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from Notes of Dreams of a Spirit Seer

There are examples of injuries whereby a good part of the brain has been lost without causing the loss of life or of thought.

According to the common conception, which I quote here, the removal of an atom would have been sufficient to cause instant death. The prevalent opinion which assigns to the soul its seat in the brain, seems to originate mainly in the fact, that we feel distinctly how, in deep thought, the nerves of the brain are taxed.

But if this conclusion is right it would prove also other abodes of the soul.

In anxiety or joy the sensation seems to have its seat in the heart. Many affections, yea most of them, manifest themselves most strongly in the diaphragm.

Pity moves the intestines, and other instincts manifest their origin in other organs. The reason why the thinking soul seems to feel especially in the brain is, perhaps, the following.

All thinking requires the instrumentality of signs that ideas may be created, and that, accompanied and supported by these signs, the required amount of clearness may be attained. But the signs of our ideas are mainly such as have been received either by hearing or sight, both of which senses are stimulated by impressions in the brain, as their organs are also next to this part. Now, if the production of these signs which Cartesius calls “ideas materiales,” is properly an irritation of the nerves such as to produce a movement similar to that which formerly caused the sensation, then, in thinking, the tissue of the brain will be compelled to quiver as with the former impressions and it is chiefly the brain, therefore, that will become tired.

But, if the thinking be accompanied by affections, we feel not only the brain to be taxed, but also those irritable parts which, usually, are in sympathy with the soul.