this statement is Truth: for each individual “I AM I” is, in fact, the pivotal centre of his own universe, with all the rest revolving about him, or passing in review before him.
Do not for a moment imagine that this realization of Conscious Egohood—this “I AM I” consciousness—will unfit you for the duties, tasks and work of practical everyday life. On the contrary, it will render you many times more efficient in any particular phase of practical life. Realizing the nature of your real being, and your relations toward your mental and physical instruments and machinery, you will no longer be caught up in their movements as a man might be caught in the machinery which he is operating; instead, you will be able to detach yourself so that you may operate the machinery with increased skill, efficiency, and power.
Conscious Egohood will cause the muddy waters of your mentality to become as clear as crystal, so as better to reflect the light of that brilliant star of the “I AM I” which is shining above with a fierceness, clearness, and steadfastness inexpressible in ordinary words. The most practical of all men is the man who realizes the realities of his own nature and being, and the character of his relations to his mental and physical instruments of expression and manifestation. When you recognize the nature of your Power; when you realize the conscious feeling of that Power; then will you be able to express and manifest that Power to a wonderful degree, and with an excellence, otherwise impossible to you. Such recognition will make you a better business man, a better engineer, a better lawyer, a better doctor, a better nurse; it will enable you to reach a higher point in your lifework, and to acquire a higher recompense for your services, than would be possible without it.
Cultivate the perception and realization of Conscious Egohood. Seek to develop it by means of thought, of feeling, of imagination—use all of your mental powers to this end—employ every instrument at your disposal to discover YOURSELF, your Real Self. Assert and affirm your real being by saying, thinking, and acting “I AM I.” There is a magic in these words. Their vibrations will set into motion every atom of your being, and they will reecho the statement to your ears. You will find the affirmation a tower of strength in hours of need. In moments of weakness it will revive your failing courage and dwindling determination. It will serve as a powerhouse from which you may send forth currents of power and energy; it will serve as a great magnet which will draw to you the things, persons, and circumstances which you will need in your tasks of life. Use the White Magic of the “I AM I” affirmation.
As we proceed with our instruction, you will see that this “I AM I” is even greater and grander than we are now stating it to be. It is a focalized centre of Something or Somewhat infinitely greater—the point of contact between the Universal and the Particular, the Unmanifest and the Manifest, the Uncreate and the Create, the Infinite and the Finite. YOU are far greater than you know. When you say “I AM I,” you are uttering a tremendous statement of Truth, the full meaning of which you as yet only faintly glimpse. The individual who can say “I AM I,” with full recognition in thought, and with full realization in feeling, has lighted for himself a lamp which can never be extinguished by the winds of adversity nor the rains of circumstances. Such a one is well on the path to Mastery!
The seventh stage of your selfanalysis—the stage to which you proceed after you have discovered the ultimate nature of the “I AM I” or Master Self—is that which is known as the stage of “POWERConsciousness.” In this stage of consciousness, while holding firmly and with doubtdefying conviction to the recognition and realization of the “I AM I” as the ultimate and essential base and ground of your individual being, you nevertheless intuitively are aware of the existence of an Underlying Reality, with which in some intimate and essential way your “I AM I” is united, connected, and co-ordinated.
When this consciousness is awakened by the proper methods, you will become as actually conscious of this intimate relationship, as you are now conscious of the existence of your “I AM I” or Master Self. In fact, the two phases of consciousness will seem gradually to coalesce and combine in your higher perception of Reality. Even when the intellect has not as yet been able to “work out the puzzle,” or to “ree the riddle,” the intuitive faculties will report that “it is true nevertheless.”
In the following sections of this book, we shall point out the road whereby the intellect may logically approach the facts concerning this highest Truth; for the present, we wish merely to indicate the general nature of the subject, and possibly to cause your intuition to begin to unfold so as to receive the full strength of the rays of the sun of Truth which is beating upon it.
In the stage of POWER-Consciousness, you will know that not only is your “I AM I,” your Master Self, your Real Self a real Centre of Power in the Cosmos: you will also know that back of, under, and around that “I AM I” or Real Self, is the great Ultimate Principle of POWER itself; that the “I AM I” is in actual contact with that POWER—and that the rhythmic vibrations of POWER are at least faintly discernible as they throb and thrill through your being.
Feeling this, all fear will drop away from you, and a new and strange courage will take possession of you: you will thereafter proceed to the Great Adventure of Life, fearlessly and confidently. You will enter into the conscious realization that POWER—AllthePowerThereIS—is back of and supporting you. You will enter into the conscious recognition that in the great substance and strength of POWER, you live, and move, and have your being. With the dawn of this consciousness, you will, in all truth, be “born again.”
While it is true that but comparatively few individuals actually experience this consciousness in full degree, yet it is true that many experience it in at least some degree; all may gradually unfold into it if they will but turn their attention to that direction. The men and women who have “done things” in the world of everyday life, if they would speak frankly and freely for publication, could give to the world the testimony that at some time in their lives had come to them a certain strange and wonderful, mysterious sense of actual contact with, and relation to, a great Something, the essence of which was felt to be Strength or Power. Varying as are the reports of the different individuals who have testified to this phenomenon there is found a common and general agreement upon the fact that there has been an “actual contact with, and intimate relation to, a Something or Somewhat Infinitely Powerful and Strong.” There is always the consciousness of Immanent Presence, and of Power and Strength.
These individuals have interpreted to themselves these experiences in many ways, each coloring it according to his previous trend of belief or general philosophy of life. To some it has appeared to partake of a religious nature and color—as if the Supreme Being, or at least one of His archangels has hovered near, brooded over them, and reflected a portion of the Infinite Power upon them. Many a successful man has experienced this strange phenomenon, and has been comforted by the conviction that he has God “on his side,” or that God is “working in and through me.” One of the richest men of our times has repeatedly made statements at least implicitly expressing this idea; and many of the lesser lights of the world of success have had similar experiences and resulting convictions.
Others have attributed the experience to the presence and aid of some friendly beneficent entity or supernatural personality—a friendly “spirit” from “the other shore.” Others have felt it to be a hint of the presence and power of a kindly Destiny or Fate, or the influence of a beneficent “star.” Napoleon’s belief in his “star,” and the influence it exerted over him for many years of his rapid rise, is said to have arisen from an experience of this kind occurring at the Bridge of Lodi. He was reticent concerning the actual experience; but he often spoke freely of his Star of Destiny, at times going so far as to indicate the particular star which he believed was favoring him.
Others do not attempt to explain the experience, even to themselves; they are content to think of it as “That Something,” the presence and strength of which they have felt—the resulting sense of power after the visitation of which, they have experienced. Many others could testify to these strange experiences of
