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.

16-th case. - This case is from the Light (1901, page 36). Dr. H.-W. Worthen reports the following episode, told by a clergyman from Vermont (United States):

I am an ecclesiastic, and a few years ago I was a pastor in a New England town, where I stayed for many years. Among the members of the Congregation was a young woman of about 30 years of age, of remarkable intelligence and noble character, whom I will call Alice. She was pretty, brilliant, loved by the whole community. Stricken with an infectious fever, which degenerated into a lumbar abscess, she died after several weeks of suffering.

The night before her death, around 2 am, she asked for me. There were three ladies in attendance who seemed to pay very little attention to my coming. It seemed they were seized with a strange mania, preventing them from speaking. I sat next to the patient's bed and asked her how she was doing. "Very weak," she replied. After the exchange of these few words, we returned to the embarrassing silence as before. Finally, one of the ladies spoke to me, saying in a low voice: "Alice saw an angel." I realized then that the silence of these ladies was due to fear and respect; they felt they were on the threshold of the spiritual world.

I did not answer immediately, waiting to make sure that the patient was not showing signs of delirium. Finally, I broke the silence by asking: "Alice, did you have the vision of a spiritual messenger?"

She replied, "Yes, really.”

“- And when did your vision take place?”

“- At midnight.”

“- Where and how did you see it?”

“- I seemed to have acquired new visual faculties, and while I was looking away, in space, I saw a global luminosity that was heading towards me and in which I saw a human spiritual form, which entered my room.”

“- How was he dressed?”

“- Immaculate white.”

“- Where was he standing?”

“- Between the bed and the piano."

At that moment, those present ladies told me that during the vision, the patient had conversed with someone. I then asked:

 "What did the spirit that visited you say to you?"

She replied: "Several things, and among other things, that he would come back to take me in twenty-four hours."

So I asked: "Can you tell me what day of the week it is?"

- "Friday", she replied. (It was, in fact, 3 o'clock in the morning, a Friday.)

I asked again:

 "And can you tell me the day of the month?"

She said it and then added: "Oh! my pastor, you should not ask me these questions; I am in possession of all my faculties and I know what I am saying."

Meanwhile, she weakened more and more; when she seemed to be asleep, I went home.

The next day evening, around midnight, Alice's beautiful soul left her body for the immortals' rest.

When I put the body into the coffin, I noticed that a soft smile lit up those features so pain-stricken.

The house was filled with friends, many of whom thought they were in an atmosphere made sacred by the presence of an angel and by the existence of a woman who could be said to have really seen an angel.