There is nothing unreasonable in the assumption that telepathy is the
agency primarily concerned in these manifestations. The idea having been
received, a hallucination is built up, so to speak, by the percipient. A
truly hallucinable person can suggest to himself his own hallucinations
with no external aid, but a non-hallucinable personage cannot induce
these hallucinations at all. Dr Hugh Wingfield stated to the Society for
Psychical Research that the case of one of his patients proved that
hallucinations could be produced by self-suggestion. "He could, by a
simple effort of the mind, himself believe almost any delusion--_e.g._
that he was riding on horseback, that he was a dog, or anything else, or
that he saw snakes--if left to himself the delusion vanished slowly.
Anyone else could remove it at once by a counter-suggestion. He made,"
he adds, "these experiments without my consent, as I consider them
unsafe."
Hallucination is at times accompanied by curious organic effects. One of
the commonest of these is a feeling of cold--generally described as a
"chill" or "cold shudder." The following example is taken from the
Census of Hallucinations of the Society for Psychical Research:--
FROM MISS K. M.
(_The account was written in 1889._)
"[About twenty years ago] I was about ten years old, and was
staying with friends in Kensington. Between the hours of eight
and nine P.M., we were all sitting in the drawing-room with the
door open, [it] being a very warm evening. Suddenly I
experienced a cold shudder, and on looking through the door
opposite which I was sitting, I saw the figure of a little old
lady dressed in a long brown cloak with a large brown hat,
carrying a basket, glide down the stairs and disappear in the
room next the drawing-room. The impression was that of someone
I had never seen. I was talking on ordinary subjects, neither
ill, in grief, or anxiety. There were several other people in
the room, but no one noticed anything but myself. I have never
had any experience of this kind before or since."
Occasionally, but very rarely, pain is described as resulting from a
hallucination. Other effects include fainting fits and tactile
impressions. Noise would appear in some cases to produce visual
hallucinations, by creating in the hearer a strong expectation of seeing
something corresponding to it, or that may account for it. From
"Phantasms of the Living" we glean the following:--
"Between sleeping and waking this morning, I perceived a dog
running about in a field (an ideal white and tan sporting dog),
and the next moment I heard a dog barking outside my window.
Keeping my closed eyes on the vision, I found that _it came and
went with the_ barking of the dog outside; getting fainter,
however, each time."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account