480 PHYSIOLOGY CHAP. 



very fact that we sleep, that is to say, that the avenues of sense 

 which would normally supply the real image of corresponding 

 order to the stimulus are more or less closed, renders symbolism 

 inevitable. The direct channels being thus largely choked, other 

 allied and parallel associations come into play, and since the 

 control of attention and apperception is diminished, such play is 

 often unimpeded. Symbolism is the natural and inevitable result 

 of these conditions. 



" It might still be asked why we do not in dreams more often 

 recognise the actual source of the stimuli applied to us. . . . Here, 

 however, we have to remember the tendency to magnification in 

 dream imagery, a tendency which rests on the emotionality of 

 dreams. 1 Emotion is naturally heightened in dreams. Every 

 impression reaches sleeping consciousness through this emotional 

 atmosphere, in an enlarged form, vaguer it may be, but more 

 massive. The sleeping brain is thus not dealing with actual 

 impressions, . . . even when actual impressions are being made 

 upon it, but with transformed impressions. . . . Under these cir- 

 cumstances symbolism is quite inevitable. . . . The magnification 

 of special isolated sensory impressions in dreaming consciousness 

 is associated with a general bluntness, even an absolute quiescence, 

 of the external sensory mechanism. One part of the organism, and 

 it usually seems a visceral part, is thus apt to magnify its place in 

 consciousness at the expense of the rest. As Vaschide and Pieron 

 say, during sleep 'the internal sensations develop at the expense 

 of the peripheral sensations.' " This, of course, gives rise to other 

 forms of dream symbolism. 



These and other partial explanations and interpretations of 

 oneiric phenomena are very far from constituting a true scientific 

 theory of dreams. But to a certain extent they clear up the 

 confusion and mystery and bring out certain appreciable relations 

 between the physiological activity of the different senses during 

 sleep and the psychological activity connected with them. 



IX. In speaking of dreams, we omitted to speak of another 

 series of special phenomena occasionally manifested to us, which 

 by their transcendental ultra- or metaphysical nature distinctly 

 surpass the narrow limits of our scientific knowledge and appear 

 to resist all rational interpretations. As such, they disturb the 

 traditional orientation of the best scientific thought, but must not 

 therefore be left out of account. Since the most severe criticism 

 has failed, as we shall see, to demolish and invalidate them, every 

 honest worker in science, every ardent and liberal inquirer into 

 truth, must recognise the duty of taking cognisance of them, and 

 of appreciating and insisting on their high philosophical value. 



Myers propounded some original views of sleep and waking 

 which form a suitable introduction to the consideration of tran- 



1 Vaschide also insists on the same point. 



