William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

The action of the heart is increased by certain emotions; the cheek flushes or pales from certain thoughts, the digestion is impaired by certain thoughts; and so on. And the same thing is manifested on a larger scale when improper thinking becomes a habit. Improper thinking results in improper living—the two go hand in hand. Show me what a man thinks and I will show you what he does and how he lives, and what is the state of his health. I have not space to tell you just how each particular thought affects one, but I can safely say that that miserable thought Fear is the parent of the entire brood of negative thought, and if you get rid of him, you will exterminate the whole brood, as he not only begets but also nourishes each of his offspring. Abolish him at once.

Table of Content

The theory of the duality of the mind, and its weak points—Man has but one mind, but it functions upon two planes—The Conscious and the Sub-conscious—The Sub-conscious not the soul, but merely one field of mentation—Super-conscious faculties really the source of higher knowledge—Conscious thought is fresh from the mint—Sub-conscious thought is the results of preceding conscious thought of self or others—Thought impulses and habits— Conscious thoughts meet new condition—Sub-conscious thoughts handle familiar problems— Man exhibits the highest form of Conscious mentation—Human sheep—The mind and the Will—The secret of the Oriental occultists—Evolutionary development still progressing.

MANY MODERN writers have endeavored to explain the apparent duality of the mind of Man, by erecting elaborate, theoretical edifices upon the firm foundation of the dual functioning of the mind. Some of these writers have carried their reasoning to absurd lengths, and have attempted to explain all of the problems of existence by their theories of the duality of the mind. They have assumed that because Man has a mind capable of functioning along two different lines of effort, he must, necessarily, have two minds. Some have styled these two minds, respectively, the Objective and Subjective. Others have preferred the terms Conscious and Sub-conscious. Still others, have thought that the terms Voluntary and Involuntary best conveyed the idea. But all have assumed that Man had two distinct minds—some even considering them as separate entities. They ignored the fact that it was almost impossible to separate the two minds; they failed to state that the qualities attributed to the two respective minds seemed to shade into each other. They failed to tell us just where the Objective left off and the Subjective began. These theories have proved very useful as working hypotheses, enabling us to work into better things, but as permanent solutions of the problems of the mind, they have failed of their purpose, and while tyros in the New Psychology have accepted them eagerly as affording a solution of the entire question, those who have gone deeper into the subject have found it necessary to regard such theories as but imperfect working hypotheses, at the best.

The idea that Man has two minds, is today regarded as only a working-fiction by many of the most careful investigators of the subject. They realize that man has but one mind, functioning along two different planes of effort. I will endeavor to state what I consider a reasonable explanation of the matter. Of necessity, I can merely state the general principles, my space preventing me from going into detail. I am compelled to use terms familiar to those who are acquainted with the theory of the dual minds, but it will be noticed that I use these terms as indicating varying forms of functioning of the same mind, and not as indicating that Man has two minds. I prefer the terms, Conscious thought and Sub-conscious thought to the other terms used by various writers on the subject, as I consider these terms clearer and as more nearly representing the truth. To the reader who has been accustomed to thinking of the Sub-conscious mind as the higher mind—the Soul, in fact—this chapter will prove somewhat confusing and perhaps disappointing. I must ask such a reader to withhold his judgment until he has carefully studied this and the next chapter. He will be able to do this more readily when he remembers that the Sub-conscious mind which some writers have exalted over its Conscious brother, is also spoken of by the same writers as being the mind that receives all sort of absurd suggestions in the hypnotic state, from the Conscious mind of another, and acts upon them. These same writers speak of the Sub-conscious mind as the Soul of Man, and then in the next chapter inform us that a man in whom the Sub-conscious is developed at the expense of the Conscious becomes a lunatic. If this be true, when a man’s Soul leaves behind its Conscious brother, and passes into the state of pure Sub-consciousness, it becomes a lunatic, and the future life a Bedlam. These people are mistaking half-truths for Truth.

Beyond that which we speak of as Conscious and Sub-conscious, is something higher than either, which may be called the Super-conscious. I will take up that subject after I have discussed the Conscious and Sub-conscious functions of the mind. Do not confuse the attributes of the Super-conscious faculties with the manifestation of the Sub-conscious functions of the mind.

Man has but one mind, but he has many mental faculties, each faculty being capable of functioning along two different lines of mental effort. There are no distinct dividing lines separating the two several functions of a faculty, but they shade into each other as do the colors of the spectrum.

A Conscious thought of any faculty of the mind is the result of a direct impulse imparted at the time of the effort. A Sub-conscious thought of any faculty of the mind is the result of either a preceding Conscious thought of the same kind; a Conscious thought of another, along the lines of suggestion; thought vibrations from the mind of another; thought impulses from an ancestor, transmitted by the laws of heredity (including impulses transmitted from generation to generation, from the time of the original vibratory impulse imparted by the Primal Cause, which impulses gradually unfold, and unsheath, when the proper state of evolutionary development is reached).

The Conscious thought is new-born—fresh from the mint, whilst the Sub-conscious thought is of less recent creation, and, in fact, is often the result of vibratory impulses imparted in ages long past. The Conscious thought makes its own way, brushing aside the impeding vines, and kicking from its path the obstructing stones. The Sub-conscious thought usually travels along the beaten path.

A thought-impulse originally caused by a Conscious thought of a faculty, may become by continued repetition, or habit, strictly automatic, the impulse given it by the repeated Conscious thought developing a strong momentum which carries it on, along Sub-conscious lines, until stopped by another Conscious thought, or its direction changed by the same cause.

On the other hand, thought-impulses continued along Sub-conscious lines, may be terminated or corrected by a Conscious thought. The Conscious thought creates, changes or destroys. The Sub-conscious thought carries on the work given it by the Conscious thought, and obeys orders and suggestions.

The Conscious thought produces the thought-habit or motion-habit, and imparts to it the vibrations which carry it on along the Sub-conscious lines thereafter. The Conscious thought also has the power to send forth vibrations which neutralize the momentum of the thought-habit; it also is able to launch a new thought-habit or motion-habit with stronger vibrations which overcomes and absorbs the first thought or motion and substitutes the new one.