Ghosts and Apparitions

by W.H. Salter

Overview

A comprehensive survey of ghosts and apparitions from the records of the Society for Psychical Research.
 
Ghosts and Apparitions is a classic in the field of paranormal research, written by a former president of the Society for Psychical Research, W.H. Salter. The author of Zoar, or the Evidence of Psychical Research Concerning Survival, Salter here mines his experiences and those of his colleagues for cases that throw light on the many different aspects of supernatural visitations. From visions seen in sleep—or that borderland between sleep and waking—to the paranormal pranks of poltergeists, Ghosts and Apparitions takes readers deep into the history of these sightings with confirmed accounts of otherworldly spirits.
Ghosts and Apparitions is part of The Paranormal, a series that resurrects rare titles, classic publications, and out-of-print texts, as well as publishes new supernatural and otherworldly ebooks for the digital age. The series includes a range of paranormal subjects from angels, fairies, and UFOs to near-death experiences, vampires, ghosts, and witchcraft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781446357743
Publisher:	David & Charles
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Series:	The Paranormal
Sold by:	OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	138
File size:	536 KB

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CHAPTER 1

DREAMS

A discussion of ghosts and apparitions must range over a wide field. In the course of it mention must be made of experiences some of which are very rare, of events whose occurrence is far from being generally accepted as fact. It may therefore be convenient to take as a starting point so common a class of experience as dreams.

Most people from time to time dream of their family and friends, and such dreams, whatever interest their content may present to the psychologist or psychoanalyst, do not usually suggest the operation of any faculty not accepted by general scientific opinion: they are not, in the language of psychical research, 'supernormal.'

Even where the content of the dream corresponds more or less closely to facts not within the normal knowledge of the dreamer, there is not necessarily any occasion to suppose supernormal activity. Very many cases, for example, have been recorded in which a dreamer has dreamt of a friend, and has subsequently learnt that the friend was ill or dying at the time of the dream. Dreams being as common as they are, the laws of probability make it certain that in numerous instances a sick or dying person should be dreamt of by one of his friends at or about the time of his illness or death: the resources of chance-coincidence are formidable, and it is only when the correspondence between dream and event is close that it becomes worth while considering whether chance is a sufficient explanation.

If the event be an incident of a kind frequently occurring, or be spread over a long period of time (a long illness, for example), or not wholly unexpected by the percipient (such as death after a serious illness known to him); or if the dream be lacking in striking detail; or if there is a considerable time-lag between event and dream, the scope of chance-coincidence is widened. On the other hand close correspondence either as to time or as to significant detail strengthens the case for supposing the intervention of some factor other than chance.

When we come to consider apparitions of recognized persons seen when the percipient is fully awake — a less common type of experience — we shall find that it is possible to assess statistically the probability or improbability of the experience being due to chance-coincidence. But this is not possible with dreams. In our daily life, however, we are frequently forced to consider whether some occurrence is due to chance or intention, and if we apply to dreams common-sense standards based on everyday experience, we should not find it difficult to assess with a fair degree of accuracy the likelihood of any particular dream falling within or going beyond the scope of chance.

Instances will now be given of visions seen in sleep, or in that 'borderland' state between sleep and waking, which seems to be particularly productive of remarkable experiences.

Case I

This case of an apparition at the exact time of death was brought to the Society's notice by an Austrian member, to whom it was reported by an old friend of his, Baron X, the husband of the dying lady. After having been ill for a long time she died in agony on 29th April, 1930, at 11.20 p.m. (Austrian time) in Vienna. A printed announcement of the death was sent by post to a Mrs. F in Scotland; Mrs. F had lived many years previously in the Baron's house and remained on very friendly terms with the whole family, especially with the Baroness. The announcement said that the death had occurred 'on the evening of 29 April, 1930,' but did not mention the hour.

On receipt of the announcement Mrs. F at once sent to the husband a letter dated 5th May, 1930, in which she wrote:

'Now I must tell you a very strange thing happened on the night of April 29th. I already knew on that night that the Baroness had died — because she came here and said good-bye to me. It was like this: On the Tuesday evening I went to bed feeling very tired about 9 p.m. and fell sound to sleep. About 11¼ p.m. I awoke with someone pressing a kiss on my forehead, and on looking up I saw the Baroness standing by the side of the bed, she looked as though she desired to say something, or was waiting for me to speak or answer, but I was so startled, not to say afraid, I was speechless, so after gazing at one another for a minute or two the Baroness vanished. Her expression was so sad and enquiring I cannot forget it. What I have just written you is not an hallucination but real fact. I related it to Mr. F on the Wednesday morning, and he said "You were dreaming" ... I really saw the Baroness as clearly as I see the paper I am now writing on and I was wide awake.'

Mr. F wrote to the Society on the 7th July, 1930, confirming that his wife at the breakfast table on 30th April had informed him that she had seen the Baroness the previous night, and had rejected his suggestion that it was a dream.

Questioned as to how she fixed the time of the vision, Mrs. F wrote that soon after the appearance vanished the hall clock chimed the half-hour and that when she had recovered from her fright she got up and looked at the bedroom clock 'which showed the hour to be eleven [i.e. that the hour hand stood between eleven and twelve]: therefore the vision was somewhere between 11¼ and 11½. I fixed 11.20.'

It is to be noted that at the date of the vision Austrian time and British (Summer) time were the same, so that the time ('about 11¼') mentioned by Mrs. F before she had been told of the time of death, corresponded with the actual time of death very closely. This fact is of importance, in view of the length of the Baroness's illness of which Mrs. F knew. Her statement on this point is as follows:

'I knew that the Baroness was very ill, but from the last reports of her health, I had reason to believe and hope that she was gaining strength and better. Naturally I thought a great deal about her, as I was greatly attached to her, but on the 29th Ap. I had not been thinking more than usual about her.'

In judging therefore whether chance offers an adequate explanation of the occurrence, some degree of apprehensiveness on Mrs. F's part has to be set in the balance against the close correspondence in time between experience and event.

In this case the event was a death, but in the case next to be quoted, two events, neither very serious, affecting a lady at Filey, Yorkshire, figured within a few hours in the dreams of her friend, then staying near Peterborough.

Case II

On Sunday, the 25th August, 1901, H. B., a Cambridge undergraduate, who was attached to Miss D, had two dreams, in the first of which, when he was 'dozing'

'the face of Miss D rose up before me, and to my surprise one side of her face was very much swollen and she looked very unhappy. I sat up in bed and spoke to her only to find that I had been dreaming. Again I fell asleep and dreamt that I was walking along a street, when I heard a cry above me, and looking up saw Miss D's face at a window from which smoke and flames were issuing. I rushed upstairs only to see her face floating in the smoke, very much swollen. I tried to grasp her and woke up with a cry.'

On the next day he wrote to Miss D to ask if she had had a toothache, but on second thoughts decided that it would make him feel foolish if nothing had occurred, and tore up the letter. On a later day in the week, he was writing to her about other things and mentioned his vivid dream about the swollen face. But before he sent this letter he received one from her dated Wednesday (28th August), in which she said she had been 'seedy ever since Sunday. I think I must have got a chill; anyhow I had raging toothache from Sunday night until' she had the tooth out. The letter contained a sketch of her face when swollen, but said nothing about any fire. But H. B. was so astonished to find that his dream about the swollen face was true, that he added a postscript to his letter to say that he had seen her with a swollen face at a window from which smoke was coming, and to ask if that part of the dream was also true.

Miss D replied on the 31st August as follows:

'I was awfully interested in your dream: it is the queerest thing I have heard of for ages. The funny part of it is that I got the cold which made my toothache so bad by going out on Sunday evening, hearing that there was a fire on the Crescent. It was Mrs. K's house: one of the bedrooms got on fire. It was nothing much and was put out before the Fire Brigade arrived. ... Auntie M first noticed smoke coming out of the window.'

She added that she had slept heavily on Sunday night, with the help of a sleeping draught, and had not thought much of H. B. then, but had thought of him a good deal on Monday night when she had seen what a sight she was. H. B. stated that he dreamt constantly, but had never had so vivid a dream experience before.

That a house on fire should cause a toothache, and that both should reappear the same night in the dreams of a young man attached to the sufferer seems to be a somewhat complex and unusual sequence of events to attribute to chance. The dream representation of the fire is not entirely accurate: Miss D was not in the burning house; but what was from her point of view the essential feature, the connection of the fire with her toothache, is reproduced in the dream without ambiguity.

H. B.'s statement as to his never having had any similar experience should be noted.

The next case is also one of a dream being repeated twice in one night, not a very usual experience. The event corresponding with it was a cheerful one.

Case III

Mrs. Hanson, an Associate of the S.P.R., writes from near East Grinstead as follows:

'7th January, 1919.

'Since the summer of 1915 I have been sending regular parcels to Lance-Corporal W. D., Royal Scots Fusiliers Regiment (a prisoner of war in Germany).

'I do not know the man or his family personally, and heard of him through a friend who was interesting herself in the British prisoners. Apart from occasional post cards thanking me for the parcels, and two photographs and a group taken at the Prison, I have had no other correspondence with the man. Since the Armistice I have naturally awaited with interest any news that I might receive from him. I was away for Xmas, and as I had heard nothing from him I began to wonder if he was all right, and determined on my return to write to his wife and ask her if she had received any news.

'I had a good deal of correspondence to get through, and put off writing until Sunday, 5th January. The previous night (Sat., 4th Jan.) I had a very vivid dream twice repeated, in fact I could almost be sure it came three times, but of twice I am certain. In the dream I was with my husband in some strange place talking to L.-C. D. We shook hands with him and he said he was safe home. He was dressed in a dark uniform similar to that of one of the photographs he sent me. In the morning (5th Jan.) when I woke up I told my husband and also the maid when she came to wake us. I enclose both their statements to this effect. The impression left by the dream was so vivid that I did not write to Mrs. D, thinking I would wait a day or two longer in case I might hear of her husband's arrival. This morning (7th Jan.) I received a p.c. which I also enclose, dated by postmark 5th Jan. from L.-C. D. saying he had just arrived at Leith.

'I am not in the habit of dreaming much, and seldom remember my dreams, and only once before, a good many years ago, have I ever had anything of interest in this way.'

As might have been expected, the constant anxiety of the War years caused many friends and relatives at home to dream of their loved ones at the front being killed or wounded, and only too often the fears, which found expression in their dreams, were realized at or about the time of the dream. For many of such cases chance coincidence would offer a sufficient explanation. The case, however, next to be cited presents several points which place a severe strain on any theory based on chance.

Case IV

The dreamer, Dr. George Johnston, of 23 Seymour Street, Portman Square, wrote on the 15th March, 1917, as follows:

'My son, Lieut. Alec Leith Johnston, of the 1st King's Shropshire L.I., was killed at daybreak on Saturday, 22nd April, 1916.

'At daybreak on the next morning, Easter Sunday, about 24 hours after his death took place, when I was lying half awake and half asleep, I had the vision or dream, an account of which follows:

'I saw two soldiers in khaki standing beside a pile of clothing and accoutrements, which, in some way, I knew to be Alec's, and my first feeling was one of anger and annoyance that they should be meddling with his things, for they were apparently looking through them and arranging them. Then one of them took up a khaki shirt which was wrapped round something so as to form a kind of roll. He took hold of one end of it and let the rest drop so that it unrolled itself and a pair of heavy, extremely muddy boots fell out and banged heavily on the floor, and something else fell which made a metallic jingle. I thought, "That is his revolver," but immediately afterwards thought, "No, it is too light to be his revolver which would have made more of a clang."

'As these things fell out on to the floor the two men laughed, but a sad wistful kind of laugh with no mirth in it. And then the words "Alec is dead and they are going through his kit," were most clearly borne in upon my mind. They were not spoken and I heard no voice, but they were just as clear as if I had done so. And then I became fully awake with these words repeating themselves in my mind, and with the fullest conviction of their truth which I never lost. I suppose I still tried to persuade myself that it might not be true, but it was useless, and when the official telegram arrived it only confirmed what I already knew.'

Dr. Johnston told this dream to a nephew who called to see him on the afternoon of Sunday, the 23rd April, 1916. The War Office telegram informing him of his son's death reached him on the following Wednesday.

The significant features of the incident are:

(1) The dream was unique: Lieut. Johnston had been at the front for eighteen months and his father had had no other 'dream or any other impression of his being in any serious danger.'

(2) Dr. Johnston at the time of the dream 'was under the impression that his battalion was resting. ... Hence my mind was quite easy about him and I was not feeling at all anxious.' The battalion was unexpectedly called upon on the Friday evening (21st April) to recapture a trench, and in consolidating the position Lieut. Johnston was killed.

(3) Two details of the dream were curiously relevant, the muddy boots and the 'metallic jingle' which seemed to the dreamer too light to have been caused by a service revolver. The attack, as contemporary accounts show, was made in appalling conditions of mud, and when his kit reached home, it was found that instead of the heavy service Colt Lieut. Johnston had a light French automatic pistol which, in his father's words, 'in falling would have made exactly such a sound as I heard.'

It is improbable that the scene presented in the dream ever occurred in the form presented. As in the dream of Lance-Corporal D's homecoming, the significant fact is conveyed in a form symbolically rather than literally true. But the symbolical presentation did not prevent some curious details of fact finding a place in Dr. Johnston's dream. The same mixture of symbolism and literal fact was noted in the case of Mr. D. B.'s dreams. Later in this chapter will be found an account of a dream completely symbolical in form.

Case V

In the next case two sisters sleeping in the same room each had dreams or 'borderland' impressions of an accident which occurred on the same evening to their brother. One of the sisters had a further dream a few days later, on the day the brother was removed to the infirmary, where he died. Their accounts of their experiences, written independently, are as follows:

'On the evening of 18th November, 1903, I, M. L. B., retired about half-past nine o'clock and fell asleep. I had a most peculiar vision or dream. I thought I was walking through streets in a strange place; it was artificially lighted; there were a number of people walking to and fro on either side of the streets. I heard a peculiar noise, and turned partly round to see what was the cause of it. A vehicle was rushing across the top of the street; I was a few paces down; it looked something like a train, but was not a train, it was running on metals; something was coming down where I had crossed; there was an awful crash as if my (so-called) train had run upon something, and in a moment something fell with a sickening thud on the pavement, at my feet. I tried to cry out, but could not. In a moment a crowd had collected, and several people picked up the body which had fallen at my feet. I could see it was a man. I could not see the face, only a large gash on the back of the head, and near the lips, from which the blood was flowing. As the drops fell they splashed into a puddle of blood on the ground and sprinkled on to me. Some one said, "Take him away." I tried to cry out "What shall I do?" and awoke trembling and perspiring, and crying bitterly.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Introduction,
I. Dreams,
II. Apparitions seen by percipients when awake,
III. The Veridical Element in Dreams and Apparitions,
IV. Hauntings: Apparitions,
V. Hauntings: Poltergeists,
Conclusion,
Glossary,
Footnotes,
Loved This Book?,
Copypright Page,