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Title: True Ghost Stories
Author: Hereward Carrington
Release Date: January 8, 2014 [eBook #44625]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRUE GHOST STORIES***
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BY
HEREWARD CARRINGTON
Author of "The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism," "The Coming
Science," "Death: its Causes and Phenomena,"
"Death Deferred," etc.
NEW YORK
THE J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY
57 ROSE STREET
Copyright, 1915, by
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY
To
MY DEAR FRIENDS
THE MARSHALLS
| BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH | 7 |
| PREFACE | 9 |
| CHAPTER I | |
| What is a Ghost? | 13 |
| The Terror of the Dark | 14 |
| What is a Ghost? | 18 |
| Historic Investigations | 20 |
| Death Coincidences | 21 |
| Are They Due to Chance? | 24 |
| The Explanation | 26 |
| Experimental Apparitions | 27 |
| Telepathic Hallucinations | 32 |
| Ghosts Which Move Material Objects | 37 |
| Photographs of Ghosts | 38 |
| The "Double" and the Spiritual Body | 40 |
| What Happens at the Moment of Death | 43 |
| How the Soul May Leave the Body | 47 |
| Theories of Haunted Houses | 51 |
| The Ghosts of Animals, etc. | 53 |
| The Clothes of Ghosts | 55 |
| Telepathy from the Dead | 57 |
| The Psychic Atmosphere | 59 |
| Forms Created by Will | 60 |
| Physical Manifestations | 62 |
| Can Haunted Houses be "Cured"? | 63 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| Phantasms of the Dead - I | 65 |
| A Russian Ghost | 65 |
| Grasped by a Spirit Hand | 71 |
| "I Am Shot!" | 74 |
| "Heave the Lead!" | 75 |
| The Rescue at Sea | 78 |
| How Ghosts Influence Us | 86 |
| How a Ghost Warned the King | 90 |
| The Stains of Blood | 93 |
| Face to Face | 96 |
| "Julia, Darling!" | 98 |
| The Cut Across the Cheek | 99 |
| The Invisible Hand | 100[6] |
| The Apparition of the Radiant Boy | 104 |
| Fisher's Ghost | 106 |
| Harriet Hosmer's Vision | 109 |
| The Apparition of the Murdered Boy | 112 |
| The Ghost in Yellow Calico | 116 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| More Phantasms of the Dead - II | 120 |
| Compacts to Appear after Death | 120 |
| Lord Brougham's Vision | 122 |
| The Tyrone Ghost | 125 |
| Dead or Alive! | 128 |
| The Scratch on the Cheek | 135 |
| A Ghost in Hampton Court | 139 |
| Half-Past One O'clock | 147 |
| My Own True Ghost Story | 155 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Haunted Houses | 163 |
| The Record of a Haunted House | 165 |
| Proofs of Immateriality | 168 |
| Conduct of Animals in the House | 169 |
| B - - House | 170 |
| Willington Mill | 174 |
| The Great Amherst Mystery | 176 |
| Brook House | 186 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| Ghost Stories of a More Dramatic Nature | 194 |
| Disease-Phantoms | 194 |
| The Tale of a Mummy | 198 |
| Face Slapped by a Ghost | 204 |
| Alone with a Ghost in Church | 207 |
| A Haunted House in France | 210 |
| A Haunted House in Georgia | 213 |
| Shaken by a Ghost | 220 |
| The House and the Brain | 221 |
| APPENDIX A | |
| Historical Ghosts | 230 |
| APPENDIX B | |
| The Phantom Armies Seen in France | 236 |
| APPENDIX C | |
| Bibliography | 245 |
HEREWARD CARRINGTON, author of "True Ghost Stories," is well known in this country, and in Europe, as a prominent scientific writer on psychical and occult subjects. He has been a member of both the English and American Societies of Psychical Research for more than 15 years; has written over a dozen books on the subject - a number of which has been translated into foreign languages (such as Japanese and Arabic), and he has lectured in London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, Genoa, Turin, etc. - before scientific organizations. His writings are well known, and have earned him a high place in psychical circles. He's a late member of the Council of the American Scientific Society, of the American Geographical Society, and of the American Health League. He collaborated in the "American Encyclopædia," "The Standard Dictionary," etc. His experience in the investigation of psychical mysteries is unrivalled. He has travelled all over the country investigating "cases," spending nights in "haunted houses," and accounts of his investigations have appeared in the Reports of the various Psychical Societies, and also in his own publications.
In "True Ghost Stories," Mr. Carrington presents a number of startling cases of this character; but they are not the ordinary "ghost stories" - based on pure fiction, and having no foundation in reality. Here we have a well-arranged collection of incidents, all thoroughly investigated and vouched for, and the testimony obtained first-hand and corroborated by others. The chapter on "Haunted Houses" is particularly striking. The first chapter deals with the interesting question, "What is a Ghost?" and attempts to answer this question in the light of the latest scientific theories which have been advanced to explain these supernatural happenings and visitants. It is a book of absorbing interest, and cannot fail to grip and hold the attention of every reader - no matter whether he be a student of these questions, or one merely in search of hair-raising anecdotes and stories. He will find them here a-plenty!
The following little book endeavors to bring together a number of "ghost stories" of the more startling and dramatic type, - but stories, nevertheless, which seem to be well authenticated; and which have been obtained, in most instances, at first hand, from the original witnesses; and often contain corroborative testimony from others who also experienced the ghostly phenomena. Some of these incidents, indeed, rise to the dignity of scientific evidence; others are less well authenticated cases, - but interesting for all that. These have been grouped in various Chapters, according to their evidential value. Chapters II. and III. contain well-evidenced cases, some of which have been taken from the Proceedings and Journals of the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.), or from Phantasms of the Living, or from other scientific books, in which narratives of this character receive serious consideration. Chapter V., on the contrary, contains a number of incidents which, - striking and dramatic as they are, - cannot be included in the two earlier Chapters, as presenting real evidence of Ghosts; but are published rather as startling and interesting ghost stories.[10] Chapter IV., devoted to "Haunted Houses," contains brief accounts of the most famous Haunted Houses, and of the phenomena which have been witnessed within them. Appendix A gives a list of a few of the important "Historical Ghosts," Appendix B describes the "Phantom Armies" lately seen by the Allied troops in France - while Appendix C lists a number of books of Ghost Stories which the interested reader may care to peruse. A short Glossary, at the beginning of the book, explains the meaning of certain terms used, - which are not, perhaps, ordinarily met with in books of this character.
In the Introductory Chapter, I have endeavored to explain, very briefly, the nature and character of Ghosts; what they are; and the various scientific theories which have been brought forward, of late years, to explain Ghosts. I hope that this may prove of interest to the reader; in case it does not do so, he is invited to "skip" directly to Chapter II., which begins our account of "True Ghost Stories."
I wish to express my thanks in this place to the Council of the English S. P. R. for special permission to quote and to summarize several striking cases here reproduced; also to Miss Estelle Stead, for permission to utilize several cases previously printed at length in Mr. Wm. T. Stead's collections of Ghost Stories. H. C.
Agent - The person who, in thought-transference experiments, endeavors to impress his thoughts upon the "percipient" or "receiver."
Death-Coincidence - A case in which an apparition or other ghostly phenomenon has taken place, at the moment of the death of the person represented by the phantom.
Ghost - An apparition, a phantom. Some contend that all ghosts are "subjective" or purely mental (hallucinations); others that some ghosts are "objective" - that is, space-occupying entities, which exist apart from the seer, who sees them. These points will be found fully discussed in this book.
Hallucination - A mental experience, in which a phantom is seen, a voice heard, etc., when there is no real external cause for this seeing or hearing. Hallucinations are more complete than mere "illusions."
Pact - An agreement, entered into before death, between two persons, that, whichever one dies first, shall appear to the other one. These are here called "Pact Cases." [A Pact may also mean an agreement between a necromancer of[12] some spirit-intelligence, as in Magic; but the word is not used in that sense in this book.]
Percipient - The receiver of the telepathic or other message. The one who experiences the phenomenon.
Phantasm - A phantom; an apparition; a "ghost." The word is more inclusive than any of the words suggested; and is used by preference, by most psychic students.
Telepathy - Mind-reading; thought-transference.
TRUE GHOST STORIES
Ghosts have been believed in by every nation, at every time and at every stage of the world's evolution. No matter where we may go, we find them stalking through the pages of history;[1] and even in our own cynical and materialistic age, we not only find "ghosts" still; but the evidence for their existence is stronger than ever! It is nonsense to say that "no sensible person believes in ghosts," because many thousands of them do. Why do they believe? Would they believe if they had no cause to do so?
The "terror of the dark," which we all have more or less, from which every child suffers (how intensely!) during its early years - a terror which is, to a certain extent, shared by animals and even insects - does all this signify nothing? Those who have looked into this question thoroughly, believe that there is, in every truth, a[14] terrible reality justifying this instinctive fear; that evil and horrible things lurk about us in the still, weird hours of the night; that there are truly "powers and principalities" with which we often toy, without knowing or realizing the frightful dangers which result from this tampering with the unseen world. Yes; there is a true "tyranny of the dark." Phenomena and ghostly manifestations take place in darkness which would never occur in light; and which cease when a light is struck. All ghostly phenomena are associated with darkness, and the "wee small hours of the night."
All this is exemplified in the following interesting narrative, which I may entitle:
"All my life I have been afraid of the dark," said an acquaintance to me the other day, when we were discussing psychical matters. "I know that it is childish," he continued, "and I ought to have outgrown it years ago; but, as a matter of fact, I haven't. After all, isn't there some reason for the fears that we all feel, more or less, at that time? Doesn't the Bible speak of 'the terrors of the Dark;' and are not all animals, and even insects, afraid of the dark - so much so[15] that you cannot induce them to enter a dark place if they can help it? Light not only enables you to see what is around you; but it acts in a certain positive manner over 'the powers of darkness,' whatever they are, and prevents their operation. All spirit mediums will tell you that materialization and manifestations of that character cannot take place in the light; it prevents their occurrence. So, after all, as I said, isn't there some reasonable ground for one's fear at such times?"
I said nothing; but gazed into the fire. After all, were not his arguments somewhat impressive?
"But," continued my friend, "it is not altogether because of these speculative reasons that I fear the dark; it is because of a terrible experience I once had, and which has left me terror-struck, ever since, whenever I am left without light even for an instant. I will tell you the story, and let you judge for yourself.
"It was several years ago; in an old house we rented at that time, and from which we removed soon after the event I am about to relate. I was afraid of the dark, even then, and always left a night-light burning by the side of my bed when I went to sleep. One night I woke up, feeling the springs of the bed on which I was lying[16] vibrate in a peculiar manner, impossible to describe.
"Looking up, I saw, standing by the side of my bed, a young man, dressed in rags, having a face ghastly white, and showing every indication of dissipation. He was regarding me intently.
"I shall never forget the shock I received on beholding that figure; not only because of the unexpected appearance; but because of the fact that I could perceive the opposite wall and furniture through the body. I knew at once that I beheld a spirit; and my blood ran cold at the thought. What I had dreaded all my life was at last fulfilled!
"My next thought was 'I am so glad the night-light is burning. What should I do if I were in darkness?' As though the form read my thoughts, and was intent on torturing me to the limit of endurance, it leaned over, and the next instant had snuffed the candle! The phantom and I were alone in the black darkness!
"Words cannot describe my feelings at that instant. The blood froze in my veins, and the tongue clave to the roof of my mouth. I tried to speak, but could not. I only held out one hand as if to ward off the awful presence by pressing it away.
"The next instant I felt the bed-clothes gently[17] turned down on the further side of the bed, and partly pulled off me. The springs of the bed were depressed, and I knew that the fearsome visitor was crawling into bed! It would lie down by my side; perhaps touch me; perhaps - who could tell? The agony of mind I experienced in those few moments I shall never forget! My only wonder is that my reason did not give way!
"Then a curious thing happened. Even in the state of mind, as I was then, I could perceive that the bed was gradually rising up again into its normal position. The weight upon it was growing less and less. Finally, it was again level, and I felt the bed clothes carefully replaced over me. The phantom had withdrawn!
"For hours I lay awake, not daring to move. After what seemed a century, the first faint shafts of light fell across the room, betokening the welcome morn. Finally glorious day broke. Glorious light! Hateful darkness!

Ghosts do not always present themselves as so formidable and gruesome! Some of them prove helpful; others seem to wish to right a wrong; some even seem to have a sense of humor! So[18] there are all sorts of ghosts, just as there are all sorts of people; and the variety is just as great in the one case as in the other.
But, after all, what is a ghost? What do we mean by this? Where do ghosts live, and how? What do they do with themselves? How do they manifest? Why do they return? These are some of the questions which the average man asks himself - unless he totally disbelieves in them.
Most men, it is true, disbelieve in ghosts - unless they have had some experience to convince them to the contrary. Yet, after all, why should they? As Mr. W. T. Stead once remarked:
"Real Ghost Stories! How can there be real ghost stories when there are no real ghosts?
"But are there no real ghosts? You may not have seen one, but it does not follow that therefore they do not exist. How many of us have seen the microbe that kills? There are at least as many persons who testify that they have seen apparitions as there are men of science who have examined the microbe. You and I, who have seen neither, must perforce take the testimony of others. The evidence for the microbe may be[19] conclusive, the evidence as to apparitions may be worthless; but in both cases it is a case of testimony, not of personal experience."
The average conception of a Ghost is probably somewhat as follows: That it is a thin, tall figure, wrapped in a sheet, walking about the house, clanking chains behind it, and scaring out of his wits anyone who sees it. According to this view, a ghost would be as material and substantial a thing as a buzz-saw or a lap-dog, and exists just as fully "in space." Such, however, is not the conception of the ghost which modern science entertains. Many investigators who have examined this question closely have come to the conclusion that ghosts do actually exist; but when we come to the more troublesome question: What are they? we are met at once with difficulties and disagreements. The recent scientific theories and explanations of the subject are complex and subtle; and necessitate a certain preliminary knowledge on the part of the student in order for him to understand them. I shall explain as briefly and clearly as possible exactly what these theories are. For the moment, I wish to speak, first of all, of the history of psychic investigation; and particularly that portion of it which deals with apparitions or "ghost hunting."
Here and there, serious investigators have always existed. In the sixteenth century Dr. Glanvil pursued this study with great genius and patience; Dr. Johnson also was a firm believer in the reality of "ghosts"; Sir Walter Scott and others of his time were investigators, the famous Dr. Perrier wrote a treatise on apparitions, and similar investigations have been continued up to the present day. The first organized and systematic attempt to solve the problem, and to find out exactly what ghosts are, however, was made by the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.) in 1882. Practically all the investigations which have been carried on since then have led to important results.
Soon after the above mentioned Society was founded, and material began to be collected, it was found that many cases had to do with haunted houses, many with apparitions, but the greater number of them hinged around the one point - the coincidence of apparitions with the death of the persons represented. An apparition of a certain person would be seen in London, let us say; and some hours later a telegram would arrive, conveying the news that this person had just been killed. When the time was compared,[21] it was found to agree exactly; the hour of the death and that of the apparition tallying to the minute.
Chance, you say? Perhaps so. One case of this character might be explained in such manner; but could fifty? Could a hundred? It became a question of statistics - of figures; these alone can answer our question.
Before considering these, however, let us give a few examples of cases of "death-coincidences," so that the reader may see the character of the evidence presented. He may then appreciate the value of a great mass of such evidence, when published in extenso.
The first case we take is from M. Flammarion's book, The Unknown (p. 108), and is as follows:
"My mother ... who lived in Burgundy, heard one Tuesday, between nine and ten o'clock, the door of the bedroom open and close violently. At the same time, she heard herself called twice - 'Lucie, Lucie!' The following Tuesday, she heard that her uncle Clementin, who had always had a great affection for her, had died that Tuesday morning, precisely between nine and ten o'clock...."
In the following instance, the notification is in visual, instead of auditory form, and is taken from the Proceedings, S. P. R., Vol. X., pp. 213-14:
"About the 14th of September, 1882, my sister and I felt worried and distressed by hearing the 'death watch'; it lasted a whole day and night. We got up earlier than usual the next morning, about six o'clock, to finish some birthday presents for our mother. As my sister and I were working and talking together, I looked up, and saw our young acquaintance standing in front of me and looking at us. I turned to my sister; she saw nothing. I looked again to where he stood; he had vanished. We agreed not to tell any one....
"Some time afterwards we heard that our young acquaintance had either committed suicide or had been killed; he was found dead in the woods, twenty-four hours after landing. On looking back to my diary, I found that the marks I made in it corresponded to the date of his death."
The following case is reported in Podmore's Apparitions and Thought Transference, p. 265:
"The first Thursday of April, 1881, while sitting at tea with my back to the window, and talking with my wife in the usual way, I plainly[23] heard a rap at the window, and, looking round, I said to my wife, 'Why, there's my grandmother,' and went to the door, but could not see anyone; and still feeling sure it was my grandmother, and, knowing that, though eighty-three years of age, she was very active and fond of a joke, I went round the house, but could not see anyone. My wife did not hear it. On the following Saturday, I had news that my grandmother died in Yorkshire about half an hour before the time I heard the rapping. The last time I saw her alive I promised, if well, I would attend her funeral; that was some two years before. I was in good health and had no trouble; age, twenty-six years. I did not know that my grandmother was ill.
"Rev. Matthew Frost."
Mrs. Frost writes:
"I beg to certify that I perfectly remember all the circumstances my husband has named, but I heard and saw nothing myself."
The following case is from Phantasms of the Living, Vol. II., p. 50:
"On February 26th, 1850, I was awake, for I was to go to my sister-in-law, and visiting was then an event for me. About two o'clock in the morning my brother walked into our room (my[24] sister's) and stood beside my bed. I called to her, 'Here is - - .' He was at the time quartered at Paisley, and a mail-car from Belfast passed about that hour not more than a mile from our village.... He looked down on us most lovingly, and kindly, and waved his hand, and he was gone! I recollect it all as if it were only last night it occurred, and my feeling of astonishment, not at his coming into the room at all, but where he could have gone. At that very hour he died."
Mr. Gurney writes:
"We have confirmed the date of death in the Army List, and find from a newspaper notice that the death took place in the early morning, and was extremely sudden."
Cases such as the above could be multiplied into the hundreds; but it is not necessary. For our present purposes, the above samples will at least serve to show the character of these "death-coincidences," and how accurate and how numerous they often are.
The cases of "death-coincidences" came in so thick and so fast that, some time after its foundation, the Society for Psychical Research published[25] an enormous book in two volumes, called "Phantasms of the Living," which contained some 702 cases of this character. The possibility of "chance coincidence" was very carefully worked out; and it was ascertained that the number of collected cases was many thousand times more numerous than chance alone could be supposed to account for. A "connection" of some sort was thought to be proved.
But objections at once began to be heard! "In order to prove your point you must collect a greater number of cases than this; you must get more facts before we can consider your point proved!"
So the investigators again set to work, and carried on a far more extensive investigation, in several countries, covering a period of several years. The results were the same. After collecting some 30,000 cases, and calculating the number of death-coincidences contained in this number, it was again proved, and most conclusively, that the number of coincidences was far more numerous than could be accounted for by any theory of chance. Professor Sidgwick's Committee, therefore, signed the following joint statement, at the conclusion of their lengthy Report:
"Between deaths and apparitions of the dying[26] person a connection exists which is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact...."
These are weighty words. They represent an important forward step in our investigation of these involved and complex questions. Something takes place at death, which serves to unite, in some sort of spiritual bond, the dying and the still living relatives or friends. What is this connection? In what may it be supposed to consist?
For an explanation, we must begin by going back to experimental thought-transference. We know that it is possible, under certain conditions, for one person to affect another, otherwise than through the regular avenues of the five senses. This "telepathic" action between mind and mind is now pretty well known, and operates more or less throughout life. By means of this, it is occasionally possible for one person to impress a scene or a picture upon the mind of another, so that the other shall see before him, as it were, in space, a vivid mental picture of the scene in the other's mind.
This being so, it seems plausible to suppose[27] that it might be possible to convey the impression or picture of one's self to another - since this may be supposed to be the most precise and best-known picture we have. Would it not be possible to think of one's own appearance so intensely as to cause a mental representation of it to appear before another person, distant some miles away?
Apparently this has been done, many times. "Experimental apparitions" of this character have frequently been induced; accounts of a few of which will be found in this volume. The picture is mental, in such a case; it is an imaginative creation; it is a hallucination, - although it was caused or created by another, distant mind. It was, it is true, a hallucination; but as it was induced by telepathy, we have for such apparitions the name of "telepathic hallucinations." It is this theory of "telepathic hallucinations" which is invoked to explain many of these cases of death-coincidences, or apparitions of the dying.
The following types of "experimental apparitions" are good examples of the ability to induce a phantasmal form at a distance by "willing" to[28] do so. As to the nature of this figure: there is as yet no unanimity of opinion - some authorities preferring to believe that such cases represent merely an extension of the power of thought-transference, known to us; others, on the contrary, contending that such cases prove the existence and travelling powers of the "astral" or "spiritual body." Of this, however, more later.
Here is a case of this nature, experienced by the English investigator, the Rev. William Stainton Moses, who corroborates the following account, which is furnished by the agent: -
"One evening I resolved to appear to Z., at some miles' distance. I did not inform him beforehand of the intended experiment, but retired to rest shortly before midnight, my thoughts intently fixed on Z., with whose rooms and surroundings I was quite unacquainted. I soon fell asleep, and woke next morning unconscious of anything having taken place. On seeing Z. a few days afterwards, I inquired: 'Did anything happen at your rooms on Saturday night?' 'Yes,' he replied, 'a great deal happened.  About 12:30 he rose to leave, and I let him out myself. I returned to the fire to finish my pipe, when I saw you sitting in the chair[29] just vacated by him. I looked intently at you, and then took up a newspaper to assure myself that I was not dreaming; but on laying it down I saw you still there. While I gazed, without speaking, you faded away.'"
In the case which follows, the initials only are used; but the writer of the account was known to the officers of the S. P. R., who vouched for the general trustworthiness of the writer:
"On a certain Sunday evening in November, 1881, having been reading of the great power which the human will is capable of exercising, I determined, with the whole force of my being, that I would be present in spirit in the front bedroom of the second floor of a house situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in which room slept two young ladies of my acquaintance, - namely, Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged respectively twenty-five and eleven years. I was living at the time at 23 Kildare Gardens, at a distance of about three miles from Hogarth Road, and I had not mentioned in any way my intention of trying this experiment to either of the above ladies, for the simple reason that it was only on retiring to rest upon this Sunday night that I made up my mind to do so. The time at which I determined to be there was one o'clock in the morning; and I had a strong intention[30] of making my presence perceptible. On the following Thursday I went to see the ladies in question, and, in the course of my conversation (without any allusion to the subject on my part), the elder one told me that on the previous Saturday night she had been much terrified by perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that she screamed when the apparition advanced towards her, and awoke her little sister, who also saw me.
"I asked her if she was awake at the time, and she replied most decidedly in the affirmative; and, upon my inquiring the time of the occurrence, she replied, 'About one o'clock in the morning.'
"This lady at my request wrote down a statement of the event, and signed it...."
Mr. Gurney (one of the authors of Phantasms of the Living) became deeply interested in these experiments, and requested Mr. B. to notify him in advance on the next occasion when he proposed to make his presence known in this strange manner. Accordingly, March 22d, 1884, he received the following letter:
"Dear Mr. Gurney: - I am going to try the experiment to-night of making my presence perceptible at 44 Morland Square, at 12 P. M. I[31] will let you know the result in a few days. Yours very sincerely, "S. H. B."
The next letter, which was written on April 3, contained the following statement, prepared by the recipient, Miss L. S. Verity:
"On Saturday night, March 22, 1884, at about midnight, I had a distinct impression that Mr. S. H. B. was present in my room, and I distinctly saw him, being quite awake. He came toward me and stroked my hair. I voluntarily gave him this information when he called to see me on Wednesday, April 2, telling him the time and the circumstances of the apparition without any suggestion on his part. The appearance in my room was most vivid and quite unmistakable."
Miss A. S. Verity also furnishes this corroborative statement:
"I remember my sister telling me that she had seen S. H. B. and that he touched her hair, before he came to see us on April 2."
The agent's statement of the affair is as follows:
"On Saturday, March 22, I determined to make my presence perceptible to Miss V. at 44 Morland Square, Notting Hill, at twelve midnight; and as I had previously arranged with[32] Mr. Gurney that I should post him a letter of the evening on which I tried my next experiment (stating the time and other particulars) I sent him a note to acquaint him with the above facts. About ten days afterwards I called upon Miss V., and she voluntarily told me that on March 22, at twelve o'clock, midnight, she had seen me so vividly in her room (whilst wide awake) that her nerves had been much shaken, and she had been obliged to send for a doctor in the morning."
These cases will at least prove the possibility of such a thing as "experimental apparitions," and, explain them as we may, they are, at all events, most interesting and significant. They prove the reality of "telepathic phantasms" - of apparitions produced in another by the power of mind. This is, at least, the modern conception of the facts.
How may the theory be said to work? How can a telepathic impulse from a distant mind cause a picture to appear in space, as it were, before the recipient? Here is the last word of modern science in this direction; here is the theory which has been advanced to explain puzzling cases of this character.
When we look at and see an object, the sight-centers of the brain are roused into activity; unless they are so aroused, we see nothing, and whenever they are so aroused, no matter from what cause, we have the sensation of sight. We see.
But we get no further than this; we do not reason about the thing seen, or analyze; or think to ourselves, "this is a red apple; I like red apples," etc. No, we only see or perceive the object. All the reasoning about the object takes place in the higher thought-centres of the brain. A diagram will, perhaps, help to make all this clear.
When light-waves coming from the eye, A, travel along the optic nerves, and excite into activity the sight-centers - at B - we have the sensation of sight, as before said. Nerve currents then travel up the nerves, going from B to C, and in these higher centers, they are associated and analyzed, and we then "reflect" upon the thing seen, etc. This is the normal process of sight.
Now, if the eye, or the optic nerves, or the sight-centers themselves become diseased, we still have the sensation of seeing, though there[34] is no material object there; we have ordinary hallucinations of all kinds - delirium tremens, etc. If the sight-centers are stimulated as much as they would be by the incoming nerve stimuli from the eye, we have "full-blown hallucinations."
Now, it is obvious that one method of stimulating the sight-centers into activity is for a nervous current to come downwards, along the nerves running from C to B. It is probable that something of this sort takes place when we experience "memory pictures."  The higher psychical centers of the brain have excited the sight-centers into a certain activity; and these have given us the sensation of dim, inward sight. If the stimulus were stronger, we should have cases of intense "visualization"; such as the figures which occur in the crystal ball, etc. - they being doubtless produced in this manner.
Although the "sluice-gates," so to speak, running from C to B are, therefore, always open slightly; they are never open wide; it is not natural for them to be so. But if, under any great stress, thought or emotion, the downward nervous current were as strong as that ordinarily[35] running from A to B; then we should appear to see as clearly; the object would appear just as solid and real and outstanding to us as any other entity. We should experience a "full-blown hallucination."
All this being so, it is almost natural to suppose that one method by which these psychical sluice-gates could be more widely opened would be under the impact of a telepathic impulse. If we assume that this in some manner arouses into instantaneous and great activity the higher psychical centers (C), these would very probably communicate this impulse to B - downwards, along the nerve-tracts connecting the two (or to the hearing centers, when we should experience an auditory hallucination, and hear our name spoken, etc.). In this way we could account for a telepathic hallucination, originating in this manner; and it is surely to be supposed that, at the moment of death, some peculiar quickening of the mental and spiritual life takes place - the peculiar flashes of memory by those drowning, etc., seeming to show this.
So, then, we arrive at a sort of explanation of many of these cases of apparitions, occurring at the moment of death; for we have shown them to be "telepathic hallucinations." This is also the correct explanation, doubtless, for many[36] cases in which apparitions of the living have been seen - in which a phantasm of a living person has appeared to another, during sleep, or in hypnotic trance, etc.
But how about those ghosts which appear some time after death? They, at least, cannot be explained by any such theory. What has been said by way of explanation of these cases?
It will be remembered that telepathy is the basis of the explanation thus far. Let us extend this. We have only to suppose that the spirit of man survives the shock of death, and that it can continue to exert its powers and capacities also. For, if a living mind can influence the living by telepathy; why not a "dead" one? Why should not the surviving spirit of man continue to influence us, by telepathy? If they could, we should still have cases of telepathic hallucinations - induced from the mind of a discarnate, not an incarnate, spirit. The "ghost" might still be a telepathic hallucination. And if several persons saw the figure at once, we should, on this theory, have a case of collective hallucination - in which one mind affected all the rest equally and simultaneously.
Such is the theory - rather far-fetched, it is true; but certainly the most rational and common-sense so far advanced to explain many of the facts. It is probable, however, that this explanation will not serve to explain all of them. Thus, in those cases where the apparition moved a material object, opened a door, etc., such a theory would have to be abandoned, for the simple reason that a mental concept, an hallucination, cannot open doors and move objects! There must be an outstanding, material entity to effect this. There must be a real ghost. And in those cases where the apparition has been seen by several persons at once, or even photographed, it seems more reasonable to suppose that a material, space-occupying body was present rather than to assume that the various witnesses or the camera were hallucinated.
In the following cases, for example, the apparition performs a definite physical action - snuffs a candle with its fingers, an action which a pure hallucination could hardly be supposed to perform. The account is by the Rev. D. W. G. Gwynne, M.I., and is printed in Phantasms of the Living, Vol. II., pp. 202-3. After[38] telling of certain minor phenomena, he proceeds:
"I now come to the mutual experience of something that is as fresh in its impression as if it were the occurrence of yesterday. During the night I became aware of a draped figure passing across the foot of the bed towards the fireplace. I had the impression that the arm was raised, pointing with the hand towards the mantlepiece, on which a night-light was burning. Mrs. Gwynne at this moment seized my arm, and the light was extinguished. Notwithstanding, I distinctly saw the figure returning towards the door, and being under the impression that one of our servants had found her way into the room, I leaped out of bed to intercept the intruder, but found, and saw, nothing...."
[Mrs. Gwynne confirms the story, adding, "I distinctly saw the hand of the phantom placed over the night-light, which was at once extinguished."]
Again, it is claimed that ghosts have sometimes been photographed, though very rarely. In a number of cases, attempts have been made to photograph ghosts seen in haunted-houses;[39] but, though the figures have been seen by all present, the photographic plate has failed to record any impression of the phantom. In other cases, on the contrary, definite impressions have been obtained; and, though there is doubtless much fraud among professional mediums, who claim to produce "spirit photographs," there are many cases on record in which no professional medium was employed, and in which faces were certainly seen upon the developed plate. Experiments have also been made in photographing the body at the moment of death; to see if any impression could be made upon the plate - by the soul, in its passage from the body; and, though many of these have proved negative, Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, has obtained a number of photographs which have never been explained. Again, numerous researches in the region of so-called "thought photography" have given some basis for the belief that thought may be, under certain conditions, photographed - as for example, in the experiments of Dr. Ochorowicz and others. It may be said, therefore, that some progress is being made in this direction by psychic investigators (particularly by the French observers, who are far ahead of the rest of the world in these branches of psychic investigation), and that, with increased sensitiveness of[40] film and plate, and greater perfection of lens and camera, it is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when it will be possible to photograph the unseen just as we photograph living persons.
There are "ghosts," therefore, which are hallucinations; and there are ghosts which are genuine phantasms - the "real article." It becomes a question, in each instance, of sifting the evidence; finding out which they are. Yet, if there are real, objective, outstanding ghosts, how can we explain them? In what do they consist? In short, we are back to our original question: What are ghosts?
Before we can answer this question satisfactorily, we must consider one or two preliminary questions. First of all, we must speak of the "double" - the astral or spiritual or ethic body, which resides in man, as well as his physical body.[2]
St. Paul constantly emphasized the fact that man has a material body and a "spiritual body." This inner body is the exact shape of the physical[41] body - its counterpart, its double. In life, under ordinary conditions, the two are inseparable; but at death, the severance takes place and man continues to live on in this etheric envelope. This inner body has been studied very carefully by students of the occult; and a good deal is now known about it - its comings and goings, its composition, and the method of its departure at death. For our present purposes, however, it is enough to say that such a body exists, and that it is the vehicle man continues to use and manipulate, after his death and his departure from this plane.
It so happens that, under certain peculiar conditions, the inner body of man is capable of being detached or separated from the physical body. This usually occurs in trance, sleep, hypnotic and mesmeric states, etc.; or may be performed "experimentally," by some who have cultivated this power in themselves. When this body goes on such "excursions" - leaving the physical body practically dead, to all appearances - it may be seen by those in its immediate vicinity, just as a material body would be - if they are sufficiently sensitive or receptive.
The following interesting case, (recorded in Phantasms of the Living, Vol. I, pp. 225-26) is a good example of the apparent traveling of the[42] body to another place, and the perception of that body by a second person, who happens to be there. Two individuals, at all events, shared in the experience, which is otherwise hard to account for. The case is recorded by the Rev. P. H. Newnham, and is as follows:
"In March, 1854, I was up at Oxford, keeping my last term, in lodgings. I was subject to violent neuralgic headaches, which always culminated in sleep. One evening, about 8 p.m., I had an unusually violent one; when it became unendurable, about 9 p.m., I went into my bedroom, and flung myself, without undressing, on the bed, and soon fell asleep.
"I then had a singularly clear and vivid dream, all the incidents of which are as clear in my memory as ever. I dreamed that I was stopping with the family of a lady who subsequently became my wife. All the younger ones had gone to bed, and I stopped chatting to the father and mother, standing up by the fireplace. Presently I bade them good-night, took my candle, and went off to bed. On arriving in the hall, I perceived that my fiancee had been detained downstairs, and was only then near the top of the staircase. I rushed upstairs, overtook her on the top step, and passed my two arms around her waist, under her arms, from[43] behind. Although I was carrying my candle in the left hand, when I ran upstairs, this did not, in my dream, interfere with this gesture.
"On this I woke, and the clock in the house struck ten almost immediately afterwards.
"So strong was the impression of the dream that I wrote a detailed account of it the next morning to my fiancee.
"Crossing my letter, not in answer to it, I received a letter from the lady in question: 'Were you thinking about me very specially last night, just about ten o'clock? For, as I was going upstairs to bed, I distinctly heard your footsteps on the stairs, and felt you put your arms round my waist.'"
[Mrs. Newnham wrote a confirmation of this account, which was also published.]
In all these cases, of course, the psychic body of the subject returns and re-animates the physical body; for if it did not do so, death would take place. When death does actually take place, this is what occurs; and psychics and clairvoyants assert that they are able to see and follow this process perfectly; and many of them have described exactly what takes place at the[44] moment of death. The following description, for example, given by Andrew Jackson Davis, is taken from his Death, and the After Life, pp. 15-16, and is as follows:
"Suppose the person is now dying. It is to be a rapid death. The feet first grow cold. The clairvoyant sees over the head what may be called a magnetic halo - an etherial emanation, in appearance golden, and throbbing as though conscious. The body is now cold up to the knees and elbows, and the emanation has ascended higher in the air. The legs are cold to the hips and the arms to the shoulders; and the emanation, though it has not risen higher in the room, is more expanded. The death-coldness steals over the breast and round on either side, and the emanation has attained a higher position nearer the ceiling. The person has ceased to breathe, the pulse is still, and the emanation is elongated and fashioned in the outline of a human form. Beneath, it is connected with the brain. The head of the person is internally throbbing - a slow, deep throb - not painful but like the beat of the sea. Hence the thinking faculties are rational, while nearly every part of the person is dead. Owing to the brain's momentum, I have seen a dying person, even at the last feeble pulsebeat, rouse impulsively and rise up in bed to[45] converse with a friend, but the next instant he was gone - his brain being the last to yield up the life principle.
"The golden emanation, which extends up midway to the ceiling, is connected to the brain by a very fine life-thread. Now the body of the emanation ascends. Then appears something white and shining, like a human head; next, in a very few moments, a faint outline of the face divine, then the fair neck and beautiful shoulders; then, in rapid succession, come all parts of the new body down to the feet - a bright, shining image, a little smaller than its physical body, but a perfect prototype or reproduction in all except its disfigurements. The fine life-thread continues attached to the old brain. The next thing is the withdrawal of the electric principle. When this thread snaps the spiritual body is free, and prepared to accompany its guardians to the Summer-Land. Yes, there is a spiritual body; it is sown in dishonor and raised in brightness."
It is doubtless this spiritual body which is the true cause of many apparitions - of many ghost stories. It is this body which is seen by the seer or percipient in many a ghost story; it is this body which moves objects and touches the individual who sees the ghost. This body is detached at death, as we have seen, and afterwards[46] is free to rove at its own free will. Apparitions of the dead might thus be accounted for; while all those cases of apparitions of the dying which are with difficulty explained as due to pure telepathy might also thus find their explanation. The spiritual body, freed at that moment, would manifest its presence to the distant percipient as it did after death. So far so good, but how about apparitions of the living? How explain those cases in which the apparition of a living person has been seen, when the spiritual body is supposedly safely attached to the physical body?
Many of them are doubtless cases of telepathy; but in those cases which seem to demand the presence of a body of some sort, we may suppose that the spiritual body may become detached, at times, under certain peculiar conditions, from the material body which it inhabits and animates, and can then manifest independently at a distance. The following cases are illustrative, apparently, of this fact; showing us that the "etheric body" can manifest on occasion at will at a distance from the physical body.
"... I put out the light and returned, but no sooner had I done this than ... I could feel a creeping sensation moving up my legs. I got up and lit the gas and went back to bed; with pillows arranged in such a way as to make me comfortable. In a comparatively short time, all circulation ceased in my legs, and they were as cold as those of the dead. The creeping sensation began in the lower part of the body, and that also became cold.... There was no sensation of pain or even of physical discomfort. I would pinch my legs with my thumb and finger, and there was no feeling or no indication of blood whatever. I might as well have pinched a piece of rubber so far as the sensation produced was concerned. As the movement continued upward, all at once there came a flashing of lights in my eyes and a ringing in my ears, and it seemed for an instant as though I had become unconscious. When I came out of this state, I seemed to be walking in the air. No words can describe the exhilaration and freedom that I experienced. At no time in my life had my mind been so clear and so free. Just then I thought of a friend who was more than a thousand miles[48] distant. Then I seemed to be traveling with great rapidity through the atmosphere about me. Everything was light and yet it was not the light of the day or the sun, but, I might say, a peculiar light of its own, such as I have never known. It could not have been a minute after that I thought of my friends, before I was conscious of standing in a room where the gas-jets were turned up, and my friend was standing with his back toward me, but, suddenly turning and seeing me, said: 'What in the world are you doing here? I thought you were in Florida' - and he started to come toward me. While I heard the words distinctly, I was unable to answer. An instant later I was gone; and the consciousness of the memorable things that transpired that memorable night has never been forgotten. I seemed to leave the earth, and everything pertaining to it, and enter a condition of life of which it is absolutely impossible to give here any thought I had concerning it, because there was no correspondence to anything I had ever seen or heard or known of in any way. The wonder and the joy of it was unspeakable; and I can readily understand now what Paul meant when he said 'I knew a man, whether in the body or out of it I know not, who was caught up to the third heaven, and saw[49] things which it is not possible (lawful) to utter.'
"In this latter experience there was neither consciousness of time nor of space; in fact, it can be described more as a consciousness of elastic feeling than anything else. It came to me after a time that I could stay there if I so desired, but with that thought came also the consciousness of the friends on earth and the duties there required of me. The desire to stay was intense, but in my mind I clearly reasoned over it - whether I should gratify my desire or return to my work on earth. Four times my thought and reason told me that my duties required me to return, but I was so dissatisfied with each conclusion that I finally said: 'Now I will think and reason this matter out once more, and whatever conclusion I reach I will abide by.' I reached the same conclusion, and had not much more than reached it when I became conscious of being in a room and looking down on a body propped up in bed, which I recognized as my own! I cannot tell what strange feelings came over me. This body, to all intents and purposes, looked to be dead. There was no indication of life about it, and yet here I was apart from the body, with my mind perfectly clear and alert, and the consciousness of[50] another body to which matter of any kind offered no resistance.
"After what might have been a minute or two, looking at the body, I began to try and control it, and in a very short time all sense of separation from the physical body ceased, and I was only conscious of a directed effort toward its use. After what seemed to be quite a long time, I was able to move, got up from the bed, dressed myself, and went down to breakfast....
"I may add that the friend referred to as having been seen by me that night was also distinctly conscious of my presence and made the exclamation mentioned. We both wrote the next day, relating the experience of the night, and the letters corroborating the incident crossed in the post."
Such strange doings certainly tend to prove that the human spirit can leave its body and rove abroad, at times; and if this is the case, it shows us that our body is far more detachable than we usually suppose; and hence that it can probably continue to exist after the death of the physical body, when it is detached altogether. Once this is proved, all objection to the reality and existence of "objective" ghosts will have been done away with.
If we grant that certain houses may be "haunted," in the sense that they may be the centers of influences and forces as yet unseen and unknown, the question is: How explain such cases? What hypotheses can we advance to explain cases of haunted houses, which will recognize the reality of the phantom witnessed therein, and attempt to explain them as rationally as possible? Four main theories have been advanced by way of explanation, which I shall briefly outline.
(1). There is the theory that the figures seen in houses of this nature are genuine, outstanding entities - real beings, which are just as real, though less solid and tangible, as any of the living inhabitants of the house. This is, of course, the popular conception of the ghosts seen in haunted houses, and it must be admitted that such a theory covers and explains the facts more completely and fully than any other. There are also many facts telling in its favor. For instance, when two persons see a figure from different angles or viewpoints; and one describes it in profile, while the other describes it as presenting a full face likeness; and if this is the angle in each case from which a real figure[52] would naturally be seen, this surely seems to indicate that a solid form of some sort was present.
Again, when three or four or more people see a figure at the same time, it is surely a strain upon our credulity to believe that a number of persons were similarly "hallucinated" at precisely the same time and in the same manner; and easier to believe that they all saw a figure at the same time, though in differing degrees of vividness and detail.
Thirdly, we have the evidence from photography. In some instances, these figures have been photographed; and though there is doubtless much fraud in this connection, there is evidence that, in certain cases, genuine photographs of this nature have been taken. This is discussed elsewhere in this volume, however.
Fourthly, we have the behavior of animals, in haunted houses. They often appear to see figures visible or invisible to others present at the time - bark at them, rub against them, stare at them, act as though terrified at what they see, etc. This will be noticed in many of the stories; and can be explained only with difficulty if we are to believe that the figures seen are merely hallucinations.
I have elsewhere spoken of the apparent ability of animals to see phantasmal forms and figures. The reverse of this is also true. Ghosts of animals have been seen - spectral dogs, cats, horses as well as human beings. These apparitions are very perplexing, and raise the question of the immortality of animals - a very vexed question, which has given rise to much discussion. Mr. H. Rider Haggard records the case of his own dog, whose apparition he saw at the very moment that the dog was killed by an express train some miles away. Did the animal succeed in affecting his master by telepathy? If not, why the coincidence? I myself have recorded a case in which a (real) cat spat at a phantom dog, seen independently by a clairvoyant, who had described it a few moments before to a group of spectators. Such cases are very interesting. They tend to prove that dogs, cats, horses and other animals also survive death - a conclusion which is certainly the most humane and logical to many minds.
In addition to these animal apparitions, there are also grotesque, horrible, monstrous and undefinable ghosts. One or two cases of this character are described in this book. Sometimes the[54] "seer" sees something awful, but cannot describe in words what it is. Many of the phantoms of the imaginative type are of this character. Again, there are grave-yard ghosts; banshees, gnomes, elementals, pixies, fairies, brownies, nature-spirits, hobgoblins, sylphs, salamanders, dragons, vampires, wraiths, corpse-candles, and many other awful beings which have been described from time to time in the past. We need not consider these in a book of this character, however. But, to return to our argument for the objective reality of "ghosts."
Fifthly, we have those cases in which the apparition has produced a physical effect in the material world - snuffed a light, opened a door, pulled back the bed-curtains, etc. A hallucinatory figure could not do this. It has been suggested that all this is only a part of the hallucination, but when the thing is found to have been moved in reality, we must explain this somehow; for otherwise how did it change its place?
Sixthly, we have cases in which the same apparition has been seen by several separate and independent persons in the same room or house, and afterwards they have recognized the features of this person in a photograph shown them - the photograph of the person supposed to haunt that particular house. If we were to believe[55] that a simple hallucination caused the figure, how account for this identification? Surely the theory is far-fetched!
For all these reasons, therefore, and others it would be possible to mention, there is much to be said in favor of this theory of haunted houses; the theory which says that the figures seen are real, semi-material entities.
(2). The second view, opposed to that mentioned above, is this: Someone living in a house has experienced a hallucination, and then seen the same thing over and over again, by reason of auto-suggestion; or, if he moves away, and another tenant takes the house in turn, the thoughts of this second tenant are influenced, through thought-transference, by the first tenant, who broods and thinks over his experiences in the "haunted house," wonders whether the people now living in it are experiencing phenomena, etc. In this way, the minds of those living in the house are constantly influenced by thought-transference by living minds; and hallucinatory figures are produced in them, just as the picture of a playing card is induced in experimental thought-transference.
There are two things to be said in favor of such a theory. In the first place, we have the analogy which telepathic experiments give us, in which certain visual images are undoubtedly transmitted from one mind to another; and it is natural to assume that an extension of this same process might account for many of the phantasmal forms seen in haunted houses, as explained elsewhere.
In the second place, we immediately surmount the difficulty presented by the ghost's clothes. This is a stumbling-block to many investigators. However much we might believe that an etheric or astral or spiritual body might continue to persist after death, it is hard to believe that the clothes of the person who died also had "spiritual counterparts," and returned with him, to visit the earth and the scenes of former joys and miseries! We seldom read of a ghost without clothes; nude ghosts are not the fashion! Yet if we cannot believe this, how are we to explain this difficulty - and the fact that ghosts wear ghostly garments?
If the ghost were a hallucination, we could understand all this easily enough. The clothes were imaginary, just as the figure was; they formed part of the mental image, just like the figures seen in dreams, etc. This, therefore, is[57] one very strong point in favor of this hypothesis; but if the ghost is a real, outstanding entity, how account for his clothes?
Several tentative explanations have been forthcoming. In the first place, it has been suggested that all ghosts are in reality partial "materializations" and that it is possible for a spirit to materialize and form drapery as well as solid flesh and bone. Both are a sort of condensation of matter, in varying degrees.
Again, it has been suggested that a spirit has the power to create objects by the power of will; by merely thinking and willing to do so. In this way, man would be a real creator, in a miniature scale, and certain analogies could be found for this in the material world. The returning spirit would desire to return clothed; and this very desire would create the fitting garb. Other theories have been advanced, but the above are the simplest and most intelligible, and are all we need consider at present.
All these difficulties, however, tell against the substantiality of ghosts; and in favor of this second theory of haunted houses.
(3). The third theory which has been advanced, is an extension of the second. Thought-transference[58] is still the agency invoked to explain the facts - but from the minds of dead, and not living persons. That is, assuming telepathy to be true, and possible between living minds; and assuming that individual consciousness survives the change called death; we can readily imagine that those who have "passed over" might affect and influence the living by thought-transference also, just as they did in life. On this theory, therefore, the ghost would still represent a hallucination; a mental or imaginary figure, and it would still be induced by telepathy from a distant mind; but that mind would be that of a so-called dead person. After death, we might suppose, this person would be thinking or dreaming over the past events; the scenes of his joys and sorrows; and these dreams would tend to influence the minds of those still living, and cause them to see the figures seen. The figures, on this theory, would be hallucinatory, but they would have a real, objective basis and starting-point for all that; and, as such, would represent the continued existence and activity on the part of the dead.
Against this ingenious theory may be urged all those arguments which have been cited in favor of the materiality of apparitions.
(4). A fourth theory is that which says that some subtle psychic atmosphere is present in certain houses; and that this "atmosphere" affects and influences all who live within them, just as their physical atmosphere would, only in a different manner and degree. Everyone has doubtless experienced this atmosphere in certain houses, if they are at all sensitive. They either "like" a house or "dislike" it - for no apparent reason. Some houses rest and refresh you; others irritate you, etc. This theory contends that every living human being is constantly giving off a peculiar vital emanation or aura or effluence; and that this charges-up or impregnates the material objects in his immediate neighborhood, which soak it up like a sponge, and retain it after being removed from its presence. It is because of this fact that articles presented to trance mediums often recall the person to whom they belonged; it is because of this that "psychometry" is possible - that is, the ability of some persons to give the past history of an object by merely handling it; and it is because of this that certain houses become so charged with this magnetic aura, or whatever it may be, that they remain "charged" for some[60] time; and, in discharging, create psychic disturbances and impressions which are seen or experienced as phantasmal appearances.
The chief objection to this theory is that it is difficult to see how this general and impersonal "charging" process can create definite and clear-cut forms, possessing all the appearances of reality. Doubtless each theory contains much truth; and haunted houses represent, in many cases, a combination of all these causes, working together and combining into one complex and unfortunately ill-understood whole. It is the duty of the future to disentangle this maze, as best it can; and explain the various factors which go to make up a haunted house of this character.
(5). Besides these theories, another might be suggested, which has never so far been advanced, so far as I am aware. It is that the phantasmal forms seen in haunted houses are real substantial creations, manufactured by the thoughts or will of the discarnate spirit, who fashions it out of "such stuff as dreams are made of." It has been said that "thoughts are things," and many believe that this is literally[61] true. Certain it is that a limited number of peculiarly constructed persons can produce phenomena which seem to be solid creations of the will. So, if thought could ever be proved to be really creative; if it could not only formulate but objectify and project into space images and forms, we should have here a rational explanation of many ghosts, as well as of their behavior. And just here a few words as to this latter may not be out of place.
It has often been objected that ghosts cannot be realities; they cannot be real spirits, for the reason that they act in such a senseless manner. They seldom speak or reply, when spoken to. They seldom have any definite purpose. In short, they betray no intelligence. This being so, they must be hallucinations and not the realities they claim to be!
The answer to this objection is found in the following consideration. Even granting all this to be true, many believing in ghosts do not for an instant contend that such ghosts represent the actual person the figure symbolises. It is a mere projection; a shell; a form created by the discarnate spirit, a resemblance, a phantasm. The central consciousness which animated and still animates that person is not in the ghostly form, but elsewhere. The phantasm represents,[62] merely, a sort of impersonal wraith, and, as such, cannot be expected to possess intelligence or human characteristics. None are present within it. It is a very different thing from the real person it represents. The insipid and unintelligent behavior of ghosts, therefore, is only what we should expect. This fact is no argument against their reality, when rightly understood and interpreted.
In addition to haunted houses of this type, there are others, which must be referred to very briefly. Thus, in some cases, no figures have been seen, but remarkable sounds have been heard - sounds which have never been accounted for. Bangs, knocks, monotonous reading aloud, whispering, footsteps, etc., are some of the noises and sounds which have been heard in this way, and their origin often remains a mystery. It would take too long to discuss the various explanatory theories which have been advanced by psychic students to account for these sounds.
In other types of haunted houses, physical manifestations take place, though nothing unusual is either seen or heard. Thus, in one case recorded by Lombroso (After Death: What?)[63] numbers of bottles were broken one after the other, for no apparent cause, when he was actually looking at them. In still other cases, furniture has been upset, crockery broken, doorbells rung, etc., by no visible agency. John Wesley was persecuted in this manner for several years; and the reason was never discovered. Such cases are technically known as "poltergeists," and may be found in abundance in the "history of the supernatural."
One question of considerable interest remains. It is this: Can so-called Haunted Houses be cured? Many of those who live in houses of this character would like to have these influences removed; but are unable to rid themselves of them. Can this be done?
In some cases, this has doubtless been accomplished; while in others it has failed. We know too little as yet to lay down any arbitrary laws or rules which may be followed with safety in cases of this character. Sometimes one method succeeds, while another fails. I have known of cases where "exorcism" worked a complete cure; of others in which it failed miserably. I have known of cases in which suggestion, rightly applied,[64] rid the house of its ghost; in other instances, no result was produced by similar methods! In a few instances mediums and psychics have been able to assist; in others their presence only seemed to make matters worse. We can but experiment and learn. Those who may be more interested in this aspect of the question will find it treated in Chapter XV. of my book "The Coming Science," which is devoted to "Haunted Houses and their Cure."
[2] Theosophists distinguish between all these various bodies; psychic students strive, for the most part, only to prove the objective existence of any one of them.
In the following Chapter, I shall give a number of cases in which "Ghosts," or "Phantasms of the Dead," as they are called, have appeared to one or more persons at one time; sometimes telling them something they did not know; sometimes moving material objects in the room; sometimes pulling the bed-clothes off, etc. Nearly all these cases are well authenticated, and have been narrated at first-hand. Many of them have the corroborative testimony of several other persons, who also saw the phantasmal figure, or in some way shared in the experience. I shall begin with -
The following story is vouched for by Mr. W. D. Addison, of Riga, and sent by him to Mr. W. T. Stead, who published it in Borderland:
"It was in February, 1884, that the incidents I am about to relate occurred to me, and the story is well-known to my immediate friends.
"Five weeks previously my wife had presented me with our first baby, and our house being a small one, I had to sleep on a bed made up in the drawing room - a spacious but cozy apartment, and the last place in which one would expect ghosts to select for their wanderings.
"On the night in question I retired to my couch soon after ten, and fell asleep almost the moment I was between the sheets.
"Instead of sleeping as, I am thankful to say, is my habit, straight through till morning, I woke up after a short dreamless sleep with the dim consciousness upon me that some one had called me by name. I was just turning the idea over in my mind when all doubts were solved by my hearing my name pronounced in a faint whisper, 'Willy.' Now the nurse who was in attendance on the baby, and who slept in the dressing room adjoining our bedroom, had been ill for the past few days, and on the previous evening my wife had come and asked me to assist her with the baby. As soon, therefore, as I heard this whisper, I turned round thinking, 'Ah, it is the baby again.'
"The room had three windows in it, the night was moonless but starlit; there was snow on the ground, and therefore, 'snowlight,' and the blinds being up the room was by no means dark.
"The first thing I noticed on turning round was the figure of a woman close to the foot of the bed, and whom (following the bent of my thoughts) I supposed to be my wife. 'What is up?' I asked, but the figure remained silent and motionless, and my eyes being more accustomed to the dimness, I noticed that it had a gray looking shawl over its head and shoulders, and that it was too short in stature to be my wife. I gazed at it silently, wondering who it could be; apparitions and ghosts were far from my thoughts, and the mistiness of the outlines of this silent figure did not strike me at the moment as it did afterwards.
"I again addressed it, this time in the language of the country, 'What do you want?' Again no answer. And now it occurred to me that our servant girl sometimes walked in her sleep, and that this was she. Behind the head of my bed stood a small table, and I reached round for the match-box which was on it, never removing my eyes from the supposed somnambulist. The match-box was now in my hands, but just as I was taking out a match, the figure, to my astonishment, seemed to rise up from the floor, and move backwards toward the end window; at the same time it faded rapidly and became blurred with the gray light streaming in[68] at the window, and 'ere I could strike the match it was gone. I lit the candle, jumped out of bed and ran to the door: it was fastened! To the left of the drawing room there was a boudoir, separated only by a curtain, this room was empty too, and the door likewise fastened.
"I rubbed my eyes. I was puzzled. It struck me now for the first time that the figure was hazy looking, also that my wife was the only person who called me 'Willy,' and certainly the only person who could give the word its English pronunciation. I first searched both drawing room and boudoir, and then, opening the door, stepped into the passage, and went to my wife's door and listened. The baby was crying and my wife was up, so I knocked and was admitted. Knowing her to be strong minded and not nervous, I quietly related my experience. She expressed astonishment, and asked if I was not afraid to return to my bed in the drawing room. However, I was not, and after chatting for a few moments went back to my quarters, fastened the door, and getting into bed, thought the whole matter over very quietly. I could think of no explanation of the occurrence, and, feeling sleepy, blew out the light and was soon sound asleep again.
"After a short but sound and dreamless slumber,[69] I was again awakened, this time with my face towards the middle window; and there, close up against it, was the figure again, and owing to its propinquity to the light, it appeared to be a very dark object.
"I at once reached out for the matches, but in doing so upset the table, and down it went with my candlestick, my watch, keys, etc., making a terrific crash. As before, I had kept my eyes fixed on the figure, and I now observed that, whatever it was, it was advancing straight towards me, and in another moment retreat to the door would be cut off. It was not a comfortable idea to cope with the unknown in the dark, and in an instant I had seized the bed-clothes, and grasping a corner of them in each hand, and holding them up before me, I charged straight at the figure. (I suppose I thought that, by smothering the head of my supposed assailant, I could best repel the coming attack.)
"The next moment I had landed on my knees on a sofa by the window with my arms on the window-sill, and with the consciousness that 'it' was now behind me - I having passed through it. With a bound I faced round, and was immediately immersed in a darkness impalpable to the touch, but so dense that it seemed to be weighing me down and squeezing me from all[70] sides. I could not stir; the bed-clothes which I had seized as described hung over my left arm, the other was free, but seemed pressed down by a benumbing weight. I essayed to cry for help, but realized for the first time in my life what it means for the 'tongue to cleave to the roof of the mouth'; my tongue seemed to have become dry and to have swelled to a thickness of some inches; it stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I could not ejaculate a syllable. At last, after an appalling struggle, I succeeded in uttering, and I know that disjointed words, half prayer, half execrations of fear, left my lips, then my mind seemed to make one frantic effort, there seemed to come a wrench like an electric shock and my limbs were free; it was as tho' I tore myself out of something. In a few seconds I had reached and opened the door and was in the passage, listening to the hammerings of my heart-beats. All fear was gone from me, but I felt as though I had run miles for my life and that another ten yards of it would have killed me.
"I again went to the door of my wife's room, and, hearing that she was up with the baby, I knocked and she opened.  I can[71] offer no explanations of what I saw, but as soon as my story became known, the people who had occupied the house previously told me that they had once put a visitor in that same drawing room, who had declared the room to be haunted and had refused to stay in it...."
The following account is vouched for by Major C. G. MacGregor, Ireland, who writes as follows:
"In the end of the year 1871 I went over from Scotland to pay a short visit to a relative living in a square on the north side of Dublin.
"In January, 1872, the husband of my relative, then in his eighty-fourth year, was seized with paralysis, and, having no trained nurse, the footman and I sat up with him for sixteen nights during his recovery. On the seventeenth night, at about 11:30 p.m., I said to the footman: 'The master seems so well, and sleeping soundly, I shall go to bed; and if he awakes worse, or you require me, call me.' I then retired to my room, which was over the one occupied by the invalid.
"I went to bed and was soon asleep, when some time afterwards I was awakened by a slight push on the left shoulder. I was at the[72] time lying on my right side facing the door (which was on the right side of my bed, and the fireplace on the left). I started up and said: 'Edward, is there anything wrong?' I received no answer, but immediately received another push. I got annoyed and said, 'Can you not speak, man, and tell me if anything is wrong?' Still no answer; and I had a feeling that I was going to get another push when I suddenly turned around and caught (what I then thought) a human hand, warm, soft and plump. I said: 'Who are you?' but I got no answer. I then tried to pull the person towards me, to endeavor to find out who it was, but although I am nearly thirteen stone, I could not move whoever it was, but felt that I myself was likely to be drawn from the bed. I then said, 'I will know who you are,' and having the hand tight in my hand, with my left I felt the wrist and arm - enclosed, as it seemed to me, in a tight sleeve of some winter material with a linen cuff; but when I got to the elbow all trace of the arm ceased! I was so astonished that I let the hand go, and just then the house clock struck 2 a.m. I then thought no one could possibly get to the door without my catching them; but lo! the door was fast shut as when I came to bed, and another thought struck me - the fact that, when I[73] pulled the hand, I heard no one breathing, though I myself was 'puffed' from the strength I used!
"Including the mistress of the house, there were in all five females, and I am assured that the hand belonged to no one of them. When I related the adventure, the servants exclaimed, 'Oh, it must be the master's old aunt Betty,' - an old lady who had lived for many years in the upper part of the house, occupying two rooms, and had died over fifty years ago, at a great age. I afterwards learned that the room in which I felt the hand had been considered 'haunted,' and many curious noises and peculiar incidents had occurred there, such as the bed-clothes being torn off. One lady got a slap in the face from some invisible hand, and, when she lighted her candle, she saw something opaque fall, or jump off the bed. A general officer, a brother of the lady, slept there two nights, but preferred going to an hotel rather than remaining a third! He never would say what he heard or saw, but always asserted the room was 'uncanny.' I slept for months in that room afterwards and was never in the least disturbed. I never knew what nervousness was in my life, and only regret that my astonishment caused me to let go the hand before finding out the purpose[74] of the visit. Whether it was meant for a warning or not, I may add that the old gentleman lived three years and six months afterwards...."
The next case is well authenticated, and appeared in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.):
After some preliminary remarks, the writer proceeds:
"I awoke and saw standing by my bed, between me and the chest of drawers, a figure, which, in spite of the unwonted dress - unwonted, at least, to me - and of a full, black beard, I at once recognized as that of my old brother officer. He had on the usual khaki coat, worn by the officers on service in eastern climates.... His face was pale, but his bright black eyes shone as keenly as when, a year and a half before, they had looked upon me as he stood with one foot on the hansom, bidding me adieu.
"Fully impressed for the moment that we were stationed together in Ireland or somewhere, and thinking I was in my barrack-room, I said, 'Hello, P., am I late for parade?' P. looked at me steadily, and replied, 'I'm shot!'
"'Shot!' I exclaimed, 'Good God, how and where?'
"'Through the lungs,' replied P.; and as he spoke his right hand moved slowly up to his breast, until the fingers rested over the right lung.
"'What were you doing?' I asked.
"'The General sent me forward,' he answered; and the right hand left the breast to move slowly to the front, pointing over my head to the window, and at the same moment the figure melted away. I rubbed my eyes, to make sure I was not dreaming, and sprang out of bed. It was then 4.10 a.m. by the clock on my mantelpiece.
"Two days later news was received that he had been killed at Lang's Neck between 11 and 12 o'clock on the night in question."
The following is a nautical story:
In the year 1664, Captain Thomas Rogers, commander of a ship called the Society, was bound on a voyage from London to Virginia. The vessel being sent light to Virginia, for a loading of tobacco, carried little freight in her outward hold.
"One day when they made an observation, the mates and officers brought their books and cast up their reckonings with the captain, to see how near they were to the coast of America. They all agreed that they were a hundred leagues from the capes of Virginia. Upon these customary reckonings, and heaving the lead, and finding no ground at a hundred fathoms, they set the watch, and the captain turned in.
"The weather was fine; a moderate gale of wind blew from the coast; so that the ship might have run about twelve or thirteen leagues in the night, after the captain was in his cabin.
"He fell asleep, and slept very soundly for about three hours, when he woke again, and lay still till he heard his second mate turn out and relieve the watch. He then called his first mate, as he was going off watch, and asked him how all things fared? The mate answered that all was well, though the gale had freshened, and they were running at a great rate; but it was a fair wind, and a fair, clear night.
"The captain then went to sleep again.
"About an hour after, he dreamed that some one had pulled him, and bade him turn out and look abroad. He, however, lay still and went to sleep again; but was suddenly re-awakened. This occurred several times; and, though he[77] knew not what was the reason, yet he found it impossible to go to sleep any more.  All was well; it was a fine, clear night.
"The men saluted him; and the captain called out: 'How's she heading?'
"'Southwest by south, sir,' answered the mate; 'fair for the coast, and the wind east by north.'
"'Very good,' said the captain, and as he was about to return to his cabin, something stood by him, and said: 'Heave the lead.'
"Upon hearing this the captain said to the second mate: 'When did you heave the lead? What water had you?'
"'About an hour ago, sir,' replied the mate; 'sixty fathom.'
"'Heave again,' the captain commanded.
"When the lead was cast they had ground at eleven fathoms. This surprised them all; but much more when, at the next cast, it came up seven fathoms.
"Upon this, the captain, in a fright, bid them put the helm alee, and about ship, all hands ordered[78] to back the sails, as is usual in such cases.
"The proper orders being observed, the ship 'stayed' and came about; but before the sails filled, she had but four-fathoms-and-a-half water under her stern. As soon as she filled and stood off, they had seven fathoms again, and at the next cast eleven fathoms, and so on to twenty fathoms. They then stood off to seaward all the rest of the watch, to get into deep water, till daybreak, when, being a clear morning, the capes of Virginia were in fair view under their stern, and but a few leagues distant. Had they stood-on but one cable-length further, as they were going, they would have been ashore, and certainly lost their ship, if not their lives - all through the erroneous reckonings of the previous day. Who or what was it that waked the captain and bade him save the ship? That he has never been able to tell!"
The incident which follows is somewhat similar - though more dramatic - being also a nautical story:
The following famous narrative is taken from Mr. Robert Dale Owen's collection, printed in[79] his Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, and The Debatable Land Between this World and the Next. It is quite a famous case, and is vouched for by Mr. Owen. It is as follows:
"Mr. Robert Bruce, descended from some branch of the Scottish family of the same name, was born in humble circumstances about the close of the eighteenth century at Torbay, in the south of England, and there bred up to a seafaring life. When about thirty years of age (in the year 1828), he was first mate on board a barque trading between Liverpool and St. John's, New Brunswick.
"On one of her voyages, bound westward, being then some five or six weeks out, and having neared the eastern portion of the Banks of Newfoundland, the captain and the mate had been on deck at noon, taking an observation of the sun; after which they both descended to calculate their day's work.
"The cabin, a small one, was immediately at the stern of the vessel, and the short stairway, descending to it, ran athwart-ships. Immediately opposite to this stairway, just beyond a small, square landing, was the mate's state room; and from that landing there were two doors, close to each other - the one opening aft[80] into the cabin, the other fronting the stairway into the stateroom. The desk in the stateroom was in the forward part of it, close to the door; so that anyone sitting at it, and looking over his shoulder, could see into the cabin.
"The mate, absorbed in his calculation, which did not result as he expected, varying considerably from the 'dead reckoning,' had not noticed the captain's motions. When he had completed his calculations, he cried out, without looking round, 'I make our latitude and longitude so-and-so. Can that be right? How is yours, sir?'
"Receiving no reply he repeated the question, glancing over his shoulder and perceiving, as he thought, the captain busy at his slate. Still no answer! Thereupon he rose, and, as he fronted the cabin door, the figure he had mistaken for the captain raised his head and disclosed to the astonished mate the features of an entire stranger.
"Bruce was no coward, but as he met that fixed gaze, looking directly at him in grave silence, and became assured that it was no one whom he had ever seen before, it was too much for him; and, instead of stopping to question the seeming intruder, he rushed upon deck in such evident alarm that it instantly attracted the captain's attention.
"'Why, Mr. Bruce,' said the latter, 'what in the world is the matter with you?'
"'The matter, sir? Who is that at your desk?'
"'No one that I know of.'
"'But there is, sir, there's a stranger there.'
"'A stranger? Why, man, you must be dreaming! You must have seen the steward there, or the second mate. Who else would venture down without orders?'
"'But, sir, he was sitting in your arm chair, fronting the door, writing on your slate. Then he looked up full in my face; and if ever I saw a man plainly and distinctly in the world I saw him.'
"'Him! Who?'
"'Heaven knows, sir; I don't! I saw a man and a man I have never seen in my life before.'
"'You must be going crazy, Mr. Bruce. A stranger, and we nearly six weeks out!'
"The captain descended the stairs, and the mate followed him. Nobody in the cabin! They examined the staterooms. Not a soul could be found.
"'Well, Mr. Bruce,' said the Captain, 'did not I tell you that you had been dreaming?'
"'It's all very well to say so, sir; but if I didn't see that man writing on the slate may I never see home and family again!'
"'Ah! Writing on the slate. Then it should be there still!' And the captain took it up. 'By heaven,' he exclaimed, 'here's something sure enough! Is that your writing, Mr. Bruce?'
"The mate took the slate; and there, in plain, legible characters, stood the words: 'Steer to the Nor'-west.'
"The captain sat down at his desk, the slate before him, in deep thought. At last turning the slate over, and pushing it toward Bruce, he said: 'Write down: "Steer to the nor'west."'
"The mate complied; and the captain, comparing the two handwritings, said: 'Mr. Bruce, go and tell the second mate to come down here.'
"He came, and at the captain's request, he also wrote the words. So did the steward. So in succession did every man of the crew who could write at all. But not one of the various hands resembled, in any degree, the mysterious writing.
"When the crew retired, the captain sat deep in thought. 'Could anyone have been stowed away?' at last he said. 'The ship must be searched. Order up all hands.'
"Every nook and corner of the vessel was thoroughly searched; not a living soul was found.
"Accordingly, the captain decided to change[83] the vessel's course according to the instructions received. A look-out was posted; who shortly reported an iceberg, and then, shortly after, a vessel close to it.
"As they approached, the captain's glass disclosed the fact that it was a dismantled ship, apparently frozen to the ice.... It proved to be a vessel from Quebec, bound for Liverpool, with passengers on board. She had got entangled in the ice, and finally frozen fast; and had passed several weeks in a most critical situation. She was stove, her decks swept; in fact, a mere wreck; all her provisions and almost all her water gone. Her crew and passengers had lost all hope of being saved, and their gratitude at the unexpected rescue was proportionately great.
"As one of the men who had been brought away in the third boat ascended the ship's side, the mate, catching a glimpse of his face, started back in consternation. It was the very face he had seen three or four hours before, looking up at him from the captain's desk! He communicated this fact to the captain.
"After the comfort of the passengers had been seen to, the captain turned to the stranger, and said to him: 'I hope, sir, you will not think I am trifling with you, but I would be much obliged to you if you would write a few words[84] on this slate.' And he handed him the slate, with that side up on which the mysterious writing was not.
 Suppose you write: 'Steer to the nor'-west.'
"The passenger, evidently puzzled to make out the motive of such a request, complied, however, with a smile. The captain took up the slate and examined it closely; then stepping aside so as to conceal the slate from the passenger, he turned it over and gave it to him the other side up.
"'You say that this is your handwriting?' said he.
"'I need not say so,' replied the other, looking at it, 'for you saw me write it.'
"'And this?' said the captain, turning the slate over.
"The man looked first at one writing, then at the other, quite confounded. At last: 'What is the meaning of this?' said he. 'I only wrote one of these. Who wrote the other?'
"'That's more than I can tell you, sir. My mate here says you wrote it, sitting at this desk, at noon to-day!'
"The captain of the wreck and the passenger looked at each other, exchanging glances of intelligence[85] and surprise; then the former asked the latter: 'Did you dream that you wrote on this slate?'
"'No, sir, not that I remember.'
"'You speak of dreaming,' said the captain of the barque. 'What was this gentleman about at noon to-day?'
"'Captain,' rejoined the other, (the captain of the wreck), 'the whole thing is most mysterious and extraordinary; and I had intended to speak to you about it as soon as we got a little quiet. This gentleman - pointing to the passenger - being much exhausted, fell into a heavy sleep, or what seemed such, some time before noon. After an hour or more, he awoke, and said to me: 'Captain, we shall be relieved this very day.' When I asked him what reason he had for saying so, he replied that he had dreamed that he was on board a barque, and that she was coming to our rescue. He described her appearance and rig, and, to our utter astonishment, when your vessel hove in sight, she corresponded exactly to his description of her! We had not put much faith in what he said; yet still we hoped there might be something in it, for drowning men, as you know, catch at straws. As it turned out, I cannot doubt that it was all arranged by some overruling Providence.'
"'There is not a doubt,' replied the captain of the barque, 'that the writing on the slate, let it come there as it may, saved all your lives. I was steering at the time considerably south of west, and I altered my course for the nor'-west, and had a look-out aloft, to see what would come of it. But you say,' he added, turning to the passenger, 'that you did not dream of writing on a slate?'
"'No, sir. I have no recollection whatever of doing so. I got the impression that the barque I saw in my dream was coming to rescue us; but how that impression came I cannot tell. There is another very strange thing about it,' he added. 'Everything here on board seems to be quite familiar; yet I am very sure that I was never in your vessel before. It is all a puzzle to me! What did your mate see?'
"Thereupon Mr. Bruce related to them all the circumstances above detailed."
The following is a very interesting case, which brings vividly before us the fact that ghosts often draw power from those who witness their manifestations - just as they draw vitality from a materializing "medium," during a seance. As[87] cases of this character are rare, the following is of considerable value:
"It was an afternoon, last autumn, about six o'clock. I had returned from a stroll and was sitting in my own apartment on Central Park West, reading Vanity Fair. While turning over its pages I became suddenly aware of a novel and indescribable sensation. My chest and breathing became inwardly oppressed by some ponderous weight, while I became conscious of some 'presence' behind me, exerting a powerful influence on the forces within. On trying to turn my head to see what it could be, I was powerless to do so; neither could I lift a hand, or move in any way. I was not a little alarmed, and began immediately to reason. My mind was alive, though physically I was unable to move a muscle. It was as if the current of nerve force within seemed forcibly drawn together and focussed on a spot in front of me.
"I gazed motionless, as though with something intenser than ordinary eyesight, on what was no longer vacant space. There an oval, misty light was forming - elongatory, widening, yes, actually developing into a human face and form. Was this hallucination, or some vision of the unseen, coming in so unexpected a fashion? Before me had arisen a remarkable figure, never[88] seen before in a picture or life - dark-skinned, aged, with white beard, the expression intensely earnest, the features small, the bald head finely moulded, lofty over the forehead, the whole demeanor instinct with solemn grace.
"He was speaking to me in deep tones, as if in urgent entreaty. What would I not give to hear words from such a figure! But no effort availed me to distinguish one articular sound. I tried to speak, but could not. With desperate effort I shook out the words, 'Speak louder.' The face grew more intent, the voice louder and more emphatic. Was there something amiss with my own hearing, then, that I could distinguish no word amid these deeply emphasized tones? Slowly and deliberately the figure vanished - through the same stages of indistinctness, back to the globular lamplike whiteness, till it faded to nothingness.  The same emphatic hum, though in a subdued note; the same paralysis of voice and muscle, the same strange force, as it was overshadowing me. With the disappearance of this second and far less interesting figure, I recovered my power of movement and arose.
"My first impulse was to look around for the origin of this strange force; my second to rush[89] to the looking-glass to make sure of myself. There could be no illusion. There I was, paler than usual, the forehead bathed in perspiration. I threw open the window. It was no dream. There were the passing trolley cars below, clanging up and down, while a crowd of noisy youngsters were playing in the park across the way. I sponged my face, and, greatly agitated, walked hurriedly to and fro. If this is real, I thought, it may recur. I would sit in the same position, try to be calm, read a book, remain as still and passive as I could, and see the result.
"To my intense interest, and almost at once, the strange sense of some power operating on the nerve-forces within, followed by the same loss of muscular power, the same wide-awakeness of the reason, the same drawing out and concentrating of the energies on that spot in front, repeated itself - this time more deliberately, leaving me freer to take mental notes of what was happening. Again arose the noble, earnest figure, gazing at me, the hands moving in solemn accompaniment to the deep tones of voice. The same effort, painful on my part, to hear, with no result. The vision passed. Again the woman's face, insignificant and meaningless, succeeded it as before. She spoke, but in less emphatic tones. It flashed upon me that I[90] would hear. After a frantic effort, I caught two words - 'Land,' 'America' - with positively no clue to their meaning.
"I was wide awake when the first apparition appeared, and in a highly excited state of mind on its re-appearance."
Kings and queens are not exempt from visitations of the supernatural; indeed, a large number of royal dignitaries have seen "ghosts," and have been haunted by specters in as unpleasant a manner as any ordinary mortal. Were we to hunt through the pages of history, we should find many of these - some of which it will doubtless be of interest to give at some future time. The following account is taken from the Annals of the Kingdom of Scotland, and is told in queer old English, with long 's's,' and so on, making it very hard to read in the original! I interpret it into modern English as best I can, maintaining its form:
"While James IV. stayed at Linlithgow, to gather up the scattered remains of his army, which had been defeated by the Earl of Surrey, at Flodden-field, he went into the Church of St. Michael there to hear evening prayer. While[91] he was at his devotion, a remarkable figure of an ancient man, with flowing amber-colored hair hanging over his shoulders, his forehead high, and inclining to baldness, his garments of a fine blue color, somewhat long and girded together, with a fine white cloth, of comely and very reverent aspect, was seen inquiring for the king; when his majesty being pointed out to him he made his way through the crowd till he came to him, and then, with a clown's simplicity, leaning over the cannon's feet, he addressed him in the following words: 'Sir, I am sent hither to entreat you to delay your intended expedition for this time, and proceed no further; for if you do, you will be unfortunate, and not prosper in your enterprise, nor any of your followers. I am further charged to warn you, not to follow the acquaintance, company or counsel of women, as you value your life, honour and estate.'
"After giving him this admonition, he withdrew himself back through the crowd and disappeared.
"When service was ended, the king enquired earnestly after him, but he could not be found or heard of anywhere, neither could any of the bystanders (of whom many narrowly watched him, resolving afterwards to have discoursed with him) feel or perceive how, when or where[92] he passed from them, having in a manner vanished from their sight.
"This caused the king to feel some uneasiness; 'for,' said he, 'if he were mortal man, how did he go so quickly hence, and how did he give me such advice, which I, of all men, know at this time to be of value?' The king was sorely puzzled; and called the warden of the church to him, and questioned him as to the man whom he had seen.
"And when the warden had heard the tale from the king, he questioned him in turn, as to the man's appearance - whether he was this and that; and of the man's manner of speech. And when the king had answered to his satisfaction, he turned pale; and said: 'Oh, king, the personage whom you saw to-day was not mortal man; but one dead long ago; one who lived and died close here; and known to many of us well. He has been known to come before in times of great stress; and his advice has always been good. Truly, my lord, you have this day seen an apparition of a dead man.'
"And the king marvelled at what he had seen."
Thus ends the curious old narrative. It will be seen that several others saw the ghost besides the king. These are called "collective[93] cases" by those engaged in psychical studies; for the reason that several persons saw the figure at the same time, or "collectively." Such cases have never been satisfactorily explained. For, if the phantom were a mere hallucination, as many claim, how did several see it at once?
The following narrative was personally related to Robert Dale Owen, by a clergyman of the Church of England, who was Chaplain, at the time, to the British Legation in Florence. It is as follows:
"In the year 1856, I was staying with my wife and children, at a favorite watering place. In order to attend to some affairs of my own, I determined to leave my family there for three or four days. Accordingly, on the 8th of August, I took the railway, and arrived that evening an unexpected guest at the Hall - the residence of a gentleman whose acquaintance I had recently made, and with whom my sister was then staying.
"I arrived late, soon afterwards went to bed, and before long fell asleep. Awaking after three or four hours, I was not surprised to find that I could sleep no more - for I never rest well in a[94] strange bed. After trying, therefore, in vain to induce sleep, I began to arrange my plans for the day. I had been engaged some little time in this way, when I became suddenly sensitive to the fact that there was a light in the room. Turning round, I distinctly perceived a female figure; and what attracted my special attention was that the light by which I saw it emanated from itself. I watched the figure attentively. The features were not perceptible. After moving a little distance, it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
"My first thoughts were that there was some trick. I immediately got out of bed, struck a light, and found my bedroom door still locked. I then carefully examined the walls, to ascertain if there was any other concealed means of entrance or exit, but none could I find. I drew the curtains and opened the shutters, but all outside was silent and dark, there being no moonlight. After examining the room in every part, I went back to bed, and began thinking calmly over the whole matter. What had I seen? And why did It appear?
"In the morning, as soon as I was up and dressed, I told my sister what I had seen. She then informed me that the house had the reputation of being 'haunted'; and that a murder[95] had been committed in it; but not in the room in which I had slept. Later in the day I left - after making my sister promise to do all she could to unravel the mystery.
"On the following Wednesday morning, I received a letter from my sister, in which she informed me that, since I left, she had made inquiries and had ascertained that the murder was committed in the very room in which I slept! She added that she proposed visiting us the next day, and that she would like me to write out an account of what I had seen - together with a plan of the room, and that on that plan she wished me to mark the place of the appearance and disappearance of the figure.
"This I immediately did; and the next day when my sister arrived, she asked me if I had complied with her request? I replied, pointing to the drawing room table: 'Yes, there is the account and the plan.'
"As she rose to examine it, I prevented her, saying: 'Do not look at it until you have told me all you have to say, because you might unintentionally color your story by what you may read there.'
"Thereupon she informed me that she had had the carpet taken up in the room I had occupied, and that the marks of blood from the murdered[96] person were there, plainly visible, on a particular part of the floor. At my request she also then drew a plan of the room, and marked upon it the spots which still bore traces of blood. The two plans - my sister's and mine - were now compared; and we verified the most remarkable fact that the place she had marked as the beginning and ending of the traces of blood coincided exactly with the spots marked on my plan as those on which the female figure had appeared and disappeared!"
The following case is recorded by the wife of Colonel Lewin, and is reported in the Proceedings of the S. P. R.:
"In January, 1868, I took a house close to Hastings.... One night there was a heavy storm, the weather was bitterly cold, and a fire was burning in my bedroom when I went to bed at 10.30. I tried to go to sleep, but it was no use; the noise of the wind and the rain kept me awake. I must have been lying like this for a couple of hours when I became conscious of what seemed like a light in the room.... I thought the fire must have re-kindled itself, and crawled along on my knees on the bed to look at the fire over the high wooden foot, to see how[97] this might be. I had no thought of anything but the fire, and was not nervous in the slightest degree. As I raised myself on my knees and looked over the foot of the bed, I found myself face to face, at a distance of about three feet, with the semblance of a man. I never for a moment thought he was a man, but was struck with the feeling that this was one from the dead.
"The light seemed to emanate from round this figure, but the only portions which I saw clearly were the head and shoulders. The face I shall never forget; it was pale, emaciated, with a thin, high-bridged nose, and eyes deeply sunk and glowing in the sockets with a sort of glare. A long beard was seemingly rolled in under a white comforter, and on the head was a slouched felt hat. I had a nervous shock, and felt a dead person was looking upon me - a living one, but had no sensation of being actually frightened, until the figure moved slowly as if interposing between me and the door, then horror overcame me and I fell back in a dead faint. How long I remained unconscious I know not, but I came to myself cold and cramped; the room was quite dark and nothing was visible. Thoroughly tired out, I got into bed, and slept soundly until morning."
The next example is from the Proceedings of the S. P. R. (Vol. V., pp. 440-41), and Mr. Myers states that the writer was well known to him. The account reads in part:
"My mother died on the 24th of June, 1874, at Slima, Malta, where we were then residing for her health. Seven nights later she appeared to me.... I seemed to have been sleeping some time when I woke, and, turning over on the other side towards the window, saw my mother standing by my bedside, crying and wringing her hands. I had not been awake long enough to remember that she was dead, and exclaimed quite naturally, 'Why, dear, what's the matter?' and then suddenly remembering, I screamed. The nurse sprang up from the next room, but on the top step flung herself on her knees and began to tell her beads and cry. My father at the same moment arrived at the opposite door, and I heard his sudden exclamation of 'Julia, darling.' My mother turned towards him, and then to me, and, wringing her hands again, retreated towards the nursery and was lost. The nurse afterwards stated that she distinctly felt something pass her.... My father ordered her out of the room, and telling me that I had[99] only been dreaming, stayed until I fell asleep. The next day, however, he told me that he, too, had seen the vision, and that he hoped to do so again, and that if ever she came to see me ... I was not to be frightened ... but she never appeared again."
In the narrative which follows, the apparition conveyed - by its very appearance - information which the percipient could not possibly have known. It is from Mr. H. Walton, of Dent, Sedburgh, England, and was sent to Mr. Stead, who published it:
"In the month of April, 1881, I was located in Norfolk, and my duties took me once a fortnight to a fishing village on the coast - so I can guarantee the following facts: It is customary for the fishing smacks to go to Grimsby 'line fishing' in the spring. The vessels started one afternoon on their journey north. In the evening, a heavy north-east wind blew, and one of the boats mistook the white surf on the rocks for the reflection of a lighthouse. In consequence the boat got into shallow water, a heavy sea came, and swept two men from the deck. One man grasped a rope and was saved; the[100] other, a younger man, failed to save himself, though an expert swimmer. It was said that he was heard to shout about 11 o'clock.
"Towards one o'clock, the young man's mother, lying awake, saw his apparition come to the foot of the bed, clad in white, and she screamed with fright, and told her husband what she had seen, and that J. was drowned. He sought in vain to calm her by saying that she must have been dreaming. She asserted the contrary. Next day, when her daughter came in with the telegram of the sad event, before her daughter had time to speak, she cried out: 'J. is drowned,' and became unconscious; she remained in this state for many hours. When she regained consciousness, she told them particularly and distinctly what she had seen; and what is to the point is this remarkable thing: she said: 'If ever the body is found, it has a cut across the cheek,' - specifying which cheek. The body was found some days after, and exactly as mother had seen it, was the cut on the cheek."
The following account was sent to the S. P. R. Ghosts are usually seen; they are sometimes heard; they are very rarely felt. The account[101] which follows is an example of the latter class, in which the ghost was not only seen but touched.
After stating that she was visiting a friend of hers in the country, when the event occurred, the narrator proceeds:
"We went upstairs together, I being perhaps a couple of steps behind my friend, when, on reaching the topmost step, I felt something suddenly slip behind me from an unoccupied room on the left of the stairs. Thinking it must be imagination, no one being in the house except the widow and servant, who occupied rooms on another landing, I did not speak to my friend, who turned off to a room on the right, but walked quickly into my room, which faced the staircase, still feeling as though a tall figure was bending over me. I turned on the gas, struck a light, and was in the act of applying it, when I felt a heavy grasp on my arm of a hand, minus the middle finger. Upon this I uttered a loud cry, which brought my friend, the widow lady, and the servant girl, into the room to inquire the cause of my alarm. The two latter turned very pale on hearing the story. The house was thoroughly searched, but nothing was discovered.
"Some weeks passed, and I had ceased to be[102] alarmed at the occurrence, when I chanced to mention it whilst spending the afternoon with some friends. A gentleman asked me if I had ever heard a description or seen a 'carte' of the lady's late husband. On receiving a reply in the negative, he said, singularly enough, he was tall, had a slight stoop, and has lost the middle finger on his hand! On my return, I inquired of the servant, who had been in the family from childhood, if such were the case, and learned that it was quite correct, and that she (the girl) had once, when sleeping in the same room, awakened on feeling some one pressing down her knees, and on opening her eyes saw her late master by the bed side - on which she fainted, and had never dared to enter the room after dark since. She is not an imaginative girl; nor am I. When I was grasped, however, I did not see anything.
"But worse was to follow! It so chanced that I had to sleep in that room once again, as the house was full of company, and there was nowhere else for me to go. I had by this time got over my fears, and hardly minded the idea of sleeping in the room at all. I left the room door open, turned out the light and was soon sound asleep.
"Some time in the early hours of the morning[103] I awoke with an indescribable feeling. I was suddenly wide awake - without the slightest traces of sleep; yet I did not know how I awoke; and had not any recollection of waking. But there I was wide awake, and staring up at the ceiling with wide-open eyes. My right hand was hanging over the side of the bed; so that it fell outwards, into the room. Imagine my horror, then, in feeling a hand suddenly grasp my hand, and I felt distinctly that it was minus the middle finger. The hand was icy cold, and of a peculiar hardness. I hung on to the hand, however, determined to go to the bottom of the affair. I gripped tightly; and still retained the hand in my grip. Bending over, I stretched out my left hand, and, with the fingers of that hand, felt over the hand and wrist I was holding. I then commenced to trace it up the arm. I had about reached the elbow - or a little below - when the arm suddenly ended - came to nothing; was no more! Yet the hand in mine was as solid as ever. This gave me such a shock that I let go the hand I was holding, and sank back onto my pillows. Then terror took possession of me; and I do not know what happened later. I only know that I had brain fever, which laid me low for several weeks. The occurrence has never been explained."
The following is a famous case, well-known as the "Apparition of the Radiant Boy." It was seen by the Marquis of Londonderry, and frequently spoken of by him afterwards.
At the time of the appearance, Lord Londonderry was on a visit to a friend in the North of Ireland. The apartment assigned to him was one calculated to foster the belief in ghosts, because of its richly carved paneling - its huge fireplace, looking like the open entrance into a tomb - and the vast, ponderous draperies that hung in thick folds around the room.
Lord Londonderry examined his chamber; he made himself acquainted with the forms and faces of the ancient possessors of the mansion, whose portraits hung around the room. Then, after dismissing his valet, he retired to bed.
His candles had not long been extinguished when he perceived a light gleaming on the draperies of the lofty canopies over his head. Conscious that there was no fire in the grate - that the curtains were closed - that the chamber had been in perfect darkness but a few minutes before, he supposed that some intruder must have accidentally entered his apartment; and, turning hastily around to the side from which the[105] light proceeded, saw, to his infinite astonishment, not the form of a human visitor, but the figure of a fair boy, who seemed to be garmented in rays of mild and tempered glory, which beamed palely from his slender form, like the faint light of the declining moon and rendered the objects nearest to him dimly and indistinctly visible. The spirit stood but a short distance from the side of the bed.
Certain that his own faculties were not deceiving him, Lord Londonderry got up and moved towards the figure. It retreated before him; as he slowly advanced, and with equal pace, slowly retired. It entered the gloomy arch of the capacious chimney, and then sank into the earth. Lord Londonderry returned to his bed, but not to rest; his mind was harassed by the consideration of the extraordinary event which had occurred to him. Was it real? Was it the work of imagination? Was it the result of imposture? It was all incomprehensible.
He resolved in the morning not to mention the appearance till he should have well observed the manners and countenances of the family; he was conscious that, if any deception had been practised, its authors would be too delighted with their success to conceal the vanity of their triumph.
When the guests assembled at the breakfast table, the eye of Lord Londonderry searched in vain for latent smiles - those conscious looks - that silent communication between the parties, by which the authors of such domestic conspiracies are generally betrayed. Everything, apparently, proceeded in its ordinary course. At last the hero of the tale felt bound to mention the occurrence of the night.
At its conclusion, his host said: "The circumstances which you have just recounted appear very extraordinary to those who have not long been inmates of my dwelling; and are not conversant with the legends of my family; and to those who are, the event which has happened will only serve as the corroboration of an old tradition that has long been related of the apartment in which you slept. You have seen the 'Radiant Boy'; be content - it is an omen of prosperous fortunes. I would rather that this subject should not be mentioned." And here the affair ended.
The following incident comes from Australia, and is well-known in that part of the world. It is usually known as "Fisher's Ghost," and is to the following effect:
"A number of years ago, a free settler, named John Fisher, who had long successfully cultivated a grant of land in a remote district, and who was known to be possessed of a considerable sum of money, had been missing for some time after having visited the nearest market town, whither he had been in the habit of repairing with cattle and produce for sale.
"An inquiry was instituted by his acquaintances; but his head servant, or rather his assistant on the farm - an ex-convict, who had lived many years with him in that situation - declared that his master had left the colony for some time on business, and that he expected him to return in a few months. As this man was generally known as Fisher's confidential servant, his assertion was believed - though some expressed surprise at the settler's abrupt and clandestine departure; for his character was good in every way. The 'month's wonder' soon subsided, however, and Fisher was forgotten. His assistant, meanwhile, managed the farm, bought and sold, and spent money freely. If questioned, which was but rarely, he would express his surprise at his master's delay, and pretend to expect him daily.
"A few months after he had been first missed, a neighbouring settler, who was returning late[108] on Saturday night from the market town, had occasion to pass within half a mile of Fisher's house. As he was riding by the fence which separated the farm from the high road, he distinctly saw the figure of a man seated on the railing, and at once recognized the form and features of his lost neighbor.
"He instantly stopped and called to him by name; but the figure descended from the railing, and pointing appealingly toward the house, walked slowly across the field in that direction. The settler, having lost sight of him in the gloom, proceeded on his journey, and informed his family and neighbors that he had seen Fisher and spoken to him. On inquiry, however, Fisher's assistant said that he had not arrived, and affected to laugh at the settler's story - insinuating that he had probably drunk too freely at the market.
"The neighbors were, however, not satisfied. The strange appearance of Fisher, sitting on the rail and pointing, with so much meaning, toward his own house aroused their suspicions, and they insisted upon a strict and immediate investigation by the police.
"The party of investigators took with them an old and clever native. They had not proceeded far in the underbrush when they discovered a[109] log, on which was a dark brown stain. This the native examined, and at once declared it to be 'white man's blood.' He then, without hesitation, set off at a full run, toward a pond not far from the house.
"He ran backwards and forwards about the pond, like a dog on the scent; and finally, borrowing a ram-rod from one of the settlers, ran it into the earth. He did this in one or two places; and finally said: 'White man here.'
"The spot was immediately dug up, and a corpse, identified as that of Fisher, was discovered, its skull fractured, and evidently many weeks buried.
"The guilty assistant was immediately arrested, and tried at Sydney, on circumstantial evidence alone - strong enough, however, to convict him, in spite of his self-possession, and protestations of innocence. He was sentenced to death; and, previous to his execution, made an ample confession of his guilt."
Lydia Maria Child relates the following interesting narrative:
"When Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, visited[110] her native country a few years ago, I had an interview with her, during which our conversation happened to turn on dreams and visions.
"'I have had some experience in that way,' said she. 'Let me tell you a singular circumstance that happened to me in Rome. An Italian girl named Rosa was in my employ for a long time, but was finally obliged to return to her mother on account of confirmed ill-health. We were mutually sorry to part, for we liked each other. When I took my customary exercise on horseback, I frequently called to see her. On one of these occasions, I found her brighter than I had seen her for some time past. I had long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but there was nothing in her appearance that gave the appearance of immediate danger. I left her with the expectation of calling to see her again many times. During the remainder of the day, I was busy in my studio, and I do not recollect that Rosa was in my thoughts after I had parted from her. I retired to rest in good health, and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a sound sleep with the oppressive feeling that someone was in the room. I wondered at the sensation, for it was entirely new to me; but in vain I tried to dispel it. I peered beyond the curtains of my bed but could distinguish no objects[111] in the darkness. Trying to gather my thoughts I reflected that the door was locked, and that I had put the key under my bolster. I felt for it and found it where I had placed it.  Reasoning thus, I arranged myself comfortably for another nap.
"'I am habitually a good sleeper and a stranger to fear, but do what I would, the idea still haunted me that someone was in the room. Finding it impossible to sleep, I longed for daylight to dawn, that I might rise and pursue my customary avocation. It was not long before I was able dimly to distinguish the furniture in my room, and, soon after, to hear familiar noises of servants opening windows and doors. An old clock with ringing vibration, proclaimed the hour. I counted one, two, three, four, five, and resolved to rise immediately. My bed was partially screened by a long curtain looped up at one side. As I raised my head from the pillow, Rosa looked inside the curtain, and smiled at me. The idea of anything supernatural did not occur to me. I was simply surprised and exclaimed: "Why, Rosa! How came you here when you are so ill?"
"'In the old familiar tone to which I was so[112] much accustomed, a voice replied, "I am well now."
"'With no other thought but that of greeting her joyfully, I sprang out of bed. There was no Rosa there! When I became convinced that there was no one in the room but myself, I recollected the fact that my door was locked, and thought I must have seen a vision.
"'At the breakfast table, I said to the old lady with whom I boarded: "Rosa is dead." I then summoned a messenger and sent him to inquire how Rosa was. He returned with the answer that she died that morning at 5 o'clock.'
"I wrote the story as Miss Hosmer told it to me, and after I had shown it to her, I asked her if she had any objection to its being published without suppression of names. She replied: 'You have reported the story of Rosa correctly. Make what use you please of it. You cannot think it more interesting or unaccountable than I do myself.'"
At the commencement of the French Revolution, Lady Pennyman and her two daughters and her friend, Mrs. Atkins, retired to Lisle, where they had hired a large and handsome[113] house. A few weeks after taking possession, the housekeeper, with many apologies for being obliged to mention anything that might appear so idle and absurd, came to the apartment in which her mistress was sitting, and said that two of the servants who had accompanied her ladyship from England had that morning given warning, and expressed a determination of quitting her ladyship's service, on account of the mysterious noises by which they had been night after night disturbed and terrified. The room from which the sounds were supposed to have proceeded was at a distance from Lady Pennyman's apartments, and immediately over those that were occupied by the servants. To quiet the alarm Lady Pennyman resolved on leaving her own chamber for a time and establishing herself in the one which had been lately occupied by the domestics.
The room above was a long, spacious one, which appeared to have been for a long time deserted. In the center of the chamber was a large iron cage. It was said that the late proprietor of the house - a young man of enormous wealth - had in his minority been confined in this cage by his uncle and guardian and starved to death.
On the first night or two of Lady Pennyman's[114] being established in her new apartment, she met with no interruption. This quiet, however, was of very short duration. One night she was awakened from her sleep by a slow and heavy step pacing the chamber overhead. It continued to move backwards and forwards for nearly an hour. There were more complaints from the housekeeper, no servants would remain. Lady Pennyman began herself to be alarmed. She requested the advice of Mrs. Atkins - a woman devoid of every kind of superstitious fear, and of tried courage. Mrs. Atkins determined to make the Cage room itself her sleeping quarters. A bed was accordingly placed in the apartment, and Mrs. Atkins retired to rest attended by her favorite spaniel - saying, as she bade them all good-night, "I and my dog are able to compete with a myriad of ghosts."