It is not to be supposed that the above truths will be at once accepted by every reader of the Journal, except by such as have given deep thought to the true nature of man. Neither are they a subject for scientific controversy or disputation. A knowledge of the truth is not produced by disputations and quarrels, but only by direct perception, experience, and understanding. The conclusions which man arrives at by logic are merely productive of certain opinions, and these opinions are liable to be changed again as soon as the basis from which his logic started, changes. A real knowledge of spiritual truths requires a power of spiritual perception, which few men possess. Nevertheless, even our logical deductions, taking as a starting point that which we know to be true, will help us to arrive at the same conclusions at which the Hermetic philosophers arrived by the power of spiritual perception.
[In the foregoing passage, Dr. H. professes to state doctrines derived from intuition or spiritual perception by the ancients, and also recognized to-day by spiritual perception. To me they appear as the results only of that sort of ancient SPECULATION, which recognized earth, air, fire, and water as the four chemical elements of all things. I do not find them sustained by the spiritual perception of those who have the intuitive powers to-day, nor by scientific investigation. The substance of the heart is not the seat of life. It is a merely muscular substance, and ceases all action when separated from its controlling ganglia. The vitality of the heart lies in its ganglia—in other words, in the nervous system, in which alone is life, and of which the brain is the commanding centre. That life resides exclusively in the nervous system is one of the established principles of physiology, which cannot be disturbed by any theories descending from antiquity, before the dawn of positive science. That the will resides in the blood and the heart, is about as near the truth as Plato’s doctrine that the prophetic power belonged to the liver. If the region of Firmness in the brain be large, it will be strongly manifested, even though the heart be feeble, and as easily arrested as Col. Townsend’s. But if the upper surface of the brain be diseased, or sensibly softened, the will power is almost destroyed, even if the plethoric, hypertrophied heart is shaking the head with its power. Many an individual of a delicate frame, has overpowered by firmness and courage stout, muscular men of far larger hearts. That the brain is the organ of thought alone, is a very old crudity. It contains every human emotion and passion, which we may stimulate in the impressible, or suspend instantly by a slight pressure on the brain. There is no intense exercise of any of the emotions or passions without a corresponding warmth and tension in the portion of the brain to which they belong, the development and activity of which determine their power. The will and life are not identical, as Dr. H. suggests, for if they were, we should not have these two words with different meanings. If will is an attribute of life, that does not constitute identity. The speculations of Rosicrucians are of no authority in science. The divine love or influence is in direct relation to the brain, the central organ of the soul, and not to a muscular structure of the body, which is far below the brain in rank. It would be just as reasonable to affirm that courage belongs only to the muscles. That illuminating love which Dr. H. ascribes to the heart, belongs to the upper region of the brain, and is never found when that region lacks development, or is in a cold, torpid condition. I deny entirely that these mystic theories are the product of true, spiritual perception. They arise from the fact that the thoracic region sympathizes with the seat of true love and will in the brain. This secondary effect has been felt and realized by those to whom the functions of the brain were unknown. Spiritual perception, now guided by the spirit of investigation, discovers the whole truth—that all human faculties and impulses belong to the brain, but have a secondary influence on the localities of the body to which SARCOGNOMY shows their relations.]
If we believe in one great spiritual cause of all, and conceive of it as the great spiritual Sun of the universe (of which our terrestrial sun is merely an image or reflection), we find that spiritual man (the image of God) can be nothing else but an individual ray of that spiritual sun, shining into matter, becoming polarized and forming a centre of life in the developing human fœtus, and causing this fœtus to grow in a living form of human shape, according to the conditions presented to it by the maternal organism, and when it is born, and becomes conscious, the illusion of self is created within that individual form. Besides the gross, visible, external form, more ethereal internal forms are evolved, which are of a longer duration than the outward physical form, but of which it is not necessary to speak at present.
At all events, all that we positively know of man, is that he is an invisible internal power, which evolves an outward shape, which we call a human being. The material through which the organism is built up is the blood, and the centre from which the blood flows into all parts of the body and to which it returns from all parts, is the heart. The heart is consequently the centre from which that power which builds up the organism of man emanates, and as this power can be nothing else but Life, the heart is the centre of life. The heart and the brain stand in the most intimate relation to each other, and neither one can continue to live if the other one ceases to act; but according to the doctrines of the ancient and modern occultists the heart is of superior importance than the brain. A man may live a long time without thinking, but he ceases to live when his heart ceases to beat. The heart is the seat of life, the brain the seat of thought, but both are equally necessary to enjoy life; there is no intellectual activity without life, and a life without intelligence is worthless. That the force which constructs the organism of man emanates from the heart, appears to me to be self-evident; that the power which guides this construction emanates from the brain has been demonstrated by Dr. Buchanan.
[This is quite incorrect. The heart may cease acting, as in apparent death while the processes of thought and feeling are going on, and the individual is conscious that he is going to be buried, but incapable of giving the alarm. On the other hand the action of the brain may be suspended, as in apoplexy, while the heart is beating vigorously. In such cases, though the action of the cerebrum is suspended, the physiological brain or cerebellum sustains physical life. We cannot say that the heart is superior to the brain, because it supplies the brain with blood for its growth, any more than we could say the same of the lungs, which supply oxygen, without which the action of the brain is speedily arrested. We might even extend the remark to the stomach and thoracic duct, which supply the material for making a brain, which certainly does not prove their superiority. The action of the brain is far more important, for the quickest death is produced by crushing the brain, or by cutting it off from the body in the spinal cord of the neck, when heart, lungs, and stomach are promptly arrested by losing the help of the brain. If prior development in growth proved a superiority of rank, the ganglionic system which accompanies the arteries and precedes the evolution of the convoluted cerebrum would hold the highest rank, although it is destitute of consciousness and volition, which belong to the brain alone.]
But what is this power which emanates from the brain, and which guides the organizing activity of the soul, but the power of life which is transmitted to the brain from the heart, and which is modified in its activity by the peculiar organization of the latter? Man in his present state does not think with his heart, but with his brain; nevertheless, the heart is superior to the brain, for the brain has been built up by the power which came from the heart; and it is a universal law of nature, that no thing can produce anything superior to itself. During its fœtal existence the brain of the child is built up by the blood of the mother; after man is born his brain receives its power of life through the heart, and in spiritually developed man the thought-force created in the brain reacts again upon the will in the heart, controlling its desires and entering into harmonious union with the latter. The ancient alchemists say: “If the Sun (the heart) enters in conjunction with the Moon (the brain) then will Gold (Wisdom) be produced.”
We see, therefore, in man two centres of life, the heart and the brain, and it may properly be said that the brain is the seat of life, only it may perhaps be added, that it is the secondary seat, while the principal seat is, or ought to be, in the heart. [Dr. H. identifies will with life, yet every one knows that all acts of volition proceed from the brain alone, and never from the heart; hence by his own statement the brain is the seat of life.] According to the doctrines of the Hermetic philosophers, God is the invisible central fire in the universe from which the Light of the Logos (Christ or the celestial Adam) emanated in the beginning. Man being a Microcosm, contains in his heart the image of that internal and invisible central fire of Love, which sends the light of thought to the brain and illuminates the mind of the seer. We are at present not living in the age of Love, but in the age of Thought (not the age of Reason, but the age of Reasoning and Speculation), and by the law of heredity, life has become pre-eminently concentrated in the brain; while in a more advanced age, when the principle of universal Love and Benevolence will be generally recognized, life will become more strongly concentrated at the heart. Men will then not only think, but feel and become able to recognize the truth by that power which is known to us in its rudimental state as Intuition, but which, if developed, will be far superior to that uncertain feeling called Intuition, and become a Sun within the heart, sending its rays far up into the regions of thought. Then, as their Love for the supreme Good increases, will their knowledge increase, and as their knowledge expands will their Will become powerful and free.
[The physiology of this passage is all erroneous. In the ages of animalism and barbarism the heart is more powerful, like the rest of the muscular system to which it belongs. In a more humane and refined condition the brain is more predominant. The female heart is not as well developed as the male. The moral superiority of women is due not to the heart but to the superior region of the brain, to which we owe all elevation of individuals and society.]
It has been said above that Will and Life are identical, and there are sufficient facts to prove that they are one. A man may prolong his life by an effort of will, or he may cease to live if he wills to die. A loss of will-power in a limb is identical with paralysis of the latter. If the will (conscious or unconscious will) ceases to act, man ceases to live. No amount of thought exercised by the brain will raise a limb of a person, unless the person has the will to raise it; no amount of imagination on the part of the brain will execute an act, unless the will guided by the imagination causes the act to be executed. In the blood,—the representative of the animal life-principle (Kama-rupa) is the seat of the will, its central office is the heart. There the will or life-power acts consciously or unconsciously, sending its rays to the brain, where they become more refined, and from thence they radiate again back through the organism, causing the unconscious or conscious processes of imagination and thought. The way in which these processes take place, has been well described in Dr. Buchanan’s “Therapeutic Sarcognomy.” Love, Will, and Life are ultimately one and the same power; they are like the three sides of a pyramid ending in one point, or like a star emitting a light of three different hues. Without the fire of divine Love at the centre there will be no good and powerful Will, without Will man is a useless being, without virtue and without real life, an empty shell or form kept alive by the play of the elements, ceasing to exist when the form falls to pieces. But he who possesses a strong love for the good, the beautiful, and true, grows strong in Will and strong in Life. His heart sends a pure current of life to the brain, which enables the latter to see and grasp the ideas existing in the Astral light. The purer the will the more pure will be the imagination, and the more will the latter be able to rise to the highest regions of thought, while these exalted thoughts will radiate their light back again to the heart and stimulate the heart as the heart stimulated the brain.
A consideration of the above will go to prove that Love (Will or Life) and Thought (Imagination or Light) are the forces by which the soul forms and regenerates the external body, and that he who obtains mastery over these forces within his own organism will be able to change and remodel his body and to cure it of all ills. The fountain of life is the will, and if the will is good and pure and not poisoned by the imagination, a pure blood and a strong and healthy body will be the result. If the imagination (thought) is pure, it will purify the will and expel from the latter the elements of evil. The fundamental doctrine of the most rational system of medicine is therefore the purification of the Will and the Imagination, and every one carries within his own heart the universal panacea, which cures all ills, if he only knows how to employ it. The purification and strengthening of the will by acts of love and human kindness and by leading a pure and unselfish life, should be the principal object of all religious and scientific education. The Bible says: “If the salt (the will) of the earth is worthless, wherewith shall it be salted?” If the fountain from which all life springs is poisoned by evil thoughts, how can the soul and body be healthy? The best blood-purifier is a pure will, rendered pure by pure and holy thoughts.