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COPYRIGHT, 1909
by THOMAS TROWARD
Published, 1909
THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL
SCIENCE
Fides et Amor Veritas et Robur
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
NEW YORK
THE WRITER
AFECTIONATELY DEDICATES
THIS LITTLE VOLUME
TO
HIS WIFE
`
FOREWORD.
THIS book contains the substance of a course of lectures recently
given by the writer in the Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh. Its purpose is
to indicate the Natural Principles governing the relation between Mental
Action and Material Conditions, and thus to afford the student an intelligible
starting pointfor the practical study of the subject.
T.T.
March, 1904.
The Edinburgh Lectures on
Mental Science.
I.
SPIRIT AND MATTER.
IN commencing a course of lectures on Mental Science, it is somewhat
difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the subject.
It can be approached from many sides, each with some peculiar advantage
of its own; but, after careful deliberation, it appears to me that, for
the purpose of the present course, no better starting-point could be selected
than the relation between Spirit and Matter. I select this starting-point
because the distinction—or what we believe to be such—between them is one
with which we are so familiar that I can safely assume its recognition
by everybody; and I may, therefore, at once state this distinction by using
the adjectives which we habitually apply as expressing the natural opposition
between the two—living spirit and dead matter. These terms express our
current impression of the opposition between spirit and matter with suf-
ficient accuracy, and considered only from the point of view of outward
appearances this impression is no doubt correct. The general consensus
of mankind is right in trusting the evidence of our senses, and any system
which tells us that we are not to do so will never obtain a permanent footing
in a sane and healthy community. There is nothing wrong in the evidence
conveyed to a healthy mind by the senses of a healthy body, but the point
where error creeps in is when we come to judge of the meaning of this testimony.
We are accustomed to judge only by external appearances and by certain
limited significances which we attach to words; but when we begin to enquire
into the real meaning of our words and to analyse the causes which give
rise to the appearances, we find our old notions gradually falling off
from us, until at last we wake up to the fact that we are living in an
entirely different world to that we formerly recognized. The old limited
mode of thought has imperceptibly slipped away, and we discover that we
have stepped out into a new order of things where all is liberty and life.
This is the work of an enlightened intelligence resulting from persistent
determination to discover what truth really is irrespective of any preconceived
notions from whatever source derived, the determination to think honestly
for ourselves instead of endeavouring to get our thinking done for us.
Let us then commence by enquiring what we
rea1ly mean by the livingness which we attribute to spirit and the deadness
which we attribute to matter.
At first we may be disposed to say that iivingness consists in the
power of motion and deadness in its absence; but a little enquiry into
the most recent researches of science will soon show us that this distinction
does not go deep enough. It is now one of the fully-established facts of
physical science that no atom of what we call "dead matter" is without
motion. On the table before me lies a solid lump of steel, but in the light
of up-to-date science I know that the atoms of that seemingly inert mass
are vibrating with the most intense energy, continually dashing hither
and thither, impinging upon and rebounding from one another, or circling
round like miniature solar systems, with a ceaseless rapidity whose complex
activity is enough to bewilder the imagination. The mass, as a mass, may
lie inert upon the table; but so far from being destitute of the element
of motion it is the abode of the never-tiring energy moving the particles
with a swiftness to which the speed of an express train is as nothing.
It is, therefore, not the mere fact of motion that is at the root of the
distinction which we draw instinctively between spirit and matter; we must
go deeper than that. The solution of the problem will never be found by
comparing Life with what we call deadness, and the reason for this will
become apparent later on; but the true key is to
be found by comparing one degree of livingness with another. There is,
of course, one sense in which the quality of livingness does not admit
of degrees; but there is another sense in which it is entirely a question
of degree. We have no doubt as to the livingness of a plant, but we realize
that it is something very different from the livingness of an animal. Again,
what average boy would not prefer a fox-terrier to a goldfish for a pet?
Or, again, why is it that the boy himself is an advance upon the dog? The
plant, the fish, the dog, and the boy are all equally alive; but there
is a difference in the quality of their livinguess about which no one can
have any doubt, and no one would hesitate to say that this difference is
in the degree of intelligence. In whatever way we turn the subject we shall
always find that what we call the "livingness" of any individual life is
ultimately measured by its intelligence. It is the possession of greater
intelligence that places the animal higher in the scale of being than the
plant, the man higher than the animal, the intellectual man higher than
the savage. The increased intelligence calls into activity modes of motion
of a higher order corresponding to itself. The higher the intelligence,
the more completely the mode of motion is under its control; and as we
descend in the scale of intelligence. the descent is marked by a corresponding
increase in automatic motion not subject to the control of a self-
conscious intelligence. This descent is gradual from the expanded self-recognition
of the highest human personality to that lowest order of visible forms
which we speak of as "things," and from which self-recognition is entirely
absent.
We see, then, that the livingness of Life consists in intelligence—in
other words, in the power of Thought; and we may therefore say that the
distinctive quality of spirit is Thought, and, as the opposite to this,
we may say that the distinctive quality of matter is Form. We cannot conceive
of matter without form. Some form there must be, even though invisible
to the physical eye; for matter, to be matter at all, must occupy space,
and to occupy any particular space necessarily implies a corresponding
form. For these reasons we may lay it down as a fundamental proposition
that the distinctive quality of spirit is Thought and the distinctive quality
of matter is Form. This is a radical distinction from which important consequences
follow, and should, therefore, be carefully noted by the student.
Form implies extension in space and also limitation within certain boundaries.
Thought implies neither. When, therefore, we think of Life as existing
in any particular form we associate it with the idea of extension in space,
so that an elephant may be said to consist of a vastly larger amount of
living substance than a mouse. But if we think of Life as the fact of livinguess
we do not associate it with any idea of extension, and we at once realize
that the mouse is quite as much alive as the elephant, notwithstanding
the difference in size. The important point of this distinction is that
if we can conceive of anything as entirely devoid of the element of extension
in space, it must be present in its entire totality anywhere and everywhere—that
is to say, at every point of space simultaneously. The scientific definition
of time is that it is the period occupied by a body in passing from one
given point in space to another, and, therefore, according to this definition,
when there is no space there can be no time; and hence that conception
of spirit which realizes it as devoid of the element of space must realize
it as being devoid of the element of time also; and we therefore find that
the conception of spirit as pure Thought, and not as concrete Form, is
the conception of it as subsisting perfectly independently of the elements
of time and space. From this it follows that if the idea of anything is
conceived as existing on this level it can only represent that thing as
being actually present here and now. In this view of things nothing can
be remote from us either in time or space: either the idea is entirely
dissipated or it exists as an actual present entity, and not as something
that shall be in the future, for where there is no sequence in time there
can be no future. Similarly where there is no space
7
there can be no conception of anything as being at a distance from us.
When the elements of time and space are eliminated all our ideas of things
must necessarily be as subsisting in a universal here and an everlasting
now. This is, no doubt, a highly abstract conception, but I would ask the
student to endeavour to grasp it thoroughly, since it is of vital importance
in the practical application of Mental Science, as will appear further
on.
The opposite conception is that of things expressing themselves through
conditions of time and space and thus establishing a variety of relations
to other things, as of bulk, distance, and direction, or of sequence in
time. These two conceptions are respectively the conception of the abstract
and the concrete, of the unconditioned and the conditioned, of the absolute
and the relative. They are not opposed to each other in the sense of incompatibility,
but are each the complement of the other, and the only reality is in the
combination of the two. The error of the extreme idealist is in endeavouring
to realize the absolute without the relative, and the error of the extreme
materialist is in endeavouring to realize the relative without the absolute.
On the one side the mistake is in trying to realize an inside without an
outside, and on the other in trying to realize an outside without an inside;
both are necessary to the formation of a substantial entity.
THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE
CONTROLS THE LOWER.
WE have seen that the descent from personality, as we know it in ourselves,
to matter, as we know it under what we call inanimate forms, is a gradual
descent in the scale of intelligence from that mode of being which is able
to realize its own will-power as a capacity for originating new trains
of causation to that mode of being which is incapable of recognlzmg itself
at all. The higher the grade of life, the higher the intelligence; from
which it follows that the supreme principle of Life must also be the ultimate
principle of intelligence. This is clearly demonstrated by the grand natural
order of the universe. In the light of modern science the principle of
evolution is familiar to us all, and the accurate adjustment existing between
all parts of the cosmic scheme is too self-evident to need insisting upon.
Every advance in science consists in discovering new subtleties of connection
in this magnificent universal order, which already exists and only needs
our recognition to bring it into practical use. If, then, the highest work
of the greatest minds consists in nothing else than the recognition of
an already existing order, there is no getting away from the conclusion
that a paramount intelligence must be inherent in the Life-Principle, which
manifests itself as this order; and thus we see that there must be a great
cosmic intelligence underlying the totality of things.
The physical history of our planet shows us first an incandescent
nebula dispersed over vast infinitudes of space; later this condenses into
a central sun surrounded by a family of glowing planets hardly yet consolidated
from the plastic primordial matter; then succeed untold millenniums of
slow geological formation; an earth peopled by the lowest forms of life,
whether vegetable or animal; from which crude beginnings a majestic, unceasing,
unhurried, forward movement brings things stage by stage to the condition
in which we know them now. Looking at this steady progression it is clear
that, however we may conceive the nature of the evolutionary principle,
it unerringly provides for the continual advance of the race. But it does
this by creating such numbers of each kind that, after allowing a wide
margin for all possible accidents to individuals, the race shall still
continue
"So careful of the type it seems
So careless of the single life."
In short, we may say that the cosmic intelligence works by a Law of
Averages which allows a wide margin of accident and failure to the individual.
But the progress towards higher intelligence is always in the direction
of narrowing down this margin of accident and taking the individual more
and more out of the law of averages, and substituting the law of individual
selection. In ordinary scientific language this is the survival of the
fittest. The reproduction of fish is on a scale that would choke the sea
with them if every individual survived; but the margin of destruction is
correspondingly enormous, and thus the law of averages simply keeps up
the normal proportion of the race. But at the other end of the scale, reproduction
is by no means thus enormously in excess of survival. True, there is ample
margin of accident and disease cutting off numbers of human beings before
they have gone through the average duration of life, but still it is on
a very different scale from the premature destruction of hundreds of thousands
as against the survival of one. It may, therefore, be taken as an established
fact that in proportion as intelligence advances the individual ceases
to be subject to a mere law of averages and has a continually increasing
power of controlling the conditions of his own survival.
We see, therefore, that there is marked distinction between the cosmic
intelligence and the individual intelligence, and that the factor which
differentiates the latter from the former is the presence of individual
volition. Now the business of Mental Science is to ascertain the relation
of this individual power of volition to the great cosmic law which provides
for the maintenance and advancement of the race; and the point to be carefully
noted is that the power of individual volition is itself the outcome of
the cosmic evolutionary principle at the point where it reaches its highest
level. The effort of Nature has always been upwards from the time when
only the lowest forms of life peopled the globe, and it has now culminated
in the production of a being with a mind capable of abstract reasoning
and a brain fitted to be the physical instrument of such a mind. At this
stage the all-creating Life-principle reproduces itself in a form capable
of recognizing the working of the evolutionary law, and the unity and continuity
of purpose running through the whole progression until now indicates, beyond
a doubt, that the place of such a being in the universal scheme must be
to introduce the operation of that factor which, up to this point, has
been conspicuous by its absence—the factor, namely, of intelligent individual
volition. The evolution which has brought us up to this standpoint has
worked by a cosmic law of averages; it has been a process in which the
individual himself has not taken a conscious part.
But because he is what he is, and leads the van of the evolutionary
procession, if man is to evolve further, it can now only be by his own
conscious cooperation with the law which has brought him up to the standpoint
where he is able to realize that such a law exists. His evolution in the
future must be by conscious participation in the great work, and this can
only be effected by his own individual intelligence and effort. It is a
process of intelligent growth. No one else can grow for us: we must each
grow for ourselves; and this intelligent growth consists in our increasing
recognition of the universal law, which has brought us as far as we have
yet got, and of our own individual relation to that law, based upon the
fact that we ourselves are the most advanced product of it. It is a great
maxim that Nature obeys us precisely in proportion as we first obey Nature.
Let the electrician try to go counter to the principle that electricity
must always pass from a higher to a lower potential and he will effect
nothing; but let him submit in all things to this one fundamental law,
and he can make whatever particular applications of electrical power he
will.
These considerations show us that what differentiates the higher from
the lower degree of intelligence is the recognition of its own self-hood,
and the more intelligent that recognition is, the greater will be the power.
The lower degree of self-recognition is that which only realizes itself
as an entity separate from all other entities, as the ego distinguished
from the non-ego. But the higher degree of self-recognition is that which,
realizing its own spiritual nature, sees in all other forms, not so much
the non-ego, or that which is not itself, as the alter-ego, or that which
is itself in a different mode of expression. Now, it is this higher degree
of self-recognition that is the power by which the Mental Scientist produces
his results. For this reason it is imperative that he should clearly understand
the difference between Form and Being; that the one is the mode of the
relative and the mark of subjection to conditions, and that the other is
the truth of the absolute and is that which controls conditions.
Now this higher recognition of self as an individualization of pure spirit
must of necessity control all modes of spirit which have not yet reached
the same level of self-recognition. These lower modes of spirit are in
bondage to the law of their own being because they do not know the law;
and, therefore, the in dividual who has attained to this knowledge can
control them through that law. But to understand this we must inquire a
little further into the nature of spirit. I have already shown that the
grand scale of adaptation and adjustment of all parts of the cosmic scheme
to one another exhibits the presence somewhere of a marvellous intelligence
underlying the whole, and the question is, where is this intelligence to
be found? Ultimately we can only conceive of it as inherent in some primordial
substance which is the root of all those grosser modes of matter which
are known to
us, whether visible to the physical eye, or necessarily inferred by
science from their perceptible effects. It is that power which, in every
species and in every individual, becomes that which that species or individual
is; and thus we can only conceive of it as a self-forming intelligence
inherent in the ultimate substance of which each thing is a particular
manifestation. That this primordial substance must be considered as self-forming
by an inherent intelligence abiding in itself becomes evident from the
fact that intelligence is the essential quality of spirit; and if we were
to conceive of the primordial substance as something apart from spirit,
then we should have to postulate some other power which is neither spirit
nor matter, and originates both; but this is only putting the idea of a
self-evolving power a step further back and asserting the production of
a lower grade of undifferentiated spirit by a higher, which is both a purely
gratuitous assumption and a contradiction of any idea we can form of undifferentiated
spirit at all. However far back, therefore, we may relegate the original
starting-point, we cannot avoid the conclusion that, at that point, spirit
contains the primary substance in itself, which brings us back to the common
statement that it made everything out of nothing. We thus find two factors
to the making of all things, Spirit and—Nothing; and the addition of Nothing
to Spirit leaves only spirit:
x +0= x.
From these considerations we see that the ultimate foundation of every
form of matter is spirit, and hence that a universal intelligence subsists
throughout Nature inherent in every one of its manifestations. But this
cryptic intelligence does not belong to the particular form excepting in
the measure in which it is physically fitted for its concentration into
self-recognizing individuality: it lies hidden in that primordial substance
of which the visible form is a grosser manifestation. This primordial substance
is a philosophical necessity, and we can only picture it to ourselves as
something infinitely finer than the atoms which are themselves a philosophical
inference of physical science: still, for want of a better word, we may
conveniently speak of this primary intelligence inherent in the very substance
of things as the Atomic Intelligence. The term may, perhaps, be open to
some objections, but it will serve our present purpose as distinguishing
this mode of spirit's intelligence from that of the opposite pole, or Individual
Intelligence. This distinction should be carefully noted because it is
by the response of the atomic intelligence to the individual intelligence
that thought-power is able to produce results on the material plane, as
in the cure of disease by mental treatment, and the like. Intelligence
manifests itself by responsiveness, and the whole action of the cosmic
mind in bringing the evolutionary process from its first beginnings up
to its
present human stage is nothing else but a continual intelligent response
to the demand which each stage in the progress has made for an adjustment
between itself and its environment. Since, then, we have recognized the
presence of a universal intelligence permeating all things, we must also
recognize a corresponding responsiveness hidden deep down in their nature
and ready to be called into action when appealed to. All mental treatment
depends on this responsiveness of spirit in its lower degrees to higher
degrees of itself. It is here that the difference between the mental scientist
and the uninstructed person comes in; the former knows of this responsiveness
and makes use of it, and the latter cannot use it because he does not know
it.
THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.
WE have now paved the way for understanding what is meant by "the
unity of the spirit." In the first conception of spirit as the underlying
origin of all things we see a universal substance which, at this stage,
is not differentiated into any specific forms. This is not a question of
some bygone time, but subsists at every moment of all time in the innermost
nature of all being; and when we see this, we see that the division between
one specific form and another has below it a deep essential unity, which
acts as the supporter of all the several forms of individuality arising
out of it. And as our thought penetrates deeper into the nature of this
all-producing spiritual substance we see that it cannot be limited to any
one portion of space, but must be limitless as space itself, and that the
idea of any portion of space where it is not is inconceivable. It is one
of those intuitive perceptions from which the human mind can never get
away that this primordial, all-generating living spirit must be commensurate
with infinitude, and we can therefore never think of it otherwise than
as universal or infinite. Now it is a mathematical truth that the infinite
must be a unity. You cannot have two infinites, for then neither would
be infinite, each would be limited by the other, nor can you split the
infinite up into fractions. The infinite is mathematically essential unity.
This is a point on which too much stress cannot be laid, for there follow
from it the most important consequences. Unity, as such, can be neither
multiplied nor divided, for either operation destroys the unity. By multiplying,
we produce a plurality of units of the same scale as the original; and
by dividing, we produce a plurality of units of a smaller scale; and a
plurality of units is not unity but multiplicity. Therefore if we would
penetrate below the outward nature of the individual to that innermost
principle of his being from which his individuality takes its rise, we
can do so only by passing beyond the conception of individual existence
into that of the unity of universal being. This may appear to be a merely
philosophical abstraction, but the student who would produce practical
results must realize that these abstract generalizations are the foundation
of the practical work he is going to do.
Now the great fact to be recognized about a unity is that, because it is
a single unit, wherever it is at all the whole of it must be. The moment
we allow our mind to wander off to the idea of extension in space and say
that one part of the unit is here and another there, we have descended
from the idea of unity into that of parts or fractions of a single unit,
which is to pass into the idea of a multiplicity of smaller units, and
in that case we are dealing with the relative, or the relation subsisting
between two or more entities which are therefore limited by each other,
and so have passed out of the region of simple unity which is the absolute.
It is, therefore, a mathematical necessity that, because the originating
Life-principle is infinite, it is a single unit, and consequently, wherever
it is at all, the whole of it must be present. But because it is infinite,
or limitless, it is everywhere, and therefore it follows that the whole
of spirit must be present at every point in space at the same moment. Spirit
is thus omnipresent in its entirety, and it is accordingly logically correct
that at every moment of time all spirit is concentrated at any point in
space that we may choose to fix our thought upon. This is the fundamental
fact of all being, and it is for this reason that I have prepared the way
for it by laying down the relation between spirit and matter as that between
idea and form, on the one hand the absolute from which the elements of
time and space are entirely absent, and on the other the relative which
is entirely dependent on those elements. This great fact is that pure spirit
continually subsists in the absolute, whether in a corporeal body or not;
and from it all the phenomena of being flow, whether on the mental plane
or the physical. The knowledge of this fact regarding spirit is the basis
of all conscious spiritual operation, and therefore in proportion to our
increasing recognition of it our power of producing outward visible results
by the action of our thought will grow. The whole is greater than its part,
and therefore, if, by our recognition of this unity, we can concentrate
all spirit into any given point at any moment, we thereby include any individualization
of it that we may wish to deal with. The practical importance of this conclusion
is too obvious to need enlarging upon.
Pure spirit is the Life-principle considered apart from the matrix
in which it takes relation to time and space in a particular form. In this
aspect it is pure intelligence undifferentiated into individuality. As
pure intelligence it is infinite responsiveness and susceptibility. As
devoid of relation to time and space it is devoid of individual personality.
It is, therefore, in this aspect a purely impersonal element upon which,
by reason of its inherent intelligence and susceptibility, we can impress
any recognition of personality that we will. These are the great facts
that the mental scientist works with, and the student will do well to ponder
deeply on their significance and on the responsibilities which their realization
must necessarily carry with it.
SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.
Up to this point it has been necessary to lay the foundations of the
science by the statement of highly abstract general principles which we
have reached by purely metaphysical reasoning. We now pass on to the consideration
of certain natural laws which have been established by a long series of
experiments and observations, the full meaning and importance of which
will become clear when we see their application to the general principles
which have hitherto occupied our attention. The phenomena of hypnosis are
now so fully recognized as established scientific facts that it is quite
superfluous to discuss the question of their credibility. Two great medical
schools have been founded upon them, and in some countries they have become
the subject of special legislation. The question before us at the present
day is, not as to the credibility of the facts, but as to the proper inferences
to be drawn from them, and a correct apprehension of these inferences is
one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist, for it confirms
the conclusions of purely a priori reasoning by an array of experimental
instances which places the correctness of those conclusions beyond doubt.
The great truth which the science of hypnotism has brought to light
is the dual nature of the human mind. Much conflict exists between different
writers as to whether this duality results from the presence of two actually
separate minds in the one man, or in the action of the same mind in the
employment of different functions. This is one of those distinctions without
a difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance to the opening
out of truth. A man must be a single individuality to be a man at all,
and, so, the net result is the same whether we conceive of his varied modes
of mental action as proceeding from a set of separate minds strung, so
to speak, on the thread of his one individuality and each adapted to a
particular use, or as varied functions of a single mind: in either case
we are dealing with a single individuality, and how we may picture the
wheel-work of the mental mechanism is merely a question of what picture
will bring the nature of its action home to us most clearly. Therefore,
as a matter of convenience, I shall in these lectures speak of this dual
action as though it proceeded from two minds, an outer and an inner, and
the inner mind we will call the subjective mind and the outer the objective,
by which names the distinction is most frequently indicated in the literature
of the subject.
A long series of careful experiments by highly-trained observers, some
of them men of world-wide reputation, has fully established certain remarkable
differences between the action of the subjective and that of the objective
mind which may be briefly stated as follows. The subjective mind is only
able to reason deductively and not inductively, while the objective mind
can do both. Deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which shows why
a third proposition must necessarily result if two others are assumed,
but which does not help us to determine whether the two initial statements
are true or not. To determine this is the province of inductive reasoning
which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of facts.
The relation of the two modes of reasoning is that, first by observing
a sufficient number of instances, we inductively reach the conclusion that
a certain principle is of general application, and then we enter upon the
deductive process by assuming the truth of this principle and determining
what result must follow in a particular case on the hypothesis of its truth.
Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the correctness
of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out: it is not
concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but only with
the question as to what results must necessarily follow supposing them
to be true. Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, is the process by which
we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see
the common factor that gives rise to them all. Induction proceeds by the
comparison of
facts, and deduction by the application of universal principles. Now
it is the deductive method only which is followed by the subjective mind.
Innumerable experiments on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that
the subjective mind is utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison
which are necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion,
however false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly
logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every
suggestion to the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it.
As a consequence of this it follows that the subjective mind is entirely
under the control of the objective mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces
and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses
upon it; and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be impressed on
the subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well as by that
of its own individuality. This is a most important point, for it is on
this amenability to suggestion by the thought of another that all the phenomena
of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy and the like, depend.
Under the control of the practised hypnotist the very personality of the
subject becomes changed for the time being; he believes himself to be whatever
the operator tells him he is: he is a swimmer breasting the waves, a bird
flying in the air,
a soldier in the tumult of battle, an Indian stealthily tracking his
victim: in short, for the time being, he identifies himself with any personality
that is impressed upon him by the will of the operator, and acts the part
with inimitable accuracy. But the experiments of hypnotism go further than
this, and show the existence in the subjective mind of powers far transcending
any exercised by the objective mind through the medium of the physical
senses; powers of thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clairvoyance,
and the like, all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is
brought into the higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experimental proof
of the existence in ourselves of transcendental faculties the full development
and conscious control of which would place us in a perfectly new sphere
of life.
But it should he noted that the control must be our oum and not that of
any external intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it. But perhaps
the most important fact which hypnotic experiments have demonstrated is
that the subjective mind is the builder of the body. The subjective entity
in the patient is able to diagnose the character of the disease from which
he is suffering and to point out suitable remedies, indicating a physiological
knowledge exceeding that of the most highly trained physicians, and also
a knowledge of the correspondences between diseased conditions of the bodily
organs and the material remedies which can afford relief. And from this
it is but a step further to those numerous instances in which it entirely
dispenses with the use of material remedies and itself works directly on
the organism, so that complete restoration to health follows as the result
of the suggestions of perfect soundness made by the operator to the patient
while in the hypnotic state.
Now these are facts fully established by hundreds of experiments conducted
by a variety of investigators in different parts of the world, and from
them we may draw two inferences of the highest importance: one, that the
subjective mind is in itself absolutely impersonal, and the other that
it is the builder of the body, or in other words it is the creative power
in the individual. That it is impersonal in itself is shown by its readiness
to assume any personality the hypnotist chooses to impress upon it; and
the unavoidable inference is that its realization of personality proceeds
from its association with the particular objective mind of its own individuality.
Whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it, that personality
it assumes and acts up to; and since it is the builder of the body it will
build up a body in correspondence with the personality thus impressed upon
it. These two laws of the subjective mind form the foundation of the axiom
that our body represents the aggregate of our beliefs. If our fixed belief
is that the body is subject to all sorts of influences beyond our control,
and that this, that, or the other symptom shows that such an uncontrollable
influence is at work upon us, then this belief is impressed upon the subjective
mind, which by the law of its nature accepts it without question and proceeds
to fashion bodily conditions in accordance with this belief. Again, if
our fixed belief is that certain material remedies are the only means of
cure, then we find in this belief the foundation of all medicine. There
is nothing unsound in the theory of medicine; it is the strictly logical
correspondence with the measure of knowledge which those who rely on it
are as yet able to assimilate, and it acts accurately in accordance with
their belief that in a large number of cases medicine will do good, but
also in many instances it fails. Therefore, for those who have not yet
reached a more interior perception of the law of nature, the healing agency
of medicine is a most valuable aid to the alleviation of physical maladies.
The error to be combated is not the belief that, in its own way, medicine
is capable of doing good, but the belief that there is no higher or better
way.
Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the subjective mind
is the builder of the body, and that the body is subject to no influences
except those which reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have
to do is to impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think
of it as a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually renovating
the body by building in strong and healthy material, in the most complete
independence of any influences of any sort, save those of our own desire
impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought. When once we
fully grasp these considerations we shall see that it is just as easy to
externalize healthy conditions of body as the contrary. Practically the
process amounts to a belief in our own power of life; and since this belief,
if it be thoroughly domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly
healthy body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there
are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it. To afford a solid basis
for this conviction is the purpose of Mental Science.
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