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	The Emotions <  Previous Contents Next  >

Your emotions will invariably seek to express themselves in action. The emotion of love will therefore seek expression in demonstrations of loving service.

Emotions of hate will seek expression in vindictive or hostile actions.

Emotions of shame will seek expressions in actions corresponding to the nature of the cause that brought the emotion into being.

Emotions of sorrow will bring the tear ducts into violent action.

From this you will see that the emotions always focalize the energies upon the idea or desire that is seeking an outlet.

When the emotions find an outlet through the proper channel, all is well; but if they are forbidden or repressed, the desire or wish will continue to gather energy and if, for any reason, it is finally suppressed, it will pass into the subconscious where it will remain.

Such a suppressed emotion becomes a complex. Such a complex is a living thing—it has vital power and force and the vital force retains its intensity undiminished throughout the entire lifetime unless released. In fact, it gains in violence with every similar thought, desire, wish, or memory.

The emotion of love causes the solar plexus to become active, which in turn influences the action of glands which produce a vibratory effect on certain organs of the body which creates passion. The emotion of hate causes an acceleration of certain bodily activities, which change the chemical organization of the blood and eventuates in semi-paralysis or, if long continued, in complete paralysis.

Emotions may be expressed through mental, verbal, or physical action, and they usually find expression in one of these three ways and are therefore released and this energy dissipated in a few hours; but when by reason of honor, pride, anger, hatred, or bitterness, these emotions are buried from consciousness, they become mental abscesses in the subconscious realm and cause bitter suffering.

Such a complex may find reverse expression. For instance, a man who has been forbidden to express his love for a woman may develop into a woman hater. He may be irritated and annoyed by the very sight of feminine things. He may appear to be bold, independent, and domineering, but this will be but the camouflage by which he is attempting to cover up the craving for love and sympathy that has been denied him.

Should this man eventually select a mate, he will unconsciously select one of an opposite type to the one who caused him sorrow. The attachment has been reversed— he wants no reminders.

Suffering is an emotion and it opens the doors of the subconscious mind. The thought "this is what I get for wrong-doing" produces a conclusion—"Well, I'll never do that again!" This is the reformation suggestion that goes down into the subconscious mind by the auto-suggestion of the individual suffering penance. Thus, reformation takes place because it changes the soul's desire, and also produces a new desire to avoid the consequences of suffering indicated to it by the penance.

Desire originates in the subconscious mind. It is plainly an emotion. Emotion originates in the soul or subconscious mind. Pleasure emotions are the diversions and rewards for service which the subconscious mind renders the body.

You have seen that when any thought, idea, or purpose finds its way into the subconscious through the emotions, the sympathetic nervous system takes up the thought, idea, or purpose and carries it to every part of the body, thus converting the idea, thought, or purpose into an actual experience in your life.

The necessary interaction of the conscious and subconscious mind requires a similar interaction between the corresponding system of nerves. The cerebro-spinal system is the organ of the conscious mind and the sympathetic is the organ of the subconscious. The cerebrospinal system is the channel through which we receive conscious perception from the physical senses and exercise control over the movements of the body. This system of nerves has its center in the brain.

The sympathetic system has its center in a ganglionic mass at the back of the stomach known as the solar plexus and is the channel of that mental action which unconsciously supports the vital functions of the body.

The connection between the two systems is made by the vagus nerve, which passes out of the cerebral region as a portion of the voluntary system of the thorax, sending out branches to the heart and lungs, and finally passing through the diaphragm it loses its outer coating and becomes identified with the nerves of the sympathetic system, so forming a connecting link between the two and making man physically a single entity.

The solar plexus has been likened to the sun of the body, because it is a central point of distribution for the energy that the body is constantly generating. This energy is a very real energy, and this sun is a very real sun, and the energy is being distributed by very real nerves to all parts of the body and is thrown off in an atmosphere which envelopes the body.

If this radiation is sufficiently strong, the person is called magnetic; he is said to have a strong personality. Such a person may wield an immense power for good; his presence alone will often bring comfort to the troubled minds with which he comes in contact.

When the solar plexus is in active operation and is radiating life and energy and vitality to every part of the body and to everyone that we meet, the sensations are pleasant, the body is filled with health, and all with whom we come in contact experience a pleasant sensation.

If there is any interruption of this radiation, the sensations are unpleasant, the flow of vitality and energy to some part of the body is stopped, and this is the cause of every ill to the human race—physical, mental, or environmental.

Any explanation of the phenomena of life must be based upon the theory of Oneness. The psychic element being found within all living substance, this Cosmic Intelligence must have existed before living substance could have come into existence and, therefore, it exists today all around us, flowing in and through us. This Cosmic Consciousness projects itself in the form of living substance and it acts with a conscious intelligence in manufacturing its food supply and evolving organizations on to a higher and higher plane of life.

This Cosmic Mind is the creative Principle of the Universe, the Divine Essence of all things. It is, therefore, a subconscious activity and all subconscious activities are governed by the sympathetic nervous system, which is the organ of the subconscious mind.

No human intelligence has ever accomplished the results that the Cosmic Intelligence produced in developing a chemical laboratory right within the foundation of plant life, and the production of elaborate mechanical devices and harmonious social organization right within our own bodies.

In the mineral world everything is solid and fixed. In the animal and vegetable kingdom, it is in a state of flux, forever changing, always being created and recreated. In the atmosphere we find heat, light, and energy. Each realm becomes finer and more spiritual as we pass from the visible to the invisible, from the coarse to the fine, from the low potentiality to high potentiality. When we reach the invisible, we find energy in its purest and most volatile state.

And as the most powerful forces of Nature are the invisible forces, so we find that the most powerful forces of man are his invisible forces, his spiritual force. And the only way in which the spiritual force can manifest is through the process of thinking.

Addition and subtraction are, therefore, spiritual transactions; reasoning is a spiritual process; ideas are spiritual conceptions; questions are spiritual searchlights; and logic, argument, and philosophy are spiritual machinery.

Every thought brings into action certain physical tissue—parts of the brain, nerve, or muscle. This produces an actual physical change in the construction of the tissue. Therefore, it is only necessary to have a certain number of thoughts on a given subject in order to bring about a complete change in your physical organization.

Thoughts of courage, power, and inspiration will eventually take root, and as this takes place, you will see life in a new light. Life will have a new meaning for you. You will be reconstructed and filled with joy, confidence, hope, and energy. You will see opportunities to which you were heretofore blind. You will recognize possibilities which before had no meaning for you. The thoughts with which you have been impregnated are radiated to those around you, and they in turn help you onward and upward; you attract to yourself new associates, and this in turn changes your environment; so that by this simple exercise of thought, you change not only yourself, but your environment, circumstances, and conditions.

These changes are brought about by the psychic element of life. This psychic element is not mechanical; because of its power of selection, organization, and direction, such a power cannot be automatically mechanical.

The Cosmic Intelligence possesses the function of memory for the purpose of recording all the experiences which it encounters and projecting and organizing itself on higher planes of life. It is this function of memory which is the hereditary directing force found within living organisms.

This hereditary directing force frequently manifests as fear. Fear is an emotion; it is consequently not amenable to reason. You may therefore fear your friends as well as your enemies, fear the present and past as well as the future; if fear attacks you, it must be destroyed.

You will be interested in knowing how to accomplish this. Reason will not help you at all, because fear is a subconscious thought, a product of the emotions. There must then be some other way.

The way is to awaken the Solar Plexus, get it into action. If you have practiced deep breathing, you can expand the abdomen to the limit. That is the first thing to do; hold this breath for a second or two, then still holding it, draw in more air and carry it to the upper chest, drawing in the abdomen.

This effort flushes the face red. Hold this breath also for a second or two and then still holding this breath, deflate the chest and expand the abdomen again. Do not exhale this breath at all, but, still holding it, alternately expand the abdomen and chest rapidly some four or five times. Then exhale. The fear is gone.

If the fear does not leave you at once, repeat the process until it does. It will not be long before you are feeling entirely normal. Why? Because, in the first place, this breathing effort concentrated at the pit of the stomach affects the great ganglion of the sympathetic nervous system lying exactly opposite, called the Solar Plexus, which largely governs circulation.

The stimulation of the Solar Plexus releases the nerve currents and the renewed circulation re-establishes the muscular control.

The breath entering through the right nostril creates positive electromagnetic currents, which pass down the right side of the spine; while the breath entering through the left nostril sends negative electromagnetic currents down the left side of the spine. These currents are transmitted by way of the nerve centers or ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system.

All force or energy comes from the sun. We may be said to literally live, move, and have our being, in a physical sense, in the sun. This force or energy enters the etheric spleen with every inhalation of the breath. As it enters the spleen, the solar plexus draws it to itself with every exhalation, and from the solar plexus it travels along the nerves to the sacrum plexus situated at the extreme end of the spine, and to the cardinal plexus, the core of the brain. These are the three main centers of the body.

From the cardinal plexus, this life energy traverses the nerves to the head. Again on the downward path, it passes through to the psychic center, situated between the two eyebrows. Then it traverses the nerves of the face; then the bronchial center; the throat front; the pulmonary center; the upper chest and the lungs; the lower lung center, seated above the heart; the vital and generatic center seated at the base of the stomach; and so this life energy makes the circuit of the nerves until it gradually works its way out through the pores of the skin.

You will therefore readily see why this exercise can and does completely eliminate that arch enemy Fear.

If you are tired, if you wish to conquer fatigue, stand still wherever you may be with your feet holding all your weight. Inhale deeply, raise the body on the tip toes with the hands stretched above the head and the fingers pointed upward. Bring your hands together above the head, inhaling slowly and exhaling violently. Repeat this exercise three times. It will only take a minute or two and you will feel more refreshed than you would if you took a nap, and in time you will be able to overcome the tendency to fatigue.

The virtue of this exercise is in the intention. The intention governs the attention. This in turn acts upon the imagination; the imagination is a form of thought, which in turn is mind in motion.

All thought formations interact upon one another until they come to a state of maturity, where they reproduce their kind. This is the law of creation. These are indicated in the characteristics of the individual. If the body is large, the bones heavy, the finger nails thick, the hair coarse, then we know that the physical dominates. If the body is slight, the bones small, the finger nails thin and pliable, then we know that the mental and spiritual characteristics prevail. Coarse hair indicates materialistic tendencies. Fine hair indicates sensitive and discriminating mental qualities. Straight hair indicates directness of character. Curly hair indicates changefulness and uncertainty in thought.

Blue eyes indicate a light, happy, cheerful, active disposition. Grey eyes indicate a cool, calculating, determined disposition. Black eyes indicate a quick, nervous, venturesome disposition. Brown eyes indicate sincerity, energy, and affection.

You are, therefore, a complete manifestation of your most inward thoughts. The color of your eyes, the texture of your hair, the quality of your hair, every line and curve of your body are indications of the character of the thought that you habitually entertain.

Not only this, but the letters which you write carry not only the message that the words contain, but they are charged with an energy corresponding with the nature of your thought and, therefore, often bring a very different message than the one which you intended to send.

And finally, even the clothes which you wear eventually take on the mental atmosphere which surrounds you, so that the trained psychometrist finds no difficulty in reading the character of those who have worn a garment for any length of time.

I feel your brow, your hair,

You do not know that I am there,

Could you but know—Oh, joy sublime,

What then were place or space or time!