us off.”
“The atmosphere about us is a product of thought. Thought makes it what it is, and thought alone can change it when it will,” says Floyd B. Wilson, in “Paths to Power.” “The atmosphere that marks strong individuality is universally conceded to be the product of the invisible emanation of thought centred on an idea. Your atmosphere, being a product of thought, must receive all its power and force through the creative energy that gives it existence.
“Our proposition as to control, therefore, now reduces itself to this: If we know ourselves masters of our mental apparatus, we know we can control our thoughts and thus dictate our atmosphere. If, in silence, daily, we hold ourselves passive—receptive for the particular good we most desire—we open the way for the creation of the atmosphere that is sought. One must come to these sittings as nearly passive as possible; but above all free from doubt. To many it will be found serious work to learn to hold themselves passive. The moments spent in this way will do more to advance you to the end than any other thing you can do.”
Speaking more especially of the means of controlling the thought for the benefit of the body, Charles Brodie Patterson says: “Let us keep the mind clear and bright, fill it with wholesome thoughts of life, and be kindly in our feelings toward others. Let us have no fear of anything, but realize that we are one with universal power—that power which can supply our every need; that health, strength, and happiness are our legitimate birthright, that they are ever potential in our inner lives, and that our bodies may express them now. If we take this mental attitude and adhere steadfastly to it, the body will very soon manifest health and strength.”
In the light of these various directions from those who have drawn them from the experience of themselves and of others, it does not seem so difficult for one to raise his standard of living very materially by forcing into his thoughts the higher and forcing out the lower.
If you surround yourself with a positive atmosphere, that is, if you keep all negatives, all destroyers, all thoughts that suggest discord, disease, disaster, and failure out of your mind, and hold there only those words and thoughts which create, which upbuild, you will very soon change the character of your entire mind, so that you will loathe the enemies of your success and happiness, and will thrust them out of your mind the moment they attempt to enter; you will harbor only noble words and thoughts, those which encourage, which bring light and beauty, which inspire and ennoble, and you will welcome these as eagerly as you shun the others.
It is encouraging, too, that thinkers and investigators have traced the origin of our thought enemies back to their sources and have thus reduced their number.
“It is not necessary to engage in battle the small army of lesser passions,” says Horace Fletcher, “if you concentrate your efforts against anger and worry, for they are all children of these parents. Oppose them with a bold front; make one heroic stand against them, and they and all their children will fly. Disown them once and the ability to readopt them will have disappeared with them.” In a later book, Mr. Fletcher calls anger and worry only forms of fear, and W. W. Atkinson also says: “Worry is the child of Fear, and bears a strong family resemblance to its parent. Treat the Fear family as you would any other kind of vermin—get rid of the old ones before they have a chance to have progeny.” So once we gain the power of concentration we must cultivate perfect fearlessness and confidence, with which go cheerfulness, efficiency, and, as a sure result, happiness and prosperity.
The following rules in “Power of Will,” by Frank C. Haddock, are practical and suggestive, and may well close this chapter :
“Resolutely, persistently, and intelligently maintain a true and psychic field by constant exercise of strong will power toward all high realities: beautiful objects, right ideas, health, peace, truth, success, altruism, right-minded persons, the best literature, art, science, the noblest movements and institutions of the times, and a true religion.
“In contact with other people, maintain in your personal atmosphere a perfect and constant calm. Let this be so complete that it may not betray the effort to secure it, either in disturbed ether waves, or in movements which the other person’s subconsciousness will recognize as coolness or suppressed hostility.
“Avoid all excitement.
“Send out no antagonisms.
“Reveal to the inner consciousness of other people nothing in your mind calculated to injure their feelings.
“Banish from your field all feelings of contempt and ridicule.
“Permit no vibrations of anger or irritation to escape into your field.
“Banish absolutely all thought waves of fear for persons with whom you are dealing.
“Banish all thought waves of distrust as to success with such persons.
“Maintain a personal atmosphere that is surcharged with the dynamic force of confident expectancy.”
Chapter XXI.
The Coming Man Will Realize His Divinity
All the mysteries are cleared away and solved as we come into oneness with the Blessed One and begin to know—begin to be omniscient. Many omniscient men will soon walk the earth. Omniscience and freedom are the goal of all, and in this Great Age of Light many Egos are approaching the blessed omniscient state. He who sees God in All feels the ecstatic and blissful thrill of the Infinite Presence that cannot be described. How beautiful is the Universe to him who is at one with God and knows the Planner and the Plan.—The Blissful Prophet.
A HAPPY, contented, successful career must flow from a well-balanced, symmetrical mind, which has a sense of absolute security and unquestioned faith in the Great Creator, the providing and sustaining power.
A sense of uncertainty, of uneasiness, a lack of poise, of equilibrium in the life, is fatal to high success. We must think deeply enough into the nature of things to get rid of uncertainties. We must be rooted in the truth of being, and feel an unwavering faith that we are a part of the great Mind which creates and governs all things. There is a sense of certainty, of absolute security, when we know that nothing can wrench us out of our orbit, that no accident on land or sea, no disease or discord, can separate us from our union with that great power. Once having this security, fear departs, uncertainty and anxiety leave us, and all the faculties work in harmony. When we know that nothing can cheat us out of our birthright, that nothing can mar our real achievement, that every right step must lead to ultimate triumph, that every right act, that every germ of goodness, will ultimately struggle into flower and fruitage, we can serenely accomplish the highest that lies in our power.
There is something in our very consciousness which tells us that we are not mere products of chance. We feel that there is a certainty somewhere; that fear, anxiety, and uncertainty are not a necessary part of life. There is an instinct within us which tells us that we are inseparable from the one great Mind, that we are one with it, a reflection of it, that we were created in its image, and that our ultimate purpose cannot conflict with its ultimate purpose. We instinctively feel that there must be a unity in all things, could we but find it, and the best way to find it is to trust this great power. Implicit faith will do more for us than reasoning, and will bring us infinitely closer to this unity.
These verses by Ella Wheeler Wilcox urge such exercise of faith:
“Trust in thine own untried capacity
As
