THE LOGIC OF SLEEP-LEARNING: Page 12

Why is the conscious mind unable to absorb facts as quickly as the subconscious? How can we explain the case related by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, of the twenty-five-year-old woman who could not read or write but who, during a seizure of what was then known as brain fever, spoke Latin, Greek and Hebrew incessantly and in very pompous tones—even knowing she had been a servant to a Protestant pastor for many years? She had subconsciously absorbed the passages he read aloud to himself as he walked up and down a hallway adjoining the kitchen. Notes taken during her delirium coincided with passages in books which the pastor owned. Authorities on hypnotism have pointed out that most of our thinking is done subconsciously. Our conscious minds are aware only of the results of this thinking. This is what happens when we give up trying to remember a particular thing and then find the answer the next day. Repetition of acts, which are learned consciously and, with difficulty, are executed very slowly at first (walking for instance), makes these acts easier to perform, until finally the effort involved becomes less than the minimum necessary for consciousness. The rapidity