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The Contribution of Apparitions to the Evidence for Survival 1

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The Contribution of Apparitions to the Evidence for Survival 1 The Contribution of Apparitions to the Evidence for Survival 1 IAN STEVENSON 1 INTRODUCTION This paper is avowedly polemical. I shall review sympathetically the evidence that favors interpreting some veridical apparitions as providing evidence for survival after death and compare this in­ terpretation with those that account for them in terms of extrasen­ sory perception on the part of the percipient or percipients. I feel justified in attempting this because among parapsychologists gener­ ally in recent years, the Whig interpretation of apparitions has prevailed, and it is fitting to have the Tory position kept visible. I do not think that my bias, frankly stated, needs to prevent other persons from reaching different conclusions. For the most part I shall be using published reports of cases, which others can examine as easily as I can. And I shall be naming advocates of views opposed to mine so that readers who disagree with me can easily find expositions of the problem more congenial than this one. I shall not present a significant body of new data, although I shall allude to a recent analysis (conducted at the University of Virginia) of cases in Phantasms of the Living (Gurney, Myers, and Pod­ more, 1886) and also refer to some reports of apparitions related to cases of the reincarnation type. I must first discuss authenticity. The great majority of experi­ ences that might be regarded as apparitional are not veridical; they are nonveridical and often, although by no means always, psychopathological. Parapsychologists are only concerned with those that convey information not normally available to the percip­ ient. Of these, few receive the kind of thorough investigation essential for a judgment about authenticity. I estimate that in the 1 This paper is based on a contribution to a symposium on apparitions held at the Twenty-Third Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association. Reykjavik, Iceland, August 13-16, 1980.-Ed. 2 Thanks are due for the support of my research to the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the Bernstein Brothers Foundation, and the John E. Fetzer Founda­ tion. Kathleen Furey and Emily Williams Cook contributed helpful assistance in the analysis of cases from Plwma:,ms of" 1he Living. Laura Dale and Emily Williams Cook made suggestions for the improvement of this paper. The Journal of' !he American Society for Psychical Research Vol. 76, October 1982 343 Juurnw OJ rne American Society for Psychical Research The Contribution of Apparitions OF VERIDICAL APPARITIONS publicat�ons of the So�iety for Psychical Research and the Amer i­ THE Two MAIN INTERPRETATIONS can Society for Psychical Research, including the two semiofficial r o egins with the work of Gurney The modern study of appa iti ns b books by founders of the SPR (Gurney et al., 1886 ; Myers, 1903), the senior e (1886). In this great work Gurney, n t more than_ 2,500 ases have been reported in the detail that J and his colleagu s � � o ons. He believed that o offered an interpretation f appariti thmk we reqmre forJUd ments about authenticity. This is a small auth r, r­ _ � er ent and agent, combined with infe elepathy between p cipi amount of material, and 1t may seem even less significant when we t e e sider. o all the details that w n ed to con e e e e s e r e e e o ence, best acc unts for �- men:ib r that th s case n a ly all cam to th att nti n of s ee earing clothes that the r e le, an apparition i s n w mvest1gators when the percipients or other persons concerned When fo xamp s o en w r , but in which the agent i perci�ient knows the agent ft � � _ learnt:d about the research and volunteered information about their these perceived clothes lothed at the time o f the appant10n, �xpen nces. Moreover, many of the cases were old when first not c On the o ther _e e ents in the percipient's mind. e e e r o s o e e o e e e must derive from lem mv sttgat d. And sinc app� i�i n f d ad p rs ns may b b tt r e of apparition l e x e­ e ly significant coincid nce � l? remembered than those of hvmg ones (H. Sidgwick and Commit­ hand, th statistical 1 agents (Broad, 1962; H. S1dgw ck riences with crises in the lives of tee, 1894) the cas�s that have been adequately investigated with ose s ome contribution . Committee 1894) obliges us to supp r gard to au�hentlc1ty may not be fully representative of all appari­ and o by the _e o l not necessarily m_e�n a c ntribution _ e e e e e e ore re e e s from them. (Thi's w u d . t1onal xp n nc s. On :h oth r hand, m c nt surv y of 1p1ents )Uld obtam t�e1r s e in Gurney' s view, the perc �<: properly sampled populations have not been accompanied by studies agents, inc , o r o psychical capacities.) A c ntnbu­ correct information by thei wn of the authenticity of individual reported cases. e le rly in det ils of e suggested even mor c a � e e o e o e o tion from the ag nts is . It can b said that, in gen ral, adv cat s f th tw main es which figure m the eir appearance o r of their circumstanc paranormal interpretations of apparitions draw on the same limited th l knowled e : . which the percipients had no norma � case matenal. So far as I can tell from examining the various apparition, but of e l e st. In one case, the percip­ e examples of such d tai s xi reports, the cases adduced as evidence for survival are cut from the Num rous e led in a e when his foot becam entang ient saw her brother drown d s�me c�oth as those adduced as evidence fore xtrasensory percep­ pp. 32-35); i� two other . ship's towline (E. M. Sidgwick, 1891-�2, tion (without d1scarnate agency) on the part of the percipient. This e rd, which e had . e saw the agent with a � a � may t be q 1te corr ct Wt!h regard to collectively perceived cases the percipi nt e �? � _e l st seen him and of which th grown since the percipient had � appantions, �hich pr?v1de an important difficulty for persons who ey, 1888-8�, P· been c ompletely 1 �norant (Gurn P do n t favor mterpret1 g any of th e cases as affording evidence for percipient had A similar ? � and Committee, 1894, p. 379). r e e e l e o e l e e 412-415· H. Sidgwick e su vival. A� th sam tim , col ectiv appariti ns ar vu n rabl to e in Nig ria in 1978. Th ed in a case that I studi � � !he suggestion that other persons present with the primary percip­ detail fi�ur . e . ee e a pant10n of �ts young r brother percipient was startled to s th p ient (at the tim<: he or she sees the apparition) may pliantly on y a kmd o! towel dra�ed . , in his (the percipient's) room weanng _I endorse the perc1p1ent s report by saying that they also saw the er, m another c ty, . l e l ater learned that his br?th � o e e e e o e around his midd e; h e same_ thn1;g, or s m thing lik it, wh n th y did n t. (I shall r turn operation at about the ti?I undergone an emergency surgical to this p�mt l�ter.� In other respects, however, I think the partisans had such a towel-hke o l experience and had worn of both sides n this controversy are dealing with the same types of of the appariti na ! . e operation. cases, e P can dis or e s o o garment during th a1:d neith r gr?l! card the fav it case f its opp ­ telepathy between the bv1?g . e e eless, Gurney thought that n nts w1t out e plammg why 1t retains other cases that are no N v rth ll etails � � � e ely accounted for a the d agent and the percipient ad quat different m quahty from those it rejects. e l as for those ore e o the agent's side, as w ; i_n e l r s s se o seeming to com fr m l I think it ":'ill b helpfu to estrict my di cu sion to ca s f e e me the o ccasiona . ed by the percipient. H xpl� ? visual appant10ns. Experiences of other sensory modalities have obviously add . e le, e of the agent s c ·is1s (for xa?1p . o delays between the tim ! much mterest, ut t�ey sually do not include enough detail to temp ral e es 1n th . � � e ence as due to imp dan� � e and the percipient's xperi , . perm1t a clear d nt1!icat10n of the agent; and this means that d ath) _ o e an arnved . � � which some imes onl� all w d es o e 1 r e er e percipient's mind, ! e qu_ t1�ns f v nd cahty ar ly ent into exp riences that are not o s ousness slowly.
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