"When it was grown to dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep,
In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet."
Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by
Keats:--
"It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,
The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot
Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb
Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot
Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
Had made a miry channel for his tears.
Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;
For there was striving in its piteous tongue,
To speak as when on earth it was awake,
And Isabella on its music hung:
Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,
As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;
And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,
Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.
Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
From the poor girl by magic of their light,
The while it did unthread the horrid woof
Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite
Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof
In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,
When, without any word, from stabs it fell.
Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!
Red whortle-berries droop above my head,
And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;
Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed
Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat
Comes from beyond the river to my bed:
Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,
And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
"I am a shadow now, alas! alas!
Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,
While little sounds of life are round me knelling,
And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,
And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,
Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,
And thou art distant in humanity."
Some of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions
caused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an
accidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by
an imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced
by a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the
mind.
The influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to
the murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing
hallucinations, is well known.
The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many
wondrous histories:--
"Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?
Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
Those that we bury, back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites."
Vanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an
overseer, and taken to the bush:--
"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions
for some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of
the man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the
authorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to
tree."
Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a
fit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, "Sir, you
have done for me, but I will never leave you." The captain became grave
and moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and
addressing him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we
have got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he
has kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my
side, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
Soon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was
unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the
ship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
exclaimed; "By ----, Bill is with me now!" and sunk.
One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the
feelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--
"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was
constantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or
day."
The solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and
cries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.
Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its
occurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Paré aside, at
one time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the
massacre the aged and children.
No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious
enthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind
in the contemplation of religious subjects.
In the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of
Christian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and
ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and
Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes the type of this species of
hallucination:--
"Thence forward by that painfull way they pas
Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;
On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
And eke a little hermitage thereby,
Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
That day and night said his devotion,
Ne other worldly busines did apply:
His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
Of God and goodness, was his meditation.
Great grace that old man to him given had;
For God he often saw from heavens hight:
All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
And through great age had lost their kindly sight,
Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,
As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."
The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,
urged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the
Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and
contended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had
pourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to
him under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven
in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the
chariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
presumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which
obliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.
It is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in
developing visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of
the health, from the important effects which they have exercised and
still exercise upon mankind.
The following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and
source of these hallucinations:
Some years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the
publication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary
attainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed
that she was indebted to divine favour.
The hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the
fourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and
for greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,
she heard a voice exclaim: "Put the book where you found it!" She did
not immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments
the mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her
face. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as
a renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the
holy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation
experienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a
disease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this
period, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her
labours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the
chamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,
described as about the size of a child six years old. This vision
endured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the
period of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life
and causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of
mind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,
broken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made
a resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the
decision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
before daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly
illuminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in
the form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and
had bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and
white crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, "_Proceed,
proceed, proceed!_" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a
young and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,
exclaimed: "_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_"
After this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her
in other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in
this case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;" and while saying
these words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him
to be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the
lady felt eased of her grief, and arose.
If the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had
not sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant
ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the
case would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study
of religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of
Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her
unhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
which she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions
occurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.
Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to
hallucinations.
A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his
library, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was
startled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of
a gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days
previously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.
That excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of
the mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which
is common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.
In some instances the hallucinations have been "counterfeit
presentments" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;
in others they have had no relation to that condition.
Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was
haunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
so miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of
our own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became
haunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and
terror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.
Müller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more
lovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to
him, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,
invited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved
himself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline
of life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.
It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in
regarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Goëthe, when out
riding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on
horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.
A similar kind of hallucination to this of Goëthe's has been observed as
a precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.
Boismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a
spectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him
voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;
but by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
and addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver
character, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in
argument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman
became melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.
The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of
touch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated
to have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and
the foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.
Thus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class
of hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the
imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning
powers.
There is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon
certain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,
which have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.
The simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally
observed during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the
termination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid
conditions of the brain.
The following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations
arising from these sources.
A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a
lonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some
distance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a
lady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round
to gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately
afterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The
hallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the
nervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.
A young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in
charge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the
remainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,
with heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On
going into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her
great astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in
his usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church
unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found
nothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper
cause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room
several times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.
A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing
voices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and
speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his
friends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.
On closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on
re-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,
and proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment
for imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs
of a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period
of entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
the phantom-voices ceased.
There are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which
hallucinations affect all the senses.
The following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will
show the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of
certain forms of superstition.
A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very
susceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
persisted for many years.
At first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of
singular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which
professed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her
from thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;
informed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions
upon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her
information respecting the characters of divers persons, and
occasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms
more florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove
her when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
although she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the
hallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to
exorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to
despair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often
they conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable
subjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her
laugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more
violently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or
did. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was
poisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she
walked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she
carried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately
she smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the
smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what
they liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
the care of physicians there.
The visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was
filled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous
processions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half
the body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and
occasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.
The food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices
often gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.
When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would
attempt to wring her clothes.
Addressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,
she said, "I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than
my will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to
remain in one place."[65]
This case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,
when developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has
given rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).
Instances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.
Many other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,
hysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
certain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these
hallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the
prime cause of many superstitions.
In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in
certain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
left, and _vice versâ_; and under the influence of opium or haschish
(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so
developed, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like
a peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally
presented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or
the patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was
unable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he
dreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.
Pleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.
Feuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the
effluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
of exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being
taken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may
be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of
_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently
experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of
ours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
the surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,
without movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in
dreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of
depth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is
inexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into
an abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended
indefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and
even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is
occasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those
under its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes," writes one gentleman,
"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful
rapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,
half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one
foot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c."--"I imagined that I was
the parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was
able the cries of this praiseworthy bird."
In the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the
person under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner
that is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in
both conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train
of thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by
certain sensations.
Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has
the power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is
going on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of
their ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,
or at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from
whose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,
thought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,
in the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the
drug he had swallowed.
By a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which
we are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which
constitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.
If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our
forefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into
the middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic
figures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the
gloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how
spectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen
stalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,
and forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and
the air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his
milk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the
beautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the
bed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the
moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and
meadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the
wind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the
valleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of
the turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds
of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail
and lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the
infernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep
fissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
mysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.
A clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.
The power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting
herself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches
themselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were
again and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of
insanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was
determined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The
real character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which
is recorded by Jung-Stilling.
He writes:--"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can
vouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old
witch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and
confessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,
she also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the
Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and
asked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated
that, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had
something to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner
busy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was
boiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, "Wilt thou go
with me to the Brocken?" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what
there was in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should like to go well
enough." On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and
the dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and
offered it to her, saying: "There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou
mayest be able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the pot to her
mouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During
this, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed
herself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and
snore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of
it, and went home.
The next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, "Well, how dost
thou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
which she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of
the potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but
had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,
became angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at
the Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat."[66]
Gassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some
peasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that
the operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound
sleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,
and the pleasures they had enjoyed.
Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used
by sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be
attributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar
in the details of the practice of the occult sciences.
Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of
practising one of the most important processes of magic; and an
examination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the
most striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how
it happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally
deluded.
In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is an account of a young
Scotsman "who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,
and such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of
art from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made
the experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He
that wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare
himself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and
physically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and
relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to
see it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the
ground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible
world. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from
certain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not
divulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,
which visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to
that which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any
magic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
figure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will
now insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--
"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I
made the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the
same sensations.
"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients
were thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.
"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the
visage is of an ashy paleness.
"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to
that which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one
back.
"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;
and when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the
abdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents
itself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.
"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling
to repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many
individuals."[67]
It would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing
hallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting
recital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly
to imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development
of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the
inhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we
have already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the
development of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the
illusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which
the mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter
experienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the
resistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was
evidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him
of that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person
paralyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling
similar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may
make, we feel almost incapable of motion.
The action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce
hallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who
"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must
of necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very
injurious, according to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
experiment on himself without previous preparation; "but," he writes,
"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,
when a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a
horror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during
three hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards
evening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with
water, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
debility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember
the circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy
pale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I
no longer dared to make any experiments with it."
The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also
to the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful
transformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and
romances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of
hallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key
to the explanation of several of these transformations; and the
elaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are
changed without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,
has probably had a similar origin.
The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition of the nervous system
which is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,
certain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the
suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions
of the system which are summed up under the terms "mesmerism," "animal
magnetism," "electro-biology," &c.; and the theories which have been
invented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,
are not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The
so-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to
certain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be
explained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,
and are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by
suggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision
claimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
trustworthy instance has been established.
There is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which
we have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to
foreshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an
individual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or
have brought to light things else hidden by the grave.
In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed
the _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending
mists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken
vision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac
Ivor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan
of approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the
Kincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through
the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left
Hand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.
The spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course
of death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the
dead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the
sorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her
tangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world
adown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter
lamentations.
The _Gwrâch y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered
the earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the
house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and
prolonged tones their names.
In our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish
during the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the
church, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years
consecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of
the morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and
look through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the
Eve of St. John the Baptist.
The _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated
Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to
time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and
Darmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.
Tall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil
adorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a
faint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air
through the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in
which the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been
seen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the
spirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her
descendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,
who was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered
her life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
died borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.
Among the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an
exact resemblance to the "_White Lady_." In December, 1628, she appeared
in Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:
judicium mihi adhuc superest!"--"Come, judge the living and the dead; my
fate is not yet decided."
The _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift
before it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark
flowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast
arm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.
In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window
of a house where a person must die.
These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and
misfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition
have invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in
apparent truthfulness to historical facts.
It is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these
notions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural
entertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the
superstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion
during the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,
or in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
these phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid
depiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.
Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many
of our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
stories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are
involved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
attention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently
detailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.
Let us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain
whether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
whether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as
the results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.
In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the
following statement:--
"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the
island of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,
between one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which
obliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the
gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a
chest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle
squeeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;
stepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed
at me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed
aloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
vanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the
gratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,
only a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy
returning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the
officers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been
stirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my
sister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much
to my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw
what I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
did not then know the melancholy occasion of it."
The superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the
gentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its
termination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,
namely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an
attack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;
and lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at
on hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the
account was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the
details, gave rise to that definite statement which has been
recorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,
and that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious
feelings alone.
The influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of
an event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would
otherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above
story, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.
There is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more
insidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only
in relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any
kind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too
often hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly
unconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the
importance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought
which appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important
conclusions or theories may be based.
The vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of
supernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the
assertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion
of an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these
men were liable from the character of their previous education, habits
of thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance
with the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a
fertile source of error.
A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as
it relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others
depends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or
upon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience
so far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it
relates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.
Another form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has
been compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
error, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be
atoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.
A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it
may be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its
details enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the
majority of these tales.
In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,
was taken ill and died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
Immediately before his death, he requested to see another of the
proctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to
him; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After
some time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the
deceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the
young, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,
upwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was
proceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven
and twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that
professor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This
unexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he
was in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the
spectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in
his hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely
withdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment
it was so swollen, "that some months elapsed before it was healed." The
following night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,
Professor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;
but on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the
previous evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.
Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest
itself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,
exclaimed, "I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if
he now wants anything, let him come to me." But what followed? About
fourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of
ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four
o'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,
which was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same
attire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly
discern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,
until, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.
The next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the
same apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press
made a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the
spirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:
"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?" At these
words the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,
its hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor
began to pray, "Who trusts in God, &c.," and "God the Father dwell with
us, &c.," on which the spirit vanished.
After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but with this difference,
that it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head
over him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the
spirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,
and he, noticing that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe
in its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him
to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still owing anything." He knew
beforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a
few dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked
attentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,
when the Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?"
the spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
taken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.
The next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again
appeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the
white wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely
seeing "something white." From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and
he no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,
from three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and
frequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.
By degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the
night-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It had, moreover, a new sign
in its hand--"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
which the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and
inquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at
length elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some
paintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had
not been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and
from that time Oeder continued undisturbed."
In this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the
college, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a
powerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
painful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to
receive a communication "necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months
after the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
disordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,
and subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this
gentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the
dead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant
with associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an
illusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it
may have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
excited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a
disordered state.
That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by
habit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may
become conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,
without the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar
to most persons.
The association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects
and scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a
separation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as
is well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most
persons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or
reverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during
the full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or
would simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will
cause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the
deceased or far distant one.
We well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had
been on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He
had been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some
months after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight
noise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so
vivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has
required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.
The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an
hallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it
occurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form
and lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it
along with him.
We have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the
account given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the
apparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
by the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of
the ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to
speak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness
caused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.
The apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor
Oeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the
apparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity
of the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen
by M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the
suspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination
alone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.
Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is
important to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,
he ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he
was suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external motion" (which is
evidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the
apparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.
In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the
transition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied
his mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As
it not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression
on the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's
hallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise
of the clothes-press door.
Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his
visitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very
prevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of
its visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's
mouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had "left some debts to
the amount of a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing for
tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an
hallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the
precise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
respecting the possible cause of the spectre.
The following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with
Oeder, but this friend saw "nothing further than something white,"--no
very extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not
perfectly dark.
From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more
appeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the
apartment.
The invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would
indicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered
state of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part
of the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the
disturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a
circumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's
health was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole
series of hallucinations.
The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre
again came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
which, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the
tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor
puzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which
Doerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been
returned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the
apparition vanished to return no more.
It is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar
nature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural
character of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
accordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,
has been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his
bodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the
apparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
case, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they
added nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.
Oeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were
simple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the
information they obtained.
Other sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other
causes of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have
written sufficient to show its worthlessness.
One of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories
of this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are
given. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their
origin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through
the hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have
just analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been
made to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer
has been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.
The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton" is a singularly
interesting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,
and probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost
universal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the
superstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive
without due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void
of satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an
account which has probably received its precision and colouring from
their imaginations alone.
Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in
part, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon
which it depends.