The Mastery of Success. Thorstein Veblen

not see thought - neither do we see the finer vapors or gasses. We cannot smell or taste thought - neither do we smell or taste the pure air. We can feel it however, as many can testify - which is more than we can say of the powerful magnetic vibrations of a mighty magnet, which, whilst exerting a force sufficient to attract toward it a piece of steel weighing a hundred pounds, is absolutely without effect upon us. Its vibrations may pass through our bodies and exert its force on the steel, while we may be unaware of its existence. Light and heat send out vibrations of a lower intensity than those of thought, but the principle is the same. The evidence of the five senses is not absolutely necessary to establish the existence of a material substance or force. The annuals of science are full of proofs of this fact, Professor Elisha Gray, and eminent scientist, says in his little book "The Miracles Of Nature."

      "There is much food for speculation in the thought that there exists sound waves that no human ear can hear, and color waves of light that no eye can see. The long, dark, soundless space between 40,000 and 400,000,000,000,000 vibrations per second, and the infinity of range beyond 700,000,000,000,000 vibrations per second, where light ceases, in the universe of motion, makes it possible to indulge in speculation."

      M. M. Williams, in his work entitled "Short Chapters in Sciences," says, "There is no gradation between the most rapid undulations or tremblings that produce our sensation of sound, and the slowest of those which give rise to our sensations of gentlest warmth. There is a huge gap between them, wide enough to include another world of motion, all lying between our world of sound and our world of heat and light, and there is no good reason whatsoever for supposing that matter is incapable of such intermediate activity, or that such activity may not give rise to intermediate sensations, provided there are organs for taking up and sensifying these movements."

      I cite the above authorities merely to give you food for thought, not to attempt to demonstrate to you the fact that thought vibrations exist. The last mentioned subject would be far beyond the scope and purposes of this work, and can only be touched upon herein.

      The character of the thought vibrations sent out by us depends upon the nature of the thought itself. If thought had color (and some say that they have), we should see our fear and worry thought as murky, heavy, clouds hanging close to the earth; our bright, cheerful and happy, confident, "I can and I will' thought as light, fleecy, vapory clouds hanging close to the earth; our bright, cheerful and happy, confident, "I can and I Will" thoughts as light, fleecy, vapory clouds, traveling swiftly and mingling with others of their kind, forming fleecy cloud banks, high above the level of the dense, mephitic, foul exhalations produced by fear and worry "I can't" thoughts.

      No matter how far your thought waves may travel, they retain a certain connection with you and exert an influence over you as well as others. You cannot easily get rid of the influence over you as well as others. You cannot easily get rid of the influence of these "children of your mind." If you have been sending out bad thoughts, you are subject to their influence, and your only hope is to neutralize and counteract them by sending out strong, new thought waves of the proper sort, or by asserting the I AM, and thereby creating a mental aura, or by both means.

      The old saying "Like attracts like" and "Birds of a feather flock together," are both literally exemplified by the tendencies of thought waves. There is what is known as the "Adductive Quality of Thought," the word "adductive" being derived from the Latin word adductum, to bring to. The manifestation of this quality of thought is one of the most wonderful features in the realm of psychic phenomena.

      Fear or worry thought will attract others of their own kind, and will combine with them, the result being that you will be afflicted not only by the product of your own mind, but also by those emanating from the minds of others, the whole forming a heavy burden. And the longer that you persist in that line of thought, the heavier will be your burden. On the other hand, if you think bright, cheerful and happy thoughts they will draw to themselves others of the same degree, and you will feel brighter, more cheerful and happier from their combined influence. This is absolutely true, but you are not asked to accept it on faith alone. Try it and be convinced. But, in the experiment, be sure to couple the thoughts with a feeling of confidence in the outcome, and you will obtain much better and quicker results. Half-hearted, doubting thoughts have only a small percentage of the force of confident, expectant ones.

      If you think along the lines of discouragement, lack of confidence, "afraid to try," "know I can't" lines, you will attract to yourself the force of other murky thoughts of the same kind, and you will find that you really "can't," and moreover, everyone else will seem to entertain just the same opinion regarding your ability. But just brace up and send out earnest, confident, fearless, "I can and I WILL" thought waves, and you will attract to yourself the similar thought waves of others, which will still further stimulate and strengthen you, and help you to accomplish your aims.

      If you send out jealous, envious thoughts, they will come home bringing their mates with them, and you will be wretched until the effect passes off. So will waves of hate return to harm you, having gained force and power on their journey. The old proverb "Curses like chickens come home to roost," is much nearer the real truth than is generally supposed. Anger thought arouses anger in the other man (unless he has rendered himself positive to them), and he sends back his return thought waves; besides which other anger waves mingle and help on the vicious work. You have heard people say, "A man always finds what he looks for." Of course he does, he cannot help it, for his thought attracts others of the same sort, and he sees a world of the same color as his mental spectacles.

      Good thought attracts good - evil thoughts, evil. If you hate a man and send him your hate thoughts, you will get hate in return, and will face a hating and hateful world. In the thought world, you get back what you send out - with good interest. Send out kind thoughts and kind thoughts will return to you, with compound interest, and you will find yourself greeted by a kind, helping world, and will be much the gainer. If only from a selfish point of view, it pays to think the best thoughts. If you will practice thinking along these lines for, say, one month, you will find the greatest difference in things, the greatest change in yourself, and you will find that you look with aversions and disgust upon your old, mean, low, miserable way of thinking, and would not return to it under any consideration - no, not for a fortune. Before the month will have passed you will be conscious of the helpful force of the responsive thought waves, and your life will seem entirely different to you. Try it. Try it now. You will never regret it.

      There are two particularly bad thoughts, which you should root out, first of all, and you will find that, when you have rid yourself of the balance will die out of their own accord. I allude to Fear and Hate. These two following weeds are the parents of most of the others. Worry is the oldest child of Fear, and bears a close resemblance to its father. Envy, Malice, and Anger are some of the numerous broods claiming Hate as their parent. Destroy the "old ones" and you will not be troubled with their offspring. I will speak further on this point in the lesson on Character Building.

      I will now process to another phase of the Adductive Quality of Thought. I refer to its exhibition along the lines of Success by right Thinking.

      It may seem almost incredible to you, but it is a fact, that all successful men owe their greatness to their earnest, forceful, concentrated thought vibrations. They fixed their mind upon a certain line of thought; brought the aid of Will - the recognition of the I AM - to bear on that line of thought; allowed that line of thought to mold their characters; went straight to the mark at which they and aimed in the beginning. Others had aimed for the same mark, but failed because they failed to hold the thought, and had allowed themselves to become discouraged, intimidated, tempted or coaxed away form their ideal.

      The requisites for the successful follow-up of a thought ideal to the end, are, first, an overpowering Desire (not a mere wish); second, a strong belief in your ability to accomplish your desire (not a mere half-hearted faith); and, third, an invincible Determination to win (not a mere back boneless - "I'll try to").

      It is a strange thing and difficult to explain (without leading you into metaphysical depths), but the measure of success by this plan seems to depend materially upon your belief in the force. A half-hearted belief will bring only half-way results, whilst an earnest, firm, confident belief that "your win will come to you" will accomplish results little short of marvelous. Cultivate