The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-30
A PSYCHICAL PROBLEM.
How Do People Wake at Given Houre

A discussion has been going on in the
English Society for Psychical Research
as to the existence and the nature of the
power by which SO many people manage
to wake themselves precisely at the hour
at which they have resolved to wake
themselves the previous night. 1t is
matter on which probably the greater
number Of people can convince them
selves. You may fix the time when no
clock strikes SO that it cannot be half
heard sound which wakes you.
You may fix five minutes before the
hour in a house in which no clock strikes
the quarter or even a house in which
there is no striking clock at all and no
church clock within couple of miles,
and yet not one person only, but great
many-we might perhaps say the major
ity of persons past middle AEGEAN wake
themselves at the right hour if on the
previous night they go to bed with. the
resolve to do SO strong in their minds
1t is a power which belongs to all sorts
of persons-not only persons who have
been in the habit of getting up at given
hours, but to persons who have not
Most nurses have it, most servants,
most laborers, most professional men,
says the London Spectator. Yet it is
very difficult to account for, for when
you wake you have no distinct, nor,
indeed, indistinct, recognition OF the
time on you You only know what
time you ought to have been awake, but
not in the least consciously that this
time has arrived, though, when you
look at your watch in alright, you find
as matter of fact that it has arrived,
and only just arrived. We believe that
the same power would apply to the day
time under the same conditions, namely,
that you fix firmly in your mind some
hours or at least some considerable
time earlier that you are to do something
specific, and to be aroused to sense OF
the time at specific minute; only peo-
pie notice this less since there are so
many things in the daytime which warn
us and thus put us on the watch as to
how time is flying.
The curious thing is that, though you
can arrest your own attention and wake
up at the required time, you never seem
to have the least assurance that it is the
right time without consulting your
watch. If you do really divine time you
have no power of recognizing that you
have "divined"it. You feel that you have
merely guessed it, and very probably
guessed wrong, until your watch confirms
the guess.
The mind measures duration chiefly
by the succession of it's own thoughts
but as we have seen, it is not duration,
but something quite different from dura-
ton, of which it appears to be conscious;
thus it can wake the body at any given
hour without even knowing consciously
at ieast) how much time has elapsed
since the resolve to wake was first formed
In the journal of the Society of Psychical
Research for August we are told of a
lady, "well known to the editor" who
chronicled her experience in this matter
during part of last July, and for July
5 she makes the following entry:
"July 5-Order given again casually,
with none of the seriousness of intention
which I should have associated with
it had I been going to act upon the Sc
quence instead Of merely experimenting
on it. This time 1 said: Wake me. to
take journey at 4 O'clock meaning
wake me at 4, but not saying SO. was
awakened with strugglesof conscious
ness, could not remember where | was
or anything, but seemed to be down in
a deep place like well and heard an
inner voice say: Wake and get up, it's
lust o. CLOCK; you need an hour to pre-
pare for a Journey at A. Still / was but
half conscious, when the words repeated:
1T is 3, not 4, but said, Wake me tor
journey at T. By that time was awake
completely, and the clock struck .: /"
bAAND
the wrong hour because her words had
been inaccurate either had grudge
against her and took advantage OF her
slip of the tongue to waken her before
she needed, in which case it would hard
ly have been her deepest self Whlch dlo
this or it was really misled by the Ian
guage, in which case it certainly was not
her deepest self. for it took her at her
word, and not at her meaning, though
if it had been her deepest self 1t would
have known her meaning.
1t is a very curious power, Tor Wnlcn
we can assign no parallel. We certainly
have no similar power OF waking our
selves on a journey at ian exact point In
space on which we may previously de-
termine.
If we resolve to wake up at the moment
the express train in which we are travel
ling passes a particular point from which
suppose, a striking landscape is visible,
we, should not manage it unless the train
was SO punctual that we could effect it
by determining to waken at the precise
minute when the train was due there,
though in that way we believe it might
occasionally be effected.
But there certainly are multitudes OF
persons who appear to carry some KIND
of clock about them in their inner mind,
though whether it be the clock of the
house or the clock of the neighborhood
it would be well to find out.
In the present writer's case it is not the
clock OF the house, which is kept fast,
but, as near as he can judge, what he
believes to be the right time-i. e., rail
way time-though if he were, say, five
minutes wrong in his impression of what
right time is it is probable that he would
awaken by the time of his impression,
and not by the railway or Greenwich
time