phantasmagoria

phantasmagorias

Dream-like visions can be called a phantasmagoria. If you've ever had a very high fever, you might have experienced seeing a phantasmagoria of strange images in your half-awake, feverish state.

The strange, hallucinatory images you might see in a dream are a phantasmagoria. Even when you're awake, if you see odd or fantastic things — either real or imagined — they're a phantasmagoria. The word was invented by a French dramatist in 1801, who used the Greek word for "image," phantasma to make the French word phantasmagorie. The word referred to a "magic lantern" show, which in the 1800s was a popular display of projected images.