Apparitions

Those visual sensations, commonly regarded as hallucinatory, of forms and figures not objectively present, but of a distinctne comparable to that of actual sense presentations. The belief that such sensations have an actual objective cause is held by many people, and the whole question is at the present time a subject of active investigation. The main varieties of apparitions may be described as: (1) those of "second sight," or visions which occur coincidently with real events at a distance from the subject; (2) ghosts, or the supposed appearance of the spirits of deceased individuals, and (3) the apparitions of so-called "spiritualistic seances." There are other visual phenomena which may or may not be cla ed as apparitions, according to the point of view; such, for example, as the dream images of normal life. See also HALLU CINATIONS.