Page 29 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 9

Parker had died at 4:00 A.M. Eastern time— ously ill. (He made his home with them.) “He “Ghostbusters” movie.
half an hour before Gladys Watson saw him. took sick the day before. We called the doctor (THE KOBAL COLLECTION)
and thought he was going to be all right. The
Watson wrote an account of her experience end came suddenly around four o’clock in the
for the Journal of the American Society for Psychi- morning. We were going to wait until later in
cal Research (Vol. LXV, No. 3) in which she the morning to get in touch with Gladys. I
mentioned that both she and her husband were believe sincerely in the truth of this experi-
children of Methodist ministers “…schooled ence as my daughter writes it.”
against superstition from the time of their
birth.” John Frederick Oberlin (1740–1826), the
famous pastor, educator, and philanthropist,
When Watson was asked by an investiga- literally transformed the whole life of the Ban-
tor for the ASPR whether the experience of de-la-Roche valley in the Vosges Mountains
hearing her grandfather speak could be com- of Alsace. Shortly after the clergyman’s arrival
pared to hearing someone in the flesh or to in the district, he expressed his immediate and
hearing with one’s “inner ear,” she answered earnest displeasure regarding the superstitions
that it had been as if Grandad Parker had of the natives. Oberlin became especially agi-
been there in the flesh, speaking in a soft, yet tated over the villagers’ reports concerning
determined voice. the apparitions of dying loved ones. The new
Watson’s father, Rev. Walter E. Parker, Sr., pastor resolved to educate the simple folk, and
corroborated his daughter’s story in a letter to he launched a vociferous pulpit campaign
the ASPR in which he wrote, in part, that against such superstitious tales.
Gladys had always been his father’s favorite In spite of his orthodox denial of appari-
grandchild and that they had promised to let tions, the reports of such phenomena continued
her know if and when Grandad became seri- unabated, and Oberlin was honest enough to

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