These radiating vibrations, like all others in nature, become less
powerful in proportion to the distance from their source, though it is
probable that the variation is in proportion to the cube of the distance
instead of to the square, because of the additional dimension involved.
Again, like all other vibrations, these tend to reproduce themselves
whenever opportunity is offered to them; and so whenever they strike
upon another mental body they tend to provoke in it their own rate of
motion. That is--from the point of view of the man whose mental body is
touched by these waves--they tend to produce in his mind thoughts of the
same type as that which had previously arisen in the mind of the thinker
who sent forth the waves. The distance to which such thought-waves
penetrate, and the force and persistency with which they impinge upon
the mental bodies of others, depend upon the strength and clearness of
the original thought. In this way the thinker is in the same position as
the speaker. The voice of the latter sets in motion waves of sound in
the air which radiate from him in all directions, and convey his message
to all those who are within hearing, and the distance to which his voice
can penetrate depends upon its power and upon the clearness of his
enunciation. In just the same way the forceful thought will carry very
much further than the weak and undecided thought; but clearness and
definiteness are of even greater importance than strength. Again, just
as the speaker's voice may fall upon heedless ears where men are already
engaged in business or in pleasure, so may a mighty wave of thought
sweep past without affecting the mind of the man, if he be already
deeply engrossed in some other line of thought.
It should be understood that this radiating vibration conveys the
character of the thought, but not its subject. If a Hindu sits rapt in
devotion to Krishna, the waves of feeling which pour forth from him
stimulate devotional feeling in all those who come under their
influence, though in the case of the Muhammadan that devotion is to
Allah, while for the Zoroastrian it is to Ahuramazda, or for the
Christian to Jesus. A man thinking keenly upon some high subject pours
out from himself vibrations which tend to stir up thought at a similar
level in others, but they in no way suggest to those others the special
subject of his thought. They naturally act with special vigour upon
those minds already habituated to vibrations of similar character; yet
they have some effect on every mental body upon which they impinge, so
that their tendency is to awaken the power of higher thought in those to
whom it has not yet become a custom. It is thus evident that every man
who thinks along high lines is doing missionary work, even though he may
be entirely unconscious of it.