CHAPTER IV

DREAM, VISION AND AUDITION, ECSTASY

(A) PSYCHOLOGY OF DREAM AS RELATED TO

PROPHECY

THE whole subject of dreams can be made clear in few words. It has been shown by Ribot that all sensations can be resensed or refelt, not all by all people, however. Very few, for instance, can resense the sense of taste. Visual impressions are most easily reproduced. Because the sense of sight is the most highly developed, the one most active in filling the mind with psychological content in waking states, it is, therefore, the one most operative in sleeping states, in dreams. In spite of all hasty observations to the contrary, as when one affirms that his dreams contained elements that were never in his consciousness in waking states, it may be shown that the mind in sleep can dream, that is, reproduce only those impressions that have reached it in waking states, through regular channels of sense perceptions.

If there is any doubt of this, it must disappear when we consider the following facts discussed in1 Joseph Jastrow's "Fact and Fable in Psychology." One born without legs or arms, never dreams of them, while one who has lost either legs or arms, or both, continues to dream of them as before.

More conclusive still are the following facts from Jastrow's book.

Of 58 cases of total blindness, 32 of which have become blind before the fifth year, not one sees in dreams. Of six persons who became blind

1

1 Jastrow, Joseph: "Fact and Fable Mifflin & Co., 1900.

in Psychology," Boston, Houghton,

between the years of five and seven, four dream of seeing, but two dream seldom and vaguely, and two never dream of seeing. Of twenty cases who became blind after the seventh year, all see in dreams. These cases show that when vision has become part of consciousness, and the impressions are strong enough as they are after very early age, the dreams reproduce the impressions. Still more conclusive is the example of Laura Bridgeman quoted by Jastrow from an unpublished manuscript of G. Stanley Hall. Sight and hearing are absent from her waking states, and hence they are always absent from her dreams. More than this, as the tactual motor sensations are the only ones through which she communicates with her fellow beings, these are the only ones operative in her dreams. This is proven by the fact that when she dreams of the approach of an enemy, say an animal, she awakens with suddenness and fright, because, while in the case of those endowed with sight and hearing such a dream does not often startle, since the approach of the animal or enemy is conveyed through those avenues of sight and hearing long before the enemy is near, in her case she is conscious of such approach only through the tactual sense, that is when the enemy is actually upon her, and hence the awakening with a sudden start and fright in case of such dreams.1

Hence we note the first conclusion as regards prophetic dreams, namely, prophetic dreams, as non-prophetic dreams, are conditioned absolutely by the content of the dreamer's consciousness,2 which content in all cases is again conditioned by psychological experiences through regular avenues of sense and perception. In other words concepts in the waking as well as in the sleeping state depend upon percepts.

Note further that "an injury done to any part of an organism is apt to give rise to appropriate dream-images. In this way very slight disturbances which could hardly disturb waking consciousness may make themselves felt during sleep. Thus, for example, an incipient toothache has been known to suggest that the teeth are being ex

1 For other examples proving the same thing see "Sleep," by Manacéïne, M. de, London, Scott, 1897, p. 254; cf. also the very valuable interview of Dr. G. Stanley Hall with Laura Bridgeman, quoted by Jastrow, ib., pp. 348-349.

2 Bearing in mind, however, the full meaning of "the content sciousness as indicated in the last chapter on Revelation.

of con

866 Illusions, a Psychological Study," by James Sully, pp. 146-7. New York, Appleton, 1882.

tracted.

. . It is this fact which justifies writers in assigning a prognostic character to dreams."

Heraclitus has already observed that in waking states we have all a common world, while in sleep we have each a world of our own. While the prophets, therefore, move and live in the common world around them, in their sleep they move and live in the world that had been revealed to them through the prophetic call. This becomes still more clear when we consider that feeling, as some writers believe, is the great and even exclusive cause of dreams. "If feelings of distress occupy the mind, distressing images will have the advantage in the struggle for existence which goes on in the world of mind as well as in the world of matter." And since furthermore "the rays of the sun or the moon are answerable for many of the dreams of celestial glory which persons of highly religious temperament are said to experience," it becomes plain how these prophets in their own private world of dream, moved by the promptings of their intense feelings, saw the glorious splendor of the heavens and heard the things nearest their hearts, and how the incipient imagination, unobserved in waking life, intensified by their almost inconceivably intense patriotic and pious feelings, gave rise to those vivid prophetic dreams which were so realistic that they could be interpreted in only one way, namely, as revelations, direct communications from God.

Spencer shows1 how among all ancient peoples, with no explanation of psychological laws, with no words even to designate these phenomena, there could be and there was no other conclusion than that the individual soul in sleep left the body and visited the scenes, and encountered the experiences, of his dreams.2 Now while I am a great 1 Spencer, Herbert: "Principles of Sociology," New York, Appleton, 1904. Vol. I, Chap. X.

2 Cf. Rohde, E.: "Psyche," Tuebingen und Leipzig, Mohr, 1903, Vol. II, pp. 58 ff. where he shows the same phenomena among the Greeks.

hero-worshiper and am carried away with youthful enthusiasm by the grandeur and sublimity of the prophets' character and work, I cannot help observing that they were, in spite of their unmatched religious genius, after all, but children of their age, and their dreams, caused as above indicated, were to them as real as they were to all peoples. They could, therefore, say with all the sincerity of their sincere nature, and without even the slightest suspicion of doubt, that God hath showed them and hath spoken to them all that they saw and heard in their dreams.

The conclusion is therefore evident, in the second place, that the prophets' great mental agitation, primarily as a result of the prophetic call, and secondarily as a result of the awakened life that followed, gave rise to countless incipient fears and hopes which worked themselves out in more or less distinct and elaborate dreams often of a prognostic character.

But, it may be objected, how is it that ordinary dreams contain no great revelation of truth, quite on the contrary, are often very foolish and far from any conception of truth, while the prophetic dreams recorded in their books reveal a mass of ethical, religious and sociological truth of the highest and profoundest nature?

Modern psychology has made it plain that cerebral activity is constantly going on beneath the threshold of consciousness. I may illustrate very simply as follows: I sit and read, suddenly I feel a shooting pain in my leg, that is, I become conscious of a pain and localize it in my leg. Now, some process has been going on for some time to cause the disorder that gave rise to the pain, and something has been recorded of that process in the central organ, but the record was beneath the threshold of consciousness, and I was unaware. When the impression became strong enough, I was made conscious of the dis

order and felt the pain. Or, again, I hear the sound of approaching music; as the music draws nearer, or I draw nearer to it, the sounds become clearer and clearer. Now, all this time the music has been playing the vibrations have made some kind of impression on my brain, but I was not aware of it until the intensity of the vibrations brought the impressions above the subliminal consciousness to consciousness itself. These impressions on the brain that are below the threshold are as real as those registered above the line, but our directing activity in the waking state takes no notice of them in exactly the same way as it takes no notice of countless other impressions that are not in the immediate stream of conscious activity. In a hypnotized subject we see the same law exhibited. It is usually supposed that the hypnotized subject on awaking has no knowledge of any of the suggestions made to him during sleep, but it has been shown by many experimenters that although he is not aware of any impressions that may have been made on his subjective mind, his hand without his knowledge often writes those impressions on the Planchette table, thus showing that impressions may and do exist in the human mind even though consciousness itself in the waking state takes no notice of them. ing sleep, however, when the reins of consciousness are loose, that is, when the power of holding attention and directing is relaxed, all these impressions may rise and flow into the stream of the dream-image.

Dur

How association of ideas, even in dreams, from physical conditions or biological conditions, not yet known to the conscious mind, may take place, the following example will illustrate:

"A man who had spent some time in Egypt and there suffered severely from inflammation of the eyes, some ten years later after he had long been living in another country began to dream every night of different places in Egypt and scenes of his old life in that country. He was absolutely unable to explain the strange frequency of these Egyptian dreams