The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1895-08-03
MYSTERY OF DREAMS.
THEORIES AS TO THE ACTION OF
THE MIND DURING SLEEP.


teople who still entertain that belief The
opinion commonly held by physicists is
that. II the whole brain Is locked up In
sleep. there Is no dream. IL portion OF
1t is emancipated, thoughts peculiar to
that portion arise, and those thoughts are
dreams. According to DIR. David Hartley,
they are nothing but the imaginations,
fancies or reveries OF sleeping person,
rnd are due TO some peculiar state OF the
stomach or brain, to impressions received
while awake, or to the effect OF associa-
ton.
In the same vein Andrew Baxter de-
clares that most of the representations Of
fered to the soul in sleep are not only not
produced by il, but there is no conscious
ness OF any action Of the will to intro
duce them. They are involuntarily obtrud-
ed upon II. He cannot conceive OF any
thing more absurd than to suppose that
the soul, as in nightmare, would lay a
plot to brighten itself. In reply to the ar
gument OF those who contend that dreams
Indicate the activity of the soul separate
from and independent of the body, DR..
Priestly asked: Why does not this indie
pendent entity contemplate the state OF
tho body and brain during sleep, which
might well afford it matter enough for
reason and reflection
So, too, DR.. Cromwell, in his work on
''Tho Soul and the Future Life" asserts
that dreams take place only when the
sleep is unsound and arise from partial re-
turns of activity of the brain itself. These
views fairly reflect the consensus of opin-
ion regarding the origin and character Of
the phenomena.
On the other hand, there Is authority
as eminent for the belief that all dreams
cannot be satisfactorily explained on the
grounds above stated-that there Is
something left out which it is of the high
est consequence to understand before a
positive judgment can be pronounced.
The student of Xenophon will recall the
remarkable passage which the historian
puts into the mouth of the dying Cyrus
the Elder: "Nor do / feel convinced that
the soul will be devoid of sense when it is
separated from the senseless body, but it is
probable that when the mind is separated,
unmixed and pure, it is then also most
intelligent. When the frame of man Is
dissolved, every part of him is seen return
ing to that which is Of the same nature as
itself, except the soul, which alone is seen
neither present nor departing. Reflect.
too, that nothing more closely resembles
the death of man than sleep, but it is in
sleep that the soul of man appears most
divine, and it Is then that it foresees some
thing of the future, for then, as it seems,
1t is most at liberty"
The letters of the great Euler to n Ger
man princess contain the following state
ment: "Sleep furnishes something like an
example of the state of the soul after
death, as the union of the soul and body
is then, in a great measure, interrupted,
and the soul ceases not from activity, be-
ing employed in the production of dreams
These are usually disturbed by the re-
naming influence which the senses exer-
else, and we know by experience that the
more this influence is suspended, which is
the case in profound sleep, the more regu-
lar and connected are our dreams.n
BLACKWELL affirms that to be able to see
without the eye, to hear with the ear and
to feel without touching objects, as we do
in dreams, are facts which afford direct
proof that the percipient principle is indie
pendent of the organs of sense and lead
to the inference that the material organi-
zation of the brain, by which the impress
sions OF external objects are originally
conveyed to the mind, must be distinct
from the power that receives and retains
these impressions; otherwise it would be
impossible to account for the activity OF
the perceptive power during the time when
the brain ceases to hold any direct COM
munication with the material world. Lord
Brougham cites tho inconcevable rapid
ty of the minds operations as proof OF
it's independence of matter and capacity
to exist without it, and after adducing a
multitude of facts chiefly connected with
tho phenomena of dreams says that moth
4 Inc -.
than these facts TO demonstrate the ex-
IRENE agility Of the mental powers, their
total diversity from any material sub.
stance or action. Nothing better adapted
TO satisfy us that the nature of the mind
is consistent with its existence apart from
the body"
There Is no denial by the advocates OF
the latter view that dreams can ordinari.
ly be accounted for on the hypothesis gen.
orally accepted by medical men. Impaired
digestion, n feverish condition OF the BODY,
intense nervous strain, and other physic.
al causes, 1t is admitted, may be reasona.
bly, adduced to explain the phenomena.
But there are well authenticated cases OF
dreams of character so remarkable as ia
render the theory of physical causes who'll
ly inapplicable to them. They seem Ia
demonstrate the power Of the soul, during
sleep, to evolve clear ideas and new de-
velopments of thought which are not the
result Of automatic or unconscious refiex
action.
Coleridge tells us that "Kubla Khan
was composed entirely while he slept. sthe
images rising up before him as things with
n parallel production of the corresponding
expressions, without any sensation or con.
seriousness of effort For man of his ne
culiar temperament that does not seem SO
strange an experience, but that the famous
mathematician and philosopher, Condor
Get, saw In his dreams the final stage of n
difficult calculation which had puzzled
him during the day is most extraordina.
~ fact and one that is scarcely to be ex.
planned by reference to any abnormal
bodily conditions. But IL we admit the
soundness Of Colquhouns doctrine. We
shall have an adequate means OF explaua-
ton. He maintained that dreaming Is
the exercise Of an original spiritual ener.
Ky; that IL is an effort Of the soul to man.
itest itself free from material trammels.
that all sleep Is accompanied with dream.
ing, and that, in the case OF the soundest
sleep, dreams are not remem bered becauss
the soul has not notified the sensorium OF
them. Therefore we only catch rlimnses
OF the souls activity in sleep when the
sensioility OF the corporal organs Is not
altogether suspended, and these rlimnses
are ra1lpI dr..a.,,g NJ