PRACTICAL PSYCHOMANCY/PART 11

 

LESSON XI.

DREAM PSYCHOMANCY.

The Student will have noted that in many cases mentioned in these lessons, the Psychomantic vision is manifested during physical sleep. The reason of this occurrence is that in the majority of persons the physical nature, when awake, holds the attention of the individual to such an extent as to prevent him from manifesting the psychic faculties clearly. But when the physical body sinks into sleep then the field is clear for the exercise of the Astral Senses, which not being fatigued, are in fine condition to manifest. In fact the majority of persons do manifest Psychomancy during sleep, but have little or no recollection of the same when waking, beyond indistinct recollections of "dreams," etc. Still, many of you who read these lines will have a more or less clear remembrance of certain "dreams" in which you seemed to visit other places, scenes, lands, countries, etc., seeing strange faces, land-scapes, etc., and upon awakening were somewhat annoyed at having been brought back from your pleasant travels.

It is not our intention to enter into an extended consideration of the general subject of Dreams, at this time and place. We write these few lines merely for the purpose of calling your attention to the fact that the phenomena of Psychomancy very frequently manifests itself in dreams, for the reasons stated above. The principle in both the waking and dream phenomena is precisely the same, the apparent difference being that the dreamer very seldom carries back with him a clear and connected memory of his vision, while the waking person is able to impress his Astral vision upon a wide-awake physical brain, there to be remembered.

You will find several instances of Dream Psychomancy recorded in the various lessons of this work, inserted for the purpose of illustrating the several phases of the phenomena. In such cases we have made no distinction between the Psychomantic phenomena experienced in dreams on the one hand, and that experienced in the waking state on the other hand. The principle is the same in both cases, and there is no necessity for making any such distinction between the phenomena occurring under any of the several general classes. But as we still have to spare a few pages of the space allotted to us in the preparation of these lessons, we think that we should give you a few more of the many interesting cases of record.

A well-known and interesting case is that mentioned in the Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society, of London. It is related as follows:

On September 9th, 1848, at the siege of Mooltan, Major-General R. was most severely and dangerously wounded; and, supposing himself to be dying, asked one of the officers with him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife, who at the time was fully 150 miles distant at Ferozepore.

"On the night of September 9th, 1848," writes his wife, "I was lying on my bed, between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw my husband being carried off the field seriously wounded, and heard his voice, saying, 'Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife.' All the next day I could not get the sight or the voice out of my mind. In due time I heard of General R. having been seriously wounded in the assault of Mooltan. He survived, however, and is still living. It was not for some time after the siege that I heard from General L., the officer who helped to carry my husband off the field, that the request as to the ring was actually made by him, just as I heard it at Ferozepore at that very time."

The following, related by Mrs. Crowe, is interesting, particularly in its aspect as a warning:

"A few years ago, Dr. Watson, now residing at Glasgow, dreamt that he received a summons to attend a patient at a place some miles from where he was living; that he started on horseback, and that as he was crossing a moor, he saw a bull making furiously at him, whose horns he escaped only by taking refuge on a spot inaccessible to the animal, where he waited a long time till some people, observing his situation, came to his assistance and released him. While at breakfast the following morning the summons came, and smiling at the odd co-incidence (as he thought it), he started on horseback. He was quite ignorant of the road he had to go, but by and by he arrived at the moor, which he recognized, and presently the bull appeared, coming full tilt towards him. But his dream had shown him the place of refuge, for which he instantly made, and there he spent three or four hours besieged by the animal, till the country people set him free. Dr. Watson declared that but for the dream he should not have known in what direction to run for safety."

This case is an instance of Future Time Psychomancy, as the student will readily see. Here is another case coming under the same classification. It is related by Dr. Lee:

Mrs. Hannah Green, the housekeeper of a country family in Oxfordshire, dreamt one night that she had been left alone in the house on a Sunday evening, and that hearing a knock at the door of the chief entrance, she went to it and found confronting her an ugly tramp, armed with a big club, who forced himself into the house in spite of her struggles, striking her insensible with his club during the conflict. She awoke at this point. A considerable period of time elapsed, and she had almost forgotten her dream until it was recalled in a startling manner. She was then in charge of an isolated mansion at Kensington, and on a Sunday afternoon, when the servants had taken a holiday, leaving her alone, she was startled by a loud knock at the door. At once the memory of her dream flashed before her with singular vividness and remarkable force. She knew that she was alone, but for the purpose of frightening away the intruder she lighted a lamp on the hall table, and afterward in other places in the house, and also rang the bells violently in different parts of the house. She also made sure that the doors and windows were fastened. She succeeded in scaring off the man, by making him believe that the house was occupied by the family, or several people at least, but not until she had thrown up the window over the stair landing, and there to her intense terror saw the identical man of her dream, armed with the same club, and demanding an entrance. Had she not been warned by the dream of several years previous, she would have met with a fate such as she had dreamed of.

The following case of Dream Psychomancy, which is a good example of Astral Projection during sleep, is related by a correspondent of the Psychical Research Society, as follows:

"One morning in December, 1836, he had the following dream, or, he would prefer to call it, revelation. He found himself suddenly at the gate of Major N. M.'s avenue, many miles from his home. Close to him was a group of persons, one of whom was a woman with a basket on her arm, the rest men, four of whom were tenants of his own, while the others were unknown to him. Some of the strangers seemed to be assaulting H. W., one of his tenants, and he interfered. 'I struck violently at the man on my left, and then with greater violence at the man's face on my right. Finding, to my surprise, that I had not knocked down either, I struck again and again with all the violence of a man frenzied at the sight of my poor friend's murder. To my great amazement I saw my arms, although visible to my eye, were without substance, and the bodies of the men I struck at and my own came close together after each blow through the shadowy arms I struck with. My blows were delivered with more extreme violence than I ever think I exerted, but I became painfully convinced of my incompetency. I have no consciousness of what happened after this feeling of unsubstantiality came upon me.' Next morning A. experienced the stiffness and soreness of violent bodily exercise, and was informed by his wife that in the course of the night he had much alarmed her by striking out again and again with his arms in a terrific manner, 'as if fighting for his life.' He, in turn, informed her of his dream, and begged her to remember the names of those actors in it who were known to him. On the morning of the following day (Wednesday) A. received a letter from his agent, who resided in the town close to the scene of the dream, informing that his tenant had been found on Tuesday morning at Major N. M.'s gate, speechless and apparently dying from a fracture of the skull, and that there was no trace of the murderers. That night A. started for the town, and arrived there on Thursday morning. On his way to a meeting of magistrates he met the senior magistrate of that part of the country, and requested him to give orders for the arrest of the three men whom, besides H. W., he had recognized in his dream, and to have them examined separately. This was at once done. The three men gave identical accounts of the occurrence, and all named the woman who was with them. She was then arrested, and gave precisely similar testimony. They said that between eleven and twelve on the Monday night they had been walking homewards altogether along the road, when they were overtaken by three strangers, two of whom savagely assaulted H. W., while the other prevented his friends from interfering. H. W. did not die, but was never the same man afterwards; he subsequently emigrated."

Stead relates the following case, which was imparted to him as a truthful and correct account of the vision of a murder seen in all of its details by a brother of the murdered man. It is a case of Astral Projection, undoubtedly:

"St. Eglos is situated about ten miles from the Atlantic, and not quite so far from the old market town of Trebodwina. Hart and George Northey were brothers, and from childhood their lives had been marked by the strongest brotherly affection. Hart and George Northey had never been separated from their birth until George became a sailor, Hart meantime joining his father in business. On the 8th of February, 1840, while George Northey's ship was lying in port at St. Helena, he had the following strange dream:

"'Last night I dreamt my brother was at Trebodwina Market, and that I was with him, quite close by his side, during the whole of the market transactions. Although I could see and hear everything which passed around me, I felt sure that it was not my bodily presence which thus accompanied him, but my shadow, or rather my spiritual presence, for he seemed quite unconscious that I was near him. I felt that my being thus present in this strange way betokened some hidden danger which he was destined to meet, and which I knew my presence could not avert, for I could not speak to warn him of his peril.'"

The brother having collected considerable money then started on his ride homeward. The story then continues:

"'My terror gradually increased as Hart approached the hamlet of Polkerrow, until I was in a perfect frenzy, frantically desirous, yet unable, to warn my brother in some way and prevent him going further. I suddenly became aware of two dark shadows thrown across the road. I felt my brother's hour had come, and I was powerless to aid him! Two men appeared, whom I instantly recognized as notorious poachers, who lived in a lonely wood near St. Eglos. The men wished him "Good-night, maister," civilly enough. He replied, and entered into conversation with them about some work he had promised them. After a few minutes they asked him for some money. The elder of the two brothers, who was standing near the horse's head, said, "Mr. Northey, we know you have just come from Trebodwina market with plenty of money in your pockets; we are desperate men, and you bean't going to leave this place until we've got that money, so hand over." My brother made no reply, except to slash at him with the whip and spur the horse at him.

"'The younger of the ruffians instantly drew a pistol and fired. Hart dropped lifeless from the saddle, and one of the villains held him by the throat with a grip of iron for some minutes, as though to make assurance doubly sure, and crush out any particle of life my poor brother might have left. The murderers secured the horse to a tree in the orchard, and, having rifled the corpse, they dragged it up the stream, concealing it under the overhanging banks of the water-course. They then carefully covered over all marks of blood on the road, and hid the pistol in the thatch of a disused hut close to the roadside; then, setting the horse free to gallop home alone, they decamped across the country to their own cottage.'

"The vessel left St. Helena next day, and reached Plymouth in due course. George Northey had during the whole of the voyage home, never altered his conviction that Hart had been killed as he had dreamt, and that retribution was by his means to fall on the murderers."

The sequel shows that the murder was actually committed in precisely the manner in which it had appeared to the brother in the dream. The crime aroused universal horror and indignation, and every effort was made to discover the murderers and bring them to justice. Two brothers named Hightwood were suspected, and a search of their cottage revealed bloodstained garments, but no trace of the pistol was to be found, although the younger brother admitted having had one and lost it. The story continues:

"Both brothers were arrested and brought before the magistrates. The evidence against them was certainly not strong, but their manner seemed that of guilty men. They were ordered to take their trial at the forthcoming assizes at Trebodwina. They each confessed in the hope of saving their lives, and both were sentenced to be hanged. There was, however, some doubt about the pistol. Before the execution George Northey arrived from St. Helena, and declared that the pistol was in the thatch of the old cottage close by the place where they murdered Hart Northey, and where they hid it. 'How did you know?' he was asked. George Northey replied: 'I saw the foul deed committed in a dream I had the night of the murder, when at St. Helena.' A pistol was found, as George Northey had predicted, in the thatch of the ruined cottage."

We trust that we have established the identity of Waking Psychomancy, and Dream Psychomancy, to your satisfaction.

FINIS.

END OF THIS BOOK. 

CREATED BY WISDOM DRAGONS

WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON BOOKS