Continued from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – real ghosts

How can we explain Scrooge’s visions of the ghost of Christmas Present?

It is important that Scrooge did not see himself in his visions of the present. His experiences could have been similar to astral travel, with minor time elements involved.

Astral travel and the Wilmot Apparition

Many people question the validity of astral travel. However, the Wilmot Apparition is one of the most famous and well-documented examples.

S. R. Wilmot had been aboard a ship, the City of Limerick for many stormy days, on his way to New York from Liverpool.

On the night of Tuesday, October 13th, 1863, he dreamed that his wife entered his cabin and bent over to kiss his sleeping form.

What alarmed him the most was that his roommate, William J. Tait–a librarian in his fifties–had been awake at the time and clearly saw the apparition of a woman in a nightdress. (In fact, Tait didn’t realize that it was an apparition. He was shocked at the apparent familiarity of the woman, knowing that Wilmot’s wife wasn’t aboard.)

Adding to the mystery, Mrs. Wilmot had dreamed about visiting her husband that night, and awoke feeling as if the experience was real, and accurately described the cabin in detail.

Despite intense research, no one has been able to explain this event in terms other than paranormal.

That same ship disappeared on January 8, 1882 without explanation, on a voyage from New York to Liverpool.

Shelley’s eerie doppelgangers

A second, well-documented apparition of the living, or doppelganger, appeared in May 1822 at a villa near San Terenzo in Italy. The houseguests at this villa included the poet, Shelley. He claimed that he saw himself on the terrace, one day.

On two other occasions, he was seen on the terrace by Mrs. Edward Williams, another houseguest. However, at those times, Shelley was many miles away.

About two months later, Shelley died mysteriously.

Today, Shelley is remembered for his poetry. He’s better known as the husband of Mary Wollestonecraft, the author of the original novel, Frankenstein.

So, we can say that Scrooge could have seen Marley, could have seen images of the past, and may have traveled within his own time to see others’ Christmases. However, what about the future?

Goethe looks ahead… and sees his own spectre

In his autobiography, philosopher Goethe (1749 – 1832) described an event similar to what Scrooge experienced, but in a much more benign context: In about 1772, “…I saw myself on horseback coming towards me on the same path dressed in a suit such as I have never worn…”

Eight years later, Goethe was on that path again. This time, he was on horseback, and–glancing down–realized that he was wearing the suit he’d seen “himself” wearing, many years earlier. Had he seen himself in the future? Perhaps–like Scrooge–he did.

The final question is, how much of A Christmas Carol was fact and how much was fiction? That will help us decide whether to take Dickens’ story elements seriously.

In our next article, we’ll investigate Dickens’ Christmas Carol – the facts.

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Photo credits: Shelley’s gravestone photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran.

Goethe portrait provided by Wikipedia.com.

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