PERCEPTION OF THE FIXED LAWS OF NATURE.
Three Sub-classes of Mental Phenomena.—Mathematical Prodigies.—Musical Prodigies.—Measurement of Time.—Distinction between Results of Objective Education and Intuitive Perception.—Zerah Colburn, the Mathematical Prodigy.—The Lightning Calculator.—Blind Tom, the Musical Prodigy.—The Origin and Uses of Music.—East Indian Fakirs.—Measurement of Time.—The Power possessed by Animals.—Illustrative Incidents.—Hypnotic Subjects.—Jouffroy's Testimony.—Bernheim's Views.—Practical Observations.—The Normal Functions of Objective Intelligence.—The Limitations of Subjective Intelligence pertain to its Earthly State only.—Its Kinship to God demonstrated by its Limitations.—Omniscience cannot reason inductively.—Induction is Inquiry.—Perception the Attribute of Omniscience.—Conclusions regarding the Power of the Soul.
There are three other sub-classes of subjective mental phenomena which must be grouped by themselves, inasmuch as they are governed by a law which does not pertain to the classes mentioned in the preceding chapter, although there are some characteristics which are common to them all. The first of these classes of phenomena is manifested in mathematical prodigies; the second in musical prodigies; and the third pertains to the measurement of time.
The important distinction to be observed between the phenomena described in the preceding chapter and those pertaining to mathematics, music, and the measurement of time, consists in the fact that in the former everything depends upon objective education, whilst the latter are apparently produced by the exercise of inherent powers of the subjective mind.
In order not to be misunderstood it must be here stated that on all subjects of human knowledge not governed by fixed laws, the subjective mind is dependent for its information upon objective education. In other words, it knows only what has been imparted to it by and through the objective senses or the operations of the objective mind. Thus, its knowledge of the contents of books can only be acquired by objective methods of education. Its wonderful powers of acquiring and assimilating such knowledge are due to its perfect memory of all that has been imparted to it by objective education, aided by its powers of memory and of logical arrangement of the subject-matter. Leaving clairvoyance and thought-transference out of consideration for the present, the principle may be stated thus: The subjective mind cannot know, by intuition, the name of a person, or a geographical location, or a fact in human history. But it does know, by intuition, that two and two make four.
No one without an objective education can, by the development of the subjective faculties alone, become a great poet, or a great artist, or a great orator, or a great statesman. But he may be a great mathematician or a great musician, independently of objective education or training, by the development of the subjective faculties alone. Many facts are on record which demonstrate this proposition. Hundreds of instances might be cited showing to what a prodigious extent the mathematical and musical faculties can be developed in persons, not only without objective training, but, in some instances, without a brain capable of receiving any considerable objective education.