May 1970. Cogitations

As electromagnetic waves can be employed conceptually as a part of a theory embracing an enormous range of physical phenomena, so I wish to employ the concept of α-elements to embrace an enormous range of mental phenomena.

I shall suppose a mental multi-dimensional space of unthought and unthinkable extent and characteristics. Within this I shall suppose there to be a domain of thoughts that have no thinker. Separated from each other in time, space and style, in a manner that I can formulate only by using analogies taken from astronomy, is the domain of thoughts that have a thinker. This domain is characterized by constellations of α-elements. These constellations compose universes of discourse that are characterized by containing and being contained by terms such as, ‘void’, ‘formless infinite’, ‘god’, ‘infinity’. This sphere I shall name by borrowing the term, ‘noösphere’ from Teilhard de Chardin [The Phenomenon of Man, 1955], but as I wish to avoid too great a penumbra of associations, particularly those activated by the term, ‘sphere’, I shall employ a sign that is as devoid of meaning as I can make it (compatible with retention of its capacity for communicability), Σ (sigma).

α-space

The objects of α-space I shall suppose to be real, with their own reality, both infra-real and ultra-real. Perceptible to ordinary thought are objects usually confused with and regarded as indistinguishable from objects of sense, namely certain active constellations of thought that

are associated with the discipline of biology and spoken of in those terms.

The classic psychoanalytic view supposed the mind or personality to be identical with the physical identity of a person. The object of my proposal is to do away with such a limitation and to regard the relationship between body and mind (or personality, or psyche) as one that is subject to investigation.

Thus, a nation is said to have a ‘character’, but the Σ associated with a nation is not identical with the σ (soma), thoug