Volition on the Brink
Dreamed late 1860s by Dr. William Hammond
Not long since, I dreamed that I stood upon a very high perpendicular table-land, at the foot of which flowed a river. I thought I experienced an irresistible desire to approach the brink and to look down. Had I been awake, such a wish would have been the very last to enter my mind, for I have an instinctive dread of standing on a height.During my imaginary struggle I thought I experienced all the emotions which such an event if real would have excited, and I was painfully conscious of my utter inability to escape from the peril of my situation. Here were circumstances such as, according to Mr. Stewart, demonstrate the activity of volition, but at the same time show its inability to act upon the body. But clearly they show no such thing, for the imaginary volition was to refrain from crawling over a precipice which did not exist, and over which, therefore, I was not hanging. Such an act of the will if real, could not in the very nature of the real conditions of the situation have been carried out--the volition was just as imaginary as all the other circumstances of the dream.I dreamed that I threw myself on my face and crawled to the edge of the cliff. I looked down at the stream, which scarcely appeared to be as wide as my hand, so great was the altitude upon which I was placed.
As I looked I felt an overpowering impulse to crawl still farther and to throw myself into the water below. I imagined that I endeavored with all my will to resist this force, which appeared to be acting by means altogether external to my organism. My efforts, however, were all in vain. I could not control my movements, and gradually I was urged farther and farther over the brink, till at last I went down into the abyss below.
As I struck the water I awoke with a start.
EDITOR'S NOTE
So this powerful dream, warning that the dreamer is in the grip of a destructive compulsion, means nothing--except that dreams are stupid. Discussing other dreams, Hammond goes even further--not only are clear thought, volition and real feeling nonexistent in dreams, he rejects metaphor, symbolism, and meaning in general. Oh, and lucidity is impossible--anyone who reports it was really awake.
And for the 19th Century, Hammond's quite mainstream. It's almost enough to make me sympathize with Freud.
SOURCE: Sleep and its Derangements by Dr William A. Hammond, 1869; circa p.90
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