Apparitions appear. Apparitions are not necessarily Ghosts.
Superstition, Common-sense, and Science. Hallucinations: their
kinds, and causes. Aristotle. Mr. Gurney's definition. Various
sources of Hallucination, external and internal. The Organ of
Sense. The Sensory Centre. The Higher Tracts of the Brain. Nature
of Evidence. Dr. Hibbert. Claverhouse. Lady Lee. Dr. Donne. Dr.
Hibbert's complaint of want of evidence. His neglect of
contemporary cases. Criticism of his tales. The question of
coincidental Hallucinations. The Calculus of Probabilities: M.
Richet, MM. Binet et Fere; their Conclusions. A step beyond
Hibbert. Examples of empty and unexciting Wraiths. Our ignorance
of causes of Solitary Hallucinations. The theory of 'Telepathy'.
Savage metaphysics of M. d'Assier. Breakdown of theory of
Telepathy, when hallucinatory figure causes changes in physical
objects. Animals as Ghost-seers: difficult to explain this by
Telepathy. Strange case of a cat. General propriety and lack of
superstition in cats. The Beresford Ghost, well-meaning but
probably mythical. Mrs. Henry Sidgwick: her severity as regards
conscientious Ghosts. Case of Mr. Harry. Case of Miss Morton. A
difficult case. Examples in favour of old-fashioned theory of
Ghosts. Contradictory cases. Perplexities of the anxious inquirer.
Only one thing is certain about apparitions, namely this, that they
do appear. They really are perceived. Now, as popular language
confuses apparitions with ghosts, this statement sounds like an
expression of the belief that ghosts appear. It has, of course, no
such meaning. When Le Loyer, in 1586, boldly set out to found a
'science of spectres,' he carefully distinguished between his
method, and the want of method observable in the telling of ghost
stories. He began by drawing up long lists of apparitions which are
_not_ spectres, or ghosts, but the results of madness, malady,
drink, fanaticism, illusions and so forth. It is true that Le
Loyer, with all his deductions, left plenty of genuine spectres for
the amusement of his readers. Like him we must be careful not to
confound 'apparitions,' with 'ghosts'.
When a fist, applied to the eye, makes us 'see stars'; when a liver
not in good working order makes us see muscae volitantes, or
'spiders'; when alcohol produces 'the horrors,'--visions of
threatening persons or animals,--when a lesion of the brain, or
delirium, or a disease of the organs of sense causes visions, or
when they occur to starved and enthusiastic ascetics, all these
false perceptions are just as much 'apparitions,' as the view of a
friend at a distance, beheld at the moment of his death, or as the
unrecognised spectre seen in a haunted house.
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