In addition to visions which thus come unsought, contributing knowledge of things remote or even future, we may glance at visions which are provoked by various methods. Drugs (impepo) are used, seers whirl in a wild dance till they fall senseless, or trance is induced by various kinds of self-suggestion or 'auto-hypnotism.' Fasting is also practised. In modern life the self-induced trance is common among 'mediums'—a subject to which we recur later.
So far, it will be observed, our evidence proves that precisely similar beliefs as to man's occasional power of opening the gates of distance have been entertained in a great variety of lands and ages, and by races in every condition of culture.[23] The alleged experiences are still said to occur, and have been investigated by physiologists of the eminence of M. Richet. The question cannot but arise as to the residuum of fact in these narrations, and it keeps on arising.
In the following chapter we discuss a mode of inducing hallucinations which has for anthropologists the interest of universal diffusion. The width of its range in savage races has not, we believe, been previously observed. We then add facts of modern experience, about the authenticity of which we, personally, entertain no doubt; and the provisional conclusion appears to be that savages have observed a psychological circumstance which has been ignored by professed psychologists, and which, certainly, does not fit into the ordinary materialistic hypothesis.
[Footnote 1: Callaway, Religion of the Zulus, p. 232.]
[Footnote 2: Graham Dalzell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 481.]
[Footnote 3: See good evidence in Ker of Kersland's Memoirs.]
[Footnote 4: Autus Gellius, xv. 18, Dio Cassius, lxvii., Crespet, De la
Haine du Diable, Procès de Jeanne d'Arc.]
[Footnote 5: See 'Shamanism in Siberia,' J.A.I., November 1894, pp. 147-149, and compare Scheffer. The article is very learned and interesting.]
[Footnote 6: Williams mentions second sight in Fiji, but gives no examples.]
[Footnote 7: Primitive Culture, i. 447. Mr. Tylor cites Dr. Brinton's Myths of the New World, p. 269. The reference in the recent edition is p. 289. Carver's case is given under the head 'Possession' later.]