William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

Table of Content

Advanced Man has the power of consciously building his mind—Doing the building yourself instead of letting others do it—The sub-conscious warehouse—Moving along the lines of least resistance—Taking mental stock and discarding worthless material—Worthless mental bric-a-brac—Man not a worm of the dust—Man’s destiny great and glorious—Man’s mind just what he makes it—Training and developing the mind—How to acquire desired mental traits—Moulding and shaping the mind according to the will—We are no longer servants of our minds—Mental freedom—The mind an instrument to be used by the Real Self— Auto-suggestions and affirmations—The doctrine of “I Can and I Will”—What kind of mental material are you using?

TO THE advanced Man is reserved the proud privilege of consciously building up his mind into any desired shape— the privilege of altering, repairing, and adding to the mental structure. In the lower animals, primitive man, and even the majority of men to-day, the work of building up the mind is largely performed by forces outside of himself—environment, associations, suggestions, etc., and, of course, even the most advanced man is subject to these influences. But the developed man knows that he, himself, has a hand in the building up of his mind. This building, of course, is done altogether in the sub-conscious field, the conscious thought supplying the material, and the “I” being the builder. In a previous chapter, I have spoken of the Sub-conscious Plane of the mind, and how it is being added to, each day, by thoughts of the conscious plane of our own mind, the thoughts of others, suggestions, and so on. I have also compared the sub-conscious plane of mentation to a body of water into which a clear stream was flowing, and showed how the character of the entire body of water depended upon the quality of the water that was pouring in.

The sub-conscious mind may also be compared to an immense warehouse, into which goods are being carried and stored. It will readily be seen that the character of the contents of the warehouse must be determined by the grade and quality of the goods being carried in from day to day. This being granted, it will readily be seen how important becomes the selection of these mental goods which are being stored away.

The sub-conscious plane of the mind is an immense storehouse into which we are continually carrying goods to be stored away for future use. And, moreover, these goods are being constantly used. The greater part of our thinking is done along the lines of sub-conscious mentation, and the sub-conscious plane of the mind can only use that which has already been stored away in its space.

Mind moves along the lines of least resistance, and when it becomes necessary for us to think upon a certain subject, we find ourselves taking the easiest line of thought, which is always the line which has been traveled most frequently in the past. It tires us to think along new lines, while to think upon the old accustomed lines requires but little effort, and we consequently move along the lines of least resistance. We have in our sub-conscious plane of mind many cut-and-dried opinions, many ready made ideas, upon which we have never seriously thought. Sometime, in the past, we have accepted these opinions or ideas from some source, and we have never seriously considered the other side of the question. And yet when any of these subjects come up in conversation, or reading, we find that we have well-settled opinions upon them and are often quite bigoted regarding them. It is only when we are forced to take out the old opinion and idea and examine it carefully and closely, look it over, that we find that there is no merit at all in it, and we are annoyed to think that we have been keeping the old thing around the place so long, and we discard it and replace it with a good sound thought of our own manufacture. A good mental house-cleaning will reveal to us many such useless and imperfect articles around the sub-conscious storeroom.

Among the many worthless articles of mental bric-a-brac to be found in most minds may be seen the thoughts of Fear, Worry, Jealousy, Hate, Malice, Envy, etc. A careful examination of these articles will result in their being thrown on the mental waste-heap and suitable, up-to-date articles put in their places. None of these articles will stand the tests of the Higher Reason. And then the belief of man being a worm of the dust; a miserable sinner worthy only of eternal damnation; a child of darkness fit only for the fiery pit; all these beliefs have been passed on to men and women, and they have stored them away in the sub-conscious storehouse and make use of them constantly.

How can any man believe himself to be a worm of the dust and a child of darkness, and at the same time realize that he is a Son of God with a destiny so great, so grand, and so brilliant, that his mind cannot even conceive it? How can a man, with such ideas ruling him, throw off the sheaths which he has outgrown, and step forward into a brighter spiritual consciousness?

And then the idea of Failure, Fear, Worry and the rest. Man has had these things poured into him until he is so full of them that they influence all his actions and thoughts. And the more he thinks and acts along these lines the more likely he is to continue such thoughts and actions in the future. He is traveling over and over the old road until it becomes second nature to do it and harder to strike out into a new path.

Man should realize that he is what he thinks. He should know that he is building up his mind, unconsciously it is true, by the character of the thoughts he is thinking. If he is thinking bright, cheerful, happy, confident and courageous thoughts, he is building up a mentality colored with these thoughts. And equally true is it that if he is thinking thoughts of fear, worry, gloom and despair, his mentality will take on that color, and all his actions will be influenced by the prevailing shade of his mental attitude.

In my previous work, entitled “ Thought Force ,” I give a long chapter on “ Character Building by Mental Control ,” which shows how a man can practically make himself over by cultivating a certain line of thought and letting it find lodgment in his sub-conscious mentality. One can, by continually keeping the mind in certain channels, so train and develop the faculties that they will soon take up the new habit of thought and will, without effort, follow the new mental path that has been mapped out for them. Remember, each time you think a thought, or act out a thought, you make it that much easier for your mind to do the same thing over again.

If you wish to be Energetic and Active, think as many energetic and active thoughts as you can and endeavor to act them out. Let your thoughts be constantly upon these subjects and endeavor to manifest the thought in action as much as possible. By following this course you will gradually make yourself over, so far as those habits are concerned, and the new way will be the natural way, and the old discarded habits will seem very unreal to you. One can train his mind in any direction desired, or considered needful. Remember, it is the conscious mentality training and shaping the sub-conscious. You are filling the sub-conscious storehouse with the goods you wish to use, and when you have occasion to bring out any of these mental goods you may expect to find only those which you have placed there.

The sub-conscious mentality may be trained just as one would train a child or pet animal. It may be moulded and shaped according to the will. It requires perseverance, of course, but it is an important thing to accomplish.

We have been servants of our minds for so long that we have grown to consider that state of affairs beyond remedy, and, although we do not like it, we have about resigned ourselves to the inevitable. The New Thought carries the message of mental freedom to Man. It shows him that the mind is but a tool of the Real Self—an instrument to be used—a machine that can be taught to do his bidding. If the Desire is in a man he can mould his mind to carry out his desires and aspirations.