Clairvoyance Of Distant Scenes
Let us now consider the phenomena of the second class of clairvoyance,
namely, Clairvoyance in Space.
In space clairvoyance the clairvoyant person senses scenes and events
removed in space from the observer--that is to say, scenes and events
situated outside of the range of the physical vision of the clairvoyant.
In this class also is included certain phenomena in which the clairvoyant
vision is able to d
scern things that may be concealed or obscured by
intervening material objects. Some of the many different forms and phases
of space clairvoyance are illustrated by the following examples, all taken
from the best sources.
Bushnell relates the following well-known case of space clairvoyance:
"Capt. Yount, of Napa Valley, California, one midwinter's night had a
dream in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrants arrested
by the snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger.
He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge, perpendicular
front of white-rock cliff; he saw the men cutting off what appeared to be
tree-tops rising out of deep gulfs of snow; he distinguished the very
features of the persons, and their look of peculiar distress. He awoke
profoundly impressed by the distinctness and apparent reality of the
dream. He at length fell asleep, and dreamed exactly the same dream over
again. In the morning he could not expel it from his mind. Falling in
shortly after with an old hunter comrade, he told his story, and was only
the more deeply impressed by him recognizing without hesitation the
scenery of the dream. This comrade came over the Sierra by the Carson
Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in the Pass exactly answered his
description.
"By this the unsophistical patriarch was decided. He immediately collected
a company of men, with mules and blankets and all necessary provisions.
The neighbors were laughing meantime at his credulity. 'No matter,' he
said, 'I am able to do this, and I will, for I verily believe that the
fact is according to my dream.' The men were sent into the mountains one
hundred and fifty miles distant, direct to the Carson Valley Pass. And
there they found the company exactly in the condition of the dream, and
brought in the remnant alive."
In connection with this case, some leading, occultists are of the opinion
that the thought-waves from the minds of the distressed lost persons
reached Capt. Yount in his sleep, and awakened his subconscious attention.
Having natural clairvoyant power, though previously unaware of it, he
naturally directed his astral vision to the source of the mental currents,
and perceived clairvoyantly the scene described in the story. Not having
any acquaintance with any of the lost party, it was only by reason of the
mental currents of distress so sent out that his attention was attracted.
This is a very interesting case, because several psychic factors are
involved in it, as I have just said.
In the following case, there is found a connecting link of acquaintance
with a person playing a prominent part in the scene, although there was no
conscious appeal to the clairvoyant, nor conscious interest on her part
regarding the case. The story is well-known, and appears in the
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. It runs as follows:
Mrs. Broughton awoke one night in 1844, and roused her husband, telling
him that something dreadful had happened in France. He begged her to go
asleep again, and not trouble him. She assured him that she was not asleep
when she saw what she insisted on telling him--what she saw in fact. She
saw, first, a carriage accident, or rather, the scene of such an accident
which had occurred a few moments before. What she saw was the result of
the accident--a broken carriage, a crowd collected, a figure gently raised
and carried into the nearest house, then a figure lying on a bed, which
she recognized as the Duke of Orleans. Gradually friends collected around
the bed--among them several members of the French royal family--the queen,
then the king, all silently, tearfully, watching the evidently dying duke.
One man (she could see his back, but did not know who he was) was a
doctor. He stood bending over the duke, feeling his pulse, with his watch
in the other hand. And then all passed away, and she saw no more. "As
soon as it was daylight she wrote down in her journal all that she had
seen. It was before the days of the telegraph, and two or more days passed
before the newspapers announced 'The Death of the Duke of Orleans.'
Visiting Paris a short time afterwards, she saw and recognized the place
of the accident, and received the explanation of her impression. The
doctor who attended the dying duke was an old friend of hers, and as he
watched by the bed his mind had been constantly occupied with her and her
family."
In many cases of clairvoyance of this kind, there is found to exist a
strong connecting link of mutual interest or affection, over which flows
the strong attention-arousing force of need or distress, which calls into
operation the clairvoyant visioning.
In other cases there seems to be lacking any connecting link, although,
even in such cases there may be a subconscious link connecting the
clairvoyant with the scene or event. An interesting example of this last
mentioned phase is that related by W.T. Stead, the English editor and
author, as having happened to himself. Mr. Stead's recital follows:
"I got into bed and was not able to go to sleep. I shut my eyes and waited
for sleep to come; instead of sleep, however, there came to me a
succession of curiously vivid clairvoyant pictures. There was no light in
the room, and it was perfectly dark; I had my eyes shut also. But,
notwithstanding the darkness, I suddenly was conscious of looking at a
scene of singular beauty. It was as if I saw a living miniature about the
size of a magic-lantern slide. At this moment I can recall the scene as if
I saw it again. It was a seaside piece. The moon was shining upon the
water, which rippled slowly on to the beach. Right before me a long mole
ran into the water. On either side of the mole irregular rocks stood up
above the sea-level. On the shore stood several houses, square and rude,
which resembled nothing that I had ever seen in house architecture. No one
was stirring, but the moon was there and the sea and the gleam of the
moonlight on the rippling waters, just as if I had been looking on the
actual scene. It was so beautiful that I remember thinking that if it
continued I should be so interested in looking at it that I should never
go asleep. I was wide awake, and at the same time that I saw the scene I
distinctly heard the dripping of the rain outside the window. Then,
suddenly without any apparent object or reason, the scene changed.
"The moonlight sea vanished, and in us place I was looking right into the
interior of a reading-room. It seemed as if it had been used as a
school-room in the daytime, and was employed as a reading-room in the
evening. I remember seeing one reader who had a curious resemblance to Tim
Harrington, although it was not he, hold up a magazine or book in his hand
and laugh. It was not a picture--it was there. The scene was just as if
you were looking through an opera glass; you saw the play of the muscles,
the gleaming of the eye, every movement of the unknown persons in the
unnamed place into which you were gazing. I saw all that without opening
my eyes, nor did my eyes have anything to do with it. You see such things
as these as if it were with another sense which is more inside your head
than in your eyes. The pictures were apropos of nothing; they had been
suggested by nothing I had been reading or talking of; they simply came as
if I had been able to look through a glass at what was occurring somewhere
else in the world. I had my peep, and then it passed."
An interesting case of space clairvoyance is that related of Swedenborg,
on the best authority. The story runs that in the latter part of
September, 1759, at four o'clock one Saturday afternoon, Swedenborg
arrived home from England, and disembarked at the town of Gothenburg. A
friend, Mr. W. Castel, met him and invited him to dinner, at which meal
there were fifteen persons gathered around the table in honor of the
guest. At six o'clock, Swedenborg went out a few minutes, returning to the
table shortly thereafter, looking pale and excited. When questioned by the
guests he replied that there was a fire at Stockholm, two hundred miles
distant, and that the fire was steadily spreading. He grew very restless,
and frequently left the room. He said that the house of one of his
friends, whose name he mentioned, was already in ashes, and that his own
was in danger. At eight o'clock, after he had been out again, he returned
crying out cheerfully, "Thank heaven! the fire is out, the third door
from my house!" The news of the strange happening greatly excited the
people of the town, and the city officials made inquiry regarding it.
Swedenborg was summoned before the authorities, and requested to relate in
detail what he had seen. Answering the questions put to him, he told when
and how the fire started; how it had begun; how, when and where it had
stopped; the time it had lasted; the number of houses destroyed or
damaged, and the number of persons injured. On the following Monday
morning a courier arrived from Stockholm, bringing news of the fire,
having left the town while it was still burning. On the next day after,
Tuesday morning, another courier arrived at the city hall with a full
report of the fire, which corresponded precisely with the vision of
Swedenborg. The fire had stopped precisely at eight o'clock, the very
minute that Swedenborg had so announced it to the company.
A similar case is related by Stead, having been told to him by the wife of
a Dean in the Episcopal Church. He relates it as follows: "I was staying
in Virginia, some hundred miles away from home, when one morning about
eleven o'clock I felt an overpowering sleepiness, which drowsiness was
quite unusual, and which caused me to lie down. In my sleep I saw quite
distinctly my home in Richmond in flames. The fire had broken out in one
wing of the house, which I saw with dismay was where I kept all my best
dresses. The people were all trying to check the flames, but it was no
use. My husband was there, walking about before the burning house,
carrying a portrait in his hand. Everything was quite clear and distinct,
exactly as if I had actually been present and seen everything. After a
time, I woke up, and going down stairs told my friends the strange dream I
had had. They laughed at me, and made such game of my vision that I did my
best to think no more about it. I was traveling about, a day or two
passed, and when Sunday came I found myself in a church where some
relatives were worshipping. When I entered the pew they looked very
strange, and as soon as the service was over I asked them what was the
matter. 'Don't be alarmed,' they said, 'there is nothing serious.' Then
they handed me a post-card from my husband which simply said, 'House
burned out; covered by insurance.' The day was the date upon which my
dream occurred. I hastened home, and then I learned that everything had
happened exactly as I had seen it. The fire had broken out in the wing I
had seen blazing. My clothes were all burned, and the oddest thing about
it was that my husband, having rescued a favorite picture from the burning
building, had carried it about among the crowd for some time before he
could find a place in which to put it safely."
Another case, related by Stead, the same authority, runs as follows: "The
father of a son who had sailed on the 'Strathmore,' an emigrant ship
outbound from the Clyde saw one night the ship foundering amid the waves,
and saw that his son, with some others, had escaped safely to a desert
island near which the wreck had taken place. He was so much impressed by
this vision that he wrote to the owner of the 'Strathmore' telling him
what he had seen. His information was scouted; but after a while the
'Strathmore' became overdue, and the owner became uneasy. Day followed
day, and still no tidings of the missing ship. Then like Pharaoh's butler,
the owner remembered his sins one day, and hunted up the letter describing
the vision. It supplied at least a theory to account for the ship's
disappearance. All outward-bound ships were requested to look out for any
survivors on the island indicated in the vision. These orders were obeyed,
and the survivors of the 'Strathmore' were found exactly where the father
had seen them."
The Society for Psychical Research mentions another interesting case, as
follows: "Dr. Golinski, a physician of Kremeutchug, Russia, was taking an
after-dinner nap in the afternoon, about half-past three o'clock. He had a
vision in which he saw himself called out on a professional visit, which
took him to a little room with dark hangings. To the right of the door he
saw a chest of drawers, upon which rested a little paraffine lamp of
special pattern, different from anything he had ever seen before. On the
left of the door, he saw a woman suffering from a severe hemorrhage. He
then saw himself giving her professional treatment. Then he awoke,
suddenly, and saw that it was just half-past four o'clock. Within ten
minutes after he awoke, he was called out on a professional visit, and on
entering the bedroom he saw all the details that had appeared to him in
his vision. There was the chest of drawers--there was the peculiar
lamp--there was the woman on the bed, suffering from the hemorrhage. Upon
inquiry, he found that she had grown worse between three and four o'clock,
and had anxiously desired that he come to her about that time, finally
dispatching a messenger for him at half-past four, the moment at which he
awoke."
Another, and a most peculiar, phase of space clairvoyance is that in which
certain persons so awaken the astral senses of other persons that these
persons perceive the first person--usually in the form of seemingly seeing
the person present in the immediate vicinity, just as one would see a
ghostly visitor. In some cases there is manifested double-clairvoyance,
both persons visioning clairvoyantly; in other cases, only the person
"visited" astrally senses the occurrence. The following cases illustrate
this form of space clairvoyance.
W.T. Stead relates the case of a lady well known to him, who spontaneously
developed the power of awakening astral perception in others. She seemed
to "materialize" in their presence. Her power in this direction became a
source of considerable anxiety and worry to her friends to whom she would
pay unexpected and involuntary visits, frightening them out of their wits
by the appearance of her "ghost." They naturally thought that she had died
suddenly and had appeared to them in ghostly form. The lady, her self,
was totally unconscious of the appearance, though she admitted that at or
about the times of the appearances she had been thinking of her friends
whom she visited astrally.
The German writer, Jung Stilling, mentions the case of a man of good
character who had developed power of this kind, but also was conscious of
his visits. He exerted the power consciously by an effort of will, it
seems. At one time he was consulted by the wife of a sea captain whose
husband was on a long voyage to Europe and Asia (sailing from America).
His ship was long overdue, and his wife was quite worried about him. She
consulted the gentleman in question, and he promised to do what he could
for her. Leaving the room he threw himself on a couch and was seen by the
lady (who peered through the half-opened door) to be in a state of
semi-trance. Finally he returned and told her that he had visited her
husband in a coffee-house in London, and gave her husband's reasons for
not writing, adding that her husband would soon return to America. When
her husband returned several months later, the wife asked him about the
matter. He informed her that the clairvoyant's report was correct in every
particular. Upon being introduced to the clairvoyant, the captain
manifested great surprise, saying that he had met the man in question on a
certain day in a coffee-house in London, and that the man had told him
that his wife was worried about him, and that he had told the man that he
had been prevented from writing for several reasons, and that he was on
the eve of beginning his return voyage to America. He added that when he
looked for the man a few moments afterwards, the stranger had apparently
lost himself in the crowd, disappeared and was seen no more by him.
The Society for Psychical Research gives prominence to the celebrated case
of the member of the London Stock Exchange, whose identity it conceals
under the initials "S.H.B.," who possessed this power of voluntary
awakening of astral sight in others by means of his "appearance" to them.
The man relates his experience to the Society as follows: "One Sunday
night in November, 1881, I was in Kildare Gardens, when I willed very
strongly that I would visit in the spirit two lady friends, the Misses X.,
who were living three miles off, in Hogarth Road. I willed that I should
do this at one o'clock in the morning, and having willed it, I went to
sleep. Next Thursday, when I first met my friends, the elder lady told me
that she woke up and saw my apparition advancing to her bedside. She
screamed and woke her sisters, who also saw me." (The report includes the
signed statement of the ladies, giving the time of the appearance, and the
details thereof.)
"Again, on December 1, 1882, I was at Southall. At half-past nine I sat
down to endeavor to fix my mind so strongly upon the interior of a house
at Kew, where Miss V. and her sister lived, that I seemed to be actually
in the house. I was conscious, but was in a kind of mesmeric sleep. When
I went to bed that night, I willed to be in the front bedroom of that
house at Kew at twelve; and to make my presence felt by the inmates. Next
day I went to Kew. Miss V.'s married sister told me, without any prompting
from me, that she had seen me in the passage going from one room to
another at half-past nine o'clock, and that at twelve, when she was wide
awake, she saw me come to the front bedroom, where she slept, and take her
hair, which is very long, into my hand. She said I then took her hand, and
gazed into the palm intently. She said, 'You need not look at the lines,
for I never have any trouble.' She then woke her sister. When Mrs. L. told
me this, I took out the entry that I had made the previous night and read
it to her. Mrs. L. is quite sure she was not dreaming. She had only seen
me once before, two years previously. Again, on March 22, 1884, I wrote to
Mr. Gurney, of the Psychical Research Society, telling him that I was
going to make my presence felt by Miss V., at 44 Norland Square, at
midnight. Ten days afterwards, I saw Miss V., when she voluntarily told me
that on Saturday at midnight, she distinctly saw me, when she was quite
wide awake."
The records of the psychic researchers are filled with numerous accounts
of cases in which similar astral projections have occurred when the person
was on his or her death-bed, but was still alive. It would seem that under
such circumstances the astral senses are very much freer from the
interference of the physical senses, and tend to manifest very strongly
in the form of appearances to persons in whom the dying person is attached
by the ties of affection. Many who read this course have known of cases of
this kind, for they are of quite frequent occurrence.
The student will notice that in the majority of the cases cited in this
chapter the clairvoyant has been in a state of sleep, or semi-sleep--often
in a dream condition. But you must not jump to the conclusion that this
condition is always necessary for the manifestation of this phenomenon. On
the contrary, the advanced and well developed clairvoyants usually assume
merely a condition of deep reverie or meditation, shutting out the sounds
and thoughts of the physical plane, so as to be able to function better on
the astral plane.
The reason that so many recorded cases have occurred when the clairvoyant
person was asleep, and the vision appeared as a dream, is simply because
in such a condition the physical senses of the person are stilled and at
rest, and there is less likelihood of interference from them, and a better
opportunity for the astral senses to function effectively. It is like the
familiar cases in which one becomes so wrapped up in viewing a beautiful
work of art, or in listening to a beautiful musical rendition, that he or
she forgets all about the sights and sounds of the world outside. One
sometimes gets into this same condition when reading an interesting book,
or when witnessing an interesting play. When the psychic powers are
concentrated upon any one channel of vision, the others fail to register
a clear impression. The same rule holds good on the astral plane, as on
the physical.
There are certain psychic conditions which are especially conducive to the
manifestation of clairvoyant phenomena, as all students of the subject
know very well. These conditions are somewhat hard to induce, at least
until the clairvoyant has had considerable experience and practice. But,
in the state of sleep, the person induces the desired conditions, in many
cases, though he is not consciously doing so. As might naturally be
expected, therefore, the majority of the recorded cases of clairvoyance
have occurred when the clairvoyant person has been asleep.
I should also state, once more, that in many cases in which the
clairvoyant has witnessed the "appearance" of another person, as in the
cases such as I have just mentioned, there is always the possibility of
the person having actually appeared in his astral body, unconsciously to
himself of course. No one but a skilled occultist is able to distinguish
between cases of this kind. The line between this class of clairvoyance
and astral appearance is very thin, and, in fact, the two classes of
phenomena shade and blend into each other. In reality, when one gets down
to bottom principles, there is very little difference between the actual
appearance in the astral body, and the strong projection of one's presence
by means of will, conscious or unconscious, along the lines of awakening
the clairvoyant vision of others. To attempt to explain the slight points
of difference here, would only involve the student in a mass of technical
description which would tend to confuse, rather than to enlighten
him--from this I refrain.