PART II

CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL

EDUCATION

“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible.

Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial

organisation upon the natural organisation of the body; so that acts,

which at first require a conscious effort, eventually become unconscious

and mechanical.”—HUXLEY.

RE-EDUCATION

“It is because the body is a machine that (RE)education is possible.

(RE)education is the formation of (NEW AND CORRECT) habits, a

(RE-INSTATING OF THE CORRECT) artificial organisation upon the natural

organisation of the body; so that acts, which at first require conscious

effort, eventually become unconscious and mechanical.”

INTRODUCTION TO PART II

In the first part of this volume I have endeavoured to explain the

general principle which underlies my work. I will now present my

proposition from a slightly different angle, as it were, to ensure a

clearer view of it, that is, I shall deal with it in the light of its

practical application to the acts of everyday life.

I trust I may do something to convince thinking men and women that

conscious control is essential to man’s satisfactory progress in

civilisation, and that the properly directed use of such control will

enable the individual to stand, sit, walk, breathe, digest, and in fact

live with the least possible expenditure of vital energy. This will

ensure the highest standard of resistance to disease. When this

desirable stage of our evolution is reached the cry of physical

deterioration may no longer be heard.

I will write out as concisely, as definitely, and as boldly as possible,

my claims and my main argument. In a second part I have added some more

discursive notes and comments, which I trust will meet the many requests

I have received for further light on certain points in my former book.

With the records of my casebooks for over twenty years before me I feel

it right to set down my convictions in terms that do not admit of any

doubt or uncertainty. My conclusions upon the urgent question of

physical decadence have not been formulated in haste. They are

deductions from a long series of striking results and observed facts,

and, frankly, I consider them so important that I cannot hesitate to

deliver my message in a tone which may appear to some to savour of

over-confidence. So be it!

I

SYNOPSIS OF CLAIM

1. My first claim is that psycho-physical guidance by conscious control,

when applied as a universal principle to “living,” constitutes an

unfailing preventive for diseases mental or physical, malformations, and

loss of general efficiency. It is commonly considered that these

conditions are brought about by such evils of civilisation as the

limitation of energy, and by that loss of so-called “natural conditions”

which civilisation entails.

It is my earnest belief that the intelligent recognition of the

principles essential to guidance by conscious control are essential to

the full mental and physical development of the human race. Due

consideration will convince even the sceptical that if mankind is to

evolve to the higher stages of mental and physical perfection, he must

be guided by these principles. They alone will bring men and women of

to-day to the highest state of well-being, enabling them to grapple

effectively with the problems of the day in the world of thought and

action, gradually widening the dividing line which separates civilised

mankind from the animal kingdom.

There is no sphere of human activity, of human feeling or philosophy

where the adoption of the principles of conscious guidance and control

would not bring invaluable benefits.

At present man is held in bondage by many subconscious instincts which

enslave the animal kingdom, the savage, and the semi-savage. Let me

illustrate this. Animals and savages become immediately unbalanced when

they experience the unusual, as for instance, when they see an express

train dash along for the first time. Such a new experience would cause

the bravest animal to become overwhelmed with that degree of fear which

momentarily suspends his normal guidance by instinct. So also with the

savage, who would be equally unbalanced by an experience of this kind.

In most spheres of normal life, he, like the animal, depends on

instinctive guiding principles which act with perfect balance under

accustomed circumstances. In the face of the unusual, however, he is

unable to meet suddenly the requirements of a new environment. To meet

these he needs reasoned, conscious guidance which is the outcome of the

habit of conscious control, and marks the dividing line between the

animal kingdom, where instinct is the guide, and the human kingdom where

its members are in communication with reason.

The mental and physical limitations and imperfections of men and women

of the present day make it impossible for them to meet satisfactorily

the great majority of the requirements of their present environment, and

render them quite incapable of making the best of their capabilities in

any new environment. These instinctive guiding principles, not even

perfectly balanced as in the case of the savage and the animal, are

miserably insufficient to meet the conditions of the modern world with

its ever changing environment. Yet it is upon these instincts that men

and women rely, to the detriment of their mental and physical

attainments.

2. My next claim is that all such diseases as those referred to above

(e.g., cancer, appendicitis, bronchitis, tuberculosis, etc.) are too

often permitted to remain uneradicated and frequently undetected, and so

to develop in consequence of the failure to recognise that the real

cause of the development of such diseases is to be found in the

erroneous preconceived ideas of the persons immediately concerned, ideas

which affect the organism in the manner described in Part I of this

book.

The only experience which the average man or woman has in the use of the

different parts of the human organism is through his or her

subconsciousness. The result is a subconscious direction which in the

imperfectly co-ordinated person is based on bad experiences and on the

erroneous preconceived ideas before mentioned. Small wonder, then, that

such direction is faulty and leads to the development of serious defects

and imperfections. With this erroneous direction even the attempt to

carry out a simple action in accordance with subconscious habit is

fraught with danger, for it invariably affects in a detrimental manner

other parts of the subject’s organism which have nothing to do with the

particular act or acts attempted. For instance, in the subconsciously

controlled person the attempt to lengthen the neck is invariably

preceded by a movement of the eyes in an upward or downward direction.

Wrong use of the eyes in this or some similar manner too frequently is

the forerunner of what eventually develops into an established habit,

often causing an unnecessary and undue strain of the eyes which

seriously impairs their efficiency, and which in the ordinary way of

life leads to the specific treatment of these organs. It is obvious,

however, that what is needed in such a case is the eradication of the

erroneous preconceived idea and harmful habits, thereby removing

gradually the undue and unnecessary strain upon the organs of sight.

This will enable them to regain their lost efficiency and it is almost

certain that specific treatment of any kind on orthodox lines will be

unnecessary. In consequence of faulty guidance misdirected energies are

not confined to one part of the organism. They affect the hands, arms,

shoulders, legs, thorax, hips, knees, ankles and other parts of the

organism, frequently causing strain and interference with the

functioning of the different organs and finally seriously injuring them.

To support this second claim I bring forward the following arguments:

(a) Till now little or no attention on a practical psycho-physical basis

has been given to the vital and harmful influence of this faulty

direction (of subconscious origin) and of the erroneous preconceived

ideas and faulty posture associated therewith. Under such influences the

subject can hardly fail to cultivate a wrong mental attitude towards

life in general and towards the art of living (evolving satisfactorily),

especially in regard to the primary causation of the defects which may

be present or which may develop eventually, but also in regard to the

essential laws connected with the eradication of these defects.

(b) Owing to the lack of distinction between reasoned (conscious) and

unreasoned (subconscious or partly-conscious) actions, the subject

suffers from various forms of mental and physical delusions, notably

with regard to the physical acts he performs. Incidentally it should be

pointed out that if this is true of the ordinary acts of everyday life

how much more so of those physical acts which may be necessary to meet

the demands of some new environment! As a striking instance of delusion

in physical acts let us take the case of a man _who believes himself to

be merely overcoming what he regards as essential inertia, when he is

really fighting the resistance of undue antagonistic muscular action

exerted by himself_, a resistance of which he is not consciously aware.

In all such cases there is a constant conflict between two great forces,

the one (subconscious) destined to exercise supreme directive powers

during the early stages of human evolution, the other (conscious) to

supersede this limited direction and finally to prove the reliable guide

through the higher and highest stages of the great evolutionary scheme

which leads to the full enjoyment of his potentialities. It must be

remembered that the former became firmly established during centuries of

subconscious direction, holding undisputed sway until the first

glimmering of reasoned conscious guidance came in its crudest form to

disturb its power, a power which it is destined one day to overthrow. In

the present stage of our mental and physical progress the conflict

continues with gradually increasing energy, and while the conflict is

being waged the subject is influenced first in one direction by the

dictates of his subconsciousness (called by some “instinct,” by others

“intuition”), and then in another by his awakened conscious powers which

he is gradually but slowly developing. Of the real significance of this

conflict he has, unfortunately, no true realisation. At the same time he

undoubtedly feels the force of these two influences as conflicting

energies, but only in a dim, mysterious way. He is swayed first by one

force and then by the other as happens when we hear a man or woman say,

“Well, that seems the thing to do, but I feel that I shouldn’t do it.”

Very often he does what he feels instead of what seems to be the correct

thing, and, moreover, the former is very frequently right. This is not

surprising, seeing that the subconscious instinct in us is much more

developed than the conscious faculty. But granting the subconscious its

fullest degree of merit, we are forced to recognise its serious

limitations in the mode of life (civilisation) with its ever changing

environment which human progress demands. We must have a guiding

principle without these limitations, to enable us to adapt ourselves

much more quickly to the new environments which are inevitable in the

progress of civilisation towards its legitimate goal.

We must have something more reasoned and definite than that which

subconscious direction offers, and so we come to the need of reasoned

guidance. Up to the present neither of these forms of direction really

reaches the mind as a definite tangible idea consciously conceived. This

is because of the fundamental principles upon which subconscious

direction has been built up, and in consequence of the undeveloped

condition of conscious guidance. Furthermore, the subject has not yet

made any serious attempt to analyse these two forces, of whose

particular workings he is but dimly aware. The fundamental principle

which we call evolution demands that every human being shall be enabled

to make this analysis, so that he may differentiate between the impulses

springing from his subconsciousness (instinct-inhibition) and the

conceptions created in his reasoning conscious mind.

The subject will thus cultivate the habit of distinguishing between

reasoned and unreasoned actions and this will at once tend to the

prevention of mental and physical delusions in all directions, notably

in regard to his physical acts in old or new environments.

(c) Whilst these delusions remain, the subject will continue to perform

wrong or detrimental actions, for as long as his settled mental attitude

towards such actions remains unchanged, he will believe that he is

performing them in a correct manner. It is owing to this involuntary,

and on his part unrecognised, misapprehension, that many malformations

and inefficiencies become established, which sooner or later may lead to

definite disease. The popular misconception of the subject’s

responsibility in the matter leads him to be commonly pitied as for

unavoidable defects, whereas it is of the first importance that he

should realise the responsibility is his and his alone. He must be made

aware that such defects arise from his own fault, and are the outcome of

his ignorance or wilful neglect.

Once this new mental attitude is firmly established there is hope for

the afflicted person and he will have the satisfaction of knowing that

he is, as it were, working out his own salvation on common-sense

practical lines, devoid of pernicious sympathy, face to face with real

facts, and stimulated by a principle which cannot fail to secure the

very best efforts in the right direction of which any ordinary person is

capable.

(d) It is essential in the necessary re-education of the subject through

conscious guidance and control that in every case the “means whereby”

rather than the “end,” should be held in mind. As long as the “end” is

held in mind instead of the “means,” the muscular act, or series of

acts, will always be performed in accordance with the mode established

by old habits. When each stage of the series essential to the “means

whereby” is correctly apprehended by the conscious mind of the subject,

the old habits can be broken up, and every muscular action can be

consciously directed until the new and correct guiding sensations have

established the new proper habits which in their turn become

subconscious, but on a more highly evolved plane.

In effect these new habits ensure conditions which give new life to, and

maintain in a high state of efficiency, every organ of the body, the

automatic functions being reacted upon by the consciously controlled

energies. By my system of obtaining the position of “_mechanical

advantage_,”[14] a perfect system of natural internal massage is

rendered possible, such as never before has been attained by orthodox

methods, a system which is extraordinarily beneficial in breaking up

toxic accumulation; thus avoiding evils which arise from

auto-intoxication.

The position of mechanical advantage, which may or may not be a normal

position, is the position which gives the teacher the opportunity to

bring about quickly with his own hands a co-ordinated condition in the

subject. Such co-ordination gives to the pupil an experience of the

proper use of a part or parts, in the imperfect use of which may be

found the primary cause of the defects present. It is by the repetition

of such experiences of the proper use of his organism that the pupil is

enabled to reproduce the sensation and to employ the same guiding

principles in everyday life. The placing of the pupil in what would

ordinarily be considered an abnormal position (of mechanical advantage)

affords the teacher an opportunity to establish the mental and physical

guiding principles which enable the pupil after a short time to repeat

the co-ordination with the same perfection in a normal position.

I maintain in this connexion, that any case of incipient appendicitis

may be treated successfully by these methods. Further, when this

position of mechanical advantage has been attained through the

employment of the first principles of conscious guidance and control, a

rigid thorax may regain mobility, no matter what the age of the subject,

and full thoracic expansion and contraction may be acquired and, with

the minimum of effort, maintained. During the practical process by which

this thoracic elasticity and maximum intra-thoracic capacity is

gradually established, the body of the subject is at the same time

re-adjusted and mental principles are inculcated which will enable him

to maintain the improved conditions in posture and co-ordination which

are being set up, and which will secure the normal and necessary

abdominal pressure in the right direction, thus constituting a natural

form of massage of the digestive organs which is maintained during the

ordinary actions of everyday life.

3. I am able to re-adjust and to teach others to re-adjust the human

machine with the hands; to mould the body, as it were, into its proper

shape, and with an open-minded pupil it is possible to remove many

defects in a few minutes, as, for example, to change entirely the

production of a voice, its quality and power.

4. In prescribing the principles of conscious guidance and control, we

are dealing not with an epidemic of physical or mental degeneracy, but

with a stage in the progress of the human race from the subconscious and

instinctive to the conscious and reasoned command of the whole human

mechanism. In other words, we have reached a stage in the process of

civilisation where demands are being made which we are unable to meet

satisfactorily, and with the serious results which may be seen on every

hand, results from which we can escape only by passing from those

primitive modes of guidance which approximate too closely to those of

the animal kingdom where the greater potentialities of the human being

remain latent.

The suggested adoption of conscious guidance and control as a universal

principle on the lines heretofore outlined will enable us to move slowly

but with gradually increasing speed towards those higher psycho-physical

spheres which will separate the animal and human kingdoms by a deep

gulf, and mankind will then enjoy the blessings which will be the

natural result of capacities fully developed.

II

THE ARGUMENT

The marked tendency toward physical degeneracy among the men and women

of all civilised races has been the constant theme of physiologists,

therapeutists and other specialists; endless explanations have been put

forward to account for it, and countless remedies suggested to

counteract it. In this question, as in the details of medicine and

surgery, the general inclination of the human mind is always towards a

treatment of epidemic symptoms, towards vague generalisations in the

diagnosis and treatment of individual symptoms, whether the word

“individual” in this case refers to a specific sufferer or a correlated

class of diseases, towards a regard of effects rather than of causes.

As a reaction against this long-accepted method of dealing with

individual symptoms by differentiated treatment, there has arisen a

great diversity of so-called “mind-healers,” whose _a priori_ methods

and lack of any clearly conceived system have brought their efforts into

disrepute. Such were the conditions which over twenty years ago I sought

to understand, believing—as I still do—that the whole human race was at

some great psycho-physical turning point in its history, and that if the

true nature of this evolutionary stage could be understood, it might and

should be possible to direct man’s physical and mental progression and

so combat, and in time eliminate, a thousand evils which seem to have no

counterpart in the world of the lower animals, save in very exceptional

cases.

In embarking upon this enquiry I realised from the outset that I was

dealing not with a world-wide epidemic but with a stage of progress, and

that it was essential therefore that I should at once discard all

theories which advocated, implicitly or explicitly, a return to similar

conditions. Evolution knows no such return to extinction. The species

must go forward to a triumphant perfection, or give place to a more

dominant, more complete, self-controlled type.

Now if man as an animal, with an animal body differing little in

anatomical structure from other families of the order of Primates, is

yet differentiated physically by a susceptibility to disease and bodily

degeneration, which, save in very exceptional cases, finds little or no

parallel in the lower animals, we must determine the prime cause of such

differentiation. The solution of the problem which is commonly put

forward, and which has found support in the body calling themselves in

England and in the United States “Eugenists,” I cannot accept as

universal. This theory rests mainly on the contention that in the human

polity the physical struggle for existence has ceased to have effect,

that the unfit are permitted to produce offspring equally with the fit,

and that for the natural selection imposed by circumstances which are

fatal to the weak we must substitute an arbitrary selection in order to

maintain the high efficiency of the natural type. Though I am in

sympathy with many principles of Eugenics I reject this theory as a

universal one. It is inconsistent with the great and inspiring ideal of

the progress of the human race toward a mental and bodily perfection. If

we believe in the idea of a Purpose running through life, unfolding

itself to each successive generation and expressing itself in the terms

of human experience; if, in other words, we believe in any scientific

theory of development, in any large scheme of progress, it is impossible

to accept a theory which assumes the lack of adaptability in man’s

physical body to thrive in the conditions which have grown up around

him, or to enter its true and natural kingdom of perfect soundness. If

we postulate that a third of civilised humanity is unfit to continue the

race, we can only conclude that man’s physical evolution has proved a

failure, and that the race is doomed ultimately to extinction. And, in

the last analysis, it is inconceivable that the prime instinct and

desire for reproduction can be overruled at the dictates of any small

body of men, or even that such a method, if possible, could be

productive of any highly desirable results.

Wherefore I take my stand firmly on the ground that the body of

civilised man is capable not only of continuing the struggle for

existence but of rising to a higher potentiality. So, returning to the

point of differentiation between man and the lower animals, I am now

convinced that we must seek for the cause of this physical degeneration

not in the pressure of new circumstances of life, but in the progress

from one state of being to the next. I maintain that in order to

discover the solution of this twofold problem of universal disease and

its universal remedy, we must look to this enormous growth of reasoning

power, and to the consciousness and realisation of the means whereby the

desired effect can be obtained. For the animal and the lower races of

mankind do not perform physical acts by any process of reason. They are

the servants of that strange directing law which governs the flower in

its curiously ingenious devices to ensure cross-fertilisation, no less

than the higher mammalia in the rules of their gregarious societies, the

law for which we have found no better term than Instinct. It is this

“instinct” which guides all the nervous muscular mechanisms of the

animal’s anatomical structure, and is traceable as the motive in all

functional processes. But in the physical economy of mankind this

instinct is actually at war with, and is ever being controlled and

superseded by conscious, directive reason.

The number of man’s instinctive actions grows ever more limited, (1) as

the result of a complete change of habit, and (2) more noticeably, as

the outcome of a mental evolution which prompts him continually to seek

a cause for every action, to analyse and endeavour to comprehend the

secret springs of his being. Moreover civilisation, with its

multitudinous problems of life and its perpetual interplay of

personalities, demands even in the minutiæ of physical action a constant

reasoning, a deliberate and comparatively rapid adaptation to

surroundings such as instinct is quite unable to provide. Thus man’s

whole body is a polity ruled by two governors whose dictates are not

invariably consistent one with the other; and one governor is frequently

disobeyed at the expense of the other. This fact, indeed, is obvious

when it is thus considered, but we have to determine the possible

outcome. There are three alternatives. The first, a return to the sole

guidance of instinct, is unthinkable. The second, the continuance of

this dual government, is the very condition which has led to the evils

we seek to remedy. There remains the third, namely, that man’s physical

evolution points to progress along the road of reasoned, conscious

guidance and control. It was this last conclusion which over twenty

years ago led me to investigate and to practise the means by which this

conscious guidance and control could be obtained, so as to apply it to

the eradication and prevention of human ills, and to the maintenance of

the body in a high degree of physical perfection.

III

THE PROCESSES OF CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL

The formulation of the method of conscious guidance and control arises

in practice from a close study of the imperfect uses of the mental and

physical mechanisms of the human organism. Since, as has been shown,

conscious guidance and control is necessary and is being practised to

some extent, inefficiently, by every civilised man and woman, it is

essential that its principles should be thoroughly understood. The

method is based firstly on the understanding of the co-ordinated uses of

the muscular mechanisms, and secondly, on the complete acceptance of the

hypothesis that each and every movement can be consciously directed and

controlled.

In re-educating the individual, therefore, the first effort must be

directed to the education of the conscious mind. The words

“re-educating” and “re-education” have a specific meaning. In the

individual the normal processes of education in the use of the

anatomical structure is conducted subconsciously, certain instincts

commanding certain functions, whilst other functions are conducted

deliberately. The effects of this haphazard process have either to be

elaborated or broken down, according to the defects established by

misuse of the mechanisms, and the first step in re-education is that of

establishing in the pupil’s mind the connexion which exists between

cause and effect in every function of the human body.

In the performance of any muscular action by conscious guidance and

control there are four essential stages:

(1) The conception of the movement required;

(2) The inhibition of erroneous preconceived ideas which

subconsciously suggest the manner in which the movement or series of

movements should be performed;

(3) The new and conscious mental orders which will set in motion the

muscular mechanism essential to the correct performance of the action;

(4) The movements (contractions and expansions) of the muscles which

carry out the mental orders.

The process of re-education concerns itself with establishing these

principles, and for the purpose of illustration we may take a typical

example of a patient who has had no experience of them.

A well-built, muscular man in the prime of life, conducting during

business hours a sedentary occupation and taking more or less violent

exercise during his leisure, becomes a chronic sufferer from indigestion

with all its concomitant troubles. He complains that the physical

exercises of the gymnasium no longer do him any good, but appears to

think that if he gave up his office work altogether, an economic

impossibility for him, he might recover.

Suppose he is asked to stand upright and take a “deep breath.” It will

be found that he immediately makes movements which tend to retard the

proper action of the respiratory processes rather than to promote such

action. For instance, it is almost certain that in the attempt to make

the movement referred to he will stiffen the muscles of his neck, throw

back the head, hollow the back, protrude the stomach, and take breath by

audibly _sucking_ air into the lungs. The muscles over the entire

surface of the bony thorax will be unduly tensed, tending to more or

less harmful thoracic rigidity at the very moment when the maximum of

mobility is needed. How could the result be otherwise? For, in telling

the pupil to take a “deep breath,” the teacher starts out with the

assumption that the pupil can do so. But why such an assumption? What

guide in carrying out the order has the pupil except his own admittedly

erroneous guidance? I say “admittedly” erroneous, for I contend that the

pupil’s condition, together with the fact that he and the teacher deem

it necessary to remedy it, is tantamount to this admission. So common,

so almost universal is such a response as the above to these orders that

the truth of the statement may be tested on any average individual. Now

the mistakes of this response need not be dwelt upon here. They have

proved in every case in my experience sufficient explanation for the

trouble of the digestive organs. Examination of the subject will reveal

the hollowing of the back with the accompanying protrusion of the

abdominal wall, whilst the abdominal muscles will be deficient in the

energy and tone necessary to the maintenance of efficiency in the

digestive organs. Now in dealing with this case, many parts of the

organism will require re-adjustment. The spine must be straightened and

lengthened, the mean thoracic capacity permanently increased in order to

give free play to the internal organs, and the firmly established habit

of drawing breath by _sucking_ air into the lungs must be broken.

It is essential in this place to point out that no system of physical

exercises will alter the present condition of the subject in respect of

these faults, since all exercises will be conducted under a primary

misconception with regard to the use of the muscles involved in the

re-adjustment and co-ordination of the organism.

We may now follow the individual through the four stages in the

inculcation of the principles of conscious control. In the first place

it is necessary that he should have a clear understanding of the faults

we seek to remedy. No tacit compliance on his part to a treatment, the

processes of which he does not understand, will be of the slightest

value. He must accept completely the principle in detail. In the second

place he must be taught to realise his erroneous conceptions which

result in erroneous movements, and this, whether the conceptions be

conscious or subconscious. He must also be taught to inhibit, and,

finally, to eradicate these preconceived ideas and the mental order or

series of orders which follow from them. Only then can he give the

correct guiding orders as next described.

In the third place, then, he must learn to give the correct mental

orders to the mechanisms involved, and _there must be a clear

differentiation in his mind between the giving of the order and the

performance of the act ordered and carried out through the medium of the

muscles_. The whole principles of volition and inhibition are implicit

in the recognition of this differentiation. Thus, to return to the

example under consideration, we will suppose that I have requested the

pupil _to order_ the spine to lengthen and the neck to relax. If,

instead of merely framing and holding this desire in his mind, he

attempts the physical performance of these acts, he will invariably

stiffen the muscles of his neck and shorten his spine, since these are

the movements habitually associated _in his mind_ with lengthening his

spine, and the muscles will contract in accordance with the old

associations. In effect it will be seen that in this, as in all other

cases, stress must be laid on the point that it is _the means_ and not

the _end_ which must be considered. When the end is held in mind,

instinct or long habit will always seek to attain the end by habitual

methods. The action is performed below the level of consciousness in its

various stages, and only rises to the level of consciousness when the

end is being attained by the correct “means whereby.”

In the fourth place, when the correct guiding orders have been practised

and given by the mind, a result attained by attention and the

instruction of the teacher, the muscles involved will come into play in

different combinations under the control of conscious guidance, and a

reasoned act will take the place of the series of habitual, unconsidered

movements which have resulted in the deformation of the body. And it

must be kept clearly in mind that the whole of the old series of

movements has been correlated and compacted into one indivisible and

rigid sequence which has invariably followed the one mental order that

started the train; such an order, for instance, as “Stand upright.”

Leaving this specific example, I come now to a consideration of the

general principles involved. Firstly, as to the teaching method.

Every one who has had experience, personally or vicariously, of the many

“methods” and “systems” of teaching breathing, speaking, singing,

physical culture, golf, fencing, etc., must have noticed that whilst the

failures of these “methods” are many, the successes are comparatively

few.

The few successes are of course set down to exceptional natural

aptitude, whilst the teacher has an explanation of those cases more

flattering to himself and prefers not to consider too closely the

average of his failures. The truth is that all these systems break down

because the pupil, in the attempt to adopt them, is guided always by his

subconscious direction and is forced to depend too much on what is

called natural aptitude. When guidance by conscious control and reason

supersedes guidance by instinct, we shall be able to develop our

potentialities to the full.

My own analysis of the matter is that the teaching method is, as a rule,

entirely wrong, and wrong because of a fundamental misconception and an

entirely inaccurate analysis resulting in a false premise. The pupil’s

defects are dealt with commonly through their effects and not their

causes. It is not recognised that every defective action is the result

of the erroneous preconception of the doer, whether consciously or

subconsciously exercised, and the orders which directly or indirectly

follow. Nor is it understood that a pupil under the influence of such

erroneous preconceptions can make no real progress till he is made to

realise that it is he himself who is actually bringing about the

defective action. The teacher does not attach sufficient importance to

the fact that the pupil is often under a complete misapprehension as to

his own actions, being under the delusion that he is doing one thing

when he is often doing the exact opposite.

No real progress in the overcoming of faults can be made until the pupil

consciously ceases to will or to do those things which he has been

willing and doing in the past, and which have led him to commit the

faults that are to be eradicated. “Don’t do this, but this,” says the

teacher, dealing with _effects_. In other words, it is assumed that the

defective action on the part of the pupil can be put right by “doing

something else.” The teacher accepts and preaches this doctrine without

ever analysing the defect to its root cause in the human will, the motor

of the whole mechanism. He forgets that in “doing something else” the

pupil must use the same machinery which, _ex hypothesi_, is working

imperfectly, and that he must be guided in his action by the same

erroneous conceptions regarding right and wrong doing. Neither teacher

nor pupil seems to remember that to know whether practice is _right_ or

_wrong_ demands judgment. Judgment is the result of experience. Faulty

or wrong experience means faulty or bad judgment, whereas correct

experience means good judgment.

The very fact that the pupil was beset with defects and needed help

proves that his _kinæsthetic_ experiences were incorrect and even

harmful, and as his judgment on the kinæsthetic basis has been built

upon such faulty experience, the judgment will prove most misleading and

unsound.

Therefore we are forced to dispense, for the time being, with the sense

of feeling as a guide in its old sphere of associations. We cannot deny

that we are beset with defects, that even when the way is made clear for

their eradication we cannot follow that way on our old mode of

procedure, because our guides in the form of sensory appreciations

(feeling-tones), general experience, and judgment are unworthy of our

confidence, and will guide us in such a way that, even if we succeed in

eradicating some specific defect, it will be found that in the process

we have cultivated a number of others which are as bad or even worse

than the original.

It seems also to me that practice so-called is so rarely directed by a

reasoned analysis on a reasoned plan. Nor does the teacher analyse and

instruct with accuracy. He demands from the pupil merely imitative not

reasoned acts. This makes practice so often futile for the imperfectly

co-ordinated person, and teaching both halting and inadequate.

With regard to this question of the imitative method I have frequently

had to point out to vocal pupils that certain effects and capacities,

which they hoped to acquire in a few lessons, were a result of a proper

conscious knowledge on my part of the “means whereby” the voice is

produced. To achieve these results they must study and master the same

principles, but they could never reproduce them by a series of imitative

acts divorced from knowledge of the processes involved and skill in

using these processes. There is no royal road to anything worth having,

and the imitative method of teaching seems to me pure charlatanry.

The position of the teacher and pupil is a very hopeless one as long as

their standpoint is still on the subconscious plane, and the physical

and mental conditions of our time, when considered in the light of the

teaching methods adopted in the past, afford abundant proof of this.

My reader can rejoice that the foregoing is a faithful representation of

our position to-day. He can rejoice because these tremendous forces

demand that if he wishes to progress he must leave the subconscious

plane of animal growth and development, and adopt the reasoned conscious

plane of guidance and control by means of which mankind may rise to

those high evolutionary planes for which his latent and undeveloped

potentialities fit him.

I will now endeavour to outline the teaching method which should be

adopted if we are to pass successfully from subconscious to conscious

guidance and control, in the endeavour to remove defects and delusions

and to develop and establish correct guiding centres and senses.

The conscious guidance and control advocated here is on a wide and

general, and not on a specific basis. Conscious control applied in a

specific way in unthinkable, except as a result of the principle

primarily applied as a universal. For instance, the conscious

controlling of the movements of a particular muscle or limb, as

practised by athletes and others, is of little practical value in the

science of living. The specific control of a finger, of the neck, or of

the legs should primarily be the result of the conscious guidance and

control of the mechanism of the torso, particularly of the antagonistic

muscular actions which bring about those correct and greater

co-ordinations intended to control the movements of the limbs, neck,

respiratory mechanism and the general activity of the internal organs.

In order to describe the teaching method necessary in this connexion, I

will indicate the procedure which should be adopted in the attempt to

help a pupil in whom undue tension of the muscles of one side of the

neck causes the head to be pulled down on that side. In the ordinary

way, the pupil is told to relax and straighten the neck and he and his

teacher devote themselves to this end. This attempt may be attended with

more or less success, chiefly less. If they do succeed in removing the

specific trouble it is almost certain that new defects will have been

cultivated during the process. In any case the teacher’s order to relax

and straighten the neck is incorrect and primarily the result of a wrong

assumption. It started from a false premise which led to false

deductions. The pupil and his teacher decided that something was wrong

and that therefore something specific had to be done to put it right.

The “end” was held in mind primarily and not the “means whereby.”

The correct point of view is: Something is wrong in the use of the

psycho-physical mechanism of the person concerned. Is this imperfection

or defect a direct or indirect result of this person’s own direction and

action, or is it the result of some influence outside of himself and

beyond his power to control? It can be proved conclusively that his

imperfections or defects are due entirely to causes springing directly

or indirectly from his own ideas and acts.

It is therefore obvious that the correct order of procedure for teacher

and pupil is first for the pupil to learn to prevent himself from doing

the wrong things which cause the imperfections or defects, and then, as

a _secondary_ consideration in procedure, to learn the correct way to

use the mental and physical mechanisms concerned.

If there is any undue muscular pull in any part of the neck, it is

almost certain to be due to the defective co-ordination in the use of

the muscles of the spine, back, and torso generally, the correction of

which means the eradication of the real cause of the trouble.

This principle applies to the attempted eradication of all defects or

imperfect uses of the mental and physical mechanisms in all the acts of

daily life and in such games as cricket, football, billiards, baseball,

golf, etc., and in the physical manipulation of the piano, violin, harp

and all such instruments.

My reader must not fail to remember that mental conceptions are the

stimuli to the ideo-motor centre which passes on the subconscious or

conscious guiding orders to the mechanism. In dealing with human defects

or imperfections we must consider the inherited subconscious conceptions

associated with the mechanisms involved, and also the conceptions which

are to be the forerunners of the ideo-motor guiding orders connected

with the new and correct use of the different mechanisms.

In order to establish successfully the latter (correct conception), we

must first inhibit the former (incorrect conception), and from the

ideo-motor centre project the new and different directing orders which

are to influence the complexes involved, gradually eradicating the

tendency to employ the incorrect ones, and steadily building up those

which are correct and reliable.

It will therefore be understood that if we eliminate the conception

established and associated with our defects or imperfections, it means

that we are really eliminating our inherited subconsciousness, and all

the defective uses of the psycho-physical mechanism connected therewith.

In our attempts on these lines we are, at the outset, confronted with

the difficulty of mental rigidity. The preconceptions and habits of

thought with regard to the uses of the muscular mechanisms are the first

if not the only stumbling-blocks to the teaching of conscious control.

Many of these preconceptions are the legacy of instinct, others arise

from habitual practices started by a faulty comprehension of the uses of

the mechanism, others again by conscious or unconscious imitation of

faults in others. In this last case it may be noted that although we are

always deploring the degeneracy of civilised man the exemplars held up

for the child’s conscious and unconscious imitation are nearly always

faulty specimens. These preconceptions and habits of thought, therefore,

must be broken down, and since the reactions of mind on body and body on

mind are so intimate, it is often necessary to break down these

preconceptions of mind by performing muscular acts for the subject

vicariously; that is to say, the instructor must move the parts in

question while the subject attends to the inhibition of all muscular

movements. It would be impossible, however, to describe the method in

full detail in this place, owing to the extraordinary variability of the

cases presented, no two of which exhibit precisely the same defects. On

broad lines it is evident that the misuses must be diagnosed by the

instructor who may be called upon to use considerable ingenuity and

patience in correcting the faults, and substituting the correct mental

orders for the one general order which starts the old train of vicious

habitual movements. The mental habit must be first attacked and this

mental habit usually lies below the level of consciousness; but it may

be reached by introspection and analysis, and by the performance of the

habitual acts by other than the habitual methods, that is, by physical

acts performed consciously as an effect of the conscious conception and

the conscious direction of the mind.

Speaking generally, it will be found that the pupil is quite unable to

analyse his own actions. Tell a young golfer that he has taken his eye

off the ball or swayed his body, and he feels sure, in his heart, that

you are mistaken. The imperfectly poised person has not a correct

apprehension of what he is really doing. In this apparently simple

matter of the carriage or poise of the body I find in quite nine-tenths

of my cases a harmful rigidity[15] which is quite unconsciously assumed.

When it is pointed out to them, and physically demonstrated, they almost

invariably deny it indignantly. I ask a new pupil to put his shoulders

back and his head forward, and he will consistently put both back or

forward. I tell a new pupil he is shortening his spine, and in

attempting to lengthen it he invariably shortens it still more. The

action is one over which he has neither learnt nor practised any control

whatever. He is simply deluded regarding his sensations and unable to

direct his actions. I do not therefore in teaching him actually order

him to lengthen his spine by performing any explicit action, but I cause

him to rehearse the correct guiding orders, and after placing him in a

position of mechanical advantage I am able by my manipulation to bring

about, directly or indirectly as the case may be, the desired

flexibility and extension.

The process is of course repeated until the pupil gains a new

kinæsthetic sense of the new and correct use of the parts, which become

properly co-ordinated, and the correct habit is established. He will

then no longer find it easy to cause his physical machinery to work as

it did before the fault was thus effectively eradicated.

I frequently have to treat cases of congenital or acquired crippling and

distortion. I protest against the mental attitude which looks upon such

ailments as incurable and beyond the control of the patient—the mental

attitude of the person who says, “Poor fellow,” to the sufferer, and

induces him to repeat and be dominated by this paralysing formula. As a

matter of plain fact the condition is maintained by the pupil’s

erroneous ideas concerning “cause” and “effect,” and the working of his

own mechanism, and so, subconsciously but quite effectively, he is

really causing and maintaining the trouble. My method is to make an

examination and then to apply tests to discover the real cause or

causes, namely, the erroneous preconceived ideas, and to find out what

minimum of control is left, and therefrom to develop a healthy condition

of the whole organism by a simple and practical procedure which step by

step effects the desired physical and mental changes. Like the

faith-healer, then, I lay much stress on the mental attitude of the

patient; unlike him, instead of denying the existence of the evil I make

the pupil search out with me its cause. I then explain to him that his

own will (not mine or some higher will) is to effect the desired change,

but that it must first be directed in a rational way to bring about a

physical manifestation, and must be aided by a simple mechanical

principle and a proper manipulation. In this way a reasoned and

permanent confidence is built up in the pupil instead of a spurious

hysterical one which is apt to fail as suddenly as it arose. I will not,

for instance, allow my pupils to close their eyes during their work, in

spite of a constant plea that they can “think better” or “concentrate”

better with their eyes shut, for, as a rule, I find that this resolves

itself into an attempt at self-hypnotism. I make them endeavour to

exercise their conscious minds all the while. As I have already said, I

maintain further and I am prepared to prove that the majority of

physical defects have come about by the action of the patient’s own will

operating under the influence of erroneous preconceived ideas and

consequent delusions, exercised consciously or more often

subconsciously, and that these conditions can be changed by that same

will directed by a right conception implanted by the teacher.

In this connexion I am able to give particulars of an interesting case.

A well-known actor fell during rehearsal and injured his arm so severely

that he was unable to raise it more than five or six inches from his

side without intense pain. He consulted many medical men without relief,

and had been disabled for six weeks when he was sent to see me.

I diagnosed the case as a subjective subconsciously willed disablement.

Of course, the last thing I mean is that it was “affected” in the usual

sense; all the patient’s interests and character made this impossible.

I asked him to lift his arm. “I can’t.” “But please try.” He did so and

the cause of his trouble was immediately apparent to me. He was using

the muscular mechanisms of the arm and neck in such a way as to place a

severe strain on the injured muscle, such a strain indeed as would have

been harmful to a normal arm and which caused him intense pain. For

instance, he was exerting force sufficient to lift a sack of flour and

he _looked_ as if he had been called upon for such an exertion! He was

stiffening all the muscles which he should have relaxed, and was

altogether acting as the subconsciously controlled person of to-day does

habitually act when something unusual occurs. To put the matter in the

terms of my thesis, he acted in accordance with a subconscious guiding

influence which had long since lost the standard of accuracy of instinct

possessed by his early ancestors, whilst nothing had been given to or

cultivated by him in his civilised state to compensate for its loss. The

“cure” was so simple as to appear ludicrous. I had diagnosed that the

subconsciously stiffened muscles were the cause of the trouble. My

efforts were devoted to obtaining the correct action of the arm with the

minimum of tension. This was done by manipulation and by giving him

guiding orders which brought about the correct use of the parts

concerned. Within ten minutes he was able to lift his arm with very

little pain and he resumed his professional work at once and without

relapse. Note that the relaxing was not brought about by a preliminary

order to relax, an action which entailed processes of which he had no

true consciousness and over which therefore he had no control. Note also

that this demonstration is much more effective for the treatment of

similar later accidents and for general self-development and control,

than any hypnotic “suggestion” that there was no pain.[16]

I do not deny, for it would be against the evidence, that the healers do

contrive to remove pain; but apart from the danger of removing mere

symptoms (that is, removing nature’s danger signals and leaving the

danger untouched), their methods have the obvious limitation of being

repugnant to many, and have fallen into some discredit amongst those who

are by no means amongst the least capable, accomplished, and thoughtful

human types.

Another very interesting case was that of a man who stuttered and came

to me for help. All stutterers have their particular and peculiar little

accompaniments to the main defect. His was a harmful habit of moving his

arm up and down from the elbow as he attempted to speak. I asked him why

he did this, and he replied that he _felt_ it assisted him in speaking.

I explained and demonstrated to him that this was a delusion, that this

movement of the limb was really a hindrance and not an assistance. He

saw that a considerable amount of valuable mental and physical energy,

which should have been conveyed to the mechanisms and organs of speech,

was being diverted to a limb which might have been amputated without

interfering in any way with those mental and mechanical processes upon

which his powers of speech entirely depended. He became convinced on

these points and intimated his willingness to endeavour to carry out my

instructions. I assisted him to establish a working conscious control

basis and improved his co-ordination generally.

Then I made the following request:

“I wish you to project orders to these newly developed co-ordinators.

You will then be prevented from employing your arms as an aid in

speaking, and in your general attempts at conscious guidance in private.

In public I wish you to adopt the following mode of procedure:

“Whenever a person speaks to you, asking a question or in any way

trying to open up a conversation, you must as a primary principle

refuse to answer by mentally saying _No_. (This will hold in check the

old subconscious orders—the bad habit of moving the arm. It

constitutes the inhibition of the old errors before attempting to

speak).

“Then give the new and correct orders to your general co-ordinations

and command the ‘means whereby’ of the act of correct and controlled

speaking.

“Make this a principle of life.”

Perhaps I should add here that I convinced this pupil by practical

demonstrations that the energy directed to his arm was wasted and

misdirected; that, if this energy were correctly directed to the proper

co-ordinations concerned with the mechanism of breathing and speaking,

the process would represent the difference between correct and incorrect

attempts in the direction of ultimate satisfactory breath and speech

control. In this particular case the desired end was gained in a few

weeks.

The observant person must have noted the singularly small range of

physical control exercised by the average adult outside the narrow

sphere of his daily routine actions. In the realm of sport, for

instance, take the golf swing. A novice, or for that matter a player of

some experience carefully “addresses” the ball and is instructed _to

swing up and down again in the same orbit_, without moving the head or

swinging the body. The professional has arranged the stance; the drive

seems the simplest of actions; yet, more often than not, it fails

lamentably. And the player, nine times out of ten, _has no sort of

consciousness_ of what has interfered with his stroke.

This is a very common instance of the failure to achieve the desired end

in those who depend solely upon subconscious direction. Even the

accomplished and practised golfer has periods when he acknowledges that

he is “off his game” or “out of form,” times when his skill leaves him

altogether _because he cannot register consciously_ the method which,

when he uses it instinctively, enables him to play well.

Where the novice is concerned, however, the stubborn fact to be faced is

that it is practically impossible for the ordinary person to carry out

such instructions as _swing up and down again in the same orbit, etc._,

with precision and accuracy. At the first attempt the pupil may, by mere

chance, succeed. He may even make a second successful attempt, and a

third, and so on. But such instances are very rare. On the other hand,

he may begin badly and after a few days record a series of successes.

Incidentally, I will point out that this applies more or less to the

majority of experienced golf players. We all know that to vary is to be

human. But there should not be such an alarming gulf between our best

and our worst. It is very serious from the mental point of view. It

shakes our confidence in ourselves to the very roots of our mental and

physical foundations. Such experiences have a bad effect even upon the

emotions generally, and the person concerned develops irritation, bad

temper, and other undesirable traits at a time (a time of recreation and

pleasure) when there should be an absolute absence of these harmful

conditions.

It will readily be conceded that during our attempts at this or any

other game the mental condition of the performer should be in keeping

with a pleasurable and health-giving form of outdoor exercise.

But to return to the stumbling-blocks in the way of the correct

performance of an act which requires one “to swing up and down in the

same orbit.” These arise mainly from the tendency of the great majority

to curve and shorten the spine unduly and otherwise to interfere with

the correct conditions of the muscular system of the back, the spine,

and the thorax in the performance of certain physical acts.[17] These

tendencies are particularly marked when the arms are employed in such a

movement as the “swing down” to make the stroke following the

preparatory “swing up.” Consequently not one person in a thousand is

capable of maintaining during the _down_ stroke those conditions of the

back and spine present during the _up_ stroke. Consideration of these

points will indicate that in order “to swing up and down in the same

orbit,” it is essential that the position of the spine—particularly as

regards its length and relative poise during the up and down

movement—must be maintained. Other conditions are of course necessary

but I cannot deal with more than one or two of the chief factors.

In order to secure the proper use of the arms and legs correct mental

guidance and control are necessary. Such guidance and control should, of

course, be conscious. Furthermore, this mental guidance and control must

co-ordinate with a proper position and length of the spine and the

accompanying correct muscular uses of the torso, if these limbs are to

be controlled by that guidance and co-ordination which will command

their accurate employment at all times within reasonable limits.

The foregoing are a few of the fundamental difficulties with which the

golf teacher and pupil are beset. Those who have taken lessons will at

once admit that the ordinary teaching methods fail to reach these

difficulties satisfactorily. As a matter of fact they are not even taken

into consideration. The orthodox teaching method holds the “end” in view

and not the “means whereby.” It depends upon the giving of orders on the

“end-gaining” principle, such an order, for instance, as “Swing up and

down again in the same orbit,” without consideration of the “means

whereby”; that is, without making certain that the pupil has the power

to maintain a proper position of his spine and back and to use the limbs

correctly during the performance of such physical acts. In other words,

the teacher should first discover if his pupil is reasonably correctly

co-ordinated in those muscular uses of his organism which are essential

to the proper carrying out of instructions necessary to the performance

of definite physical acts demanding co-ordination in the use of the

human body and limbs.

If these tests are not made the beginner will waste much valuable time,

dissipate his energies, suffer needless worry and suspense, and become

unduly apprehensive in his attempt to gain even a very moderate standard

of dependable excellence in playing golf or other games to which he may

devote himself.

If we employ as the fundamental in teaching the principles of conscious

guidance and control on a basis of re-education and general

co-ordination the following advantages should accrue:

(1) The pupil will be made aware of his specific defects in the

employment of his mental and physical organism in physical

performances.

(2) When he has been made aware of these defects, he can be taught to

inhibit the faulty movements, and his teacher can assist him to gain

slowly but correctly the necessary experiences in the correct use of

those muscular mechanisms which will enable him sooner or later to

govern them properly without the aid of the teacher, and to employ

them with accuracy and precision in his game of golf and other

physical performances.

(3) In the golf act under consideration he must first be given the

correct experiences in the use of the muscular mechanisms of the torso

and legs with the arms falling naturally at his side.

(4) The correct experiences should then be given with the use of the

arms in making the “up stroke.” When this act can be performed without

interference with the satisfactory conditions of the torso and legs,

the correct experiences should be given in making the “down stroke”

but without attempting to _drive_ the ball. This latter portion of the

whole act should not be attempted until the pupil is familiar with the

different movements described in 1, 2, 3 and 4.

(5) When the attempt to drive is finally made, the idea to be held in

mind is that of _repeating the experiences as a whole_ (in other

words, the “means whereby”), not the idea of making a drive. If the

pupil holds the “end” (i.e., making a drive) in mind he will at once

revert to all his old subconscious habits in the use of his mental and

physical organism, whereas, on the other hand, if he holds in mind the

“means whereby” (his new correct experiences) he will sooner or later

put them correctly into practice and make his drives with an accuracy

and precision which will give the maximum of satisfaction and

pleasure.

I have personal knowledge of a person who, by employing the principles

of conscious control which I advocate, mounted and rode a bicycle

down-hill without mishap on the first attempt, and on the second day

rode 30 miles out and 30 miles back through normal traffic. This same

person was also able to fence passably on first taking the foil into his

hands. In each case the principles involved were explained to him and he

carefully watched an exhibition, first analysing the actions and the

“means whereby,” then reproducing them on a clearly apprehended plan.

This, it seems to me, should be a normal, not an abnormal human

accomplishment. Just as a cat by sheer instinct, the first time she

essays to jump, gauges her powers and the distances with accuracy, so,

with more reason and greater ease, the human subject, by employing

consciously controlled intellect and kindred experience in place of

instinct, should be able to direct his powers to a definite ordained end

with less physical strain and less frequent physical repetition, i.e.,

“Practice.”

In this connexion I have been often asked the difference between

instinct and intuition. I define instinct as the result of the

accumulated subconscious psycho-physical experiences of man at all

stages of his development, which continue with us until, singly or

collectively, we reach the stage of conscious control; whilst intuition

is the result of the _conscious reasoned_ psycho-physical experiences

during the process of our evolution.

The word “subconsciousness” is but a formula for our habits of life. I

hold strongly that when we shall have reached the state of conscious

control in civilisation, and have established thereby new and correct

habits, a new and correct subconsciousness will become established.

I might here with advantage re-emphasise my view regarding the supreme

importance of conscious control.

Conscious control is imperative, as I have pointed out, because instinct

in our advancing civilisation largely fails to meet the needs of our

complex environment. Without conscious control the subject or patient

may know he has defects, may know further what those defects are, may

even know at what explicit improvement he is to aim, and yet may be

quite unable by means of imitation or the orthodox and traditional

methods of instruction to effect the desired end.

With conscious control, on the other hand, true development (unfolding),

education (drawing out), and evolution are possible along intellectual

as against the old orthodox and fallacious lines, by means of reasoned

processes, analysed, understood, and explicitly directed. Conscious

control enables the subject, once a fault be recognised, to find and

readily apply the remedial process.

It is my belief, confirmed by the research and practice of nearly twenty

years, that man’s supreme inheritance of conscious guidance and control

is within the grasp of any one who will take the trouble to cultivate

it. That it is no esoteric doctrine or mystical cult, but a synthesis of

entirely reasonable propositions that can be demonstrated in pure theory

and substantiated in common practice.

I will now consider at greater length a characteristic case for the

elucidation of these various points of theory and practice.

M. H., a youth fourteen years old, was sent to me by a well-known throat

specialist. He had removed two nodules from the boy’s vocal chords, and

had given him special treatment in a nursing home for a month, but

without any satisfactory improvement. The mother came to me with the boy

and was present during my treatment. I found that his attempts to speak

resulted in a hoarse whisper accompanied by spasmodic twitchings of

various parts of the body and by facial contortions, all this being

brought about by erroneous conceptions, left untouched by the former

teacher, as to the amount of effort needed in order to speak. In his

former lessons he had been told to try and improve the utterance of

simple sounds and words, without any analysis or pointing out of the

wrong means which he had previously employed to this end. All his

efforts to carry out his teacher’s directions were made in accordance

with his original preconceptions and former experience. His muscular

mechanisms were employed in the same (wrong) way and his whole

consciousness and explicit and implicit self-directions were exactly the

same as they had been previously.

He had opened his mouth imperfectly and had been ordered by his teacher

to open his mouth wider. But there had been no recognition by the pupil

that he had not opened his mouth sufficiently, neither had there been

any analysis by the teacher of the pupil’s failure to open the mouth (a

seemingly simple thing but _ex hypothesi_ not simple to the patient), or

of the concomitant contortions and automatic reaction. As well say, “You

have been speaking improperly, now speak properly,” and call that a

lesson, as indeed it would have been called in the early Victorian era,

as, “Open your mouth wide, speak up, and don’t make nervous movements.”

It is not the “end” that the teacher and pupil must work for, but the

“means whereby.” And this discovery of the “means whereby,” differing in

different subjects and not to be stated in a general formula, can only

be the result of trained observation and careful, patient investigation

and experience. In practice, the anxiety of this particular pupil to

_speak_ along the lines of his old preconceived ideas, when nothing had

been done to remove them, had made his many lessons fruitless, and had

set in motion the old habitual train of irrelevant and hampering

actions.

My own treatment then is: First to observe and analyse and bring about a

proper working of the machinery in general (nature does not work in

parts but as a whole): then to point out the first guiding order or

orders to be brought into play by the pupil, namely, the inhibiting of

the tension of the muscles working the lower jaw. The pupil must be made

to realise clearly that this involves no action whatever on his part,

but that he need only remember the correct inhibiting orders and employ

them in accordance with definite instructions. When he does this it at

once results in the freeing of his jaw, enabling me to move it for him

with my hand. This gives him for the first time the correct kinæsthetic

sense in connexion with the action of his jaw and makes it clear once

and for all to him that the desired action is perfectly and easily

possible. The subconscious jerkings and contortions pointed out one by

one are patiently inhibited by the pupil, sometimes directly but more

often by the explicit use, under my direction, of guiding orders which

gradually co-ordinate and remedy the whole faulty system of the pupil’s

muscular action. One by one the wrong actions and reactions are

inhibited, the tightening of the neck, the throwing back of the head,

the tension of the lower jaw, the deep “sucking” breath, the jerks of

the limbs, the grimaces; and then, on the positive side, the right

actions are gradually built up, such as the free controlled opening of

the mouth, the even “pneumatic” breath, the upright balanced poise, the

clear enunciation and correct vocalisation.[18]

The brain of both pupil and teacher are at work the whole time. No use

is made of “hypnotism” or of auto-suggestion, but the confident,

skilful, patient and explicit directions of the teacher should tend to

remove flurry and vagueness and consequent waste of mental and physical

effort.

The analysis of even the simplest processes is apt to appear unduly

complex. This case can be stated briefly on the practical side. It took

twenty lessons to break down the bad habits and another twelve to effect

a complete and permanent cure.

With regard to such a simple act as opening the mouth two or three

factors should be emphasised: firstly, the tendency to yield to

erroneous preconceived ideas, secondly, the delusions of the pupil in

regard to thought and action, thirdly, a pernicious dependence on

sensation which has been based solely upon experience of defective

action.

There are very few men, for instance, who, when told to open the mouth,

will not throw the head back with the idea, as it were, of lifting the

upper jaw away from the lower. They do not observe or reflect that an

inhibition of the subconscious orders which cause the mechanisms to keep

the mouth closed will bring about such a relaxation of that muscular

tension as will allow the jaw to drop. It does in fact commonly drop in

the case of that type of idiot who is most often open-mouthed; whilst it

is common knowledge that in boxing a blow on the head, heavy enough to

throw out the controlling gear, causes the jaw of the injured boxer to

drop of itself and to remain dropped for a considerable time.

When I ask a pupil to let me move his lower jaw away from his upper he

usually increases instinctively the tension that keeps the lower jaw in

place. As I have frequently pointed out, an enormous aggregate waste of

energy is involved in these constant and irrational tensions.

But the matter becomes seriously harmful in, let us say, such actions as

singing and speaking, for when the mouth is opened with this unconscious

and absurd expenditure of force, the neck is unduly stiffened, the head

is thrown backwards, the larynx unduly and harmfully depressed, and

thereby in a position most unfavourable to good vocalisation. As I have

for years pointed out and demonstrated in my own practice, from these

ill-considered tensions spring the different forms of throat and ear

trouble which are so common and which so frequently defy ordinary or for

that matter extraordinary and highly specialised medical treatment. By

inducing a proper conception of the right method of opening the mouth, I

can command in the patient, and what is more important, teach him to

command in himself, a free condition in which the larynx tends to be

slightly raised and relaxed instead of tightened and depressed; whilst

there will surely follow and that with a minimum of effort, a greater

mobility of the facial muscles and of those of the lips and tongue so

essential to good and clear enunciation and vocalisation.

This, in the briefest summary, is the method of teaching the process of

conscious control of the muscular mechanisms. I come now to an equally

brief consideration of the effects of this method. Speaking generally, I

have found that the first immediate effects are a general stimulation

and increased efficiency of the whole organism. Nor is this difficult to

understand. For it would seem that in the life led by civilised man so

little demand is made upon any but the commonly exercised muscles, and

these are called upon for comparatively so little effort, that a general

sluggishness supervenes, with consequent stagnation resulting in the

commonly observed effects of auto-intoxication. With the breaking up of

the old motor habits, the muscular mechanisms are brought into full

play, the toxins which have accumulated are broken up and disturbed, and

increased vitality, a sense of power, and enormously improved efficiency

follow as a matter of course. Beyond this, and still speaking generally,

I find that there are increased powers of resistance against the attacks

of infectious diseases, and—possibly the greatest effect since it

guarantees the lasting qualities of the change which is brought about—an

ability to check the formation of any bad, incipient muscular or mental

habit. This last is, in my opinion, of the very first importance, for it

demonstrates the power of the individual, once these principles of

conscious guidance and control are mastered, to be the lord of his own

body.

Of the specific effects procured by the inculcation of these methods I

cannot speak at length, but I am able to produce a list of cases which

have been treated by me, in some of which I can only say that I have

been astonished at the results. These include cases diagnosed by

prominent physicians in England, Australia, and the United States of

America as paralysis, varicosity, tuberculosis, asthma, adhesions of the

lungs, hæmorrhage, congenital and other malformations, effects of

infantile paralysis, many varieties of throat, nose and ear trouble,

hayfever, chronic constipation, incipient appendicitis and colitis; and

in no case that has come under my personal supervision have I discovered

any relapse that was not curable by a few further instructions in the

principles enunciated. Looking to the future and to the development and

elaboration of this method, I foresee that a race which has been

educated on the lines of what I have called “conscious guidance and

control” will be eminently well fitted to meet any circumstance which

the civilisations of the future may impose. The minds and bodies alike

of such a race will be adaptable to any occupation that may be their

lot. To those who have been educated in these principles no severe

physical exercise is a necessity, since there are no stagnant eddies in

the system in which the toxins can accumulate, and to them will belong a

full and complete command of their physical organisms. That this

practical and by no means visionary or untried psycho-therapy will in

time supersede the tentative and restricted methods of somato-therapy, I

am confident, and I sincerely hope that the great benefits which these

principles confer will not be confined to any one race or people. The

wonderful improvements in physical health—often deemed “miraculous” by

the uninitiated—which have been effected in adults, adumbrate the

potentialities for efficiency which may be developed in the children of

the new race.

It is essential that the peoples of civilisation should comprehend the

value of their inheritance, that outcome of the long process of

evolution which will enable them to govern the uses of their own

physical mechanisms. By and through consciousness and the application of

a reasoning intelligence, man may rise above the powers of all disease

and physical disabilities. This triumph is not to be won in sleep, in

trance, in submission, in paralysis, or in anæsthesia, but in a clear,

open-eyed, reasoning, deliberate consciousness and apprehension of the

wonderful potentialities possessed by mankind, the transcendent

inheritance of a conscious mind.

IV

CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL IN PRACTICE

Whilst under the guidance of the subconscious mind, mankind cannot

readily adapt itself to the rapidly and everchanging conditions imposed

by civilisation. A proper standard of mental and physical perfection

implies an adaptability which makes it easy for a man to turn from one

occupation in which a certain set of muscles are employed, to another

involving totally different muscular actions. Under the present

subconscious guidance such an easy transference is, to say the least of

it, likely to be a very rare occurrence.

For the purpose of demonstration we may assume that a man who has been

engaged in clerical work all his life is suddenly called upon to become

a ploughman and to make a success, within a reasonable time, of his new

occupation. This is an extreme instance, but the argument will apply

equally well in a less extreme case. As he is subconsciously controlled

he will attack the problem through his sense of feeling—through his

feeling-tones—and strive directly for the desired “end.” He will make no

reasoned estimate of the “means whereby” he may make a success. He will

not, as a preliminary to the act of ploughing, consider the particular

demands which will be made on different parts of his organism, nor will

he take into account the elemental laws which are essential to a

satisfactory use of the plough as an instrument to be controlled in its

legitimate sphere. His mind is fixed from the start on the

achievement,—on the act of ploughing. He looks only to the end he

desires to attain.

So he will grip the handles of his plough, set the horses in motion, and

will be pleased to find that the plough moves more or less through the

earth, chiefly less, for he finds it difficult to keep the share

embedded and to keep the furrow straight. When he succeeds, he is almost

certain to be thrown from side to side by the movements of the plough,

which are affected by the hard or soft ground it meets in its progress.

He holds no conscious reasoned guiding principles in his mind. His

efforts are simply subconscious, in a chance endeavour to gain the end

in view.

In order to maintain his own equilibrium and the efficient working of

the plough, it is highly probable that he will unduly tense muscles

which are precisely those which should not be tensed, and relax those

which should do the most work. The tension of the muscles of the arm

will almost certainly be unnecessarily high, and the general use of the

wrong muscles will tend to destroy the proper equilibrium rather than to

maintain it. We thus see that the moment he steps into his new

occupation (which he no doubt had congratulated himself would bring

perfect health in its train), he immediately begins to cultivate new and

harmful habits during his daily round.[19] He becomes a badly

co-ordinated, imperfectly guided ploughman precisely as he was a badly

co-ordinated and imperfectly guided clerk. When the principles of

reasoned conscious control are adopted, the man leading a sedentary life

will be able to take up the occupation of ploughman without any fear of

cultivating harmful habits. Moreover, he will attain proficiency in

ploughing in one-tenth part of the time that the subconsciously

controlled man took to obtain a half-mastery of it.

Let us see how he would set about it from the point of view of reasoned

conscious guidance and control. Acting under the guiding principles of

reasoned and conscious control he will consider first the “means

whereby” he may achieve his object, rather than that object itself. He

will take time to consider well the factors to be overcome. It will be

obvious to any one who will take the trouble to watch another man at the

plough, that a great deal of proper manipulation is necessary to keep

the share embedded and a straight furrow. The manipulation requires

firstly the maintenance of the ploughman’s equilibrium under very

difficult circumstances. This consideration will make it clear to him

that his body must remain comparatively steady and support the arms and

legs as the trunk of a tree does its limbs, following as nearly

perpendicularly as possible the line the furrow should take. It will be

evident to him that the “give and take” of the joints of the arms and

legs are the chief moving factors which should meet the different

movements of the handles of the plough. His highly trained guiding

sensations will not permit him to make more physical tension with any

part of the muscular system than is absolutely necessary, and only the

particular muscles best adapted for the control of his equilibrium and

his plough will be called into special use. For instance, when the left

handle of the plough is forced upwards and the right downwards by the

plough being thrown into a position leaning towards the right, the

ploughman’s left arm will bend at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder, and

the right straighten in order to maintain his equilibrium and general

control without undue strain and interference with the proper position

of the torso. Of course the left arm should exercise a downward pressure

on the left handle, and the right should tend to pull the right handle

upwards in order to straighten the plough again in its most effective

position in the furrow. The left leg should be slightly bent at the

knee, and the right leg should be kept straight and firm. The ploughman

would thereby exercise his maximum of control in the right direction

with the minimum of effort, and freedom from harmful strain. It will be

clear from this example that in the consciously controlled stage of

psycho-physical development men and women will be able, without fear of

mental or physical harm, to adapt themselves at once to any strange or

unusual circumstances in which they are placed. They will act in the

face of the unaccustomed or the unsuspected at the direction of their

conscious reasoning minds, before any promptings springing from the

subconscious mind can take possession of them. Just as they will be able

by conscious reasoning to change their habits at will, to be to-day a

clerk, to-morrow a reasoning ploughman, so they will meet sudden

surprise by that same conscious reasoning and accurate judgment which

follows it. I have already drawn attention to the conduct of animals and

of men and women in the lower stages of evolution when they are

confronted with any phenomena to which they are unaccustomed; how that

they stand terror-struck and immovable, and betray themselves. Such a

condition of mind contains no element of control or reasoning, and the

high importance of re-educating civilised men and women to a condition

in which their control and reason are the main factors, need scarcely be

emphasised at this point. On all sides is seen the destruction, the

waste, the loss in human lives and human energy which are the direct

outcome of a civilisation based on subconscious action.

It is our duty now to superimpose a new civilisation founded on reason

rather than on feeling-tones and debauched emotions, on conscious

guidance and control rather than upon instinct. The savage is

terror-struck when an eclipse passes over the sun; he bows to wood and

stone, quivering with fear at any desecration of any of his puppet gods.

Anything which has no place in his limited range of experience he

approaches through instinct which may preserve but is more likely to

betray him. To-day the greater part of mankind carries out the normal

responsibilities of a lifetime guided by the same imperfect forces. Men

have learnt the meaning of many things which to the savage were

inscrutable, but when faced with the unknown they betray the same lack

of control. Suddenly-angered men will make a retort which in the light

of reflection appears to them foolish and inadequate. It is an everyday

experience. In the calmer moments that follow, they think of the “things

they might have said,” the things they might have done, which is a

simple indication of the fact that in the heated moment their emotions

held sway over them, whilst their reason and control were in abeyance.

The subconsciously controlled person is immediately thrown into a state

of panic when faced by any emergency which presents an element of

danger.

Under such circumstances many become self-hypnotic and in this state

will be found absolutely out of communication with their reason. As an

instance of this, one may quote the behaviour of unbalanced people in a

fire. In trying to save some of their possessions before making their

escape they will throw from the windows as likely as not articles which

will certainly be broken to atoms in their fall. The man who threw the

drawing-room clock through the window and carried the hearthrug

downstairs is no fictional figure. His action represents the kind of

behaviour that may be expected from the uncontrolled person in such an

emergency. The following instance from my own experience may prove

interesting in this connexion.

I arrived late one evening at a large hotel in a well-known mining town

in one of the Colonies. I was told that there was not a room available,

but that if I cared to share a room with two beds in it, with the two

little sons of the proprietor, I might have a night’s rest. Those who

have any experience of a mining town where there is a “gold rush” on

will appreciate my good fortune. Eight weary souls that night slept on

the billiard-table and I do not remember how many found a bed on the

hard, draughty floor of that same room. A great friend of mine was

living at the hotel. He was a man of considerable learning and accounted

by all who knew him as a fine scholar and the possessor of a fine

intellect. The last injunction we received from the proprietor before he

retired was, “Be sure to lock your door.” After a long chat with my

friend we went very late to bed. Remembering the request of my host I

bolted the door, extinguished the light and almost immediately fell into

a sound sleep. Within an hour I was awakened by the crackling sound of

burning wood and the roar of flames. I realised at once that the hotel

was on fire and almost immediately the tongues of flame found their way

into my room through the top of the wooden walls and began to lick the

ceiling of the bedroom.

My first thought was for the little lads who were sleeping in the room.

I unbolted the door, and taking one under my left arm began to search

for the other. By this time the room was filled with smoke, so I took

the one boy out and returned to the search in the dense smoke. He had

evidently jumped out of his bed half awake, for I found him under the

bed. Taking both under my arms I rushed down the stairs and ran with

them to their father’s bedroom. He dashed out and calling his

men-servants at once proceeded to take measures to extinguish the fire.

I, of course, rushed to my friend’s room, awakened him, and after

lighting his candle and seeing him jump to the floor I left him, and

proceeded to give the general alarm. I then joined those who were

fighting the flames, which after a while were successfully extinguished.

My readers will be able from this account to judge of the time which

elapsed between the visit to my friend’s room and the complete

extinguishing of the fire. When all was over I looked round to exchange

a word with my friend and was surprised to find that he was not of the

number by whom we were surrounded. I walked back to his room and was

amazed to find him absolutely dressed. When I entered the room he was

calmly buttoning up his waistcoat as on any other morning when he had

nothing to fear. He was self-hypnotised as regarded his chances of being

burned alive, and had even shaved.

Thousands of instances of similar behaviour in unusual circumstances

might be given, and the list might well be completed with the now famous

story concerning Carlyle’s failure to keep in “communication with his

reason,” on the occasion that Henry Taylor was ill. He heard the news,

and became overanxious to help his friend. We can only conclude that he

was under the domination of his subconsciousness, when he rushed off to

Sheen with the remaining portion of a bottle of medicine which had

helped Mrs. Carlyle, without knowing the particular uses of the medicine

or the cause of his friend’s illness.