The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
Let us, for the sake of argument, suppose that some sane persons are
capable of hallucinatory impressions akin to but less transient than
illusions hypnagogiques, when, as far as they or others can perceive,
they are wide awake. Of such sane persons Goethe and Herschel were
examples. In this way we can most easily envisage, or make thinkable
by ourselves, the nature of the experiences of Jeanne d’Arc and other
seers.
In the other state of semi-somnolence, while still alert enough to watch
and reason on the phenomena, we occasionally, though less commonly, hear
what may be called ‘inner voices.’ That is to say, we do not suppose
that any one from without is speaking to us, but we hear, as it were, a
voice within us making some remark, usually disjointed enough, and not
suggested by any traceable train of thought of which we are conscious at
the time. This experience partly enables us to understand the cases of
sane persons who, when to all appearance wide awake, occasionally hear
voices which appear to be objective and caused by actual vibrations of
the atmosphere. I am acquainted with at least four persons, all of them
healthy, and normal enough, who have had such experiences. In all four
cases, the apparent voice (though the listeners have no superstitious
belief on the subject) has communicated intelligence which proved to
be correct. But in only one instance, I think, was the information
thus communicated beyond the reach of conjecture, based perhaps on some
observation unconsciously made or so little attended to when made that
it could not be recalled by the ordinary memory.
We are to suppose, then, that in such cases the person concerned being
to all appearance fully awake, his or her mind has presented a thought,
not as a thought, but in the shape of words that seemed to be externally
audible. One hearer, in fact, at the moment wondered that the apparent
speaker indicated by the voice and words should be shouting so loud in
an hotel. The apparent speaker was actually not in the hotel, but at
a considerable distance, well out of earshot, and, though in a nervous
crisis, was not shouting at all. We know that, between sleeping and
waking, our minds can present to us a thought in the apparent form of
articulate words, internally audible. The hearers, when fully awake,
of words that seem to be externally audible, probably do but carry the
semi-vigilant experience to a higher degree, as do the beholders of
visual hallucinations, when wide awake. In this way, at least, we can
most nearly attain to understanding their experiences. To a relatively
small proportion of people, in wakeful existence, experiences occur
with distinctness, which to a large proportion of persons occur but
indistinctly,
‘On the margin grey
‘Twixt the soul’s night and day.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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