§ 25. Observation and Treatment of the Dream-Formations

Third Section

The Dream-Life According to the Wealth of Its Lawful Forms of Formation, in Genus and Species.

§ 25. Observation and Treatment of the Dream-Formations.

As with everything one wishes thoroughly to investigate, one must also draw upon and observe dream-formations at their immediate source, that is, during their proceeding in the night. But since the spontaneous spirit is inactive during sleep, one must, from waking life, take artificial measures to keep it so far active even in the night that it is able to perceive the dream-formations then proceeding and to hold them fast in their own peculiar determinateness. This is accomplished through a deliberate straining of the waking observing spirit toward sleep and through it, so that the waking ray of attention is compelled, a priori, to seek its aim and satisfaction within sleep. By this means one attains, above all, a far sharper power of sensation for all dream-occurrences, and what would otherwise escape the ordinary dreamer entirely unnoticed presents itself thus to the observer clearly for observation. The rich flowering of dream that comes with and at the onset of sleep, and the still more luxuriant flowering before awakening, and even, at times, if the sleep is not entirely tranquil, the dream-formations of deep sleep, step forth brighter before perception, and one is able to seize and hold them fast. In fact, the researcher of the soul must, even during sleep, lie waking here in wait, and if he pursues, as is absolutely necessary, such observation for a long time, the spirit at last becomes accustomed to it and sharpens itself in the investigating power of sensation for whatever strikes upon it. For indolent individuals, to be sure, such a crossing of sleep with waking, especially since sleep thereby loses in repose and sweet sensation, is too sour a labor; but to the inspired researcher the enjoyment of the spirit appears as the highest, and to pursue it even there where otherwise the gate of knowledge closes itself, and to wrest from the obstacle the fruits of science, counts to him as beautiful and refreshing. But the night-researching power is most sharpened when it is already directed, from waking life, upon quite definite kinds of dream whose closer observation is called for; for it does not lie within the researcher's arbitrary power to be able to call forth desired dream-formations at will, but he must wait until the life of the dream itself, or some stimulus arising of itself, generates them before perception. The after-vibrating spirit of waking then resembles, as it hovers livingly over the field of the dream, the eagle in the air, which strives to espy and to seize what moves beneath it. Often the researcher involuntarily rouses himself at the entrance of the desired dream-image to such a degree that he can survey the merry fabric of the imagination, independently of it, and gain a clear perception of it for his purposes. This, to be sure, requires an immediate exertion of the spirit to make itself, during the dream itself, as wakeful as possible still, in order to repeat and imprint what was seen once more with a certain degree of deliberateness; but often enough the spirit deceives itself in this, imagining that it truly knows the dream or believing it has written it down in black and white, whereas in truth the imagination only quieted and deceived it with such feignings; it does this even with satires, by making it appear to the sleeper that he is writing down what he sees and knows on black paper, or on a dark neck-cravat, and the like besides. In general, however, such observations, sharply directed at quite definite dream-phenomena, do not succeed until one has bitterly purchased for oneself sufficient sleep-wit; for, as a rule, a suddenly arising astonishment of the sleeper at what has just been seen, which one had already so long wished to observe, is precisely the form in which the spirit awakes to a fleeting reflection upon it; but this astonishment is already far too violent a movement of the spirit for it not to destroy or scare away the extremely delicate dream-image, so that observation becomes impossible. One must, then, taught by repeated disadvantage, first learn to lay aside, while yet asleep, the excitability of wonderment, or rather wonderment itself, and in general, even thereafter, vibrate only so gently along with the incoming ray of the understanding as the plastic delicacy of the dream-formation can bear; one learns this through frequent practice and habituation, so that at last there grows in the sleeping spirit the capacity to experiment in whatever direction it pleases.