In Search of the Miraculous

"Then suddenly, again a short rest, or an external shock, or an effort, brings a new flow of energy and the man is once more able to think, to walk, or to work.

"This means that the center has become connected directly to the large

accumulator. The large accumulator contains an enormous amount of energy.

Connected with the large accumulator a man is literally able to perform miracles. But

of course, if the 'rolls' continue to turn and energy which is made from air, food, and

impressions continues to pour out

of the large accumulator faster than it pours in, then there comes a moment when the

large accumulator is drained of all energy and the organism dies. But this happens

very seldom. Usually the organism automatically stops working long before this.

Special conditions are necessary to cause the organism to die exhausted of all its

energy. In ordinary conditions a man will fall asleep or he will faint or he will develop some internal complication which will stop the work a long time before the real

danger.

"One need not, therefore, be afraid of efforts; the danger of dying from them is not at all great. It is much easier to die from inaction, from laziness, and from the fear of making efforts.

"Our aim, on the contrary, is to learn to connect the necessary center with the large accumulator. So long as we are unable to do this, all our work will be wasted because

we shall fall asleep before our efforts can give any kind of results.

"Small accumulators suffice for the ordinary, everyday work of life. But for work

on oneself, for inner growth, and for the efforts which are required of a man who

enters the way, the energy from these small accumulators is not enough.

"We must learn how to draw energy straight from the large accumulator.

"This however is possible only with the help of the emotional center. It is essential that this be understood. The connection with the large accumulator can be effected

only through the emotional center. The instinctive, moving, and intellectual centers,

by themselves, can feed only on the small accumulators.

"This is precisely what people do not understand. Therefore their aim must be the

development of the activity of the emotional center. The emotional center is an

apparatus much more subtle than the intellectual center, particularly if we take into

consideration the fact that in the whole of the intellectual center the only part that

works is the formatory apparatus and that many things are quite inaccessible to the

intellectual center. If anyone desires to know and to understand more than he actually

knows and understands, he must remember that this new knowledge and this new

understanding will come through the emotional center and not through the intellectual

center."

In addition to what he had said about accumulators G. made some very interesting

remarks about yawning and about laughter.

"There are two incomprehensible functions of our organism inexplicable from the

scientific point of view," he said, "although naturally science does not admit them to be inexplicable; these are yawning and laughter. Neither the one nor the other can be

rightly understood and

explained without knowing about accumulators and their role in the organism.

"You have noticed that you yawn when you are tired. This is especially noticeable,

for instance, in the mountains, when a man who is unaccustomed to them yawns

almost continually while he is ascending a mountain. Yawning is the pumping of

energy into the small accumulators. When they empty too quickly, that is, when one of

them has no time to fill up while the other is being emptied, yawning becomes almost

continuous. There are certain diseased conditions which can cause stoppage of the

heart when a man wishes but is not able to yawn, and other conditions are known

when something goes wrong with the pump, causing it to work without effect, when a

man yawns the whole time, but does not pump in any energy.

"The study and the observation of yawning from this point of view may reveal

much that is new and interesting.

"Laughter is also directly connected with accumulators. But laughter is the opposite function to yawning. It is not pumping in, but pumping out, that is, the pumping out

and the discarding of superfluous energy collected in the accumulators. Laughter does

not exist in all centers, but only in centers divided into two halves—positive and

negative. If I have not yet spoken of this in detail, I shall do so when we come to a

more detailed study of the centers. At present we shall take only the intellectual

center. There can be impressions which fall at once on two halves of the center and

produce at once a sharp 'yes' and 'no.' Such a simultaneous 'yes' and 'no' produces a

kind of convulsion in the center and, being unable to harmonize and digest these two

opposite impressions of one fact, the center begins to throw out in the form of laughter

the energy which flows into it from the accumulator whose turn it is to supply it. In