The soul in perfect sleep is folded within itself. Brain and body are weakened by the activities of the day. Hence the mind draws its faculties together—as the sensitive plant folds its leaves against human touch— and passes quietly into more interior recesses of the mental structure. The cerebellum is the dormitory of the soul, and the mind in perfect slumber retreats from all sensuous disturbances into the back portions of the brain. It is not, however, in a state of inanition but in a greater degree of harmony. Two kinds of dream may occur in this state, one of which emanates from the Land of Earth and the other from the Land of Spirits. The difference between ordinary dreaming and thinking is that the mind discriminates clearly between thought and its subsequent execution in the waking state, but not in the life of sleep. In dreaming the soul takes her wishes for granted, confuses thinking with acting and blends past experiences with present memories and emotions. There is an indiscriminate play of the will among the memories and affections of the mind.
The dreams which proceed from external or terres-
trial sources are more or less rational according to the order and vividness with which the mind is accustomed to think and reason. We think and dream in accordance with our experience and habit in combining ideas, and in accordance with dispositions of mind incidental to our common nature. The mind therefore manufactures the fabric of its ordinary dreams, which is explicable upon physiological principles. For example, the peculiar quality of foods and medicines is transferred to the brain during the period of repose, and thus the mind can be impressed powerfully by the life of meat. For the rest, defective slumber, impaired health, restless thought and the influence of other disturbing causes are accountable for those dreams which are referable to the Land of Earth.1
In respect of those which emanate from the World of Spirits, it is a fact that spiritual dreams occur only in a state of perfect slumber. The will and faculties of thought must be in a state of complete quiescence, and as this condition is seldom enjoyed it follows that "angel's visits are few and far between." Children of earth eat too much and too often, are injudicious in their occupations, are mentally too inharmonious to permit that complete retirement of mind from cerebrum to cerebellum which is indispensable to spiritual influx during hours of slumber. Such influences cannot enter when the front brain is at all positive. Only when the wind instrument is set to a high note on the spiritual scale of music can the angels awaken it to melody. Perfect slumber is nigh unto the state of death. The higher departments of mind are not occupied by thought; the holy elements of feeling are stilled; the front brain or cerebrum is a tranquil domain; there is no sentinel at the gate of the brain but the vigilant cerebellum. The mind is then ready for a high order of dream. Now if a spirit should approach and desire to impress a dream upon the sleeper's mind, it would act psychologically upon such organs in the front brain as would elaborate the dream designed. The result is not clairvoyance, though distant objects and scenery are impressed from time to time correctly on the mind. Now and then also there come our guardian spirits from a fairer home than ours and gently awaken our highest faculties to the finest thought and most serene contemplation.
The phenomena of dreams are controlled by established laws which may be applied to education and development of mind. Properly speaking, there is no such
condition as absolute suspension of consciousness, only of external powers of memory. When the mind passes into a state of coma, the spirit takes up the thread of previous interior experiences. The mind has two memories, one of the body and the world without, the other a more inward scroll, on the deepest folds of which are registered those experiences which the soul has obtained from the World of Spirits. The significance of dreams depends upon their nature and derivation. There are numberless varieties of superficial or cerebral dreams—half-remembered sensations and reminiscences of the past, wrought up during imperfect slumber into uncommon shapes and phantoms. The generality of dreams among men have not the least foundation in the law of correspondence or meaning, which should alone entitle such mental phenomena to our attention. Common and disturbing dreams never emanate from the World of Spirits. Even in prophetic warnings the soul does its own work almost invariably, by extending its sensiferous faculties toward the future, and thus perceiving—reflected upon its crystal bosom—those events which laws of cause and effect are certain to develop.
The spiritual department of this subject is invested with sacred interest. Deep, lovely and positive is that philosophy which demonstrates the possibility, laws and practice of angelic intercourse. There is no matter more incontestably demonstrated than the communion of men with spiritual existences. Owing to wrong living and intemperance, no one enjoys perfect slumber except for exceedingly brief periods; but when experienced in all its fulness, and when the soul is resigned to the will of God through recognition of Nature's laws, the individual is then on the confines of the other life. True sleep is a temporary death of the body and a rest of soul. It is distinguished from imperfect slumber by the absence of all ordinary dreaming. In the deep state the soul is prepared for reception of spiritual impressions, and the
influx is easy because there are no obstructions in the superior brain. The higher vessels of mind are open; the deep channels are ready for the inpouring of fresher streams than ordinary rivers of thought; and the soul unconsciously opens to angelic powers, which come at the midnight hour with sweetest salutations. It must not be supposed, however, that any spirit transmits its own thoughts to a sleeper's mind, and thus develops the dream. On the contrary, the faculties of the slumbering soul are called gradually into such action as will perfectly elaborate that dream which the guardian spirit may desire. The spiritual power steals over that portion of the front brain in which the proper faculty is located. When reached, the guardian gently brings its function into action, and thus awakens in the sleeping mind a train of thought, or generates materials for a truthful vision of some distant land. The mind is thus acted upon psychologically by spiritual beings, who breathe their influences upon it and instil their sweet discourse without disturbing its repose or exciting the least suspicion that a divine power is acting so immediately upon it. Notwithstanding, when such an impression is received from the Spirit World, its true import is undoubtedly recognised by the subject, and is never lost. Dreams generated thus may be distinguished from others by the clearness, beauty and power which characterise them.
We must not, however, depend too much upon the guardian spirit for direction and happiness. When we ascertain our duty and destiny, we should act in strict accordance with all light that we possess, and then the higher influences will pour into the soul. Let it be repeated, in conclusion, that thoughts are not deposited in the subjects' brain but are developed therein by playing upon the right faculties in a right manner, and thus the sleeper's mind is made to harmonise with that of the attending spirit.