ix PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 481 



scendental oneiric phenomena. Sleep and waking, he says, are 

 two alternating phases of personality, " differentiated alike from a 

 primitive indifference, from a condition of lowly organisms, which 

 merited the name neither of sleep nor of waking." He regards 

 sleep as the primitive phase, as suggested by pre-natal and infantile 

 life, the waking state being so far secondary and adventitious in 

 that, even in adults, "it is maintained for short periods only, 

 which we cannot artificially lengthen, being plainly unable to 

 sustain itself without frequent recourse to that fuller influx of 

 vitality which slumber brings." 



" Out of slumber proceeds each fresh arousal and initiation of 

 waking activities. To some extent at least the abeyance of the 

 supraliminal life must be the liberation of the subliminal. To 

 some extent the obscuration of the noon -day glare of man's 

 waking consciousness must reveal the far-reaching faint corona 

 of his unsuspected and impalpable powers." 



This symbolic language in which Myers expresses deep philo- 

 sophical ideas deserves a brief comment. 



When the empirical or sensorial ego watches, dominates, and 

 guides the current of thought, the intellectual mnemonic heritage 

 of which the brain is the storehouse remains in great measure 

 unutilised in the depths of the subconscious ; when the light of 

 consciousness is veiled, as in partial slumber, the capricious 

 dominion of dreams prevails, and currents of sensations, memories, 

 and thoughts mingle with the utmost rapidity and are more or 

 less vivid or evanescent, according to the vagaries of the dream ; 

 when finally as in deep sleep consciousness is completely in 

 abeyance, all the controls that dominate the energies of waking 

 life are lost, while the subconscious operates more vigorously and 

 freely to the advantage of the organism, though in occult ways. 



This takes place normally in the common alternation of the 

 two phases of our personality, represented by waking and sleep. 

 But at times, in exceptional cases, in the semi -obscurity of 

 dreams and the total obscurity of slumber, the mind displays 

 supranormal faculties, and surpasses the most complex operations 

 of which it is capable in the light of day that is, when awake. 



We have previously spoken of the visual hallucinations observed 

 by some normal individuals (Cardano, Goethe, Johannes Mliller) 

 in the early phases of sleep, which A. Maury termed Jiypnagogic- 

 (illustrating them, as we have seen, by introspective observations), 

 as well as of those that arise during the semi-waking state that 

 precedes awakening, to which Myers gave the name of hypno- 

 pompic. These clear and vivid subjective visions, coloured like 

 the figures seen on the screen of the photographic camera, are 

 closely related to dreams. Maury's observations show, in fact, 

 that hypnagogic hallucinations are sometimes represented in 

 dreams though they are less vivid and colourless; and hypno- 

 VOL. iv 2 i 



