Sir William Hamilton says that the sphere of our consciousness is only a small circle in the center of a far wider sphere of action and thought, of which we are conscious through its effects.

Taine says:  “Outside of a little luminous circle, lies a large ring of twilight, and beyond this an indefinite night; but the events of this twilight and this night are as real as those within the luminous circle.”

Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent English scientist, speaking of the planes of the mind, says:  “Imagine an iceberg glorying in its crisp solidity, and sparkling pinnacles, resenting attention paid to its submerged self, or supporting region, or to the saline liquid out of which it arose, and into which in due course it will some day return.  Or, reversing the metaphor, we might liken our present state to that of the hulls of ships submerged in a dim ocean among strange monsters, propelled in a blind manner through space; proud perhaps of accumulating many barnacles as decoration; only recognizing our destination by bumping against the dock-wall; and with no cognizance of the deck and cabins above us, or the spars and sails—­no thought of the sextant, and the compass, and the captain—­no perception of the lookout on the mast—­of the distant horizon.  With no vision of objects far ahead—­dangers to be avoided—­destinations to be reached—­other ships to be spoken to by means other than by bodily contact—­a region of sunshine and cloud, of space, or perception, and of intelligence utterly inaccessible to parts below the waterline.”

We ask our students to read carefully the above expression of Sir Oliver Lodge, for it gives one of the clearest and most accurate figures of the actual state of affairs concerning the mental planes that we have seen in Western writings.

And other Western writers have noted and spoken of these out-of-conscious realms.  Lewes has said:  “It is very certain that in every conscious volition—­every act that is so characterized—­the larger part of it is quite unconscious.  It is equally certain that in every perception there are unconscious processes of reproduction and inference.  There is a middle distance of sub-consciousness, and a background of unconsciousness.”

Taine has told us that:  “Mental events imperceptible to consciousness are far more numerous than the others, and of the world that makes up our being we only perceive the highest points—­the lighted-up peaks of a continent whose lower levels remain in the shade.  Beneath ordinary sensations are their components, that is to say, the elementary sensations, which must be combined into groups to reach our consciousness.”

Maudsley says:  “Examine closely and without bias the ordinary mental operations of daily life, and you will find that consciousness has not one-tenth part of the function therein which it is commonly assumed to have.  In every conscious state there are at work conscious, sub-conscious, and infra-conscious energies, the last as indispensable as the first.”