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Death and its Mystery, At the Moment of Death; Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dying – Camille Flammarion
from Mr H P Sparks and Mr A H W Cleave the School of naval Engineering, Portsmouth 1886

For the last year I have been in the habit of hypnotising one of my comrades.  After a few trials, I perceived that the sleep grew deeper when I made long passes with my hands, after the subject was already asleep.  It was then that, in this particular kind of hypnotic sleep, he believed he saw the places that interested him.

Last Friday evening January 15th 1886, my friend expressed desire to see a young girl who lived at Wandsworth, and to be seen by her.  I hypnotised him and continued to make passes for about 20 minutes, concentrating all my will power on his idea.

When he came to, he declared that he had seen her in the dining room, that she had seemed to him agitated, that she had gazed at him and covered her eyes with her hands.  Last Monday evening January 18th we began the experiment again, and this time he declared it his belief that he had terrified the young girl, for after gazing at him, she had fallen into a sort of swoon.  Her brother was then in the room.

Wednesday morning, my friend received a letter from this young woman asking if anything had happened to him; she said that on Friday night she had been seized with fear at seeing him standing in her room.  She had thought this might be an imaginary vision, but the following Monday she had been still more frightened to see him again, this time more distinctly; she had even been frightened to the point of feeling almost ill.

The account I am writing to you is perfectly exact; I can prove it, for I have two witnesses who were in the dormitory at the moment when my friend was hypnotised and when he came to.  The name of my subject is Arthur H W Cleave; he is 18 years old.  I am myself 19.  A C Darley and A S Thurgood our comrade, are the two witnesses of whom I have spoken

Signed

H PERCY SPARKS