SPIRITUALISM AND MATERIALISM

...described by the narrator. Such is the impression made by an examination of all the facts, and it becomes more convincing as we advance in the study of these phenomena. Let us take another case:

When I was a student at the University of Kyiv original: "Kieff", and already married, I had gone to spend the summer with my sister, who lived in the country not far from Pskov original: "Pskow". While returning through Moscow, my beloved wife suddenly fell ill with influenza, and, despite her extreme youth, her health rapidly failed original: "she was quickly broken up". Heart failure, like a bolt of lightning, took her life.

I shall not attempt to describe my pain and my despair. But I must submit to your expert judgment a problem which I sincerely hope to have solved.

My father lived at Poltava original: "Pultowa". He knew nothing of the illness of his charming daughter-in-law, and believed that she was with me in Moscow. Imagine his surprise upon seeing her beside him as he was leaving the house, walking with him for a moment! Seized with fear and anxiety, he at once sent us a telegram to check on the health of my dear wife. It was the day of her death.

I would be grateful to you for the rest of my life for an explanation of this extraordinary fact.

<div class="text-center">(<em>Student of Medicine</em>)</div>

In this case also, the observation was made after death. Do we not also find in this example the impression of a spiritual original: "non-material" origin for the phenomenon—of a moral or mental cause? This indicates not only the existence of unknown faculties in the human being, but even the existence of an intelligent agent. I cannot find anything in this class of facts pertaining to anatomy, animal physiology, or organic chemistry.

Let us take another example, different from the two preceding ones, but still belonging to the category of telepathy original: "telepathy"; then a relatively new term for communication between minds through means other than the known senses. This is the narrative: