Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

‘‘Take a pretty strong current and inter- pose a wire still more resistant, or a very Mental Radiation 89 thin carbon rod, and the carbon will emit light.’’ ‘*A part of the current, then, is transformed into heat and light. This light acts in every direction around about, first visibly as light, then invisibly as heat and electric current.’’ ‘‘Hold a magnet near it.

If the magnet is weak and movable, in the form of a magnetic needle, the beam of light will cause it to devi- ate; if it is strong and immovable, it will in turn cause the beam.of light to deviate.”’’ ‘And all this from a distance, without con- tact, without special conductors.’’ ‘*A process that is at once chemical, phys- ical and psychical, goes on in a brain.

A complex action of this kind is propagated through the gray matter, as waves are propa- gated in water. Regarded on its physiologi- cal side, an idea is only a vibration, a vibra- tion that is propagated, yet which does not pass out of a medium in which it can exist as such.

It is propagated as far as other vibra- tions allow. It is propagated more widely if it assumes the character which subjectively we call emotive. But it cannot go beyond without being transformed. Nevertheless, like force in general, it cannot remain in iso- lation, it escapes in disguise.”’ 90 Personal Magnetism ‘“‘Thought stays at home, as the chemical action of a battery remains in the battery; it is represented by its dynamic correlate, called in the case of the battery a current, and in the case of the brain—I know not what; but whatever its name may be, it is the dynamic correlate of thought.

I have chosen the term ‘dynamic correlate.’ There is something more than that; the universe is neither dead nor void.”’ ‘‘A force that is transmitted meets other forces, and if it is transformed only little by little it usually limits itself to modifying an- other force at its own cost, though without suffering perceptibly thereby.

This is the case particularly with forces that are persis- tent, concentrated, well seconded by their me- dium. It is the case with the physiological equilibrium, nervic force, psychic force, ideas, emotions, tendencies. These modify environ- ing forces, without themselves disappearing.

They are imperceptibly transformed, and, if the next man is of a nature exceptionally well adapted to them, they gain in inductive action.”’ Various other eminent scientists have tes- tified to the general resemblance of the brain Mental Radiation 91 to an electrical or magnetic battery or cell group.

Professor Bain has said: ‘‘The structure of the nervous substances, and the experiments made upon the nerves and nerve centres, establish beyond doubt certain pecul- larities as belonging to the force that is exer- cised by the brain.

This force is of a cur- rent nature; that is to say, a power generated at one part of the structure is conveyed along an intervening substance and discharged at some other part. The different forms of elec- tricity and magnetism have made us familiar with this kind of action.’’ Professor Draper tells us that: ‘‘I find the cerebrum is absolutely analogous in construc- tion to any other nervous are.

It is com- posed of centripetal and centrifugal fibres, having also registering ganglia. If in other nervous ares the structure is merely auto- matic, and can display no phenomena of it- self, but requires the influence of an external agent—the optical apparatus inert save un- der the influence of light, the auditory save under the impression of sound—the cere- brum, being precisely analogous in its ele- mentary structure, pre-supposes the existence of some agent to act through it.’’ 92 Personal Magnetism Dr.