Besides these direct central stimulations, there are others which, in
contradistinction, may be called indirect, depending on some previous
excitation. These are, no doubt, the conditions of a very large number
of our dream-images. There must, of course, be some primary cerebral
excitation, whether that of a present peripheral stimulation, or that
which has been termed central and spontaneous; but when once this first
link of the imaginative chain is supplied, other links may be added in
large numbers through the operation of the forces of association. One
may, indeed, safely say that the large proportion of the contents of
every dream arise in this way.
The very simplest type of dream excited by a present sensation contains
these elements. To take an example, I once dreamt, as a consequence of
the loud barking of a dog, that a dog approached me when lying down, and
began to lick my face. Here the play of the associative forces was
apparent: a mere sensation of sound called up the appropriate visual
image, this again the representation of a characteristic action, and so
on. So it is with the dreams whose first impulse is some central or
spontaneous excitation. A momentary sight of a face or even the mention
of a name during the preceding day may give the start to dream-activity;
but all subsequent members of the series of images owe their revival to
a tension, so to speak, in the fine threads which bind together, in so
complicated a way, our impressions and ideas.
Among the psychic accompaniments of these central excitations visual
images, as already hinted, fill the most conspicuous place. Even
auditory images, though by no means absent, are much less numerous than
visual. Indeed, when there are the conditions for the former, it
sometimes happens that the auditory effect transforms itself into a
visual effect. An illustration of this occurred in my own experience.
Trying to fall asleep by means of the well-known device of counting, I
suddenly found myself losing my hold on the faint auditory effects, my
imagination transforming them into a visual spectacle, under the form of
a path of light stretching away from me, in which the numbers appeared
under the grotesque form of visible objects, tumbling along in glorious
confusion.
Next to these visual phantasms, certain motor hallucinations seem to be
most prominent in dreams. By a motor hallucination, I mean the illusion
that we are actually moving when there is no peripheral excitation of
the motor organ. Just as the centres concerned in passive sensation are
susceptible of central stimulation, so are the centres concerned in
muscular sensation. A mere impulse in the centres of motor innervation
(if we assume these to be the central seat of the muscular feelings) may
suffice to give rise to a complete representation of a fully executed
movement. And thus in our sleep we seem to walk, ride, float, or fly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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