Visions
(From Latin visus, p.p. of videre, to see.) The appearance to mortals of supernatural persons, or scenes. Of great frequency in early and mediæval times, and among savage or semi-civilised races, visions seem to have decreased proportionately with the advance of learning and enlightenment. Thus among the Greeks and Romans of the classic period they were comparatively rare, though visions of demons or gods were occasionally seen. On the other hand, among Oriental races the seeing of visions was a common occurrence, and these took more varied shapes. In mediæval Europe, again, visions were almost commonplaces, and directions were given by the Church to enable men to distinguish visions of divine origin from those false delusions which were the work of the Evil One. Visions may be roughly divided into two classes-those which are spontaneous, and those which are induced. But, indeed, the great majority belong to the latter class. Ennemoser enumerates the causes of such appearances thus: (1) Sensitive organism and delicate constitution; (2) Religious education and ascetic life (fasting, penance, etc.); (3) Narcotics-opium, wine, incense, narcotic salves (witchsalves); (4) Delirium, monomania; (5) Fear and expectation, preparatory words, songs, and prayers. Among the visions induced by prayer and fasting, and the severe selfdiscipline of the religious ascetic, must be included many historical or traditional instances - the visions of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony, St. Bernard Ignatius, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Hildegarde, Joan of Arc. It may be noted that the convent has ever been the special haunt of religious visions, probably for the reasons above mentioned. But the most potent means for the inductions of visionary appearances are those made use of by the Orientals. Narcotics of all kinds-opium, haschish, and so on-are indulged in, and physical means used for this express purpose. Thus the Brahmins will gaze for hours at a time at the sun or moon, will remain for months in practically the some position, or will practise all manner of mortification of the body, so that they may fall at length into the visionary sleep (a species of catalepsy.) The narcotic salves with which they anoint themselves are said to be similar to the witch-salves used in the Middle Ages, which induced in the witch the hallucination that she was flying through the air on a goat or a broomstick. Opium also is said to produce a sensation of flying, as well as visions of celestial delight. Alcoholic intoxication induces visions of insects and small animals, as does also nitrogen. The vapours rising from the ground in some places, or those to be found in certain caverns, are said to exercise an effect similar to that of narcotics. The Indians of North America practise similar external methods of inducing visions--- solitude, fasting, and the use of salves or ointments. The savages of Africa have dances which, by producing severe dizziness, help them towards the desired visionary ecstasy. The northern savages attain the same end by the use of drums and noisy music. Spontaneous visions, though less common, are yet sufficiently numerous to merit attention here. The difficulty is, of course, to know just how far "fear and expectation" may have operated to induce the vision. In many cases, as in that of Swedenborg, the visions may have commenced as "visions of the night," hardly to be distinguished from dreams, and so from vision of an "internal" nature to clearly externalised apparitions. Swedenborg himself declares that when seeing visions of the latter class he used his senses exactly as when awake, dwelling with the spirits as a spirit, but able to return to his body when he pleased. An interesting case of spontaneous vision is that of Benvenuto Cellini (q.v.). Visions are by no means confined to the sense of sight. Taste, hearing, smelling, touch, may all be experienced in a vision. Joan of Arc, for instance, heard voices encouraging her to be the deliverer of her country. Examples may be drawn from the Bible, as the case of the child Samuel in the Temple, and instances could be multiplied from all ages and all times. The visions of Pordage and the "Philadelphia Society," -or, as they called themselves later, the "Angelic Brethren "-in 1651 are noteworthy in this respect because they include the taste of "brimstone, salt, and soot." In the presence of the Angelic Brethren " pictures were drawn on the window-panes by invisible hands, and were seen to move about. 66 Wafer Democritus held that visions and dreams are passing shapes, ideal forms proceeding from other beings. Of death-bed visions Plutarch says: "It is not probable that in death the soul gains new powers which it was not before possessed of when the heart was confined within the chains of the body; but it is much more probable that these powers were always in being, though dimmed and clogged by the body; and the soul is only then able to practise them when the corporeal bonds are loosened, and the drooping limbs and stagnating juices no longer oppress it." The spiritualistic theory of visions can hardly be called a physiological one, save in so far as spirit is regarded as refined matter. An old theory of visionary ecstasy on these lines was that the soul left the body and proceeded to celestial spheres, where it remained in contemplation of divine scenes and persons. Very similar to this is the doctrine of Swedenborg, whose spirit, he believed, could commune with discarnate spirits -the souls of the dead-as one of themselves. To this may be directly traced the doctrines of modern spiritualism, which thus regards visions as actual spirits or spirit scenes, visible to the ecstatic or entranced subject whose spirit was projected to discarnate planes. The question whether or no visions are contagious has been much disputed. It has been said that such appearances may be transferred from one person to another by the laying on of hands. In the case of the Scottish seers such a transference may take place even by accidental contact with the seer. The vision of the second person is, however, less distinct than that of the original seer. The same idea prevailed with regard to the visions of magnetised patients. In so far as these may be identified with the collective hallucinations of the hypnotic state, there is no definite scientific evidence to prove their existence. Visions have by no means been confined to the ignorant or the superstitious. Many men of genius have been subject to visionary appearance. While Raphael was trying to paint the Madonna she appeared to him in a vision. The famous composition known as the "Devil's Sonata" was dictated to Tartini by the Evil One himself. Goethe also had visions. Blake's portraits of the Patriarchs were done from visionary beings which appeared to him in the night. And such instances might easily be multiplied.
Vitality, according to theosophists, comes from the sun. When a physical atom is transfused with vitality, it draws to itself six other atoms and thus makes an etheric element. The sum of their vitality is then divided among each of the atoms and in this state the element enters the physical body by means of one of the sense organs or chaksams of the etheric double-that situated opposite the spleen. Here the element is divided into its component parts and these are conveyed to the various parts of the physical body. It is on vitality that the latter depends, not only for life but for its well-being in life. A person sufficiently supplied with it enjoys good health and one insufficiently supplied is afflicted with poor health. In the case of a healthy person, however, more vitality is drawn in than is necessary for the vital purposes and the superfluous vitality acts beneficially on his neighbours, whether human or animal, while it can also be directed in certain definite channels to the healing of diseases and so forth. With unhealthy persons, the case is, of course, reversed, and they devitalise the more healthy, with whom they come in contact.
Physiological exlpanations of visions have from time to time been offered. Plato says: "The eye is the organ of a fire which does not burn but gives a mild light. The rays proceeding from the eye meet those of the outward light. With the departure of the outward light the inner also becomes less active; all inward movements become calmer and less disturbed; and should any more prominent influences have remained they become in various points where they congregate, so many pictures of the fancy." Vukub-Came: (See Hell.) Vjestica, a Slav name for a witch: (See Slavs.) W