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

Transcendental Music

2-nd case. - It is taken from the Journal of the S.P.R. (Vol. VI, page 27). The editors of the publication comment on this:
The following report was written by Miss Home, daughter of the percipient, and was addressed to Miss Ina White, who kindly forwarded it to the Society for Psychical Research. It was then returned to Miss Home's mother for her signature. Under these conditions the report, although written by a third person, must be registered among those obtained from the "primary source".

"Aberdeen, November 25, 1890.

It happened some thirty years ago, but it remains indelibly imprinted in my mother's memory, in such a way that she remembers it as if it were yesterday.

My mother was sitting in the dining room of a small isolated hotel, and my brother James, then about two years old, was sitting on her lap. The child's nanny had gone out and there was no one home, just a maid who was on the ground floor, to be accurate. The doors to the dining room and living room, which were adjacent, were open at that time. Suddenly, my mother heard a heavenly music, a sad but very soft modulation that continued for about two minutes. Then it gradually faded, until it went out. My little brother jumped down from my mother's knees and said: "Daddy! Dad!" and ran to the living room. My mother felt paralyzed on the spot, so she rang the bell to call the maid.

She told her to check out who had entered the living room. The maid obeyed, but only James was in the living room, who, standing next to the piano, greeted her and said: "No daddy!" His father liked music very much and, when he came home, he used to go straight to the piano.

The incident made such an impression on my mother's psyche that she immediately took note of it, recording the exact time it had happened. Six weeks later, she received a letter from Cape Town announcing her sister's death. The day and hour of the death corresponded exactly with the day and hour when my mother, with the child, had perceived the transcendental piece of music. I would add that my deceased aunt was an excellent and passionate musician."

Signed: Miss Emily Horne and Mrs. Eliza Horne.

In a subsequent letter, Miss Emily Horn added:

My aunt's name was Mary Sophie Ingles; she died on February 20, 1861, in Durban, the Natal... Mother asked me to confirm that the event corresponded not only with the day and time of death, but even exactly with the minute...

There is nothing particular in the manifestation of this case, except for the remarkable fact that the hearing of the transcendental piece of music was collective and that a child of only two years old perceived it too - a detail that is always theoretically interesting for all classes of paranormal manifestations.