PREFACE

THE data and the interpretations presented in this book have not emerged from structured, controlled experimentation.

Each human mind is unique, unlike any other mind. It follows that the processes of the human mind, its evaluation and response to any particular situation, are unique, disparate. There are, how­ever, general trends, methods of stimulation and reaction, which appear as human behavior exhibits itself in the experience of living.

Observation and investigation indicate that the human mind or personality functions through a two-fold unitary process. The concept generally accepted among scientific investigators and the conclusions arising from observation is that the structure of per­sonality or mind consists of a conscious or volitional activity de­signed primarily to assure survival in practical experience and a deep strata of subconscious energy, which is the source of creative insight and of the emerging synthesis of mental processes, ordinarily called intuition and inspiration.

It is the purpose of this empirical study to interpret for the average person the function of the self-aware aspect of mind and its control of the underlying area of creative energy which to­gether make possible self-directed achievement.

The material presented and the techniques described will be of assistance to those engaged in basic and applied research, to profes­sional and educational personnel, to executives who must direct and guide employees, to those interested in interpersonal and public relations, to parents facing the problem of creating wholesome family life and to men and women in all walks of life who hope to stabilize and control their mental and emotional processes and thereby gain a greater degree of peace of mind and personal satis­faction in the day-to-day experience of living.

In the field of psychology and in the interpretation of mental and emotional activity, as observed in the experience exhibited by the average person, originality is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. During several years of observation and study it is quite possible that concepts and ideas described and expressed by other writers have unintentionally been used without credit to the original source. If this has occurred, I express to all involved my deep regret and sincere apology. To the authors and publishers who have granted permission to use quotations from their copyrighted work, I also express a full measure of gratitude for their courtesy.

 

John K. Williams

Birmingham, Alabama

 

PROLOGUE

OUR forms of legal and social control, as well as the validity of our ethical concepts are based upon the assumption that the individual has a built-in endowment of volitional strength and understanding by which he can determine and control his activity. This idea of individual responsibility and self-direction is embodied in every culture and social group—whether advanced or primitive. True or false, this assumption that the behavior of a person is selected and determined by that person himself depends upon the nature and structure of personality—the capability of the mind of the individual to achieve and maintain self-direction.

Throughout this book I have assumed explicitly the dictum of Cudworth that “Mind is senior to the world and the architect thereof.’’ The creative insight and wisdom of the subconscious mind when properly understood and correctly applied, sustain the following four statements:

 

First, you are the architect of your destiny. Every experience or condition in your life—poverty or riches, success or failure, health or illness—is the result of action and purpose set in mo­tion by you.

Second, within the area of your life, you have creative power. You can make a mental image or blueprint of the progress and expansion you want to achieve, and by impressing the concept of your objective upon your subconscious mind, you can cause the condition you visualize in your mind to be created. Creative energy is the self-induced action of mind upon itself and within itself. The force behind all progress and achievement is energy created and applied by mind.

Third, you are a radiating power. By expanding your con­sciousness, you can attract what you want. Like the lowly amoeba, you can have only what you can surround and absorb within yourself. The Universe cannot and does not give you anything. It does give you, however, the power and challenge to achieve, to create for yourself the conditions and resources you want. You can have anything you want, provided you are willing to pay the price.

Fourth, you are the building and directing power of your life. Life develops only by mental and emotional power from within. Centuries ago, Hermes, one of the greatest teachers and philos­ophers of all times, made the statement, “All is Mind.” Mental and emotional processes create and control all that comes into your experience. Nothing has ever been, is now or ever will be, that is not the result of mind action. Since this law is universal and inescapable, it follows that man in his nature and aspirations is not obsolete; that man has essential freedom of action in de­termining the content of his experience; and that mind, or per­sonality, is more and something other than the ephemeral reac­tions of biochemical processes in the brain.

 

Notwithstanding this basic concept, understood for centuries, it is a matter of everyday observation that the great majority of people live lives of quiet desperation and frustration. Too many people inhabit the haunted hinterlands of failure, anxiety and ill­ness. This is frequently true whether or not the person has achieved financial competency or status in the community.

Consider the achievements of our affluent social order, made possible by scientific industrial technology: We have the most abundant, immediately available food supply ever provided any people. Our medical and sanitary measures guard health and life to a greater extent than has been true in any other culture, past or present. Through our Social Security program and other retire­ment systems, the aging population is sustained to a degree unique in human history. We have the most expensive and efficient edu­cational system ever projected. Our democratic form of govern­ment and our courts safeguard the individual more completely than during the days of glory in Athens. The average person enjoys luxuries and conveniences unequaled by the citizens of any other nation or in any previous age. Despite all of this, we are frustrated, phobia-ridden and without meaningful motivation as to the content and purpose of life.

As a result of our mental and emotional imbalance, we have a crime rate which at times threatens the stability of our social and legal processes. Delinquency, divorce and broken homes and chronic alcoholism constitute immediate problems for which the behavioral sciences and the medical profession are unable to offer even a par­tial solution.

We have achieved so little self-direction and created such meager inner resources that millions of people turn to chemical agents to control and stimulate their emotions. The enormous sales of the so-called tranquilizing and psychic energizing drugs is a disturbing symptom which reveals the paucity of our inner poise and motiva­tion for creative achievement. The crescendo of the excessive con­sumption of alcohol is another effort to quiet our frustrated emo­tions and to compensate for our feeling of sterile immaturity.

To an extent seldom realized, we are “brain-washed” by our ubiquitous mass communication media. To escape from ourselves, we feed our emotions the drama of horror and stark realism and more recently we are entertained by the bizarre and perhaps in­forming scenes and reactions to be found only in the treatment room of a psychiatric physician. The literature of crime, perversion, violence and abnormal sexuality implants a pattern of thinking which limits and frequently destroys creative ability. Since the average person does not understand that our lives are controlled by emotional forces, the trauma produced by such mental and emotional nutrients, although the process is not consciously ob­served, is compounded many times.

About two years ago one of the leading intellectual magazines of the nation carried an article titled “The Americanization of the Unconscious.” The writer of this article, a psychiatric physician, recognizes the growing concept among professional social workers, counselors and some members of the legal profession, as well as among the general population, that the unconscious mind (more correctly described as the subconscious mind) is a built-in source of energy, complex or mechanism which cannot be controlled by the individual—that the individual is helpless in the presence of these inner forces which motivate his behavior.

Perhaps no great thinker has been more misunderstood than Sigmund Freud. True, his concepts are being modified and changed by many authorities, but it was certainly not his basic in­tention to teach that the individual is the helpless victim of in­stinctual drives and forces built into his personality. Whatever the cause, the last quarter century has witnessed an increasing ac­ceptance of the idea that the individual, due largely to traumatic experiences in childhood, is unable to achieve and sustain self-direction. Interestingly enough, during this same period it has been amply demonstrated that the individual is always in command of himself, that in any situation he does what at the time he wants to do.

It is, of course, true that the failure to direct, and to understand the creative insight, energy and wisdom of the subconscious mind, brings many people to the point of no return—a dominating, con­trolling pattern of mental activity has been established, which is irreversible. The point to be remembered is that there was a time in the life of the individual when by proper direction this process in his life could have been directed and channeled into constructive and creative work.

Due to the prevailing self-limiting currents in our present intel­lectual and moral climate, we are to a significant degree adopting a philosophy of “escapism” rather than developing the concept of individual and social responsibility, based upon the self-directing capability of the human personality.

In this book I have attempted to outline a sound philosophy of the human mind as the creative source of every experience in the life of the individual. Techniques and methods have been de­scribed by which the creative insight and the wisdom of the sub­conscious mind may be found and used in building the individual life to it’s highest potential. This concept of the mind and the techniques suggested are not theoretical in nature but are supported by the experience of men and women in every culture and in every walk of life. The considerations advanced in this book account not only for the experience of success and satisfaction but also for failure and frustration. For the solution of problems inherent in human experience, no miracle-working formula or program is available. The response of the individual is the cause of success or failure.

The human mind (in its unitary action as conscious and sub­conscious) despite all its distortions and limitations is an expression of the highest wisdom of the Universe. It is through the self-aware action of mind that beauty, truth and goodness are known and success and peace of mind achieved.

 

Chapter 1

THE earth on which we live is one of nine planets of a rather mediocre sun, around which all are revolving and at the same time continually spinning on their axes. Our sun around which these nine planets are moving belongs to a galaxy made up of 100 billion other suns; the nearest of these suns is four and one third light years away and the most distant 100,000 or more light years. A light year, as everyone knows, is the distance light travels in a year at the rate of 186,000 miles a second.

This island Universe to which the nine planets and our sun belongs is about 100,000 light years in diameter and viewed from a remote point in space would appear to be a spiral nebula, much like the pictures of spiral nebulae to be seen at any planetarium.

The known immensity of the Cosmos is inconceivable. Beyond our galaxy of stars there are several billion other island universes, each containing billions of suns. The nearest to our own galaxy being about 150,000,000 light years distant. The most distant is perhaps ten billion light years away. Modern astronomy can locate a billion or more galaxies, each containing billions of flaming suns. Sir James Jeans has written, “The number of stars in the Universe is practically like the number of grains of sand on all the seashores of the world.” Each star on the average is a billion times the volume of the earth and yet so vast is the Cosmos that there are millions and millions of miles between each of them.

Turning from the magnitude of the Cosmos to the minute, con­sider an infinitely small particle of matter. This particle of matter is barely visible, yet it contains millions and millions of molecules. A molecule consists of two or more atoms and an atom has one or more electrons revolving around a nucleus of one or more protons. These billions of stars, our sun, the earth and all material bodies as well as the atoms of which they are composed, are all made of the same thing—something which we cannot see and which we cannot locate by touch. Science describes this basic element as energy. It is known that atoms are miniature solar systems with electrons spinning at tremendous speeds around a nucleus of pro­tons. It is also known that electrons and protons and other sub­atomic elements are simply units of negative and positive electrical energy.

The Cosmos, every material thing in it, is made of energy. There is enough energy concentrated in a small lump of coal to drive a large steamship across the Atlantic and back; in the atoms of a cup of water there is enough energy to light a large city for a year. This energy of the Cosmos has a vast variety of forms, the bottled-up being called “matter” and the unbottled, “radiation.”

According to the equation worked out by Einstein, and now re­garded as the foundation of theoretical physics and modern tech­nology, every gram of matter (of any kind) has stored within it the equivalent of 25,000,000 kilowatt hours of energy.

Cosmic energies are streams of electrons—not matter, but radia­tion. All matter is composed of radiation. The source of cosmic energy is outside the confines of the physical Universe. Certainly there was no energy in the physical Universe previous to its cre­ation.

Now visualize the Cosmos as far as one can conceive of it. It is of a magnitude that is overwhelming and of subatomic minuteness that is utterly inconceivable. All the parts are made of the same thing. They are all in unceasing activity and all activities are so ordered that they form an organic whole.

The physicist Heisenberg observes that the Cosmos is composed of unitary energy, and the outlook of the “new physics” tends to the concept that the Cosmos as we know it is composed of, or de­rived from, one all-inclusive force or energy. This idea of the unity of the Cosmos is not new. It is as old as thinking man, and actually is the scientific basis of the Hindu conception of the divine Vishnu as the all-pervading sustainer of the Cosmos. It does not matter what word is used—whether “life” or “energy”—the fact remains that there is essentially only one source and sustaining basis of everything in the Cosmos regardless of the varied forms in which the products of that unitary energy or force may be exhibited.

Matter is now best visualized as almost empty space. The atom itself has all but vanished into a series of electric charges, waves and probabilities, no longer understandable except in terms of mathematical equations. The Cosmos is exploding and moving with terrific speed across infinite distance. Space is curved. Light waves can be bent, and form and mass depend upon speed of motion.

The mystery and the vastness of the Cosmos as revealed by the discoveries of modern astronomy, as well as by the new insights of theoretical physics, tend to obscure the potential dynamics of the human mind. The physical world of yesteryear with all its compact and assuring structure is gone forever.

The mental and emotional processes and values held by indi­viduals and groups develop gradually over long periods of time. This accounts for the resistance always offered when new insights and discoveries regarding the nature and destiny of man seem to threaten long-held thought patterns. This opposition is frequently, if not always, expressed regardless of the value or correctness of the new concepts.

During recent centuries the ideas which man holds regarding the Universe and himself have been challenged in three major areas of investigation. Previous to the time of Copernicus humanity regarded the earth as the center of the Universe. The earth was believed to be the only area on which the life process exhibited itself. Beginning with the thinking of Copernicus and expanded by the explorations of astronomy it is now known that the earth is but a second-rate planet, revolving around a third-class sun and is, in fact, only one of millions of other planetary units in the depth of space. This insight removed this planet from its central point in Cosmos and reduced its position to one of little, if any, significance in the whole Scheme of Things.

With the Darwinian statement of the theory of evolution and its wide acceptance, especially in the scientific world, human dig­nity suffered another blow. Man is no longer a unique creation with an immortal soul, embodying moral and ethical elements of transcendent value. Human life and experience are the result of a long process by natural forces without known purpose and without previous design as to the ultimate goal. Man shares his heritage and development with the complex animal life from the amoeba to the organism known as Homo sapiens. The mental and emotional processes found in human personality are the result of the configuration of atomic particles knocking themselves about within the area of the human brain. Mental activity is resident in and emerges from matter.

Following almost immediately upon the Darwinian theory came the Freudian concept. Man no longer controls his own life. He is but the helpless pawn of unconscious forces and energies which determine his behavior and limit his achievement. The ideas enun­ciated by Freud, and further developed by mechanistic psychology, have so permeated man’s thinking about himself that he no longer believes that he is capable of self-control, and this means that moral and ethical standards have little, if any meaning. Man’s life is controlled not by processes which he sets in motion within him­self but is the result of unconscious instincts and drives built into his personality. These forces are below the level of consciousness. The individual is, therefore, to a large degree without responsibility for his behavior. Since the ideas of Freud resulted from his study of pathology, little, if any, recognition was given to the impact which environmental factors of a constructive nature make upon the individual. Freud also failed to consider (certainly not ade­quately) the integrative and creative instinctual energy and drive which are unquestionably present in the submerged area of per­sonality.

Thus modern man, with his residence demoted from a central place in Cosmos to a position of vast insignificance, sharing his heritage with the animal kingdom, and rendered further helpless by the unconscious instincts and drives within his own life, has experienced traumatic insults to his dignity and status which result in anxiety, frustration and the loss of self-direction.

Our present day utility-minded culture is face to face with the threat of complete destruction by nuclear weapons. This fact with all its potential for humanity exists in the same social order with another equally grave situation. Advancing knowledge has placed instruments more deadly than those of atomic power into the grasp of whatever individual or group that attains control of political power. Techniques now exist (and are being applied in some parts of the world) not only for mass destruction, but also for controlling and warping the minds of men.

The development of these instruments of physical destruction and the methods of mass mental and emotional control are only in their infancy, and what the end of this will be no one can fore­tell. The future is an enigma in which only one thing stands out clearly: It is fraught with terrific and accelerating danger.

Notwithstanding the obviously immediate threat of physical de­struction and the equally present danger of psychological domina­tion by political power, it is necessary to remind ourselves that the intellectual climate of this period has little interest in the ultimate meaning and destiny of life presently exhibiting on this planet.

The search for truth has lost its challenge. Too many suffer from intellectual and spiritual fatigue. We have a passion for things, for bodily comforts and mental sedatives. This generation suffers from ennui and a lack of goal-directed purposes. It naturally follows from this intellectual and social situation that we have little interest in and, therefore, give little time to exploring the vast uncharted land within the human mind.

Man has created instruments that measure space 100,000,000 light-years deep. He surveys the internal structure of the atom and taps its power. Man does not explore, and fails to recognize the extent of the creative power within his own mind. Indeed, man is a mystery to himself, a mystery which remains unsolved even when death’s bitter waters begin to rise about him.

The prophetic statement of that tough-minded British, Win­ston Churchill, is of current significance: “Without an equal growth of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love, science herself may destroy all that makes human life majestic and tolerable.” The trouble comes when men of science leave their laboratories and become philos­ophers. The purpose of life, the value of individual and social ex­perience, the destiny of the human personality cannot be measured by a slide rule, nor can they be found on an agar plate or in a test tube. They will be found, if found at all, in the origin and nature of personality and in the unrecognized and little-known borderland areas of the mind itself.

To deal adequately with the challenge of the present situation some generally held current assumptions must be reexamined and evaluated. This rethinking and evaluating process will, if the true scientific ideal is held in mind, lead to the significant conclusion that the complex mental and emotional processes observed in hu­man life are an expression of mind energy resident in the human personality.

Mind has its roots in, and emerges from, a field of reality which transcends our space-time continuum. Mind is the measuring rod of reality and is limited in its action and expression only by the nature of its own being. While this insight has an obscure place in our present day intellectual climate, it is not new. It is found at the center of every great religious tradition. It is the great Intuition grounded deep in the structure of personality. It follows, because of its inherent nature, that the human mind is greater than we ordinarily believe . . . that it has powers seldom recognized and that it functions in a borderland area greater in extent and signifi­cance than that revealed by our everyday self-aware experience.