COINCIDENT DREAMS. Seeing that so large a part of our lives is spent in sleep, we should perhaps be warranted in looking amongst dreams for evidence of the transference of thought from one mind to another; especially as the quiescence and the absence of outward impressions characteristic of sleep are precisely the conditions indicated by our researches as favourable to such transmission. Nor do the actual results in this direction at all fall short of any reasonable expectation. Long before scientific attention was directed to the subject the coincidences reported between dreams and external events had won the special consideration of the superstitious, and had given to the dreamer of dreams high rank in the company of the prophets and soothsayers. And such coincidences appear to be not less frequent at the present time. My chief difficulty in writing this chapter has been the task of selection from the super-abundant material at hand, much of it accumulated within the last five or six years; and this material is itself the carefully-sifted residuum of a much larger mass of testimony, inferior, if at all, by slight and various degrees. But notwithstanding this great accumulation, it cannot be contended that the proof of telepathy derived from a consideration of dream coincidences is at all comparable in cogency with that furnished by impressions received during waking life. That some at least of the dreams quoted below owed their origin to ideas transmitted to the sleeper from another mind will no doubt be admitted as probable, but the probability depends perhaps not more on their intrinsic value than on the analogy of similar testimony from waking percipients. When (as in some of the cases to be given later, in Chapters X.-XIII.) a witness of integrity asserts that he saw in broad daylight a figure where no such figure was, resembling a friend, and coincident with that friend's death, we are justified in attaching great weight to the coincidence. But if the same witness had dreamt of the figure, instead of seeing it, the coincidence would deserve far less consideration. And yet the cerebral mechanism involved in both processes is no doubt very similar. A dream is a hallucination in sleep, and a hallucination is only a waking dream; though it is probable that the waking impression, seeing that it can contend on equal terms with the impressions derived from external objects, is more vivid than the common run of dreams. But the evidence of dream coincidence is defective, primarily, from the frequency of dreams; it is only a small proportion of educated persons, at any rate, who ever experience a hallucination, but everybody dreams occasionally, and some persons dream every night. Clearly there must be here a wide scope for coincidence. Secondly, whilst dream impressions are probably less vivid at the time, they are certainly more elusive in the memory. There is a serious risk, therefore, that after the event is known detailed correspondences may be read back into the indistinct picture preserved in the memory; or that a dream which at the time made but a slight impression may be charged retrospectively with emotional significance. Finally, as the dream does not enter into any organic series of impressions, and has no landmarks of its own, either in space or time, it becomes after the lapse of a few days, or even hours, a matter of difficulty to determine its date. Against the last two sources of error it is indeed possible to guard. Under ordinary circumstances no dream should be regarded as having evidential value which has not been either recorded in writing or mentioned to some other person before the coincidence is known. Mention of the dream immediately after the receipt of the news, even with persons of proved accuracy, can by no means be regarded as equivalent to mention of it beforehand. For it is possible, as already pointed out (p. 155), that some alleged coincident and prophetic dreams may be due to hallucination of memory, or still more probably to the embellishment and amplification of vague pre-existent memories. But however carefully dreams are noted and described, the objection still holds good that with impressions of such frequent occurrence chance alone will account for a considerable number of coincidences. It is easy, however, on a superficial view to exaggerate the probabilities of chance coincidence. The great majority of dreams, vague at the time and fugitive in the retrospect, are like footsteps in the sand. Yet as, here and there, one set of footprints out of the millions impressed upon the shore of a long-forgotten sea has been preserved for us in sand now turned to stone, so now and then one dream stands out from all the rest, and leaves on the memory an imprint which the daily reflux of the tide of consciousness cannot efface. If we strike out of the account all the dreams which are too vague to leave any permanent impress on waking, all those which are purely inconsequent and fantastic, and all which can be readily traced to some physical cause, we shall find that the number which we have to deal with,—the number, that is, of vivid and passably realistic dreams,—though no doubt large, is perhaps not beyond the range of definite calculation. It could not, for instance, be plausibly contended that the correspondence of a dream such as that of Captain Campbell's, recorded below, with the death of the person portrayed, is on the same level as the prophetic vision of the City clerk, who, dreaming every other night of the success of some horse which he has backed, happens on some one occasion to dream of the future winner. It will be observed that of the nine dreams which are given in full in this chapter, no less than four are concerned with death. Of the much larger number—149—of coincident dreams published in Phantasms of the Living, no less than 79 relate to a death. Now, as dreams of death or suggesting death do not form a large proportion of dreams in general, their startling preponderance amongst coincident dreams constitutes in itself an argument for ascribing such dreams to telepathy; for if any power exists whereby one mind can affect another, it would appear À priori probable that such a power would be exercised most frequently and effectually at times of exceptional crisis. As has been pointed out by Mr. Gurney (Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 303), the preponderance amongst "true" dreams of dreams relating to death may indeed be explained on the assumption that such dreams are more frequently remembered than other "true" dreams. This assumption is no doubt in a measure justified, but the consequences of admitting its truth must not be overlooked; for it of course follows that a large number of coincident dreams are forgotten, i.e., that the grounds furnished by dreams for believing in telepathy are much stronger than would at first sight appear. Again, the frequency of coincident dreams of death offers a favourable opportunity for estimating the probabilities of their occurrence by chance. The problem is simplified in one direction by the consideration that death is at all events a unique event in the history of the agent. If we can ascertain the proportion which "true" bear to "not-true" dreams of death, we can calculate by means of the tables of mortality the probabilities for some other cause than chance. The problem was actually attempted by Mr. Gurney, who found that coincident dreams of death in the collection published in Phantasms of the Living were twenty-four times as numerous as chance would allow.[89] Theoretically, dreams are of considerable interest as throwing light upon the nature of waking impressions; for it should be observed that dreams are of many kinds and of many degrees of vividness. Some in the vagueness and ideality of the impressions resemble closely the waking experiences recorded in the preceding chapter. Others in their extreme clearness and semi-externalisation approach nearly to the level of hallucinations. But whilst few persons above the level of the savage believe that their dream percepts correspond to actual external objects visibly present, there are some who think that the hallucinatory image of a dying friend which they see with their eyes open, and taking a place in the external order of things, must, just because they see it with open eyes, form a part of that external order. And if the percipient himself is not under any such misconception, the journalist who sneers at him for believing in "ghosts" is so, by his own confession. If once it is recognised that between dreams and hallucinations there is no essential difference, the chief obstacle to the acceptance, by two different classes of minds, of telepathy as the explanation of coincident hallucinations will have disappeared. It will become clear, on the one hand, that a belief in the significance of such hallucinations does not necessarily carry with it a belief in "ghosts"; and on the other, that the fact of an apparition taking its place as a fully externalised percept does not imply any substantial basis for the percept. In dealing with dreams we will discuss first those which resemble most closely the experimental results and the cases considered in the last chapter, and proceed from these to dreams which include a definite representation of the agent. Finally, cases of somewhat aberrant type and clairvoyant dreams will be considered. Simultaneous Dreams. No. 52.—From MISS INA BIDDER. "RAVENSBURY PARK, MITCHAM,
June 10th, 1890. "The night before last a curious case of what I cannot but call telepathy occurred between myself and my sister. (We sleep in the same room.) For the last two years the whole family have been very much interested in some skeletons and flint instruments found in a gravel pit in one of the fields. They have never been properly excavated, and about ten days ago my sister and I had been amusing ourselves pulling out, bone by bone, one of these 'palÆolithic men,' as we pleased to call them. He was a particularly interesting one, as we found a flint arrow-head in his hip-bone, but we only got to his ribs. On the night in question I dreamt that my father was excavating in a more approved method, taking off the top mould and leaving the bones in their original position in the brown earth, so that you could see the form of the man to whom they had belonged. In this way we lifted out the rest of the skeleton at which my sister and I had been working, and behold! when we got to the skull it had a snout. We were delighted to be able to prove this extraordinary fact respecting palÆolithic man, and the doctors crowded down from town to see the creature; but my sister was nowhere about, and in my anxiety to tell her of our discovery I woke myself and nearly woke her. I stopped myself just in time, thinking what a shame it was to spoil her night's rest for a dream. Still wishing she were awake to hear, and thinking again of the curious effect of the black, earth-filled skull, with its projecting snout, and dreaming of my dream, I turned over and dropped into another. Before I had got well started in this, however, I was awakened by my sister trying to light the candle. 'What is it?' I said, 'what's the matter?' 'I've just had such a horrid dream,' she answered; 'it haunts me still.' But I do not think I need repeat her dream, which I believe she has written."
Miss M. Bidder writes as follows:— "June 9th, 1890. "I was sleeping last night with my sister, with whom I have shared a room all my life. I was sleeping soundly, and my dreams, of which I now retain only the vaguest recollection, took their most usual form of a confused repetition of all the events of the past day jumbled together without meaning or sequence, and without even much distinctness. The whole scene of the dream was hazy and confused, until I became suddenly conscious of the figure of a skeleton in the foreground, as it were, which disturbed me in my dream with a sense of incongruity. I first made a half-conscious effort to banish the figure—which struck me with great horror—from my dream, but instead of disappearing it grew more and more prominent and distinct, while all the rest of the scene and the people in it seemed fading away. The figure of the skeleton, which I can perfectly recall, presented one of the most vivid impressions I ever remember to have received in a dream. It appeared to stand upright before me, with what seemed to be a dark cloak hanging about its limbs and forming a kind of background as of a black hood behind the skull, which showed against it with extreme distinctness. It was on the skull, which was facing me full, that my attention was chiefly concentrated, and as I stared at it it slowly turned sideways, showing, to my horror, the profile of a very long, sharp nose in place of the hollow socket. The feeling of terror with which I perceived this (for the first time) was so intense as to awaken me, nor could I even then entirely banish it. So unpleasantly strong, indeed, was the impression of some horrible presence which still remained, that it was with difficulty that I resisted the desire to rouse my sister that she might help me to shake it off. Some movement of mine did in fact presently awake her, and I at once began to tell her of my horrible dream. Before, however, I had described it to her, she interrupted me to tell me of a dream which she had had."
Here it is perhaps permissible to conjecture that some common experience of their waking life might have suggested to both sisters the idea of a primeval skeleton with a snout. But it is remarkable, if such is the true explanation, that the common idea was elaborated into a dream by the two percipients almost simultaneously. It must be admitted, however, that such dreams, which have hitherto been reported only as occurring between persons whose lives are spent for the most part in the same surroundings, have little value as evidence. It is only those who believe, on evidence derived from other sources, in the reality of telepathy, who will be inclined to regard such cases as possibly due to its action, rather than to the spontaneous association of ideas in minds sharing the same experiences and moving to some extent in similar grooves. Dreams coinciding with external events. In the cases which follow the coincidence is of a more definite kind, and the question is now no longer of the correspondence of thought in closely associated minds, but of the correspondence of thought with an outward event—with something done or suffered by the person whose mind apparently affects that of the dreamer. Transference of Sensation in Dreams. The following case, quoted from the Proc. of the Am. S.P.R. (pp. 226, 227), offers a curious parallel to some of the cases recorded at the beginning of Chapter II. The narrator is a lady of Boston, whose good faith is vouched for by Professor Royce. She wrote from Hamburg on the 23rd of June 1887 to her sister, who was at that time in Boston, U.S.A. The following is an extract from this letter:— No. 53. "I very nearly wrote from the Hague to say that I should be very thankful when we had a letter from you of the 18th of June saying that you were well and happy.... In the night of the 17th I had what I suppose to be a nightmare, but it all seemed to belong to you ... and to be a horrid pain in your head, as if it were being forcibly jammed into an iron casque, or some such pleasant instrument of torture. The queer part of it was my own dissociation from the pain, and conviction that it was yours. I suppose it was some slight painful sensation magnified into something quite severe by a half-asleep condition. It will be a fine example of what the Society for Psychical Research ought to be well supplied with—an Ahnung which came to nothing."
As a matter of fact the lady in Boston to whom this letter was addressed is shown, on the evidence of a dentist's bill, to have spent on the 17th June an hour and three-quarters in the operating chair, while a painful tooth was being stopped. The discomfort consequent on the operation, as was learnt from the patient herself, "continued as a dull pain for some hours, in such wise that during the afternoon of the 17th June the patient could not forget the difficulty at all. She slept, however, as usual at night. The nightmare in Europe followed the operation in Boston by a good many hours, but the pain of the tooth returned daily for some three weeks." As the letter was written from Europe six days after the nightmare there was of course no possibility of any communication having passed in the interval except by telegram. In the next case also the coincidence was of a trivial nature, but appears to have been exact in point of time. The narrative is quoted here because the impression, though not described beforehand, was of a quite unusual kind, being in part, if not altogether, a waking experience. It is doubtful, indeed, whether it should be classed as a dream, and not rather as a "borderland" hallucination. No. 54.—From MRS. HARRISON. "February 7th, 1891. "I reside with my husband at 15 Lupton Street, N.W. This afternoon I was lying on the sofa, sound asleep, when I suddenly awoke, thinking I heard my husband sigh as if in pain. I arose immediately, expecting to find him in the room. He was not there, and looking at my watch I found it was half-past three. At six o'clock my husband came in. He called my attention to a bruise on his forehead, which was caused by his having knocked it against the stone steps in a Turkish bath. I said to him, 'I know when it happened—it was at half-past three, for I heard you sigh as if in pain at that time.' He replied, 'Yes, that was the exact time, for I remember noticing the clock directly after.' "The gentleman who appends his name as witness was present when this conversation took place.
"LOUISA E. HARRISON. "Witness: Henry Hooton, 23 Bunhill Row, E.C."
This account was sent to the S.P.R. by Mr. Harrison on the day of the occurrence described. In an accompanying letter he writes: "Everything happened exactly as stated." In the cases which follow, with one exception, the dream impression was of a well-marked visual nature. In the first three narratives the dream had reference to the death of the person represented. The mode of representation, however, it will be seen, differed in each case. In the first, the associated imagery was in part of a fantastic nature, and the dream, though sufficiently exceptional to leave a feeling of fatigue on the following morning, and to induce the percipient to write an account of it to his friends, resembled in other respects the motley crowd which throng through the gate of ivory. In the second case the surroundings of the central figure were such as the waking imagination of the dreamer would naturally have conjured up in picturing the deathbed of his friend.
No. 55.—From MR. J. T. This case is recorded at some length in the Proceedings of the Am. S.P.R. (pp. 394-397) by Professor Royce. Professor Royce explains that Mr. E., the agent, died after a short illness in New York City, on Tuesday, February 23rd, 1886. Mr. J. T., who, though an acquaintance of Mr. E., had heard nothing of him for some time, and, as indeed appears from the letters quoted, knew of no special cause for anxiety, was on the day of the death, and for some time afterwards, in St. John, New Brunswick. In consequence of severe snowstorms, no mails had been received in St. John from the South for some days, and at the time when the letter, an extract from which we give below, was written, it was not possible for the writer to have known of Mr. E.'s death. The original letter, written by Mr. J. T. to his wife, and dated Wednesday, March 3rd, 1886, on paper headed Hotel Dufferin, St. John, N.B., has been seen by Professor Royce:— "I have not heard of you for an age. The train that should have been here on Friday last has not arrived yet. I had a very strange dream on Tuesday night. I have never been in Ottawa in my life, and yet I was there, in Mr. E.'s house. Mrs. E., Miss E., and the little girls were in great trouble because Mr. E. was ill. I had to go and tell my brother [Mr. E.'s son-in-law], and, strange to say, he was down a coal-mine. "When I got down to him I told him that Mr. E. was dead. But in trying to get out we could not do it. We climbed and climbed, but always fell back. I felt tired out when I awoke next morning, and I cannot account for the dream in any way."
Though the letter leaves it doubtful whether the dream actually occurred on the night of the death, or a week later, it appears from further correspondence that the percipient believes the dream to have taken place on the night of the 23rd February, the night of the death, and this is the most natural interpretation of the letter.[90] In any case, the dream preceded the news of the death. In the next case, again, the dream is of a not uncommon type, but the impression made, it will be seen, was such as to wake the dreamer at the time, and to induce him in the morning to take the unusual course of noting the dream in his diary. No. 56.—From MR. R. V. BOYLE. "3 STANHOPE TERRACE, W.,
July 30th, 1884. "In India, early on the morning of November 2nd, 1868 (which would be about 10 to 11 P.M. of November 1st in England), I had so clear and striking a dream or vision (repeated a second time after a short waking interval) that, on rising as usual between 6 and 7 o'clock, I felt impelled at once to write an entry in my diary, which is now before me. "At the time referred to my wife and I were in Simla, in the Himalayas, the summer seat of the Governor-General, and my father-in-law and mother-in-law were living in Brighton. We had not heard of or from either of them for weeks, nor had I been recently speaking or thinking of them, for there was no reason for anxiety regarding them. It is right, however, to say that my wife's father had gone to Brighton some months before on account of his health, though he was not more delicate than his elder brother, who is (1884) still living. "It seemed in my dream that I stood at the open door of a bedroom in a house in Brighton, and that before me, by candle-light, I saw my father-in-law lying pale upon his bed, while my mother-in-law passed silently across the room in attendance on him. The vision soon passed away, and I slept on for some time. On waking, however, the nature of the impression left upon me unmistakably was that my father-in-law was dead. I at once noted down the dream, after which I broke the news of what I felt to be a revelation to my wife, when we thought over again and again all that could bear upon the matter, without being able to assign any reason for my being so strongly and thoroughly impressed. The telegraph from England to Simla had been open for some time, but now there was an interruption, which lasted for about a fortnight longer, and on the 17th (fifteen days after my dream) I was neither unprepared nor surprised to receive a telegram from England, saying that my father-in-law had died in Brighton on November 1st. Subsequent letters showed that the death occurred on the night of the 1st. "Dreams, as a rule, leave little impression on me, and the one above referred to is the only one I ever thought of making a note of, or of looking expectantly for its fulfilment.
"R. VICARY BOYLE."
Mrs. Boyle writes as follows:— "6th August 1887. "I well remember my husband telling me one morning, early in November 1868, when at Simla, in India, that he had had a striking dream (repeated) in which my father, then at Brighton, seemed to be dying. We were both deeply impressed, and then anxiously awaited news from home. A telegram first reached us, in about a fortnight, which was afterwards confirmed by letters telling of my father's death having occurred on the same night when my husband had the dream.
"ELÉONORE A. BOYLE.
Mr. Gurney adds the following notes on the case:— "The following entries were copied by me from Mr. Boyle's diary:— "'Nov. 2. Dreamed of E.'s F[ather] early this morning. "'Written before dressing. "'Nov. 17. Got telegram from L[ouis] H[ack] this morning of his father's death on 1st Nov. inst.' "The following notice of the decease of Mr. Boyle's father-in-law occurred in the Times for 4th November 1868:— "'On 1st Nov., at Brighton, William Hack, late of Dieppe, aged 72.'
"Mr. Boyle informed me that he is a 'particularly sound sleeper, and very rarely dreams.' This dream was a very unique and impressive experience, apart from the coincidence. "There was a regular correspondence between Mrs. Boyle and her mother, but for several mails the letters had contained no mention of her father, on whose account absolutely no anxiety was felt.
"E. G."
It appears that the death actually occurred at about 2 P.M. in England, which was, allowing for the difference in longitude, about nine hours before the dream. In the next case the dream is of a more unusual character. The figure of the agent appears to have stood alone, whilst the impression made was such that the percipient is uncertain whether to class his experience as a dream or a vision. Indeed, in the absence of dream-background, and in the life-like appearance of the figure, the dream bears a striking resemblance to a waking hallucination. No. 57.—From CAPTAIN R. E. W. CAMPBELL
(2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers). "ARMY AND NAVY CLUB, PALL MALL, S.W.,
February 21st, 1888. "I have much pleasure in enclosing you an account of a remarkable dream which occurred to me in the year 1886, together with three other accounts of the same, written by officers to whom the facts of the case are known. You are at liberty, in the interests of science, to make such use of them as you please. "I was stationed at the DepÔt Barracks, Armagh, Ireland, on the 30th November 1886, and on the night of the same date, or early in the morning of the 1st December (I cannot tell which, as I did not refer to my watch), I was in bed in my room, when I was awakened by a most vivid and remarkable dream or vision, in which I seemed to see a certain Major Hubbersty, late of my regiment, the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, looking ghastly pale, and falling forward as if dying. He seemed to be saying something to me, but the words I could not make out, although I tried hard to understand him. The clothes he had on at the time appeared to me to have a thin red thread running through the pattern. I was very deeply impressed by my dream, and so much did I feel that there was something significant in it that on the 1st December, when at luncheon in the mess, I related it to three brother-officers, telling them at the same time that I felt sure we should soon hear something bad about Major Hubbersty. I had almost forgotten all about it when, on taking up the Times newspaper of the following Saturday on the Sunday morning following, the first thing that caught my eyes was the announcement of Major Hubbersty's death at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 30th November, the very date on which I had the remarkable dream concerning him. "My feelings on seeing such a remarkable fulfilment of my dream can be better imagined than described. Suffice it to say that on the return from church of Messrs. Kaye and Scott I asked them to try and recollect anything peculiar which had happened at luncheon on the 1st December, when, after a few moments' deliberation, they at once recounted to me the whole circumstances of my dream, as they had heard them from my lips on the 1st December 1886. On seeing Mr. Leeper a few days afterwards at his father's house, Loughgall, Co. Armagh, he at once remembered all I had told him about the dream on the 1st December, on my questioning him about it. I, of course, can assign no possible cause for the remarkable facts related, as apart from the difference of our standing in the service, the late Major Hubbersty and I were in no wise particularly friendly to one other, nor had we seen very much of each other. I had not seen him for eighteen months previously. A very curious fact in connection with the dream is that it occurred to me in the very same room in the barracks as Major Hubbersty used to occupy when stationed at Armagh, several years previously."
In answer to an inquiry, Captain Campbell writes, on February 29th, 1888:— "I do not dream much, as a rule, and cannot recall to my mind ever before having had a dream of a similar nature to that dreamt by me about the late Major Hubbersty."
Mr. A. B. R. Kaye, Lieutenant Third Royal Irish Fusiliers, writes on August 20th, 1887, from 62 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin:— "I was stationed in the barracks, Armagh DepÔt, Royal Irish Fusiliers, in November and December 1886. On the 1st of December at lunch there were present Lieutenant R. E. W. Campbell (2nd R.I.F.), Lieutenant R. W. Leeper (2nd R.I.F.), Lieutenant T. E. Scott (4th R.I.F.), and myself. During our conversation Major Hubbersty's name was mentioned, and Campbell told us that he had a dream about him the night before, how he had seen a vision of Major Hubbersty looking very pale and seeming to be falling forward, and saying something to him which he could not hear; also, he (Campbell) told us he was sure we would hear something about Major Hubbersty very soon. "On the following Sunday, when Scott and I returned from church and went into the ante-room, Campbell, who was there, asked us both to try and remember anything peculiar that he had told us on the 1st. After a little time, we remembered about the dream, and he (Campbell) then showed us the Times newspaper of the day before, containing the notice of Major Hubbersty's death, at Penzance, on November 30th, 1886, the same date as that on which he had the dream; also, I remember, he (Campbell) told us that in his vision he seemed to see the clothes which Major Hubbersty had on, and that there was a red thread running through the pattern of the trousers."
The two other friends mentioned by Captain Campbell, Messrs. Leeper and Scott, have written letters to the same effect.[91] From these letters there can be no doubt that the coincidence made a marked impression on each of those to whom the dream was related, and this fact, perhaps even more than Captain Campbell's own narrative, is a striking proof of the exceptional nature of the experience. There is no reason in this case for supposing that the dream conveyed any other information than the fact of the agent's death. There is no evidence that the manner of death or the clothes worn by Major Hubbersty resembled what was seen in the dream. The clothes in which the figure appeared may have been a reminiscence of clothes which the percipient had actually seen worn on some occasion by the agent. But this explanation will hardly apply to the following case, where the dream included a representation, accurate in more than one particular, of the agent as he actually appeared at the time. It is true that we have to rely upon the percipient's memory after the interval of a fortnight for the details of the dream, but since the dream was sufficiently impressive to cause a note to be taken of it by a person not in the habit of making such notes, it seems not unreasonable to trust the memory to that extent. No, 58.—From MR. E. W. HAMILTON, C.B. "PARK LANE CHAMBERS, PARK LANE, W.,
April 6th, 1888. "On Wednesday morning, March 21st, 1888, I woke up with the impression of a very vivid dream. I had dreamt that my brother, who had long been in Australia, and of whom I had heard nothing for several months, had come home; that after an absence of twelve years and a half he was very little altered in appearance, but that he had something wrong with one of his arms; it looked horribly red near the wrist, his hand being bent back. "When I got up that morning the dream recurred constantly to my thoughts, and I at last determined to take a note of it, notwithstanding my natural prejudices against attaching any importance to dreams, to which, indeed, I am not much subject. Accordingly, in the course of the day, I made in my little Letts' diary a mark thus: X, with my brother's name after it. "On the following Monday morning, the 26th March, I received a letter from my brother, which bore the date of the 21st March, and which had been posted at Naples (where the Orient steamers touch), informing me that he was on his way home, and that he hoped to reach London on or about the 30th March, and adding that he was suffering from a very severe attack of gout in the left arm. "The next day I related to some one this curious incident, and I commented on the extraordinary coincidence of facts with the dream except in one detail, and that was, that the arm which I had seen in my dream did not look as if it were merely affected with gout: the appearance it had presented to me was more like extremely bad eczema. "My brother duly reached England on the 29th, having disembarked at Plymouth owing to the painful condition of his arm. It turned out that the doctor on board ship had mistaken the case; it was not gout, but a case of blood poisoning, resulting in a very bad carbuncle or abscess over the wrist joint. "Since my brother's return, I have endeavoured to ascertain from him the exact hour at which he wrote to me on March 21st. He is not certain whether the letter to me was written before noon or after noon of that day. He remembers writing four short letters in the course of that day—two before luncheon and two after luncheon. Had the note addressed to me been written in the forenoon, it might nearly have coincided in time with my dream, if allowance be made for the difference of time between Greenwich and Naples; for, having no recollection of the dream when I woke, according to custom, at an early hour on the morning of the 21st, I presume I must have dreamt it very little before eight o'clock, the hour at which I was called. "I may add that, notwithstanding an absence of twelve years and a half, my brother has altered very little in appearance; and that I have not to my knowledge ever noted a dream before in my life."
On April 12th, 1888, Mr. Gurney inspected the diary with the entry (X, Clem) under Tuesday, March 20th, 1888, though, as Mr. Hamilton explained, "it was early the next morning that I had the dream, for I generally consider all that appertains to bed relates to the day on which one gets into it". Mr. Gurney also saw the letter signed Clement E. Hamilton, and dated Naples, March 21st, 1888, which says "am suffering from very severe attack of gout in left arm." The next case presents several points of interest. In part, at least, it seems to have been a waking experience, possibly the prolongation of a dream. In this respect it resembles Mrs. Harrison's case, already cited (No. 54), and if correctly described, the incident possesses therefore a higher evidential value than a mere dream, however vivid. I have here classed it as a dream, however, because the percipient himself so describes it in his letter written a few days after the experience. The utterance of words by the percipient finds a parallel in the case of Archdeacon Bruce (Chapter VII., No. 51). But in the present case there is the additional feature that the percipient is conscious not only of the sound of his own voice, but of another voice in reply. The incident, it will be seen, though remote, is attested by letters written immediately after the event, and by the percipient's recollection of action taken in consequence of the dream-warning. No. 59.—From MR. EDWARD A. GOODALL, of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours. "May, 1888. "At Midsummer, 1869, I left London for Naples. The heat being excessive, people were leaving for Ischia, and I thought it best to go there myself. "Crossing by steamer, I slept one night at Casamicciola, on the coast, and walked next morning into the town of Ischia [Mr. Goodall then describes an accident to his hand, which prevented him from sketching.] "It must have been on my third or fourth night, and about the middle of it, when I awoke, as it seemed, at the sound of my own voice, saying: 'I know I have lost my dearest little May.' Another voice, which I in no way recognised, answered: 'No, not May, but your youngest boy.' "The distinctness and solemnity of the voice made such a distressing impression upon me that I slept no more. I got up at daybreak, and went out, noticing for the first time telegraph-poles and wires. "Without delay I communicated with the postmaster at Naples, and by next boat received two letters from home. I opened them according to dates outside. The first told me that my youngest boy was taken suddenly ill; the second, that he was dead. "Neither on his account nor on that of any of my family had I any cause for uneasiness. All were quite well on my taking leave of them so lately. My impression ever since has been that the time of the death coincided as nearly as we could judge with the time of my accident. "In writing to Mrs. Goodall, I called the incident of the voice a dream, as less likely perhaps to disturb her than the details which I gave on reaching home, and which I have now repeated. "My letters happen to have been preserved. "I have never had any hallucination of any kind, nor am I in the habit of talking in my sleep. I do remember once waking with some words of mere nonsense upon my lips, but the experience of the voice speaking to me was absolutely unique.
"EDWARD A. GOODALL."
Extracts from letters to Mrs. E. A. Goodall from Ischia:— "WEDNESDAY, August 11th, 1869. "The postman brought me two letters containing sad news indeed. Poor little Percy! I dreamt some nights since the poor little fellow was taken from us...." "August 14th.
"I did not tell you, dear, the particulars of my dream about poor little Percy. "I had been for several days very fidgety and wretched at getting no letters from home, and had gone to bed in worse spirits than usual, and in my dream I fancied I said: 'I have lost my dearest little May.' A strange voice seemed to say: 'No, not May, but your youngest boy,' not mentioning his name."
Mr. Myers adds:— "Mr. Goodall has given me verbally a concordant account of the affair, and several members of his family, who were present at our interview, recollected the strong impression made on him and them at the time."[92]
In the case which follows the agency is difficult to elucidate. The persons who were spectators of the scene represented in the dream can hardly be supposed to have been acquainted with the dreamer, and assuredly would not willingly have revealed the secret. The dream appears to have been of a clairvoyant character. The account is taken from the Proceedings of the Am. S.P.R., pp. 454 et seq. No. 60.—From MRS. E. J. "CAMBRIDGE (U.S.A.), Nov. 30, 1886. "The dream I will endeavour to relate as clearly as possible. "It occurred during the month of August, last summer, while we were boarding with Mrs. H., in Lunenburg, where I first met the Misses W. I am a perfectly healthy woman, and have always been sceptical as to hallucinations in any one, always before having felt the cause of the experience might be traced. "In my dream I arrived unexpectedly at the house of the Misses W., in Cambridge, where I found everything in confusion, drawers emptied and their contents scattered about the floor, bundles unrolled, and dresses taken down from the closets. Then, as I stepped into one room, I saw some boys in bed,—three or four, I cannot distinctly remember. I saw their faces distinctly, as they sat up in bed at my approach, but the recollection of their faces has faded from me now. I could not reach the boys, for they disappeared suddenly, and I could not find them; but I thought, These cannot be the people whom the Misses W. trusted to care for their house in their absence; and I was troubled to know whether it was best to tell them when I should return to Lunenburg. This is all there was in the dream. "Thinking only to amuse them, I related my dream at the breakfast-table the following morning, and I regretted doing so immediately, for anxiety showed itself in their faces, and the elder Miss W. remarked that she hoped my dream was not a forerunner of bad tidings from home. I laughed at the idea, but that morning the mail brought a letter telling them that their house had been entered, and when they went down they found almost the same confusion of which I had been a witness the night before—with everything strewn about the floor. It was a singular coincidence, surely."
Miss W. writes:— "7 —— STREET, Dec. 4. "I am not quite sure whether the incident to which you allude in your note is worthy your attention or not, but I will give you the facts, that you may judge for yourself of its value. "The burglary, we suppose, took place on the night of the 17th or 18th of August, I being at the time, for the summer, in the town of Lunenburg, Mass. "Coming down to breakfast on the morning of the 17th, a lady said to me that she had had a strange dream. She thought she went to our house, finding it in the greatest confusion, everything turned upside-down. As she entered one of the sleeping-rooms she saw two boys lying in the bed; but she could not see their faces, for as soon as they saw her they jumped up and ran off. I said, 'I hope that does not mean that we have been visited by burglars.' "I thought no more about it, till the eleven o'clock mail brought a note from the woman in charge of the house saying that it had been entered,—that everything was in great confusion, many things carried off, and she wished we would come home at once. The policeman who went over the house with her said he had never seen a house more thoroughly ransacked. "We found that in the upper attic room the bed had evidently been used, and there was, perhaps, more confusion in this room than in any other. "The lady who had the dream was Mrs. E. J., of Cambridgeport. I was told that she had been suffering for about a year from nervous prostration, and she was evidently in a condition of great nervous excitement. "I forbore to speak to her of the occurrence, as one of the ladies in the house told me that it had made an unpleasant impression on her mind. "The whole thing seems rather curious to me, but I do not know that you will find it of any value in your investigations."
A dream presenting similar features is recorded in the Journal of the S.P.R. for June 1890. Mr. William Bass, farm bailiff to Mrs. Palmer, of Turnours Hall, Chigwell, on Good Friday, 1884, "awoke in violent agitation and profuse perspiration" from a dream that something was wrong at the stables. He was at first dissuaded by his wife from paying any attention to the dream, but subsequently, at about 2 A.M., dressed and proceeded to the stables (a third of a mile off) to find that a mare had been stolen. The case has been investigated by Mr. T. Barkworth, of West Hatch, Chigwell, and by Mr. J. B. Surgey, of 22 Holland Street, Kensington. In a dream recorded in Phantasms of the Living (vol. i. p. 369), Miss Busk, of 16 Montagu Street, W., dreamt that in a spot in Kent well known to her she stumbled over "the heads, left protruding, of some ducks buried in the sand, under some firs." The dream was mentioned at breakfast to Miss Busk's sister, Mrs. Pitt Byrne, and an hour later the ladies learnt from their bailiff that some stolen ducks had accidentally been found buried on the spot and in the manner described.
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