719 C. The following case of an apparition coinciding with a death, but representing a near relative of the dying person, instead of the dying person herself, is taken from the "Report on the Census of Hallucinations," Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 261. There were four cases of this type in the Census, of which one had already been published in Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 35 7 (No. 124), and two others are given in the "Report." I quote the preliminary comments of the writers of the "Report" on these cases.

"Such cases need present no difficulty on the telepathic theory. Indeed, it may be rather said that the absence of any cases of the kind would render the theory improbable. They raise the question, however, who the 'agent' - the person, that is, from whom the telepathic communication comes - is, in hallucinations coinciding with a death. Usually it seems natural to assume that it is the dying person, and in some cases - as we have seen in Chapter XII. - this view is supported by evidence that the dying person's thoughts were specially directed to the percipient. The mere fact, however, that the apparition represents a particular person does not prove that that person was the agent. It is possible for an agent to transfer to a percipient an image of some third person, and it is possible for a percipient to embody an impression telepathically received in a form suggested by his own mind and not by the agent's. As an instance where it seems improbable that the person whose figure was seen was the agent, see Mrs. McAlpine's vision of her baby nephew at the time of its death (printed at p. 281). It seems more likely in this case that the agent was some one with the child, than the child itself, aged six months.

In one of the death coincidences quoted in Chapter XII. (No. 579.24, p. 223), there is some reason for thinking that the agent was the sister who telegraphed the news rather than the decedent; because (1) the hallucination nearly coincided in time with the despatch of the telegram, while it occurred some hours after the death, and (2) it foretold the arrival of the telegram. These cases, of course, differ from those we are about to quote, in that the apparition is of the dying person, but they should be kept in view in interpreting them".

[In the first case, omitted here, the apparition represented a man who was at the time at the deathbed of his mother].

"In the next case the fact that the person whose figure was seen can hardly by any normal means have known of his mother's death at the time of the hallucination makes it difficult to suppose that he was the agent, without a telepathic hypothesis so complicated as to be extremely improbable".

The account came from Miss C. L. Hawkins-Dempster, having been written in 1890.

24 Portman Square, W.

I ran downstairs and entered the drawing-room at 7.30 p.m., believing I had kept my two sisters waiting for dinner. They had gone to dinner, the room was empty. Behind a long sofa I saw Mr. H. standing. He moved three steps nearer. I heard nothing. I was not at all afraid or surprised, only felt concern as [to] what he wanted, as he was in South America. I learnt next morning that at that moment his mother was breathing her last. I went and arranged her for burial, my picture still hanging above the bed, between the portraits of her two absent sons.

I was in the habit of hearing often from [Mr. H.], and was not at that moment anxious about Mrs. H.'s health, though she was aged.

I had had twenty-five days before the grief of losing an only brother. No [other persons were present at the time]. C. L. H. Dempster.

In answer to further inquiries, we learnt from Miss Hawkins-Dempster that the above incident occurred on New Year's Eve, 1876-77; the room was lighted by "one bright lamp and a fire," and the figure did not seem to go away, she merely "ceased to see it." She used to see Mrs. H. often, and was in no anxiety as to her health at the time. Mrs. H. was very old, but not definitely ill. Miss Hawkins-Dempster corrected her first statement as to the exactness of the coincidence by informing us that Mrs. H. died in the morning of the same day on which the apparition was seen.

Miss Hawkins-Dempster mentioned what she had seen to her sister, who thus corroborates:-

July 15th, 1892.

I heard of my sister Miss C. L. Hawkins-Dempster's vision of Mr. H. in the drawing-room at 7.30 p.m. on New Year's Eve, 1876-77, immediately after it happened, and before hearing that Mrs. H. died the same day, the news of which reached us later that evening. H. H. Dempster.

We have verified the date of death at Somerset House. I had an interview with the Misses Hawkins-Dempster on July 16th, 1892, and wrote the following account of it the next day:-

Miss C. Hawkins-Dempster's veridical experience is well remembered by both sisters. The decedent was a very old lady, who was on very intimate terms with them, and had special reasons for thinking of Miss C. Hawkins-Dempster in connection with the son whose figure appeared. He was at the other side of the world, and almost certainly had not heard of his mother's death at the time.

The figure was absolutely life-like. Miss Hawkins-Dempster noticed the slight cast of the eye and the delicate hands. The figure rested one hand on the back of a chair and held the other out Miss Hawkins-Dempster called out, "What can I do for you?" forgetting for the moment the impossibility that it could be the real man. Then she simply ceased to see the figure.

She was in good health at the time, and her thoughts were occupied with business matters.

"Here"(say the writers of the "Report") "the apparition followed the death by some hours, so that, if Mrs. H. was the agent, the telepathic impression must either have remained latent for some time, or have been produced by the agent after death".