[ noun ] a constantly changing medley of real or imagined images (as in a dream) <noun.cognition>
Phantasmagoria \Phan*tas`ma*go"ri*a\, n. [NL., from Gr. ? a phantasm + ? an assembly, fr. ? to gather: cf. F. phantasmagorie.] 1. An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The figures are painted in transparent colors, and all the rest of the glass is opaque black. The screen is between the spectators and the instrument, and the figures are often made to appear as in motion, or to merge into one another.
2. The apparatus by which such an effect is produced.
3. Fig.: A medley of figures; illusive images. ``This mental phantasmagoria.'' --Sir W. Scott.
A hundred years ago the American performer Loie Fuller took Paris by storm. Her work was a phantasmagoria of lighting, fabric and music; and she, moving at the centre of the picture, seemed to keep transforming herself.
The torture would be the more exquisite for the fact that the only congenial spirits the condemned could turn to would be one another. This phantasmagoria should not be taken as an argument in favour of Labour, or a Lab-Lib coalition.
For Knott's, all this mock phantasmagoria produces real, soothing profits.