Page 32 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

12 Ghosts and Phantoms

C. has seen his double on a number of occa- is revived and returned to life through
sions—each time after an attack of migraine. heart massage or other medical means.
As Mrs. Jeanie P. was applying makeup, 7. Projections that occur at the moment of
she saw an exact duplicate of herself also physical death when the deceased subject
touching up her features. Mrs. P. reached out appears to a living percipient with whom
to touch the double, and the image reached he or she has had a close emotional link.
out to touch her. Mrs. P. actually felt her face
In addition to these spontaneous, involun-
being touched by her mysterious double.
tary experiences, there also seem to be those
There are two main theories about the voluntary and conscious projections during
cause of autoscopy. One theory regards the which the subjects deliberately endeavor to
phenomenon as being due to the result of some free their spirit, their soul, from their physical
irritating process in the brain, particularly of body. It would appear that certain people have
the parietotemporal-occipital area (the visual exercised this peculiar function of the tran-
area). A more psychological theory sees in scendent self to the extent that they can pro-
autoscopy the projection of memory pictures. ject their spiritual essence at will and produce
Certain pictures are stored in the memory and ghosts, apparitions, of the living.
when conditions of stress or other unusual psy- Early psychical researcher Edmund Gurney
chological situations arise these memories may (1847–1888) told of the incredible experi-
be projected outside the body as real images.
ments of a Mr. S. H. Beard in his Phantasms of
M Delving Deeper the Living, published in 1886. Beard began his
Black, David. Ekstasy: Out-of-the-Body Experiences. experiments with “astral projection” in
New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975. November of 1881 on a Sunday evening after
Crookall, Robert. More Astral Projections. London: he had been reading about the great power
Aquarian Press, 1964. which the human will is capable of exercising.
Fodor, Nandor. Mind Over Space and Time. New York: Exerting the whole force of his being on the
Citadel Press, 1962. thought that he would be present in spirit on
Steinour, Harold. Exploring the Unseen World . New the second floor of a particular house, Beard
York: Citadel Press, 1959. managed to project an apparition of himself
Tyrrell, G. N. M. Apparitions. New York: Collier that was visible to his fiancee, Miss L. S. Verity.
Books, 1963. Three days later, when Beard went to call
upon Verity, a very excited young woman told
Ghosts of the Living him that she and her 11-year-old sister had
Psychical research has identified the following nearly been frightened out of their wits by an
types of situations in which out-of-body experi- apparition that had looked just like him. Beard
ences (OBEs) or astral projections might occur: felt quite pleased with the success of his experi-
ment. Verity’s sister confirmed his “ghost’s”
1. Projections that occur while the subject
sleeps. appearance; in fact, the whole matter of a spec-
tral visitation had been brought up without
2. Projections that occur while the subject is any allusion to the subject on Beard’s part.
undergoing surgery, childbirth, tooth ex-
Verity later told Edmund Gurney that she
traction, etc.
distinctly saw Beard in her room, about one
3. Projections that occur at the time of acci-
o’clock. “I was perfectly awake and was much
dent, during which the subject suffers a
terrified,” she said. “I awoke my sister by
violent physical jolt that seems, literally, to
screaming, and she saw the apparition herself.
catapult the spirit from the physical body.
Neither my sister nor I have ever experienced
4. Projections that occur during intense hallucinations of any sort.”
physical pain.
Although Beard did not disclose his inten-
5. Projections that occur during acute illness. tions to Verity, he was by no means finished
6. Projections that occur during near-death with his experiments. The second time he was
experiences (NDEs), wherein the subject seen by a married sister of Verity’s, whom he

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