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 CHAPTER V ON HALLUCINATIONS IN GENERAL

ONE of the obscure phenomena dealt with by the Society for Psychical Research have excited more attention, and been more widely misinterpreted, than the apparitions of the dying which form the subject-matter of the next chapter. Such apparitions are reported to have occurred far back in the world's annals. Some historical instances will no doubt occur to the reader. The memory of a mental attitude now outgrown is apt to be shortlived, and it is perhaps not superﬂuous to point out that until some twenty or thirty years ago, say, there were only two explanations of such occurrences commonly recognised. By the majority of the educated classes they were dismissed as mere inventions of the popular imagination, like the tales of elves, nymphs, fauns, hobgoblins, and the whole tribe of fairyland. In the belief of the people they were held to be what they seemed, the authentic appearances of the dead—certissimæ mortis imagines. Even now the endorsement of these dubious shapes by the Society for Psychical Research has done more, probably, than anything else to prejudice our investigations. Those who have themselves discarded the heritage of a primeval animism can 99