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confirmed those made by Barrett.

      Typically deathbed visions occur to those who die gradually from a terminal illness or injury rather than those who die suddenly. Many of the visions are of apparitions of dead loved ones or family members known to the dying person, such as parents, siblings and spouses, or beings of light perceived as mythical or religious figures. The purpose of these apparitions - called take away apparitions - appears to be to command the dying to come with them and thus assist them in the transition to death. The response of most of the people dying to these visions is one of happiness, peace and a willingness to go. Their mood changes from one of suffering to one of radiance and joy.

      Approximately a third of deathbed visions involve a vision of the afterlife, which is typically described as a beautiful garden. Some see apparitions there, others see streams, bridges and boats and other symbols of transition. Again the emotional response is one of great happiness and peace. The great majority of visions appear just before death with the patient dying shortly afterwards.

      There are various natural explanations given for deathbed visions. Drugs, fever, disease, the brain suffering oxygen deprivation, hallucinations and wish fulfilment have all been given as possible causes. Although they are plausible explanations, Osis’s research showed clearly that deathbed visions are most likely to occur in the fully conscious and that medical factors do not trigger visions. Wish fulfilment is not a likely explanation either because visions appear both to those who believe and to those who do not believe in an afterlife, and also appear to those who want to recover and live. Finally there have also been reports by the living who are in attendance to the dying of clouds of silvery energy floating over the body, as well as take away apparitions and angels.

      Deathbed visions are significant not just because they suggest the possibility of survival after death, but because they also demonstrate that the moment of transition to death should not be feared. If reports of deathbed visions are to be believed, for the person who is dying death can be a wonderful and beautiful experience.

      DEATH CHART

      Used with the birth chart of astrology this is a means of forecasting the date or time of death.

      DEATH OMENS

      In folklore a death omen is a sign of an impending death. Every culture has its own unique death omens.

      Death is frequently foretold by the appearance or behaviour of certain animals, insects or birds associated with the afterlife. Black birds - crows, owls, ravens, rooks - are often though to be death omens when they appear in a village or cluster around a house. The howling of a dog or a black cat crossing the path are also thought to be signs that portend the death of someone nearby. Spiders are often associated with death, and according to American, British and European lore the deathwatch beetle, which makes a ticking or tapping sound during the summer months as it bores into wood, is considered the harbinger of a death in the family.

      Death omens can be natural occurrences, for example the way wax drips from a candle, or accidents, such as a chair falling over backwards as a person gets up, or signs of nature, such as cloud shapes or star formations. They can also be supernatural occurrences, such as candles and lights that flicker in the night - see corpse candles and corpse lights - or the appearance of an apparition, such as the banshee, or a phantom coach with a headless coachman, or spectral black dogs, or other animals.

      DECATUR HOUSE

      The haunted house of one of America’s most celebrated naval captains in the war of 1812, Stephen Decatur. Located in Lafayette Square, Washington, DC Decatur House is said to be haunted by the ghosts of both Stephen and his wife, Susan.

      Stephen Decatur moved to Washington with his wife in 1818 after the war ended. He was admired and even considered a presidential hopeful, but unfortunately for him, in 1807 he had served on the court-martial board of his friend, Commodore James Barron. Decatur had agreed with the rest of the board that Barron should be court-martialled, starting a feud that ended in Decatur’s death at Barron’s hands during a duel 13 years later in Bladens-burg, Maryland (duelling being illegal in Washington). On 14 March 1820, the morning of the duel, Decatur was mortally wounded and taken home to die. His wife was so broken-hearted she could not bring herself to look at him or to live in the house after he had died.

      A year after his death his apparition was allegedly seen looking sadly from the window where he had stood on the eve of his death. The window was walled up but this did not stop the ghost returning. Later sounds of a woman weeping - said to be Susan Decatur - were also heard.

      Residents of Washington still report seeing Decatur’s spirit peering out of the second-storey window or slipping out the back door of his house with a black box under his arm, just as he had done on that fateful day of the duel.

      DECLINE/INCLINE EFFECTS

      Terms used to describe phenomena witnessed in psi testing. The decline effect is a term used to describe the diminishing of psychic ability when tested. The incline effect refers to an increase in ability.

      Experiments to test psychic ability tend to show that the decline effect occurs more often than the incline effect. Some gifted individuals score highly consistently but many gifted test subjects, who have scored highly in the initial tests, report a loss of spontaneity and enthusiasm during a run of tests. This may be due to the fact that the perception of psi is a very subtle process and without feedback a subject has no way of judging his or her success. Another major factor is boredom as many tests involve repetitive tasks such as guessing numbers or cards.

      DEDUCTIVE PSYCHIC INTUITION

      Psychic images that come from the unconscious mind’s ability to take in external sensory stimuli. The unconscious mind is a kind of storage facility, absorbing and storing all the stimuli, such as pictures, sounds, noises and so on, we are constantly being bombarded with but can’t process all at once, as this would lead to information overload.

      When the conscious mind - the part of the mind that is objective and in charge of reasoning and making decisions - has a question about something that it just cannot answer, the question will go to the unconscious mind, which will mull over the problem and rely on its stored data to come up with a response. In the meantime the conscious mind goes on to another subject and forgets what it was looking for, but the unconscious keeps hard at work until, out of nowhere, an insight appears. This is deductive psychic intuition at work.

      See also Random psychic intuition, Goal-focused intuition.

      DEE, JOHN [1527–1608]

      Official court astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, admiralty spy - with the code name 007 - and transcriber of the angelic Enochain alphabet of alchemy and magic, John Dee was one of the most learned and remarkable occultists of his day. It is thought that Shakespeare used him for his model of the magician Prospero in The Tempest.

      Dee was responsible for setting the date of Elizabeth’s coronation by casting a horoscope to find the most auspicious day, but he is perhaps best known for his relationship with medium Edward Kelley Dee was greatly interested in communicating with spirits and employed Kelley for the sum of £50 a year. The two men believed themselves to be in contact with a number of entities, including an impatient angel called Ave. It was Ave who dictated to Kelley, with Dee recording, the text of an entirely new system of magic in a language called Enochain. Dee and Kelley were also associated with the divinatory art of scrying (crystal gazing). Their experiments in crystal gazing, using a shewstone that is now in the British Museum, began in 1582 and continued to 1587.

      Kelley

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