FAITH

As an illustration, consider one main purpose for which, presumably, you are reading this book. The object is, naturally, to acquire the ability to transmute the intangible thought impulse of DESIRE into its physical counterpart—money. By following the instructions laid down in the chapters on autosuggestion (Chapter 3) and the subconscious mind (Chapter 11), as summarized in the chapter on autosuggestion, you can CONVINCE your subconscious mind that you believe you will receive that for which you ask. Your subconscious mind will act upon that belief, then pass it back to you in the form of FAITH, followed by definite plans for procuring that which you desire.

The method by which one develops FAITH where it does not already exist is extremely difficult to describe, almost as difficult, in fact, as it would be to describe the color of red to a blind person who has never seen color and has nothing with which to compare what you describe. Faith is a state of mind which you can develop at will after you have mastered the 13 principles in this book—because it is a state of mind which develops through voluntary application and use of these principles.

Repetition or affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind is the only method of voluntary development of the emotion of faith.

Perhaps the meaning will be made clearer through the following explanation of how individuals sometimes become criminals. Stated in the words of a famous criminologist, “When people first come into contact with crime, they abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become accustomed to it and endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough, they finally embrace it and become influenced by it.”

This is the equivalent of saying that any impulse of thought which is repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind is finally accepted and acted upon by the subconscious mind, which proceeds to translate that impulse into its physical equivalent, by the most practical procedure available.

The emotions, or the “feeling” portion of thoughts, are the factors which give thoughts vitality, life, and action. The emotions of faith, love, and sex, when mixed together with any thought impulse, give it greater action than any of these emotions can do singly.

It is not only those thought impulses which have been mixed with FAITH, but those which have been mixed with any of the positive emotions, or any of the negative emotions, that can reach and influence the subconscious mind.

From this statement you will understand that the subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent a thought impulse of a negative or destructive nature just as readily as it will act upon thought impulses of a positive or constructive nature. This accounts for the strange phenomenon, which so many millions of people experience, referred to as “misfortune” or “bad luck.”

There are millions of people who BELIEVE themselves “doomed” to poverty and failure because of some strange force over which they BELIEVE they have no control. They are the creators of their own misfortunes because of this negative BELIEF, which is picked up by their subconscious mind and translated into its physical equivalent.

This is an appropriate place at which to suggest again that you may benefit, by passing on to your subconscious mind, any DESIRE which you wish translated into its physical or monetary equivalent, in a state of expectancy or BELIEF that the transmutation will actually take place. Your BELIEF, or FAITH, is the element which determines the action of your subconscious mind. There is nothing to hinder you from “deceiving” your subconscious mind when giving it instructions through autosuggestion, as I deceived my son’s subconscious mind.

To make this “deceit” more realistic, conduct yourself when you call upon your subconscious mind just as you would if you were ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE MATERIAL THING WHICH YOU ARE DEMANDING.

Surely, enough has been stated by now to give you a starting point from which you may, through experiment and practice, acquire the ability to mix FAITH with any order given to your subconscious mind. Perfection will come through practice. It cannot come by merely reading instructions.

FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!

FAITH is the basis of all “miracles” and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the rules of science!

FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE!

FAITH is the element, the “chemical” which when mixed with prayer gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.

FAITH is the element which transforms the ordinary “vibration of thought,” created by the finite human mind, into its spiritual equivalent.

FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used by humanity.

EVERY ONE OF THE FOREGOING STATEMENTS IS CAPABLE OF PROOF!

The proof is simple and easily demonstrated. It is wrapped up in the principle of autosuggestion. Let us center our attention, therefore, on the subject of self-suggestion and find out what it is and what it is capable of achieving.

It is a well-known fact that one comes finally to BELIEVE whatever one repeats to one’s self, whether the statement be true or false. If we repeat a lie over and over, we will eventually accept the lie as truth. Moreover, we will BELIEVE it to be the truth. Each of us is what we are because of the DOMINATING THOUGHTS which we permit to occupy our mind. Thoughts which we deliberately place in our own mind, and encourage with sympathy, and with which we mix any one or more of the emotions, constitute the motivating forces which direct and control our every movement, act, and deed!

Comes, now, a very significant statement of truth:

THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OF EMOTIONS CONSTITUTE A “MAGNETIC” FORCE WHICH ATTRACTS OTHER SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS.

All human experience, and all human thinking, occurs in an environment—in a universe—saturated with radiated energy and “signals.” From gravity to magnetism, from cosmic rays to X-rays, infrared rays, visible light, sound waves, radar, shortwaves, radio and television signals—we live in a world constantly bombarded by “vibrations” of energy, though we can perceive directly only the tiniest portion of them.

Likewise, thought impulses are “vibrations” of energy transmitted in some deeply mysterious, and as yet uncomprehended, way as electrical and chemical currents among brain cells. While we do not yet understand and cannot describe scientifically the how of the process, it is clear that thought impulses, like electromagnetic radiation, also are “out there” somehow—as some experiments with extrasensory perception, or ESP, seem clearly to indicate.

Human experience, like the cosmos itself, teems with thought vibrations or “influences”—both destructive and constructive. It is characterized, at all times, by vibrations of fear, poverty, disease, failure, misery, and vibrations of prosperity, health, success, and happiness—just as surely as the atmosphere carries the sound of hundreds of orchestrations of music, and hundreds of human voices, all of which maintain their own individuality, and means of identification, through the medium of television or radio.

From this great “storehouse” of experience, the human mind is constantly attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which DOMINATES the mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose which one holds in one’s mind attracts from the “thought vibrations of existence” a host of its relatives, adds these relatives to its own force, and grows until it becomes the dominating, MOTIVATING MASTER of the individual in whose mind it has been housed.

We are what we are because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register through the stimuli of our daily environment.

Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment you may have grown up in or now find yourself living in, and to build your own life to ORDER. Taking inventory of mental assets and abilities, you will discover that your greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence. This handicap can be surmounted, and timidity translated into courage, through the aid of the principle of autosuggestion. The application of this principle may be made through a simple arrangement of positive thought impulses stated in writing, memorized, and repeated until they become a part of the working equipment of your subconscious mind.

Self-Confidence Formula

First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life; therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.

Second. I realize that the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality; therefore, I will concentrate my thoughts for 30 minutes daily upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that person.

Third. I know that through the principle of autosuggestion any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it; therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of SELF-CONFIDENCE.

The pages of medical history are rich with illustrations of cases of “suggestive suicide.” A person may commit suicide through negative suggestion just as effectively as by any other means. In a Midwestern city, a man by the name of Joseph Grant, a bank official, “borrowed” a large sum of the bank’s money without the consent of the directors. He lost the money through gambling. One afternoon, the bank examiner came and began to check the accounts. Grant left the bank, took a room in a local hotel, and when they found him three days later, he was lying in bed, wailing and moaning, repeating over and over these words, “My God, this will kill me! I cannot stand the disgrace.” In a short time he was dead. The doctors pronounced the case one of “mental suicide.”

Just as electricity turns the wheels of industry and renders useful service if used constructively, or can snuff out life if used improperly, so will the Law of Autosuggestion lead you to peace and prosperity or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death, according to your degree of understanding and application of it.

If you fill your mind with FEAR, DOUBT, AND UNBELIEF in your ability to connect with and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence, then the Law of Autosuggestion will take this spirit of unbelief and use it as a pattern by which your subconscious mind will translate it into its physical equivalent.

THIS STATEMENT IS AS TRUE AS THE STATEMENT THAT TWO AND TWO EQUALS FOUR!

Like the wind which carries one ship East and another West, the Law of Autosuggestion will lift you up or pull you down, according to the way you set your sails of THOUGHT.

The Law of Autosuggestion, through which any person may rise to altitudes of achievement which stagger the imagination, is well described in the following verse:

It is a known fact that the emotion of LOVE is closely akin to the state of mind known as FAITH because love comes very near to translating one’s thought impulses into their spiritual equivalent. During my long years of research, I discovered from the analysis of the life work and achievements of hundreds of people of outstanding accomplishment that there was the influence of a spouse’s love back of nearly EVERY ONE OF THEM.

If you wish evidence of the power of FAITH, study the achievements of men and women who have employed it. At the head of the list comes the Nazarene. Christianity is one of the greatest single forces ever to influence the minds of people. The basis of Christianity is FAITH, no matter how many people may have perverted or misinterpreted the meaning of this great force, and no matter how many dogmas and creeds have been created in its name which do not reflect its tenets.

The sum and substance of the teachings and the achievements of Christ, which have been interpreted as miracles, were nothing more nor less than FAITH. If there are any such phenomena as miracles, they are produced only through the state of mind known as FAITH! Some teachers of religion and many who call themselves Christians neither understand nor practice FAITH.

FAITH is the cornerstone of every great religion. The Old Testament psalmist has written, “O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the FAITHFUL, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.” The apostle Luke tells us, “And Stephen, full of FAITH and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people,” and Mark reports Jesus as saying, “Daughter, thy FAITH hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

The prophet says in the Qur’an, “Surely those who believe and do good, their Lord will guide them by their FAITH; there shall flow from beneath them rivers in gardens of bliss.” In the Analects of Confucius, the master says, “Hold FAITHFULNESS and sincerity as first principles, and be moving continually to what is right. This is the way to exalt one’s virtue.”

Business is due for a reform, make no mistake about this! The methods of the past, based upon economic combinations of FORCE and FEAR, will be supplanted by the better principles of FAITH and cooperation. People who labor will receive more than daily wages. They will share more and more in profits from the business, the same as those who supply the capital for business. But first they must GIVE MORE TO THEIR EMPLOYERS and stop bickering and bargaining by force, at the expense of the public. They must earn the right to profit-sharing!

Because of the need for faith and cooperation in operating business and industry, it is both interesting and profitable to analyze an event which provides an excellent understanding of the method by which industrialists and business people accumulate great fortunes—by giving before they try to get.

The event chosen for this illustration dates back to 1900, when the United States Steel Corporation was being formed. As you read the story, keep in mind these fundamental facts and you will understand how IDEAS have been converted into huge fortunes:

First, the huge United States Steel Corporation was born in the mind of Charles M. Schwab in the form of an IDEA he created through his IMAGINATION!

Second, he mixed FAITH with his IDEA.

Third, he formulated a PLAN for the transformation of his IDEA into physical and financial reality.

Fourth, he put his plan into action with his famous speech at the University Club.

Fifth, he applied and followed through on his PLAN with PERSISTENCE and backed it with firm DECISION until it had been fully carried out.

Sixth, he prepared the way for success by a BURNING DESIRE for success.

When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of the nation’s financial nobility gathered in the banquet hall of the University Club on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from out of the West, not half a dozen of the guests realized they were to witness the most significant episode in American industrial history.

J. Edward Simmons and Charles Stewart Smith, their hearts full of gratitude for the lavish hospitality bestowed on them by Charles M. Schwab during a recent visit to Pittsburgh, had arranged the dinner to introduce the thirty-eight-year-old steel man to eastern banking society. But they didn’t expect him to stampede the convention. They warned him, in fact, that the bosoms within New York’s stuffed shirts would not be responsive to oratory, and that, if he didn’t want to bore the Stillmans and Harrimans and Vanderbilts, he had better limit himself to fifteen or twenty minutes of polite vaporings and let it go at that.

But by the side of Andrew Carnegie’s gigantic vertical trust, a trust owned and operated by fifty-three partners, those other combinations were picayune. They might combine to their heart’s content but the whole lot of them couldn’t make a dent in the Carnegie organization, and Morgan knew it.

More than that, he told the buccaneers among them wherein lay the errors of their customary piracy. Their purposes, he inferred, had been to create monopolies, raise prices, and pay themselves fat dividends out of privilege. Schwab condemned the system in his heartiest manner. The shortsightedness of such a policy, he told his hearers, lay in the fact that it restricted the market in an era when everything cried for expansion. By cheapening the cost of steel, he argued, an ever-expanding market would be created; more uses for steel would be devised, and a goodly portion of the world trade could be captured. Actually, though he did not know it, Schwab was an apostle of modern mass production.

So the dinner at the University Club came to an end. Morgan went home, to think about Schwab’s rosy predictions. Schwab went back to Pittsburgh to run the steel business for “Wee Andra Carnegie,” while Gary and the rest went back to their stock tickers, to fiddle around in anticipation of the next move.

Now certain economic historians have professed the belief that from the beginning to the end of the drama, the stage was set by Andrew Carnegie that the dinner to Schwab, the famous speech, the Sunday night conference between Schwab and the Money King, were events arranged by the canny Scot. The truth is exactly the opposite. When Schwab was called in to consummate the deal, he didn’t even know whether “the little boss,” as Andrew was called, would so much as listen to an offer to sell, particularly to a group of men whom Andrew regarded as being endowed with something less than holiness. But Schwab did take into the conference with him, in his own handwriting, six sheets of copper-plate figures, representing to his mind the physical worth and the potential earning capacity of every steel company he regarded as an essential star in the new metal firmament.

When dawn came, Morgan rose and straightened his back. Only one question remained.

“Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell?” he asked.

“I can try,” said Schwab.

“If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter,” said Morgan.

So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he demand? (Schwab thought about $320,000,000). What would he take payment in? Common or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash? Nobody could raise a third of a billion dollars in cash.

There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath of the St. Andrews links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in sweaters against the cold, and Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to keep his spirits up. But no word of business was mentioned until the pair sat down in the cozy warmth of the Carnegie cottage hard by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that had hypnotized eighty millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out the glittering promises of retirement in comfort, of untold millions to satisfy the old man’s social caprices. Carnegie capitulated, wrote a figure on a slip of paper, handed it to Schwab and said, “All right, that’s what we’ll sell for.”

The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached by taking the $320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure, and adding to it $80,000,000 to represent the increased capital value over the previous two years. Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said ruefully to Morgan, “I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.”