Subject of spectral illusions—Recent and interesting case of Mrs. A.—Her first illusion affecting the ear—Spectral apparition of her husband—Spectral apparition of a cat—Apparition of a near and living relation in grave-clothes, seen in a looking-glass—Other illusions, affecting the ear—Spectre of a deceased friend sitting in an easy-chair—Spectre of a coach-and-four filled with skeletons—Accuracy and value of the preceding cases—State of health under which they arose—Spectral apparitions are pictures on the retina—The ideas of memory and imagination are also pictures on the retina—General views of the subject—Approximate explanation of spectral apparitions.

The preceding account of the different sources of illusion to which the eye is subject is not only useful as indicating the probable cause of any individual deception, but it has a special importance in preparing the mind for understanding those more vivid and permanent spectral illusions to which some individuals have been either occasionally or habitually subject.

In these lesser phenomena, we find the retina so powerfully influenced by external impressions, as to retain the view of visible objects long after they are withdrawn: we observe it to be so excited by local pressures of which we sometimes know neither the nature nor the origin, as to see in total darkness moving and shapeless masses of coloured light; and we find, as in the case of Sir Isaac Newton, and others, that the imagination has the power of reviving the impressions of highly luminous objects, months and even years after they were first made. From such phenomena, the mind feels it to be no violent transition to pass to those spectral illusions which, in particular states of health, have haunted the most intelligent individuals, not only in the broad light of day, but in the very heart of the social circle.

This curious subject has been so ably and fully treated in your Letters on Demonology, that it would be presumptuous in me to resume any part of it on which you have even touched; but as it forms a necessary branch of a Treatise on Natural Magic, and as one of the most remarkable cases on record has come within my own knowledge, I shall make no apology for giving a full account of the different spectral appearances which it embraces, and of adding the results of a series of observations and experiments on which I have been long occupied, with the view of throwing some light on this remarkable class of phenomena.

A few years ago, I had occasion to spend some days under the same roof with the lady to whose case I have above referred. At that time she had seen no spectral illusions, and was acquainted with the subject only from the interesting volume of Dr. Hibbert. In conversing with her about the cause of these apparitions, I mentioned, that if she should ever see such a thing, she might distinguish a genuine ghost, existing externally, and seen as an external object, from one created by the mind, by merely pressing one eye or straining them both, so as to see objects double; for in this case the external object or supposed apparition would invariably be doubled, while the impression on the retina created by the mind would remain single. This observation recurred to her mind when she unfortunately became subject to the same illusions; but she was too well acquainted with their nature to require any such evidence of their mental origin; and the state of agitation which generally accompanies them seems to have prevented her from making the experiment as a matter of curiosity.

1. The first illusion to which Mrs. A. was subject was one which affected only the ear. On the 26th of December, 1830, about half-past four in the afternoon, she was standing near the fire in the hall, and on the point of going up stairs to dress, when she heard, as she supposed, her husband’s voice calling her by name, “—— Come here! come to me!” She imagined that he was calling at the door to have it opened, but upon going there and opening the door she was surprised to find no person there. Upon returning to the fire, she again heard the same voice calling out very distinctly and loudly, “—— Come, come here!” She then opened two doors of the same room, and upon seeing no person she returned to the fire-place. After a few moments she heard the same voice still calling, “—— ---- Come to me, come! come away!” in a loud, plaintive, and somewhat impatient tone. She answered as loudly, “Where are you? I don’t know where you are;” still imagining that he was somewhere in search of her: but receiving no answer, she shortly went up stairs. On Mr. A.’s return to the house, about half an hour afterwards, she inquired why he called to her so often, and where he was; and she was, of course, greatly surprised to learn that he had not been near the house at the time. A similar illusion, which excited no particular notice at the time, occurred to Mrs. A. when residing at Florence about ten years before, and when she was in perfect health. When she was undressing after a ball, she heard a voice call her repeatedly by name, and she was at that time unable to account for it.

2. The next illusion which occurred to Mrs. A. was of a more alarming character. On the 30th of December, about four o’clock in the afternoon, Mrs. A. came down stairs into the drawing-room, which she had quitted only a few minutes before, and on entering the room she saw her husband, as she supposed, standing with his back to the fire. As he had gone out to take a walk about half an hour before, she was surprised to see him there, and asked him why he had returned so soon. The figure looked fixedly at her with a serious and thoughtful expression of countenance, but did not speak. Supposing that his mind was absorbed in thought, she sat down in an arm-chair near the fire, and within two feet at most of the figure, which she still saw standing before her. As its eyes, however, still continued to be fixed upon her, she said, after the lapse of a few minutes, “Why don’t you speak,——?” The figure immediately moved off towards the window at the further end of the room, with its eyes still gazing on her, and it passed so very close to her in doing so, that she was struck by the circumstance of hearing no step nor sound, nor feeling her clothes brushed against, nor even any agitation in the air. Although she was now convinced that the figure was not her husband, yet she never for a moment supposed that it was anything supernatural, and was soon convinced that it was a spectral illusion. As soon as this conviction had established itself in her mind, she recollected the experiment which I had suggested, of trying to double the object: but before she was able distinctly to do this, the figure had retreated to the window, where it disappeared. Mrs. A. immediately followed it, shook the curtains and examined the window, the impression having been so distinct and forcible that she was unwilling to believe that it was not a reality. Finding, however, that the figure had no natural means of escape, she was convinced that she had seen a spectral apparition like those recorded in Dr. Hibbert’s work, and she consequently felt no alarm or agitation. The appearance was seen in bright daylight, and lasted four or five minutes. When the figure stood close to her it concealed the real objects behind it, and the apparition was fully as vivid as the reality.

3. On these two occasions Mrs. A. was alone, but when the next phantasm appeared her husband was present. This took place on the 4th of January, 1830. About ten o’clock at night, when Mr. and Mrs. A. were sitting in the drawing-room, Mr. A. took up the poker to stir the fire, and when he was in the act of doing this, Mrs. A. exclaimed, “Why there’s the cat in the room!” “Where?” asked Mr. A. “There, close to you,” she replied. “Where?” he repeated. “Why on the rug, to be sure, between yourself and the coal-scuttle.” Mr. A., who had still the poker in his hand, pushed it in the direction mentioned: “Take care,” cried Mrs. A., “take care, you are hitting her with the poker.” Mr. A. again asked her to point out exactly where she saw the cat. She replied, ”Why sitting up there close to your feet on the rug. She is looking at me. It is Kitty—come here, Kitty!”—There were two cats in the house, one of which went by this name, and they were rarely if ever in the drawing-room. At this time Mrs. A. had no idea that the sight of the cat was an illusion. When she was asked to touch it, she got up for the purpose, and seemed as if she were pursuing something which moved away. She followed a few steps, and then said, “It has gone under the chair.” Mr. A. assured her it was an illusion, but she would not believe it. He then lifted up the chair, and Mrs. A. saw nothing more of it. The room was then searched all over, and nothing found in it. There was a dog lying on the hearth, who would have betrayed great uneasiness if a cat had been in the room, but he lay perfectly quiet. In order to be quite certain, Mr. A. rang the bell, and sent for the two cats, both of which were found in the housekeeper’s room.

4. About a month after this occurrence, Mrs. A., who had taken a somewhat fatiguing drive during the day, was preparing to go to bed about eleven o’clock at night, and, sitting before the dressing-glass, was occupied in arranging her hair. She was in a listless and drowsy state of mind, but fully awake. When her fingers were in active motion among the papillotes, she was suddenly startled by seeing in the mirror the figure of a near relation, who was then in Scotland and in perfect health. The apparition appeared over her left shoulder, and its eyes met hers in the glass. It was enveloped in grave-clothes, closely pinned, as is usual with corpses, round the head, and under the chin, and though the eyes were open, the features were solemn and rigid. The dress was evidently a shroud, as Mrs. A. remarked even the punctured pattern usually worked in a peculiar manner round the edges of that garment. Mrs. A. described herself as at the time sensible of a feeling like what we conceive of fascination, compelling her for a time to gaze on this melancholy apparition, which was as distinct and vivid as any reflected reality could be, the light of the candles upon the dressing-table appearing to shine fully upon its face. After a few minutes, she turned round to look for the reality of the form over her shoulder; but it was not visible, and it had also disappeared from the glass when she looked again in that direction.

5. In the beginning of March, when Mr. A. had been about a fortnight from home, Mrs. A. frequently heard him moving near her. Nearly every night, as she lay awake, she distinctly heard sounds like his breathing hard on the pillow by her side, and other sounds such as he might make while turning in bed.

6. On another occasion, during Mr. A.’s absence, while riding with a neighbour, Mr.——, she heard his voice frequently as if he were riding by his side. She heard also the tramp of his horse’s feet, and was almost puzzled by hearing him address her at the same time with the person really in company. His voice made remarks on the scenery, improvements, &c., such as he probably should have done had he been present. On this occasion, however, there was no visible apparition.

7. On the 17th March, Mrs. A. was preparing for bed. She had dismissed her maid, and was sitting with her feet in hot water. Having an excellent memory, she had been thinking upon and repeating to herself a striking passage in the Edinburgh Review, when on raising her eyes, she saw seated in a large easy-chair before her the figure of a deceased friend, the sister of Mr. A. The figure was dressed as had been usual with her, with great neatness, but in a gown of a peculiar kind, such as Mrs. A. had never seen her wear, but exactly such as had been described to her by a common friend as having been worn by Mr. A.’s sister during her last visit to England. Mrs. A. paid particular attention to the dress, air, and appearance of the figure, which sat in an easy attitude in the chair, holding a handkerchief in one hand. Mrs. A. tried to speak to it, but experienced a difficulty in doing so; and in about three minutes the figure disappeared. About a minute afterwards, Mr. A. came into the room, and found Mrs. A. slightly nervous, but fully aware of the delusive nature of the apparition. She described it as having all the vivid colouring and apparent reality of life; and for some hours preceding this and other visions, she experienced a peculiar sensation in her eyes, which seemed to be relieved when the vision had ceased.

8. On the 5th October, between one and two o’clock in the morning, Mr. A. was awoke by Mrs. A., who told him that she had just seen the figure of his deceased mother draw aside the bedcurtains and appear between them. The dress and the look of the apparition were precisely those in which Mr. A.’s mother had been last seen by Mrs. A. at Paris, in 1824.

9. On the 11th October, when sitting in the drawing-room, on one side of the fire-place, she saw the figure of another deceased friend moving towards her from the window at the further end of the room. It approached the fire-place, and sat down in the chair opposite. As there were several persons in the room at the time, she describes the idea uppermost in her mind to have been a fear lest they should be alarmed at her staring, in the way she was conscious of doing, at vacancy, and should fancy her intellect disordered. Under the influence of this fear, and recollecting a story of a similar effect in your work on Demonology, which she had lately read, she summoned up the requisite resolution to enable her to cross the space before the fire-place, and seat herself in the same chair with the figure. The apparition remained perfectly distinct till she sat down, as it were, in its lap, when it vanished.

10. On the 26th of the same month, about two P.M., Mrs. A. was sitting in a chair by the window in the same room with her husband. He heard her exclaim—”What have I seen?” And on looking at her, he observed a strange expression in her eyes and countenance. A carriage-and-four had appeared to her to be driving up the entrance-road to the house. As it approached, she felt inclined to go up stairs to prepare to receive company, but, as if spellbound, she was unable to move or speak. The carriage approached, and as it arrived within a few yards of the window, she saw the figures of the postilions and the persons inside take the ghastly appearance of skeletons and other hideous figures. The whole then vanished entirely, when she uttered the above-mentioned exclamation.

11. On the morning of the 30th October, when Mrs. A. was sitting in her own room with a favourite dog in her lap, she distinctly saw the same dog moving about the room during the space of about a minute or rather more.

12. On the 3rd December, about nine P.M., when Mr. and Mrs. A. were sitting near each other in the drawing-room occupied in reading, Mr. A. felt a pressure on his foot. On looking up he observed Mrs. A.’s eyes fixed with a strong and unnatural stare on a chair about nine or ten feet distant. Upon asking her what she saw, the expression of her countenance changed, and upon recovering herself, she told Mr. A. that she had seen his brother, who was alive and well at the moment in London, seated in the opposite chair, but dressed in grave-clothes, and with a ghastly countenance, as if scarcely alive.

Such is a brief account of the various spectral illusions observed by Mrs. A. In describing them I have used the very words employed by her husband in his communications to me on the subject;5 and the reader may be assured that the descriptions are neither heightened by fancy, nor amplified by invention. The high character and intelligence of the lady, and the station of her husband in society, and as a man of learning and science, would authenticate the most marvellous narrative, and satisfy the most scrupulous mind, that the case has been philosophically as well as faithfully described. In narrating events which we regard as of a supernatural character, the mind has a strong tendency to give more prominence to what appears to itself the most wonderful; but from the very same cause, when we describe extraordinary and inexplicable phenomena which we believe to be the result of natural causes, the mind is prone to strip them of their most marvellous points, and bring them down to the level of ordinary events. From the very commencement of the spectral illusions seen by Mrs. A., both she and her husband were well aware of their nature and origin, and both of them paid the most minute attention to the circumstances which accompanied them, not only with the view of throwing light upon so curious a subject, but for the purpose of ascertaining their connection with the state of health under which they appeared.

As the spectres seen by Nicolai and others had their origin in bodily indisposition, it becomes interesting to learn the state of Mrs. A.’s health when she was under the influence of these illusions. During the six weeks within which the first three illusions took place, she had been considerably reduced and weakened by a troublesome cough, and the weakness which this occasioned was increased by her being prevented from taking a daily tonic. Her general health had not been strong, and long experience has put it beyond a doubt, that her indisposition arises from a disordered state of the digestive organs. Mrs. A. has naturally a morbidly sensitive imagination, which so painfully affects her corporeal impressions, that the account of any person having suffered severe pain by accident or otherwise, occasionally produces acute twinges of pain in the corresponding parts of her person. The account, for example, of the amputation of an arm will produce an instantaneous and severe sense of pain in her own arm. She is subject to talk in her sleep with great fluency, to repeat long passages of poetry, particularly when she is unwell, and even to cap verses for half an hour together, never failing to quote lines beginning with the final letter of the preceding one till her memory is exhausted.

Although it is not probable that we shall ever be able to understand the actual manner in which a person of sound mind beholds spectral apparitions in the broad light of day, yet we may arrive at such a degree of knowledge on the subject as to satisfy rational curiosity, and to strip the phenomena of every attribute of the marvellous. Even the vision of natural objects presents to us insurmountable difficulties, if we seek to understand the precise part which the mind performs in perceiving them; but the philosopher considers that he has given a satisfactory explanation of vision, when he demonstrates that distinct pictures of external objects are painted on the retina, and that this membrane communicates with the brain by means of nerves of the same substance as itself, and of which it is merely an expansion. Here we reach the gulf which human intelligence cannot pass; and if the presumptuous mind of man shall dare to extend its speculations farther, it will do it only to evince its incapacity and mortify its pride.

In his admirable work on this subject, Dr. Hibbert has shown that spectral apparitions are nothing more than ideas or the recollected images of the mind, which, in certain states of bodily indisposition, have been rendered more vivid than actual impression, or, to use other words, that the pictures in the “mind’s eye” are more vivid than the pictures in the body’s eye. This principle has been placed by Dr. Hibbert beyond the reach of doubt; but I propose to go much farther, and to show that the “mind’s eye” is actually the body’s eye, and that the retina is the common tablet on which both classes of impressions are painted, and by means of which they receive their visual existence according to the same optical laws. Nor is this true merely in the case of spectral illusions; it holds good of all ideas recalled by the memory or created by the imagination, and may be regarded as a fundamental law in the science of pneumatology.

It would be out of place in a work like this to adduce the experimental evidence on which it rests, or even to explain the manner in which the experiments themselves must be conducted: but I may state in general, that the spectres conjured up by the memory or the fancy have always a “local habitation,” and that they appear in front of the eye, and partake in its movements exactly like the impressions of luminous objects, after the objects themselves are withdrawn.

In the healthy state of the mind and body, the relative intensity of these two classes of impressions on the retina is nicely adjusted. The mental pictures are transient and comparatively feeble, and in ordinary temperaments are never capable of disturbing or effacing the direct images of visible objects. The affairs of life could not be carried on if the memory were to intrude bright representations of the past into the domestic scene, or scatter them over the external landscape. The two opposite impressions, indeed, could not co-exist: the same nervous fibre which is carrying from the brain to the retina the figures of memory, could not at the same instant be carrying back the impressions of external objects from the retina to the brain. The mind cannot perform two different functions at the same instant, and the direction of its attention to one of the two classes of impressions necessarily produces the extinction of the other: but so rapid is the exercise of mental power, that the alternate appearance and disappearance of the two contending impressions are no more recognized than the successive observations of external objects during the twinkling of the eyelids. If we look for example at the faÇade of St. Paul’s, and without changing our position call to mind the celebrated view of Mont Blanc from Lyons, the picture of the cathedral, though actually impressed upon the retina, is momentarily lost sight of by the mind, exactly like an object seen by indirect vision; and during the instant the recollected image of the mountain, towering over the subjacent range, is distinctly seen, but in a tone of subdued colouring and indistinct outline. When the purpose of its recall is answered, it quickly disappears, and the picture of the cathedral again resumes the ascendancy.

In darkness and solitude, when external objects no longer interfere with the pictures of the mind, they become more vivid and distinct; and in the state between waking and sleeping the intensity of the impressions approaches to that of visible objects. With persons of studious habits, who are much occupied with the operations of their own minds, the mental pictures are much more distinct than in ordinary persons; and in the midst of abstract thought, external objects even cease to make any impression on the retina. A philosopher absorbed in his contemplations experiences a temporary privation of the use of his senses. His children or his servants will enter the room directly before his eyes without being seen. They will speak to him without being heard; and they will even try to rouse him from his reverie without being felt; although his eyes, his ears, and his nerves actually receive the impressions of light, sound, and touch. In such cases, however, the philosopher is voluntarily pursuing a train of thought on which his mind is deeply interested; but even ordinary men, not much addicted to speculations of any kind, often perceive in their mind’s eye the pictures of deceased or absent friends, or even ludicrous creations of fancy, which have no connexion whatever with the train of their thoughts. Like spectral apparitions they are entirely involuntary, and though they may have sprung from a regular series of associations, yet it is frequently impossible to discover a single link in the chain.

If it be true, then, that the pictures of the mind and spectral illusions are equally impressions upon the retina, the latter will differ in no respect from the former, but in the degree of vividness with which they are seen; and those frightful apparitions become nothing more than our ordinary ideas, rendered more brilliant by some accidental and temporary derangement of the vital functions. Their very vividness, too, which is their only characteristic, is capable of explanation. I have already shown that the retina is rendered more sensible to light by voluntary local pressure, as well as by the involuntary pressure of the blood-vessels behind it; and if, by looking at the sun, we impress upon the retina a coloured image of that luminary, which is seen even when the eye is shut, we may by pressure alter the colour of that image, in consequence of having increased the sensibility of that part of the retina on which it is impressed. Hence we may readily understand how the vividness of the mental pictures must be increased by analogous causes.

In the case both of Nicolai and Mrs. A. the immediate cause of the spectres was a deranged action of the stomach. When such a derangement is induced by poison, or by substances which act as poisons, the retina is peculiarly affected, and the phenomena of vision are singularly changed. Dr. Patouillet has described the case of a family of nine persons who were all driven mad by eating the root of the hyoscyamus niger, or black henbane. One of them leapt into a pond, another exclaimed that his neighbour would lose a cow in a month, and a third vociferated that the crown piece of sixty pence would in a short time rise to five livres. On the following day they had all recovered their senses, but recollected nothing of what had happened. On the same day they all saw objects double, and, what is still more remarkable, on the third day every object appeared to them as red as scarlet. Now this red light was probably nothing more than the red phosphorescence produced by the pressure of the blood-vessels on the retina, and analogous to the masses of blue, green, yellow, and red light, which have been already mentioned as produced by a similar pressure in headaches, arising from a disordered state of the digestive organs.

Were we to analyse the various phenomena of spectral illusions, we should discover many circumstances favourable to these views. In those seen by Nicolai, the individual figures were always somewhat paler than natural objects. They sometimes grew more and more indistinct, and became perfectly white; and, to use his own words, “he could always distinguish with the greatest precision phantasms from phenomena.” Nicolai sometimes saw the spectres when his eyes were shut, and sometimes they were thus made to disappear,—effects perfectly identical with those which arise from the impressions of very luminous objects. Sometimes the figures vanished entirely, and at other times only pieces of them disappeared, exactly conformable to what takes place with objects seen by indirect vision, which most of those figures must necessarily have been.

Among the peculiarities of spectral illusions, there is one which merits particular attention, namely, that they seem to cover or conceal objects immediately beyond them. It is this circumstance more than any other which gives them the character of reality, and at first sight it seems difficult of explanation. The distinctness of any impression on the retina is entirely independent of the accommodation of the eye to the distinct vision of external objects. When the eye is at rest, and is not accommodated to objects at any particular distance, it is in a state for seeing distant objects most perfectly. When a distinct spectral impression, therefore, is before it, all other objects in its vicinity will be seen indistinctly, for while the eye is engrossed with the vision, it is not likely to accommodate itself to any other object in the same direction. It is quite common, too, for the eye to see only one of two objects actually presented to it. A sportsman who has been in the practice of shooting with both his eyes open, actually sees a double image of the muzzle of his fowling-piece, though it is only with one of these images that he covers his game, having no perception whatever of the other. But there is still another principle upon which only one of two objects may be seen at a time. If we look very steadily and continuously at a double pattern, such as those on a carpet composed of two single patterns of different colours, suppose red and yellow; and if we direct the mind particularly to the contemplation of the red one, the green pattern will sometimes vanish entirely, leaving the red alone visible; and by the same process the red one may be made to disappear. In this case, however, the two patterns, like the two images, may be seen together; but if the very same portion of the retina is excited by the direct rays of an external object, when it is excited by a mental impression, it can no more see them both at the same time, than a vibrating string can give out two different fundamental sounds. It is quite possible, however, that the brightest parts of a spectral figure may be distinctly seen along with the brightest parts of an object immediately behind it, but then the bright parts of each object will fall upon different parts of the retina.

These views are illustrated by a case mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie. A gentleman, who was a patient of his, of an irritable habit, and liable to a variety of uneasy sensations in his head, was sitting alone in his dining-room in the twilight, when the door of the room was a little open. He saw distinctly a female figure enter, wrapped in a mantle, with the face concealed by a large black bonnet. She seemed to advance a few steps towards him, and then stop. He had a full conviction that the figure was an illusion of vision, and he amused himself for some time by watching it; at the same time observing that he could see through the figure so as to perceive the lock of the door, and other objects behind it.6

If these views be correct, the phenomena of spectral apparitions are stripped of all their terror, whether we view them in their supernatural character, or as indications of bodily indisposition. Nicolai, even, in whose case they were accompanied with alarming symptoms, derived pleasure from the contemplation of them, and he not only recovered from the complaint in which they originated, but survived them for many years.—Mrs. A., too, who sees them only at distant intervals, and with whom they have but a fleeting existence, will, we trust, soon lose her exclusive privilege, when the slight indisposition which gives them birth has subsided.