THE ATOMIC WORLD

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4425, 3 August 1901, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE ATOMIC WORLD

A NEW CHAPTER IN EVOLUTION. (By C. C. Ross.) PART IV. Having in tho previous articles stated tho spiritist position as based on scientific theory, it would appear proper for the benefit of those who have not had the opportunity of studying the matter from both sides to devote a little space to the consideration of the doctrines of T. J. Hudson, one of the most advanced and up to-date students of psychical phenomena and also a decided opponent of spiritualism. His syllogistic style of argument will enable us to state his views clearly by brief extracts from his excellent work, ‘‘The laws of psychical phenomena.” As an exclusive exponent of psychical principles, he follow's the methods usually adopted by his class and does not seek for an ultimate explanation in physical and biological phenomena, concluding, apparently, that they can have no important bearing on tho subject. It follows, therefore, that as a statement of fact and even of special principles, his work may be regarded* as of some value, but finally acceptable only to the extent that they conform to the wider principles derived from physical and biological comparison. His first proposition embodies the truth now generally recognised by psychologists that MAN HAS TWO MINDS, the objective and subjective mind or, in other terms, our old friends the Homo and Ego respectively. We find no reason to assume that Hudson would demur to our physical interpretation of the evolution of his objective and subjective minds, so w© can proceed to his formulation of the functions of the two minds as follows:—The objective mind (or Homo) takes cognizance of,the ob jective world. Its media of observation are the five physical senses. It is the outgrowth of man’s physical necessities. It is his guide in his struggle with his material environments. Its highest function is that of reasoning. In its normal condition it is not con trollable against reason, positive knowledge, or the evidence of his senses by the suggestion of another. It is capable of reasoning by all methods inductive and deductive, analytic and synthetic. It has a co-ordinative action over im pressions received through the subjective mind.

The subjective mind (or Ego) takes cognizanc® of its environments by means independent of tho physical senses. It perceives by intuition. It is the seat of the emotions, the storehouse of memory and the source of inspiration. It performs its highest functions when the objective senses aro in abeyance (induced hypnotic or natural sleep). In that state it- is unqualifiedly and con. stantly amenable to the power of suggestion, and is incapable of inductive reasoning, its promises being the result of suggestion. In this state it may see without the use of the natural organs of vision and can be made to leave the body and travelling to distant lands, bring back intelligence of the most exact and truthful character. It can in that state read thoughts without the aid of objective means of communication. A distinction is next drawn between tho memory of the objective mind, which ho terms recollection, and that of the subjective mind, called remembrance, and tho conclusion is reached that the most perfect exhibition of intellectual power is the result of tho synchronous action of the objective and subjective minds. SUGGESTION is defined as the influence of a subjective over the objective mind, and to this point it will be seen that psychists and spiritualists go hand in hand, the difference occuring when his examination of the phenomena leads to an arbitrary classification of them under’ the comprehensive head of suggestion. The power of auto suggestion is correctly discerned in an excess of sub jectivo activity (a predoraineuce of tho Ego) and in this class the author boldly places poets, artists, mathematical and musical prodigies, showing in the eccentricities of genius, monomania and delusions, an increasing excess of subjective energy to that complete control by the subjective mind observed in insan’ ity. Hudson then proceeds to that which might have been expected in the face of his inability or unwillingness to find a physical‘explanation of his own psychical problems and by means of a strained process of reasoning attempts to explain all remaining psychic phen-

omi-nr as well as the so-called spiritual islic manifestation by means of suggestion. Under this heading he therefore places thought reading, trance speaking, telepathy and visions, therapeutic healing, apparations, and even the movement of ponderable objects. A lengthy inquiry into hypnotic and mesmeric conditions leads the author to a vague .suspicion that the forces exhibited are identical, but in his- con tempt for the other sciences it does not dawn upon him that as a magnetic force it could manifest itself in a local or neural field as in mesmeri-m or in the objective mental field, as in hypnotism. Hpynotism, mesmerism and natural sleep are .shown to be the physiological conditions necessary to sub jectivo suggestion, hut we search in vain for an explanation of the: physical processes which make suggestion operative, although the spiritualist understands something even -of that and still adheres to the conviction which the professors choose to call SUPERSTITION. And in reply to this, which is a fair presentation of the auto-spiritist position, a, few 'words will suffice. AVo claim' that what the professor calls the sub,jectivo mind is evolved from and with the objective mind, and that its power in consciousness is limited to the intuitions derived from its source, plus acquired experiences. Also that on the dissolution of the objective mind it retains its distinctive features as an entity in evolution, and continues to act as a. suhejetive factor on the subjective minds of mankind. This being so, the spiritualist maintains that the psychist is in error in assuming the discontinuity of subjective mind action after Homo dissolution, and further that he attributes too much to human subjective mind suggestive action. There are cases cited by the Professor which must be traced to higher influences than human suggestion, and in many manifestations there is clearly seen the contemporaneous action and interaction of auto-sugges-tion. subjective mind suggestion, and Ether-Ego suggestion. More especially is this shown in the remarkable feats of mathematical and musical infant prodigies, trance orators, linguistic powers and to a smaller extent in poetical and artistic genius. That visions may he attributable to telepathic projection the spiritualist does not deny, hut he has sufficient evidence to show that spectresand apparitions, in their power of ma terialisation under favourable conditions, are real and substantial. And by an obvious process of reasoning he concludes that the movement and rlomaterialisation of ponderable objects pro coed from the same source and not from the Professor’s omnipotent subjective mind. It is, however, a favourable sign that the mysterious and much scouted

PSYCHIC FORCE is at last becoming moulded into a more substantial form by scientists, and th e time is not far distant when it will bo realised—as has so often happened before—that there is truth in all things, and that even the spiritualist has been earnestly holding on to the golden thread. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the inspired American writer, truly reflectsi the spiritualistic idea in conceiving genius to bo “a creating and informing spirit which is with us and not of us.” This, he goes on to say, “is tho Zeus which kindled the rage of Achilles, it is tho muse of Homer, it is the demon of Socrates, and it is the inspiration of the seer- It shaped the form and filled the\oal of Michael Angelo when he saw the figure of the great law giver in the yet un hewn marble. It comes to the least of us as a voice that will b© heard, it lends a sudden gleam of sense and eloquence' to the dullest of us all; we wonder at ourselves, or rather, not at ourselves, but at this divine visitor who chooses our brain as his dwelling place and invests our naked thoughts with the purple of the kings of speech or song.”