Latest / THE SECRET LAW OF ATTRACTION: Manifest Wealth, Success & Abundance / THE MIRACLE OF RIGHT THOUGHT: The Law of Attraction Secrets to Wealth, Health & Success - Orison Swett Marden (1910)

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THE MIRACLE OF RIGHT THOUGHT: The Law of Attraction Secrets to Wealth, Health & Success - Orison Swett Marden (1910) · THE SECRET LAW OF ATTRACTION: Manifest Wealth, Success & Abundance

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The Drawing Power of Mind by Prentice Molford from the book Your Forces and How
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to Use Them eighteen ninety. Calm demand brings all good things in time.
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Impatient demand drives them away. We are, through our mental conditions, always
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drawing things to us, good or bad, beneficial or injurious, pleasant or
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disagreeable. There is possible a state of mind which, if permanently kept,
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will draw to you money, lands, possessions, luxuries, health, and
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happiness. It is a mental condition, always serene, calm, determined,
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decided, self composed, and bent on some purpose whose aim is lasting good
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first to yourself, next to others. There is another state of mind which,
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if permanently kept in, will drive prosperity in health from you. It
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is only the very small part of what exists in the universe that can be
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seen, touched, or otherwise made evident to the physical senses. The large
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that you're part of what exists and has form, shape, and color,
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cannot be seen, felt, or be otherwise made evident to the physical senses.
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What we call space is filled with realities. There is no such thing
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as empty space. These realities might be evident to our spiritual or finer senses,
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where they developed. As these finer senses are more and more opened,
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then more and more of these things or realities will become evident to us.
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Whatever you think you actually make, you are making these unseen realities continually as
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you think. If you think of anything but a second, you make that
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an unseen reality for a second. If you think of it for hours,
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days, and years, you will in some way bring that reality to you
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in the physical world. If you keep any idea good or ill in your
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mind from month to month and year to year, you make it a more
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enduring unseen reality. And as it so becomes stronger and stronger, it must
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at last take shape and appear in this and physical of Whatever you think you
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attract. It's like from the unseen current of realities. Think or dwell on
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any form of crime, and you attract and draw to you criminal realities from
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the unseen side of life. These the unseen, are the forces for attracting
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to you material agencies for crime on our side of existence. When you read
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with interest in your morning's paper of murders, burglaries, scandals, and dreadful
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accidents on sea and land, you are attracting to you unseen things of the
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same character. You connect yourself with this a lower order of spiritual realities,
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and being then in this current, as you so read with interest day after
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day, you are the more likely to bring some form of these horrors and
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miseries to you. These of the unseen form a current of real element in
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the unseen world of realities. You connect your spirit with this current. When
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you keep these ghastly things so much in mind, that current then acts on
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you. You are borne along in care worried by it. It will then
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all the quicker bring to you the elements of crime or evil. If you
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love to read of the acts of burglars and thieves, you are the more
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likely to have burglars and thieves about you and in your house. You and
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they will be brought together, because you and they are in the same current
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of thought. Neither you nor the thief is aware of the power which brings
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you together. But no power is so irresistible as one of whose action upon
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us, and of whose very existence we are entirely ignorant. If you think
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but for ten seconds of something ghastly or horrible, something which causes pain of
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body or distress of mind to another, then you set in motion a force
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to draw some form of this trouble to you. If you think ten seconds
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of something pleasant, cheerful, or beautiful, something which can give pleasure to
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another, leaving no sting behind, then you set in motion a force to
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bring some of this pleasure to you. The longer you put your mind on
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any one thing, be it evil or good, the stronger do you make
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it as an unseen reality. It must, at last, as you keep
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it in mind or put your mind on it, make itself in the scene,
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physical world and agency for pain or pleasure. The power to fix mind
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persistently on some definite purpose or in a certain frame or mood, say that
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of calm, determination, or to keep mind from being disturbed, is not
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now very common. Look at many people about you on what, from year
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to year is their thought or purpose fixed on getting their wages at the week's
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end. Beyond this, nothing on getting a new bonnet, a new dress,
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a pleasure trip. Beyond this, nothing on living from day to day
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or week to week. Beyond this nothing. Many cannot fix their mind on
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any useful purpose for two days in succession. It is this thing earnestly desired
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today, something else tomorrow. Their mental forces pull a little while on this
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thing a in it, then pull a little on the next whim or fancy,
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and abandon that. There is no steady pull or exercise of drawing power
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on any one thing. These are the people who accomplish very little, who
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are always poor, and often in ill health. These minds, where fixed
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at all, are often on the useless and injurious. They will read with
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avidity of horrors and hangings. The longer these are spun out, and the
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more minute are they in detail, the more they like them. They love
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the drama depicting violence or emotional torture. A vast amount of their force goes
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in this direction. It is a force to draw to them some form of
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evil. If turned in another direction, it would draw to them good.
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The unseen world and upper currents of unseen realities are full of bright and beautiful
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things, full of the spiritual correspondences of all luxuries, necessities, and good
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things enjoyed here, full of beautiful things as yet here, never seen and
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enjoyed. When minds here learn, as in time, they will to have
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faith in these existences, and faith in the simple means of attracting them,
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they will fix their thought persistently on the bright side of life. They will
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come to know that the longer they endeavor so to fix it on the brighter
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and healthier side, the more power will they have, and the less effort
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will it cost so to keep their thought in the right direction and in connection
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with the right current, until at last it will become second nature for them
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to live in these higher realities, and as so, living, health and
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prosperity will flow toward them. They will cease then to think so much,
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and read so much, and talk and live so much in the crude,
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the horrible, the long drawn recitals of crime. Having learned that these thoughts
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bring them evil and injure their power for drawing to them that which will result
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in permanent good, set your affections on things above. This upper current of
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thought contains the correspondences in unseen element of all that is good for us to
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use and enjoy, and more still, of joys we do not yet realize.
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These are the things above, those of horror, ghastliness, crime,
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and misery on which now so much of people's affections or thought is set.
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Are things below. Evil of any sort is only to be thought of and
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dealt with long enough to remedy it. One remains inacsessible no longer than is
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necessary to bail out its contents. You want to get your cold, your
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pain, your last sprained ankle, or the last injustice done you by another,
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out of your mind as soon as you can, and not keep making
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it over and over again, through ever thinking it, brooding over it,
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and telling it to others. Whenever you get a chance. Such mood of
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mind may become habitual, second nature, and a power for drawing poverty and
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ill health. Constant contact with crime or misery, with ill of any kind,
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or even the thought of it, will at last beget an unnatural and
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unhealthy appetite for it. So at last people had rather at the breakfast table
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talk of sickness and death bed scenes than of health, or of crime and
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horrors, than of things cheerful, peaceable, and pleasant. All such talk
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and thought dwelling in misery injures your power for drawing good things to you.
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It is a direct means for taking money from your purse and health from your
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body. Living ever in the thought of sickness will surely bring sickness to you.
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For such reason have those who made a study of insanity gone themselves insane,
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as did an eminent physician a few years ago, as did the superintendent
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of one of the largest insane asylums in this country, as do very,
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very many of whom we never hear. The vast amount of matter printed and
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read by millions concerning the diseases and death of such prominent persons as General Grant,
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the late Emperor Frederick, and some others have put millions of minds more
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or less in a thought current of sickness, pain and misery. You will
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be the more healthy for living as much as you can in the thought and
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also surrounding of healthy things. You will be the stronger for living in the
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thought and being in the physical surrounding of strong things, strong animals, strong
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and vigorous men and women. A circus with its skilled riders, its acrobats
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and tumblers, and its audience, with care for a time off their minds
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and smiles in their faces, is a far healthier place and connects one with
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a healthier thought current than a dissecting room or the poring over a book devoted
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to the recital of any form of suffering or disease. What we call the
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drawing power of mind is not that of longing for things. Longing implies impatience
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because they do not come so soon as we desire. The impatient state of
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mind will either drive what you desire from you or delay its advance. When
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your thought takes this form, I want the thing desired now, right now.
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I'm tired of waiting. I can't stand waiting any longer. I'm sick
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and tired of waiting. You are in the wrong mood. You are then
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using your force in scolding or grieving or finding fault because what you desire does
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not come when you scold or complain or grieve. Because the things you desire
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do not come, your force is set upon that scolding or grieving and is
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not working to bring them to you. It is analogous to the man who,
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in a fit of rage, should tear his wagon to pieces because it
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is stuck in a mire. The force he used to tear it to pieces
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might have drawn it out. The force of mind you need to put out
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to draw good things to you lies in that mood which says continually and calmly,
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I must have these things. I am going to have them, provided
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that a wisdom greater than mine sees that it will not work me injury to
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have them. It must be a mental state of serenity, in determination,
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decided and positive, but never angered or impatient or anxious or worrying, so
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that you keep your mind in the proper drawing mood. You need not have
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in mind continually the thing you desire. It is the state of mind that
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draws money and things desirable, and not the constant recollection of the special thing
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desired. When you can put your mind in this mood and keep it there,
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when for instance, you say to yourself calmly and deliberately, I am
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going to travel and see the world abroad, you can forget for a time
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that special purpose and employ and enjoy yourself in the other efforts without retarding it.
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All the power which will be working to send you abroad. You need
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only, as your determination to travel or any other aim recurs to your mind,
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have the mood of calm, unruffled determination and decision connected with it.
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You lessen this drawing power for good. When you get angry or irritable,
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you increase it. Then for evil, you lessen it for good through becoming
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discouraged or despondent, you set it. Then the wrong way, and for
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evil, you lessen it for good through hurried states of mind, to covet
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the property of another person, To comber the mind with schemes to get property
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through inheritance of another To feel anxiety, envy, and jealousy of others who
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may share in such property, or who may seem likely to get the whole
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of it. To set longing and envious eyes on another's lands, houses,
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carriages, horses, and other evidences of material wealth. To commence calculating on
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being brought into any degree of association with a rich man or woman, and
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how you may gain or wheedle or sow become a favorite of such person as
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to induce him or her to give you of their wealth. All this brings
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on a state of mind retarding your connection with the greatest drawing power. It
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brings to you a current of low groveling in narrow thought. It is loss
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also to allow yourself to drift into the petty prejudices of people concerning others,
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to take sides, even in thought, in petty quarrels. You lose power
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by engaging with others in any conversation on a plane of motive and sentiment.
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Lower than your own, such as tattle, sarcastic remark on the failings of
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others, fault finding with affairs which do not concern you, an unwarrantable inquiry
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in ferreting out others private affairs you put out in so doing thought forces which
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are opposed to, and will destroy or retard the effect of your higher and
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more powerful attitude of mind toward all mankind. An outflow of thought which deals
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only with the best in others, sees as little as possible of their thoughts,
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speaks as little as possible concerning them, and sends them in thought only
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good will, from which you will fight off every shade of malice, envy,
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and jealousy, thoughts now so dominant on our stratum of life, and
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which will thrust themselves in our minds at every opportunity. You want power to
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gain, the highest health, the greatest success in business, and the growth
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of your spirit into possibilities not now to be realized. Nothing so much weakens
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you in every way as descending in thought and talk to ill natured and ferreting
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gossip. You descend then to the world of failure and ill health. You
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clothe yourself then in an actual thought robe or envelope of weakness, the robes
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now worn by so many who ascribe their ill health or non success to any
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and everything. But this the real cause. Keep away as much as you
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can from despondent, reckless, and purposeless people, and you will keep your
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drawing power at its best. You will then not lessen it through adulteration by
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absorption of their discouraged, undecided, purposeless thoughts. If of necessity you are
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thrown in their company, make up your mind beforehand that you will not absorb
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any of their thought. Then you put on a positive protective armor against such
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absorption. If you give a great deal of your sympathy to those who do
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not believe in these ideas, if you make their troubles your troubles, and
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their cares your cares, you lessen your drawing power for the best, and
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increase it for the worst. For then you absorb these doubts and other defects
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of mind, you mix up your faith with their lack of faith. You
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cripple your decision with their possible indecision. Speak of your purposes only to those
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of whose friendship you are very sure, only to those who are not envious,
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and who really wish you to have your desire. Keeping your secrets adds
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vastly to your drawing power. Walls do have ears. In other words,
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secrets can get into the air if you talk them out, even when none
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with a physical body are near you. If you want to keep a secret
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from others, keep it as much as possible out of your own mind,
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save when it is absolutely necessary to recall it. For what you think,
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you make or put out in the air. And as put out in the
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air, when you are much of the time thinking of it, it is
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all the more likely to fasten on some mind about you in the form of
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a surmise, a passing thought, which, at last, as you keep
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forcing it upon them by thinking of it, ripens into a suspicion. All
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great successes depend on secrecy, that is, secrecy from all save those you
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can trust and who have an equal interest in the success with yourself. No
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practical man of business reads his ledgers to the public, or confides his plans
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to every one. To talk of your purpose to those who, in their
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secret thought, are jealous of your possible success, will lessen your force to
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draw the thing desire to you. Then you do literally give yourself, i
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e. Your thought or force away thousands cripple their fortunes. In this way.
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Temperance and moderation in the use of all things and in the play of
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all emotion is very necessary to the attainment of the most powerful drawing frame of
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mind. But asceticism and extreme self denial in anything only lessens this drawing power.
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For all asceticism creates unnatural longings. Then the force of mind is placed
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on what nature is starved of and will long for, and sets its thought
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or force upon of anything which annoys. You make up your mind that it
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shall not annoy you. This decision will increase the drawing power of your mind.
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But if in mind you give way to annoyances and do not resist them,
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you increase their power to annoy you. You bring on also by this
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mental condition more and more annoyances. You lessen also your force for drawing things
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to you, or in other words, you use that same force to draw
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annoying things to you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
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A disagreeable habit in another person, an impertinence or rudeness in another, a
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creaking door, anything in the working of the physical world about us, if
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we do not not set our minds against its annoying, us will grow more
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and more upon us, it will master us. All these things represent the
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devil to be resisted. When we allow ourselves to be annoyed by any person,
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we are ruled by that person. For if we cannot abide their presence
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in a room, then that person drives us from that room. If we
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cannot be agreeable to others with that person in our presence, then that person
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governs our speech and makes us silent and sulky. But when this resisting power
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is used, and we endeavor to turn our mind from the annoyance, we
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shall be carried at last beyond the reach of all annoying things. That is
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the real power for driving from us? What what annoys us? I do
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not here imply that the habit of being easily annoyed, or of non resistance
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to annoyance, or the habit and love of reading living mentally in scenes of
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misery, or any other mental habit which lessens our power can be immediately broken
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off. That is all but impossible. No mental habit the growth of years
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can be suddenly changed. How then, can it be changed by not trying
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too barred to change it by not becoming impatient on finding yourself unconsciously reverting to
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the state of mind you wish to get rid of. For impatience at anything
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is force employed in anger, because matters do not change as quickly as you
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wish, and that is so much force loss to your drawing power. You
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can, in this way hurt yourself as much when the motive is good as
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when it is bad. It will increase your drawing power to feel the real
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need of the thing you set your mind upon. There is a great difference
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between wanting things and needing things. Some people want everything they set their eyes
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on when they need but few of those things at a time. You may
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need warm garments for winter. You may want things which may have no use
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during winter. Now the need for serviceable clothing is imperative. For other things,
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the need may not be imperative, though they have their place and use
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in good time. If you feel the need of the thing you set your
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mind upon, you increase the force of your demand for it. This increases
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your drawing power, provided, as we must say again, your demand is
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made in the mood of decision and patience, and does not use itself up
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in the mood of impatience, because the thing demanded does not immediately come.
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There are two ways of saying I must have the better things desired. To
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say I must or I demand it in the mood of ugliness or irascibility carries
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little or no power to bring the thing demanded. But a great deal of
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drawing power is set upon the thing demanded when you say I demand this special
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thing because I need it, because it is right. I should have it,
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because I feel that my ability to benefit first myself and next others will
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be increased by it. This is the mood to be permanently maintained from month
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to month and year to year, until at last it becomes a part of
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yourself, and you carry such frame of mind, whether conscious you carry it
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or not. If you feel that there is truth in my assertions, then
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the seed of conviction is sown in your mind, that seed, that idea,
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that force will do the work for you you need. In a sense,
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do but little. That truth will take deeper and deeper root. It
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will grow an increase. You will find yourself gradually changing for the better.
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You will have less and less inclination to live in the grim and ghastly.
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As you realize more and more the danger of so doing better. Still,
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you will turn away more and more from the racks and slaughter pens of a
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lower life, as you realize more and more the power, the pleasure,
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and the profit of holding ever in your thought things cheerful, bright, gay,
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and innocent. When you acquire this power, or in other words,
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get your drawing force turned in the right direction, it is always working in
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some direction, you will know that it is all yours. No one can
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take it from you. It must also be ever on the increase. As
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it increases its force, it is increasing forever. When it is working in
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the right direction to bring you health, fortune, and success. In all
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you undertake, you depend on no one but yourself and the supreme power.
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You lean on no one. You will feel that you have the power within
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to accomplish all you undertake. You will not then seek fortune by marrying merely
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for money, or by waiting for rich relatives to die, or by pandering
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in any way to the rich and powerful. Your body also will by degrees
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grow more stronger, more healthy, more attractive. For you are then in
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the current which can carry you beyond the realm of disease, eeminent peace and
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tranquility of mind is the proof that this power is working in the right direction
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for you. There may be occasional intervals of mental disturbance. At times the
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force may return in its old direction. This is the effort of the old
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habit, the material mind to resume its sway. Such disturbances must become less
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and less violent, and of shorter and shorter duration, because your higher promptings
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or spiritual mind is the greater power and must always subdue the lower. The
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oriental adept or fakir has this power to a limited extent, but places it
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on purposes which, though wonderful from their novelty, are relatively of little use
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to him or others. The basis on which he acts lies in the holding
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of forces in himself and gathering them also from outside sources by a permanently calm,
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unruffled, deliberate, and undisturbed mental state of mind. Can all attain
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to this drawing power. Those who can have faith in it will reverse this
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same force now possibly bringing them poverty, sickness, and evil, and turn
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it in the direction of bringing them good. All will not have faith.
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These will go on as before, using their minds blindly to attract the evil
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and suffer from it. All must have this power in some existence. All
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may not reach it in this physical existence, but will in some future one.
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If you are alone in the world and lack congenial association, the mood
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of calm demand based for all things demanded on a continual silent desire or pray
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to be led by a higher and diviner wisdom than our own, will draw
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to you in time that association which is the best for you. Note it
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is in the power of some to have under their own roof a chapel for
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silent demand or prayer. A room can be set apart, furnished appropriately,
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and held sacred as a place for communion with the infinite mind. It should
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have no thought carried into it save that of an earnest desire to draw power
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to the spirit see error more and more clearly, be led of higher wisdom
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in the right way when we cannot see that way for ourselves, and gain
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ever in faith, in health, in strength, in beauty, in grace,
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and every desirable quality. It would prove for the family their inner sanctuary,
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their Holy of holies, and a place which, when rightly kept,
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would be ever filling with pure, healthy life, giving in mind clearing thought.
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It would be also the portal for ministering spirits to enter, who would
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add their beneficial thought and power to yours. It would confer untold benefit to
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members of the family who, having lost their bodies, but still drawn by
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the irresistible bonds of attraction, linger still harmless and lonesome about a former home.
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Its paintings and statuary should be suggestive only of nobility of character, of
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health, strength, vigor, grace, and beauty. For these representations in
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material clement are great helps to lift our minds above the thought of depression and
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suffering, and draws to us the spirit virtual element they symbolize. When the
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few make these physical conditions, as soon they will in their homes, there
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will be closer bonds than ever between the visible and invisible worlds. What is
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now deemed impossible and visionary will be realized also in time. But not to
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satisfy aimless curiosity, not to be trumpeted abroad as a show, but only
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to bring good to those who can believe and act up to a higher life.