Coleridge and the Scientific Enquiry into Dreams and Visions

Much of the mystique that surrounds opium comes from the phenomenon of “opium dreams”. There is no doubt, in fact, that opium is a drug that induces visual side effects. Opium dreams are similar to ordinary dreams in that they draw on the subconscious and render visual stories for the mind. On the one hand, opium dreams are like regular dreams since they are both very personal and individual; on the other hand, opium dreams are distinct from regular dreams in a number of ways. First, opium dreams are usually “lucid”; that is, the dreamer is aware of dreaming and able to control the flow. Second, opium dreams are far richer in content than are nighttime dreams. Third, the source of the dream content is often elusive. And finally, while regular dreams can be chaotic with one image detached from another, images normally flow smoothly throughout opium dreams. Having clarified the basic distinctions between dreams and opium-dreams, we turn now to experiences affected by opium during the Romantic period. By the eighteenth century, opium had been used, abused, and discussed by a great number of European writers, doctors, and philosophers. Opium played an interesting role both in the public image of Romantic literature and in the scientific research. In 1701 Dr. John Jones, an English physician, published a monograph called The Mysteries of Opium Revealed, which examined the properties of opium, its uses and effects. According to John Jones, opium was considered not only as a substance able to cure diseases but also to produce a pleasant side-effect. This belief was common among the doctors of that period, who administered opium with extreme generosity. Initially, in fact, opium was widely used and highly valued for its medicinal powers. It was used as a sedative, to calm hysterics, to soothe melancholy and considered to be one of the best remedies for healing colic, diarrhea and persistent spasmodic coughs. In this circumstance, opium rapidly and easily spread through all the social classes. Opium was legally available and using it was “subject to no sanction outside the judgment and conscience of the taker” (Abrams, p.xii). Later, its mind-altering properties caught the interest of writers and poets. The cultural climate of the eighteenth century, with the appearance of romantic themes such as the interest in dreaming and irrational, was absolutely favorable. As De Quincey pointed out: “It is in the faculty of mental vision, it is in the increased power of dealing with the shadowy and the dark, that the characteristic virtue of opium lies” (1863, p.111).