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.

15th case. - I extract the case of the Journal of the American S.P.R. (1907, 47). The name of the reporter, who is known to Mr. Hyslop, is not revealed:

Tonight (May 14, 1906), I found a lady whose son, a 9-year-old child, died a fortnight ago. He had undergone appendicitis two or three years previously, and the operation had caused peritonitis, of which he was cured. But he fell ill again and had to be taken to the hospital for a new operation.

When he awoke from sleep anesthetics, he was perfectly aware and recognized his parents, the doctor and the nurse. He had the presentiment of dying, however, and asked his mother to hold his hand until he had gone. I must add that after the operation, he was given stimulants, which, probably, had made him mentality very active.

Looking up, he said, "Mother, don't you see my little sister up there!"

“- No, my darling; where do you see her?”

“- Here, she looks at me.”

Then the mother, to calm him down, assured him that she saw her.

After some time the child smiled again and said:

“- Now, here is Mrs. C. who also comes to find me.” (She was a lady he loved so much and who had died two years ago.) “She smiles and calls me.”

And shortly after: "Here comes Roy too. I'm going with them, but yet I do not want to leave you, mother, and you'll find me quickly, won't you? Open the door and ask them to come in. They are waiting outside.” This said, he died.

I forgot the most important vision: that of the grandmother. While his mother held his hand, he said:

"Mother, you are getting smaller and smaller; do you still hold my hand? Grandma is here with me, and she is much bigger and stronger than you, isn't she? Her hand is also much bigger than yours."

It must not be forgotten that the child was 9 years old. Did he really see the spirits described by him and recognized? Or were the visions the result of cerebral hypaesthesia following the medicines administered?

The child's mother confirms the case described above; and it follows from an investigation carried out on this subject that the child had never known his grandmother who died four years before his birth. Roy was the name of a boy who was a friend of his, who had died a year before.

… the hypothesis of autosuggestion is eliminated by the fact that …. it seems absolutely improbable that the assistants directed their thought towards the grandmother of the child, who had died twenty years before.