Observations placeholder

Ernesto Bozzano - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death [110 cases suggesting survival after death]

First category - Cases in which the apparitions of the deceased are perceived solely by the dying person, and relate to persons whose death he knew.

19-th case. - In this episode, it should be noted that the vision that appeared on the deathbed had occurred on other occasions to the same person as a premonitory symbol of the death of third persons attached to her by bonds of affection. In these apparitions there would be a truthful element irreconcilable with hallucinatory, suggestive and telepathic hypotheses. I extract it from the Journal of the American S.P.R. (1918, page 614). Mrs. Lida Street wrote to Professor Hyslop:

My mother used to say that, when the death of some close relative or friend was imminent, her mother always seemed to appear in anticipation of these deaths. I was 12 years old when I came to know about these visions of my mother for the first time. Her most intimate friend was ill, and that evening, as usual, my mother had come back from her friend's house and lay down beside me.

When I woke up in the morning, I saw her sitting on the edge of the bed in an attitude of painful concentration. I asked her what the matter was, and she replied: "I'm afraid my friend F. is dead!" I asked her why she feared this and she replied:

 "At this very moment, my mother has appeared to me."

And she added that her mother inevitably appeared when the death of some people she loved was drawing near. Then she repeated:

"When I opened my eyes this morning, I saw my mother at the foot of the bed staring at me."

An hour later, my aunt arrived from the patient's home, announcing her death, which had occurred early in the morning.

I do not clearly remember other examples of these hallucinations of my mother, until the morning of her death, which took place fifteen years later.

She had pneumonia, but the doctor had found her much better, and I felt calm.

That night, I was the only one to watch her, and at about 4 am I went to get her a potion. She seemed to wake up from a light sleep, looked at me with an expression of intense affection, and said: "My mother appeared to me."

The meaning of these words came back suddenly to my memory. I administered the potion trembling, and I ran to wake my father to call for the doctor. Before he arrived, she had fallen into a coma, and a few hours later she died.

The words reported were the last ones she addressed to me, and she pronounced them in a clear and firm voice. She died of heart weakness, a consequence of pneumonia.

My grandmother had died a month before I was born.