Tertium Organum

life
or 
consciousness
by mechanical means. Materialism or energetics are 
'concrete' theories which 
cannot be true without proof 
because they cannot 
fail to have proofs if they contain even a grain of truth. 
But in actual fact these theories have no proofs; on the contrary, the 
infinitely greater potentiality of phenomena of life and mental processes as 
compared with physical phenomena points to exactly the opposite. 
The above-mentioned fact of the tremendous liberating, releasing power of 
psychological phenomena is by itself sufficient to place the problem of the 
world of the hidden
on an entirely real and firm basis. 
And the world of the hidden cannot be the world of unconscious 
mechanical motion, of an unconscious development of electro-magnetic 
forces. Positivist theories admit the possibility of explaining the 
higher
by 
means of the 
lower,
they admit the possibility of explaining the 
invisible
by 
means of the 
visible. 
But, as has been pointed out in the beginning, this is an 
attempt to explain one unknown by means of another unknown. There is still 
less justification in explaining the 
known 
by means of the 
unknown.
And yet 
that 'lower' (matter and 

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motion) by means of which the positivist theory attempts to explain the 'higher' (life 
and thought) 
is itself unknown.
Consequently it is impossible to explain anything else 
by 
it. 
On the other hand, the higher, i.e. 
thought,
is the only quantity we possess, the 
only thing we know and are aware of in ourselves, the only thing about which we 
cannot be mistaken or have any doubts. And, since thought can evoke and 
release 
physical energy, whereas motion can 
never 
evoke or release thought (a rotating wheel 
can never evoke thought), it obviously follows that we must strive to define not the 
higher by means of the lower, but the lower by means of the higher. And, since the 
invisible, such as the 
contents of a book
or the 
purpose of a watch, 
defines the visible, 
we must also strive to understand not the visible, but the invisible. 
Starting from the false assumption of the 
mechanical
character of the noumenal 
aspect of nature, positivist science, on which the view of the world of the majority of 
modern educated humanity is founded, makes yet another mistake in examining the law 
of cause and effect or the law of function - namely, it mistakes what is cause for what is 
effect. 
Just as the two-dimensional plane-being regards the phenomena which reach its 
consciousness as lying on one plane, so the positivist view strives to interpret on one 
plane all phenomena of different orders, i.e. to explain all visible phenomena as effects 
of other visible phenomena and as the inevitable cause of subsequent visible phen­
omena. In other words, it regards as having causal and functional interdependence only 
those phenomena which take place on the surface, and it studies the visible world or the 
phenomena of the visible world, refusing to admit that causes not contained in this 
world could have penetrated into it or that phenomena of this world could have 
functions outside it. 
But again this could be true only if this world contained no phenomena of life and 
thought, or if phenomena of life and of mental processes were actually 
derivatives
from 
physical phenomena instead of being endowed with an infinitely greater hidden force 
than the latter. Then we would have been justified in examining the chains of 
phenomena only in their physical or visible sequence, as positivist philosophy does. But 
if we take into consideration the phenomena of life and thought, we are forced to admit 
that the chain of phenomena very quickly passes from a purely physical sequence into a 
biological sequence, i.e. one which already contains much that is hidden and invisible 
to us, or to a psychological sequence where still more is hidden. 

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We must admit too that in the reverse transition into the physical sequence 
from the biological and the psychological spheres actions proceed, often if 
not always, precisely from those sides which are hidden from us, i.e. that the 
cause of the visible is the invisible. As a result we are bound to admit that it is 
impossible to consider chains or sequences solely in the world of physical 
phenomena. When such a sequence touches the life of a man or that of a 
human community, we see clearly that it often goes out of the 'physical 
sphere' and then once more returns to it. Looking at the matter from this point
of view we shall see that both in the life of an individual man and in the life 
of a human community there are many streams which at times emerge upon 
the surface, breaking through in boisterous torrents, and at times go deep 
underground and become hidden from view, not disappearing altogether, but 
merely biding their time to emerge once more upon the surface. 
We observe in the world continuous chains of phenomena and we see these 
chains pass from one order of phenomena to another without interruption. We 
see how phenomena of consciousness -thoughts, feelings, desires - are 
accompanied by physiological phenomena, possibly even creating them, and 
give rise to a series of purely physical phenomena; and we see how physical
phenomena, in becoming the object of sensations of sight, hearing, touch, 
smell and others, provoke physiological phenomena, and then psychological. 
But, looking at life from outside, we only see physical phenomena and, 
having persuaded ourselves that they alone represent reality, we may not 
notice the others at all. Here is where the enormous power of suggestion of 
current ideas makes itself felt. To a sincere positivist every metaphysical 
argument proving the unreality of matter or energy seems sophistry. To him it 
seems something unnecessary, annoying, interfering with the proper progress 
of thought, a senseless and aimless attack against that which, in his opinion, 
is alone firmly established, is alone immutable and lies at the foundation of 
everything. He impatiently waves away 'idealistic' and 'mystical' theories as 
he would a buzzing mosquito. . . . 
But the fact of the matter is that