Miss E. C. Verity writes:—
“I remember the occurrence of the event described by my sister in the annexed paragraph, and her description is quite correct. I saw the apparition at the same time and under the same circumstances.”
Miss A. S. Verity writes:—
“I remember quite clearly the evening my eldest sister awoke me by calling to me from an adjoining room, and upon my going to her bedside, where she slept with my youngest sister, they both told me they had seen S. H. B. standing in the room. The time was about one o’clock. S. H. B. was in evening dress, they told me.”
The following case, while of the same general character, presents this remarkable difference: that the agent’s mind was not at all directed to the real percipient, but only to the place where the percipient happened to be. It is from the notebook of Mr. S. H. B. who was also the agent.
“On Friday, December 1st, 1882, at 9:30 P. M. I went into a room alone and sat by the fireside, and endeavored so strongly to fix my mind upon the interior of a house at Kew (viz., Clarence Road), in which resided Miss V. and her two sisters, that I seemed to be actually in the house.
“During this experiment I must have fallen into a mesmeric sleep, for, although I was conscious, I could not move my limbs. I did not seem to have lost the power of moving them, but I could not make the effort to do so.... At 10 P. M. I regained my normal state by an effort of the will and wrote down on a sheet of note-paper the foregoing statements.
“When I went to bed on this same night, I determined that I would be in the front bedroom of the above-mentioned house at 12 P. M., and remain there until I had made my presence perceptible to the inmates of that room. On the next day, Saturday, I went to Kew to spend the evening, and met there a married sister of Miss V. (viz., Mrs. L.). This lady I had only met once before and that was at a ball, two years previous to the above date. We were both in fancy dress at the time, and as we did not exchange more than half a dozen words, this lady would naturally have lost any vivid recollection of my appearance even if she had noticed it.
“In the course of conversation (although I did not for a moment think of asking her any questions on such a subject), she told me that on the previous night she had seen me distinctly on two occasions. She had spent the night at Clarence Road, and had slept in the front bedroom. At about half-past nine, she had seen me in the passage going from one room to another, and at 12 P. M., when she was wide-awake, she had seen me enter the bedroom and walk round to where she was lying and take her hair (which is very long), into my hand. She told me that the apparition took hold of her hand and gazed intently into it, whereupon she spoke, saying, ‘You need not look at the lines for I have never had any trouble.’
“She then awoke her sister, Miss V., who was sleeping with her, and told her about it. After hearing this account I took the statement which I had written down the previous evening from my pocket and showed it to some of the persons present, who were much astonished, although incredulous.