The mirror., 1922-03-23
Saltwater, Minnesota, Thursday March %, 1922.

Sell OF DOtA Dy ltSeiI ana also Win my
present consciousness?
What am L? Certainly all that biology,
physics, chemistry, and mechanics show
that am, and also all that orthodox
psychology discloses me to be. But abnor-
NAL psychology compels the further con
clusion that l am also subconsciousness,
indeed that this part of me is even more
important in some respects than is my con-
sciousness. Yet am not exclusively any
one of these things" The study of the
subsconscious shows that it does not al
ways become a personality. A certain de-
gree of organization is necessary in order
that personality shall merge. Indeed, if
we retrace our steps and look for some
one characteristic that is present at each
step or level in the building up of the per-
sonality, we find that constant is organi-
zation. l am "electronic," but not exclu-
sively so am atomic, but, again, not ex-
clusively so. Yet whatever l am, cleo
tronic, atomic, molecular, cellular, sub
conscious, conscious, 1 am in each one of
these respects also an organization.
What am 1? l am different kinds of
entities some of them existing in tremen-
dous numbers. am electrons, atoms,
molecules, cells, organs, and body. But
am also as certainly subconscious and
conscious as I am physical, chemical, and
biological. Yet l am not merely any one
of all these. I am the organization of all
of them. And as an organization of en-
tisies at successive different levels, am
hierarchy. l am more complex as regards
the electrons that are "me" than as regards
the atoms. But is my 81" complex? Or
is there at the summit of the hierarchy
singleness or numerical oneness?
My answer is: "Yes, there is" Not
only is there newness of quality at each
succeeding higher level, but there is also
unitariness. This is the second principle
Of organization that now discover.
Qualitative "newness" and oneness go
together. That which is zone" at each
higher level is in some respects qualita-
lively new, and that which is "new" is a
quality of that which is zone" in relation
to other things at that level, for example,
molecules to molecules, cells to cells, per-
sonality to personality.
Now if l apply these principles to the
question, What am L? l am led to the i'm
portant and rather unexpected conclusion
that am only something more than cleo
irons, molecules, cells a body, but also
something more than even subconscious-
hess and consciousness. There is an 'I''
that transcends all of those different parts
that are organized to make up the ''I' and
this is not only one, but is also qualita-
lively different, as regards to some of its
characteristics, from those parts.
find as a personality l belong tosa
rational and to an ethical realm, and that
as belonging to those realms am free
from the limitations of the other, the scien-
tific realms to which also belong In the
ethical and rational realms am, how
ever, not lawless. That is not the nature
of my freedom. But law in those realms
is a different kind of law from the law of
other realms, and so as rational and ethi-
cal being am free from the limitations of
the law of biology, chemistry, and physics.
Then I am unit, personality, with
characteristics different from those of all
the parts of which ! am page 9, Col. 81