The totality of the bodily sense

[Johnyxxx]

Hi,


Can anybody help me to understand what the bold text means?


"For soul is but a word, a vain word--a battlefield of the philosopher fools, the theologian fools, since Anaximander and Gregory Nanzianus. A toy. But the consciousness? That is what we mean by soul, we others. That then must live somewhere. But is it, as Descartes thought, atomic? or fluid, now here, now there? Or is it but a word for the totality of bodily sense? As Weir Mitchell supposed. Well, we should see."

The Soul Hunter by Aleister Crowley, 1910

Thank you very much.

 

[Tarheel]

I think it means all the senses put together--the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

 

[Peedeebee]

I think it's a very difficult book!!

 

[bhaisahab]

Crowley wrote only "very difficult books". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

 

[Tdol]

He spent his honeymoon night in the Pyramids at Giza, which I think may give us an idea of what he was striving for with his totality of body sense. The rest of us get by with a lot less.

By the way, Jake Arnott wrote an excellent novel about the night a Victorian general, exposed for being gay, met Crowley in Paris, called The Devil's Paintbrush. If you are interested in Crowley, then this really is a book to read. I came to it from Arnott's books about crime in the sixties and enjoyed it a lot. His crime novels are also worth a read.