If the above account correctly describes what took place—and I know of no ground for doubting either the accuracy or the good faith of the narrators—it seems clear either that Mr. Evans and Miss —— reciprocally affected each other, or that Mr. Evans, whilst impressing Miss —— with the idea of his presence, was able himself to attain to a supernormal perception of her surroundings. For the latter explanation, however, we have no support in analogy, and it seems less unwarrantable provisionally to regard this case and others like it as being reciprocally telepathic. It should, perhaps, be pointed out, as bearing upon the extreme rarity of cases of the kind, that there may be instances of reciprocal affection of which, from the very nature of the case, we could not hope to obtain evidence. It is conceivable, for instance, that in the ordinary case of an apparition at death, the dying man may himself have been a percipient as well as an agent, since circumstances rarely permit of his side of the experience being recorded. It is conceivable also that in cases of collective hallucination the effect may really be a reciprocal one, the two persons concerned simultaneously affecting and being affected by each other, until the force so generated explodes into hallucination. But in the present state of our knowledge it would be premature to speculate further.
A Misinterpreted Message.
The next case also seems susceptible of more than one explanation. The account which follows was written in 1890.
No. 89.—From MISS C. L. HAWKINS-DEMPSTER, 24 Portman Square, W.
"I ran downstairs and entered the drawing-room at 7.30 P.M., believing I had kept my two sisters waiting for dinner. They had gone to dinner, the room was empty. Behind a long sofa I saw Mr. H. standing. He moved three steps nearer. I heard nothing. I was not at all afraid or surprised, only felt concern as [to] what he wanted, as he was in South America. I learnt next morning that at that moment his mother was breathing her last. I went and arranged her for burial, my picture still hanging above the bed, between the portraits of her two absent sons.
"I was in the habit of hearing often from [Mr. H.], and was not at that moment anxious about Mrs. H.'s health, though she was aged. I had had twenty-five days before the grief of losing an only brother. No other persons were present at the time."[129]
In answer to further inquiries, we learnt from Miss Hawkins-Dempster that the above incident occurred on New Year's Eve, 1876-77; the room was lighted by "one bright lamp and a fire," and the figure did not seem to go away, she merely "ceased to see it." She used to see Mrs. H. often, and was in no anxiety as to her health at the time. Mrs. H. was very old, but not definitely ill. Miss Hawkins-Dempster corrected her first statement as to the exactness of the coincidence by informing us that Mrs. H. died in the morning of the same day on which the apparition was seen.
Miss Hawkins-Dempster mentioned what she had seen to her sister, who thus corroborates:—
"July 15th, 1892.
"I heard of my sister Miss C. L. Hawkins-Dempster's vision of Mr. H. in the drawing-room at 7.30 P.M. on New Year's Eve, 1876-77, immediately after it happened, and before hearing that Mrs. H. died the same day, the news of which reached us later that evening.
"H. H. DEMPSTER."
We have verified the date of death at Somerset House.