THE SUBCONS£;I;Oi$AND THE

SUPERCONSCIOUSP L A N E S O F M I N D

By WILLIAM WALKEE ATKINSON

L. N. FOWLER & COMPANY7, Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus

London, E. C. England

1909

THE PROGRESS COMPANYCHICAGO, ILL.

Copyright 1900By

TBB PROGRESS COMPANYChicago, HL, IT. S. A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER . PAGE

I. Infra-Conscious Mentality 9H. The Manifold Mind 19

in. Hudson's "Subjective Mind"... 29IV. Unconscious Cerebration 39V. A Eemarkabl© Instance.. 53

VI. The Subconscious Memory... . . . 63VII. Typical Cases 74

VIII. Inherited Memory 84IX. Mental Habit 103X. The Subconscious and the Body. 123

XI. Twilight Regions 152All . The Superoonscious 162

Unfolding the Superconscious. .191

V\- 276508

THE SUBCONSCIOUS ANDTHE SUPERCONSCIOUSP L A N E S OF M I N D

CHAPTEE I.

INFRA-CONSCIOUS MENTAUTY.

The great problems of modern psychologyare found to consist largely of the phenomenaof the mental operations and activities onplanes other than those of ordinary conscious-ness. "While the terminology of the subject isstill in a state of transition, nevertheless cer-tain terms have sprung into common use andare employed tentatively by those who writeand teach of these wonderful regions of themind. Among these terms we find "infra-conscious," which is used to designate theplanes of mental activity below and above theordinary plane of consciousness. In thisterm1, the word "infra" is used in the sense ofinner,, within, etc., rather than its morefamiliar sense of "below." Hence "infra-oonscious" means an inner consciousness, orwithin-consciousness, and includes the mentalplanes commonly known as the "sub con-

9

10 PLANES OF MIND

scious" and "super conscious," respectively.The term is far from being satisfactory, but itis used by psychologists, tentatively, and willbe until some other more fitting term isevolved.

The older school of psychology ignored, sofar as possible, the infra-conscious planes andfields of mental activity, and regarded con-sciousness as synonymous with mind—and by"consciousness" was meant merely the planeof the ordinary consciousness. But the phe-nomena of the hidden planes of mentationwould not stay in the dark corner in which thepsychologists were compelled to place them,but would constantly present themselves mostinopportunely, as if to perplex the teachers,and to confute their theories. And so, littleby little, there was tacitly admitted to exist anunknown and unexplored region of the mindwhich was at first labeled "unconsciousmind," although the term was vigorously op-posed by many of the authorities as contra-dictory and meaningless—but the quarrel wasrather with the term than with the fact.

The psychologists who began to use theterm "unconscious mind" soon found suf-

INFBA CONSCIOUS MENTALITY 11

ficient authority among certain of the olderwriters which served as a foundation for thenewer theories and teachings which began toevolve when the conception of the "uncon-scious mind" had begun to take upon itselfthe garb of scientific orthodoxy. It was foundthat Leibnitz had asserted that there werecertain mental activities in evidence, whichcertainly manifested in the "unconscious" re-gion of the mind, and the influence of the old-er philosopher was added to the new teaching.As Carpenter said: "The psychologists ofGermany, from the time of Leibnitz, havetaught that much of our mental work is donewithout consciousness." Sir William Hamil-ton said: "To this great philosopher (Leib-nitz) belongs the honor of having originatedthis opinion, and of having supplied some ofthe strongest arguments in its support." Kaysaid: "Leibnitz was the first to confute thisopinion (that consciousness was coextensivewith mind), and to establish the doctrine thatthere are energies always at work, and modi-fications constantly taking place in the mind,of which we are quite unconscious.''

Basing the new conception upon Leibnitz

12 PLANES OF MIND

and his followers, the psychologist began towrite freely regarding this great "uncon-scious" area of the mind. But, nevertheless,it was regarded by many of the more conser-vative authorities as an unwarrantable exten-sion of psychological inquiry into a fieldwhich properly belonged to metaphysics.Schofield says: "So many psychologists—the high priests of the religion of mind—beingcommitted so generally to deny and refuseany extension of it outside consciousness,though they cannot refrain from what Bibotcalls 'a sly glance' at the forbidden fruit, con-sistently ignore the existence of the Uncon-scious, their pupils naturally treading in theirsteps; while the physician of the period, revel-ling in the multiplication and elaboration ofphysical methods of diagnosis and experi-ment, is led to despise and contemptuously setaside as 'only fancy' those psychical agencieswhich can cure, if they cannot diagnose. Itmay be asked, why was not an attempt madesooner to give these unconscious facultiestheir proper place? It was made determined-ly years ago in Germany, and since then inEngland, by men who, to their honor undeter-

INFRA. CONSCIOUS MENTALITY 13

red by ridicule and contempt, made noble andpartially successful efforts to establish thetruth."

But we may find many important referen-ces to this great "unconscious" area of mindin the writings of the earlier of the older writ-ers on the subject in the Nineteenth Century.Sir William Hamilton, Lewes, Carpenter andothers referred freely to it, and taught it as atruth of psychology. Lewes said: "Theteaching of most modern psychologists is thatconsciousness forms but a small item in thetotal of psychical processes. Unconscious sen-sations, ideas and judgments are made to playa great part in their explanations. It is verycertain that in every conscious volition—every act that is so characterized—the largerpart of it is quite unconscious. It is equallycertain that in every perception there are un-conscious processes of reproduction and in-ference,—there is a middle distance of sub-consciousness, and a background of uncon-sciousness. ' ' Sir William Hamilton said: " Ido not hesitate to affirm that what we are con-scious of is constructed out of what we are notconscious of—that our whole knowledge in

14 PLANES OF MIND

fact is made up of the unknown and incogniz-able. The sphere of our consciousness is onlya small circle in the centre of a far widersphere of action and passion, of which we areonly conscious through its effects. . . .The fact of such latent mental modificationsis now established beyond a rational doubt;and, on the supposition of their reality, weare able to solve various psychological phe-nomena otherwise inexplicable."i Taine said: "Mental events imperceptibleto consciousness are far more numerous thanthe others, and of the world which makes upour being we only perceive the highest points—the lighted-up peaks of a continent whoselower levels remain in the shade. Beneath or-dinary sensations are their components—thatis to say, the elementary sensations, whichmust be combined into groups to reach ourconsciousness. Outside a little luminous cir-cle lies a large ring of twilight, and beyondthis an indefinite night; but the events of thistwilight and this night are as real as thosewithin the luminous circle." Maudsley says:"Examine closely, and without bias, the ordi-nary mental operations of daily life, and you

INFBA CONSCIOUS MENTAUTY 15

will surely discover that consciousness hasnot one^tenth part of the function thereinwhich it is commonly assumed to have. . .In every conscious state there are at workconscious, sub-conscious, and infra-consciousenergies, the last as indispensable as thefirst."

Kay said: "Every impression or thoughtthat has once been before consciousness re-mains ever after impressed in the mind. I tmay never again come up before conscious-ness, but it will doubtless remain in that vastultra-conscious region of the mind, uncon-sciously moulding and fashioning our subse-quent thoughts and actions. It is only a smallpart of what exists in the mind that we are atany time conscious of. There is always muchthat is known to be in the mind that exists init unconsciously, and must be stored awaysomewhere. We may be able to recall it intoconsciousness when we wish to do so, but atother times the mind is unconscious of its ex-istence."

Morrell said: "We have every reason tobelieve that mental power when once calledforth follows the analogy of everything we see

16 PLANES OF MIND

in the material universe in the fact of its per-petuity. Every single effort of mind is a cre-ation which can never go back again into non-entity. I t may slumber in the depths of for-getfulness as light and heat slumber in thecoal seams, but there it is, ready at the bid-ding of some appropriate stimulus to comeagain out of the darkness into the light of con-sciousness. . . . What is termed 'com-mon sense' is nothing but a substratum of ex-periences out of which our judgments flow,while the experiences themselves are hiddenaway in the unconscious depths of our intel-lectual nature; and even the flow of publicopinion is formed by ideas which lie tacitly inthe national mind, and come into conscious-ness, generally, a long time after they havebeen really operating and shaping the courseof events in human history." Carpenter said:"Man's ordinary common-sense is the resul-tant of the unconscious co-ordination of a longsuccession of small experiences mostly for-gotten, or perhaps never brought out into dis-tinct consciousness."

The study of the subject of Memory ledmany of the psychologists of the last genera-tion to assume as a necessity the existence of

INFBA CONSCIOUS MENTALITY 17

a great "unconscious" storehouse in whichall the records impressed upon the mind werepreserved. Other branches of psychologyforced their investigators to assume a greatarea of the mind, lying outside of the field ofconsciousness, to account for certain phenom-ena. And, so, gradually the idea of the, ex-istence of this undiscovered and unexporedcountry of the mind camje to be accepted asorthodox by all except the ultra-conservatives,and investigation in the said direction was en-couraged instead of discouraged or forbiddenas has been the case previously. And arisingfrom the thought on the subject of the "un-conscious mind" we find the evolving concep-tion of there being various strata, planes, orregions of mind of varying stages of con-sciousness—that, instead of there being butone plane of consciousness, there were many—that instead of there being an "unconsciousregion" there was one, or more, additionalplane of consciousness, operating under gen-eral laws and being as much a part of the gen-eral consciousness as is that plane which wespeak of as the ordinary consciousness. Thiswas the beginning of the various dual-mindtheories, which we shall now consider.

CHAPTEE II.

THE MANIFOLD MIND.

Arising naturally from the speculations re-garding the "unconscious mind" we find theconception of the "dual-mind" taking aprominent place on the stage of psychologicalconsideration. From the idea of an uncon-scious area of mind was evolved the concep-tion of two minds possessed hy the individual,each independent and yet hoth working to-gether in the production of mental phenome-na. It is difficult to determine the beginningof this conception. Traces of it and vaguehints regarding it may be found in many ofthe earlier writings. While there seems to havebeen a dawning conception of the subconsciousmind as a separate mind on the part of manythinkers and writers in the latter part of theTwentieth Century, yet to two men must begiven the credit of attracting the public noticeto the subject, and of the presentation of the

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THE MANIFOLD MIND 19

thought in a positive, clear form. We referto Frederic "W. H. Myers and Thomson J.Hudson, respectively. Both of these men of-fered a dual-mind theory or working hypothe-sis as a basis for a correct understanding ofwhat has been called "Psychic Phenomena,"by which is meant the phenomena of telep-athy, clairvoyance, hypnotism, trance-condi-tions, etc.

Myers evolved the idea that the self was notonly a unity but was also a coordination, andthat it "possesses faculties and powers unex-ercised and unexercisable by the conscious-ness that finds employment in the direction ofthe affairs of every-day life," as Bruce sowell states it. In 1887 he first made public histheory of the "Subliminal Self," as he calledthis secondary or hidden mind. After thattime, for several years, he wrote and spokefrequently on the subject, and in the year lastmentioned his full theory was embodied in hiswork entitled "Human Personality," whichwas published after his death.

Myers stated his conception of the Sublim-inal Self in his great work, as follows: ' ' Theidea of a threshold (limen, Schwelle) of con-

20 PLANES OF MIND

sciousness—of a level above which sensationor thought must rise before it can enter intoour conscious life—is a simple and familiarone. The word subliminal—meaning 'be-neath the threshold'—has already been usedto define those sensations which are too feebleto be individually recognized. I propose toextend the meaning of the term, so as to makeit cover all that takes place beneath the ordi-nary threshold, or say, if preferred, the ordi-nary margin of consciousness—not only thosefaint stimulations whose very faintness keepsthem submerged, but much else which psychol-ogy as yet scarcely recognizes—sensations,thoughts, emotions, which may be strong, def-inite and independent; but which, by the orig-inal constitution of our being, seldom mergeinto that supraliminal current of conscious-ness which we habitually identify with our-selves. Perceiving that these submergedthoughts and emotions possess the character-istics which we associate with conscious life, Ifeel bound to speak of a subliminal, or ultra-marginal, consciousness—a consciousnesswhich we shall see, for instance, uttering orwriting sentences quite as complex and coher-

THE MANIFOLD MIND 21

ent as the supraliminal consciousness couldmake them. Perceiving further that this con-scious life beneath the threshold or beneaththe margin seems to be no discontinuous orintermittent thing; that not only are these iso-lated subliminal processes comparable withisolated supraliminal processes (as •when aproblem is solved by some unknown proced-ure in a dream), but that there also is a con-tinuous subliminal chain of memory (or morechains than one) involving just that kind ofindividual and persistent revival of old im-pressions and response to new ones, which wecommonly call a Self—I find it permissibleand convenient to speak of subliminal Selvesor more briefly of a Subliminal Self. I do notintend by using this term assume that thereare two correlative and parallel selves exist-ing always within each of us. Bather I meanby the Subliminal Self that part of the Selfwhich is commonly subliminal; and I conceivethat there may be—not only cooperations be-tween these quasi-independent trains ofthought—but also upheavals and alternationsof personality of many kinds, so that whatwas once below the surface may for a time, or

22 PLANES OP MIND

permanently, rise above it. And I conceivealso that no Self of which we can here havecognizance, is in reality more than a frag-ment of a larger Self—revealed in a fashionat once shifting and limited through an or-ganism not so framed as to afford it full man-ifestation."

Perhaps to Hudson; even more than to My-ers, is due the wide-spread interest in thedual-mind theory or conception. In 1893,Hudson, in his work entitled "The Law ofPsychic Phenomena," boldly enunciated hisnow famous theory of the' ' Subjective Mind,''which at once caught the popular fancy, andwhich he elaborated in his subsequent works.Hudson's dual-mind theory can best be statedin his own words. In his work, above men-tioned, he states: "Man has, or appears tohave, two minds, each endowed with separateand distinct attributes and powers; each cap-able, under certain conditions, of independ-ent action. It should be clearly understoodat the outset that for the purpose of arrivingat a conclusion it is a matter of indifferencewhether we consider that man is endowedwith two distinct minds, or that his one mind

THE MANIFOLD MIND 23

possesses certain attributes and powers un-der some conditions, and certain other attri-butes and powers under other conditions. It issufficient to know that everything happensjust as though he were endowed with a dualmental organization. Under the rules of cor-rect reasoning, therefore, I have a right to as-sume that man has two minds; and the as-sumption is so stated, in its broadest terms, asthe first proposition of my hypothesis. Forconvenience, I shall designate the one as theobjective mind, and the other as the subjec-tive mind." We shall consider the details ofHudson's theory in another chapter.

Following Hudson and Myers came a num-ber of other writers who eagerly availedthemselves of the convenient classification ofthe mind into two divisions or "two minds."The new hypothesis served as an excellentfoundation for various theories explaining, orattempting to explain, all things " in heavenand in earth" ever dreamt of in any of thephilosophies. Some of the wildest theorieswere built upon this broad foundation, andthis fact caused many careful thinkers to un-dervalue the fundamental principles of both

24 PLANES OP MIND

Myers' and Hudson's thought. Hudson, him-self, alienated a number of his earlier admir-ers by extending his theory to what was con-sidered unwarranted lengths in his laterbooks in which he boldly invaded the meta-physical and theological fields, endeavoringto account for and explain immortality andthe "divine pedigree" by his dual-mind theo-ry. And Myers, by identifying his theory

[with the phenomena of Telepathy, brought/ down on his head the adverse criticism of the' orthodox psychologists, so that the value of

his conception was largely overlooked.But there were other influences at work

which led to the gradual recognition of thefact that while Myers' and Hudson's concep-tions served an excellent purpose of classifi-cation and convenience of thought, neverthe-less they must properly be regarded as butthe first steps toward a larger and more com-plete theory. It was recognized that the sub-conscious mind (under its various Inames)could scarcely be at one and the same timethe seat of emotional impulses, suggestedvagaries, delusions, etc., and also the regionof the highest intuition, spiritual truth, and

THE MANIFOLD MIND 25

other mental and spiritual qualities whichseemed to be above rather than below theordinary mind of man. To this dissatisfac-tion the teaching of Vivekananda, and otherHindu teachers visiting America and Europe,contributed. These Oriental teachers taughtthat just as there was a sw&consciousness,below the ordinary plane of consciousness,so was there a swperconsciousness, above theordinary plane. From the one emergedthe things which had been depositedthere by race-inheritance, suggestion, mem-ory, etc., while from the other came thingswhich had never been placed there by eitherrace-experience or individual experience butwhich were superimposed from higher re-gions of the soul.* These newer ideas gave tothe "three-mind" conception advantageslacking in the "two-mind" theory.

Then came a reconciliation in the writingsof various investigators and teachers whoheld that the mind of man consisted of manyregions, some higher and some loiver than theordinary plane of consciousness. In short,the most advanced thought of to-day on thesubject holds that the mind of man consists of

26 PLANES OF MIND

many planes of mentation, in which are mani-fested the phenomena of subconsciousnessand superconsciousness, in great variety anddegree. And the minds of thousands of earn-est investigators are now bent upon an ex-ploration of these vast, unknown regions ofthe mind.

Sir Oliver Lodge has aptly and beautifullyexpressed the most advanced conception ofthe various planes of the human mind in hiswell-known paragraph: ' ' Imagine an icebergglorying in its crisp solidity and sparklingpinnacles, resenting attention paid to its sub-merged self, or supporting region, or to thesaline liquid out of which it arose, and intowhich in due course it will some day return.Or, reversing the metaphor, we may liken ourpresent state to that of the hull of a ship sub-merged in a dim ocean among strange mon-sters, propelled in a blind manner throughspace; proud perhaps of accumulating manybarnacles of decoration; only recognizing ourdestination by bumping against the dock-wall;and with no cognizance of the deck and cab-ins above us, or to the spars and sails—nothought of the sextant and the compass, and

T H E MANIFOLD MIND 27

the captain—no perception of the lookout onthe mast—of the distant horizon. With novisions of objects far ahead—dangers to beavoided—destinations to be reached—otherships to be spoken to by means other thanbodily contact—a region of sunshine andcloud, of space, or perception, and of intelli-gence utterly inaccessible below the waterline."

Dr. Schofield also paints us a beautifulword-picture of the same conditions, in wordswhich should be always considered in con-nection with the paragraph of Sir OliverLodge, just quoted. Here are Schofield'swords: "Our conscious mind, as comparedwith the unconscious mind, has been likenedto the visible spectrum of the sun's rays, ascompared to the invisible part which stretchesindefinitely on either side. We know nowthat the chief part of heat comes from theultra-red rays that show no light; and themain part of the chemical changes in the vege-table world are the results of the ultra-violetrays at the other end of the spectrum, whichare equally invisible to the eye, and are recog-nized only by their potent effects. Indeed as

28 PLANES OF MIND

these visible rays extend indefinitely on bothsides of the visible spectrum, so we may saythat the mind includes not only the visible orconscious part, and what we have termed thesubconscious, that which lies below the redline, but also the supra-conscious mind thatlies at the other end—all those regions ofhigher soul and spirit life, of which we areonly at times vaguely conscious, but which al-ways exist, and link us on to eternal verities,on the one side, as surely as the subconsciousmind links us to the body on the other."

Keeping before us then the fact that thereare regions above, as well as below (and also,probably, regions parallel to) our ordinaryconsciousness, let us now proceed to a consid-eration of what has been gathered by themany investigators regarding these strangeregions of the Self. Let us examine the vari-ous reports before formulating a theory—letus examine the various theses and antithesesbefore we attempt to synthesize.

CHAPTER in.HUDSON'S "SUBJECTIVE MIND."

Hudson, in his conception of the "subject-ive mind," not only postulated the existenceof a plane of mentality, or a " mind,'' in whichwas performed the subconscious activitiesrecognized by the later psychologists, but alsoheld that in that mind were manifested theunusual and almost abnormal activitieswhich are generally grouped together underthe term' ' Psychic Phenomena.'' In fact thisexplanation of psychic phenomena by thetheory or hypothesis of the subjective mindwas the main purpose and underlying idea inhis principal work, as is indicated by its title:"The Law of Psychic Phenomena." In orderto understand the general subject of the sub-conscious mind, and its phenomena, it isnecessary that the general idea of Hudson beconsidered, for its influence has been verymarked on the later writings on the subject.

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30 PLANES OF MIND

Hudson advanced as a working hypothesis!the general proposition of the dual-mind. Thestatement of the duality of mind, and thenaming of its phases as the objective and sub-jective minds, respectively, is the first propo-sition of his hypothesis. He then proceeds asfollows: ' ' The second proposition is, that thesubjective mind is constantly amenable tocontrol by suggestion. The third, or subsid-iary, proposition is, that the subjective mindis incapable of inductive reasoning." Hethen explains his use of the terms objectivemind and subjective mind, which usage wasopposed to that familiar to the older psychol-ogists and which aroused instant oppositionfrom them. Hudson states:

" I n general terms the difference betweenman's two minds may be stated as follows:—The objective mind takes cognizance of theobjective world. Its media of observation arethe five physical senses. It is the outgrowthof man's physical necessities. It is his guidein his struggle with his material environ-ment. Its highest function is that of reason-ing. The subjective mind takes cognizance ofits environment by means independent of the

HUDSON'S "SUBJECTIVE MIND" 31

physical senses. It perceives by intuition.It is the seat of the emotions, and the store-house of memory. It performs its highestfunctions when the objective senses are inabeyance. In a word, it is that intelligencewhich makes itself manifest in a hypnotic sub-ject when he is in a state of somnambulism.In this state many of the most wonderfulfeats of the subjective mind are performed.It sees without the natural organs of vision;and in this, as in many other grades, or de-grees, of the hypnotic state, it can be made,apparently, to leave the body, and travel todistant lands and bring back intelligence,ofttimes of the most exact and truthful char-acter. I t also has the power to read thethoughts of others, even to the minutest de-tails; to read the contents of sealed envelopesand closed books. In short it is the subjectivemind that possesses what is popularly desig-nated as clairvoyant power, and the ability toapprehend the thoughts of others without theaid of the ordinary means of communication.In point of fact, that which for convenienceI have chosen to designate as the subjectivemind appears to be a separate and distmct

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entity; and the real distinctive difference be-tween the two minds seems to consist in thefact that the objective mind is merely thefunction of the physical brain, while the sub-jective mind is a distinct entity, possessingindependent powers and functions, having amental organization of its own, and beingcapable of sustaining an existence independ-ently of the body. In other words, it is thesoul."

After making the above startling statementthat the subjective mind is not only a sepa-rate entity, but is in fact the soul, Dr. Hudsonthen proceeds with his second proposition,that the subjective mind is constantly amen-able to control by suggestion. He states thematter as follows:

' ' 1. That the objective mind, or, let us say,man in his normal conditon is not control-lable, against reason, positive knowledge, orthe evidence of his senses, by the suggestionsof another. 2. That the subjective mind, orman in the hypnotic state, is unqualifiedly andconstantly amenable to the power of sugges-tion. That is to say, the subjective mind ac-cepts, without hesitation or doubt, every

HUDSON'S "SUBJECTIVE MIND" 33

statement that is made to it, no matter howabsurd or incongruous or contrary to the ob-jective experience of the individual. . . .These are fundamental facts, known and ac-knowledged by every student of the scienceof hypnotism."

We may say here in passing, that this laststatement of the "fundamental facts, knownand acknowledged by every student of hypno-tism" is now vigorously opposed by manyleading authorities on suggestion. While itis true that in certain stages of hypnosis thedeeper strata of the subconscious region ofmind are tapped, it is likewise true that sug-gestion does not depend upon the hypnoticcondition, but on the contrary is manifestedin the waking state. And, likewise Dr. Hud-son's statement that "The objective mind. . . is not controllable . . . by thesuggestions of another" is not now acceptedas correct by leading authorities upon sugges-tion; for it is known that the objective mindis amenable to suggestion, and that much ofthe phenomena of suggestion is manifestedin this plane of the mind. It is true, however,that much of the difference of opinion seem-

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ingly arises from the confusion of terms, andthe definition of "suggestion." Moreover,Dr. Hudson's theory is not seriously affectedby the above objection, and the value of hisclassification is not impaired.

Dr. Hudson then proceeds to explain an-other characteristic of the subjective mind—his third proposition. He says: "One of themost important distinctions between the ob-jective and subjective minds pertains to thefunction of reason. . . . (1) The Object-ive Mind is capable of reasoning by allmethods—inductive and deductive, analyticand synthetic. (2) The subjective mind isincapable of inductive reasoning. Let it herebe understood that this proposition refers tothe powers and functions of the purely sub-jective mind, as exhibited in the mental oper-ations in persons in a state of profound hyp-notism or trance.

The prodigious intellectual feats of per-sons in that condition have been a source ofamazement in all the ages; but the strikingpeculiarity noted above appears to have beenlost sight of in admiration of the other qual-ities exhibited. In other words, it has never

HUDSON'S "SUBJECTIVE MIND" 35

been noted that their reasoning is always de-ductive, or syllogistic. The subjective mindnever classifies a series of known facts, andreasons from them up to general principles;but, given a general principle to start with, itwill reason deductively from that down to alllegitimate inferences, with a marvelouscogency and power. Place a man of intelli-gence and cultivation in a hypnotic state, andgive him a premise—say in the form of astatement of a general principle of philoso-phy; and no matter what may have been hisopinions in his normal condition, he will un-hesitatingly, in obedience to the power of sug-gestion, assume the correctness of the propo-sition; and if given an opportunity to discussthe question, will proceed to deduce there-from the details of a whole system of philoso-phy. Every conclusion will be so clearly andlogically deducible from the major premise,and withal so plausible and consistent, thatthe listener will almost forget that the prem-ise was assumed."

Dr. Hudson also claimed for the subjectivemind that it possessed "a prodigious mem-ory. ' ' He states: " I t would perhaps be haz-

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ardous to say that the memory of the subjec-tive mind is perfect, but there is good groundfor believing that such a proposition wouldbe substantially true." He also states fur-ther on in his book that: ' ' The irresistible in-ference is that when the soul is freed entirelyfrom its trammels of flesh, its powers will at-tain perfection, its memory will be absolute.. . . Subjective memory appears to be theonly kind or quality of memory which de-serves that appellation; it is the only memorywhich is absolute. The memory of the objec-tive mind, comparatively speaking, is moreproperly designated as recollection."

In his later books Dr. Hudson sought toestablish the Immortality of the Soul by histheory of the subjective mind, which latter heidentified with the soul. He also sought toprove the Divine Pedigree of Man by the sametheory, holding practically that God's attri-butes and characteristics must be practicallythose of the subjective mind raised to infinity.With these questions we have no concern inthis work. Many of Dr. Hudson's most ar-dent admirers express the opinion that he hadcarried his idea too far—having assumed a

HUDSON'S "SUBJECTIVE MIND" 37

premise, he carried it to its extreme con-clusion, in the very manner which he himselfclaimed for the subjective mind itself, asstated in a quotation on a preceding page. Weshall not discuss this question, as it forms nopart of the subject of our present considera-tion.

Many of the best authorities to-day, whilegiving to Dr. Hudson the highest praise forhis valuable work of classification and pre-sentation of collected data, feel that he waswithout warrant for assuming the subjectivemind to be a separate entity, in fact the soul.They are of the opinion that he has made themistake of collating the phenomena of sev-eral widely-separated planes or phases of themind, high and low, and then grouping themtogether as qualities of a separate entity dis-tinct from the objective mind. The trend of .the latest and most advanced thought on the jsubject is that not only the various subcon-scious planes, and superconscious planes ofithe mind, but also the so-called objective minditself, are but phases or planes of manifesta-tion of one mind, or self, of the individual. It

' is held that if we separate the various planes

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of mental manifestation into separate enti-ties, we shall have not two minds but manyminds. The mind is held to be far more com-plex than is indicated by any two-mind theory.But, as we have said, the work of Dr. Hudsonis highly esteemed although his conclusionsare not now generally adopted or accepted.He has done more than any other recentwriter on the subject to popularize the ideaof subconscious mentality and to renderfamiliar the phenomena thereof.

CHAPTER IV

UNCONSCIOUS CEBEBBATIOJST.

Perhaps the nature of the Infra-Consciousplanes of mentation may be better under-stood by reference to the observed phenom-ena of those planes than by the considerationof any special theories regarding them.Therefore we shall devote considerable spacein this book to a presentation of instances ofthe activities of these planes.

Carpenter calls attention to the common ex-perience of subconscious mentation and illus-trates it by the experience of a friend whostated that at one time he had laborouslysought for the solution of a difficult problem,but without success. Then suddenly the solu-tion flashed across his mind, and so complete,was the answer and so unexpected was its ap-pearance that he trembled as if in the pres-ence of another being who had communicateda secret to him. Rosmini says of this action

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40 PLANES OF MIND

of the mind: "A close attention to our in-ternal operations, along with induction, givesus this result, that we even exercise ratioc-ination of which we have no consciousness,and generally it furnishes us with thismarvelous law, that every operation whatso-ever of our minds is unknown to itself until asecond operation reveals it to us." NoahPorter says: "That the soul may act withoutbeing conscious of what it does and thatthese unconscious acts affect those acts ofwhich it is conscious has been already estab-lished."

Wundt says: "The unconscious logicalprocesses are carried on with a certainty andregularity which would be impossible wherethere exists the possibility of error. Ourmind is so happily designed that it preparesfor us the most important foundations of cog-nition, whilst we have not the slightest appre-hension of the modus operandi. This uncon-scious soul, like a benevolent stranger, worksand makes provision for our benefit, pouringonly the mature fruits into our laps." Bas-com says: " I t is inexplicable how premiseswhich lie below consciousness can sustain

UNCONSCIOUS CEBEBBATION 41

conclusions in consciousness; how the mindcan wittingly take up a mental movement atan advanced stage, having missed its primarysteps." Maudsley says: " I t is surprisinghow uncomfortable a person may be made bythe obscure idea of something which he oughtto have said or done, and which he cannot forthe life of him remember. There is the effortof the lost idea to get into consciousness,which is relieved directly the idea bursts intoconsciousness."

Oliver Wendell Holmes says: "There arethoughts that never emerge into conscious-ness, which yet make their influence feltamong the perceptive mental currents just asthe unseen planets sway the movements ofthe known-ones. •: .- I was told of a busi-ness man in Boston who had given up think-ing of an important question as too much forhim. But he continued so uneasy in his brainhe feared he was threatened with palsy.After some hours the natural solution of thequestion came to him, worked out, as he be-lieved, in that troubled interval."

Sehofield says: ' ' Last year the writer wasdriving to Phillimore Gardens to give some

42 PLANES OP MIND

letters to a friend. On the -way a vague un-easiness sprang up, and a voice seemed tosay, ' I doubt if you have those letters.' Con-scious reason rebuked it and said, 'Of courseyou have; you took them out of the drawerspecially.' The vague feeling was not satis-fied, but could not reply. On arrival, he foundthe letters were in none of his pockets. Onreturning, they were found on the hall table,where they had been placed a moment whileputting on his gloves. The other day thewriter had to go to see a patient in Folkstone,in Shakespeare Terrace. He got there verylate, and did not stay but drove down to thePavilion for the night, it being dark andrainy. Next morning at eleven he walked up tofind the house, knowing the general direction,though never having walked there before. Hewent up the main road, and after passinga certain turning, began to feel a vague un-easiness coming into consciousness, that hehad passed the terrace. On asking the way,he found it was so; and the turning was wherethe uneasiness began. The night before waspitch dark and very wet, and anything seen

UNCONSCIOUS CEBEBBATION 43

from a close carriage was quite unconsciouslyimpressed on his mind."

Kirchener says: "Our consciousness canonly grasp one, quite clear idea at once. Allother ideas are for the time somewhat ob-scure. They are really existing, but onlypotentially for consciousness; i. e., they hoveras it were, on our horizon, or beneath thethreshold of consciousness. The fact thatformer ideas suddenly return to conscious-ness is simply explained by the fact that theyhave continued psychic existence; and atten-tion is sometimes voluntarily or involuntarilyturned away from the present, and the reap-pearance of former ideas is thus made possi-ble." Holmes says: "Our different ideasare stepping-stones; how we get from one toanother we do not know; something carriesus. We (our conscious selves) do not take thestep. The creating and informing spirit,which is within us and not of us, is recognizedeverywhere in real life. It comes to us as avoice that will be heard; it tells us what we,must believe; it frames our sentences and wewonder at this visitor who chooses our brain o _ J Las his dwelling-place."

44 PLANES OF MIND

Montgomery says: "We are constantlyaware that feelings emerge unsolicited by anyprevious mental state, directly from the darkwomb of unconsciousness. Indeed all ourmost vivid feelings are thus mystically de-rived. Suddenly a new irrelevant, unwilled,unlooked-for presence intrudes itself into con-sciousness. Some inscrutable power causesit to rise and enter the mental presence as asensorial constituent. If this vivid depend-ence on unconscious forces has to be conjec-tured with regard to the most vivid mentaloccurrences, how much more must such a sus-taining foundation be postulated for thosefaint revivals of previous sensations that solargely assist in making up our complexmental presence!" Brodie says: " I t hasoften happened to me to have accumulated astore of facts, but to have been able to proceedno further. Then, after an interval of time, Ihave found the obscurity and confusion tohave cleared away; the facts to have settledin their right places, though I have not beensensible of having made any effort for thatpurpose."

Von Hartmann says: "What Schopen-

UNCONSCIOUS CEBEBBATION 45

hauer calls 'unconscious rumination1 regu-larly happens to me when I have read a workwhich presents new points of view essentiallyopposed to my previous opinions. . . .After days, weeks, or months we find, to ourgreat astonishment, that the old opinions wehad held up to that moment have been entirelyrearranged, and that new ones have alreadybecome lodged there. This unconsciousmental process of digestion and assimulationI have several times experienced in my owncase." "Waldstein says: "The mind receivesfrom experience certain data, and elaboratesthem unconsciously by laws peculiar to itself,and the result merges into consciousness."Holmes says: ' ' Sir "W. R. Hamilton discov-ered quaternions on 15th of October, 1843. Onthat day he was walking from his observa-tory at Dublin, with Lady Hamilton, when,on reaching the bridge, he 'felt the galvaniccircle of thought close,' and the sparks thatfell from it were the fundamental relationsbetween i. j . Jc., just as he used them ever aft-erwards.

Thompson said: ' 'At times I have had afeeling of the uselessness of all voluntary ef-

46 PLANES OF MIND

fort, and also that the matter was workingitself clear in my mind. It has many timesseemed to me that I was really a passive in-strument in the hands of a person not myself.In view of having to wait for the results ofthese unconscious processes, I have provedthe habit of getting together material in ad-vance, and then leaving the mass to digestitself till I am ready to write about it. I de-layed for a month the writing of my book,System of Psychology, but continued readingthe authorities. I would not try to thinkabout the book. I would watch with interestpeople passing the windows. One eveningwhen reading the paper, the substance of themissing part of the book flashed upon mymind, and I began to write. This is only asample of many such experiences. . . .In writing this work I have been unable toarrange my knowledge of a subject for daysand weeks, until I experienced a clearing upof my mind, when I took my pen and unhesi-tatingly wrote the result. I have best accom-plished this by leading the (conscious) mindas far away as possible from the subject uponwhich I was writing."

UNCONSCIOUS CEBBBBATION 47

Mozart said: " I cannot really say tEat Ican account for my compositions. My ideasflow, and I cannot say whence or how theycome. I do not hear in my imagination theparts successively, but I hear them, as itwere, all at once. The rest is merely an at-tempt to reproduce what I have heard." Awriter has said of Berthelot, the great Frenchchemist, and founder of Synthetic Chemistry:"He has told his intimates that the experi-ments which led to many of his wonderful dis-coveries were not the result of carefully fol-lowed trains of thought, or of pure reasoningprocesses, but on the contrary they 'cameof themselves, so to speak,' as if from theclear sky above."

All investigators of the subconscious re-N

gions of the mind have been struck with theease whereby the subconscious faculties maybe trained to perform the drudgery ofthought for their owner. By certain systemsof auto-suggestion the subconscious facultiesmay be commanded to thresh out difficultproblems and then present the result to thefield of consciousness. In a short time thesefaculties will become accustomed to the proc-

48 PLANES or MIND

ess, and will willingly and gladly performtheir allotted tasks. Many men of affairshave unwittingly acquired this habit of "un-conscious rumination" and much of theirmental digestion is accomplished in this way,the result being that they are able to performwhat seems like an incredible amount ofmental work, but which, really taxes theirordinary consciousness very little, and leaves

K them plenty of time for recreation, sport, etc.Stevenson informed his intimate friends

that he was indebted to his subconsciousmentality in its phase of dreams, for manyof the incidents and ideas contained in hischarming books. He also wrote the followingconcerning the matter: ' ' My Brownies! Grod ">bless them! who do one-half of my work forme when I am fast asleep, and in all humanliklihood do the rest for me as well when I amwide awake and foolishly suppose that I do itfor myself. I had long been wanting to writea book on man's double being. For two daysI went about racking my brains for a plot ofany sort, and on the second night I dreamtthe scene in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at thewindow; and a scene, afterwards split in two,

UNCONSCIOUS CEKEBBATION 49

in which Hyde, pursued, took the powder andunderwent the change in the presence of hispursuer. In Otalla, the Count, the mother,Otalla's chamber, the meeting on the stairs,the broken window, were all given me in bulkand details, as I have tried to write them."

Abercrombie says: "A distinguished law-yer had studied for days a most importantcase. One night his wife saw him rise up inthe night, sit down, write a long paper whichhe put in his desk, and return to bed. Nextmorning, he told his wife he had a most inter-esting dream; that he had delivered a clearand luminous opinion on the case, and that hewould give anything to recover the train ofthought which had occurred. She then di-rected him to the writing desk, where hefound all he had dreamt clearly and fullywritten out." Lord Kames once said:"There are various interesting operations ofWhich we have no consciousness, and yet thatthey have existed is made known by their ef-fects. Often have I gone to bed with a confus-ed notion of what I was studying, and haveawakened in the morning complete masterof the subject" Schofield gives what he

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calls "a remarkable illustration of motor ac-tion in sleep that occurred to my niece ofthirteen last summer. She had been practic-ing for days a 'shake' of great difficulty in asonata, with very little success. One nighther mother who slept with her was awakenedby feeling fingers on her face. She asked herdaughter what she was doing. But the childwas in a profound sleep, while the fingers ofher right hand were incessantly practicing theshake on her mother's face. Next day to theamazement of her mistress she could play itperfectly." Schofield says: "Coleridge issaid to have dreamed 'Kubla Khan' after din-ner during a nap, and wrote it down line byline when he awoke." Hudson mentions thesame occurrence, giving it, however, a slight-ly different explanation, saying: "Many ofthe dreams of Coleridge furnish striking ex-amples of the dominance of the subjective inpoetry. His readers will readily recall thecelebrated fragment entitled Kubla Kahn; ora Vision in a Dream, beginning as follows:

'In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree—Where Alph, the sacred river ran

UNCONSCIOUS CEREBRATION 51

Through caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.'

It is unfortunately true that the subjectivecondition in his case was brought about byartificial means; and it is expressly stated ina prefatory note to 'Kubla Khan' that thisfragment was written under the influence ofan anodyne. As an illustration of the princi-ple under consideration it is, however, nonethe less valuable; while the career of thegifted but unfortunate poet should serve asa warning against the practices in which heindulged."

While the older schools of psychologyclearly point out the possibilities of uncon-scious cerebration, as may be seen by refer-ence to the quotations contained in this chap-ter, yet it has remained for The New Psy-chology to point out a way to turn these sub-conscious activities to advantage—a methodwhereby one might be able to start into activ-ity the subconscious faculties of the mind andalso direct them into certain particular chan-nels. An understanding of the laws of sug-gestion in its phase of auto-suggestion willenable anyone to avail himself of the activ-

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ities of the "brownies"—as Stevenson sohappily styles the subconscious workings ofthe mind—which, "God bless them! do one-half of my work for me when I am fastasleep."

In the volume of this series, entitled ' ' Sug-gestion and Auto-Suggestion" we have ex-plained in detail the processes and methodswhich may be employed with success in thedirection of turning to practical account thesewonderful activities of the subconsciousmind, instead of merely regarding them ascurious phenomena of psychology. We can-not attempt to enter into this phase of thesubject in this work, owing to the extent of itsparticular field, and as, moreover, to do sowould be merely to repeat what we have saidin the volume to which we have alluded. Wehave thought it proper, however, to mentionthe matter here, that those who are not fa-miliar with the subject may be directed to asource from which they may receive practicalinstruction along these important lines.

CHAPTEE V.

A BEMABKABIiE INSTANCE.

Among the celebrated instances of subcon-scious mentation found in the records of psy-chological research we find that of Zerah Col-burn, the mathematical prodigy, whose featswere typically subconscious in their nature.This case is such a typical one, and brings outthe characteristics of subconscious mentationso clearly, that we think it worth while toquote in full the report regarding it, takenfrom the Annual Register of 1812, a conserv-ative English publication. The writer in thejournal said:

"The attention of the philosophical worldhas been lately attracted by the most singularphenomenon in the history of human mindthat perhaps ever existed. It is the case of achild, under eight years of age, who, withoutany previous knowledge of the common rulesof arithmetic, or even of the use and powers

53

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of the Arabic numerals, and without havinggiven any attention to the subject, possessesas if by intuition, the singular faculty of solv-ing a great variety of arithmetical questionsby the mere operation of the mind, and with-out the usual assistance of any visible symbolor contrivance. The name of the child isZerah Oolburn, who was born at Cabut (atown lying at the head of the Onion River inVermont, in the United States of America)on the first of September, 1804. About twoyears ago,—August, 1810—although at thattime not six years of age, he first began toshow these wonderful powers of calculationwhich have since so much attracted the atten-tion, and excited the astonishment of everyperson who has witnessed his extraordinaryabilities. The discovery was made by acci-dent. His father, who had not given him anyother instruction than such as was to be ob-tained at a small school established in thatunfrequented and remote part of the country,and which did not include either writing orciphering, was much surprised one day tohear him repeating the products of severalnumbers. Struck with amazement at the cir-

A REMARKABLE INSTANCE 55

eumstance, he proposed a variety of arith-metical questions to him, all of which thechild solved with remarkable facility and cor-rectness. The news of the infant prodigy wassoon circulated through the neighborhood,and many persons came from distant parts towitness so singular a circumstance. Thefather, encouraged by the unanimous opinionof all who came to see him, was induced toundertake with this child the tour of theUnited States. They were everywhere re-ceived with the most flattering expressions,and in several towns which they visited, vari-ous plans were suggested to educate andbring up the child free from all expense to. hisfamily. Yielding, however, to the pressingsolicitations of his friends, and urged by themost respectable and powerful recommenda-tions, as well as by a view to his son's morecomplete education, the father has broughtthe child to this country (England), wherethey arrived on the 12th of May last; and theinhabitants of this metropolis (London) havefor the last three months had an opportunityof seeing and examining this wonderful phe-nomenon, and verifying the reports that have

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been circulated regarding him. Many per-sons of the first eminence for the knowledgein mathematics, and well known for theirphilosophical inquiries, have made a point ofseeing and conversing with him, and theyhave all been struck with astonishment at hisextraordinary powers.

"I t is correctly true, as stated of him, thathe will not only determine with the greatestfacility and despatch the exact number ofseconds or minutes in any given period oftime, but will also solve any other question ofa similar kind. He will tell the exact productarising from the multiplication of any num-ber consisting of two, three or four figures byany other number consisting of the like num-ber of figures. Or, any number consisting ofsix or seven places of figures being proposed,he will determine with equal expedition andease all the factors of which it is composed.This singular faculty consequently extendsnot only to the raising of powers, but to theextraction of the square and cube roots of thenumber proposed, and likewise to the meansof determining whether it is a prime number(or a number incapable of division by any

A REMARKABLE INSTANCE 57

other number); for which case there does notexist at present any general rule amongmathematicians. All these and a variety ofother questions connected therewith areanswered by this child with such promptnessand accuracy (and in the midst of his juvenilepursuits) as to astonish every person who hasvisited him.

"At a meeting of his friends, which washeld for the purpose of concerting the bestmethods of promoting the views of the father,the child undertook and completely succeededin raising the number 8 progressively up tothe sixteenth power. And, in naming the lastresult; viz., 281,474,976,710,656! he was rightin every figure. He was then tried as to othernumbers consisting of one figure, all of whichhe raised (by actual multiplication, and notby memory) as high as the tenth power, withso much facility and despatch that the personappointed to take down the results wasobliged to enjoin him not to be so rapid. Withrespect to numbers consisting of two figures,he would raise some of them to the sixth, sev-enth and eighth powers, but not always withequal facility; for the larger the products be-

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came, the more difficult he found it to proceed.He was asked the square root of 106,929; andbefore the number could be written down, heimmediately answered, "327." He was thenrequired to name the cube root of 268,336,125;and with equal facility and promptness hereplied, "645." Various other questions ofa similar nature, respecting the roots andpowers of very high numbers, were proposedby several of the gentlemen present, to all ofwhich he answered in a similar manner. Oneof the party requested him to name the fac-tors which produced the number 247,483; thishe immediately did by mentioning the num-bers 941 and 263,—which, indeed, are the onlytwo numbers that will produce it. Another ofthem proposed 171,395, and he named thefollowing factors as the only ones; viz.,5X34,279, 7X24,485, 59X2,905, 83X2,065,35X4,897, 295X581, and 413X415. He wasthen asked to give the factors of 36,083; buthe immediately replied that it had none,—which in fact was the case, as 36,083 is aprime number. Other numbers were indis-criminately proposed to him, and he alwayssucceeded in giving the correct factors, ex-

A REMARKABLE INSTANCE 59

cept in the case of prime numbers, which hediscovered almost as soon as proposed.

"One of the gentlemen asked him howmany minutes there were in forty-eightyears; and before the question could bewritten down he replied, 25,228,800; and in-stantly added that the number of seconds inthe same period was 1,513,728,000. Variousquestions of the like kind were put to him, andto all of them he answered with equal facilityand promptitude, so as to astonish every onepresent, and to excite a desire that so extra-ordinary a faculty should, if possible, berendered more extensive and useful. It wasthe wish of the gentlemen present to obtain aknowledge of the method by which the childwas enabled to answer with so much facilityand correctness the questions thus put to him;but to all their inquiries on the subject (andhe was closely examined on this point) he wasunable to give them any information. Hepersistently declared—and every observationthat was made seemed to justify the asser-tion—that he did not know how the answercame into his mind. In the act of multiplyingtwo numbers together, and in the raising of

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powers, it was evident, not only from themotion of his lips, but also from some singu-lar facts which will be hereafter mentioned,that some operations were going forward inhis mind; and yet that operation could not,from the readiness with which the answerswere furnished, be at all allied to the usualmode of proceeding with such subjects; andmoreover he is entirely ignorant of the com-mon rules of arithmetic, and cannot performupon paper a simple sum in multiplication ordivision. But in the extraction of roots andin mentioning the factors of high numbers, itdoes not appear that any operation can takeplace, since he will give the answer immedi-ately, or in a very few seconds, where it wouldrequire, according to the ordinary method ofsolution, a very difficult or laborious calcula-tion ; and moreover, the knowledge of a primenumber cannot be obtained by any knownrule.

"I t must be evident, from what has herebeen stated, that the singular faculty whichthis child possesses is not altogether depend-ent on his memory. In the multiplication ofnumbers and in the raising of powers, he is

A REMARKABLE INSTANCE 61

doubtless considerably assisted by that re-markable quality of the mind; and in this re-spect he might be considered as bearing someresemblance (if the difference of age did notprevent the justness of the comparison) tothe celebrated Jedidiah Buxton, and otherpersons of similar note. But in the extractionof roots of numbers and in determining theirfactors, if any, it is clear to all those who havewitnessed the astonishing quickness and ac-curacy of this child that the memory has noth-ing to do with the process. And in this par-ticular point consists the remarkable differ-ence between the present and all former in-stances of an apparently similar kind."

It is interesting to note the sequel to theabove account. The child was placed inschools and was given the regular educationin mathematics. I t was believed that in thisway his mental process might be systematizedand that he would be able to establish a newmethod of making mental calculations, whichwould be of great benefit to the race. But, asin all of such cases, his remarkable power de-creased as he was educated in the ordinarymethods of mathematics, and finally it left

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him almost entirely and he became no morethan the ordinary trained student. The doorto the inner chamber closed, and he was com-pelled to perform his calculations in the ordi-nary manner.

CHAPTER VL

THE SUBCONSCIOUS MEMORY.

Memory was formerly regarded as a spe-cial faculty of the mind, but the later psy-chologists have agreed that Memory, insteadof being a faculty is a manifestation of sub-conscious mental activity and power. Justwhat Memory is psychology is unable to in-form us, but that it belongs to the phenomenaof the subconscious region of the mind thereis no longer any doubt. In some way the sub-conscious mind stores away the impressionsreceived through the senses so that they maybe revived in response to certain stimulatinginfluences. Kay says: " I t is impossible tounderstand the true nature of memory, or totrain it aright^ unless we have a clear concep-tion of the fact that there is much in the mindof which we are unconscious."

It was formerly thought that only certainimpressions were retained in the memory,

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64 PLANES OF MIND

the remainder being dissipated and lost. Butthe later thought on the subject leads us tothe conclusion that anything and everythingimpressed upon the mind remains in the sub-conscious storehouse of the memory ready tobe recalled under the proper stimulus. Manyimpressions are never recalled, the stimulusbeing lacking; but there is every reason tosuppose that they remain registered in themind, nevertheless. Kay says: "There isevery reason to believe that the changeswhich result . . . are not evanescent;that they do not vanish away as soon as thecauses by which they were produced havepassed away; but that, on the contrary, theyremain and form a permanent record of whathas passed through the mind—a written testi-mony of all that one has been, felt and done inthe past. . . . In this way we believe that .,every good or evil thought we have ever en- ftertained, every good or evil act that we have |ever done, is indelibly recorded in our bodily jstructure, to be brought back to mind, if notin this life, at least on the Great Day of Ac-count, when our bodies will be raised and thedeeds of all men made manifest. . . . We

T H E SUBCONSCIOUS MEMOEY 65

have already expressed the opinion that)every impression we receive, every thought•we think, as well as every action we do, causessome change in the material structure of ourbodies, and that this change is permanent,forming an imperishable record of all that wehave experienced, thought, or done in thepast. In like manner we believe that everyimpression or thought that has once been be-fore consciousness remains ever after im-pressed in the mind. It may never againcome up before consciousness, but it willdoubtless remain in that vast ultra-consciousregion of the mind, unconsciously mouldingand fashioning our subsequent thoughts and/actions."

Morrell says: "We have every reason tobelieve that mental power once called forthfollows the analogy of everything we see inthe material universe in the fact of its per-petuity. . . . Every single effort of mindis a creation which can never go back againinto nonentity. It may slumber in the depthsof forgetfulness as light and heat slumber inthe coal seams, but there it is, ready at theDidding of some appropriate stimulus to come

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again out of the darkness into the light ofconsciousness." Benecke says: "Every im-pression we receive leaves a trace, a realphysiological trace behind it, which may berevived and brought again into consciousnessunder the proper physical conditions." Mc-Crie says: "No sensation received, no judg-ment formed, no acquisition made, no affec-tion cherished, no passion gratified, will everbe found to have faded into nothing, as if theyhad never been. . . . Deem not this tobe impossible. In the case of drowning, thosewho have been preserved and recover declarethat the whole of their past lives did at thatmoment pass before them with the velocity oflightning."

Kay says: " It is only a small part of whatexists in the mind that we are at any time con-scious of. There is always much that is knownto be in the mind that exists in it uncon-sciously, and must be stored away some-where. We may be able to recall it into con-sciousness when we wish to do so, but at othertimes the mind is unconscious of its existence.Further, everyone's experience must tell himthat there is much in his mind that he cannot

THE SUBCONSCIOUS MEMOEY 67

always recall when he may wish to do so,—much that he can recover only after a laboredsearch, or that he may search for in vain atthe time, but which may occur to him after-wards when perhaps he is not thinking of it.Again, much that we probably would neverbe able to recall, or that would not recur to usunder ordinary circumstainces, we may re-member to have had in mind when it is men-tioned to us by others. In such a case theremust still have remained some trace or scin-tilla of it in the mind before we could recog-nize it as having been there before. Thesecases occur in ordinary states of the mind,but in abnormal or exalted mental conditionswe find still more remarkable instances. Thusin somnambulism, dreams, hysteria, the de-lirium of fever, or on the approach of death,persons have been known to recall events oftheir past life, long since forgotten, and un-able to be recalled under ordinary circum-stances. Persons in a delirium of fever havebeen known to speak in a language which theyhad known in their childhood, but which formany years had passed from their memory;or to repeat with apparent accuracy dis-

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courses to which they had listened manyyears previously, but of which before thefever they had no recollection. They have evenbeen known to repeat accurately long pas-sages from books in foreign tongues, of whichthey never had any understanding, and hadno recollection of in health, but which theyhad causually heard recited many years be-fore. The most remarkable cases, however,are those of persons who have been resusci-tated from drowning or hanging, and whohave reported that they had a sudden revela-tion of all the events of their past life pre-sented to them with the utmost minutenessand distinctness just before consciousness leftthem."

Sir William Hamilton says: "The mindfrequently contains whole systems of knowl-edge which, though in our normal state theyhave faded into absolute oblivion, may in cer-tain abnormal states, as madness, febrile de-lirium, somnambulism, catalepsy, etc., flashout into luminous consciousness, and eventhrow into the shade of unconsciousness thoseother systems by which they had for a longperiod been eclipsed and even extinguished.

T H E SUBCONSCIOUS MEMORY 69

For example, there are cases in which the ex-tinct memory of whole languages was sud-denly restored, and what is even still moreremarkable, in which the faculty was exhib-ited of accurately repeating in known or un-known tongues passages which were never inthe grasp of conscious memory in the normalstate." Lecky says: "I t is now fully estab-lished that a multitude of events which are socompletely forgotten that no effort of thewill can revive them, and that the statementof them calls up no reminiscences, may benevertheless, so to speak, embedded in thememory, and may be reproduced with intensevividness under certain physical conditions."Beaufort, who once was rescued from drown-ing, afterward described his sensations at thetime, saying: "Every incident of my formerlife seemed to glance across my recollectionin a retrograde succession, not in mere out-line, but the picture being filled with everyminute and collateral feature, forming a kindof panoramic view of my entire existence,each act of it being accompanied by a sense ofright or wrong."

As Kay says: ' ' There is indeed every rea-

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son to believe that there is no such thing withany of us as absolutely forgetting anythingthat has once been in the mind." Schmidsays: "All mental activities, all acts ofknowledge which have once been excited per-sist. We never wholly lose them, but theymay become obscure. The obscure cognitionmay exist simply out of consciousness, so thatit can be recalled by a common act of reminis-cence. Again it may be impossible to recoverit by an act of voluntary recollection; butsome association may revivify it enough tomake it flash into consciousness after a longoblivion. Further it may be obscured so farthat it can only be resuscitated by some mor-bid affection of the system; or, finally, it maybe absolutely lost to us in this life, and des-tined only for our reminiscence in the life tocome."

Kay says: "By adopting the opinion thatevery thought or impression that had oncebeen consciously before the mind is everafterward retained we obtain light on manyobscure mental phenonema; and especiallydo we draw from it the conclusion of the per-fectibility of the memory to an almost unlim-

T H E SUBCONSCIOUS MEMOEY 71

ited extent. We cannot doubt that, could wepenetrate to the lowest depths of our mentalnature, we should there find traces of everyimpression we have received, every thoughtwe have entertained, and every act we havedone throughout our past life, each one mak-ing its influence felt in the way of building upour present knowledge, or in guiding ourevery-day actions; and if they exist in themind, might it not be possible to recall mostif not all of them into consciousness when wewished to do so, if our memories or powers ofrecollection were what they should be."

Bowen says: "Many educated personsknow four languages. This will give 160,000words, or 40,000 for each, which is an under-estimate. These words are as arbitrary sym-bols as signs in algebra. Then consider thecountless facts and ideas bound up with thesewords in a well-informed mind. Such a mindis far more richly stocked with words andideas than the British Museum is with books.The British Museum will produce, after ahunt in catalogs and on shelves of perhaps tenminutes, any book wanted. But the single un-conscious librarian who wiaits our orders in

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the crowded chambers of our memory is farmore speedy and skillful in his service. Astudent reads a page of French or Germanin a minute, and for each of the 200 or 300groups of hieroglyphics printed on it, the un-conscious instantly furnishes us with what-ever we call for; its meaning, its etymology,its English equivalent, or any associatedideas connected with it. We have no con-scious clue to direct the search. It is enoughwe want the point to be remembered, and in-stantly it is produced out of the vast reposi-tory. I think this single illustration suffi-cient proof of the presence and agency of theunconscious. For what mechanical or chem-ical action is conceivable as a possible ex-planation of the phenomenon in question?"

A consideration of the facts brought out inthe above quotations should serve to convinceanyone that that which we ordinarily meanwhen we use the term Memory is but the artor faculty of recollecting or bringing forththat which is stored in the Memory. Like-wise, Memory is seen to be a characteristicquality of that great subconscious storehouseof the mind which is a phase of the which we

T H E SUBCONSCIOUS MEMORY 73

call The Subconscious. It would then followthat The Subconscious remembers everythingand forgets nothing. This being so, it will beevident that if we can manage to set the Sub-conscious to work out our mental problemsfor us, we may multiply our powers of men-tation to a wonderful extent. Memory isstored-up knowledge—therefore he who hasfree access to that stored-up knowledge is farahead of the average member of the race.

CHAPTER VH.

TYPICAL OASES.

Dr. Hudson has said: "One of the moststriking and important peculiarities of thesubjective mind, as distinguished from theobjective, consists in its prodigious memory.It would perhaps be hazardous to say that thememory of the subjective mind is perfect, butthere is good ground for believing that sucha proposition would be substantially true."Dr. Hudson seems to have regarded Memoryas a quality possessed by both the objectiveand subjective minds, in different degrees,but later authorities hold that memory is es-sentially a quality or phase of the subcon-scious mind, and that the so-called "objectivemind" or plane of ordinary consciousnessdoes not possess memory and is merely con-scious of what the subconscious memorybrings into the field of consciousness. Thefollowing typical cases, related on good au-

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thority, and qnoted by the best writers on thesubject, will serve to bring out the peculiarand wonderful operation of the subconsciousmind in its phase of memory.

Dr. Benjamin Eush, an eminent Americansurgeon, has recorded the following cases:"The records of the wit and cunning of mad-men are numerous in every country. Talentsfor eloquence, poetry, music, and painting,and uncommon ingenuity in several of themechanical arts, are often evolved in thisstate of madness. A gentleman whom I at-tended in a hospital, in the year 1810, oftendelighted as well as astonished the patientsand officers of our hospital by his displays oforatory in preaching from a table in the hos-pital yard every Sunday. A female patientof mine who became insane, after parturition,in the year 1807, sang hymns and songs of herown composition during the latter stage ofher illness, with a tone of voice so soft andpleasant that I hung upon it with delightevery time I visited her. She had never dis-covered a talent for poetry or music in anyprevious part of her life. Two instances of atalent for drawing, evolved by madness, have

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occurred within my knowledge. And whereis the hospital for mad people in which ele-gant and completely-rigged ships and curiouspieces of machinery have not been exhibitedby persons who never discovered the leastturn for mechanical art previous to their de-rangement! Sometimes we observe in madpeople an unexpected resuscitation of knowl-edge ; hence we hear them describe pastevents, and speak in ancient or modern lan-guages, or repeat long and interesting pas-sages from books, none of which, we are sure,they were capable of recollecting in the nat-ural and healthy state of their minds. Inthese cases, and many similar to them, theactivities of the ordinary plane of conscious-ness are impaired or distorted, which seem-ingly results in allowing the subconscious ac-tivities to manifest more freely and with lessrestraint."

Sir William Hamilton quotes from thememoirs of an Amerioan clergyman namedFlint, who stated: " I am aware that everysufferer in this way is apt to think his owncase extraordinary. My physicians agreedwith all who saw me that my case was so. As

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very few live to record the issue of a sicknesslike mine, . . . I will relate some of thecircumstances of this disease. And it is inmy view desirable . . . that more of thesymptoms, sensations and sufferings shouldhave been recorded than have been; and thatothers in similar predicaments may knowthat some before them have had sufferingslike theirs, and have survived them. I had afever before, and had risen, and been dressedevery day. But in this, with the first day, Iwas prostrated to infantine weakness, andfelt, with its first attack, that it was a thingvery different from what I had yet experi-enced. Paroxysms of derangement occurredon the third day, and this was to me a newstate of mind. That state of disease in whichpartial derangement is mixed with a con-sciousness generally sound, and sensibilitypreternaturally excited, I should suppose themost distressing of all its forms. At thesame time that I was unable to recognize myfriends, I was informed that my memory wasmore than ordinarily exact and retentive, andthat I repeated whole passages in the differ-ent languages which I knew with entire accu-

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raoy. I recited, without losing or misplacinga word, a passage of poetry which I couldnot so repeat after I recovered my health."

Monboddo reports the following case, re-lated to him by a friend of excellent standing.The friend states the case in these words:"About six-and-twenty years ago, when I wasin France, I had an intimacy in the family ofthe late Marechal de Monmorenoi de Laval.His son, the Comte de Laval, was married toMademoiselle de Manpeaux, the daughter ofa lieutenant of that name, and the niece ofthe late chancellor. This gentleman was killedat the battle of Hastenbeck. His widowsurvived him some years but is since dead.The following fact comes from her ownmouth; she has told it me repeatedly. Shewas a woman of perfect veracity and verygood sense. She appealed to her servants andfamily for the truth. Nor did she, indeedseem to be sensible that the matter was soextraordinary as it appeared to me. I wroteit down at the time, and I have the memoran-dum among some of my papers. The Com-tesse de Laval had been observed, by servantswho sat up with her on account of some indis-

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position, to talk in her sleep a language thatnone of them understood; nor were they sure,or, indeed, herself able to guess, upon thesounds being repeated to her, whether it wasor was not gibberish. Upon her lying-in ofone of her children, she was attended by anurse who was of the province of Brittany,and who immediately knew the meaning ofwhat she had said, it being in the idiom of thenatives of that country; but she herself whenawake did not understand a single syllable ofwhat she had uttered in her sleep, upon itbeing retold her. She was born in that prov-ince, and had been nursed in a family wherenothing but that language was spoken; sothat in her infancy she had known it, and noother; but when she returned to her parents,she had no opportunity of keeping up the useof it; and as I have before said, she did notunderstand a word of Breton when awake,though she spoke it in her sleep. I need notsay that the Comtesse de Laval never said orimagined that she used any words of the Bre-ton idiom, more than was necessary to ex-press those ideas that are within the compassof a child's knowledge of objects."

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Coleridge relates the following interestingcase, which has been widely quoted by laterwriters: " I t occurred in a Roman Catholictown in Germany, a year or two before my ar-rival at Gottingen, and had not then ceasedto be a frequent subject for conversation. Ayoung woman of four or five and twenty, whocould neither read nor write, was seized witha nervous fever, during which, according tothe asseverations of all the priests and monksof the neighborhood, she became possessed;and, as it appeared, by a very learned devil.She continued incessantly talking Latin,Greek and Hebrew, in very pompous tones,and with most distinct enunciation. This pos-session was rendered more probable by theknown fact that she was, or had been, a here-tic. Voltaire humorously advises the devilto decline all acquaintance with medical men;and it would have been more to his reputa-tion if he had taken this advice in the presentinstance. The case had attracted the partic-ular attention of a young physician, and byhis statement many eminent physiologistsand psychologists visited the town and cross-examined the case on the spot. Sheets full of

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her ravings were taken down from her ownmouth, and were found to consist of senten-ces, coherent and intelligible each for itself,but with little or no connection with eachother. Of the Hebrew, a small portion onlycould be traced to the Bible; the remainderseemed to be in the Rabbinical dialect. Alltrick or conspiracy was out of the question.Not only had the young woman ever been aharmless, simple creature, but she was evi-dently laboring under a nervous fever. In atown in which she had been a resident formany years as a servant in different families,no solution presented itself.

"The young physician, however, determin-ed to trace her past life step by step; for thepatient herself was incapable of returning arational answer. He at length succeeded indiscovering the place where her parents hadlived; traveled thither, found them dead, butan uncle surviving; and from him learnedthat the patient had been charitably taken byan old Protestant pastor at nine years old,and had remained with him some years, eventill the old man's death. Of this pastor the un-cle knew nothing, but that he was a very good

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man. With great difficulty, and after muchsearch, our young medical philosopher dis-covered a niece of the pastor's who had livedwith him as his housekeeper, and had inher-ited his effects. She remembered the girl;related that her venerable uncle had been tooindulgent, and could not bear to hear the girlscolded; that she was willing to have kept her,but that, after her parent's death, the girlherself refused to stay. Anxious inquirieswere then, of course, made concerning thepastor's habits; and the solution of the phe-nomenon was soon obtained. For it appearedthat it had been the old man's custom foryears to walk up and down a passage of hishouse into which the kitchen-door opened, andto read to himself, with a loud voice, out ofhis favorite books. A considerable numberof these were still in the niece's possession.She added that he was a very learned manand a great Hebraist. Among the books werefound a collection of Babbinical writings, to-gether with several of the Greek and LatinFathers; and the physician succeeded in iden-tifying so many passages with those taken

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down at the young woman's bedside, that nodoubt could remain in any rational mind con-cerning the true origin of the impressionsmade on her nervous system."

CHAPTER VTTT.

INHERITED MEMOEY.

Memory is a far greater thing than is gen-erally imagined. Not only does it includethe storing away and retention of impres-sions received by the individual, but also theretention of impressions received, and expe-riences gathered, by the ancestors of the in-dividual. There are certain race memoriesstored away in the great subconscious regionof the mind which have much to do with ourthoughts, feelings and actions. So little isthis recognized that many will dispute thestatement when they first hear it. But a lit-tle consideration will show anyone that allthat we call "inherited tendencies and tastes;instinct," is but a form of memory transmit-ted from one organism to another along thelines of heredity. Our ancestors live in andthrough us, though they have long passedaway from the scene of earthly life.

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What we call "instinct" gives us a verygood idea of this form of memory. Jamessays: "Instinct is usually denned as thefaculty of acting in such a way as to producecertain ends, without foresight of the ends,and without previous education in the per-formance." Halleck says: "Instinct givescomplex action toward a definite end whichis not foreseen, as when the silkworm spinsher shroud. . . . When a conscious sen-sation, due either to external or internal stim-uli, results in purpositive action toward agiven end which is not foreseen, that action isinstinctive. A young stork left alone in anorthern latitude would migrate southwardon the approach of autumn. . . . If thebird had never been south before, he couldhave no idea of the purpose of his flight al-though it would be action directed toward anintelligent end. Certain sensations of organ-ic origin prompt the young bird to build itsfirst nest. This bird has never been taught,nor has it had any experience of nest-build-ing. Yet the first nest is constructed on thesame principles and fashioned as well as anyof its successors. All the actions—the spread-

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ing of the wings in flight, the gathering ofgrass, straw and twigs, the moistening of thebill for making mud—are a series of complexmovements blindly directed toward an intelli-gent end. . . . When the caterpillarfeels certain stimuli, it mechanically beginsto weave a shroud in a blind, reflex way, andthe action is continued so long as the stimuliare operative. If a stork is confined in acage with iron bars, so strong as to shut offhope of escape, when the stimulus of autum-nal cold affects the bird, it will repeatedlydash its breast against the bars until it isbloody. . . Darwin says that young sal-mon kept in a tub of water will often leapout at a certain time, and thus commit unin-tentional suicide."

James says: "The cat runs after themouse, runs or shows fight before the dog,avoids falling from walls and trees, shunsfire and water, not because he has any notioneither of life or of death, or of self-preserva-tion. . . He acts in each case separately,and simply because he cannot help it; beingso framed that when that particular runningthing called a mouse appears in his field of

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vision he must pursue; that when that partic-ular barking and obstreperous thing called adog appears there he must retire, if at a dis-tance, and scratch if close by; that he must•withdraw his feet from water and his facefrom flame, etc. . . . Now, why do thevarious animals do what seem to us suchstrange things, in the presence of such out-landish stimuli? Why does the hen, for ex-ample, submit herself to the tedium of incu-bating such a fearfully uninteresting set ofobjects as a nestful of eggs, unless she havesome sort of a prophetic inkling of the re-sult? The only answer is ad hominem. Wecan only interpret the instinct of brutes bywhat we know of instincts in ourselves. Whydo men always lie down, when they can, onsoft beds rather than on hard floors? Whydo they sit around a stove on a cold day?Why, in a room, do they place themselves,ninety-nine times out a hundred, with theirfaces toward its middle rather than to thewall? . . . Why does the maiden interestthe youth so much that everything about herseems more important and significant thananything else in the world? Nothing more

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can be said than that these are human ways,and that every creature likes its own ways,and takes to following them as a matter ofcourse. Science may come and consider theseways, and find that most of them are useful.But it is not for the sake of their utility thatthey are followed, but because at the momentof following them we feel that that is the onlyappropriate and natural thing to do. Not oneman in a million, when taking his dinner,ever thinks of its utility. He eats becausethe food tastes good, and makes him wantmore. If you should ask him why he shouldwant to eat more of what tastes like that, in-stead of revering you as a philosopher he willprobably laugh at you for a fool. . . . Ittakes, in short, what Berkeley calls a minddebauched by learning to carry the processof making the natural seem strange, so far asto ask for the why of any instinctive humanact. To the metaphysician alone can suchquestions occur as: Why do we smile, whenpleased, and not scowl? Why are we unableto talk to a crowd as to a single friend? Whydoes a particular maiden turn our wits up-side down? The common man can only say—

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'Of course we smile, of course our heart pal-pitates at the sight of the crowd, of course welove the maiden,—that beautiful soul clad inthat perfect form, so palpably and flagrantlympde from all eternity to be loved 1' And so,probably, does each animal feel about theparticular things it tends to do in the pres-ence of particular objects. They, too, are apriori syntheses. To the lion it is the lionesswhich is made to be loved; to the bear, theshe-bear. To the broody hen the notion wouldseem monstrous that there should be a crea-ture in the world to whom a nestful of eggswas not the utterly fascinating, precious andnever-to-be-too-much-sat-upon object whichit is to her. Thus we may be sure that how-ever mysterious some animals' instincts mayappear to us, our instincts will appear no lessmysterious to them. And we may concludethat, to the animal which obeys it, every im-pulse and every step of every instinct shineswith its own sufficient light, and seems at themoment the only externally right and properthing to do. It may be done for its own sakeexclusively. What voluptuous thrill may notshake a fly, when she at last discovers the one

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particular leaf, or carrion, or bit of dung,that out of all the world can stimulate herovipositor to its discharge? Does not the dis-charge then seem to her the only fitting thing?And need she care or know anything aboutthe future maggot and its food?"

James also says: "Nothing is commonerthan the remark that man differs from lowercreatures by the almost total absence of in-stincts, and the assumption of their work inhim by reason. . . . We may confidentlysay that however uncertain man's reactionsupon his environment may sometimes seemin comparison with those of the lower mam-mals, the uncertainty is probably not due totheir possession of any principles of actionwhich he lacks. On the contrary, man possess-es all the impulses that they have, and agreat many more besides.

Schneider says: "I t is a fact that men, es-pecially in childhood, fear to go into a darkcavern, or a gloomy wood. This feeling offear arises, to be sure, partly from the factthat we easily suspect that dangerous beastsmay lurk in these localities—a suspicion dueto stories we have heard and read. But, on

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the other hand, it is quite sure that this fearat a certain perception is also directly inher-ited. Children who have been carefullyguarded from all ghost stories are neverthe-less terrified and cry if led into a dark place,especially if sounds are made there. Even anadult can easily observe that an uncomfort-able timidity steals over him in a lonely woodat night, although he may have the fixed con-viction that not the slightest danger is near.This feeling of fear occurs in many men evenin their own house after dark, although it ismuch stronger in a dark cavern or forest.The fact of such instinctive fear is easily ex-plicable when we consider that our savageancestors through innumerable generationswere accustomed to meet with dangerousbeasts in caverns, especially bears, and werefor the most part attacked by such beasts dur-ing the night and in the woods, and that thusan inseparable association between the per-ceptions of darkness, caverns, woods, andfear took place, and was inherited."

James says: "High places cause fear ofa. peculiarly sickening sort, though, hereagain, individuals differ greatly. The utter-

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ly blind instinctive character of the motor im-pulses here is shown by the fact that they arealmost always entirely unreasonable, but thatreason is powerless to suppress them. . .Certain ideas of supernatural agency, associ-ated with real circumstances, produce a pe-culiar kind of horror. This horror is proba-bly explicable as the result of a combinationof simple horrors. To bring the ghostly ter-ror to its maximum, many usual elements ofthe dreadful must combine, such as loneliness,darkness, inexplicable sounds, especially ofa dismal character, moving figures half dis-cerned (or, if discerned, of dreadful aspect),and a vertiginous baffling of the expectation.. . . In view of the fact that cadaveric,reptilian, and underground horrors play sospecific and constant a part in many night-mares and forms of delirium, it seems not al-together unwise to ask whether these formsof dreadful circumstance may not at a form-er period have been more normal objects ofthe environment than now. The . . . ev-olutionist ought to have no difficulty in ex-plaining these terrors, and the scenery thatprovokes them, as relapses into the conscious-

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ness of the cave-men, a consciousness usuallyoverlaid in us by experiences of a more re-cent date. . . . There are certain otherpathological fears, and certain peculiaritiesin the expression of ordinary fear, whichmay receive an explanatory light from an-cestral conditions, even infra-human ones. Inordinary fear one may either run, or remainsemi-paralyzed. The latter condition re-minds us of the so-called death-shamming in-stinct as shown by many animals. . . . I tis simply a terror-paralysis which has be-come so useful as to become hereditary. . .Again, take the strange symptom which hasbeen described of late years by the rather ab-surd name of agoraphobia. The patient isseized with palpitation and terror at the sightof any open place or broad street which hehas to cross alone. He trembles, his kneesbend, he may even faint at the idea. Wherehe has sufficient self-command he sometimesaccomplishes the object by keeping safe un-der the lee of a vehicle going across or join-ing himself to a knot of other people. Butusually he slinks round the sides of thesquare, hugging the houses as closely as he

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can. This emotion has no utility in a civil-ized man, but when we notice the chronicagoraphobia of our domestic cats, and see thetenacious way in which many wild animals,especially rodents, cling to cover, and onlyventure on a dash across the open as a des-perate measure—even then making for everystone or bunch of weeds which may give amomentary shelter—when we see this we arestrongly tempted to ask whether such an oddkind of fear in us is not due to the accidentalresurrection, through disease, of a sort of in-stinct which may in some of pur remote an-cestors have had a permanent and on thewhole a useful part to play?"

Clodd says: "Instinct is the higher formof reflex action. The salmon migrates fromsea to river; the bird makes its nest or mi-grates from one zone to another by an unva-rying route, even leaving its young behind toperish; the bee builds its six-sided cell; thespider spins its web; the chick breaks its waythrough the shell, balances itself, and picksup grains of corn; the new-born babe sucksits mother's breast—all in virtue of like actson the part of their ancestors, which, arising

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in the needs of the creature, and gradually,becoming automatic, have not varied duringlong ages, the tendency to repeat them beingtransmitted within the germ from which in-sect, fish, bird, and man have severallysprung. . . . Even the so-called necessa-ry truths and innate ideas of the mind, as oftime and space, take their place among trans-mitted experiences. 'Being,' as HerbertSpencer says, 'the constant and infinitely re-peated elements of thought, they must be-come the automatic elements of thought ofwhich it is impossible to get rid. . . . Aninteresting illustration is supplied by a St.Bernard dog belonging to a relative. The dogwas born in London, and taken into the coun-try when a puppy. After a few months asharp fall of snow happened, and 'Ju ' whohad never seen snow before, was frantic toget outdoors. When she was free, she rolledin the snow, and dug it up with her claws asif rescuing some belated traveler. The sameexcitement was shown whenever snow fell."

The student of the subject of Instinct soondiscovers that the entire phenomena is boundup with the idea of Memory—instinct is by

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transmitted memory. And memory is essen-tially a function of the subconscious plane ofmind. Therefore all that is included in thegeneral field of Instinct really forms a partof the phenomena of the subconscious.

The "feeling" phase of man's mental na-ture is largely composed of inherited memo-ries of the past experiences of the race. AsBlurbank says: "Heredity means much, butwhat is heredity? Not some hideous ances-tral spectre, forever crossing the path of ahuman being. Heredity is simply the sum ofall the effects of ail the environments of allpast generations on the responsive ever-mov-ing life forces." The individual inheritsvery little from his own parents or grandpar-ents, but very much through them. Forthrough them flows the life-stream of count-less generations of men, the combined expe-riences of whom have left a subtle mental es-sence which is transmitted to the race. Manyof man's emotions, feelings, tastes and incli-nations, are the result of these race experi-ences of the past. There is much of the cave-man even in the most cultured individual,which comes to the surface when opportunity

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presents itself and environment supplies thestimulus. Civilization is only skin-deep-culture is only superficial. Beneath the thinveneer of our civilization lies the great massof the race experience with all its primitiveemotions, tendencies and impulses.

Not only in a general way do these race ex-periences, the memory of which is preservedin the subconscious mind, affect the individ-ual. Here and there, upon occasions, flashesof recollection pass before the mind of theindividual, often startling him with their sug-gestions of a knowledge of things known bysome ancestral mind in the early days of therace. Certain scenes, certain surroundings,certain happenings, awaken into activitytraces of the memory of the past, and the in-dividual is filled with a sense of familiarityat the scene; the happening, or the surround-ing circumstances. Science informs us thatmany of the dreams of the race, especially thenightmares, are the result of the reawaken-ing of subconscious memories of the past ex-periences of ancestors of perhaps severalthousand years ago. The frightful monstersof the nightmare axe by recollections of the

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prehistoric animals which terrified the mindsof the cave-man ancestor. The familiardream of running about clad only in the scant-iest raiment, or else utterly devoid of cloth-ing, and yet feeling no sense of shame—onlyto be overcome with shame and confusion aswe awaken—are held to be traces of ances-tral memories. The familiar dream of fallingfrom a high place is held to be a race-memoryof ancestors who fell from trees or over theprecipices of their cave-dwellings. The pe-culiarity of this last dream is that the dream-er always is awakened before he reaches thebottom of the cliff, or the foot of the tree.The ancestor who failed to have his fall ar-rested did not live to transmit his experience!

Jack London in his interesting story Be-fore Adam brings out this point very clearly,and his hero tells of his unusual dreams inwhich the entire life of one of his cave-dwell-ing ancestors is reproduced clearly. Thereseems to be good reason for believing thatmuch that we call "intuitive knowledge" isbut a well-developed faculty of recollectingthe experiences of the race, treasured up inour subconsciousness. Scientists have calcu-

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lated that each of us of course has thousandsof ancestors, and that frequent crossing ofthe ancestral lines has occurred, so thatpractically every individual living to-day hasamong his ancestors every individual of therace who lived five thousand years ago. Sothe ancestry of the race is practically com-mon to all, hence the uniformity of the moreelementary feelings and tendencies of therace. Each and every individual is an heirto all the experiences of past generations.

Without attempting to enter into a dis-cussion of the subject of reincarnation, wemay say that the majority of instances ad-vanced in favor of the theory, in which tracesof memories of the past form a part, may beequally well-accounted for upon the theory ofracial memory. Not only is this true regard-ing the elementary impressions of racethought, but also of specific instances inwhich the individual has a distinct recollec-tion of having experienced certain things be-fore, or having witnessed certain scenes be-fore. There are a number of well-authenti-cated cases on record in which persons havingthese experiences have, upon investigation,

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found that some near ancestor had undergonesimilar experiences, or had visited the scenesin question. One particular case relates theexperience of a young man who visited asmall place in England, and stopped at' an oldinn. The moment he entered the room he wasovercome by the sense of familiarity with thesurroundings. He seemed to have a clearrecollection of having been in the same roombefore—many years before. He stated hisimpressions to a friend who was with him,and finally said, "If I have ever been here be-fore, I then wrote my name with a diamondon the lowest window-pane of that left-handwindow." They approached the window, andthere in the corner of the pane was a namescratched with a diamond, as the young manhad stated. But it was not his name, but thename of his grandfather, accompanied by adate showing it to have been written therewhen the latter was a young man.

Another case was that of a young womanwho saw as if in a vision (although wide-awake at the time) a picture of herself ac-companied by a young man, the latter carv-ing a heart on the smooth bark of an old tree,

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and placing two sets of initials within it. Shehad never been in the place before, althoughit was the home of a distant relation. An ex-amination of the tree showed the faint tracesof a heart containing the initials of her fatherand her mother, the latter being the initialsof her mother's maiden name. Inquiry fromold relatives revealed the fact, unknown tothe girl, that her father had courted hermother in that very park adjoining the houseof the relative, many years before. "We haveheard of the case of a young woman whofound an old packet of letters belonging toher grandmother, and who knew, and toldothers, of their contents, before she untiedthem. She said that she felt as if she herselfhad received the letters many years before.On several occasions, we have heard youngwomen say that they "felt like" their moth-er, or grandmother, as the case happened tobe. They were not able to describe just whatwere their sensations, but tried to explainthat their sense of identity seemed to mergewith that of the mother, or grandmother.

There are doubtless many instances of thiskind known to persons who may read these

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lines, all of which would seem to establish theexistence of distinct inherited memories,transmitted from ancestor to descendent.And this would be but any set of facts con-cerning the phenomena of the subconsciousplane of mind, for such impressions andmemories could reside only in that region ofthe mind. The subconscious is the store-house of all that has gone before, both indi-vidual experiences and those of the race.

CHAPTEE IX.

MENTAL HABIT.

Among the many phases of the subcon-scious we find the phenomena of MentalHabit. Mental Habit belongs to the subcon-scious plane of mentation, for the reason thatits activities are performed below the ordina-ry plane of consciousness. That which wasoriginally performed on the conscious planeis afterward passed on to the subconsciousplane and becomes akin to the activities ofInstinct. In fact many of the actions per-formed by the average person are strictly in-stinctive— almost as much so as are the ac-tions resulting from inherited or transmittedinstinct.

Instinct is but inherited habit. Habit is butacquired instinct. Mental habit is analogousto certain tendencies of inanimate things. AsDumont has well said: "Every one knowshow a garment, after having been worn a cer-

103

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tain time, clings to the shape of the body bet-ter than when it was new; there has been achange in the tissue, and this change is a newhabit of cohesion. A lock works better afterbeing used some time; at the outset moreforce was required to overcome certainroughness in the mechanism. The overcom-ing of their resistance is a phenomena of ha-bituation. It costs less trouble to fold a pa-per when it has been folded already; . . .and just so in the nervous system the impres-sions of outer objects fashion for themselvesmore and more appropriate paths, and thesevital phenomena recur under similar excite-ments from without, when they have been in-terrupted a certain time."

Schofield says: "Do we not see in an olddress, even in a room, a something thatspeaks of habit, an adaptability of shape andcrease from constant wearing and use, or offittings and furniture, that cannot be seen ina new coat or lodgings? Does not an old vio-lin that has been the property of some greatmaster (not only made by some great maker)retain in its very fibres the habit of respond-ing to the grand chords he struck, with far

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greater ease than any instrument that hadnot acquired this 'habit 'by long use? . . .Nearly all natural instincts in animals havethus been formed as artificial reflexes in man.In man artificial habits formed at will replaceinstincts of fixed character, or, if you please,voluntary habits replace automatic habits. Itis wonderful to note that even fixed habitsthat have passed long since into instincts orreflexes, can be modified by environment.. . . The force of habit is, however, verygreat, and is only short of natural reflexes,which are omnipotent in the body. No powerof mind or will can stop the beating of theheart or the movement of the stomach, and ahabit may be formed as to be almost as dif-ficult to check. Darwin found that he had ac-quired, in common with most men, the habitof starting back at the sudden approach ofdanger; and no amount of will-power couldenable him to keep his face pressed againstthe plate-glass front of the cage of the cobrain the Zoo while it struck at him, even thoughhe exerted the full force of his will, and hisreason told him there was no danger."

James says: "Whilst we are learning to

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•walk, to ride, to swim, skate, fence, write,play or sing, we interrupt ourselves at everystep by unnecessary movements and falsenotes. When we are proficient, on the con-trary, the results follow not only with thevery minimum of muscular action requisiteto bring them forth, but they follow from asingle instantaneous 'cue.' The marksmansees the bird, and, before he knows it, he hasaimed and shot. A gleam in his adversary'seye, a momentary pressure from his rapier,and the fencer finds that he has instantlymade the right parry and return. A glanceat the musical hieroglyphics, and the pianist'sfingers have rippled through a shower ofnotes. And not only is it the right thing atthe right time that we thus involuntarily do,but the wrong thing also, if it be an habitualthing. Who is there that has never wound uphis watch on taking off his waistcoat in thedaytime, or taken his latch-key out on arriv-ing at the door-step of a friend? Persons ingoing to their bedroom to dress for dinnerhave been known to take off one garmentafter another and finally to get into bed, mere-ly because that was the habitual issue of the

MENTAL HABIT ;;"-.

first few movements when performed at alater hour. We all have a definite routinemanner of performing certain daily officesconnected with the toilet, with the openingand shutting of familiar cupboards, and thelike. But our higher thought-centres knowhardly anything about the matter. Few mencan tell off-hand which sock, shoe or trousers-leg they put on first. They must first mental-ly rehearse the act; and even that is often in-sufficient—the act must be performed. So ofthe questions, which valve of the shuttersopens first? Which way does my door swing?etc. I cannot tell the answer; yet my handnever makes a mistake. No one can describethe order in which he brushes his hair orteeth; yet it is likely that the order is a prettyfixed one in all of us ."

"Habit a second nature!" said the Duke ofWellington. "Habit is ten times nature!"Schneider says: " In the act of walking evenwhen our attention is entirely absorbed else-where, it is doubtful whether we could pre-serve equilibrium if no sensation of ourbody's attitude were there, and doubtfulwhether we should advance our leg if we had

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no sensation of its movement as executed, andnot even a minimal feeling of impulse to setit down. Knitting appears to be altogethermechanical, and the knitter keeps up herknitting even while she reads or is engagedin lively talk. But if we ask her how this ispossible, she will hardly reply that the knit-ting goes on of itself. She will rather saythat she has a feeling of it, and that she feelsin her hands that she knits and how she mustknit, and that therefore the movements ofknitting are called forth and regulated by thesensations associated therewithal, even whenthe attention is called away." Huxley says:"There is a story which is credible enough,though it may not be true, of a practical jokerwho, seeing a discharged veteran carryinghome his dinner, suddenly called out, 'Atten-tion!' whereupon the man instantly broughthis hands down, and lost his mutton and po-tatoes in the gutter."

Kay says: "In our first attempts to walk,to write, to play on an instrument, or to carryon any other operation, we are intensely con-scious of every movement that we make. Bydegrees, as we acquire more ease and dex-

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terity in their performance, we become lessand less conscious of them, till we may cometo perform them quite unconsciously." Stew-art says: "An expert accountant can sum upalmost with a single glance of his eye a longcolumn of figures. He can tell the sum withunerring certainty, while at the same time heis unable to recollect any one of the figures ofwhich that sum is composed, and yet nobodydoubts that each of these figures has passedthrough his mind, or supposes that when therapidity of the process becomes so great thathe is unable to recollect the various steps ofit, he obtains the result by a sort of inspira-tion."

Maudsley says: "When a beginner islearning his notes on the pianoforte, he hasdeliberately to call to mind each note; but,when, by frequent practice, he has acquiredcomplete skill in playing on that instrumentthere is no conscious memory, but his move-ments are automatic." Kay says: "Thereare some who hold that when actions thuscomie to be performed unconsciously, the mindceases to have any part in the direction ofthem." But this idea has been superseded by

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the theories of the subconscious mind whichhave arisen from a better acquaintance withthe subject. As Stewart says: "In the caseof some operations which are very familiarto us, we find ourselves unable to attend to orto recollect the acts of the will by which theywere preceded; and accordingly some phil-osophers of great eminence have called inquestion the existence of such volitions, andhave represented our habitual actions as in-voluntary and mechanical. But surely thecircumstance of our inability to recollect ourvolitions does not authorize us to disputetheir possibility, any more than our inabilityto attend to the process of the mind, in esti-mating the distance of an object from the eye,authorizes us to affirm that the perception isinstantaneous."

Kay says: "The more we cultivate andtrain any power or faculty, the more easilyand rapidly does it perform its work,—theless is consciousness concerned in it, the morework does it accomplish, and the less does itsuffer from fatigue. Our mental progress,then, is in the direction of our becoming un-conscious, or largely unconscious, of many of

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our activities. Consciousness has at first animportant place in the training of our facul-ties and the building up of our knowledge.The more consciousness is concentrated uponany new operation, the more readily is itmastered; and the more it is concentrated up-on any idea brought before the mind, the bet-ter is it impressed upon the memory. But aswe acquire facility and skill in the operation,as the memory acquired strength we becomeless conscious of them." Maudsley says:"The interference of consciousness is oftenan actual hindrance to the association ofideas, as it notably is to the performance ofmovements that have attained the completeease of an automatic execution." Morrellsays: " I n proportion as volition has to beexercised in carrying them on, in that propor-tion are they imperfectly performed, andthen only at the expense of much labor andfatigue." Maudsley again says: "Conscious-ness does essential service in the buildingup of faculties of thought and action; its partis comparatively small in the use we make ofthem afterwards. . . . There is not a fac-ulty of the mind which, though they began by

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using it consciously, they do not after habit-ual practice exercise unconsciously."

Therefore, in view of the above, we maysee the truth of Eay's statement: "Thegreat object of education should be to trans-fer as much as possible of our actions fromthe conscious to the unconscious region ofour mind. Schofield says: "Once a habit iswell established on such lines as these, the in-terference of conscious will only spoils itsperfect action. Whenever knitting or type-writing has become automatic, if you thinkabout the formation of every stitch or letter,you have to work much more slowly, and aremore liable to make mistakes. A fixed habitis thus deranged by volition. The more fixeda habit becomes, the less of the body is re-quired to execute it, and thus a great econo-my of force is effected. In commencing pianoplaying, the young performer plays with herhands, and arms and body and head, andoften her -tongue. As she forms a perfect ar-tificial relax, less and less of the body ismoved, until at last it is literally nothing butthe hands and wrists that are engaged, theconscious brain, being at perfect rest, or

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thinking of something else altogether. Habitis thus of great economic value. Habit, whichis physical memory, is of such importance tocharacter that a brain without such memoryis either idiotic or infantile. Artificial re-flexes last long if well formed. EobertHoudin, the conjurer, trained himself in thedifficult habit of reading aloud while keepingfour balls going in the air. He did not prac-tice this for many years, and yet after thirtyyears he found he could still read and keepthree balls going. Anyone who tries this featwill understand its difficulty."

Schofield also says: "Ease and perfectionin any pursuit entirely depend upon the de-gree in which it ceases to be connected withconsciousness and is carried on subconscious-ly. Playing the piano, skating, bicycling,skilled trades, and indeed almost everything,depend for their perfect execution on thepower of the subconscious mind, which isonly hampered when interfered with by theconscious mind. . . . The marvels ofplaying a brilliant piece on the piano, whileat the same time conducting a vigorous con-versation, show also the greatness of our un-

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conscious powers, especially when we remem-ber that Sir James Paget has pointed out thatin rapid playing the finger moves twenty-four times a second, each movement involv-ing at least three muscular acts, which if mul-tiplied by ten, gives 720 impulses per secondfor both hands." Miss Cobbe says: "Thepen of a ready writer seems> to dip itself intothe ink at the right time, to form of itself allthe words, and even to select different wordsto begin each sentence, and to avoid termi-nating them with prepositions, while all thetime the conscious mind of the writer isdeeply occupied with the plot.'*

The same authority says: " I would re-mark here that in what we call voluntary ac-tions all we do is to will a result, as of raisingthe hand to the mouth. The ease with whichwe do it and indeed the power to do it at allarise, not from our will-power being able t6control the so-called voluntary muscles, but intheir association by unconscious mental ac-tion for the purpose by long established habit.Where no such habit exists an action becomeswell nigh impossible, however strongly itmay be willed. By long habit, hereditary in

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nature, we always swing our right arm withthe movement of our left leg, and the left armwith the right leg. Let anyone will to thecontrary; that is to move the right arm withthe right leg, and vice versa, and, howeverstrong the effort of will may be, they will findin the end that it is powerless to overcomethis established habit, except most awk-wardly, and for the shortest time. The intensedifficulty of the one movement and the perfectease of the other, both in themselves equallyeasy, are most striking. Let anyone will toplay the violin, or to skate, or to swim, or inshort to do anything that requires the forma-tion of habits, and they will see it is impossi-ble and that to do so at all a habit must nec-essarily be formed for the very purpose; andthen, behold! the thing which was impossibleto perform by conscious will-power is exe-cuted by unconscious forces with almost con-temptuous ease. Few of us know what bun-dles of habits we are, and we imagine manyof our actions to be voluntary which are reallyartificially automatic. Let any man overforty try to wash and dress himself in any butthe accustomed order, and he will see what

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difficulties arise. He may not know the orderin which he washes his face—but the Handsknow. He cannot tell which foot is put intohis stockings first—but the feet know. Be-fore I begin to dress, from long habit I am al-most compelled to pull up the blind a certainexact height, and if I fail to do so, I feel aninward impulse that is not satisfied till it isobeyed. Consider the habit of shooting—theperfect ease with which the trained sports-man, the moment the grouse rise, aims andfires well-nigh automatically at the birds,which themselves have acquired advancedhabits (as Sir Joseph Fayrer has told us) inlearning unconsciously to avoid the telegraphwires as they fly, which in earlier times theyalways struck against."

It has been said by eminent psychologiststhat over ninety percent of our mental proc-esses are performed on the subconscious -plane. A consideration of the facts abovestated, in connection with mental habit, willshow us that this statement is correct. AsProf. Gates has well said: "At least ninetypercent of our mental life is subconscious. Ifyou will analyze your mental operations you

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will find that conscious thinking is never acontinuous line of consciousness, but a seriesof conscious data with great intervals of sub-consciousness. We sit and try to solve aproblem and fail. We walk around, try againand fail. Suddenly an idea dawns that leadsto a solution of the problem. The subcon-scious processes were at work. We do notvolitionally create our own thinking. It takesplace in us. We are more or less passive re-cipients. We cannot change the nature of athought, or of a truth, but we can, as it were,guide the ship by a moving of the helm."

The woman who runs her sewing machinebecomes so expert that she will proceed toexecute the most intricate work thereon, andat the same time will be thinking of mattersof an entirely different nature—perhaps maybe glancing out of the window, but let some-thing go wrong with the machine or the mate-rial—let the thread snap or something "getcaught.'' and her subconscious mind will senda quick, sharp command to its conscious com-panion and the attention will be on the workin a moment. The same thing is true of thetypewriter who writes at a great rate of speed

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while thinking of her new hat, or how shewill trim that dress that she is making over.In some cases she will feel that she hasomitted a comma or couple of lines furtherback, and she will stop her writing to correctthe error. Some schools of typewriting teachtheir pupils to write by touch—that is, with-out glancing at the keys, many of the pupilsbeing able to write in the dark, or else blind-folded.

Likewise the compositor who sets up thisbook on the typesetting machine at a high rateof speed, does so more or less unconsciously.His fingers fly over the keys, and his eyes arefastened on the "copy," but although he feelsthe keys and sees the manuscript his mind isprobably far away. He corrects our punctu-ation, and supplies a missing letter to someword—often finds it necessary to remedy er-rors in spelling (alas!) but while doing thishe forms no conscious mental impression ofthe sense of what is being read, and when heleaves his work he is unable to tell whether itwas a page of Pilgrim's Progress, one ofBernard Shaw's plays, or a chapter onMental Habit! And, moreover, he will sub-

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consciously read and set up the type of theabove statement, and will be totally uncon-scious that we have been using him as an ob-ject lesson in our text. Moreover, the proof-readers who go over the work of the composi-tor will read the printed pages, detecting er-rors with a greater or less degree of skill, andwill not be conscious of what it is all about—nor will they detect this reference to them-selves, although one reads it to another. Un-less the word "proof-reader" strikes theirear with a familiar sound, they will remainin blissful oblivion of the reference. But letsome one at the other end of the room whispersomething of a personal nature, and they willhear each word distinctly and will understandwhat is being said, even though the proof-reading proceeds without interruption.

Telegraph operators manifest the same de-gree and character of subconscious menta-tion. They will receive, or send, long mes-sages without thinking of the subject, and re-maining totally unconscious of the news thatis being transmitted. They pay no attentionwhatsoever, consciously, to the matter pass-ing through their hands. I t is related by the

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biographer of a noted electrician, that he wasworking in the main office of a telegraph com-pany, in one of the large cities, when the newsof the assassination of President Lincolncame over the wires in the shape of a pressdispatch. The operator took down the newsand wrote it on the sheet, and passed it onthrough the regular channels without realiz-ing what the news was. It was simply a partof a long series of news-stuff that he was tak-ing down. Later the details began coming in,but the operators did not consciously graspthe import of the messages although they tookdown every word of it. After several hours,one of the operators stopped work and wentoutside, where he saw by the newspaper ex-tras that the President had been assassin-ated. He rushed back into the office andstartled the operators with the news. Theydoubted it, and referred to their copies ofthe messages they had taken, when they sawthat they had been receiving the news forseveral hours without realizing it. This isfar from being an exceptional case, and isnotable only by reason of the importance ofthe news in question.

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"Who does not travel over his accustomedroute, to and from his work, without takingconscious notice of his steps and his progress.The same thing is noticeable to a greater de-gree when one has "something on his mind"and walks home preoccupied with his rev-eries or thoughts. Blocks are traversed, cor-ners are turned, passing vehicles are avoided,automobiles are dodged—all unconsciously—and at the last the day-dreamer finds himselfturning toward his own door-step, or flat en-trance, and then only does he "wake up." Itis the phenomena of the somnambulist, orsleepwalker, in a lesser degree. A consider-ation of the subject will convince any personthat at least ninety percent of his mental ac-tivities are performed by Ids subconsciousmind. The conscious mind is little more thanthe pilot at the wheel—the subconscious is theengineer down below in the mental engine-room.

In Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion, theNew Psychology furnishes one with the secretof the Mastery of Habit. While it is truethat Habit masters the individual, it is like-wise true that the individual may create his

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own habits—may establish desirable habits,and neutralize and inhibit undesirable ones.Auto-Suggestion, properly used in a scientificmanner, renders the individual the master inthe end. In the volume of this series entitledSuggestion and Auto-Suggestion, we havegiven in detail the methods approved of andemployed by eminent psychologists for thecultivation of desirable habits and the de-struction of undesirable habits. The personwho neglects this important subject placeshimself at a considerable disadvantage, andthrows away one of the most effective mentalweapons forged by modern science. In Auto-Suggestion we have the Key to CharacterBuilding, which includes the mastery of habit.

CHAPTER X.

THE SUBCONSCIOUS AND THE BODY.

It is now generally conceded by the bestauthorities that the subconscious mind hascharge and control of the activities and func-tions of the physical body. Many personsseem to think that the physical organs ' ' runthemselves" like the wheels of a watch whichmove in response to the wound-up spring.But there is ever in evidence the presence ofmind in all of the activities of the body evento the movements and activities of the cells.Hudson's claim that "The subjective mindhas absolute control of the functions, condi-tions and sensations of the body" has beencorroborated by the later investigators. AsSchofield says: "The unconscious mind, inaddition to the three qualities which it sharesin common with the conscious—vis., will, in-tellect and emotion—has undoubtedly another

123

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very important one—nutrition, or the generalmaintenance of the body.

Von Hartmann says: "The explanationthat unconscious psychical activity itself ap-propriately forms and maintains the bodyhas not only nothing to be said against it, buthas all possible analogies from the most dif-ferent departments of physical and of animallife in its favor, and appears to be as scientifi-cally certain as is possible in the inferencesfrom effect to cause.'' Maudsley says:' ' Theconnection of mind and body is such that agiven state of mind tends to echo itself atonce in the body." Carpenter says: "If apsychosis or mental state is produced by aneurosis or material nerve state, as pain bya prick, so also is a neurosis produced by apsychosis. That mental antecedents callforth physical consequents is just as certainas that physical antecedents call forth mentalconsequents." Tuke says: "Mind, throughsensory, motor, vaso-motor and trophicnerves, causes changes in sensation, muscularcontraction, nutrition and secretion. . . .If the brain is an outgrowth from a body cor-puscle and is in immediate relation with the

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structures and tissues that preceded it, then,though these continue to have their own ac-tion, the brain must be expected to act uponthe muscular tissue, the organic functions andupon the nervous system itself." Tuke usesthe word "brain" as synonymous with"mind."

Von Hartmann says: " I n willing any con-scious act, the unconscious will is evoked toinstitute means to bring about the effect.Thus, if I will a stronger salivary secretion,the conscious willing of this effect excites theunconscious will to institute the necessarymeans. Mothers are said to be able to pro-vide through the will a more copious secre-tion, if the sight of the child arouses in themthe will to suckle. There are people who per-spire voluntarily. I now possess the power ofinstantaneously reducing the severest hic-coughs to silence by my own will, while it wasformerly a source of great inconvenience tome. . . . An irritation to cough, whichhas no mechanical cause, may be permanentlysuppressed by the will. I believe we mightpossess a far greater voluntary power overour bodily functions if we were only accus-

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tomed from childhood to institute experimentsand to practice ourselves therein. . . Wehave arrived at the conclusion that every ac-tion of the mind on the body, "without excep-tion, is only possible by means of an uncon-scious will; that such an unconscious will canbe called forth partly by means of a consciouswill, partly also through the conscious idea ofthe effect, without conscious will, and even inopposition to the conscious will."

Wundt says: "Mental phenomena cannotbe referred to bodily as effects to causes, butthere is a uniform co-ordination betweenmental processes and definite physical proc-esses in the brain. The connection can onlybe regarded as a parallelism of two causalseries side by side, but never directly interfer-ing with each other, in virtue of the incompat-ibility of their terms. It is a psychophysicalparallelism." Porter says: "All those in-ferences that unextended spirit and extendedmatter can have no relations with each otherare set aside by the obvious facts that onedoes affect the other. The spirit can take thebody, and by conscious and unconscious ac-tivities, mould it for a dwelling place and in-

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strument for its uses, before it enters intopossession by sensibility and intelligence."

Schofield says: "The mental centres inthe cortex have the power of directly influenc-ing physiological functions and tissue nutri-tion. . . . Going to sleep is undoubtedlylargely the result of suggestions from the un-conscious mind, which also brings a generalfeeling into consciousness when, on wakingenough sleep has been had; or on the otherhand, when it has been insufficient." Mauds-ley says: "The general bodily feeling whichresults from the sense of the different or-ganic processes is not attended with any defi-nite consciousness." Schofield adds: "Butcertain mental feelings seem connected withdefinite parts of the body—love with the heartand melancholy with the liver, while to ar-rive at the highest point of mental insight,there has always been a tendency to direct thethoughts to the pit of the stomach, or justabove the navel; here lies the great solarplexus, chief center of the sympathetic sys-tem. Many feelings are connected with thisregion, and we speak of a sickening story,sickening thoughts, etc. . . . The or-

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ganic or vegetative functions as woll as theskin and hair are specially affected by theemotions. A short time of extreme troublemay make a man look many years older thanbefore it commenced. The eye •will lose itsbrightness, the face will become withered, thebrow wrinkled and the hair blanched. Fearmay check perspiration and produce skin dis-eases."

Garter quotes a case where: "A lady sawa heavy dish fall from her child's hand, cut-ting off three of the fingers. She felt greatpain in her hand, and on examination the cor-responding three were swollen and inflamed.In twenty-four hours incisions were made,and pus evacuated." Von Hartman says:"The influence of the most dissimilaremotions on the functions of secretion arewell known; e. g., vexation and anger on bileand milk." James says: "The unconsciousmind as revealed by hypnotism can exercisemarvelous control over the nervous, vaso-motor and circulatory and other systems. Ahypnotized person can hold out his arm in-definitely in painless contraction, can inhalestrong ammonia under the name of attar of

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roses with unwatery eyes. . . . Thereseems to be no reasonable grounds for doubt-ing that, in certain chosen subjects, conges-tion, burns, blisters, raised papules, bleedingfrom the nose or skin can be produced by sug-gestion." Braid says: "The expectation ofa belief of something about to happen is quitesufficient to change the physical action of anypart. . . . The sensation of heat and coldcan be abolished by the unconscious mind, andhigh temperature produced in the blood bythe same agency without disease."

Schofield says: "The effects of a purga-tive pill have been rendered nil and it has pro-duced sleep in the belief it was an opiate pill,though consisting of a strong dose of colo-cynth and calomel. On the other hand, anopium pill given for sleep has failed to pro-duce it, but proved a strong purgative in thebelief it was so intended. Laughter stamps amerry look upon the face, which, by degrees,becomes permanent, and tends to produce ahappy disposition. If you set your face trulyto express a passion, you tend to feel that pas-sion. . . . It is very curious how weplace our body in attitudes corresponding to

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our mental states, just as we have alreadyseen bodily attitudes may cause mental states.If we try to see a thing with our mind we of-ten put on an intense and strained expressionwith our eyes. If we are in a state of delightthe eyes are fixed in ecstacy. Some words al-most seem to have a pleasant or disagreeabletaste. How great grief paralyzes the bodygenerally! Falling in love, too, affects thewhole body, while the shock of breaking offan engagement may produce profound anae-mia, or blanch the hair in twenty-four hours."

Braid, who gave to hypnotism its name,says: " I passed a gold pencil-case from thewrist to the fingers of a lady fifty-six yearsold without touching her, and she experienceda creeping, twitching sensation in that handuntil it become quite unpleasant. On gettingher to look in another direction and describeher feelings, the results were the same whenI made no movement at all, the whole beingevidently caused by the power of the mindin causing a physical action of the body. Withanother lady I took a pair of scissors andpassed them over her hand laid upon the tablefrom the wrist downward without contact.

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She immediately felt a creeping sensationfollowed by spasmodic twitching of the mus-cles so as to toss the hand from the table. Ithen desired her to place her other hand onthe table, so that she might not observe whatwas being done, and in the same length of timesimilar phenomena were manifested, thoughI did nothing. I then told her her hand wouldbecome cold, and it was so; then intensely hot.. . . A London physician, who mesmer-ized by the use of a powerful magnet, had apatient in a magnetic sleep. He told me themere touch of a magnet would at once stiffenher which at once proved to be the case. I nowtold him I had a small instrument in mypocket which was quite as powerful, and of-fered to operate on his patient, whom I hadnever seen before, and who was asleep whenI entered the room. My instrument was onlythree inches long, aa thick as a quill, with aring at the end. I told him, when put intoher hands, both arms would become rigid, andsuch was the case. I then took the instru-ment from her, and again returned it to an-other position, and told him now it wouldhave the reverse effect, and she would not

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be able to hold it; and now, if her hand wasforcibly closed on it, it would open of itself,and such was the case, to the great surpriseof the doctor, who wanted to know what hadbeen done to the instrument to invest it withthis opposite power. This I declined to tellhim till he had seen the following proofs ofits remarkable powers. I told him that atouch with it on either leg would cause the legto rise and become rigid, and such was thecase. That a second touch would relax therigidity, and cause it to fall, which proved tobe a fact. She then awoke. I then appliedthe ring of my instrument to the third fingerof her right hand, from which it was sus-pended, and told the doctor it would send herasleep; to this he replied, ' I t never will.' Itold him again I was sure of it. We were thensilent and she speedily fell asleep. Havingroused her again, I put the instrument on thesecond finger of her left hand, and told thedoctor it would be found she could not go tosleep when it was placed there. He said shewould, and steadily gazed at her to send heroff. After some time he asked her if she didnot feel sleepy, to which she replied, 'Not at

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all.' I then requested her to look at the pointof the forefinger of her right hand, which Itold the doctor would send her to sleep, andsuch was the case. I then roused her, andmade her go to sleep again by looking at thenail of the thumb of the left hand. I then ex-plained to the doctor that the wonderful in-strument which I had used was the key andring of my portmanteau."

The above cases cited by Braid are typicalcases of masked suggestion, and tend toprove the contention of the suggestioniststhat the phenomena of hypnotism are causedby suggestion pure and simple, instead of bythe outward passes, instruments, and otherfanciful accessories of the mesmerist. Theyare quoted here for the purpose of illustrat-ing the effect of accepted suggestions uponthe subconscious planes of mentation, andthe resulting physical manifestations.

Tuke quotes a case of a woman who wasafflicted with a severe attack of acute rheu-matism upon hearing that her husband hadmet with a serious accident. He says:"Pleasurable emotion gives firmness andregularity to the action of the heart, promotesthe circulation of the blood, increases the

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gastric secretions, and imparts firmness andregularity to the muscular contractions ofthe stomach. . . . John Hunter says hewas subject to spasm of his vital parts whenanxious about any event; as, for instance,whether bees would swarm or not; whetherthe large cat he was anxious to kill would getaway before he could get the gun." Dr. Leithsaid that he was "inclined to doubt whetherthe benefits of Nauheim (a treatment for theheart) were not after all to be explainedlargely, if not entirely, by the influence of themental factor!" Malebranche relates thatwhen he read Deserates' treatise1 De I'hommeit caused such a violent beating of the heartby its wonderful power that he was obliged tolay it aside to breathe freely again.

Schofield says: "Joy increases the palpi-tation of the heart by increased vital action,terror does the same in another way. As ageneral principle, pleasurable emotions in-crease the vital functions, and painful onesdepress them. The action of the heart isgreatly affected by emotions through the sym-pathetic system; it is quickened or slowed oreven stopped by mental shock through the

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tenth nerve. The movements of the heart arealtered, and peculiarities of the beat are ex-aggerated when attention is closely fixed uponit. . . . During the rush of consumptivesto Berlin for inoculation by Dr. Koch's tuber-culin, a special set of symptoms were observedto follow the injection and were taken as be-ing diagnostic of the existence of tubercu-losis; amongst others, a rise of temperatureafter so many hours. These phenomena wereeagerly looked for by the patients, and oc-curred accurately in several who were in-jected with pure water. The formation ofblisters full of serum from the application ofplain stamp and other paper to various partsof the bodies of patients in the hypnotic state,is well attested and undoubtedly true."

A writer in the "Proceedings of the Psy-chical Research Society" says: "Dr. R. vonKrafft-Ebing has produced a rise from 37degrees C. to 38.5 degrees in a patient whosemind was fixed by suggestion, and Dr. Binethas lowered the temperature of the hand 10degrees 0. 'How can it be,' he asks, 'whenone merely says to the subject, "your handwill become cold," and the vaso-motor system

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answers by constricting the artery?' " Tukesays. "A lady saw a child in immediate dan-ger of having its ankle crushed by an irongate. She was greatly agitated, but could notmove, owing to intense pain coming on in hercorresponding ankle. She walked home withdifficulty, took off her stocking and found acircle around the ankle of a light red color,with a large red spot on the outer side. Bythe morning her whole foot was inflamed, andshe had to remain in bed for some days.. . . A young woman witnessing thelancing of an abscess in the axilla immedi-ately felt pain in that region, followed by in-flammation. Dr. Marmise of Bordeaux tellsus of a lady's maid who, when the surgeonput his lancet into her mistress's arm to bleedher, felt the prick in her own arm, and shortlyafter there appeared a bruise at the spot."

Prof. Barrett says: " I t is not so wellknown, but it is nevertheless a fact, that ut-terly startling physiological changes can beproduced in a hypnotized subject merely byconscious or unconscious mental suggestion.Thus a red scar or a painful burn, or even afigure of definite shape, such as a cross or an

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initial, can be caused to appear on the bodyof an entranced subject solely by suggestingthe idea. By creating some local disturbanceof the blood-vessels in the skin, the uncon-scious self has done what it would be impossi-ble for the conscious self to perform. And soin the well-attested cases of stigmata, where aclose resemblance to the wounds on the bodyof the crucified Saviour appear on the bodyof the ecstatic. This is a case of unconsciousself-suggestion, arising from the intent andadoring gaze of the ecstatic upon the bleed-ing figure on the crucifix. With the abeyanceof the conscious self, the hidden powersemerge, whilst the trance and mimicry of thewounds are strictly parallel to the experi-mental cases previously referred to. Maynot some of the well-known cases of mimicryin animal life originate, like the stigmata, ina reflex action, as physiologists would say,below the level of consciousness, created bya predominant impression analogous to thoseproducing the stigmata? That is to say, toreflex actions excited by an unconscious sug-gestion derived from the environment; inother words, the dynamic, externalizing

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power of thought, if the action of that whichis unconscious may be called thought. Wemust, in fact, extend our idea of 'thought' tosomething much wider than intellectuation orideation—these are special acts of thought,for the direction of functional activity of oursub-liminal life has also the attributes ofthought though we may be unconscious of itsthinking."

Schofield says: "The will can produce acough, but not a sneeze. Hysterical (ormind) cough, and dyspnoea or short breathare well known. One cannot breathe natur-ally when the action is brought into full con-sciousness. When a patient is told to breathenaturally, and tries hard to do so, the resultsare often ludicrous. Emotions produce afeeling of suffocation, and the rising of a ballin the throat. The breath is altered by theemotions. The short quiet breath of joy con-trasts with the long sigh of relief afterbreathless suspense. Joy gives eupnaea oreasy breathing, grief or rather fear tends todyspnoea or difficult breathing. Sobbing goeswith grief, laughter with joy, and one oftenmerges into the other. Yawning is produced

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by pure idea or by seeing it, as well as byfatigue. Dr. Morton Prince says a lady heknew always had violent catarrh in the nose(hay fever) if a rose was in the room. Hegave her an artificial one and the usual symp-toms followed. He then showed her it was afalse one, and had no pollen, etc., and everafter all symptoms disappeared. How manycases of hay fever have a somewhat similarorigin in the unconscious mind. . . Bes-piration is almost suspended in strong intel-lectual work. "We both see and hear bestwhen not breathing. . . The hair may beturned gray and white by emotion in a fewhours or sooner. . . If the thoughts arestrongly directed to the intestinal canal, as bybread pills,- it will produce strong peristalticaction. Vomiting occurs from mental causes,apart from organic brain disease. Bad newswill produce nausea; emotion also, or seeinganother person vomit, or certain smells orideas, or thoughts about a sea-voyage, or thethought that an emetic has been taken. Thethought of food produces a copious flow ofgastric juices in the stomach and saliva in themouth. Hysterical dyspepsia, eructation,

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vomiting and gastralgia are all common.. . . The thought of an acid fruit will fillthe mouth with water. A successful way ofstopping discordant, street-music is to suck alemon within full view of a German band.Fear will so dry the throat that dry rice can-not be swallowed. This is a test in India forthe deteotion of a murder. The suspected manis brought forward and given a handful of riceto swallow. If he can do this he is innocent;if he cannot he is guilty, fear having dried uphis mouth. Vomiting in cases of poisoningis not always from stomach irritation. Insome cases it is the result of a protectivemechanism. Similarly we get loss of appe-tite in bilious attacks. Dr. Murchison saysthere is good evidence that nerve influencemay not only cause functional derangement,but also cure structural disease of the liver.A young lady who could not be cured of vom-iting was engaged to be married. On beingtold that the wedding day must be postponedtill cured, the vomiting ceased. Sir JamesPaget tells us of very severe parotitis or in-flammation of the salivary gland occurring ina man of sixty-nine from the sight of acid

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food. When a boy he was always upset at thesight of vinegar."

And now having listened to the testimonyregarding the effect of the subconscious mindon the body, let us proceed to a considerationof the effect of suggestion, through the sub-conscious mind, over diseased conditions ofthe body. This phase of the subject gives usthe most convincing evidence of the existenceof the subconscious mind, and its dominantpower over the physical functions.

From the most ancient times there havebeen various forms and methods of influenc-ing the subconscious mind in the direction ofcausing it to exert itself to bring about normalfunctioning of the physical organs and partsof the body. Under various guises—by theuse of various symbols—by the employmentof various methods—under various names—has this form of therapy been practiced.In the majority of cases it has been maskedunder the form of religion or semi-religiousceremonies of higher or lower degree. And,likewise, it is often found masquerading un-der the guise or symbol of some fanciful con-trivance, remedy, or appliance supposed to

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possess therapeutic value. But, under all ofthese guises and cloaks, the psychologist isable to discern the form of the familiar useof suggestion for the purpose of inciting thesubconscious mind to activity and normalfunctioning.

Among the tribes of Africa we find thecaste" of magicians or medicine-men, who withquaint and grotesque ceremonies charm thedisease away from the tribesmen. Many ofthese magicians are impostors, while manyare neurotic individuals who work themselvesup to a state of emotional frenzy which is ac-cepted as a sure mark of superhuman power.In Australia we find the koonkie who claimsto have the power of transferring the diseasefrom the body of the afflicted person to a bitof leaf, wood or earth. In Hawaii we find thekahuna, who pow-wows over the sick personand charms away his ailment. In Siberia wefind the shaman, or healing-priests, who claimto have divine power to cure diseases, andwho often throw themselves into trances intheir desire to show a visible sign of theirgreat power. In the Antilles we find the bo-huti who heals by means of ecstatic gyrations

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and manifest trickery. In China we find thefox-priest who claims to possess the power todrive away the demonic foxes who are gnaw-ing at the vitals of the sufferer. In Japanthere are several castes of priests who havea monopoly in certain sections in the matterof charming away disease hy mystical andreligious ceremonies. In India the religioushealers' name is legion. On all sides theyswarm, with their prayers, charms and incan-tations.

Not only in modern times, hut in the mostancient as well, the priestly medicine man wasin evidence. In Assyria and Babylon thepriests had developed the art of driving awaythe tormenting demons by their magical arts.Among the Jews the priests cured by prayerand ceremonies. The Egyptians had theirsacred temples in which the sick were re-stored to health, and the priests with the giftof healing. The Greeks and Eomans had theirshrines and holy places where the diseasedmight become whole once more, after bestow-ing alms and fees upon the priests. In shortwherever men have lived there have beenfound these religious or semi-religious

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methods of healing disease. And even to-day, we find the practice in full vigor, withits various forms of sacred shrines, saintlyrelics, religious formulae, and various "move-ments" in which religion and psychotherapyare co-mingled, often grotesquely.

The modern psychologist brushes awaywith a bold hand the mystery underlyingthese priestly cures. He sees in evidence al-ways the principle of suggestion in operationin the direction of stimulating the subcon-scious mind toward correct physical function-ing. The principle underlying these cures isvery simple in its basic elements and in itsmethods. An understanding of the methodswill enable anyone to duplicate the most won-derful of the religious cures, providing theconditions are equally favorable. It is verytrue that the religious emotion stimulates intointense activity the powers of the subcon-scious mind, and often to a degree not to beequaled by any other form of appeal. Butscience now understands that the object ofthe faith, or the particular form of the relig-ion has absolutely nothing to do with the cure,

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the entire therapeutic value being inherent inthe mental condition of the patient.

But it is not only in the field of religio-therapy that we must confine our investiga-tion of this subject of subconscious cures. "Wefind history filled with references to the prin-ciple in some of its various forms of mani-festation. For instance, the cure of scurvyat the seige of Breda, in 1625. The entiregarrison was suffering from scurvy, and thecondition was critical. The Prince of Orangemanaged to secure three small vials of cam-phor, and after great rejoicing and appro-priate ceremonies, including the public mix-ing of the unknown drug into many gallons ofwater a few drops of the mixture was admin-istered to each man, the result being that themen rapidly recovered and the town wassaved. Sir Humphrey Davy had a case of apatient suffering from a serious complaint."Wishing to test his temperature he insertedthe clinical thermometer in the patient'smouth, under his tongue. The man imaginedthat it was some new and wonderful devicefor restoring him to health, and declared him-self as much better at once. Continued treat-

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ment along the same lines effected a perfectcure in a few days. Dr. Gerhe of Pisa, curedseveral hundred cases of toothache among thecitizens by causing the sufferers to crush asmall insect between their fingers, after beinggravely and solemnly informed that this wasan infallible specific.

Schofield relates the following interestingcases: "A surgeon took into a hospital wardsome time ago, a little boy who had kept hisbed for five years, having hurt his spine in afall. He had been all the time paralyzed inhis legs, and could not feel when they weretouched or pinched; nor could he move themin the least degree. After careful examina-tion, the surgeon explained minutely to theboy the awful nature of the electric battery,and told him to prepare for its applicationnext day. At the same time he showed him asixpence, and sympathizing with his state,told him that the sixpence should be his if,notwithstanding, he should have improvedenough the next day to walk leaning on andpushing a chair, which would also save theneed of the battery. In two weeks the boywas running races in the park, and his cure

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was reported in the Lancet. . . A younglady who had taken ether two and a half yearsbefore, on the inhaler being held three inchesaway from the face, and retaining a faint odorof ether, went right off, and became uncon-scious without any ether being used or the in-haler touching her face. . . A woman wasbrought on a couch into a London hospital bytwo ladies who said that she had been suffer-ing from incurable paralysis of the spine fortwo years, and having exhausted all theirmeans in nursing her, they now sought to gether admitted, pending her removal to a homefor incurables. In two hours I had cured herby agencies which owed all their virtue totheir influence on the mind, and I walked withthe woman half-a-mile up and down the wait-ing room, and she then returned home in anomnibus, being completely cured. An amus-ing case is that of a paralyzed girl, who, onlearning that she had secured the affections ofthe curate, who used to visit her, got out ofbed and walked,—cured; and afterward madean excellent pastor's wife. A remarkable in-stance of this sort is that of a child afflictedwith paralysis, who was brought up from the

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country to Paris to the Hotel Dieu. The childwho had heard a great deal of the wonderfulmetropolis, its magnificent hospitals, its om-nipotent doctors, and their wonderful cures,was awe-struck, and so vividly impressed withthe idea that such surroundings must have acurative influence, that the day after her ar-rival she sat up in bed much better. The gooddoctor just passed round, but had no time totreat her till the third day; by which timewhen he came round she was out of bed walk-ing about the room, quite restored by theglimpses she had got of his majestic pres-ence."

The interesting case of Elijah Perkinsgives us a very good idea of what may be ac-complished by arousing the expectant atten-tion and faith of the public in some new con-trivance or method which is absolutely devoidof therapeutic qualities in itself. We quotefrom Dr. Patton who says: "The most con-sumate proof of the verity of our text is fur-nished by a delusion that had its origin in ourown country a century ago. An ignorantblacksmith, Elijah Perkins of Connecticut,during spare moments at his forge, welded to-

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gether various metals, in an endeavor to fab-ricate a composition which would cure dis-ease when applied to the surface of the body.Eventually he declared that he had succeeded,and he exhibited what he styled his ' MetallicTractors,' really a pair of tongs about sixinches long, one prong of brass, the other ofsteel. They were applied over, or as near thediseased parts as possible, always in a down-ward direction, for about ten minutes. Thetractors were tried in every variety of in-ternal and external ailments, with curativeresults so extraordinarily wonderful that theyseemed to be effected by the direct agency ofAlmighty power, and not by natural agency.The treatment was called 'Perkinism,' inhonor of the inventor. The demand for thetractors could not be supplied. The crazeraged through the New England States, andspread to Great Britain and portions of Con-tinental Europe, where hospitals were estab-lished as fountains of health for sufferinghumanity. Within a brief period 1,500,000cures were reported in Europe alone. Whilethe delusion was at its height, Dr. Haygarthof London determined to ascertain how far

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the effects might be ascribed to the imagina-tion. He accordingly formed pieces of woodinto the shape of tractors, and with much as-sumed pomp and ceremony applied them to anumber of sick persons who had been previ-ously prepared to expect something extra-ordinary. The effects were found to be as-tonishing. Obstinate pains in the limbs weresuddenly cured; joints that had long been im-movable were restored to motion, and inshort, except the renewal of lost parts or thechange in mechanical structure, nothingseemed beyond their power to accomplish."

The science of Suggestive Therapeutics,which is so rapidly pushing itself forward to-day, and which is meeting with the approvaland commendation of the best minds of therace, is based upon the recognition of the ex-istence of the subconscious activities of themind, and their effect upon the physical or-ganism. Suggestive Therapeutics, or Psy-cho-Therapy, has for its basic working prin-ciple the fact the subconscious is amenableto suggestion, and that by means of sugges-tion the subconscious activities may be di-rected toward the restoring of normal func-

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tioning of the physical organs. In the volumeof this series, entitled "Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion," we have devoted much space tothe subject of Suggestive Therapeutics. Werefer to this volume the reader who may de-sire to pursue the subject further.

CHAPTER XL

TWILIGHT EEGIONS.

In the preceding chapters we have consid-ered the phenomena of certain subconsciousregions of the mind—regions which lie belowthe field of every-day consciousness. We haveseen how these planes of mentation manifestactivities resulting from past impressions,racial or individual, that have been placedthere. The subconscious mind, proper, cre-ates nothing but works manifold changes andvariety among the stored up impressions ofthe past which have been deposited there.Toward the close of this book we speak of thesuper-conscious regions of the mind, in whichare manifested activities new to the race, andwhich have not been experienced by the raceor the individual. In this higher, or super-conscious region, are contained the seedthoughts which will bear fruit in the futuregenerations of the race, and which occasion-

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ally manifest in flashes of higher mentationin the minds of some of the race today. Thesubconscious is the result of the past—thesuperconscious belongs to the future.

But, other than these two great regions ofthe mind there are found regions which aredifficult to classify. Using an imperfect il-lustration, we might say that the subcon-scious activities are like the lower notes onthe keyboard of a piano, while the supercon-scious activities are like the upper notes.Then where are to be found these other ac-tivities which seem to be neither higher norlower? Using the same illustration we maysay that these other activities are like thesharps and flats on the keyboard—the black-keys. These other activities—these sharpsand flats of the mental scale—are the mani-festations of what are generally known as"psychic phenomena," by which term ismeant the psychological phenomena which ismore or less unusual, unclassified, unac-counted for, or possibly abnormal. It is truethat many of the leading psychologists refuseto consider the said phenomena, and eitherclassify it as "not proven" or else reject it

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altogether. But in view of the number ofleading scientific authorities who testify totheir experiences along these lines, and thework of the investigators of the Society forPsychical Research, we feel that we should atleast give a brief consideration to the phe-nomena in question, in this work. For, if weadmit the genuineness of the pnenomena,.orany part of it, we must include it in the cate-gory of the activities of the great Infra-Oon-seious regions of mentation. And the day haspassed for blunt denial. The phenomena ex-ists, although not explained at present, andthere is no reason whatsoever for relegating itto the field of the "supernatural," for itclearly belongs to the realm of the naturalactivities of the mind. So let us briefly con-sider this phase of the subject, at least in sofar as the phenomena seems to be concernedwith mental activities. We shall not attemptto enter into the field of the phenomena ofwhat has been called "spiritualism," for thatwould take us out of the legitimate field of [thepresent work.

Hudson attributed to his "subjectivemind" the quality of telepathy, clairvoyance,

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second-sight, etc.,—considering them to beforms of telepathy as manifested by the sub-jective mind. He also attributed to it thequality of telekinesis or the moving of ponder-able bodies. He said: "There are severalways by which the operations of the subjec-tive mind can be brought above the thresholdof consciousness. When this is done by anyone of the various methods, phenomena areproduced. Each of these phenomena hasbeen, at some time in the history of mankind,attributed to the agency of disembodiedspirits. The leading phenomena above al-luded to are clairvoyance, claif audience, tel-epathy, mesmerism, or hypnotism, automaticwriting, percussive sounds (spirit-rapping),movements of ponderable bodies (table-tip-ping), and phantasmic appearances. Ofthese clairvoyance, telepathy, and hypnotismhave generally ceased to be regarded as pro-ceeding from supernatural agencies. Theyare now recognized as powers inherent inmankind, and, as will be seen, are largely em-ployed to explain other phenomena."

Let us run rapidly over the various forms

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of psychic phenomena which are concernedwith the Infra-Conscious regions of the mind.

Hypnotism, is undoubtedly a phenomenonof the subconscious mind. While suggestionsmay be, and frequently are, accepted by theconscious mind, what are known as "hyp-notic suggestions" are accepted only by thesubconscious mind when the conscious facul-ties have been lulled into a passive or sleepcondition. When this state is produced, thesubconscious mind accepts the suggestions ofan outside person and will proceed to reasonfrom premises supplied it, as pointed out byHudson from whom we have quoted on thispoint in a previous chapter. In such condi-tion suggestions have an exaggerated effect,and impressions may be made upon the sub-conscious mind which tend to persist afterthe person is aroused from the hypnotic state.There are many things about hypnotismwhich should prevent persons from indulgingin its practices, and we would caution ourreaders against allowing themselves to beplaced in this condition.

Telepathy, or Thought Transference, be-longs to the subconscious plane of the mind.

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Without attempting to consider any of thevarious theories advanced by the differentschools, it must be held that whatever thetheory regarding the transmission of themental messages it is certain that the receiv-ing of the message must be a function of thesubconscious mind, or at least a faculty of theInfra-Conscious mentality. It certainly liesoutside of the realm of the conscious facul-ties.

Clairvoyance, or Distant Sight, must alsobelong to the realm of the Infra-Conscious, nomatter what hypothesis or theory concerningit we may entertain. Many authorities holdit to be but a form of Telepathy, while othershold that it is a phenomenon sui generis, thatis, apart and distinct from telepathy or otherpsychic phenomena.

Psychometry, and similar phenomena, in-cluding Crystal Grazing and other forms ofDistant Sensing, while far from explainableon any accepted psychological theory, never-theless, if accepted at all, must be consideredas belonging to the Infra-Conscious field ofmental activities.

It is most difficult to classify phenomena of

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this sort, for while they do not belong to thesuperconscious activities, still they canscarcely be considered as an inherited expe-rience of the subconscious. I t is true thatamong some of the lowliest races of mankindthere are to be found individuals possessingthese powers, just as we find individualsamong the most cultured manifesting them.It does not seem to be a matter of "high" or"low" but rather something running parallelto and along with our ordinary planes of con-sciousness—something in the nature of"sharps and fiats" as we have said.

"We shall not attempt to enter into anytheoretical discussion regarding these otheractivities of the Infra-Conscious mentality.Our concern in this work is entirely with themore common and normal activities of the re-gions in question. To attempt to considerthese other activities would result in extend-ing this work far beyond its reasonable limitsin space as well as in subject We have no-ticed the existence of the phenomena inquestion, in passing, principally for the rea-son that, otherwise, it might be assumed thatwe ignored or denied them. Such phenomena

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belong rather to the field of Psychic Eesearchthan to Psychology, at least in the state ofthe present knowledge of the subject. Therehave been many books written during thepast decade, dealing with the subject of Psy-chical Eesearch, to which we must refer thereader who wishes to pursue this phase of thesubject further.

Before leaving this phase of the subject,however, we feel that we should mention anidea of our own, for what it is worth, whichwe have incorporated in another volume ofthis series. Quoting from the said volume,we repeat at this place:

We allude to the possession of certain low-er forms of unusual psychic power by somepersons, which forms lack the elements of theso-called higher powers just alluded to, butwhich are still outside of the ordinary formsof sense-impressions—by some these phasesof phenomena are called the "lower psychicfaculties.'' The persons possessing and man-ifesting these powers are often far frombeing advanced spiritually, mentally, or mor-ally, and this fact has surprised and per-plexed many of the investigators of the sub-

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ject. This class of phenomena differs mate-rially from that of the superconsciousness,and evidently belongs to a lower plane—andyet, to what plane? Not to consciousness,surely, and if the subconsciousness is merelya record of race impressions and individualexperiences, etc., how can these phenomenabe credited to it! "We have thought it likelythat these "lower psychic" activities may bethe survival of faculties formerly exercisedby the race, but since discarded in the courseof evolution, and now found only as vestigalremnants in some of the race. This view findscorroboration in a study of the mental activi-ties of the lower animals, and primitive racesof man, in both of which we find evidences of"sensing" other than those manifested byman. The animals and lower races have asense of smell almost abnormal to civilizedman, and they may have, and seem to have,other means of "sensing" objects. If this betrue, then each of us miust have some recordof these discarded senses in our subconscious-ness, which in some cases give rise to thoseinstances of strange "awareness" noted incertain people, and which belong to the class

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of the "lower psychic" phenomena, as distin-guished from the "higher psychic" phenom-ena belonging to the class of genius, intuition,spirituality, etc. We do not insist upon thistheory—it is merely a conjecture, offered for•what it is worth. It certainly seems to "fillin" a gap in the study of abnormal psychol-ogy.

CHAPTEB XII.

THE STJPEBCONSCIOtTS.

"We have seen that in the Infra-Consciousregions of the mind there are certain activi-ties which seem to be outside of the categoryof those which belong strictly to the subcon-scious—activities which cannot be consideredas resulting from the past race or individualexperience along the lines of racial memoryor heredity, or of the memory of the individ-ual—and yet which do not fit into the cate-gory of the "parallel" activities which wehave classified as "the psychic." In shortthese activities seem rather to belong to ahigher rather than a lower or even parallelplane of consciousness. The Orientals forcenturies have recognized these activitiesand have classified them as belonging to the"superconscious" plane of mentation—aplane above the ordinary plane of conscious-ness, just as the subconscious in a plane be-

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low it, and the "psychic" plane parallel to it.The superconscious plane is a plane of"above-consciousness," just as the subcon-scious is a plane "below-consciousness."

That the mind of man contains possibilitiesof activities as yet not generally unfoldedinto actual manifestation has been recognizedby many writers on the subject, for manyyears. Isaac Taylor has told us that: "Per-haps within the field occupied by the visibleand ponderable universe there is existing andmoving another element fraught with otherspecies of life—corporeal, indeed, and vari-ous in its orders, but not open to the cogni-zance of those who are confined to the condi-tions of animal organization. . . Is it tobe thought that the eye of man is the measureof the Creator's power?—and has he creatednothing which he has not exposed to oursenses? The contrary seems much more thanbarely possible; ought we not to think it al-most certain?" Masson says: "If a newsense or two were added to the present nor-mal number in man, that which is now thephenomenal world for all of us might, for allwe know, burst'into something amazingly

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wider and different, in consequence of the ad-ditional revelations through these newsenses."

Barret has said: "The mysteriousness ofour being is not confined to subtle psycholog-ical processes which we have in common withall animal life. There are higher and morecapacious powers wrapped up in our humanpersonality than are expressed even by whatwe know of consciousness, will or reason.There are supernormal and transcendentalpowers of which at present we only catch oc-casional glimpses; and behind and beyondthe supernormal there are fathomless abyss-es, the divine ground of the soul; the ulti-mate reality of which our consciousness isbut the reflection or faint perception. Intosuch lofty themes I do not propose to enter,they must be forever beyond the scope of hu-man inquiry; nor is it possible within the lim-its of this paper to give any adequate concep-tions of those mysterious regions of our com-plex personality, which are open to, and be-ginning to be disclosed by, scientific investi-gation." Dr. Murray says: "Deeper downthan where the soul with its consciousness

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can enter, there is spirit matter linking manwith God; and deeper down than the mindand feelings or will—in the unseen depths ofthe hidden life—there dwells the Spirit ofGod."

Schofield says: " . . . so we may saythat the mind includes not only the visible orconscious part, and what we have termed thesubconscious . . . but the supracon-scious mind that lies at the other end—allthose regions of higher soul and spirit life,of which we are only at times vaguely con-scious, but which always exist, and link us onto eternal verities. . . . The mind, in-deed, reaches all the way, and while on theone hand it is inspired by the Almighty, onthe other hand it energizes the body, all ofwhose purpositive life it originates. We maycall the supraconscious mind the sphere ofthe spirit life, the subconscious the sphere ofthe body life, and the conscious mind the mid-dle region where both meet. . . . TheSpirit of God is said to dwell in believers, andyet, as we have seen, His presence is not thesubject of direct consciousness. We wouldinclude, therefore, in the supraconscious, all

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such spiritual ideas, together with conscience—the voice of God, as Max Muller calls it—which is surely a half conscious faculty. More-over, the supraconscious, like the subcon-scious, is, as we have said, best apprehendedwhen the conscious mind is not active. Vi-sions, meditations, prayers, and even dreamshave been undoubtedly occasions of spiritualrevelations, and many instances may be ad-duced as illustrations of the workings of theSpirit apart from the action of reason ormind. The truth apparently is that the mindas a whole is an unconscious state, by that itsmiddle registers, excluding the highest spir-itual and lowest spiritual manifestations, arefitfully illuminated in varying degrees byconsciousness; and that it is this illuminatedpart of the dial that the word 'mind' whichrightly appertains to the whole, has beenlimited." The above authority then quptesapprovingly, the thought of another writerwho says: "There are operations in us whichtranscend the limitations of ordinary facul-ties of cognition and which yet remain, notbelow the threshold, but rather above the ho-rizon of our consciousness."

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Ladd who is quite conservative, says: " Athinker on any problem finds the truth shotup from the hidden depths below; it appearspresented for seizure to consciousness as thegift of the Unconscious. In similar fashionare the happy hits of the inventors, the rareachievements of art, . . . bestowed uponthe mind rather than consciously wrought outby it. Nor can one fail to notice as signifi-cant the connection of all such experienceswith the condition and nature of 'tact,' of 'in-stinct.' If, then, credit is to be given, as itwere, to the unconscious activities of our ownmind for these results in consciousness whichfollow states of "unconsciousness, such creditmust be extended quite indefinitely. For thecredit of much of our most brilliant and im-pressive acts in consciouslness undoubtedlybelongs not to consciousness; it belongs tosomewhat or some One of whose doings we,as conscious egos, are not immediately con-scious."

Von Hartmann says: "The Unconsciousoften guides men in their actions by hints andfeelings when they could not help themselvesby conscious thought. The Unconscious fur-

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thers the conscious process of thought by itsinspirations in small as well as in great mat-ters, and in mysticism guides mankind to thepresentment of higher supersensible unities.The Unconscious makes men happy throughthe feeling for the beautiful and the artistic.If we institute a comparison between the con-scious and the Unconscious, it is obviousthere is a sphere which is always reserved tothe Unconscious, because it remains foreverinaccessible to the conscious." The samewriter says: "That the Unconscious canreadily outdo all the performances of con-scious reason is seen in those fortunate na-tures that possess everything that othersmust acquire by toil, who never have a strug-gle with conscience, because they alwaysspontaneously act correctly with feeling, andcan never deport themselves otherwise thanwith tact, learn everything easily, completeeverything they begin with a happy knack,live in eternal harmony with themselves,without ever reflecting much what they do, orever experiencing difficulty and toil. Thefairest specimens of these instinctive naturesare only seen in women. But what disadvan-

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tage lies in this self-surrender to the Uncon-scious! This—that one never knows whereone is, or what one has; that one gropes inthe dark, while one has got the lantern of con-sciousness in one's pocket; that it is left toaccident whether the inspiration of the un-conscious will come when one wants it; thatone has no criterion but success. The con-scious is an ever-ready servant, whose obe-dience may be always compelled; the Uncon-scious protects us like a fairy, and has al-ways something uncomfortably demoniacabout it. I may be proud of the work of con-sciousness, as my own deed, the fruit of myown hard labor; the fruit of the Unconsciousis, at it were, a gift of the gods; it can there-fore only teach me humility. The Uncon-scious is complete from top to toe, and musttherefore be taken just as it is."

It will be noticed that in the phenomena ofthe superconscious, there is always the im-pression and idea of the flashes of thought orfeeling coming from above—either from somehigher part of one's own mind; the mind ofsome higher being; or the Universal Mind.There is always this impression or sense of

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the thought coming from above, although "wemay differ materially in our theories of ideasof what this "above" may be. From thisabove comes the inspiration of the artist,writer, poet or sculptor—the inventor has tes-tified that some of his ideas have come to himlike flashes from the blue. Speakers, preach-ers, orators, actors and many others have tes-tified to their experiences in the direction ofreceiving ideas from above. Inspiration andintuition are always marked by this sense ofthe conscious mind, or field of consciousness,being below the source of the inspiration orintuition, never above it. So impressed isthis upon the human mind, that one Involun-tarily raises the eyes and uplifts the facewhen speaking of some experience of thiskind. I t is easy to see why man has natural-ly fallen into the habit of thinking of the spir-itual regions, or regions of higher life, asbeing above—although there is no "above"or "below" in space. There is the idea—which is in itself intuitional—that these ex-alted phases of mentation belong to a higherplane of mind—something above, more ele-

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vated, exalted. Perhaps a little considera-tion may show us why this is so.

In our first volume of the present series,we said regarding the Superconscious: "In \the first place, instead of being the greatermemory, or storehouse of the impressions ofthe past, as is the subconscious, the superoon-sciousness of the individual is the latent pos-sibilities of the future man, or superman. Andthe flashes from this region that occasionallyreach the field of consciousness are practi-cally the prophecies of the future of the race.That which is now the superconscious regionof the individual will some day become theordinary plane of everyday mentation of theadvanced race. The superconsciousness isthe consciousness of the future individuals ofthe race, and in it are stored the latent facul-ties and mental activities of a higher race ofbeings. To some favored ones of the presentrace there come flashes from this wonderfulregion of the mind, and we call this 'genius,''intuition,' and other terms denoting higherand uncommon mental activities and states.In each individual there is stored this greatreservoir of future mental development—

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why, or how, we do not know—but that it iswe do know. Just as the oak tree dwellslatent within the aoorn; just as the comingShakespeare, Milton, Darwin or Spencer wasat one time latent within a single cell, so arethese latent faculties and powers in the mindof each and every individual, awaiting thestroke of the clock of evolutionary unfold-ment. And when these flashes pass downinto the field of consciousness, we recognizethem as coming -from above, and not from be-IOVJ. The mental evolution of the race is notalone a matter of growth in the sense of ad-dition—it is in the nature of an unfoldmentof the latent qualities, faculties, and powersinherent in the mind, or perhaps the unfold-ment into expression of some inherent poweror quality of the Ego. At any rate it is un-doubtedly an unfoldment—a revealing ofsomething that has been hidden away fromsight and expression. . . The man of to-day is slowly, laboriously, but surely unfold-ing into greater and grander mental statesand activities. Mental growth comes notalone from without—there is an inner urge

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constantly at work, pressing ever on towardhigher and greater things."

But, it will be urged, there cannot be an un-foldment unless there has first been a foldingup—there can be no evolution without a pre-vious involution. Anything evolved mustfirst have been involved. Something cannever proceed from nothing—unless by"nothing" we mean something existing in la-tency. And so it must be in the case beforeus. To explain how the involving process oc-curs would take us out of the field of psychol-ogy into that of metaphysics, and we mustbeware of trespassing in the latter field. Butwe are probably warranted in calling your at-tention to the bearing upon the subject beforeus of the philosophical conception of a Uni-versal Mind, or World Soul, in which the in-dividual minds or soujs are but centres of ac-tivity, or units of expression. If this be grant-ed then we may see how it is possible for themind to unfold latent powers and qualitiestranscending the individual and race experi-ence, for in this case the latency would abidein the Universal Mind and the latter wouldafford an unlimited source for transcendent

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power and qualities. Let us see what thephilosophers, and others, have to say regard-ing this One Source of mental power—thisTranscendent One Mind.

The Oriental Philosophy is well expressedby Swami Vivekananda, in the following pas-sage :

"Where is there any more misery for himwho sees this Oneness in the Universe, thisOneness of life, Oneness of everything? .. . This separation between men and man,man and woman, man and child, nation andnation, earth and moon, moon and sun, thisseparation between atom and atom is thecause of all the misery, and the Vedanta saysthis separation does not exist, it is not real.It is merely apparent on the surface. In theheart of things there is unity still. If you goinside you find that unity between man andman, women and children, races and races,high and low, rich and poor, the gods andmen: all are One, and the animals too, if yougo deep enough, and he who has attained tothat has no more delusion. . . . whereis there any more delusion for him? Whatcan delude him? He knows the reality of

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everything, the secret of everything. Whereis there any more misery for him? Whatdoes he desire? He has traced the reality ofeverything unto the Lord, that centre, thatUnity of everything, and that is EternalBliss, Eternal Knowledge, Eternal Existence.. . . In the Centre, the reality, there is noone to be mourned for, no one to be sorry for.He has penetrated everything. . . Whenman has seen himself as One with the infiniteBeing of the universe, when all separatenesshas ceased, when all men, all women, all an-gels, all gods, all animals, all plants, thewhole universe has been melted into that One-ness, then all fear disappears. Whom tofear? Can I hurt myself? Can I kill myself?Can I injure myself? Do you fear yourself?Then will all sorrow disappear. What cancause me sorrow? I am the One Existenceof the universe. Then all jealousies will dis-appear; of whom to be jealous. Of myself?Then all bad feelings disappear. Againstwhom shall I have this bad feeling? Againstmyself? There is none in the universe butme. Kill out this differentiation, kill out thissuperstition that there are many. 'He who,

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in this world of many, sees that One, he who,in this mass of insentiency, sees that OneSentient Being; he who in this world ofshadow, catches that Beality, unto him be-longs eternal peace, unto none else, unto noneelse.' "

The Western Philosophy is beautifully ex-pressed by Emerson in his wonderful essay,"The Oversoul," from which we shall quotehere. Emerson says:

"The philosophy of six thousand yearshas not searched the chambers and maga-zines of the soul. In its experiments therehas always remained in the last analysis, aresiduum it could not resolve. Man is astream whose source is hidden. Always ourbeing is descending into us from we know notwhence. The most exact calculator has noprescience that something incalculable maynot baulk the very next moment. I am con-strained every moment to acknowledge ahigher origin for events than the will I callmine. As it is with events, so is it withthoughts. "When I watch that flowing river,which out of regions I see not, pours for aseason its streams into me,—I see that I am

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a pensioner,—not a cause but a surprisedspectator of this ethereal water; that I desireand look up and put myself in the attitude ofreception, but from some alien energy the vi-sions come. The Supreme Critic on all theerrors of the past and the present, and theonly prophet of that which must be is thatgreat nature in which we rest as the earthlies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; thatUnity, that Over-Soul, within which everyman's particular being is contained and madeone with all other; that common heart ofwhich all sincere conversation is the worship,to which all right action is submission; thatoverpowering reality which confutes ourtricks and talents, and constrains every oneto pass for what he is, and to speak from hischaracter and not from his tongue, and whichevermore tends to pass into our thought andhand and become wisdom and virtue andpower and beauty. We live in succession, indivision, in parts, in paticles. Meantime with-in man is the soul of the whole; the wise si-lence; the universal beauty; to which everypart and particle is equally related; the Eter-nal One. . . . "We see the world piece by

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piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, thetree; but the whole, of which these are theshining parts, is the soul. . . .

"Words from a man who speaks from thatlife must sound vain to those who do notdwell in the same thought on their own part.I dare not speak for it. My words do not car-ry its august sense; they fall short and cold.Only itself can inspire whom it will, and be-hold ! their speech shall be lyrical, and sweet,and universal as the rising of the wind. YetI desire, even by profane words, if sacred Imay not use, to indicate the heaven of thisdeity and to report what hints I have col-lected of the transcendent simplicity and en-ergy of the Highest Law.

"All goes to show that the soul in man isnot an organ; is not a function, like the powerof memory, of calculation", of comparison,—but uses these as hands and feet; is not afaculty, but a light; is not the intellect or thewill, but the master of the intellect and thewill—is the vast background of our being, inwhich they lie,—an immensity not possessedand that cannot be possessed. From withinor from behind, a light shines through us

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upon things, and makes us aware that we arenothing, but the light is all. What we com-monly call man. . . , does not, as weknow him, represent himself, but misrepre-sents himself. Him we do not respect, butthe soul, whose organ he is, would he let it ap-pear through his action, would make ourknees bend. When it breathes through hisintellect, it is genius; when it breathes[through his will, it is virtue; when it flowsthrough his affection, it is love. And theblindness of the intellect begins when itwould be something of itself. The weaknessof the will begins when the individual wouldbe something of himself. All reform aims insome one particular to let the great soul haveits way through us; in other words, to engageus to obey.

"The sovereignty of this nature whereofwe speak is made known by its independencyof those limitations which circumscribe us onevery hand. The soul circumscribeth allthings. As I have said, it contradicts all ex-perience. In like manner it abolishes timeand space. The influence of the senses has inmost men overpowered the mind to that de-

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gree that the walls of time and space havecome to look solid, real and unsurmountable;and to speak with levity of these limits is, inthe world, the sign of insanity. Yet time andspace are but inverse measures of the forceof the soul. A man is capable of abolishingthem both. The spirit sports with time—'Can crowd eternity into an hour, or stretch

\ i an hour to eternity.' V--'. . The emphasis^ of facts and persons to my soul has nothing

to do with time. And so always the soul'sscale is one; the scale of the senses and theunderstanding is another. Before the greatrevelations of the soul, Time, Space and Na-ture shrink away. . . . The soul lookethsteadily forward, creating a world alwaybefore her, leaving worlds alway behindher. She has no dates, nor rites, norpersons, nor specialties, nor men. Thesoul knows only the soul; all else is idleweeds for her wearing. . . . Within thesame sentiment is the germ of intellectualgrowth, which obeys the same law. . . .For whoso dwells in this moral beatitude doesalready anticipate those special powerswhich men prize so highly. . * the heart

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which abandons itself to the Supreme Mindfinds itself related to all its works, and willtravel a royal road to particular knowledgesand powers. For in ascending to this pri-mary and aboriginal sentiment we have comefrom our remote station on the circumferenceinstantaneously to the centre of the world,where. . . we see causes, and anticipateIthe universe, which is but a slow effect.

' ' This communication is an influx of the Di-vine Mind into our mind. It is an ebb of theindividual rivulet before the flowing surgesof the sea of life. Every distinct apprehen-sion of this central commandment agitatesmen with awe and delight. A thrill passesthrough all men at the reception of new truth,or at the performance of a great action,which comes out of the heart of nature. Inthese communications the power to see is notseparated from the will to do, but the insightproceeds from obedience, and the obedienceproceeds from a joyful perception. Everymoment when the individual feels himself in-vaded by it, it is memorable. Always, I be-lieve, by the necessity of our constitution acertain enthusiasm attends the individual's

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consciousness of that divine presence. Thecharacter and duration of this enthusiasmvaries with the state of the individual, froman ecstacy and trance and prophetic inspi-ration,—which is its rarer appearance, to thefaintest glow of virtuous emotion, in whichform it warms, like our household fires, allthe families and associations of men, andmakes society possible. . . . The trancesof Socrates; the 'union' of Plotinus; the vi-sion of Porphyry; the conversion of Paul; theaurora of Behmen; the convulsions of GeorgeFox and his Quakers; the illumination ofSwedenborg, are of this kind. What was inthe case of these remakable persons a ravish-ment, has, in innumerable instances in com-mon life, been exhibited in less striking man-ner. Everywhere the history of religion be-trays a tendency to enthusiasm. The rap-tures of the Moravian and Quietist; the open-ing of the internal sense of the Word, in thelanguage of the New Jerusalem Church; therevival of the Calvinistic churches; the ex-periences of the Methodists, are varyingforms of that shudder of awe and delightwith which the individual soul always min-

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gles with the universal soul. The nature ofthese revelations is always the same; theyare perceptions of the absolute law. Theyare solutions of the soul's own questions.They do not answer the questions which theunderstanding asks. The soul answers neverby words, but by ithe thing itself that is in-quired after.

"Thoughts come into our minds throughavenues which we never left open, andthoughts go out of our minds through ave-nues which we never voluntarily opened. . .. . . The great distinction between teacherssacred or literary; between poets like Her-bert, and poets like Pope; between philoso-phers like Spinoza, Kant and Coleridge,—and philosophers like Locke, Paley, Macin-tosh and Stewart; between men of the worldwho are reckoned accomplished talkers, andhere and there a fervent mystic, prophesyinghalf-insane under the infinitude of histhought, is that one class speaks from within,or from experience, as parties and possess-ors of the fact; and the other class from with-out, as spectators merely, or perhaps as ac-quainted with the fact on the evidence of

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third persons. It is no use to preaoh to mefrom without. I can do that too easily myself.Jesus speaks always from within, and in a de-gree that transcends all others. In that is themiracle. That includes the miracle. My soulbelieves beforehand that it ought so to be. .

. . The same Omniscience flows into theintellect and makes what we call genius.Much of the wisdom of the world is not wis-dom, and the most illuminated class of menare no doubt superior to literary fame, andare not writers. Among the multitude ofscholars and authors we feel no hallowingpresence; we are sensible of a knack and skillrather than of inspiration; they have a lightand know not whence it comes and call ittheir own; their talent is some exaggeratedfaculty, some overgrown member, so thattheir strength is a disease. In these instancesthe intellectual gifts do not make the impres-sion of virtue, but almost of vice; and we feelthat a man's talents stand in the way of hisadvancement in truth. But genius is relig-ious. It is a larger imbibing of the commonheart. It is not anomolous, more like and notless than other men. There is in all great

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poets a wisdom of humanity which is supe-rior to any talents they exercise. . . Thisenergy. . . comes to the lowly and sim-ple ; it comes to whomsoever will put off whatis foreign and proud; it comes as insight; itcomes as serenity and grandeur. When wesee those whom it inhabits, we are apprisedof new degrees of greatness. From, that in-spiration the man comes back with a changedtone. He does not talk with men with an eyeto their opinion. He tries them. It requiresof us to be plain and true. . . . Let manthen learn the revelation of all nature and allthought to his heart; this namely that theHighest dwells with him; that the sources ofnature are in his own mind, if the sentimentof duty is there. . . . The soul gives it-self, alone, original and pure, to the Lonely,Original and Pure, who, on that occasion,gladly inhabits, leads and speaks through it.Then it is glad, young and nimble. It is notwise, but it sees through all things. It is notcalled religious, but it is innocent. It callsthe light its own, and feels that the grassgrows and the stone falls by a law inferior to,and dependent on, its nature. Behold, it

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saith, I am born into the great, the universalmind. I, the imperfect, adore my own Per-fect. I am somehow receptive of the greatsoul, and thereby I do overlook the sun andthe stars and feel them ito be but the fair ac-cidents and effects which change and pass.More and more the surges of everlasting na-ture enters into me, and I become public andhuman in my regards and actions. So come Ito live in thoughts and act with energiesiwhich are immortal."

This essay of Emerson, from which wehave quoted, contains perhaps the best illus-tration and example of the Western idea ofthe Transcendent Unity which manifests it-self in the infinite variety of forms, shapesand centres of energy in the universe. Andit is upon this general idea and conceptionthat the various teachings regarding the Su-perconscious Mind are based. Besting uponthis conception of the One Eeality, is erectedthe edifice of thought which holds that theindividual is but a centre of life, mind andactivity in the great ocean of Life, and thatin the course of evolution he is able to mani-fest more and still more of the qualities in-

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herent in that Ocean—is enabled to unfoldfurther that which is involved and latentwithin his soul.

Perhaps the most remarkable book on thissubject, at least so far as the Western worldis concerned, is that great work of Dr. RichardMaurice Bucke entitled "Cosmic Conscious-ness." Dr. Bucke held that just as life hasevolved from sensation and the simpler formsof consciousness to what is known as "sim-ple consciousness;" and then on to "self-consciousness" in its lower and higher forms;so is it pressing forward to a still wider andfuller plane of consciousness which he calls"Cosmic Consciousness," by which term heindicates the consciousness of a greater,grander and fuller life of which we form apart—the Universal Life of the Hindus, orthe Over-Soul of Emerson. He claims thatthis consciousness will be developed and man-ifested fully by the race in the centuries tocome, and that even now, here and there, areto be found individuals to whom have comemoments of this consciousness—flashes fromthe Over-Soul. He holds that the wonderfulreligious and mystic experiences of people,

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in the past and in the present, in all lands andamong all races, are but instances of this com-ing Cosmic Consciousness to which the raceis moving.

Prof. William James in his work entitled"Some Varieties of Religious Experience"relates a number of instances of an unfoldingconsciousness of a Something Greater ofwhich we are a Part—a Something, as Kip-ling expresses it: "So much more near thanI had known, so much more great than I hadguessed; and me like all the rest,—alone, butreaching out to all the rest." Bucke citesmany examples in his work just mentionedand the pages of Mystic Philosophy are filledwith instances of this kind. The temptationto enter further into this subject is great, butwe must resist it for it is foreign to the fieldand scope of the present work. We, however,have given a hint to those who would pursuethe subject still further.

In these theories regarding the UniversalMind, or Over Soul, may be found at least areasonable explanation of the phenomena ofthe Superconscious—phenomena which haveperplexed the orthodox psychologists. It is

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at least worthy of being given serious consid-eration, or of being used as a working hypoth-esis until some more reasonable theory is ad-vanced. It is true that it carries one acrossthe boundaries of ordinary psychology, intothe realms of philosophy and metaphysics, ifnot indeed into the sacred regions of religion—but boundary lines are fast disappearingunder the encroachments of modern scientificthought, and All indeed is becoming to be seenas but One in the end. As Prof. WilliamJames has said: "Pragmatism tends to un-stiffen our theories. The world's oneness hasgenerally been affirmed abstractly only, and asif any one who questioned it must be an idiot.The temper of monists has been vehement, asalmost at times to be convulsive; and this wayof holding a doctrine does not easily go withreasonable discussion and the drawing of dis-tinctions. . . . Pluralism on the otherhand has no need of this dogmatic rigoristictemper. Provided that you grant some separa-tion among things, some tremor of independ-ence, some free play of parts on one another,some real novelty or chance, however minute,she is amply satisfied, and will allow you any

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amount, however great, of real union. Howmuch of union there may be is a question thatshe thinks can be decided empirically. . . .This leaves us with the common-sense world,in which we find things partly joined, andpartly disjoined." And so, you see, it is notnecessary for one to become a Pantheist, orany similar "terrible thing" in order to ac-cept, at least provisionally, the conception ofa Oneness in which individuals are but evolv-ing and unfolding parts of particles.

CHAPTER XIII.

UNFOLDING THE STJPERCONSCIOTJS.

Many writers and teachers have had muchto say regarding the development of the Su-perconscious. We feel that this term gives anentirely wrong impression of the nature ofthis wonderful region of the mind or soul, andconsequently an erroneous idea regarding theprocess of awakening its activities. The Su-perconseious is not a faculty to be developed,for it is fully existent within us and merelyawaits the day when its recognition will becomplete. It is not a case of developing theSuperconscious, but a case of developing our-selves.

The best authorities have compared thisprocess of entering into a recognition, reali-zation and manifestation of the higher regionsof the mind as an unfoldment—an opening upakin to the unfolding of the rose from the bud.In the bud but the outward form is apparent,

191

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the real beauty of the full-blown rose beinghidden away by the protecting sheaths orpetals. And so it is with the human mind orsoul. In the majority of persons but the out-ward expression is seen, the mental beingbeing tightly folded up and the hiddenbeauties secreted from view so that their veryexistence is doubted. But in every humanbeing there exists these higher phases of mindand soul. And the process of bringing theminto manifestation is properly called an un-foldment.

The three stages of the unfoldment of thehigher regions of the mind are as follows:

I. The Recognition.II. The Realization.

HE. The Manifestation.The first stage, that of Recognition, is that

being experienced by the majority of personswho experience the occasional flashes of "gen-ius" or superconscious knowledge. In somecases, dimly—in other cases, plainly—thisrecognition is experienced. The person be-gins to recognize the existence of new and un-suspected faculties or mental regions withinhimself. He may call this intuition, or inspi-

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ration, or genius, or by other terms in commonuse, but the cause underlying the phenomenais apparent to all who have studied along thelines of the New Psychology. It is the Super-conscious in the process of unfoldment, striv-ing to obtain recognition from the consciousmentality of the individuality, that it maytake its proper place in the mental work of theevolving individual.

The most common form of this unfoldmentis in the manifestation which we generallyterm intuition. Webster defines intuition as"Direct apprehension or cognition; immedi-ate knowledge, as in preception or conscious-ness, involving no reasoning process; quickor ready insight or apprehension.'* Anotherwriter has said: "Intuition is above the fieldof consciousness, and its messages are passeddownward, though its processes are hidden.The race is gradually unfolding into the men-tal plane of Intuition, and will some day passinto full consciousness on that plane. In themeantime it gets but flashes and glimpsesfrom the hidden region. Many of the bestthings we have, come from that region. Art,music, the love of the beautiful and good po-

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etry, the higher form of love, spiritual insightto a certain degree, intuitive perception oftruth, etc, come from this region. Thesethings are not reasoned out by the intellect,but seem to spring full born from some un-known region of the mind.''

One who wishes to aid in the unf oldment ofthe Superconscious, should strive to perfectthis recognition. He should wait and watchfor these messages from the higher regions ofthe self, and give them welcome when theycome. The greater the amount of recognition,the greater will be the response. This is butin accordance with nature as manifest in athousand ways. Before one may avail himselfof any mental or physical power he must firstrecognize the existence of that power withinhim, for otherwise it will as if he had it not.The Hindus speak of this mental state as aMnto that of "the young elephant who does notknow his own strength.'' Many persons havephysical or mental strength or power, the ex-istence of which they never suspect until somemoment or occasion of great need brings therecognition which is quickly followed by therealization and manifestation. And so it is in

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the case of the Superconscious. One must firstintellectually realize the existence of the re-gions of the mind before he may proceed fur-ther. The intellect is somewhat stubborn inthis respect, and strives to fight against whatit fancies to be an intruder upon its special do-main. But this is a mistake, for the knowl-edge of the Superconscious does not run con-trary to reason or the intellect—it merelytranscends the latter. After a while the in-tellect begins to recognize -*• the Supercon-scious an elder brother—a helper and val-uable aid. And, from that time harmony isestablished and the two work hand in hand forthe common welfare of the individual.

Recognition of the Supereonscious—thefirst step in its unfoldment—is accomplishedsimply by ceasing to interpose a resistance tothe intuitive flashes on the part of the intel-lect. This does not mean that the intellectshould accept anything contrary to its ownreasoning, but that it should welcome as ahelper the intuitive faculties. The intellectshould be willing to "take its own whereverit finds it," and to turn all to good account. Ifthe Superconscious flashes a message to the

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intellect, the latter should proceed to investi-gate it, and if possible to turn it to account.Recognition must precede realization, andrecognition is developed by making welcomethe newcomer and inviting him to take a seatat the council table of the mind. When the in-tellect doubts and scorns the newcomer, thelatter is apt to retreat and retrace its path,and dwell apart. What is needed is a thor-ough recognition of the truth expressed by awriter who said: "In the higher regions ofthe mind are locked up intuitive perceptionsof all truth, and he who can gain access tothese regions will know everything intuitively,and as a matter of clear sight, without reason-ing or explanation." This attainment is Real-ization,—the belief in its possibility is Recog-nition.

Realization, the second step in unfoldment,is something higher than mere Recognition,although proceeding directly from the latter.It is very difficult to describe this Realization.Realization, you know, means: ' ' The state ofentering or bringing into actual existence,being or action; appreciating thoroughly andvividly in the mind," etc. In short, it means

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the making real. In this second step or stagethe individual not only intellectually recog-nizes the existence of the Superconscious, buthe also enters into a knowing on the plane ofthe Superconscious itself. He not only knowsthat the Superconscious is, by means of theintellect, but he also knows that it is, by rea-son of entering upon its own plane of knowingor consciousness. It is almost impossible toexplain this to those who have not experiencedit at least in a faint degree. It cannot be welldescribed in the term of ordinary thought. Itbelongs to the unclassified and unnamed men-tal phenomena which the old psychology re-fused to admit. The old mystics and occultistsunderstood it well, and have described it inglowing terms, as for instance, the following:

"Look for the flower to bloom in the silencethat follows the storm; not till then. It shallgrow, it will shoot up, it will make branchesand leaves, and form buds while the stormlasts. But not until the entire personality ofthe man is dissolved and melted—not until itis held by the divine fragment which' has cre-ated it, as a mere subject for grave experi-ment and experience—not until the whole na-

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ture has yielded and become subject to itshigher self, can the bloom open. Then willcome a calm such as comes in a tropical coun-try after the heavy rain, when nature worksso swiftly that one may see her action. Sucha calm will come to the harassed spirit. Andin the dead Silence will occur that which willprove that the way has been found. Call it bywhatever name you will. It is a voice thatspeaks where there is none to speak, it is amessenger that comes—a messenger withoutform or substance—or it is the flower of thesoul that has opened. It cannot be describedby any metaphor. But it can be felt after,looked for and desired, even among the ragingof the storm. The silence may last a momentof time, or it may last a thousand years. Butit will end. Yet you will carry its strengthwith you. Again and again the battle must befought and won. It is only for an intervalthat nature can be still."

If it is difficult to describe the stage ofEecognition, what must we say regarding thefinal stage of Manifestation? Emerson, in hisessay "The Oversoul," quoted from in thepreceding chapter, has given us an idea of

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what life means to the individual who has en-tered into a conscious recognition and realiza-tion of the higher planes of the mind—theGreater Self—and we cannot expect to equalhis beautiful description of that state. Thevery subject, in itself, is really beyond thescope and field of the present series of bookson The New Psychology, but we have thoughtit advisable to touch lightly upon it in conclu-sion, that the interested student might realizethe direction of the thought and spirit of thenew movement or current of thought. We can-not speak of these higher regions as we wouldof the faculties of the conscious mind, for thereason that the subject has not reached thatstage of scientific investigation in which newterms are applied and technical explanationsare made by the highest authorities. At pres-ent the subject must rest in that dim light be-tween scientific knowledge and fervent belief,and is more properly treated in poetic image-ry and mystical terms—for there are no otherterms available.

Accordingly, it is most proper to close theconsideration by a quotation from Tennyson,•wiho testified that he had entered in a full

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realization, and partial manifestation, of theSuperconscious Knowing. He says of this:"And more, my son, for more than once

when ISat all alone, revolving in myselfThat word which is the symbol of myself,The mortal symbol of the self was loosed,And passed into the Nameless, as a cloudMelts into Heaven. I touched my limbs, the

limbs"Were strange, not mine—and yet no shadow

of doubtBut utter clearness, and through loss of SelfWe gain of such large life as matched with

oursWere sun to spark, unshadowable in. words,Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."

FINIS.