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A Record of Out of the Body Experiences – Oliver Fox
In order to attain the ‘Dream of Knowledge’ we must arouse the critical faculty which seems to be to a great extent inoperative in dreams, and here too, degrees of interest become manifest.
Let us suppose, for example, that in my dream I am in a café. At a table near mine is a lady who would be very attractive – only she has four eyes. Here are some illustrations of these degrees of activity of the critical faculty:
In the dream it is practically dormant, but on waking I have the feeling that there was something peculiar about this lady. Suddenly I get it – ‘why, of course she has four eyes!’
In the dream I exhibit mild surprise and say ‘How curious, that girl has four eyes! It spoils her’. But only in the same way that I might remark, ‘What a pity, she has a broken nose! I wonder how she did it’
The critical faculty is more awake and the four eyes are regarded as abnormal; but the phenomenon is not fully appreciated. I exclaim ‘Good Lord!’ and then reassure myself by adding ‘There must be a freak show or a circus in town’. Thus I hover on the brink of realisation, but do not quite get there.
My critical faculty is now fully awake and refuses to be satisfied by this explanation. I continue my train of thought ‘But there never was such a freak! An adult woman with four eyes – it’s impossible. I am dreaming’.