Part 3 (1/2)

[Sidenote: _”Things” and their Mental Duplicates_]

But perception is obviously only a state of o outside of the e between the two”? If you perceive the table, must not your perception of it exist wholly within your own mind? If, then, the table has any existence outside of and apart froe of the table are two separate and distinct things

In other words, you are on the horns of a dilemma If you insist that the table exists _outside_ of your e of it is not direct, immediate and intuitive, but _indirect_ and representative, because of intervening physical agencies, and that the only thing directly known is the _mental impression_ of the table On the other hand, if you insist that your knowledge of the table is direct, immediate and intuitive you e, a mental reality, if it is any sort of reality at all, and that it has no existence outside of theOne's Eyes_]

You may easily convince yourself that the table you directly perceive can be nothing other than a mental picture How? Simply close your eyes It has now ceased to exist What has ceased to exist? The external table of wood and glue and bolts? By no means

Si and closing your eyes, you can successively create and destroy this mental duplicate

[Sidenote: _If Matter Were Annihilated_]

Clearly, then, the table of which you are directly and immediately conscious when your eyes are open is always this _ate of color, form, size and touch _impressions_; while the real table, the physical table,other than the one of which you are directly aware This other thing, this physical table, whatever it is, can never be directly known, if indeed it has any existence, a fact that e to deny

I except mind should suddenly cease to exist, but that your sense-perceptions--that is to say, your perception of sensory impressions--were to continue to follow one another as before Would not the physical world be for you just exactly what it is today, and would you not have the sa in its existence that you now have?

[Sidenote: _If Mind Were Annihilated_]

And, conversely, if the world of es, all perception of sense-impressions, were to come to an end, would not all matter be annihilated for you when your perceptions ceased?

_It is obvious that the world is not the same for all of us; but that it is for each one of us simply the world of his individual perceptions_

[Sidenote: _As Many Worlds as Minds_]

The whole subject of sense-impressions, sensation and perception may, therefore, be looked at from the standpoint of the mind as an active influence, as well as fro causes of sense-impressions

CHAPTER V

ESSENTIAL LAW OF PRACTICAL SELF-MASTERY

[Sidenote: _Option and Opportunity_]

_External objects excite sensory impressions, but the perception of them is purely at the option of the reatest practical importance Consider its consequences It means that sense-impressions and your perception of thes Itin upon you as they will They are the work of external sti theister You are helpless to discri them

You cannot accept so dry plate upon which outside objects produce their i Your Consciousness_]

But, and this is a vital distinction, perception is an act of the mind It is initiated fro sensations in the sense that you nore others It enables you to definitely select, if you will, the elements that shall make up the content of your consciousness

_Perception as an independent mental process thus enables you to predeter sensory experience s and emotions_

[Sidenote: _How to Definitely Selects its Elements_]

Bear this in mind when you think of your environment and its supposed influence upon your life Reregate of physical realities Your environment and your conduct, is made up, not of physical realities, but of mental pictures