The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1903-09-18
spIUT UR ES In FHEEY Z.
ONE or THE. MYSTERIES os THAT
j. IA COMPLIES Organ, The BRAIN.

l. Y =. = . r
coMPcEx ORGAN, The BRAN.
Y Theories M TO the Cause OF the Ltv.
ing Cclored F.sa.;:,il mad ci,,s.,..-:
" Ing Ima:,es TlIus ). spear OF ssl.f2s
Down After an E.S> iting Day.
There are many VIC Will not reaG;l.
anuerstand what is meant by pictures
Ia the eye, unless it be the imagina lion,
or minds eye" of Hamlet, for lAe
power OF seeing them is not conferred
on all alike. Even those who have
Eeen them from time to tine. and prob
LDly given them little heed, may not
feel altogether sure about the matter
without word of explanation.
Lying in bed. aftef firing or excit-
ing day. with your eyes closed and
about to fall asleep, have you never
seen, apparently in the eyeball, spots
and s,r,a.is of colored light, changing
their forms and Shifting their places?
Have you never watched them passing
into complicated patterns, like those
Of the kaleidoscope, or into pretty
landscapes quite unknown to you. or
into strange faces, now and again
very beautiful or angelic, but often as
ugly and hideous as COLLINS from the
internal regions, or, haply. into scenes
of action reminding you Of the drama.
but such as you never saw In, real life
or upon any stage? These pictures are
more alive than the Giving pictures"
Of the music halls. They have the hues
of life and art and rival the quick
change artist in their protean trans
formations. The animatograph that
can initiate their ceaseless evolution
without q hitch or tremor will be q
novelty and make the fortune of it's in
ventor
What are they? 1t is one of the mys-
teries of that marvelous-nay. miracu
lous-organ. the brain. We must dis
tinguish them from other mysteries of
the BORDER land" which lies between
the adjoining states Of wideawake and
sound asleep.
They are not the images Of reverie
or day dream. Whether we recall the
past in our waking hours or invent
new incidents like novelist. we can
govern them to some extent and are
character. They are not hallucina-
ton in the proper sense Of the term.
We feel they are subjective, or within
us; we suppose them in the eye itself,
whereas we believe q hallucinatiOn is
objective. or without US. An appari-
ton or specter that we take for real
ity is hallucination. The ghost of
Hamlets father. witnessed by several
persons. and the spook> of his distant
brother. seen by Lord Brougham, were
probably Authorizations of "tele-
pathic" order. The picture Of Millais
where man starts up and sees q
luminous lady at the foot of his bed
is case of hallucination. The dream
image" of the undergraduate, who
dreamed that he was chased by a
green figure and. awakening. saw it in
his room was also hallucinat ton.
Pictures In the eye: are more akin to
what are called :'after images" A
gentleman "a doctor, IL we are not
MISTAKEN. aftersa fatiguing day. was
cheered by the sight of a beefsteak for
his dinner. as he very we'll might, but
seemingly the steak made deep i'm
preston on his mind or his digestion,
for while he was browsing with his
eyes closed after eating it, he saw it
again as wildly as before, and on
1N<ac n fr1
in his dream. 1t was doubtless a sub
stantial steak, not ghost. and yet it
haunted him.
There 4. g course. more than one
theory e these living pictures in the
eye or, as they are called in science,
"hypnogogic images" One is that they
are formed on the retina of the eye
and confined to it. Another Is that
they are purely mental and formed
in the cortex or bark. so to speak. of
the cerebrum. AS often happens. the
truth appears to lie In a combination
Of both views. Recent observations of
NJ. Yves Delage have put the question
to experimental proof. When we look
at bright body-for example, the sun
and shut our eyes we see colored
spot Of light. and If we move the eye
up or down. to right or left, the spot
moves with it. The spot, in fact, is
left by the image of the sun upon the
retina and therefore moves with it.
Now. if the hypnogogic images are on
the retina they will also move with the
eye. and this is what M. Delage has
found. Nevertheless the brain also
comes into play in forming them.
CORY O'Lanus.