Mind, an Abstract Power
Excerpt from Schizophrenia, Alfred J. Parker
If I were to ask the question: "What is mind, its origin, and pattern?" I would probably get as many answers, and none of them would be logical and basic. We know it is an abstract power, not a physical appendage that grows, because the mind grows only through experiences and education. The mind is not the brain cells, although the brain does record the impulses; i.e., it transposes impulses to a mental picture and to the senses and centres of sight, taste, touch, smell, feeling, awareness, and concept. Thus are the abstract powers of mind reduced in vibration or transposed through the brain within the limits of thought, practical analysis, and deduction. No one knows what he or she may be thinking minutes ahead, hours and days notwithstanding. Yet, there must be a reason for thinking anything; and the reason is not a chemical phenomenon because chemistry is only an effect, not a cause.
There are many degrees or planes of mind from the lowest, most primitive type to that of the highest spiritual philosopher; yet all embrace what is termed, "intelligence," a quality that is almost indefinable in terms although manifest in quality of thought, personality, and action, and in its attraction of other minds upon the same plane of thinking. In a logical discussion of mind, one must raise one's sights above and beyond chemistry into the power of mind itself, which is within the orbit of cause rather than effect. It would seem that effect must contain the reason of its being within itself, for reason and cause of being must be identical although manifesting in duality. Reason must always have its proof in being, and there can be no being without reason.