Place withheld · 1884-04-01 · from the PHANTASMS archive
An account
She informed me that she did not take much interest in the subject of my inquiries. She was quite sure of the exact correspondence of the statements in her dream — ' caught cold ' — ' month ago ' — ' neglected it ' — ' settled on chest ' — ' rapid consumption ' — with the statements of her brother ; and her sister also noted the correspondence. She knew the young man was poor, so that the ' bare cheerless ' room would be naturally suggested ; but she had never heard of him as consumptive : she could have had no other image of him from memory except that of a strong, healthy man. She was not interested in the young man, and believes that she had not thought of him between the Christmas when she saw him and the time of the dream and death. It was not remarkable that she told the dream, as she had rather a habit of dreaming and of telling curious dreams — not from any belief, but merely as curious. What was unusual was that she was reluctant to tell it, and only told it to her sister. Supposing this dream to have been telepathically originated, it is difficult to know how much of its content was supplied to, and how much by, the dreamer. Given the idea of consumption, the development is, perhaps, not too detailed to have been independently imagined. The following very similar case is from Mrs. Jarratt, of 96, Dalberg Road, S.W. I need hardly say that the mere recollection of a childish dream of a good many years back would not have been admitted as evidence : the evidence is the mother's attestation that the dream was described before the news of the death arrived. December 10th, 1883. (120) While I was a little girl, about 10 years old, an old friend of ours, particularly dear to me, a Danish gentleman (formerly tutor to the young Princes of Denmark, and afterwards teacher of languages in the High School, San Francisco), sought to improve his position by going to the city of Mexico. Some months after he left, I dreamed that I saw him sitting in my father's office, and immediately ran up to him, exclaiming, ' I'm so glad you've come back.' He put his hand up, as if to repulse me gently, and said gravely, ' You must not come near me. I am dying in Mexico of the sore throat, and I have come to tell your father.' I drew back, grieved and shocked, and woke. The next day I told everyone of my dream, and was well laughed at ; but my father had not heard for some time past of our friend, nor did he till, three weeks after, I overheard a gentleman say to him, ' Well, doctor, have you heard about your friend H V My father having replied in the negative, the gentleman continued, ' I was told he died at Mexico, three weeks ago, of sore throat.'
November 17th, 1883. I quite remember my sister dreaming as she relates above. It made quite an impression on both of us when my brother mentioned Mr. 's death. M. H. Murray. In answer to in…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
I saw myself dressed in weeds. — M. A. M. In answer to inquiries, she says that she dreams a great deal, but that her dreams are almost always of a pleasant nature. I never had any dream whi…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
Farnley, near Leeds. October 20th, 1883. I fully confirm this statement, as the only surviving daughter of the younger of the three brothers. The last time I saw my uncle William, shortly be…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
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This is a witness statement collected in the 1880s by Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers and Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research, and published in Phantasms of the Living (1886), the first large scientific collection of such testimony. Witnesses signed their statements and were often corroborated by others, whose statements appear as their own accounts. The book is in the public domain; the text is verbatim save for scanning artifacts, and the full volumes are at archive.org.