Sometimes the supposed magician or medicine man himself did the scrying; occasionally he enabled his client to see for himself; often a child was selected as the scryer.
These things may have had some effect by way of suggestion; the scryer may have been brought by them into an appropriate frame of mind; but, as a whole, they are tedious and superfluous.
Others see in the glass coloured figures of men, women and animals in motion; while in rarer cases the ball disappears from view, and the scryer finds himself apparently looking at an actual scene.
People who cannot scry may have these hypnagogic illusions, and, so far, may partly understand the experience of the scryer who is wide awake.
In these respects, and in the awakeness of the scryer, crystal pictures differ from hypnagogic illusions.