IV.

CONSCIOUSNESS.

EXPLANATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS.--MOTION A KIND OF ACTION.--WHAT EFFECT IT HAS ON CONSCIOUSNESS--BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS. WHICH THE PRODUCT OF THE OTHER?--CONSCIOUSNESS IN VEGETABLE AND MINERAL KINGDOMS LIMITED WHILE IN MAN ALMOST COMPLETE

That consciousness exists does not need proof; we know, and we know that we know. We are conscious of consciousness; and now we have to consider the source of consciousness. Turning back to the realities we have considered, we find that time cannot be the source of consciousness; we cannot think of time as being conscious, and the same is true of space. We cannot conceive of consciousness as existing in empty space, for there would be nothing there to be conscious; and so we see that only substance can be conscious. Where there is no substance there is nothing, and there can be no consciousness. This is a proposition which you should consider well, until you have mastered it in all its bearings; that there can be no consciousness apart from substance; that empty space cannot be conscious. If consciousness exists--and it does--there is a Conscious Substance.

This point we need to develop very fully, for it is vital. If it is not substance which is conscious, then consciousness must exist in the interstices between the particles of substance, or in empty space; and it is empty space which is conscious, which is unthinkable. But if consciousness exists in substance, then it is the substance itself which is conscious; for there can be nothing in substance but substance. It becomes clear, too, that consciousness cannot be the result of functional action within an organism. Functional action is merely motion, and motion is a shifting of substance from one place to another. If consciousness were produced by motion, would it not still be the substance which was conscious? Try to reason out how a substance could be made conscious by shifting it from one place to another. If consciousness was produced by the motion, then the substance could not have been conscious before it moved, nor could it remain conscious after it ceased to move. Try to think of a substance as becoming conscious, and endowed with reason, memory and love while making a certain motion, and as losing all these when ceasing to move; try to reason out how motion could come first as a cause, and consciousness follow as a result. Try to conceive of the Original Fluid Substance as beginning, unconsciously, to move; and as producing, unconsciously, all the orderly sequences of forms which appear in nature; and at last, and only at last, becoming fully conscious of it all through the unconscious beginning of a certain motion in the brain of man. Try to think of full consciousness as having been lacking in the universe until certain vibrations were started in the brain of man; you will find all this unthinkable. Consciousness is not the result of motion, but the first cause of motion. It is not motion which is conscious, but substance. The human ego is Conscious Substance.

The next question is whether consciousness is an attribute of substance only in certain forms, or whether it inheres in original fluid substance; and to that we now turn our attention. Is it the brain which is conscious? Those who have kept abreast of the revelations of modern psychology as set forth by William Hanna Thompson and others, know that it is not. The substance of the brain is not conscious; or at least, the substance of the brain is not _the_ conscious, thinking, reasoning human ego. We have learned that the brain is the product, rather than the producer of consciousness; and that the intelligent direction of consciousness in the work of brain-building may produce almost any desired change in the structure and capacity of the brain. Furthermore, there are many evidences which go to show that consciousness is not localized in, or confined to the brain, but extends throughout the body; and that we are conscious, not with our brains alone, but with our entire beings. If this should be proved true, and it is likely to be, we will have to conclude that the “physical” body of man is permeated and pervaded by a conscious substance which is co-extensive with it in every part, and which is the real man. And we must also conclude that this conscious substance is Original Substance, and in a condition approaching its primal state; for it becomes apparent as we go on that complete consciousness can only exist in Original Substance in its primal state. Changes in state and form appear to limit consciousness. The consciousness of the animal creation is limited by their forms, and is little, if any, more than sufficient for the reproduction of those forms; the consciousness of the tree and plant is still more limited, but scientists now generally admit that there is consciousness in the vegetable kingdom; and in the mineral world, consciousness appears as directivity of atoms, and chemical affinity. When we come to man, however, we find a capacity for growth in consciousness which seems to be unlimited; hence we argue that man is Original Substance in its primal state, or at least, that he may attain to the primal state.

Time is; space is. Space is occupied by conscious substance; and there is but one substance, from which are made all the forms of the visible creation. The physical body of man is a form of substance as prepared through the processes of the visible creation; man, himself, is original substance or spirit, inhabiting this physical body. “In the image of God created He them.”

It will be seen that while all is God, it is also true that man is man, an independent entity, having a consciousness of his own, and that, while all is spirit, matter exists, being spirit on a varying plane of atomic pressure; and that while it is true that mind is in all and through all, perfect consciousness exists only in original substance, in pure spirit, or in God; and that the nearest approach to complete consciousness is in man, whose unlimited capacity for growth proves him to be at least, a near approach to original substance; a son of God. We close this chapter with the assertion that time is; that space is, and that space is occupied by a conscious substance which moves. We will next consider the fourth reality: Motion.