Note 15 — Chapter I · Music as a Human Need.

It will be noted that the reference to ideas as “disturbances of purely physical, molecular rhythm” is used throughout this book, for it is here claimed that just as the unconscious cessation of breathing for a few seconds during the writing of an idea, expresses the check of mental action upon heart action and the circulation of the blood, so also does the continual reception of new impressions into the mind, affect the original regular rhythmic movement of the entire body. Hence thought is a real disturber of rhythm within the body. Similarly, any burst of anger, fear, or joy is immediately registered in the pulse.