action implies a corresponding molecular action in the brain and in the
two-fold nervous system.

If, as the old Elizabethan poet says, "the soul is form, and doth the body
make," then it is clear that the physical organism must be a mechanical
arrangement as specially adapted for the use of the soul's powers as a
steam-engine is for the power of steam; and it is the recognition of this
reciprocity between the two that is the basis of all spiritual or mental
healing, and therefore the study of this mechanical adaptation is an
important branch of Mental Science. Only we must not forget that it is the
effect and not the cause.

At the same time it is important to remember that such a thing as reversal
of the relation between cause and effect is possible, just as the same
apparatus may be made to generate mechanical power by the application of
electricity, or to generate electricity by the application of mechanical
power. And the importance of this principle consists in this. There is
always a tendency for actions which were at first voluntary to become
automatic, that is, to pass from the region of conscious mind into that of
subconscious mind, and to acquire a permanent domicile there. Professor
Elmer Gates, of Washington, has demonstrated this physiologically in his
studies of brain formation. He tells us that every thought produces a
slight molecular change in the substance of the brain, and the repetition
of the same sort of thought causes a repetition of the same molecular
action until at last a veritable channel is formed in the brain substance,
which can only be eradicated by a reverse process of thought. In this way
"grooves of thought" are very literal things, and when once established the
vibrations of the cosmic currents flow automatically through them and thus
react upon the mind by a process the reverse of that by which our voluntary
and intentional in-drawing from the invisible is affected. In this way are