Observations placeholder
Aksakof, Alexandre - The dog Beppo and his fury at the apparition
Identifier
028554
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
NOTES concerning this case by Professor Ernesto Bozzano
Again in this episode, the aggressive expression of the dog barking furiously and wanting to hurl himself against someone in the direction of the door, where Mrs. T... sees, at the same time, the appearance of the deceased whom she had accused, tends to suggest that the animal may have seen the apparition.
Indeed, dogs only act against intruders they do not know.
In this case, since the vision was simultaneous, one could suggest the possible hypothesis of a hallucinatory form that was born in Mrs. T's brain... and was transmitted telepathically to the dog. But it seems to me that the explanations provided earlier by me are sufficient to exclude this unproductive hypothesis, which is tantamount to recognizing the truthfulness of the case of the appearance of a dead person blamed by Mrs. T....
A description of the experience
also quoted in Professor Ernesto Bozzano - The parapsychological manifestations of animals - 130 cases proving animal mediumistic abilities
Case 50. - (Visual) - The following case was communicated to the Society for P. R. by Alexandre Aksakof; I extract it from the Society's Proceedings, Vol. X, p. 328.
In 187..., Mrs. T... was one day with her country neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. B..., in P..., their property, government of Twer. The conversation began with a tragic event in the T... family, which ended in the suicide of one of Mrs. T.'s parents... Suddenly, she saw him appear in the room next to the living room where they were standing and which door was open. At the same time, the housewife's dog, who was lying at her feet, stood up and began to bark furiously in the direction of the door. Mr. and Mrs. B... saw nothing because they had their backs to that door and Mrs. T.... told them nothing of what she had seen.
Confirmation of this account by a letter from the witness, Mrs. B... written on October 15, 1891:
It was in 187..., at our property. There were three of us: Mrs. T..., our neighbour, who had come to see me and my husband. We were in the small living room of our country house, not far from an open door to my bedroom, lit by a large window.
Mrs. T... was sitting on a couch in front of that door. I was sitting next to her on a stool, exactly in front of the door. My husband was in a corner, so he couldn't see that door. My dog Beppo was lying at my feet, his head turned towards the exit.
We were talking about the event that had just taken place in the T... family, where the woman, driven by passion, abandoned her children and her husband, and where the latter, in his despair, shot himself in the head.
My husband blamed the wife, Mrs. T.... blamed the husband, whom she had always held in high esteem. Yet in this case, she did not excuse him. Suddenly, she stopped talking and the dog, raising his head, started yelping and wanted to rush towards the open door of the bedroom. All his fur rose. The animal escaped from my hands as if to throw itself at someone. I could hardly hold him back. My husband wanted to beat him and I was defending him.
Neither I nor he saw anything except the anger of our dog. Mrs. T... remained silent and when the animal calmed down, she proposed to go to the room where her husband was. Soon Mr. and Mrs. T... left and it was only later, when I went to visit them in their countryside, that Mrs. T... told me that she had seen, outside the door of my bedroom, the ghost of the one she was accusing - dressed in white, and with an expression of despair in her moves, as she reproached him that she was against him as well.
"Your Beppo saw the same thing," she said to me. He was furious and wanted to jump on this apparition". I noticed Beppo's fury, but I didn't see the appearance.
Signed: N.B.