An open record of things people cannot explain

Place withheld · 1885-04-01 · from the PHANTASMS archive

An account

I have read this paper through, and the contents correctly describe what transpired. I was awake, when I saw the face. I have never experienced any similar occurrence. [The last sentence is in answer to the question whether she had experienced a hallucination of the senses on any other occasion.] We have verified in the Times obituary the fact that Z. died on April 28, 1885. Mr. Podmore has examined the clerk whom Mr. B. despatched to make inquiries of the widow on hearing of the death, — i.e., on the afternoon of April 28 — and who has since heard Mrs. B. narrate her experience. So far as he could recollect, Mrs. Z. told him that Z. died about 1.30 a.m., certainly at an early hour in the morning. He did not remember to have heard anything about the dying words, &c. The following is a borderland case of the ordinary type. The percipient, Emma Burger, has been for 6 years in the service of our friend and colleague, M. Ch. Richet, and has his most complete confidence. Mr. Richet writes : — Mars, 1886. (698) Emma Burger, agee de 24 ans, nee aMalsch, pres de Radstadt, avait ete fiancee a Paris avec M. Charles Br. Le mariage etait convenu. Emma B. partit le 1 aout a Usrel (Correze), chez Madame d'U., ou elle etait alors en service. La sante de M. Charles Br. etait bonne, ou du moins il avait toutes les apparences de la sant^. En tout cas le mariage ^tait decide, et Emma B. n'avait aucune inquietude sur I'etat de la sante de son fianc^. Quelques jours apres son arrivee a Usrel, le 7 ou 8 aout, Emma B. regut une lettre de Charles, lui apprenant que pour affaires de famille il quittait Paris, et allait passer quelques jours dans les Ardennes. Le 15 aout, jour de la fete de Sainte Yierge, Emma B., quoique n'^tant pas devote, se sentit prise d'une grande tristesse et pleura abondamment au pelerinage qui avait lieu alors a Usrel. Le soir de ce meme jour, 15 aout, E. couchait comme d'habitude dans un cabinet de toilette contigu a la chambre de Madame d'U. A cotd de son lit etait la petite porte d'un escalier de service, porte masquee par le rideau du lit, de sorte qu'une personne qui etait dans de lit devait se . IN THEIR PROPER PLACES. 697 lever et ecarter le rideau du bas du lit pour voir qui entrait par I'escalier.

 

Others who described something like this

1828-11-01

With regard to my mother seeing the Hon. John Yandeleur. She saw him a few minutes after his death. She was living at a house in Limerick, and he died at Kilrush. I heard the account from my

the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details

1886-01-01

The date of my brother's death was February 21st, and as far as I can remember I had the dream that evening, but it is so long since that as regards dates I do not like to be too certain. As

the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details

1886-01-01

I find the statements correct as far as my memory is concerned. W. R. Gibbes (M.R.C.S.E., &c.) In conversation, Mrs. Gibbes stated that her son's letters had contained no hint of his return,

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.