Is not the answer that, to a great degree at least, and perhaps altogether, this world round about us is one of our mind’s own creating? And that we can put into it, and get from it, pretty much what we wish? You see this illustrated every day. A panorama is spread before you. To you it is a beautiful picture; to another it appears a mere collection of rocks and trees. A girl comes out to meet you. To you she is the embodiment of loveliness; to another all that grace and beauty may look drab and homely. A moonlit garden, with its fragrant odors and dew-drenched grass, may mean all that is charming to you, while to another it brings only thoughts of asthma or fever or rheumatism. A color may be green to you that to another is red. A prospect may be inviting for you that to another is rugged and hard.
To quote “Applied Psychology,” by Warren Hilton:
“The same stimulus acting on different organs of sense will produce different sensations. A blow upon the eye will cause you to ‘see stars’; a similar blow upon the ear will cause you to hear an explosive sound. In other words, the vibratory effect of a touch on eye or ear is the same as that of light or sound vibrations.
“The notion you may form of any object in the outer world depends solely upon what part of your brain happens to be connected with that particular nerve-end that receives an impression from the object.
“You see the sun without being able to hear it because the only nerve-ends tuned to vibrate in harmony with the ether-waves set in action by the sun are nerve-ends that are connected with the brain center devoted to sight. ‘If,’ says Professor James, ‘we could splice the outer extremities of our optic nerves to our ears, and those of our auditory nerves to our eyes, we should hear the lightning and see the thunder, see the symphony and hear the conductor’s movements.’
“In other words, the kind of impressions we receive from the world about us, the sort of mental pictures we form concerning it, in fact, the character of the outer world, the nature of the environment in which our lives are cast — all these things depend for each one of us simply upon how he happens to be put together, upon his individual mental make-up.”
In short, it all comes back to the old fable of the three blind men and the elephant. To the one who caught hold of his leg, the elephant was like a tree.
To the one who felt of his side, the elephant was like a wall. To the one who seized his tail, the elephant was like a rope. The world is to each one of us the world of his individual perceptions.
You are like a radio receiving station. Every moment thousands of impressions are reaching you. You can tune in on whatever ones you like — on joy or sorrow, on success or failure, on optimism or fear. You can select the particular impressions that will best serve you, you can hear only what you want to hear, you can shut out all disagreeable thoughts and sounds and experiences, or you can tune in on discouragement and failure and despair.
Yours is the choice. You have within you a force against which the whole world is powerless. By using it, you can make what you will of life and of your surroundings.
“But,” you will say, “objects themselves do not change. It is merely the difference in the way you look at them.” Perhaps. But to a great extent, at least, we find what we look for, just as, when we turn the dial on the radio, we tune in on whatever kind of entertainment or instruction we may wish to hear. And who can say that it is not our thoughts that put it there? Who, for the matter of that, can prove that our surroundings in waking hours are not as much the creature of our minds as are our dreams? You’ve had dreams many a time where every object seemed just as real as when you were awake. You’ve felt of the objects, you’ve pinched yourself, yet still you were convinced that you were actually living those dreams. May not your waking existence be largely the creation of your own mind, just as your dream pictures are?
Many scientists believe that it is, and that in proportion as you try to put into your surroundings the good things you desire, rather than the evil ones you fear, you will find those good things. Certain it is that you can do this with your own body. Just as certain that many people are doing it with the good things of life. They have risen above the conception of life in which matter is the master.
Just as the most powerful forces in nature are the invisible ones — heat, light, air, electricity — so the most powerful forces of man are his invisible forces, his thought forces. And just as electricity can fuse stone and iron, so can your thought forces control your body, so can they make or mar your destiny.
The Philosopher’s Charm
There was once a shrewd necromancer who told a king that he had discovered a way to make gold out of sand. Naturally the king was interested and offered him great rewards for his secret. The necromancer explained his process. It seemed quite easy, except for one thing. Not once during the operation must the king think of the word Abracadabra. If he did, the charm was broken and the gold would not come. The king tried and tried to follow the directions, but he could not keep that word Abracadabra out of his mind. And he never made the gold.
Dr. Winbigler puts the same idea in another way: “Inspiration, genius, power, are often interfered with by the conscious mind’s interposing, by man’s failing to recognize his power, afraid to assist himself, lacking the faith in himself necessary to stimulate the subconscious so as to arouse the genius asleep in each.”
From childhood on we are assured on every hand — by scientists, by philosophers, by our religious teachers, that “ours is the earth and the fullness thereof.” Beginning with the first chapter of Genesis, we are told that “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth — and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” All through the Old and the New Testament, we are repeatedly adjured to use these God-given powers. “He that be-lieveth on me,” said Jesus, “the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” “For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” “The kingdom of God is within you.”
We hear all this; perhaps we even think we believe, but always, when the time comes to use these God-given talents, there is the “doubt in our heart.”
Baudouin expressed it clearly: “To be ambitious for wealth and yet always expecting to be poor; to be always doubting your ability to get what you long for, is like trying to reach east by traveling west. There is no philosophy, which will help a man to succeed when he always doubts his ability to do so, and thus attracting failure.
“You will go in the direction in which you face...
“There is a saying that every time the sheep bleats, it loses a mouthful of hay. Every time you allow yourself to complain of your lot, to say, ‘I am poor; I can never do what others do; I shall never be rich; I have not the ability that others have; I am a failure; luck is against me;’ you are laying up so much trouble for yourself.
“No matter how hard you may work for success, if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors, and make success impossible.”
And that is responsible for all our failures. We are like the old lady who decided she wanted the hill behind her house removed. So she got down on her knees and prayed the good Lord to remove it. The next morning she got up and hurried to the window. The hill was still in its same old place. “I knew it!” she snapped. “I gave Him his chance. But I knew all the time there was nothing to this prayer business.”
Neither is there, as it is ordinarily done. Prayer is not a mere asking of favors. Prayer is not a paean of praise. Rather prayer is