664. The decedent in the next case was a man of some note, who would, I think, have been anxious to manifest his continued existence if he found that possible.

From Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 265. I quote Gurney's prefatory remarks on the case.

We received the next account through the kindness of Mr. J. Bradley Dyne, of 2 New Square, Lincoln's Inn. The incident took place in his house at High-gate, and the narrator is his sister-in-law. The case brings us again to the very verge of actual sensory hallucination. It seems also to be an extreme instance of a deferred or latent telepathic impression - the death of the agent (allowing for longitude) having preceded the percipient's experience by about ten hours. This feature does not seem specially surprising, when we remember how actual impressions of sense may pass unnoted, and yet emerge into consciousness hours afterwards, either in dream or in some moment of silence and recueille-tnent.

The following is the percipient's account: -

1883.

I had known Mr.------as a medical man, under whose treatment I had been for some years, and at whose hands I had experienced great kindness. He had ceased to attend me for considerably more than a year at the time of his death. I was aware that he had given up practice, but beyond that I knew nothing of his proceedings, or of the state of his health. At the time I last saw him he appeared particularly well, and even made some remark himself as to the amount of vigour and work left in him.

On Thursday, the 16th day of December 1875, I had been for some little time on a visit at my brother-in-law's and sister's house near London. I was in good health, but from the morning and throughout the day I felt unaccountably depressed and out of spirits, which I attributed to the gloominess of the weather. A short time after lunch, about two o'clock, I thought I would go up to the nursery to amuse myself with the children, and try to recover my spirits. The attempt failed, and I returned to the dining-room, where I sat by myself, my sister being engaged elsewhere. The thought of Mr.-----came into my mind, and suddenly, with my eyes open, as I believe, for I was not feeling sleepy, I seemed to be in a room in which a man was lying dead in a small bed. I recognised the face at once as that of Mr.------, and felt no doubt that he was dead, and not asleep only. The room appeared to be bare and without carpet or furniture. I cannot say how long the appearance lasted. I did not mention the appearance to my sister or brother-in-law at the time. I tried to argue with myself that there could be nothing in what I had seen, chiefly on the ground that from what I knew of Mr.------'s circumstances it was most improbable that, if dead, he would be in a room in so bare and unfurnished a state.

Two days afterwards, on December 18th, I left my sister's house for home. About a week after my arrival, another of my sisters read out of the daily papers the announcement of Mr.------'s death, which had taken place abroad, and on December 16th, the day on which I had seen the appearance.

I have since been informed that Mr. -----had died in a small village hospital in a warm foreign climate, having been suddenly attacked with illness whilst on his travels.

In answer to an inquiry, Mr. Dyne says: -

My sister-in-law tells me that the occasion which I mentioned to you is absolutely the only one on which she has seen any vision of the kind.

We learnt from Mr.------'s widow that the room in which he died fairly corresponded with the above description, and that the hour of death was 3.30 a.m.

Now this incident begins with what looks like a telepathic impression of calamity of familiar type, coinciding with, or following closely upon, the death of a friend. But then this depression suddenly develops, as it were, into awaking vision of the material scene - an absolutely unexpected one - in which that friend's dead body is lying. Now what is to draw the percipient's mind to this scene, unless it be indeed the agency of the departed spirit ? We shall find later on that we have indications that departed spirits may for a time be cognisant of the position or aspect of their bodies, and may impress this knowledge upon survivors. (See also the case of Mrs. Storie in 427.) May not the picture of the cottage-hospital have been impressed by the action of the spirit which had quitted the corpse there lying?

Such problems cannot at present be solved; nor, as I have said, can any one class of these psychical interchanges be clearly demarcated from other classes. Recognising this, we must explain the central characteristics of each group in turn, and show at what points that group appears to merge into the next.