Veracious Waking Hallucinations not recognised by Science; orexplained by Coincidence, Imposture, False Memory. A VeraciousHallucination popularly called a Wraith or Ghost. Example ofUnveracious Hallucination. The Family Coach. Ghosts' Clothes andother Properties and Practices; how explained. Case of VeraciousHallucination. Riding Home from Mess. Another Case. The BrightScar. The Vision and the Portrait. Such Stories not usuallybelieved. Cases of Touch: The Restraining Hand. Of Hearing: TheBenedictine's Voices; The Voice in the Bath-room. Other "Warnings".The Maoris. The Man at the Lift. Appearances Coincident with Death.Others not Coincident with Anything.In "crystal-gazing" anybody can make experiments for himself and amongsuch friends as he thinks he can trust. They are hallucinationsconsciously sought for, and as far as possible, provoked or induced bytaking certain simple measures. Unsought, spontaneous wakinghallucinations, according to the result of Mr. Galton's researches,though not nearly so common as dreams, are as much facts of _sane_mental experience. Now every ghost or wraith is a hallucination. Yousee your wife in the dining-room when she really is in the drawing-room; you see your late great-great-grandfather anywhere. Neitherperson is really present. The first appearance in popular language isa "wraith"; the second is a "ghost" in ordinary speech. Both arehallucinations.So far Mr. Galton would go, but mark what follows! Everybody allowsthe existence of dreams, but comparatively few believe in dreamstories of _veracious_ dreams. So every scientific man believes inhallucinations, {68} but few believe in _veracious_ hallucinations. Averacious hallucination is, for our purpose, one which communicates(as veracious dreams do) information not otherwise known, or, atleast, not known to the knower to be known. The communication of theknowledge may be done by audible words, with or without an actualapparition, or with an apparition, by words or gestures. Again, if ahallucination of Jones's presence tallies with a great crisis inJones's life, or with his death, the hallucination is so far veraciousin that, at least, it does not seem meaningless. Or if Jones'sappearance has some unwonted feature not known to the seer, butafterwards proved to be correct in fact, that is veracious. Next, ifseveral persons successively in the same place, or simultaneously,have a similar hallucination not to be accounted for physically, thatis, if not a veracious, a curious hallucination. Once more, if ahallucinatory figure is afterwards recognised in a living personpreviously unknown, or a portrait previously unseen, that (if therecognition be genuine) is a veracious hallucination. The vulgar callit a wraith of the living, or a ghost of the dead.Here follow two cases. The first, The Family Coach, {69a} gave noverified intelligence, and would be styled a "subjectivehallucination". The second contributed knowledge of facts notpreviously known to the witness, and so the vulgar would call it aghost. Both appearances were very rich and full of complicateddetail. Indeed, any ghost that wears clothes is a puzzle. Nobody butsavages thinks that clothes have ghosts, but Tom Sawyer conjecturesthat ghosts' clothes "are made of ghost stuff".As a rule, not very much is seen of a ghost; he is "something of ashadowy being". Yet we very seldom hear of a ghost stark naked; thatof Sergeant Davies, murdered in 1749, is one of three or four examplesin civilised life. {69b} Hence arises the old question, "How are weto account for the clothes of ghosts?" One obvious reply is that thereis no ghost at all, only a hallucination. We do not see people naked,as a rule, in our dreams; and hallucinations, being waking dreams,conform to the same rule. If a ghost opens a door or lifts a curtainin our sight, that, too, is only part of the illusion. The door didnot open; the curtain was not lifted. Nay, if the wrist or hand ofthe seer is burned or withered, as in a crowd of stories, the ghost'shand did not produce the effect. It was produced in the same way aswhen a hypnotised patient is told that "his hand is burned," his fancythen begets real blisters, or so we are informed, truly or not. Thestigmata of St. Francis and others are explained in the same way. {70}How ghosts pull bedclothes off and make objects fly about is anotherquestion: in any case the ghosts are not _seen_ in the act.Thus the clothes of ghosts, their properties, and their actionsaffecting physical objects, are not more difficult to explain than anaked ghost would be, they are all the "stuff that dreams are madeof". But occasionally things are carried to a great pitch, as when aghost drives off in a ghostly dogcart, with a ghostly horse, whip andharness. Of this complicated kind we give two examples; the firstreckons as a "subjective," the second as a veracious hallucination.
