The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul Part 13

Emphasizing the _causal_ as he does, this could hardly be otherwise; and from this point of view, and for this reason, his practical Psychotherapy is purely empirical.

We need not deny his facts, or his results, even when mixed with hypnosis, more than he does the "cures" in "Christian Science," "Faith Cures," at Lourdes, or by the "laying on of hands." All these things are too well known, and not one of them deserves the name of Science. They are solely empirical methods. Munsterberg's broader view and deeper a.n.a.lysis give to his methods great prominence, and he can point to no results that transcend the others. These facts and these results are as old as the history of man. They have, even as he points out, const.i.tuted epidemics of "cure."

There is, moreover, a scientific view and method regarding what he calls the purposive view which he overlooks entirely, and which by emphasis of the causal, makes seemingly impossible. It is our purpose to try and make this clear.

His a.n.a.lysis of Suggestion, though largely automatic, is well-nigh exhaustive. Awareness, and Attention, are ill.u.s.trated copiously; but not clearly differentiated as they may be, and actually are in the experience of individual life.

Fortunately, and wisely, he eliminates the "Subconscious" as having no real meaning or scientific value as now used.

But it might be applied to the Mental awareness of physiological automatism (bodily habits, often beginning in an act of will, or attention; writing, speaking, music, dancing, and the like, and in less degree, all life impulses and movements below the line of attention or awareness).

If, by courtesy, these might be called sub-conscious, then there is another group above the habitual plane of awareness, that, by equal courtesy, might be called Supra-conscious. But, unless it is remembered, as Munsterberg points out, that, regardless of phenomena, _Consciousness is one_, these terms can only lead to confusion.

Certain cases designated "multiple" or "dissociated personalities" have only served to increase this confusion still further; and more especially, when the effort has been made to patch them together, or to control them from without, by hypnosis. The well-known case of "Sally," reported by Dr.

Morton Prince, stands at last, as a "personally conducted" psychological excursion, with Sally still preserving her incognito, and as much a mystery as ever.

That automatism incident to all progressive organization and perfection of function, and through which physical, physiological, mental, and psychic synthesis becomes possible, has been allowed to usurp the place of the "Builder of the Temple," the "Driver of the Chariot," and the "Player"

upon the "Harp of a thousand strings." Harmony and equilibrium are incidents resulting from _causative_ processes! We need only to know the construction, relations of parts, and principles involved in the vibrations of the Harp, in order to understand and appreciate the music.

The player, the musician--drunk, or sober, tone-blind or genius--is a mere incident, and however _purposive_ or competent, is admitted by courtesy only, and warned not to interfere too much with the Harp!

To build, and keep in order, and tune the Harp, const.i.tutes the science of music. Some day, when we have leisure and inclination, we may turn our attention to the Musician, but that day seems far off. We admit that his function is _purposive_. He, no doubt, has designs on the Harp, and upon us, but we are handling musical instruments at present, and if he objects to our calling ourselves "Musicians" (psychologists) he is impertinent, and should study the science of music, or keep silent.

I am not "begging the question" in regard to the human soul. I am simply emphasizing the fact of the Individual Intelligence, which, at the point of equilibrium, sweeps the strings with that harmony which is the soul of music.

This Harp of a thousand strings, is indeed, "fearfully and wonderfully made." Its physics and kinetics; its consonants and dissonants; its shifting keyboards; its changes in pitch, rhythm, and harmony from atom and molecule, to neurons, cells and ma.s.s; with the tides of life--blood, plasma, water, air, magnetism--sweeping the whole at every breath or pulse beat, to the cry of the builder--Life--"out with the old! in with the new!" and yet the _conscious ident.i.ty_ in health, typically unchanged and unchanging--_causative_, _designed_, _scientific_--yea verily! and _purposive_, _human_, _intelligent_, _spiritual_, _divine_, but a dead corpse, given over to decomposition the moment it is bereft of that something we feel, and know, and name--the _Individual Intelligence_--the Master Musician; or the staggering, drunk, crazy fiddler, with this Harp of a thousand strings, tw.a.n.ging perhaps in a mad-house!

Put the house in order; a.n.a.lyze, and cla.s.sify; adjust the furniture with the handmaids of science, art, and beauty in evidence and at call; but for goodness' sake! stop hypnotizing the musician--"Just a little"--under the fallacy or the pretense of _strengthening_ the Will by _weakening_ it just a little more! This is "giving your patients fits, because you are death on fits"! Rescue Science from this atheromatous degeneration, and then suppress the dabblers in "black magic" who pose as Hypnotists, as Munsterberg advises.

For clear intelligence and exhaustive a.n.a.lysis, Munsterberg's "Psychotherapy" is a masterpiece, but his psychic equation of _causative_ and _purposive_, with all his mathesis, not only remains unsolved, but leads to confusion, from the false light shed on the unknown quant.i.ty, and his failure to indicate the gnosis; the demarcation between automatism and purposive Intelligence.

That this confusion exists in the daily life of the average individual whose evolution is still incomplete; that it const.i.tutes a large per cent.

of all cases of "dominant ideas," obsessions, riotous emotions and pa.s.sions; that it is nowhere recognized and defined in modern psychology, or made synthetically clear in modern philosophy, all these lapses make it all the more necessary that it should be clearly defined and made plain as the basis of Scientific Psychology.

In addition to all this, if Munsterberg's conclusions and applications are unsound because psychologically unscientific at the point; for example, where he almost hesitatingly indorses hypnosis, however qualified or safeguarded, he is certain to be quoted as authority on the subject by those who will ignore all his qualifications to justify the practice.

In order to meet these imperative conditions, the attempt to formulate any philosophy of psychology will not be made.

Even were such an attempt made successfully, that would remove the discussion from the field of science, where it should by all means remain.

What we need is a real science of life, and this should involve the whole mental and psychical realm, and lead ultimately to a knowledge of the human soul.

Recognized facts in common experience only need be appealed to, though different values will have to be placed upon some of these facts as their importance is made plain.

We begin with the fact of consciousness. What it is, we do not know. What it means and does, we know very largely and broadly. In itself, it is purely pa.s.sive. It never acts. Like s.p.a.ce, it is the "all container." It is the background, the theatre of our intelligence.

With the individual intelligence, plus, or with consciousness, we have awareness. This is perception, or cognition, still negative.

These basic conditions, faculties and capacities, are like a company of soldiers on parade. Now comes the "word of command"--_Attention_!

Latent consciousness--awareness--now becomes concentrated, focalized on one point, one feeling, or emotion, or act. The soldiers "dress up,"

glance down the line, and are ready to act. Then comes the action, the movement, the drill, or the fight.

The drill master is also a soldier, but he is in command. He is called the Will. Without him and his recognized authority, the soldiers may be a mob, or a rabble. With him, they "fall in line," give "attention," "dress up,"

and are ready to act.

These are facts, and are basic and primary in our conscious _awareness_ and _attention_ in consciousness; the one negative, though inclusive; the other positive, and motor, or active.

In his "Psychotherapy" under the heading "The Subconscious," Munsterberg has much to say upon the meaning and differentiation of awareness, attention, and recognition, but he fails to point out in direct relation, at this point, the primary power--the Will, moved by the Individual Intelligence.

Later in his work the will is recognized and frequently referred to, but from beginning to end he makes it incidental, rather than basic. When he comes to broad groups of psychic phenomena, or pathological symptoms, the sounding board of Rational Volition is cracked and there is where hypnosis slips in.

Broad as he has laid his foundations in physical and physiological synthesis, he loses sight of its importance in the psychological; regarding as an incident that which is a basic principle of prime importance. Schopenhauer went, perhaps, as far to the opposite extreme.

Perhaps "the truth will be found in the middle of the road."

The heir apparent, the prince regent, the lawful Sovereign, by heredity, by the laws of Nature, and "by the Will of G.o.d," in this Tabernacle of Man, is the Individual Intelligence; no matter whether we recognize or dispute his rightful authority. His Prime Minister is the Human Will; whether conspiring against, or co-operating with, the King. We may a.n.a.lyze the foundation of the kingdom, and the affairs of state, and designate them as _causative_, or _purposive_. We may see monarchy, or anarchy; democracy or republicanism; we may dethrone the king, and turn the state, literally, into a mad-house; but all the facts of nature, conscious awareness, and Scientific Psychology, cry, with one voice, Hail to the King! Long Live the King! I! Me! Mine! Myself! A fact so basic, that it is as patent to the child as to the man.

Now comes the Juggler, the little Joker. Munsterberg has sufficiently revealed the variety-stage, "the Subconscious," and his biography of the various individual players and troupes is very elaborate. They are, one and all, _Suggestions_. And suggestion is the "Juggler," and the "little Joker."

After the Intelligence and the Will, our awareness finds subjects and objects, ideas, images, pictures, percepts and concepts.

That all these, both within and without, are Suggestive; that one idea, or image, or object, suggests another, or others, no one will deny, who has ever _thought_ about his own thinking. It is like saying, all mental pictures are composite; the elements of many kinds coming from many sources.

So far, _Suggestion_ is all right. It is awareness of an idea, percept, concept, or act awakened, called to attention by another, with the question, how does it strike you? what do you think of it? what, if anything, do you wish, or propose to do about it?

It is purely negative, and suggests action or inhibition, without the slightest domination.

Remember that the Will--rational Volition--is that power, which, from the point of attention enables the individual to act, or refuse to consider, as he pleases.

If I suggest to my friend here in my library, that it is near train time; that he can go if he chooses or remain with me all night, he is free to act on the suggestion and go or stay as he chooses. I have called to his attention certain facts of time, place, or circ.u.mstance, but left his will untrammeled. If I am tired of him and wish him to go, or really wish him to stay, in either case it is still a suggestion, because I have left him free to act or not. But in this case certain tones of my voice, not direct by touching the will, but coloring the feelings or emotions, color both his preferences and my own. Even persuasion, the power of another example, the placing of certain views or considerations before another, all these but make the more clear and specific the suggestion. They reach the will through the inside, in the realm of ideation, and not from the outside, in the way of domination. All these things are essential elements in social intercourse.

If, however, I have a motive in wishing my friend to go, or to stay, and have determined in my own mind which it shall be; ignoring or overriding his own choice; and if I use my will, or pa.s.ses, or touch his eyes, or forehead, with the purpose of concentrating _his_ attention or will, on _my_ wish, or idea, or command, it is no longer free choice with him, but domination; no longer suggestion, but hypnosis, pure and simple.

The confusion and juggling at this point has been made the sole excuse for hypnotism, through belittling or ignoring the importance, normal action, and supremacy of the human will.

No one denies that the exchange or forcible expression of ideas, percepts, mental pictures, or concepts, is suggestive. But the normal individual is free to accept or reject them.

Education, bias, prejudice, and the like, have also much to do in determining results.

But the moment you interfere with the free choice of the individual and dominate toward your choice, regardless of his own, you enter the realm of hypnosis; deprive him, just to that degree, of free choice, and might as well call it "fiddlesticks" as "suggestion." It is domination, the mastery, so far as it goes or exists at all, of the will, voluntary powers, and sensory organs of one individual, by the will of another; thus reversing completely the process of nature.

To dominate the will of another is to weaken it. Timidity, apprehension, fear, are in inverse ratio to confidence, self-a.s.surance, courage, and self-control.

Health, happiness, and self-development lie along the lines of man's higher evolution, and the basic principle, the primary power, the minister of state, is the rational and intelligent Will.

The scientific theorem of Psychology can be nothing else than Nature's Modulus of Man, with its root in Universal Intelligence. Man individualizes and involves this Intelligence as he evolves form, function, adaptation, and adjustment, and at least secures and maintains perfect equilibrium.

This is Nature's Modulus, else the whole of human life is purposeless and meaningless.

Given, then, an Individual Intelligence, endowed with self-consciousness; with Rational Volition, the power to choose and to act or refuse to act; how shall it master its environment; adapt itself to any conditions; secure adjustment and become _Master_?