Chapter I * Verse 59
81
truths; to the acquisition of the power to think in a manner 
totally foreign to the normal mind, the rare possession of the 
greatest thinkers of the world.
A further development of the vision brought the con­
sciousness that the structure of the universe was highly orga­
nized, that certain stars were of greater magnitude and 
brilliancy than the rest. I began to seek similes to help me to 
explain myself. Several such attempts are mentioned later in 
this note. Here again are certain analogies with some of the 
properties of infinite series. The reader must not be shocked 
at the idea of a number which is not increased by addition or 
multiplication, a series of infinite series, each one of which 
may be twice as long as its predecessor, and so on. There is 
no “mystical humbug” about this. As Mr. Russell shows, 
truths of this order are more certain than the most universally 
accepted axioms; in fact, many axioms accepted by the intel­
lect of the average man are not true at all. But in order to 
appreciate these truths, it is necessary to educate the mind to 
thought of an order which is at first sight incompatible with 
rationality.
I may here digress for a moment in order to demonstrate 
how this vision led directly to the understanding of the mech­
anism of certain phenomena which have hitherto been dis­
missed with a shrug of the shoulders as incomprehensible.
Example No. 1. I began to become aware of my own mental 
processes; I thought of my consciousness as the Commander- 
in-Chief of an army. There existed a staff of specialists to deal 
with various contingencies. There was an intelligence depart­
ment to inform me of my environment. There was a council 
which determined the relative importance of the data pre­
sented to them—it required only a slight effort of imagina­
tion to think of this council as in debate; I could picture to 
myself some tactically brilliant proposal being vetoed by the 
Quartermaster-General. It was only one step to dramatize the 
scene, and it flashed upon me in a moment that here was the 
explanation of “double personality”: that illusion was no 
more than a natural personification of internal conflict, just 
as the savage attributes consciousness to trees and rocks.
Example No. 2. While at Montauk I had put my sleeping 
bag to dry in the sun. When I went to take it in, I remarked, 
laughingly, “Your bedtime, Master Bag,” as if it were a small 
boy and I its nurse. This was entirely frivolous, but the