The Washington times., 1933-08-30

Secrets OF
Health
By LOUIS E. BISCH. MD, Ph.D.
Certain Mental Experiences
Repeat Themselves

Repeat Themselves
Have you ever had the ex-
perience of talking with some
one and feeling that you have
had an identical conversation,
almost word for word, with an
other person on a previous oc-
Casion?
AS you spoke, it seemed as
though you knew beforehand
not only what you were going
to say but also the exact
phraseology that the other was
about to employ in his reply.
Furthermore, as the words
were uttered, particularly your
own, and it seemed you were
vaguely reliving the past, I am
sure your sensations bordered
on the uncanny.
Such an experience is not,
however, rare. 1t occurs not
infrequently in persons who are
accustomed to observe their
own mental reactions.
Memories
1t must be remembered that
the vast majority OF our
thoughts arise from the uncon-
scious mind; or, if you prefer,
from our memory storehouse.
Here they are recorded in
some mysterious manner along
certain nerve strands known
as association fibres."
OF these there must be mil
lions and millions. They cross
and criss-cross throughout the
brain proper. Whatever OF i'm
portance has taken place in our
lives since babyhood days is
somehow registered in these as
sociation paths.
Now then, suppose a certain
conversation you have had a
few years ago is set down, like
a record, along a certain set OF
these nerves. Then, If you
have another conversation at a
future time that bears re-
semblance, as regards it's idea
content, to the previous one,
this second conversation runs
along, or at least starts along,
the old first paths and, unless
you consciously check it-Side-
track it, so to speak-you have
the feeling of experiencing
something that is merely repe-
tition.
That explains also why you
can foretell what you are 60
ing to say next, provided, OF
course, that you allow your
thoughts to flow freely. Since,
furthermore, all people reply in
about the same way to any
specific conversation you can,
also, tell ahead of time what
the person to whom you are
talking is going to say.
Many apparently uncanny
thoughts and feelings can now
adays be explained in the light
of modern psychology.
PremOnitiOnS
That common sensation that
something dreadful is going to
happen, for instance, means
simply that the stream of
mental energy is running along
association fibres which bear
a record of a disagreeable ex-
perience that actually did hap
pen in the past.
Habits, in fact, are nothing
more than group of associa-
tlon paths linked together.
Once We get started in our
thinking on one of them, we
automatically think through
the entire series and act &C
cordingly.
Nerves that are not used so
frequently apparently show
greater resistance t. the
stream of thought flow. Ac-
cordingly, we must think in the
same or in similar way again
and again if we are to con-
tinue to think along the same
lines in the future. This-if
we may compare the rnechan-
ism to the way electricity re-
actS-makes the used nerves
thicker. And, of course, there
is less resistance to nerve or
electrical flow in a thick nerve
or wire than in a thin one, all
other factors being equal.
The mind is surely compli-
Gated, yet one after another of
its former battling mysteries
are being solved through the
researches of scientific men.
Copyright. 1888, KingSFeatures
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