Where does inspiration and insight come from? How can I maximize learning? Am I in control of these things, or not?

Part II of Aldous Huxley’s “The Education of an Amphibian” addresses the conscious self and the not-self, or sub-conscious. Huxley lists five merging characteristics of the “Not-Self” (8-10).

First are the personal, home-made not-selves: “habits, conditional reflexes, impulses repressed but still obscurely active, the not-self of buried-alive reactions to remote events and forgotten words, the not-self of fossil infancy and festering remains of a past that refuses to die” (10).

The Not-Self

This is the subconscious with which psychiatry mainly deals. Boy, these buried-alive reactions and forgotten words are still close to the surface, 63 years’ worth! I am currently working on giving these distractions a new home: from the traumatized right side of my brain to the grown up and rational left side. It is slow-going, but I’m making great progress.

Next comes the not-self that used to be called the vegetative soul in charge of the body or the entelechy. When we wish to walk, it actually does the walk; it controls our breathing, heartbeat, digestion, health, etc.

Third, there is the not-self who inhabits the world from which we derive our inspiration and insights. It is responsible for every enhancement of wisdom, every sudden accession of vital or intellectual power. According to Huxley, this is the not-self who spoke to Socrates through his daimon and dreamed the text of King Lear and the Agamemnon (10)! I love to think about this part of my subconscious, where my inspiration and insights originate. That’s so cool. These enhancements keep me going, keep me learning, keep my inspiring others to reach their dreams.

Next comes through the world of visionary experience where a mysterious not-self lives in the midst, not of shared human symbols, but of shared non-human facts—facts from which the theologians have derived the “Other World” . And finally, is the universal Not-Self, which men have called the Holy Spirit, the Atman-Brahman, the Clear Light, Suchness (10).

The Not-Self can respond inappropriately to fears, greed, hates, and wrong judgements. Self and not-self must work together in harmony. The personal not-self reacts upon the conscious self, forcing it to behave even more inappropriately than before. Left to its own device, the not-self is incapable of making a mistake. However, the ego and the not-self can poison one another and play havoc with the vegetative soul. They can do nothing to hurt the indwelling Spirit, but they can eclipse the inner lights. They set up a screen between our conscious and the transcendental not-selves. Enlightenment is simply the removal of this eclipsing barrier.

Huxley’s conclusion: Good health is a state of harmony between conscious self, personal not-self, and vegetative soul (11)

The Kinesthetic Sense

Huxley next considers the non-verbal humanities in which the most fundamental awareness is the kinesthetic sense. This sense registers muscular tension within the body and tells us about the changes. It is the main line of communication between the conscious self and the personal subconscious on the one hand and the vegetative soul on the other. When assessing the best learning method for my students, I consider their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic capabilities. For example, some students respond well to an auditory lecture, but I include a visual transcript as well for those who are more visual learners. For my Online students, the lectures include short videos, Ted-talks as well. I try to limit lectures to under 15 minutes with a time to walk-around or stand up and stretch afterwards.

I learn better through visual stimuli than auditory stimuli. The optimum learning environment, however, for me includes a kinesthetic environment. Often, when reading dense material (such as Huxley’s concept of “not-self”), I walk around my house with book in hand-adding the muscular morality. A treadmill works nice if I have access to one.

“The kinesthetic sense tells us what is happening within hearing, touch, taste, and smell—gives us information about the outer world (21).” At the time of Huxley’s essay, “modern education” did little to train or promote the kinesthetic sense. In the late 60’s, early 70’s, we sat in our desks, all day, reading, writing, and all other rote activities. I could have benefitted greatly from kinesthetic activities; we all could have. Other than our music class, stimulating our minds to hear, and art class, stimulating the visual and tactile, our other senses were left to educate themselves.

I appreciated Huxley’s insight in this chapter of learning with the art of seeing by combining relation with activity—relaxation of the self and personal subconscious, of the vegetative soul, and the deeper not-selves (21). By letting go of the muscles which are subject to the will, we are able to release some of the tensions in regions of the body beyond our voluntary control. This might already be a thing, but what a great benefit for students to combine reading with PT–physical activity including stretching muscles, deep breathing for relaxation and oxygenation, and motor skills (including optical). This could help students achieve mastery in reading, and really, all areas of academia. Good food for thought. I really enjoyed this chapter. Thank you, Huxley.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. (1952). Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. New York: Harper & Bros.