Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-27
WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF.
Evidence That the Mind Reasons to
the Cause Rather Than From II.

Evidence That the Mind Reasons to
the Cause Rather Than From 1t.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch
Dld II ever occur to you that when We
dream our minds operate backward?'' said
scientific man yesterday. 1 mean by this
that the cause which gives the impression to
the sleepers mind that makes him begin fo
dream is always the climax of the vision
We can find many examples that will sus-
tain this theory. Take, for instance. a
man who falls out of bed. He dreams per-
haps, that he has fallen from a precipice.
The cause Of this dream is the shock he
receives by coming in contact with the
floor. Between the time he receives the
fall and the moment he awakes-in this
short period. almost inhnlteslmal--his mind
follows out the impression received by the
fall, reasoning to it as a climax. Thus,
when he comes to his senses he remembers
having lad the vision and wonders why he
should have fallen out of bed Just at the
moment he should have reached the bot
tom of the abyss. 1t would be folly to
thlnk that he had been dreaming of fall
ing, and then suited his actions TO the
dream by doing so at exactly that moment
L nave had dreams in which explosions
occurred, and they were caused by the
noise of door being slammed The noise
sound gave my mind the impression of an
eApioSioH, anu SO reasoned to 1t. The de-
tails have been so perfect and the series of
incidents leading up to the explosion have
seemed to take up such great length of
time that / have often wondered at the
rapidity of thought while in sleep In n
moment incidents can be reviewed which
it would take hours to act out l know of
friend who fell asleep while looking at a
clock one afternoon and began a trip to
New York in a dream. He remembered
WILDLY the ride from his house to the de-
pot; how he was stopped by friend. who
questioned him about important business:
how he got on the train after having an
alteration with the baggageman in regard
to charges for overweight all of which
compelled him to run to catch the train.
how he sat in the parlor car and enioyed
the scenery, remem berfng all the stations
until he arrived at Greensburg when a
friend asked him to join game of poker:
how he played each hand the pleasant
recollection of several times holding four
aces being plainly in his mind; how he
con tinued playing without interruption ex-
cept for dinner until he arrived at Phila-
delphia, when he counted over some $500
in winnings. Then he remembered having
met a friend while eating in Broad street
station who talked upon a leading topic in
politics; then he got on the train and be-
gan reading a magazine which he had pur-
chased at the news stand finally arriving
at Jersey City. He had just got on the
ferry boat when his wife came in and
woke him. He rubbed his eyes, and think
ing he had been asleep for some time he
looked up at the clock, when he found that
but three minutes had elapsed since he fell
asleep. In these three minutes he had
made a journey to New York, seeing eyery-
thing as wildly as If real l tell this just
to show the wonderful activity of the brain
of sleeping person ard in support of nv
theory that in a dream the mind reasons
to the cause rather than from II. }"