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Living the Life

Learn to live and live to learn

FRANCES R. LISCHNER, M.D.

The Relation of Mind and Body

THE FOLLOWING is the second of a series of articles taken
from "A Study of Man and the Way to Health" published in
1889.

The author, J. D. Buck a physician, dean of Pulte Medical
College, Cincinnati, was a well known writer on philosophy
and psychology. Of particular interest to the present day
reader is his treatment of subjects now classified as psycho-
somatic medicine.

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THE MOST EARNEST and the most able students of the phenomena of nature have often been led to the conception that all the forces in nature that manifest their presence as special modes of motion are resolvable into one force, and that this one force is the latent energy lying back of all phenomena. It has been suggested that what we recognize as magnetism answers more nearly to this universal force than any form of energy known to us today. To say that magnetism is life would be a meaningless assertion in the present condition of our knowledge of either life or magnetism; and yet

the phenomena of life and the phenomena of magnetism are very closely related to each other.

Life, like magnetism, seems to

be everywhere diffused. Each seems ready to manifest its presence on the slightest provocation, the conditions of their manifestation so far as we know being very simple, yet the conditions are very different in the two cases. No life dissociated from organisms is manifest to us. Magnetism on the other hand manifests its presence in both animate and inanimate nature, and no radical difference has yet been discovered between animal and terrestrial magnetism. It might logically be conceived that magnetism is that latent energy everywhere

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diffused in nature, which, under certain conditions, assumes the special mode of motion designated as heat, light, electricity and the like, and which at the same time constitutes the sum of that energy of the organism called vitality.

The vital phenomena of organisms are manifest in a great variety of forms, and may be conceived as involving and combining all other modes of motion, and at the same time there are still higher forms of energy displayed by organisms that are found nowhere else in nature. If magnetism and life cannot be conceived as synonyms, magnetism and vitality may be found more closely allied, though life is more than mere vitality, and vitality is more than magnetism. It should be borne in mind that we do not know the essence of any force, no matter how simple its display, and it should also be remembered that the energy of living beings is directly related to that which alone manifests life, namely, the organism. CREATOR AND DESTROYER

While therefore we may consider life in its relation to mere vitality and to magnetism on the one side, we must not forget that life bears a definite relation to all special modes of motion, and variations of structure designated as organic on the other side; or, we must remember the structure and conditions of manifestation while con

sidering the energy that is displayed. Again, it should be remembered that magnetism in organisms is the polarizing agency, and that while it determines organization, facilitates movement, and coordinates rhythm, it tends also to the fixation of form which in the end crystallizes and destroys. In other words the motive power of far as dynamics are concerned, the life is at last a consuming fire. So creator and the destroyer are one.

"Life evermore is fed by death, In earth, and sea, and sky; And, that a rose may breathe its breath,

Something must die. "From lowly woe springs lordly joy;

From humbler good, diviner; The greater life must aye destroy

And drink the minor."

It may thus be seen that both life and vitality are something more than magnetism.

THE LIFE PRINCIPLE

The most comprehensive fact in tality, nor the quantity of force germ or organism is not mere vipresent, nor yet the fact that this energy manifests a great variety of movements. The most comprehensive fact is the posing of a center of life, and the unfolding of a still interior center of consciousness. The principle of form and order, the laws of development, and

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the mode of action, transcend the mere equivalents of energy. It is true that no life is manifest without movement of matter, and that vitality represents both the motive power and the sum of all energy, and magnetism may be the source whence vitality is derived; but, if this were all, then a steam engine and a block of stone would be of equal value as motors when inspired by steam.

No adequate idea of the real meaning of the word health is possible except in intimate relation with the word life; and no adequate conception of the meaning of the word life is possible dissociated from an organism, which alone manifests life. Life is something more than any or all force, and health is something beyond all energy or mere vitality. If amount of mere vitality alone constitutes life, so no mere lack of energy can alone cause disease or death. Neither life, nor health, nor disease can be regarded as mere kinematics.

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When we regard life as an endowment of matter, even in the relatively formless matter called protoplasm, we find it always associated with an organism, so that the foregoing principles hold good even here. Previous to the positing of a center of life, and the building of an organism, we cannot conceive of life as being manifested in matter, or in any sense as an attribute of matter alone. If, therefore, life

can be said to be in any sense an attribute of matter, even of protoplasm, so in the same sense, though perhaps in a less degree, can life be predicated of all matter-latent in one case, and manifest in another. Whenever so-called living matter has been analyzed no element has been found unfamiliar to the chemist. We may regard the life principle, or the potency of life, as diffused everywhere in nature, and all matter as waiting for the manifestation of life. A considerable portion of the matter of the globe has no doubt thus been at one time involved in the manifestation of life, and these remains of organisms constitute alike the ocean's bed and the mountain's mass.

HEALTH IS HARMONY

So far as life can be regarded as a quality of matter it is everywhere one in kind. There is, indeed, one flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds, and another of man; but the life principle in all these is not many, but one. The matter of life in all these varied forms is convertible, one into the other, and such conversion modifies the organism that feeds on other forms of life, though this alone cannot change the nature of beast or man.

If life as a quality of matter is everywhere the same in kind, we may define health in any case, whether in plants, animals or man, as the harmonious operation of

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the life force in an organism. This ideal harmony would include the sum of all energies and perfection in the development of structure. Harmony between all these would constitute health. Disease might arise through failure of action, or overaction of any of these elements of force or structure.

Regarding again the force side of the equation alone, as there is but one quality of life, viewed as an endowment of matter, so would there be but one kind of disease, viewed as a disturbance of vitality. While, then, life viewed as one in kind manifests or qualifies in an innumerable number of forms or concrete degrees, so disease, viewed as disturbed harmony or modified vitality, and one in kind, would be found to manifest a great variety of forms. The vitality, and the integrity of the structure in organisms, are definetly related to each other. These are mutually dependent. Not the slightest disturbance of either function or structure is possible without the other participating and suffering accordingly. In all matters of growth, repair, development and function. it is physiologically as correct to say that the function builds or exercises the organ as that the organ exercises the function. The relation and the dependence are mutual.

If these principles are true on the organic plane of life, in relation to structure and function, and

no physiologist can successfully deny them, they will also be found to hold good on the higher plane where body and soul are concerned. The relation between body and mind will be found to be the same as between organism and function, or between structure and vitality. If in any sense the body can be said to build and to manifest mind, in the same sense can the mind be said to build and execise the body. The dependence here, as in the former case, is mutual.

EVIL PASSIONS ARE DESTRUCTIVE TO BODY AND MIND

If the foregoing premise and reasoning be correct, then the pre

vailing methods of regarding

health and disease are greatly at fault, for these pay great attention to vitality and structure, but almost wholly disregard the relation of body and mind. If the relation of vitality to structure on the one side is supplemented by the relation of mind to body on the other, what reason can there be for paying so much attention to vitality and so little attention to mind? We hear much about the necessary care of the body, and of its exercise to promote vitality, strength of life, and length of days; but we hear very little in regard to habits of thought, strength of will, and dissipation of energy in the mental realm. Imagination, the creator of forms and of all ideals, is left to run riot, or

is indulged as a mere luxury, a beautiful or a depraved supernumerary of existence.

Every intelligent student of human nature is aware that any disturbance of bodily structure or function modifies mental function and power, and that whenever such disturbance is severe, or long continued, the mental alienation may also become severe. No socalled diseases are more common than hysteria and hypochondria; they often give color to a whole life, destroy all happiness, and renthe most der their possessors

miserable of beings besides entailing untold misery upon others. But slight physical disturbance in such cases can be discovered, certainly none that necessarily shortens physical life; nor is there great bodily pain, nor physical suffering, nor inability for almost any amount of sensuous indulgence or dissipation. There is often in such cases a wonderful ability to make everyone miserable.

We are all familiar with persons who habitually indulge in fits of

anger, jealousy, enviousness, greed, and all uncharitableness; and these persons seem unaware of the fact that they are molding their whole bodily structure to those vicious habits, so that in time it may refuse to express any other sentiment or emotion. The connection between body and mind seems to be wholly lost sight of. All evil passions and unworthy thoughts vitiate the bodily secretions, and in time mold the tissues so that the recurrence is automatic. It is by no means an uncommon occurrence for a nursing infant to be thrown into convulsions from nursing a mother that had recently indulged in a fit of anger, or to sicken from a mother's grief and unhappiness. These considerations and illustrations might be extended indefinitely to show the influence of the mind over the body, supplementing the influence of body on mind. Enough, however, has been said to show how basic are these relations, and that any concept of health, and any theory of disease must regard the rela tions of mind to body no less than of body to vitality.

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BELOVED PAN, AND ALL ye other gods who haunt this place. give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward man be at one. May I reckon the wise to be the wealthy, and may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the temperate can carry. Socrates' prayer in THE PHAEDRUS.

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