Real Ghost Stories

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Mr. W. A. S., to quote another case, in April, 1871, at two o'clock in
the afternoon, was sitting in a house in Pall Mall. He saw a lady glide
in backwards at the door of the room, as if she had been slid in on a
slide, each part of her dress keeping its proper place without
disturbance. She glided in until the whole of her could be seen, except
the tip of her nose, her lips, and the tip of her chin, which were
hidden by the edge of the door. She was an old acquaintance of his, whom
he had not seen for twenty or twenty-five years. He observed her closely
until his brother entered the house, and coming into the room passed
completely through the phantasm, which shortly afterwards faded away.
Another person in the room could not see it. Some years afterwards he
learned that she had died the same year, six months afterwards, from a
painful cancer of the face. It was curious that the phantasm never
showed him the front of its face, which was always hidden by the door.
(Vol. II. p. 517.)

Sometimes, however, the Thought Body is both conscious and visible,
although in most cases when visible it is not conscious, and retains no
memory of what has passed. When it remembers it is usually not visible.
In Mr. Dale Owen's remarkable volume, "Footfalls on the Boundary of
Another World," there is a narrative, entitled "The Visionary
Excursion," in which a lady, whom he calls Mrs. A., whose husband was a
brigadier-general in India, describes an aerial flight so explicitly
that I venture to reprint her story here, as illustrating the
possibility of being visible and at the same time remembering where you
had been:--

In June of the year 1857, a lady, whom I shall designate as Mrs. A., was
residing with her husband, a colonel in the British army, and their
infant child, on Woolwich Common, near London.

One night in the early part of that month, suddenly awaking to
consciousness, she felt herself as if standing by the bedside and
looking down upon her own body, which lay there by the side of her
sleeping husband. Her first impression was that she had died suddenly,
and the idea was confirmed by the pale and lifeless look of the body,
the face void of expression, and the whole appearance showing no sign of
vitality. She gazed at it with curiosity for some time, comparing its
dead look with that of the fresh countenances of her husband and of her
slumbering infant in the cradle hard by. For a moment she experienced a
feeling of relief that she had escaped the pangs of death; but the next
she reflected what a grief her death would be to the survivors, and then
came the wish that she had broken the news to them gradually.

While engaged in these thoughts she felt herself carried to the wall of
her room, with a feeling that it must arrest her further progress. But
no, she seemed to pass through it into the open air. Outside the house
was a tree; and this also she seemed to traverse as if it interposed no
obstacle. All this occurred without any desire on her part.

She crossed Woolwich Common, visited the Arsenal, returned to the
barracks, and then found herself in the bed-chamber of an intimate
friend, Miss L. M., who lived at Greenwich. She began to talk; but she
remembered no more until she waked by her husband's side. Her first
words were, "So I am not dead after all." She told her husband of her
excursion, and they agreed to say nothing about it until they heard from
Miss L. M.

When they met that lady, two days after, she volunteered the statement
that Mrs. A. had appeared to her about three o'clock in the morning of
the night before last, robed in violet, and had a conversation with her
("Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World," p. 256.)

_A Doctor's Experience of the Dual Body._

Whatever may be thought of the Psychic's description of her experiences
in her thought journey, they are vivid and realistic. Here is the
description given by a medical man in a well-known watering-place on the
south coast of his experience in getting into his material body after an
aerial excursion:--

"I was engaged to a young lady whom I very much loved. During the early
part of this engagement I visited the Hall in the village, not far from
the Vicarage, where the young lady resided. I was in the habit of
spending from Sunday to Monday at the Hall. On one of these mornings of
my departure I found myself standing between the two closed windows in
the lady's bedroom. It was about five o'clock on a bright summer
morning. Her room looked eastward, mine directly west, and the church
stood between the two houses, which were about five hundred yards apart.
I have no impression whatever how I became transplanted from the house.
The lady was in a camp bedstead, directly opposite to me, looking at and
reaching out her arms towards me, when my disembodied spirit instantly
disappeared to join the material body which it had left in some
mysterious way. As I returned and was fitting in to my body on my left
side, when half united I could see within me the ununited spiritual part
on glow like an electric light, while the other united half was hidden
in total darkness, looking black as through a thunder cloud, when, like
the shutting of a drawer, the whole body became united, and I awoke in
great alarm, with a belief that if any one had entered my room and moved
my body from the position in which it lay on its back, the returning
spirit could not have joined its material case, and that death, as it is
vulgarly called, would have been inevitable."

In the morning at the breakfast-table the young lady said she had a
strange experience. She saw M.D. in her bedroom, looking at her as she
sat up in bed, and that he disappeared after a short stay; but how he
got there she could not say, as she was positive she had locked her
bedroom door. So one experience corroborated the other.[5]

[5] Quoted from a remarkable work by James Gillingham, surgical
mechanist, Chard, Somerset. Mr. Gillingham sent me the name of
the doctor, and assures me that the narrative is quite
authentic.

_Speaking Doubles._

While discussing the subject, some friends called at Mowbray House, and
were, as usual, asked to pay toll in the shape of communicating any
experience they had had of the so-called supernatural. One of my
visitors gave me the following narrative, the details of which are in
the possession of the Psychical Research Society:--

"Some years ago my father and another son were crossing the Channel at
night. My mother, who was living in England, was roused up in the middle
of the night by the apparition of my father. She declares that she saw
him quite distinctly standing by her bedside, looking anxious and
distraught. Knowing that at that moment he was in mid-Channel, she
augured that some disaster had overtaken him or the boy. She said, 'Is
there some trouble?' He said, 'There is; the boy----' and then he faded
from her sight. The curious part of the story is that my father at that
very time had been thinking on board the steamer of having to tell his
wife of the loss of the boy. The lad had been missed, and for a short
time father feared he had fallen overboard. Shortly afterwards he was
discovered to be quite safe. But during the period of suspense father
was vividly conscious of the pain of having to break the news to his
wife. It was subsequently proved by a comparison of the hour that his
double had not only appeared but had spoken at the very moment he was
thinking of how to tell her the news midway between France and England."

Another case in which the double appeared was that of Dr. F. R. Lees,
the well-known temperance controversialist. On communicating with the
Doctor, the following is his reply:--

"The little story or incident of which you have heard occurred above
thirty years ago, and may be related in very few words. Whether it was
coincidence, or transference of vivid thought, I leave to the judgment
of others.

"I had left Leeds for the Isle of Jersey (though my dear wife was only
just recovering from a nervous fever) to fulfil an important engagement.
On a Good Friday, myself and a party of friends in several carriages
drove round a large portion of the island, coming back to St. Heliers
from Bouley Bay, taking tea about seven o'clock at Captain ----'s villa.
The party broke up about ten o'clock, and the weather being fine and
warm, I walked to the house of a banker who entertained me. Naturally,
my evening thoughts reverted to my home, and after reading a few verses
in my Testament, I walked about the room until nearly eleven, thinking
of my wife, and breathing the prayer, 'God bless you.'

"I might not have recalled all the circumstances, save for the letter I
received by the next post from her, with the query put in: 'Tell me what
you were _doing within a few minutes of eleven o'clock_ on Friday
evening? I will tell you in my next why I ask; for something happened to
me.' In the middle of the week the letter came, and these words in
it:--'I had just awoke from a slight repose, when I saw you in your
night-dress bend over me, and utter the words, "God bless you!" I seemed
also to feel your breath as you kissed me. I felt no alarm, but
comforted, went off into a gentle sleep, and have been better ever
since.' I replied that this was an exact representation of my mind and
words."

Here there was apparently the instantaneous reproduction in Leeds of the
image, and not only of the image but of the words spoken in Jersey, a
hundred miles away. The theory that the phantasmal body is occasionally
detachable from the material frame accounts for this in a fashion, and
that is more than can be said for any other hypothesis that has yet been
stated. In neither of these cases did an early death follow the
apparition of the dual body.

_An Unknown Double Identified._

Neither of these stories, however, is so wonderful as the following
narrative, which is forwarded to me by a correspondent in North Britain,
who received the statement from a Colonel now serving in India on the
Bengal Staff, whose name is communicated on the understanding that it is
not to be made public:--

"In the year 1860 I was stationed at Banda, in Bundelcund, India. There
was a good deal of sickness there at the time, and I was deputed along
with a medical officer to proceed to the nearest railway station at that
time Allahabad, in charge of a sick officer. I will call myself Brown,
the medical officer Jones, and the sick officer Robertson. We had to
travel very slowly, Robertson being carried by coolies in a doolie, and
on this account we had to halt at a rest-house, or pitch our camp every
evening. One evening, when three marches out of Banda, I had just come
into Robertson's room about midnight to relieve Jones, for Robertson was
so ill that we took it by turns to watch him, when Jones took me aside
and whispered that he was afraid our friend was dying, that he did not
expect him to live through the night, and though I urged him to go and
lie down, and that I would call him on any change taking place, he would
not leave. We both sat down and watched. We had been there about an hour
when the sick man moved and called out. We both went to his bedside, and
even my inexperienced eyes saw that the end was near. We were both
standing on the same side of the bed, furthest away from the door.

"Whilst we were standing there the door opened, and an elderly lady
entered, went straight up to the bed, bent over it, wrung her hands and
wept bitterly. After a few minutes she left; we both saw her face. We
were so astonished that neither of us thought of speaking to her, but as
soon as she passed out of the door I recovered myself and, as quickly as
possible, followed her, but could not find a trace of her. Robertson
died that night. We were then about thirty miles from the nearest
cantonment, and except the rest-house in which we were, and of which we
were the only occupants, there was not a house near us. Next morning we
started back to Banda, taking the corpse with us for burial.

"Three months after this Jones went to England on leave, and took with
him the sword, watch, and a few other things which had belonged to the
deceased to deliver to his family. On arrival at Robertson's home, he
was shown into the drawing-room. After waiting a few minutes, a lady
entered--the same who had appeared to both of us in the jungle in India;
it was Robertson's mother. She told Jones that she had had a vision that
her son was dangerously ill, and had written the date, etc., down, and
on comparing notes they found that the date, time, etc., agreed in every
respect.

"People to whom I have told the story laugh at me, and tell me that I
must have been asleep and dreamed it, but I know I was not, for I
remember perfectly well standing by the bedside when the lady appeared."

Chapter III.

Aimless Doubles.

The following curious experience is sent me by a commercial traveller,
who gives his name and address in support of his testimony. Writing from
Nottingham, he says:--

"On Tuesday, the 6th October, I had a very singular experience. I am
a commercial traveller, and represent a firm of cigar manufacturers.
I left my hotel about four o'clock on the above date to call upon a
customer, a Mr. Southam, Myton Gate, Hull. I met this gentleman in
the street, nearly opposite his office; he shook hands, and said,
'How are you? I am waiting to see a friend; I don't think I shall
want any cigars this journey, but look in before eight o'clock.' I
called at 7.30, and spoke to the clerk in the office. He said, 'Mr.
Southam has made out your cheque and there is also a small order.' I
said, 'Thanks, I should have liked to have seen him; he made an
appointment this afternoon for about eight.' The clerk said,
'Where?' I said, 'Just outside.' He said, 'That is impossible, as
both Mr. and Mrs. Southam have been confined to their room for a
fortnight and have never been out.' I said, 'How strange. I said to
Mr. S----, "You look different to your usual; what's the matter with
you?" Mr. S---- said, "Don't you see I am in my _deshabille_?"' The
clerk remarked, 'You must have seen his second self, for he has not
been up to-day.' I came away feeling very strange.

"J. P. Brooks.

"Sydney Villa, Ratcliffe Road, Bridgeford."

Mrs. Eliz. G. L----, of H---- House, sends me the following report of
her experience of the double. She writes:--

"The only time I ever saw an apparition was on the evening of the last
day of May, 1860. The impression then made is most vivid, and the day
seldom recurs without my thinking of what happened then.

"It was a little after seven o'clock, the time for my husband's return
from business. I was passing through the hall into the dining-room,
where tea was laid, when (the front door being open) I saw my husband
coming up the garden path, which was in a direct line with the hall. It
was broad daylight, and nothing obstructed my view of him, and he was
not more than nine or ten yards from me. Instead of going to him, I
turned back, and said to the servant in the kitchen, 'Take tea in
immediately, your master is come.' I then went into the dining-room,
expecting him to be there. To my great surprise the room was empty, and
there was no one in the garden. As my father was very ill in the next
house but one to ours, I concluded that Mr. L---- had suddenly
determined to turn back and enquire how he was before having tea. In
half an hour he came into the room to me, and I asked how my father was,
when, to my astonishment, he told me that he had not called, but had
come home direct from the town. I said, '_You were in the garden half
an hour ago_, I saw you as distinctly as I see you now; if you were
not there _then_, you are not here _now_,' and I grasped his
arm as I spoke to convince myself that it was really he. I thought that
my husband was teasing me by his repeated denials, and that he would at
last confess he was really there; and it was only when he assured me in
the most positive and serious manner that he was a mile away at the time
I saw him in the garden, that I could believe him. I have never been
able to account for the appearance. There was no one I could possibly
have mistaken for Mr. L----. I was in good health at the time, and had
no illness for long afterwards. My mother is still living, and she can
corroborate my statement, and bear witness to the deep impression the
occurrence made upon me. I _saw_ my husband as plainly as I have
ever seen him since during the many years we have lived together."

_Two Dundee Doubles._

Mr. Robert Kidd, of Gray Street, Broughty Ferry, who has filled many
offices in Dundee, having been twenty-five years a police commissioner
and five years a magistrate there, sends me the following report of two
cases of the double:--

"A few years ago I had a shop on the High Street of Dundee--one door and
one window, a cellar underneath, the entrance to which was at one corner
of the shop. There was no way of getting in or out of the cellar but by
that stair in the corner. It was lighted from the street by glass, but
to protect that there was an iron grating, which was fixed down. Well, I
had an old man, a servant, named Robert Chester. I sent him a message
one forenoon about 12 o'clock; he was in no hurry returning. I remarked
to my daughter, who was a book-keeper, whose desk was just by the
trap-door, that he was stopping long. Just as I spoke he passed the
window, came in at the door, carrying a large dish under his arm, went
right past me, past my daughter, who looked at him, and went down into
the cellar. After a few minutes, as I heard no noise, I wondered what he
could be about, and went down to see. There was no Robert there. I
cannot tell what my sensations were when I realized this; there was no
possibility of his getting out, and we both of us saw and heard him go
down. Well, in about twenty minutes he re-passed the window, crossed the
floor, and went downstairs, exactly as he had the first time. There was
no hallucination on our part. My daughter is a clever, highly-gifted
woman; I am seventy-eight years of age, and have seen a great deal of
the world, a great reader, etc., etc., and not easily deceived or apt to
be led away by fancy, and I can declare that his first appearance to us
was a reality as much as the second; We concluded, and so did all his
relations, that it portended his death, but he is still alive, over
eighty years of age. I give this just as it occurred, without any
varnish or exaggeration whatever. The following narrative I firmly
believe, as I knew the parties well, and that every means were used to
prove its truthfulness.

"Mr. Alexander Drummond was a painter, who had a big business and a
large staff of men. His clerk was Walter Souter, his brother-in-law,
whose business it was to be at the shop (in Northgate, Dundee) sharp at
six o'clock in the morning, to take an account of where the men were
going, quantity of material, etc. In this he was assisted by Miss
Drummond. One morning he did not turn up at the hour, but at twenty past
six he came in at the door and appeared very much excited; but instead
of stepping to the desk, where Mr. and Miss Drummond were awaiting him,
he went right through the front shop and out at a side door. This in
sight of Mr. and Miss D----, and also in sight of a whole squad of
workmen. Well, exactly in another twenty minutes he came in, also very
much excited, and explained that it was twenty minutes past six when he
awakened, and that he had run all the way from his house (he lived a
mile from the place of business). He was a very exemplary, punctual man,
and when Mr. Drummond asked him where he went to when he came first, he
was dumbfounded, and could not comprehend what was meant. To test his
truthfulness, Mr. D---- went out to his wife that afternoon, when she
told him the same story; that it was twenty past six o'clock when he
awoke, and that he was very much excited about it, as it was the first
time he had slept in. This story I believe as firmly as in my own case,
as it was much talked about at the time, and I have just told it as it
was told to me by all the parties. Of course I am a total stranger to
you, and you may require to know something about me before believing my
somewhat singular stories. I am well known about here, have filled many
offices in Dundee, and have been twenty-five years a police
commissioner, and five years a magistrate in this place, am very well
known to the Right Honourable C. Ritchie, and also to our county member,
Mr. Barclay. If this little story throws any light upon our wondrous
being I shall be glad."

_A Manchester Parallel._

The following narrative, supplied by Mr. R. P. Roberts, 10, Exchange
Street, Manchester, appears in the "Proceedings of the Psychical
Research Society." It is a fitting pendant to Mr. Kidd's story:--

"The shop stood at the corner of Castle Street and Rating Row,
Beaumaris, and I lived in the latter street. One day I went home to
dinner at the usual hour. When I had partly finished I looked at the
clock. To my astonishment it appeared that the time by the clock was
12.30. I gave an unusual start. I certainly thought that it was most
extraordinary. I had only half-finished my dinner, and it was time for
me to be at the shop. I felt dubious, so in a few seconds had another
look, when to my agreeable surprise I found that I had been mistaken. It
was only just turned 12.15. I could never explain how it was I made the
mistake. The error gave me such a shock for a few minutes as if
something had happened, and I had to make an effort to shake off the
sensation. I finished my dinner, and returned to business at 12.30. On
entering the shop I was accosted by Mrs. Owen, my employer's wife, who
used to assist in the business. She asked me rather sternly where I had
been since my return from dinner. I replied that I had come straight
from dinner. A long discussion followed, which brought out the following
facts. About a quarter of an hour previous to my actual entering the
shop (_i.e._ about 12.15), I was seen by Mr. and Mrs. Owen and a
well-known customer, Mrs. Jones, to walk into the shop, go behind the
counter, and place my hat upon the peg. As I was going behind the
counter, Mrs. Owen remarked, with the intention that I should hear,
'that I had arrived now that I was not wanted.' This remark was prompted
by the fact that a few minutes previous a customer was in the shop in
want of an article which belonged to the stock under my charge, and
which could not be found in my absence. As soon as this customer left I
was seen to enter the shop. It was observed by Mr. and Mrs. Owen and
Mrs. Jones that I did not appear to notice the remark made. In fact, I
looked quite absent-minded and vague. Immediately after putting my hat
on the peg I returned to the same spot, put my hat on again, and walked
out of the shop, still looking in a mysterious manner, which induced one
of the parties, I think Mrs. Owen, to say that my behaviour was very
odd, and she wondered where I was off to.

"I, of course, contradicted these statements, and endeavoured to prove
that I could not have eaten my dinner and returned in a quarter of an
hour. This, however, availed nothing, and during our discussion the
above-mentioned Mrs. Jones came into the shop again, and was appealed to
at once by Mr. and Mrs. Owen. She corroborated every word of their
account, and added that she saw me coming down Rating Row when within a
few yards of the shop; that she was only a step or two behind me, and
entered the shop in time to hear Mrs. Owen's remarks about my coming too
late. These three persons gave their statement of the affair quite
independently of each other. There was no other person near my age in
the Owens' establishment, and there could be no reasonable doubt that my
form had been seen by them and by Mrs. Jones. They would not believe my
story until my aunt, who had dined with me, said positively that I had
not left the table before my time was up. You will, no doubt, notice the
coincidence. At the moment when I felt, with a startling sensation, that
I ought to be at the shop, and when Mr. and Mrs. Owen were extremely
anxious that I should be there, I appeared to them looking, as they
said, 'as if in a dream or in a state of somnambulism.'" ("Proceedings
of the Psychical Research Society," Vol. I. p. 135-6.)

_A Very Visible Double._

A correspondent, writing from a Yorkshire village, sends me the
following account of an apparition of a Thought Body in circumstances
when there was nothing more serious than a yearning desire on the part
of a person whose phantasm appeared to occupy his old bed. My
correspondent, Mr. J. G. ----, says that he took it down from the lips
of one of the most truthful men he ever knew, and a sensible person to
boot. This person is still living, and I am told he has confirmed Mr.
G----'s story, which is as follows:--

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