tive mind.
If we were to remove the surface portion of the apex of the brain we should
find immediately below it the shining belt of brain substance called the
"corpus callosum." This is the point of union between the subjective and
objective, and as the current returns from the solar plexus to this point
it is restored to the objective portion of the brain in a fresh form which
it has acquired by the silent alchemy of the subjective mind. Thus the
conception which was at first only vaguely recognized is restored to the
objective mind in a definite and workable form, and then the objective
mind, acting through the frontal brain--the area of comparison and
analysis--proceeds to work upon a clearly perceived idea and to bring out
the potentialities that are latent in it.
It must of course be borne in mind that I am here speaking of the mental
ego in that, mode of its existence with which we are most familiar, that is
as clothed in flesh, though there may be much to say as to other modes of
its activity. But for our daily life we have to consider ourselves as we
are in that aspect of life, and from this point of view the physiological
correspondence of the body to the action of the mind is an important item;
and therefore, although we must always remember that the origin of ideas is
purely mental, we must not forget that on the physical plane every mental
action implies a corresponding molecular action in the brain and in the
two-fold nervous system.
If, as the old Elizabethan poet says, "the soul is form, and doth the body
make," then it is clear that the physical organism must be a mechanical
arrangement as specially adapted for the use of the soul's powers as a
steam-engine is for the power of steam; and it is the recognition of this
reciprocity between the two that is the basis of all spiritual or mental
healing, and therefore the study of this mechanical adaptation is an
important branch of Mental Science. Only we must not forget that it is the
effect and not the cause.
At the same time it is important to remember that such a thing as reversal
of the relation between cause and effect is possible, just as the same
apparatus may be made to generate mechanical power by the application of
electricity, or to generate electricity by the application of mechanical
power. And the importance of this principle consists in this. There is
always a tendency for actions which were at first voluntary to become
automatic, that
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