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Death-bed Visions - William Fletcher Barrett · Dream Psychology

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of deathbed visions. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Chapter
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  Speaker 1: one introduction. It is well known that there are many
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  Speaker 1: remarkable instances where a dying person, shortly before his or
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  Speaker 1: her transition from the earth, appears to see and recognize
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  Speaker 1: some deceased relatives or friends. We must, however, remember the
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  Speaker 1: fact that hallucinations of the dying are not very infrequent. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: there are instances where the dying person was unaware of
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  Speaker 1: the previous death of the spirit form he sees, and
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  Speaker 1: is therefore astonished to find in the vision of his
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  Speaker 1: or her deceased relative one who the precipient believes to
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  Speaker 1: be still on earth. These cases form perhaps one of
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  Speaker 1: the most cogent arguments for survival after death, as the
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  Speaker 1: evidence value in the vertical truth telling character of these
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  Speaker 1: visions of the dying is greatly enhanced when the fact
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  Speaker 1: is undeniably established that the dying person was wholly ignorant
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  Speaker 1: of the decease of the person he or she so
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  Speaker 1: vividly sees. With reference to these visions, that eminent psychologist
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  Speaker 1: of European fame, Professor Richet writes as follows quote. Facts
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  Speaker 1: of this kind are very important. They are much more
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  Speaker 1: explicable on the Spiritu's theory than by the hypothesis of
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  Speaker 1: mere cryptosthesia. Among all the facts adduced to prove survival,
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  Speaker 1: these seem to me to be the most disquieting, i e.
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  Speaker 1: From a materialistic point of view. I have therefore thought
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  Speaker 1: it a duty to be scrupulous in mentioning them. End
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  Speaker 1: As is well known, Professor Richet does not believe in
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  Speaker 1: the existence of a soul or of survival after death,
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  Speaker 1: and explains the evidence afforded by psychical research of a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual world by his theory of cryptosthesia, by which he
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  Speaker 1: means the perception of things or beings by some sensory
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  Speaker 1: organ at present unknown to science, a faculty not possessed
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  Speaker 1: by everyone, but in my opinion, conclusively established to exist
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  Speaker 1: in certain individuals. These sensitives are to be found in
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  Speaker 1: all countries, in both sexes, and may be old or young,
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  Speaker 1: rich or poor, educated or ignorant. This faculty of clairvoyance,
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  Speaker 1: this vision of persons or things invisible to normal eyesight,
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  Speaker 1: may occur when the sensitive is quite conscious, but is
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  Speaker 1: more often observed in the trance condition, especially when this
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  Speaker 1: is induced by deep hypnosis. The Mesmeric trance, as they
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  Speaker 1: used to be called. The older Mesmerists employed the word
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  Speaker 1: lucidity or traveling clairvoyance for the perception of things at
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  Speaker 1: a distance. The term clairvoyance is, however, ambiguous, for it
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  Speaker 1: is now used in two different senses, namely either for
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  Speaker 1: a the perception of hidden material objects remote from the sensitive,
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  Speaker 1: such as underground water, or b for the perception by
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  Speaker 1: the sensitive of immaterial objects such as apparitions of deceased persons.
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  Speaker 1: To avoid this confusion, Myers suggested the term telesthesia instead
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  Speaker 1: of clairvoyance for the perception of material things. Telesthesia he
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  Speaker 1: defines as the sensation or perception of objects or conditions
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  Speaker 1: independently of the recognized channels of sense, and also independently
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  Speaker 1: of any possible telepathic communication as the source of the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge thus gained. Hence, the term telesthesia would be inapplicable
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  Speaker 1: to apparitions of the dead or visions of the dying,
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  Speaker 1: whereas Richet would include both of these as well as
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  Speaker 1: the vision of hidden material things under his word cryptosthesia,
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  Speaker 1: which appears to have the same connotation as the familiar
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  Speaker 1: word clairvoyance, and therefore it labors under the same ambiguity
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  Speaker 1: as that word. Other terms for clairvoyance have been suggested
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  Speaker 1: in America. Mister Henry Holt uses the word telopsis, and
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  Speaker 1: doctor Hasinger the word telecognosis. But these terms could hardly
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  Speaker 1: be applied to apparitions or visions of the dying, which
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  Speaker 1: appear near to and not far from the sensitive. Miss Cobb,
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  Speaker 1: in her Piquindarian makes some interesting remarks on the subject
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  Speaker 1: of visions of the dying. She states, quote, the dying
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  Speaker 1: person is lying quietly, when suddenly, in the very act
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  Speaker 1: of expiring, he looks up, sometimes starts up in bed
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  Speaker 1: and gazes on what appears to be vacancy, with an
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  Speaker 1: expression of astonishment, sometimes developing instantly into joy, and sometimes
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  Speaker 1: cut short in the first emotion of solemn wonder and awe.
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  Speaker 1: If the dying man were to see some utterly unexpected
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  Speaker 1: but instantly recognized vision causing him great surprise or rapturous joy,
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  Speaker 1: his face could no better reveal the fact. The very
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  Speaker 1: instant this phenomenon occurs, death is actually taking place, and
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  Speaker 1: the eyes glaze even while they gaze at the unknown
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  Speaker 1: sight endo. As regards the general subject of visions of
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  Speaker 1: the dying, mister Myers has some interesting remarks in Phantoms
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  Speaker 1: of the Living. He states that, in his view, such
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  Speaker 1: an occurrence quote must probably often take place, though it
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  Speaker 1: can seldom leave any record behind. For here we have
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  Speaker 1: an account of that side only of a reciprocal incident,
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  Speaker 1: which is usually lost to human knowledge. Altogether, I mean
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  Speaker 1: of the supernormal precipients of a man in the very
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  Speaker 1: article of death, while there is no record of any
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  Speaker 1: corresponding sound or vision as experienced by those to whom
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  Speaker 1: he seemed to pay his visit of farewell end quote.
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  Speaker 1: There are, however, several cases on record where the vision
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  Speaker 1: of those who have passed over is shared by friends
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  Speaker 1: at the bedside of the dying person. Instances of these
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  Speaker 1: will be given in a later chapter. In considering the
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  Speaker 1: value of evidence for supernormal phenomena, the importance of the
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  Speaker 1: cumulative character of the evidence must be taken into account.
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  Speaker 1: It is the undesigned coincidence of witnesses who have had
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  Speaker 1: no communication with each other that constitutes its value taken
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  Speaker 1: as a whole. Whilst a single case may be doubtful
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  Speaker 1: or disproved, just as a single stick may be broken,
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  Speaker 1: but a fagot may defy all our attempts at breaking
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  Speaker 1: a bundle of sticks. On this point, Archbishop Whiteley has
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  Speaker 1: some admirable remarks on the value of testimony. He states, quote,
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  Speaker 1: it is evident that when many coincide in their testimony,
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  Speaker 1: where no previous concert can have taken place, the probability
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  Speaker 1: resulting from this concurrence does not rest on the supposed
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  Speaker 1: veracity of each considered separately, but on the improbability of
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  Speaker 1: such an agreement taking place by chance. For though in
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  Speaker 1: such a case each of the witnesses should be considered
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  Speaker 1: as unworthy of credit, and even much more likely to
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  Speaker 1: speak falsehood than truth, still the chances would be infinite
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  Speaker 1: against their all agreeing in the same falsehood end. About
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  Speaker 1: fifty years ago, a learned incumbent of the church in Birmingham,
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  Speaker 1: a Reverend JS Pollock, published a collection of cases of
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  Speaker 1: supernormal phenomena under the curious title of Dead and Gone.
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  Speaker 1: Although some five hundred cases are quoted taken from various sources,
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  Speaker 1: no attempt has been made at an investigation of any
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  Speaker 1: single case, so that the book as a whole has
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  Speaker 1: little evidential value. Here I may quote some suggestive remarks
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  Speaker 1: made by Missus Henry Sidgwick soon after the foundation of
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  Speaker 1: the Society for Psychical Research, and published in the Proceedings
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  Speaker 1: for eighteen eighty five, page sixty nine. Quote. Most of
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  Speaker 1: those to whom this paper is addressed probably belonged to
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  Speaker 1: some Christian denomination, and to them the continued existence of
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  Speaker 1: the soul after death is. Of course no new theory
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  Speaker 1: invented to account for such phenomena as we are discussing,
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  Speaker 1: or requiring such phenomena to support it. But few will
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  Speaker 1: have any difficulty in agreeing with me that one, the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of receiving visions of or communications from the dead
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  Speaker 1: here and now would not follow as any necessary consequence
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  Speaker 1: from the immortality of the soul. Two that if communication
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  Speaker 1: of what I may call an objective kind, distinguishable I
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  Speaker 1: mean from our own thoughts and emotions, is possible to
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  Speaker 1: all those of the departed who desire it, we should
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  Speaker 1: naturally expect it to occur more frequently than the most
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  Speaker 1: sanguine can suppose that it actually does. And three that
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  Speaker 1: its possibility, while not in contradiction with any of the
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  Speaker 1: known facts of physical science, is certainly not supported or
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  Speaker 1: in any way suggested by any of these facts. However
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  Speaker 1: firmly therefore, we may believe in the continued existence of
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  Speaker 1: dead human beings. We cannot regard the supposition of their
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  Speaker 1: action on the minds of the living as if it
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  Speaker 1: were merely the reference of an effect to a very
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  Speaker 1: casa known to be adequate to produce it. We must
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  Speaker 1: treat it as we should treat the hypothesis in any
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  Speaker 1: department of physical investigation of an entirely new agent for
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  Speaker 1: the existence of which we have no evidence outside the
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  Speaker 1: phenomenon which it is introduced to explain. If this be so, so,
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  Speaker 1: it will, I think, be admitted that we should be
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  Speaker 1: violating an established rule of scientific method if we introduced
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  Speaker 1: such a hypothesis, except in the last resort, when all
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  Speaker 1: other modes of explanation seem clearly to fail. Exactly at
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  Speaker 1: what point of improbability this failure of other explanations is
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  Speaker 1: to be regarded as established cannot I think be defined
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  Speaker 1: at any rate. I feel quite unable to define it,
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  Speaker 1: but I may perhaps say that, in my opinion, it
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  Speaker 1: is a point which can hardly be reached in the
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  Speaker 1: case of any narrative of a single event considered by itself.
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  Speaker 1: If we had only a single ghost story to deal with,
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  Speaker 1: I can hardly conceive the kind or amount of evidence
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  Speaker 1: which would lead me to prefer the hypothesis of ghostly
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  Speaker 1: agency to all other possible explanations. The existence, therefore, of
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  Speaker 1: phantoms of the dead can only be established, if at all,
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  Speaker 1: by the accumulation of improbabilities in which we become involved
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  Speaker 1: by rejecting a large mass of apparently strong testimony to
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  Speaker 1: facts which, as recounted, would seem to admit of no
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  Speaker 1: other satisfactor re explanation. And in testing the value of
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  Speaker 1: this testimony, we are bound, I think, to strain to
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  Speaker 1: the utmost all possible suppositions of recognized causes before we
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  Speaker 1: can regard the narrative in question as even tending to
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  Speaker 1: prove the operation of this novel agency end of quote.
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  Speaker 1: On the other hand, every scientific society ought to have
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  Speaker 1: as its motto the opinion expressed by assert John Herschel
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  Speaker 1: in his Discourse on Natural Philosophy, page one, twenty seven quote,
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  Speaker 1: that the perfect observer will have his eyes as it
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  Speaker 1: were open, that they may be struck at once with
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  Speaker 1: any occurrence which, according to the received theories ought not
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  Speaker 1: to happen, for these are the facts which serve as
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  Speaker 1: clues to the new discoveries close quote. Unfortunately, as Gertra
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  Speaker 1: remarked in one of his conversations with Eckerman, quote, in
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  Speaker 1: the sciences, if anyone advances anything new, people resist with
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  Speaker 1: all their might. They speak of the new view with contempt,
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  Speaker 1: as if it were not worth the trouble of even
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  Speaker 1: so much as an investigation or a regard. And thus
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  Speaker 1: the new truth may wait a long time before it
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  Speaker 1: can win its way close quote end of chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter two of Deathbed Visions by William Barrett. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Chapter two visions seen
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  Speaker 1: by the dying of persons by them unknown to be dead.
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  Speaker 1: The evidence of visions of the dying when they appear
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  Speaker 1: to see and recognize some of their relatives of whose
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  Speaker 1: decease they were unaware, affords perhaps one of the strongest
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  Speaker 1: arguments in favor of survival. Even Professor Roshe regards this
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  Speaker 1: evidence as impossible to explain by a cryptosthesia. I have
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  Speaker 1: given some striking instances of these visions of the dying
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  Speaker 1: in my book On the Threshold of the unseen, and
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  Speaker 1: other cases will be found in the proceedings of our Society.
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  Speaker 1: A recent case of the kind was related to me
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  Speaker 1: by Lady Barrett, which occurred when she was in attendance
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  Speaker 1: of a patient in the Mother's Hospital at Clapton, of
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  Speaker 1: which she is one of the obsteted surgeons. Lady Barrett
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  Speaker 1: received an urgent message from the resident medical Officer, doctor Phillips,
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  Speaker 1: to come to a patient, Missus B, who was in
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  Speaker 1: labor and suffering from serious heart failure. Lady Barrett went
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  Speaker 1: at once and the child was delivered safely, though the
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  Speaker 1: mother was dying at the time. After seeing other patients,
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  Speaker 1: Lady Barrett went back to Missus Bee's ward and the
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  Speaker 1: following conversation occurred, which was written down soon afterwards. Lady
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  Speaker 1: Barrett says, quote when I entered the ward, Missus B
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  Speaker 1: held out her hands to me and said, thank you,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for what you have done for me, for
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  Speaker 1: bringing the baby. Is it a boy or girl? Then,
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  Speaker 1: holding my hand tightly, she said, don't leave me. Don't
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  Speaker 1: go away, will you, And after a few minutes, while
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  Speaker 1: the house surgeon carried out some restorative measures, she lay
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  Speaker 1: looking up towards the open part of the room which
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  Speaker 1: was brightly lighted, and said, oh, don't let it get dark.
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  Speaker 1: It's getting so dark, darker and darker. Her husband and
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  Speaker 1: mother were sent for. Suddenly, she looked eagerly towards one
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  Speaker 1: part of the room, a radiant smile illuminating her whole countenance. Oh, lovely, lovely,
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  Speaker 1: she said, I asked, what is lovely? What I see?
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  Speaker 1: She replied, in low, intense tones, what do you see? Lovely? Brightness,
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  Speaker 1: wonderful beings? It is difficult to describe the sense of
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  Speaker 1: reality conveyed by her intense absorption in the vision. Then,
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  Speaker 1: seeming to focus her attention more intently on one place
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, she exclaimed, almost with a kind of
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  Speaker 1: joyous cry, Why it's father. Oh, he's so glad. I'm coming.
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  Speaker 1: He is so glad. It would be perfect if only
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  Speaker 1: w her husband could come too. Her baby was brought
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  Speaker 1: for her to see. She looked at it with interest
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  Speaker 1: and then said, do you think I ought to stay
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  Speaker 1: for baby's sake? Then, turning toward the vision again, she said,
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  Speaker 1: I can't. I can't stay. If you could see what
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  Speaker 1: I do, you would know I can't stay. But she
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  Speaker 1: turned to her husband, who had come in and said,
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  Speaker 1: you won't let baby go to anyone who won't love him,
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  Speaker 1: will you. Then she gently pushed him to one side, saying,
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  Speaker 1: let me see the lovely brightness. I left shortly after,
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  Speaker 1: and the matron took my place by the bedside. She
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  Speaker 1: lived for another hour and appeared to have retained to
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  Speaker 1: the last the double consciousness of the bright forms she
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  Speaker 1: saw and also of those tending her at the bedside.
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  Speaker 1: E g. She arranged with the matron that her premature
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  Speaker 1: baby should remain in hospital till it was strong enough
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  Speaker 1: to be cared for in an ordinary household. Signed Florence E.
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  Speaker 1: Barrett end quote. Doctor Phillips, who was present, after reading
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  Speaker 1: the above notes, writes to me saying that she quote
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  Speaker 1: fully agrees with Lady Barrett's account close quote. The most
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  Speaker 1: important evidence, however, given by the matron of the hospital,
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  Speaker 1: who has sent the following account quote. I was present
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  Speaker 1: shortly before the death of missus B together with her
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  Speaker 1: husband and her mother. Her husband was leaning over her
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  Speaker 1: and speaking to her. When pushing him aside, she said, oh,
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  Speaker 1: don't hide it, it's so beautiful, then turning away from
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  Speaker 1: him towards me. I being on the other side of
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  Speaker 1: the bed. Missus B said, oh, why there's Vida, referring
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  Speaker 1: to a sister of whose death three weeks previously she
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  Speaker 1: had not been told. Afterwards, the mother, who was present
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  Speaker 1: at the time, told me as I have said, that
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  Speaker 1: Vida was the name of a dead sister of Missus Bees,
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  Speaker 1: of whose illness and death. She was quite ignorant, as
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  Speaker 1: they had carefully kept this news from Missus B owing
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  Speaker 1: to her serious illness. Signed Miriam Castell, matron En, I
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  Speaker 1: asked Doctor Phillips to try and obtain the independent report
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  Speaker 1: of Missus B's mother, who, as the matron stated, was
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  Speaker 1: also present at the time. This was kindly and I
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  Speaker 1: have received the following interesting and informative letter from Missus Clark,
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  Speaker 1: Missus B's mother. Hi, Barry N five quote. I have
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  Speaker 1: heard you are interested in the beautiful passing of my
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  Speaker 1: dear daughter's spirit from this earth on the twelfth day
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  Speaker 1: of January nineteen twenty four. The wonderful part of it
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  Speaker 1: is the history of the death of my dear daughter Vita,
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  Speaker 1: who had been an invalid for some years. Her death
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  Speaker 1: took place on the twenty fifth day of December nineteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, just two weeks and four days before her
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  Speaker 1: younger sister, Doris died. My daughter Doris, missus B, was
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  Speaker 1: very ill at that time, and the matron at the
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  Speaker 1: mother's hospital deemed it unwise for missus B to know
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  Speaker 1: of her sister's death. Therefore, when visiting her, we put
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  Speaker 1: off our morning and visited her as usual. All her
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  Speaker 1: letters were also kept by request, until her husband had
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  Speaker 1: seen who they might be from before letting her see them.
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  Speaker 1: This precaution was taken lest outside friends might possibly allude
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  Speaker 1: to the recentavement in writing to her, unaware of the
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  Speaker 1: very dangerous state of her health. When my dear child
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  Speaker 1: was sinking rapidly at first, she said, it's all so dark.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot see. A few seconds after, a beautiful radiance
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  Speaker 1: lit up her countenance. I know now it was the
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  Speaker 1: light of heaven, and it was most beautiful to behold.
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  Speaker 1: My dear child said, oh, it is lovely and bright.
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  Speaker 1: You cannot see as I can. She fixed her eyes
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  Speaker 1: on one particular spot in the ward, saying, Oh, God,
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  Speaker 1: forgive me for anything I have done wrong. After that,
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  Speaker 1: she said, I can see Father. He wants me. He
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  Speaker 1: is so lonely. She spoke to her father saying I
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  Speaker 1: am coming, turning at the same time to look at me, saying, oh,
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  Speaker 1: he is so near. On looking at the same place again,
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  Speaker 1: she said, with rather a puzzled expression, he has Vita
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  Speaker 1: with him, turning again to me saying Vita is with him.
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  Speaker 1: Then she said you do want me, Dad, I am coming.
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  Speaker 1: Then a very few parting words signs were expressed, nothing
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  Speaker 1: definite or clear. With a great difficulty, in a very
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  Speaker 1: hard strain, she asked to see the man who married us.
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  Speaker 1: This was to her husband, who was standing on the
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  Speaker 1: opposite side of the bed. His name she could not say.
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  Speaker 1: It was the Reverend Maurice Davis of All Saints, Haggerston East,
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  Speaker 1: and he was sent for he had known my dear
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  Speaker 1: child for some years and was so impressed by the
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  Speaker 1: vision that he quoted it in his parish magazine for
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  Speaker 1: February last Yours respectfully, signed Mary C. Clark. Before passing
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  Speaker 1: on to other cases, it is desirable to discuss somewhat
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  Speaker 1: in detail the foregoing case. The vision seen by the
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  Speaker 1: dying woman, Missus B, was obviously not due to her
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  Speaker 1: normal sight, otherwise the figures would have been seen by
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  Speaker 1: others present in the room. The appearance therefore was not
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  Speaker 1: due to any ordinary material objects, nor is it likely
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  Speaker 1: to have been due to some illusion, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: the misinterpretation of some object actually present to sit as
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  Speaker 1: when addressing gown is mistaken for a woman, for not
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  Speaker 1: only was there nothing in the room to suggest an illusion,
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  Speaker 1: but she recognized both her deceased father and sister. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: she was quite unaware of the death of the latter.
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  Speaker 1: A more probable explanation is that it was an hallucination,
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  Speaker 1: which may be defined as a sensory perception which has
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  Speaker 1: no objective counterpart within the field of vision. The question
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  Speaker 1: therefore becomes whether it was merely a delusive hallucination when
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  Speaker 1: there is nothing whatever to which it corresponds, or a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: verritical hallucination corresponding to some real event which was invisible
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: to normal eyesight. This must not be confused with a delusion,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: which applies to cases where there is no corresponding reality.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: There are many well known cases of vivid illusions of
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: sight which sometimes accompany the oncoming of sleep, as when
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a dream figure persists for a short time, or when
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: faces in the dark are vividly seen by certain persons.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: These illusions are termed hypnogogic. Externalized impressions of this kind
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: are the frequent source of imaginary apparitions, such as occur
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to nervous people walking through lonely places at night. To
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: many of my readers, this common sense explanation will appear
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to be the origin of the vision of the dying,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: which we have just related, the whole matter being dismissed
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: as mere coincidence. If this case stood alone, this would
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: be the probable explanation. It will, however, be seen that
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: mere chance coincidence cannot apply to the numerous cases which
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: will be recited later on. Another explanation is the creation
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: of hallucination in the precipient by some transference of thought
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: or telepathic influence from those around the bedside. In the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: case cited, However, this explanation fails, for Lady Barrett and
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: doctor Phillips knew nothing about the decease of the precipient's
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: father when the latter, looking steadily at one place, said
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: why it's father, Oh, he's so glad, I'm coming. Nor
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: was her husband present at the time. Moreover, the skeptical
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: reader is likely to deny the existence of telepathy and
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: would reject any explanation based upon that ground. The next
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: case has reached us from America and is a well
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: authenticated instance, since on the authority of a distinguished man,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: doctor Minote J. Savage, with whom I was acquainted. Doctor
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Minote Savage was for many years a valued member of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: our spr He died in nineteen twenty. Doctor Hislop has
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: recorded the following case in one of his books and remarks.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Quote doctor Savage told me personally of the facts and
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: gave me the names and addresses of the persons on
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: whose authority he tells the incidents. End quote, which doctor
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Savage narrates as follows. Quote. In a neighboring city where
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: two little girls, Genie and Edith, one about eight years
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: of age in the other but a little older. They
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: were schoolmates and intimate friends. In June eighteen eighty nine,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: both were taken ill of diphtheria. At noon on Wednesday,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Genie died. Then the parents of Edith and her physician
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: as well, took particular pains to keep from her the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: fact that her little playmate was gone. They feared the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: effect of the knowledge on her own condition. To prove
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: that they had succeeded and that she did not know.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: It may be mentioned that on Saturday, June eighth, at noon,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: just before she was becoming unconscious of all that was
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: passing about her, she selected two of her photographs to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: be sent to Genie, and also told her attendants to
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: bid her goodbye. She died at half past six o'clock
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: on the evening of Saturday, June eighth. She had aroused
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and bidden her friends goodbye, and was talking of dying
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and seemed to have no fear. She appeared to see
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: one and another of the friends she knew were dead.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: So far it was like other similar cases. But now suddenly,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and with every appearance of surprise, she turned to her
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: father and exclaimed, why, Papa, I am going to take
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Genie with me. Then she added, why Papa, you did
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: not tell me that Genie was here, And immediately she
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: reached out her arms as if in welcome and said, oh, Genie,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you are here. In connection with this case,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: doctor Savage remarks that it is difficult to account for
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the incident by any ordinary theory of hallucination. If this
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: vision were a solitary case, a mere casual coincidence might
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: perhaps account for it, but as it is only one
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of a considerable group of similar cases, an explanation of
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: chance coincidence becomes incredible. My readers will doubtlessly agree with
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: doctor Savage's remark as they peruse the other cases narrated
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: in this volume. The following case was given in a
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: paper contributed to the spr by mister Edmund Gurree and
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: mister F. W. H. Myers. It was received by them
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: through the Reverend C. J. Taylor. The narrator, who does
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: not wish his name published, was the Vicar of h Quote.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: On November second and third, eighteen seventy, I lost my
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: two eldest boys, David, Edward and Harry, from scarlet fever,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: they being then three and four years old respectively. Harry
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: died at Abbott's, Langley on November two, fourteen miles from
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: my vicarage at Espley. David the following day at Espley.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: About an hour before the death of this latter child,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: he sat up in bed and, pointing to the bottom
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of the bed, said distinctly, there's little Harry calling to me.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Of the truth of this fact, I am sure, And
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: it was heard also by the nurse. Signed x Z,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Vicar of h in letters and conversations with mister Podmore.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Mister Taylor adds the following details. Quote, mister Z, the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: vicar tells me that care was taken to keep David
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: from knowing that Harry was dead, and that he feels
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: sure that David did not know it. Mister Z was
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: himself present and heard what the boy said. The boy
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: was not delirious at the time. The next case was
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: communicated to the spr by Reverend J. A. McDonald, who
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: has for some years been a useful helper to the
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: society in the careful collection of evidence. Mister McDonald received
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: it at firsthand from Missus Ogle, who was the sister
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: of the precipient. She writes as follows, quote, My brother
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: John Alcin Ogle died at Leeds July seventeenth, eighteen seventy nine.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: About an hour before he expired, he saw his brother,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: who had died about sixteen years before, and John, looking
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: up with fixed interest, said Joe, Joe, and immediately after
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: exclaimed with ardent surprise, George Hanley. My mother, who had
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: come from Melbourne, a distance of about forty miles where
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: George Hanley resided, was astonished at this and said how
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: strange he should see George Hanley, he died only ten
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: days ago. Then, turning to my sister in law, she
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: asked if anybody had told John of George Hanley's death.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: She said no one. My mother was the only person
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: present who was aware of the fact. I was present
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: and witnessed this, signed Harriet h Ogle end quote. In
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: answer to inquiries, Miss Ogle states quote J. A Ogle
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: was neither delirious nor unconscious when he uttered the words recorded.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: George Hanley was an acquaintance of John a Ogle, not
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: a particularly familiar friend. The death of Hanley was not
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: mentioned in his hearing. The review Spirit for December nineteen
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: twenty four contains the following interesting case quote. The review
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: of Verda de Elus of Sal Paulo, Brazil, in its
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: number of September nineteen twenty four, has remarks on the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: striking incident of which the dying Adamina Lazzaro was the heroine.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: A few hours before her death, the patient said to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: her father that she saw near her bed several members
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: of the family, all deceased some years previously. The father
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: attributed this declaration in extremists to a state of delirium,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: but Adamina insisted with renewed force, and among the invisible
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: visitors named her own brother, Alfredo, who was employed at
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the time at a distance of four hundred and twenty
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: three kilometers on the lighthouse of the port of Cisal.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: The father was more and more convinced of the imaginary
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: nature of these visions, well knowing that his son Alfredo
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: was in perfect health for a few days previously, he
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: had sent the best possible news of himself. Adamina died
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the same evening, and the next morning her father received
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: a telegram informing him of the death of the young Alfredo.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: The comparison of times showed that the dying girl was
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: still living at the time of the death of her brother.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: End quote. I am indebted to mister C. J. Hans
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Hamilton for the following case, which he translated from the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Review Psychica of nineteen twenty one. It was contributed by
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Joi Coolier of the Institute Metaphysique Paris, who says, quote,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: my uncle Monsieur Paul du Roc left Paris in eighteen
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: ninety three for a trip to America with my aunt
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and other members of the family. While they were at Venezuela,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: my uncle was seized with yellow fever, and he died
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: at Caracas on the twenty fourth June eighteen ninety four.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Just before his death, and while surrounded by all his family,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: he had a prolonged delirium during which he called out
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the names of certain friends left in France and whom
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: he seemed to see. Well, well you two, and you
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: you as well. Although struck by this incident, nobody attached
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: any extraordinary importance to these words at the time they
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: were uttered, but they acquired later an exceptional importance when
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the family found, on their return to Paris the funeral
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: invitation cards of the person's named by my uncle before
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: his death. But they acquired later on exceptional importance when
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: the family found, on the return to Paris the funeral
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: invitation cards of the person's name by my uncle before
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: his death, and who had died before him. It is
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: only recently that I have been able to collect the
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: testimony of the only two survivors of this event, my
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: cousins Germaine and Maurice de Roc. Jermaine de Roc writes
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: as follows, quote you ask me details of the death
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of my poor father, I well remember him as he
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: lay dying, though it is many years ago. The thing
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: which probably interests you is that he told us of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: having seen some persons in heaven, and having spoken to
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: them at some length. We were much astonished on returning
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: to France to find the the funeral cards of those
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: same persons whom he had seen when dying. Maurice, who
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: was older than I was, could give you more details
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: on this subject. End quote. Maurice du Roc writes, quote
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: concerning what you asked me with regard to the death
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of my father, which occurred a good many years ago,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: I recall that a few moments before his death, my
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: father called the name of one of his old companions,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Monsieur Etchavetti, with whom he had not kept up any connection,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: even by correspondence for a long time past crying out ah,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: you too, or some similar phrase. It was only on
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: returning home to Paris that we found the funeral card
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: of this gentleman. Perhaps my father may have mentioned other
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: names as well, but I do not remember. End. Mister
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Hans Hamilton, who translated and sent the above incident to me,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: comments on it as follows. Quote. The date of the
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: deaths of the persons seen by Monsieur du Roc when
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: dying should have been verified at the time of the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: return of the family to Paris, since we have otherwise
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: no certainty that they died before Monsieur de Roc. However,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: the whole of the story makes it more than probable
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: that this point would not have been overlooked by the family,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and Monsieur Arcollier states in his own account that the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: persons in question were deceased at the time of the apparitions.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Close quote the following incident was sent to the Spectator
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: by H. Wedgwood in eighteen eighty two. He says, quote,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: between forty and fifty years ago, a young girl, a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: near connection of mine, was dying of consumption. She had
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: lain for some days in a prostrate condition, taking no
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: notice of anything. When she opened her eyes and looking upwards,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: said slowly Susan, and Jane and Ellen, as if recognizing
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the presence of her three sisters, who had previously died
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: of the same disease. Then, after a short pause, she
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: continued and edward too, naming a brother then supposed to
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: be alive and well in India, as if surprised at
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: seeing him in the company. She said no more in
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: sank shortly afterwards In the course of the post, letters
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: came from India announcing the death of Edward from an
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: accident a week or two previous to the death of
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: his sister. This was told to me by an elder
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: sister who nursed the dying girl and was present at
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: her deathbed at the time of the apparent vision. End
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Miss Francis Power Cobb, authoress of the Peak Endarian recites
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: an incident of a very striking character as having occurred
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: in a family united very closely by affection. Quote. A
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: dying lady, exhibiting the aspect of joyful surprise, spoke of
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: seeing one after another three of her brothers who had
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: been long dead, and then apparently recognized, last of all
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: a fourth brother, who was believed by the bystanders to
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: be still living in India. The coupling of his name
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: with that of his dead brothers excited such awe and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: horror in the mind of one of the persons present
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: that she rushed from the room. In due course of time,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: letters were received announcing the death of the brother in India,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: which had occurred some time before his dying sister seemed
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: to recognize him. End quote. Doctor E. H. Plumpter, the
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Dean of Wells, writing to the Spectator August twenty sixth,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two, remarks, quote, the mother of one of
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: the foremost thinkers and theologians of our time was lying
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: on her deathbed in the April of eighteen fifty four.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: She had been for some days in a state of
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: almost complete unconsciousness. A short time before her death, the
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: words came from her lips. There they are all of them, William,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and Elizabeth, and Emma and Anne, then after a pause,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: and Priscilla too. William was a son who had died
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: in infancy, and whose name had never for years passed
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the mother's lips. Priscilla had died two days before, but
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: her death, though known to the family, had not been
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: reported to her end. In connection with the subject of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: this chapter, the case of missus z in Chapter five,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: page one oh two should also be read. End of
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: chapter two, Chapter three, Part one of deathbed Visions by
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: William Barrett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Chapter three visions seen by the dying of persons known
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: by them to be dead, and deathbed visions seen by others. Quote,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: I believe no soul is left to wing its viewless
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: flight to paradise in solitude. I believe the gloria in
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: excelsis of the shining host of God welcomes the disembodied
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: spirit upon the confines of the new world. I remember
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: hearing once of a little dying child shrinking timidly from
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: the idea of going alone. But just before the end,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: there came a spirit of sublime confidence, a supernatural opening
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: of vision, a recognition of some companionship, and the little
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: one cried out, I am not afraid they are all here.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I believe the chamber of the dying is filled with
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the Holy angels. Endot Basil Wilberforce. There are a great
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: many records authenticated by those who have attended the last
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: moments of a dying friend or patient, wherein shortly before death,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: an astatic vision seems to have been granted to the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: dying person, whose face lights up with joy and apparent
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: recognition of some relative before he passes into the unseen.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: It is needless to quote a great number of cases,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: as doubtless many of my readers will be familiar with instances.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Such cases are not confined to one country or one nation,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: but they appear to be more or less common all
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: over the world. Here, for instance, is a case which
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: occurred among the Cree Indians of Saskatchewan. An assistant matron
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: of the atta Ka Coops Indian Hospital, Sandy Lake Reserve, Saskatchewan, Canada,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: writes to me on January twenty eighth, nineteen twenty five,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: about a patient in the hospital as follows quote. He
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: was a Cree Indian lad about twenty years of age,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: son of Chief Pepiuan of the neighboring reserve. He was
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: in the last stage of phythidis and had been brought
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: here to be cared for till the finish. He was
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: placed in a wigwam about one hundred yards distant. At last,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Day arrived. It was evening, and I was
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: with him. He was lying quietly in his bed, when
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: suddenly he sat up, stretched forth his arms with a
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: yearning gesture, while an ecstatic smile broke over his face.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: It was not simply a smile of pleasure, but something
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: far beyond it. The veil was lifted, and no one
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: who was looking on could fail to realize that it
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: was a glorious vision that met his gaze. He then
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: lay back in his bed, looked at me with a
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: smile and passed away. He had been calm and collected
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: during the day. There was no delirium. It was a
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: clouded glimpse of that higher life into which he was
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: just entering. Signed R. Hutchinson, Assistant Matron Enote. Some interesting
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: cases of visions seen by dying persons are given in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: a little book by Missus Joyce Snell, who was a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: nurse in a large hospital, and the cases she narrates
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: are her own personal experiences and not narratives related at secondhand.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Snell seems to be a careful and conscientious recorder,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and she has kindly furnished me with the names and
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: other particulars of the cases given anonymously in her book.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I quote below a few of these cases as given
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: by her quote. I recall the death of a woman,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Missus Brown, aged thirty six, who was the victim of
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: that most dreadful disease, malignant cancer. Her sufferings were excruciating,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and she prayed earnestly that death might speedily come to
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: her and end her agony. Suddenly, her sufferings appeared to
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: cease the expression of her face, which a moment before
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: had been distorted by pain, changed to one of radiant joy.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Gazing upwards with a glad light in her eyes, she
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: raised her hands and exclaimed, Oh, mother, dear, you have
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: come to take me home. I am so glad, And
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: in another moment her physical life had ceased. The memory
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: of another death, which occurred about the same time, comes
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: back to me. It was that of an old soldier,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: mister Archtiloni, aged fifty nine, who was in the last
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: stages of tuberculosis brought on by exposure while fighting his
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: country's battles. He was brave and patient, but had frequent
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: paroxysms of pain that were almost unendurable, and he had
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: longed for the relief which he knew death alone could
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: bring him. One of his spasms had seized upon him,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: and his features were convulsed with agony as he fought
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: for breath. When he suddenly grew calm, a smile lit
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: up his face, and looking upwards, he exclaimed, with a
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: ring of joy in his voice, Marian, my daughter. Then
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: the end came. His brother and sister were at the bedside.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: The sister said to the brother he saw Marion, his
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: favorite daughter. She came and took him where he will
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: suffer no more, and she added fervently, thank God he
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: has found rest at last end quote. In chapter six,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: other cases related by missus Snell will be found. Miss
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: R Canton of Garway Road, London West sends me the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: following case, which I quote in her own words as follows. Quote.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Some years ago I went to see a cousin of
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: mine in Acton, who was very ill, and I was
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: told by her sister that on the previous evening, as
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: she sat down on a chair by the bedside, the
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: invalid exclaimed, oh, don't Jay, oh, you have sent mother away.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: She was sitting there, and she continued to seem much distressed.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: My aunt had died some years previously. Young girl told
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: me about this herself when we were alone. End quote.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: The following is a case of vision of the dying,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: translated from the Review spiritA for January nineteen twenty five. Quote.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Mister A. R. Besarkhan writes as follows. At the commencement
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: of February nineteen fifteen, at m when I was only
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: ten years old, I had the grief of losing my mother.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Her death was accompanied by circumstances which I take the
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: liberty of relating my mother was attended by my grandmother
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: during her illness. One night, the latter was surprised at
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: hearing my mother, who was sleeping in the next room,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: pronounced certain sentences, among others, this, Marie, I can see
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: you at last. I am glad you have come helped me.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Marie was my sister who died a few years before. This.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Grandmother thought it was a dream. She rose and approached
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: my mother's bed, and to her great surprise, she found
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: her in a perfect normal state. My mother even told
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: her the satisfaction she had had in seeing her daughter.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Later on in the night, the conversation was resumed, but
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: we paid no further attention. But on the next morning
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: mother was no more Moreover, during the same night, one
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: of my aunts, who lived in the neighboring village of
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: v had the clear impression of seeing my mother she passed.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: She said to me the following day beside my bed,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: without speaking, then went to embrace my two daughters and disappeared.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Such are the facts close quote the following cases quoted
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: from mister Richard Pike's Life's Borderland and Beyond, page forty six.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Quote in the summer of eighteen eighty three, a young
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: man named Giles of Nottingham had the misfortune to lose
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: several children after long and painful periods of illness. The
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: two eldest, Fred and Anne, aged respectively seven and eight,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: had died and been buried for some weeks. When his
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: little boy of four years showed symptoms of approaching death.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: The father and mother were constantly by his side, as
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: will be readily believed, to mitigate the little fellow's suffering
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: as much as possible. On the night when he died,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the father came to his bedside with the customary medicine.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: When the little boy, sitting upright in bed, cried out,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: there's Fred and Annie where my boy asked the father.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Don't you see them there? There, said the lad, pointing
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: to the wall. They're waiting for me to go back
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: to them. And the next minute the little sufferer fell
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: back on the pillow dead. It should be mentioned that
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: the father saw nothing of the apparition to which his
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: dying boy so vividly pointed, but he quite believes its reality.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: End quote. Missus Kinlock of Boundary Road, Saint John's Wood,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Northwest sends me instances of visions of the dying which
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: had been told her, and which I quote in her words. Quote.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: My sister, who has recently passed over, who was with
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: our mother when she died, told me that on the
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: day before her death, she suddenly called out, oh, look
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: at your father over there, and pointed to the corner
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of the room. But my sister could see nothing. A
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: poor woman in whom I knew, told me the other
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: day that just before her mother died, she said, suddenly, Tom,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: bring the boat nearer. I can't get in. Tom was
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: her husband. End quote. In this case. In the next
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: three cases, the apparitions seem to have had a more
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: or less premonitory purpose. The incident was related to the
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: editor of the review Psychica, who considered it so interesting
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: that she requested the lady to repeat it by letter,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: which she willingly did, only requesting that nothing more than
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: her initials should be published, though her name and address
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: were known to the editor of the review. The letter
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: is as follows, quote, dear Madam, with reference to the
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: incident I related to you, which happened several years ago.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: The following are the facts, just as they occurred. I
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: lost my daughter when she was seventeen years of age.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: She had been ill for some five years, and for
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: eight months before her death, had been confined to her bed.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: During all this time and up to her death, she
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: maintained a remarkable degree of intelligence and will. A fortnight
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: before her death, one evening, when I was leaning over
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: the head of her bed, I asked her what she
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: was thinking of seeing her absorbed. She replied, little mother,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: look there, pointing to the bed curtains. I followed the
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: direction of her hand and saw a man's form, completely white,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: standing out quite clearly against the dark curtain. Having no
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: ideas of spiritism, my emotion was intense, and I closed
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: my eyes, not wishing to see any longer. My child
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: said to me, you do not reply. I had the
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: weakness to declare to her her I see nothing, but
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: my trembling voice betrayed me doubtless, for the child added
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: with an air of reproach, Oh, little mother, I have
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: seen the same thing for the last three days at
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the same hour. It's my dear father who has come
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: to fetch me. My child died fifteen days later, but
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the apparition was not repeated. Perhaps it attained its greatest
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: intensity on the day I saw it. Signed ZG. Close
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: quote the editor of Psychica, remarks, the lady who signs
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: this letter is not a credulous person, and she declares
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: that she saw the visions near the bed of her
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: dying child at a time when her thoughts were far
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: from the creation of a fantasmal form. Carita Bordereaux, editor
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: of Psychica, end quote. Mister Hans Hamilton, who translated the
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: above extracts, remarks, quote the interest of this case lies
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: in the fact of the apparition having taken place fifteen
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: days before death, in its being visible to two persons,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: and in the fact that there is not the least
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: suspicion of either delirium or coma on the part of
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: the dying girl end quote. A striking case of collective hallucination,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: that is to say, a vision seen by the relatives
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: of the dying person as well as by the dying
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: person herself is given. In the Proceedings spr for eighteen
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: eighty nine. The narrator, Miss Emma Pearson, writes an account
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: of her aunt's illness and death, which is here given
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: considerably abridged. Quote. My aunt, Miss Harriet Pearson, who was
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: taken very ill at Brighton in November eighteen sixty four,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: craved to be back in her own home in London,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: where she and her sister Anne, who had died some
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: years previously, had spent practically all their lives. I accordingly
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: made the necessary arrangements and had her moved. Her two nieces,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Missus Copinger and Missus John Pearson, Eliza Quinton, the housekeeper,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: and myself did the nursing. Between us. She became worse
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: and worse. On the night of December twenty third, Missus
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: John Pearson was sitting up with her, while Missus Coppinger
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: and I lay down in the adjoining room, leaving the
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: door ajar to hear any sound from the next room.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: We were neither of us asleep, and suddenly we both
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: started up in bed as we saw someone pass the door,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: wrapped up in an old shaw, having a wig with
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: three curls each side in an old black cap. Missus
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Coppinger called to me, Emma, get up, it is old
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Aunt Anne. I said, so it is, then Aunt Harriet
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: will die today. As we jumped up, Missus John Pearson
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: came rushing out of Aunt Harriet's room, saying, that was
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: old Aunt Anne. Where's she gone? I said, to soothe her,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Perhaps it was Eliza come down to see how her
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: old mistress is. Missus Coppinger ran up stairs and found
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Eliza asleep. Every room was searched, no one was there,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: and from that day to this no explanation has ever
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: been given of this appearance, except that it was old
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Aunt Anne come to call her sister. Aunt Harriet died
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: on six pm that day. End quote. Eliza Quinton, the housekeeper,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: confirms the above statement and adds quote, we searched in
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: every room but could not find anyone in the house.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Miss Harriet died on the evening of that day, but
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: before that she told us all that she had seen
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: her sister and that she had come to call her
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: end quote. This last statement is further confirmed by Miss
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Emma Pearson in a later letter, in which she states
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: that she remembers her aunt saying that quote her sister
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: had come for her and she had seen her end quote.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: In the following case, the premonitory purpose seems to be
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: strongly marked. Quote. Louis f Aged forty eight, died after
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: an abdominal operation in January eighteen ninety six. During her illness,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: she frequently asked that, when cured, she might take her
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: little niece, Lily, aged three years and three months, of
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: whom she was very fond to live with her in
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the country. About a month after the death of her aunt,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: little Lily, who was intelligent and precocious and in quite
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: good health, often stopped in her play to look fixedly
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: out of the window. Her mother asked her what she
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: was looking at, and she answered, it is Louise, who
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: holds out her arms to me and calls me. Her mother,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: much frightened, tried to distract her attention, but the child
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: drew her chair to the window and continued to look
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: for several minutes. Her brother m f who gave me
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: these details, said, I was then eleven years old, and
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: my little sister said, what don't you see Tata as
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: she called her aunt. Of course I could see nothing.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: For some months, nothing further was seen by the child.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: The visions ceased. Towards May twentieth, Little Lily fell ill,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: and when in bed, she looked up to the ceilings,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: saying that she saw her aunt calling her surrounded by
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: little angels. Mother, how pretty, she said. From day to
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: day her illness increased, but she always repeated, my aunt
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: has come to fetch me. She's holding out her arms
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: to me, and as her mother wept, she said, don't cry, mother,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: it is very beautiful. There are angels around me. She
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: died on the ninth of June of tubercular meningitis, four
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: and a half months after the death of Luis F.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Such is the story told by her brother M. F.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Confirmed by a sister GF and her mother. The family
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: lived very quietly in a country town. None of them
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: know anything of psychic science. The following case was printed
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: in the Religio Philosophical Journal May fifth, eighteen ninety four.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Mister B. B. Kingsbury, who contributed it, states that the
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: informant is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and her
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: husband confirmed her statement of voices heard by the little
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: boy calling him. Mister Kingsbury adds that both his informants,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: mister and missus H, are worthy of the highest credit.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: The father is somewhat of a sensitive and the mother
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: has had two or three clairfoyant experiences herself. The statement,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: just as it was given by the mother, runs as
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: follows quote. Had I ever doubted that there was a
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: life beyond, my doubt would have been removed by what
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: I call a vision in eighteen eighty three, I was
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: the mother of two strong, healthy boys. The eldest was
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: a bright boy of two years and seven months, the
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: other a darling baby boy of eight months. August sixth,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three, my baby died. Ray, my little son,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: was then in perfect health. Every day after Baby's death,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: and I may safely say, every hour in the day,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: he would say to me, Mama, baby calls Ray. He
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: would often leave his play and come running to me, saying, Mama,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: baby calls Ray all the time. Every night he would
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: waken me out of my sleep and say, Mama, baby
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: calls Ray all the time. He wants Ray to come
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: where he is. You must not cry when Ray goes, Mama,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: you must not cry, for baby wants Ray. One day
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: I was sweeping the sitting room floor and he came
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: running as fast as he could run through the dining
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: room where stood the table with baby's high chair which
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Ray now used at the side. I never saw him
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: so excited, and he grabbed my dress and pulled me
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: to the dining room door, jerked it open, saying, oh, Mama, Mama,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: come quick, Baby is sitting in his high chair. As
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: soon as he opened the door and looked at the chair.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: He said, oh, Mama, why didn't you hurry? Now he's gone,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: he laughed her Ray. When he passed the chair, Oh,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: he laughed her Ray. So nice, Ray is going with baby.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: But you must not cry, mama. Ray soon became very sick.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Nursing and medicine were of no avail. He died October thirteenth,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three, two months and seven days after baby's death.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: He was a child of high intelligence and matured far
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: beyond his years. Whether it is possible for the dead
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: to return, and whether my baby came back and was
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: seen by his little brother or not, we leave for
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: others to judge. End. Quote. Doctor Hodgson, whose name is
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: well known to all psychical researchers as one of the
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: most careful and critical investigators, made inquiries regarding the case,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: and in reply to doctor Hodgson's inquiries, missus h wrote
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: quote Defiance, Ohio, December thirteenth, eighteen ninety four. When the
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: child ran to me telling me the baby was sitting
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: in his chair at the table. There was no one
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: in the house but the servant girl, little Ray and myself.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I told the girl nothing about it, and she did
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: not hear the child, but as soon as my husband
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: came to dinner, I told him. After that we talked
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: freely of the matter to several of our friends. Little
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Ray knew nothing of death. We had never spoken of
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: it to him in any way. The last time I
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: took him to the baby's grave, shortly before he was
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: taken sick. We were sitting by the grave and I thought, Oh,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: if I could only take baby up and look at
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: it for just one minute, I would feel so glad.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Instantly Ray said to me, Mama, let us take baby
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: up and look at it just one minute, then we
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: will feel better. Just as we were leaving the grave,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: he smoothed it with his little hand and said, Ray
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: is going to lie down and sleep right here beside
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: little brother. But you must not cry, Mama. He is
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: now lying just where he said he would. Ps. I
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: wish to say that I have never known much of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: what is called modern spiritualism, but was born and reared
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: a Presbyterian, and still belonged to that church of which
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: I am an active member. Fh End quote. Doctor Hodgson
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: also wrote to mister h who replied as follows quote
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: February twenty seventh, eighteen ninety five. I can truly say
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: that my wife related it, that is about Ray seeing
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: baby in the chair to me the day it occurred.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: When I came to dinner, I frequently heard our little
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: boy tell his mama that the baby called him all
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: the time. Whh end quote. The following corroboration was also
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: received by doctor Hodgson. Quote one sixteen Summit Street, Defiance, Ohio,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: February twenty fifth, eighteen ninety five. Dear Sir, I can
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: truly say that missus and mister H often spoke to
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: me of Ray seeing the baby in the chair before
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: he took sick. They told me the next day after
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: it happened, Missus J. H. Schulters end quote. The following
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: case was given by doctor Paul Edwards and was published
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: in the journal Light for April nineteen oh six. Quote.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: While living in a country town in California, USA, about
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: the year eighteen eighty seven, I was called upon to
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: visit a very dear lady friend who was now very
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: low and weak from consumption. Everyone knew that this pure
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and noble wife and mother was doomed to die, and
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: at last she herself became convinced that immediate death was inevitable,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: and accordingly she prepared for the event. Calling her children
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: to her bedside, She kissed each in turn, sending them
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: away as soon as goodbye was said. Then came the
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: husband's turn to step up and bid farewell to his
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: most loving wife, who was perfectly clear in her mind.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: She began by saying Newton, for that was his Christian name.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Do not weep over me, for I am without pain
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: and am holy serene. I love you upon earth, and
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: I shall love you after I have gone. I am
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: fully resolved to come to you if such a thing
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: as possible, and if it is not possible, I will
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: watch you and the children from heaven, where I will
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: be waiting when you all come. My first desire now
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: is to go. I see people moving, all in white.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: The music is strangely enchanting. Oh here is Sadie. She
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: is with me, and she knows who I am. Sadie
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: was a little girl she had lost about ten years before. Sissy,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: said the husband. You are out of your mind. Oh dear,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: why did you call me here again? Said the wife.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: Now it will be hard for me to go away again.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: I was so pleased while there it was so delightful,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: so soothing. In about three minutes, the dying woman added,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: I am going away again, and I will not come
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: back to you even if you call me. This scene
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: lasted for about eight minutes, and it was very plain
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: that the dying wife was in full view of the
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: two worlds at the same time, for she described how
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: the moving figures looked in the world beyond as she
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: directed her words to mortals in this world. I think
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: that of all the death scenes, this was the most impressive,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: the most solemn end quote. My friend Missed has sent
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: me some cases of visions of the dying which occurred
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: to persons she knew. In one case, the face of
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: her friend's mother just before death, suddenly lighted up with
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: an intense brilliancy. When this had passed away, the dying
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: woman opened her eyes and said that she had looked
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: into heaven and had seen many people they knew who
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: had passed over, and also that many of the things
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: that she had seen it was impossible to describe. Shortly
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: after this, she died. In another case, Miss Dallas tells
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: of a widow living with her youngest surviving son, Jim,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: then dying of consumption. Miss Dallas visited the mother shortly
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: after her son's death and recorded the following in her
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: notebook the same day. Quote, Jim had died on a Thursday,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: and on the previous Sunday his end appeared to be near,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: but he revived and told his mother that he had
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: seen something beautiful again. He had a relapse. He said
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: he had seen two of his sisters and a brother
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: who had died previously. But he added, mother, I cannot
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: find Bessie. His mother told Miss Dallas that Bessie had
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: died twelve years before when Jim was still a child.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: Not long after this, Jim died en The following case
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: is taken from the Journal of the American spr for
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: July nineteen oh nine, page four twenty two. The editor,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Professor his Look, relates how the original letter came into
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: his possession and remarks that it may be taken as
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: documentary evidence of the incident narrated. The original letter was
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: enclosed in one addressed to the editor of the Open Court,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a well known American periodical. In it, the writer mister
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: William C. Church states that the letter he forwards was
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: written to the late Captain J. Erkson, inventor of the
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: monitor by Lady Ellen Shute, a relative of his wife,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: and concerns the death of Ricksson's sister in law, Louis Browning.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: The Amelia referred to in the letter was the wife
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: of Captain Erickson, who had died in January eighteen sixty seven,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: many years previously, and Aunt Louisa Browning was the sister
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: of Amelia. Quote Brackneil Burks, November fifth, eighteen eighty three.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Dear Captain Rickson, since I wrote to you our fond
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: aunt Louisa Browning died on Sunday morning, October twenty eighth,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: at the age of seventy eight. On her deathbed, she
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: appeared to see her deeply loved sister, Captain Erickson's wife, Amelia,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: who had gone before. Those watching her heard her say,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: though she had before been quite unconscious, Oh Amelia, Amelia,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: and she reached out her hand to welcome someone their
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: earthly eyes were not permitted to see. And then all
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: was over. Yours very sincerely, signed Ellen Shoote end quote
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: in the case here abridged. The singing and voice of
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: the unseen visiting were heard by the mother as well
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: as by her dying child and a cousin of the
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: deceased child appears to have had a vision of the
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: child and heard a premontory intimation of her death quote.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Missus g with her two little daughters, Minnie and Ada,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: of the respective ages of eight and nine years, have
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: been staying in the country on a visit to her
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: sister in law, but having taken a house near London.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: She sent the two children with their nurse off by
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: an early train, following herself by one of A few
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: hours later, towards the evening of the same day, one
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: of the little girls walked into the room of the
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: house which they had quitted in the morning, where a
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: cousin to whom she was much attached was sitting at
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: his studies, and said to him, I am come to
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: say goodbye, Walter. I shall never see you again. Then
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: kissing him, she vanished from the room. The young man
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: was greatly startled and astonished, as he had himself seen
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: both the little girls and their nurse off by the
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: morning train at this very time of the evening. Both
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: the children in London were taken suddenly ill while playing
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: in their new home. A few hours after they had arrived.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: The doctor called in pronounced their complaint to be smallpox
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: of the most malignant kind. They both died within the week,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: but the youngest Mini died first. The day after she
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: was buried, the poor bereaved mother was anxiously watching the
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: last hours of the one still left, for whom she
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: well knew no chance of life remained. Suddenly, the sick
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: child woke up from a kind of stupor and exclaimed, oh, look, Mama,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: look at the beautiful angels, pointing to the foot of
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the bed. Missus G saw nothing, but heard soft, sweet
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: music which seemed to float in the air. Again, the
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: child exclaimed, oh, dear Mama, there's Minnie. She has come
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: for me. She smiled and appeared greatly pleased. At this moment,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: missus G distinctly heard a voice say, come, dear Ada,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: I am waiting for you. Sick child smiled once again
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: and died without a struggle. Some time before their death,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: the poor mother overheard a childish conversation between the two
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: little ones in which the youngest Mini said to the
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: other that she felt sure she should die first and
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: would be certain to come and fetch her sister. This
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: conversation was long remembered by the mother as it was
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: strikingly confirmed by the actual facts. It is of course
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: possible that expectancy on the part of the mother, if
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: at the time she recalled her children's conversation, may discount
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: the evidential value of this striking case. It has been
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: recorded of the celebrated mathematician Professor de Morgan, that during
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: the last two days of his life there were indications
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: of his passing through the experience which he had himself
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: considered worthy of investigation and of record. He seemed to
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: recognize all those of his family whom he had lost,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: his three children, his mother, his sister, whom he greeted,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: naming them in the revere order to that in which
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: they left the world. No one seeing him at that
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: moment could doubt that what he seemed to perceive was
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: to him at least visible and real. Missus de Morgan,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: in her book From Matter to Spirit, relates the following incident,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: which she gives as it was told by the mother
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: of the dying child. Quote on the morning on which
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: John died, having bade all the family farewell, he lay
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: for some time quite quiet, and then he spoke, his
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: voice sounding strong and clear, and was evidently replying to
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: some question which he had heard asked. We were astonished
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: and awestruck. We felt that he saw and heard an
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: angel invisible to us. Then he spoke again and said, mother,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: here's grandmother. Come you must see her. And she is
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: with such a great company, and they say that they
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: are come to take me away with them. Soon after
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: that he gently breathed his last end. Quote. The Reverend W. G.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Horne relates the following incident and says, quote, a friend
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: of mine, of a mind naturally indisposed to faith and
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: at the time quite skeptical about a future life, tells
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: me of the following incident, which made a deep impression
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: upon him and even wakened belief in immortality. His brother,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: a young man of about twenty five years of age,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: had been seized with brain fever, which at last rendered
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: him quite unconscious for about twenty four hours. But just
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: before death, he raised himself in his bed, resting himself
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: upon his hand, and said, who is that at the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: bottom of my bed? His mother, who was sitting by
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: his bedside, said there is no one there, My dear,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: He said, don't you see Emma, a departed sister standing
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: at the foot of the bed. She said no, there's
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: no one there, My dear, Yes there is. He said,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: it is Emma, I am coming, I am ready, and
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: fell back and died end. The following three cases were
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: sent to me by Missus Shepherd Munn, widow of the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: late Vicar of Orlanton, Brimfield, Herefordshire, to whom all the
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: people concerned in the narratives were known personally. She writes
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: as follows quote. A young boy aged fourteen named Charles Dyer,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: who lived with his parents in Orlanton, was dying of
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: consumption and had wasted away very rapidly in four or
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: five months. During the whole of that period he was
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: very bright, full of interest in all around, and did
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: not seem to be aware of his rapidly failing strength.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: About a week before he died, he slept in a
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: room off his mother's with no door between. He called her,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: and when she went in, he was full of excitement
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: about a door he could see at the corner of
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: his room, which he said was opening wider and wider,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: and when it is open wide, I shall be going
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: through it. Mother. On the morning on the day he died,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: his mother, having left the room to fetch him something
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: heard him call, and hastening back, found him sitting up
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: in bed, looking towards the corner of the room, and
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: he said to her, there's a nice old man come
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: for me. He is holding out his arms for me.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: I must go. Don't fret, mother, And he fell back
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: gently on his pillow and was gone without any struggle
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: for breath, and with a smile of joy on his face,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: which remained. His mother was full of ecstasy, and came
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: down to the vicarage that same morning to tell me
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: of it. The impression this experience made upon her has
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: continued to this present day and has influenced her life
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: for the better end quote. The following case, also related
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: to me by Missus Shepherd Munn, took place some years
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: previous to the last, but is connected with the same family. Quote.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: An old man named John George, grandfather of the consumptive
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: boy Charles Dyer, already referred to lay dying. He and
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: his wife Mary and George had had a great sorrow
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: that same year in the death of their youngest son, Tom,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: a young man who had been killed on the railway
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: line on which he worked. The dying man had been
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: quiet for some time, as though sleeping when he suddenly
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: looked up, opened his eyes wide, and looking at the
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: side of the bed opposite to where his wife was, exclaimed, Why, mother,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: here's Tom and he is all right. No marks on him. Oh,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: he looks fine. Then, after another silence, he said, and
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: here's Nance too. A pause, then mother, she is all right.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: She has been forgiven. And very soon after he passed away,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: taking with him a sorrow which had long pressed upon
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: the mother's heart, for Nance had fallen into sin and
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: had died after the child was born, and as the
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: poor mother thought, never having had time to repent. End quote.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: The next case is also given by Missus Shepherd Munn,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: and it, also, like the two preceeding cases, occurred in Orlington, Herefordshire. Quote.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: A woman named Mary Wilding was dying of cancer. She
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: was passionately fond of her husband, Charles Wilding. They had
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: worked together, brought up their children, saved some money, and
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: bought a nice little house in Orlington, where they spent
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: some comfortable and happy years together. When she realized that
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: she would die and leave Charlie, she became very unhappy
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: and made them all very miserable by fretting and constantly
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: complaining of her fate. One day, as the end drew near,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: when a sister of hers, who was helping to look
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: after her, happened to be alone in the room with
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Mary Wilding. She suddenly looked up with such a bright
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: expression of face and said, oh, emmy mother is here.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: She has come for me. She never lost the feeling
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: of confidential joy passed away the day after, quite peacefully
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: end Quote. Doctor his Loook narrates the following case, which
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: he received from a friend whose testimony he had no
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: reason to question. Quote. I called this afternoon May fourteenth,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen oh six, upon a lady whose child, a boy
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: of nine years old, had died two weeks previously. He
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: had been operated upon for appendicitis some two or three
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: years ago, and had had peritonidis at the same time.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: He recovered and was apparently quite well for a time. Again,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: he was taken ill, and he was taken to hospital
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: and operated upon. He was perfectly rational, recognizing his parents,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: the doctors, and the nurse. After recovering from under the
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: influence of the anesthetic, feeling that he was going, he
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: asked his mother to hold his hand until he should
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: be gone soon. He looked up and said, mother, dear,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: don't you see little sister over there? No where is
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: she right over there? She's looking at me. Then the mother,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: to pacify him, said she saw the child. In a
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: few minutes, his face lighted up full of smiles, and
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: he said, there comes missus c a lady of whom
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: he was very fond, who had died nearly two years before.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: And she is smiling just as she used to. She
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: is smiling and wants me to come. In a few moments,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: he said, there is Roy. I'm going to them. I
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: don't want to leave you, but you'll come to me soon,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: won't you. Opened the door and let them in. They
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: are waiting outside, and he was gone. The mother confirms
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: this narrative. An inquiry brings out the following facts. The
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: little sister he refers to had died four years before
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: his own birth. Roy is the name of a friend
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: of the child who had died about a year previous.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: The following case is taken from the life of the
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: Reverend Dwight L. Moody, the celebrated evangelical preacher of the
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: United States. The last moments of mister Moody are described
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: by his son the biographer as follows. Quote. Suddenly, he murmured,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: Earth recedes, Heaven opens up before me. I have been
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: beyond the gates. God is calling. Don't call me back.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: It is beautiful. It is like a trance. If this
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: is death, it is sweet. Then his face lit up,
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: and he said, in a voice of joyful rapture, Dwight irene,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: I see the children's faces, referring to his two little
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: grandchildren who had gone. Before turning to his wife, he said, Mama,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: you have been a good wife to me, And with
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: that he became unconscious. End quote. The following case is
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: related by mister Alfred Smedley in his Book of Reminiscence,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: pages fifty fifty one. He gives an account of his
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: wife's last moments and states, quote, a short time before
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: her decease, her eyes being fixed on something that seemed
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: to fill her with pleasant surprise. She exclaimed, why there
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: is sister Charlotte here, and mother and father and brother
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: John and sister Mary, and now they have brought Bessie heap.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: They are all here. Oh, how beautiful? Cannot you see them?
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: She asked? No, my dear, I very much wish I could,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: I answered, cannot you see them? She again asked, in surprise,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: why they are all here and they are come to
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: bear me away with them. Then she added, part of
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: our family have crossed the flood, and soon the other
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: part will be gathered home, and then we shall be
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: a family complete in heaven. I may explain here that
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: Bessie Heap had been the trusted family nurse, and my
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: wife had always been a favorite with her. After the
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: above ecstatic experience, my wife lingered for some time, then,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: fixing her gaze steadily upward again, and lifting up her hands,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: she joined the convoy of angel friends who had come
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: to usher her into that brighter, spiritual world of which
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: we had learned so little. End quote. The next case
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: is given on the authority of doctor Wilson of New York,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: who was president at the death a few years ago
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: of the well known American tenor mister James Moore, who
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: was a patient of his Doctor. Wilson gives the following
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: narrative quote. It was about four o'clock and the dawn
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: for which he had been watching was creeping in through
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: the shutters. When as I bent over the bed, I
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: noticed that his face was quite calm and his eyes clear.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: The poor fellow looked up into my face, and taking
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: my hand in both of his, he said, you've been
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: a good friend to me, doctor, You've stood by me.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: Then something which I shall never forget to my dying
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: day happened, something which is utterly indescribable. While he appeared
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: perfectly rational and as sane as any man I had
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: ever seen, the only way that I can express it
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: is that he was transported into another world. And although
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: I cannot satisfactorily explain the matter to myself, I am
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: fully convinced that he had entered the Golden City. For
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: he said, in a stronger voice than he had used
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: since I had attended him, there is mother. Why mother,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: have you come here to see me? No, no, I'm
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: coming to see you. Just wait, mother, I'm almost over.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: I can jump it. Wait mother. On his face there
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: was a look of inexpressible happiness, and the way in
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: which he said the words impressed me as I have
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: never been before. And I am as firmly convinced that
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: he saw and talked with his mother as I am
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: that I am sitting here in order to preserve what
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: I believe to be his conversation with his mother, and
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: also to have a record of the strangest happening of
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: my life. I immediately wrote down every word he had said.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: His was one of the most beautiful deaths I have
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: ever seen. End quote end of chapter three, Part one,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, Part two of Deathbed Visions by William Barrett.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. My friend
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: Missus Carter of Saint earth Hale Cornwall sends me the
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: following case, which occurred on April thirteenth, nineteen twenty four,
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: when she was present, and she wrote the following notes
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: a few days later. She says, quote, on Sunday, April thirteenth,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: I went to hillside to sit with the mister Williams,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: who was dying of consumption, so that those belonging to
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: him might have a little rest. He was in a
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: state of great physical distress and unable to lie down,
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: and could only breathe with the greatest difficulty, with his
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: head leaning down to within a few inches of the mattress.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: He suddenly raised himself and stretched out his hands and
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: said very clearly, as though speaking to someone present and
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: whom he was glad to see, Edmund, my dear brother Edmund.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: I was alone with him at the time, But when
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the family returned to the room later, I at once
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: related to them what he had said, and then learned
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: from them that his brother Edmund was dead. During the
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: time I was with him from three point fifteen to
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: nine fifteen. Although breathing very heavily all the time, he
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: appeared to be quite conscious when he spoke and called
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: for the different members of his family. He knew me
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: quite well, and kissed my hand and called me by
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: my name. He also asked to have water at intervals
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: and asked for hot tea. In spite of his great
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: bodily distress, his trust in God remained quite unshaken, and
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: it was very moving to hear him say at intervals,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: Dear Lord, let me go. I was told that before
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: I arrived, he had exclaimed Missus Hooper. She had been
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: a great friend of his and died here about eighteen
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: months or two years ago. He died about ten hours
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: after I had left en. The following account of the
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: last days of a little Child was published in the
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: Journal of the American spr edited by doctor James H. Hislook,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: Volume twelve, number six, and a considerably abridged report was
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: compiled by Miss h a Dallas, a summary of which
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: is given below. Daisy Irene Dryden was born in Maryville,
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: Uba County, California, on September ninth, eighteen fifty four. She
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: died in San Jose, California, on October eighth, eighteen sixty four,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: aged ten years and twenty nine days. Her mother writes,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: in the summer of eighteen sixty four, Daisy was attacked
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: by billius fever. After five weeks of illness, the fever
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: left her, and for two weeks she seemed to continue
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: to gain strength. She smiled and sang and seemed like
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: herself again until one afternoon. As her father sat by
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: her bed, he noticed a singular expression on her face.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: It was one of both plas pleasure and amazement. Her
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: eyes were directed to one place above the door. Her
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: father asked, Daisy, what is it. What do you see?
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: She replied softly. It is a spirit. It is Jesus,
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: and he says I'm going to be one of his
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: little lambs. Yes, dear, said her father. I hope you
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: are one of his lambs. Oh, Papa, she exclaimed, I'm
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: going to Heaven to him. That night, she was taken
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: with enteritis and only lived four days. She suffered much
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: for the first twenty four hours, being unable to retain food, water,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: or medicine. From that time on she had very little pain.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: Her poor little body had, in fact become so attenuated
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: that there was little left for the disease to work upon.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: But her mind was very active and remarkably clear. Her
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: faculties appeared sharpened. She could remember recitations she had learned
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: in school, always having been fond of memorizing poetry, and
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: when Lulu sang to her from the Sunday School hymnal,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: she would give the name of the song in the
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: page on which to find it. She loved to have
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: us read the scriptures to her. I read in John fourteen.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: It is expedient for you that I go away, for
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: if I go not away, the comforter will not come
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: unto you. But if I depart, I will send him
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: unto you. At this, she looked up to me so heavenly,
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: as she said, Mamma, when I go away, the comforter
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: will come to you, and maybe he will let me
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: come too. Sometimes I'll ask Alli about it. She often
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: said this after this time, when she felt uncertain about anything.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: Ali was her brother, who had passed to the other
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: life at the age of six of scarlet fever seven
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: months before. He seemed to be with her a great
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: deal of the time during those last three days, because
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: when we asked her questions which she could not answer,
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: she would say, wait till Alli comes and I will
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: ask him. On this occasion, she waited only a short
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: time and then said, Ali says I may go to you. Sometimes.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: He says it is possible, but you will not know
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: when I am there. But I can speak to your
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: thought as I have said. Daisy lingered on the borderland
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: for three days. After the first agonizing twenty four hours
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: had passed. Her physical frame had become so emaciated that
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: there was only enough to hold the spirit in its
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: feeble embrace, and it was manifested to us as it were,
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: through the thin veil of the attenuated flesh which enwrapped it.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: During this time, she dwelt in both worlds, as she
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: expressed it. Two days before she left us, the Sunday
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: School superintendent came to see her. She talked very freely
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: about going and sent a message by him to the
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Sunday School. When he was about to leave, he said, well, Daisy,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: you will soon be over the dark river. After he
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: had gone, she asked her father what he meant by
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: the dark river. He tried to explain it, but she said,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: it is all a mistake. There is no river, there
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: is no curtain. There is not even a line that
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: separates this life from the other life. And she stretched
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: out her little hands from the bed and with the
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: gesture said, it is here, and it is there. I
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: know it is so, for I can see you all,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: and I see them there. At the same time. We
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: asked her to tell us something of that other world
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: and how it looked to her, but she said, I
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: cannot describe it. It is so different. I could not
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: make you understand. One morning, while I was in the
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: room putting it in order, Missus w one of our
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: kind neighbors, was reading to her these words from the Testament,
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: Let not your heart be troubled. In my father's house
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: are many mansions I go to prepare a place for you,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: John for teen one and two. Daisy remarked, mansions. That
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: means houses. I don't see real houses there, but there
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: is what would be places to meet each other. In
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: Ali speaks of going to such and such a place,
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: but says nothing of houses. You see, perhaps the Testament
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: tells about mansions, so we will feel we are going
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: to have a home in heaven. And perhaps when I
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: get there, I'll find a home. And if I do,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: the heavenly flowers and trees that I love so much here,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: for I do see them, and that they are more
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: beautiful than anything you can imagine, they will be there.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: I said, Daisy, don't you know the Bible speaks of
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: heaven being a beautiful city. She said, I do not
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: see a city, And a puzzled look came over her face,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: and she said, I do not know. I may have
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: to go there first. Missus W, a kind neighbor, the
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: one who had read of the mansions to Daisy and
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: who was with us a great deal, told Missus B,
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: a neighbor of hers, about Daisy's inner site being open.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: Missus B was a lady who did not believe in
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: a future state. She was moreover in deep distress, having
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: just lost her husband and a son who was about
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: twelve years old, named Bateman. She came with Missus W
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: one evening, and sitting beside the bed, began to ask questions.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: Daisy said to her Bateman is here and says he
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: is alive and well and is in such a good place.
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: He would not come home for anything. He says he
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: is learning how to be good. Missus B then said,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: ask him if he has seen his father. Daisy replied,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: he says he has not. He is not here and
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: says to you, mother, don't fret about me. It is
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: better I did not grow up. This communication set the
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: mother to thinking, and she became a firm believer in
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: a future state. The following morning, when alone with Daisy,
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: Missus W, who had brought Missus B to see her,
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: asked Daisy how she could think Missus B's son was
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: happy for She said, when he was here, you know,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: he was such a bad boy. Don't you remember how
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: I used to swear and steal your playthings and break
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: them up. You know we did not allow him to
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: play with you nor with my children because he was
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: so bad. Daisy replied, oh, Auntie, don't you know he
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: never went to Sunday school and was always hearing so
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: much swearing. God knows he did not have half a chance.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: The same day, her Sunday school teacher, Missus H, who
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: also was with her, a great deal was sitting beside
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: her when Daisy said to her, your two children are
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: here now. These children had gone to the other life
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: several years before, and if they had lived in this world,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: they would have been nearly grown up. Daisy had never
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: heard anyone speak of them, nor did the mother have
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: any pictures of them, so she could not have known
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: anything whatever about him before seeing them in the spiritual world.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: When asked to describe them, her description of them as
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: full grown did not agree with the mother's idea of them,
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: so she said, how can that be? They were children
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: when they died. Daisy answered, Ali says, children do not
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: stay children. They grow up as they do in this life.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Missus h then said, but my little daughter Mary fell
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: and was so injured that she could not stand straight.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: To this, Daisy replied, she is all right now. She
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: is straight and beautiful, and your son is looking so
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: noble and happy. Once, she said, oh, Papa, do you
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: hear that? It's the singing of the angels? Why you
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: ought to hear it? For the room is full of it,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: and I can see them. There are so many, I
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: can see them miles and miles away. Missus w already
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: mentioned who had lost her father a short time previous,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: wanted to know if Daisy had seen him, and brought
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: him picture to let her see if she could recognize him.
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: But in the evening, when she came again, Daisy told
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: her she had not seen him, and that Ali, whom
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: she had asked about him, had not seen him, but
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: that Ali had said he would ask someone who could
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: tell him about him. In a moment, Daisy said, Ali
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: is here and says, tell Auntie her father wants her
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: to meet him in heaven, for he is there. Missus.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: W then, said Daisy, why did not Ali know at
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: once about my father? Because, replied she, those who die
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: go into different states or places and do not see
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: each other at all times, but all the good are
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: in the state of the blessed. During those last days
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: of illness, Daisy loved to listen to her sister Lulu
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: as she sang for her, mostly from the Sunday School Songbook.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: Lulu sang one song, the chorus of which was Oh come,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: Angel band, come and around me stand. Oh bear me
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: away on your snowy wings to my immortal home. When
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: she had finished, Daisy exclaimed, Oh, Lulu, is it not strange?
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: We always thought the angels had wings, but it is
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: a mistake. They don't have any. Lulu replied, but they
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: must have wings else, how do they fly down from heaven? Oh,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: but they don't fly, she answered, They just come when
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: I think of Ali, he is here. Once, I inquired,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: how do you see the angels, she replied, I do
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: not see them all the time, but when I do,
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: the walls seem to go away. I can see ever
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: so far, and you couldn't begin to count the people
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: somewhere near. And I know them others I have never
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: seen before. She mentioned the name of Mary c, the
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: sister of missus s who was a neighbor of ours
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: in Nevada City, and said, you know, she had such
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: a bad cough, but she is well now and so beautiful,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: and she is smiling to me. I was then sitting
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: by her bedside, her hand clasped in mind. Looking up
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: so wistfully to me, she said, dear Mama, I do
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: wish you could see Ali. He is standing beside you.
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: Involuntarily I looked around, but Daisy thereupon continued, he says,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: you cannot see him because your spirit eyes are closed,
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: but that I can because my body only holds my spirit,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: as it were, by a thread of life. I then inquired,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: does he say that now? Yes, just now, she answered. Then,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: wondering how she could be conversing with her brother when
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: I saw not the least sign of conversation, I said, Daisy,
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: how do you speak to Ali? I do not hear
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: you or see your lips move. She smilingly replied, we
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: just talk with our thing. I then asked her further, Daisy,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: how does Ali appear to you? Does he seem to
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: wear clothes? She answered, Oh, no, not clothes such as
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: we wear. There seems to be about him a white,
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: beautiful something so fine and thin and glistening and oh
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: so white. Her is not a fold or a sign
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: of a thread in it, so it cannot be cloth,
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: but makes him look so lovely. Her father then quoted
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: from the Psalmist, he is clothed in light as a garment. Oh, yes,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: that's right, she replied. She often spoke of dying and
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: seemed to have such a vivid sense of her future
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: life and happiness that the dread of death was all dispelled.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: The mystery of the soul's departure was to her no
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: more mystery. It was only a continuation of life, of
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: growing up from the conditions of earth life into the
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: air and sunshine of heaven. The morning of the day
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: she died, she asked me to let her have a
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: small mirror. I hesitated, thinking the sight of her emaciated
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: face would be a shock to her. But her father,
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: sitting by her, remarked, let her look at her poor
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: little face if she wants to. So I gave it
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: to her, taking the glass in her two hands. She
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: looked at her image for a time, calmly and sadly.
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: At length, she said, this body of mine is about
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: worn out out. It is like that old dress of
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: mama's hanging there in the closet. She doesn't wear it anymore.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: And I won't wear my body anymore because I have
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: a new spiritual body which will take its place. Indeed,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: I have it now, for it is with my spiritual
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: eyes I see the heavenly world while my body is
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: still here. You will lay my body in the grave
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: because I will not need it again. It was made
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: for my life here, and now my life here is
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: at an end, and this poor body will be laid away,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: and I shall have a beautiful body like Alley's. Then
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: she said to me, Mama, open the shutters and let
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: me look out at the world for the last time
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: before another morning, I shall be gone. As I obeyed
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: her loving request, she said to her father, raise me up, Papa. Then,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: supported by her father, she looked through the window whose
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: shutters I had opened, and called out, goodbye sky, goodbye trees,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: goodbye flowers, goodbye white rose, goodbye read rose, Goodbye beautiful world,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: and added, how I love it, but I do not
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: wish to stay that evening. When it was half past eight,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: she herself observed the time and remarked, it is half
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: past eight. Now, when it is half past eleven, Ali
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: will come for me. She was, then, for the time being,
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: reclining on her father's breast with her head upon his shoulder.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: This was a favorite position as it rested her. She said, Papa,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: I want to die here. When the time comes, I
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: will tell you. Lulu had been singing for her, and
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: as half past eight was Lulu's bedtime, she arose to go.
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: Bending over Daisy as she always did, she kissed her
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: and said good night. Daisy, put up her hand and
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: stroking tenderly her sister's face, said to her good night.
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: When Lulu was halfway up the stairs, Daisy again called
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: out after her in a clear, sweet, earnest tongue, good
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: night and goodbye, my sweet darling Lulu. At about a
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: quarter past eleven, she said, now, Papa, take me up.
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: Ali has come for me. After her father had taken her,
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: she asked us to sing. Presently, someone said call Lulu,
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: but Daisy answered promptly, don't disturb her. She is asleep.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: And then, just as the hands of the clock pointed
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: to half past eleven, the time she had predicted that
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: Ali was to come to take her with them, she
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: lifted up both arms and said, come Ali, and breathe
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: no more, then tenderly laying her love but lifeless form
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: upon the pillow. Her father said, the dear child has gone,
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: and added she will suffer no more. End. There are
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: one or two especially interesting points about this case. Like
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: case one in chapter two, the dying child kept a
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: consciousness of the visions which came to her, together with
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: clear recognition of her earthly friends and ability to converse
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: with them. Sensibly with Daisy Dryden, the double consciousness lasted
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: a few days, whereas in the case of Missus b
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: it only lasted an hour or two. Again, the descriptions
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: Daisy gave of her vision evidently did not accord with
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: her preconceived ideas of a spiritual world. Yet it did
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: not once occur to her to doubt the reality of
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: what she was learning, of a life apart from a
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: material body and the possession of a spiritual body. In
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: page one eighteen of the Nurseries of Heaven see page
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: fifty six above is the following statement made by her
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: mother quote. Although she was, on the whole a good child,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: possessing ordinary good sense, yet in no way was she
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: more remarkable than many other children. Her dying experience, therefore,
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: was not the outgrowth of a life highly spiritual, nor
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: was it one which had been educated in the least
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: degree on the lines of mysticism or modern spiritualism. Her
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: father was so deeply impressed by what she most undoubtedly said, heard,
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: and revealed too them that he began a careful study
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: of the New Testament in the original Greek, and published
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: a series of articles later on the subject. The following incident,
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: taken from the American spr Journal for nineteen eighteen, Volume twelve,
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: page six twenty three, was reported by doctor E. H.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: Pratt of Chicago. My sister Hattie, while attending school at
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: Mount Carroll Seminary, suffered an attack of malignant diphtheria. She
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: was brought home to be under our father's care, but
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: he was unable to save her, and after a few
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: days of extreme suffering, her spirit took its flight into
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: what seems to most of us such a dark, impenetrable
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: expanse of appalling immensity. A deathbed scene occurred so wonderful, realistic,
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: and impressive that, although I was but ten years of
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: age at the time, my memory picture of that event
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: is as vivid and distinct as though it were taken.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: But yesterday her bed was in in the middle of
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: the living room, and my mother, father, younger sister, and
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: a few friends were standing about it, gazing earnestly upon
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: my sister's dear features. As the light of life gradually
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: went out, and as the Ashley pallor of death settled
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: over them. Hattie's going out was not abrupt, It was
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: a gradual fading away, very calm and apparently free from pain,
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: although her throat was so choked up with a diphtheretic
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: membrane that her voice was very thick, and it required
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: close attention to catch all of her words. Her mind
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: seemed unusually clear and rational. She knew she was passing
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: away and was telling our mother how to dispose of
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: her little personal belongings among her close friends and playmates,
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: when she suddenly raised her eyes as though gazing to
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: the ceiling toward the farther side of the room, and
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: after looking steadily and apparently listening for a short time,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: slightly bowed her head and said, yes, Grandma, I am coming,
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: only wait just a little while peace. Our father asked her, Pattie,
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: do you see Grandma. Seemingly surprised at the question, she
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: promptly answered, yes, Papa, can't you see her? She is
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: right there waiting for me. At the time, she pointed
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: toward the ceiling in the direction in which she had
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: been gazing, Again addressing the vision she evidently had of
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: her grandmother, she scowled a little impatiently and said, yes, Grandma,
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: I'm coming, but wait a minute please. She then turned
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: once more to her mother and finished telling her what
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: of her personal treasures to give to different ones of
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: her acquaintances, at last giving her attention once more to
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: her grandmother, who was apparently urging her to come at once.
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: She bade each of us good bye. Her voice was
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: very feeble and faint, but the look in her eyes
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: as she glanced briefly at each one of us was
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: as lifelike and intelligent as it could be. She then
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: fixed her eyes steadily on her vision, but so faintly
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: that we could but just catch her words, said, yes, Grandma,
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: I'm coming now. Then, without a struggle or evidence of
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: pain of any kind, she gazed steadily in the direction
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: she had pointed out to us where she saw her grandmother,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: until the absence of oxygen in her bloodstream because respiration
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: had ceased, left her hands and face all covered with
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: the pallor of lifeless flesh. She was so clearheaded, so
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: positive of the vision in presence of her Grandma, with
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: whom she talked so naturally, so surprised that the rest
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: of us could not see Grandma. The alternation of her
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: attention and conversation between her Grandma and father and mother
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: were so distinctly photographed upon the camera of my brain
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: that I have never since been able to question the
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: evidence of the continuance of this distinct, recognizable life after death.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: Her grandmother had died a few years previously, and before that,
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: she and Grandma had always been such close friends, and
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: the recognition of each other as Hattie left her body
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: to join dearly beloved Grandma in the realms beyond the
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: vision of our physical lives was so unquestionable and complete
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: in every detail that it seems impossible to account for
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: the remarkable events on any theory, except that her grandmother
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: was alive and so completely like herself while on earth,
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: that Hattie's recognition of her was instantaneous and unquestionable, a real,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: genuine experience. The following case was communicated to the American
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: SPR by mister S. P. Bennett see American SPR Journal
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: for nineteen eighteen, Volume twelve, page six oh seven, Pittston, Pennsylvania,
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: December fifteenth, nineteen oh six. Mister G. H. Tench died
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: in nineteen oh two after years of patient, though intense
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: suffering of cancer. He lived in Wilkes Bar but was
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: formerly a near neighbor of mine in West Pittston. During
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: a portion of the time he was a foreman under me,
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: enjoying mutual confidence and esteem. He received deserved promotion by
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: another coal company, but our personal relation remained the same.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: During the last weeks. I watched with him as often
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: as I could, going back and forth by rail while
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: suffering intensely. He would not take narcotics nor stimulating medicine,
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: saying I have lived Hall Tench, and I am going
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: to die that way. The night the end came, he
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: roused his younger son, telling him to call the family
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: as he was going away. He talked entirely rationally to them,
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: and was fully conscious. Later a brother came to the house,
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: and upon entering the room g. H. Tench said good bye,
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: will I'm going soon, and closed his eyes. The family
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: thought the end had come, but after a short interval
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: he opened his eye, and, looking over and above the bedfoot,
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: with raised head, in every appearance of interest, said clearly
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: and distinctly, why they're all plain people? This closed the scene,
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: which was described to me by his wife soon after
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: the funeral. Now Tench was not a religious man, although
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: attended by a Methodist minister at the last, but a moral,
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: upright man in every relation of life, thoroughly courageous, as
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: was shown by his refusal to have his sensibilities dulled
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: in his suffering. Not highly educated nor a great reader.
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: Yet I have no doubt that he thought about conditions
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: he had to face, and was likely to have imbibed
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: the wings and harp idea. Is it not possible that
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: he at the last expressed surprise that the people waiting
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: for him should be all plain people. I give you
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: this as a fact, Signed S. P. Bennett. The following
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: narrative was recorded in the Journal of the American Society
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: for Psychical Research, nineteen eighteen, page six oh three, having
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: been sent to Professor Hislop by mister rud C. Giedermann,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: a member of the English spr He writes as follows quote.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: My father died in Germany on March eighteenth, eighteen ninety two,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: and my mother then came to live with us at Odessa.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: Shortly after, she fell ill and died on May sixth
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: of the following year, eighteen ninety three. Both she and
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: my father had always been most skeptical of anything concerning
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: the existence and survival of the soul. A few minutes
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: before her death, she regained consciousness, having been in a
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: state of coma for two hours previously, raised herself in
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: her bed, stretched out her arms and with a happy
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: smile on her face cried out, Papa, Papa, just as
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: if she suddenly saw him in front of her. Immediately after,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: she fell back into the arms of my wife and expired.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: My mother used to call her husband Papa, just as
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: we children did. I certify that this is a perfectly
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: true account of what took place, Signed Rude C. Kitterman end.
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: The following a bridged account of the last days of
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: the American poet Horace Trebel, was taken from a fuller
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: narrative in the American spr Journal for nineteen twenty one,
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: Volume fifteen, pages one fourteen to one twenty three. Horace
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: Trebell eighteen fifty eight to nineteen nineteen was the boswell
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: of Walt Whitman. He was also author of a number
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: of volumes of poems of the Whitman type, which some
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: of his own disciples regard as equaling those of his master.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: He was also the founder of the well known Contemporary
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: Club of Philadelphia. The abridged account was contributed by Missus
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: Flora MacDonald Dennison, who was president at the deathbed to
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: the April May issue of a magazine entitled The Sunset
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: of bon Eco. As follows quote all day on August
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth, Horace was very low spirited. Anne's illness and
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: the going of the Baines was too much for him.
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: Mildred was with him a good deal, and we decided
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: not to leave him a minute. He had been brought
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: in from the verandah, but absolutely radiant, and on seeing me,
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: he called out, look, look, Flora, quick quick, he is
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: going what Horace? I said, what do you see? I
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: cannot see anyone. Why? Just over the rock Walt appeared,
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: head and shoulders and hat in a golden glory, brilliant
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: and splendid. He reassured me, beckoned to me and spoke
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: to me. I heard his voice, but did not understand
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: all he said, Only come on. Frank Bains soon came
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: in and he repeated the story to him All the
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: rest of the evening. Horace was uplifted and happy. So
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: often Horace would say, do not despise me for my weakness,
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: But now he was quite confident, even jocular. As I
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: handed him a drink. On the night of September third,
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: Horace was very low. I stayed for a few hours
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: with him. Once his eyes rolled, I thought he was dying,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: but he just wanted me to turn him. As I
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: did so, he listened and seemed to hear something. Then
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: he said, I hear Walt's voice. He is talking to me.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: I said, what does he say? He said, Walt says,
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: come on, Come on. After a time, he said, Flora,
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: I see them all about me, Bob and Buck and
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: Walt and the rest. Colonel Cosgrave had been with Horace
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon and had seen Walt on the opposite
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: side of the bed and felt his presence. Then Walt
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: passed through the bed and touched the Colonel's hand, which
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: was in his pocket. The contact was like an electric shock.
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: Horace was also aware of Walt's visible presence and said,
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: so there was no gloom about the house. No one
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: seemed depressed. A feeling of triumph, of pride, and of
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: exhalation permeated the atmosphere. End A letter was afterwards received
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: by mister Walter, Prince of the American s PR from
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: Colonel Cosgrave confirming the statement given by Missus Flora Denison.
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: As above. There are several cases of which recordings have
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: been preserved in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: Research and elsewhere, in which an account is given of
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: those watching bedside a dying relative, having had a vision
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: of spirit forms near the bed. Quote. In one case,
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: two women watching by their dying sisters, Charlotte saw a
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: bright light and within it two young faces hovering over
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: the bed, gazing intently at Charlotte. The elder sister recognized
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: these faces as being two of her brothers, William and John,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: who had died when she was young. The two sisters
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: continued to watch the faces till they gradually faded away
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: like a washed out picture, and shortly afterwards their sister,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: Charlotte died. Mister Podmore, who investigated this case, remarks that
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: it is possible the vision was due to a telepathic
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: impact from the dying person, but this explanation is less
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: tenable and quite as unlikely, as is the precipience of
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: spirit forms by the dying person and sometimes by those present.
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: Mister Podmore, with his usual prejudice against any supernormal explanation,
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: remarks on this that the images traditionally associated with death
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: receive a sensory embodiment, but this point of view is
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: not appropriate to the two following cases, where the precipients,
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: being very young children, could hardly be supposed to have
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: any mental images traditionally associated with death, nor does it
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: account for the collective hallucination described in Miss Pearson's case,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: pages thirty five and thirty six. This case is quoted
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: by Stainton Moses. Quote, Miss h the daughter of an
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: English clergyman, was tending a dying child. His little brother,
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: a aged three to four years, was in bed in
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: the same room as the former was dying. The little
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: brother woke up and, pointing to the ceiling, with every
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: expression of joy, said, mother, look at the beautiful ladies
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: round my brother. How lovely they are. They want to
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: take him. The child died at that moment. End quote.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: Another instance is reported by Monseigneur Paloussi, librarian at the
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: Victor Emmanuel Library at Rome Lucy, Ombra, nineteen twenty twenty. Quote.
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: A little girl of three, Hippolyte notari partly paralyzed, was
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: in the same room of her little brother of four months,
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: who was dying. The father, the mother, and the grandmother
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: of the two children were present. About fifteen minutes before
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: the death of the infant. Little Hippolyte stretched out her
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: arms saying, look, mother, aunt Olga. This aunt Olga was
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: a younger sister of Madame Notari, who had killed herself
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: a year previously owing to a disappointment in love. The
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: parents asked, where do you see aunt Olga. The child
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: said there there, and tried insistently to get out of
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: bed to go to her aunt. They let her get up.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: She ran to an empty chair and was much discountenanced
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: because the vision had moved to the other part of
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: the room. The child turned round and said, pointing to
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: a corner, aunt Olga is there. She then became quiet,
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: and the baby died. In the following case, which was
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: communicated by Professor W. C. Crosby, Associate Member, Society for
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: Psychical Research Proceedings as PR, Volume eight, pages two twenty
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: nine to two thirty one, the vision was seen by
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: the nurse during the unconsciousness of the dying patient. The
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: phantom scene was unknown to the precipient. Quote. Missus Carolyn Rodgers,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: seventy two years old, a widow who had been twice
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: married and whose first husband, a mister Tisdale, died about
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: thirty five years ago, has lived on Ashland Street in Roslind, Massachusetts,
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: for the last twenty five years, and since the death
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: of her last child. Some years ago, she has lived
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: quite alone. Early in March of this year, she was
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: stricken with paralysis, and, after an illness of nearly six weeks,
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: died on the afternoon of Tuesday, April fifteenth. Missus Mary Wilson,
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: a professional nurse forty five years old, attended Missus Rogers
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: during her illness, remaining with her almost constantly until she died.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: She had never seen Missus Rogers before the latter's illness,
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: and knew nothing of her family or history. Missus Rogers
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: spoke frequently to Missus Wilson, and also to others, as
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: had long been her custom of her second husband, Mister
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: Rogers and children, expressing a desire to see them again,
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: et cetera. On the afternoon of April fourteenth, Missus Rogers
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: became unconscious and remained so all the time until her
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: death twenty four hours later. Missus Wilson sat up with
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: her through the whole of Monday night. Missus Wilson's daughter, Ida,
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: twenty five years old, kept her mother company, and a
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: boy of ten or twelve years slept in an adjoining
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: chamber to be called in case of an emergency. These
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: four were the only persons in the house. The outer
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: doors were securely locked. The door leading from the sick
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: chamber on the second floor into the hall was kept
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: locked all the time because it was near the foot
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: of Missus Rogers's bed. An entrance to the sick chamber
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: was gained by passing from the upper hall into the
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: living room by a door which was locked that night,
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: and thence through the chamber in which the boy slept.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: The two chambers having been made to communicate by cutting
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: a door through the back of a small closet. This
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: door was diagonally facing the bed on which Missus Rogers lay.
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilson rested on a settee placed at bright angles
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: to the head of Missus R's bed, so that when
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: lying down, her face was almost directly opposite this door,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: and not more than ten or twelve feet from it.
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: The lamp, which burned brightly all night, stood on a
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: small table in the corner of the room, directly opposite
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: the door, and Ida occupied a couch against the wall
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: and between the lamp and door. Missus Wilson was pretty
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: well worn out with her long vigil. Believing that Missus
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: Rogers was dying, she was naturally very nervous and timid,
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: and having heard Missus r speak frequently of seeing her
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: departed friends, et cetera, she had a feeling of expectancy
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: in dread with regard to supernatural visitations. Between two and
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: three a m. While her daughter was asleep, and while
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: she was resting on the settee but wide awake, she
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: happened to look toward the door into the adjoining chamber
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: and saw a man standing exactly in the doorway, the
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: door being kept open all the time. He was middle sized,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: broad shouldered with shoulders thrown back, had a floorid complexion,
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: reddish brown hair, bare headed and beard, and wore a
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: brown sack overcoat which was unbuttoned. His expression was grave,
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: neither stern nor pleasant, and he seemed to look straight
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: at Missus Wilson and then at Missus Rogers without moving.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilson supposed, of course, that it was a real man,
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: tried to think how he could have got into the house. Then,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: as he remained quite motionless, she began to realize that
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: it was something uncanny and became frightened, turned her head
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: away and called her daughter, who was still asleep on
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: the couch, awakening her. On looking back at the door.
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: After an interval of a minute or two, the apparition
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: had disappeared. Both its coming and going were noiseless, and
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: Missus Rogers remained perfectly quiet and, so far as could
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: be known, entirely unconscious during this time. The chamber into
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: which the store leads being quite dark, there was no
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: opportunity to observe whether or not the apparition was transparent.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilson shortly afterwards went into this chamber and the
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: living room, but did not examine the lower part of
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: the house until morning, when the doors were found properly
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: locked and everything all right. In the morning, Missus Rogers's niece,
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: Missus Hildreth, who lives in the neighborhood and has known
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: Missus r and her family for many years, called at
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: the house. Missus Wilson related her experience to her and
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: asked if the apparition resembled mister Rogers, and Missus Hildreth
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: replied emphatically that it did not. All who knew mister
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: Rogers are agreed on this point. Their conversation was interrupted then,
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: but when resumed later in the day, Missus Hildreth said
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: that Missus Wilson's description agreed exactly with mister Tidsale, Missus
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: Rogers's first husband. Missus Rogers came to Roslyndale after marrying
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: mister Rogers, and Missus Hildreth is the only person in
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: that vicinity who ever saw mister Tisdale, and in Missus
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: Rogers's house there was no portrait of him nor anything
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: suggestive of his personal appearance. Missus Wilson is also very
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: positive that the apparition was unlike anyone she ever knew.
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: Missus Wilson has had similar experiences before, and at least
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: one which occurred when she was eighteen years old, which
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: appears to have been for ritical. The foregoing account of
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: my experience is correct in every particular, Signed Mary Wilson.
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: The foregoing is a full and accurate statement of Missus
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: Wilson's experience as she related it to me on the
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: morning of April fifteenth, Signed F. V. Hildreth, June fifth,
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety. Missus Wilson and Missus Hildreth have both impressed
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: me as being intelligent and perfectly honest and truthful, and
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: I have no doubt that Missus Wilson's experience was real
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: and substantially as she has described it signed W. O. Crosby,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: end of chapter three, Chapter four of Deathbed Visions by
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: William Barrett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: Chapter four Visions seen by the dying of living persons
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: at a distance, in some cases reciprocal. We now come
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: to a somewhat different and large class of cases where
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: the veil which hides the spiritual world is not, for
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: a few moments lifted for the dying percipients, but their
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: souls appear to be transported to a different place on Earth,
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: and they are able to see persons who may be
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: at a remote distance. Such cases are usually called instances
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: of traveling clairvoyance, and numerous well attested facts of this
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: kind have been collected in Phantasms of the Living to
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: which my readers are referred. There are, however, a few
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: cases which are worthy of special notice, wherein the dying
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: persons appear not only to make themselves visible at a distance,
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: but also inform those around them where they have been
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: and that they have visited those whom they desired to see.
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: One of the most remarkable and pathetic of these so
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: called reciprocal cases was related to me by that gifted
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: and venerable Quaker lady Miss Anna Maria Fox, when we
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: were on a voyage to Canada from the British Association
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: meeting in eighteen eighty four. Miss Fox and her sister
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: Caroline were well known to Savants in the last generation
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: for their beautiful place, Penderick, near Falmouth in Cornwall, was
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: the rendezvous of many eminent scientific and literary men, and
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: nearly fifty years ago I had the privilege of enjoying
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: their hospitality. When narrating the incident, Miss Fox referred me
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: to her relatives, the Burbecks, for confirmation of it, and
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: this was given me when I made inquiries Shortly afterwards.
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: Mister Myers had given an abridged record of the same case,
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: which he obtained from another member of the same family,
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: Missus Charles Fox of Falmouth, who had heard the account
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: from one of the precipients. The incident is nearly two
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: centuries old, but as mister Meyers says, the Fox family
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: is one which would carefully preserve evidence of this kind.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: As an illustration of this fact, I may state that
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: the narrative which miss Anne Maria Fox gave me was
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: practically identical with that given by Missus Charles Fox, which
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: I now quote quote. In seventeen thirty nine, Missus Burbeck,
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: wife of William Burbeck, banker of Settel, and a member
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: of the Society of Friends, was taken ill and died
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: at Cockermouth while returning from a journey to Scotland, which
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: she had undertaken alone, her husband and three children, aged seven,
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: five and four years, respectively, remaining at Settle. The friends
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: at whose house the death occurred made notes of every
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: circumstance attending Missus Burbeck's last hours, so that the accuracy
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: of the several statements as to time as well as place,
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: was beyond the doubtfulness of man's memory or of any
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: even unconscious attempts to bring them into agreement with each other.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 1: One morning between seven and eight o'clock, the relation to
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: whom the care of the children at Settle had been entrusted,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: and whom kept a minute journal of all that concerned them,
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: went into their bedroom as usual, and found them all
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: sitting up in their beds in great excitement and delight.
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: Mamma's here, they cried, and the little one said, she called,
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: come esther. Nothing could make them doubt the fact, and
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: it was carefully noted down to entertain the mother on
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: her return home. That same morning, as their mother lay
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: on her bed dying at Cockermouth, she said, I should
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: be ready to go if I could but see my children.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: She then closed her eyes to reopen them as they
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: thought no more. But after ten minutes of perfect stillness,
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: she looked up brightly and said, I am ready now
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: I have been with my children, and then at once
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: peacefully passed away. When the notes taken at the two
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: places as were compared, the day, hour and minutes were
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 1: the same. One of the three children was my grandmother,
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: nay Sarah Burbeck Afterwards, the wife of doctor Fell of Ulverstone.
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: From her lips I heard the above almost literally as
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: I have repeated it. The eldest was Maurice Burbeck Afterwards,
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: of Guildford. Both these lived to old age, and retained
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: to the last so solemn and reverential a remembrance of
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: the circumstance, that they rarely would speak of it. Esther,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: the youngest, died soon after. Her brother and sister heard
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: the child say that her mother called her, but could
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: not speak with any certainty of having themselves heard the words,
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: nor were sensible of more than their mothers standing there
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: and looking at them end. The case of Missus Joff
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: is also of remote date sixteen ninety one, but is
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: taken from a contemporary report made by the Reverend T.
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: Tilson in a letter he addressed to the famous divine
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: Richard Back, who published it in a book. He wrote
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: the cases given in Phantasms of the Living volume two
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: pages five fifty eight, five point fifty nine, and the
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: authors state that the narrative cannot be impugned on the
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: ground of any credulity on the part of Baxter, and
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: quote an authority on this point. It will be seen
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: that the incidents in the following narrative are curiously parallel
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: to the preceding case of Missus Burbeck. Though mister Chilson's letter,
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: which we now quote is somewhat long, it is better
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: to give his own words rather than an abstract quote.
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: July sixth, sixteen ninety one, Mary, the wife of John
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: Goff of Rochester, being afflicted with a long illness, removed
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: to her father's house at West Mulling, which was about
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: nine miles distance from her own. There, she died on
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: June fourth, sixteen ninety one. The day before her departure,
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: she grew impatiently desirous to see her two children, whom
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: she had left at home to the care of a nurse.
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: She prayed her husband to hire a horse, for she
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: must go home to die with her children. Between one
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: and two o'clock in the morning, she fell into a trance.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: The widow Turner, who watched with her that night, says
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: that her eyes were open and fixed, and her jaw fallen.
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: She put her hand on her mouth and nostrils, but
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: could perceive no breath. She thought her to be in
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: a fit, and doubted whether she was alive or dead.
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: The next day, this dying woman told her mother that
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: she had been at home with her children. That is impossible,
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: said the mother, for you have been here in bed
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: all the while, yes, replied the other. But I was
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: with them last night while I was asleep. The nurse
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: at Rochester, widow Alexander by name, affirms and says she
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: will take her oath of it before magistrate and receive
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: the sacrament upon it. That a little before two o'clock
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: that morning, she saw the likeness of the said Mary
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: Golf come out of the next chain where the elder
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: child lay in a bed by itself, the door being
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: left open, and stood by her bedside for about a
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: quarter of an hour. The younger child was there lying
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: by her. Her eyes moved and her mouth went, but
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: she said nothing. The nurse moreover says that she was
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: perfectly awake. It was then daylight, being one of the
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: longest days in the year. She sat up in her
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: bed and looked steadfastly upon the apparition. At that time
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: she heard the bridge clock stripe two, and a while
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: after said, in the name of the Father, Son and
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost, what art thou. Thereupon, the appearance removed and
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: went away. She slipped on her clothes and followed. But
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: what became of it she cannot tell. Then, and not
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: before she began to be grievously affrighted, and went out
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 1: of doors and walked upon the wharf. The house is
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: just by the river side, for some hours, only going
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: in now and then to look at the children. At
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: five o'clock she went to a neighbor and knocked at
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: the door, but they would not rise. At six she
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: went again. Then they rose and let her in. She
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: related to them all that had passed. They would persuade
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: her that she was mistaken or dreamt, but she confidently
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: affirmed if ever I saw her in my life, I
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: saw her this night. The writer then gives an account
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: of how one of those to whom she related the
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: story confirmed the above narrative. The substance of this statement
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: was related to me by John Carpenter, the father of
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: the deceased, the next day after the burial, July second.
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: I fully discoursed the matter with the nurse and two
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: neighbors to whose house she went that morning, two days
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: after I had it from the mother, the minister that
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: was with her in the evening, and the woman who
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: sat up with her last that night. They all agree
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: in the same story, and everyone helps to strengthen the
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: other's testimony. They all appear to be sober, intelligent persons,
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: far enough off from designing to impose a cheat upon
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: the world or to manage a lie. And what temptation
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: they should lie under for so doing I cannot conceive,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: Signed Thomas Tilson. The next case, also contributed by mister Myers,
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: is an account given by the Ellis family to mister
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: Myers of a vision which their father, mister Ellis, who
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: was dying in Kensington, had of his son Robert at
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: that time in Australia. The Missus Ellis State quote, on Wednesday,
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: December twenty ninth, eighteen sixty nine, my father, who was
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: dangerously ill at the time, awoke from sleep and raised
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: himself up in the bed, pointed and looked most intently
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: to one corner of the room and said to us
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: my sister marrying me, Look, don't you see it's my
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: poor boy Bob's head. Then turning to me, he said, Normantown.
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: Don't forget Gulf of CARPENTERIEA. He then sank back, exhausted.
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: This happened about three p m. We found after his
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: death he had entered the address in red ink in
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: his pocket book, my brother having left Burketown and gone
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: to Normantown, so that the next packet of letters were
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: sent there. My father died on Thursday December thirtieth, eighteen
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: sixty nine. When my brother returned from Australia a few
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: years after, he told us that one night, whilst camping out,
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: he had gone to rest and had slept, and he
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: awoke seeing my father's head distinctly in one part of
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: his tent. It made such an impression on him that
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: he went to his mate in the adjoining tent and said,
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: I have seen my father. You must come and stay
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: with me. By the next mail he received my letter
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: telling him of my father's death. My brother said that
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: it must have been about three a m. When he
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: saw my father. Would not that correspond with R three
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: p M. I always think they must have seen each
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: other at the same time, Signed Alice Ellis Mary Ellis.
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: Mister Meyer states that in conversation with the narrators he
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: ascertained that mister Ellis was not in the least delirious
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: during his last days, and that he was deeply attached
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: to his absent son. In this case, in connection with
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: the vision of his father seen by mister Robert Ellis.
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: It may be interesting to note that another case of apparition,
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: occurring to her husband some years later, is given by
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: missus Robert Ellis. She states that on Tuesday December nineteenth,
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six, between six and seven p m. When
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: she and mister Ellis were sitting talking together, he suddenly
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: looked over his shoulder with a startled, almost terrified look,
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: and on being asked what was the matter, he said
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: he had imagined he saw someone coming in at the door. Subsequently,
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: he stated that he distinctly saw the tall, dark figure
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: of a man, but could not distinguish his features. He
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: was greatly agitated. Later on, a telegram was received giving
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: news of the sudden death of Missus Robert Ellis's brother
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: in Mexico on Tuesday, the nineteenth of December, at seven
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: o'clock in the evening. He and mister Robert Ellis had
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: been very great friends. This case is taken from Phantasms
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: of the Living, volume two, page two fifty three. Quote
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: the lady who sends us the following narrative occupies a
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: position of great responsibility, and desires that her name may
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: not be published, but it may be given to inquirers.
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: When I was eight months old, my mother's youngest sister,
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: Mercy Cox, came to reside with us and to take
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: charge of me. My father's position at the Belgian court
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: as portrait painter obliged him to be much abroad, and
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: I was left almost wholly to the care of my
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: very beautiful aunt. The affection that subsisted between us amounted
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: almost to idolatry, and my poor mother wept many bitter
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: tears when she came home to see how how little
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: I cared for anyone else. My aunt took cold and
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: for three years lingered in decline. I was a quick child,
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: and could read well and even play prettily, so that
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: I was her constant companion day and night. Our doctor,
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: mister Field of the Charterhouse, greatly disapproved of this close contact,
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: and urged my parents to send me quite away. This
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: was a difficult feat to accomplish, the bare mention of
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: the thing, throwing my aunt into faintings. At last, mister Cumberland,
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: the theatrical publisher, suggested that I should join his two daughters, Carolyn,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: aged sixteen and Lavinia, younger, at missus Houston's, the widow
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: of a clergyman resident at stour Paine in Dorsetshire, who
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: only took four young ladies. This was represented to my
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: aunt as something so wonderfully nice and advantageous to me
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: that she consented to part with me. My portrait was
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: painted and placed by her bed, and I remember how
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: constantly she talked to me about our separation. She knew
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: she would be dead before the year of my absence
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: would be ended. She talked to me of this, and
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: of how soon I should forget her, but she vehemently
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: protested that she would come to me there. Sometimes it
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: was to be as an apple woman for me to
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: buy fruit of sometimes as a maid wanting a place.
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: Always she would know me, but I should not know
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: her till I cried and implored to know her. I
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: was but nine when they sent me away, and coach
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: traveling was very slow in those days. Letters, too, were dear,
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: and I very rarely had one. My parents had sickness
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: and troubles, and they believed the reports that I was
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: well and happy, But I was a very miserable, ill
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: treated little girl. One morning, at break of day it
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: was New Year's Day, I was sleeping beside Lavinia. We
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: two shared one little white tester bed with curtains, while Caroline,
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: upon whom I looked with awe, she being sixteen, slept
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: in another similar bed on the other side of a long,
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: narrow room, the beds being placed so the feet faced
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: each other, and two white curtains hung down at the
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: sides of the head. This New Year's morning, I was
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: roughly waked by Lavinia shaking me and exclaiming, oh, look,
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: there there's your aunt in bed. With Carolyn, seeing two
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: persons asleep in the bed. I jumped out and I
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: ran to the right side of it. There lay my
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: aunt's a little on her right side, fast asleep, with
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: her mouth a little open. I recognized her work to
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: nightgown and cap. I stood bewildered with a childish sort
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: of wonder as to when she could have come. It
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: must have been after I went to bed at night.
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: Lavinia's cries awakened Carolyn, who, as soon as she could understand,
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: caught the curtains on each side and pulled them together
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: over her. I tore them open, but only Carolyn lay there,
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: almost fainting from fright. This lady, Miss cumber Land, afterwards
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: became missus part wife of the celebrated doctor of Camden
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: Terrace and now deceased. I never talked of what had occurred,
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: but one day after I had returned home, I said
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: to my mother, do you know, Mamma, I saw Auntie
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: when I was at school. This led to an explanation,
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: but my mother insisted on commenting upon it went and
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: fetched her mother, saying to her, listen to what this
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: child says. Young as I was, I saw they were
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: greatly shocked, but they would tell me nothing except that
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: when I was older, I should know all. The day
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: came when I learned that my dear aunt suffered dreadfully
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: from the noise of Saint Bride's bells ringing in the
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: new year. My father tried to get them stopped, but
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: could not. Towards morning she became insensible. My mother and
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: grandmother seated on either side of her, and holding her hands.
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: She awoke and said to my mother, now I shall
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: die happy, Anna, I have seen my dear child. They
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: were her life words, signed de e W. No general
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: register of deaths was kept at the time of the
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: incident here related, and we have exhausted every means to
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: discover a notice of the death without success. But we
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: have procured a certificate of Mercy Cox's burial, which took
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: place on January eleventh, eighteen twenty nine. This is quite
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: compatible with the statement that the death was on January first,
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: though such an interval, even in winter, is no doubt unusual,
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: as the lady was buried in a family vault, and
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: probably a lead coffin had to be made. January first
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: would be at the very least a day of very
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: critical illness. As to the date, of the apparition. The
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: marked character of New Year's Day decidedly favors the probability
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: that miss W's memory is correct. In answer to inquiries,
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: miss W says, quote, I was born in eighteen nineteen.
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: The death of my aunt took place in eighteen twenty nine,
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: though to my most intimate friends, as Sir Philip Crampton,
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: the late Earl and Countess of Dunraven, I have often
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: mentioned the event, and to Judge Halliburton, I think I
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: never wrote it fully, except for Lord Dunraven and his
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: mother in eighteen fifty, who were very desirous to publish it,
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: but I declined. I think that a great reason I
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: have always had for not talking of it was the
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: awe with which it inspired my mother, and her strict
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: commands that I should not mention it to anybody. Then too,
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: I went to school and lost sight of Lavinia Cumberland,
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: and I shrank from the comments of strangers. In conversation,
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: Miss W added that she had never experienced any other hallucination,
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: also that Cumberland girls had visited her home and seen
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: her aunt, which accounts for Lavinia's recognition of the figure.
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: We learned through a relative of Miss Lavinia Cumberland, that
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: she herself does not recall the incident, but that she
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: remembers hearing her sister speak of a good most case
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: in which they had both been somehow concerned the following case.
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: Mister Myers contributes to Phantasms of the Living, Volume two,
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: page three oh five, and he remarks that it is
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: a narrative of whose accuracy there can be no reason
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: to doubt. As the narrator, Doctor O. B. Ormsby, who
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: wrote from a place called Murphysboro, Illinois, USA, in eighteen
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: eighty four, had been in communication with mister Myers and
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: replied to his questions. The narrative, which I abridge is
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: as follows. In eighteen sixty two, doctor Ormsby was acting
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: as assistant surgeon to the eighteenth Illinois Volunteers, the regiment
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: having gone forward to attack Fort Henry, he was left
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: behind in charge of the sick. Among these was a
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: young man called Albert Adams, a sergeant major in whom
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: the doctor seems to have been specially interested. He removed
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: him from the hospital and took him into a private house.
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: The adjoining apartment to that occupied by the patient was
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: divided from his room only by a thin partition. This
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: other room was occupied by the doctor's wife. The man
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: was dying, and all afternoon he could only speak in whispers.
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: His father was sent for, and at eleven p m.
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Adams, to all appearances, died. Doctor Ormsby, who was
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: at the time standing beside the father by the bed,
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: states that, thinking the bereaved man might faint in the
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: keenness of his grief, he led him away to a
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: chair in the back part of the room, and himself
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: returned to the bedside, intending to close the eyes of Adams,
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: who he thought had expired. Doctor Ormsby then states, as
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 1: I reached out the bedside, the supposed dead man looked
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: suddenly up in my face and said, Doctor, what day
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: is it? I told him the day of the month,
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: and he answered that is the day I died. His
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: father had sprung to the bedside, and Adams, turning his
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: eyes on him, said, father, our boys have taken fort
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: Henry and Charles. His brother isn't hurt. I've seen mother
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: and the children and they're all well. He then gave
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: comprehensive directions regarding his funeral, speaking of the corpse as
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: my body and occupying I should think as much as
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: five minutes. He then turned towards me and again said doctor,
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: what day is it? And I answered him as before.
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: He again repeated, that's the day I died, and instantly
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: was dead. His tones were quite full and distinct, and
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: so loud as to be readily heard in the adjoining room,
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: and were so heard by Missus Ormsby, signed O. B Ormsby,
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: m d. In reply to further questions, doctor Ormsby wrote
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: that he had no opportunity to learn whether what was
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: said about the mother and children was correct, but that
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: he learned afterwards that Fort Henry was taken and the
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: brother was uninjured. End of Chapter four, Chapter five of
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: Deathbed Visions by William Barrett. This LibriVox recording is in
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter five music heard at the time
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: of death by the dying or by persons present at
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: a deathbed, among the numerous cases in which music is
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: heard at the time of death. The following incident, well
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: attested by different observers, is quoted from Phantasms of the Living,
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: Volume two, page six thirty nine. Quote a master of
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: Eden College, mister l wrote to mister Gurney in February
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four, enclosing a memorandum which was made shortly
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: after the death of his mother, which occurred in eighteen
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: eighty one. It appears that at the time of her death,
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: there are several persons present in the room, namely the
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 1: matred of mister L's house, Miss H, a middle aged
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: experienced woman, the doctor in attendance, Doctor G, a friend
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: of the dying lady, Miss I, and two other persons,
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: Eliza W. And Charlotte C. Immediately after missus L's death,
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: Miss H and Charlotte C left the room to procure something,
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: and shortly after they had left, Miss I heard a
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: sound of low, soft music, exceedingly sweet, as of three
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: girls voices. It seemed to come from the street and
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: passed away. Doctor G also heard it and went to
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: the window to look out. No one could be seen
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: outside in the street. Eliza W, who was in the room,
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 1: also heard a sound as of very low, sweet singing.
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: Mister L himself, who sends the memorandum, heard nothing. The
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: two others who had left the room, miss H and
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: Charlotte D See distinctly heard the sound of singing as
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: they were coming upstairs. Later on When those present were
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 1: talking over the matter, they found that each one of
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: them had heard the sound of singing and music, except
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: mister L. It was specially noticeable that the staircase up
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: which miss h and Charlotte Sea were coming was at
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: the back of the house and away from the street.
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: The time of missus L's death was about two a m.
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: On July twenty eighth, eighteen eighty one. In reply to inquiries,
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: miss I sent the following memorandum, which she made immediately
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: after the death of her friend, missus L. It is
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: as follows quote. July twenty eighth, eighteen eighty one, just
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: after dear missus L's death, between two and three am,
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: I heard a most sweet and singular strain of singing
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: outside the windows. It died away after passing the house.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: All in the room except mister L heard it, and
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: the medical attendant, who was still with us, went to
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: the window as I did and looked out, but there
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: was nobody. It was a bright and beautiful night. It
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: was as if several voices were singing in perfect unison,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: a most sweet melody, which died away in the distance.
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: Two persons had gone from the room to fetch something
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: and were coming upstairs at the back of the house
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: and heard the singing and stopped, saying what is that singing?
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: They could not naturally have heard any sound from outside
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: the windows in the front of the house from where
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 1: they were at the back. I e close quote Doctor
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 1: g who was in attendance upon Missus L, writes to
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: mister Gurney in eighteen eighty four, as follows quote Eton Windsor.
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: I remember the circumstance perfectly. I was sent for about
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: midnight and remained with Missus L until her death about
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: two thirty eight. Shortly after we heard a few bars
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: of lovely music, not unlike that from an Aeolian harp,
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: and it filled the air for a few seconds. I
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: went to the window and looked out, thinking there must
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: be some one outside, but could see no one, though
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: it was quite light and clear. Strangely enough, those outside
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: the room heard the same sounds as they were coming upstairs,
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: quite at the other side of the door. Mister Gurney
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: adds a note that as mister L, although present at
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: the time of his mother's death, did not share the
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: experience of the others, this is strong evidence that the
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: sounds did not come from any persons singing outside the house,
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: and the other evidence quoted confirms this. There are, however,
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: many cases in which the dying persons or those near
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: the bedside, have heard musical sounds which could not be
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: attributed to any earthly source. These sounds may have their origin,
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: in some cases at least in the minds of the living.
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: The following case appears to point to a hallucinatory origin
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 1: of the music heard. It is an interesting case in
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: worth quoting in an abbreviated form. It is printed in
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: the s p R Journal, Volume four, page one eighty one.
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 1: Here the subject was a deafbute John Britton, who was
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: taken dangerously ill with rheumatic fever, which caused his hands
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: and fingers, which were his only means of conversation, to
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: become so swollen that he could not use them, greatly
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: to the distress of his relatives, to whom he could
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: not make known his wants nor his sufferings. The narrator,
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: mister s Allen Stewart of Haileybury College and a brother
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: in law of John Britton, states that the doctor, thinking
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: John could not recover, had sent for members of his family.
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: He adds that when he and his wife were in
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: a room below John's bedroom. They were greatly surprised to
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: hear music coming from upstairs, and ran up at once
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: to find out what it was. He narrates as follows.
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: Quote We found Jack lying on his back, with his
• 2:23:05
  Speaker 1: eyes fixed on the ceiling, and his face lighted up
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: with the brightest of smiles. After a little while, Jack
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: awoke and used the words heaven and beautiful as well
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: as he could by means of his lips in facial expression.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: As he became more conscious, he also told us in
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: the same manner that his brother Tom and his sister
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: Harriet were coming to see him. This we considered very unlikely,
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 1: as they lived some distance off, but shortly afterwards a
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: cab drove up, from which they alighted. They had set
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: no information of their coming, nor had anyone else. After
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 1: Jack's partial recovery, when he was able to write or
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: converse upon his fingers, he told us that he had
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: been allowed to see into heaven and to hear most
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: beautiful music. End quote. Mister Allen asks how did John
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: know that Tom and Harriet were traveling? And how could
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: he have heard these musical sounds which we also heard.
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: He remarks that the music could not have come from
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: next door or from the street, and he gives a
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 1: rough plan of his house to show that it was
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 1: not in a row and that the sounds could not
• 2:24:16
  Speaker 1: be due to any normal cause. Missus Allan confirms her
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: husband's statements and says that she heard the sounds of
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: singing which came from her brother's bedroom, and that when
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: she entered the bedroom, he was in a comatose state
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: and smiling, and his lips were moving as if he
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: were in conversation with someone, but no sound came from them.
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: Missus Allan continues quote, when he had recovered sufficiently to
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: use his hands, he told me more details of what
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: he had seen, and he used the words beautiful music.
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: End quote. She adds that her brother died a few
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: years later and states, the nurse and I were watching
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: in the room. My brother was looking just as he
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: did on the former occasion, smiling, and he said, quite
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: distinctly and articulately, angels and home. The Reverend L. S. Milford,
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: a master at Haileybury College, in giving an account of
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: the interview he had with mister and Missus Allen, states
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: that quote Missus Allen says the sounds she heard resembled singing,
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: sweet music without distinguishable words, that she went upstairs directly
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: she heard the music, which continued until she reached the bedroom.
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: Mister Allen's impression is that the sound resembled the full
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: notes of an organ or of an Aeolian harp. End quote.
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: The following interesting case is an instance in which the
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: dying person heard the sound of singing and also had
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: a vision of a lady of whose death she was unaware.
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 1: The case is taken from the Proceedings as PR for
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty five and is as follows, somewhat abridged quote.
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 1: Missus Z, wife Colonel Z, a well known Irish gentleman
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: who does not wish his name published, was having some
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: friends to stay with her and asked a Miss X,
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: who was training as a professional singer, to spend a
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: week with her to help her entertain her guests. This
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: she did. Several years later, missus Z became very ill
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 1: and expected to die. She was, however, perfectly composed and
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: in the full possession of her senses, and was anxious
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: to arrange some business affairs for this purpose. Her husband
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: came to her bedside and talked over these matters with her.
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: Suddenly she changed the subject and said to her husband,
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: do you hear those voices singing? Colonel Z, who narrates
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: the incident, replied that he did not, and his wife continued,
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: I have heard them several times today, and I am
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: sure they are the angels welcoming me to heaven. But
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: she added, it is strange there is one voice among them.
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I know, but I cannot remember whose voice
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: it is. Suddenly she stopped and said, pointing straight over
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 1: her husband's head, why there she is in the corner
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: of the room. It is Julia X. She is coming on.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: She's leaning over you. She has her hands up, she
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: is praying. Do look she is going. Her husband turned
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: round but could see nothing. His wife then said she
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: has gone. End quote. These things the colonel at the
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: time believed to be merely the phantasms of a dying person.
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: But two days afterwards, on taking up the Times newspaper,
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 1: he saw recorded in it the death of Julia, who
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: some years previously had married a mister Welby. He was
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 1: so astounded that a day or two after his wife's funeral,
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 1: he went to see Julia's father and asked if his
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 1: daughter were really dead. Yes, he said, poor thing. She
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: died of pure peril fever. And on the day she died,
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 1: she began singing and sang on and on till she died.
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: In a subsequent communication from Colonel Z, the following facts
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 1: were given. Missus Welby, Nay Julia X, died on February second,
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four. Missus Z, wife of Colonel Z, died
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: on February thirteenth, eighteen seventy four. Colonel Z saw a
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: notice of missus Welby's death on February fourteenth, eighteen seventy four.
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Z never was subject to hallucinations of any sort.
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 1: Mister Gurney subsequently received a note from mister Welby, husband
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: of Julia, in which he stated that beautiful as his
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: wife's voice was, it never had been so exquisitely beautiful
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: as when she sang just before her death. John Bunyan
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 1: relates an incident of this kind which is worth quoting,
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: though its evidential value is not very great. He states, quote,
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 1: talking of the dying of Christians, I will tell you
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: a story of one that died sometime since in our town.
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: The man was a godly old puritan, for so the
• 2:29:05
  Speaker 1: godly recalled in times past. This man, after a long
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: and godly life, fell sick of the sickness whereof he died.
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: And as he lay drawing on the woman that looked
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: to him thought she heard music, and that the sweetest
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: that ever she heard in her life, which also continued
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 1: until he gave up the ghost. Now, when his soul
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 1: departed from him, the music seemed to withdraw and to
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: go further and further off from the house. And so
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: it went until the sound was quite gone out of hearing.
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: End of chapter five, Chapter six of Deathbed Visions by
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 1: William Barrett. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: Chapter six of the Spirit of a Dying Person Leaving
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 1: the Body. The following case, which is taken from the
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: SPR Journal, Volume eight, pages three o eight to three eleven,
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 1: was sent to doctor Hodgen by doctor Burgess, an associate
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: of the American SPR. The vision was seen only by
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 1: the husband of the dying woman, and by none of
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: the others present in the room. The doctor who was present,
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: Doctor Renz, testifies that the precipient, mister g was in
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 1: a perfectly normal state before and after, and that there
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: were features in the vision that would not have been
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: likely to occur to him. The precipient mister G states
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 1: as follows quote. My wife died at eleven forty five
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: PM on Friday May twenty third, nineteen o two. Gathered
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: around the bedside were some of our most intimate friends,
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: the physician in attendance, and two trained nurses. I was
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: seated at the bedside, holding my wife's hand. Earlier in
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: the evening, at six forty five, I happened to look
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: towards the door when I saw floating through the doorway
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 1: three separate and distinct clouds in straita. Each cloud appeared
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: to be about four feet in length, from six to
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: eight inches in width, and the lower one about two
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: feet from the ground, the others at intervals of about
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: six inches. Slowly, these clouds approached the bed until they
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: completely enveloped it. Then, gazing through the mist, I beheld,
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 1: standing at the head of my dying wife, a woman's
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: figure about three feet in height, transparent yet like a
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 1: sheen of brightest gold, A figure so glorious in its
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: appearance that no words can be used fitly to describe it.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: She was dressed in the Grecian costume, with long, loose
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 1: and flowing sleeves upon her head a brilliant crown in
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: all its splendor and beauty. The figure remained motionless, with
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: hands uplifted over my wife, seeming to express a welcome
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: with a quiet, glad countenance, with the dignity of calmness
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 1: and peace. Two figures in white knelt by my wife's side,
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 1: apparently leaning towards her. Other figures hovered about the bed,
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 1: more or less distinct above my wife and connected to
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 1: a cord proceeding from her forehead. Over the left eye.
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: There floated in a horizontal position a nude white figure,
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: apparently her astral body. At times, the suspended figure would
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: lie perfectly quiet. At other times it would shrink in
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: size until it was no larger than perhaps eighteen inches,
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 1: But always the figure was perfect and distinct. This vision,
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: or whatever it may be called, I saw continuously during
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 1: the five hours preceding the death of my wife. All
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: through those five hours I felt a strange feeling of
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 1: oppression and weight upon my head and limbs. At last,
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: fatal moment arrived. With a gasp, the astral figure, struggling
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: my wife ceased to breathe, she apparently was dead. However,
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: a few seconds later she breathed again twice, and then
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: all was still, with her last breath and last gasp
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 1: as the soul left the body. The cord was severed suddenly,
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 1: and the astral figure vanished. The clouds and the spirit
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: forms disappeared instantly, and strange to say, all the oppression
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: that weighed upon me was gone. I was myself, cool,
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: calm and deliberate, able to direct from the moment of death,
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 1: the disposition of the body its preparation for a final
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: resting place. I leave my readers to determine whether I
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: was laboring under a mental delusion caused by my anxiety,
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 1: sorrow and fatigue, or if a glimpse of the spirit
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: world of beauty, happiness, calmness, and peace was granted to
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: my mortal eyes. End the doctor who was present writes
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 1: as follows, quote from my own observations, I can most
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: positively put aside a temporary acute state of hallucinatory insanity
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 1: during the time of the vision just recorded. I knew
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: mister g Well, and I had occasion to know that
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 1: he never read anything in the occult line, that everything
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 1: that was not a proven fact was incompatible with his
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 1: positive mind, so much so that during his vision, of
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: which I did not know at the time, he asked
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 1: me frequently if I thought he was going to become insane.
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 1: As soon as missus G was dead, mister G, who
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 1: for six hours was sitting almost motionless next to her,
• 2:34:45
  Speaker 1: rose and gave all his orders in such a calm
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: and businesslike way that it surprised all who were present.
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 1: If he had labored under a hallucination, his mind would
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: not have become clear as suddenly as it did. It
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: is now two and a half weeks since the death
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: and the vision. Mister G is absolutely normal physically as
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: well as mentally. He has attended to his business as usual,
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: and besides fulfilled many extraordinary duties signed sea rents. Many
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 1: well authenticated cases are on record where the relatives of
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 1: a person watching by the deathbed have seen, at the
• 2:35:26
  Speaker 1: moment of death a cloudy form rising from the body
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: of the deceased and hovering for a time in the room,
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: and then passing away. Lady mount Temple informed me that
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: something of this kind was noticed by a psychic friend
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: of hers who was present at the death of Lord
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 1: mount Temple. Others present did not see it. In a
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 1: letter that has recently been sent me of a late
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: well known dignitary of the church, a dean in New
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: South Wales, he describes the death of his son a
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 1: few years ago. Says that at about three point thirty PM,
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 1: he and his wife were standing one on each side
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: of the bed and bending over their dying son, when
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: just as his breathing ceased, they both saw something rise,
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 1: as it were, from his face, like a delicate veil
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 1: or mist, and slowly pass away. He adds, we were
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: deeply impressed and remarked, how wonderful surely that must be
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: the departure of his soul. We were not at all
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: distracted so as to be mistaken in what we saw.
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: The following cases are recorded by Missus Joy Snell in
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: her book The Ministry of Angels. Quote, it was about
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: six months after I began work in the hospital that
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 1: it was revealed to me that the dying often really
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: do see those who have come from the realms of
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: spirit life to welcome them on their entrance into another
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: state of existence. The first time that I received this
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: ocular proof was that the death of Laurus Sturman, a
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: sweet girl of seventeen, who was a personal friend of mine.
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: She was a victim of consumption. She suffered no pain,
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 1: but the weariness that comes from extreme weakness and debility
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 1: was heavy upon her, and she yearned for rest. A
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: short time before she expired, I became aware that two
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: spirit forms were standing by the bedside, one on either
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: side of it. I did not see them enter the room.
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: They were standing by the bedside when they first became
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: visible to me, but I could see them as distinctly
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 1: as I could any of the human occupants of the room.
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: I recognized their faces as those of two girls who
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: had been the closest friends of the girl who was dying.
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 1: They had passed away a year before and were then
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 1: about her own age. Just before they appeared, the dying
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 1: girl exclaimed, it has grown suddenly dark. I cannot see anything,
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 1: but she recognized them immediately. A smile beautiful to see
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: lit up her face. She stretched forth her hands and
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: in joyous tones, exclaimed, oh, you have come to take
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 1: me away. I am glad, for I am very tired.
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 1: As she stretched forth her hands, the two angels extended
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: each a hand, one grasping the dying girl's right hand.
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 1: And the other her left hand. Their faces were illumined
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 1: by a smile more radiantly beautiful even than that of
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: the face of the girl who was so soon to
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: find the rest for which she longed. She did not
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: speak again, but for nearly a minute her hands remained outstretched,
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 1: grasped by the hands of the angels, and she continued
• 2:38:45
  Speaker 1: to gaze at them with the glad light in her
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: eyes and the smile on her face. Her father, mother,
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: and brother, who had been summoned that they might be
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: present when the end came, began to weep bitterly, for
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: they knew that she was leaving them. From my heart
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 1: there went up a prayer that they might see what
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: I saw, but they could not. The angels seemed to
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: relax their grasp of the girl's hands, which then fell
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: back on the bed. A sigh came from her lips,
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: such as one might give who resigns himself gladly to
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 1: a much needed sleep, and in another moment she was
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 1: what the world calls dead, but that sweet smile with
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: which she had recognized the angels was still stamped on
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 1: her features. The two angels remained by the bedside during
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: the brief space that elapsed before the spirit form took
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: shape above the body in which physical life had ceased.
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: Then they rose and stood for a few moments, one
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: on each side of her, who was now like unto themselves,
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: and the three angels went from the room, where a
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 1: short time before there had been only two. About a
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 1: month after the death of Lors Sturman, which I have
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 1: just related, another friend of mine died in the hospital,
• 2:40:08
  Speaker 1: a mister Campbell, a man of forty five. It was
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: pneumonia that carried him off. He was a good and
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 1: devout man, and for him death held no terrors, for
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 1: he was sure that it was but the transition to
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: a happier, more exalted life than can be lived here.
• 2:40:26
  Speaker 1: His only regret at dying was that he would leave
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: behind him a dearly loved wife, but that regret was
• 2:40:32
  Speaker 1: softened by the assurance that their parting would be only
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: for a time, and that she would join him some
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: day in that other world whither he was going. She
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: was sitting by his bed and, believing, as he believed,
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: was awaiting the end with resignation. About an hour before
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: he died, he called her by name, and, pointing upwards, said, look,
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: l there is B. He is waiting for me, and
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: now he smiles and holds out his hands to me.
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: Can't you see him? No, dear, I cannot see him,
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: she replied, But I know that he is there because
• 2:41:07
  Speaker 1: you see him. B was their only child, who had
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: been taken from them about a year before, when between
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: five and six years of age. I could plainly see
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 1: the little angel, with curly flaxen hair and blue eyes,
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 1: and garbed in what I call the spirit robe. The
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: face was just that of a winsome child, but etherealized
• 2:41:29
  Speaker 1: and radiant, as no earthly faces ever are. The father
• 2:41:33
  Speaker 1: had been greatly weakened by the ravages of his disease,
• 2:41:36
  Speaker 1: and the joyful emotion occasioned by seeing his angel child
• 2:41:40
  Speaker 1: seemed to exhaust what little vitality he had left. He
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 1: closed his eyes and sank into a placid sleep. He
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: remained in that state for about an hour, the angel child,
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 1: meanwhile staying poised above the bed, with an expression of
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: glad expectancy on his radiant face. Occasionally he looked lovely
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 1: at his mother. The breathing of the dying man grew
• 2:42:04
  Speaker 1: fainter and fainter, until it ceased altogether. Then again I
• 2:42:07
  Speaker 1: witnessed what had now become a familiar spectacle to me,
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 1: the formation of the spirit body above the discarded earthly body.
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 1: When it was complete, the angel child grasped the hand
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: of the now angel father. Each gazed into the eyes
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 1: of the other with an expression of the tenderest affection,
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: and with faces aglow with joy and happiness. They vanished.
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: Later on in the day, the widow, Missus Campbell, said
• 2:42:36
  Speaker 1: to me, I am very glad my dear husband saw
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: Bee before he died. It was natural that Bee should
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 1: come for him to take him to the angels, for
• 2:42:45
  Speaker 1: they loved each other dearly. I shall now be able
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 1: to think of them as always together and happy. And
• 2:42:52
  Speaker 1: when I received my summons, I know that they will
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 1: both come for me. After I had left the hospital
• 2:42:59
  Speaker 1: and had taken up nursing, I was engaged to nurse
• 2:43:02
  Speaker 1: an old lady, Missus Barton, aged sixty, who was suffering
• 2:43:07
  Speaker 1: from a painful internal disease. She was a widow and
• 2:43:11
  Speaker 1: her only daughter lived with her. The time came when
• 2:43:14
  Speaker 1: the end was very near. The mother had been for
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: some time unconscious, and the daughter was kneeling by the
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 1: bedside weeping. Her face buried in her hands. Suddenly two
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: angels became visible to me, standing on either side of
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: the bed. The face of one was that of a
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 1: man who, when he departed from this life, was apparently
• 2:43:33
  Speaker 1: about sixty years of age. His beard and hair were
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 1: iron gray, but there was stamped on his features that
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 1: indescribable something indicative of exuberant vitality and vigor, which shines
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 1: forth from all angel faces I have ever seen, whether
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 1: in other respects they present the semblance of youth or
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: old age. The face of the other angel was that
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: of a woman, apparently some ten or fifteen years younger.
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 1: The dying woman opened her eyes, and into them there
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: came that look of glad recognition I have so often
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 1: observed in those whose spirits are about to be released
• 2:44:11
  Speaker 1: forever from their earthly tenements. She stretched forth her two hands.
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 1: One angel grasped one hand, and the other angel the
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: other hand, while their radiant faces were aglow with the
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 1: joy of welcoming to the better world. Her, whose earthly
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 1: pilgrimage was finished. Oh Willie, she exclaimed, you have come
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 1: to take me home at last, And I am glad,
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 1: for my sufferings have been hard to bear. And I
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 1: am very tired. Then she added, you too, Martha, with
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: a joyous light still in her eyes. Her hands remained
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: outstretched for perhaps half a minute. Then they seemed to
• 2:44:47
  Speaker 1: slip from the grasp of the angels. All her sufferings
• 2:44:51
  Speaker 1: were over. The daughter had raised her head at the
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: sound of her mother's voice, and her tear dimmed eyes
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 1: seemed to reflect someone thing of the glad surprise depicted
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 1: on the mother's face. I can doubt no more after this,
• 2:45:06
  Speaker 1: she said to me, when her mother had breathed her
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 1: last breath. I know that mother saw Father and her
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: sister aunt Martha. I know that they came to take
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: her to her rest in heaven. Eagerly. She listened to
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 1: me when I told her a little later how I
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: had seen two angels depart with her angel mother. I
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 1: believe it. I believe it, she cried. But oh, how
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 1: I wish I could have seen it too. End of
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 1: Chapter six end of Deathbed Visions by William Barrett