Part 4 (1/2)
Thus a seeker may repeat: ”I _will_, earnestly and deeply, that during all tomorrow I may be in a calm and peaceful state of mind. I _will_ with all my heart that if irritating or annoying memories or images, or thoughts of any kind are in any way awakened, that they may be promptly forgotten and fade away!”
I would advise that such a formula be got by heart till very familiar, to be repeated, but not mechanically, before falling to sleeps What is of the very utmost importance is that the operator shall feel its meaning and at the same time give it the impulse of Will by the dual process before described. This, if successfully achieved, will not fail (at least with most minds) to induce success.
This formula, or ”spell,” will be sufficient for some time. When we feel that it is really beginning to have an effect, we may add to it other wishes. That is to say, be it clearly understood, that by repeating the will to be calm and peaceful, day after day, it will a.s.suredly begin to come of itself, even as a pigeon which hath been ”tolled” every day at a certain hour to find corn or crumbs in a certain place, will continue to go there even if the food cease.
However, you may renew the first formula if you will. Then we may add gradually the wish to be in a bold or courageous frame of mind, so as to face trials, as follows:
”I _will_ with all my soul, earnestly and truly, that I may be on the morrow and all the day deeply inspired with courage and energy, with self-confidence and hope! May it lighten my heart and make me heedless of all annoyances and vexations which may arise! Should such come in my way, may I hold them at no more than their real value, or laugh them aside!”
Proceed gradually and firmly through the series, never trying anything new, until the old has fully succeeded. This is essential, for failure leads to discouragement. Then, in time, fully realizing all its deepest meaning, so as to impress the Imagination one may will as follows:
”May my quickness of Perception, or Intuition, aid me in the business which I expect to undertake tomorrow. I _will_ that my faculty of grasping at details and understanding their relations shall be active.
May it draw from my memory the hidden things which will aid it!”
The artist or literary man, or poet, may in time earnestly will to this effect:
”I desire that my genius, my imagination, the power which enables man to combine and create; the poetic (or artist) spirit, whatever it be, may act in me tomorrow, awakening great thoughts and suggesting for them beautiful forms.”
He who expects to appear in public as an orator, as a lawyer pleading a case, or as a witness, will do much to win success, if after careful forethought or reflecting on what it is that he really wants, he will repeat:
”I will that tomorrow I may speak or plead, with perfect self-possession and absence of all timidity or fear!”
Finally, we may after long and earnest reflection on all which I have said, and truly not till then, resolve on the Masterspell to awaken the Will itself in such a form that it will fill our soul, as it were, unto which intent it is necessary to understand what Will really means to us in its purity and integrity. The formula may be:
”I _will_ that I may feel inspired with the power, aided by calm determination, to do what I desire, aided by a sense of right and justice to all. May my will be strong and sustain me in all trials.
May it inspire that sense of independence of strength which, allied to a pure conscience, is the greatest source of happiness on earth!”
If the reader can master this last, he can by its aid progress infinitely. And with the few spells which I have given he will need no more, since in these lie the knowledge, and key, and suggestion to all which may be required.
Now it will appear clearly to most, that no man can long and steadily occupy himself with such pursuits, without morally benefiting by them in his waking hours, even if auto-hypnotism were all ”mere imagination,” in the most frivolous sense of the word. For he who will himself not to yield to irritability, can hardly avoid paying attention to the subject, and thinking thereon, check himself when vexed. And as I have said, what we summon by Will ere long remains as Habit, even as the Elves, called by a spell, remain in the Tower.
Therefore it is of _great_ importance for all people who take up and pursue to any degree of success this Art or Science, that they shall be actuated by moral and unselfish motives, since achieved with any other intent the end can only be the bringing of evil and suffering into the soul. For as the good by strengthening the Will make themselves promptly better and holier, so he who increases it merely to make others feel his power will become with it wickeder, yea, and thrice accursed, for what is the greatest remedy is often the strongest poison.
Step by step Science has advanced of late to the declaration that man _thinks all over_ his body, or at least experiences those reflected sensations or emotions which are so strangely balanced between intellectual sense and sensation that we hardly know where or how to cla.s.s them. ”The sensitive _plexi_ of our whole organism are all either isolated or thrown into simultaneous vibration when acted on by Thought.” So the Will may be found acting unconsciously as an emotion or instinct, or developed with the highest forms of conscious reflection. Last of all we find it, probably as the result of all a.s.sociated functions or powers, at the head of all, their Executive president. But _is_ it ”the exponent of correlated forces?” There indeed doctors differ.
There is a very curious Italian verb, _Invogliare_, which is thus described in a Dictionary of Idioms: ”_Invogliare_ is to inspire a will or desire, _cupiditatem injicere a movere_. To _invogliare_ anyone is to awake in him the will or the ability or capacity, an earnest longing or appet.i.te, an ardent wish--_alicujus rei cupiditatem a desiderium alicni movere_--to bring into action a man's hankering, solicitude, anxiety, yearning, ardor, predilection, love, fondness and relish, or aught which savors of Willing.” Our English word, _Inveigle_, is derived from it, but we have none precisely corresponding to it which so generally sets forth the idea of inspiring a will in another person. ”Suggestion” is far more general and vague. Now if a man could thus _in-will_ himself to good or moral purpose, he would a.s.sume a new position in life. We all admit that most human beings have defects or faults of which they would gladly be freed (however incorrigible they _appear_ to be), but they have not the patience to effect a cure, to keep to the resolve, or prevent it from fading out of sight. For a _vast_ proportion of all minor sins, or those within the law, there is no cure sought. The offender says and believes, ”It is too strong for me”--and yet these small unpunished offenses cause a thousand times more suffering than all the great crimes.
Within a generation, owing to the great increase of population, prosperity and personal comfort, nervous susceptibility has also gained in extent, but there has been no check to petty abuse of power, selfishness, which always comes out in some form of injustice or wrong, or similar vexations. Nay, what with the disproportionate growth of vulgar wealth, this element has rapidly increased, and it would really seem as if the plague must spread _ad infinitum_, unless some means can be found to _invogliare_ and inspire the offenders with a sense of their sins, and move them to reform. And it is more than probable that if all who are at heart sincerely willing to reform their morals and manners could be brought to keep their delinquencies before their consciousness in the very simple manner which I have indicated, the fas.h.i.+on or _mode_ might at least be inaugurated. For it is _not_ so much a moral conviction, or an appeal to common sense, which is needed (as writers on ethics all seem to think), but some practical art of keeping men up to the mark in endeavoring to reform, or to make them remember it all day long, since ”out of sight out of mind” is the devil's greatest help with weak minds.
CHAPTER VI.
SUGGESTION AND INSTINCT.
”Anima non nascitur sed fit,” ut ait.--TERTULLIa.n.u.s.
”Post quam loquuti sumus de anima rationali, intellectuali (_immortali_) et quia ad inferiores descendimus jam gradus animae, scilicet animae mortalis quae animalium est.”
--PETRUS GREGORIUS THOLOSa.n.u.s.