72 
The process of dreaming was determined by the law of 
association, and another feature was the peculiar sense or 
absence of the idea of time. Most prolonged processes and 
experiences seemed to take place during the briefest period 
of time. The state of unconsciousness destroyed the sense 
of time. In dreams there was a lack of self-consciousness. 
We see dreams as pictures. 
As to the material of dreams “ we are such stuff as dreams 
are made of.” What is this dream stuff ? All the elements 
forming our dreams have previously come to us and 
got stored up in the memory. We never dream what we do not 
know. The picture as a whole, we may never have seen, 
but the channels of the five senses were always active. Every 
particular element of colour, taste, touch, hearing, smell, 
has its separate fibre. We do more or less unconscious, or 
subconscious, as well as conscious thinking, and imagination 
plays its part. Every days’ experience makes up the material 
of which the dreams are made. 
If present day views are correct, there is another element, — 
the doctrine of heredity. The child is the heir of the ages, 
physically, and particularly of the immediately preceding 
generations. If people inherit peculiarities in the ordinary 
physical world, may they not inherit mental tendencies ? 
The impressions and feelings of other generations would then 
be reproduced in the world of dreams. 
As to the causes of dreams, they were various, but there 
were two main causes ; an external action, — light falling on 
closed eyes, a touch of the bed clothes, the temperature of 
the room, sounds, etc. Whatever produced a modification 
of the nerve condition would produce dreams. There were 
many and various internal causes, — the general health, the 
state of the circulation, which was affected by the position 
of the body, an overloaded stomach, etc. 
Then what part may be played by the mind which projects 
something of itself into another mind P This projection of 
one self into another mind in whatever degree, affected one’s 
condition and often accounted for those striking dreams 
which were sometimes actualised in life. Mental telepathy 
explained many of these extraordinary phenomena. We most 
likely dreamt that which we want and expect to come to 
pass. It is impossible to explain every dream, because it is 
impossible to get at all the preceding facts and conditions. 
