250 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
our individuality it is surely our voluntary movements. . . . Conversely the life of the individual self sinks, shrinks with the decrease of variety and intensity of volun tary movements." * Ross, quoting the foregoing words, adds : " Often a furious, naughty child will suddenly be come meek and obedient after being held a moment as in a vise. On the play-ground a saucy boy will abruptly sur render and take it back when held firmly on the ground without power to move hand or foot. The cause is not fear but deflation of the ego." 2 Crowding, then, appears to promote the spread of ideas and feelings, the bringing of all individuals to a common state of mind, and, at the same time, the lowering of the self-feeling or the sense of individuality ; and is thus one of the chief means of merging many sepa rate and differentiated personalities into one psychical mass. A second important means of accomplishing the same re sult is concerted bodily movement. Just as the necessity of keeping the body in the same attitude or position by reason of close crowding has the tendency to induce mental unity in a group, so does the performance of the same act at the same time by all the persons present. If all stand or leap or shout or kneel or hold up the right hand or bend for ward or sing or repeat a formula, or do anything else which may occur to the leader, it develops a consciousness of oneness and breaks up the personal isolation in which the sense of individuality is at a maximum. One reason why the prevention of bodily movements by crowding furthers the fusion process is that persons widely separated in a gathering will move individually without respect to the movements of others, and this keeps alive the sense of indi viduality, whereas the same movements, if performed by all, would have the opposite tendency. An expert leader, when he is seeking to develop mental unity and solidarity in an assembly, will always insist upon " all joining in " whatever concerted action he proposes. If some refuse to participate
1 " Psychology of Suggestion," p. 289. 2 "Social Psychology," p. 44.
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