This section includes reports of ghosts and apparitions, notably those that are identifiable or that appear to communicate at the time of death or a crisis. It includes the landmark Census of Hallucinations, whose findings were published in the Society’s Proceedings in 1894, and papers on theories and investigative methodology.

The Society’s publications contain a few early examples of near-death experiences and ‘death-bed visions’ described by the terminally ill. These are grouped together at the end of the section. Other reports describe a sense of presences, dreams and hallucinations that appear to carry veridical information or provide hints of survival of death. Limited material on Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is also found here.

keywords: apparitions, hauntings, near death experiences, EVP

Barrett, W.F. et al. FIRST REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ‘HAUNTED HOUSES’, Proceedings 1, 1882-3, pp. 101-15. Introduces the Society’s research into reports of ghosts. Its methods are described and examples are given of what constitutes unsatisfactory evidence. Two cases are described that seem to warrant attention, involving repeated sightings of apparitions by different witnesses. (However, one of these cases was later withdrawn, having been found to be unreliable: see Journal 2, 1885-6, pp. 2-5). hauntings/apparitions/methodology

Barrett, W.F. et al. FIRST REPORT OF THE LITERARY COMMITTEE, Proceedings 1, 1882-3, pp. 116-55. Describes the Society’s work in collecting accounts of spontaneous psychic communications supplied by the public in response to advertised appeals. Categorises the types and gives several examples: three children are ‘visited’ by their absent mother who at the time is dying some distance away (121); an army officer killed in the Crimea appears to his brother in England with a bullet wound in his head (124); family members are ‘visited’ by relations who are dying elsewhere; and others. Concludes with a general discussion of the difficulties of the research and its purpose. hauntings/apparitions/methodology

Barrett, W.F. et al. SECOND REPORT OF THE LITERARY COMMITTEE, Proceedings 2, 1884, pp. 43-55. Describes the work undertaken for the forthcoming book Phantasms of the Living, involving follow-up interviews with witnesses and their friends and relatives aimed at substantiating the original reports. An appendix gives a single example. ABSTRACT, Journal 1, 1884, pp. 3-4. Report of a reading of the paper. hauntings/apparitions/methodology

Stack, J.H. ON CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE AS TO ‘PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING IN INDIA’, Journal 1, 1884, pp. 72-6. The theosophists Colonel Olcott and Mohini Chatterji describe instances of ‘Mahatmas’ projecting themselves in apparitional form. apparitions/theosophy

Anon. SPECIMENS OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF CASES FOR ‘PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING’, Journal 1, 1884, pp. 77-83. Discussion of apparitional cases in which there is ‘a clear impression of the agent’s personality’. apparitions

Barrett, W.F. et al. THIRD REPORT OF THE LITERARY COMMITTEE - A THEORY OF APPARITIONS PART 1, Proceedings 2, 1884, pp. 109-36. Justifies the scientific investigation of apparitions and attempts to provide a theoretical background to the work done so far. Topics include: the polarity of public opinion (111); involvement of the public in research (112); unscientific and scientific objections (113); statistical aspects (116); weakness of a priori objections (117). The implications of telepathy are also considered as a preliminary study to apparitions: a few reports of telepathic impressions are given, some experienced by scientists (122). ABSTRACT, Journal 1, 1884, pp. 37-8. hauntings/apparitions/theory

Bushell, W.D. et al. SECOND REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HAUNTED HOUSES, Proceedings 2, 1884, pp. 137-51. Points out the difficulty of carrying out firsthand investigations and the resulting dependence on second-hand accounts. Lists characteristics from an analysis of 65 such cases (139-40): lack of sensational features or fixed times; manner of movement and dress; possible origins (suicide, locality). Two examples: the apparition of an old woman is seen on three separate occasions by three different people; a vicarage is plagued with bangings, human footsteps, etc. ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 1, 1884, pp. 35-7. Report of discussions on apparitions and hallucination. hauntings/apparitions/hallucinations/methodology

Barrett, W.F. et al. FOURTH REPORT OF THE LITERARY COMMITTEE - A THEORY OF APPARITIONS PART 2, Proceedings 2, 1884, pp. 157-86. Broaches the class of visual telepathic impressions, giving examples of people experiencing waking visions of the scene of an accident involving friends and relatives at a distance. The implications are discussed in terms of physiology, and a connection with telepathy is established (168-70). The possibility of perceptions being influenced by suggestion and prior knowledge is considered (171). Examples of death imagery (coffins etc.) in apparitional episodes are given (173); also a possible case of collective percipience (180). ABSTRACT, Journal 1, 1884, p. 76. hauntings/apparitions/theory

Myers, F.W.H. SPECIMENS OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF IMPRESSIONS AND APPARITIONS AT MOMENTS OF DEATH OR DANGER, Journal 1, 1884-5, pp. 54-6. Cases are described that illustrate the telepathic theory adopted by researchers. The subject is continued on pages 77-83, 94-103, 114-30, 142-52, 157-65, 182-93, 213-20, 238-45. Criticisms of the vagueness of dates and other details in the reports is given on pages 400-407, followed by a detailed rejoinder. hauntings/apparitions/methodology

Anon. APPARITIONAL CASES, Journal 1, 1884-5, pp. 245-53. See also pp. 282-4, 292-310, 325-67, 376-98, 433-48, 469-88. No summary given. hauntings/apparitions

Newcomb, S. & Gurney, E. ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, Journal 1, 1885, pp. 268-74. Reprint of correspondence in Science between a sceptic and leading psychical researcher, on whether crisis apparitions can be explained as chance coincidence. hauntings/apparitions/methodology

Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). NOTES ON THE EVIDENCE, COLLECTED BY THE SOCIETY, FOR PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD, Proceedings 3, 1885, pp. 69-150. Considers anecdotal episodes that suggest the agency of deceased human beings. Hoaxing and exaggeration are discussed briefly, and illusion and mistaken identity (73, 83) more fully, with examples. Telepathic hallucinations are considered as potential explanations of collective percipience (86). Reports of various other kinds of veridical hallucination are given and possible non-psychical explanations given. Reports of hauntings are given and the lack of evidence noted of certain recurrent themes in ghost stories: connection with only old houses, significant anniversaries, crimes or tragedies, apparent purpose or intelligent action. Varieties of conditions of light, sounds, mode of appearance and disappearance and character of percipients are also observed. Four general explanations are discussed (146), two involving spirit agency, with the notion of non-material hallucination inspired by the deceased agent viewed as more plausible than the popular belief of the ghost as a material entity. Telepathic hallucination and material influences in particular localities are also briefly described. The author acknowledges the difficulties involved in explaining veridical hallucinations, but concludes that they are too few to ascribe to anything other than chance coincidence and that other evidence is likewise inadequate at present to establish the reality of apparitions as deceased humans. A later reinterpretation of the case discussed on p. 115 is found in Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 273-82. ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 1, 1884-5, pp. 261-2, 371-4. Detailed summary, with comments by Myers and others. hauntings/apparitions/methodology/theory

Anon. RETRACTIONS AND ALTERATIONS OF VIEW, Journal 2, 1885-6, pp. 2-5. Edmund Gurney explains why two cases analysed and published by the Society have been found to be unreliable and are being retracted. hauntings/apparitions/methodology

Anon. CASES, Journal 2, 1885-6, pp. 7-25. See also pp. 38-56, 64-80, 98-108, 131-50, 171-82, 208-13, 249-62, 272-80, 334-5, 347-53, 375-9, 385-404. No summary given. hauntings/apparitions

Gurney, E. & Myers, F.W.H. COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATIONS, Journal 2, 1886, pp. 154-8. Discussion in which, among other things, Gurney points to evidence of collectively seen apparitions as suggesting that telepathic transmission of information may be made to more than one person simultaneously. Myers states his objections to this approach. hauntings/apparitions/methodology/theory

Wedgwood, Hensleigh. ‘PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING’, Journal 3, 1887-8, pp. 82-5. Comment on the book and on the author’s personal experiences. book review/apparitons/hauntings/methodology

Anon. CASES, Journal 3, 1887-8, pp. 85-94. See also pp. 100-108, 115-20, 132-6, 207-12, 241-56 (322-32), 265-72, 292-7, 307-12, 333-42, 535-60. No summary given. apparitions/hauntings

Gurney, Edmund & Myers, Frederic. ON APPARITIONS OCCURRING SOON AFTER DEATH, Proceedings 5, 1888-9, pp. 403-85. Describes a class of ‘transitional ghosts’ midway between those that appear within 12 hours of death, classed as ‘phantasms of the living’, and hauntings associated with particular localities. Twenty-seven cases of apparitions appearing up to one year after the death are quoted at length. Features are categorised (473) with brief discussion. This paper was begun by Gurney and completed by Myers following his colleague’s unexpected death. ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 4, 1889, pp. 52-4. apparitions/hauntings

Myers, Frederic. ON RECOGNISED APPARITIONS OCCURRING MORE THAN A YEAR AFTER DEATH, Proceedings 6, 1889-90, pp. 13-65. Testimony relating to veridical apparitions occurring some time after death is given. These examples contain instances of apparent purpose on the part of the apparition, and some have been widely quoted. A man sees a vision of his dead sister in a hotel bedroom and notes a red scratch on her cheek, which only his mother knew of, having accidentally caused it after the girl’s death and then covered it up (17). A woman lying in bed sees an apparition and wakes her husband, who recognises his dead father, apparently intending to warn him against a course of action which would have proved harmful (26). A man charged by a dying man with the care of an elderly relative is visited some time later by the man’s apparition to complain that he has not kept his promise; investigating, he finds that arrangements he made earlier have been altered (29). A persistent unpleasant impression leads a farmer to dig in a particular spot: he finds the skeleton of a man who used to occupy his room and who disappeared suddenly, possibly murdered (35). And others. apparitions/hauntings

Podmore, Frank. PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW, Proceedings 6, 1889-90, pp. 229-313. A sceptical approach, focusing on weaknesses and inconsistencies in testimony and the purposelessness of apparitions, which together suggest an ordinary explanation. The author argues that narrators tend to introduce assumptions regarding survival into what may in most cases be no more than casual hallucinations. The result is a series of artificial constructions arising from misperception and mis-remembering. Regarding hauntings, the author argues that inconsistency in the reports as the apparition’s form suggest a predisposition in the witnesses to hallucinate (243). Cases of collective percipience are accounted for by telepathy (285). ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 4, 1889, pp. 171-4, 204-7. apparitions/hauntings/hallucinations/theory

Myers, Frederic. A DEFENCE OF PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD, Proceedings 6, 1889-90, pp. 314-57. A rebuttal of Podmore’s case. Myers suggests that Podmore’s reliance on telepathy as an explanation of certain classes of apparitions is mistaken, depending as it does on unproven assumptions about its character, while the fact of its existence opens the door to a wide range of similarly unknown phenomena, of which apparitions are one. He argues against exaggeration and wrong assumptions about the alleged lack of purpose or about what constitutes a subjective hallucination. He criticises over-reliance on theories of the transference of hallucinations from one individual to another, put forward in Myers’s and Gurney’s earlier work, particularly as regards hauntings, where he implies Podmore’s explanations are strained. apparitions/hauntings/theory

Newbold, W.R. REVIEW: ‘APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE’ BY FRANK PODMORE, Proceedings 11, 1895, pp. 149-54. Book review offering a critique of Podmore’s anti-survivalist interpretation of apparitions. book review/apparitions/theory

Anon. CASES, Journal 4, 1889-90, pp. 7-15. See also pp. 26-31, 39-47, 55-7, 67-76, 88-94, 138-43, 157-62, 179-84, 191-9, 210-15, 220-9, 239-43, 253-7, 268-76, 286-94, 304-316, 319-328, 334-46. No summary given. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 199-200, 243-8, 262, 294-9. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. ARE APPARITIONS OBJECTIVE, AND DO ANIMALS SEE THEM?, Journal 4, 1889-90, pp. 94-6. Noises accompanying an apparition are plainly heard by the percipient’s companions and dogs. CORRESPONDENCE, p. 150. apparitions/hallucinations

Sidgwick, Henry. DISCUSSION, Journal 4, 1890, pp. 283-5. Henry Sidgwick expresses disappointment at the small interest shown by members of the Society in the census of apparitions, and gives preliminary results. apparitions/hallucinations

Anon. CASES, Journal 5, 1891-92, pp. 5-15. See also pp. 35-43, 52-64, 68-77, 86-93,105-10, 134-43, 147-52, 161-4, 172-7, 191-5, 204-9, 221-7, 239-48, 250-60, 268-76, 302-308, 322-4. No summary given. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 228-32. apparitions

Kirk, J. EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TANSFERENCE FROM A DISTANCE, WITH APPARITION OF AGENT, Journal 5, 1891, pp. 21-30. See also pp. 111-26. The writer describes the success of experiments in which he attempts to telepathically ‘impress’ a female acquaintance with certain actions, at a distance. The subject reports seeing his apparition performing these actions at the time the experiments were undertaken. Greater detail, with tables and illustrations, is provided in two subsequent papers: Journal 5, 1891, pp. 111-26; Journal 5, 1892, pp. 182-89. apparitions/telepathy/experiments

Myers, Frederic. ON INDICATIONS OF CONTINUED TERRENE KNOWLEDGE ON THE PART OF PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD, Proceedings 8, 1892, pp. 170-252. A number of detailed cases are given tending to indicate continuity between the apparition or spirit and the life of the person it represents. A letter informing the intended recipient of the death of a spouse is mislaid and appears to emit ticking noises to encourage percipients to deliver it (218). A proof of survival is offered by experimental test (248). The paper is especially interesting for two detailed episodes of the type later described as ‘near-death experiences’: one involves a complex series of events in an out-of-body state, popularly called ‘astral travelling’ (180); in the other, an incident often referred to in near-death literature, a mountain climber gains veridical information concerning the actions of his companions while out of the body (195). ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 5, 1892, pp. 215-7. apparitions/survival/near death experiences

THE CHELTENHAM GHOST

Morton, R.C. RECORD OF A HAUNTED HOUSE, Proceedings 8, 1892, pp. 311-32. Much-quoted account of a ghost in a Cheltenham house, recorded by a principal witness. The figure, a woman dressed in widow’s black and holding a handkerchief to her face, was frequently seen and by a number of different people, sometimes collectively. The figure could be followed around the house and garden, with characteristic slow and even footsteps, and would take up a position by the drawing-room window. It would not respond to communication and evaded touch by disappearing. Threads fastened in its path would be left undisturbed. Dogs appeared to react to it. Short testimonials by other witnesses are also given. apparitions/hauntings

Lambert, G.W. THE CHELTENHAM GHOST: A REINTERPRETATION, Journal 39, 1957-8, pp. 267-77. The proponent of a ‘geophysical’ theory of poltergeists applies similar reasoning to the Cheltenham haunting reported 60 years earlier. He argues that the noises heard by a number of witnesses were probably caused by a stream passing under part of the house, and that these noises were magnified by subjective factors into the appearance of a visual hallucination, experienced by only a few. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 334-41. apparitions/hauntings/theory

Huby, Pamela M. NEW EVIDENCE ABOUT ‘ROSE MORTON’, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 391-2. Biographical note concerning the identity and credentials of a key witness in the ‘Cheltenham ghost’ episode. apparitions/hauntings

MacKenzie, Andrew. CONTINUATION OF A HAUNTED HOUSE, Journal 55, 1988-89, pp. 25-32. The celebrated Cheletenham ghost reappears in four separate incidents between 1970 and 1985. The witnesses describe an apparition similar to the one seen in the earlier reports as well as poltergeist activity. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 170-74, 302-4. apparitions/haunting/poltergeist

END THE CHELTENHAM GHOST

Anon. CASES, Journal 6, 1893-94, pp. 9-16. See also pp. 22-30, 52-76, 82-6, 101-6, 115-20, 129-40, 144-51, 163-72, 179-87, 210-14, 230-31, 249-51, 280-5, 290-6, 365-74. No summary given. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 223-4. apparitions

Anon. CATALOGUE OF UNPRINTED CASES, Journal 6, 1893, pp. 171-2. Brief abstracts of apparitional cases. apparitions

Sidgwick, Henry et al. REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS, Proceedings 10, 1894, pp. 25-422. The fullest survey of its kind ever undertaken, of interest to psychologists as well as to psychical researchers. Primary aims were to discover the incidence of hallucinations generally and place the work on telepathic and veridical hallucinations into a clearer perspective. Four hundred collectors polled 17,000 answers to the question, ‘Have you ever, when believing yourself to be completely awake, had a vivid impression of seeing or being touched by a living being or inanimate object, or of hearing a voice; which impression, so far as you could discover, was not due to any external physical cause?’ About 1,700 answered yes, ten percent of the total. Chapter headings and page references are given in the contents at the front of the volume and there is a useful synopsis-summary starting page 395. The method adopted is described and tables of results given, broken down into categories of visual, auditory, tactile and various combinations of these. Possible sources of distortion are considered: deception, refusal to answer, bias by collectors, forgetfulness; and adjustments are made to allow for a more true estimate of the incidence of hallucinations by respondents. Main features are then described, examples given and the conditions favourable to the occurrence of hallucination identified. Headings include: pseudo-hallucinations; illusions; form and development; physiology; age, sex, heredity, nationality, and health; recurrent hallucinations; mental and nervous conditions; expectancy and suggestion; organic effects accompanying hallucinations. The report then deals with hallucinations that appear not to be entirely subjective. Apparitions coinciding in time with the death of the person seen are found to be the most numerous: after ample allowance for all possible sources of error is made the number is found to be ‘far greater than the hypothesis of chance-coincidence will account for’ (393), confirming the conclusions reached for the evidence of telepathy in such cases in Phantasms of the Living. Collective apparitions are discussed and telepathy and suggestion proposed as explanations (303). Hauntings are described (338), but no strong reasons are found for attributing them to the deceased. Stronger evidence of survival is adduced from death coincidences and apparitions of people known to be dead, discussed in the final section. A small class of experimental apparitions is discussed in which, typically, an individual succeeds in projecting an apparition of him/herself to another person at a distance (29, 270). For later analysis see Broad, C.D., Lectures on Psychical Research. apparitions/hauntings/hallucinations/methodology/theory

Anon. CASES, Journal 7, 1895-96, pp. 7-15. See also pp. 25-8, 79-80, 96, 99-111, 120-6, 138-42, 162-3, 173-8, 188-196, 238-44, 250-9, 266-74, 282-91, 329-39. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. Miss X. A PASSING NOTE ON A HAUNTED HOUSE, Journal 8, 1897, pp. 20-25. Describes attempt to investigate stories of hauntings in a country house near Guildford. apparitions/hauntings

Johnson, Alice. A CASE OF INFORMATION SUPERNORMALLY ACQUIRED, Proceedings 12, 1896-97, pp. 116-26. Russian case: two brothers are warned by a ghost to return a fur coat which will otherwise infect the wearer with a deadly disease. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 7, 1895-96, pp. 319-24. apparitions

Anon. CASES, Journal 8, 1897-8, pp. 10-16. See also pp. 41-8, 74-80, 120-132, 134-147, 161-3, 192-6, 227-8, 238-244, 277-80, 298-300, 308-16, 318-22, 326-30. No summaries given. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 8, 1898, pp. 159-61, 171-9, 186-92. apparitions

Smith, Arthur. NOTE ON ‘FISHER’S GHOST’, Proceedings 14, 1898-9, pp. 111-4. An Australian case: the apparition of a farmer who has mysteriously disappeared indicates a creek where his body is later discovered. apparitions

Anon. CASES, Journal 9, 1899-1900, pp. 12-16. See also pp. 47-8, 58-61, 73-80, 87-9, 104-12, 122-8, 134-8, 150-58, 195-7, 227, 241-51, 280-6, 298-308, 331-2. No summaries given. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 9, 1899, pp. 158-9. apparitions

Podmore, Frank. MISS A. GOODRICH-FREER AND THE MARQUIS OF BUTE’S ‘THE ALLEGED HAUNTING OF B— HOUSE, Proceedings 15, 1900-1901, pp. 98-100. Brief review of a published case not investigated by the SPR. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. CASES, Journal 10, 1901-2, pp. 2-32. See also pp. 38-47, 78-80, 134-42, 161-72, 232-4, 263-7, 274-9, 298-303, 308-20. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. CASES, Journal 11, 1903-4, pp. 25-36. See also pp. 58-68, 80-84,103-112, 113-116, 118-27, 135-41, 157-9, 177-9, 181-91, 223-8, 269-72, 315-324. No summaries given. apparitions

Stephenson, Augustus K. GHOST STORIES OF 100 YEARS AGO: A WARNING TO ‘GHOSTS’ AND TO PSYCHICAL RESEARCHERS OF THE PRESENT DAY, Journal 11, 1903-4, pp. 214-20. A man who shoots and kills a practical joker pretending to be a ghost is tried and condemned for murder, then reprieved. apparitions

Anon. [RIDER HAGGARD DREAM], Journal 11, 1903-4, pp. 278-90. The well-known writer dreams of his daughter’s dog, lying injured by a stream. The dog is later found to have gone missing and is discovered floating in the river, having been run over by a train. psi/dreams

Anon. CASES, Journal 12, 1905-6, pp. 14-15. See also pp. 17-23, 54-63, 99-101, 118-22, 173-6, 184-8, 193-7, 290-4, 302-13, 317-28, 340-3. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. THE JOURNALIST AT LARGE IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, Journal 12, 1905-6, pp. 65-8. Criticisms of newspapers’ treatment of ghost stories. apparitions/hauntings

Crichton-Browne, James. REPORT OF A CO-COGNITIVE DREAM, Journal 12, 1905, pp. 145-56. A woman gains knowledge of a fatal accident to her son during a dream vision. dreams/apparitions/psi

Anon. COLLECTIVE (?) APPARITION, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 27-30. Account of a hallucination apparently shared by a dog. apparitions/hallucinations

Anon. HAUNTED HOUSE, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 52-64. Detailed description of occurrences in an Elizabethan manor house, whose occupants independently and on several different occasions observe a figure, hooded and dressed in black drapery, who could not be accounted for. hauntings/apparitions

Anon. DREAM ROMANCES, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 90-96. Report of a Russian woman who describes having been visited regularly as a child by a female apparition. The visitor is dressed in the style of Louis VI and the narrator subsequently experiences frequent dreams of Marie-Antoinette. During a visit to Versailles the narrator claims to have been able to guide friends round the Queen’s apartments, finding them to correspond exactly to her dreams. apparitions

Anon. COLLECTIVE APPARITION, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 103-10. Anglers on holiday in Scotland see a boatman known to both of them, but in a place and at a time when he should have been elsewhere. The man is subsequently found to have fallen into the water and drowned while on his way home. apparitions

Anon. HAUNTED HOUSE, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 156-8. The apparition of a woman dressed in black is seen on different occasions by a number of independent witnesses. hauntings/apparitions

Anon. APPARITION SEEN SOON AFTER DEATH, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 228-34. A man who is rejected by the woman he loves shoots himself, and his apparition is seen by a younger relative in a vision. See also Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 166-72. apparitions

Anon. APPARITION AT TIME OF DEATH, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 234-40. A young man is seen unexpectedly by his fiancée standing in her office and is later found to have died at about the same time. apparitions

Anon. APPARITION, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 41-6. Report of an apparition seen on separate occasions by different people. apparitions/hauntings

Lang, Andrew. ‘SPIRIT HANDS’, SUGGESTION AND DOGS, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 65-72. Report of an incident in which, during a visit to a Norwegian cathedral, the author’s niece sees the shadowy form of a pointing hand and arm. She later finds her vision corresponds to a similar incident that took place some years earlier. Apparitions seemingly perceived by dogs are also described. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. DREAMS, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 72-7. An earthquake is precognised; a woman has a dream vision of her mother amid singing voices and soon after receives a telegram of her death. apparitions/precognition/dreams

Piddington, J.G. HALLUCINATION, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 136-43. A woman giving birth sees an apparition of her father who died a year earlier. apparitions

Podmore, Frank. TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS: THE NEW VIEW OF GHOSTS, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 290-92. Review of the SPR researcher’s book, in which he argues that apparitions, although clearly not mere subjective hallucinations, can be explained by telepathy of the living. book review/apparitions/hallucinations/telepathy

Anon. DREAM, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 295-7. A woman has a vivid dream of an old friend and soon afterwards learns that she died at the time of the dream. apparitions

Anon. DREAM, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 327-9. A woman has a veridical dream of the death of an acquaintance. psi/dreams

Anon. HAUNTED HOUSE, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 374-80. Report of apparition seen independently in the same house by several different persons. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. COLLECTIVE APPARITION, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 249-54. A cat dies and is buried and some weeks later is seen to walk by several people round the garden. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. COLLECTIVE APPARITION, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 289-91. Apparition of a living person seen by two people simultaneously. apparitions

Eeden, Frederick van. A STUDY OF DREAMS, Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 431-61. A subjective record of dreaming is given by a Dutch member. This much-quoted paper describes several categories, including one of of lucid-dreaming, quoting instances which appear to indicate survival (450-53). The author describes two dreams in which he believes himself be conversing with his brother and a well-known scientist, both actually deceased and appearing in the dreams to be talking about afterlife conditions. He also claims dream-encounters with the spirit of Frederic Myers (453) and a number of encounters with demons. apparitions/dreams/survival

Anon. APPARITION, Journal 16, 1913-14, pp. 3-6. A woman sees an apparition of her stepson on the first day of an illness from which he subsequently dies. apparitions

Mattiesen, Emil. A CASE OF TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATION, Journal 16, 1913, pp. 119-26. A German shopkeeper is visited by apparitions who urge him to send money to his sister. He does so, and later discovers his sister had been praying for money. apparitions/telepathy

Anon. APPARITION, Journal 16, 1913-14, pp. 152-5. The ghost of a priest, seen by a visitor to a mountain village, is confirmed by local reputation. apparitions/hauntings

Johnson, Alice. A FURTHER REPORT OF MR GRUNBAUM’S EXPERIENCES, Journal 17, 1915, pp. 43-52. A hallucination is reported that coincides with the accidental death of a relative. hallucinations/telepathy/survival

Anon. APPARITION OF THE DYING, Journal 17, 1915-16, pp. 230-35. An individual’s two distinct visions of a brother in Australia lying dead or unconscious are later found to have coincided with his actual sudden death. apparitions

Anon. AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING ‘THE ANGELS AT MONS’, Journal 17, 1915-16, pp. 95,106-18. An enquiry into reports of battlefield visions produces negative results, with no first-hand testimony and no indications of supernormal phenomena. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 41, 1961, p. 51. apparitions

Anon. COINCIDENTAL HALLUCINATION, Journal 17, 1915-16, pp. 204-7. A sick woman has a vision of her brother on board his ship, later found to have occurred within minutes of the ship’s actual sinking and his subsequent death. telepathy/apparitions

Anon. HALLUCINATORY AND OTHER EXPERIENCES OF A YOUNG CHILD, Journal 18, 1917-18, pp. 231-5. A mother describes her young daughter’s apparent ability to see and communicate with the spirit of her dead father. apparitions/survival

Anon. CASES, Journal 18, 1917-18, pp. 19-29. See also pp. 35-40, 51-8, 92-8, 191-6, 209-11, 225-8, 239-43. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. CASES, Journal 19, 1919-20, pp. 3-10. See also pp. 30-32, 39-48, 56-8, 76-88, 99-101, 138-41, 161-3, 186-90, 226-34, 262-6, 269-74. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. A GROUP OF PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCES, Journal 19, 1919-20, pp. 166-80. Examples of dream precognition, including dreams of afterlife and a conversation with the deceased ‘King Edward’ that includes a prophecy of the ending of the First World War. apparitions/dreams/precognition/survival

Anon. A CASE IN WHICH A FACT, APPARENTLY KNOWN TO A DEAD MAN ONLY, WAS COMMUNICATED IN A VISION, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 244-9. The mother of a soldier killed in battle has a vision which enables her to locate his body. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 347-8. apparitions/survival

Anon. CASES, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 75-88. See also pp. 115-8, 214-9, 333-5. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. CASES, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 293-7. See also pp. 319-21, 328-9, 349-52. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. AN APPARITION SEEN SHORTLY AFTER DEATH, Journal 22, 1925, pp. 98-104. A woman has a hallucination of her husband and is puzzled as to why he is wearing ‘a long and shapeless black garment’ (100). The following morning she hears of his death which took place while he was giving a service in church, and wearing a cassock. apparitions

Anon. APPARITION OF A CAT, Journal 23, 1926, pp. 66-71. Animal haunting. apparitions/hauntings

Prince, Walter F. CONCERNING AN HALLUCINATION OF A CAT, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 12-13. The American researcher tells a story of an apparitional white kitten whose appearances were followed by the death of a person related to the percipient. hauntings/apparitions

Anon. CASES, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 1-4. See also pp. 53-7, 115-18. No summaries given. apparitions

Anon. CONCERNING EVIDENCE FOR SURVIVAL, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 336-7. A supposedly true anecdote is related in which a deceased individual appears repeatedly to his daughter in dreams, complaining that his tombstone has been erected over the wrong grave. Permission to exhume the grave is obtained, and it is found to contain the body of a man supposedly buried next to him. The mistake is rectified and the hauntings cease. See also Journal 26, pp. 64-8. dreams/apparitions/survival

Anon. CASE OF THE WILL OF MR JAMES L. CHAFFIN, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 517-24. A North Carolina farmer is visited in a dream by his deceased father and told where to find a will which will restore to him a share of the property left to another brother. The will is found and the handwriting confirmed as genuine by several witnesses, persuading the current owners of the property not to contest it. Investigators are impressed by the apparent sincerity of those involved and regard the case as genuine. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 177-8. See also Journal 41, 1961-62, pp. 407-17. dreams/psi/apparitions

Solovovo, Count P-P. A PHANTASM OF THE DEAD CONVEYING INFORMATION UNKNOWN TO THE PERCIPIENT, Journal 26, 1930, pp. 95-8. An apparition demands to be given a bigger coffin. apparitions

Anon. APPARITION OF A RELATIVE SEEN AT THE TIME OF HER DEATH, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 34-36. Briefcase. apparitions

Solovovo, Count P-P. A CASE OF APPARENT HAUNTING IN MOSCOW, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 95-7. A Russian case, briefly described. hauntings

Anon. TWO INCIDENTS, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 126-30. Visions of dead individuals appear to correspond to unknown facts. apparitions

Anon. CASE OF HAUNTING AT RAMSBURY, WILTS, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 297-304. The apparition of a deceased chimney sweep is repeatedly seen by members of his family, sometimes collectively. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. HALLUCINATORY IMPRESSION OF A RELATIVE’S DEATH, Journal 27, 1931-32, p. 326. Telepathic awareness of the death of a distant relative. apparitions/telepathy

Anon. APPARITION NEARLY COINCIDING WITH A FRIEND’S DEATH, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 337-8. A second priest is seen in a church where actually there is only one. The witness discovers that a burial hymn sung at the service is for an individual who has recently died, and whose apparition he has seen. apparitions/hauntings

Hart, H. & Ella B. VISIONS AND APPARITIONS COLLECTIVELY AND RECIPROCALLY PERCEIVED, Proceedings 41, 1932-3, pp. 205-49. An analysis of characteristics: how well authenticated are collective cases? how closely identical are the percipients’ experiences? how closely do the apparitions conform to ordinary appearance? what evidence of self-consciousness do such apparitions show? to what extent do the apparitions fit into the space-time environment? how far apart are agent and percipient in reciprocal or coincidental cases? what emotional and intellectual links exist among percipient, agent, their concerns and the locality? what evidence of survival do collective cases offer? Cases are drawn from the published literature of research on apparitions. Statistical analysis makes it Overwhelmingly probable’ that the reports have some basis in fact (243); apparitions can transcend space and matter, yet create impressions of ordinary sense experience on observers (246). Apparitions of the dead, collectively perceived, are found to offer similar characteristics to apparitions of persons known to be living (248). apparitions/methodology/theory

Anon. A COLLECTIVE VISUAL HALLUCINATION, Journal 28, 1933-34, pp. 251-3. A couple are ‘visited’ by the woman’s deceased mother. apparitions/hallucinations

Anon. A HAUNTED HOUSE, Journal 29, 1935-36, pp. 239-43. The apparition of an old lady is repeatedly seen over a number of years by several different witnesses, some of whom had no prior knowledge of it. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. A PHANTASM SEEN BEFORE THE DEATH OF A FAMILY FRIEND, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 235-6. A woman watching a funeral procession of a friend wonders who will be next to die. She then sees a vivid impression of a friend of her father, whom she has an interest in but whom she has not been in touch with, which lasts for some time. The friend dies six days later, having been ill for a fortnight, a fact which was unknown to her. apparitions/precognition

Anon. A DREAM SUGGESTING PLANNED EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 182-6. A woman has a dream in which her deceased father appears holding a handful of fountain pens and asking that she send them to an unspecified address. This echoes statements made by him before his death and is thought possibly to be an elaborate attempt by him to demonstrate his survival (while living he had been heard to criticise Myers’s sealed envelope method). dreams/apparitions/survival

Anon. AN APPARITION OF A DEAD PERSON SEEN IN DAYLIGHT BY TWO PERCIPIENTS, Journal 31, 1939-40, pp. 33-4. A couple leave home in their car to drive to London. After five minutes they pass a neighbour in the street and exchange greetings. That night they discover that the neighbour had killed her husband and then herself some 12 hours earlier. apparitions

Bacon, Charlotte. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, Journal 32, 1941, pp. 59-61. A woman depressed by bad news and lying sleepless on her bed sees a vision in which ‘shapes and forms of the most marvellous colours imaginable bathed in a living and dazzling light.. .lighted up the whole room. ‘ The vision brings ‘feelings of awe and reassurance and deepest thankfulness’. It appears localised at the window and can be viewed from different angles in the room. The light is also observed by her husband when he wakes briefly. dreams/hallucinations/apparitions

Anon. AN APPARITION SEEN BY TWO WITNESSES, Journal 32, 1941-2, pp. 119. A vicar and his friend have a simultaneous glimpse of an unexpected visitor in their garden, who then vanishes. apparitions/hallucinations

Nathan, Lawrence. TWO DREAMS APPARENTLY CONVEYING PARANORMAL IMPRESSIONS, Journal 33, 1943, pp. 27-30. The writer dreams of his father’s mother speaking to his mother’s mother (both dead for twenty years), saying ‘Joe is coming to us’. Joe is the name of his father with whom he has not spoken for two years. He wakes with the conviction his father has died. The death did in fact occur on the night of the dream. In a second incident, a dream involving a sense of suffocation coincides with his baby son nearly choking to death. apparitions/dreams/precogniton/telepathy

Anon. APPARITION, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 72-4. A woman has a vision ‘like a shutter opened slowly and then closed again slowly’ (72), showing a friend apparently in bed in hospital. Two days later she hears of his death, following an operation. apparitions/precognition

Oman, Charles. THE OLD OXFORD PHASMATOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 208-16. A founder member of an Oxford undergraduate society for research into occult phenomena describes its work during the six years of its existence. apparitions/hauntings

Anon. RECOGNISED APPARITION SEEN BY TWO PERCIPIENTS, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 239-42. A young man wearing a naval uniform is seen and recognised by people in the house where he used to live, nine months after his death. CORRESPONDENCE, p. 253. apparitions/hauntings

West, D.J. MASS-OBSERVATION QUESTIONNAIRE ON HALLUCINATIONS, Journal 34, 1948, pp. 187-96. A small-scale follow up of the 1890 Census of Hallucinations finds no diminution in the frequency of reports of sporadic hallucinations, although a mere two percent are claimed by percipients to be veridical and none of more than three hundred cases considered is substantiated. See also pp. 223-4. hallucinations/apparitions

Osborne, Edward. THE WOMAN IN BROWN: AN INVESTIGATION OF AN APPARITION, Journal 35, 1949-50, pp. 123-53. A 27-year-old female office worker has repeated visions of a woman dressed in brown getting up from a chair and crossing to a window, then disappearing. She is unable to describe the woman’s face, however. Under hypnosis a pattern of associations is discovered, suggesting that the hallucination is a fantasy projection relating to wartime fears and experiences. hauntings/apparitions/hallucinations/hypnosis

Heywood, Rosalind. EXPERIENCE IN A VILLAGE SHOP, Journal 38, 1955-6, pp. 87-9. A woman takes an electric heater to her local shop to be mended. The elderly owner of the shop comes down the stairs to serve her, but his son brushes past him and serves her instead. The old man returns up the stairs. She subsequently discovers the old man had died some weeks earlier. apparitions/hauntings

Gauld, Alan. A CAMBRIDGE APPARITION, Journal 38, 1955-6, pp. 89-91. An undergraduate reports seeing an old man walking along the street in front of him late one night, then abruptly vanish. The apparition was visible for over a minute. apparitions

McEwan, P.J.M. THE ARDACHIE CASE, Journal 38, 1955-6, pp. 159-72. A married couple arrive at a country house to take up domestic positions. Raps are heard and the woman, apparently frightened, claims on a number of occasions to have seen a female apparition, making sleep difficult. The disturbances occur over several nights. The appearance of the apparition, her apparent concern about a favourite rose garden, and other details, all correspond with facts relating to a previous occupant. The percipient is clearly excitable and certain features of the case arouse suspicion, but no motive for fraud is discerned. The author concludes that something genuinely paranormal may be occurring. apparitions/poltergeist

Dalton, G.F. OPERATIVE FACTORS IN SPONTANEOUS TELEPATHY, Journal 38, 1956, pp. 287-319. Author’s abstract: From Phantasms of the Living and other sources, 124 cases are selected by elimination of (1) experimental cases, (2) those of lower evidential value, and (3) those which are possibly precognitive. The selected cases are analysed in respect of : (1) the sensitivity of the percipient, (2) his state at the time, (3) and 4) the efficacy and state of the agent, (5 and 6) the orientation of each, (7) the linkage between them, (8) the intensity of the experience, and (9) the information conveyed. The following conclusions are reached: 1. The fundamental process in spontaneous telepathy is the transference to the percipient of a psychical experience of the agent. 2. In death cases, the agent’s experience occurs after death, is of great intensity, and is connected with the loss of the body. 3. collective cases are due to interaction between percipients under conditions of positive feedback, resulting in a building-up of the experience to great intensity. 4. Reciprocal cases may be due to the similar building-up of a common drama underlying the apparently separate experiences of the percipients. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 332-4. apparitions/hallucinations/methodology/theory

Hughes, Ian. A PARANORMAL DREAM, Journal 39, 1957, pp. 186-8. A man dreams he is experiencing his father’s death. Subsequently he learns his father died in an accident on a ship around 24 hours after the dream. dreams/precognition

Salter, W.H. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO 1959 REPORT ON ENQUIRY INTO SPONTANEOUS CASES, Proceedings 53, 1960, pp. 83-93. Describes the methodology used in collecting and analyzing apparitional cases in the SPR’s early years. Notes the later decline in the number of spontaneous cases reported to the SPR and the subsequent renewal of interest in the early 1950s. apparitions/methodology

Cornell, A.D. AN EXPERIMENT IN APPARITIONAL OBSERVATIONS AND FINDINGS, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 120-24. Cambridge undergraduates stage a ghost-walk on three separate evenings but the apparition is not noticed by a single one of the more than 70 people in a position to observe it. The author speculates that genuine apparitional cases have some ‘psi factor’ which engages the attention of the percipient, and which is here absent. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 270, 323-4. apparitions/experiments

Cornell, A.D. FURTHER EXPERIMENTS IN APPARITIONAL OBSERVATION, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 409-18. Attempts are made to amplify the results of a previous ghost-walk experiment, with most observers resolutely refusing to see more than ‘an art student walking around in a blanket’ (411), but indications of inconsistent testimony also emerging. apparitions/experiments

Turner, P. THE GREY LADY: A STUDY OF A PSYCHIC PHENOMENON IN THE DYING, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 124-9. Patients in a hospital ward for the terminally ill report being attended by a nurse in a grey uniform, who is however not known to the other staff. A number of details concerning the reports correspond with each other, among them the fact that the patients who make them to nurses consistently die shortly after seeing it. apparitions

Anon. APPARITION, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 152-3. A British pilot is involved in a dogfight with Stukas over the Western Desert in 1942. After returning to base he is approached by another pilot who talks to him casually about the action, uncharacteristically declines the offer of a cigarette and goes into his tent. It transpires that the second pilot had actually been killed in the action and that this encounter could not in any normal way have taken place. apparitions

Heywood, Rosalind. A LUMINOUS APPARITION, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 185-8. An elderly scientist and his wife both, on independent occasions and unknown to each other, see a curious luminous figure gliding laboriously up the stairs. The apparition seems to be male, the face not visible and the clothes some kind of ribbons or ‘tatters’. apparitions/hauntings

Crookall, Robert. AN INFANT’S PERCEPTION OF A DEATH, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 124-6. A three-year-old child about to be told of his grandfather’s death tells his mother that the old man has just been to see him, to tell him to be good and that he has gone to Heaven. apparitions/survival

Lambert, G.W. BEAVOR LODGE: AN OLD GHOST STORY RETOLD, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 273-82. The geophysical theory is applied to a an early case. The ghost was a tall lady in grey, often seen by the occupants of the house it frequented. hauntings/theory

Anon. AN ‘ETHER IMPRINT’, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 429-30. A house servant reports seeing the apparition of his predecessor, who died a few weeks earlier. He had never met this man, but recognised him from a dream he had had and from photographs subsequently shown to him. apparitions/dreams

Russ, Sydney. AN EXPERIENCE AND THEORY OF ‘GHOSTS’, Journal 41, 1961-62, pp. 329-30. A University professor observes a ‘ghost’ at length and decides it is an image imposed on his retina by his subconscious mind. apparitions/theory

Zorab, G. CASES OF THE CHAFFIN WILL TYPE AND THE PROBLEM OF SURVIVAL, Journal 41, 1961-62, pp. 407-17. Cases considered to demonstrate survival are here attributed to clairvoyance, the agency of a dream apparition being a subconscious dramatisation. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 42, pp. 36-8, 157-60. apparitions/dreams

Anon. A LATENT APPARITION?, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 65-8. Impression of a female visitor, connected with an individual later found to be dead at the time. apparitions

Anon. EXCERPT A, Journal 42, 1963, pp. 209-12. Relates an ESP experience of J. Hewat McKenzie and an account of an apparition by novelist Pamela Frankau. Also her experience of being psychic when in Ireland. PsiLine apparitions

Stevenson, Ian. THE BLUE ORCHID OF TABLE MOUNTAIN, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 401-9. A British woman sees the apparition of her cousin killed in a tank battle in 1944. The apparition takes a blue flower out of his shirt and puts it back, and repeats this action. His mother in South Africa accepts this as convincing proof of his survival, since it corresponds closely to a small but significant event not known by the percipient. The apparition also names a special friend unknown to the percipient. apparitions/survival

Stevenson, Ian. THE CASE OF THE ‘TEDDY BEAR’ SUIT, Journal 43, 1965, pp. 92-3. A woman has a possibly telepathic vision of her son escaping from Dunkirk. apparitions/telepathy

Lambert, G.W. AN AUDITORY HALLUCINATION APPARENTLY CONNECTED WITH A DEATH AT A DISTANCE, Journal 43, 1965-66, pp. 363-6. A man hears his nephew speaking to him, although he sees no one and is not expecting a visit. Looking in his paper later he discovers news of his nephew’s death. hallucinations/apparitions

Lambert, G.W. AN APPARITION OF A CHILD, THE CASE OF JOHNNIE M., Journal 43, 1965-66, pp. 429-31. The identity of an apparition, unknown to the percipient, is confirmed by a relative from the percipient’s description. apparitions

MacKenzie, Andrew. A CASE OF HAUNTING IN KENT, Journal 44, 1967-68, pp. 131-49. An investigator returns to a case first reported in the press in 1949. The lady of the house reports seeing a woman dressed in a ‘very full grey skirt’ (135) whom she first takes for an intruder; three children independently report a ‘lady’ walking past or into their room; a former domestic servant reports seeing a ‘lady in an old-fashioned dress’ who could not be accounted for (136). Footsteps and noises are reported. The episode also includes a case of apparent retrocognition, in which a percipient observes a change of scene and encounters a man wearing nineteenth-century dress. apparitions/hauntings

Lambert, G.W. TWO SYNCHRONOUS EXPERIENCES CONNECTED WITH A DEATH, Journal 44, 1967-68, pp. 232-7. Following the death of his mother a man has a mystical experience, during which he seems to re-experience events from his mother’s life. At the same time his sister, in an other place, hears her mother speaking to her. The experiences lead to a conviction of survival of death. A Freudian ‘return to the womb’ explanation is proposed on pp. 314-5. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 370-71. apparitions/hauntings/survival

Cornell, A.D. & Gauld, Alan. A ‘GHOST’ ON TELEVISION, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 14-17. A ‘hooded monk’ seen by some viewers standing next to a participant in a television programme on ghosts is discovered to be an illusion formed by the light on background masonry. hallucinations

MacKenzie, Andrew & Goldney, K.M. TWO EXPERIENCES OF AN APPARITION, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 381-91. A well-known clergyman and writer on theological subjects describes a visit from the deceased writer C.S. Lewis, who appears in an armchair in front of him and makes remarks appropriate to his (the percipient’s) personal affairs. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 46, 1971, pp. 203-5. apparitions

Cassirer, Manfred. THE GHOST OF C.S.LEWIS, Journal 55, 1988-89, pp. 33-5. The memory of the witness is found to be unreliable, diminishing the value of the original report. apparitions

Gauld, Alan. THE HAUNTING OF ABBEY HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 109-23. Describes various phenomena witnessed over nearly a century: noises that frightened servants; the apparition of an animal; the apparition of a nun; heavy footsteps; and others. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 47, p. 60. hauntings/apparitions

Smith, E. Lester. THE RAUDIVE VOICES - OBJECTIVE OR SUBJECTIVE? A DISCUSSION, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 192-200. Considers the claim made by K. Raudive in his book Breakthrough to have tape recorded messages from the dead. Suggests that the imagination may shape incoherent sounds into the semblance of words and phrases.CORRESPONDENCE 47, pp. 208-12, 396, 531-2. evp

Ellis, DJ. LISTENING TO THE ‘RAUDIVE VOICES’, Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 31-42. Voices recorded by Raudive are found to be subject to different interpretations, throwing doubt on their paranormal origin. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 250-52; Journal 49, 1977, pp. 476-7, 566-7; Journal 50, 1979-80. evp

Cleaver, Alan. [ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON NEWSLETTER], Journal 49, 1978, pp. 981-2. Announces a newsletter devoted to the Electronic Voice Phenomenon. evp

Clancey, Patricia M. [ELECTRONIC VOICE EXPERIMENTS], Journal 50, 1980, p. 550. Brief account of experiments appearing to reveal sounds and speech of paranormal origin on tape recordings. The author says: ? suggest that spontaneous paranormal sounds on tape are a transmission from denizens of another dimension, and that the efficacy of this transmision depends on both the psychic receptivity and the elctronic ingenuity of experimenters.’ CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 51, pp. 189-9; Journal 61, 1996, pp. 191-2. evp

Pinkerton, Valentine. [ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON], Journal 51, 1981, pp. 121-2. Suggests that at least some of the voices heard on tape recorders and thought to be of paranormal origin may be due to radio interference requiring suitable screens and filters. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 189-91; Journal 51, 1982, p. 320. evp

Zorab, Georg. HAVE WE TO RECKON WITH A SPECIAL PHANTOM-FORMING PREDISPOSITION?, Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 19-30. Discusses hypotheses about the presence of apparitions, citing cases and presenting alternative explanations. Manifestations such as D.D. Home’s materialization of arms, hands, fingers, etc, may have been produced by Home’s own psi powers, not by supernatural entities. Similarly, the phenomenon of the ‘double body’ is hypothesized to be produced by persons who may possess a phantom-building faculty, as some persons have a faculty for producing ESP or PK phenomena. Several phenomena which have been regarded as conclusive proof that apparitions are of subjective origin may be explained instead by the exercise of this phantom-building faculty. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 247-8. apparitions/theory

Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: APPARITION, Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 61-4. Following several sleepless nights a visitor to a ninteenth-century workman’s cottage has a vision of a hanged man. However, no official documentation can be found to confirm the incident. hauntings/apparitions

Anon. AN APPARITION, Journal 49, 1977-78, pp. 679-80. A woman meditates and sees the apparition of a former employee who has recently died. The individual seems uncharacteristically aggressive and distressed (feelings which the percipient seems to directly experience), suggesting that he is confused by what has happened to him. apparitions

Macintyre, L.I. [PREARRANGED POST-MORTEM APPARITIONAL APPEARANCES], Journal 49, 1978, p. 768. Suggests that experiments be made by individuals agreeing with friends that the first to die will attempt to appear as a ghost to the other. apparitions/experiments

McHarg, James F. A VISION OF THE AFTERMATH OF THE BATTLE OF NECHTANESMERE, AD 685, Journal 49, 1977-78, pp. 938-48. Description and discussion of an apparently retrocognitive experience in rural Scotland: a woman sees men wearing unusual costume and carrying flaming torches apparently looking for their dead in the aftermath of a battle. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 58, pp. 60-61. apparitions/retrocognition

Hallson, Peter. [APPARITIONS RESEARCH], Journal 52, 1983, pp. 86-7. Suggests the use of hypnosis for inducing collective hallucinations, as a means of testing Tyrrell’s theory of telepathically induced apparitions. telepathy/apparitions/hallucinations/methodology

Stevenson, Ian. [CORRESPONDENCE], Journal 52, 1983-84, pp. 339-40. Draws attention to an apparitional episode said to have been experienced by John Donne and mentioned by Stevenson in a 1962 letter (Journal 41, pp. 327-9). Stevenson argues here that the experience never in fact occurred. apparitions

Haraldsson, Erlendur. THE lYENGAR-KIRTI CASE: AN APPARITIONAL CASE OF THE BYSTANDER TYPE, Journal 54, 1987, pp. 64-7. A sick woman sees the apparition of a young girl’s grandfather, urging her to send the girl home. The girl is reluctant, but agrees at least to telephone, finding then that her grandfather died unexpectedly a few minutes earlier. apparitions

Green, Andrew. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 55, 1988, p. 46. Note on archaeological evidence of’ghost killing’ ceremonies. beliefs

Roberts, F. Somerville. AN EXTENSION OF THE ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR’ IN TYRRELL’S THEORY OF APPARITIONS, Journal 56, 1989-91, pp. 216-20. A theory of apparitions based on a ‘psychological idea-pattern’ existing within the personality and capable of being transmitted telepathically is here explored in terms of the relationship between sensory images and consciousness. apparitions/theory

West, D.J. A PILOT CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS, Proceedings 57, April 1990, pp. 163-207. A new survey of spontaneous personal psychic experiences, following a similar pattern to the 1894 census. A total of 1,129 questionnaires yielded 840 returns, 275 with some experience to report and 95 estimated as the number who had genuine ‘hallucination’ experiences, a similar result to the 10 percent reported in the original census. A number of cases are described, mainly apparitions and hauntings, but also a few premonitions and near-death experiences. Some of the apparitions are veridical, a few are collective. However there are no cases of crisis coincidence, which leads the author to speculate that such occurrences may be less prevalent than during the period of the original census. apparitions/hauntings/hallucinations

Rogo, D. Scott. A TWOFOLD PORTENT OF DEATH, Journal 56-57, 1989-91, pp. 148-154. A female member of a theatre group in Los Angeles has a dream about another member, a young man with AIDS. After waking she sees his apparition. He is later found to have died in hospital at around the same time. dreams/apparitions

Berger, Arthur S. et al. SPIRIT EXTRAS ON VIDEO TAPE?, Journal 58, 1991-92, pp. 153-64. Images on television screens claimed by some German viewers to be of the dead are shown to be indistinguishable from images in a protective ‘Rorschach’ test and as such are not evidence of survival. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 410-11. apparitions/hallucinations

Cassirer, Manfred. AN 18TH-CENTURY HAUNT AND THE PRECURSORS OF CSICOP, Journal 59, 1993-94, pp. 114-19. Describes a German case of a recurrent apparition. apparitions

West, D.J. NOTE ON A RECENT PSYCHIC SURVEY, Journal 60, 1994-5, pp. 168-71. Reports on an ‘apparitions’ telephone survey carried out by the BBC in preparation for a television programme on the supernatural. The question asked was: ‘Have you ever - when believing yourself to be fully awake and unaffected by illness, drink or drugs - had a vivid experience of seeing something or someone, or of hearing a voice, when there was nothing there, and no ordinary cause that you could find?’ In the sample of 1007, 22% replied in the affirmative, substantially more than in previous surveys, including the 1864 Census, the author’s own Mass-Observation Questionnaire in 1948, and his Pilot Census of 1990. A second question asked: ‘Have you ever had an experience which you felt was beyond conventional explanation or understanding and you believed to be an example of the paranormal - such as telepathy, being in the presence of a ghost or having a premonition?’ to which 36% replied positively. West compares the results with the earlier surveys. He concludes that statistics from this kind of media-related survey are interesting in demonstrating the durability of paranormal belief and experience, but are misleading if not followed up with further detailed enquiries. apparitions/hallucinations

Alvarado, Carlos S. & Zingrone, Nancy L. CHARACTERISTICS OF HAUNTINGS WITH AND WITHOUT APPARITIONS: AN ANALYSIS OF PUBLISHED CASES, Journal 60, 1994-5, pp. 385-97. Statistical analysis of a study conducted into the characteristics of 172 haunting cases (Gauld & Cornell 1979). hauntings/apparitions

Radin, Dean I. & Rebman, Jannine. ARE PHANTASMS FACT OR FANTASY? A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF APPARITIONS EVOKED IN THE LABORATORY, Journal 61, 1996-7, pp. 65-87. Describes an attempt to determine whether apparitions are subjective fantasies or reflect some form of objective reality. An experiment with seven subjects suggests that apparitions may be objectively caused by mind-matter interactions or subjective effects caused by external energies. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 278-81. apparitions/experiments/theory

Wright, Sylvia H. EXPERIENCES OF SPONTANEOUS PSYCHOKINESIS AFTER BEREAVEMENT, Journal 62, 1997-8, pp. 385-95. Author’s abstract: Studies from many parts of the world agree that widowed persons frequently sense the presence of their deceased mates. For example, 90% of a sample of Japanese widows and 82% of a sample of Swedish widows and widowers interviewed soon after bereavement had ‘hallucinations’ or ‘illusions’ of the lost spouse. Data are customarily collected about visual, auditory and tactile experiences and about sensing the presence of the deceased person. Little data has been collected about experiences of SPK in this context. The author’s personal experiences of SPK after bereavement are compared with similar accounts in the literature. psychokinesis/survival/hallucinations

Wright, Sylvia Hart. PARANORMAL CONTACT WITH THE DYING: 14 CONTEMPORARY DEATH COINCIDENCES, Journal 63, 1998-9, pp. 258-67. Author’s abstract: In interviews, 61 sane, healthy adults who had sensed contact with the dead described their experiences, some veridical. Most common were vivid dreams (35), sense of presence (34), symbolic events (34) and telepathic communication (34). Sight, hearing, smell and touch were also reported; many events involved electric lights, radios and telephones. Thirteen reported death coincidences, recounted here. Nineteen respondents were children of substance abusers; nineteen reported intensely authoritarian, angry and/or abusive pressures during childhood. Children traumatized by violence may respond by dissociation, disengaging from their immediate world and attending to other stimuli. This may heighten sensitivity to psi phenomena. apparitions/dreams/telepathy/psychokinesis/coincidences/survival

Fontana, David. THREE EXPERIENCES POSSIBLY SUGGESTIVE OF SURVIVAL, Journal 64, 2000, pp. 39-45. Fontana describes and briefly discusses incidents that occurred shortly after the death in the autumn of 1998 of Ralph Noyes, a fellow SPR Council member and writer on psychical topics, with whom he shared a particular interest in survival. He categorises these as After Death Communications (ADCs), a term used by Louis Legrand to describe the experiences described by individuals seeking grief counselling (see Louis Legrand, AFTER DEATH COMMUNICATION, reviewed by David Fontana, Journal 62, 1997, pp. 272-3). Such incidents seem to indicate a wish by a deceased person to impress on a surviving friend or loved one the fact of their survival, other than through a medium. In the first case, Fontana and a friend are discussing Noyes while drinking cocktails and reading an obituary of him in UFO Magazine. They hear a loud noise in the next room and discover the top of a cocktail shaker is on the floor ‘having fallen or been propelled from the counter top, rolled across the floor, and produced [a] ringing noise by hitting the door of the fridge.’ Investigation reveals no normal cause for this. In the second case, Fontana is working at his computer and seeks a quotation from a book by William James, a writer Noyes also admired. At this moment, a pile of Journals falls from a shelf onto the floor. Again, no obvious cause is apparent. Finally, Fontana recounts a dream in which he finds himself in ‘total darkness’, which however feels ‘welcoming and very safe’, and aware of Noyes in front of him. ‘.. .1 would say it seemed as if we met in some intermediate space between this world and the next, and that he was prevented by the circumstances of this space from speaking to me or appearing visually. But there was absolutely no doubting his gentle, kindly presence’. psychokinesis/dreams/survival

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES

Hyslop, James. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF DYING, Journal 8, 1897-8, pp. 250-5. The American researcher suggests that in certain cases the dying may experience a clearing of consciousness in the hours before death, which he finds suggestive and worth further study. CORRESPONDENCE, 272-3. near death experiences

Anon. VISION DURING A STATE OF COMA, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 87-90. Extract from the personal memoir of a Philadelphia philanthropist, describing a vision of heaven experienced during a near-fatal coma. The account includes details of the simultaneous death of others in the community, which the author claims were verified on his recovery. near death experiences

Anon. HALLUCINATIONS EXPERIENCED IN CONNECTION WITH DYING PERSONS, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 308-12. Two cases. A doctor describes a vision at the death-bed of his wife, where spirit-forms appear to escort her astral body away. A nurse sees a shadowy figure at the bedside of a dying patient. near death experiences/apparitions

Anon. A VERIDICAL IMPRESSION RECEIVED DURING A FATAL ILLNESS, Journal 20, 1921-22, p. 207. Veridical vision by a little girl of her dead sister. near death experiences/telepathy/survival

Barrett, W.F. A REMARKABLE CASE OF VISION OF THE DYING, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 345-9. A woman dying following childbirth has a vision of afterlife and of a sister of whose recent death she is unaware. near death experiences/apparitions/survival

Geddes, Sir Auckland. ‘A VOICE FROM THE GRANDSTAND’, reviewed by W.H.S., Journal 30, 1937, pp. 103-5. Reprinted article, describing the near-death experience of a doctor suffering a heart attack. The review gives some details of the experience of consciousness separating from the disintegrating body, of psychic visions, and of having a ‘mentor’ explain to him the character of a multi-dimensional universe. ‘It is surprising to note that this dream, vision or experience has shown no tendency to fade like a dream would fade, nor has it shown any tendency that I am aware of to grow or to rationalise itself as a dream would do’. near death experiences/out of body experiences

Anon. T.R.C. A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE?, Journal 31, 1940, pp. 163-5. Description of a near-death experience, in which the writer feels himself descend through a narrow shaft into a boundless desert, characterised by drab monotony and absence of pleasure. near death experiences

Stratton, F.J.M. AN OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCE COMBINED WITH ESP, Journal 39, 1958, pp. 92-7. An airman describes an air crash that took place in 1916 and the sensation of looking down on his body. ‘.. .if I had to describe in a very few words the centre of my emotions, they were the spirit of awareness, and the spirit of contentment and complete happiness as to what was going to happen to me, and that I was still aware that I had been in a body, though no longer interested in it’. near death experiences/out of body experiences

Turner, P. THE GREY LADY: A STUDY OF A PSYCHIC PHENOMENON IN THE DYING, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 124-9. Patients in a hospital ward for the terminally ill report being attended by a nurse in a grey uniform, who is however not known by the other staff and seems to be some kind of hallucination. A number of details correspond with each other, among them the fact that the patients who see the vision consistently die shortly afterwards. apparitions/near death experiences

Eastman, Margaret. OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES, Proceedings 53, 1960-62, pp. 287-309. A general discussion of out-of-body experiences, drawing on SPR research and the published literature. A number of cases are given, including some that can be classed as near-death experiences. The author suggests that ESP may be as good an explanation as the face-value appearance of physical detachment. out of body experiences/near death experiences

Heywood, Rosalind. OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCE, Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 244-5. Near death experience reported by a Canadian hospital patient who briefly suffered a cardiac arrest. near death experiences/out of body experiences

Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: ON NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES, Journal 50, 1979-80, pp. 125-29. Psychical researchers reply to criticisms of their book on death-bed visions. Also p. 487. near death experiences

Anon. CORRESPONDENCE [NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE] Journal 55, 1988, p. 106. Comment on the near-death experience, proposing physicalist interpretations. near death experiences

Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES, Journal 60, 1994-5, pp. 61-2. Discussion arising from a review of a book sceptical of near-death experiences as indications of survival. near death experiences

Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES, Journal 60, 1994-5, p. 109. Draws attention to evidence that supports the argument that NDE-type phenomena can be induced artificially in non-life threatening situations. near death experiences