Dream Psychomancy

The Student will have noted that in many cases mentioned in these

lessons, the Psychomantic vision manifested during physical sleep. The

reason of this occurrence is that in the majority of persons the

physical nature, when awake, holds the attention of the individual to

such an extent as to prevent him from manifesting the psychic faculties

clearly. But when the physical body sinks into sleep then the field is

clear f r the exercise of the Astral Senses, which not being fatigued,

are in fine condition to manifest. In fact the majority of persons do

manifest Psychomancy during sleep, but have little or no recollection

of the same when waking, beyond indistinct recollections of "dreams,"

etc. Still, many of you who read these lines will have a more or less

clear remembrance of certain "dreams" in which you seemed to visit

other places, scenes, lands, countries, etc., seeing strange faces,

land-scapes, etc., and upon awakening were somewhat annoyed at having

been brought back from your pleasant travels.



It is not our intention to enter into an extended consideration of the

general subject of Dreams, at this time and place. We write these few

lines merely for the purpose of calling your attention to the fact that

the phenomena of Psychomancy very frequently manifests itself in

dreams, for the reasons stated above. The principle in both the waking

and dream phenomena is precisely the same, the apparent difference

being that the dreamer very seldom carries back with him a clear and

connected memory of his vision, while the waking person is able to

impress his Astral vision upon a wide-awake physical brain, there to be

remembered.



You will find several instances of Dream Psychomancy recorded in the

various lessons of this work, inserted for the purpose of illustrating

the several phases of the phenomena. In such cases we have made no

distinction between the Psychomantic phenomena experienced in dreams on

the one hand, and that experienced in the waking state on the other

hand. The principle is the same in both cases, and there is no

necessity for making any such distinction between the phenomena

occurring under any of the several general classes. But as we still

have to spare a few pages of the space allotted to us in the

preparation of these lessons, we think that we should give you a few

more of the many interesting cases of record.



A well-known and interesting case is that mentioned in the Proceedings

of the Psychical Research Society, of London. It is related as follows:



On September 9th, 1848, at the siege of Mooltan, Major-General R. was

most severely and dangerously wounded; and, supposing himself to be

dying, asked one of the officers with him to take the ring off his

finger and send it to his wife, who at the time was fully 150 miles

distant at Ferozepore.



"On the night of September 9th, 1848," writes his wife, "I was lying on

my bed, between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw my husband

being carried off the field seriously wounded, and heard his voice,

saying, 'Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife.' All the

next day I could not get the sight or the voice out of my mind. In due

time I heard of General R. having been seriously wounded in the assault

of Mooltan. He survived, however, and is still living. It was not for

some time after the siege that I heard from General L., the officer who

helped to carry my husband off the field, that the request as to the

ring was actually made by him, just as I heard it at Ferozepore at that

very time."



The following, related by Mrs. Crowe, is interesting, particularly in

its aspect as a warning:



"A few years ago, Dr. Watson, now residing at Glasgow, dreamt that he

received a summons to attend a patient at a place some miles from where

he was living; that he started on horseback, and that as he was

crossing a moor, he saw a bull making furiously at him, whose horns he

escaped only by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal,

where he waited a long time till some people, observing his situation,

came to his assistance and released him. While at breakfast the

following morning the summons came, and smiling at the odd co-incidence

(as he thought it), he started on horseback. He was quite ignorant of

the road he had to go, but by and by he arrived at the moor, which he

recognized, and presently the bull appeared, coming full tilt towards

him. But his dream had shown him the place of refuge, for which he

instantly made, and there he spent three or four hours besieged by the

animal, till the country people set him free. Dr. Watson declared that

but for the dream he should not have known in what direction to run for

safety."



This case is an instance of Future Time Psychomancy, as the student

will readily see. Here is another case coming under the same

classification. It is related by Dr. Lee:



Mrs. Hannah Green, the housekeeper of a country family in Oxfordshire,

dreamt one night that she had been left alone in the house on a Sunday

evening, and that hearing a knock at the door of the chief entrance,

she went to it and found confronting her an ugly tramp, armed with a

big club, who forced himself into the house in spite of her struggles,

striking her insensible with his club during the conflict. She awoke at

this point. A considerable period of time elapsed, and she had almost

forgotten her dream until it was recalled in a startling manner. She

was then in charge of an isolated mansion at Kensington, and on a

Sunday afternoon, when the servants had taken a holiday, leaving her

alone, she was startled by a loud knock at the door. At once the memory

of her dream flashed before her with singular vividness and remarkable

force. She knew that she was alone, but for the purpose of frightening

away the intruder she lighted a lamp on the hall table, and afterward

in other places in the house, and also rang the bells violently in

different parts of the house. She also made sure that the doors and

windows were fastened. She succeeded in scaring off the man, by making

him believe that the house was occupied by the family, or several

people at least, but not until she had thrown up the window over the

stair landing, and there to her intense terror saw the identical man of

her dream, armed with the same club, and demanding an entrance. Had she

not been warned by the dream of several years previous, she would have

met with a fate such as she had dreamed of.



The following case of Dream Psychomancy, which is a good example of

Astral Projection during sleep, is related by a correspondent of the

Psychical Research Society, as follows:



"One morning in December, 1836, he had the following dream, or, he

would prefer to call it, revelation. He found himself suddenly at the

gate of Major N. M.'s avenue, many miles from his home. Close to him

was a group of persons, one of whom was a woman with a basket on her

arm, the rest men, four of whom were tenants of his own, while the

others were unknown to him. Some of the strangers seemed to be

assaulting H. W., one of his tenants, and he interfered. 'I struck

violently at the man on my left, and then with greater violence at the

man's face on my right. Finding, to my surprise, that I had not knocked

down either, I struck again and again with all the violence of a man

frenzied at the sight of my poor friend's murder. To my great amazement

I saw my arms, although visible to my eye, were without substance, and

the bodies of the men I struck at and my own came close together after

each blow through the shadowy arms I struck with. My blows were

delivered with more extreme violence than I ever think I exerted, but I

became painfully convinced of my incompetency. I have no consciousness

of what happened after this feeling of unsubstantiality came upon me.'

Next morning A. experienced the stiffness and soreness of violent

bodily exercise, and was informed by his wife that in the course of the

night he had much alarmed her by striking out again and again with his

arms in a terrific manner, 'as if fighting for his life.' He, in turn,

informed her of his dream, and begged her to remember the names of

those actors in it who were known to him. On the morning of the

following day (Wednesday) A. received a letter from his agent, who

resided in the town close to the scene of the dream, informing that his

tenant had been found on Tuesday morning at Major N. M.'s gate,

speechless and apparently dying from a fracture of the skull, and that

there was no trace of the murderers. That night A. started for the

town, and arrived there on Thursday morning. On his way to a meeting of

magistrates he met the senior magistrate of that part of the country,

and requested him to give orders for the arrest of the three men whom,

besides H. W., he had recognized in his dream, and to have them

examined separately. This was at once done. The three men gave

identical accounts of the occurrence, and all named the woman who was

with them. She was then arrested, and gave precisely similar testimony.

They said that between eleven and twelve on the Monday night they had

been walking homewards altogether along the road, when they were

overtaken by three strangers, two of whom savagely assaulted H. W.,

while the other prevented his friends from interfering. H. W. did not

die, but was never the same man afterwards; he subsequently emigrated."



Stead relates the following case, which was imparted to him as a

truthful and correct account of the vision of a murder seen in all of

its details by a brother of the murdered man. It is a case of Astral

Projection, undoubtedly:



"St. Eglos is situated about ten miles from the Atlantic, and not quite

so far from the old market town of Trebodwina. Hart and George Northey

were brothers, and from childhood their lives had been marked by the

strongest brotherly affection. Hart and George Northey had never been

separated from their birth until George became a sailor, Hart meantime

joining his father in business. On the 8th of February, 1840, while

George Northey's ship was lying in port at St. Helena, he had the

following strange dream:



"'Last night I dreamt my brother was at Trebodwina Market, and that I

was with him, quite close by his side, during the whole of the market

transactions. Although I could see and hear everything which passed

around me, I felt sure that it was not my bodily presence which thus

accompanied him, but my shadow, or rather my spiritual presence, for he

seemed quite unconscious that I was near him. I felt that my being thus

present in this strange way betokened some hidden danger which he was

destined to meet, and which I knew my presence could not avert, for I

could not speak to warn him of his peril.'"



The brother having collected considerable money then started on his

ride homeward. The story then continues:



"'My terror gradually increased as Hart approached the hamlet of

Polkerrow, until I was in a perfect frenzy, frantically desirous, yet

unable, to warn my brother in some way and prevent him going further. I

suddenly became aware of two dark shadows thrown across the road. I

felt my brother's hour had come, and I was powerless to aid him! Two

men appeared, whom I instantly recognized as notorious poachers, who

lived in a lonely wood near St. Eglos. The men wished him "Good-night,

maister," civilly enough. He replied, and entered into conversation

with them about some work he had promised them. After a few minutes

they asked him for some money. The elder of the two brothers, who was

standing near the horse's head, said, "Mr. Northey, we know you have

just come from Trebodwina market with plenty of money in your pockets;

we are desperate men, and you bean't going to leave this place until

we've got that money, so hand over." My brother made no reply, except

to slash at him with the whip and spur the horse at him.



"'The younger of the ruffians instantly drew a pistol and fired. Hart

dropped lifeless from the saddle, and one of the villains held him by

the throat with a grip of iron for some minutes, as though to make

assurance doubly sure, and crush out any particle of life my poor

brother might have left. The murderers secured the horse to a tree in

the orchard, and, having rifled the corpse, they dragged it up the

stream, concealing it under the overhanging banks of the water-course.

They then carefully covered over all marks of blood on the road, and

hid the pistol in the thatch of a disused hut close to the roadside;

then, setting the horse free to gallop home alone, they decamped across

the country to their own cottage.'



"The vessel left St. Helena next day, and reached Plymouth in due

course. George Northey had during the whole of the voyage home, never

altered his conviction that Hart had been killed as he had dreamt, and

that retribution was by his means to fall on the murderers."



The sequel shows that the murder was actually committed in precisely

the manner in which it had appeared to the brother in the dream. The

crime aroused universal horror and indignation, and every effort was

made to discover the murderers and bring them to justice. Two brothers

named Hightwood were suspected, and a search of their cottage revealed

bloodstained garments, but no trace of the pistol was to be found,

although the younger brother admitted having had one and lost it. The

story continues:



"Both brothers were arrested and brought before the magistrates. The

evidence against them was certainly not strong, but their manner seemed

that of guilty men. They were ordered to take their trial at the

forthcoming assizes at Trebodwina. They each confessed in the hope of

saving their lives, and both were sentenced to be hanged. There was,

however, some doubt about the pistol. Before the execution George

Northey arrived from St. Helena, and declared that the pistol was in

the thatch of the old cottage close by the place where they murdered

Hart Northey, and where they hid it. 'How did you know?' he was asked.

George Northey replied: 'I saw the foul deed committed in a dream I had

the night of the murder, when at St. Helena.' A pistol was found, as

George Northey had predicted, in the thatch of the ruined cottage."



We trust that we have established the identity of Waking Psychomancy,

and Dream Psychomancy, to your satisfaction.