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