‘Visions of the Dying’,by James H Hyslop (1907)

Deathbed visions

Writing in his 1858 autobiography, American Unitarian preacher Theodore Clapp (1792–1866) recollected the visions of a dying woman: ‘I was standing by the bed of a young lady in her last moments, when she called to me and her mother, saying, “Do you not see my sister (who had died of yellow fever a few weeks before) there?” pointing upwards. “There are angels with her. She has come to take me to heaven”.’ (Clapp, 1858: 124). Deathbed visions like this have been known from antiquity, as seen in Gregory the Great’s Dialogues (1911/2010). My overview of the topic, however, will be limited to publications that appeared from the nineteenth century to parts of the twentieth, a topic reviewed by Rogo (1978). Although most of the nineteenth-century literature about dying and deathbed scenes had little about specific cases of visions (e.g. Clark, 1851; Thompson, 1851), others have acknowledged the existence of the phenomenon and presented various points of view. Similar to the large literature about apparitions which covered mainly apparitions of the dead, discussions on the topic fell into two main camps: authors who explained deathbed visions via conventional processes (hallucinations based on such processes as imagination and brain pathology) and those who were open to the potentially spiritual aspects of the experience (that is, the idea that when experiencers were close to death they actually perceived the deceased) (McCorristine, 2010).

Those who reduced deathbed visions to hallucinations were working within the nineteenth-century tendency to explain all sorts of visions as the function of human imagination or nervous pathology (e.g. Brierre de Boismont, 1853; Esquirol, 1838: ch. 2; Hibbert, 1824; Parish, 1897; Tamburini, 1881). ¹ This, in turn, was part of a nineteenth-century movement to medicalize, and explain away, old ideas about the soul and other unusual experiences. This tendency, as Goldstein (1987) has argued in the case of French psychiatry, involved the appropriation of old phenomena, among them accounts of possession. As another author stated, neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–93) and many others ‘were evangelical in their atheism and intent on transforming the sacred – … religious ecstasy, demonic possession, saintliness, stigmata, and faith cures … – into the profane’ (Hecht, 2003: 254). Similar processes, but not so directly related to religion, were present in the many attempts to explain rationally all kinds of unusual, spiritualistic and psychic phenomena published in other countries (e.g. Hammond, 1876; Maudsley, 1897).

In the Popular Science Monthly, Spencer (1881: 398) wrote:

It is not an uncommon occurrence for the dying, after lying some hours in a semi-conscious condition, to start up suddenly, and, with glowing face, point eagerly to some object invisible to the bystanders, and with animated voice and gesture state that they behold the glories of heaven, or the familiar countenance of some friend long since dead.

This author, like several others (e.g. Hibbert, 1824: 110–11; Maudsley, 1897: 129–31; Newham, 1830: 426–7), believed that deathbed visions were hallucinations. The same may be said about American clergyman James Monroe Buckley (1836–1920), who emphasized the effects of beliefs and traditions on the content of the visions. In his view, ‘if the dying appear to see anything, it is in harmony with the traditions which they have received’ (Buckley, 1889: 463). Another example was English physician Samuel William Langston Parker (1803–71), who argued that deathbed visions, like many hallucinations, were produced by the imagination. In his view imagination was stimulated by many factors, among them closeness to death (Parker, 1836).

Others presented physiological arguments. An example was a writer who argued that an ‘increase in the activity of the circulation through the brain … may perhaps be ascribed the clairvoyance of the dying …’ (Anon., 1851: 106). This is consistent with the belief of others to the effect that: ‘In the act of dying, the nervous energy is concentrated to a focus, and on this account the brain, the organ of the mind, acts with unusual vigour’ (Winslow, 1841: 206).

Physiological arguments were further developed by US physician Edward Hammond Clarke (1820–77) in his book Visions: A Study of False Sight (Pseudopia). In his view, during dying ‘the ganglia of the brain, just before dissolution, sometimes show their automatic power by phenomena’ (Clarke, 1878: 264), frequently hallucinations. There is an exaltation of emotion, memory and thought that, in Clarke’s opinion, accounted for deathbed visions. Cerebral cell disintegration may affect visual and auditory centres, producing visions and sounds. ²

However, other writers, influenced by the movement of spiritualism, took a more spiritual outlook. In an influential early book about spiritualistic phenomena published in England, From Matter to Spirit, writer Sophia de Morgan (1809–92) stated: ‘The apparent recognition by the dying of those who have gone before is a common and notorious fact’ (De Morgan, 1863: 176).

English poet and spiritualist Thomas Shorter (1823–99) opened his article ‘Visions of the dying’ with the following.

The closing scenes of earthly life are often among its most instructive and impressive experiences. Standing on the boundary of another world, they catch glimpses of the beautiful beyond. The countenance which had been marked with pain is sometimes suddenly irradiated as though it were already the face of an angel. The gates no longer ajar, seem to be thrown wide open. (Shorter, 1872: 502)

Similarly in her essay, ‘The Peak in Darien: The Riddle of Death’, Irish social reformer and writer Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904) presented the visions as a spiritual experience. She speculated that:

it might be possible to ascertain by comparison of numerous instances, whether among those phenomena are any which seem to indicate that the Mind, Soul, or Self, of the expiring person is not undergoing a process of extinction, but exhibiting such tokens as might be anticipated were it entering upon a new phase of existence, and coming into possession of fresh faculties. (Cobbe, 1877: 374)

The essay became better known when it was presented as a final chapter in one of her books (Cobbe, 1882).

Although spiritualists did not give the same attention to deathbed visions as to other manifestations such as mediumship and apparitions of the dead, some of them saw these visions as an indication of a spiritual life and discussed the topic in the spiritualist literature. In addition to Cobbe (1877) and Shorter (1872), many others presented cases (e.g. Anon., 1878; J, 1887; S, 1880; Sherman, 1895: 392–3). Some of them appeared in psychical research papers about apparitions (Gurney and Myers, 1889: 459–60; Myers, 1889: 20–1; Sidgwick, 1885: 92). The topic was also mentioned in Frederic W.H. Myers’ (1843–1901) influential Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (1903, Vol. 2: 31).

The author of the excerpt presented here called attention to reports of the experiences of the dying as a possible argument against materialism, an argument he admitted did not have much support. He mentioned instances of calmness and clearness of mind at death and speculated there may be cases ‘in which the person says he has seemed to leave the body’ (Hyslop, 1898: 255). ³

Regardless of this background, detailed discussions of deathbed visions were rare, and with the exception of a few cases put on record, there was no systematic investigation of the topic during the nineteenth century. An interesting discussion of cases which appeared in the early twentieth century was the work of Italian student of psychic phenomena, Ernesto Bozzano (1862–1943); ⁴ he published a paper, the year before Hyslop’s, that brought together many published cases which he arranged in different categories (Bozzano, 1906). He confined his discussion to published cases, making distinctions between those in which only the dying person saw something, those in which only a bystander perceived something, and a few seemingly collective cases. He also, like Cobbe (1877) before him, mentioned cases in which the apparition perceived was of a person not known to be dead by the perceiver. Interestingly, Bozzano’s earlier work was not mentioned by Hyslop (1907e) in the paper reprinted here.

Psychical research

Hyslop’s (1907e) discussion of visions of the dying took place in the context of a great interest in the study of phenomena referred to during the nineteenth century as spiritualistic, supernormal, psychic, and what William James (1842–1910) called the unclassified residuum in science (James, 1890), namely accounts of apparitions, premonitions, thought transference, unexplained healings and other experiences. The movements of mesmerism – which flourished between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries – and the nineteenth-century development of spiritualism did much to document the existence of these occurrences and to publicize them (for overviews, see: Inglis, 1992; Podmore, 1902). Both movements brought empirical attention to the manifestations, and attempts were made to document them. While these movements contain much that can be called psychical research, the field itself is generally considered to have developed in the late nineteenth century. In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded, and during the next decade it both sponsored and published influential studies of such phenomena as apparitions of the living and the dead, mediumship and thought-transference, as well as articles about hypnosis and dissociation in general (Alvarado, 2002; Gauld, 1968). Many developments took place in other countries, leading to the creation of groups such as the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR), organized in the USA at meetings held in Boston in 1884 and 1885 (Anon., 1885). ⁵

Some of this work inherited an interest in the issue of survival of death from spiritualism. This interest was expressed in studies of such phenomena as mental mediumship and apparitions of the dead (Hodgson, 1892; Myers, 1889). This, in fact, was a driving force in psychical research up to the first few decades of the twentieth century and influenced the field in more ways than one (Alvarado, 2003).

In addition, psychical research, the context in which Hyslop laboured, presented work to redefine the concept of hallucinations (Le Maléfan, 2008; McCorristine, 2010). That is, some psychical researchers argued that hallucinations could have aspects that could not be reduced to imagination or pathology because the apparitions perceived included verifiable information not known to the perceiver (Gurney, Myers and Podmore, 1886; Sidgwick, Johnson, Myers, Podmore and Sidgwick, 1894). To some extent the article by Hyslop reprinted here was an extension of this regarding some deathbed vision cases, and it was a protest against the acceptance by physicians and others of a purely intrapsychic model of visionary experience.

James H. Hyslop

James Hervey Hyslop was one of the first Americans to devote his life to psychical research. ⁶ Born in 1854 in Xenia, Ohio, Hyslop graduated from Wooster University in 1877, was a student at the University of Leipzig (1882–4), and later obtained degrees from Johns Hopkins University (1887, PhD), and the University of Wooster (1902, LLD). Between 1880 and 1902 he taught philosophy and psychology at various American universities. His last academic affiliation was with Columbia University.

Among Hyslop’s early non-psychical research works in the areas of philosophy and psychology were such books as Elements of Logic (1892), Elements of Ethics (1895a), Elements of Psychology (1895b), Logic and Argument (1899a), Syllabus of Psychology (1899b) and Problems of Philosophy (1905a). He also published in scholarly journals, some examples being articles about aspects of perception (Hyslop, 1903a, 1903b).

Hyslop resigned his position at Columbia University in 1902 due to health problems. Before this he had been engaged in psychical research, had been elected Vice-President of the SPR (Anon., 1900: 162), had published on the subject (e.g. Hyslop, 1900, 1901) and had been discussed in the press for his interest in the topic of survival of death (Anon., 1899). The last of these was related to his study of famous mental medium Leonora E. Piper (1857–1950), with whom he had sittings in the 1890s (Hyslop, 1901). ⁷

Earlier in life he had accepted materialism (Hyslop, 1908: 407) after a period of doubt. He reached this decision because he thought he had the support of science, but he later found in psychical research ‘the dawn of another day for an idealism that will last as long as scientific method can claim respect’ (Hyslop, 1908: 408). He believed that psychical research had provided clear evidence for survival of bodily death (e.g. Hyslop, 1918b, 1919).

Most of Hyslop’s psychical research career was conducted within the ASPR, a society which he directed until his death in 1920, and which he attempted, unsuccesfully, to reorganize to include psychopathology in its agenda as well (Hyslop, 1907c). Hyslop also wrote extensively, as seen in several books about psychic phenomena: Science and a Future Life (1905b), Borderland of Psychic Research (1906a), Enigmas of Psychic Research (1906b), Psychical Research and the Resurrection (1908), Psychical Research and Survival (1913), Life After Death (1918b) and Contact with the Other World (1919). He also had a track record in magazines and newspapers (e.g. Hyslop, 1900, 1907b, 1907d), but his detailed work as a psychical researcher was published in the journals of the discipline. While he wrote about many topics – spirit obsession cases (Hyslop, 1909), imagery in mental mediumship (Hyslop, 1914a), telepathy experiments (Hyslop, 1914b), clairvoyant experiments (Hyslop, 1916), table levitation studies (Hyslop, 1917) and raps (Hyslop, 1920) – his main contributions were his detailed reports of seances with mental mediums (e.g. Hyslop, 1901, 1910, 1912), some of which remain to this day the most detailed records of their kind. Among other mediums, Hyslop studied the above-mentioned Leonora E. Piper and Minnie Soule (referred to by Hyslop as Mrs Chenoweth, 1867–1936).

Hyslop’s interest in the visions of dying persons was consistent with previous psychical research in which attempts were made to redefine the meaning of apparent hallucinatory experiences and to explore phenomena considered to be suggestive of survival of death. His article ‘Visions of the Dying’ was published in the January 1907 issue of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, of which Hyslop was editor. The inside cover of the issue includes visions of the dying as one of the phenomena about which the ASPR wished to receive case reports. Other phenomena in which the ASPR was interested were telepathy, clairvoyance, premonitions and mediumistic phenomena (Anon., 1907).

For Hyslop, this article was the beginning of a possible line of investigation. He evidently wanted to put on record the existence of these cases as a particular type of apparition, and then to call for cases. Interestingly, and unfortunately in that it limited the article’s influence in establishing the existence of a neglected visionary experience, Hyslop did not present any discussions of the topic in previous publications except to mention a few previously published cases. This is strange, considering that Hyslop was generally well-read in psychical research and related topics. Citation of this work would have assisted him to establish the type, and would have provided him with more cases, some of them with veridical features.

From the paper it is clear that Hyslop was aware that a larger number of cases were needed for analyses. Consequently, he asked members to send in cases. He also mentioned the importance of the assistance of physicians in this task. Interestingly, he commented on the importance of getting cases in which the dying person recovered, so as to have their testimony.

Hyslop was aware that many cases could be hallucinations with no discarnate agency. Perhaps for this reason he emphasized the importance of veridical cases, such as those cases in which the moribund saw someone he or she did not know had died (Greyson, 2010). But he also mentioned a couple of cases suggesting that a spirit communicating through a medium had appeared to the dying person, cases that were also mentioned by Bozzano (1906).

Perhaps because he did not receive many cases of deathbed visions, Hyslop never followed up the topic systematically. In his book Psychical Research and the Resurrection (1908: ch. 4), he reprinted parts of his paper and added new cases, including some he had previously neglected from SPR sources, but his basic message was the same as in the paper and there were no further analyses. Hyslop (1918a) also reprinted the account of deathbed visions of a girl named Daisy Dryden (Dryden, 1909) and presented other cases (Hyslop, 1918c, 1919: 140–8). But he did not advance the topic either conceptually or methodologically. Nonetheless, the paper was cited by later writers and researchers, such as Barrett in his influential Death-Bed Visions (1926), and in recent times (Muthumana, Kumari, Kellehear, Kumar and Moosa, 2010–2011).

The Classic Text below is a reprint of Hyslop’s (1907e) article.