Евгений Шубралов – Suggestion at a distance: theory, practice and philosophy (страница 7)

An excellent example of this is the following case, which occurred during the American mental epidemics known as the renaissance: "A gentleman and lady, well known in fashionable society, were attracted to a field meeting in Cave Ridge. On the way there, they made many contemptuous remarks about the poor, headless creatures lying screaming in the mud and jokingly promised to help each other if any of them got convulsions. They did not look long at the strange scene in front of them as the young woman lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Her companion, forgetting his promise, immediately left her and ran with all his might. But running didn't save him. Before he had gone 200 yards, he also fell in convulsions."

We have no less instructive cases in mass suicides and in the so-called cases of induced or, more precisely, vaccinated insanity (folie a deux). In both cases, we are talking about the effect of suggestion, thanks to which the infection of suicides occurs, on the one hand, and, on the other, the transmission of painful mental states from one person to another. There are examples when cases of vaccinated insanity, studied in detail by Lassegue'om and Falret, Legrand du Saulle'om, Schman'om, Regis, Marandon'om, Promier'om, Yakovenko, Agadranyants (from our clinic) and many others. others, were sometimes observed even in an entire family consisting of 4.5 and even 6 and 8 persons. These cases thus represent a real mental family epidemic.

Even healthy individuals sometimes assimilate the delusions of patients (Solder, Moreau, Morel, Baillarger, etc.).

It is also known that the best way to eliminate such a borrowed brand is to immediately disconnect the persons influencing each other.

MASS ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS

In the above examples, there is no doubt about such pathological cases, which are particularly susceptible to mental influences from others. However, there is no doubt that in some cases the transmission of mental infection appears to be extremely facilitated even among perfectly healthy individuals.

Especially favorable conditions for such transmission are the ideas of the same kind prevailing in the minds of many people and the affects and moods of the same nature. Due to these conditions, illusions and hallucinations of an identical nature develop in many people at the same time.

These collective or mass hallucinations, which occur under certain conditions, represent one of the most interesting psychological phenomena. In almost every family chronicle, you can hear stories about the vision of deceased relatives by a whole group of people.

There is a well-known story about a cook on a ship who died unexpectedly, which amazed all the passengers of the ship. The usual naval funeral was performed in such cases, that is, the corpse was lowered into the sea, and in the evening of the same day many of the passengers saw the deceased cook walking behind the ship and hobbling on one leg. Needless to say, everyone was thrown into indescribable fear and that many passengers spent an anxious night.

The next morning, the matter was clarified. Instead of the cook, there was a stump of wood tied to the stern of the ship.

It is said that in the old days, when ships moved under sail and when they were caught in a calm under the tropics and had to stay in boundless space for a long time during the terrible heat, passengers sometimes developed mass illusions and hallucinations, while they often seemed to be near the earth with extremely beautiful views and picturesque outlines of the shores.

One of the interesting examples of mass illusions and hallucinations is, among other things, the case that happened to French military vessels in 1846. The frigate Belle-Poule and the corvette Berceau were caught in a terrible hurricane near the islands of the Compound. The first of them survived the hurricane safely, but lost sight of the corvette "Berceau" and, considering it useless to search for it in the open ocean, headed for a pre-arranged rendezvous point off the eastern coast of Madagascar, to the island of St. Mary. There was no corvette here, and all searches near the island were fruitless. Naturally, this was followed by a painful waiting period for the Belle-Poule crew. Every day brought more and more concern for the fate of the unfortunate corvette, whose crew consisted of 300 people. A whole month has passed in such agonizing expectation. Finally, one hot sunny afternoon, a signaller sitting on a mast noticed a ship without masts in the west near the shore. The entire crew fixed their eyes on the indicated point and made sure that the signaller's message was fair.

It goes without saying that this event excited everyone, and the excitement reached an even greater degree when everyone saw before them not a wrecked ship, but a raft filled with people and towed by sea boats, from which signals of death were given. This vision lasted for several hours, and with each passing minute, more and more horrifying details of this scene became clear. On the order of the commander, the Archimede cruiser standing in the raid was immediately sent to help the dead. The day was already coming to an end and the southern night was beginning to descend when the Archimede approached its destination. It should be noted that all this time the crew of the cruiser Archimede saw people dying on the raft; there were even cries for help, drowned out by the splash of oars. This amazing illusion was dispelled only when the boats launched from the cruiser approached an object that was mistaken for a raft with people and turned out to be a mass of huge trees torn from the shore, brought here by the current. At the same time, the hope of seeing the passengers of the wrecked ship "Berceau" was finally lost, and their very fate was covered with a thick darkness of uncertainty.

Needless to say, the influence of suggestion is evident in the development of this mass hallucination, so to speak. Undoubtedly, the disasters experienced at sea greatly aroused the nerves of the passengers of the cruiser Belle-Poule and Archimede, and anxiety and fear for the fate of the 300 companions who were on the Berceau contributed a lot to a well-known trend of minds. Naturally, everyone's thoughts focused on the assumption of the possible death of their unfortunate companions. All the conversations boiled down to the same topic. At such and such a time, the signaller notices a strange object with vague outlines on the horizon towards sunset, and under the influence of the thought of the wreck of the corvette, the image of the latter is recreated from his eyes. His mere words that a wrecked ship could be seen in the distance were enough to inspire everyone with the same illusion. Next comes the development of the same inspired illusion. When exchanging thoughts about a visible object, everyone agrees that it is not a wrecked ship, but a raft filled with people and towed by boats from which distress signals are heard. This general illusion and hallucination lasts until the boats sent crashed into the dense foliage of floating trees.

There is no doubt that similar phenomena are possible in other cases and, perhaps, even occur more often than is usually accepted. Many of us probably still remember that when aggravated the relations with Germany had begun, a strange flights to Russia Prussian balloons. Whole masses of faces testified to the simultaneous vision of these balloons by many people, despite the fact that modern aeronautics did not give reason to believe in the reality of these flights. In view of this, it was not without reason that the idea was expressed that these flights of Prussian balloons belonged to the field of mass hallucinations caused by the direction of minds towards possible hostile actions against us from Germany.

Has the same story happened with Andre's balloon, which flew to the north pole? How many telegrams were received at one time from different parts of the northern hemisphere about the vision of the Andre ball by a whole mass of people. Was there not also a case of mass illusion or hallucination, just as it was, apparently, with the Prussian balloons? Such an explanation at least suggests itself when you read the smallest details about the vision of the Andre ball by several persons of one or another area.

No less well-known are historical examples of collective hallucinations. Among such hallucinations are, among other things, the vision of the heavenly army by one detachment of Russian troops before the Battle of Kulikovo, the vision of the crusaders clad in armor and descending from heaven by the heavenly army led by St. George, Demetrius and Theodore, the vision of the bright knight on the Mount of Olives waving a cross during the storming of Jerusalem, the famous vision of the cross in heaven with the inscription "you will win with this", experienced by Constantine the Great and his retinue before the start of a decisive battle and many others.

Mass religious visions have happened repeatedly and in later times. So, during a severe cholera epidemic in 1885, residents of the village of Corano near Naples began to see the Madonna in a black robe praying for the salvation of people on the nearest hill where the chapel stood. Word of this incident spread quickly through the surrounding area, and people began to flock to Corano. The vision continued until the Government took decisive measures against the further spread of this epidemic hallucination. The chapel was moved to another place, the hill was occupied by a detachment of Carabinieri, after which the vision stopped (Verga). There is also a known hallucinatory epidemic that developed among the peasants of the Rhine province during the Franco-Prussian War and was expressed by mass visions of religious and military content, such as visions on roof skates, on glass and other objects of images of the Madonna, crucifixion, zouaves, cannons, etc