My Library

very short time. Then he made two discoveries. (1) The mental effort of prolonging the Dream produced a pain in the head, dull at first but rapidly increasing in intensity. (2) In the last moments of prolonging the Dream, while subject to the pain, he experienced a sensation of dual consciousness. "I could feel myself standing in the dream," he says, "and see the scenery; but at the same time I could feel myself lying in bed and see my bedroom." A year later he determined to disregard the pain and prolong the dream. He dreamed that he was walking by the water on the Western Shore. He prolonged it, and the scenery became extraordinarily vivid and clear. His body began to draw him back, he experienced dual consciousness; he could feel himself lying in bed and walking by the sea at the same time; could dimly see the objects in his bedroom as well as the dream scenery. He willed to continue dreaming. A battle ensued, and, as his will asserted itself or declined, the shore scene or the bedroom became more distinct. His will triumphed. The bedroom faded altogether from his vision, and he was out on the shore feeling indescribably free and elated. But the pain in his head increased in intensity, in his forehead and the top of his head. But there was no dual consciousness, and when the pain was at its worst, something seemed to "click" in his brain, the pain vanished, his body pulled no longer and he was free. He continued his walk, though his reason told him that the scene before him was not the physical land and sea, and that bis body was lying in bed, half a mile away. People, quite ordinary people, were walking past him and talking; and he tried to stop one man and ask him the time; but