Page:The Science of Religion (1925).djvu/102

78 the influence of the supreme centre (brain-cells). The brain-cells discharge life current, or electricity, through these cells, which in turn discharge electricity to the different efferent and afferent nerves which respectively carry motor impulse and sensation of touch, sight, etc. This electrical flow from the brain is the life of the organism (of its internal and external organs), and it is this electrical medium through which all our sensation reports reach the brain and cause thought disturbances. The self, if it wishes effectively to shut out the disturbing reports of bodily sensations (which are also the occasions of the rise of the thought-series), must control and concentrate the electrical flow and draw it back from the nervous system as a whole to the seven main centres (including the brain), so that by this process it may give the outer and internal organs perfect rest. In sleep, the electrical conductivity between the brain and the outer organs is partially inhib-