CHAPTER XVI

PSYCHOLOGY

The study of the phenomena of the mind under the term psychology has resulted in the same chaos of conjectures and speculations as the study of the functions of the body under the term physiology. From all of their study and investigations they have never deduced a law of any permanent value. Moreover, I am told by ethical students that much that was formerly regarded as substantial has been abandoned. Of course, in writing on this subject I have reference, as I did in writing about physiology, to its relation to the fundamental principles that must in some way be responsible for the origin of mental activity. While we do not deny these researches have had an enlightening effect, they have also been responsible for much cruelty resulting from the influence of such branches of it as criminology. It may be claimed, and with some reason, that the cause of the genesis of thought lies in the realm of metaphysics. Likewise, however, could the different medical schools say they have nothing to do with life or death, they only treat diseases. Genesis and decay imply a cause and effect and any method whose purpose is to explain life or death must of necessity carry its researches beyond mere phenomena.

Unfortunately the students of psychology have devoted their attention mostly to the

mentalities instead of healthy ones.

study of diseased

Just as healers of

diseases have devoted their time to the study of diseased

instead of healthy men. In fact, so prone is the human mind to this depraved tendency that civic bodies of women organized for the betterment of humanity have, almost invariably, plunged into the vice of the community instead of devoting their energies to improving the environment of those they would help. . This tendency has been the ruin of many well-meaning men and women, thus verifying the poet's words: "First we endure, then pity, and then embrace." Had we devoted the same energy to the study of healthy minds and bodies for the purpose of discovernig the cause of health we would have grown healthful and moral ourselves, and as a result demonstrated something we will never know by speculation. An eminent philosophical writer has said: "To know more we must be more." It is certainly logical we can never be more as long as we devote our best energies to the study of diseased instead of healthy conditions. Indeed, it is most pathetic, this effect of studying evil when one has reached the point of the contemplation of good. Therefore the only psychology should be the study of healthy minds and thereby learn the cause of health; just as the only physiology should consist of the study of healthy bodies and learn the cause of health.

The religions have devoted centuries to the subject of mind with very doubtful results. The cause of this has been their utter want of knowledge of what constituted mind. They, unlike the political economists who have made evil impersonal, devoted all of their energies to the repression of personal morals for which the human mind is but indirectly responsible. Immorality, in a personal sense, is caused by the demands of the

body or the felt-out mind. This mortal law, cause or mind which Paul so clearly described in the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter of the Romans, is again vividly described in the sixth and seventh verses of his eighth letter to the Romans. In the first instance cited he says: "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." In the second instance (revised version) he says: "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God." If the religious zealots had studied their Bible more as a psychology and less as a history and code of punishments after death, they would have acquired some definite knowledge of mind and the source of its temptations. The thought-out mind which has been the subject of psychological study is but the mirror or consciousness of the feelings of the felt-out mind. Here is where the evolutionist has outdone his powerful rival. The feltout mind having occupied the attention of the anthropologist and political economist, they have built on a more substantial basis. As a result of this the lessons they have learned are becoming an important part of the curriculum of the universities, colleges and public schools. After years of cullings of tangents with truth in the industrial and economic battle of the past twentyfive years, it was with inexpressible joy we read a work on ethics by Professors Dewey and Tufts written for this purpose. Such books are now becoming numerous and portend that they will put intelligence into education. They are an epitome of the ages of mental warfare

1 Bible-Romans 7:23.

2 Bible-Romans 8:6, 7, (Revised Version.)

E

and are wonderfully free from the influence of induced activities and the phenomena of the thought-out mind. Devoting their investigations entirely to the history of the natural man and his relations, they have avoided the lure of mental and physical phenomena.

While society has, as a result of laboring under the belief of an endowed conscience, tried to correct man through teaching duty and obedience to conventional laws, it has overlooked the important fact that there existed a more exacting law "within his members" expressing itself through procreation and self-preservation. So powerful is this law, and so well did the master Christian understand it, that He, not only once, but always forgave the woman. An intelligent understanding of nature is the only method through which we will ever demonstrate a healthful religion. Not knowing ourselves we condemn others for doing the very things we may some day be guilty of, and in turn suffer the same condemnation. Every philosophical radical is familiar with the cruelty of those who regard themselves as religious examples. However, this cruelty is always unconscious, for was it known as cruelty to those who practice it, this knowledge would destroy it. The last conclusion implies the necessity of a process of mental analysis or psychology which will awaken us to the realization of the possibility of unconscious cruelty.

In our efforts to reduce mental phenomena to a working basis, we have gone to the extremes of either the doctrine of total depravity or the theory that sin was merely a violation of a moral obligation which moral obligation was largely a matter of geography and ignored entirely the scale of perfection constituting the

Holy Ghost.

The theory of the Origin of Mental Species, when understood, reveals the fact that there is an invariable law which we have named Absolute Mind. This law cannot be violated if we wish to enjoy health, happiness and peace of mind. Moreover, this law never punishes but we suffer as a result of deviating from it. Just as ignorance of law excuses no one here in earth, so ignorance of this higher law exempts no one from suffering when it is violated.

While that large part of the world under the influence of religion has been most attentive to the sins which find their origin in the law of procreation, they have neglected those arising from the law of self-preservation. As a result of this there has developed a religion under the name of political economy whose purpose is to curb the sins of mankind emanating from this source. The ethics of civilization and the inglorious prophets who taught them were responsible for the overthrow of the church and the French revolution, and their teachings began to assume tangible form after the French revolution. In this short time it has become the most potent influence for good in the Western world and holds the balance of power with religion. In fact, while the individual psychology, or analysis of the human mind, has been compelled to abandon one hypothesis after another, this psychology of felt-out activities has never deviated from its original principles and has been the world's greatest educator.

The explanation of the failure of individual psychology and the success of collective psychology is explained by the influence of the Absolute Mind on the individual, which is responsible for his growth from one degree of