Observations placeholder
Sees his dying mother on an omnibus and goes out of body to see her
Identifier
011399
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Death and its Mystery, At the Moment of Death; Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dying – Camille Flammarion
Letter from Clerk X in the Paris Central Postal and Telegraph Office to his brother
I came out of the office about half past five and took the omnibus which runs from Grenelle to the Saint-Martin gate. During the whole day I had not had a single thought about the region where we spent our childhood. Suddenly, when I had got to the rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, I had a very distinct vision of poor Mamma lying in her bed ill.
I had the feeling that she was going to die, and I remember that, in the sort of dream I had, I said to her:
‘Wait Mamma, I’m coming’.
I had no illusions as to her condition and I felt drawn, so to speak, to the other world. This made me wish to die too.
I cannot explain the state of mind in which I was, but this much is certain; I saw myself most distinctly at the foot of Mamma’s bed; she was pale and ill and she recognised me. It was about 6 o’clock; I was in the omnibus with my friend Leon.
When I got back to where I lived, at 11 o’clock at night, the janitor gave me a telegram and I must say that I thought at once of what had happened to me in the omnibus and did not for an instant doubt that the telegram would announce her death.
I did not go to bed, waited impatiently for daylight, that I might leave. Leon was with me when I got back and when I received the telegram I told him what had happened in the omnibus. He then told me that, as a matter of fact, I had seemed very queer at that moment and that I had answered him incoherently. He can vouch for the facts. It seems to that during the remainder of the evening I was not myself.
This singular occurrence made a deep impression on me, which is as fresh in my memory as on the first day. Usually the sight of a dying person is painful, but in my case, I repeat htat I felt, rather, the satisfaction of being sure of immortality