THE POWER OF MIND. William Walker Atkinson
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу THE POWER OF MIND - William Walker Atkinson страница 41
Название: THE POWER OF MIND
Автор: William Walker Atkinson
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Сделай Сам
isbn: 9788075836410
isbn:
There are many ways of setting the brownies to work. Nearly everyone has had some experience, more or less, in the matter, although often it is done almost unconsciously and without intent or knowledge. Perhaps the best way for the average person—or rather, for the majority of persons—is to get as clear an idea of what you really want to know as possible—as clear an idea or mental image of the question you want answered— and then, after rolling it around in your mind, giving it a high degree of voluntary attention, then, we say, pass it on to the Inner Conscious planes, with the mental command, “Attend to this for me—work out the answer, and then report to me,” or a similar order. This order may be made silently, or aloud if you wish—the forming of the words seems to give force to the order. Speak to the Inner Conscious workers just as you would to people in your employ, firmly but kindly. And, then—and this is an important point—you must accompany the order with an Earnest Expectation that your Will will be carried out. The clearer your belief the better will be the result. A doubt will interfere somewhat. The writer of this book once said: “Earnest Desire—Confident Expectation—and Firm Demand—these form the Triple Key of Occult Attainment.” And so it is, in this case as in many others. Talk up to your Inner Consciousness, and firmly command it to do your work—but also Earnestly Desire its accomplishment—and above all, Confidently Expect the desired answer. And then forget all about the matter— throw it off of your conscious mind, and attend to other tasks. And then in due time the answer will be forthcoming, and will flash before your consciousness—perhaps not until the very minute that you must decide upon the matter, or need the information. You may give your brownies orders to report by such and such a time, if you wish—just as you do when you tell them to awaken you for your train, or to remind you of your appointment.
Lesson VIII.
“Forethought.”
The late Charles Godfrey Leland, a well-known writer, and investigator along psychological lines, devoted several of the last years of his long life (he lived to be nearly eighty years of age) to an investigation of the operation of the Will along the general lines of Inner Consciousness. He, of course, did not use the term “Inner Consciousness,” but he recognized the existence of its planes of mental manifestation, and his ideas fit very nicely into the subject-matter and ideas advanced in this book, particularly so far as concerns the actual employment of the power possible to those who understand the subject. In connection with the idea of “automatic thinking,” which we have described in the two preceding chapters, under the head of “automatic thinking,” and “inner conscious helpers,” he uses the word “Forethought” (first employed in a similar connection by Horace Fletcher). He uses the term “Forethought” in the same sense that we use the term “mental command” to the figurative brownies of the Inner Conscious planes. We think it advisable to quote liberally from him in this lesson and the one immediately following, in which latter the “Leland Method” is described. Mr. Leland’s ideas are so practical, and so readily understood by the average person, that you will do well to read closely these quotations. Mr. Leland says:
“Forethought is strong thought, and the point from which all projects must proceed. As I understand it, it is a kind of impulse or projection of Will into the coming work. I may here illustrate this with a curious fact in physics. If the reader wished to ring a door-bell so as to produce as much sound as possible, he would probably pull it as far back as he could, and then let it go. But if he would, in letting it go, simply give it a tap with his forefinger, he would actually redouble the sound. Or, to shoot an arrow as far as possible, it is not enough to merely draw the bow to its utmost span or tension. If, just as it goes, you will give the bow a quick push, though the effort be trifling, the arrow will fly almost as far again as it would have done without it. Or, if, as is well known, in wielding a very sharp sabre, we make the draw-cut, that is, if to the blow or chop, as with an axe, we also add a certain slight pull, simultaneously, we can cut through a silk handkerchief or a sheep. Forethought is the tap on the bell; the push on the bow; the draw on the sabre. It is the deliberate but yet rapid action of the mind when before falling to sleep or dismissing thought, we bid the mind to subsequently respond. It is more than merely thinking what we are to do; it is the bidding or ordering the Self to fulfill a task before willing it.
“Forethought, in the senses employed or implied, as here described means much more than mere previous consideration or reflection, which may be very feeble. It is, in fact, constructive, which implies active thought. Therefore, as the active principle in mental work, I regard it as a kind of self-impulse, or that minor part in the division of the force employed which sets the major into action. Now, if we really understand this, and can succeed in employing Forethought as the preparation for, and impulse to, Auto-Suggestion, we shall greatly aid the success of the latter, because the former insures attention and interest. Forethought may be brief, but it should always be energetic. By cultivating it we acquire the enviable talent of those men who take in everything at a glance, and act promptly, like Napoleon. This power is universally believed to be entirely innate, or a gift; but it can be induced or developed in all minds in proportion to the will by practice.
“Be it observed that as the experimenter progresses in the development of will by Auto-Suggestion, he can gradually lay aside the latter, or all processes, especially if he work to such an end, anticipating it. Then he simply acts by clear will and strength and Forethought constitutes all his stock-in-trade, process or aid. He preconceives and wills energetically at once, and by practice and repetition Forethought becomes a marvellous help on all occasions and emergencies. To make it avail the one who frequently practices Auto-Suggestion, at first with, and then without sleep, will inevitably find ere long that to facilitate his work, or to succeed, he must first write, as it were, or plan a preface, synopsis, or epitome of his proposed work, to start it and combine with it a resolve or decree that it must be done, the latter being the tap on the bell-knob. Now the habit of composing the plan as perfectly, yet as succinctly as possible, daily or nightly, combined with the energetic impulse to send it off, will ere long give the student a conception of what I mean by Forethought, which by description I cannot. And when grown familiar and really mastered, it will give to its possessor a power to think and act promptly in all the emergencies of life, in a greatly increased degree.
“All men of great natural strength of mind, gifted with the will to do and dare, the beings of action and genius, act directly, and are like athletes who lift a tree by the simple exertion of the muscles. He who achieves his aim by self-culture, training, or Auto-Suggestion, is like one who raises the weight by means of a lever, and if he practice it often enough he may in the end become as strong as the other. Such a man is like the hero in one of Mayne Reid’s novels, of whom it is said: ‘His aim with the rifle is infallible, and it would seem as if the ball obeyed his Will. There must be a kind of Directing Principle in his mind, independent of strength of nerve and sight. He and one other are the only men in whom I have observed this singular power.’ This means simply the exercise in a second, as it were, of the tap on the bell-knob, or the projection of the will into the proposed shot, and which may be applied to any act.
“Mind СКАЧАТЬ