INTERACTION OF MIND AND MATTER
"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."
_Æneid_, vi. 726
Life and mind and consciousness do not belong to the material region;
whatever they are in themselves, they are manifestly something quite
distinct from matter and energy, and yet they utilise the material
and dominate it.
Matter is arranged and moved by means of energy, but often at the
behest of life and mind. Mind does not itself exert force, nor does
it enter into the scheme of physics, and yet it indirectly brings
about results which otherwise would not have happened. It definitely
causes movements and arrangements or constructions of a purposed
character. A bird grows a feather, and a bird builds a nest: I doubt
if there is less design in the one case than in the other. How life
achieves the guidance, how even it accomplishes the movements, is
a mystery, but that it does accomplish them is a commonplace of
observation. From the motion of a finger to the construction of an
aeroplane, there is but a succession of steps. From the growth of a
weed to the flight of an eagle,--from a yeast granule at one end,
to the human body at the other,--the organising power of life over
matter is conspicuous.
Who can doubt the supremacy of the spiritual over the material? It is
a fact which, illustrated by trivial instances, may be pressed to the
most portentous consequences.
If interaction between mind and matter really occurs, and if both
are persistent and enduring entities, there is no limit to the
possibilities under which such interaction may occur--no limit which
can be laid down beforehand--we must be guided and instructed solely
by experience.
Whether the results produced are styled miraculous or not, depends
on our knowledge,--our knowledge of all the powers latent in nature,
and a knowledge of all the intelligences which exist. A savage on
his first encounter with white men must have come into contact with
what to him was supernatural. A letter, a gun, even artificial teeth,
have all aroused superstition; while a telegram must be obviously
miraculous, to anyone intelligent enough to perceive the wonder. A
colony of bees, unused to the ministrations or interference of man,
might puzzle itself over the provision made for its habitation and
activities, if it had intelligence enough to ponder the matter.
So human beings, if they are open-minded and developed enough to
contemplate all the happenings in which they are concerned, have been
led to recognise guidance; and they have responded to the perception
by the worshipful attitude of religion. In other words, they have
essentially recognised the existence of a Power transcending ordinary
nature--a Power that may properly be called supernatural.
MEANING OF THE TERM BODY
Our experience of bodies here and now is that they are composed
of material particles derived from the earth, whether they be
bodies animated by vegetable or by animal forms of life. But I
take it that the real meaning of the term 'body' is a _means of
manifestation_,--perhaps a physical mode of manifestation adopted
by something which without such instrument or organ would be in a
different and elusive category. Why should we say that bodies must be
made of matter? Surely only because we know of nothing else of which
they could be made; but that lack of knowledge is not very efficient
as an argument. True, if they were made of anything else they would
not be apparent to us now, with our particular evolutionally-derived
sense organs; for these only inform us about matter and its
properties. Constructions built of Ether would have no chance of
appealing to our senses, they would not be apparent to us; they
would therefore not be what we ordinarily call bodies; at any rate
they would not be material bodies. In order to become apparent to us,
a psychical or vital entity must enter the material realm, and either
clothe itself with, or temporarily assimilate, material particles.
It may be that etherial bodies do not exist; the burden of proof
rests upon those who conceive of their possible existence; but we
are bound to admit that even if they did exist, they would make no
impression on our senses. Hence if there are any intelligences in
another order of existence interlocked with ours, and if they can in
any sense be supposed to have bodies at all, those bodies must be
made either of Ether or of something equally intangible to us in our
present condition.[36]
Yet, though intangible and elusive, we have reason to know that Ether
is substantial enough,--far more substantial indeed than matter,
which turns out to be a rare and filmy insertion in, or modification
of, the Ether of Space; and a different set of sense organs might
make the Ether eclipse matter in availability and usefulness. In my
book _The Ether of Space_ this thesis is elaborated from a purely
physical point of view.
I wish, however, to make no assertion concerning the possible
psychical use of the Ether of Space. Anything of that kind must
be speculative; the only bodies we now know of in actual fact are
material bodies, and we must be guided by facts. Yet we must not shut
the door prematurely on other possibilities; and we can remember
that inspired writers have sometimes contemplated what they term a
spiritual body.
PERMANENCE OF BODY
But why should anyone suppose a body of some kind always necessary?
Why should they assume a perpetual sort of dualism about existence?
The reason is that we have no knowledge of any other form of animate
existence; and it may be claimed as legitimate to assume that the
association between life and matter here on the planet has a real
and vital significance, that without such an episode of earth life
we should be less than we are, and that the relation is typical of
something real and permanent.
"Such use may lie in blood and breath."--TENNYSON
_Why_ matter should be thus useful to spirit and even to life it is
not easy to say. It may be that by the interaction of two things
better and newer results can always be obtained than was possible
for one alone. There are analogies enough for that. Do we not find
that genius seems to require the obstruction or the aid of matter
for its full development? The artist must enjoy being able to compel
refractory material to express his meaning. Didactic writings are
apt to emphasise the obstructiveness of matter; but that may be
because its usefulness seems self-evident. Our limbs, and senses,
and bodily faculties generally, are surely of momentous service;
microscopes and telescopes and laboratory instruments, and machinery
generally, are only extensions of them. Tools to the man who can
use them:--orchestra to the musician, lathe or theodolite to the
engineer, books and records to the historian, even though not much
more than pen and paper is needed by the poet or the mathematician.
But our bodily organs are much more than any artificial tools can be,
they are part of our very being. The body is part of the constitution
of man. We are not spirit or soul alone,--though it is sometimes
necessary to emphasise the fact that we are soul at all,--we are in
truth soul and body together. And so I think we shall always be;
though our bodies need not always be composed of earthly particles.
Matter is the accidental part: there is an essential and more
permanent part, and the permanent part must survive.
This is the strength, as I have said elsewhere and will not now
at any length repeat, of the sacramental claims and practices of
religion. Forms and customs which appeal to the body are a legitimate
part of the whole; and while some natures derive most benefit from
the exclusively psychical and spiritual essence, others probably do
well to prevent the more sensuous and more puzzling concomitants from
falling into disuse.
[Footnote 36: That a great poet should have represented
the meeting between the still incarnate Æneas and his
discarnate father Anchises as a bodily disappointment, is
consistent:--
"Ter conatus ibi collo dare brachia circum; Ter frustra
comprensa manus effugit imago, Par levibus ventis,
volucrique simillima somno."
_Æneid_, vi. 700
It may be said that what is intangible ought to be
invisible; but that does not follow. The Ether is a medium
for vision, not for touch. Ether and Ether may interact,
just as matter and matter interact; but interaction
between Ether and matter is peculiarly elusive.]