SELF VIS-À-VIS BRAIN

1. It is easy to confound the self with the brain, for the brain is the arena in which the ego strives for symbolic definition as 'I' or 'me'. In actuality, however, the brain is merely a tool of the self.

2. That which thinks is not the brain as such, though the brain is certainly capable of spontaneously generating thoughts from time to time, but the self which uses the brain for purposes of thinking either about itself or others, not to mention about things or situations in general. I call this self the central nervous system, for it is that which, composed of innumerable nerve fibres, locks into the base of the brain and stretches down the length of the spine.

3. Thus when the brain thinks or, more usually, is encouraged to think, it is the self, the central nervous system, which is responsible, and it is in response to a variety of sensual and sensible stimuli that the self utilizes the verbal capacity of the brain for purposes of thinking.

4. Yet it is less the brain thinking ... than the self thinking through the brain; for the central nervous system has the capacity to formulate thoughts according to its requirements, and what is thought follows from its manipulation of verbal and even non-verbal concepts, including images.

5. Now although the brain occasionally seems to think by itself, it is by and large under the control of the self, and therefore only thinks or, rather, is used for thinking when the self ordains it. A brain, on the other hand, that was not under the self's control would be deranged, whether because of damage to the brain or damage to the central nervous system, or both.

6. For most people most of the time, however, thought happens when one wants it to happen, because it is oneself or, rather, one's self, the central nervous system, which is responsible for making it happen, since the brain is simply a tool and verbal storehouse of the self, which manifests itself to it as ego, the fulcrum of thought.

7. Therefore the 'I' that thinks these thoughts is not the brain but the egocentric manifestation of the self which uses the symbol 'I' to define itself in relation to thought, and which only thinks when it wants to think.

8. Hence that which pertains to the brain, viz. verbal concepts, and that which actually thinks by manipulating those concepts in a rational and meaningful way, viz. the ego, are two quite separate entities, as separate or distinctive, in fact, as the phenomenally sensible not-self, or brain, and the transpersonal self, or central nervous system.

9. For the brain is merely one of a number of not-selves, or organic foci of willpower, which range from sensuality to sensibility on both phenomenal and noumenal planes, whereas the central nervous system is transpersonal in its ability to manipulate all organs of sensuality and sensibility, whether directly or via the brain, and yet remain distinct from them at the same time.

10. In this respect, the transpersonal self, or central nervous system, contrasts with the personal self, or bodily form in general, which is simply the outer manifestation, or concretization, of the inner self ... to the extent that it reflects, in greater or lesser degrees, either an objective or a subjective disposition - the former female and the latter male.

11. Hence whereas the personal self, or bodily form, is what is apparent to perception, the transpersonal self, or central nervous system, is hidden from view as that which is behind or central to the body generally, and compared to which the latter is simply a concrete manifestation.

12. Now whether the body is an objective concretization of the self or a subjective concretization of it ... will depend on the gender of the central nervous system, since the outer distinctions between female and male derive from the inner distinctions between what are fundamentally two different kinds of nervous system - the objective, or selfless, kind of the female self, and the subjective, or selfish, kind of the male self.

13. Hence there is a basic conflict of the seeds, or selves, long before they achieve concretization in one of two principal ways - either objectively in the case of the female body, with its salient protuberances, or subjectively in the case of the male body, which is more classically reflective, in its vegetative subjectivity, of perfect form.

14. This conflict of the seeds may be traced back to the cosmic distinction, at the roots of life, between the stellar plane and the solar plane, the latter having emerged from the former in the course of evolutionary progress from objectivity to subjectivity, superfeminine to submasculine, vacuum to plenum, spatial space to sequential time.

15. In the Bible, this emergence is of course interpreted as a 'fall', the 'fall' of Satan from 'Heaven', which is identified with the Creatoresque 'First Mover' (Jehovah). But, in truth, such a 'fall' is commensurate with evolutionary progress from female objectivity to male subjectivity, and thus from selflessness to selfishness, the precondition, on any plane, not only of egocentric but, more importantly, of psychocentric, and hence soulful, self-realization.

16. For the self is divisible, after all, into egocentric and psychocentric manifestations, the former appertaining to form and the latter, subdivisible into spiritual and emotional aspects, respectively appertaining to content and to contentment, and only that self which, being subjective to begin with, is sufficiently selfish ... will be able to cultivate the soul to any appreciable extent, an extent commensurate, I mean, with soul per se, rather than with some 'bovaryization' of soul more germane to a hegemonic will and/or spirit.

17. Hence it takes a male self to develop selfness, or selfhood, to any appreciable extent; for the self cannot be developed where there is no genetic predisposition to subjectivity but, rather, a predisposition to objectivity on the basis of a secondary order of self such that, being selfless, defers to power and glory, will and spirit, at the expense of form and content(ment), ego and soul.

18. It is this capacity for enhanced selfhood which sets males apart from females, and guarantees that the development of ego and soul to their logical conclusions will only be possible on the basis of an intensely subjective orientation ... such that requires a more evolved central nervous system than that to which the generality of females are heir.