THE POWER OF MIND. William Walker Atkinson
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truth of these propositions is so deducible from ordinary mental events, and is so near the surface, that the failure of deduction to forestall induction in the discerning of it may well excite wonder. Our behavior is influenced by unconscious assumptions respecting our own social and intellectual rank, and that of the one we are addressing. In company we unconsciously assume a bearing quite different from that of the home circle. After being raised to a higher rank the whole behavior subtly and unconsciously changes in accordance with it. Commenting on the above, another writer adds: “This is also the case in a minor degree with different styles and qualities of dress and different environments. Quite unconsciously we change our behavior, carriage, and style, to suit the circumstances.”
Jensen has written: “When we reflect on anything with the whole force of the mind, we may fall into a state of entire unconsciousness, in which we not only forget the outer world, but also know nothing at all of ourselves and the thoughts passing within us after a time. We then suddenly awake as from a dream, and usually,at the same moment the result of our meditations appears as distinctly in consciousness without our knowing how we reached it.” Another writer has said: “It is inexplicable how premises which lie below consciousness can sustain conclusions in consciousness; how the mind can wittingly take up a mental movement at an advanced stage, having missed its primary steps.” Some psychologists, Hamilton and others, have made a comparison likening the action of the mental processes to that of a row of billiard balls, of which one is struck and the impetus transmitted throughout the whole row, the result being that the last ball actually moves, the others remaining in their places. The last ball represents the plane of ordinary outer consciousness, the other balls representing the various stages of the action of the Inner Consciousness. Lewes, the psychologist, commenting on the above conception, adds: “Something like this, Hamilton says, seems often to occur in a train of thought, one idea immediately suggesting another into consciousness—this suggestion passing through one or more ideas which do not themselves rise into consciousness. This point, that we are not conscious of the formation of groups, but only of a formed group, may throw light on the existence of unconscious judgments, unconscious reasonings, and unconscious registrations of experience.”
In connection with these processes of the mind, on the planes below those of the outer consciousness, many writers have noted the discomfort and uneasiness preceding this birth into consciousness of the ideas developed on the unconscious planes. Maudsley says regarding this: “It is surprising how uncomfortable a person may be made by the obscure idea of something which he ought to have said or done, and which he cannot for the life of him remember. There is an effort of the lost idea to get into consciousness, which is relieved directly the idea bursts into consciousness.” Oliver Wendell Holmes says: “There are thoughts that never emerge into consciousness, and which yet make their influence felt among the perceptive currents, just as the unseen planets sway the movements of the known ones.” He adds: “I was told of a business man in Boston who had given up thinking of an important question as too much for him. But he continued so uneasy in his brain that he feared he was threatened with palsy. After some hours the natural solution of the question came to him, worked out, as he believed, in that troubled interval.”
The above experiences are common to the race, and nearly everyone who reads the above lines will at once recognize the occurrences as familiar in his or her own mental experience.
Among the many interesting cases related to illustrate the principle of “automatic thing,” or “unconscious rumination,” that of the famous mathematical prodigy, Zerah Colburn, is perhaps one of the most striking. This individual possessed a remarkable faculty of “automatically working out the most difficult mathematical problems.” It is related of him, that while yet a child of seven years of age, and while he was without any previous knowledge of the common rules of arithmetic, he was still able by some intuitive, Inner Conscious faculty, to solve the most difficult mathematical problems without the aid of figures, pencils or paper—by some Inner Conscious system of Mental Arithmetic. At that early age, he was able in this way to immediately give the number of minutes and seconds in any given period of time, and to tell the exact product arising from the multiplication of any number consisting of two, three or four figures, by any other number consisting of a like number of figures. The records of his times give many wonderful instances of his strange power, from which we quote the following, as an illustration:
“At a meeting of his friends, which was held for the purpose of concerting the best methods of promoting the views of the father, this child undertook and completely succeeded in raising the number 8 progressively up to the sixteenth power. And in naming the last result, viz., 281,474,976,710,656, he was right in every figure. He was then tried as to other numbers consisting of one figure, all of which he raised as high as the tenth power, with so much facility and despatch that the person appointed to take doWn the results was obliged to enjoin him not to be so rapid. He was asked the square root of 106,929; and before the number could be written down, he immediately answered, 327. He was then required to name the cube root of 268,336,125; and with equal facility and promptness he replied, 645. Various other questions of a similar nature, respecting the roots and powers of very high numbers, were proposed, to all of which he answered in a similar manner. One of the gentlemen asked him how many minutes there were in forty-eight years, and before the question could be written down he replied, 25,228,800; and then instantly added that the number of seconds in the same period was 1,513,728,000. He persistently declared that he did not know how the answers came into his mind. Moreover, he was entirely ignorant of the common rules of arithmetic, and could not perform upon paper a simple sum in multiplication or division. In the extraction of roots, and in mentioning the factors of high numbers, he gave the answers either immediately, or in a very few seconds; whereas it requires, according to the ordinary method of calculation, very difficult and laborious work, and much time.” A most peculiar sequel was noted in this case, for as the child was educated to perform mathematical calculations according to rule, and in the ordinary way, his wonderful power deteriorated, and in the end he was no more than the ordinary well-drilled child, so far as the branch of mathematics was concerned.
The instance of Blind Tom is also an illustration of “automatic thinking,” for this poor, blind creature—but little above idiocy so far as ordinary knowledge was concerned—possessed something in his Inner Consciousness that enabled him to play any piece that he had ever heard, even years before, with perfect reproduction of detail; and to also improvise wonderful strains, and harmonies. Something was at work on the Inner Conscious planes of this poor black man’s mind—as if to show to a doubting and materialistic world the possibilities of the human mind and soul in its hidden phases.
In view of the above instances, and many other similar ones, can you doubt that there are planes of mental action, outside of the ordinary consciousness, on which in some marvelous manner mental work can be, and is, done? Even if the experience of nearly everyone did not furnish proof, surely the recorded cases should place the matter above the plane of doubt. And yet, so strong is the spirit of Doubt, that many will say: “Yes, but—!”
Lesson VII.
Inner-Conscious Helpers.
MANY OF YOU have heard the old fairy-tales and bits of folk-lore relating to the kindly “brownies,” or “good fairies.” who, feeling affection for, and gratitude toward, some poor tailor or cobbler who had befriended them, would come at night, when the workman and his family were asleep, and taking up the unfinished work that had been left on the table or bench, would work diligently at it so that when the morning’s sun roused the worker from his slumbers he would find his unfinished task completed. The little hands of the brownies would have fashioned the leather into shoes, then stitched and pegged them; the cloth would be cut and made into garments; the pieces of wood would be made into boxes, chests, furniture, chairs, etc. The rough material had been prepared by the workman during the day; the brownies would “do the rest.” But what has all this to do with the Inner Consciousness, you may ask. Just this—that in the Inner Consciousness of each of us there are forces which act much the same as would countless tiny mental brownies or helpers who are anxious and willing to assist us in our