Potency

“ Hence the first matter, as ready to acquire a first being, was called a pure potency—that is, a potency of being; whilst, as ready to exchange its first being for another, it was called a real potency—that is, an actual reality. That a pure potency can be a real potency, or an actual reality, is an assumption which the peripatetic school never succeeded in proving, though it is the very foundation of the theory of strictly substantial generations as by them advocated. ”

“ They would throw a hundred different potencies into a caldron together, and put them on the fire, and expect to brew a potency containing all their potencies, and having a different virtue of its own. ”

“ On the contrary, concentrated Spirits have incredible Fortitude, penetrate more swiftly, and are Bodies of very great potency. A common Body cannot penetrate into another, without hurt to it self; nor in that extend it self, because of its gross and hard Mass. ”

“ The specific form of composition is therefore the essential form of a body of a given species; and such is the form that gives the first being to the body. To say that such a form is educed out of the potency of matter is to state an obvious truth, as it is known that the composition of bodies is brought about by the mutual action of the elements of which the bodies are constituted, which action proceeds from the active potency, and actuates the passive potency of the matter of the body, as we shall explain more fully in the sequel. ”

“ With varying degrees of potency in different individuals, they remain available for the aggressive shaping of men's actions and sentiments whenever a stimulus of more than everyday intensity comes in to call them forth. ”

“ The mental power, soul power, or spiritual power is turned by the bodily organism into a corresponding physical one by the activity of a higher degree being communicated to a next lower discrete degree as endeavor, which endeavor continues action according to the receiving form. The same is true of the kidneys, liver, and every organ of the body. Because affection proceeds from and is vitalized by the Divine Human, there is in affection, which is the life of the man and of the body, every potency; so that only the organism is needed to bring out any specific power. ”

“ For, although, in the point of view of knowledge or intellect, the five senses are the really important approaches to the mind, yet, in the view of feeling or pleasure and pain, the omission of the varied organic susceptibility leaves a wide gap in the handling of the subject. Some of our very strongest pleasures and pains grow out of the region of organic life—the digestion, circulation, respiration, muscular and nervous integrity or derangement.
In exerting influence over human beings this department of sensibility is a first resource. ”

“ There is a fact of singular interest in relation to the intoxicants I have now described or named, and which before I proceed further should be carefully noticed. The fact is this: That when the agents produce a definite effect upon a living body, whether it be a human body or the body of an animal that possesses desires and likings, there is caused in that body, after a number of times of practice, a craving or desire for the agent that produced the effect. ”

“ Enough, then, that I not only recognised my natural body for the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form, and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because they were the expression, and bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul. ”

“ That, physiologically considered, we may suppose pleasure to be experienced whenever the physical activity coincident with the psychic state to which the pleasure is attached involves the use of surplus stored force, — the resolution of surplus potential into actual energy, — or, in other words, whenever the energy involved in the reaction to the stimulus is greater in amount than the energy which the stimulus habitually calls forth. ”

“ It is possible by too much use of them, to consume not only what is inimical in the body, but also the substance itself, and the strength of the spirits, whence comes faintings, and sometimes death: besides, by applying them to the parts of the body they are not appropriated to, or by not heeding well the complexion of the patient, or the natural temper of the part of the body afflicted, for the heart is hot, but the brain temperate. ”

“ I assert, then, in the first Place, that the Influence of Volition over the Organs of the Body, is a Fact, which, like all other natural Operations, could be known only by Experience, and could never be foreseen from any apparent Energy or Power in the Cause, which connects it with the Effect, and renders the one a necessary Consequence of the other. The Motions of our Body follow upon the Command of our Will. ”

“ And more than this, the particular portion of Mind-substance that we are using, although separated from the Mind-substance used by other individuals by a thin wall of the very finest kind of Matter, is really in touch with the other apparently separated minds, and with the Universal Mind of which it forms a part. Just as is the Matter of which our physical bodies are composed really in touch with all Matter; and just as is the Vital Force used by us really in touch with all Energy; so is our Mind-substance really in touch with all Mind-substance. ”

“ We draw from Nature at once our substance, and the force by which we operate upon her; being, so far, parts of her great system, immersed in it for a short time and to a small extent. Enfolding us, as it were, within her arms, Nature lends us her forces to expend ”

“ This doctrine of the specific energy of the sense substance possesses an importance which extends far beyond the domain of the physiology of stimulation, for it forms the basis on which the whole theory of human knowledge must be built up, no matter how it may be constructed in detail. ”

“ In atom, and molecule; in monad, in cell, in plant, in fish, in animal, in man,—the Life Principle or Creative Will is constantly in action, creating, preserving, and carrying on life in its functions. We may call this Instinct or Nature, but it is the Creative Will in action. This Will is back of all Power, Energy, or Force—be it physical, mechanical or mental force. And all Force that we use, consciously or unconsciously, comes from the One Great Source of Power. ”

“ Now the vital force, in which is comprehended the power of nutrition and growth, and generally of motion, is assigned to the carnal spirit, which has great susceptibility of motion, and passes in all directions through the senses and the rest of the body, and through the body is the primary subject of sensations. But the power of choice, in which investigation, and study, and knowledge, reside, belongs to the ruling faculty. But all the faculties are placed in relation to one—the ruling faculty: it is through that man lives, and lives in a certain way. ”

“ We must either affirm that it is so, that we place them where we think they are needed, or that it is the molecules that find a place of themselves. We know that we are occupied in other ways which demand all our thoughts. It must, therefore, be that these molecules find their own place. Admit this, and we accord life and intelligence to them. If we reason that it is our nerves which appropriate substances that they need for the maintenance of their energy and their harmonious action, we then concede to the nerves what we deny to the molecules. ”

“ The physical organism is undoubtedly the means by which the mental susceptibility to pleasure or pain is reached from the external universe; but, unless there is a mental organism to feel the pleasure or the pain, the action of the physical organization is nothing but the excitation of the nervous system. I, therefore, [Pg 532] make a distinct class among the mental systems, and assign to it the faculty of experiencing mental pleasure or mental pain as a capacity distinct from the pleasurable or painful excitation of our nerves. ”

“ The exercise is as follows: Keep the mind fixed on the idea of Energy, and away from ordinary sexual thoughts or imaginings. If these thoughts come into the mind do not be discouraged, but regard them as manifestations of a force which you intend using for the purposes of strengthening the body and mind. Lie passively or sit erect, and fix your mind on the idea of drawing the reproductive energy upward to the Solar Plexus, where it will be transmuted and stored away as a reserve force of vital energy. ”

“ The grate will represent the human body; the fuel in it the life or excitability, and the tube behind, supplying fresh fuel, will denote the power of all living systems, constantly to regenerate or produce excitability; the air machine, consisting of several tubes, may denote the various stimuli applied to the excitability of the body; the flame produced in consequence of that application, represents life; the product of the exciting powers acting upon the excitability. ”

“ Now it must be observed that the sensitive appetite differs from the intellective appetite, which is called the will, in the fact that the sensitive appetite is a power of a corporeal organ, whereas the will is not. Again, every act of a power that uses a corporeal organ, depends not only on a power of the soul, but also on the disposition of that corporeal organ: thus the act of vision depends on the power of sight, and on the condition of the eye, which condition is a help or a hindrance to that act. ”

“ Now the nature and power of the soul are apprehended through its operation, which is to a certain extent its end. Yet for some of these operations, as sensation and nutrition, our body is a necessary instrument. Hence it is clear that the sensitive and nutritive souls must be united to a body in order to exercise their functions. ”

“ It is known that the source from which this portion of force is derived, is chiefly, or entirely, the force evolved in the processes of chemical composition and decomposition which constitute the body of nutrition; the force so liberated becomes a fund upon which every muscular and even every merely nervous action, as of the brain in thought, is a draft. ”

“ Homœopathy proves the more you exterminate the drug, the more potent becomes the dose, and its pharmacy is your process of mentalizing the vehicle, as you shake and count; the higher attenuations become more potent, as mind, instead of matter, and with spiritual natures, the less matter and more Truth is the grand secret of success in healing. ”

“ But just as we draw from the stores of our own consciousness this idea of "Power," of force, of muscular or mental energy, precisely in the same way we are justified in drawing the idea of "purpose" in the direction of that energy. ”

“ It is what you call Instinct. It digests your meals; assimilates and eliminates; repairs wastes; works the heart and controls the circulation; heals wounds and presides over all other natural and involuntary processes in the body. This Instinctive mind knows its work perfectly. ”

“ The excitability of our system—and by this term we mean that property of our natures which distinguishes all living from dead matter—is acted upon by stimuli, either external or internal; and it is by various stimuli, applied properly, and in due proportion, that the various functions of life are kept up. Thus a proper portion of food, and drink, and heat, and exercise, serves to maintain that balance of action among all the organs, which secures health to the individual. ”

“ An authority without the means of enforcing itself is a self-contradiction. The means by which nature makes its authority felt is organic excitation. In proportion to its strength, an excitation produces sensation, in case it is not too weak to make itself felt at all. Every excitation has a definite significance and may come from without or within. Pleasant excitations are always, primarily, the feeling of the stilling of pain, though there are pains, such as, for instance, that of a wound, the toothache, headache, an aching corn, which have no corresponding feeling of pleasure. ”

“ A quantity of stimulus greater than natural, producing an increased exertion of sensorial power, whether that exertion be in the mode of irritation, sensation, volition, or association, diminishes the general quantity of it. This fact is observable in the progress of intoxication, as the increased quantity or energy of the irritative motions, owing to the stimulus of vinous spirit, introduces much pleasurable sensation into the system, and much exertion of muscular or sensual motions in consequence of this increased sensation ”

“ The supposed laws of matter yield to the law of Mind in Divine Science. What are termed Natural Science and Material Law are laws of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals. Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and hygiene oppose the supremacy of the Divine Mind, and act against it. Drugs and inert matter are unconscious. ”

“ I have shown elsewhere, that as the Instinct of the mere intelligence differs in degree not in kind, and circumstantially, not essentially, from the vis vitæ, or vital power in the assimilative and digestive functions of the stomach and other organs of nutrition, even so the Understanding, in itself and distinct from the Reason and Conscience, differs in degree only from the Instinct in the animal. ”

“ Attention and Devotion are lights that can lead ever blindly uttered affirmations to the sub-conscious and the Super-conscious. The greater their power. the farther they can usher the vibrations of different affirmations to their sub-conscious or Superconscious destinations.
What Cures? The Life Energy Drugs, medicine, massage, spinal adjustment or electrical treatment all help to bring back the lost harmonious condition of the cells by chemicalization of the blood or stimulation of certain tissues. These are external methods that sometimes assist the life-energy to effect a cure. ”