Boris Sidis

“ What, however, characterizes all these forms as belonging to the same type of moment-consciousness, is the fact of their being unmodifiable, fixed in their organization. The moment does not get modified by its recurrent manifestations. The organization does not get improved by repetition. Things are in status quo since the time of birth. The moment, not being modifiable by its previous occurrence, when stimulated, emerges each time with an unchangeable content. Each time the moment recurs, it shows not the slightest trace of its former life activity. ”

“ When life becomes more differentiated and organization appears, then the psychic content becomes organized in a recurrent desultory moment-consciousness, with a more or less definite content. Amorphous life has as its concomitant amorphous psychosis.
Reproduction probably begins with the more or less definite formation of the moment and its nuclear element. When the moment-consciousness appears to be definitely organized then reproduction is present. In other words, reproduction is a fundamental characteristic of the formed moment-consciousness. ”

“ The hypnoidic state, whenever it appears, recurs with a content unchangeable, unmodified by the previous repetitions; it acquires no new, no modified characters in the course of its reproductions. Previous reproductions leave no trace behind. The hypnoidic state always appears fresh and new, as if coming into the world for the first time, not bearing the stamp of its life history. ”