Observations placeholder
Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 45 Smoky the deceased Persian cat appears as a ghost to four witnesses
Identifier
028649
Type of Spiritual Experience
Inter composer communication
Perception recall
Hallucination
Background
NOTES on this case by Professor Ernesto Bozzano
This case is very interesting and significant; first because of the indisputable reality of the fact; second, because the ghost was seen by four people at different times: which excludes the pure and simple hallucinatory hypothesis. Given this fact, only two hypotheses can explain the case: the first would be to assume that it was the vision of a living cat that was mistaken for the deceased cat; the second would be the telepathic-spirit hypothesis. I referred to the first explanation simply as a duty of the reporter, because our readers will have already noticed that this assumption does not work in the context of an analysis of the circumstances.
First, because, in the case in question, it was an exotic cat, the only one of its kind, at the place where the event took place and characterized by a fur that is special to Persian cats: all circumstances that make it absurd to assume that four people, in broad daylight, could have made a mistake in identification. Then, because we noticed that the pussy that appeared walked with a limp, precisely like the dead beast. Third, because the ghost cat never gave a sign to perceive the people who called it - a characteristic of most telepathic and telepathic-spirited ghosts, who are unaware of their surroundings.
Finally, it should not be forgotten that the little ghost has disappeared several times in front of the percipients, in a sudden and inexplicable way. I do not add anything else, what I have just said is sufficient to prove that the hypothesis of the vision of a living cat, which four people would have mistaken for a deceased cat, does not hold up in the face of an examination of the facts. It must be concluded that the episode in question is indeed an authentic example of the appearance of the ghost of a deceased animal.
A description of the experience
Professor Ernesto Bozzano - The parapsychological manifestations of animals - 130 cases proving animal mediumistic abilities
Case 128. - (Collective Visual.) - I take it from the Journal of the S.P.R., vol. XV, page 249, and it is a rigorously documented case: it was sent to the S.P.R. during the same week it took place. Miss B. J. Green writes:
My sister H.-J Green had a cat she loved very much, of purebred Persian breed, characteristic bluish grey coat of small proportions, whose name was Smoky. There was not another cat in the village who was of the same breed or only resembled it.
In the spring, it became ill and died in mid-June 1909. The gardener buried it in a garden flowerbed, planting a dahlia on its tomb.
Some time before its death the cat had been attacked and mistreated by a dog who had broken some of its ribs. As a result of this accident, it walked with a limp, its body bent on one side. Its death was the result of the injuries it had received.
On Tuesday, July 6, 1909, I was at the table with my sister for lunch and reading a letter aloud. I turned my back to the window to my sister's left. Suddenly, I saw that she was looking out of the window with an expression of astonishment almost mixed with fear.
I asked, "What's the matter?" –
She replied, "I see Smoky walking in the middle of the grass." We rushed to the window and actually saw Smoky who seemed very sick, with its fur spiky and its eyes haggard. She was walking with a limp through the flower bed in front of the window, three or four metres from us.
My sister called her, but as the pussy didn't seem to hear, she ran towards her and kept calling her. I stayed at the window and saw the cat walking down an alley leading to the back of the garden. My sister followed her, always calling her, but to her amazement, Smoky never turned around, as if she didn't hear. At some point, it entered a bush and my sister no longer saw it.
After about ten minutes, my sister and a friend, who was staying for a while in our house, saw Smoky walking through the hedge again, in front of the window. My sister went out to meet it, but she no longer saw it. After half an hour, it appeared in the hallway leading to the kitchen and was seen by the maid, who took a bowl of milk and went to it to give it milk; but the cat continued on its way out into the garden and disappeared in front of this woman.
So we asked the neighbors if they had not seen a pussy that looked like our deceased Smoky: no one had seen anything.
The consequence of these visions was that we wondered if there had not been any ambiguity about the death of the cat, although our friend, the gardener and a young servant, would have seen the body. The gardener was even so indignant at our assumption that he had not buried the pussy, that he went there to uproot the dahlia plant and exhumed Smoky's body.
We do not know what to think about this event, which had four witnesses: Miss B. J. Green, Miss H. L. Green, Miss Smith, and Katleen B., the servant. My sister says that when she first followed the pussy, it walked rather fast, but leaning to one side as it did before its death.
B. J. Green.
In a consecutive letter, Miss B. J. Green, speaking about the second time her sister followed the pussy, writes:
The cat did not jump over the perimeter wall; it disappeared when it was near this wall.