Our first practical needs when we begin to acquire any control over our dreams is to get rid of "bad dreams" of all sorts; for whether they take the form of dreams of grief, dreams of evil, or dreams of fear, "bad dreams91 are the occasion of real misery to very many people. Children and grown-up persons often confess that if they had their choice they would rather never dream at all than face the chance of a bad dream or the recurrence of some particular night-fear which they have learned to dread.

Charles Lamb has described the anguish of his own sensitive childhood from this cause. "I was dreadfully alive to nervous terrors. The night-time, solitude, and the dark, were my hell. The sufferings I endured in this nature would justify the expression. I never laid my head on my pillow, I suppose, from the fourth to the seventh or eighth year of my life, without an assurance, which realised its own prophecy, of seeing some frightful spectre".

There are few of us who have not suffered in child-hood from dreams which gave us something of the same sense of hopeless and inexplicable terror. It is of no use simply to tell those who suffer in this way that bad dreams are caused by mismanaged digestive or other organic processes, and this is in any case only a very partial explanation of the trouble. It may very likely be true that many dreams have their origin in some bodily discomfort which is communicated to the brain, or they may be suggested by some underlying and perhaps unsuspected physical cause, and in many cases much can be done by finding and following sound rules of bodily health; but it is also a matter of common knowledge that a dream which may have been started originally by some local bodily trouble may go on for a long period of time, repeating itself indefinitely like the repetition of an echo, or like the thousand reflections that are thrown from one mirror to another from opposite walls; so the dream will persist long after its original physical cause is past and forgotten. Our problem is how to rid ourselves effectually of all these disturbing night visions.

Aided at first by a chance dream, and later by certain definite methods of thought, I have been able to free myself from all "fear dreams" by one method, and by another method to make "grief dreams" or dreams of distress powerless to disturb me.

A suggestion that greatly helped me to cure such dreams came from an experience that is common to almost every one. Probably we have all at some time or another realised that our dream was "only a dream" and not a waking reality. The idea contained in this very general experience made the point from which I succeeded in starting a successful ex-perintent in dream control. On various occasions long ago, when a dream of grief or terror was becoming intolerably acute, the thought flashed into my sleeping mind, "This is only a dream; if you wake, it will be over, and all will be well again.11 If only we could ensure the realisation of this fact directly bad dreams appeared, they would cease to have any terrors for us, for a way of escape would always be open. Therefore I tried repeating this formula to myself from time to time, during the day and on going to bed, always in the same words -"Remember this is a dream. You are to dream no longer" -until, I suppose, the suggestion that I wanted to imprint upon the dream mind became more definite and more powerful than the impression of any dream; so that when a dream of distress begins to trouble me, the oft-repeated formula is automatically suggested, and I say at once: "You know this is a dream; you shall dream no longer - you are to wake." For a time after this secret had been fully learned, this would always awaken me at once; nowadays, the formula having been said, I do not have to wake, though I may do so, but the original fear dream always ceases.

It is simply "switched off," and a continuation of the dream, but without the disturbing element, takes its place and goes forward without a break.

There is nothing in this very simple method but what any one can carry out for himself if he be so inclined, an occasional steady concentration of the mind upon the formula that is to be used being all that is needed. In practice I find that, whatever form of words is decided upon, it should at first be repeated rather frequently, sometimes aloud, and always in the same words; and as it is easier to most of us to learn prose or poetry by heart, if the thing to be learnt is read over before going to sleep, so, until the formula has become a habit of mind, it should be repeated, if possible, just before we sleep.

In most cases the disordered dream is stopped by a simple word of command, which either ends it abruptly as the falling of the stage curtain brings the play to a close, or which ends it by changing the dream scene, as one magic lantern picture fades out and gives place to another.1

The following dream note shows how the formula can be used to get rid of the element of fear in a ' dream without the necessity of awakening from it:-

During the course of a long dream I had succeeded in tracing the existence of a complicated and dangerous plot against our country. The conspirators had turned upon me on discovering how much I knew. I was so closely followed, and my personal danger became so great, that the formula for breaking off a dream flashed into my mind and automatically gave me back confidence; I remembered that I could make myself safe; but with the feeling of safety I also realised that if I were to wake my valuable knowledge of the dangerous conspiracy would be lost, for I realised that this was" dream knowledge." It was a dreadful dilemma - safety called me one way, but the conviction that my duty was to stay and frustrate the traitors was very strong. I feared that I should give way, and I knelt and prayed that I might have courage not to seek safety by awakening, but to go on until I had done what was needed. I therefore did not wake; the dream continued. The arch-conspirator, a white-faced man in a bowler hat, had tracked me down to the building where I was concealed, and which by this time was surrounded; but all fear had departed, the comfortable feeling of great heroism, only fully enjoyed by those who feel themselves to be safe, was mine.