What indeed is this demon that ravages our organs with the swiftness of lightning and the power of thunder? It is an idea - a simple idea.

-Durand De Gros.

The physiologic process which creates false images within us does not differ greatly from that which transmits telepathic images. But the distinction between telepathy and hallucination is so easy to establish that it is strange that cultivated minds have confused such different effects, even to the point of explaining the former by the latter and attributing to both the same origin.

Telepathy is authentic. Hallucination is false. Telepathy enters our being by no known material way; hallucination enters by the usual channel of the senses.

Telepathy comes from an actual outward source; hallucination wells up within ourselves.

Finally telepathy appears in quietude and meditation, and oftenest in connection with intimate circumstances, and is never repeated.

Hallucination, on the contrary, is manifested in excitement and persists or is subject to reappearance.

In the cases we have given above, which are assuredly attributable to exterior agencies, it was always found that the percipient had never had similar visions nor hallucinations of any kind. The image never reappears after the moment when the agent is supposed to have exerted his influence. If there is repetition, it is to overcome the resistance of the percipient when he refuses to let himself be convinced: afterwards the obsession disappears.

The telepathic actions, of which we have related several examples, present none of the characteristics of hallucinations induced by organic disorders, and elude all the definitions quoted by Briere de Bois-mont.

De Boismont only observed effects produced by organic disorders, although he reports some which certainly have their foundation in telepathy, but he makes no distinction between them. The vapors of an overheated brain suffice to explain everything for him, and even when he finds himself facing a true case of apparition, it is still with the theory of the overheated brain that he finds his way out.

If he had been better acquainted with the facts, he would not have generalized as he did: indeed the examples he cites and analyzes assume a characteristic which is lacking in apparitions: it is the permanence of morbid states.

It is always possible to ascertain the cause of hallucinations, they are due to fatigue, fright, fixed idea, or alcoholism. This type is common in the quotations of B. de Boismont. Here is one taken at random:

Obs. 130. A little girl, nine or ten years old, had spent her birthday in company with several other children, in giving herself over to all the amusements of her age. Her parents, of very narrow religious views, had constantly told her stories of the devil, hell and eternal damnation. That evening, upon entering her bedroom, the devil appeared and threatened to devour her. She uttered a loud cry, fled into her parents' room and fell at their feet as though dead. A doctor was called and restored her to consciousness after several hours. The child then told what had happened to her, adding that she was certain of being damned. The occurrence was immediately followed by a long and serious nervous illness.

This type of apparition was formerly very frequent. Dr. Macario, in his Clinical Studies upon Demonimania expresses the opinion that this form of madness is common among the provincial mentally deranged, which he attributes to the fact that materialism has not become as deeply rooted in French soil as one might believe.

"Dread of the devil," declares de Boismont (p. 134), "and fear of future punishment once exercised a powerful influence upon the mind. In the space of six years we observed about fifteen cases in our establishment."

The fixed idea also may create apparitions of the deceased. In this category fall the hallucinations of criminals pursued by their victims. Among other cases, Briere de Boismont cites that of Manoury, who had been guilty of the most egregious barbarism toward Urbain Grandier.

Obs. 124. One evening, toward ten o'clock, Manoury, returning from a visit to a patient in the outskirts of the town, and walking with a friend and his brother, suddenly cried out, "Oh, there is Grandier! What do you want with me?" He began to tremble and fell into a frenzy from which his two companions could not restore him. They led him home, trembling and speaking to Grandier whom he believed he still saw.

During the few days that he lived, his state was unchanged. He died, always believing that Grandier was present and striving to ward off his approach while uttering terrible speeches.

The distinctly marked characteristic of hallucination is this persistence or repetition of the disturbance: and is an attribute lacking in telepathic visions.

"Sully," continues Briere de Boismont, "relates that the lonely hours of Charles IX became frightful because of the repetition of moans and shrieks that assailed his ears during the massacre of Saint Bartholomew."

If now we wish to consider apparitions, as observed to-day, we will find that they are always presented opportunely and in quiet. This is not the case with hallucinations. If the latter can be explained by illness, remorse, fright, etc., the former are never due to similar causes. We find their incontestable source in a telepathic action, distinct from cerebral activity each time that it is possible to trace back to the sources.

It seems to us, then, that we should apply the word hallucinations only to those images which have, for the deluded one, the same value as the objects, and which are internal in their origin. Another word is needed to designate the image transmitted by the telepathic channel, that is to say, conveyed from an exterior source.

True hallucination always has an internal cause: popular language instinctively words it thus: "To put the thought on yourself," and this phrase expresses it exactly.