The vampire nemesis and other weird stories of the China coast by Dolly Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Dolly
"like the law, is an ass. She takes cognisance of nothing until it is literally forced upon her attention. Two hundred years ago science took no heed of gravity until Isaac Newton infallibly demonstrated its existence. Then it was all eager investigation, after they had first had their laugh at the so-called ' mad philosopher.' There is no deadlier enemy to true research than this precious science."
" You believe, then," I asked breathlessly, " that it is a potential or possibly actual force ?"
" Years hence," Armstrong replied, " the laws of hypnotism, for like every natural force it is subject to fixed laws, will be rescued from empiricism and tabulated as are to-day those of gravity and heat. I concede," he added slowly, " that as yet we know but little of them. All we see now are results, and the cause is hidden in mystery."
" Do you think then that it is possible for one will to subjugate another? "
Armstrong smiled deprecatingly.
" Subjugate is hardly the word," he said at length. " That is a vulgar error that the stronger will dominates the weaker, and compels it to do its bidding as one dictates to a child."
" What is it then ? " I inquired.
" The thing is to have the power of projecting your own will into other persons and of making it supersede their own. Mind, you do not overcome it, you only supersede it—shoulder it aside. Thus what we call a strong-minded man may find his will-power superseded by a man of comparatively weak intellect, who has the power of detaching his own will from himself and of projecting it into another individual. It is a pure fallacy that it is merely a question of the relative strength of will."
" I am afraid," I hazarded, unwilling to be duped a second time by idle shibboleths, " I do not follow you. Will you explain ? "
Armstrong, seeing my evident interest, warmed to his favourite topic.
" We know," he said in his didactic way, " that certain nerves do not pass beyond the great nervecentres or ganglia, and are but remotely connected with the brain. The muscles are worked entirely from the ganglia—such, for instance, as the one that causes the descent of the diaphragm—and they perform their functions unremittingly without the slightest effort of volition on our part. Yet the reflex action of these great bunches of nerve fibre can, by a conscious effort, be brought under the sway of the will, and their power over the muscles be for the time suspended. We can hold our breath, or stop the blinking of an eyelid, examples of purely reflex actions, by the exercise of our wills. Conversely, movements that we dreamed were entirely under the control of our volitions, such as the motion of a hand or foot, can be taken from the dominion of the will and be governed by the reflex action of the ganglia, as when a gun is fired in the vicinity of a nervous person he starts involuntarily, though perhaps but a moment before he had schooled himself to withstand the shock."
His pipe, during this long speech, had gone out; mine, in the absorption of what he said, was equally cold. Now we both relit and smoked for awhile in silence.
"That," I mused, "belongs almost as much to my branch of science as yours."
" It is possible," Armstrong continued, unheeding, " that in this manner all the movements of the newly-born infant are purely reflex, that the sensations travel no farther than the ganglia or the cerebellum at most, and are there translated into action without the will-power having any hand whatsoever in their control. Later, the cerebrum may take command of certain movements and direct when a message shall be sent along the nerves ordering the muscles to act; but even then we have seen that certain actions still remain under the peculiar control of the ganglia, and it requires a special exercise of will to wrest from them their power and alter for the moment their course."
" Yes! yes I" I interrupted impatiently, for I thought he was straying wide of the subject about which I was so
" You believe, then," I asked breathlessly, " that it is a potential or possibly actual force ?"
" Years hence," Armstrong replied, " the laws of hypnotism, for like every natural force it is subject to fixed laws, will be rescued from empiricism and tabulated as are to-day those of gravity and heat. I concede," he added slowly, " that as yet we know but little of them. All we see now are results, and the cause is hidden in mystery."
" Do you think then that it is possible for one will to subjugate another? "
Armstrong smiled deprecatingly.
" Subjugate is hardly the word," he said at length. " That is a vulgar error that the stronger will dominates the weaker, and compels it to do its bidding as one dictates to a child."
" What is it then ? " I inquired.
" The thing is to have the power of projecting your own will into other persons and of making it supersede their own. Mind, you do not overcome it, you only supersede it—shoulder it aside. Thus what we call a strong-minded man may find his will-power superseded by a man of comparatively weak intellect, who has the power of detaching his own will from himself and of projecting it into another individual. It is a pure fallacy that it is merely a question of the relative strength of will."
" I am afraid," I hazarded, unwilling to be duped a second time by idle shibboleths, " I do not follow you. Will you explain ? "
Armstrong, seeing my evident interest, warmed to his favourite topic.
" We know," he said in his didactic way, " that certain nerves do not pass beyond the great nervecentres or ganglia, and are but remotely connected with the brain. The muscles are worked entirely from the ganglia—such, for instance, as the one that causes the descent of the diaphragm—and they perform their functions unremittingly without the slightest effort of volition on our part. Yet the reflex action of these great bunches of nerve fibre can, by a conscious effort, be brought under the sway of the will, and their power over the muscles be for the time suspended. We can hold our breath, or stop the blinking of an eyelid, examples of purely reflex actions, by the exercise of our wills. Conversely, movements that we dreamed were entirely under the control of our volitions, such as the motion of a hand or foot, can be taken from the dominion of the will and be governed by the reflex action of the ganglia, as when a gun is fired in the vicinity of a nervous person he starts involuntarily, though perhaps but a moment before he had schooled himself to withstand the shock."
His pipe, during this long speech, had gone out; mine, in the absorption of what he said, was equally cold. Now we both relit and smoked for awhile in silence.
"That," I mused, "belongs almost as much to my branch of science as yours."
" It is possible," Armstrong continued, unheeding, " that in this manner all the movements of the newly-born infant are purely reflex, that the sensations travel no farther than the ganglia or the cerebellum at most, and are there translated into action without the will-power having any hand whatsoever in their control. Later, the cerebrum may take command of certain movements and direct when a message shall be sent along the nerves ordering the muscles to act; but even then we have seen that certain actions still remain under the peculiar control of the ganglia, and it requires a special exercise of will to wrest from them their power and alter for the moment their course."
" Yes! yes I" I interrupted impatiently, for I thought he was straying wide of the subject about which I was so
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