Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-04-15

!, Too, Am Trembling With Fear.
BILE falls, saving themselves by clutch
ing branches as they fell toward the
ground.
Now, a terrible fall averted in such
fashion was productive Of shock.
Such shock was productive Of molecu-
lar changes in the cerebral cells. These
molecular changes were transmitted to
the cerebral cells of progeny-became,
in short. racial memories. Thus when
you and I, asleep or uoEing off to
sleep, fall through space and awake
to sickening consciousness just before
we strike we are merely remembering
what happened to our arboreal ances-
tors and what has been stamped by
cerebral changes into the heredity of
the race.
There is nothing strange In this any
more than there is anything strange in
an instinct. An instinct is merely
habit that is stamped into the stuff OF
our heredity: that is all It will be
noted in passing thay in this falling
dream, which is so familiar to you and
me and all of us, we never strike bot
tom. To strike bottom would be de-
struction. Those Of our arboreal an
cestors who struck bottom died forth
with. True, the shock of their fall
was communicated to the cerebral
cells, but they died Immediately, before
they could have progeny. You and 1
are descended from those that did not
strike bottom. That is why you and
l in our dreams never strike bottom.
And now we come to disassociation
Of personality. We never have this
sense of falling when we are wide
awake. Our wake-a-day personality
has no experience of it. Then-and
here the argument Is irresistible-it
must be another and distinct personal
tty that falls when we are asleep and
that has had experience of such fall
ing-that has, in short, a memory Of
past day race experiences. just as our
wake-a-day personality has memory
Of our wake-a-day experiences.
1t was at this stage in my reasoning
that | began to see the light. And
quickly the light burst upon me with
dazzling brightness. Illuminating and
explaining all that had been weird and
uncanny and unnaturally impossible in
my dream experiences. In my sleep il
was not my wake-a day personality
that took cha rra Cf II
er and distinct personality, possessing
new and totally different fund of ex-
periences and, TO the point of nv
dreaming, possessing memories of those
totally different experiences.
What was this personality? When
had it itself lived wake-a- day life on
this planet in order to collect this fund
Of strange experiences? These were
questions that my dreams themselves
answered. He lived in the long ago.
when the world was young. in that
period that we call the midpleistocene.
He fell from the trees. but did rot
strike bottom. He gibbered with fear
at the roaring of the lions He was
pursued by beasts Of prey, struck at
by deadly snakes. He chartered with
his kind in council, and he received
rough usage at the hands Of the Fire
People in the day that he fed before
them
But | hear you Directing, why is 1t
mat these racial memories are not ours
as well, seeing that we have vague
other personality that falls through
space while we sleep?
And | may answer with another
question: Why is two headed calf?
Ana my own answer to this is that 1t
Is a freak. And so / answer your
question. | have this other personality
and these complete racial memories be.
cause | am a freak.
But let me be more explicit. The
commonest race memory we have is
the falling through space dream. This
other personality is very vague. About
the only memory it has IS that of fall
ing. But many of us have sharper.
more distinct other personalities. Many
" NO nave tue ny ing cream, the pur- |
suing monster dream, color dreams. |
sut1ocation dreams and the reptile and
Vermin dreams. In short, while this |
other personality is vestigial In all of |
us, in some of us 1t Is almost obliter. |
ated, while in others of us 1t is more
pronounced. Some Of us have stronger
and completer race memories than
others
Ii Is all question of varying degree
or possession Of the other personality.
In myself the degree of possession is
enormous. Ny other personality is al
most equal in power with my own Der
sonality. And i'll this matter | am, as
said. freak-a freak Of heredity.
| do not believe that it Is the DOS.
session of this other personality-but
not SO strong one as mlne-that has
In some few others given rise TO belief
In personal reincarnation experiences.