Mark Twain

In the late 1850s, Mark Twain and his brother, Henry, worked on the Mississippi riverboats that moved between St. Louis and New Orleans. One night while staying at their sister’s place in St. Louis, Twain dreamed of his brother’s corpse laid out in a metal coffin in their sister’s living room. The details were quite specific: the coffin rested on a pair of chairs and a bouquet with a single blood-red flower was on Henry’s chest.

Several weeks later when Twain and his brother were together in New Orleans, they had to take different boats back to St. Louis. Henry was on the Pennsylvania and and wasn’t far from Memphis when the boilers exploded, killing numerous people. Henry was badly injured and taken to Memphis, where he died a few days later.

Most of the victims were buried in wooden coffins, but a group of Memphis women raised enough money to have Henry buried in a metal coffin, just as Twain had seen in his dream. The bouquet he’d seen, that single blood-red flower, was missing. But as Twain was standing next to the body, a woman came into the room and placed a white bouquet of flowers on Henry’s chest. In the center of it was a single crimson rose.

– from The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
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This story bears some similarities to one we posted on February 15 from Joyce Evans.

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12 Responses to Mark Twain

  1. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Butternut – we used your great great grandfather's dream in the book. It works beautifully.

  2. gypsywoman says:

    yes, i agree, may, that we are not all connected to the inner world in the same way – hence, the division, as you said – and yes, just IMAGINE a world without wars hunger and strife!!! the key being IMAGINE!

  3. Anonymous says:

    It would be wonderful to live in a world without wars, hunger, and strife.

  4. May says:

    I think we are all dualities, but we are not all connected to this inner world in the same way. If we were, we wouldn't have so much division– wars and such.

    The ones who are not so connected have inner twins/consciousness with mega genius capabilities. It is this reason that so much is amiss in our world, but the benefits ourweigh the cons 🙂

    Great inventions from this inner group are communicated to the ones who are connected and who properly prepare.

  5. gypsywoman says:

    aren't we all, in fact, dualities?

  6. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Fascinating stuff, May. I swear, there's a connection between your duality theories and the fact that Gemini is only one of 2 signs represented by two of something!

  7. May says:

    …perhaps the inner twin/ parallel world had strategically planned for this day when we would be able to say, "We see you 'too'… or should that be 'two'… or maybe'Tou'"Toumai– menaing "Hope for Life", from the Goran language of the  African Djurab Desert people known as the Daza.

  8. May says:

    Mark Twain was born Samuel Clemens and the pen name is from a call used by riverboat workers on the Mississippi to indicate a depth of two fathoms.

    The Etymology of ‘Twain’ shows 2 sources: Proto Germanic Root ‘twai’, meaning ‘two’; and our English word ‘Tuesday’, derived from Old Norse Tyr (god of war)… ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dhyeu (“god”).

    Ancient deities were often depicted with two heads. The Nordic deity Janus is one such two headed God. Wikipedia says this –“The ancients connected the origins of Janus to movement: Macrobius and Cicero derived his name from the word ire (“to go”). Numa in his regulation of the Roman calendar called the first month Januarius after Janus, at the time the highest divinity. Numa also introduced the Janus Geminus, a passage ritually opened at times of war, and shut again when Roman arms rested”.

    In a book entitled – “The Language of the GODDESS” by Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, chapter 16, “Power of Two”, page 171, and at FIGURE 271 is depicted two headed goddess that date back to 4800 BC.

    Did the ancients understand something that had become lost?

    Also interesting is that Helen Keller and Mark Twain were good friends. In a speech Twain said, “I am filled with the wonder of her knowledge, acquired because shut out from all distractions. If I could have been deaf, dumb, and blind I also might have arrived at something”. Perhaps Twain as with his dream was speaking from a source deep within… and perhaps we simply need to learn their particular brand of sign language.

    Who knows??

  9. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    I'll just take what we need from your website!
    Many thanks –

  10. Butternut Squash says:

    I think it's OK. (Most of the family knows the story because I sent them copies.) If you need to see the original copy that I found, I will have to go digging for it. I put it in a box about two years ago before we moved and now we are just about to move again.

  11. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Wow! That's a fantastic story. & all of it through a dream. We can use it in the dream section of the book, is that okay?

  12. Butternut Squash says:

    The color and feeling of the dream is very powerful. My last post was the story of my great great grandfather receiving instructions from his deceased grandfather through a dream. I found the story in the belongings of my grandfather shortly after he had passed. I think it is your kind of a tale please take a look if you have time.

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