Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death Part 44

In conversation with Mr. F. G., now forty-three years of age, he says that there was a very special sympathy between his mother, sister, and himself.

When he saw the apparition he was seated at a small table, about two feet in diameter, and had his left elbow on the table. The scratch which he saw was on the right side of his sister's nose, about three fourths of an inch long, and was a somewhat ragged mark. His home at the time of the incident was in St. Louis. His mother died within two weeks after the incident. His sister's face was hardly a foot away from his own. The sun was s.h.i.+ning upon it through the open window. The figure disappeared like an instantaneous evaporation.

Mr. G. has had another experience, but of a somewhat different character. Last fall the impression persisted for some time of a lady friend of his, and he could not rid himself for some time of thoughts of her. He found afterwards that she died at the time of the curious persistence of his impression.

Mr. G. appears to be a first-cla.s.s witness.

R. HODGSON.

I have ranked this case _prima facie_ as a perception by the spirit of her mother's approaching death. That coincidence is too marked to be explained away: the son is brought home in time to see his mother once more by perhaps the only means which would have succeeded; and the mother herself is sustained by the knowledge that her daughter loves and awaits her. Mr. Podmore[226] has suggested, on the other hand, that the daughter's figure was a mere projection from the mother's mind: a conception which has scarcely any a.n.a.logy to support it; for the one ancient case of Wesermann's projection of a female figure to a distance (_Journal_ S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 217) remains, I think, the sole instance where an agent has generated a hallucinatory figure or group of figures which did not, at any rate, _include_ his own. I mean that he may spontaneously project a picture of himself as he is or dreams himself to be situated, perhaps with other figures round him, but not, so far as our evidence goes, the single figure of some one other than himself.

Whilst not a.s.suming that this rule can have no exceptions, I see no reason for supposing that it has been transgressed in the present case.

Nay, I think that the very fact that the figure was not that of the corpse with the dull mark on which the mother's regretful thoughts might dwell, but was that of the girl in health and happiness, with the symbolic _red_ mark worn simply as a test of ident.i.ty, goes far to show that it was not the _mother's_ mind from whence that image came. As to the spirit's own knowledge of the fate of the body after death, there are other cases which show, I think, that this specific form of _post-mortem_ perception is not unusual.

VII. C. From _Proceedings_ S.P.R., vol. x. pp. 380-82.

From Miss L. Dodson:--

_September 14th, 1891._

On June 5th, 1887, a Sunday evening,[227] between eleven and twelve at night, being awake, my name was called three times. I answered twice, thinking it was my uncle, "Come in, Uncle George, I am awake," but the third time I recognised the voice as that of my mother, who had been dead sixteen years. I said, "Mamma!" She then came round a screen near my bedside with two children in her arms, and placed them in my arms and put the bedclothes over them and said, "Lucy, promise me to take care of them, for their mother is just dead." I said, "Yes, mamma." She repeated, "_Promise_ me to take care of them." I replied, "Yes, I promise you"; and I added, "Oh, mamma, stay and speak to me, I am so wretched." She replied, "Not yet, my child," then she seemed to go round the screen again, and I remained, feeling the children to be still in my arms, and fell asleep. When I awoke there was nothing. Tuesday morning, June 7th, I received the news of my sister-in-law's death. She had given birth to a child three weeks before, which I did not know till after her death.

I was in bed, but not asleep, and the room was lighted by a gaslight in the street outside. I was out of health, and in anxiety about family troubles. My age was forty-two. I was quite alone. I mentioned the circ.u.mstance to my uncle the next morning. He thought I was sickening for brain fever. [I have had other experiences, but] only to the extent of having felt a hand laid on my head, and sometimes on my hands, at times of great trouble.

LUCY DODSON.

Mr. C. H. Cope, who sent the case, wrote in answer to our questions:--

BRUSSELS, _October 17th, 1891_.

I have received replies from Miss Dodson to your inquiries.

(1) "Yes [I was] perfectly awake [at the time]."

(2) "Was she in anxiety about her sister-in-law?" "None whatever; I did not know a second baby had been born; in fact, had not the remotest idea of my sister-in-law's illness."

(3) "Did she think at the time that the words about the children's mother having just died referred to her sister-in-law? Had she two children?" "No, I was at a total loss to imagine whose children they were."

(4) "I was living in Albany Street, Regent's Park, at the time. My sister-in-law, as I heard afterwards, was confined at St. Andre (near Bruges), and removed to Bruges three days prior to her death.

(_N.B._--She had two children including the new-born baby.)"

(5) "My late uncle only saw business connections, and having no relations or personal friends in London, save myself, would not have been likely to mention the occurrence to any one."

Mr. Cope also sent us a copy of the printed announcement of the death, which Miss Dodson had received. It was dated, "Bruges, June 7th, 1887,"

and gave the date of death as June 5th. He quotes from Miss Dodson's letter to him, enclosing it, as follows: "[My friend], Mrs. Grange, tells me she saw [my sister-in-law] a couple of hours prior to her death, which took place about nine o'clock on the evening of June 5th, and it was between eleven and twelve o'clock the same night my mother brought me the two little children."

Professor Sidgwick writes:--

_November 23rd, 1892._

I have just had an interesting conversation with Miss Dodson and her friend, Mrs. Grange.

Miss Dodson told me that she was not thinking of her brother or his wife at this time, as her mind was absorbed by certain other matters. But the brother was an object of special concern to her, as her mother on her deathbed, in 1871, had specially charged her--and she had promised--to take care of the other children, especially this brother, who was then five years old. He had married in April, 1885, and she had not seen him since, though she had heard of the birth of his first child, a little girl, in January, 1886; and she had never seen his wife nor heard of the birth of the second child.

She is as sure as she can be that she was awake at the time of the experience. She knew the time by a clock in the room and also a clock outside. She heard this latter strike twelve afterwards, and the apparition must have occurred after eleven, because lights were out in front of the public-house. The children seemed to be with her a long time; indeed, they seemed to be still with her when the clock struck twelve. The room was usually light enough to see things in--_e.g._ to get a gla.s.s of water, etc.--owing to the lamp in the street, but the distinctness with which the vision was seen is not explicable by the real light. The children were of ages corresponding to those of her sister-in-law's children, _i.e._ they seemed to be a little girl and a baby newly born; the s.e.x was not distinguished. She was not at all alarmed.

She heard from Mrs. Grange by letter, and afterwards orally from her brother, that her sister-in-law died between eight and nine the same night.

She never had any experience of the kind, or any hallucination at all before: but _since_ she has occasionally felt a hand on her head in trouble.

Mrs. Grange told me that she was with the sister-in-law about an hour and a half before her death. She left her about seven o'clock, without any particular alarm about her; though she was suffering from inflammation after childbirth, and Mrs. Grange did not quite like her look; still her state was not considered alarming by those who were attending on her. Then about 8.30 news came to Mrs. Grange in her own house that something had happened at the sister-in-law's. As it was only in the next street, Mrs. Grange put on her bonnet and went round to the house, and found she was dead.

She then wrote and told Miss Dodson.

VII. D. From _Proceedings_ S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 200-205.[228]

The first report of the case appeared in _The Herald_ (Dubuque, Iowa), February 11th, 1891, as follows:--

It will be remembered that on February 2nd, Michael Conley, a farmer living near Ionia, Chickasaw County, was found dead in an outhouse at the Jefferson house. He was carried to Coroner Hoffmann's morgue, where, after the inquest, his body was prepared for s.h.i.+pment to his late home. The old clothes which he wore were covered with filth from the place where he was found, and they were thrown outside the morgue on the ground.

His son came from Ionia, and took the corpse home. When he reached there, and one of the daughters was told that her father was dead, she fell into a swoon, in which she remained for several hours.

When at last she was brought from the swoon, she said, "Where are father's old clothes? He has just appeared to me dressed in a white s.h.i.+rt, black clothes, and felt [mis-reported for _satin_]

slippers, and told me that after leaving home he sewed a large roll of bills inside his grey s.h.i.+rt with a piece of my red dress, and the money is still there." In a short time she fell into another swoon, and when out of it demanded that somebody go to Dubuque and get the clothes. She was deathly sick, and is so yet.

The entire family considered it only a hallucination, but the physician advised them to get the clothes, as it might set her mind at rest. The son telephoned Coroner Hoffmann, asking if the clothes were still in his possession. He looked and found them in the backyard, although he had supposed they were thrown in the vault, as he had intended. He answered that he still had them, and on being told that the son would come to get them, they were wrapped in a bundle.

The young man arrived last Monday afternoon, and told Coroner Hoffmann what his sister had said. Mr. Hoffmann admitted that the lady had described the identical burial garb in which her father was clad, even to the slippers, although she never saw him after death, and none of the family had seen more than his face through the coffin lid. Curiosity being fully aroused, they took the grey s.h.i.+rt from the bundle, and within the bosom found a large roll of bills sewed with a piece of red cloth. The young man said his sister had a red dress exactly like it. The st.i.tches were large and irregular, and looked to be those of a man. The son wrapped up the garments and took them home with him yesterday morning, filled with wonder at the supernatural revelation made to his sister, who is at present lingering between life and death.

Dr. Hodgson communicated with the proprietors of _The Herald_, and both they and their reporter who had written the account stated that it was strictly accurate. The coroner, Mr. Hoffmann, wrote to Dr. Hodgson on March 18th, 1891, as follows:--

In regard to the statements in the Dubuque _Herald_, about February 19th, about the Conley matter is more than true by my investigation. I laughed and did not believe in the matter when I first heard of it, until I satisfied myself by investigating and seeing what I did.

M. M. HOFFMANN, _County Coroner_.

Further evidence was obtained through Mr. Amos Crum, pastor of a church at Dubuque. The following statement was made by Mr. Brown, whom Mr. Crum described as "an intelligent and reliable farmer, residing about one mile from the Conleys."

IONIA, _July 20th, 1891_.

Elizabeth Conley, the subject of so much comment in the various papers, was born in Chickasaw towns.h.i.+p, Chickasaw County, Iowa, in March, 1863. Her mother died the same year. Is of Irish parentage; brought up, and is, a Roman Catholic; has been keeping house for her father for ten years.

On the 1st day of February, 1891, her father went to Dubuque, Iowa, for medical treatment, and died on the 3rd of the same month very suddenly. His son was notified by telegraph the same day, and he and I started the next morning after the remains, which we found in charge of Coroner Hoffmann.

He had 9 dollars 75 cents, which he had taken from his pocket-book.

I think it was about two days after our return she had the dream or vision. She claimed her father had appeared to her, and told her there was a sum of money in an inside pocket of his unders.h.i.+rt. Her brother started for Dubuque a few days afterwards, and found the clothes as we had left them, and in the pocket referred to found 30 dollars in currency. These are the facts of the matter as near as I can give them.