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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77075 ***





                       MAN’S SUPREME INHERITANCE
    Conscious Guidance and Control in Relation to Human Evolution in
                              Civilization


                                   BY
                         F. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER

                      WITH AN INTRODUCTORY WORD BY
                          PROFESSOR JOHN DEWEY


                                NEW YORK
                         E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
                            681 FIFTH AVENUE




                            COPYRIGHT, 1918,
                       BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY


                  _First printing_      _January 1918_
                  _Second_   „              _May 1918_


                Printed in the United States of America




                        PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

                             (London, 1910)


Among my intimates I once numbered a boatman known as Old Sol, or to his
familiars just Sol, without the courtesy title, for he was not notably
old. I could not say whether his name was an abbreviated form of Solomon
or not, nor if it were, whether the longer name was baptismal or
conferred in later years as a tribute to his undoubted wisdom. I have
thought it possible that the name was not an abbreviation at all, but it
was certainly descriptive of my friend’s habit of optimism in regard to
the weather. For the cockney oarsman who doubtfully contemplated the
weather conditions on the upper Thames, Sol was unwavering in his
encouragement. His certainty that the weather would clear and the sun
come out was so inspiring that the pale-faced Londoner cheerfully faced
the most unpromising outlook, and started out on his uncertain course
upstream, buoyed with a beautiful confidence in Old Sol’s infallibility.
But for me and for his other intimates, regular clients whose custom was
not dependent on the chances of a fine week-end, Sol had another method.
In answer to the usual question, “Well, Sol, what’s it going to do?” he
would first look up into the sky, then step to the edge of the
landing-stage and study as much of the horizon as was within his limit
of vision. After this careful survey he would deliver his opinion
judicially, and I rarely found him at fault in his prophecy.

Facing my critics, lay and professional, I wish at the outset to
disclaim the methods by which Sol invigorated the casual amateur. I am
not prophesying unlimited sunshine for every one, without regard to
conditions. In this book no mention will be found of royal roads,
panaceas, or grand specifics. I have attempted rather to treat every
reader as Sol treated his intimates. I have looked into the sky and made
a careful survey of the horizon. It is true that I have seen an ideal
and the promise of its fulfilment, but my deductions have been drawn
with patient care from signs which I have studied with diligence; if I
am an optimist, it is because I see the promise of fair weather, and not
because I wish to delude the unwary. And with this I will lay down my
metaphor and come to a practical statement.

I know that I shall be regarded in many quarters as a revolutionary and
a heretic, for my theory and practice, though founded on a principle as
old as the life of man, are not in accord with, nor even a development
of, the tradition which still obtains. But in thus rejecting tradition I
am, happily, sustained by something more than an unproved theory.
Moreover, on this firm ground I do not stand alone. Though my theory may
appear revolutionary and heretical, it is shared by men of attainment in
science and medicine. On a small scale I have made many converts, and in
now making appeal to a wider circle I am upheld by the knowledge that
what I have to say can no longer be classed as an isolated opinion.

Not that I should have hesitated to come forward now, even if I had been
without support. During the past thirteen years I have built up a
practice in London which has reached the bounds of my capacity. This
work has not been done by any advancement of a wavering hypothesis. I
have had cases brought to me as the result of the failure of many kinds
of treatment, of rest cures, relaxation cures, hypnotism, faith cures,
physical culture, and the ordinary medical prescriptions, and in the
treatment of these cases, in my own observations, and in the
appreciation of the patients themselves, I have had abundant opportunity
to prove to my own satisfaction that in its application to present needs
my theory has stood the test of practice in every circumstance and
condition.

That the limits imposed by the present work render it wofully inadequate
I am quite willing to admit, but the necessity for a certain urgency has
been forced upon me, and I have deemed it wiser to outline my subject at
once rather than wait for the time when I shall be ready to publish my
larger work. Indeed, when I think of the material even now at my
command, of the wonderful and ever-increasing list of illustrative cases
that have passed and are still passing through my hands, it seems to me
that this preliminary treatise might well grow, like Frazer’s _Golden
Bough_, from one volume to twelve. In the present volume, however, I
must confine myself to the primary argument and to indicating the
direction in which we may find physical completeness. In the work which
will follow I shall deal with the detailed evidence of the application
of my theory to life, of cases and cures, and all the substance of
experience.

And there are many reasons why I should hesitate no longer in making my
preliminary appeal, chief among them being the appalling physical
deterioration that can be seen by any intelligent observer who will walk
the streets of London or New York, for example, and note the form and
aspect of the average individuals who make up the crowd. So much for the
surface signs. What inferences can we not draw from the statistics? To
take three instances only: What of the disproportionate and apparently
undeniable increase in the cases of cancer, appendicitis, and insanity?
For that increase goes on despite the fact that we have taken the
subject seriously to heart. Now I would not fall into the common fallacy
of _post hoc ergo propter hoc_, and say that because the increase of
these evils has gone hand in hand with our endeavours to raise the
standard by physical culture theories, relaxation exercises, rest cures,
and _hoc genus omne_, therefore the one is the result of the other; but,
lacking more definite proof on the first point, I do maintain that if
physical culture exercises, etc., had done all that was expected of them
they must be considered a complete failure in the checking of the three
evils I have instanced.

Are these troubles, then, still to increase? Are we to wait while the
bacteriologist patiently investigates the nature of these diseases,
until he triumphantly isolates some characteristic germ and announces
that here, at last, is the dread bacillus of cancer?[1] Should we even
then be any nearer a cure? Could we rely on inoculation, and even if we
could, what is to be the end? Are we to be inoculated against every
known disease till our bodies become depressed and enervated
sterilities, incapable of action on their own account? I pray not, for
such a physical condition would imply a mental condition even more
pitiable. The science of bacteriology has its uses, but they are the
uses of research rather than of application. Bacteriology reveals a few
of the agents active in disease, but it says nothing about the
conditions which permit these agents to become active. Therefore I look
to that wonderful instrument, the human body, for the true solution of
our difficulty, an instrument so inimitably adaptable, so full of
marvellous potentialities of resistance and recuperation, that it is
able, when properly used, to overcome all the forces of disease which
may be arrayed against it.

In this thing I do not address myself to any one class or section of the
community. I have tried in what follows to avoid, so far as may be, any
terminology, any medical or scientific phrases and technicalities, and
to speak to the entire intelligent public. I wish the scheme I have here
adumbrated to be taken up universally, and not to be restricted to the
advantage of any one body, medical or otherwise. I wish to do away with
such teachers as I am myself. My place in the present economy is due to
a misunderstanding of the causes of our present physical disability, and
when this disability is finally eliminated the specialised practitioner
will have no place, no uses. This may be a dream of the future, but in
its beginnings it is now capable of realisation. Every man, woman, and
child holds the possibility of physical perfection; it rests with each
of us to attain it by personal understanding and effort.

                                                  F. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER.

  16 Ashley Place,
    Westminster,
      London.




                                CONTENTS


                                 PART I.
                        MAN’S SUPREME INHERITANCE
                                                                    PAGE
    I. FROM PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS TO PRESENT NEEDS                      3
   II. PRIMITIVE REMEDIES AND THEIR DEFECTS                           13
  III. SUBCONSCIOUSNESS AND INHIBITION                                29
   IV. CONSCIOUS CONTROL                                              44
    V. APPLIED CONSCIOUS CONTROL                                      57
   VI. HABITS OF THOUGHT AND OF BODY                                  73
  VII. RACE CULTURE AND THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN                     108
 VIII. EVOLUTIONARY STANDARDS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN THE CRISIS OF
         1914                                                        157

                                PART II.
                     CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL
    I. SYNOPSIS OF CLAIM                                             181
   II. THE ARGUMENT                                                  193
  III. THE PROCESSES OF CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL               199
   IV. CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL IN PRACTICE                    237
    V. APPREHENSION AND RE-EDUCATION                                 249
   VI. INDIVIDUAL ERRORS AND DELUSIONS                               260
  VII. NOTES AND INSTANCES                                           273

                                PART III.
   THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF A NEW METHOD OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION
    I. THE THEORY OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION                        317
   II. ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED AND FACTS TO BE REMEMBERED IN THE
         THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION             323
  III. THE PRACTICE OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION                      332




                           INTRODUCTORY WORD


Many persons have pointed out the strain which has come upon human
nature in the change from a state of animal savagery to present
civilisation. No one, it seems to me, has grasped the meaning, dangers
and possibilities of this change more lucidly and completely than Mr.
Alexander. His account of the crises which have ensued upon this
evolution is a contribution to a better understanding of every phase of
contemporary life. His interpretation centres primarily about the crisis
in the physical and moral health of the individual produced by the
conflict between the functions of the brain and the nervous system on
one side and the functions of digestion, circulation, respiration and
the muscular system on the other; but there is no aspect of the
maladjustments of modern life which does not receive illumination.

Frank acknowledgment of this internecine warfare in the very heart of
our civilisation is not agreeable. For this reason it is rarely faced in
its entirety. We prefer to deal with its incidents and episodes as if
they were isolated accidents and could be overcome one by one in
isolation. Those who have seen the conflict have almost always proposed
as a remedy either a return to nature, a relapse to the simple life, or
else flight to some mystic obscurity. Mr. Alexander exposes the
fundamental error in the empirical and palliative methods. When the
organs through which any structure, be it physiological, mental or
social, are out of balance, when they are unco-ordinated, specific and
limited attempts at a cure only exercise the already disordered
mechanism. In “improving” one organic structure, they produce a
compensatory maladjustment, usually more subtle and more difficult to
deal with, somewhere else. The ingeniously inclined will have little
difficulty in paralleling Mr. Alexander’s criticism of “physical culture
methods” within any field of our economic and political life.

In his criticism of return or relapse to the simpler conditions from
which civilised man has departed Mr. Alexander’s philosophy appears in
its essential features. All such attempts represent an attempt at
solution through abdication of intelligence. They all argue, in effect,
that since the varied evils have come through development of conscious
intelligence, the remedy is to let intelligence sleep, while the
pre-intelligent forces, out of which it developed, do their work. The
pitfalls into which references to the unconscious and subconscious
usually fall have no existence in Mr. Alexander’s treatment. He gives
these terms a definite and real meaning. They express reliance upon the
primitive mind of sense, of unreflection, as against reliance upon
_reflective_ mind. Mr. Alexander sees the remedy not in a futile
abdication of intelligence in order that lower forces may work, but in
carrying the power of intelligence further, in making its function one
of positive and constructive control. As a layman, I am incompetent to
pass judgment upon the particular technique through which he would bring
about a control of intelligence over the bodily organism so as not
merely to cure but to prevent the present multitudinous maladies of
adjustment. But he does not stop with a pious recommendation of such
conscious control; he possesses and offers a definite method for its
realisation, and even a layman can testify, as I am glad to do, to the
efficacy of its working in concrete cases.

It did not remain for the author of these pages to eulogise self-mastery
or self-control. But these eulogies have too frequently remained in the
hortatory and moralistic state. Mr. Alexander has developed a definite
procedure, based upon a scientific knowledge of the organism. Popular
fear of anything sounding like materialism has put a heavy burden upon
humanity. Men are afraid, without even being aware of their fear, to
recognise the most wonderful of all the structures of the vast
universe—the human body. They have been led to think that a serious
notice and regard would somehow involve disloyalty to man’s higher life.
The discussions of Mr. Alexander breathe reverence for this wonderful
instrument of our life, life mental and moral as well as that life which
somewhat meaninglessly we call bodily. When such a religious attitude
toward the body becomes more general, we shall have an atmosphere
favourable to securing the conscious control which is urged.

In the larger sense of education, this whole book is concerned with
education. But the writer of these lines was naturally especially
attracted to the passages in which Mr. Alexander touches on the problems
of education in the narrower sense. The meaning of his principles comes
out nowhere better than in his criticisms of repressive schools on one
hand and schools of “free expression” on the other. He is aware of the
perversions and distortions that spring from that unnatural suppression
of childhood which too frequently passes for school training. But he is
equally aware that the remedy is not to be sought through a blind
reaction in abolition of all control except such as the moment’s whim or
the accident of environment may provide. One gathers that in this
country, Mr. Alexander has made the acquaintance of an extremely rare
type of “self-expressive” school, but all interested in educational
reform may well remember that freedom of physical action and free
expression of emotion are means, not ends, and that as means they are
justified only in so far as they are used as conditions for developing
power of intelligence. The substitution of control by intelligence for
control by external authority, not the negative principle of no control
or the spasmodic principle of control by emotional gusts, is the only
basis upon which reformed education can build. To come into possession
of intelligence is the sole human title to freedom. The spontaneity of
childhood is a delightful and precious thing, but in its original naïve
form it is bound to disappear. Emotions become sophisticated unless they
become enlightened, and the manifestation of sophisticated emotion is in
no sense genuine self-expression. True spontaneity is henceforth not a
birthright but the last term, the consummated conquest, of an art—the
art of conscious control to the mastery of which Mr. Alexander’s book so
convincingly invites us.

                                                             JOHN DEWEY.




                                 PART I
                       MAN’S SUPREME INHERITANCE




                                   I
               FROM PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS TO PRESENT NEEDS

  “Our contemporaries of this and the rising generation appear to be
  hardly aware that we are witnessing the last act of a long drama, a
  tragedy and comedy in one, which is being silently played, with no
  fanfare of trumpets or roll of drums, before our eyes on the stage of
  history. Whatever becomes of the savages, the curtain must soon
  descend on savagery forever.”—J. G. FRAZER.


The long process of evolution still moves quietly to its unknown
accomplishment. Struggle and starvation, the hard fight for existence
working with fine impartiality, remorselessly eliminate the weak and
defective. New variations are developed and old types no further
adaptable become extinct, and thus life fighting for life improves
towards a sublimation we cannot foresee. But at some period of the
world’s history an offshoot of a dominant type began to develop new
powers that were destined to change the face of the world.

Speculations as to what first influenced that strange and wonderful
development do not come within the province of this treatise, but I
should like in passing to point out that the theory and practice of my
system are influenced by no particular religion nor school of
philosophy, but in one sense may be said to embrace them all. For
whatever name we give to the Great Origin of the Universe, in the words
of a friend of mine, “we can all of us agree ... that we mean the same
thing, namely, that high power within the soul of man which enables him
to will or to act or to speak, not loosely or wildly, but in subjection
to an all-wise and invisible Authority.” The name that we give to that
Authority will in no way affect the principles which I am about to
state. In subscribing to them the mechanist may still retain his belief
in a theory of chemical reactions no less than the Christian his faith
in a Great Redeemer. But through whatever influence these new powers in
man came into being I maintain that they held strange potentialities,
and, among others, that which now immediately concerns us, the
potentiality to counteract the force of evolution itself.

This is, indeed, at once the greatest triumph of our intellectual growth
and also the self-constituted danger which threatens us from within. Man
has arisen above nature, he has bent circumstance to his will, and
striven against the mighty force of evolution. He has pried into the
great workshop and interfered with the machinery, endeavouring to become
master of its action and to control the workings of its component parts.
But the machine has as yet proved too intricate for his complete
comprehension. He has learned gradually the uses of a few parts which he
is able to operate, but they are only a small fraction of the whole.

What then is man’s position to-day, and what is his danger? His position
is this. In emerging from the contest with nature he has ceased to be a
natural animal. He has evolved curious powers of discrimination, of
choice, and of construction. He has changed his environment, his food,
and his whole manner of living. He has enquired into the laws which
govern heredity and into the causes of disease. But his knowledge is
still limited and his emergence incomplete. The power of the force we
know as evolution still holds him in chains, though he has loosened his
bonds and may at last free himself entirely. Thus we come to man’s
danger.

Evolution—a term we use here and elsewhere in this connection as that
which is best understood to indicate the whole operation of natural
selection and all that it connotes—has two clearly defined functions; by
one of these it develops, by the other it destroys. By an infinitely
slow action it has developed such wonders as the human eye or hand; by a
process somewhat less tedious it allows any organ that has become
useless to perish, such as the pineal eye or (in process) the vermiform
appendix, and, if we can estimate the future course, the teeth and hair.

By the change he has effected in his mode of life, man is no longer
necessarily dependent upon his physical organism for the means of his
subsistence, and in cases where he is still so dependent, such as those
of the agriculturist, the artisan, and others who earn a living by
manual labour, he employs his muscles in new ways, in mechanical
repetitions of the same act, or in modes of labour which are far removed
from those called forth by primitive conditions. In some ways the
physical type which represents the rural labouring population is, in my
opinion, even more degenerate than the type we find in cities, and
mentally there can be no comparison between the two. The truth is that
man, whether living in town or country, has changed his habitat and with
it his habits, and in so doing has involved himself in a new danger, for
though evolution may be cruel in its methods, it is the cruelty of a
discipline without which our bodies become relaxed, our muscles
atrophied, and our functions put out of gear.

The antagonism of conscious as opposed to natural selection[2] has now
been in existence for many thousands of years, but it is only within the
last century or less that the effect upon man’s constitution has become
so marked that the danger of deterioration or decay has been thrust upon
the attention, not only of scientific observers, but of the average,
intelligent individual. No examination of history is necessary in this
place to set out a reason for this comparatively sudden realisation of
physical unfitness. Briefly, the civilisation of the past hundred years
has been unlike the many that have preceded it, in that it has not been
confined to any single nation or empire. In the past history of the
world an intellectual civilisation such as that of Egypt, of Persia, of
Greece, or of Rome, perished from internal causes, of which the chief
was a certain moral and physical deterioration which rendered the nation
unequal to a struggle with younger, more vigorous and—this is
important—wilder, more natural peoples. Thus we have good cause for
believing that the danger we have indicated, though as yet incipient
only, was a determining cause in the downfall of past civilisations. But
we must not overlook the fact that destructive wars and devastating
plagues held sway in the earlier history of mankind, and whilst the
latter acted as an instrument of evolution in destroying the unfit, the
former, by decreasing the population, threw a burden of initiative and
energy on the remnant, necessitating the use of active physical
qualities in the business of all kinds of production.

Now the conditions have altered. Greater scientific attainments in every
direction than have ever been known have combated, and will probably in
the future overcome the devastating diseases which have decimated the
populations of cities, whilst a higher ethical ideal constantly tends to
oppose the horrible and repugnant barbarism of war which, with the
spread of civilisation even to the peoples of the Orient, becomes to our
senses more and more fratricidal, a fight of brother against brother.

A hundred years ago Malthus, a prophet if not a seer, recognised our
danger and within the past quarter of a century a dozen theorists have
proposed remedies less stringent than those advocated by Malthus, but
almost equally futile. Among the theorists are those perhaps unconscious
reactionaries who advocate the simple life, by a return to natural food
and conditions, in endlessly varying ways. To them in their search for
natural foods and conditions we would point out that countless
generations separate us from primitive man, a lapse of time during which
our functions have become gradually adapted to new habits and
environment, and that if it were possible by universal agreement for the
peoples of Europe to return instantly to primitive methods of living,
the effect would be no less disastrous than the reversal of the process,
the sudden thrusting of our civilisation upon savage tribes whereby, to
quote one or two recent examples only, the aborigines of North America,
New Zealand, and Japan (the Ainu tribes) have become, or are rapidly
becoming, extinct.

When therefore we point out man’s power of adaptability in this
connexion, the emphasis is thrown on the slowness with which that
adaptability is passed on to our descendants and on the relative
permanence of the new powers acquired. For our purpose the argument
remains good whether we admit or deny the inheritability of acquired
characteristics, our point being that in either case the process is
necessarily a slow one, though it is plainly more rapid if the
hypothesis be true.[3]

From the savage to the civilised state, man passed, as I say, so slowly
that the passing in the early stages caused neither difficulties nor
changes sufficiently marked to force themselves on our recognition. In
other words, the subject of these changes was unconscious of them, and
the habit of depending upon these sensory appreciations
(“feeling-tones,” or “sense of feeling”) dominant by right in the savage
or subconsciously directed state, remained firmly established in the
civilised experiences, so that to-day man walks, talks, sits, stands,
performs in fact the innumerable mechanical acts of daily life without
giving a thought to the psychical and physical processes involved.

It is not surprising that the results have proved unsatisfactory. The
evils of a personal bad habit do not reveal themselves in a day or in a
week, perhaps not in a year, a remark that is also true of the benefits
of a good habit. The effects of the racial habits I am now describing
have gone on unnoticed for untold centuries. But in the last hundred
years the evil has become so marked that its effect has at last forced
itself upon our attention. The failure of subconscious guidance in
modern civilisation is now being widely admitted, and the consideration
of this fact has led a few to the logical conclusion that conscious
guidance and control is the one method of adapting ourselves not only to
present conditions but to any possible conditions that may arise. We
have passed beyond the animal stage in evolution and can never return to
it.

For these reasons it becomes necessary, if we would be consistent, to
reject at once all propositions for improving our future well-being
which can by any possibility be described as reactionary. Even in this
brief résumé of man’s history one tendency stands out clearly enough,
the tendency to advance. When that first offshoot from a dominant type
began to develop new powers of intellect, a form was initiated which
must either progress or perish. Atavism must be counteracted by the
powers of the mind, and reaction is a form of atavism. No return to
earlier conditions can increase our knowledge of the secret springs of
life, or aid our formulation of world-laws by the understanding of which
we may hope to control the future course of development.

The physical, mental, and spiritual potentialities of the human being
are greater than we have ever realised, greater, perhaps, than the human
mind in its present evolutionary stage is capable of realising. And the
present world crisis surely furnishes us with sufficient evidence that
the familiar processes we call civilisation and education are not,
alone, such as will enable us to come into that supreme inheritance
which is the complete control of our own potentialities. One of the most
startling fallacies of human thought has been the attempt to inaugurate
rapid and far-reaching reforms in the religious, moral, social,
political, educational, and industrial spheres of human activity, whilst
the individuals by whose aid these reforms can be made practical and
effective, have remained dependent upon subconscious guidance with all
that it connotes. Such attempts have always been made by men or women
who were almost completely ignorant of the one fundamental principle
which would so have raised the standard of evolution, that the people
upon whom they sought to impose these reforms might have passed from one
stage of development to another without risk of losing their mental,
spiritual, or physical balance.

For in the mind of man lies the secret of his ability to resist, to
conquer and finally to govern the circumstance of his life, and only by
the discovery of that secret will he ever be able to realise completely
the perfect condition of _mens sana in corpore sano_.




                                   II
                  PRIMITIVE REMEDIES AND THEIR DEFECTS

  “... Having heard that Henry Taylor was ill, Carlyle rushed off from
  London to Sheen with a bottle of medicine, which had done Mrs. Carlyle
  good, without in the least knowing what was ailing Henry Taylor, or
  for what the medicine was useful.”—_Life of_ TENNYSON.


The danger of that mental, nervous, and muscular debility, which is the
outcome of the conditions resulting from the trend of our development,
has been widely recognised during the past fifty years, and we must turn
aside for a moment to consider certain phases of its treatment as
indicated by the well-known and widely applied terms “physical culture,”
“relaxation” and “deep breathing.”

With regard to “physical culture,” it must be clearly understood that I
do not allude to any one system or practice, but speak in the widest
terms; terms which are applicable alike to the most primitive forms of
dumb-bell exercise, or to the most elaborate series of evolutions
designed to counteract the effect of a particular malady. But lest my
application of the term be misunderstood, I will explain that where I
write “physical culture” thus, between inverted commas and with a
hyphen, I mean it to stand for “a series of _mechanical_ exercises,
simple or complicated, designed to strengthen a bodily function by the
development of a set of muscles or of the complete system of muscles”;
but where I use the words physical culture, currently and without a
hyphen, I denote a general system for the improvement of the entire
physical economy by a just co-ordination and control of all the parts of
the system, particularly excluding any method which tends to the
hypertrophy of any one energy without regard to the balance of the
whole.

In the first place it will be recognised from what I have already said,
that the whole theory upon which the present “physical culture” school
is based is but another aspect of that reversion to nature which we have
stigmatised as a form of atavism. It is an attempt to stiffen the new
garment of our intellectual development by lining it with the old fabric
of so-called “natural exercise.” “Physical culture” as defined, is what
one might term the obvious, uninspired method which naturally presents
itself as a remedy for the ills arising from an artificial condition.
The logic of it is of the simplest, and proceeds from the major premise
that bodily defects arise from the disuse and misuse of muscles and
energies in an artificial civilisation, which muscles and energies in a
natural state would be continually called upon to provide the means of
livelihood.

From this it seems obvious to argue that if we contrive an artificial
mechanical means of exercising these muscles for, let us say, one, two,
or three hours a day, they will resume their natural functions, and so——
The lacuna cannot be satisfactorily filled. If we carry on the argument
to its logical conclusion the fallacy is made evident. For the method
arising from this argument creates civil war within the body. There is
no co-ordination, and the outcome must be strife. This point will be at
once made clear by an instance which must be taken to represent a
broadly typical case, an allegory rather than a special example of
particular application.

Let us take for example the case of John Doe, whose work keeps him
indoors from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m., and makes a very urgent call upon his
mental and nervous powers. By the time he is thirty-five, possibly five
or ten years earlier, John Doe is suffering from anæmia, indigestion,
nervous debility, lassitude, insomnia, heart weakness, and heaven only
knows what other troubles. His bodily functions are irregular, his
muscular system partly atrophied and unresponsive, his nerves irritated,
and his general condition—there is really no better word—“jumpy.”

Incidentally I must add that his mind is inoperative in many directions.
He has a bad mental attitude towards the physical acts of everyday life.
For him his body is a mechanism, the intricate workings of which he
never pauses to examine, but which he drives or forces through a certain
series of evolutions similar in kind to those it has always performed
within his experience. When this mechanism fails, it has to be forced on
again by tonics and stimulants or given a “rest,” which is followed by a
return to the old methods of propulsion.

However, John Doe, who has already postponed far too long his search for
a remedy, at last takes a course of “physical culture,” although his
time is severely limited, and his exercises are confined to an hour or
two morning and evening. At first he may say that he feels a wonderful
benefit and probably advises every friend he meets in the city to follow
his example. I am quite willing to grant that Doe may be benefited, I
will even admit that if he continues his exercises it is possible he may
not fall back into the same state of nervous prostration into which he
fell originally, but the point I wish to make quite clear is that his
cure did not in itself possess the elements of permanence. It was merely
a tinkering or botching-up of the fabric of his body. For if we consider
his case from a purely detached standpoint, we must see that Doe
attempted to develop two systems or modes of life which could not in the
nature of things work harmoniously together. On the one hand, for two,
three, or four hours a day, he was occupied in mechanically developing
his muscular system without any reference to the _manner_ in which he
drove his machine, stimulating and accelerating the supply of blood
which therefore required increased oxygenation or reinforced lung power;
in brief, he was exercising those functions and energies which in a
primitive state would have been called upon during the greater part of
his waking life to supply him with food. On the other hand, for the
remaining twelve hours or so during which he was engaged in his
profession, in the eating of meals or in reading, in playing indoor
games or in similar sedentary occupations, the newly developed powers
were being neglected and a call was being made upon the old nervous
energies and centres of control. John Doe’s physical body thus had two
existences, excluding the natural condition of sleep, one fiercely
active, muscular, dynamic, the other sedentary, nervous, static.

These two existences are not correlated, they are antagonistic; they do
not mutually support each other, they conflict. John Doe’s body becomes
the scene of a civil war, and the heart, lungs, and other semi-automatic
organs are in a state of perpetual re-adjustment to opposing conditions,
as they are called upon to support one side or the other in the
perpetual combat. Such a condition cannot tend in the long run to the
improvement of mankind as a whole.

For, as I shall show later,[4] in the case of John Doe and in all
parallel cases, the consciousness of the person concerned is not changed
in regard to the use of the muscular mechanism. Even if he exercise for
six hours daily, on taking up his ordinary occupations once more he will
immediately revert to the same muscular habits he has already acquired
in connexion with such occupations. For it is clear that John Doe has a
wrong mental attitude towards the uses of his muscular mechanism in the
acts of everyday life. He has been using muscles to do work for which
they were never intended, whilst others, which should have been
continuously employed, have remained undeveloped, inert, and imperfectly
controlled. We may say in truth that he is suffering from mental and
physical delusions with regard to the uses of his body. To mention but
one of many instances of his lack of recognition of the true uses and
functions of his muscular system, we shall notice that whenever he
thrusts his head forward or throws it back his shoulders always
accompany the movement in either direction, this movement of the
shoulders being entirely unconscious and made without any recognition of
the fact that they are being moved. Now in this condition of mental and
physical delusion, the unfortunate man tries to do something with these
mechanisms which he is unable to control, hoping that by the mere
performance of certain physical exercises he can restore his body to a
condition of perfect physical health.

It may be well at this point, seeing that I have admitted the
possibility of some preliminary benefit to John Doe from his first
experience of the “physical culture” exercises, to show more in detail
why that benefit was not maintained. The fact is that when this man
realised the seriousness of his digestive troubles he was simply
recognising a symptom and not a primary cause or causes of his
increasing disorders. A proper psycho-physical examination would have
revealed bad habits in his waking and sleeping moments which tended more
or less to reduce his intra-thoracic capacity to a minimum; such a
minimum is not only harmfully inadequate but also renders due
functioning of the vital organs practically impossible.

Incidentally it may be of value to consider what this condition of
minimum intra-thoracic capacity really means and to note some of the
influences upon the whole organism. For as this thoracic cavity contains
many of the vital organs, the whole abdominal viscera is directly or
indirectly influenced by its capacity. Minimum thoracic capacity means
that the organs within the thorax are harmfully compressed and that the
heart and lungs do not get a proper chance to function adequately. A
harmful strain is thrown upon the heart, the lungs are not adequately
employed or sufficiently aerated, and the lung tissue deteriorates. The
proper distribution of the blood is interfered with because of the undue
accumulation in the splanchnic area, to the detriment of the lung
supply. As the lungs are the chief distributors of blood it will be
understood that this condition of minimum thoracic capacity interferes
with the circulation and general nutrition. The respiratory processes
are employed in sucking in air instead of creating a partial vacuum in
the lungs by a co-ordinated thoracic expansion which will give
atmospheric pressure its opportunity.[5] There is an undue
intra-abdominal pressure and harmful flaccidity of the abdominal
muscles, which means dropping of the viscera, imperfect functioning of
the liver, kidneys, bladder, etc., stagnation in the bowels and
irritation and distention of the colon, intestines, etc.; in other
words, indigestion, constipation and all the concomitant disorders and
general impairment of the vital functioning. Let us, for a moment, think
of the thoracic and abdominal cavities as one fairly stiff oblong rubber
bag filled with different parts of a working machine which are
interrelated and interdependent, and which are held in position by their
attachment to the different parts of the inner surface of this bag. We
will then suppose, for the sake of our illustration, that the
circumference of the inner upper half of this bag is three inches more
than that of the lower half. As long as this general capacity of the bag
is maintained the working standard of efficiency of the machinery is
indicated as the maximum. Let us then, in our mind’s eye, decrease the
capacity of the upper part of the bag and increase that of the lower
half until the inner circumference of the latter is three inches more
than the former. We can at once picture the effect upon the whole of the
vital organs therein contained, their general disorganisation, the
harmful irritation caused by undue compression, the interference with
the natural movement of the blood, of the lymph and of the fluids
contained in the organs of digestion and elimination. In fact we find a
condition of stagnation, fermentation, etc., causing the manufacture of
poisons which more or less clog the mental and physical organism, and
which constitutes a process of slow poisoning.

Now to revert to the experiences of John Doe. I have already stated that
when he first tried physical exercises at home or in the gymnasium as a
remedy for his digestive disorders, he experienced a sense of relief.
This was only natural, seeing that he was leading a more or less
sedentary life. Why, then, was the effect of these exercises gradually
diminished until he considered the physical treatment a comparative
failure? This brings us to the point of real interest. The fact is that
any increased amount of exercise does give a sense of relief to those
who lead sedentary lives, but unfortunately this sense of relief is too
often a delusive mental exaggeration of the real changes in the right
direction. It is not often a reliable register of benefits derived which
make for permanent relief. Students of these questions know that the man
whose conditions we are analysing has already developed debauched
_kinæsthetic_ systems which permit defective registrations of different
sensations or feeling-tones, and hence it is very difficult for the
person so constituted to arrive at a reliable estimate of the extent of
his improvement through such faulty senses. We know, too, that, so far
as he is concerned, the improvement is not permanent, a fact which he
readily admits. There are scientific reasons for accepting the accuracy
of this conclusion, and I will endeavour to explain the position. Let us
admit, for the sake of our explanation, that benefits actually accrued
in various directions in the early stages of his physical exercises.
Whatever these benefits may have been, and however great they were, I
contend that it was always certain that sooner or later if he persisted
in the physical exercises, he would gradually develop defects which
would counterbalance and finally outweigh the benefits we have admitted.

The following are some of the reasons which support these contentions. I
shall deal more fully with them in later chapters.

1. _A Defective Kinæsthetic System._ Experience has proved to us that
the conditions present, when he took up the exercises, go hand in hand
with an incorrect and defective kinæsthetic system.

The mere performance of physical exercises could not give him a new and
correct kinæsthetic sense in connexion with the use of the mental and
physical organism in his acts of everyday life.

2. _Erroneous Preconceived Ideas._ It is impossible for me to set down
the myriad dangers with which he is beset in consequence of erroneous
preconceptions during his daily practice on “physical culture” lines.
The pages of a fairly large book will be necessary to do even meagre
justice to this subject. But I can assure my readers that this is
demonstrably true and I am daily convincing the most sceptical by
practical procedures.

3. _Defective Sense-Registration and Delusions._ This serious defect is
in practice linked up with erroneous preconceptions resulting in mental
and physical delusions which are far-reaching and dangerous.

_An Example._ Take a person who, prior to re-education, has the habit of
putting the head back whenever an attempt is made to put the shoulders
back. Ask this person to put the head forward and keep the shoulders
still and it will be found that as a rule he fails to carry out the
order, and moves his shoulders also. Ask him to put the head forward
whilst the teacher holds the shoulders still, and the pupil will put the
head back instead of forward.

4. _Defective Mental and Physical Control._ The most common form of this
defective control encountered in teaching work is when the teacher
wishes to move the head, or hand, or arm, or leg for the pupil, in order
to give the new and correct sensation in the proper use of the parts.
Experience proves that the great majority are utterly wanting in the
controls necessary to enable the person to gain this experience quickly.

The teacher asks the pupil to lift his arm. He does so but exercises an
undue amount of tension. In order to give the pupil the new kinæsthetic
register of the correct amount of tension necessary, the teacher asks to
be permitted to lift the arm for him, but as a rule the pupil acts
exactly as he did when he was requested to perform the act himself.

5. _Defective Inhibition._ The practical teacher finds all pupils more
or less hampered by lack of inhibitory control, the possession of which
would make re-education and co-ordination from the pupil’s standpoint
comparatively easy. Consideration will show that our ordinary mode of
life and the generally accepted teaching methods do not make for the
development of the inhibitory powers. On the contrary, our powers in
this direction rather tend to diminish, and the outward and visible
signs of the serious results are everywhere for him who runs to read.

6. _Self-Hypnotism._ This very serious and all too common evil has not
been attacked on a practical basis. People have spoken of it and written
about it in a general theoretical way, much as they have done about
relaxation, but with no better results on the practical side, when
applied to everyday life. The self-hypnotism I am referring to is a
specific self-hypnotism indulged in at a given and particular time, and
is cultivated unknowingly by teachers and pupils during lessons, and
frequently by both in everyday life.

People will tell you they can think better by closing their eyes. This
is a prevalent form of self-hypnotism, self-deception, and produces a
state of dreaming which is particularly serious because it is a harmful
condition assumed consciously. The ordinary dreamer falls into this
condition unconsciously.

7. _Cultivated Apprehension._ This is probably the most serious
condition which we cultivate and which has been dealt with at length on
pages 249–259.

8. _Prejudiced Arguments and Attempted Self-Defence._ The real weakness
and shallowness of human nature is shown in this connexion in a way
which is uncomplimentary to our intellectual pride. The saddest fact is,
that it is always intensified in the person who would be counted above
the average in intellectuality by a consensus of opinion. We are all
well aware that such an one to win an argument will strain his statement
of his facts in the direction he desires them. His reason is so
dominated by his emotions and his sense appreciation (feeling-tones)
that an appeal to the former is at first in vain. The majority of
mankind has overcompensated in these directions, and it is for this
reason that in the education and development of the child of to-day and
the future, we must see to it that we relinquish all educational methods
which tend to cultivate guidance and control through the emotions and
the sensory appreciations (feeling-tones).

Some perception of the evils that we have thus briefly summarised has
been awakened in the minds of the more earnest thinkers during the last
few years, and, as a result, the systems of exercises display a clearly
marked tendency towards modification. They have lessened their
muscle-tensing violence, and have become, and are becoming, ever less
and less strenuous physical acts. Thus we find “physical culture”
advocates who a few years ago insisted upon the use of dumb-bells, and
in some cases dumb-bells increasing in weight over a graduated series of
exercises, now emphasising the necessity for _gentle_ exercises without
even mentioning the dumb-bell, which is perhaps as good a proof as any
of the truth of my contentions.

My next instance, namely, “relaxation,” is even less efficient. The
usual procedure is to instruct the pupil, who is either sitting or lying
on the floor, to relax, or to do what he or she understands by relaxing.
The result is invariably collapse. For relaxation really means a due
tension of the parts of the muscular system intended by nature to be
constantly more or less tensed, together with a relaxation of those
parts intended by nature to be more or less relaxed, a condition which
is readily secured in practice by adopting what I have called in my
other writings the position of mechanical advantage.[6] But apart from
an incorrect understanding of the proper condition natural to the
various muscles, the theory of relaxation, like that of the rest cure,
makes a wrong assumption, and if either system is persisted in, there
must inevitably follow a general lowering of vitality which will be felt
the moment regular duties are taken up again, and which will soon bring
about the return of the old troubles in an exaggerated form.

The last remedy mentioned at the opening of this chapter was “deep
breathing.” This is a later form of “physical culture” development, and
is, in effect, a modification in the right direction. It is the logical
outcome of the perception that strenuous, forcing, muscular exercises
were resulting in new and possibly greater evils than those they
professed to cure. “Deep breathing” is indeed a step in the right
direction, but only a step, because, while it does not always do serious
harm and in some instances, perhaps, a certain amount of good, it does
not go to the root of the matter, the eradication of defects, nor does
it take cognisance of the most important factor in the scheme of
physical co-ordination. What that radical factor is I shall explain in
detail in my next chapter, but I will first briefly review the chief
points of the argument as far as it has been unfolded.

In imagination we have seen man through the darkness which covers his
first appearance on the earth, the early Miocene man. As we have
pictured him, he was a creature of simple needs and of a vigorous bodily
habit, an animal in all save that spark of self-consciousness which
burned feebly in his primitive, but increasing and differentiating
brain. Again we have a somewhat clearer vision of him with wider powers
of courage and cunning, adapting weapons to his use, and so specialising
the functions of his mind through a long two million years, through
palæolithic and neolithic periods into the age of bronze, where he has
become a reasoning, designing creature, with powers of imagination and
idealisation, powers still turned, however, to physical uses.

And at last we reach the differentiation of man from man and class from
class which marks the historical period of civilisation, the period of
dwelling in cities, of adaptability to new and specialised habits, of
labour that makes little or no call upon the physical capacities, of
food procured without energy, the period when the slow process of
evolution, which has resulted in the product of a new and marvellous
instrument of self-conscious, directive powers, was becoming gradually
superseded by that which it had brought forth.




                                  III
                    SUBCONSCIOUSNESS AND INHIBITION

  “You can have neither a greater nor a less dominion than that over
  yourself.”—LEONARDO DA VINCI.


Within the last thirty years we have evolved a new science, the science
of psychology. A generation ago psychology was subject-matter only for
the philosopher, the metaphysician, the poet, or the ecclesiastic; now
it is being investigated in the laboratory by tests of sensibility,
reaction-times, and other responses to stimulation too technical to be
explained here, tests carried out by means of elaborate and intricate
instruments and machinery designed to weigh the _hidden springs of life_
in the balance. The phrase I have italicised is purposely vague, for I
have no wish to fall foul of a terminology or to make any _a priori_
assumption which might involve me in controversial matters completely
outside my province. At the same time I see clearly that some convenient
phrase will become necessary, and I will therefore adopt one which is at
least familiar and within certain limits descriptive enough, namely, the
“subconscious self.”

It may seem strange that one should look to any such formally organised
science as modern psychology, to a science that is working in a
laboratory with mechanical appliances, for any elucidation of a question
which has for so long been regarded as strictly within the domain of the
priest. But science, as Tyndall said, is only another name for
common-sense, and a little consideration will show that the postulate I
have insisted upon, namely, the growth and progress of intellectual
control, demands that this admirable quality of common-sense or reason,
should be applied to the elucidation of this all-important problem.
Unhappily, psychology, from which we hope so much, is as yet in its
infancy, and the few attempts that have been made, such as those of the
late Professor Münsterberg, to apply the theories of the laboratory and
the class room to the practical work of the world, cannot be said to
have produced any results worth considering. In any case I must
transcend the present limits of academic psychology in this
consideration of the subconscious.

The concepts which have grown up round this term, the “subconscious
self,” are in many cases curiously concrete in form. Much error has
sprung from that earnest and well-intentioned work of the late F. W. H.
Myers, _Human Personality and Its Survival After Bodily Death_. Mr.
Myers pictured an entity within an entity, and his work, though
inductive in form, was _a priori_ in method, for he had formed the
conception of a subjective personality taking shape within an objective,
material shell, and had controlled his evidence to a definite,
preconceived end.

The fallacies of Myers have been exposed again and again. His argument
is intrinsically unsound, and when put to the test of newer knowledge
his hypothesis fails to explain the fact. But because Myers’ conception
was so graphic and credible it took a strong hold upon the popular
imagination, a hold which in the eight years following the publication
of _Human Personality_ has not become weakened in the minds of a great
number of people, full though these years have been of discovery and new
knowledge. It is for this reason that I have reverted to Myers’
conception of the subconscious, or as he called it, the “subliminal
self,” inasmuch as I wish it to be clearly understood from the outset
that I use the term “subconscious self” to denote an entirely different
concept. Indeed, any one who has followed my argument to this point must
have inferred the trend of my purpose, namely, that as the intellectual
powers of man extend, we progress in the direction of _conscious
control_. The gradual control of evolution by the child of its
production has pointed always to this end, and by this means, and by
this alone, can the human race continue in the full enjoyment of its
physical powers without forfeiting a fraction of its progressive
intellectual ideal.

It will inevitably be asked at this stage what I mean when I speak of
the “subconscious self,” and I must therefore answer that question to
the best of my ability, even though I have to leave for a moment the
limits of proved fact to tread on the wider ground of hypothesis. I do
not propose, however, to overburden my theory with the detail of
evidence, and what follows must therefore be taken as an inclusive
statement, much of which I could prove conclusively in a larger work,
whilst the unproved remnant must necessarily await confirmation from the
researches of future investigators in the domains of psychology. In the
first place then we must see not only that the subconscious self is not
a possession peculiar to man, but that it is in fact more active, in
many ways more finely developed, in the animal world. Among some animals
the consciousness of danger is so keen that we have attributed it to
prescience. The fear of fire in the prairies, of flood, or of the
advance of some natural danger threatening the existence of the animal,
is evidenced far ahead of any signs perceptible by human senses, and as
we cannot, except sentimentally, attribute powers of conscious reasoning
to the animal world, it is evident that this “foreknowledge” is due to a
delicate co-ordination of animal senses. Again, we see that animals
which have not had their powers dulled by many generations of
domestication make the majority of their movements, as we say,
“instinctively.” They can judge the length of a leap with astonishing
accuracy, or take the one certain chance of escape among the many
apparent possibilities open to them without an instant’s hesitation, and
as these powers are evidenced in some cases within a few hours or
minutes after the birth of the animal, they are admittedly not the
outcome of experience.

The whole argument for the evidence of the possession of a subconscious
self by animals can be elaborated to any length, and depends upon facts
of observation made over a long period of time. The few examples I have
here cited merely illustrate that side of the question which throws into
prominence the point of what we may call abnormal powers, or powers
which seem to transcend those of human reason so far as it has been
developed. It is this appearance of transcendent qualities in the human
subconsciousness which misled Myers, who did not pause to apply his
allegory of the subconscious entity to the animal world. Such an
application would have tended to prove that the “soul” (for that is what
Myers really intended, however carefully he may have avoided the actual
word) of the animal was more highly developed than that of man.

In the second place, however, we are confronted with the unquestionable
fact that the subconsciousness can be “educated” below the plane of
reason. Acts very frequently performed become so mechanical that they
can be repeated without any sense of conscious awareness by the
operator. The pianist, after constant rehearsals, will perform the most
intricate passage while his attention is engaged with an entirely
unrelated subject,—although it is particularly worthy of remark in this
connexion, that when such an art as the performance of music falls
temporarily into such an automatic repetition, the connoisseur will
instantly recognise the loss of some quality,—generally spoken of as
“feeling,”—in the rendering. Again, it appears that in some cases a more
or less permanent impression may be made upon the subconsciousness by
casual suggestions, often related to fear, even though such suggestions
be, in some cases, the result of a single experience. A nervous
hysterical subject, already far too willing to submit to the guidance of
emotion and what he or she fondly believes to be “instinct” or
“intuition” may be so harmfully impressed in this way as to develop any
of the many forms of “phobia,” which are, as the suffix correctly
implies, forms of morbid terror. These are but two instances of the
“education” of the subconsciousness below the reasoning plane, but a
dozen others will suggest themselves to the reader out of his own
experience. The important point is the fact that the phase of being with
which we are dealing becomes, as we progress through life, a composite
of animal instincts and habits acquired below the plane of reason either
by repetition or by suggestion. But before I leave this general
conception of the subconsciousness, I must emphasise the fact that up to
this point we share the qualities of the subconscious mind with the
animal kingdom. For in the lower organisms no less than in that of
humanity, this subconsciousness can be educated. The observations of
naturalists now confirm the belief that the young of certain birds—the
swallow has been particularly instanced—are _taught_ to fly by the
parent birds; whilst any one who has trained a dog will know how such a
trick as “begging” for food may become so habitual as to appear
instinctive.

So much for general definition; I come now to the point which marks the
differentiation of man from the animal world, and which is first clearly
evidenced in the use of the reasoning, intellectual powers of
inhibition.

Now it is evident that in the earlier stages of man’s development, the
inhibition of the subconscious animal powers was frequently a source of
danger and of death. Reason, not as yet sufficiently instructed and
far-seeing, was an inefficient pilot, and sometimes laid the ship aback
when she would have kept before the wind if left to herself. To abandon
the metaphor, the control was imperfect, it wavered between two
alternatives, and by rejecting the guidance of instinct it suffered, it
may be, destruction. But the necessity for conscious control grew as the
conditions of life came to differ ever more and more from those of the
wild state. This, plainly, was due to many causes, but chiefly to the
limitations enforced by the social habit which grew out of the need for
co-operation.

This point must be briefly elaborated, for it marks the birth of
inhibition in its application to everyday life, and in so doing it
demonstrates the growth of the principle of conscious control which,
after countless thousands of years, we are but now beginning to
appreciate and understand.

It is true that we have evidence of conscious inhibition in a pure state
of nature. The wild cat stalking its quarry inhibits the desire to
spring prematurely, and controls to a deliberate end its eagerness for
the instant gratification of a natural appetite. But in this, and in the
many other similar instances, such instinctive acts of inhibition have
been developed through long ages of necessity. The domestic kitten of a
few weeks old, which has never been dependent on its own efforts for a
single meal, will exhibit the same instinct. In animals the inherited
power is there; in man also the power is there as a matter of physical
inheritance, but with what added possibilities due to the accumulated
experience gained from the conscious use of this wonderful force.

The first experience must have come to man very early in his
development. As soon as any act was proscribed and punishment meted out
for its performance, or as soon as a reward was consciously
sought—though its attainment necessitated realised, personal
danger—there must have been a deliberate, conscious inhibition of
natural desires, which in its turn enforced a similar restraint of
muscular, physical functioning. As the needs of society widened, this
necessity for the daily, hourly inhibition of natural desires increased
to a bewildering extent on the prohibitive side. There grew up first
“taboos,” then the rough formulation of moral and social law, and on the
other hand a desire for larger powers which encouraged qualities of
emulation and ambition.

Among the infinite diversity of these influences, natural appetites and
the modes of gratifying them were ever more and more held in subjection,
and the subconscious self or instinct which initiated every action in
the lower animal world fell under the subjection of the conscious,
dominating intellect or will. And in this process we must not overlook
one fact of supreme importance, viz., man still progressed physically
and mentally. It is therefore clear that this control acquired by the
conscious mind broke no great law of nature, known or unknown, for, if
this acquired control had been in conflict with any of those great, and
to us as yet incomprehensible forces which have ruled the evolution of
species, the animal we call man would have become extinct, as did those
early saurian types which failed to fulfil the purpose of development
and perished before man’s first appearance on this earth.

Before we attempt, then, any exact definition of the subconscious self
we must have a clearer comprehension of the terms “will,” “mind,” and
“matter,” which may or may not be different aspects of one and the same
force. More than two thousand years of philosophy have left the
metaphysicians still vaguely speculating as to the relations of these
three essentials, and personally, I am not very hopeful of any solution
from this source. The investigation, though still in its infancy in this
form, has taken the shape of an exact science, and it is to that science
of psychology as now understood that I look to the elucidation of many
difficult problems in the future. Without touching on the uncertain
ground of speculative philosophy, I will try, however, to be as definite
as may be with regard to my conception of the subconscious self.

In the first place, great prominence has been given to the conception of
the subconscious self as an entity within an entity, by the claim made
for it that it has absolute control of the bodily functions. This claim
depends for its support upon the evidence of hypnotism and of the
various forms of auto-suggestion and faith-healing. Under the first
heading, we have been told that under the direction of the hypnotist the
ordinary functions of the body may be controlled or superseded, as for
instance, that a wound may be formed and bleed without mechanically
breaking the skin,[7] or that a wound may be healed more rapidly than is
consistent with the ordinary course of nature. Under the second heading,
which includes all forms of self-suggestion, we have had examples of
what is known as stigmatisation,[8] or the appearance on the bodies of
hysterical and obsessed subjects of some imitation of the five sacred
wounds. Indeed the instances of cures which seem to our uninstructed
minds miraculous, and due by inference to the power of faith, are so
numerous that no special example need be cited. These and many kindred
phenomena have been explained on the hypothesis that the hidden entity
when commanded by the will is able to exert an all-powerful influence
either beneficent or malignant, the obscure means by which the command
may be enforced being variously described. We see at once that the
conception of a hidden entity is the primitive explanation which first
occurs to the puzzled mind. We find the same tendency in the many
curious superstitions of the savage who turns every bird, beast, stone,
and tree into a Totem, and endows them with powers of evil or of good,
and discovers a “hidden entity” all of a piece with this conception of
the subconscious self, in a piece of wood that he has cut from a tree,
or a lump of clay that he has modelled into the rude shape of man, bird,
or beast.

My own conception is rather of the unity than the diversity of life.
And since any attempt to define the term Life would be presumptuous,
the definition being beyond the scope of man’s present ability, I
will merely say that life in this connexion must be read in the
widest application conceivable. And it appears to me that all we
know of the evolution or development of life goes to show that it
has progressed, and will continue to progress, in the direction of
self-consciousness.[9] If we grant the unity of life and the
tendency of its evolution, it follows that all the manifestations of
what we have called the “subconscious self” are functions of the
vital essence or life-force, and that these functions are passing
from automatic or unconscious to reasoning or conscious control.
This conception does not necessarily imply any distinction between
the thing controlled and the control itself. This may be inferred
from the use of the word “self-conscious,” but the further
elucidation of this side of the theory is not germane to the present
argument.

Now I am quite prepared to accept as facts phenomena of the kind I have
instanced, such as unusual cures effected by hypnotism, and by the
somewhat allied methods of the various forms of faith healing, but I do
deny, and most emphatically deny, that either procedure is in any way
necessary to produce the same or even more unusual phenomena.[10] In
other words, I maintain that man may in time obtain complete conscious
control of every function of the body without, as is implied by the word
“conscious,” going into any trance induced by hypnotic means, and
without any paraphernalia of making reiterated assertions or statements
of belief.

Apart from my practical experience of the harm that so often results
from hypnotic and suggestive treatment, an experience sufficient to
demonstrate the dangers of applying these methods to a large majority of
cases, I found my objection to these practices on a broad and, I
believe, incontrovertible basis. This is that the obtaining of trance is
a prostitution and degradation of the objective mind, that it ignores
and debases the chief curative agent, the apprehension of the patient’s
conscious mind, and that it is in direct contradiction to the governing
principle of evolution, the great law of self-preservation by which the
instinct of animals has been trained, as it were, to meet and overcome
the imminent dangers of everyday existence. In man this desire for life
is an influence in therapeutics so strong that I can hardly exaggerate
its potentiality, and it is, moreover, an influence that can be readily
awakened and developed. The will to live has in one experience of mine
lifted a woman almost from the grave, a woman who had been operated upon
and practically abandoned as dead by her surgeons. A passing thought
flashing across a brain that had all but abandoned the struggle for
existence, a sudden consciousness that her children might not be well
cared for if she died, was sufficient to reawaken the desire for life,
and to revivify a body which no medical skill could have saved.[11] But
there is no need to quote instances. The fact is recognised, yet how
small is the attempt made to use and control so potent a force! The same
argument may be also applied to the prostration of the mind as a factor
in the popular rest cures which really seek to put the mind, the great
regenerating force, out of action.

Returning to my definition of the subconscious self, it will be seen
that I regard it as a manifestation of the partly-conscious vital
essence, functioning at times very vividly but on the whole
incompletely, and from this it follows that our endeavours should be
directed to perfecting the self-consciousness of this vital essence. The
perfect attainment of this object in every individual would imply a
mental and physical ability and a complete immunity from disease that is
still a dream of the future. But once the road is pointed, we must
forsake the many bypaths, however fascinating, bypaths which lead at
last to an _impasse_ and necessitate a return in our own footsteps.
Instead of this, we must devote our energies along the indicated road, a
road that presents, it is true, many difficulties, and is not straight
and easy to traverse, but a road that nevertheless leads to an ideal of
mental and physical completeness almost beyond our imaginings.




                                   IV
                           CONSCIOUS CONTROL

               “Man one harmonious soul of many a soul
               Whose nature is its own divine control.”
                                               —SHELLEY.


One of the most recent phases of popular, as opposed to scientific,
thought has been that which has endeavoured to teach the control of the
mind. This teaching has been spoken of in general as the “New Thought”
movement, though certain of its precepts may be found in Marcus
Aurelius. This movement has had, and is still having, a considerable
vogue in America, and the influence of it has been felt in England, many
of the writings of its exponents having been published here within the
last fifteen or twenty years. The object of the teaching is to promote
the habit of “right thinking” which is to be obtained by the control of
the mind. The “New Thought” teaches that certain ideas such as fear,
worry, and anger, are to be rigidly excluded from the mind and the
attention fixed upon their opposites, such as courage, complacency,
calm. With certain of the tendencies expressed in this movement I am in
sympathy, but following the usual course of such movements, the “New
Thought” is losing sight of its principle, which was, indeed, never
fully grasped, and is becoming involved in a species of dogma, the
rigidity of which is in my opinion directly opposed to its primary
object. One of its earlier and most capable exponents, however, Ralph
Waldo Trine, marked the principle with a phrase, and by naming one of
his works _In Tune with the Infinite_, gave permanence to the central
idea, though more recent writers in embroidering the theme have lost
sight of the original thesis. Moreover, I have not found in the “New
Thought” a proper consideration of cause and effect in treating the
mental and physical in combination. These writings exhibit, and have
always exhibited, the fallacy of considering the mental and physical as
in some sense antitheses which are opposed to each other and make war,
whereas, in my opinion, the two must be considered entirely
interdependent, and even more closely knit than is implied by such a
phrase.

Again in all these writings we are confronted with one word which is
dominant, and by its iteration must produce an effect on the mind of all
readers. That word is “faith,” and because it is so prominent and so
little understood, I feel that it is essential I should give some
explanation of it in the light of my own principles.

In the first place, it is perhaps hardly necessary for me to point out
that faith in this connexion need not be allied with any conception of
creed or religion. It is true that this is the form in which we are most
familiar with it in mental healing, and the associations which are
grouped round the word itself very commonly induce us to connect it with
the conceptions that have had such a wide and general influence on the
thoughts of mankind in all stages of civilisation. But we have abundant
evidence now before us that in healing it is the patient’s attitude of
mind that is of the first importance, and that faith is every whit as
effective when directed towards the person of the healer, a drug, or the
medicinal qualities supposed to be possessed by a glass of pure water,
as when it is directed to a belief in some supernal agency. This fact is
indisputable, and it is only because the latter form of faith is so much
more widespread, inasmuch as it lies at the very foundation of all
religions, that this agency has effected a number of cures out of all
proportion to those brought about by faith in some purely material
object. What I here intend by faith, therefore, is its exercise in the
widest sense and without any restriction of creed.

So far as we can analyse the effect of what we call an act of faith on
the mental processes, it would seem that it is operative in two
directions. The first is purely emotional. The patient having conceived
a whole-hearted belief that he is going to be delivered from his pain or
disease by the means of some agency supernal or material, experiences a
sensation of profound relief and joy. He understands and believes that
without effort on his part he is to be cured by an apparent miracle, and
the effect upon him is to produce a strong, if evanescent, emotional
happiness. In this we have an exact parallelism between the patient
whose cure is physical and material, and the convert whose cure is
spiritual. Now it is widely acknowledged by scientists and the medical
profession generally that this condition of happiness is an ideal
condition for the sufferer, that it is not only the most helpful
condition of mind, but that it actually produces chemical changes in the
physical constitution, changes which are the most salutary in producing
a vital condition of the blood, and hence of the organisms.

The second way in which this act of faith operates is in the breaking
down of a whole set of mental habits, and in the substitution for them
of a new set. The new habits may or may not be beneficial from the
outset apart from the effect produced by the emotional state which is
hardly ever maintained for a long period, but even so the breaking down
of the old habits of thought does produce such an effect as will in some
cases influence the whole arrangement of the cells forming the tissues,
and dissipate a morbid condition such as cancer.

Thus we see that this so-called act of faith is in reality purely
material in its action, and there is no reason why we should have
recourse to it to produce the same and greater effects. It may perhaps
be asked by some objectors why we should seek to dismiss the act of
faith, since it undoubtedly produces these ideal conditions in some
cases. The answer is obvious. Faith-healing is dangerous in its practice
and uncertain in its results. It is dangerous, because in the majority
of cases its professors seek in the first place to alleviate pain. They
may do this, leaving the disease itself untouched, but, as I shall point
out later on, in such cases the disease will continue and eventually
kill the patient, even though he may be able successfully to fight the
pain. Faith-healing is also uncertain in its results, because, in
addition to the danger I have mentioned, it merely substitutes one
uncontrolled habit of thought for another. At first the new habit,
because it is new, may bring about a change to a better condition, but
if it remains, it will in its turn become stereotyped, and may very well
lead at last to just as morbid a condition as was induced by the old
mental habit it superseded. For these reasons, which are, I think,
trenchant enough, I desire most earnestly to see all the present
conceptions that surround this profession of faith-healing thrown aside
in order that we may arrive at a sane and reasoned process of mental
therapeutics. I have touched briefly on the movement here because it
emphasises the fact that we are dimly grasping at a truth but paralysing
our attempts to hold it by the premature assumption that we have it safe
at last. At the same time I believe that underlying the teachings of
these recent movements, “New Thought” and “Faith-healing” in general
(and in these two closely allied influences I include all the offshoots
and subdivisions), there is some apprehension of an essential, an
apprehension which is liable to lose its grip by reason of the dogma and
ritual that has grown up and tends to obscure the one fundamental.

All these sects, parties, societies, creeds—call them what you will—have
a common inspiration; we need no further proof than this that no one of
the many developments from the common source is in itself complete and
perfect. There is good evidence that each new development as soon as it
becomes specialised is separated from its true source, becomes
overelaborated, and so works its own downfall, the principle becoming
absorbed and dominated by the bias of some individual mind. This is my
analysis of the phenomena. It follows that what we seek is the noumenon,
the reality, the true idea that underlies all these various
manifestations.

Before I attempt, however, to trace out this common principle, I wish to
make three statements.


  (1) I do not profess to offer a finally perfected theory, for by so
  doing I should lay myself open to the same arguments I have advanced
  against other theories of the same nature. I say frankly that we are
  only at the beginnings of understanding, and my own wish is to keep my
  theory as simple as possible, to avoid any dogma.

  (2) I do not propose for many reasons to consider in this place my own
  methods in any other connexion but that of their application to
  physical defects, to the eradication of diseases, distortions, and
  lack of control, and, progressively, to the science of race culture
  and the improvement of the physique of the generations to come.

  (3) I wish it to be clearly understood that this treatise is not
  finally definitive. I hope in the future to have many opportunities of
  elaborating my general thesis, and of stating my experience of
  particular applications of my methods to peculiar cases, but I should
  not be true to my own principles if I were not willing to accept
  amendments, even perhaps to alter one or other of my premises, should
  new facts tend to show that I have made a false assumption in any
  particular.


Now that I have thus cleared the ground, I will examine what I believe
to be the first and greatest stumbling-block to conscious self-control,
namely, “rigidity of mind.” This rigidity results in a fixed habit of
thought and its concomitant evils, among which is the subjection of
functional and muscular habits to subconscious control.

In defining rigidity of mind, I must hark back for a moment to that
suggestive phrase of Mr. Trine’s, _In Tune with the Infinite_, although
in the present application the rigidity I am concerned with is
considered in a physical connexion and does not involve interference
with any non-spatial conceptions. It is rather the first half of the
phrase that is here of importance, for to be “In Tune” conveys to my
mind, and I wish it to convey the same meaning to others, the idea of
sensitiveness to impressions and responsiveness to the touch, when “all
the functions of life are becoming an intelligent harmony.” In a word, I
want by this phrase to suggest the idea of being open-minded. For even
in reading this, if the individual deliberately puts himself in
opposition to my point of view, he can by no possibility hope to
benefit. Wherefore I desire above all things that he or she will read at
least with an open mind, form no conclusion until I have finished, and
will perhaps, more particularly, subdue the interference of that great
and ruling predisposition which has in the past so long impeded the
advance of science, and with which I will deal in my next chapter.

Let us consider for a moment the application of rigidity of mind to
physical functions. A person comes to me with some crippling defect due
to the improper use of some organ or set of muscles. When I have
diagnosed the defect and shown the patient _how_ to use the organ or
muscles in the proper way, I am always met at once with the reply, “But
I can’t.” Let me ask any one who is reading this and who suffers in any
way, whether his or her attitude to the defect they suffer from is not
precisely the same? This reply indicates directly that the control of
the part affected is entirely subconscious; if it were not, we should
merely have to substitute the hopeful “I can” for that despondent “I
can’t,” to remove the trouble. By (a) hypnotic treatment, by (b)
faith-healing, or by (c) the application of the principles of the “New
Thought,” the patient in such a case would have the subconscious control
influenced, either (a) by the mechanical means of trance and suggestion
by the hypnotist, which leaves the conscious mind in exactly the
original condition and merely changes, and it may be only temporarily,
the habit of the subconscious control, or (b) and (c) by reiterated
commands of the objective mind. Even if these commands have been
reinforced by the influencing suggestion of the healer, they either
substitute by repetition one habit for another without any apprehension
by the intelligence of the true method of the exchange, or, what is
quite as frequent and far more harmful, they shut out the sensitiveness
to pain from the cerebral centres, and so leave the radical evil, no
longer labelled by nature’s warning, to work the patient’s destruction
in secret. Briefly, all three methods seek to reach the subjective mind
by deadening the objective or conscious mind, and the centre and
backbone of my theory and practice, upon which I feel that I cannot
insist too strongly, is that THE CONSCIOUS MIND MUST BE QUICKENED.

It will be seen from this statement that my theory is in some ways a
revolutionary one, since all earlier methods have in some form or
another sought to put the flexible working of the true consciousness out
of action in order to reach the subconsciousness. The result of these
methods is, logically and inevitably, an endeavour to alter a bad
subjective habit whilst the objective habit of thought is left
unchanged. The teachings of the “New Thought” and of many sects of
faith-healers set out clearly enough that the patient must think rightly
before he can be cured, but they then set out, automatically, to carry
out their teaching by prescribing “affirmatives” or some sort of
“auto-suggestion,” both of which are in effect no more than a kind of
self-hypnotism, and, as such, are debasing to the primary functions of
the intelligence.

I will take a simple instance from my own experience to illustrate a
case in point. A patient, whom I will call X, came to me with an
obstinate stammer arising from a congenital defect in the co-ordination
of the face, tongue, and throat muscles. Whenever X attempted to speak
he drew down his upper lip. This was the outward sign of a series of
vicious acts connected with a train of muscular movements, a sign that
the ideo-motor centres were working to convey a wrong guiding influence
to the specific parts concerned in the act of speech. These guiding
influences rendered X quite incapable of speech, and would, indeed, have
had the same effect upon any other individual who produced the same
working of the parts concerned. To insist in such a case that X should
repeat, “I can speak” or “I won’t stutter,” would be merely to endeavour
to reach a supposed omniscient subconscious self which would counteract
the evil by the exercise of some assumed and separate intelligence
possessed by it. I undertook the case by appealing to X’s intelligence.

Now, strange as it may seem (and I intend to treat this curious
perversion in my next chapter), X’s objective intelligence is not so
easily reached and influenced as might appear. He has formed a muscular
habit of drawing down his lip independently of his conscious control,
and the line of suggestion set up by the wish to speak induces at once a
reflex action of a complicated set of muscles. X has learned to do this
automatically, and at first seems incapable of controlling those lip
muscles when the wish to speak is initiated.

In this case my first endeavour must be directed to keeping in abeyance,
by the power of inhibition, all the mental associations connected with
the ideas of speaking, and to eradicating all erroneous, preconceived
ideas concerning the things X imagines he can or cannot do, or what is
or is not possible. My next effort must be to give X a correct and
conscious guidance and control of all the parts concerned, including, of
course, the lip and face muscles, and in order to obtain this control,
he must have a complete and accurate apprehension of all the movements
concerned. And this apprehension must precede and be preparatory to any
conception of “speaking,” during the application of all the guiding
orders involved. In originating some new idea which is to take the place
of the old idea of drawing down the upper lip, it may be necessary at
first to break the old association by means of some new order, such as
deliberately to draw the lip up, to open the mouth, or to make some
similar muscular act previously unfamiliar in its application to the act
of speaking. This new order is then substituted for the command to
speak. X is told not to speak but to draw up his lip, open his mouth,
etc. It will be understood that I have omitted much detail touching the
interdependence of the parts concerned, but I wish here to convey the
essentials of method rather than the physiological explanation of their
working. It must always be remembered that Nature works as a whole and
not in parts, and once the true cause of the evil is discovered and
eradicated all the affected mechanisms can soon be restored to their
full capacity. I may note here that X was completely cured of his
stammer, and that his was a particularly obstinate case, a fact chiefly
due to the confirmation of a wrong habit in early childhood.

This is an example, chosen for its simplicity, to illustrate the prime
essentials of my theory, but it is capable of a very wide application,
so wide that it may be applied to the working not only of the ordinary
controlled muscles, but of the semi-automatic muscles which actuate the
vital organs. Not many years ago an Indian Yogi was examined by
Professor Max Müller at Cambridge, and we have it on the authority of
the latter that this Yogi was able to stop the beating of his own heart
at will and suffer no harmful consequences.

Let it be clearly understood, however, that I have no sympathy with
these abnormal manifestations which I regard as a dangerous trickery
practised on the body, a trickery in no way admirable or to be sought
after. The performances of the Yogis certainly do not command my
admiration, and the well-known system of breathing practised and taught
by them is, in my opinion, not only wrong and essentially crude, but I
consider that it tends also to exaggerate those very defects from which
we suffer in this twentieth century. I have merely quoted this case of
the Yogi in support of my assertion that there is no function of the
body that cannot be brought under the control of the conscious will.

That this is indeed a fact and not a theory, I do claim without
hesitation, and I claim further that by the application of this
principle of conscious control there may in time be evolved a complete
mastery over the body, which will result in the elimination of all
physical defects. Certain aspects of this control and the reasons why it
has not been acquired I will treat under the next heading.




                                   V
                       APPLIED CONSCIOUS CONTROL


                A CONCEPTION OF THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED

The term “conscious control” is one which is employed by different
people to convey different conceptions. The usual conception is one
which indicates specific control, such as the moving of a muscle
consciously, and is practised by athletes who give performances of
physical feats in public. Again, there is the conscious movement of a
finger, toe, ear, or some other specific muscle or limb.

The phrase “Conscious Control” when used in this work is intended to
indicate the value and use of conscious guidance and control, primarily
as a _universal_, and secondly as a _specific_, the latter always being
dependent upon the former in practical procedure.

Furthermore, it is not used merely to indicate a guidance and control
which we may apply in the activities of life with but doubtful precision
in one or two directions only, but one which may be applied universally,
and with precision in all directions, and in all spheres where the
mental and physical manifestations of mankind are concerned.

Since the publication of my book, _Conscious Control_, I have received
and continue to receive letters from interested readers concerning the
practical application of conscious control, and also regarding my
conception of the principles involved.

“It is all very well to talk of conscious control, but how are we to
acquire it?” wrote one enquirer. “How far-reaching is its application?”
wrote another, whilst a third remarked, “If your experience has proved
that such far-reaching beneficial effects result from conscious guidance
and control, your concept must be much more comprehensive than that
usually accepted.” “I have a friend who is cursed with a bad temper,”
wrote another enquirer, “and he realises the fact. He has applied to his
medical and spiritual advisers for help. They have given him a certain
amount of valuable advice, but the result is far from satisfactory.”

We all know of cases of men and women who eat or drink more than is good
for them, and we also know that only a small minority are able to master
their unhealthy desires in these directions. Examination of the
misguided majority would reveal the fact that they were badly
co-ordinated, and that psycho-physical conditions were present which
would lead an expert to expect an overbalanced state in one direction or
another, a domination of conscious reasoned control by subconscious
unreasoned desire.

Such cases may be readily and successfully dealt with on a basis of
conscious guidance and control in the spheres of re-education,
re-adjustment, and co-ordination.

To gain control where there is a tendency to overindulgence in alcohol
or food is a very difficult problem for the ordinary human being while
he remains in his badly co-ordinated condition. This is shown by the
failure which succeeds failure until the unfortunate person arrives at
the conclusion that it is impossible to break the habit.

He or she then drifts into the advanced stages of a condition which
becomes as akin to disease as neuritis, neurasthenia, indigestion, or
rheumatism. As a matter of fact these malconditions may be the immediate
outcome of the indulgences before referred to.

The unfortunate fact which we must face is that such people are
practically without control where these failings are concerned, and the
general opinion is that these people lack will-power. In my opinion this
is not really true.

Say that a man is a thief and is caught and punished. He tells his
friends and relatives that he intends to reform. But does he really
intend to do so? In the first instance does not the answer to this
question depend upon the point of view of the person concerned? Let us
take as an example two brothers. The one is a thief but the other is
not, inasmuch as he has never stolen anything in his life. He would
scorn such an act, but he has no hesitation in taking advantage of a
friend with whom he makes an agreement. He may even fail to realise that
he is acting unjustly towards his friend. The fact is, he is well
acquainted with the details and possibilities of the business concern
which this agreement represents. He is aware of his superior knowledge
and he deliberately uses it in framing the clauses of the agreement so
that he is certain to derive more benefit from the transaction than his
less experienced friend, though at the same time he may thoroughly
understand that the contract should be drawn upon lines which would
ensure that equal benefits would be derived. This he calls business, not
theft.

It is quite possible that the thief would scorn to take such advantage
of a friend. I have known of such cases; hence the phrase, “Honour among
thieves.”

Now we do not speak of the other brother as lacking in will-power, but
wherein lies the difference in this connexion between him and his thief
brother?

In the case of the thief, the promise to reform was made. He steals
again and again, so that people say in the ordinary way, “He is
hopeless, he hasn’t the will-power to enable him to reform.” As I have
before indicated, I fear this is not a correct solution.

For if we admit that in both instances all depends upon the point of
view, we cannot be surprised that the mere promise to reform is usually
futile, and we must furthermore realise that a changed point of view is
the royal road to reformation. At the same time, experience of human
idiosyncrasies has taught us that the most difficult thing to change is
the point of view of subconsciously controlled mankind. The lack of
power to reform is the result of the usually partial failure of the
subconscious mental mechanisms in a sphere demanding reasoned judgment.

As a matter of fact this man possesses a great amount of will-power and
energy in certain directions, just as he probably lacks it in others.
This applies equally to his brother and, in a greater or less degree, to
every human being. At the same time I think we are justified in
concluding that the thief, as compared with his brother, exercises his
energy, will-power and resourcefulness in but limited directions. This
applies to all people cursed with what we call criminal tendencies in
contrast to their more fortunate fellow beings. Here we arrive at the
point where we are once more confronted with misdirected energies
concentrated into narrow channels through abnormal tendencies; hence the
overcompensation which inevitably follows.

A thief, unfortunately, too often confines his energies to what to his
perverted outlook—the result of a wrong point of view—is a legitimate
means of gaining the necessaries of life. From his perverted point of
view he merely takes something from another person which he considers he
has as much right to possess as any one else, if he is clever enough to
get it by any means at his command. I have heard a certain type of
Socialist express views which justify this mode of reasoning. His point
of view is practically that of the thief, and he needs the same help if
he is to come into communication with his reason. We know that men and
women have continued to steal for years without being even suspected,
and there cannot be any doubt that in thus escaping detection, they
prove that they possess forms of exceptional will-power, energy,
resourcefulness, courage, determination, and initiative, which, if
directed into the right channels, would have made them highly successful
and valuable members of society.

It must not be forgotten that if the thief is detected, his punishments
are so formidable, not only because of the legal penalties he incurs,
but also because of the scorn and derision with which he meets in the
social sphere, even amongst his blood relations, that they would act as
a deterrent upon the ordinary person.

Obviously, then, the problem to be solved in connexion with the thief or
any other criminal, is concerned with the psycho-physical conditions
which influence him in the direction of crime, and also with the failure
of punishment either to change his point of view or to direct his
excellent mental and physical gifts into honest and valuable spheres of
expression.

We are all aware that a conservative is rarely converted to the liberal
viewpoint or vice versa in a day, or a month, or even a year. Such
mental changes, in the subconsciously controlled person should, with
rare exceptions, be made gradually and slowly; for the demands of
re-adjustment in the psycho-physical self are great, and depend upon the
conditions present in the particular person. It is conceivable that with
certain conditions present, the process of re-adjustment may bring about
such disorganisation as may cause a serious crisis. During an experience
of this kind the person would for a period be in greater danger than
ever,[12] and the length of this period would vary in different people.
The process of re-adjustment in all spheres means immediate interference
with the forces of strength and weakness, and in the case of the thief
under consideration the force of strength was associated with mental and
physical peculiarities in him as evil factors which had more or less
controlled him; in fact, they constituted guidance and direction in his
case. In all his physical and mental activities, which these evil
factors stimulated, he experienced his maximum of confidence and
directive power.

Now where his weaknesses were concerned, he had little to depend upon.
His attempt to reform was a demand for re-adjustment, which, in turn,
meant a period of comparative loss of confidence and directive power.
His new efforts needed to be directed into channels where he not only
lacked confidence, but where he suffered most from the overcompensation
experienced in the past. In reality, his supports were suddenly wrenched
from him, and replaced by those which his well-meaning friends and
relatives considered infinitely superior and absolutely reliable. Their
experiences of life had, to their satisfaction, proved them to be so;
but their experiences were not his experiences, their strength was not
his strength, their weaknesses were not his weaknesses; and it is in
consequence of such facts as these that subconscious control fails, and
reasoned conscious control is needed.

If I have succeeded in making my point clear to the reader he will
recognise and admit this unfortunate thief’s danger. He must, in a way,
sympathise with this man who, through no fault of his own, is being
directed during the period of comparative helplessness, in a round of
unfamiliar and complex experiences by a delusive and debauched
subconsciousness. If, on the other hand, conscious reasoned control had
been substituted and employed in re-education and co-ordination, the
process of re-adjustment would have presented the minimum of the
difficulties and dangers we have enumerated.

In view of the foregoing, are we justified, except in rare instances, in
expecting to change the thief any more than the liberal or conservative
by ordinary methods on a subconscious basis? The evidence in the light
of experience is against the proposition.

The conservative and the liberal of our example, no less than the thief,
are equally dependent upon subconscious guidance and control, and are
the victims of the particular tendencies, harmful and otherwise, which
have developed and become established, as a rule, without recognition,
and without any primary appeal to their reasoning faculties.

Therefore, we must turn our attention once more to that psycho-physical
process which we call habit, including developments which have their
origin in consciousness as well as those which spring from the
subconsciousness.

For instance, a man may be, as we say, born a thief. In other words, he
is cursed with the subconscious abnormal craving or habit which makes a
man a thief by nature.

On the other hand, he may be quite normal at birth, but in early life he
may drift into simple and apparently harmless little ways which through
carelessness and lack of sound training, develop very slowly and remain
unobserved either by the person concerned or by his friends and
relatives.

We all know of men and women who became drug fiends merely through
wishing to experience the sensation or sensations produced by the drug.
In the most unsuspecting way it is repeated at some future time. This
innocent beginning has so often developed into the drug habit.

We know of apparently strong-minded scientific men who have taken drugs,
in the first instance, from a purely scientific standpoint and so in a
seemingly harmless way, but who, in spite of this, have rapidly fallen
victims to the drug habit. Exactly the same process has served to create
the majority of inebriates.

It is important to keep in mind that different men and different women
fall victims to some particular stimulant or drug, whilst they are in
absolute mastery of themselves where other seductive influences are
concerned.

For instance, A became addicted to a certain drug habit, but although he
had taken alcohol from an early age he never became an immoderate
drinker. It was not until he came into contact with this particular drug
that his latent abnormality or weakness or whatever one chooses to call
it, became fully manifested. Again, B had lived in China, and had
continually smoked opium with the Chinese. He did so for a year without
the habit gaining any hold upon him, but the tea habit on the contrary
became his danger. Despite the fact that his health was seriously
affected by overindulgence in tea, and that according to his medical
advisers’ opinion he had, by its immoderate use, developed certain
troubles which caused him considerable suffering, he continued his
excesses in tea drinking, as others do who come under the influence of
drugs, or of alcohol, in one or all of its forms.

When this point is reached these people are, in the words of Emerson,
“out of communication with their reason”; a subconscious tendency.
Herein lies the explanation of difficulties which they rarely surmount,
difficulties which could not remain as such if subconscious control were
supplanted by conscious guidance and control of the whole organism; for
in practical procedures in life this conscious guidance and control
connotes “bringing them once more into communication with their reason”
and supplying the “means whereby” of successful re-adjustment.

That they were out of communication with reason is indicated by the fact
that though they knew they were seriously ill, and were told by their
doctors that in order to regain health they must abstain from certain
foods and drinks, they did not so abstain. Their continuance in
indulgence merely satisfied some inward craving which can only become a
governing factor as against human reason, when men are controlled by the
subconscious instead of by the conscious powers; for subconscious
control (instinct) is the outcome of experiences in those spheres where
the animal senses exercised the great controlling and directing
influences in the early stages of man’s evolution; whereas conscious
control (reasoned experience) through re-education, co-ordination and
re-adjustment is the result of the use of the reasoning powers in the
conduct of life, by means of which man may fight his abnormal desires
for harmful sensory experiences.

The fact that civilised human beings will take wine or sugar or drugs,
when conscious that it is gradually undermining health and character, is
proof positive of the domination of the physical over the mental self,
exactly as in the Stone Age.

It shows that in the case of sugar, for instance, they have become
victims to the sense of taste. In other words, the sensations produced
by the sense of taste influence and finally govern their conduct in this
connexion, whereas instead they should be governed by the faculties of
reason. They have developed vicious complexes in which perverted
physical sensations must be satisfied, even at the cost of mental and
physical injury, and often of intense pain.

This psycho-physical state does not indicate satisfactory progress on
the evolutionary plane up to the present time, and, furthermore, it does
not give promise of greater progress in the future under this same
subconscious direction. The domination of certain perverted sensations
presents another interesting phase, inasmuch as these sensations are
very often associated with comparatively superficial complexes.

For instance, take the case of a person who is suffering from the ill
effects of taking sugar in harmful quantities. If he happens to decide
to abstain from satisfying his taste desires in regard to sugar, and
actually abstains, for, say, a week or ten days, it often happens that
he loses the seductive pleasing sensation formerly derived from sugar,
and frequently develops a positive dislike for it.

This also serves to reveal in the majority of people the unreliability
of the different senses, such as taste, etc. Of course, in all these
cases this unreliability is due to abnormality in one or more
directions, usually more, and this fact emphasises the absolute
necessity for the establishment of those normal conditions which demand
conscious guidance and control, for their maintenance in civilisation;
conditions which tend to eradicate and prevent abnormal cravings and
desires in any direction.

When discussing the foregoing phenomena with friends and pupils, I am
frequently asked questions like this: “To what are we to attribute the
particular manifestations of strength or weakness in different people,
where specific abnormal sensations are concerned?”

“Why is one person swayed unduly by some particular sensation which he
knows is ruining his health and causing daily suffering, whilst another,
equally abnormal and deluded though proof against this failing of his
fellow being, succumbs to some other type of sensory influence?”

It is simply a matter of the psycho-physical make-up of the individual,
of his inherent tendencies, and of his general experiences of life in
different environments. All people whose kinæsthetic systems are
debauched and delusive develop some form of perversion or abnormality in
sensation. The point of real importance is to eradicate and prevent this
kinæsthetic condition in order to make impossible in the human being
such domination by sensation.

There is another point which exercises the layman’s mind, and that is
that great suffering, in consequence of abnormal indulgence in some
direction, does not act as a deterrent.

Of course, if these unfortunates were in communication with their reason
and were thus consciously guided and controlled, such suffering would
serve to prevent them from repeating the experience which caused it.

To those who have studied this curious phase of mental and physical
phenomena, it would almost seem that they derived a form of satisfaction
or pleasure from such suffering; otherwise, one would conclude, they
would not continue to repeat the acts, which, in their experience, have
been followed by actual pain and discomfort.

And surely there is nothing very unreasonable in this suggestion, seeing
that there is little doubt that _ill health_ in some people is just as
natural as _health_ is in others.

It simply means an attempt on the part of nature to do her work where
the conditions are _abnormal_, in accordance with the same process as
where they are _normal_.

The person enjoying the latter condition abhors suffering and pain, and
will act reasonably in order to prevent both, and it is quite consistent
with our knowledge and experience of the abnormal in the human organism
to incline to the idea that those who are afflicted with abnormal
tendencies find a perverted form of pleasure in pain.

And all these suggestions serve to support the theory that the first
principle in all training, from the earliest years of child life, must
be on a conscious plane of co-ordination, re-education and
re-adjustment, which will establish a normal kinæsthesia.

The abnormal condition referred to is more or less governed by the
senses through the subconsciousness and we must remember that the great
controlling forces in the animal kingdom are chiefly _physical_. It is
also in keeping with the purely animal stage of evolution, and any
advance from this stage demands that the balance of powers must
gradually move in favour of the mental.

The controlling and guiding forces in savage four-footed animals and in
the savage black races are practically the same; and this serves to show
that from the evolutionary standpoint the mental progress of these races
has not kept pace with their physical evolution from the plane of the
savage animal to that of the savage human.

This brings us to the crux of my contentions regarding conscious
guidance and control in its widest meaning, that is, as a universal.

Wherever we find the domination of subconscious (instinctive) control,
it affords proof that in the lowly-evolved states of life the physical
is the great controlling force, and we are well aware that this
condition does not ensure progress to those higher planes of evolution
which should be the goal of civilised growth and development, the goal
for which mankind was undoubtedly destined.

The inadequate relative progress of the mental evolution of the black
races as compared with that of their physical evolution, when considered
in relation to their approximation to the savage animals, cannot be
considered other than a most disappointing result. It surely does not
furnish any convincing evidence that mankind is likely to advance
adequately on the evolutionary plane in civilisation by continuing to
rely upon the original subconscious guidance and control.




                                   VI
                     HABITS OF THOUGHT AND OF BODY

  “The man who has so far made up his mind about anything that he can no
  longer reckon freely with that thing, is mad where that thing is
  concerned.”—ALLEN UPWARD, _The New Word_.


When speaking of the case of stammering, cited in my last chapter, I had
occasion to note that it was not an easy task to influence X’s conscious
mind. The point is this: A patient who submits himself for treatment,
whether to a medical man or to any other practitioner, may DO what he is
told, but will not or cannot THINK as he is told. In ordinary practice
the man who has taken a medical degree disregards this mental attitude
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. Medicine, diet, or exercise is
prescribed, and if the patient obediently follows the mechanical
directions given with regard to the prescriptions, he is considered a
good patient. The doctor does not trouble as to the patient’s attitude
of mind, except in that one case out of a hundred, possibly a case of
flagrant hypochondria.

Indeed I am willing to maintain and prove in this connexion that a very
large percentage of cases which are now being treated in our public and
private lunatic asylums, have been allowed to develop insanity by reason
of this disregard of the mental attitude. I cannot stop now to consider
this interesting subject of insanity, but I must note in passing that
the very large percentage of the cases I have mentioned should never
have been allowed to arrive at the condition which made it necessary to
send them to an asylum in the first instance. Very many of them, so far
from lacking mental control, possess minds of quite exceptional ability.
Some are instances of subjects who in the first place have assumed a
deliberate attitude to subserve a private end, such as the avoidance of
uncongenial work, or the overindulgence of some desire or perverted
sense, the result being that the attitude which was first adopted
deliberately, became afterwards a fixed habit, and so uncontrollable.

When therefore we are seeking to give a patient conscious control, _the
consideration of mental attitude must precede the performance of the act
prescribed_. The act performed is of less consequence than the manner of
its performance. It is nevertheless a remarkable fact that although the
patient or enquirer into the system may apprehend this truth, he often
finds an enormous difficulty in altering some trifling habit of thought
which stands between him and the benefit he clearly expects. And the
simple explanation of this apparently strange enigma is that the
majority of people fall into a mechanical habit of thought quite as
easily as they fall into the mechanical habit of body which is the
immediate consequence.

I will take an instance from a subject outside my own province in order
to bring the matter home, but I will preface my illustration by pointing
out that I personally am not in the least concerned to alter the habit
of thought of either of the persons I bring forward as examples, and I
only cite well-known political propaganda in order to give vividness to
my picture.

Let us suppose then that A is a convinced Freetrader, and that Z is no
less certain of the glorious possibilities of Protection, and let us set
A and Z to argue the matter. We notice at once that when A is speaking
Z’s endeavours are confined to catching him in a misstatement or in a
fault of logic, and A’s attitude is precisely the same when Z holds the
stage. Neither partisan has the least intention from the outset of
altering his creed, nor could either be convinced by the facts and
arguments of the other, however sound. This is a fact within the
experience of every intelligent person. The disputants have so
influenced their own minds that they are incapable of receiving certain
impressions; a part of their intelligence normally susceptible of
receiving new ideas, even if such ideas are opposed to earlier
conceptions, is in a state of anæsthesia; it is shut off, put out of
action. The habit of mind which has been formed mechanically translates
all the arguments of an opponent into misconceptions or fallacies.
Neither disputant in our illustration has the least intention or desire
to approach the subject with an open mind. Unfortunately, the rigid
habit of mind does not only apply to political issues; it is evidenced
in all the thoughts and acts of our daily life, and is the cause of many
demonstrable evils.

And touching this question of mental rigidity, I may cite a very
valuable criticism from Mr. William Archer, the well-known London
dramatic critic, on the primary point of the “Desirability of the Open
Mind.” This criticism was published in _The Morning Leader_ for 17th
December, 1910. I replied in the same paper, and my answer was published
on 23rd December, 1910.

As this brief discussion illustrates very clearly the misconception
which most easily arises with regard to this question, I now reprint
these two letters, precisely as they originally appeared.


                             THE OPEN MIND

                          _By William Archer_

“In the fifth chapter of an able and interesting book by Mr. F. Matthias
Alexander, entitled _Man’s Supreme Inheritance_ (Methuen), there occurs
a passage which I propose to take as the text of this week’s discourse.
Treating of ‘mechanical habits of thought,’ Mr. Alexander says:


  “‘Let us suppose that A is a convinced Free Trader, and that Z is no
  less certain of the glorious possibilities of Protection, and let us
  set A and Z to argue the matter. We notice at once that when A is
  speaking, Z’s endeavours are confined to catching him in a
  misstatement or in a fault of logic, and A’s attitude is precisely the
  same when Z holds the stage. Neither partisan has the least intention
  from the outset of altering his creed, nor could either be convinced
  by the facts and arguments of the other, however sound.... The habit
  of mind which has been formed mechanically translates all the
  arguments of an opponent into misconceptions or fallacies. Neither
  disputant has the least desire to approach the subject with an open
  mind. Unfortunately this rigid habit of mind does not only apply to
  the issues of government; it is evidenced in all the thoughts and acts
  of our daily life, and is the cause of many demonstrable evils.’


“Very often, of course, the fact is as Mr. Alexander states it; but can
we, I wonder, accept the ideal of the ‘open mind’ implied in his
illustration? Is not a certain stability of conviction absolutely
necessary to the efficient conduct of the business of life? And are we
not almost as apt to err on the side of impressionability as on the side
of rigidity? I seem to remember a warning in Scripture against being
‘blown about by every wind of doctrine.’

“If we reflect for a moment, I think we shall see that the amount of
open-mindedness which reason demands must vary according to the nature
of the question at issue. On a question of fact, which is capable of
absolute demonstration, it is, of course, folly to let prejudice or bias
prevent us from perceiving the truth. But it is not on such questions
that disputes commonly arise. Theology, I fancy, is, in the modern
world, almost the only influence that frequently leads people to close
their minds against demonstrable facts or overwhelming probabilities.
But of the most important questions in life, many are not questions of
fact at all, while as to others, the evidence is so complex or so
inaccessible that demonstration is not, as the saying goes, humanly
possible. It is proverbially futile to argue on questions of taste; for
enjoyment consists in a relation of the perceiver to the thing perceived
which cannot be produced by force of reason or of reasoning. No doubt,
in going to ‘Salome’ or to the Post-Impressionist Exhibition, we ought
to take with us an open mind; that is to say, we ought not to go in a
wilfully Philistine or frivolous mood. And in discussing them
afterwards, we ought to preserve an open mind, in so far that we ought
not to make a law of our own limitations, and accuse of folly or
insincerity those people who see more in post-Wagnerism and
post-Manetism than (perhaps) we do. Yet even here open-mindedness may be
carried to excess; for undoubtedly there exists a great deal of
affectation and charlatanism in matters of art, and it would be weak
credulity to take every Maudle and Postlewaite at his own valuation. ‘A
popgun remains a popgun,’ says Emerson, ‘though the ancient and
honourable of this world affirm it to be the crack of doom’; and there
are innumerable questions of quality and value on which no one who has
any mind at all can possibly keep his mind open.

“Let us turn now to political questions of the order suggested by Mr.
Alexander’s illustration. They are not, as a rule, questions of
ascertainable fact, but of speculation or conjecture as to the probable
results of a given course of action. They are generally very complex
questions; the present issue between the two Houses of Parliament is
almost unique in its simplicity. And not only is each question complex
in itself; it is inextricably interwoven with other questions of similar
complexity. Can we reasonably expect or desire, then, that either A or
Z, in a single discussion of such a topic and Tariff Reform, should have
his whole system of thought revolutionised? When such a conversion
occurs (and I suppose it does sometimes occur) ought we to praise the
convert’s open mind? Ought we not rather to pity his shallow mind, in
which the new conviction can scarcely be deeper rooted than the old? A
man’s political opinions, I take it, if they have any substance and
consistency, are, and ought to be, a sort of mosaic set in a cement of
fundamental principle. You may alter the pattern by laborious picking
and rearranging but not by a mere push at a single point. Does it follow
from this that political discussion is an idle waste of time? Not at
all. It forces us to rethink our thoughts, and to keep them consciously
and clearly related to fundamental principles. Also it sifts our
arguments; in looking out for our opponent’s fallacies we not
infrequently become aware of our own. Furthermore, a discussion may form
part of the long course of thought, or evolution of feeling, whereby a
really valid conversion may be ultimately brought about. Though we may
think ourselves wholly unmoved by our opponent’s reasoning, a
subconscious effect may remain, and may in due time manifest itself.
Without our realising it, one or two cubes in our mental mosaic may, in
fact, have been loosened. A greater result than this, from any single
discussion of a complex political question, is scarcely, I think, to be
desired. No doubt it is highly desirable that we should at one time or
another have brought a perfectly open mind to the study of such a
question as Tariff Reform; and this many of us have done. For my own
part, I can honestly say that when Mr. Chamberlain first threw the apple
of discord into our midst, I so clearly realised the merely traditional
and unreasoned character of my Free Trade ideas, that I was biassed, if
anything, against them, and fully prepared to find them fallacious. The
fact that I have not done so may be due to insufficient or unintelligent
study, but certainly not to any initial lack of openness of mind.

“Finally, I would note another limitation to the ideal of the open mind.
There are certain questions on which we cannot safely keep our minds
open, because we know that that way madness lies. I once spent a whole
day at Concord, Mass., arguing with a friend who had become a convert to
astrology, and was bent on drawing my horoscope. To that I had no
objection; but I cannot pretend that my mind was for a moment open to
his arguments. Somewhat more difficult is the case of the
Bacon-Shakespeare theory: ought we to keep an open mind on that? I am
inclined to answer, ‘No’; for if we once lose grip of the fact that the
whole thing is an insanity, we are in danger of being submerged in a
swirling torrent of ‘_folie lucide_.’ The origin and psychological
conditions of the illusion are perfectly plain. It is, indeed, one of
the oddest and most instructive incidents in the history of the human
error, and in that sense worthy of study. Poor Bacon has been forced, by
no fault of his own, into the position of the Tichborne Claimant of
literature, and one cannot but wonder what he would think of the
Onslows, Whalleys, and Kenealys, who are pleading what they believe to
be his cause. But a really ‘open mind’ on the question is, I conceive, a
symptom of an exorbitant love of the marvellous and an imperfect hold
upon the reality of things. There are subjects on which no mind can
remain open without in some degree losing its balance.”


                             THE OPEN MIND

                _To the Editor of the “Morning Leader”_

“Sir—Although Mr. William Archer has rather misapprehended my point of
view in his very interesting article, I would not intrude a reply upon
you did I not believe that this question is one that lies at the root of
so many physical evils, and that it is a question, therefore, which must
not be hastily put on one side—as, no doubt, many of your readers will
be inclined to put it after their perusal of Mr. Archer’s temperate and,
apparently, logical reasoning. I say ‘apparently,’ because, though his
syllogism is sound enough, it is based on a faulty premise due to his
misapprehension of my statement; doubtless, I am to blame for not having
made myself fully comprehensible.

“In the first place, let me admit at once that the whole question is
relative. Mr. Archer’s implied example of the man ‘blown about by every
wind of doctrine,’ is an example, from my point of view, of rigidity
rather than plasticity, inasmuch as he is necessarily a hysterical
neurotic, and is almost entirely dependent on his subconscious
processes. Now, it is these very subconscious processes which restrict
the use of the conscious, reasoning centres; which form what we call
habits of mind, that, becoming fixed, are almost beyond the control of
reason; which, in extreme cases, take possession of what was once the
intelligence, and are manifested as the _idée fixe_, the obsession, the
monomaniacal tendency.

“But, disregarding these extremes, let me take an example from ordinary
life, and, perhaps, no better one could be offered than Mr. Archer’s own
of the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, a subject, among others, which Mr.
Archer suggests is sufficient to upset our reason, should we attempt to
maintain an open mind with regard to it.

“As a matter of fact, what he conceives as an open mind here is a mind
with an inclination to be perverted (or converted) by specious
reasoning. The right attitude of the open mind in this case is, ‘I have
weighed the arguments in favour of Bacon’s authorship and have found
them insufficient, and until such a time as new and better evidence is
forthcoming, I shall continue to hold the view I have always held.’

“The rigid attitude which I condemn in this connexion is the one that
says, ‘You will never alter my opinion, whatever fresh evidence you may
adduce.’ In the first example we can come to a conclusion on the
evidence; the conscious reason has been exercised and remains in
command. It is not until the attitude becomes subconscious and fixed
that any danger arises. When that comes about, the man who has decided
for Shakespeare’s authorship would remain unconvinced in face of any
discovery of new evidence. Yet can any one doubt, any one who cares to
walk through the world with open eyes as well as an open mind, that the
vast majority of opinions given out by the average man and woman have
become subconscious habits of thought?

“My professional experience has shown me how great an obstacle to the
recovery of physical soundness this impeding habit of thought has
become. The whole purpose of my book (_Man’s Supreme Inheritance_), from
which Mr. Archer quotes, is to submit that the course of evolution had
tended in the direction of our obtaining conscious control of our own
bodies, and argues that this is the only means by which we can rise
above the artificial restrictions, often physically poisonous, imposed
by civilisation. And I assure you, sir, that this ideal of conscious
control is absolutely unrealisable by any person who is guided and
restrained by these subconscious habits of thought, and who is, in
consequence, quite unable to exercise the free use of his intelligence.

“So what I intend by the open mind, and in this, I think, Mr. Archer has
not fully understood me, is the just use and exercise of conscious
reason, a use which is the rare exception to a very delimiting rule.

                                                    Yours, etc.,
                                                “F. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER.”

To this letter Mr. Archer did not reply, but this brief correspondence
covers very fairly, in my opinion, a statement of the popular objection
to the “open mind,” and my answer to that objection.

Returning now to my own province of therapeutics, I need hardly give any
special instance to carry my point. Of late years much attention has
been given to the consideration of mental attitude in relation to
disease, and although no clearly defined remedy has been advanced, the
condition has been diagnosed and defined. The “fixed idea,”
hallucination, obsession, are all terms used deliberately to denote a
morbid condition, but we have to apply these terms much more widely and
grasp the fact that they are applicable to small, disregarded mental
habits as well as to the well-defined evils which marked their
development. In the case of X, the mental habit which had grown up as
the result of postulating, “I can’t draw my lip up before speaking,” was
only another aspect of the attitude of A and Z towards the subject of
their discussion, and it was precisely similar in kind. The aggregate of
these habits is so characteristic in some cases that we see how easily
the fallacy arose of assuming an entity for the subconscious self, a
self which at the last analysis is made up of these acquired habits and
of certain other habits, some of them labelled instincts, the
predisposition to which is our birthright, a predisposition inherited
from that long chain of ancestors whose origin goes back to the first
dim emergence of active life. Fortunately for us there is not a single
one of these habits of mind, with their resultant habits of body, which
may not be altered by the inculcation of those principles concerning the
true poise of the body which I have called the principles of mechanical
advantage,[13] used in co-operation with an understanding of the
inhibitory and volitional powers of the objective mind, by which means
these deterrent habits can be raised to conscious control. The false
pose and carriage of the body, the incorrect and laboured habits of
breathing that are the cause of many troubles besides the obvious ill
effects on the lungs and heart, the degeneration of the muscular system,
the partial failure of many vital organs, the morbid fatty conditions
that destroy the semblance of men and women to human beings,—all these
things and many more that combine to cause debility, disease, and death,
are the result of incorrect habits of mind and body, all of which may be
changed into correct and beneficial habits if once we can clear away
that first impeding habit of thought which stands between us and
conscious control.

I believe I have at last laid myself quite open to the attack of the
habitual objector, a person I am really anxious to conciliate. I have
given him the opportunity of pointing a finger at my last paragraph and
saying, “But you only want to change one habit for another! If, as you
have implied, the habit of mind is bad, why encourage habits at all,
even if they are as you say, ‘correct and beneficial’?”

Now this is a point of the first importance. But in the first place it
is essential to understand the difference between the habit that is
recognised and understood and the habit that is not. The difference in
its application to the present case is that the first can be altered at
will and the second cannot. For when real conscious control has been
obtained a “habit” need never become fixed. It is not truly a habit at
all, but an order or series of orders given to the subordinate controls
of the body, which orders will be carried out until countermanded.

It will be understood, therefore, that the word “habit” as generally
understood, does not apply to the new discipline which it is my aim to
establish in the ordinary subconscious realms of our being. The reasons
for this are two:


  (1) The conscious, intelligently realised, guiding orders are such as
  may be continued for all time, becoming more effective year by year
  until they are established as the real and fundamental guidance and
  control necessary to that which we understand by the words growth and
  evolution.

  (2) The stimuli to apprehension, or excitement of the fear reflexes,
  are eliminated by a procedure which teaches the pupil to take no
  thought of whether what he calls “practice,” is _right or wrong_.


This second statement, however, requires further elucidation; and I feel
that a lay description by a pupil of mine may present the case more
clearly to the untrained reader than any technical account. The excerpt
is from a letter written by the Rev. W. Pennyman, M.A.


  “One great feature of Mr. Alexander’s system as seen in practical use
  is that the individual loses every suggestion of _strain_. He becomes
  perfectly ‘lissom’ in body; all strains and tensions disappear, and
  his body works like an oiled machine. Moreover, his system has a
  reflex result upon the mind of the patient, and a general condition of
  buoyancy and freedom, and indeed of gaiety of spirit takes the place
  of the old jaded mental position. It is the pouring in of new wine,
  but the bottles must also be new or they will burst, and this is
  exactly what Mr. Alexander’s treatment does. It creates the new
  bottles, and then the new wine can be poured in, freely and fully.”


This quotation, however, describes a result, and the means to its
achievement can only be attained under certain conditions. There must
be, in the first place, a clear realisation by the pupil that he suffers
from a defect or defects needing eradication. In the second place, the
teacher must make a lucid diagnosis of such defects and decide upon the
means of dealing with them. In the third place there must be a
satisfactory understanding between teacher and pupil of the present
conditions and the means proposed to remedy them.

These three preparatory realisations indicate the real psycho-physical
significance of the pupil’s mental position. He begins by a definite
admission that the subconscious factors by which his psycho-physical
organism is being guided are limited and unreliable. He acknowledges in
fact that he suffers from mental delusions regarding his physical acts
and that his sensory appreciation, or kinæsthesis, is defective and
misleading; in other words, he realises that his sense register of the
amount of muscular tension needed to accomplish even a simple act of
everyday life is faulty and harmful, and his mental conception of such
conditions as relaxation and concentration, impossible in practical
application.

For there can be no doubt that man on the subconscious plane, now relies
too much upon a debauched sense of feeling or of sense appreciation for
the guidance of his psycho-physical mechanism, and that he is gradually
becoming more and more overbalanced emotionally with very harmful and
far-reaching results.

The results indeed are all too obvious, and yet it must be presumed that
the individual has endeavoured to do the _right_ and not the _wrong_
thing. Does any one set out to catch a train relying upon a watch which
as he knows perfectly well is unreliable? Would any sane person place
dependence on the reading of a thermometer that he knows to be
defective? No, we must admit not only that there is a failure to
register accurately in the sensory appreciation, but also that the fault
is unrecorded in the conscious mind. And it is for this reason that the
pupil must be given a new and correct guiding and controlling centre,
before being asked to perform even the simplest acts in accordance with
his own idea and judgment.

Some understanding of these slightly technical and practical details is
necessary in order to form a clear idea of what is meant by the simple
word “habit,” which was the origin of this discussion; but I shall
return to a fuller analysis of method in this relation in Part II of
this work. What I wish to emphasise in this place is that the evil,
disturbing habit which it is necessary to eradicate is in the ordinary
experience both permanent and unrecognised. It may in some cases have
been originally incurred above the plane of reason, but this form of
habit is invariably perpetuated in the subconsciousness. On the other
hand, the mode of functioning which is substituted, but which may
nevertheless be spoken of quite correctly by the same term of “habit,”
is as subject to control as the routine of a well-organised office.
Certain rules are established for the ordinary conduct of business, but
the controller of that business must be at liberty to break the rules or
to modify them at his discretion. The man who allows an office to take
precedence of any other consideration—and I have known instances of such
a morbid concession to traditional procedure in business houses—is
surely and steadily on the way to commercial failure.

I will now take an illustration of the principle from my own practice.
Suppose a patient comes to me who has acquired incorrect respiratory
habits, and suppose he is plastic and ready to assimilate new methods,
and that after receiving the new guiding orders from me, he soon learns
consciously to make a proper use of the muscular mechanism which governs
the movements of the breathing apparatus, a word that fitly describes
this particular mechanism of the body. Now it would be absurd to suppose
that thereafter this person should in his waking moments deliberately
apprehend each separate working of his lungs, any more than we should
expect the busy manager of affairs constantly to supervise the routine
of his well-ordered staff. He has acquired conscious control of that
working, it is true, but once that control has been mastered, the actual
movements that follow are given in charge of the “subconscious self”
although always on the understanding that a counter order may be given
at any moment if necessary. Until, however, such counter order is given,
if ever it need be given, the working of the lungs is for all intents
and purposes subconscious, though it may be elevated to the level of the
conscious at any moment. Thus it will be seen that the difference
between the new habit and the old is that the old was our master and
ruled us, whilst the new is our servant ready to carry out our lightest
wish without question, though always working quietly and unobtrusively
on our behalf in accordance with the most recent orders given.

Briefly, as I see it, the subconsciousness in this application is only a
synonym for that rigid routine we finally refer to as habit, this rigid
routine being the stumbling-block to rapid adaptability, to the
assimilation of new ideas, to originality. On the other hand, the
consciousness is the synonym for mobility of mind, that mobility which
the subconscious control checks and impedes, mobility which will obtain
for us physical regeneration and a mental outlook that will make
possible for us a new and wider enjoyment of those powers which we all
possess, but which are so often deliberately stunted or neglected.

Consider this point also in its application to the case of John Doe,
cited in my second chapter. If the mental attitude of that individual
had been changed, and he had learned to use his muscles consciously; if,
instead of automatically performing a set of muscle-tensing exercises,
he had devoted himself to apprehending the control and co-ordination of
his muscles, he could have carried his knowledge into every act of his
life. In his most sedentary occupations he could have been using and
exercising his muscular system without resort to any violent
contortions, waving of the arms or kicking of the legs, and I cannot but
think that he could better have employed the hours spent in this manner
by taking a walk in the open air or by occupying himself with some other
form of natural exercise. Still, if in his case certain mild forms of
exercise at certain times were necessary, such exercises should have
employed his mental and physical powers, and through these agencies he
should have used his muscular mechanism in such a way that its uses
could have been applied to the simplest acts, such as sitting on a stool
and writing at a desk. There would then have been no question of what we
have termed “civil war” within his body; the whole physical machinery
would have been co-ordinated and adapted to his way of life.

In an earlier paragraph I pointed out that John Doe was suffering from
certain mental and physical delusions, and I endeavoured to show how
these delusions militated against his recovery of health. Returning to
this point now that the correct method has been indicated, I may use his
case to give another example of this method. What John Doe lacked was a
conscious and proper recognition of the right uses of the parts of his
muscular mechanism, since while he still uses such parts wrongly, the
performance of physical exercises will only increase the defects. He
will, in fact, merely copy some other person in the performance of a
particular exercise, copy him in the outward act, while his own
consciousness of the act performed and the means and uses of his
muscular mechanism will remain unaltered. Therefore before he attempts
any form of physical development, he must discover, or find some one who
can discover for him, what his defects are in the uses indicated. When
this has been done he must proceed to inhibit the guiding sensations
which cause him to use the mechanism imperfectly; he must apprehend the
position of mechanical advantage, and then by using the new correct
guiding sensations or orders, he will be able to bring about the proper
use of his muscular mechanism with perfect ease. If the mechanical
principle employed is a correct one, every movement will be made with a
minimum of effort, and he will not be conscious of the slightest
tension. In time a recognition will follow of the new and correct use of
the mechanism, which use will then become provisionally established and
be employed in the acts of everyday life.

For instance, if we decide that a defect must be got rid of or a mode of
action changed, and if we proceed in the ordinary way to eradicate it by
any direct means, we shall fail invariably, and with reason. For when
defects in the poise of the body, in the use of the muscular mechanisms,
and in the equilibrium are present in the human being, the condition
thus evidenced is the result of an _undue rigidity_ of parts of the
muscular mechanisms associated with _undue flaccidity_ of others. This
undue rigidity is always found in those parts of the muscular mechanisms
which are forced to perform duties other than those intended by nature,
and are consequently ill-adapted for their function.

As Herbert Spencer writes:


  “Each faculty acquires fitness for its function by performing its
  function; and if its function is performed for it by a substituted
  agency, none of the required adjustment of nature takes place, but the
  nature becomes deformed to fit the artificial arrangements instead of
  the natural arrangements.”


Unfortunately, all conscious effort exerted in attempts at physical
action causes in the great majority of the people of to-day such tension
of the muscular system concerned as to lead to exaggeration rather than
eradication of the defects already present. Therefore it is essential at
the outset of re-education to bring about the relaxation of the unduly
rigid parts of the muscular mechanisms in order to secure the correct
use of the inadequately employed and wrongly co-ordinated parts.

Let us take for example the case of a man who habitually stiffens his
neck in walking, sitting, or other ordinary acts of life. This is a sign
that he is endeavouring to do with the muscles of his neck the work
which should be performed by certain other muscles of his body, notably
those of the back. Now if he is told to relax those stiffened muscles of
the neck and obeys the order, this mere act of relaxation deals only
with an effect and does not quicken his consciousness of the use of the
right mechanism which he should use in place of those relaxed. The
desire to stiffen the neck muscles should be inhibited as a preliminary
(which is not the same thing at all as a direct order to relax the
muscles themselves), and then the true uses of the muscular mechanism,
i.e., the means of placing the body in a position of mechanical
advantage, must be studied, when the work will naturally devolve on
those muscles intended to carry it out, and the neck will be relaxed
unconsciously. In this case the conscious orders, by which I mean the
orders given to the right muscles, are preventive orders, and the due
sequence of cause and effect is maintained.

I will, here, only note one more point in concluding my reference to the
hypothetical John Doe, who, nevertheless, stands as the representative
of a very large body of people. This point is the question of the
storing and reserving of energy, and, to use a phrase which has a
mechanical equivalent, the registration of tension. If you ask a man to
lift a _papier-mâché_ imitation of an enormous dumb-bell, leading him to
believe that it is almost beyond his capacity to raise it from the
floor, he will exert his full power in the effort to do that which he
could perform with the greatest ease. In a lesser degree the same
expenditure of unnecessary force is exerted by the vast majority of
“physical culture” students, and by practically every person in the
ordinary duties of daily life. The kinæsthetic system has not been
taught to register correctly the tension or, in other words, to gauge
accurately the amount of muscular effort required to perform certain
acts, the expenditure of effort always being in excess of what is
required, an excellent instance of the lack of harmony in the untutored
organism. This fact may be easily tested by any interested person who
will take the trouble to try its application. Ask a friend to lift a
chair or any other object of such weight that, while it may be lifted
without great difficulty, will in the process make an undoubted call on
the muscular energies. You will see at once that your friend will
approach the task with a definite preconception as to the amount of
physical tension necessary. His mind is exclusively occupied with the
question of his own muscular effort, instead of with the purpose in
front of him and the best means to undertake it. Before he has even
approached it, he will brace or tense the muscles of his arms, back,
neck, etc., and when about to perform the act he will place himself in a
position which is actually one of mechanical disadvantage as far as he
is concerned. Not only are all these preparations of course quite
unnecessary, but the whole attitude of mind towards the task is wrong.
In such instances as this, any preconception as to the degree of tension
required is out of place. If we desire to lift a weight with the least
possible waste of energy, we should approach it and grasp it with
relaxed muscles, assuming the position of greatest possible mechanical
advantage, and then gradually exert our muscular energies until
sufficient power is attained to overcome the resistance.

Returning now to the consideration of that bias or predisposing habit of
mind which so often balks us at the outset, we may see at once that this
predisposition takes many curious forms. Sometimes, it is frankly
objective, and is outlined in the statement, “Well, I don’t believe in
all this, but I may as well try it.” In this form a single unlooked-for
result is generally enough to change disbelief into credulity. I write
the word “credulity” with intention, for I mean to imply that the
reaction in a certain type of mind is little, if any, better than the
profession of disbelief. What is required is not prejudice in either
direction, but a calm, clear, open-eyed intelligence, a ready, adaptive
outlook, an outlook, believe me, which does not connote indefiniteness
of purpose or uncertainty of initiative.

Another form of predisposition arises from lack of purpose, and the
mental habits that go with this condition are hard to eradicate, more
particularly when the original feebleness has led to some form of
hypochondria or nervous disease which has been treated with the usual
disregard of the radical evil. It is not difficult for the most
superficial enquirer to understand that in treating cases like these any
method which relieves the subject still further of the exercise of
initiative—such a method as the rest cure, for instance, though I could
quote many others—only increases the original evil. The lack of purpose
is pandered to and cultivated, and after the six weeks or so of
treatment, the patient returns to his or her duties in ordinary life,
even more unfitted than before to perform them. As I have said before,
no account is taken of the instinct for self-preservation or the will to
live. This is the very mainspring of human life, yet in the routine of
our protected civilisation even its power tends at times to become
relaxed, and the machinery runs down. The machinery should then be wound
up again, instead of being allowed to become still further relaxed by
resting. This lack of purpose, the immediate effect of our educational
methods, is unhappily very common in all classes, but especially among
those who have no occupation, or those whose employment is a mechanical
routine which does not exercise the powers of initiative. The curious
thing about this very large class is that they do not really want to be
cured. They may be suffering from many physical disabilities or from
actual physical pain, and they may and will protest most earnestly that
they want to be free from their pains and disabilities, but in face of
the evidence we must admit that if the objective wish is really there,
it is so feeble as to be non-existent for all practical purposes. In
many cases this attitude of submission to illness is the outcome of a
strong subjective habit. The trouble, whatever it is, is endured in the
first instance; it is looked upon as a nuisance, perhaps, but not as an
intolerable nuisance; no steps are taken to get rid of it, and the
trouble grows until, by degrees, it is looked upon as a necessity. Then
at last, when the trouble has increased until it threatens the
interruption of all ordinary occupations, the sufferer seeks a remedy.
But the habit of submission has grown too strong, and as long as the
disease can be kept within certain bounds, no effort is made to fight
it. This is of course one of the commonest experiences in the healing
profession. A patient is treated and benefited and seems on the high
road to perfect health. Then follows a relapse. The first question put
is, “Have you been following the treatment?” and the answer, if the
patient is truthful, is “I forgot,” or “I didn’t bother any more about
it.” In a recent experience of a medical friend of mine, a patient
confessed to having stayed in the house for a week after a certain
relapse occurred, although the very essence of the prescription by which
he had previously benefited was to be in the fresh air as much as
possible. This simply means that the subjective habit of submission has
grown so strong that the objective mind, weakened in its turn by the
neglect of its guiding functions, is unable to conquer it. No
prescription or course of treatment can have any effect upon such a
patient as this, unless the subjective habit can be brought within the
sphere of conscious control. In other cases this apparent lack of desire
for health is due to an attachment to some dearly loved habit, which
must be given up if the proper functions of the body are to be resumed.
It may be a habit of petty self-indulgence or one that is imminently
threatening the collapse of the vital processes, but the attachment to
it is so strong that the enfeebled objective mind prefers to hold to the
habit and risk death sooner than make the effort of opposing it. Even in
cases where no harm can be traced directly to a markedly influencing
habit, the general all-pervading habit of lassitude or inertia is so
strong that any régime which may be prescribed is distasteful if it
involves, as it must, the exercise of those powers which have been
allowed to fall more or less into disuse.

Space will not permit of my giving further instances of the predisposing
habit, but very little introspection on the part of my readers should
enable them to diagnose their own peculiar mental habits, the first step
towards being rid of them. We must always remember that the vast
majority of human beings live very narrow lives, doing the same thing
and thinking the same thoughts day by day, and it is this very fact that
makes it so necessary that we should acquire conscious control of the
mental and physical powers as a whole, for we otherwise run the risk of
losing that versatility which is such an essential factor in their
development.

If, at this point, the reader feels inclined to analyse these habits and
to set about a control of them, I will give him one word of preliminary
advice, “Beware of so-called concentration.”

This advice is so pertinent to the whole principle that it is worth
while to elaborate it. Ask any one you know to concentrate his mind on a
subject—anything will do—a place, a person, or a thing. If your friend
is willing to play the game and earnestly endeavours to concentrate his
mind, he will probably knit his forehead, tense his muscles, clench his
hands, and either close his eyes or stare fixedly at some point in the
room. As a result his mind is very fully occupied with this unusual
condition of the body which can only be maintained by repeated orders
from the objective mind. In short, your friend, though he may not know
it, is not using his mind for the consideration of the subject you have
given him to concentrate upon, but for the consideration of an unusual
bodily condition which he calls “concentration.” This is true also of
the attitude of _attention_ required for children in schools; it
dissociates the brain instead of compacting it. Personally, I do not
believe in any concentration that calls for effort. It is the wish, the
conscious desire to do a thing or think a thing, which results in
adequate performance. Could Spencer have written his _First Principles_,
or Darwin his _Descent of Man_, if either had been forced to any rigid
narrowing effort in order to keep his mind on the subject in hand? I do
not deny that some work can be done under conditions which necessitate
such an artificially arduous effort, but I do deny that it is ever the
best work. Nor will I admit that such a case as that of Sir Walter Scott
can logically be argued against this view. For the real earnest wish to
write the Waverley novels was there, even if it originated in the desire
to pay the debts he took upon himself, and not in the desire to write
the novels because he took a pleasure in the actual performance.
Briefly, our application of the word “concentration” denotes a conflict
which is a morbid condition and a form of illness; singleness of purpose
is quite another thing. If you try to straighten your arm and bend it at
the same moment, you may exercise considerable muscular effort, but you
will achieve no result, and the analogy applies to the endeavour to
delimit the powers of the brain by concentration, and at the same time
to exercise them to the full extent. The endeavour represents the
conflict of the two postulates “I must” and “I can’t”; the fight
continues indefinitely, with a constant waste of misapplied effort. Once
eradicate the mental habit of thinking that this effort is necessary,
once postulate and apprehend the meaning of “I wish” instead of those
former contradictions, and what was difficult will become easy, and
pleasure will be substituted for pain. We must cultivate, in brief, the
deliberate habit of taking up every occupation with the whole mind, with
a living desire to carry each action through to a successful
accomplishment, a desire which necessitates bringing into play every
faculty of the attention. By use this power develops, and it soon
becomes as simple to alter a morbid taste which may have been a lifelong
tendency as to alter the smallest of recently acquired bad habits.

The following is an interesting experience with a pupil who was strongly
inclined to a belief in the value and power of concentration. This pupil
contested vigorously my attacks on the object of her faith, as practised
in accordance with the orthodox conception. She put forward the usual
arguments, of course, and I quite failed to make any impression on her
mental attitude towards the vexed question under discussion. But at
last, some days after our first encounter, my opportunity came. We were
not at the time directly discussing concentration, but we were dealing
with kindred subjects, and presently my pupil began to speak of the
attitudes adopted by people towards the things in life that they like or
dislike to do. Her own plan, she said, with a touch of pride, had been
to develop the habit of keeping her mind on other and more pleasant
subjects whenever she had been engaged in a task that was unsympathetic
to her, and she had so far succeeded in the cultivation of this habit
that the disagreeable sensations of any unpleasant duty were no longer
experienced by her. I then put one or two questions to her and
elucidated among other facts that for years she had been unable “to
concentrate” when reading and that this difficulty was becoming
constantly more pronounced. Fortunately this instance opened those
locked places of her intelligence that I had been unable to reach by
argument. I showed her how she had been cultivating a most harmful
mental condition, which made concentration on those duties of life which
pleased her appear as a necessity. She had been constructing a secret
chamber in her mind, as harmful to her general well-being as an
undiagnosed tumour might have been to her physical welfare. I am glad to
say that she came to admit the truth of my original position and has
since begun her efforts to carry out the suggestions I offered for the
correction of her bad habit.

And in all such efforts to apprehend and control mental habits, the
first and only real difficulty is to overcome the preliminary inertia of
mind in order to combat the subjective habit. The brain becomes used to
thinking in a certain way, it works in a groove, and when set in action,
slides along the familiar, well-worn path; but when once it is lifted
out of the groove, it is astonishing how easily it may be directed. At
first it will have a tendency to return to its old manner of working by
means of one mechanical unintelligent operation, but the groove soon
fills, and although thereafter we may be able to use the old path if we
choose, we are no longer bound to it.

In concluding this brief note on mental habits I turn my attention
particularly to the many who say, “I am quite content as I am.” To them
I say, firstly, if you are content to be the slave of habits instead of
master of your own mind and body, you can never have realised the
wonderful inheritance which is yours by right of the fact that you were
born a reasoning, intelligent man or woman. But, I say, secondly, and
this is of importance to the larger world and is not confined to your
intimate circle, “What of the children?” Are you content to rob them of
their inheritance, as perhaps you were robbed of yours by your parents?
Are you willing to send them out into the world ill-equipped, dependent
on precepts and incipient habits, unable to control their own desires,
and already well on the way to physical degeneration? Happily, I believe
that the means of stirring the inert is being provided. The question of
Eugenics, or the science of race culture, is being debated by earnest
men and women, and the whole problem of contemporary physical
degeneration is one which looms ever larger in the public mind. It is
the problem which has exercised me for many years, and which is mainly
responsible for the issue of this book, and in my next chapter I shall
treat it in connection with the theory of progressive conscious control
which I have outlined in the foregoing pages.




                                  VII
             RACE CULTURE AND THE TRAINING OF THE CHILDREN

  “In what way to treat the body; in what way to treat the mind; in what
  way to manage our affairs; in what way to bring up a family; in what
  way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utilise those sources of
  happiness which nature supplies,—how to use all our faculties to the
  greatest advantage; how to live completely? And this being the great
  thing needful for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing
  which education has to teach. To prepare us for complete living is the
  function which education has to discharge.”—HERBERT SPENCER,
  _Education_.


Every child is born into the world with a predisposition to certain
habits, and furthermore, the child of to-day is not born with the same
development of instinct that was the congenital heritage of its
ancestors a hundred or even fifty years ago. Many modern children, for
example, are born with recognisable physical disadvantages that are the
direct result of the gradually deteriorating respiratory and vital
functioning of their forbears.

For many months, the period varying with the sex and ability of the
individual, the vital processes and movements are for all practical
purposes independent of any conscious control, and the human infant
remains in this helpless, dependent condition much longer than any other
animal. The habits which the child evidences during this protracted
period are those hereditary predispositions which are early developed by
circumstance and environment, habits of muscular uses, of vital
functioning, and of adaptability. If it were possible to analyse the
tendencies of a child when it is, say, twelve months old, we could soon
master the science of heredity which is at present so tentative and
uncertain in its deductions, but the child’s potentialities lie hidden
in the mysterious groupings and arrangement of its cells and tissues,
hidden beyond the reach of any analysis. The child is our material;
within certain wide limits we may mould it to the shape we desire. But
even at birth it is differentiated from other children; our limits may
be wide but they are fixed. Within those limits, however, our capacity
for good and evil is very great.

There are two methods by which a child learns. The first and, in earlier
years, the predominant method is by imitation, the second is by precept
or directly administered instruction, positive or negative.

With regard to the first method, parents of every class will admit the
fact not only that children imitate those who are with them during those
early plastic years, but that the child’s first efforts to adapt itself
to the conditions surrounding it are based almost exclusively on
imitation. For despite the many thousand years during which some form of
civilisation has been in existence, no child has yet been born into the
world with hereditary instincts tending to fit it for any particular
society. Its language and manners, for instance, are modelled entirely
on the speech and habits of those who have charge of it. The child
descended from a hundred kings will speak the language and adopt the
manners of the East End should it be reared among these associations;
and the son of an Australian aboriginal would speak the English tongue
and with certain limitations behave as a civilised child if brought up
with English people.

No one denies this fact; it has been proved and accepted, yet how often
do we seek to make a practical application of our knowledge? Although
the science of heredity is still tentative and indeterminate, no
reasoning person can doubt from this and other instances that in the
vast majority of cases at least, the influence of heredity can be
practically eradicated. Personally, I see very clearly from facts of my
own observation that when the characteristics of the father and mother
are analysed, and their faults and virtues understood, a proper training
of the children will prevent the same faults and encourage the same
virtues in their children.

To appreciate to the utmost the effect of training upon the children, we
must remember that the first tastes, likes, or dislikes of the infant
begin to be developed during the first two or three days after birth.
Long before the infant is a month old, habits, tending to become fixed
habits, have been developed, and if these habits are not harmful, well
and good. The first sense developed is the sense of taste, a sense that
develops very quickly and needs the most careful attention. Artificial
feeding is in itself a very serious danger, but when this feeding is in
the hands of careless or ignorant persons the danger becomes increased a
hundredfold. An instance of this is the common idea that considerable
quantities of sugar should be added to the milk. This is done very often
to induce the child to take food against its natural desire. It may be
that the child has been suffering from some slight internal derangement,
and Nature’s remedy has been to affect the child with a distaste for
food in order to give the stomach a rest. Then the unthinking mother
tempts the child with sugar, and all sorts of internal trouble may
follow. But in such a case as this the taste for a particular thing,
such as sugar, is encouraged, and apart from the direct harm which may
result, the habit becomes the master of the child, and may rule it
through life; the child, in fact, is sent out into the world the slave
of the sense of taste.

Unfortunately, in ninety cases out of a hundred, children up to the age
of six or seven years are allowed to acquire very decided tastes for
things which are harmful. Women are not trained for the sphere of
motherhood, they do not give these matters the thought and attention
they deserve, and hence they do not understand the most elementary
principles concerning the future welfare of their offspring in such
matters as feeding and sense guidance. Children are not taught to
cultivate a taste for wholesome, nourishing foods, but are tempted, and
their incipient habits pandered to, by such additions as the sugar I
have more particularly cited.

At the present time I know a child of five years old whose taste is
already perverted by the method, or lack of method, I have indicated.
This child dislikes milk unless undue quantities of sugar are added,
will not eat such food as milk puddings or brown bread, and has a strong
distaste for cream. It is almost impossible to make the child eat
vegetables of any kind, but he is always ready to take large quantities
of meat and sweets. The child is already suffering from malnutrition and
serious internal derangement. The latter would be greatly improved by
small quantities of olive oil taken daily, but it is only with the
greatest difficulty that the child can be induced to take it. If he
lives with his parents for the next ten years, he will grow into a weak
and ailing boy, and will suffer from the worst forms of digestive
trouble and imperfect functioning of the internal organs.

Apropos of this point, I remember hearing a question put to my friend,
Dr. Clubbe of Sydney, by a London specialist, who asked what, in Dr.
Clubbe’s opinion, was the primary cause of the derangement of the
natural working of a child’s muscular mechanism and respiratory system.
The answer was given without hesitation, “Toxic poisoning as a result of
artificial feeding.” The logic of this answer will be readily
apprehended by the layman, when he considers the interdependence of
every part of the system, for in this case the nerve centres connected
with the sensory apparatus of the digestive organs and the urea control
also the respiratory processes. As a consequence, when these centres are
dulled in their action as a result of toxic poisoning, there is a loss
of activity in the processes of respiration, with consequent
maladjustments of those parts of the muscular mechanism more nearly
concerned, and so the whole machine is thrown out of gear.

Thus we see that in such instances the mischief begins very early in the
life of the child, and it is carried on and exaggerated with every step
in its development. Even in babyhood precept and coercion should come
into play. Usually when the child cries, little effort is made to
discover the cause. Often the child is soothed by being carried up and
down the room. It is wonderful how soon the infant begins to associate
some rudiments of cause and effect. The child who is unduly pandered to
will soon learn to cry whenever it desires to be rocked or dandled, and
thus the foundations of pandering to sensation are quickly laid.

But as the child comes to the observant age its habits begin to grow
more quickly. We have admitted that a child imitates its parents or
nurses in tricks of manner and speech, yet we do not stop to consider
that it will also imitate our carriage of the body, our performance of
muscular acts, even our very manner of breathing. This faculty for
imitation and adaptation is a wonderful force, and one which we have at
our command if we would only pause to consider how we may use it in the
right way. The vast majority of wrong habits acquired by children result
from their imitation of the imperfect models confronting them. But how
many parents attempt to put a right model before their children? How
many learn to eradicate their own defects of pose and carriage so that
they may be better examples to the child? How many in choosing a nurse
will take the trouble to select a girl whom they would like their
children to imitate? Very, very few, and the reason is simple. In the
first place they do not realise the harmful effect of bad example, and,
in the second, the great majority of parents have so little perception
of truth in this matter that they are incapable of choosing a girl who
is a good specimen of humanity, and are sublimely unconscious of their
own crookedness and defects.

Children too accept their parents’ defects as normal and admirable. The
boy of 12 or 14 never dreams for instance that his father’s protruding
stomach is anything but the condition proper to middle-age, and often,
doubtless, figures to himself the time when he will arrive at the same
condition. The time will come when such things as these—I refer to the
abnormality of the father—will be considered a disgrace. What then can
we hope from these parents who are at the present time so unfit, so
incapable of teaching their own children the primer of physical life?
And I may note here that this principle has a wider application than
that of the nursery; it holds, also, in connection with the model of
physical well-being set by the teachers in all primary and secondary
schools. There is no need for me to elaborate this theme. The iniquity
of allowing children to be trained in physical exercises, in our Board
Schools for instance, by a teacher who is obviously physically unfit, is
sufficiently glaring.

The crux of the whole question is that we are progressing towards
conscious control, and have not yet realised all that this progress
connotes. Children, as civilisation becomes continually more the natural
condition, evidence fewer and fewer of their original savage instincts.
In early life they are faced by two evils, if they are developed on the
subconscious plane. If they are trained under the older methods of
education they become more and more dependent upon their instructors; if
under the more recent methods of “_free expression_” (to which I shall
presently refer at some length) they are left to the vagaries of the
imperfect and inadequate directions of subconscious mechanisms that are
the inheritance of a gradually deteriorated psycho-physical functioning
of the whole organism.

In such conditions it is not possible for the child to command the
kinæsthetic guidance and power essential to satisfactory free
expression, or indeed to any other satisfactory form of expression for
its latent potentialities. As well expect an automobile, if I may use
the simile, to express its capacity when its essential parts have been
interfered with in such a way as to misdirect or diminish the right
impulses of the machinery.

The child of the present day, once it has emerged from its first state
of absolute helplessness, and before it has been trained and coerced
into certain mental and physical habits, is the most plastic and
adaptable of living things. At this stage the complete potentiality of
conscious control is present but can only be developed by the
eradication of certain hereditary tendencies or predispositions.
Unfortunately, the usual procedure is to thrust certain habits upon it
without the least consideration of cause and effect, and to insist upon
these habits until they have become subconscious and have passed from
the region of intellectual guidance.

I will take one instance as an example of this, the point of
right-and-left-handedness. We assume from the outset, and the
superstition is so old that its source is untraceable, that a child must
learn to depend upon its right hand, to the neglect of its left. This
superstition has so sunk into our minds by repetition that it has become
incorporated in our language. “Dexterous” stands for an admirable, and
“sinister” for an inauspicious quality, and we may even find ignorant
people at the present day who say that they would never trust a
left-handed person. As a result of this attitude and of the absolute
rule laid down that a child must learn to write and use its knife with
the right hand only, the number of ambidextrous people is limited to the
few who, by some initial accident, used their left hand by preference
and were afterwards taught to use their right. In a fairly wide
experience I do not remember having heard of a father or mother who has
said: “This child may become an artist or a pianist,” for example, “and
may therefore need to develop the sensitiveness and powers of
manipulation of the left hand as well as the right,” although I have
known of many cases where much time and trouble had to be expended in
acquiring the uses of the left hand later in life, such cases as those
of persons suffering from writers’ cramp and dependent for their living
on their ability to use a pen.

I have cited this example of right-handedness because it exhibits the
pliability of the physical mechanism in early life, and the manner in
which we thoughtlessly bind it to some method of working, without ever
stopping to think whether that method is good in itself, or whether it
is the one adapted for the conditions of life into which the child will
grow. We thrust a rigid rule of physical life and mental outlook upon
the children. We are not convinced that the rule is the best, or even
that it is a good rule. Often we know, or would know if we gave the
matter a moment’s consideration, that in our own bodies the rule has not
worked particularly well, but it is the rule which was taught to us, and
we pass it on either by precept, or by holding up our imperfections for
imitation and then we wonder what is the cause of the prevailing
physical degeneration!

What is intended by these methods of education is to inculcate the
accumulated and inferentially correct lessons derived from past
experience. It is true that the lesson varies according to the
religious, political, and social colour of the parent and teacher, but
speaking generally, the intention would be logical enough, if we could
make the primary assumption that each generation starts from the same
point,—the assumption, in other words, that a baby is born with the same
potentialities, the same mental abilities and assuredly the same
physical organism whether he be born in the 16th or the 20th century.

And even as recently as a hundred years ago, that assumption might have
been made with some show of reason. For the changes were so slight and
have evolved so slowly as to attract little attention. Granted similar
conditions of parentage and upbringing, the differences between the
child of 1800 A. D. and that of 1700 A. D. were hardly noticeable.

That statement, however, does not apply to the child of 1917. For many
years past there has been unrest and dissatisfaction in the world of
education. New methods have been tried, superimposed for the most part
on the top of the older ones, and even more daring experiments have been
made, experiments which sought to throw over the old traditions, bag and
baggage. All these trials have so far failed, in my opinion; and one
reason for the failure has been due to the fact that educationalists as
a body have been unable to recognise the obvious truth that the child of
the twentieth century cannot be judged by the old standards.

This truth is so evident to me that I hesitate at the necessity to prove
it. It seems incredible to me that any one of my generation could fail
to realise the extraordinary differences between the contemporaries of
his own growth and the children of our present civilisation. I could
produce a dozen instances of this difference, but one must suffice in
this place. It is, however, an example that is peculiarly typical. For I
remember, and my experience has not been in any way an abnormal one, the
facility with which the children of my generation learnt the uses of
common tools. In a sense they may be said to have inherited a certain
dexterity in the handling of such things as a hammer, knife, or saw.
To-day many parents are greatly impressed if a child of from 2½ to 6
years old can use one of these implements with a reasonable show of
efficiency. I have known fathers and mothers representative of the
average parent of to-day who find any instance of this efficiency in
their own children an almost startling thing and certainly matter for
boast to their relations and friends.

Unhappily the real difference goes far deeper than this superficial
effect would at first seem to indicate. The early attempts of the modern
child to employ his physical endowment in such common and necessary acts
as walking, running, sitting or speaking, are far below the standard of
ability that I remember a generation ago. The standard of kinæsthetic
potentiality has been lowered. Elements that I will not attempt to
trace, lest I be tempted on to the fascinating ground of evolutionary
theory, have intervened most amazingly in the past thirty years, and the
most evident result of this intervention has been the marked change in
the subconscious efficiency of the modern child.

Thus, even from the birth of the infant, our problem is not precisely
that of the old educationalists; and this primary congenital difference
between the children of two generations has been, and is being,
exaggerated in the nurseries of the independent classes both in England
and America. (Doubtless in other countries of Europe the same effects
are being produced, but I prefer to speak only of that which I have
observed and closely studied for myself.) There is still a tendency to
take all responsibility and initiative away from the child of wealthy
parents. Nurses first and governesses later perform every possible act
of service that shall relieve the child of trouble. It is not even
allowed to invent its own games. Toys are supplied in endless
quantities, expensive, ingenious toys, that need no imaginative act to
transform them into reduced models of the motors, trains, or animals
they are manufactured to represent, and some one, some adult, is always
at hand to amuse the child and _teach him how to play_. I must italicise
the absurdity of that last sentence. For what does this teaching mean,
if it does not mean that it is seeking to substitute the adult idea of
play for the childish one? In my day, any old brick played the part of a
train or a horse, and in the mental act required to see the reality
under so uncompromising a guise my imagination was exercised. Then I,
and the other children of my time, grew dissatisfied with so poor a
substitute, and as we progressed in experience, the stimulated
imaginations found expression in _inventing_ and in _making_ better
replicas of the realities of our childish experience. And we grew with
the exercise. We had our little responsibilities and we taught ourselves
not only how to play but how presently to adapt our play to the great
business of social life. But what equipment is furnished to the child
who never has an independent moment throughout its nursery career? How
can such a child hope to succeed in life, should the fortune it hopes to
inherit from its parents be suddenly lost or diverted? Every one knows
the answer. We can see the results in any great city of modern
civilisation, in London slums and in the Bowery of New York. A few
generations of such teaching as this and we should have had a
differentiated race as helpless as the slave-keeping ants.

But although this petrifying method of teaching and supervision is still
practised, the reaction against it has already set in both in England
and America. Unhappily that reaction has been too violent as such
reactions commonly are. From one extreme of permitting the child no
opportunity of the exercise of independent thought and action, we have
flown to the other in adopting the principle which is now known as “Free
Expression”—a principle which I can show to be no less harmful than
over-supervision. In fact so far as the physical expression of a child
is concerned, the methods of Free Expression are even more dangerous
than those of the opposite school.

In England, this movement towards “Free Expression” has not so far been
crystallised into a definite propaganda, nevertheless a number of
thoughtful but unhappily inexpert parents are trying to adopt the
principle in their own homes. Mr. Shaw’s Preface to his _Misalliance_
puts the theory of the method in a very clear and convincing argument.
His main assumption is as follows: “What is a child? An experiment. A
fresh attempt to produce the first man made perfect; that is, to make
humanity divine. And you will vitiate the experiment if you make the
slightest attempt to abort it into some fancy figure of our own....”
That represents, of course, an idealist attitude, and every
idealistically minded parent in Great Britain who reads that Preface of
Mr. Shaw’s on “Parents and Children” at once attempts to put the theory
into practice. The results, if the theory is persisted in, will be
disastrous; and although in many cases the parents realise their error
by practical experience before the child reaches the age of seven or so,
certain cases I have seen demonstrate all too clearly that much mischief
is being done even at the age of seven; faults and bad habits have
become so far established that it is sometimes very hard to eradicate
them.

And in America the mischief is going further still. So-called “free”
schools have been instituted which, although they may differ in the
detail of their methods, are based on the same underlying principles. As
far as I have examined the theory and practice of these schools their
purposes are:


  (1) To free the child as far as possible from outside interference and
  restraint.

  (2) To place him in the right environment and then to give him
  materials and allow him activities through which he may “freely
  express himself.”


Now this presupposes, firstly, that the child if left to himself has the
power of expressing himself adequately and freely; secondly, that
through this expression, he can educate himself. How far both these
suppositions are fallacies will be understood by any one who has
followed my argument and my citations of actual cases even up to this
point; but the matter is so important that I do not hesitate to bring
forward further evidence to establish my objection to this new and
dangerous method.

I will begin by drawing attention to the practical side of two of the
channels for self-expression, which are specially insisted upon in
schools where the new mode is being practised, namely, dancing and
drawing. A friend of mine always refers to them as the two D’s, a phrase
that refers very explicitly to these two forms of damnation when
employed as fundamentals in education.

The method of the “Free Expressionists” is to associate music with the
first of these arts. Now music and dancing are, as every one knows,
excitements which make a stronger emotional appeal to the primitive than
to the more highly evolved races. No drunken man in our civilisation
ever reaches the stage of anæsthesia and complete loss of self-control
attained by the savage under the influence of these two stimuli. But in
the schools where I have witnessed children’s performances, I have seen
the first beginnings of that madness which is the savage’s ecstasy.
Music in this connection is an artificial stimulus and a very potent
one. And though artificial stimuli may be permissible in certain forms
of pleasure sought by the reasoning, trained adult, they are uncommonly
dangerous incitements to use in the education of a child of six.

Need I defend still further my description of music as an artificial and
powerful stimulus? During the present war it has been reported that the
influence of alcohol and drugs has been resorted to by the Germans to
drive their men to the attack. But we know that in earlier wars, the
greatest effects could be attained by music, effects that drive the
fighters into the most delirious excesses of savagery. And, doubtless,
if the sound of music could have made itself heard above the awful din
of guns that precede a modern advance, the old stimulus would have been
preferred by the Germans to the administration of drugs. As it is, I
have heard that bands are used whenever possible. Full-grown men and
women will admit that they can become “drunk” with music and by “drunk”
I mean that the motions of the subconsciousness are excited to such a
pitch that they take control, until they completely dominate the
reasoning faculties. Alcohol produces this result by partial paralysis
of the peripheral cilia, music and dancing by overexaltation of the
whole kinæsthetic system. In the latter case, however, no evil effects
can be produced in the first instance, without the reasoning consent or
submission of the subject. Savages and _young children have not yet
learnt to withhold that consent_.

And altogether apart from this question of intoxication—to which by the
way every individual is not susceptible—these unrestrained, unguided
efforts of the children to dance are likely to prove extremely harmful.
I have watched while first one air and then another has been played on
the piano, the intention of these changes being to convey a different
form of stimulus with each air, and I admit that the children responded
in accordance with the more or less limited kinæsthetic powers at their
command. But it was very obvious to me that all these little dancers
were more or less imperfectly co-ordinated; that the idea projected from
the ideo-motor centre constantly missed its proper direction; that
subconscious efforts were being made that caused little necks to take up
the work that should have been done by little backs; that the larynx was
being harmfully depressed in the efforts to breathe adequately causing
both inspiration and expiration to be made through the open mouth
instead of through the nostrils; and that the young and still pliable
spines were being gradually curved backwards and the stature shortened
when the very opposite condition was essential even to a satisfying
æsthetic result.

And when we realise that the teachers who witness these lessons are
entirely ignorant of the ideal physical conditions that are proper to
children, and so are wofully unaware of the dangerous defects that are
being initiated by these efforts to dance, we must admit that, as
practised, this particular form of free expression is being encouraged
at a cost that far outweighs any imagined advantage.

Here, for instance, is an example that came directly under my notice. A
little girl six years old was brought to me for kinæsthetic examination
and I found her to be in really excellent physical condition. She was
then sent to school where she became interested in dancing. The dancing
at this school was considered a form of free expression, and the
children were encouraged to make their own movements, undirected.
Different airs were played to which the child was expected to react, and
the little girl of my example found great pleasure in this part of her
school work and gave much of her time to it, until she was considered to
express herself more freely than any of the other children in the form
of art she had chosen. I may point out that one of the essential
principles of these free-expression schools is to permit a child to
choose its own activity and to pursue it for practically as long as it
desires.

Her mother, however, became dissatisfied after a time with her child’s
general condition. Curious and somewhat alarming physical distortions
were beginning to manifest themselves, most noticeably a tendency to
carry her head on one side, a tendency she was unable to rectify. At
last the mother brought back the child to me for re-examination.

Now less than a year before I had passed this child as an unusually fine
example of correct physical co-ordination. When she came back to me she
was in little better condition than a congenital degenerate. All that
fluent co-ordination of her muscular mechanisms had disappeared, and in
place of it I found rigid tendons, stiffened muscles, and, worst of all,
faulty habits of guidance and control, among them a habit of governing
the muscles of her body and legs by stiffening the unrelated muscles of
her neck. (Incidentally I may note in passing that in the human being
the neck is very often the indicator of inadequate and false controls.
There are good reasons why this should be the case, _a priori_, but they
are too technical for this book.) A further particular defect was due to
a tensing and shortening of the upper muscles of the thighs where they
are attached to the torso, a defect that was tending to warp and shorten
the child’s stature. Lastly, the most significant change of all, the
child who a year before had been outspoken and fearless, and clear of
speech, was now timid and shy, and mumbled her words so badly that I
could with difficulty understand her.

Here then is a case of a child, starting in the best physical condition,
who was placed in what was considered the right environment and
permitted the exercise of free activity. And I claim that the harmful
result was so inevitable that any one of real experience might have
anticipated it with almost absolute certainty.

The second ominous “D” is drawing, and this comes into another category
of damnation, since mental rather than physical effects are concerned,
although the latter are involved both in the harmful, uncorrected poses
adopted by the children when seated at the table, and in the false
directions of the ideo-motor centres of which only a few reach the
essential fingers that are holding or more often grotesquely clutching
the pencil. It may seem a small thing to the layman that a child should
try to guide a pencil by movements of its tongue, but to the expert that
confusion of functions is indicative of endless subconscious troubles.

Let me describe the practical procedure of a certain type of
“free-drawing” lesson. Pencils, paper, and the usual paraphernalia are
placed on tables or desks in different parts of the schoolroom, in the
hope that the child may be tempted to use them in drawing. Then, one
day, a pupil takes up a pencil and makes an attempt to draw, another
follows his example and so on, until all the pupils have made some kind
of effort in this direction.

Now the act of drawing is in the last analysis a mechanical process that
concerns the management of the fingers, and the co-ordination of the
muscles of the hand and forearm in response to certain visual images
conceived in the brain and imaginatively projected on to the paper. And
the standard of functioning of the human fingers and hand in this
connection depends entirely upon the degree of kinæsthetic development
of the arm, torso, and joints; in fact upon the standard of
co-ordination of the whole organism. It is not surprising, therefore,
that hardly one of these more or less defectively co-ordinated children
should have any idea of how to hold a pencil in such a way as will
command the freedom, power, and control that will enable him to do
himself justice as a draughtsman.

Any attentive and thoughtful observer who will watch the movement and
position of these children’s fingers, hand, wrist, arm, neck and body
generally, during the varying attempts to draw straight or crooked
lines, cannot fail to note the lack of co-ordination between these
parts. The fingers are probably attempting to perform the duties of the
arm, the shoulders are humped, the head twisted on one side. In short,
energies are being projected to parts of the bodily mechanism which have
little or no influence on the performance of the desired act of drawing,
and the mere waste projection of such energies alone is almost
sufficient to nullify the purpose in view.

But I have already said enough to prove that no free expression can come
by this means. The right impulse may be in the child’s mind, but he has
not the physical ability to express it. Not one modern child in ten
thousand is born with the gift to draw as we say “by the light of
Nature,” and that one exceptional child will have his task made easier
if he is wisely guided in his first attempts.

But my chief objection to this teaching of drawing is the encouragement
it gives to profitless dreaming. Drawing is an art, and we know some of
the characteristics that are commonly imputed to the artist,—though many
of the greatest artists have been exemplarily free from them. These
characteristics are eccentricity, lack of balance, power of
self-hypnotism, and a general irrationality. Yet surely it cannot be
emphasised too strongly that the artist succeeds in spite of these
impediments to expression, and not because of them. These
characteristics that I have instanced are by-products of the artistic
genius. They are developed through erroneous conceptions and
overconcentration on a particular creative activity, and time and again
in the history of the world these by-products have ruined,
incapacitated, and disgraced men of real genius.

Nevertheless, if I can judge by my experience of this form of free
expression, the child is encouraged to practise the eccentricity as a
means to obtain the gift of drawing, which as a principle is about the
same as trying to breed race horses with weak lungs because it has been
noted that certain very fast horses have been rather deficient in this
respect. To encourage eccentricity is not to breed genius, and genius
itself is more free and more creative when it is not hampered by
eccentricity. Let us, at least, have some appreciation of rational cause
and effect.

So much for my two “D’s,” but my general criticism of the “free
expression” experiment does not end there. For I must confess that I
have been shocked to witness the work that has been going on in
these schools. I have seen children of various ages amusing
themselves—somewhat inadequately in quite a number of cases—by
drawing, dancing, carpentering, and so on, but in hardly a single
instance have I seen an example of one of these children employing
his physical mechanisms in a correct or _natural_ way. I insist upon
the use of the word _natural_ even though it be applied to such
relatively artificial activities as drawing and carpentering. For
there is a right, that is to say a most effective, way of holding
and using a pencil or a carpenter’s tool. But the children I saw
commonly sat or stood in positions of the worst mechanical
advantage, and the manner in which they held their pencils or their
tools demonstrated very clearly that until their management of such
instruments was corrected, they could never hope to produce anything
but the most clumsy results. Worse still, these children were
forming physical habits which would develop in a large majority of
cases into positive physical ills. A child who tries to guide its
pencil by futile movements of its head, tongue, and shoulders may be
preparing the way to ills so far-reaching that their origin is often
lost sight of.

As an instance of this, I recently had a case of a boy of 3½ years who
suffered from fear reflexes. If a stranger entered a room when the child
was present, he would cry and cling to his mother or nurse. At the
seaside after asking to be allowed to bathe with other children, he was
subsequently afraid to go near the water. And in many other ways he
exhibited unreasoning terrors which, according to the general diagnosis
common in such cases, were presumed to be the cause of his general
backwardness, a symptom particularly marked in his speech, for he was
only able to articulate a few words and those very imperfectly.

My first examination of him revealed the fact that he lacked proper
control of his lips and tongue, and of one internal physical function,
the latter chiefly at night. And that the lack of control in these
particulars was the direct cause of his psycho-physical condition was
very conclusively proved by my treatment of him. Treated on a basis of
conscious guidance and control, re-educated and co-ordinated, the child
made rapid advancement, and he progressed towards a condition
approximating more closely to what one might call normal, than he had
experienced since birth. The fear reflexes became less and less subject
to excitement, he grew less irritable, his temper was more controlled,
and his outbursts of crying were exhibited far less often.

I have cited this instance to show what strange psychic effects may
spring from apparently purely physical causes,—though, indeed, the
complement of psycho-physical is so unified that it is impossible to
divide the components and place them on one plane or the other. In this
boy’s case, the primary cause of the trouble was probably congenital,
but equal and greater troubles may arise from much smaller original
defects if the initial habit is confirmed and crystallised by use, as I
fear will be the case, if the child is left to develop itself on the
lines of the free expression advocates. It is quite certain, for
example, in the case just referred to, that no amount of “free” activity
could have released the child from his constrictions whilst the
influence caused by his malco-ordinations still existed.

But surely I have given evidence enough to prove my case against this
last development in education. In an ideal world into which children
were born with ideal capacities, Mr. Shaw’s thesis might have some
weight. In this rapidly changing world of the 20th century we require,
more than ever before, a system that shall guide and direct the child
during his earlier years. This implies no contradiction of what I have
said earlier anent the method of constant supervision. The necessary
correction of physical and mental faults that I am advocating is a very
different thing from the attempt to mould a child into one particular
preconceived form. I would only insist that the children of to-day, born
as they are with very feeble powers of instinctive control, absolutely
require certain definite instructions by which to guide themselves
before they can be left to free activity. And these directions must be
based on a principle that will help the child to employ his various
mechanisms to the best advantage in his daily activities. These
directions involve no interference with what the child has to express;
they represent merely a cultivation and development of the _means_
whereby he may find adequate and satisfying release for his
potentialities.

It is true that the foregoing principles must and will involve certain
necessary prohibitions, but if we select those essentials that deal with
the root cause of the evil instead of with the effects, we render
unnecessary the continual admonitions and “naggings” which represented
one of the vices of the old system, a vice from which it has been the
object of the new education to free the child.

To sum up this aspect of child-training, I find that on the whole the
methods of the older educationalists, with their definite prohibitions
and their exact instructions, were less harmful than the extremes of the
modern school that would base their scheme of education upon a child’s
instinctive reactions. The older methods failed, I admit, for one
reason, because the system was carried too far; for another, because the
injunctions and prohibitions were based on tradition, prejudice, and
ignorance, instead of upon a scientific principle dictated by reason.
But the new methods fail because they are founded on an entirely
erroneous assumption which is demonstrably fallacious. Can any method be
defended that is open to such a charge?

Give a child conscious control and you give him poise, the essential
starting point for education. Without that poise, which is a result
aimed at by neither the old nor the new methods of education, he will
presently be cramped and distorted by his environment. For although you
may choose the environment of a nursery or a school, there are few,
indeed, who can choose their desired environment in the world at large.
But give the child poise and the reasoned control of his physical being
and you fit him for any and every mode of life; he will have wonderful
powers of adapting himself to any and every environment that may
surround him. And if he be one of those exceptional individuals that, by
some rare gift of nature or by some force of personality, are able to
bend life to their own needs, be very sure that so far from having
suppressed his power of free expression, you will have strengthened and
perfected just those abilities which will enable the genius to put forth
all that is best and greatest in him.

My last charge against the advocates of free expression is that they
themselves are not free. So many propagandists and teachers show an
unwarranted intolerance towards the exponents of the old systems. They
are, in fact, too constricted in their mental attitude to give play to
their imagination. From one extreme they have flown to the other, and so
have missed the way of the great middle course which is wide enough to
accommodate all shades of opinion.

For let me state clearly in concluding this comment on a new method,
that I am, myself, as strong an advocate for free expression, rightly
understood, as any propagandist in the United States of America. But I
am convinced by long observation and experiment that the untrained child
has not the adequate power of free expression. There are certain
mechanical and other laws, deduced from untold centuries of human
experience, laws that are only in the rarest cases unconsciously
followed by the natural child of to-day. (One of these rare cases that
has recently come under my notice has been the billiard playing of Mr.
George Gray. I am of the opinion that the mechanical principle of the
position adopted by him could be scientifically demonstrated as being as
nearly perfect for its particular purpose as any position could be. And
according to my observation of him, Mr. Gray manifests in his play the
most remarkable and controlled kinæsthetic development I have yet
witnessed. But how many George Grays has the world so far produced?)

Over twenty-two years ago in Australia, I was teaching what I still
believe to be the true meaning of free expression. My pupils in this
case came to me for lessons in vocal and dramatic expression. Now by the
old methods these pupils would have been taught to imitate their master
very accurately in vocal and facial expression, in gesture, in the
manner of voice production; and it would have been at once apparent to
any one acquainted with the manner and methods of the teachers, where
each pupil had received his training. Furthermore, pupils educated by
those methods were taught to interpret each poem, scene, or passage on
the exact lines that were considered correct by their respective
teachers.

My own method, which at that time was regarded as very radical and
subversive, was to give my pupils certain lessons in re-education and
co-ordination on a basis of conscious guidance and control, and in this
way I gave the reciter, actor, or potential artist the means of
employing to the best advantage his powers of vocal, facial, and
dramatic expression, gesture, etc. He could then safely be permitted to
develop his own characteristics. A few suggestions might be necessary as
to interpretation, but the individual manner was his own. No pupil of
mine could be pointed to as representing some narrow school of
expression, although most of them could be recognised by the confidence
and freedom of their performances.

And in this connection it may be of interest to my readers to know that
in 1902–3 I decided to test the principles I advocated, and to this end
I organised performances of “Hamlet” and “The Merchant of Venice” for
which I gave special training on the lines I have just indicated to
young men and women, none of whom had previously appeared in a public
performance of any kind whatsoever. I trained all these young people on
the principles of conscious guidance and control, principles that I had
then developed and practised. My friends and critics naturally
anticipated a wonderful exhibition of “stage fright” on the evening of
the first performance, but as a matter of fact not one of my young
students had the least apprehension of that terror. By the time they
were ready to appear the idea of “stage fright” was one that seemed to
them the merest absurdity. It may be said that they did not understand
what was meant by such a condition. And this, although I would not allow
a prompter on the nights of the public performance! I regard this as one
of the most convincing public demonstrations I have yet made of the
wonderful command and self-possession that may be attained by the
inculcation of these principles.

For it must be observed that I sent these tyros to the performance
capable of expressing their own individualities. If they had been hedged
about or boxed in by an endless series of “Don’ts” confining their
performances by a rigid set of rules, the majority of them would almost
certainly have broken down within the first two minutes. On the other
hand, it is hardly necessary to picture the chaos that would have
ensued, had I sent them on the stage without training of any kind, poor,
helpless, ignorant examples of what they supposed to be free expression.

The foregoing is an example of education in only one sphere of art, but
it serves as an excellent indication of the essential needs of
education, in general, where the child is concerned. We must give the
child of to-day and of the future as a fundamental of education as
complete a command of his or her kinæsthetic systems as is possible, so
that the highest possible standard of “free expression” may be given in
every sphere of life and in all forms of human activity. We must build
up, co-ordinate, and re-adjust the human machine so that it may be _in
tune_. We are all acquainted with the expression “_tune up_” where the
automobile is concerned, and when we wish to command the best expression
of this machine we avail ourselves of the “_tuning up_” process of the
mechanical expert. And as the human organism is, as Huxley says, a
machine, we must remember that if we wish it to express its
potentialities adequately it must be “_in tune_.” This will represent
what we consider to be that satisfactory condition of the child’s
kinæsthetic systems which will enable him to express himself freely and
adequately. It constitutes the “means whereby” of free and full
expression, of adaptability to the ever changing environment of
civilised life, and to all that these two essentials connote.

In this note on race culture and the training of children, I have thus
far dwelt almost exclusively on the earlier years of childhood. But I
have much to say at some future time on the questions of primary and
secondary education, that is, of the boy and girl at school between the
ages of, say, seven and eighteen. No one who has read so far with
attention and has earnestly attempted to comprehend my point of view,
will now be able to urge that the question of education, secular or
religious, is outside my province, for the mental and physical are so
inextricably combined that we cannot consider the one without the other,
but, at the risk of being accused of repetition, I will briefly state my
case in this connexion once again, as follows:

I wish to postulate:

That conscious guidance and control, as a universal, must be the
fundamental of future education.

That civilisation and education, as manifested up to the present, cannot
be said to have compelled man to advance adequately from the lower to
those higher planes of satisfactory evolution, where his savage animal
instincts will not under any circumstances, or in response to any
stimuli, dominate his transcendent tendencies, or put him out of
communication with his reason.

That mankind should progress by slow continuous processes from one stage
of evolution to another. This will be particularly the case when he is
passing from his animal subconscious stage to the higher, reasoned
conscious stages, during which process he will develop a new
subconsciousness (cultivated, not inherited) under the guidance of
consciousness, likewise an increasing control which holds his animal
proclivities in check.

That the evolutionary progress from childhood to adolescence, and so
through the vicissitudes of life which follow, is determined by the
process adopted, the ratio of progress being in accordance with the
standard of efficacy of this process, and that this principle of
evolution applies equally to a nation.

That subconsciously developed mechanisms (subconscious guidance and
control) function satisfactorily during those stages of our evolution
which approximate to the more or less animal plane.

That the old moderate methods of education are not incompatible with
cultivation and development on the animal subconscious plane.

That “free expression” principles cannot bring satisfactory results
while the subject’s mechanisms are operated by inherited subconscious
guidance and control.

For this very reason, all aid to progressive development must conform to
the principle of the projection of guiding orders and controls in the
right direction or directions with the simultaneous employment of
positions of mechanical advantage, irrespective of the correctness or
otherwise of the immediate result. The result may be unsatisfactory
to-day and to-morrow, or during the next week, but if the position of
mechanical advantage is employed and orders and controls in the right
direction are held in mind and projected again and again, a new and
correct complex sooner or later supersedes the old vicious one, and
becomes permanently established.

That consciously controlled mechanisms (conscious guidance and control)
are essential to man’s satisfactory development and progress to the
higher stages of his evolution; and to that continued adequate vital
functioning of his physical or mental organism necessary in these
advanced stages, where more rapid adaptability to the swiftly and
everchanging environment, and the power to _see_, and _comprehend new
ideas_, are the urgent demands of an advancing civilisation.

That consciously controlled mechanisms are essential to the successful
inculcation of the principle of “free expression” and all that it
connotes in Education.

Conscious guidance and control, as the fundamental in education,
commands the fundamentals of “free expression.” The words free or
freedom are herein used in their true meaning, not in the ordinary
acceptation. I refer to the point of view which causes one to ask, “Is
there such a thing as real freedom?” For we know that we cannot have
freedom without restraint, any more than we can have psycho-physical
harmony without antagonism.

It is said that the dividing line between tragedy and comedy is not one
that the majority of people readily recognise, and this is also the case
in regard to what is called freedom and licence. This is the danger
which the new democracies of the world are facing at this very moment,
and their dangers will be increased a thousandfold in the near future,
when they will be called upon to pass through that critical period of
re-adjustment which must follow the present world crisis.

In this matter of education I am, admittedly, an iconoclast. I would
fain break down the idols of tradition and set up new concepts. In no
matters do we see more plainly the harmful effect of the rigid
convention than in this matter of teaching. We speak commonly of
training the minds of children. It is a happy expression in its origin,
and we still retain its proper intention when we apply the word to its
uses in horticulture.

The gardener does, indeed, train the young growth. He draws it out to
the light and warmth and leads it into the conditions most helpful for
its development.

And so, in teaching, the first essential should be to cultivate the uses
of the mind and body, and not, as is so often the case, to neglect the
instrument of thought and reason by the inculcation of fixed rules which
have never been examined. Again, where ideas that are patently erroneous
have already been formed in the child’s mind, the teacher should take
pains to apprehend these preconceptions, and in dealing with them he
should not attempt to overlay them, but should eradicate them as far as
possible before teaching or submitting the new and correct idea. I say
“teaching or submitting” and perhaps the latter word better expresses my
meaning, for by teaching I understand the placing of facts, for and
against, before the child, in such a way as to appeal to his reasoning
faculties, and to his latent powers of originality. He should be allowed
to think for himself, and should not be crammed with other people’s
ideas, or one side only of a controversial subject. Why should not the
child’s powers of intelligence be trained? Why should they be stunted by
our forcing him to accept the preconceived ideas and traditions which
have been handed down from generation to generation, without
examination, without reason, _without enquiry as to their truth or
origin_? The human mind of to-day is suffering from partial paralysis by
this method of forcing these unreasoned and antiquated principles upon
the young and plastic intelligence.

The educational system itself is grievously inadequate and detrimental,
as all thinking educationalists are aware, but the decision regarding
the necessity for physical exercise and “deep breathing” in our schools
has added another evil. I wish to say here deliberately that the many
systems of physical training generally adopted show an almost criminal
neglect of rational method, and of the test which can demonstrably prove
the practice to be unsound and hurtful.

Some years ago I wrote in the _Pall Mall Gazette_:


  “I will merely point out that in our schools and in the Army human
  beings are actually being developed into deformities by breathing and
  physical exercises. I have before me a book on the breathing exercises
  which are used in the Army, and any person reasonably versed in
  physiology and psychology, and knowing they are inseparable in
  practice, will at once understand why so much harm results from them.
  Take either the officers or the men. In a greater or less degree the
  unduly protruded upper chests (development of emphysema), unduly
  hollowed backs (lordosis), stiff necks, rigid thorax, and other
  physical eccentricities have been cultivated. It is for these reasons
  that heart troubles, varicose veins, emphysema, and mouth breathing
  (in exercise) are so much in evidence in the Army. As this is a matter
  of _national importance, I am prepared to give the time necessary to
  prove to the authorities (medical or official) connected with the
  Army, the schools, or the sanatoria, that the ‘deep breathing’ and
  physical exercises in vogue are doing far more harm than good_, and
  are laying the foundations of much graver trouble in the future. The
  truth is that all exercises involving ‘deep breathing’ cause an
  exaggeration of the defective muscular co-ordination already present,
  so that even if one bad habit is eradicated many others—often more
  harmful—are cultivated.”


And again in my pamphlet “Why We Breathe Incorrectly” (Nov., 1909) I
wrote:


  “Let me make myself clear by explaining that the man who breathes
  incorrectly and inadequately, does so as an immediate and inevitable
  consequence of abnormal and harmful conditions of certain parts of his
  body. The man who breathes correctly and adequately does so as an
  immediate and inevitable consequence of normal and salubrious
  conditions of the same parts. It therefore follows that if the
  conditions present in the second man can be induced in the first, he
  will then, but not otherwise, be a correct and adequate breather. And
  the process by which this is achieved is simply a re-adjustment of the
  parts of the body by a new and correct use of the muscular mechanisms
  through the directive agent of the sphere of consciousness. This
  change brings about a proper mechanical advantage of all the parts
  concerned, and causes, thanks to the right employment of the relative
  machinery, such expansion and contraction of the thoracic cavity as to
  give atmospheric pressure its opportunity. Now here we have (a) the
  directive agent of the sphere of consciousness, and (b) the use of the
  muscular mechanisms—the combination causing certain expansions and
  contractions, and _the result being what is known as breathing_. It
  will at once be seen, therefore, that the act of breathing is not a
  primary, or even a secondary, part of the process, which is really
  _re-education of the kinæsthetic systems associated with correct
  bodily postures and respiration_, and will be referred to universally
  as such in the near future. As a matter of fact, given the perfect
  co-ordination of parts as acquired by my system, breathing is a
  subordinate operation which will perform itself.”


I stand by every word of this to-day. Hundreds of soldiers every year
have to leave the British Army on account of heart trouble directly
brought about by the “drill-sergeant’s chest” and its concomitant
strains and rigidities. Not long ago, Mr. Punch had a picture of a young
boy riding in the Row with his groom and answering that worthy’s
question as to how he would salute a Royal Personage—“Same as the
soldiers do; hold my hand up to my hat and look as if I was going to
burst”! Certainly a straw showing which way the wind blows.

These same soldiers will start on a long route march with chest “well
set” and stiff. The strain of marching inevitably brings them later into
an easier slouching position, which makes continuance possible and at
its worst is not so positively harmful as is the tension of the other
posture.

Compare the free, loose but more healthy physical attitude of the sailor
ashore with that of the “smart” soldier strutting in town like a pouter
pigeon for the honour of the regiment. It is your team of sailors that
is the readier and the more effective for hard work.

And but a few weeks (now years) ago, I saw with dismay in a popular
illustrated daily paper a truly pathetic picture of a class of
schoolboys with hollowed backs and protruding chests looking like
nothing so much as very ruffled pouter pigeons. And the master was
commended for his zeal in producing such results by “deep breathing.”
(See photographs facing this page.)

Is it, I would ask, likely on the face of it that the right position in
which a man or woman should stand for health’s sake should be one
needing positive strain to preserve? The thing is preposterous, and I am
convinced that nothing can result from the application of such
principles but complete chaos, physical and mental.

To return to my general theory of training, I fear I must not
particularise too definitely in some directions, but my instance of
right-handedness has its application. On the one hand we are willing to
sacrifice reason for such a tradition and convention as this; on the
other for an untried and possibly illogical idea. The defence for the
latter sacrifice is generally based either on the need for enthusiasm or
the necessity for proceeding by a system of trial and error. Well, as to
enthusiasm, I will claim that no one is a greater enthusiast than I am
myself, but I will not permit my enthusiasm to dominate my reason. One
day I hope to write an account of how I arrived at the practical
elucidation of my principles of conscious control, and when I do, I
shall show very plainly how one of the greatest, if not _the_ greatest
danger against which I had to fight was my own enthusiasm. It is as
vivid and keen to-day as it was over twenty years ago, but I should
never have worked out my principles, if I had allowed it to dominate my
reason. Again, as to the argument pleading the necessity for empiricism,
I admit also that my own methods have been and still are, in some
directions, experimental. But with regard to the “free expression”
movement, I claim that the error in practice has been sufficiently
demonstrated, and further than that, I must insist that we are not
justified in experimenting on children. I have never done that inasmuch
as I have realised that the error may be irreparable. Could any fault
weigh heavier on a human conscience than that by which, however
unwittingly, another human life had been distorted?

Wherefore, pleading on behalf of my most important client, the child of
this younger generation, I demand that we shall proceed to neither of
the dangerous extremes that threaten his physical and mental well-being.
On the one hand we must avoid the thrusting upon him of fixed ideas, by
which you may narrow his mind, for I know that when you limit him,
imparting to him deliberately your own mental habits, the effects go far
beyond what we are pleased to call the “formation of character.” On the
other hand we are not justified in leaving him entirely to himself.
Whilst he has the right of choice within certain limits, he has not,
unhappily, the ability to choose in his earlier years. We need not bind
him to choose this or that, but we must educate him in such a way as to
give him the power of choice. In Mr. Allen Upward’s delightful work,
_The New Word_, which I have already quoted, he says: “Give the child
leave to grow. Give the child leave to live. Give the child leave to
hope and to hope truly.... He is the plaintiff in this case. I say that
he is mankind ... and his birthright is the truth.” And to that I would
add, “Give the child leave, also, to learn. Give him opportunity to
profit by all the knowledge we can give him out of our experience. His
birthright, indeed, is the truth, but we must aid him in making the
discovery.”

It is full time that we gave more earnest thought to this matter. I
cannot in this brief outline dwell on the many phases of proper food,
clothing, and physical training, and all those other points which we
must consider. The Kinæsthetic Systems concerned with correct and
healthy bodily movements and postures have become demoralised by the
habits engendered in the schoolroom through the restraint enforced at a
time when natural activity should have been encouraged and
scientifically directed, and in the crouching positions caused by
useless and irrational deskwork.

And I may note in this connection that I am continually being asked,
both by friends and unknown correspondents, for my opinion concerning
the correct type of chair, stool, desk or table to be used in order to
prevent the bad habits which these pieces of furniture are supposed to
have caused in schools. In my replies I have tried to demonstrate that
the problem is being attacked from the wrong standpoint.

Let us consider the problem in the light of common-sense. Suppose, for
example, that there is an ideal chair, some wonderful arrangement of
perfect angles, hollows, and supports that will almost magically rectify
or prevent every fault in the child’s physical mechanism. Suppose
further that the child finds great ease and repose when seated in this
ideal chair. How then can he avoid suffering the tortures of all that is
uncomfortable, when he rides in the cars, or sits down in his own home,
or visits a friend, or goes for a picnic on the river or in the woods? I
see nothing else for it; when that ideal chair has been found, our child
will have to carry it about with him wherever he goes.

In the second place, how is it possible for this ideal chair to be
miraculously adaptable to every age and type of child? Are we to treat
children as plastic lumps of clay to be fitted to the model insisted
upon by the lines of our ideal chair; or are we to study and measure
each individual and have a chair built to his measure, once a year, say,
until he is adult?

No, what we need to do is not to educate our school furniture, but to
educate our children. Give a child the ability to adapt himself within
reasonable limits to his environment, and he will not suffer discomfort,
nor develop bad physical habits, whatever chair or form you give him to
sit upon. I say, “within reasonable limits,” for it is obviously absurd
to expect a Brobdingnagian child to use a Lilliputian chair. But let us
waste no valuable time, thought, or invention in designing furniture,
when by a smaller expenditure of those three gifts we may train the
child to win its own conscious control, and rise superior to any
probable limitations imposed by ordinary school fittings.

For the problem to be solved in education is that same problem which
needs solution in the social, political, religious, industrial,
economic, ethical, æsthetic and other spheres of progressive human
activity. In every sphere of life we have for years given “effects” the
significance of “causes” and have made worthy attempts to put matters
right on this unsound basis. In the case of education certain symptoms
have been recognised as more or less harmful, and the whole blame has
been placed upon the method or methods of education involved.

For at least half a century, the method of the social worker was
conceived on the lines of giving money, food, and clothing to the poor,
in an attempt to ameliorate their condition. The evils of this false
policy came home to them in a practical way, and nowadays, the object of
the social worker is to give the poor the “means whereby” of general
advancement and of getting money, clothes, and food by their own
efforts.

The same principle holds good in the treatment of the children. Hitherto
educationalists have given them what they considered they needed. What
we must do in the future is to give them the “means whereby” they may
themselves satisfy their needs and command their own advancement.

The adoption of new methods is a procedure which always demands a due
and proper consideration of the thing, person, or persons to which they
are to be applied. Investigation along these lines would probably have
revealed the real _cause_ of the difficulties to be faced in the
education of the child of to-day, which is that the process of civilised
life has gradually changed the child’s psycho-physical condition at
birth. In this process much has been gained and much lost. From the
educator’s point of view the losses have been stupendous as compared
with the gains, for the all-important kinæsthetic systems have been
deteriorated by man’s attempt to pass from the lower (animal) to the
higher stages of the evolutionary plane while depending upon a
subconsciously controlled organism.

I have still very much more to say on this subject of education, and I
hope to have an opportunity in the near future of elaborating my methods
and of setting them out so that they may be practically and universally
applied. But if by these few remarks I can arouse some interest in this
world problem, I shall have done something towards its solution. It is a
problem which is very urgent at the present time, and is growing more
urgent every day. All that we have done up to the present time is to
enforce one rule or another upon the children as an experiment, for all
the rules have been rigid in their enforcement, however unscientific in
their conception. In place of these rules I look for an ideal which I
believe to be comparatively easy of realisation. I look for, and already
see, a method of training our children which shall make them masters of
their own bodies; I look for a time when the child shall be so taught
and trained that whatever the circumstance which shall later surround
it, it will without effort be able to adapt itself to its environment,
and be enabled to live its life in the enjoyment of perfect health,
physical and mental. For, as I have already pointed out, man has
progressed towards the higher and more complex stages of civilisation.
He has continued to change his habits of life and being still far from
the highest state attainable he will continue to change. The farther he
becomes removed from the primitive uncivilised stage of his evolution
the less likely is he to have the opportunity in the daily routine of
his life so to exercise the physical machinery that it will be prevented
from working imperfectly by the controls of instinct. “Conscious
control” will enable man to adapt himself more readily to changing
conditions of life. No one who looks out upon this latter day world with
discerning eyes can fail to see that the changes tend to become more
rapid and more radical than ever before in the history of the world’s
progress.

We look towards the goal, and it is best to seek the highest and be
content with no less, but at the same time it is necessary that we
should consider the practical detail of our journey. What follows in
Parts II and III may seem trivial by comparison with the high endeavour
I have outlined, but it is the triviality of the essential detail.

I wish to point the road still more clearly, and to show how every man
and woman may learn to walk upon it.




                                  VIII
    EVOLUTIONARY STANDARDS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CRISIS OF 1914


In the previous chapters I have dealt briefly with the fundamentals upon
which our whole structure of education and civilisation is based, and
have attempted to point to the different tendencies developed by the
individual in the struggle to progress upon this basis. At the same time
I have indicated that which I am confident is the only true fundamental
upon which mankind in a state of civilisation may progress and evolve to
a condition commanding freedom for all time from those limiting,
narrowing, and debasing qualities which belong to the animal spheres of
existence.

It seems to me that the present world crisis indicates that this is the
psychological moment to make a wide application of my principles, though
my reader may consider that I should not enter the debatable ground of
hypothesis in a work which has been devoted, up to this point, to
arguments almost entirely drawn from personal experiences and
observation.

I have dealt with the fundamentals employed in the development of the
child and the adult, and I have postulated that the evolutionary
progress from childhood to adolescence, and on through the vicissitudes
of life which follow, is determined by the process adopted, the ratio of
progress being in accordance with the standard of efficacy of this
process, and that this principle of evolution applies equally to a
nation.

It then devolves upon us to consider the different processes adopted by
different nations, in order to gauge accurately their different stages
of evolution and their possibilities of growth and development towards
real individual and national progress.

After centuries of endeavour in the direction of progress in accordance
with well-defined processes, founded upon approved educational,
religious, economic, political, industrial, ethical and æsthetic
principles, and after a century of unprecedented progress in the realm
of Arts and Sciences, we are faced with the spectacle, in a supposedly
civilised nation, of a debauched kinæsthesia which has manifested itself
in such a display of savage instincts as will present us in the eyes of
a more highly evolved universe as plunged in the depths of barbarism.

During the past three years the people of the world have been shocked
and stirred by events which even four years ago were considered
impossible in the stage of civilisation then reached. In consequence, we
find that a special and earnest endeavour is being made to solve
problems of vital importance which have a bearing upon the future
development and cultivation of the potentialities of mankind.

It is, therefore, essential to recognise that we have reached a point in
the process called civilisation which will be recorded as one of the
most critical and vital in the world’s history.

At this moment the great nations of Europe are engaged in the most
terrific conflict of force ever recorded, whilst in America, a land of
peace, there is being witnessed what is probably the most bitterly
contested conflict of opinion ever experienced regarding the conduct,
policy, and duty of the American nation where the old world is
concerned.

(This was penned prior to American intervention in the war.)

The happenings of the past three years must influence our present and
future opinion of the value of our educational, political, moral,
social, industrial, religious and other principles where the progress of
man is concerned, as he passes from the animal plane of his evolution to
those higher planes for which he is undoubtedly destined.

The conclusions thus reached will so influence the future welfare of
mankind that the facts from which these conclusions are deduced demand
the most serious attention and study of every human being.

It is therefore essential that we make an earnest endeavour to discover
fundamentals. In this connexion we must consider the available evidence
concerning the cause or causes of this conflict in Europe which has
shaken our boasted advancement in civilisation to its very roots. What
does this recrudescence of barbarity mean when viewed with an open and
unprejudiced mind in its relation to the future of those principles
which alone make for the real mental, physical, and spiritual growth of
mankind in progressive civilisation?

It signifies a tremendous clash of opposing forces, a desperate conflict
between the lowly-evolved peoples of the world as against the more
highly evolved races, the struggle of an open-minded, mobile idealism
for the supremacy of the individual against a narrow-minded, rigid,
material automatism which entails the suppression of the individual and
the obliteration of his reason in the supposed interests of the State.

Let us take, then, a general comparative view of the compelling
psycho-physical forces in the life of primitive and civilised nations up
to the crisis. America in this stands apart and must be considered
separately.

_In Primitive Nations._ The compelling forces were chiefly physical and
subconscious. The very essentials of life depended almost entirely upon
brute force. Daily experiences gave a keen edge to savage instincts and
unbridled passions, to an automatic development which opposed the
cultivation of the faculty of adaptability to new environment. Even the
spheres of courage were limited, and when confronted with the unusual
these peoples quaked like cowards, and fled panic-stricken from the
unaccustomed, as in the case of the negroes in the Southern States of
America when the men of the Ku-Klux Klan pursued them on horseback
dressed in white.

_In Civilised Nations._ The compelling forces have become less and less
physical and less subconscious than in the case of primitive nations,
but the advance from the physical to the mental and from the
subconscious to the conscious has not been adequate or sufficiently
comprehensive to establish the mental and conscious principles as the
chief compelling forces in the progress of the nation or even of the
individual. The essentials of life do not depend upon brute force, and
daily experiences become less and less associated with factors which
make for the development of savage instincts and unbridled passion, or
automatic development. But experience has proved that civilised nations
have failed to come through the ordeal of adaptation to the everchanging
environment of civilisation with satisfactory results. The spheres of
courage are still more or less limited, and when brought suddenly face
to face with the unusual and unexpected people still exhibit a tendency
to panic and loss of control. The progress made by civilised nations
from the primitive state to the present has not been upon comprehensive
lines. The result has been that the majority of the activities of the
nation have been limited, and in those few activities where the widening
influence held sway, the freedom became licence and led to
overcompensation. This condition was sufficiently harmful as long as it
applied to the individual and to individual effort, the individual being
more or less held in check by collective opinion; but when it applied to
the nation and to national effort, that nation which ignored the opinion
of other nations developed unchecked, and the national decision to
stifle the individual, body and soul, if it seemed to be for the welfare
of the State, constituted the most powerful force in the prevention of
progress on the evolutionary plane.

For this decision, once it became the result of national conception,
carried with it the most damaging and impossible of all mental processes
in the sphere of true evolutionary advancement. In the first place the
national decision was the result of an erroneous national conception,
the outcome of what I have called, for the want of a better name,
“manufactured premises.”

Manufactured premises are the forerunners of unsound and delusive
deductions—a stultification of reason—and demand the cultivation of a
form of self-hypnotism which is fatal to national or individual
progress.

A few observant people noted this dangerous habit even in the early
literature of the German nation, and watched with keen interest its
cultivation in all spheres of activity in recent years. This explains
the stupendous failure of German judgment in all matters of national and
international importance, of the impossibility of the peoples of that
nation to see anything from any other point of view but their own, of
their crass stupidity in gauging the psychology of other nations, and
particularly that of the American nation.

In the foregoing we have fundamentals worthy of consideration. They must
occupy the attention of all thinking people who wish to make a
contribution towards the uplifting of mankind and the establishment of a
standard of reasoned guidance and control which should make another
barbarous conflict unthinkable and therefore impossible.

Naturally, every nation is ready enough with a more or less humane
reason for its madness. Self-protection, an altruistic regard for the
rights of smaller nations, a sense of high duty towards mankind at
large, all these pleas have been urged as explaining the single
principle which has drawn this or that nation into the whirlpool. And
each and every nation must surely have pleaded liberty as their excuse
at some time or another, liberty being one of those adaptable terms that
may be used to mean almost anything. Before the war Germany was
maintaining a right for “liberty” of expansion, a defensive use of the
word that has hardly anything in common with the American use at the
present time.

On the other hand philosophers, economists, psychologists, commercial
experts, and the public at large have been busy with a dozen other
theories of the primary causes of the war. We have heard much talk of
race hatred, of business rivalry, of high commercial and political
intrigues, and a dozen other influences, and all of them have been put
forward at one time or another as the sole reason for the present welter
of blood and fury. We have, in fine, so many reasons from which to
choose that we may be quite sure no single one of them can possibly
afford us an inclusive and adequate explanation.

But I will go still further than that. For I maintain on grounds which I
find logically unshakeable, that if we admit, as seems the only sensible
course, that something of all these reasons and excuses has entered into
the conditions producing such awful results, we must still seek some
explanation of the preceding state that made these conditions possible.
All our reasons, in fact, are mere effects, and we are groping for our
primary cause among resultant phenomena. We can never solve our problem
by such a method as this. We might as well hope to find the origin of a
child by dissecting its limbs and intestines. Our only hope is to shift
our viewpoint, to cease our muddled examination of the details just in
front of us, and try to see our problem in the broad terms of one who
can stand back and see life moving through the centuries.

With all people, in all spheres of life, we know only too well that
certain mental and physical manifestations give an absolute clue to
their character, to their aims in life, their ideals, and, what is more
to the point, to the stage they have reached in the process called
evolution.

Incidentally, I would point out that education as generally understood,
even when it implies the most up-to-date methods, does not necessarily
mean progress on the evolutionary plane any more than ability as a
linguist need denote a high standard of mentality.

This applies also to most arts and particularly to those where music and
dancing are concerned. The lower the stage of evolution, within certain
limits, the greater the appeal of music and dancing.

When we review the history and general progress of humanity we
find the instincts and traits of the animal—the brute force
principle—predominating at certain stages. If we go back far
enough we find that there was a stage when it was always
predominant.

Therefore, a test as to the ratio of progress of nations on the
evolutionary plane is to be found in their tendency and desire to
advance beyond that stage where the mental and physical forces, which
should only belong as inherited instincts to the brute animals and
savages, hold sway; and with this in view, if we take a survey of the
history, ideals, habits of life, mental outlook, and general tendencies
of the German nation, it will show conclusively that these
self-hypnotised people approximated too closely to the lower animals and
savages in their mode and chief aims of life.

The great and noble ideals and aims of mankind making for progress
towards the more highly evolved states were cast aside for the
unreasoning, brutal, and ignoble principles which make for the
debasement of man’s elevating potentialities, and hold him a slave to
the cruel and lowly-evolved state of the primitive creatures. That any
nation or nations should deliberately adopt, as their highest ideals and
aims, brute force in all its hideous aspects, desecration of mind, body,
and soul for the State, justification of criminal instincts and acts if
employed on behalf of the State, destruction, rape and plunder, murder
and torture to terrify innocent civilians; that they should adopt, in
short, the brutal principle that “Might is Right” in that special
national form in which it has been manifested in the last half century
and directed towards what is now known as “Militarism,”—all this is
surely proof positive that they have progressed but little on the upward
evolutionary stage from the state occupied by the brute beast and the
savage. The criminal aspect of the outrage of all that rightthinking
human beings hold dear is intensified by the fact that the nations which
perpetrated the deed were among the most prosperous of the world, and
enjoyed, as aliens, the same privileges as the subjects of those nations
whose hospitality and confidence they abused.

The nations bearing the brunt of the struggle against this outburst of
primitive brutal instincts and desires have long since reached a stage
in their evolution which made the methods of Attila unthinkable. If
forced into war they conducted it on the evolved plane of the human, and
not that of the animal. They treated their captives as honourable men
and extended to them every conceivable consideration within their power.
Prior to this war the ideals and aims of these nations were the
antithesis of those of their lowly-evolved enemies, and they were ideals
and aims which made for the right to live in peace with all other
nations. They aimed at the reduction of armaments, and gave practical
proof of their aims. They opened their ports and their markets to their
present enemies and gave them a free hand in every respect in all
spheres of activity. They had no desire to beat down the ideals and
principles which make for the ennoblement of mankind, they had no wish
to dominate the world by brute force and to establish a system of living
and a form of conduct which grinds the individual into a mere heartless
unreasoning automaton, rigid-brained, driven like an animal, and not
daring to claim even his soul as his own.

For many years prior to the crisis of 1914 we listened to the blatant
outbursts of German professors and other educated authorities of that
nation concerning its superiority to other nations. We were asked to
believe that certain individuals of that nationality had reached the
stage of the superman. These unfortunate and deluded people have for
some time been cursed with this obsession.

Thinking men and women of other nations listened and wondered when these
claims were made concerning these supermen, and after examining the
evidence advanced to support these claims became convinced that they
were not justified. The stupendous failure of the supposed supermen in
every sphere of mental and physical activity in the present war proves
the correctness of these convictions.

It seems inconceivable that supermen could so have guided and directed
the whole national energy of Germany that it became more and more
narrowed,—like the German mind,—until it concentrated almost solely upon
the stupid conception of the domination of the world by Germany. To this
end, the national energy was diverted chiefly into two channels:


                   COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY AND MILITARISM

One of the great features connected with the former was the
extraordinary development of machinery, which demanded for its
successful pursuance that the individual should be subjected to the most
harmful systems of automatic training.

The standardised parts of the machine made demands which tended to
stereotype the human machine. The limitations of human activity, mental
and physical, reached the maximum. The power to continue work under such
conditions depended upon a process of deterioration in the individual.
He was slowly but surely being robbed of the possibility of development.
The very soul of man was crushed to foster an industrial process which
was to provide the sinews of the war machine, to support that curse
called militarism, and the demoralisation of Germany came chiefly
through that nation’s conceptions of militarism which, in the first and
last analysis, stands for the worst manifestation of those savage
instincts and unbridled passions associated with the lowest stages of
primitive race development.

The horrible results of the sum total of the national madness which the
foregoing represents are now revealed before us, for to Germany this
militarism constituted a rigid plan, a system, and a world-philosophy.

She is convinced, against all the evidence, that her plan, system, or
philosophy, is so undeniably right as to constitute an absolute. As a
nation she has no mobility, no poise. She is influenced by a stultifying
idea, the perfection of her own “Kultur” (a word more properly
translated as a civilisation than by the word “culture” as used in the
English or American sense). She is, in fact, just as badly co-ordinated,
as unable to follow the true mandate of reason, as any individual who is
dominated by a fixed idea.

For the trouble is that when reason is so far held in check that it
loses its power of denial, it must have lost its power of control. The
original “idea” formulated in the conscious mind has sunk so deep into
the subconscious that it cannot be changed except under the influence of
some stronger outside power. For nearly fifty years Germany, in her
schools, her gymnasiums, her universities, her civic and her political
life, has been inculcating a rigid and mentally demoralising system, and
she is suffering now—as the monomaniac in private life must suffer—for
her particular form of insanity.

Even in the conduct of her great campaign, this weakness of hers has
begun to defeat her. She has lost the power of adaptability in military
matters. She repeats the faults of her original plan, despite the
endless illustrations that have been afforded by her Western antagonists
that that plan can be very considerably bettered. No doubt the Higher
Command may realise in some instances the weakness of the old method in
conditions that have been immensely modified since August, 1914, but
they are impotent to change, in a year or in a decade, the effect of
their own teaching on the millions of Germany’s army. The massed attack,
for example, has been demonstrated to be a disastrous failure—a single
well-placed machine-gun can defeat it—but Germany’s soldiers will not
advance in a scattered attack. They have learnt to depend upon the
nearness of their comrades. Separate a German battalion and it has
neither confidence nor courage.

Again, can one reasonably doubt that the German nation suffers from some
form of self-hypnotism when one sees evidence of the almost pathetic
belief apparently still placed in the campaign of “frightfulness”? The
German people themselves are afraid—an inevitable symptom of certain
forms of monomania—of the horrible devices they themselves are using,
and no evidence can bring home to them the fact, that the plan of
terrorising their enemies not only fails but recoils even upon their own
heads. London—I speak from experience—is not intimidated by Zeppelin
raids by night, nor by seaplane raids by day. The inhabitants of London
do not cower under these terrible afflictions and beg for peace; on the
contrary each horrible incident arouses afresh their determination to
prevent, if possible, a recurrence of such savagery in the world’s
history. Any sane nation must have realised this fact eighteen months
ago; Germany, blind and rigid in the trance of her self-hypnosis, still
staggers on to her own destruction.

In the opposite direction it is interesting to note the methods of the
British. In their case, we can trace no such clear effort for narrowness
and organisation. The general policy of the nation, whether internal or
international, had that haphazard air which is so commonly cited as
being a characteristic of the English method as a whole. We saw an
almost complete inability to govern or even to manage that still largely
subconsciously ruled country of Ireland. We witnessed the most
astounding blunders of policy with regard to foreign countries (witness
Lord Salisbury’s cession of Heligoland to Germany in 1890, Gladstone’s
handling of the first Boer War, and a dozen other instances), and even
with regard to the treatment of Britain’s own colonies, whilst
internally her educational and administrative systems were the result of
a method of trial and error which was sometimes well-nigh disastrous.

The British have in them a peculiar kind of empiricism. They are ready
to laugh at and to criticise their own defects. They admit quite freely,
for example, that they “blundered through somehow” in the Boer War, and
that they have blundered again and again (most destructively in
Gallipoli) in the present campaign. Their criticism of the rigidity of
their own military methods is a proof that if the criticism is sometimes
justified, the people at home—aye! and the New Army abroad—have never
been infected with that rigidity themselves. But, in truth, that
rigidity of discipline is now little in evidence in the field. And how
little it has affected the British and French plan of campaign may be
judged by the fact that every new device of any importance during the
war, whether a device of method or of mechanical invention, has been
originated by France and Great Britain. Now, from the German point of
view, this adaptability to circumstances would be pronounced, _a
priori_, as certain to lead to disaster. I put it to America, on the
evidence afforded by the battle-fields of France, which method is the
more likely to achieve ultimate success?

Returning now to my single reason for the cause of the present war, I
feel that the explanation has already been given. Granted a nation
educated and trained as Germany has been, some explosion was inevitable
sooner or later. If we have in our midst an individual suffering from a
fixed idea, he must in time become intolerable to us. Never in the
history of the world have thought and the tendency to organisation been
more fluid than they were in the first years of the 20th century. Yet
one great and powerful nation interfered with us at every turn, impeding
the flow of liberal thought by her obsession with the ideas of her own
greatness and the omnipotence of her military machine. Nevertheless the
other nations of Europe adapted themselves within limits to the demands
of this rigid mechanism in their midst. And it may be that these very
powers of endurance and adaptability hastened the crisis. They were
regarded by the monomaniacs of Germany as signs of weakness, and just as
their own philosopher Nietzsche went mad by concentration on his own
invariable theme, so at last Germany crossed the bounds of sanity,
imbued with a crazy belief in her own omnipotence. She ran amuck in the
wide streets of Europe, and even yet she has not realised her own
madness. I seriously question whether she will come to anything like a
proper realisation of that madness in the present generation. She has
allowed a habit of mind to become fixed; and it has fallen into the
realms of her subconsciousness. We must treat her as mad, but she is
nevertheless to be pitied.

Earlier in this chapter, I separated America from the rest of the world.
And my reason for this is that I regard this great nation of the United
States as still in its early childhood from one point of view. I have an
immense confidence in the future of America. I see that she has
potentialities and opportunities such as no other nation has ever had.
For her the possibilities of control by reason are illimitable. But at
the same time I must issue a very serious warning to every American
reader of this book. For already I have seen the imitation of certain
habits of thought, habits which, if they are persisted in, will sink
deep into the national subconsciousness and prove a source of danger to
the body politic.

My wish for America is that she should preserve as far as possible an
open mind. She has recently entered the Great War for reasons that every
right-minded man and woman must applaud and respect. I trust that she
will come out of it with the same balance and power of choice, so that
when she has to turn again to her own affairs, to matters of education,
of government, and of her commercial interests, she will be able to form
a national mind, sane enough and strong enough to control the great
national body.

No finer ambition is possible than this. The old ambition of dominance,
whether commercial or military, defeats itself by its very exaggeration.
Such ambitions mount up until they become topheavy, and, even if they
could be achieved, the result would be nothing but a decadence such as
that which followed the Empire of Rome.

But given such a power of co-ordination and of self-control in the race,
as a unit, as could be compared with the balance of a wise and healthy
man, that nation would be free, with a greater liberty than history can
record, and to such a nation little would be impossible. She would
become the teacher of the world by the force of her reason and example.
She would inaugurate the coming of a greater and wiser humanity.


                             END OF PART I




                                PART II
                     CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL




                               EDUCATION


“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible.
Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial
organisation upon the natural organisation of the body; so that acts,
which at first require a conscious effort, eventually become unconscious
and mechanical.”—HUXLEY.


                              RE-EDUCATION

“It is because the body is a machine that (RE)education is possible.
(RE)education is the formation of (NEW AND CORRECT) habits, a
(RE-INSTATING OF THE CORRECT) artificial organisation upon the natural
organisation of the body; so that acts, which at first require conscious
effort, eventually become unconscious and mechanical.”




                        INTRODUCTION TO PART II


In the first part of this volume I have endeavoured to explain the
general principle which underlies my work. I will now present my
proposition from a slightly different angle, as it were, to ensure a
clearer view of it, that is, I shall deal with it in the light of its
practical application to the acts of everyday life.

I trust I may do something to convince thinking men and women that
conscious control is essential to man’s satisfactory progress in
civilisation, and that the properly directed use of such control will
enable the individual to stand, sit, walk, breathe, digest, and in fact
live with the least possible expenditure of vital energy. This will
ensure the highest standard of resistance to disease. When this
desirable stage of our evolution is reached the cry of physical
deterioration may no longer be heard.

I will write out as concisely, as definitely, and as boldly as possible,
my claims and my main argument. In a second part I have added some more
discursive notes and comments, which I trust will meet the many requests
I have received for further light on certain points in my former book.

With the records of my casebooks for over twenty years before me I feel
it right to set down my convictions in terms that do not admit of any
doubt or uncertainty. My conclusions upon the urgent question of
physical decadence have not been formulated in haste. They are
deductions from a long series of striking results and observed facts,
and, frankly, I consider them so important that I cannot hesitate to
deliver my message in a tone which may appear to some to savour of
over-confidence. So be it!




                                   I
                           SYNOPSIS OF CLAIM


1. My first claim is that psycho-physical guidance by conscious control,
when applied as a universal principle to “living,” constitutes an
unfailing preventive for diseases mental or physical, malformations, and
loss of general efficiency. It is commonly considered that these
conditions are brought about by such evils of civilisation as the
limitation of energy, and by that loss of so-called “natural conditions”
which civilisation entails.

It is my earnest belief that the intelligent recognition of the
principles essential to guidance by conscious control are essential to
the full mental and physical development of the human race. Due
consideration will convince even the sceptical that if mankind is to
evolve to the higher stages of mental and physical perfection, he must
be guided by these principles. They alone will bring men and women of
to-day to the highest state of well-being, enabling them to grapple
effectively with the problems of the day in the world of thought and
action, gradually widening the dividing line which separates civilised
mankind from the animal kingdom.

There is no sphere of human activity, of human feeling or philosophy
where the adoption of the principles of conscious guidance and control
would not bring invaluable benefits.

At present man is held in bondage by many subconscious instincts which
enslave the animal kingdom, the savage, and the semi-savage. Let me
illustrate this. Animals and savages become immediately unbalanced when
they experience the unusual, as for instance, when they see an express
train dash along for the first time. Such a new experience would cause
the bravest animal to become overwhelmed with that degree of fear which
momentarily suspends his normal guidance by instinct. So also with the
savage, who would be equally unbalanced by an experience of this kind.
In most spheres of normal life, he, like the animal, depends on
instinctive guiding principles which act with perfect balance under
accustomed circumstances. In the face of the unusual, however, he is
unable to meet suddenly the requirements of a new environment. To meet
these he needs reasoned, conscious guidance which is the outcome of the
habit of conscious control, and marks the dividing line between the
animal kingdom, where instinct is the guide, and the human kingdom where
its members are in communication with reason.

The mental and physical limitations and imperfections of men and women
of the present day make it impossible for them to meet satisfactorily
the great majority of the requirements of their present environment, and
render them quite incapable of making the best of their capabilities in
any new environment. These instinctive guiding principles, not even
perfectly balanced as in the case of the savage and the animal, are
miserably insufficient to meet the conditions of the modern world with
its ever changing environment. Yet it is upon these instincts that men
and women rely, to the detriment of their mental and physical
attainments.

2. My next claim is that all such diseases as those referred to above
(e.g., cancer, appendicitis, bronchitis, tuberculosis, etc.) are too
often permitted to remain uneradicated and frequently undetected, and so
to develop in consequence of the failure to recognise that the real
cause of the development of such diseases is to be found in the
erroneous preconceived ideas of the persons immediately concerned, ideas
which affect the organism in the manner described in Part I of this
book.

The only experience which the average man or woman has in the use of the
different parts of the human organism is through his or her
subconsciousness. The result is a subconscious direction which in the
imperfectly co-ordinated person is based on bad experiences and on the
erroneous preconceived ideas before mentioned. Small wonder, then, that
such direction is faulty and leads to the development of serious defects
and imperfections. With this erroneous direction even the attempt to
carry out a simple action in accordance with subconscious habit is
fraught with danger, for it invariably affects in a detrimental manner
other parts of the subject’s organism which have nothing to do with the
particular act or acts attempted. For instance, in the subconsciously
controlled person the attempt to lengthen the neck is invariably
preceded by a movement of the eyes in an upward or downward direction.
Wrong use of the eyes in this or some similar manner too frequently is
the forerunner of what eventually develops into an established habit,
often causing an unnecessary and undue strain of the eyes which
seriously impairs their efficiency, and which in the ordinary way of
life leads to the specific treatment of these organs. It is obvious,
however, that what is needed in such a case is the eradication of the
erroneous preconceived idea and harmful habits, thereby removing
gradually the undue and unnecessary strain upon the organs of sight.
This will enable them to regain their lost efficiency and it is almost
certain that specific treatment of any kind on orthodox lines will be
unnecessary. In consequence of faulty guidance misdirected energies are
not confined to one part of the organism. They affect the hands, arms,
shoulders, legs, thorax, hips, knees, ankles and other parts of the
organism, frequently causing strain and interference with the
functioning of the different organs and finally seriously injuring them.
To support this second claim I bring forward the following arguments:

(a) Till now little or no attention on a practical psycho-physical basis
has been given to the vital and harmful influence of this faulty
direction (of subconscious origin) and of the erroneous preconceived
ideas and faulty posture associated therewith. Under such influences the
subject can hardly fail to cultivate a wrong mental attitude towards
life in general and towards the art of living (evolving satisfactorily),
especially in regard to the primary causation of the defects which may
be present or which may develop eventually, but also in regard to the
essential laws connected with the eradication of these defects.

(b) Owing to the lack of distinction between reasoned (conscious) and
unreasoned (subconscious or partly-conscious) actions, the subject
suffers from various forms of mental and physical delusions, notably
with regard to the physical acts he performs. Incidentally it should be
pointed out that if this is true of the ordinary acts of everyday life
how much more so of those physical acts which may be necessary to meet
the demands of some new environment! As a striking instance of delusion
in physical acts let us take the case of a man _who believes himself to
be merely overcoming what he regards as essential inertia, when he is
really fighting the resistance of undue antagonistic muscular action
exerted by himself_, a resistance of which he is not consciously aware.
In all such cases there is a constant conflict between two great forces,
the one (subconscious) destined to exercise supreme directive powers
during the early stages of human evolution, the other (conscious) to
supersede this limited direction and finally to prove the reliable guide
through the higher and highest stages of the great evolutionary scheme
which leads to the full enjoyment of his potentialities. It must be
remembered that the former became firmly established during centuries of
subconscious direction, holding undisputed sway until the first
glimmering of reasoned conscious guidance came in its crudest form to
disturb its power, a power which it is destined one day to overthrow. In
the present stage of our mental and physical progress the conflict
continues with gradually increasing energy, and while the conflict is
being waged the subject is influenced first in one direction by the
dictates of his subconsciousness (called by some “instinct,” by others
“intuition”), and then in another by his awakened conscious powers which
he is gradually but slowly developing. Of the real significance of this
conflict he has, unfortunately, no true realisation. At the same time he
undoubtedly feels the force of these two influences as conflicting
energies, but only in a dim, mysterious way. He is swayed first by one
force and then by the other as happens when we hear a man or woman say,
“Well, that seems the thing to do, but I feel that I shouldn’t do it.”

Very often he does what he feels instead of what seems to be the correct
thing, and, moreover, the former is very frequently right. This is not
surprising, seeing that the subconscious instinct in us is much more
developed than the conscious faculty. But granting the subconscious its
fullest degree of merit, we are forced to recognise its serious
limitations in the mode of life (civilisation) with its ever changing
environment which human progress demands. We must have a guiding
principle without these limitations, to enable us to adapt ourselves
much more quickly to the new environments which are inevitable in the
progress of civilisation towards its legitimate goal.

We must have something more reasoned and definite than that which
subconscious direction offers, and so we come to the need of reasoned
guidance. Up to the present neither of these forms of direction really
reaches the mind as a definite tangible idea consciously conceived. This
is because of the fundamental principles upon which subconscious
direction has been built up, and in consequence of the undeveloped
condition of conscious guidance. Furthermore, the subject has not yet
made any serious attempt to analyse these two forces, of whose
particular workings he is but dimly aware. The fundamental principle
which we call evolution demands that every human being shall be enabled
to make this analysis, so that he may differentiate between the impulses
springing from his subconsciousness (instinct-inhibition) and the
conceptions created in his reasoning conscious mind.

The subject will thus cultivate the habit of distinguishing between
reasoned and unreasoned actions and this will at once tend to the
prevention of mental and physical delusions in all directions, notably
in regard to his physical acts in old or new environments.

(c) Whilst these delusions remain, the subject will continue to perform
wrong or detrimental actions, for as long as his settled mental attitude
towards such actions remains unchanged, he will believe that he is
performing them in a correct manner. It is owing to this involuntary,
and on his part unrecognised, misapprehension, that many malformations
and inefficiencies become established, which sooner or later may lead to
definite disease. The popular misconception of the subject’s
responsibility in the matter leads him to be commonly pitied as for
unavoidable defects, whereas it is of the first importance that he
should realise the responsibility is his and his alone. He must be made
aware that such defects arise from his own fault, and are the outcome of
his ignorance or wilful neglect.

Once this new mental attitude is firmly established there is hope for
the afflicted person and he will have the satisfaction of knowing that
he is, as it were, working out his own salvation on common-sense
practical lines, devoid of pernicious sympathy, face to face with real
facts, and stimulated by a principle which cannot fail to secure the
very best efforts in the right direction of which any ordinary person is
capable.

(d) It is essential in the necessary re-education of the subject through
conscious guidance and control that in every case the “means whereby”
rather than the “end,” should be held in mind. As long as the “end” is
held in mind instead of the “means,” the muscular act, or series of
acts, will always be performed in accordance with the mode established
by old habits. When each stage of the series essential to the “means
whereby” is correctly apprehended by the conscious mind of the subject,
the old habits can be broken up, and every muscular action can be
consciously directed until the new and correct guiding sensations have
established the new proper habits which in their turn become
subconscious, but on a more highly evolved plane.

In effect these new habits ensure conditions which give new life to, and
maintain in a high state of efficiency, every organ of the body, the
automatic functions being reacted upon by the consciously controlled
energies. By my system of obtaining the position of “_mechanical
advantage_,”[14] a perfect system of natural internal massage is
rendered possible, such as never before has been attained by orthodox
methods, a system which is extraordinarily beneficial in breaking up
toxic accumulation; thus avoiding evils which arise from
auto-intoxication.

The position of mechanical advantage, which may or may not be a normal
position, is the position which gives the teacher the opportunity to
bring about quickly with his own hands a co-ordinated condition in the
subject. Such co-ordination gives to the pupil an experience of the
proper use of a part or parts, in the imperfect use of which may be
found the primary cause of the defects present. It is by the repetition
of such experiences of the proper use of his organism that the pupil is
enabled to reproduce the sensation and to employ the same guiding
principles in everyday life. The placing of the pupil in what would
ordinarily be considered an abnormal position (of mechanical advantage)
affords the teacher an opportunity to establish the mental and physical
guiding principles which enable the pupil after a short time to repeat
the co-ordination with the same perfection in a normal position.

I maintain in this connexion, that any case of incipient appendicitis
may be treated successfully by these methods. Further, when this
position of mechanical advantage has been attained through the
employment of the first principles of conscious guidance and control, a
rigid thorax may regain mobility, no matter what the age of the subject,
and full thoracic expansion and contraction may be acquired and, with
the minimum of effort, maintained. During the practical process by which
this thoracic elasticity and maximum intra-thoracic capacity is
gradually established, the body of the subject is at the same time
re-adjusted and mental principles are inculcated which will enable him
to maintain the improved conditions in posture and co-ordination which
are being set up, and which will secure the normal and necessary
abdominal pressure in the right direction, thus constituting a natural
form of massage of the digestive organs which is maintained during the
ordinary actions of everyday life.

3. I am able to re-adjust and to teach others to re-adjust the human
machine with the hands; to mould the body, as it were, into its proper
shape, and with an open-minded pupil it is possible to remove many
defects in a few minutes, as, for example, to change entirely the
production of a voice, its quality and power.

4. In prescribing the principles of conscious guidance and control, we
are dealing not with an epidemic of physical or mental degeneracy, but
with a stage in the progress of the human race from the subconscious and
instinctive to the conscious and reasoned command of the whole human
mechanism. In other words, we have reached a stage in the process of
civilisation where demands are being made which we are unable to meet
satisfactorily, and with the serious results which may be seen on every
hand, results from which we can escape only by passing from those
primitive modes of guidance which approximate too closely to those of
the animal kingdom where the greater potentialities of the human being
remain latent.

The suggested adoption of conscious guidance and control as a universal
principle on the lines heretofore outlined will enable us to move slowly
but with gradually increasing speed towards those higher psycho-physical
spheres which will separate the animal and human kingdoms by a deep
gulf, and mankind will then enjoy the blessings which will be the
natural result of capacities fully developed.




                                   II
                              THE ARGUMENT


The marked tendency toward physical degeneracy among the men and women
of all civilised races has been the constant theme of physiologists,
therapeutists and other specialists; endless explanations have been put
forward to account for it, and countless remedies suggested to
counteract it. In this question, as in the details of medicine and
surgery, the general inclination of the human mind is always towards a
treatment of epidemic symptoms, towards vague generalisations in the
diagnosis and treatment of individual symptoms, whether the word
“individual” in this case refers to a specific sufferer or a correlated
class of diseases, towards a regard of effects rather than of causes.

As a reaction against this long-accepted method of dealing with
individual symptoms by differentiated treatment, there has arisen a
great diversity of so-called “mind-healers,” whose _a priori_ methods
and lack of any clearly conceived system have brought their efforts into
disrepute. Such were the conditions which over twenty years ago I sought
to understand, believing—as I still do—that the whole human race was at
some great psycho-physical turning point in its history, and that if the
true nature of this evolutionary stage could be understood, it might and
should be possible to direct man’s physical and mental progression and
so combat, and in time eliminate, a thousand evils which seem to have no
counterpart in the world of the lower animals, save in very exceptional
cases.

In embarking upon this enquiry I realised from the outset that I was
dealing not with a world-wide epidemic but with a stage of progress, and
that it was essential therefore that I should at once discard all
theories which advocated, implicitly or explicitly, a return to similar
conditions. Evolution knows no such return to extinction. The species
must go forward to a triumphant perfection, or give place to a more
dominant, more complete, self-controlled type.

Now if man as an animal, with an animal body differing little in
anatomical structure from other families of the order of Primates, is
yet differentiated physically by a susceptibility to disease and bodily
degeneration, which, save in very exceptional cases, finds little or no
parallel in the lower animals, we must determine the prime cause of such
differentiation. The solution of the problem which is commonly put
forward, and which has found support in the body calling themselves in
England and in the United States “Eugenists,” I cannot accept as
universal. This theory rests mainly on the contention that in the human
polity the physical struggle for existence has ceased to have effect,
that the unfit are permitted to produce offspring equally with the fit,
and that for the natural selection imposed by circumstances which are
fatal to the weak we must substitute an arbitrary selection in order to
maintain the high efficiency of the natural type. Though I am in
sympathy with many principles of Eugenics I reject this theory as a
universal one. It is inconsistent with the great and inspiring ideal of
the progress of the human race toward a mental and bodily perfection. If
we believe in the idea of a Purpose running through life, unfolding
itself to each successive generation and expressing itself in the terms
of human experience; if, in other words, we believe in any scientific
theory of development, in any large scheme of progress, it is impossible
to accept a theory which assumes the lack of adaptability in man’s
physical body to thrive in the conditions which have grown up around
him, or to enter its true and natural kingdom of perfect soundness. If
we postulate that a third of civilised humanity is unfit to continue the
race, we can only conclude that man’s physical evolution has proved a
failure, and that the race is doomed ultimately to extinction. And, in
the last analysis, it is inconceivable that the prime instinct and
desire for reproduction can be overruled at the dictates of any small
body of men, or even that such a method, if possible, could be
productive of any highly desirable results.

Wherefore I take my stand firmly on the ground that the body of
civilised man is capable not only of continuing the struggle for
existence but of rising to a higher potentiality. So, returning to the
point of differentiation between man and the lower animals, I am now
convinced that we must seek for the cause of this physical degeneration
not in the pressure of new circumstances of life, but in the progress
from one state of being to the next. I maintain that in order to
discover the solution of this twofold problem of universal disease and
its universal remedy, we must look to this enormous growth of reasoning
power, and to the consciousness and realisation of the means whereby the
desired effect can be obtained. For the animal and the lower races of
mankind do not perform physical acts by any process of reason. They are
the servants of that strange directing law which governs the flower in
its curiously ingenious devices to ensure cross-fertilisation, no less
than the higher mammalia in the rules of their gregarious societies, the
law for which we have found no better term than Instinct. It is this
“instinct” which guides all the nervous muscular mechanisms of the
animal’s anatomical structure, and is traceable as the motive in all
functional processes. But in the physical economy of mankind this
instinct is actually at war with, and is ever being controlled and
superseded by conscious, directive reason.

The number of man’s instinctive actions grows ever more limited, (1) as
the result of a complete change of habit, and (2) more noticeably, as
the outcome of a mental evolution which prompts him continually to seek
a cause for every action, to analyse and endeavour to comprehend the
secret springs of his being. Moreover civilisation, with its
multitudinous problems of life and its perpetual interplay of
personalities, demands even in the minutiæ of physical action a constant
reasoning, a deliberate and comparatively rapid adaptation to
surroundings such as instinct is quite unable to provide. Thus man’s
whole body is a polity ruled by two governors whose dictates are not
invariably consistent one with the other; and one governor is frequently
disobeyed at the expense of the other. This fact, indeed, is obvious
when it is thus considered, but we have to determine the possible
outcome. There are three alternatives. The first, a return to the sole
guidance of instinct, is unthinkable. The second, the continuance of
this dual government, is the very condition which has led to the evils
we seek to remedy. There remains the third, namely, that man’s physical
evolution points to progress along the road of reasoned, conscious
guidance and control. It was this last conclusion which over twenty
years ago led me to investigate and to practise the means by which this
conscious guidance and control could be obtained, so as to apply it to
the eradication and prevention of human ills, and to the maintenance of
the body in a high degree of physical perfection.




                                  III
            THE PROCESSES OF CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL


The formulation of the method of conscious guidance and control arises
in practice from a close study of the imperfect uses of the mental and
physical mechanisms of the human organism. Since, as has been shown,
conscious guidance and control is necessary and is being practised to
some extent, inefficiently, by every civilised man and woman, it is
essential that its principles should be thoroughly understood. The
method is based firstly on the understanding of the co-ordinated uses of
the muscular mechanisms, and secondly, on the complete acceptance of the
hypothesis that each and every movement can be consciously directed and
controlled.

In re-educating the individual, therefore, the first effort must be
directed to the education of the conscious mind. The words
“re-educating” and “re-education” have a specific meaning. In the
individual the normal processes of education in the use of the
anatomical structure is conducted subconsciously, certain instincts
commanding certain functions, whilst other functions are conducted
deliberately. The effects of this haphazard process have either to be
elaborated or broken down, according to the defects established by
misuse of the mechanisms, and the first step in re-education is that of
establishing in the pupil’s mind the connexion which exists between
cause and effect in every function of the human body.

In the performance of any muscular action by conscious guidance and
control there are four essential stages:


  (1) The conception of the movement required;

  (2) The inhibition of erroneous preconceived ideas which
  subconsciously suggest the manner in which the movement or series of
  movements should be performed;

  (3) The new and conscious mental orders which will set in motion the
  muscular mechanism essential to the correct performance of the action;

  (4) The movements (contractions and expansions) of the muscles which
  carry out the mental orders.


The process of re-education concerns itself with establishing these
principles, and for the purpose of illustration we may take a typical
example of a patient who has had no experience of them.

A well-built, muscular man in the prime of life, conducting during
business hours a sedentary occupation and taking more or less violent
exercise during his leisure, becomes a chronic sufferer from indigestion
with all its concomitant troubles. He complains that the physical
exercises of the gymnasium no longer do him any good, but appears to
think that if he gave up his office work altogether, an economic
impossibility for him, he might recover.

Suppose he is asked to stand upright and take a “deep breath.” It will
be found that he immediately makes movements which tend to retard the
proper action of the respiratory processes rather than to promote such
action. For instance, it is almost certain that in the attempt to make
the movement referred to he will stiffen the muscles of his neck, throw
back the head, hollow the back, protrude the stomach, and take breath by
audibly _sucking_ air into the lungs. The muscles over the entire
surface of the bony thorax will be unduly tensed, tending to more or
less harmful thoracic rigidity at the very moment when the maximum of
mobility is needed. How could the result be otherwise? For, in telling
the pupil to take a “deep breath,” the teacher starts out with the
assumption that the pupil can do so. But why such an assumption? What
guide in carrying out the order has the pupil except his own admittedly
erroneous guidance? I say “admittedly” erroneous, for I contend that the
pupil’s condition, together with the fact that he and the teacher deem
it necessary to remedy it, is tantamount to this admission. So common,
so almost universal is such a response as the above to these orders that
the truth of the statement may be tested on any average individual. Now
the mistakes of this response need not be dwelt upon here. They have
proved in every case in my experience sufficient explanation for the
trouble of the digestive organs. Examination of the subject will reveal
the hollowing of the back with the accompanying protrusion of the
abdominal wall, whilst the abdominal muscles will be deficient in the
energy and tone necessary to the maintenance of efficiency in the
digestive organs. Now in dealing with this case, many parts of the
organism will require re-adjustment. The spine must be straightened and
lengthened, the mean thoracic capacity permanently increased in order to
give free play to the internal organs, and the firmly established habit
of drawing breath by _sucking_ air into the lungs must be broken.

It is essential in this place to point out that no system of physical
exercises will alter the present condition of the subject in respect of
these faults, since all exercises will be conducted under a primary
misconception with regard to the use of the muscles involved in the
re-adjustment and co-ordination of the organism.

We may now follow the individual through the four stages in the
inculcation of the principles of conscious control. In the first place
it is necessary that he should have a clear understanding of the faults
we seek to remedy. No tacit compliance on his part to a treatment, the
processes of which he does not understand, will be of the slightest
value. He must accept completely the principle in detail. In the second
place he must be taught to realise his erroneous conceptions which
result in erroneous movements, and this, whether the conceptions be
conscious or subconscious. He must also be taught to inhibit, and,
finally, to eradicate these preconceived ideas and the mental order or
series of orders which follow from them. Only then can he give the
correct guiding orders as next described.

In the third place, then, he must learn to give the correct mental
orders to the mechanisms involved, and _there must be a clear
differentiation in his mind between the giving of the order and the
performance of the act ordered and carried out through the medium of the
muscles_. The whole principles of volition and inhibition are implicit
in the recognition of this differentiation. Thus, to return to the
example under consideration, we will suppose that I have requested the
pupil _to order_ the spine to lengthen and the neck to relax. If,
instead of merely framing and holding this desire in his mind, he
attempts the physical performance of these acts, he will invariably
stiffen the muscles of his neck and shorten his spine, since these are
the movements habitually associated _in his mind_ with lengthening his
spine, and the muscles will contract in accordance with the old
associations. In effect it will be seen that in this, as in all other
cases, stress must be laid on the point that it is _the means_ and not
the _end_ which must be considered. When the end is held in mind,
instinct or long habit will always seek to attain the end by habitual
methods. The action is performed below the level of consciousness in its
various stages, and only rises to the level of consciousness when the
end is being attained by the correct “means whereby.”

In the fourth place, when the correct guiding orders have been practised
and given by the mind, a result attained by attention and the
instruction of the teacher, the muscles involved will come into play in
different combinations under the control of conscious guidance, and a
reasoned act will take the place of the series of habitual, unconsidered
movements which have resulted in the deformation of the body. And it
must be kept clearly in mind that the whole of the old series of
movements has been correlated and compacted into one indivisible and
rigid sequence which has invariably followed the one mental order that
started the train; such an order, for instance, as “Stand upright.”

Leaving this specific example, I come now to a consideration of the
general principles involved. Firstly, as to the teaching method.

Every one who has had experience, personally or vicariously, of the many
“methods” and “systems” of teaching breathing, speaking, singing,
physical culture, golf, fencing, etc., must have noticed that whilst the
failures of these “methods” are many, the successes are comparatively
few.

The few successes are of course set down to exceptional natural
aptitude, whilst the teacher has an explanation of those cases more
flattering to himself and prefers not to consider too closely the
average of his failures. The truth is that all these systems break down
because the pupil, in the attempt to adopt them, is guided always by his
subconscious direction and is forced to depend too much on what is
called natural aptitude. When guidance by conscious control and reason
supersedes guidance by instinct, we shall be able to develop our
potentialities to the full.

My own analysis of the matter is that the teaching method is, as a rule,
entirely wrong, and wrong because of a fundamental misconception and an
entirely inaccurate analysis resulting in a false premise. The pupil’s
defects are dealt with commonly through their effects and not their
causes. It is not recognised that every defective action is the result
of the erroneous preconception of the doer, whether consciously or
subconsciously exercised, and the orders which directly or indirectly
follow. Nor is it understood that a pupil under the influence of such
erroneous preconceptions can make no real progress till he is made to
realise that it is he himself who is actually bringing about the
defective action. The teacher does not attach sufficient importance to
the fact that the pupil is often under a complete misapprehension as to
his own actions, being under the delusion that he is doing one thing
when he is often doing the exact opposite.

No real progress in the overcoming of faults can be made until the pupil
consciously ceases to will or to do those things which he has been
willing and doing in the past, and which have led him to commit the
faults that are to be eradicated. “Don’t do this, but this,” says the
teacher, dealing with _effects_. In other words, it is assumed that the
defective action on the part of the pupil can be put right by “doing
something else.” The teacher accepts and preaches this doctrine without
ever analysing the defect to its root cause in the human will, the motor
of the whole mechanism. He forgets that in “doing something else” the
pupil must use the same machinery which, _ex hypothesi_, is working
imperfectly, and that he must be guided in his action by the same
erroneous conceptions regarding right and wrong doing. Neither teacher
nor pupil seems to remember that to know whether practice is _right_ or
_wrong_ demands judgment. Judgment is the result of experience. Faulty
or wrong experience means faulty or bad judgment, whereas correct
experience means good judgment.

The very fact that the pupil was beset with defects and needed help
proves that his _kinæsthetic_ experiences were incorrect and even
harmful, and as his judgment on the kinæsthetic basis has been built
upon such faulty experience, the judgment will prove most misleading and
unsound.

Therefore we are forced to dispense, for the time being, with the sense
of feeling as a guide in its old sphere of associations. We cannot deny
that we are beset with defects, that even when the way is made clear for
their eradication we cannot follow that way on our old mode of
procedure, because our guides in the form of sensory appreciations
(feeling-tones), general experience, and judgment are unworthy of our
confidence, and will guide us in such a way that, even if we succeed in
eradicating some specific defect, it will be found that in the process
we have cultivated a number of others which are as bad or even worse
than the original.

It seems also to me that practice so-called is so rarely directed by a
reasoned analysis on a reasoned plan. Nor does the teacher analyse and
instruct with accuracy. He demands from the pupil merely imitative not
reasoned acts. This makes practice so often futile for the imperfectly
co-ordinated person, and teaching both halting and inadequate.

With regard to this question of the imitative method I have frequently
had to point out to vocal pupils that certain effects and capacities,
which they hoped to acquire in a few lessons, were a result of a proper
conscious knowledge on my part of the “means whereby” the voice is
produced. To achieve these results they must study and master the same
principles, but they could never reproduce them by a series of imitative
acts divorced from knowledge of the processes involved and skill in
using these processes. There is no royal road to anything worth having,
and the imitative method of teaching seems to me pure charlatanry.

The position of the teacher and pupil is a very hopeless one as long as
their standpoint is still on the subconscious plane, and the physical
and mental conditions of our time, when considered in the light of the
teaching methods adopted in the past, afford abundant proof of this.

My reader can rejoice that the foregoing is a faithful representation of
our position to-day. He can rejoice because these tremendous forces
demand that if he wishes to progress he must leave the subconscious
plane of animal growth and development, and adopt the reasoned conscious
plane of guidance and control by means of which mankind may rise to
those high evolutionary planes for which his latent and undeveloped
potentialities fit him.

I will now endeavour to outline the teaching method which should be
adopted if we are to pass successfully from subconscious to conscious
guidance and control, in the endeavour to remove defects and delusions
and to develop and establish correct guiding centres and senses.

The conscious guidance and control advocated here is on a wide and
general, and not on a specific basis. Conscious control applied in a
specific way in unthinkable, except as a result of the principle
primarily applied as a universal. For instance, the conscious
controlling of the movements of a particular muscle or limb, as
practised by athletes and others, is of little practical value in the
science of living. The specific control of a finger, of the neck, or of
the legs should primarily be the result of the conscious guidance and
control of the mechanism of the torso, particularly of the antagonistic
muscular actions which bring about those correct and greater
co-ordinations intended to control the movements of the limbs, neck,
respiratory mechanism and the general activity of the internal organs.

In order to describe the teaching method necessary in this connexion, I
will indicate the procedure which should be adopted in the attempt to
help a pupil in whom undue tension of the muscles of one side of the
neck causes the head to be pulled down on that side. In the ordinary
way, the pupil is told to relax and straighten the neck and he and his
teacher devote themselves to this end. This attempt may be attended with
more or less success, chiefly less. If they do succeed in removing the
specific trouble it is almost certain that new defects will have been
cultivated during the process. In any case the teacher’s order to relax
and straighten the neck is incorrect and primarily the result of a wrong
assumption. It started from a false premise which led to false
deductions. The pupil and his teacher decided that something was wrong
and that therefore something specific had to be done to put it right.
The “end” was held in mind primarily and not the “means whereby.”

The correct point of view is: Something is wrong in the use of the
psycho-physical mechanism of the person concerned. Is this imperfection
or defect a direct or indirect result of this person’s own direction and
action, or is it the result of some influence outside of himself and
beyond his power to control? It can be proved conclusively that his
imperfections or defects are due entirely to causes springing directly
or indirectly from his own ideas and acts.

It is therefore obvious that the correct order of procedure for teacher
and pupil is first for the pupil to learn to prevent himself from doing
the wrong things which cause the imperfections or defects, and then, as
a _secondary_ consideration in procedure, to learn the correct way to
use the mental and physical mechanisms concerned.

If there is any undue muscular pull in any part of the neck, it is
almost certain to be due to the defective co-ordination in the use of
the muscles of the spine, back, and torso generally, the correction of
which means the eradication of the real cause of the trouble.

This principle applies to the attempted eradication of all defects or
imperfect uses of the mental and physical mechanisms in all the acts of
daily life and in such games as cricket, football, billiards, baseball,
golf, etc., and in the physical manipulation of the piano, violin, harp
and all such instruments.

My reader must not fail to remember that mental conceptions are the
stimuli to the ideo-motor centre which passes on the subconscious or
conscious guiding orders to the mechanism. In dealing with human defects
or imperfections we must consider the inherited subconscious conceptions
associated with the mechanisms involved, and also the conceptions which
are to be the forerunners of the ideo-motor guiding orders connected
with the new and correct use of the different mechanisms.

In order to establish successfully the latter (correct conception), we
must first inhibit the former (incorrect conception), and from the
ideo-motor centre project the new and different directing orders which
are to influence the complexes involved, gradually eradicating the
tendency to employ the incorrect ones, and steadily building up those
which are correct and reliable.

It will therefore be understood that if we eliminate the conception
established and associated with our defects or imperfections, it means
that we are really eliminating our inherited subconsciousness, and all
the defective uses of the psycho-physical mechanism connected therewith.

In our attempts on these lines we are, at the outset, confronted with
the difficulty of mental rigidity. The preconceptions and habits of
thought with regard to the uses of the muscular mechanisms are the first
if not the only stumbling-blocks to the teaching of conscious control.
Many of these preconceptions are the legacy of instinct, others arise
from habitual practices started by a faulty comprehension of the uses of
the mechanism, others again by conscious or unconscious imitation of
faults in others. In this last case it may be noted that although we are
always deploring the degeneracy of civilised man the exemplars held up
for the child’s conscious and unconscious imitation are nearly always
faulty specimens. These preconceptions and habits of thought, therefore,
must be broken down, and since the reactions of mind on body and body on
mind are so intimate, it is often necessary to break down these
preconceptions of mind by performing muscular acts for the subject
vicariously; that is to say, the instructor must move the parts in
question while the subject attends to the inhibition of all muscular
movements. It would be impossible, however, to describe the method in
full detail in this place, owing to the extraordinary variability of the
cases presented, no two of which exhibit precisely the same defects. On
broad lines it is evident that the misuses must be diagnosed by the
instructor who may be called upon to use considerable ingenuity and
patience in correcting the faults, and substituting the correct mental
orders for the one general order which starts the old train of vicious
habitual movements. The mental habit must be first attacked and this
mental habit usually lies below the level of consciousness; but it may
be reached by introspection and analysis, and by the performance of the
habitual acts by other than the habitual methods, that is, by physical
acts performed consciously as an effect of the conscious conception and
the conscious direction of the mind.

Speaking generally, it will be found that the pupil is quite unable to
analyse his own actions. Tell a young golfer that he has taken his eye
off the ball or swayed his body, and he feels sure, in his heart, that
you are mistaken. The imperfectly poised person has not a correct
apprehension of what he is really doing. In this apparently simple
matter of the carriage or poise of the body I find in quite nine-tenths
of my cases a harmful rigidity[15] which is quite unconsciously assumed.
When it is pointed out to them, and physically demonstrated, they almost
invariably deny it indignantly. I ask a new pupil to put his shoulders
back and his head forward, and he will consistently put both back or
forward. I tell a new pupil he is shortening his spine, and in
attempting to lengthen it he invariably shortens it still more. The
action is one over which he has neither learnt nor practised any control
whatever. He is simply deluded regarding his sensations and unable to
direct his actions. I do not therefore in teaching him actually order
him to lengthen his spine by performing any explicit action, but I cause
him to rehearse the correct guiding orders, and after placing him in a
position of mechanical advantage I am able by my manipulation to bring
about, directly or indirectly as the case may be, the desired
flexibility and extension.

The process is of course repeated until the pupil gains a new
kinæsthetic sense of the new and correct use of the parts, which become
properly co-ordinated, and the correct habit is established. He will
then no longer find it easy to cause his physical machinery to work as
it did before the fault was thus effectively eradicated.

I frequently have to treat cases of congenital or acquired crippling and
distortion. I protest against the mental attitude which looks upon such
ailments as incurable and beyond the control of the patient—the mental
attitude of the person who says, “Poor fellow,” to the sufferer, and
induces him to repeat and be dominated by this paralysing formula. As a
matter of plain fact the condition is maintained by the pupil’s
erroneous ideas concerning “cause” and “effect,” and the working of his
own mechanism, and so, subconsciously but quite effectively, he is
really causing and maintaining the trouble. My method is to make an
examination and then to apply tests to discover the real cause or
causes, namely, the erroneous preconceived ideas, and to find out what
minimum of control is left, and therefrom to develop a healthy condition
of the whole organism by a simple and practical procedure which step by
step effects the desired physical and mental changes. Like the
faith-healer, then, I lay much stress on the mental attitude of the
patient; unlike him, instead of denying the existence of the evil I make
the pupil search out with me its cause. I then explain to him that his
own will (not mine or some higher will) is to effect the desired change,
but that it must first be directed in a rational way to bring about a
physical manifestation, and must be aided by a simple mechanical
principle and a proper manipulation. In this way a reasoned and
permanent confidence is built up in the pupil instead of a spurious
hysterical one which is apt to fail as suddenly as it arose. I will not,
for instance, allow my pupils to close their eyes during their work, in
spite of a constant plea that they can “think better” or “concentrate”
better with their eyes shut, for, as a rule, I find that this resolves
itself into an attempt at self-hypnotism. I make them endeavour to
exercise their conscious minds all the while. As I have already said, I
maintain further and I am prepared to prove that the majority of
physical defects have come about by the action of the patient’s own will
operating under the influence of erroneous preconceived ideas and
consequent delusions, exercised consciously or more often
subconsciously, and that these conditions can be changed by that same
will directed by a right conception implanted by the teacher.

In this connexion I am able to give particulars of an interesting case.

A well-known actor fell during rehearsal and injured his arm so severely
that he was unable to raise it more than five or six inches from his
side without intense pain. He consulted many medical men without relief,
and had been disabled for six weeks when he was sent to see me.

I diagnosed the case as a subjective subconsciously willed disablement.
Of course, the last thing I mean is that it was “affected” in the usual
sense; all the patient’s interests and character made this impossible.

I asked him to lift his arm. “I can’t.” “But please try.” He did so and
the cause of his trouble was immediately apparent to me. He was using
the muscular mechanisms of the arm and neck in such a way as to place a
severe strain on the injured muscle, such a strain indeed as would have
been harmful to a normal arm and which caused him intense pain. For
instance, he was exerting force sufficient to lift a sack of flour and
he _looked_ as if he had been called upon for such an exertion! He was
stiffening all the muscles which he should have relaxed, and was
altogether acting as the subconsciously controlled person of to-day does
habitually act when something unusual occurs. To put the matter in the
terms of my thesis, he acted in accordance with a subconscious guiding
influence which had long since lost the standard of accuracy of instinct
possessed by his early ancestors, whilst nothing had been given to or
cultivated by him in his civilised state to compensate for its loss. The
“cure” was so simple as to appear ludicrous. I had diagnosed that the
subconsciously stiffened muscles were the cause of the trouble. My
efforts were devoted to obtaining the correct action of the arm with the
minimum of tension. This was done by manipulation and by giving him
guiding orders which brought about the correct use of the parts
concerned. Within ten minutes he was able to lift his arm with very
little pain and he resumed his professional work at once and without
relapse. Note that the relaxing was not brought about by a preliminary
order to relax, an action which entailed processes of which he had no
true consciousness and over which therefore he had no control. Note also
that this demonstration is much more effective for the treatment of
similar later accidents and for general self-development and control,
than any hypnotic “suggestion” that there was no pain.[16]

I do not deny, for it would be against the evidence, that the healers do
contrive to remove pain; but apart from the danger of removing mere
symptoms (that is, removing nature’s danger signals and leaving the
danger untouched), their methods have the obvious limitation of being
repugnant to many, and have fallen into some discredit amongst those who
are by no means amongst the least capable, accomplished, and thoughtful
human types.

Another very interesting case was that of a man who stuttered and came
to me for help. All stutterers have their particular and peculiar little
accompaniments to the main defect. His was a harmful habit of moving his
arm up and down from the elbow as he attempted to speak. I asked him why
he did this, and he replied that he _felt_ it assisted him in speaking.
I explained and demonstrated to him that this was a delusion, that this
movement of the limb was really a hindrance and not an assistance. He
saw that a considerable amount of valuable mental and physical energy,
which should have been conveyed to the mechanisms and organs of speech,
was being diverted to a limb which might have been amputated without
interfering in any way with those mental and mechanical processes upon
which his powers of speech entirely depended. He became convinced on
these points and intimated his willingness to endeavour to carry out my
instructions. I assisted him to establish a working conscious control
basis and improved his co-ordination generally.

Then I made the following request:

“I wish you to project orders to these newly developed co-ordinators.
You will then be prevented from employing your arms as an aid in
speaking, and in your general attempts at conscious guidance in private.
In public I wish you to adopt the following mode of procedure:


  “Whenever a person speaks to you, asking a question or in any way
  trying to open up a conversation, you must as a primary principle
  refuse to answer by mentally saying _No_. (This will hold in check the
  old subconscious orders—the bad habit of moving the arm. It
  constitutes the inhibition of the old errors before attempting to
  speak).

  “Then give the new and correct orders to your general co-ordinations
  and command the ‘means whereby’ of the act of correct and controlled
  speaking.

  “Make this a principle of life.”


Perhaps I should add here that I convinced this pupil by practical
demonstrations that the energy directed to his arm was wasted and
misdirected; that, if this energy were correctly directed to the proper
co-ordinations concerned with the mechanism of breathing and speaking,
the process would represent the difference between correct and incorrect
attempts in the direction of ultimate satisfactory breath and speech
control. In this particular case the desired end was gained in a few
weeks.

The observant person must have noted the singularly small range of
physical control exercised by the average adult outside the narrow
sphere of his daily routine actions. In the realm of sport, for
instance, take the golf swing. A novice, or for that matter a player of
some experience carefully “addresses” the ball and is instructed _to
swing up and down again in the same orbit_, without moving the head or
swinging the body. The professional has arranged the stance; the drive
seems the simplest of actions; yet, more often than not, it fails
lamentably. And the player, nine times out of ten, _has no sort of
consciousness_ of what has interfered with his stroke.

This is a very common instance of the failure to achieve the desired end
in those who depend solely upon subconscious direction. Even the
accomplished and practised golfer has periods when he acknowledges that
he is “off his game” or “out of form,” times when his skill leaves him
altogether _because he cannot register consciously_ the method which,
when he uses it instinctively, enables him to play well.

Where the novice is concerned, however, the stubborn fact to be faced is
that it is practically impossible for the ordinary person to carry out
such instructions as _swing up and down again in the same orbit, etc._,
with precision and accuracy. At the first attempt the pupil may, by mere
chance, succeed. He may even make a second successful attempt, and a
third, and so on. But such instances are very rare. On the other hand,
he may begin badly and after a few days record a series of successes.
Incidentally, I will point out that this applies more or less to the
majority of experienced golf players. We all know that to vary is to be
human. But there should not be such an alarming gulf between our best
and our worst. It is very serious from the mental point of view. It
shakes our confidence in ourselves to the very roots of our mental and
physical foundations. Such experiences have a bad effect even upon the
emotions generally, and the person concerned develops irritation, bad
temper, and other undesirable traits at a time (a time of recreation and
pleasure) when there should be an absolute absence of these harmful
conditions.

It will readily be conceded that during our attempts at this or any
other game the mental condition of the performer should be in keeping
with a pleasurable and health-giving form of outdoor exercise.

But to return to the stumbling-blocks in the way of the correct
performance of an act which requires one “to swing up and down in the
same orbit.” These arise mainly from the tendency of the great majority
to curve and shorten the spine unduly and otherwise to interfere with
the correct conditions of the muscular system of the back, the spine,
and the thorax in the performance of certain physical acts.[17] These
tendencies are particularly marked when the arms are employed in such a
movement as the “swing down” to make the stroke following the
preparatory “swing up.” Consequently not one person in a thousand is
capable of maintaining during the _down_ stroke those conditions of the
back and spine present during the _up_ stroke. Consideration of these
points will indicate that in order “to swing up and down in the same
orbit,” it is essential that the position of the spine—particularly as
regards its length and relative poise during the up and down
movement—must be maintained. Other conditions are of course necessary
but I cannot deal with more than one or two of the chief factors.

In order to secure the proper use of the arms and legs correct mental
guidance and control are necessary. Such guidance and control should, of
course, be conscious. Furthermore, this mental guidance and control must
co-ordinate with a proper position and length of the spine and the
accompanying correct muscular uses of the torso, if these limbs are to
be controlled by that guidance and co-ordination which will command
their accurate employment at all times within reasonable limits.

The foregoing are a few of the fundamental difficulties with which the
golf teacher and pupil are beset. Those who have taken lessons will at
once admit that the ordinary teaching methods fail to reach these
difficulties satisfactorily. As a matter of fact they are not even taken
into consideration. The orthodox teaching method holds the “end” in view
and not the “means whereby.” It depends upon the giving of orders on the
“end-gaining” principle, such an order, for instance, as “Swing up and
down again in the same orbit,” without consideration of the “means
whereby”; that is, without making certain that the pupil has the power
to maintain a proper position of his spine and back and to use the limbs
correctly during the performance of such physical acts. In other words,
the teacher should first discover if his pupil is reasonably correctly
co-ordinated in those muscular uses of his organism which are essential
to the proper carrying out of instructions necessary to the performance
of definite physical acts demanding co-ordination in the use of the
human body and limbs.

If these tests are not made the beginner will waste much valuable time,
dissipate his energies, suffer needless worry and suspense, and become
unduly apprehensive in his attempt to gain even a very moderate standard
of dependable excellence in playing golf or other games to which he may
devote himself.

If we employ as the fundamental in teaching the principles of conscious
guidance and control on a basis of re-education and general
co-ordination the following advantages should accrue:


  (1) The pupil will be made aware of his specific defects in the
  employment of his mental and physical organism in physical
  performances.

  (2) When he has been made aware of these defects, he can be taught to
  inhibit the faulty movements, and his teacher can assist him to gain
  slowly but correctly the necessary experiences in the correct use of
  those muscular mechanisms which will enable him sooner or later to
  govern them properly without the aid of the teacher, and to employ
  them with accuracy and precision in his game of golf and other
  physical performances.

  (3) In the golf act under consideration he must first be given the
  correct experiences in the use of the muscular mechanisms of the torso
  and legs with the arms falling naturally at his side.

  (4) The correct experiences should then be given with the use of the
  arms in making the “up stroke.” When this act can be performed without
  interference with the satisfactory conditions of the torso and legs,
  the correct experiences should be given in making the “down stroke”
  but without attempting to _drive_ the ball. This latter portion of the
  whole act should not be attempted until the pupil is familiar with the
  different movements described in 1, 2, 3 and 4.

  (5) When the attempt to drive is finally made, the idea to be held in
  mind is that of _repeating the experiences as a whole_ (in other
  words, the “means whereby”), not the idea of making a drive. If the
  pupil holds the “end” (i.e., making a drive) in mind he will at once
  revert to all his old subconscious habits in the use of his mental and
  physical organism, whereas, on the other hand, if he holds in mind the
  “means whereby” (his new correct experiences) he will sooner or later
  put them correctly into practice and make his drives with an accuracy
  and precision which will give the maximum of satisfaction and
  pleasure.


I have personal knowledge of a person who, by employing the principles
of conscious control which I advocate, mounted and rode a bicycle
down-hill without mishap on the first attempt, and on the second day
rode 30 miles out and 30 miles back through normal traffic. This same
person was also able to fence passably on first taking the foil into his
hands. In each case the principles involved were explained to him and he
carefully watched an exhibition, first analysing the actions and the
“means whereby,” then reproducing them on a clearly apprehended plan.
This, it seems to me, should be a normal, not an abnormal human
accomplishment. Just as a cat by sheer instinct, the first time she
essays to jump, gauges her powers and the distances with accuracy, so,
with more reason and greater ease, the human subject, by employing
consciously controlled intellect and kindred experience in place of
instinct, should be able to direct his powers to a definite ordained end
with less physical strain and less frequent physical repetition, i.e.,
“Practice.”

In this connexion I have been often asked the difference between
instinct and intuition. I define instinct as the result of the
accumulated subconscious psycho-physical experiences of man at all
stages of his development, which continue with us until, singly or
collectively, we reach the stage of conscious control; whilst intuition
is the result of the _conscious reasoned_ psycho-physical experiences
during the process of our evolution.

The word “subconsciousness” is but a formula for our habits of life. I
hold strongly that when we shall have reached the state of conscious
control in civilisation, and have established thereby new and correct
habits, a new and correct subconsciousness will become established.

I might here with advantage re-emphasise my view regarding the supreme
importance of conscious control.

Conscious control is imperative, as I have pointed out, because instinct
in our advancing civilisation largely fails to meet the needs of our
complex environment. Without conscious control the subject or patient
may know he has defects, may know further what those defects are, may
even know at what explicit improvement he is to aim, and yet may be
quite unable by means of imitation or the orthodox and traditional
methods of instruction to effect the desired end.

With conscious control, on the other hand, true development (unfolding),
education (drawing out), and evolution are possible along intellectual
as against the old orthodox and fallacious lines, by means of reasoned
processes, analysed, understood, and explicitly directed. Conscious
control enables the subject, once a fault be recognised, to find and
readily apply the remedial process.

It is my belief, confirmed by the research and practice of nearly twenty
years, that man’s supreme inheritance of conscious guidance and control
is within the grasp of any one who will take the trouble to cultivate
it. That it is no esoteric doctrine or mystical cult, but a synthesis of
entirely reasonable propositions that can be demonstrated in pure theory
and substantiated in common practice.

I will now consider at greater length a characteristic case for the
elucidation of these various points of theory and practice.

M. H., a youth fourteen years old, was sent to me by a well-known throat
specialist. He had removed two nodules from the boy’s vocal chords, and
had given him special treatment in a nursing home for a month, but
without any satisfactory improvement. The mother came to me with the boy
and was present during my treatment. I found that his attempts to speak
resulted in a hoarse whisper accompanied by spasmodic twitchings of
various parts of the body and by facial contortions, all this being
brought about by erroneous conceptions, left untouched by the former
teacher, as to the amount of effort needed in order to speak. In his
former lessons he had been told to try and improve the utterance of
simple sounds and words, without any analysis or pointing out of the
wrong means which he had previously employed to this end. All his
efforts to carry out his teacher’s directions were made in accordance
with his original preconceptions and former experience. His muscular
mechanisms were employed in the same (wrong) way and his whole
consciousness and explicit and implicit self-directions were exactly the
same as they had been previously.

He had opened his mouth imperfectly and had been ordered by his teacher
to open his mouth wider. But there had been no recognition by the pupil
that he had not opened his mouth sufficiently, neither had there been
any analysis by the teacher of the pupil’s failure to open the mouth (a
seemingly simple thing but _ex hypothesi_ not simple to the patient), or
of the concomitant contortions and automatic reaction. As well say, “You
have been speaking improperly, now speak properly,” and call that a
lesson, as indeed it would have been called in the early Victorian era,
as, “Open your mouth wide, speak up, and don’t make nervous movements.”
It is not the “end” that the teacher and pupil must work for, but the
“means whereby.” And this discovery of the “means whereby,” differing in
different subjects and not to be stated in a general formula, can only
be the result of trained observation and careful, patient investigation
and experience. In practice, the anxiety of this particular pupil to
_speak_ along the lines of his old preconceived ideas, when nothing had
been done to remove them, had made his many lessons fruitless, and had
set in motion the old habitual train of irrelevant and hampering
actions.

My own treatment then is: First to observe and analyse and bring about a
proper working of the machinery in general (nature does not work in
parts but as a whole): then to point out the first guiding order or
orders to be brought into play by the pupil, namely, the inhibiting of
the tension of the muscles working the lower jaw. The pupil must be made
to realise clearly that this involves no action whatever on his part,
but that he need only remember the correct inhibiting orders and employ
them in accordance with definite instructions. When he does this it at
once results in the freeing of his jaw, enabling me to move it for him
with my hand. This gives him for the first time the correct kinæsthetic
sense in connexion with the action of his jaw and makes it clear once
and for all to him that the desired action is perfectly and easily
possible. The subconscious jerkings and contortions pointed out one by
one are patiently inhibited by the pupil, sometimes directly but more
often by the explicit use, under my direction, of guiding orders which
gradually co-ordinate and remedy the whole faulty system of the pupil’s
muscular action. One by one the wrong actions and reactions are
inhibited, the tightening of the neck, the throwing back of the head,
the tension of the lower jaw, the deep “sucking” breath, the jerks of
the limbs, the grimaces; and then, on the positive side, the right
actions are gradually built up, such as the free controlled opening of
the mouth, the even “pneumatic” breath, the upright balanced poise, the
clear enunciation and correct vocalisation.[18]

The brain of both pupil and teacher are at work the whole time. No use
is made of “hypnotism” or of auto-suggestion, but the confident,
skilful, patient and explicit directions of the teacher should tend to
remove flurry and vagueness and consequent waste of mental and physical
effort.

The analysis of even the simplest processes is apt to appear unduly
complex. This case can be stated briefly on the practical side. It took
twenty lessons to break down the bad habits and another twelve to effect
a complete and permanent cure.

With regard to such a simple act as opening the mouth two or three
factors should be emphasised: firstly, the tendency to yield to
erroneous preconceived ideas, secondly, the delusions of the pupil in
regard to thought and action, thirdly, a pernicious dependence on
sensation which has been based solely upon experience of defective
action.

There are very few men, for instance, who, when told to open the mouth,
will not throw the head back with the idea, as it were, of lifting the
upper jaw away from the lower. They do not observe or reflect that an
inhibition of the subconscious orders which cause the mechanisms to keep
the mouth closed will bring about such a relaxation of that muscular
tension as will allow the jaw to drop. It does in fact commonly drop in
the case of that type of idiot who is most often open-mouthed; whilst it
is common knowledge that in boxing a blow on the head, heavy enough to
throw out the controlling gear, causes the jaw of the injured boxer to
drop of itself and to remain dropped for a considerable time.

When I ask a pupil to let me move his lower jaw away from his upper he
usually increases instinctively the tension that keeps the lower jaw in
place. As I have frequently pointed out, an enormous aggregate waste of
energy is involved in these constant and irrational tensions.

But the matter becomes seriously harmful in, let us say, such actions as
singing and speaking, for when the mouth is opened with this unconscious
and absurd expenditure of force, the neck is unduly stiffened, the head
is thrown backwards, the larynx unduly and harmfully depressed, and
thereby in a position most unfavourable to good vocalisation. As I have
for years pointed out and demonstrated in my own practice, from these
ill-considered tensions spring the different forms of throat and ear
trouble which are so common and which so frequently defy ordinary or for
that matter extraordinary and highly specialised medical treatment. By
inducing a proper conception of the right method of opening the mouth, I
can command in the patient, and what is more important, teach him to
command in himself, a free condition in which the larynx tends to be
slightly raised and relaxed instead of tightened and depressed; whilst
there will surely follow and that with a minimum of effort, a greater
mobility of the facial muscles and of those of the lips and tongue so
essential to good and clear enunciation and vocalisation.

This, in the briefest summary, is the method of teaching the process of
conscious control of the muscular mechanisms. I come now to an equally
brief consideration of the effects of this method. Speaking generally, I
have found that the first immediate effects are a general stimulation
and increased efficiency of the whole organism. Nor is this difficult to
understand. For it would seem that in the life led by civilised man so
little demand is made upon any but the commonly exercised muscles, and
these are called upon for comparatively so little effort, that a general
sluggishness supervenes, with consequent stagnation resulting in the
commonly observed effects of auto-intoxication. With the breaking up of
the old motor habits, the muscular mechanisms are brought into full
play, the toxins which have accumulated are broken up and disturbed, and
increased vitality, a sense of power, and enormously improved efficiency
follow as a matter of course. Beyond this, and still speaking generally,
I find that there are increased powers of resistance against the attacks
of infectious diseases, and—possibly the greatest effect since it
guarantees the lasting qualities of the change which is brought about—an
ability to check the formation of any bad, incipient muscular or mental
habit. This last is, in my opinion, of the very first importance, for it
demonstrates the power of the individual, once these principles of
conscious guidance and control are mastered, to be the lord of his own
body.

Of the specific effects procured by the inculcation of these methods I
cannot speak at length, but I am able to produce a list of cases which
have been treated by me, in some of which I can only say that I have
been astonished at the results. These include cases diagnosed by
prominent physicians in England, Australia, and the United States of
America as paralysis, varicosity, tuberculosis, asthma, adhesions of the
lungs, hæmorrhage, congenital and other malformations, effects of
infantile paralysis, many varieties of throat, nose and ear trouble,
hayfever, chronic constipation, incipient appendicitis and colitis; and
in no case that has come under my personal supervision have I discovered
any relapse that was not curable by a few further instructions in the
principles enunciated. Looking to the future and to the development and
elaboration of this method, I foresee that a race which has been
educated on the lines of what I have called “conscious guidance and
control” will be eminently well fitted to meet any circumstance which
the civilisations of the future may impose. The minds and bodies alike
of such a race will be adaptable to any occupation that may be their
lot. To those who have been educated in these principles no severe
physical exercise is a necessity, since there are no stagnant eddies in
the system in which the toxins can accumulate, and to them will belong a
full and complete command of their physical organisms. That this
practical and by no means visionary or untried psycho-therapy will in
time supersede the tentative and restricted methods of somato-therapy, I
am confident, and I sincerely hope that the great benefits which these
principles confer will not be confined to any one race or people. The
wonderful improvements in physical health—often deemed “miraculous” by
the uninitiated—which have been effected in adults, adumbrate the
potentialities for efficiency which may be developed in the children of
the new race.

It is essential that the peoples of civilisation should comprehend the
value of their inheritance, that outcome of the long process of
evolution which will enable them to govern the uses of their own
physical mechanisms. By and through consciousness and the application of
a reasoning intelligence, man may rise above the powers of all disease
and physical disabilities. This triumph is not to be won in sleep, in
trance, in submission, in paralysis, or in anæsthesia, but in a clear,
open-eyed, reasoning, deliberate consciousness and apprehension of the
wonderful potentialities possessed by mankind, the transcendent
inheritance of a conscious mind.




                                   IV
               CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL IN PRACTICE


Whilst under the guidance of the subconscious mind, mankind cannot
readily adapt itself to the rapidly and everchanging conditions imposed
by civilisation. A proper standard of mental and physical perfection
implies an adaptability which makes it easy for a man to turn from one
occupation in which a certain set of muscles are employed, to another
involving totally different muscular actions. Under the present
subconscious guidance such an easy transference is, to say the least of
it, likely to be a very rare occurrence.

For the purpose of demonstration we may assume that a man who has been
engaged in clerical work all his life is suddenly called upon to become
a ploughman and to make a success, within a reasonable time, of his new
occupation. This is an extreme instance, but the argument will apply
equally well in a less extreme case. As he is subconsciously controlled
he will attack the problem through his sense of feeling—through his
feeling-tones—and strive directly for the desired “end.” He will make no
reasoned estimate of the “means whereby” he may make a success. He will
not, as a preliminary to the act of ploughing, consider the particular
demands which will be made on different parts of his organism, nor will
he take into account the elemental laws which are essential to a
satisfactory use of the plough as an instrument to be controlled in its
legitimate sphere. His mind is fixed from the start on the
achievement,—on the act of ploughing. He looks only to the end he
desires to attain.

So he will grip the handles of his plough, set the horses in motion, and
will be pleased to find that the plough moves more or less through the
earth, chiefly less, for he finds it difficult to keep the share
embedded and to keep the furrow straight. When he succeeds, he is almost
certain to be thrown from side to side by the movements of the plough,
which are affected by the hard or soft ground it meets in its progress.
He holds no conscious reasoned guiding principles in his mind. His
efforts are simply subconscious, in a chance endeavour to gain the end
in view.

In order to maintain his own equilibrium and the efficient working of
the plough, it is highly probable that he will unduly tense muscles
which are precisely those which should not be tensed, and relax those
which should do the most work. The tension of the muscles of the arm
will almost certainly be unnecessarily high, and the general use of the
wrong muscles will tend to destroy the proper equilibrium rather than to
maintain it. We thus see that the moment he steps into his new
occupation (which he no doubt had congratulated himself would bring
perfect health in its train), he immediately begins to cultivate new and
harmful habits during his daily round.[19] He becomes a badly
co-ordinated, imperfectly guided ploughman precisely as he was a badly
co-ordinated and imperfectly guided clerk. When the principles of
reasoned conscious control are adopted, the man leading a sedentary life
will be able to take up the occupation of ploughman without any fear of
cultivating harmful habits. Moreover, he will attain proficiency in
ploughing in one-tenth part of the time that the subconsciously
controlled man took to obtain a half-mastery of it.

Let us see how he would set about it from the point of view of reasoned
conscious guidance and control. Acting under the guiding principles of
reasoned and conscious control he will consider first the “means
whereby” he may achieve his object, rather than that object itself. He
will take time to consider well the factors to be overcome. It will be
obvious to any one who will take the trouble to watch another man at the
plough, that a great deal of proper manipulation is necessary to keep
the share embedded and a straight furrow. The manipulation requires
firstly the maintenance of the ploughman’s equilibrium under very
difficult circumstances. This consideration will make it clear to him
that his body must remain comparatively steady and support the arms and
legs as the trunk of a tree does its limbs, following as nearly
perpendicularly as possible the line the furrow should take. It will be
evident to him that the “give and take” of the joints of the arms and
legs are the chief moving factors which should meet the different
movements of the handles of the plough. His highly trained guiding
sensations will not permit him to make more physical tension with any
part of the muscular system than is absolutely necessary, and only the
particular muscles best adapted for the control of his equilibrium and
his plough will be called into special use. For instance, when the left
handle of the plough is forced upwards and the right downwards by the
plough being thrown into a position leaning towards the right, the
ploughman’s left arm will bend at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder, and
the right straighten in order to maintain his equilibrium and general
control without undue strain and interference with the proper position
of the torso. Of course the left arm should exercise a downward pressure
on the left handle, and the right should tend to pull the right handle
upwards in order to straighten the plough again in its most effective
position in the furrow. The left leg should be slightly bent at the
knee, and the right leg should be kept straight and firm. The ploughman
would thereby exercise his maximum of control in the right direction
with the minimum of effort, and freedom from harmful strain. It will be
clear from this example that in the consciously controlled stage of
psycho-physical development men and women will be able, without fear of
mental or physical harm, to adapt themselves at once to any strange or
unusual circumstances in which they are placed. They will act in the
face of the unaccustomed or the unsuspected at the direction of their
conscious reasoning minds, before any promptings springing from the
subconscious mind can take possession of them. Just as they will be able
by conscious reasoning to change their habits at will, to be to-day a
clerk, to-morrow a reasoning ploughman, so they will meet sudden
surprise by that same conscious reasoning and accurate judgment which
follows it. I have already drawn attention to the conduct of animals and
of men and women in the lower stages of evolution when they are
confronted with any phenomena to which they are unaccustomed; how that
they stand terror-struck and immovable, and betray themselves. Such a
condition of mind contains no element of control or reasoning, and the
high importance of re-educating civilised men and women to a condition
in which their control and reason are the main factors, need scarcely be
emphasised at this point. On all sides is seen the destruction, the
waste, the loss in human lives and human energy which are the direct
outcome of a civilisation based on subconscious action.

It is our duty now to superimpose a new civilisation founded on reason
rather than on feeling-tones and debauched emotions, on conscious
guidance and control rather than upon instinct. The savage is
terror-struck when an eclipse passes over the sun; he bows to wood and
stone, quivering with fear at any desecration of any of his puppet gods.
Anything which has no place in his limited range of experience he
approaches through instinct which may preserve but is more likely to
betray him. To-day the greater part of mankind carries out the normal
responsibilities of a lifetime guided by the same imperfect forces. Men
have learnt the meaning of many things which to the savage were
inscrutable, but when faced with the unknown they betray the same lack
of control. Suddenly-angered men will make a retort which in the light
of reflection appears to them foolish and inadequate. It is an everyday
experience. In the calmer moments that follow, they think of the “things
they might have said,” the things they might have done, which is a
simple indication of the fact that in the heated moment their emotions
held sway over them, whilst their reason and control were in abeyance.
The subconsciously controlled person is immediately thrown into a state
of panic when faced by any emergency which presents an element of
danger.

Under such circumstances many become self-hypnotic and in this state
will be found absolutely out of communication with their reason. As an
instance of this, one may quote the behaviour of unbalanced people in a
fire. In trying to save some of their possessions before making their
escape they will throw from the windows as likely as not articles which
will certainly be broken to atoms in their fall. The man who threw the
drawing-room clock through the window and carried the hearthrug
downstairs is no fictional figure. His action represents the kind of
behaviour that may be expected from the uncontrolled person in such an
emergency. The following instance from my own experience may prove
interesting in this connexion.

I arrived late one evening at a large hotel in a well-known mining town
in one of the Colonies. I was told that there was not a room available,
but that if I cared to share a room with two beds in it, with the two
little sons of the proprietor, I might have a night’s rest. Those who
have any experience of a mining town where there is a “gold rush” on
will appreciate my good fortune. Eight weary souls that night slept on
the billiard-table and I do not remember how many found a bed on the
hard, draughty floor of that same room. A great friend of mine was
living at the hotel. He was a man of considerable learning and accounted
by all who knew him as a fine scholar and the possessor of a fine
intellect. The last injunction we received from the proprietor before he
retired was, “Be sure to lock your door.” After a long chat with my
friend we went very late to bed. Remembering the request of my host I
bolted the door, extinguished the light and almost immediately fell into
a sound sleep. Within an hour I was awakened by the crackling sound of
burning wood and the roar of flames. I realised at once that the hotel
was on fire and almost immediately the tongues of flame found their way
into my room through the top of the wooden walls and began to lick the
ceiling of the bedroom.

My first thought was for the little lads who were sleeping in the room.
I unbolted the door, and taking one under my left arm began to search
for the other. By this time the room was filled with smoke, so I took
the one boy out and returned to the search in the dense smoke. He had
evidently jumped out of his bed half awake, for I found him under the
bed. Taking both under my arms I rushed down the stairs and ran with
them to their father’s bedroom. He dashed out and calling his
men-servants at once proceeded to take measures to extinguish the fire.
I, of course, rushed to my friend’s room, awakened him, and after
lighting his candle and seeing him jump to the floor I left him, and
proceeded to give the general alarm. I then joined those who were
fighting the flames, which after a while were successfully extinguished.
My readers will be able from this account to judge of the time which
elapsed between the visit to my friend’s room and the complete
extinguishing of the fire. When all was over I looked round to exchange
a word with my friend and was surprised to find that he was not of the
number by whom we were surrounded. I walked back to his room and was
amazed to find him absolutely dressed. When I entered the room he was
calmly buttoning up his waistcoat as on any other morning when he had
nothing to fear. He was self-hypnotised as regarded his chances of being
burned alive, and had even shaved.

Thousands of instances of similar behaviour in unusual circumstances
might be given, and the list might well be completed with the now famous
story concerning Carlyle’s failure to keep in “communication with his
reason,” on the occasion that Henry Taylor was ill. He heard the news,
and became overanxious to help his friend. We can only conclude that he
was under the domination of his subconsciousness, when he rushed off to
Sheen with the remaining portion of a bottle of medicine which had
helped Mrs. Carlyle, without knowing the particular uses of the medicine
or the cause of his friend’s illness.

The managing director of one of the largest business houses operating in
Great Britain and America had been sent to me for treatment by his
medical adviser. We had frequently discussed the psychological
tendencies and characteristics of young men likely to make their way in
the business world. One day, after a chat on this subject in which we
were both interested, he informed me that there was always room in his
firm for the right kind of young man, and intimated that if I knew one
he would be glad if I would send him along. For some weeks prior to this
time I had been asked to interest myself in a young man I had never met.
I mentioned this to my pupil, and he said, “Ask the young man to write
to me and I will fix an appointment.” This was done, and the following
is the young man’s account of the interview: “I called on Mr. —— and he
positively insulted me. When I entered his office he asked me to sit
down while he finished a letter. After about five minutes he jumped
suddenly from his chair, walked towards me, and banging his fist with
great vigour on a table near me, shouted, ‘What the devil do you know
about business?’ Of course,” the young man continued, “I was so unnerved
that I could not even collect my thoughts and I was so flurried that I
could not answer his further questions. He told me he hadn’t any
position to suit me.” “My dear young man,” I remarked, “why did you
allow Mr. —— to insult you? Why did you not remonstrate with him and
assure him that you could not permit him to speak to you in such a way?”
“I was so upset by his sudden attack, and I didn’t expect to be treated
in such a way.” “Just so,” I replied, “you were nonplussed by the
unexpected. But I hope this will be a lesson to you. Mr. —— was only
testing you, and he wants men who are capable of dealing with unexpected
events and situations in his business. If you had made an instant
protest against his manner, you would now be in a position in his firm
because you would have come successfully through his test.”

In that stage of evolution which may be defined as purely animal, the
powers of instinct in accustomed circumstances are quite remarkable, and
it is due to this fact that the animal, in certain conditions of danger,
will do the one right thing to escape. On the other hand, in proof of
the limitations of instinct, we have only to name the noble and
subconsciously controlled ostrich, so wily in its movements, and so
clever in many directions, which when confronted with more than an
ordinary danger, presses its head into the sand and allows its pursuer
to kill it. The powers of instinct are undoubtedly limited in the animal
kingdom, in uncivilised mankind, and in all stages of evolution where
subconscious control is the guiding principle. This fact perhaps
accounts more than anything else for the rise and fall of nations and of
races, for no community as yet has cultivated and developed a national
consciousness in communication with reason. The psychology of nations is
too large a subject to deal with here, but, logically, if the principles
of conscious guidance and control, as I have outlined them in
application to the individual, were further adopted by the rising
nation, it is unthinkable that it should ever suffer from deterioration.

It would act in all crises strictly in accordance with the dictates of
reason, and, guided by a judgment born of tested experiences, it would
be supreme.




                                   V
                     CONSCIOUS GUIDANCE AND CONTROL


                     APPREHENSION AND RE-EDUCATION

The average person may exhibit complete nerve control and balance during
accustomed experiences and accomplishment of the different mental and
physical demands made during the ordinary round of life, but, when
suddenly confronted with the unexpected or unknown, he betrays undue
apprehension and loss of control, even when the new experience may not
hold any real terrors for him. The fact is, he becomes panic-stricken by
the effects of the new experience. He is mentally incapable of
considering the “facts of the case,” for his reasoning power is thrown
completely out of use by the unusual, and he is reduced to the level of
the terrified animal or savage. This shows that we have not reached the
stage of evolution where, by employing the reasoning faculties, we
should be able to meet any emergency with control and calmness and do
the right thing at the psychological moment. The really clever barrister
takes advantage of this human weakness, and when cross-examining
proceeds to unbalance the witness by an unexpected attack on a new line.
If the barrister is successful in his choice in this connexion he will
assuredly gain his end with the witness who has not learnt to meet the
unusual with reasoned judgment. He will become unnerved, and the
barrister can hardly fail to succeed in disconcerting him.

Let me point out, however, that the barrister himself can be caught in
the same trap if the witness adopts a mode of procedure which will be
new to his rival. It will be merely a matter of which gets his blow in
first. As an instance, in a case of special interest at which I was
present, the following took place. Incidentally I should mention that
the barrister and witness had a mutual friend by whom they had sent
uncomplimentary messages to one another before the meeting in court.
Naturally both were on guard. The barrister opened by, “Now, Mr. ——,
might I _suggest_——” and made the unfortunate mistake of repeating this
the second time, whereupon the witness calmly remarked, “May I remind
you that you are here to _ask questions, not to suggest_.” The barrister
was quite nonplussed for the moment. This disturbed his usual control
and allowed his feelings to dominate his judgment, and during the
remainder of the case he failed to regain his balance and gave so much
attention to trying to get even with the witness that he missed many
points of the greatest value to his case and the verdict was gained by
his opponents.

The removal of the Hunt Club Cup from its stand at Ascot Race Course is
a trenchant example of the practical application of the knowledge of the
weakness of men and women in the direction indicated. Constables and
employees of the makers of the cup were on duty to ensure its safety,
and moreover, there were always crowds of people round it. To any
ordinary person it would have seemed absolutely impossible to remove
such a large article without being detected. Despite this fact it was
taken from its stand and removed from the Ascot grounds. One of those
who successfully carried out this scheme must have been a highly
developed psychologist, a man who knew only too well the weaknesses of
his fellow-men. Presumably he knew that something unexpected must be
done suddenly in order to attract and divert for a considerable length
of time the constables guarding the Cup, during which time the thief
would be enabled to get some distance away with his prize before its
removal would be noticed. We are told that a group of men caused a
disturbance, that heated words were exchanged and blows followed, no
doubt at a prearranged signal. The thief counted on the psychological
fact that the constables were unlikely to use their reason and so
preserve their self-control by continuing to watch the Cup in the face
of this unexpected occurrence, and during the distraction therefore the
theft was accomplished.

It must be obvious that there is going on a wicked waste of this
wonderful power of reasoning, where reliance is placed on an automatic
subconsciousness which permits the suspension of our common-sense and
upsets our balance, thus narrowing our sphere of usefulness. Therefore
if we are really to progress in the future, subconscious guidance must
be superseded by a reasoned and conscious guidance which can safeguard
us in unusual circumstances and at critical moments. For with real
progress on a sound basis we must expect a great increase in “critical
moments” and “unusual circumstances,” and our development must be on
those lines which will enable us to meet them with calmness and
common-sense, doing the one right thing the latter will suggest. This
failing in reasoned action is as common amongst the educated as amongst
the uneducated, and it is a most serious indictment of our present
educational system that it should be so, and that as it is at present
constituted it does not offer any real solution of the problem to be
applied by the men and women of the future.

Take as an example a very prevalent form of human weakness, namely, our
attitude of mind in regard to simple worries, whether real or imaginary.
It is an interesting psychological fact that there are millions of
highly educated people who have cultivated unwillingly what may be
called the “worry habit.” This worry habit is directly the outcome of
the lack of use of our reasoning faculties, as is conclusively proved to
me in my long professional experience by the fact that people suffering
in this way worry exactly in the same degree when the cause has been
removed as when it was actually a reality. I can hear my readers say,
“But the person is not convinced that the cause has been removed.” In
the experience I refer to they were absolutely convinced, and in my next
book there will be a fitting opportunity, I hope, to explain at
considerable length this mental condition which seems so extraordinary
and unreasonable.

This is one of the most difficult mental defects a teacher can be called
upon to eradicate, because it shows that the person so afflicted is
dominated by a subconsciousness built up of delusion and undue
apprehension without any relation to common-sense or fact. Another
instance of the disregard of reasoned judgment is demonstrated to me
constantly in the mental attitude of my pupils when they first come to
me for lessons. In the endeavour to perform some particular act, however
simple, many pupils exhibit a degree of apprehension out of all
proportion to the point at issue. This makes progress almost impossible
and causes considerable distress. It is not my intention to deal with
any of the complex examples which come to my notice in my daily
experience with intelligent and educated pupils, but merely to set down
some of the very simple examples of difficulties which seriously retard
the progress of well-meaning people while undergoing any training.

Naturally a teacher is forced to point out at the beginning that this or
that is wrong. All too frequently the pupil at once shows distinct signs
of unnecessary apprehension. As this condition is the most retarding
feature in any teaching work, I have for years in my own work devoted
special attention to it and at once make an attempt to prevent it by
endeavouring to put the pupil into “communication with his reason.”
There are numerous and widely differing means to this end in the early
stages of re-education to the description of which a whole book might
easily be devoted, but it is sufficient here to mention it in a general
way. I begin by pointing out that we expect these different things to be
wrong, that their being so is not a case for worry or apprehension,
seeing that they assuredly can be corrected. I draw attention to the
obvious fact that a pupil comes to a teacher because there is something
wrong. That must be the primary idea, otherwise the teacher’s help is
superfluous. Then, why worry when the defects or failings are discovered
and made known to one? Surely it is something that should evoke pleasure
rather than worry. In other words, if we have imperfections and defects,
we seek help because we are conscious of their existence, because we
wish to know definitely what they are, so that we may have an
opportunity to eradicate them. Common-sense dictates that we should find
a teacher who can detect these defects and diagnose their cause, and
when this is done the pupil has much to ease his mind, much to bring him
real satisfaction when the teacher can assure him of their eradication,
and a changed mental attitude should immediately follow. But many people
are so out of communication with their reason that it needs days of
re-education to establish a satisfactory working basis.

Now, to bring about the correct performance of any act by the principles
of my system of teaching it is not necessary at the beginning to call
upon the pupil for any specific physical efforts. This very fact should
remove immediately any cause for worry or apprehension, but in many
cases it does not. When this is the case the teacher must explain that
the reason that the pupil is unable to perform the act correctly is that
he believes that there is something for him to do physically, when as a
matter of fact the very opposite is necessary. He _is doing_ what is
wrong. Obviously he should begin then by ceasing to do what is wrong,
not by endeavouring blindly to do what is right. The process is this:
Apprehensively he tries to do what he thinks his teacher desires him to
do. The old wrong subconscious orders follow in their usual channels,
and before he realises the fact he is performing the act in the old
wrong manner. Therefore he must learn to inhibit these incorrect
subconscious orders, which result in undue physical tension and the
imperfect use of his muscles. But instead of employing inhibition he
adds to his difficulties by renewing his efforts on the old basis to put
right what he is told is wrong, and he actually employs increased force
in accordance with his own estimate of the amount needed to perform the
act. And why so? Chiefly because the ordinary human being has lost the
habit of inhibition, and because he is guided here by his sense of
feeling, in this connexion the most unreliable guide.

When it is explained to such a pupil that inhibition is the first step
in his re-education, that his apprehensive fear that he may be doing
wrong and his intense desire to do right are the secrets of his failure,
he will invariably endeavour to prevent himself from doing anything, by
exerting force usually in the opposite direction. And so he creates a
second harmful force which, in conjunction with the first, serves only
to increase the undue physical tension and to intensify the already
exaggerated apprehensive condition. The fundamental principle in the
re-education of such a subject is the prevention of this undue and
unnecessary apprehension. He must not attempt to remedy any defect by
“doing something” physically in accordance with his sensory
appreciation, which is the outcome of his erroneous preconceived ideas
and incorrect psycho-physical experience. His reasoning power is
dominated by his sense of feeling where his psycho-physical self is
concerned, so that he cannot even attempt to carry out any physical act
excepting the one he _feels_ to be right, despite the fact that by his
reasoning faculties and practical proof, he knows that his sense of
feeling is misleading and is the outcome of erroneous preconceived
ideas. We must therefore make him understand that so very frequently in
re-education the correct way to perform an act _feels_ the impossible
way. There is only one way out of the difficulty. He must recognise that
guidance by his old sensory appreciation (feeling) is dangerously faulty
and he must be taught to regain his lost power of inhibition and to
develop conscious guidance. The teacher must with his hands move the
pupil’s body for him in the particular act required, thereby giving him
the correct kinæsthetic experience of the performance of the act.

To the uninitiated this may seem a simple matter, but if my reader will
put it to the test, it will not be necessary for me to convince him that
it is quite otherwise in the majority of cases. This is not surprising
when it is realised that as soon as the teacher places his hands on the
pupil and attempts to move him, he is at once in contact with his faulty
and deceptive sense of feeling, the dominating sense in the
subconsciously controlled person under such circumstances. My experience
has proved that the pupil at first will act in precisely the same way if
I attempt to perform the act for him as if I had asked him to do it
without my assistance. He is just as apprehensive as a result of one
request as of the other, and in this state of apprehensiveness he is,
mentally and physically, impossible to deal with from the standpoint of
re-education. He conjures up in his mind all kinds of fears that he will
do this or that incorrectly. If you mention that he did a certain thing
when you placed your hands on him, he will make an endeavour physically
to prevent himself the next time. This, of course, is one of the worst
errors a pupil can make. It is usually attended by far more tension and
apprehension than when he performed the act which you pointed out was
incorrect. The re-education work really begins here and it takes weeks,
nay, sometimes months to bring the pupil to a stage in his co-ordination
when he will be really once more in communication with his reason. With
these facts before us I feel that my reader will advocate with me the
necessity of adopting principles which will create new and correct
habits, and eradicate needless apprehension and fear from the souls of
human beings. To this end we must break the chains which have so long
held them to that directive mental plane which belongs to the early
stages of his evolution. The adoption of conscious guidance and control
(man’s supreme inheritance) must follow, and the outcome will be a race
of men and women who will outstrip their ancestors in every known
sphere, and enter new spheres as yet undreamt of by the great majority
of the civilised peoples of our time. The world will then make in one
century greater progress in evolution towards a real civilisation than
it has made in the past three.




                                   VI
                    INDIVIDUAL ERRORS AND DELUSIONS


Frequent reference has already been made to individual delusions,
errors, and misconceptions of a more or less harmful nature associated
with our mental and physical efforts in the different rounds of daily
life. I wish now to draw special attention to those which may be said to
have a more strictly personal bearing than those referred to heretofore,
and which have not been fully recognised despite the fact that they are
forerunners of unusually harmful and persistent bad habits. The
individual misconceptions, errors, and delusions to which I refer are
indicated in the cases which follow. They are the direct result of most
laudable attempts to accomplish something considered necessary to the
welfare of life, something which seemed essential to success in life,
something which was felt to be a worthy achievement in life. Among these
I would instance:

The attempt to bring about some change considered necessary in the shape
or use of a part or parts of the physical organism, and to conceal or
change some supposed or real psycho-physical peculiarity, weakness, or
defect.

The clinging to erroneous reasoning, in the face of undoubted evidence
which revealed the errors in such reasoning, regarding the mode of
procedure adopted in the attempt to prevent or “cure” attacks of illness
and painful or disagreeable experiences.

The decision that a certain condition is present, and the definite
conclusion as to its degree of harmfulness or the extent of its general
effect upon the organism, or its influence upon the daily conduct of
life.

The attempt to remedy what the subject considers a lack of
concentration.

The attempt to gain benefit by relaxation in consequence of the
recognition of undue tension of the muscular mechanisms, not only in
physical acts, but also during the attempt to rest by sitting in a
chair, lying on a bed or couch, etc.

The detection by the subject of symptoms which are always considered
serious and call for immediate eradication and future prevention. The
original conception in this connexion is influenced by warped and
incorrect subconscious experiences, and consequently a narrow and
perverted view is taken of the conditions present.

The “one-brain-track” method is in operation and the _modus operandi_
adopted by the subject is therefore deduced from false premises.
Symptoms are considered causes and furthermore the chief aim of the
subject in practical procedure is the attainment of the “end” desired,
not the due and proper considered analysis of the “means whereby” which
will secure that “end.”

Perusal of the following history of cases will serve to draw attention
to the little-recognised but all-important fact that mankind’s attempts
at self-help on a subconscious basis in the spheres indicated cause him
to live in a self-created danger zone. Moreover, the area of this zone
is being gradually but surely extended by each and every new experience
in those psycho-physical activities where attempts are being made in
what may be termed preventive and curative spheres.

The foregoing applies to a very wide range of bad habits over the whole
organism, such as:


  (1) The cultivation of harmful habits in consequence of misdirected
  energy and mental delusions which cause disorders and defects of the
  eyes, ears, nose and throat, etc.

  (2) The development of the dangerous habit of not hearing any
  instructions, opinions, advice or argument which if put into practical
  procedures would be contrary to the psycho-physical subconscious habit
  associated with some defect, peculiarity or other abnormal condition.

  (3) The development of overcompensation in some direction. “Running an
  idea to death,” as we say.

  (4) The harmful domination by a “fixed idea,” on account of which the
  subject struggles to gain an “end” without adequate and sound
  consideration of the correct “means whereby,” or of possible
  consequences to him in the cultivation of defects during this process.


                                 CASE I

An attempt to hide a thin neck.

The subject’s wife intimated that the thinness of his neck made him look
many years older than his real age. This occupied his mind for some time
and he was increasingly worried by his wife’s statement. He felt that he
must find a practical remedy, but in the plan which he conceived he only
thought of the “end” he had in view which was to hide what he believed
to be an unsightly and unsatisfactory part of his anatomy. He conceived
the idea of wearing as high a collar as possible and, not being
satisfied with the result, he took a second and very harmful step in the
hiding plan. This was a deliberately cultivated habit of shortening his
neck until the under part of the jaw rested on the top of the collar,
while the head was pulled back until the lower part of the back of the
head pressed on the back of the collar. From his point of view a
satisfactory remedy had been found and the denounced neck was at last
concealed from view.

In the standing, sitting, and walking positions these uses, or rather
misuses, of the muscles of the neck soon grew into a very firmly
established habit which became associated with a general tendency
towards the shortening of the neck and spine, whilst the muscular
co-ordinations of the whole organism were gradually and harmfully
interfered with.

Some of my impressions at the first interview were:


  (1) The exaggerated rolling movement of his body when walking.

  (2) The pressure of the under part of the jaw and the lower part of
  the back of the head or upper part of the neck on the collar.

  (3) The marked lumbar curve of the spine with the usual shortening of
  stature and protruding abdominal wall. Harmful flaccidity of the
  abdominal muscles and general stagnation of the abdominal viscera.

  (4) The fallen arches of the feet—one foot caused very considerable
  pain at times when standing or walking.

  (5) That colour of the skin and condition of the eyes which indicates
  serious internal disorder.

  (6) The upper part of the front of the chest was held unusually high
  (pouter-pigeon style). The thorax was harmfully rigid.

  (7) The apprehensive mental condition in his own personal affairs and
  also in his contact with the practical affairs of life.


His medical advisers were unanimous in declaring that he was suffering
from nerve and digestive disorders and he failed to make any improvement
during many years of treatment. In his own words he “had year by year
gone from bad to worse” until he was often too nervous to cross a street
with ordinary traffic, and his fears in this connexion were increased by
frequent attacks of giddiness when he almost lost his sense of
equilibrium. He complained of painful distention after meals and
suffered much from insomnia.


                                CASE II

An attempt to conceal his height when interviewing actor-managers of
shorter stature.

It is well known in professional circles that there is a prevailing idea
in the mind of the actor-manager that he should be taller than the
actors who support him. The actor to whom I refer in this instance
discovered that he had missed several lucrative engagements by being
taller than the actor-manager with whom he had arranged personal
interviews. Incidentally I may mention that he possessed a fine physique
and enjoyed at this time good health. It is obvious that an actor must
endeavour to prevent the loss of good engagements in his profession, and
as his height was the only stumbling-block to his desires and
necessities he considered his problem from this point of view only.
Never for a moment did it occur to him that any mental or physical harm
could result. With this “_one idea_” view he sought his remedy and soon
decided that he must train himself to use his mechanisms in such a way
that he could shorten his stature during interviews when seeking
professional engagements. He succeeded in this direction, but
unfortunately subconscious guidance and control takes no heed of the
“means whereby” to be employed. His idea was merely to make an effort to
gain the “end” he desired, and he was never really conscious of the
actual means he ultimately employed. He merely conceived the idea of
standing in a way which made him appear as short or even shorter than
the person he was interviewing. Of the real mechanical happenings he was
quite ignorant, and he had never thought it necessary to improve his
knowledge in these all-important processes. This man came to me for help
some four or five years after beginning to adopt this way of standing
during the interviews. He had then been suffering for a considerable
time from loss of voice, general exhaustion, and nerve and digestive
disorders. On one occasion he experienced a mental and physical crisis
which his medical advisers called “a nervous breakdown.”

Some of my impressions at the first and subsequent interviews were:


  (1) The undue and harmful lumbar curve of the spine with the
  corresponding intra-abdominal pressure.

  (2) The harmful and undue depression of the larynx and its
  accessories.

  (3) The exaggerated “gasping” in breathing in vocal and dramatic
  efforts.

  (4) The undue rigidity of the thorax and a minimum intra-thoracic
  capacity.

  (5) The lack of mental control in any attempts in psycho-physical
  re-education and co-ordination.

  (6) A pessimistic mental outlook with recurring fits of depression.

  (7) In the standing and walking positions the hips were held too far
  forward, the knee joints were pressed too far back and the angle of
  the torso from the hips was harmfully inclined backwards, with a
  general tendency, as we say, to narrow the back.


                                CASE III

A fixed idea regarding a definite mode of procedure adopted after
experiencing a week’s illness in bed.

This lady developed certain symptoms for the first time. She then
decided upon a practical common-sense method of dealing with them which
would undoubtedly have been the correct one in the long run. The day
following her first efforts in this direction her feeling-tones
registered that she was much worse, in fact that she was very ill indeed
and that the latest symptoms were worse than those she had hoped to
remove and ultimately prevent. She decided that her attempted remedy had
actually been the cause of additional trouble without in the least
relieving the original symptoms. The remedy referred to was one of
activity, mental and physical. She therefore came to the conclusion that
this new phase of her illness had been actually brought about by the
attempt she had made to fight her symptoms by simple but active methods.
This conclusion became with her an _idée fixe_.

In discussing the matter the foregoing facts were vouchsafed to me. She
said that she had given due consideration to them and had concluded in
consequence of her experiences that the real remedy must be to go to bed
and to allow the disorder to take its own course. This unfortunate
experience caused her to continue to hold the idea that as soon as she
felt any of the symptoms which preceded the first attack she should at
once go to bed, to “prevent,” as she put it, “the possibility of
increasing the severity of the attack.” She was absolutely convinced
that she must not make any effort, mental or physical, in the way of
removing or resisting the disorder as she had done on the first occasion
of the attack. She decided upon the easy way of inactivity and
non-resistance. Once the conscience seized upon an excuse for what the
mental and physical “make-up” really craved she was doomed, and her
conclusions were really influenced by this subconscious tendency. It is
not surprising that after pursuing such a mistaken course for six months
the attacks became more frequent and severe despite medical help, and
the periods during which she was confined to her bed, and which she
considered necessary to her recovery, became longer and longer. But the
worst feature in her case was her increasing inability to make a real
effort in the direction of health. She was actually developing her
tendency to allow things to take their course, she was cultivating the
serious habit of being guided and controlled by what she “felt” rather
than by her reason. Her relatives at last came to the conclusion that
her psycho-physical condition was serious and I was asked to express an
opinion from this point of view.

At the outset one suspected some incorrect and harmful mental outlook
and after a few lessons succeeded in securing the pupil’s admission of
the fact. A review of this mental conception may prove interesting and
perhaps of great value to my readers, as it shows that as long as it
existed her chances of permanently eradicating these symptoms were nil.
The whole procedure constituted a prostitution of those physical,
mental, and spiritual forces which are inseparable from and absolutely
essential to that condition of the human organism which we call good
health. This lady was suffering from the inadequate functioning of the
vital organs associated with and responsible for good digestion and
adequate elimination. This was proved conclusively by the results which
accrued from a method of psycho-physical treatment which restored the
adequate functioning after the eradication of the mental conception
referred to above.

The position then was as follows:


  Certain symptoms were recognised which were the result of the
  stagnation of organs which needed increased activity in functioning.
  As a matter of fact they happened to be such as would have yielded
  more or less to a steady walk of a mile or so daily. The effect,
  therefore, of lying in bed for days was only a palliative measure. But
  in consequence of her first impressions through her debauched sense of
  feeling when she adopted active measures as a remedy, she made a
  definite decision against their adoption in the future; in fact, she
  absolutely objected to a second trial of the active method. In the
  intervals of freedom from these attacks the one idea was rigidly held
  in mind that on the recognition of the slightest symptom she must go
  to bed and remain there. She even considered any other mode of
  procedure harmful. These ideas became an obsession. She became less
  and less in communication with her reason and the fact that she
  admitted that the attacks became more frequent and the symptoms more
  serious did not cause her to relinquish her bed treatment in favour of
  some other. The fact is that her debauched emotions and feeling-tones
  had taken control instead of remaining secondary factors to reason.


It is possible to give hundreds of such cases, and attention is
specially drawn to the fact that the _one idea_ principle of meeting
life’s difficulties is the real cause of these serious results. If Case
I, for instance, had held in his mind the “means whereby” for the
concealment of his neck and had watched carefully the effect of his
attempts in this particular upon his whole organism, he would assuredly
have come to the conclusion that the thin neck, natural in his case, was
to be preferred to the positive evils he was unconsciously cultivating.
Neither he nor his wife detected any of the numerous defects as they
developed during the neck-concealing process. On the other hand, they
were both aware that he was gradually failing in health and had reached
a stage which his medical advisers considered serious. Of course, never
for a moment was the influence of the process of shortening the neck
connected with his increasing troubles and disorders. His mental
training had been solely on the lines of working for an “end” (“one
brain-track method”) instead of holding in his mind the “means whereby.”

He had never doubted for a moment the fallibility of the sensory
appreciation of his organism. He firmly believed that immediately he
decided to effect a change in his physical self he could command it by
the employment of his subconscious guiding principles. He was unaware
that these instinctive factors were delusive and unreliable as his
directive agents.

If the reader’s interest can be aroused in this connexion, all-important
benefits must accrue in even the simplest spheres of daily life.
Furthermore, the more difficult problems of living will be sensibly
considered without fear of the disastrous results which are now so
common.




                                  VII
                          NOTES AND INSTANCES


Since this book was published in England, I have received a steady flow
of letters from interested readers, lay and professional, which have
been of great value to me. Among this correspondence, three pertinent
questions occur again and again, and I am forced to infer (1) that these
points are of peculiar interest to my readers and (2) that no
satisfactory explanation of them is suggested by the application of the
broad principles I have laid down. I feel, therefore, that in this, the
American edition of my work, it may be well to treat these questions and
various other matters which arise out of them for the benefit of future
readers.

The three main questions—two of which occur in about eighty per cent. of
letters I have received—are these:

(1) What is the correct standing position, and the position of
mechanical advantage?

(2) How is the reader to apply the principles of conscious control as
here laid down, to specific bad habits such as overindulgence, whether
in tobacco, alcohol, particular foods, etc., or to the cure of such
diseases as asthma, tuberculosis, constipation, spinal curvature,
appendicitis?

(3) What are the outward signs of improvement to be noted during
treatment, and are there scientific reasons for these results? In this
connection I have several times been asked to give particulars of some
of my more striking and representative cases.

I will take these three questions _seriatim_, and devote as much space
as possible to each of them.

    I. “_What is the correct standing position, and the position of
         mechanical advantage?_”

I think the average man is very apt to forget that he cannot assume a
position of stable equilibrium and a position which ensures a perfect
mobility, unless his feet are so placed as to furnish at once a stable
pose and a ready pivot and fulcrum. The most perfect base is obtained by
setting the feet at an angle of about forty-five degrees to one another.
In all other erect positions (the defects becoming exaggerated as this
angle is decreased), it will be found that there is a tendency to hollow
and shorten the back and to protrude the stomach, and if any effort is
made to avoid these serious faults in posture, such effort will only
result—unless the feet are moved to the correct position—in a stiffened,
uneasy, and unstable attitude. It is not possible, however, to set out
in written language the correct pose of the feet and legs in the ideal
standing position, and I therefore subjoin four photographs which have
been specially taken for this purpose (first published on 22nd October,
1910), and which show quite clearly not only the correct position of the
feet, the fundamental problem, but also how the whole body of the person
is thereby thrown into gear.

But when this ideal position is realised, the task of obtaining it by
each individual has still to be undertaken. With reference to this task,
I cannot do better than quote my pamphlet of July, 1908, entitled _Why
“Deep Breathing” and Physical Culture Exercises Do More Harm than Good_,
from which it will be clearly seen that the ideal position varies
slightly according to the idiosyncrasies of the person concerned. The
passage in question is as follows:

“In the first place, to allow a pupil to assume, of himself, a certain
standing position, means that his own perceptions and sensations are
given the sole onus of bringing about the co-ordination upon which such
standing position depends, an onus which they are quite unable to bear.

“The perceptions and sensations of all who need respiratory and physical
re-education are absolutely unreliable. It is the teacher who should
have the responsibility of certain detailed orders, the literal carrying
out of which will ensure for the pupil _what is then the correct
standing position for him_. I emphasise this last, because no one
stereotyped position can be correct for each and every pupil. When the
person so employs the different parts of his body that one can speak of
his ‘harmful position in standing or walking,’ it is only by causing the
physical machinery gradually to resume correct and harmonious working,
thus changing the position from time to time, that serious harm can be
averted and satisfactory results secured. I may point out, moreover,
that in trying to assume the ‘proper standing position’ at the outset,
the pupil unavoidably puts severe strain upon the throat, thereby paving
the way for throat, ear, and eye disorders.”

Take the case, for example, of a boy who stoops very much, and combines
a sinking above and below the clavicles with abnormal protrusion of the
shoulder-blades. If he is told to “stand up straight” he will at once
make undue physical effort to carry out the order thus crudely given,
with the result that the shoulders will be thrown backward and upward,
the shoulder-blades still further protruded, and the front and upper
parts of the chest unduly elevated and expanded. There will also be a
narrowing, a sinking, and a flabbiness of the lower dorsal and posterior
thoracic region, with corresponding fixed protrusion and rigidity of the
front chest wall, undue arching of the lumbar spine, shortening of the
body and harmful stiffening of the arms and neck, instead of a fulness,
broadness, and firmness of the back, with free mobility of the chest
walls, resulting in normal curve of the lumbar region and comparative
lengthening of the spine. With the arms hanging vertically, the relative
position of that part of the thorax where the lungs are situated will be
seen to be in front of the arms, instead of being, as it should be,
behind them. In such a position, the boy feels helpless and tires
rapidly, owing to the imperfect co-ordination, and any attempt to
accustom him to this erect posture will ultimately result in
deterioration rather than improvement.

Now the narrowing and arching of the back already referred to is exactly
opposite to what is required by nature, and to that which is obtained in
re-education, co-ordination, and re-adjustment, viz., _widening of the
back and a more normal and extended position of the spine_. Moreover, if
these conditions of the back be first secured, the neck and arms will no
longer be stiffened, and the other faults will be eradicated.

In order to obviate the evils enunciated in the last two postulates the
teacher must himself place the pupil in a position of mechanical
advantage,[20] from which the pupil, by the mere mental rehearsal of
orders which the teacher will dictate, can _ensure the posture
specifically correct for himself_, although he is not, as yet, conscious
of what that posture is.

I further elaborated the same point in _Why We Breathe Incorrectly_
(November, 1909), and from this pamphlet I will now quote another
passage which bears directly on some important points involved, viz.:


  “There can be no such thing as a ‘correct standing position’ for each
  and every person. The question is not one of correct position, but of
  correct co-ordination (i.e., of the muscular mechanisms concerned).
  Moreover, any one who has acquired the power of co-ordinating
  correctly, can re-adjust the parts of his body to meet the
  requirements of almost any position, while always commanding adequate
  and correct movements of the respiratory apparatus and perfect vocal
  control—a fact which I demonstrate daily to my pupils. Continual
  re-adjustment of the parts of the body without undue physical tension
  is most beneficial, as is proved by the high standard of health and
  long life of acrobats. It is a significant fact that the very reverse
  is the case with athletes, showing that undue muscular tension does
  not conduce to health and longevity.”


[Illustration:

  A.A. THE FEET ARE HERE PLACED IN THE IDEAL POSITION FOR OBTAINING
    PERFECT EQUILIBRIUM OF THE HUMAN MACHINE, AND FOR PERMITTING THE
    MAXIMUM ACTIVITY OF THE FUNCTIONING OF THE WHOLE ORGANISM. NOTE.—IT
    IS EVIDENT THAT EITHER THE RIGHT OR LEFT FOOT MAY BE IN ADVANCE
    WITHOUT AFFECTING THE CORRECTNESS OF THE POSE.
]

[Illustration:

  B.B. THE FEET ARE HERE PLACED IN A POSITION WHICH COMPELS AN IMPERFECT
    ADJUSTMENT OF THE WHOLE ORGANISM IN ORDER TO SECURE EVEN AN
    IMPERFECT EQUILIBRIUM. THIS POSITION RESULTS IN THE MINIMUM ACTIVITY
    OF THE VITAL FUNCTIONING.
]

From what I have now said, it will be quite evident that the primary
principle involved in attaining a correct standing position is the
placing of the feet in that position which will ensure their greatest
effect as base, pivot, and fulcrum, and thereby throw the limbs and
trunk into that pose in which they may be correctly influenced and
_aided_ by the force of gravity. The weight of the body, it should be
noted (see diagram AA), rests chiefly upon the rear foot, and the hips
should be allowed to go back as far as is possible without altering the
balance effected by the position of the feet, and without deliberately
throwing the body forward. This movement starts at the ankle, and
affects particularly the joints of the ankles and the hips. When
inclining the body forward, there must be no bending of the spine or
neck; from the hips upwards the relative positions of all parts of the
torso must remain unchanged. When the position is assumed, it is further
necessary for each person to bring about the proper lengthening of the
spine and the adequate widening of the back. The latter needs due
psycho-physical training such as is referred to in the two extracts
quoted above.

This standing position as now explained is physiologically correct as a
primary factor in the act of walking. The weight is thrown largely upon
the rear foot, and thus enables the other knee to be bent and the
forward foot to be lifted; at the same time the ankle of the rear foot
should be bent so that the whole body is inclined slightly forward, thus
allowing the propelling force of gravitation to be brought into play.

The whole physiology of walking is, indeed, perfectly simple when once
these fundamental principles are understood. It is really resolved into
the primary movements of allowing the body to incline forward from the
ankle on which the weight is supported and then preventing oneself from
falling by allowing the weight to be taken in turn by the foot which has
been advanced. This method, simple as it may appear, is not, however,
the one usually adopted. The mechanical disadvantage displayed in what
is known as a “rolling gait,” for instance, a gait which is common
enough, is absolutely impossible when the instructions given are
carefully followed. And the effect upon the whole mechanical mechanism
of the person concerned is shown by the fact that when the co-ordinating
principles brought about by this method are established, there is a
constant tendency for the torso to lengthen, whereas the usual
tendency—due to faulty standing position and the incorrect
co-ordinations which follow—is for the torso to shorten.

Nearly every one I examine or observe in the act of walking, employs
unnecessary physical tension in the process in such a way that there is
a tendency to shorten the spine and legs, by pressing—if I may so put it
familiarly—down through the floor instead of, as it were, lightening
that pressure by lengthening the body and throwing the weight forward
and moving lightly and freely. In consequence of the “shortening” and
“pressing down” just referred to, the civilised peoples are becoming
more and more flat-footed. The properly co-ordinated person employs a
due amount of tension in such a way that the tendency of the spine and
legs is to lengthen, and the equilibrium is such that the undue pressure
through the floor is absent and there is a lightness and freedom in the
movements of such a person that is most noticeable. The person who is
flat-footed has only to establish these conditions to restore the
natural arch of the flatfoot.

We can find, perhaps, no better instance of the necessity for the
application of the principles of conscious control to these fundamental
and essential propositions of standing, walking, and running, than in
the photographs taken of Dorando as he appeared when he was making his
last terrible efforts to reach the tape at the conclusion of the
Marathon race in London in 1908. One sees that he was desperately
wearied, and that whatever conscious control of his muscular mechanisms
he may ever have obtained, he was at this moment completely under the
domination of subconscious (or subjective) control, that he was out of
“communication with his reason.” His body, as we see him in these
photographs, is thrown back from the hips, his arms are outstretched
behind him, and his legs are bent forward at the knee. As a consequence,
he is compelled to use almost all his physical force in order to save
himself from falling backwards. He is struggling against a tremendous
gravitational pull which is dragging him away from his goal. If Dorando,
magnificent athlete as he undoubtedly is, had been trained in the
principles of conscious control, such an attitude would have been
impossible for him, tired and exhausted even as he was. For if he had
not been subconsciously controlled, he would have employed his
common-sense at this moment and would have acted according to the
guidance of its mandate. It is at such critical moments that we have
urgent need for the control of reason, for it is then that we suffer
most from the loss of the animal equivalent—instinct.

Dorando’s muscles may have been taxed to their utmost capacity, but if
he had been consciously controlled he would have leaned forward, not
back, and while he had the strength necessary (but a very small part of
the strength he was actually expending) to prevent himself from falling
on his face, that gravitational force would have dragged him on instead
of dragging him back from the object of his achievement, as was actually
the case. He would, in short, have been able to make the _best_ instead
of the _worst_ use of his powers.

Faults such as we see exaggerated in this instance are to be found in
the carriage of many people to-day, and the fact is one of great
importance to medical men. Patients are constantly advised to take
walking exercise, although in many cases that exercise undoubtedly does
more harm than good. In my opinion it is very essential that all doctors
should devote more attention to this subject than they are devoting at
the present time, in order that they may be in a position to advise
which of their patients will be benefited by taking walking exercise,
and which of them by so doing will aggravate the troubles from which
they are suffering. For it should be evident, I think, that the good
effects of fresh air and gentle exercise will be practically nullified,
if the patient can only obtain them by exaggerating and perpetuating the
defects which have led him to the prescription.

These same rules are equally applicable in principle to the acts of
sitting and of rising from a sitting position. Very few people have the
right mental conception of the “means whereby” of these acts or of the
correct use of the parts which should be employed in their performance,
and this despite the fact that we are performing these acts continually,
and with such apparent ease from our own point of view. If you ask any
of your friends to sit down you will notice, if you observe their
actions closely, that in nearly all cases there is undue increase of
muscular tension in the body and lower limbs; in many cases the arms are
actually employed. As a rule, however, the most striking action is the
alteration in the position of the head which is thrown back, whilst the
neck is stiffened and shortened. Now I will describe the correct method,
but it must be borne in mind that it is useless to give what I here call
“orders” to the muscular mechanism, until the original habit and the
principle of mental conception connected with this action have been
eradicated. If, for instance, before giving any of the “orders” which
follow, the experimenter has already fixed in his mind that he is to go
through the performance of sitting down, _as that performance is known
to him_, this suggestion will at once call into play all the old vicious
co-ordinations, and the new orders will never influence the mechanisms
to which they are directed, because those mechanisms will already be
imperfectly employed, and will be held in their old routine by the force
of the familiar suggestion. Firstly, then, rid the mind of the idea of
sitting down, and consider the exercise and each order independently of
the final consequence they entail. In other words, study the “means,”
not the “end.” Secondly, stand in the position already described as the
correct standing position, with the back of the legs almost touching the
seat of the chair. Thirdly, order the neck to relax, and at the same
time order the head _forward_ and up. (Note that to “order” the muscles
of the neck to relax does not mean “allow the head to fall forward on
the chest.” The order suggested is merely a mental preventive to the
erroneous preconceived idea.) Fourthly, keep clearly in the mind the
general idea of the lengthening of the body which is a direct
consequence of the third series of orders. And fifthly, order
simultaneously the hips to move backwards and the knees to bend, the
knees and hip-joints acting as hinges. During this act a mental order
must be given to widen the back. When this order is fulfilled, the
experimenter will find himself sitting in the chair. But he is not yet
upright, for the body will be inclined forward, unless he frustrates the
whole performance at this point by giving his old orders to come to an
upright position. Sixthly, then, and this is of great importance, pause
for an instant in the position in which you will fall into the chair if
the earlier instructions have been correctly followed, and then after
ordering the neck to relax and the head _forward_ and up, the spine to
lengthen and the back to widen, come back into the chair and to an
upright position by using the hips as a hinge, and without shortening
the back, stiffening the neck, or throwing up the head.

The act of rising is merely a reversal of the foregoing. Draw the feet
back so that one is slightly under the seat of the chair, allow the body
to move forward from the hips, always keeping in mind the freedom of the
neck, and the idea of lengthening the spine. Let the whole body come
forward until the centre of gravity falls over the feet, that is to say,
until the poise is such that if the chair were removed at this point,
you would be left balanced in the position of a person performing the
“frog dance,” then by the exercise of the muscles of the legs and back,
straighten the legs at the hips, knees, and ankles, until the erect
position is perfectly attained.

If you care to experiment on a friend in this act of rising, you will
observe that in the movement as performed by an imperfectly co-ordinated
person, the same bad movements occur, tending to stiffen the neck, to
arch the spine unduly, to shorten the body, and to protrude the
abdominal wall.

This completes the co-ordinating idea with regard to standing, walking,
and sitting, and the exercises indicated in the explanations I have made
will be found exceedingly helpful as a first step towards a proper and
healthful use of the muscular mechanisms in these simple acts of
everyday life.

   II. “_How are the principles of Conscious Control to be applied to
         the cure of specific bad habits, or to the cure of specific
         diseases?_”

The following letter is typical of many:


  “Dear Sir,—I have read your book, _Man’s Supreme Inheritance_, with
  much interest, and I hope you will forgive me if I venture to point
  out a difficulty which presents itself to my mind, and probably to the
  mind of the ordinary reader.

  “It is this: In what way is it proposed to _apply_ the principle of
  ‘conscious control’ in a given case—say in the overcoming of a habit,
  such as smoking, to take a common example—or in the case of functional
  disorders, as constipation? It seems to me that the great attraction
  to most people of the popular books on so-called ‘New Thought’ is that
  they lay down clear and precise rules which can be put into practice,
  so that the reader knows what he must do to be saved. But I confess I
  am unable to gather how you would recommend setting about the
  attainment of your principles. It would be a great help to me, and no
  doubt to others, if this could be explained, and probably in the
  larger work which you contemplate this will be more fully done.

  “In the meantime, however, if it is not asking too much, I should be
  extremely grateful to you if you could very kindly indicate the method
  you propose by which the principles could be applied in such cases as
  I have suggested....”


Now, I may be doing the writer of this letter an injustice, but I am
inclined to class him among the many enquirers who seem confidently to
anticipate a miracle. In my introduction I have said, “In this brochure
will be found no mention of royal roads, panaceas, or grand specifics,”
yet I feel sure that some of my readers have, nevertheless, imagined
that by some marvellous means they may be cured by taking thought,
despite all that I have written with regard to that procedure. We see in
one paragraph of the letter quoted above a nice example of the desire to
lean towards any mechanical method. “The great attraction ... of the
popular books on so-called ‘New Thought,’” we read, “is that they lay
down clear and precise rules which can be put into practice.” It is true
that I have not laid down any “clear and precise rules” which may cover
every conceivable form of physical and mental trouble, as do the
exponents of “New Thought” and “faith-healing,” and I think that my
reason should be plain enough, for in my experience I have never found
two cases exactly alike, and the detailed instructions which I might lay
down for A might be extremely detrimental to B or C.

Nevertheless, since I see that some further explanation is needed, I
will adumbrate the general principles which embrace the rule of
application, however diverse the method may be in practice.

In the first place, all specific bad habits such as overindulgence in
food, drink, tobacco, etc., evidence a lack of “control” in a certain
direction, and the greater number of specific disorders such as asthma,
tuberculosis, cancer, nervous complaints, etc., indicate interference
with the normal conditions of the body, lack of control, and imperfect
working of the human mechanisms, with displacement of the different
parts of that mechanism, loss of vitality and its inevitable
concomitant, lower activity of functioning in all the vital organs. When
the subject has arrived at this condition, harmful habits become
established and the standard of resistance to disease is seriously
lowered.

To regain normal health and power in such cases, what I have called
“re-education” is absolutely imperative. This treatment begins, in
practically all cases, by instructions in the primary factors connected
with the eradication of erroneous preconceived ideas connected with bad
habits, and the simplest correct mental and physical co-ordination. The
displaced parts of the body must be restored to their proper positions
by re-education in a correct and controlled use of the muscular
mechanisms. In this process the blood is purified, the circulation is
gradually improved, and all the injurious accumulations are removed by
the internal massage which is part and parcel of the increased vital
activity from such re-education.

Thus the first stage in the eradication of bad habits and disorders is
reached when improved conditions of health are established. Nor must it
be forgotten that in this process of re-education a great object lesson
is given to the controlling mind. In the very breaking up of maleficent
co-ordinations or vicious circles which have become established, a new
impulse is given to certain intellectual functions which have been
thrown out of play. The reflex action which is setting up morbid
conditions can only be controlled and altered by a deliberate
realisation of the guiding process which is to be substituted, and these
new impulses to the conscious mind have, analogically, very much the
same effect as is produced on the body by the internal massage referred
to above. The old accumulations of subconscious thought are dispersed,
and room is made for new conceptions and realisations.

When the first stage is passed, it is just as easy at almost any time of
life to establish “good” habits (“good” that is, by the test of all our
experience and knowledge) as “bad” ones. Bad habits mean, in ninety-nine
per cent. of cases, that the person concerned has, often through
ignorance, pandered to and wilfully indulged certain sensations,
probably with little or no thought as to what evil results may accrue
from his concessions to the dominance of small pleasures. This careless
relaxation of reason, in the first instance, makes it doubly difficult
to assert command when the indulgence has become a habit. Sensation has
usurped the throne so feebly defended by reason, and sense, once it has
obtained power, is the most pitiless of autocrats. If we are to maintain
the succession that is our supreme inheritance, we must first break the
power of the usurper, and then re-establish our sovereign, no longer
dull and indifferent to the welfare of his kingdom, but active,
vigilant, and open-eyed to the evils which result from his old policy of
_laissez-faire_.

So many people, I find, seem to regard the principles of conscious
control as a kind of magic which may be worked by some suitable
incantation. They appear to think that we may obtain conscious control
of, say, the secretive glands, that we may be able to give an order to
secrete more or less bile or gastric juice by a command of the objective
mind. If such a thing were possible, and if I could endow any person
with such power to-morrow, I should know perfectly well that I should,
by so doing, be signing that person’s death warrant; I might equally
well give him a dose of poison. To refer to my metaphor of the sovereign
ruler, you might as well expect a king to order and superintend the
detail of his subjects’ private life as expect the conscious mind
directly to order and superintend every function of the body. If the
king will ordain good and just laws, his policy will prosper; the detail
of organisation must be left to inferior officers. In the care of the
body the organisation is there, aptly and perfectly adjusted to its
functions, and when the ruling power of conscious control has ordained
the sane laws which shall establish peace and prosperity within the
assembly, the organisation already in force will work in harmony to its
fit and proper ends. On the other hand, there is great danger in
underrating the power of conscious control which, if it must not be
prematurely forced and made to intrude on automatic functions, must in
no way be undervalued or delimited.

For instance, though it may not be possible to control directly each
separate part of the abdominal viscera, we can control directly the
muscles of the abdominal wall which encloses the viscera, and in
reducing a protruding abdomen we can control many other muscles, notably
those of the back, which when they are properly employed and
co-ordinated will, by widening and altering the shape of the back, make
place for the protruded stomach, allow it to occupy the natural position
from which it has been ousted, and so give free play once more to the
natural functions of the viscera that have been distorted and pinched by
the forced positions they have had to assume. Here we see that though
conscious control does not affect by a process of direct command, as it
were, the lower automatic functions, there is great danger in assuming
that such functions are beyond the reach of my methods.

This danger was brought before me when I read, in the _British Medical
Journal_ for December, 1909, an article on one side of my teaching
contributed by Dr. S——, an old pupil of mine.

In this article Dr. S—— says:


  “Man’s education does not always demand conscious instruction; in the
  absence of unfavourable circumstances he can learn by unconscious
  imitation of good models.”


Now this is not demonstrably untrue, but at the same time it is, as I
shall show, extraordinarily misleading, and is, in effect, just as
valuable as the prescription of champagne and hothouse grapes for a
pauper patient.

In the first place, we must remember, and Dr. S—— has himself admitted
the fact, that the normal is the rarest of all states. Medical experts
find that their most constant source of error in diagnosis arises from
the overreadiness to assume normal conditions in patients whose internal
economies and muscular co-ordination are, in fact, far from the ideal
standard of proportion and interdependence. Yet if the expert trained in
physiology fails to note the distortions which are upsetting the whole
economy, what body is to be named the supreme authority that shall
select the “good models” for unconscious imitation?

In the second place, we have to reckon with a psychological factor which
at once determines the question of the validity of unconscious
imitation. This factor is the demonstrable truth that unconscious
imitation does in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand
lay hold of the faults of the imitated and pass over the virtues. In a
long experience of re-educating many professional men and women for the
stage in this country, I have had abundant opportunity to observe the
methods of the “understudy” set to “imitate” his or her principal, and
my invariable experience has been that subconscious imitation has always
been shown by a reproduction of the actor’s or actress’s most prominent
failings. The intellectual reading of the part, the subtler inflexions
of voice and the finer details of gesture are passed by, and the
“understudy” reproduces the “mannerisms,” all those obvious tricks of
speech, manner, and gesture which are the least essential factors in the
true reading of the part. Again, my experience in cases of stammering
has shown me very clearly that especially among boys and young men, the
stutter has in a very large majority of cases come about by the
imitation of some other boy. We do not find boys so apt to imitate one
of their fellows who speaks particularly well.

Now this imitation of a fault in speech is subconscious and will not
always right itself naturally, and the reason for this will become clear
with a little consideration. Set a man to work on an elaborate and
intricate piece of machinery. Tell him that if he moves a switch here
and a lever there, certain effects will be produced and certain desired
results obtained. The movements are simple ones, and the man left to
himself will be able to control the working of the machine with ease and
certainty. But let us suppose that some essential part of the machine is
put out of gear, and that the machine instead of running smoothly and
easily begins to jerk and hiccough. Our assumed operator is immediately
at a loss. He sees that there is something wrong, and that there is
obvious friction where there was ease before; noise has taken the place
of silence; but he knows nothing of the working of the machine save the
elementary movements of the switch and lever, in the uses of which he
has had instruction. Now, he may perform these movements again and
again; but the machine still stutters, and our operator, quite at a
loss, can do nothing to obviate these faults. He must allow the machine
to continue working badly if it works at all.

The boy we have adduced as an example of a stammerer, who has copied
some fault of another boy and found that fault become permanent, is in
exactly the same position as the unskilled operator of our illustration.
This boy knows the ordinary uses of his vocal machine which have
heretofore produced normal results, but he does not know enough of the
machine to repair it when it is put out of gear; he cannot control the
machinery so that it may at once be restored to its previous efficiency.
But just as the unskilled operator may be instructed in the complete
mechanism he is set to supervise, and may then stop the machine when any
fault becomes evident, discover the source of the defect and set it
right; so will any person who has been instructed in the principles of
conscious control be able to detect and obliterate any fault in his
vocal or any other bodily mechanism, even if that fault was originated
below the level of consciousness.

These marked examples furnish a sound and unfailing analogy to the
principles of unconscious imitation in their application to physiology.
The perfectly co-ordinated man or woman does, as a matter of fact, offer
less mark for imitation to the ordinary observer than the man or woman
who displays an obvious defect, just as the perfectly dressed man or
woman passes with less remark than those people who affect some
exaggeration of costume in order to attract attention. Were we able at
this time to set the Greek model before our children, we should be able
to display it only on occasion, and the unconscious imitative powers of
the child would seize hold far more readily of the marked defects with
which it would be forced into contact during the greater part of its
waking life. In a perfect world, unconscious imitation would not be able
to exert a perverting influence, and to the conception of such a world
we may well turn our attention, but we shall never attain it by any
means other than these principles of conscious, reasoning, deliberate
construction, or reconstruction, upon which I have based the whole of my
theory and practice.

And, finally, there is still a serious danger to be reckoned with, even
should we find sufficient methods in our present civilisation from which
we might learn by unconscious imitation. We must remember that during
the advance of civilisation mankind has lost the faculty we call
instinct, the faculty which guided mankind in a state of nature as it
still guides the lower animal world. During our advance from this
primitive condition, the one great defect in our mental, physical, and
educational training has been the failure to recognise that civilised
life is the death-bed of instinct, and that in civilised life man’s
education must always demand conscious instruction. For we see that it
is at the critical moments that men fail to rise to the occasion. In
such a case as that of Dorando, already cited, we see that a perfectly
trained athlete, a man capable of the magnificent effort he made in the
great Marathon race, was robbed of his victory by his dependence at the
critical moment upon unconscious control as opposed to the conscious
control which is the thesis of _Man’s Supreme Inheritance_. And every
day we are told that at critical moments, at the crisis of a debate,
when suddenly called upon to decide a question of moment, or when faced
with terrifying physical danger, men “lose their heads”—and fail. It is
more especially at these times, at the crises of life, that the men who
had been _educated_ in the principles of conscious control would be
capable of acting with the same reason and common-sense that
characterised their mental and physical acts on the ordinary occasions
of life. If they had relied upon _unconscious_ imitation they would
still be dependent, to a certain degree, upon instinct.

Before leaving Question II, however, I will deal specifically with two
of the prevailing maladies of our time, viz., spinal curvature and
appendicitis, and show how the principles I have enunciated have a
particular bearing on the prevention and cure of these two serious
ailments.

1. _Spinal Curvature._ A perfect spine is an all-important factor in
preserving those conditions and uses of the human machine which work
together for perfect health, yet there are comparatively few people who
do not in some form or degree suffer, perhaps quite unconsciously, from
spinal curvature.

The present attitude towards this very serious mark of physical
degeneration would be ludicrous were it not that the matter is one of
almost tragic importance, and I may quote in this connexion a letter of
mine which appeared in _The Pall Mall Gazette_ for 14th March, 1908.
After dealing with certain other matters which need not be reproduced
here, I cited the following instances of the results of our present
attitude:


  “In our schools and in the army, human beings are actually being
  developed into deformities by breathing and physical exercises. I have
  before me a book on the breathing exercises which are used in the
  army, and any person reasonably versed in physiology and psychology,
  and knowing they are inseparable in practice, will at once understand
  why so much harm results from them. Take either the officers or the
  soldiers. In a greater or less degree the unduly protruded upper
  chests (development of emphysema), unduly hollowed backs (lordosis),
  stiff necks, rigid thorax, and other physical eccentricities have been
  cultivated. It is for these reasons that heart troubles, varicose
  veins, emphysema, and mouth breathing (in exercise) are so much in
  evidence in the army. As this is a matter of national importance, I am
  prepared to give the time necessary to prove to the authorities
  (medical or official) connected with the army, the schools, or the
  sanatoria that the ‘deep breathing’ and physical exercises in vogue
  are doing far more harm than good, and are laying the foundations of
  much graver trouble in the future. The truth is that all exercises
  involving ‘deep breathing’ cause an exaggeration of the defective
  muscular co-ordination already present, so that even if one bad habit
  is eradicated, many others, often more harmful, are cultivated.

  “In this connexion it is only necessary to point to the serious
  effects of ‘deep breathing’ and physical culture exercises in the
  causation of throat and ear disorders, following upon the undue and
  harmful depression of the larynx—the crowding down of the structures
  of the throat—such depression occurring with every inspiration, and as
  a rule with every expiration. This disorganisation and consequent
  strain in the region of the throat is always found exaggerated, and
  tends gradually to increase in people who are subject to asthma,
  bronchitis, and hay fever, and the removal of the factors causing such
  strain and disorganisation means great relief and gradual progress
  towards the eradication of these disorders; but, of course, all
  organic troubles should be removed in such cases.”


Now I may say further that I have not, up to now, examined any method of
physical culture or respiration which has not tended to bring about in
time some form of directly harmful lumbar spinal curvature. And I have
never examined a case of the (alleged) cure of spinal curvature in which
the front of the chest has not been harmfully altered, and very often
seriously deformed. The original idea in diagnosis of spinal curvature
which has led to the methods producing these results is “that the
activity of the muscles is necessary to the retention of the spine in an
erect position, in consequence of which, therefore, the primary cause
for the scoliosis must be sought in an abnormal function of the muscles
influencing the spine.” This is the myopathic theory of Eulenburg, an
authority whose dicta have had an important influence in medical
practice.

The error of advocating physical exercises, as generally understood, of
any kind in the treatment of spinal curvature is even greater than in
the case of John Doe, whom I cited in the earlier part of this work and
whose case should be again referred to in this connexion. The question
here also is one of correct conscious recognition, and it is much more
marked in the case of spinal curvature than in the case of my earlier
illustration, a case in which there was no special deformity, and in
which the muscle-tensing exercises I deprecated did not work to
emphasise a marked structural malformation.

The important factors in relation to spinal curvature are these:


  (_a_) The bent or curved and therefore shortened spine.

  (_b_) The decreased internal capacity of the thoracic cavity.


Plainly, attention must first be given to straightening and lengthening
the curved and shortened spine. This can be done by an expert
manipulator who is able to diagnose the erroneous preconceived ideas of
the person concerned, and cause the pupil to inhibit them while
employing the position of mechanical advantage. And it can be done
without asking the pupil to perform what he understands as a single
physical act. Moreover, if the correct guiding orders are given to the
pupil by the teacher, and the pupil makes no attempt to hold him or
herself in the lengthened position, such use of the muscular mechanism
will, nevertheless, be brought about as will ensure that the torso is
held in a correct position. Formerly, the consciousness in regard to the
correct action has been erroneous, a mere delusion, and the muscular
mechanisms have worked to pull the body down. The truth of the matter is
that in the old morbid conditions which have brought about the curvature
the muscles intended by Nature for the correct working of the parts
concerned had been put out of action, and the whole purpose of the
re-educatory method I advocate is to bring back these muscles into play,
not by physical exercises, but by the employment of a position of
mechanical advantage and the repetition of the correct inhibiting and
guiding mental orders by the pupil, and the correct manipulation and
direction by the teacher, until the two psycho-physical factors become
an established psycho-physical habit.

During this process of re-education, factor (_b_) has not been
forgotten. A little consideration will show that any alteration in the
spine must necessarily affect the position and working of the ribs. (The
analogy of the keel of a boat and the ribs which spring from it may well
be held in mind to make clear the following explanation.) It will be
seen that as the ribs are held apart by muscular tissues (analogous to
the boards of a boat), a bending of the spine will not buckle the ribs
unless great force is applied, force sufficient to rupture the muscular
tissue. But it is equally evident that there must be some play in the
ribs in order that they may adjust themselves to the new position. This
play is effected in the human body (and would be effected mechanically
in the ribs of a boat, if they possessed sufficient elasticity) by the
coming together of the ends of the “false” and “flying” ribs, that is,
those lower ribs which are not attached to the bony sternum. This
flattening of the curve of the ribs, and the approach of their free ends
towards each other, reduces the thoracic cavity, just as in our
illustration of the boat its capacity would be reduced if we forcibly
narrowed the distance between the thwarts. On the other hand, we see
that by increasing the thoracic capacity and so increasing the distance
between the ends of these ribs, we are applying a mechanical principle
which by a reverse action tends to straighten the spine.

These two actions, the re-education of the “Kinæsthetic Systems” and the
increasing of the thoracic capacity which applies a mechanical power by
means of the muscles and ribs to the straightening of the spine, are
both aspects of the one central idea, and are not separate and divisible
acts.

2. _Appendicitis._ The prevalence of appendicitis has always seemed to
me one of the most striking proofs of the inefficiency of present-day
methods in regard to health. At times I am filled with wonder that we
permit such bad conditions to become established as may necessitate the
removal of the appendix. It is, of course, well known that the operation
is frequently performed when the conditions do not warrant such extreme
measures, but cases have come under my notice, nevertheless, and those
not among the uneducated classes, in which the symptoms had become so
aggravated by years of harmful habits of life as to necessitate the
major operation. Fortunately there is a section of the medical
profession which objects, on scientific grounds, to the removal of the
appendix in all but extreme cases, and this opposition and the evidence
adducible as to the comparative ease with which the exaggerated
condition may be avoided and the trouble completely cured by natural
means, is doing much to limit the sphere of those champions of the knife
who are never content unless they can be dissecting the living body.

There can be no question or shadow of doubt that when the whole frame is
properly co-ordinated and the adjustment of the body is correct and
controlled according to the principles I have enunciated, it is a
practical impossibility to get appendicitis. The cause of the trouble is
due to imperfect adjustment of the body which allows or forces the
abdominal viscera to become displaced and to fall. The first consequence
of this is a change of pressures and the loss of the natural internal
massage, present in normal conditions. This leads to constipation among
other symptoms, and permits the gradual accumulation of toxic poisons.

When the trouble has already shown itself and there is some positive
inflammation of the appendix and tenderness in that region, it is by no
means too late to apply my methods. The new co-ordinations which may in
such cases be brought about very quickly, and established later, at once
relieve false internal pressures and permit a natural re-adjustment of
the viscera, and the furtherance of a rapid return to a healthy and
normal condition is greatly accelerated by the internal massage.

With regard to this latter treatment to which I have already referred in
this chapter, I may mention that many pupils have asked me if I use
internal massage in my system of re-education. In my brochure on the
_Theory and Practice of Respiratory Re-education_, included in Part III,
it will be found that I used this description, as I said, for lack of
one that was sufficiently comprehensive, but the principle itself is one
of the first importance.

When a patient or pupil is placed in the position of mechanical
advantage I have so often had occasion to refer to, the manipulator can
secure the maximum movement of the abdominal viscera in strict
accordance with the laws of nature and will obtain at the same time a
maximum functioning of all the internal organs. In this way foreign
accumulations are dissipated, constipation is relieved, and the more or
less collapsed viscera—the cause of all the trouble—are restored to
their proper places and resume their natural functions.

All these things, it will be seen, are essential factors in the
prevention and cure of appendicitis, and I may add that the application
of these principles in a very large number of cases in which an
operation has been medically advised has conclusively demonstrated their
value to the individual and to the race.

Appendicitis, like influenza, is probably almost an impossibility in the
natural state; it is one of the results of civilisation and
subconsciously controlled mechanisms, and is possible only through the
conditions we have developed; and these adventitious troubles and
ailments will continue to appear and to do their work of destruction
until some general recognition is made of the necessity for substituting
conscious control for the partly superseded forces which in a wild state
render these ailments impossible.

  III. “_What are the outward signs of improvement to be noted during
         treatment?_”

The signs of improvement are manifold and they necessarily vary
according to the nature of the original defect, but I will set out here
some of the more characteristic, such as occur in generally typical
cases.

We see, in the first place, that the characteristic defects of the body,
whether displacements of some part or parts of the muscular mechanism
(in some cases even displacement of the bones), or defects of pose which
throw some unusual strain upon a muscle, or, more commonly, a group of
muscles not intended to take such strain, all have some correlated
defects, which may be observed by the instructed as certain visible
peculiarities and abnormalities. And we must draw particular attention
in this connexion to the fact that these outer signs are _correlated_
with the inner defects. Neither outer sign nor inner defect is from one
point of view the _result_ one of the other. The original cause is some
faulty or imperfect co-ordination or conception of function; the inner
defect and outer sign-mark are equally a consequence as they are to us
an index.

As we should naturally expect, the chief sign-manual is to be found in
the face. To me, that is a most valuable document upon which is written
many curious, intricate, sometimes alarming confessions. The expression
of the eyes, the set of the lips, the drawing of the forehead, and the
more pronounced dragging of the flexible face muscles, are all marks
which may be read by the expert, and, to answer the question directly,
one of the earlier outward signs of improvement is to be found in a
relaxation of the forced and unnatural expression which results from
these contortions. It must be obvious that I cannot here set out in
detail the symptomatic distortions which accompany the various internal
defects, but one may be noted as an exemplar for the others however
diverse.

The case in question was one of dilation of the heart and as such was
brought to me by a medical friend, and, as a matter of fact, though this
was the most alarming symptom, it was but one of many springing from
deep-seated causes. Incidentally I may note that the spine was arched
inwards, the legs were unduly and most abnormally stiffened when the
patient was in a standing position, and the upper part of the chest was
held most harmfully high—this last symptom being the influence which
produced what was really a tertiary effect, though in this case the most
threatening one, viz., the dilation of the heart. Now this patient
carried certain very curious marks in the face: first a general
expression of strain in the eyes and cheek muscles, and secondly four
very marked indents or pits in the forehead. Here, indeed, were marks
which the expert might read, and it was extremely interesting to note,
as my treatment progressed and the patient recovered the proper use of
the body and a consequent return to perfect health, first, the
disappearance of the strained expression of eyes and face muscles, and
secondly, the gradual filling up of the four curious indentations in the
forehead. In this case the original symptoms were so marked that the
patient’s friends all commented on the change of expression during the
progress of the treatment.

The face, however, is by no means the only index. Many defects lead, by
way of stiffened neck and throat muscles, to an alteration in the
quality and power of the voice. There too the mode of movement and the
failure to express purpose in muscular action, the fumbling, indirect
attempt to perform a simple act, are aids to diagnosis, either of the
original defect, or, by their reversion to natural, easy functioning, of
the progress of the cure.

Generally, also, we observe a clearing of the skin and eyes as the
defects are eradicated, improvements which are due to better circulation
and the improved quality of the blood, factors which bring about a
continually increasing power in the organism to purge itself not only
through the bowels and kidneys, but also through the skin.

Lastly, we may note a general improvement in physique, in the carriage
of the body, in the whole appearance of co-ordinated, reasoned control.

Another curious and interesting test of the co-ordinated person who is
attaining conscious control of the uses of his body is obtained by
observing his hands when they fall to his sides in the position which
comes naturally to him. One may say that there are three main stages to
be observed in man’s development in this particular, though the
gradations are many and not, perhaps, always strictly progressive. The
first stage may be observed in the lowest savages, the Hottentot, the
Australian aboriginal, and many races at an early stage of development.
Such examples stand with body thrown back from the hips, stomach
protruded, and—here is the test—_with the palms of the hands forward_,
the elbows bent into the sides, the thumbs sticking out away from the
body. The second stage is evidenced in the averaged civilised man of
to-day who stands as a rule with the palms of his hands towards his
body, his elbows to the back, his thumbs forward. In the third stage,
the properly co-ordinated person stands with the back of his hands
forward, the thumbs inwards, and the elbows slightly bent outwards. This
is a curious but little known test, which, in my experience, has never
failed as an index to imperfect muscular co-ordination.

I believe I have now answered in sufficient detail the somewhat wide
intention of these three main questions, but in conclusion I will note
one further point that has been raised.

This is the question as to why the great majority of men and women
breathe from their stomach or the upper chest and so allow, among other
evils, the costal arch to be narrowed and the flying ribs to become
constricted and stiffened. In the case of many women there can be no
doubt that this is due to the use of tight corsets which confine these
ribs, and do great general harm in constricting the natural play of the
vital functions. But another and, in my opinion, the primary cause is
the common practice of swathing a child in bands almost immediately
after birth, and keeping him so fettered during many months of infancy.
The idea of this practice is to prevent rupture in male children should
they be subject to violent fits of crying or coughing, but the question
of the relative tightness or looseness of these swathings is left in the
hands of a nurse, who, in the great majority of cases, thinks it well to
be on the “safe side” by winding the child unnecessarily tightly.
Obviously the early habit is retained through life unless it is broken
by some outside influence. The pliancy of the young organisms is such
that the functioning of the breathing apparatus is quickly re-adjusted,
but the evils which gradually accumulate, from this and similar causes,
do not show themselves as a rule till much later in life.

Another cause is any imperfect adjustment of the muscular mechanism, a
failure which may be due to incorrect training, to unconscious
imitation, or to any of the chances which are always being presented to
the child in the haphazard system of physical education which obtains in
our nurseries and schools.

And on this note I may well conclude my chapter, for no argument I can
advance in favour of a careful consideration of the principles I have
laid down can have such cogency and force as the most superficial
examination of the physique of the children in our schools and the
adults in our streets. We are indeed suffering, not only in Great
Britain but on the continents of Europe and America, from a failure to
recognise that man is no longer a natural animal, whose life-habits were
dependent upon the development of the faculty of instinct, and that all
systems of physical culture (and how diverse they are!) must necessarily
fail unless they take into account that first and last essential, the
free use and consciousness of the reasoning, controlling mind.




                                PART III
  THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF A NEW METHOD OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION

                        _First published 1907._

“Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the highest truth, lest
it should be too much in advance of the time, may reassure himself by
looking at his acts from an impersonal point of view.... It is not for
nothing that he has in him these sympathies with some principles and
repugnance to others. He, with all his capacities, and aspirations, and
beliefs, is not an accident, but a product of the time. He must remember
that while he is a descendant of the past he is a parent of the future;
and that his thoughts are as children born to him, which he may not
carelessly let die.”—HERBERT SPENCER.




                                   I
                              INTRODUCTORY


It may be of interest to my readers to know that the method I have
founded is the result of a practical and unique experience, for my
knowledge was gained—

1. While vainly attempting to eradicate personal, vocal, and respiratory
defects by recognised systems.

2. While afterwards putting into practice certain original principles,
which enabled me to eradicate these defects.

3. While giving personal demonstrations of the application of these
principles from a respiratory, vocal, and health-giving point of view.

I first imparted the method thus evolved to patients recommended by
medical men over ten years prior to June, 1904. At that date I
introduced it to leading London medical men, who, after investigation,
decided that the method was, as one doctor put it, “the most efficient
known to (him).”

The method makes for—

In _Education_:


  1. Prevention of certain defects hereinafter referred to.

  2. Adequate and correct use of the muscular mechanisms concerned with
  respiration.


In _Re-education_:


  1. Eradication of certain defects hereinafter referred to.

  2. Co-ordination in the use of the muscular mechanisms concerned with
  respiration.


The result of (2) is not only to make that function efficient, but also
to ensure that normal activity and natural massage of the _internal
organs_ so necessary to the adequate performance of the vital functions
and the preservation of a proper condition of health.

                                                  F. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER.




                                   I
                 THE THEORY OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION


The artificial conditions of modern civilised life, among which is
comparative lack of free exercise in the open air, are conducive to the
_in_adequate use of breathing power. Indulgence in harmful habits of
feeding and posture have caused these same habits, through heredity and
unconscious imitation, to become “second nature” in the great majority
of adults to-day and frequently in children, even at an early age.

The normal condition of vigour in the action of the component parts of
the respiratory mechanisms is greatly interfered with; general nervous
relaxation is brought about, and a feeble, flabby action becomes
permanent.

Certain muscles of the thoracic mechanisms which should take the lead in
the performance of the breathing movements remain entirely inert for the
greater part of life, whilst others, which were never intended by nature
to monopolise this particular act but only to serve as a relief or
change, are used solely for the act of breathing.

Hence arises a condition in which the posture, the symmetry of the body,
the graceful normal curves of the whole frame, suffer alteration and
change.

The capacity and mobility of the thorax (chest) are decreased, its shape
(particularly in the lumbar region, clavicles, and lower sides of the
chest) is changed in a harmful way, and the abdominal viscera are
displaced, whilst the heart, lungs, and other vital organs are allowed
to drop below their normal position. Inadequate holding-space of the
thorax—which means a distinct lessening of the “vital capacity”—and
displacement of the vital organs within it, are great factors in
retarding the natural activity of the parts concerned, which are
therefore unable fully and naturally to perform their functions. Under
these circumstances the natural chemical changes in the human organism
cannot be adequate.

The serious interference with the circulatory processes and the
inadequate oxygenation of the blood prevent the system from being
properly nourished and cleansed of impurities, for the action of the
excretory processes will be impeded and the whole organism slowly but
surely charged with foreign matter, which, sooner or later, will cause
acute symptoms of disease.

It will at once be understood that the defects enumerated produce
distinct deterioration in the condition of the different organs of the
body, and it is well known that an organ’s power of resistance to
disease depends upon the adequacy of its functioning power, which in its
turn depends upon adequate activity.

Records exist which prove that Chinese physicians as early as 2000 B.C.
employed breathing exercises in the treatment of certain diseases. It is
therefore obvious that the people concerned had reached:


  1. A stage in their evolution which corresponds with that of our time,
  i.e., demanding re-education.

  2. A stage of observation of cause and effect similar to that of
  to-day, which led them to see the need of re-education. Such
  re-education is essential to the restoration of the natural conditions
  present at the birth in every normal babe, though gradually
  deteriorated under conditions of modern life.


In recent years the following members of the medical profession have
urged the inestimable value of the cultivation and development of the
respiratory mechanism, and their conclusions have been borne out by the
practical results secured by respiratory re-education combined with
proper medical treatment.


  MEDICAL OPINIONS CONCERNING THE EVIL EFFECT OF INTERFERENCE WITH AND
              INADEQUATE USE OF THE RESPIRATORY PROCESSES

Mr. W. Arbuthnot Lane, surgeon to Guy’s Hospital, in his lecture
published in the _Lancet_, December 17, 1904, p. 1697, urges that
reduction in the respiratory capacity is a very great factor in lowering
the activity of all the vital processes of the body, and that in the
first instance inadequate aeration and oxygenation is the result of a
serious alteration in the abdominal mechanisms, and afterwards this
insufficient aeration impairs the digestive processes.

Dr. Hugh A. McCallum, in his clinical lecture on “Visceroptosis”
(dropping of the viscera), as published in the _British Medical
Journal_, February 18, 1905, p. 345, points out that over ninety per
cent. of the females suffering from neurasthenia (exhaustion of nerve
force) are victims of visceroptosis, and that the conditions present are
bad standing posture, imperfect use of the lower zone of the thorax, and
the lack of tone in the abdominal muscular system which leads to
defective intra-abdominal pressure. He also mentions that Dr. John
Madison Taylor of Philadelphia and Keith of England were the two first
to point out that the origin of this disease begins in a faulty position
and use of the thorax.

In a leading article in the _Lancet_, December 24, 1904, p. 1796, this
passage occurs: “Whatever may be the causes, it is certain that an
increasing number of town-dwellers suffer from constipation and atony of
the colon, and that purgatives, enemata, and massage are powerless to
prevent their progress from constipation to coprostasis.”


                             CONVALESCENTS

The value of respiratory re-education in the treatment of convalescents
was pointed out recently (1905) by M. Siredey and M. Rosenthal in a
paper read at a meeting of the Société Medicale des Hôpitaux.

An excerpt from the _Lancet_, February 18, 1905, p. 463, reads as
follows:


  “They said that respiratory insufficiency was one of the causes of the
  general debility which showed itself after an acute illness. It was
  easily recognised by the following symptoms, which the patient
  presented, namely, thoracic insufficiency, shown by absence or
  impairment of the movement of the thorax; and diaphragmatic
  insufficiency, shown by immobility or recession of the abdomen during
  inspiration—a condition met with in pseudo-pleurisy of the bases of
  the lungs.

  “Respiratory re-education was, in their opinion, the specific
  treatment for respiratory insufficiency. In the case of convalescents
  it constantly produced a progressive threefold effect, namely,
  expansion of the thorax, diuresis, and increase of weight. It promoted
  in a marked degree the recuperation of the vital functions which
  followed acute illness, and the general health of the patients
  improved rapidly. It ought to be combined with other forms of
  treatment, and the action of the latter was enhanced by it.”


The matter of preventing defective and restoring proper action clearly
calls for attention. The foregoing will enable the reader definitely to
understand what is necessary, viz.,


  1. In _Prevention_. The inculcation of a proper mental attitude
  towards the act of breathing in children, to be followed by those
  detailed instructions necessary to the correct practice of such
  respiratory exercises as will maintain adequate and proper use of the
  breathing organs.

  2. In _Restoration_. A body possessing one or other or all of the
  defects previously named will need re-education in order to eradicate
  the defects brought about by bad habits, etc., and to restore a proper
  condition. As the breathing mechanism is ordinarily _unconsciously_
  controlled, it is necessary, in order to regain full efficiency in the
  use of it, to proceed by way of _conscious_ control until the normal
  conditions return. Afterwards, when perfected, unconscious control—as
  it originally existed prior to respiratory and physical
  deterioration—will supervene.




                                   II
   ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED AND FACTS TO BE REMEMBERED IN THE THEORY AND
                  PRACTICE OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION

  “Each faculty acquires fitness for its function by performing its
  function; and if its function is performed for it by a substituted
  agency, none of the required adjustment of nature takes place; but the
  nature becomes deformed to fit the artificial arrangements instead of
  the natural arrangements.”—HERBERT SPENCER.


Anything that makes for good may be rendered harmful in its effect by
injudicious application or improper use, and many authorities have
referred to this fact in connexion with breathing exercises. For the
guidance of my readers I will detail some of the harmful results which
accrue from the attempt to take what are known as “deep breaths” during
the practice of breathing and physical exercises, in accordance with the
instructions set down and the principle advocated in recognised
breathing systems.

At the outset, let me point out that respiratory education or
respiratory re-education will not prove successful unless the mind of
the pupil is thoroughly imbued with the true principles which apply to
atmospheric pressure, the equilibrium of the body, the centre of
gravity, and to positions of mechanical advantage where the alternate
expansions and contractions of the thorax are concerned. In other words,
_it is essential to have a proper mental attitude towards respiratory
education or re-education, and the specific acts which constitute the
exercises embodied_ in it, together with a proper knowledge and
practical employment of the _true primary movement_ in each and every
act.

I may remark that I recognised this factor and put it to practical use
over twenty years ago, but it has been quite overlooked or neglected in
the other systems formulated before and since that time. In fact, when I
introduced my method to leading London medical men they quickly admitted
the value of this important factor, and expressed their surprise that on
account of its importance it had not been previously advocated, seeing
that from a practical point of view it is so essential, not only in the
eradication of respiratory faults or defects (re-education), but also in
preventing them (education).

A proper mental attitude, let me repeat then, is all-important. From its
neglect arise many of the serious defects ordinarily met with in the
respiratory mechanism of civilised people, all of which are exaggerated
in the practice of customary “breathing exercises.”

1. “_Sniffing_” or “_Gasping_.” If the “deep breath” be taken through
the nasal passages there will be a loud “sniffing” sound and collapse of
the alæ nasi, and if through the mouth, a “gasping” sound. The pupil has
not been told that if the thorax is expanded correctly the lungs will at
once be filled with air by atmospheric pressure, exactly as a pair of
bellows is filled when the handles are pulled apart.

It is a well-known fact, but one greatly to be regretted, that many
teachers of breathing and physical exercises actually tell the pupils
that, in order to get the increased air-supply they _must_ “sniff.”

Worse than this, many medical men are guilty of similar instruction to
their patients, and when giving a personal demonstration of how a “deep
breath” should be taken, they “sniff” loudly and bring about a collapse
of the alæ nasi, throw back the head, and interfere with the centre of
gravity. Of course, it is only necessary to remind them of the law of
atmospheric pressure as it applies to breathing, and they at once
recognise their error.

Such a state of affairs serves to show that lamentable ignorance
prevails even in the twentieth century in connexion with so essential a
function as breathing, and on reflection we must realise the seriousness
of a situation which, from some points of view, is really pathetic.

Most people, if asked to take a “deep breath,” will proceed to—I use the
words spoken by thousands of people I have experimented upon—“suck air
into the lungs to expand the chest,” whereas, of course, the proper
expansion of the chest, as a primary movement, causes the alæ nasi to be
dilated and the lungs to be instantly filled with air by atmospheric
pressure, without any harmful lowering of the pressure.

2. During this harmful “sniffing” act it will be seen that—


  (a) The larynx is unduly depressed; likewise the diaphragm.

  The undue strain, caused by this unnatural crowding down of the larynx
  and its accessories, is undoubtedly the greatest factor in the
  causation of throat troubles, especially where professional
  voice-users are concerned. This has been abundantly proved by the
  practical tests which I have made during the past twelve years. My
  success in London with eminent members of the dramatic and vocal
  profession, sent to me by their medical advisers, might be mentioned
  in this connexion.

  (b) The upper chest is unduly raised, and in most cases the shoulders
  also.

  (c) The back is unduly hollowed in the lumbar region.

  (d) The abdomen is generally protruded, and there is an abnormally
  deranged intra-abdominal pressure.

  (e) The head is thrown too far back, and the neck unduly tensed and
  shortened at a time when it should be perfectly free from strain.

  (f) Parts of the chest are unduly expanded, while others that should
  share in the expansion are contracted, particularly the back in the
  lumbar region.

  (g) During the expiration there is an undue falling of the upper
  chest, which harmfully increases the intra-thoracic pressure and so
  dams back the blood in the thin-walled veins and auricles and hampers
  the heart’s action.

  (h) Undue larynx depression prevents the proper placing and natural
  movements of the tongue, the adequate and correct opening of the mouth
  for the formation of the resonance cavity necessary to the
  vocalisation of a true “Ah.”

  It is well known that the tongue is attached to the larynx, and
  therefore any undue depression of the latter must of necessity
  interfere with the free and correct movements of the former.

  (i) The head is thrown back to open the mouth.

  This is a common fault, even with professional singers, but a moment’s
  consideration of the movements of the jaw—from an anatomical point of
  view—will show that it should move downwards without effort, and that
  it is not necessary to move the head backwards in order to effect the
  opening of the mouth by the lowering of the jaw, since, as a matter of
  fact, the latter movement will be more readily and perfectly performed
  if the head remains erect without any deviatory posture.

  Every voice-user should learn to open the mouth without throwing back
  the head. Very distinct benefits will accrue to those who succeed in
  establishing this habit.


It is well known that the practice of “physical culture” exercises has
caused emphysema, and it has been suggested that unnatural breathing
exercises have also been responsible for the condition. I refer to this
because I wish to show that it would not be possible to cause emphysema
by the method of respiratory education and re-education I have
formulated.

Emphysema may be caused by:—


  1. The reduction of the elasticity of the lung cells and tissue
  resulting from undue expansion of the lungs and from their being held
  too long in this expanded position.

  2. The undue intra-thoracic pressure, during an attempt at expiration
  or some physical act, upon the air cells, which remain filled with air
  in consequence of the means of egress from the lungs being temporarily
  closed by the approximation of vocal reeds and ventricular bands.


If the fundamental principles of my method are observed, these
conditions cannot be present during the practice of the exercises, and
emphysema therefore not only cannot be produced but is likely to be even
remedied where previously existing.

In the first place, the tendency unduly to expand any part or parts of
the thorax in particular, to the exclusion of other parts, is prevented
by the detailed personal instruction given in connexion with each
exercise in its application to individual defects or peculiarities of
the pupil. Moreover, the mechanical advantages in the body-pose and
chest poise assumed in these exercises cause them to be performed with
the minimum of effort, and lead to an even and controlled expansion of
the whole thorax. There is not, as is too often the case, an undue
expansion of one part of the chest, while other parts, which should
share in such expansion, are being contracted—a condition that obtains,
for instance, when the diaphragm is unduly depressed in inspiration. In
this latter case there is a sinking above and below the clavicles, a
hollowing in the lumbar region of the back, undue protrusion of the
abdomen, displacement of the abdominal viscera, reduction in height,
undue depression of the larynx, and the centre of gravity is thrown too
far back.

The _striking feature_ in those who have _practised customary breathing
exercises_ is an _undue lateral expansion_ of the lower ribs, when
several or all of the above defects are present. This excessive
expansion gives an undue width to the lower part of the chest, and there
are thousands of young girls who present quite a matronly appearance in
consequence. The breathing exercises imparted by teachers of singing are
particularly effective in bringing about this undesirable and harmful
condition.

The guiding principle that should be invariably kept in mind by both
teacher and pupil is to secure, with the minimum of effort, perfect use
of the component parts of the mechanisms concerned in respiration and
vocalisation. Then, sooner or later, adequate mobility, power, speed,
absolute control, and artistic manipulation must follow.

Most people—teachers as well as pupils—when thinking of or practising
breathing exercises, have one fixed idea, viz., that of causing a _great
expansion_ of the chest, whereas its proper and adequate _contraction_
is equally important. There are, indeed, many cases in which the
expiratory movement calls for more attention than the inspiratory.

Careful observation will show that those who take breath by the
“sniffing” or “gasping” mode of breathing always experience great
difficulty with breath-control in speech and song, or during the
performance of breathing exercises. This remains true whether the air is
expelled through the mouth or nasal passages, and it is due to the
imperfect use of the thoracic mechanism, and the consequent loss of
mechanical advantage already referred to at the end of the inspiration.

The natural and powerful air-controlling power is therefore absent, and
its absence causes undue approximation of the vocal reeds, and probably
of the ventricular bands in the endeavour to prevent the escape of air,
which air, when once released under these conditions, is thereafter
inadequately and imperfectly controlled.

In vocal use there is considerable increase in this lack of
breath-control, the upper chest being more rapidly and forcibly
depressed during the vocalisation.

This is not a matter for surprise, for if a mechanical advantage is
essential to the proper expansion of the thorax for the intake of air,
it is equally essential to the controlling power during the expiration,
and if during the expiration the upper chest is falling, it clearly
proves that the advantage indicated is not present.




                                  III
                THE PRACTICE OF RESPIRATORY RE-EDUCATION


             HABIT IN RELATION TO PECULIARITIES AND DEFECTS

  “If we contemplate the method of Nature, we see that everywhere vast
  results are brought about by accumulating minute actions.”—HERBERT
  SPENCER.

The mental and physical peculiarities or defects of men and women are
the result of heredity or acquired habit, and the most casual observer
has noticed that certain peculiarities or defects are characteristic of
the members of particular families, as, for instance, in connexion with
the standing and sitting postures, the style of walking, the position of
the shoulders and shoulder-blades, the use of the arm, and the use of
the vocal organs in speech, etc.

Such family peculiarities or defects are unconsciously acquired by the
children, often becoming more pronounced in the second generation, such
acquirements making for good or ill, as the case may be. I will,
however, confine myself to an enumeration of those with a harmful
tendency, as an understanding of bad habits is essential to the
consideration of the teaching principles adopted in my method of
respiratory-physical re-education.

The chief peculiarities or defects may be broadly indicated as:—


  1. An incorrect mental attitude towards the respiratory act.

  2. Lack of control over, and improper and inadequate use of, the
  component parts of the different mechanisms of the body, limbs, and
  nervous system.

  3. Incorrect pose of the body and chest poise, and therefrom
  consequent defects in the standing and sitting postures, the
  interference with the normal position and shape of the spine, as well
  as the ribs, the costal arch, the vital organs, and the abdominal
  viscera.


Re-education, when one or other or all of these peculiarities or defects
are present, means eradication of existing bad habits, and the following
will indicate some of the chief principles upon which the teaching
method of this re-education is based:—

That where the human machinery is concerned Nature does not work in
parts, but treats everything as a whole.

That a proper mental attitude towards respiration is at once inculcated,
so that each and every respiratory act in the practice of the exercises
is the direct result of volition, the primary, secondary, and other
movements necessary to the proper performance of such act having first
been definitely indicated to the pupil.

It may prove of interest to mention that W. Marcet, M.D., F.R.S., and
Harry Campbell, M.D., B.S., London, are of opinion that volition as such
makes a direct demand upon the breathing powers quite apart from all
physical effort, and with these great advantages, that, unlike the
latter, it neither increases the production of waste products nor tends
to cause thoracic rigidity, thus more or less retarding the movements of
the chest. The experiments made by Dr. Marcet show that the duration of
a man’s power to sustain the muscle contraction necessary to raise a
weight a given number of times depends upon the endurance of the
brain-centres causing the act of volition rather than upon the muscular
power. An instance is quoted of a man who lifted a weight of 4 pounds
203 times, and who, after resting and performing forced breathing
movements, raised the same weight the same height 700 times.

Regarding muscle development and chest expansion, Dr. Harry Campbell has
in his book on breathing taken the case of Sandow. His conclusion will
prove of interest. He pointed out that Sandow claimed to be able to
increase the size of the chest 14 inches—that is, from 48 to 62 inches
in circumference. Dr. Campbell then expressed the opinion that this
increase is almost entirely the result of the swelling up of the large
muscles surrounding the chest, and that most probably the increase in
his bony chest (thorax) is not more than 2 to 3 inches, seeing that his
“vital capacity” is only 275 cubic inches.

(For ten years past I have drawn the attention of medical men to the
deception of ordinary chest measurements and to the evils wrought by the
physical training and the “stand at attention” attitude in vogue in the
army, and also to the harmful effects of the drill in our schools, where
the unfortunate children are made to assume a posture which is exactly
that of the soldier, whose striking characteristic is the undue and
harmful hollow in the lumbar spine and the numerous defects that are
inseparable from this unnatural posture.)

There is such immediate improvement in the pose of the body and poise of
the chest whatever the conditions (excepting, of course, organised
structural defects), that a valuable mechanical advantage is secured in
the respiratory movements, and this is gradually improved by the
practice until the habit becomes established, and the law of gravity
appertaining to the human body is duly obeyed.

The mechanical advantage referred to is of particular value, for it
means prevention of undue and harmful falling of the upper chest at the
end of the expiration, which is always present in those who practise the
customary breathing exercises, the pupil being then deprived of the
mechanical advantage so essential to the proper performance of the next
inspiratory act.

Then follows due increase in the movements of expansion and contraction
of the thorax until such movements are adequate and perfectly
controlled.

Further, these expansions are primary movements in securing that
increase in the capacity of the chest necessary to afford the normal
oscillations of atmospheric pressure, without unduly lowering that
pressure—or, in other words, they give opportunity to fill the lungs
with air, while the contractions overcome the air pressure and force the
air out of the lungs, and at the same time constitute the controlling
power of the speed and length of the expiration.

The excessive and harmful lowering of the air pressure in the
respiratory tract, and the consequent collapse of the alæ nasi, is
prevented by so regulating the respiratory speed that the lungs are
filled by atmospheric pressure.

The value of this will be readily understood when it is remembered that
such lowering, which is always present in the “sniffing” mode of
breathing, causes collapse of the alæ nasi. It also tends to cause
congestion of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract on the sucker
system, setting up catarrh and its attendant evils, such as throat
disorders, loss of voice, bronchitis, asthma, and other pulmonary
troubles.

From the first lesson the effect upon the splanchnic area is such that
the blood is more or less drawn away from it to the lungs, and is then
evenly distributed to other parts of the body. The intra-abdominal
pressure is more or less raised, and there is a gradual tendency to the
permanent establishment of normal conditions.

The use of bandages or corsets is to be condemned as treatment in
protruding abdomen instead of the adoption of practical means to remove
the cause. Such support to the abdominal wall is artificial and harmful,
since it tends to make the muscles more flaccid. The respiratory
mechanism should be re-educated, for this would mean a re-education or
strengthening of the supports Nature has supplied. In other words, the
sinking above and below the clavicles and the undue hollowing of the
lumbar spine—the great factors in the direct causation of the protrusion
of the abdomen—are removed, and a normal condition of the abdominal
muscles established. This means a very decided improvement in the figure
and general health.

The improvement in the abdominal conditions (the improved position of
the abdominal viscera and the development of the abdominal muscles) is
proportionate to that of the respiratory movements—a fact that can be
readily understood when I point out that the movements of the parts are
interdependent. When the faulty distention of the splanchnic area is
present it will be found that the diaphragm is unduly low in breathing;
and when there is excessive depression of the diaphragm in respiration
there is interference with the centre of gravity by displacement
forward, and the compensatory arching backward in the lumbar region.

After a time there is such improvement in the use of the component parts
of the mechanism that an inspiration may, if desired, be secured by a
depression of the diaphragm, while at the same moment the condition in
the splanchnic area is actually improved.

Improvement in respiratory exchange is secured by gradual increase in
the expansions and contractions of the thorax, which increases the
aeration of lungs, the supply of oxygen, and the elimination of CO_{2}.

The quantity of residual air in the lungs is greatly increased, and if
the expired air is always converted into a controlled whispered vowel
during the practice of the breathing exercises very great benefits
accrue, notably those derived from the prolonged duration of air in the
lungs, and the proper inter-thoracic pressure necessary to force the
adequate supply of oxygen into the blood and eliminate the due quantity
of CO_{2}.

The employment of these whispered tones means the proper use of the
vocal organs in a form of vocalisation little associated with ordinary
bad habits, and that perfect co-ordination of the parts concerned which
is inseparable from adequately controlled whisper vocalisation.

There is a rapid clearing of the skin, the white face becoming a natural
colour, and a reduction of fat in the obese by its being burnt off with
the extra oxygen supply.

This reduction in the weight and size is often quite remarkable, as also
the development of the flaccid muscles of the abdominal wall and the
consequent improvement in the activity of the parts concerned.




                           CONCLUDING REMARKS


The foregoing will serve to draw attention to the far-reaching and
beneficial effects of what, for the lack of a more satisfactory and
comprehensive name, I refer to as respiratory re-education.

It is a method that makes for the maintenance and restoration of those
physical conditions possessed by every normal child at birth, the
presence of which ensures a proper standard of health, adequate
resistance to disease, and a reserve power which, if a serious illness
should occur, will serve to turn the tide at the critical moment towards
recovery. The insurance of such a condition for a generation would mean
the regeneration of the human race as constituted to-day; and I have no
hesitation in stating that the results secured during the past twenty
years, and particularly during the past thirteen years in London in
co-operation with leading medical men, justify me in asserting that the
practical application of the principles of this new method in education
and re-education will be invaluable in overcoming the disadvantages and
bad habits of our artificial civilised life, and that they will prove
the great factor in successfully checking the physical degeneration of
mankind.




                                 INDEX


 =Abdominal wall=, 20, 202, 264, 286, 291;
   A. pressure, 191, 264, 266, 304, 320, 327, 336, 339.

 =Abnormality=, 69, 115;
   abnormal physical condition, 71, 115, 262.

 =Aborigines=, of North America, New Zealand, Japan, 8, 10.

 =Acrobats and athletes=, 278, 296.

 =Acts (actions)=, mechanical, 9, 33 ff.;
   mechanical repetition of, 6, 33;
   reflex, 54;
   reasoned and unreasoned, 185–188, 204, 252;
   instinctive number of, decreasing, 197;
   imitative and reasoned, 207;
   muscular, performed vicariously by teacher, 23, 207, 212, 214 ff.,
      217, 257;
   performance of habitual, by other than habitual methods, 213,
     in sitting, 284;
   antagonistic action, 185;
   manner of performance, all-important, 74;
   act of faith, 48 ff.

 =Adaptability=, man’s, to changing environment, 28, 140, 143, 156, 161
    ff., 182, 187, 195, 197, 237 ff.;
   slowness of process, 9;
   in children, 116, 136, 153, 155;
   German point of view, 173;
   adaptability to the unusual, 161 ff., 182, 241, 245, 248 ff., 297;
   examples of, 249 ff.

 =Affirmatives=, 53.

 =Alcohol=, 59, 288. v. =Overindulgence=.

 =Ambidexterity=, 118.

 =America=, 174 ff.

 =Anæmia=, 15.

 =Anæsthesia=, 124, 236.

 =Anger=, 44.

 =Ankles=, 184, 279.

 =Appendicitis=, Preface, 183, 191, 235, 303–305.

 =Apprehension=, 88;
   in pupil, 253;
   and re-education, 249–59;
   cultivated, 25.

 =Aptitude, natural=, 205.

 =Archer, William=, 76 ff.

 =Argument=, 193 ff.

 =Arms=, incorrect use of, 23, 98, 184, 216, 219, 238, 276;
   in drawing, 130.

 =Associations, mental=, connected with ideas of speech, 54.

 =Asthma=, 234, 274, 288, 299, 336.

 =Atavism=, 10, 14.

 =Athletes=, 57, 278, 296.

 =Atmospheric pressure=, in connection with breathing, 20, 147, 324 ff.,
    336.

 =Attention=, attitude of, 103 ff.;
   “stand at attention,” 334.

 =Auto-intoxication=, 21, 190, 234, 304;
   in case of child, 113.

 =Automatism=, 160–167;
   automatic control, 46, 54;
   automatic functions, 189, 290–292;
   automatic development, 160 ff.;
   automatic training and machinery, 169.

 =Auto-suggestion=, 38, 52, 218, 231.
   v. =Self-hypnotism=.


 =Bacteriology=, Preface.

 =Back=, wrong use of, 98;
   hollowing of, 201, 276, 298, 327,
   in children, 126;
   lengthening and widening of, 277, 291.
   v. =Spine=.

 =Bad temper=, 58, 133, 222.

 =Balance=, lack of mental, 131;
   upset by emergency, 252;
   v. =Co-ordination=.

 =Bicycling=, 226.

 =Blood=, v. =Circulation=.

 =Body, human, potentialities of=, Preface, 2;
   v. =Potentialities=.

 =Body=, civil war in, 15 ff., 93, 186, 197;
   in so-called concentration, 103;
   as a mechanism not understood, 16–18;
   delusions in regard to uses of, 20;
   false poise and carriage of, 86, 114, 129,
     in drawing, 130,
     in dancing, 136,
     due to rigidity, 213;
   lengthening of, 284 ff.

 =Boxing=, 232.

 =Breathing=, explanation of act, 147;
   deep breathing, 13, 27, 145 ff., 149, 275, 298, 323;
   by sucking in air, 20, 201 ff., 231, 267, 325, 326, 335;
   incorrect habits of, 86, 310, 317,
     example of, 91 ff., 201;
   control of, 179, 220;
   even pneumatic, 231;
   “breathing exercises,” 298, 329, 335;
   Chinese methods, 319;
   mouth breathing, 146, 298,
     in children dancing, 126.
   v. =Part III=, 313–340.

 =British=, methods of, 171 ff.

 =Bronchitis=, 183, 299, 336.

 =Brute force=, principle of, 161, 165 ff.


 =Cancer=, Preface, 47, 183, 288.

 =Carlyle, Thomas=, 245.

 =Catarrh=, 336.

 =Cause and effect=, due sequence of, 45, 96, 132;
   effects given significance of causes, 133;
   in usual teaching methods, 205;
   in connection with re-education, 200, 215.

 =Chemical changes=, in physical constitution, produced by mental
    condition, 47.

 =Chest=, unduly elevated, 264, 276, 298, 307, 327, 330, 334;
   measurements, fallacy of, 325.

 =Child=, v. =Education=.

 =Circulation=, 17, 19, 21, 29, 289, 308.

 =Civilisation=, as a factor in physical degeneration, 7 ff., 14;
   in relation to evolution, 11;
   artificial, 14, 317, 340;
   man’s progress towards higher stage of, 155, 187;
   critical stage of, 159, 192;
   future, to be based on reason, 243.

 =Claim, synopsis of=, 181–192.

 =Colitis=, 235.

 =Colon=, atony of, 320.

 =Common-sense=, 30.
   v. =Reason=.

 =Concentration=, 89, 216, 261;
   warning with regard to, 102 ff.;
   national, 169.

 =Conscious guidance and control, theory and practice of=, Preface;
   man’s progress in direction of, 31 ff., 107, 115, 141, 155, 186, 197,
      208;
   necessity for, 35, 54, 57–72, 84, 156, 163, 179, 181, 187, 227, 296,
      305, 322;
   possibility of complete, 41, 44 ff., 56;
   primarily universal, secondly a specific, 59, 209;
   universal application of, 72, 141, 181 ff., 192;
   practical application of, 57–72, 179;
   reasoned, 182, 187;
   as synonym for mobility of mind, 92;
   for poise, 136;
   for reasoned experience, 68;
   as fundamental of future education, 141–155;
   danger of underrating power of, 291;
   as adaptability in emergency, 241.

 =Conscious guidance and control, methods of=, 94, 189, 225, 230,
   formulation of, 119 ff.;
   four essential stages in, 200 ff.;
   compared with other teaching methods, 52;
   mental position of teacher and pupil, 89, 231;
   application in connection with breathing, 91;
   dramatic training, 138;
   golf, 221–226;
   ploughing, 239 ff.;
   sitting, 283;
   rising, 285;
   walking, 279–283;
   automatic functions, 290–292;
   emergencies, 243 ff., 249, 282, 297;
   individual errors and delusions, 260272;
   bad habits, 288 ff.;
   application, in case of stuttering, 219 ff., 294,
   spinal curvature, 301;
   appendicitis, 304;
   effects of treatment, 233 ff., 306–312;
   in case of defective speech, 53, 133, 231, 233 ff.;
   lasting quality of change, 234.

 =Confidence=, based on reason, 215;
   loss of, due to subconscious guidance, 222.

 =Consciousness=, with regard to use of muscular mechanisms, 17 ff., 94,
    96;
   necessity of quickening the conscious mind, 52.

 =Constipation=, 20, 235, 274, 304, 320.

 =Contortions=, subconscious, 231;
   facial, 229–307.

 =Control=, defective mental and physical, 23 ff., 267, 288;
   growth and progress of intellectual, 30;
   mental, in “New Thought,” 44;
   co-ordinated reasoned, 308.

 =Co-ordination, defective=, case of congenital, 53;
   in case of stammering, 53 ff.;
   overindulgence, 58 ff., 68, 71;
   deep breathing, 146;
   children dancing, 126;
   drawing, 130;
   national, 170;
   with reference to respiration, 148, 316;
   to education, 140;
   case of deterioration of correct, 127 ff.;
   of improved, 219;
   correct, 190, 304, 308;
   in standing position, 278;
   test of correct, 309;
   individual and national compared, 175.

 =Crippling=, 215.

 =Courage=, 2, 161, 171.


 =Dancing=, 124 ff., 165.

 =Debility=, 13, 15, 86.

 =Defects=, bodily, 14 ff., 51, 114, 183 ff.;
   failure to eradicate by direct means, 95, 255;
   dangerous, initiated by school methods, 127, 129, 132, 152.

 =Degeneracy=, 6, 7, 12, 107, 179, 212, 247, 311, 319, 340;
   comparison between rural and urban, 6;
   not an epidemic, but a stage in progress of human race, 192 ff.;
   in children, 106.

 =Delusions (mental and physical)=, 18, 89, 185, 188, 206, 214, 216,
    219, 232, 253;
   in connection with physical exercises, 21 ff.;
   national, 167, 209;
   specific cases, 260, 272.

 =Deterioration, physical=, Preface. v. =Degeneracy=.

 =Development=, 11, 160, 238;
   scientific theory of, 195.

 =Diagnosis=, 89, 193, 213, 255, 308.

 =Diaphragm=, 337.

 =Digestion=, 179, 266, 320.

 =Disablement=, subconsciously willed, 216.

 =Disease=, immunity from, 43, 86;
   resistance to, Preface, 179;
   submission to, 268 ff.

 =Doe, John=, case of, 15 ff., 21 ff., 93 ff.

 =Dorando=, 281–296.

 =Dramatic expression=, 138.

 =Drawing=, 129 ff.

 =Dreaming=, 25, 131.
   v. =Self-hypnotism=.

 =Drug habit=, 66 ff.

 =Dumb-bells=, 13, 26, 97.


 =Eccentricity=, 131 ff.

 =Education=, in relation to evolution, 11, 25 ff.;
   as generally understood, does not necessarily mean progress on the
      evolutionary plane, 165;
   in earlier years, two methods of learning, 109, 114, 118;
   compared with re-education, 178;
   indictment of, 252.
   =Methods of education=, on false basis, 25 ff.;
     on true basis, such as will establish a normal kinæsthesia, 71,
        140, 155.
   =On subconscious basis=, two methods, older, of supervision, modern,
      of free expression, 115 ff.;
     older method, 122, 134;
     rigidity in, 136 ff., 144, 145, 151, 155;
     concentration in, 103;
     physical exercises, criticism of, 115, 145,
     as doing more harm than good, 146;
     as haphazard system, 310 ff.;
     failure of, owing to general ignorance of ideal physical condition
        in children, 114, 127;
     modern method (free expression), 115 ff., 122, 136, 142;
     danger of experimentation, 150.
   =On basis of Conscious Guidance and Control=, 134 ff., 228, 296;
     essential starting point, 135;
     guidance and direction necessary in earliest years, 134;
     postulates concerning necessity of conscious guidance and control
        as fundamental in education and commanding fundamental of free
        expression, 141–143;
     meaning of “training,” 144;
     child’s right of choice within limits, 151;
     problem to be solved, 153 ff.;
     primary and secondary education, 141.

 =Effects and causes=, v. =Cause and Effect=.

 =Effort=, minimum of, employed, 94;
   misapplied, 95 ff., 103 ff., 130.

 =Emotion=, 25, 34, 46, 90, 278, 328;
   in connection with music and dancing, 124.

 =Emphysema=, 298, 328.

 =End=, v. =Means whereby=.

 =Energy=, 14, 179;
   examples of wasted, 97, 130, 216, 219 ff., 232 ff.

 =Enunciation=, 231.

 =Environment=, in education, 110, 123, 128, 136.

 =Equilibrium=, 95, 238, 265, 274, 280, 324.

 =Eugenics=, 106, 194.

 =Eulenburg=, myopathic theory of, 300.

 =Evolution=, 3–12, 28, 31, 37, 185, 319;
   governing principle of, 41;
   towards conscious guidance and control, 40, 72, 84, 87, 141 ff., 155,
      159, 181, 197, 208, 228;
   standards of, 157 ff.;
   national, 158, 162, 165, 194, 228, 248.


 =Face=, expression of, 306 ff.;
   change during treatment, 308.

 =Faith-healing=, Preface, 38, 40, 45 ff., 52, 193, 215, 218, 288;
   dangers of, 48.

 =Fat=, reduction of, 339;
   morbid condition of, 86.

 =Fear=, 34, 44, 88, 161, 182, 265;
   fear reflexes, 88, 133;
   stage fright, 139;
   causing self-hypnotism, 242.

 =Feeling-tones=, v. =Sensory appreciation=.

 =Feet=, position of, for standing, 274, 279;
   for walking, 279–283;
   flatfoot, 264, 280.

 =Fencing=, 204, 226.

 =Flaccidity=, undue, 95.

 =Frazer’s “Golden Bough,”= Preface.

 =Freedom=, 136, 143, 163;
   German conception of, 163 ff.

 =Free expression=, 116 ff., 122 ff., 136, 142, 143, 150;
   in dramatic training, 138 ff.

 =Functions=, bodily, 15, 16, 184, 288, 305, 308;
   control of, 38, 41, 56.


 =Games=, 211.

 =Germany=, 163 ff.

 =Golf=, 204, 211–213, 221–226.

 =Gravity, centre of=, 285, 324, 336.

 =Greece=, civilisation of, 7.


 =Habit (Habits)=, effects of, slow to show themselves; difference
    between old and new conception of, 87, 90, 92;
   predisposition to, 86;
   in child, 108 ff.;
   of thought and of body, 73 ff., 86 ff.;
   muscular, 18, 54, 212;
   mental, 47, 53, 212;
   how affected by act of faith, 47 ff.;
   by suggestion, 52 ff.;
   control of mental, 102;
   mechanical, 75, 77 ff., 105, 116;
   harmful, 86, 189, 234, 322, 333, 340;
   attachment to harmful, 101, 106;
   specific harmful, 219, 273, 286–290, 317;
   of using eyes, 184;
   of submission to illness;
   cultivation of harmful, 105, 147, 207, 239, 262;
   development of harmful in children, 106, 111, 114, 123, 132–134;
   incorrect changed to correct, 86, 104, 151, 189, 214, 241, 289, 332;
   ability to check incipient, 234;
   habit of distinguishing between reasoned and unreasoned actions,
      necessary to evolution, 188.

 =Hallucination=, 85.

 =Hand=, evolution of, 5;
   movement of, 23;
   incorrect use of, in drawing, 130;
   position of hands as test of co-ordination, 309 ff.

 =Hayfever=, 235, 299.

 =Head=, delusion in regard to movement of, 18;
   example of, 23, 214;
   in drawing, 130;
   head thrown back, 201, 231, 233, 263, 283, 327.

 =Heart=, 15, 19, 56, 298, 318;
   heart trouble among soldiers, 148;
   case of dilation of, 307.

 =Heredity=, 10, 108 ff.

 =Hips=, 184, 279, 284.

 =Hypnotism=, Preface, 38 ff., 52, 218 and note, 231, 236;
   dangers of, 41.

 =Hypochondria=, 99.


 =Ideo-motor centres=, 53, 129, 211.

 =Idée fixe=, 50, 83, 85, 95, 262, 267;
   national, 170–173.

 =Ill health=, in some people as natural as health in others, 71.

 =Imitation=, 212, 292–297, 310, 317, 332;
   deliberate, 94;
   unconscious, 109, 114, 118, 212, 292–297;
   of faults in speech, 293 ff.;
   as method of teaching, 207, 228.

 =Improvement=, signs of, 53, 133, 233 ff., 306–312.

 =Indigestion=, 15, 20, 201.

 =Individual.= v. =State=, 160 ff., 166, 167.

 =Inertia, mental=, 101, 105, 185.

 =Influenza=, 305.

 =Inhibition=, 35 ff., 54, 86, 94, 188, 200, 212, 225, 231 ff., 256,
    301;
   defective, 23;
   as a preventive order, 96, 210, 220, 255 ff.

 =Initiative=, 99, 121.

 =Inoculation=, 2.

 =Insanity=, Preface, 74.

 =Insomnia=, 15.

 =Instinct=, 33 ff., 186, 188, 196;
   as equivalent to subconscious control, 68;
   in modern child, 108, 115, 118 ff., 135, 154;
   primitive, 166, 182;
   in modern man, 182, 183, 186, 204, 296, 311;
   standard of accuracy lost, 217, 227;
   compared with intuition, 227;
   limitation of, in animals, 247,
     in man, 296.

 =Intelligence=, growth of, in man, 4 ff., 54, 84, 98;
   dominating instinct, 37.

 =Intoxication=, emotional, 125.

 =Intuition=, 34, 186, 203;
   compared with instinct, 221.


 =Jaw=, movement of, in speaking, 230;
   relaxation of, to open mouth, 232 ff.

 =Judgment=, 206, 241, 248;
   German failure in, 163 ff.


 =Kinæsthetic register=, 97.
   v. =Sensory appreciation=.

 =Kinæsthetic systems=, defective and delusive, 22, 70, 89 ff., 206;
   normal, 71;
   case of George Gray, 137;
   overexaltation of, 125;
   demoralisation of, 151, 155;
   national, 158;
   satisfactory condition of, constitutes “means whereby” of free and
      full expression, 140;
   re-education of, in connection with breathing, 148;
   with speaking, 230.

 =Knees=, 184, 279, 284.

 =Ku-Klux Klan=, 161.

 =Kultur=, 169.


 =Larynx=, depressed, 233, 267, 299, 327;
   in children dancing, 126;
   raised and relaxed, 233.

 =Lassitude=, 15, 101.

 =Legs=, movement of, 23, 184;
   shortening of, 280;
   stiffening of, 307.
   v. =Golf and Ploughing=.

 =Lips=, incorrect use of, in speech, 53, 133.

 =Lordosis=, 298.

 =Lungs=, 17, 19, 92, 235, 318, 325 ff., 335.


 =Malformations=, 188, 235.

 =Malthus=, 8.

 =Man=, present danger of, 5 ff., 13, 23;
   progress through the ages, 28 ff., 37;
   supreme inheritance of, 11, 106, 156, 228, 236, 258, 290, 297.
   v. =Potentialities=.

 =Manipulation=, v. =Acts=, vicariously performed by teacher.

 =Manufactured premises=, 162, 210.

 =Massage=, internal natural, 190, 191, 289, 304 ff., 316.

 “=Means whereby=,” rather than the end, to be considered, 16, 135, 140,
    189, 204, 210, 230, 262, 263, 266, 283;
   of successful re-adjustment, 67;
   of free and full expression, 140;
   of conscious guidance and control, 197;
   of controlled speech, 208, 220, 230;
   of playing golf, 224, 226;
   of bicycling, 226;
   of ploughing, 237 ff.;
   of standing position, 275 ff.;
   of walking, 279–283;
   of sitting, 283;
   of rising, 285;
   in relation to social reform, 11, 154;
   to education, 154;
   to individual errors and delusions, 262 ff.

 =Mechanical advantage=, position of, 27, 86, 94, 96 ff., 132, 189 ff.,
    214, 273, 277, 301, 304, 321 ff., 335.

 =Mechanistic theory=, 4.

 =Medical opinion concerning respiration=, 319.

 =Mental attitude=, importance of subjects, 15 ff., 20 ff., 46, 51 ff.,
    73 ff., 85, 93;
   wrong, of subject, 15, 18, 98, 185, 188, 252 ff., 267, 269;
   deliberately adopted, becomes fixed habit, 74;
   of teacher, 89, 215;
   of pupil, 89, 253;
   towards breathing, 322–324, 333.

 =Method of teaching=, 204 ff.

 =Militarism=, 166, 169 ff.

 =Monomania=, v. =Idée fixe=.

 =Mouth=, imperfect opening of, 229;
   controlled opening of, 230 ff., 233, 327.

 =Müller, Max=, 56.

 =Münsterberg=, psychological theories of, 30.

 =Muscles=, new ways of using, 6;
   atrophied, 6, 15;
   semi-automatic, 56;
   conscious movement of, 57;
   control and co-ordination of, 93.

 =Muscular mechanism (muscular system)=, incorrect use of, 17 ff., 51,
    86, 95, 288, 310;
   correct use of, 93, 225, 278, 289;
   mechanical development of, 16;
   derangement of, in child, 113;
   correct natural use of, in children, 132;
   thoracic, 317.

 =Music=, 124 ff., 165;
   musical instruments, 211.

 =Myers, F. W. H.=, his concept of the subconscious self, 30 ff.


 =Natural aptitude=, 205, 262, 283.

 =Natural selection=, 3–5, 16, 195;
   as opposed to conscious selection, 6.

 =Neck=, shortening of, 262, 283;
   in children dancing, 126;
   drawing, 130;
   stiffening of, 96, 98, 201, 203, 209, 231, 233, 298, 308;
   as indicator of inadequate control, 128, 184.

 =Nervous prostration=, 16.

 “=New Thought=,” 44, 52, 287.


 =Obsession=, v. =Idée fixe=, 168.

 =One-brain-track method=, 262, 266, 270.

 “=Open mind=,” 51, 76 ff., 160, 174;
   contrasted with credulity, 98.

 =Orders=, conscious guiding, 55 ff., 87 ff., 91;
   incorrect subconscious, 255;
   new and correct, 90 ff., 94, 142, 250, 203, 211, 214, 217, 283;
   preventive, 96.

 =Overcompensation=, 25, 61, 64, 90, 162, 262.

 =Overindulgence=, 58 ff., 66 ff., 74, 273, 288.


 =Pain=, 48, 68 ff., 100, 218;
   perverted form of pleasure in, 71.

 =Panaceas=, Preface, 287.

 =Paralysis=, 234, 235.

 =Persia=, civilisation of, 7.

 =Philosophy=, 4, 28, 38;
   application of conscious control to, 182.

 =Physical culture=, Preface, 4, 13 ff., 17 ff., 25, 97, 145, 201–202,
    275, 299 ff.;
   methods of, 299 ff.;
   v. =Spinal curvature=.

 =Physical exercises=, mechanical, 14, 19, 93, 145 ff., 201;
   recent tendency to modify, 26;
   reason for failure of, 21;
   imitations of bad models in, 115;
   unnecessary under methods of conscious guidance and control.

 “=Phobia=,” 34.
   v. =Fear reflexes=.

 =Pineal eye=, 5.

 =Plague=, as a factor in evolution, 7.

 =Play=, children’s, 121.

 =Ploughing=, 237–241.

 =Poise=, 86, 95, 136, 213, 231, 286, 317;
   mental, physical, and spiritual balance, 11.

 =Potentialities=, man’s, Preface, 4, 11, 192, 196, 205, 208, 236;
   of conscious control in modern child, 116;
   standard of kinæsthetic, in modern child, lowered, 120;
   debasement of, 166.

 “=Practice=,” 88, 207, 227, 230.

 =Precept=, 106, 109, 118.

 =Preconceived ideas=, erroneous, 23, 54, 144, 183, 184, 203, 205, 215,
    216, 232, 261, 301;
   in a nation, 162;
   as the legacy of instinct, 212;
   in relation to lifting a weight, 97 ff.;
     to art, 131;
     to speech, 228.

 =Predisposition=, 86, 99 ff., 108.

 =Prejudice=, 51, 83, 98;
   prejudiced arguments, 25, 75, 251.

 =Psychology=, 29 ff., 38.

 =Psycho-physical=, examination, 19, 128, 133, 202, 215;
   p. conditions, 58, 62;
   p. process, 65;
   p. make-up of the individual, 70;
   p. organism, 89;
   p. condition of child at birth, 154;
   p. forces, 160;
   p. guidance, 181;
   p. spheres, 192;
   p. turning point in civilisation, 194;
   p. mechanism, 210;
   p. habit, 262, 301;
   p. peculiarities, 260;
   p. treatment, 270.

 =Psycho-therapy=, 235.


 =Reaction of mind on body and body on mind=, 45, 134, 212.

 =Re-adjustment=, 59, 63, 65, 71, 140, 147, 192, 202;
   national, 144;
   “means whereby,” of successful, 67, 278.

 =Reason=, 30, 35, 67;
   domination of, by sensation, 25, 160, 197, 256, 290, 311;
   national stultification of, 162, 170;
   as basis of confidence, 215;
     of new civilisation, 242;
   necessity for, in emergency, 243 ff., 249, 282.

 =Re-education=, 59, 65–71, 96, 189, 253 ff., 258, 277, 340;
   specific meaning of, 199;
   fundamental principle of, 256;
   of kinæsthetic systems, 148, 302;
   respiratory, 313–340;
   in connection with overcoming bad habits, 288;
     with spinal curvature, 301.

 =Reform, social=, 11, 153;
   induced by suggestion, 54;
   in connection with will-power, 59;
   cause of failure of, 61.

 =Relaxation=, Preface, 13, 24, 89, 217, 261, 284;
   real meaning of, 26, 96;
   illustration of, in lifting weight, 98.

 =Resistance to disease=, Preface, 179, 284, 288, 318, 340.

 =Respiration=, 20, 113;
   respiratory re-education, 313–340;
   medical opinion concerning, 319.
   v. =Breathing=.

 =Responsibility of patient=, 188, 215.

 =Rest cures=, Preface, 16, 43, 99.

 =Ribs=, movement of, in breathing, 302, 310, 333.

 =Rigidity=, 95, 148, 212–213, 264;
   mental, 50, 76, 82 ff.;
     applied to physical functions, 51;
   harmful thoracic, 147, 201;
   national, 160–167;
   in educational methods, 118, 136, 139;
   in military methods, 170, 172.

 =Rome=, civilisation of, 7.

 =Rupture=, 310.


 =Sandow=, 330.

 =School furniture=, 154.

 =Science=, as another name for common-sense, 30;
   advance of, impeded, 51.

 =Scott, Sir Walter=, 103.

 =Self-hypnotism=, 24 ff., 131, 216, 262;
   national, 162, 166;
   in connection with “frightfulness,” 171;
   due to fear, 243–245.

 =Self-preservation=, 41, 99.

 =Sensation=, pandering to, 66, 68 ff., 111, 113, 290;
   perverted, 69, 74;
   new correct guiding, 189.

 =Sensory appreciation=, habit of dependence on, 9, 232, 237;
   unreliable, 21 ff., 69, 89, 97, 207, 232, 256, 275;
   dominating reason, 25;
   new and correct, 24, 190, 214, 225, 230, 257 ff.

 =Shakespeare-Bacon controversy=, 81 ff.

 =Shaw, G. Bernard=, on education, 122.

 =Shortening= (“pressing down”). v. =Spine=.

 =Shoulders=, delusions in regards to movement of, 18, 23, 214, 276.

 =Simple life=, 8 ff.

 =Singing=, 232.

 =Sitting=, act of, 179, 283–285, 332;
   in children, 120;
   rising from sitting, 285–286.

 =Skin=, 264, 308, 339.

 =Speech=, 53 ff., 219 ff., 220 ff., 294, 332;
   in children, 120;
   case of defective, 133.

 =Spine=, lengthening of, 202, 222, 277;
   shortening of, 203, 214, 264 ff., 274 ff., 280, 300, 307;
   in children dancing, 126;
   spinal curvature, 297–303.

 =Stammering=, 53, 219, 293.

 =Standing=, 179, 264, 267, 273, 279, 320;
   “proper standing position,” 276, 278, 284, 332;
   no correct standing position for each and every person, 278;
   “stand at attention,” 204, 334.

 =Stature=, shortening of, 128, 266, 276.

 =Stealing=, case of, 59 ff.

 =Stigmatisation=, 39.

 =Stimulants=, 16.

 =Stomach=, protruding, 115, 201, 274, 291.

 =Stooping=, case of, 276.

 =Subconsciousness= (subconscious self), 29–47, 54;
   Myers’ concept of, 30 ff., 85;
   education of, below the plane of reason, 33;
   impressionability to suggestion, 34;
   definition of, 42;
   delusive, 64, 89, 270;
   dominating reason, 58, 128, 287, 252;
   function of, after conscious control has been acquired, 92;
   as synonym for habit, 92, 174, 227;
   elimination of inherited, 211;
   built up of delusion and undue apprehension, 253.

 =Subconscious guidance and control=, 52, 61, 67–72, 83, 142, 205, 207,
    266, 281;
   failure of, 63, 183, 201, 241, 249 ff.;
   in modern child, 120 (v. =Instinct=);
   in primitive nations, 160, 186;
   in civilised nations, 161, 174, 247;
   in relation to reform, 11,
     to education, 25 ff., 115,
     to self-help, 262;
   advance to conscious guidance, hitherto inadequate, 187;
   standard of accuracy lost, 217.

 =Sympathy=, 188, 215.

 =Symptoms=, 193, 261, 267;
   regarded rather than causes, 19, 193, 218.


 =Taboos=, 37.
   v. =Inhibition=.

 =Taste, sense of=, 68 ff., 111;
   case of perverted, in child, 112.

 =Teeth=, 4.

 =Tendencies=, criminal, 61.
   (v. =Reform=);
   subconscious, 67;
   inherent, 70, 109 ff.

 =Tension=, degree of, required, 24, 89, 97 ff.;
   undue, 23, 95, 216–219, 256, 261,
     in so-called concentration, 102,
   in speaking, 230, in ploughing, 238,
   in walking, 280,
   in sitting, 283.

 =Thoracic capacity=, explained and illustrated, 20;
   minimum of, 19 ff., 267;
   increase of, 191, 202, 302, 335;
   decrease of, 300, 317 ff., 320.

 =Thorax=, 19, 147, 184, 191, 201, 267, 277, 298, 324.

 =Throat and ear trouble=, 233, 235, 262, 276, 299, 336.

 =Tobacco=, 288.

 =Tongue=, incorrect use of, 133;
   importance of, for clear enunciation, 233.

 =Tonics=, 17.

 =Totems=, 39.

 =Toxic poisoning=, 114.
   v. =Auto-intoxication=.

 =Training=, v. =Education=.

 =Trance=, 41, 52.
   v. =Hypnotism=.

 =Trine, Ralph Waldo=, 45.

 =Tuberculosis=, 183, 234, 274, 288.


 =Upward, Allen=, on child education, 151.


 =Varicosity=, 234, 298.

 =Vermiform appendix=, 5.

 =Viscera, abdominal=, 19 ff., 264, 291, 304 ff., 333, 336.

 =Visceroptosis=, 320.

 =Vocalisation=, 138, 231, 327, 330, 338;
   change in quality of voice, 192, 308;
   vocal chords, 228;
   vocal control, 278, 295;
   loss of voice, 266, 336.

 =Volition=, v. =Will=.


 =Walking=, 179, 264, 267, 270, 279–283, 332;
   in children, 120.

 =War=, 8;
   the present crisis, 157 ff., 164, 167 ff., 175;
   discussion of causes of, 160;
   re-adjustment after, 144.

 =Will=, 38, 86, 99, 203, 215, 333;
   the will to live, 42, 99;
   will-power in relation to overindulgence, 59.

 =Wish=, meaning of, with reference to the eradication of bad habits,
    103 ff.

 =Worry=, 44, 252 ff.


 =Yogis=, system of breathing, 56.

-----

Footnote 1:

  Modern investigators, however, almost unanimously incline now to the
  theory that the cause of cancer is a morbid proliferation of the cells
  not due to the primary influence or isolation of alien bacteria.

Footnote 2:

  It should, however, be clearly understood in this connection that
  certain laws of natural selection must, so far as we can see, always
  hold good; and it would not be advisable to alter them even if it were
  possible. For example, that curious law may be cited which ordains the
  attraction of opposites in mating and so maintains nature’s average.
  The attraction which a certain type of woman has for a certain type of
  man, and vice versa is, in my opinion, a fundamental law, and any
  attempt to regulate it would be harmful to the race. This, however, is
  no argument against the regulation of prevention of marriages between
  the physically and mentally unfit.

Footnote 3:

  For a further statement of one aspect of heredity, see Chapter VI of
  this book.

Footnote 4:

  For a fuller analysis of this, see p. 92 et seq. of this volume.

Footnote 5:

  For fuller explanation, see Chapter VI, p. 147.

Footnote 6:

  See Part II, p. 189.

Footnote 7:

  Cf. _Hypnotism_, by Albert Moll. Good cases of suppuration,
  blistering, and bleeding, as the result of suggestion without any
  preliminary abrasion of the skin, are those supplied by the records of
  Professor Forel’s experiments at the Zurich Lunatic Asylum. These
  experiments were conducted on the person of a nurse who is described
  as the daughter of healthy country people, and not a hysterical
  subject.

Footnote 8:

  There is much evidence on this point, some of it conflicting, but the
  main fact must be considered above question.

Footnote 9:

  Cf. Herbert Spencer, _Education_, Chapter XI, “Humanity has progressed
  solely by self-instruction.”

Footnote 10:

  Moreover, I deny that hypnotism can possibly succeed except in
  comparatively rare instances. It is not universal in its
  applicability.

Footnote 11:

  Two years later this woman came to me in a state of collapse, the
  results of the after effects of a bad attack of pleurisy. She proved
  an admirable patient, and is now in perfect health. She was a
  magnificent instance of a case in which the power was there, finely
  developed, but not the knowledge which would enable her to make full
  use of that power.

Footnote 12:

  In this connection the following verses (24, 25, 26) from the Gospel
  according to St. Luke, Chapter XI, are interesting:

  24. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through
  dry places, seeking rest: and finding none, he saith, I will return
  unto my house whence I came out.

  25. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.

  26. Then goeth he, and taketh _to him_ seven other spirits more wicked
  than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state
  of that man is worse than the first.

Footnote 13:

  Certain aspects of these principles will be found set out in detail in
  Part II of this volume.

Footnote 14:

  A simple, practical example of what is meant by obtaining the position
  of mechanical advantage may be given. Let the subject sit as far back
  in a chair as possible. The teacher, having decided upon the orders
  necessary for the elongation of the spine, the freedom of the neck
  (i.e., requisite natural laxness), and other conditions desirable for
  the particular case in hand, will then ask the pupil to rehearse those
  orders mentally, at the same time that he himself renders assistance
  by the skilful use of his hands. Then holding with one hand one or two
  books against the inner back of the chair, he will rely upon the pupil
  mentally rehearsing the orders necessary to maintain and improve the
  conditions present, while he, with the other hand placed upon the
  pupil’s shoulder, causes the body gradually to incline backwards until
  its weight is taken by the back of the chair. The shoulder-blades
  will, of course, be resting against the books. The position thus
  secured is one of a number which I employ and which for want of a
  better name I refer to as a position of “mechanical advantage.”

Footnote 15:

  A very notable though trivial instance of mental “rigidity” was
  brought to me by a pupil while writing these pages. A fireman on duty
  at a theatre had neglected to unbolt the escape doors. When severely
  reprimanded he pleaded that he had been instructed by an assistant
  manager to do duty in another part of the theatre at the time he
  usually opened the escapes. The following night the assistant manager
  instructed him to make the same change in his routine on which the man
  pleaded, “Don’t ask me to do that, sir. I forgot the escapes last
  night and I am sure to forget ’em again if you make me go that way
  round. You see, sir, I’ve gone round the other way so long that if I
  make a change I seem to lose my memory.”

Footnote 16:

  “This experimental observation is so far to our interest that it has
  proved that hypnotic suggestion is by far surpassed in the duration of
  its effects by suggestion in the waking state, and this again by
  regular teaching and practice. But this is physiologically explicable:
  Hypnotic suggestion obtains its results solely through the intensity
  of the isolated stimulus and through the brain-track it leaves behind,
  which has an abnormally slight connexion with the whole associative
  mechanism of the brain. Regular instruction, on the contrary, is based
  on the strong associative implanting of the stimulus and the
  brain-track it leaves behind, with the normal activity of the brain,
  i.e., on the many-sidedness of the nervous connections and their
  reproductive effect; whilst, in the first case, the trace is more or
  less easily effaced, in the second the accompanying reproductive,
  sympathetic stimulus increases and preserves the result obtained, as
  well as effecting the other bodily functions dependent on it.”—_The
  Psychic Treatment of Disease_, Berthold Kern.

Footnote 17:

  A simple experiment will serve to prove this shortening by the
  increase of, say, the lumbar curve. Take a piece of cardboard of six
  inches in length and place it flat on a table or against the wall.
  With a pencil draw lines on the table or wall as close to the upper
  and lower ends of the cardboard as possible. Remove the cardboard and
  curve it slightly across the lower portion about an inch from the end
  which touched the lowest line. Replace it on the lower line without
  interfering with the curve and you will find that it does not reach
  the upper line any longer. A similar condition occurring in the human
  being means a shortening in stature.

Footnote 18:

  As I have already explained in Part I, inspiration is not a sucking of
  air into the lungs but an inevitable instantaneous rush of air into
  the partial vacuum caused by the automatic expansion of the thorax.

Footnote 19:

  It is worthy of note in this connexion that during the past two years
  the English hospitals have been crowded with cases of men who,
  formerly accustomed to sedentary occupations, have “broken down” with
  army training.

Footnote 20:

  See also note, Part I, p. 86.

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                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES


 Page           Changed from                      Changed to

   74 altering some trifling habit of  altering some trifling habit of
      though: which stands             thought which stands

 ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
 ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last
     chapter.
 ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.



*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77075 ***