Abstract One's view of the origin and nature of mind is of crucial importance both for an assessment of human worth and in the formation of a truly healthy philosophy of life. Carefully examining historical outlooks on mind and brain, the author reviews various explanations which have been offered for the ascendancy of the mechanistic approach. He then presents the experimental findings of recent research which have led some of the most renowned scientists in the field to conclude that mind is more than matter and more than a mere by-product of the brain. We live in an age of specialization. At a scientific symposium, people adopt such jargons and employ them almost like a foreign language to the mystification of the outsider.
Communication ceases to be general.
Another consequence of this is that when quotable statements are taken from authorities in different fields in order to contribute light on some common theme, the same words sometimes mean different things when used by different authors. This potential for misunderstanding seems virtually unavoidable when any attempt at synthesis is made. To seek to obviate this difficulty by an extensive note on the meaning of each key term as it appears can only confuse the average reader by leading him to suppose that every authority whose words are quoted is thereafter using his terms in this sense and only in this sense, which can sometimes be a misleading assumption. The best one can hope for in a small volume like this, which calls upon the witness of authorities in one discipline to shed light upon the subject matter of another discipline, is at least to communicate some generative ideas. We may by opening up new lines of thought contribute light to minds of greater precision who will thus be enabled to hit upon the exact truth.