external impressions. These, since they enter the mind through the
participation of attention and will and through reflection and judgment,
are assimilated and permanently incorporated in the personal
consciousness or in our "ego." This type of perception leads to an
enrichment of our personal consciousness and lies at the bottom of our
points of view and convictions. The organization of more or less
definite convictions is the product of the process of reflection
instituted by active perception. These convictions, before they become
the possession of our personal consciousness, may conceal themselves
awhile in the so-called subconsciousness. They are capable of being
aroused at any moment at the desire of the "ego" whenever certain
experienced representations are reproduced.

b) _Passive perception._--In contrast to active perception we perceive
much from the environment in a passive manner without that participation
of the "ego." This occurs when our attention is diverted in any
particular direction or concentrated on a certain thought, and when its
continuity for one or another reason is broken up, which, for instance,
occurs in cases of so-called distraction. In these cases the object of
the perception does not enter into the personal consciousness, but it
makes its way into other spheres of our mind, which we call the general
consciousness. The general consciousness is to a certain degree
independent of the personal consciousness. For this reason everything
that enters into the general consciousness cannot be introduced at will
into the personal consciousness. Nevertheless products of the general
consciousness make their way into the sphere of the personal
consciousness, without awareness by it of their original derivation.

In passive perception, without any participation of attention, a whole
series of varied impressions flow in upon us and press in past our "ego"
directly to the general consciousness. These impressions are the sources
of those influences from the outer world so unintelligible even to
ourselves, which determine our emotional attitudes and those obscure
motives and impulses which often possess us in certain situations.

The general consciousness, in this way, plays a permanent role in the
spiritual life of the individual. Now and then an impression passively
received in the train of an accidental chain of ideas makes its way into
the sphere of the personal consciousness as a mental image, whose