The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
"While sitting at my desk this A. M. reading a circular of the Loyal
Legion a very curious thing happened to me, such as I have never
experienced. It was perfectly real, so real that it took some minutes
to recover from. It seems to me like a direct intromission into
some other world. I never had anything approaching it before save
when dreaming at night. I was wide awake, of course. But this was
the feeling. I had only just sat down and become interested in the
circular, when I seemed to lose myself for a minute and then found
myself in the top story of a high building very white and shining and
clean, with a noble window immediately at the right of where I sat.
Through this window I looked out upon a marvellous reach of landscape
entirely new. I never had before such a sense of infinity in nature,
such superb stretches of light and color and _cleanness_. I know that
for the space of three minutes I was entirely lost, for when I began
to come to, so to speak,--sitting in that other world, I debated
for three or four minutes more as to which was dream and which was
reality. Sitting there I got a faint sense of C.... [the town in which
the writer was], away off and dim at first. Then I remember thinking
'Why, I used to live in C....; perhaps I am going back.' Slowly
C.... did come back, and I found myself at my desk again. For a few
minutes the process of determining where I was was very funny. But the
whole experience was perfectly delightful, there was such a sense of
brilliancy and clearness and lightness about it. I suppose it lasted
in all about seven minutes or ten minutes."
The hallucinations of fever-delirium are a mixture of
pseudo-hallucination, true hallucination, and illusion. Those of opium,
hasheesh, and belladonna resemble them in this respect. The following
vivid account of a fit of hasheesh-delirium has been given me by a
friend:
"I was reading a newspaper, and the indication of the approaching
delirium was an inability to keep my mind fixed on the narrative.
Directly I lay down upon a sofa there appeared before my eyes several
rows of human hands, which oscillated for a moment, revolved and
then changed to spoons. The same motions were repeated, the objects
changing to wheels, tin soldiers, lamp-posts, brooms, and countless
other absurdities. This stage lasted about ten minutes, and during
that time it is safe to say that I saw at least a thousand different
objects. These whirling images did not appear like the realities of
life, but had the character of the secondary images seen in the eye
after looking at some brightly-illuminated object. A mere suggestion
from the person who was with me in the room was sufficient to call
up an image of the thing suggested, while without suggestion there
appeared all the common objects of life and many unreal monstrosities,
which it is absolutely impossible to describe, and which seemed to be
creations of the brain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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