Observations placeholder
Brougham, Lord Henry - Sees his dead schoolfriend at the end of his bath
Identifier
024971
Type of Spiritual Experience
Inter composer communication
Hallucination
Background
A description of the experience
Death and its Mystery: After Death – Camille Flammarion
The men of my generation had opportunities to see this fine-looking old man, either in Paris or in Cannes, where he died in 1868. (He was born in Edinburgh in 1778.) Lord Brougham wrote his autobiography but published the following quotation from it on October 16, 1862 [before it was published]. No doubt has ever been cast on the exactitude of the recollection. The event took place in December, 1799; the future politician and celebrated English historian was then only twenty-one, and was making a trip through Sweden. He writes:
The weather was cold. Upon arriving in Gottenburg, at an attractive-looking inn, I asked for a hot bath, and while taking it I had such an odd adventure that I wish to tell of it from the beginning.
I had had a school friend, in high school, named G--, whom I particularly loved and esteemed. At times we discussed the great subject of the immortality of the soul. One day we were foolish enough to draw up a contract, written in our blood, stating that whichever of us two should die first, that one should return and manifest himself to the other in order to banish any doubt that he might have had as to the continuation of life after death.
G- left for India, and I virtually forgot his existence.
I was then, as I say, in my bath, in delicious enjoyment of the grateful treat that warmed my numbed limbs, when, preparing to rise, I cast my eyes upon the chair on which I had put my clothing, and what was my stupefaction to see my friend G- seated there, gazing at me calmly !
How I got out of the bath-tub I cannot say, for when I came to myself I found myself stretched out on the floor. This apparition, or whatever the phenomenon was which was a likeness of my friend, was no longer there. So strongly was I impressed that I wished to write down, without delay all the details together with the date, which was December 19th.
Lord Brougham adds that upon his return to Edinburgh he found a letter from India, telling him of the death of his friend, which occurred on December 19th.