Chapter 7
How to Project Your Thoughts
Success is a matter of never-ceasing application. You must forever work at it diligently. Otherwise it takes wings and flies away. At no time can you afford to rest on your laurels --a pause for self-admiration-- because there are others who may have eyes on your coveted place and who would like nothing better than to push you out of it, especially if they observe that you have a weak hold on it or are doing nothing to strengthen your position.
Despite the great strides that America has made, it is still a country with great resources, many of which have not yet been tapped. Even though the war, with its atomic bombs, radar, rocket guns and ships, amphibious boats, and daring uses of plastics and metals opened up a mighty unexplored field where still greater things will be accomplished by men with imaginations and the spirit-to-do, the writer believes that “we haven’t seen anything yet”; those of us who are alive fifty years hence will be looking upon a world which in comparison make the early postwar years look like the Stone Age.
Already in our laboratories scientists are at work on what many may consider fantastic ideas. These include light and wearable fabrics from wood or other products that will be fire- and water-resistant, materials that will make ships unsinkable, machines that will capture energy from the sun, and even apparatus that will actually record our unspoken thoughts. These are only a few of the things appearing on the horizon, and they are all coming from the imaginations of men, or from their subconscious minds. Perhaps in less than fifty years thought-transference or telepathy will be as commonplace as the radio of today. Who knows?
It has been said that man can bring into materialization anything that he can conceive mentally, and the millions of things we use and enjoy today prove it. When man fully comprehends the great power of his mind and earnestly puts it to work, not only will he have dominion over this earth and everything on it, but he may be reaching out to control the near-by planets. You yourself have this inner spark, but it must be fanned until the fire is of white-heat intensity and it must be constantly stoked, which you do by adding fuel --ideas, ideas, more ideas, and action.
One man I know who has many achievements to his credit and who has passed the seventy mark, declared that most people fall by the wayside because they are never starting anything. “I make it a plan, and have for years, to start something new --that is, new for me-- at least once a week. It may be only the making of some simple gadget for use in the kitchen or it may be an entirely new sales plan or reading an unfamiliar book. I find in following this plan not only that I keep my body and mind active, but also that I put to use a lot of imaginative qualities that otherwise might fall asleep and atrophy. This idea of a man’s retiring when he’s sixty is to me a great mistake. As soon as a man retires and quits being active mentally and physically, he’s on the way to his grave in short order. You have seen what has happened to fire horses when they are retired. You know what happens to your automobile when you leave it outside unused and neglected; it starts to rust and is soon headed for the junkshop. Humans are the same; they rust out or wither and die when they go on the shelf.”
The plan of starting something new at least once a week brings us to the matter of initiative and how valuable an asset individual initiative is for any person who seeks success. Without it a man is stopped almost as soon as he starts. Men and women remain in minor clerical positions all of their lives because they never display initiative in their work, never attempt to find new ways of doing their work, and never suggest improvements. During the war a number of organizations placed suggestion boxes in their plants and offered prizes for those that were considered most practical. Frequently these suggestions led to greatly improved methods in plant operations, as well as rewards in advancement for the employees offering the suggestions. In a number of instances employee suggestions led to patentable devices that brought fame and fortune to those supplying the initial ideas. Bear in mind that no matter how long a piece of work has been done in a certain way, there’s always a better way. The war demonstrated that, so give heed to initiative. Even if you are just a clerk behind the counter in some store, you certainly must have some ideas of how goods may be better displayed or how customers may be better served. Good ideas for lighting, colour schemes, arrangement of the counters, display shelves are always acceptable to management, and are rewarded.
Closely linked with this matter of initiative are interest and attention. The more interest you take in your work, naturally the more attention you give it and the greater are the results. We all know that we do best the things in which we are interested, so if you do not find the task before you of interest, look for one that will interest you. The more absorbing the interest, the better --the interest factor alone will give you momentum that will carry you a long way forward.
One woman I know who was employed in a large department store as assistant to the manager of one of its largest departments, although her salary was fixed under the wartime ceiling, for several years received the store’s highest Christmas bonus because of her interest and initiative, and her advice, rather than that of the manager of the department, was often sought by the head of the store.
The personnel manager of a huge defence plant employing many thousands of both men and women told me that the greatest fault he had to find with people was that they could not be depended upon. Some fail to keep their word, others are always late for their engagements, still others are forever changing their minds. So if you tell another person that you are going to do a certain thing, even though its fulfillment may cause you some inconvenience, do it no matter what the consequences or the cost in time or energy. You will be amply repaid, for you are building a reputation for reliability, which will be of great value as you proceed up the ladder.
Many employees hold to the idea that their work is given to them merely that they may further the interests of their employers. They never entertain the thought that they are actually working for themselves, the employer merely furnishing the tools and the place for the employee to work. There is an old saying that unless a man has learned to take orders he can never learn to give them. How true this is; but how few, working day after day, ever realize that it is within their own power to sit some day in the executive’s place and give orders.
“The only way to have a friend is to be one,” said Emerson; but few people ever give thought to this fundamental requirement. You can’t cast your bread upon the waters without having it returned, and you can’t do a good deed without having a good deed done to you in return; this is true, no matter how Pollyanna-ish it may sound to some people.
Rare indeed is the man who doesn’t make an enemy now and then. You get out of tune with a man or perhaps he gets out of tune with you. Naturally, you don’t like him; as a result of your thinking he doesn’t like you. Fortunate is he who is able to make a friend of that enemy --and it’s so easily done.
Several men who had taken a violent dislike to me, perhaps because of something I may have said in an unguarded moment, and would have liked figuratively to cut my throat, have become my staunchest friends merely by my thinking and believing that they were really friendly people.
I don’t know where I got the idea of converting enemies into friends, whether it came to me out of the blue, whether I read it, or whether someone told me, but for years it has been part of my creed, and I’ve always found it to work. In illustration, let me tell the story of an executive who had taken a dislike to me for something I said critically about the operations of his company. For months, he was profanely “knocking me” at every opportunity. Naturally, my first impulse was to fight back and “knock” him in return. But the day came when I realized that his enmity had resulted from something I had said about him rather than the company, and I said to myself: “He’s not a bad guy. I’m wrong. I started the feud, and I’m sorry. The next time I get near him I am going to tell him that mentally.” One night I met him in a club of which we were both members. He would have avoided me, but we met nearly face to face, and I spoke first, saying, “How are you, Charlie?” He immediately responded and in the friendliest of manners. He caught “something” from my voice which meant a gesture of friendliness on my part, and today we’re the closest of friends.
So remember this: some of our enemies may be of our own making. Those friends or enemies are merely a reflection of our own thoughts --the other fellow will consider us an enemy or friend according entirely to the picture which we ourselves conjure up.
Only today, as this is written, I had an example of this thought projection. The waste pipe of the laundry sink in my home had been clogged, and I had to call a plumber. A few blocks from our home was a plumbing shop, the proprietor of which was an unfriendly person and offensive in his treatment of customers. Several times I had tried to get him to do work for us, but he was always too busy.
The last time I had called him he had told me that I would have to wait my turn. Probably he could get around to fix up the water heater in a couple of weeks. I had asked him if he could give me the names of other plumbers who might help me, but he had been entirely unco-operative. Naturally, his unfriendly treatment had given me a bad impression of plumbers in general and I found myself damning all of them.
However, I had to get the heater repaired and I quickly realized that the angry attitude toward plumbers which had been engendered by this experience would cause me to have difficulty in obtaining the services of any one of them. I simply changed my thought, saying something like this to myself: “All plumbers are good fellows --the old guy you called is just an old grouch-- forget it.”
I had a friend, the manager of a wholesale plumbing house, and I called him to learn if he couldn’t suggest a plumber who would help me. He did, and I telephoned him at once. He said he was busy, but if an imperative job had to be done, he would be out immediately. His promise pleased me and my gratitude for service was immediately felt by the plumber when he entered our home fifteen minutes after my call. In less than two hours --he worked swiftly, thus differing from some plumbers I had employed-- the heater had been replaced. I was genuinely delighted by his service and told him so. That naturally pleased him.
Today it was a little before 8 A.M. when I called for help. I told the plumber who I was and reminded him that he had been the one who had fixed my water heater. He remembered me immediately and said that he’d be out just as soon as possible --probably around noon. Within five minutes after I had hung up the telephone receiver, a man appeared at the front door asking if I had called a plumber.
I asked him how it happened that he was on the job so soon when I had been told by his boss that he couldn’t send a man before noon, and he replied, “Mr. ---- had just received your call as I came into the shop and he told me to come up to your home and do what was necessary before I went out on my all-day job.”
I was elated with this treatment and told the plumber, which, of course, pleased him. With my help the necessary repairs on the waste pipe were made in less than half an hour. I told him of my previous experience with the old plumber and his own boss, and he replied:
“My boss is a fine fellow. He’s always putting himself out to help people and he’s building a huge business as a result. Never have I found a better boss.”
You wager, think and believe that the other fellow is a fine chap, and that’s what he’ll turn out to be --for never forget that the thing we get back is a reflection of what we project mentally.
Do not reject this great truth. Just apply it and you’ll be amazed at the startling results. Watch the bus driver respond, the elevator operator beam, and the clerk behind the counter hurry to oblige you when you send out friendly thoughts. It can be used in every encounter in life, and if you’re wholly sincere about it, you will never have to worry about making enemies.
“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise,” says the Bible. As a matter of fact, many successful men and women, irrespective of any motive that may actuate them, work on the assumption that when they do something for the other person, something will be done for them. That may sound rather calculating, but the basic law of reciprocity remains, regardless of the situation or circumstances. It is simply that there must be a logical effect from every cause.
It isn’t a matter of bootlicking when you try to please the boss. It’s just common sense to make him a friend, for in any organization the people who get ahead are those who do their work well and try to please the boss. The boss is the man who does the promoting, and the more he is pleased with you and your work, the faster is your own progress. No matter how great your self-esteem, if you expect progress in any large organization, you must not only do your work well, but you must have the good will of the boss. Look around you a bit and you’ll see this principle at work everywhere. You saw it work in the schoolroom when you were young, you saw it at work in the army, you see it in American politics, and if you have studied animal life you have recognized it working among the highest and the lowest types.
Take the initiative. Always try to do something for the other fellow and you will be agreeably surprised how things come your way --how many pleasant things are done for you. Doing something for others always pays dividends in one form or another.
You can experiment for yourself with your dog. Pet him and be kind to him, and his tail will wag in grateful appreciation and he will try to lick your hand or your face if you’ll give him a chance. Scold him or strike him and he may cringe, snarl, or even attempt to bite you. The reactions of people are similar, and no matter what the motive may be that actuates you to do something for the other person, whether it be merely a friendly impulse or your own knowledge of the law of cause and effect, the results will be the same. Sincere compliments will always gain you friends, for most people are extremely susceptible to complements. Complements gratify their ego, and up you go in their friendly estimation. Successful politicians learn early in their careers the art of making friends by doing things for other people, and by speaking in praise of them. The corner newsboy you befriend today may some day be the judge before whom you stand when you have violated some traffic rule, and then you will discover what it means to have “a friend at court.” The same principle applies in all walks of life, yet many people overlook the fact.
I sat in the office of the merchandise manager of one of the largest department stores in the country not long ago when a woman employee came in to thank him for some advice given her regarding the accepting of a better position with a firm in another city. When she left, he said:
“You know, one thing I like about this job is the number of people who come to me for advice. While you are ware that the job here keeps me on the jump, I always take time off for employees who come to me for advice. It flatters me and makes me feel as though I’m quite a fellow, and naturally I feel like doing everything I can for the people who so compliment me.”
This brings me to another point --a person who desires riches must go where riches are. Alone on a desert island, a man would probably have a tough time eking out an existence, to say nothing of trying to amass a fortune. So it is in everyday pursuits. Therefore if you want money, you’ve got to associate yourself with people who have it or who know how to make it. This may sound rather gross. But the truth is that if is money you are after, you must go where it is and where it is being spent, and also you must become personally acquainted with those who have the authority to spend it. If you are a salesman selling advertising and you know the head of the firm is the man with the final say, it’s a waste of time trying to convince minor clerks and junior executives. The same holds true if you are trying to sell other commodities, or, what is more important, trying to sell yourself.
“If you work for a man, for goodness’ sake work for him,” said Elbert Hubbard, which brings me to a failing of many people with whom I have worked over a period of years --lack of interest in their jobs. They make no effort to learn anything outside the small sphere in which their jobs place them. Once I made a wager with the executive of a large concern whose name was frequently in the newspapers that I could find at least twenty people on his own local organization who had never heard of him, to say nothing of the position he occupied. He was nettled when he got the proof. Not only did he lose the bet, but his pride was hurt. Curiosity prompted me to check with other organizations that were nation-wide in their operations, and not a single employee could tell me the name of the head of the company or the street address of its main office.
This may sound unbelievable and even ridiculous to many readers. But if you have friends working in a minor capacity with some large institution, ask them the name of the treasurer or the senior vice-president of the concern. Unless the employee is an exception, the ignorance will surprise you. If you are a salesman for a major oil company or even a telephone operator, surely you should make some endeavour within a short time after your employment to learn the names of the men who head the company and something of their history. Yet it is surprising how many people accept positions and make no attempt to ascertain what the adjacent department manufactures or to learn anything about the company’s general operations. Perhaps the heads of big organizations err in not carrying on educational campaigns for the benefit of employees. Of course, there are large corporations that have house organs containing the names of the executives, main office locations, and the like, and giving details about their method of operation. I talked with a woman employed by a large manufacturing plant who had been with the concern for many months, and outside of the name of the personnel manager who had employed her, she did not know the name of a single executive of the company in spite of the fact that the company’s publication with articles written by various department heads went into her hands monthly.
The job you now hold is the steppingstone to the job above. How much do you know about it before you start moving toward it --just how much do you know about your company and its policies both inside and out? Many firms carry group insurance for their employees, with the employees paying a small part of the premiums. How many employees have ever read their policies? Few do, and, further, few know anything about their social security rights or what the various amounts taken from their payroll checks actually represent.
“Man is heir to the wisdom of the ages found within the covers of great books,” remarked one of our great wise men, and yet it is surprising how many people never read a book, although the war did cause more people to seek the companionship of books. Strange as it may sound, few business men read anything besides the newspapers and a few trade journals, and when a check is made among professional men you find that they more or less limit themselves to books and literature dealing with their respective fields. I mention books, for no matter what the book may be --biography, fiction, history, or a scientific text-- it is a rare book that doesn’t contain an idea or two useful in your own work.
No one has a monopoly of knowledge, and yet we all know that knowledge is power when put to use. The greater the reader, the more his thinking is stimulated, and if he is a man of action, the more his efforts are accelerated.
Now is the right time to mention the highly interesting phenomenon of association of ideas and how one idea quickly links itself with another. This is of great value and should be cultivated by everyone, especially by a person engaged in creative work such as advertising, writing, selling or kindred lines.
For example, you see an automobile on a country road. Consider for a moment how many ideas can be derived from the mental picture of the automobile. It’s made of steel, alloys and plastics --each furnishing major ideas that can be broken up into many others. Then we consider the wheels and tires --casings, the inner rubes, the valves-- all bringing further association of ideas. We think of the roads over which they have travelled, and this suggests roads and their construction. Then we think of oil and gasoline, which brings further ideas through association, and before we know it we have started with an association of ideas that is seemingly endless.
Let’s take a single idea in business. Suppose you are interested in the growth and sale of a new kind of nut. The first question naturally is: Can it be grown and sold at a profit? Naturally, by association of ideas you will be led to determine all matters dealing with the growth of the nut, the soil, location, climatic conditions, costs, labour problems; these will lead on to marketing programs, packaging, dealers who would be interested, brokers, shippers, and finally, the ultimate consumer. The field of ideas becomes enormous although association started with the thought of a single little nut.
A word should be said about packaging and eye-appeal, because here again we deal with the power of suggestion. Dealers in groceries, fruits, and garden vegetables know that even if there is no improvement in the products themselves, artistic, attractive-looking packages will bring a better price for the goods. You have only to stroll through a grocery store and note the articles which attract your attention to discover this fact for yourself. Excellence in packaging distinguishes the skilled chef from the ordinary restaurant cook. The expert chef knows the value of eye-appeal and accordingly arranges the food on the platters or plates to give it a more appetizing appeal, while the average cook, probably neither knowing nor caring, piles it on in any old fashion.
For several years I was interested in a celery farm Prior to the interning of many Japanese during the war, my renter, an Italian, was always complaining that he could not compete with the Japanese and gave this as an excuse for his inability to fulfill his rent contracts. Intuitively, the Japanese knew the value of proper packaging. Their celery would be thoroughly washed, placed in new crates, and frequently, if sold in the form of hearts, would be attractively wrapped in paper carrying a boastful little message about the quality of the celery. My renter, a slovenly fellow, never, in my memory, washed a single bunch of celery. He placed it in second-hand crates and then he complained that his Japanese competitors were getting all the business.
Anyone who has travelled through the great farming belts of our country and Canada can tell by a glance at the house or barn whether the farmer is alive or whether he is dying on his feet. I think of some of the great orchardists of the Pacific Northwest who twenty or thirty years ago couldn’t sell a whole wagonload of pears or apples for twenty dollars; and yet men who had the idea of attractive packaging and marketing in recent years have made large fortunes. It’s nothing to get people to pay two dollars or more for a dozen apples or pears carefully wrapped in tissue, waxed paper, or tinfoil; some of these alert orchardists sell their products by mail to thousands of buyers throughout the world. I happen to know personally a number of these operators and their success in each instance has been predicated upon an idea that came to them in a flash and which developed as a result of their believing.
Now consider this matter of packaging in connection with yourself. Do you have eye-appeal? Do you wear clothes to give yourself the best appearance? Do you know the effect of colours and study those which best suit your form and temperament? Does your whole appearance set you apart from many who pass unnoticed in the crowd? If not, give thoughtful attention to personal packaging, for the world accepts you as you appear to be. Take a tip from the automobile manufacturers, the Hollywood make-up artists, or any of the great show producers, who know the value of eye-appeal and package their goods accordingly. When you have a combination of proper packaging and highest quality goods within the package, you have an unbeatable combination. The you within can do the same thing for the you outside --and you, too, have the unbeatable combination.
To satisfy yourself on what the right appearance will do for you, just pass by where there is construction under way. If you are well-dressed and have an air of prosperity and importance, workmen who may be in your path will step aside as you pass. Or you might try stepping into an outer office where others may be waiting to see a certain executive. Notice that the important-looking individual with the air and voice of authority gets first attention not only from the office attendants but from the executive.
No better example of the impressiveness of a good appearance can be given than the distinction made between individuals by attendants at a police station or jail. The stylishly dressed, well-poised business man is seldom ill-treated, while the man who has the appearance of a bum lands almost immediately in a cell. As a police reporter on the metropolitan newspapers for a number of years, I saw this happen times without number. The fellow who looked as though he might be “somebody” and who had been arrested for a minor law infraction, often got a chair in the captain’s office until he could telephone the judge or some friend to obtain his release, while the bum was carted off to jail, to get his release when and if he could.
The head of a huge automobile distributing agency told me that he was frequently called upon to close a sale with wealthy men who always bought the most expensive cars. “Not only do I take a shower,” he said, “and change all my clothes, but I go to a barbershop and get everything from a shave to a shampoo and manicure. Obviously, it has something to do with my appearance, but further than that it does something to me inside. It makes me feel like a new man who could lick his weight in wildcats.”
If you are properly attired when you are starting out on some important undertaking, you will feel within yourself that sense of power, which will cause people to give way before you and will even stir others to help you on your way. The right mental attitude, keeping your eyes straight ahead and fixed on your goal, throwing around you the proper aura, which is done by an act of your imagination or an extension of your personal magnetism, will work wonders, as Theos Bernard, in his Penthouse of the Gods, learned when he was cornered and stoned by a crowd of natives in Tibet. In his book he says that his first reaction was to fight, but the thought was immediately dismissed when he recalled that he had been taught to assume and maintain his own aura. Thus he straightened his shoulders, lifted high his head, directed his eyes straight ahead, and moved forward with a firm and rapid stride. Not only did the crowd give way, but others came forward and made a path for him.
A number of years ago I was on intimate terms with the chief of a large metropolitan fire department, a middle-aged man who seemed to fear nothing. His associates declared that the chief bore a charmed life. Once, in getting material for a personal story, I asked him if he thought he had a charmed life, and he laughed: “I don’t know as you’d call it that. Maybe I’m somewhat of a fatalist, but I have never believed that I would be killed as long as I am chief. When I go into a place of danger, I always throw a white circle about myself, and nothing can come through that circle. It was a trick I learned from the Indians who lived near us when I was a kid. Maybe it’s the worst kind of superstition, but that white aura has saved my life more times than I like to think about.” He lived to be retired and died in his seventies from natural causes.
We all know the story of Babe Ruth, the great baseball player, and how “he called his shots.” If he wanted to make a home run by batting the ball into the right or left field, that’s where he batted the ball. How he did this is perhaps known only to that great hero of all American boys, but surely it was uncanny. Against the mightiest pitchers he was able to bat the ball where he wanted, and his home-run record is something that will stand for a long time to come.
The name Ernie Pyle immediately brings to mind the premonition of death this famous war correspondent experienced before shipping out to the Pacific war. It will be poignantly recalled that the beloved Ernie had the feeling that when he left for the Pacific Theatre of War, he would not return. On the contrary, there are many of the stories told by ex-servicemen who had the “feeling or belief” that even though frequently under intense fire, they were going to come through without being wounded --and come through they did.
You will find that many people subjected to great danger believe in the efficacy of this white-circle aura. Perhaps here again it is the result of the magic of believing. There are millions of automobile owners in this world who have a small disc in their automobiles which they believe will save them from accidents. But why stop with discs in automobiles?
The vibrations set up by others affect us much more than we realize, for we take on the characteristics of those with whom we are more or less constantly associated. It is well known that a man and wife frequently after long years of association grow to resemble one another and acquire many of the habits of one another. A baby will take on the emotional characteristics of the mother or the person who habitually cares for it, becoming susceptible to the fears, the likes and dislikes of the mother or the nurse, and frequently these emotional qualities remain for life. And the lovers of pets, especially of dogs, declare that the animals will take on some of the emotional characteristics of their owners --they will be ugly, friendly, happy, or quarrelsome, depending upon the emotional pattern of the person with whom they are most closely associated.
It is always important to remember that a negative person can raise havoc in an organization or a home. The same amount of damage can be done by a strong negative personality as good can be done by a positive personality, and when the two are pitted against one another, the negative frequently becomes the more powerful. We all know what occasionally happens to a man living among uncivilized people --he goes native. Englishmen employed as plantation or mine operators in jungle outposts guard against this by shaving and meticulously dressing each evening for dinner.
An extremely nervous person in a position of authority can put nearly every person associated with him into a nervous state. You can see this happen in almost any office or shop where the executive is of a nervous type. Sometimes this emotional pattern will extend throughout an entire organization. After all, as has been said, an organization is only the extended shadow of the man who heads it. Thus, to have a smoothly running organization, all its members must be attuned to the thinking of the principal executive. A strong negative personality in such an organization, who is out of tune with the ideas of the management, can extend his negative vibrations to others and do great damage, just as one rotten apple in a box will soon cause all the others to rot. Likewise, one woman weeping can cause others in the same room to weep, one person laughing can cause others to laugh, and the yawn of a single person can cause an epidemic of yawns. We seldom realize how much our emotional vibrations affect others and how much we are affected by theirs.
If you would remain a positive type, avoid associating too much with anyone who has a negative or pessimistic personality. Many clergymen and personnel counsellors often become victims of prolonged association with people who come to them with their troubles. The impact of the steady stream of woe and sorrow vibrations eventually reverses their positive polarity and reduces them to a negative state.
To get a better understanding of the effect of these suggestive vibrations, you need only to remember your varying feelings upon entering different offices or homes. The atmosphere, which is the creation of the people habitually frequenting the office or home, can be instantly detected as being upsetting, disturbing, tranquil, or harmonious.
You can tell almost instantly whether the atmosphere is cold or warm --the arrangement of the furniture, the colour scheme, the very walls themselves, all vibrate to the thinking of the persons occupying the place, and bespeak the type to which their thoughts belong. Whether the home be a mansion or a shack, the vibrations are always a key to the personality of those who occupy it.
Are you afraid to take on responsibilities, afraid to make decisions, afraid to step out alone? Most people are --that’s why there are so few leaders and so many followers. If you are confronted with a problem, the longer you put it off, the greater it becomes and the more fearful you become of your ability to solve it. Therefore, learn to make decisions, because in not deciding you fail to act, and in failing to act you invite failure. Experience will soon teach you that once a decision is made, the problems and troubles begin to disappear. Even though the decision you make may not be the best one, the mere deciding gives you strength and raises your morale. It’s the fear of doing the wrong thing that attracts the wrong thing. Decide and act, and the chances are that your troubles will fade into thin air --whether you make a mistake or not. All great men are men of quick decision which flows from their intuition, their accumulated knowledge, and previous experience. So learn to be quick in making decisions and audacious in your actions.
The writer makes no claim to being a faith-healer, but anyone who knows anything about the power of mind knows of the effects that emotionalized thinking has upon the condition of the body and knows also what suggestion can do toward bringing disease, as well as curing it. In some faith-healing movements, cures are affected by denying that the disease exists, and there are thousands who attest to the validity of this method of healing. Followers of other schools of healing make no attempt to deny the existence of disease, but instead ignore it, affirming that they are well and happy and getting better every day. Members of the various schools of thought are the best judges of the methods that work best for them; but it must be remembered that in all cases it is the individual’s belief that determines the success of the individual method of cure. However, it is interesting to note that the movement which advocates denial has a tremendous following, and its membership continues to increase by leaps and bounds.
Just how far suggestion can be used to cure disease or physical ailments is still a matter of great controversy among the various schools of mental healing and members of the medical profession, but the fact remains that there are many thousands in our country alone --and the number increases daily-- who are of the firm belief that a cure of their ailments came as a result of mental-healing.
It has long been known that the emotions developed by fear, hate, and worry can lead to many bodily ills, even to fatal illnesses, although there are still some members of the medical profession who refuse to acknowledge this fact. However, Life magazine (February 19, 1945), in an article entitled “Psychosomatic Medicine,” declared that during the war period it was found that 40 per cent of all army disability cases originated from psychosomatic causes. (“Psychosomatic” refers to a combination of mind and body ailments brought on by the emotions, and the prescribed treatment is a combination of psychotherapy and medical treatment.) The article pointed out that many cases of hay fever, bronchial asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, rheumatic disease, arthritis, diabetes mellitus, the common cold, and various skin conditions such as warts, hives, and allergic reactions, were caused either by emotional upsets directly or by physical disturbances in which the emotions were an aggravating factor. The treatment consists of locating the source of the emotional disturbances and endeavouring to eradicate it.
Because of the experiments of the psychiatrists and psychoanalysts during the war, the whole subject of both medical and mental treatment is probably due for a complete revision, with resulting mind-cures which may prove astounding.
However, those who understand the science of psycho-therapeutics are fairly well agreed that a cure does not come through treatment on the part of the healer nearly so much as it does from the patient himself. In other words, the suggestion, no matter in what form it is given by the healer (whether in accordance with the principles of psychotherapeutics or in conjunction with some specific religious belief), is in turn transmitted by autosuggestion to the patient’s own subconscious mind where it becomes effective. The writer realizes that the following statement may invite criticism, but the fact remains that if a patient refuses to believe in the suggestive appeals of the healer, the purpose is never accomplished. The two, the healer and the patient, have to be en rapport to get results, and it is the writer’s theory that any person who possesses an understanding of the use of the power of suggestion could get the same results without the aid of a healer, provided he were sufficiently strong and constant in his own convictions and suggestions. The same technique, the cards and the mirror, with suitable affirmations, can be used to great advantage.
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in telepathy or thought-transference, arising out of the experiments and investigations carried on in many colleges and universities, particularly those conducted under the direction of Dr. J.B. Rhine of Duke University. Of course, Joseph Dunninger, radio’s self-styled mentalist, with his so-called feats of thought-projection as well as mind-reading, has done much to widen popular discussion of the subject.
The records of both the American and British Societies for Psychical Research are filled with case reports of telepathy, clairvoyance, and similar phenomena, but many people, despite the published reports of scientific findings, are prone to scoff at the idea that telepathy exists.
It has always struck the writer as odd that many people who profess to believe in the Bible, in which there are countless stories of visions, clairvoyance, and telepathy, declare that today telepathy and kindred phenomena are not possible.
Notwithstanding the general scepticism, some of the world’s greatest scientific thinkers have declared that telepathy is not only possible but that it is a faculty that can be used by most people when they understand it. In addition to the findings of both the American and British Societies for Psychical Research and the results made public by Dr. Rhine, there are numerous old and new books on the subject. A few of the better known ones are Mental Radio by Upton Sinclair; Beyond the Senses, by Dr. Charles Francis Potter, well-known New York preacher; Thoughts Through Space by Harold Sherman and Sir Hubert Wilkins, famous explorer; Telepathy by Eileen Garrett, editor and publisher; and Experimental Telepathy, by Rene Warcollier, Director of The Institute Metaphysique International in Paris.
When the results of Dr. Rhine’s experiments at Duke University were first made public, there were many men who rushed into print to declare that the results could be laid to chance, and considerable time and money were spent in an endeavour to prove that telepathy was non-existent. Yet the experiments continue at Duke and at other leading universities. The writer has often wondered why many opposing so-called scientific investigators do not try to prove that the phenomena exist instead of trying to prove the contrary; but here again the writer has a theory that belief is the miracle worker, and this is partly substantiated by what Dr. Rhine himself says in his book on extrasensory perception. He declares that satisfactory results were secured when the experimenters caught the “spirit of the thing,” and that the ability to transmit and receive became weakened when the original novelty wore off. In other words, while there was enthusiasm there was spontaneous interest and the belief that it could be done. But when students were called back at later dates to continue their experiments in the course of their studies, enthusiasm was lacking, and the results were not satisfactory.
Perhaps many of my reader will recall an article which appeared in the American Weekly magazine, August 25, 1946, captioned “Scientific Evidence Man Has a Soul,” written by Dr. J.B. Rhine. In view of the fact that his explanations deal directly with the subject matter of this book, I quote the article almost in full.*
*Reprinted by courtesy of the author, Dr. J.B. Rhine, and with the permission of The American Weekly.
What has science to say about the soul? For the answer to this question we would naturally turn to psychology because it is literally “the science of the soul.” But here we have a surprise coming to us, for we find that the soul theory of man has been practically dropped from psychology books and lectures.
Most psychologists will even smile tolerantly if one speaks of the mind itself as if there were such a thing apart from the brain. Everything has to be physical to be real, according to the prevailing view; anything non-physical or spiritual, as the soul is supposed to be, therefore simply cannot be. Such an idea has to be dismissed as pure superstition.
The principles of physics are expected to explain everything that we call “mental,” if they continue to expand as they have been doing.
However, some things occur now and then that just do not fit in at all with this physical view of man. For example, a person may awaken from a horrible dream in which a friend or relative is dying. The shocking picture turns out to be essentially true and the timing about right, although the friend may be a thousand miles away.
The oddest feature of all this is that in some cases the event perceived may not occur until hours or days after the dream; yet it may have been accurately pictured and even experienced in considerable detail.
The first thought it, of course, that such experiences are mere coincidences. Not many people get beyond this first easy explanation, but fortunately a few have done so; and when one studies great numbers of these experiences, they lose all appearance of being accidental. The scientific thing to do, of course, was to set to work to discover what might lie behind these happenings.
Obviously if any of these “psychic” experiences showed that the mind has the power to reach out beyond space and time, they would plainly be transcending physical law. The mind would then be demonstrated to be a spiritual rather than a physical system. Here was a clue to the soul. Just a clue --nothing more; but it provided the necessary lead to reliable evidence.
It was from these “psychic” experiences that the ESP tests were derived. ESP is the abbreviation of extrasensory perception, which includes telepathy and clairvoyance. In other words, telepathy and clairvoyance are two different modes of acquiring knowledge without the use of the recognized sense organs such as the eyes and ears. In a typical telepathy test the person being tested tries to identify which card or number or other symbol is being held in mind by another person --who is, let us say, located in an adjoining room. In a clairvoyance test, on the other hand, it is the object itself, commonly a card, instead of the thought of it, which the percipient tries to perceive. In a word, telepathy is the ESP of the state of mind of another person; clairvoyance, the ESP of an object.
At Duke University in 1930 a small group of psychologists began a series of ESP experiments of both types, telepathy and clairvoyance. This work was sponsored by the great British psychologist, William McDougall, Fellow of the Royal Society, who was at the time the head of the Department of Psychology at Duke. This work which was carried out in what came to be called the Parapsychology Laboratory (“para” meaning the unusual, the exceptional, the unorthodox) was by no means the first of its kind. Experiments had been done here and there, some of them even in universities, for as much as fifty years before, but there had been no systematic, consecutive experimentation following up the problems through the years, such as took place at Duke. That university was the first to offer a permanent haven to active research on “psychic” problems.
The experimenters in the Parapsychology Laboratory found fresh confirmatory evidence of both types of ESP, telepathic and clairvoyant. They developed and standardized new test, making it easier to repeat the experiments. This had the effect of starting a movement of ESP experimentation which spread to many other institutions here and abroad. Elaborate precautions were taken to insure that no sensory cues were possible and that no other type of error could affect the test results. The tests were of such a nature that the scores could be evaluated by standard and long-approved statistical methods. It could be shown clearly that the scores made in the tests could not reasonably be accounted for, either by chance or by experimental weakness of any kind.
Once the experimenters were satisfied that the occurrence of ESP was soundly established, they set to work on the vitally important question as to what relation that capacity had to the physical world. Do telepathy and clairvoyance operate strictly under physical law? Or do they reach beyond the limits of physics as the spontaneous “psychic” experiences seem to do?
Fortunately it was a simple matter to test ESP in relation to space. For example, we needed only to conduct tests with long distance between the cards and the person trying to identify them by ESP, and compare the results with short-distance tests. Both telepathy and clairvoyance tests gave as good results at great distances as they did with small. Distance measured in yards, miles, or hundreds of miles simply did not matter in the operation of ESP, as far as the experiments went. For that matter, angles, barriers, and other physical conditions seemed likewise to have no effect on success in the ESP tests.
What, then, about time? We argued that if space does not influence ESP, time should not be expected to affect it either. The tests for ESP of the future, or precognition (prophecy is a more familiar word), were easily derived from the regular ESP tests. People who could successfully identify cards extrasensory at a distance were then asked to try to predict what the order of cards was going to be after the deck was shuffled. We found that they scored as well on decks of cards that were mechanically shuffled before checking as they did trying to identify the cards as they were in the deck at the time. Moreover, they did as well at predicting the order of the deck of cards ten days ahead as for a two-day period. Length of time beyond the prediction and the check-up following the shuffling made no more difference than had the length of distance in the earlier experiments.
There was only one interpretation of these experiments possible --namely, that the mind of man somehow transcends the space-time limitations of the physical world in these capacities we are calling “extrasensory perception.” As the experiments were confirmed by other research men and women in other laboratories, the conclusion became firmly established that the mind does indeed possess properties not belonging to physics as we know it. Since space and time are the surest indications of what is physical, the mind must, therefore, be extra physical or spiritual in nature. And all we mean by the “soul” in man is that the mind is non-physical --or spiritual-- in character. The ESP experiments, then, have yielded evidence of the soul in man.
To some people this will seem a very small beginning on the problem of the soul. Certainly we must not exaggerate the extent of the findings. Actually we have done little more than produce evidence for an elemental sort of soul theory. There is, of course, a great deal more to the religious concept of the soul than has been found in these researches. There are many great problems remaining. Is the soul capable of separation fro the body. Can it survive bodily death? If it can and does, can discarnate souls have any contact with the living, or in any way influence them? What about the idea of a world-soul, or God? What about communication between souls, especially the soul of man and God? These and many other fundamental questions of religious doctrine remain untouched by anything thus far discussed in this article.
All we have a right to conclude is that the physical concept of man which has increasingly prevailed in intellectual circles since the rise of materialism is now thoroughly disproved.
There is something --how much, we do not know-- definitely extra physical about humans.
There is an order of reality in human life not subject to the laws of time and space.
But it just as important, I think, to recognize, too, the tremendous possibilities we can now see. The soul-theory of man gives us much to build on in our further thinking on religious problems. We have now verified the essential foundation upon which the spiritual philosophy of man was originally erected. It remains for scientific inquiry to go on further to find out by the same methods all we can about human personality, its nature and destiny --in short, to take up the other great questions of religion.
There was a time when experimental inquiry into the problems of religion would have met with vigorous opposition from orthodox religious orders. There are still many conservatives that would resent the intrusion of science into the domain of what they think should be pure faith. But a great many of the most deeply religious men and women of today are eagerly reaching out for a more tangible sort of knowledge regarding the human mind and all of its potentialities that life far beyond our present knowledge.
Surprisingly enough, it has been from orthodox science that we have met with the main opposition. The scientific conservatism especially fears any division in nature, any such dualism as that of soul and body --so much so that he is likely to refuse to look at any evidence which suggests such a duality. Such anxiety is quite groundless, for if, as we may now claim to know, man does have a soul as well as a body, both fundamentally different, the two are still in some sense unified.
They do interact; therefore they have something in common. Two things cannot affect each other if they differ in every single point. We see, therefore, that there must be a world of hidden realities, probably neither physical nor mental as we know them, from which the manifestations of mind and body, the psychical and physical, originally stem. This realm beyond mind and matter lies there almost as unknown as the American continents were to Columbus, silently awaiting some fortunate explorer of the future. But he will have to be someone who, like the great Genoese sailor, was daring enough to question existing charts of knowledge and belief --and put them to experimental test.
The writer has frequently attended séances at which the medium has refused to perform, declaring that someone in the audience was a scoffer, a no believer, whose vibrations were creating a hostile atmosphere. The materialistic sceptic may laugh at this, but the writer has been present at large meetings where one lone heckler in the audience with his persistent hostility has not only disrupted the meeting, but completely defeated the efforts of the speaker.
I think that anyone who understands the vibratory theory of thought power can also understand why unsympathetic vibrations can be “monkey wrenches thrown into the machinery. Verification of this is found in the experiments by Dr. Rhine, who discovered in his psychokinesis tests that when a subject operated in the presence of an observer who tried to distract him and depress his scoring, the results were always below expectancy. And, contrariwise, when the same subject performed alone of in the presence of neutral or sympathetic observers, his score of successes was correspondingly high.
You have only to read the story of witchcraft, the story of voodoo medicine men and “hexers,” and even the achievements of present-day mental-healers to realize that there is undoubtedly some force at work which influences others even at a distance. True, the suggestion first planted in the mind of the patient or victim, as the case may be, has for its purpose either good or evil; but that doesn’t account for the results, especially in the absent-treatment method where the patient may have no knowledge that the healer is “working” on him. Whether telepathy is involved here is something that has not yet been established.
It is to be noted that practically all of the great electrical scientists, including Edison, Steinmetz, Tesla, and Marconi, were greatly interested in telepathy. Dr. Alexis Carrel not only believed in telepathy but declared that a study of it should be made by scientific men, just as physiological phenomena are studied.
Despite the fact that the secretary of the London Society for Psychical Research after twenty years of investigation by its members stated that telepathy is an actuality, and the further fact that experiments at the various colleges continue to pile up amazing evidence of its existence, there are many scientific men who refuse to accept the findings. Moreover, the number of people who are carrying on investigation of their own is constantly growing, even though they are regarded in certain quarters as being eccentric and somewhat gullible. I have often wondered if those who belittle this research work are really being fair, both to themselves and those interested in the phenomena, especially when the research work may lead to greater discoveries than hitherto dreamed possible.
Many horse and dog fanciers, especially those who have kept horses and dogs as pets over a long period of years, stoutly maintain the existence of telepathy between the animals and themselves, and there have been countless stories told regarding telepathic phenomena among primitive people in all parts of the world.
Long years ago a business executive told me that he got rid of people who were taking up his time by simply repeating mentally to his visitor: “It’s time for you to go, leave now, leave now.” The visitor would shortly get fidgety, look at his watch or get up from his chair, reach for his hat, and soon be on his way out.
You can get the same results when visitors overstay their time in your home. When you feel it is time for them to go, simply say to yourself, “Go home now, go home now, go home now,” and you will find that they glance around the room looking for the clock and say, “Guess it’s about time we were leaving.”
I recognize that some sceptics say that telepathy has nothing to do with this, that your facial expressions, your bodily movements, signs of nervousness or weariness are what warn the visitor that it is time for him to leave. However, experiment for yourself; but take care that you give the visitor no outward sign, either by word or facial expression, that it is time for his departure. You will find that there are times, especially if the visitor is intent upon putting over a point or winning an argument, that this procedure will not work. But the moment there is a lull in the conversation, try it and the results will astonish you.
A number of years ago I had in my office on the second floor of a large office building. In later years the firm with which I had been associated moved to the tenth floor. Often upon entering the elevator I would say, “Ten, please,” to the operator, and then immediately begin thinking about the second floor and of its various associations in connection with my work. Time after time I found the elevator operator, who didn’t know me or my earlier association, stopping at the second floor and then turning around to look at me.
A well-known Pacific Coast clergyman who was a deep student of Mind Stuff told me that every time he wanted flowers in his church, he simply sent his thoughts out to members of his congregation and someone would send flowers. He also told me that every memorial window in his church came as a result of the mental suggestions which he gave whenever he felt the time was propitious for another window.
Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews, in a radio program in April, 1945, told of one of the most unusual “coincidences” on record. He related the story of an American song writer who just after the publication of one of his songs discovered that the same piece of music, note for note, had been composed in Germany only a short time previously. The fact that the compositions to the last note were identical makes the story more unusual than the many cases that have been reported of widely separated people who have had the same idea at the same time. The writer, living on the West Coast, submitted a short time before this book was written an article to an eastern publication only to receive a note from the editor saying an article embracing the same material had just been accepted from another writer living in the East. Elisha Gray claimed that he had the idea of the telephone at the same time as Alexander Graham Bell. Independent simultaneous discovery of ideas often happens among writers, inventors, chemists, engineers, and composers.
Even during the preparation of this book, when suggestions were being made for changes and additions, both my agent-adviser and myself were often surprised to learn that we both received ideas at almost identical times. Not only did we get similar ideas, but he suggestive use of identical names of people came to us almost simultaneously. Early when my publishers suggested additional matter, I had been engaged in research work for a week when I received a letter from my adviser stating that he had suggested to the publisher the identical subject matter on which I had been working. Checking disclosed that the same thoughts had come to us at approximately the same time. Naturally, there is no way of knowing whether my adviser in New York caught my thoughts or whether I caught his. I merely report the facts.
