THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

388 The Harmony of Virtuethe strong concentrated mind forms a good subject. Secondly, ifit were the operator's will using the will of the subject, then theresults produced must be such as the latter could himself bringabout, since the capacities of the instrument cannot be exceededby the power working through the instrument. Even if we supposethat the invading will brings with it its own force still theresults produced must not exceed the sum of its capacity plusthe capacity of the instrument. If they commonly do so, we mustsuppose that it is neither the will of the operator nor the will ofthe subject nor the sum of these two wills that is active, butsome other and more potent force. This is precisely what wesee in hypnotic performance.What is this force that enables or compels a weak man tobecome so rigid that strong arms cannot bend him; that reversesthe operations of the senses and abrogates pain? That changesthe fixed character of a man in the shortest of periods? That isable to develop power where there was no power, moral strengthwhere there was weakness, health where there was disease? Thatin its higher manifestations can exceed the barriers of space andtime and produce that far-sight, far-hearing and far-thinking whichshows mind to be an untrammelled agent or medium pervadingthe world and not limited to the body which it informs or seemsto inform. The European scientist experimenting with hypnotismis handling forces which he cannot understand, stumbling on truthsof which he cannot give a true account. His feet are faltering onthe threshold of Yoga. It is held by some thinkers, and not unreasonablyif we consider these phenomena, that mind is all andcontains all. It is not the body which determines the laws of thebody. It is the ordinary law of the body that if it is struck, piercedor roughly pressed, it feels pain. This law is created by the mindwhich associates pain with these contacts, and if the mind changesits Dharma and is able to associate with those contacts not painbut insensibility or pleasure, then they will bring about thoseresults of insensibility or pleasure and no other. The pain andpleasure are not the result of the contact, neither is their seatin the body; they are the result of association and their seat isin the mind. Vinegar is sour, sugar sweet, but to the hypnotisedmind vinegar can be sweet, sugar sour. The sourness