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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
2
PREFACE
TO
THE
FIRST
EDITION
The
chief
purpose
of
this
book
is,
if
fortune
helps,
to
entertain
people
interested
in
the
kind
of
narratives
here
collected.
For
the
sake
of
orderly
arrangement,
the
stories
are
classed
in
different
grades,
as
they
advance
from
the
normal
and
familiar
to
the
undeniably
startling.
At
the
same
time
an
account
of
the
current
theories
of
Apparitions
is
offered,
in
language
as
free
from
technicalities
as
possible.
According
to
modern
opinion
every
"ghost"
is
a
"hallucination,"
a
false
perception,
the
perception
of
something
which
is
not
present.
It
has
not
been
thought
necessary
to
discuss
the
psychological
and
physiological
processes
involved
in
perception,
real
or
false.
Every
"hallucination"
is
a
perception,
"as
good
and
true
a
sensation
as
if
there
were
a
real
object
there.
The
object
happens
not
to
be
there,
that
is
all."
{0a}
We
are
not
here
concerned
with
the
visions
of
insanity,
delirium,
drugs,
drink,
remorse,
or
anxiety,
but
with
"sporadic
cases
of
hallucination,
visiting
people
only
once
in
a
lifetime,
which
seems
to
be
by
far
the
most
frequent
type".
"These,"
says
Mr.
James,
"are
on
any
theory
hard
to
understand
in
detail.
They
are
often
extraordinarily
complete;
and
the
fact
that
many
of
them
are
reported
as
veridical,
that
is,
as
coinciding
with
real
events,
such
as
accidents,
deaths,
etc.,
of
the
persons
seen,
is
an
additional
complication
of
the
phenomenon."
{0b}
A
ghost,
if
seen,
is
undeniably
so
far
a
"hallucination"
that
it
gives
the
impression
of
the
presence
of
a
real
person,
in
flesh,
blood,
and
usually
clothes.
No
such
person
in
flesh,
blood,
and
clothes,
is
actually
there.
So
far,
at
least,
every
ghost
is
a
hallucination,
"that"
in
the
language
of
Captain
Cuttle,
"you
may
lay
to,"
without
offending
science,
religion,
or
common-sense.
And
that,
in
brief,
is
the
modern
doctrine
of
ghosts.
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