In the transformations of
matter accompanying mental activity, just as much matter of one form
appears as matter of some other form is consumed, and the mental
activity is no part of either--that is, neither energy nor matter has
been transformed into mental activity, nor has energy or matter been
produced by mental activity. All attempts to account for the mental
activity as produced by the expenditure of physical energy, or as
producing physical energy--that is, exerting forces and action--have
failed and must fail, and so must any attempt to record or observe and
measure mental activity by physical methods--that is, methods sensitive
to the action of physical forces.
But what, then, is mind? Is it a mere phenomenon, accompanying the
physico-chemical reactions of life and vanishing with the end of the
reaction, just as the phenomenon of a flame may accompany a chemical
reaction, and vanish when the reaction is completed? Or is mind an
entity, just like the entity energy and the entity matter, but differing
from either of them--in short, a third entity? We have compared mind
with the phenomenon of a flame accompanying a chemical reaction; but,
after all, the flame is not a mere phenomenon, but is an entity, is
energy.
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