South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-11-23
How One Persons Vision or Delusion Be-
comes EPIDEMIC and Spreads Into a Wide
Popular EIaIlucination in Time Of Great
Public Excitement
By DR.. James E. Lough,
By DR.. James e. Lough,
kOessOr Of ExperImenta PsyehoIOay New York UnIverst


CT norsemen enter the New Town after a
heavy storm. Perhaps Braid's narrative Of a
delusion affecting number of people on the
banks Of the Clyde below Lanark. in the year
1856, may be explained. in the same way. These
people collected on several successive days In
that place, and the ground and the trees
covered with bonnets, guns and swords, while
at the same time one company OF soldiers
after another marched along the river bank
in such manner that company passed
through the other, whereupon the soldiers fell
TO the ground and disappeared. Immediately
afterward new companies appeared, marching
In the same manner. According TO the account
which has been handed down, two-thirds Of the
persons present testified to their conviction Of
the reality of these apparitions, and this con-
victon was shown not only In their words, but
in the dread and terror shown in their faces
Similarly in 1855, In Upland. Sweden. many
people a fight at sea and one on land take
place simultaneously Parrish refers also to
Perty, who quotes a number OF similar cases
of war hallucination in his work, die mys
tischen Erscheinungen der menschl Natur'
end ed)
"On cold Winters day in 174S noise was
heard at Solothurn like distant cannonading
in the air, and few minutes later the strains
of full Turkish band, so that all the inhab
itants rushed out of doors. Drums and flies
could be quite clearly distinguished. Some
listeners even stated that they heard the Sec
ond parts of the wind instruments"
Though some popular Authorizations" says
above instances by unwonted natural pheno
mena, in many cases the chief factor must be
sought in the emotional excitement, and. gen.
orally in the mental predisposition Of the per-
cipients. To this category be-
long also many of the religious epidemic hal
ucinations."
So we see we can have a collective or pop
ular lie with no intent to fraud. Frank Pod
more in his book "Apparitions and Thought
Transference" page POD, says: Until recent
years the tendency of even well-instructed
opinion has been to regard a sensory hallu
cination as necessarily implying some phys
ical or mental disorder" Mr. Podmore denies
this. and goes on TO explain that an halluci
nation is simply a hypertrophied thought-the
last member Of series, whose intermediate
terms are to be found in the minds eye pic
lures of ordinary life, in which the vivid images
which some artists can summon at will, and
in the faces in the dark which many persons
can see before passing into sleep, with It's
more familiar and abundant imagery.
We have, then. two kinds OF war lies to
deal with. First, the war lie which is manu-
featured with an exact motive to mislead the
enemy, the home consumer and the neutral
country. There is nothing new in this to the
psychologist except marvel at the ingenuity
Of the human mind for intrigue. Second we
have the lie which rises almost spontaneously
from what cause we are not certain. In
period of world horror, excitement has blasted
judgment, and hundreds OF thousands OF minds
are at the mercy of their emotions Is IT pop
uar hallucinaton which is responsible for so
many phantom armies and atrocities?
IT, as a number of experimental psycholo-
gists think. popular hallucination may become
epidemic in q time of collective excitement, we
have plenty OF opportunity for experiments
ton in the present war situation. The whole
problem Of thought transference is opened to
us. Does one person have the vision OF the
phantom army, and then through a mysterious
process Of telepathy pass 1t to receptive
minds, until the idea. and the vision become
effectively real? Do times Of common emo
ton and excitement prepare the human mind
for popular hallucination?
In terms of the wireless telegraph, can the
common mind be tuned or keyed TO common
telepathic message? There are indications"
says Podmore (page 1917 'that the conscious
ness which lies below Che threshold, with
which the activity OF telepathy is constantly
associated, NAV be regarded as representing
an earlier stage in the consciousness OF the
individual and even II may be an earlier stage
in the history OF the race. . . Telepathy
is perchance the relic OF a once serviceable
faculty. which eked out the primitive alphabet
OF gesture, and helped to bind our ancestors
OF the cave or the tree in as yet narticulate
community"
Podmore quotes DR.. Jules Hericourt (Annales
des Sciences Psychiques, Vol. l., page BID, as
going even farther. Hericourt suggests that
we fnd In telepathy traces OF the primeval I'M
specialized sensitiveness which preceded the
development OF nervous system-a heritage
shared with the amoeba and the sea anemone
How much this may have 10 do with cpl
demic untruth and with popular hallucination
we do not know. The scientist keeps an open
mind 20 all evidence. Certainly no subject
would offer more fascinating experimentation
than the spread OF particular war lie and
its ready acceptance II common emotional
stress does attune the popular mind TO com.
mon hallucination through the process OF tele-
pathy we Psychologists have much to learn
II still have traces Of a primal sensitive
ness in common with the amoeba primal
emotional conditions may bring Il 10 function
from an Individual phantom or illusion into
common 0hiectivity.
The psychology OF the mob we are Just be-
ginning TO understand. We know that CON-
mon emotions-fear. hate. patriotism revenge
can be sent through mob as we can shoot
current Of electricity through a copper wire
Is It just possible that can by another
process visualize an illusion OF an hallscina-
ton? Out OF the mass OF war lies cannot we
gather some material which will help US ap-
proach Hericourt's primal constituencies?