Place withheld · 1870-09-01 · from the PHANTASMS archive
On September 28th, 1870, I arrived in New York from Boston about 7 o'clock a.m., having with me a valise and umbrella. I went to Dr. P.'s house on Fourth Avenue, rang the bell, and Dr. P. came to the door, when the following conversation took place : — Blake : ' Good morning. Can you accommodate me with a room ? ' Dr. P. : ' Yes, but why didn't you come in last evening V B. : ' Because I was in Boston last evening.' P. : ' Why you called here last evening ! ' B. : ' That's impossible, for I have just arrived on the boat this morning.' P. ; * I certainly saw you here last evening. You asked for a room. I asked you to walk in ; you turned and went away. I thought it strange, and that you must have misunderstood me. I think my wife saw you too.' Turning to his wife : ' Did you see Mr. B. last evening 1 ' Mrs. P. : ' Yes, he was standing at the door with a valise in one hand and umbrella in the other ; then turned and went away. I saw him as I passed through the hall.' ^ B. : ' It's a mistake, or my double, for you can see by my diary that I was in Boston yesterday, and the business I attended to.' I left my baggage in the room and went down town, returning in the evening. Dr. P. called me into the parlour, where I met an acquaintance. Dr. C. Dr. P. immediately said, ' Another witness on our side. Dr. C. saw you down town last evening.' ' Yes,' said Dr. C, ' I saw you walking along Broadway. You seemed to be in a hurry, and I was in a hurry to catch the ferry-boat ; I bowed to you, and you returned it, and hurried on. You had a valise in your right hand and umbrella in your left hand, and had on a high silk hat, while I have seen you before in a felt hat, low crowned.' We all concluded it was my double, as at about the hour they saw me, 6 p.m., I was resting quietly aboard the boat before she left, and remembered thinking where I should take a room after getting to New York in the morning ; but I did not remember the particulars related by Dr. and Mrs. P., or Dr. C. I think I fell into a doze, or short sleep, while resting, as has been the case several other times when my double has been seen at a distance from where my body was.
In the year 1870 I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, and had an occasional correspondence with Miss S., an American, then residing in Europe. I received a letter from her, dated …
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
I was so impressed by the account on p. 105, that I determined to put the matter to an experiment. Retiring at 10.45, I determined to appear, if possible, to [a friend], and accordingly I se…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
I do not recall the first or second dream but in the third dream I appeared on my bed and could not move. I felt someone enter the room and thought to myself good thoughts so nothing bad wou…
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.
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