The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-01-29
ALL ABOUT GHOSTS.
Curious Information Gathered by
One Who Knows Them.
SPOOKs THE COMMON PROPERTY
OF MANKIND.

| Against Their Attentions-The Delu-
Iy Companions of the Morphine Habit.
| (From the ST. Louis Globe emocrat.)
i Washington, Jan. 5.-HGhosts are the
common property Of mankind, and only
persons of scientific training are able to
exercise them.
| The speaker was Major j. W. Powell,
director of the Bureau of Ethnology,
who has given a great deal of attention
to this branch of research. He added:
"There is hardly anybody who has not
seen or heard ghosts on one OF more &C.
casions in this life. Some thousands of
such instances have been assembled by
the Society for Psychical Research, and
efforts have been made to show that this
was method adopted by disembodied
spirits for communicating ideas to living
persons. 1t has been attempted to show
that in many cases the communications
were truthful and yielded valuable infor-
nation. But science knows now that all
such ghosts are merely the offspring of
Authorizations. An hallucination, once
recognized as something actually objec-
tive, becomes a ghost.
"Thus we can see how q ghost may
speak, may be seen, or may even be
smelt. inasmuch as the ear, the eyes, and
occasionally the nose are affected by hal
l1cinations. Having boiled down the
subject which has been e problem of ages,
4 ~, 81 hal
lions becomes exceedingly interesting.
We find that Authorizations of vision are
the most common kind, and hence it is
not surprising that ghosts are seen much
more often than they are heard Person,
the famous scholar, used to have as his
constant companion little old woman
in red cloak. She accompanied him on
his daily walks abroad. and was usually
with him in his study, sitting on a
chair. Realizing that the apparition was
mere creation of his own brain, he was
ccustomed to amuse himself with it,
sometimes poking his stick through it. T.
certain German gentleman of distinction,
when taking his usual afternoon stroll,
used to see regularly on reaching GER
tain spot. the leading horsemen of a
squadron of cavalry crossing the street at
little distance in front of him. One day
it occurred to him to wonder why the
rest of the troop did not folIow, and he
soon discovered that the cavalrymen were
phantoms.
"The case has been recorded OF sick
person to whom there appeared occasional
" the spectre of hideous old woman,
the apparition always preceding an attack
of his malady. The old woman advanced
and struck him on the head with her
cane, whereupon he fell to the ground in
commissions. In another case the devil
appeared in shadowy form. Hallucina-
tions are often pathological-that is to
say, associated with cond tions of dis
ease Dying people sometimes behold
pleasant landscapes and faces of angels.
The commonest visual receptions are
black rats, cats, snakes, spiders, shining
| stars and fiery spheres. Either they pass
diagonally across the field Of vision, or
else, as is more usual, they come from
behind, hasten past and disappear in the
darkness.
philosophers and artists are especially
liable to Authorizations. Religious costa
cy is apt to inspire them. The vision of
Joan of Arc is an example. Emanuel
Swedenborg was privileged to behold the
Deity himself. He was carried by the
Holy Spirit through space to the gates OF
he'll, and then borne in golden chariot
up to heaven, where he saw choirs Of
saints and angels singing round the
throne, and received a message from God,
delivered to him by an angel. Savonarola
saw the heav. ms open and sword ap-
pear, on which was the inscription.
'Gladius Domini super Terrain Byron
was haunted, and Sir Walter Scott saw
spectres.
"Ghosts are sometimes heard without
being seen. Luther, while on the stairs
of building in Rome, heard distinctly
the words, The just shall live by faith
Occasionally person who is subject to
this kind of deception hears haunting OF
insulting voices calling after him in the
street and making injurious 1nsinuations
about him. A very strange kind of au.
| ditory Authorization is what is called
| audible thinking wherein the sufferer
Att NHTHN