________________
1914],
JAINA GAZETTE.
249
It is not surprising that it has been found difficult-in fact, hy most impossible-to draw a bard-and-fast line between phantasms of the dying and appearances after death. Of the former the instances are far too nunerous, and have been far too closely and cautiously inquired into, for their occurrence to be called in question.
They happen so commonly that in any average gathering of fifty adults we may be sure to find one who has had persoval experience of such a phenomenon; and among the circle of arquaintances of the ordinary man of middle life will be a number of people similarly placed. .
The writer, for instance, cau recall several among intimate friends whom he has had ample opportunity of cross-examining on such occurrences, two of which are typical of cases of this kind:
(i) A. P., son of Archdeacon P., who was at school with the writer, was visited by his brother one afternoon. About 6 P. M. the brother drove away in a dogcart, and a short while later appeared to A. P.- who was with several companions in his " study.” A. P. called out in surprise, and the apparition" vanished. Later, news was brought that the brother had been killed by the upsetting of the dogcart a short way from the school. Subsequently it transpired that he had also “appeared” to two sisters, who were staying in the south-west of England, a couple of hundred miles away.
(ii) A friend, W. W., with whom the writer was staying in Sarrey, came in one afternoon from a short walk much agitated, and said that he had just seen his father in a shrubbery near the house, the father being at the time at his own home in North Wales. W. W., thinking his father had arrived unexpectedly, spoke to him, and put out his hand to shake bands with him, when he vanished. News came later of the father's death that afternoon.
It is not necessary for most people to go beyond the circlo of their own acquaintances to collect siinilar evidenca of such appearances, and any who wish to will find ample material in
the Records of the London Psychical Research Society ; in Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
