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.

22-nd case. - The example I am going to relate belongs to a category of rather rare cases, which differ slightly from others by the fact that the vision of a ghost of the deceased, instead of occurring at the time of death, takes place several hours, or even one day before the death of the percipient; he is not a seriously ill person, but appears to be in a normal state of health. It is then to be remarked that the phenomenon takes place as a result of a promise made by this same phantom to the percipient in a preceding apparition. Under these conditions, it is easily understood that the realization of the death of the percipient at the time prophesied can be attributed to the well-known influence that the self-suggestive phenomena produce on the human organism.

This is a case published by the Proceedings of The S.P.R. (Vol VIII, page 367). Mr. Thomas James Norris recounts the following:

About sixty years ago, Mrs. Carleton died in Leitrin County. She and my mother were close friends.

A few days after her death, she appeared in a dream to my mother, and said: "You will not see me again even in dreams, except once again, and this will be just twenty-four hours before your death."

In March 1864, my mother lived in Dalkey with my daughter and my son-in-law, Dr. Lyon. On the evening of March 2nd, when she was retiring to her room, my mother was in a very good mood; she laughed and joked with Mrs Lyon. That night, or rather in the morning, Dr. Lyon heard a noise in my mother's room. He woke his wife and sent her to see what was happening.

She found my mother half out of bed, with an expression of horror on her face. We laid her down again and comforted her. In the morning she seemed quite refreshed; she had lunch as usual, in bed, but with a good appetite. When my daughter had left her, she prayed for a bath, and she took it. Then she called my daughter and said:

"Mrs. Carleton has finally come after fifty-six years. She told me that my death was near, and that I would die tomorrow morning, at the time this morning you found me half out of bed. I took a bath, so you do not have to wash my body. From that moment she began to die, and expired on the 4th of March, at the hour announced in advance.

(Signed: Thomas James Norris.)

Dr. Richard St. John Lyon confirms the story above.