An amazing example of how the ghost of a man who had died four years earlier appeared to one of the deceased's sons and informed him of a will, the existence of which no one even suspected. This incident is often used as proof of the existence of an afterlife. However, many believe that it can be explained simply by clairvoyance.
James L. Cheffin, a North Carolina farmer, had four sons. In November 1905, he made a will, according to which his farm and all the property was inherited by the third son of Cheffin - Marshall. The farmer did not make any orders regarding his wife and three other sons - John, James P. and Abner.
Apparently, Cheffin changed the terms of the will (perhaps he did it under the influence of reading the Bible). The Book of Genesis tells that Jacob deceived his father Isaac, as a result of which he took away the inheritance rights from the eldest son of Esau and passed them on to Jacob. In 1919, Cheffin wrote a second will with his own hand, which said:
“After reading the 27th chapter of Genesis, I, James L. Cheffin, make my final declaration of will, which is as follows. After the proper burial of my body, I want my small property, both personal and immovable, to be equally divided between my four sons, if they are alive at the time of my death. If one of them dies by that time, then his share should be divided between his children. Children should take care of their mother, my wife, if she is alive at the time. So, this is my last will and my last testament. My hand and seal are certified.
James L. Cheffin, January 16, 1919.
Despite the last sentence of the will, this version of the will of the farmer was not certified, but under the laws of the state of North Carolina it was nevertheless legal.
Cheffin hid his last will in his father's old Bible, and it was between the pages of the 27th chapter of Genesis, which he folded in the form of a "pocket". There he put the document. It is not known why, but the farmer did not tell anyone about the latest version of the will. Perhaps he intended to do it at the right moment, but he could not find the time. However, after him there was a note that read: "Read chapter 27 of Genesis in my father's Bible." He rolled up the note, tied it with a ribbon and put it in the pocket of his black coat, after which he sewed the pocket tightly onto it.
On September 7, 1921, Cheffin slipped, fell and died. His 1905 will came into effect and the property passed to his son Marshall. Nobody argued with that.
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Four years later, in 1925, Chaffin's son James saw his father more and more in his dreams. I dreamed that he appeared at the head of his son and stood there silently. In June 1925, the deceased dreamed of James again, this time in his black coat. The father points to the coat and says: "You will find my will in the pocket of this coat." Then the vision disappeared.
It remained unclear whether the father's ghost was part of James's dreams, or whether it appeared, as it were, separately from them. James couldn't tell if he was asleep when he saw the ghost, or if he was awake. Perhaps he was half asleep.
The next morning James woke up convinced that his father's ghost had come to him in order to correct some mistake. He went to his mother's house, where he learned that the coat had become the property of his brother John. On July 6, he visited his brother and found a coat. After careful examination, James found a sewn pocket. He ripped open the seam, found the note, and read it.
It should be noted that James acted very prudently and, on his way to his mother in order to find the Bible referred to in the note, took witnesses with him - his neighbor Thomas Blackwelder and his daughter. James' daughter went with them. In the Bible, they found Cheffin's final testament.
This version of the will of the deceased was presented in court for consideration of his competence. Marshall had died by that time, but his widow and son actively disputed the authenticity of the new version. The case was heard in December 1925. About a week before the trial, the late Cheffin's ghost appeared to James again. This time the ghost was in a clearly agitated state and exclaimed: "Where is my old testament?" James considered this appearance a sign that he would win the trial.
Ten witnesses were willing to confirm that the handwriting did indeed belong to the deceased farmer. As soon as the widow and son of Marshall saw the document, they dropped their claims. As a result, the old will was annulled and the new one came into force.
They tried to explain what happened in different ways. The most obvious interpretation was that James, dissatisfied with the contents of his father's will, made a fake version (of course, with more favorable terms for himself), and then wrote a ghost story. However, what about the fact that Cheffin's handwriting was recognized as authentic? Besides, why then did James P. Chaffin, having forged a will, wait four years before he unveiled his father's ghost story? It would be easier to accidentally stumble upon a document, which would look more believable.
The second explanation was that the Cheffin family knew about the existence of a second version of the will. But it is known that the North Carolina attorney, who was seriously interested in parapsychology, interrogated James P. Chaffin, his wife, daughter and mother with great care, and concluded that none of them suspected of the document hidden in the Bible. The lawyer said that he was completely convinced by the honesty and sincerity of the Cheffins.
The third explanation was based on the fact that James P. Cheffin once knew about the new will, but eventually forgot about it. Perhaps the father transmitted the information to his son by telepathic means, and then by itself it "surfaced" in his mind (perhaps the father's ghost, which appeared to him in his dreams, played a role in this). Such a version has the right to exist, but nevertheless it should be recognized as unlikely, if we take into account all the known facts. It is doubtful that the father would tell anyone about the new will, because in this case he would hardly have hidden it so carefully. This theory does not satisfactorily explain the four-year delay.
The fourth version is that during his sleep, James was able to obtain information about the will through clairvoyance, and this knowledge was then "projected" and took the form of a ghost, which convinced James that the information was correct. This is possible, but if so, then the case under consideration cannot serve as an argument in favor of the existence of life after physical death.
And finally, one should consider the hypothesis that a real ghost of his deceased father appeared to James and provided him telepathically with information previously unknown to his son. This theory supports the idea of an afterlife. At the same time, the case is quite unusual in that the percipient (James) heard and saw a ghost. The four-year delay lends additional credibility to the version regarding confirmation of life after physical death. It is unlikely that the information telepathically communicated just prior to Cheffin's death would not be remembered by his son anyway. And yet it should be admitted that certain conclusions cannot be drawn in this case, since there is no way to verify any of the theories put forward.
The case of Cheffin's will is reminiscent of a story that took place near Ionia, Iowa, in 1891. It also featured a certain farmer, Michael Conley, who was once found dead in a barn. Upon hearing of her father's death, his daughter fainted. When she woke up, she announced that her father had come to her and said that he had sewn up a large amount of money in the pocket of the shirt he was wearing at the time of death. The daughter described her father's clothes in detail, including his satin slippers, which she could not see before. The clothes removed from Conley's dead body were thrown away. After the daughter's message about the sewn-up money, the things were searched and, in fact, they found 35 dollars in their inner pocket. Some consider this incident to be an argument for the existence of an afterlife. There is another point of view,according to which the father transmitted information to his daughter by telepathic means just before his death. None of these explanations can be easily discarded.