SYLLABUSES CHAPTER VII PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD 700. From the actions and perceptions of spirits still in the flesh, and concerned with one another, we must now pass on to inquiry into the actions of spirits no longer in the flesh, and into the forms of perception with which men still in the flesh respond to this unfamiliar agency. 701. There has been no clear consensus of opinion as to the kind of evidence which ought to be demanded if human survival is to be proved. My object is to make that evidence at once clear in itself and continuous with knowledge already acquired. 702. Considering in the first place the vague term "ghost," we cannot accept the popular notion of a ghost as "a deceased person permitted by Providence to hold communication with survivors." 703. What we must rather look for is a "manifestation of persistent personal energy," continuing after the shock of death. Such manifestations are not specially likely to correspond with the romances of popular fancy. 704. We ought rather to look for possible analogies to such cases as we already know where communication has been effected between widely different phases of personality-as between wakers and somnambulists, &c. 705. And reviewing both our experiments in automatism and our spontaneous phenomena, we find in each group three main classes of messagesnamely, sensory hallucinations, emotional and motor impulses, definite intellectual messages. 706. The same three classes meet us again in our analysis of apparently post-mortem communications also. 707. Yet, though with these analogies in our favour, we need a somewhat close discussion of the conditions which a visual or auditory phantasm is bound to fulfil before it can be regarded as indicating primâ facie the influence of a discarnate mind. Such a discussion, based mainly on the time-relation between the death and the apparition, is here quoted from Edmund Gurney. 708. Further inquiry into the limits of possible latency in the percipient's mind of an impression received from a still living agent. 709. Consideration of special cases in which a hallucination occurring shortly after a death already known might possess evidential validity. 710. Cases of recurrence of a phantasm, first about the time of death (the death being unknown to the percipient), and then decidedly after the death had occurred. 711. Cases where the phantasm first occurs some hours after death. Examination of the hypothesis of latency in these cases. 712. It will be seen that we have here no simple problem of time-relations between death and apparition. The ghost is a function of two variables: the incarnate spirit's sensitivity, and the discarnate spirit's capacity of self-manifestation. The latter of these two factors affords the easier method of arrangement; and we may arrange our apparitional communications in a descending series, from cases showing the fullest knowledge or purpose to cases where the indication of intelligence becomes feeblest. 713. We may begin with a case, anomalous and non-evidential, which claims to represent the subjective sensations accompanying the transition from earthly to spiritual life. 713 A. Case of Dr. Wiltse. 714. Repeated apparitions indicating continuous knowledge of the affairs of earth after the spirit's departure; case of Mr. Mamtchitch. 714 A. Case of Miss Adie. 715. Single apparitions indicating knowledge of some post-mortem fact, such as place of burial, &c. 716. Similar apparitions implying knowledge of the affairs of surviving friends. Cases of: 716 A. Mrs. P. 716 B. Mr. D. 716 C. Mrs. V. 717. Cases where a departed spirit seems to show knowledge of the impending death of a survivor; case of Mr. G. Cases of 717 A. Miss Pearson. 717 B. Mr. Kingsbury. 717 C. Captain Norton. 718. "Peak in Darien cases; where a dying man perceives as spirits certain persons of whose previous death he was not aware. Cases of: 718 A. Colonel - -. 718 B. Colonel Hicks. 719. Cases where departed spirits manifest their knowledge that some friend who survived them has passed into the spirit world; case of Miss Dodson. Cases of: 719 A. Mrs. Smith. 719 B. Mrs. Palliser. 719 C. Miss Hawkins-Dempster. 720. Case of Mrs. Bacchus, in which the apparition of a deceased person is seen in the house where the dead body of his wife is lying. 721. Cases where the deceased person manifests knowledge of some fact connected with his own earth-life, especially his death and events connected therewith; case of Miss Conley. 722. Cases where the deceased person shows knowledge of his previous relations with a survivor (case of Baron von Driesen); or of intentions not fulfilled. Cases of: 722 A. Mrs. Nery. 722 B. Dr. Binns. 723. In the case of Mrs. Storie, previously given, there are indications of an intelligence other than the decedent's as concerned in the presentation of her complex dream. 724. Cases where a compact to appear, if possible, had been made before death; the compact thus forming a definite fact which the deceased person remembers. Possible mode in which such a compact may tend to fulfil itself. 725. Instances of such compacts more or less precisely fulfilled. 725 A. Case of Captain Colt. 726. Case of Mr. Reeves, in which the deceased person's impulse seemed to be the fulfilment of an immediate engagement. 727. Further cases of engagement or compact fulfilled, although in a deflected fashion; that is, by an appearance to some one other than the |