CHAPTER III

THE PHYSICAL MECHANISM THROUGH WHICH MENTAL HEALING IS EFFECTED (Continued)

The Cerebro-Spinal and the Sympathetic Nervous Systems. The Former controls the Voluntary Movements and is dominated by the Objective Mind. - The Latter controls the Involuntary Movements and is dominated by the Subjective Mind. — The Subjective Mind can usurp the Functions of the Cerebro-Spinal System.— The Objective Mind powerless to control directly a purely Involuntary Muscle. - A Nexus between the two Nervous Systems corresponding to that between the two Minds. - The Nerve Connections between the two Systems enable the Objective Mind to communicate its Therapeutic Suggestions to the Subjective. — The Pseudopodia of Unicellular Organisms. Protoplasmic Filaments the Means of Communication between Body-Cells. — This is effected by Physical Contact.-The Nerve and Brain Cells highly specialized for this Purpose.— Being Mind Organisms, the Energy involved in the Transmission of Sensation is a Mental One.

N°

one needs to be told that the nerves are the lines of communication through which the mind receives intelligence from, and issues its mandates to, every part of the body; but the special adaptation of the means to the ends is not so generally understood.

It is not my purpose to inflict upon the reader a lengthy dissertation on the subject of the nervous system of man, but to outline a few of the salient facts which bear upon the subject of mental medicine.

Before proceeding, however, to describe the structure of the nerves with reference to their functional activities as carriers of intelligence and therapeutic impulses, I desire to say one word in reference to the structure of the nervous system with reference to the theory of mental duality. Postulating a duplex mental organism, such as experimental psychology reveals, we have a logical right, a priori, to expect to find confirmatory evidence of the fact in a corresponding nervous organism. Accordingly we find that man is endowed with two nervous systems, namely, the cerebro-spinal nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. If, now, we find that the two nervous systems correspond in function to the known powers and limitations of the two minds, it will constitute conclusive proof of the correctness of the theory of mental duality.

Beginning, then, with the cerebro-spinal system, we know that, as its name indicates, it is presided over by the brain, the organ of the objective mind, and that it controls the voluntary movements of the body. On the other hand, the sympathetic system presides over all involuntary movements, such as nutrition, secretion, vaso-motor action, reproduction, etc. Its centre of functional activity is the solar plexis, sometimes called the "abdominal brain." 1 In using this term, says Dr. Robinson, "I mean to convey the idea that it is endowed with the high powers and phenomena of a great nervous centre; that it can organize, multiply, and diminish forces."

1 See Robinson on "The Abdominal Brain and Automatic Visceral Ganglia."

2 Op. cit., p. 29.

I assume, of course, that the mental organism which presides over the sympathetic nervous system and organizes and controls its forces, is the subjective mind, although the dominion of that mental organism is by no means limited to the visible domain of that congeries of nerve ganglia known to empirical anatomy as the sympathetic nervous system. It necessarily presides over all the silent forces or involuntary activities of the whole physical organism; otherwise the latter could not act as a unit. Besides, the facts of psychology teach us that the subjective mind can under certain conditions, not yet very clearly defined, invade the domain and usurp the functions of the cerebro-spinal system. This may be brought about experimentally, as in hypnotism, or trance, induced or spontaneous; or it may occur in response to necessity, as when the body is in imminent and deadly peril. In such an emergency the objective mind functions too slowly, and the nerve responses are correspondingly sluggish; and hence the subjective mind, ever alert for the protection of the body, instantaneously inhibits all brain mentation, seizes upon its mechanism of motion, and wields it with inconceivable rapidity and precision, often snatching the body from the very jaws of death. The difference in the action of the two minds in such cases is the difference between reason and instinct or intuition. The one requires time for deliberation, with its accompanying doubt and hesitancy; the other is instantaneous in mentation and appropriate action. Hypnotism, in this sense, is merely

1 For a full discussion of this topic, see "The Law of Psychic Phenomena."

a method of inducing the subjective mind to inhibit the action of the brain, to the end that certain of its functions may be usurped by the subjective mind. When the inhibition is accomplished, "automatism," e. g., automatic writing, etc., is rendered possible, which is but another way of saying that the mental organism which normally presides over the sympathetic nervous system, has assumed temporary control of the cerebro-spinal system.

This constitutes one of the points of radical difference between the powers and limitations of the two minds: the subjective mind may, and does on occasion, control every nerve and muscle in the physical organism, voluntary and involuntary; but the objective mind cannot directly control one purely involuntary muscle.

The far-reaching significance of this one fact cannot be dwelt upon here; but I cannot refrain from remarking, en passant, that it constitutes indubitable evidence that the subjective mind is the primary intelligence of organic life; the corollary of which is that the objective mind, with its organs, is the product of organic evolution. I make this remark for the reason that some scientists have labored to prove that the sympathetic nervous system is a subordinate offshoot of the cerebro-spinal system. I have incidentally pointed out this fallacy elsewhere1 in discussing the facts of organic and mental evolution, the sum of which demonstrates that the subjective mind antedated the objective, or brain intelligence, by untold millions of years. That there is a nerve connection between the two nervous sys

1 See "The Divine Pedigree of Man."

tems is necessarily true; that they are intimately correlated is well known and admitted by those who most strongly assert the essential independence of the sympathetic. Experimental psychology teaches us that there exists a nexus between the two minds, enabling them, under certain conditions, to act in perfect synchronism. The same reason exists for an intimate interrelation between the two nervous systems. But as the subjective mind often asserts its independence of the objective, so are the essential functions of the sympathetic ganglia independent of control by the cerebral centre. They may be modified by indirection, as by suggestion, but the essential vital processes go on independently of objective will or desire. In other words, the life forces, which are presided over by the subjective mind, acting through the sympathetic nervous system, persist independently of the will or volition of the objective mind acting through the cerebro-spinal nervous system. As before remarked, it is only by indirection that the latter can modify the action of the sympathetic nervous organism; and this is where the law of suggestion presents itself as a therapeutic agent. The nerve connections between the two nervous systems enable the objective mind to communicate its therapeutic suggestions to the subjective mind. The latter, ever ready to adopt whatever measures promise to preserve health and prolong life, communicates the necessary therapeutic impulses, through the nerves, to the cell intelligences which are involved in the disease, stimulating them to increased activity, or the reverse, as occasion requires, — in a word, reestablishing normal metabolism in the diseased cells.