The mystery of space

by Robert T. Browne

The Thinker being himself a pure spiritual intelligence, living upon the plane of spirit and therefore unhampered by the difficulties which the ego meets in his operations in the objective sensorium, and possessed of far greater knowledge, is correspondingly free from the limitations of the ego and very naturally closer to kosmic realities. Hence, he is better situated for the procurement of correct notions of relations, essentialities and the like. It is believed, therefore, that in the proportion that these two processes, the intellectual and the intuitional, are brought, in the course of evolution, to a closer and more rigid agreement, in the proportion that the Thinker is able to transmit the intuitograms in the shape of concepts or that the intuition is made more and more conceptual, in just that proportion is humanity becoming perfect and its evolution complete. The difficulty found to inhere in the conceptualization of intuitions so that they may be propagated from man to man seems not to lie in the Thinker himself, but more essentially in the ego, in the intellectuality and its complicate schematism or plan of action. It would appear, therefore, that the only way of escaping or transcending this difficulty is for the ego so to refine his vehicles or so facilitate his plan of action by eliminating the numerous relays or sub-stations intervening between the consciousness of the Thinker and that which may be said to be his own that the transmission of intuitograms may be accomplished with the greatest ease and clearness. While no attempt will be made to indicate the probable line of action which the ego or objective man will adopt for this purpose, it is believed that it may be said without pedanticism that the only true method of attaining unto this much desired state of things is, first of all, by assuming a sympathetic attitude not only towards the question of the intuition itself but to all phenomena which are an outgrowth of, or incident to, the manifestations of the intuitive faculty through the intellectuality, and second, by the practice of prolonged abstract thought, this latter procedure effecting a suspension of the intellectuality temporarily at the same time allowing it to experience an undisturbed contact with the intuitional consciousness, thereby laying the basis for future recognition of its nature and quality. It would seem that these two conditions are absolutely necessary in order that a more congruent relationship may be promoted between these two cognitive faculties. Ordinarily, it would appear that the philosopher who is undoubtedly inured to the necessities of continuous abstraction or the mathematician whose most common tasks naturally fall in this category would be among all men most apt to develop to the point of conceptualizing intuitograms readily, yet it seems that this is not the case. And there is good reason for it. The mind of the philosopher and the mathematician is intellectual rather than intuitional and is, therefore, wedded to matter, to the action and reaction of matter against matter and hence operating in a direction at variance with the trend of an intuitional mind. And this condition is undoubtedly due to a lack of a sympathetic attitude towards this species of consciousness. At any rate, it is thought that a too great anxiety in this respect need not be entertained by humanity at all, for the reason that in the case of a faculty, the rudimentary outcroppings of which are so marked and universally observable and existing in greater or lesser degrees in various human beings, there is ample evidence for the belief that it is being carefully and duly promoted by a well-directed evolution of psychic faculties and powers, so that at the proper time, determinable by the state of perfection reached by the intellectuality or the ego in the operation of his cognitive processes, the much desired agreement of these two faculties will have been realized and the conceptualization of intuitograms into propagable conceptions an accomplished fact. Until this goal shall have been reached and the intuition shall have overshadowed the intellect as the intellect now overshadows the intuition; or the consciousness of the ego, derived from the interplay of the Thinker's consciousness among the various elements which constitute the ego himself, shall have been merged with that of the Thinker, the outlook must remain fragmentary, only becoming a well-ordered whole as the barriers of dissidence are broken down in succession.

The evolution of consciousness, from the simple, undifferentiated moneron to the differentiated cell and from that to the cell-colony and from the cell-colony to the organism, traversing in successive paces through all the stages of lower life—mineral, vegetable and animal—to the stages of the simple, communal consciousness of the higher animals, to the self or individual consciousness of the human being, each requiring millions of years for its perfection before a more advanced stage is entered, has been one continuous relinquishment of the lower and less complicate for the higher and more complex expression of itself through the given media. When a newer and higher stage of consciousness is being entered by humanity its appearance or manifestation is first made in the most advanced of the race and that only in a dim, vague way. This rudimentary condition persists for some time, perhaps many thousands of years, then the faculty becomes more general in appearance, the number of advanced individuals increases, and consequently, as in the case of the intuitive faculty, it becomes universally prevalent in all humanity; becomes transmissible as so-called "acquired characters," and then appears as the normal faculty of the entire human family cropping out in each individual. Thus, in passing from the few advanced ones in the beginning to that stage where it becomes the common possession of all, a faculty requires many thousands of years for its perfection, and especially has this been true in the past history of the development of human faculties. But it is believed that the sweep of the life current as it proceeds from form to form, from faculty to faculty, gains in momentum as it proceeds, so that in these latter years due to the already highly developed vehicular mechanisms at its disposal not so great a period of time as formerly is required for the out-bringing of a new faculty. It might well be that while in the past hundreds of thousands of years were necessary in the perfection of organs and faculties, in these latter days only a few thousand, perhaps hundreds, may be necessary and that in the days of the future not even so many years may be required to universalize a faculty. And especially does this appear to be true in a state of affairs where so large a number of persons are beginning consciously to take their evolution in hand and by volitional activities are supplying greatly increased impetus to their psychic processes which under ordinary, natural methods would be considerably slower in their development. It is quite obvious that all cultural efforts when applied to the betterment of a given plant, animal or faculty result in a corresponding hastening of the process of growth far in excess of what that growth would be under normal, natural conditions. All the present faculties possessed by man are remarkably susceptible to cultural influences; in fact, the standing edict of ethical and social law is that the human faculties must be cultivated as highly as possible, thereby giving the spirit a more perfect medium of expression. These observations, therefore, lead irresistibly and unavoidably to the conclusion that the time for the upspringing of the intuitional faculty in the human organism is even now upon us, that undoubtedly in certain very advanced ones it has already reached a notable degree of perfection and is rather more general than would appear in the absence of careful investigation.

Now, just as the intellect has made for individuality, has emphasized the separateness of the Thinker's existence from that of other thinkers, has developed self-consciousness to a very high degree, even pushing it far over into the domain of the higher consciousness to the temporary obscuration of the latter, so the intuitional will make for union, for the brotherhood of man, for co-operation and for the common weal. Through it man will come gradually into the consciousness that fundamentally, in his inner nature, in every respect of vital concern, he is at-one with his fellowmen and not only with the apparent units of life but with all life as expressed in whatsoever form throughout the universe. Then, too, he will be closer to the reality of things, of actions and natural processes; in fine, he will have begun the development of the space-mind which will bring him to the knowledge that he is one with space also and, therefore, with the divine life of the world.

One of the peculiarities of the vital force which shows itself in the consciousness as man's intellect, is its growing automatism, or that tendency which enables the consciousness to perform its functions automatically and thus allow opportunity for the development of newer and higher faculties. Actions, oft repeated, tend to become automatic. This is also true of thought and consciousness. It is one of the beneficent results of abstract thought that it develops, or tends to develop, a kind of automatism whereby a marked saving in time and energy is effected. This affords opportunity for other things. It is undoubtedly true that in the days of the truly primitive man his consciousness was more completely engaged in the execution of the ergonic functions of cells, organs and tissues; that all those processes which are now said to be involuntary and reflexive were at one time, in the distant past of man's evolution, the results of conscious volitions. This is a condition which must have preceded even the development of the intellect itself. Indeed, there could be no intellect in a state where the entire modicum of consciousness was being utilized in the performance of cellular and histologic functions.

The rise of the intellect must have been in direct ratio to the development of automatism among the cells, tissues and organs, so that as these came gradually to perform their special labors reflexively the intellect began to be formulated and to grow, at first only incipiently, then more and more completely until it reached its present state. At the present stage of its evolution, a great deal of the labor of the intellect is beginning to fall into a kind of increscent automatism, although only rudimentarily, in many instances. Yet, as a result of this tendency, quite the whole of the phenomena of perception is characterized by a sort of automatic action. And the mind perceives without conscious volition. Many of the steps of conceptualization are automatic, in part, if not wholly. Certain it is that impulses once set in operation whether consciously or unconsciously continue to act along the same line until exhausted or until the end has been attained. Consequently, it is a proven fact that often serious mathematical and philosophic problems have been solved by the mind long after any conscious effort to solve them had ceased. Often solutions have been arrived at during sleep. Many such cases might be cited, but the phenomenon is now so common that almost every one can cite some experience in his own life that will substantiate the claim.

There is no doubt but that these phenomena are evidences of a reflexive development in the intellect. The time will come undoubtedly, and necessarily so if the intellect is to give way to a higher faculty, which shall be as much above the intellect in its grasp of things as the intellect is now above the simple consciousness of the lower animal, when quite the entirety of our intellectual processes will become automatic or self-performing. What then remains of the egoic schematism, after its transmutation or elevation as the organ of the intuitional consciousness will be utilized as the organ of the Thinker's involuntary cognitive processes. This will mean that all of that laborious ideation which is now the abstract thought of the Thinker will be performed automatically, leaving the higher aspect of the egoic consciousness free to conceptualize or intuitograph the intuitions. Perceptualization then will be replaced by conceptualization. This latter will occupy about the same status as the former does now. And necessarily, perception will become more complex. In other words, while we now perceive simple percepts which are again arranged into concepts making a composite picture of the object, we shall then be taking in the composite picture of the object at first hand, thereby dispensing with the rather slow process of perception as it now operates. We shall still be perceiving, but what we perceive will be concepts rather than percepts, as at present.

The increased powers of intellection gained as a result of the increscent automatism in the intellect, the flowering forth of the intuitive faculty and the general enhancement of the intellect throughout all its processes will enable it to entertain concepts or composite pictures of things just as readily and as perfectly as it can at present deal with a single percept. Concepts will be replaced by super-concepts or intuitographs. Increased perspicacity will enable the Thinker to manipulate the concepts and intuitographs with the same ease and readiness and withal the mind will have attained unto an almost unrealizable freedom in its search after truth.

The outcome of this new adjustment which, of course, will not spring up at once, but by insensible degrees, will be the clarification and unification of our knowledge. It will mean also the simplification of it; the obviation of diversities of opinions, the springing up of a new and winnowed system of philosophy which shall be the true one; further, it will imply the lessening of the probability of error in our judgments and conclusions; the removal of illusion to a much larger degree than to-day is possible and the realization by every one of something of the essence of things, of causes and effects, of actions, operations, natural forces and laws; in fact, a condition of mind which will present to the consciousness the simple truth above every conceivable phase of kosmic life which may come within the scope of the Thinker's observation.

The further implications of this view are that there is a difference between the Thinker and the intellectuality. The Thinker is eternal and partakes, therefore, of the very essence of primordial originality while the mentality is an artificial process, the resultant of the adaptation of the Thinker's consciousness to his vehicular contrivances of objective cognition and the interplay of his life among them.