First of all, then, let us look at the chaotic and apparently lawless
side of dreaming, and see whether any clue is discoverable to the centre
of this labyrinth. In the case of all the less elaborately ordered
dreams, in which sights and sounds appear to succeed one another in the
wildest dance (which class of dreams probably belongs to the deeper
stages of sleep), the mind may with certainty be regarded as purely
passive, and the mode of sequence may be referred to the action of
association complicated by the ever-recurring introduction of new
initial impulses, both peripheral and central. These are the dreams in
which we are conscious of being perfectly passive, either as spectators
of a strange pageant, or as borne away by some apparently extraneous
force through a series of the most diverse experiences. The flux of
images in these dreams is very much the same as that in certain waking
conditions, in which we relax attention, both external and internal, and
yield ourselves wholly to the spontaneous play of memory and fancy.
It is plain at a glance that the simultaneous concurrence of wholly
disconnected initial impulses will serve to impress a measure of
disconnectedness on our dream-images. From widely remote parts of the
organism there come impressions which excite each its peculiar visual or
other image according as its local origin or its emotional tone is the
more distinctly present to consciousness. Now it is a subjective ocular
sensation suggesting a bouquet of lovely flowers, and close on its heels
comes an impression from the organs of digestion suggesting all manner
of obstacles, and so our dream-fancy plunges from a vision of flowers to
one of dreadful demons.
Let us now look at the way in which the laws of association working on
the incongruous elements thus cast up into our dream-consciousness, will
serve to give a yet greater appearance of disorder and confusion to our
dream-combinations. According to these laws, any idea may, under
certain circumstances, call up another, if the corresponding impressions
have only once occurred together, or if the ideas have any degree of
resemblance, or, finally, if only they stand in marked contrast with one
another. Any accidental coincidence of events, such as meeting a person
at a particular foreign resort, and any insignificant resemblance
between objects, sounds, etc., may thus supply a path, so to speak, from
fact to dream-fancy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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