Man's supreme inheritance : conscious guidance and control in relation to human evolution in civilization / by F. Matthias Alexander ; with an introductory word by Professor John Dewey.

  • Alexander, F. Matthias (Frederick Matthias), 1869-1955.
Date:
[1918], ©1918
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Man's supreme inheritance : conscious guidance and control in relation to human evolution in civilization / by F. Matthias Alexander ; with an introductory word by Professor John Dewey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the obscure means by which the command may be enforced being variously described. We see at once that the con- ception of a hidden entity is the primitive explanation which first occurs to the puzzled mind. We find the same tendency in the many curious superstitions of the savage who turns every bird, beast, stone, and tree into a Totem, and endows them with powers of evil or of good, and dis- covers a ‘ hidden entity ’ all of a piece with this conception of the subconscious self, in a piece of wood that he has cut- from a tree, or a lump of clay that he has modelled into the rude shape of man, bird, or beast. My own conception is rather of the unity than the diversity of life. And since any attempt to define the term Life would be presumptuous, the definition being beyond the scope of man’s present ability, I will merely say that life in this connexion must be read in the widest application conceivable. And it appears to me that all we know of the evolution or development of life goes to show that it has progressed, and will continue to progress, in the direction of self-consciousness.t If we grant the unity of life and the tendency of its evolution, it follows that all the mani- festations of what we have called the ‘ subconscious self ’ are functions of the vital essence or life-force, and that these functions are passing from automatic or unconscious to reasoning or conscious control. This conception does not necessarily imply any distinction between the thing controlled and the control itself. This may be inferred from the use of the word ‘ self-conscious,’ but the further elucidation of this side of the theory is not germane to the present argument. Now I am quite prepared to accept as facts phenomena of the kind I have instanced, such as unusual cures effected by hypnotism, and by the somewhat allied methods of the various forms of faith-healing, but I do deny, and most emphatically deny, that either procedure is in any way necessary to produce the same or even more unusual phenomena.? In other words, J maintain that man may * Cf. Herbert Spencer, Education, Chapter xi., ‘Humanity has pro- gressed solely by self-instruction.’ * Moreover, I deny that hypnotism can possibly succeed except in comparatively rare instances. It is not universal in its applicability.