Treatment.—Considering how frequent are such phenomena, the physician must be prepared to treat those who are disquieted by them. A wraith-like appearance, for instance, will disturb many people very seriously and often for days, sometimes for weeks, make them nervous, excitable, and impair their appetite, disturb their digestion and sleep and often such unfortunate occurrences are prone to come just when they are run down in weight and when they need the help of every factor that makes for improvement of health. Simply to dismiss such an appearance as if it were quite imaginary, that is, non-existent in some form of reality, or quite baseless and trivial, serves no good purpose, for, as a rule, the persons concerned are deeply impressed with what they have seen. The only way to remove the unfavorable impression produced by it is to discuss it straightforwardly on the basis of what we have come to know as the result of recent investigations and the collation of the literature which has been published by the various psychical research societies and authorities on the subject. We know now that while occasionally such wraith-like appearances seemed to have a definite significance, because of something that happened simultaneously or shortly afterwards, this is mere coincidence and there are literally thousands of such cases in which a well authenticated wraith-like appearance was followed by no serious consequence, was never shown to mean anything beyond a curious psychic phenomenon, and was evidently merely due to some personal subjective influence, some externation of an image in the memory, unusual, but not at all unique, or even very rare, and evidently due to a curious peculiar externalizing power with which certain intellects are gifted.
Auditory Hallucinations.—Hallucinations of hearing are more common than those of vision. Many people have had the experience of waking up thinking that someone was calling them. A great many people are sure that they have, at some time or other, heard a voice when no one was near enough to them to have said anything. They have even recognized the voice. Some people, when thinking deeply about a person, have the voice of that person occur to them so clearly that they cannot quite make out whether they have actually heard it or whether it has only been very vividly reproduced in their memory. Such experiences are so common as to be well known, though many people hesitate to tell the stories of them, for hearing voices is rightly looked upon as a frequent preliminary symptom of insanity.
Hallucinations of hearing are the most common early symptom of insanity. The hearing of voices must always arouse suspicion at once. It must not be forgotten, however, that a great many recognizedly sane people who have remained so for life, have thought that they heard voices. Of course, we have no definition for insanity, and it is difficult to draw the line. We have no definition for health either, yet we have a practical working standard for the recognition of it, as also for insanity. These hallucinations then, both of vision and hearing, deserve to be discussed seriously, and in [{610}] nearly every case, even though there is some mental disturbance, the physician can in this way benefit his patients and keep them from being overmuch distressed by their hallucinations.
There is an expression in such common use that it is evidently the result of an almost universal experience, according to which men sometimes explain, after having acted in a particular way, that "something told them to." What they mean, of course, is that a conclusion formed in their minds the reasons for which they could not understand, but which yet had force enough to cause them to follow it to a practical application. When we hear of Socrates being advised in life by a demon, a so-called familiar spirit, we are apt to wonder whether by this term is meant anything more than just this curious feeling of aloofness from ourselves that we sometimes have when we are trying to make up our minds, or, indeed, not infrequently when we are deeply engaged in any intellectual occupation. As discussed in the chapter on [Unconscious Cerebration], our minds seem in a certain way to act independently of us. Occasionally they draw us to conclusions quite different from those which we previously expected to reach. There seems to be a something within us that works quite of itself and beyond our will. Whether under these circumstances there may not occasionally come so vivid a feeling of this power within us impressing itself upon us, that it seems to come from without, must always be taken into account in the effort to get at the real significance of these curious hallucinations. Only thus are we able to come to the relief of patients who are bothered by them.
Explanation by Sound Reproduction.—Auditory hallucinations are probably not more than reproductions of sounds heard before recalled vividly and apparently heard again at moments when attention is not attracted to actual auditory sensations and we are in receptive mood. Some of them are very startling because they are apparently warnings of future events, as is proved by their fulfillment. These, however, do not seem to be more than coincidences noted with regard to similar events connected with Premonitions, Dreads and Dreams (see chapters on these subjects). There is, for instance, a well authenticated story published by the English Psychic Research Society of a woman who was about to take a dose of what she thought was some ordinary home remedy, when she distinctly heard a voice telling her to taste it. The dose to be taken was a tablespoonful, and when she tasted it she found that by mistake she had placed her hands on a bottle containing a rather strong poison and a tablespoonful of it would almost inevitably have killed her. Unfortunately, such occurrences are so rare and the reason for them is so hard to find that their consideration as anything more than coincidences seems out of the question. Every medical journal almost brings the story of someone who has taken a dose of medicine that proves fatal, and there is no warning. If such warnings came with definite frequency, it would be easier to appreciate their significance.
There are similar stories with regard to other warnings. There is the story of the young man who in a storm drove under a shed for protection. Just as he did so he heard his mother's voice—she had been long dead—distinctly say "Drive out!" Ho drove out at once in the teeth of the storm, so deeply impressed was he, and was scarcely beyond the entrance when the shed fell, crushing everything within it. Similar warnings of impending [{611}] accidents are rather frequent in certain people's minds, yet it is hard to think of them as anything else than premonitions. These somehow take on the character of auditory hallucinations in certain sensitive minds. Compared to the whole number of accidents, however, such incidents are extremely rare and follow no law, and while there are those who like to think that perhaps such phenomena are due to the solicitude of some being in the other world, this is extremely doubtful. In that case, as St. Augustine suggested, they would be much more frequent and have a clearer significance than is at present the rule. St. Augustine, discussing the possibility, was sure that he would have had communications from his mother. Most men would re-echo his feeling.
Coincidences.—Most of these stories as they have been analyzed by careful investigators are indeed such trivial unmeaning things that it would be too bad to let people be bothered by them. They have occurred, however, from time immemorial. Veridical warnings are a commonplace in the literature of all countries. Undoubtedly some may suggest the action of a Higher Power, but the more one knows of the conditions in which they happened, the people to whom they came and their ultimate effects, the less will they seem providential. It is evident that under certain conditions they may be produced even at moments when men are not particularly excited and when they think that they are perfectly calm and self-possessed. Each story must be discussed in its own merits. The only thing to do, then, is not to make too light of them and, above all, not to treat them as merely imaginary or as utterly illusory; for they are often natural phenomena, the reasons for which and the conditions of their production we do not as yet fully understand. If patients can be brought to this viewpoint, they may even become interested in searching out just what it was that caused each particular hallucination. Over and over again it has been found that a moonbeam or a peculiar unexpected reflection of the sun, or the light shining through an unnoted aperture, or any or several of these in connection with a mirror has been the main cause of the wraith-like appearance. When they happen during the day it is sometimes at the moment of passing from very bright light to a darker hall that the occurrence takes place and evidently there is some physical occasion for the appearances in the eye itself. Unusual noises of various kinds are responsible for the auditory hallucinations.
Dangers of Serious Considerations.—There is one serious aspect of these hallucinations and supposed warnings—they tend to paralyze action. If a person allows himself to become firmly persuaded that doubts and premonitory possibilities must be weighed and solved before he may dare to act with assurance, then action becomes almost impossible. Premonitions may serve to bring people into danger, or at least keep people from having such presence of mind as will enable them to get out of it, as they otherwise would. Doubts lead to inaction and make a state of mind that is eminently miserable. The patient's one hope is to put aside resolutely such hallucinations if they rise to the level of a disturbing doubt or a paralyzing premonition and to discipline himself against being influenced by them. In many persons this is a difficult matter, but it represents the only efficient path to the regaining of mental health and strength.