured spots on her garments.
"I have never had a similar dream except once, when I thought I saw my dead mother and heard her say, 'You do not remember me in your prayers.'"
Madame Houdaille writes:—
"MIRECOURT, 20th March, 1891.
"During my father's illness the Sister kept watch on the first floor, and my brother and I passed the evening on the ground floor. About ten o'clock I left my brother and went upstairs to bed. Between eleven o'clock and midnight (I do not know whether I was waking or sleeping, probably between the two) I perceived, near my bed, a white shadow like a phantom, which I had not time to recognise. I gave a loud cry of terror which startled my brother, who was just going up to bed. He hastened to my room, and found me gazing wildly around. The rest of the night passed quietly.
"Next morning Cécile told me about the Sister's dream.
"She, Cécile, had seen or heard nothing. I was almost angry with her and her tale, and treated it as a silly dream, so terrified was I at the occurrence of the two apparitions the same night, and probably at the same hour. Cécile and the Sister knew nothing of my dream. I did not tell it to the Sister till two days after M. Richet and Octave[126] had visited the hospital."[127]
In the next case, as already said, the two percipients were many miles apart. The impression in the first narrative should probably be classed as a dream; in the second as an auditory hallucination.