252 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



By an effort of will I have often been able to 

 surprise myself in this intermediate stage, and the 

 same thing has been done by others, and it always 

 appears that this is the real moment of transition 

 from wakefulness to dreaming. I have been able to 

 verify the fact that the first dream is only the 

 continuation of our last waking thoughts, which have 

 now become dramatic and real. I have also observed 

 that this intermediate stage "between waking and 

 dreaming, during which the images are real and 

 vivid, although we are still conscious of our real 

 condition, goes on for a long while, sometimes for a 

 whole night, with brief intervals of sleep. This has 

 occurred to me when I was kept awake, either when 

 travelling at night, or when I had taken a large 

 draught of water before lying down (other liquids or 

 food does not produce the phenomenon) or if I have 

 been looking during the day at objects illuminated by 

 dazzling sunshine. In all these circumstances the 

 bright and vivid images appear reduced to an almost 

 miscroscopic scale, although very distinct in form 

 and colour ; in ordinary cases, the images appear 

 of the ordinary size, but not without a tendency to 

 become smaller, 



I believe that there is a physical cause for the 

 reduction and attenuation of the images in the 

 excessive excitement of the retina, or central en- 

 cephalic organ in winch images are formed in con- 

 scious concurrence with the cortical part of the 



