Lesson Talks
Series with one eleven-year-old boy.

I - July 19, 1937 -

There are different sorts of people, Peter. One kind uses only what is made already; they use what other people have made. Another kind makes things for others to use.

Among the people who use only what others have made, there are some who use those things well, and there are others who misuse them. If your father had let you use his big bandsaw when you were younger, you might have tried to saw a piece of iron with it. That would have been misusing the band saw.

(Boy) - He didn't give me a chance!

Those who make things for others, have many different sorts of things to do; they can make, not only hammers to hammer nails with - not only chairs to sit on - but also ideas can be made, and books written, and music composed, and pictures painted. Many different things can be made that are of use to others. And the very first things for a man to make is himself!

Peter - What kind of a man are you going to be?

(Boy) - I'm going to be one who makes things that others can use.

- 3 -

XXXXXXXX

I want you to learn to discriminate between your actions,
your feelings and your thoughts. XXXXXX

(Boy) - Why?

Suppose that when you began to do that work this morning,
everything in your mind was confused and you didn't know the
difference between stones, bricks, ground and grass. Don't you
see? Instead of gathering up stones and bricks and putting them
in a pile by themselves, - which was what I wanted you to do -
you might have pulled up the grass and put that in a pile, or you
might have dug up the earth and put that in a pile. So you see
that in order to do the right and useful thing in that job, you
had to know the difference between the things you were dealing
with. So in order to do the right and useful work in making a
man of yourself, you must know how to distinguish between the dif-
ferent parts of you.

II a.

Peter, I want to ask you a question.

Are you your body?

(Boy) is greatly puzzled and not at all sure what to answer.)

That is your hand, isn't it?

(Boy) - Yes.

Are you your hand ?

(Boy) No.

Your hand is a part of your body, a sort of tool of your body,
istn't it? So are your feet. Are you your feet?

- 4 -

(Boy) - No!

Your legs are another part of your body. Are you your legs?

(Boy) No.

Well then, are you your body? Or are you something and your
body a part of you - your instrument?

(Boy) - I don't think I quite understand you.
Don't feel you must answer now. It's just something to think

about. Some time when you feel you have answered it, come and
tell me about it, what you have thought of it, Think -

III July 21st 1937

(Prelude - Peter heard remarking: "I wonder what he's going to talk to me about today!")

Peter, what is a human being?

(Boy) - A human being is a mammal.

Why?

(Boy) - Because they can't breathe under water, and because
they have legs.

What mammals do you know about?

(Boy) - Oh - whales - and bears. You see a whale can't breathe under water - and a man can't either.

But Peter, you can't define anything by saying what it's not,
or what it can't do. It wouldn't tell you much about an automobile
if I said that it didn't eat hay.

(Boy goes into paroxysm of laughter at the idea of a car eating hay.)

You see, when you want to define a thing, you must pick its
main characteristics, the things that really make it what it is.

- 6 -

I don't think so, Pete. And as to teaching the young - do
animals teach their children?

(Boy) - Sure!

What do they teach them?

(Boy) - Bears teach their young how to get honey from bee-hives. They show them how to be careful so as not to disturb the bees and get stung. If they do it a certain way they don't get badly stung.

Where did you learn that? You may be quite right.

(Boy) - From a book.

Well, bears may teach their children that, but ordinarily
the young of animals don't get much instruction. They don't have
to have much because they seem to have certain knowledge in them.
squabs
Our NIXXENXEN know where to put their beaks to get food from their
parents beaks. They know how to fly when the right time comes.
Nobody teaches them to lay eggs, or to build nests. Now Pigeons
can build nests, because it is natural to them to do so, but a
pigeon couldn't build a house like this. That is a more complicated
matter and needs planning - thinking.

Human children get quite a lot of help, in learning.

(Boy) - Well I could always eat.

Perhaps you don't remember the time when you picked up a
spoon with food in it, and it went into your eye or your hair in-
stead of your mouth, and your mother helped you to get it to the
right place.

(Boy laughing) - Oh yes - I used to pick up a spoonful of soup
and turn it upside down and spill all the soup out, and then lick
the back of the spoon. And when I learned to walk, I guess I got
help.

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V. July 23-

Peter, what is thinking? See if you can give me an example of thinking.

(Boy) - When I'm going to sit in a chair, I think which chair I'm going to sit in.

There isn't a great deal of thinking involved in that.

(Boy) - There is with me.

Well, what do you think, when you're going to choose a chair to sit in?

(Boy) - I think whether it's comfortable - whether I can curl up in it - if it's a good place to read - 'cause when I start I'm usually there for an hour or so.

Yes, but there isn't much thinking to that. You see a chair, and you know pretty well whether it's comfortable or not.

(Boy stubbornly) - Still - it's thinking!

Alright - we'll say it is. But it is a very simple kind of thinking. Give me another example.

(Boy) - When I'm going up to the shop to make something, I think what I'm going to make, and how to make it.

Yes. That takes real thinking. That's a good example. Can you give another?

(Boy) - When I'm climbing a tree, I have to think how to do it, so I won't fall, and so I can get down again.

Yes. That's another. Why do you think? Why think at all?

(Boy) - If you don't, you're stupid.

Yes, but what is its positive value. How does it help you? When you're choosing a chair, when you're going to make something in the shop, when you're climbing a tree, why think about it?

14

That's right. As you say, you have to see that with your
mind's eye. Then you have to observe the wood that is going into
the making, and so forth. The general idea is this: before you
can think you must see or perceive something.

Boy) - What is perceive?

Perceiving is seeing with your mind's eye. Without perceiving
anything you wouldn't have anything to think about. For example
you've never seen New Mexico. You couldn't think much about New
Mexico, because you haven't seen it with your eyes or with your
mind's eyes. Generally speaking, you have got to see or perceive
something before you can think about it.

Now suppose that instead of seeing one chair, you thought you
saw two chairs all jumbled up together. If you didn't see straight,
you couldn't think straight, could you?

(Boy) - I see four chairs right now -

Maybe, but not all in one place. If you thought a mattress
was a chair - or a pillow a chair - you might make a mattress or
a pillow when you meant to make a chair. So you see without seeing
clearly you couldn't think clearly.

Now as to psychological thinking - psychological thinking is
thinking about people. Thinking about people so as to *make them*.
Your knowledge about people gives you power to make them.

Here's an example of psychological thinking. This morning
you had to be quiet because of your sore toe. Because of your
having to be quiet, a certain amount of energy got pent up in you.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX You didn't know what to do with it. You became
restless. Did you perceive that you were restless?

(Boy) - Yes.

Alright - you had a psychological perception.

(Boy) - What is a perception?

15

A perception is what you see without your eyes - what you see
with your mind's eye. You **XXX** that just as clearly as you know
that you are holding a pillow in front of your face now. But did
your knowing that you were restless help you to do anything about
it?

(Boy) - No, it didn't.

Well, you see, that time it didn't help you to do anything,
did it? When you think about making a chair, it helps you to make
the chair - but in this case it didn't help you at all. Did it?
do
Maybe you didn't XXXXX very much thinking about it. When you came
into lunch did you know that some of that restlessness was making
you hop back and forth between your table and our table more than
you needed to?

Boy) - No.

Do you think so now? Do you know it now?

Boy) - Yes.

So, some of your energy was spent by doing that hopping back
and forth.

(Boy) - Yes - but I didn't want everybody to have wait on me.

Yes, both of those things were in your behavior. At that time
I knew there were both of these things. I knew it-by thinking
about you. What do you think that kind of thinking enabled me to
do? It enabled me to understand you at lunch time. So you see,
that's how XXXXX they
XX people arrive at understanding of themselves and what XX do,
and arrive at understandings of other people and what they do,
That is the value of psychological thinking. It enables you to
understand yourself and others. If I had been in New York, could
I have thought about you and understood you? No. I wouldn't have
had anything to go on. I could only think clearly and accurately
because I saw you clearly and accurately. So that's one of the

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things you want to do in life. See what you're doing clearly
and why you're doing it. The same with others. See clearly and
accurately, enables you to think clearly and accurately. (Argie,
stop bothering Peter. I'm talking to him.) She wasn't thinking
that time. She isn't old enough to really think. That's the way
she behaves when she asks every day when someone is going downtown:
"Can I go to town?" The last time when I said "no", did I answer
happily or was I annoyed?

(Boy) - I think you were annoyed.

now
You perceived that. But you didn't then. Did you think why
I was annoyed? Now my annoyance prevented the very thing you wanted
to happen. If you had thought about it, you might have let me go
down town two or three times without asking. Then when you asked
I would have smiled and said yes. But to be asked every time any-
one makes a move toward going to town, causes annoyance. All of
that understanding would have come about through thinking. It is
a way of doing things with yourself and with other people. That's
what psychological thinking is.

So in the future you think sometimes what kind of a state or
condition you are in, and what kind of a state or condition others
are in. What effect has it when we are playing croquet, and you
behave in a certain way? What kind of an effect is produced in us
when we hear you say so often: "I don't like this and I don't
like that."

(Boy) - I guess you get sort of annoyed at it.

It isn't a matter of whether it is right or wrong. It is just
that when you say something, it has an effect of some kind. Well,
then ask yourself, what kind of an effect? When you and Francès
were sitting in the middle of the living room floor when I came

18

VI

Peter, in school do you read history?

(Boy) - Yes! I've read American history, mediaeval history, lots of history.

real

Why do you think you study history? What's the reason?
I'm not speaking about you being interested in what all the kings and armies do. I mean, what can you really learn from history that is important to you.

(Boy after a puzzled pause) I don't guess I know.

Tell me this Peter. You know you've had a history. It hasn't been long - only eleven years - but it's your history to date. Now suppose you look back over what you've done, what important thing could you learn from your personal history?

(Boy) - I could learn what I did wrong and know not to do it again.

Fine, Peter. That's a good and true answer. Now just as you can learn to profit by knowing your own past mistakes, so that you do better and more intelligently in the future, so all living men can profit by reading and coming to know the mistakes of people who lived before them.

Out west, Peter, there are large holes in the ground, called abandoned mines.

(Boy) - I know about them. Around Paoli, there are a lot of abandoned quarries. They gave them up because they found it was too expensive to operate them.

That's right. That's one reason. Another reason is that in some cases they thought there was ore down in the earth, but when

19

they dug down they found that they'd been mistaken. Now suppose
you were out there, wanting to find one, and suppose you came
across such a mine, but suppose you didn't see what it really was,
and you didn't think clearly about it, and come to a right under-
standing. You wouldn't profit by the mistake made by the other men,
would you?

(Boy) - No.

You might spend five years of your life, working around that
mine, trying to go deeper and all to no purpose. But now, suppose
instead that you saw this mine for what it really was, and under-
stood that other men had worked here and found nothing. This know-
ledge would save you the trouble of working at it, and you could
move on to some better place.

Now, Peter, mankind for many many ages has been trying to mine
its
in such a way. It has been trying to do things with nature and with
men so as to develop splendid human beings, and a fine civilization.
Men in the past have made many mistakes. They did things that had
to be abandoned, like that mine we were speaking of. They did other
things which they should have abandoned, because in reality there
was nothing in it for them. Living people can profit by reading
history, and so learning what mistakes people in the past have made,
and what they failed to do in their efforts to develop splendid men
and women. You can learn a great deal as to what you and the rest
of us who are living should and should not do; but only if you see
the thing clearly and straightly and think about it and understand
it.

Can you remember the trouble you had learning to ride a bicycle?

(Boy) - Not so much trouble because I had scooters first.

20

Well what do you think have you found most difficult that you have learned to do?

Boy - Well - I think learning to balance a bike was about the hardest thing I can think of.

People have been trying to balance much more difficult things than bikes. They've been trying to learn how to live and grow and develop. From their efforts you may be able to learn things that will guide you in your efforts.

When I try to balance this household, I draw upon a great deal of experience. I've read books and know some of the snags and difficulties that other people have had. I know some of their mistakes. All of this I bring to bear to balance this household. How difficult it is, you don't know. You can't know, because you've never tried anything like that yet.

Boy - Now that I know how, riding a bike seems easy. I can ride freehanded.

Oh yes, when you know how! They it seems easy. But it isn't your aim in life to be able to balance a bicycle. You want to be able to balance your life and to help others balance their lives. This ought to give you a new attitude toward reading history. I read history to learn what they did right and the mistakes they made. Is that a good aim for reading history?

Boy - Yes.

Do you think that's your teachers' aim?

Boy - No

What do you think their purpose is in having you study history?

Boy - I don't know.

["21", "Well, it doesn't matter really, what you think their purpose is, or even what they think it is - You read history with this purpose and you'll learn things. That's one half of our talk today. The second half I am only going to give you a sketch of, and we'll talk about it tomorrow.", "You know what an individual is? A person - one person. And you know what a family is - a number of people, a small group. And a larger group is a community, the group in which a family lives. Then there is the town ...", "Boy - And the county.", "Yes and the state; and still larger, the country, the nation.\nNow what's beyond the nation?", "Boy - The world. WXXXXXXXXX The universe. Theuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm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22

Boy - And the environment grew larger too.

Yes. And as it grew you made more contacts; you learned to know more about people, and more happened to you; you developed. If that is the way of development, wouldn't it be good for people, instead of stopping, to go on becoming larger in themselves, and making their environment larger? As you grow the environment grows, and the larger environment helps you to grow more. So as you go on, you become a citizen of Paoli - of Chester County - of Pennsylvania - of the United States; not just in name, but really. Would this be a good place to stop?

Boy - I don't know what's coming, so I can't say.

If you go on growing, you become a citizen of the world and - the next stage - _citizen of the universe_. That's what's called a progression. You start at a small point and lead logically and rightly to the next. You don't stop. Mother, family, town, state, nation, world; develop and you become a citizen of the universe!

One more idea and the lesson is over. Do you think that for the growth of the body, it is necessary to go through all these stages?

Boy - No.

That's right. Your body could grow perfectly well in the small environment. What is it in you that needs the larger one?

Boy - My mind.

Yes, your mind; and this thing that is you - You, Peter. That is what needs to grow from a very small environment to the greatest possible environment, and that's what will happen if you lead a life of "making good", and developing those resources we talked about.

23

Do you know what it is to memorize something?

Boy - Yes.

Well, I advise you to remember this progression. From the body of your mother, to the family, town, state, country, world - citizen of the universe. This is why you are living. You are living XXX ultimately to become a citizen of the universe.

These ideas are too big for you to understand just now, and that is why I simply want you to remember them. It is important for your life that you simply remember them.

VII

Peter, what do you think people live together for? Why
do they live together?

(Boy) - To exchange things. Suppose one man could only make tables - and another could only make chairs - why the one who could make tables, wouldn't have any chairs to sit on. So they exchange what they can make.

Yes that's one reason. Can you think of any others?

(Boy) - Yes - for protection - against wild animals and
Indians -

Now you've given two reasons for living together. To exchange things and for protection. But why exchange products?

(Boy) - So that the man who can only make tables can get chairs from the man who can only make chairs. If they didn't do that, he wouldn't have any chairs to sit on.

Yes, but are chairs and tables absolutely necessary for men?

(Boy) - Well if we didn't have them we'd have to sit on the floor - and -

Yes - but does it make much difference where one sits?

(Boy) - Not in China -

Does it really make much difference anywhere?

(Boy) - Well -

I know what you mean, Peter; but what I mean is, why do we
sit on chairs at tables ? Are you living in order to sit on a
chair? That's not sufficient purpose for living. Suppose then,
that people lived together only to exchange products - that's
what we call commerce, or business - What then is the idea of
being in business?

25

(Boy) - For profits and savings.

Why save and why make profits? What do you want them for?

(Boy) - To buy food and clothes.

(Does the man who is in the grain business grow the grain?)

Not if he is a miller, says the boy. Usually he doesn't.)

Well, we will say then that one purpose for people living
together is, as you say, to buy food. Another purpose is pro-
tection. Both of these purposes have to do with what we call
"survival" - in order to keep the body alive. But what are you
keeping your body alive for?

(Boy) - I don't know. (general laughter)

Now I'm going to make a little detour before answering that
question.

(Boy) - What's a detour?

Question

The same thing as a detour on a road. We'll leave this <u>for</u>
a while, and go around and come back to it. I'm going to give
you another reason for living together - a reason you haven't men-
tioned. <u>To help each other.</u> That's what I'm going to tell you
about.

Look at our pigeons. Do they <u>always</u> help each other? Can
you find any example among animals of their living to help each
other?

(Boy) - Fishes live in <u>pools</u> to help protect each other.

sch

I doubt it. If a shark were to come along, he'd open his
mouth and swallow the whole school. If a hawk were to swoop down
on our pigeons, each one would try to save himself. If two dogs
are hungry and one finds a piece of meat, does he call his friend
to share it with him? No indeed he'd gobble it down as fast as he
could.

Boy -

some do.

That's what people want to do, and

I don't think you're right there, Peter.

(Boy) - A mother bear helps her cubs.

All mothers - everywhere - of every kind - do that.

(Boy) - Do mother pigeons help their squabs?

They bring them food - they feed their young; but when the squab is big enough to get food for himself - it's finished; no more help. So we agree, don't we, that in general animals do not help each other - but human beings do.

(Boy) - Ants help each other. I read a story of how when ants move, they have leaders or something like that -

Yes, Peter, ants are interesting to study and they do quite a few things that seem to resemble human activities, but I wonder if you'd ever find an ant going out of his way to help another ant - and doing it voluntarily, because he realized that the other ant needed help. I think you'll find that all that the ants do is done in a machine-like way. This is somewhat true of all insects, and animals in general. Not only do most animals not help each other in the way we now mean it, but they can't. They're not able to.

When our pigeons first came, before their present house was built, they were housed in a tumbledown shed, where rats began to attack them. The rats actually got a few of the big male birds, and once a rat attacked one but the pigeon got away. When I came in in the morning, this pigeon had a bad wound on the side of his throat. None of the other birds tried to help the bitten one. And what's more, they couldn't. Now what happened the other day when you cut your foot? Three people came to help you, and were able to help you. They not only had the desire to help, but they could help.

27

You remember in our first talk, we wanted to find out what
are the peculiar characteristics of human beings. Well, this is
one of them. The desire and the ability to help others.

If you want to grow up to be a real human being, this charac-
teristic must grow - the desire to help *and* the ability to help
others; and also when you desire to *be* helped, you must have the
ability to *be* helped.

**$Boy**- Sometimes people don't want to be helped. They fight being helped.

Yes, in certain situations - such as a man who is drowning,
who fights off those who come to help him. In that case the man
has lost that human characteristic - the ability to be helped.

(Boy)- But sometimes they get it back.

Yes, they regain it when they regain their senses; but for
the moment, they lose that human characteristic. Suppose I had wanted to
fix that pigeon's wound.

(Boy)- He'd have pecked you.

Yes, he'd have carried on fearfully and wouldn't have let me
get near him. So when human beings get into the state of which
drowning is an example ...

(Boy)- They become animals.

No, they become *like* animals. Now we come to the matter which
you mentioned - some human beings who really don't want to help
others. How can we class them? What do we call them?

(Boy) - Criminals!

That's right. It doesn't matter what else they are called -
bankers or lawyers or manufacturere. Those names are like labels
that are stuck on the outside of a bottle when something different

28

is inside.

(Boy) - I don't think they're allowed to do that - stick wrong labels on bottles.

No, they're not allowed to on bottles, but a lot of human beings are going around with false labels on. Lots of human beings are not nearly as good as milk, but they have labels that say "milk" on them. How do you think they became that way?

(Boy) - Instinct? No - Oh, I know. It's from the second part of the mind that you drew on the blackboard the other night. I don't know what you called it, but it was that part next to the right-hand side - there in the middle -

Bravo, Peter! That's right! Through ignorance, through bad environment - that thing in the person and that thing in the people surrounding him, made him that kind of a person.

(Boy) - I'm sure that robbers don't want to help cops.

No, I guess not. But maybe some bankers, and lawyers and business men are similar in that respect.

(Boy) - What about the continuation of what we were talking about yesterday? You only told me half of it and said you'd speak about the rest today.

I'm coming to that. We have decided haven't we, that one of the characteristics of a true man is that he wants to and can help others - and that he himself wants to be helped and can be helped. But Peter, there are very different kinds of help you can give a person. *Take a person who* has lost his way, and asks you how to get to Paoli.

(Boy) - I'd help him find it.

29

Yes, that's one kind of help. You mentioned in the beginning two of the reasons why we live together - the exchange of products and -

(Boy) But some of the products aren't necessities - some are luxuries - we don't need them the same way.

That's right Peter. There are different kinds of products, and sometime we'll have to go into that matter. But now let's keep to our reasons for living together. Exchange of products and mutual protection. Those are two kinds of help. Both of these, you remember, come under the heading of survival. In short, human beings can and do help each other to survive.

But what, Peter? Are we surviving simply in order to survive? Or are we helping each other to survive so that we can help ourselves and others in other and higher ways?

Now we come to a most important kind of help, which probably hasn't occurred to you. In fact this kind of help doesn't occur to many people. What about living together not only to exchange the products of human nature, but also to exchange the resources of human nature - our human nature resources?

(Boy) - That's the way I want to help people.

That's a swell idea. That's the greatest, highest idea in living - to tap and really use human resources, so as to improve and develop to be as fine human beings as we possibly can be.

When you first came here, at this time of day, we used to just sit and talk ordinarily, didn't we? And perhaps have a drink or eat a cracker - Now, drinking is a sort of exchange of products. At that time, we were consuming products, but were we being very helpful to each other in any big way? Was there any help being given you or anybody else?

(Boy) - There is now.

Yes, I am drawing upon my resources to help you. And other
men before me drew on theirs to help me - to help me to be able
to draw on mine.

(Boy) - You're helping me to help others.

That's right. I want to help you to become able to help
others. All of the future of mankind is dependant upon this kind
of help. The time is coming when you and young men like you are
going to be the ones that say what is to be and what is not. You
will be one of the adults. My body - the bodies of these present
adults will be gone. Because the body is dead doesn't mean that
we will be; but we won't be here. We won't be present in these
bodies. You and your generation will be the men who are ruling or
directing. Your generation will then be ruling the world. Each
generation has the possibility of making the world as they want it
to be - trying to make the world a truly human place. You try to
make your family a truly human family, your state a truly human
state, your country a truly human country - a truly human world.

(Boy) - And the universe a truly human universe.

When we come to the universe, Peter, you will find that there
are a lot of living and intelligent beings in the universe, in
addition to men. So it won't be exactly a human universe. But
men have a job to do in the universe. You can grow and develop
to do your job in the universe by living with yourself and with
people with whom you come into contact - living so as to desire
and to be able to help them in these important ways, such as draw-
on their resources - their human resources.

One more idea and then we stop for today.

31

Do you know the difference between a desire, a wish for a thing, and the ability to do that thing? You might wish to ride a bike, but sitting and wishing you could, wouldn't make you able to ride it, would it? You must first have the desire - then you have to learn how - and then you become able to do it.

Do you know what my job in life is? It is to increase the desire in people to really be human beings, and then to help them to become able actually to be what they desire.

Did you ever hear of Christ? Certainly you have! Did you ever hear of Buddha?

(Boy) - No, but I've heard of Moses.

Well, the reason you didn't hear of Buddha was that he happened to live in India, but all of them were great teachers. They were great teachers of mankind. These great men lived to do in their great way, just what I live to do in my smaller way. They were just marvelous human beings, and they lived to teach people to do just the things we are talking about.

VIII

Peter, what are you going to do with your body when you grow up?

Boy - Develop.

How? What kind of a body do you want to have?

Boy - A good strong one, with strong muscles.

Why do you want to develop such strong muscles?

Boy - Well you can't buy strong muscles, you got to develop them.

Yes, but what do you want muscles for?

Boy - So's I could dig ditches or something like that.

Do you expect to dig ditches when you grow up?

Boy - No - but I might have to - to earn a living - and not starve.

Do you think there's much likelihood that you'll earn your living digging ditches?

Boy - No.

Why then build muscles for something you're not really expecting to do?

Boy - For an emergency. If I can't find any other job.

Peter, how did you get that idea about earning a living digging ditches?

Boy - Don't know just how - It came out of my head.

What did you see that put it in your head?

Boy - Don't know.

Do you think that the present King of England has any such idea?

Boy - No, I guess not.

Do you know what happened to the former Tsar of Russia? Well, he was dethroned, and the present Kind George of England must know

33

that no kings today are any too secure. Now let me ask you this.
Let's do it on my hand. Here is ditch digging; here's *me* fine
wood-working like John does; here's playing a violin; here's being
a writer; here a doctor. Now for which of these occupations would
you need these very powerful muscles? Only for the ditch digging.
Now a man hasn't the time or the energy in one life to train to be
all those things. He has to pick out one to specialize in. Which
one is he going to pick? Why - the one he most wants to do!

Boy - The one he's most fitted for.

Yes. Suppose a man is fitted to be a doctor and I were to ask
him: "Why develop your body?" - and he says: "to dig ditches".
He can't prepare for everything. If he is to be a doctor, he must
think how to make his hands skillful and his eyes able to detect
disorders in people. Powerful muscles won't help him to become a
good doctor. At least the muscle building would be sort of a side-
line. Of course he wants to have health and a certain amount of
strength. Everyone does. How about with you, Peter? Has muscle
building ever been the most important thing for you?

Boy -

How about your father? Do you think he could dig ditches?

Boy - Sure!

He isn't very muscular.

Boy - He's pretty strong.

Yes, he's strong enough but he isn't one of those powerful men,
with big heavy muscles, is he?

Boy - Guess he isn't.

Have you ever seen any prize fighters or wrestlers?

Boy - I've seen pictures of Joe Lewis.

Well, your father hasn't that kind of muscles, and you'll never

34

be like Joe Lewis either, will you?

Boy - No, I guess not.

Would

How would you like to be?

Boy - I don't think so.

Why wouldn't you?

Boy - 'cause fighting isn't important.

That's good, because you never could be. Your body is not made that way. Your body isn't built to become a fighter. Those who are going to become wrestlers or fighters show signs of that kind of body at an early age. They are husky kids, with heavy frames and thick wrists, etc. What you want your body for is to be a good instrument for whatever you are going to do.

You know violins, don't you Peter?

Boy - Sure. I used to play one.

When men made violins how did they want them to be?

Boy - So's they'd sound musical.

Yes. That's right - What else?

Boy - So's they'd fit a man.

That's right. They didn't want them to be huge, or as strong as a sledge hammer. They wanted them to be right for a man to play on, so as to produce music. Who makes the music - the violin or the man?

Boy - Both.

Yes - but which really <u>makes</u> it? Which is the more important in producing the music?

Boy - The man.

Certainly. The man is the musician; the violin is his <u>instrument</u>. By means of this instrument he can make you hear and feel what he has composed, inside himself.

Boy - Not always himself. He can play what somebody else has composed.

Yes - but it has come out of someone. Maybe even out of the resources of someone. What do you think about that?

Boy - I probably did.

Certainly great music does. Violins then are instruments to express and communicate - to make audible - so that others can hear and feel. They are the musicians' means of helping himself to compose, and of helping other people to hear and feel. What do you think I mean when I say that your body is an instrument?

Boy - You mean that it should be fitted to do what I'm fitted to do.

I mean that what is living and growing inside of you, has your body as its means of expression, development, etc. Does the man exist for the violin?

Boy - No - the violin exists for the man.

Do you live for your body or is your body for you?

(Long pause)

What's puzzling you?

Boy - I think they exist for each other.

Yes and the musician and violin are for each other too. Yet you answered the first question definitely, without hesitation. Why is it not the same with the second? Isn't the body an instrument?

Boy - The man and his body are combined.

That's true. They are more of one piece. It isn't quite the same thing as a musician and his violin. But I'll explain why I'm asking you these questions.

Do you know any one who lives just for his body? They do nothing but eat and drink and dress up and ride around in cars and

36

show off their bodies and their cars, and show off their fine houses,
etc. They never think of questioning how fine a mind a person has,
or how fine feelings. They don't think about these qualities, that
make a true human being. They just think about their bodies and
the bodies of other people. Now what do you think a pig does?

Boy - He lives for himself.

Yes - but what is a pig? Has a pig a mind? Has he fine feelings? No. He just

That's the way it seems. Of course I don't know because I've never
been inside a pig. But do you think a pig ever has any great ideas?

Boy - No.

Will he ever be able to help anybody?

Boy - It helps us to eat him.

Only if we butcher him. He doesn't live for these qualities
inside him. Well, some people in life are sort of piggish.

Boy - Rich people.

And some who aren't so rich, Peter.

Maybe and maybe not. Some people think the body is the most important thing in life.

Boy - Yes. They have towing machines and mechanical horses
and all sorts of things to keep their bodies nice. - and they take
laxatives and -

Yes. They're always thinking about the body. Much like the
musician who is always thinking about his violin - always taking
it out and polishing it, and showing it off - *but not playing it*.

Boy - He says - "look what a fine instrument I have. It's

37

too old to play on." He says that just 'cause he can't play.

Yet it's made to be played on - made to be used, by true human beings.

Boy - For what?

That's a good question and maybe you can answer it yourself.

Boy doubtfully - To live? To learn?

Yes, that's two things. What else? I think you've forgotten
your lessons while we've been in New York.

(pause) then Boy - To help each other. (Pause) To tap natural
resources and human natural resources.

That's it. Now they're coming. To develop as a true human
being; to develop more of the things that make human beings true
human beings. Have you had that attitude toward your body?

Boy - Guess not.

What have you thought about it?

Boy - Haven't very much.

When I was a boy about your age, I wanted my body to be a
strong strapping body like a wrestler's. I didn't know anything
about the body being an instrument or of being of use to me in my
development. I wanted it to become like this and that and the other
strong man's. And so I wasted a lot of effort trying to become
that way. I wasn't built that way.

*A declaration of strong boys*

Their bodies will become very very strong, especially if they are
well taken care of and built up, but your body isn't made like that
and instead of yours becoming like Joe Lewis or
yours will become sensitive and skillful. Of course everyone
should have a certain strength and health, but this other kind of
strength is a special thing. Your body can only become as strong as

38

as it's built to be. One of Wharton's delicate hammers can not be
a sledge hammer. Your body wasn't made for a sledge hammer, but for
more sensitive things. Maybe you have been like me when I was your
age. Have you ever had such a desire? Most young fellows have;
because they grow up among others who think it's great to be that
way, but have no ideas that some bodies should be sensitive, deft,
skillful and strong in their way. You must be true to the way you
are built. Don't try to become like somebody else.

Boy - Most of those fellows who are physically strong are not mentally strong.
*Example from school.*

The whole idea, Peter, is that you must be true to what you
try to be
are and not let other things in life make you something that you
are not. It's a waste of time - for you can't do it. It delays
your becoming what you are and can become. What would you think of
me if instead of doing what I do I'd get out and spar and train
to box, every day? MEXICAN

EXL Boy laughs.

Most people would say - Swell. But they wouldn't be right,
would they? The first strong man who came along would lick the
pants off me. If I were to fight Joe Lewis I'd never even get a
chance to hit him.

Boy - And if you did, he wouldn't feel it.

First then: - Be true to what you are - true to what your body
is. And second: Your body is an instrument, so that you can be
useful to yourself and to others; so that you can use human re-
sources, and become a fine human being, instead of a second-rate
Joe Lewis.

39

IX

Monday August 2nd, 1937.

Peter, do you think you could recall and sort of summarize
certain of the features and characteristics we have found to be
peculiar to human beings?

Boy - Yes. They have minds and can think with them.

Alright. What's another?

Boy - They know how to use their minds. They can put on
sort of a thinking cap.

Yes. What's another?

(Pause.)

What about resources?

Boy - Yes, I was thinking of that and I couldn't quite get it.
And human beings can help each other, and be helped.

Yes; and they can learn from their past experience and that
of others. Now today we will look into this matter of thinking,
and why it is so important, and why it is that man can do it.

Suppose that the telephone were to ring and you went to answer
it, and you heard somebody say: "This is the second of August
and we are to meet each other today." You hear this. Now suppose
that all you could do was to repeat what you heard. You'd answer:
"This is the second of August and we are to meet each other today."
And the person on the other end of the wire says the same thing
back at you - and the two of you keep saying the same thing back
and forth. "This is the second of August and we are to meet each
other today". (Laughter) - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Boy - It would be very silly.

Wouldn't it though? And nothing would happen. But if your

40

father calls and you answer this phone and he says: "Peter, do you want to come home or stay at the Toomers?", you wouldn't just repeat it after him. What would you do about it?

Boy - I'd answer him.

What would you have to do before you could answer?

Boy - Think.

Yes - you wouldn't answer immediately. It would take a little time, wouldn't it? Now I'm going to draw a diagram to show what happens.

This is the part of him that _does_ things.

Boy - And this is the part that feels -

Yes and this the part that thinks

Boy - And should have control of things, but hasn't.

In our example of Wharton telephoning to you, his words would be what we call a stimulus. They'd come in here, into this part,

and stimulate you to do something - stimulate you to react to them.

If you hurt your toe, that would be a stimulus, causing you to react. A blow or an accident are physical stimuli (that's plural for stimulus). Whartons's words would be a verbal stimulus. If somebody screams or shouts, you might jump. But would you think about it?

Boy & I'd think where it came from.

But would you _think_?

Boy - Yes.

Well that's fine. Then you would act like a human - not like

41

an animal.

Now, Wharton phones. Remember what he says: "Peter, do you want to come home or stay at the Toomers?". If that stimulus ran around and came out of you without thinking, you might just repeat to him what he said to you.

(The chalk squirts on the blackboard and Boy squirms) That's a stimulus too, Peter.

Boy o And your talking to me is a stimulus.

Yes indeed. If the stimulus of Wharton's words came out as I have diagrammed, it would be the way an animal works. When Skippy hears a noise she barks. She barks because the stimulus (in this case the noise) comes in and out without thought. You can find in animals and even in men, this kind of thing happening. In comes the stimulus - out goes the reaction. Perfectly automatic - like our oil burner. It doesn't think about what it's doing. It continues to work that way unless something gets out of order. It has no mind - no brain. Animals haven't the kind of brain we have. So the sound makes Skippy bark wiii.

Boy - She has no mind. She can't think.

Now I'll explain why human beings can. What I am going to draw isn't exact, but it will help us to understand the workings. In us there is what we call an associational area. You don't need to remember that name, just get the idea of how it works. Stimuli register in man through two sets of nerves. One kind brings the message in to the brain and the other kind sends one out. There are both - intake and outgo. One set registers the stimulus and one set transmits impulses to the body.

42

If you went over to the fireplace and didn't know it was hot,
and if you touched it your nerves would transmit this unpleasant
sensation to your brain, and you would draw away from it. This
thing in manhappens very quickly.

Boy - Like lightning.

This process goes on so quickly that you've drawn away your
hand before you know it. If this happened all the time in man....

Boy - We'd just repeat what was said to us !

That's right. But in the human brain there is this area,
and the connections aren't just like this drawing. There are so
many relationships that it doesn't work quite so quickly. It sus-
pends reactions. It delays them. This is what enables you not
to parrot Wharton when he asks you: "Peter, do you want to come
home or stay at the Toomers". This enables you not to react at
once, and allows you to delay or suspend your reaction until you've
thought about it.

There is no need for you to know all about the brain. You'll
learn that later on in school or college. But the idea is important.
That this enables you to suspend reaction and come to a real decision.
Let's represent it this way.

Here is a telephone. Here is an incoming set and here an out-
going one. Suppose instead of a human being sitting here receiving
the message, it was a machine. It might send out an exact duplicate
of what was said; and if another machine were at this end, these
silly questions - Do you want to come home or stay etc., would
just keep on going around and around and around -

Boy choking with laughter- _If_ it got started.

43

Yes. That's a good remark. Someone would have to start it.
In human life, there is a human being at this end who sends this
message with some reason. Instead of parroting the message, he
suspends reaction long enough to think about it. Source one sends
the message - source two thinks about it. Then what source two says,
comes from himself. After thinking, source two answers: "I want
to go home", or "I want to stay at the Toomers." What comes out
then, really comes from him. Animals couldn't do it - machines
couldn't do it.

Boy - The mind is like the human being within the human being.

Yes, this is particularly the human being part.
We see, then, the value of being able to suspend the stimulus -
delay the reaction - until we have thought about it.

Now Peter, several days ago, we talked about human beings
having not only natural products but having resources.

Boy - Having their own resources and using them.

I'm going to add another part to our diagram.

This part represents human resources. These are the things in
you that you can draw on. What this person - in himself - deeply
truly thinks, feels, what he is deeply capable of doing - these
are his resources. Suppose all the stimuli from the world came in,
up, around, out - with no thought, no delay, no suspension ...

Boy - No using of resources.

That's right - around and around and around. If you are just
like a machine, or if you just react to a stimulus like animals do,
you can't possibly draw on your own resources. So that the fact
that we can suspend reactions, gives our resources a chance to come

44

out and have something to say about it.

The other day, you hurt your toe. Your first reaction was to feel maybe a little frightened, and feel that those stones oughtn't be there, and you cried a little. That's all very natural reaction - but after awhile you - Peter - got on the job. You literally stopped yourself from crying, you stopped being frightened, you stopped being angry at the stones for being there. You began to think and one of the first results of your thinking allowed Marjorie to bandage your foot. With the pigeon I told you about, who had been bitten by the rat, he would have reacted to my coming near him and to my putting out my arm - and away he'd fly. The stimulus would just come in and action would go out. If you had been like that you wouldn't have let Marjorie fix your toe. In the same way, if you grow, and if your resources grow and develop, you will not only be able to suspend this automatic thing, but XXXXXXXXXXXX when you act, your action will be from your resources.

This afternoon when you came on the porch, you asked me: "Don't we deserve anything today?" I knew, "Peter would like to have a talk with me, but I also knew it was late. If I had not stopped to think, I'd have said: "It's too late".

Boy - You could have said that but you didn't. You thought.

I thought about Marjorie. How nearly is the duck done, and instead of saying no, I went back to the kitchen and asked her. Then I decided. This decision came through my mind; but having decided to have the talk, I now must call on my resources in order to talk to you about these matters.

Boy - You talk to me so as to help me use my resources.

Yes, and all this depends on my ability to suspend my reaction and arrive at a right judgment. This last gives us another word for thinking. It gives us the possibility of thinking in a way

45

that we call *critical* thinking, something like examining the thing from all sides - every way.

Suppose Wharton wanted to buy some wood. He goes to the lumber yard and there's a big pile of boards. He sees only the outside, probably only the butt ends of them. His eyes see only a little bit of the whole. If he just reacted to the stimulus he'd buy them, and then when he got home, he might find they were some other kind of wood...

Boy - Or crooked or full if knots. But Wharton wouldn't buy wood like that.

No, he wouldn't, but I'm supposing he did. What he would do would be to ask the man to take some down, and he'd examine them very carefully, looking at them from all sides - critically. Only then would he be able to get a clear idea of what they really were like. Then he'd think critically about them.

Do you see then the value of critical thinking? It enables you to make the right selection, so you can think as you want. Through a lot of research to do; so as to do what you have in mind. Critical thinking you come to understand the whole thing, and then you can really be intelligent about it. Now, Peter, just as it is necessary to examine wood if you're going to do the best possible woodwork, so is it necessary to examine most things in life, if you're to make the most of them.

Boy - And examine myself so as to make the most of myself.

That's the idea exactly. Examine yourself - see yourself - think about yourself - come to understand and know yourself, so as to be able to make yourself a true human being. Now among the things to be examined critically are ideas and opinions, all ideas and all opinions, those you hear from other people ...

Boy - And my own ideas.

46

Yes, Peter. Your own ideas and my ideas. You must think critically about what I'm telling you in these talks. Don't merely react to them - don't merely believe or disbelieve. It won't do you any good if you just react - it won't do you any good if you just believe or don't believe. You yourself have got to think about them, so as to see for yourself if they are true or not. You must suspend them in your mind, look at them from all angles, and yourself come to really understand what I'm talking about. Then these talks will do you good.

Now, let me give you another example of the need of suspending
reactions. This will be a graphic example.

Boy Q What's graphic?

Something that stands out clearly so that you can see and
grasp and remember it. Here's the example. Suppose I went up to
the field, saw that the wheat was ripe and simply reacted to this
seeing. I'd get the tractor and hitch on the reaper and binder,
and get up to the field and only then it might occur to me that
I had no man to help me and I really couldn't cut the wheat today.
You see, in that case, I really wouldn't have thought about what
I was doing, I wouldn't have thought to ask, is there someone to
help me; I'd simply gond blindly ahead and then been stopped by
an obstacle that I would have foreseen if I'd stopped to think
about it.

Or suppose that I see that the wheat is ripe and there is a
man to help me and we start reaping, but after I get the field
half cut I look up at the sky and see it's about to rain. It does
rain and we're driven from the field and the cut wheat lies on the
ground a week and begins spoiling.

didn't

Boy - You WEEE think about the sky, did you?

That's it. I saw that the wheat was ripe. I knew there was

47

a man to help me but I simply reacted without looking at the sky and without stopping to think of whether it would rain or not. So I was caught by the rain and my work spoiled. Isn't this clear? Wouldn't Did this show up anyone the value of suspending reactions so as to take in all the factors, and really think about them from all possible points of view, and come to a true understanding and a right decision?

Boy - That's a good example.

Now Peter, we have really ended the talk for today but I'm going to tell you two things more, as preparation for tomorrow's talk. They are right in connection with what we've been saying. What things in people do you suppose keep them from suspending their reactions and really thinking about things? What things in people do you suppose make them act like automatons, even though they have the possibility of acting as human beings? I'm going to tell you two things. One of them we call false beliefs. The other is called prejudice. Suppose for example that you have something and at once you believe it. Suppose what you hear is false and so when you believe it you have a false belief. You would simply react, wouldn't you as dictated by this false belief? How would you react?

Boy - Stupidly - Maybe like an animal - maybe like a Skippy - She believes there's something to bark at when there isn't and so she barks. She fools herself and sometimes she fools me too, because I go to see who she's barking at and it's nothing except some silly little noise.

That's a good example of how a false belief produces reactions that are either silly or not true to the facts. So just remember that uncritical beliefs are among the things that make those who

48

should be human beings, act like unthinking machines. And simply
remember that prejudice is another one of these things. We'll
talk about this more tomorrow.

X

Tuesday, August 3rd.

What do you think with respect to these chief parts of a
person as he grows up? Do you think he ought to develop and
improve in his ability to do things? Do you think he ought to
develop and improve in his ability to feel things? Do you think
he ought to develop and improve in his ability to think? as he
grows up?

Boy - Yes.

You think he should do that. Do you think all people do do
that?

Boy - No. In fact I think they go backwards.

But why? How do you explain it? You and I agreed that as
boys and girls grow up to be young men and women, they should
improve in their ability to do, and to feel, and to think. And
we agreed that it doesn't happen that way. Do you know what we
call it when growth doesn't happen as it ought to? Wexxxixxx say
it is arrested - by which we mean, stopped - warped or something
like that. Take a tree or a seed - we will agree that it is
natural and normal for that tree to grow up into a fine oak tree,
(if it is an oak). If we find that it isn't growing as it should,
the intelligent man begins looking and questioning and thinking,
why that tree doesn't grow as it should. Just this question of
why man doesn't grow as he should, is perhaps the most important
question in man's life. Why do human beings not develop and improve

50

prejudices. Better than I did last night I'm going to show how
this prevents any man from really being able to think truly, -
prevents him from being able to feel truly, - prevents him from
being able to act with all intelligence.

Suppose, Peter, that you'd never seen this place - Mill House.
Someone who had passed down the road and glanced at it, went home
and drew a picture of this place. As you are now, you know the facts.
You know that this is a two story stone house; - and that across the
driveway stands the mill; and that back there is the barn; and back
of the barn, the wheat field; and that just behind the house is
the vegetable garden. You know the facts, but suppose you didn't.
You were at Paoli and had never been here. The man who had drawn
a picture after just a hurried glance, came to Paoli and you saw
his drawing, and he said: "This is a picture of the place the
Toomers live." You look at the picture and find that he has
instead of the mill, he has drawn a dilapidated shed -
drawn a three story house; instead of the barn, he has drawn a
studio - instead of the wheat field he has drawn a landing field
for aeroplanes - and instead of the vegetable garden, he has drawn
a tennis court. You don't know any differently because you've
never seen the place and you believe he has drawn an accurate
picture of it. So in your mind you take the false picture to be
a true picture and you believe that the Toomer's place looks just
as he has drawn it. Alright. That's a false belief isn't it?
XXXXXXXX It isn't true to the facts, but you believe it. You don't
think about it.

Now we'll say that you like to play tennis, and you like aeroplanes. - You react. You say I'm going to Toomers to play tennis and to see the aeroplanes. You might get here with your tennis racquet ...

Boy - In an aeroplane. I'd get here and say, "This isn't

54

Then
plane?" "No, I don't think they have", says he. "what have they
got a landing field for? Is it a government field?". "No its
too small for that". "Maybe you didn't see right; it doesn't sound
and then,
reasonable". You question this, even if you came up here in a
plane you'd be prepared; you'd come down low and look, and see
that it was just an ordinary wheat field. That's what thinking
would do, if thinking stepped in.
all bumpy & fell fatter

Boy - Yes, I'd see that wasn't a place to land. And if I
were ready to land, I'd choose another place. I know! I could
land on the road, if the wind were blowing in the right direction.

Let's now think about a person. Haven't you heard people
telling you what kind of people live in New York - or what kind of
people live in the south - or what kind of people live in Russia -

Boy - Sure. Our geography teacher tells us things like that.
Yes

But I mean not even that seriously - just talk. You yourself-
haven't you done that too? Haven't you talked carelessly, and
made mistakes in your judgment? Even this matter of asking
can you go downtown; when I said no, maybe you thought - Oh he's
just a cranky old fellow. I don't say you did, I only say maybe
you did.

Boy - That's what I thought last year about Ramsey, when he
wouldn't let me sit on the low.

Maybe you learned later that there was a good reason for his
refusing.

Boy - I did.

Your own impressions and thoughts were fixxx mistaken. XXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Boy - But they didn't stop.

That's it. You didn't think then - but you thought later.

56

If
Just because there are false beliefs in there. Instead of
~~there were no~~ false thermostat, in the burner, there were none, the
burner, once started, would go right on, whether you needed
more heat or not. Just on and on. Men who do not suspend their
reactions - men whose minds are full of XXXX false beliefs are
like oil burners without thermostats; they go on running mechanic-
ally according to how much fuel is provided. Remember this although
you can't completely understand it. There is the possibility of
delaying reactions; false beliefs eliminate that possibility; and
you can

you can

Boy - So that he's like an oil burner without the thermo-
stat.

Like any machine that goes and goes, or if stopped, can't
start itself again; can't do the intelligent thing - can't do
what is good for himself and for other people. False beliefs de-
rived from false descriptions, or inaccur-
ate seeing, keep human beings from developing and improving in
their ability to do; from developing and improving in their ability
to feel; from developing and improving in their ability to think;
as from developing normal fine human beings.
Tomorrow we will talk about prejudices; and I'm going to recall
to you what I called a progression - From the body of your mother,
to family, to community, to town, to state, to country, to world,
to universe. You will then see how this links with that; and how
by knowing what I'm saying now, you will be enabled to grow and
develop until you become a citizen of the universe. This is one
key to that.

key to that.

Boy - One key to a hundred doors.

57

XI

Wednesday Aug 4th.

Well Peter, before we go on you want to have clear in your
mind for what purpose men ought to be able to control what hits
them. Why they should be able to think. Why? What's the idea
of it all?

Boy - If they didn't they'd be like Skippy - barking when
she has no reason to bark. She's not able to control herself.

That's right; she doesn't behave intelligently. Now suppose
we put it this way. Of these stimuli that we talked about - there
are just all kinds; a loud noise, somebody calling you ...

Boy - A pin pricking your finger.

Yes that too. And sometimes what you see with your eyes is
a stimulus.

Boy - What you hear, and what you feel.

Yes. Whatever comes in through our five senses.

Boy - Let's see - five - hear, see, smell, taste ...

Touch is the other. Our five senses can transmit to us a
lot of things - and they are not all important. You may see....

Boy - Your eyes and your ears are the most important.

All the senses are important. That's why we have them. But
all the things they transmit are not important. Suppose that every
time you saw a weed, you reacted, automatically stopped to pull it.

Boy - That would be good, I guess.

Well - no; it wouldn't; because you wouldn't have any time
to do more important things. There are a lot of weeds around here !
You don't want to spend your life just pulling weeds. You wouldn't
have any time to help Ramsey with the cows !

Boy - Yes, I'd go out to get <u>KKK</u> April, and I'd see a weed,

58

"and I'd say: "Ramsey, here's a weed," and I'd stop to pull it. And then I'd see another and another, and we'd never get the cows in. I'd just be pulling weeds all day. Of course, I'd automatically come back here to get something to eat."

Yes, your stomach would prompt you to do that; and that would be what called an internal stimulus. Now as we said about the many different kinds of stimulus - some aren't important, and if man couldn't control it....

Boy - He wouldn't do anything else.

He wouldn't be able to discriminate between the important and the unimportant, and so he couldn't choose the important ones. Now with Argie here, she is not old enough to choose between important and unimportant things. Her brain is not as developed as yours at present. You are able to do more important things than she is. When she is your age she will be able to do the kind of things that you now do.

Boy - Unless she stops growing.

I don't think she will. In order that man not be a slave to these unimportant things, he must select from among them, the important ones.

Boy - Those he's most fitted to do.

select, in order to do

He must be what is humanly important. That's the big reason.

The next point is, as we said, that many things will come to you from the world. Some are facts and some not. Some are true and some not. If you had no inner power of selecting the true from the untrue, you'd be just like an automaton - like a jack-in-the-box - press the button and he pops out! In order to be able to select what is true, you must be able to control, to some extent, what happens in you; so that you don't behave according to what is false

59

but only according to what is true. If you behave according to what is true, you will be a true person. If according to what is false, you will be a false person. We want to keep these aims in mind. We want to know *why* we are to do this. We want to know *why* we should not be side-tracked by a lot of trifles, but live like true human beings.

Boy - That's a good purpose.

Yes it is, Peter. Let me ask you a question by the way. Do you think a man ought to be able to control himself first - before for example, he gets an automobile? Can a man control an automobile if he can't control himself?

Boy - No.

Why not?

Boy puzzled how to explain.

Suppose a person had no way of controlling his own reactions...

Boy - He couldn't control the car.

That's right. You know what it's like driving on the highway. Well suppose a man with no control of himself, was passed by another man in another car. If he just reacted without control, he might just step on the gas and shoot ahead without taking anything else into consideration. He might turn out right into another car, and have an accident. He had no control; he just reacted; he certainly didn't think about it - and it was a silly reaction to begin with. That kind of man shouldn't drive a car, because he's a danger to himself and to others. That's why your answer was a good answer - a man who can't control himself, can't control much else.

Another example - If a man loses his temper and begins to beat a horse because the horse is tired and can't go fast enough to please him, he shouldn't be allowed to own a horse. He should

62

can ever be if they stick to their prejudices. They haven't had
your chances.

Boy - Some of them can do things I can't do.

That may be. But you have the real kind of intelligence. What
you must do is to cultivate it. Don't become conceited about it,
but cultivate it.

These boys proabaly have not only prejudices about family,
but about other things as well. They may have prejudices about
what part of town one lives in; about what their fathers do;
about nationality ...

Boy - Gee! The Italian boys are awful. They have enemies
everywhere. They

If you were to go down to where they live and they all came
out to fight you, that wouldn't be true to what you are, would it?
They have false beliefs about you.

Boy -

Are there any colored boys in your school?

Boy - There are some colored girls, and a few boys.

Are there any who have prejudices against XXXXX each other?

Boy - What is prejudice?

I've been telling you. It is hatred without knowing anything
about the thing you hate. It is based on false beliefs about that
thing. You couldn't have a prejudice if you really knew the thing
or the person. If one of the Italian boys came to live with your
family, and got to know them, they couldn't go on thinking they were
no good, could they? And if you went to live with them, you would
find out what fine people they were. Prejudice and ignorance go
hand in hand. The world is full of this kind of thing. People on

63

Park Avenue in New York think that people who live on the West side are awful - Those who live downtown think those who live in the Bronx are awful, and so forth.

Boy - I don't know New York well, so I don't know about that. But in school, there are a log of fine boys - really fine boys-but they don't use their minds.

You will see a lot of this silly kind of thing and maybe one of the things you will want to do will be to help get rid of some of these false notions, because they hamper life.

Boy - What's that?

They interfere with life. If you want to become a citizen of Paoli, - come to know the people in Paoli - want to help them - you might go down to see them, but they'd be full of these prejudices. You might go with friendship and they might meet you with hostility. If they did that, you couldn't help them, could you? If they were suspicious of you - or had xxxxx false notions about you? They mightn't even let you in. If then, they prevent you from helping them, don't they lose too? Yes. So that prejudices and false beliefs hold you back and hold them back. They are barriers between people - and barriers to development. In a town divided up among people with prejudices it would be pretty difficult for anyone to become a citizen of that town, wouldn't it? He could only get to know parts of it - never the whole, so he couldn't become a citizen in the sense in which we mean it. Nor could he become a citizen of America. Could anyone go out and do it as conditions are now? No, You'd run up against bad feelings, misunderstandings, prejudices, false beliefs -. Of course you'd meet some who would understand. But you have to get that rubbish out of life before you can become a citizen of any place - That's what it is - rubbish. How can

64

people become citizens of the world when these different groups
misunderstand - cling to their misunderstandings - and act on them?
So you see how prejudices and false beliefs keep a man from enlarg-
ing his environment and becoming a citizen of his town, his state,
his country, the world or the universe?

One more thing and then we are finished for today. You know
how a pea grows.

Boy - Sure in a pod.

Why do you think peas grow in pods?

Boy - Pods are to keep them clean.

Yes but more than that. In order that they may grow.

We are like peas in pods. When you were inside your mother's body
you were like a pea in a pod.

Boy - Yes, I see. But my mother wasn't buste
a pod is. I came out naturally - she wasn't buste
you let a pea grow naturally and don't open it, it would just open
naturally too, and the pea would seed itself.

That's right. Our environments are like our pods. When
we grow to a larger environment it is like a pea breaking from its
pod - only we go to another pod - a larger and finer one. You
remember you said that it was not for the body that we moved into
larger and finer environments - but for the spirit - for that thing
that is you - Peter. That's what needs to grow. Alright. Now
Peter, what do you think would happen in the family pod if you
were taught that your family was the only family to live in - or
that Paoli was no other family is any
good - no other town. See what would happen? You would be held
right there - you would be help in that pod of your family. - the
Pod of Pea Growers. But if you got out and went to Paoli, everybody there
would begin to tell you that Paoli was the only place to live, and

65

no other town any good - nothing to be found anywhere else. These
false views might keep you in Paoli and prevent your going out and
learning and expanding. That's what happens to these boys who think
their families are the only ones - their religion the only religion -
their race the only race - etc. They are held right there - right
in that pod -

Boy - The Chinese are taught things like that.

Those that are never can grow outside of their small circles.
You can't understand a thing unless you know something about it.
You can't know it unless you see it and think about it. And if
somebody gives you false ideas about it, you can't check up.

Here is a summary of what we've been saying. False beliefs
and prejudices prevent expansion, - XXXXX prejudices about
families, or race, or color, or nation, or religion. They tie
up minds just as your body would be tied up and unable to move if
I wound a rope around it. Isn't that a stupid way to live?

Boy - Yes it is.

Why do you think they do it?

Boy - They get it from their parents, and the parents get
it from their parents - on back.

You're right Peter. Because nobody knew any better and it
got started. These things interfere with the true purpose for which
a human being livEX.

what

Tomorrow I'm going to link up XXXXXX we've said the
last few days with the ideas of resources, and show you XXX what
the connection is. YOU'll see. It will be quite simple.

Understand

Learn more

66

XII

Thursday August 5th.

Do you remember what I said at the end of our talk yesterday?
What I said we'd do today?

Boy - I have an idea.

What was it?

(silence)

I was going to relate or link together ..

Boy - The chief things we were talking about.

Prejudices and....

Boy - False beliefs -

The whole idea of why human beings should be able to suspend
their reactions - all of that I will relate to human resources.
I will join the two subjects. Just this act, Peter - just this
relating or linking or joining up is a very important act in think-
ing. And I'll show you why.

Suppose your bicycle was dismembered and the parts scattered
around. The chain in one place, the wheels in another, the saddle
in another, -

Boy - And the frame in another.

Yes. In that condition it wouldn't be of any use to you,
would it? You couldn't use it. The parts of the bicycle would
be unrelated to each other. In fact it's only a bicycle when
all the parts are assembled together, xxxxxxxx in a particular way.
So you have to have all the parts put together before you can have
a bike. In much the same way, before you can have real understand-
ing, you have to have all the parts that belong together related
to each other. This is a most important part of thinking. First
we suspend, then relate - and these make possible real thinking.

Boy - Marjorie might have eggs and milk and flour, but she

67

wouldn't have a cake until they were related in the right way.

That's right. It's true of a bicycle, it's true of a cake, and it's true of human beings. Until you get all the different things about a man related in your mind, you can't understand him. If you just see one thing he does, and don't see more, and don't relate in your mind, you can't possibly understand him, or understand yourself. That's enough of this. Just remember that relating things is an important matter.

We are now going to relate the ideas of being able to suspend reactions to the ideas of human resources, and we are going to show that just as it is necessary to suspend reactions so that we can think straight, so it is necessary to suspend reactions and to think, in order to bring one's resources into play. And since you and I are living in order to bring our resources into play, XXX who what we will say now is one of the most important things we have talked about so far. Now Peter I think we're going to need that blackboard.

(Boy gets sponge and cleans blackboard off carefully)

That's a good job, Peter. This by now ought to be a familiar diagram.

This whole section of the person, we will call - the human product. With it you move your body to do things, feel certain things, think about certain things. This section - back inside of you - is where your human resources are.

Boy - Human nature resources.

That's right. That's the full name and the full name of the first section is human nature products. Now I have never told you

68

of some of the things that are in your resources. We know some of the things that are in *natures* resources - coal and iron and oil, etc. There are many marvelous things that are in *human* resources. I'm going to mention five of them. These five are called urges - forces - desires. You remember that stimulus is what hits you from the outside. It impinges on you from outside. It is these XXXXX from your human resources that move you from the inside.

**Boy -** Internal stimulus.

Yes. And these things are called urges or desires or forces. The first of them is self-preservation - survival. If you went on the road and saw a car bearing down on you, you'd jump. Why would you jump?

**Boy -** To get out of the way of the car.

Yes, but you'd get out of the way of the car in order to preserve your life. This desire to survive would make you do the best possible thing to escape the car. This desire comes from your inside, - everybody's inside. It is innate - native - to everybody. So that's the first - self-preservation or survival. The second is the desire for *improvement*. You *are* just naturally desire to improve. The motive behind these talks is my desire to help you improve and your desire to improve. If we didn't have this desire we wouldn't be talking this way. We wouldn't do anything important. Just think how many things in life are done because of the desire to improve. When we came here, we started right in to improve the old buildings. We improved this house; we made the tumble-down Mill into a fine building; and rebuilt the barn. You have no idea how much effort we put into improving this place. What do you think we were improving it for?

**Boy -** So as *we* it would be a nicer place to live in.

Yes - but I'm going to give you an even better reason.

69

Boy - I thought there'd be one, but I couldn't think of it.

We improve our living conditions so as to improve ourselves, so as to be better human beings. Ramsey does the same thing over at the farm. When he first came ...

Boy - Yes I remember that. The fields hadn't been plowed for years, and there were lots of brambles and things. I was there then.

Boy What did he do?

Boy - He cleaned out the fence rows and took the big rocks out of the fields and plowed and harrowed and worked hard.

He was improving it, wasn't he? So behind Ramsey there was this urge to improve.

Boy - Yes - He'd get better crops - more money. Some of the poorest people have more sense than some of the rich ones. Whose this fellow who just died ? An old man -

You mean Rockefeller?

Boy Yes people like that. They don't

Sometimes that's true. Now when you saw Ramsey working that way, you didn't know what force was behind it. It's the same force that's behind Wharton in his work; and you're beginning to understand a lot of things. So that's the second chief urge - the desire to improve.

The third is the urge to be, to feel. These terms are too difficult for you to understand, so I'll give you a simpler one - to love. Every human being wants to love and be loved. This takes many different forms. It may be the love of work, or of a pet, or of a girl, or love of nature - snow, rain, sunshine. Every human being has this innate urge to love.

Boy - I don't think everyone does.

Everyone has had it at some time. And if they haven't now it is because bad things have happened to them, and they've thrown it

70

out. Love of mankind - just think what that means! That is what Christ taught - brotherly love. All great teachers have taught that because they know that is native to man.

The fourth is the urge to know, to understand. We needn't go into that because that's what we've been talking about. All the time we've been talking this urge was operating in us.

The fifth is the urge to be helpful - to be of use to somebody - to yourself and as many others as you can include. Let's picture all these urges here.

But are they any good to you if they stay all bottled up in you?
No. Like milk - it's no good to you if it stays in the bottle.

Boy - Or like air without someone to breathe it.

These resources are no more use to us than nature resources,
if they remain untouched in the earth. As a matter of fact the
resources in man continually try to come out into his life, and
to come out into the world.

Boy - You're drawing two things together now.

That's right. All of yours or anybody's development comes
about by these resources coming out into your life. To use the
example we used yesterday, if you pick a weed every time you see one,
or repeat over the phone just what is repeated to you - if your mind
is full of a lot of cockeyed ideas, false beliefs, prejudices -

Boy - Like a brick wall stopping them.

That's right. Now you see why we must suspend reactions.
Here's intake - here's this part of the brain - here it goes out.
We as human beings don't want just to repeat what comes in. What
we want to have come out to other people is our real answer - that