The Magic OF Believing / Магията на Вярата: Chapter 2 - MIND-STUFF EXPERIMENTS

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Hermes Trismegistus and the anent Hermetic philosophers all taught the theory of vibration. Pythagoras, the great geometrician and philosopher who lived in the sixth century before Christ, held that everything that exists is a vibration. This is the very essence of our scientific electronic theory of today – that all matter consists of electrons (with a negative charge), neutrons (with a neutral charge), protons (with a positive charge), and other subatomic particles, each with their own charges, which constantly act and react with one another.

#51

For want of a better term, I use the word “vibration” or “oscillation”: when the vibrations of its component molecules are speeded up, the form of a material object often changes – as when an ice cube melts in a hot skillet and soon evaporates into steam. But the essential differences in matter, and in the so-called elements as we know them, arise mainly from their differing numbers of electrons, neutrons, and protons. By adding and subtracting protons, nuclear scientists can actually change atoms of one element into atoms of another – thus verifying the ancient alchemists’ claim that lesser elements, such as iron and lead, could be transmuted into silver and gold. The alchemists also were able to heal all disease by the same forces.

#52

When you realize that your nervous system is reached only through vibration – in other words, that our five known senses record vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell by means of vibrations given off by the external things themselves – you get a better understanding of the nature of vibrations. For example, we hear a loud noise. It comes to us only via the sound vibration through the air. We see a green leaf, but it is merely a pattern of light waves as gathered by the eyes and transmitted to the brain. There are, however, many vibrations pitched at a much greater frequency than our senses are attuned to, and of which we never have any conscious knowledge. For example, there is a whistle pitched so high that only a dog can hear it.

#53

We have all heard of the power of “the laying on of hands,” and most of us know how soothing hands stroking our temples can lessen the intensity of a headache. Can this be due to some form of energy flowing from our finger ends? The Bible tells of numerous instances where healing was accomplished by the touch of Jesus’ hand.

#54

Does the explanation lie in this little-known field of electricity – the science of vibration? And does this electrical atmosphere, which Dr. Burr claims is of our own making and which surrounds all living things, enable us to cause certain impulses to pour forth literally from our fingers or from our minds – vibratory forces that can act upon others and upon so-called material objects? In the wintertime, and at high altitudes, you can feel and often see the electric spark that results from walking across the rug and then touching some metallic object. That, of course, is a form of static electricity generated by friction, but it gives an idea of how one kind of electricity can be developed through the body.

#55

Among pictures descriptive of the experiments of Yale investigators is one showing that when subjects dipped their forefingers in saltwater cups connected with a galvanometer, there was a flow of electricity between the positive left hand and the negative right hand, measuring 1.5 millivolts. In another picture, two middle fingers, one with a slight cut at the tip, were partially immersed in the cups. But this time the polarity of the hands changed, the left hand changing from positive to negative and the right becoming positive, with the current stepping up to 12 millivolts.

#56

As I looked at those pictures, I recalled an instrument perfected many years ago by a French scientist, Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc. Known as a “biometre,” it consisted of a bell-shaped glass in which was suspended a copper needle fastened to a fine silk thread. Below the needle, but inside the glass, was a circular piece of cardboard marked off into degrees.

#57

Two of these instruments were placed side by side, and the operator held the fingers of both hands within half an inch of the glass, his mind concentrated on the delicately balanced needle. By changing his mental attitude or the polarity of his thinking, the operator could cause corresponding changes in the direction of the needle, now in one direction and now in another, the needle following his changing thought currents.

#58

Here is a simple experiment embodying similar principles. Take a piece of medium-weight paper, about three inches square, and fold it diagonally from corner to corner. Then open it and make another diagonal fold so that there are two folds or creases forming intersecting diagonals. Again open the paper, which will now present the appearance of a low, partially flattened-out pyramid. Now take a long needle and force it through a cork so that the point extends an inch or so above the top of the cork. Place the cork with its needle, point up, on an inverted water glass, so that there may be free movement of the paper which is to revolve on the needle point. Then take the piece of paper and place the spot where the creases intersect on the point of the needle, with the four sides of the pyramid sloping downward.

#59

Place the glass, with the cork, needle, and paper on a table or desk in a room free from drafts. Keep away from heat registers or windows, thus avoiding possible heat waves or air currents. Then place your hands around the piece of paper in a semi-cupped position, keeping the fingers a half inch or so away, so that the paper may revolve freely. Now order it to revolve upon the needle point. At first it will wobble – perhaps revolving slowly at first and in one direction or the other; but if your hands remain steady and you concentrate upon a certain direction of movement, the paper will revolve until it turns rapidly upon the needle point. If you mentally order a change in direction, the one-way movement will cease and the paper will start revolving in the opposite direction. Of course, it is essential that you do not breathe or exhale in the direction of the paper.

#60

Many explanations of what causes the paper to revolve have been offered – heat waves from the hands, a body reflex of some kind, and the like. If the paper revolved in only one direction, then one of these explanations could be possible. But when a person, with a little practice and confident and concentrated thinking, can cause the paper to revolve first in one direction and then in another by reversing the polarity of their thinking, it is clear that the principle is the same as that which governs experiments with the biometre.

#61

Another similar experiment uses a dialette, a small disc of cardboard bearing the facsimile of the face of a clock, with numbers from one to twelve. (This is better known as the Rosicrucian Dialette and is issued by Amorc, Rosicrucian Brotherhood.) A sharp needle is pushed through its center and on top of the needle is balanced a sliver of thin cardboard in the shape of an arrow. The disc is placed on top of a glass filled with water in which the lower part of the needle is submerged. The operator places their hands around the top of the glass, the disc, and arrow; then orders the arrow to revolve, change its position, or stop at any desired position or

#62

number.

#63

However, not everyone can immediately get satisfactory results in these experiments, because the power of mind, thought concentration, and projective influence vary from individual to individual. If a form of electricity emanates from our hands or fingers in particular and if waves, either dynamic or magnetic vibrations, are set up by our thinking, we then have an explanation of table-tipping, automatic writing, the performances of the planchette or Ouija board, and many other mediumistic and occult operations.

#64

Dr. Phillips Thomas, research engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Company, in 1937, told the Utah session of the American Electric Institute, “We feel certain that whatever we do, say, or think is accomplished by some type of radiation. We think such radiations are electricity. In the near future, we may be able to capture and interpret these radiations of personality and thought through electrical impulses.”

#65

Since some of my readers may not have a clear understanding of the radiation of thought, I offer a simple explanation. A pebble tossed into a pond immediately sets up a series of ripples or small waves, which spread out circle-like on the surface of the water and ultimately reach the shoreline, where they appear to stop. The larger the pebble, the higher the waves. Two stones of different sizes and weights, tossed in simultaneously at different places but in close proximity, will each set up a series of waves, converging upon each other. Where the two sets meet, there appears to be a struggle as to which is to overcome or pass the other. As far as our physical vision is concerned, if the waves are of the same size, both seem to stop or merge at their meeting-point; but if one is larger than the other, it sweeps over the smaller and creates waves in the wake of the smaller ripples.

#66

Think about this in connection with your own mental impulses – for example, how thoughts of one nature stop or overwhelm others. You can readily appreciate that the more powerful or concentrated the thought, the quicker its tempo, the greater its vibration, the more it sweeps aside weaker vibrations and the more rapidly it does its creative work.

#67

We hear much about various stages of meditation, levels of consciousness, thought concentration, the strength of our faith – all of which deals with the intensity or degree of power we send forth. Creative force comes only when a thought is completely rounded-out, when the imagination can visualize the fulfillment of your ambition and see in your mind a picture of the object you desire – a house, a car, a television – just as if you already possessed them.

#68

After studying the so-called mystic teachings, the various mental sciences, and the regular church teachings, I am convinced that they all work in varying degrees, but only to the extent that their followers believe. So it is with prayer, whether it be a part of a church service or the purely spontaneous and personal supplication of the individual.

#69

However, I am forced to conclude that many people go through the lip service of saying their prayers without the slightest belief that those prayers will be answered.

#70

Consequently, they are not answered. I am frequently reminded of the story of the old lady, professing a belief in prayer, who planned to go shopping. The day before, she prayed that the sun would shine on her shopping day. Upon completion of her prayer she glanced out of the window, saw some black clouds, and instantly declared, “But I know it’s going to rain.”

#71

In the late fall of 1944, an article by Thomas Sugrue in the Saturday Review of Literature declared that the mind-cure movement had grown so rapidly that it was now encountered everywhere. He cited several cases in which sufferers had secured phenomenal results. One woman, who at sixty-two had been partially crippled, her fingers bent with arthritis, had taken up a system of Yogi breathing and had entirely recovered from her physical ailments. Mr. Sugrue declared that after her restoration to health, those who saw her judged her to be about forty. Another woman achieved excellent results under an occult system of metaphysics, and guesses as to her age were fifteen years under her real age. Sugrue told also of a retired missionary who for the past twelve years had experimented with psychic phenomena and had obtained most startling results.

#72

We can come to only one conclusion: that is that all the systems, creeds, and cults work as a result of the firm beliefs of the individual – and that brings us to the magic of believing.

#73

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, brought forth the hypothesis that a powerful force within us, an unilluminated part of the mind – separate from the conscious mind – is constantly at work molding our thoughts, feelings, and actions. It isn’t an organ of so-called physical matter, such as we know the brain to be, and science hasn’t located its tangible position in the human body. Nevertheless, it is there, and from the beginning of recorded time, man has known that it exists. The ancients often referred to it as the “spirit.” Paracelsus called it the will, others have called it the mind, an adjunct of the brain. Some have referred to it as conscience, the creator of the “still, small voice within.” Others have called this division of our mental existence the soul, and some metaphysical teachers claim that it is located in the solar plexus. Others call it the superego, the inner power, the super-consciousness, the unconscious, the subconscious, and various other names. Still others have asserted that it is a part of the Supreme Intelligence to which we are all linked. Hence the name Universal Mind – that which embraces every living thing, all human as well as plant and animal life.

#74

No matter what we call it – I prefer the term subconscious – it is recognized as the essence of life, and the limits of its power are unknown. It never sleeps. It comes to our support in times of great trouble, it warns us of impending danger, it often aids us to do what seems impossible. It guides us in many ways and when properly employed, performs so-called miracles.

#75

Objectively, it does as it is told – that is, when it is commanded or besought by the conscious mind; subjectively, it acts primarily upon its own initiative, although there are times when its activity appears to be the result of influences from the outside.

#76

Sir Arthur Eddington is quoted as saying, “I believe that the mind has the power to affect groups of atoms and even tamper with the odds of atomic behavior, and that even the course of the world is not predetermined by physical laws but may be altered by the uncaused volition of human beings.”

#77

When this idea is fully comprehended, it becomes breathtaking. It is more understandable in the light of the electronic or vibratory theory.

#78

Every student of the subject knows what may be accomplished by getting into direct contact with the subconscious mind – thousands have employed it to achieve wealth, power, and fame in this world, as well as to cure physical ailments and solve countless human problems. And its power is there for you to use. The only steps you have to take are to believe in its power and use the technique set forth in this book – or else devise a system of your own that will put it to work for you.

#79

Dana Sleeth’s syndicated column covering the observations of a hillbilly was well known to newspaper readers in the 1920s. He once told me that he considered the subconscious mind one of his greatest aids, not only in furnishing him with ideas but in helping him find lost tools and other articles. Mr. Sleeth at the time was living in the hills, remote from cities and towns, alternating as a columnist and farmer. He had made an extensive study of the subject, and we often discussed it in letters covering our ideas.

#80

It’s a wonderful thing – the subconscious mind, [said Mr. Sleeth], and for the life of me I can’t see why more people don’t learn about it and its use. I don’t know how many thousands of times it has helped me with my problems. Ideas for feature stories have often come to me when I was engaged in such lowly tasks as stump grubbing. And as for locating lost tools – it’s a knockout.

#81

You know nothing is ever lost – it’s just misplaced. It’s right there to be found in the exact place where you left it or dropped it. I have found dozens of misplaced tools in the identical spot where my subconsciousmind told me to look. Say, for example, it was a pocket knife – mine’s a good-sized one – that I had misplaced or dropped. I would say, “Pocketknife, where are you?” Then I would close my eyes for a moment, or I might gaze off into space – the answer might not always come immediately, but when it did, it would come in a flash, and I would be led right to the spot where lay the knife. It always seemed to work unfailingly – even to such things as axes, rakes, and other tools that I was constantly leaving around somewhere – you know we newspaper people are not very methodical.

#82

I used to have a great deal of difficulty in remembering names, but I have found that if I could visualize the man or woman whose name I had temporarily forgotten, and see an outline of his or her features, the color of the eyes, hair, manner of dress, etc., the subconscious would bring me the name without difficulty.

#83

I don’t know where I learned this, but in trying to recall something, a certain story or certain fact that appeared at the moment to escape me, I would relax, elevate my head and put my right hand a couple of inches above my forehead. Sometimes I might close my eyes or gaze off into space; but this little trick always seemed to get results.

#84

Never forget: inventions, great musical compositions, poetry, fiction, and all other ideas for original accomplishment come from the subconscious. Give it the thought or the material and keep it going with a deep-rooted desire for performance, and you will get results. There is an old saying that once we start weaving, the Gods will furnish the skein, and how true that is!

#85

When you start to operate with the aid of this power, the bricks automatically fall into place as though a magical hand had touched them. Results will certainly follow in a most astounding manner. Ideas for accomplishment will pop here and they will pop there.

#86

What may appear as coincidences are not coincidences at all, but simply the working out of the pattern which you started with your own weaving.

#87

I am certain that thousands of successful men and women reach great heights and accomplish marvelous results without knowing anything about the subconscious mind and with no knowledge that it was the power which made for accomplishments.

#88

Living here in the hills away from people and everyday influences, I have often felt that those who live close to nature were in a much better position to utilize the subconscious than others. I believe that day will come when science will prove that the great power of the subconscious is one of the most formidable forces in shaping and controlling our lives.

#89

A passing, momentary thought-flicker dies almost in birth, although it may later reveal cumulative power. But the force that brings into play the great system of the subconscious is a sustained thought – or, as I mentioned before, a fixed mental picture. In order to bring subconscious forces into action, there are many methods for stepping up the tempo of the vibrations of conscious thought although some times, just a single utterance, a momentary glance and a word or two traveling from one person to another, will bring the subconscious into immediate action. So it is with catastrophic danger, moments of great peril and periods of great stress, which suddenly confront a person with the necessity for immediate action. The subconscious comes to the aid of those in the habit of making quick decisions almost instantaneously, and it comes into operation when you have cleared your conscious mind of its multitude of conflicting thoughts. “Going into the silence” is another way of expressing it. Don Juan told Carlos Castaneda that the mind’s constant chatter was a major barrier to getting in touch with any higher guidance.

#90

Perhaps the most effective method of bringing the subconscious into practical play is through making mental pictures. Use your imagination to perfect an image of the thing or situation as you would like it to exist in physical form. This is usually referred to as visualization. However, most sustained and continuing manifestations come as a result of deep-seated belief. Through this belief, with its strange power, miracles happen and peculiar phenomena occur for which there appears to be no known explanation. I refer now to unquestioning belief – a firm and positive conviction that goes through every fiber of your being – when you believe with your heart and soul.

#91

Call it a phase of emotion, a spiritual force, a type of electrical vibration – anything you please – but that’s the force that brings outstanding results, sets the law of attraction into operation, and allows sustained thought to correlate with its object. Belief changes the tempo of the mind or thoughtfrequency. Like a huge magnet, it draws the subconscious forces into play, changing your whole aura and affecting everything about you – including people and objects at great distances. It often brings into your individual sphere of life results that are sometimes startling – results you never dreamed possible.

#92

Countless references to belief appear in the Bible. It is the first condition for membership in many religious, fraternal, and political organizations. Leaders everywhere are looking for people who have the kinds of beliefs they will fight for, because the people charged with the vibrations of strong beliefs sometimes do the miraculous, things others often say are unbelievable. That kind of belief has the magic touch. Indeed, it is the basic principle in both white and black magic.

#93

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