experience, however, is of such an intimate nature, and so likely to be regarded as “queer” by others, that most of these individuals have but little or nothing to say concerning it. The following may be stated as the rule: The more successful the individual has been—the higher he has risen in his particular field of endeavor—the greater is the degree of probability that he has undergone some experience similar to that which we have just stated.
There may be some who will criticize the above as “impractical,” and “fantastic”; but such criticism is not likely to come from those who have been exceptionally successful—who have “done things,” and accomplished great achievements—and who also have good memories of their early experiences. Repeat this statement to some man or woman of this kind—then see that individual smile in a peculiar way, and note the strange expression which will pass over his or her face, though a direct answer may be avoided.
This phenomenal experience is not “supernatural,” nor is it “mystic”; on the contrary, it is quite natural, and intensely practical in its effect. It means simply that the individual in the course of his mental or spiritual evolution has arrived at a stage where in the natural course of things he “contacts” POWER itself—the Principle of POWER which animates, energizes, and vitalizes the Cosmos. He becomes actually aware of the contact, and of the influx of Power which results from it. Moreover, in many cases—in most cases of the kind, in fact—when this contact is once experienced and established, thereafter the individual finds it comparatively easy to make a “short cut” to POWER by opening himself to the inflow of Strength and Power from the POWER Principle.
It is the phenomenon of the spiritual trolleypole coming in contact with the great servicecable of POWER. It is the most natural, and the most practical thing in the world. As we have said, it has been experienced in some degree by many of the most practical persons in the world; and much of the subsequent success of such persons has arisen therefrom— and many of such know this to be the cause of their success and power. Moreover, many of the world’s most practical individuals are recognizing the existence of this phase of natural phenomena, and are striving to effect this contact of the “spiritual trolley-pole.” There is more inquiry concerning these things on the part of such individuals than the great masses of the people even dream of.
This is not the statement of a “new religion,” nor of some strange philosophy or “ism.” It has nothing to do with “supernaturalism,” “spiritism,” or any other teaching of that character. It is, instead, the statement of a cold, scientific fact, or series of facts, all of which may be demonstrated by any person who will lay aside his prejudices and his skepticism sufficiently long for him to “try out” the idea and plan with earnestness and in good faith, for a reasonable length of time. The results are open to any such person who will place himself in the proper mental attitude toward the facts, and who will await confidently and expectantly the dawning of the experience, and the inflow of the Power from the Principle of POWER.
It is true that many religious, or semireligious, or quasireligious sects and cults—and many new popular schools of philosophy and metaphysics—have recognized and adopted the general and fundamental principles of this great truth; and have interpreted the same, each in the terms of its own particular belief or theory; coloring it with the shade, tint, or hue of its particular beliefs or dogmas; labeling it with one of many new and wonderful titles; expounding it in strange, and often weird and bizarre fashion; but the fundamental facts are greater than any of these attempts to interpret and explain them in the terms of cults, sects, and schools—too great to be dwarfed by the limitations of the doctrines and dogmas built around them in the attempt to confine them. There is no monopoly of this great truth—no one has a corner on it: though many attempts in that direction have been made.
Those who will seek the intellectual recognition of the relation of the “I AM I” (as we shall set it forth in this book); and who will open the doors of their being to the conscious realization of the contact with POWER which comes to those who await and are ready for it; will gradually unfold the power and ability to manifest the superimposed Strength and Energy of POWER, through their mental and physical channels of expression and manifestation. You are invited to test and prove this for yourself.
V
COSMIC POWER
IN THE second section of this book, we announced the two basic postulates upon which are grounded the teachings and instruction contained in the book. These two basic postulates, which we shall here repeat, are as follows: (1) There exists in you a Master Self, Ego, “I,” or “I AM I,” entity, to which all of your personal faculties, powers and activities are subordinate; (2) This Master Self (whatever else it may be or may not be), must be regarded as a focalized centre of Presence and Power manifested and expressed by the Ultimate PresencePower in its manifestation and expression in the Cosmos.
In the foregoing sections, we have directed you to the discovery of the “I,” the “I AM I,” the Ego, or the Master Self, which is the centre of your Selfhood—your Real Self. In the last preceding section, we have directed your attention to “POWER-Consciousness,” i. e., the conscious recognition of the Ultimate PresencePower, the Cosmic POWER, of which the “I AM I” or Master Self is the “focalized centre” of expression and manifestation. We now ask you to consider what the reason of man, exercised to its limits along the line of logical reasoning, inevitably, invariably, and infallibly reports concerning the presence and being of the Principle of Cosmic POWER.
The essence of this report of human reason, exercised to its limits along the lines of logical thought, may be stated as follows: There exists and is present an Eternal, Uncaused, SelfExistent Principle of POWER, from which all manifestations of Power directly or indirectly proceed. Let us now consider how and why the human reason is compelled to accept this conclusion, which is inevitably, invariably, and infallibly reported when it extends itself to its limits along the lines of logical thought.
All human thought directed along philosophical lines of inquiry and reasoning to cognition concerning ultimate principles of being and “the ultimate cause of things,” you will find, finally arrives at a point at which it is forced to postulate the presence and being of an Ultimate Principle of PresencePower underlying and supporting that manifestation which we know as the Cosmos, i. e., the universe conceived as proceeding according to “law and order.” The discovery of this Ultimate Principle of PresencePower is the great aim and purpose, intention and end, of philosophy; and all schools of philosophy, metaphysics, and theology assume without question the necessary existence of such Ultimate Principle, though they differ greatly concerning its nature or character.
Human reason is forced to this conclusion principally by the fact of its recognition of the following three axioms as necessary and fundamental bases of logical thought, viz.: (1) That the undoubted presence and manifestation of coordination (i. e., state of common action, movement, and condition; and mutual adjustment, correlation, and interdependence) in all of the objects, forms and activities of the Cosmos, point inevitably, invariably, and infallibly to a common source and origin, and common essential nature, of everything in the Cosmos. (2) That “from nothing, no thing can proceed,” and, consequently, that everything is capable of being traced back by steps and stages to an ultimate cause, origin, or principle of being. (3) That the world of constantly changing things and activities may be accounted for and explained intelligently under no other conception than that of an Ultimate Principle of PresencePower which is the base, ground, and support of the world of changing things—the constant element, essence, or principle which itself never changes, but which holds together and coordinates all the changing things.
These axioms are regarded by the best thinkers of the race as “selfevident, necessary truths,” the contrary
