Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-04-13
BELIEVED IN GHOSTS
DIR. ELLIOTT COUES SAID THAT HE
OFTEN SAW THEM.

The Famous OrntthOICgtst's Oescr1p~
ton of h Spirit of a Dead Friend
Who Appeared to and C~Onversed
With Him In His Room.
DR.. Elliott Coues, the famous orni-
biologist and member Of the Ameri-
can Academy of Sciences, was long
recognized as the foremost advocate OF
belief in the existence Of ghosts. He
had promised several of his friends
that, if able to do so, he would appear
to them after his own demise, n they
are still waiting, with no little inter
est, to see if he "a carry out the
agreement. -
II have myself seen the ghosts of a
good many dead persons" said the
doctor one day. 81 remember one oc-
casion when l had just gone to bed
the light being turned out, l was com
posing myself to slumber when sud
denly became aware Of a presence in
| the room. The impression conveyed
| to my.mind was that it was the pres
| ence of a certain person lately deceas-
! ed. with whom l had been on very In
| timate terms. In fact, I felt an over
| towering sense Of the nearness Oh Tie
| individual in question.
"About the same moment there
arose slowly from the floor a nebulous
mass of what looked ike SHINING
white vapor. which began to take
shane rs did the smoke from the cas-
ket opened by the fisherman IN the
.Arabian Nights tales. Gradually II
assumed a more distinct outline, IN
I'll if presented a radiant image OF my
friend. The lips appeared to move
and from them came an ineligible ut
terance, q message in short from the
departed. l do not care to say what
that message was.
81 can assure you that the vision was
no dream, and the nature of The mes
sage was such Us to eliminate, TO my
own satisfaction at all events, the the
ory of ha%llucination. What, then, was
this shape Of shining white vapor'
, Was it a human soul? 1t is a question
t pregnant with intense interest.
: each Of us, / believe, has In him
: ghost, which ordinarily is confined tt
0 the precincts of the body. When
die, my ghost leaves my body perma
nently, and, having done so, perhaps
NAV continue to be the vehicle an
means of expression of conscious Will
e memory and understanding. st. Pau
d says, There is a natural body ana
spiritual body 1t is Of the spir1tua
body that 1 am speaking.
II "Our senses take ~cognizance OF n
g forms of matter except those whlc-
u are in a certain degree of condensa
ton. but the spiritual body may be Q
a more rarefed and tenuous substance
The nonappearance of ghosts to u
may be a question not OF the ex1stenc
of specters, but of the acuteness OF ou
p~erceptive faculties.
"My own experience is that h con
y ing of an apparition is always prece'
ed by a curious sensation which L ca
Z the ghost chill When this symptol
arrives, the threshold Of consciousness
seems to be shifted to the extent
rendering possible a perception
{ something ordinarily invisible. III
{ change is usually very brief, lastlr
only a few seconds, during which Il
manifestation occurs.
"One q that l have for believl1
g the evidence of my own senses IN I'd
matter is that on several occasions II
y apparition of my own personality III
, presented itself to other persons
Z places where my body was not at e
time. Some years ago was in Chic
90. at an ordinary evening party WI
, about 40 friends, when an indivldu
y in Washington, who did not ever kno
3 where 1 was, was visited by my pha
? tasm and received from it a brief mt
sage stating where l was at the til
and giving the names of w or TIL
II of the guests present-persons WI
whom the observer was unacquainte
This was one of the rare cases VINE
All q ghost made itself audible.
You ask what would happen II 0
~ should approach q ghost such as ma
described and try to touch it. My
ply is that there would certainly be
NJ, danger in doing so, for specters ne1
y do anybody any harm, the fear OF TIT
entertained by most people being 81
NV a dread of that which is unkno'
and not understood. Whatever Is I
known is always terrible. But
nbantom is composed of matter
81 tenuous to present any obstacle, a
do not doubt that it would dissol
pm and disappear if you attempted
= walk through it"-Washington Posi-
L-~,