The Solar Plexus. William Walker Atkinson

and from them emerge and pass the filaments of nerve-force distribution to the involuntary muscles of the organs under its control, and to the secreting-cells of the various glands, etc., which depend upon it for their nerve supply. Dr. Byron Robinson, who first applied the term "The Abdominal~Brain" to the Solar Plexus, says of it that: "By the use of this term, I mean to convey the idea that it is endowed with the high powers and phenomena of a great nervous centre; that it can organize, multiply, and diminish forces."

      It is easily seen why an injury to the Solar Plexus seriously disturbs the life-processes, and Why a severe blow so paralyzes the vital organs that death ensues almost immediately. A man may survive a serious injury to any one of his other three brains; but a serious injury to the Solar Plexus, or Abdominal Brain, strikes right to his seat of life—and that life ceases to manifest itself further. If Man may properly say of any portion of his physical being, "Here is the seat of my life; here is where I live!" the Solar Plexus, or Abdominal Brain, surely is that particular part or portion of his physical being.

      As an additional illustration of the essential part played by the Solar Plexus, or Abdominal Brain, in the processes of physical life, we have the well-known fact that it is found fully formed and perfect, and even then performing some important functioning, in the human embryo or foetus at a very early stage—at a stage in which the "skull brain" of the developing unborn creature is a merely pulpy mass of substance, incapable of performing any function whatsoever. Moreover, in those cases of the birth of abnormal infants—babies born without a "skull brain" or perfected spinal cord—the Solar Plexus, or Abdominal Brain, has been found to be perfectly developed, and to perform its full functions; and under such circumstances the child has lived' for months before delivery, and in some cases for some time afterward.

      So much for the offices and functions which orthodox physiologists freely ascribe to the Solar Plexus, or Abdominal Brain. Other careful investigators take up the inquiry at this point, but carry the story much further. Not alone modern scientific investigators; but also many very ancient investigators, such as the oriental occultists and sages, who many centuries ago recognized certain subtle functions and offices of this wonderful "fourth brain" of Man, and taught their students many valuable methods of effectively employing its finer forces and hiddent energies. In this book, we shall try to convey to you the essence and fundamental substance of these higher teachings concerning the Solar Plexus, or Abdominal brain—the Fourth Brain of Man!