The night a woman dreamed that her nephew fell into a ditch with the pony on top of him

Step 1

Before 1925 · F. S. Boucher James’ account

A woman sleeps with a notebook by her bed to write down the dreams that strike her

F. S. Boucher James lived in London. She was a member of the Society for Psychical Research, a society in London that studied cases of dreams and visions. In November 1922 she had a dream that interested her a great deal because of the way her memory had worked in it. The Society published it in its journal in 1923. After that dream, at the end of 1922, she began keeping a notebook by her bed. In it she wrote down, in a few words, the dreams that made an impression on her.

She usually wrote them down the next day. She dated them with the morning after the dream.

She also took part in telepathy experiments that the Society’s secretary ran in London. In them, one person thought of something and the others tried to pick it up. On Monday, January 19, 1925, it was Boucher James’s turn to think of something for the others to pick up. That was one week before the dream.

She had two nephews in the county of Devon, in the southwest of England. B., the older one, was Colonel Boucher Charlewood James. Since 1922 he had been master of the Stevenstone Hunt, which went out after foxes with hounds in the area. He handled the hounds himself during the hunt. T., the younger one, often lent his horses to others, or said he was too busy to go out.

She says herself that if she had pictured either of them hunting, she would have thought of B., not T.

Step 4

Tuesday, January 27, 1925 · According to her notebook

That Tuesday, Boucher James writes the dream down in her notebook, in a single line

She did not write it down as soon as she woke up. She remembers thinking once or twice during the day that she had to write it down, and she believes she did so that afternoon. This is what she wrote:

“Jany. 27. Dreamt Mrs. O—— and pony and T—— T. in deep ditch, pony on top.”

In the notebook, the entry before this one is dated January 20, and the next one February 5. There are no entries between January 27 and February 5.

The note says that the one who falls is T., under a pony and into a ditch. The one who actually fell was B., under a horse and while jumping a bank.

Step 5

Friday, January 30, 1925 · F. S. Boucher James’ account

Four days later, a postcard from her sister tells her that B. has had an accident

On Friday, a letter and a postcard from her sister arrived in the same post. The letter had no date. The postcard was marked “Thursday” and said that B. had slept for six hours. According to Boucher James, that postcard was the first she knew that something was wrong with B.

In the letter, her sister told her about the fall during the hunt.

On February 3, a Devon newspaper, the Bideford Gazette, reported the accident of B., Colonel B. C. James, at the hunt the Monday before.

Step 6

February to May 1925 · London and Devon · According to her letters and the journal

Boucher James sends the page of her notebook to the Society, which publishes the case

Boucher James told the dream to Miss Newton, the secretary of the Society for Psychical Research. On February 2, she sent it to her in writing, as Miss Newton had asked. Later she sent her sister’s letter, the newspaper cutting, and the piece of the notebook with the note of the dream, cut out of the notebook.

At the end of February, Boucher James saw her nephew T. in Devon and asked him about his brother’s fall. T. told her that one of B.’s eyes had swollen badly from a blow. She asked him whether he had been afraid for the eye when he saw him fall. This is what T. answered:

“Oh, no,” he said, “I thought he was dead.”

The Society’s journal published the case in May 1925, under the title “An apparently telepathic dream.” The researchers say they see no reason to doubt that Boucher James wrote the note before she knew anything about the accident.

The question remains: did Boucher James dream of her nephew’s fall, or was it a coincidence?