Bisbee daily review., 1907-09-04
HALLUCINATIOh
 IS GREAT PUZZLE
of Dreams and Visions That PerpIex the People i3
 Discussed,

Bernard LSIus aA EtlV AtS' ''A~ ---1 | aiscnsses hallucinations, l and his article is reviewed by a vii l ter in the New York Evening Post, | who says that the subject is of tntrin- sic scientific importance and has greatly perplexed psychologists. But it is also of interest practically, hay ing a direct bearing on honest ac- count of apparitions, the supposed manifestations of spirits, and the wis ions of the religious mystic. It is hard to make a distinction between ordinary representations of the senses and Authorizations. The vic-I tim of the latter seldom notices any difference. M. Leroy defines a hallu- cinatiOn as the represCS taJiOn 10 sense of an appearance without any real obpect corresponding to it. But it does not follow that the mind of the person affected is diseased. The phenomenon indicates an abnormal but not necessarily a morbid state of mind.
 Some observers describes a hallu- cinatiOn as a weak representation. and thus distinguish it from true perception which is strong. Others hold that in the case of a real per ceptiOn, action will follow in accord ance with the idea presented. while a false presentation has no iItluence on the behavior This distinction, however, is not precise. There are recognized truths and established be uefs which do not incite to action; and there are illusory images which may influence conduct. A man may have a vision of his dead father, and because his belief in it's reality is weak. he may refuse to act on advice | which the appartiOn seems to giF1 l him Hamlet is a psychological eN- ample of this. But generally halluci- nations begets actions, under the ! stress of awe, fear or some other ln-
 nse feeling.
 | There are experiences Of false i'm | pressions which at the time are rec. 1 Ognized as unreal. Of these a famil- 1 far example is the hallUcinatiOn Eyp, nagogique. which occurs frequently ! just as one is falling asleep. IL is i recognized as deceptive, but the per ceptiOn has for the moment all the marks of reality. It is, however, the fact that the hallucinatiOn has nC independent validity; and this mark; it off from real perception. There may be the image of something tangt bic which cannot be seen, or of some
 thing visible which cannot be touched As Taine and William James have
 shown the hallucinatiOn is offer
 caused by a real nerye-sJimulatiOn
 having its origin with the organism
 Wundt and Ladd would seem to be mistaken, therefore in suppOsing tha
 Authorizations are simply products O. the imagination. so yividly eXpen enced that they affect the organs 0
 sense. A blow unOn the eye vii
 cause flashes of light color; an after
 image of the sun appears if one i! too long face to face with its direct light. The sufferer from deliriun
 tremens sees both monsters and in
 sects caused by changes in the cIrcu
 lation of toxic changes in the blood
 In these instances there is stimulation
 from without, as well as a modified
 tion of the brain centers. Yet th
 causes O. these Authorizations aTt
 not always the same: and much con
 fusion in psychology has been causet
 by failure to recognize the fact. Some
 times the hallucination can be pro
 duced at will.
 The experience of Gustave Flauber
 Is typical. He wrote: "The charac
 ters of my novels affect me. When
 described the poisoning of Madam
 Bovary. I had the taste of arsenic i
 my mouth" When Wigan, the painter
 reproduced from memory in his DO | traits the forms of absent persons
 he did it not from a more mentl
 image of the subject, but from whs
 seemed to him the visible presenc
 of the original.
 In Authorizations there are, nor
 over, disturbances of the intellectui
 functions; otherwise. passing stimr
 lation of nerve of sensation woul not erTEcC the representation OT an e tire object. The latter is formed a cording to the law of association which causes the disintegrated el ments of any experience to fuse whe , any one of these elements is repr ! duced in consciousness Tn the pc } ception of every object some partic lar sensation is dominant. In ord , nary conversation we describe peep or objects by some conspicuous sens r tionaI element. He is the "red-headt : man." she is the "deep-voiced W I man" Each dominant sensation s such a kind may become the cent l of a Authorization. .-.-.... - The dreaming of dreams and u t seeing of visions is getting to be loo 7 ed on by some as mark of distin E. tion in the dreamer and the visionaI 8 There seems to be reversion to tn ], sentiment of primitive times wh' e the seer was also the prophet and tl f leader. Authorizations of vario e kinds have become the property
 the educated as well as of the igr r ran. Consequently too much atte o tion cannot be given by pschologis T to their causes. Joseph's brethr | may have been wrong when tn mocked at his dreams; but their
 titude is that which every scienti
 man should assume in the present
 crudescence of superstition concel
 ing the pseudo-supernatural.
 I