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Are there any “credible evidence” sightings of apparitions in the published afterlife material?

We must begin this chapter with an important point. If an apparition sighting does not pass all eight of our “credible evidence” criteria, it does not mean that a legitimate sighting of a bona fide apparition did not occur.It only means we are excluding the sighting from our credible evidence results because there is the potential of “reasonable doubt.”

Given that point, we did locate three different cases where the sightings passed all eight criteria:

AP01 – The Sighting of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tyron in London, 1893. (13)

AP02 – The Sighting of Eastern Airlines Pilot Robert Loft in Multiple Eastern L-1011 TriStar Aircraft, 1973. (14)

AP03 – The Sighting of Starlet Peg Entwistle in Hollywood, California, 1990. (15)

We’ll describe each case in turn, and then we’ll discuss the three cases as a set.

AP01 – The Sighting of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tyron in London, 1893.

This case is documented by England’s highly- respected “Society for Psychical Research”.

According to their records, on June 22, 1893, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tyron, one of the most distinguished officers in the British Royal Navy, was commanding two parallel columns of Her Majesty’s ships, just off the coast of Syria.

Tryon ordered the two columns of ships to make u-turns towards each other, even though they were not far enough apart to perform the maneuver successfully. The result was that the lead vessel of the first column – the H.M.S. Camperdown – rammed the lead vessel of the second column – the H.M.S. Victoria – causing the second ship to sink, carrying Vice-Admiral Tryon and 357 naval crewmen to their death.

Meanwhile, Lady Tryon – 2,000 miles away and completely unaware of her husband’s fate – was hosting a party for some of England’s social elite in the Tryon’s London home. At some point during the party, a deceptively life-like apparition of Vice-Admiral Tryon appeared unexpectedly in full dress uniform at the top of a staircase – just above the assembled guests.

Then, as Lady Tyron and her guests watched, Vice-Admiral Tyron’s apparition walked slowly down the stairs, crossed the room where the party was taking place, opened a door on the other side of the room, and suddenly vanished – in full sight of the witnesses.

AP02 – The Sighting of Eastern Airlines Pilot Robert Loft in Multiple Eastern L-1011 TriStar Aircraft, 1973.

This case is documented by investigative reporter John G. Fuller, in his book entitled The Ghost of Flight 401 (New York, Berkley Publishing, 1976).

According to Fuller’s account, on December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was to leave Kennedy International at 9:00 p.m., and arrive at Miami International approximately 2 ½hours later – around 11:30 p. m..

Although the flight did leave Kennedy International nearly on time – 9:20 p.m. – it did not arrive at Miami International on time. It crashed in the Florida Everglades, 18.7 miles away, at 11:42 p.m., due to equipment malfunction and flight crew error. 101 passengers and crew died as a result, including the flight’s command pilot, Captain Robert A.(Bob) Loft.

Eastern Airlines salvaged what they could of the expensive aircraft, using any undamaged parts and equipment on other L-1011 TriStars in their fleet.

And that’s when and where Robert Loft’s apparition appeared – on other Eastern Airlines L-011 Tristars that had parts salvaged from Flight 401. On one such aircraft, the flight's captain and two flight attendants saw and spoke to Loft just before they were scheduled to take-off – only to watch him vanish. They were so shaken they cancelled their flight. On another such Tristar, an Eastern Airlines Vice President spoke to a captain sitting in First Class, recognized the captain as Bob Loft, and gasped as Loft disappeared.

AP03 – The Sighting of Starlet Peg Entwistle in Hollywood, California, 1990.

This case is documented by the Paranormal Research Alliance in Cullman, Alabama. The following summary is based on the details provided on their website, www.ghosthauntings.org.

Millicent Lilian “Peg” Entwistle was a young, attractive actress who had limited success and critical recognition in Broadway productions such as Getting Married (1931), and Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire (1932).

In April of 1932, Peg moved to Hollywood, hoping to find work in the movies. She was thrilled when RKO Studios signed her for a role in Thirteen Women. Unfortunately, the movie received such poor critical reviews that RKO held the movie from general release and re-edited the film, omitting much of Peg’s performance. RKO subsequently dropped Peg’s studio options, leaving her despondent and without work.

On September 16, 1932, Peg left the home of her Uncle Harold where she was living, walked to the hill where the “Hollywoodland” sign was located, crawled up the hill, climbed a ladder perched against the sign’s 50-foot high “H”, and jumped to her death.

Fifty-eight years later, in 1990, a North Hollywood man and his girlfriend were walking their dog on a Beachwood Canyon Trail near the sign. Their dog began whining at the same time the couple spotted a young woman walking towards them. The young woman, dressed in 1930’s clothing, appeared to be in a dazed state. The couple thought she might be drunk or on drugs, so they decided to steer clear of her – but she just faded away. The couple didn’t know Peg’s story, nor that she was the woman they’d seen – until later.

What do we conclude about the three cases as a set?

All three of the cases we’ve just described have these points in common:

1.Each case involves a full body apparition that is clearly visible and recognizable as a specific deceased person.

2.Each case involves multiple witnesses unrelated to the deceased.

3.None of the eight “credible evidence” criteria are violated by any one of the three cases.

Given these points, we conclude that the three cases described are “credible evidence” of an afterlife.

In Chapter 5, we cover other “Apparitions” cases that are worth considering, since they satisfy the majority of our “credible evidence” criteria.

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