INNER CONSCIOUSNESS/PART 6
LESSON 6.
"AUTOMATIC THINKING"
The advanced writers on the subject of psychology have
given us many examples of the workings of the mind on the planes of what some
have aptly called "Automatic Thinking,” We feel that it will be well to
quote a few cases to illustrate this phase of the subject.
There are many instances stated of persons who had been
earnestly endeavoring to solve certain problems and questions, but who had been
compelled to lay aside the matters as incapable of solution at the time. In a
number of such cases it is related that while thinking of something entirely
foreign to the subject the long sought answer would suddenly flash into the
field of consciousness, of course without any conscious effort on the part of
the person. A well known writer, in giving an instance of the kind which had
happened to him personally, states that when the answer came to him in this way
he trembled as if in the presence of another being who had communicated the
secret to him in a mysterious manner. Nearly every person has had the experience
of trying to remember a name, word, date, or similar thing, without success,
and then after dismissing the matter from the mind have had the missing idea or
word suddenly flashed from the Inner Consciousness into the field of the
ordinary consciousness. Some part of the Inner Consciousness was at work trying
to supply the demand, and when it found it it presented it to the person.
Another well known writer gives several cases of what he
calls "unconscious rumination,” in which the mind worked silently, and
below the field of the ordinary consciousness, after the person had read works
relating to new subjects, or presenting new points of view essentially opposed
to previously conceived opinions and views. He states that in his own
experience, he found that after days, weeks, or even months, he would awaken to
a realization that his old opinions were entirely rearranged, and new ones had
taken their place. Some have called this process "sub-conscious mental
digestion and assimilation,” and indeed the process is akin to the work of the
physical organism in digesting and assimilating material nourishment.
Sir William Hamilton is stated to have discovered an
important mathematical principle while walking one day in the Dublin
Observatory. He stated that upon the occasion he "felt the galvanic circle
of thought close,” and the sparks that fell from the mental process were the
fundamental mathematical relations of his problem, which as all students know
now forms an important law in mathematics.
Thompson the psychologist has written as follows on this
subject: "At times I have felt a feeling of uselessness of all voluntary
effort, and also that the matter was working itself clear in my mind. It has
many times seemed to me that I was really a passive instrument in the hands of
a person not myself. In view of having to wait for the results of these
unconscious processes, I have proved the habit of getting together material in
advance, and then leaving the mass to digest itself until I am ready to write
about it. I delayed for a month the writing of my book 'System of Psychology,'
but continued reading the authorities. I would not try to think about the book.
I would watch with interest the people passing the windows. One evening while
reading the paper, the substance of the missing part of the book flashed upon
my mind, and I began to write. This is only a sample of such experiences.”
Berthelot, the eminent French chemist who founded the
present system of Synthetic Chemistry, has said that the experiments leading to
his remarkable discoveries in that branch of science were seldom the result of
carefully followed lines of conscious thought or pure reasoning processes, but,
instead, came of themselves, from a clear sky, so to speak. Mozart, the great
composer, once said: "I cannot really say that I can account for my
compositions. My ideas flow, and I cannot say whence or how they come. I do not
hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all
at once. The rest is merely an attempt to reproduce what I have heard.” In
addition to the experience above mentioned, Dr. Thompson has stated that:
"In writing my work I have been unable to arrange my knowledge of a
subject for days and weeks, until I experienced a clearing up of my mind, when
I took my pen and unhesitatingly wrote the result. I have best accomplished
this by leading the mind away as far as possible from the subject upon which I
was writing.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes has said: "The automatic flow
of thought is often singularly favored by the fact of listening to a weak
continuous discourse, with just enough ideas in it to keep the mind busy. The
induced current of thought is often rapid and brilliant in inverse ratio to the
force of the inducing current.” Wundt has also said, on this subject: "The
unconscious logical processes are carried on with a certainty and regularity
which would be impossible where there exists the possibility of error. Our mind
is so happily designed that it prepares for us the most important foundations
of cognition, whilst we have not the slightest apprehension of the modus
operandi. The unconscious soul, like a benevolent stranger, works and makes
provisions for our benefit, pouring only the mature fruits into our laps.” An
English writer has stated: "Intimations reach our consciousness from
unconsciousness, that the mind is ready to work, is fresh, is full of ideas.
The grounds of our judgment are often knowledge so remote from consciousness
that we cannot bring them to view. The human mind includes an unconscious part;
unconscious events occurring in that part are proximate causes of
consciousness; the greater part of human intuitional action is an effect of an
unconscious cause—the truth of these propositions is so deducible from ordinary
mental events, and is so near the surface, that the failure of deduction to
forestall induction in the discerning of it may well excite wonder. Our
behavior is influenced by unconscious assumptions respecting our own social and
intellectual rank, and that of the one we are addressing. In company we
unconsciously assume a bearing quite different from that of the home circle.
After being raised to a higher rank the whole behavior subtly and unconsciously
changes in accordance with it. Commenting on the above, another writer adds:
"This is also the case in a minor degree with different styles and
qualities of dress and different environments. Quite unconsciously we change
our behavior, carriage, and style, to suit the circumstances.”
Jensen has written: "When we reflect on anything
with the whole force of the mind, we may fall into a state of entire
unconsciousness, in which we not only forget the outer world, but also know
nothing at all of ourselves and the thoughts passing within us after a time. We
then suddenly awake as from a dream, and usually, at the same moment the result
of our meditations appears as distinctly in consciousness without our knowing
how we reached it.” Another writer has said: "It is inexplicable how
premises which lie below consciousness can sustain conclusions in
consciousness; how the mind can wittingly take up a mental movement at an
advanced stage, having missed its primary steps.” Some psychologists, Hamilton
and others, have made a comparison likening the action of the mental processes
to that of a row of billiard balls, of which one is struck and the impetus
transmitted throughout the whole row, the result being that the last ball
actually moves, the others remaining in their places. The last ball represents
the plane of ordinary outer consciousness, the other balls representing the
various stages of the action of the Inner Consciousness. Lewes, the
psychologist, commenting on the above conception, adds: "Something like
this, Hamilton says, seems often to occur in a train of thought, one idea
immediately suggesting another into consciousness—this suggestion passing
through one or more ideas which do not themselves rise into consciousness. This
point, that we are not conscious of the formation of groups, but only of a
formed group, may throw light on the existence of unconscious judgments,
unconscious reasonings, and unconscious registrations of experience.”
In connection with these processes of the mind, on the
planes below those of the outer consciousness, many writers have noted the
discomfort and uneasiness preceding this birth into consciousness of the ideas
developed on the unconscious planes. Maudsley says regarding this: "It is
surprising how uncomfortable a person may be made by the obscure idea of
something which he ought to have said or done, and which he cannot for the life
of him remember. There is an effort of the lost idea to get into consciousness,
which is relieved directly as soon as the idea bursts into consciousness.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes says: "There are thoughts that never emerge into
consciousness, and which yet make their influence felt among the perceptive
currents, just as the unseen planets sway the movements of the known ones.” He
adds: "I was told of a business man in Boston who had given up thinking of
an important question as too much for him. But he continued so uneasy in his
brain that he feared he was threatened with palsy. After some hours the natural
solution of the question came to him, worked out, as he believed, in that
troubled interval.”
The above experiences are common to the race, and nearly
everyone who reads the above lines will at once recognize the occurrences as
familiar in his or her own mental experience.
Among the many interesting cases related to illustrate
the principle of "automatic thinking,” or "unconscious rumination,”
that of the famous mathematical prodigy, Zerah Colburn, is perhaps one of the
most striking. This individual possessed a remarkable faculty of
"automatically working out the most difficult mathematical problems.” It
is related of him, that while yet a child of seven years of age, and while he
was without any previous knowledge of the common rules of arithmetic, he was
still able by some intuitive, Inner Conscious faculty, to solve the most
difficult mathematical problems without the aid of figures, pencils or paper—by
some Inner Conscious system of Mental Arithmetic. At that early age, he was
able in this way to immediately give the number of minutes and seconds in any
given period of time, and to tell the exact product arising from the
multiplication of any number consisting of two, three or four figures, by any
other number consisting of a like number of figures. The records of his times
give many wonderful instances of his strange power, from which we quote the
following, as an illustration:
"At a meeting of
his friends, which was held for the purpose of concerting the best methods of
promoting the views of the father, this child undertook and completely
succeeded in raising the number 8 progressively up to the sixteenth power. And
in naming the last result, viz., 281,474,976,710,656, he was right in every
figure. He was then tried as to other numbers consisting of one figure, all of
which he raised as high as the tenth power, with so much facility and despatch
that the person appointed to take down the results was obliged to ask him not
to be so rapid. He was asked the square root of 106,929; and before the number
could be written down, he immediately answered, 327. He was then required to
name the cube root of 268,336,125; and with equal facility and promptness he
replied, 645. Various other questions of a similar nature, respecting the roots
and powers of very high numbers, were proposed, to all of which he answered in
a similar manner. One of the gentlemen asked him how many minutes there were in
forty-eight years, and before the question could be written down he replied, 25,228,800; and then
instantly added that the number of seconds in the same period was
1,513,728,000. He persistently declared that he did not know how the answers
came into his mind. Moreover, he was entirely ignorant of the common rules of
arithmetic, and could not perform upon paper a simple sum in multiplication or
division. In the extraction of roots, and in mentioning the factors of high
numbers, he gave the answers either immediately, or in a very few seconds;
whereas it requires, according to the ordinary method of calculation, very
difficult and laborious work, and much time.” A most peculiar sequel was noted
in this case, for as the child was educated to perform mathematical
calculations according to rule, and in the ordinary way, his wonderful power
deteriorated, and in the end he was no more than the ordinary well-drilled
child, so far as the branch of mathematics was concerned.
The instance of Blind Tom is also an illustration of
"automatic thinking,” for this poor, blind creature—but little above
idiocy so far as ordinary knowledge was concerned—possessed something in his
Inner Consciousness that enabled him to play any piece that he had ever heard,
even years before, with perfect reproduction of detail; and to also improvise
wonderful strains, and harmonies. Something was at work on the Inner Conscious
planes of this poor black man's mind—as if to show to a doubting and
materialistic world the possibilities of the human mind and soul in its hidden
phases.
In view of the above instances, and many
other similar ones, can you doubt that there are planes of mental action,
outside of the ordinary consciousness, on which in some marvelous manner mental
work can be, and is, done? Even if the experience of nearly everyone did not
furnish proof, surely the recorded cases should place the matter above the
plane of doubt. And yet, so strong is the spirit of Doubt, that many will say:
"Yes, but—!”
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