Crisis Apparations....Have you seen one? A Research Question

Good morning All,

I recently read an excellent book entitled "Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death" by Deborah Blum. Basically, the book chronicles the beginnings of "serious" scientific research into the paranormal realm. A great read if you are interested.

One part of the book really stuck out to me. In the late 1800s, a scientist by the name of Edmund Gurney focused on what he termed "crisis apparations:" mainly, the spirits of deceased individuals who appear to loved ones at the moment of death. Gurney eventually documented more than 700 stories of crisis apparations that contained some form of tangible evidence (diary notations, multiple witnesses, etc). He then argued that the crisis apparations supported a notion of sentitent life after death.

This notion intrigued me. My family has experienced a lot of death in the last two years (5, to be exact), so this is a topic near and dear to my heart. So I thought this would be an excellent place to do my own research.

Therefore, I would like to ask any and all to share their stories of crisis apparations. For example, consider this story from "Ghost Hunters":

The woman woke suddenly in the night, looked around the room, and saw on eof her sons, Joseph, standing at the door. His head was heavily bandaged and his face bruised and bloody, especially about he eyes. He stood silent, and then seemed to fade away. At breakfast she told her family that she was prepared for bad news about Joseph. Within days, she received the news; her son had been killed in a steamer collision on the Mississippi, during which a mast had split apart and fallen onto his head.

Of course this won't be scientifically valid study; I have no way of verifying experiences. But I am curious, and think it worthwhile.

Here is how to report a crisis apparation. At the beginning of your post, write PERSONAL EXPERIENCE if the apparation appeared to you. If you are relating an event that happened to someone else, please write SECOND HAND EXPERIENCE before telling us about the event.

I hope this becomes an interesting and enlightening thread. Keep smiling, All!

Unfortunately, I saw no apparition as my father was dying.

However, I did get the urge to call my parents' house the second he was dying. It was like someone 'told' me to ring.

I have seen him frequently over the last few years.

Apologies for not sticking fully to the 'brief'!

However, I did get the urge to call my parents' house the second he was dying. It was like someone 'told' me to ring.

reply to post by chillpill


What was this feeling like? Would you consider yourself in a 'close' relationship with your father? Did you call?

Thanks so much for sharing your story, I know it must be painful. If you can, I would love to hear more of your experiences!

Keep smiling

reply to post by smyleegrl


I can only describe it as a real urge. I phoned and my mother basically said, "I think your father has just died."

She wasnt sure, I was that close to it. We spoke about what she could do to check if he was alive.

I had a very close relationship with him and adored him. He rocked my world!

I cannot describe the feeling, other than being told to phone...but not with words.

I get it quite a lot. I suppose it's a sixth sense.

My partner says he often notices my driving change - like I have been pre-warned to potential danger. I will suddenly see an image in my head of a deer running in front of the car, or another car travelling fast towards me and I will slow and change my approach. I am often right and there's often a hairsbreadth between me and danger.

Back to my dad - he has appeared to me in dreams and been in my room once. Just after he died I saw him bending over me - close to my face. I woke up and he was just staring at me. Nothing was said. I knew he was disorientated and confused..he looked awful.

Each successive sighting of him has seen him get healthier looking and younger!

Although, I am unsure what I believe in.

I posted on here a while ago about an experience I had when I moved to New Zealand from Scotland in 2004.

I left my cat behind in Scotland with my Dad when I left for New Zealand. She was a 20somethin year old cat who was always close to me throughout growing up.

I'd been in New Zealand for some months when one night I woke up during the night to find the moonlight casting a shadow onto my bedroom door. It was the exact shape of my cat back home. I knew it was her, i just knew it.

I had a smile to myself then went back to sleep. I dreamt of my cat that night getting an injection at the Vet.

I woke up in the morning with a text message from my brother saying my cat had fallen quickly ill and was given a life ending injection that day.

That proved to me that night, that animals, as well as humans live on in another place.

Original post here -

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I personally have never experienced this but my girlfriend has. She saw her brother arrive home with blood on his face and go upstairs to his room, minutes before the phone rang and her mother was informed of his demise in a motorcycle accident. She ran upstairs to his room to find it empty though. She said she was in a sort of relaxed state of mind and didn't react normally when he came through the door. Almost in a trance. Only after the phone call a few minutes later did she tell her mother she had seen him going to his room.

I've never seen a crisis apparition BUT

This weird thing happens in my family (3 times so far)
Not getting into too much details here about myself but
every time a family member dies (thus far) the clock in the entryway STOPS -- It could just be that it ran out of battery and I only notice it when my family members die.
I'm not so sure

This is a post much like some of the above posters in that I didn't see an apparition, just felt a very strong need to know how the person in question was doing.

My ex-husband had cancer and was living with his current wife until he got so bad that she had to put him in a nursing home because she had to work to pay the bills. My Ex and I had had a son together, and he was keeping me updated as to his father's condition, etc. I was married again and living fairly close by.

Little background info: We were teenage sweethearts and each others first love. Married young and divorced young, but were very close for about five years.

One day I felt the strongest urge to find out how he was doing and/or talk to him. I didn't know which nursing home he was in, but I tried to call his home, first, to see if possibly anyone was there, but no one answered (his wife at work, I'm sure).

I then went to the phone book and looked up nursing homes closest to his home, and found two. The first one I called, after a long waiting period, said that he wasn't a patient there. The second one I called, after another long wait, said that he was a patient there, but had died about an hour earlier.

So there you go, that's my story. I have had lots of bouts of high intuition, also, in my life, but this event was the most notable.

edit for typo

[edit on 12/14/09 by FibroKat]

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. Your stories are amazing! Would any of you classify yourself as "psychic" or "intuitive", or were these events the first time something like this has ever happened to you?

Keep smiling!

reply to post by smyleegrl


Come on, surely there are more people out there who have seen a crisis apparation???


bumpity bumpity bump bump bump

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. Your stories are amazing! Would any of you classify yourself as "psychic" or "intuitive", or were these events the first time something like this has ever happened to you?

Keep smiling!

I would definitely class myself as intuitive - I tend to have a high degree of accuracy on picking up on people's hidden motivations and future courses of action.

I have seen ghosts for a large part of my life - but close them out now - and tend to know things about people.

Hey smyleegrl Second hand experiance.

The day my grandma died( my fifth birthday to be exact ) my mum said my grandma kept saying she could see her dad in the corner of the room and a couple of hours later my grandma died.

I know this isn't exactly what you asked for but I thought I would add it anyway



[edit on 15-12-2009 by valiant]

I'm only posting here to give it a wee bump; - bare in mind that the older I get the less I believe in this type of thing but you can never deny personal experience (or 2nd hand family experience);

So, when my momma was younger, about 10 or so, she lived in the country with her family; this family was rather large (she had 5 brothers and 4 sisters kinda thing).....they lived miles from the town and usually had to walk everywhere, so..............when my nan was walking home from town one evening, she saw one of her sons (about 7 years old at the time) bent over double in a field opposite their house and land - he was apparantly soaking wet and coughing and in such a terrible way that my nan instantly ran over (about 350 metres) to reach him. Before she even got there, however, he had vanished. Being the kind of people (half-gypsy) my family were, she instantly knew what to expect,ran into the house and after making sure that that particular son wasn't there, she told half of the family to get their shoes on - they were going to look for him. (These were the days when you were a child living in the country, you would wander for miles during play-time)

He was found the next day (in the morning) on the banks of a small river, near the house - the story goes that he was bullied by a couple of older kids the night before and they had held him under the water until he drowned.

There are a couple of other stories but they're kinda vague, will tell upon request and this is the one that stuck out.

Thinking about it abit more, this was a kinda common theme with the more mature generations of my family, I mean, seeing signs and a slight ability of premonition - it kinda got lost on us younger ones however, what with scientific - "photo or it didn't happen" type thing....

(Edit for typos)

[edit on 15/12/09 by XHellcatX]

reply to post by valiant


It might not be the exact definition, but I still think it fits. Thanks for relating!

reply to post by XHellcatX


What an experience! I can't imagine going through something like that.

I've often wondered about why so many of the 'older' generations report these events but the 'younger' generations don't. Could it be that the ability to see such apparations is directly proportional to the current level of technology? In other words, folks in previous generations would have no way to get the message that a loved one was gone until days, sometimes weeks later. Whereas today, the phone rings and we know minutes after the fact.

Not sure, just throwing that out there.

Thanks for responding, and if you ever want to share more experiences I would love to hear them!
Keep smiling!

My aunt was diagnosed with a really agressive cancer in Nov 06 she was given about 6 months, we had planned a holiday in mid march and we visited her almost daily before that, we said we wanted to cancel and stay etc (we were all very close family), but she told us to go and have a good time, and we thought she'd be there when we got back, because we thought she had a few weeks left. We left on a wed, on the saturday i was crying uncontrollably and shaking saying i was sure she had gone and i was just miserable i couldn't get over the feeling, i didn't get any calls because my family had decided to let us be on my aunts wishes (as we had just gotten engaged and it was our first holiday together) we got home on the monday and i saw my mother and just said 'when' I didn't ask if she'd died, just when because i was that sure, and she just replied with 'saturday morning' I didnt see an apparition or anything but i'll never forget that feeling that i couldn't shake that she was gone.

[edit on 15/12/2009 by bkaust]

reply to post by bkaust


What an incredible story.

Have you ever experienced anything similar before or since?
Would you consider yourself psychic or 'sensitive'?

Thanks so much for sharing!

I have had something very similar, Though i did not see anything i did feel and experience something,

My first was my Cousin Billy, He had cancer with only a few weeks to live so in some ways we where expecting his death,
But one evening i was sitting in the living room and a photo from my fire place fell on the floor, I got up to pick it up and it was a picture of my cousin billy,
At that moment i knew that he has just died, There was an immense feeling of dread when i picked up the photo, I just held it and started to cry. Then i got a call and i knew it was to tell me the news,
I was right... It sent such a shiver up my spine,



The 2nd is very similar,
My uncle Alex,

I was in bed and i woke up with a jolt looked at the clock and it said 3am, Then i just said his name, It shocked me that i had even said his name and had a strange feeling about it, I went back to sleep and was woken in the morning to the news of his death, I asked what time he had died and was told 3am,

I still do not know to this day why i get this, Its almost a very unwanted gift.

reply to post by smyleegrl


My father died of pancreatic cancer when I was 17.

At the time we had a full house, as we were all expecting it. So I was sleeping on the floor. I used to walk outside on the country roads a lot at night.

Anyway, that night, after he passed, I was the last to lay down and turn off the lights. Everyone else was asleep as I had been outside.

My father had previously had throat cancer, and had a stoma in his traech. As I lay down, all a sudden it was like he descended on to me and I could hear him breathing hard through his stoma...

Now my father was always one to say he would haunt you...

And so I got up and turned the light on and told him not to try to scare me... and then I laid back down.

After that folks heard the sound of his vibrator based speech sound around the house, until my mom knocked down a wall.... and then it all stopped.

Again, thanks to everyone who's posting their stories.

Do you think it is the person who has passed on trying to say goodbye? Or just intuition on your part?

Anyone else with stories, please share!