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THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK > PART SECOND - SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS > CHAPTER VI VISUAL MANIFESTATIONS > Theory of Hallucination > 111
111. Those who do not admit that there is an incorporeal and invisible world,
fancy they can explain everything by the word hallucination. The definition of this
word is well known ; it means the error, the illusion, of one who believes himself to
experience perceptions which he does not experience in reality; it comes from the Latin
word, hallucinari, to err ; but the learned have not yet, so far as we know, explained the
cause of the fact expressed by this word.
As optics and physiology appear to have no secrets for their devotees, how is it that the latter have not yet explained the nature and source of the images, which, under certain circumstances, present themselves to our consciousness? They would fain explain everything by the laws of matter; let them then deduce from those laws a theory of hallucination, capable of giving a rational explanation of the facts comprised under that term.
As optics and physiology appear to have no secrets for their devotees, how is it that the latter have not yet explained the nature and source of the images, which, under certain circumstances, present themselves to our consciousness? They would fain explain everything by the laws of matter; let them then deduce from those laws a theory of hallucination, capable of giving a rational explanation of the facts comprised under that term.