741 A. From the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, vol. i. p. 446. This is a case of two apparently synchronous "visions of consolation" representing the same deceased person. The percipients were the mother and husband of a lady who had been dead five months. She died in December, 1879, and the incidents occurred about the end of April 1880. Mrs. Crans, the mother, was then residing in New York, and her son-in-law, Mr. C. A. Kernochan, in Central City, Dakota. Mrs. Crans writes to Dr. Hodgson as follows:-

345 West 34TH Street, New York, July 14th, 1888.

... After lying down to rest, I remember feeling a drifting sensation, of seeming almost as if I was going out of the body. My eyes were closed; soon I realised that I was, or seemed to be, going fast somewhere. All seemed dark to me; suddenly I realised that I was in a room; then I saw Charley lying in a bed asleep; then I took a look at the furniture of the room, and distinctly saw every article - even to a chair at the head of the bed, which had one of the pieces broken in the back. ... In a moment the door opened and my spirit-daughter Allie came into the room and stepped up to the bed and stooped down and kissed Charley. He seemed to at once realise her presence, and tried to hold her, but she passed right out of the room about like a feather blown by the wind; and then, after a moment, she came back again [several further incidents are here described]. Then I thought I would open my eyes, and with difficulty I got my eyes open. They seemed so heavy to me, but when I succeeded in opening them I received a sudden shock, such as if I had fallen from the ceiling to the floor. It frightened and woke up both Mrs. B. and my daughter [but Mrs. B. has been lost sight of, and the daughter was a child at the time], who asked what was the matter.

Of course I told them my experience, and the following Sunday I wrote, as was always my custom, to my son-in-law, Charley, telling him of all my experience, describing the room as I saw it furnished.

It took a letter six days to go from here to Dakota, and the same length of time, of course, to come from there here; and at the end of six days judge of my surprise to receive a letter from Charley telling me thus: "Oh, my darling mamma Crans! My God! I dreamed I saw Allie last Friday night!" He then described just as I saw her; how she came into the room and he cried and tried to hold her, but she vanished [with other details, similar to those of Mrs. Crans' dream]. Then at the end of six days, when my letter reached him, and he read of my similar experience, he at once wrote me that all I had seen was correct, even to every article of furniture in the room, also as his dream had appeared to him. . . . Mrs. N. J. Crans.

The letters referred to, which were written at the time of the experiences, had unfortunately not been preserved; but Mr. Kernochan wrote to Dr. Hodgson as follows:-

New York, July 4th, 1888.

The facts written you this day by Mrs. N. J. Crans in regard to a letter written to me one Sunday morning in the year 1880, and one written by me on the same date to her, are correct in every particular. I was then living in Central City, Dakota, boarding at the American house. It is impossible to give the exact date, as I have destroyed the letter, for which I regret. I think it was about the last of April 1880. ... C. A. Kernochan.