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Reincarnation: A Study of the Human Soul
By J.A. Anderson
Embryology, And Reincarnation
WHILE not falling strictly within the purpose of this work, there are certain facts connected with the very beginnings of physical life that are of sufficient interest and importance to merit brief notice. For these facts the world is indebted to scientific investigation; for the explanation of them, it must look to the philosophies of the East. All life in the organic kingdoms of nature proceeds from a cell; this cell being in essence a unit body of protoplasm. Subjected to chemical analysis after death, Protoplasm differs in its chemical constituents in no wise from matter undoubtedly belonging to the so- called inorganic kingdom beneath, thus showing plainly that in matter itself is not to be found the cause of the subsequent evolution of form and function; but that something besides mere chemical properties has been added to the material molecules. This is further shown by the fact that the chief difference in the simple protozoic or protophytic cell and the highly organized and synthesized plant or animal consists in the fact that in the cell the function is complex, while in the plant or animal it is the form.
The beginnings of life thus traced down to the unit cell of protoplasm seems a very simple and basic starting point, when, in fact, it is the form only which has become simplified, the function has been plunged into a more intri- cate maze of obscurity. That which in the higher organism was the work of hosts of differentiated cells and complex organs, is in the cell all accomplished without any such aid; the simple, unorganized, undifferentiated speck of Protoplasm performing many of the complex and all of the necessary functions of life without any of that speciali- zation of labor, in the complex form. Desiring to change its locality, limbs are protruded for the occasion; feeling hungry, a temporary stomach is manufactured, and so on; all the varied functions of loco- motion, nutrition, reproduction, digestion, with many others, being done by means of the same undifferentiated protoplasmic substance, showing clearly that there is an inner power merely using the protoplasm to exhibit these functions. It is thus seen that the function which seemed so simple when the form was complex has almost passed beyond the possibility of explanation when the form in turn has become simple.
It is evident that the idea of all subsequent evolution of form is potentially present in the first simple cell, and that all modification or differentiation which follows is but the slow expression of this ideal potency in form. Therefore, an entity utterly without experience upon this plane would of necessity begin in the humblest forms, and only very gradually modify these as the result of widened conscious experience. The fact that in the lowly forms of life the function greatly exceeds the form in complexity shows conclusively that there is an inner entity synthesizing these functions, and that evolution in all its phases is but the outer response to the inner idea, and, as ideas necessitate an ideator, an inner entity is therefore necessitated. In these humblest beginnings of life, too, are to be found many analogies to and confirmations of the tenet of Theosophy that every- thing in the Universe proceeds out of Unity and will rebecome Unity when the Universe disappears objectively and enters upon its subjective cycle, or Pralaya. In its first differentiation or manifestation this Unity evolved Duality, which Duality, together with the Force which brought it about, constitute the three Basic Aspects or Hypostases of the Absolute.
Transposing these terms to the physical plane, in Protoplasm may be recognized the analogue of Primordial Substance; it being, in its relation to this plane, homogeneous and capable of differentiation into any organic form, no matter how complex the latter may be. The intelligence which guides and the force which brings about further evolutionary processes are the correspondences to the Conscious-Aspect and Force-Aspect of the Causeless Cause, respectively. Taking up some of the processes of Embryology, we can find therein the analogies to the Creative processes upon even the highest planes. Thus the Basic Unity is shown in the unit cell of protoplasm; duality supervenes in its first and entirely inexplicable fission. In its further differentiation into ectoderm endoderm and mesoderm, there is a purely physical correspondence of a law which obta'ins upon the plane of the very highest differentiation. In the central development of Spencer, may be recognized the archaic symbol of the Point in the Circle; in the axial, the point has become a line or diameter, and so on. The symbology of the Bast becomes luminous with meaning once it is intelligently applied to nature's processes. Within and because of this Primordial Duality arise all of those polar opposites, such as attraction and repulsion, positive and negative states, spirit and matter, and upon the purely physical plane male and female.
That sex is a differentiation upon the physical plane only, is shown by the fact that all reproduction is at first purely asexual. Sex, upon this plane, corresponds to a principle which causes differentiation upon those higher. As the| Protoplasm re- sponds more and more to the inner energy, there is first the cell specialization for the reproductive act, and then this differentiation, with many variants and partial reversions to the primal type, be- comes extended to individuals. Sexual differentiation is but another instance of the widening of conscious area through experience of the "pairs of opposites." As a purely physical process, the theory of anabolic and katabolic differentiation of energy very probably ex- plains its origin; but the inner cause of the anabolism and katabolism is still as much a mystery as ever unless we recognize the inner entity undergoing conscious experience in the only school and by the sole method of which we can conceive that of experience of the " opposites," by virtue of which the very Universe itself exists. Sex exemplifies the positive and negative forces or aspects of the Absolute upon the purely physical plane. That there is an inner entity thus continuously widening its conscious area through evolution is the only logical deduction from the phenomena of evolution itself. All of that careful examination and cautious ratiocination by which it is proven that the fowl, for in- stance, has been evolved from the fish, only emphasizes the fact that it must be the same inner entity which was the fish, arid which is now the fowl. If it has been necessary to take the first steps towards constructing a bird by building a fish form, this proves that the idea of the bird was present, and slowly modifying the fish throughout its entire existence as a fish. To disconnect the fish from the bird for a single moment is to overthrow the entire evolutionary process. If the one is really the modification of the other, then both throughout their respective evolutionary cycles are as much the same entity as are the child and the man, or the butterfly and the caterpillar. Kither they are connected causally by the evolutionary modification of the one from the other, or they are not. If, as evolution declares, they are thus connected, then it is the same entity which has, during the whole period, been slowly evolving different and more perfect forms.
There is no logical escape from this conclusion. Without pursuing further the subject of reproduction in general, there are many facts in human embryological detail which go to prove that this process is a specific obedience of the outer Protoplasm to an inner, intelligent force. Among these is the wonderful response of the uterus to the stimulation of the developing embryo. If this were a purely mechanical stimulation, due to the presence of the embryo, other foreign bodies ought to call out the same or a similar response. But this is not the case. The womb will quickly expel any invader of its cavity; even a tumor in its walls is often extruded as a polypus. Instead, however, of attempting to expel the fecun- dated cell, every effort is made by the uterus to retain and nourish it. There is poured out from the uterine walls an abundant supply of the most highly nutritious, albuminous pabulum from which the growing embryo builds its marvelously perfect body ; each tissue under the guidance of the inner entity differentiating out of the com- mon protoplasmic stock. At this point, perhaps, it may be well to call attention to the grossly incorrect "scientific" teaching concerning the nutrition of the fetus, if but to show how carefully one must examine even the most unquestioned scientific statements if he would avoid steering into the Charybdis of dogmatic assertion in endeavoring to keep clear of the Scyllae of ignorance. This teaching is to the effect that the fetus is nourished through the placenta.
The true modus ofierandi was discovered by the author during a series of experiments extend- ing over i882-'83, and was first published in the American Jonrnal of Obstetrics in 1884, in a paper entitled " A New Theory of Fetal Nutrition," from which I shall freely quote. This theory is, that once conception has taken place the fetus is nourished by absorbtion of nutritive material secreted and poured into the uterine cavity from its walls, and that the office of the placenta is purely respiratory, or an oxygen carrier and carbonic acid gas remover. The facts which prove this to be the correct view are: i. The constant presence of nutritive substances in the amniotic fluid during the entire period of gestation. 2. The certainty of this fluid being absorbed by a developing fetus constantly bathed in it. 3. The permeability of the digestive tract at an early period, and the necessary entrance therein, according to the laws of hydrostatics, of the albuminous amniotic fluid. 4. The presence of meconium in the intestine, urine in the bladder, and bile in the upper intestine all in their normal locations. 5. The mechanical difficulties opposing direct nutrition through the placenta. 6. The absence of a placenta until the third month, and its entire ab- sence in the non-placental mammalia. 7. The maternal source of the fluid, as shown by the hydrorrhoeas, etc., of pregnancy.
The presence of meconium a residue after absorbtive digestion and of urine and bile are all incompatible with the theory of nutritive material being conveyed to the embryo through the placenta ; but the most prominent fact enumerated above is the constant pres- ence of albumen in the amniotic fluid. This constant presence means that it is not accidental. One of the most plausible theories as to the uses of the amniotic fluid is that it constitutes a kind of water cushion to protect the embryo from mechanical injury. This is no doubt one use. But if this were all we would not find nature supplying a very precious and costly to the mother ingredient, or albumen. This would be worse than a blunder. It would be a crime against maternity. If we suppose, with Lusk and a host of other authors, that the source of this fluid " is at first simply an exudate from the tissues of the fetus," and, later, " urine secreted and voided by the fetus," we have the highly "scientific" anomaly of a fetus developing a benignant Bright's disease, voiding urine contain- ing as high as three per cent, of albumen, and growing fat and sturdy under conditions surely fatal to an adult subjected to a similar drain. In short, the further one searches for the origin and uses of the amniotic fluid the wilder all hypotheses become, unless we accept the simplest explanation almost invariably the best that it is secreted by the intra-uterine surfaces for the nourishment of the fetus. Accepting this, the correspondence of the macrocosmic and microcosmic processes is apparent. The woinb represents Cosmic Space the universal matrix. The fecundated egg focalizes, synthesizes and transmutes or transfers to the material plane the subjective force of the reincarnating entity. From this "point in the circle " exudes not the physical but the spiritual amniotic fluid, the force which causes the physical fluid to flow from the uterine walls, or, in the macrocosm, from Cosmic Space.
Following the successive upward steps in the building of its bundle of material sense organs, it is easy to see that each specific process but exemplifies a general law in nature. As has been pointed out, the eye is built up with all its nicety of optical detail and physiological capacity for psychological use without ever having received a single impulse from those light waves to which science would fain teach us it is a specific re- sponse. Granite boulders have been subjected to the daily stimulation of direct light waves for untold ages; why are they not studded with eyes ? Similarly with hearing. Not only is an exquisitely perfect organ built up in the absence of all but very indistinct sounds, but this organ remains incapable of hearing until certain post-natal processes have taken place. And so on; not only each sense organ, but also the entire form, is constructed in specific response to an inner directing energy. It. is the return to incarnation of an entity having the spiritual potentialities of sense perception, which become potencies through the opportunity afforded by fecundation and gestation. There is no other rational explanation for the function building the form except as the effect of an inner entity having such function in potentia, if not in actu. Thus process after process in embryology might be taken up and the presence of the inner, designing entity proven ; but enough has been pointed out to indicate the train of reasoning which is to be applied to them all, should any desire to carry their investigations further than is possible in this brief and sketchy appendix.
