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Title: Psychology and Achievement
Author: Warren Hilton
Release Date: October 19, 2004 [EBook #13791]
Language: English
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Applied Psychology
PSYCHOLOGY AND ACHIEVEMENT
_Being the First of a Series of Twelve Volumes on the Applications of
Psychology to the Problems of Personal and Business Efficiency_
BY
WARREN HILTON, A.B., L.L.B.
FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE LITERARY DIGEST
FOR
The Society of Applied Psychology
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1919
1914
BY THE APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO
PREFATORY NOTE
_Lest in the text of these volumes credit may not always have been given
where credit is due, grateful acknowledgment is here made to Professor
Hugo Münsterberg, Professor Walter Dill Scott, Dr. James H. Hyslop, Dr.
Ernst Haeckel, Dr. Frank Channing Haddock, Mr. Frederick W. Taylor,
Professor Morton Prince, Professor F.H. Gerrish, Mr. Waldo Pondray
Warren, Dr. J.D. Quackenbos, Professor C.A. Strong, Professor Paul
Dubois, Professor Joseph Jastrow, Professor Pierre Janet, Dr. Bernard
Hart and Professor G.M. Whipple, of the indebtedness to them incurred in
the preparation of this work._
CONTENTS
Chapter
I. ATTAINMENT OF MIND CONTROL
THE MAN OF TOMORROW
THE DOLLARS AND CENTS OF MENTAL WASTE
THE MEANS TO NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT
A PROCESS FOR "MAKING GOOD"
INADEQUACY OF BODY TRAINING
INADEQUACY OF BUSINESS SPECIALIZATION
FUTILITY OF ADVICE IN BUSINESS
THE WHY AND THE HOW
FUNDAMENTAL TRAINING FOR EFFICIENCY
THE VIRUS OF FAILURE
PRACTICAL FORMULAS FOR EVERY DAY
YOUR UNDISCOVERED RESOURCES
MAN'S MIND MACHINE
ABJURING MYSTICISMS
PSYCHOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY AND RELATIONSHIPS
ABODE AND INSTRUMENT OF MIND
MANNER OF HANDLING MENTAL PROCESSES
FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND PRACTICAL METHODS
SPECIAL BUSINESS TOPICS
A STEP BEYOND COLLEGIATE PSYCHOLOGY
THE ETERNAL LAWS OF INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT
HOW TO MASTER OUR METHODS
II. TWO LAWS OF SUCCESS-ACHIEVEMENT
THE ONE-MAN BUSINESS CORPORATION
BUSINESS AND BODILY ACTIVITY
THE ENSLAVED BRAIN
FIRST STEP TOWARD SELF-REALIZATION
III. RELATION OF MIND ACTIVITY TO BODILY ACTIVITY
SPECULATION AND PRACTICAL SCIENCE
PHILOSOPHIC RIDDLES AND PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
WHAT WE WANT TO KNOW
SPIRITUALIST, MATERIALIST AND SCIENTIST
SCIENCE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT
CAUSES AND "FIRST" CAUSES
A COMMON PLATFORM FOR ALL
THOUGHTS TREATED AS CAUSES
SCIENTIFIC METHOD WITH PRACTICAL PROBLEMS
USES OF SCIENTIFIC LAWS
IV. INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
DOING THE THING YOU WANT TO DO
SOURCE OF POWER OF WILL
IMPELLENT ENERGY OF THOUGHT
BODILY EFFECTS OF MENTAL STATES
ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS
SCOPE OF MIND POWER
BODILY EFFECTS OF EMOTION
BODILY EFFECTS OF PERCEPTION
EXPERIMENTS OF PAVLOV
TASTE AND DIGESTION
BODILY EFFECTS OF SENSATIONS
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF EXPRESSION
V. PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
INTROSPECTIVE KNOWLEDGE
DISSECTION AND THE GOVERNING CONSCIOUSNESS
SUBORDINATE MENTAL UNITS
WHAT THE MICROSCOPE SHOWS
THE LITTLE UNIVERSE BEYOND
THE UNIT OF LIFE
CHARACTERISTICS OF LIVING CELLS
THE BRAIN OF THE CELL
MIND LIFE OF ONE CELL
THE WILL OF THE CELL
THE CELL AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION
EVOLUTIONARY DIFFERENTIATIONS
PLURALITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL
COMBINED CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE MILLIONS
EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN ORGANISM
THE CROWD-MAN
FUNCTIONS OF DIFFERENT HUMAN CELLS
CELL LIFE AFTER DEATH
EXPERIMENTS OF DR. ALEXIS CARRELL
MAN-FEDERATION OF INTELLIGENCES
CREATIVE POWER OF THE CELL
LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR PRACTICAL DOING
THREE NEW PROPOSITIONS
AN INSTRUMENT FOR MENTAL DOMINANCE
GATEWAYS OF EXPERIENCE
COURIERS OF ACTION
NERVE SYSTEMS
ORGANS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND SUBCONSCIOUSNESS
LOOKING INSIDE THE SKULL
DRUNKENNESS AND BRAIN EFFICIENCY
SECONDARY BRAINS
DEPENDENCE OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND SUBCONSCIOUSNESS
SYNTHESIS OF THE MAN-MACHINE
SUBSERVIENCY OF THE BODY
VI. THE SUPREMACY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
STRIKING OFF THE MENTAL SHACKLES
THE AWAKENING OF ENLIGHTENMENT
THE VITAL PURPOSE
YOUR RESERVOIR OF LATENT POWER
ATTAINMENT OF MIND CONTROL
CHAPTER I
ATTAINMENT OF MIND CONTROL
[Sidenote: The Man of Tomorrow]
The men of the nineteenth century have harnessed the forces of the outer
world. The age is now at hand that shall harness the energies of mind,
new-found in the psychological laboratory, and shall put them at the
service of humanity.
Are you fully equipped to take a valiant part in the work of the coming
years?
[Sidenote: The Dollars and Cents of Mental Waste]
The greatest of all eras is at hand! Are you increasing your fitness to
appreciate it and take part in it, or are you merely passing your time
away?
Take careful note for a week of the incidents of your daily life--your
methods of work, habits of thought, modes of recreation. You will
discover an appalling waste in your present random methods of operation.
How many foot-pounds of energy do you suppose you annually dump into the
scrap-heap of wasted effort? What does this mean to you in dollars and
cents? In conscious usefulness? In peace and happiness?
[Sidenote: The Means to Notable Achievement]
Individual mental efficiency is an absolute prerequisite to any notable
personal achievement or any great individual success. Your mental
energies are the forces with which you must wage your battles in this
world. Are you prepared to direct and deploy _Achievement__ these forces
with masterful control and strategic skill? Are you prepared to use all
your reserves of mental energy in the crises of your career?
A Mighty and Intelligent Power resides within you. Its marvelous
resources are just now coming to be recognized.
Recent scientific research has revealed, beyond the world of the senses
and beyond the domain of consciousness, a wide and hitherto hidden realm
of human energies and resources.
[Sidenote: A Process for "Making Good"]
These are mental energies and resources. They are phases of the mind,
not of the "mind" of fifty years ago, but of a "mind" of whose
operations you are unconscious and whose marvelous breadth and depth and
power have but recently been revealed to the world by scientific
experiment.
In this _Basic Course of Reading_ we shall lay before you in simple and
clear-cut but scientific form the proof that you have at your command
mental powers of which you have never before dreamed.
And we shall give you such specific directions for the use of these
new-found powers, that whatever your environment, whatever your
business, whatever your ambition, _you need but follow our plain and
simple instructions in order to do the thing you want to do, to be the
man you want to be, or to get the thing you want to have._
[Sidenote: Inadequacy of Body Training]
If you have any thought that the control of your hidden mental energies
is to be acquired by mere hygienic measures, put it from you. The idea
that you may come into the fulness of your powers through mere
wholesome living, outdoor sports and bodily exercise is an idea that
belongs to an age that is past. Good health is not necessary to
achievement. It is not even a positive influence for achievement. It is
merely a negative blessing. With good health you may hope to reach your
highest mental and spiritual development free from the harassment of
soul-racking pain. But without good health men have reached the summit
of Parnassus and have dragged their tortured bodies up behind them.
[Sidenote: Inadequacy of Business Specialization]
Nor does success necessarily follow or require long preparation in a
particular field. The first occupation of the successful man is rarely
the one in which he achieves his ultimate triumph. In the changing
conditions of our day, one needs a better weapon than the mere knowledge
of a particular trade, vocation or profession. _He needs that mastery of
himself and others that is the fundamental secret of success in all
fields of endeavor_.
[Sidenote: Futility of Advice in Business]
It is well to tell you beforehand that in this _Basic Course of Reading_
we shall be content with no mere cataloguing of the factors that are
commonly regarded as essential to success. We shall do no moralizing.
You will find here no elaboration of the ancient aphorisms, "Honesty is
the best policy," and "Genius is the infinite capacity for taking
pains."
The world has had its fill of mere exhortations to industry, frugality
and perseverance. For some thousands of years men have preached to the
lazy man, "Be industrious," and to the timid man, "Be bold." But such
phrases never have solved and never can solve the problem for the man
who feels himself lacking in both industry and courage.
[Sidenote: The Why and the How]
It is easy enough to tell the salesman that he must approach his
"prospect" with tact and confidence. But tact and confidence are not
qualities that can be assumed and discarded like a Sunday coat. Industry
and courage and tact and confidence are well enough, but we must know
the Why and the How of these things.
It is well enough to preach that the secret of achievement is to be
found in "courage-faith" and "courage-confidence," and that the way to
acquire these qualities is to assume that you have them. There is no
denying the undoubted fact that men and women have been rescued from the
deepest mire of poverty and despair and lifted to planes of happy
abundance by what is known as "faith." But what is "faith"? And "faith"
in What? And Why? And How?
[Sidenote: Fundamental Training for Efficiency]
Obviously we cannot achieve certain and definite results in this or any
other field so long as we continue to deal with materials we do not
understand. Yet that is what all men are doing today. The elements of
truth are befogged in vague and amateurish mysticism, and the subject of
individual efficiency when we get beyond mere preaching and moralizing
is a chaos of isms.
The time is ripe for a real analysis of these important problems,--a
serious and scientific analysis with a clear and practical exposition of
facts and principles and rules for conduct.
Men and women must be fundamentally trained so that they can look deep
into their own minds and see where the screw is loose, where oil is
needed, and so readjust themselves and their living for a greater
efficiency.
[Sidenote: The Virus of Failure]
The embittered, the superstitious, the prejudiced, all those who
scorpion-like sting themselves with the virus of failure, must be given
an antidote of understanding that will repair their deranged mental
machinery.
The conscientious but foolish business man who is worrying himself into
failure and an early grave must be taught the physiological effects of
ideas and given a new standard of values.
The profligate must be lured from his emotional excesses and
debaucheries, not by moralizings, but by showing him just how these
things fritter his energies and retard his progress.
[Sidenote: Practical Formulas for Every Day]
It must be made plain to the successful promoter, to the rich banker,
how a man may be a financial success and yet a miserable failure so far
as true happiness is concerned, and how by scientific self-development
he can acquire greater riches within than all his vaults of steel will
hold.
This _Basic Course of Reading_ offers just such an analysis and
exposition of fundamental principles. It furnishes definite and
scientific answers to the problems of life. It will reveal to you unused
or unintelligently used mental forces vastly greater than those now at
your command.
[Sidenote: Your Undiscovered Resources]
We go even further, and say that this _Basic Course of Reading_ provides
a practicable formula for the everyday use of these vast resources. It
will enable you to acquire the magical qualities and still more magical
effects that spell success and happiness, without straining your will to
the breaking point and making life a burden. It will give you a definite
prescription like the physician's, "Take one before meals," and as
easily compounded, which will enable you to be prosperous and happy.
In the development of one's innate resources, such as powers of
observation, imagination, correct judgment, alertness, resourcefulness,
application, concentration, and the faculty of taking prompt advantage
of opportunities, the study of the mental machine is bound to be the
first step. It must be the ultimate resource for self-training in
efficiency for the promoter with his appeal to the cupidity and
imaginations of men as surely as for the artist in his search for poetic
inspiration.
[Sidenote: Man's Mind Machine]
No man can get the best results from any machine unless he understands
its mechanism. We shall draw aside the curtain and show you the mind in
operation.
The mastery of your own powers is worth more to you than all the
knowledge of outside facts you can crowd into your head. Read and study
and practice the teachings of this _Basic Course_, and they will make
you in a new sense the master of yourself and of your future.
In this _Basic Course of Reading_ we shall begin by giving you a
thorough understanding of certain mental operations and processes.
[Sidenote: Abjuring Mysticisms]
We shall lead your interest away from "vague mysticisms" and emphasize
such phases of scientific psychological theory as bear directly on
practical achievement.
We shall give you a practical working knowledge of concentrative mental
methods and devices. We shall clear away the mysteries and
misapprehensions that now envelop this particular field.
In the present volume we shall begin with a discussion of certain
aspects of the relation between the mind and the body.
[Sidenote: Psychology, Physiology and Relationships]
However we look at it, it is impossible to understand the mind without
some knowledge of the bodily machine through which the mind works. The
investigation of the mind and its conditions and problems is primarily
the business of psychology, which seeks to describe and explain them.
It would seem to be entirely distinct from physiology, which seeks to
classify and explain the facts of bodily structure and operation. But
all sciences overlap more or less. And this is particularly true of
psychology, which deals with the mind, and physiology, which deals with
the body.
It is the mind that we are primarily interested in. But every individual
mind resides within, or at least expresses itself through, a body. Upon
the preservation of that body and upon the orderly performance of its
functions depend our health and comfort, our very lives.
[Sidenote: Abode and instrument of Mind]
Then, too, considered merely as part of the outside world of matter,
man's body is the physical fact with which he is most in contact and
most immediately concerned. It furnishes him with information concerning
the existence and operations of other minds. It is in fact his only
source of information about the outside world.
First of all, then, you must form definite and intelligent conclusions
concerning the relations between the mind and the body.
[Sidenote: Manner of Handling Mental Processes]
This will be of value in a number of ways. In the first place, you will
understand the bodily mechanism through which the mind operates, and a
knowledge of this mechanism is bound to enlighten you as to the
character of the _mental_ processes themselves. In the second place, it
is worth while to know the extent of the mind's influence over the body,
because this knowledge is the first step toward obtaining bodily
efficiency through the mental control of bodily functions. And, finally,
a study of this bodily mechanism is of very great practical importance
in itself, for the body is the instrument through which the mind acts in
its relations with the world at large.
From a study of the bodily machine, we shall advance to a consideration
of the mental processes themselves, not after the usual manner of works
on psychology, but solely from the standpoint of practical utility and
for the establishment of a scientific concept of the mind capable of
everyday use.
[Sidenote: Fundamental Laws and Practical Methods]
The elucidation of every principle of mental operation will be
accompanied by illustrative material pointing out just how that
particular law may be employed for the attainment of specific practical
ends. There will be numerous illustrative instances and methods that can
be at once made use of by the merchant, the musician, the salesman, the
advertiser, the employer of labor, the business executive.
[Sidenote: Special Business Topics]
In this way this _Basic Course of Reading_ will lay a firm and broad
foundation, first, for an understanding of the methods and devices
whereby any man may acquire full control and direction of his mental
energies and may develop his resources to the last degree; second, for
an understanding of the psychological methods for success in any
specific professional pursuit in which he may be particularly
interested; and third, for an understanding of the methods of applying
psychological knowledge to the industrial problems of office, store and
factory.
The first of these--that is to say, instruction in methods for the
attainment of any goal consistent with native ability--will follow right
along as part of this _Basic Course of Reading._ The second and
third--that is to say, the study of special commercial and industrial
topics--are made the subject of special courses supplemental to this
_Basic Course_ and for which it can serve only as an introduction.
[Sidenote: A Step Beyond Collegiate Psychology]
In this _Basic Course of Reading_ we shall show you how you may acquire
perfect individual efficiency. And, most remarkable of all, we shall
show you how you may acquire it _without that effort to obtain it, that
straining of the will, that struggling with wasteful inclinations and
desires, that is itself the essence of inefficiency_.
The facts and principles set forth in this _Basic Course_ are new and
wonderful and inspiring. They have been established and attested by
world-wide and exhaustive scientific research and experiment.
[Sidenote: The Eternal Laws of Individual Achievement]
You may be a college graduate. You may have had the advantage of a
college course in psychology. But you have probably had no instruction
in the practical application of your knowledge of mental operations. So
far as we are aware, there are few universities in the world that
embrace in their curricula a course in "applied" psychology. For the
average college man this _Basic Course of Reading_ will be, therefore,
in the nature of a post-graduate course, teaching him how to make
practical use of the psychology he learned at college, and in addition
giving him facts about the mind unknown to the college psychology of a
few years ago.
In these books you will probe deeply into the normal human mind.
You will see also the fantastic and distorted shape of its
manifestations in disease.
You will learn the Eternal Laws of Individual Achievement.
[Sidenote: How to Master Our Methods]
And you will be taught how to apply them to your own business or
profession.
But mark this word of warning. To comprehend the teachings of this
_Basic Course_ well enough to put them into practice demands from you
careful study and reflection. It requires persistent application. Do not
attempt to browse through the pages that follow. They are worth all the
time that you can put upon them.
The mind is a complex mechanism. Each element is alone a fitting subject
for a lifetime's study. Do not lose sight of the whole in the study of
the parts.
All the books bear upon a central theme. They will lead you on step by
step. Gradually your conception of your relations to the world will
change. A new realization of power will come upon you. You will learn
that you are in a new sense the master of your fate. You will find these
books, like the petals of a flower, unfolding one by one until a great
and vital truth stands revealed in full-blown beauty.
To derive full benefit from the _Course_ it is necessary that you should
do more than merely understand each sentence as you go along. You must
grasp the underlying train of thought. You must perceive the continuity
of the argument.
It is necessary, therefore, that you do but a limited amount of reading
each day, taking ample time to reflect on what you have read. If any
book is not entirely clear to you at first, go over it again.
Persistence will enable any man to acquire a thorough comprehension of
our teachings and a profound mastery of our methods.
TWO LAWS OF SUCCESS-ACHIEVEMENT
CHAPTER II
TWO LAWS OF SUCCESS-ACHIEVEMENT
[Sidenote: The One-Man Business Corporation]
As a working unit you are a kind of one-man business corporation made up
of two departments, the mental and the physical.
Your mind is the executive office of this personal corporation, its
directing "head." Your body is the corporation's "plant." Eyes and ears,
sight and smell and touch, hands and feet--these are the implements, the
equipment.
We have undertaken to teach you how to acquire a perfect mastery of your
own powers and meet the practical problems of your life in such a way
that success will be swift and certain.
[Sidenote: Business and Bodily Activity]
First of all it is necessary that you should accept and believe two
well-settled and fundamental laws.
I. _All human achievement comes about through bodily activity._
II. _All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the
mind._
Give the first of these propositions but a moment's thought. You can
conceive of no form of accomplishment which is not the result of some
kind of bodily activity. One would say that the master works of poetry,
art, philosophy, religion, are products of human effort furthest
removed from the material side of life, yet even these would have
perished still-born in the minds conceiving them had they not found
transmission and expression through some form of bodily activity. You
will agree, therefore, that the first of these propositions is so
self-evident, so axiomatic, as neither to require nor to admit of formal
proof.
The second proposition is not so easily disposed of. It is in fact so
difficult of acceptance by some persons that we must make very plain its
absolute validity. Furthermore, its elucidation will bring forth many
illuminating facts that will give you an entirely new conception of the
mind and its scope and influence.
[Sidenote: The Enslaved Brain]
Remember, when we say "mind," we are not thinking of the brain. The
brain is but one of the organs of the body, and, by the terms of our
proposition as stated, is as much the slave of the mind as is any other
organ of the body. To say that the mind controls the body presupposes
that mind and body are distinct entities, the one belonging to a
spiritual world, the other to a world of matter.
That the mind is master of the body is a settled principle of science.
But we realize that its acceptance may require you to lay aside some
preconceived prejudices. You may be one of those who believe that the
mind is nothing more nor less than brain activity. You may believe that
the body is all there is to man and that mind-action is merely one of
its functions.
[Sidenote: First Step Toward Self-Realization]
If so, we want you nevertheless to realize that, while as a matter of
philosophic speculation you retain these opinions, you may at the same
time for practical purposes regard the mind as an independent causal
agency and believe that it can and does control and determine and
_cause_ any and every kind of bodily activity. We want you to do this
because this conclusion is at the basis of a practical system of mental
efficiency and because, as we shall at once show you, it is capable of
proof by the established methods of physical science.
RELATION OF MIND ACTIVITY TO BODILY ACTIVITY
CHAPTER III
RELATION OF MIND ACTIVITY TO BODILY ACTIVITY
POINT OF VIEW FROM WHICH YOU MUST APPROACH THIS PROBLEM
[Sidenote: Speculation and Practical Science]
The fact is, one's opinion as to whether mind controls body or body
makes mind-action depends altogether upon the point of view. And the
first step for us to take is to agree upon the point of view we shall
assume.
Two points of view are possible. One is _speculative_, the other
_practical_.
[Sidenote: Philosophic Riddles and Personal Effectiveness]
The _speculative point of view_ is that of the philosopher and
religionist, who ponder the tie that binds "soul" and body in an effort
to solve the riddle of "creation" and pierce the mystery of the
"hereafter."
The _practical point of view_ is that of the modern practical scientist,
who deals only with actual facts of human experience and seeks only
immediate practical results.
The speculative problem is the historical and religious one of the
mortality or immortality of the soul. The practical problem is the
scientific one that demands to know what the mental forces are and how
they can be used most effectively.
[Sidenote: What We Want to Know]
There is no especial need here to trace the historical development of
these two problems or enter upon a discussion of religious or
philosophical questions.
Our immediate interest in the mind and its relationship to the body is
not because we want to be assured of the salvation of our souls after
death.
_We want to know all we can about the reality and certainty and
character of mental control of bodily functions because of the practical
use we can make of such knowledge in this life, here and now._
[Sidenote: Spiritualist, Materialist and Scientist]
The practical scientist has nothing in common with either spiritualists,
soul-believers, on the one hand, or materialists on the other. So far as
the mortality of the soul is concerned, he may be either a spiritualist
or a materialist But spiritualism or materialism is to him only an
intellectual pastime. It is not his trade. In his actual work he seeks
only practical results, and so confines himself wholly to the actual
facts of human experience.
The practical scientist knows that as between two given facts, and
_only_ as between these two, one may be the "cause" of the other. But he
is not interested in the "creative origin" of material things. He does
not attempt to discover "first" causes.
[Sidenote: Science of Cause and Effect]
The practical scientist ascribes all sorts of qualities to electricity
and lays down many laws concerning it without having the remotest idea
as to what, in the last analysis, electricity may actually be. He is not
concerned with ultimate truths. He does his work, and necessarily so,
upon the principle that for all practical purposes he is justified in
using any given assumption as a working hypothesis if everything happens
just as if it were true.
The practical scientist applies the term "cause" to any object or event
that is the invariable predecessor of some other object or event.
For him a "cause" is simply any object or event that may be looked upon
as forecasting the action of some other object or the occurrence of some
other event.
The point with him is simply this, Does or does not this object or this
event in any way affect that object or that event or determine its
behavior?
[Sidenote: Causes and "First" Causes]
No matter where you look you will find that every fact in Nature is
relatively cause and effect according to the point of view. Thus, if a
railroad engine backs into a train of cars it transmits a certain amount
of motion to the first car. This imparted motion is again passed on to
the next car, and so on. The motion of the first car is, on the one
hand, the effect of the impact of the engine, and is, on the other hand,
the "cause" of the motion of the second car. And, in general, what is an
"effect" in the first car becomes a "cause" when looked at in relation
to the second, and what is an "effect" in the second becomes a "cause"
in relation to the third. So that even the materialist will agree that
"cause" and "effect" are relative terms in dealing with any series of
facts in Nature.
[Sidenote: A Common Platform for All]
A man may be either a spiritualist, believing that the mind is a
manifestation of the super-soul, or he may be a materialist, and in
either case he may at the same time and with perfect consistency
believe, as a practical scientist, that the mind is a "cause" and has
bodily action as its "effect."
Naturally this point of view offers no difficulties whatever to the
spiritualist. He already looks upon the mind or soul as the "originating
cause" of everything.
[Sidenote: Thoughts Treated as Causes]
But the materialist, too, may in accordance with his speculative theory
continue to insist that _brain-action_ is the "originating cause" of
mental life; yet if the facts show that certain thoughts are invariably
followed by certain bodily activities, the materialist may without
violence to his theories agree to the great practical value of _treating
these thoughts as immediate causes_, no matter what the history of
creation may have been.
Whatever the brand of your materialism or your religious belief, you
can join us in accepting this practical-science point of view as a
common platform upon which to approach our second fundamental
proposition, that "all bodily activity is caused, controlled and
directed by the mind."
[Sidenote: Scientific Method with Practical Problems]
Ignoring all religious and metaphysical questions, we have, then, to ask
ourselves merely: _Can the mind be relied upon to bring about or stop or
in any manner influence bodily action? And if it can, what is the extent
of the mind's influence?_
In answering these questions we shall follow the method of the practical
scientist, whose method is invariably the same whatever the problem he
is investigating.
This method involves two steps: first, the collection and classification
of facts; second, the deduction from those facts of general principles.
[Sidenote: Uses of Scientific Laws]
The scientist first gathers together the greatest possible array of
experiential facts and classifies these facts into sequences--that is to
say, he gathers together as many instances as he can find in which one
given fact follows directly upon the happening of another given fact.
Having done this, he next formulates in broad general terms the common
principle that he finds embodied in these many similar sequences.
Such a formula, if there are facts enough to establish it, is what is
known as a scientific law. Its value to the world lies in this, that
whenever the given fact shall again occur our knowledge of the
scientific law will enable us to predict with certainty just what events
will follow the occurrence of that fact.
First, then, let us marshal our facts tending to prove that bodily
activities are caused by the mind.
INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
CHAPTER IV
INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
[Sidenote: Doing the Thing You Want to Do]
The first and most conspicuous evidential fact is voluntary bodily
action; that is to say, bodily action resulting from the exercise of the
conscious will.
[Sidenote: Source of Power of Will]
If you will a bodily movement and that movement immediately follows, you
are certainly justified in concluding that your mind has caused the
bodily movement. Every conscious, voluntary movement that you make, and
you are making thousands of them every hour, is a distinct example of
mind activity causing bodily action. In fact, the very will to make any
bodily movement is itself nothing more nor less than a mental state.
_The will to do a thing is simply the belief, the conviction, that the
appropriate bodily movement is about to occur._ The whole scientific
world is agreed on this.
For example, in order to bend your forefinger do you first think it
over, then deliberately put forth some special form of energy? Not at
all: The very thought of bending the finger, if unhindered by
conflicting ideas, is enough to bend it.
[Sidenote: Impellent Energy of Thought]
Note this general law: _The idea of any bodily action tends to produce
the action._
This conception of thought as impellent--that is to say, as impelling
bodily activity--is of absolutely fundamental importance. The following
simple experiments will illustrate its working.
Ask a number of persons to think successively of the letters "B," "O,"
and "Q." They are not to pronounce the letters, but simply to think hard
about the sound of each letter.
[Sidenote: Bodily effects of Mental States]
Now, as they think of these letters, one after the other, watch closely
and you will see their lips move in readiness to pronounce them. There
may be some whose lip-movements you will be unable to detect. If so, it
will be because your eye is not quick enough or keen enough to follow
them in every case.
Have a friend blindfold you and then stand behind you with his hands on
your shoulders. While in this position ask him to concentrate his mind
upon some object in another part of the house. Yield yourself to the
slightest pressure of his hands or arms and you will soon come to the
object of which he has been thinking. If he is unfamiliar with the
impelling energy of thought, he will charge the result to mind-reading.
[Sidenote: Illustrative Experiments]
The same law is illustrated by a familiar catch. Ask a friend to define
the word "spiral." He will find it difficult to express the meaning in
words. And nine persons out of ten while groping for appropriate words
will unconsciously describe a spiral in the air with the forefinger.
Swing a locket in front of you, holding the end of the chain with both
hands. You will soon see that it will swing in harmony with your
thoughts. If you think of a circle, it will swing around in a circle. If
you think of the movement of a pendulum, the locket will swing back and
forth.
These experiments not only illustrate the impelling energy of thought
and its power to induce bodily action, but they indicate also that the
bodily effects of mental action are not limited to bodily movements that
are conscious and voluntary.
[Sidenote: Scope of Mind Power]
_The fact is, every mental state whether you consider it as involving an
act of the will or not, is followed some kind of bodily effect, and
every bodily action is preceded by some distinct kind of mental
activity. From the practical science point of view every thought causes
its particular bodily effects._
This is true of simple sensations. It is true of impulses, ideas and
emotions. It is true of pleasures and pains. It is true of conscious
mental activity. It is true of unconscious mental activity. It is true
of the whole range of mental life.
Since the mental conditions that produce bodily effects are not limited
to those mental conditions in which there is a conscious exercise of the
will, it follows that _the bodily effects produced by mental action are
not limited to movements of what are known as the voluntary muscles._
On the contrary, they include changes and movements in all of the
so-called involuntary muscles, and in every kind of bodily structure.
They include changes and movements in every part of the physical
organism, from changes in the action of heart, lungs, stomach, liver
and other viscera, to changes in the secretions of glands and in the
caliber of the tiniest blood-vessels. A few instances such as are
familiar to the introspective experience of everyone will illustrate the
scope of the mind's control over the body.
[Sidenote: Bodily Effects of Emotion]
Emotion always causes numerous and intense bodily effects. Furious anger
may cause frowning brows, grinding teeth, contracted jaws, clenched
fists, panting breath, growling cries, bright redness of the face or
sudden paleness. None of these effects is voluntary; we may not even be
conscious of them.
Fright may produce a wild beating of the heart, a death-like pallor, a
gasping motion of the lips, an uncovering or protruding of the
eye-balls, a sudden rigidity of the body as if "rooted" to the spot.
Grief may cause profuse secretion of tears, swollen, reddened face, red
eyes and other familiar symptoms.
Shame may cause that sudden dilation of the capillary blood-vessels of
the face known as "blushing."
[Sidenote: Bodily Effects of Perception]
The sight of others laughing or yawning makes us laugh or yawn. The
sound of one man coughing will become epidemic in an audience. The
thought of a sizzling porter-house steak with mushrooms, baked potatoes
and rich _gravy_ makes the mouth of a hungry man "water."
Suppose I show you a lemon cut in half and tell you with a wry face and
puckered mouth that I am going to suck the juice of this exceedingly
sour lemon. As you merely read these lines you may observe that the
glands in your mouth have begun to secrete saliva. There is a story of a
man who wagered with a friend that he could stop a band that was playing
in front of his office. He got three lemons and gave half of a lemon to
each of a number of street urchins. He then had these boys walk round
and round the band, sucking the lemons and making puckered faces at the
musicians. That soon ended the music.
[Sidenote: Experiments of Pavlov]
A distinguished German scientist, named Pavlov, has recently
demonstrated in a series of experiments with dogs that the sight of the
plate that ordinarily bears their food, or the sight of the chair upon
which the plate ordinarily stands, or even the sight of the person who
commonly brings the plate, may cause the saliva to flow from their
salivary glands just as effectively as the food itself would do if
placed in their mouths.
[Sidenote: Taste and digestion]
There was a time, and that not long ago, when the contact of food with
the lining of the stomach was supposed to be the immediate cause of the
secretion of the digestive fluids. Yet recent observation of the
interior of the stomach through an incision in the body, has shown that
just as soon as the food is _tasted_ in the mouth, a purely mental
process, the stomach begins to well forth those fluids that are suitable
for digestion.
[Sidenote: Bodily Effects of Sensations]
The press recently contained an account of a motorcycle race in Newark,
New Jersey. The scene was a great bowl-shaped motor-drome. In the midst
of cheering thousands, when riding at the blinding speed of ninety-two
miles an hour, the motorcycle of one of the contestants went wrong. It
climbed the twenty-eight-foot incline, hurled its rider to instant death
and crashed into the packed grandstand. Before the whirling mass of
steel was halted by a deep-set iron pillar four men lay dead and
twenty-two others unconscious and severely injured. Then the twisted
engine of death rebounded from the post and rolled down the saucer-rim
of the track.
Around the circular path, his speed scarcely less than that of his
ill-fated rival, knowing nothing of the tragedy, hearing nothing of the
screams of warning from the crowd, came another racer. The frightened
throng saw the coming of a second tragedy. The sound that came from the
crowd was a low moaning, a sighing, impotent, unconscious prayer of the
thousands for the mercy that could not come. The second motorcycle
struck the wreck, leaped into the air, and the body of its rider shot
fifty feet over the handlebars and fell at the bottom of the track
unconscious. Two hours later he was dead.
What was the effect of this dreadful spectacle upon the onlookers?
Confusion, cries of fright and panic, while throughout the grandstand
women fainted and lay here and there unconscious. Many were afflicted
with nausea. With others the muscles of speech contracted convulsively,
knees gave way, hearts "stopped beating." Observe that these were wholly
the effects of _mental_ action, effects of _sight_ and _sound
sensations_.
[Sidenote: The Fundamental Law of Expression]
Why multiply instances? All that you need to do to be satisfied that the
mind is directly responsible for any and every kind of bodily activity
is to examine your own experiences and those of your friends. They will
afford you innumerable illustrations.
You will find that not only is your body constantly doing things because
your mind wills that it should do them, but that your body is
incessantly doing things simply because they are the expression of a
passing thought.
The law that _Every idea tends to express itself in some form of bodily
activity_, is one of the most obviously demonstrable principles of human
life.
Bear in mind that this is but another way of expressing the second of
our first two fundamental principles of mental efficiency, and that we
are engaged in a scientific demonstration of its truth so that you will
not confuse it with mere theory or speculation.
To recall these fundamental principles to your mind and further impress
them upon you, we will restate them:
I. _All human achievement comes about through some form of bodily
activity_.
II. _All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the
mind._
PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
CHAPTER V
PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
[Sidenote: Introspective Knowledge]
We have been considering the relationship between mind and body from the
standpoint of the mind. Our investigation has been largely
introspective; that is to say, we simply looked within ourselves and
considered the effects of our mental operations upon our own bodies. The
facts we had before us were facts of which we had direct knowledge. We
did not have to go out and seek them in the mental and bodily activities
of other persons. We found them here within ourselves, inherent in our
consciousness. To observe them we had merely to turn the spotlight into
the hidden channels of our own minds.
[Sidenote: Dissection and the Governing Consciousness]
We come now to examine the mind's influence upon the body from the
standpoint of the body. To do this we must go forth and investigate. We
must use eye, ear and hand. We must use the forceps and scalpel and
microscope of the anatomist and physiologist.
[Sidenote: Subordinate Mental Units]
_But it is well worth while that we should do this. For our
investigation will show a bodily structure peculiarly adapted to control
by a governing consciousness. It will reveal to the eye a physical
mechanism peculiarly fitted for the dissemination of intelligence
throughout the body. And, most of all, it will disclose the existence
within the body of subordinate mental units, each capable of receiving,
understanding and acting upon the intelligence thus submitted. And we
shall have strongly corroborative evidence of the mind's complete
control over every function of the body._
Examine a green plant and you will observe that it is composed of
numerous parts, each of which has some special function to perform. The
roots absorb food and drink from the soil. The leaves breathe in
carbonic acid from the air and transform it into the living substance of
the plant. Every plant has, therefore, an anatomical structure, its
parts and tissues visible to the naked eye.
[Sidenote: What the Microscope Shows]
Put one of these tissues under a microscope and you will find that it
consists of a _honeycomb of small compartments or units_. These
compartments are called "cells," and the structure of all plant tissues
is described as "cellular." Wherever you may look in any plant, you will
find these cells making up its tissues. The activity of any part or
tissue of the plant, and consequently all of the activities of the plant
as a whole, are but the combined and co-operating activities of the
various individual cells of which the tissues are composed. _The living
cell, therefore, is at the basis of all plant life._
[Sidenote: The Little Universe Beyond]
In the same way, if you turn to the structure of any animal, you will
find that it is composed of parts or organs made up of different kinds
of tissues, and these tissues examined under a microscope will disclose
a cellular structure similar to that exhibited by the plant.
_Look where you will among living things, plant or animal, you will find
that all are mere assemblages of cellular tissues._
Extend your investigation further, and examine into forms of life so
minute that they can be seen only with the most powerful microscope and
you will come upon a _whole universe of tiny creatures consisting of a
single cell_.
[Sidenote: The Unit of Life]
Indeed, it is a demonstrable fact that these tiny units of life
consisting of but a single cell are far more numerous than the forms of
life visible to the naked eye. You will have some idea of their size and
number when we tell you that millions may live and die and reproduce
their kind in a single thimbleful of earth.
_Every plant, then, or every animal, whatever its species, however
simple or complicated its structure, is in the last analysis either a
single cell or a confederated group of cells._
All life, whether it be the life of a single cell or of an unorganized
group of cells or of a republic of cells, has as its basis the life of
the cell.
For all the animate world, two great principles stand established.
First, that _every living organism_, plant or animal, big or little,
develops from a cell, and is itself a composite of cells, and that the
cell is the unit of all life. Secondly, that _the big and complex
organisms have through long ages developed out of simpler forms_, the
organic life of today being the result of an age-long process of
evolution.
What, then, is the cell, and what part has it played in this process of
evolution?
To begin with, a cell is visible only through a microscope. A human
blood cell is about one-three-thousandth of an inch across, while a
bacterial cell may be no more than one-twenty-five-thousandth of an inch
in diameter.
[Sidenote: Characteristics of Living Cells]
Yet, small as it is, the cell exhibits all of the customary phenomena of
independent life; that is to say, it nourishes itself, it grows, it
reproduces its kind, it moves about, and _it feels_. It is a _living,
breathing, feeling, moving, feeding thing_.
The term "cell" suggests a walled-in enclosure. This is because it was
originally supposed that a confining wall or membrane was an invariable
and essential characteristic of cell structure. It is now known,
however, that while such a membrane may exist, as it does in most plant
cells, it may be lacking, as is the case in most animal cells.
The only absolutely essential parts of the cell are the inner _nucleus_
or kernel and the tiny mass of living jelly surrounding it, called the
_protoplasm_.
[Sidenote: The Brain of the Cell]
The most powerful microscopes disclose in this protoplasm a certain
definite structure, a very fine, thread-like network spreading from the
nucleus throughout the semi-fluid albuminous protoplasm. It is certainly
in line with the broad analogies of life, to suppose that in each cell
the nucleus with its network is the brain and nervous system of that
individual cell._
All living organisms consist, then simply of cells. Those consisting of
but one cell are termed unicellular; those comprising more than one cell
are called pluricellular.
The unicellular organism is the unit of life on this earth. Yet tiny and
ultimate as it is, every unicellular organism is possessed of an
independent and "free living" existence.
[Sidenote: Mind Life of One Cell]
To be convinced of this fact, just consider for a moment the scope of
development and range of activities of one of these tiny bodies.
"We see, then," says Haeckel, "that it performs all the essential life
functions which the entire organism accomplishes. Every one of these
little beings grows and feeds itself independently. It assimilates
juices from without, absorbing them from the surrounding fluid. Each
separate cell is also able to reproduce itself and to increase. This
increase generally takes place by simple division, the nucleus parting
first, by a contraction round its circumference, into two parts; after
which the protoplasm likewise separates into two divisions. The single
cell is able to move and creep about; from its outer surface it sends
out and draws back again finger-like processes, thereby modifying its
form. Finally, the young cell has feeling, and is more or less
sensitive. It performs certain movements on the application of chemical
and mechanical irritants."
[Sidenote: The Will of the Cell]
The single living cell moves about in search of food. When food is found
it is enveloped in the mass of protoplasm, digested and assimilated.
The single cell has the _power of choice_, for it refuses to eat what is
unwholesome and extends itself mightily to reach that which is
nourishing.
[Sidenote: The Cell and Organic Evolution]
Moebius and Gates are convinced that the single cell possesses _memory_,
for having once encountered anything dangerous, it knows enough to avoid
it when presented under similar circumstances. And having once found
food in a certain place, it will afterwards make a business of looking
for it in the same place.
And, finally, Verwörn and Binet have found in a single living cell
manifestations of _the emotions of surprise and fear_ and the rudiments
of _an ability to adapt means to an end_.
Let us now consider pluricellular organisms and consider them
particularly from the standpoint of organic evolution. The pluricellular
organism is nothing more nor less than a later development, a
confederated association of unicellular organisms. Mark the development
of such an association.
[Sidenote: Evolutionary Differentiation]
Originally each separate cell performed all the functions of a separate
life. The bonds that united it to its fellows were of the most transient
character. Gradually the necessities of environment led to a more and
more permanent grouping, until at last the bonds of union became
indissoluble.
Meanwhile, the great laws of "adaptation" and "heredity," the basic
principles of evolution, have been steadily at work, and slowly there
has come about a differentiation of cell function, an apportionment
among the different cells of the different kinds of labor.
[Sidenote: Plurality of the Individual]
As the result of such differentiation, the pluricellular organism, as it
comes ultimately to be evolved, is composed of many different kinds of
cells. Each has its special function. Each has its field of labor. Each
lives its own individual life. Each reproduces its own kind. Yet all are
bound together as elements of the same "cell society" or organized "cell
state."
Among pluricellular organisms man is of course supreme. He is the one
form of animal life that is most highly differentiated.
[Sidenote: Combined Consciousness of the Millions]
Knowing what you now know of microscopic anatomy, you cannot hold to the
simple idea that the human body is a single life-unit. This is the
naïve belief that is everywhere current among men today. Inquire among
your own friends and acquaintances and you will find that not one in a
thousand realizes that he is, to put it jocularly, singularly plural,
that he is in fact an assemblage of individuals.
[Illustration: MICROSCOPIC STUDIES IN HUMAN ANATOMY, PRIVATE LABORATORY,
SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY]
Not only is the living human body as a whole alive, but "every part of
it as large as a pin-point is alive, with a separate and independent
life all its own; every part of the brain, lungs, heart, muscles, fat
and skin." No man ever has or ever can count the number of these parts
or cells, some of which are so minute that it would take thousands in a
row to reach an inch.
"Feeling" or "consciousness" is the sum total of the feelings and
consciousness of millions of cells, just as an orchestral harmony is a
composite of the sounds of all the individual instruments.
[Sidenote: Evolution of the Human Organism]
In the ancient dawn of evolution, all the cells of the human body were
of the same kind. But Nature is everywhere working out problems of
economy and efficiency. And, to meet the necessities of environment,
there has gradually come about a parceling out among the different cells
of the various tasks that all had been previously called upon to perform
for the support of the human institution.
This differentiation in kinds of work has gradually brought about
corresponding and appropriate changes of structure in the cells
themselves, whereby each has become better fitted to perform its part in
the sustenance and growth of the body.
[Sidenote: The Crowd-Man]
When you come to think that these processes of adaptation and heredity
in the human body have been going on for _countless millions of years_,
you can readily understand how it is that the human body of today is
made up of more than thirty different kinds of cells, each having its
special function.
[Sidenote: Functions of Different Human Cells]
We have muscle cells, with long, thin bodies like pea-pods, who devote
their lives to the business of contraction; thin, hair-like connective
tissue cells, whose office is to form a tough tissue for binding the
parts of the body together; bone cells, a trades-union of masons, whose
life work it is to select and assimilate salts of lime for the upkeep of
the joints and framework; hair, skin, and nail cells, in various shapes
and sizes, all devoting themselves to the protection and ornamentation
of the body; gland cells, who give their lives, a force of trained
chemists, to the abstraction from the blood of those substances that are
needed for digestion; blood cells, crowding their way through the
arteries, some making regular deliveries of provisions to the other
tenants, some soldierly fellows patrolling their beats to repel invading
disease germs, some serving as humble scavengers; liver cells engaged in
the menial service of living off the waste of other organs and at the
same time converting it into such fluids as are required for digestion;
windpipe and lung cells, whose heads are covered with stiff hairs, which
the cell throughout its life waves incessantly to and fro; and, lastly,
and most important and of greatest interest to us, brain and nerve
cells, the brain cells constituting altogether the organ of objective
intelligence, the instrument through which we are conscious of the
external world, and the nerve cells serving as a living telegraph to
relay information, from one part of the body to another, with the
"swiftness of thought."
Says one writer, referring to the cells of the inner or true skin: "As
we look at them arranged there like a row of bricks, let us remember two
things: first, that this row is actually in our skin at this moment;
and, secondly, that each cell is a living being--it is born, grows,
lives, breathes, eats, works, decays and dies. A gay time of it these
youngsters have on the very banks of a stream that is bringing down to
them every minute stores of fresh air in the round, red corpuscles of
the blood, and a constant stream of suitable food in the serum. But it
is not all pleasure, for every one of them is hard at work."
[Sidenote: Cell Life After Death]
And again, speaking of the cells that line the air-tubes, he says: "The
whole interior, then, of the air-tubes resembles nothing so much as a
field of corn swayed by the wind to and fro, the principal sweep,
however, being always upwards towards the throat. All particles of dust
and dirt inhaled drop on this waving forest of hairs, and are gently
passed up and from one to another out of the lungs. When we remember
that these hairs commenced waving at our birth, and have never for one
second ceased since, and will continue to wave a short time after our
death, we are once more filled with wonder at the marvels that surround
us on every side."
[Sidenote: Experiments of Dr. Alexis Carrel]
Remarkable confirmatory evidence of the fact that every organ of the
body is composed of individual cell intelligences, endowed with an
instinctive knowledge of how to perform their special functions, is
found in the experiments of Dr. Alexis Carrel, the recipient of the
Nobel prize for science for 1912.
_Dr. Carrel has taken hearts, stomachs and kidneys out of living
animals, and by artificial nourishment has succeeded in keeping them
steadily at work digesting foods, and so on, in his laboratory, for
months after the death of the bodies from which they were originally
taken._
[Sidenote: Man-Federation of Intelligences]
We see, then, that every human body is an exceedingly complex
association of units. It is a marvelously correlated and organized
community of countless microscopic organisms. It is a sort of _cell
republic_, as to which we may truthfully paraphrase: Life and Union, One
and Inseparable.
Every human body is thus made up of countless cellular intelligences,
each of which instinctively utilizes ways and means for the performance
of its special functions and the reproduction of its kind. These cell
intelligences carry on, without the knowledge or volition of our central
consciousness--that is to say, _subconsciously_--the vital operations of
the body.
[Sidenote: Creative Power of the Cell]
Under normal conditions, conditions of health, each cell does its work
without regard to the operations of its neighbors. But in the event of
accident or disease, it is called upon to repair the organism. And in
this it shows an energy and intelligence that "savor of creative power."
With what promptness and vigor the cells apply themselves to heal a cut
or mend a broken bone! In such cases all that the physician can do is to
establish outward conditions that will favor the co-operative labors of
these tiny intelligences.
_The conclusion to be drawn from all this is obvious. For, if every
individual and ultimate part of the body is a mind organism, it is very
apparent that the body as a whole is peculiarly adapted to control and
direction by mental influences.
[Sidenote: Laying the Foundation for Practical Doing]
Do not lose sight of the fact that in proving such control we are laying
the foundation for a scientific method of achieving practical success in
life, since all human achievement comes about through some form of
bodily activity._
We assume now your complete acceptance of the following propositions,
based as they are upon facts long since discovered and enunciated in
standard scientific works:
_a_. The whole body is composed of cells, each of which is an
intelligent entity endowed with mental powers commensurate with its
needs.
[Sidenote: Three New Propositions]
_b._ The fact that every cell in the body is a _mind_ cell shows that
the body, by the very nature of its component parts, is peculiarly
susceptible to mental influence and control.
To these propositions we now append the following:
_c._ A further examination of the body reveals a central mental
organism, the brain, composed of highly differentiated cells whose
intelligence, as in the case of other cells, is commensurate with their
functions.
_d._ It reveals also a physical mechanism, the nervous system,
peculiarly adapted to the communication of intelligence between the
central governing intelligence and the subordinate cells.
[Sidenote: An Instrument for Mental Dominance]
_e._ The existence of this mind organism and this mechanism of
intercommunication is additional evidence of the control and direction
of bodily activities by _mental energy_.
The facts to follow will not only demonstrate the truth of these
propositions, but will disclose the existence within every one of us of
a store of mental energies and activities of which we are entirely
unconscious.
The brain constitutes the organ of central governing intelligence, and
the nerves are the physical means employed in bodily intercommunication.
Brain and nerves are in other words the physical mechanism employed by
the mind to dominate the body.
[Sidenote: Gateways of Experience]
Single nerve fibers are fine, thread-like cells. They are so small as to
be invisible to the naked eye. Some of them are so minute that it would
take twenty thousand of them laid side by side to measure an inch. Every
nerve fiber in the human body forms one of a series of connecting links
between some central nerve cell in the brain or spinal cord on the one
hand and some bodily tissue on the other.
All nerves originating in the brain may be divided into two classes
according as they carry currents to the brain or from it. Those carrying
currents to the brain are called _sensory_ nerves, or nerves of
sensation; those carrying currents from the brain are called _motor_
nerves, or nerves of motion.
[Sidenote: Couriers of Action]
Among the sensory nerves are the nerves of consciousness; that is, the
nerves whereby we receive sense impressions from the external world.
These include the nerves of touch, sight, pain, hearing, temperature,
taste and smell. Motor nerves are those that carry messages from the
brain and spinal cord on the one hand to the muscles on the other. They
are the lines along which flash all orders resulting in bodily
movements.
[Sidenote: Nerve Systems]
Another broad division of nerves is into two great nerve systems. There
are the _cerebro-spinal_ system and the _sympathetic_ system. The first,
the cerebro-spinal system, includes all the nerves of _consciousness_
and of _voluntary action_; it includes all nerves running between the
brain and spinal cord on the one hand and the voluntary muscles on the
other. The second, the sympathetic nerve system, consists of all the
nerves of the unconscious or functional life; it therefore includes all
nerves running between the brain and sympathetic or involuntary nerve
centers on the one hand and the involuntary muscles on the other.
Every bodily movement or function that you can start or stop at will,
even to such seemingly unconscious acts as winking, walking, etc., is
controlled through the cerebro-spinal system. All other functions of the
body, including the great vital processes, such as heart pulsation and
digestion, are performed unconsciously, are beyond the direct control of
the will, and are governed through the sympathetic nerve system.
[Sidenote: Organs of Consciousness and Subconsciousness]
It is obvious that the cerebro-spinal nerve system is the organ of
consciousness, the apparatus through which the mind exercises its
conscious and voluntary control over certain functions of the body. It
is equally obvious that the _sympathetic system is not under the
immediate control of consciousness, is not subject to the will, but is
dominated by mental influences that act without, or even contrary to,
our conscious will and sometimes without our knowledge._
Yet you are not to understand that these two great nerve systems are
entirely distinct in their operations. On the contrary, they are in many
respects closely related.
[Illustration: SEPARATE NERVE CENTERS, PLEXUSES AND GANGLIA, THE "LITTLE
BRAINS" OF THE HUMAN BODY]
Thus, the heart receives nerves from both centers of government, and
besides all this is itself the center of groups of nerve cells. The
power by which it beats arises from a ganglionic center within the heart
itself, so that the heart will continue to beat apart from the body if
it be supplied with fresh blood. But the rapidity of the heart's beating
is regulated by the cerebro-spinal and sympathetic systems, of which the
former tends to retard the beat and the latter tends to accelerate it.
In the same way, your lungs are governed in part by both centers, for
you can breathe slowly or rapidly as you will, but you cannot, by any
power of your conscious will, stop breathing altogether.
Your interest in the brain and nerve system is confined to such facts as
may prove to be of use to you in your study of the mind. These
anatomical divisions interest you only as they are identified with
conscious mental action on the one hand and unconscious mental action on
the other.
It is, therefore, of no use to you to consider the various divisions of
the sympathetic nerve system, since the sympathetic nerve system in its
entirety belongs to the field of unconscious mental action. It operates
without our knowledge and without our will.
[Sidenote: Looking Inside the Skull]
The cerebro-spinal system consists of the spinal cord and the brain. The
brain in turn is made up of two principal subdivisions. First, there is
the greater or upper brain, called the cerebrum; secondly, there is the
lower or smaller brain, called the cerebellum. The cerebrum in turn
consists of three parts: the convoluted _surface_ brain, the _middle_
brain and the _lower_ brain. So that in all we have the _surface_ brain,
the _middle_ brain, the _lower_ brain and the _cerebellum_. All these
parts consist of masses of brain cells with connecting nerve fibers.
[Sidenote: Brains Parts and Functions]
And now, as to the functions of these various parts. Beginning at the
lowest one and moving upward, we find first that the _spinal cord_
consists of through lines of nerves running between the brain and the
rest of the body. At the same time it contains within itself certain
nerve centers that are sufficient for many simple bodily movements.
These bodily movements are such as are instinctive or habitual and
require no distinct act of the will for their performance. They are mere
"reactions," without conscious, volitional impulse.
Moving up one step higher, we find that the _cerebellum_ is the organ of
equilibrium, and that it as well as the spinal cord operates
independently of the conscious will, for no conscious effort of the will
is required to make one reel from dizziness.
As to the divisions of the greater brain or cerebrum, we want you to
note that the _lower brain_ serves a double purpose. First, it is the
channel through which pass through lines of communication to and from
the upper brain and the mid-brain on the one hand and the rest of the
body on the other. Secondly, it is itself a central office for the
maintenance of certain vital functions, such as lung-breathing,
heart-beating, saliva-secreting, swallowing, etc., all involuntary and
unconscious in the sense that consciousness is not necessary to their
performance.
The next higher division, or _mid-brain_, is a large region from which
the conscious will issues its edicts regulating all voluntary bodily
movements. It is also the seat of certain special senses, such as sight.
Lastly, the _surface brain_, known as the cortex, is the interpretative
and reflective center, the abode of memory, intellect and will.
[Sidenote: Drunkenness and Brain Efficiency]
The functions of these various parts are well illustrated by the effects
of alcohol upon the mind. If a man takes too much alcohol, its first
apparent effect will be to paralyze the higher or cortical center. This
leaves the mid-brain without the check-rein of a reflective intellect,
and the man will be senselessly hilarious or quarrelsome, jolly or
dejected, pugnacious or tearful, and would be ordinarily described as
"drunk." If in spite of this he keeps on drinking, the mid-brain soon
becomes deadened and ceases to respond, and the cerebellum, the organ of
equilibrium, also becomes paralyzed. All voluntary bodily activities
must then cease, and he rolls under the table, helpless and "dead"
drunk, or in language that is even more graphically appreciative of the
physiological effects of alcohol, "paralyzed." However, the deep-seated
sympathetic system is still alive. No assault has yet been made upon
the vital organs of the body; the heart continues to beat and the lungs
to breathe. But suppose that some playful comrade pours still more
liquor down the victim's throat. The medulla, or lower brain, then
becomes paralyzed, the vital organs cease to act and the man is no
longer "dead" drunk. He has become a sacrifice to Bacchus. He is
literally and actually dead.
It seems, then, that the surface brain and mid-brain constitute together
the organ of consciousness and will. Consciousness and will disappear
with the deadening or paralysis of these two organs.
[Sidenote: Secondary Brains]
Yet these two organs constitute but a small proportion of the entire
mass of brain and nervous tissue of the body. In addition to these,
there are not only the lower brain and the spinal cord and the countless
ramifications of motor and sensory nerves throughout the body, but
there are also separate nerve-centers or ganglia in every one of the
visceral organs of the body. These ganglia have the power to maintain
movements in their respective organs. _They may in fact be looked upon
as little brains developing nerve force and communicating it to the
organs._
[Sidenote: Dependence of the Subconscious]
All these automatic parts of the bodily mechanism are dominated by
departments of the mind entirely distinct from ordinary consciousness.
In fact, ordinary consciousness has no knowledge of their existence
excepting what is learned from outward bodily manifestations.
All these different organic ganglia constitute together the sympathetic
nerve system, organ of that part of the mind which directs the vital
operations of the body in apparent independence of the intelligence
commonly called "the mind," an intelligence which acts through the
cerebro-spinal system.
Yet this independence is far from being absolute. For, as we have seen,
not only is the cerebro-spinal system, which is the organ of
consciousness, the abode of all the special senses, such as sight,
hearing, etc., and therefore our only source of information of the
external world, but many organs of the body are under the joint control
of both systems.
_So it comes about that these individual intelligences governing
different organs of the body, with their intercommunications, are
dependent upon consciousness for their knowledge of such facts of the
outer world as have a bearing on their individual operations, and they
are subject to the influence of consciousness as the medium that
interprets these facts._
It is unnecessary for us to go into this matter deeply. It is enough if
you clearly understand that, in addition to consciousness, the
department of mind that knows and directly deals with the facts of the
outer world, there is also a deep-seated and seemingly unconscious
department of mind consisting of individual organic intelligences
capable of receiving, understanding and acting upon such information as
consciousness transmits.
[Sidenote: Unconsciousness and Subconsciousness]
We have spoken of conscious and "seemingly unconscious" departments of
the mind. In doing so we have used the word "seemingly" advisedly.
Obviously we have no right to apply the term "unconscious" without
qualification to an intelligent mentality such as we have described.
"Unconscious" simply means "not conscious." In its common acceptation,
it denotes, in fact, an absence of all mental action. It is in no sense
descriptive. It is merely negative. Death is unconscious; but
unconsciousness is no attribute of a mental state that is living and
impellent and constantly manifests its active energy and power in the
maintenance of the vital functions of the body.
Hereafter, then, we shall continue to use the term consciousness as
descriptive of that part of our mentality which constitutes what is
commonly known as the "mind"; while that mental force, which, so far as
our animal life is concerned, operates through the sympathetic nerve
system, we shall hereafter describe as "_sub_conscious."
[Sidenote: Synthesis of the Man-Machine]
[Sidenote: Subserviency of the Body]
Let us summarize our study of man's physical organism. We have learned
that the human body is a confederation of various groups of living
cells; that in the earliest stages of man's evolution, these cells
were all of the same general type; that as such they were free-living,
free-thinking and intelligent organisms as certainly as were those
unicellular organisms which had not become members of any group or
association; that through the processes of evolution, heredity and
adaptation, there has come about in the course of the ages, a
subdivision of labor among the cells of our bodies and a consequent
differentiation in kind whereby each has become peculiarly fitted for
the performance of its allotted functions; that, nevertheless, these
cells of the human body are still free-living, intelligent organisms,
of which each is endowed with the inherited, instinctive knowledge of
all that is essential to the preservation of its own life and the
perpetuation of its species within the living body; that, as a part of
the specializing economy of the body, there have been evolved brain
and nerve cells performing a twofold service--first, constituting the
organ of a central governing intelligence with the important business
of receiving, classifying, and recording all impressions or messages
received through the senses from the outer world, and, second,
communicating to the other cells of the body such part of the
information so derived as may be appropriate to the functions of each;
that finally, as such complex and confederated individuals, each of
us possesses a direct, self-conscious knowledge of only a small part
of his entire mental equipment; that we have not only a
_consciousness_ receiving sense impressions and issuing motor impulses
through the cerebro-spinal nervous system, but that we have also a
_subconsciousness_ manifesting itself, so far as bodily functions are
concerned, in the activity of the vital organs through the sympathetic
nerve system; that this subconsciousness is dependent on consciousness
for all knowledge of the external world; that, in accordance with the
principles of evolution, man as a whole and as a collection of cell
organisms, both consciously and unconsciously, is seeking to adapt
himself to his external world, his environment; that the human body,
both as a whole and as an aggregate of cellular intelligences, is
therefore subject in every part and in every function to the
influence of the special senses and of the mind of consciousness.
The Supremacy of Consciousness
CHAPTER VI
THE SUPREMACY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM STUDIES IN HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY, ANATOMY AND
PHYSIOLOGY
[Sidenote: Striking off the Mental Shackles]
Stop a moment and mark the conclusion to which you have come. You have
been examining the human body with the scalpel and the microscope of
the anatomist and physiologist. In doing so and by watching the bodily
organs in operation, you have learned that _every part of the body, even
to those organs commonly known as involuntary, is ultimately subject to
the influence or control of consciousness_, that part of the human
intelligence which is popularly known as "the mind."
Prior to this, as a matter of direct introspective knowledge, we had
come to the conclusion that the influence of the mind over all the
organs of the body was one of the most obvious facts of human life.
So, our study of the body as the instrument of the mind has brought us
to the same conclusion as did our study of the mind in its relations to
the body.
Looked at from the practical science standpoint, the evidences that
mental activity can and does produce bodily effects are so clear and
numerous as to admit of no dispute.
The world has been slow to acknowledge the mastery of mind over body.
This is because the world long persisted in looking at the question from
the point of view of the philosopher and religionist. It is because the
thought of the world has been hampered by its own definitions of terms.
The spiritualist has been so busy in the pursuit of originating "first"
causes, and the materialist has so emphasized the dependence of mind
upon physical conditions, that the world has received with skepticism
the assertion of the influence of mind over body, and in fact doubted
the intuitive evidence of its own consciousness.
[Sidenote: The Awakening of Enlightenment]
The distinction between the two points of view has gradually come to be
recognized. Today the fact that the mind may act as a "cause" in
relationship with the body is a recognized principle of applied science.
The world's deepest thinkers accept its truth. And the interest of
enlightened men and women everywhere is directed toward the mind as an
agency of undreamed resource for the cure of functional derangements of
the body and for the attainment of the highest degree of bodily
efficiency.
In some respects it is unfortunate that you should have been compelled
to begin these studies in mental efficiency and self-expression with
lessons on the relationship between the mind and the body. There is the
danger that you may jump at the conclusion that this course has some
reference to "mental healing." Please disabuse your mind of any such
mistaken idea.
[Sidenote: The Vital Purpose]
Health is a boon. It is not the greatest boon. Health is not life.
Health is but a means to life. Life is service. Life is achievement.
Health is of value in so far as it contributes to achievement.
Our study of the relation between mind and body at this time has had a
deeper, broader and more vital purpose. It is the foundation stone of an
educational structure in which we shall show you how the mind may be
brought by scientific measures to a certainty and effectiveness of
operation far greater than is now common or ordinarily thought possible.
[Sidenote: Your Reservoir of Latent Power]
Remember the two fundamental propositions set forth in this book.
I. _All human achievement comes about through some form of bodily
activity._
II. _All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the
mind._
The truth of these propositions must now be obvious to you. You must
realize that the mind is the one instrument by which it is possible to
achieve anything in life. Your next step must be to learn how to use it.
_In succeeding volumes, we shall sound the depths of the reservoir of
latent mental power. We shall find the means of tapping its resources.
And so we shall come to give you the master key to achievement and teach
you how to use it with confidence and with the positive assurance of
success._
End of Project Gutenberg's Psychology and Achievement, by Warren Hilton
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