Historical Near-Death Experiences
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To See Her Children
Date: Circa. 1854 Location: Egypt A lady and her husband (who held a position of some distinction in India) were returning home (A.D. 1854) after an absence of four years, to join a family of young children, when the former was seized in Egypt with an illness of a most alarming character, and, though carefully…
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Report of Dean Plumptre
In April 1854, a mother, lying on her death-bed, spoke in near-unconsciousness, unexpectedly naming her deceased children, including William, whose name had long been unspoken. She also mentioned Priscilla, who had passed away two days prior, unbeknownst to her.
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Fanny Smith
Date: Prior to August 23, 1856. Location: Probably near Hopkinton, MA, United States. Nancy Andrews of Hopkinton, (Massachusetts, we suppose) in a brief communication refers to the closing scene in the earthly-life of Fanny Smith, a young lady on whose fair cheek the roses of fifteen summers had bloomed and faded. Our correspondent says, Fanny…
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The Passing of Minna
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Dead Acquaintances, Following Path, Ineffability, Music, Near Death ExperienceDate: Prior to April 11, 1857. Location: Unknown, probably USA. After a bounteous repast I was led into a little room where lay Minna. She smiled sweetly as my gaze met her own, and I at once felt myself in the presenece of a purely spiritual being. And yet I experienced no restraint; for, if…
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Mrs. A’s Out-of-Body Experience
In June 1857, Mrs. A., residing with her husband, a British Army colonel, and their infant on Woolwich Common near London, experienced a surreal event. Waking suddenly, she felt as if observing her own lifeless body beside her husband. Initially believing she had died, she contemplated the impact on her loved ones before feeling herself…
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Mr. F. W. Thurstan: An Anglo-Indian’s Experience
Being(s) of Light, Contradictory Experience, Home, Impasse, Near Death Experience, Paradoxical Lucidity, Transformative ExperienceDate: Circa. Early 1860s.Location: Near Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka It was, perhaps, only a dream, but [I] felt it was more than that, and while all other dreams of [my] childhood have vanished, this one forever remained as a real vision of another world to influence [my] career in this one. It came about in…
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U.S. Civil War Artilleryman
Date: Circa, 1861-1865 [U.S. Civil War] Location: Undetermined, USA. Some years ago I became acquainted with a stalwart ex-soldier of our Civil War. He was an artilleryman, and was sitting on the ammunition chest of his gun when it was hit by a shell from the enemy’s gun and exploded. The man was thrown into…
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Sergeant-Major Albert Adams
Date: February, 1862. (Battle of Fort Henry, American Civil War) Location: Near Stewart County, TN, USA. April 22nd, 1884 I received my degree from Rush Medical College, Chicago, Ill., at the close of the session 1857-8, and having said so much will proceed to give you as clear and complete a statement of the occurrence…
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Mr. James J. Kane of the U.S. Navy
Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Ineffability, Near Death Experience, OBE (Out-of-Body Experience), Paradoxical Lucidity, Transformative ExperienceDate: Most Likely Summer of 1864Location: Gulf of Mexico The “Daily Mail,” for October 1st, published a remarkable narrative of an experience of passing out of, and return to, the physical body. Mr. James J. Kane, for thirty years chaplain in the United States Navy, says that he had been eight times at the point…
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Daisy Irene Dryden
Being(s) of Light, Bliss, Contradictory Experience, Cord, Dead Acquaintances, Expanded Perception (Field of View), Impossible Knowledge, Ineffability, Mental Communication, Music, Near Death Experience, Paradoxical LucidityDate: October 8th, 1864Location: San José, California The following account of the last days of a little child was published in the “Journal of the American S.P.R.,” edited by Dr. James H. Hyslop (Vol. XII, No. 6), and a considerably abridged report was compiled by Miss H. A. Dallas, a summary of which is given…
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The Parish Visitor
Date: Circa. 1869.Location: Yorkshire, England From Canon —, who does not wish his name to be given:— October 6th, 1888 Sir—At your request I send you the following account of a curious occurence which came under my experience nearly 20 years ago. In the year 1869 I had the care of a small country parish on…
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Emily Ainsworth
Date: Circa 1870’s. Location: Near Chicago, Illinois, USA. The following case is entirely second hand and very old. It must pass for what it is worth. The man who reports it is an intelligent person and, with the two instances in his own family briefly mentioned in a later letter, it may have a place…
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John (Jack) Britton
Date: Circa. 1872.Location: Leeds, UK. The following case appears to point to a hallucinatory origin of the music heard. It is an interesting case and worth quoting in an abbreviated form. It is printed in the “S.P.R. Journal,” Vol. IV, p. 181. Here the subject was a deaf mute, John Britton, who was taken dangerously…
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Rev. Cyrus Hamlin
Date: Circa, 1874/5 Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D. of Turkey in Europe, Turkey in Asia, and Lexington in Massachusetts, entered the Massachusetts General Hospital for surgical treatment. “I had no remarkable spiritual exercises,” he writes, “I had time to review my life, to consider its close, and to look over to the…
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Colonel Z’s Wife
Date: February, 1874 Location: United Kingdom The following interesting case is an instance in which the dying person heard the sound of singing and also had a vision of a lady of whose death she was unaware. The case is taken from the “Proceedings S.P.R.” for 1885, and is as follows somewhat abridged: Mrs. Z,…
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Prof. S. H. Pearl
Date: August, 1874 Location: Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA. Professor S. H. Pearl, first Principal of N. H. State Normal School, died at Plymouth, N. H. in August, 1874. During his last night and two or three hours before he passed away, he appeared for a time to be looking up into one corner of the…
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Oh, Dear Mamma, There is Minnie!
Date: Prior to 1879Location: London In the case here abridged, the singing and voice of the unseen visitant were heard by the mother as well as by her dying child; and a cousin of the deceased child appears to have had a vision of the child and heard a premonitory intimation of her death. “Mrs.…
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Seeing George Hanley
“The next case was communicated to the S.P.R. by the Rev. J. A. Macdonald, who has for some years been a useful helper to the Society in the careful collection of evidence. Mr. Macdonald received it at first hand from Miss Ogle, who was the sister of the percipient. She writes as follows: My brother,…
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“Aunt” Louisa Browning
Date: October 28, 1883. Location: Bracknell [Berkshire], England. The following letters came into my [Editor, Journal of A.S.P.R.] possession as I shall describe. The letter to Capt. Ericsson, the inventor of the [U.S.S.] Monitor, was sent to the editor of The Open Court and by him to Mr. David P. Abbott, the author of “Behind…
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David Edward
Date: November 2-3, 1885. Location: Aspley, Hertfordshire, UK. On November 2nd and 3rd, 1870, I lost my two eldest boys, David Edward and Harry, in scarlet fever, they being then three and four years old, respectively. Harry died at Abbot’s Langley on November 2nd, fourteen miles from my vicarage at Aspley; David the following day…
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S.P.R. Unpublished Case #B-G-57-1893
B G 57. Transitional (or L) Visual. Date: When Mrs. B. was about 10. Recorded: 1886 3rd hand, good as 2nd.— Mrs. Beaumont heard her parents relate that their parents lay dying in adjoining rooms. The mother died, and her death was kept secret from the father. An hour after her death he remarked that…
The Katabasis Project 