A very interesting statement of one of our contemporaries is that any person, to one degree or another, is both a psychologist and a philosopher - they say, life forces him to. On the one hand, the main driving force of every person is the craving for knowledge, the desire to reach certain social heights, the desire to be wise in any everyday situations - and this is the philosophy of life. Psychology and Achievement by Warren Hilton (english novels for students TXT) 📖
- Author: Warren Hilton
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We assume now your complete acceptance of the following propositions, based as they are upon facts long since discovered and enunciated in standard scientific works:
a. The whole body is composed of cells, each of which is an intelligent entity endowed with mental powers commensurate with its needs.
b. The fact that every cell in the body is a mind cell shows that the body, by the very nature of its component parts, is peculiarly susceptible to mental influence and control.
To these propositions we now append the following:
c. A further examination of the body reveals a central mental organism, the brain, composed of highly differentiated cells whose intelligence, as in the case of other cells, is commensurate with their functions.
d. It reveals also a physical mechanism, the nervous system, peculiarly adapted to the communication of intelligence between the central governing intelligence and the subordinate cells.
e. The existence of this mind organism and this mechanism of intercommunication is additional evidence of the control and direction of bodily activities by mental energy.
The facts to follow will not only demonstrate the truth of these propositions, but will disclose the existence within every one of us of a store of mental energies and activities of which we are entirely unconscious.
The brain constitutes the organ of central governing intelligence, and the nerves are the physical means employed in bodily intercommunication.
Brain and nerves are in other words the physical mechanism employed by the mind to dominate the body.
Single nerve fibers are fine, thread-like cells. They are so small as to be invisible to the naked eye. Some of them are so minute that it would take twenty thousand of them laid side by side to measure an inch. Every nerve fiber in the human body forms one of a series of connecting links between some central nerve cell in the brain or spinal cord on the one hand and some bodily tissue on the other.
All nerves originating in the brain may be divided into two classes according as they carry currents to the brain or from it. Those carrying currents to the brain are called sensory nerves, or nerves of sensation; those carrying currents from the brain are called motor nerves, or nerves of motion.
Among the sensory nerves are the nerves of consciousness; that is, the nerves whereby we receive sense impressions from the external world. These include the nerves of touch, sight, pain, hearing, temperature, taste and smell. Motor nerves are those that carry messages from the brain and spinal cord on the one hand to the muscles on the other. They are the lines along which flash all orders resulting in bodily movements.
Another broad division of nerves is into two great nerve systems. There are the cerebro-spinal system and the sympathetic system. The first, the cerebro-spinal system, includes all the nerves of consciousness and of voluntary action; it includes all nerves running between the brain and spinal cord on the one hand and the voluntary muscles on the other. The second, the sympathetic nerve system, consists of all the nerves of the unconscious or functional life; it therefore includes all nerves running between the brain and sympathetic or involuntary nerve centers on the one hand and the involuntary muscles on the other.
Every bodily movement or function that you can start or stop at will, even to such seemingly unconscious acts as winking, walking, etc., is controlled through the cerebro-spinal system. All other functions of the body, including the great vital processes, such as heart pulsation and digestion, are performed unconsciously, are beyond the direct control of the will, and are governed through the sympathetic nerve system.
It is obvious that the cerebro-spinal nerve system is the organ of consciousness, the apparatus through which the mind exercises its conscious and voluntary control over certain functions of the body. It is equally obvious that the sympathetic system is not under the immediate control of consciousness, is not subject to the will, but is dominated by mental influences that act without, or even contrary to, our conscious will and sometimes without our knowledge.
Yet you are not to understand that these two great nerve systems are entirely distinct in their operations. On the contrary, they are in many respects closely related.
Thus, the heart receives nerves from both centers of government, and besides all this is itself the center of groups of nerve cells. The power by which it beats arises from a ganglionic center within the heart itself, so that the heart will continue to beat apart from the body if it be supplied with fresh blood. But the rapidity of the heart's beating is regulated by the cerebro-spinal and sympathetic systems, of which the former tends to retard the beat and the latter tends to accelerate it.
In the same way, your lungs are governed in part by both centers, for you can breathe slowly or rapidly as you will, but you cannot, by any power of your conscious will, stop breathing altogether.
Your interest in the brain and nerve system is confined to such facts as may prove to be of use to you in your study of the mind. These anatomical divisions interest you only as they are identified with conscious mental action on the one hand and unconscious mental action on the other.
It is, therefore, of no use to you to consider the various divisions of the sympathetic nerve system, since the sympathetic nerve system in its entirety belongs to the field of unconscious mental action. It operates without our knowledge and without our will.
The cerebro-spinal system consists of the spinal cord and the brain. The brain in turn is made up of two principal subdivisions. First, there is the greater or upper brain, called the cerebrum; secondly, there is the lower or smaller brain, called the cerebellum. The cerebrum in turn consists of three parts: the convoluted surface brain, the middle brain and the lower brain. So that in all we have the surface brain, the middle brain, the lower brain and the cerebellum. All these parts consist of masses of brain cells with connecting nerve fibers.
And now, as to the functions of these various parts. Beginning at the lowest one and moving upward, we find first that the spinal cord consists of through lines of nerves running between the brain and the rest of the body. At the same time it contains within itself certain nerve centers that are sufficient for many simple bodily movements. These bodily movements are such as are instinctive or habitual and require no distinct act of the will for their performance. They are mere "reactions," without conscious, volitional impulse.
Moving up one step higher, we find that the cerebellum is the organ of equilibrium, and that it as well as the spinal cord operates independently of the conscious will, for no conscious effort of the will is required to make one reel from dizziness.
As to the divisions of the greater brain or cerebrum, we want you to note that the lower brain serves a double purpose. First, it is the channel through which pass through lines of communication to and from the upper brain and the mid-brain on the one hand and the rest of the body on the other. Secondly, it is itself a central office for the maintenance of certain vital functions, such as lung-breathing, heart-beating, saliva-secreting, swallowing, etc., all involuntary and unconscious in the sense that consciousness is not necessary to their performance.
The next higher division, or mid-brain, is a large region from which the conscious will issues its edicts regulating all voluntary bodily movements. It is also the seat of certain special senses, such as sight.
Lastly, the surface brain, known as the cortex, is the interpretative and reflective center, the abode of memory, intellect and will.
The functions of these various parts are well illustrated by the effects of alcohol upon the mind. If a man takes too much alcohol, its first apparent effect will be to paralyze the higher or cortical center. This leaves the mid-brain without the check-rein of a reflective intellect, and the man will be senselessly hilarious or quarrelsome, jolly or dejected, pugnacious or tearful, and would be ordinarily described as "drunk." If in spite of this he keeps on drinking, the mid-brain soon becomes deadened and ceases to respond, and the cerebellum, the organ of equilibrium, also becomes paralyzed. All voluntary bodily activities must then cease, and he rolls under the table, helpless and "dead" drunk, or in language that is even more graphically appreciative of the physiological effects of alcohol, "paralyzed." However, the deep-seated sympathetic system is still alive. No assault has yet been made upon the vital organs of the body; the heart continues to beat and the lungs to breathe. But suppose that some playful comrade pours still more liquor down the victim's throat. The medulla, or lower brain, then becomes paralyzed, the vital organs cease to act and the man is no longer "dead" drunk. He has become a sacrifice to Bacchus. He is literally and actually dead.
It seems, then, that the surface brain and mid-brain constitute together the organ of consciousness and will. Consciousness and will disappear with the deadening or paralysis of these two organs.
Yet these two organs constitute but a small proportion of the entire mass of brain and nervous tissue of the body. In addition to these, there are not only the lower brain and the spinal cord and the countless ramifications of motor and sensory nerves throughout the body, but there are also separate nerve-centers or ganglia in every one of the visceral organs of the body. These ganglia have the power to maintain movements in their respective organs. They may in fact be looked upon as little brains developing nerve force and communicating it to the organs.
All these automatic parts of the bodily mechanism are dominated by departments of the mind entirely distinct from ordinary consciousness. In fact, ordinary consciousness has no knowledge of their existence excepting what is learned from outward bodily manifestations.
All these different organic ganglia constitute together the sympathetic nerve system, organ of that part of the mind which directs the vital operations of the body in apparent independence of the intelligence commonly called "the mind," an intelligence which acts through the cerebro-spinal system.
Yet this independence is far from being absolute. For, as we have seen, not only is the cerebro-spinal system, which is the organ of consciousness, the abode of all the special senses, such as sight, hearing, etc., and therefore our only source of information of the external world, but many organs of the body are under the joint control of both systems.
So it comes about that these individual intelligences governing different organs of the body, with their intercommunications, are dependent upon consciousness for their knowledge of such facts of the outer world as have a bearing on their individual operations, and they are subject to the influence of consciousness as the medium that interprets these facts.
It is unnecessary for us to go into this matter deeply. It is enough if you clearly understand that, in addition to consciousness, the department of mind that knows and directly deals with the facts of the outer world, there is also a deep-seated and seemingly unconscious department of mind consisting of individual organic intelligences capable of receiving, understanding and acting upon such information as consciousness transmits.
We have spoken of conscious and
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