In Search of the Miraculous

opposed to the aim and the direction of the work.

"But in the general plan of the work and functions of the human machine there are

certain points in which a change may be brought about without giving rise to any

supplementary results.

"It is necessary to know what these points are and it is necessary to know how to

approach them, for if one does not begin with them one will either get no result at all or wrong and undesirable results.

"Having fixed in his own mind the difference between the intellectual, the

emotional, and the moving functions, a man must, as he observes himself,

immediately refer his impressions to this or that category. And at first he must take

mental note of only such observations as regards which he has no doubt whatever,

that is, those where he sees at once to what category they belong. He must reject all

vague or doubtful cases and remember only those which are unquestionable. If the

work is carried on properly, the number of unquestionable observations will rapidly

increase. And that which seemed doubtful before will be clearly seen to belong to the

first, the second, the third center. Each center has its own memory, its own

associations, its own thinking. As a matter of fact each center consists of three parts:

the thinking, the emotional, and the moving. But we know very little about this side of

our nature. In each center we know only one part. Self-observation, however, will

very quickly show us that our mental life is much richer than we think, or in any case

that it contains more possibilities than we think.

"At the same time as we watch the work of the centers we shall observe, side by

side with their right working, their wrong working, that is, the working of one center

for another; the attempts of the thinking center to feel or to pretend that it feels, the attempts of the emotional center to think, the attempts of the moving center to think

and feel. As has been said already, one center working for another is useful in certain

cases, for it preserves the continuity of mental activity. But in becoming habitual it

becomes at the same time harmful, since it begins to interfere with right working by

enabling each center to shirk its own direct duties and to do, not what it ought to be

doing, but what it likes best at the moment. In a normal healthy man each center does

its own work, that is, the work for which it was specially destined and which it can

best perform. There are situations in life which the thinking center alone can deal with

and can find a way out of. If at this moment the emotional center begins to work

instead, it will make a muddle of everything and the result of its interference will be

most unsatisfactory. In an 'unbalanced kind of man the substitution of one center for

another goes on almost continually and this is precisely what 'being unbalanced' or

'neurotic' means. Each center strives, as it were, to pass its work on to another, and, at the same time, it strives to do the work of another center for which it is not fitted. The emotional center working for the thinking center brings unnecessary nervousness,

feverishness, and hurry into situations where, on the con-

trary, calm judgment and deliberation are essential. The thinking center working for

the emotional center brings deliberation into situations which require quick decisions

and makes a man incapable of distinguishing the peculiarities and the fine points of

the position. Thought is too slow. It works out a certain plan of action and continues

to follow it even though the circumstances have changed and quite a different course

of action is necessary. Besides, in some cases the interference of the thinking center

gives rise to entirely wrong reactions, because the thinking center is simply incapable

of understanding the shades and distinctions of many events. Events that are quite

different for the moving center and for the emotional center appear to be alike to it. Its decisions are much too general and do not correspond to the decisions which the

emotional center would have made. This becomes perfectly clear if we imagine the

interference of thought, that is, of the theoretical mind, in the domain of feeling, or of sensation, or of movement; in all three cases the interference of the mind leads to

wholly undesirable results. The mind cannot understand shades of feeling. We shall

see this clearly if we imagine one man reasoning about the emotions of another. He is

not feeling anything himself so the feelings of another do not exist for him. A full man does not understand a hungry one. But for the other they have a very definite existence. And the decisions of the first, that is of the mind, can never satisfy him. In exactly the same way the mind cannot appreciate sensations. For it they are dead. Nor

is it capable of controlling movement. Instances of this kind are the easiest to find.

Whatever work a man may be doing, it is enough for him to try to do each action