MENTAL TELERAPHY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19093, 28 January 1932, Page 12

MENTAL TELERAPHY

LIKENED TO RADIO. A theory of “mind” which would account for the alleged phenomena of mental telepathy and :spiritualismon nurelv materialistic basis is proposed Fn the medical bulletin of the United ctntps Veterans’ Bureau. If such weird happenings as thoug transference from brain to team me great distances actually can be demonstrated, according to the theory advanced by Dr Clifford 0.0. Brace nsvehiatrist at the United Sta.-s Veterans’ Hospital at North Chicago Illinois, they may be explained by carrying to extreme lengths some of the concepts of behaviouristic psychology which denies the existence ohuman consciousness altogether and regards the mind only as a complicated anatomical machine. The theory is based on the functions of the two major divisions of the human nervous system—the tealdspinal cord and the aut ™ oml 1 c at s y s r te q n :? The nerve cells and the latter are located in a string of ganglions outside the spinal cord. Between the two systems there are only very tenuous connections. The first is the centre ot all supposedly conscious behaviour The second, presumably much Che older in the evolutionary progress of animal life, controls some of the Internal mechanisms of the body whim are necessary to life, but which proceed without the awareness of the menvidual. , - e According to Dr Brace, “the study of electricity has led to the discovery of electro-magnetism and induction cuirents where structual contacts are unnecessary. May not physico-chemical changes accompanying the formations of neural engrams induce powerful radiations as a result of being reinforced by powerful stimuli from the automatic system? “It has already been suggested that the autonomic and cerebro-spinal systems interact as a neural induction coil, raising the voltage of a stimulusresponse are to a point where Lie current jumps across the electrode or produces a magnetic field of energy. Some such notion as this would account for telepathic exchange of thought, proof of which has thus far escaped scientific investigators, and has been deferred to await the solution of the question of the existence of a special organ for distance reception. Having reached this point there should be no hesitation in crossing the border of metaphysics to make the further suggestions that the phenomena of spiritualism may be due to the projection of centrally-made engrams by means of neural radiations. “We must not forget the possibility that the world outside each one of us may be of our own creating, and that we cannot be certain the other person s receptors translate stimuli into uhe same meanings as our own. “Wireless waves were thought impossible of production until the radio demonstrated a mechanical sensitivity obtained by tuning one piece of machinery to be receptive to stimuli I from another, and yet we are inclined to deny a similar reaction between minds because it sounds metaphysical.