The Night Side of Nature, Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers v1 & v2

Description

A very early classic retelling and analysis of important haunting cases from the mid-eighteen hundreds era. The author borrows her book title "from the Germans, who derive it from the astronomers, the latter denominating that side of a planet which is turned from the sun, its night-side. We are in this condition for a certain number of hours out of every twenty-four; and as, during this interval, external objects loom upon us but strangely and imperfectly, the Germans draw a parallel between these vague and misty perceptions, and the similar obscure and uncertain glimpses we get of that veiled department of nature, of which, while comprising as it does, the solution of questions concerning us more nearly than any other, we are yet in a state of entire and willful ignorance. For science, at least science in this country, has put it aside as beneath her notice, because new facts that do not fit into old theories are troublesome, and not to be countenanced. We are encompassed on all sides by wonders, and we can scarcely set our foot upon the ground, without trampling upon some marvelous production that our whole life and all our faculties would not suffice to comprehend. Familiarity, however, renders us insensible to the ordinary works of nature; we are apt to forget the miracles they comprise, and even, sometimes, mistaking words for conceptions, commit the error of thinking we understand their mystery. Volume I I. Introduction . . 1 II. The Dweller in the Temple . . 24 III. Waking and Sleeping . . 4 1 IV. Allegorical Dreams, Presentiments, &c . . 95 V. Warnings . . 107 VI. Double Dreaming and Trance, Wraiths, &c. . 165 VII. Wraiths . .222 VIII. Doppelgangers, or Doubles . . 258 IX. Apparitions . .300 X. The Future that awaits us . . 361 Volume II I. The Power of Will 1 II. Troubled Spirits 26 III. Haunted Houses 64 IV. Spectral Lights, and Apparitions 147 V. Apparitions seeking the prayers of the living 194 VI. The Poltergeist of the Germans, and Possession 238 VII. Miscellaneous Phenomena 312 VIII. Conclusion 353