This example makes it clear that an apparition has none of the characteristics attributed to hallucination. They are two totally different phenomena, one of them, an hallucination, having its source in the subject, while the other, an apparition, emanates from an active exterior agent.

When the person who appears as an apparition does not act consciously, he is not in his normal state, but in a state of natural or hypnotic sleep, in a crisis of approaching death or a comatose condition.1

The cases of spontaneous apparitions are not less instructive, and are due to an identical cause: that is, lacking an intentional effort, it is a special excitation of the subject which lends his psychic power this extraordinary activity perceived by a "sensitive" and felt wherever his desire leads.

Case 200.2 - A young man was seen upon the lawn of his home in England, while he himself was in Australia. Because of this apparition he was thought to be dead. But upon his return the young man said that he had been seriously ill, and that during his delirium had begged to be carried out under the large cedar on the lawn. He had then seemed to see the place as distinctly as he now saw it upon his return.

Apparitions, like the phenomena of raps, are most often manifested spontaneously around the dying.

It would be interesting to determine, in each case, if the apparition had preceded or followed death. But we cannot dilate upon this subject: those who might wish to go deeper should consult the work by Mr. Gabriel Delanne, Les Apparitions Material-isees des vivants et des morts (Materialized Apparitions of the Living and the Dead). 3

Let us now consider material apparitions. Skeptics insist that the spiritists draw their affirmations from nothingness, but as a matter of fact all the scholars of the Century have been challenged to take account of the matter for themselves. The incredulous do not like to hear of the documents gathered by the Dialectic Society of London, by Sir William Crookes, Professor Charles Richet, Lombroso, Morselli and others. But according to these witnesses fragmentary materialization is no longer contestable.

1 See Telepathic Hallucinations, p. 266.

2 Resume from Phantasms of the Living, Vol. I, p. 540.

3 This documentation is both enlightening and abundant.

There can be no doubt to-day that the existence at least of materialized fluidic members has been verified experimentally, whether the psychic body really represents the mold upon which gather the particles of matter that cause its visibility, or whether this exteriorization of suggestible and malleable substance indeed espouses the forms of thought. A beginning of materialization would be" a possible explanation of raps and table lifting.

This conviction was some time ago reached by Dr. Ochorowicz, a learned physician, whose report published as early as 1895 gives the following conclusion:

The hypothesis of a fluidic double (astral body) which, under certain conditions, is detached from the body of the medium, seems necessary for an explanation of the majority of phenomena. According to this theory, the movement of objects without contact would be produced by the fluidic members of the medium.1

It was evident in the case of the medium Eusapia Paladino that her muscular activity and contractions were in correlation with the gestures of the fluidic member. Well-controlled experiments have proved that the fluidic organ is often manifested in visible form as hands, feet or heads.

1 Conclusions of Dr. Ochorowicz after the seances of Warsaw, in The Outward Manifestation of Motivity by Albert de Rochas.

Proof of this is set forth in the testimony:

William Crookes.1- I shall merely choose a few of the many instances in which I have seen the hands of the fluidic organ in full light. A small beautiful hand rose from a dining-room table and offered me a flower. It thrice appeared and disappeared giving me every opportunity to convince myself that the apparition was as real as my own hand. This manifestation occurred in the light, in my own room, while I was holding the hands and feet of the medium.

More than once I have seen an object begin to move, then a luminous mist forming round about it, which condensing, took shape and changed into a perfectly modeled hand. All those present saw the hand at that moment. This hand is not always merely a hand: sometimes it is animated and very graceful, with moving fingers and the flesh apparently as human as that of any of the spectators. At wrist or arm, the hand grows vaporous, vanishing into a luminous mist.

I have held one of these hands in mine with a determination not to let it go. No attempt or effort was made to escape my hold, but little by little the hand seemed to dissolve into vapor, and in this way slipped from my grasp.

Examples of this sort of materialization are numerous, and I wish to give the testimony of Ch. Richet.

1W. Crookes, New Experiments upon Psychic Force, 1897. Resume, p. 161.

With this physiologist the proofs are somewhat more diffuse, for he analyzes endlessly. He wishes to foresee every obstacle and, as he declares, to be twenty times sure.

The control, more than the phenomenon itself, absorbs his attention: such careful precautions are taken that it would be impossible to add more. Richet would not be sure of having securely held a hand, if at the interesting moment, his attention had not been as concentrated upon this hand as upon the phenomenon.

But it is preferable to quote Richet:

"It is clear that when I say a very distinct hand, I presuppose that all possible chicanery has been considered. A vague contact is not a hand: the sensation of a stump or palm is not enough. By a very distinct hand I mean a hand that is perfectly formed, the fingers of which may be felt, a hand which is capable of pinching the arm, pulling the hair or beard, in a word, of giving such sensations as only a hand may give. This is living, animated, absolutely identical with a human hand. I have made this experiment; and, besides successful experiments in Rome, I succeeded four times on the Island of Roubaud. Upon one occasion, I held in one of my hands both of Eusapia's and raised my other hand very high in the air. The hand which appeared to us caught two of my fingers, pulled at them strongly and after having pulled them, tapped sufficiently loudly upon the back of my hand for everyone to hear."1