Orison Swett Marden - EVERY MAN A KING

Thus for our own sakes, and for the sakes of those tender beings whose lives are largely in our keeping, let us consider the great blessings that will flow from proper understanding and control of our own life forces.

Table of Contents

It is astonishing what power our mind has over our body. Let the mind therefore always be the master.— Goethe.

BEFORE one can do much toward controlling thought, there must be realization of its power and importance, not mere acceptance of a statement. You must feel, you must be convinced, that a bad thought harms you, that a good thought helps you. There must be no playing with fire and a careless feeling that it matters little if you are off your guard part of the time. You must know in your inmost consciousness that thought alone is eternal, that it is the master of your fate, and that the thought of every moment has its part in deciding that fate. You must feel that proper control of your own thoughts will cause all good things to come naturally to you, just as all bad things will be your portion if you misuse your God-given powers. Such realization must come through consideration of proved facts.

Thought is being recognized more and more at its proper value in the work of the world, material and moral. By people of views varying greatly in detail the power of thought is stated to be almost omnipotent in human affairs. Practical demonstrations of seemingly marvellous results are convincing unthinking and material minds. Scientific experiments, instead of destroying the claims of the thinkers, substantiate them, and give scientific explanations.

Prof. W. G. Anderson, of Yale University, succeeded in practically weighing a thought, or the result of a thought’s action. A student was poised on a balance so that the centre of gravity of his body was exactly over its centre. Set to solving mathematical problems, the increased weight of blood at his head changed his centre of gravity and caused an immediate dip of the balance to that side. Repeating the nine multiplication table caused a greater displacement than repeating the table of fives, and, in general, the displacement grew greater with greater intensity of thought. Carrying the experiment further, the experimenter had the student imagine himself going through leg gymnastics. As he performed the feats mentally, one by one, the blood flowed to the limbs in quantities sufficient to tip the balance according to the movement thought of. By purely mental action the centre of gravity of the body was shifted four inches, or as much as by raising the doubled arms above the shoulders. These experiments were repeated on a large number of students with the same results.

To test still further the mastering influence of mind over muscle, the strength of the right and left arms of eleven young men was registered. The average strength of the right arms was one hundred and eleven pounds; of the left arms ninety-seven pounds. The man practised special exercises with the right hand only for one week. Tests of both arms were again made, and, while the average strength of the right arm had increased six pounds, that of the unexercised left arm had increased seven pounds. This showed clearly that the brain action connected with the gymnastics developed not only the muscles put in action, but also other muscles controlled by the same portion of the brain. This could come about only by sending blood and nervous force to the proper parts by purely mental action. Dr. Anderson says of the results:

“I can prove by my muscle-bed that the important thing in all exercises is the mental effort put forth. I can lie down on this muscle-bed and think of a jig, and though apparently my feet do not move, and actually the muscles are not active, the muscle-bed sinks toward my feet, showing that there has been a flow of blood toward the muscles, and that if I did dance a jig, the muscles would be well supplied with blood under this mental stimulus.”

Sandow has long taught that bodily exercise without proper thought would do little to develop muscles, and that a very little exercise, with the mind directing it, will practically rebuild the body. Certain professors of physical culture are selling this knowledge for good prices. Professor Anderson’s experiments demonstrate the truth of these statements, and further that exercise involving competition and lively interest in games does far more good than merely mechanical movements, performed without interest in gymnasiums. He says that walking is poor exercise for brain-workers, as it is so purely automatic that it does not call the blood from congested brain centres, which go on solving intellectual problems. A run, a brisk walk, with a definite object necessitating the thought of speed, will send the blood to the legs and build them up. Exercising before a mirror, watching the muscles swell with the different motions, is found to aid development.

Before these experiments, Prof. Elmer Gates, at Washington, had proved that he was able, by thinking intently of a hand when it was plunged in a basin even-full of water, and willing that the blood should flow there, to make the water overflow. Thus the amount of extra blood sent to the hand could be measured, since it corresponded to the overflowed water. Every one cannot do this on first trial; perhaps not in a hundred trials, but the mind can be trained to such control of the body.

Years ago, by experiments on the famous Beaumont, whose wound in the stomach healed leaving an orifice, physicians demonstrated the great effect of depressing or elevating emotions on digestion and other functions. A telegram announcing disaster collapsed and made feverish the follicles that were actively secreting gastric juice, and left food undigested for hours.

Recent experiments on dogs by the Russian scientist Prof. Ivan Pavlov have proved conclusively that secretion of the gastric juice in the stomach does not, as long supposed, take place automatically when saliva is secreted or when food enters the stomach. On the contrary, it is secreted when a dog is made to Anticipate that it is to be fed with a much-loved food, as raw meat, even though that meat is not given to it, or, if given, is not allowed to pass into the stomach but drops out of the œsophagus by a slit made for that purpose. All manner of mechanical irritation did not avail to cause a flow of gastric juice unless there was excited an idea of pleasure in eating. If the pneumogastric nerve was severed, even this anticipated gastronomic pleasure, or the actual passage of the loved meat through the severed œsophagus, did not cause gastric secretion. The part played by the mind in what have been called mere mechanical, physical functions has been thus shown. The psychological side of digestion, as of every other manifestation in the body, is the more important.

The most wonderful result of the experiments made by Professor Gates was the discovery that certain states of mind produce chemical products in the body. He says:

“In 1879 I published a report of experiments showing that when the breath of a patient was passed through a tube cooled with ice so as to condense the volatile qualities of the respiration, the iodide of rhodopsin, mingled with these condensed products, produced no observable precipitate. But, within five minutes after the patient became angry, there appeared a brownish precipitate, which indicates the presence of a chemical compound produced by the emotion. This compound, extracted and administered to men and animals, caused stimulation and excitement. Extreme sorrow, such as mourning for the loss of a child recently deceased, produced a gray precipitate; remorse, a pink precipitate, etc. 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 manufacture energy.” As Professor Gates has had to point out emphatically, to counteract ridiculous statements, the color of these precipitates depends on the chemical used, but with the same chemical the emotions produce different colors.