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Psychics : facts and theories – M J Savage

V. The only other case I shall be able to find room for in this chapter is a genuine ghost story, all the better for my purpose because it is simple and clear cut in every particular. It is perfectly authentic, and true beyond any sort of question. The lady who furnishes me the facts is a parishioner, and a distant connection.

In the year 1859, Mrs. S. and Mrs. C. were living in two different towns in the State of Maine.

Both were Methodists, and the husband of Mrs. C. was a clergyman of that denomination.

My brother, at one time, was well acquainted with him, and the family was related to my brother's wife. At this time, in 1859, Mrs. C. was ill with dropsy, and her sister, Mrs. S., was visiting her. They both well knew that Mrs. C. could not live for long, and that this was to be their last meeting" in the body.

One day they were speaking of the then new and strange belief of spiritualism, when Mrs. C. said, " Mary, if it is true, and it is a possible thing, I will come to you after my death."

The day following, Mrs. S. returned to her home, in another part of the state. Some weeks passed by; it was now October 4. Mr. S. was away from home, and Mrs. S. was alone with her two daughters. No one was on the premises except a farm-hand, who slept in another part of the house. As is the common custom in these country towns in Maine, the daughters had gone to bed early, and were asleep. They were both awakened out of their sleep by their mother, who came and told them that their Aunt Melinda was dead, for she had just seen her standing in the doorway, in her nightdress. They noted the time, and it was 9.50 P.M.

In those days there were no telegraphs. The mails, even, were very irregular, and the post-office was four miles away. They had heard nothing to make them think that their aunt was any nearer death than she had been for a long time.

Three days after, i. e., on October 7, news came that Mrs. C. had passed away on the evening of October 4, after being dressed for bed. At 9.30 they had left her, for a few moments, sitting comfortably in her chair. At 10 they returned and found her dead, and they said she looked as though she had been dead for some minutes. Of course, when they sent this news, they knew nothing of the fact that, by some subtle express, they had been anticipated by at least three days.

I am well aware of the policy of the Psychical Society, and that the attempt is made to explain such appearances by supposing that the dying friend is able telepathically to impress, not ideas only, but images on the minds of distant friends, so producing the effect of an objective vision.

Indeed, I am in sympathy with this attitude on the part of the society. Let telepathy and all other well-established theories be strained to the utmost. We will go further for explanations only when we have to. But there are some who think that these theories are already being overweighted. No matter. Let them be. For if they break down at last, and compel us to go further, some other theory will come as a necessity ; and the proof at last will seem all the more forcible because the conclusion was not jumped at, but came when all other explanations had proven futile.