A stormy night of snow in December, 1924. Close outside the window the impetuous Avon Dhu rushes clamorously downwards to join the Forth at Aberfoyle [Scotland]. Very sleepily I turn in after a hot bath and as soon as my head touches the pillow I am asleep.

I dream that I am in a large tower which I have never seen before. Buildings tower on either side of the tortuous and narrow streets and there is a maze of cross-turnings. For some time I wander aimlessly, as one who has lost his memory. I take little notice of passers-by or buildings. Suddenly I stop short, my brain wildly groping. I remember that I have an appointment in this strange city, where or of what nature I cannot think. But it is imperative that I know the time. There is not a clock to be seen.

I feel for my watch but discover that I have no pockets.

I see an officer of some sort standing at a corner and approach him. I ask him the time. He looks angrily at me and says: "Are you blind, or making a fool of me?" I look up and around. Every tower and every steeple, the façade of every building too, has a clock; the place is plastered with clocks. I begin to run--every dial reads ten past four--...

My watch records ten past four...

EDITOR'S NOTE

Looks like some people have better circadian clocks than mine. Or else a third eye that "sees around corners" as JW Dunne skeptically put it. Though a similar episode at Half-Past Four led Dunne to a third theory, that supposed ESP is really memory of past, present and near future all experienced as an extended present, when (in sleep or distraction) we relax the cultural trance locking us in an absurdly narrow now. Dunne would say Donaldson saw his watch reading 4:10 at 4:10, so it's no surprise he could remember this when dreaming at 4:09--his dream-now sprawled hours or days wide--not a mere waking second.

Sounds odd, but Dunne's own dream Pelée, hinging on a double error (misreading an inaccurate news story) shows that at least some dreams about remote or future events really do just reflect headlines we'll soon read, not the event itself.

Dunne's theory fits some cases--maybe even this one--but not, I think, all.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: The Dream World by Rodolphe L. Megroz, p.263.

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