Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-05-20
WAKING UP AT WILL.
WHY is 1T THAT MANY PERSONS
WAKE AT A CERTAIN HoURl

A Discussion of a Peculiar Phase of the |
Sleeping Mind - True, II Il Beyond
Doubt That Many There Arc who Can
Set Themselves for Certain Period.
A discussion has been going on in the
Society for Psyehical Research as to the ex-
istence 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 awake on the pre-
vious night. There is no question as to the
fact. 1t Is matter ou which probably the /
greater number OF people can convince |
themselves. You may fix time when no
clock strikes, 50 that 1t cannot be half 4
heard sound which wakes you.
You may fix five minutes before the hour |
In house in which no clock strikes the
quarters, or even - house in which there |
Is no striking clock at an and no church
clock within couple Of miles. aud yet not
one person only, but a great many we
Nigh; perhaps say the majority Of persons
past middle AEGEAN wake themselves at
the right hour IL on the previous night
they 20 to bed with the resolve TO do so
strong on their minds. II is "A power which
belongs to all sorts Of persons-not only
persons who have been in the habit Of get
thug up at given hours, but TO persons who
have not.
Most nurses have It. most servants, mos,
laborefs, most professional men. Yet IL Is
very difficult to account for, for when you
wake you have no distinct, nor indeed in
distinct recognition Of the time on you.
You only know what time you ought to
have been awake, but not in the least con
sciously that this time has arrived, though
when you look at your watch in a fright
al f..t haf hna
rived, and only just arrived. We believe
that the same power would apply TO the
daytime under the same conditions-name-
ly, that you fix firmly in your mind some
hours or at least some considerable time
earlier, that you are to do something spe-
cfic and to he reused To sense of the time
at specific minute; only people notice
this less, since there are 80 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 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. IL you do
really divine" the time, you have no
power of recognizing that you have ''di-
vined" it. You feel as II you had merely
guessed il, aud very probably guessed it
1t is not 10y keen sense Of duration that
you compute the hour, for that would Inn
ply that you knew at what time you made
the resolve-at what time YOU went to
sleep with the resolve on your mind-and
t.IIs Is often just what you do not know.
IL you measured time by the organic
processes which 20 on within you, by a
general sense Of the number OF pulsations
OF your heart, or the number OF breaths
drawn, then YOU would require to know
accurately what the time was when you
resolved 10 awake, and You would measure
only by the length Of the thread subse.
quently drawn out. Not only would that
be very complicated process, but II is al
most certainly not the actual process, for
you may be quite unconscious at what
hour exactly the resolve is formed. II
seems to be a sense Of time, as quite dis
,inct from c sense Of the duration OF your
sleep or Of the length Of any organic proc
ess which has gone on since the resolve was
made.
Yet it is extremely difficult to imagine
that the individual mind can he so closel
identified Ia feeling with the revolution o
the earth ON its axis as would enable IL x
say at what hour a. m. or y. IN. you have
arrived The mind measures duration chief
ly by the succession OF its own thoughts
but. as we have seen, it is not duration, but
something quite different from duration
of which IL appears To be conscious. Thus
1t can wake the body ut any given houl
without even knowing consciously a
leasD how much time has elapsed sine,
the resolve to wake was first formed.
The present writer may assign the pres
eut article as consequence Zone of yer.
many of the power Of waking at the exac
hour desired, an hour which is often yarie,
in accordance with the urgency Of the case
so that il cannot be ascribed To the habit o
waking nt exactly the same hour. II is
very curious power, for which we can az
sign no parallel. We certainly have m
similar power of waking ourselves on
Journey at any exact point in space ol
which we may previously determine.
we resolve To wake up at the moment tn
express train in which we are travelling
passes particular point from which, sup
pose, a striking landscape is visible, W
should not manage IL unless the train wer
30 punctual that we could effect it by dt
termining to waken at the precise minut
when the train was due there, though i
that way we believe it might occasional
be effected.
But there certainly are multitudes q
persons who appear to carry some kind c
clock about with them in their inner minC
though whether IL he the clock of th
house or the clock OF the neighborhood
would be we'll to find out.
In the present writer's case IL is not th
clock of the house, which is kept fast, bu
as near as he can judge. what he believ,
TO be light time--i. e., railway time thoug
il he were. say, five minutes wrong in hi
impression Of what right time is, il is prol
able that he would awaken by the time
his impression, and not by railway {
Greenwich time.-London Spectator.
A Mistaken Impression.