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act; as the activity of the nervous elements is only molecular motion, there is therefore no need to
invent a special and psychic Force for the explanation of our brain work. Free-Will would force
Science to postulate an invisible Free-Willer, a creator of that special Force.
We agree: "not the slightest need," of a creator of "that special" or any other Force. Nor has
anyone ever claimed such an absurdity. But between creating and guiding, there is a difference
and the latter implies in no way any creation of the energy of motion, or, indeed, of any special
energy. Psychic mind (in contradistinction to manasic or noetic mind) only transforms this
energy of the "unit-being" according to "a nature and laws of its own" -- to use Ladd's felicitous
expression. The "unit-being" creates nothing but only causes a natural correlation in accordance
with both the psychical laws and laws of its own; having to use the Force, it guides its direction,
choosing the paths along which it will proceed, and stimulating it to action. And, as its activity is
sui generis, and independent, it carries this energy from this world of disharmony into its own
sphere of harmony. Were it not independent it could not do so. As it is, the freedom of man's will
is beyond doubt or cavil. Therefore, as already observed, there is no question of creation, but
simply of guidance. Because the sailor at the wheel does not create the steam in the engine, shall
we say that he does not direct the vessel?
And, because we refuse to accept the fallacies of some psycho-physiologists as the last word of
science, do we furnish thereby a new proof that free will is an hallucination? We deride the
animalistic idea. How far more scientific and logical, besides being as poetical as it is grand, is
the teaching in the Kathopanishad, which, in a beautiful and descriptive metaphor, says that:
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STUDIES IN OCCULTISM
46
"The senses are the horses, body is the chariot, mind (kama-manas) is the reins, and intellect (or
free will) the charioteer." Verily, there is more exact science in the less important of the
Upanishads, composed thousands of years ago, than in all the materialistic ravings of modern
"physico-biology" and "psychophysiology" put together!
II
The knowledge of the past, present, and future, is embodied in Kshetrajna (the
"Self"). -- Occult Axioms
Having explained in what particulars, and why, as Occultists, we disagree with materialistic
physiological psychology, we may now proceed to point out the difference between psychic and
noetic mental functions, the noetic not being recognized by official science.
Moreover, we, Theosophists, understand the terms "psychic" and "psychism" somewhat
differently from the average public, science, and even theology, the latter giving it a significance
which both science and Theosophy reject, and the public in general remaining with a very hazy
conception of what is really meant by the terms. For many, there is little, if any, difference
between "psychic" and "psychological," both words relating in some way to the human soul.
Some modern metaphysicians have wisely agreed to disconnect the word Mind (pneuma) from
Soul (psyche), the one being the rational, spiritual part, the other -- psyche -- the living principle
in man, the breath that animates him (from anima, soul). Yet, if this is so, how in this case refuse
a soul to animals? These are, no less than man, informed with the same principle of sentient life,
the nephesh of the 2nd chapter of Genesis. The Soul is by no means the Mind, nor can an idiot,
bereft of the latter, be called a "soul-less" being. To describe, as the physiologists do, the human
Soul in its relations to senses and appetites, desires and passions, common to man and the brute,
and then endow it with God-Like intellect, with spiritual and rational faculties which can take
their source but in a supersensible world -- is to throw for ever the veil of an impenetrable
mystery over the subject. Yet in modern science, "psychology" and "psychism" relate only to
conditions of the nervous system, mental phenomena being traced solely to molecular action.
The higher noetic character of the Mind-Principle is entirely ignored, and even rejected, as a
"superstition" by both physiologists and psychologists. Psychology, in fact, has become a
synonym in many cases for the science of psychiatry. Therefore, students of Theosophy being
compelled to differ from all these, have adopted the doctrine that underlies the time-honored
philosophies of the East. What it is, may be found further on.
To better understand the foregoing arguments and those which follow, the reader is asked to turn
to the editorial in the September Lucifer ("The Dual Aspect of Wisdom," p. 3), and acquaint
himself with the double aspect of that which is termed by St. James in his Third Epistle at once --
the devilish, terrestrial wisdom and the "wisdom from above." In another editorial, "Kosmic
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