University of Virginia Library

Temperature is mental

Heat and cold are products of mortal mind. The body, when bereft of mortal mind, at first cools, and after- wards it is resolved into its primitive mortal elements. Nothing that lives ever dies, and vice versa. Mortal mind produces animal heat, and then expels it through the abandonment of a belief, or in- creases it to the point of self-destruction. Hence it is

mortal mind, not matter, which says, "I die." Heat would pass from the body as painlessly as gas dissipates into the air when it evaporates but for the belief that in- flammation and pain must accompany the separation of heat from the body.