THE POWER OF MIND. William Walker Atkinson
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in the life of yourself and those around you. Everyone unconsciously inclines toward the shape and form of the Mental Image that they carry around with them. And, this being so—that we grow to resemble our Ideals—should we not be careful to use the right kind of mental patterns or moulds? Our manifested character depends upon the mental patterns created by ourselves, either by our own will and according to our own judgment, or else, unconsciously, from the suggestions or will of others.
Aristotle wrote that of every object of thought there must be in the mind some form, phantasm, or species; that things sensible are perceived and remembered by means of sensible phantasms, and things intelligible by intelligible phantasms; and that these phantasms have the form of the object without the matter, as the impression of a seal upon wax has the form of a seal without its matter. The student of modern psychology may see, at a glance, just what Aristotle meant—the Mental Image which moulded or served as a pattern for the thought which would spring from the Inner Consciousness. Kay says: “It is as serving to guide and direct our various activities that mental images derive their chief value and importance. In anything that we purpose or intend to do we must first of all have an idea or image of it in the mind, and the more clear and correct the image, the more accurately and efficiently will the purpose be carried out. We cannot exert an act of volition without having in mind an idea or image of what we will to effect.” The same writer also says: “Clearness and accuracy of image is only to be obtained by repeatedly having it in mind or by repeated action of the faculty. Each repeated act of any of the faculties renders the mental images of it more clear and accurate than the preceding, and in proportion to the clearness and accuracy of the image will the act itself be performed easily, readily, skillfully.”
And, now, all this that we have said on the subject means simply that you can “make over” yourself, to be that which you desire to be, by means of determined and persistent desire and will. By filling up the storage-rooms of the proper plane of the Inner Consciousness with the “Ideals” and “Ideas” which you desire to materialize in your own character and self, you will find that you will gradually begin to grow like the Mental Image that you have placed there. Your thoughts, actions, feelings and emotions will gradually be found to be reshaping themselves to fit in to the pattern or mould which you have set before them. The material which has been placed in the storage-rooms will be brought forth by the silent mental workers and, being placed into the mental machinery will be manufactured into thoughts, moods, feelings, emotions, actions and outward manifestations of the grade and quality indicated by the materials which you have supplied. You cannot make silk from cotton, nor broadcloth from shoddy. Unless you furnish the proper materials you cannot expect the finished product to be as you desire. You are making character and “self” every day—but it depends upon the material furnished just what that character or self shall be. An understanding of the Inner Conscious workings of the mind gives you the only key to the mystery of character and self—then why not act upon it?
Lesson VI.
“Automatic Thinking.”
THE ADVANCED writers on the subject of psychology have given us many examples of the workings of the mind on the planes of what some have aptly called “Automatic Thinking,” We feel that it will be well to quote a few cases to illustrate this phase of the subject.
There are many instances stated of persons who had been earnestly endeavoring to solve certain problems and questions, but who had been compelled to lay aside the matters as incapable of solution at the time. In a number of such cases it is related that while thinking of something entirely foreign to the subject the long sought answer would suddenly flash into the field of consciousness, of course without any conscious effort on the part of the person. A well known writer, in giving an instance of the kind which had happened to him personally, states that when the answer came to him in this way he trembled as if in the presence of another being who had communicated the secret to him in a mysterious manner. Nearly every person has had the experience of trying to remember a name, word, date, or similar thing, without success, and then after dismissing the matter from the mind have had the missing idea or word suddenly flashed from the Inner Consciousness into the field of the ordinary consciousness. Some part of the Inner Consciousness was at work trying to supply the demand, and when it found it it presented it to the person.
Another well known writer gives several cases of what he calls “unconscious rumination,” in which the mind worked silently, and below the field of the ordinary consciousness, after the person had read works relating to new subjects, or presenting new points of view essentially opposed to previously conceived opinions and views. He states that in his own experience, he found that after days, weeks, or even months, he would awaken to a realization that his old opinions were entirely rearranged, and new ones had taken their place. Some have called this process “sub-conscious mental digestion and assimilation,” and indeed the process is akin to the work of the physical organism in digesting and assimilating material nourishment.
Sir William Hamilton is stated to have discovered an important mathematical principle while walking one day in the Dublin Observatory. He stated that upon the occasion he “felt the galvanic circle of thought close,” and the sparks that fell from the mental process were the fundamental mathematical relations of his problem, which as all students know now forms an important law in mathematics.
Thompson the psychologist has written as follows on this subject: “At times I have felt a feeling of uselessness of all voluntary effort, and also that the matter was working itself clear in my mind. It has many times seemed to me that I was really a passive instrument in the hands of a person not myself. In view of having to wait for the results of these unconscious processes, I have proved the habit of getting together material in advance, and then leaving the mass to digest itself until I am ready to write about it. I delayed for a month the writing of my book ‘System of Psychology,’ but continued reading the authorities. I would not try to think about the book. I would watch with interest the people passing the windows. One evening while reading the paper, the substance of the missing part of the book flashed upon my mind, and I began to write. This is only a sample of such experiences.”
Berthelot, the eminent French chemist who founded the present system of Synthetic Chemistry, has said that the experiments leading to his remarkable discoveries in that branch of science were seldom the result of carefully followed lines of conscious thought or pure reasoning processes, but, instead, came of themselves, from a clear sky, so to speak. Mozart, the great composer, once said: “I cannot really say that I can account for my compositions. My ideas flow, and I cannot say whence or how they come. I do not hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. The rest is merely an attempt to reproduce what I have heard.” In addition to the experience above mentioned, Dr. Thompson has stated that: “In writing my work I have been unable to arrange my knowledge of a subject for days and weeks, until I experienced a clearing up of my mind, when I took my pen and unhesitatingly wrote the result. I have best accomplished this by leading the mind away as far as possible from the subject upon which I was writing.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes has said: “The automatic flow of thought is often singularly favored by the fact of listening to a weak continuous discourse, with just enough ideas in it to keep the mind busy. The induced current of thought is often rapid and brilliant in inverse ratio to the force of the inducing current.” Wundt has also said, on this subject: “The unconscious logical processes are carried on with a certainty and regularity which would be impossible where there exists the possibility of error. Our mind is so happily designed that it prepares for us the most important foundations of cognition, whilst we have not the slightest apprehension of the modus operandi. The unconscious soul, like a benevolent stranger, works and makes provisions for our benefit, pouring only the mature fruits into our laps.” An English writer has stated: “Intimations reach our consciousness from unconsciousness, that the mind is ready to work, is fresh, is full of ideas. The grounds of our judgment are often knowledge so remote from consciousness that we cannot bring them to view. The human mind includes an unconscious part; unconscious events occurring in that part are proximate causes of consciousness; the