Note 13 — Chapter IV · GENERAL DIFFERENCES OF THE TWO LIVES WITH RESPECT TO DURATION OF ACTION.

The action of the brain is far from being preserved in somnambulism. The thread of ideas, on the contrary, is completely broken, and this is the most striking character which distinguishes every kind of sleep from wakefulness. The mind then cannot reflect upon the sensations which it receives, it abandons itself successively and without any resistance to all those which are presented, without examining the connexion which they can have between them. In ordinary sleep, the senses are almost entirely blunted, the mind receives no other sensations than those which have been derived from memory; but they present themselves in a confused manner, without order and in such a way as often to form the most strange and incoherent images. In somnambulism the action of many senses, and that of hearing in particular is preserved; the judgment of the sleeper can then exercise itself not only upon its reminiscences, but also upon the impressions which are transmitted to it from without. The sound of a bell or a drum, being heard while we are in a dream, will immediately modify it. In this way a person may gain the attention of a somnambulist, and as the latter possesses the use of his voice, it will be seen by his answers that his ideas can be directed at will, and led in this way wherever it is wished; for the impressions that he receives from without, being stronger than those which come from memory, he will almost always obey the first.