115. The wife of a friend of ours frequently saw entering her chamber, during
the night, whether she had a light or not, a woman who sold fruit in her neighbourhood,
whom she knew by sight, but to whom she had never spoken. This apparition terrified
her all the more, because at that
time she knew nothing of spiritism, and because the vision frequently recurred. The
fruitseller was not only in the flesh when these apparitions took place, but was probably
in bed and asleep at the moment of their occurrence. While her material body was at
home. her spirit and her fluidic body were in this lady's room; moved by what motive
we cannot say. In such a case a spiritist, acquainted with the subject of apparitions,
would have asked her visitant what she wanted ; but, as the lady in question knew
nothing of such things, the idea of doing so never entered her mind. Each time the
apparition occurred, it vanished without her knowing how; and, after each
disappearance, she assured herself that all the doors were perfectly closed, and that no
one could have entered the room: a precaution which proved to her that she had been
really awake, and was not under the influence of a dream. At other times, this lady saw,
in the same way, a man whom she did not know; but, one day she saw her brother, who
was then in California. He had so exactly the appearance of a real person, that, at first,
she thought he must have returned, and was about to speak to him; but he disappeared
before she had time to do so. A letter afterwards received showed that he was not dead.
This lady was what may be called a natural seeing medium ; but, at this time, as we said
before, she had never heard that mediums existed.
