Observations placeholder
Dr Rowland Bowstead sees his dead brother-in-law on the cricket ground
Identifier
011288
Type of Spiritual Experience
Inter composer communication
Hallucination
Background
I think the shock caused by the sudden death of his son-in-law in front of the father's very eyes, caused a message to be sent to his son. I don't think the brother-in-law was even involved
A description of the experience
Death and its Mystery, At the Moment of Death; Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dying – Camille Flammarion
from Essai de spiritisme scientifique – case study Dr Rowland Bowstead of Caistor in the UK
I was playing cricket.
A ball which I should have caught rolled over to a low hedge. I ran towards it, with a comrade.
When I had drawn near the hedge I saw on the other side of it my brother-in-law to whom I was greatly attached. He was dressed in hunting costume and carried a gun on his arm. He smiled and waved at me.
I told my comrade to look at the apparition, but he saw nothing and when I wished to fix my gaze upon it again it had disappeared. Greatly depressed, I went up to my uncle’s home and told him what I had just seen. It was ten minutes past one.
Two days afterward I got a letter from my father, telling me of the death of my brother-in-law, which had occurred at precisely that time.
His death came about in a curious way. The morning of that very day, since he was fairly well after an illness, he had declared that he was able to go hunting. Then, having taken up his gun, he had turned toward my father and had asked him if he had sent for me. My father having answered in the negative, he had flown into a rage and said that he would see me in spite of everything.
Suddenly he fell down as though struck by lightning, a blood vessel in his lungs having burst. He was wearing at the time a hunting costume and had a gun on his arm, exactly as in the apparition that had startled me