How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destinies

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New York American , February 7, 1915

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Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly

affe ted only by its immediate surrounding, the s!here of e"ternal influen e e"tends to infinitedistan e. There is no onstellation or nebula, no sun or !lanet, in all the de!ths of limitlesss!a e, no !assing wanderer of the starry heavens, that does not e"er ise some ontrol overits destiny#not in the vague and delusive sense of astrology, but in the rigid and !ositivemeaning of !hysi al s ien e.

$ore than this an be said. There is no thing endowed with life#from man, who is enslavingthe elements, to the humblest reature#in all this world that does not sway it in turn.%henever a tion is born from for e, though it be infinitesimal, the osmi balan e is u!setand universal motion result.

&erbert '!en er has inter!reted life as a ontinuous ad(ustment to the environment, adefinition of this in on eivably om!le" manifestation )uite in a ord with advan ed s ientifithought, but, !erha!s, not broad enough to e"!ress our !resent views. %ith ea h ste!forward in the investigation of its laws and mysteries our on e!tions of nature and its !haseshave been gaining in de!th and breadth.

*n the early stages of intelle tual develo!ment man was ons ious of but a small !art of thema ro osm. &e knew nothing of the wonders of the mi ros o!i world, of the mole ulesom!osing it, of the atoms making u! the mole ules and of the dwindlingly small world ofele trons within the atoms. To him life was synonymous with voluntary motion and a tion. +!lant did not suggest to him what it does to us#that it lives and feels, fights for its e"isten e,that it suffers and en(oys. Not only have we found this to be true, but we have as ertained thateven matter alled inorgani , believed to be dead, res!onds to irritants and givesunmistakable eviden e of the !resen e of a living !rin i!le within.

Thus, everything that e"ists, organi or inorgani , animated or inert, is sus e!tible to stimulusfrom the outside. There is no ga! between, no break of ontinuity, no s!e ial anddistinguishing vital agent. The same law governs all matter, all the universe is alive. Themomentous )uestion of '!en er, %hat is it that auses inorgani matter to run into organiforms- has been answered. *t is the sun s heat and light. %herever they are there is life. /nlyin the boundless wastes of interstellar s!a e, in the eternal darkness and old, is animationsus!ended, and, !ossibly, at the tem!erature of absolute 0ero all matter may die.

$+N +' + $+ &*N2

This realisti as!e t of the !er e!tible universe, as a lo kwork wound u! and running down,dis!ensing with the ne essity of a hy!erme hani al vital !rin i!le, need not be in dis ord withour religious and artisti as!irations#those undefinable and beautiful efforts through whi hthe human mind endeavors to free itself from material bonds. /n the ontrary, the betterunderstanding of nature, the ons iousness that our knowledge is true, an only be all themore elevating and ins!iring.

*t was 3es artes, the great Fren h !hiloso!her, who in the seventeenth entury, laid the firstfoundation to the me hanisti theory of life, not a little assisted by &arvey s e!o hal dis overyof blood ir ulation. &e held that animals were sim!ly automata without ons iousness andre ogni0ed that man, though !ossessed of a higher and distin tive )uality, is in a!able ofa tion other than those hara teristi of a ma hine. &e also made the first attem!t to e"!lainthe !hysi al me hanism of memory. 4ut in this time many fun tions of the human body werenot as yet understood, and in this res!e t some of his assum!tions were erroneous.

reat strides have sin e been made in the art of anatomy, !hysiology and all bran hes ofs ien e, and the workings of the man6ma hine are now !erfe tly lear. Yet the very fewest
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among us are able to tra e their a tions to !rimary e"ternal auses. lt is indis!ensable to thearguments * shall advan e to kee! in mind the main fa ts whi h * have myself established inyears of lose reasoning and observation and whi h may be summed u! as follows

1. The human being is a self6!ro!elled automaton entirely under the ontrol of e"ternalinfluen es. %illful and !redetermined though they a!!ear, his a tions are governed not fromwithin, but from without. &e is like a float tossed about by the waves of a turbulent sea.

8. There is no memory or retentive fa ulty based on lasting im!ression. %hat we designate asmemory is but in reased res!onsiveness to re!eated stimuli.

. *t is not true, as 3es artes taught, that the brain is an a umulator. There is no !ermanentre ord in the brain, there is no stored knowledge. :nowledge is something akin to an e hothat needs a disturban e to be alled into being.

;. +ll knowledge or form on e!tion is evoked through the medium of the eye, either inres!onse to disturban es dire tly re eived on the retina or to their fainter se ondary effe tsand reverberations. /ther sense organs an only all forth feelings whi h have no reality of

e"isten e and of whi h no on e!tion an be formed

5. ontrary to the most im!ortant tenet of artesian !hiloso!hy that the !er e!tions of themind are illusionary, the eye transmits to it the true and a urate likeness of e"ternal things.This is be ause light !ro!agates in straight lines and the image ast on the retina is an e"a tre!rodu tion of the e"ternal form and one whi h, owing to the me hanism of the o!ti nerve,an not be distorted in the transmission to the brain. %hat is more, the !ro ess must bereversible, that in to say, a form brought to ons iousness an, by refle" a tion, re!rodu e theoriginal image on the retina (ust as an e ho an re!rodu e the original disturban e *f this viewis borne out by e"!eriment an immense revolution in all human relations and de!artments ofa tivity will be the onse)uen e.

N+T F/= 2' *NF>


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This enormous energy is, however, not onstant, but varies with the !osition of the automatonin relation to the sun. The ir umferen e of the earth has a s!eed of 1,58? feet !er se ond,whi h is either added to or subtra ted from the translatory velo ity of nineteen miles throughs!a e. /wing to this the energy will vary from twelve to twelve hours by an amounta!!ro"imately e)ual to 1,5 ,???,??? foot !ounds, whi h means that energy streams in someunknown way into and out of the body of the automaton at the rate of about si"ty6four horse6

!ower.

4ut this is not all. The wholeBsolar system is urged towards the remote onstellation &er ulesat a s!eed whi h some estimate at some twenty miles !er se ond and owing to this thereshould be similar annual hanges in the flu" of energy, whi h may rea h the a!!alling figureof over one hundred billion foot !ounds. +ll these varying and !urely me hani al effe ts arerendered more om!le" through the in lination of the orbital !lanes and many other!ermanent or asual mass a tions.

This automaton, is, however sub(e ted to other for es and influen es. &is body is at theele tri !otential of two billion volts, whi h flu tuates violently and in essantly. The wholeearth is alive with ele tri al vibrations in whi h he takes !art. The atmos!here rushes himwith a !ressure of from si"teen to twenty tons, a ording, to barometri ondition. &e re eivesthe energy of the sun s rays in varying intervals at a mean rate of about forty foot !ounds !erse ond, and is sub(e ted to !eriodi bombardment of the sun s !arti les, whi h !ass throughhis body as if it were tissue !a!er. The air is rent with sounds whi h beat on his eardrums,and he is shaken by the un easing tremors of the earth s rust. &e is e"!osed to greattem!erature hanges, to rain and wind.

%hat wonder then that in su h a terrible turmoil, in whi h ast iron e"isten e would seemim!ossible, this deli ate human engine should a t in an e" e!tional mannerC *f all automatawere in every res!e t alike they would rea t in e"a tly the same way, but this is not the ase.There is on ordan e in res!onse to those disturban es only whi h are most fre)uentlyre!eated, not to all. *t is )uite easy to !rovide two ele tri al systems whi h, when sub(e ted tothe same influen e, will behave in (ust the o!!osite way.

'o also two human beings, and what is true of individuals also holds good for their largeaggregations. %e all slee! !eriodi ally. This is not an indis!ensable !hysiologi al ne essityany more than sto!!age at intervals is a re)uirement for an engine. *t is merely a onditiongradually im!osed u!on us by the diurnal revolution of the globe, and this is one of the manyeviden es of the truth of the me hanisti theory. %e note a rhythm or ebb and tide, in ideasand o!inions, in finan ial and !oliti al movements, in every de!artment of our intelle tuala tivity.

&/% %+=' +=2 'T+=T23

*t only shows that in all this a !hysi al system of mass inertia is involved whi h affords afurther striking !roof. *f we a e!t the theory as a fundamental truth and, furthermore, e"tendthe limits of our sense !er e!tions beyond those within whi h we be ome ons ious of thee"ternal im!ressions, then all the states in human life, however unusual, an be !lausiblye"!lained. + few e"am!les may be given in illustration.

The eye res!onds only to light vibrations through a ertain rather narrow range, but the limitsare not shar!ly defined. *t is also affe ted by vibrations beyond, only in lesser degree. +!erson may thus be ome aware of the !resen e of another in darkness, or throughintervening obsta les, and !eo!le laboring under illusions as ribe this to tele!athy. 'u htransmission of thought is absurdly im!ossible.

The trained observer notes without diffi ulty that these !henomena are due to suggestion oroin iden e. The same may be said of oral im!ressions, to whi h musi al and imitative

!eo!le are es!e ially sus e!tible. + !erson !ossessing these )ualities will often res!ond tome hani al sho ks or vibrations whi h are inaudible.


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To mention another instan e of momentary interest referen e may be made to dan ing, whi hom!rises ertain harmonious mus ular ontra tions and ontortions of the body in res!onseto a rhythm. &ow they ome to be in vogue (ust now, an be satisfa torily e"!lained bysu!!osing the e"isten e of some new !eriodi disturban es in the environment, whi h aretransmitted through the air or the ground and may be of me hani al, ele tri al or otherhara ter.

2"a tly so it is with wars, revolutions and similar e" e!tional states of so iety.

Though it may seem so, a war an never be aused by arbitrary a ts of man.

*t is invariably the more or less dire t result of osmi disturban e in whi h the sun is hieflyon erned.

*n many international onfli ts of histori al re ord whi h were !re i!itated by famine,!estilen e or terrestrial atastro!hes the dire t de!enden e of the sun is unmistakable. 4ut inmost ases the underlying !rimary auses are numerous and hard to tra e.

*n the !resent war it would be !arti ularly diffi ult to show that the a!!arently willful a ts of afew individuals were not ausative. 4e it so, the me hanisti theory, being founded on truthdemonstrated in everyday e"!erien e, absolutely !re ludes the !ossibility of su h a statebeing anything but the inevitable onse)uen e of osmi disturban e.

The )uestion naturally !resents itself as to whether there is some intimate relation betweenwars and terrestrial u!heavals. The latter are of de ided influen e on tem!erament anddis!osition, and might at times be instrumental in a elerating the lash but aside from thisthere seems to be no mutual de!enden e, though both may be due to the same !rimaryause.

%hat an be asserted with !erfe t onfiden e is that the earth may be thrown into

onvulsions through me hani al effe ts su h as are !rodu ed in modern warfare. Thisstatement may be startling, but it admits of a sim!le e"!lanation.

2arth)uakes are !rin i!ally due to two auses#subterranean e"!losions or stru turalad(ustments. The former are alled vol ani , involve immense energy and are hard to start.The latter are named te toni D their energy is om!aratively insignifi ant and they an beaused by the slightest sho k or tremor. The fre)uent slides in the ulebra are dis!la ementsof this kind.

%+= +N3 T&2 2+=T&E


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thus have been the result of e"!losions in Fran e. That man an !rodu e su h terrestrialonvulsions is beyond any doubt, and the time may be near when it will be done for !ur!osesgood or a!t.

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How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destinies