The Law Of Substitution
Realize that something good can come out of your suffering. You have not suffered in vain. However, it is foolish to continue to suffer.
If you continue as an alcoholic, it will bring about mental and physical deterioration and decay. Realize that the power in your subconscious is backing you up. Even though you may be seized with melancholia, you should begin to imagine the joy of freedom that is in store for you. This is the law of substitution. Your imagination took you to the bottle; let it take you now to freedom and peace of mind. You will suffer a little bit, but it is for a constructive purpose. You will bear it like a mother in the pangs of childbirth, and you will, likewise, bring forth a child of the mind. Your subconscious will give birth to sobriety.
Cause of Alcoholism
The real cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thinking; for as a man thinketh, so is he. The alcoholic has a deep sense of inferiority, inadequacy, defeat and frustration, usually accompanied by a deep inner hostility. He has countless alibis as to his reason for drinking, but the sole reason is in his thought life.
Three Magic Steps
The First Step
Get still; quiet the wheels of the mind. Enter into a sleepy, drowsy state. In this relaxed, peaceful, receptive state, you are preparing for the second step.
The Second Step
Take a brief phrase which can readily be graven on the memory, and repeat it over and over as a lullaby. Use the phrase, “Sobriety and peace of mind are mine now, and I give thanks.” To prevent the mind from wandering, repeat it aloud or sketch its pronunciation with the lips and tongue as you say it mentally. This helps its entry into the subconscious mind. Do this for five minutes or more. You will find a deep emotional response.
The Third Step
Just before going to sleep, practice what Johann von Goethe, German author, used to do. Imagine a friend or loved one in front of you. Your eyes are closed, you are relaxed and at peace. The loved one or friend is subjectively present, and is saying to you, “Congratulations!” You see the smile; you hear the voice. You mentally touch the hand; it is all real and vivid. The word congratulations implies complete freedom. Hear it over and over again until you get the subconscious reaction which satisfies.
Keep On Keeping On
When fear knocks at the door of your mind, or when worry, anxiety and doubt cross your mind, behold your vision, your goal. Think of the infinite power within your subconscious mind, which you can generate by your thinking and imagining, and this will give you confidence, power and courage. Keep on, persevere, until the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
Review Your Thought Power
1. The solution lies within the problem. The answer is in every question. Infinite Intelligence responds to you as you call upon it with faith and confidence.
2. Habit is the function of your subconscious mind. There is no greater evidence of the marvelous power of your subconscious than the force and sway habit holds in your life. You are a creature of habit.
3. You form habit patterns in your subconscious mind by repeating a thought and act over and over again until it establishes tracks in the subconscious mind and becomes automatic, such as swimming, dancing, typing, walking, driving your car etc.
4. You have freedom to choose. You can choose a good habit or a bad habit. Prayer is a good habit.
5. Whatever mental picture, backed by faith, you behold in your conscious mind, your subconscious mind will bring to pass.
6. The only obstacle to your success and achievement is your own thought or mental image.
7. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the contemplation of your good or goal. Make a habit of this. This is called disciplining the mind.
8. Your conscious mind is the camera, and your subconscious mind is the sensitive plate on which you register or impress the picture.
9. The only jinx that follows anyone is a fear thought repeated over and over in the mind. Break the jinx by knowing that whatever you start you will bring to a conclusion in divine order. Picture the happy ending and sustain it with confidence.
10. To form a new habit, you must be convinced that it is desirable. When your desire to give up the bad habit is greater than your desire to continue, you are fifty-one percent healed already.
11. The statements of others cannot hurt you except through your own thoughts and mental participation. Identify yourself with your aim which is peace, harmony and joy. You are the only thinker in your universe.
12. Excessive drinking is an unconscious desire to escape. The cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thinking. The cure is to think of freedom, sobriety and perfection and to feel the thrill of accomplishment.
13. Many people remain alcoholics because they refuse to admit it.
14. The law of your subconscious mind, which held you in bondage and inhibited your freedom of action, will give you freedom and happiness. It depends on how you use it.
15. Your imagination took you to the bottle; let it take you to freedom by imagining you are free.
16. The real cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thinking.As a man thinketh in his heart (subconscious mind) so is he.
17. When fear knocks at the door of your mind, let faith in God and all things good open the door.
Chapter Nineteen
How To Use Your Subconscious Mind To Remove Fear
One of our students told me that he was invited to speak at a banquet. He said he was panic stricken at the thought of speaking before a thousand people. He overcame his fear this way. For several night she sat down in an armchair for about five minutes and said to himself slowly quietly and positively, “I am going to master this fear. I am overcoming it now. I speak with poise and confidence. I am relaxed and at ease.” He operated a definite law of mind and overcame his fear.
The subconscious mind is amenable to suggestion and is controlled by suggestion. When you still your mind and relax, the thoughts of your conscious mind sink down into the subconscious through a process similar to osmosis, whereby fluids separated by a porous membrane intermingle. As these positive seeds, or thoughts, sink into the subconscious are, they grow after their kind and you become poised, serene and calm.
Man's Greatest Enemy
Is is said that fear is man's greatest enemy. Fear is behind failure, sickness and poor human relations. Millions of people are afraid of the past, the future, old age, insanity and death. Fear is a thought in you mind and you are afraid of your own thoughts.
A little boy can be paralyzed with fear when he is told there is a boogie man under his bed who is going to take him away. When his father turns on the light and shows him there is no boogie man, he is freed from fear. The fear in the mind of the boy was as real as if there really was a boogie man there. He was healed of a false thought in his mind. The thing he feared did not exist. Likewise, most of your fears have no reality. They are merely a conglomeration of sinister shadows, and shadows have no reality.
Do The Thing You Fear
Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher and poet, said, “Do the thing you are afraid to do, and the death of fear is certain.” There was a time when the writer of this chapter was filled with unutterable