CHAPTER XI

CONTROL OF CONDUCT THROUGH IDEA

An experiment with mental telepathy. Some English scientists had been investigating mental telepathy — the supposed power of direct thought transference whereby one mind can affect another at a distance in such a way as to make the second mind think the thoughts of the first. They had put two persons at opposite ends of a corridor, had set one of these to thinking intently to himself about some number, and had kept an exact record of the frequency with which the other subject could guess the number of which his partner was thinking. They had found a much larger number of right guesses than chance alone would explain, and had concluded that there must be some sort of transfer of thought.

But two Danish experimenters, Hansen and Lehmann, were unconvinced. They believed that the communication had been through the ordinary physical means and not through some occult psychical ones that in spite of himself the active subject had somehow expressed his thought in words. To test this hypothesis they resolved to focus the sounds made by the thinker, if there really were any, and thus strengthen their effect upon the receiving subject. And, sure enough, when they put the two subjects at the foci of two focusing mirrors they found the number of right guesses so greatly increased that they could no longer doubt the fact that the thought had been transferred in the ordinary way - by means of articulate sounds. The fact was that the thinker, in spite of his sincere attempt to obey instructions

not to whisper, was doing so involuntarily with every expiration of breath from his lungs. As he thought the number intently he automatically set his vocal chords and organs of articulation in such a way as to express it, and the air breathed out with every expiration was enough to make slight sounds. When focused these could be heard and unconsciously interpreted even better than before.

This experi

Other evidence of motor nature of ideas. ment is only one of many which show how closely idea is

The figure on the right is the graph traced unconsciously by the hand of a subject watching another make the drawing on the left. (Taken, by permission, from Stratton's Experimental Psychology and Modern Culture.)

related to act. The discovery of this close relation is one of the great achievements of modern psychology. To cite further illustrations, if one rests one's hand upon a planchette a very easily moved writing table and then thinks intently of some object in a certain direction, his hand will unconsciously and involuntarily move in the direction of the object. If he thinks of drawing a certain figure, or watches some one draw it, he will unintentionally trace its outline. If he speculates upon the weight of a body, his muscles will grow tense as if to lift it. It is upon

this tendency of every idea to run out into a muscular movement that the possibility of "mind reading " rests. This is really not mind reading at all, but muscle reading. In the game the subject is required, while holding the hand of the operator, to think intently of the place where he has hidden an object. The so-called "mind reader," claiming to have read his thoughts, "leads" him to the place where it is concealed and finds it. The feats which can be accomplished in this way are almost beyond the layman's belief. In the

Psychological Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin this ability was developed in a young man, through training, to such an extent that one could hide a pin anywhere in the city and this young man could find it, the only condition being that some one who knew where it had been hidden should accompany him and think intently of the whereabouts of the pin while the seeker held his arm. There is, indeed, no special mystery about this. It is the attendant himself instead of the seeker who unintentionally does the leading. His thinking of the place where the object is concealed mani

fests itself in movements of the hand which the operator is holding, and by skillfully interpreting these, he picks out his way. The attendant's mental state, in spite of his caution, is expressing itself in action.

Even when consciousness does not manifest itself in some such external way it still has its motor effect. Studies with the plethysmograph and the pneumograph show that the distribution of the blood, rapidity of the heart beats, and the character of the breathing are affected by mental activity. There is besides doubtless an influence upon glandular action, and certainly a change in tension throughout the entire muscular system. If we could get at all the motor elements involved · subtle as well as obvious the psychological generalization that there is no mental state without its corresponding motor side would doubtless be completely verified.

All ideas dynamic. The motor tendency of ideas is evidenced at every turn. Only in rare cases do we, even as normal adults, stop to consider whether or not we shall act as we do. If we see a lead pencil on the ground we automatically stoop to pick it up. When we sit down to the table the general idea of taking our meal is sufficient to start us on the necessary detailed activities. The thought of hitting at the ball itself sets off the muscular efforts to do so. The recognition that it is class time starts us on our way. Even when we have long deliberated upon a bit of conduct our decision gets carried into effect merely by the favored idea's ultimately dominating consciousness unopposed. We hesitate only as long as neither alternative can get undisputed sway. As soon as one gets undivided possession of our consciousness it projects itself right out into the conduct to which it points. The idea itself is motor. If only the right idea is implanted with sufficient firmness and predominance the desired conduct will be directly and inevitably rthcoming. Professor James says:

We may then lay it down for certain that every representation of a movement awakens in some degree the actual movement which is its object. . . Consciousness is in its very nature impulsive. We do not first have a sensation or thought and then have to add something to get a movement. Every pulse of feeling is the correlate of some neural activity that is already on its way to instigate a movement.

Our sensations and thoughts are but cross sections, as it were, of currents whose essential consequence is motion, and which have no sooner run in at one nerve than they are ready to run out at another. The popular notion that consciousness is not a forerunner of activity, but that the latter must result from some superadded "will-force," is a very natural inference from those special cases in which we think of an act for an indefinite length of time without action taking place. These cases, however, are not the norm; they are cases of inhibition by antagonistic thoughts. . . . Movement is the natural immediate effect of feeling, irrespective · of what the quality of the feeling may be. It is so in reflex action, it is so in emotional expression, it is so in the voluntary life.

Conduct follows attention. And so, whatever has lodged itself in the center of consciousness is dangerously (or perhaps happily) near to expression in conduct. The problem of controlling action therefore reduces itself to the more specific one of controlling thought of directing attention. "To think," says Professor James, "to sustain a representation, is the only moral act." If we can keep our attention fixed in healthy directions upon ends which embody our ideals

right acts will follow as a matter of course. On the other hand, if attention goes to matters which are for us temptations to evil, the giving of the attention is the beginning of the act itself. If the act does not at once follow, it is only because some counter idea is yet present near the focus of attention to block the free egress of the motor impulse which the idea is tending to launch. And just as soon as this inhibiting idea weakens for a moment-just as soon as it can be coaxed or argued into some sort of temporary lethargyout into the unfortunate conduct shoots the victor idea.