Of all dreams, those in which warnings of one kind or another have been given have most hold on popular fancy. Literature, ancient and modern, abounds in references to them. Among such dreams, the following few examples, taken from the classics, may be offered: The dream of Calphurnia, wife of Julius Caesar; Vergil depicts the shade of Hector appearing to AEneas warning him to flee the city of Troy which was already burning and which was later taken by the Greeks. Simonides is said to have buried a corpse which he had found on the shore; he was warned that night by the object of his kindness not to depart next day; he obeyed; those who sailed were wrecked.

One who has paid attention to his own dreams will have observed that misgivings, doubts, anxieties, entertained often for but a moment, are not infrequently the sources for dreams in which the anxieties seem well-founded. Csesar's wife was doubtless anxious relative to the condition of public affairs; she, probably, saw the trend of public opinion, and her anxiety over her husband's fate prompted her dream. AEneas doubtless had a suspicion that the battle would be lost, that it would be prudent to flee; similarly Simonides had a misgiving as to the wisdom of setting sail. The fact that it was in one case Hector, and in the other the dead person who gave the warning, is of no moment; the dream is dramatic, putting our own thoughts into the mouths of others. In ancient times it was not rare to find Zeus, Venus, and other gods and goddesses appearing in dreams; today we do not credit the existence of these deities, and so dream images are now modelled according to present-day representations.

A dream recorded by Cicero seems even more wonderful than the above. He tells of two Arcadian friends who, travelling together, arrived at Megara. There one of them stopped at an inn, the other at the house of a friend. The latter dreamed that his friend at the inn appeared before him, imploring assistance, as the innkeeper was preparing to murder him. In his alarm, the dreamer awoke, but, considering it all a dream, composed himself and went to sleep. He dreamed again that his friend appeared, saying that since he had received no aid in life his death might not be unavenged. The murder was described; the body was said to have been thrown into a cart and covered with dung; the sleeper was directed to go to the gate of the city in the morning. He did so, and met a carter who, on being questioned, fled in terror; the body of the friend was found in the cart, and the innkeeper brought to justice.

What has been said about the above dreams will apply to this. The dream was instigated by a misgiving. Doubtless, the friend who dreamed did not like the looks of the innkeeper, and feared that harm might befall his friend. Since a glance is enough for the mind to make an indelible photograph, the cart was seen at the inn. In a reverie the most likely disposition of a murdered person was arrived at; also, if the event proved true, vengeance would not be passed by. The misgiving caused the dream, in which the mind dramatized all the thoughts associated with it. The reality of the dream caused awakening. That the dream should recur is not wonderful. As stated, dreams of the same night are often continuations of the first dream; if awakening had not taken place it is likely that the dream would have gone on to completion. As for the dream coming true, this is to be regarded as a coincidence.

Doubts, anxieties, misgivings, entertained for but a moment may, then, prove the instigators of dreams. Often the most fleeting anxieties are preferred. Dreams in which one is warned not to take a certain journey are founded in this way. After any disaster these dreams are frequently described, but even though authentic they do not savour of the mysterious. We will have such dreams come true as long as the mind is subject to doubts, and as long as accidents are possible. It is said that not a ship sails but what some passenger has dreamed that the ship would be wrecked, or has been warned not to sail by some one who had such a dream. How many dreams of warning prove unrelated to actualities is impossible of determination: as Lord Bacon remarks, "Men mark when they hit but not when they miss.

The following dream, recently told the writer, belongs to those dreams as proceed from anxieties. A mother dreamed that her soldier son appeared to her; he looked sad, pale, thin, ragged; he seemed as if enveloped in a mist. A few weeks after the dream she received word of her son's death. The mother believed the dream prophetic, or of a warning nature. However, what is more natural than for a mother to think of her absent ones, to believe that they are sick, uncared-for Such thoughts doubtless crossed the mind of the mother and instigated the dream in which the anxiety seemed well-founded. In this connection the words of Sir Walter Scott 1 are so appropriate as to warrant repetition. He says:

"When a soldier is exposed to death in battle, when a sailor is incurring the dangers of the sea, when a beloved wife or relative is attacked by disease, how readily our sleeping imagination rushes to the very point of alarm, which when waking it had shuddered to anticipate. The number of instances in which such lively dreams have been quoted, and both asserted and received as spiritual communications, is very great at all periods; in ignorant times, where the natural cause of dreaming is misapprehended, and confused with an idea of mysticism, it is much greater. Yet, perhaps, considering the many thousands of dreams which must, night after night, pass through the imaginations of individuals, the number of coincidences between the vision and the real event are fewer and less remarkable than a fair calculation of chances would warrant us to expect."

When we consider that the dream may utilize the words said in the presence of the sleeper, we will be forced to discount the wonderfulness of certain dreams. For example, dreams are recorded in which a person, after being awakened and told that some one is ill or dead, says: "I just dreamed that." In many of these instances the sleeper was sufficiently awake to have the words uttered in his presence reach sleeping consciousness; a dream was built about the words in order to explain them. As before stated, there is a definite interval between being awake and the consciousness of being awake; in this interval, words and other things that can make an impression on the sense organs may instigate dreams, without there being an awareness that the stimuli from without were really responsible for the dreams.

1 Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. Letter I.

There are some dreams which appear very real, since it seems to the dreamer that he or she has been actually touched by the dream image. For example, a person may be dreaming of a dead relative, and feel several taps on the shoulder so distinctly that awakening is caused. These taps are really muscle contractions; they result often from indigestion, nervousness, poor physical health. Again, they may be due to a cramped position of a muscle or group of muscles, as from maintaining one sleep posture for a long time. On changing posture, the muscles contract, giving a sensation of being touched. In the waking state some persons, who have been leaning against a hard surface for a long period, not infrequently have the sensation of being tapped when they assume the erect posture; the sensation may not be experienced for some minutes afterwards. As with a dreamer, should they happen to be thinking of some absent person at this time, they may become startled. It is well to remember, also, that aural and other hallucinations may occur in sleep as well as when awake, and that these may be present in normal persons.

Those acquainted with the hypnagogic state will appreciate the statement that its various phenomena may delude the impressionable. In it various hallucinations and illusions may arise. When pathologic conditions are present the hallucinations may become very vivid. Maury says: "When I have been busy with any difficult work in the evening the hallucinations never fail to assail me. A few years ago, when I had passed two consecutive days translating a difficult passage from the Greek, I saw, as soon as I was in bed, such a number of figures around me, moving and changing so rapidly, that in a fright I sprang up in bed, hoping by movement to get rid of them." Once, while under the influence of hunger induced by a prescribed fast, Maury saw, while in the hypnagogic state, a plate of food which a hand was picking up with a fork. When he went to sleep a few minutes later, he dreamed that he was at a well-furnished table and heard the rattle of the guests9 knives and forks. The point is that the hallucinations of the hypnagogic state are more or less physiological; the voices, touches, images that one may encounter during it are, therefore, to be considered "imaginary," and not due to sensations caused by the actual presence of outsiders.

When one is awakened suddenly the dream images may be projected, so that the dream characters may seem to be actually present. This is noteworthy because the phenomenon has been misunderstood, and has been used to add to the number of so-called supernormal dreams. For example, a mother may be awakened, probably by coldness, and may imagine that her dead babe, of which she has been dreaming, is actually present in the room, smiling upon her probably. Of course, the mother is mistaken, though it might be hard to convince her of this.

Though we sleep, we are not entirely oblivious of changes in our immediate environment, and from arriving at a more or less logical explanation of them. Indeed, in many instances the senses are more keen than when we are awake; this is apt to be the case after the first few hours of sleep, at which time the profoundness of the slumber grows less. For example, a man was awakened by a dream in which his house seemed to be on fire; he investigated but found nothing wrong. He returned to sleep, and awakened once more, to find smoke filling the room from a defective fireplace. While General Sleeman was in pursuit of the Thugee of India his wife, who was with him, had a dream in which she was haunted by dead men; she urged the General to move their tents from the apparently ideal location in which they had been pitched. Acting on other information, he dug up the ground where the encampment had been made, and found beneath Mrs. Sleeman's tent the bodies of fourteen victims of the thugs. These dreams are not mysterious; they indicate merely an acuteness of the sense of smell.

Sometimes several persons dream a similar dream at the same time and thus are inclined to believe in its prophetic nature more than if the dream had occurred to one person. Should several persons be anxious about the same thing, as the illness of a relative, they may have dreams simultaneously in which the anxiety seems well founded; moreover, the dream may be recurrent and cease only when the event dreaded has been decided one way or another. Hammond mentions many instances bearing on this matter.