THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DREAM.
Dream is essentially a psychological condition and therefore an important
study for the Psychologist, for in dream we learn, not only what is
the mechanism of the Mind, but also much of the manner in which its
operations are performed. Dream teaches us what recent physiologists
have by their experiments confirmed—that the mind is not structured as
one homogeneous entity, the whole of which is employed in every mental
act; but that it is a machine composed of parts, each of which has its
own special function, exhibited in the various expressions which we call
ideas, sentiments and emotions.
For convenience we have given to the entity, of which these various
faculties are parts, the collective name of “Mind.” But it may well be
questioned if such an entity exists. Certainly we cannot find it, whether
we observe the action of our own minds or that of others. All that we can
discover by help of our senses and by reasoning upon their information is
the existence of a wonderful piece of Mechanism—the brain—by which the
functions of Mind are performed and whose structure regulates the entire
character of the Mind.
It is conclusively established that the individual Self, in its normal
state of relationship to the body, can receive and convey impressions
only through the medium of the brain. Remove the brain and _mind_ ceases
to be, although life may linger long. Extract a part of the brain and a
part of “the mind” goes with it. This result is sometimes obscured by
the fact, not sufficiently recognised by the Physician and the Mental
Philosopher, that we have _two_ brains—two organs of Mind—one of which
can act alone when the other is wholly or partially disabled. If a
Dream be analysed, it is not difficult to trace the action of each
separate faculty. The imagination supplies the picture, which we mistake
for a reality because we have lost the means by which, when awake, we
distinguish the mere mental creation from the impressions borne to us by
the senses. Hence mental action precisely as if the ideal picture had
been real as it is believed to be. The other mental faculties are called
into play by the drama of the dream as they would have been by a living
drama. It is not an imagined anger, or fear, or hate, that we feel in
dream. The passions, emotions and sentiments are actually excited as they
would be by the same objects presented when we are awake, only they are
kindled by shadows created within and not by substances existing without.
But Psychology will gather from the phenomena of dream some very
important conclusions. In dream the Mind is awake and at work, but it
works wildly, insanely, without self-control. Something is absent in
sleep that controls its action when we are awake. That absent controlling
and directing force is the WILL.
What is THE WILL?
The WILL is the expression of the SELF—of the INDIVIDUAL BEING. It is the
“I”—the YOU—that commands, controls and directs thought and action.
This Conscious Self, which possesses the power we call the _Will_, is
not, and cannot be, the material brain, nor the product of the brain, as
the Materialists assert; for we see that in Dream the brain is in part
awake and working without the assistance or control of the Will; proving
that the Self, of whom the Will is the expression, is not identical with
the brain.
Moreover, the Conscious Self, although taking cognizance of the action
of the mind in dream, is nevertheless unable to direct its action;
thus affording another proof that the Conscious Self and the material
mechanism are not identical.
The phenomena of Dream, then, are the _facts_ first presented in the
scientific investigation of Psychology from which we derive physical
_proofs_ of the existence of a _Soul in Man_, not as a vague theory
merely, but as shown by the positive _evidence_ of his mechanism in
action.