DREAMS TO ORDER.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1924, Page 4

DREAMS TO ORDER.

(By Dr Edwin E. Slosson, Director of Science Service, Washington.)

The interpretation of dreams lias been an object of eager interest for more than WOO years. The latest journals of physcho-analysis deal with the same question as the earliest papyri of Egypt, or cuneiform bricks of Assyria—and with little more success. Is it not time then that we attacked the problem from the other side.' Instead of wasting so much time endeavouring to determine what dreams mean, would we not make better progress if we tried to find out what makes (dreams ? Then we could get whatever dreams we liked and whenever we liked, and need not bother about their interpretation. \\e now have some prospect of progress in this direction, for our new knowledge of the hormones gives us a due. A case in point is reported by Finley. He had a woman patient to whom he gave a grain a day of extract of the pituitary body, to build up her blood pressure. Her dreams had hitherto been trivial and colourless, but after ten days of the treatment she began to have pleasurable and highly coloured dreams. She travelled extensively in her dreams, she had always longed to ill reality, and where over she went she found the stations and the cars freshly painted in pleasing colours, and the trainmen in nice new uniforms with gold braid. Khortlv after the treatment was al-

tered, aiul adrenalin, another of the glandular secretions, was substituted. At once a change came over the spirit of her dreams. They lost their colours and became horrible, filled with violent quarrels. Now, if a Freudian practitioner had

taken the case he would have proceeded to probe for complexes in her unconscious self without even putting her under an anesthetic. He would diagnose the former dreams as due to “suppressed desires,” instead ol piluitriu, and the latter was due to “in-

fantile fears,” instead ol adrenalin. Yet the doctor could produce either brand of dreams at will by an infinitesimal dose ol white powder . PLAIN AND COLOiniHD.

Fear and rage promote the secretion of adrenalin from the suprarenal glands. Conversely, the injection of adrenalin, which may he made in the laboratory, will stimulate the symptoms of fear—the goose-pimples, the hair-raising, the cold sweat, and all that. And James showed years ago that with the symptoms come the corresponding emotion. It seems from this case that dreams may he made in odor like picture postcards, one cent plain, and five cents coloured. Common dreams come plain in black and white and grey, chiefly grey. Most os us are colourblind for a third of our lives. My dreams aie usually fragmentary and fugitive, shadow v and colourless. But once when I took laudanum there was unveiled before me the most wonderful pictures, minute and sharp as the landscape seen through the big end of an opera-glass, and as brilliantly coloured as a Chinese rice-pa|ier sketch. It was an unprecedented experience lor me, and 1 realised lor the lirst time what delights are enjoyed by tln> favoured few who have coloured dreams ’naturally.

De Quhicey in bis “ Confessions and Baudelaire in his “Hymn ol Opium” depict in the most glowing lei ms that English and French alford, the delights of the opium dream. But those who seek an artiloial para-

dise by way of the alkaloids find ultileni.dv that they have jumped out ol

ennui into anguish. De (.luiueey soon found himself chased by Chinese, kissed hv cancerous crocodiles, and .suliering other form- of alliterative torment. SYNTHETIC Dll HAMS. Opium ami ha hi'h in the Oriciil. ehohnl and leiainc in the Ouidcttl, have been from time immemorial llm favourite means ol escaping trout this dull world in the dreamland of Euphoria. Hashish also intensities colour perception and excites chromatic dreams. I know a lady who was accustomed to lake a pinhead pill of hashish gum before going to the theatre because it brightened the scene and converted the painted hack-drop into a specious landscape. ’l’he internally secreted hormones are similar in potency and ellect to the externally adm.iuistered alkaloids. An overdose of insulin, a hormone secreted by the puucieas, causes leelings of "causeless” fear. The patient can recover his courage by sucking a stick of candy. An excess ol acliiily oil the part, of the thyroid gland excites anxietv anil irritation. ”

. Possibly anxiety and terror dreams in general may he caused by some disturbance in the balance of the hormones or similar organic derangement rather than h.v anything peculiarly unpleasant in one’s past experiences or present predicament. Certain foods are reputed to produce had dreams, hut l.his is uncertain. I have often been warned against eating mince nie or Welsh rabbit bclore bedtime, hut when I fried the experiment I saw neither hoof nor hair of a nightmare. Nobody river told me of any foods that would give pleasant dreams. 1 wonder why. Are there not any . But some day the chemist may g>'° us synthetic dreams by his synthetic compounds, and then shall mil sleep always lie happy and the nightmare shall he no more.