e is least conscious of it."
Maudsley says: "It would go hard with mankind indeed, if they must act
wittingly before they acted at all. Men, without knowing why, follow a
course for which good reasons exist. Nay, more. The practical instincts
of mankind often work beneficially in actual contradiction to their
professed doctrines."
The same writer says: "The best thoughts of an author are the unwilled
thoughts which surprise himself; and the poet, under the influence of
creative activity, is, so far as consciousness is concerned, being
dictated to."
A writer in an English magazine says: "When waiting on a pier for a
steamer, I went on to the first, which was the wrong one. I came back and
waited, losing my boat, which was at another part of the pier, on account
of the unconscious assumption I had made, that this was the only place to
wait for the steamer. I saw a man enter a room, and leave by another
door. Shortly after, I saw another man exactly like him do the same. It
was the same man; but I said it must be his twin brother, in the
unconscious assumption that there was no exit for the first man but by
the way he came (that by returning)."
Maudsley says: "The firmest resolve or purpose sometimes vanishes
issueless when it comes to the brink of an act, while the true will,
which determines perhaps a different act, springs up suddenly out of the
depths of the unconscious nature, surprising and overcoming the
conscious."
Schofield says: "Our unconscious influence is the projection of our
unconscious mind and personality unconsciously over others. This acts
unconsciously on their unconscious centers, producing effects in
character and conduct, recognized in consciousness. For instance, the
entrance of a good man into a room where foul language is used, will
unconsciously modify and purify the tone of the whole room. Our minds
cast shadows of which we are as unconscious as those cast by our bodies,
but which affect for good or evil all who unconsciously pass within their
range. This is a matter of daily experience, and is common to all, though
more noticeable with strong personalities."
Now we have given much time and space to the expressions of opinion of
various Western writers regarding this subject of there being a plane or
planes of the mind outside of the field of consciousness. We have given
space to this valuable testimony, not alone because of its intrinsic
value and merit, but because we wished to im
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