§ 7. The last case quoted might equally well serve as an example of the next and concluding group, the peculiarity of which is that the real person whom the phantasm represents is - unknown to the percipient - actually approaching. When these "arrival cases" were referred to above (p. 335), it was noted that the mere sense of returning home cannot be held to constitute an abnormality in the least degree parallel to death, or the other recognised conditions of spontaneous telepathy; and our first-hand specimens are in themselves too few for complete assurance that we have in them a genuine type of transfer. At the same time they find a parallel in the impression-cases quoted on p. 182; and taken in connection with the two preceding groups, they at any rate increase the probability that impressions from a normal agent may be occasionally capable of acting as the germ of a telepathic phantasm.

The first example is from Mr. James Carroll, who gave the account quoted on p. 195. The agent was the same twin-brother who was concerned in that former case.

"September, 1884.

(263) "In the autumn of 1877, while at Sholebrook Lodge, Towcester, Northamptonshire, one night, at a little after 10 o'clock, I remember I was about to move a lamp in my room to a position where I usually sat a little while before retiring to bed, when I suddenly saw a vision of my brother. It seemed to affect me like a mild shock of electricity. It surprised me so that I hesitated to carry out what I had intended, my eyes remaining fixed on the apparition of my brother. It gradually disappeared, leaving me wondering what it meant. I am positive no light or reflection deceived me. I had not been sleeping or rubbing my eyes. I was again in the act of moving my lamp when I heard taps along the window. I looked towards it - the window was on the ground-floor and heard a voice, my brother's, say, ' It's I; don't be frightened.' I let him in; he remarked,' How cool you are; I thought I should have frightened you'.

"The fact was, that the distinct vision of my brother had quite prepared me for his call. He found the window by accident, as he had never been in the house before; to use his own words, ' I thought it was your window, and that I should find you.' He had unexpectedly left London to pay me a visit, and when near the house lost his way, and found his way in the dark to the back of the place".

In reply to inquiries, Mr. Carroll says:-

"You are quite right in supposing the hallucination of my brother to be the only instance in my experience".

In another letter, Mr. Carroll says: -

"As to the apparition of my brother in Northamptonshire, at a place and window where he had never before been, - I think I said the room was very light indeed, the night very dark. Even had I looked out of the window I could not have seen him. With my head turned from the window, I distinctly saw his face. I was affected and surprised. It seemed like a slight shock of electricity. I had not recovered from the effects when the second surprise came, the reality - my brother. I did not mention the subject to him then, being rather flattered at his astonishment at my cool demeanour. The coolness was caused by the apparition first of him. The window my brother came to was at the back of the house. He found my window out only by accident, or, as he said, he thought it was my window".

[Mr. Carroll is a clear-headed and careful witness. He is quite positive as to this being his only experience of a hallucination. In conversation, he stated that there were no mirrors in the room, and that the figure was seen not in the direction of the window. He thinks that the interval between the hallucination and his brother's appearance was about a minute].

Here the gradual disappearance, if correctly remembered, is interesting as a feature which is occasionally met with in purely subjective hallucinations (Chapter XII (The Development Of Telepathic Hallucinations), §§ 2 and 10).1 [Three other arrival-cases - 264, 265, 266, two of them auditory - are omitted].

1 Compare cages 185, 194, 207, 263, 311, 331, 350; also the account in p. 283, note, where the expression "melted away" is used.