dream waves

''i have often wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titantic significance of dreams, and if the obscure world to which they belong. ... from my experiance i cannot doubt that man, when lost to terrestrial consciousness, is indeed sourjourning in another and uncorporeal life far different nature from the life ewe know, and of which only the slightest and most indisticnct  memories linger after waking. ... sometimes i believe that this less  material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terrequeous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon.

''it was from a youthful revry filled with speculations of this sort that i arose one afternoon in the winter of 1900-01. when to the state sychopathic institution in which i served as an intern was brought the man whose case has ever since haunted me so unceasingly. joe slater, who came to the institution in the vigilant custody of four state police men, and who was described as a highly dangerous character, ... from the medical and court document we learned all that could be gathered of his case: the man, a vagabond, hunter and trapper had always been strange in the eyes of his primative associates. he had habitually slept at night  beyond the ordinary time, and upon waking would often talk of unknown things in a manner so bizarre as to inspire fear even in the hearts of an unimaginative populous. ...

'' i have said that i am a constant speculator concearning dream-life, and from this you may judge of the eagerness witht which i applied my self to thte study of thte new partient as soon as i had fully ascertained the facts of his case. ... it had long been my belief that human thought consists basically of atomic of molecular motion, convertible into other waves or radiant energy like heat, light and electricity. this belief had early led me to contemplate the possibility of telepathy or mental communication by means of suitable apperatus, and i had in my college days prepared a set of transmitting and receiving instruments somewhat similar the the cumbersome devices employed in wireless telegraphy of that crude, preradio period. ...

 ''now in my intense desire to probe into the dream-life of joe slater, i sought these instruments again, and spent several days in repairing them for action. ... when they were complete once more i missed no opportunity for their trial. at each outburst of slater's violence, i would fit the transmitter to his forehead and the receiver to my own, constantly making delicate adjustments for various hypothetical wave-lengths of intellectual energy. i had but little notion of how the thought-impressions would , if successfully conveyed, arouse an intelligent response in my brain, but i felt certain tht i could detect and interpret them.''

h.p.lovecraft, beyond the wall of sleep.