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3
- The Nature of Mind-Power
At this point I am confronted
with the question that naturally arises when one
begins to consider an unfamiliar object, subject, or
principle--the question of: "What is it?" "What is
Mind-Power" is a difficult question to answer, for
it implies a knowledge of the thing "in-itself,"
apart from its activities and manifestations.
And this "thing-in-selfness" is
something that the candid, scientific thinker admits
is beyond the range of his thought and knowledge.
Any attempt to answer such a question must involve
one in a maze of metaphysical and philosophical
speculation regarding something with is by nature
unknowable.
And so I may as well frankly
state here that I do not purpose "guessing" at the
"thing-in-itselfness" of Mind-Power. For, at the
best, any attempt at an answer would be merely a
guess--for I do not know, neither do I know anyone
else who knows!
I am acquainted with the
numerous speculations of the ancient and modern
philosophers and metaphysicians on the subject--I
have read and studied them, and have rejected them
as mere theories unsupported by facts.
And I have made and rejected a
dozen or more theories of my own on the subject--all
vague, foolish speculations. I have studied the best
of what has been written and thought regarding this
"thing-in-itselfness" of mind and Mind-Power, so you
see my ignorance is not the ignorance that comes
from lack of thought, or lack of acquaintance with
the thoughts of others--but is rather the ignorance
that comes as the result of much thought, and much
study of the thoughts of others--the ignorance that
is only realized through knowledge.
Regarding these ultimate
questions, the best thinkers freely confess their
ignorance knowing that, as Nordau has said, they
"have plucked that supremest fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge--the consciousness of our ignorance." Like
Pyrrhon, some twenty-five centuries ago, they say "Uden
horizo"--"I do not decide."
We do not know
"things-in-themselves"--we cannot know them. If we
knew the ultimate truths regarding the tiniest and
most insignificant thing in the universe, we would
know everything that is-- for that tiniest thing is
connected with, and related to everything in the
universe, and that which underlies the universe--and
to know the "thing-in-itself" of anything would be
to know the great "Thing-in-Itself" of The All.
All that we can do is to know
and consider things by what they do; and how they
act; and through their manifestations and
activities; and the results and effects of the
same-- rather than by what they are in the abstract,
or apart from their activities, manifestations, and
the phenomena proceeding from them.
Apart from their activities,
manifestations and phenomena, things are but
abstract no-things so far as our understanding is
concerned--airy "words" coined by the metaphysicians
and philosophers in order to provide food for
speculation, argument, and dispute without end. And
we may as well admit the fact that all consideration
of ultimate things--things-in-themselves--inevitably
leads us to the conclusion that the only real
Thing-in-Itself is a SOMETHING, underlying all
things and yet a No-Thing, and which transcends all
of our experience, knowledge, reason, thought, and
even imagination. And therein lies the folly of
attempting to tell "just what" anything is.
In view of the facts mentioned,
and which are held to be correct by the world's best
thinkers, how much saner is it to devote our
attention to the consideration of things as known
through their activities, manifestations, and
phenomena--knowing them by what they do, and how
they act; by the laws and principles of the
activities and operations; rather than by
speculations concerning their nature as abstract
thing-in-themselves.
This is the method of modern
Science, as compared with those of speculative
philosophy and metaphysics. But, "a little learning
is a dangerous thing"; and "fools rush in where
angels fear to tread." And so we shall never be at a
loss for ingenious theories and "solutions" of
ultimate problems.
We have among as some who glibly
inform us that they know "just what Mind is!" Such
add to the gaiety of the nations, and therefore are
useful and interesting. Did you ever hear of the
youth at college, who when asked by his professor:
"What is electricity?" answered "Well, sir, I did
know, but I have forgotten!" The professor answered,
dryly: "Now, isn't that too bad! Here is the only
person in the world who ever knew just what
electricity is--and he has forgotten! What a loss to
the race!''
Why do we not have courage
enough to leave off this making of the speculative
soap-bubbles with which we have been amusing
ourselves, and learn to answer honestly, "I do not know!"
or, at least like modern Science, learn to
frankly state: Here our knowledge of the subject
ends; tomorrow we may know more, but
sufficient for the day is the knowledge thereof--and
an inch of knowledge of facts is worth a mile of
unsupported speculation and theory.
As Thomas L. Harris has said:
"The theorist who dreams a rainbow dream, and calls
hypothesis 'philosophy,' at best is but a paper
financier who palms his specious promises for gold
facts are the basis of philosophy; philosophy, the
harmony of facts, seen in their right relation."
And, now, having confessed your
ignorance and mine, let us proceed to a
consideration of Mind-Power as known by its
activities.
In the first place, let me say
that I do not hold that Mind-Power is identical with
mind. Rather does it seem to me to be correlated to
mind, particularly in the operation of mind known as
desire, will, and imagination.
If you like, we may consider it
to be the acting aspect of mind. Mind has three
aspects-- the aspect of being, or substance; the
aspect of thought, with the subdivisions of reason,
feeling, emotion, desire, will, etc., on both
conscious and subconscious planes; and third, the
aspect of ACTING. And it is in this aspect of action
that mind is known as Mind-Power.
While it is extremely likely
that there is a certain employment and manifestation
of Mind-Power in the ordinary processes of
reasoning, intellectual effort, etc., still
Mind-Power seems to be more closely connected with
the more elementary phase of mentation, such as
feeling, emotion, and particularly desire and will.
We know that it is possessed by
the lower forms of animal and plant life; even the
inorganic forms; all of which existed and employed
the force before intellect and reason manifested
itself in man. And so I would impress upon you that
while Mind-Power may be called into operation by,
and still more certainly may be directed by the
intellect--still you must not make the mistake of
identifying it with that phase of mind or
attributing it solely to creatures possessing the
same. It is a far more elementary and basic force,
as you have seen in the preceding chapter.
Indeed, in order that you may
understand the operations of Mind-Power you may as
well get into the habit of considering it as
correlated to that which we call WILL (as
distinguished from intellect and reason).
By "will" I do not mean that
phase or faculty of the mind which decides,
determines, or chooses--although this customary use
of the term is quite correct as applied to one phase
of will. This deciding, choosing, determining
faculty is one of the attributes of intellect and
Self-consciousness superimposed upon the elemental
will in the direction of guiding, directing, turning
and restraining--it is the Ego at the wheel,
directing the Ship of Life by the Chart of Reason,
the motive-power being will, or Mind-Power.
Choice in the lower forms of
life and activity simply means yielding to the
strongest desire, or aggregate of strongest desires,
or average of strongest desires.
No, I did not mean will in the
above sense, but in the more elementary sense of the
term--the original sense, for the word is derived
from the root meaning "to wish; to desire strongly."
And, in this elementary sense, the word "will" is
used to designate that primitive, original,
universal mental principle in life, which manifests
in desire for action, and in the response to that
desire. In this sense will may be considered as
Desire-Will, both being held to be phases of the
same thing--or rather the two poles of the same
thing.
The desire-pole of this
Desire-Will is connected with that which we call
emotion, feeling, etc., which arouses it into
action. The will-pole of this Desire-Will is
connected with that principle of mental activity
which we are considering under the name of
Mind-Power--the dynamic aspect of mind. I ask that
you re-read this paragraph, that you may fix this
idea firmly in your mind, for upon it depends the
correct understanding of much that I shall have to
say in this work.
In Desire we find the first step
toward Dynamic Mentation. Desire precedes action of
will which releases the dynamic force of the
mind--the Mind-Power. Desire is the coiling up the
steel-spring of Will--there is always a state of
"tension" about desire--a state of "coiled-up
energy" caused by "feeling," "emotion" or similar
state which has been aroused by the sight of, or
memory of, or thought of, some attractive object.
The "feeling" inspired by the attractive object
coils up the spring of desire, and this "coiled-up"
energy supplies the "motive-power of the will.
But, remember this, some desires
are acted upon, while others are rejected--neither
men nor things act upon every desire. There
is the other pole of the Desire-Will which must be
called into action--and this leads us to a
consideration of the matter of choice,
determination, or decision, which is so often
expressed by the term "Will," as I said a little
further back.
This choosing or determining
phase of will, is little more than an empty name or
term, so far as is concerned the relation between
desire and will action in the cases of things and
creatures lower in the scale than man. For in these
cases this choice, determination, or decision is
based entirely upon the degree of "feeling," or the
degree of attractiveness of the objects presenting
themselves to the attention --the strongest feeling,
attraction, or motive-interest winning the day.
(Fear is one of the strongest feelings influencing
desire, and acts usually as a neutralizer of other
feelings and desires, and is most potent as a motive
influencing choice or decision--in fact, one is
justified in regarding fear as the negative form of
desire, being really a "desire-not-to.")
With the advent of reason, and
intellect, particularly when the self-conscious ego
appears, new elements are introduced, by reason of
which man is enabled to deliberate and weigh
motives, desires, feelings, emotions, etc., and thus
the will of man is held to contain elements lacking
in the general principle of will.
But the aspect of will with
which we are much concerned is the aspect of
action--the will-pole of Desire-Will.
Just where desire passes into
will is impossible to decide--the chances are that
they blend into each other. But this we do know,
that "something happens" at a certain stage of the
mental operation, whereby the attention of the
thing, or ego, passes from the pole of desire to the
pole of will-- and then, one of two things happens,
i.e.,
(1) either the
"coiled-up" spring of desire is released by the
will, and the energy of desire is transmuted into
the energy of will, which thus releases the
Mind-Power or dynamic quality of mind into action;
or else,
(2) the will refuses to be
aroused, and desire slowly uncoils her spring, and
the tension is relieved, gradually or at once. The
will may be cultivated and developed so as to refuse
to release the spring of desire into action--and in
this inhibiting quality lies much of that which is
called "strength of will"-- it often requires more
will not to do, than to do.
The aspect of "action" is the
true dynamic quality of will. And with action all
will is intimately and inseparably connected. As
Prof. Halleck says: "Will concerns itself with
action. The student must keep that fact before him,
no matter how complex the matter seems." Action is
the "inner meaning" and reason of the will.
And it is with this phase that
we are concerned in the present work. Action is the
essential aspect of Mind-Power--the latter exists
for the purpose of Acting. It is the essence of
activity.
And so you will see that this
"universal dynamic mental principle"--which I have
called "Mind-Power," is not that phase of mind which
manifests as intellectual, reasoning processes, but
is that phase of mind which is aroused by
desire-will--and which ACTS. It is manifest in the
universe among forms of life below the plane of
reason, as well as among those on that plane, and
therefore precedes Reason in evolution.
It also manifests along
unconscious and automatic lines, and precedes the
self-conscious stage of man. It represents an
elementary, primitive, fundamental, dynamic mental
force; and may be thought of as a raw, crude,
undeveloped force: manifesting along the lines of
instinctive action or appetency, rather than along
the lines of intellect, reason, or the higher
cognitive faculties. It is something far more
elemental and basic than intellect. It is more
nearly akin to the elemental life forces which we
personify under the name of "Nature."
"Whether or not that which we
know as reason or intellect were evolved from an
elemental Mind-Stuff; or whether these higher forms
of mentality are something of an entirely higher and
distinct nature; or whether, as the occultists hold,
intelligence is the result of the influence of a
Spiritual Ego (something distinct from mind) upon an
elementary Mind-Stuff--these are questions belonging
to other phases of the general subject of Being,
with which we have nothing to do in the
consideration of the subject before us.
I have my own opinions and
beliefs on these points, and so have each of you--we
may differ regarding the same, but may still be able
to examine the subject before us as co-workers, in
spite of our lack of agreement regarding questions
of philosophy, metaphysics, or religion. We are
dealing with a natural force--a universal
energy--now and here, and should examine and study
its principles just as we would were it electricity,
magnetism, heat or light that we were studying.
I am inviting you to a
scientific study, not a metaphysical or
philosophical speculation, doctrine or theory. These
latter things have their own good places--but they
have no place here at this time.
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