The Ordway new era., 1912-01-12

Is because thinking done when the
| body rests Is different from what II
Is when the body Is active-the one
Is spontaneous attention and the other
Is voluntary attention. These are as
different as the north pole is from the
south.
| Voluntary Attention Restorative.
Ribot thus explains the difference:
voluntary attention is restorative
and Is used in sleep and dreams. while
artificial attention exhausts and de-
mands a change. The basis of dream.
Ing is q seemingly spontaneous pro-
cession OF dream imagery which is al
ways undergoing Transformation into
something different. yet not wholly
different from what went before. 1t
seems mechanical flow OF images
regulated by associations Of resem.
| blance which sleeping consciousness
recognizes without either controlling
or introducing a foreign element"
1t resembles a cinematograph pic
ture which Is made up Of many differ
ent pictures. but which are all related.
They pass in quick succession with.
out one word Of explanation. Long
before cinematograph pictures were
invented children discovered how to
make these pictures both when awake
and on going to sleep. Most children
| love to close their eyes and to let
series Of strange pictures pass on the
| curtain Of the closed eyelids. They
get their most interesting and unusual
pictures in this way.
De Quincy speaks about these pic
lures in his Impressions of an Opium
Eater" in these words: Most chill
!! dren have the power Of painting as 1t
were upon the darkness all sorts of
phantoms: in some that power Is sim
ply mechanical effect upon the eye;
| others have a voluntary or semi-volun-
| tary power to dismiss or to summon
them as one child once said to me: I
can tell them to come and go. but
sometimes they come when don't tell
them to come.'"
Day Dreaming Hypnotic State.
What children do Is to create a hyp-
motto state known as day dreaming.
This kind Of picture making is sup
posed to be the germ of dreaming.
Therefore children. along with artists,
writer's and poets. can actually dream
when awake. Elmer Jones not only
! agrees on this point. but he goes one
step farther and argues that dream
ing can be aroused by opium and chlo-
roform. for under chloroform the
vision Is stimulated first.
In all these dreams, whether Gre
ated awake or asleep, the pictures are
as normal as when the individual Is
awake, excepting that there is little
color. the color field fading in a gray
band. But they have qualities that
the images CREATED when awake lack.
Many things we cannot recall when
we are awake are born once more In
our dreams. Scientists and inventors
often come to standstill with their
powers Of reason. they do not know
how to move on with their investiga.
| tions and experiments. The more they
worry the more difficult the problem
becomes. when suddenly their difficult
ties are cleared up in their dreams.
This Is explained by Ellis and 9TH
ers by the fact that a large part of the
psychic life of sleep Is outside our
power and some Of 1t Is even beyond
our sight. The unusual pictures seen
in our sleep and dreams have made
some Of the great pictures. poems,
stories and plays Of the world. 1t is
only the man of genius who can bring
these strange and irrelevant pictures