Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death Part 38

_July 9th, 1884._

I have never had another dream similar to the one related in the letter. I have at times had dreams that were vivid, or from some cause impressed themselves upon my mind for a time, such as any one would be likely to have. I cannot call to mind, though, any of special importance, or with any bearing upon the dream in question.

I did not mention the dream to any one before receiving the letter confirming it. I live in rather a retired place in the country, and if I saw any one during that time to whom I would care to relate the dream, it did not occur to me to do so.

You ask me how my wife knew of the circ.u.mstances of her brother's death. She was visiting her relatives in Va. at the time, and was present when her brother died.

The following account is from Dr. Bruce's sister-in-law, Mrs.

Stubbing:--

_March 28th, 1885._

Whilst in Kentucky on a visit in the year 1883, I had a dream, in which I saw two persons--one with his throat cut. I could not tell who it was, though I knew it was somebody that I knew, and as soon as I heard of my brother's death, I said at once that I knew it was he that I had seen murdered in my dream; and though I did not hear how my brother died, I told my cousin, whom I was staying with, that I knew he had been murdered. This dream took place on Thursday or Friday night, I do not remember which. I saw the exact spot where he was murdered, and just as it happened.

ANNIE S. STUBBING.

The Thursday and Friday night mentioned in this account are December 26th and 27th [27th and 28th], 1883. It was upon the Thursday night my dream occurred.

WALTER BRUCE.

In reply to questions, Mrs. Stubbing says:--

Yes, I saw one man cut the other. The wound was told to me to be just like what I had seen in my dream. I received a telegram announcing the death of my brother on Sat.u.r.day morning. No, I never had any such dream as that before.

IV. E. I quote the following case from _Phantasms of the Living_, vol.

i. p. 425. The account was written by Mrs. T---- in 1883.

On November 18th, 1863, I was living near Adelaide, and not long recovered from a severe illness at the birth of an infant, who was then five months old. My husband had also suffered from neuralgia, and had gone to stay with friends at the seaside for the benefit of bathing. One night during his absence the child woke me about midnight; having hushed him off to sleep, I said, "Now, sir, I hope you will let me rest!" I lay down, and instantly became conscious of two figures standing at the door of my room. One, M. N. (these are not the real initials), whom I recognised at once, was that of a former lover, whose misconduct and neglect had compelled me to renounce him. Of this I am sure, that if ever I saw him in my life, it was then. I was not in the least frightened; but said to myself, as it were, "You never used to wear that kind of waistcoat." The door close to which he stood was in a deep recess close to the fireplace, for there was no grate; we burnt logs only. In that recess stood a man in a tweed suit. I saw the whole figure distinctly, but not the face, and for this reason: on the edge of the mantelshelf always stood a morocco leather medicine chest, which concealed the face from me. (On this being stated to our friends, the Singletons, they asked to go into the room and judge for themselves. They expressed themselves satisfied that would be the case to any one on the bed where I was.) I had an impression that this other was a cousin of M. N.'s, who had been the means of leading him astray while in the North of England. I never saw him in my life; he died in India.

M. N. was in deep mourning; he had a look of unutterable sorrow upon his face, and was deadly pale. He never opened his lips, but I read his heart as if it were an open book, and it said, "My father is dead, and I have come into his property." I answered, "How much you have grown like your father!" Then in a moment, _without appearing to walk_, he stood at the foot of the child's cot, and I saw _distinctly_ the blueness of his eyes as he gazed on my boy, and then raised them to Heaven as if in prayer.

All vanished. I looked round and remarked a trivial circ.u.mstance, viz., that the bra.s.s handles of my chest of drawers had been rubbed very bright. Not till then was I conscious of having seen a spirit, but a feeling of awe (not fear) came over me, and I prayed to be kept from harm, although there was no reason to dread it. I slept tranquilly, and in the morning I went across to the parsonage and told the clergyman's wife what I had seen. She, of course, thought it was merely a dream. But no--if it were a dream should I not have seen him _as I had known him_, a young man of twenty-two, without beard or whiskers? But there was all the difference that sixteen years would make in a man's aspect.

On Sat.u.r.day my husband returned, and my brother having ridden out to see us on Sunday afternoon, I told them both my vision as we sat together on the verandah. They treated it so lightly that I determined to write it down in my diary and see if the news were verified. And from that diary I am now quoting. Also I mentioned it to at least twelve or fourteen other people, and bid them await the result.

And surely enough, at the end of several weeks, my sister-in-law wrote that M. N.'s father died at C---- Common on November 18th, 1863, which exactly tallied with the date of the vision. He left 45,000 to be divided between his son and daughter, but the son has never been found.

Many people in Adelaide heard the story before the confirmation came, and I wrote and told M. N.'s mother. She was much distressed about it, fearing he was unhappy. She is now dead. My husband was profoundly struck when he saw my diary corresponding _exactly_ to the news in the letter I had that moment received in his presence.

Gurney adds the following note:--

Mr. T. has confirmed to us the accuracy of this narrative, and Mrs.

T. has shown to one of us a memorandum of the appearance of two figures, under date November 18th, in her diary of the year 1863, and a newspaper obituary confirms this as the date of the death. We learn from a gentleman who is a near relative of M. N.'s, that M.

N., though long lost sight of, was afterwards heard of, and outlived his father.

I should not now take it for granted (as we did at the time when _Phantasms of the Living_ was compiled) that the agent here "can apparently only have been the dying man." I think it possible, in the light of our now somewhat fuller knowledge, that M. N.'s spirit was aware of his father's death,--even though possibly M. N.'s supraliminal self may not have heard of it;--so that the invading presence in this case may have been the discarded lover himself,--dreaming on his own account at a distance from Mrs. T. The second figure I regard as having been an object in M. N.'s dream;--symbolical of his own alienation from Mrs. T. All this sounds fanciful; but I may remark here (as often elsewhere), that I think that we gain little by attempting to enforce our own ideas of simplicity upon narratives of this bizarre type.

IV. F. From _Proceedings_ S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 341.

Communicated by Fraulein Schneller, sister-in-law of the percipient, and known to F. W. H. M., January 1890.

DOBER UND PAUSE, SCHLESIEN, _December 12th, 1889_.

About a year ago there died in a neighbouring village a brewer called Wunscher, with whom I stood in friendly relations. His death ensued after a short illness, and as I seldom had an opportunity of visiting him, I knew nothing of his illness nor of his death. On the day of his death I went to bed at nine o'clock, tired with the labours which my calling as a farmer demands of me. Here I must observe that my diet is of a frugal kind; beer and wine are rare things in my house, and water, as usual, had been my drink that night. Being of a very healthy const.i.tution, I fell asleep as soon as I lay down. In my dream I heard the deceased call out with a loud voice, "Boy, make haste and give me my boots." This awoke me, and I noticed that, for the sake of our child, my wife had left the light burning. I pondered with pleasure over my dream, thinking in my mind how Wunscher, who was a good-natured, humorous man, would laugh when I told him of this dream. Still thinking on it, I hear Wunscher's voice scolding outside, just under my window. I sit up in my bed at once and listen, but cannot understand his words. What can the brewer want? I thought, and I know for certain that I was much vexed with him, that he should make a disturbance in the night, as I felt convinced that his affairs might surely have waited till the morrow. Suddenly he comes into the room from behind the linen press, steps with long strides past the bed of my wife and the child's bed; wildly gesticulating with his arms all the time, as his habit was, he called out, "What do you say to this, Herr Oberamtmann? This afternoon at five o'clock I have died."

Startled by this information, I exclaim, "Oh, that is not true!" He replied: "Truly, as I tell you; and, what do you think? They want to bury me already on Tuesday afternoon at two o'clock,"

accentuating his a.s.sertions all the while by his gesticulations.

During this long speech of my visitor I examined myself as to whether I was really awake and not dreaming.

I asked myself: Is this a hallucination? Is my mind in full possession of its faculties? Yes, there is the light, there the jug, this is the mirror, and this the brewer; and I came to the conclusion: I am awake. Then the thought occurred to me, What will my wife think if she awakes and sees the brewer in our bedroom? In this fear of her waking up I turn round to my wife, and to my great relief I see from her face, which is turned towards me, that she is still asleep; but she looks very pale. I say to the brewer, "Herr Wunscher, we will speak softly, so that my wife may not wake up, it would be very disagreeable to her to find you here." To which Wunscher answered in a lower and calmer tone: "Don't be afraid, I will do no harm to your wife." Things do happen indeed for which we find no explanation--I thought to myself, and said to Wunscher: "If this be true, that you have died, I am sincerely sorry for it; I will look after your children." Wunscher stepped towards me, stretched out his arms and moved his lips as though he would embrace me; therefore I said in a threatening tone, and looking steadfastly at him with a frowning brow: "Don't come so near, it is disagreeable to me," and lifted my right arm to ward him off, but before my arm reached him the apparition had vanished. My first look was to my wife to see if she were still asleep. She was. I got up and looked at my watch, it was seven minutes past twelve. My wife woke up and asked me: "To whom did you speak so loud just now?" "Have you understood anything?" I said. "No," she answered, and went to sleep again.

I impart this experience to the Society for Psychical Research, in the belief that it may serve as a new proof for the real existence of telepathy. I must further remark that the brewer _had_ died that afternoon at five o'clock, and was buried on the following Tuesday at two.--With great respect,

KARL DIGNOWTTY (Landed Proprietor).

The usual time for burial in Germany, adds Fraulein Schneller, is three days after death. This time may be prolonged, however, on application.

There are no special _hours_ fixed.

In conversation Fraulein S. described her brother-in-law as a man of strong practical sense and of extremely active habits.

We have received the "Sterbeurkunde" from the "Standesbeamte"

Siegismund, Kreis Sagan, certifying that Karl Wunscher died Sat.u.r.day, September 15th, 1888, at 4.30 P.M., and was buried Tuesday, September 18th, 1888, at 2 P.M.

Herr Dignowity writes again, January 18th, 1890:--

Frau Wunscher told me that the time of the burial was settled in the death-room immediately after Wunscher's death, because relations at a distance had to be summoned by telegram. Wunscher had suffered from inflammation of the lungs, which ended in spasm of the heart. During his illness his thoughts had been much occupied with me, and he often wondered what I should say if I knew how ill he was.

Finally, Frau Dignowity (born Schneller) writes from Pause, January 18th, 1890:--

I confirm that my husband told me on the morning of September 16th, 1888, that the brewer Wunscher had given him intimation of his death.

APPENDICES

TO

CHAPTER V

V.A.[219] The princ.i.p.al inorganic objects alleged to have elicited novel sensations are running water, metals, crystals and magnets;--including under this last heading the magnetism of the earth, as claimed to be felt differently by sleepers according as they lie in the north-south or in the east-west positions.

(1) The faculty of finding _running water_ has the interest of being the first subliminal faculty which has been so habitually utilised for public ends as to form for its possessors a recognised and lucrative occupation.