Chapter IV
Visualization or Dramatization
One may be said to have a concrete idea of a thing if he can make a mental picture of it. A true mental picture has definiteness of detail, outline, and finish. Such a picture cannot be made in ignorance of the subject, and therefore the making of it means study, preparation, fitness. The inventor must understand something of principles in order to create the mechanism. There must be an order and harmony of ideas such as was demonstrated during the war in the creation of the Liberty motor. We have already commended the principle of imagination in the Twenty Secrets of Success.
Imagination is a creative faculty because it enables us to take parts which have hitherto never been arranged in the present order and to assemble them into a form never before assumed. It is thus that angelic forms spring from the broken marble, air-cushioned motors replace the wonderful one-horse shay; and Jules Verne today might ride triumphantly with the United States fleet more than “twenty-thousand leagues under the se” --no doubt as a very welcome guest.
The power of mental dramatization parades mythical figures across the stage, speaking words of romance and despair, of love and death, of comedy and tragedy, and out of it a great play is born. It revels in the splendor of past greatness, clothes its figures in the velvets and laces of royalty, puts ancient kings upon the throne, saves the honor of queens and princesses through the devotion of d’Artagnans, and spreads it all on the silver screen where millions may read the history and romance of antiquity.
One should never be afraid to dramatize his ideals, to make them living things of flesh and blood, of iron and steel, of love and plenty, of honor and attainment.
Rules of Visualization
The rules of visualization are simple. First, decide what you want. You cannot hope to create what is indistinct as a desire. My first question to all who come for help is, “What do you want?” If you do not know, find out. Have a desire, an ambition, a purpose.
Second, see it as clearly with mental vision as you can. The author knew intimately a man who was at one time living in a small beach home in Southern California. He owned only an equity in the property. Having learned the laws of mental creation, he began to visualize himself as owning a very fine residence in another city. He saw himself going up the steps to the porch of the new home, taking the pass key from his pocket, and letting himself in. His mental picture was of a wide and spacious hall with a fireplace in which a blaze sent out its cheerful light and warmth. A stairway led to the upper rooms and he pictured himself as leisurely descending to greet a guest, himself dressed in white, as the symbol of leisure.
Within a few months he possessed just such a home. Within a year he had changed his mental picture to a still larger home in the city of Los Angeles and came into its possession.
Illustrations
We observe in this the growing capacity of those who practice the creative art of visualization. In the author’s opinion one of the most notable illustrations of the scientific use of these principles is found in the experience of Mrs. Genevieve Behrend, the author of “Your Invisible Power,” and the only living personal pupil of Judge Thomas Troward, the famous Mental Science philosopher. Mrs. Behrend tells of her demonstration of the opportunity to study with Troward. She first visualized twenty-thousand dollars with which she contemplated making her trip abroad. Her constant thought was that the “movement of Divine Mind is toward something that is better than that which has gone before.” She herself was in that Mind. She was in line with its forward movement. It was working with her and therefore could be made to work for her. She daily practiced the realization of this co-operation of the Universal with her purpose and mentally pictured herself as in possession of twenty-thousand dollars. As time went on, she had such a development of consciousness that she was able to perceive the possible beginnings of the demonstration, something that led in the direction desired. She firmly put from her mind all anxiety or undue tension knowing the Divine Mind operates without strain of any kind, and, in the language of Judge Troward, “transferred the burden.” But she watched the first indications and sought to place herself in harmony with the requirements. She knew that “the law will not do for you what it can only do through you.” As the impression developed into a definite leadership, she followed by intelligent action and presently found herself in the possession of the twenty-thousand dollars which she had been scientifically visualizing.
To elaborate on this subject would be to repeat the history of financial achievement in thousands of instances in America. Let us quote from Chauncey Depew, formerly president of the New York Central Lines and United States Senator: “In 1887
I had an option on a sixth of the Bell Telephone for some days for $10,000.00. I consulted the most famous telegraph expert in the country and he advised me to drop it. ‘It is a toy and commercially a fake,’ he said. Had I followed my strong faith in the enterprise, I would today be a hundred millionaire. I have always lost money when following the advice of experts. They are governed by their data and lack imagination, and without imagination all things not demonstrated to them are worthless.”*
*Address on his eighty-first birthday. The italics are mine.
H.L. Barber in his “Law of Financial Success” who quotes this, also quotes “Uncle Joe Cannon who was offered an interest in the telephone line at the same time and replied that he “preferred to go out and invest in ‘bee lines.’” Which, adds Barber, “substantiates the old saying, ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall.’”
The Seed Idea and the Universal Plus
Continuing our discussion of the points of visualization, we find in the third place that while we are after something definite, and should therefore be definite, still the exact form which ultimately appears as the answer to the demonstration may not be exactly like the one first visualized. An architect or inventor might make a mental picture which is to embody his idea, but as the clearness of his vision develops, he changes the form to suit the better idea. As the building is being erected the architect may find many points to change. At the same time the building he creates is the answer to his seed thought or vision.
In planting a tree the horticulturist is selecting the idea or variety which he wishes to grow. But if he plants a certain kind of acorn he does not prescribe the exact form the oak will take when fully grown. The idea, germ, life principle in the acorn will grow the oak. “It grows ye know not how,” said Jesus.
At one time a woman came to me asking if I would help her demonstrate the opportunity of becoming a lecturer in metaphysics. “There are two things I must do,” she declared. “What are they?” “I must sell my house and get rid of my husband.”
I explained that it was not our plan to work in that way. If she really wished to become a teacher, that was a matter in itself and I would help her to form her picture and make the demonstration. The result was that she returned to me in a few weeks with tears of gratitude saying she had been reconciled to her husband; the house had not been sold and so furnished an asylum for her daughter who had come home for child birth; and that she was teaching the Truth in her own spacious parlors.
The answer to a demonstration is not always as remote as we think as was once indicated by Gipsy Smith when a woman came to him and said, “I am the mother of twelve children but I have been called of the Lord to preach the Gospel.”
“Praise the Lord,” replied the great evangelist, “he has not only called you to preach the Gospel but he has given you an audience.”
Let us bear in mind then that the idea is the thing. The mental form is merely our way of conceiving an idea. The clearer the idea and the more faith we have in it, the more satisfactory and swift will be the result. But visualization is not creation. It is the choice of and dramatization of an idea. The form which that idea will take may be far more beautiful and serviceable than we can picture. “He giveth exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think,” or as Dr. Julia Seton epitomizes it, “the universal plus is added to it.”
In the next chapter we shall show the place of visualization in the order of concentration and demonstration. Meanwhile make up your mind that you will dream great dreams, believe in great things, accomplish the desires of your heart.
Realization
I believe in the power of Divine Mind to do for me all I ask or think. I believe in myself, in my future, in what I have and what I shall have. I believe in creative ideas. I know that the vision of today is the form of tomorrow and thus it has ever been in the progress of science and civilization. I am not afraid to launch my ideas out in the form of mental pictures, to build a world of dreams which are more than dreams. I believe that great good is coming to me because I am now demanding it and I do demand it. (Then form the mental picture you desire so that you may be ready to utilize it in concentration which will be dealt with in the following chapter.)
