number.
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THE
PELMAN SYSTEM
OF
MIND & MEMORY
TRAINING
LESSON II.
CONTENTS
LESSON II.
THE MENTAL POWER HOUSE.
VI. HOW HUMAN ENERGY IS ORIGINATED
VII. ENERGY DEVELOPS MENTAL ABILITY
VIII. ENERGY FORMULATES CHARACTER
XI. THE TESTIMONY OF PSYCHOLOGISTS
XIII. A METHOD OF SELF-ANALYSIS
THE E.M. HEALTH EXERCISES
THE PELMAN SYSTEM OF MIND AND MEMORY TRAINING.
LESSON II.
THE MENTAL POWER HOUSE.
1. When taking up this Course of Training you were no doubt conscious of certain defects in the working of your mental machinery: perhaps you could not focus your attention easily; or you had contracted the habit of forgetting; or you lacked self-confidence, or will power. To use the language of electricity, something had gone wrong with the powerhouse, and irregularities of working were the natural result.
In this lesson we shall first deal with the human power-house, describing it in detail and showing its relation to success—any kind of success—the success of the student and scholar just as much as that of the merchant. We shall take up no partisan standpoint as to those teachers who make money-getting and success synonymous terms; to us, success is the striving to achieve a great purpose, as well as actual achievement, and great purposes are always relative to the mind that conceives them. A grocer’s assistant who hopes and strives for a big shop of his own in ten years’ time is moved by a great purpose just as surely as an astronomer who is determined to solve the mystery of sun-spots, or a pathologist who wills to discover a cure for cancer. In each of these cases, the power-house is working under normal conditions; at times it may work abnormally, and a fatigue period follows; but, after recuperation, the full current is put on and life moves vigorously forward to its goal; the grocer’s assistant to a shop of his own; the astronomer to the mastery of the sun; and the pathologist to the solution of the cancer problem.
Your own aim in life may be modest or ambitious; it may be an ideal good you are seeking, or it may be purely worldly; but whatever it is—and we shall venture to offer some criticisms later for your guidance—you need energy and a trained mind to compass its achievement.
I. HUMAN ENERGY.
2. Your power-house is made up of body and mind, the combined activities of which go to form what we call human energy. Physical health—we do not say muscular strength—is of course fundamental; and although there have been men so unlike as Richelieu and Darwin who have overcome the handicap of a feeble constitution, the general rule still holds good: that to achieve your aims there must be a sufficiency of bodily vigour. A careful investigation of the health of men of achievement, whether world-famous or not, shows a high percentage of health power; without this they would not have been able to bear the strain of ceaseless labour.
3. But, after all, mental ability is the more important constituent of the human powerhouse. That every-day phrase, “Brains win,” is a popular embodiment of a great truth; for a man may be a veritable Samson in physique and yet a comparative dwarf in the mind-power that is so necessary to distinctive success Mental ability in a general sense, as well as in a particular sense (witness the possession of a marvellous memory or a penchant for languages is too often regarded as a gift of the gods that may decline in efficiency but cannot be improved. Even a poor memory or a lack of the language gift is looked upon by some as an unalterable fact. They think that no improvement, whatever means are adopted, is possible. As against this, we claim that just as physical power can be developed and a weak body made into a strong one, so can mental power be developed; and a mind that is merely average can be raised to a much higher degree of efficiency. This hopeless feeling about the possibility of improving one’s intellectual gifts is difficult to explain: so many people are gripped by it against their own better judgment. They want to believe that an increase of brain-power can be brought about but they fear it is out of the question. We, on the other hand, know that in 95 per cent. of cases it is a realisable ideal. The lessons and exercises that follow are an expression of our belief in this respect, and we commend them to the student’s careful attention.
II. MODELS OF ENERGY.
4. Human energy, therefore, is a combination of physical
