Ent hallucinations occurring amongst normal persons; on the other hand, wider knowledge of hypnotism and the…
- Date of account
- Published 1894
- Source
- Apparitions and thought-transference: an examination of the evidence for telepathy
- Reference
- Apparitions and thought-transference: an examination of the evidence for telepathy · selected passage 145
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
ent hallucinations occurring amongst normal persons; on the other hand, wider knowledge of hypnotism and the discovery of various processes for inducing hallucinations has afforded facilities for the experimental investigation of their nature, mechanism, and genesis, both in the trance and in waking life
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyent hallucinations occurring amongst normal persons; on the other hand, wider knowledge of hypnotism and the discovery of various processes for inducing hallucinations has afforded facilities for the experimental investigation of their nature, mechanism, and genesis, both in the trance and in waking life. The hallucinations, indeed, of the ordinary hypnotic subject, with which the public has been familiarised by platform demonstrations, are possibly not sensory at all. When a hypnotised lad eats tallow-candle for sponge-cake, drinks ink for champagne, or professes to see a lighted candle at the end of the operator's finger, we may conclude, if the performance is a genuine one, that a false belief has been engendered in his mind; but we have, in most cases, no evidence that this belief includes any sensory element. In many laboratory experiments, however, there can be little question that a complete sensory hallucination is induced, and that what the subject professes to see and hear is as real to him as the furniture or the person of the operator. One or two such cases have been quoted in a previous chapter (Chap. III., p. 68).
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis comes from historical psychical research. Methods, witness handling and standards of evidence differ from present-day research and should be assessed from the cited passage and edition.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThe passage can support a history of claims and recurring descriptions. It does not establish a paranormal mechanism, and competing psychological, social and physical explanations remain relevant.
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