The eye, mind, energy and matter

Contents

Chapter Page

Motto 7

Fable - 9

Chapter I Mind, The Master Architect

In the early summer days, when the air is rich and redolent with the perfume of flowers and youthful vegetation, it is sweet to awaken in the young hours of morning, when all is perfect silence and the darkness of night still reigns. You listen — and listen — to — nothing. By and by comes to your ears the peep of a little bird. For a time all is silence — and again the little note breaks in as if it were a signal, for then the great chorus of little feathered musicians breaks the silence of night with the overture of morning.

The great curtain begins to rise. The horizon takes on a faint gold and gray. Slowly its colors grow brighter and brighter, changing and blending with all the varied shades that only the sunburst of morning can give. During the period of this glorious spectacle the great sun comes up and sheds its beneficent rays over the world.

The chasm between them was a deep one, with precipitous sides and yawning depths. His sweetheart said, '* Won't you come?*'

He saw her form, he heard her voice. His body trembled for the leap, when a voice said, ''You have not the strength; you will be dashed and crushed on the rocks below. Think.*'

Then he thought, how must it be, for be it mu^t, that they should meet?

He thought, and thought, and thought, until the frenzied atmosphere grew clear. With energy he seized an ax, cut down a tree. It fell across the yawning space. His bridge was made. They met.

Years ago some one thought, thought large and deep and well. This thought set energy to work, in the forests, the quarries, and the mines. Timber, stone, and iron were brought forth, and made the Brooklyn bridge.

What is thought? Only we within ourselves really know that we think ; we do not know that others think. From their words and acts we infer that they think ; for if we were talking and acting thus, and thus, as they are, we know we should be thinking, and we infer our line of thought to them.

The best evidence of soul and its function, thought, is within ourselves; all evidence outside is inferential.

We are forced to strictly inferential lines of

MIND, THE MASTER ARCHITECT 13

evidence for all that lies beyond our personality. In fact, all rational beings insist on this inferential evidence as being good and our lives are governed by it.

What would be the conclusion as to the sanity of a person who said of a watch, '' I see that energy and matter were required to construct this watch, but chance has properly united the wheels"? Or what should we think of one who sees marble, stone, and iron, through the intervention of energy, being formed into a palace, and says, '* Energy and matter are the only factors in this structure that can be proved" ? Or who looks at a piece of delicate point lace and says, *' Energy and matter made those threads and threw them into their regular and intricate positions. It is a matter of chance, but that thought is there cannot be proven, because we cannot see the thought."

A person with such judgment would be considered foolish, ignorant of the higher sense, and totally unconscious of the laws of equity. We do prove that thought is there, with energy in all its work in matter. Both personal and inferential evidence declare it. Want of perception and higher sense are not evidence.

First, best evidence. Without a single exception, in all instances where we enlist energy and matter to do from the least to the greatest thing, thought, conscious or subconscious, is always the dominating factor. Try as long and as often as you will, you cannot conceive of a single thing that we accomplish in which mind is not a factor.

Second, or next best evidence. In reviewing the acts of our fellow-kind we insist that thought is always a factor, although our evidence is only inferential.

When we go beyond our kind, into a realm where we are strangers, the necessity for inferential reasoning becomes absolutely imperative.

We now point to a flower, with its color and perfume, whose architecture exceeds that of man; here, in this flower, energy is building matter into form ; now, when we insist on the three factors, mind, energy, and matter, in all of our near and sure evidence, by what license can we eliminate thought from this process of flower-building?

Some looked upon matter as a condition of mind. Others considered energy a condition of matter. There were those who speculated on mind as a condition.

Many of our modern and, we believe, better thinkers conceive mind, energy, and matter as three actual things, three proximate principles.

MIND, THE MASTER ARCHITECT iS

The latter view is correct ; for the rules applied in common law we must in justice accord to the immutable law of the universe; now, in common law we eliminate all speculative evidence and confine our case to personal, or ** first, best evidence," under which we know that in whatever we accomplish, mind, energy, and matter are always a trinity, therefore inseparable in the cosmic scheme.

Can we conceive that mind exists without energy and matter? It would have nothing to obey its dictates and no experiences to record. The quality and quantity of mind, energy, and matter can be separately estimated, but of necessity by different methods. The soul cannot be weighed on hay scales, as materialists might insist upon, as a matter of proof.

Matter has form and ponderability, and is weighed.

Energy is measured by the foot-pounds that it can lift.

Mind is measured by the result of its dictations.

The aborigine thought small and built an adobe hut. The Grecian architect thought large and the Parthenon was made.

In making, from a needle to an anchor, a snowball to a steamship, mind, energy, and matter are always inseparable factors.

Mind is the primal architect, the designer; it sets energy to work and constructs a bridge or a palace ; it also directs the work in its own body, our body, and builds up or tears down according to the state or quality of the mind.

Thought cannot build a bridge without workmen and material, also labor and material are ever necessary adjuncts in building and sustaining this human castle in which the soul resides.

All faith cures, from religion to the medical practitioner, are effected by the same power, the *' mind-states,** which are induced by various methods.

This is all and just what Christ claimed when he said: **Thy faith hath made thee whole.**

When the mind is working on the vigorous lines of faith, peace, and hope, the anatomical brain is sending out nerve force, in perfect order, that builds up and invigorates all parts of the body.

The converse is just as true; weak mind conditions, such as fear, anger, and foolish foreboding, induce ill health and shorten life.

It is unpleasant to contemplate how much evil the pessimist may do, or how many lives his poisonous words have shortened or destroyed. The higher his position the more potent his opinions for evil. '

MIND, THE MASTER ARCHITECT 17

The pessimist is more dangerous than a venomous serpent.

It matters not what the bodily conditions may be, if traditional ignorance, fear, and pessimism, which are disease-makers, be abandoned and the mind persistently, insistently, takes on a vigorous faith and hope, then a healthy nutrition takes place everywhere.

A weak objective must never be permitted to suggest any controlling influence over the mind; it is the mind's province to control the weak objective, by making it strong; the mind is easily cultured to ignore the influence of all except healthy objectives; this ''mind-state" in conjunction with the conservation of energy to do the work, and a proper dietary, accomplishes all things desirable.

Thought is function of the soul.

Whenever and wherever energy is at work with matter, mind is present. The Great Architect is always supervising His work; be it in the rolling billows or the morning mists, the tornado or the breath of spring, God is there, omnipresent throughout the limitless universe.

Chapter II Energy— The Human Power-house

Mind, the master architect, engages energy to do its various kinds of work. It must always have workmen or its plans cannot be executed.

The brain of man is a power-house in which there are many dynamos. Wires lead out from these dynamos to all parts and every organ of the body. The various organs and parts of the body are motors or engines that keep up their action by the energy they receive over the wires from the dynamos in the brain. The food we consume is a fuel which contains latent energy. Digestion prepares this fuel for admission into the blood. The blood carries it to the nerve centers, or dynamos, where much of it is finally burnt up, consumed, and the latent energy, which held the food together in its fuel form, is transformed into nerve energy, which is conducted by the nerves to every part of the ** human plant*' — the body.

It is quite proper to call the human body a plant, the brain a power-house, and the nerve centers dynamos ; for it is in the nerve centers,

i8

ENERGY— THE HUMAN POWER HOUSE 19

as in an electric dynamo, that a transformation of energy takes place. It is here, in the human dynamos, that the form of energy known as nerve- force first makes its appearance.

All known phenomena are due to energy, which has different forms of manifesting itself. Fuel has energy in a latent state. It is burnt in a furnace, and the energy that was latent becomes manifest by being transformed into heat and mechanical motion through a steam-engine. The dynamo transforms this mechanical motion into electricity; and as long as the medium is appropriate, this energy continues to manifest itself as electricity. But when it passes on to a less perfect conductor, like carbon, it takes on the wave length of light ; and, as long as the medium for light is appropriate, energy continues in the wave length of light, even through the period of thousands of years and the space of millions of miles. But, when the light comes in contact with another medium, a dark color, then the energy takes on the wave length of heat, and so on forever this energy continues to change its pace of travel and wave length in accordance with the character of the medium through which it passes.

Energy is never annihilated or lost; it manifests itself in different wave lengths, such as electricity, heat, light, magnetism,. nerve-force, etc.

The medium and surrounding conditions determine the form in which it manifests itself; and what is known as nerve-force, that performs all the functions of man, is one of these forms of energy manifestation. There are storage centers in the human plant called ganglia. Muscles also have energy stored in them ; but all such storage centers are dependent on the human power-house. Every process carried on in the human body requires a certain amount of energy. Every organ and minute part is an engine, in itself powerless to perform any function whatever, and as dead as an engine without steam or a motor without electricity. But when endowed with energy, each part does its work, performs its functions, the same as an engine, or motor, when properly energized. Every organ acts just as its energy-supply dictates. If the function of a part is normal, it is because the dominating energy supply is normal. If the function is weak or feeble, it is because the energy supply is feeble. Also, if the function is overdone or excited it is due to an over or excited energy supply. Disease is nothing but perverted function, and is simply the expression of a perverted or abnormal energy supply. Critically, organic disease is a lesion due to long-continued functional disease.

ENERGY— THE HUMAN POWER-HOUSE 21

Nerve force has alterations similar to electric currents, viz. : high voltage and low amperage ; or low voltage and high amperage in disease, while a normal relation of voltage and amperage exists in health.

We recently visited an electric plant having eight dynamos that supply energy for twelve elevators, twenty motors, three thousand lights, besides the lighting of two large theaters. The eight dynamos in this power-house are connected together, so that they furnish a common fund of energy. Several times the wires that conduct energy have become grounded, and then a large amount of the electricity leaked away to the earth. Under this condition the elevators were run and the theaters lighted ; but the dynamos were necessarily strained to their utmost capacity, which rapidly wears and burns them out, thus making the ''brains'* of the plant of very short life.

The dynamos in the human brain are also intimately connected by conductors, so that, when an organ or part is called upon for excessive work, the dynamo that presides over this part furnishes the excess of energy needed by robbing all of the other dynamos of their energy, or working power. Thus all other parts of the body, for the time being, must suffer from the lack of functioning power they are deprived of. So, in this way, an organ may be weak or deficient without it or its dynamo being at fault, simply because some other dynamo is taking its needed energy to supply some overtaxed function.

The occasional overtaxing of a function may not result in much observable injury to other parts; but through oft-repeated and continued experiences the excessive function becomes a habit, and more or less continuous in its excessive demands on the common energy-fund, continuously depriving other parts of a healthy functioning power. Thus we can readily see that organs can be diseased without the cause being in them or their governing nerve centers.

Of all organs in the body^ the eyes are most capable of demanding arid getting an excessive share of the general fund of nerve-energy from the huinan power-house, for the following reasons:

I. The feeling of vision is the most acute of all the senses, because it is actively aroused by one of the most imponderable elements known to science — light. By the impact of its delicate waves our consciousness is made to feel shape, motion, and color. Its rays, reflected from various objects, pass through the cornea, the aqueous humor, the crystalline lens, the vitreous body, and

ENERGY'-THE HUMAN POWER-HOUSE 25

there reach the retinal nerves. The delicacy of this touch, or impact, on the retinal nerves is beyond the conception of the human mind ; yet it establishes from this point an impulse which is conveyed to the sight centers at the base of the brain, which with no uncertainty determine form, color, motion, quantity, and space. Here we have the most positive sense or feeling known to man, produced by the most imponderable agent known to science.

2. This work of seeing, requiring energy, is kept up continuously for sixteen out of twenty-four hours or two-thirds of our entire life.

3. The dynamos governing the function of vision are the largest in area of any in the human brain, and the most extensively distributed.

4. The conductors from the dynamos to the eyes are very large, and capable of conducting much energy.

5. The distance between the eyes and their dynamos is short, thus offering little resistance to the transit of energy.

These are our reasons for claiming that perfect vision may exist under excessive anatomical defects. A patient says, **0h, there is nothing the matter with my eyes. I can see perfectly.*' He really means there is nothing wrong with his vision. A cashier robs a bank and becomes rich ;

he lives in princely fashion, but the depositors and stockholders suffer the loss of their funds. In some cases it is under the most perfect vision that the most destructive brain-strain exists, compared with which manifest visual defects and their consequences are trivial.

The same identical foot-pounds of energy may be used in anger or utilized in a laugh, may be exhausted in hate or expended in love, according to the dictates of the mind.

Chapter III Brain Strain

In the long history of the past, glasses were resorted to for the purpose of correcting imperfect vision only. More especially during the later years it has been observed that glasses now and again have relieved nervous disorders, and the more closely we have studied and observed the effects of properly adjusted spectacles in disease, the more convinced we have grown that eye strain is the cause of many serious disorders, and that its correction will in a great measure relieve troubles that have heretofore baffled the skill of the medical profession.

When evidence comes from here and there of the cure of diseases that have always been considered fatal, it awakens, at first, incredulity, but if we are able to offer good and logical reasons why eye strain has such a powerful influence over the entire body, then we will be able to dispel this unbelief.

All the work connected with the function of vision is done in the base of the brain. We do not see in the eye. It is simply a mechanical instrument similar to a photographic camera fof focusing the rays of light on its posterior part, the retina. From here these delicate impressions are conveyed over nerve fibers to the gray matter cells lying in the outer part of the posterior portion of the brain. It is in the back of the brain that vision takes place, that the photograph is printed. This is the largest center in the entire nervous system. To this we must also add the centers that govern the movements and adjustment of the eye for far and near vision. The center that governs the focusing of the eye lies in the third ventricle ; the cells governing the converging of the eyes when they are being used for reading, sewing, writing, or any close occupation, are in the aqueduct of Sylvius, while those governing the external muscles that turn the eye outward are in the floor of the fourth ventricle of the brain, at its extreme base, at the top of the spinal column.

Considering all of these centers that are concerned in vision, they occupy at least one-third of the gray matter area of the entire brain.

The natural position of the eyes in a state of perfect rest is distant vision. As the eye approaches closer and closer to an observed object, it is necessary to gradually increase its focus, which is done by work or strain in the gray mat-

BRAIN STRAIN 27

ter cells in the third ventricle. In approaching an object it is also necessary for the eyes to converge towards each other, that both may be fixed on the object simultaneously. This contraction of the internal muscles is effected by work or strain in the cells of the aqueduct of Sylvius. Sometimes the eyes are converged for a very near point and used for a long period in this position, as in sewing, reading, etc. Then they pull upon and establish a counter-strain in the external rectus muscles.

In view of the location of these centers there must be a terrific strain in the base of the brain at all times during continued near vision. When the eyes are looking off into the distance, these strains are relieved. This is what gives the brain and nervous system so much rest in the out-of-door or open-air life.

It is a normal and natural function to be able to exert these strains and use the eyes for near work, but it is unnatural and abnormal to exert these strains constantly, as is done in some indoor occupations. It acts as a constant overdraft on life's fund of energy, and detracts from the functioning power of all other parts of the body.

Since women have abandoned their close indoor work and have taken up outdoor life and field sports they are fast rising nearer and nearer to the physical basis of men, and men who abandon their out-of-door lives for indoor callings and close occupations are becoming enfeebled and are breaking down.

It is easy to see how these strains, continued from day to day, may irritate, disturb, and deprave other nerve centers that preside over the various functions of the body; and naturally when anatomical defects exist these strains and their evil consequences are much greater.

It has long been a well-known fact that irritation of the fourth ventricle of the brain induces diabetes.

Some of the functions of the liver receive their motive force from the floor of the fourth ventricle, as also do the external rectus muscles of the eye. Now, when there is a strain in these eye muscles inducing irritation in their fourth ventricle cells it is only reasonable to suppose that this irritation will be communicated to the adjacent cells governing other functions, the kidney, liver, lungs, heart, stomach, etc.

We have been wont in the past to use the word reflex to account for certain diseases in distant parts of the body originating from eye strain and other local points of irritation, but when we view these disorders from the nerve centers we have a better understanding of how

BRAIN STRAIN 29

one diseased condition of the body may arise from another.

From the most minute cells to the largest organs of a healthy body every part has a place in the general economy, and a function to perform. Each part is a motor or anatomical engine, which is set in motion, or whose function begins, when they receive their working power, and ceases when that working power is withdrawn. Any alteration from the normal nerve currents will relatively disturb and alter the function of a part.

Disease is not an entity, a thing, a something that, ghost-like, walks around and crawls into people. // is simply perverted function. The energy supply is too much or too little, the voltage too high or too low, as it may also be with the amperage in the energy supply. Certain symptoms of perverted function are called diabetes, others Bright's, others consumption, and so on through a long list of pathology.

A long-continued diverted function physically alters and changes parts until organic disease is the result. Natural secretions of organs are put in check and abnormal secretions ensue, such as uric acid and other poisonous secretions. Extreme nervous excitement has been the cause of poisonous secretions in the milk of mothers nursing infants.

Therefore, when the great central nervous system is irritated and robbed of its power, by excessive eye strain, it is impossible to say what part of the body may be made to suffer, and it is also impossible to determine what relief will naturally follow a correction of these visual defects.

One of the principal effects sought with glasses is to check the waste or loss of energy from useless brain strain, this energy being needed for functioning other parts of the body.

We have often thought, and are now convinced, that if there is a place where the conservation of energy is of greatest value, it is in the sick-room, when vitality is low and the various functions of the body are crying out for their lost functioning power.

Our clinical experience with glasses in the sick-room has been very encouraging. In many instances where there was a fevered condition, high temperature, and abnormal heart action, which belongs to various diseases, we have used medium fogs with a small amount of prism base in, and in all cases there has been a lowering of the temperature, a bettering of the heart action, and a more cheerful condition induced.

BRAIN STRAIN 3^

We have suggested the use of glasses for this purpose to several advocates of repression who are general practitioners, and their experience has been such as to make them exceedingly enthusiastic. We quote from a report by one of these medical gentlemen, who, after citing a number of successful cases, says:

*' Life is so interesting nowadays that young and old are tempted, even when confined by illness, to use their eyes for close vision every waking hour, thus permitting the eyes to consume far more than their share of energy.

** I have found repression, in conjunction with other methods of treatment, to be of great value, not only in my office practice, but at the bedside as well.'*

Only the long-confined invalid can appreciate the glow, the cheer, and happiness that pervades the whole being when he is first wheeled in his invalid chair to the window, where he looks off at the sky, clouds, and distant objects. This thrill of pleasure is almost instantaneous, and as the practice is continued, strength grows until the patient is able to take out-of-door exercise, which usually results in still further advancing health.

The reason why looking off into the distance brings relief, and acts as a tonic to the entire system, is because the brainwork of focusing and converging is for the time being abandoned.

This relief of brain strain by constant out-ofdoor life is one of the chief factors in curing consumption and other diseases.

As a last resort, after we have expended all efforts to relieve an invalid, we advise them to take a change of air, a change of scene, an ocean voyage, quit reading, and live out of doors as much as possible, when usually an improvement in health sets in. Under all of these conditions there is long range of vision, a cessation of the focusing and converging strain. This relaxation of brain strain in open-air life is one of the chief factors in inducing health, whereas heretofore it has been solely attributed to fresh air. Therefore, poor people unable to make expensive trips, if they will persistently and regularly resort to open-air life at home, will derive vast benefits.

*' Repression" is forced reversal of strain with spherical glasses and prisms. For latent hyperopia an over-correction is worn, which temporarily **fogs" the vision, hence the name *'fogs*' ; first, shutting out the laborious work of delicate detail; second, stimulating a cessation of strain through the ciliary muscles. In esophoria prism base in causes forced abatement of spasm, etc.

Chapter IV

We are living in a swift civilization, we are following callings and pursuits widely different from those of our near ancestors ; and our various systems and organs have not had time to evolve to those changes which are necessary to cope with our present requirements without undergoing great discomforts and seriously curtailing our lives.

Often our health and much of our lives are sacrificed to an improper use of vision. It may seem extravagant to attribute so much to the eyes; but it is the province of these chapters to show that it is a fact.

Pulmonary consumption was once looked upon as an incurable disease, but now it is a well-known fact that many cases get well by simply living out of doors. All diseases and serious nervous conditions are equally benefited by an open-air life. The benefits derived by invalids from living in the open air have usually been attributed to the freshness and purity of the air; but one of the chief curative factors of the open-air treatment is the relief of brain-strain due to a longer range of vision.

It is a matter of history that King George III. of England was afflicted with a nervous disease amounting to serious mental derangement. His court physicians called in consultation the most noted London specialists, but the king's malady continued to increase to the extent that the queen was obliged to remove to other apartments. Later the king was taken to the castle at Kew Gardens; but his condition here continued to grow worse, until Dr. Willis and son of Lincolnshire were called to take professional charge of the king. At once they took the king out of doors, and walked with him in the beautiful country gardens. This practice was continued daily until the king was well.

Fanny Burney notes in her *' Memoirs,** December II: ''To-day we had the fairest hopes. The king took his first walk in Kew Gardens." Then a discord raged in the medical council, when Dr. Warren pronounced the king to be worse than he had been at Windsor. Dr. Willis was denounced as an empiric ; but yet the king recovered under the care of Dr. Willis. March 14: ''The king, I have seen him again. He smiled at my start, saying he had wanted to see me, and added, * I am quite well now; I was nearly so when I saw you before in the Gardens.' '* The *' Memoirs*' also state, March 14: *'A11 Windsor came out to meet the king. It was a joy mounting to ecstasy.'* We attribute the relief in this and similar cases to a lessening of brain-strain due chiefly to a long range of vision.

If you are tired and nervous, go to the window, and for a few minutes look ofl into the far distance. At the same time take note of the soothing, calming feeling that comes over your entire being. Then turn again to doing something that requires a close range of vision, and at once the nervousness will return. This is a simple, easy thing to do, and will afford you much valuable information.

Business men, when tired, often close their eyes for a moment, as they have learned by intuition that it rests the entire system. The reason why closing the eyes has such a calming effect is because one-third of the brain is for the time being shut off from work. The colored-glass treatment for nervous diseases, which had quite a following a few years ago, undoubtedly had some merit in it on account of softening and tempering the light, thus in a degree resting a large portion of the brain.