Page 31 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 11

admit that he was beginning to feel his dogma experiences is that of the appearance of one’s
crumbling around him. In 1806 a dreadful own double. Goethe (1749–1832), a German
avalanche at Rossberg buried several villages, poet, had the astonishing experience of meet-
and the reports of visions of the dying appearing ing himself as he rode away from Strassburg.
to loved ones became so numerous that Oberlin The phantom wore a pike grey cloak with gold
at last came to believe that the villagers were lace that Goethe had never seen before. Eight
indeed perceiving spirits of the departed. years later, as Goethe was on the same road
In Footfalls on the Boundary of Another going to visit Frederika, it occurred to him
World (1848), Robert Dale Owen relates that that he was dressed in precisely the same cloak
Oberlin came to believe that his wife that his phantom had been wearing on that
appeared to him after her death. The clergy- earlier occasion.
man maintained that his wife’s spirit watched In 1929, an archbishop wrote to Sir Oliver
over him as though she were a guardian angel. Lodge to tell him of a most peculiar incident
Furthermore, Oberlin claimed that he could which had occurred one evening when he had
see his wife’s spirit, talk with her, and make returned to his home feeling tired. He sat
use of her counsel regarding future events. down in a favorite easy chair, and immediately
Oberlin compiled extensive manuscripts that fell asleep. Then, he wrote in the letter, he
described in detail a series of manifestations in was sharply aroused in about a quarter of an
which his wife appeared to him and dictated hour (as he perceived by the clock). As he
information regarding life after death. Oberlin awoke he saw an apparition, luminous,
became convinced that the inhabitants of the vaporous, wonderfully real of himself, looking
invisible world can appear to the living, and interestedly and delightedly at himself. After
we to them, and that we humans are appari- the archbishop and himself had looked at
tions to them, as they are to us. each other for the space of about five seconds,
The question that may remain is whether the ghostly self vanished for a few seconds,
the percipients of apparitions actually observe a and then returned even clearer than before.
discarnate entity, which occupies an objective
area in time and space, or whether they perceive
the result of a successfully implanted telepathic
message-image, which had been transmitted at A doppleganger is the astral self in out-of-body
the moment of death by the dying loved one. experiences and appears as one’s own double.
The witnesses themselves, however, insist that
their experiences cannot be dismissed as only
dramatic devices of their imaginations.
Such weird phenomena are termed “auto-
M Delving Deeper scopic hallucinations.” They appear to serve
Baird, A. T., ed. One Hundred Cases for Survival After no dual purpose, such as providing a warning
Death. New York: Bernard Ackerman, 1944. or disclosing valuable information, but only
Crookall, Robert. Intimations of Immortality. London: seem to present a projection of one’s own body
James Clarke Co., 1968. image. One sees oneself, as it were, without a
Dingwall, Eric J., and John Langdon-Davies. The mirror.
Unknown—Is It Nearer? New York: New Ameri-
Dr. Edward Podolsky has compiled a num-
can Library, 1968.
ber of cases of people who have reported seeing
Smith, Alson J. Immortality: The Scientific Evidence.
their own ghosts, and he recorded the experi-
New York: Prentice Hall, 1954.
ence of a Mr. Harold C. of Chicago, Illinois,
Tyrrell, G. N. M. Apparitions. New York: Collier
who returned home after a hard day at the
Books, 1963.
office with a splitting migraine. As he sat down
to dinner, he saw, sitting opposite him, an exact
Autoscopy
replica of himself. This astonishing double
A phenomenon that may be closely related to repeated every movement he made during the
the projection of the astral self in out-of-body entire course of the meal. Since that time, Mr.

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