The Adair County news., 1911-11-01
DREAM FANTASIES
Cause and Effect In the Visions
That Come In Sleep.
A DREAMS CURIOUS SEQUEL.
IL Explained the Meaning of the Oft
Recurring Fancy That Cat Was
c!awins the Slumberer's Throat.
Rapidity of the Dream Process.

1t was personal experience of a
singular character that first impressed
upon me, some years ago, the impor-
lance of dreams as a subject for Sc
rious investigation, says H. Arlington
Bruce in the Outlook. Until then |
had shared the opinion prevailing
among laymen-and. it would seem.
among most scientists also - that
dreams are entirely fanciful and
meaningless But my experience was
| such l could no longer believe this.
To state it briefly. it involved the
recurrence Of a most bizarre dream.
AT least twenty times during a period
of six months / had the same dream
namely, that a cat was clawing at my
throat. The stage setting and the mi
nor incidents might vary, but always
the central episode was the same, and
| usually the fury of the dream cats
onset was so great that it would
awaken me. Naturally this recurrent
dream puzzled me. so much so that I
spoke about it.
Then one day the accident Of a
heavy cold that settled in my throat
led to a medical examination. which,
much to my surprise, revealed the
presence of a growth, requiring imme
date treatment by the surgeons knife
Some time afterward it suddenly Oc-
CURED to rue that since the removal
Of the dangerous growth l had not
haan frn,1INInd Jxf ha al
dream. Its significance now began to
dawn on me.
l had suffered no pain, not even in
convenience. from the growth in my
throat In fact | had not consciously
been aware of its presence. But I'M
questionably the organic changes &C
companying it had given rise to sensa-
tions which. slight though they were.
had made an impression on my sleep
ing consciousness sufficient to excite
it to activity. My recurrent dream
consequently was to be regarded as a
symbolic representation Of the disor-
der in my throat-an attempt to inter
pref it. to explain 1t. And. indeed,
even in the dream. for all its fantastic
imagery and symbolism, the seat of
the trouble was indicated plainly
enough as could appreciate after the
surgeon had completed his labors.
An experience was reported by Al
fred Maury. one Of the earliest scien-
tiic Investigators Of the phenomena
of sleep. who dreamed that he was
living in Paris during the Terror and
had been put on the prescribed list.
After many exciting. adventures he
was captured. tried and sentenced to
execution. He saw himself dragged
through the streets amid clamoring
multitude and forced to mount the
scaffold and bare his neck to the fatal
blow. In that instant as the guillo-
tine knife descended he awOke to find
that piece of the cornice of his bed
had fallen and struck him on the neck
Testifying even more impressively to
the twofold action of the dream proc
ess and to its rapidity is a dream ex-
perience of my own. In this dream
/ was walking alone at night along a
country road. 1t was lined on both
sides by trees which. as | learned
were laden with fruit. | picked some
pears and ate them as we walked and
talked. The road seemed to overlook
a broad valley in which l saw a soil
tary light. My companion told me that
it was in his home and invited me to
h. srhk IL,
ing walk we reached the house. a
small two room cabin. He retired into
the inner room and I went to bed in
the outer. l had not been long asleep
when. in my dreams, l was awakened
by the noise of somebody running, and
the thought instantly flashed into my
mind that my host was making off
with my money. leaped up shout
ing. "Stop, STOP
Then l veritably awoke and as / did
so distinctly heard on the pavement
below my window the sound of hur
ried footballs and a voice crying ex
citedly. ''Stop. stop!' At once it was
clear that these two words. penetrat
ing to my sleeping consciousness, had
provided the necessary stimulus to set
up dream process which, in the frac-
ton of a second. had interpreted them
as best it could and had presented the
results Of its Interpretation in the form
Of a curious little narrative of noctur-
nal adventure.
Dreams may be produced by the
use of artificial irritants. One sleeper.
whose nose was lightly tickled with
feather. had a horrible dream of
mask of pitch being alternately ap-
piled to and drawn violently from his
face. Another. at whose feet a hot
water bag was placed, dreamed that
he was walking over hot lava. In
second experiment of the same sort
the accidental slipping Of the cover
from the hot water bag led to an elab-
crate dream of capture and torture by
Rocky mountain bandits who insisted
that the dreamer knew how to convert
copper into gold and held his naked
feet in fire in order to compel him to
communicate his valuable secret. SINH
larry the application of slight degree
of heat to the feet of a patient with
paralyzed limbs was followed by