Latest / THE SECRET LAW OF ATTRACTION: Manifest Wealth, Success & Abundance / DESIRE POWER - YOUR ENERGIZING FORCES: Mastering Desire with the Law of Attraction - William Walker Atkinson (1922)

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DESIRE POWER - YOUR ENERGIZING FORCES: Mastering Desire with the Law of Attraction - William Walker Atkinson (1922) · THE SECRET LAW OF ATTRACTION: Manifest Wealth, Success & Abundance

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Speaker 1: Desire power Your energizing Forces by William Walker Atkinson, nineteen
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twenty two. Emotive power. Desire power is one of the
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many phases of personal power, of that personal power which
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flows into and through the individual from that great source
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of the all power of all things, which in this
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instruction is known as power. You do not create your
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own personal power of any kind, though you may modify it,
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adapt it, develop it, and direct it power. The source
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of all power has always existed and will always exist.
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You generate personal power by drawing upon the great source
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and fount of all power, by opening your natural channels
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to its inflow, and by supplying it with the proper
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physical and mental mechanism, by means of which it is
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enabled to express and manifest itself efficiently. There are not,
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in reality, many distinct kinds of personal power, though there
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are many forms and phases of its expression and manifestations.
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Just as by means of being supplied with the appropriate apparatus,
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electricity is transformed into light, heat, energy, motive power, telegraphic power,
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telephonic power, and wireless message power, so is your personal
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power transformed into mental power and physical power, into thinking power,
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feeling power, and willing power by reason of the various
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channels of expression and manifestation supplied to it. Personal power
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of manifests along the lines of mental activity in three
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great forms, viz. Along the respective channels of one feeling,
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two thinking, and three willing. These three channels, however, are
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not absolutely set apart and separated from each other, but
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on the contrary, have many intersecting and connecting lines or
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channels of intercommunication. Their activities are closely coordinated. Accordingly, in
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practically all instances of mental activity, we find the coordination
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and blending of the activeivity of these great phases of
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mental activity. Desire is the highest wave of the waters
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of feeling or emotion. Feeling is the agreeable or disagreeable
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phase of a mental state. Emotion is a complex form
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of feeling into which is blended the element of the
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representative ideas of memory or imagination. Desire is the strong
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urge or pressure of emotion toward an idea or object
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which promises emotional satisfaction and content, or away from an
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idea or object which threatens emotional dissatisfaction or discontent. If
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the emotional urge becomes sufficiently strong, the desire develops a
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conational activity i e. An activity tending toward will action
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along the lines of the satisfaction and gratification of the desire.
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On one side, desire arises from emotion. On the other side,
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desire evolves into conation, and conation is the elementary active
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phase of will. Before you can expect to understand the
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name nature of desire, its laws, the principles of its
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development and application, you must first know something of the
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general form of mental activity, of which it is the
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highest and most active phase i e. The mental activity
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known as emotion. Emotion is defined as an excitement of
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the feelings, whether pleasant or unpleasant, feeling being the agreeable
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or disagreeable side of any mental state. Feeling may be
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described as a simple emotional state, an emotion may be
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described as a complex state of feeling. The difference is
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a matter of degree and not of kind. Emotion, however,
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has idea blended with it, memories of previous experiences supplied
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by recollection or instinct, the latter reporting race memories. Feeling
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simple may arise from a purely physical cause, and no
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definite idea may be involved in it, But emotion complex
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necessitates the presence and influence of representative idea to direct
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it and to continue beyond the stage of simple feeling.
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A leading teacher of psychology illustrated this distinction to his
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pupils by directing their attention to the analogy of the
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junction of the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. He
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pictured the Missouri as a stream of representative ideas and
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the Upper Mississippi as a stream of simple feeling, arising
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from sense impressions. The two streams meet, their waters, join,
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and blending compose the complex lower Mississippi of emotion, now
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flowing to the gulf of desire and will. The teacher, however,
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always cautioned his pupils to remember that this illustration was
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used merely for convenience, For feeling and idea are never
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so far apart before the junction in the mind as
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are the waters of the two rivers. The highest activities
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of feeling and emotion are known as affection and desire, respectively.
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Affection is defined as an emotional drawing of the mind
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toward any person or thing which does not necessarily depart,
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even when that person thing is absent. In its latent state,
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affection may be termed a disposition or tendency toward a
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person or thing. In its active state, affection may manifest
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as passion, especially in the presence of its object. The
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term is usually employed to denote the state of emotional
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feeling toward persons, but it is also properly employed in
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connection with anything capable of exciting regard. Affection likewise has
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its negative aspect. In such aspect, the tendency or disposition
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is that of drawing away from, instead of drawing toward,
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the object or person arousing the emotional feeling. Positive affection
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arises from attraction. Negative affection arises from repulsion. Affection then
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is seen to be composed of the following two elements, viz.
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One the emotional feeling and two the tendency or disposition
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to be attracted toward or repelled from the object arousing
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the emotional feeling. Desire is a more complex and a
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more active phase of emotional feeling than is affection. Desire
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combines and includes the element of affection, but it goes
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beyond the latter. It may be defined as the strong
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wish or inclination to attain secure reach, or to retain
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hold and own the object which has attracted it, or
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to get away from escape or be free from the
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object which has repelled it. Desire always reaches out to
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the object of positive affection or withdraws from the object
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of negative affection. Affection simply is attracted toward or repelled
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by its objects. Desire takes up the task where affection
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drops it, and then wishes to lay hold upon the object,
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to possess it or attain it, or, in its negative aspect,
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to avoid or escape from that object. Affection in its
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positive phase loves the object. Desire, in its positive phase,
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not only loves it, but also wants it and is
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not satisfied without its attainment or possession. Note this distinction,
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for it is important in the application of the fundamental
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principle involved in desire. The power inherent in emotion is
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indicated by the term designating it. The term emotion is
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derived from the Latin term emotiono, meaning a moving out.
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The latter term, in turn, was derived from the Latin
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prefix e meaning out, and the verb muvio, meaning to move.
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The essence and spirit of the term, as indicated by
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its origin, is that of movement, motion activity. It is
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significant that the same Latin verb muvio, which supplies us
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with our English term emotion also supplies us with our
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English term motion. Both terms mean to move the d
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in emotion, specially indicating outward motion to move outward, so
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that motion and emotion are seen to be closely connected
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in origin and meaning. Motive power and motive power are
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but formed and phases of the same thing at the
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last analysis, some philosophers indeed claiming that they are one
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in essential principle. Too many persons have fallen into the
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habit of undervaluing emotion and of rather being inclined to
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apologize for its presence and manifestation in and by themselves.
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They seek to give it a subordinate place in the
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trinity of mind, and to exalt above at the coordinated
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elements of thinking and willing, respectively. This principally because the
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term emotional has been attached to an associated with certain
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unattractive phases of emotional activity, as for instance, the sickly sentimentality,
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maudlin sentiment, the slushy gushing, and the neurotic hysterical hyper
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emotionality manifested by certain persons who are regarded as being
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quite emotional. The abnormal has been mistaken for the normal,
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the morbid for the natural and healthy state. Emotion includes
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not only some of the richest and most noble elements
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of our mental and spiritual natures, but also so much
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that is of the most practical pragmatic value in our
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everyday work and activity. Not only does it manifest its
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presence in those experiences and activities which we usually include
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in the category of the things of the soul, but
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it also is found to play a quite important part
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in the activities of the intellect and of the will.
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In fact, emotion illustrates the aptness of the term emotion
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by imparting motion and activity to both intellect and will.
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The promise implicit in its name is fulfilled in its
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actual accomplishment. Emotion includes in its category that which thrills
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the heart of man, and which causes him to manifest
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the fine forces of affection, love, and friendship. It contains
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within its realm the desires which urge him forward on
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the path of life, and which direct his vision to
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the banner of victory placed far ahead over the portals
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of the future. Emotion lies much closer to the heart
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and nearer to the springs of human action than does intellect.
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Great as are the achievements of the latter, and it
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plays a highly important part in the determination of the
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character of the individual. While we extol the virtues of intellect,
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let us not ignore or undervalue those of emotion. Man
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does not live by intellect alone. Emotion must be present
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to add spirit and soul to the body of personal power.
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Man has a heart as well as a head. In fact,
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the heart plays a greater part than does the head
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in the actions of mankind as a whole. Rob human
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action of the inspiration of the heart, and you have
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left but a cold mechanical product. Remove emotion from human life,
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and you will have taken away the source of its
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greatest beauties and charm. The man of personal power has intellect, emotion,
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and will well balanced. This constitutes the balance of poise
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and power. Intellect is not to be undervalued. Will is
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to be viewed with respect and admiration. But emotion is
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seen to be the essence of the life and soul,
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of the other two elements, and of the individual as
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a whole. Well says the old adage, keep thy heart
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with all diligence. Out of it are the issues of life.
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But more to the point, at least in the case
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of the practical men of the world who may read
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these words, is the fact that an emotion is to
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be found a practical phase of personal power, a force
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or energy which enables men to attain, to accomplish, to succeed,
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to do things worth while. It is one of the
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tragedies of our modern educational system that, while the greatest
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attention is devoted to training the head, training the heart
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is practically neglected. It is generally considered quite practical and
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according to common sense, to train and cultivate the intellect,
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but usually even to hint at the desirability of training
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and cultivating the emotions lays one open to the charge
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of being impractical and visionary. It is only when persons
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are shown the important part played by emotion in all
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the activities of intellect and will that they will even
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seriously listen to suggestions that emotions should be accorded attention
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in the educational field. Yet, as all psychologists know, the
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intellect is influenced, swayed, directed, and often entirely controlled by emotion.
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Many of man's greatest intellectual triumphs have resulted from the
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motive power supplied by emotion. Moreover, the will has its
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very roots embedded in emotion. The motives which move the
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will to action are always found to arise from emotion.
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These are not mere general or careless statements made to
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strengthen the argument. On the contrary, they express the cold
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hard facts of scientific psychology. The fact that such statements
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may be new to you is but another proof of
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the public neglect of this important subject. Ribaut, in the
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following statement ably sets forth the conclusions of those philosophers, psychologists,
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and physiologists who maintain that emotional feeling is the most
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fundamental aspect of the life of all conscious creatures, and
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that it underlies the phase of intellect in the scale
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of evolutionary development, that in fact, it constantutes the very
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kernel of life and mind, as these are found to
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be manifested in living forms. He says, concerning the place
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of the feelings in the total psychic life, I wish
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to say that that place is first. The feelings appearing first,
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it is clear that they cannot be derived and are
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not a mode or function of intellect, since they exist
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by themselves and are irreducible. Thus stated, the question is
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simple and quite evident. The physiological evidence in favor of
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the priority of the feelings need only to be recalled.
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It all centers in one point. Organic vegetative life always
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and everywhere appears before animal life. Physiologists constantly repeat that
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the animal is grafted on the vegetable which precedes him.
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Organic life is directly expressed by the needs and appetites,
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which are the stuff of the effective life. The myriads
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of animals are only bundles of needs, their psychology consisting
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in the search for food, in defense, in propagation. But
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even closed in as they are from the outside world,
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desire in them is not less intense even in man.
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Fetal life, and that of the first months after birth
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is much the same, almost made up of satisfied or
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unsatisfied wants, and consequently of pleasures and pains. From the
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purely physiological point of view, intellect appears not as mistress
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but as servant. The psychological evidence is not difficult to supply,
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and indeed it has already been presented by Schopenhauer in
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so brilliant and complete a manner that it would be
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a bold task to present it afresh. For Schopenhauer, to
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will is to desire, to aspire, to flee, to hope,
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to fear, to love to hate. In a word, all
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that directly constitutes our good in our ill, our pleasure,
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and our pain will, in the sense indicated by Schopenhauer,
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is universal. The basis of consciousness in every animal is desire.
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This fundamental fact is translated into the impulse to preserve
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life and well being and to propagate. This foundation is
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common to polyp and to man. The differences between animals
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are due to a difference in knowledge. As we descend
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in the series, intelligence becomes weaker and more imperfect, but
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there is no similar degradation in desire. The smallest insect
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wills what it desires as fully as does man. Desire
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will is always equal to itself. It is fundamental. It
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is a fact anterior to all intelligence and independent of it.
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It is the basis of character. The man is hidden
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in the heart and not in the head. Its power
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is sovereign. It is not reason which uses desire, but desire,
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which uses reason to reach its ends. Under the influence
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of intense desire, the intellect sometimes rises to a degree
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of vigor of which none would believe it capable. Desire, love, fear, render,
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the most obtuse understanding lucid desire guided by experience, rests
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upon proved pleasure and pain, seeking one and avoiding the other.
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Impulse is the primordial fact in the life of the feelings.
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Spinoza sums up the whole spirit of the question in
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his passage, desire is the very essence of man, from
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which necessarily flow all those things which tend to preserve
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him dot Indeed, philosophers have even dared to speculate that
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just as desire feeling is the essence and kernel of
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the life of the individual, so a cosmic desire feeling
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must be postulated as being the very essence and kernel
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of the cosmos of all nature, in all of her
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manifestations and forms of expression, inorganic as well as organic.
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Along this same line are those metaphysical conceptions of the
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infinite power or infinite being as necessarily having desire feeling
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as its attribute. For otherwise, it is asked, how may
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we conceive of the infinite ever having begun its manifestation
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and expression of the created world. Certain metaphysicians the infinite
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must have felt that creation was desirable, else it would
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never have created anything at all. Such speculation, however, is
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outside of our field. Here we have mentioned it merely
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to illustrate how fundamental is the idea and how it
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ever asserts its power in man's philosophical thinking. Emotion then
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is perceived to be the great incentive to individual motion
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and action in human life. At least, it is no
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longer to be regarded as a merely internal subjective mental state.
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On the contrary, it is seen to be the internal
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phase of a mental activity, striving to express itself in
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outward and external activity. Emotion is well called emotion. Emotion
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is an incentive to action, to mental and physical motion.
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Emotion strives ever to express itself in action. On its
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lower side, it blends into certain forms of sensation. On
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its upper side, it blends into will. Motion is not
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that manifestation or expression of fanciful sentimental, neurotic, hysterical feelings
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or impulses, something to be apologized for by the person
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manifesting it. Emotion is no more to be gauged by
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the neurotic hysterical hyper Emotionality is called emotion than is
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intellect to be gauged by the fantastic, so called reasoning
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of the inmate of a lunatic asylum or that of
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the many outpatients of Bedlam, whom we meet in everyday life.
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Neither emotion nor intellect is to be gauged by the
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perverted forms of these great mental activities. Men are accustomed
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to speak of intellect as the most potent of the
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powers of the mind, but they reckon ill who leave
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out emotion. Descartes said, I think, therefore I am. But
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feeling is even more fundamental than is thought, and men say,
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with even greater certainty, I feel, therefore I am. Likewise,
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we are in the habit of quoting with satisfaction the
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aphorism as a man think, so is he. But we
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fail to remember that the actual words of the aphorism
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are as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Here,
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thinth in his heart really means feeleth in his heart,
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For the heart is the familiar figurative term employed to
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denote the seed of feeling, just as the head is
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employed to denote the seed of thinking. So at the last,
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then our favorite aphorism is seen to read, as a
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man feeleth in his heart, so is he. We are
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here not endeavoring to exalt emotion over thought and will,
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but are merely seeking to restore to its place in
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the trinity of mind, a most important element of the
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mental power of man, which many persons have become accustomed
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to overlook and neglect or changing the figure of speech.
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We may say that in emotion we have that cornerstone
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of the temple of mental power, which has been rejected
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by many of the modern builders. Without the element of
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a motive power, there can be no motive power in
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the human mind. Desire Power Your energizing Force by William
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Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two. Desire and Actions. Desire, as
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we have seen, is the crest of the wave of
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emotional feeling. At the same time, desire may be said
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to be the elementary stage or phase of will. Emotion
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rising to desire tends to become transformed into will. Before
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reaching the stage of desire, we find emotion manifesting the
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stage of affection, under the several forms of the latter
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known as love, liking, fondness, attraction, passion, admiration, respectively. The
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spirit of affection is represented by the phrase I like.
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Desire evolves from the stage of affection and manifests the
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inclination to wish, to want, to long for, to hanker after,
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to crave, eagerly to obtain or to enjoy the object
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of its affection. Desire manifests in several forms, as for instance, aspiration, ambition, craving,
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hunger or thirst employed figuratively for attainment, or the simple
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wish or want. The spirit of desire is represented by
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the phrase I want. Desire, however, only moves toward that
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to which it is attracted by affection. It wants only
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that which it likes. That which it neither likes nor
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yet dislikes fails to stir it into activity. That which
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it dislikes it positively wants not it seeks to avoid,
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or to escape from, or to be rid of or
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free from such things. The degree of desire depends materially
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upon the degree of affection for the object, though other
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elements enter into the calculation. As Gordy says, I will
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to do this or that because of some pleasure or benefit,
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and that, when analyzed, will be found to consist of
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some form of pleasure which I hope to gain, or
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of some pain which I hope to avoid. Here is
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the working principle, briefly stated. We entertain an affection or
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like for that which gives us pleasurable feelings or emotions.
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We desire or want that for which we entertain an
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affection or like i e. That which gives us pleasurable
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feelings or emotions, and we will or act to do
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that which seems to tend to satisfy or accomplish our
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desire or want. In this working principle we may find
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the secret of action, the workings of the inner machinery
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of will which causes us to do things. We must
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find a thing pleasurable in order that we may like it.
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We must like it before we may want it. We
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must want it before we will move into action to
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do things tending to attain, secure, gain, and accomplish that
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which will satisfy the desire. Desire is stirred into activity
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and moves out into expression only in response to an object.
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It is moved only by an incentive of an emotional character.
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Professor Halleck gives us the simple rule in his celebrated statement,
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desire has for its objects something which will bring pleasure
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or get rid of pain, immediate or remote for the
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individual or for someone in whom he is interested. Aversion
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or a striving away from something is merely the negative
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aspect of desire. You will find that all forms and
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phases of desire are covered by the above statement. To
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be desire, a mental state must include and possess the
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above stated elements. If a mental state includes the above
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stated elements, then it must be desire. You are advised
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to commit the definition or statement to memory and to
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test your feelings by means of it when you are
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in doubt as to whether you desire a thing or not.
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Desire exerts a tremendous influence upon all phases of human action.
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It is the motive power of will. The latter tends
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to move toward the object of the greatest desire and
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to flow through its channels. The will is always moved
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by a motive i e. Because or reason inciting to action,
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and that more motive always is found in desire and
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the ideas attached to it. It is an axiom of
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psychology that the will goes out towards the strongest motive
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present in conscious or subconscious attention at the time of action.
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The strongest motive always is that idea representing the object
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of the strongest desire, or of the aggregate or average
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of the strongest desires present in attention at the moment
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of action. Desire also plays an important part in our thought, reasoning,
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and judgments. It quickens our perception and energizes our thought processes.
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It is proverbial that our judgments are affected by our feelings, emotions, affections,
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and desires. It has been truly said that most persons,
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when they seek to reason, strive rather to find excuses
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for their previous decisions, rather than to advance logical reasons
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for new decisions. The decisions themselves have already been made
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in most cases because of feelings, emotions, affections, and desires.
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Our feelings and desires frequently cause us to perceive only
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the facts which we wish to discover, and to overlook
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those which we do not wish to be uncovered. Johnson
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says affection and desire put the magnifying end of the
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telescope to our intellectual eye, where our own interests are concerned,
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and the minimizing end when we are looking at the
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interests of others for whom we entertain no affection. Hallick
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says thought is deflected when it passes through an emotional medium,
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just as a sunbeam is deflected when it strikes water.
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Gullick says our hopes, fears, ambitions, loves, and likes are
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the controlling factors of our lives. The purely mental, logical,
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or reasoning function is chiefly the servant of our desires
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and fears. That men are influenced more easily, more readily,
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and more frequently through their emotions, desires, and affections than
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through their reasoning faculties is well known. The orator, lawyer, statesman,
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and preacher, the sale men in the advertising man all
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know that the road to men's heads runs through men's hearts.
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The great orators have been men of emotional power, men
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who put their hearts into their words and thus arouse
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the hearts of their hearers. Roshfuko said, the passions are
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the only orators that always succeed. Henry Clay said Caesar
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controlled men by exciting their fears, Cicero by swaying their passions.
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Brookes says it is the tender sentiment, the quivering lip,
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the trembling accent, the moistened eye that are often the
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most eloquent pleaders. Davenport says, the cool, rational speaker has
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little chance beside the skillful orator. The crowd thinks in
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images and speech must take this form to be accessible
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to it. The crowd is united and governed by emotion
26:49
rather than by reason. Emotion is the natural bond, for
26:53
men differ less in this respect than in intellect. Burke said,
26:58
there is a moving tone of voice, an impassioned gesture,
27:01
which affects independently of the things about which they are exerted.
27:05
So are their words, and certain dispositions of words, which,
27:09
being peculiarly devoted to passionate subjects, and always used by
27:13
those who are under the influence of any passion, always
27:16
touch and move us more than those which far more
27:18
clearly in distinctly express the subject matter. We yield to
27:22
sympathy what we refuse to description. An old writer once said,
27:27
few speakers succeed who attempt merely to make people think.
27:31
They want to be made to feel. People will pay
27:34
liberally to be made to feel or to laugh, while
27:36
they will begrudge a sixpence for instruction or talk that
27:39
will make them think. The reasons are palpable and plain.
27:43
It is hard against head, soul against logic, and soul
27:47
is bound to win every time. Cardinal Newman once said,
27:51
the heart is commonly reached not through reason but through
27:54
the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by descriptions, dans
28:00
influence us, voices melt us, deeds inflame us. One has
28:05
but to recall instances of the great influence exerted over
28:08
the public mind by the emotional appeals to affection or dislike,
28:12
to prejudices for or against, to desires, ambitions, aspirations, cravings, longings,
28:18
and things eagerly wanted made by orators, politicians, statesmen, actors,
28:24
and preachers, in order to realize the potent effect of emotion, affection,
28:28
and desire upon men's thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and convictions. A
28:34
modern writer says, a large part of the business of
28:37
life consists in moving the emotions and desires of men
28:40
so as to get them to act. Another says, the
28:44
successful man is he who is able to persuade the
28:46
crowd that he has something that they want, or that
28:49
they want something that he has. The successful salesman, advertising man,
28:54
or any other man who has things to sell other
28:56
men all bring into play the force of desire in
28:59
those whom they are seeking to interest in their projects.
29:03
They appeal to the want or want to side of
29:06
the mind of men. They play upon men's sympathies, their prejudices,
29:10
their hopes, their fears, their desires, their aversions. Men do
29:16
things and act because of the motive power of their
29:19
emotional nature, particularly in the form of affection and desire.
29:24
This is the only reason impelling or influencing men to
29:27
do things. Were this motive power absent, there would be
29:31
no action or doing of things. There would be no
29:34
reason or cause for such action or doing. In that event,
29:38
we act and do solely because we like and want.
29:42
Were the emotional element absent, there would be no element
29:45
of volition. Without desire, we would make no choices, would exercise,
29:50
no decision, would perform no actions. Without the want and
29:55
want to there would be no will to do, and
29:57
no doing. Is the motive power of action. Take away
30:02
the motive power, and there cannot be and will not be,
30:05
any movement, activity, or volition Without the motive power of desire.
30:10
The machinery of voluntary action ceases to operate and comes
30:14
to a complete standstill. An old writer, whose words have
30:18
been preserved for us, though his name is unknown to
30:20
the present writers, enunciates a profound truth in the following
30:24
rather startling statement. Every deed that we do good or
30:28
bad is prompted by desire. We are charitable because we
30:32
wish to relieve our inner distress at the sight of suffering,
30:36
or from the urge of sympathy with its desire to
30:38
express its nature, or from the desire to be respected
30:41
in this world, or to secure a comfortable place in
30:44
the next one. One man is kind because he desires
30:48
to be kind, because it gives him satisfaction and content
30:51
to be kind. Another man is unkind because he desires
30:56
to be so, because it gives him satisfaction and content
30:59
to be so. One man does his duty because he
31:02
desires to do it. He obtains a higher emotional satisfaction
31:06
and content from duty well done than he would from
31:08
neglecting it in accordance with some opposing desires, another man
31:13
yields to the desire to shirk his duty. He obtains
31:16
greater satisfaction and content from refraining from performing his duty
31:20
in favor of doing other and contrary things which possess
31:23
a greater emotional value to himself. The religious man is
31:27
religious in his actions because his religious desires are stronger
31:31
than are his religious ones. He finds a greater satisfaction
31:34
and content in religious actions than in the pursuits of
31:37
the worldly minded. The moral man is moral because his
31:41
moral desires are stronger than his immoral ones. He obtains
31:44
a greater degree of emotional satisfaction and content in being
31:48
moral than in being immoral. Everything we do is prompted
31:52
by desire in some shape or form, high or low.
31:56
Man cannot be desireless and still act in one way
31:59
or not, or in any way whatsoever. Desire is the
32:04
motive power behind all action. It is a natural law
32:07
of life, everything from the atom to the monad, from
32:10
the monad to the insect, from the insect to man,
32:13
from man to nature, and possibly from nature to God.
32:17
Everything from lowest to highest, and from highest to lowest.
32:20
Everything that is is found to act and to do things,
32:23
to manifest action, and to perform work by reason of
32:26
the power and force of desire. Desire is the animating power,
32:31
the energizing force, and the motive power in under and
32:35
behind all natural processes, activities, and events. In order to
32:40
appreciate fully the influence and power of the emotional states
32:43
culminating in desire upon the decisions and actions of men,
32:47
it may be necessary for you to indulge in a
32:49
little introspective speculation. Employing your imagination in the task, you
32:55
may start out with the assumption that no thing has
32:57
a greater emotional value to you than any other thing,
33:00
that you feel no greater desire to attain, possess, or
33:03
enjoy any one thing more than another, That you do
33:06
not want or want to in any particular direction any
33:10
more than in any other Admitting the existence of such
33:13
a state of mind and feeling, you may then proceed
33:16
logically to create an imaginative picture of the state of
33:19
affairs certain to result from such mental state. In such event,
33:23
you would find that not only would all things look
33:26
alike to me, but that you would feel alike concerning
33:28
all things, all things having an equal emotional value to you,
33:33
You would really experience no emotional wanting, craving, or desiring
33:37
for anything. Hunger and thirst having ceased to exist for you,
33:42
comfort and discomfort would have passed away from you. Love
33:45
and hate, like and dislike no longer would have any
33:48
meaning for you. You would quite as willingly starve or
33:51
suffer extreme thirst as to satisfy hunger or thirst. You
33:55
would quite as willingly suffer extreme discomfort and pain as
33:59
to enjoy comfort, and experience pleasure. You would be quite
34:03
as willing to experience insult, revilement, and cruelty directed toward
34:07
yourself or those near to you, as you would be
34:10
to be shown kindness, consideration, respect, and kind treatment. Poverty
34:15
and wealth would alike be valued or not valued by you.
34:18
One would be quite as good as the other. You
34:21
would no longer feel affection towards your parents, your mate,
34:25
and your offspring, and you would not raise your hand
34:27
to protect them from any assault or injury. All love
34:31
and all sympathy would be foreign to you, as would
34:33
also all hate, dislike, or desire to avoid anything or anybody.
34:39
You would have no love of friends, nor of home,
34:42
nor of country. The impulses of sex high and low
34:46
would not affect you. You would have no liking or
34:50
desire for truth and honesty, and yet no desire to
34:53
lie or to be dishonest. You would have no desire
34:57
to create, to construct, to invent. You would have no
35:01
sense of love, of beauty, of art, of music, no
35:05
desire to think, learn, read, or to use the mind
35:08
in any way. You would have no moral or religious
35:12
instincts or tendencies. Yet you would suffer no temptations. To
35:15
indulge in vice or courses frowned upon by ethics and religion.
35:20
All feelings, high and low, good and bad, virtuous or vicious,
35:25
all would be lacking in you. In such an event,
35:28
you would have no tastes concerning anything, no preferences about anything,
35:32
no love or hatred for anything, no like or dislike
35:36
of anything, no desire or aversion for anything. And consequently,
35:40
you would not exert your will to attain or to
35:42
avoid anything. You would not will at all. You would
35:45
not act at all in any direction. You would be
35:48
a living dead man, for all that constitutes the meaning
35:51
of life would be absent from your being. Apathy and
35:55
lethargy would be your lot. You would not even live long,
35:58
for you would feel no disas desire to act to
36:01
supply yourself with nourishment, nor to secure protection from the
36:04
elements or from hostile forces or things. If the world
36:08
were desireless, there would be no activity in it. Not
36:12
only would all living things cease to manifest their natural
36:15
characters and natures, but even the inorganic forms would cease
36:19
to act and move and perform their natural processes, for
36:23
no u desire. Dwells even on the lower planes of nature,
36:28
even on the plans of the so called lifeless things.
36:32
Everything that has the power of self movement is found
36:35
to move to or away from certain other things for
36:37
which it may be said to have like or dislike.
36:40
The attraction and repulsion among the atoms and molecules of
36:44
matter are held by scientists to proceed according to well
36:47
defined like and dislike, love and hate desire. In an
36:51
elementary form, the chemical affinity between the chemical elements clearly
36:56
proceeds along the lines of like and dislike. This being so,
37:01
a desireless world would lack the activities of these inorganic elements,
37:05
the cessation of the natural forces, and all would be
37:08
at a standstill. This idea has been objected to buy
37:11
some on the grounds that most of our actions, and
37:14
those of all other creatures and things, proceed along the
37:17
lines of habit rather than of actual desire. The answer
37:21
to this is one All habits, original or inherited through race, memory,
37:26
and instinct, have been created and established by repetitions of
37:30
actions found agreeable and hence according to desire. They are
37:33
derivative or secondary manifestations of desire. And two, your own
37:38
experience will prove to you that it is decidedly more
37:41
comfortable and agreeable to act according to habit than in
37:45
the opposite direction. The difficulty experienced by one in overcoming
37:49
an objectionable habit is sufficient proof that one wants to
37:53
act in a habitual manner and finds it agreeable and
37:56
pleasant so to do. Desire reigns in the field of habit,
37:59
as in every other mental field, the line of least
38:03
resistance runs along the path of habit, And in response
38:06
to a marked feeling of comfort, we feel assured that
38:10
you have now convinced yourself that all of your actions
38:12
are directly or indirectly caused by your desires, and that
38:16
the latter are based upon your particular emotional values, i e.
38:21
Upon the kind, character, direction, and degree of your likes
38:24
and dislikes. The more closely you study and analyze the
38:28
actions and doings of yourself and other individuals, the more
38:32
firmly established will be your conviction that all voluntary action
38:36
proceeds along the lines of desire and arises from the
38:39
presence and activity of desire. There is no known exception
38:43
to this rule. The more extended the observation and experiment,
38:46
the greater is the proof of the rule. In testing
38:50
out the truth of the above announced rule of action,
38:52
you should always bear in mind the true and full
38:55
definition of desire for convenience, we here again quote the
38:59
hell rule viz. Desire has for its objects something which
39:03
will bring pleasure or get rid of pain, immediate or
39:06
remote for the individual or for some one in whom
39:09
he is interested. Aversion or a striving away from something
39:13
is merely a negative aspect or desire. Observation and experiment
39:18
will prove conclusively to you the truth of the rule
39:21
that all voluntary actions arise from desire in the above
39:24
stated sense of the term, and always proceed along the
39:27
lines of desire. However, there is another step in our
39:31
reasoning on the subject, a step which many hesitate to
39:35
take and over which many stumble and fall in their reasoning,
39:38
A step which logically follows the acceptance of the foregoing rule,
39:42
and which is the inevitable, invariable, and infallible conclusion of
39:46
the premise or proposition advanced in that rule. This second
39:50
or derivative rule is as follows. All voluntary action proceeds
39:55
along the line of the strongest desire motive, or the
39:57
aggregate or average of such motives present in conscious or
40:01
subconscious attention at the moment of decision or action. Stated
40:05
in simpler terms, this rule is you always act according
40:09
to the greatest like or dislike of which you are
40:12
cognizant at the time. So true and invariable is this
40:16
rule that it may be truthfully asserted that you not
40:18
only always do so act, but that you cannot act
40:21
to the contrary. If you act at all, you must
40:24
act according to this rule. This last is a hard
40:27
saying for most persons when it is first presented to
40:30
their notice. But it is a true one, and the
40:32
repugnance to it arises from a misunderstanding concerning, or at
40:36
least a failure to comprehend fully the real meaning of
40:39
the proposition. We ask you to give the matter careful attention,
40:43
for it is important. The principal objection urged against this
40:48
rule by many persons when it is first presented to
40:50
them is that which may be expressed in a statement,
40:53
but I actually often do things against my desires and inclinations,
40:57
and which I really do not want to do at all.
41:00
At first, this statement may seem to express the truth,
41:03
but a little analysis will soon uncover the fallacy. The
41:07
analysis may begin with the following question, but why did
41:11
you do the thing which you say you did not
41:12
want to do? There is always an answer, and that
41:15
answer usually begins with the word because. A because is
41:20
a cause or reason. It is a motive to action,
41:24
and that because reason or motive is always discovered to
41:28
be some form or phase of desire want to secure
41:32
or to avoid or escape something. The why implies a motive,
41:37
The because states the motive, and the want is the
41:40
essence of the motive. You may desire very much to
41:44
attend the opera, but you decide to stay home at
41:46
the last moment. Why because of the wishes of your wife,
41:51
the illness of your child, the notice of the visit
41:54
of a friend, or some other because based upon a desire, wish,
41:58
or want to. There may be a conflict of desires,
42:02
but the strongest desire at the moment wins the battle.
42:06
You may discard even a strong desire for a present
42:09
and immediate pleasure or benefit, in favor of a desire
42:12
for a remote one promising greater benefit or satisfaction. You
42:16
may inhibit and suppress a strong desire because of your
42:19
desire to give pleasure or to avoid causing pain to
42:23
some one for whom you care, or for fear of
42:26
condemnation and disapproval on the part of others, or because
42:29
of the promptings of conscience and the feeling that you
42:32
would afterward repent or feel remorse because of the action,
42:36
or because the force of habit, custom, usual mode of action,
42:40
et cetera brings down the balance of desire against the
42:43
proposed action. In short, you may decide not to do
42:47
the thing you first desired and wanted to do so strongly,
42:51
but only because of the greater desire for something else
42:54
or to escape something else. These illustrations might be continued
42:58
almost indefinitely, but the above examples indicate the general principle involved.
43:04
You will find that the strongest element of desire to
43:07
have or to avoid or escape will win the day.
43:11
The rule is you always act according to your greatest
43:14
like or dislike of which you are cognizant at the time.
43:18
When you feel regret, repentance, or remorse because of past
43:22
actions or failure to act, it is simply because time
43:25
has added new elements or has given you new points
43:28
of view. Your emotional values have changed, and the problem
43:32
no longer is the same which confronted you when you
43:34
made the decision. New facts, new ideas, new conditions may
43:39
add to the emotional values of one course of action
43:42
and subtract from the values of others. But the action
43:46
you now wish you had taken like the one which
43:48
you now wish you had not taken, always is based
43:50
upon the same rule of the strongest like or dislike
43:53
present at the moment of the decision. Samuel L. Clemens
43:58
mark Twain presented his philosoph be based upon this principle
44:01
of voluntary action in a somewhat blunt and startling form. Hilvitius,
44:06
the French philosopher, had announced the same conclusions in the
44:09
eighteenth century, but few have heard of Helvetius, while many
44:13
have heard of mark Twain. Hilvitius, in his main work,
44:17
advanced the principle that the grand lever of all human
44:21
conduct is self satisfaction. He admitted, however, that self satisfaction
44:26
may assume many and widely contrasted forms. For instance, said he,
44:31
the self satisfaction of a good man consists in his
44:34
subordination of private to more general interests, first to the
44:38
circle of persons in which he moves, then to the
44:40
general community, and finally, to the world at large. Self
44:45
satisfaction he held may be base or noble, egotistic or altruistic,
44:50
immoral or moral, religious or religious, low or high, selfish
44:55
or unselfish. In the ordinary usage of these terms and
44:58
so on, remains self satisfaction all the time in all cases,
45:03
and is never self dissatisfaction or the refusal to satisfy
45:07
the self at the last. Hilvitius taught, in short, that
45:12
man acts in the direction of satisfying, in contenting his
45:15
own strongest feelings, emotions, and desires. This seems to be
45:20
a harsh doctrine until it is thoroughly understood and appreciated,
45:24
but all of our moral and ethical training is based
45:26
upon its fundamental truth. We endeavor to have the individual
45:31
feel right in order to have him act right. If
45:34
we cannot get him to love the right, we then
45:36
proceed to get him to fear the consequences of wrongdoing.
45:40
We work upon his desire nature. In either case, this
45:44
is all that Hilvitius meant, i e. That men act
45:47
according to inner motives, the strongest motives of self satisfaction,
45:51
deciding the nature of the action. Clemens uses the term
45:55
contenting the spirit in place of helvidious term self satisfaction,
46:00
but both mean the same. At the last, Clements says
46:04
there is only one impulse which moves a person to
46:07
do things. That sole impulse is the impulse to content
46:11
his own spirit, the necessity of contenting his own spirit
46:14
and winning its approval. The act must do him good first,
46:18
otherwise he will not do it. He may think he
46:22
is doing it for the other person's sake, but it
46:24
is not so. He is contenting his own spirit first.
46:27
The other person's benefit has to always take second place.
46:31
There is but one law, one source of men's acts.
46:36
Both the noblest impulses and the basist proceed from that
46:39
one source. This is the law. Keep it in your mind.
46:43
From his cradle to his grave. A man never does
46:45
a single thing which has any first and foremost object
46:48
but one to secure peace of mind spiritual comfort for himself.
46:54
He will always do the thing which will bring him
46:56
the most mental comfort, for that is the sole law
46:59
of his life. Always spirit contenting reasons. There are no others.
47:05
There is another general rule concerning desire, which it is
47:08
important that you should note and remember. The rule is
47:11
as follows. The degree of force energy will, determination, persistence,
47:16
and continuous application, manifested by an individual in his aspirations, ambitions, aims, performances, actions,
47:24
and work is determined primarily by the degree of want
47:27
and want to concerning that object. So true is this
47:31
principle that some who have studied its effects have announced
47:34
the aphorism you can have or be anything that you
47:37
want if you only want it hard enough. To want
47:40
a thing hard enough is equivalent to paying the price
47:44
for it, the price of the sacrifice of lesser desires
47:47
and wants, the casting off of the non essentials, and
47:50
the concentration of desire upon the one essential idea or thing,
47:54
and the application of the will to its attainment or accomplishment.
47:58
Much that we have been in the habit of ascribing
48:00
to the possession the manifestation of a strong will has
48:04
really been due to the element of will, which is
48:06
called cornation i e. Desire tending toward expression in will action,
48:11
the man filled with an ardent, fierce burning, craving, an
48:15
urge for and toward a certain object, will call to
48:18
his aid the latent powers of his will and of
48:20
his intellect. These, under the motive power and stimulus of desire,
48:24
will manifest unusual activity and energy toward the accomplishment of
48:27
the desired end. Desire has well been called the flame
48:31
which produces the heat which generates the steam of will.
48:35
Very few persons comparatively know how to desire with sufficient
48:39
intensity and insistence. They content themselves with mere wishing and
48:45
mild wanting. They fail to experience that insistent desire which
48:50
is one of the important elements of the master formula
48:52
of attainment. They do not know what it is to
48:55
feel and manifest that intense, eager, longing, craving, in assistant, demanding,
49:01
ravenous desire, which, to use a favorite and oft repeated
49:04
expression of ours, is akin to the persistent, insistent, ardent,
49:09
overwhelming desire of the drowning man for a breath of air,
49:12
of the shipwrecked or desert lost man, for a drink
49:15
of water, of the famished man, for bread and meat
49:18
of the fierce wild creature for its mate, of the
49:21
mother for the welfare of her children. Yet, if the
49:25
truth were known, the desire for success of the men
49:27
who have accomplished great things has often been as great
49:30
as these. We are not necessarily slaves to our desires.
49:35
We may master the lower or disadvantageous desires. By will,
49:38
under the power of the eye Am I, or master self,
49:42
we may transmute lower desires into higher negatives, into positives,
49:46
hurtful into helpful. In this way, we may become masters
49:51
of desire instead of being mastered by it. But before
49:54
we may do so, we must first desire to do so,
49:58
to accomplish and to attain this ancas we may even
50:02
rise to the heights of will, the place where the
50:04
I am I may say truthfully, I will to will,
50:07
and I will to desire. But even though we must
50:10
first desire to sow will to will and will to desire.
50:15
Even at these sublime heights of eaglehood, we find desire
50:18
to be the fundamental and elemental motive power. This because
50:21
it abides at the very heart of things, the heart
50:24
of ourself, the heart of life. Even there we essay
50:28
and accomplish the highest deeds and acts of will, solely
50:31
and simply because they serve to content our spirit, to
50:34
give us the highest degree of self satisfaction, to gratify, satisfy,
50:39
and give expression and manifestation to our greatest, most insistent,
50:43
most persistent, and strongest want and want to desire power
50:48
your energizing forces. By William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two.
50:55
The evolution of desire. Desire is the one mental element,
51:00
a tribute or quality, which is discovered to be present
51:02
universally in all living things. Differ, as do the various
51:07
forms and varieties of living things, in respect to the qualities, attributes,
51:11
or faculties of observation, perception, in thinking. Nevertheless, in each
51:15
and every living creature is to be found present and
51:18
active the fundamental element, quality or attribute of desire. Though
51:23
the thinking powers decrease as the scale of life is descended,
51:26
the element of desire is found to lose nothing in
51:29
power in the tower forms of life, though the degree
51:32
of complexity of manifestation, of course, is lessened. As the
51:36
evolutionists have pointed out, and as the philosophers of certain
51:40
schools have been quick to note and to assert, the
51:42
element of desire appears earlier in the scale of life
51:45
than does intellect, and therefore is perceived to be far
51:48
more fundamental and basic than is the latter. Even in
51:52
vegetable life, there is manifest the presence and activity of
51:55
unconscious desire, though there is no sign of intellect. The
52:00
new born human babe can scarcely be held to manifest intellect,
52:04
but there can be no mistake concerning the presence of
52:06
desire as a fundamental element of its mental being. When
52:10
intellect first appears in living creatures, it seems to have
52:13
been evolved for the purpose of serving desire. In view
52:17
of the discovered facts concerning the elemental and fundamental character
52:20
of desire, certain philosophers have asserted that in desire is
52:24
to be found the primal stuff from which the entire
52:26
psychic being of living creatures has been evolved. In short,
52:31
this view holds that nature, the inner nature of nature,
52:34
is spiritual, and that the basic and fundamental essence of
52:38
that spiritual nature of nature is desire in its elemental form.
52:42
They claim, in the words of Schopenhauer, that desire is
52:46
the kernel of all life, in the individual creature and
52:49
in the entire universe. To these philosophers, desire is not
52:53
a mere mental quality, but is rather the essential element
52:56
of life and therefore of all living things. The Buddhists
53:01
go so far as to assert that desire, called by
53:04
them tanha or the will to live, is the real
53:08
creative power of and in nature, and which is the
53:11
cause of the continuous process of creative evolution. The following
53:15
quotation from Subhatra Bikshu, a Buddhist writer, gives a general
53:19
idea of the Buddhistic conception of the power and offices
53:23
of desire as the creative principle of nature. This writer says,
53:28
the will to live Tanha, inherent in all of us,
53:31
and the essential factor in our being, is the true
53:34
creative power. It is the cause of our existence, and
53:37
is in fact the creator, preserver, and destroyer of all things.
53:43
The term the will to live in the Buddhist sense
53:45
of the word, does not merely imply what the Western
53:48
world understands by conscious will, but rather that instinctive life love,
53:52
which partly consciously partly unconsciously to themselves, is inherent in
53:57
all living beings, animals and plants, as well as man.
54:01
In this term, the will to live or craving for
54:04
existence are summed up all those functions, powers, desires, inclinations
54:09
and disinclinations which tend to the preservation of life and
54:13
the acquisition of comfort and enjoyment. The Western student of
54:17
Buddhism must be repeatedly reminded not to confound the will
54:21
to live that is the desire for life, the cleaving
54:24
to existence with the conscious will, or the so called
54:28
free will. Conscious will is but a fraction of the
54:31
whole will to live, namely such portion as passes through
54:35
the organ of the brain, which is the vehicle of consciousness.
54:39
But the greater portion of the will to live never
54:41
reaches consciousness in plants and animals, and but imperfectly in men,
54:47
it shows itself as a mere blind instinct, an inveterate
54:50
cleaving to existence, an effort to grasp at everything that
54:53
makes life pleasant and to avoid whatever hurts or endangers it. Schopenhauer,
54:59
Vaughan Hartmann, and to some extent Bergsen tend to regard
55:03
the spirit of nature or the universal life principle as
55:07
having desire as its essential element or factor. Schopenhauer postulated
55:12
the existence of a world spirit or universal life principle,
55:16
the essence of which is desire, the spirit of longing, craving,
55:20
lusting for wishing, seeking for tending toward outward expression and action.
55:25
He held that this principle of desire manifests itself in
55:29
various degrees and phases in physical, chemical, magnetic, and vital
55:33
force in nature. Its most striking phase, however, being the
55:37
will to live, which manifests in all living forms, seeking
55:41
expression and objective manifestation, Its characteristic phases being the striving
55:46
to maintain and to perpetuate life, the struggle for existence,
55:49
and the instinct to perpetuate the species. We have presented
55:53
to you the above characteristic forms of this school of
55:56
philosophical thought, that of the Buddhists, and that of the
55:59
Western Voluntarists, not as necessarily representing the philosophical thought of
56:04
the present writers, nor for the purpose of awakening an
56:07
interest in such schools of philosophy on the part of
56:09
our readers, but merely for the purpose of directing your
56:12
attention to the recognition by careful thinkers of the fact
56:15
that desire is fundamental, elemental, and omnipresent in nature's processes, activities,
56:22
and forms. We direct your attention to the facts, the
56:26
reference to the philosophies built upon them being merely incidental
56:29
and secondary. We can never hope to know what desire
56:33
is in itself. Like all great forces, it is to
56:36
be known only through its manifestations and expressions. We know
56:41
it most intimately by reason of its presence in ourselves,
56:44
but even so we thus know it merely in the
56:46
particular phase of development it has reached in ourselves. For
56:49
the rest we must look at its manifestation in other
56:52
forms of life. The philosophers assert, and with apparent support
56:56
of facts, that the principle of desire is to be
56:59
found actively manifesting in inanimate things, in atoms, molecules, and
57:04
masses of inorganic matter, and in the physical forces and
57:07
energies of matter. But we shall not go that far
57:10
back in our examination. Instead, we shall begin with the
57:14
elementary living forms. Even in the most lowly life forms,
57:18
even in the forms of plant life, we find desire
57:21
manifesting along three general lines, viz. One the line of
57:26
the preservation of the physical form or body, two the
57:29
line of the satisfaction of hunger or the desire for nourishment,
57:33
And three the line of the preservation of the species,
57:37
or satisfaction of the desire for reproduction. These three lines
57:41
of desire and the activities resulting from their expression are
57:45
the three phases of the great elemental desire for life,
57:48
or the will to live. They represent the elemental desire
57:52
of life to live, maintain life, and to secure the
57:55
transmission of life to offspring. These three phases of desire
58:00
are present in a monerin and are present in man.
58:03
Even in the single cells of which the bodies of
58:06
plants and animals are constituted. These three phases of desire
58:10
are manifested actively. Each living thing sell to man strives
58:14
to protect its physical form intact, to secure food and nourishment,
58:18
and to propagate itself. This desire is elemental and basic.
58:23
It proceeds along the lines of appetency or instinct, and
58:26
of conscious feeling. It is manifested with as great vigor
58:30
in the lowly life forms as in the higher nature.
58:34
In its spirit of desire, works ever to preserve and
58:37
maintain the life of the individual form through which it manifests,
58:41
to cause it to secure the proper nourishment to sustain life,
58:44
and to cause it to propagate its kind and to
58:47
reproduce itself through offspring. Here, then we have a basic
58:51
foundation of desire upon which the entire structure is built.
58:55
The desire to live, the desire to live, to preserve
59:00
and protect the physical body from danger and injury, the
59:03
will to live, the fight for life. All these are
59:06
forms and phases of that basic instinctive desire. To live,
59:09
which is found in all living creatures, vegetable or animal,
59:13
from single cell to man. The living creature does not
59:17
need to reason itself into this belief. It is instinctive.
59:21
Even the most pessimistic individual, while asserting that his reason
59:24
shows him the valuelessness of life, will flee from anything
59:27
threatening his life. He cannot help this, for it is instinctive.
59:32
From this desire to live spring many other likes and
59:35
dislikes with their appropriate desires. The things believed to be
59:39
conducive to life and health are held to be good.
59:42
Those believed to be harmful are held to be bad.
59:46
Man instinctively seeks the life and health giving things and
59:49
avoids the opposite. Pain is the danger signal of nature,
59:54
warning against things threatening life or health. Primitive and elemental
59:58
pleasure producing things are you used, usually found to have
1:00:00
been originally conducive to physical well being. The qualities or
1:00:05
feelings of combativeness and destructiveness, the elements of courage and bravery,
1:00:09
as well as the traits of caution cunning prudence observed
1:00:13
in the lower animals, in primitive man and in civilized man,
1:00:17
arose chiefly in response to the instinctive feeling and desire
1:00:20
for life and self preservation. The living creature found it
1:00:24
necessary to protect itself from its enemies and developed the
1:00:28
qualities of self defense. Those individuals or species lacking in
1:00:32
these qualities perished in the struggle for existence. These tendencies
1:00:36
became set in the early history of the human race.
1:00:40
In fact, they were probably well established in the inherited
1:00:43
nature of primitive man, having reached him through evolution. That
1:00:47
these qualities and their desires have persisted in civilized man
1:00:51
in their original force, though usually hidden beneath the surface,
1:00:55
is evidenced by man's reversion to his primitive emotional states
1:00:59
and desires aring times of war, and by his taste
1:01:02
for witnessing and engaging in physical sports in which the
1:01:05
elements of strife, combat, struggle, and competition are involved. Here
1:01:11
is a good place in which to call your attention
1:01:13
to an interesting and important fact of psychology. The principle
1:01:17
may be stated as follows. A habit originally formed in
1:01:20
the race by reason of necessity, and becoming set by
1:01:23
repetition during many generations, gradually acquires the quality of pleasure producing,
1:01:29
and as a pleasure producing activity, such habit persists firmly
1:01:32
fixed in the race long after the original necessity has disappeared.
1:01:37
This explains the fact that hunting, fishing, trapping, tests of
1:01:41
physical skill and strength, games requiring physical strength and agility,
1:01:46
et cetera, are found to be pleasure producing by men
1:01:49
who are no longer compelled to exercise these powers and
1:01:52
arts for self protection, self preservation, and physical well being.
1:01:57
Many of man's instinctive fears and dislikes have originally arisen
1:02:00
from the early experiences of the race, in which the
1:02:03
element of self preservation was called into play. These aversions
1:02:07
caused actions and courses of conduct which preserve primitive man
1:02:11
from injury or death in a fierce struggle for existence
1:02:14
on the physical plane, which raged in his day. That
1:02:17
they persist even to this day, when the necessity for
1:02:20
them has largely disappeared, is not to be wondered at
1:02:23
in view of the fact that countless generations of men
1:02:26
manifesting them have given to them a set habit form
1:02:29
in human instinct and character. Professor Schneider says, it is
1:02:34
a fact that man, especially in childhood, fear to go
1:02:37
into a dark cavern or a gloomy wood. It is
1:02:40
quite sure that this fear at a certain perception sometimes
1:02:44
is directly inherited. Children who have been carefully guarded from
1:02:48
all ghost stories, are nevertheless terrified in cry if led
1:02:52
into dark places, especially if sounds are made there. Even
1:02:56
an adult can easily observe that an uncomfortable timidity steals
1:03:00
over him in a lonely wood at night, although he
1:03:02
may have a fixed conviction that not the slightest danger
1:03:05
is near. This feeling of fear occurs in many men
1:03:09
even in their own homes after dark, although it is
1:03:11
much stronger in a dark cavern or forest. The fact
1:03:15
of such instinctive fear is easily explicable when our ancestors,
1:03:19
through innumerable generations, were accustomed to meet with dangerous beasts
1:03:23
in caverns, especially bears, and were for the most part
1:03:26
attacked by such beasts during the night and in the woods.
1:03:29
And that thus an inseparable association between the perceptions of darkness, caverns, woods,
1:03:35
and fear took place and was inherited. The desire for nourishment.
1:03:41
The desire for nourishment in the shape of food, drink,
1:03:44
et cetera, is also an elemental, primitive instinctive feeling in want.
1:03:50
The continuance and the well being of every physical body
1:03:53
depends upon nourishment, and the will to live implants in
1:03:56
each creature the strong, insistent urge toward obtained. Such so
1:04:01
elemental is this phase and form of desire that the
1:04:04
terms hunger and thirst represent the strongest ideas and feelings
1:04:09
of want, craving, and desire of which the human mind
1:04:12
is capable. The terms tanha and trishna, which the Buddhists
1:04:17
employ to indicate the nature of the will to live,
1:04:20
mean hunger and thirst, respectively. One of the definitions of
1:04:25
hunger is a strong or eager desire or longing. Many
1:04:30
of the secondary desires of animals and men are derived
1:04:33
from the elementary desire for food and nourishment. For instance,
1:04:38
they long for the places in which food abounds. They
1:04:40
desire the means of obtaining that food. Man desires the
1:04:44
qualities and powers which will enable him to secure food.
1:04:48
The desire for food is the prime economic necessity, and
1:04:51
the actions of individuals and of nations proceed along the
1:04:55
lines of this need and desire. In times of famine,
1:04:58
this elemental urge pushes aside the later tendencies of civilization
1:05:03
and causes men to revert to the condition of their
1:05:05
primitive ancestors, with whom hunger was a common experience. A
1:05:09
starving man often becomes like a savage or a wild
1:05:13
beast in many respects. In the state of civilization, men
1:05:17
are not so keenly aware of this strong elemental desire,
1:05:21
because they scarcely ever become really hungry. But let them
1:05:24
be deprived of food for a short time, and the
1:05:26
old savage demand manifests itself in its original vigor. Desire
1:05:31
Power your energizing forces by William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two.
1:05:38
The evolution of desire continued. The will to live, or
1:05:43
the life forces of nature are concerned not merely with
1:05:46
the preservation and continuance of the life of the individual,
1:05:49
but also quite as truly and forcibly with that of
1:05:52
the propagation and transmission of life to the offspring, with
1:05:55
the life of the species as well as that of
1:05:57
the individual for reproduction. The elemental desire for reproduction of
1:06:04
the species, for the transmission of life through offspring is
1:06:07
one of the most fundamental and basic, and also one
1:06:10
of the most powerful desires of all living things. Its
1:06:14
essential spirit manifests along subconscious lines, and the living creature
1:06:19
acts instinctively to manifest and express the urge of the desire,
1:06:22
usually without any conscious recognition of the end in view
1:06:25
of nature or the will to live, but those ends
1:06:28
are definite and certain. Nevertheless, so strong is this desire
1:06:34
in its various forms and phases, that the individual creature
1:06:37
will often sacrifice its own life in the pursuit of
1:06:40
the objects of the desire. This elemental desire manifests in
1:06:44
two general forms or phases, each of which proceeds with
1:06:48
the same original end in view, though existing only subconsciously.
1:06:52
These two general forms or phases are as follows, one
1:06:56
love of and desire for mates, and two love of
1:07:00
desire for and desire to protect and provide for the offspring.
1:07:05
The love of home country people and its derivative emotions
1:07:09
of patriotism and loyalty to race also spring from the
1:07:12
same general source. Nature or the will to live, has
1:07:17
here in view the perpetuation of the tribe, family, species,
1:07:21
and race. The love of mates is a very strong emotion,
1:07:25
and its associated desires are of the very strongest nature.
1:07:30
Men have willingly laid down their lives in the pursuit
1:07:32
of and the protection of their mates. The lower animals
1:07:35
manifesting the same general tendency in quite a strong degree.
1:07:39
As the scale of life is ascended, this form of
1:07:42
desire takes on an additional complexity and an increased degree
1:07:46
of refinement and delicacy. But the elemental urge is always
1:07:49
underneath and back of the feeling desire. The call of
1:07:54
sex and the mating instinct distinguishes the race of men
1:07:57
as well as the lower animals. In primitive man, this
1:08:01
desire is but little above that of the lower animals,
1:08:04
while in cultured man it rises far above its source
1:08:07
and is closely involved with other feelings and desires. But
1:08:11
even in its higher forms, the elemental and primitive urge
1:08:15
is there. The flavor of its salt pervades the entire
1:08:17
ocean of love of man for woman and of woman
1:08:20
for man, penetrating even into its most sheltered bays, inlets
1:08:24
and ocean flowing rivers. Even in the so called platonic love,
1:08:28
its tank is perceptible, though seemingly unsought and often ignored
1:08:32
for a time. Nature, whatever we may mean by that term,
1:08:37
is seemingly inspired by the will to live, to manifest
1:08:40
existence through her manifold forms of life. She finds it
1:08:43
necessary to cause her creatures to perpetuate their kind in
1:08:47
order that she may so manifest that will to live
1:08:50
in the futurity of life forms. Unless her creatures are
1:08:54
inspired in some way to pass the flame of life
1:08:56
from the torches of one generation to those of another,
1:08:59
she will not be able to manifest continuous and unbroken existence.
1:09:04
This being the case, Dame Nature proceeds to arrange adroitly
1:09:07
for the maintenance of the cycle of life. She works
1:09:11
in wondrous ways to bring about the fulfillment of her
1:09:13
desires and purposes, and but few escape Pernette. Instead of
1:09:18
employing merely a driving force, however, she also employs an
1:09:22
attracting energy. This energy is manifested in the feelings, emotions, affections,
1:09:28
and desires of the love of mates, the mating instinct,
1:09:32
the call of sex. Keeping her massive form in the
1:09:35
background and well out of sight, Nature employs the rosy cheeked,
1:09:39
plumply formed cherub named Cupid to awaken the heart of
1:09:42
man to love. She employs diplomacy to affect her purposes.
1:09:48
Emerson tells us the lover seeks in marriage his own
1:09:51
private felicity and perfection, and no prospective end. But Nature
1:09:56
hides in his happiness, her own end, the perpetuity of
1:09:59
the race. We are made alive and kept alive by
1:10:03
the same means, Bronson says. When the man and maid
1:10:07
meat exchange glances and experience those peculiar little flutterings of
1:10:11
the heart, there is something more than this really happening.
1:10:15
Nature is then at work, her best beloved work in
1:10:19
the happiness of the lovers is concealed. The cheerful content
1:10:22
of Nature in their ecstatic smiles may be discerned. The
1:10:26
complacent expression of satisfaction on the face of nature. In
1:10:30
their ardent avowals, protestations, and promises may be heard the
1:10:34
echoes of nature's contented sigh. The lovers feel so exalted
1:10:39
by the song of love that they think that Nature
1:10:42
must stand still, observe and listen. Nature indeed does observe
1:10:47
and listen, and very keenly too. But she does not
1:10:51
stand still, not even for a moment. She is too
1:10:55
busily engaged in working out things for the lovers, and
1:10:58
incidentally for her self as well. In the case of
1:11:02
primitive man, the mating instinct was but little more than
1:11:05
the sex instinct of the lower animals. The mating was
1:11:08
for but a brief period, and mates were changed with
1:11:11
the seasons. But as man ascended the scale, the mating
1:11:15
instinct took on a higher, more complex, and more permanent form.
1:11:20
There gradually dawned upon the race consciousness, the idea of
1:11:24
home and family, of a more permanent union. The idea
1:11:28
of companionship began to manifest its wondrous powers with ever
1:11:31
increasing force. The idea of a mate began to take
1:11:36
on a new meaning, the meaning of companionship and comradeship.
1:11:40
In the beginning, man wanted merely a physical mate. Then
1:11:44
he wanted a companion, a social mate. Then he began
1:11:48
to want his mate to share his emotional nature, his likes,
1:11:51
his tastes. He wanted her to love the things that
1:11:54
I love. The esthetic emotions and desires also came into play.
1:12:00
The intellectual feelings and desires also entered into the combination. Finally,
1:12:06
man now wants to be mated physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
1:12:12
We hear now of mental mates, physical mates, and even
1:12:15
of soul mates. The primitive element of sex is always there, however,
1:12:20
though manifesting along more complex and more subtle lines. To
1:12:24
all prospective mates. Sex utters this warning, they reckon ill
1:12:28
who leave me out. Nature and the will to live
1:12:32
are still managing affairs in their own interests. The love
1:12:36
of offspring, another phase of the desire for reproduction, is
1:12:41
that which manifests in the love of offspring and in
1:12:44
the desire to protect and provide for the young. The
1:12:47
love of offspring and the desire to protect and provide
1:12:50
for the young is one of the strongest and most
1:12:53
persistent forms of feeling and desire. It is found highly
1:12:57
manifested in the higher species of the lower animals, and
1:13:01
it is one of the chief motives of human conduct
1:13:03
and activity. The parent animal or human being frequently does
1:13:07
not hesitate to risk or even to sacrifice life in
1:13:10
defense of the offspring. It is common for the parent
1:13:13
to suffer hunger and privation in order that the wants
1:13:15
of the offspring be satisfied. Here again, nature or the
1:13:20
will to live, is strongly in evidence in its careful
1:13:23
and persistent endeavor to secure the welfare of the young creature.
1:13:27
The will to protect and provide for the young manifest
1:13:30
in nature is evidenced not only in the implanting in
1:13:33
the race of the feeling and desire to maintain more
1:13:36
or less permanent mating union on the part of the parents.
1:13:40
Nature has in view not merely the birth of the
1:13:42
young creature, but also its protection after birth until such
1:13:45
time as it is able to take care of itself.
1:13:49
For the first end, it superimposes the mating instinct upon
1:13:52
the emotional nature of the living things. For the second,
1:13:56
it superimposes the love of offspring and the family feeling
1:14:00
upon the nature of the animal or man. In this
1:14:03
last we have the key to many important desires and
1:14:06
activities of man and of the lower animals. Science has
1:14:11
established the truth of the general proposition that the degree
1:14:14
of the manifestation of the mating instinct in the direction
1:14:17
of a more or less permanent association between the male
1:14:20
and female animal, and in the establishment and maintenance of
1:14:23
the family group, is directly determined by the degree in
1:14:26
which the male parent is needed to provide for and
1:14:29
to aid the mother and the offspring. This statement refers
1:14:33
to the species, not to the particular individual. In many cases,
1:14:38
the association of the mates extends over merely the period
1:14:41
of the immediate needs of the offspring and the nursing mother.
1:14:45
The young of the reptiles and fishes require no paternal
1:14:48
or parental care, and as a consequence, there is no
1:14:51
real union or mated association between the parents. Even where
1:14:54
there is a semblance of permanency in the union, it
1:14:57
will be found that the female requires some degree of
1:14:59
tens temporary protection for a short period preceding the birth
1:15:03
of the young. All such association among the reptiles and
1:15:07
fishes is seen to depend entirely upon the welfare of
1:15:10
the future offspring. Birds mate and form a union which
1:15:14
lasts only during the nesting season. As a rule, the
1:15:17
male is needed to protect the nest, to feed the
1:15:20
brooding hen bird, and to feed the young. The cuckoo
1:15:24
and similar nests stealing birds, which lay their eggs in
1:15:27
the nests of other birds and are thereby relieved of
1:15:30
any care of hatching the eggs or feeding the young,
1:15:32
display no real attachment for their mates beyond the period
1:15:35
of the temporary sexual impulse, and they form no mating
1:15:39
unions of even the most brief duration. Such birds, always
1:15:43
relieved of the responsibilities of parenthood, are the varietists of
1:15:47
the bird family, associating promiscuously and indiscriminately, and not remaining
1:15:52
in each other's society for any definite period. Not only this,
1:15:57
but even the real mothers in the animal kingdom, men
1:16:00
infest material affection only in the degree of the requirements
1:16:03
of the young, and only during the period in which
1:16:05
such protection is needed. For instance, the reptile mothers and
1:16:10
the fish mothers have no responsibility for their offspring, the
1:16:13
young creatures being able to take care of themselves from birth. Consequently,
1:16:18
the mother fish or mother reptile in such cases shows
1:16:21
no sign of maternal affection. This is also true of
1:16:24
the insects. Yet strange to say, such creatures usually are
1:16:29
found to possess an instinctive affection for their eggs, and
1:16:32
will even risk or sacrifice their lives in order to
1:16:35
protect their eggs or else in order to deposit the
1:16:38
eggs in conditions favorable for their protection and development. This done,
1:16:42
the emotional feeling affection and desire pass away, having served
1:16:46
nature's purpose adequately. The instinctive care and trouble manifested by
1:16:51
the female insect in providing a promising and appropriate place
1:16:54
for depositing her eggs is one of the great wonders
1:16:57
of natural history. The house his wife experiences proof of
1:17:01
this instinct when she discovers valuable clothing destroyed by the
1:17:04
moth because the mother moth has sought a nice, dark
1:17:07
closet containing soft woolen fabrics in which to deposit her eggs.
1:17:12
The wasp, which stings into insensibility the spider, in order
1:17:16
to deposit her eggs in the living body of the
1:17:18
latter so that her future offspring may be provided with
1:17:21
fresh food, is another illustration of this law of nature.
1:17:25
The ordinary dung beetle evidence is a similar care and
1:17:28
solicitude for the welfare of her eggs. Yet none of
1:17:32
these creatures manifests even the slightest degree of affection for
1:17:35
their young when they are hatched. Their young do not
1:17:38
need such affection and care, and consequently the mother creatures
1:17:42
are not endowed with the feelings and desires leading to these.
1:17:46
Professor William James says, why does the hen submit herself
1:17:50
to the tedium of incubating such a fearfully uninteresting set
1:17:53
of objects as a nest full of eggs, unless she
1:17:56
have some sort of a prophetic instinct of the result,
1:17:59
Why does a pre particular maiden turn our wits upside down?
1:18:03
The common man can only say, of course, we love
1:18:06
the maiden that beautiful soul, clad in that perfect form,
1:18:09
so palpably and flagrantly made from all eternity to be loved,
1:18:14
and so probably does each animal feel about the particular
1:18:17
actions it tends to perform in response to certain stimuli.
1:18:22
To the broody hen, the notion seems monstrous that there
1:18:25
should be a creature in the world to whom a
1:18:26
nest full of eggs was not the utterly fascinating precious,
1:18:30
and never to be too much sad upon object which
1:18:32
it is to her. What a delicious thrill may not
1:18:35
shake a fly when at last she discovers the one
1:18:38
particular leaf or other object or material that, out of
1:18:42
all the world can stimulate her egg laying, need she
1:18:45
care or know anything about the future maggot and its food.
1:18:49
You have noticed how when the offspring no longer require attention, care,
1:18:54
and food, the mother animal thrusts them away from her
1:18:56
and compels them thenceforth to conduct their business of life
1:19:00
on their own. When that period has passed, all her
1:19:03
maternal affection seems to die out, and thenceforth the young
1:19:07
animals are no more to the mother than are any
1:19:09
of the many other animals of her acquaintance. The need
1:19:12
of the offspring has passed, the emotion has played its part,
1:19:16
and the desire passes away. Even in human life, we
1:19:20
often see the strongest affection grow up in the heart
1:19:22
of a woman for some motherless child not connected with
1:19:25
her by ties of blood. This particularly if the care
1:19:28
of the young child has temporarily devolved upon her. Even
1:19:32
the coldest hearted woman usually will learn to love a
1:19:35
babe for whom she is compelled constantly to care and provide,
1:19:38
and even the hardest hearted man will feel an affection
1:19:41
for a child for whom he is compelled to care
1:19:43
in person. There is something inside of them which makes
1:19:46
them act and feel that way. Farmers know that if
1:19:50
a motherless lamb is once permitted by a mother sheep
1:19:52
to nurse at her teats, then that lamb will thereafter
1:19:55
be carefully protected by that mother sheep, even though she
1:19:58
did not welcome it before the nursing, and indeed had
1:20:01
to be coaxed into allowing it to nurse. In the
1:20:03
first instance, the need of the young creature awakens the
1:20:07
instinctive affection and desire of the older animal. It is
1:20:11
held that the instinctive feeling and desire of the human
1:20:14
creature for a permanent mating union. The creation and maintenance
1:20:18
of the family arose from the long continued needs of
1:20:21
the human mother and child for the protection of the father.
1:20:25
By the time that one child was comparatively able to
1:20:27
take care of itself, another infant was there to be
1:20:30
protected and provided for, says Salibi, The unique helplessness of
1:20:35
the human baby one of the most wonderful and little
1:20:38
appreciated facts in the whole of nature. To eyes that
1:20:41
can see, has a supremely practical point of view. The
1:20:45
principle of marriage is that of survival value. Nature's invariable
1:20:49
criterion is that of survival value or service to race culture.
1:20:54
That form of marriage which does not permit the babies
1:20:57
to survive the babies do not permit it to survive.
1:21:01
It is not a question of the father's taste and fancy,
1:21:04
but of what he leaves above ground when he is underground. This, then,
1:21:08
is the deep soil from which has sprung and grown
1:21:11
the wonderful love of man and woman for each other,
1:21:13
in its highest and most beautiful forms, as well as
1:21:16
in its crudest and ugliest phases. From this soil also
1:21:21
has sprung the beautiful love of parents. For their children,
1:21:24
of children for parents. It is the cause of the
1:21:27
cling to feeling desire so marked in the woman and
1:21:30
the child, of the desire to be clung to by
1:21:33
the woman and the child, which lies deeply embedded in
1:21:36
the soul of the man. The soil is nature's needs
1:21:40
for the welfare and perpetuation of the race. The blossoms
1:21:43
and flowers are due to man's and woman's cultivation of
1:21:46
the soil and tender care for the growing plant. Desire
1:21:50
power your energizing forces. By William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two,
1:21:57
The evolution of desire concluded the desire for property. The
1:22:03
desire for property is another elemental feeling and motive to action.
1:22:08
Property means one the exclusive right to possession, enjoyment, and
1:22:13
disposal of anything vested in the individual, and two that
1:22:17
which is possessed, enjoyed, and subject to disposal of the individual.
1:22:22
The love of and desire for possessions is embedded in
1:22:25
the deep soil of human nature. Some of the lower
1:22:29
animals possess it to a marked degree, and nearly all
1:22:32
the lower animals feel the right of possession of places, positions,
1:22:36
et cetera, as well as their supply of food. In
1:22:39
the case of primitive man, this feeling and desire arose
1:22:43
from the necessity of providing for his welfare and that
1:22:45
of his family. It was necessary for him to possess
1:22:49
a place of abode, a cave, a tree, a tent,
1:22:52
et cetera. It was necessary for him to lay by
1:22:56
and accumulate a supply of food at certain seasons, and
1:22:59
to have land to till and cultivate for food production.
1:23:03
The individuals manifesting this desire tended to survive and to
1:23:07
have their families survive. Those in whom it was weak
1:23:09
tended to fall in the struggle with environment. The survivors
1:23:13
transmitted their tendencies to their descendants. The losers left no
1:23:17
descendants to whom their improvident tendencies were transmitted, and so
1:23:21
the tendency became set as a habit in the mental
1:23:24
and emotional nature of the race. The wants of primitive
1:23:28
man were few and simple. A little food laid by
1:23:32
for himself and his family, a few skins to cover
1:23:35
their bodies, a rude cave, hut or tent to shelter them,
1:23:39
implements of war and of the hunt. This was about all.
1:23:43
As man rose in the scale his wants multiplied, and
1:23:46
consequently he began to desire to acquire and to accumulate,
1:23:50
not only a greater number of things, but also a
1:23:52
greater variety of things. The rest is merely a matter
1:23:56
of the evolution of this form of desire, a proceeding
1:23:59
from the sinlines to the more complex, from the few
1:24:02
things to the many, and so on. This is the
1:24:05
story of the desire for property, with its accompanying feelings
1:24:08
and emotions. Originally based upon necessity, it has now extended
1:24:14
to comforts and even luxuries. Normally manifested. It is to
1:24:18
the interest of the individual and of the race abnormally manifested.
1:24:22
It is a curse to both the derived desires. In
1:24:27
the course of the evolution of desire, man has acquired
1:24:30
many forms of feeling and desire, derived from the elementary
1:24:33
desires which are instinctive to him and which have been
1:24:36
considered by us in some detail. Thus, his love for
1:24:40
his family has extended to his affection for his general family,
1:24:43
his tribe, his nation. From this has developed in him
1:24:47
the desires of love of country, patriotism, and loyalty to
1:24:51
his government, and also the social feelings of friendship, companionship, sympathy, justice, truth, politeness,
1:24:58
as well as the desire for the observance of moral codes, laws,
1:25:02
rules of right conduct. In the same way, the necessities
1:25:07
of procuring food, defending himself and family, acquiring possessions, and
1:25:11
so forth have aroused in him the feelings and desires
1:25:15
connected with invention, creative work, constructive imagination, thought, reasoning, and
1:25:20
other intellectual powers and activity. The old adage that necessity
1:25:25
is the mother of invention may be extended to include
1:25:28
in the brood of necessity the activity of thought and reasoning,
1:25:31
the entire rock of the family of intellect. From less
1:25:35
well defined sources have sprung the feelings and desires connected
1:25:38
with the esthetic emotions the love of beauty, art, music, literature, culture, refinement,
1:25:45
et cetera. That they sprung from the elemental soil. There
1:25:49
can be no doubt, though the line of assent is
1:25:51
not so clearly discernible, from the original enjoyment of the
1:25:55
experiences of the hunt, the battle, the conflict with nature,
1:25:59
be and hostile men have arisen. The feelings and desires
1:26:03
connected with games, sports, the drama, stories, and other forms
1:26:07
of recreation, exercise and play. Play has evolved directly from
1:26:12
activities concerned with necessity. As all psychologists know, the desires
1:26:17
based upon it are reflections of the older and cruder
1:26:20
desires of the elemental nature. From the deep recesses of
1:26:24
man's nature have sprung the feelings and desires connected with
1:26:27
what is called religion. From the crudest beginnings and the
1:26:31
grossest forms of superstition have sprung the beautiful plant and flower,
1:26:35
blossom and fruit of the highest conception of religion held
1:26:39
by the most advanced of the race today. As Herbert
1:26:42
Spencer said, the ultimate form of the religious consciousness is
1:26:46
the final development of a consciousness which, at its outset
1:26:49
contained a germ of truth obscured by multitudinous errors. John
1:26:54
Fiske said that inward conviction, the craving for a final cause,
1:26:58
the theistic assumption, is itself one of the master facts
1:27:01
of the universe, and is as much entitled to respect
1:27:04
as any fact in physical nature can possibly be. Darwin
1:27:08
holds that the religious feelings, emotions, affections, and desires are
1:27:12
highly complex, consisting of love, complete submission to an exalted
1:27:17
and mysterious superior being, coupled with a strong sense of dependence, fear, reverence, gratitude,
1:27:24
hope for the future, and perhaps many other elements. And
1:27:28
so the evolution of man's desires has proceeded from lowly
1:27:31
elemental beginnings and sources to wonderful heights and endings. But
1:27:36
the sources and soil must never be forgotten when you
1:27:39
consider the subject of the essential nature of desire. Moreover,
1:27:43
be it noted. In times of great stress, necessity, or
1:27:47
unusual conditions, it is found that the forms and phases
1:27:50
of desire which have evolved last in the scale. The
1:27:53
latest comers into the family of desire are the first
1:27:56
to be discarded by the man or woman, then follow
1:27:59
the next recent, and so on, until if the necessity
1:28:02
be sufficiently great and the pressure of circumstances sufficiently strong,
1:28:07
the individual tends to revert to the primitive type and
1:28:09
to manifest only the most elemental end primitive forms and
1:28:14
phases of feeling and desire. The cave man is far
1:28:19
nearer to the surface of civilized humanity than most persons realize.
1:28:24
Shipwrecked men, men lost in the wild places of earth,
1:28:27
men in times of famine and pestilence often have shown
1:28:30
a surprising tendency to revert in a remarkably short time
1:28:33
to the plane of their primitive ancestors. It has well
1:28:37
been asserted that civilization in man is only skin deep.
1:28:41
Some idealistic thinkers who have become hypnotized by the dream
1:28:45
of the culture and refinement which to them seems destined
1:28:48
to be the common possession of the coming human race,
1:28:50
a state of culture and refinement in which the elemental
1:28:53
and fundamental instincts, feelings, emotions, and desires of man will
1:28:57
have been buried deep beneath the surface of the death
1:29:00
things as unworthy and unnice. Are greatly disturbed when they
1:29:03
are forced to see that at present, at least the
1:29:06
buried instincts are not entombed so very deep after all,
1:29:11
and that they will not stay interred in times of
1:29:13
storm and stress. They regard these facts as regrettable and
1:29:17
as something to be deplored by the race. To them,
1:29:21
the elemental is detestable, something to be apologized for. To them,
1:29:26
the surface feelings and desires are the only worthy ones.
1:29:30
The feelings and desires of the great depths of human
1:29:32
nature are unworthy and to be regarded as bearing the
1:29:36
mark of the beast upon them. These idealistic thinkers overlook
1:29:40
the fact that the fires of desire create the steam
1:29:43
of will, and that the accomplishments of the race depend
1:29:46
materially upon the fact that these inner fires be kept
1:29:49
burning fiercely with a dear draft and free from clinkers
1:29:52
and ashes. Civilization and refinement have brought much to man
1:29:57
without doubt, but many men, reaching for their idea dels
1:30:00
of culture and refinement, have lost much of their original
1:30:03
elemental power of desire. They have allowed their fires of
1:30:07
desire to become deadened by the ashes of artificial civilization
1:30:10
and clogged with the clinkers of non essential feelings and desires.
1:30:15
They fail to see that the fires of desire require
1:30:18
proper supervision and control. Their drafts must be kept at
1:30:21
least partially open, and their grates kept free from dead
1:30:24
ashes and clinkers. The men and women who have accomplished
1:30:28
great success in any line of human effort have cleared
1:30:31
away the ashes and clinkers of their fires of desire.
1:30:34
They have kept the furnace clear and clean, and have
1:30:37
opened wide the drafts when necessary. If you will carefully
1:30:41
consider the strong, successful men and women in any walk
1:30:44
of life, you will find that each and every one
1:30:46
of them is filled or has been filled during his
1:30:49
or her period of intense activity with this strong, insistent,
1:30:53
elemental desire force of nature, this active principle of desire,
1:30:57
which manifests in a degree of want and dad want to,
1:31:00
which will not be denied. Differ as they may in
1:31:04
their secondary qualities, these strong individuals nevertheless possess in commonness
1:31:08
essential primal quality, and they manifest it when required. It
1:31:12
is one of the characteristic qualities of their class. It
1:31:16
is this basic quality which has done much for them
1:31:18
in their respective successful careers. If you would succeed, you
1:31:23
must get acquainted with that fierce, burning, insistent elemental want
1:31:28
and want to within your own nature, which perhaps has
1:31:31
been hidden from sight under the accumulated ashes of the
1:31:34
centuries of culture and refinement of the race, with its
1:31:37
years of artificial methods of living, which have followed in
1:31:39
the train of civilization. Your primitive and elemental want and
1:31:44
want to must be as strong as the vital demand
1:31:47
of the drowning man for air, of the demand of
1:31:49
the desert lost or shipwrecked man for water, as the
1:31:52
demand of the famishing man for food, or the demand
1:31:55
of the wild creatures of the forests, and jungles for
1:31:58
their mates, as the demand of them for the welfare
1:32:00
of her children. All of these forms of deep and
1:32:04
burning desire are expressions of the elemental forces and energies
1:32:07
of nature, of the will to live, the motive power
1:32:11
of which Nature employs in the performance of her work
1:32:14
and by means of which she accomplishes her purpose. You
1:32:17
do not need to employ this elemental energy in the
1:32:20
same manner or in the same direction as that followed
1:32:23
by the primitive man or the wild creature. However, you
1:32:26
may transmute it into a higher order of expression and
1:32:29
a higher plane of manifestation. You may transform desire into
1:32:33
ambition or aspiration. But in doing so you must not
1:32:37
fail to preserve every ounce of the essential and elemental
1:32:40
energy and strength of this fundamental principle of nature, the
1:32:43
principle of desire, the principle of desire in nature, in
1:32:47
its constant pressure toward manifestation and urge toward expression, while
1:32:51
apparently concerned more with the preservation and welfare of the
1:32:54
species and of the race than with the welfare of
1:32:57
particular individuals, while often apparently indifferent to the welfare of
1:33:02
the individual creature, and concerned apparently only with the preservation
1:33:05
of the species. Nevertheless, acts always upon the principle that
1:33:09
the species and the race can be served only by
1:33:13
means of service rendered to the individual. Therefore, while it
1:33:17
manifests a tremendous amount of energy in the maintenance of
1:33:20
the reproductive desires and activities, at the same time it
1:33:23
serves highly important offices in the support and development of
1:33:27
the individual creature. Biologists hold that the principle of desire,
1:33:32
working along subconscious lines, is the moving cause of the
1:33:35
physical and mental evolution of the life forms. The presence
1:33:39
of an obstacle to progress is seemingly noted by the
1:33:42
life principle or the will to live, and thereupon an
1:33:45
increased degree of desire power is generated and manifested in
1:33:49
the life form. The desire power always moves toward the
1:33:53
securing of that which will promote the efficiency of the creature,
1:33:56
and which thereby increases its chances of survival. In the
1:33:59
struct for existence the fight against environment, it sets into
1:34:04
operation the life processes which make for change in the
1:34:07
physical and mental equipment of the creature, and which proceed,
1:34:10
by evolutionary development, to unfold the needed physical or mental equipment.
1:34:15
A writer on the subject of the Hindu philosophies in
1:34:19
considering the teachings of those philosophies concerning the presence and
1:34:22
power of desire in nature, says in the Hindu classic
1:34:26
the Mahabarata, it is related that Brahma created the most
1:34:30
beautiful female ever known, and called her to Lotma. He
1:34:34
presented her to all the gods in turn, in order
1:34:37
to witness their wonder and admiration. Shidah's desire to behold
1:34:41
her was so great that it developed in him four
1:34:44
faces in succession as she made the tour of the assembly,
1:34:48
and Indra's longing was so intense that his body became
1:34:51
all eyes. In this myth may be seen exemplified the
1:34:55
effect of desire in the forms of life, function, and
1:34:58
shape all following need and desire, as in a case
1:35:01
of the long neck of the giraffe, which enables him
1:35:04
to reach for the high branches of the trees in
1:35:06
his native land, and in the long neck and high
1:35:09
legs of the fisher birds, the crane, the stork, the ibis,
1:35:12
and others of the great family. The will to live
1:35:16
finds within itself a desire to create suns, and they
1:35:19
are evolved it desires planets to revolve around the suns,
1:35:24
and they are thrown off the suns in obedience to
1:35:26
the law. It desires plant life, and the plant forms appear,
1:35:31
working from lower to higher form. Then came animal life,
1:35:35
from monad to man. Some of the animal forms yielded
1:35:39
to the desire to fly, and low wings were gradually evolved,
1:35:44
and the world was filled with birds. Some of the
1:35:47
animals felt a desire to burrow in the ground, and
1:35:50
low came the moles, the gophers, and other burrowers, each
1:35:55
fitted with physical and mental equipment for their particular modes
1:35:58
of life. Nature wanted a thinking creature, and low manlike
1:36:04
forms began to evolve, and finally, man, with his wonderful brain,
1:36:07
came and manifested his powers. Lomarq's theory of evolution follows
1:36:12
the line of the Hindu thought above noted far nearer
1:36:15
than does that of Darwin. Darwin taught that evolution was
1:36:19
due primarily to or was accomplished chiefly through natural selection
1:36:23
in the survival of the fittest. Lomark, while admitting the
1:36:27
importance of these elements, nevertheless insisted that in that impulse
1:36:31
of nature which is akin to desire arising from need,
1:36:34
is to be found the primal urge toward evolution and
1:36:37
progress in the living forms. Lomarq held that need and
1:36:40
desire are back of and precede function and form in
1:36:44
living things, the latter being the consequences of the desire.
1:36:48
The Oriental teaching concerning the power of desire in evolutionary development,
1:36:53
which is being closely followed in some of the most
1:36:55
advanced forms of our Western philosophy, does not hold that
1:36:59
this creative desire is manifested chiefly along the lines of
1:37:02
consciousness as we know it. On the contrary, it manifests
1:37:07
far more commonly below the plane of ordinary consciousness, on
1:37:10
the plains of subconsciousness, instinct, appetency, et cetera. The want
1:37:16
is there, though the creature does not experience it in
1:37:19
its surface consciousness. It exists in plant life as well
1:37:23
as animal, manifesting in each according to its needs. In
1:37:27
response to this below consciousness desire, the plants have evolved
1:37:31
means of protection for themselves and their seeds bark in
1:37:34
the hard covering of the nuts. The spines of the cactus.
1:37:38
The thistles, et cetera, have been evolved in accordance to
1:37:41
this creative desire. The sweetness of the berries, designed to
1:37:45
attract the birds which eat them and thus distribute the seeds,
1:37:48
have resulted from the same cause. This rule holding good
1:37:52
in the case of the color of the flowers and
1:37:54
the honey contained within them, both of which has been
1:37:56
evolved in order to attract the insects which serve to
1:37:59
carry poppy and thus fertilized the flowers. The burrs containing seed,
1:38:04
which fasten to the wool of the sheep and other animals,
1:38:07
and are thus carried to a distance and are distributed.
1:38:10
These two have been evolved in response to need and desire.
1:38:14
In the same way. The tusks, teeth, fangs, and claws
1:38:18
of animals, the stings of insects, and all the wonderful,
1:38:21
offensive and defensive equipment of living things have been evolved
1:38:24
in response to need and desire. The hard shells of
1:38:28
the crustaceans, the turtles, the armadillos, the spines of the
1:38:32
porcupine and the hedgehog, The keen eye and powerful wings
1:38:36
of the eagle, the swiftness of the hawk, the bill
1:38:39
of the woodpecker, all have been evolved under the same law.
1:38:43
The story of the evolution of the horse from its
1:38:45
original form of the eohippus to its present form gives
1:38:48
us a striking illustration of the principle. In response to
1:38:52
the law of need and desire manifesting along the lines
1:38:55
of evolution, the eohippus, a small animal no larger than
1:38:59
a domestic kast with several toes on each foot, with
1:39:02
teeth resembling those of the monkey or the pig, with
1:39:05
short neck, arched back, and rather short legs, has developed
1:39:09
by eleven or more distinct stages to the horse of today,
1:39:12
with its long legs, long neck, straight back, complex and
1:39:16
long grinding teeth, hoofs, and large size. This almost incredible
1:39:22
development has been due to the need of the animal
1:39:24
arising from its changing environment, and the desire proceeding from
1:39:27
that need. Man today has evolved into the conscious and
1:39:32
self conscious plain of life, but his desire power still
1:39:35
is latent within him, awaiting his call upon it. Just
1:39:39
as it has built up the bodies and brain of
1:39:41
the animals through the slow stages of evolution, so it
1:39:44
will build for man the mental and physical characteristics indicated
1:39:47
by his need, provided that he will only want it
1:39:50
hard enough and will arouse and stir into activity the
1:39:53
great store of elemental primitive desire power within himself. He
1:39:58
may set it to work for himself along conscious lines,
1:40:01
just as Nature set it to work for herself along
1:40:04
sub conscious lines in the past. That which has performed
1:40:08
such great creative work in the past can and will
1:40:10
perform equally wonderful creative work now, provided that it is
1:40:14
called upon properly, and is set to work under the
1:40:16
direction of intellect, and will definitely and purposively employed. Desire
1:40:22
Power Your Energizing Forces. By William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty
1:40:27
two Attraction of desire Power. Not only does the principle
1:40:33
of desire power manifest itself in the direction of unfolding, evolving,
1:40:37
and developing new attributes and powers in living things so
1:40:41
as to supply the demand created in them by need,
1:40:43
as we have explained in the preceding section of this book,
1:40:46
but it also proceeds to accomplish similar purposes and ends
1:40:50
by means of another important phase of power possessed by it,
1:40:53
i e. The power of attraction. Attraction is defined as
1:40:59
an invisible power or in a body by which it
1:41:01
draws anything to itself. The power in nature acting mutually
1:41:05
between bodies or ultimate particles, tending to draw them together
1:41:08
or to produce their cohesion of combination and conversely resisting separation.
1:41:14
The term attraction is derived from two Latin terms, viz.
1:41:18
Add meaning to and trahere, meaning to draw, the two
1:41:23
being combined. In the derivative Latin term attractis meaning a
1:41:26
drawing together. In physical science, the principal forms of attraction
1:41:31
are gravitational attraction, the chemical affinity of the atoms, the
1:41:35
cohesive attraction of the molecules, the attraction of electrified bodies,
1:41:40
and the attraction of the magnet exerted upon iron or steel.
1:41:44
In psychology, the principal forms of attraction are those arising
1:41:48
between living beings by reason of their mutual likes, the
1:41:51
force called repulsion being the negative form of attraction, acting
1:41:55
in the same manner but in an opposite direction and
1:41:58
resulting from mutual dislike. While freely admitting that the attraction
1:42:03
and repulsion existing in and manifested between living things is
1:42:07
the result of the action of in forces rather than
1:42:09
of outside forces, physical science has usually held that the
1:42:13
attraction and repulsion existing in and manifested between non living
1:42:17
objects and things is the result of some outside stress
1:42:20
or strain operating on the objects or things, though the
1:42:23
nature of such outside forces is admitted to be unknown
1:42:27
and mysterious. Of late years, however, there has been a
1:42:31
decided tendency toward the acceptance of the hypothesis that even
1:42:34
non living objects and things, as for instance, the chemical
1:42:38
elements and particles of matter, possess the property of like
1:42:42
or dislike for certain other objects and things, and the
1:42:45
power to respond to such inner states. This hypothesis attributes
1:42:50
attraction and repulsion in inanimate things to enforces rather than
1:42:54
to outer forces, thus bringing inanimate and animate objects under
1:42:58
the same general law of attraction. While this new hypothesis
1:43:02
throws a most interesting light upon the subject of chemical
1:43:05
affinity and other forms of physical attraction and repulsion, showing
1:43:09
that even the atoms have their loves and hates and
1:43:12
their response there too, we shall not consider this aspect
1:43:15
of the subject, inasmuch as it lies outside of the
1:43:18
field of our present work. Instead, we shall consider that
1:43:22
phase of the new knowledge which has an important bearing
1:43:25
upon the subject of the nature and power of the
1:43:27
attraction of desire in living things. If chemical affinity, magnetism,
1:43:33
et cetera, are really manifestations of the power of like
1:43:36
and dislike in short of desire. Then the attraction of
1:43:40
desire in living things is seen, possibly to possess a
1:43:43
power of drawing which is but little suspected by the
1:43:45
average person. The mental scientists and the other schools of
1:43:50
practical metaphysics, for the last quarter century or more have
1:43:53
been teaching the attractive power of thought, i e. The
1:43:57
doctrine that thoughts have an attractive power tending to attrain
1:44:00
or to draw toward a person the things and conditions
1:44:02
corresponding to the character of his general thought. The new
1:44:06
knowledge concerning desire power in inanimate things serves to explain
1:44:10
scientifically the undoubted facts advanced by the metaphysicians to support
1:44:14
their own theories. Here, however, it is seen that desire,
1:44:19
rather than thought, is the chief mental attracting power. Inasmuch, however,
1:44:24
as the attractive thought of the metaphysicians is usually inspired
1:44:28
and energized by the desire power of the person exercising it,
1:44:31
it is seen that the two teachings inclined to blend
1:44:34
and harmonize with each other, rather than to oppose and
1:44:37
contradict each other. The many instances of the coordination between
1:44:41
different living things, between plant and insect, for instance, by
1:44:46
means of which each supplies to the combination that which
1:44:48
the other lacks, which has long puzzled the scientific observer,
1:44:52
is now explainable under this new hypothesis of the attraction
1:44:55
of desire. The plant requires the services of the insect
1:45:00
in order to perpetuate its species. It attracts the insect
1:45:04
by reason of its desire power, having evolved the honey
1:45:06
which the insect requires for food, and by means of
1:45:09
advertising the presence of the honey through the colors of
1:45:12
the flowers. There is a correlation between flower and insect
1:45:16
which has arisen by reason of desire power. The curious
1:45:20
adaptations of the food requirements of certain plants, and the
1:45:24
apparently instinctive response of certain chemicals to these furnish us
1:45:28
with other striking examples. Different things need each other in
1:45:32
order to express their respective natures and to manifest their
1:45:35
respective destinies, and so they attract each other. Science furnishes
1:45:40
us with many examples of this reciprocal service and correlation,
1:45:45
passing by the more general aspects and phases of this
1:45:48
important and wonderful operation of nature's finer forces, and proceeding
1:45:52
directly to those phases of the general process which are
1:45:55
immediately concerned with the human individual. We would say that
1:45:58
the essential spirit of this particular operation may be stated
1:46:02
in the following aphorism. The strongest and most persistent desires
1:46:06
of the individual tend to attract to him or him
1:46:08
to that which is closely related to or correlated with
1:46:12
those desires. That is to say, the strong insistent desires
1:46:17
of a person tend to attract to him those things
1:46:20
which are closely related to such desires, and at the
1:46:23
same time tend to attract him towards those related things.
1:46:27
The attractive power of desire operates in two general ways, viz.
1:46:32
One to attract to the individual the things closely related
1:46:35
to his desires, and two to attract the individual to
1:46:39
such related things. It is as yet not known exactly
1:46:43
how nature proceeds in this important process of attractive desire
1:46:47
or desire power, but in a general way. It may
1:46:49
be said that the action is chiefly performed on the
1:46:51
planes of the subconscious mentality, rather than on the planes
1:46:55
of ordinary consciousness, and that the general class of mental
1:46:58
activity known as telepathy undoubtedly is called into play in
1:47:02
the process, the entire subject is involved in the general
1:47:06
activities of the subconscious, as indeed are all similar subjects.
1:47:12
Whatever may be the correct hypothesis, however, the truth of
1:47:15
the main facts of the attraction of desire is a
1:47:18
matter of the actual experience of the race, and is
1:47:21
corroborated by the incidents of actual experience occurring in the
1:47:24
life of nearly every person manifesting definite purpose, insistent desire,
1:47:29
and determined will in your own experience, in all probability,
1:47:34
you have experienced many cases of the operation of this
1:47:37
subtle law of nature. You have become intensely interested in
1:47:41
some particular subject, and your desire for further progress and
1:47:44
attainment along the lines of that subject has been actively aroused.
1:47:49
Then you have noticed the strange and peculiar way in
1:47:51
which persons and things related to that subject have come
1:47:54
under your observation and attention, sometimes even being apparently forced
1:47:58
upon you apart from any other part. In the same way,
1:48:02
you have found yourself attracted in certain directions in which,
1:48:06
unknown to you, were to be found persons or things
1:48:09
related to the subject of your desire, information concerning that subject,
1:48:13
conditions in which the subject was involved, or being manifested.
1:48:17
In short, you have found that things happened as if
1:48:20
you were either attracting persons, things, and circumstances to you,
1:48:25
or else that you were being attracted, drawn, or led
1:48:28
to such persons, things, or circumstances. Under such conditions, you
1:48:33
will find a rising on all sides certain events connected
1:48:36
with and related to the subject of your desire, books
1:48:39
containing information concerning it, persons having some connection with it,
1:48:43
conditions in which that subject plays an important part. You
1:48:47
will find on the one hand that you seem to
1:48:50
have become a center of attraction for things, persons, and
1:48:53
circumstances related to that subject, or on the other hand,
1:48:57
that you are being attracted to certain centers of attraction
1:49:00
related to that subject. In short, you will discover that
1:49:04
you have set into operation certain subtle forces and principles
1:49:07
which have correlated you with all related to that subject.
1:49:11
More than this, you will find that if you will
1:49:14
maintain for a considerable time a continuous and persistent interest
1:49:17
and desire in that particular subject, you will have established
1:49:21
a vortec center of attraction for that which is related
1:49:23
to the subject. You will have set into operation a
1:49:27
mental whirlpool steadily spreading its circumference of influence, which draws
1:49:31
into itself and to your central point, the related and
1:49:34
correlated things, persons, and circumstances. This is one of the
1:49:39
reasons why, after you get things going in any particular
1:49:42
line of interest and desire, things tend to come easier
1:49:46
to and for you as time passes. In such cases,
1:49:50
that which required enormous effort in the earlier stages seems
1:49:53
to move almost automatically in the later ones. These are
1:49:57
matters of common and almost universal experience with those who
1:50:00
have been actively engaged in any particular line of work
1:50:03
in which strong interest and insistent desire have been aroused
1:50:07
and maintained. You must not, however, hastily jump to the
1:50:11
conclusion that all forms of mental attraction are desire attraction.
1:50:16
The general mental attitude has its corresponding attractive power. The
1:50:20
mental states of confident, expectation, of hope, and fear, respectively,
1:50:24
also have their attributes of attractive influence. But the attractive
1:50:29
power and influence of desire is far more fundamental than
1:50:32
are the other forms and phases of mental attraction, and
1:50:35
in a way may be said to be the basic form.
1:50:39
These matters are mentioned here solely for the purpose of
1:50:41
preventing misunderstanding and confusion. So you see, desire power tends
1:50:47
not only to develop and evolve within you the qualities
1:50:50
and powers necessary to enable you to manifest and express
1:50:53
yourself along the lines of the desires persistently held by you.
1:50:57
It also tends to attract to you, and you to them,
1:51:00
the things, persons, circumstances, and conditions related to or correlated
1:51:04
with the subject of such desires. In other words, desire
1:51:09
power employs every means at its disposal in order to
1:51:12
express and manifest itself more fully and through you, to
1:51:16
attain its object and end its greatest possible degree of
1:51:19
satisfaction and realization. When you have thoroughly aroused desire power
1:51:24
within you and have created for it a strong, positive,
1:51:27
focal center of influence, you have set into operation powerful
1:51:31
forces of nature operating along subconscious and invisible lines of activity.
1:51:36
In this connection, remember the adage you may have anything
1:51:40
you want if you only want it hard enough. The
1:51:43
attractive force of desire power operates in many different ways.
1:51:48
In addition to the drawing power operating along the lines
1:51:51
of something like telepathy of which we have spoken, it
1:51:54
also operates in other ways on the subconscious planes of
1:51:58
the mind, in order to influence God and direct the
1:52:00
person to the other persons, things, conditions, and circumstances related
1:52:05
or correlated to, or with the particular desire which is
1:52:08
being persistently and insistently held by that person. Under its influence,
1:52:13
the subconscious mentality raises to the levels of consciousness new ideas, thoughts, plans, which,
1:52:19
if applied, will tend to lead the person in the
1:52:21
direction of the things which will serve to aid him
1:52:24
in the realization of those desires which he is insistently harboring.
1:52:28
In this way, the person is led to the related things,
1:52:31
just as in the other ways the things are led
1:52:34
to him. Desire power pushes as truly as it pulls,
1:52:38
It urges you forward as truly as it attracts things
1:52:41
to you. In some cases the process is entirely subconscious,
1:52:46
and the person is amazed when he finds, by chance
1:52:49
that he has stumbled upon helpful things in places in
1:52:52
which he had least expected to find them, and in
1:52:55
places to which he had apparently been led by chance.
1:52:58
But there is no chance about it. Persons are undoubtedly
1:53:01
led to helpful things and conditions, but by desire power
1:53:05
operating along the lines of the sub conscious mentality, and
1:53:08
not by chance. Many successful men could tell if they would,
1:53:13
how often in their respective careers, at critical times, the
1:53:17
most peculiar happenings have been experienced by them, seemingly by
1:53:21
chance or by accident, which served as the means of
1:53:24
transforming defeat into victory. In this way, they acquired by
1:53:29
chance some important bit of information serving to supply the
1:53:32
missing link in their mental chain, or else giving them
1:53:35
a clue to that which had previously escaped their thought.
1:53:38
Or perhaps they unexpectedly ran into the person who afterward
1:53:43
turned out to be the one particular person who alone
1:53:45
could have helped them in certain ways. Or again they
1:53:49
have picked up at random the particular newspaper, magazine, or
1:53:53
book which either gave them the required information, or else
1:53:56
mentioned some other book or thing which filled the need.
1:54:00
These things happen so often and in such a striking way,
1:54:03
that many men of active experience have learned to expect
1:54:06
them to rely upon them and to act upon them.
1:54:10
Not knowing the true underlying causes of the happenings, they
1:54:13
usually refrain from mentioning their experiences to their friends for
1:54:17
fear of being regarded as superstitious or credulous. But if
1:54:20
the subject happens to be introduced in confidential conversation between
1:54:24
men of this kind, it will be found that the
1:54:26
instances cited are numerous and are so strikingly similar in
1:54:30
general nature. At the careful thinker is forced to the
1:54:33
conclusion that there is some fundamental principle involved in the events,
1:54:38
and that there is a logical sequence of cause and
1:54:40
effect indicated. Not knowing the true cause of these happenings,
1:54:45
men are prone to ascribe them to luck, fate, destiny, chance,
1:54:49
or else to think of them simply as one of
1:54:52
those things beyond explanation. Some men who have become familiar
1:54:56
with them have learned to recognize them readily when they
1:54:58
experience them by reason of a feeling that here is
1:55:02
another of those things. They learn to distinguish between a
1:55:05
mere general and vague notion and a sure enough hunch.
1:55:10
Sometimes men think that these things are the result of
1:55:13
the aid of a kindly providence operating in their behalf.
1:55:16
Others feel that they have helpers on the other side.
1:55:19
Still others feel that there is something almost uncanny about
1:55:22
the whole thing. But so long as it is perceived
1:55:25
to operate in their behalf. All are willing to take
1:55:27
advantage of the aid of the unknown power. Of course,
1:55:31
the subconscious mentality of the individual is the helper or
1:55:35
directing genius in such cases, and the happenings are merely
1:55:39
phases of the general phenomena of the subconscious. But nevertheless,
1:55:44
desire power is the animating principle involved. The subconscious mentality,
1:55:50
like the conscious mentality, is energized and aroused into activity
1:55:54
by the urge of desire power. Desire power employs every
1:55:58
possible form of energy, activity, and motive power at its command,
1:56:03
and also presses into service all kinds of machinery and instruments,
1:56:06
mental and physical. The fire of desire kindles every faculty
1:56:11
of the mind on conscious and subconscious planes, and sets
1:56:15
them all into active work on its behalf. Without desire
1:56:19
power in some form or phase, none of these faculties
1:56:22
would manifest activity. Where activity is manifested by them, there
1:56:26
is always implied the presence and urge of desire power.
1:56:30
Sometimes desire power will operate in strangely indirect ways in
1:56:34
order to accomplish its results by means of the under
1:56:38
the surface perception of the subconscious faculties desire. Power seemingly
1:56:43
perceives that the longest way round is the quickest way home,
1:56:46
and it proceeds to cause the individual to pursue that
1:56:49
longest way round in order to attain his desire in
1:56:53
the shortest possible time. In such cases, it often acts
1:56:57
so as to upset and overturn the plans which one
1:56:59
has as carefully mapped out. The result makes it seem
1:57:02
to one that failure and defeat, instead of victory and success,
1:57:06
have come to him. It will sometimes tear the person
1:57:09
away from his present comparatively satisfactory environment and conditions, and
1:57:13
then lead him over rock roads and hard trails, and finally,
1:57:17
when he has almost despaired of attaining success, he finds
1:57:20
it literally thrust upon him. Such instances are not invariable,
1:57:25
of course, but they occur sufficiently often and with such
1:57:28
characteristically marked features that they must be recognized. It often
1:57:33
happens that, as one who has experienced it has said,
1:57:36
it seems as if one were grabbed by the back
1:57:38
of his neck, lifted out of his set environment and occupation,
1:57:41
dragged roughly over a painful road, and then thrust forcibly
1:57:45
but kindly upon the throne of success or at least
1:57:48
into the throne room, with the throne in plain sight
1:57:50
before him. But at the last those who have experienced
1:57:54
these strenuous activities of desired power, operating through the subconscious
1:57:58
nature and in many other ways, are found to agree
1:58:01
universally in the statement the end justified the means the
1:58:05
thing is worth the price paid for it. It requires
1:58:08
philosophy and faith to sustain one when he is undergoing
1:58:11
experiences of this kind, but the knowledge of the law
1:58:14
and principle in operation will of course greatly aid him.
1:58:18
The right spirit to maintain in such cases is that
1:58:21
expressed in the phrase of the A. E f in France,
1:58:24
It's a great life if you don't weaken. Desire. Power
1:58:28
employs freely the sub conscious faculties in its work of
1:58:31
realization through attraction. It employs these in man, just as
1:58:36
it employs them in the case of the homing pigeon,
1:58:38
the migrating birds, the bee far from its hive. It
1:58:41
supplies the homing instinct to the man seeking success, as
1:58:45
well as to the animal seeking refuge. It is said
1:58:48
that animals separated from their mates seemingly are attracted to
1:58:52
them over long distances. Lost animals find their way home,
1:58:56
though many miles over strange country have to be traveled.
1:59:00
Let a person establish a refuge for birds, and the
1:59:04
birds will soon begin to travel toward it, even strange
1:59:07
species from long distances, putting in an appearance. Water fowls
1:59:11
travel unerringly toward water. The roots of trees manifest the
1:59:15
same sense of direction toward water and rich soil in
1:59:19
high and low. The law of desire attraction manifests its power.
1:59:24
Man is under the law, and may even cause the
1:59:26
law to work for him When he understands its nature.
1:59:30
Man may harness desire power, just as he has harnessed
1:59:33
other great forces of nature, may harness it and set
1:59:36
it to work for him. Once set to work for him,
1:59:39
this power will work without haste and without rest toward
1:59:43
the end impressed upon it. It will work for him
1:59:45
while he is awake and working otherwise, and when he
1:59:48
is asleep and resting from his conscious work. Desire is
1:59:52
the force of forces, because it is the inmost kernel
1:59:55
of all the other forms of natural force, physical or mental.
2:00:00
All force depends upon inner attraction or repulsion, and these
2:00:03
are but the manifestation of desire power, positive or negative
2:00:08
desire power, Your Energizing Forces by William Walker Atkinson, nineteen
2:00:14
twenty two. Knowing what you Want. In the preceding sections
2:00:19
of this book, we have called your attention to the
2:00:21
aphorism you may have anything you want if you only
2:00:24
want it hard enough. This aphorism is embodied in the
2:00:28
master formula of attainment, which is set forth constantly in
2:00:31
the instruction contained in the series of books of which
2:00:33
the present volume forms a part. The master formula of attainment,
2:00:38
stated in popular form, is as follows. You may have
2:00:42
anything you want, provided that you one know exactly what
2:00:46
you want, two want it hard enough, three confidently expect
2:00:50
to attain it for persistently determined to obtain it, and
2:00:53
five are willing to pay the price of its attainment.
2:00:57
We shall now ask you to consider three of the
2:00:59
above five elements of the master formula of attainment, viz.
2:01:03
The element of definite ideals or knowing exactly what you want,
2:01:07
the element of insistent desire or wanting it hard enough,
2:01:11
the element of balanced compensation or being willing to pay
2:01:14
the price of its attainment. Each of these three elements
2:01:18
is highly important and should be carefully examined and considered.
2:01:22
Let us begin with the first requisite, I knowing exactly
2:01:26
what you want. When you consider the question exactly what
2:01:30
do I want, you will be apt to regard it
2:01:32
as one quite easy to answer. But after you begin
2:01:35
to consider the question in detail and in real earnest,
2:01:39
you will discover two very troublesome obstacles in your way
2:01:42
on the road to the correct answer. The two obstacles
2:01:45
are as follows, One the difficulty in ascertaining a clear
2:01:49
and full idea of your desires, aspirations, ambitions, and hopes,
2:01:54
And two, the difficulty in ascertaining which ones of a
2:01:58
number of conflicting desires, as ospirations, ambitions, and hopes you
2:02:02
want more than you do those opposing them. You will
2:02:06
find yourself filled with the divine discontent of a general
2:02:09
dissatisfaction with your present condition, circumstances, possessions, and limitations. You
2:02:16
will feel, perhaps strongly, the raw desire of the elemental
2:02:20
desire power within you, but you will not have clearly
2:02:23
outlined in your mind the particular directions in which you
2:02:26
wish that elemental force to proceed into manifestation and expression.
2:02:31
You will often feel that you wish that you were
2:02:32
somewhere other than where you now are, that you were
2:02:35
doing something different from what you are now doing, that
2:02:37
you possess things other and better than you now possess,
2:02:40
or that your present limitations were removed, thus giving you
2:02:43
a wider and fuller expression and manifestation of the power
2:02:47
which you feel to be within you. All these general
2:02:49
feelings will be experienced by you, but you will not
2:02:52
be able to picture clearly to yourself just what other
2:02:56
things you really want to take the place of those
2:02:58
which are now your own. Then, when you attempt to
2:03:02
form the clear picture and definite idea of what you want,
2:03:05
you will find you want many things, some of them
2:03:08
opposing each other, each offering attractive features, each bidding actively
2:03:12
for your favor and acceptance, thus rendering a choice and
2:03:15
definite decision very difficult. You find yourself suffering from an
2:03:19
embarrassment of riches, like the perplexed lover in the song
2:03:24
you say, how happy would I be with either were
2:03:27
t'other fair charmer away? Or like the psychological donkey who
2:03:31
was placed at an equidistant point between two equally tempting haystacks,
2:03:35
and who died of hunger because he couldn't make up
2:03:38
his mind which one he wanted most. You may remain
2:03:40
inactive because of strong conflicting desire motives. It is because
2:03:45
of one or both of the above mentioned conditions that
2:03:47
the great masses of persons do not avail themselves of
2:03:50
the great elemental urge of desire power. It is there
2:03:54
ready to exert its power, but they lack definite direction
2:03:57
and power of decision, and so remain, like the vegetables
2:04:01
or the lower animals, content to allow nature to work
2:04:04
along the instinctive lines of self protection, propagation, et cetera,
2:04:08
without employing initiative or self direction. The few of the
2:04:12
race who break these barriers and who strike out for
2:04:15
themselves are found to have known very clearly just what
2:04:18
they wanted, and to have wanted it hard, and to
2:04:21
have been willing to pay the price of attainment. In
2:04:24
order to set to work the forces of desire power
2:04:27
in a special direction, the individual must make clear an
2:04:30
ideal path over which they may travel, as well as
2:04:33
to arouse the forces so as to cause them to
2:04:35
travel over that path. Self analysis. You will find that
2:04:40
a scientific application of the principle of self analysis or
2:04:44
mental stock taking will aid you materially in overcoming the
2:04:47
two great obstacles in the path of attainment which we
2:04:50
have just mentioned. Self analysis in this case consists of
2:04:54
a careful analysis of your elements of desire to the
2:04:57
end that you may discover which of these elements are
2:04:59
the strongest, and that you may clearly understand just what
2:05:02
these strongest elements are really like. In character, you are
2:05:06
advised to think with pencil and paper in this work
2:05:09
of self analysis. It will greatly aid you in crystallizing
2:05:13
your thought, and besides will give a definite and logical
2:05:16
form to the results of your work. The following suggestions
2:05:20
and advice will aid you materially in this task. Begin
2:05:24
by asking yourself the question, what are my strongest desires?
2:05:29
What do I want and want to over and above
2:05:31
anything and everything else? What are my highest desire values?
2:05:36
Then proceed to think with pencil and paper, and thus
2:05:39
to answer your important question above stated. Take your pencil
2:05:44
and begin to write down your strongest desires, your leading
2:05:47
once and want tos as they come into your consciousness
2:05:51
in response to your inquiry. Write down carefully the things
2:05:55
and objects, the aims and ideals, the aspirations and ambitions,
2:05:59
the hopes and confident expectations which present themselves for notation
2:06:04
in the course of your mental stock, taking note all
2:06:07
of them, without regard to the question of whether or
2:06:09
not you ever expect to be able to secure or
2:06:12
attain them. Put them all down on the list, no
2:06:15
matter how ridiculous and unattainable they may seem to you
2:06:18
at the time. Do not allow yourself to be overcome
2:06:22
by the magnificent aims and ideals, aspirations and ambitions which
2:06:26
thus present themselves. Their very existence in your desire nature
2:06:31
is in a measure the prophecy of their own fulfillment.
2:06:35
As Napoleon once said, nothing is too magnificent for a
2:06:39
soldier of France. You are that soldier of France. Do
2:06:43
not impose limitations on your desire nature in this way.
2:06:48
If a magnificent desire is within you, it should be respected,
2:06:52
so put it down on the list. By this process
2:06:55
of self analysis, you bring to the surface of your
2:06:57
consciousness all the various feelings, to desires, longings, and cravings
2:07:02
which have been dwelling in your subconscious mind. Many of
2:07:06
these deep desires are like sleeping giants. Your exploration of
2:07:09
your subconscious mental regions will arouse. These will cause them
2:07:13
to sit up and take notice, as it were. Do
2:07:16
not be frightened by these awakening sleepers. Nothing that you
2:07:20
find there is alien to you, even though you may
2:07:24
find it necessary to transmute them or to inhibit them
2:07:27
in favor of more advantageous desires at a later stage
2:07:30
of your work. Do not now deny them a place
2:07:33
on your list. Put them down on paper. The list
2:07:36
must be an honest one. Therefore, be honest with yourself
2:07:39
in the analysis. At first, you will find that your
2:07:43
list is a more or less higgeldy piggoldy conglomeration of
2:07:46
wants and want tos, apparently having but little or no
2:07:50
logical order or systematic recitation. Do not let this disturb you. However,
2:07:56
all this will be taken care of as you proceed.
2:07:58
Order and arrangement will establish themselves almost automatically when the
2:08:02
proper time arrives. The main thing at this stage is
2:08:06
to get all of your stronger desires into the list.
2:08:09
Be sure to exhaust your subconscious mind of strong desires.
2:08:13
Dig out of that mind anything and everything that has
2:08:15
strength in it. The next step is that of the
2:08:18
cold blooded, ruthless elimination. Of the weakest desires, with the
2:08:23
idea and purpose that in the end there will be
2:08:25
a survival of the fittest on your list. Begin by
2:08:29
running over your list, striking off the weaker and less insistent,
2:08:33
the mere, temporary, in passing desires, and those which you
2:08:36
clearly recognize as likely to bring you but little, if any,
2:08:39
permanent satisfaction, continued happiness, and lasting content. In this way,
2:08:45
you will create a new list of the stronger desires
2:08:47
and those having a greater permanent and satisfying value. Then,
2:08:52
examining this list, you will find that some of the
2:08:55
items will still stand out from the others by reason
2:08:57
of their greater comparative strength and greater degree of permanent value.
2:09:02
Make a new list of these successful candidates, including only
2:09:05
those possessing the greatest strength and value to you, and
2:09:08
dropping the others from the list. Then continue this process
2:09:12
of elimination of the weakest and the least satisfying until
2:09:16
you reach that point where you feel that any further
2:09:18
elimination would result in cutting away live wood. By this time,
2:09:22
you will have become aware of a most significant and
2:09:25
important fact, namely that, as your list has grown smaller,
2:09:28
the strength and value of the surviving desires have grown greater.
2:09:33
As the old gold miners expressed it, you are now
2:09:36
getting down to pay dirt, getting down to the region
2:09:39
in which the nuggets enrich or abide. When you have
2:09:42
reached this stage, you will do well to stop work
2:09:45
for the time being. This will give you a needed
2:09:47
mental rest and will also furnish your subconscious mentality with
2:09:51
the opportunity to do some work for you along its
2:09:53
own particular lines. When you again take up your list
2:09:57
for consideration, you will find a new general order, an
2:10:00
arrangement of its items pictured in your mind. You will
2:10:04
find that these remaining desires have grouped themselves into several
2:10:07
general classes. Your subconscious mental faculties will have performed an
2:10:12
important task for you. Then you will be ready to
2:10:15
compare these general classes one with the other, until you
2:10:18
are able to select certain classes which seem stronger than
2:10:21
the others. Then you will be ready to proceed to
2:10:24
the task of eliminating the weaker general classes, making a
2:10:27
new list of the stronger ones. After working along these
2:10:31
general lines for a time, with intervals of rest and
2:10:34
recuperation and for subconscious digestion and elimination, you will find
2:10:39
that you have before you a list composed of but
2:10:41
a comparatively few general classes of wants and wantious, each
2:10:45
of which possesses a far greater degree of strength and
2:10:48
value than you had previously suspected. Your subconscious mind has
2:10:53
been working its power upon these classes of desires, and
2:10:56
they have evolved to a higher stage of strength, definiteness, clearness,
2:11:00
and power. You are beginning, at last to find out
2:11:04
just what you want, and are also well started on
2:11:06
your way to wanting it hard enough. General rules of selection.
2:11:11
In your task of selection elimination, boiling down and chopping
2:11:16
away the dead wood, et cetera, you will do well
2:11:18
to observe the three following general rules of selection. One
2:11:23
the imperative requisite in selecting your strongest desires for your list.
2:11:28
You are not required to pay attention to any fears
2:11:31
lurking in your mind that any of the particular desires
2:11:33
are apparently unattainable, that they are beyond your power of achievement,
2:11:37
and are rendered impossible by apparently unsurmountable obstacles. You are
2:11:42
not concerned with such questions at this time and place.
2:11:45
Ignore them for the present. You are here concerned merely
2:11:49
with the question of whether or not your want or
2:11:51
want to concerning a certain thing is felt hard enough
2:11:54
for you to sacrifice other desirable things, Whether you feel
2:11:58
that the particular desire is of sufficient value for you
2:12:01
to pay the price of its attainment, even though that
2:12:04
price be very high. Remember the old adage said the
2:12:08
gods to man, take what thou wilt, but pay for it.
2:12:12
If you are not willing to pay the price and
2:12:14
to pay it in full, then you do not want
2:12:17
it hard enough to render it one of your prime desires. Two,
2:12:21
the test of full desire. We have told you that
2:12:25
desire has for its objects something that will bring pleasure
2:12:28
or get rid of pain immediately or remote for the
2:12:31
individual or for some one in whom he is interested. Therefore,
2:12:35
in passing upon the comparative strength and value of your
2:12:38
respective desires or general classes of desires, you must take
2:12:42
into consideration all of the elements of desire noted in
2:12:45
the above definite statement, the indirect as well as the
2:12:48
direct elements of personal satisfaction and content. You must weigh
2:12:53
and decide the value of any particular desire or class
2:12:56
of desires not only in the light of your own
2:12:59
immediate satisfy content, but also in the light of your
2:13:02
own future satisfaction and content. Not only in the light
2:13:05
of your own direct satisfaction content, but also in the
2:13:09
light of your indirect satisfaction and content derived from the
2:13:12
satisfaction and content of others in whom you are interested.
2:13:16
Your future satisfaction and content often depend upon the sacrifice
2:13:20
of your present desire in favor of one bearing fruit
2:13:23
in the future. You may be so interested in other
2:13:27
persons that their satisfaction and content has a greater emotional
2:13:30
value to you than the gratification of some desire Concerned
2:13:33
only with your own direct satisfaction and content, These desires
2:13:38
values must be carefully weighed by you. If you leave
2:13:41
out any of these elements of desire, you run the
2:13:44
risk of attaching a false value to certain sets of desires.
2:13:48
You must weigh and measure the value of your desires
2:13:51
by the use of the standard of the full content
2:13:53
of desire. Free seek depth of desire. You will find
2:13:58
it advisable to omit from your list all purely superficial
2:14:01
and transient feelings, emotions, and desires they have but a
2:14:06
slight value in the case, instead, plunge into the deep
2:14:11
places of your mental being. Or soul. There you will
2:14:13
find abiding certain deep, essential, basic, permanent feelings, emotions, and desires.
2:14:20
In those regions dwell the wants and the want tos, which,
2:14:24
when aroused, are as insistent and as imperative as are
2:14:27
the want of the suffocating man for air, the want
2:14:29
of the famished man for food, the want of the
2:14:32
thirsting man for water, the want of the wild creature
2:14:35
for its mate, the want of the mother for the
2:14:37
welfare of her child. These deep desires are your real
2:14:41
emotional elements, the ones most firmly and permanently embedded in
2:14:45
the soil of your emotional being. These are the desires
2:14:48
which will abide when the transient, ephemeral ones have passed
2:14:52
and are forgotten. These are the desires for which you
2:14:55
will be willing to pay the price, be that price
2:14:58
ever so high, in the form of the sacrifice and
2:15:00
relinquishment of every other desire, feeling, or emotion. Measure your
2:15:05
desires by their essential depth, as well as by their
2:15:08
temporary weight. Select those which are embedded so deeply in
2:15:12
the soil of your emotional being that they cannot be
2:15:15
uprooted by the passing storms of conditions and circumstances. The
2:15:19
struggle for existence. You are now approaching the final stages
2:15:24
of your discovery of just what you want. You now
2:15:27
have a list of insistent desires, the survivors in the
2:15:30
struggle for existence, on the part of your many desires
2:15:33
and classes of desires. If you have proceeded earnestly and
2:15:37
honestly in your work of self analysis and selection, you
2:15:40
will have a group of sturdy desire giants before you
2:15:43
for final judgment. By a strange psychological law, these surviving
2:15:47
candidates have taken on much of the strength and energy
2:15:50
of those which they have defeated in the struggle. The
2:15:53
victors will have absorbed the vitality of those whom they
2:15:55
have defeated, just as the savage hopes to draw to
2:15:58
himself the strength of the enemies killed by him in battle.
2:16:02
Your desire power has now been concentrated upon a comparatively
2:16:05
small group of desires. With a consequent focusing of power,
2:16:10
you will now find that your wants and want tos
2:16:13
have arranged themselves into two great classes viz. One the
2:16:17
great class of those desires which, while different from other
2:16:20
desires or classes of desires, are not necessarily contradictory to them.
2:16:25
Nor directly opposed to them. And two the great class
2:16:28
of those desires which are not only different, but are
2:16:31
also actually contradictory and opposed to other desires or classes
2:16:35
of desires. The merely different classes may abide in mutual
2:16:40
harmonious existence and relation with or to each other, just
2:16:43
as do light and heat, or the color and odour
2:16:46
of a flower. But two contradictory in opposing classes of
2:16:50
desires cannot coexist and coordinate their energies in the same individual,
2:16:54
both remaining in the four, there will be friction in harmony, strife,
2:16:59
and mutual interfere appearance. One might as well try to
2:17:02
ride two horses moving in different directions as to try
2:17:06
to maintain an equal force two opposing or contradictory sets
2:17:09
of desires. The two sets, each one pulling in an
2:17:13
opposite direction and with equal strength, will bring the will
2:17:16
to a standstill. The individual in such a case will
2:17:20
either oscillate between the two attracting polls, or else he
2:17:24
will come to a dead center between them. Something must
2:17:28
be done. When you find an opposing set of desires
2:17:30
of this kind well to the fore, in your category
2:17:33
of strong desires, you must set in operation a process
2:17:37
of competition, from which one set must emerge a victor
2:17:40
and the other set be defeated. In this process of competition,
2:17:44
you will need to employ your best and keenest powers
2:17:47
of analysis and judgment. In some cases, the matter may
2:17:51
be settled quickly and the decision easily arrived at, because
2:17:54
when your full attention is turned upon the two competitors,
2:17:58
one will be seen to stand out so much more
2:18:00
clearly than the other that the latter will be almost
2:18:02
automatically retired. The full power of reason and feeling focused
2:18:07
in such a case will usually result in a quick
2:18:09
and sure decision. But there are instances in which both
2:18:13
of the opposing sets of desires seem to possess an
2:18:16
equal power and value in your emotional and intellectual scale.
2:18:20
Here you are apparently in the condition of the poor
2:18:22
donkey previously mentioned, who starved to death because he was
2:18:26
unable to decide which of the two haystacks was to
2:18:29
be eaten. The matter must be decided by the introduction
2:18:33
of an additional element, which will add weight to one
2:18:35
set or the other and thus bring down the balance
2:18:38
on that particular side. This added element is usually found
2:18:42
in one or the other of the following two classes
2:18:44
of mental processes viz. One imagination and two association. Let
2:18:51
us consider each of these the element of imagination. The
2:18:56
imagination employed in the case of the desired conflict now
2:19:00
before us, usually is very effective in bringing about a decision.
2:19:05
In employing it, you have but to imagine yourself first
2:19:08
in the actual possession of the object of the one
2:19:11
set of desires, and then instead in possession of the
2:19:15
object of the second set. In this process you draw
2:19:18
upon your own recollections and experiences, and upon your recollection
2:19:22
of the experiences of others. You imagine how it would
2:19:26
feel to have attained the object of first this want
2:19:30
or want to, and then that one. You place yourself
2:19:34
in imagination in the position that you would occupy in
2:19:37
case you should attain the object of this desire or
2:19:39
of that one. Then you pass judgment as to which
2:19:42
seems to be the better i e. To afford the
2:19:45
greater degree of satisfaction content present and future, direct and indirect.
2:19:51
This process has the advantage of overcoming the hand deicap
2:19:54
placed upon a future satisfaction in favor of a present one.
2:19:59
The future experience is brought into the field of the
2:20:01
present and thus may be compared with a present experience
2:20:04
relieved of the handicap of time. This is a matter
2:20:08
of great importance, for ordinarily, the present time value of
2:20:11
an emotional feeling or desire is far greater than that
2:20:14
of a pastime or future time value of a similar experience.
2:20:19
The test of imagination usually results in one strengthening the
2:20:23
present value of a really advantageous emotional feeling and desire,
2:20:27
and two in weakening the present value of an apparently
2:20:30
advantageous but really disadvantageous one. The use of the memory
2:20:35
and the imagination is to be highly recommended in the
2:20:38
task of deciding the real and actual value of an
2:20:41
emotional state or desire. The element of association. The element
2:20:47
of association introduced into a desired conflict will often result
2:20:51
speedily in a determination and decision in favor of one
2:20:54
side as against the other. Association will add strength to
2:20:58
one set of desires and will weaken the opposing set
2:21:01
in most cases. The association of ideas is that psychological
2:21:06
law which binds one set of ideas or mental states
2:21:10
to others, so that by bringing one set into consciousness
2:21:13
we tend to bring there also the associated sets. In
2:21:17
the present case we bring into consciousness the associated consequences
2:21:21
of each set of desires, you may proceed to apply
2:21:24
the test of association as follows. Seek to uncover and
2:21:28
discover as many as possible of the associated results of
2:21:31
the attainment of the set of desires in question. Strive
2:21:34
to think of what else will happen in case you
2:21:36
attain that set of desires. This is something like inquiring
2:21:41
into the family and social connections of two rival suitors
2:21:44
or sweethearts, weighing their respective relations and associations and the
2:21:48
probable future consequences of marriage with either of them. It
2:21:52
is always well in cases of doubt concerning the comparative
2:21:55
value of conflicting sets of desires, to consider carefully just
2:21:59
what other things are associated with each of the two
2:22:02
respective sets of desires. Just what other results are likely
2:22:05
to accompany the attainment of the object or end of
2:22:08
each set of desires under consideration. In other words, you
2:22:12
should ascertain the kind of relations and friends possessed by
2:22:15
each of the rival suitors or sweethearts. In this way,
2:22:19
you will often find that one of the two apparently
2:22:21
equal sets of desires has some very agreeable and advantageous
2:22:25
relations and associates, while the other has some very disagreeable
2:22:28
and disadvantageous ones. You thus discover, figuratively speaking, just what
2:22:34
kind of family you are marrying into, and you thus
2:22:37
take stock of the respective associated and related in laws, friends, associates,
2:22:42
and entanglements of each of the suitors. This is of
2:22:45
great value, since, in spite of the oft asserted statement
2:22:48
that I am not marrying the whole family, one usually
2:22:51
really does do just that very thing. The idea of
2:22:55
the application of the test of association in such cases
2:22:58
may be expressed in a few way words as follows.
2:23:01
The real test of any particular desire depends not alone
2:23:05
upon the immediate results likely to accompany its attainment, but
2:23:08
also upon the associated and related results which follow in
2:23:11
its train of association and correlation, the results which necessarily
2:23:16
go with it, and which are so closely bound up
2:23:18
with it that they cannot easily be detached from it.
2:23:22
In some cases, the test of association will reveal the
2:23:25
fact that the price of the attainment of a certain
2:23:27
set of desires is excessive, often actually prohibitive. In other cases,
2:23:33
on the contrary, you will find by this test that
2:23:36
you are getting a great bargain by reason of the
2:23:38
extras which go with the thing itself. The objects of
2:23:42
some desires are thus found to be damaged goods, while
2:23:45
those of others are found to have an associated value
2:23:48
not apparent to the casual observer. An appeal to the touchstone.
2:23:53
In cases in which careful analysis, deliberation, the tests of
2:23:57
imagination and association, and all all other means of weighing
2:24:01
and measuring, trying and testing fail to reveal the advantage
2:24:04
of one set of desires over the opposing set, resort
2:24:08
must be had to the touchstone of positivity, so often
2:24:10
referred to in this instruction. The touchstone by which the
2:24:14
positivity of any mental state, thought, feeling, desire, or action
2:24:19
is determined is as follows, Will this tend to make
2:24:22
me stronger, better, and more efficient in the degree that
2:24:26
any mental state meets the requirements of this test, so
2:24:30
is its degree of positivity and consequent desirability. In testing
2:24:34
two sets of conflicting desires in this way, you ask
2:24:37
yourself which of these two desires, if attained, will tend
2:24:41
to make me stronger, better, and more efficient. This is
2:24:45
the test question. The answer should represent your final decision
2:24:49
in the matter. The touchstone is your court of last resort,
2:24:53
to be appealed to when all other tests have failed.
2:24:57
Its report represents the best, highest and and most valuable
2:25:00
elements mental, moral, and spiritual within your nature. All that
2:25:05
is worse than you is absent therefrom. It represents your sumumbonum,
2:25:10
your chief good, the survival of the fittest. By this time,
2:25:15
your list of desires has resolved itself into a schedule
2:25:18
or inventory of a few strong, dominant prime desires and
2:25:22
of a larger number of lesser ones. The strongest desires
2:25:26
should be finally tested in order to discover whether they
2:25:29
are merely different from each other or whether they are
2:25:31
essentially mutually antagonistic and contradictory. If they come under the
2:25:36
latter category, then they must be pitted against each other
2:25:39
until one of the pair wins the victory and one
2:25:42
goes down in defeat. For two sets of this kind
2:25:45
must not be permitted to dwell permanently in your region
2:25:47
of desire. A house divided against itself shall not stand.
2:25:52
There must be fought a fight to the finish. One
2:25:55
of the opposing sets must be rolled in the dust,
2:25:58
while the other stands proudly erect as the victor. The
2:26:01
defeated one thereafter must be compelled to say, after you, monsieur,
2:26:06
as our French cousins politely express it. If two sets
2:26:10
of desires are merely different, and are not essentially and
2:26:14
necessarily conflicting and antagonistic, then they may be permitted to
2:26:18
remain dwelling in mutual peace and harmony, at least for
2:26:20
the time being. This permission, however, is conditioned by the
2:26:25
fact that there must not be too many of such
2:26:27
sets occupying the front seats of desire. At the same time,
2:26:31
the tendency should always be in the direction of concentration
2:26:34
and focused energy. You should beware of scattered power and
2:26:37
energy arising from a great diversity of desires and aims.
2:26:42
If you discover that there are too many strong, different
2:26:45
desires left after you have reached this stage of selection
2:26:48
and elimination, you should carefully weigh each remaining set, subjecting
2:26:51
it to the tests of memory, imagination, association, and rational judgment,
2:26:56
discarding all that are not found profitable and sufficiently advantage.
2:27:01
If you find that any of your desires cost you
2:27:03
more than you get out of them, get rid of
2:27:05
all those which do not pay for their keep. Continue
2:27:09
until you have left only a comparatively few sets of desires,
2:27:12
all of proved value and suppulative emotional strength and depth.
2:27:16
These should be recognized as well worth the price which
2:27:19
you are prepared to pay for their maintenance and support.
2:27:22
Treat in the same way any new desires which arise
2:27:25
within you, Test them, just as you have tested their predecessors,
2:27:30
and insist that they prove that they are worth while
2:27:32
before you decide to keep them. If they cost you
2:27:36
more than you get out of them, discard them. Insist
2:27:39
that they shall pay their keep and yield you some
2:27:42
emotional profit. Beside, run your emotional and desire establishment on
2:27:47
business principles. You have now finally reached the stage in
2:27:51
which you have on your list nothing but your dominant desires,
2:27:54
the survivors in the struggle for existence, the survival of
2:27:58
the fittest. These dominant desires must thereafter rule your emotional realm.
2:28:04
Any newcomer must prove its worth by a test of
2:28:06
strength with these dominant desires. If it shows its strength
2:28:10
and is able to hold its place very well, it
2:28:13
may be added to the list. Those going down in
2:28:16
defeat must be eliminated. This will require strength and determination
2:28:21
on your part, but you are a strong and determined individual,
2:28:24
or at least are becoming one. The process of self
2:28:27
analysis and selection which you just considered will furnish you
2:28:30
with two classes of reports viz. One, it will demonstrate
2:28:34
to you your strongest classes of desires, your dominant desires.
2:28:38
And two, it will cause you clearly indefinitely to picture
2:28:42
and form a strong idea of each of such dominant desires.
2:28:46
In both reports, it will cause you to know exactly
2:28:49
what you want, which is the first requisite of the
2:28:52
Master formula of attainment Desire, Power, your energizing Forces by
2:28:58
William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two. Wanting it hard enough.
2:29:04
According to the master formula, you must not only know
2:29:07
exactly what you want, but must also want it hard
2:29:10
enough and be willing to pay the price of its attainment.
2:29:14
Having considered the first of the above stated three requisites
2:29:17
for obtaining that which you want, we ask you now
2:29:19
to consider the second requisite, i e. That of wanting
2:29:23
it hard enough. You may think that you want it
2:29:26
hard enough when you have a rather keen desire or
2:29:29
longing for anything, But when you compare your feeling with
2:29:32
that of persons manifesting really strong, insistent desire. You will
2:29:36
find that you are but merely manifesting a wish for
2:29:39
that for which you have an inclination or an attachment.
2:29:43
Compared to the insistent want or want to of thoroughly
2:29:46
aroused desire, your wish is but as a shadow. The
2:29:50
chances are that you have been a mere amateur, a
2:29:53
dilettante in the art and science of wanting and wanting to.
2:29:58
Very few persons really know know how to want or
2:30:01
want to in such manner as to arouse fully the
2:30:04
elemental forces of desire power. An old Oriental fable illustrates
2:30:09
the nature of desire aroused to its fullest extent. The
2:30:13
fable relates that a teacher took his pupil out on
2:30:15
a deep lake in a boat, and then suddenly pushed
2:30:18
him overboard. The youth sank beneath the surface of the water,
2:30:22
but rose in a few seconds, gasping for breath. Without
2:30:27
giving him time to fill his lungs with air, the
2:30:29
teacher forcibly pushed him under once more. The youth rose
2:30:33
to the surface the second time, and was again pushed under.
2:30:37
He rose for the third time, almost entirely exhausted. This time,
2:30:41
the teacher pulled him up over the side of the
2:30:43
boat and employed the usual methods to restore him to
2:30:46
normal breathing. When the youth had fully recovered from his
2:30:50
severe ordeal, the teacher said to him, tell me, what
2:30:53
was the one thing that you desired above all other
2:30:56
things before I pulled you in? The one desire to
2:30:58
which all other desired seem like tiny candles compared with
2:31:02
the sun. The youth replied, oh, sir, above all else,
2:31:06
I desired heir to breathe for me. At that time
2:31:09
there existed no other desires. Then said the teacher, Let
2:31:13
this then be the measure of your desire for those
2:31:16
things to the attainment of which your life is devoted.
2:31:20
You will not fully realize the measure of desire pointed
2:31:23
out in this fable unless you employ your imagination in
2:31:26
the direction of feeling yourself in the drowning condition of
2:31:28
the youth. Until you do this, the fable is a
2:31:31
mere matter of words. When you can realize in feeling,
2:31:35
as well as recognize in thought, the strength of the
2:31:38
desire for air present in that youth, then and then
2:31:41
only will you be able to manifest in expression a
2:31:44
similar degree of desire for the objects of your prime
2:31:47
wants and want os. Do not rest satisfied with the
2:31:51
intellectual recognition of the condition, induce the corresponding emotional feeling
2:31:56
in yourself to as great a degree as possible. Very
2:32:00
the illustration you will do well to induce in yourself
2:32:03
in imagination, the realization of the insistent paramount desire for
2:32:07
food experienced by the starving man lost in a dense
2:32:10
forest in midwinter. The chances are that you never have
2:32:14
been actually hungry in the true sense of the term.
2:32:17
All that you have mistaken for hunger is merely the
2:32:20
call of appetite or taste, the result of habit. When
2:32:24
you are so hungry that an old, stale, dry crust
2:32:27
of bread will be delicious to your taste, then you
2:32:29
are beginning to know what real hunger is. Those men
2:32:33
who lost in a forest or shipwrecked have tried to
2:32:36
satisfy intense hunger by gnawing the bark of trees or
2:32:39
chewing bits of leather cut from their boots. These men
2:32:42
could give you some interesting information concerning hunger. If you
2:32:46
can imagine the feelings of men in this condition, then
2:32:49
you may begin to understand what insistent desire really means again,
2:32:55
the shipwrecked sailors adrift at sea with their supply of
2:32:58
water exhausted, or the desert l lost man wandering over
2:33:01
the hot sands with a thirst almost inconceivable to the
2:33:04
ordinary person. Those men know what insistent desire means. Man
2:33:09
can live many days without food, but only a few
2:33:12
days without water, and only a few minutes without air.
2:33:16
When these fundamental essentials of life are withdrawn temporarily, the
2:33:20
living creature finds his strongest and most elemental feelings and
2:33:24
desires aroused. They become transmuted into passions insistently demanding satisfaction
2:33:29
and content. When these elemental emotions and desires are thoroughly aroused,
2:33:35
all the derivative emotional states are forgotten. Imagine the emotional
2:33:39
state of the starving man inside of food, or the
2:33:42
thirst cursed man within reach of water, if some other
2:33:45
person or thing intervenes and attempts to frustrate the suffering
2:33:48
man's attainment of that which he wants above all else
2:33:51
at that time. Other examples of insistent desire may be
2:33:55
found in the cases of wild animals in the mating season,
2:33:58
in which they will risk life and defy their powerful
2:34:01
rivals in order to secure the chosen mate. If you
2:34:04
ever have come across a bull moose in the mating season,
2:34:07
you will have a vivid picture and idea of this
2:34:09
phase of elemental desire raised to the point of insistent demand. Again,
2:34:15
consider the intense emotional feeling and the accompanying desires experienced
2:34:19
by the mother creature in connection with the welfare and
2:34:22
protection of her young when danger threatens them. This will
2:34:25
show you the nature and desire power character of elemental
2:34:28
desire aroused to its fullest extent. Even tiny birds will
2:34:32
fight against overwhelming odds in resisting the animal or man
2:34:36
seeking to rob their nests. It is a poor spirited
2:34:39
mother animal which will not risk her life and actually
2:34:42
court death in defense of her young. The female wild
2:34:46
creature becomes doubly formidable when accompanied by her young. The
2:34:51
female of the species is far more deadly than the
2:34:54
male when the welfare of its young is involved. The
2:34:57
Orientals have a proverb. It is a very very brave
2:35:00
or a very foolish man who will try to steal
2:35:03
a young tiger cub while its mother is alive and
2:35:06
free in the vicinity. We have called your attention to
2:35:09
the above several examples and illustrations of the force of
2:35:12
strongly aroused elemental emotions and desires, not alone to point
2:35:17
out to you how powerful such desires and feelings become
2:35:20
under the appropriate circumstances and conditions, but also to bring
2:35:24
you to a realization of the existence within all living
2:35:27
things of a latent emotional strength and power which is
2:35:30
capable of being aroused into a strenuous activity under the
2:35:33
proper stimulus, and of being directed towards certain definite ends
2:35:38
and purposes indicated by the stimulus. That this strength and
2:35:42
power is aroused by and flows out toward the particular
2:35:46
forms of stimulus above indicated is a matter of common knowledge.
2:35:50
But that it may be aroused to equal strength, power,
2:35:53
and intensity by other forms of stimulus. Such stimulus, having
2:35:57
been deliberately placed before it by the individual, is not
2:36:00
known to the many. Only the few have learned this secret.
2:36:04
We ask you to use your imagination here once more
2:36:08
for a moment. Imagine an individual who has his mind
2:36:12
set upon the attainment of a certain end repurpose to
2:36:15
such a degree that he has aroused the latent desire
2:36:18
power within him to that extent where he wants or
2:36:20
wants to that end repurpose in the degree of strength, power, insistency,
2:36:25
and fierceness. Manifested by the drowning man who wants dare,
2:36:29
by the desert lost man who wants water, by the
2:36:33
starving man who wants food, by the wild creature who
2:36:37
wants its mate, by the mother animal who wants the
2:36:41
welfare of its young. This is the individual in whom
2:36:44
the elemental desire power has been aroused to such an
2:36:47
extent and directed toward the attainment or achievement of his
2:36:51
dominant desire. How would you like to compete with such
2:36:54
a man for the attainment of that object of his
2:36:56
desire power? How would you like to be the opposed,
2:37:00
using obstacles, standing directly in his path of progress and attainment?
2:37:04
How would you like to play with him? The part
2:37:06
analogous to that of one who would try to snatch
2:37:08
away the bone from a starving wolf, or pull the
2:37:11
tiger cub from the pause of its savage mother. This
2:37:14
is an extreme case or illustration. Of course, very few
2:37:19
individuals actually reach the stage indicated, though it is not
2:37:22
impossible by any means, but many travel a long way
2:37:26
along that road. The strong, successful men who have made good,
2:37:31
who have arrived, who have done things in any line
2:37:34
of human endeavor, will be found to have traveled quite
2:37:37
a distance in that direction on the road of desire.
2:37:41
They have aroused within themselves the strong elemental desire power,
2:37:44
which abides in latency in the depths of the mental
2:37:47
and emotional being, the soul, if you will, of every
2:37:50
human creature, and have caused that elemental force to pour
2:37:54
through the channels of the particular dominant desires which they
2:37:57
have brought to the surface of their nature from the
2:37:59
depths of the subcusus self. Look in any direction you may,
2:38:03
and you will find that the strong, masterful, dominant, successful
2:38:07
men are those in whom desire power has been aroused
2:38:10
and directed in this way. These men know what they want,
2:38:14
just as the drowning man, the starving man, the thirst
2:38:17
cursed man, the wild mating creature, the mother creature. Each
2:38:21
knows what he or she wants. They have no doubts
2:38:23
concerning their dominant desires. And these men also want hard
2:38:28
enough that which represents their dominant desires, just as did
2:38:32
the drowning man, the starving man, and the rest of
2:38:34
our illustrative examples, And like those examples. These men were
2:38:39
also willing to pay the price. Run over the list
2:38:43
of the successful men and women with whose careers you
2:38:46
are acquainted. Place on that list the great discoverers, inventors, explorers,
2:38:51
military men, business men, artists, literary men and women, all
2:38:56
those who have done things successfully. Then and check off
2:39:00
name after name as you discover the biographical report of
2:39:03
the desire power manifested by these individuals, you will find
2:39:08
that in each in every case, there were present the
2:39:10
definite ideals insistent desire, confident expectation, persistent determination, and balanced compensation,
2:39:18
which constitute the master formula of attainment of our instruction.
2:39:22
And this second requisite that insistent desire is found to
2:39:26
be this elemental desire power directed into the appropriate channels
2:39:30
of manifestation and expression. These individuals knew just what they wanted,
2:39:35
They wanted it hard enough, and they were willing to
2:39:38
pay the price. It is this spirit of wanting it
2:39:41
hard enough that distinguishes the men and women of strong
2:39:44
purpose and determination from the common herd of persons who
2:39:47
merely wish for things in a gentle, faint, conventional way.
2:39:51
That distinguishes the true wanters from the dilettanti wishers. It
2:39:56
was the recognition of this spirit in men that caused
2:39:59
Disraeli to say that long meditation had brought him to
2:40:02
the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose
2:40:05
and with a will which would stake even existence itself
2:40:07
upon its fulfillment, must certainly accomplish that purpose. But you
2:40:12
may say, admitting the truth of your premise, how am
2:40:15
I to proceed in order to arouse the dormant, latent
2:40:18
desire power within me and to cause it to flow
2:40:20
forth in the direction of the attainment of my dominant desires.
2:40:24
Answering the question, we would say, begin at the very beginning,
2:40:28
and proceed to arouse and draw forth the latent desire
2:40:31
power by presenting to it the stimulus of suggestive and
2:40:34
inciting ideas and pictures. For from beginning to end there
2:40:39
prevails the principle expressed in that axiom of psychology, which
2:40:42
says desire is aroused and flows forth toward things represented
2:40:47
by ideas and mental pictures. The stronger and clearer the
2:40:50
idea or mental picture, the stronger and more insistent is
2:40:54
the aroused desire. All else being equal, you should proceed
2:40:58
to apply this principle from the very beginning even at
2:41:01
the stage of semi awakened desire power, there abides within
2:41:05
you a great store of latent, dormant desire power, a
2:41:08
great reservoir of desire power which is almost dormant, but
2:41:12
which contains within itself the latent and nascent powers of
2:41:15
wonderfully diversified manifestation and expression. You will do well to
2:41:20
begin by stirring up this great reservoir of desire power,
2:41:24
arousing it into activity in a general way, to the
2:41:27
end that you may afterward direct its power and cause
2:41:29
it to flow forth into and along the channels of
2:41:32
expression and manifestation which you have provided for it. In
2:41:36
the great crater of a mighty volcano of Hawaii, in
2:41:39
plain sight of the daring visitor to the rim of
2:41:41
the abyss, there abides a large lake of molten lava,
2:41:45
seething and bubbling, boiling and effervescing in a state of
2:41:48
hissing ebulliance, a lake of liquid fire, as it were.
2:41:52
This great fiery lake is comparatively calm on its surface. However,
2:41:57
the abolition proceeding from its depths. The whole body of
2:42:00
fiery liquid manifests a rhythmic tide like rise and fall,
2:42:04
and is swaying from side to side of the crater.
2:42:07
The observer is impressed with the recognition of a latent
2:42:10
and nascent power, of almost immeasurable possibilities of manifestation and expression.
2:42:16
He feels borne upon him the conviction that this seething,
2:42:19
rising and falling, swaying, tremendous body of liquid fire, if
2:42:23
once fully aroused into activity, would boil and seethe up
2:42:27
to the edge of the crater, and overflowing, would pour
2:42:30
down into the valleys beneath, carrying before it and destroying
2:42:33
every obstacle in its path. This great lake of molten lava,
2:42:37
this great body of liquid fire, is a symbol of
2:42:40
the great body of latent and nascent desire power abiding
2:42:44
within every individual within you. It rests there, comparatively inactive
2:42:49
on the surface, but ever manifesting a peculiar, churning abolition
2:42:53
proceeding from its great depths. It seethes and boils, effervesces
2:42:58
and bubbles, rises and falls, and tidelike rhythm sways in
2:43:02
rhythmic sequence from side to side. It seems ever to
2:43:05
say to you, I am here, restless and disturbed, ever longing, craving, hankering,
2:43:11
for hungering and thirsting, for desiring for expression and manifestation
2:43:16
in definite form and direction. Stir me up, arouse my
2:43:20
inner force, set me into action, and I will rise
2:43:23
and assert my power and accomplish for you that which
2:43:26
you direct. In this stage of desire power, its most
2:43:30
general stage, you will be filled with a vague discontent
2:43:33
and dissatisfaction, a longing wishing, lusting for, and striving toward
2:43:37
expression manifestation of some kind, though you know not just
2:43:41
what it is you want, nor just what you wish
2:43:43
to do. The inclination and urge is there, but the
2:43:46
direction is lacking. Here, desire power manifests in but a
2:43:51
vague sense of unrest, in an almost unconscious urge and
2:43:54
striving toward outward expression, in an almost unconscious inclination or
2:43:59
tendency towards outward manifestation, in action toward more or less
2:44:02
definite ends. But even here there is the presence of
2:44:06
idea which has stirred up and is calling forth the
2:44:08
latent and nascent desire power. But that idea is merely
2:44:12
that of a general urge toward outward expression and manifestation.
2:44:15
It arouses but a general discontent with the present state,
2:44:19
accompanied by the conative urge toward the achievement of a
2:44:22
better condition state or channel of expression. Some good teachers
2:44:27
maintain that there is no possible development of desire power
2:44:30
at this stage, and indeed no need for it. But we,
2:44:35
the present writers, feel that this is a mistake. We
2:44:39
believe that even at this early stage or phase of
2:44:41
desire power, it is possible to arouse and stimulate it
2:44:45
into activity, to the end that it may later be
2:44:47
directed into definite channels of expression and manifestation. Moreover, we
2:44:53
believe that Nature has proceeded in just this way in
2:44:55
her numerous sharp advances, rises and jumps in the evolutiontionary process,
2:45:01
in which the living things have made progress at a
2:45:03
rate far beyond the normal. We believe that Nature has
2:45:07
caused a bubbling over at such periods, and has caused
2:45:10
the overflowing desire power to seek new and wider channels
2:45:14
of manifestation. Of course, we realize that this stirring up
2:45:18
or agitation of your latent desire power is apt to
2:45:22
in fact certainly will create additional discontent on your part.
2:45:26
But what of it? Some philosophers praise the spirit of
2:45:30
contentment and say that happiness is to be found only
2:45:33
therein be that as it may, It may be as
2:45:37
positively asserted that all progress proceeds from discontent. It is,
2:45:42
of course very philosophical to follow the advice if you
2:45:46
can't have what you like, you must like what you have.
2:45:48
This idea produces a certain feeling of content. But we
2:45:52
would add to the aphorism the following qualifying clause viz.
2:45:56
But you can't be sure that you can't have what
2:45:58
you like until you have exhausted all possible means of
2:46:01
getting it. While admitting the value of content, at the
2:46:05
same time, we believe in preaching the gospel of discontent
2:46:08
to a sane degree and extent. We believe that discontent
2:46:13
is the first step on the path of attainment. We
2:46:16
believe that it is just this very divine discontent that
2:46:19
causes men and women to undertake the divine adventure of life,
2:46:22
and which is back of and under all human progress.
2:46:26
Content may be carried quite too far. Absolute content results
2:46:31
in apathy and lethargy. It stops the wheels of progress.
2:46:35
Nature evidently is not content, else it would cease to
2:46:38
manifest the process of evolution. Nature has evidently been ever
2:46:43
filled with the spirit of discontent, judging from her invariable
2:46:46
manifestation of the law of change. Without discontent and the
2:46:51
desire to change, there would be no change in nature.
2:46:55
The law of change shows plainly Nature's opinion on the
2:46:58
subject and her prevailing feet, feelings, and desires in the matter.
2:47:02
You will do well to begin by treating your great
2:47:05
body of elemental desire power for increased activity and for
2:47:09
the transmutation of its static power into dynamic power, bringing
2:47:12
it from its state of semi rest into the state
2:47:15
of increased restlessness and tendency to flow forth into action.
2:47:19
You may do this in the same way that you
2:47:21
will later employ in the case of specific, particular and
2:47:25
definite desires, i e. By presenting to its suggestive and
2:47:28
inciting ideas and mental pictures. Begin by presenting to your
2:47:33
elemental desire power the suggestive idea and mental picture of
2:47:36
itself as akin to the great lake of molten lava
2:47:39
or liquid fire, filled with latent and nascent energy, power
2:47:43
and force, filled with the elemental urge toward expression and
2:47:46
manifestation in outward form, and action able and willing to
2:47:50
accomplish anything it desires to do with sufficient strength providing
2:47:54
a definite channel is provided for its flow of power.
2:47:58
Show it the picture of itself as ready an willing
2:48:00
to transmute its static energy into dynamic force, and to
2:48:03
pour forth along the channels which you will provide for it,
2:48:06
And above all else quite able to do this if
2:48:09
it will but arouse itself into dynamic action. In short,
2:48:13
present to its gaze your idealistic and ideative mental equipment
2:48:17
in the form of the surface of a great mirror,
2:48:19
reflecting the picture of the elemental desire power as it
2:48:22
presents itself to that mirror. Let desire Power see itself
2:48:25
as it is supply desire with its complementary idea. You
2:48:30
will do well to accompany this mental picture with a
2:48:33
verbal statement or affirmation of the details of that picture.
2:48:37
Treat your elemental desire power as if it were an entity.
2:48:40
There is a valid psychological reason for this, by the way,
2:48:44
and tell it, in exact words, just what it is,
2:48:47
what are its powers, and what is its essential nature?
2:48:50
Displaying the disposition to express and manifest itself in outward
2:48:53
form and activity. Pound these suggestive statements into it as firmly, earnestly,
2:48:59
and persistently as you can supply the desire power with
2:49:03
the element of idea and mental pictures, give it the
2:49:07
picture of what it is and the pattern or diagram
2:49:10
of what it can do if it will. The result
2:49:13
of this course of treatment applied to your elemental desire
2:49:16
power will soon show itself in an increased feeling of
2:49:19
more vigorous rhythmic tidle movement in side to side movement
2:49:22
as previously described, and in an increased rate and vigor
2:49:26
of its seething, boiling, effervescing abolition from its depths will
2:49:30
arise mighty impulses and urges, upheavals and uprisings. The great
2:49:35
molten lake of desire power will begin to boil with
2:49:38
increased vigor and will show an inclination to produce the
2:49:41
steam of will. You will experience new and strange evidences
2:49:45
of the urge of desire power within you, seeking expression
2:49:49
and manifestation along the channels which you have provided for it.
2:49:53
As yet, however, the desires will not have taken on
2:49:56
definite form or direction. They will manifest merely in the
2:49:59
ste which has been called that of raw desire. The
2:50:02
great elemental general desire power imminent in all things. But
2:50:07
before reaching this stage, You must have created the channels
2:50:10
through and in which you wish the overflowing desire power
2:50:13
to flow when it reaches the boiling over stage. These
2:50:17
channels must be built along the lines of those desires
2:50:20
which you have proved to be your dominant desires. Build
2:50:24
these channels deep, wide, and strong. From them, you can
2:50:28
afterward build minor channels for your secondary and derivative desires
2:50:32
arising from your dominant desires. At present, however, your main
2:50:37
concern is with your main channels. Let each channel represent
2:50:41
the clear, deep, strong idea and mental picture of just
2:50:45
what you want. As you clearly see and know it.
2:50:48
You have found out exactly what you want, when you
2:50:51
want it, and how you want it. Let your channels represent,
2:50:54
as closely as may be, just these ideas. Build the
2:50:57
banks high so as to obviate any waste, Build the
2:51:01
walls strong so as to stand the strain. Build the
2:51:04
channel deep and wide, so as to carry the full
2:51:06
force and quantity of the current. By creating the channels
2:51:11
of your dominant desires, we mean establishing the paths to
2:51:14
be traversed by the overflowing current of desire power which
2:51:17
you have aroused from its latent and nascent condition. These
2:51:21
channels or paths are created mentally by the employment of
2:51:24
creative imagination and ideation. These mental forces proceed to manifest
2:51:30
in the direction of creating and presenting to your consciousness
2:51:33
the ideas and mental pictures of your dominant desires which
2:51:36
you have discovered in your process of self analysis. The
2:51:40
work of creating these channels is really but a continuation
2:51:43
of the mental work performed by you in the discovery
2:51:46
of your dominant desires. In creating these channels, you should
2:51:50
observe three general rules as follows. One, make the channels
2:51:55
clear and clean by creating and maintaining a clear, clean,
2:51:58
distinct and death of each of your dominant desires, in
2:52:02
which idea the entire thought concerning the dominant desire is condensed,
2:52:06
and in which there is no foreign or non essential material. Two,
2:52:11
make the channels deep and wide by forming mental pictures
2:52:14
or suggestive ideas appealing to the emotional feelings associated with
2:52:18
the dominant desires, and thus tempting the appetites of those desires,
2:52:22
by the representation of the objects of their longing, and
2:52:25
by the presentation of imaginative pictures of the joys which
2:52:28
will attend their final achievement and attainment. Three, make the
2:52:32
banks strong by means of the employment of the persistent
2:52:35
determination of the will, so that the powerful, swift current
2:52:38
may be confined within the limits of the dominant desire,
2:52:41
and not be permitted to escape and waste itself by
2:52:44
scattering its energy and force over the surrounding land. When
2:52:48
your current is flowing freely, you will find it necessary
2:52:51
to build minor channels, serving to bring about the attainment
2:52:54
of objects and ends helpful to the accomplishment of the
2:52:57
objects and ends of the major channels. In building these
2:53:01
minor channels, follow the same general rules and principles which
2:53:04
we have given you. From the great main channels down
2:53:08
to the tiniest canal, the same principle is involved. Always
2:53:12
build clear and clean by means of definite ideas and aims.
2:53:16
Always build deep and wide by means of suggestive ideas
2:53:19
and mental pictures. Always build strong banks by means of
2:53:23
the determined will. In concluding this consideration of the second requisite,
2:53:28
i e. The element of wanting it hard enough, we
2:53:31
wish to impress upon your mind the tremendous, vitalizing and
2:53:34
inciting power exerted by suggestive ideas and mental pictures upon
2:53:38
desire power. Suggestive ideas and mental pictures act upon desire
2:53:44
power with a tremendous degree of effect in the direction
2:53:46
of inciting, arousing, stirring, stimulating, exciting, spurring, goating, provoking, moving, encouraging, animating,
2:53:55
and urging to expression and manifestation. There are no other
2:53:59
incentives is equal to these. All strong desires are aroused
2:54:03
by such incentives, consciously or unconsciously applied. For instance, you
2:54:09
may have no desire to visit California. Then your interest
2:54:13
in that part of the country is aroused by what
2:54:15
you read or hear concerning it, and a vague desire
2:54:18
to visit it is aroused in you. Later, information in
2:54:22
the direction of giving you additional material for suggestive ideas
2:54:26
and mental pictures serves to arouse your desire to go
2:54:29
to California. You begin to search eagerly for further ideas
2:54:33
and pictures, and the more you obtain, the stronger grows
2:54:36
the flame of your desire. At last, you want a
2:54:40
hard enough and brushing aside all obstacles, You pay the
2:54:43
price and take the trip across the plains. Had you
2:54:46
not been furnished with the additional suggestive ideas and mental pictures,
2:54:50
your original desire would soon have died out. You know
2:54:54
by experience the truth of this principle. You also know
2:54:57
how you would use it if you wish to induce
2:54:59
a friend to visit California. Do you not then start
2:55:03
to work using it on your desire power when you
2:55:05
wish to incite it into wanting hard enough something that
2:55:08
you know to be advantageous to you. It is customary
2:55:12
to illustrate this principle by the figure of pouring the
2:55:15
oil of idea upon the flame of desire, thereby keeping
2:55:18
alive and strengthening the power of the latter. The figure
2:55:22
of speech is a good one. The illustration serves well
2:55:25
its purpose, but your memory and imagination representing your experience
2:55:30
will furnish you with one a little nearer home. All
2:55:33
that you need do is to imagine the effect which
2:55:36
would be produced upon you if you were hungry and
2:55:38
were able to form the mental picture or create the
2:55:40
suggestive idea of a particularly appetizing meal. Even as it
2:55:45
is though you are not really hungry, the thought of
2:55:48
such a meal will make your mouth water again. You
2:55:51
may readily imagine the effect produced upon you when you
2:55:54
are parched and intensely thirsty on a long ride by
2:55:58
the vivid mental picture or strong suggestion jestive idea of
2:56:00
a clear, cold spring of mountain water. Or again, when
2:56:05
in a stuffy, ill ventilated office you think of the
2:56:08
fresh air of the mountain camp where you went fishing
2:56:10
last summer, when you picture plainly the joys of the experience,
2:56:14
can you deny that your desire power is intensely aroused
2:56:17
and excited, and that you feel like dropping everything and
2:56:20
taking to the woods at once, Raising the principle to
2:56:24
its extreme form of manifestation. Try to imagine the effect
2:56:28
upon the famishing man of a dream of plentiful food,
2:56:31
the dream of the thirst cursed man in which is
2:56:33
pictured flowing fountains of water. Try to imagine the effect
2:56:38
upon the mate seeking wild bull moose of the far
2:56:40
off bellow of the salt for mate. Would you like
2:56:42
to impede his path on such an occasion. Finally, picture
2:56:47
the emotional excitement and frenzy of desire on the part
2:56:50
of the tigris when she comes in sight of food
2:56:52
for her half starved cubs, or her force of desire
2:56:55
when she hears afar off the cry of distress of
2:56:57
her young ones. In order to do want and want
2:57:01
to as hard as do these human beings and wild
2:57:04
things which we have employed as illustrations, you must feed
2:57:07
your desire power with suggestive ideas and mental pictures similar
2:57:10
in exciting power to those which rouse into action their
2:57:13
dominant and paramount want and want to. Of course, these
2:57:18
are extreme cases, but they serve to illustrate the principle involved.
2:57:23
In short, in order to want it hard enough, you
2:57:26
must create a gnawing hunger and aparching thirst for the
2:57:28
objects of your dominant desires. This you must intensify and
2:57:32
render continuous by repeatedly presenting with suggestive ideas and mental
2:57:36
pictures of the feast of good things and the flowing
2:57:39
fountain which awaits the successful achievement or attainment of the desires.
2:57:44
Or you must be like the half drowned youth wanting
2:57:47
a breath of air above all else, wanting it with
2:57:50
all the fierce energy of his soul and being. And
2:57:52
you must ever keep before you the suggestive idea and
2:57:55
mental picture of all the air there is which is
2:57:58
to be found just above the surface of the word
2:58:00
water of need in which you are now immersed. When
2:58:03
you can create these mental and emotional conditions within yourself,
2:58:06
then and then only will you really know just what
2:58:09
it is to want hard enough. Think well over this
2:58:13
idea until you grasp its full meaning, desire, power your
2:58:17
energizing forces. By William Walker Atkinson, nineteen twenty two. Paying
2:58:24
the price. According to the master formula, in order to
2:58:28
get what you want, you must not only know exactly
2:58:30
what you want, not only want it hard enough, but
2:58:33
also be willing to pay the price of its attainment.
2:58:37
We have considered the first and the second of these
2:58:39
elements of successful attainment. Let us now consider the third
2:58:42
one and learn what it means to be willing to
2:58:45
pay the price of attainment. This final element of successful attainment,
2:58:50
this last hurdle in the race, often is the point
2:58:53
at which many persons fail. Riding gallantly over the first
2:58:56
several hurdles, they stumble and fall when they attempt to
2:58:59
surmount this final one. This not so much because of
2:59:03
the real difficulty in passing over this obstacle, but rather
2:59:07
because they are apt to underestimate the task and accordingly,
2:59:10
to relax their energies. Thinking that the race is practically over,
2:59:15
they fail to observe care and caution, and thus meet failure.
2:59:19
With the prize almost in hand, they relax their efforts
2:59:22
and lose it. The law of compensation is found in
2:59:26
full operation in the realm of desire, as well as
2:59:29
in every other field and region of life and action.
2:59:32
There is always present that insistence upon balance which nature
2:59:36
invariably demands from those who seek her prizes. There is
2:59:40
always something to be given up in order that something
2:59:43
else may be gained. One cannot have his pie and
2:59:46
his dime at the same time. He must spend the
2:59:49
dime if he would buy the pie. Neither can one
2:59:52
keep his dime and yet spend it. Nature boldly, in
2:59:56
plainly displays her sign pay the price. Once more. Let
3:00:00
us quote the old adage said the gods to man,
3:00:03
take what thou wilt, but pay the price dot When
3:00:06
in actual experience you perform the process of selection of
3:00:09
the dominant desires with its attendant struggle for existence and
3:00:13
survival of the fittest among the competing desires, even then
3:00:16
you are beginning to pay the price of the attainment
3:00:19
of your dominant desires. This because you are setting aside
3:00:22
and relinquishing one or more sets of desires. In favor
3:00:25
of a preferred set. Every set of desires has its
3:00:29
opposing set, and also other sets which would to some
3:00:32
extent interfere with its full manifestation. You must pay the
3:00:36
price of attainment of the one set of desires by
3:00:38
relinquishing the other sets. In order to attain the object
3:00:42
of your desire for wealth, you must pay the price
3:00:45
of relinquishing desires for certain things which would prevent you
3:00:49
from accumulating money. In order to attain the object of
3:00:52
your desire for all possible knowledge in some particular field
3:00:56
of study and research, you must pay the price of
3:00:59
relinquishing your life desires for a similar degree of knowledge
3:01:02
in some other field of thought and study. In order
3:01:05
to attain the object of your desire for business success,
3:01:08
you must pay the price of hard work and the
3:01:11
passing by of the objects of your desires for play, amusement,
3:01:15
and enjoyment, which would necessitate the neglect of your business,
3:01:19
and so on. To attain the object of any one
3:01:22
set of desires, you must always pay the price of
3:01:25
the relinquishing of the objects of other sets of desires.
3:01:29
In some cases, this process of the inhibition of opposing
3:01:32
desires is akin to that of weeding your garden, or
3:01:35
of pruning your trees, getting rid of the useless and
3:01:38
harmful growths which interfere with the growth and development of
3:01:41
the useful and advantageous thing. In other cases, however, the
3:01:46
desires which you must inhibit and put away from you
3:01:48
are not in themselves harmful or useless. On the contrary,
3:01:53
they may be very advantageous and useful in themselves, and
3:01:56
may be actually worthy of being adopted as dominant desires
3:02:00
by others. But at the same time they are of
3:02:03
such a nature as to prove an obstacle to your
3:02:05
progress along the line of your own chosen dominant desires.
3:02:09
Things may oppose and antagonize each other without either of
3:02:12
them being harmful or bad in themselves. You cannot travel
3:02:17
at the same time both forks of the road, nor
3:02:20
can you travel north and south on any road at
3:02:22
the same time. Though either of these courses of travel
3:02:25
may be good in itself. You cannot very well be
3:02:29
a successful clergyman and a successful lawyer at the same time.
3:02:32
If you have strong desires for both of these careers,
3:02:35
you must choose the one you desire more and set
3:02:37
aside the other. The girl with the two attractive suitors,
3:02:41
the man with the two delightful sweethearts, the child with
3:02:45
the dime gazing longingly at the two different tarts, each
3:02:48
must choose one and pass by the other, and thus
3:02:51
pay the price. Not only in the preliminary process of
3:02:55
discovering and identifying your dominant desires, but you called upon
3:02:58
to pay the price. But you are equally called upon
3:03:01
to do so at almost every subsequent step and stage
3:03:04
of your progress. In actual experience, there is always something
3:03:08
presenting itself to tempt you into side tracking your desire power,
3:03:12
some alluring desires which beckon you from the straight path
3:03:15
of attainment. Here you will find that it is hard
3:03:18
to pay the price, and often you will gravely question yourself,
3:03:22
asking if the things represented by the dominant desires are
3:03:25
after all worth the price you are being called on
3:03:27
to pay for them. These temptations and struggles come to all.
3:03:32
They constitute one of the tests whereby it is determined
3:03:35
whether you are strong or whether you are weak in
3:03:37
regard to your desire power. Here is the real test
3:03:41
of whether or not you want it hard enough to
3:03:43
make you willing to pay the price. Particularly difficult to
3:03:47
overcome and conquer are those temptations which induce you to
3:03:50
relinquish your desire for future attainment in favor of the
3:03:54
gratification of present desires, or which tempt you to forego
3:03:57
the attainment of permanent future benefits in favor of temporary,
3:04:01
ephemeral present benefits. The tempter whispers in your ear that
3:04:05
you are foolish to content yourself with the skim milk
3:04:08
of the present in the hope of obtaining the full
3:04:10
cream of tomorrow. The ever present suggestion to eat, drink,
3:04:14
and be merry, for tomorrow we die must be boldly
3:04:17
confronted and conquered if you wish to attain the object
3:04:20
of that which your reason and judgment, as well as
3:04:23
your self analysis has shown that you really want above
3:04:25
everything else. The habit of saying, get thee behind me,
3:04:29
Satan must be cultivated. And when you have got him
3:04:32
behind you, look out lest he give you a push
3:04:35
from behind. Here you determine whether or not you really
3:04:38
want it hard enough. The drowning man is in no
3:04:42
doubt concerning the value of the breath of air. He
3:04:45
is willing to pay the price of it, no matter
3:04:48
how high that price may be. The famishing man knows
3:04:52
the value of food. The parched man knows the value
3:04:55
of water. They are willing to pay the price and
3:04:57
are not liable to be sidetracked from their dominant desire.
3:05:01
The bull moose seeking his mate is willing to pay
3:05:04
the price of danger and possible death lying in his path,
3:05:08
but you cannot sidetrack him. The mother tiger cannot be
3:05:11
sidetracked from the pursuit of food for her hungry cubs.
3:05:15
She is willing to pay the price of risk of
3:05:17
life without hesitation. When you begin to want it hard enough,
3:05:22
belong the same lines and reaching toward the same degree
3:05:25
of intensity and insistence manifested by these creatures, then you
3:05:29
will not hesitate to pay the price, to pay it
3:05:31
in full and without hesitation. When you reach this stage,
3:05:35
the tempter will whisper into ears, deaf to his voice.
3:05:38
In order to hold the current of desire power within
3:05:41
the bounds of your channels of dominant desire, the banks
3:05:44
must be erected and kept in a state of strength
3:05:46
by will power. The will to will must be called
3:05:50
into manifestation. While desire is one of the fundamental elements
3:05:54
of will, it is not all of will. Will is
3:05:57
a subtle combination of conative desireire and of purposeful determination.
3:06:02
It springs from desire, but it evolves into something which
3:06:06
is capable of mastering desire by its power of willing
3:06:09
to will. In the book of this series entitled will Power,
3:06:13
the subject of will in all of its phases is
3:06:15
considered in detail. Those who are specially interested in this
3:06:19
phase of the general subject are referred to the said book.
3:06:22
It should prove helpful to them. Here follow three general
3:06:26
rules which you should note very carefully in connection with
3:06:29
the subject of inhibiting and setting aside the temptations of
3:06:32
conflicting desires, of those desires which are constantly springing up
3:06:36
and tempting you to forego paying the price, or to
3:06:39
become sidetracked from the path of attainment of your dominant desires.
3:06:44
Two of these rules are along the lines of which
3:06:46
we have spoken in connection with the influence of representative
3:06:49
ideas upon desire power. One, under temptation by side tracking desires,
3:06:55
use every effort to feed the flame of desire of
3:06:57
your dominant desires by an increase supply of suggestive ideas
3:07:01
and mental pictures tending to stimulate its beat and incite
3:07:04
its energy. Two at the same time, strenuously avoid feeding
3:07:09
the flame of the tempting desires by suggestive ideas and
3:07:12
mental pictures likely to arouse or incite them. On the contrary,
3:07:17
carefully and positively refuse to admit such ideas and pictures
3:07:21
to your mind. So far as is possible. Seek to
3:07:24
starve the fires of such desires by withholding from them
3:07:27
the fuel necessary for their continuance and support. The third
3:07:31
rule involves another psychological principle, and is as follows three,
3:07:36
so far as is possible, transmute the side tracking desires
3:07:40
into forms more in accordance with the general trend of
3:07:43
the dominant desires, thereby converting them into helpful rather than harmful,
3:07:47
emotional energy. In the case of the first rule above stated,
3:07:51
you tend to inhibit the energy of the side tracking
3:07:54
desires by imparting additional energy to the dominant desires. When
3:07:58
the attention is strongly attracted or held by the suggestive
3:08:02
ideas and mental pictures of a strong set of desires,
3:08:05
it is not easily diverted by those of a weaker set.
3:08:09
The strong light of the former tend to cast the
3:08:11
latter into a comparative shadow. The attention firmly concentrated and
3:08:16
held upon one particular set of ideas and mental pictures,
3:08:19
refuses to accept the demand of another set. Keep the
3:08:23
attention busy with the advantageous set, and it will have
3:08:26
no time for the consideration of the opposing set. With
3:08:30
these opposing suggestive ideas and mental pictures kept out of
3:08:33
the field of conscious attention, the desires associated with them
3:08:37
tend to die down and finally to disappear. In the
3:08:41
case of the second rule above stated, you deliberately and
3:08:43
determinately refuse to feed the flame of the side tracking
3:08:46
desires with the fuel of suggestive ideas and mental pictures. Instead,
3:08:52
you proceed deliberately and determinately to starve that flame. No
3:08:56
flame of desire can long continue to burn vigorously if
3:08:59
it's aply of suggestive fuel be cut off from it.
3:09:03
Cut off the fuel supply of any desire, and it
3:09:05
will begin to decrease in vigor and force. Refuse to
3:09:09
allow your mind to dwell upon the ideas or mental
3:09:12
pictures tending to suggest the side tracking desires. When such
3:09:16
ideas and pictures intrude themselves and seek to attract the attention,
3:09:20
you must deliberately turn your attention to something else, preferably
3:09:24
to the suggestive ideas and pictures of your dominant desires.
3:09:28
The Roman Catholic Church evidently recognizes the value of this rule,
3:09:32
for its teachers instruct their pupils to form the habit
3:09:35
of turning their attention to prayers in certain forms of
3:09:37
devotional exercises when temptations assail them. The attention being directed
3:09:43
to and held firmly upon the devotional exercise or ceremony,
3:09:46
it is withheld from the suggestive ideas and mental pictures
3:09:49
of attempting desire, and accordingly the latter loses strength and
3:09:53
in time dies away. Without detracting from the value of
3:09:57
the religious element involved, we may say that it is
3:10:00
certain that the purely psychological effect of such course is
3:10:03
highly advantageous. You would do well to apply the principle
3:10:08
in your own case. In the case of the third
3:10:11
rule above stated, you transmute the energy of the side
3:10:14
tracking desire into that of desires more in accordance with
3:10:17
the general trend of your dominant desires. In this way,
3:10:21
you not only obviate the danger of the interference and
3:10:23
distraction of the side tracking desires, but also actually employ
3:10:27
the basic energy of desire power to feed the flame
3:10:30
of the advantageous desires. Here, the principle involved is not
3:10:35
so well known as are those involved in the other rules,
3:10:38
But that principle is sound nevertheless, and is capable of
3:10:41
being employed with remarkable results by the individual possessing sufficient
3:10:45
will power and determination to apply it. As an example
3:10:49
of this principle of the transmutation of the form of
3:10:52
desire force, let us point you to a fact well
3:10:55
known to scientific observers, viz. That the energy of the
3:10:58
sexual passions may be transmuted into the energy of any
3:11:01
kind of mental or physical creative work. This fact is
3:11:05
also known to priests and others who are called on
3:11:08
for advice from those wishing to control passions of this kind.
3:11:12
The explanation probably lies in the fact that sexual desire
3:11:16
is essentially creative in its fundamental nature, and therefore is
3:11:19
capable of being diverted to other forms of creative activity.
3:11:23
But whatever may be the true explanation, it is a
3:11:26
fact that the person experiencing strong, intruding sexual desires may
3:11:30
proceed to master and control them by means of engaging
3:11:33
in some form of creative work in which the elemental
3:11:36
creative energy is transmuted into other forms of creative force.
3:11:41
For instance, one may create by writing, musical composition, artistic work,
3:11:46
or making in constructing things with the hands. In fact,
3:11:49
by any kind of work in which things are made,
3:11:52
put together, constructed, or created in any way. In all
3:11:57
of such work, provided that sufficient interest is grown into
3:12:00
the task, it will be found that the strong impulse
3:12:03
of the intruding sexual passions will gradually lose its force,
3:12:06
and that the person will then experience a sense of
3:12:09
new energy in the creative work which he has undertaken
3:12:11
in order to transmute the previous form of desire power.
3:12:15
The experienced physician knows that the best possible prescription for
3:12:19
certain classes of cases of this kind coming to him
3:12:22
for treatment and advice is that of interesting work for
3:12:25
head or hands, or both. There is much truth in
3:12:28
the old saying that an idle brain is the devil's workshop,
3:12:32
and the similar one that the devil finds plenty of
3:12:35
work for idle hands to do. This principle may be
3:12:38
set to work against the devil by simply reversing its
3:12:41
action by giving head and hands plenty to do. Another
3:12:45
illustration of this principle is found in the case of
3:12:48
the beneficial effect of certain games, in fact, of nearly
3:12:52
all games played in moderation. Here, the side tracking in
3:12:56
distracting desires which seek to take one away from his
3:12:59
appointed tasks and from the manifestation of his dominant desires
3:13:03
are transmuted into the interest, feeling and desires of play.
3:13:07
Play is a safety valve of emotional feeling. It serves
3:13:11
to transmute many a distracting desire into the conative energy
3:13:15
expressing itself in an interesting game. This is true of
3:13:19
games involving purely mental skill, as well as those in
3:13:22
which physical skill is also involved. Baseball has been a
3:13:26
wonderful benefit to the American people. In this way, golf
3:13:30
is playing an important part in the direction of affording
3:13:33
a transmutation channel of energy for busy men who tire
3:13:36
under the somewhat monotonous strain of the strenuous pursuit of
3:13:39
the object of their dominant desires. In cases of this kind,
3:13:44
not only are the distracting desires transmuted in this way,
3:13:47
but the games themselves give recreation, exercise, and a RESTful
3:13:51
change of occupation to the individual. Paying the price of
3:13:55
your dominant desires does not necessarily imply that you must
3:13:59
give up everything in life life not actually concerned in
3:14:01
furthering the interests of those particular desires. In such case, indeed,
3:14:06
you would probably actually injure your own interests by too
3:14:09
closely restricting your circle of interest and attention. The real
3:14:13
meaning of the injunction is that you must pay the
3:14:15
price of giving up, inhibiting, or at least transmuting any
3:14:19
in all desires which directly and certainly oppose and seriously
3:14:23
interfere with the attainment of the objects of your dominant desires.
3:14:28
That price, indeed, you must be prepared to pay. In
3:14:32
many cases, such desires may be transmuted into forms which will,
3:14:36
in a sense run along with the pursuit of the
3:14:38
objects of your dominant desires, and thus be rendered helpful
3:14:42
rather than harmful. Many emotional elements may be turned to
3:14:46
account in this way by the process of transmutation. You
3:14:50
should give some thought to this matter of transmutation when
3:14:52
you are threatened by distracting and sidetracking desires. Another form
3:14:57
of paying the price is that of the labor and
3:15:00
work to be performed by the individual in his task
3:15:02
of attainment of the object of his dominant desires. This
3:15:06
work in labor, however, is not alone performed by the
3:15:09
exercise of the persistent determination of the will. Though this
3:15:13
is the active element involved. There is needed also the
3:15:16
inhibition in starving out of the conflicting or side tracking
3:15:19
desires which strive to draw the individual away from his
3:15:22
appointed tasks and toward the actions requiring less work, and
3:15:26
which for the time being seen to be richer in
3:15:28
promise of pleasure and satisfaction. The price paid by the
3:15:32
men and women who have achieved marked success almost always
3:15:35
is found to include self denial and sometimes even actual
3:15:38
privation during the earlier days of the undertaking work. Far
3:15:42
in excess of that rightfully demanded of the wage earner,
3:15:45
both in amount and in time, is demanded of them.
3:15:48
Application and unwearied perseverance are required of them. Indomitable resolution
3:15:53
and persistent determination must be paid by them. There is
3:15:57
here the constant giving up of the present pleasure in
3:15:59
favor of that hoped for in the future. There is
3:16:02
here the constant performance of tasks which might easily be avoided,
3:16:06
and which are really avoided by the average person, but
3:16:09
which are required to be performed by the individual who
3:16:12
is inspired by the dominant desire, and who is working
3:16:15
for the accomplishment of the one big thing. Napoleon paid
3:16:19
the price in his earlier days when he refused to
3:16:22
indulge in the frivolous pursuits of his fellow students at Brienne,
3:16:25
and instead deliberately devoted his spare time to the mastery
3:16:29
of the elements of military science and history. Abraham Lincoln
3:16:33
paid the price when he studied the few books he
3:16:36
could find by the light of the fireplace, instead of
3:16:38
indulging in the pleasures and dissipations of the other young
3:16:41
men of his neighborhood. Read the history of any successful man.
3:16:45
You will find this invariable paying the price of study, application, work, self, denial, economy, thrift, industry,
3:16:53
and the rest of the needful things. Never delude yourself
3:16:57
with the thought that you can escape paying the price
3:17:00
of the attainment of the objects of your strong desires.
3:17:04
The price must always be paid. The greater the object
3:17:07
of attainment, the greater is the price demanded. But you
3:17:10
will find that if you have learned how to want
3:17:13
it hard enough, then the price will be comparatively easy
3:17:15
to pay. The thing will be deemed well worth it.
3:17:19
If you feel that the price that you are being
3:17:21
called upon to pay for the object of your dominant
3:17:23
desires is more than the thing is worth, then there
3:17:26
is something wrong about the whole matter. In such case,
3:17:30
you should carefully take stock of your feelings, weighing and
3:17:34
comparing them carefully, as we have suggested in our consideration
3:17:37
of self analysis and selection of dominant desires. You may
3:17:41
find that what you had supposed to be a dominant
3:17:43
desire is not really such at all. Or you may
3:17:47
find that you have failed to include some necessary element
3:17:50
or phase of the dominant desire, or that you have
3:17:53
failed to make some possible transmutation of distracting desires, or
3:17:57
have failed to inhibit or starve out side tracking desires,
3:18:02
or possibly that you have failed to feed the flame
3:18:04
of your dominant desire properly. At any rate, there is
3:18:09
something wrong in such a case, and you should seek
3:18:11
the remedy. While the law of nature provides that you
3:18:15
must pay the price of the attainment of any and
3:18:18
all desires, it also provides that the attainment must always
3:18:21
be worth the price. If you find that the present
3:18:25
and probable future value of any object of your desire
3:18:28
is not worth the price you must be called upon
3:18:30
to pay for it. Then you should carefully consider the
3:18:32
whole matter, most critically, viewing it from all angles and
3:18:36
in the light of all possible relations and associations, with
3:18:39
full deliberation concerning the probable consequences of an opposite course,
3:18:44
and with thoughtful judgment concerning all alternative courses. The dissatisfaction
3:18:49
may be merely temporary in passing, or on the other hand,
3:18:53
it may be growing in strength and promise of permanency.
3:18:56
Any desire which, upon careful consideration, deliberate d and judgment,
3:19:01
may seem not to pay for its keep, to be
3:19:04
not worth its storage charges or floor space in your
3:19:06
emotional nature, is a fit object for a final retrial
3:19:10
upon its merits or revaluation of its points, in order
3:19:13
to decide whether it shall be retained and treated for
3:19:16
additional strength, energy, and emotional value, or else discarded and rejected.
3:19:22
The test should always be is this really worthwhile worth
3:19:26
the price I am called on to pay for it?
3:19:28
Would its rejection cost me more than its retention? The
3:19:31
touchstone of merit should be does this render me stronger, better,
3:19:35
and more efficient, and therefore more truly and permanently happier.
3:19:41
In the history of philosophy we find many theories concerned
3:19:44
with the matter of the satisfaction of pleasurable desires and
3:19:47
the avoidance of pain, the achievement of the greatest possible
3:19:50
amount and degree of contenting of the spirit of the individual.
3:19:55
The ancient Greek philosophers especially devoted much attention to this
3:19:58
particular subject, but they failed to come to a common understanding.
3:20:03
The Epicureans held that the chief end of life is
3:20:06
to obtain the greatest satisfaction of the pleasurable desires. The Stoics,
3:20:10
on the contrary, held that the chief end of life
3:20:13
is to avoid and escape pain. Between these two poles
3:20:17
rage the conflict of thought on the subject. Some emphasize
3:20:21
the fact that an excess of pleasure brings about a
3:20:24
reaction of satiety and even actual pain, while even in
3:20:27
continued pain there is to be found a compensating element
3:20:30
of resignation and inner content of a spiritual nature. Here
3:20:34
as elsewhere, the truth seems to lie between the two extremes.
3:20:38
At the point of the golden mean nothing too much
3:20:42
is the axiom of those who perceive the danger of
3:20:44
proceeding to extremes in anything They hold that while the
3:20:48
satisfaction of the pleasurable desires is proper and good, yet
3:20:52
there is an element of benefit even in a moderate
3:20:54
degree of pain. Without pain, they say, there is no
3:20:58
contrast by reason of which pleasure is appreciated. The escape
3:21:02
from pain or the avoidance of pain, is doubly pleasurable
3:21:06
when the nature of the pain is known by experience.
3:21:09
But even here we find the tacit admission that the
3:21:12
chief end of life is the attainment of happiness, the
3:21:15
content of the spirit for which all living things, consciously
3:21:19
or unconsciously strive. Perhaps the most practical of all the
3:21:23
philosophical theories upon the subject of the securing of the
3:21:26
maximum of pleasure and the minimum of pain is that
3:21:29
theory without a name, but which is followed by many
3:21:32
of the strongest and most successful men of the world.
3:21:35
This theory combines the principles of both Epicureanism and of Stoicism,
3:21:40
and seemingly blends them in a practical harmony. The cardinal
3:21:44
principle of this practical philosophy may be expressed in the
3:21:47
following adage, sacrifice the lesser pleasure to the greater. Taking
3:21:51
into consideration the element of permanency in ultimate value. If
3:21:55
any desire is found to result in a greater degree
3:21:58
of pain than of pleasure, sacrifice it unless it contributes
3:22:02
to the success of a greater desire. If it results
3:22:04
in a greater degree of pleasure than of pain, preserve it,
3:22:08
unless it tends to weaken or to interfere with the
3:22:10
success of a greater desire. In the consideration of the above,
3:22:15
you must never lose sight of the fact that the
3:22:17
greater desires or that greater pleasure may consist of the
3:22:20
satisfaction arising from the performance of duty and of the
3:22:24
practice of rational altruism. In fact, it often does so.
3:22:28
For acts of duty, altruism, patriotism, self sacrifice for an ideal,
3:22:33
et cetera, are performed only when there is secured a
3:22:36
greater content of spirit by the performance or practice than
3:22:40
by the opposite course. So, at the last, recognizing that
3:22:45
you must always pay the price, you are justified in
3:22:48
seeking to get the greatest satisfaction for the price paid,
3:22:51
and to refuse to accept emotional goods which are not
3:22:54
worth the price demanded for them. There should be observed
3:22:57
an economy of desire, by means of which the law
3:23:01
of compensation is made to yield a full return for
3:23:03
every expenditure. You should always get your money's worth when
3:23:08
you pay the price. And it behooves you to examine
3:23:11
carefully the wares offered for sale on the counters of desire.
3:23:15
If you find that you have any improfitable desires not
3:23:18
worth the price which you are continually being called upon
3:23:20
to pay for them, do not hesitate to scrap them
3:23:23
at once. At least strive to retain only such dominant
3:23:28
desires as will, in the end enable you to say,
3:23:30
honestly to yourself, it was well worth the price it cost.
3:23:34
I am satisfied. You have seen that desire is that
3:23:38
emotional state which is represented by the phrase I want.
3:23:42
You have seen that desire has for its objects something
3:23:45
which will bring pleasure or get rid of pain, immediate
3:23:49
or remote for the individual or for someone in whom
3:23:52
he is interested. You have seen that you always act
3:23:55
according to your greatest like or dislike of which you
3:23:58
are cognizant at the time. You have seen that the
3:24:02
degree of force, energy, will, determination, persistence, and continuous application
3:24:08
manifested by an individual in his aspirations, ambitions, aims, performances, actions,
3:24:14
and work is determined primarily by the degree of his
3:24:16
desire for the attainment of the objects thereof his degree
3:24:20
of want and want of concerning that object. You have
3:24:24
seen that desire is the flame that produces the steam
3:24:27
of will, and that therefore desire is the source from
3:24:30
which all human action springs. You have seen that not
3:24:34
only does desire power directly or indirectly cause all human action,
3:24:38
but that it also sets into operation the life forces
3:24:41
which develop the mental and physical faculties and powers of
3:24:44
the individual along lines designed to further more efficiently manifest
3:24:49
and express the dominant desires of the individual. You have
3:24:52
seen how desire power presses into service the powers of
3:24:56
the subconscious mentality in the work of manifesting and expressing
3:24:59
the strong desires. You have seen how the subconscious powers
3:25:03
act so as to attract to the individual the things, persons, conditions,
3:25:08
and circumstances serving to enable him to better manifest and
3:25:11
express his sovereign desires, and how in the same way
3:25:15
they tend to attract the individual to those things, persons, conditions,
3:25:20
and circumstances. You have seen how desire attraction works silently
3:25:25
even when one is asleep. Toward the end impressed upon
3:25:28
it by the character of the strong desires. You have
3:25:31
discovered the importance of knowing exactly what you want, and
3:25:35
have learned how to gain such important knowledge by self
3:25:37
analysis and selection. You have discovered the importance of wanting
3:25:42
it hard enough, and have learned how to feed the
3:25:44
flame of desire so as to cause it to burn fiercely.
3:25:48
You have learned how to set into motion and activity
3:25:50
the great body of elemental desire, and how to cause
3:25:53
it to flow forth through the channels of manifestation and
3:25:56
expression which you have carefully built for its flood. You
3:26:00
have discovered the necessity of paying the price of attainment
3:26:03
of the objects of your desire, and have learned the
3:26:06
general rules concerning such payment. You have been informed concerning
3:26:10
the tremendous power of the desire power within your being,
3:26:13
and have become acquainted with the laws governing its manifestation
3:26:17
and expression, and the rules regulating its control and direction.
3:26:21
If you have entered into the spirit of this instruction
3:26:24
and have allowed its influence to descend into the subconscious
3:26:27
depths of your mentality, you have already become aware of
3:26:29
the aroused energy of the desire power in those depths
3:26:33
you will have found yourself filled with a new and
3:26:36
unfolding consciousness of personal power within you. You will have
3:26:40
experienced that intuitive feeling that there have been set into
3:26:43
operation in you certain subtle but dynamic forces which will
3:26:46
tend to make you stronger, better, and more efficient. As
3:26:51
you proceed to arouse into further activity these great forces
3:26:54
of your nature, and to direct their channel of manifestation
3:26:57
and expression, you will, from time to time receive acad
3:27:00
actual evidence and proof that you are traveling along the
3:27:02
right road and are employing the proper methods. You will
3:27:06
be astonished to receive proofs and actual results in the
3:27:09
most unexpected manner, and from sources and directions never dreamt
3:27:13
of before. You will realize more and more as you
3:27:17
proceed that you have set into operation one of nature's
3:27:20
most potent forces, in fact, the force of forces. Finally,
3:27:25
you will begin to realize that the very actual presence
3:27:28
within you of a dominant desire, which has won its
3:27:30
place in a struggle for existence, and which has stood
3:27:33
all the tests, is practically the prophecy of its own fulfillment.
3:27:38
Desire power your energizing forces. By William Walker Atkinson, nineteen
3:27:44
twenty two. Unconscious desire. No modern consideration of the general
3:27:50
subject of desire power would be complete without at least
3:27:53
a passing reference to the psychological theories and teachings of
3:27:56
the Freudian school, the school popularly known under the name psychoanalysis.
3:28:02
In the teachings of the founder of this school, doctor
3:28:04
Sigmund Freud of Vienna, and in those of his followers,
3:28:08
there is found the basic postulate of the unconscious, i e.
3:28:12
A subconscious psychical element of our mental being, the essence
3:28:15
of which is desire, manifesting along the lines of subconscious mentation.
3:28:19
This unconscious desire is held to employ the forces and
3:28:22
powers of the subconscious mentality in order to effect its
3:28:25
purposes and to satisfy its longings. Freud employed the term
3:28:30
libido to indicate the conative impulse of this unconscious desire.
3:28:35
That term, however, having acquired a somewhat unpleasant connotation for
3:28:39
English and American minds. The later writers in these two
3:28:42
countries have frequently substituted the term craving. But whether it
3:28:47
is called libido or craving, the same essential striving and
3:28:51
conative impulse of unconscious desire is sought to be indicated,
3:28:54
and this craving, striving, an impulse to action constitute the
3:28:58
essential nature of the unconscious desire of the Freudian philosophy.
3:29:03
Doctor Wilfrid Lay, one of the most popular American exponents
3:29:07
of the Freudian philosophy, in his excellent work entitled Man's
3:29:10
Unconscious Conflict, says of the power of unconscious desire and
3:29:14
of its essential nature. In the Greek mythology, the Titans
3:29:18
are the children of earth in heaven, and because they
3:29:21
warred with the gods, were cast into the gulf of Tartarus,
3:29:24
where they lie prostrate, but occasionally becoming restive, they shake
3:29:29
their bonds, and in so doing cause the earth to tremble.
3:29:33
In each one of us there lives a Titan. As
3:29:36
the Titans represented the crude forces of nature that were
3:29:39
later brought into subjection by the gods, who introduced a
3:29:41
reign of order. So the Titan that is in each
3:29:44
one of us represents the primal impulses of animal life,
3:29:47
which have through the ages been brought into some semblance
3:29:49
of order by the force of society. But just as
3:29:52
the Titans in the old mythology made themselves felt in
3:29:55
disturbances of the equilibrium of the world. So sometimes do
3:29:59
the Titans reside fighting in us, all break loose and
3:30:01
do much damage in our daily life. And as the
3:30:05
Titans were chained in a deep pit and could never
3:30:07
show their faces to the light of day, so these
3:30:10
primordial vital forces are generally controlled by the restraints of
3:30:13
organized society, and are as little in evidence to most
3:30:16
people as if they too were chained at the bottom
3:30:19
of a pit. Their writhings, however, are not without effect
3:30:24
on our daily thoughts and on our bodily functions. That
3:30:27
part of our mental life of which as a general
3:30:30
rule we know nothing, but which exerts a great influence
3:30:33
upon our actions, is known in the newer psychology as
3:30:36
the unconscious, and in this book I frequently refer to
3:30:39
it as the unknown Titan. These two theories, first that
3:30:44
a large part of our mental life is unconscious, unknown
3:30:47
or unknowable, and second that a creative force, by whatever
3:30:51
name it may be called, is constantly impelling all animate life,
3:30:55
have been used together in working out the science of psychoanalysis.
3:30:59
The prime mover of the human soul, then, is its
3:31:02
continual craving for life, for love, and for action. The
3:31:07
will to live, love, and act conditioned as it is
3:31:10
by the power that has gone on living and loving
3:31:12
and acting for countless generations, is the only source of
3:31:16
all human strength. Thus, from the above quoted statement concerning
3:31:20
the nature and actions of the unconscious desire of the Freudians,
3:31:24
you will see that the basic postulate of Freud in
3:31:26
his followers is quite similar to that of Schopenhauer, Vaughan Hartmann,
3:31:30
and others of the voluntaristic school of philosophy referred to
3:31:34
in the preceding sections of this book. In fact, the
3:31:37
Freudians have built upon the original foundations of older philosophers
3:31:41
just mentioned. The latter, in turn had built upon still
3:31:44
older foundations of Buddha, Heraclitis, and others of the ancient
3:31:49
schools of philosophy. In all of such teachings will be
3:31:53
found the fundamental postulate of a universal something or somewhat,
3:31:57
the very essence or kernel of nature, the inmost characteristic
3:32:00
of which is an insistent desire, a craving longing, striving, hungering, thirsting,
3:32:06
moving toward action, promising to content its spirit. In short,
3:32:11
to employ the figure so often quoted by us in
3:32:13
this instruction, it is a power with the desire to act,
3:32:17
or a desire with the power to act. The Freudians, however,
3:32:22
do not pursue the metaphysical road in their treatment of
3:32:25
the unconscious desire. They prefer the nearer and safer highway
3:32:28
of psychology. They emphasize the fact that in human life
3:32:32
and behavior, the unconscious desire is the predominant moving power.
3:32:37
They labor strenuously to uncover the hidden unconscious sources for
3:32:41
many of our supposed free conscious actions, and in many
3:32:44
cases they make out a very good case for the
3:32:46
supremacy of the unconscious, though in others their explanations and
3:32:50
conclusions seem to be more or less forced or even fantastic.
3:32:55
Passing by the extreme and radical theories of some of
3:32:58
this school, it must be admitted that if its teachings
3:33:00
have done a great work in revealing to us the
3:33:02
hidden springs from which flow the streams of thought, feeling,
3:33:06
an action which constitute our respective personalities, likewise they have
3:33:11
bestowed upon the race certain valuable, efficient methods of correcting
3:33:15
abnormalities and faults arising from the uncontrolled operations of the unconscious.
3:33:20
The Freudians throw an interesting light upon the real causes
3:33:24
of many of our common everyday actions which we fondly
3:33:26
imagine that we are performing of our own free will
3:33:29
and by reason of certain conscious motives. The teachers show
3:33:33
us that these certain conscious motives are not at all
3:33:36
the real motives of our actions. The real motives are
3:33:39
to be found in certain far below the surface, buried
3:33:42
in hidden desires, cravings, longings, desires. These real motives are
3:33:47
often completely concealed from us, and are revealed only through
3:33:51
methods of psychoanalysis conducted along scientific lines. Our so called
3:33:56
reasons are often mere excuses or pretexts, evolved in order
3:34:00
to quiet our minds and consciences, while the unconscious desire
3:34:04
proceeds to manifest and express itself through us. Ernest Jones,
3:34:09
in his works Treating upon the Subject of psychoanalysis, employs
3:34:12
the term rationalization to indicate the tendency on our part
3:34:16
to ascribe a conscious reason or motive to those of
3:34:19
our actions which are really caused and motivated by the wishes, desire,
3:34:23
and craving of the unconscious. Lay also gives numerous examples
3:34:27
of actions which seem unaccountable, and indeed are unaccountable, except
3:34:32
on the grounds of their having been motivated by the
3:34:34
unconscious wish Freud gives the keynote of his general theory
3:34:38
concerning the influence of our past experiences and of the
3:34:42
feelings resulting from them upon our present thoughts, feelings, and actions.
3:34:46
In his statement, we are what we are because we
3:34:49
have been what we have been. A writer on the
3:34:52
subject adds, down in the dark, hidden mental pit of
3:34:55
the unconscious that even we ourselves do not know, and
3:34:58
yet from which impulses are always springing and affecting our
3:35:01
reactions to life, are many instinctive cravings, many antisocial, egotistic, jealous,
3:35:07
hostile thoughts. We often have to repress them consciously, but
3:35:12
much oftener, they are unconsciously repressed. Sometimes a slip comes
3:35:16
and they are revealed against our own will, at least
3:35:19
discovered to those who understand something of the operation of
3:35:22
the subconscious mind, and increasing number now. Doctor Drysdale says
3:35:27
experiences long buried and long forgotten continue to exercise a
3:35:31
dynamic force in the life of individuals, influencing their reactions
3:35:35
and apparent motives. They are subconscious undercurrents, repressed usually in
3:35:40
the normal person, but active in breaks such as lapses
3:35:44
in speech, gaps in memory. The cue to the underlying
3:35:47
repressed thought may often be found. Every experience possesses the
3:35:52
power to reflect its influence upon our later life. No
3:35:56
experience is ever wholly lost. Our present actions are, to
3:36:00
a large extent, the outcome of antecedent acts or impressions.
3:36:05
It must be admitted that life is a constant conflict
3:36:08
between our natural instincts, motives, and desires and the standards
3:36:12
established by the society in which we move and have
3:36:14
our being. We repress from conscious memory many experiences that
3:36:19
date back to days of childhood, but they lurk in
3:36:21
the mind subconsciously, apparently long forgotten. It may be that
3:36:26
the recollection of the incident will crop out at any time,
3:36:29
resurrected by some idle word or fleeting thought as a
3:36:32
disturbing or antagonistic mental influence. We shall not go further
3:36:37
in this brief consideration of the teaching of the Freudian
3:36:40
school concerning the subject of unconscious desire as expressed and
3:36:44
manifested by the unconscious or hidden self of the individual.
3:36:49
In that volume of this series entitled Subconscious Power, we
3:36:52
have explained the general teaching of that school, as well
3:36:55
as having given a careful statement of the entire general
3:36:58
subject of the subconscious, super conscious, or unconscious planes of
3:37:02
mental activity. We recommend that book to your attention if
3:37:05
you are especially interested in that particular phase of psychology.
3:37:10
The more technical features of the Freudian teaching are foreign
3:37:13
to the field and scope of the present instruction, and
3:37:16
we must refer you to the special textbooks of that
3:37:18
school for more detailed information concerning these. We have sought
3:37:22
here merely to point out to you that the Freudian
3:37:25
teaching is found to fit in with our general teaching
3:37:27
concerning desire power. It serves to corroborate our basic theories
3:37:32
and to sustain our principal facts, rather than to oppose
3:37:35
or contradict them. The better and more practical writers and
3:37:39
teachers on the subject of the Freudian philosophy in psychoanalysis,
3:37:43
instead of following the example of those other teachers who
3:37:45
emphasize the abnormal and unpleasant phases of unconscious desire, strive
3:37:50
rather to point out the benefits which may be secured
3:37:53
by means of acquiring a control of unconscious desire and
3:37:56
then setting its forces to work in your behalf rather
3:37:58
than against your best interests. This, again, you will see,
3:38:02
as in accord with our own teachings. We have insisted
3:38:06
early and late, from beginning to end, that you must
3:38:09
be the master of your desire power, not its slave.
3:38:13
Desire power, conscious or unconscious, may be a terrible master,
3:38:17
but once you acquire control of it, it becomes your
3:38:20
willing and faithful servant. Especially helpful and practical is the
3:38:25
teaching of exponents of the Freudian philosophy concerning the process
3:38:28
of sublimation, the process of sublimating the crude and gross
3:38:32
desires into the finer metal approved of by the cultured
3:38:35
and trained conscious mentality of the individual. Just as the
3:38:38
ancient alchemists sought to sublimate the baser metals into gold,
3:38:43
the elemental force of desire power may be drawn, through
3:38:46
proper channels to higher levels of activity in accomplishment, there
3:38:50
to be set to work in the direction of that
3:38:51
which makes you stronger, better, and more efficient, and which
3:38:55
also serves better the purposes of civilization in the welfare
3:38:58
of the race. This teaching concerning sublimation also is found
3:39:03
to accord with our own teaching, as contained in the
3:39:05
present book and others of this series. In fact, many
3:39:08
of the methods set forth in these books and presented
3:39:11
to you in this instruction are based upon this precise principle,
3:39:15
i e. That of transmutation or sublimation of the elemental
3:39:18
desire power into the higher forms of its expression. In
3:39:22
this book, you have been asked to consider the facts
3:39:25
which have been discovered concerning the nature, character, and modes
3:39:28
of activity of desire power, that great elemental psychic energy
3:39:32
which is seen to pervade all existence and to be
3:39:34
present universally. Analyze the actions of any or every living thing,
3:39:40
and you will find desire power inspiring and motivating it. Nay,
3:39:44
examine the motions of the so called inanimate objects of nature,
3:39:48
and you will find even there the energizing forces of
3:39:51
something like desire power. If nature be regarded as a
3:39:55
magnificent cosmic machine, then desire power is the motive power
3:39:59
that runs that can universal machinery. If nature be regarded
3:40:03
as a living macrocosm, then desire power is the living
3:40:06
motive power inspiring and causing its activities. From whatever angle
3:40:11
Nature may be viewed, Under whatever hypothesis or theory it
3:40:15
may be regarded, desire power is perceived to be the
3:40:18
something or somewhat directly responsible for making the wheels go round.
3:40:23
The old hermetic axiom as above, so below, as within
3:40:27
so without, as in great, so in small, is seen
3:40:31
to apply here. The individual and the cosmos both are
3:40:34
seen to have as their essential motive power, that original aboriginal,
3:40:38
elemental fundamental, something which we know as desire power. In
3:40:42
view of this fact, you scarcely need to be urged
3:40:45
to study the methods of operation of this mighty force
3:40:48
so that you may harness it to your machinery of
3:40:50
life and action. Like gravitation or electricity, its power is
3:40:55
available to all who have the courage, intelligence, and perseverance
3:40:59
to master and to press it into service. It is
3:41:03
as free as the air or the sunshine. It costs
3:41:06
nothing to run your living machinery with it, nothing but
3:41:09
persistence and determination. You do not have to supply it
3:41:13
with power or to add energy to it. It has
3:41:15
within itself far more power, energy, or force than you
3:41:19
will ever have occasion to make use of. All that
3:41:22
you need do is to tap on to its free
3:41:24
energy and to set it to work for you in
3:41:26
the direction of running the mental and physical machinery with
3:41:29
which you have provided it. Let us ask you to
3:41:32
consider the following remarkable statement of doctor Wilfrid Lay, to
3:41:36
whom we directed your attention in the first pages of
3:41:39
the present section of this book, speaking of the desire
3:41:42
power of the unconscious, Doctor Lay says, I call your
3:41:46
attention to the enormous power of the unconscious. It is
3:41:50
the accumulated desire in each one of us, of ians
3:41:53
of evolution, the present form in each individual of that
3:41:57
vital force which has kept itself immortal through the thousands
3:42:00
of generations of men behind us, and millions of generations
3:42:04
of animals behind them. It need not be anything but
3:42:07
a source of power to us, power that we can
3:42:10
draw upon if we rightly understand it, just as we
3:42:13
can turn on power from a steam pipe or an
3:42:15
electric wire. It need not be destructive. Indeed, it is
3:42:19
not destructive except in the most distracted souls. But on
3:42:23
the contrary, ought in each one of us, when we
3:42:25
have learned to manage it rightly, to be as much
3:42:28
and as completely at our command as is the power
3:42:30
in the automobile. As in the automobile, there are a
3:42:34
few simple things that we have to learn, and the
3:42:36
rest is furnished by the maker of the car. And
3:42:38
we do ill to tamper with it. The experience of
3:42:41
having a fifty horse power auto placed at one's command,
3:42:45
if it is to be driven by oneself, is a
3:42:47
situation into which there are many persons, both men and women,
3:42:51
who are very loath to enter. And similarly, there are
3:42:55
many persons who, for various causes, would not be willing
3:42:58
to have developed the fifty thousand gen generation power which
3:43:01
resides in them. To all intents and purposes, and as
3:43:05
far as human flesh is able to bear the strain,
3:43:07
this power, which is largely in the hands of the
3:43:10
unconscious in most men and women, is illimitable. Desire power
3:43:14
is a cosmic force designed for the controlled and directed
3:43:17
use of the strong. It is at the disposal of all,
3:43:21
but only few are courageous and determined enough to avail
3:43:24
themselves of its services. The masses of men merely dally
3:43:28
with it, play with it, handle it gingerly. The masters
3:43:31
of men boldly grasp its controlling levers and turn its
3:43:35
power into their mental and physical machinery. It is a
3:43:38
master force fitted only for the service of masters. It
3:43:42
is the rightful servant only of those whose slogan is
3:43:45
I can, I will, I dare I do you can
3:43:50
be a master of desire power, and thus a master
3:43:52
of men, a master of circumstances, a master of life,
3:43:56
if you but will to be so, you are the
3:43:59
master of your fate, the captain of your soul, if
3:44:02
you will but recognize, realize, and manifest the power of
3:44:05
the i Ami, which is your real self, and of
3:44:08
which desire power is the willing servant.