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John Bascom - Creator of Science of Mind - progenitor of New Thought

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Serving New Thought is pleased to present

John Bascom's

Science of Mind

"Evolution is better than Revolution. New Thought Library's New Thought Archives encompass a full range of New Thought from Abrahamic to Vedic. New Thought literature reflects the ongoing evolution of human thought. New Thought's unique inclusion of science, art and philosophy presents a dramatic contrast with the magical thinking of decadent religions that promulgate supersticions standing in the way of progress to shared peace and prosperity." ~ Avalon de Rossett

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Introduction - Intellect - Mental Science's Divisions - Intellect's Divisions and Perceptions - The Understanding - The Reason - The Dynamics of the Intellect - Physical Feelings - Intellectual Feelings - Spiritual Feelings - Dynamics of Feelings - The Will - The Nervous System - Nervous System of Man - Executive Volition - Primary Volition, or Choice - Dynamics of the Will and the Mind - The Relations of the Systems Here Offered to Prevalent Forms of Philosophy - Index - Contents -


are fitted to give only general distinctions. Appetite, taste, touch concur in the first wakeful experiences of the infant, and these are organically united as instinctive stimuli in the act of suckling. The coming reason finds its first conscious experiences in this border ground of appetite and instinct in sensations still obscure and mainly automatic in their action. It has been thought that the elephant owes much of his intelligence to the delicacy of touch in his trunk, and to its extended mobility. These facts certainly give him an unusual command of the conditions of inquiry.

(3) General and special sensations would immediately give rise to voluntary action in their gratification. The first conditions of life are met by automatic connections, but the rational consciousness begins at once to build its own constructions on these foundations. The limited number of sensations are at first distinguished as pleasurable and painful, and each class is accompanied by more or less of spontaneous muscular effort, gradually changing into voluntary effort, fitted to retain the enjoyment or escape the pain. The pleasures of touch and taste are especially concentrated on the tongue, and the infant first spontaneously and then more consciously seeks the breast in gratification of its sensibilities. Later, the feeling awakens in the hands, and the child is not at ease till these are laid on the mother. In these earliest, tangible sources of pleasure, secured and maintained by muscular effort, the infant rests; wanting these it worries, and moves inquiringly till they are regained. Later, other forms of sensation succeed; the hand grasps more definitely, and seeks a greater variety of objects; the ear is cheered by the voice of the parent; the eye is delighted with the brightness of the lamp-light, or with the sun-light. In these last cases, it is evidently more as sensations than as perceptions, more as organic impressions,

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