Of all the attributes which we of the twentieth century should most
strenuously encourage, that of common sense ranks first, in the face
of the hysteria which threatens to weaken, if it does not swamp, all
the wonderful new spirit of progress which is abroad.
Common sense applied to everything alone can restore our equilibrium
as a nation, because as the years of this new century go on hysteria
seems to increase. Nothing in the way of a public event can happen,
from the just condemnation of a criminal for some atrocious crime, to
the sinking of an ocean mammoth ship, but a large section of the
public makes an outcry inspired by altruism or so-called
humanitarianism, both developing into hysteria.
Let us look at the reason of this carefully, and we shall see that
this state of things is the direct result of an irresponsible
employment of the gigantic power of thought. Some few excitable brains
start an idea, the circulation of which is made possible by the modern
facilities for expression in the press. And because the majority of
readers do not think for themselves, they are drawn into the current
of unrest which has thus been suggested to their imagination, each
individual augmenting its strength until it grows into a torrent of
folly.
This proves the tremendous importance it is to a nation that each of
its units should realise his own responsibility in regard to this
matter. The moment that such a thing could be accomplished--that is,
that the understanding of the power of thought could be brought home
to people--there are millions of sound, honest folk who would
deliberately try to use their possession of it for the good of
themselves and the race, and who would bring up their children to do
likewise.
The wave of complete materialism which passed over Europe during what
we call the Victorian period discouraged any personal investigation of
forces beyond what could actually be proved by the senses. Numberless
examples of natural phenomena were laughed to scorn as the illusions
of the ignorant. People read their Bibles, wherein there are countless
instances shown of the power of thought, and never dreamed of applying
the teaching to themselves. How such a materialistic age ever accepted
Christ's miracles is a matter for wonderment, although now, looked at
from the point of view of those who have investigated the currents of
nature, the miracles are merely a proof of Jesus' divine understanding
of these currents and forces in their greatest measure. We modern
people are only as yet at the experimental stage, and hedged in by
timidity and custom, but there is no reason why we should not advance
if we desire to do so.
Think how the power of thought showed itself about the _Titanic_
disaster! There is no need now to go over its hysterical effects upon
us on land, how in our misery and anxiety we praised and blamed from
excitable imagination, before any actual facts could be known to
justify either course. But let us instead try to imagine what in its
glorious form it did upon that great ship on the night of her
overwhelming.
Everything seems to have been calm and in fair order. Why? Because it
has been now proved that the majority of those on board did not
_think_ the ship could sink. Only a limited number of men _knew_ that
she not only could, but _would_, and these glorious and splendid souls
did their duty to the last, with the awful knowledge of certain death
in their hearts. Their names should be written in letters of
gold--heroes, indeed! But, meanwhile, the power of thought had kept
all calm, and had permitted the saving of the women and children
without panic.
Think for a moment what would have happened if the passengers of all
classes had been aware, from the first moment of the collision, that
all were bound to go down who could not find places in the boats. The
power of thought would then have created a mad panic of fear which no
officers' pistols could have kept in check, and which might have
produced a rush upon the lifeboats which would have swamped them all.
But as it was, the power of thought in the few individuals who
realised the general peril, was used by them in a godlike suppression
of their own emotion, which produced an answering vibration of calm in
the majority under their care.
I do not want to refer to the awful story except in so far as it is a
concrete illustration of what I wish to write about--the power of
thought examined with common sense in its relation to the happiness of
each individual, and the responsibility of its employment by each
individual for the benefit of the community--not from the desire to
use this opportunity to circulate propaganda for any of the new
ethical teachings, but simply from a common-sense point of view to see
what good we can get out of a belief that is, I suppose, common to
them all.
Now let us consider what most of us do actually know about this power
of thought. We all are aware that no picture can be painted, no
machinery invented, before a clear vision of it has been realised in
the creator's brain. Not a single conscious action can be put into
motion and force without its having first occurred to the imagination.
The painter's hand and brush would be of no avail undirected by his
brain or mind, which has first mentally visualised what it wishes to
create in fact. Draw the analogy from this, and you will see that what
you think about must have an enormous bearing upon your life. If
thought, when inspired by desire, is strong enough to cause the hand
to reproduce the vision of the imagination of the artist, this is an
incontestable proof that thought is a very strong force indeed. You
will agree with this if you--each individual who is reading these
words--begin to examine yourself with truth.
Admitted, then, that you perceive the force of thought. Now consider
what miserable thinking is likely to bring you. It, according to the
analogy above, can only eventually attract for you _in fact_ the
miserable conditions that you have dwelt upon in imagination. If, on
the contrary, you think constantly of fine and prosperous things, you
must by this reasoning, be connecting yourself with the currents which
can bring them in their material form.
Therefore, every time you say "I am ill," or think "I am ill," are you
not helping the illness to materialise? because the power of thought,
which you cannot deny as the initial cause of every action, has then
been turned to aid the condition of ill health.
Supposing for some cause you really are ill, why then help this evil
state to augment by your thoughts? Rather impede its progress as far
as you can by creating good-thought conditions.
You may reply, "But I am constantly doing this, and yet nothing good
comes." Pause and use your common sense by remembering that for
twenty--thirty--forty years perhaps, when you did not analyse matters,
you were laying up for yourself numberless stumbling-blocks by wrong
thinking, which according to the law we are discussing must be
surmounted before you can start on a clear road. And the reason why
you do not immediately receive the result of your good thoughts is
that you are still under the action of your bad ones. But if you
recognise this law of the power of thought, you need not incur for
yourself any further debts to pay.
And to recognise it as a law you have only to use your common sense to
see that it is not conceivable that thoughts can have no effect
outside your own brain. They cannot be wasted and go into nothingness,
they _must_ strike some answering vibration somewhere, and it is
surely rational to suppose they will strike the kindred vibration
rather than some totally different one, as the Marconi messages strike
the pole in tune to them. At least, it is worth while trying to
believe this, because if you can it will make you happier.
Alas! I am not a scientist who can dogmatically prove every fraction
of my beliefs. I only want to awaken my readers to think for
themselves upon this interesting subject, for the facts are there for
us all to investigate, unaided by scientists, if we will.
So without any more argument, shall we take it for granted that you
are with me thus far, and have seen my point? Yes. Then let us examine
what our thoughts do for us.
For example, let us suppose a man has a disease which is believed to
be incurable. His thoughts tell him so constantly, and the thoughts of
his friends, often expressed in words, convince him still further of
his misfortune. He is certain nothing he can do will make it better,
and any remedy that is applied will only meet with failure. He has
made his mental picture of an incurable disease; and so he is helping
the material result to accomplish itself. But, as hope springs eternal
in the human breast, he still goes from doctor to doctor for fresh
advice, while unconsciously nullifying the benefit he might receive
from doing so by his attitude of mind in holding the belief that
nothing can cure him. We must all of us know of cases like this, and
have seen the gradual increase in the person's illness.
Now supposing that the starting-point is the same; the disease
certainly is there, but the man is determined not to aid and augment
this state of things, so whenever the thought presents itself that he
has an incurable disease he persistently banishes it and replaces it
with one that he will grow well. He will be aiding that condition; he
will be making himself the pole in tune to receive the answering
vibrations of his mental picture. He will know that he must be drawing
to himself every chance that science has up till this time of the
world's day been able to invent or discover for the betterment of such
a disease as his. He will know that he is giving nature a free hand,
and as far as he is able, he is opening every door to the probability
that he may grow well. Now, if we admit the power of thought, we must
admit it has power to go both these ways. Is it not worth while trying
to think good things for ourselves, then, instead of evil ones?
It does not seem possible, as I understand some assert, that by mere
thinking and believing we can cure even a broken arm. Because,
although the principle may be right in its eventuality, no one on
earth can be quite advanced enough yet to draw these forces to himself
sufficiently strongly to demonstrate it as Christ did. But we are at
the stage when, by our thoughts, we can certainly aid physical means
of betterment. Thus when we or our friends are ill, it lies in our own
hands whether we will aid or retard our or their recovery.
Long years ago, before any of these psychic waves were discussed or
given the least credence, I remember a very celebrated American doctor
telling me, as a curious fact, that he often got his patients over the
crisis of typhoid fever by telling them cheerfully beforehand that the
dangerous moment was passed, and they were not to worry over the
seemingly worse physical sensations they were perhaps about to
experience--these were only the reaction. In that way, he said, he
removed the amount of fear from the mind of the patient which
otherwise might have been enough to cause the extra exertion to the
heart which would have proved fatal at the critical moment. The power
of thought, you see, and nothing else, then saved them.
To continue this line of reasoning in mental, not physical, things.
Supposing you feel angry and resentful towards some one, and you send
out thoughts of hate and ill-will. The pole in tune to such feelings
in that person will answer and return them to you, and a condition of
evil will be created. But supposing that, when perhaps the justly
angry and resentful thoughts present themselves, you replace them
instantly with kind and loving ones. You will have disconnected
yourself with the evil thoughts of the other person, they can no
longer reach you, and if he has any good in him you will have
connected yourself with that good, and so peace can be established.
All this is common sense, which is the only attitude of mind with
which to approach any new suggestion that we may get benefit from it,
and not through our arrogant ignorance dismiss it as nonsense, until
we have proved it to be such. A hundred years ago the telephone would
have been considered either as magic or the vapourings of a madman if
an individual had tried to explain it. We say that "France is
developing a new spirit," we say "A wave of discontent seems to be
passing over such and such a community," we are thus unconsciously
admitting the power of forces beyond the perceptible. Why cannot we
instantly grasp, then, what the power of our everyday thought is doing
for us, and how careful we should be in its direction to avoid
augmenting the current of foolish and harmful ones--because unity is
strength. There are many grains of good to be got out of all new
ethical teachings, if only they can be sifted by common sense. The
unfortunate part is, that very often it is only the faddists who
expound them, and they go off at a tangent. One reads several pages of
illuminating matter, and then, perhaps, one comes upon a chapter
devoted to proving that mankind must train itself to live upon nuts or
uncooked vegetables! Or that the only way to learn concentration is
for the pupil to school himself mentally to stare for so many minutes
at an imaginary spot in the solar plexus!
Common sense revolts, although many may not be sufficiently trained to
make the deduction that if God, the omnipotent, original,
all-dominating dynamo, gave the flesh of bird, beast and fish, and the
fruits and vegetables of the earth for mankind to feed upon, it is a
little ridiculous for one sect to eliminate as food all but the
special part of these aliments of which it approves. Thus, common
sense being affronted, all the rest of the teaching is likely to fall
upon stony ground and only be received by the faddists in tune to this
particular argument. No theory for the betterment of mankind will
succeed now with the mass of people or make any lasting mark upon time
unless its basic principle can stand practical dissection.
So that upon this subject of the power of thought, all that any one at
the present stage can do, no matter what his own personal beliefs may
be, is to try and awaken people to think about it themselves and make
their own investigations; to open a window for any soul to look
through and see what he can get from it for himself. Because, as yet,
the scientists and psychologists have not been sufficiently interested
in the idea to endeavour to prove and demonstrate it as an exact
science beyond all controversy. When this has been done, the
intelligent will credit it because they are convinced, and the
ignorant because they follow the others without reason.
All I hope to do by writing this article is to point out that the
power of thought is a vital factor in our lives, and can really affect
every hour of them for good or ill.
Thousands of people who read the new ethical or religious books which
are abroad, and even exploit their propaganda--thousands who attend
the various meetings and services and lectures of the different
societies, be they "New Thought" or any of the others on more or less
the same lines--never dream of applying the teachings to a single
ordinary thing, and still go on with their tempers and melancholy and
flurry and fuss, just as they did before they ever heard of the idea
that they can control and eliminate these things. An enormous majority
of the public are frightened at the very name of a new religion or
ethical teaching, and think it wrong even to investigate what it
teaches. But the broad-minded are unafraid of any knowledge, and can
gain good by knowing about all developments of human thought, provided
they approach each point with common sense and without hysteria,
dismissing the idea of what we are accustomed to call the
supernatural, and realising that everything has a perfectly natural
explanation when it can be understood, and it is only our ignorance
which makes us shy at it.
And so I would appeal to those who credit this power of thought to
employ it responsibly, and to realise that they are all God's atoms in
the great scheme of things, and must use their personal force as a
contribution to the vast thought-waves which can advance, or which,
when ill directed, can sweep away a nation.