THE POWER OF MIND. William Walker Atkinson
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alarmed. Our method renders potent and grand, pleasing or practically useful, to all who practice it, a faculty which has the great advantage that it may enter into all the relations or acts of life; will give to everyone something to do, something to occupy his mind, even in itself, and if we have other occupations.”
The student will recognize in the “Leland Method” the same principles of Auto-Suggestion, of Self-Command, that we have referred to in other lessons, together with the principle of the “Mental Helpers” already spoken of. But he will also notice the stress and importance that Mr. Leland attaches to the idea of giving the Command or Auto-Suggestion just before one goes to sleep. This idea, in fact, forms the key-note of the Leland Method, and Mr. Leland’s ideas have attracted much attention by reason thereof, notwithstanding that the idea of Suggestion before sleep has been referred to and written upon by other writers, before and since the date of Mr. Leland’s work. But, inasmuch as the latter brought out this phase of the subject so clearly, it is but just that any presentation of the general subject contain a liberal reference to his work, theories and ideas, and full credit for the same.
There is a good psychological reason underlying the fact that Mental Commands given to one’s own mind just before sleep should prove so efficacious. The reason lies in the fact that sleep is a state induced by nature not only for the purpose of resting the physical body and enabling the reparative and recuperative processes to work to the best advantage—important as is this work, there is still another purpose behind the phenomena of sleep. During sleep there is a mental work going on, as well as a physical. The tiny worker of the mind (to follow the figurative illustration already used by us)—the “brownies” of the mind, do much of their work during the time of sleep. The period of sleep is the time of “great doings” on some of the planes of the Inner Consciousness. Then is to be found the performance of the work of mental assimilation, analysis, collation, combining, adjusting, storing-away, arranging, etc., of the material gathered by the outer consciousness, through its sense organs and reasoning faculties during the waking hours just past. The workers of the mind gather up the material roughly stored at the end of the day, and store it away systematically, each impression according to its kind, and according to the law of association, so that when one starts on a certain subject he will find arranged in order all that he knows concerning that subject—the process is like the arrangement of books in a large modern reference library, so that anyone familiar with the system may go from one book to another until he has acquainted himself with all the library contains concerning that particular subject.
But this is not all. During the day the conscious mind has made numerous demands for certain information—answers— work—solutions, etc., more or less unconsciously, and the little workers of the mind take this their first chance to do this work, now that the outer consciousness is asleep and not bothering them with demands for the performance of the numerous tasks of the day that demand immediate attention. They gather together the scattered material, and like the brownies work up the material into perfected articles, so that the next day the individual is surprised to find how his mind has worked out many matters for him while he was asleep. These little brownies “work while you sleep,” as the current slang expresses it.
And so now you see the value of the “Leland Method.” Just before going to sleep you formulate a definite demand upon the brownies, and then dismiss the subject from your outer consciousness. Then while you are asleep the desired task is accomplished—the missing link to the chain of knowledge is forged and adjusted into place—the puzzling problem is solved—the perplexing riddle is answered. But you must always remember that after you have said to your Inner Consciousness, “Attend to this for me while I sleep,” you must then positively dismiss the matter from your outer consciousness, just as a great executive dismisses a matter when he gives it over to a tried and trusted assistant. Until you do this the Inner Consciousness cannot do its work properly. Always remember this in connection with this phase of the subject. It is highly important.
Lesson X.
Intuition and Beyond.
JUST AS there are mental planes which the investigator naturally classifies as “below” the ordinary planes of consciousness—the instinctive plane; the physical-function plane; the habit-plane; and even the plane on which the so-called “automatic thinking,” etc., manifests—so are there many planes
which one naturally thinks of as “above” the ordinary plane. As we have said, not only are there the basements and sub-cellars beneath the floor of the packing and shipping department of the mind, but also many “upper stories” above that floor. Upon these upper floors of the mind rest those things which the world calls Genius; Inspiration; Intuition; Spiritual Power; and other names denoting higher faculties of the mind.
Kay says: “It is in the ultra-conscious region of the mind that all its highest operations are carried on. It is here that genius works.” Carlyle said: “Shakespeare’s intellect is what I call an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is aware of. The latest generations of men will find new meanings in Shakespeare, new elucidations of their own human being.” Goethe said: “I prefer that the principle from which, and through which, I work shall be hidden from me.” Ferrier says: “The sublimest works of intelligence are quite possible, and may be easily conceived to be executed, without any consciousness of them on the part of the apparent and immediate agent.” Holmes says: “The creating and informing spirit which is within us and not of us, is recognized everywhere in real life. It comes to us as a voice that will be heard; it tells us what we must believe; it frames our sentences and we wonder at this visitor who chooses our brain as his dwelling place.” Schofield says: “The supra-conscious mind lies at the other end—all those regions of higher soul and spirit life, of which we are only at times vaguely conscious, but which always exist, and link us on to eternal verities, on the one side, as surely as the sub-conscious mind links us to the body on the other.”
Schofield also says: “The mind, indeed, reaches all the way, and while on the one hand it is inspired by the Almighty, on the other it energizes the body, all whose purposive life it originates. We may call the supra-conscious mind the sphere of the body life, the sub-conscious mind the sphere of the body life, and the conscious mind the middle region where both meet.” Schofield also says: “The Spirit of God is said to dwell in believers, and yet, as we have seen, His presence is not the subject of direct consciousness. We would include, therefore, in the supra-conscious, all such spiritual ideas, together with conscience—the voice of God, as Max Muller calls it—which is surely a half-conscious faculty. Moreover the supra-conscious, like the sub-conscious, is, as we have said, best apprehended when the conscious mind is not active. Visions, meditations, prayers, and even dreams have been undoubtedly occasions of spiritual revelations, and many instances may be adduced as illustrations of the workings of the Spirit apart from the action of reason or mind. The truth apparently is that the mind as a whole is an unconscious state, by that its middle registers, excluding the highest spiritual and lowest physical manifestations, are fitfully illuminated in varying degrees by consciousness; and that it is to this illuminated part of the dial that the word “mind,” which rightly appertains to the whole, has been limited.” And as Emerson has said: “Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. It shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe.”
In the region of the higher planes of the Inner Consciousness are to be found that wonderful aspect or phase of mind which we call “Intuition,” which Webster defines as: “Direct apprehension or cognition; immediate knowledge, as in perception or consciousness involving no reasoning process.” Intuition is a most difficult thing to describe, but yet nearly everyone understands just what is meant by the term. It is a higher form of that which we know as “Instinct,” the difference being chiefly that Instinct belongs to the phenomena of the “below” conscious planes, and has to do chiefly with that which concerns the physical body and well-being—while Intuition belongs to the “above” conscious planes and has to do with the higher part of the nature of the individual. Instinct sends its messages “up” to the Intellect, while Intuition sends its messages