Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge.

  • Oliver Lodge
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Making of man : a study in evolution / by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/194 (page 21)
    employed when here. How did we know of his existence here? We knew of his bodily frame by seeing or touching it. But the bodily frame is only part of a man. How did we know of his mind, his character, his personality? Surely for the most part by speech and writing, by holding conversations with him. If then his personality continues to exist, and if by any means he found himself able to actuate, or employ vicariously, the neces¬ sary mechanical organism for operating on the matter of this planet, so as to produce speech or writing, it is reasonable to suppose that by that means he would be able to establish his identity and prove his con¬ tinued existence. Instruments for the pur¬ pose are all around us, complete brain- nerve-muscle mechanisms, though they be¬ long to other individuals. But some of these individuals are known to be able to enter into trance; and short of that, some parts of their brains are not ordinarily or con¬ stantly used, they are sometimes lying more or less dormant, and possibly available for special effort. The utilisation of such brain or part of brain would seem to be the natural channel, if it should turn out to be possible.