Observations placeholder
Visual hallucinations from the powerful emotion of desire
Identifier
026035
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
As described in Illustrations Of The Influence Of The Mind Upon The Body In Health And Disease, Designed To Elucidate The Action Of The Imagination - Daniel Hack Tuke, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
PART I. THE INTELLECT.
CHAPTER II. INFLUENCE OF THE INTELLECT ON SENSATION.
In the following case within my own knowledge the visual illusion was clearly excited by the idea being, in the first instance, present to the mind.
A lady was walking one day from Penryn to Falmouth, and her mind being at that time, or recently, occupied by the subject of drinking-fountains, thought she saw in the road a newly- erected fountain, and even distinguished an inscription upon it, namely —
"Jf any man thirst, let him come and take a drink “
Sometime afterwards she mentioned the fact with pleasure to the daughters of a gentleman who was supposed to have erected it.
They expressed their surprise at her statement, and assured her she must be quite mistaken. Perplexed with the contradiction between the testimony of her senses and of those who would have been aware of the fact had it been true, and feeling that she could not have been deceived (for "seeing is believing"), she repaired to the spot and found to her astonishment that no drinking-fountain was in existence — only a few scattered stones which had formed the foundation upon which the suggestion of an expectant Imagination had built the superstructure.
The subject having previously occupied her attention, these sufficed to form, not only a definite erection, but one inscribed by an appropriate motto corresponding to the leading idea.