MIND AND BODY/PART 3

 

CHAPTER III

THE CELL-MINDS

Modern science has demonstrated that the human body is composed of a multitude of microscopic cells, that is, that the muscles, nerves, tissues, blood, bones, hair and nails are made up of minute cells, and groups of cells. Virchow says: “It is of the cells that the tissues are built up and the nerves formed. There is no part of the human body in which the cell is not seen. All these cells are neuclated—have in them a central life-spot like the yolk of an egg. Each cell is born, reproduces itself, dies and is absorbed. The maintenance of life and health depends upon the constant regeneration of the cells. When man can control the life and death of the cell he becomes the creator.” Medical science now practically asserts that disease of the body is really disease of the cells of which the body is composed, and that all healing of the body must consist of the healing of the cells—that is, of restoring the cells to normal activity and functioning.

The following quotation from Hudson, following Stephens, is interesting: “An aggregation of cells became a confederation, with its differentiation of cell functions and still further division of labor. As a result of a long process of such differentiation, the organisms of the larger animals and of man came to be composed, as we find them, of thirty or more different species of cells. For example, we have the muscle cells, whose vital energies are devoted to the office of contraction, or vigorous shortening of length; connective-tissue cells, whose office is mainly to produce and conserve a tough fibre for binding together and covering in the organism; bone cells, whose life work is to select and collocate salts of lime for the organic framework, levers and joints; hair, nail, horn and feather cells, which work in silicates for the protection, defense, and ornamentation of the organism; gland cells, whose motif in living has come to be the abstraction from the blood of substances which are recombined to produce juices needed to aid the various processes or steps of digestion; blood cells, which have assumed the laborious function of general carriers, scavengers, and repairers of the organism; eye, ear, nasal and palate cells, which have become the special artificers of complicated apparatus for transmitting light, sound, odors, and flavors to the highly sentient brain cells; pulmonary cells, which elaborate a tissue for the introduction of oxygen and the elimination of carbon dioxide and other waste products; hepatic (liver) cells, which have, in response to the needs of the organism, descended to the menial office of living on the waste products and converting them into chemical reagents to facilitate digestion—these and numerous other species of cells; and lastly, most important and of greatest interest, brain and nerve cells.”

The various cells of the body are constantly busy, each performing its particular task, either singly or in connection with other cells in the cell-group. Like a great arm, the cells are divided into classes, some being engaged in the active daily work, while others are held back on the reserve line. Some are engaged in building up the tissues, muscles and bones, while others are busy manufacturing the juices, secretions, fluids and chemical compounds required in the great laboratory of the body. Some remain at their posts, stationary during their entire life, while others remain stationary only until the call comes for their services, while a third class are in constant motion from place to place either following regular routes or else travelling under a roving commission. Some of the moving cells act as carriers of material—the hod-carriers of the body, while others move about doing special repair work such as the healing of wounds, etc., while others still are the scavengers and street cleaners of system, and others form the cell army and cell police force. The body has been compared to a vast communistic or socialistic colony, each member of which cheerfully devotes his life-work, and often his life itself, to the common good. The brain cells are of course the most highly organized, and the most highly differentiated of the cells. The nerve cells constitute a living telegraph system over which is carried the messages from the several parts of the body, each cell being in close contact with its neighbor on each side—the nerve cells practically clasp hands and form a living chain of communication.

The blood cells are important members of the cell-community, and are exceedingly numerous, there being over 75,000,000,000 of the red-blood cells alone. These red-blood cells move in the blood currents, carrying through the arteries each its little load of oxygen which it transports to the distant tissues that they may be invigorated and vitalized anew; and, returning, carrying through the veins the debris and waste products of the system to the great crematory of the lungs where the waste is burnt and thrown off from the body. Like the ships that sail the sea, each cell carries its outgoing cargo, and returns with another one. Some of these cells perform the office of special repairers, forcing their way through the walls of the blood-vessels and penetrating the tissues in order to perform their special tasks. There are several other kinds of cells in the blood besides the carriers just mentioned. There are the wonderful soldier and police cells which maintain order and fight battles when necessary. The police cells are on the constant lookout for germs, bacteria and other microscopic disturbers of the peace of the body. When these tiny policemen discover vagrant germs, or criminal bacteria, they rush upon the intruder and tying him up in a mesh, proceed to devour him. If the intruder be too large or vigorous, a call for assistance is sent out, and the reserve police rush to the assistance of their brothers and overpower the disturber of the peace. Sometimes when the vagrants are too numerous, the policemen throw them out from the body, by means of pimples, boils and similar eruptions. In case of infectious diseases, an army corps is ordered out in full strength and a royal fight is waged between the invading army and the defenders of home and country.

Some of the blood cells take a part in the process of extracting from the food its nourishing particles, and then carrying the same through the blood-channels to all parts of the body, where it is used to feed and nourish the stationary cells there located. These cells manufacture the chemical juices of the body, such as bile, gastric juice, pancreatic juices, milk, etc., in short the entire physical process is carried on by these indefatigable tiny cells. The body of each of us is simply a great community of cells of various kinds. The cells are born by the form of reproduction common to all cells, that of sub-division. Each cell grows until a certain size is reached, when it assumes a “dumb-bell” shape, with a tiny waist line, which waist is afterward dissolved and the two cells move away from each other. In this way, and this way alone, does the body grow, the material required for the enlargement of the cell being supplied from the food and nourishment partaken by the individual. Cells die after having performed their life-work, and their corpses are carried through the veins by the carrier cells, and cast into the crematory of the lungs where they are consumed.

The body is constantly undergoing a process of change and regeneration. Old cells are being cast off every second, and new cells are taking their places. Our muscles, tissues, hair, nails, nerves, brain substance, and even our bones are constantly being made over and rebuilt. Our bodies to-day do not contain a single particle of the material which composed them a few years back. A few weeks suffices to replace our entire skin, and a few months to replace other parts of the body. If a sufficiently large microscope could be placed over our bodies, we would see each part of it as active as a hive of bees, each cell being in action and motion, and the entire domestic work of the human hive being performed according to law and order. Verily, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

A number of the best authorities have used the illustration of the process of the cells in healing an ordinary wound, in order to show the activity and “mind” of the tiny cells. We have become so accustomed to the natural healing of a wound, scratch or broken skin, that we have grown to regard it as an almost mechanical process. But, science shows us that there is manifested in the healing process a marvellous degree of life and mind in the cells. Let us consider the process of healing an ordinary wound, that we may see the cells at work. Let us imagine that we are gazing at the wounded part through a marvellously strong microscope which enables us to see every cell at work. If such a glass were provided we should witness a scene similar to that now to be described.

In the first place, through our glass, we should see the gaping wound enlarged to gigantic proportions. We should see the torn skin, tissues, lymphatic and blood vessels, glands, muscles and nerves. We would see the blood pouring forth washing away the dirt and foreign substances that have entered the wound. We would then see the messages calling for help flashing over the living telegraph wires of the nerves, each nerve-cell rapidly passing the word to its neighbor until the great sympathetic centres received the call and sounded the alarm and sent out a “hurry up” call to the cells needed for the repair work. In the meantime the cells of the blood, coming in contact with the outside air have begun to coagulate into a sticky substance, which is the beginning of the scab, the purpose being to close the wound and to hold the severed parts together. The repair cells having now arrived at the scene of the accident begin to mend the break. The tissue, nerve, and muscle cells, on each side of the wound begin to multiply rapidly, receiving their nourishment from the blood cells, and quickly a cell bridge is built up until the two severed edges of the wound are reunited. This bridging is no haphazard process, for the presence of directing law and order is apparent. The newly-born cells of the blood-vessels unite with their brothers on the other side, evenly and in an orderly manner, new tubular channels being formed skillfully. The cells of the connective tissues likewise grow toward each other, and unite in the same orderly manner. The nerve-cells repair their broken lines, just as do a gang of linemen repair the interrupted telegraph system. The muscles are united in the same way. But mark you this, there is no mistake in this connecting process—muscle does not connect with nerve, nor blood-vessel with connective tissue. Finally, the inner repairs and connections having been completed, the scab disappears and the cells of the outer skin rebuild the outer covering, and the wound is healed. This process may occupy a few hours, or many days, depending upon the character of the wound, but the process is the same in all cases. The surgeon merely disinfects and cleans the wound, and placing the parts together allows the cells to perform their healing work, for no other power can perform the task. The knitting together of a broken bone proceeds along the same lines—the surgeon places the parts in juxtaposition, binds the limb together to prevent slipping, and the cells do the rest.

When the body is well nourished, the general system well toned up, and the mind cheerful and active, the repair work proceeds rapidly. But when the physical system is run down, the body poorly nourished, and the mind depressed and full of fear, the work is retarded and interfered with. It is this healing power inherent in the cells that physicians speak of as the vis vita or vis medicatrix naturae, or “the healing power of nature.” Of it Dr. Patton says: “By the term ‘efforts of nature’ we mean a certain curative or restorative principle, or vis vita, implanted in every living or organized body, constantly operative for its repair, preservation and health. This instinctive endeavor to repair the human organism is signally shown in the event of a severed or lost part, as a finger, for instance; for nature unaided will repair and fashion a stump equal to one from the hands of an eminent surgeon.... Nature, unaided, may be equally potent in ordinary illness. Many individuals, even when severely ill, either from motives of economy, prejudice, or skepticism, remain at rest in bed, under favorable hygiene, regimen, etc., and speedily get well without a physician or medicine.”

Dr. Schofield says: “The vis medicatrix naturae is a very potent factor in the amelioration of disease, if it only be allowed fair play. An exercise of faith, as a rule, suspends the operation of adverse influences, and appeals strongly through the consciousness, to the inner and underlying faculty of vital force (i. e., unconscious mind).” Dr. Bruce says: “We are compelled to acknowledge a power of natural recovery inherent in the body—a similar statement has been made by writers on the principle of medicine in all ages.... The body does possess a means and mechanism for modifying or neutralizing influences which it cannot directly overcome.” Oliver Wendell Holmes says: “Whatever other theories we hold we must recognize the ‘vis medicatrix naturae’ in some shape or other.” Bruce says: “A natural power of the prevention and repair of disorders and disease has as real and as active an existence within us, as have the ordinary functions of the organs themselves.” Hippocrates said: “Nature is the physician of diseases.” And Ambrose Pare wrote on the walls of the great medical school, the Ecole de Medicine of Paris, these words: “Je le ponsez et Dieu le guarit,” which translated is: “I dressed the wound, and God healed it.”

It is of course true that the life and mind in the cells is derived from the Subconscious Mind, in fact the cells themselves may be said to embody the Subconscious Mind, just as the cells of the brain embody the Conscious Mind. In every cell there is to be found intelligence in a degree required for the successful performance of the particular task of that cell. Hudson says: “All organic tissue is made up of microscopic cells, each one of which is a living, intelligent entity.” And, again, “The subordinate intelligences are the cells of which the whole body is composed, each of which is an intelligent entity, endowed with powers commensurate with its functions.” In short, the cells of the body are living organs for the expression and manifestation of the Subconscious Mind. There is not a single cell, group, or part of the party which is devoid of mind. Mind is imminent in the entire body, and in its every part, down to the smallest cell.

The following quotation from Dr. Thomson J. Hudson’s “Mental Medicine” clearly expresses a truth conceded by modern science. Dr. Hudson says:

“It follows a priori, that every cell in the body is endowed with intelligence; and this is precisely what all biological science tells us is true. Beginning with the lowest form of animal life, the humblest cytode, every living cell is endowed with a wonderful intelligence. There is, in fact, no line to be drawn between life and mind; that is to say, every living organism is a mind organism, from the monera, crawling upon the bed of the ocean, to the most highly differentiated cell in the cerebral cortex of man. Volumes have been written to demonstrate that ‘psychological phenomena begin among the very lowest class of beings; they are met with in every form of life, from the simplest cellule to the most complicated organism. It is they that are the essential phenomena of life, inherent in all protoplasm.’ (Binet.) It is, in fact, an axiom of science that the lowest unicellular organism is endowed with the potentialities of manhood. I have remarked that each living cell is endowed with a wonderful intelligence. This is emphatically true, whether it is a unicellular organism or a constituent element of a multicellular organism. Its wonderful character consists not so much in the amount of intelligence possessed by each individual cell, as it does in the quality of that intelligence. That is to say, each cell is endowed with an instinctive, or intuitive, knowledge of all that is essential to the preservation of its own life, the conservation of its energies, and the perpetuation of its species. In other words, it is endowed with an intuitive knowledge of the laws of its own being, which knowledge is proportioned to its stage of development and adapted to its environment.”

The cell has the intelligence sufficient to enable it to seek nourishment, and to move from one place to another in search for food or for other purposes. It holds to its food when secured, and envelops it until it is absorbed and digested. It exercises the power of choice, accepting and selecting one portion of food in preference to another. It has the power of discriminating between nourishing food and the reverse. The authorities show that it has a rudimentary memory, and avoids the repetition of an unpleasant or painful experience, and also returns to the locality in which it has previously secured food. Biological experiments have shown that the cells are capable of experiencing surprise, pleasure and fear, and that they experience different degrees of feeling, and react accordingly in response to stimuli. Verworn, a biologist, even goes so far as to assert that they habitually adapt means to ends, near and remote. In his remarkable work on cell-life, “The Psychic Life of Micro-organisms,” Binet says: “We shall not regard it as strange, perhaps, to find so complete a psychology in the history of the lower organisms, when we call to mind that, agreeably to the ideas of evolution now accepted, a higher animal is nothing more than a colony of protozoans. Every one of the cells composing such an animal has retained its primitive properties, giving them a higher degree of perfection by division of labor and by selection. The epithelial cells that secrete the nails and hair are organisms perfected with reference to the secretion of protective parts. Similarly, the cells of the brain are organisms that have been perfected with reference to psychical attributes.”

Dr. Schofield says: “That life involves mind has, of course, like all else, been vigorously disputed and equally vigorously affirmed. ‘Life,’ says Prof. Bascom, ‘is not force; it is combining power. It is the product and presence of mind.’ ... The extent to which the word mind may be employed as the inherent cause of purposive movements in organisms is a very difficult question to solve. There can be no doubt that the actual agents in such movements are the natural forces, but behind these the directing and starting power seems to be psychic.... There being an indwelling power, not only for purposive action in each cell, but for endless combinations of cell activities for common ends not at all connected with the mere nutrition of the single cell, but for the good of the completed organism.” Dr. R. Dunn says: “From the first movement when the primordial cell-germ of a human organism comes into being, the entire individual is present, fitted for human destiny. From the same moment, matter, life and mind are never for an instant separated, their union constituting the essential work of our present existence.” Carpenter says: “The convertibility of physical forces and correlation of these with the vital and the intricacy of that nexus between mental and bodily activity which cannot be analyzed, all lead upwards towards one and the same conclusion—the source of all power is mind. And that physical conclusion is the apex of the pyramid which has its foundation in the primitive instincts of humanity.”

Having seen the evidences of life and mind in the single cell, let us now proceed to a consideration of the intelligence or mind inherent and manifest in the groups of cells, large and small, including the largest groups which compose the several organs of the body. This line of investigation will lead us to a fuller understanding of the influence of the mental states upon the health or disease of the organs and parts. It will be seen that Mental Healing has a sound biological as well as a psychological basis of truth, and that it is not necessary to invade the fields of metaphysics or theology in order to find an explanation of the effect of mind over body.