Apparitions have been by humans throughout history. Skeptics claim that such apparitions are just hallucinations. But there are two reasons for rejecting such a theory. The first reason is that there are an unusually high fraction of apparition sightings in which a person sees an apparition of someone (typically someone the observer did not know was in danger), and then later finds out that this person died on the same day (or the same day and hour) as the apparition was seen. We would expect such cases to be extremely rare or nonexistent if apparitions are mere hallucinations, since all such cases would require a most unlikely coincidence. But the literature on apparitions shows that it is quite common for an apparition to appear to someone on the day (or both the day and hour) of the death of the person matching the apparition. See here and here and here and here for 100 such cases.

The second reason for rejecting claims that apparitions are mere hallucinations is the fact that an apparition is quite often seen or heard by more than one person at the same time. We should not expect any such cases under a theory of apparitions being hallucinations.

I will now review some examples of cases in which an apparition was seen or heard by more than one person.  A very early case is found in the 17th century book Miscellanies by John Aubrey.  On page 82 we are told that a week after his death, an apparition of Henry Jacob appeared to Dr. Jacob, and that the apparition was also seen by his cook and maid. 

Below are some cases from Volume 2 of the classic work on apparitions, “Phantasms of the Living,” which you can read here. I will use the case numbers given in the book.

Page 174, Case #310: A reverend Fagan, his cousin Christopher, and a Major Collis all heard the name “Fagan” called from a source they could not determine. Two of them said the voice was like the voice of Captain Clayton. The next morning a telegram arrived saying that Captain Clayton had died on the same day and hour as the voice was heard. (I won't count his case as one of my 17 cases, since it is auditory only.) 

Page 178, Case #312: Gorgiana Polson reported seeing a woman who she thought was “something unnatural” and exclaimed, “Oh, Caroline.” The woman was dressed in black silk “with a muslin 'cloud' over her head and shoulders.” At the same time, a “little nursery girl” was terrified of going into a room where she saw a similar strange figure, “in black, with white all over her head and shoulders.” Gorgiana later found that Caroline had died on the same day the apparition was seen.

Page 181, Case #314: A Mrs. Coote reported that she saw her sister-in-law Mrs. W. appear at her bedside. The same Mrs. W. reportedly appeared to Mrs. Coote's aunt, appearing as a “bright light from a dark corner of the bedroom,” who was recognized as Mrs. W. by the aunt. Also, according to Mrs. Coote, “this appearance was also made to my husband's half-sister.” It was soon found that Mrs. W. had died. According to Mrs. Coote “A comparison of dates...served to show the appearance occurred ...at the time of, or shortly thereafter, the death of the deceased.”

Page182, Case #315: A Mr. de Guerin reported that in 1854, he saw something that “appeared like a thin white fog....after a few minutes I plainly distinguished a figure which I recognized as that of my sister Fanny.” He said “the vision seemed to disappear gradually in the same manner as it came.” He later learned that “on the same day my sister died – almost suddenly.” de Guerin immediately mailed a description of what he had seen to another sister, Mrs. Elmslie, who lived far away; “but before it reached her, I had received a letter from her, giving me an almost similar description of what she had seen the same night, adding 'I am sure dear Fanny is gone.' ” She reported that the apparition disappeared.

Page 196-197, Case #317: Violet Montgomery and Sidney Montgomery reported that in 1875 they had seen a female figure that “never touched the ground at all, but floated calmly along.” Page 197 also mentions a Mr. W.S. Soutar, who claimed that he and his brother also saw a female figure that glided without any apparent movement of the feet.

Page 213, Case #330: A James Cowley said he “saw, with all the distinctness possible to visual power” an apparition of his late wife. At the same instant his two-year-old son said, “There's mother!”

Page 213, Case #331: Charles A.W. Lett said that six weeks after the death of Captain Towns, his wife and Miss Berthon reported seeing a half-apparition of Captain Towns, consisting of only his head and shoulders. According to Lett, several other people saw the apparition, identifying it as Captain Towns; and then the apparition “gradually faded away.”

Page 235, Case #345: A Mrs. Cox was told by a nephew that he had just seen his father (Mrs. Cox's brother), who was thought to be far away in Hong Kong. Mrs. Cox told the boy this was nonsense, but then saw the same apparition of her brother. She reported that the apparition called her name three times. She soon found out that her brother had died on the same day the apparition was seen.

Page 241, Case #349: In 1845 while at college Philip Weld died in a boating accident. The president of the college immediately set out to travel to the father of Philip to deliver the bad news. Arriving the next day, he was surprised to hear the father say that yesterday he and his daughter had recently seen Philip walking between two persons, one wearing a black robe. “Suddenly they all seemed to me to have vanished,” said the father. Later, the father saw a portrait that he identified as one of the men who he had seen with the apparition of his son. The portrait was of a saint who had died long ago.

Page 247, Case #351: In 1882 J. Bennett and her daughter saw a man whose health they were worried about: “He passed so near that we shrank aside to make way for him.” Later “we found, in fact, that he had died about a half hour before he appeared to us.”

Page 248-249, Case #352: At quarter to 7 on July 11, 1879, Samuel Falkinburg observed his son exclaim “Grandpa!” Samuel looked up toward the ceiling and “saw the face of my father as plainly as I ever saw him in my life.” Soon thereafter he found out that his father died on July 11, 1879, at quarter to 7.

Page 253, Case #354: A girl went to live far away from her beloved aunt who had raised her for most of her childhood. One day someone other than the girl said, “Oh look there! There's your aunt in bed with Caroline!” The girl was astonished to see her aunt lying on the bed. A short time later the aunt seemed to have disappeared. Later the girl found the aunt had died, and that her last words were a remark that she could die happy because she had seen the child.

Page 248-249, Case #352: At quarter to 7 on July 11, 1879, Samuel Falkinburg observed his son exclaim “Grandpa!” Samuel looked up toward the ceiling and “saw the face of my father as plainly as I ever saw him in my life.” Soon thereafter he found out that his father died on July 11, 1879, at quarter to 7. 

Page 604, Case 651: Benjamin Coleman was surprised to see at his bedside his son, who was believed to be far away at sea.  The figure (having a sailor's dress) vanished from Benjamin's sight. He then soon heard his servant William Ball say that William also had seen the son that day in sailor's dress.  The father later found that the son "had died that very day and hour, of dysentery, on board ship." 

Page 611, Case 658: Chatting in bed, Elizabeth and Henriette both saw a strange light, which they both said was beautiful.  Elizabeth then said it was little Mary Stanger, and that she was "floating away."  It was later learned that Mary Stanger had "died at the exact time" the two girls had seen the vision. 

On page 40-43 of his book Death and Its Mystery by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an astonishing case of an apparition seen by multiple observers. Unlike the other cases I have reported, this is an example of an apparition of a living person.  According to Flammarion's account, 13 girls saw an apparition of a school teacher named Emilie Sagee, right next to her physical form, so that there was "one beside the other." "They were exactly alike, and going through the same movements," according to Flammarion, who states, "All the young girls, without exception, had seen the second form, and agreed perfectly in their description of the phenomenon."   Later, according to his account, 42 pupils saw an apparition of Sagee in a school at the same time Sagee was also observed picking flowers in a garden -- as if there were two copies of Emilie Sagee. According to the pupils, the apparition "gradually vanished."  Flammarion reports, "The forty-two pupils described the phenomenon in the same way." Such an observation may possibly be evidence for the idea that each of us has an "astral body" different from our physical body.  The apparition observed may have been a rare sighting of such a thing appearing before death. 

Flammarion reports a similar case of an apparition of the living on page 49-50 of his book.  Two observers saw a Miss Jackson warming her hands before a fire. "Suddenly, before their very eyes, she disappeared," according to Flammarion.  Half an hour later, Miss Jackson entered the room and warmed her hands before the fire.

Apparitions have been by humans throughout history. Skeptics claim that such apparitions are just hallucinations. But there are two reasons for rejecting such a theory. The first reason is that there are very many apparition sightings in which a person sees an apparition of someone (typically someone the observer did not know was in danger), and then later finds out that this person died on the same day (or the same day and hour) as the apparition was seen. We would expect such cases to be extremely rare or nonexistent if apparitions are mere hallucinations, since all such cases would require a most unlikely coincidence. But the literature on apparitions shows that it is quite common for an apparition to appear to someone on the day (or day and hour) of the death of the person matching the apparition. See here and here and here and here for 100 such cases.

The second reason for rejecting claims that apparitions are mere hallucinations is the fact that an apparition is quite often seen or heard by more than one person at the same time. We should not expect any such cases under a theory of apparitions being hallucinations. In a previous post, I described 17 cases of an apparition seen by multiple observers. In this post I'll describe 17 additional such cases not mentioned in my previous post.  

First, I'll describe the appearance of an apparition without human form (almost all of the other cases will involve apparitions with a human form).  On page 28 of the fascinating book Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D. D. Home, which can be read here,  we read this account by the viscount Adare, who describes what he saw after experiencing "our beds vibrating strongly" and "raps on the furniture, doors, and all about the room":

We both saw in exactly the same spot, a perfectly white column, it can scarcely be called a figure, as the shape was indistinct. It moved from the dressing table toward Home's bed. Home said he saw a white object about the size of a child floating near the ceiling above his head. I saw it also, but it appeared to me to be in mid air, half way between the bed and the ceiling; it was floating about in a horizontal position; it was like a small white cloud without any well-defined shape...It then slowly floated to the foot of his bed and disappeared. 

Below are some cases from Volume 2 of the classic work on apparitions, “Phantasms of the Living,” which you can read here. I will use the case numbers given in the book. You can click on the links to go the exact page I refer to. 

Page 612, Case 659: A person and his sister were surprised to see at the person's bedside the person's brother, who was believed to be far away doing a job for a reigning prince.  Three weeks later word came that the brother "had died the same night, and the same hour." 

Page 613, Case 660: Two brothers were in bed when they both saw the apparition of a lady to whom their father was engaged. She died suddenly that same night. 

Page 615, Case 662: Between 6 and 7 o'clock, a woman, her brother and her mother all saw Ellen, the woman's sister.  The woman "tried to catch hold of her, but seemed to catch nothing." The next day they found out that Ellen had drowned to death "a little before seven" on the same they saw the apparition.

Page 616, Case 663: A woman saw her husband's mother. When she cried out, the husband looked up, and "the apparition vanished." On the same evening, two male children of the woman saw a strange silent female figure pacing back and forth in their bedroom. It was later found that the husband's mother had died on the same evening. 

Page 617-618, Case 665: Two brothers woke to see standing between their cots the figure of their father. When one of the brothers rose up, the figure vanished.  They later found that their father had died at the same hour. 

Page 622, Case 667: Four people were startled to see an apparition that disappeared just after a woman screamed, "He's dead."  Word later arrived that a person corresponding to the apparition had been murdered on the same night.  The account says, "his spirit appeared to his wife, his child, an elder sister, and myself." 

I will now discuss a case that appears on page 259 of "Phantasms of the Living," as  case #357. But a much earlier source for the sighting is the fascinating and very long 1872 book "Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World" by Robert Dale Owen.  On page 383 the book tells us the following narrative. On October 15, 1785, seeing someone while in America, John Sherbroke brought the sight to the attention of Colonel Wynyard, who identified the person as his brother, John Wynyard.  "Both remained silently gazing on the figure," we are told by Owen. Owen later says Sherbroke later received a letter "begging Sherbroke to break to his friend Wynyard the news of the death of his favorite brother, who had expired on the 15th of October, and at the same hour at which the friends saw the apparition."  Two and a half years later John Sherbroke saw someone who he thought resembled the figure he had seen when the “apparition sighting” occurred. The man turned out to be a man who looked so much like John Wynyard that he had been previously mistaken for him.

On page 377 of the same book by Owen, we have a case of an apparition seen by multiple witnesses. A British Lord traveled away from London, leaving his wife there. While in the Scottish Highlands, he saw an apparition of his wife. Ringing for his servant, the man asked the servant what he saw. The servant replied, "It's my lady!"  The wife had died in London that night.  About a year later, the man's daughter exclaimed that she had seen her deceased mother.  The daughter died on the same night from an illness.  Owen said he received the account in writing from a member of the man's family. 

On page 387-391 of the same book by Owen, we have the account of an apparition seen by Baron de Guldenstubbe in 1854. The Baron reporting seeing the apparition at length. Later he questioned people involved in maintaining the property, and found that two others had seen the same apparition, one of them several times. The account was told to Owen by the Baron. 

On page 398 to 401 of the same book by Owen, we have an account of an apparition seen repeatedly by Madame Hauffe, and also seen once by a forest ranger name Boheim, who said he saw a gray cloud turn into a human form. 

On page 417 to 424 of the same book by Owen, we have a discussion of a dramatic case Owen investigated through interviews with the two witnesses.  A Miss S. saw an apparition of two strange figures several different times, who identified themselves as having a last name of Children. Later a Mrs. R. reported seeing the same two figures,  with the luminous letters "Dame Children" above the female figure.  It was later discovered that a family with the last name of Children had once lived in the house where the apparitions were seen. 

In Camille Flammarion's book "The Unknown," on page 178 (case CLXXVIII) we read that  Minnie Cox reported seeing in 1869 an apparition of her brother, who was far away in Hong Kong.  This occurred an hour after the brother's son (living with Minnie) had reported seeing his father. The next mail which came from China informed her of her brother's death, which had happened on the same day Minnie had seen the apparition. 

A very well-documented case of an apparition seen by multiple observers is the case of the Cheltenham ghost.  Between 1882 and 1886 several observers saw inside and around a particular house an apparition of a mysterious figure in black, who would often be seen with a handkerchief over her face. Rosina Despard saw the figure more than five times.  You can read here the lengthy written testimony of Rosina and the written testimony of several other witnesses who saw the apparition (or use this link to get the same account from page 311 of Volume 8 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research). Rosina testified to "the sudden and complete disappearance of the figure, while in full view" (page 321).  Describing a sighting of the same figure, Edith Morton said, "suddenly I felt a cold, icy shiver, and I saw the figure bend over me" (page 325).  W.H.C. Morton testified to seeing the figure three times. An F.M.K. also reported seeing the figure. An M.E. Brown reported that she and someone else saw a "dark, shadowy figure, dressed in black, and making no noise, glide past us along the passage and disappear round a corner" (page 327), and that she saw the mysterious figure twice more (page 328). 

Perhaps the most famous ghost in history was the mysterious phantom figure of Katie King.  As I describe in this post, the figure was seen by many people over the course of two years, such as the distinguished scientist William Crookes (discoverer of the element thallium).  In that post I quote four different books by four different contemporary authors containing eyewitness testimony of sightings of the mysterious Katie King.  In three of these cases, it's the author of the book who gives part of the eyewitness testimony citing observations of the mysterious figure. Similarly, as described here, the phantom figure of Bien Boa was seen by multiple distinguished witnesses, one a Nobel Prize winner. 

A much more recent case of an apparition seen by multiple observers is the case described by John G. Fuller in his book The Ghost of Flight 401. On page 138 to 139 he describes three witnesses (a flight captain, a stewardess and a flight supervisor) seeing in the first-class section of the aircraft a silent figure dressed as an airline pilot, a figure who wouldn't respond to questions. "My God, it's Bob Loft" said the captain, referring to an airline pilot who had died not long ago in an airline crash that had killed more than 100 passengers. Then, according to Fuller:

The captain in the first-class seat simply wasn't there. He was there one moment -- and not there the next. 

The aircraft was searched, but the figure was never found.

In the scientific paper here,  researchers found that 39 out of 84 apparition witnesses reported that someone else present shared their experience.  The authors of the paper attempted to track down how many people could corroborate such reports. Nine such people had either died or could not be tracked down, leaving 30 left. The authors stated, "In 21 instances out of the 30, the witnesses verified the respondent’s description of the case." 

Such cases sometimes occur in recent years. For example, on pages 4-6 of the 2018 book Already Here by Leo Galland M.D., Leo tells us that while waiting to hear the fate of his son "three hours away" after an accident, both he and his wife saw an apparition of that son. In the same hour of that day, Leo learned that attempts to revive his son had failed.

Quite a few additional cases of apparitions seen by multiple observers might be found by doing a Google search for "Marian apparition," although such cases are quite different from those I have discussed.  

An additional case of an apparition seen by multiple observers can be read here.

Postscript: In the latest issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, there is a long editorial by parapsychologist Stephen E. Braude on the topic of apparitions seen by multiple observers. He discusses the inadequacies of attempts to explain such cases through supposing only telepathy is occurring. He states, "The alternative approach I’ve argued for, particularly for collective cases, is that apparitions in these cases are products of living-agent, or possibly postmortem, PK, continuous with (if not similar to) other reported examples of ostensible materialization." 

A case of an apparition seen by multiple observers is recounted on this page. 

An earlier version of the account involving Sherbroke and Wynyard is to be found on page 77 of the 1825 work Signs before death, and authenticated apparitions: in one hundred narratives by John Timbs. 

In this post I will discuss additional cases of this type.  I will give links that will usually take you directly to the exact page I am quoting or citing. 

 On page 402 of Volume 24 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account:

"The first is the case of a certain Mr. William Smith (pseudonym) who had been for many years Senior Warden of his church, and as such had been accustomed to collect the offertory. On a certain Easter Monday Mr. Smith committed suicide, and on the following Sunday he was seen by the officiating clergyman and two members of the congregation standing on the chancel steps when the offertory was being presented by the two acting Wardens."

On page 297 of Volume 27 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read the following: "In February 1932, the hauntings described below began : the apparition of Samuel Bull being seen by the members of the family." On the next page we read this about the same case:

"The apparition was seen by Mrs Edwards and the grandson (aged 21) and then by all the others, widow and grandchildren. At first everyone was terrified and the children screamed, but later, and on subsequent occasions, were calmer, but in a state of quiet awe. The  'appearances' have been very frequent since, but no diary has been kept of dates and happenings."

On page 300 of the same volume, we are told "the appearances are not fleeting, but quite lengthy, and [on] one occasion at least, lasted for several hours." At least eight witnesses reported seeing the apparition: Mrs. Edwards (Bull's daughter), her husband, Bull's widow, and Mrs. Edwards' five children (Bull's grandchildren). On page 302 of the same volume, we read, "Mrs Edwards and the grandson, James Bull, aged 21, saw the apparition together."  We are told this:

"Mrs Edwards said that all the members of the family, including her husband, had seen the figure. The figure appears to be quite life-like to Mrs Edwards. It does not glide, but walk, and seems solid."

On page 252 of Volume 28 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read the following account by J.E. Moore and Marjorie Moore of an apparition seen by multiple observers:

"It was during one of these visits that the following covenant was drawn up between my wife's mother and I. ' Should I die before her I would come back and visit her if possible ' —and the same was to apply in her case. —This was agreed in my wife's presence. We returned to Portland in due course and I quite forgot the incident, but the other partner to this strange agreement was in the meanwhile unexpectedly called to the place of many ' Mansions ' but had not forgotten her part in the play of this strange drama. About six months after this incident, whilst the clocks were chiming the midnight hour, there appeared by the bedside occupied by my wife and myself the spiritual form of my wife's mother.  She looked beautiful in her Angelic state, as she stood there quite close to Baby's cot, which was in close proximity to our bed. Her earthly stay only occupied a few seconds—but quite long enough to convince us that she had kept her promise. This was witnessed by myself & wife simultaneously."

On page 240 of Volume 29 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read of an apparition that was seen by multiple observers at the same time. 

"Only on one occasion does the figure seem to have appeared to two persons simultaneously. This was during August, 1935. At about 8 o'clock, while the family and several guests were sitting at dinner in the hall, a young Dutchman present, who had never heard of the ghost, saw a stranger walk into the door, cross the hall, and go upstairs. 'Mr Henry Westfield ' also saw it, and recognised it as the ghost. "

On the next page we read, "At least two of the people who have reported this phenomenon had not previously been told anything about the ghost, so that suggestion, unless it were a telepathic suggestion, would not account for it."  On page 243 of the same volume, we read the following:

"The case presents many interesting features, and is probably as well authenticated a ghost story as it would be possible to find. The phenomena are many and varied, and have been witnessed by several people, some of whom are quite independent (i.e. they did not know about the ghost) so that suggestion can be eliminated. It seems highly improbable that so many phenomena of such widely different types could have been the result of malobservation or pure imagination."

On page 207 of Volume 6 of the Journal of the Society of Psychical Research, we read that "repeated apparations of the same person" were seen by his wife, his mother in law, by a Mrs. B, and "another lady." 

On page 230-231 of the same volume, we have an account of a person saying he saw an apparition that "before my very eyes vanished." Mentioning how others had seen the same thing, he stated, "It certainly surprised me to see what was apparently 'too solid flesh' dissappear before my very eyes, and when we got outside my friend told me that his was the figure which came to different members of their family so often, and, indeed, had been the cause of their leaving one house."

On page 33 of Volume 31 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,  we have an account of an apparition seen by two people.  A lady, identified in the journal as Mrs. X, killed her husband and herself at about 9 PM on Monday, December 5, 1938. The next morning (December 6) a man and woman reported seeing Mrs. X, hatless, walking on the road outside her house at about 9 AM.  As we read on page 34, the husband stated the following (which the wife agreed with):

"Also Mrs X was the only person in sight on the road at the time,  neither did we mistake any one else for her as she happened to be a very unmistakable woman owing to her style of hairdressing, etc. We passed within say 6 feet of her."

On page 239 of Volume 33 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, and the next page, we have an account of an apparition of David Western that was seen by a Mrs. Carter and Janet Mack in 1942, long after David had died in 1941. 

On page 75 of Volume 6 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read the following mention of an apparition seen by multiple observers: 

"Mrs. G. and her three brothers and sister, when children, used every evening to see an apparition of a lady in a stiff brocade skirt, whicli rustled as she moved, pass through the garret where they played. She was always seen by all present and had also been seen by two ladies next door."

On page 224 of Volume 5 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we read of an apparition seen by three out of four sisters (the other one looking in the wrong direction to see it):

"The apparition glided onwards towards my sisters, who were standing inside the room, quite close to the outer door, and who had first caught sight of it, reflected in the mirror. When within a few inches from them it vanished as suddenly as it appeared. As the figure passed we distinctly felt a cold air which seemed to accompany it. We have never seen it again, and cannot account in any way for the phenomenon."

The account states that all four of the sisters felt the cold air that accompanied the apparition. 

On page 371-372 of Volume 14 of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, we read that this occurred the day after the drowning death of Mr. Macy, due to an accident involving a ship named Niagra on Lake Michigan:

"In the night, after the family had retired to rest, my daughter discovered a bright light in the sitting-room opening into hers, and the same shadow, which she had indistinctly noticed in the morning, now appeared in the shape and exact semblance of Mr. Macy. She informed her mother of the apparition, immediately adding, under impression, 'Mr. Macy is drowned.'  Another daughter, who is also a medium, sleeping in a different part of the house, saw the same light and the shadowy form of Mr. Macy as he appeared to her sister, upon which she was influenced to write 'Niagara — drowned by the upsetting of the small-boat.' The next day, and for the first time, the news of the catastrophe, and the manner of Mr. Macy's death, reached our village."

Skeptics claim that appartions are just hallucinations. But such skeptics cannot credibly account for the 45 sightings I have discussed in this post and the two posts mentioned at the top of this post, which altogether give 45 cases in which an apparition was seen by multiple observers.  The chance of two people having the same visual hallucination is microscopic, even slimmer than the chance of two members of a family having the same dream on one night.  In quite a few of the cases I have discussed in these posts, it is not just two people seeing the same apparition, but three or more.  In future posts I  will discuss dozens of additional cases in which apparitions were seen by multiple observers. 

In this post I will discuss additional cases of this type.  I will give links that will usually take you directly to the exact page I am quoting or citing. 

On page 20 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account of an apparition that appeared as a "phosphorescent cloud" shortly after the death of someone named Cognet. We read this account by someone named Texier:

"Suddenly I saw a glow which made me utter a cry of terror. My father got up and took me into bed with him. The glow persisted; it was a sort of phosphorescent cloud, without definite outlines....My father pronounced these words in a loud voice: 'If you are Cognet, strike three blows on the chest of drawers.' This piece of furniture, marble-topped (it is still in my possession) was in the room giving on to the alcove. Three loud and measured blows were then struck upon the marble of the chest of drawers. Then, little by little, the glow thinned, melted, and I saw nothing more."

On pages 27-28 of Volume 6 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of a husband and wife in a locked room who saw an apparition of the husband's father, a man who had died long ago. 

"I saw a gentleman standing at the foot of the bed, dressed as a naval officer....I looked at my husband and saw that his face was white and agitated....I was by this time exceedingly agitated too, but remembering that the door was locked, and that the mysterious visitor had not gone towards it all, remarked, 'He has not gone out by the door !' But without pausing, my husband unlocked the door, hastened out of the room, and was soon searching the whole house. Sitting there in the dark, I thought to myself, 'We  have surely seen an apparition !'....Sitting upon the bedside, he put his arm about me and said, 'Do you know what we have seen ?' And I said, 'Yes, it was a spirit. I am afraid it was Arthur, but could not see his face' — and he exclaimed, 'Oh ! no, it was my father!' My husband's father had been dead fourteen years."  

On pages 120-121 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account that a child in Italy named Mimi was suprised to see what appeared to be her living father, who she thought was in Austria. A moment later she could no longer find such a person.  Mimi states, "The next day a telegram reached the school: my poor father had died at half-past seven in the evening, at the hour at which he had appeared to me."  Mimi also tells us this regarding her father's apparition:

"He appeared not only to me but also to my grandmother....There were three of them in the dining-room: my grandmother, her second husband, and my grandmother's daughter, when the door opened and my father came in. My grandmother exclaimed: 'There you are! How splendid that you got well so soon!' There was no one there. My grandmother said: 'Let us pray! He is dead.' "

On page 134 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account by Charles Tweedale of an apparition seen by three people:

"I saw, suddenly, a form appear in front of me, before the panels of the cupboard. Indistinct at first, it gradually grew clearer, until I recognized the face of my grandmother. I had been observing it for some seconds, when the vision melted away gradually, and disappeared in the moonlight....The morning of the next day, at breakfast, I was beginning to tell of the apparition of the previous night, when to my great surprise my father left the table abruptly. He was most agitated; he went out of the room hastily, leaving his breakfast almost untouched. I asked my mother for an explanation. She silenced me with a gesture. When the door was closed once more, I repeated my question. Then my mother answered: 'Charles, I'm going to tell you the strangest thing I 've ever heard of. This morning your father told me that he had waked up in the night, and that he had seen his mother standing near his bed, but just at the moment when he wished to speak to her she had disappeared.' This scene and this conversation had taken place about half-past eight, on the morning of Saturday, January 11th. Before noon we received a telegram announcing that my grandmother had died during the night. But that was not all, for my father next learned that his sister, who lived about thirty kilometers from our home, had also seen my grandmother appear. Three persons, therefore, had the same vision independently, and each attributed it to an hallucination." 

On page 168-169 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account by Countess Amelie Caeandini of an apparition seen by two people:

"One evening, about nine o'clock, every one in the house was still up and about. When my sister, aged seventeen, was walking through a hall of the apartment, she was stupefied to see a tall, beautiful girl standing near her under the lighted gas-jet. She did not know this girl, who was dressed in the costume of a peasant. Astounded, she uttered a cry, and the phantom vanished. She wept with fright, and my mother scolded her. Next morning, the cook, a girl of about twenty-five, came to my mother and told her that that evening, when she had got into bed, she had heard a sound of breathing, and felt on her face something that was like a breath; that when she had opened her eyes she had seen, standing near her bed, one of her friends whom she had known in her native place: a tall, beautiful girl dressed in peasant costume. 'That beautiful girl,' said the cook, 'was in the habit of behaving badly; I often gave her good advice, but it didn't have any effect.' She had died on the previous day." 

On page 227 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account by Caroline Judd:

"One morning in October, three weeks after her death, I saw my grandmother distmctly — her face, as always, calm, and her big eyes looking at the old clock as usual. I closed my eyes for some seconds, then opened them again, and still saw her. I closed my eyes a second time, but when I opened them she was no longer  there. Since my family sometimes called me a dreamer, I took care not to breathe a word about this vision. On the following evening my sister, who is not at all dreamy, but most practical, told me in confidence, before we got into bed (her bed was beside mine) : 'If you'll promise not to make fun of me, I 've something to tell you.' — 'What?' — 'Well, I saw my grandmother this morning.' The details which she then gave me were in entire accord with what I had seen myself.' " 

On page 228 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account of a woman who saw an apparition of a friend's dead husband.  The woman reported that soon thereafter the friend reported seeing the same apparition.  On the next page is an account of an apparition of a deceased husband being seen by a wife and the wife's children. 

On page 247 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion we have an account of an apparition seen by more than one:

"My mother and my sister — about a month after my mother's brother-in-law, our uncle, had died — were witnesses of an apparition of him. They saw this on different dates — my mother about a month after the death, and my sister fifteen days later still. My mother saw it spontaneously, without previous warning. As for my sister, she was on this occasion alone in a room. She was astonished to hear some one walking in a hall near my mother's room. She went into the hall and found herself in the presence of the apparition, which vanished immediately."

On pages 93-94 of Volume 2 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1905), we have the following account of an apparition seen by multiple witnesses, occurring at the time the corresponding person died:

"St. Petersburg, May 4th, 1891.-- This is the phenomenon which was witnessed by the whole of our family. It was at St. Petersburg, in 188o, when we were living in rue Pouchkarska. One evening in the month of May, about 6 o'clock, my mother (now Madame Telechof), was in the salon with her five children, of whom I was the eldest (I was then 16 years of age). Just then an old servant of the house, whom we treated as a friend (but who was at that time no longer in our service), had come to see us, and was engaged in  conversation with my mother. Suddenly the merry gambols of the children stopped and the general attention was turned towards our dog 'Moustache,' who had rushed, barking fiercely, towards the stove. Involuntarily we looked lo the same direction, and saw on the cornice of the great stove, made of porcelain tiles, a little boy, of about 5 years ef age, in his shirt. We recognised the boy as the son of our milk-woman -- Andre --who often came to our house with his mother to play with the children ; they lived quite near us. The apparition left the stove, passed above us all, and disappeared in the open casement. During all this time-about fifteen seconds-the dog did not cease to bark with all its might, and ran and barked, following the course of the apparition. The same day, a little later, our milk-woman came to the house and informed us that her son Andre, after a few days' illness (we knew that he was ill), had just died ; it was probably at the moment when he appeared to us." 

Below the statement in this journal, we have the names of three witnesses who attested to such an observation. 

On pages 63-64 of Volume 3 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1906), we have an account of a deceased priest whose apparition was seen by three different people.  We are told, "three out of the five Passionist Fathers who occupied the Ardoyne Monastery had seen the apparition and recognised it, and as they had been acquainted with the deceased during his lifetime, they were able to testify to the fact."

On page 85 of Volume III of the Annals of Psychical Science (1906), we have an account of an apparition seen by a dying woman and three other people, all of whom identified the apparition as being the deceased sister of the person who was dying. 

On page 372 of Volume 10 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of an apparition seen by three or four people, an apparition of a godmother:

"My youngest sister, since dead, was called to my mother, and left Devonshire, where she was staying with friends, to come home. Then she arrived at home, she entered the drawing-room, but rushed out terrified, exclaiming that she had seen godmamma, who was seated by the fire in my mother's chair. Godmamma had been dead since 1852. She had been my mother's governess — almost foster-mother ; had lived with her during her married life, been godmother to her eldest girl, and when my father died, had accepted the duty of taking his place as far as possible in the family, to shield her from trouble and protect her — a duty which she fulfilled nobly. My other sister went into the drawing room to see what had scared K , and saw the figure of godmamma just as K had. Later in the day, the same figure stood by, then sat on the edge of my mother's bed, and was seen by both my sisters and the old servant, looking just as she had when alive, except that she wore a grey dress, and, as far as we could remember, she had always worn black. My mother saw her, for she turned towards her and said, 'Mary' — her name." 

On page 432 of Volume 7 of the Annals of Psychical Science (1908), we have an account of an apparition seen by more than one, and heard by many:

"A man named Jules Cenabrita, who had died a few days previously, appeared leaning out of a window of the house in which he had lived, and was thus seen by various persons living in the house opposite. This was the only visible apparition of the deceased man. But the spirit continued to manifest, speaking with its own voice, conversing with people in the house, and declaring that it did not again make itself visible simply to avoid frightening them.  This phenomenon was repeated for two months, and numerous reputable and credible persons have not only been present when it occurred, but have also taken part in the conversations with the invisible Jules, who had been, and still seemed, gay and pleasant, and always began by singing or praying." 

On page 178 of Enigmas of Psychical Research by James Hyslop, we have this account of an apparition seen by three people:

"About the end of November, or the beginning of December, in the same year (1872), I was disturbed one morning before it was light, as near as may be between 5 and 6 a. m., by the appearance of a tall figure, in a long dress, bending over the bed. I distinctly recognized this figure to be no other than my sister-in-law, Mrs. W., who, as I felt, distinctly touched me. My husband, who was beside me asleep at the time, neither saw nor felt anything. This appearance was also made to an aged aunt, residing at this time at Theydon Bois, near Epping, Essex. She told my husband as recently as the 4th inst. (1885), that the appearance came to her in the form of a bright light from a dark corner of her bedroom in the early morning. It was so distinct that she not only recognized her niece, Mrs. W., but she actually noticed the needlework on her long night-dress ! This appearance was also made to my husband's half-sister, at that time unmarried, and residing at Stanhope Gardens. The last-named was the first to receive the announcement of the death of Mrs. W."

In this post I will discuss additional cases of this type.  I will give links that will usually take you directly to the exact page I am quoting or citing. Such cases help to discredit all claims that apparitions are seen merely because of hallucination, there being no clear reason why multiple witnesses would have a hallucination of the same person. 

The Bangor Daily News reminds us of an apparition seen by multiple witnesses long ago. It states the following:

"In the winter of 1799, in the small coastal town of Sullivan, Maine, began what is known as the first documented haunting in the United States. During this series of hauntings, numerous residents of the town claimed they saw and heard the ghost of Nelly Butler, a young woman who died three years before."

At this link you can read "Immortality Proved by the Testimony of Sense" by Abraham Cummings, which has many of the testimonies in this case, particularly following page 41, where we have dated witness statements from quite a few people who give their names. On page 31 we read this summary about the same apparition:

"Sometimes she appeared to two or three ; then to five or six ; then to ten or twelve ; again to twenty, and once to more than forty witnesses. She appeared in several apartments of Mr. Blaisdel’s house, and several times in the cellar. She also appeared at other houses, and several times in the open field, as already observed. There, white as the light, she moved like a cloud above the ground in personal form and magnitude, in the presence of more than forty people. She tarried with them till after day-light, and vanished : not because she was afraid of the sun : for she had then several times appeared when the sun was shining." 

On page 117 of Volume 12 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we read an account of two brothers who both saw a ghost claiming to be a dead person. We are told that after it delivered very specific information, "the apparition vanished." Part of the information was later confirmed.  Page 124 refers to "the apparition having been seen by both the brothers collectively." 

On page 452 of Volume 21 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we read an account of the appearance of an apparition seen by multiple observers. One of the observers was the famous Daniel Dunglas Home, a person connected with a long series of reports of paranormal occurrences reported by many reliable witnesses.  Here is the account:

"I will therefore mention a case when the supposed 'spirit form' was seen by several sitters. On the evening of February 9th, 1869, Lord Adare, Captain Gerard Smith, and Dr. Gully of Malvern assembled together with Home in Lord Adare's rooms in London. The company were sitting in a small room the objects in which were made dimly visible by the faint light that came in from the window near which Home was 'impressed' to place himself, saying: 'Sacha will try and make herself visible to you.' And then another form beside his own—that of his late wife—grew into distinctness. Her form (wrote Lord Adare the next day) gradually became apparent to us : she moved close to Home and kissed him. She stood beside him against the window intercepting the light as a solid body, and appeared fully as material as Home himself: no one could have told which was the mortal body and which the spirit. It was too dark, however, to distinguish features. 

I could see that she had her full face turned towards us, and that either her hair was parted in the middle and flowed down her shoulders, or that she had on what appeared to be a veil. At Lord Adare's request Captain Gerard Smith wrote to him certifying that he had also seen the 'spirit-form,' and describing the apparition as follows : 'Home rose and stood at the window with his right arm extended, and the spirit seemed to sweep down, until it rested with both hands on his outstretched arm, looking up into his face. From the position in which I sat the profile of the face was perfectly visible to me, and when the two faces approached each other to kiss, there was no apparent difference in the degree of density of the two figures.' "

On page 310 of Volume 9 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we read an account of the appearance of a semi-transparent apparition seen by multiple observers. The account is by Mrs. Crookes, wife of the world-class scientist Sir William Crookes. She states this:

"The accordion was immediately taken from his hand by a cloudy appearance, which soon seemed to condense into a distinct human form, clothed in a filmy drapery, standing near Mr. Home between the two rooms. The accordion began to play (I do not remember whether on this occasion thei'e was any recognised melody), and the figure gradually advanced towards me till it almost touched  me, playing continuously. It was semi-transparent, and I could see the sitters through it all the time. Mr. Home remained near the sliding doors. As the figure approached I felt an intense cold, getting stronger as it got nearer, and as it was giving me the accordion I could not help screaming. The figure immediately seemed to sink into the floor to the waist, leaving only the head and shoulders visible, still playing the accordion, which was then about a foot oS the floor. Mr. Home and my husband came to me at once, and I have no clear recollection of what then occurred, except that the accordion did not cease playing immediately. Mr. Serjeant Cox was rather angry at my want of nerve, and exclaimed : 'Mrs. Crookes, you have spoilt the finest manifestation we have ever had.'  I have always regretted that my want of presence of mind brought the phenomena to so abrupt a termination."

On page 121-122 of Volume 1 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account of an apparition seen by multiple observers:

"In 1739 Mrs. Birkbeck, wife of William Birkbeck, banker, of Settle, and a member of the Society of Friends, was taken ill and died at Cockermouth,while returning from a journey to Scotland, which she had undertaken alone -her husband and three children, aged seven, five, and four years respectively, remaining at Settle...One morning, between seven and eight o'clock, the relation to whom the care of the children at Settle had been entrusted, and who kept a minute journal of all that concerned them, went into their hedroom as usual, and found them all sitting up in their beds in great excitement and delight. 'Mamma has been here!' they cried...That same morning as their mother lay on her dying bed at Cockermouth, she said, ' I should be ready to go if I could just see my children.' She then closed her eyes, to reopen them, as they thought, no more. But after ten minutes of perfect stillness she looked up brightly and said, 'I am ready now; I have been wth my children;' and then at once peacefully passed away. When the notes taken at the two places were compared, the day, hour, and minutes were the same."

On page 129 of Volume 1 of the Proceeedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of an apparition seen by three observers within about a day of someone's death. On page 132 of the same volume, we also have what seems to be a case of apparition seen by multiple observers. 

A modern sighting often called an apparition was the sighting of a mysterious figure atop a church in Zeitoun, Egypt in 1968 to 1971.  A mysterious luminous figure was seen by countless thousands of people at such a location. 

On page 353 of Volume 10 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we are told this by a Miss R.N. : 

"In July of 1885, I was staying in the country, and was reading in the garden (Helen's Babies) one day, when, suddenly looking up, I saw my aunt standing in front of me, she having died in the October previous. In a moment or two she passed on out of my sight."

On the same page, we are told the apparition was seen by other witnesses:

"The apparition was first seen in 1884, —soon after the aunt's death, —collectively by C, A. and a friend, Miss G., as stated in their accounts, and soon afterwards on the stairs by Miss G. and A. N. together. It was seen later by a cousin, Miss S. ; by a servant who had formerly been the deceased lady's housemaid, and afterwards by Miss R.N., as she relates."

On page 228 of Death and Its Mystery: After Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account by a Miss Lister who saw an apparition of her friend's dead husband, and who said the friend reported seeing the apparition of her husband a few minutes later.  On the next page we have an account of children and a wife all saying they saw an apparition of their dead father. 

On pages 141-144 of Volume 2 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, we have an account of an apparition seen by three different persons on three different occasions. The apparition was of a woman whose head and shoulders were wrapped in a cloak or shawl. The first witness reported the apparition "gradually vanished...I mean she grew by degrees transparent." 

On pages 283-284 of the book Apparitions and Thought Transference by Frank Podmore, we have an account of an apparition seen by both a father and his son, on the same day (July 11, 1879) that the father's father died:

"I entered the house a quarter to seven o’clock, Friday evening, July 11th, 1879. I was very tired, having been receiving and paying for staves all day, and it being an exceedingly sultry evening, I lay down by Artie on the carpet, and entered into conversation with my wife — not, however, in regard to my parents, Artie, as usually was the case, came and lay down with his little head upon my left arm,  when all at once he exclaimed, ‘ Papa! papa ! Grandpa I'  I  cast my eyes towards the ceiling, or opened my eyes, I am not  sure which, when, between me and the joists (it was an old- fashioned log-cabin), I saw the face of my father as plainly as ever I saw him in my life. He appeared to me to be very pale, and looked sad, as I had seen him upon my last visit to him three months previous. I immediately spoke to my wife, who was sitting within a few feet of me, and said, ' Clara, there is something wrong at home ; father is either dead or very sick.' She tried to persuade me that it was my imagination, but I could not help feeling that something was wrong. Being very tired, we soon after retired, and about ten o’clock Artie woke me up repeating, ‘ Papa, grandpa is here.’ " 

On pages 74 to 75 of the 17th century book Miscellanies by John Aubrey, we have a tale that makes a heck of an interesting yarn. We are told that in Florence a Caisho Burroughes began a passionate affair with a beautiful courtesan who was the mistress of the Grand Duke, and that when the Grand Duke found out about it, the threatened Caisho fled to England. We are told that the courtesan killed herself partially from sorrow about the departure of Caisho. We are told that afterwards the ghost of the courtesan repeatedly appeared to Caisho, and was also seen by two other males who were in bed with the handsome Caisho. 

On page 82 of the same book we are told that Henry Jacob died at Dr. Jacob's house, and that a week later Dr. Jacob saw an apparition of Henry Jacob, one that was also seen by his cook-maid.  On pages 76-77 of the same book, we are told that a Mr. Mohun appeared to his mistress at the time of his murder in another location, and that his phantom also appeared to his sister and her maid about the same time he was killed.

On page 39 of Volume 19 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,  we read, "The most remarkable of the experiences which have been reported to us was an apparition of Captain Bowyer-Bower which was seen by his half-sister Mrs. Spearman in India, within a few hours of his death." On page 41-42 we have this account by Dorothy C. Spearman:

"My brother appeared to me on the 19th March, 1917....I saw my brother Eldred W Bowyer-Bower. Thinking he was alive and had been sent out to India, I was simply delighted to see him, and turned round quickly to put baby in a safe place on the bed, so that I could go on talking to my brother; then turned again and put my hand out to him, when I found he was not there. I thought he is only joking, so I called him and looked everywhere I could think of looking. It was only when I could not find him I became very frightened and the awful fear that he might be dead."

On page 222 of Volume 27 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we are told the following about the same individual:

"An example of such test-proof evidence to my mind, if we agree (as Mr Saltmarsh appears implicitly not to agree) that latency is hardly likely to endure for six months, is the Bowyer-Bower case (Proceedings, xxxiii. 167). Captain Bower's apparition was seen not only at the time of his sudden violent death, but also six months later (by his mother and again by his fiancee). The details of development and behaviour are strikingly suggestive of the operation of an external intelligence."

Tracing the reference made in the quote above, I find that on page 172 of Volume 33 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research we have this quote by a relative of this Captain Bowyer-Bower, concerning her small daughter:

"One morning while I was still in bed, about 9.15, she came to my room and said, 'Uncle Alley Boy is downstairs,' and although I told her he was in France, she insisted that she had seen him. Later in the day I happened to be writing to my mother and mentioned this, not because I thought much about it, but to show that Betty still thought and spoke of her imcle of whom she was very fond. A few days afterwards we found that the date my brother was missing was the date on my letter."

We are told on page 172 of this volume that "Alley Boy" was a "pet name" for this Eldred W. Bowyer-Bower.  So apparently we have an apparition of this person appearing to two people at the time of his death or disappearance. A third person mentioned on page 173 had a "certain and awful feeling...that he was killed" before learning of his death. On page 174 we have an account of an apparition of this Eldred W. Bowyer-Bower appearing months later. His mother Mrs. Bowyer-Bower narrates it as follows:

"I watched, not at all nervously, and something like a crumpled filmy piece of chiffon unfolded and the beautiful wavy top of Eldred's head appeared, a few seconds and his forehead and broad, beautiful brow appeared, still it waited and his lovely blue eyes came, but no mischievous twinkle, but a great intensity. It all shook and quivered, then his nose came. More waiting and quivering and then his tiny little moustache and mouth. At this point he turned his head very shghtly and looked right into my face, and moistened his lips slightly with his tongue. I kept quite quiet, but it quivered and shook so much and no chin came, and in my anxiety I put out my hands and said :  'Eldred, I see you,' and it all flickered quite out, light and all."

On page 175 of the same Proceedings, we have an account by the fiance of this Eldred, who tells us the following happened months after his death:

"Afterwards I woke up and looked around and saw Eldred on the bed beside me, he was wearing his blue suit. I sat up and started talking to him....I then tried to touch him, but my hand went through him, and like a fool I started to cry, and he disappeared."

So we can see why the writer quoted earlier called this case "test-proof evidences": the quotes above establish that this apparition of Eldred W. Bowyer-Bower was seen by four different persons in different places: his sister, his mother, his fiancee and a small child. 

Source: https://futureandcosmos.blogspot.com/2020/08/when-apparition-is-seen-by-several-or.html