Mind and Body; or, Mental States and Physical ConditionsAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Mind and Body; or, Mental States and Physical Conditions
Atkinson, William Walker
Mental suggestion
Henry Wood says of the Subconscious Mind: "It acts automatically
upon the physical organism. It cognizes external facts, conditions,
limitations, and even contagions, quite independent of its active
counterpart. One may, therefore, 'take' a disease and be unaware of
any exposure. The subconsciousness has been unwittingly trained to
fear, and accept it; and it is this quality, rather than the mere inert
matter of the body, that succumbs. Matter is never the actor, but is
always acted upon. This silent, mental partner, in operation, seems
to be a living, thinking personality, conducting affairs on its own
account. It is a compound of almost unimaginable variety, including
wisdom and foolishness, logic and nonsense, and yet having a working
unitary economy. It is a hidden force to be dealt with and educated,
for it is often found insubordinate and unruly. It refuses co-operation
with its lesser but more active and wiser counterpart. It is very
'set' in its views, and only changes its qualities and opinions by
slow degrees. But, like a pair of horses, not until these two mental
factors can be trained together can there be harmony and efficiency."
In order to understand the important part played in the physical
economy by the Subconscious Mind, it is only necessary to understand
the various processes of the human system which are out of the ordinary
field of the voluntary or conscious mind. We then realize that the
entire process of nutrition, including digestion, assimilation, etc.,
the processes of elimination, the processes of circulation, the
processes of growth, in fact the entire processes manifested in the
work of the cells, cell-groups, ganglia, physical organs, etc., are
in charge of and controlled by the Subconscious Mind. Our food is
digested and transformed into the nourishing substances of the blood;
then carried through the arteries to all parts of the body, where it is
absorbed by the cells and used to replace the worn-out material, the
latter then being carried back through the veins to the lungs where the
waste matter is burned up, and the balance again sent on its journey
through the arteries re-charged with the life-giving oxygen. All of
these processes, and many others of almost equal importance, are out
of the field of the conscious or voluntary mind, and are governed by
the Subconscious Mind. As we shall see when we consider the Sympathetic
Nervous System, the greater part of the body is dominated by the
Subconscious Mind, and that the welfare of the major physical functions
depends entirely, or almost so, upon this great area or field of the
mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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