The Contagious Spread Of Strong Imaginations on Superphysics

Our natural tendency to imitate others in everything

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After having explained the nature of the imagination, the faults to which it is prone, and how our own imagination leads us into error, there remains only one topic to discuss in this second book: the contagious communication of strong imaginations — that is, the power certain minds have over others to draw them into their own mistakes.

General Examples of the Power of Imagination

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are very common examples of this communication of imagination in children with respect to their fathers, and even more in daughters with respect to their mothers; in servants with respect to their masters, and in maidservants with respect to their mistresses; in schoolboys with respect to their tutors, in courtiers with respect to kings, and generally in all inferiors with respect to their superiors, provided however that fathers, masters and other superiors have some strength of imagination, for without that it could happen that children and servants would receive no considerable impression from the weak imagination of their fathers or masters.

The Power of Imagination of Certain Authors

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

General

One of the greatest and most remarkable proofs of the power that imaginations have over one another is the power that certain authors have to persuade without any reason. For example, the turn of phrase of Tertullian, of Seneca, of Montaigne, and of some others, has so many charms and so much brilliance that it dazzles the mind of most people, although it is only a weak painting and as it were the shadow of the imagination of these authors. Their words, as dead as they are, have more vigor than the reason of certain people. They enter, they penetrate, they dominate the soul in so imperious a manner that they make themselves obeyed without making themselves understood, and one yields to their orders without knowing them. One wishes to believe, but one does not know what to believe; for when one wishes to know what one wishes to believe, and one approaches, so to speak, these phantoms to recognize them, they often vanish in smoke with all their apparatus and all their brilliance.

The Imagination of Seneca

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Seneca’s imagination is sometimes no better regulated than that of Tertullian. His impetuous movements often carry him into unknown lands, where nevertheless he walks with the same assurance as if he knew where he is and where he is going. Provided he makes great strides, figured strides, and in a just cadence, he imagines he advances much; but he resembles those who dance, who always end where they began. One must carefully distinguish the force and beauty of words from the force and evidence of reasons.

Montaigne's Book

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Montaigne’s Essays can also serve us as proof of the power that imaginations have over one another, for this author has a certain free air, he gives such a natural and vivid turn to his thoughts that it is difficult to read him without letting oneself be prejudiced.

Imaginary Sorcerers and Werewolves

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The strangest effect of the force of imagination is the disordered fear of the appearance of spirits, of sorceries, of characters, of charms, of lycanthropes or werewolves, and generally of everything one imagines depends on the power of the demon.