,,psychoanalysis ,,and ,,the ,,unconscious ,psychoanalysis and the ,unconscious ,,by ,d4 ,h4 ,,lawrence ,,new ,,york ,,thomas ,,seltzer #aiba ,copyright1 #aiba1 by ,,thomas ,,seltzer1 ,,inc4 ,all rights reserved ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,contents ,i4 ,,psychoanalysis vs4 ,,morality #i ,,ii4 ,,the ,,incest ,,motive ,,and ,,idealism #bf ,,iii4 ,,the ,,birth ,,of ,,consciousness #de ,,iv4 ,,the ,,child ,,and ,,his ,,mother #fd ,v4 ,,the ,,lover ,,and ,,the ,,beloved #hc ,,vi4 ,,human ,,relations ,,and ,,the ,,unconscious #ajb ,,chapter ,i ,,psychoanalysis vs4 ,,morality ,psychoanalysis has sprung many surprises on us1 performed more than one volte face before our indignant eyes4 ,no sooner had we got used to the psychiatric quack who vehemently demonstrated the serpent of sex coiled round the root of all our actions1 no sooner had we begun to feel honestly uneasy about our lurking complexes1 than lo and behold the psychoanalytic gentleman reappeared on the stage with a theory of pure psychology4 ,the medical faculty1 which was on hot bricks over the therapeutic innovations1 heaved a sigh of relief as it watched the ground warming under the feet of the professional psychologists4 ,this1 however1 was not the end4 ,the ears of the ethnologist began to tingle1 the philosopher felt his gorge rise1 and at last the moralist knew he must rush in4 ,by this time psychoanalysis had become a public danger4 ,the mob was on the alert4 ,the dipus complex was a household word1 the incest motive a commonplace of tea-table chat4 ,amateur analyses became the vogue4 8,wait till you've been analyzed10 said one man to another1 with varying intonation4 ,a sinister look came into the eyes of the initiates--the famous1 or infamous1 ,freud look4 ,you could recognize it everywhere1 wherever you went4 ,psychoanalysts know what the end will be4 ,they have crept in among us as healers and physicians2 growing bolder1 they have asserted their authority as scientists2 two more minutes and they will appear as apostles4 ,have we not seen and heard the ex cathedra ,jung8 ,and does it need a prophet to discern that ,freud is on the brink of a ,weltanschauung--or at least a ,menschanschauung1 which is a much more risky affair8 ,what detains him8 ,two things4 ,first and foremost1 the moral issue4 ,and next1 but more vital1 he can't get down to the rock on which he must build his church4 ,let us look to ourselves4 ,this new doctrine--it will be called no less--has been subtly and insidiously suggested to us1 gradually inoculated into us4 ,it is true that doctors are the priests1 nay worse1 the medicine-men of our decadent society4 ,psychoanalysis has made the most of the opportunity4 ,first and foremost the issue is a moral issue4 ,it is not here a matter of reform1 new moral values4 ,it is the life or death of all morality4 ,the leaders among the psychoanalysts know what they have in hand4 ,probably most of their followers are ignorant1 and therefore pseudo-innocent4 ,but it all amounts to the same thing4 ,psychoanalysis is out1 under a therapeutic disguise1 to do away entirely with the moral faculty in man4 ,let us fling the challenge1 and then we can take sides in all fairness4 ,the psychoanalytic leaders know what they are about1 and shrewdly keep quiet1 going gently4 ,yet1 however gently they go1 they set the moral stones rolling4 ,at every step the most innocent and unsuspecting analyst starts a little landslide4 ,the old world is yielding under us4 ,without any direct attack1 it comes loose under the march of the psychoanalyst1 and we hear the dull rumble of the incipient avalanche4 ,we are in for a debcle4 ,but at least let us know what we are in for4 ,if we are to rear a serpent against ourselves1 let us at least refuse to nurse it in our temples or to call it the cock of ,esculapius4 ,it is time the white garb of the therapeutic cant was stripped off the psychoanalyst4 ,and now that we feel the strange crackling and convulsion in our moral foundations1 let us at least look at the house which we are bringing down over our heads so blithely4 ,long ago we watched in frightened anticipation when ,freud set out on his adventure into the hinterland of human consciousness4 ,he was seeking for the unknown sources of the mysterious stream of consciousness4 ,immortal phrase of the immortal ,james6 ,oh stream of hell which undermined my adolescence6 ,the stream of consciousness6 ,i felt it streaming through my brain1 in at one ear and out at the other4 ,and again ,i was sure it went round in my cranium1 like ,homer's ,ocean1 encircling my established mind4 ,and sometimes ,i felt it must bubble up in the cerebellum and wind its way through all the convolutions of the true brain4 ,horrid stream6 ,whence did it come1 and whither was it bound8 ,the stream of consciousness6 ,and so1 who could remain unmoved when ,freud seemed suddenly to plunge towards the origins8 ,suddenly he stepped out of the conscious into the unconscious1 out of the everywhere into the nowhere1 like some supreme explorer4 ,he walks straight through the wall of sleep1 and we hear him rumbling in the cavern of dreams4 ,the impenetrable is not impenetrable1 unconsciousness is not nothingness4 ,it is sleep1 that wall of darkness which limits our day4 ,walk bang into the wall1 and behold the wall isn't there4 ,it is the vast darkness of a cavern's mouth1 the cavern of anterior darkness whence issues the stream of consciousness4 ,with dilated hearts we watched ,freud disappearing into the cavern of darkness1 which is sleep and unconsciousness to us1 darkness which issues in the foam of all our day's consciousness4 ,he was making for the origins4 ,we watched his ideal candle flutter and go small4 ,then we waited1 as men do wait1 always expecting the wonder of wonders4 ,he came back with dreams to sell4 ,but sweet heaven1 what merchandise6 ,what dreams1 dear heart6 ,what was there in the cave8 ,alas that we ever looked6 ,nothing but a huge slimy serpent of sex1 and heaps of excrement1 and a myriad repulsive little horrors spawned between sex and excrement4 ,is it true8 ,does the great unknown of sleep contain nothing else8 ,no lovely spirits in the anterior regions of our being8 ,none6 ,imagine the unspeakable horror of the repressions ,freud brought home to us4 ,gagged1 bound1 maniacal repressions1 sexual complexes1 fcal inhibitions1 dream-monsters4 ,we tried to repudiate them4 ,but no1 they were there1 demonstrable4 ,these were the horrid things that ate our souls and caused our helpless neuroses4 ,we had felt that perhaps we were wrong inside1 but we had never imagined it so bad4 ,however1 in the name of healing and medicine we prepared to accept it all4 ,if it was all just a result of illness1 we were prepared to go through with it4 ,the analyst promised us that the tangle of complexes would be unravelled1 the obsessions would evaporate1 the monstrosities would dissolve1 sublimate1 when brought into the light of day4 ,once all the dream-horrors were translated into full consciousness1 they would sublimate into--well1 we don't quite know what4 ,but anyhow1 they would sublimate4 ,such is the charm of a new phrase that we accepted this sublimation process without further question4 ,if our complexes were going to sublimate once they were surgically exposed to full mental consciousness1 why1 best perform the operation4 ,thus analysis set off gaily on its therapeutic course4 ,but like ,hippolytus1 we ran too near the sea's edge4 ,after all1 if complexes exist only as abnormalities which can be removed1 psychoanalysis has not far to go4 ,our own horses ran away with us4 ,we began to realize that complexes were not just abnormalities4 ,they were part of the stock-in-trade of the normal unconscious4 ,the only abnormality1 so far1 lies in bringing them into consciousness4 ,this creates a new issue4 ,psychoanalysis1 the moment it begins to demonstrate the nature of the unconscious1 is assuming the rle of psychology4 ,thus the new science of psychology proceeds to inform us that our complexes are not just mere interlockings in the mechanism of the psyche1 as was taught by one of the first and most brilliant of the analysts1 a man now forgotten4 ,he fully realized that even the psyche itself depends on a certain organic1 mechanistic activity1 even as life depends on the mechanistic organism of the body4 ,the mechanism of the psyche could have its hitches1 certain parts could stop working1 even as the parts of the body can stop their functioning4 ,this arrest in some part of the functioning psyche gave rise to a complex1 even as the stopping of one little cog-wheel in a machine will arrest a whole section of that machine4 ,this was the origin of the complex-theory1 purely mechanistic4 ,now the analyst found that a complex did not necessarily vanish when brought into consciousness4 ,why should it8 ,hence he decided that it did not arise from the stoppage of any little wheel4 ,for it refused to disappear1 no matter how many psychic wheels were started4 ,finally1 then1 a complex could not be regarded as the result of an inhibition4 ,here is the new problem4 ,if a complex is not caused by the inhibition of some so-called normal sex-impulse1 what on earth is it caused by8 ,it obviously refuses to sublimate--or to come undone when exposed and prodded4 ,it refuses to answer to the promptings of normal sex-impulse4 ,you can remove all possible inhibitions of the normal sex desire1 and still you cannot remove the complex4 ,all you have done is to make conscious a desire which previously was unconscious4 ,this is the moral dilemma of psychoanalysis4 ,the analyst set out to cure neurotic humanity by removing the cause of the neurosis4 ,he finds that the cause of neurosis lies in some unadmitted sex desire4 ,after all he has said about inhibition of normal sex1 he is brought at last to realize that at the root of almost every neurosis lies some incest-craving1 and that this incest-craving is not the result of inhibition of normal sex-craving4 ,now see the dilemma--it is a fearful one4 ,if the incest-craving is not the outcome of any inhibition of normal desire1 if it actually exists and refuses to give way before any criticism1 what then8 ,what remains but to accept it as part of the normal sex-manifestation8 ,here is an issue which analysis is perfectly willing to face4 ,among themselves the analysts are bound to accept the incest-craving as part of the normal sexuality of man1 normal1 but suppressed1 because of moral and perhaps biological fear4 ,once1 however1 you accept the incest-craving as part of the normal sexuality of man1 you must remove all repression of incest itself4 ,in fact1 you must admit incest as you now admit sexual marriage1 as a duty even4 ,since at last it works out that neurosis is not the result of inhibition of so-called normal sex1 but of inhibition of incest-craving4 ,any inhibition must be wrong1 since inevitably in the end it causes neurosis and insanity4 ,therefore the inhibition of incest-craving is wrong1 and this wrong is the cause of practically all modern neurosis and insanity4 ,psychoanalysis will never openly state this conclusion4 ,but it is to this conclusion that every analyst must1 willy-nilly1 consciously or unconsciously1 bring his patient4 ,trigant ,burrow says that ,freud's unconscious does but represent our conception of conscious sexual life as this latter exists in a state of repression4 ,thus ,freud's unconscious amounts practically to no more than our repressed incest impulses4 ,again1 ,burrow says that it is knowledge of sex that constitutes sin1 and not sex itself4 ,it is when the mind turns to consider and know the great affective-passional functions and emotions that sin enters4 ,adam and ,eve fell1 not because they had sex1 or even because they committed the sexual act1 but because they became aware of their sex and of the possibility of the act4 ,when sex became to them a mental object--that is1 when they discovered that they could deliberately enter upon and enjoy and even provoke sexual activity in themselves1 then they were cursed and cast out of ,eden4 ,then man became self-responsible2 he entered on his own career4 ,both these assertions by ,burrow seem to us brilliantly true4 ,but must we inevitably draw the conclusion psychoanalysis draws8 ,because we discover in the unconscious the repressed body of our incest-craving1 and because the recognition of desire1 the making a mental objective of a certain desire causes the introduction of the sin motive1 the desire in itself being beyond criticism or moral judgment1 must we therefore accept the incest-craving as part of our natural desire and proceed to put it into practice1 as being at any rate a lesser evil than neurosis and insanity8 ,it is a question4 ,one thing1 however1 psychoanalysis all along the line fails to determine1 and that is the nature of the pristine unconscious in man4 ,the incest-craving is or is not inherent in the pristine psyche4 ,when ,adam and ,eve became aware of sex in themselves1 they became aware of that which was pristine in them1 and which preceded all knowing4 ,but when the analyst discovers the incest motive in the unconscious1 surely he is only discovering a term of humanity's repressed idea of sex4 ,it is not even suppressed sex-consciousness1 but repressed4 ,that is1 it is nothing pristine and anterior to mentality4 ,it is in itself the mind's ulterior motive4 ,that is1 the incest-craving is propagated in the pristine unconscious by the mind itself1 even though unconsciously4 ,the mind acts as incubus and procreator of its own horrors1 deliberately unconsciously4 ,and the incest motive is in its origin not a pristine impulse1 but a logical extension of the existent idea of sex and love4 ,the mind1 that is1 transfers the idea of incest into the affective-passional psyche1 and keeps it there as a repressed motive4 ,this is as yet a mere assertion4 ,it cannot be made good until we determine the nature of the true1 pristine unconscious1 in which all our genuine impulse arises--a very different affair from that sack of horrors which psychoanalysts would have us believe is source of motivity4 ,the ,freudian unconscious is the cellar in which the mind keeps its own bastard spawn4 ,the true unconscious is the well-head1 the fountain of real motivity4 ,the sex of which ,adam and ,eve became conscious derived from the very ,god who bade them be not conscious of it--it was not spawn produced by secondary propagation from the mental consciousness itself4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,incest ,,motive ,,and ,,idealism ,it is obvious we cannot recover our moral footing until we can in some way determine the true nature of the unconscious4 ,the word unconscious itself is a mere definition by negation and has no positive meaning4 ,freud no doubt prefers it for this reason4 ,he rejects subconscious and preconscious1 because both these would imply a sort of nascent consciousness1 the shadowy half-consciousness which precedes mental realization4 ,and by his unconscious he intends no such thing4 ,he wishes rather to convey1 we imagine1 that which recoils from consciousness1 that which reacts in the psyche away from mental consciousness4 ,his unconscious is1 we take it1 that part of the human consciousness which1 though mental1 ideal in its nature1 yet is unwilling to expose itself to full recognition1 and so recoils back into the affective regions and acts there as a secret agent1 unconfessed1 unadmitted1 potent1 and usually destructive4 ,the whole body of our repressions makes up our unconscious4 ,the question lies here3 whether a repression is a primal impulse which has been deterred from fulfilment1 or whether it is an idea which is refused enactment4 ,is a repression a repressed passional impulse1 or is it an idea which we suppress and refuse to put into practice--nay1 which we even refuse to own at all1 a disowned1 outlawed idea1 which exists rebelliously outside the pale8 ,man can inhibit the true passional impulses and so produce a derangement in the psyche4 ,this is a truism nowadays1 and we are grateful to psychoanalysis for helping to make it so4 ,but man can do more than this4 ,finding himself in a sort of emotional cul de sac1 he can proceed to deduce from his given emotional and passional premises conclusions which are not emotional or passional at all1 but just logical1 abstract1 ideal4 ,that is1 a man finds it impossible to realize himself in marriage4 ,he recognizes the fact that his emotional1 even passional1 regard for his mother is deeper than it ever could be for a wife4 ,this makes him unhappy1 for he knows that passional communion is not complete unless it be also sexual4 ,he has a body of sexual passion which he cannot transfer to a wife4 ,he has a profound love for his mother4 ,shut in between walls of tortured and increasing passion1 he must find some escape or fall down the pit of insanity and death4 ,what is the only possible escape8 ,to seek in the arms of the mother the refuge which offers nowhere else4 ,and so the incest-motive is born4 ,all the labored explanations of the psychoanalysts are unnecessary4 ,the incest motive is a logical deduction of the human reason1 which has recourse to this last extremity1 to save itself4 ,why is the human reason in peril8 ,that is another story4 ,at the moment we are merely considering the origin of the incest motive4 ,the logical conclusion of incest is1 of course1 a profound decision in the human soul1 a decision affecting the deepest passional centers4 ,it rouses the deepest instinctive opposition4 ,and therefore it must be kept secret until this opposition is either worn away or persuaded away4 ,hence the repression and ultimate disclosure4 ,now here we see the secret working of the process of idealism4 ,by idealism we understand the motivizing of the great affective sources by means of ideas mentally derived4 ,as for example the incest motive1 which is first and foremost a logical deduction made by the human reason1 even if unconsciously made1 and secondly is introduced into the affective1 passional sphere1 where it now proceeds to serve as a principle for action4 ,this motivizing of the passional sphere from the ideal is the final peril of human consciousness4 ,it is the death of all spontaneous1 creative life1 and the substituting of the mechanical principle4 ,it is obvious that the ideal becomes a mechanical principle1 if it be applied to the affective soul as a fixed motive4 ,an ideal established in control of the passional soul is no more and no less than a supreme machine-principle4 ,and a machine1 as we know1 is the active unit of the material world4 ,thus we see how it is that in the end pure idealism is identical with pure materialism1 and the most ideal peoples are the most completely material4 ,ideal and material are identical4 ,the ideal is but the god in the machine--the little1 fixed1 machine principle which works the human psyche automatically4 ,we are now in the last stages of idealism4 ,and psychoanalysis alone has the courage necessary to conduct us through these last stages4 ,the identity of love with sex1 the single necessity for fulfilment through love1 these are our fixed ideals4 ,we must fulfil these ideals in their extremity4 ,and this brings us finally to incest1 even incest-worship4 ,we have no option1 whilst our ideals stand4 ,why8 ,because incest is the logical conclusion of our ideals1 when these ideals have to be carried into passional effect4 ,and idealism has no escape from logic4 ,and once he has built himself in the shape of any ideal1 man will go to any logical length rather than abandon his ideal corpus4 ,nay1 some great cataclysm has to throw him down and destroy the whole fabric of his life before the motor-principle of his dominant ideal is destroyed4 ,hence psychoanalysis as the advance-guard of science1 the evangel of the last ideal liberty4 ,for of course there is a great fascination in a completely effected idealism4 ,man is then undisputed master of his own fate1 and captain of his own soul4 ,but better say engine-driver1 for in truth he is no more than the little god in the machine1 this master of fate4 ,he has invented his own automatic principles1 and he works himself according to them1 like any little mechanic inside the works4 ,but ideal or not1 we are all of us between the pit and the pendulum1 or the walls of red-hot metal1 as may be4 ,if we refuse the ,freudian pis-aller as a means of escape1 we have still to find some way out4 ,for there we are1 all of us1 trapped in a corner where we cannot1 and simply do not know how to fulfil our own natures1 passionally4 ,we don't know in which way fulfilment lies4 ,if psychoanalysis discovers incest1 small blame to it4 ,yet we do know this much3 that the pushing of the ideal to any further lengths will not avail us anything4 ,we have actually to go back to our own unconscious4 ,but not to the unconscious which is the inverted reflection of our ideal consciousness4 ,we must discover1 if we can1 the true unconscious1 where our life bubbles up in us1 prior to any mentality4 ,the first bubbling life in us1 which is innocent of any mental alteration1 this is the unconscious4 ,it is pristine1 not in any way ideal4 ,it is the spontaneous origin from which it behooves us to live4 ,what then is the true unconscious8 ,it is not a shadow cast from the mind4 ,it is the spontaneous life-motive in every organism4 ,where does it begin8 ,it begins where life begins4 ,but that is too vague4 ,it is no use talking about life and the unconscious in bulk4 ,you can talk about electricity1 because electricity is a homogeneous force1 conceivable apart from any incorporation4 ,but life is inconceivable as a general thing4 ,it exists only in living creatures4 ,so that life begins1 now as always1 in an individual living creature4 ,in the beginning of the individual living creature is the beginning of life1 every time and always1 and life has no beginning apart from this4 ,any attempt at a further generalization takes us merely beyond the consideration of life into the region of mechanical homogeneous force4 ,this is shown in the cosmologies of eastern religions4 ,the beginning of life is in the beginning of the first individual creature4 ,you may call the naked1 unicellular bit of plasm the first individual1 if you like4 ,mentally1 as far as thinkable simplicity goes1 it is the first4 ,so that we may say that life begins in the first naked unicellular organism4 ,and where life begins the unconscious also begins4 ,but mark1 the first naked unicellular organism is an individual4 ,it is a specific individual1 not a mathematical unit1 like a unit of force4 ,where the individual begins1 life begins4 ,the two are inseparable1 life and individuality4 ,and also1 where the individual begins1 the unconscious1 which is the specific life-motive1 also begins4 ,we are trying to trace the unconscious to its source4 ,and we find that this source1 in all the higher organisms1 is the first ovule cell from which an individual organism arises4 ,at the moment of conception1 when a procreative male nucleus fuses with the nucleus of the female germ1 at that moment does a new unit of life1 of consciousness1 arise in the universe4 ,is it not obvious8 ,the unconscious has no other source than this1 this first fused nucleus of the ovule4 ,useless to talk about the unconscious as if it were a homogeneous force like electricity4 ,you can only deal with the unconscious when you realize that in every individual organism an individual nature1 an individual consciousness1 is spontaneously created at the moment of conception4 ,we say created4 ,and by created we mean spontaneously appearing in the universe1 out of nothing4 ,ex nihilo nihil fit4 ,it is true that an individual is also generated4 ,by the fusion of two nuclei1 male and female1 we understand the process of generation4 ,and from the process of generation we may justly look for a new unit1 according to the law of cause and effect4 ,as a natural or automatic result of the process of generation we may look for a new unit of existence4 ,but the nature of this new unit must derive from the natures of the parents1 also by law4 ,and this we deny4 ,we deny that the nature of any new creature derives from the natures of its parents4 ,the nature of the infant does not follow from the natures of its parents4 ,the nature of the infant is not just a new permutation-and-combination of elements contained in the natures of the parents4 ,there is in the nature of the infant that which is utterly unknown in the natures of the parents1 something which could never be derived from the natures of all the existent individuals or previous individuals4 ,there is in the nature of the infant something entirely new1 underived1 underivable1 something which is1 and which will forever remain1 causeless4 ,and this something is the unanalyzable1 indefinable reality of individuality4 ,every time at the moment of conception of every higher organism an individual nature incomprehensibly arises in the universe1 out of nowhere4 ,granted the whole cause-and-effect process of generation and evolution1 still the individual is not explained4 ,the individual unit of consciousness and being which arises at the conception of every higher organism arises by pure creation1 by a process not susceptible to understanding1 a process which takes place outside the field of mental comprehension1 where mentality1 which is definitely limited1 cannot and does not exist4 ,this causeless created nature of the individual being is the same as the old mystery of the divine nature of the soul4 ,religion was right and science is wrong4 ,every individual creature has a soul1 a specific individual nature the origin of which cannot be found in any cause-and-effect process whatever4 ,cause-and-effect will not explain even the individuality of a single dandelion4 ,there is no assignable cause1 and no logical reason1 for individuality4 ,on the contrary1 individuality appears in defiance of all scientific law1 in defiance even of reason4 ,having established so much1 we can really approach the unconscious4 ,by the unconscious we wish to indicate that essential unique nature of every individual creature1 which is1 by its very nature1 unanalyzable1 undefinable1 inconceivable4 ,it cannot be conceived1 it can only be experienced1 in every single instance4 ,and being inconceivable1 we will call it the unconscious4 ,as a matter of fact1 soul would be a better word4 ,by the unconscious we do mean the soul4 ,but the word soul has been vitiated by the idealistic use1 until nowadays it means only that which a man conceives himself to be4 ,and that which a man conceives himself to be is something far different from his true unconscious4 ,so we must relinquish the ideal word soul4 ,if1 however1 the unconscious is inconceivable1 how do we know it at all8 ,we know it by direct experience4 ,all the best part of knowledge is inconceivable4 ,we know the sun4 ,but we cannot conceive the sun1 unless we are willing to accept some theory of burning gases1 some cause-and-effect nonsense4 ,and even if we do have a mental conception of the sun as a sphere of blazing gas--which it certainly isn't--we are just as far from knowing what blaze is4 ,knowledge is always a matter of whole experience1 what ,st4 ,paul calls knowing in full1 and never a matter of mental conception merely4 ,this is indeed the point of all full knowledge3 that it is contained mainly within the unconscious1 its mental or conscious reference being only a sort of extract or shadow4 ,it is necessary for us to know the unconscious1 or we cannot live1 just as it is necessary for us to know the sun4 ,but we need not explain the unconscious1 any more than we need explain the sun4 ,we can't do either1 anyway4 ,we know the sun by beholding him and watching his motions and feeling his changing power4 ,the same with the unconscious4 ,we watch it in all its manifestations1 its unfolding incarnations4 ,we watch it in all its processes and its unaccountable evolutions1 and these we register4 ,for though the unconscious is the creative element1 and though1 like the soul1 it is beyond all law of cause and effect in its totality1 yet in its processes of self-realization it follows the laws of cause and effect4 ,the processes of cause and effect are indeed part of the working out of this incomprehensible self-realization of the individual unconscious4 ,the great laws of the universe are no more than the fixed habits of the living unconscious4 ,what we must needs do is to try to trace still further the habits of the true unconscious1 and by mental recognition of these habits break the limits which we have imposed on the movement of the unconscious4 ,for the whole point about the true unconscious is that it is all the time moving forward1 beyond the range of its own fixed laws or habits4 ,it is no good trying to superimpose an ideal nature upon the unconscious4 ,we have to try to recognize the true nature and then leave the unconscious itself to prompt new movement and new being--the creative progress4 ,what we are suffering from now is the restriction of the unconscious within certain ideal limits4 ,the more we force the ideal the more we rupture the true movement4 ,once we can admit the known1 but incomprehensible1 presence of the integral unconscious2 once we can trace it home in ourselves and follow its first revealed movements2 once we know how it habitually unfolds itself2 once we can scientifically determine its laws and processes in ourselves3 then at last we can begin to live from the spontaneous initial prompting1 instead of from the dead machine-principles of ideas and ideals4 ,there is a whole science of the creative unconscious1 the unconscious in its law-abiding activities4 ,and of this science we do not even know the first term4 ,yes1 when we know that the unconscious appears by creation1 as a new individual reality in every newly-fertilized germ-cell1 then we know the very first item of the new science4 ,but it needs a super-scientific grace before we can admit this first new item of knowledge4 ,it means that science abandons its intellectualist position and embraces the old religious faculty4 ,but it does not thereby become less scientific1 it only becomes at last complete in knowledge4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,birth ,,of ,,consciousness ,it is useless to try to determine what is consciousness or what is knowledge4 ,who cares anyhow1 since we know without definitions4 ,but what we fail to know1 yet what we must know1 is the nature of the pristine consciousness which lies integral and progressive within every functioning organism4 ,the brain is the seat of the ideal consciousness4 ,and ideal consciousness is only the dead end of consciousness1 the spun silk4 ,the vast bulk of consciousness is non-cerebral4 ,it is the sap of our life1 of all life4 ,we are forced to attribute to a star-fish1 or to a nettle1 its own peculiar and integral consciousness4 ,this throws us at once out of the ideal castle of the brain into the flux of sap-consciousness4 ,but let us not jump too far in one bound4 ,let us refrain from taking a sheer leap down the abyss of consciousness1 down to the invertebrates and the protococci4 ,let us cautiously scramble down the human declivities4 ,or rather let us try to start somewhere near the foot of the calvary of human consciousness4 ,let us consider the child in the womb4 ,is the ftus conscious8 ,it must be1 since it carries on an independent and progressive self-development4 ,this consciousness obviously cannot be ideal1 cannot be cerebral1 since it precedes any vestige of cerebration4 ,and yet it is an integral1 individual consciousness1 having its own single purpose and progression4 ,where can it be centered1 how can it operate1 before even nerves are formed8 ,for it does steadily and persistently operate1 even spinning the nerves and brain as a web for its own motion1 like some subtle spider4 ,what is the spinning spider of the first human consciousness--or rather1 where is the center at which this consciousness lies and spins8 ,since there must be a center of consciousness in the tiny ftus1 it must have been there from the very beginning4 ,there it must have been1 in the first fused nucleus of the ovule4 ,and if we could but watch this prime nucleus1 we should no doubt realize that throughout all the long and incalculable history of the individual it still remains central and prime1 the source and clue of the living unconscious1 the origin4 ,as in the first moment of conception1 so to the end of life in the individual1 the first nucleus remains the creative-productive center1 the quick1 both of consciousness and of organic development4 ,and where in the developed ftus shall we look for this creative-productive quick8 ,shall we expect it in the brain or in the heart8 ,surely our own subjective wisdom tells us1 what science can verify1 that it lies beneath the navel of the folded ftus4 ,surely that prime center1 which is the very first nucleus of the fertilized ovule1 lies situated beneath the navel of all womb-born creatures4 ,there1 from the beginning1 it lay in its mysterious relation to the outer1 active universe4 ,there it lay1 perfectly associated with the parent body4 ,there it acted on its own peculiar independence1 drawing the whole stream of creative blood upon itself1 and1 spinning within the parental blood-stream1 slowly creating or bodying forth its own incarnate amplification4 ,all the time between the quick of life in the ftus and the great outer universe there exists a perfect correspondence1 upon which correspondence the astrologers based their science in the days before mental consciousness had arrogated all knowledge unto itself4 ,the ftus is not personally conscious4 ,but then what is personality if not ideal in its origin8 ,the ftus is1 however1 radically1 individually conscious4 ,from the active quick1 the nuclear center1 it remains single and integral in its activity4 ,at this center it distinguishes itself utterly from the surrounding universe1 whereby both are modified4 ,from this center the whole individual arises1 and upon this center the whole universe1 by implication1 impinges4 ,for the fixed and stable universe of law and matter1 even the whole cosmos1 would wear out and disintegrate if it did not rest and find renewal in the quick center of creative life in individual creatures4 ,and since this center has absolute location in the first fertilized nucleus1 it must have location still in the developed ftus1 and in the mature man4 ,and where is this location in the unborn infant8 ,beneath the burning influx of the navel4 ,where is it in the adult man8 ,still beneath the navel4 ,as primal affective center it lies within the solar plexus of the nervous system4 ,we do not pretend to use technical language4 ,but surely our meaning is plain even to correct scientists1 when we assert that in all mammals the center of primal1 constructive consciousness and activity lies in the middle front of the abdomen1 beneath the navel1 in the great nerve center called the solar plexus4 ,how do we know8 ,we feel it1 as we feel hunger or love or hate4 ,once we know what we are1 science can proceed to analyze our knowledge1 demonstrate its truth or its untruth4 ,we all of us know what it is to handle a newborn1 or at least a quite young infant4 ,we know what it is to lay the hand on the round little abdomen1 the round1 pulpy little head4 ,we know where is life1 where is pulp4 ,we have seen blind puppies1 blind kittens crawling4 ,they give strange little cries4 ,whence these cries8 ,are they mental exclamations8 ,as in a ventriloquist1 they come from the stomach4 ,there lies the wakeful center4 ,there speaks the first consciousness1 the audible unconscious1 in the squeak of these infantile things1 which is so curiously and indescribably moving1 reacting direct upon the great abdominal center1 the preconscious mind in man4 ,there at the navel1 the first rupture has taken place1 the first break in continuity4 ,there is the scar of dehiscence1 scar at once of our pain and splendor of individuality4 ,here is the mark of our isolation in the universe1 stigma and seal of our free1 perfect singleness4 ,hence the lotus of the navel4 ,hence the mystic contemplation of the navel4 ,it is the upper mind losing itself in the lower first-mind1 that which is last in consciousness reverting to that which is first4 ,a mother will realize better than a philosopher4 ,she knows the rupture which has finally separated her child into its own single1 free existence4 ,she knows the strange1 sensitive rose of the navel3 how it quivers conscious2 all its pain1 its want for the old connection2 all its joy and chuckling exultation in sheer organic singleness and individual liberty4 ,the powerful1 active psychic center in a new child is the great solar plexus of the sympathetic system4 ,from this center the child is drawn to the mother again1 crying1 to heal the new wound1 to re-establish the old oneness4 ,this center directs the little mouth which1 blind and anticipatory1 seeks the breast4 ,how could it find the breast1 blind and mindless little mouth8 ,but it needs no eyes nor mind4 ,from the great first-mind of the abdomen it moves direct1 with an anterior knowledge almost like magnetic propulsion1 as if the little mouth were drawn or propelled to the maternal breast by vital magnetism1 whose center of directive control lies in the solar plexus4 ,in a measure1 this taking of the breast re-instates the old connection with the parent body4 ,it is a strange sinking back to the old unison1 the old organic continuum--a recovery of the pre-natal state4 ,but at the same time it is a deep1 avid gratification in drinking in the sustenance of a new individuality4 ,it is a deep gratification in the exertion of a new1 voluntary power4 ,the child acts now separately from its own individual center and exerts still a control over the adjacent universe1 the parent body4 ,so the warm life-stream passes again from the parent into the aching abdomen of the severed child4 ,life cannot progress without these ruptures1 severances1 cataclysms2 pain is a living reality1 not merely a deathly4 ,why haven't we the courage for life-pains8 ,if we could depart from our old tenets of the mind1 if we could fathom our own unconscious sapience1 we should find we have courage and to spare4 ,we are too mentally domesticated4 ,the great magnetic or dynamic center of first-consciousness acts powerfully at the solar plexus4 ,here the child knows beyond all knowledge4 ,it does not see with the eyes1 it cannot perceive1 much less conceive4 ,nothing can it apprehend2 the eyes are a strange plasmic1 nascent darkness4 ,yet from the belly it knows1 with a directness of knowledge that frightens us and may even seem abhorrent4 ,the mother1 also1 from the bowels knows her child--as she can never1 never know it from the head4 ,there is no thought nor speech1 only direct1 ventral gurglings and cooings4 ,from the passional nerve-center of the solar plexus in the mother passes direct1 unspeakable effluence and intercommunication1 sheer effluent contact with the palpitating nerve-center in the belly of the child4 ,knowledge1 unspeakable knowledge interchanged1 which must be diluted by eternities of materialization before they can come to expression4 ,it is like a lovely1 suave1 fluid1 creative electricity that flows in a circuit between the great nerve-centers in mother and child4 ,the electricity of the universe is a sundering force4 ,but this lovely polarized vitalism is creative4 ,it passes in a circuit between the two poles of the passional unconscious in the two now separated beings4 ,it establishes in each that first primal consciousness which is the sacred1 all-containing head-stream of all our consciousness4 ,but this is not all4 ,the flux between mother and child is not all sweet unison4 ,there is as well the continually widening gap4 ,a wonderful rich communion1 and at the same time a continually increasing cleavage4 ,if only we could realize that all through life these are the two synchronizing activities of love1 of creativity4 ,for the end1 the goal1 is the perfecting of each single individuality1 unique in itself--which cannot take place without a perfected harmony between the beloved1 a harmony which depends on the at-last-clarified singleness of each being1 a singleness equilibrized1 polarized in one by the counter-posing singleness of the other4 ,so the child4 ,in its wonderful unison with the mother it is at the same time extricating itself into single1 separate1 independent existence4 ,the one process1 of unison1 cannot go on without the other process1 of purified severance4 ,at first the child cleaves back to the old source4 ,it clings and adheres4 ,the sympathetic center of unification1 or at least unison1 alone seems awake4 ,the child wails with the strange desolation of severance1 wails for the old connection4 ,with joy and peace it returns to the breast1 almost as to the womb4 ,but not quite4 ,even in sucking it discovers its new identity and power4 ,its own new1 separate power4 ,it draws itself back suddenly2 it waits4 ,it has heard something8 ,no4 ,but another center has flashed awake4 ,the child stiffens itself and holds back4 ,what is it1 wind8 ,stomach-ache8 ,not at all4 ,listen to some of the screams4 ,the ears can hear deeper than eyes can see4 ,the first scream of the ego4 ,the scream of asserted isolation4 ,the scream of revolt from connection1 the revolt from union4 ,there is a violent anti-maternal motion1 anti-everything4 ,there is a refractory1 bad-tempered negation of everything1 a hurricane of temper4 ,what then8 ,after such tremendous unison as the womb implies1 no wonder there are storms of rage and separation4 ,the child is screaming itself rid of the old womb1 kicking itself in a blind paroxysm into freedom1 into separate1 negative independence4 ,so be it1 there must be paroxysms1 since there must be independence4 ,then the mother gets angry too4 ,it affects her1 though perhaps not as badly as it affects outsiders4 ,nothing acts more direct on the great primal nerve-centers than the screaming of an infant1 this blind screaming negation of connections4 ,it is the friction of irritation itself4 ,everybody is implicated1 just as they would be if the air were surcharged with electricity4 ,the mother is perhaps less affected because she understands primarily1 or because she is polarized directly with the child4 ,yet she1 too1 must be angry1 in her measure1 inevitably4 ,it is a blind1 almost mechanistic effort on the part of the new organism to extricate itself from cohesion with the circumambient universe4 ,it applies direct to the mother4 ,but it affects everybody4 ,the great centers of response vibrate with a maddening1 sometimes unbearable friction4 ,what centers8 ,not the great sympathetic plexus this time1 but its corresponding voluntary ganglion4 ,the great ganglion of the spinal system1 the lumbar ganglion1 negatively polarizes the solar plexus in the primal psychic activity of a human individual4 ,when a child screams with temper1 it sends out from the lumbar ganglion violent waves of frictional repudiation1 extraordinary4 ,the little back has an amazing power once it stiffens itself4 ,in the lumbar ganglion the unconscious now vibrates tremendously in the activity of sundering1 separation4 ,mother and child1 polarized1 are primarily affected4 ,often the mother is so sure of her possession of the child that she is almost unmoved4 ,but the child continues1 till the frictional response is roused in the mother1 her anger rises1 there is a flash1 an outburst like lightning4 ,and then the storm subsides4 ,the pure act of sundering is effected4 ,each being is clarified further into its own single1 individual self1 further perfected1 separated4 ,hence a duality1 now1 in primal consciousness in the infant4 ,the warm rosy abdomen1 tender with chuckling unison1 and the little back strengthening itself4 ,the child kicks away1 into independence4 ,it stiffens its spine in the strength of its own private and separate1 inviolable existence4 ,it will admit now of no trespass4 ,it is awake now in a new pride1 a new self-assertion4 ,the sense of antagonistic freedom is aroused4 ,clumsy old adhesions must be ruthlessly fused4 ,and so1 from the lumbar ganglion the fiery-tempered infant asserts its new1 blind will4 ,and as the child fights the mother fights4 ,sometimes she fights to keep her refractory child1 and sometimes she fights to kick him off1 as a mare kicks off her too-babyish foal4 ,it is the great voluntary center of the unconscious flashing into action4 ,flashing from the deep lumbar ganglion in the mother to the newly-awakened1 corresponding center in the child goes the swift negative current1 setting each of them asunder in clean individuality4 ,so long as the force meets its polarized response all is well4 ,when a force flashes and has no response1 there is devastation4 ,how weary in the back is the nursing mother whose great center of repudiation is suppressed or weak2 how a child droops if only the sympathetic unison is established4 ,so1 the polarity of the dynamic consciousness1 from the very start of life6 ,direct flowing and flashing of two consciousness-streams1 active in the bringing forth of an individual being4 ,the sweet commingling1 the sharp clash of opposition4 ,and no possibility of creative development without this polarity1 this dual circuit of direct1 spontaneous1 honest interchange4 ,no hope of life apart from this4 ,the primal unconscious pulsing in its circuits between two beings3 love and wrath1 cleaving and repulsion1 inglutination and excrementation4 ,what is the good of inventing 8ideal0 behavior8 ,how order the path of the unconscious8 ,for let us now realize that we cannot1 even with the best intentions1 proceed to order the path of our own unconscious without vitally deranging the life-flow of those connected with us4 ,if you disturb the current at one pole1 it must be disturbed at the other4 ,here is a new moral aspect to life4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,child ,,and ,,his ,,mother ,in asserting that the seat of consciousness in a young infant is in the abdomen1 we do not pretend to suggest that all the other conscious-centers are utterly dormant4 ,once a child is born1 the whole nervous and cerebral system comes awake1 even the brain's memories begin to glimmer1 recognition and cognition soon begin to take place4 ,but the spontaneous control and all the prime developing activity derive from the great affective centers of the abdomen4 ,in the solar plexus is the first great fountain and issue of infantile consciousness4 ,there1 beneath the navel1 lies the active human first-mind1 the prime unconscious4 ,from the moment of conception1 when the first nucleus is formed1 to the moment of death1 when this same nucleus breaks again1 the first great active center of human consciousness lies in the solar plexus4 ,the movement of development in any creature is1 however1 towards a florescent individuality4 ,the ample1 mature1 unfolded individual stands perfect1 perfect in himself1 but also perfect in his harmonious relation to those nearest him and to all the universe4 ,whilst only the one great center of consciousness is awake1 in the abdomen1 the infant has no separate existence1 his whole nature is contained in the conjunction with the parent4 ,as soon as the complementary negative pole arouses the voluntary center of the lumbar ganglion1 there is at once a retraction into independence and an assertion of singleness4 ,the back strengthens itself4 ,but still the circuit of polarity1 dual as it is1 positive and negative from the positive-sympathetic and the negative-voluntary poles1 still depends on the duality of two beings--it is still extra-individual4 ,each individual is vitally dependent on the other1 for the life circuit4 ,let us consider for a moment the kind of consciousness manifested at the two great primary centers4 ,at the solar plexus the new psyche acts in a mode of attractive vitalism1 drawing its objective unto itself as by vital magnetism4 ,here it drinks in1 as it were1 the contiguous universe1 as during the womb-period it drank from the living continuum of the mother4 ,it is darkly self-centered1 exultant and positive in its own existence4 ,it is all-in-all to itself1 its own great subject4 ,it knows no objective4 ,it only knows its own vital potency1 which potency draws the external object unto itself1 subjectively1 as the blood-stream was drawn into the ftus1 by subjective attraction4 ,here the psyche is to itself the ,all4 ,blindly self-positive4 ,this is the first mode of consciousness for every living thing--fascinating in all young things4 ,the second half of the same mode commences as soon as direct activity sets up in the lumbar ganglion4 ,then the psyche recoils upon itself1 in its first reaction against continuity with the outer universe4 ,it recoils even against its own mode of assimilatory unison4 ,even it must break off1 interrupt the great psychic-assimilation process which goes on at the sympathic center4 ,it must recoil clean upon itself1 break loose from any attachment whatsoever4 ,and then it must try its power1 often playfully4 ,this reaction is still subjective4 ,when a child stiffens and draws away1 when it screams with pure temper1 it takes no note of that from which it recoils4 ,it has no objective consciousness of that from which it reacts1 the mother principally4 ,it is like a swimmer endlessly kicking the water away behind him1 with strong legs vividly active from the spinal ganglia4 ,like a man in a boat pushing off from the shore1 it merely thrusts away1 in order to ride free1 ever more free4 ,it is a purely subjective motion1 in the negative direction4 ,after our long training in objectivation1 and our epoch of worship of the objective mode1 it is perhaps difficult for us to realize the strong1 blind power of the unconscious on its first plane of activity4 ,it is something quite different from what we call egoism--which is really mentally derived--for the ego is merely the sum-total of what we conceive ourselves to be4 ,the powerful pristine subjectivity of the unconscious on its first plane is1 on the other hand1 the root of all our consciousness and being1 darkly tenacious4 ,here we are grounded1 say what we may4 ,and if we break the spell of this first subjective mode1 we break our own main root and live rootless1 shiftless1 groundless4 ,so that the powerful subjectivity of the unconscious1 where the self is all-in-all unto itself1 active in strong desirous psychic assimilation or in direct repudiation of the contiguous universe2 this first plane of psychic activity1 polarized in the solar plexus and the lumbar ganglion of each individual but established in a circuit with the corresponding poles of another individual3 this is the first scope of life and being for every human individual1 and is beyond question4 ,but we must again remark that the whole circuit is established between two individuals--that neither is a free thing-unto-itself--and that the very fact of established polarity between the two maintains that correspondence between the individual entity and the external universe which is the clue to all growth and development4 ,the pure subjectivity of the first plane of consciousness is no more selfish than the pure objectivity of any other plane4 ,how can it be8 ,how can any form of pure1 balanced polarity between two vital individuals be in any sense selfish on the part of one individual8 ,we have got our moral values all wrong4 ,save for healthy instinct1 the moralistic human race would have exterminated itself long ago4 ,and yet man must be moral1 at the very root moral4 ,the essence of morality is the basic desire to preserve the perfect correspondence between the self and the object1 to have no trespass and no breach of integrity1 nor yet any refaulture in the vitalistic interchange4 ,as yet we see the unconscious active on one plane only and entirely dependent on two individuals4 ,but immediately following the establishment of the circuit of the powerful1 subjective1 abdominal plane comes the quivering of the whole system into a new degree of consciousness4 ,and two great upper centers are awake4 ,the diaphragm really divides the human body1 psychically as well as organically4 ,the two centers beneath the diaphragm are centers of dark subjectivity1 centripetal1 assimilative4 ,once these are established1 in the thorax the two first centers of objective consciousness become active1 with ever-increasing intensity4 ,the great thoracic sympathetic plexus rouses like a sun in the breast1 the thoracic ganglion fills the shoulders with strength4 ,there are now two planes of primary consciousness--the first1 the lower1 the subjective unconscious1 active beneath the diaphragm1 and the second upper1 objective plane1 active above the diaphragm1 in the breast4 ,let us realize that the subjective and objective of the unconscious are not the same as the subjective and the objective of the mind4 ,here we have no concepts to deal with1 no static objects in the shape of ideas4 ,we have none of that tiresome business of establishing the relation between the mind and its own ideal object1 or the discriminating between the ideal thing-in-itself and the mind of which it is the content4 ,we are spared that hateful thing-in-itself1 the idea1 which is at once so all-important and so nothing4 ,we are on straightforward solid ground2 there is no abstraction4 ,the unconscious subjectivity is1 in its positive manifestation1 a great imbibing1 and in its negative1 a definite blind rejection4 ,what we call an unconscious rejection4 ,this subjectivity embraces alike creative emotion and physical function4 ,it includes alike the sweet and untellable communion of love between the mother and child1 the irrational reaction into separation between the two1 and also the physical functioning of sucking and urination4 ,psychic and physical development run parallel1 though they are forever distinct4 ,the child sucking1 the child urinating1 this is the child acting from the great subjective centers1 positive and negative4 ,when the child sucks1 there is a sympathetic circuit between it and the mother1 in which the sympathetic plexus in the mother acts as negative or submissive pole to the corresponding plexus in the child4 ,in urination there is a corresponding circuit in the voluntary centers1 so that a mother seems gratified1 and is gratified1 inevitably1 by the excremental functioning of her child4 ,she experiences a true polar reaction4 ,child and mother have1 in the first place1 no objective consciousness of each other1 and certainly no idea of each other4 ,each is a blind desideratum to the other4 ,the strong love between them is effectual in the great abdominal centers1 where all love1 real love1 is primarily based4 ,of that reflected or moon-love1 derived from the head1 that spurious form of love which predominates to-day1 we do not speak here4 ,it has its root in the idea3 the beloved is a mental objective1 endlessly appreciated1 criticized1 scrutinized1 exhausted4 ,this has nothing to do with the active unconscious4 ,having realized that the unconscious sparkles1 vibrates1 travels in a strong subjective stream from the abdominal centers1 connecting the child directly with the mother at corresponding poles of vitalism1 we realize that the unconscious contains nothing ideal1 nothing in the least conceptual1 and hence nothing in the least personal1 since personality1 like the ego1 belongs to the conscious or mental-subjective self4 ,so the first analyses are1 or should be1 so impersonal that the so-called human relations are not involved4 ,the first relationship is neither personal nor biological--a fact which psychoanalysis has not succeeded in grasping4 ,for example4 ,a child screams with terror at the touch of fur2 another child loves the touch of fur1 and purrs with pleasure4 ,how now8 ,is it a complex8 ,did the father have a beard8 ,it is possible4 ,but all-too-human4 ,the physical result of rubbing fur is to set up a certain amount of frictional electricity4 ,frictional electricity is one of the sundering forces4 ,it corresponds to the voluntary forces exerted at the lower spinal ganglia1 the forces of anger and retraction into independence and power4 ,an over-sympathetic child will scream with fear at the touch of fur2 a refractory child will purr with pleasure4 ,it is a reaction which involves even deeper things than sex--the primal constitution of the elementary psyche4 ,a sympathetically overbalanced child has a horror of the electric-frictional force such as is emitted from the fur of a black cat1 creature of rapacity4 ,the same delights a fierce-willed child4 ,but we must admit at the same time that from earliest days a child is subject to the definite conscious psychic influences of its surroundings and will react almost automatically to a conscious-passional suggestion from the mother4 ,in this way personal sex is prematurely evoked1 and real complexes are set up4 ,but these derive not from the spontaneous unconscious4 ,they are in a way dictated from the deliberate1 mental consciousness1 even if involuntarily4 ,again they are a result of mental subjectivity1 self-consciousness--so different from the primal subjectivity of the unconscious4 ,to return1 however1 to the pure unconscious4 ,when the upper centers flash awake1 a whole new field of consciousness and spontaneous activity is opened out4 ,the great sympathetic plexus of the breast is the heart's mind4 ,this thoracic plexus corresponds directly in the upper man to the solar plexus in the lower4 ,but it is a correspondence in creative opposition4 ,from the sympathetic center of the breast as from a window the unconscious goes forth seeking its object1 to dwell upon it4 ,when a child leans its breast against its mother it becomes filled with a primal awareness of her--not of itself desiring her or partaking of her--but of her as she is in herself4 ,this is the first great acquisition of primal objective knowledge1 the objective content of the unconscious4 ,such knowledge we call the treasure of the heart4 ,when the ancients located the first seat of consciousness in the heart1 they were neither misguided nor playing with metaphor4 ,for by consciousness they meant1 as usual1 objective consciousness only4 ,and from the cardiac plexus goes forth that strange effluence of the self which seeks and dwells upon the beloved1 lovingly roving like the fingers of an infant or a blind man over the face of the treasured object1 gathering her mould into itself and transferring her mould forever into its own deep unconscious psyche4 ,this is the first acquiring of objective knowledge1 sightless1 unspeakably direct4 ,it is a dwelling of the child's unconscious within the form of the mother1 the gathering of a pure1 eternal impression4 ,so the soul stores itself with dynamic treasures2 it verily builds its own tissue of such treasure1 the tissue of the developing body1 each cell stored with creative dynamic content4 ,the breasts themselves are as two eyes4 ,we do not know how much the nipples of the breast1 both in man and woman1 serve primarily as poles of vital conscious effluence and connection4 ,we do not know how the nipples of the breast are as fountains leaping into the universe1 or as little lamps irradiating the contiguous world1 to the soul in quest4 ,but certainly from the passional conscious-center of the breast goes forth the first joyous discovery of the beloved1 the first objective discovery of the contiguous universe1 the first ministration of the self to that which is beyond the self4 ,so1 functionally1 the mother ministers with the milk of her breast4 ,but this is a yielding to the great lower plexus1 the basic solar plexus4 ,it is the breast as part also of the alimentary system--a special thing4 ,in sucking the hands also come awake4 ,it is strange to notice the pictures by the old masters of the ,madonna and ,child4 ,sometimes the strange round belly of the ,infant seems the predominant mystery-center1 and sometimes from the tiny breast it is as if a delicate light glowed1 the light of love4 ,as if the breast should illumine the outer world in its seeking administering love4 ,as if the breast of the ,infant glimmered its light of discovery on the adoring ,mother1 and she bowed1 submissive to the revelation4 ,the little hands and arms wave1 circulate1 trying to touch1 to grasp1 to know4 ,to grasp in caress1 not to reive4 ,to grasp in order to identify themselves with the cherished discovery1 to realize the beloved4 ,to cherish1 to realize the beloved4 ,to administer the outward-seeking self to the beloved4 ,we give this the exclusive name of love4 ,but it is indeed only the one direction of love1 the outgoing from the lovely center of the breast--the nipples seeking1 the hands delicately1 caressively exploring1 the eyes at last waking to perception4 ,the eyes1 the hands1 these wake and are alert from the center of the breast4 ,but the ears and feet move from the deep lower centers--the recipient ears1 imbibing vibrations1 the feet which press the resistant earth1 controlled from the powerful lower ganglia of the spine4 ,and thus great scope of activity opens1 in the hands that wave and explore1 the eyes that try to perceive1 the legs1 the little knees that thrust1 thrust away1 the small feet that curl and twinkle upon themselves1 ready for the obstinate earth4 ,and so1 also a wholeness is established within the individual4 ,the two fields of consciousness1 the first upper and the first lower1 are based upon a correspondence of polarity4 ,the first great complex circuit is now set up within the individual1 between the upper and lower centers4 ,the individual consciousness has now its own integral independent existence and activity1 apart from external connection4 ,it has its right to be alone4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,lover ,,and ,,the ,,beloved ,consciousness develops on successive planes4 ,on each plane there is the dual polarity1 positive and negative1 of the sympathetic and voluntary nerve centers4 ,the first plane is established between the poles of the sympathetic solar plexus and the voluntary lumbar ganglion4 ,this is the active first plane of the subjective unconscious1 from which the whole of consciousness arises4 ,immediately succeeding the first plane of subjective dynamic consciousness arises the corresponding first plane of objective consciousness1 the objective unconscious1 polarized in the cardiac plexus and the thoracic ganglion1 in the breast4 ,there is a perfect correspondence in difference between the first abdominal and the first thoracic planes4 ,these two planes polarize each other in a fourfold polarity1 which makes the first great field of individual1 self-dependent consciousness4 ,each pole of the active unconscious manifests a specific activity and gives rise to a specific kind of dynamic or creative consciousness4 ,on each plane1 the negative voluntary pole complements the positive sympathetic pole1 and yet the consciousness originating from the complementary poles is not merely negative versus positive1 it is categorically different1 opposite4 ,each is pure and perfect in itself4 ,but the moment we enter the two planes of corresponding consciousness1 lower and upper1 we find a whole new range of complements4 ,the upper1 dynamic-objective plane is complementary to the lower1 dynamic-subjective4 ,the mystery of creative opposition exists all the time between the two planes1 and this unison in opposition between the two planes forms the first whole field of consciousness4 ,within the individual the polarity is fourfold4 ,in a relation between two individuals the polarity is already eightfold4 ,now before we can have any sort of scientific1 comprehensive psychology we shall have to establish the nature of the consciousness at each of the dynamic poles--the nature of the consciousness1 the direction of the dynamic-vital flow1 the resultant physical-organic development and activity4 ,this we must do before we can even begin to consider a genuine system of education4 ,education now is widely at sea4 ,having ceased to steer by the pole-star of the mind1 having ceased to aim at the cramming of the intellect1 it veers hither and thither hopelessly and absurdly4 ,education can never become a serious science until the human psyche is properly understood4 ,and the human psyche cannot begin to be understood until we enter the dark continent of the unconscious4 ,having begun to explore the unconscious1 we find we must go from center to center1 chakra to chakra1 to use an old esoteric word4 ,we must patiently determine the psychic manifestation at each center1 and moreover1 as we go1 we must discover the psychic results of the interaction1 the polarized interaction between the dynamic centers both within and without the individual4 ,here is a real job for the scientist1 a job which eternity will never see finished though even to-morrow may see it well begun4 ,it is a job which will at last free us from the most hateful of all shackles1 the shackles of ideas and ideals4 ,it is a great task of the liberators1 those who work forever for the liberation of the free spontaneous psyche1 the effective soul4 ,in these few chapters we hope to hint at the establishment of the first field of the unconscious--at the nature of the consciousness manifested at each pole--and at the already complex range of dynamic polarity between the various poles4 ,so far we have given the merest suggestion of the nature of the first plane of the unconscious and have attempted the opening of the second or upper plane4 ,we profess no scientific exactitude1 particularly in terminology4 ,we merely wish intelligibly to open a way4 ,to balance the solar plexus wakes the great plexus of the breast4 ,in our era this plexus is the great planet of our psychic universe4 ,in the previous sympathetic era the flower of the universal blossomed in the navel4 ,but since ,egypt the sun of creative activity beams from the breast1 the heart of the supreme ,man4 ,this is to us the source of light--the loving heart1 the ,sacred ,heart4 ,against this we contrast the devouring darkness of the lower man1 the devouring whirlpool beneath the navel4 ,even theosophists don't realize that the universal lotus really blossoms in the abdomen--that our lower man1 our dark1 devouring whirlpool1 was once the creative source1 in human estimation4 ,but in calling the heart the sun1 the source of light1 we are biologically correct even4 ,for the roots of vision are in the cardiac plexus4 ,but if we were to consider the heart itself1 not its great nerve plexus1 we should have to go further than the nervous system4 ,if we had to consider the whole lambent blood-stream1 we should have to descend too deep for our unpractised minds4 ,suffice it here to hint that the solar plexus is the first and main clue to the great alimentary-sexual activity in man1 an activity at once functional and creatively emotional1 whilst the cardiac plexus is first and main clue to the respiratory system and the active-productive manifestations4 ,the mouth and nostrils are gates to each great center1 upper and lower--even the breasts have this duality4 ,yet the clue to respiration and hand activity and vision is in the breast1 while the clue to alimentation and passion and sex is in the lower centers4 ,the duality goes so far and is so profound4 ,and the polarity6 ,the great organs1 as well as the lymphatic glands1 depend each on its own specific center of the unconscious2 each is derived from a specific dynamic conscious-clue1 what we might almost call a soul-cell4 ,the inherent unconscious1 or soul1 is the first nucleus subdivided1 and from its own subdivisions produced1 from its own still-creative constellated nuclei1 the organs1 glands1 nerve-centers of the human organism4 ,this is our answer to materialism and idealism alike4 ,the nuclear unconscious brought forth organs and consciousness alike4 ,and the great nuclei of the unconscious still lie active in the great living nerve-centers1 which nerve centers1 from the original solar-plexus to the conclusive brain1 form one great chain of dual polarity and amplified consciousness4 ,all this is a mere incoherent stammering1 broken first-words4 ,to return to the direct path of our progress4 ,it is not merely a metaphor1 to call the cardiac plexus the sun1 the ,light4 ,it is metaphor in the first place1 because the conscious effluence which proceeds from this first upper center in the breast goes forth and plays upon its external object1 as phosphorescent waves might break upon a ship and reveal its form4 ,the transferring of the objective knowledge to the psyche is almost the same as vision4 ,it is root-vision4 ,it happens before the eyes open4 ,it is the first tremendous mode of apprehension1 still dark1 but moving towards light4 ,it is the eye in the breast4 ,psychically1 it is basic objective apprehension4 ,dynamically1 it is love1 devotional1 administering love4 ,now we make already a discrimination between the two natures1 even of this first upper consciousness4 ,first from the breast flows the devotional1 self-outpouring of love1 love which gives its all to the beloved4 ,and back again returns to the ingathered objective consciousness1 the first objective content of the psyche4 ,this argues the dual polarity4 ,from the positive pole of the cardiac plexus flows out that effluence which we call selfless love4 ,it is really self-devoting love1 not self-less4 ,this is the one form of love we recognize4 ,but from the strong ganglion of the shoulders proceeds the negative circuit1 which searches and explores the beloved1 bringing back pure objective apprehension1 not critical1 in the mental sense1 and yet passionally discriminative4 ,let us discriminate between the two upper poles4 ,from the sympathetic heart goes forth pure administering1 like sunbeams4 ,but from the strong thoracic center of the shoulders is exerted a strong rejective force1 a force which1 pressing upon the object of attention1 in the mode of separation1 succeeds in transferring to itself the impression of the object to which it has attended4 ,this is the other half of devotional love--perfect knowledge of the beloved4 ,now this knowledge in itself argues a contradistinction between the lover and the beloved4 ,it is the very mould of the contradistinction4 ,it is the impress upon the lover of that which was separate from him1 resistant to him1 in the beloved4 ,objective knowledge is always of this kind--a knowledge based on unchangeable difference1 a knowledge truly of the gulf that lies between the two beings nearest to each other4 ,in two kinds1 then1 consists the activity of the unconscious on the first upper plane4 ,primal is the blissful sense of ineffable transfusion with the beloved1 which we call love1 and of which our era has perhaps enjoyed the full4 ,it is a mode of creative consciousness essentially objective1 but yet it preserves no object in the memory1 even the dynamic memory4 ,it is a great objective flux1 a streaming forth of the self in blissful departure1 like sunbeams streaming4 ,if this activity alone worked1 then the self would utterly depart from its own integrity2 it would pass out and merge with the beloved--which passing out and merging is the goal of enthusiasts4 ,but living beings are kept integral by the activity of the great negative pole4 ,from the thoracic ganglion also the unconscious goes forth in its quest of the beloved4 ,but what does it go to seek8 ,real objective knowledge4 ,it goes to find out the wonders which itself does not contain and to transfer these wonders1 as by impress1 into itself4 ,it goes out to determine the limits of its own existence also4 ,this is the second half of the activity of upper or self-less or spiritual love4 ,there is a tremendous great joy in exploring and discovering the beloved4 ,for what is the beloved8 ,she is that which ,i myself am not4 ,knowing the breach between us1 the uncloseable gulf1 ,i in the same breath realize her features4 ,in the first mode of the upper consciousness there is perfect surpassing of all sense of division between the self and the beloved4 ,in the second mode the very discovery of the features of the beloved contains the full realization of the irreparable1 or unsurpassable1 gulf4 ,this is objective knowledge1 as distinct from objective emotion4 ,it contains always the element of self-amplification1 as if the self were amplified by knowledge in the beloved4 ,it should also contain the knowledge of the limits of the self4 ,so it is with the ,infant4 ,curious indeed is the look on the face of the ,holy ,child1 in ,leonardo's pictures1 in ,botticelli's1 even in the beautiful ,filippo ,lippi4 ,it is the ,mother who crosses her hands on her breast1 in supreme acquiescence1 recipient2 it is the ,child who gazes1 with a kind of objective1 strangely discerning1 deep apprehension of her1 startling to northern eyes4 ,it is a gaze by no means of innocence1 but of profound1 pre-visual discerning4 ,so plainly is the child looking across the gulf and fixing the gulf by very intentness of pre-visual apprehension1 that instinctively the ordinary northerner finds ,him anti-pathetic4 ,it seems almost a cruel objectivity4 ,perhaps between lovers1 in the objective way of love1 either the voluntary separative mode predominates1 or the sympathetic mode of communion--one or the other4 ,in the north we have worshipped the latter mode4 ,but in the south it is different2 the objective sapient manner of love seems more natural4 ,moreover in the face of the ,infant lingers nearly always the dark look of the pristine mode of consciousness1 the powerful self-centering subjective mode1 established in the lower body--the so-called sensual mode4 ,but take our own children4 ,a small infant1 as soon as it really begins to direct its attention4 ,how often it seems to be gazing across a strange distance at the mother2 what a curious look is on its face1 as if the mother were an object set across a far gulf1 distinct however1 discernible1 even obtrusive in her need to be apprehended4 ,a mother will chase away this look with kisses4 ,but she cannot chase away the inevitable effluence of separatist1 objective apprehension4 ,she herself sometimes will fall into a half-trance1 and the child on her lap will resolve itself into a strange and separate object4 ,she does not criticize or analyze him4 ,she does not even perceive him4 ,but as if rapt1 she apprehends him lying there1 an unfathomable and inscrutable objective1 outside herself1 never to be grasped or included in herself4 ,she seizes as it were a sudden and final1 objective impression of him4 ,and the conclusive sensation is one of finality4 ,something final has happened to her4 ,she has the strange sensation of unalterable certainty1 a sensation at once profoundly gratifying and rather appalling4 ,she possesses something1 a certain entity of primal1 pre-conscious knowledge4 ,let the child be what he may1 her knowledge of him is her own1 forever and final4 ,it gives her a sense of wealth in possession1 and of power4 ,it gives her a sense also of fatality4 ,from the very satisfaction of the objective finality derives the sense of fatality4 ,it is a knowledge of the other being1 but a knowledge which contains at the same time a final assurance of the eternal and insuperable gulf which lies between beings--the isolation of the self first4 ,thus the first plane of the upper consciousness--the outgoing1 the sheer and unspeakable bliss of the sense of union1 communion1 at-oneness with the beloved--and then the complementary objective realization of the beloved1 the realization of that which is apart1 different4 ,this realization is like riches to the objective consciousness4 ,it is1 as it were1 the adding of another self to the own self1 through the mode of apprehension4 ,through the mode of dynamic objective apprehension1 which in our day we have gradually come to call imagination1 a man may in his time add on to himself the whole of the universe1 by increasing pristine realization of the universal4 ,this in mysticism is called the progress to infinity--that is1 in the modern1 truly male mysticism4 ,the older female mysticism means something different by the infinite4 ,but anyhow there it is4 ,the attaining to the ,infinite1 about which the mystics have rhapsodized1 is a definite process in the developing unconscious1 but a process in the development only of the objective-apprehensive centers--an exclusive process1 naturally4 ,a soul cannot come into its own through that love alone which is unison4 ,if it stress the one mode1 the sympathetic mode1 beyond a certain point1 it breaks its own integrity1 and corruption sets in in the living organism4 ,on both planes of love1 upper and lower1 the two modes must act complementary to one another1 the sympathetic and the separatist4 ,it is the absolute failure to see this1 that has torn the modern world into two halves1 the one half warring for the voluntary1 objective1 separatist control1 the other for the pure sympathetic4 ,the individual psyche divided against itself divides the world against itself1 and an unthinkable progress of calamity ensues unless there be a reconciliation4 ,the goal of life is the coming to perfection of each single individual4 ,this cannot take place without the tremendous interchange of love from all the four great poles of the first1 basic field of consciousness4 ,there must be the twofold passionate flux of sympathetic love1 subjective-abdominal and objective-devotional1 both4 ,and there must be the twofold passional circuit of separatist realization1 the lower1 vital self-realization1 and the upper1 intense realization of the other1 a realization which includes a recognition of abysmal otherness4 ,to stress any one mode1 any one interchange1 is to hinder all1 and to cause corruption in the end4 ,the human psyche must have strength and pride to accept the whole fourfold nature of its own creative activity4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,human ,,relations ,,and ,,the ,,unconscious ,the aim of this little book is merely to establish the smallest foothold in the swamp of vagueness which now goes by the name of the unconscious4 ,at last we form some sort of notion what the unconscious actually is4 ,it is that active spontaneity which rouses in each individual organism at the moment of fusion of the parent nuclei1 and which1 in polarized connection with the external universe1 gradually evolves or elaborates its own individual psyche and corpus1 bringing both mind and body forth from itself4 ,thus it would seem that the term unconscious is only another word for life4 ,but life is a general force1 whereas the unconscious is essentially single and unique in each individual organism2 it is the active1 self-evolving soul bringing forth its own incarnation and self-manifestation4 ,which incarnation and self-manifestation seems to be the whole goal of the unconscious soul3 the whole goal of life4 ,thus it is that the unconscious brings forth not only consciousness1 but tissue and organs also4 ,and all the time the working of each organ depends on the primary spontaneous-conscious center of which it is the issue--if you like1 the soul-center4 ,and consciousness is like a web woven finally in the mind from the various silken strands spun forth from the primal center of the unconscious4 ,but the unconscious is never an abstraction1 never to be abstracted4 ,it is never an ideal entity4 ,it is always concrete4 ,in the very first instance1 it is the glinting nucleus of the ovule4 ,and proceeding from this1 it is the chain or constellation of nuclei which derive directly from this first spark4 ,and further still it is the great nerve-centers of the human body1 in which the primal and pristine nuclei still act direct4 ,the nuclei are centers of spontaneous consciousness4 ,it seems as if their bright grain were germ-consciousness1 consciousness germinating forever4 ,if that is a mystery1 it is not my fault4 ,certainly it is not mysticism4 ,it is obvious1 demonstrable scientific fact1 to be verified under the microscope and within the human psyche1 subjectively and objectively1 both4 ,of course1 the subjective verification is what men kick at4 ,thin-minded idealists cannot bear any appeal to their bowels of comprehension4 ,we can quite tangibly deal with the human unconscious4 ,we trace its source and centers in the great ganglia and nodes of the nervous system4 ,we establish the nature of the spontaneous consciousness at each of these centers2 we determine the polarity and the direction of the polarized flow4 ,and from this we know the motion and individual manifestation of the psyche itself2 we also know the motion and rhythm of the great organs of the body4 ,for at every point psyche and functions are so nearly identified that only by holding our breath can we realize their duality in identification--a polarized duality once more4 ,but here is no place to enter the great investigation of the duality and polarization of the vital-creative activity and the mechanico-material activity4 ,the two are two in one1 a polarized quality4 ,they are unthinkably different4 ,on the first field of human conscious--the first plane of the unconscious--we locate four great spontaneous centers1 two below the diaphragm1 two above4 ,these four centers control the four greatest organs4 ,and they give rise to the whole basis of human consciousness4 ,functional and psychic at once1 this is their first polar duality4 ,but the polarity is further4 ,the horizontal division of the diaphragm divides man forever into his individual duality1 the duality of the upper and lower man1 the two great bodies of upper and lower consciousness and function4 ,this is the horizontal line4 ,the vertical division between the voluntary and the sympathetic systems1 the line of division between the spinal system and the great plexus-system of the front of the human body1 forms the second distinction into duality4 ,it is the great difference between the soft1 recipient front of the body and the wall of the back4 ,the front of the body is the live end of the magnet4 ,the back is the closed opposition4 ,and again there are two parallel streams of function and consciousness1 vertically separate now4 ,this is the vertical line of division4 ,and the horizontal line and the vertical line form the cross of all existence and being4 ,and even this is not mysticism--no more than the ancient symbols used in botany or biology4 ,on the first field of human consciousness1 which is the basis of life and consciousness1 are the four first poles of spontaneity4 ,these have their fourfold polarity within the individual1 again figured by the cross4 ,but the individual is never purely a thing-by-himself4 ,he cannot exist save in polarized relation to the external universe1 a relation both functional and psychic-dynamic4 ,development takes place only from the polarized circuits of the dynamic unconscious1 and these circuits must be both individual and extra-individual4 ,there must be the circuit of which the complementary pole is external to the individual4 ,that is1 in the first place there must be the other individual4 ,there must be a polarized connection with the other individual--or even other individuals4 ,on the first field there are four poles in each individual4 ,so that the first1 the basic field of extra-individual consciousness contains eight poles--an eightfold polarity1 a fourfold circuit4 ,it may be that between two individuals1 even mother and child1 the polarity may be established only fourfold1 a dual circuit4 ,it may be that one circuit of spontaneous consciousness may never be fully established4 ,this means1 for a child1 a certain deficiency in development1 a psychic inadequacy4 ,so we are again face to face with the basic problem of human conduct4 ,no human being can develop save through the polarized connection with other beings4 ,this circuit of polarized unison precedes all mind and all knowing4 ,it is anterior to and ascendant over the human will4 ,and yet the mind and the will can both interfere with the dynamic circuit1 an idea1 like a stone wedged in a delicate machine1 can arrest one whole process of psychic interaction and spontaneous growth4 ,how then8 ,man doth not live by bread alone4 ,it is time we made haste to settle the bread question1 which after all is only the ,a ,b ,c of social economies1 and proceeded to devote our attention to this much more profound and vital question3 how to establish and maintain the circuit of vital polarity from which the psyche actually develops1 as the body develops from the circuit of alimentation and respiration4 ,we have reached the stage where we can settle the alimentation and respiration problems almost off-hand4 ,but woe betide us1 the unspeakable agony we suffer from the failure to establish and maintain the vital circuits between ourselves and the effectual correspondent1 the other human being1 other human beings1 and all the extraneous universe4 ,the tortures of psychic starvation which civilized people proceed to suffer1 once they have solved for themselves the bread-and-butter problem of alimentation1 will not bear thought4 ,delicate1 creative desire1 sending forth its fine vibrations in search of the true pole of magnetic rest in another human being or beings1 how it is thwarted1 insulated by a whole set of ,india-rubber ideas and ideals and conventions1 till every form of perversion and death-desire sets in6 ,how can we escape neuroses8 ,psychoanalysis won't tell us4 ,but a mere shadow of understanding of the true unconscious will give us the hint4 ,the amazingly difficult and vital business of human relationship has been almost laughably underestimated in our epoch4 ,all this nonsense about love and unselfishness1 more crude and repugnant than savage fetish-worship4 ,love is a thing to be learned1 through centuries of patient effort4 ,it is a difficult1 complex maintenance of individual integrity throughout the incalculable processes of interhuman-polarity4 ,even on the first great plane of consciousness1 four prime poles in each individual1 four powerful circuits possible between two individuals1 and each of the four circuits to be established to perfection and yet maintained in pure equilibrium with all the others4 ,who can do it8 ,nobody4 ,yet we have all got to do it1 or else suffer ascetic tortures of starvation and privation or of distortion and overstrain and slow collapse into corruption4 ,the whole of life is one long1 blind effort at an established polarity with the outer universe1 human and non-human2 and the whole of modern life is a shrieking failure4 ,it is our own fault4 ,the actual evolution of the individual psyche is a result of the interaction between the individual and the outer universe4 ,which means that just as a child in the womb grows as a result of the parental blood-stream which nourishes the vital quick of the ftus1 so does every man and woman grow and develop as a result of the polarized flux between the spontaneous self and some other self or selves4 ,it is the circuit of vital flux between itself and another being or beings which brings about the development and evolution of every individual psyche and physique4 ,this is a law of life and creation1 from which we cannot escape4 ,ascetics and voluptuaries both try to dodge this main condition1 and both succeed perhaps for a generation4 ,but after two generations all collapses4 ,man doth not live by bread alone4 ,he lives even more essentially from the nourishing creative flow between himself and another or others4 ,this is the reality of the extra-individual circuits of polarity1 those established between two or more individuals4 ,but a corresponding reality is that of the internal1 purely individual polarity--the polarity within a man himself of his upper and lower consciousness1 and his own voluntary and sympathetic modes4 ,here is a fourfold interaction within the self4 ,and from this fourfold reaction within the self results that final manifestation which we know as mind1 mental consciousness4 ,the brain is1 if we may use the word1 the terminal instrument of the dynamic consciousness4 ,it transmutes what is a creative flux into a certain fixed cypher4 ,it prints off1 like a telegraph instrument1 the glyphs and grafic representations which we call percepts1 concepts1 ideas4 ,it produces a new reality--the ideal4 ,the idea is another static entity1 another unit of the mechanical-active and materio-static universe4 ,it is thrown off from life1 as leaves are shed from a tree1 or as feathers fall from a bird4 ,ideas are the dry1 unliving1 inscutient plumage which intervenes between us and the circumambient universe1 forming at once an insulator and an instrument for the subduing of the universe4 ,the mind is the instrument of instruments2 it is not a creative reality4 ,once the mind is awake1 being in itself a finality1 it feels very assured4 8,the word became flesh1 and began to put on airs10 says ,norman ,douglas wittily4 ,it is exactly what happens4 ,mentality1 being automatic in its principle like the machine1 begins to assume life4 ,it begins to affect life1 to pretend to make and unmake life4 8,in the beginning was the ,word40 ,this is the presumptuous masquerading of the mind4 ,the ,word cannot be the beginning of life4 ,it is the end of life1 that which falls shed4 ,the mind is the dead end of life4 ,but it has all the mechanical force of the non-vital universe4 ,it is a great dynamo of super-mechanical force4 ,given the will as accomplice1 it can even arrogate its machine-motions and automatizations over the whole of life1 till every tree becomes a clipped tea-pot and every man a useful mechanism4 ,so we see the brain1 like a great dynamo and accumulator1 accumulating mechanical force and presuming to apply this mechanical force-control to the living unconscious1 subjecting everything spontaneous to certain machine-principles called ideals or ideas4 ,and the human will assists in this humiliating and sterilizing process4 ,we don't know what the human will is4 ,but we do know that it is a certain faculty belonging to every living organism1 the faculty for self-determination4 ,it is a strange faculty of the soul itself1 for its own direction4 ,the will is indeed the faculty which every individual possesses from the very moment of conception1 for exerting a certain control over the vital and automatic processes of his own evolution4 ,it does not depend originally on mind4 ,originally it is a purely spontaneous control-factor of the living unconscious4 ,it seems as if1 primarily1 the will and the conscience were identical1 in the pre-mental state4 ,it seems as if the will were given as a great balancing faculty1 the faculty whereby automatization is prevented in the evolving psyche4 ,the spontaneous will reacts at once against the exaggeration of any one particular circuit of polarity4 ,any vital circuit--a fact known to psychoanalysis4 ,and against this automatism1 this degradation from the spontaneous-vital reality into the mechanic-material reality1 the human soul must always struggle4 ,and the will is the power which the unique self possesses to right itself from automatism4 ,sometimes1 however1 the free psyche really collapses1 and the will identifies itself with an automatic circuit4 ,then a complex is set up1 a paranoia4 ,then incipient madness sets in4 ,if the identification continues1 the derangement becomes serious4 ,there may come sudden jolts of dislocation of the whole psychic flow1 like epilepsy4 ,or there may come any of the known forms of primary madness4 ,the second danger is that the will shall identify itself with the mind and become an instrument of the mind4 ,the same process of automatism sets up1 only now it is slower4 ,the mind proceeds to assume control over every organic-psychic circuit4 ,the spontaneous flux is destroyed1 and a certain automatic circuit substituted4 ,now an automatic establishment of the psyche must1 like the building of a machine1 proceed according to some definite fixed scheme1 based upon certain fixed principles4 ,and it is here that ideals and ideas enter4 ,they are the machine-plan and the machine-principles of an automatized psyche4 ,so1 humanity proceeds to derange itself1 to automatize itself from the mental consciousness4 ,it is a process of derangement1 just as the fixing of the will upon any other primary process is a derangement4 ,it is a long1 slow development in madness4 ,quite justly do the advanced ,russian and ,french writers acclaim madness as a great goal4 ,it is the genuine goal of self-automatism1 mental-conscious supremacy4 ,true1 we must all develop into mental consciousness4 ,but mental-consciousness is not a goal2 it is a cul-de-sac4 ,it provides us only with endless appliances which we can use for the all-too-difficult business of coming to our spontaneous-creative fullness of being4 ,it provides us with means to adjust ourselves to the external universe4 ,it gives us further means for subduing the external1 materio-mechanical universe to our great end of creative life4 ,and it gives us plain indications of how to avoid falling into automatism1 hints for the applying of the will1 the loosening of false1 automatic fixations1 the brave adherence to a profound soul-impulse4 ,this is the use of the mind--a great indicator and instrument4 ,the mind as author and director of life is anathema4 ,so1 the few things we have to say about the unconscious end for the moment4 ,there is almost nothing said4 ,yet it is a beginning4 ,still remain to be revealed the other great centers of the unconscious4 ,we know four3 two pairs4 ,in all there are seven planes4 ,that is1 there are six dual centers of spontaneous polarity1 and then the final one4 ,that is1 the great upper and lower consciousness is only just broached--the further heights and depths are not even hinted at4 ,nay1 in public it would hardly be allowed us to hint at them4 ,there is so much to know1 and every step of the progress in knowledge is a death to the human idealism which governs us now so ruthlessly and vilely4 ,it must die1 and we will break free4 ,but what tyranny is so hideous as that of an automatically ideal humanity8 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores 7italics74