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This paper contains an account of an experimental project undertaken to validate earlier qualitative studies on the relationship between subliminal visual stimulation, dreams, and imagery. The rationale underlying the experiments and the methods for collecting the data are described in some detail. In the discussion which begins with the statement that subliminal perception occurs, the authors point out that the term preconscious perception unsatisfactorily describes the complex process which takes place. They envisage four steps: (1) a phase of sensory registration outside of awareness; (2) a phase of cognitive working over in which the registration becomes a memory trace; (3) a phase of delayed emergence of the memory image of the subliminal registration into subsequent dreams and images; and (4) a reproductive phase—the verbal report and drawing of the dream or image.
The first phase cannot be considered preconscious, as the subject never recovers the memory of the actual event of sensory registration. This registration is not preconscious in the psycho-analytic sense, but unconscious in the somatic sense. The term preconscious can, however, be applied to the second phase. The results also demonstrated that in the dark and supine position there was a more extensive emergence of elements and aspects of the subliminal stimuli into imagery than occurred in the upright position and in the light.