In paranormal terminology, an Arrival Case is defined as the appearance of a person in advance of his or her actual arrival. The ‘phantom’ appears in the same clothing at the time of the sighting that the actual will be wearing when they finally do arrive. To any observers, the phantom is physically present and can speak and respond. The individual who has projected his phantom to a distant location is not aware of this having happened until told about it after the fact.

A mere projection -

Numerous explanations for Arrival Cases have been proposed, the most accepted stating that the individual somehow projects a double which is perceived as his physical self in another location. Bilocation has also been considered whereby the individual projects himself out of body. Another possible explanation is a glitch of time where a space in the time/space continuum has been disrupted causing a duplication of an event in time.

Arrival Cases were studied by early 19^th and 20^th century psychical researchers. A comprehensive survey called Phantasms of the Living was published in 1918. It postulated that in some cases intent and state of mind were highly relevant. i.e. a person is expected to arrive and while in transit a strong intent places him at the location ahead of time. Sometimes an individual merely contemplating a future activity in another location also placed him in the location ahead of time. The Phantasm survey cites the case of a young girl whose arrival apparition was seen in a grove before she actually arrived to commit suicide. It is believed that her intense emotional state contributed to the projection of her double.

In the Highlands of Scotland, Arrival Cases are known as “spirits of the living” and can only be seen by those with second sight. In Norway, Arrival Cases are known as Vardøger and are common.

A vardøger is a double in Norse mythology, who actually precedes a living person, performing their actions in advance. In modern times paranormal message boards have several posts from persons claiming to have seen someone in one place, only to meet them later and realize the first sighting was impossible. One woman looking through a large picture window, clearly saw her husband being dropped home by a co-worker. She went to the door to let him in, only to find no sign of either person or the car outside. Her husband arrived home hours later, and confirmed that at the time she thought she saw them, he and his colleague were still four hours away from home. One person was told that he was “heard” arriving home with a friend, five minutes before he actually did so. When he and his partner actually did get home, his waiting friends said their arrival sounded exactly the same, with them making the same noises and even uttering the same words that were heard the first time.

An strong example is the case of Erikson Gorique, and American importer who was seen ahead of time when he went to Oslo on business for the first time in his life. He was familiar to both the hotel clerk and a wholesale dealer. He was told by the hotel clerk that he had stayed at the hotel several months earlier and made reservations to return several months later – the reservation matching his actual arrival in the current time. The dealer had greeted him familiarly saying it was a pleasure to conclude the business they had initiated on Gorique’s earlier trip.

A well-known case concerned American author Mark Twain. He described his experience as being at a large reception where he spotted a women he knew and liked but lost sight of her in the crowd before he could approach her. When he met her later at supper she was wearing the same clothes she was wearing at the reception however at the time he had seen her at the reception, she was actually in transit on a train on her way to the party.

Resources:

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

http://listverse.com/2009/04/24/top-10-bizarre-modern-paranormal-phenomena/