HYPNOTISM. 381 



whilst in hypnosis the contrary is the case. The contents 

 are similar : sequences of mental events take place which 

 are determined by the laws of association of ideas and not 

 by voluntary control, the sensory elements of which have 

 an hallucinatory character. The differences between these 

 sleep-dreams and " hypnosis-dreams " are chiefly two : 

 firstly, the motor results of sleep-dreams are mostly wanting 

 — we rarely speak or move in dreams, though, as is well 

 known, both of these results may be present {e.g. in sleep- 

 walking), whereas the motor elements of " hypnosis-dreams " 

 are fruitful in outward results ; and, secondly, the sequence 

 of mental events in sleep-dreams is not nearly so logical — 

 we rapidly pass from one unfinished dream to another, 

 whilst in hypnosis the reverse is the case. This is probably 

 due to the difference in origin : in " hypnosis-dreams " the 

 attention is fixed upon the hypnotiser, who suggests what 

 train of ideas is to be followed, whilst in sleep-dreams the 

 ideas are either due to auto-suggestion, or are called forth 

 by some sensory stimulation which is subject ■ to constant 

 change. 



The resemblances between sleep and hypnosis come out 

 clearly, if we regard the matter from another point of view. 

 We say that a post-hypnotic suggestion given in a state of 

 somnambulism is not consciously remembered, and that the 

 events which had occurred in one state of somnambulism 

 were remembered in the next, but not in the interval. The 

 remembrance must, then, have persisted, though not con- 

 sciously ; it must have sunk in the interval into that order 

 of mental events which occur below the level of conscious- 

 ness. For it is pretty certain that we are conscious of, 

 know at the time, only a small portion of the mental changes- 

 which are going on in us, and that by far the larger portion 

 of our mental phenomena are subconscious. From this 



