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Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 01 The death of Mr Phibbs‘s dog Fox
Identifier
028527
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Introduction
Professor Ernesto Bozzano - The parapsychological manifestations of animals - 130 cases proving animal mediumistic abilities
Naturally, parapsychological manifestations in which the participants are animals can only be circumscribed to more modest limits of realization than when the participants are human beings. These limits correspond to the intellectual capacities of the animal species among which the facts occur. Nevertheless, they appear more remarkable than might have been assumed at first glance. Among these phenomena, there are telepathic episodes in which animals not only play the role of percipients, but also that of agents; episodes concerning animals that perceive, at the same time as humans, ghosts and other supernormal manifestations, without any telepathic coincidence; and finally episodes in which animals collectively perceive, with humans, manifestations that take place in haunted localities. To these categories must also be added episodes of materialization of animal ghosts, obtained experimentally and finally post-mortem appearances of identified animal ghosts; a circumstance that offers considerable theoretical value, since it is likely to support the hypothesis of the survival of the animal "psyche".
…. if one wanted to indicate the time when the serious consideration began to be given to the parapsychological manifestations of animals, one should refer to a famous canine telepathy incident involving Lord Rider Haggard [on the site], the well-known English novelist, which occurred under such conditions that it is impossible to question it. As a result of one of these providential conditions of time, place and environment, which are quite often encountered at the beginning of the history of new branches of science, it raised an unexpected, almost exaggerated interest in England. Political newspapers took up and discussed it at length, as did variety of parapsychological journals, creating a favourable environment for new research.
About case 2
We can’t tell from this whether it is inter composer communication between the dog Fox and its owner, or between the owner and the lady witnesses, where the shock is high enough to create general shock waves – a broadcast- which Mr Phibbs picked up on.
Bozzano had very clear ideas on this however and said
“I responded to this hypothesis in a long article published in the Spiritual Journal, 1922, page 256, where I challenged this supposed omniscience of subconscious faculties, by demonstrating by examining the facts that the faculties in question were, on the contrary, conditioned - and therefore limited - by the absolute necessity of the "psychological relationship"; i.e., if there was no previous affective relationship, or, in rarer cases, relationships of mere acquaintance between the agent and the percipient, telepathic manifestations could not be realized. Then, referring to the case in question, I went on to say:
"If we exclude that the mind of the dog, turned with intense anxiety towards its absent master, was the agent that determined the telepathic phenomenon; or, in other words, if we exclude that the phenomenon could have been achieved through the existence of an "emotional relationship" between the dog and its master, then we cannot help wondering:
"Why did Mr. Phibbs see, that very night, his dying dog, and not all the other animals that, that very night, were certainly dying everywhere?" It is impossible to answer this question other than by acknowledging that Mr. Phibbs did not see the dying animals at the slaughterhouse and elsewhere, because no psychological relationship of any kind existed between him and the animals in question. On the contrary, he saw the agony of his dog, because emotional ties existed between him and the animal, and because at that time the dying animal turned its thoughts intensively towards its absent master; a circumstance which is not unlikely, and which is, on the contrary, most likely in a poor animal dying in urgent need of the help".
A description of the experience
Professor Ernesto Bozzano - The parapsychological manifestations of animals - 130 cases proving animal mediumistic abilities
Case 2. - (In a dream.) February 10, 1885.
On the first Monday of August 1883 during the holidays, I was in Ilfracombe. Around 10 o'clock in the evening, I went to bed, and I fell asleep immediately. I was awakened around 10:30 by my wife entering the room. I told her that I had just had a dream in which I saw my dog Fox lying wounded and dying, pressed to the wall.
I didn't have an exact idea about the locality. However, I had noticed that it was one of the "dry walls" that are a particular feature of Gloucester County. I argued that the dog must have fallen from one of these walls, especially since he used to climb there.
The next day, Tuesday, I received from my home in Barton End Grange, Nailsworth, a letter written by my maid, who warned me that Fox had not appeared in my house for two days. I immediately responded by ordering the more detailed research to be carried out. On Sunday, I received a letter that had been written to me the day before in which I was informed that the dog had been attacked and killed by two bulldogs in the evening of the previous Monday.
I returned home about two weeks later, and I immediately began a diligent investigation, from which it resulted that on the Monday in question, at about five o'clock in the evening, a lady had seen the two bulldogs attack and fiercely tear my dog apart.
Another lady, who lived nearby, said that around 9 o'clock that same evening, she discovered my dog lying dying at the foot of a wall she pointed out to me, and that I was seeing it for the first time. The next morning, the dog had disappeared. I later learned that the owner of the bulldogs, having learned what had happened, and fearing the consequences, had taken care to have my dog buried around 10:30 of the same evening. The time of the event coincided with the time of my dream. E.-W. Phibbs.