Category: Bliss
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Ms. K. E. Dodd’s Sister
Date: Undetermined, (Prior to 1928.) Location: King’s Heath, Birmingham. The following is a record of a vision experienced by a lady a few hours before her death. It is sent us by Miss K. E. Dodd of King’s Heath, Birmingham, who says that her sister, the lady in question, was so impressed with her experience…
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Mr. William Crowell Edgar
Date: Circa 1923. Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA. This is the true story of an operation for cancer. The writer, Mr. W. C. Edgar, of 1208 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis, is a well-known journalist. The incident described took place five years ago: since then he has had no return of the symptoms, and may be considered…
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Jean Vitalis
Date: Undetermined (Pub. 1921)Location: Undetermined (France?) [Translated from French] Dr. W.C., of Seranyn, in his work: Contribution to the Study of certain unacknowledged cerebral faculties, reports the following fact, which he personally observed during his long medical career: Jean Vitalis was a robust, stout, sanguine man, married, childless, enjoying perfect health. He must have been…
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Captain Gilbert Nobbs – Left on the Battlefield
Date: July, 1916 (Battle of the Somme) Location: Trônes Wood, Somme, France I was wounded! I was blind! But the moments that followed are clear in my memory. The brain shocked by a blow works quickly and actively in its excited effort to hold its own. I was quite conscious and thinking clearly: I knew…
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Ms. A.B.C.’s Experience
Date: Undetermined (Prior to 1914) Location: Undetermined (Probably England) One morning, about 11 a.m., after seeing my child off for a walk with its nurse, I lay on the sofa resting and reading, when suddenly, without any warning, a heart attack came on. As on many previous occasions, the pain, which was negligible, gave way…
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Mrs. S. B. L.
Date: January 19, 1909Location: New Smyrna, Florida Prof. James, Dear Sir:— Seven years ago in the Castle grounds at Marburg an old student of yours, during conversation, remarked, “I don’t want to die, I want to be alive.” I looked at him in amazement (he was studying theology) and replied: “Why, don’t you know that…
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Clifford Jenks
Date: October 19th, 1906. Location: Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The following case is more complex than the others. It is less evidential. The pastor who first reported the facts asserts that the young man was not under the influence of opiates or anaesthetics [sp.]. One would infer from this statement, tho he does not directly assert, that…
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John Huntley
Date: Circa, 1906. Location: Undetermined. About five years ago I woke from sleep to find “myself” clean out of the body, as the kernel of a nut comes out of its shell. I was conscious in two places—in a feeble degree, in the body which was lying in bed on its left side; and to…
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A “Life Experience”
Date: Undetermined,(Prior to April, 1906) Location: Undetermined The “Progressive Thinker” lately reproduced from the “Sunday School Times” a “life experience” written by a valued contributor who, in a letter to the Editor of that journal, said:— “I am dubious about offering this, even as my own enlightening and comforting experience, and yet, because we know…
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James Moore
Date: Circa 1903.Location: Detroit, Michigan It was about four o’clock, and the dawn for which he had been watching was creeping in through the shutters, when, as I bent over the bed, I noticed that his face was quite calm and his eyes clear. The poor fellow looked up into my face, and taking my…
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M. Constant Savy
Date: Cirac Early/Mid 19th Century.Location: Undetermined A modern writer, M. Constant Savy, relates an extraordinary dream which he had when he was apparently at the point of death. “I felt very ill,” writes Constant Savy, “I had no strength, it seemed to me that my life was making efforts to resist death, but in vain,…
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Rev. Dwight L. Moody
Date: December 26, 1899. Location: Northfield, Massachusetts, USA Professor Bozzano, in the Annals of Psychical Science, gives twenty-two cases in all, three of which are found in this discussion… [James H. Hyslop] The first instance is taken from the life of the Rev. Dwight L. Moody, the celebrated evangelical preacher of the United States, written…
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Mrs. Alexander Taylor
Date: August 9, 1899.Location: Near Wheeling, West Virginia. News from Wheeling, W. Va., tells of a Mrs. Alexander Taylor, a widow, thirty-five years old, residing at Toronto, near Wheeling, who has been slowly dying of consumption. On the 9th inst. she became unconscious. A doctor pronounced her dead and funeral preparations were begun. About midnight…
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Mr. J. A. F. “In Articulo Mortis”
Date: May 16th, 1896Location: Undetermined Light, (November 24, 1900), p. 558-560.
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Valley of the Shadow of Death
Date: Prior to 1896. Location: Massachusetts, USA [Likely] A man, a clergyman, occupying his pulpit with great acceptance, fell severly ill. Tho’ a clergyman, he had been a man of the world also, strong, alert, fond of mountain and stream, loving the interests, the activities, even the bustle and hustle, the fun and frolic of…
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Infinite
Date: Undetermined, Prior to 1896. Location: Undetermined, Probably East Coast USA. When I read the words of that minister [Gail Hamilton] and others, I recalled my strange journeyings into infinite space, with the vividness of yesterday, though it is now twenty-three years since. I was well, I was in the world and in the body,—suddenly…
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Did You See?
Date: Prior to 1896. Location: Iowa, USA. Several years ago I too had a similar experience and have long wanted some one of sense to see the same things I did that we might compare notes. I am not timid, yet I had not the strength to go over and over the story as I…
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Dr. Wiltse’s Account
Date: June 22, 1889Location: Wartburg, Tenn. The following, at time rather humerous, account of Dr. Wiltse is broken up into two parts and read before the Tri-state Medical Society of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, held at Chattanooga, on October 15th – 17th, 1889. The account was originally broken up into two parts and in two separate…
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She Knows Who I Am
Date: Circa. 1887Location: California, USA. The following case was given by Dr. Paul Edwards, and was published in the Journal “Light” for April, 1906: “While living in a country town in California (U.S.A.) about the year 1887, I was called upon to visit a very dear lady friend who was very low and weak from…
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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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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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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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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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Daisy Irene Dryden
Date: 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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Mr. James J. Kane of the U.S. Navy
Date: 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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The Passing of Minna
Date: 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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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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Edward Young
Date: Prior to Dec. 25, 1852 Location: USA? My Dear Friends:— In accordance with my promise to you, the other evening, I now proceed to give you an account of my, while laying on the bed of death. I felt an internal consciousness, from my first being taken sick, that that was my last sickness:…
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Mrs. Watress’s Rose
Date: Prior to October 25, 1852. Location: Worchester, NY?, USA?. Mr. Editor:— While visiting at Mrs. Bassett’s, in Worchester, a married sister of hers, Mrs. Watress, related to me a succinct account of a wonderful and remarkable vision, which she was favored with a few months previous to my visit. One Sunday afternoon, feeling an…
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I Don’t See Out of my Eyes
Date: 1851 Location: USA A little lad, robust, fun-loving, free, until he was eight years old, began then to fail in body and to mature in mind, until his spiritual nature seemed to have absorbed mental and physical, in development for another world. One evening, as it began to draw toward the first day of the…
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Dr. Passavant’s Account of a Peasant Boy
Date: Undetermined (Probably mid-19th Century [~1850])Location: Undetermined (Probably in Pennsylvania, US) Dr. Passavant relates the case of a peasant boy, who after a short but painful illness, apparently died, his body being perfectly stiff. He, however, revived, complaining bitterly of being called back to life. He said he had been in a delightful place, and…
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Meanwhile in India
Date: Circa. 1830 – 1840. Location: United Kingdom, India The following incident was sent to the “Spectator” by “H. Wedgwood” in 1882. He says: Between forty and fifty years ago a young girl, a near connexion of mine, was dying of consumption. She had lain for some days in a prostrate condition taking no notice…
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Admiral Francis Beaufort
Date: Circa. 1825Location: Portsmouth Harbour, England The following letter, addressed by Admiral Beaufort to Dr. W. H. Wollaston, giving an account of the feelings of the former when apparently on the very point of death from drowning, was originally published in the Life of the late Sir John Barrow. It will well repay perusal: The…
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Christiane
Date: Circa, 1816. Location: Weinsberg, Germany In September 1820, my daughter Christiane, who was still overwhelmed by an unrelenting longing for her deceased brother, experienced a sudden episode while sitting quietly in the living room. She fell into a deep sleep. During this state, she later described the following vision: ‘I found myself walking along…
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Old Man Westburn
Date: Circa 1757-1758 Location: Undetermined (Most likely near Edinburgh) Sir Bernard Burke, in his book entitled Family Romance, thus describes the dream and death of Westburn, about 1757 or 1758. Westburn, who was an elderly man, and not in very strong health, was in the habit of reposing during an hour after dinner, and his…
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Johann Schwerzeger
Date: 1733Location: Undetermined. UK? In the year 1733 Johann Schwerzeger fell into a state of trance, after an illness, but revived. He said he had seen his whole life, and every sin he had committed, even those he had quite forgotten—everything had been as present to him as when it had happened. He also lamented…
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Thomas Say
Date: Circa, 1725. Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vision During A State of Coma This case has a resemblance to this vision of Dr. Wiltse, in Proceedings, Vol. VIII. p. 180 (quoted in Human Personality, Vol. II. p. 315), and is still more interesting in that, if the statements given are to be implicitly trusted, the patient…
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Monk of Evesham’s Vision
Date: Circa, 1196. Location: Evesham Abbey, Worcestershire England In those days a monk belonging to the convent of Evesham fell ill, and for fifteen months he was terribly afflicted with bodily pain. Food and drink made him so nauseous that sometimes he would take nothing but the smallest drop of cold water for nine days…
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Vision of Tundale
Date: Circa, 1149. Location: Cork, Ireland. As many inhabitants of the city of Cork, who were present then, may testify, he lay dead for three days and three nights; and later he spoke bitterly of all that he suffered during this period because of his previous easy carelessness, as his present life bore witness. For…
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The Vision of Drythelm
Date: Circa 696 – 699 A.D. Location: Cunningham, Northumbria (Modern day Northern England and Sourthern Scotland) About this time, a noteworthy miracle, like those of olden days, occurred in Britian. For, in order to arouse the living from spiritual death, a man already dead returned to bodily life and related many noteable things that he…
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Vision of Salvius (6th Century Monk)
Date: September 10th, 584 A.D. Location: Modern-day France. Although I am fain to continue this History from the point reached in the foregoing books, a feeling of veneration bids me first say somewhat on the death of the holy Salvius, who died, as is well known, in this year. As he himself used to relate,…
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Er of Pamphylia
Date: Prior to 375 BCE.Location: Pamphylia (Modern-day Southern Turkey) Well, I said, I will tell you a tale; not one of the tales which Odysseus tells to the hero Alcinous, yet this too is a tale of a hero, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten…
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