The Prosperity & Wealth Bible. Kahlil Gibran

in this book have been in the nature of Positive injunctions — that is, you have been urged to do certain things rather than to not do the opposite or contrary. But here we come to a place in which the advice must be given along the negative lines — we must urge you not to do a certain thing. We allude to that great poison of the mind and Will known as Fear. We do not allude to physical fear — important though physical courage may be, and as regrettable as physical cowardice may be considered, still it is not a part of the purpose of this book to preach against the latter and advise a cultivation of the former quality — you will find much of that elsewhere. Our purpose here is to combat that subtle, insidious enemy of true Self-Expression which appears in the shape and guise of mental fear, forebodings which may be considered as Negative Thought just as the other principles mentioned in this work may be considered as Positive Thought.

      Fear thought is that condition of the mind in which everything is seen through blue glasses — in which everything seems to bring a sense of the futility of endeavor — the “I Can’t” principle of mentality, as contrasted with the “I Can and I Will” mental attitude. It is the noxious weed in the mental garden, which tends to kill the valuable plants to be found therein. It is the fly in the ointment — the spider in the cup of the Wine of Life. So far as we know the first person to use the word “Fearthought” — which has now passed into common use — was Horace Fletcher, the well-known writer, who coined it to supplant the use of the word “Worry” in a certain sense. He had pointed out that Anger and Worry were the two great hindrances to a well-balanced, advanced and progressive mentality, but many misunderstood him and urged that to abolish Worry meant to cease taking any consideration of the morrow — a lack of common prudence and forethought. And so Fletcher coined the word “Fearthought” to express a phase of his idea of “Forethought without Worry,” and he entitled his second book on the subject, “Happiness, as found in Forethought minus Fearthought,” a very happy expression of a very happy idea. Fletcher also was the first to advance the idea that Fear was not a thing-in-itself, but merely an expression of Fearthought — a manifestation of the state of mind known as Fearthought. He and others who have written on the subject, have taught that Fear might be abolished by the practice of abolishing Fearthought from the mind — by driving it out of the mental chamber — and the best teachers have taught that the best way to drive out Fear (or any other undesirable mental state) was by cultivating the thought of the opposite quality of mind by compelling the mind to dwell upon the mental picture of the desirable quality, and by the appropriate auto-suggestions. The illustration has often been stated that the way to drive darkness from a room is not to shovel it out, but to throw open the shutters and let the sunlight stream in, and that is the best way to neutralize Fearthought.

      The mental process has aptly been spoken of as “vibrations,” a figure that has a full warrant in modern science. Then, by raising the vibration to the Positive pitch, the negative vibrations may be counteracted. By cultivating the qualities recommended in the other lessons of this book. Fearthought may be neutralized. The poison of Fearthought is insidious and subtle, but it slowly creeps through the veins until it paralyzes all useful efforts and action, until the heart and brain are affected and find it difficult to throw it off. Fearthought is at the bottom of the majority of failures and “going down” in life. As long as a man keeps his nerve and confidence in himself, he is able to rise to his feet after each stumble, and face the enemy resolutely — but let him feel the effects of Fearthought to such an extent that he cannot throw it off and he will fail to rise and will perish miserable. “There is nothing to fear except Fear,” has well been said.

      We have spoken elsewhere about the Law of Attraction, which operates in the direction of attracting to us, that which we Desire. But there is a reverse side to this — it is a poor rule that will not work both ways. Fear will set into motion the Law of Attraction just as well as Desire. Just as Desire draws to one the things he pictures in his mind as the Desired Thing, so will Fear draw to him the thing pictured in his mind as the Thing Feared. “The thing that I feared hath befallen me.” And the reason is very simple, and the apparent contradiction vanishes when we examine the matter. What is the pattern upon which the Law of Attraction builds under the force of Desire? The Mental Image, of course. And so it is in the case of Fear — the person carries about the Mental Image or haunting picture of the Feared Thing, and the Law of Attraction brings it to him just as it brings the Desired Thing. Did you ever stop to think that Fear was the negative pole of Desire? The same laws work in both cases.

      So avoid Fearthought as you would the poisonous draught that you know would cause your blood to become black and thick, and your breathing labored and difficult. It is a vile thing, and you should not rest content until you have expelled it from your mental system. You can get rid of it by Desire and Will, coupled with the holding of the Mental Image of Fearlessness. Drive it up by cultivating its opposite. Change your polarity. Raise your mental vibrations. Someone has said, “There is no Devil but Fear” — then send that Devil back to the place where he properly belongs, for if you entertain him hospitably he will make your heaven a hell in order that he may feel at home. Use the mental Big Stick on him.

      Lesson 8 — Personal Magnetism

      We hear much about Personal Magnetism these days.

      It is a peculiar quality of the mental being of the individual that serves to bring other persons into a mood or state of mind sympathetic with that of the magnetic person. Some men have this quality developed to a wonderful extent, and are able to bring about a harmonious agreement on the part of other persons in a short time, while others are almost entirely deficient in this respect and their very presence tends to arouse antagonism in the minds of others. The majority of people accept the idea of Personal Magnetism without question, but few will agree upon any theory attempting to account for it.

      Those who have studied the matter carefully know that the whole thing depends upon the mental states of the individual, and upon his ability to cause others to “catch” his mental vibrations. This “catching” is caused by what is known as Mental Induction. Induction, you know, is “that property or quality, or process by which one body having electrical or magnetic polarity produces it in another without direct contact.” And Mental Induction is a manifestation of similar phenomena on the mental plane. People’s mental states are “catching” or “contagious,” and if one infuses enough life and enthusiasm into his mental states they will affect the minds of persons with whom they come in contact. We have explained this matter in detail in the little book of this series entitled, “Mental Influence.” It seems to us that the prime factor in successful Mental Induction, or manifestations of Personal Magnetism, is Enthusiasm. In another lesson in this book we have told you about Enthusiasm, and when you think of Personal Magnetism, it will be well for you to read what we have said about Enthusiasm also. Enthusiasm gives Earnestness to the person, and there is no mental state so effective as Earnestness. Earnestness makes itself felt strongly, and will often make a person give you attention in spite of himself. Walter D. Moody, a well-known writer on the subject of Salesmanship, says, truthfully, “It will be found that all men possessed of personal magnetism are very much in earnest. Their intense earnestness is magnetic.” And nearly every student of the subject has noted this fact. But the earnestness must be more than a firm, confident, honest belief in the thing being presented to the attention of the other person. It must be a live, contagious earnestness, which can best be described as Enthusiasm — Enthusiastic Earnestness, that’s the term.

      This Enthusiastic Earnestness has much emotion in it — it appeals to the Emotional side of human nature, rather than to the Thinking-Reasoning side. And yet an argument based upon reason and conducted upon logical principles, may be presented with Enthusiastic Earnestness with much greater effect than if the appeal to the reason is conducted in a cold, unemotional way. The average person is so constituted mentally that he thaws out under a manifestation of live, enthusiastic “feeling,” under the term of Personal Magnetism. The “feeling” side of mentality is as important as the “thinking” side — and it is far more common and universal, for the majority of people really think very little, while everyone “feels.”

      A writer in the “early seventies” of the last century said: “All of us emit a sphere, aura, or halo, impregnated with the very essence