The Hidden Power And Other Papers upon Mental Science. Thomas Troward

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СКАЧАТЬ than casual ones not centred upon any particular object.

      Scattered thoughts which recognise no principle of unity will fail to

      reproduce any principle of unity. The thought that we are weak and have

      no power over circumstances results in inability to control

      circumstances, and the thought of power produces power.

      At every moment we are dealing with an infinitely sensitive medium which

      stirs creative energies that give form to the slightest of our

      thought-vibrations. This power is inherent in us because of our

      spiritual nature, and we cannot divest ourselves of it. It is our truly

      tremendous heritage because it is a power which, if not intelligently

      brought into lines of orderly activity, will spend its uncontrolled

      forces in devastating energy. If it is not used to build up, it will

      destroy. And there is nothing exceptional in this: it is merely the

      reappearance on the plane of the universal and undifferentiated of the

      same principle that pervades all the forces of Nature. Which of these is

      not destructive unless drawn off into some definite direction?

      Accumulated steam, accumulated electricity, accumulated water, will at

      length burst forth, carrying destruction all around; but, drawn off

      through suitable channels, they become sources of constructive power,

      inexhaustible as Nature itself.

      And here let me pause to draw attention to this idea of accumulation.

      The greater the accumulation of energy, the greater the danger if it be

      not directed into a proper order, and the greater the power if it be.

      Fortunately for mankind the physical forces, such as electricity, do not

      usually subsist in a highly concentrated form. Occasionally

      circumstances concur to produce such concentration, but as a rule the

      elements of power are more or less equally dispersed. Similarly, for the

      mass of mankind, this spiritual power has not yet reached a very high

      degree of concentration. Every mind, it is true, must be in some measure

      a centre of concentration, for otherwise it would have no conscious

      individuality; but the power of the individualised mind rapidly rises as

      it recognises its unity with the Infinite life, and its

      thought-currents, whether well or ill directed, then assume a

      proportionately great significance.

      Hence the ill effects of wrongly directed thought are in some degree

      mitigated in the great mass of mankind, and many causes are in operation

      to give a right direction to their thoughts, though the thinkers

      themselves are ignorant of what thought-power is. To give a right

      direction to the thoughts of ignorant thinkers is the purpose of much

      religious teaching, which these uninstructed ones must accept by faith

      in bare authority because they are unable to realise its true import.

      But notwithstanding the aids thus afforded to mankind, the general

      stream of unregulated thought cannot but have an adverse tendency, and

      hence the great object to which the instructed mind directs its power is

      to free itself from the entanglements of disordered thought, and to help

      others to do the same. To escape from this entanglement is to attain

      perfect Liberty, which is perfect Power.

      The entanglement from which we need to escape has its origin in the very

      same principle which gives rise to liberty and power. It is the same

      principle applied under inverted conditions. And here I would draw

      particular attention to the law that any sequence followed out in an

      inverted order must produce an inverted result, for this goes a long way

      to explain many of the problems of life. The physical world affords

      endless examples of the working of "inversion." In the dynamo the

      sequence commences with mechanical force which is ultimately transformed

      into the subtler power of electricity; but invert this order, commence

      by generating electricity, and it becomes converted into mechanical

      force, as in the motor. In the one order the rotation of a wheel

      produces electricity, and in the opposite order electricity produces the

      rotation of a wheel. Or to exhibit the same principle in the simplest

      arithmetical form, if 10÷2=5 then 10÷5=2. "Inversion" is a factor of the

      greatest magnitude and has to be reckoned with; but I must content

      myself here with only indicating the general principle that the same

      power is capable of producing diametrically opposite effects if it be

      applied under opposite conditions, a truth which the so-called

      "magicians" of the middle ages expressed by two triangles placed

      inversely to one another. We are apt to fall into the mistake of

      supposing that results of opposite character require powers of opposite

      character to produce them, and our conceptions of things in general

      become much simplified when we recognise that this is not the case, but

      that the same power will produce opposite results as it starts from

      opposite poles.

      Accordingly the inverted application СКАЧАТЬ