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This publication deals with a phenomenon that has been expressed in various aspects in both literature and art: people exist who have, or are able to gain, the ability to see in trance irreal figures appear and act. Depending on the visionary´s spiritual or religious environment, these appearances take on meanings in accordance with the visionary´s expectation and then, dogmatically interpreted, are entered by the visionary himself or by others into religious literature as stories of actual events - sometimes being so transformed in the process that their visionary origin is no longer apparent.
Our study examines this phenomenon in the so-called Hinayana Buddhism in India and its transmission to Central Asia, where this process can often be observed. The faculty of visions is naturally not limited to Buddhism; it can be equally observed in the three major monotheistic religions as well. One prominent example from the Bible is the transfiguration of Jesus, - perhaps the vision with the greatest consequences in the New Testament.

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