§ 1. The main points which I shall illustrate in the present chapter are two: (1) the gradual development of many telepathic hallucinations; and (2) the frequent embodiment of the idea which is at the root of them in an original, improbable, or fantastic manner - its clothing upon (so to speak) with images that indicate a distinct process of mental activity. Both of these points present themselves also in hallucinations of the sane of the purely subjective class; and the consideration of them will, I think, sufficiently establish the parallelism - as phenomena for the senses - of subjective and telepathic phantasms.

As regards gradual development - one form of it might be found in that deferment of the percipient's experience, which is as frequent a feature in the phantasmal group as we have found it to be in other groups of telepathic cases.1 We should scarcely look for any very precise analogy to this deferment in the purely subjective class; inasmuch as the connection of a purely subjective hallucination with an idea which has previously obtained unconscious lodgment in the mind must, from the very nature of the case, be hard to establish. I may, however, refer once more to the N'IMPORTE incident, and to the other case described at p. 315, note 2, where an idea which was so far latent that even a deliberate search for it failed to evoke it, projected itself in sensory form at what appeared to be a quite casual moment. I will add an experience which has been described to me by a naval Captain, who has never in his life had any other hallucination of the senses. During his first important command, he twice in one night had a distinct auditory impression of the words, "Captain F come on deck" - the reality of the impression being shown by the fact that he obeyed the imaginary summons. He does not recall any preceding knowledge of danger.

But it turned out that the course which the ship was running was in fact a dangerous one; and it is natural, therefore, to conclude that some subconscious idea that his presence might be needed shaped itself in this outward form.2

But the development of which I wish here to speak is that which occurs after the abnormal experience has actually commenced. Such development may take various forms. Thus (1) the phantasm may be recognised only some moments after it has been perceived, or even after it has ceased to be perceived; or (2) a visible figure may take shape gradually; or (3) the process of illusion may include several distinct stages. In all these 337 cases we may suppose that the idea, at first but dimly conceived and vaguely apprehended, is working itself into definiteness (as so often occurs in the processes of abstract reasoning), and that the character of the projection undergoes a corresponding change. Nowhere do we more clearly see the affinity of the waking hallucinations to dreams, which often, of course, exhibit the working out of an idea in a prolonged and elaborate form.

1 See, e.g., pp. 144, 187-8.

² The more striking case quoted in the note on p. 306, note 2, may without improbability be attributed to a similar latent idea of danger.