THE PRIMAL MIND 
of a drop of water into two drops or the union of 
two drops into one by chemical changes inside them 
involves the same forces that cell-division involves, 
and cell-division is a no more mysterious process. 
Life is nothing but chemistry and physics; mind, 
soul, consciousness, only a sequence of chemical. 
and physical changes in the brain-substance. »,But 
what about the living brain-substance? Do these 
same changes beget mind or soul when controlled 
in the laboratory? Does the compound in your 
retort think, and speculate about itself? Is there not 
something in living beings that science does not take 
account of? 
Mankind has long believed in a spiritual order of 
reality, and in so doing it is only affirming the reality 
of that which distinguishes it from stocks and stones. 
The psychic world is as much a matter of fact to us 
as is the world of matter and energy; because the 
first fact is consciousness of self, it is that which rec- 
ognizes the world of matter and energy. The I is the 
pillar that upholds the very heavens; it is the veri- 
table creator of the world and of all the gods that rule 
over it. But to what extent, if any, it is independ- 
ent of matter and energy, or has been in the past, or 
may be in the future, is a question. (How contra- 
dictory all these questions are! The only realities 
to us are our varying states of consciousness. To 
the dead in their graves there is no death; death is 
real only to the living.) 
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