Subject of spectral illusions--Recent and interesting case of Mrs.
A.--Her first illusion affecting the ear--Spectral apparition of
her husband--Spectral apparition of a cat--Apparition of a near and
living relation in grave-clothes, seen in a looking-glass--Other
illusions, affecting the ear--Spectre of a deceased friend
sitting in an easy-chair--Spectre of a coach-and-four filled with
skeletons--Accuracy and value of the preceding cases--State of health
under which they arose--Spectral apparitions are pictures on the
retina--The ideas of memory and imagination are also pictures on the
retina--General views of the subject--Approximate explanation of
spectral apparitions.
The preceding account of the different sources of illusion to which the
eye is subject is not only useful as indicating the probable cause of
any individual deception, but it has a special importance in preparing
the mind for understanding those more vivid and permanent spectral
illusions to which some individuals have been either occasionally or
habitually subject.
In these lesser phenomena, we find the retina so powerfully influenced
by external impressions, as to retain the view of visible objects
long after they are withdrawn: we observe it to be so excited by
local pressures of which we sometimes know neither the nature nor the
origin, as to see in total darkness moving and shapeless masses of
coloured light; and we find, as in the case of Sir Isaac Newton, and
others, that the imagination has the power of reviving the impressions
of highly luminous objects, months and even years after they were
first made. From such phenomena, the mind feels it to be no violent
transition to pass to those spectral illusions which, in particular
states of health, have haunted the most intelligent individuals, not
only in the broad light of day, but in the very heart of the social
circle.
This curious subject has been so ably and fully treated in your
Letters on Demonology, that it would be presumptuous in me to resume
any part of it on which you have even touched; but as it forms a
necessary branch of a Treatise on Natural Magic, and as one of the most
remarkable cases on record has come within my own knowledge, I shall
make no apology for giving a full account of the different spectral
appearances which it embraces, and of adding the results of a series of
observations and experiments on which I have been long occupied, with
the view of throwing some light on this remarkable class of phenomena.
A few years ago, I had occasion to spend some days under the same roof
with the lady to whose case I have above referred. At that time she
had seen no spectral illusions, and was acquainted with the subject
only from the interesting volume of Dr. Hibbert. In conversing with
her about the cause of these apparitions, I mentioned, that if she
should ever see such a thing, she might distinguish a genuine ghost,
existing externally, and seen as an external object, from one created
by the mind, by merely pressing one eye or straining them both, so
as to see objects double; for in this case the external object or
supposed apparition would invariably be doubled, while the impression
on the retina created by the mind would remain single. This observation
recurred to her mind when she unfortunately became subject to the same
illusions; but she was too well acquainted with their nature to require
any such evidence of their mental origin; and the state of agitation
which generally accompanies them seems to have prevented her from
making the experiment as a matter of curiosity.
1. The first illusion to which Mrs. A. was subject was one which
affected only the ear. On the 26th of December, 1830, about half-past
four in the afternoon, she was standing near the fire in the hall,
and on the point of going up stairs to dress, when she heard, as she
supposed, her husband’s voice calling her by name, “---- Come here!
come to me!” She imagined that he was calling at the door to have it
opened, but upon going there and opening the door she was surprised to
find no person there. Upon returning to the fire, she again heard the
same voice calling out very distinctly and loudly, “---- Come, come
here!” She then opened two doors of the same room, and upon seeing no
person she returned to the fire-place. After a few moments she heard
the same voice still calling, “---- ---- Come to me, come! come away!”
in a loud, plaintive, and somewhat impatient tone. She answered as
loudly, “Where are you? I don’t know where you are;” still imagining
that he was somewhere in search of her: but receiving no answer, she
shortly went up stairs. On Mr. A.’s return to the house, about half an
hour afterwards, she inquired why he called to her so often, and where
he was; and she was, of course, greatly surprised to learn that he had
not been near the house at the time. A similar illusion, which excited
no particular notice at the time, occurred to Mrs. A. when residing at
Florence about ten years before, and when she was in perfect health.
When she was undressing after a ball, she heard a voice call her
repeatedly by name, and she was at that time unable to account for it.
2. The next illusion which occurred to Mrs. A. was of a more alarming
character. On the 30th of December, about four o’clock in the
afternoon, Mrs. A. came down stairs into the drawing-room, which she
had quitted only a few minutes before, and on entering the room she
saw her husband, as she supposed, standing with his back to the fire.
As he had gone out to take a walk about half an hour before, she was
surprised to see him there, and asked him why he had returned so
soon. The figure looked fixedly at her with a serious and thoughtful
expression of countenance, but did not speak. Supposing that his mind
was absorbed in thought, she sat down in an arm-chair near the fire,
and within two feet at most of the figure, which she still saw standing
before her. As its eyes, however, still continued to be fixed upon her,
she said, after the lapse of a few minutes, “Why don’t you speak,----?”
The figure immediately moved off towards the window at the further end
of the room, with its eyes still gazing on her, and it passed so very
close to her in doing so, that she was struck by the circumstance of
hearing no step nor sound, nor feeling her clothes brushed against,
nor even any agitation in the air. Although she was now convinced that
the figure was not her husband, yet she never for a moment supposed
that it was anything supernatural, and was soon convinced that it was
a spectral illusion. As soon as this conviction had established itself
in her mind, she recollected the experiment which I had suggested, of
trying to double the object: but before she was able distinctly to do
this, the figure had retreated to the window, where it disappeared.
Mrs. A. immediately followed it, shook the curtains and examined the
window, the impression having been so distinct and forcible that she
was unwilling to believe that it was not a reality. Finding, however,
that the figure had no natural means of escape, she was convinced that
she had seen a spectral apparition like those recorded in Dr. Hibbert’s
work, and she consequently felt no alarm or agitation. The appearance
was seen in bright daylight, and lasted four or five minutes. When the
figure stood close to her it concealed the real objects behind it, and
the apparition was fully as vivid as the reality.
3. On these two occasions Mrs. A. was alone, but when the next phantasm
appeared her husband was present. This took place on the 4th of
January, 1830. About ten o’clock at night, when Mr. and Mrs. A. were
sitting in the drawing-room, Mr. A. took up the poker to stir the fire,
and when he was in the act of doing this, Mrs. A. exclaimed, “Why
there’s the cat in the room!” “Where?” asked Mr. A. “There, close to
you,” she replied. “Where?” he repeated. “Why on the rug, to be sure,
between yourself and the coal-scuttle.” Mr. A., who had still the
poker in his hand, pushed it in the direction mentioned: “Take care,”
cried Mrs. A., “take care, you are hitting her with the poker.” Mr.
A. again asked her to point out exactly where she saw the cat. She
replied, ”Why sitting up there close to your feet on the rug. She is
looking at me. It is Kitty--come here, Kitty!”--There were two cats
in the house, one of which went by this name, and they were rarely if
ever in the drawing-room. At this time Mrs. A. had no idea that the
sight of the cat was an illusion. When she was asked to touch it, she
got up for the purpose, and seemed as if she were pursuing something
which moved away. She followed a few steps, and then said, “It has gone
under the chair.” Mr. A. assured her it was an illusion, but she would
not believe it. He then lifted up the chair, and Mrs. A. saw nothing
more of it. The room was then searched all over, and nothing found in
it. There was a dog lying on the hearth, who would have betrayed great
uneasiness if a cat had been in the room, but he lay perfectly quiet.
In order to be quite certain, Mr. A. rang the bell, and sent for the
two cats, both of which were found in the housekeeper’s room.
4. About a month after this occurrence, Mrs. A., who had taken a
somewhat fatiguing drive during the day, was preparing to go to bed
about eleven o’clock at night, and, sitting before the dressing-glass,
was occupied in arranging her hair. She was in a listless and drowsy
state of mind, but fully awake. When her fingers were in active motion
among the papillotes, she was suddenly startled by seeing in the
mirror the figure of a near relation, who was then in Scotland and in
perfect health. The apparition appeared over her left shoulder, and
its eyes met hers in the glass. It was enveloped in grave-clothes,
closely pinned, as is usual with corpses, round the head, and under
the chin, and though the eyes were open, the features were solemn and
rigid. The dress was evidently a shroud, as Mrs. A. remarked even the
punctured pattern usually worked in a peculiar manner round the edges
of that garment. Mrs. A. described herself as at the time sensible of
a feeling like what we conceive of fascination, compelling her for a
time to gaze on this melancholy apparition, which was as distinct and
vivid as any reflected reality could be, the light of the candles upon
the dressing-table appearing to shine fully upon its face. After a few
minutes, she turned round to look for the reality of the form over her
shoulder; but it was not visible, and it had also disappeared from the
glass when she looked again in that direction.
5. In the beginning of March, when Mr. A. had been about a fortnight
from home, Mrs. A. frequently heard him moving near her. Nearly every
night, as she lay awake, she distinctly heard sounds like his breathing
hard on the pillow by her side, and other sounds such as he might make
while turning in bed.
6. On another occasion, during Mr. A.’s absence, while riding with
a neighbour, Mr.----, she heard his voice frequently as if he were
riding by his side. She heard also the tramp of his horse’s feet, and
was almost puzzled by hearing him address her at the same time with
the person really in company. His voice made remarks on the scenery,
improvements, &c., such as he probably should have done had he been
present. On this occasion, however, there was no visible apparition.
7. On the 17th March, Mrs. A. was preparing for bed. She had dismissed
her maid, and was sitting with her feet in hot water. Having an
excellent memory, she had been thinking upon and repeating to herself
a striking passage in the Edinburgh Review, when on raising her eyes,
she saw seated in a large easy-chair before her the figure of a
deceased friend, the sister of Mr. A. The figure was dressed as had
been usual with her, with great neatness, but in a gown of a peculiar
kind, such as Mrs. A. had never seen her wear, but exactly such as had
been described to her by a common friend as having been worn by Mr.
A.’s sister during her last visit to England. Mrs. A. paid particular
attention to the dress, air, and appearance of the figure, which sat
in an easy attitude in the chair, holding a handkerchief in one hand.
Mrs. A. tried to speak to it, but experienced a difficulty in doing
so; and in about three minutes the figure disappeared. About a minute
afterwards, Mr. A. came into the room, and found Mrs. A. slightly
nervous, but fully aware of the delusive nature of the apparition. She
described it as having all the vivid colouring and apparent reality
of life; and for some hours preceding this and other visions, she
experienced a peculiar sensation in her eyes, which seemed to be
relieved when the vision had ceased.
8. On the 5th October, between one and two o’clock in the morning, Mr.
A. was awoke by Mrs. A., who told him that she had just seen the figure
of his deceased mother draw aside the bedcurtains and appear between
them. The dress and the look of the apparition were precisely those in
which Mr. A.’s mother had been last seen by Mrs. A. at Paris, in 1824.
9. On the 11th October, when sitting in the drawing-room, on one side
of the fire-place, she saw the figure of another deceased friend
moving towards her from the window at the further end of the room. It
approached the fire-place, and sat down in the chair opposite. As there
were several persons in the room at the time, she describes the idea
uppermost in her mind to have been a fear lest they should be alarmed
at her staring, in the way she was conscious of doing, at vacancy, and
should fancy her intellect disordered. Under the influence of this
fear, and recollecting a story of a similar effect in your work on
Demonology, which she had lately read, she summoned up the requisite
resolution to enable her to cross the space before the fire-place, and
seat herself in the same chair with the figure. The apparition remained
perfectly distinct till she sat down, as it were, in its lap, when it
vanished.
10. On the 26th of the same month, about two P.M., Mrs.
A. was sitting in a chair by the window in the same room with her
husband. He heard her exclaim--”What have I seen?” And on looking at
her, he observed a strange expression in her eyes and countenance.
A carriage-and-four had appeared to her to be driving up the
entrance-road to the house. As it approached, she felt inclined to
go up stairs to prepare to receive company, but, as if spellbound,
she was unable to move or speak. The carriage approached, and as it
arrived within a few yards of the window, she saw the figures of
the postilions and the persons inside take the ghastly appearance of
skeletons and other hideous figures. The whole then vanished entirely,
when she uttered the above-mentioned exclamation.
11. On the morning of the 30th October, when Mrs. A. was sitting in her
own room with a favourite dog in her lap, she distinctly saw the same
dog moving about the room during the space of about a minute or rather
more.
12. On the 3rd December, about nine P.M., when Mr. and Mrs. A. were
sitting near each other in the drawing-room occupied in reading, Mr.
A. felt a pressure on his foot. On looking up he observed Mrs. A.’s
eyes fixed with a strong and unnatural stare on a chair about nine
or ten feet distant. Upon asking her what she saw, the expression of
her countenance changed, and upon recovering herself, she told Mr. A.
that she had seen his brother, who was alive and well at the moment in
London, seated in the opposite chair, but dressed in grave-clothes, and
with a ghastly countenance, as if scarcely alive.
Such is a brief account of the various spectral illusions observed by
Mrs. A. In describing them I have used the very words employed by her
husband in his communications to me on the subject;[5] and the reader
may be assured that the descriptions are neither heightened by fancy,
nor amplified by invention. The high character and intelligence of
the lady, and the station of her husband in society, and as a man of
learning and science, would authenticate the most marvellous narrative,
and satisfy the most scrupulous mind, that the case has been
philosophically as well as faithfully described. In narrating events
which we regard as of a supernatural character, the mind has a strong
tendency to give more prominence to what appears to itself the most
wonderful; but from the very same cause, when we describe extraordinary
and inexplicable phenomena which we believe to be the result of natural
causes, the mind is prone to strip them of their most marvellous
points, and bring them down to the level of ordinary events. From the
very commencement of the spectral illusions seen by Mrs. A., both she
and her husband were well aware of their nature and origin, and both
of them paid the most minute attention to the circumstances which
accompanied them, not only with the view of throwing light upon so
curious a subject, but for the purpose of ascertaining their connection
with the state of health under which they appeared.
[5] _Edinburgh Journal of Science_, New Series, No. iv. pp. 218, 219,
No. vi., p. 244, and No. viii., p. 261.
As the spectres seen by Nicolai and others had their origin in bodily
indisposition, it becomes interesting to learn the state of Mrs. A.’s
health when she was under the influence of these illusions. During the
six weeks within which the first three illusions took place, she had
been considerably reduced and weakened by a troublesome cough, and the
weakness which this occasioned was increased by her being prevented
from taking a daily tonic. Her general health had not been strong,
and long experience has put it beyond a doubt, that her indisposition
arises from a disordered state of the digestive organs. Mrs. A. has
naturally a morbidly sensitive imagination, which so painfully affects
her corporeal impressions, that the account of any person having
suffered severe pain by accident or otherwise, occasionally produces
acute twinges of pain in the corresponding parts of her person. The
account, for example, of the amputation of an arm will produce an
instantaneous and severe sense of pain in her own arm. She is subject
to talk in her sleep with great fluency, to repeat long passages of
poetry, particularly when she is unwell, and even to cap verses for
half an hour together, never failing to quote lines beginning with the
final letter of the preceding one till her memory is exhausted.
Although it is not probable that we shall ever be able to understand
the actual manner in which a person of sound mind beholds spectral
apparitions in the broad light of day, yet we may arrive at such a
degree of knowledge on the subject as to satisfy rational curiosity,
and to strip the phenomena of every attribute of the marvellous.
Even the vision of natural objects presents to us insurmountable
difficulties, if we seek to understand the precise part which the mind
performs in perceiving them; but the philosopher considers that he has
given a satisfactory explanation of vision, when he demonstrates that
distinct pictures of external objects are painted on the retina, and
that this membrane communicates with the brain by means of nerves of
the same substance as itself, and of which it is merely an expansion.
Here we reach the gulf which human intelligence cannot pass; and if the
presumptuous mind of man shall dare to extend its speculations farther,
it will do it only to evince its incapacity and mortify its pride.
In his admirable work on this subject, Dr. Hibbert has shown that
spectral apparitions are nothing more than ideas or the recollected
images of the mind, which, in certain states of bodily indisposition,
have been rendered more vivid than actual impression, or, to use other
words, that the pictures in the “mind’s eye” are more vivid than the
pictures in the body’s eye. This principle has been placed by Dr.
Hibbert beyond the reach of doubt; but I propose to go much farther,
and to show that the “mind’s eye” is actually the body’s eye, and that
the retina is the common tablet on which both classes of impressions
are painted, and by means of which they receive their visual existence
according to the same optical laws. Nor is this true merely in the
case of spectral illusions; it holds good of all ideas recalled by
the memory or created by the imagination, and may be regarded as a
fundamental law in the science of pneumatology.
It would be out of place in a work like this to adduce the experimental
evidence on which it rests, or even to explain the manner in which the
experiments themselves must be conducted: but I may state in general,
that the spectres conjured up by the memory or the fancy have always
a “local habitation,” and that they appear in front of the eye, and
partake in its movements exactly like the impressions of luminous
objects, after the objects themselves are withdrawn.
In the healthy state of the mind and body, the relative intensity of
these two classes of impressions on the retina is nicely adjusted. The
mental pictures are transient and comparatively feeble, and in ordinary
temperaments are never capable of disturbing or effacing the direct
images of visible objects. The affairs of life could not be carried on
if the memory were to intrude bright representations of the past into
the domestic scene, or scatter them over the external landscape. The
two opposite impressions, indeed, could not co-exist: the same nervous
fibre which is carrying from the brain to the retina the figures of
memory, could not at the same instant be carrying back the impressions
of external objects from the retina to the brain. The mind cannot
perform two different functions at the same instant, and the direction
of its attention to one of the two classes of impressions necessarily
produces the extinction of the other: but so rapid is the exercise
of mental power, that the alternate appearance and disappearance
of the two contending impressions are no more recognized than the
successive observations of external objects during the twinkling of
the eyelids. If we look for example at the façade of St. Paul’s, and
without changing our position call to mind the celebrated view of
Mont Blanc from Lyons, the picture of the cathedral, though actually
impressed upon the retina, is momentarily lost sight of by the mind,
exactly like an object seen by indirect vision; and during the instant
the recollected image of the mountain, towering over the subjacent
range, is distinctly seen, but in a tone of subdued colouring and
indistinct outline. When the purpose of its recall is answered, it
quickly disappears, and the picture of the cathedral again resumes the
ascendancy.
In darkness and solitude, when external objects no longer interfere
with the pictures of the mind, they become more vivid and distinct;
and in the state between waking and sleeping the intensity of the
impressions approaches to that of visible objects. With persons of
studious habits, who are much occupied with the operations of their
own minds, the mental pictures are much more distinct than in ordinary
persons; and in the midst of abstract thought, external objects even
cease to make any impression on the retina. A philosopher absorbed in
his contemplations experiences a temporary privation of the use of
his senses. His children or his servants will enter the room directly
before his eyes without being seen. They will speak to him without
being heard; and they will even try to rouse him from his reverie
without being felt; although his eyes, his ears, and his nerves
actually receive the impressions of light, sound, and touch. In such
cases, however, the philosopher is voluntarily pursuing a train of
thought on which his mind is deeply interested; but even ordinary
men, not much addicted to speculations of any kind, often perceive in
their mind’s eye the pictures of deceased or absent friends, or even
ludicrous creations of fancy, which have no connexion whatever with the
train of their thoughts. Like spectral apparitions they are entirely
involuntary, and though they may have sprung from a regular series of
associations, yet it is frequently impossible to discover a single link
in the chain.
If it be true, then, that the pictures of the mind and spectral
illusions are equally impressions upon the retina, the latter will
differ in no respect from the former, but in the degree of vividness
with which they are seen; and those frightful apparitions become
nothing more than our ordinary ideas, rendered more brilliant by some
accidental and temporary derangement of the vital functions. Their
very vividness, too, which is their only characteristic, is capable
of explanation. I have already shown that the retina is rendered
more sensible to light by voluntary local pressure, as well as by
the involuntary pressure of the blood-vessels behind it; and if, by
looking at the sun, we impress upon the retina a coloured image of that
luminary, which is seen even when the eye is shut, we may by pressure
alter the colour of that image, in consequence of having increased the
sensibility of that part of the retina on which it is impressed. Hence
we may readily understand how the vividness of the mental pictures must
be increased by analogous causes.
In the case both of Nicolai and Mrs. A. the immediate cause of the
spectres was a deranged action of the stomach. When such a derangement
is induced by poison, or by substances which act as poisons, the retina
is peculiarly affected, and the phenomena of vision are singularly
changed. Dr. Patouillet has described the case of a family of _nine_
persons who were all driven mad by eating the root of the _hyoscyamus
niger_, or black henbane. One of them leapt into a pond, another
exclaimed that his neighbour would lose a cow in a month, and a third
vociferated that the crown piece of sixty pence would in a short time
rise to five livres. On the following day they had all recovered their
senses, but recollected nothing of what had happened. On the same day
they all saw objects double, and, what is still more remarkable, on
the third day _every object appeared to them as red as scarlet_. Now
this red light was probably nothing more than the red phosphorescence
produced by the pressure of the blood-vessels on the retina, and
analogous to the masses of _blue_, _green_, _yellow_, and _red_ light,
which have been already mentioned as produced by a similar pressure in
headaches, arising from a disordered state of the digestive organs.
Were we to analyse the various phenomena of spectral illusions, we
should discover many circumstances favourable to these views. In those
seen by Nicolai, the individual figures were always somewhat paler than
natural objects. They sometimes grew more and more indistinct, and
became perfectly white; and, to use his own words, “he could always
distinguish with the greatest precision phantasms from phenomena.”
Nicolai sometimes saw the spectres when his eyes were shut, and
sometimes they were thus made to disappear,--effects perfectly
identical with those which arise from the impressions of very luminous
objects. Sometimes the figures vanished entirely, and at other times
only pieces of them disappeared, exactly conformable to what takes
place with objects seen by indirect vision, which most of those figures
must necessarily have been.
Among the peculiarities of spectral illusions, there is one which
merits particular attention, namely, that they seem to cover or conceal
objects immediately beyond them. It is this circumstance more than any
other which gives them the character of reality, and at first sight it
seems difficult of explanation. The distinctness of any impression on
the retina is entirely independent of the accommodation of the eye
to the distinct vision of external objects. When the eye is at rest,
and is not accommodated to objects at any particular distance, it is
in a state for seeing distant objects most perfectly. When a distinct
spectral impression, therefore, is before it, all other objects in its
vicinity will be seen indistinctly, for while the eye is engrossed with
the vision, it is not likely to accommodate itself to any other object
in the same direction. It is quite common, too, for the eye to see only
one of two objects actually presented to it. A sportsman who has been
in the practice of shooting with both his eyes open, actually sees a
double image of the muzzle of his fowling-piece, though it is only
with one of these images that he covers his game, having no perception
whatever of the other. But there is still another principle upon which
only one of two objects may be seen at a time. If we look very steadily
and continuously at a double pattern, such as those on a carpet
composed of two single patterns of different colours, suppose _red_ and
_yellow_; and if we direct the mind particularly to the contemplation
of the red one, the green pattern will sometimes vanish entirely,
leaving the red alone visible; and by the same process the red one may
be made to disappear. In this case, however, the two patterns, like
the two images, may be seen together; but if the very same portion of
the retina is excited by the direct rays of an external object, when
it is excited by a mental impression, it can no more see them both
at the same time, than a vibrating string can give out two different
fundamental sounds. It is quite possible, however, that the brightest
parts of a spectral figure may be distinctly seen along with the
brightest parts of an object immediately behind it, but then the bright
parts of each object will fall upon different parts of the retina.
These views are illustrated by a case mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie. A
gentleman, who was a patient of his, of an irritable habit, and liable
to a variety of uneasy sensations in his head, was sitting alone in his
dining-room in the twilight, when the door of the room was a little
open. He saw distinctly a female figure enter, wrapped in a mantle,
with the face concealed by a large black bonnet. She seemed to advance
a few steps towards him, and then stop. He had a full conviction that
the figure was an illusion of vision, and he amused himself for some
time by watching it; at the same time observing that he could see
through the figure so as to perceive the lock of the door, and other
objects behind it.[6]
[6] Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers, and the
Investigation of Truth. Edinburgh, 1830.
If these views be correct, the phenomena of spectral apparitions
are stripped of all their terror, whether we view them in their
supernatural character, or as indications of bodily indisposition.
Nicolai, even, in whose case they were accompanied with alarming
symptoms, derived pleasure from the contemplation of them, and he
not only recovered from the complaint in which they originated, but
survived them for many years.--Mrs. A., too, who sees them only at
distant intervals, and with whom they have but a fleeting existence,
will, we trust, soon lose her exclusive privilege, when the slight
indisposition which gives them birth has subsided.