Observations placeholder
The ghostly mule escapes from a customs officer
Identifier
028142
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
As quoted in Gabriel Delanne - Materials for use in the study of Reincarnation
This is one of two cases that I reported in brief to the London Congress of 1898; I took them from Mr. Dassier. The text does not allow me to know whether we are dealing with manifestations of posthumous or living animals. Here is another example told by the person to whom this event happened. Mr. Dassier receives it from the narrator himself.
"One evening, finding myself on guard (a customs officer was on duty) with one of my comrades, we noticed, not far from the village where I lived, a mule passing in front of us and looking loaded. Supposing that it was carrying contraband and that its master had run away when he saw us, we chased it. The mule threw itself into a meadow and after making various detours to escape us, it made its way back to the village. So we divided ourselves. As my comrade continued to pursue it, I took a crossroads, in order to cut it off. When the animal saw its pursuers closing in, it started to gallop and several inhabitants were awakened by the sound of footsteps resounding on the pavement.
I arrived before it at the passage where the street it was following led it; when I saw it near me I stretched out my hand to grasp its halter, it disappeared like a shadow, and I saw only my comrade, as surprised as I was. The place where this scene took place was a dead end, from which the animal could not escape without passing by the Customs officer.
The reality of this mule-like form is evidenced by the sound of the mule running away, as the village inhabitants wondered the next morning about the noise they had heard in the dead of night.