Physical contact

“ The gentle and violent mechanical contacts, which in ourselves produce sensations of touch and pressure—the additions and abstractions of molecular vibration, which in ourselves produce sensations of heat and cold, produce in all creatures that have nervous systems, certain nervous disturbances: disturbances which, as in ourselves, are either communicated to the chief nervous centre, and there arouse consciousness, or else result in mere physical processes set going elsewhere in the organism. ”

“ In this new section we by no means cut loose from what is sensory in a subjective sense, for of course we become conscious of our own movements only through the sensory paths of sight and what is collectively called touch, chiefly sensations of contact, and tendon and joint sensations. ”

“ Among the various functions of the Subconscious Mind, one of the most important is that of the charge and control of the involuntary activities and functions of the human body through the agency of the sympathetic nervous system, the cells, and cell-groups. ”

“ In respect to movements, it is possible to measure speed, lung capacity and action, strength of grip, legs, back, and chest. Physiological defects are discovered and measured, as corrugation of face, inco-ordination of eyes, twitching, pallor, mouth-breathing. All of these throw light on the physical basis of mental life, the power to work, the requirements of training, diet, and exercise. A detailed study pf the senses may be made, as of sight, hearing, touch, muscle sense, smell, taste, pain. ”

“ The psychological law of association of objects thought of through their previous contiguity in thought or experience would thus be an effect, within the mind, of the physical fact that nerve-currents propagate themselves easiest through those tracts of conduction which have been already most in use. ”

“ The intellectual or idea function, the thinking and working function of the mind, may be supposed to depend on the intercommunication of the nerve cells or centres of the entire hemispheres, carried on by means of the nerve-fibres, this interaction being accompanied by a feeling or emotion peculiar to the centres acting, but which varies according to their physical state at the moment of excitation, or that produced by the excitation itself. ”

“ Finally, inquiries of a physiological nature into the reflex action of the body, and especially into general and specific sensibility, and sensibility to pain, and into reflex action under external agencies, conducted with the aid of instruments which record the results, have shown abnormal conditions, all tending to physical insensibility, deep-seated and

more or less absolute, but incontestably different in kind from that which obtains amongst the average men of the same social classes. ”

“ As we shall see when we consider the Sympathetic Nervous System, the greater part of the body is dominated by the Subconscious Mind, and that the welfare of the major physical functions depends entirely, or almost so, upon this great area or field of the mind. ”

“ Should we care to look for more proofs as to the validity of correlation of psychic with neural, or physical processes, we can also find it in another branch of experimental physiology, namely, physiological psychology. ”

“ It is clear from the facts detailed that the nervous apparatus447 by which in the normal state sensations of touch are excited is that by which external influences determine the movements of the body in the abnormal state. But does the state of consciousness, which we term a tactile sensation, accompany the operation of this nervous apparatus in the abnormal state? or is consciousness utterly absent, the man being reduced to a pure mechanism? ”

“ These external agents, which are capable of affecting the different parts of the nervous system, so as to produce sensation, are governed by laws peculiar to themselves. Their structure is adapted in each particular to receive the impressions made by their respective agents, and are modified in exact conformity with the physical laws they obey. ”

“ The central process which initiates a reflex action may be excited by the external stimulation of a peripheral nerve, by the internal stimulation of a peripheral nerve, or by the irradiation from some other part of the central tissue. ”

“ Familiar experiences tell us that a stimulus applied to the skin is followed by a muscular movement, or a glandular secretion; sometimes this takes place without any conscious sensation; sometimes we are distinctly conscious of the stimulus; and sometimes we consciously will the movement. ”

“ The physiologic basis of habits consists of the plasticity of the nerve substance, and in the capacity of nerve substance to receive and retain impressions. There results the certainty that the nervous system will act again more easily in those ways in which it has already acted. ”

“ Can we now form a notion of what the inward physical changes may be like, in organs whose habits have thus struck into new paths? In other words, can we say just what mechanical facts the expression 'change of habit' covers when it is applied to a nervous system? ”

“ By means of the special sensations, a knowledge of the physical surroundings of the body is gained, and through the organic sensations the needs of the body and the state of the various organs are indicated. ”

“ It is reasonable to suppose that the mind can be more at home, and more directly and more exuberantly active, where the need for such interaction between psychical and physical—or let us more safely and specifically say between mental and material—no longer exists, when the restraining influence of brain and nerve mechanism is removed, and when some of the limitations connected with bodily location in space are ended. ”

“ Thus, in our former example, the law that the contact of an object causes a change in the state of the nerve, is more general than the law that contact with an object causes sensation, since, for aught we know, the change in the nerve may equally take place when, from a counteracting cause, as, for instance, strong mental excitement, the sensation does not follow; as in a battle, where wounds are sometimes received without any consciousness of receiving them. ”

“ Now it is the mental states of the corporeal individual that psychology investigates and studies.
In our last discussion we have come to the conclusion that consciousness depends on the corporeal individual and can only be known from physical, bodily manifestations. Each living being manifests some activity in its reactions to the stimuli of the external environment. Now what are the reactions characteristic of consciousness? ”

“ And if here we admit that the Reflex mechanism in the brain is a sensitive mechanism, surely we must equally admit that the similar Reflex mechanism in the spinal cord is sensitive?
74. Let it be understood that Sensibility is the common property of nerve-centres, and physiological interpretations will become clear and consistent. Consciousness, as understood by psychologists, is not a property of tissue, it is a function of the organism, dependent indeed on Sensibility, but not convertible with it. ”

“ The sense of contact is the most important element in touch. By it we learn of the form, size, and other properties of objects, as their smoothness and hardness. As we all know, the sense of touch varies in different parts of the skin. It is most acute where the outer skin is thinnest. ”

“ We know not whether the particles in question produce their effect, by contact, or without contact. As the nerves in every part of the body are covered, we know not how any external particles can reach them. We know not whether such particles operate upon the nerves, by their own, or by any other influence ”

“ There is a greater distinction between the two than between Sensation, the reaction of a sensory organ, and Perception, the216 combined result of sensory and cerebral reactions; or than that between Contractility, the property of the muscles, and Flying, the function of a particular group of muscles. It is not possible to have Consciousness without Sensibility; but perfectly possible to have Sensations without Consciousness. ”

“ In some cases the pathway of communication lies through actual bodily contact, as in ordinary “mind-reading,” where the invisible molecular oscillations of the muscular elements of one person serve to guide the perceptions and movements of another. But, more frequently, the transmission of ideas is effected through the action of the facial and ocular muscles. ”

“ In the fifth place, modern physiology investigates the relation between physical and psychical phenomena, on the assumption that molecular changes in definite portions of nervous matter stand in the relation of necessary antecedents to definite mental states and operations. ”

“ Thus the impulse on reaching the centres for the heart, lungs, legs, and tail excites the innervation of these organs; but as these are only parts of the organism, and as all the parts enter the consensus, and Consciousness is the varying resultant of this ever-varying consensus, the thrill which any particular stimulus excites will be unconscious, sub-conscious, or conscious, in proportion to the extent of the irradiated disturbance, which will depend on the statical conditions of the centres at the moment. ”

“ Yet these natural and temporal uses of the bodily organ of touch, wonderful and important as they are, admit of no comparison with the spiritual and eternal uses of the same organ, whether viewed as an instrument of producing the sensation of touch, or as a medium of communication between the great world of outward nature and the little world of the human body. ”

“ The body ascends interiorly by its structure from the insensate, passive epidermis, through the tissues, blood, and nerves, to the sensitive fluids of the brain, and these are so near the vital substance of affection and thought that they receive from it corresponding activity. By virtue of the structure of degrees in the body, the affections are the life of the body, their activity being first brought down by the law of Correspondence to the material plane of the nerve fluid, and thence yielding their many potencies, and vitalizing every organ and the whole of the material body. ”

“ Who knows the countless associations that mingle with his each and every thought? Who can pick apart all the nameless feelings that stream in at every moment from his various internal organs, muscles, heart, glands, lungs, etc., and compose in their totality his sense of bodily life? Who is aware of the part played by feelings of innervation and suggestions of possible muscular exertion in all his judgments of distance, shape, and size? Consider, too, the difference between a sensation which we simply have and one which we attend to. Attention gives results that seem like fresh creations ”

“ Yet that such an internal feeling exists in every human mind, is evident from experience, and is moreover confirmed by the general application of the term touch to express such feeling,—as may be seen by consulting the best writers in our English language. The organ then of bodily touch, it is plain, is in connection with the higher organs of mental touch, being at once their basis, their support, their monitor, and their representative figure ”

“ We are here speaking of sensations, or of perceptions arising from our bodily structure; and to these perceptions it is plainly necessary that there should be a chain of communication between the part of the body affected, and the sensorium, or seat of perception in the brain. I remember being amused with the surprise of an intelligent little girl, who complained of a sore finger, and a pain “in the finger,” on hearing for the first time that the pain was not “in her finger,” but in her own perception of it. ”

“ You have here now in your physical body a valuable instrument, first for acquiring knowledge of the outer world, and then for acting on that world, carrying out the knowledge you have gained. You have, as you know, in your body two sets of nerves, called sensory and motor: by the sensory you gather knowledge from without; by the motor you act upon the outer world, utilising the knowledge you have gathered to bring about the results that you desire; and your physical body is well organised for its work. ”

“ In the same sense, as belonging to the outer world, we speak of the sensations and their complexes arising in our own body as organic sensations, because we locate them in out own body, e.g. the sensations of fatigue of our muscles, the pressure and pain sensations of the inner organs, &c. The relatively uniform elements of touch and organic sensations are distributed among the sensations of pressure, warmth, cold, and pain. ”

“ They connect all parts of the body one with another. Think of the whole telephone system of Britain linked up together with millions of receivers, thousands of local exchanges, hundreds of central exchanges, etc., the nervous system with its sense organs, sensory nerves, lower and higher nerve centres and motor nerves, is infinitely more intricate than that. ”

“ But here we open up an important question—Where do we feel a sensation, such as, for example, that of pressure on the skin? Common sense answers, without hesitation, that we feel it at the particular part of the body which is affected by the external stimulus. ”

“ Objects are most important to us when in direct contact. The chief function of our eyes and ears is to enable us to prepare ourselves for contact with approaching bodies, or to ward such contact off. They have accordingly been characterized as organs of anticipatory touch. ”

“ It serves to transmit, through the nervous system to the mind, all sensations and impressions from the outer world. It, moreover, receives from the mind the action of its volitions and imaginary conceptions, and conveys through the nerves the impressions or impulsions thus obtained to the various parts of the body, and there secures the fulfillment of the mind's behests. It appears to be only in this way that communication is had between the mind and its outer body. ”