About This Book
The author conducts a wide-ranging survey of uncanny experiences, from apparitions and prophetic dreams to somnambulism, trances, and mesmerism, combining medical observation with folklore. He classifies and analyzes causes of spectral and dream phenomena—psychological association, cerebral excitement or congestion, optical and atmospheric effects, narcotics, and coincidence—and relates clinical cases and popular anecdotes. Chapters examine fairy and demon lore, prophetic belief, and stages of sleep, memory, and trance, showing how physiological and mental conditions produce vivid illusions. The work aims to explain mysterious reports through natural and psychological principles while acknowledging the poetic and cultural forces that shape belief.
About the Author
More Books by This Author
You May Also Like
"About My Father's Business": Work Amidst the Sick, the Sad, and the Sorrowing
by Thomas Archer
"Beautiful Thoughts"
by Henry Drummond
"Bethink Yourselves!"
by graf Leo Tolstoy
"How Can I Help to Abolish Slavery?" or, Counsels to the Newly Converted
by Maria Weston Chapman
"I Believe" and other essays
by Guy Thorne
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
by Charles Francis Adams
