THE SUBCONSCIOUS
When the Society for Psychical Research was founded, in 1882, its
purpose was not only to obtain, if possible, scientifically acceptable
proof of the survival of human personality after bodily death, but also
to study the nature of personality in its mundane aspects, with a view
to securing greater insight into the powers and possibilities of man
here on earth.
In this latter quest it has been eminently successful, and thanks to
its labors our knowledge of ourselves has been increased a thousandfold.
As has been shown, phenomena hitherto regarded as mysterious and
"supernatural"--such as apparitions, clairvoyance, crystal-gazing,
etc.--have been definitely explained on a purely naturalistic basis;
and, as was said at the close of the last chapter, in addition to
naturalizing the supernatural, psychical researchers have made, or have
assisted in making, discoveries of great practical utility, and having a
profound bearing on affairs of everyday life.
Among these, none is of more importance than the discovery of the
"subconscious." This term, which was almost unheard of a few years ago,
is nowadays used by psychologists in a variety of ways, but it may be
broadly defined as including an extensive range of mental processes and
phenomena that occur beneath the surface of our ordinary consciousness.
Subconscious mental action, in fact, has a constant, unceasing part
in our lives. It is in evidence in such commonplace acts as walking,
talking, writing, playing the piano, handling a tool, a tennis racket,
or a baseball bat.
There was a time, in the experience of all of us, when we could do none
of these things, but had to learn them by conscious effort. Little by
little, as we acquired more skill, the element of consciousness became
less and less, until at last we could execute them in a seemingly
automatic manner, as in the fashion of the piano player described by
Miss Cobbe:
"Two different lines of hieroglyphics have to be read at once, and the
right hand has to be guided to attend to one of them, the left to the
other. All the fingers have the work assigned as quickly as they can
move. The mind, or something which does duty as mind, interprets scores
of A sharps, and B flats, and C naturals into black ivory keys and white
ones, crotchets, and quavers, and demi-quavers, rests, and all the
mysteries of music. The feet are not idle, but have something to do with
the pedals. And all this time the performer, the _conscious_ performer,
is in a seventh heaven of artistic rapture at the results of all
this tremendous business, or perchance lost in a flirtation with the
individual who turns the leaves of the music book, and is justly
persuaded she is giving him the whole of her soul."
The subconscious is thus a sort of reservoir in which are stored up,
available for future use, the things learned through education and
experience; and it also has a dynamic power that enables it to
supplement, economize, and enlarge the operations of the upper
consciousness. Ordinarily we fail to appreciate what we owe to this
hidden servitor, for the reason that its workings are so smooth, so
unobtrusive, as to pass quite unnoticed. Yet abundant evidence has been
secured to demonstrate not simply the fact of its existence, but the
more significant fact that it is never at rest, but is perpetually
laboring in our behalf.
Even when our consciousness is for the moment completely in abeyance--as
when we are asleep--the subconscious continues operant. Many of my
readers have doubtless had the experience of vainly endeavoring for
hours, perhaps for days, to solve some important problem, and then
awaking one morning with a luminously clear idea of its correct
solution. While they slept, their subconsciousness had been at work
disentangling the threads of their conscious reasoning, stripping away
and discarding unessentials, and finally presenting them with, so to
speak, a ready-made understanding of that which had previously been so
perplexing to them.
In all such cases the action of the subconscious is more vividly evident
when, as often happens, the desired solution is gained during sleep
itself, in the form of a dream. An excellent example is found in an
episode narrated by a business man, who says:
"I had been bothered since September with an error in my cash account
for that month, and, despite many hours' examination, it defied all my
efforts, and I almost gave it up as hopeless. It had been the subject of
my waking thoughts for many nights, and had occupied a large portion of
my leisure hours. Matters remained thus unsettled until the eleventh of
December. On this night I had not, to my knowledge, once thought of the
subject, but I had not been long in bed and asleep, when my brain was as
busy with the books as though I had been at my desk.
"The cash book, banker's pass books, etc., etc., appeared before me;
and, without any apparent trouble, I almost immediately discovered the
cause of the mistakes, which had arisen out of a complicated cross
entry. I perfectly recollect having taken a slip of paper in my dream,
and made such a memorandum as would enable me to correct the error
at some leisure time; and, having done this, that the whole of the
circumstances had passed from my mind.
"When I awoke in the morning I had not the slightest recollection of my
dream, nor did it once occur to me throughout the day, although I had
the very books before me on which I had apparently been engaged in my
sleep. When I returned home in the afternoon, as I did early, for the
purpose of dressing, and proceeded to shave, I took up a piece of paper
from my dressing table to wipe my razor, and you may imagine my surprise
at finding thereon the very memorandum I fancied I had made during the
previous night. The effect on me was such that I returned to our office
and turned to the cash book, when I found that I had really, while
asleep, detected the error which I could not detect in my waking hours,
and had actually jotted it down at the time.
"I have no recollection whatever as to where I obtained the paper and
pencil with which I made the memorandum. It certainly must have been
written in the dark, and in my bedroom, as I found both paper and pencil
there the following afternoon. The pencil was not one which I am in the
habit of carrying, and my impression is that I must either have found
it in the room, or gone down-stairs for it."[32]
[32] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. viii, pp. 394-395.
Illustrative of the same subconscious mechanism, and doubly interesting
because of the light it throws on the true nature of many dreams
frequently regarded as supernatural, is a singular experience that once
befell Professor H. V. Hilprecht, the well-known archæologist of the
University of Pennsylvania.
At the time, Professor Hilprecht was trying to decipher the inscriptions
on two small fragments of agate from the temple of Bel in ancient
Babylonia, and believed by him to be portions of the finger rings of
some wealthy Babylonian. He had already published a preliminary report
on the collection of which they formed a part, but, despite weeks of
earnest effort, had utterly failed to get at the meaning of the words
inscribed on them.
One Saturday night, after working on the fragments until nearly twelve
o'clock without any satisfactory result, he went to bed weary and
exhausted, and was soon in a deep sleep. He then dreamed that he was
transported to the temple of Bel, where a venerable priest, whose dress
showed that he belonged to a pre-Christian epoch, conducted him into
the treasure chamber of the temple. It was a small, low room, without
windows, and contained a large wooden chest, around which were scattered
pieces of agate and other valuable stones. While Professor Hilprecht
stood looking at these, the priest said to him:
"The two fragments which you have published separately upon pages 22
and 26 belong together, are not finger rings, and their history is as
follows:
"King Kurigalzu [who reigned in Babylonia about 1300 B. C.], once sent
to the temple of Bel, among other articles of agate and lapis lazuli, an
inscribed votive cylinder of agate. Then we priests suddenly received
the command to make for the statue of the god Ninib a pair of earrings
of agate. We were in great dismay, since there was no agate at hand as
raw material. In order to execute the command, there was nothing for us
to do but cut the votive cylinder into three parts, making three rings,
each of which contained a portion of the original inscription.
"The first two rings served as earrings for the statue of the god; the
two fragments which have given you so much trouble are portions of them.
If you will put the two together you will have confirmation of my words.
But the third ring you have not yet found in the course of your
excavations, and you never will find it."
With this the priest disappeared, and the dream came to an end. In the
morning, impressed with its coherence and vividness, Professor Hilprecht
again attacked the troublesome fragments, put them together as directed,
and, by making the proper guesses for the missing middle portion,
readily deciphered the full inscription: "To the god Ninib, son of Bel,
his lord, has Kurigalzu, pontifex of Bel, presented this."[33]
[33] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xii, pp. 14-15.
Nor are the intellectual achievements of the subconscious during sleep
confined to the solution of problems that have been vexing the upper
consciousness. It has a highly original, creative power of its own.
Thus the composer Tartini dreamed one night that he heard the devil
playing a wonderful sonata, and, remembering it on awaking, was able to
set it down on paper, and thereby put to his credit one of the finest
pieces of music that bears his name. Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" was
another dream composition; and, indeed, a long list of masterpieces in
music, art, and literature, originating through subconscious mental
action in sleep, might be drawn up.
A typical case was recently communicated to me by a well-known Pacific
Coast architect, Mr. B. J. S. Cahill. He had been commissioned to design
a twenty-six-story office building, to be erected in Portland, Oregon,
and he determined, if possible, to plan one that would be a real
contribution towards the solution of some of the most difficult problems
of modern commercial architecture. For weeks Mr. Cahill labored hard to
devise a building that would unite a maximum of beauty, solidity, and
capacity with an abundance, and as nearly as possible an equality, of
light and air for the many offices it was to contain. The structure he
ultimately conceived was certainly novel, and differed conspicuously
from the ordinary four-sided office building, with its inner offices
lighted from a court.
His plan called for the construction of a building shaped much like a
St. Andrew's cross, or like a square with a triangle cut out of each
side. In this way the need for an inner court was completely obviated,
and the only poorly ventilated and dimly lighted portion of the building
would be its central "core." Here the elevators and stairs were to be
located.
According to the architect's own statement, this plan--which has been
highly praised by so eminent a critic as Mr. Montgomery Schuyler--was
born in his mind while he slept. One night he saw in a dream a building
shaped in this fashion, and knew that his problem was solved. He tells
me that on awaking he made two rough sketches of the plan in a pocket
note-book--one showing the general design, the other indicating the
appearance of the building when completed.
Perhaps no one has ever been more favored in this same way than that
remarkable man of genius, the late Robert Louis Stevenson. The plots
for many of Stevenson's best stories--including the marvelous "Doctor
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"--came to him in dreams, as he himself has related
in a delightful autobiographical essay, in which, with characteristic
whimsicality, he personifies his subconscious ideas as "Brownies" and
"little people."
"This dreamer, like many other persons," he says, "has encountered some
trifling vicissitudes of fortune. When the bank begins to send letters,
and the butcher to linger at the back gates, he sets to belaboring his
brains after a story, for that is his readiest money winner; and behold!
at once the little people begin to bestir themselves in the same quest,
and labor all night long, and all night long set before him truncheons
of tales upon their lighted theater. No fear of his being frightened
now; the flying heart and the frozen scalp are things bygone; applause,
growing applause, growing interest, growing exultation in his own
cleverness--for he takes all the credit--and at last a jubilant leap to
wakefulness, with the cry: 'I have it, that'll do!' upon his lips; with
such and similar emotions he sits at these nocturnal dreams, with such
outbreaks, like Claudius in the play, he scatters the performance in the
midst.
"Often enough the waking is a disappointment; he has been too deep
asleep, as I explain the thing; drowsiness has gained his little people;
they have gone stumbling and maundering through their parts; and the
play, to the wakened mind, is seen to be a tissue of absurdities. And
yet how often have these sleepless Brownies done him honest service, and
given him, as he sat idly taking his pleasure in the boxes, better tales
than he could fashion for himself.
"The more I think of it," Stevenson continues, "the more I am moved to
press upon the world my question: 'Who are the little people?' They
are near connections of the dreamer's, beyond doubt; they share in his
financial worries, and have an eye to the bank book; they share plainly
in his training; they have plainly learned, like him, to build the
scheme of a considerable story, and to arrange emotion in progressive
order; only I think they have more talent; and one thing is beyond
doubt--they can tell him a story piece by piece, like a serial, and
keep him all the while in ignorance of where they aim.
"That part of my work which is done while I am sleeping is the Brownies'
part beyond contention; but that which is done when I am up and about
is by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies
have a hand in it even then."[34]
[34] Quoted from the "Chapter on Dreams," in R. L.
Stevenson's "Across the Plains."
It is worth noting that facts like these have recently led to a novel
theory explanatory of what is known as "genius." Instead of adopting
the Lombrosian doctrine, and regarding the man of genius as a kind of
transcendental degenerate, this latest theory affirms that he is what he
is by reason of enjoying a readier communication than most men possess
between the conscious and subconscious portions of his mind. Such a view
has the further virtue of being completely in accord with the familiar
definition of genius as an infinite capacity for hard work.
From what has been said, it must be evident that the contents of the
subconscious are made up in large measure of knowledge gained at one
time or another by conscious endeavor and thought. The man who thinks
hard consciously, is certain to have a richer fund of subconscious
information at his disposal than the one whose conscious thinking is of
the idle, futile, scatter-brained sort. All successful men, whether a
Milton or a Rockefeller, a Shakespeare or a Morgan, are men who have
developed their subconscious faculties by laborious application of their
conscious powers in the routine of daily life.
On the other hand, it has also to be observed that knowledge is often
obtained subconsciously without passing through any preliminary stage of
conscious attention and awareness; and that, by a reversal of the usual
process, the conscious frequently acquires from the subconscious
information of which it would otherwise be ignorant.
I have previously alluded to this interesting and most important fact in
my discussion of telepathy, clairvoyance, crystal-gazing, and kindred
problems in psychical research. As we then saw, the subconscious has
a certain eerie faculty of imparting its information to the upper
consciousness in the way of hallucinations, indicative at times of
thought transference from mind to mind, or, more commonly, originating
merely from unnoticed impressions of direct, personal experience.
It cannot be too firmly borne in mind that every day of our lives we see
and hear and feel more than we realize; that these unobserved sights and
sounds and sensations may, nevertheless, be subconsciously registered
in our minds; and that they may soon or late be projected above the
threshold of consciousness in a form astonishing, puzzling, and perhaps
annoying to us, as in the case of a strange experience of a young New
York newspaper man.
It was his business to edit for publication in a number of country
newspapers the dispatches sent in by a telegraphic news agency. He had
been thus engaged for perhaps a year when he noticed, greatly to his
dismay, that he was repeatedly omitting items which he believed, on
reading them in the telegraphic copy, to be "old news," but which were
printed with more or less prominence in the next morning's issues of
other newspapers. This occurred so often that he began to tremble for
his position, and set himself earnestly to solve the mystery.
Luckily he had some acquaintance with psychology, and knew that his
trouble must be due to a faulty identification of subconscious with
conscious impressions. But why was it, he asked himself, that on certain
nights he would be quite free from such errors of judgment, while on
others he might omit, or be strongly tempted to omit, on the ground of
supposed previous publication, half a dozen items of real news value?
The truth dawned on him one evening as he was sitting down to begin
work.
On his desk lay a heap of envelopes containing the dispatches that had
come from the news agency before his arrival at the newspaper office.
These should already have been opened by an office boy, but that night
he had been busy with something else. Mechanically, the editor himself
tore open the envelopes, smoothed out their contents, and, without
reading them, made a neat pile of the typewritten sheets, preparatory
to going through them.
He had not been working an hour when he came to a dispatch, which he
tossed aside, with the muttered comment, "That's an old story, sure.
I've read it somewhere before."
Then, remembering the mistakes he had been making, he hesitated, picked
it up, and read it carefully. Every word in it seemed familiar. But
where could he have read it? In the evening papers? He went through
them one by one, without result. Then it suddenly occurred to him that
possibly, in opening the dispatches, he had, without being aware of it,
glanced at this particular item, and had obtained a subconscious
knowledge of it, which was now welling up confusedly as a conscious
memory.
To test this theory, he directed the office boy to open the dispatches
without fail for the next few nights. On none of these did he suffer
from memory confusion.
Possibly, if he had analyzed the matter further, he would have found
that the news items which had caught his eye while smoothing out the
dispatch sheets related to subjects of some special interest to him.
For just as one's conscious attention is arrested by that which is
particularly interesting, so does the subconscious select for
presentation to the upper consciousness information of temporary or
habitual interest and significance.
Sometimes, too, there is involved a harking back to interests of an
earlier period of life. A simple but instructive illustration of this is
found in a little incident that occurred to Doctor Richard Hodgson while
on a visit to England. It may best be reported in his own words:[35]
[35] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xi, p. 415.
"Yesterday morning (September 13, 1895), just after breakfast, I was
strolling alone along one of the garden paths of Leckhampton House,
Cambridge, repeating aloud to myself the verses of a poem. I became
temporarily oblivious to my garden surroundings, and regained my
consciousness of them suddenly, to find myself brought to a stand, in a
stooping position, gazing intently at a five-leaved clover. On careful
examination, I found about a dozen specimens of five-leaved clover, as
well as several specimens of four-leaved clover, all of which probably
came from the same root.
"Several years ago I was interested in getting extra-leaved clovers,
but I have not for years made any active search for them, though
occasionally my conscious attention, as I walked along, has been given
to appearances of four-leaved clover, which proved, on examination,
to be deceptive. The peculiarity of yesterday's 'find' was that I
discovered myself, with a sort of shock, standing still and stooping
down, and afterward realized that a five-leaved clover was directly
under my eyes."
Compare with this an incident reported by an English clergyman, the
Reverend P. H. Newnham. We find in it exactly the same element of
selective subconscious attention, accompanied, however, by an auditory
hallucination as a means of notifying the upper consciousness of the
fact subconsciously observed.
"I was visiting friends at Tunbridge Wells," says Mr. Newnham, "and went
out one evening, entomologizing. As I crossed a stile into a field, on
my way to a neighboring wood, a voice said distinctly in my right ear:
'You'll find "Chaonia" on that oak.' This was a very scarce moth,
which I had never seen before, and which most assuredly I had never
consciously thought of seeing. There were several oaks in the field, but
I instinctively walked up to one, straight to the off side of it, and
there was the moth indicated."[36]
[36] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xi, p. 411.
The psychological explanation of this is simple enough, and is equally
applicable to similar, if more sensational, hallucinations widely
heralded as of supernatural character. It is manifestly absurd to
suppose that a "spirit" announced to the entomologizing clergyman the
presence of the rare and greatly sought-after moth which it was his good
fortune to capture. But it is not at all absurd to suggest that quite
likely, although he had consciously forgotten all about it, he had at
some time seen Chaonia, or an entomological text-book picture of
Chaonia; that he had subconsciously caught a glimpse of it, fluttering
across the field and settling on the oak, and that his subconscious
recognition of its identity had set in motion the proper mental
mechanism to notify his upper consciousness of a fact in which it would
naturally be much interested.
There may also be a subconscious intensification, or "hyperæsthesia," of
other senses than that of sight. In all probability hyperæsthesia of
the sense of hearing is sufficient to account for the dramatic central
incident in the following story, told by a lady whose identity I am
unable to reveal:
"I was living one summer in a little mining camp in the Rocky Mountains.
Our house, a frame building, was some little distance from any other,
at the top of a steep hill; the only disadvantage of this being the
additional difficulty of getting water, which was an expensive commodity
in the camp, as the adjacent mines had drained most of the wells.
"The house contained six rooms, all opening one out of another, my own
room, with a dressing closet beyond, where my child slept, being at one
end, and the front porch, which overlooked the valley, at the other.
"One evening, after my little girl was asleep, I lit a tiny night lamp,
always left burning on a bracket in her room; and, leaving all doors and
windows open, on account of the intense heat, went to sit on the front
porch. I may have sat there half an hour, when my attention was caught
by a great blazing light in the direction of the farthest houses. It
appeared evident that one at least had taken fire, and the difficulty of
getting water, and the hope that no children were in danger, flashed
through my mind.
"While watching the rapidly growing glare, I heard a faint, crackling
sound in my own house. It would not have disturbed me at any other time,
as I only supposed that some smouldering piece of cedar in the kitchen
stove had blazed up. But, with the present thought of fire in my mind,
I went into the kitchen to look, and, glancing through the open doors
as I passed, saw a volume of flame and smoke pouring from the child's
room into mine.
"Thank God it was still possible to rush through and save her; and I
carried her out in a blanket to prevent the scorch, for the room was
only burning at one end; the side where the bed stood, though fearfully
hot and suffocating, was not yet on fire, and, thanks to the timely
warning, the water left in the barrels proved just enough to extinguish
the flames before very much was destroyed.
"After all was quiet, I went back to the porch to look at that other
burning house, feeling so thankful that my child was safe, and wondering
if others were, also. But all was dark, and when I came to make inquiry
next day, nothing was known in the camp of any such fire. Had it not
been for my strange vision of it, which must have lasted fully ten
minutes, I feel sure that my little girl would have been burned to
death."[37]
[37] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xi, pp. 418-419.
There is a possibility, though only a possibility, that telepathy
between mother and child may have had part in the production of this
helpful hallucination. But hyperæsthesia of the sense of hearing
seems to afford the likelier explanation, as also in numerous
well-authenticated instances, in which railroad men, obeying an
unaccountable impulse or hallucinatory monition, have taken action
averting disastrous wrecks. A single illustrative example must suffice,
a case called to the attention of the Society for Psychical Research by
Mr. William H. Wyman, of Dunkirk, N. Y.:
"Some years ago my brother was employed on, and had charge as conductor
and engineer of, a work train on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railway, running between Buffalo and Erie. I often went with him to the
gravel bank, where he had his headquarters, and returned on his train
with him.
"On one occasion I was with him, and after the train of cars was loaded,
we went together to the telegraph office to see if there were any
orders, and to find out if the trains were on time, as we had to keep
out of the way of all regular trains. After looking over the train
reports, and finding them all on time, we started for Buffalo.
"As we approached Westfield station, running about twelve miles per
hour, and when within about one mile of a long curve in the line, my
brother all of a sudden shut off the steam, and, quickly stepping over
to the fireman's side of the engine, he looked out of the cab window,
and then to the rear of his train. Not discovering anything wrong, he
put on steam, but almost immediately again shut it off, and gave the
signal for brakes, and stopped.
"After inspecting the engine and train, and finding nothing wrong, he
seemed very much excited, and for a short time he acted as if he did not
know where he was or what to do. I asked what was the matter. He replied
that he did not know; then, after looking at his watch and orders, he
said that he felt that there was some trouble on the line of the road. I
suggested that he had better run his train to the station and find out.
He then ordered his flagman to go ahead around the curve, which was just
ahead of us, and he would follow with the train.
"The flagman started and had barely time to flag an extra express train,
with the general superintendent and others on board, coming full forty
miles an hour. The superintendent inquired what he was doing there, and
if he did not receive orders to keep out of the way of the extra. My
brother told him that he had not received orders, and did not know of
any extra train coming; that we had both examined the train reports
before leaving the station. The train was then backed to the station,
where it was found that no orders had been given."[38]
[38] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xi, p. 416.
Incidents such as this are of not infrequent occurrence. By the
superstitious they are regarded as weird and uncanny, and savoring of
the spiritistic. In reality they are only exceptional exemplifications
of a process which is ceaselessly taking place in all of us. There is no
one who does not, every day, perform acts which he cannot consciously
account for, and which, if closely inquired into, would be found
similarly to take their rise in unnoticed subconscious impressions. For
the matter of that, it is possible to train one-self to subconscious
attention to selected impressions, even in sleep.
A familiar illustration is the mother who, undisturbed by other sounds,
awakens at the least cry of her infant. The same phenomenon is
observable in the case of the conscientious medical nurse, who, no
matter how profound her sleep, responds instantly to any movement by
her patient. And, in the course of conversation not long ago, a
physician said to me:
"As you know, my house is on a car line, and, besides the cars, there is
much automobile and carriage traffic on my street for a large part of
the night. Nothing of this breaks my rest. I sleep so soundly that a
thunderstorm does not arouse me. Yet let the telephone bell begin to
ring, and I am out of bed and have the receiver at my ear before the
bell has ceased ringing."
I have myself, like a good many other people, found it possible to make
the subconscious do the work of an alarm clock. That is to say, if,
on going to bed, I mentally determine to wake at a certain hour, I
invariably do so, and this although I am one of the deepest of sleepers.
It matters not what hour I select, nor how late I retire the previous
night, the mental sentinel whom I have placed on guard punctually
notifies me when the appointed time arrives.
This goes to show, of course, that the subconscious is, to a certain
extent, at any rate, amenable to conscious control and direction.
That such control is highly desirable is evinced not merely by the
facts reviewed above, but by others which we must next take under
consideration--facts of altogether different import. For if, as we have
seen, the subconscious is in many ways a docile and helpful auxiliary
of the upper consciousness, it also contains within itself dire
possibilities of unhappiness, suffering, disease, and even death.