Apparition Case - Miss Gollin, Brooklyn.

In the case next to be quoted the apparition is said to have been seen at the moment of death, and on the "ghost" theory we may suppose that the spirit chose the moment of its release from the body to pay its last farewell. But the account was not written down until nine years after the event, and though we may no doubt place some reliance upon it as regards the main incident, it would probably not be safe to build too much on the alleged exactness of the time coincidence. The case comes to us through the American Branch of the Society for Psychical Research.

No. 2. From Miss Gollin.
130 Lafayette Avenue,
Brooklyn,

March 2nd, 1905. "During the year 1896 I was employed in the office of a certain newspaper in this city. On Saturday, the 25th of January, 1896, at about 12-30 p.m., while attending to my work, all at once I felt conscious of a presence near me. In fact, it was just the same feeling one has when some one is intently looking at you, and you feel an inclination to turn to see who it is. This feeling was so strong that I turned almost involuntarily, and there at the back of my chair, but a little to one side, I saw the full figure of a young man with whom I was well acquainted in fact, engaged to marry. (I wish to state here that this young man had never been in this office.) The figure was very distinct. In fact, it was all so plain that I felt the young woman sitting next to me must see it also, and though very much overcome and not understanding it at the time, I turned to her and asked, 'Did you see any one just now standing back of my chair?' She replied, 'No,' and, of course, wondered why I asked. I did not explain my reason to her at the time as, though she knew this person from hearsay, she had no acquaintance, and I felt she might think me foolish. However the incident is perfectly clear in her mind even to this day, and if necessary I can furnish her name and address. In fact, it is her husband who prevailed on me to make this communication to you.

"On the previous Sunday to this incident I had been at church with this young man, and he was, apparently, in very good health, though previously he had been ailing somewhat, we thought from over study, as he was just completing a college course. That evening after our return from church he made an engagement to see me the middle of the week. Instead of seeing me, received a letter from his sister saying he had a cold and might not come to see me until the end of the week, but that it was nothing serious. I wrote back, saying that as the weather was so bad he had probably better not try to come to see me until the Sunday following. (That week we had a great deal of wet weather.) I heard nothing further from any member of the family and fully expected to see him on Sunday. On reaching home on Saturday, January 25th, 1896, I found a telegram waiting for me, which read: 'If you wish to see W. come at once.' I did not reach home until about 2 p.m. I hurried to his home, and on arriving was told he had died about 12-30. It was a case of typhoid fever."

In a later letter Miss Gollin explains that the figure appeared "fully dressed in a black suit of clothes."

Mrs. Burrows, the friend referred to, corroborates as follows:
179 Prospect Park W.,
Brooklyn, N. Y., 29th March, 1905.
" I do not remember the exact date of the occurrence she mentions. I remember distinctly, however, that we were sitting together working in the office of the Evening Post, where we were both employed. Miss Gollin's chair was placed at right angles to mine, so that anyone approaching her chair would have been plainly visible to me. I remember her asking me if I had noticed a man standing back of her chair. As she said this she was in the act of looking behind her, as if expecting to find someone standing there, or as if she were conscious that someone had just been standing there. I saw nothing whatever myself, and am sure that no one in the flesh did approach her chair at that time. I told her I had seen no one, and thus the incident closed for the moment."

"I did not see her again for several days, when she told me, that on arriving home she had found a telegram stating that her fiance was dead. Later she learned the hour of his death corresponded exactly with that of the apparition which she had seen while at work."

Taken from the Book: Telepathic Hallucinations: The New View of Ghosts by Frank Podmore M.A.