966 Dynamic Theory. 



notism mentioned above do prove conclusively that it is not necessarily 

 always correct. It is without doubt correct in regard to those separate 

 personalities existing in a single individual naturally, as in the cases of 

 Mary R and Felida X. , &c. , and in hypnotic subjects in the deep stage. 

 But with these examples of inhibited sensibility before us we are sup- 

 ported in the conclusion previously arrived at, that the greater part of 

 mental action, our thought, is not in any way associated with conscious- 

 ness, and goes on habitually without ever giving rise to it. On the 

 other hand consciousness arises from the simplest forms of mental 

 action, that is, sensory impression, when the more complicated mental 

 functions, such as reason, volition, &c. , are not necessarily brought 

 into activity. 



What is it? When we consider the relationship in which conscious- 

 ness stands, with reference to the forms of physical energy that 

 we are acquainted with, we are compelled to see that it is itself 

 a form of physical energy, or in other words a mode of motion. 

 The first proof of this is its origin. It arises as the continuation 

 of such material impulses as those which produce light and sound, 

 smell, taste, and touch; all these being names for consciousness or sen- 

 sation arising from the impact of moving matter outside of us striking 

 upon our sense organs. When we say we see a light, we express the 

 the fact that a motion of ether outside of us by beating against the eye 

 communicates motion to ether inside of us, and that motion is the sen- 

 sation of light. When a bell rings it produces vibrations outside of 

 us, and these produce inside of us another sort of motion in the ether 

 of the auditory centers, which motion is sound; and so of the other 

 sensations. Different sensations arise from different sorts of motion 

 possible to the ether and the different rates of vibration possible in these 

 several modes. Thus red is not the name of something outside of us, 

 it is the name of a sensation. When ether, vibrating at a particular 

 rate, strikes the eye, the ether of the optic centers of the brain is made 

 to move in a particular way, constituting (not "giving rise to") the 

 sensation red. A " form of -energy " is simply a motion of some par- 

 ticular sort of body in some particular manner, and a change in its 

 form takes place when a transfer of the motion is made from one body 

 to another. Red is a form of energy peculiar to a certain body, namely, 

 a patch of brain cells in the occipital lobe, and when these cells are de- 

 stroyed there is no longer the motion called red. Sensation then, is no 

 exception to the law that the motion of a body changes or ceases when 

 the form of the body is changed. A flute is an instrument in which a 

 portion of air is partitioned off from the body of the atmosphere, and 

 thrown into vibrations which are fast or slow, as the tube of air is made 

 short or long by fingering. It gives no vibrations unless energy is ex- 



