IV. Subjective and Objective Mind

EN

Up to this point it has been necessary to lay the foundations of the science by the statement of highly abstract general principles which we have reached by purely metaphysical reasoning. We now pass on to the consideration of certain natural laws which have been established by a long series of experiments and observations, the full meaning and importance of which will become clear when we see their application to the general principles which have hitherto occupied our attention. The phenomena of hypnosis are now so fully recognized as established scientific facts that it is quite superfluous to discuss the question of their credibility. Two great medical schools have been founded upon them, and in some countries they have become the subject of special legislation. The question before us at the present day is, not as to the credibility of the facts, but as to the proper inferences to be drawn from them, and a correct apprehension of these inferences is one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist, for it confirms the conclusions of purely a priori reasoning by an array of experimental instances which places the correctness of those conclusions beyond doubt.

JA

ここまで、純粋に形而上学的推論によって到達した高度に抽象的な一般原理を述べることによって、この科学の基礎を築く必要がありました。いまや私たちは、より実際的な領域に入ります。ここで対処しなければならない問題は、宇宙的精神と個体的精神の相互関係であり、先に示したように、これに対する答えは個体そのものの内に求められなければなりません。したがって、ここで、精神科学の実践において必然的に最も重要な位置を占める人間心理の一部門を取り上げることにしましょう。催眠術の科学は別として、この分野における私たちの知識はまだ初期段階にあることは事実ですが、大規模な催眠術実験の結果明らかになった事実は極めて顕著であり、これらの事実の中に、私たちが探求している鍵が見出されることでしょう。

EN

The great truth which the science of hypnotism has brought to light is the dual nature of the human mind. Much conflict exists between different writers as to whether this duality results from the presence of two actually separate minds in the one man, or in the action of the same mind in the employment of different functions. This is one of those distinctions without a difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance to the opening out of truth. A man must be a single individuality to be a man at all, and, so, the net result is the same whether we conceive of his varied modes of mental action as proceeding from a set of separate minds strung, so to speak, on the thread of his one individuality and each adapted to a particular use, or as varied functions of a single mind: in either case we are dealing with a single individuality, and how we may picture the wheel-work of the mental mechanism is merely a question of what picture will bring the nature of its action home to us most clearly. Therefore, as a matter of convenience, I shall in these lectures speak of this dual action as though it proceeded from two minds, an outer and an inner, and the inner mind we will call the subjective mind and the outer the objective, by which names the distinction is most frequently indicated in the literature of the subject.

JA

催眠術の科学がもたらした偉大な真理は、人間の心の二重性です。この二重性が二つの心の存在から生じるのか、一つの心の二つの機能から生じるのかについて、さまざまな著者の間で多くの論争がありますが、幸いなことにこの点は現在の目的にとっては重要ではありません。両方の学派が使用する「主観的精神」と「客観的精神」という用語を便宜上採用し、人間のメンタリティのこの二つの側面の間に存在する大きな区別を扱えば十分です。なぜなら、これこそ催眠術の研究によって疑いなく確立された事実だからです。

EN

A long series of careful experiments by highly-trained observers, some of them men of world-wide reputation, has fully established certain remarkable differences between the action of the subjective and that of the objective mind which may be briefly stated as follows. The subjective mind is only able to reason deductively and not inductively, while the objective mind can do both. Deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which shows why a third proposition must necessarily result if two others are assumed, but which does not help us to determine whether the two initial statements are true or not. To determine this is the province of inductive reasoning which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of facts. The relation of the two modes of reasoning is that, first by observing a sufficient number of instances, we inductively reach the conclusion that a certain principle is of general application, and then we enter upon the deductive process by assuming the truth of this principle and determining what result must follow in a particular case on the hypothesis of its truth. Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the correctness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out: it is not concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions, but only with the question as to what results must necessarily follow supposing them to be true. Inductive reasoning; on the other hand, is the process by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all. Induction proceeds by the comparison of facts, and deduction by the application of universal principles. Now it is the deductive method only which is followed by the subjective mind. Innumerable experiments on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subjective mind is utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison which are necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion, however false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every suggestion to the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it.

JA

世界的な名声を持つ者を含む高度に訓練された観察者たちによる長年にわたる慎重な実験が、主観的精神と客観的精神の作用の間のある種の顕著な違いを十分に確立しています。この違いは一般的な用語で、客観的精神は帰納的推論の能力を持つが、主観的精神はその能力を持たないと表現できるでしょう。帰納的推論とは、多くの個別的事実を比較し、そこから一般的法則を引き出す過程です。まず各事例に特有の細部を取り除いてすべてに共通するものを見出し、それによって一般的原理が確立されると、この一般化から演繹によってさらなる個別的事例を推論することができます。すなわち、一般法則が確立されれば、その法則に含まれるすべての個別的事例を演繹することができるのです。さて、催眠術実験が確立した事実は、主観的精神は帰納的過程の能力を持たないということです。主観的精神は演繹法によってのみ論理を進めることができます。その前提が与えられるとき、それは目を見張るほどの正確さと速さでその結論に到達することが証明されていますが、前提を探す力は持っていません。主観的精神はその前提が提案されるのを、すなわち暗示されるのを待たなければならないのです。

EN

As a consequence of this it follows that the subjective mind is entirely under the control of the objective mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be impressed on the subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well as by that of its own individuality. This is a most important point, for it is on this amenability to suggestion by the thought of another that all the phenomena of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy and the like, depend. Under the control of the practised hypnotist the very personality of the subject becomes changed for the time being; he believes himself to be whatever the operator tells him he is: he is a swimmer breasting the waves, a bird flying in the air, a soldier in the tumult of battle, an Indian stealthily tracking his victim: in short, for the time being, he identifies himself with any personality that is impressed upon him by the will of the operator, and acts the part with inimitable accuracy. But the experiments of hypnotism go further than this, and show the existence in the subjective mind of powers far transcending any exercised by the objective mind through the medium of the physical senses; powers of thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, and the like, all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is brought into the higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experimental proof of the existence in ourselves of transcendental faculties the full development and conscious control of which would place us in a perfectly new sphere of life.

JA

この結果として、主観的精神は完全に客観的精神の支配下にあることになります。客観的精神がその上に押し付けるいかなる暗示をも、最大の忠実さをもって再現し、最終的結論に至るまで展開します。客観的精神がそれに病気の暗示を与えれば、主観的精神はそれに応じた病気の症状を生み出します。客観的精神がそれに健康の暗示を与えれば、主観的精神は同じ忠実さをもって身体を正常な状態に回復させます。同様に、客観的精神が人生の肯定的で建設的な観念を提示すれば、主観的精神はそれを実現する方向に働きます。客観的精神が恐怖と制限の観念を提示すれば、主観的精神は同じ忠実さをもってそれらを実現する方向に働きます。簡単に言えば、主観的精神は客観的精神の完全な従者であり、その命令の性質を問わず、与えられた命令を正確に実行します。

EN

But it should be noted that the control must be our own and not that of any external intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it.

JA

ただし、その制御は私たち自身のものでなければならず、肉体の中であれ外であれ、いかなる外部の知性のものであってもならないことに注意すべきです。

EN

But perhaps the most important fact which hypnotic experiments have demonstrated is that the subjective mind is the builder of the body. The subjective entity in the patient is able to diagnose the character of the disease from which he is suffering and to point out suitable remedies, indicating a physiological knowledge exceeding that of the most highly trained physicians, and also a knowledge of the correspondences between diseased conditions of the bodily organs and the material remedies which can afford relief. And from this it is but a step further to those numerous instances in which it entirely dispenses with the use of material remedies and itself works directly on the organism, so that complete restoration to health follows as the result of the suggestions of perfect soundness made by the operator to the patient while in the hypnotic state.

JA

しかし、おそらく催眠術実験が示した最も重要な事実は、主観的精神が身体の建設者であるということです。患者の中の主観的存在は、医者が外的手段では到達し得ない身体の状態を診断し、最も適切な治療法を処方する能力を持っています。これは、適切な条件下では、主観的精神が身体のあらゆる部分と直接連絡していることを示しています。したがって、主観的精神が身体の完全な建設者であること、身体のすべての細胞が主観的精神に由来し、主観的精神に支えられていることを認めることに、大きな飛躍はありません。この結論は多くの方面から十分に確認されています。

EN

Now these are facts fully established by hundreds of experiments conducted by a variety of investigators in different parts of the world, and from them we may draw two inferences of the highest importance: one, that the subjective mind is in itself absolutely impersonal, and the other that it is the builder of the body, or in other words it is the creative power in the individual. That it is impersonal in itself is shown by its readiness to assume any personality the hypnotist chooses to impress upon it; and the unavoidable inference is that its realization of personality proceeds from its association with the particular objective mind of its own individuality. Whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it, that personality it assumes and acts up to; and since it is the builder of the body it will build up a body in correspondence with the personality thus impressed upon it. These two laws of the subjective mind form the foundation of the axiom that our body represents the aggregate of our beliefs. If our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts of influences beyond our control, and that this, that, or the other symptom shows that such an uncontrollable influence is at work upon us, then this belief is impressed upon the subjective mind, which by the law of its nature accepts it without question and proceeds to fashion bodily conditions in accordance with this belief. Again, if our fixed belief is that certain material remedies are the only means of cure, then we find in this belief the foundation of all medicine. There is nothing unsound in the theory of medicine; it is the strictly logical correspondence with the measure of knowledge which those who rely on it are as yet able to assimilate, and it acts accurately in accordance with their belief that in a large number of cases medicine will do good, but also in many instances it fails. Therefore, for those who have not yet reached a more interior perception of the law of Nature, the healing agency of medicine is a most valuable aid to the alleviation of physical maladies. The error to be combated is not the belief that, in its own way, medicine is capable of doing good, but the belief that there is no higher or better way.

JA

さて、これらは世界各地のさまざまな研究者によって行われた数百もの実験によって十分に確立された事実であり、そこから最も重要な二つの推論を引き出すことができます。まず第一に、もし主観的精神がその行動の全前提を暗示によって受け取るならば、万物の根底にある宇宙的精神はそれ自体が主観的な、すなわち創造的であるが帰納的推論の力を持たない精神であるに違いないということです。精神のこの大いなる実体は、本来の性質として創造的であり、つまり暗示に応じて必然的にその論理的結論を生み出す方向に働きます。しかしそれ自体は暗示の源ではなく、受け手なのです。そして暗示を発するのは、帰納的推論の能力を持つ客観的精神だけです。これが、人間のある条件の下では無生物までもが人間の思考に応答するように見える現象の説明です。宇宙的精神は遍在するがゆえにすべての物質の中に内在し、その物質の中で、自らに提示されるどのような暗示にも応じて創造的に働く用意が常にあるのです。さらに第二に、もし主観的精神が身体の建設者であるならば、客観的精神によって身体について主観的精神に暗示されるいかなる観念も、主観的精神によって身体的事実として実現される傾向があることになります。

EN

Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the subjective mind is the builder of the body, and that the body is subject to no influences except those which reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have to do is to impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think of it as a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually renovating the body by building in strong and healthy material, in the most complete independence of any influences of any sort, save those of our own desire impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought. When once we fully grasp these considerations we shall see that it is just as easy to externalize healthy conditions of body as the contrary. Practically the process amounts to a belief in our own power of life; and since this belief, if it be thoroughly domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly healthy body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it. To afford a solid basis for this conviction is the purpose of Mental Science.

JA

そうすると、同じ原理に基づいて、もし主観的精神が身体の建設者であり、身体が主観的精神を通じて到達する影響以外のいかなる影響にも従わないことを認識するならば、主観的精神が支持の考えに満たされれば、身体もそれに対応して支持されるということになります。したがって、私たちの関心は主に客観的精神へと向けられます。なぜなら、客観的精神が主観的精神に対して行使する暗示によって、私たちの身体と境遇の両方の条件が決定されるからです。もしこの事実を明確に把握するならば、思考を正しい水路に保つことによって、私たちは事実上、自己の身体的条件を含む生活条件全体の制御者となるのです。