The Law of Psychic Phenomena: A working hypothesis for the systematic study of hypnotism, spiritism, mental therapeutics, etc.Hudson, Thomson Jay
Philosophy
The Law of Psychic Phenomena: A working hypothesis for the systematic study of hypnotism, spiritism, mental therapeutics, etc.
Hudson, Thomson Jay
Parapsychology
Macaulay's remark concerning children is eminently philosophical and
true to nature. Children are almost purely subjective; and no one
needs to be told how completely a suggestion, true or false, will take
control of their minds. This is seen in perfection when children are
playing games in which one of them is supposed to be a wild beast. The
others will flee in affected terror from the beast; but the affectation
often becomes a real emotion, and tears, and sometimes convulsions,
result from their fright.
The remark elsewhere made regarding the eccentricities of genius
applies in a marked degree to poets. It is probable that in all the
greater poets the subjective mind often predominates. Certainly the
subjective element is dominant in their works. The career of Lord Byron
is at once a splendid illustration of the marvellous powers and the
inexhaustible resources of the subjective mind in a man of learning and
cultivation, and a sad commentary on the folly and danger of allowing
the subjective mind to usurp control of the dual mental organization.
Many of the poems of Coleridge furnish striking examples of the
dominance of the subjective in poetry. His readers will readily recall
the celebrated fragment entitled "Kubla Khan; or, a Vision in a Dream,"
beginning as follows:--
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree,--
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea."
It is unfortunately true that the subjective condition in his case was
often brought about by artificial means; and it is expressly stated in
a prefatory note to "Kubla Khan" that this fragment was written while
under the influence of an anodyne. As an illustration of the principle
under consideration it is, however, none the less valuable; while the
career of the gifted but unfortunate poet should serve as a warning
against the practices in which he indulged.
Macaulay further remarks:--
"In an enlightened age there will be much intelligence, much
science, much philosophy, abundance of just classification and
subtle analysis, abundance of wit and eloquence, abundance of
verses,--and even of good ones,--but little poetry. Men will judge
and compare; but they will not create."[7]
In other words, this is an age of purely objective cultivation. All our
powers of inductive reasoning are strained to their highest tension in
an effort to penetrate the secrets of physical Nature, and to harness
her dynamic forces. Meantime, the normal exercise of that co-ordinate
power in our mental structure is fast falling into desuetude, and its
manifestations, not being understood, are relegated to the domain of
superstition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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