I have already given a case (No. 127) where two vivid dreams of a quite unexpected death were dreamt by persons who were in the same house, but not in the same room. The following is a somewhat similar instance, but only one of the experiences was a dream. Mrs. Bettany, of 2, Ecking-ton Villas, Ashbourne Grove, Dulwich (the narrator of case 20), writes: -

"June, 1885.

(309) "On the evening of, I think, March 23rd, 1883, I was seized with an unaccountable anxiety about a neighbour, whose name I just knew, but with whom I was not on visiting terms. She was a lady who appeared to be in very good health. I tried to shake off the feeling, but I could not, and after a sleepless night, in which I constantly thought of her as dying, I decided to send a servant to the house to ask if all were well. The answer I received was, ' Mrs. J. died last night'.

"Her daughter afterwards told me that the mother had startled her by saying,' Mrs. Bettany knows I shall die'.

"I had never felt an interest in the lady before that memorable night. After the death, the family left the neighbourhood, and I have not seen any of them since. "JEANIE Gwynne Bettany".

We find from the Register of Deaths that Mrs. J. died on March 23, 1883.

The following is the evidence of the servant who was sent to inquire: -

" January, 1886. "I remember Mrs. Bettany sending me to inquire if all were well at Mrs. J.'s. The answer they gave me was that Mrs. J. was dead. Mrs. Bettany sent me to inquire, because she had a presentiment that Mrs. J. was dead or dying".

Mrs. Bettany adds: -

"My cook, to whom I had not mentioned my presentiment, remarked to me on the same morning: ' I have had such a horrible dream about Mrs. J., I think she must be going to die.' She distinctly remembers that some one (she does not know who, and I think never did) told her in her dream that Mrs. J. was dead".

The following is the first-hand evidence to the dream: -

"January nth, 1886. "I remember that some one in my dream said ' Mrs. J. is dead.' I do not remember the rest of the dream, but I know it was horrible. I told Mrs. Bettany at the time, and she then told me about her presentiment about Mrs. J. "M. Went".

[M. Went has occasionally dreamt of the deaths of people she knows, without any correspondence].

This case would seem to have been in some way " reciprocal "; and it is unfortunate that we cannot obtain further details of the dying woman's impression.

[No. 310, a case of a name being heard by two percipients in different rooms at the time of a death at a distant place, is omitted. - Ed].

The following case is part of a record of some singular hypnotic experiences. Mrs. John Evens, of Oldbank, Enniskillen, narrates as follows: -

"December 4th, 1885.

(311) "With regard to the apparition or optical illusion, I have a perfect and clear remembrance.' It occurred after the experience related [i.e., after a cataleptic fit produced under hypnotic influence]. The operator had left me with an earnest request to my husband to send for, or fetch him, should anything seem to require it.

"I was wide awake, and enjoying the freedom from pain; my room being carefully darkened. The operator had, while with me, been seated on a chair midway between my bed and a chest of drawers - about three feet from each. I was thinking very gratefully of the relief I had experienced, when I noticed a bluish white light round the chair. It seemed to be flickering and darting in a large oval, but gradually concentrated on a figure seated on the chair.1 The appearance did not startle me in the least; my first thought was, ' It is Mr. T.,' a young officer with whom we were very intimate, and who had been in the house that evening. But the expression of the mouth struck me then, and I thought 'Can it be Mr. D.? ' - a dear friend who had died some little time before. All this time the face seemed to be changing, and, as it were, settling. Suddenly it flashed into my mind ' It is Mr. B.' (the father of the operator). I did not know this gentleman at all, except from having seen his photograph, but had no doubt on the subject. (Curiously enough his mouth and that of Mr. D.'s were singularly alike in expression.) The figure sat in a kind of dim halo.

I felt no surprise; nor did I speak to it, but thought,' Oh, you have come to find P. (the son); he has been here all the evening, but has gone home now.' As I thought this the halo gradually diffused itself, as it had before become concentrated, and the figure vanished. Besides the distinctness of feature, a movement, of crossing and uncrossing the knees two or three times, struck me.

1 As to the oval, see the remarks on case 220; as to the gradual appearance and gradual disappearance, see Chap. xii., §§ 2 and 3, also p. 47, note, and p. 432.

"That same night, and it must have been nearly at the same time, the friend who had magnetised me was awoke by hearing his name called twice. His impression was that I needed his aid, and he was prepared to come (he was living a mile off), if he heard the call repeated. But it was not. The next day, when I saw him, without telling him any of this, I asked,' Has your father any noticeable habit or trick of movement?' At first he said 'No,' and then, 'unless you would describe as such a way he has of frequently crossing and uncrossing his knees. He has varicose veins, and is restless at times! '

"This was the whole matter. The father, who dislikes such subjects, would never say whether he had dreamed or been thinking intently of his son; but probably it was so. "Agnes Evens".

In a letter dated 18th December, 1885, Mrs. Evens writes that she thinks the occurrence took place in September or October, 1881. She has never experienced any other visual hallucination.

In answer to inquiries, she adds: -

(1) "I cannot be sure as to the time at which I saw the appearance, but, putting circumstances together, I should think between 12 and 1 o'clock - nearer the latter hour.

(2) " I am perfectly certain that I uttered no sound; the phantom's disappearance seemed to answer to the thought that passed through my mind,' You want Preston; he has been been here all the evening, but went back to Fort Tourgis some time since'.

(3) "I had not any wish for his presence. I was lying in quiet enjoyment of the relief from agonising pain and quivering nerves, in which condition one has no active line of thought. I very likely thought about him, with a lazy kind of gratitude to him as the author of the relief I was experiencing".

Captain Battersby, R.A., F.R.A.S., of Ordnance House, Enniskillen, son-in-law of Mrs. Evens, writes: -

"December 21st, 1885.

"I had mesmerised Mrs. E. for several months, for severe neuralgia, with the view of affording her natural sleep. One night she had been in the mesmeric trance, and had been awoke by me, and I had returned to barracks - situated about half a mile from her house - leaving her in her room. I went to bed, and to sleep, and was awakened with a start by hearing my name called very distinctly. I sat up in bed, and looked for the caller, but saw no one. It was too dark to look at my watch, so that I cannot say what the time may have been. It occurred to me at the time that Mrs. E. might want me for something. I did not recognise the voice, and indeed had no chance of doing so, as it did not call again. In the morning I went to see Mrs. E., in order to find out whether she had had any unusual experience. She asked me if anything had happened to me the night before. I said ' Yes,' and asked her why she put the question. She said, ' Has your father a habit of moving one leg over the other, now and then, in a restless way? ' This was the case. She then said, about 1 a.m. she had been roused from sleep, and saw a phosphorescent appearance on the chair near her bed, which resolved itself into a human figure, recognised by her as my father from a photograph in my possession.

It did not speak, but seemed to ask her mentally, ' Where is Preston? * To which she responded, also mentally, 'He was here, but is gone home'; whereon the figure disappeared. I was somewhat alarmed at the occurrence, and wrote to ask if my father was well. He was so; and did not remember having any dream of me on that night. Mrs. E. particularly remarked his habit of crossing first one leg and then the other, of which I had not previously told her.

"T. Preston Battersby".

In answer to inquiries, Captain Battersby says: -

"I beg to say that at no time, except on the occasion referred to by me in my previous letter, have I woke from sleep with the impression of having been called. In fact this was the only occasion in my life in which I heard or saw anything unusual".

The "collective " character of these two experiences is clearly very doubtful; they may not have been due to any agency on the part of Captain Battersby's father, or connected with each other. But considering that the accidental coincidence of the two unique experiences would be most improbable, and that a hypnotic rapport probably existed between Captain Battersby and his patient, it is a reasonable supposition that his mind was either the source or the channel of a telepathic communication to hers.

[The next two cases, 312 and 313, are omitted as remote. In No. 312 an apparition of a friend who had lately stayed in the house was, on the night of her unexpected death, seen on the staircase by one percipient, while a similar figure was seen independently about the same time by a young maid-servant in another room. In No. 313 a mother and son in different rooms of the same house had, on the same night, one an impression of horror and the other a hallucination both connected with a dying woman who had recently lived in the house. - Ed].