True Ghost Stories Read online

  True Ghost Stories: Illustrated

  By

  Hereward Carrington

  Illustrated by Murat Ukray

  ILLUSTRATED &

  PUBLISHED BY

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  Copyright, 2014 by e-Kitap Projesi

  Istanbul

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  Table of Contents

  True Ghost Stories: Illustrated

  About Author

  Preface (About the Book)

  Preface

  Glossary of Terms Used

  Chapter I

  What Is a Ghost?

  The Terror of the Dark

  What Is a Ghost?

  Historic Investigations

  Death Coincidences

  Are They Due to Chance?

  The Explanation

  Experimental Apparations

  Telepathic Hallucinations

  Ghosts Which Move Material Objects

  Photographs of Ghosts

  The Double And the Spiritual Body

  What Happens At the Moment of Death

  How the Soul May Leave the Body

  Theories of Haunted Houses

  The Ghost of Animals Etc

  The Clothes of Ghosts

  Telepathy From the Dead

  The Psychic Atmosphere

  Forms Created By Will

  Physical Manifestations

  Can Haunted House Be Cured?

  Chapter II

  Phantasms of the Dead I

  A Russian Ghost

  Grasped By a Spirit Hand

  I Am Shot!

  Heave the Lead!

  The Rescue At Sea

  How Ghosts Influence Us

  How a Ghost Warned the King

  The Stain of Blood

  Face to Face!

  Julia Darling!

  The Cut Across the Cheek

  The Invisible Hand

  The Apparition of the Radiant Boy

  Fisher’s Ghost

  Harriet Hosmer’s Vision

  The Apparition of the Murdered Boy

  The Ghost In Yellow Calico

  Chapter III

  More Phantasms of the Dead II

  Compacts to Appear After Death

  Lord Brougham’s Vision

  The Tyrone Ghost

  Dead Or Alive

  The Scratch On the Cheek

  A Ghost In Hampton Court

  Half Past One O’clock

  My Own True Ghost Story

  Chapter IV

  Haunted Houses

  The Record of a Haunted House

  Proofs of Immateriality

  Conduct of Animals In the House

  Willington Mill

  The Great Amherst Mystery

  Brook House

  Chapter V

  Ghost Stories of a More Dramatic Nature

  Disease Phantoms

  The Tale of the Mummy

  Face Slapped By a Ghost

  Alone With a Ghost In a Church

  A Haunted House In France

  A Haunted House In Georgia

  Shaken By a Ghost

  The House And the Brain

  Appendix A

  Historical Ghosts

  Appendix B

  The Phantom Armies Seen In France

  Appendix C

  Bibliography

  About Author

  Hereward Carrington, Ph.D. (17 October 1880 – 26 December 1958) was a well-known British investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, and he wrote over 100 books on subjects including the paranormal and psychical research, conjuring and stage magic, and alternative health issues.

  Early life

  Carrington was born in St Helier, Jersey in 1880. He emigrated to the USA in 1899 and settled in New York City in 1904. Hereward previously lived with his brother Hedley in Minnesoda and appears in the 1900 census there. In New York he first worked as an asst. editor for Street and Smith magazines. Initially a sceptic about psychic abilities, his interest grew from reading books on the subject and at the age of 19 he joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR).

  Works & Career

  Carrington became a member of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1907 and worked an assistant to James Hyslop until 1908, during which time he established his reputation as an ASPR investigator. However his connection with the ASPR ceased due to lack of funds.

  An important early case Carrington investigated and described was that of the medium Eusapia Palladino in 1908. Carrington and two companions went to Naples to see her on behalf of the English S.P.R. an experience which strengthened his belief in the reality of psychic phenomena. He described her in his 1909 book Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena, invited her to the USA and helped arrange a tour for her, he detected her cheating at sittings but also claimed she had genuine supernatural ability. He also made a detailed enquiry into the case of Esther Cox (the Great Amherst Mystery) in 1910. The events surrounding Cox had occurred more than thirty years previously, but Carrington contacted surviving witnesses for statements and published a detailed account of the Amherst phenomena.

  Among Carrington's best known subjects was Mina "Margery" Crandon whom he observed in 1924 on behalf of the Scientific American as part of an enquiry into Spiritualism, sitting on a committee alongside Harry Houdini, Malcolm Bird, William McDougall, Walter Franklin Prince and Daniel Frost Comstock. The committee had differing opinions on Crandon, and eventually only Carrington inclined to the belief that her powers were genuine, although subsequent evidence of possible fraud again led him to express doubts about her writing that he maintained a "perfectly open mind" about such phenomena pending the arrival of better evidence one way or the other.

  Carrington was an amateur conjuror and was critical towards some paranormal phenomena. Carrington in his book The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism (1907) exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading and spirit photography. The book revealed the tricks of mediums such as Henry Slade and William Eglinton. He wrote in the book that after his investigations and studies into the subject of mediumship that 98% of both the physical and mental phenomena were fraudulent. He did however believe that some mediumship phenomena was genuine. He also wrote "I have no particular theory to defend, and no belief to uphold. I am not a convinced spiritualist; at the same time, I am willing to grant that the evidence for survival is remarkably strong."

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  Preface (About the Book)

  HEREWARD CARRINGTON, author of “True Ghost Stories,” is well known in this country, and in Europe, as a prominent scientific writer on psychical and occult subjects. He has been a member of both the English and American Societies of Psychical Research for more than 15 years; has written over a dozen books on the subject—a number of which has been translated into foreign languages (such as Japanese and Arabic), and he has lectured in London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, Genoa, Turin, etc.—before scientific organizations. His writings are well known, and have earned him a high place in psychical circles. He’s a late member of the Council of the American Scientific Society, of the American Geographical Society, and of the American Health League. He collaborated in the “American Encyclopædia,” “The Standard Dictionary,” etc. His experience in the investigation of psychical mysteries is unrivalled. He has travelled all over the country investigating “cases,” spending nights in “haunted houses,” and accounts of his investigations have appeared in the Reports of the various Psychical Societies, and also in his own publications.

 
In “True Ghost Stories,” Mr. Carrington presents a number of startling cases of this character; but they are not the ordinary “ghost stories”—based on pure fiction, and having no foundation in reality. Here we have a well-arranged collection of incidents, all thoroughly investigated and vouched for, and the testimony obtained first-hand and corroborated by others. The chapter on “Haunted Houses” is particularly striking. The first chapter deals with the interesting question, “What is a Ghost?” and attempts to answer this question in the light of the latest scientific theories which have been advanced to explain these supernatural happenings and visitants. It is a book of absorbing interest, and cannot fail to grip and hold the attention of every reader—no matter whether he be a student of these questions, or one merely in search of hair-raising anecdotes and stories. He will find them here a-plenty!

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  True Ghost Stories

  BY

  HEREWARD CARRINGTON

  Author of “The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism,” “The Coming

  Science,” “Death: its Causes and Phenomena,”

  “Death Deferred,” etc.

  REPRODUCED BY

  {e-Kitap Projesi & Cheapest Books}

  Preface

  The following little book endeavors to bring together a number of “ghost stories” of the more startling and dramatic type,—but stories, nevertheless, which seem to be well authenticated; and which have been obtained, in most instances, at first hand, from the original witnesses; and often contain corroborative testimony from others who also experienced the ghostly phenomena. Some of these incidents, indeed, rise to the dignity of scientific evidence; others are less well authenticated cases,—but interesting for all that. These have been grouped in various Chapters, according to their evidential value. Chapters II. and III. contain well-evidenced cases, some of which have been taken from the Proceedings and Journals of the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.), or from Phantasms of the Living, or from other scientific books, in which narratives of this character receive serious consideration. Chapter V., on the contrary, contains a number of incidents which,—striking and dramatic as they are,—cannot be included in the two earlier Chapters, as presenting real evidence of Ghosts; but are published rather as startling and interesting ghost stories. Chapter IV., devoted to “Haunted Houses,” contains brief accounts of the most famous Haunted Houses, and of the phenomena which have been witnessed within them. Appendix A gives a list of a few of the important “Historical Ghosts,” Appendix B describes the “Phantom Armies” lately seen by the Allied troops in France—while Appendix C lists a number of books of Ghost Stories which the interested reader may care to peruse. A short Glossary, at the beginning of the book, explains the meaning of certain terms used,—which are not, perhaps, ordinarily met with in books of this character.

  In the Introductory Chapter, I have endeavored to explain, very briefly, the nature and character of Ghosts; what they are; and the various scientific theories which have been brought forward, of late years, to explain Ghosts. I hope that this may prove of interest to the reader; in case it does not do so, he is invited to “skip” directly to Chapter II., which begins our account of “True Ghost Stories.”

  I wish to express my thanks in this place to the Council of the English S. P. R. for special permission to quote and to summarize several striking cases here reproduced; also to Miss Estelle Stead, for permission to utilize several cases previously printed at length in Mr. Wm. T. Stead’s collections of Ghost Stories. H. C.

  Glossary of Terms Used

  Agent—The person who, in thought-transference experiments, endeavors to impress his thoughts upon the “percipient” or “receiver.”

  Death-Coincidence—A case in which an apparition or other ghostly phenomenon has taken place, at the moment of the death of the person represented by the phantom.

  Ghost—An apparition, a phantom. Some contend that all ghosts are “subjective” or purely mental (hallucinations); others that some ghosts are “objective”—that is, space-occupying entities, which exist apart from the seer, who sees them. These points will be found fully discussed in this book.

  Hallucination—A mental experience, in which a phantom is seen, a voice heard, etc., when there is no real external cause for this seeing or hearing. Hallucinations are more complete than mere “illusions.”

  Pact—An agreement, entered into before death, between two persons, that, whichever one dies first, shall appear to the other one. These are here called “Pact Cases.” [A Pact may also mean an agreement between a necromancer of[12] some spirit-intelligence, as in Magic; but the word is not used in that sense in this book.]

  Percipient—The receiver of the telepathic or other message. The one who experiences the phenomenon.

  Phantasm—A phantom; an apparition; a “ghost.” The word is more inclusive than any of the words suggested; and is used by preference, by most psychic students.

  Telepathy—Mind-reading; thought-transference.

  TRUE GHOST STORIES

  Chapter I

  What Is a Ghost?

  Ghosts have been believed in by every nation, at every time and at every stage of the world’s evolution. No matter where we may go, we find them stalking through the pages of history;[1] and even in our own cynical and materialistic age, we not only find “ghosts” still; but the evidence for their existence is stronger than ever! It is nonsense to say that “no sensible person believes in ghosts,” because many thousands of them do. Why do they believe? Would they believe if they had no cause to do so?

  The “terror of the dark,” which we all have more or less, from which every child suffers (how intensely!) during its early years—a terror which is, to a certain extent, shared by animals and even insects—does all this signify nothing? Those who have looked into this question thoroughly, believe that there is, in every truth, a terrible reality justifying this instinctive fear; that evil and horrible things lurk about us in the still, weird hours of the night; that there are truly “powers and principalities” with which we often toy, without knowing or realizing the frightful dangers which result from this tampering with the unseen world. Yes; there is a true “tyranny of the dark.” Phenomena and ghostly manifestations take place in darkness which would never occur in light; and which cease when a light is struck. All ghostly phenomena are associated with darkness, and the “wee small hours of the night.”

  All this is exemplified in the following interesting narrative, which I may entitle:

  The Terror of the Dark

  “All my life I have been afraid of the dark,” said an acquaintance to me the other day, when we were discussing psychical matters. “I know that it is childish,” he continued, “and I ought to have outgrown it years ago; but, as a matter of fact, I haven’t. After all, isn’t there some reason for the fears that we all feel, more or less, at that time? Doesn’t the Bible speak of ‘the terrors of the Dark;’ and are not all animals, and even insects, afraid of the dark—so much so that you cannot induce them to enter a dark place if they can help it? Light not only enables you to see what is around you; but it acts in a certain positive manner over ‘the powers of darkness,’ whatever they are, and prevents their operation. All spirit mediums will tell you that materialization and manifestations of that character cannot take place in the light; it prevents their occurrence. So, after all, as I said, isn’t there some reasonable ground for one’s fear at such times?”

  I said nothing; but gazed into the fire. After all, were not his arguments somewhat impressive?

  “But,” continued my friend, “it is not altogether because of these speculative reasons that I fear the dark; it is because of a terrible experience I once had, and which has left me terror-struck, ever since, whenever I am left without light even for an instant. I will tell you the story, and let you judge for yourself.

  “It was several years ago; in an old house we rented at that time, and from which we removed soon after the event I am about to relate. I wa
s afraid of the dark, even then, and always left a night-light burning by the side of my bed when I went to sleep. One night I woke up, feeling the springs of the bed on which I was lying vibrate in a peculiar manner, impossible to describe.

  “Looking up, I saw, standing by the side of my bed, a young man, dressed in rags, having a face ghastly white, and showing every indication of dissipation. He was regarding me intently.

  “I shall never forget the shock I received on beholding that figure; not only because of the unexpected appearance; but because of the fact that I could perceive the opposite wall and furniture through the body. I knew at once that I beheld a spirit; and my blood ran cold at the thought. What I had dreaded all my life was at last fulfilled!

  “My next thought was ‘I am so glad the night-light is burning. What should I do if I were in darkness?’ As though the form read my thoughts, and was intent on torturing me to the limit of endurance, it leaned over, and the next instant had snuffed the candle! The phantom and I were alone in the black darkness!

  “Words cannot describe my feelings at that instant. The blood froze in my veins, and the tongue clave to the roof of my mouth. I tried to speak, but could not. I only held out one hand as if to ward off the awful presence by pressing it away.

  “The next instant I felt the bed-clothes gently turned down on the further side of the bed, and partly pulled off me. The springs of the bed were depressed, and I knew that the fearsome visitor was crawling into bed! It would lie down by my side; perhaps touch me; perhaps—who could tell? The agony of mind I experienced in those few moments I shall never forget! My only wonder is that my reason did not give way!

  “Then a curious thing happened. Even in the state of mind, as I was then, I could perceive that the bed was gradually rising up again into its normal position. The weight upon it was growing less and less. Finally, it was again level, and I felt the bed clothes carefully replaced over me. The phantom had withdrawn!