Excerpt from Borderland of Psychical ResearchThe reason for this is very simple. The views which had separated them from ordinary interest were due to a reaction against the more ancient con ception of dreams. We are wont to suppose that men naturally distinguish between their dreams and normal experiences. This, however, is not altogether true. The ancients gave an external or objective meaning to dreams, and savages still do so, -a meaning that associates them very closely with normal experience. The causes of this may be the untu tored neglect of ordinary for supposedly significant dreams, and then the consideration of only the latter, as there is some evidence that this was the case. It matters not what the reason for it was. The fact is indisputable that to many ancient people dreams were as much testimony to external in¿uences or meaning as were normal sensory experiences. Illu sions and hallucinations did not altogether escape the same interpretation. It is possible that the more intelligent views of these phenomena among the an cients were not recorded as were those of the igno rant and superstitious. But this does not alter the impression that we get of the natural man's ideas.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.