Psychology and Achievement | Page 9

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 the air and transform it into the living substance of the plant. Every plant has, therefore, an anatomical structure, its parts and tissues visible to the naked eye.
[Sidenote: What the Microscope Shows]
Put one of these tissues under a microscope and you will find that it consists of a honeycomb of small compartments or units. These compartments are called "cells," and the structure of all plant tissues is described as "cellular." Wherever you may look in any plant, you will find these cells making up its tissues. The activity of any part or tissue of the plant, and consequently all of the activities of the plant as a whole, are but the combined and co-operating activities of the various individual cells of which the tissues are composed. The living cell, therefore, is at the basis of all plant life.
[Sidenote: The Little Universe Beyond]
In the same way, if you turn to the structure of any animal, you will find that it is composed of parts or organs made up of different kinds of tissues, and these tissues examined under a microscope will disclose a cellular structure similar to that exhibited by the plant.
Look where you will among living things, plant or animal, you will find that all are mere