Often, people are tempted to write off apparitions as “hallucinations.” This term, however, is rarely applicable to the accredited apparitions. The apparitions that are deemed authentic tend to have many common elements.

According to Roy Abraham Varghese in his book God-Sent: A History of the Accredited Apparitions of Mary, the first element that has been significant from a psychological perspective is that those who experience authentic apparitions are consistently of sound mental health. They demonstrate no more suggestibility than their peers. A person who experiences an apparition is often called a visionary. On the other side of the spectrum are those who experience hallucinations. Hallucinations tend to be experienced by those who have specific mental conditions related to neurosis or psychosis, which predispose them to experience altered states of reality. Hallucinations may also be drug-induced. Visions are also frequently (but not always) experienced by at least a few people, while hallucinations are generally experienced by an individual.

The Making of a Visionary

Certain people are more likely to see the Virgin Mary than others. Poor children, for example, are far more likely to see Mary than adults. Children make for more trustworthy witnesses because they are less successful at deception. Some skeptics, however, claim that children are also more likely to fabricate encounters with the Virgin Mary because of their overactive imaginations.

This theory, however, seems less plausible when one considers the scrutiny that these children often face after experiencing an apparition — in Fatima, a nine-year-old shepherd girl named Lucia Dos Santos was beaten by her mother after describing her encounter with the Virgin Mary. Her mother repeatedly tried to force her to take her story back, but Lucia held to her original account. Later, all three children seers were kidnapped by a local civil administrator. He separated the children and threatened them with death in a red hot frying pan if they did not retract their stories or share their “secrets.” All three children endured three days of interrogation and did not alter their stories or surrender their secrets.

During a Vision

During a vision, those who see the Virgin Mary are thought to enter into an ecstatic state where they are unresponsive to external pain or stimuli. Often, their faces radiate peace and joy as they gaze toward a specific location. Witnesses to the apparition who aren't visionaries will not actually see the Virgin Mary, but may be able to observe the progress of the vision through the face of the visionary. They may also experience companion phenomena that are distinct from what the visionaries are seeing, such as the miracle of the sun at Fatima and the lunar miracles at Medjugorje.

Scientists and medical professionals have tested the authenticity of apparitions in ways that may seem barbaric. During the course of an apparition, they have sometimes stabbed the visionaries with needles or knives or attempted to burn them with flame. When the ecstatic state is authentic, the visionaries do not flinch from the pain and their bodies are unable to receive injuries.

Visionaries report lifelong transformation after encounters with the Virgin Mary. Some apparitions recur multiple times and are followed by extreme periods of persecution from local authorities. In some cases, visionaries have suffered martyrdom after experiencing an apparition. Such was the case with the apostle James, who according to Christian tradition, was both the first Christian ever to experience an apparition of the Virgin Mary, and the first apostle to be martyred for the faith.