Shared hallucination

An hallucination in which more than one person is able to 'see' or 'hear' the same thing.  As each person will only be able to describe or indicate a few details given that hallucinations tend to be short lived, it will not ever be possible to verify whether anyone is seeing or hearing exactly the same thing, but as long as approximate details are the same, then this category can be used.

Voices may be easier to match than music, if they are of known people,  as such unless the people are musically inclined and able to reproduce what has been heard, it is unlikely that shared hallucinations of music can be approximately verified.  As we have no way of describing smells, a shared hallucination of a smell is only possible at a very crude level.  It is known already that apparent temperature drops in a room and 'winds' where there is no wind can be experienced on a shared basis.

As none of us actually experiences Noumenal Reality, in many senses the Phenomenal Reality we do experience is a constant form of hallucination and a mass shared hallucination at that.  Those who study this area, however, tend to focus on very unusual occurrences. 

One of the more extraordinary shared hallucinations [in the sense of a mass sharing of Phenomenal Reality in which consensus that it did happen was obtained] is that of the Miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917.  So extraordinary was it that even Richard Dawkins wrote of it in the God Delusion.  He says

But they did.  Scottish philosopher David Hume once wrote, “No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.”  Hume’s test applied to Fatima would be to observe that it is very improbable that 70,000 people could simultaneously collude in a mass lie.  Thus whatever they 'saw' happened within their own Phenomenal Realities.  We then have to decide how it happened - inter-composer communication - a temporary glitch in the 'software' that controls Noumenal Reality.....  Lots of possibilities.  But 70,000 people is probably the largest shared hallucination we have on the site.

Observations

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• A collective hallucination - Witnessing the apparition [out of body state] of the lady who was dying
• A dead father makes noises in the bed curtains - 'Papa, if that's you, speak or appear to us.' The noise ceased at once.
• A death in Egypt and a visit to the children in England
• An hallucination of a man and his faithful dog
• Appearance of a little dog during an experimental séance
• Bayless, Raymond - A shared hallucination, Raymond and his brother both hear the voice
• Bayless, Raymond - The whispering voices of the Navajo reservation near Tuba City, a shared hallucination
• Black Sabbath – The ghosts of Compton House
• Bouissou, Madame Michael - A shared hallucination of celestial choirs - 'How beautiful those voices were'
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 29
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 40
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 41
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 52 Suddenly, my mother heard a heavenly music
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 53 In the ruins of Jumieges Abbey, four people hear a chorus of many male voices singing Vespers
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 60 The emotion evoked in the participants by this mysterious and divine song was such that their attention was diverted for a few moments from the solemn scene
• Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 61 Mr. F. H. Rooke De Guildford and his sister hear celestial music on their mother’s death
• C. M. Dyer of Dorset, Great Britain hears fairy music along with his family
• Camille Flammarion - L'Inconnu (The Unknown) – The nurse who saw the dead husband of Mrs B de L of Lacapelle by the bed of her dying daughter
• Canon Bourne’s two daughters and his coachman – a joint hallucination of an accident of their father
• Captain Towns's ghostly image was reflected on the polished surface of the cupboard
• Caroline Judd and her sister see an image of their dead grandmother looking at a clock
• Cash, Johnny – The ghost of a woman appeared in the dining room when six of us were present. She went across the room toward the closed double doors and went through them without opening them
• Celestial music by the River Tweed – choirs, concerts and bands
• Cornwall - The evidence of John Wilmet and his wife
• Count Auguste de Malachowski's brother sees his dying father
• Daniélou, Alain – The Way to the Labyrinth – The ghost of Rewa Kothi
• David-Neel, Alexandra – Seeing Shangri-la
• Dorothy Walpole - the Brown Lady
• Dr Robert Crookall - More Astral projections – Mr S. H. Rigby has an OBE
• Dr. M. Isnard and his two sisters witness their dying mother’s double
• Duprè, Giovanni - A possibly fatal accident averted by the intervention of a warning voice
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 14 Dr Marie de Thyle, of Saint-Julien, Switzerland and her cat see a ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 16 The dog "Moustache and seven other people see a ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 17 Mrs. H.-L. B and her dog see the ghost of the boy who had died from TB
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 18 Dr. Woetzel and his dog see his wife’s ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 19 Two children and a dog see the ghost the others could not see
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 20 A ghost seen by a bull terrier and an 18 year old
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 21 Violet and Sidney Montgomery, Caffrey’s son and a horse see the apparition of a ghostly woman
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 22 The cat terrified by the ghost of a small, ugly, wrinkled, old shrew figure in her mother's chair
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 23 M.-G. Llewellyn and his terrified cat Fluff see a ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 24 Mrs Cowpland-Trelaor, 'howling dogs' prophecy 4 deaths
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 31 Miss Denton and her dog see a ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 32 The horse who saw Verplanck's ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 33 Mr. G. de Steigner, a dog, a cat and a canary hear a ghost
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 37 Fourteen reports of the ghost of a small white dog
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 41 The Count Tromelin described how Mrs Meille has an hallucination of his dog
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 45 Smoky the deceased Persian cat appears as a ghost to four witnesses
• Ernesto Bozzano, Professor - The parapsychological manifestations of animals – 46 The sad tale of Rover, the border collie
• F**kin' foo fighters
• Fishermen on damaged boat
• Flammarion, Camille - the famous story of ‘our dead Rollet’
• Fleetwood Mac - An early experience of an apparition on the road
• Ghost at Ash Manor House, Surrey
• Ghost of a dog seen by a cat
• Ghosts collectively perceived by humans and animals
• Gibier, Dr Paul - Psychism Analysis of Things Existing - Nearly killed by a very evil spirit which possessed the medium
• Goethe - The death of Goethe and celestial music
• Goethe - Truth and Poetry: from my own life - A pandemonium of elementals
• Haunted house in St Petersburg
• Hazel Cornwell - His face was beautiful, all his lines had gone
• He saw a "cosmic jellyfish" hanging above his bed
• I could see a shadow of a baby's face looking through the window
• Indriðason, Indriði – Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Vol 57 – 29 – Direct singing – two voices a soprano and bass in harmony
• Indriðason, Indriði – Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Vol 57 – 30 – Direct voices in full light
• Isle of Man - Evidence from a Member of the House of Keys
• Isle of Man - The Testimony of Rev. Canon Kewley, of Arbory
• Keightley, Thomas - Dwarfs and trolls
• Lady Stickland's experience
• Laubscher, B J F - A huge black dog appeared amongst them – but it was just a shared hallucination
• Lethbridge, T C - A Step in the Dark – The red lady ghost
• Lethbridge, T C - Ghost and Ghoul – The ghoul of cathedral close
• Linnaeus, Carl - Hears the ghostly footsteps of his dead friend
• Madame d’Esperance - Shadow Land - 18 The appearance of a disembodied man’s face
• Madame d’Esperance - Shadow Land - 25 Anna
• Maureen Magee and Melissa Stevenson - Doppelgangers
• MDMA shared hallucination
• Monsieur X and Madame Y from Brussels share a dream
• Mr W. R. M. Chambers, C.B.E., J.P witnesses the passing of Arthur Gumbley
• Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Pye and the hotel that wasn’t there – a joint hallucination from wishful thinking
• Mr. David Gow, the editor of Light, was impressed by the observational capacity of all the eight witnesses, who said they had seen their mother’s soul leave her dying body
• Mr. Herwig, a distinguished German violinist dies, and provides celestial music after his death, like rays of sunlight turning into sounds
• Mrs Horne – Infant Jamie and his Mother hear the celestial music of the departing spirit
• Ochorowicz, Dr Julian - Annals of Psychic Sciences - Experiments with the medium Miss Stanislawa Tomczyk
• Our piano played by itself - We live in the countryside around Neuchâtel, and I assure you that we are not neurotics here
• Paul Screeton - Two of us saw a smoky, white phantom shape
• Phantasms of the Living - Present in spirit in the front bedroom on the second floor of a house situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington
• Police helicopter crew sight a strange craft
• Popular Mechanics - What the Hell Was That Mystery Aircraft Flying Over Oregon
• Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research - Volume vi - A shared hallucination
• Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research volume vi - A shared message
• Professor Arthur Lovell - At 2 o'clock in the morning, my father died, two minutes later we began to hear on the outside of the window a wonderful song
• Quakers - From Death Bed Visions - A Quaker death
• Ralph Shirley - The Mystery of the Human Double – The dream a clergyman has at midday is acted out at home to his wife and servant
• Rosalind Heywood – The Infinite Hive – They jointly experienced a vivid visual hallucination of six divinely beautiful female figures
• Route march in war
• Saint Augustine - Confessions - The joint vision with his dying mother
• Sarah Jenkins - An extremely lengthy case of celestial music, collectively perceived
• Savage, Dr Minot Judson - Psychics : facts and theories – 06 The spirit who visited her doctor after she died
• Savage, Dr Minot Judson - Psychics : facts and theories – 08 The skye terrier terrified by the three ghosts seen by his mistress
• Saved by a disembodied voice - If the vessel had continued her original course for a few more minutes all would have been over for both ship and crew
• Scotland, Barra - John MacNeill's testimony
• Scotland, Harris - The Testimonies of Ann Macneil & Angus Macleod
• Scott, Sir Walter - Poltergeists at Abbotsford
• Shared death vision
• Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 01 – A lance corporal’s evidence
• Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 02 – There appeared before them on horseback one in white apparel shaking his armour of gold
• Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 03 – The evidence of Phyllis Campbell
• Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 10 – The battle of Augustovo
• Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 11 – The Battle of Edge Hill
• Smoke and fireflies
• Smoke sparkles and yelling
• Snell, Joy – Ministry of Angels – She died of consumption and without sufferings
• Snell, Joy – Ministry of Angels – The little crippled girl and her spirit helpers
• Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan – A shared hallucination of three heads beside the preacher
• Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan – I saw a white cloud coming out of his body and stopping two or three inches away
• Stroud, Mike
• Szalay, Attila - I was lying in bed when I heard a series of flutelike sounds
• The apparition of Jim, the laughing collie dog, took place one hundred and six miles from the city where it was killed
• The celestial music played to everyone at Mr and Mrs Parker’s daughter’s funeral in Woodland, USA
• The children’s dead mother ordered them not to go any farther, but to turn back; when she had said this, she vanished immediately
• The ghost of Palladia manifests itself to two people and is also visible to a dog
• The ghost of Peytoux, the parish priest of Sentenac, haunts the parsonage
• The ghost of the dying girl struck the witness on the shoulder when it passed by
• The ghostly mule escapes from a customs officer
• The harvesters of Bosset, in the canton of Laforce
• The Haunted Bingo Hall - The Theatre Royal Margate
• The haunted road - The horse had suddenly stopped and was so frightened that we no longer had any control over it
• The lady and the dogs passed through them and retreated into the night
• The poltergeist in the top floor flat of the house in Harrington Gardens, SW7, in the spring of 1946
• The pussy panicked by an aberrant ghost
• The Rev. Archer Sheper, vicar of Avenbury (Herefordshire County) - the church that emits organ music without an organist
• The room was suddenly filled with the sound of on organ playing and voices singing a hymn
• The sad notes of a wind harp were heard three times by several people as Lily died
• The Stocksbridge by-pass haunting
• The terrifying haunting of 16 Waterdales
• There was the sick woman, her hands raised in rapt astonishment, the music sounding within the room
• Thünen, Johann Heinrich von - On October 18, the anniversary of Alexander's birth, particularly beautiful and harmonious sounds were heard - my wife found great spiritual consolation in the phenomenon
• Tom Pope, Constable Snowdon and Brian Grimshawe
• Tweedale, Reverend Charles – An auditory hallucination from their dead cat
• Tweedale, Reverend Charles – The death of Mrs. Mary Burnett
• Two sisters see the ghostly form of Aunt Armande
• Viscount Adare - Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr D D Home - 14 Adah Isaaks Menken [deceased] possesses Home
• Viscount Adare - Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr D D Home - 15 Dogs being able to understand each other
• Viscount Adare - Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr D D Home – 33 Home’s dead wife moved close to Home and kissed him
• We both saw a luminous and vibrant vapour appeared above our poor father's head, in the shape of a globe