This is Volume VI of XII – Subconscious Power or Your Secret Forces

 

Personal Power Series:

Volume I. Personal Power or Your Master Self

Volume II. Creative Power or Your Constructive Forces

Volume III. Desire Power or your Energizing Forces

Volume IV. Faith Power or Your Inspirational Forces

Volume V. Will Power or Your Dynamic Forces

Volume VI. Subconscious Power or Your Secret Forces

Volume VII. Spiritual Power or The Infinite Fount

Volume VIII. Thought Power or Radio‑Mentalism

Volume IX. Perceptive Power or The Art of Observation

Volume X. Reasoning Power or Practical Logic

Volume XI. Character Power or Positive Individuality

Volume XII. Regenerative Power or Vital Rejuvenation

Volume VI – Subconscious Power or Your Secret Forces

Your Secret Forces
Subconscious Mentation
Subconscious Vital Processes
Subconscious Habitual Action
Subconscious Emotion And Memory
Subconscious Psycho‑Analysis
Subconscious Thought
The Superconscious Planes

 

 

Your Secret Forces

In this book you are asked to consider some wonderful phases of your Personal Power—that Personal Power which is the expression and manifestation through you of that great principle of All-Power from which all phases and forms of Power proceed, and in which all such are contained—this principle is known in this instruction as “POWER.”

In several of the other volumes of this series of instruction upon the subject of Personal Power, we have asked you to consider those particular phases of your Personal Power which are known, respectively, as Creative Power, Desire Power, Faith Power, Will Power, etc. While in nearly all of those books occasional reference has been made to the activities of the Subconscious Planes of Mind and Will, their primary subject matter has been that which is concerned chiefly with the respective processes of the several phases of mental activity manifesting on the planes of ordinary consciousness.

In the present book, on the contrary, you are asked to consider those comparatively little known activities of the mind and will which lie outside of and beyond the field of ordinary consciousness, but which exert a tremendous influence over the activities of that region, and which to a great extent supply that realm with the material of ideas, mental images, and emotional states.

While the mental planes lying outside of and beyond the field of ordinary consciousness have been until recent years comparatively unexplored by psychologists, and in fact have been almost entirely ignored by western psychology until modern times, the best thought of the present time is in practical agreement upon the fact that on those hidden planes of mentality are performed the major portion of our mental work, and that in their field are in operation some of the most important of our mental processes.

The exploration of these obscure regions of the mind has been one of the most fascinating tasks of modern psychology; and the mines have yielded rich material in abundance. Many mental phenomena formerly either denied as impossible by the orthodox psychologists, or else regarded by the average person as evidence of supernatural agencies and forces, are now seen to fit perfectly into the natural order of things, and to operate according to natural law and order. Not only have such investigations resulted in a greater increase of the scientific knowledge concerning the inner workings of the mind, but they have also served to place in the hands of the more advanced psychologists the material which they have turned to practical and efficient use by means of scientific methods of application.

The effect of these discoveries has been the presentation of an important truth to the thinking individual—the truth that his mental realm is a far greater and grander land that he has heretofore considered it to be. No longer is the Self held to be limited in its mental activities to the narrow field of ordinary consciousness. Your mental kingdom has suddenly expanded until it now constitutes a great empire, with borders flung wide and far beyond the boundaries of the little kingdom which you have been considering as the entire area of the field of the forces, powers and activities of the Self. The Self has often been likened to the king of a great mental kingdom; but, in view of the discovery of the new facts concerning the wonderful field of the unconscious, subconscious, and superconscious mental activities, the Self is now more properly to be represented as a mighty emperor of a vast empire of which only a comparatively small portion has as yet been explored. You are being called upon to appreciate more fully the ancient aphorism: “You are greater than you know.” Your Self is like a new Columbus, gazing at the great new world which it has discovered around itself, and of which it is the owner and the ruler.

The writers on the subject of the realm of the Subconscious Mentality, being impressed by the vastness of this new empire of the Self, have exercised their imaginations in the direction of supplying familiar illustrations borrowed from the world of concrete material things. It is astonishing to discover how close is the analogy furnished by certain of these illustrations and figurative symbols. We ask you to consider the following symbolic representations in order that your mind may more readily grasp the great truths involved in these new discoveries concerning the realm and power of the Subconscious Mentality.

Some writers have compared the subconscious and the conscious regions of the mind to the visible and invisible portions of the solar spectrum. Science informs us that the visible portion of the solar spectrum, with its red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet rays, is bounded on its lower side by a region of infra-red rays, and on its upper side by a region of ultra-violet rays, these invisible fields of light extending almost indefinitely in either direction. These hidden rays are invisible to our unaided eyes, but are recorded by delicate scientific instruments. The larger part of the heat rays emanating from the sun is invisible to us, and forms a portion of the infra-red field of the solar spectrum. Likewise, the major portion of the chemical changes in the vegetable world, upon which depend the life and growth of the plants, results from the action of the ultra-violet rays which are invisible to our unaided eyes, but which our scientific instruments faithfully record. The most powerful rays of light, those which produce the most marked effects upon living creatures, are the invisible ultra-violet rays— the rays of “dark light” as they have been fancifully styled.

Other writers have compared the conscious and subconscious planes of mentation to a small luminous circle, surrounded by a great ring of twilight; and, beyond this, an indefinite darkness—the events occurring in that twilight region, and in that night region, being quite as real as those occurring within the luminous circle. Others still have likened the mind of man to the earth, with its great underlying deposits of coal and oil, in which slumber latent light, heat and other forms of potential energy, force and power, awaiting but some appropriate stimulus to bring to the surface the materials from which those forces may be released.

Ignoring to a great extent the disputes and differences on the part of the psychologists concerning the most appropriate names and terms to be employed in the consideration of the “out of consciousness” fields of mental activity and work, and brushing aside as non-essential the distinctions and differentiations between the various phases of these activities, we shall in this instruction embrace the entire field and its activities under the general term of “The Subconscious.” Employing the term, “The Subconscious,” to indicate the entire field of activities of the mind which are performed below, above, or in anyway “outside of” the field or plane of the ordinary consciousness of the individual, we soon discover that the activities of the Subconscious extend over a very wide range of manifestation, and embrace a great variety of forms of expression.

In the first place, the Subconscious presides over the activities of your physical organism; it is the animating spirit of your physical processes. It performs the manifold tasks of digestion, assimilation, nutrition, elimination, secretion, circulation, reproduction—in short, all of your vital processes. Your conscious mentality is thus relieved of these great tasks.

Again, the Subconscious supervises the performance of your instinctive actions. Every action that you perform automatically, instinctively, “by habit,” “by heart,” and without conscious employment of thought and will, is really performed by your subconscious mentality. Your conscious mentality, thus relieved of this work, is able to concentrate upon those other tasks which it alone can perform. When you learn to perform an action “by heart,” or “by habit,” the conscious mentality has turned over this particular work to your Subconscious.

Again, the Subconscious is largely concerned with the activities of your emotional nature. Your emotions which rise to the plane or level of consciousness are but the surface manifestations of the more elemental activities performed in the depths of the ocean of the Subconscious. Your elemental and instinctive emotions have their source and home in the Subconscious; they have accumulated there by reason of habit, heredity or racial memory. Practically all the material of your emotional activities is stored on the planes and levels of the Subconscious.

Again, the Subconscious presides over the processes of Memory. The subconscious planes or levels of the mind constitute the great storehouse of the recorded impressions of memory. Moreover, on those planes or levels is performed the work of indexing and cross-indexing the memory-records, by means of which subsequent recollection, recognition and remembrance are rendered possible. These regions of your subconscious mentality contain not only the recorded impressions of your own personal experience, but also those racial memories or inherited memories which manifest in you as “instinct,” and which play a very important part in your life.

Again, the Subconscious is able to, and frequently does, perform for you important work along the lines of actual “thinking.” By means of “mental rumination” it digests and assimilates the materials furnished by your conscious mentality, and then proceeds to classify these, to compare them, and to proceed to form judgments and decisions upon them and from them—all below the levels of your ordinary consciousness. Careful psychologists have decided that by far the greater part of our reasoning processes are really performed on mental levels and planes outside of the field of the ordinary consciousness. Much of your creative mental work, particularly that of the constructive imagination, is performed in this way, the result afterward being raised to the levels of conscious thought.

Finally, there are levels and planes “above” those of the ordinary consciousness, just as there are those “below” the latter. Just as the lower levels are largely concerned with working over the stored-up materials of the past, so these higher levels are concerned with reporting that which may be considered to represent the future conscious activities of the human race. These higher regions of the Subconscious may be said to contain the seed or embryo of the higher faculties and powers which will unfold fully in the future stages of the mental evolution of the race; many of these higher faculties and powers are even now beginning to manifest in occasional flashes in the minds of certain individuals, and, as a consequence, such individuals are frequently regarded as “inspired” or as possessing that indefinable quality or power known as “genius.”

On these higher planes of the Subconscious abide certain marvelous powers of the Self, which powers manifest and express themselves in that which we call genius, inspiration, illumination—the exceptional mental achievements of certain intellects which stamp them as above the average. On these high planes abide and are manifested those wonderful mental activities which we attempt to explain under the term “Intuition.” These activities, however, are not contrary to reason, though they may seem to transcend it at times; it is better to consider them as the manifestation of a Higher Reason. The investigation and exploration of these higher realms of the Subconscious form one of the most interesting and fascinating tasks of modern psychology. Even now, the reports of the investigators and explorers are of surpassing interest; those which confidently may be looked for in the future bid fair to constitute a marvelous contribution to the pages of the history of modern scientific research.

In this book we shall ask you to accompany us in an exploration of the various regions of the Subconscious—those wonderful realms of your mind—from the highest to the lowest. In this new land there are valuable deposits of material useful to you and to all mankind. It is our purpose to point out these to you, and to instruct you in the most approved methods of mining and converting them to practical uses. You are not specially interested in the history of the explorations of the early travelers in this realm, nor in their conflicting theories and their technical terms, nor in their claims of priority of discovery. If we judge you rightly, you are interested chiefly in the matter of being led directly to the mines containing these rich deposits, and in being told just how to conduct the mining operations and the converting processes. In this spirit, then, our journey of exploration shall be conducted.

The Secret Forces of the Great Subconscious, like all other great natural forces, may be harnessed and pressed into service by you. Like electricity, they may be so managed and directed into the proper channels that they may be set to work by and for you. You have been employing these forces, to a greater or less extent, in very many of your mental activities; but, in all probability, you have been employing them instinctively and without a full knowledge of the laws and principles involved in them. When you understand just what these forces are, how they work, and the methods best calculated to produce efficient results and effects, then you may proceed to employ

Subconscious Power them intelligently, deliberately and with conscious purpose and intent, end and aim.

The average man employs but about 25 per cent. of his Subconscious Power. The man who understands the principles and methods to which we have just referred will be able to employ 100 per cent. of his available Subconscious Power. This means that he will be able to increase fourfold his Subconscious mental work and activity, with correspondingly increased results and effects. Inasmuch as at least 75 per cent. of man’s mental processes are performed on the plane or level of the Subconscious, it will be seen that the benefits arising from quadrupling his Subconscious mental activities and available power are almost beyond the power of adequate calculation. This increased power and efficiency, moreover, are not obtained at the cost of increased effort and mental wear and tear: on the contrary, the man effectively employing his Subconscious relieves himself of a great portion of the mental strain incident to the employment of the conscious mentality.

Subconscious Mentation

For many years Western Psychology held tenaciously to the theory that “all there is of mind,” all mental processes, all thought, all feeling, all will-activity, were contained within the narrow limits of the ordinary consciousness. It held that the ordinary consciousness was identical with “mind.” We say Western Psychology, because Oriental Psychology for many centuries—for over two thousand years in fact—had recognized the “out of consciousness” mental planes, states and processes.

In spite of the fact that many conscious mental states were perceived to be but superficial manifestations of much deeper processes; in spite of the fact that many such mental states were seen to arise from the depths of mental being lying far below the level of the ordinary consciousness; in spite of the fact that the emotional nature undoubtedly has its fundamental and elemental existence below the levels of the ordinary consciousness; these old-time orthodox psychologists held firmly to their original contention, and denounced those who ventured to express a doubt concerning it. These “old timers,” it is true, found many facts which remained unexplainable under the old theory; but, like many other orthodox thinkers along other lines of thought, they took the position that the old dogmas and teachings must be supported at all costs, and that if the facts conflicted with their theories, then, “so much the worse for the facts.”

But finally the pressure became too strong, and the younger men studying and thinking about the science of the mind began to advance tentatively the idea that perhaps there might be other regions of the mind, regions lying “below the threshold of consciousness,” levels or planes lying below the ordinary mental levels and planes, upon which important mental processes are performed. In spite of the continued and strenuous opposition of the orthodox psychologists, these courageous thinkers conducted extended experiments and made careful observations for the purpose of discovering the nature and the laws of these great unexplored realms of the human mind.

These investigations were made for the most part by psychologists who felt that this unknown region of the mind must exist in order to explain and satisfactorily account for certain observed conscious mental phenomena. The conscious effects were before them, but the “out-of-consciousness” cause of these was unknown. They reasoned that if such-and-such effects were present, then such-and-such causes must also be present, although so far these causes had not been discovered.

These pioneers were like the astronomers who posited the necessary existence of certain undiscovered planets by reason of the discovered actions of certain known planets, which actions were seen necessarily to be caused by the presence and influence of other planets as yet undiscovered by science. Or, changing the illustration, we may say that these advanced thinkers were like the early explorers who by reason of occasionally observing strange floating trees, animals and bodies of men in certain far-distant waters, hazarded the theory that there must be an undiscovered world situated far to the west of their own world; this was the idea that inspired Columbus, and which finally led  to the discovery of America. In the same scientific spirit these pioneer psychologists sought to account for certain observed mental activities, deflections and influences upon the theory that there must exist other planes of mental activity, lying “out of consciousness,” which constituted the field of a wonderful activity, the results of which afterward rose to the surface of consciousness.

Leibnitz, the great German philosopher, was one of the first of the leading Western psychologists to advance the theory that the mind is not limited to the narrow field of the ordinary consciousness; and that there are changes occurring, energies always at work, and modifications constantly taking place in the mind, of which the ordinary consciousness is not aware. Others followed in his footsteps, until finally the large number and high standing of the advocates of the new idea forced recognition and respect for it on the part of the orthodox psychologists. Vigorously opposed, and often violently ridiculed, this great idea gradually attracted to itself strong support, and finally became an accepted doctrine in the standard Western psychology.

As a straw showing how the wind of even the most conservative thought is now blowing in the direction of the general recognition of the existence of the “out-of-consciousness” planes or levels of mental activity, we quote the following extract from an article contained in “The Encyclopaedia Britannica” (Eleventh Edition: vol. 25; page 1063):

“The reality of modes of mental operation which may properly be called subconscious or subliminal is now generally admitted. During the last quarter of the 19th and the opening years of the 20th century, there has been accumulated a mass of observations which suffices, in the opinion of many of those best qualified to judge, to establish the reality of processes which express themselves in purposeful actions and which bear all the marks from which we are accustomed to infer conscious cognition and volition, but of which nevertheless the subject of normal personality has no knowledge or awareness other than such as may be shared by any second person observing his actions.”

Perhaps the greatest cause of the objection of the old-time psychologists to the idea of the Subconscious, and one of the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of the understanding of the subject by the average modern layman, is that of the seemingly contradictory notion of mental activities performed without “consciousness.” It is indeed hard to conceive of “thinking” without “consciousness.” But “subconscious” or even “unconscious” thinking is not really “thinking without consciousness”: it is rather thinking on planes of consciousness other than that of the ordinary consciousness.

The term “unconscious,” so frequently applied to the activities of the Subconscious, is particularly unfortunate—it serves to bewilder the student, and to arouse uncalled for opposition in the minds of those unfamiliar with the real facts of the case. Subconsciousness is not “unconsciousness”—it is rather “other consciousness.” This is a most important distinction: we trust that you will fix it in your mind, and observe it in your thought upon the subject.

The Freudian school has given great prominence to the term “The Unconscious” (which was originally employed by von Hartmann) in its consideration of certain important phases of the activities of the Subconscious. This fact has served to add to the difficulties attached to the subject of the “out-of-consciousness” mental processes. But the Freudians do not intend to convey the idea that “The Unconscious” is unknowing; on the contrary, they hold that it “knows” much and “knows” well. Dr. Wilfrid Lay, one of the clearest exponents of the teachings of Freud, says on this point:

“The Unconscious is not to be regarded as the unknowing part of the mind, but only as the unknown part. From one point of view, there is no such thing as the unknowing part of the mind, because the mind is essentially that part of the personality that is knowing- knowing with greater or less intensity, and knowing now one and now another object, but always knowing something, from the first day of its life until the last. But the Unconscious may be described as the generally unknown realms of the ego, into the seemingly bottomless abyss of which the sensations and perceptions of the individual are constantly sinking, and from which, no matter how hard we try, we cannot, without the help which analytic psychology offers us, recover anything except a very limited amount of visual, verbal or other memories.”

A little further on in this section of the book we shall show just why the Subconscious is “the generally unknown realms of the ego.” Modern psychology is able to furnish the explanation—one that is quite satisfactory when rightly understood. But before proceeding to such explanation we wish to clear away another quite frequent cause of misconception, misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the character of the real nature of the Subconscious, namely the erroneous “dual mind” theory which to some extent has become attached to it by reason of the hasty generalizations of some of the earlier writers upon the subject.

One of the great fallacies arising from the hasty generalization of some of the early investigators, teachers and writers upon the subject of the Subconscious, and one which has been quite difficult to explain away to the popular mind, is that which is generally known as the “two-mind theory,” or the “dual-mind hypothesis.” Arising from this is that associated fallacy consisting of identifying one of the hypothetical “two minds” with “the soul,” instead of regarding both of these two respective fields of mentation as particular divisions, regions, levels, or planes of mental activity, all of which are instruments of the manifestation and expression of the Ego, Self, or “I AM I” of the individual.

Frederick W. H. Myers, the English essayist and investigator of psychic phenomena, was (in 1887) the first to advance tentatively the idea of the “dual mind” of man. But Myers was far more conservative than were some of his followers in this respect, as will be seen from the following brief consideration of his ideas. Myers’ original idea was that the Self is not only a unity, but also a coordination of its several phases and powers. He held that in addition to the more commonly recognized attributes the Self “possesses faculties and powers unexercised and unexercisable by the consciousness that finds employment in the direction of the affairs of everyday life.”

At first, Myers confined his attention to the conception of a “level of consciousness” existing below the ordinary level or plane of everyday consciousness—”below the threshold” of that consciousness, as he very aptly expressed it. He employed the term “the subliminal consciousness” to indicate “all that takes place beneath the ordinary threshold, or say, if preferred, the ordinary margin of consciousness—not only those faint stimulations whose very faintness keeps them submerged, but much else which psychology as yet scarcely recognizes— sensations, thoughts, emotions, which may be strong, definite and independent, but which; by the original constitution of our being, seldom merge into that supra-liminal current of consciousness which we usually identify with ourselves.”

But later, Myers yielded to the temptation to generalize beyond conservative limits, and he thereby laid the foundations for much “wild” thought on the part of his later followers— thought which, by the way, Myers would undoubtedly have repudiated had he been living at the time. But even his generalization was advanced quite modestly, and tentatively, as will be seen by the following statement of it made by him at the time: “Perceiving that there are not only isolated subliminal processes, but that there also is a continuous subliminal chain of memory involving just that kind of individual and persistent revival of old impressions and responses to new ones, which we commonly call a Self—I find it permissible and convenient to speak of a Subliminal Self.”

The following explanation made by Myers shows that, at the last, his term, “The Subliminal Self” was employed principally for the purpose of convenience and for distinguishing between the two great planes of mental activity, rather than as a “hard and fast” declaration of belief in a “two mind” or “two self” combination of entities:

“I do not intend by using this term (the Subliminal Self) to assume that there are two correlative and parallel selves existing always within each of us. Rather, I mean that part of the Self which is commonly subliminal; and I conceive that there may be—not only cooperations between these quasi-independent trains of thought—but also upheavals and alterations of personality of many kinds, so that what was once below the surface may for a time, or permanently, rise above it. And I conceive also that no Self of which we can here have cognizance, is in reality more than a fragment of a larger Self—revealed in a fashion at once shifting and limited through an organism not so framed as to afford it full manifestation.”

Another phase of the “dual mind theory” became quite popular for a time as the result of the theories and teachings of Dr. Thomson J. Hudson which were first announced in his book entitled “The Law of Psychic Phenomena,” published in the year 1893. Dr. Hudson’s original fundamental theory was that: “Man has, or appears to have, two minds; each endowed with separate and distinct attributes or powers; each capable, under certain conditions, of independent action. It should be clearly understood at the outset that, for the purpose of arriving at a conclusion, it is a matter of indifference whether we consider that man is endowed with two distinct minds, or that his one mind possesses certain attributes and powers under some conditions, and certain other attributes and powers under other conditions. It is sufficient to know that everything happens just as though he were endowed with a dual mental organism. Under the rules of correct reasoning, therefore, I have a right to assume that man has two minds; and the assumption is so stated, in its broadest terms, as the first proposition of my hypothesis. For convenience, I shall designate the one as the Objective Mind, and the other as the Subjective Mind.”

But Hudson soon advanced from this comparatively modest fundamental premise. He proceeded as if the duality of the mind were an established fact, and he attributed to his hypothetical Subjective Mind the most wonderful powers and properties. In addition to the well-recognized “subconscious mental processes,” he attributed to the Subjective Mind certain mysterious powers which he held sufficient to account for the “psychic phenomena” of telepathy, hypnotism, clairvoyance, spiritistic manifestations, psychic action at a distance, psychic movement of material objects, etc. He held that the Subjective Mind acted without the use of the physical senses; that it was able to see at a distance, and without the natural organs of vision; that it could leave the body and travel to distant lands; that it could read the thoughts of others, and the contents of sealed envelopes and closed books, etc., etc. Finally, he announced: “In other words, it is the soul.”

Hudson claimed that the Subjective Mind operated more freely and efficiently when the person is placed in the hypnotic state, and that it was “unqualifiedly and constantly amenable to the power of suggestion; that is to say, the Subjective Mind accepts, without hesitation or doubt, every statement that is made it, no matter how absurd or incongruous or contrary to the objective experience of the individual.” In his later books, Dr. Hudson sought to establish the Immortality of the Soul by means of his hypothesis of the Subjective Mind, the latter being by him identified with “the soul.” He also sought to establish the Divine Pedigree of Man by means of the same hypothesis, holding practically that Divine Mind must be Subjective Mind raised to infinity, notwithstanding that he had previously asserted that the Subjective Mind could be hypnotized, and that it did its best work while in that state; and that it was amenable to suggestion to such an extent that it would accept without hesitation the most absurd and ridiculous statements.

Hudson’s theories and teachings, though extremely popular for a time, are now but seldom heard of or quoted. Their value now is generally held to consist chiefly of the great interest which they aroused in the public mind concerning the phenomena of the Subconscious. The extravagances of the theory, and the “wildness” of many of its conclusions, have been gradually, ironed out by the more thoughtful and scientific treatment of the subject by the later investigators and writers. The value of Dr. Hudson’s pioneer work is gratefully acknowledged by the present-day workers along the same general lines, and much of his teaching which was at one time severely condemned by the more conservative psychologists is now seen to fit in with the newer views of the subject when the former is properly interpreted and rightly understood and stated.

We do not consider it necessary to enter here into an extended recital of the theories and teachings of the multitude of teachers and writers who followed rapidly in the footsteps of Myers and of Hudson, and who carried to an extent undreamed of by those pioneers their original comparatively conservative hypotheses of “the dual self” or “the dual mind.” While serving to attract to the general idea of the Subconscious the minds of many persons who, otherwise, would never have heard of it, they often tended to repel the minds of more thoughtful persons by the mass of fantastic theory and unwarranted conclusions with which they surrounded the fundamental facts.

All this, however, has now almost entirely passed away. The barnacles have been scraped from the bottom of the ship, and it is now quite “easy sailing.” We now hear very little of the “dual mind” or “dual self” theories. The facts which were obscured or distorted by them are now explained and accounted for by the teachings of approved modern psychology. The unity of the mind is still maintained, but even the most conservative psychologists now admit—nay, actually insist—that the mental unity has many phases, many planes, levels, and regions of manifestation and expression. Science now says, in effect: “If we are called upon to postulate a separate self or mind to account for and explain each and every phase or aspect of mental activity, we shall have not two, but three, four, five, seven, ten, twenty, or a hundred different ‘selves,’ ‘minds,’ or entities, on our list. The sane and logical conclusion is that the mind is unitary—one- having many phases, forms, modes or aspects of manifestation and expression, and many levels or planes, regions or realms, of activity and process.”

Professor Joseph Jastrow says concerning this point: “It is quite misleading to think of the Subconscious as a veritable, independently organized ‘psyche,’ or as a subservient understudy, however partially apposite and wholly legitimate such comparisons may be as metaphorical aids. The Conscious and the Subconscious (if we may clothe these aspects of our mental life in substantive form) are but two souls with but a single thought, for the simple reason that they are but one soul, and the unity of their heart-beat is inherent in the organism that gives them life. It is only because the silent partner in our mental administration is only the sole head thereof in another guise, with another occupation, that his dominant habits, interests, endowments, experiences, pervade their common business. It is again because the one contributes to the joint undertaking, so largely unheard and unseen, that those who have intercourse with this concern, as indeed the director thereof himself, have little occasion to come in contact with influence and data that do not appear on the books.”

Now, let us return to that point of our consideration of the Subconscious wherein we proceed to investigate the subject of just why the contents of that great portion of the mind is unknown to the individual: you will remember that we have told you that modern psychology is able to furnish this explanation, and that we promised you that we would furnish you with it.

Here is the explanation in a nutshell: You are aware only of such contents of your mind which are within the field of ordinary consciousness. You are “conscious” of only such of your mental states and processes which at the moment of ordinary consciousness are included in the radius of your conscious attention. Accordingly, the “field of ordinary consciousness” and the “field of conscious attention” are identical. If your conscious attention is directed to or held by a particular object or subject, then you are “conscious” of that object or subject; if your conscious attention is not so directed or held by that object or subject, then you are not “conscious” of it.

A little self-examination will reveal to you the truth of the above statement. You will see at once that you are aware or conscious at this moment of only an infinitesimal portion of the entire contents of your mind—of what you “know,” of what you feel, of your beliefs, of your likes or dislikes, and so on. Your mind is filled with knowledge acquired by you in your past experience; with feelings of various kinds which you have developed in like manner; with ideas, plans, designs, purposes, aims, ends, desires, longings, aspirations. You know that this is so, although at this present moment these mental states are not in your field of consciousness—your conscious attention is not directed to or held by them. The moment that you turn your conscious attention in the direction of any of these things, that moment do those things proceed to rise to the plane of ordinary consciousness and you become aware of them. This is what happens when you “think” about things; when you indulge in reverie; when you start into motion the stream of memory and recollection. All this is a matter of ordinary everyday experience with you; yet you may never have thought of it in just this way, nor realized the principle involved in the process.

You see, there are two general kinds of “knowing,” as follows: (1) the “knowing” arising from the present consciousness of things; and (2) the “knowing” which consists of the knowledge which you have “salted down” and stored away in your mind— and this “in your mind” really means “in your Subconscious.” In the same way there are two general kinds of “feeling,” as follows: (1) the “feeling” which is at this moment present in your conscious attention, and (2) the “feelings” which you know quite well are present in your mind, although you are not at this moment aware of them.

If you would obtain a clear illustrative idea of the nature of the contents of the Subconscious, you need but think of the contents of your memory—for memory is one of the great phases of the Subconscious. You know quite well that there is a wealth of knowledge stored away in your memory, of which you are not at this moment conscious; you know equally well that when your attention is directed to certain subjects or objects, then your memory will raise to the plane of conscious attention at least a considerable portion of your knowledge concerning those subjects. Where were those memories, where was this knowledge, before they arose into consciousness in response to directed attention? Surely they existed somewhere—but where? They existed in the Subconscious just as truly as they afterward existed in your consciousness! Do you see the point?

The Subconscious is the great ocean of your mind, while your consciousness is but the surface activities of it. Your attention brings to the surface such contents of your mental ocean as may be called for, or drawn there, by the appropriate causes. But the attention does not create them; it merely brings them to the surface. These contents of your mind are just as real—just as really items of your knowledge—while sunk in the depths of the Subconscious, as when raised to the surface. To limit your “mind” to your conscious states, ignoring the far greater contents of your Subconscious, would be just as absurd as to limit the ocean to its surface, ignoring the wonderful body of its depths.

But not only are items of knowledge stored away in this great ocean of the Subconscious; wonderful mental activities and processes are constantly under way in its hidden depths. The Subconscious is not a Dead Sea; it is a great ocean of activity. It never rests, never sleeps; it works while your ordinary surface consciousness is resting or sleeping. A great portion of your thinking is being performed there; in its realm there are mental processes under way the end of which is to solve your problems for you, to answer your questions, to form your judgments, to work upon the materials which your conscious mentality has handed over to it instinctively. You see, your Mental Machine is a far more wonderful thing than you had imagined; it is something bigger than you have dreamed it to be. In the following sections of this book we shall show you the kind of mental work the Subconscious is doing for you—and the still better work it is capable of doing for you when you direct it rightly. For the present, we are merely striving to awaken you to a realization of its nature and of the facts of its existence.

Nature, or the Power underlying Nature, has wisely committed the greater portion of your mental work to the Subconscious. If your conscious mentality were required to attend even to but one-thousandth part of the work of the Subconscious, you would have no time whatsoever to attend to the tasks and problems of your everyday conscious life. In order to allow your conscious mentality to perform its rightful tasks, Nature has handed over to the Subconscious the greater portion of the entire mental activities, processes, and work. You will realize this more fully as you proceed with this instruction.

Dr. Wilfrid Lay says: “The Unconscious operates in every act of our lives, not merely in the actions ordinarily known as unconscious or automatic, but in that part of our activity to which we attribute the most vivid consciousness. For in a certain sense we are most helped or hindered by the unconscious part of ourselves when we think that we are most keenly alive. Our Unconscious pervades our conduct in the most minute details, just as the air we breathe is forced by our blood through our tissues; and it might almost be said that it is as important, and as great in extent, when compared with the conscious present, as the air, so small a part of which we breathe, is in extent in proportion to the minute particles of it that we take into our lungs.”

Subconscious Vital Processes 

Among the most fundamental activities of the Subconscious are those which are concerned with the vital processes of the physical body—the processes of life in the living organism. Although the fact is not generally recognized, it is an established scientific truth that the Subconscious controls, directs, institutes and conducts the vital processes of the body which are concerned with growth, nourishment and the general operation of the living organism.

The operation of the vital processes manifested in every organ of your body is conducted by the Subconscious. Every organ, every part, even every cell, is under the control and direction of the Subconscious. The work of repair, replacement, digestion, assimilation and elimination, which is underway in your physical body, is performed by the Subconscious. In short, your entire vital activity is under the control and direction of your Subconscious, although your ordinary consciousness is not aware of this fact.

Many persons; most persons in fact, if they think of the matter at all, are inclined to the general notion that the body “runs itself” like a machine, or rather like a clock that has been wound up and set going. So far is this from being a fact, however, that it may be stated that every action and movement of your internal organism (with the exception of the purely mechanical or chemical movements and changes) is effected by your Will, the latter usually manifesting along the lines of subconscious activity. All the operations of the “life forces” in your body are found to result from mental action of some kind—usually subconscious mental action.

It is an axiom of certain careful thinkers that “All Life-action is Mind-Action.” In every vital process in the living organism are to be seen the presence and activity of mind in some form, some phase, some degree. As Carpenter says: “The convertibility of physical forces and the correlation of these with the vital forces, and the intricacy of that nexus between mental and bodily activity which cannot be analyzed, all lead upward to one and the same conclusion—that the source of all power is Mind.” Bacon says: “Life is not force; it is combining power. It is the product and presence of Mind.” Dunn says: “From the first movement when the primordial cell-germ of a human organism comes into being, the entire individual is present, fitted for human destiny. From the same moment, life and mind are never for an instant separated; their union constitutes the essential work of our present existence.”

That all which is called Vital Force, the Healing Power of Nature, or the “Vis Medicatrix Naturae,” is but a form, phase or aspect of subconscious mental action—of the work of the Subconscious—cannot be doubted even for a moment by those who have carefully investigated Nature’s healing processes. These processes constitute what is known as “the curative efforts of Nature,” or the “Vis Vita,” by which terms is indicated that certain curative or restorative principle of Nature which is implanted in every living, organized body, and which is constantly operative for its repair, preservation, health and well-being. Instances of the effective work of this great natural principle are seen in the respective processes manifest in cases where a finger or toe is lost by the man. Here, as a prominent medical authority has said, “Nature, unaided, will repair and fashion a stump equal to one at the hands of an eminent surgeon.”

Careful medical authorities have pointed out in their books, and in their lectures, the fact that undeniable mental action is present in the ordinary vital processes and functions. They assure us that no machine could be constructed, nor could any combination of solids and liquids in organic compounds serve, to regulate, control, counteract, help, hinder, or arrange for the continual succession of different events, foods, surroundings and conditions which are constantly affecting the body; under no mechanistic theory can satisfactorily be explained the fact that in the midst of such ever-changing and varying succession of influences the body holds to its course of growth, health, nutrition and self-maintenance with the most marvelous constancy.

It is clear, say these authorities, that such qualities as regulation, control, etc., are mental qualities rather than mechanical properties. But, they bid us note, it is equally clear that by no ordinary mental actions can we consciously exercise any of these mental powers over the organic processes of our bodies. The inevitable conclusion, they say, is that the mental powers which are seen to be operating in the body are exercised unconsciously—that our unconscious mental powers, and nothing else, control, guide and govern the functions and organs of the body. As one of these authorities says: “When thoroughly analyzed, the action and regulation of no part of the body can be satisfactorily explained without postulating an unconscious mental element which does, if allowed, satisfactorily explain all the phenomena.”

We would call your attention here, at this point, to the fact that the bases of Mind Cure, Mental Healing, Mental Therapeutics (or by whatever names the various systems of mental cure of disease may be called) undoubtedly are to be found in the fact that the vital functions and processes of the body are really performed by Mind operating along subconscious lines—by the Subconscious, in fact. This being realized, it is seen plainly that Mental Healing (in each or all of its forms) is not a case of “the power of Mind over Matter,” but rather that of the influence of one phase of the mind over another phase—a case of “Mind over Mind,” in fact.

The connective nerves or filaments which unite the Cerebro-Spinal and the Sympathetic Nervous Systems serve an important purpose in the work of Mental Healing, and their presence is very significant in the light of the phenomena of Mental Therapeutics, or Faith Cures, and in the well-known ordinary phases of the effect of mental states upon physical functions. They serve to explain the vital mechanism employed in the production of these interesting classes of psycho-physical phenomena; and, likewise, they serve to furnish the physical explanation of the psychological processes operative in the phenomena of Mental Healing.

That mental states produce reactions in the form of physical conditions is admitted by even the most conservative medical authorities. The most casual observer must have noted that the emotions of fear, grief, anger, worry, or joy have a most marked effect upon the physical processes of digestion, assimilation and elimination. A change of mental state is almost immediately followed by a change in physical function. Your appetite is seriously affected by the receipt of bad news, while good news imparts a new zest to the enjoyment of your meal. The sight or the recollection of the sight of a disgusting object will produce nausea, or at least will spoil your appetite.

The sight or the memory of appetizing food will cause your mouth to water, and your gastric juices to flow more freely. The bad boy who stood in front of a brass band, and by means of sucking a lemon induced the saliva to flow copiously from the mouths of the musicians, thus causing their playing to come to a sudden and disastrous end, understood the practical effect of this principle, though doubtless ignorant of the real  cause operating in the case. The practical joker who sets the company of persons to yawning, as the result of the mental contagion produced by his simulated yawn, understands how this principle works out in practice, though he may not realize the exact psychology or physical process involved.

Experimental psychology has demonstrated that “the circulation follows the attention”; and that by concentrated attention directed to any part of the body one may increase the blood supply to that part. Thus, experiments have demonstrated that the blood may be sent in increased quantity to the hand, or else withdrawn from it, simply by means of concentrated attention accompanied by mental suggestion or auto-suggestion; the dark-red color of the hand in one case, and the pallid appearance of the hand in the other case, being sufficient evidence of the soundness of the principle. Many practitioners of Suggestive Therapeutics who have experimented along these lines have held that the increased supply of nerve-force, accompanying the increased flow of blood sent to the several organs and parts of the body in this way, plays a most important part in many cases of Mental Healing.

Just as the flow of the blood to any part or organ of the body may be increased by concentrating the attention upon those parts and organs, so the movements, activities and processes of the digestive organs, the organs of elimination, and even of the heart, may be influenced by employment of the attention, or by the presence of certain mental states which serve to accelerate or retard such processes as the case may be. Modern science admits that: “It is positively established that Suggestion or Auto-suggestion can and does affect the so-called involuntary functions of the body.” We shall see just how and why Suggestion and Auto-suggestion produce these effects, when we reach that particular phase of our subject a little further on in this section of the book.

That the respective states of health and disease depend materially upon the character of the emotional states predominant in the subconscious mentality of the individual is now universally admitted in authoritative medical circles. Statements concerning this fact, and examples and instances illustrating it, are to be found on all sides in medical journals, textbooks, and class-lectures. The following examples will suffice to illustrate the general character of the conclusions expressed in such statements concerning this matter.

Dr. Southworth says: “If mental states can change the various secretions of the body, making them poisonous: for example, the saliva and the milk in the human breast, under the influence of anger, worry or fear, could it not also be productive of disease through imperfect or non-elimination? Is it improbable that fear, which is a greater negative force than anger, may produce the results as indicated?” Professor Elmer Gates says: “My experiments show that irascible, malevolent and depressing emotions generate in the system injurious compounds, some of which are extremely poisonous; also that agreeable, happy emotions generate chemical compounds of nutritious value, which stimulate the cells to generate energy.”

Dr. Borton, writing of the healing of the body through mental forces, in which unhealthy conditions are transformed into healthy, normal states, says: “These changes are not miraculous, but proceed from natural causes in the operation of the mind, as a therapeutic agency, operating through the functions of the body, sometimes as a tonic or stimulant, warding off diseases under the most exposed conditions, defending and holding the system in a state of health; while those devoid of these mental assurances become victims to the ravages of disease through contagion or infection. This protective force of the mind has been demonstrated many times in hospitals and other places where contagious diseases were prevailing. The mental force possesses a protective power, when rightly exercised, far beyond what is usually conceded; this, not only in the way of defense, but also in correcting diseases when in existence.”

The investigations of Freud and his school have served to throw new light upon many obscure mental causes of disease and abnormal physical conditions. The work of Psycho-Analysis is directed to a considerable extent to uncovering these causes which are hidden in the recesses of the Subconscious.

Briefly stated, the case is as follows: Many abnormal physical conditions, and often chronic complaints, have as their primary cause a disturbance of the emotional nature arising from past experiences of an unpleasant nature, such as, for instance, real or fancied slights, injuries, injustice, frustration of cherished desires, or similar occurrences in the past life of the individual. As the years pass by the main facts of the actual event fade from the memory, and the individual seemingly adapts himself to the conditions forced upon him. But the Subconscious has not forgotten these; instead, their memories abide in the “out of consciousness” realms, and work their evil effects. Like a hidden cancer, or like a great gnawing worm dwelling in the emotional nature of the person, the old sore persists and tends to poison his mental and physical constitution. Thus old hates, old jealousies, old fears, abide in the Subconscious, producing the physical reactions which are well known to Psycho-Therapy.

It is the work of the scientific Psycho-Analyst to dig out these cancerous mental growths, or these psychic gnawing worms, and to bring them once more into the field of consciousness. Once brought before the conscious attention, they may be examined, analyzed, dissected, passed upon, and discarded as having no real present importance; thereupon, they are discharged from the mental realm once and for all. By means of this “cathartic” process, the system is relieved of these hidden roots and causes of disease and abnormal physical conditions, and health and normal functioning once more is manifested. These and similar discoveries have served to add greatly to the efficiency of Mental Therapy, and to broaden its field. They verify the basic principles and theories of Mind Cure, and indicate improved methods of applying them.

In this consideration of the Subconscious Vital Processes we must call your attention to three very important facts, namely: (1) That the Subconscious is amenable to Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion; (2) that the Subconscious tends to accept as true the ideas and statements which the conscious mentality places, or allows to be placed in it; (3) that the Subconscious, after accepting a Suggestion or Auto-Suggestion, proceeds to carry the suggested idea to its logical conclusion, irrespective of its actual truth, and thereafter will tend to manifest in physical states and functioning the mental state or completed idea the seed of which has been supplied by the Suggestion or Auto-Suggestion.

Now, there is no need here for us to enter into a technical description of the Psychology of Suggestion. It is sufficient for our purpose to consider a Suggestion as a “seed idea” which is planted in the rich mental soil of the Subconscious. An Auto-Suggestion is merely a Suggestion made by one to himself; it is a case of “sez I to myself, says I.” A plain Suggestion is a “seed idea” coming from an outside source—a statement from another person, a passage in a book or newspaper, a printed sign, the manner of another person, etc. All Suggestion, at the last, is Auto-Suggestion, for the reason that the individual permitting a Suggestion from outside to become lodged in his Subconscious really tacitly endorses it and makes it his own— just as man endorsing a check or note assumes responsibility for the paper.

The result of the suggestibility of the Subconscious is quite marked in the case of the Subconscious Vital Processes. Suggestions or Auto-Suggestions of Health tend to produce conditions of Health; while Suggestions or Auto-Suggestions of Disease tend to produce conditions of Disease. It has been said that, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Equally true, and for the same reason, is the statement that “As the Subconscious thinks its owner’s physical condition is or should he, so that physical condition actually becomes in time.”

By reason of these fundamental facts concerning the Subconscious, it is easily seen how and why the “seed ideas” implanted in the soil of the Subconscious eventually sprout, bear leaves, blossoms and the fruit of Health or Disease as the case may be. By means of the planting of the seed-ideas of Fearthought, panicky feelings, mental pictures and thoughts of diseased conditions, depressing and discouraging emotional states—coupled with the mental attitude of the “expectant attention” or “confident expectation” of the coming (or the continuance) of the physical disorder—the conscious mentality impairs and interferes with the normal action of the subconscious mental activities, quite frequently giving to them an entirely wrong direction or course of procedure. This wrong direction or course of procedure in time often becomes chronic and permanent, unless removed or else neutralized by a reversal of the method which originally brought it about.

On the other hand, by energizing, animating and strengthening the subconscious mental processes by cheerful, happy, and hopeful states of mind concerning the physical condition, by inspiring emotional states and feelings, by mental pictures of healthy, normal physical conditions, rather than of the abnormal, there is aroused a strong natural power of resistance to diseased conditions, to impaired physical functioning, and to ill-health in general—a strong recuperative energy, tending to prevent disease in the first place, and in the second place to restore health when it has become impaired.

Avoid, as you would a pestilence, all depressing emotions and all negative mental states such as Anger, Fear, Worry, Jealousy, Envy, Hatred. Also avoid with equal care all expectations or beliefs that you will contract disease, even when it is raging around and about you. Refuse to allow your imagination to be filled with the negative; evil pictures of diseases or diseased conditions. Avoid, or learn to resist and throw off, the evil

Suggestions of others that you will contract disease or manifest diseased conditions. Shed these Suggestions like the proverbial water from the duck’s back, when you cannot escape from the company of persons given to the planting of such pestilential seed-thoughts.

Cultivate the positive emotional states of Fearlessness, Calmness, Poise, Cheerfulness, Hope, Faith, Confidence in the Powers-that-be in Nature, or above and over Nature. Form the habit of expecting and looking forward to the normal, natural conditions of Health, not to the state of Disease. Trust the Life Forces and Nature to “pull you through,” even when you may happen to “slip.” Fill your mind with the ideas and mental pictures of Health, and not of Disease. Frequent the company of those who “look forward, not backward; upward, not downward,” and whose vision seeks the good rather than the evil aspects of life. Read books having this “forward and upward” outlook upon life.

Above all, keep your mind filled with the bright, cheerful and happy mental pictures of Health and Normal Physical Conditions. Be careful to admit only the right kind of pictures to your Mental Picture Gallery. Always see yourself as you wish to be; not as you fear that you may be! Keep ever before you the visualized ideal of HEALTH—this, no matter how much the existing conditions may strive or tend to influence you in the opposite direction. This last is important, for these Ideal Mental Pictures are the patterns which the Subconscious (which is really that which you have been thinking of as “Life” or “Nature”) employs in building your physical body, and in weaving the fabric of your physical functioning and conditions.

This is the great principle underlying all the various schools of Mental Healing, Faith Cure, etc., even of those schools which seek to veil their teachings in metaphysical and quasi-religious terminology and dogma. The development of the depressing, negative mental weeds spoils the mental garden of the Subconscious, and chokes the valuable plants which should be grown there. The act of holding before the imagination or the ideative faculties the mental pictures of Disease is bound in time to cause the Subconscious to strive to manifest in objective physical reality the conditions presented to it in such pictures. The “confident expectation,” or “expectant attention” of diseased or abnormal physical conditions is practically certain to cause the Subconscious to proceed in the direction of “making the ideal become real.” The statement of Job that, “that which I feared hath come upon me,” expresses an actual fact of physiological-psychology or of psychological-physiology.

This negative influence and condition, so imparted, permeates the organs and parts directly involved, and the cells which compose those organs and parts, as well. It also by reflex and sympathetic action and reaction of this kind—the action of the conscious mentality upon the Subconscious, and the reaction of the latter upon the former—serves to break down the natural habits of resistance and self-protection with which the Subconscious is endowed. As a result, chronic ill-health frequently results.

Here we have an actual example of the truth that, “To him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” In such cases, the only remedy is to halt the progress of the downward swing of the Subconscious activity, and to reverse the process by transmuting the activity into an upward, positive manifestation. The latter, however, is equally cumulative, the action and reaction proceeding in the direction of Health, so that we have an actual example of the companion truth that, “To him who hath, shall be given.” The rule works both ways, as all good rules are said to do.

Finally, you will do well to remember the old adage that, “That which will make a sick man well, will keep a well man well—that which will cure Disease, will prevent Disease.” Therefore, you are strongly urged to acquire, cultivate and maintain the positive, up-looking, forward-looking mental attitude, even in the days of your most perfect Health. “An ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of Cure.” You should determine to adhere faithfully to the Ideal of HEALTH—to cultivate the habit of holding firmly to the Mental Pictures of HEALTH—and to beware of allowing that Ideal and those Mental Pictures to become weakened, dimmed, clouded or hidden by adverse Auto-Suggestions on your own part, or by the acceptance (tacitly or actually) of similar Suggestions arising from the remarks, views, beliefs or negative mental attitudes of other persons, or from other sources.

This, then, is the part played by your Subconscious in the matter of the direction and control of your physical functions and processes. You have at your disposal the wondrous powers of the Subconscious which you may direct to the work of maintaining or restoring your Health. All that you have thought of as “Nature,” or as “The Life Forces” (in their healing and life-maintaining processes); all that you have thought of as The Healing Power outside of yourself; all this is really your own Subconscious—a part of Yourself, though a part perhaps not recognized or realized by you up to this time. If through ignorance you have given these powers a wrong direction, you have now at your disposal and under your command a positive, upward, Health-giving aggregate of forces. Finally, remember that your Subconscious is always your friend—once let it realize what is necessary for your physical well-being, once plant the right kind of seed-ideas in its soil, and it will bend every energy within it toward manifesting and expressing Health in you.

Rightly understood and interpreted, the principles which we have just announced to you will make clear and plain to you “that something in it” which you have always intuitively felt might be found in Mind Cures, underlying their technical and sometimes fantastic theories and methods. You have here “the stuff that does the work” which has been hidden in the various capsules offered you by the several schools, cults, and teachers. The verbal capsules serve to disguise the “real stuff,” and to make it more attractive to the imagination. Any verbal form that appeals to the mental taste or to the imagination will serve the purpose. The highly exploited verbal formulas, the miraculous Statements of Truth, the wonder-working “affirmations” of the various schools,—all these are but the verbal capsules in which are concealed the “real stuff” of Auto-Suggestion or Suggestion. Anything that will arouse the mental state of active “Confident Expectation,” or which will create a strong mental picture of the desired result or condition will “do the work.”

If you will analyze the various verbal formulas by means of which Mind Cures are made, you will always discover that Auto-Suggestion or Suggestion abides at their very heart and centre. The positive mental picture accompanied by the mental state of Faith, Confident Expectation, or Expectant Attention, will give to the Subconscious the desired mental pattern to be materialized into objective reality, and the aroused Faith or Confident Expectation will set the machinery of the Subconscious into activity.

We note at the time of the present writing that a retired chemist of Nancy, France, is “working miracles” of healing in England. His formula is simply the continued repetition of the French words “Ca passe” (meaning “going, going, going.”) The patients are filled with the idea that their diseases are “going, going, going,” and the repeated Auto-Suggestion produces the desired result in a great number of cases. The rapidly repeated French phrase, sounding like “Passapassapassapassapassa” constitutes the magic formula in this case. The additional statement, to be repeated twenty times without stopping, is: “Everyday in every way I am getting better and better.” If you, have studied carefully what we have told you concerning the active principle of Suggestion or Auto-Suggestion, you will discover the “real stuff that does the work” in this verbal formula that is obtaining such marked results, according to the foreign press. The great virtue of this particular formula lies in its simplicity, and in its “catchy” sound. It supplies an attractive verbal capsule for the “stuff that does the work,” i. e., Suggestion.

Subconscious Habitual Action

Another interesting and important phase of the manifestations of the Subconscious is that concerned with the performance of more or less complex habitual physical actions. By far the greater portion of your ordinary physical movements are performed by your Subconscious operating along the lines of “habit,” or acquired automatic action. All “habit actions” or acquired automatic actions are performed under the direction of the Subconscious.

Your first attempts at walking, writing, operating a typewriter, playing an instrument, running a sewing machine, or carrying on any similar operation involving repeated muscular movements, were accompanied by an intense consciousness of every detail of the required movements. As you became more proficient in the task, by reason of repeated practice and repetition, and as you acquired ease and dexterity in such performance, you gradually became less and less conscious of those details; finally, you reached the stage in which you were able to perform the movements practically without conscious effort.

But while your ordinary consciousness is no longer involved in the habitual acquired action, your Subconscious is most decidedly involved in it. The performance has been merely transferred from your ordinary conscious mental mechanism to your extraordinary Subconscious mental mechanism. Your mind is as much involved in the performance when the habit is acquired, as it was at the beginning, though you are not consciously aware of the fact. Your mind has not withdrawn from the task: it has merely transferred the performance from one field of its activities to another.

It was formerly the fashion of philosophers to attempt to explain this well-known class of phenomena upon the theory that the acquired muscular movements became “automatic,” in the sense of “purely mechanical.” They held that the mind was no longer concerned with the muscular activities, and that the muscles had learned to perform the necessary actions involuntarily, automatically, and “of themselves.” But, they admitted, it could not be denied that the mind seemed to be always in the background, hovering around the task, as it were, and ready to resume its control should such necessity present itself. But certain thoughtful psychologists dissented from this crude theory, which, in fact, was no real theory at all but rather a confession of ignorance on the part of those advancing it.

Lewes, an early authority, protested against the crude theory just mentioned. He said: “We are not conscious of the separate sensations which guide speech and writing. Are these processes mechanical? By no means. We know that they were laboriously learned by long tentative efforts, each of which was accompanied by distinct consciousness. To suppose that we pass from the psychical to the physical by frequent repetition, would lead to the monstrous conclusion that, when a naturalist has by laborious study become so familiarized with the specific marks of an animal or plant that he can recognize at a glance a particular species, or recognize by a single character the nature of the rest, the rapidity and certainty of this judgment proves it to be a mechanical, not a mental act.”

He continues: “The point never to be left out of sight is that actions which are known to be preceded and accompanied by sensations do not lose their special character of sentience because they are not preceded and accompanied by that peculiar state which is specially called ‘consciousness.’ When we see a man playing the piano, and at the same time talking of something far removed from the music, we say that his fingers move unconsciously; but we do not conclude that he is a musical machine. Muscular sensations and musical sensation regulate the movements of his fingers; and if he strikes a false note, or if one of the notes jangles, he is instantly aware of the fact. That a particular group of sensations, such as musical tones, will set going a particular group of muscular movements without the intervention of any conscious effort is not more to be interpreted on purely mechanical principles than that a certain phrase will cause a story teller to repeat a certain anecdote, or an old soldier ‘to fight his battles o’er again.’”

The later recognition that mind may function on planes or levels other than those of ordinary consciousness—the discovery of the plane or world of the Subconscious, in short— put an end to these early controversies, and gave to even the most orthodox philosopher or psychologist an avenue of escape from his previous dilemma. At the present time, it is generally accepted that practically all of our habitual muscular movements—and this means by far the greater part of our entire muscular movements—are performed by the Subconscious. Not only do you walk, speak, write, operate machines and play instruments in this way, but you also dress yourself, put on your shoes and your hat, adjust your spectacles, proceed to and from your daily work, wind your clock, lock your doors, put out your cat, and perform most of your customary little tasks of life in precisely this way, i. e., largely under the direction and control of your Subconscious.

How often have you been “wrapped in a brown study,” and have become practically unconscious of your surroundings, yet have walked home from your train, crossing crowded streets, dodging automobiles, escaping contact with other pedestrians, and finding yourself, at last, in front of your door with latchkey in hand? A little thought on the subject will reveal to you the startling fact that you perform the major portion of your habitual physical actions practically “automatically”—that is to say by means of your Subconscious.

Hearing these statements of facts for the first time, you may say: “Pooh! I simply ‘remembered’ how to do these things, by repeated performance, and did not have to “use my mind” about them each time; that is all there is to it!” But stop a moment; is this really “all there is to it?” You cannot remember just what particular shoe you put on first every morning; you cannot remember just which arm you place first in your coat every morning; you cannot remember every little motion, twist and turn you employ in tying your necktie each time you dress. But your Subconscious remembers it perfectly; and is thereby able to perform these tasks properly every day, without calling upon your conscious mentality for assistance.

If you try on an old (and “different”) pair of shoes, long since laid aside; if you take up once more a style of necktie which you have not worn for years; you will find that your Subconscious will remember every motion of tying the shoes or the necktie, though it would be impossible for your conscious mentality to describe the process in detail, or to remember the exact motions to be employed.

Professor Joseph Jastrow, in one of his works, gives us several interesting personal experiences designed to illustrate the trouble experienced by the individual when his conscious mentality attempts to “boss the job” which long since has been taken over by the Subconscious. The following will serve to illustrate the principle. He says: “I can readily adjust a certain kind of necktie which I wear only occasionally, if I do not put my attention upon it but let my hands follow their ingrained habits. If, however, I begin to reason which end goes over, and which under, and watch my movements in the mirror, a hopeless failure is the likely issue.”

The following verse furnishes a humorous illustration of the same principle; here the centipede gets along quite well with its subconscious direction of its many legs, until the playful toad suggests that the many-legged one should direct his conscious mentality to “boss the job”—then see what happens!

“The centipede was happy quite,
Until the toad, for fun,
Said: ‘Pray, which leg comes after which?’
This wrought his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in the ditch—
Considering how to run.”

Many persons quite proficient in the performance of delicate muscular movements find it almost impossible to teach others, by words, how the work is executed. It is only when they say, “It is like this,” accompanying the words with the actual physical demonstration, that the desired instruction is imparted. The instructor in any branch of manual work; the dancing master; the teacher of skating, shooting, billiards, etc., can hope to teach his pupil to “catch the movement” only by imitation. He must lead his pupil to imitate the teacher’s movements until he has made them his own, i. e., until his Subconscious assimilates the movement and takes over its performance.

It is an axiom of manual training that the pupil never really “knows” how to perform the manual task with proficiency until he is able to perform it along subconscious lines—although that term is not employed by the teachers and workmen. The pupil must continue to “put his mind on it” until he is able to have his Subconscious take over the task.

The skilled performance of a technical musical composition by a young woman who is conversing entertainingly with the young man who is turning the sheets of her music, and who possibly is also engaged at the same time in a roguish eye-flirtation with the admiring youth, demonstrates forcibly the fact that the Subconscious of the young woman is “on the job” so far as the musical performance is concerned. The Subconscious of the experienced hostess, who is able to converse brilliantly with her guests at the dinner table, while missing nothing concerning the service being furnished them, and who at the same time is observing minutely the costumes of the visiting women, also is manifesting its efficiency.

The same is true of the Subconscious of the typist who is busily engaged in transcribing her notes, rapidly operating her machine, and yet at the same time is noting carefully the conversation of her fellow-workers, or of her employer and his visitor. Examples of this kind are always at hand—you will note them now that your attention has been directed to the subject. You have but to recall the thoughts indulged in by you when you were shaving this morning—you do not remember the motions of your razor, because you were too busy thinking about something else even to note the physical movements at the time—but your Subconscious was “on the job,” nevertheless: in fact, it shaves you every morning!

This action of your Subconscious is the result of that law of your mental being which makes for efficiency and utility—the instinctive urge toward obtaining the maximum of necessary muscular movement with the minimum expenditure of conscious attention. Were you compelled to exert the original degree of conscious attention in every repeated performance of a physical movement, you would not only fail to obtain proficiency, speed, ease and general efficiency of movement, but you would also experience the same degree of mental fatigue which marked the original performance of the task. Conscious attention requires a great outlay of nervous energy, and such expenditure is fatiguing. Proficiency and efficiency in any line of work depends largely upon the ability to pass the performance of the work on to the Subconscious—this, however, only after the conscious faculties have thoroughly mastered the necessary experience concerning the details of the task.

Kay states the rule as follows: “The more we cultivate and train any power or faculty, the more easily and rapidly does it perform its work; the less that consciousness is concerned in it, the more work does it accomplish, and the less does it suffer from fatigue. Our mental progress, then, is in the direction of our becoming unconscious, or largely unconscious, of many of our activities.” Abercrombie says: “There is a remarkable law of the system by which actions at first requiring much attention are after frequent repetition performed with a much less degree of it, or without the mind being conscious of any effort. This is exemplified in various processes of daily occurrence, as reading or writing, but most remarkably in music.”

But here we must call your attention to an important point, and to indicate a source of danger. Just as a manager of a large establishment would be seriously handicapped were he to be deprived of his helpers and forced to perform all the details of the work himself, so, likewise, the work of the establishment would be seriously affected were the manager to fail to maintain a supervision over his subordinate workers. This is just as true in the case of the mind as in that of the establishment to which we have just referred. The Subconscious is just as apt to pick up bad habits and methods as good ones, and it also easily tends to fall into bad habits of making “short cuts” of doubtful value, or to adopt “slouchy” methods of operation.

The conscious mentality, while not attempting to perform the detail work which is far better and more efficiently performed by the Subconscious, should, nevertheless, always maintain a vigilant supervision of the results and output of the mental establishment. It should continue to examine the output; and to pass upon the results; and if these be faulty or unsatisfactory, it should insist upon an improvement and a correction of the erroneous methods and processes. It should allow the Subconscious to perform the detail work without meddlesome interference, but, at the same time, it should hold the Subconscious responsible for the efficient performance of the tasks committed to its care.

The work of educating the Subconscious in this matter, or of correcting it when needed, is based upon certain quite well defined principles which we shall now present to you. These principles should be carefully considered by you, and their main points committed to memory, for they are very useful and necessary. Strange to say, while all persons continually employ the Subconscious in their everyday work, very few are acquainted with the principles involved in the education and correction of its faculties and powers, notwithstanding that these principles are very simple and are easily employed. The scientific method is far preferable to the hit-or-miss or higgledly-piggledy methods usually employed.

Educating and Directing the Subconscious

1. Begin with Concentrated Attention. This rule is based upon the fact that the more the conscious attention is given to a new physical movement or operation at the start, and during the early stages of its acquirement, the more readily and more thoroughly does the Subconscious acquire the knack of performing that movement or operation after it has been transmitted to it. The degree of conscious attention given to the task in the first place determines the degree of the impression made upon the Subconscious; and the greater the degree of such impression, the more effective will be the subsequent performance of the task by the Subconscious after it has taken over the matter. The same rule applies to the correction of the Subconscious when it requires such by reason of faulty performance. The basic principles must be first thoroughly acquired by the conscious mentality, by means of concentrated attention; these are then transmitted to the Subconscious, which thereafter acquires proficiency by repeated performance. The start must be a good one, if the finish is to be satisfactory.
2. Recognize the Subconscious. By a strange and seldom recognized law of psychology, the actual recognition of the Subconscious by the conscious mentality serves to establish a strong bond of mutual interest, coordination and cooperation between the two planes of the mind. This results in a far greater degree of receptivity by the Subconscious, in the first place, and a far greater degree of efficiency on its part, in the second place. You will do well to enter into the spirit of this idea, even to the extent of thinking of the Subconscious as being a real personal “helper.” You may address it, and treat it in general, as if it were indeed an independent, intelligent entity—it certainly is intelligent, though not really independent of your mental being. You may mentally address it, saying: “Here, Subconscious! this is the way I want this thing done—this is the right way to do it. I am learning the ‘hang’ of this thing—the knack of doing it efficiently, in the best possible way, in the least possible time, and with the least possible expenditure of energy; I want you to watch me closely so that you will acquire the knack of efficiency in doing it, so that you may do it still better when I turn it over to you.” You may smile at this apparently fanciful idea—but it works out in actual practice. Treat the Subconscious as a working partner—and see how quickly, eagerly and effectively it will respond.
3. Don’t Meddle with the Subconscious, but Trust It. Following out the idea last stated, give the Subconscious a chance to do its work when you have turned a task over to it. Examine its results, supervise its output, but don’t meddle with its detail work. Do not bewilder it when it is performing the task—remember the fate of the centipede in the verse previously quoted. The Subconscious is somewhat sensitive, and at times suffers from stage fright if meddled with. Treat it kindly, and show confidence in it. Employ diplomacy in dealing with it—use the iron hand if necessary, but do not forget the velvet glove on that hand. The Subconscious has something like “the artistic temperament” of the opera singer—it must be handled properly in order to get the best results. It is an excellent player of golf, and a driver of automobiles—but you must show it that you trust it while it is playing or driving, and must not “rattle” it by meddlesome interference. Make a “friend and a brother” of your Subconscious—you will never regret it.

Subconscious Emotion And Memory

The Subconscious plays such an important part in the processes of Emotion and Memory, respectively, that it truly may be said that without taking into consideration the part played in them by the Subconscious there can be no intelligent understanding of the nature of Emotion or Memory, nor of their manifestations.

The Subconscious and the Emotions In the regions of the Subconscious lie the emotional tendencies and inclinations which rise into conscious manifestation upon contact with the objects which furnish the stimuli for such manifestation. You have often been surprised by the rise into conscious feeling of certain emotional tendencies of the existence of which you have heretofore been unaware. You have often found dwelling within your inner nature the material for feelings and emotions from which you had previously deemed yourself entirely free. It has been well said that in the subconscious emotional nature of every individual there is to be found “the whole menagerie” of elemental feelings, the animals awaiting only the opening of the door of consciousness to make their appearance.

Your feelings and emotions are determined not alone by your conscious sensations and ideas, but also by the imperceptible influence of subconscious impressions, of which only the sum of the resulting effects manifest in consciousness. This explains the mystery and inexplicable character of so many of your emotional experiences—the uprush of unsuspected feelings. Not knowing the definite causes of these mental states, you find them incomprehensible. You have within you a quiet and unseen growth of Subconscious emotional influences which often prove to be important factors in your mental life. You are not conscious of the existence of these influences until, when the appropriate stimuli call them forth, they manifest a distinctly marked character and often a decided urge to action.

Psycho-Analysis of quite a simple character, tends to reveal the existence of some of these hidden emotional states of which it has been said: “They, more than knowledge, make us what we are,” but there still exists within us an even larger area of such emotional character which is unsuspected by us and of which we become aware only under exceptional circumstances; only extended and deep Psycho-Analysis reveals these elements to us, so far below the surface of consciousness do they lie.

Professor Joseph Jastrow says: “* * * A still larger and more vital part lies submerged in the subconscious areas of character and disposition, effectively modifying the organic efficiency and the quality of our talents, yet so subtly, so fluidly, as to impart an unanalyzable genius to all that is most worth while in what we feel and think and do and are. * * * Such emotional factors of our psychology penetrate more fundamentally than do the intellectual ones into the fibre of our being, and so are more intrinsically influences of the subconscious order, more submerged, more intuitive and less revealed.”

The subconscious emotional material from which your conscious emotional states are created and composed may be arranged for convenience into the following three classes (these however, not being mutually exclusive), viz.:

1. Emotions Arising from Physical Causes. This class of subconscious emotional material arises from physical conditions themselves unperceived by conscious sensation, but which manifest in subconscious emotional states which gradually rise to the plane of consciousness. In this class are included your “moods” which arise without any relation to your actual experiences with the outside world. You are not conscious of what is going on in your internal physical organism, except in cases of marked abnormal conditions; but your Subconscious is aware of these physical conditions, and frequently reflects them in the form of emotional states. Far more “soul” experiences arise from reflected physical conditions than we usually realize or are willing to concede. One’s romantic melancholy is very frequently the direct result of an inactive liver reflected in the Subconscious emotional states; or, perhaps, from subconscious sexual activities or processes.
2. Combinations of Minute Emotional Material. This class of emotional material consists of the scattered elements of personal experience, each of which is too weak or unimportant to manifest as emotion, but which, combined and fused by the Subconscious, thereafter tend to rise to the conscious levels of the mind. You are constantly receiving such emotional material of which you are not conscious at the time. Emotional experiences must be of a certain magnitude or intensity in order to rise to the plane of consciousness. As Lewes says: “Many impressions are either so faint in themselves, or so familiar, so submerged in stronger impressions, or so incapable of exciting trains of reflex feeling in the preoccupied mind, that we are neither conscious of them when present, nor capable of remembering them afterward.” And, as Ribot says: “A certain amount of time is necessary for an impression to be perceived; and an essential condition of consciousness is wanting when the duration of the nervous process falls below the minimum.” But, although not recognized in consciousness, many of such emotional impressions tend to unite and to become fused together in the Subconscious, and thus acquire such strength as to cause disturbances on the conscious surface of the mind. As Holmes says, they “never emerge into consciousness, but yet make their influence felt among the perceptible mental currents, just as the unseen planets sway the movements of those that are watched and mapped by the astronomer.” At other times these fused impressions of the Subconscious will acquire such vigor that they will cause a veritable upheaval on the conscious plane—they will fairly explode into consciousness in a way startling to the individual who previously was not at all aware that he “felt just that way about such things.”
3.  Emotions of Racial Memory. This class of emotional material consists of race experiences transmitted by heredity, through racial-memory or “instinct,” which rise into consciousness when the appropriate stimuli present themselves. Most of your most fundamental and elemental emotions have come to you in this way, i. e., through racial memory of the past experiences of the race, reaching you as “instinctive feeling.” Instinct, at the last, is out inherited racial-memory—memory of the past experience of the race. As memory is fundamentally a function and process of the Subconscious, it follows that the instinctive emotions are essentially subconscious in character.

There flows through you the deep stream of racial-memory which has come down to you from countless generations of the race. In that stream are the materials of some of the most elemental and fundamental emotional states which rise to the surface of your consciousness when the appropriate stimulus presents itself. The experiences of your long line of ancestors have been impressed upon that racial-memory—that memory has been transmitted to you and forms a portion of your Subconscious mental records.

But do not let this thought disturb you—do not share the popular false conception of heredity as a bugaboo. As Burbank has said: “Heredity means much; but what is heredity? Not some hideous ancestral spectre, forever crossing the path of a human being. Heredity is merely the sum of all the effects of all the environments of all past generations on the responsive ever-moving life forces.” Heredity is merely racial memory, and is no more to be feared than is your own individual memory.

All of the three above-stated classes of subconscious emotional states, together with their countless variations and combinations, dwell below the levels of consciousness—on the great planes of the Subconscious—except at such times when they are called into conscious activity, when they spring from the depths just the flying-fish raising itself into the air from the body of deep water which is its home.

If asked in what form they abide in the Subconscious, or “just where” they rest, the only answer is that they abide there in the same general form, and rest in the same general region, as does the subconscious memory of the actions of the fingers of the skilled musician, or the subconscious memories of the many things which you have experienced but of which you are not conscious at the present moment, though the recollection of these will take place when you demand it.

You are conscious of only a very small percentage of the things you “know,” and of that which you “feel,” and of those actions which you are able to perform proficiently and efficiently. By far the greater part of these mental states or conditions (or whatever you may choose to call them) lies beneath the levels of consciousness—in the deep regions of the Subconscious— in the depths of that great mental ocean of your being of which your ordinary consciousness is merely the surface. You will do well to cease thinking of these planes of mentality as “places” in space—think of them rather as states of mind.

The Subconscious and the Memory Of all of the offices and processes of the Subconscious, that phase concerned with Memory is perhaps the most characteristic. This, because Memory in some of its aspects is involved in all of the other phases of subconscious mental activity. Memory itself is so involved with subconscious mentation that it cannot be disentangled from it. Without the processes of Memory, none of the other manifestations of subconscious activity would be possible; and, likewise, without the existence of the Subconscious there could not exist that great subconscious storehouse of Memory in which the memory-records are stored, and from which they are brought out in the processes of recollection and raised again to the plane of consciousness.

Memory, in its most general meaning, is the conscious revival of past mental experiences. It follows logically that the experience in order to be afterward “remembered,” i. e., recalled into consciousness, must in the meantime be impressed and stored away in some region of the mind. That such region of the mind is not that of the ordinary consciousness we know by personal experience—we know that by effort we raise these impressions from “somewhere” up to the plane of consciousness. That “somewhere” is the realm of the Subconscious—that part of the region of the Subconscious which is called “the storehouse of Memory.”

Halleck says: “It has often been asked: Where are the images of Memory when they are not present in consciousness? We see a man one day, but do not think of him again for a month. We can then call up a distinct image of him. Where was the image of the man during the month? The theory is that the full-fledged idea is in the mind, but slumbering below the stream of consciousness; just as a person is alive when sound asleep, without being aware of the fact. When we are not conscious of an idea, it is believed to disappear just as a diver does beneath the surface of the water; and the idea is held to keep its form as intact as does the diver during this disappearance.”

It is impossible to account for the nature of Memory except upon the hypothesis that there is much in the mind of which we are unconscious. We are conscious of only a small part of what exists in our minds. That which we know to remain in the mind, but of which we are not conscious at the time, must be thought of as being stored away in the Subconscious. When we recall it, it rises to the plane of consciousness; at all other times it is below the level of consciousness. Likewise, we could not recognize a past experience as such, when it is recalled in some way, unless at least some trace of it had continued in existence in the mind.

Many leading psychologists, in fact, have held that an impression once made upon the record-sheets of the Subconscious always remains there, even though it may never again be called into the conscious field of attention. Likewise, they hold that even though such impressions may never again come into consciousness, nevertheless they exert a subtle and silent influence upon our views, convictions habits, feelings, emotions, judgments and actions. The Freudian school lays great stress upon this fact, and its method of Psycho-Analysis is directed largely to the work of “digging out” these submerged memories of past experiences which have been disturbing the emotional balance.

Morrell says: “Every single effort of mind is a creation which can never go back again into non-entity. It may slumber in the depths of forgetfulness as light and heat slumber in the coal seams, but there it is, ready at the bidding of some appropriate stimulus to come out of the darkness into the light of consciousness.” Hollander says: “We may forget objects and events—that is to say, we may dismiss them from our consciousness, but they are stored up in our subconsciousness to the end of our days.” Says another writer: “Our mental impressions may never again come up before consciousness, but they nevertheless remain in that vast ultra-conscious region of the mind, subconsciously or unconsciously moulding and fashioning our subsequent thought and actions.”

Fever patients have been known to converse in the language of the country in which their early childhood has been spent, though they had apparently entirely forgotten that tongue. Several typical cases of this kind are recorded in the text-books in which patients in delirium have recited long passages, sometimes entire chapters, from books in foreign languages which they did not understand in their normal condition, but which books had been read from in their presence many years before. Persons rescued from drowning or hanging have testified that many of the events of their past lives were presented to their consciousness with utmost clearness and minuteness of detail, and with a lightning-like rapidity of sequence.

Dying persons not infrequently go back in memory to the days of their early childhood, and, after a lapse of fifty, sixty, seventy, or even more years, will recite the most trifling events of those early days with wonderful minuteness of detail. Cases of this kind are numerous, and are too well authenticated to permit of doubt of their substantial correctness—the theory of coincidence is absurd when applied to such cases. Of like nature is the frequent experience of dreams in which many apparently forgotten incidents of childhood and youth are presented in clear detail; in some instances the person is convinced of the truth of the recollection only by the assurances of older relatives familiar with the facts of the original experience.

The work of the Subconscious in the processes of Memory, however, is not confined to the office of furnishing a subconscious storehouse of memory-impressions—it has other and still more complicated tasks to perform. It not only stores away the memory-records, but it has also its own particular system of indexing and cross-indexing them; of searching for these records when they are demanded on the conscious plane; and of finding them and presenting them to consciousness, perhaps long after the conscious demand for them has ceased, and when the person is thinking about something entirely different. You have often experienced this delayed finding of the missing memory-record. After you have given up all hope of ever recalling it to memory, then all of a sudden the missing name, number, or detail fairly “pops” into consciousness, sometimes in an almost startling fashion.

Let us describe in somewhat fanciful form—yet in a form which accurately represents the actual “working out” of the processes—these activities of the Subconscious which are concerned with Memory.

In the first place, we shall compare your mechanism of memory-recording to the recording apparatus of a phonograph. In each case the receiving diaphragm and the receiving record are both there. The impression of sensation, emotion, or action is recorded on the moving cylinder of the memory, i. e., of the Subconscious mechanism concerned with Memory. The impression may be clear and strong, or else faint and weak, according to the circumstances of the original experience.

Then begin the more complex activities of the Subconscious, in its processes of Memory. The records bearing the impressions are immediately carried below the plane of consciousness, and are stored with more or less care (depending upon the habit of the individual) in the great storehouse of Memory in the realm of the Subconscious.

But this is only the beginning. The stored-away memory records would be of no practical use to you were you unable to find them when needed. Accordingly, the Subconscious employs methods tending to facilitate the future finding and presentation of these records. In order that these memory-records be rendered available; they must be (1) stored in a systematic manner, each in a section containing impressions of a similar class; (2) plainly labeled so that they may be recognized when seen by the memory-clerks employed by the Subconscious for this purpose; and (3) carefully indexed and cross-indexed in the “memory books” of the Subconscious, so that the “loose end” of Memory may always be taken hold of by the searching clerks.

The storing-away process, and particularly the indexing and cross-indexing process, constitutes the work of what we have somewhat fancifully called the “clerks” of the Subconscious— in fact, indeed, they certainly act like real clerks instead of mere “processes.” There is a great difference in the degree of proficiency of these memory-clerks—particularly in the case of the indexers and cross-indexers. This difference depends largely upon the memory-training of the individual. Some persons have their memory-records so closely cross-indexed that if they cannot find the missing record at once by means of the direct index, they set the memory-clerks to work discovering the cross-indexed references to it, and in a short time the record is found and passed on to the other helpers who then raise it to the plane of consciousness, where it is placed on the reproducing phonograph of Memory and caused to repeat the original impression.

So, you see, the conscious mentality plays only a subordinate part in the processes of Memory. It merely records the impressions, and afterward reproduces them when they are placed before its mechanism. The storing, the indexing, the searching and discovery of the records, and the final raising of the records up to the reproducing mechanism of consciousness, each and all are performed by the Subconscious through its processes and “clerks.” In fact, through the study of the processes of Memory you will gain a much more comprehensive and much more practical idea of the nature of the Subconscious, and of its methods of work, than is possible through the study of any other one class of its activities and phenomena.

The Freudian school has directed particular attention to the fact that the Subconscious sometimes seems determined to make the individual forget certain things which are unpleasant and disagreeable to him; and to encourage the recollection and remembrance of things of an agreeable nature. The many works written by Freud and his followers give many, and often quite amusing, instances of this particular trait of the Subconscious.

For instance: One finds it easy to forget to pay a bill containing charges deemed extortionate, or for services not deemed satisfactory—this entirely aside from the common disinclination to part with one’s money. Again, he tends to forget promises, engagements, or other duties which are associated with unpleasant persons, things or events. Moreover, he tends to forget the names of persons and places which have unpleasant associations. “Something about him” wants to “forget it” in these cases—and tries in many ways to accomplish its purpose.

In a recent magazine article, a celebrated Psycho-Analyst of the Freudian school is quoted as saying: “Earlier students of the mind assumed that forgetting was merely a passive process— the failure to remember. Freud discovered that forgetting is the active effort of the mind to protect the individual from pain and unpleasantness. Unpleasant experiences, and people associated with them, do not merely slip out of the mind; they are actively thrust out and kept under control by a mechanism which Freud metaphorically termed ‘the censorship.’ You remember the things you really want to remember. You do the things you really want to do. You recall the people you really like, and want to recall. You will discover that the things or the people you forget, or lose, are associated with something unpleasant, and have been automatically relegated by ‘the censor’ into the limbo of the unconscious.”

Thus Psycho-Analysis adds to the troubles of the husband who seeks to explain to a Freud-perfect wife how he came to forget to mail those letters to her relatives; and to those of the lover of a Freud-perfect sweetheart who tries to account for the fact that he happened to forget the date of his first meeting with her, or that he overlooked some little thing she had asked him to do for her. Freud has contributed to the list of the little things which serve to make modern life so complex— particularly for the male of the species.

Subconscious Psycho-Analysis

The term “Psycho‑Analysis,” now so frequently employed, is of quite recent origin. It was originally used by Professor Sigmund Freud, of Vienna, to designate a system of psychotherapy devised and developed by himself, and which has since attracted a large following and secured a marked degree of public attention and interest. The method was originally designed and employed for the purpose of the treatment and cure of the border-line of mental diseases such as hysteria, neurasthenia, certain forms of neurosis, etc., but its principle since has been extended much further. The term, Psycho-Analysis, is now frequently employed to indicate certain methods of “analyzing, synthesizing, and re-educating the Unconscious (or Subconscious)” apart from pathological conditions.

A standard reference work says: “Psycho-Analysis is a method of psychological investigation designed for the purpose of discovering and exploring the unconscious psychic forces which are at the bases of normal and abnormal psychic manifestations. It assumes that there are definite reasons for all normal and abnormal mental activities, that no psychoneurotic symptoms are accidental or meaningless, but that they have always unconscious underlying causes which, if found and brought to the surface, become dissipated and cause the symptoms to disappear. With this assumption Professor Freud evolved his theory of repression, which is the main pillar upon which rests the edifice of Psycho-Analysis. In brief, this theory states that the psychoneurotic symptom depends upon past emotional experiences of a painful or disagreeable nature which were forgotten or repressed into a mental field called the Unconscious. The aim of Psycho-Analysis is to bring back into the field of conscious memory all the repressed unbearable ideas, to show the patient the connection between them and the symptoms, thus removing the latter.”

Dr. Wilfrid Lay, an interesting and instructive writer on the subject of Psycho-Analysis, says: “The name given by Freud himself to the science is Psychoanalysis, spelled also Psychanalysis, or the analysis of the psyche. The psyche is not merely the mind regarded as a product, a stationary or crystallized object which can be cut and dried and labeled. The mind and soul and character and body as a connected, organic whole, and its functions (or what it does and how it changes), are the subject of Psychoanalysis more than how its results or finite outward manifestations can be classified. Psychoanalysis naturally suggests Psychosynthesis as a more constructive procedure, and that is, indeed, the ultimate aim of Psychoanalysis; not merely to take apart but to put together again, following a plan which is along the lines of the greatest usefulness to society.”

Unfortunately for the cause of general interest in the subject on the part of the average non-professional person, the idea of Psycho-Analysis has become identified in the public mind with the idea of Sex. This, because Freud found that many of the unconscious associations revealed by Psycho-Analysis were composed of more or less erotic material or elements. It is forgotten that Freud employs the term “sex” in the general and broad sense of “love,” and does not limit it to the gross sexual phases or manifestations.

Some of Freud’s followers, moreover, have eagerly seized upon this “sex” element, and have placed undue, and often grossly exaggerated and quite grotesque emphasis upon it. In this way they have not only attached undesirable associations to the general idea, but have also brought the special method into ridicule by reason of their unwarranted extension of the principle to the point of absurdity; in certain instances, they have not only brought about a “reductio ad absurdum,” but also a condition of “ad nauseam.”

Psycho-Analysis should pray to be delivered from its friends; by itself, it can take care of its enemies. In an article on the subject contained in a standard reference work, the conservative writer truly and wisely says: “While Psychoanalysis, in the hands of competent men, has undoubtedly been of great help in exploring subconscious states, some ‘wild’ psychoanalysts have so thoroughly misinterpreted the sexual question that it endangers the science.”

In the present consideration of Subconscious Psycho-Analysis, we shall confine ourselves to but one (though a very important one) of its several phases or general divisions. We shall not undertake a consideration of its phase of psychotherapy: a branch of the subject far too technical for popular treatment in a book of this kind. Neither shall we enter into a consideration of its specific application to the task of Character Building: we have considered that special subject in detail in another book of this series.

We shall confine our consideration to that phase of the subject which is concerned with the discovery and cure of what are known as the “negative” conditions, activities, and tendencies which, abiding hidden and under cover in the realms of the subconscious lower planes of mentation—often entirely unsuspected—produce harmful effects upon the mental, emotional, and physical life of the individual. In the garden of the mind there are many beautiful flowers and rich fruit-bearing trees rendered sickly, diseased, and withered— often indeed killed in time—by the presence of gnawing, boring, tearing, destroying creatures hidden and working beneath the surface. Rational Psycho-Analysis serves to locate these baneful creatures, to disclose their presence and whereabouts, to uncover and reveal them, that they may be destroyed by the mind and will of the owner of the garden.

Before proceeding further; let as give you the definition for “positive” and “negative” as applied to mental states in the several books of this series. The “Touchstone of Positivity” is this: “Will this make me stronger, better, and more efficient?” If the answer, honestly given, is in the affirmative, then the mental state, or other thing about which the question is asked, is entitled to be classed as “positive.” If not, then the thing may be either “neutral” or else “negative”; you may decide into which of these two classes it fits by asking the second question: “Will this make me weaker, worse, and less efficient?” If you are forced to answer, “It will,” to this question, then that thing must be classed as “negative.”

This, then, is the general character of the “negative” mental states or conditions which you seek to locate, uncover, and kill out by means of Subconscious Psycho-Analysis, viz., the general quality, nature, or character tending to make you “weaker, worse, and less efficient.” Some of these “negatives” show their character so plainly that they, “to be hated, need but to be seen”; others, more cleverly disguised by “protective coloration” and other means, are only to be “known by their fruits.” These “negative” influences abiding in the “under the surface” regions of the mental garden must be located, uncovered and destroyed in order that you may be made “stronger, better and more efficient.”

These “negative” mental states of the Subconscious (like their kindred states of the Conscious) are found to belong to two great general classes, viz., (1) Anger, and (2) Fear. The “negative” mental states are always found to be either varieties, sub-species, or perhaps “crosses” or hybrids, of these two great classes of Negativity. The ancient Buddhists taught that Anger and Fearthought are the Twin-Devils of the Emotional Kingdom. They held that Anger is “the burning passion”; and that Fearthought is the “freezing passion”; each destroying in the end, the one by burning up, the other by freezing. They held that the man who met, conquered, and mastered these Twin-Devils was free to enter upon the Path of Mastery which leads to the Land of Freedom.

We now ask you to discover by analysis the essential nature and character of these two general “negative” emotional states, viz., Anger and Fear, respectively. You will discover that practically all of the lesser and subordinate “negative” emotional states are either phases, forms, or aspects of either one of these two general states, or else are blendings, hybrids, or “crosses” of the two.

Anger. The general emotional state known as Anger is defined as: “Strong passion or displeasure, usually involving antagonism and the desire to punish, excited by a real or supposed injury, or insult to one’s self or others in whom one is interested, or by the supposed intent to do such injury, etc.” In its extreme form, Anger is known as Rage; when the Rage amounts almost to madness, it is known as Fury. In its milder forms, Anger is known as Vexation. Annoyance, Indignation, etc. The more permanent emotional states resulting from Anger are known as Resentment, Grudge, or Grievance, defined as follows. Resentment is: “Hostility aroused by a real or fancied injury, injustice, hurt, or insult; a state of moody animosity, or deep and lasting smouldering anger.” Grudge is: “state of smouldering anger; sullen malice or malevolence; cherished animosity, enmity, ill-will, dislike, spite, hatred.” Grievance is: “The feeling of the burden, hardship, and oppression resulting from a real or fancied wrong, insult, injustice, or injury, accompanied by the feeling of resentment or grudge resulting therefrom.” The essential elements of Anger, in any and all of its forms and phases, are: (a) “Keen displeasure, discomfort, and discontent; (b) a resentment or grudge; and (c) more or less desire to punish or ‘get even with’ something or somebody associated with the real or fancied injury, injustice, wrong, hurt, or insult giving rise to the feeling.”

Fear. The general emotional state known as Fear is defined as: “A painful emotion or passion excited by the anticipation, expectation, or apprehension ofpossible or probable hurt, injury, wrong, insult, or other painful, unpleasant, uncomfortable, or discontenting experience.” Its extreme phase or form is that of Panic. Next in decreasing order is the form of Terror; then that of Dread. Lesser forms are those known as Apprehension, Anxiety, Alarm, Care, Solicitude, etc. All “phobias” (i. e., aversions and dreads) are forms or phases of Fear.

BLENDiNGS, HYBRiDS, and “Crosses.” Among the many blendings, hybrids, or “crosses” of Anger and Fear, are found the apparently widely separated emotional states known, respectively, as Jealousy, Envy, Hatred, Malice, Spite, Intolerance, Prejudice; also Remorse, Shame, Mortification, Humiliation; the Sense of Inferiority, Distrust of Self, Cowardice, and similar mental states or complexes. In the case of some of the above-named emotional states you will find no difficulty in discovering and recognizing the presence of Anger and Fear in some of their various degrees, forms, phases, aspects, or modes of combination and blending. In the case of others, you may at first doubt the presence of one or the other (or of both) of these fundamental emotions; but a careful analysis will reveal the blending of both of these elements, which combined with certain ideas constitute forms of what is known as the “complex” (i. e., a combination of feeling and idea). In each and all of them you will find (a) a feeling of pain, discomfort, discontent; (b) a resentment or grudge, and the desire to “get even” with something or someone; and (c) a desire to escape from, avoid, or get rid of something which is painful, unpleasant, uncomfortable, or discontenting, either present or regarded as a possible or probable event or happening. There is always the “Phobia” and at least some form of Resentment, or Grievance.

These “negative” complex emotional states are always found to be associated with some past-time real or imagined experience in which the Pride, Vanity, Egotism, Self-Respect, or Sense of Justice of the individual has been wounded, hurt, bruised, or injured in some way, whether or not he has received physical or financial hurt or injury; the emotional hurt is the predominant factor. The Emotional Castle of the Self must be invaded in order that these states may manifest. A little thought will show that this is so, though at first you may be disposed to doubt the statement. The elements of Humiliation, Mortification, and Sense of Injustice are the most frequent, and often the strongest elements involved in the manifestation of Resentment, Grudge, and Grievance; and such constitute the most troublesome and most persistent of the subconscious roots, sources and causes of mental, emotional and physiological disturbances, impaired functioning, and tendency toward exaggerated activity.

There is no need here for a recital of the well-known facts of the detrimental effect of certain “negative” mental states upon physical conditions, and upon mental health and normal functioning; these are now matters of common knowledge, thanks to the reports of the investigations of the past twenty-five years or more. The “mental cause of diseases” is a subject concerning which practically every person of average intelligence now has at least some knowledge, and to which he extends at least some degree of belief. That mind and body act and react upon each other is now universally accepted; and that certain harmful emotional states (particularly when manifested excessively and in extreme form) result in mental disorders, unsoundness, and abnormal conditions, is now equally well known and accepted.

Most persons, however, have no suspicion that such emotional states persist often long after the conscious memory of them has passed away. The individual, though he realizes that “the evil they do lives after them,” does not imagine that their evil qualities which are “interred with their bones” continue to manifest their baneful tendencies beneath the surface of the conscious mentality; and that they have really been “buried alive,” and that long after they have been forgotten by the consciousness they are alive and busily at work gnawing, boring, and cutting at the roots of the plants in our mental garden. Such, alas! is the case. Freud and his school of Psycho-Analysis have paid especial attention to this fact, and have sought for and devised efficient methods whereby these subconscious moles, gophers, worms, and other “underground” destroyers may be located, uncovered and destroyed. This, indeed, is one of the chief offices and purposes of Psycho-Analysis.

Referring to the descriptive statement concerning Psycho-Analysis given at the beginning of the present section of this book, We ask you to consider once more the following fact: “Psycho-Analysis is a method of psychological investigation designed for the purpose of discovering and exploring the unconscious psychic forces which are at the bases of normal and abnormal psychic manifestations. It assumes that there are definite reasons for all normal and abnormal mental activities, that no psychoneurotic symptoms are accidental or meaningless, but that they have always unconscious underlying causes which, if found and brought to the surface, become dissipated and cause the symptoms to disappear. * * * The aim of Psycho-Analysis is to bring back into the field of conscious memory all the repressed unbearable ideas, to show the patient the connection between them and the symptoms, thus removing the latter.” This being understood and remembered, let us now proceed to consider why and how these “unbearable ideas” become “repressed,” and how they may be discovered and brought to the surface by Psycho-Analysis.

In the first place, you are asked to realize that every human being has experienced many instances of pain, discomfort, and discontent of quite a marked, intense and poignant (i. e., piercing, sharp, pricking) character. This is particularly true in the stages of infancy, childhood, youth, adolescence, in which such experiences frequently take on an exaggerated character. The developing emotional nature of the infant or young child— the child under five years of age—sometimes undergoes emotional “bruises” and “hurts” which, though apparently forgotten, frequently leave effects which persist during the entire after-life of the individual. The same is true of the young boy or girl up to and including the stage of adolescence. Many of the most persistent and annoying “underground gnawers” are those which have been placed in the subconscious mind during the years of adolescence, youth, early childhood, and even in infancy; this fact has been well established by Psycho-Analysis.

These unpleasant, uncomfortable, and discontenting experiences are not in themselves the “underground pests”; it is rather the emotional effects resulting from them that constitute the evil mental forces in question—the reaction of them, rather than the original action, is the chief cause of the trouble. For instance, the emotional nature of the child or young person undergoing such an experience tends to react in the form or phase of Anger or Fear, in some of their degrees, variations, or blendings. The “hurt” or “bruise” of the painful, uncomfortable, or discontenting experience—the affront, rebuke, insult, humiliation, mortification, wounded pride, frustrated purpose, imposition of the will of another person, defeated desire, injustice, tyranny, oppression, failure, or whatever it may be—tends to arouse Anger (i. e., keen displeasure, resentment, and more or less desire to punish or “get even with”), or else Fear (i. e., the painful apprehension or expectation of evil, accompanied by the desire to escape the feared experience); often, both Anger and Fear.

The reaction of Anger tends to develop deep-seated grudges, resentments, indignation, sense of injustice, accompanied by more or less hatred and desire to hurt the offending person or thing, or that which resembles or is associated with such. The reaction of Fear tends to develop fearfulness, fearthought, cowardice, lack of courage, faint-heartedness, timorousness, lack of self-confidence, timidity, pusillanimity, and a general shy, shrinking, “shriveling up,” and retiring disposition—a wish to “get away from” things.

The reaction of Anger is Extroversive, i. e., in the direction of “going out toward,” or “flying off to,” something outside, in order to grapple with, fight, combat, struggle with, defeat, or destroy it. The reaction of Fear is Introversive, i. e., in the direction of shrinking back from, getting away from, retiring from outside things. The normal person manifests a balanced position between these two extremes. When an abnormal tendency in either direction is experienced, there is found to be operative some lurking painful memory now manifesting its hidden presence and action in the realms of the Subconscious—the “dead hand” of past experience is seeking to exhibit its power over the experiences of the present.

Many of us are more or less affected, influenced, and determined by the effects of such past experiences. We either harbor subconscious grudges, resentments, hatreds, malice, or other forms or phases of Anger; or else the subconscious dreads, terrors, and aversions of Fear; or combinations of both. These, be it noted, are not usually recognized in our conscious memory; the memory of the original causative experience has entirely passed out of consciousness: it is buried in the oblivion of apparent forgetfulness, as we shall presently see. The Subconscious actually takes great trouble to bury, conceal, suppress, and cover up the memory impression, so as to make recollection of it difficult—but like a festering sore, the repressed memory abides on the subconscious realms, poisoning the entire system. Many of us have concealed cancerous, malignant sores of this kind in our subconscious mental being.

But why does the Subconscious strive to suppress and cover up these old memories? you may ask. The answer expresses one of the original discoveries of Psycho-Analysis; it is quite simple when you have it presented to you, but you would not be likely to stumble upon it otherwise. The answer, briefly stated, is this: The Subconscious strives to suppress, repress, bury, hide, and cover up memories of this kind, for the reason that it is its nature to avoid pain, discomfort, and discontent; these memories being painful, uncomfortable, and discontenting, the Subconscious strives to hide them, conceal them, cover them up, just as in all Nature living animals and plants proceed instinctively to hide and cover up their wounds and hurt places—it is an instinctive protective action of Nature!

Sometimes the Subconscious performs this work by overlaying the painful memory with those of a different nature; again, it blends and mixes with it pleasant elements of other experiences—grafts new parts on it, as it were, so that finally the painful elements are lost to conscious memory and recollection. Psycho-Analysis reveals many interesting cases of this kind, in which an originally painful memory has been so overlaid, or so grafted upon, with new material that the unpleasant elements have been completely obscured. This would be wonderfully beneficial were it not for the fact that alas! the roots of the trouble remain, only the “above ground” portions being removed; or, to employ another figure, the sore has been merely covered up, though uncured and still manifesting its evil activities beneath the covering. Psycho-Analysis searches for the roots, and then destroys them; or, it seeks to cure the cause not merely to remove the symptoms.

The pages of the reports of Psycho-Analysis are filled with definite reports of cases in which present troubles have been traced back to painful past experiences—particularly to experiences in which the individual in his younger days was subjected to humiliation, degradation, abasement, mortification, shame, wounded pride or injured vanity, suggestions of his inferiority, loss of dignity or self-respect, in short, to wounds of his egoistic soul-nature. In some cases these causes have led to the cultivation and development of a character manifesting in shrinking, retiring, drawing back, “shriveling up,” or getting out of things—the timidity, faint-heartedness, lack of self-confidence, or the “inferiority complex” marking the introversive effect of Fear. In other cases, these causes have led to the cultivation and development of the character traits of quarrelsomeness, antagonism, resentment of things in general, prejudice, suspicion, jealousy, hatred, and general truculency marking the extroversive effect of Anger.

Even in cases in which the “phobias,” fears, prejudices, resentments, and antagonisms have been of a more limited character, they have been traced back to repressed, suppressed, buried, and covered up memories of experiences of the kind we have mentioned. For instance, a woman who had a morbid horror of snakes—almost an obsession of fear concerning them, a waking nightmare regarding them—was cured entirely when by Psycho-Analysis there was uncovered a “forgotten” experience of early childhood in which she had been terribly frightened by a toy serpent.

Other “phobias” concerned with spiders, roaches, kittens, certain flowers, etc., have been uncovered and cured in the same way. Prejudices concerning persons of certain nationalities or callings have been traced back to painful or humiliating specific experiences of childhood—a cure being then effected. Unreasoning fears, panicky thoughts, prejudices, and hatreds of certain things have been uncovered and cured by the same general method. In short, the roots or sources of poisonous mental traits, tendencies, and mental attitudes have been found hidden under the surface of the conscious mentality, and the troubles have been cured, by an application of these general principles.

You now have two important questions pressing for answers, namely: (1) How and why are these troubles cured by discovering, uncovering, and bringing into the light of consciousness their roots or sources? (2) By what methods may these roots and hidden causes be discovered, uncovered, and brought to light? In the answers to these two questions is to be found the gist of the effective principles of Psycho-Analysis. To answer them fully would require the writing or reading of many books, and excursions into many fields of the general science of psychology; but we shall endeavor to give you in brief, concise form the essential features of such answers.

Concerning the first of the two questions, we would say that it is an old principle of psychology that if one can analyze, dissect and classify cold-bloodedly the psychic elements involved in an emotion, then the heat, power, and energy of that emotion is dissolved, disintegrated, and dissipated. Emotions, as a rule, cannot stand a cold-blooded analysis; it chills them, often freezes them, sometimes kills them outright. Contact with the Intellect tends to weaken Emotion; hence, beware of subjecting good emotions to such contact, but make it a point to subject bad emotions to it—this is a useful rule, well worth remembering. This is the first factor of this particular answer; there is more to follow, however.

When the root or source of a disturbing subconscious emotional disturbance has been traced to its origin, and then uncovered and brought into the light of consciousness, it is subjected to the inspection ofyour intellect as now constituted— not as it was constituted at the time of the original experience. Your since acquired worldly-wisdom, your evolved sense of the true value of things, your gradually developed philosophy of life and living—all these add new factors to your intellectual inspection and judgment upon the experience. What originally seemed a tremendous and dreadful event or happening, now succeeds in bringing merely a pitying smile to your face, or a twinkle to your eyes. In short, you are now looking with eyes of a matured individual upon the experiences of early childhood, youth, or period of adolescence. The mental bruises, like the physical ones, of childhood, important and terrible as they seem to the young mind, are quite different things when viewed from the mental position of matured experience and the philosophy of manhood or womanhood.

When the buried memory is located, uncovered, and subjected to the light of conscious inspection by the individual who has long since “put away childish things,” it is perceived, weighed, measured and valued by him just as are similar experiences which he perceives on all sides being undergone by the children and young folks of his acquaintance. He sees them for what they really are—not as the child sees them. Psychologically, the original impression is brought before his consciousness as a present happening or event—and is valued as such; and as its actual value is really slight, he realizes that it is not at all “worth while.” He is amazed at its insignificance, and he is able to smile at it before he casts it aside from him as a worthless trifle; thereafter it has no meaning nor importance to him—its power over him has passed away, and he is free from its effects. The smouldering embers, exposed to the air, expire in a final flash and are reduced to ashes, the dust of which is blown away by the winds.

Even apart from the specific and definite application of the principles of Psycho-Analysis, many persons may be benefited by a similar conscious re-valuation of old mental sores and bruises. By bringing them fully into consciousness, with all their original circumstances and associations, and then weighing, measuring, and re-valuing them by your present standards, in the light of your subsequently acquired experience and knowledge, you will find that they never really were nearly so great or so serious as you originally believed them to be; and you will discover that their present-day importance, significance, and value is still less—often it is nil! Vague introspection is a morbid, unprofitable task, and a bad habit; but scientific Psycho-Analysis of past experiences, conducted with a definite purpose and end, is useful, constructive, and meets the test of “positivity,” for, rightly approached and rightly conducted, it “makes you stronger, better, and more efficient.”

In this connection, your attention should be called to that large class of cases in which the festering “sore spot” or the painful “bruise” in the subconscious memory has been caused by the feeling of shame, remorse, mortification, humiliation, inferiority, “wickedness,” “vileness,” “filthiness,” moral uncleanness, or reproach of conscience arising from some past experience (usually one of childhood, youth, or period of adolescence) connected with the “secret desires,” dreams, or cravings, of—or possibly from some minor yielding, compromise, or “slipping” connected with—the reproductive or “sexual” organism and its emotional manifestations and expressions; this particularly when the child or young person has been severely reproached, reviled or punished for the happening which has been discovered by parents, teachers, or other adults—when the cry of “unclean, unclean” has been loudly raised and persistently repeated and recalled to mind.

Those of us who have honest and efficient memories of our own days of childhood, youth, and period of adolescence, know full well how frequent and common such early life experiences are; the insistent curiosity of the young child and youth, and the unfolding processes of puberty and adolescence, result in innumerable cases of such painful and distressing experiences, the memory of which are, too often, then “buried alive” in the underground regions of the Subconscious—thereafter to plague and worry the mind of the adult person.

The intelligent Psycho-Analyst, when such subconscious emotional “sore spots” and “bruised places” are uncovered by the process of Psycho-Analysis, proceeds to throw the light of scientific knowledge and judgment upon these unpleasant things thus unearthed. He points out to the patient the fact that there is nothing essentially “evil” about the reproductive organism and its manifestations and expressions, in themselves, nor when their activities occur under conditions approved of by the conventions, ethics, laws, customs and morality of the time and place; that the “evil” or “wrong” arises only when these activities occur under opposite conditions, i. e., under conditions and circumstances disapproved of or forbidden by the laws, customs, ethics, or morality of the time and place; that, in short, sexual “evil” and “wrong” consist of the abuse, misuse, and improper employment of these great natural forces—not of their existence and normal proper use and expression.

He points out that, consequently, the emotional disturbances arising from the existence of this natural organism and its subconscious activities are not “devilish” evil, unclean, “filthy,” or depraved; that the person experiencing these subconscious disturbances should not regard himself or herself as soiled, polluted or evil-minded; that the presence of this part of one’s nature, and the subconscious reminders of its existence, do not constitute rational and proper causes for self-reproach, humiliation, mortification, shame or remorse; and that the painful memories of past experiences of this kind and of the unpleasant results arising from their discovery, punishment, and reproaches, should be dissipated, disintegrated, dissolved, and allowed to blow away on the winds of time. The idea of essential “cleanness” replaces the old thought of “uncleanness”— thus is the “curse taken off” the memories. This leads to the rational, sane, scientific control, direction, and mastery of this part of one’s nature; and, as a consequence, a healthier mental, emotional, and physical condition is made possible. When the light is turned on, the darkness and its imaginary inhabitants disappear.

The psycho-analyst also teaches the patient the value of the principle of Sublimation, i. e., the transmutation of the elemental instinctive urge into new and other channels. For instance, the “creative” element underlying the reproductive instinct may be, and often is, transmuted or sublimated into creative work along mental, spiritual, artistic, constructive lines valuable in social life and progress. Some of the greatest workers for the world’s good have been men and women who have sublimated and transmuted the reproductive instinct in this way, though they may not have recognized the cause of their zeal nor the source of their energy.

Sublimation (or Transmutation) is the technical term employed in Psycho-Analysis to designate “The action compensating the individual for the frustration of an instinctive energy, tendency, or craving; by means of which the energy associated with the instinct is directed to socially useful and beneficial ends and purposes, which also serve the best interests of the individual.” The term is borrowed from the ancient alchemists who sought to sublime or transmute the baser metals into gold, and thus obtain higher values from the material.

In Sublimation a higher value is obtained from the elemental basic instincts. Sublimation is also “a transference of basic instincts to other instincts.” In it the energy which would otherwise be “short circuited” with danger to the individual and to society, is thrown into work, especially creative work, along other lines of human endeavor and expression. In it some dominant instinctive craving is “sidetracked” by switching it into other lines of work and activity. This method has been found to be quite practicable, for as Dr. Lay says: “It has been proved, over and over again, that humans can get interested in anything, particularly anything human; the only requisite being the same as that of the love of men for women and of women for men—that is, a complete devotion to and absorption in the work that they are doing, to the utter forgetfulness of self.”

The methods devised by Psycho-Analysis for the location, discovery, uncovering, and bringing into the light of conscious inspection the hidden and covered up “sore spots” and “bruised places” of the Subconscious, may be classified as follows: (1) Free Association, (2) Analysis and Interpretation of Dream Symbols, and (3) Mental Catharsis. Each of these we shall now consider briefly; the essential features and factors of each shall be presented for your inspection, the innumerable details being left for the treatment given them in the scientific works devoted to the special technique of Psycho-Analysis.

Free Association. In this method the underlying principle is the well known “Law of Association of Ideas” of modern psychology. This law may be stated as follows: “The stream of ideas is continuous, each idea or thought being linked with the one that immediately precedes and the one which immediately succeeds it; all one’s ideas have certain definite associations with all his other ideas, though, there are cases in which the connection cannot be traced in consciousness.”

Professor E. B. Titchener says: “There is no distinct bit of consciousness answering to the associative bond, but only conscious processes standing related, and hence more or less unified. * * * The associated contents are now rich and now a mere thread; the mass is now intensive and now weak, now clear and now obscure, now directed by a single element and now by the union of two or more streams of influence, now run through with pleasantness and now actively indifferent; successive association is, like every consciousness, kaleidoscopic, picking up processes here and dropping others there, but carried always by a common core, so that there is never a jump from one stage to another, never an hiatus within the chain, but invariably a gradual transition from point to point.”

When you think about anything, no matter what it may be, you will find yourself afterward thinking of something associated with and suggested by the thing first thought of. You may satisfy yourself of this at once (if you doubt it) by a trial. You will find, invariably, that thinking of any one thing causes you to also think of some other thing associated with or suggested by the first thing, and so on and on. This is the fact that underlies the Law of Association of Ideas. There are many forms and phases of such association, but the distinction between them need not be considered here; the fact with which we are now concerned is that ideas do flow in a stream of association through the field of consciousness. The stream is continuous, flowing on and on and on, so long as we continue to “think”; A is followed by B, then comes C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, and so on until something intervenes to divert conscious attention elsewhere.

More than this, psychology teaches that every impression or record stored in the subconscious memory is linked by some (usually many) associative or suggestive bonds to every other impression or record stored there. Consequently, if we start with any thought as a “loose end,” we may in time unwind the unbroken thread until we come to the particular “knot” for which we are searching. This would take much time, ordinarily, but it has been found that by Free Association the Subconscious speedily makes a “short cut,” or bridge over the intervening space, and attaches Z to A without need of our thinking of the intermediate links; just as we frequently say “from A to Z,” instead of naming the intervening letters of the alphabet. Just why the Subconscious does this, naught but the Subconscious itself seems to know—but it, itself, will not tell; enough for us, however, is the fact that it does do it.

The Psycho-Analyst seeking to locate and uncover a subconscious “sore spot” or “bruised place” starts into operation the process of Free Association. He asks the patient to “think of something”—anything will do—and then to allow the process of Free Association to proceed to wind up the “loose end” of the mental yarn, without interference from the conscious mentality or will. He is not to “think for a purpose,” however; neither is he to deliberately build fanciful air-castles of imagination; all that he is to do is to keep “hands off”—to “keep out of it”—and allow the subconscious mental machinery to do the rest—and do just that it certainly will!

In Free Association the individual becomes a “passive spectator” of the kaleidoscopic panorama of passing thoughts, ideas, memories, mental pictures. He withdraws his will, his judgment, his criticism, his tastes, and allows the mental stream to flow past unhindered by conscious intervention or interference. In Free Association each thought or idea “liberates the next one purely by reason of some sympathetic association between them, and without being influenced by an intellectual interference”; this is why it is called “free.” The person merely “sits on the fence and watches the circus procession go by”— the marching elephants and camels, the string of caged animals, the clowns, the band-wagon, and all the rest, pass by the silent spectator. A writer says: “The sort of mental attitude aimed at is not a hard one to acquire, and is in reality more of a ‘knack’ than anything else; and when the requisite mental condition is apprehended a little practice will enable one to comply with the requirements quite easily.”

Here is an actual illustrative example: The person sitting with pencil in hand, and with paper before him, is asked to “think of” the word “Luisitania,” and to mark down each item of the associated stream of ideas flowing from that source. He thinks of the sinking of the ship of that name by the submarine; then of the Germans; then of the Great War; then of the entrance of the United States into the conflict; then of the young Americans who were called to serve their country; then of a particular young man who volunteered; then of Fort Benjamin Harrison, to which that young man was sent after his enlistment; then of the former President Benjamin Harrison, after whom the fort was named; then of the grandfather of that former President— himself a President; then of his “Grandfather’s Hat” which the former person often was pictured as wearing; then of “Uncle Sam” who wears a similar hat in the familiar cartoons; then of a long-since-deceased particular uncle named Samuel, and known to the thinker as “Uncle Sam”; then of a certain case of real or fancied injustice to the thinker—a very old “sore spot” or “bruised place” arousing irritation, vexation, resentment and a deeply seated grievance or “grudge”—in which this particular “Uncle Sam” was a leading participant. Then comes the startling realization that this particular grievance and grudge had served to poison the mental and emotional life of the thinker for many years, and had given to him a decided undesirable trend of thought, feeling and action. This recognition then causes a “revaluation” of that ancient experience, and a consequent dismissal of it as having been a case of “much ado about nothing,” and a belated recognition of “the two sides to the question.”

This particular example will serve to illustrate the entire principle and process of Free Association. The “loose end” may be any idea or thought chosen at random by the professional Psycho-Analyst, or by the person who is psycho-analyzing himself; the Subconscious will soon make the “short cut” (or bridge) of association, from at least G to Z, leaving out the intermediate letters. There is no “chance” about it; the process follows a law as regular and constant as that governing the tides, or as the law of gravitation. Seemingly devoid of any logical character, it really follows the law of exact logical order and sequence.

There is one factor, though, which must always be present— the factor of absolute honesty regarding the ideas coming to view in the passing stream. No matter how unpleasant, how distasteful, how “un-nice,” how “shocking,” the ideas may be at times, they must be taken account of and noted down; otherwise the logical sequence is interrupted, and the experiment spoiled. Neither should apparent “nonsensicality,” whimsicality, or seeming irrelevance be allowed to cause a passing idea, thought or associative link to be overlooked or discarded; these little things often are the great things of the process. The flow must be kept free, in view of the fact that “all freely flowing mental associations eventually lead clear into the very core of the subconscious thought tendencies” which constitute the object of the analysis and search. Sooner or later, something unpleasant and painful is sure to be reached—such must not be “dodged.”

Occasional interruptions, stoppages or “breaks” in the flowing stream usually denote the approaching presence of “sore spots” or “bruised places,” which the Subconscious shrinks from uncovering because of the lurking fear of pain. Such interruptions, or “breaks” indicate that there is present a sensitiveness resulting from near approach to the “sores” or “bruises.” Here should be noted an interesting and important fact, namely, when you reach the final idea or thought serving to cover up the “sore” or “bruise,” you will know it at once: something will seem to say, “Here it is!” or “This is it!” and a flood of “forgotten” memories will burst into consciousness. You will know that your quest is finished—your analysis completed.

Analysis and Interpretation of Dream Symbols. In this method the principle of Free Association is likewise employed, but with this difference, namely, that instead of choosing the “loose end” of thought at random, one starts from some definite element of a remembered dream, and then allows the stream of association to flow freely, as previously described. The dream is split up into its component parts, each thing, quality, and action—each element represented by a noun, adjective, adverb, or verb—being regarded as a distinct component part. These component parts are then “tried out” in succession, along the lines of Free Association, until in the separate or combined report there is revealed the location and form of the “sore” or “bruise.”

The fundamental secret underlying this application of the general method of Psycho-Analysis may be stated as follows: Dreams are symbolic dramatizations of disturbing subconscious elements of memory: in symbolic form they represent the repressed, suppressed, covered-up painful “wish, fear or weakness”; they always have a hidden meaning which may be found and translated by means of scientific Psycho-Analysis. Their symbols give very effective “loose ends” from which to unwind the ball of hidden memory by means of Free Association. Sanely and intelligently employed, this method produces valuable results. It is to be regretted, however, that some over-enthusiastic followers of the Freudian teaching have carried this principle to such an absurd and fantastic extreme as to cast ridicule upon it, and to cause many persons to overlook the scientific and valuable elements involved in it.

Mental Catharsis. This method, as the name implies, is of a “cathartic” cleansing, purifying nature. In Mental Catharsis, there is made a determined effort to “get out of the system” many objectionable emotional states—resentments, grudges, old “sores” and “bruises”—by means of bringing them into the field of consciousness by an act of will, and then sterilizing or neutralizing them by the power of the light of attention, reason, and will.

This process of inspection is aided by expressing in words the real character of these objectionable states—calling them by name, and showing that you “have their number.” Employing another figure, we may say that by putting them into verbal form, attaching terms and names to them, particularly in speaking aloud the names, you tend to crystallize them into definite form and into an extremely brittle condition, so that you may deal them a hearty blow with the hammer of the will directed by the eye of reason—this reduces them to dust, which the winds then blow away.

“Face up” the objectionable tendencies. Call them by name. Speak out their real names. Turn the light of conscious attention upon them—the light that penetrates every part of them, and shows plainly and in bold relief every hateful quality. Instead of hiding them away from yourself, drag them out into the light and look at them. Analyze them; dissect them; tear them to pieces by the application of relentless, ruthless analytical reason. Then, disperse the fragments—you will find it easy to get rid of them when they are in this form.

Hiding them, concealing them, covering them up from yourself, only means “burying them alive” and having them work mischief for you. Drag them out; face them up; see them for what they are; call them by their right names; and then get rid of them.

You will often find that these hidden things of the soul are really things not essentially evil or harmful—perhaps even good—in their right place and time, under the right conditions and environment but which are “bad” when out of place and time, and under the wrong conditions and circumstances. Dirt, filth, refuse, garbage and other objectionable material are usually something all right and “good” in the right place; but quite “bad” in other places. Your mind and soul is not the “right place” for such refuse, garbage, and dirt; drag it out, and have it hauled away to the dumping place for such things. Repression and concealment, hiding and covering up, only intensifies the evil; drag it out into the light and air of conscious attention, and then cast it away from you. Do not try to fool yourself—you can’t, for your Subconscious is “on the job.” Cleanse, purify, and renovate your mental kingdom by means of the principle and method of Mental Catharsis! This is the “only way!”

Subconscious Thought

Many persons who have been brought to a realization of the important part played by the Subconscious in the respective processes of physiological functioning, habitual physical action, emotional activity, and the mechanism of memory, and who gradually have become accustomed to the idea of attributing to the Subconscious the direction and control of such processes, nevertheless are reluctant to admit that upon the planes of the Subconscious there are performed also many important processes of actual reasoning, thought, logical induction and deduction. Yet the performance of this last mentioned class of mental activity is as truly a function of the Subconscious as are the activities previously mentioned.

On the planes of the Subconscious are performed many of those processes of classification, analysis, synthesis, adjustment, relation, combination, etc., which are usually regarded as being performed exclusively by the conscious mentality. Jastrow well says that in addition to the simpler mental processes performed by the subconscious mentality we must note “the services that subconscious processes perform in the flow of logically associated ideas, in all the complex activities incident to connected and more or less reflective thinking.”

Professor Elmer Gates holds that at least ninety per cent of our mental activities are subconscious. He holds that if we analyze our mental operations we will find that our conscious thinking is never in a continuous line, but is a series of conscious states with great intervals of unconsciousness. He bids us note that we often sit and try to solve a problem, only to fail; then we walk around, try again, and again fail; then, suddenly there dawns upon us an idea that leads to the solution of the problem: the subconscious processes have been at work on our behalf. Maudsley likewise holds that a close examination and analysis will reveal the fact that consciousness is concerned in but about one-tenth of our ordinary mental operations. He states that in every mental operation there are at work conscious, subconscious, and infra-conscious mental energies—the last as indispensable as the first.

Jastrow directs our attention to the fact that in the affairs of our mental-life it becomes clear that some sort of selective process goes on; this implying that there is at command a collection of material from which the selection is made. He speculates concerning how far this selection and accumulation is the result of processes lying so far below the surface of consciousness that introspection fails to reveal them. He likewise points out that in all intellectual endeavor there exists a period of incubation, a process which is in a great part subconscious—”a slow, concealed maturing through absorption of suitable pabulum.” The same authority directs our attention to Schopenhauer’s well-known statement concerning that “unconscious rumination”—that “chewing over and over again of the cud of thought, preparatory to its assimilation with our mental tissue”; the mental state or condition which another writer has referred to as “the red glow that precedes the white heat.” He holds that in such terms there is implied, first, a process of assimilation taking place with suppressed consciousness; second, that “the larger part of the influences that in the end determine our mental growth may be effective without direct exposure to the searching light of conscious life.”

There is a wealth of illustrative examples supporting Schopenhauer’s theory of the operation of an “unconscious rumination” in which the cud of thought is chewed by the Subconscious. Many of these examples have been furnished to us by the voluntary statements of eminent and careful thinkers concerning their own personal experiences. So typical are many of these experiences that they need but to be recited in order to awaken recollections of similar experiences on the part of the readers or hearers. We ask you to consider the following several relations of experiences of this kind, culled from the often somewhat extended statements appearing in the writings of the persons referred to, or expressed in conversations with their intimate friends.

Von Hartmann testified to the “unconscious rumination” following the reading of books presenting conflicting points of view. He stated that he found that after days, weeks, or months, many of his old opinions were greatly modified, and that many new opinions had replaced some formerly entertained by him.

Thompson testified that at times he had the feeling of the uselessness of all voluntary effort, and also the conviction that the matter was working itself clear in his mind. He became so accustomed to having to wait for the results of these subconscious processes that he acquired the habit of getting together enough material in advance, and then leaving the mass to be subconsciously digested until he was ready to write on the chosen subject. He stated that once in his writing of his principal work he came to a point when he could proceed no further; he stopped his work, and deliberately thought about other things. One evening while reading his newspaper the substance of the missing part of his book flashed into his mind, and he began to write. He adds: “This was only a sample of many such experiences.”

Subconscious Power Brodie said that it often happened that he had accumulated a store of facts, but had been unable to proceed further with his thought on the general subject. He found by experience, in such cases, that after an interval of time the obscurity and confusion cleared away—the facts had settled themselves in their right places—though he was not conscious of the intervening processes. Bascom remarked how often his conscious conclusions were based upon premises which seemed to lie beneath the plane of consciousness. He said: “It is inexplicable how the mind can wittingly take up a mental movement at an advanced stage, having missed its primary steps.”

Galton spoke of having “dragged into the light of consciousness” certain “whole states of mental operation that had lapsed out of ordinary consciousness.” Maudsley spoke of how uncomfortable he became concerning certain obscure ideas; and how there seemed to be an effort of the lost idea to get into consciousness; and of the relief experienced when the imprisoned idea finally burst into consciousness. Mozart testified that often he could not account for his musical compositions. He asserted that they frequently came to him “all at once.” He added: “The rest is merely an attempt to reproduce what I have heard.”

Hamilton discovered a most important law of mathematics while one day walking with his wife in the observatory at Dublin. He had previously been unable to bring together the elements of his thought on the subject, and had ceased to think of the matter. Then, suddenly, he felt “the galvanic circle of thought” close, and the sparks that fell from it was the knowledge of the fundamental relations of his problem—his discovery was made. Berthelot, the great French founder of modern Synthetic Chemistry, once stated in a letter to a close friend that the final experiments which led to his most wonderful discoveries had never been the result of carefully followed and reasoned trains of thought, but that, on the contrary, “they came of themselves, so to speak, from the clear sky.”

Mozart was playing billiards one day, when all of a sudden there flashed into his consciousness the aria of the quartette of “The Magic Flute.” Fortunately for himself, and for the world, he had his notebook with him, and dropping his cue, he recorded the notes which had come to him in this wonderful way. A writer relates that an inventor who had been working, without success, upon the problem of properly constructing a prism for a binocular microscope, one day relaxed sufficiently to become absorbed in an interesting novel, when, lo! he suddenly conceived the elusive idea, and solved his perplexing problem. Kekule relates that he suddenly saw the atoms dancing about in midair, in conformity with his evolving theory of atomic grouping, while he was riding on a London bus one day with no conscious thought upon the matter of his theory.

Many careful students of the phenomena of the thought-processes of the Subconscious have noted that the finishing touch of the subconscious digestion of a perplexing subject seems to be performed when the attention is momentarily diverted to another subject or object. Psychologists hold that in cases in which we have been unable by conscious effort of will to recall something that has previously been in the mind, try as hard as we may, we frequently achieve the desired result after we have turned the attention to something else—the missing idea coming up spontaneously without effort of will and when we are not consciously thinking about it at all. The same principle is found to apply in the processes of “subconscious thought” as well as in those of memory.

Many have found by experience that by deliberately employing the mind with something else, something quite irrelevant to the subject previously engaging the thought, they often obtain the answer sought for in vain before the diversion. As Jastrow well says: “The daydream through which flashes a happy ‘Eureka!’ or the dream of a deeper sleep that discovers the treasures that our laborious digging has failed to unearth, are equally instances in which the fixed intent of the more watchful consciousness is withdrawn.” Holmes holds that the automatic flow of subconscious thought is favored by listening to an uninteresting discourse, containing just enough ideas in it to keep the conscious mind busy.

Carpenter also holds that the subconscious process is more likely to evolve the desired result when the conscious activity is at least partially directed elsewhere. Jastrow compares this to the astronomer who sees better the star by looking a little to one side of it, instead of gazing directly at it. He says: “We might almost say that distraction and the idler moments of contemplative revery are as essential to fruitful production as the intent periods of executive effort; the trough of the wave is as intrinsic a part of its progressive character as is the crest.”

We have here another instance in which it is seen that, once in a while at least, it is well for the conscious mentality to refrain from actively “bossing the job,” then allowing the detail work to be performed by those subconscious faculties best equipped for the task—in a word, by those faculties “kept” by you for that particular work. But equally true is it that it is well for “the boss” to “stay around the shop,” keeping an eye on what is going on, expecting and demanding the best results, and being ready to pass fair and righteous judgment upon the finished product. In the perfect coordination between the conscious mentality and the Subconscious alone is to be found the balance and “golden mean” which makes for efficiency. Unsupervised subconscious activity is as far from being the ideal condition as is that in which there is found the refusal to permit the Subconscious the right to perform its proper and natural work.

Many writers, inventors, scientists, and others performing extended and continuous mental work, have testified to the fact that, in one way or another, they have discovered that the faculties and powers of the Subconscious may be trained to perform much of the drudgery of the intellectual work, leaving the conscious faculties free to design and to direct the general course of the task.

Many men of large business affairs also have made a similar or identical discovery. Without realizing the scientific principles involved, such persons have stumbled upon methods whereby much of their work of “mental digestion” may be performed for them by the Subconscious. These discoveries, followed by a practical application of the methods adopted, have resulted in such persons being able to perform what has seemed to others to be an almost incredible amount of intellectual labor, while still having sufficient time and energy to plan out great enterprises, and free to devote some time to amusements, games, sports, travel, and other forms of relaxation.

No consideration of this subject would be complete without at least a reference to the testimony of Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous writer, concerning this very important phase of mental work. So typical and characteristic of the general principle involved are the statements of this master of the craft of writing, that we feel warranted in dwelling at some length upon them in the present consideration of the subject of “subconscious thought.”

Stevenson was fond of speaking of his subconscious mental faculties as his “Brownies,” borrowing the illustration from the familiar fairy tales of childhood, in which are related the performances of the friendly little Brownies who each night take up and complete the tasks left undone by the overworked friendly shoemaker or carpenter who had befriended the tiny creatures. He said: “My Brownies! God bless them! who do half of my work for me when I am fast asleep, and in all likelihood do the rest for me when I am wide awake and foolishly suppose that I do it for myself.”

He relates that he had long been wanting to write a book on man’s double being, and without success had racked his brain for a plot of any sort relating to that subject. Then, one night he dreamed the principal incidents of his great story of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” These, he said, were all given him in bulk and details, as he afterward wrote them in the story. He goes on to say further that often when he belabored his brains over a story needed to supply the “bread and butter,” behold! the little people began to bestir themselves in the same quest, and to labor all night long to supply his wants in that direction. Often, he said, did these sleepless Brownies do his honest work for him, and gave him better tales than he could fashion for himself. He said that they, like him, had learned to build the scheme of a considerable story, and to arrange emotion in progressive order; they were able to tell him a story piece by piece, like a serial, and to keep him all the while in ignorance of the outcome. Only, said he, they had more talent than he, himself.

But, while praising the work of his little mental Brownies, Stevenson does not deny the important part played by his conscious, “everyday” mentality in his creative work. He says: “I am an excellent adviser, something like Moliere’s servant; I pull back and I cut down; and I dress the whole in the best words and sentences that I can find and make. I hold the pen, too; and I do the sitting at the table, which is about the worst of it; and when all is done, I make up the manuscript and pay for the registration; so that on the whole, I have some claim to share, though not so largely as I do, in the profits of our common enterprise.”

Stevenson’s figurative illustration in which the faculties of the Subconscious are pictured as Brownies must not be dismissed as merely a fancy. Beneath the fantastic disguise with which he has “dressed up” the subconscious faculties, they are plainly recognizable to psychologists—they “run true to form.” The psychological facts are there—the processes are scientifically described—notwithstanding the fanciful dressing which serves to invest them with an additional interest to the non-scientific reader—and for most scientific readers as well. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that Stevenson’s “dreams” were quite as often day-dream states as they were the ordinary dreams of the night.

That even in the ordinary dreams of the night the Subconscious performs important work is attested by numerous good authorities, and many instances are cited to prove the fact. We shall quote a few examples for your consideration.

Coleridge composed his celebrated poem “Kubla Khan” in a dream, and wrote it down when he awoke. Abercrombie relates a case in which a distinguished lawyer went to bed after studying hard over a difficult case. His wife saw him rise in the middle of the night, sit down, and write a long paper which he then put in his desk, and returned to bed. Next morning he told his wife that he had dreamt that he had written a clear and luminous opinion on the case, which he would give anything to be able to remember. His wife directed him to his writing desk, where he found the opinion fully written out, just as he had dreamed it.

Schofield relates a case in which a young music pupil had great difficulty in correctly performing a difficult “shake” in a sonata. She was unable to master it. One night her mother, who slept with the girl, was awakened by feeling her daughter’s fingers moving on her face. She asked the girl what she was doing; but the child was asleep, though her fingers were performing the “shake” on the mother’s face. The next day, to the amazement of her teacher, the pupil played the difficult “shake” perfectly and without apparent effort. The Subconscious had taken over the task after having mastered it during the sleep of the girl.

Holmes relates incidents of these “dream helpers” who are “wiser than ourselves, and who put thoughts in our heads and words into our mouths.” Yet he holds, as do the present writers, that it is no “other self” that is doing the work, but rather that it is one’s own “self” in one of its phases or aspects of manifestation. He says on this point: “Dr. Johnson dreamed that he had a contest of wit with an opponent, and got the worst of it; of course he furnished the wit for both. Tartini heard the devil play a wonderful sonata, and he set it down on awakening. But who was the devil but Tartini himself?”

You must never lose sight of the fact that these “helpers”— these Brownies—these “other selves”—are but fanciful names applied to certain aspects or phases of the mental activities of Yourself. YOU are always your Self, your whole Self, and nothing but your Self! All separation or division of that Self is illusory, and all terms indicating such separation or division are but figurative terms employed for convenience. All these phenomena are manifested on some of the planes or regions of your New Mental Empire, by some of your own subordinate faculties, powers, or energies. Keep this fact always in mind, and you will not be led to follow fanciful will-o’-the-wisps which lead only to the quagmires of Error, and away from the main-road of Truth.

Sometimes, however, it happens that the brilliant thoughts and ideas evolved in the deep dream states escape the conscious mentality which upon wakening seeks to remember and recall them to consciousness, or to record them in writing or speech. Nothing but a meaningless jumble of words is the result in some cases. Holmes relates an experience in which, as he states: “The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth, that which underlies all human experience, and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear! a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim.” Awakening, he staggered to his desk, and “wrote in ill-shaped, straggling characters the all-embracing truth still lingering in my consciousness.” But, alas! the words he wrote were merely these: “A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.” Many of us have similar experiences which usually we are ashamed to relate, so trite, commonplace, or even absurd, is the recorded conscious report.

One is reconciled, however, by the generally accepted idea that, although the conscious mentality is often unable to grasp and retain, to recall and record these conceptions of the highest activities of “subconscious thought,” and may even be betrayed into reporting some distorted impression made upon the waking consciousness, nevertheless the conception itself is impressed upon the memory-records of the Subconscious, thereafter to play an important part in our conscious mental life by reason of the occasional rise of the submerged ideas to the surface of consciousness.

How to Apply the Principles of Subconscious Thought

1. Provide Proper Materials. You have been shown how the Subconscious undertakes and performs the important work of “unconscious rumination”; how it chews the mental cud composed of the materials of mental food previously supplied to it. In this “unconscious rumination.” or “chewing over” the cud of thought, the Subconscious performs the work of breaking into digestible form, and reducing to the proper consistency the crude material of thought which has previously been furnished it.

The Subconscious, in this process, also selects the best elements of the material furnished it, retaining this for its future work while rejecting the useless residue of the mass. Here is to be noted a most important point, i. e., that just as the ruminant animal first must be furnished with the rough mass of food-material which it then proceeds to reduce to the proper consistency and condition for digestion and assimilation, so the Subconscious first must be furnished with the rough material of thought which it is expected to digest thoroughly and assimilate after it has selected from the mass the available material, the rest being rejected by it.

This point has been overlooked by many investigators of the work of the Subconscious: they have been so carried away by the wonderful possibilities of this process of the Subconscious that they have neglected to note the antecedent conditions of this operation. In fact, some of them have practically claimed that the Subconscious requires no such solid material for its processes of “unconscious rumination”; they seemingly imply that it performs its work; with the subtle materials obtained from the thin air breathed by it. But, alas! this is but a dream. The Subconscious can no more proceed with its processes of “unconscious rumination” without material than can the ruminant animal proceed to “chew the cud” unless it has previously partaken of the rough materials of its food. In all cases of “unconscious rumination” there must be present the solid material of facts, to be chewed carefully and reduced to the proper consistency by the ruminative mechanism of the Subconscious.

Therefore, when you wish to set before the Subconscious some important and difficult task of “unconscious rumination,” you should first saturate your mind with the subject in question. Bring into consciousness every associated fact or related principle that is possible to you. Read and listen to all possible points of view on the subject, refusing to be dismayed or discouraged by the mass of contradictions and irreconcilable different points of view, belief or opinion. Add every possible bit of associated or related material to the general mass, with full confidence that your Subconscious will attend to the work of rumination, digestion, selection and assimilation of that heterogeneous mass of mental food which you have gathered for it. Though this sometimes may seem to produce the preliminary symptoms of mental dyspepsia in your conscious mentality, do not worry: the mental stomach of the Subconscious is strong and enduring, and will be able to perform its task on the material which now dismays you—it possesses ostrich-like powers of digestion.

In addition to the material which you thus specially supply to the Subconscious, however, the latter also draws upon its own large stock of associated and related material which it has stored on its subconscious levels or mental floors, but which you have apparently forgotten. It may even go so far as to draw upon the material of the racial-memory, if it becomes sufficiently interested in the task, and is adequately aroused by your strong desire and your firm faith in the possibilities of your Subconscious.

From many sources the Subconscious draws the varied materials for its cud of “unconscious rumination.” But, nevertheless, you will fall far short of efficient performance if you fail to do your work in the matter of securing and assembling before it such useful material as you may be able to gather. You must always be able to say, honestly and truthfully, to your Subconscious: “I have done the best I could for you; it is ‘up to you’ to do the rest!”

2. Give Definite Directions. Many persons who have noted the process of “unconscious rumination” performed by the Subconscious, and also many who have acquired more or less ability to set deliberately the subconscious faculties to work along these lines, have not fully grasped the definite and clear principle involved in the process of instituting and directing the said processes. Their efforts in this direction often are conducted more or less on the “hit or miss” principle, and are based on the belief that “somehow, someway,” the Subconscious will work out the matter for them. Not understanding the fundamental principles involved in the Subconscious processes, they are content with a more or less indefinite course of “setting the thing to work.”

An examination of most of the cases cited in the text-books, or else related by those who have experienced subconscious phenomena of this kind, will show you that the usual course is to fill the mental stomach of the Subconscious with material deemed appropriate, just as one would fill the physical stomach with appropriate food, and then to trust to Nature, or to “instinct,” to perform the complex task of reducing the mass to the proper consistency, of chemically digesting it thoroughly, and of assimilating it perfectly. Such a course, as a matter of fact, frequently produced a reasonably satisfactory result. What Jastrow terms a combination of the elements into a “half consistent whole” results in such cases, and is gratefully accepted by the individual as the best of all possible results.

But, although our standard modern Western psychologists have not as yet discovered and formulated a more scientific and more certain and effective method of applying the principle of subconscious mentation, those who have learned some of the secrets of the ancient Oriental teachings are aware that the sages of these older schools, many centuries ago, evolved the true methods in question.

Without attempting to go into a detailed and technical consideration of the theories entertained by these Oriental teachers, we shall ask you to consider the practical principles of their methods. We have here another instance of the fact that underlying the often quite vague theories and metaphysical speculations of the Oriental philosophers there may be found certain very practical methods of applying psychological principles recognized by both eastern and western psychology.

The chief principle of the Oriental method is based upon the fact that there exists a manifestation of Attention on the subconscious plane of mentation, as well as upon its conscious planes. Moreover, just as conscious Attention may be aroused and directed in two ways, viz., (1) by general interest, curiosity, desire, etc., and (2) by deliberate concentration of the Will in Voluntary Attention, so may the subconscious Attention be aroused and directed in a corresponding way. In both cases Attention is the active mental element involved.

In most cases, such as we have previously related, the subconscious Attention is directed and aroused by the power of interest, curiosity, desire, etc., which descends from the conscious mentality to the plane of the Subconscious. The general interest in the subject, the curiosity concerning the solution of the problem, and the desire to reach a successful result, all tend to arouse and to direct the subconscious Attention, and to set into activity its processes of “unconscious rumination” and even higher and more complex activities of the Subconscious. This is the true explanation of the interesting phenomena of ordinary “unconscious rumination” such as are recorded in the text books or experienced in everyday life by yourself.

But just as the voluntary, trained Attention of the student and the scientist is far more efficient than the ordinary, more or less involuntary conscious Attention of the ordinary person, so is the voluntary, deliberate, concentrated subconscious Attention of the trained mind far superior to and far more effective than the ordinary more or less involuntary Attention of the person who has just discovered that the Subconscious “works,” but who has not as yet learned “just how it works.” The deliberate action of and direction by the Will constitutes the distinction between the involuntary state and the voluntary state, in the case of both the conscious and the subconscious mental activities involved in thought.

You will need but a simple, familiar example to give you the general principle involved in this matter. You know by experience that when you have strongly impressed upon the Subconscious the necessity of your being awakened at five o’clock in the morning in order to catch a certain train, you may count upon “something” awakening you at that particular time. Or, when you have an important engagement which you have apparently overlooked, “something tells you” that you have forgotten something, just in time to allow you to rush to keep the engagement. Well, then, here you have set your subconscious Attention upon the task, and your Subconscious has “been on the job” for you. The same principle is involved in even the highest and most complex activities and processes of subconscious mentation in which there is “something to be done.”

The Oriental teacher instructs his pupils to acquire by repeated practice and exercise the “knack” of performing the following particular mental activity. The student must formulate in his mind a clear idea of the mental task to be performed. He must perceive it in general outline, and also should form a clearly defined idea of just what task he wishes to have accomplished- just what kind of work he wishes to have performed for him. He must then form a mental picture of the thought-material being lowered or dropped to the subconscious levels of the mind (as, for instance, being dropped through a trap-door). He must then deliberately, positively and earnestly give a mental or verbal command or direction to the subconscious mentality to perform the task for him. For instance, he must issue the command: “Subconscious! I wish you carefully and thoroughly to analyze, to classify, and logically to arrange the materials of this subject, and then to carry the reasoning concerning it to its logical conclusion!”

The material so passed on to the Subconscious, however, must have been previously subjected to a most intense and concentrated inspection by the conscious Attention. As the Oriental teachers say: “It must be saturated with Attention, until every part of it is so permeated by Attention that it carries Attention in its very substance.”

Thought, thus energized by Attention, will re-awaken into being on the subconscious planes with the necessary amount of Attention involved in it; this, in turn, will attract and hold the subconscious Attention element of thought. The subconscious Attention, once having been attracted by and directed to a subject, will never afterward release its hold on that subject until the latter has been brought as nearly to a successful conclusion as is possible under the circumstances. It may take only a few minutes, or it may take hours, days, months; or even years to reach the conclusion—but it will hold tenaciously to the task, and will report the result eventually. Have you not received answers and reports from the Subconscious concerning questions and subjects which perplexed you many years ago, and which you had almost forgotten? While your conscious mentality had practically forgotten the matter, your Subconscious has remembered it and has continued its work.

This wonderful method is so simple that there is danger that you may overlook its great importance and its marvelous possibilities. It consists, as you have seen, of the following simple mental processes, viz., (1) Concentrating the conscious Attention upon the general problem or task, until the whole subject of it is fairly saturated by Attention; (2) Forming the mental picture or idea of the transference of the general thought from the conscious plane or level down to that of the subconscious mentality—to the Subconscious; (3) Giving the Subconscious the positive, clear, definite command or direction concerning what you wish it to do for you in the matter.

That is all there is to it—though several books might be filled with illustrative examples and adaptations to particular instances or special cases. Consequently, you are advised to commit to memory the above-stated three stages of the methods or process in question, and to apply them in any and all cases in which you desire the Subconscious to proceed along the lines of Subconscious Thought in a definite direction and toward certain definite ends.

The rest is all practice, practice, practice; and exercise, exercise, and exercise. There is, however, a peculiar little mental “knack” about the method of giving the command or direction to the Subconscious. This little “knack” will come to you only by practice and exercise—it cannot be expressed in words—it must be “picked up” in actual practice; When once acquired it will never be forgotten by you.

Charles Leland illustrated the principle of this little “knack” in his statements concerning what he called “Forethought.” He says of this principle:

“As I understand it, it is a kind of impulse or projection of Will into the coming work. I may here illustrate this with a curious fact in physics.

If the reader wished to ring an old-style door-bell so as to produce as much sound as possible, he would probably pull it back as far as he could, and then let it go. But if he would, in letting it go, simply give it a tap with his forefinger, he would actually redouble the sound. Or, to shoot an arrow as far as possible, it is not enough to merely draw the bow to its utmost span or tension. If, just before it goes, you will give the bow a quick push, though the effort be trifling, the arrow will fly almost as far again as it would have done without it.

“Or, as is well kn own, in wielding a very sharp sabre, we make the ‘draw cut,’ that is, if to the blow or chop, as with an axe, we also add a certain slight pull, simultaneously, we can cut through a silk handkerchief or a sheep. Forethought is the tap on the bell; the push on the bow; the draw on the sabre. It is the deliberate but yet rapid action of the mind when, before going to sleep or dismissing thought, we bid the mind to subsequently respond. It is more than merely thinking what we are to do; it is the bidding or ordering the self to fulfill a task, before willing it.”

Additional illustrations will occur to the reader who is familiar with the games of golf, billiards, tennis, etc., in each of which the skillful players discover the “little knack” of “putting something into” the blow, the stroke, or whatever the movement may be. He finds that by putting that “little something” of himself into the movement he adds very materially to its power, its accuracy, and its general efficiency. The principle of the “little knack” in the giving of commands or directions to the Subconscious closely resembles the principles employed in the skilled physical movement to which we have just referred. You must learn to “put a little of yourself into it.”

Subconscious Thought may be set into activity by the method previously described, under nearly any or all kinds of circumstances. It may be “set a-going” during the day, or just before going to sleep at night. Leland and some others have strongly advised the last—mentioned plan, claiming for it special advantages. In cases where quick decisions and actions are necessary, the process may be effected with little or no loss of time. The time necessary to flick the ashes from your cigar before answering, or in which to reach out to replace an object on your desk, or to perform any similar action, will be sufficient for the Subconscious to render you at least some degree of assistance in response to your positive command: “Attend to this for me quickly—at once!” The Subconscious is capable of the lightning-like rapidity of certain dream states in such cases! Try this method and learn for yourself how wonderfully rapid and effective is the response.

Leland says: “The practice of composing the plan as perfectly, yet as succinctly as, possible, combined with the energetic impulse to send it off, will ere long give the student a conception of what I mean by Forethought, which by description I cannot. And when grown familiar and really mastered, it will give to its possessor a power to think and act promptly, in all the emergencies of life, in a greatly increased degree. Forethought may be brief, but it should always be energetic. By cultivating it we acquire the enviable talent of those men who take in everything at a glance, and act promptly, like Napoleon. This power is universally believed to be entirely innate, or a gift, but it can be induced or developed in all minds in proportion to the Will, by practice.”

1. Refrain from Interfering. In passing on to your Subconscious any certain and particular work to be performed by it, you should refrain from interfering with the subconscious processes. You may, and indeed should, “stand by,” as it were, ready to seek for or to furnish any additional data or facts for which it may call; and you should always exercise the right of supervision, revision, and general management, as we have already told you. But you should never meddle with the processes of the Subconscious in themselves, nor should you attempt to “boss the job” in its details as well as in the general direction and management.

A violation of this last rule may confuse the Subconscious, or, in extreme cases, may even throw it into a state of panic. This is a common mistake, and one especially to be guarded against. You must cultivate and manifest confidence and trust in your Subconscious. The Subconscious, as we have previously  informed you, is as sensitive as are intelligent workers in general; in some cases it manifests quite a show of “artistic temperament,” and is easily disturbed by what it may deem an unwarranted meddling with its work. Exercise the iron hand upon it, if you will; but always be careful to wear the velvet glove on that hand, if you wish to secure the best results from it.

Sometimes the Subconscious may tentatively raise to your conscious plane of mentality its unfinished work for your inspection—it wants you to tell it how you like it as far as it has gone. Give its reports and results a careful examination, and add any helpful suggestions which may occur to you; then send it back for completion with a word of encouragement, and with that little “tap on the bell” as Leland puts it. Do not make the mistake, however, of the child who, having planted seeds in the garden, pulls up the sprouts each morning to see how much the roots have grown overnight. You are not dealing with a lifeless mechanism, remember—you are dealing with a living intelligence which is an aspect of your Self.

Subconscious Thought and Logic. Some persons who have acquired proficiency in subconscious mentation, but who have wished also to acquire a knowledge of Logic and Logical Thinking, have found themselves somewhat upset, at first, after they have acquainted themselves with the principles of Formal Logic. They report that they have found themselves in somewhat the same general condition of the centipede (mentioned in a foregoing section of this book) who had lost the natural art of running many-legged after he began to think of “which leg follows which.”

The trouble here, however, should not be blamed upon Logic. It arises rather from an attempt to take away from the Subconscious all the thinking work that had previously been performed by it, and to attempt now to perform this on the conscious plane alone, according to the rules of Logic. Had such persons continued to permit their Subconscious to perform its accustomed work, instead of trying to rob it of its natural  tasks, they would have discovered that the Subconscious was performing its work even more effectively than before, by reason of the superimposition of the knowledge of the laws and rules of Logical Thought.

It will be found, as a rule, that the Subconscious Thought of a logical thinker will be far more logical than that of an illogical person. One may improve the logical quality of his subconscious mentation by studying the elements and principles of Practical Logic; the training received thereby by the conscious mentality is reflected upon the subconscious planes. This being the case, those feeling the need of improvement along the lines of Logical Thinking need fear no interference with the thought processes of their Subconscious—quite the reverse is the fact, as we have said.

But, in studying along the lines of Logical Thought for this purpose, confine yourself to works on the subject of Practical Logic. Leave Formal Logic for those who are fond of the academic, technical phases of the subject. Select those works in which the subject of Logic is brought down to solid earth, instead of being raised to the upper regions in which the clouds abound. We feel warranted in here directing to your attention that volume of this series entitled “Reasoning Power,” the subject of which is Practical Logic and the laws and rules of Practical Logical Thought.

The Superconscious Planes

One of the most interesting, and at the same time one of the most perplexing features attending the investigation of the phenomena of the “other consciousness” states of mental activity which are included in the general category of the Subconscious is the undoubted evidence of the existence of what may be called, respectively, the “higher” and “lower” planes of mental activity in the great region of the Subconscious. The Subconscious, in fact, is discovered to be not merely a simple “other mind,” but rather to be a greater region of “other consciousness” mental activity, having its plains and its mountain peaks, its highlands and its lowlands—the great area of your New Mental Empire.

In the lowlands of the Subconscious are discovered those activities which seem to be more or less “automatic,” although manifesting both intelligence and a logical method of procedure. In the highlands are discovered certain other activities which transcend the ordinary intelligence of the conscious mentality— activities which, while not contrary to reason, nevertheless seem to proceed further and with less effort than the ordinary reasoning processes of the human mind.

In short, in the great region of “the other consciousness” there is discovered to be present a strange and perplexing mixture of both high and low—of that which seems little more than simple “instinct,” and of that which seems to partake of the nature of what may be called “intuition.”

This discovery has caused much confusion, and has served to upset many otherwise quite reasonable theories and hypotheses. Probably the most pronounced emphasis placed upon the distinction between the highlands and the lowlands of the Subconscious is that maintained by certain schools of thought on the subject which (borrowing the idea from the Oriental philosophers) have sought to divide the region of “the other consciousness” into two great areas, known respectively as “the Subconscious” and “the Superconscious”—the former area including the lower phases of subconscious mental activity, the latter area including the higher phases to which we have referred.

But it is impossible to draw a positive and definite line between the high and the low areas of the Subconscious. That great region is not one in which all the lowlands are on one side of a given line, and all the highlands on the other side. Instead, in it, just as in any great physical region, there are alternating areas of valleys and plains, and of hills and mountains. As in the physical world, so in the psychical world one unusually needs but to travel upward (not merely east, west, north, or south) in order to reach the high levels. Moreover, it is impossible to draw a hard and fast line between the higher and the lower activities—these activities frequently blend so into each other that it is most difficult to determine whether they belong to the higher or to the lower. There is, in fact, an indefinite intermediate area in which the higher and lower blend, mingle, and form combinations.

It has been found more satisfactory to employ the illustrative example of the solar spectrum, with its various colors with their shadings and blendings—with its “infra-red” regions existing in invisible form on the one side, and its “ultra-violet” regions, likewise invisible, existing on the other side—with the great visible regions existing in the centre. While we are favorable to the occasional employment of the term “the Superconsciousness” to designate the highest of the activities of the Subconscious, we still prefer the general term of “The Subconscious” to designate the entire region of “the other consciousness” planes of man’s mental activity.

Many leading writers on the subject of the Subconscious have testified to the existence of these planes of its activities and powers, and have pointed out the distinction between these and the lower planes of its manifestation. They have demonstrated that there are “out of consciousness” mental operations which are above the horizon of ordinary consciousness, rather than below it—”regions of the higher soul and spirit life, of which we are only at times vaguely conscious, but which always exist, and link us to eternal verities.” They have expressed the conviction that there exist in the realm of human mentality certain “supernormal and transcendental powers of which at present we catch only occasional glimpses”; and that behind these “there are fathomless abysses, the divine ground of the soul, the ultimate reality of which our consciousness is but a reflection or faint perception.”

In these high regions of mentality, say they, “all the higher mental operations are conducted; it is here that genius works.” This is the higher mental realm of which Carlyle speaks when he says: “Shakespeare’s intellect is what I call unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is aware of. The later generations of men will find new meanings in Shakespeare, new elucidations of their own human being.” It is this that Goethe had in mind when he said: “I prefer that the principle from which, and through which I work, shall be hidden from me.”

It is this to which Ferrier refers when he says: “The sublimest works of the intelligence are quite possible, and may easily be conceived to be executed, without ordinary consciousness of them on the part of the immediate agent.” It is this which inspired Emerson to bid us to trust the Higher Consciousness even “though you can render no reason”; and, whose reports “shall ripen into truth, and you shall know what you believe.” Emerson also hints at the same truth in his lines:

“Delicate omens traced in air To the lone bard true witness bear;

Birds with auguries on their wings Chanted undeceiving things Him to beckon, him to warn;

Well might then the poet scorn To learn of scribe or courier Hints writ in vaster character.”

The lower planes of the Subconscious contain only that which has been placed there by heredity, by the suggestions of others, by the conscious experiences of the individual, or by the imperfect reflection of the Superconscious faculties before the latter have unfolded their message to the conscious mentality. The higher regions—the Superconscious—on the contrary, contain much which man has never before experienced consciously or subconsciously.

Many careful thinkers hold that, just as that which manifests on the conscious planes today will be passed on to the subconscious levels tomorrow, so, much that is now locked up in the regions of the Superconscious will be passed down and revealed to consciousness at a later period in the evolution of the individual and of the race. Much that is now a familiar manifestation in the ordinary consciousness was at one time the exclusive property of the Superconscious; likewise, in the future states of the spiritual evolution of the race, the Superconscious will bestow upon the ordinary consciousness much that is now revealed only in occasional flashes of inspiration, genius, or illumination.

One of the present writers expressed the following ideas in a much earlier work (published in 1902) which he has found no reason to change in the intervening twenty years:

“From the region of the Superconscious comes that which is not contrary to reason, but which is beyond ordinary reason. This is the source of illumination, enlightenment, genius, inspiration. This is the region from which the true poet obtains his inspiration, the exceptional writer his gift, the real seer his vision, the veritable prophet his knowledge. Many have received messages of this kind from the region of the Superconscious, and have thought that they heard the voice of God, of angels, of spirits—but the voice came from within.

In this region are to be found the sources of Intuition. Some of the superconscious faculties are higher than are others, but each has its own part to play. Many a man has received inspiration from within, and has given a message which has astonished the world. Many poets, painters, writers, sculptors, have acted upon the inspiration received from their superconsciousness. Certain great poems, certain great writings, certain great pictures, certain great statues, have about them an indefinable something which appeals to us and make us feel their wonderful strength—that mysterious quality absent from the productions of ordinary mental effort.”

Even scientists commonly regarded as “materialistic” have frankly admitted that they can conceive of the possibility of mental states as much higher than those of the average man as the latter are higher than the mental states of the black beetle; and that there is no difficulty in conceiving the existence of degrees of intelligence as much superior to ordinary intelligence as the latter is superior to mechanical motion.

Science informs us that consciousness has evolved from the state of mere “sensitiveness,” which was but little more than the chemical “sensitiveness to stimulus”; thence on to true sensation, high and low; thence on to simple consciousness, high and low; thence on to self-consciousness, high and low. Is it to be supposed that evolution has nothing further to unfold in the nature of consciousness?

Is it not more reasonable to believe that just as sensation evolved from mere sensitiveness, just as simple consciousness evolved from sensation, and just as self-consciousness evolved from simple consciousness, so may there be other and higher forms of consciousness destined to evolve and unfold from our present stages of consciousness? In fact, it would appear that even at the present time some of these higher faculties are beginning to dawn upon the race. Is it unreasonable to believe that this new consciousness will partake of the character of that which we seek to indicate by the term “Intuition”?

The term, “Intuition,” rightly understood, perhaps best indicates the characteristic elements of the higher Subconscious knowing or activity—of that phase or aspect of the Subconscious which has been called the “Superconsciousness.” Webster defines Intuition (as ordinarily understood) as: “Direct apprehension or cognition; immediate knowledge, as in perception or consciousness, involving no reasoning power; quick or ready insight or apprehension.”

Many seek to convince us that Intuition is the source of its own knowledge—that it has no need for data derived from experience; but this view is disputed by others who hold that Intuition is merely a higher form of reasoning. We, however, are inclined to the view that Intuition is a higher form of reasoning, proceeding perhaps by “short cuts” impossible to our ordinary conscious reasoning processes, and manifesting its action in an almost incredibly brief period of time. The marked difference between the clear, acute, and rapid reasoning processes of the trained thinkers of the race, and the clumsy, dull, heavy, and slow reasoning of untrained minds, gives us a hint concerning the nature of Intuition, and contains a hopeful promise of further evolution along the same lines.

It is possible, in imagination, to conceive of mental faculties and powers sufficiently evolved and developed to be able to grasp the essential relations and data involved in a problem in a new way—in a way in which there is manifested a highly increased power of perception, apperception, and generalization—and able to perform the processes of induction and deduction (or perhaps a reasoning process higher than either), with intensive effort and greatly increased speed. An individual possessing this power would appear to the ordinary thinker as one able “to know without thinking at all,” though such individual would really be performing each and every stage of thought.

The rapid movement of the moving-picture films causes us to perceive the picture as continuous and unbroken, whereas, in reality, it is composed of many separate and particular units. A rapidly revolving object seems to us to stand still. So may it be with the mind operating with a highly increased speed accompanied with a highly increased power of perception, apperception, generalization, etc. The careful examination of the thought processes of certain exceptional thinkers of the race would seem to support the idea of an “intuitive reasoning” proceeding in the way just indicated.

Careful thinkers have held the scientific faith that man will evolve the mechanism of thought sufficient to deal with the more complex and difficult problems which are forcing themselves before the human mind, and which are demanding solution. Haeckel has said: “There is no scientific problem which we may dare to say the mind of man will never solve; no mystery so deep or profound; no question has or ever will be asked but a mind or brain will be evolved capable of solving or answering.” Stevens says: “If it becomes essential for mankind to know, infinite nature will evolve an organ of mind that can comprehend.”

Psychology furnishes us with analogies sufficient to warrant us in speculation concerning the possible effect of mental processes greatly “speeded up,” and yet proceeding in logical sequence, The intensely rapid action of the mind in certain dream states, and in cases in which certain anaesthetics have been administered, gives us a valuable hint. It is within the proper limits of scientific imagination to speculate concerning the possible existence of mental states in which the logical conclusion from a given premise might seem to be arrived at practically “instantaneously,” just as a sufficiently “speeded up” moving-picture projector would be able to present to us, in an almost simultaneous picturing, the beginning and ending of a scene—all that came between being imperceptible.

Time as experienced by the mind is purely relative and comparative. The midge lives a lifetime of vivid experience in a hour of time, or less; while, on the other hand, we may conceive of beings of a high order to whom “a thousand years is but a day.” Under intense pressure the minds of human beings have been known to act with an almost incredible rapidity, and with an almost superhuman clearness, power, and effect. We say even of ordinary efficient thinkers that “they think in a flash,” or that “they reach a result almost intuitively.” These facts serve as striking hints concerning the character and nature of the processes of the Intuition manifested by the higher planes of the Subconscious—the so-called “superconscious” planes of mentation.

The only known method whereby the individual may increase and develop the degree of the manifestation of the “intuitive powers” of the higher planes of the Subconscious— apart from the “mystical” practices, many of which are of quite doubtful value, and apart from certain “psychic” methods, which are often positively dangerous and harmful—consists of the calm recognition of the existence of these higher powers of the Subconscious, and the courteous reception and entertainment of the reports coming from them. Recognize its powers as those of your Higher Self, and accept its services as rightfully belonging to you; yet receive them with thanks. Open your mind to the rays coming from above, and profit by the energizing power of that light. Seek development along these tines, and let the power unfold naturally, gradually, and in accordance with the law of evolution—do not try to force the growth, nor to employ unnatural methods.

Here is the rule by which you may determine whether a report of Intuition comes from the true higher planes of mind, or whether it is a distorted reflection reaching you from some of the lower planes: The true intuitive report will never run contrary to reason properly exercised and interpreted— though it may transcend the possible reports of the ordinary reasoning processes. Do not accept the report as correct if it runs contrary to your highest reason, or if it is opposed to your “common sense.” Intuition is Higher Reason—Reason plus, or Reason “more so”—it is never anti-Reason, or the opposite of Reason.

Reason has been evolved by Nature to provide man with his sane and safe standards of belief and action; therefore, you should never seek to discard it in order to adopt some antirational report, attractive though the latter may appear to be at first sight, nor how highly recommended it may come. You should welcome the opening and unfoldment of the higher planes of Reason, but you should always assure yourself that the essential principle of Reason is present in the reports of any part of your mind, before you accept them as final. You should regard Reason as the evolving instrument of your experience and expression—not as a fixed and unalterable mechanism beyond the possibility of further growth, improvement and development. Avail yourself of the services of Intuition—your Higher Reason—but always stand firmly on the solid rock of Practical Reason, for there your safety lies.

Intuition, if real and true, is always Reason plus—never by any chance is it Reason minus. It is Reason raised to a much higher degree than we commonly experience, but its essential character, nature and principle remain unchanged. Keep this fact in mind, and your feet will rest on solid rock; lose sight of it and ignore it, and you may wander on to the sinking sands of Error!

In addition to the offices and powers of the Superconscious which we have mentioned, there is another and a most important function of that phase of the mentality which may be called “the protective power.” Many persons, most persons in fact, have at times experienced this beneficent power. They have felt strongly that they were in close contact with a force, power, or entity of some kind which was in some way higher than themselves, but which was concerned with their welfare. This beneficent presence has been interpreted in various ways in accordance with the trend of thought of those experiencing it. Some of the ancients called it “the kindly genius”; others termed it “the guardian angel”; still others have thought of it as “my spirit friend”; while many others, though quite vividly conscious of its presence and power, have failed to give it a special name.

But by whatever name it may have been thought of, or even when no name at all has been applied to it, the mysterious something has been recognized as a beneficent presence-power—a hovering and brooding Something or Somewhat animated by a warm, kindly interest in the individual, and seemingly devoted to his interests and disposed to render to him useful services.

This beneficent presence-power has often acted as a warning guardian in the lives of many persons. In other cases it has been felt to have acted subtly to bring about advantageous results and conditions for the persons whom it protected. It has led some into circumstances and conditions calculated to be of advantage to them; it has drawn others away from conditions and circumstances calculated to bring harm to them. In short, it has played the part of “the kindly genius” or “the guardian angel” to many an individual.

The touch of this Unseen Hand has been felt by countless individuals—very likely by you who are now reading these lines. It has cheered men when the tide of circumstances seemed to be running against them; it has animated them with a new lively spirit, has encouraged them to renewed endeavor, has filled them with new courage when they needed it most. It has seemingly led persons into the presence of other persons and things, into conditions and environments, which have proved advantageous to them. Men in all ages—some of the most practical and “hard headed” men of affairs, among others— have felt the touch of this Unseen Hand, and have gratefully acknowledged its help in times of need, even though they have been perplexed concerning its real character.

To many careful thinkers who have earnestly investigated this phenomenon, it has seemed that this beneficent presence-power—this Unseen Hand that has reached out in times of need—is not an external power, nor an entity outside of themselves, but is rather a manifestation of that part of man’s mental nature which we have here considered under the term “The Superconscious.” Instead of being an entity outside of us, it is believed to be a part of ourselves—a phase, part or aspect of our Self that manifests above the levels or planes of the ordinary consciousness. In short, this “kindly genius” or “guardian angel” is your own Superconscious Self, manifesting on some of its higher levels or planes of activity and power.

In this Higher Self you have a friend far truer, more constant, and more loyal than can be any other friend—for it is Yourself, in its essence and substance. Your interests are its interests, for you are one with it in essential being and power. It will manifest a fidelity to you, and a watchfulness over your real interests which is amazing in its devotion and constancy. It will manifest toward you, in turns, the protecting care of a father; the brooding, watchful, loving care of a mother; and the helpful, fraternal interest of a brother. It will be all of these things to you—and more—if you will but give it the chance to unfold its presence and to manifest its power in your life.

This Higher Self—this phase of your Superconsciousness— needs but the encouragement of your recognition and realization in order to manifest its power in your behalf. It is seemingly discouraged, disheartened and abashed by your indifference, unbelief, and the failure to recognize its presence and to realize its power. It does not need “training” or “developing”—all that it asks is to be recognized and realized by you, and to have from you a kindly, sympathetic reception. It has done much for you in the past—it will do more for you in the future, if you will but meet it half way.

This higher part of your Self is full of discernment, and of cold, keen-edged wisdom. It can see far ahead, and is able to discern and select the right road for you to travel, and then to lead you into that road and to keep your feet on its solid substance, in spite of your efforts to take a side path or to wander into the ditches which lie on either side of the road. You will do well to “get off by yourself” once in a while, then and there to commune with your Higher Self—to have a little “heart-to-heart” visit with it. You will find this Higher Self to be a wonderful companion— one closer to you than can be any human being—for it is Yourself, and nothing but Yourself, manifesting on the higher planes and levels of your being. You will emerge from these periods of self-communion with renewed strength and vigor, filled with new hope and faith, animated by new ambitions and purposive determination.

In this book we have presented to you a view of your New Mental Empire—a view of its lowest and its highest planes and levels, of its highlands and its lowlands. It is your own empire—YOURS! Yours it is to rule and to govern, to explore and to cultivate. You are at home in it. The many wonderful phenomena manifested in its immense region are your phenomena—yours to control, direct, develop, cultivate; yours to restrict, restrain, inhibit; at your will, as you will, by your will.

Do not allow yourself to be tempted by the wonderful powers manifested by some of your subordinate mental machinery or instruments; do not allow yourself to fall under the spell of any of the phenomenal manifestations in your mental wonderland. View all; respect all; use all; demand and secure aid and work from all; but never lose sight of the fact that YOU, your Real Self—the “I AM I”—is the Master of this land, the ruler of this Empire, and that you rightfully have power and dominion over it, all its inhabitants, and all contained in its realm.

Your “I AM I,” your Real Self—YOU—are a centre of consciousness and will, of Personal Power, in that Infinite and Eternal Power, that Ultimate POWER from which all things proceed, and in which we live, and move, and have our being. Your physical body and your physical energies; your mental mechanism and its energies, manifesting on any or all the planes or levels of consciousness, subconsciousness, or superconsciousness; all these are but instruments or channels of expression of your Real Self, the “I AM I,” of YOU.

YOU, the “I AM I” are the centre of your personal world of experience and manifestation. Keep ever your rightful place at the centre of that world; observe all the rest whirling and revolving around that centre, as the planets revolve, whirling, around the sun. YOU are the Sun! Do not lose your balance, nor be induced to move away from your central position to accommodate any of your subordinate planets—not even the greatest of them.

Hail! Mighty Emperor! Enter into and possess, rule and govern, your New Mental Empire! It is YOURS!

Here, at the conclusion, as at the beginning of this book, let us remind you of the truth of the ancient aphorism: “You are greater than you know!”

 

The End