J. B. S. HALDANE 
thinking of what some Indian philosophers call nirguna, That 
which has no qualities, in full agreement with Maimonides’ and 
St. Thomas Aquinas’ account of God (at least in the earlier 
chapters of the Summa Theologica) and in flat contradiction of the 
accounts given by most religious teachers. This exploration will 
be dangerous. Let us suppose that it becomes possible to induce 
proliferation of the formatio reticularis. If this is possible in an 
adult it will first be tried by a trained psychologist who volun- 
teers for the job. Perhaps the first two volunteers will report a 
great extension of consciousness, while the third will go mad 
or develop an inoperable brain tumour. Or perhaps it may be 
impossible to induce proliferation in adults, and it will be neces- 
sary to do it in babies. To us this may seem horrible. I have 
often risked other peoples’ lives in physiological experiments; 
and though none died, at least one was permanently injured. 
But they were all volunteers, and I was taking the same risks as 
they. The exploration of the interior of the human brain will 
be as dangerous as that of the antarctic continent or the depths 
of the oceans, and far more rewarding. The “officer in com- 
mand’”’ must be a man of proved personal courage, but not so 
soft hearted as to leave his post of command because his orders 
have led to some deaths, mutilations, or psychoses. To judge 
from the eagerness with which parents nowadays urge their 
children to risk their life in wars, and say that they have “‘given”’ 
their son if he does not return, I suspect that in a society with 
different ideals to our own, many parents would be prepared 
to risk their baby’s life in the hope that it might develop super- 
normal powers. 
A parallel development will be many-dimensional art, ex- 
pressed by the simultaneous movements of different muscles. 
Of course we have already the rudiments of this art in the dance, 
especially as practised in India. But in its fully developed form 
it would imply a real or imagined following by the audience of 
the dancer’s movements. Such art would also be expressible 
by symbols like the musical score of an orchestral composition; 
and just as, in order fully to appreciate one of Shakespeare’s 
plays, we must see it performed, read it silently, and recite at 
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