The Aztec Indian and the Greek Horse

This night, she was unusually silent. Quickly disrobing, she went to bed, turning her back on the woman who slept beside her. She closed her eyes; a vision appeared. Startled, her eyes flashed open and the vision faded. But upon closing her eyes, the vision reappeared. Now she became thoroughly alarmed. Suddenly, it dawned on her that this was a hypnagogic hallucination. Similar experiences had been described in her psychology courses. She remembered, too, that such hallucinations were not pathognomonic of a serious disorder. Comforted, she decided to study the vision more carefully. She closed her eyes. She saw an Indian chief. For some reason, not understood by herself, it occurred to her that the Indian was an Aztec. The figure was the color of a building brick. As she watched, the Aztec split open on the left side, as if it were fastened by hinges. It reminded her of a book that opened by itself. Then the figure disappeared. She continued to watch. The Indian reappeared, opened up on the left side, and disappeared. This recurred several times. This astounding phenomenon left the patient completely befuddled. All attempts at auto-analysis were futile. Fatigued by her interpretive efforts, she drifted off to sleep.

To solve the geneology of a hypnagogic Aztec is a strange mission. However, pertinent biography can be assayed from the following information. It was some three months before the appearance of the nocturnal apparition, that the patient first confessed concern about her state of health. For weeks prior to the confession, she had experienced morning nausea, occasional vomiting spells and intermittent abdominal pains. Was she being silly in bothering me with her complaints? Was she being foolish in ignoring a possible organic cause for her suffering? She didn't want to complain, but now the persistency of the symptoms alarmed her. At the time, she attributed her procrastination to the development of some insight into her attention getting simulation of illn