I. A.. D.Sc, of Calcutta, has definitely

■oved that so-calle responsive to stimulus, and that the
■ TV Serrtt DoeirtHt. 1. aSi.
A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
140
response is identical from metals, vege- tables, animals, and — so far as experiment can be made— man.
He arranged apparatus to mea.sure the stimulus applied, and to show in curves, traced on a revolving cylinder, the response from the body receiving the stimulus. He then compared the curves obtained in tin and in other metals with those obtained from muscle, and found that the curves from tin were identical with those from muscle, and that other metals gave curves of like nature but varied in the period of recovery.
I
{a) Sbries of elbctrcc respoksrs to !
MRCHAKICAL STIMULI AT INTERVALS OF HALF A MINUTB,
IN TIN. (i) Mechanical responses in uuscle.
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
141
Tetanus, both complete and incom- plete, due to repeated shocks, was caused, and simular results accrued, in mineral as in muscle.
A'
6'
EFFKiTS ANALCKIOI'S TO (a) INCOMFLK.TK AND {6) •OMIIKTK TF-TANUs 1\ UN. (a) InCOMI'LKTK ANI» ( f>* ) COMI'IKTI. TF.1AMS IN MrsCI.K.
I^'atijrue was shown by metals, least of all by tin. Chemical rc-a dru;js, prcxluced simular results on metals with those known to result with animals -
r42 A RTL'nV IN CONSCIOLISNESS.
exciting, depressing, and deadly. (By deadly is meant resulting in the destruc- tion of the power of response.)
A poison will kill a metal, inducing a condition of immobility, so that no response is obtainable. If the poisoned metal be taken in time, an antidote may save its life.
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A stimulant will increase response, and as large and small doses of a drug have been found to kill and stimulate respec- tively, so have they been found to act on metals. " Among such phenomena," asks Professor Bose, " how can we draw a line of demarcation and say : ' Here the physical process ends, and there the physiological begins ' ? No such barriers exist." '
'These details are taken from a paper given by Professor Bose at the Royal Institution, May loth, 1901, entitled: "The Response of Inorganic Matter to Stimulus."
OMITV OK CONSCIOUSNESS.
Professor Bose has carried (
I similar and has
If into
scncs ol experiments on plants, obtained similar results. A fresh piece of cabbage stalk, a fresh leaf, or other vege- table body, can be stimulated and will show similar curves ; it can be fatigued, excited, depressed, poisoned. There is something rather pathetic in seeing the way in which the tiny spot of light, which rds the pulses in the plant, travels, in 'Cr weaker and weaker cur\xs. when the
int is under the influence of poison, falls into 3 final despairing straight line, and — stops. The plant is dead. One feels as though a murder had been committed — as indeed it ha.s.'
These admirable series of experiments have established, on a definite basis of physical facts, the teaching nf occult science on the universality of life.
Mr. Marcus Reed has made micro- scopical • observations which show the
'The Prufessor hu not published this lecture, but the 6»cts are in his book Rtiponse in tht /Jving and Stn-tivtmg- 1 had Ihc good fortune to nee the CTperimentK repealed at his own hou.ie, where one could watch ihcm closely.
144 ■'' STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
presence of consciousness in the vegetable kingdom. He has observed symptoms as of fright when tissue Is injured, and further he has seen that male and female cells, floating in the sap. become aware of each other's presence without contact ; the circulation quickens, and they put out processes towards each other.'
More than three years after the publica- tion of Professor Bose's experiments, some interesting confirmation of his observations arose in the course of M. Jean Becquerel's study of the N-rays, communicated by him to the Paris Academy of Sciences. Animals under chloroform cease to emit these rays, and they are never emitted by a corpse. Flowers normally emit them, but under chloroform the emanation ceases. Metals also emit them, and under chloroform the emanation again ceases. Thus animals, flowers, and metals alike give out these rays, and alike cease to emanate them under the action of chloroform.'
' " Consciousness in Vegetable Matter." Pa// A/a// Magazine, June, 1902.
'The N-rays are due to vibrations in the etheric double, causing waves In the surrounding ether.
1
UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
, TiiK Mbanimc. of Physical Consciousness.
' The term "physical consciousness" is I in iwo distinct .senses, and it may be useful to pause a moment, in order to define these. It is often used to indicate what is above termed "ordinary wakinfj;- consciousness." i.e., the consciousness of the man. of the JivStmS — or, if the phrase be preferred, of the Monad working through the JivSima and the lower triad of permanent atonts. It is also used in sense in which It is used here, as tciousness working in physical matter. aving and responding to physical npacts, unconcerned with any transmis- en of impulses onward to the higher "planes, or with any impulses sent to the
physical body Irom those planes. _ In this more restricted and accurate msc, it would include : (a) any out-thrill- Igs from the atoms and molecules ensouled ' the life of the Third Logos ; {&) any
Chlomfarm vxpclx the clhcric double, and hence the mve» ctaat. At death, (he eiheric double lenven the body, and the rays consMiuently can no longer be observed
146 A STUDY IN CON'SrrOUSNESS.
similar out-thrillings from organised forms ensouled by the life of the Second Logos ; and (c) any similar out-thrillings from the hfe of the Monad, proceeding from the permanent atoms, in which the spirilla; are not directly concerned. When the spirilla are active, the "ordinary waking- consciousness " is affected. For instance : ammonia sniffed up by the nose shows two results ; there is a rapid secretion : ///a/ is the response of the cells in the olfactory tract ; there is also a " smell " : /&a/ is the result of a vibration running up to the sense-centres in the astral body, and there recognised in consciousness ; the change in consciousness affects the first set of spirilla; in the atoms of the olfactory tract, and thus reaches the " waking - consciousness " — consciousness working in the physical brain. It is only through. the spirillae that changes in consciousness on the higher planes bring about changes in the " waking-conscious- ness."
It must be remembered that as the Solar System is a field for the evolution of all the developing consciousnesses
UKITV OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 147'
within it, so are there smaller areas within it. serving as smaller fields. Man is the microcosm of the universe, and his body serves as a field of evolution fof myriads of consciousnesses less evol- ved than his own. Thus the three activities mentioned above under (a), (b), and (c), are all present in his body. and all enter into the physical conscious- ness working therein ; that in which the atomic spirilhc are concerned does not enter it ; that belongs to the conscious- ness of the JivAtmd. The workings of physical consciousness do not now directly ~ the " waking - consciousness " in higher animals or in man. They it in the earlier part of the embryonic life in the Group- .Soul, while the consciousness of the Second Logos was "mothering" the dawning conscious- nesses derived from It. But physical consciousness has now sunk below the " threshold of consciousness," while showing itself as " the memor)- of the cell," as the selective action in glands and papilla:, and generally in the carrying on of functions nccessar>- for the support
pnysicai I^^Sect I
HBLed
A STUDY IN COKSCIOUSNESS.
r
of bodies. It is the lowest activity of consciousness, and as consciousness func- tions more and more actively on the higher plane, its lowest workings no longer attract its attention, and they become what we call automatic.
Now it is physical consciousness that is appealed to in Professor Bose's ex- periments, and it is the response of this consciousness in the tin and in the animal that is the same, and is shown in the pulse indicated by the curves ; the animal will feel the stimulus while the tin will not — that is the result of the additional working of the consciousness in astral matter.
We may thus allege that consciousness, working in physical matter, responds to various kinds of stimulation, and that the response is the same, whether it be obtained from mineral, vegetable, or animal. The consciousness shows the same characteristic workings, is the same. The differences which, as already said, we observe as we ascend, lie in the improve- ment of the physical apparatus, an appa- ratus which enables astral and mental — not physical — activities of consciousness
I
l.'KIT\' or CONSCIOL'SNESS. 149
to manifest themselves on the physical plane. Men and animals feel and think l>ettcr than minerals and vegetables, because their more highly evolved con- sciousness has shaped for itself on the physical plane this much improved appa- ratus ; but even so. our bodies answer as the lower bodies answer to the same stimuli, and this purely physical con- sciousness is the same in all.
Now in the mineral, the astral matter connected with the permanent astral atom is so little active, and consciousness is sleeping so deeply therein, that there is no perceptible working from the astral to the physical. In the higher plants there seems to be a son of forth shadowing of a nervous system, but it is too little developed and organised to serve any- thing but the simplest purposes. The added activity on the astral plane improves the astral sheath in connexion with the plant, and (he vibrations of the astral sheath affect the elheric portion of the plant, and thus its denser matter. Hence the foithshadowing of a nervous system above alluded to.
150 A STUDY IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
When we come to the animal stage, the much greater activity of the consciousness on the astral plane causes more powerful vibrations, which pass to the etheric double of the animal, and by the etheric vibrations thus caused, the nervous system is builded. The shaping of it is due to the Logos through the Group-Soul, and to the active assistance of the Shining Ones of the Third Elemental Kingdom, directing the work of the ethereal Nature- Spirits. But the impulse comes from the consciousness on the astral plane working in the permanent atom and the sheath of astral matter attracted by it, roused to activity by the Group-Soul. As the first very simple apparatus is formed, more delicate impacts from without can be per- ceived, and these impacts also help in the evolution. Action and reaction succeed each other, and the mechanism continually improves in receptive and transmitting ability.
Consciousness does not do much building on the astral plane at this stage, and works there in an unorganised sheath ; the organising is done on the
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UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS. I5I
physical plane by the efforts of conscious- ness to express itself — dim and vaguely groping as these efforts are — aided and directed by the Group-Soul and the Shining Ones. This work has to be completed to a great extent before the Third Life- Wave pours down, for animal man has evolved, with his brain and nervous systems, before that great out- pouring comes which gives the Jiv&tmi a working body, and makes possible the higher evolution of man.