Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/249

Rh The coroner and the other persons concerned have confirmed the accuracy of the newspaper account. The percipient, though unwilling to write out her version of the incident, has related the dream in similar terms to Mr. Amos Crum, the pastor of a neighbouring church.

There is another class of evidence for post-mortem agency which may brieﬂy be referred to here. Several cases have been investigated by us in which the body of a drowned man has, after fruitless search by ordinary means, been at length discovered through a dream. A typical case of the kind occurred at New Lambton (County Durham) in January, 1902. A police constable in the neighbourhood had disappeared on the night of the 4th January. For the next four days the neighbourhood was thoroughly searched, some thirty or forty constables assisting. On the 8th January a friend of the missing constable dreamt that he saw the body in a particular spot in a stream running through a wood, The next day, after mentioning his dream to several persons, he went to the spot indicated, thrust a long pole into the water, and raised the body.

Of the facts there can be no question. But the dreamer had actually taken part in the search along the banks of this very stream; and we cannot, therefore, exclude the possibility that some indication had been perceived subconsciously which first received full recognition in the dream. However, the incident, as said, is by no means an isolated one,