§ 163
Only by assuming this causal connection, which must also be a two-way connection, can we explain any influence of mind upon body. From innumerable instances, however, we are all absolutely sure that the mind influences the bodily functions and that the bodily functions influence the mind.
In no sphere of human activity is the influence of the mind on the body more clearly demonstrable than in the erotic sphere, both in its equatorial physical zones and in its polar intellectual zones.
This makes it absolutely incontrovertible not only that man can control his emotions, including the erotic; but that he should, if he wishes to be human and not merely animal.
In the causal connection between hypersomatic (mind) and hyposomatic (body) there is at least one link called the imagination. But the fact that imagination is so broad a term makes the understanding difficult as to how the various mental mechanisms, mostly unconscious, interact with each other.
The fact, however, is well known and admitted by all scientists that the mind does influence the body. It causes changes in the functions of the bodily organs. A purely mental state caused by external stimulation, for example, the hearing of some bad news or witnessing of some tragic occurrence, will alter the internal secretions of some of the endocrine glands, postpone digestion or upset it, accelerate circulation and respiration and cause other changes.
Sex phenomena are no exception to this principle that bodily processes are conditioned, that is, partially caused, by mental processes. Sex cannot be a part of love until love which is hypersomatic (mental) is in control.
It would be exceedingly satisfactory if one could devise a mental pattern for love that would apply to all individuals; but the fact that the various factors are over twenty in number, making over four hundred combinations of only two at a time, render it practically impossible to do more than make a generic verbal formula such as “better and better every day.”
It is impossible however, to get away from the fact that the sense type of imagination has not a little influence in the original rapport that springs up between two persons of opposite sex. Obviously a colour-blind man could not be much influenced by the iridescent beauty of some young women. There are people who are tone-deaf, and, to such, a monotonous voice might not have the deterrent effect it would for some. There are individual variations in the sensitivity to every one of the twenty-odd sense qualities that enter consciousness from time to time. Any of these variations may play a part in the first attraction exerted by young people on each other.