In short, psychology recognizes a _mental fusion_ between the individual minds of units composing a community of cells, insects, higher animals and even men. The "spirit of the hive" noted by all students of bee-life, and the community spirit in an ant-hill are instances serving to illustrate the general principle of "the collective mind." As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the entire human body is a vast community of cells, each unit in the community having relations with every other unit, and all having sprung from the same original egg-cell. This great community, or _nation_ of cells is divided into many smaller communities, chief among which are the principal organs of the body, as the stomach, the intestines, the liver, the kidneys, the spleen, the heart, etc. And, following the general rule, each of these organ-communities possesses its own "collective mind," subordinate, of course, to the great community mind known as the Subconscious Mind. Ordinarily these communities live in peace and harmony, and in obedience to the national government. But occasionally rebellions and revolutions are started, which cause much inharmony, pain and disease. Sometimes these rebellions arise from abuse of the particular organ by its owner, or from sympathy with another abused organ, or from general abuse of the system. But, at other times, there seems to be an active discontent springing up in an organ, to the quelling of which the entire Subconscious Mind bends its energy and forces. Very often these rebellions are started by adverse auto-suggestions or fearthoughts emanating from the conscious mind of the individual, which act according to the law of suggestion and practically _hypnotize_ the mind of the organ in question. This idea of each organ having a mind of its own--being practically an entity, in fact--may be somewhat startling to those who have never had the matter presented to them, but the statement is backed up by the best scientific authorities who, however, do not usually state it in so plain terms, or popular form. It is likely that the science of the future will make some great discoveries regarding this matter of the "collective mind" of the organs, and that the schools of medicine will adapt the new knowledge to the treatment of disease. In the meantime, the practitioners of Mental Healing are availing themselves of this principle, often without realizing the principle itself.