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The typist has nothing in common with the centers, and in-
deed not even with the formatory apparatus. But she works
there, and I have explained to you what this girl means. Educa-
tion has nothing to do with centers. A child is brought up
thus: "If someone is shaking hands with you, you must always
stand like this." All this is purely mechanical in this case, you
must do that. And once established so it remains. An adult is
the same. If someone treads on his corn he reacts always in the
same manner. Adults are like children, and children are like
adults: all of them react. The machine works and will go on
working in the same way a thousand years hence.
With time a great quantity of labels accumulates on the of-
fice shelves. The longer a man lives, the more labels there are
in the office. It is so arranged that all labels of a similar kind
are kept in one cupboard. So when an inquiry comes in, the
typist begins to search for a suitable label. To do this she must
lake them out, look through and sort them until she finds the
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right one. A great deal depends on the tidiness of the typist
and in what state she keeps her files of labels. Some typists are
methodical; others not so methodical. Some keep them sorted
out, others don't. One may put an incoming inquiry in a
wrong drawer, others not. One finds a label at once, another
looks for a long time and mixes them all up while searching.
Our so-called thoughts are nothing more than these labels
taken out of the cupboard. What we call thoughts are not
thoughts, we have no thoughts: we have different labels, short,
abbreviated, long but nothing except labels. These labels are
shifted from one place to another. Inquiries coming from out-
side are what we receive as impressions. These manifestations,
inquiries, come not only from without but also from different
places within. All this has to be recoded.
All this chaos is what we call our thoughts and associations.
At the same time a man does have thoughts. Every center
thinks. These thoughts, if there are any and if they reach the
formatory apparatus, reach it only in the form of stimuli and
are then reconstructed, but the reconstruction is mechanical.
And this is so in the best cases, for as a rule some centers have
hardly any means of communicating with the formatory ap-
paratus. Owing to faulty connections, messages are either not
transmitted at all or are transmitted in distorted form. But this
does not prove the absence of thought. In all centers work
goes on, there are thoughts and associations, but they do not
reach the formatory apparatus and so are not manifested. Nei-
ther are they sent on in another direction that is, from the
formatory apparatus to the centers and for the same reason
they cannot get there from outside.
Everyone has centers; the difference lies only in the amount
of material they contain. Some have more, others less. Every-
one has some, the difference is only in the quantity. But the
centers are the same in everyone.
A man is born like an empty cupboard or storehouse. Then
material begins to accumulate. The machine works alike in
everyone; the properties of the centers are the same, but,
owing to their nature and the conditions of life, the links, the
connections between centers, differ in degrees of sensitivity,
coarseness or fineness.
The most primitive and most accessible is the connection
between the moving center and the formatory apparatus. This
connection is the coarsest, the most "audible," the speediest,
thickest and best. It is like a large pipe (I mean here not the
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center itself but the connection). It is the quickest to form, and
the quickest to be filled. The second is considered to be the
connection with the sex center. The third the connection
with the emotional center. The fourth the connection with
the thinking center.
So the amount of material and the degree of functioning of
these connections stand in this gradation. The first connection
exists and functions in all men; associations are received and
manifested. The second connection, the one with the sex cen-
ter, exists in the majority of men. Consequently most people
live with the first and second centers their whole life, all their
perceptions and manifestations come from these centers and
originate in them. People whose emotional center is connected
with the formatory apparatus are in the minority, and in their
case all their life and manifestations proceed through it. But
there is hardly anyone in whom the connection with the think-
ing center works.
If a man's manifestations in life are to be classified according
to their quality and cause, we find the following proportion: 50
percent of his vital manifestations and perceptions belong to
the moving center, 40 percent to the sex center and 10 percent
to the emotional center. Yet at a superficial glance we are ac-
customed to attach a high value to these manifestations of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]