, 1896-10-14
DREAM MYSTERIES.
MAY BE sHADowY MEMORIES OF PRE-
Wous EXISTENCE.

L&esis setisfaction Found In the Many
E~xplanatlons Given For the Formation of
The Phaneasnagoria Which Como 70 Is
- We Sleep.
In . thoughtful. we'll written article
on dreams and Their Mysteries" in
The North American Review, Elizabeth
Bisland reminds US that we are SO IA
miliar with the phenomena Of sleep
that the strangest dreams come as no
surprise. She says. truly:
prove that you have tho hypnotic
power to maze a man feel pain or pleas
ure without material cause; that you
CON force him to believe himself u sol.
der, say, or . woman, or that he is
three feet high, or two persons at once.
and he will cape upon this occult mas
terry with awe and wild surprise-he
who every 81 hours CT his life, with no
moro magic potion than healthy fatigue,
with no greater wonder working weapon
than a pillow. may create for himself
phantasmical delusions beside which all
mesmeric suggestions are but the fiat
test of dull commonplace"
oCONAAoC HNopAo d1C d1Idlu vi DtlIR
thought superstitious with regard to
dreams there has been an u~nscientitlc
avoidance Of the whole topic, which is
no less superstitious and puerile, the
consequence Of which foolish revulsioli
has been that one of the most curious
functions of the brain is still in a period
Of universal investigation-left unex-
amined and unexplained. Some dab
bling there has been in the matter, but
80 far ne :enable explanation has been
offered of those strange illusions of
sleep with which all mankind is famil-
lar. The results up to this time of this
dabbling are for the most part of little
more value than the contents Of the
greasy, wei .umbed dreambooks that
formed the only and dearly beloved Ii
brary Of eighteenth century milkmaids
and apprentices. The greater portion of
such labor az has been bestowed on the
subject has been mainly directed toward
efforts to prove the extreme rapidity
with which the dream passes through
the mind, and hat it is some trivial
outward cause at the moment of rous.
ing from slnmber, such as O noise, o
light or the like, which wakes the
brain to this miraculous celebrity Of i'm.
aginative creation.
The general conviction that dreayra
ocour only at the instant Of the awaken
ing shows how little real attention has
been bestowed upon the matter, since
the most casual observation of "the dog
that hunts i'll dreams" would show that
he may be chasing the wild deer und
following the roe in the gray kingdom
Of seeming without breaking his SUM
beers. He will start and twitch and give
tongue after the phantom quarry he
dreams himself pursuing. But given the
truth Of any one Of these assertions, still
the heart Of the mystery has not yet
been plucked out, since it is not ex-
planned why q noise or q CLEAN Of light
such as the lenses are quite familiar
with in waking consciousness-should
at the moment Of ~rousing cause the
brain to create with uncomfortable ra.
pidity a series Of phantasmagoria in
order to explain to itself the familiar
phenomena of light O sound.
1t is broadly asserted by many that
the memory retains each and every ex-
p~erience which life has presented for its
contemplation, but this is hardly true.
It makes to o certain extent o choice
and chooses Oftentimes with apparent
caprice. To demonstrate the truth Of
this, let one endeavor to recall the first
impression retained by his childish
mind, and 1t usually proves to be some
thing extremely trivial.
A lady. interrogated as to this, de-
clared her first clear memory was q
sense of the comfort to her tired little
2-year-old body Of the clean linen sheets
Of the bed at the end Of the most perilous
and adventurous journey, and of whose
startling incidents her memory had pre-
served nothing. Again this capricious
faculty will seize on some few high
lights in a vivid picture and reject all
the unimportant details. As IL rule,
however. it is the profound STRINGS Of
the emotions which wake the memory
to activity. A woman never fofgets her
first lover. A man to the end OF his life
can recall his first triumph.
Miss Bisland believes that we inherit
many Of the memories that come to US,
waking rs well Us sleeping. Every
has felt many times in his life a sense
OF familiarity with incidents that have
had no place in his OWE experience and
has found it impossible to Offer any ex-
PLANTATION for the feeling. Coming sud-
denly around q turn Of . bin upon =
fair and unknown landscape Ibis heart
may bound with q keen sense ct recog-
milton Of its unfamiliar outlines. In the