Psychology and Achievement | Page 9

the stomach begins to well forth those fluids that are suitable for
digestion.
[Sidenote: Bodily Effects of Sensations]
The press recently contained an account of a motorcycle race in
Newark, New Jersey. The scene was a great bowl-shaped motor-drome.
In the midst of cheering thousands, when riding at the blinding speed of
ninety-two miles an hour, the motorcycle of one of the contestants went
wrong. It climbed the twenty-eight-foot incline, hurled its rider to
instant death and crashed into the packed grandstand. Before the
whirling mass of steel was halted by a deep-set iron pillar four men lay
dead and twenty-two others unconscious and severely injured. Then the
twisted engine of death rebounded from the post and rolled down the
saucer-rim of the track.
Around the circular path, his speed scarcely less than that of his
ill-fated rival, knowing nothing of the tragedy, hearing nothing of the
screams of warning from the crowd, came another racer. The frightened
throng saw the coming of a second tragedy. The sound that came from
the crowd was a low moaning, a sighing, impotent, unconscious prayer
of the thousands for the mercy that could not come. The second
motorcycle struck the wreck, leaped into the air, and the body of its
rider shot fifty feet over the handlebars and fell at the bottom of the
track unconscious. Two hours later he was dead.

What was the effect of this dreadful spectacle upon the onlookers?
Confusion, cries of fright and panic, while throughout the grandstand
women fainted and lay here and there unconscious. Many were
afflicted with nausea. With others the muscles of speech contracted
convulsively, knees gave way, hearts "stopped beating." Observe that
these were wholly the effects of mental action, effects of sight and
sound sensations.
[Sidenote: The Fundamental Law of Expression]
Why multiply instances? All that you need to do to be satisfied that the
mind is directly responsible for any and every kind of bodily activity is
to examine your own experiences and those of your friends. They will
afford you innumerable illustrations.
You will find that not only is your body constantly doing things
because your mind wills that it should do them, but that your body is
incessantly doing things simply because they are the expression of a
passing thought.
The law that Every idea tends to express itself in some form of bodily
activity, is one of the most obviously demonstrable principles of human
life.
Bear in mind that this is but another way of expressing the second of
our first two fundamental principles of mental efficiency, and that we
are engaged in a scientific demonstration of its truth so that you will
not confuse it with mere theory or speculation.
To recall these fundamental principles to your mind and further impress
them upon you, we will restate them:
I. All human achievement comes about through some form of bodily
activity.
II. All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the mind.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
CHAPTER V
PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
[Sidenote: Introspective Knowledge]
We have been considering the relationship between mind and body
from the standpoint of the mind. Our investigation has been largely
introspective; that is to say, we simply looked within ourselves and
considered the effects of our mental operations upon our own bodies.
The facts we had before us were facts of which we had direct
knowledge. We did not have to go out and seek them in the mental and
bodily activities of other persons. We found them here within ourselves,
inherent in our consciousness. To observe them we had merely to turn
the spotlight into the hidden channels of our own minds.
[Sidenote: Dissection and the Governing Consciousness]
We come now to examine the mind's influence upon the body from the
standpoint of the body. To do this we must go forth and investigate. We
must use eye, ear and hand. We must use the forceps and scalpel and
microscope of the anatomist and physiologist.
[Sidenote: Subordinate Mental Units]
But it is well worth while that we should do this. For our investigation
will show a bodily structure peculiarly adapted to control by a
governing consciousness. It will reveal to the eye a physical mechanism
peculiarly fitted for the dissemination of intelligence throughout the
body. And, most of all, it will disclose the existence within the body of
subordinate mental units, each capable of receiving, understanding and
acting upon the intelligence thus submitted. And we shall have strongly
corroborative evidence of the mind's complete control over every
function of the body.
Examine a green plant and you will observe that it is composed of

numerous parts, each of which has some special function to perform.
The roots absorb food and drink from the soil. The leaves breathe in
carbonic acid from