Since man began rationally to examine himself, he has known that his consciousness is like a torch carried along a dark road in an unknown land. We can discern with some certainty the part of our mind on which the torch sheds its flickering light, but all around lie regions of darkness from which come unbidden memories that no conscious effort can evoke, impulses that challenge reason, and the wordless cries of the part of ourselves that Aristotle calls to orektikon.
Man is instinctively afraid of the dark and the unknown, whether in the world outside or within himself. In primitive societies wizards and witches claim to control the unseen powers of nature; their successors in more sophisticated societies profess to command the far more awesome powers of darkness within us.
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