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) 📖
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"Unconscious" simply means "not conscious." In its common acceptation, it denotes, in fact, an absence of all mental action. It is in no sense descriptive. It is merely negative. Death is unconscious; but unconsciousness is no attribute of a mental state that is living and impellent and constantly manifests its active energy and power in the maintenance of the vital functions of the body.
Hereafter, then, we shall continue to use the term consciousness as descriptive of that part of our mentality which constitutes what is commonly known as the "mind"; while that mental force, which, so far as our animal life is concerned, operates through the sympathetic nerve system, we shall hereafter describe as "subconscious."
Let us summarize our study of man's physical organism. We have learned that the human body is a confederation of various groups of living cells; that in the earliest stages of man's evolution, these cells were all of the same general type; that as such they were free-living, free-thinking and intelligent organisms as certainly as were those unicellular organisms which had not become members of any group or association; that through the processes of evolution, heredity and adaptation, there has come about in the course of the ages, a subdivision of labor among the cells of our bodies and a consequent differentiation in kind whereby each has become peculiarly fitted for the performance of its allotted functions; that, nevertheless, these cells of the human body are still free-living, intelligent organisms, of which each is endowed with the inherited, instinctive knowledge of all that is essential to the preservation of its own life and the perpetuation of its species within the living body; that, as a part of the specializing economy of the body, there have been evolved brain and nerve cells performing a twofold service—first, constituting the organ of a central governing intelligence with the important business of receiving, classifying, and recording all impressions or messages received through the senses from the outer world, and, second, communicating to the other cells of the body such part of the information so derived as may be appropriate to the functions of each; that finally, as such complex and confederated individuals, each of us possesses a direct, self-conscious knowledge of only a small part of his entire mental equipment; that we have not only a consciousness receiving sense impressions and issuing motor impulses through the cerebro-spinal nervous system, but that we have also a subconsciousness manifesting itself, so far as bodily functions are concerned, in the activity of the vital organs through the sympathetic nerve system; that this subconsciousness is dependent on consciousness for all knowledge of the external world; that, in accordance with the principles of evolution, man as a whole and as a collection of cell organisms, both consciously and unconsciously, is seeking to adapt himself to his external world, his environment; that the human body, both as a whole and as an aggregate of cellular intelligences, is therefore subject in every part and in every function to the influence of the special senses and of the mind of consciousness.
THE SUPREMACY OF CONSCIOUSNESS CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM STUDIES IN HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY, ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Stop a moment and mark the conclusion to which you have come. You have been examining the human body with the scalpel and the microscope of the anatomist and physiologist. In doing so and by watching the bodily organs in operation, you have learned that every part of the body, even to those organs commonly known as involuntary, is ultimately subject to the influence or control of consciousness, that part of the human intelligence which is popularly known as "the mind."
Prior to this, as a matter of direct introspective knowledge, we had come to the conclusion that the influence of the mind over all the organs of the body was one of the most obvious facts of human life.
So, our study of the body as the instrument of the mind has brought us to the same conclusion as did our study of the mind in its relations to the body.
Looked at from the practical science standpoint, the evidences that mental activity can and does produce bodily effects are so clear and numerous as to admit of no dispute.
The world has been slow to acknowledge the mastery of mind over body. This is because the world long persisted in looking at the question from the point of view of the philosopher and religionist. It is because the thought of the world has been hampered by its own definitions of terms.
The spiritualist has been so busy in the pursuit of originating "first" causes, and the materialist has so emphasized the dependence of mind upon physical conditions, that the world has received with skepticism the assertion of the influence of mind over body, and in fact doubted the intuitive evidence of its own consciousness.
The distinction between the two points of view has gradually come to be recognized. Today the fact that the mind may act as a "cause" in relationship with the body is a recognized principle of applied science. The world's deepest thinkers accept its truth. And the interest of enlightened men and women everywhere is directed toward the mind as an agency of undreamed resource for the cure of functional derangements of the body and for the attainment of the highest degree of bodily efficiency.
In some respects it is unfortunate that you should have been compelled to begin these studies in mental efficiency and self-expression with lessons on the relationship between the mind and the body. There is the danger that you may jump at the conclusion that this course has some reference to "mental healing." Please disabuse your mind of any such mistaken idea.
Health is a boon. It is not the greatest boon. Health is not life. Health is but a means to life. Life is service. Life is achievement. Health is of value in so far as it contributes to achievement.
Our study of the relation between mind and body at this time has had a deeper, broader and more vital purpose. It is the foundation stone of an educational structure in which we shall show you how the mind may be brought by scientific measures to a certainty and effectiveness of operation far greater than is now common or ordinarily thought possible.
Remember the two fundamental propositions set forth in this book.
I. All human achievement comes about through some form of bodily activity.
II. All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the mind.
The truth of these propositions must now be obvious to you. You must realize that the mind is the one instrument by which it is possible to achieve anything in life. Your next step must be to learn how to use it.
In succeeding volumes, we shall sound the depths of the reservoir of latent mental power. We shall find the means of tapping its resources. And so we shall come to give you the master key to achievement and teach you how to use it with confidence and with the positive assurance of success.
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