Thomas Troward - The Hidden Power And Other Papers upon Mental Science

this well-recognised principle that our perception of ourselves as

integral portions of the great universal power is based.

We do well to pay heed to the sayings of the great teachers who have

taught that all power is in the "I AM," and to accept this teaching by

faith in their bare authority rather than not accept it at all; but the

more excellent way is to know _why_ they taught thus, and to realise for

ourselves this first great law which all the master-minds have realised

throughout the ages. It is indeed true that the "lost word" is the one

most familiar to us, ever in our hearts and on our lips. We have lost,

not the word, but the realisation of its power. And as the infinite

depths of meaning which the words I AM carry with them open out to us,

we begin to realise the stupendous truth that we are ourselves the very

power which we seek.

It is the polarisation of Spirit from the universal into the particular,

carrying with it all its inherent powers, just as the smallest flame has

all the qualities of fire. The I AM in the individual is none other than

the I AM in the universal. It is the same Power working in the smaller

sphere of which the individual is the centre. This is the great truth

which the ancients set forth under the figure of the Macrocosm and the

Microcosm, the lesser I AM reproducing the precise image of the greater,

and of which the Bible tells us when it speaks of man as the image of

God.

Now the immense practical importance of this principle is that it

affords the key to the great law that "as a man thinks so he is." We are

often asked why this should be, and the answer may be stated as follows:

We know by personal experience that we realise our own livingness in two

ways, by our power to act and our susceptibility to feel; and when we

consider Spirit in the absolute we can only conceive of it as these two

modes of livingness carried to infinity. This, therefore, means infinite

susceptibility. There can be no question as to the degree of

sensitiveness, for Spirit _is_ sensitiveness, and is thus infinitely

plastic to the slightest touch that is brought to bear upon it; and

hence every thought we formulate sends its vibrating currents out into

the infinite of Spirit, producing there currents of like quality but of

far vaster power.

But Spirit in the Infinite is the Creative Power of the universe, and

the impact of our thought upon it thus sets in motion a veritable

creative force. And if this law holds good of one thought it holds good

of all, and hence we are continually creating for ourselves a world of

surroundings which accurately reproduces the complexion of our own

thoughts. Persistent thoughts will naturally produce a greater external

effect than casual ones not centred upon any particular object.

Scattered thoughts which recognise no principle of unity will fail to

reproduce any principle of unity. The thought that we are weak and have

no power over circumstances results in inability to control

circumstances, and the thought of power produces power.

At every moment we are dealing with an infinitely sensitive medium which

stirs creative energies that give form to the slightest of our

thought-vibrations. This power is inherent in us because of our

spiritual nature, and we cannot divest ourselves of it. It is our truly

tremendous heritage because it is a power which, if not intelligently

brought into lines of orderly activity, will spend its uncontrolled

forces in devastating energy. If it is not used to build up, it will

destroy. And there is nothing exceptional in this: it is merely the

reappearance on the plane of the universal and undifferentiated of the

same principle that pervades all the forces of Nature. Which of these is

not destructive unless drawn off into some definite direction?

Accumulated steam, accumulated electricity, accumulated water, will at

length burst forth, carrying destruction all around; but, drawn off

through suitable channels, they become sources of constructive power,

inexhaustible as Nature itself.

And here let me pause to draw attention to this idea of accumulation.

The greater the accumulation of energy, the greater the danger if it be

not directed into a proper order, and the greater the power if it be.

Fortunately for mankind the physical forces, such as electricity, do not

usually subsist in a highly concentrated form. Occasionally

circumstances concur to produce such concentration, but as a rule the

elements of power are more or less equally dispersed. Similarly, for the

mass of mankind, this spiritual power has not yet reached a very high

degree of concentration. Every mind, it is true, must be in some measure

a centre of concentration, for otherwise it would have no conscious

individuality; but the power of the individualised mind rapidly rises as

it recognises its unity with the Infinite life, and its

thought-currents, whether well or ill directed, then assume a

proportionately great significance.

Hence the ill effects of wrongly directed thought are in some degree

mitigated in the great mass of mankind, and many causes are in operation

to give a right direction to their thoughts, though the thinkers

themselves are ignorant of what thought-power is. To give a right

direction to the thoughts of ignorant thinkers is the purpose of much

religious teaching, which these uninstructed ones must accept by faith

in bare authority because they are unable to realise its true import.

But notwithstanding the aids thus afforded to mankind, the general

stream of unregulated thought cannot but have an adverse tendency, and

hence the great object to which the instructed mind directs its power is

to free itself from the entanglements of disordered thought, and to help

others to do the same. To escape from this entanglement is to attain

perfect Liberty, which is perfect Power.

The entanglement from which we need to escape has its origin in the very

same principle which gives rise to liberty and power. It is the same

principle applied under inverted conditions. And here I would draw

particular attention to the law that any sequence followed out in an

inverted order must produce an inverted result, for this goes a long way

to explain many of the problems of life. The physical world affords

endless examples of the working of "inversion." In the dynamo the

sequence commences with mechanical force which is ultimately transformed

into the subtler power of electricity; but invert this order, commence

by generating electricity, and it becomes converted into mechanical

force, as in the motor. In the one order the rotation of a wheel

produces electricity, and in the opposite order electricity produces the

rotation of a wheel. Or to exhibit the same principle in the simplest

arithmetical form, if 10÷2=5 then 10÷5=2. "Inversion" is a factor of the

greatest magnitude and has to be reckoned with; but I must content

myself here with only indicating the general principle that the same

power is capable of producing diametrically opposite effects if it be

applied under opposite conditions, a truth which the so-called

"magicians" of the middle ages expressed by two triangles placed

inversely to one another. We are apt to fall into the mistake of

supposing that results of opposite character require powers of opposite

character to produce them, and our conceptions of things in general