Visions are part of our perceptions of the world using our senses. The ears perceive sounds, the tongue tastes, the nose smells, touch shapes and temperatures and the eyes appreciate shapes and colors as well as light and darkness. These are then the visions which can be of different natures. Natural visions are those that are perceived objectively by a certain number of people. These visions can be described as consensual, since their reality can be confirmed by several people. Pathological visions have a unique character that must be discerned in relation to the terrain where they occur. These are, first of all, the hallucinations characteristic of certain psychotropic drugs, effects sought by drug addicts. These perceptions can be auditory, visual, cenesthetic which are localized on the skin in the form of tingling or the presence of a spider’s web. In attacks of delirium tremens, the patient reports small planes flying into his room, or even threatening black beasts which trigger his violence, dangerous for those around him. These visions are believed to be due to chemical alterations of the myelin, which constitutes neurons, and which thus produce parasitic images of the nervous system in the brain. Dream visions which occur during sleep and which are linked to the progress of the latter. These are productions of our unconscious at the moment when our senses no longer connect us to the outside world. Our fantasies can therefore give free rein and indulge in processes of release that are dreams, and even premonitory dreams, which fall within the domain of parapsychology. These representations are most often linked to déjà vu. Which means that we can sometimes escape from the social constraints that the senses can impose on us, to allow us to evolve in the fields of prohibitions.
There is the case of delusional people, whose perceptions are distorted by the existence of an organic illness such as meningitis, encephalitis or high fever in malaria or even a tumor with a specific brain location. Note the mirages perceived by the castaways of the desert, images which disappear with thirst. Despite the particular and fleeting nature of these perceptions, they cannot be considered supernatural. Even the vision of Christ walking on water is indeed a supernatural phenomenon, but not a vision, because it was perceived by the crowd of disciples.
Supernatural visions appear to people of sound body and mind who can faithfully recount them which can be credible and subsequently confirmed by the events announced by the subject of the vision. Starting with the Announcement made to Mary which completely changed the history of the world by considerably marking Christian civilization. Before that, the episode of the burning bush, which did not burn, confirmed the sacred mission entrusted to the prophet witness by the Lord. Still, supernatural visions are intended for extraordinary people, designated to bear responsibility for the consequences. Voices ordered Joan of Arc and Domrémy to come to the aid of France in danger and to bring the king to be crowned in Reims. The eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous, at the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes and of which we are celebrating the hundred and fifty yearsthis year, requires special attention to illustrate the character of these visions. Only Bernadette could see and hear the lady, dazzling in white, whom she did not know and who gave her a message to convey to the faithful. And yet, she was followed by a crowd who neither saw nor heard anything. To confirm the reality of the stories, a blind man was ordered to wash his face with water from the spring dug by Bernadette on the orders of the lady, the blind man miraculously regained his sight. Then, the apparition revealed her name to Bernadette, an illiterate woman, to communicate it to Abbot Peyrevalde, the local priest, who was surprised that an illiterate woman could know of the existence of the Immaculate Conception; another proof that the visions were supernatural. Time has not denied the messages of these apparitions and Lourdes is now one of the most important places of pilgrimage in the world.
Supernatural visions challenge us about the world in which we live and which is not limited to what we can only see, what our senses can grasp. There must exist beyond our faculties to perceive another world, which is irrational. This beyond would be at the limit, the border between the rational and the irrational, which makes us say, in our African traditions that: “the dead are not dead”. This world beyond, which is a reality in the existence of the African, is part of his cosmogony. This world anguishes him, because it remains unknown, reassures him, because the end of his life is not nothingness, but motivates him to prepare to find himself there with his family, the ancestors who preceded him; hence the importance of religion in our cultures.
Being connected to others and not living in isolation characterizes the image of happiness here on earth. It is in no way individualism and enjoyment at all costs, as the objective of existence, encouraged by the modern world of production and consumption, which gives its value to a successful life, by what one has succeeded in life. A successful life is always a life shared while remaining enriching. As Dr. A. Schweitzer wrote: “Love is the only thing that doubles when given.”
It is quite likely that there is no shortage of supernatural visions in our age of advanced technology. But modern visionaries would be hard-pressed to discern the impact of outrageous advertising spots and the purity of a vision devoid of the mental conditioning due to the media and cinema, where the most extravagant situations, which go beyond the imagination, are staged. Supernatural visions are glimpses of this world which remains enigmatic, except when religion or traditions reassure us of its reality as the destination, the ultimate place of punishment or reward for our immortal soul, of what we have done with our existence. Because as death approaches, a man’s feelings would be a summary of all his experience, an inevitable awareness of what we have done with our time, which we have invested in the deception and vanity of things, or the reality and enrichment of the relationship with others whose time is combined with mine and who; ultimately, is my HOPE.
Dr.Raymond JOHNSON Psychiatrist. Psychoanalyst
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