hair are organisms perfected with reference to the secretion of protective parts. Similarly, the cells of the brain are organisms that have been perfected with reference to psychical attributes.”

Dr. Schofield says: “That life involves mind has, of course, like all else, been vigorously disputed and equally vigorously affirmed. ‘Life,’ says Prof. Bascom, ‘is not force; it is combining power. It is the product and presence of mind.’ ... The extent to which the word mind may be employed as the inherent cause of purposive movements in organisms is a very difficult question to solve. There can be no doubt that the actual agents in such movements are the natural forces, but behind these the directing and starting power seems to be psychic.... There being an indwelling power, not only for purposive action in each cell, but for endless combinations of cell activities for common ends not at all connected with the mere nutrition of the single cell, but for the good of the completed organism.” Dr. R. Dunn says: “From the first movement when the primordial cell-germ of a human organism comes into being, the entire individual is present, fitted for human destiny. From the same moment, matter, life and mind are never for an instant separated, their union constituting the essential work of our present existence.” Carpenter says: “The convertibility of physical forces and correlation of these with the vital and the intricacy of that nexus between mental and bodily activity which cannot be analyzed, all lead upwards towards one and the same conclusion—the source of all power is mind. And that physical conclusion is the apex of the pyramid which has its foundation in the primitive instincts of humanity.”

Having seen the evidences of life and mind in the single cell, let us now proceed to a consideration of the intelligence or mind inherent and manifest in the groups of cells, large and small, including the largest groups which compose the several organs of the body. This line of investigation will lead us to a fuller understanding of the influence of the mental states upon the health or disease of the organs and parts. It will be seen that Mental Healing has a sound biological as well as a psychological basis of truth, and that it is not necessary to invade the fields of metaphysics or theology in order to find an explanation of the effect of mind over body.

CHAPTER IV

THE MENTAL BASIS OF CURE

We have seen that in each cell in the human body is embodied a part of the Subconscious Mind, sufficient in quantity and quality to enable the cell to perform its particular work in the physical community of cells. In the same manner each group of cells, large or small, is possessed of the quantity and quality of mind adapted to the successful performance of its particular function. And, rising in the scale, we find that each of the physical organs is possessed of a “composite cell-soul” or “organ-mind.” As Hudson says: “Each organ of the body is composed of a group of cells which are differentiated with special reference to the functions to be performed by that organ. In other words, every function of life is performed by groups of co-operative cells, so that the body as a whole is simply a confederation of the various groups.”

For instance, as Haeckel says: “This ‘tissue soul’ is the higher psychological function which gives physiological individuality to the compound multicellular organism as a true ‘cell commonwealth.’ It controls all the separate ‘cell souls’ of the social cells—the mutually dependent ‘citizens’ which constitute the community.... The human egg-cell, as soon as it is fertilized, multiplies by division and forms a community, or colony of many social cells. These differentiate themselves, and by their specialization, by various modifications of these cells, the various tissues which compose the various organs are developed. The developed many-celled organisms of man and of all higher animals resemble, therefore, a social civil community, the numerous single individuals of which are, indeed, developed in various ways, but which were originally only simple cells of one common structure.”

Biology shows us that there are unquestionably methods of communication between cell and cell, although it has not as yet been definitely determined just how this communication is effected. In the cell-communities of the micro-organisms there is undoubtedly present the power to communicate on the part of the several cells composing the community, and the pain or discomfort of one part is evidently felt by the whole community. Just as an army, or a congregation, has a mind common to the whole, in addition to the individual minds of its units, so has every organ of the body an “organ mind” in addition to the individual cell minds of its unit cells. The fact of the existence of “group-mind,” or “collective-mind” is recognized by the best authorities in modern psychology, and the study of its principles throws light on some hitherto perplexing phenomena.

Prof. Le Bon, in his work “The Crowd,” says of the “collective mind” of men: “The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly marked characteristics. The gathering has become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organized crowd, or, if the term be considered preferable, a psychological crowd. It forms a single being, and is subjected to the law of the mental unity of crowds.... The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupation, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind, which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think and act, were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts, except in the case of the individuals forming a crowd.... In the collective mind the intellectual aptitudes of the individuals, and in consequence their individuality, is weakened.... The most careful observations seem to prove that an individual immerged for some length of time in a crowd in action soon finds itself in a special state, which most resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself.... The conscious personality has entirely vanished, will and discernment are lost. All feelings and thoughts are bent in the direction determined by the hypnotizer.... An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.”

In short, psychology recognizes a mental fusion between the individual minds of units composing a community of cells, insects, higher animals and even men. The “spirit of the hive” noted by all students of bee-life, and the community spirit in an ant-hill are instances serving to illustrate the general principle of “the collective mind.” As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the entire human body is a vast community of cells, each unit in the community having relations with every other unit, and all having sprung from the same original egg-cell. This great community, or nation of cells is