THE MIND OF THE BODY
(Discusses the subconscious mind, what it is, what it does to the
body, and how it can be controlled and made use of by the
intelligence.)
The importance of the mind in matters of health becomes clearer when we
understand that what we commonly call our minds--the mental states which
confront us day by day in our consciousness--are really but a small
portion of our total mind. In addition to this conscious mind there is
an enormous mass of our personality which is like a storehouse attached
to our dwelling, a place to which we do not often go, but to which we
can go in case of need. This storehouse is our memory, the things we
know and can recall at will. And then there is another, still vaster
storehouse--no one has ever measured or guessed the size of it--which
apparently contains everything that we have ever known, perhaps also
everything that our ancestors have known. A common simile for the human
mind is that of an iceberg; a certain portion of it appears above the
surface of the sea, but there is seven times as much of it floating out
of sight under the water.
This subconscious mind seems to be the portion most closely united with
the body. It has its seat in the back parts of the brain, in the spinal
cord and the greater nervous ganglia, such as the solar plexus. It is
the portion of our mind which controls the activities of our body, all
those miraculous things which went on before we first opened our eyes to
the light, and which go on while we sleep, and never cease until we die.
When we cut our finger and admit foreign germs to our blood, some
mysterious power causes millions of our blood corpuscles to be rushed to
this spot, to destroy and devour the invading enemy. We do not know how
this is done, but it is an intelligent act, measured and precisely
regulated, as much so as a railroad time-table. When the supply of
nourishment in the body becomes low, something issues a notice by way of
our stomach, which we call hunger; when we take food into the stomach,
something pours out the gastric juice to digest it; when this digested
food is prepared and taken up in the blood stream, something decides
what portion of it shall be turned into muscle, what into brain cells,
what into hair, what into finger nails. Sometimes, of course, mistakes
are made and we have diseases. But for the most part all this infinitely
intricate process goes on day and night without a hitch, and it is all
the work of what we might call "the mind of the body."
And just as our material bodies are the product of an age-long process
of development repeated in embryo by every individual, so is this mental
life a product of long development, and carries memories of this far-off
process. In our instincts there dwells all the past, not merely of the
human race, but of all life, and if we should ever succeed in completely
probing the subconscious mind and bringing it into our consciousness, it
would be the same as if we were free to ramble about in all the past.
Huxley set forth the fact that all the history of evolution is told in a
piece of chalk; and we probably do not exaggerate in saying that all the
history of the universe is in the subconscious mind of every human
being. When the partridge which has just come out of the egg sees the
shadow of the hawk flit by and crouches motionless as a leaf, the
partridge is not acting upon any knowledge which it has acquired in the
few minutes since it was hatched. It is acting upon a knowledge
impressed upon its subconscious mind by the experience of millions of
partridges, perhaps for tens of thousands of years. When the physician
lifts the newly born infant by its ankle and spanks it to make it cry,
the physician is using his conscious reason, because he has learned from
previous experience, or has been taught in the schools that it is
necessary for the child's breathing apparatus to be instantly cleared.
But when the child responds to the spanking with a yell, it is not moved
by reasoned indignation at an undeserved injury; it is following an
automatic reaction, as a result of the experience of infants in the
stone age, experience which in some obscure way has been registered and
stored in the infant cerebellum.
Science is now groping its way through this underworld of thought.
Obviously we should have here a most powerful means of influencing the
body, if by any chance we could control it. We are continually seeking
in medical and surgical ways to stimulate or to retard activities of the
body, which are controlled entirely by this subconscious mind. If we are
suffering intense pain in a joint, we put on a mustard plaster, what we
call a counter-irritant, to trouble the skin and draw the congested
blood away from the place of the pain. On the other hand, we may
stimulate the functions of the intestines by the application of hot
fomentations, to bring the blood more actively to that region. But if by
any means we could make clear our wishes to the subconscious mind, we
should be dealing with headquarters, and should get quicker and more
permanent results.
Can we by any possibility do this? To begin with, let me tell you of a
simple experiment that I have witnessed. I once knew a man who had
learned to control the circulation of his blood by his conscious will. I
have seen him lay his two hands on the table, both of the same color,
and without moving the hands, cause one hand to turn red and the other
to turn pale. And, obviously, so far as this man is concerned, the
problem of counter-irritants has been solved. He is a mental mustard
plaster.
And what was done by this man's own will can be done to others in many
ways. The most obvious is a device which we call hypnotism. This is a
kind of sleep which affects only the conscious control of the body, but
leaves all the senses awake. In this hypnotic sleep or "trance" we
discover that the subconscious mind is a good deal like the Henry Dubb
of the Socialist cartoons; it is faithful and persistent, very strong in
its own limited field, but comically credulous, willing to believe
anything that is told it, and to take orders from any one who climbs
into the seat of authority. You have perhaps attended one of the
exhibitions which traveling hypnotists are accustomed to give in country
villages. You have seen some bumpkin brought upon the stage and
hypnotized, and told that he is in the water and must swim for his life,
or that he is in the midst of a hornets' nest, or that his trousers are
torn in the seat--any comical thing that will cause an audience to howl
with laughter.
These facts were first discovered nearly a hundred and fifty years ago
by a French doctor named Mesmer. He was a good deal of a charlatan, and
would not reveal his secrets, and probably the scientific men of that
time were glad to despise him, because what he did was so new and
strange. There is a certain type of scientific mind which sits aloft on
a throne with a framed diploma above its head, and says that what it
knows is science and what it does not know is nonsense. And so
"mesmerism" was left for the quacks and traveling showmen. But half a
century later a French physician named Liebault took up this method of
hypnotism, without all the fakery that had been attached to it. He
experimented and discovered that he could cure not merely phobias and
manias, fixed ideas, hysterias and melancholias; he could cure definite
physical diseases of the physical body, such as headache, rheumatism,
and hemorrhage. Later on two other physicians, Janet and Charcot,
developed definite schools of "psychotherapy." They rejected hypnotism
as in most cases too dangerous, but used a milder form which is known as
"hypnoidization." You would be surprised to know how many ailments which
baffle the skill of medical men and surgeons yield completely to a
single brief treatment by such a mental specialist.
All that is necessary is some method to tap the subconscious mind. In
many cases the subconsciousness knows what is the matter, and will tell
at once--a secret that is completely hidden from the consciousness. For
example, a man's hands shake; they have been shaking for years, and he
has no idea why, but his subconscious mind explains that they first
began to shake with grief over the death of his wife; also, the
subconscious mind meekly and instantly accepts the suggestion that the
time for grief is past, and that the hands will never shake again.
Or here is a woman who has become convinced that worms are crawling all
over her. Everything that touches her becomes a worm, even the wrinkles
in her dress are worms, and she is wild with nervousness, and of course
is on the way to the lunatic asylum. She is hypnotized and sees the
operator catching these worms one by one and killing them. She is told
that he has killed the last, but she insists, "No, there is one more."
The operator clutches that one, and she is perfectly satisfied, and
completely cured. Her husband writes, expressing his relief that he no
longer has to "sleep every night in a fish pond." This instance with
many others is told by Professor Quackenbos in his book, "Hypnotic
Therapeutics."
Among the most powerful means to influence the subconscious personality
is religious excitement. Religion has come down to us from ancient
times, and its fears and ecstasies are a part of our instinctive
endowment. Those who can sway religious emotions can cure disease, not
merely fixed ideas, but many diseases which appear to be entirely
physical, but which psycho-analysis reveals to be hysterical in nature.
Of course these religious persons who heal by laying on of hands or by
purely mental means deny indignantly that they are using hypnotism or
anything like it. I am aware that I shall bring upon myself a flood of
letters from Christian Scientists if I identify their methods of curing
with "animal magnetism" and "manipulation," and other devices of the
devil which they repudiate. All I can say is that their miracles are
brought about by affecting the subconscious mind; there is no other way
to bring them about, and for my part I cannot see that it makes a great
difference whether the subconscious mind is affected by a hand laid on
the forehead, or by a hand waved in the air, or by an incantation
pronounced, or by a prayer thought in silence. If you can persuade the
subconscious mind that God is operating upon it, that God is omnipotent
and is directing this particular healing, that is the most powerful
suggestion imaginable, and is the basis of many cures. But if in order
to achieve this, it is necessary for me to persuade myself that I can
find some meaning in the metaphysical moonshine of Mother Eddy--why,
then, I am very sorry, but I really prefer to remain sick.
But such is not the case. You do not have to believe anything that is
not true; you simply have to understand the machinery of the
subconscious, and how to operate it. We are only beginning to acquire
that knowledge, and we need an open mind, free both from the dogmatism
of the medical men and the fanaticism of the "faith curists." A few
years ago in London I met a number of people who were experimenting in
an entirely open-minded way with mental healing, and I was interested in
their ideas. I happened to be traveling on the Continent, and on the
train my wife was seized by a very dreadful headache. She was lying with
her head in my lap, suffering acutely, and I thought I would try an
experiment, so I put my hand upon her forehead, without telling her what
I was doing, and concentrated my attention with the greatest possible
intensity upon her headache. I had an idea of the cause of it; I
understood that headaches are caused by the irritation of the sensory
nerves of the brain by fatigue poisons, or other waste matter which the
blood has not been able to eliminate. I formed in my mind a vivid
picture of what the blood would have to do to relieve that headache, and
I concentrated my mental energies upon the command to her subconscious
mind that it should perform these particular functions. In a few
minutes my wife sat up with a look of great surprise on her face and
said, "Why, my headache is gone! It went all at once!"
That, of course, might have been a coincidence; but I tried the
experiment many times, and it happened over and over. On another
occasion I was able to cure the pain of an ulcerated tooth; I was able
to cure it half a dozen times, but never permanently, it always
returned, and finally the tooth had to come out. My wife experimented
with me in the same way, and found that she was able to cure an attack
of dyspepsia; but, curiously enough, she at once gave herself a case of
dyspepsia--something she had never known in her life before. So now I
will not allow her to experiment with me, and she will not allow me to
experiment with her! But we are quite sure that people with psychic
gifts can definitely affect the subconscious mind of others by purely
mental means. We are prepared to believe in the miracles of the New
Testament, and in the wonders of Lourdes, as well as in the healings of
the Christian Scientists and the New Thoughters, which cannot be
disputed by any one who is willing to take the trouble to investigate.
We can face these facts without losing our reason, without ceasing to
believe that everything in life has a cause, and that we can find out
this cause if we investigate thoroughly.