The Mind and Its Education - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

THE MIND, OR CONSCIOUSNESS

W

e are to study the mind and its education; but how? It is easy to under-

stand how we may investigate the great world of material things about

us; for we can see it, touch it, weigh it, or measure it. But how are we to

discover the nature of the mind, or come to know the processes by which

consciousness works? For mind is intangible; we cannot see it, feel it, taste

it, or handle it. Mind belongs not to the realm of matter which is known to

the senses, but to the realm of spirit, which the senses can never grasp. And

yet the mind can be known and studied as truly and as scientifically as can

the world of matter. Let us first of all see how this can be done.

1. HOW MIND IS TO BE KNOWN

THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF CONSCIOUSNESS.-Mind can be

observed and known. But each one can know directly only his own mind,

and not another's. You and I may look into each other's face and there guess

the meaning that lies back of the smile or frown or flash of the eye, and so

read something of the mind's activity. But neither directly meets the other's

mind. I may learn to recognize your features, know your voice, respond to

3 GEORGE HERBERT BETTS

the clasp of your hand; but the mind, the consciousness, which does your

thinking and feels your joys and sorrows, I can never know completely. In-

deed I can never know your mind at all except through your bodily acts and

expressions. Nor is there any way in which you can reveal your mind, your

spiritual self, to me except through these means.

It follows therefore that only you can ever know you and only I can ever

know I in any first-hand and immediate way. Between your consciousness

and mine there exists a wide gap that cannot be bridged. Each of us lives

apart. We are like ships that pass and hail each other in passing but do not

touch. We may work together, live together, come to love or hate each other,

and yet our inmost selves forever stand alone. They must live their own lives,

think their own thoughts, and arrive at their own destiny.

INTROSPECTIONTHE ONLYMEANS OF DISCOVERING NATURE

OF CONSCIOUSNESS.-What, then, is mind? What is the thing that we

call consciousness? No mere definition can ever make it clearer than it is at

this moment to each of us. The only way to know what mind is, is to look in

upon our own consciousness and observe what is transpiring there. In the

language of the psychologist, we must introspect. For one can never come

to understand the nature of mind and its laws of working by listening to

lectures or reading text books alone. There is no psychology in the text, but

only in your living, flowing stream of thought and mine. True, the lecture

and the book may tell us what to look for when we introspect, and how to

understand what we find. But the statements and descriptions about our

minds must be verified by our own observation and experience before they

become vital truth to us.

HOW WE INTROSPECT.-Introspection is something of an art; it has to

be learned. Some master it easily, some with more difficulty, and some, it

is to be feared, never become skilled in its use. In order to introspect one

must catch himself unawares, so to speak, in the very act of thinking, re-

membering, deciding, loving, hating, and all the rest. These fleeting phases

of consciousness are ever on the wing; they never pause in their restless flight

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