The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-01-16
What Dreams Are
Voluntary Attention Restorative.
BY HAVELock ELLIS.

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 a seemingly spontaneous pro
cession of dream imagery which is al
ways undergoing TRANSFORMED ion into
something different. yet not wholly
different from what went before. IL
seems a mechanical flow OF IMAGES
regulated by associations OF reseu1
blance which sleeping consciousness
recognizes without either controlling
or introducing foreign element"
1t resembles cinematograph pic
ture which is made up of many Differ
cnt 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 thf
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" III these words: Most chill
dren have the power of painting as +
were upon the darkness all sorts OF
phantoms; in some that power is sim
ply mechanical effect upon the eye.
others have voluntary or semi-voiun
tary power to dismiss or to summon
them as one child once said to me: ]
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 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.
writers 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 chic
reform, for under chloroform the
vision is stimulated first.
In all these dreams, whether ere.
atcd 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
bard But they have qualities that
the images created when awake lack.
Many things we cannot recall when
we ere awake are born once more In
our dreams, Scientists and inventors
often come to standstll with their
powers of reason, they do not know
how to move on with their investiga
tons 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
crs by the fact that large part OF the
psychic life OF sleep is outside oui
power and some of It is even beyond
our sight The unusual pictures seer
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
together in relevant way, To HIN
acting and life. the picture and th'
reality. are no longer distinct; the!
fow In the sane channel
Normal Mind Has Two intelligence
This is not as strange as II looks
for every normal mind has at ieas
two intelligences, one conscious ant
, the other subconsc.cus. One might al
rtnst say that III dreaming the subcon
scious intelligence Is playing agains
the conscious intelligence This show
why great people often act on the re
Il s II