§ 5. I will begin with visual examples, and first of a rudimentary type. [Case 316 - here omitted as remote - describes two flickering flames which slowly moved onto the bed of the two percipients and there broke up into small grains which ran over the bed-covering like quicksilver. - Ed].

We have several other examples of collective hallucinations of light. In one (described to us by Mrs. G. T. Haly, of 122, Coningham Road, Shepherd's Bush, W., as having occurred a few days after her husband's death, and assumed by her to be connected with him), a flame as of a candle, but bluer, passed and repassed the bed on which the two percipients were lying, at about 18 inches height from the floor. In another, a luminous ball was seen in a corner of the room. A fourth very remarkable instance, of the brilliant illuminations and then sudden darkening of an empty room, is described to us by the Rev. Edward Ram, of Norwich, as a personal experience of himself and his wife - but this was in a house where other unaccountable phenomena have been observed; as was also the case in a fifth instance, where a light is described by one percipient, Mrs. W. B. Richmond, as a glow over the whole room, out of which (according to her recollection) two bright little balls of light seemed to flash out; and by the other (her mother) as "flickering about" specially in a particular part of the room.

In none of these cases does it seem possible that the light was in any way cast or reflected into the room from outside.

Coming to instances of a more developed type, we have a considerable group of cases as to which it might be a possible - though I think a rather desperate - assumption that what was seen was a real object, most strangely misinterpreted, or else appearing in most improbabable circumstances; and which I do not therefore number as evidential items. Specially baffling are some of the cases where a carriage, as well as human beings, has appeared. For instance, Major W., resident near Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, writes: -

"February 9th, 1882.

"It was the month of August; rather a dark night and very still; the hour, midnight; when before retiring for the night I went, as is often my custom, to the front door to look at the weather. When standing for a moment on the step, I saw, coming round a turn in the drive, a large close carriage and pair of horses, with two men on the box. It passed the front of the house, and was going at a rapid rate towards a path which leads to a stream, running, at that point, between rather steep banks. There is no carriage-road on that side of the house, and I shouted to the driver to stop, as, if he went on, he must undoubtedly come to grief. The carriage stopped abruptly when it came to the running water, turned, and, in doing so, drove over the lawn. I got up to it; and by this time my son had joined me with a lantern. Neither of the men on the box had spoken, and there was no sound from the inside of the carriage. My son looked in, and all he could discern was a stiff-looking figure sitting up in a corner, and draped, apparently, from head to foot in white. The absolute silence of the men outside was mysterious, and the white figure inside, apparently of a female, not being alarmed or showing any signs of life, was strange.

Men, carriage, and horses were unknown to me, although I know the country so well. The carriage continued its way across the lawn, turning up a road which led past the stables, and so into the drive again and away. We could see no traces of it the next morning - no marks of wheels or horses' feet on the soft grass or gravel road; and we never again heard of the carriage or its occupant, though I caused careful inquiries to be made the following day. I may mention that my wife and daughter also saw the carriage, being attracted to the window by my shout. This happened on the 23rd of August, 1878".

After a visit to the house in September, 1884, Mr. Podmore wrote: -

"Major W., on whom I called to-day, is practically satisfied that what he and his family saw was not a real carriage. He showed me the whole scene of its appearance. The spot where the carriage appeared to turn barely leaves sufficient room for the passage of an ordinary carriage, and that a carriage should turn round there seems almost impossible. The carriage went for some distance across the lawn - a mossy and rather damp piece of grass - and stopped in front of the house for more than a minute, the while Major W. spoke to the man, but without receiving any reply. His wife, whom I also saw, was attracted to the window by the sound of the wheels, in the first instance, on the gravel. Major W. made many inquiries among his neighbours, but could not find that anyone had seen the carriage at all. The house is situated on a peninsula stretching between the Cromarty and Moray Firths, and some 3 miles from the neck of the peninsula. The locality is very lonely, there being no villages or hamlets, and but few private residences of any kind; and it is difficult to imagine the errand which could bring a strange carriage into such a country at the dead of night.

Major W. has had one other purely subjective hallucination".