Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-04

ID r Z a Nj S
By Charles Smith


L common laws of daily life are utterly dis
regarded, though we find our friends in the
most extraordinary situations, acting in a way
utterly lncongruouS with their past characters
though we ourselves rush from Dan to Beer
Sheba and turn the world topsyturvy on the
way, nevertheless it is all accepted with per-
feet GOODNESS. as if we said: Cut any capers
you like, you won't make me vince
If in daily life :" it is ever the unexpected
that happens in dreams it is ever the ex-
pected that occurs, though that expected
is most extraordinary, judged by the standards
of waking life Nay more, in a dream we
seem to have lost all conscience. Acts that
would excite direct remorse in daily life we do
without the slightest compunction in our
nightly visions. A well-known English Judge
commonly commits forgery in his dreams,
and regrets the act only when he learns he
Is going to be hanged. A woman who was
giving up her life to the care of children in
the most unselhsh way tells that in a
dream she took a child who had committed
some tri1ing fault and held his head between
some red-hot bars. A man who was known
to all his friends for the wonderful gentleness
of his disposition records the energy with
which he stabbed of his friends and the
exultation he felt as his sword plunged through
the body of his victim.
In short, as some one has said if we actually
did all that we dream of doing, we should have
to be bound to our beds, as prisoners are
locked in their cells. Is there any expla-
nation Tor these 1aCtSt
Most people will tell you that in dreams
the judgment is asleep and lets the imagi-
nation riot. This is true enough, but it
explains nothing. Here is at least partial
explanation. Men who have studied the
brain find that the enormous quantity of
blood that is sent to it during the day is
largely diminished during sleep. In fact,
sleep can be brought about by COMPRISING
the large arteries in the neck. Thus less
blood is sent to the brain and the circulation
is less rapid. AS result, only certain brain
tracts are active the rest are dormant.
The brain, when we dream is like a steam
engine, going at half-speed, like some
mills on Sunday, where the fires are still kept
along and where some of the larger wheels are
going though all the minor machinery is at
rest. The effect of all this is that we have
only small number OF ideas to work with
II in real life the idea comes to our mind OF
cheating a friend, immediately comes the
thought, 1t would be too mean and TN
worthy" 81 shall be arrested" my friend
would hate me" and these ideas contradict
into act. But in dream the idea of cheating
suggests no contradictory ideas we have only
the idea of cheating and nothing to prevent it
Now what suggests the idea that we do
possess? what starts the dream at all? Dreams
are not under our control. They follow their
own whims with as little regard for the dreamer
the facts of real life for the toiler among
them. What then suggests them? In many
cases they are produced by actual feelings
by sensations pleasant or the reverse, that
we are then experiencing.
For instance, DR.. Reid says that one day
having raised blister on his head by brt1isne
it, he dreamed that he fell into the hands
of some Indians who had scalped him. Here
the sensation coming from the injured part
suggested the Indians and the scalping
Another man went to bed with hot bottle
at his feet and dreamed that he was making
the ascent of Mount Etna, and that the ground
on which he walked was hot.
A Frenchman who was studying UP the
subject of dreams tried experiments on him,
self to see if he could in such ways influence
his dreams. He left his knees uncovered and
dreamed that he was riding in a coach and
that his knees were growing cold, as they are
likely to when one travels in coach at night
Then he left off his nightcap and dreamed
that he was attending religious ceremony
in the open air its being the custom of the
part of the country in which he lived to have
ones head uncovered at such meetings Many
people could undoubtedly parallel such
experiences
Miss Cobbe, an English writer, tells story
of a certain General Sleeman, who was pur-
suing the Thugs "a notorious band of assassins
in lndia) and who night had pitched his
tent in peculiarly lovely spot by beautiful
stream. In the morning his wife complained
that she had been haunted all night in he1
dreams by dead men and earnestly entreated