Examples of Experiences Compiled by Flammarion
Case 19 (pp. 72–73)
This case involved the visual perception of a recognized figure and the hearing of that person’s voice.
On December 4, 1884, at half-past three in the morning, I being then perfectly awake, rose and got up. I then had a most distinct vision of the apparition of my brother Joseph Bonnet, sublieutenant of Spahis Third Regiment, in garrison at Batna in the province of Constantine in Algeria … My brother kissed me on the forehead. I felt a cold shudder pass through me, and he said, very distinctly, “Good-bye Angèle, I am dead.” Very much upset and troubled, I woke my husband, saying to him, “Joseph is dead. He has just told me so.” [That day was the brother’s 35th birthday] … All that day, Thursday, I was very miserable. At three o’clock in the afternoon we got a despatch. Before it was opened I knew what it contained. My brother had died at … Algeria, at three o’clock in the morning.
Angèle Esperon, née Bonnet
I certify that this account, written by my wife, is perfectly exact.
Osman Esperon
Captain on half pay and Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Bordeaux
Case 21 (p. 74)
The case consisted on the sound of a bell that could not be explained normally.
We were in the country. My mother had a room next to that in which we slept, my wife and I. My mother was quite old but in good health, and the evening before her death nothing would have led us to suppose her end was near when she went that night to her chamber.
In the morning, about half-past five, I was suddenly awakened by a noise that I thought was her bell. I jumped out of bed, saying to my wife, “My mother is ringing.” My wife replied that could not be, for there was not a bell in the house. … I started early for Lyons. A few hours after I received a despatch from my wife to tell me that she had found my mother dead in bed, and that there was every indication that death must have taken place about five or six o’clock in the morning—that is, about the hour when an inexplicable sensation made me fancy that she summoned me.
F. Gérin
Lawyer in the Circuit Court at Lyons
Case 120 (pp. 129–130)
This case involved the apparent movement of a portrait.
My father was ill, and was being nursed away from home. Though we knew he was ill, we had firm hope of his recovery. We went to see him, and had found him better, when one night I was suddenly roused, and my father’s picture, which hung just opposite my bed, seemed to me to make a sudden move. I say seemed to me, for I cannot imagine that it really stirred. … I looked to see what o’clock it was. It was exactly one in the morning.
The next day, before noon, we received a letter begging us to hasten to our father, who had suddenly grown worse. We reached him too late. He had died at one o’clock that morning, precisely the hour when I was awakened.
Juliette Thévenet
Monte Carlo |
