Applied Psychology MAKINGYOUR OWN WORLD _Being the Second of a Series ofTwelve Volumes on the Applicationsof Psychology to the Problems ofPersonal and BusinessEfficiency_ BYWARREN HILTON, A. B. , L. L. B. FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OFTHE LITERARY DIGESTFORThe Society of Applied PsychologyNEW YORK AND LONDON1920 COPYRIGHT 1914BY THE APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY PRESSSAN FRANCISCO CONTENTS Chapter Page I. THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES OF MIND MIND AS A MEANS TO ATTAINMENT 3 THREE POSTULATES FOR THIS COURSE 4 EXPERIENCE AND ABSTRACTIONS 5 PRIMARY MENTAL OPERATIONS 6 II. SENSATIONS AND OUR PERCEPTION OF THEM MIND'S SOURCE OF SUPPLIES 9 DOES MATTER EXIST? 10 FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE 11 SECOND-HAND KNOWLEDGE 12 ETHERIC VIBRATIONS AS CAUSING SENSATIONS 13 THE ROAD TO PERCEPTION 14 THE PLACE WHERE SENSATION OCCURS 15 LABORATORY PROOF OF SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESS 16 REACTION-TIME 17 THE HUMAN TELEPHONE 18 THE LIVING TELEGRAPH 19 THE SIX STEPS TO REACTION 20 UNOPENED MENTAL MAIL 21 SELECTIVE PROCESS THAT DETERMINES CONDUCT 22 IN TUNE WITH LIFE-INTEREST 23 PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF PERCEPTION PROCESS 24 III. SENSORY ILLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR USE UNRELIABILITY OF SENSE-ORGANS 27 BEING AND SEEMING 29 USE OF ILLUSIONS IN BUSINESS 31 MAKING AN ARTICLE LOOK BIG 32 TESTING THE CONFIDENTIAL MAN 33 TESTS FOR CREDULITY 34 WHAT COLORS LOOK NEAREST 35 TESTING THE RANGE OF ATTENTION 36 A GUIDE TO OCCUPATIONAL SELECTION 37 TEST FOR ATTENTION TO DETAILS 38 OTHER BUSINESS APPLICATIONS 39 IV. INWARDNESS OF ENVIRONMENT FACTORS OF SUCCESS OR FAILURE 43 SHOULD SEEING BE BELIEVING? 44 HEARING THE LIGHTNING 46 IMPORTANCE OF THE MENTAL MAKE-UP 47 UNREALITY OF "THE REAL" 48 "THINGS" AND THEIR MENTAL DUPLICATES 49 EFFECT OF CLOSING ONE'S EYES 50 IF MATTER WERE ANNIHILATED 51 IF MIND WERE ANNIHILATED 52 AS MANY WORLDS AS MINDS 53 V. ESSENTIAL LAW OF PRACTICAL SELF-MASTERY OPTION AND OPPORTUNITY 57 PRE-ARRANGING YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS 58 HOW TO DEFINITELY SELECT ITS ELEMENTS 59 AN INFALLIBLE RECIPE FOR SELF-POSSESSION 60 USING "UNSEEN EAR PROTECTORS" 61 HOW TO AVOID WORRY, MELANCHOLY 62 PUTTING CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER FOOT 63 RUNNING YOUR MENTAL FACTORY 64 ACQUIRING MENTAL BALANCE 65 DISSIPATING MENTAL SPECTERS 66 HOW TO CONTROL YOUR DESTINY 67 CHAPTER I THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES OF MIND [Sidenote: _Mind as a Means to Achievement_] In the preceding book, "Psychology and Achievement, " we establishedthe truth of two propositions: I. _All human achievement comes about through bodily activity. _ II. _All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by themind. _ To these two fundamental propositions we now append a third, whichneeds no proof, but follows as a natural and logical conclusion fromthe other two: III. _The Mind is the instrument you must employ for theaccomplishment of any purpose. _ [Sidenote: _Three Postulates for this Course_] With these three fundamental propositions as postulates, it will bethe end and aim of this Course of Reading to develop plain, simpleand specific methods and directions for the most efficient use ofthe mind in the attainment of practical ends. _To comprehend these mental methods and to make use of them inbusiness affairs you must thoroughly understand the two fundamentalprocesses of the mind. _ These two fundamental processes are the Sense-Perceptive Process andthe Judicial Process. The Sense-Perceptive Process is the process by which knowledge isacquired through the senses. Knowledge is the result of experienceand all human experience is made up of sense-perceptions. [Sidenote: _Experience and Abstractions_] The Judicial Process is the reasoning and reflective process. It isthe purely "intellectual" type of mental operation. It deals whollyin abstractions. Abstractions are constructed out of past experiences. Consequently, the Sense-Perceptive Process furnishes the rawmaterial, sense-perceptions or experience, for the machinery ofthe Judicial Process to work with. [Sidenote: _Primary Mental Operations_] In this book we shall give you a clear idea of the Sense-PerceptiveProcess and show you some of the ways in which an understanding ofthis process will be useful to you in everyday affairs. Thesucceeding book will explain the Judicial Process. CHAPTER II SENSATIONS AND OUR PERCEPTION OF THEM [Sidenote: _Mind's Source of Supplies_] Whatever you know or think you know, of the external world comesto you through some one of your five primary senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, or some one of the secondary senses, suchas the muscular sense and the sense of heat and cold. The impressions you receive in this way may be true or they may befalse. They may constitute absolute knowledge or they may be merelymistaken impressions. Yet, such as they are, they constitute all theinformation you have or can have concerning the world about you. [Sidenote: _Does Matter Exist?_] Philosophers have been wrangling for some thousands of years asto whether we have any real and absolute knowledge, as to whethermatter actually does or does not exist, as to the reliability orunreliability of the impressions we receive through the senses. But there is one thing that all scientific men are agreed upon, and that is that such knowledge as we do possess comes to us byway of perception through the organs of sense. If you have never given much thought to this subject, you havenaturally assumed that you have direct knowledge of all thematerial things that you _seem_ to perceive about you. It hasnever occurred to you that there are intervening physical agenciesthat you ought to take into account. [Sidenote: _First-Hand Knowledge_] When you look up at the clock, you instinctively feel that there isnothing interposed between it and your mind that is conscious of it. You seem to feel that your mind reaches out and envelops it. As a matter of fact, your sense impression of that bit of furnituremust filter through a great number of intervening physical agenciesbefore you can become conscious of it. Direct perception of an outside reality is impossible. [Sidenote: _Second-Hand Knowledge_] Before you can become aware of any object there must first arisebetween it and your mind a chain of countless distinct physicalevents. Modern science tells us that light is due to undulations orwave-like vibrations of the ether, sound to those of the air, etc. These vibrations are transmitted from one particle of ether or airto another, and so from the thing perceived to the body of man. Think, then, what crisscross of air currents and confusion of ethervibrations, what myriad of physical events, must intervene betweenany distant object and your own body before sensations come andbring a consciousness of that object's existence! Nor can you be sure, even after any particular vibration hasreached the surface of your body, that it will reach your mindunaltered and intact! [Sidenote: _Etheric Vibrations as Causing Sensations_] What goes on in the body itself is made clear by your knowledgeof the cellular structure of man. You know that you have a system of nerves centering in the brainand with countless ramifications throughout the structural tissuesof the body. You know that part of these nerves are sensory nerves and part ofthem are motor nerves. You know that the sensory nerves convey tothe brain the impressions received from the outer world and thatthe motor nerves relay this information to the rest of the bodycoupled with commands for appropriate muscular action. [Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE FOUR CHIEF ASSOCIATION CENTERSOF THE HUMAN BRAIN] [Sidenote: _The Road to Perception_] The outer end of every sensory nerve exposes a sensitive bit ofgray matter. These sensitive, impression-receiving ends constitutetogether what is called the "sensorium" of the body. When vibrations of light or sound impinge upon the sensorium, theyare relayed from nerve cell to nerve cell until they reach thecentral brain. Then it is, and not until then, that sensations andperceptions occur. Consider, now, the infinitesimal size of a nerve cell and you willhave some conception of the number of hands through which themessage must pass before it is received by the central office. Many of our sensations, especially those of touch, seem to occuron the periphery of the body--that is to say, at that part of theexposed surface of the body which is apparently affected. If yourfinger is crushed in a door, the sensation of the blow and the painall seem to occur in the finger itself. [Sidenote: _The Place Where Sensation Occurs_] As a matter of fact, this is not the case, for if one of your armsshould be amputated, you would still feel a tingling in the fingersof the amputated arm. Thus has arisen a superstition that leads manypeople to bury any part of the body lost in this way, thinking thatthey will never be entirely relieved of pain until the absent memberis finally at rest. Of course, the fact is that you would only _seem_ to have feelingin the amputated arm. The sensation would really occur in the centralbrain tissue as the organ of the governing intelligence, the organof consciousness. [Sidenote: _Laboratory Proof of Sense-Perceptive Process_] And you may set it down as an established principle that _all statesof consciousness, whether seemingly localized on the surface of thebody or not, are connected with the brain as the dominant center_. The facts we have been recounting have been established by theexperiments of physiological psychology. Thus, the work of thelaboratory has shown that between the moment when a sense vibrationreaches the body and the moment when sensation occurs a measurableinterval of time intervenes. If your eyes were to be blindfolded and your hand unexpectedlypricked with a white-hot needle, the time that would elapse beforeyou could jerk your hand away could be readily measured in fractionsof a second with appropriate instruments. [Sidenote: _Reaction Time_] This interval is known as _reaction-time_. It varies greatly withdifferent persons. During this reaction-time, the cell or cellsattacked upon the surface of the hand have conveyed news of theassault through numberless intermediate sensory nerve cells tothe brain. The brain in turn has sent out its mandate through theappropriate motor nerve cells to all the muscle and other cellssurrounding the injured cell, commanding them to remove it fromthe point of danger. The work of the nervous system in dealing with the ether vibrationsthat are constantly impinging upon the surface of the body has beenlikened to that of the transmitter, connecting wire and receiverof a telephone. Air-waves striking against the transmitter of thetelephone awaken a similar vibratory movement in the transmitteritself. This movement is passed along the wire to the receiver, which vibrates responsively and imparts a corresponding wave-likemotion to the air. [Sidenote: _The Human Telephone_] These air-waves when heard are what we call _sound_. In the same way, air-waves striking the ear are communicated bythe auditory nerve to the brain, where they awaken a correspondingsensation of sound. But these waves must be vibrating at between30 and 20, 000 times a second. If they are vibrating so slowly orso rapidly as not to come within this range, we cannot hear them. [Sidenote: _The Living Telegraph_] This process is by no means a mechanical affair. On the contrary, it is a series of _mental_ acts. Every cell in the living telegraphmust receive the message and transmit it. _Every cell_ mustexercise a form of intelligence, from the auditory cell reportinga sound-wave or the skin cell reporting an injury to the musclecells that ultimately receive and understand a message directingthem to remove the part from danger. Reaction-time, so called, is thus occupied by cellular action inthe form of _mental_ processes intervening between the nerve-endsand the brain center, in much the same way that light and soundvibrations intervene between the object perceived and the surfaceof the body. [Sidenote: _The Six Steps to Reaction_] For even the simplest of sense-perceptions we have, then, thissequence of events: first, the object perceived; second, the seriesof vibrations of ether particles intervening between the objectand the body; third, the impression upon the surface of the body;fourth, the series of mental processes, cell after cell, in thenerve filaments leading to the brain; fifth, when these impressionsor messages have reached the brain, a determination of what is tobe done; and, sixth, a transmission by cellular action of a newmessage that will awaken some response in the muscular tissues. [Sidenote: _Unopened Mental Mail_] This process is completely carried out, however, in onlycomparatively few instances. The vast majority of sense-impressionsawaken no reaction. They are registered in the mind, but they arenot perceived. We are not conscious of them. They form a part, notof consciousness, but of subconsciousness. They are messages thatreach the mind but are laid aside like unopened mail because theypossess no present interest. Wherever and however you may be placed, you are always andeverywhere immersed in a flood of etheric vibrations. Light, soundand tactual vibrations press upon you from every side. At a busycorner of a city street these vibrations rise to a tumultuousfortissimo; in the hush of a night upon the plains they sink topianissimo. Yet at every moment of your day or night they are therein greater or less degree, titillating the unsleeping nerve-ends ofthe sensorium. [Sidenote: _Selective Process that Determines Conduct_] Your mind cannot take time to make all these sense-impressions thesubject of conscious thought. It can trouble itself only with thosethat bear in some way upon your interests in life. _Your mind is like the receiving apparatus of the wireless telegraphwhich picks from the air those particular vibrations to which it isattuned. Your mind is selective. It is discriminating. It seizesupon those few sensory images that are related to your interests inlife and thrusts them forward to be consciously perceived and actedupon. All others it diverts into a subconscious reservoir oftemporary oblivion. _ [Sidenote: _In Tune with Life-Interest_] You will have a clearer understanding of the sense-perceptiveprocesses and a more vital realization of the practical significanceof these facts when you consider how they affect your knowledge ofmaterial things and your conception of the external world. This subject possesses two distinct aspects. One aspect has to do with the inability of the sense-organs torecord the facts of the outer world with perfect precision. Theseorgans are the result of untold ages of evolution, and, generallyspeaking, have become wonderfully efficient, but they displaysurprising inaccuracies. These inaccuracies are called SensoryIllusions. [Sidenote: _Practical Aspects of Perception Process_] The other aspect of the Sense-Perceptive Process has to do with themental interpretation of environment. Both these aspects are distinctly practical. You should know something of the weaknesses and deficiencies of thesense-perceptive organs, because all your efforts at influencingother men are directed at their organs of sense. You should understand the relationship between your mind and yourenvironment, since they are the two principal factors in yourworking life. CHAPTER III SENSORY ILLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR USE [Sidenote: _Unreliability of Sense-Organs_] Figure 1 shows two lines of equal length, yet the vertical line willto most persons seem longer than the horizontal one. [Illustration: FIG. 1. ] In Figure 2 the lines A and B are of the same length, yet the lowerseems much longer. [Illustration: FIG. 2. ] Those things look smallest over which the eye moves with leastresistance. In Figure 3, the distance from A to B looks longer than the distancefrom B to C because of the time we involuntarily take to notice eachdot, yet the distances are equal. [Illustration: FIG. 3. ] [Sidenote: _Being and Seeming_] For the same reason, the hatchet line (A-B) appears longer thanthe unbroken line (C-D) in Figure 4, and the lines E and F appearlonger than the space (G) between them, although all are of equallength. [Illustration: FIG. 4. ] Filled spaces look larger than empty ones because the eyeunconsciously stops to look over the different parts of the filledarea, and we base our estimate upon the extent of the eye movementsnecessary to take in the whole field. Thus the filled square inFigure 5 looks larger than the empty one, though they are of equalsize. [Illustration: FIG. 5. ] White objects appear much larger than black ones. A white squarelooks larger than a black one. It is said that cattle buyers whoare sometimes compelled to guess at the weight of animals havelearned to discount their estimate on white animals and increaseit on black ones to make allowances for the optical illusion. [Illustration: THIS MAN AND THIS BOY ARE OF EQUAL HEIGHT, BUTASSOCIATION OF IDEAS MAKES THE MAN LOOK MUCH THE LARGER] [Sidenote: _Use of Illusions in Business_] The dressmaker and tailor are careful not to array stout personsin checks and plaids, but try to convey an impression of sylph-likeslenderness through the use of vertical lines. On the other hand, you have doubtless noticed in recent years the checkerboard andplaid-covered boxes used by certain manufacturers of food productsand others to make their packages look larger than they really are. The advertiser who understands sensory illusions gives an impressionof bigness to the picture of an article by the artful use of linesand contrasting figures. If his advertisement shows a picture of abuilding to which he wishes to give the impression of bigness, headds contrasting figures such as those of tiny men and women so thatthe unknown may be measured by the known. If he shows a picture of acigar, he places the cigar vertically, because he knows that it willlook longer that way than if placed horizontally. [Sidenote: _Making an Article Look Big_] A subtle method of conveying an idea of bigness is by placingnumbers on odd-shaped cards or blocks, or on any blank white space. The object or space containing the figures always appears largerthan the corresponding space without the figures. This fact has been made the basis of a psychological experiment todetermine the extent to which a subject's judgment is influenced bysuggestion. To perform this experiment cut bits of pasteboard intopairs of squares, circles, stars and octagons and write numbersof two figures each, say 25, 50, 34, 87, etc. , upon the differentpieces. Tell the subject to be tested to pick out the forms that arelargest. The susceptible person who is not trained to discriminateclosely will pick out of each pair the card that has the largestnumber upon it. [Sidenote: _Testing the Confidential Man_] This test can be made one of a series used in examining applicantsfor commercial positions. It can also be used to discover theweakness of certain employees, such as buyers, secretaries andothers who are entrusted with secrets and commissions requiringdiscretion, and who must be proof against the deceptions practicedby salesmen, promoters and others with seductive propositions. [Sidenote: _Tests for Credulity_] This examination can be carried still further to test the subject'scredulity or power of discrimination. What is known as the "forcecard" test was originally devised by a magician, but has beenadopted in experimental psychology. Take a pack of cards and shufflethem loosely in the two hands, making some one card, say the ace ofspades, especially prominent. The subject is told to "take a card. "The suggestive influence of the proffered card will cause ninepersons out of ten to pick out that particular card. Turning from illusions of suggestion, shape and size, another fieldof peculiar sensory illusions is found in color aberration. Somecolors look closer than others. For instance, paint an object redand it seems nearer than it would if painted green. [Sidenote: _What Colors Look Nearest_] Aside from the obvious uses to which these sense-illusions can beput, they form the basis for a number of psychological experimentsto test the abilities of persons in many ways. Here is a test whichdeals with the range of attention. If you desire to discover thecapacity of any person to pay attention to unfamiliar questions orsubjects which might at some future time have great importance, trythis test. Have a piece of pasteboard cut into squares, circles, triangles, halfmoons, stars and other forms. Then write upon eachpiece some such word as hat, coat, ball or bat. The objects arethen placed under a cloth cover and the subject to be examined istold to concentrate his attention on the shapes alone, paying noattention to the words. The cloth is lifted for five seconds andthen replaced. The subject is then told to draw with a pencil thedifferent shapes and such _words_ as he may chance to remember. Theexperiment should then be repeated, with the injunction to pay noattention to the shapes but to remember as many words as possible, and write them down on such _forms_ as he may happen to recall. [Sidenote: _Testing the Range of Attention_] Of course, the real object is to determine whether the subject willsee more than he is told, or whether he is a mere automaton. Theresult will tell whether his attention is of the narrow or broadtype. If it be narrow, he will see only the forms in the first caseand no words, and in the second case he will remember the words butbe unable to recall the shape of the pieces of cardboard. [Sidenote: _A Guide to Occupational Selection_] His breadth of attention will be shown by the number of correctforms and words combined which he is able to remember in both cases. In other words, this will measure his ability to pay attention tomore than one thing at a time. Other things being equal, the narrow type of attention belongs toa man fitted for work as a bookkeeper or mechanic, while the broadtype of attention fits one for work as a foreman or superintendentor, lacking executive ability, for work requiring the supervisionof mechanical operations widely separated in space. [Sidenote: _Test for Attention to Details_] The ordinary man sees but one thing at a time, while the exceptionalman sees many things at every glance and is prepared to remember andact upon them in emergency. Having determined a person's scope of attention, you may wantto test his accuracy in details as compared with other men. Toconduct such an experiment dictate a statement which will form onetypewritten letterhead sheet. This statement should comprise factsand figures about your business of which the subjects to be testedare supposed to have accurate knowledge. After this original page iswritten, have your typist write out another set of sheets in whichthere are a large number of errors both in spelling and figures. Then have each of the persons to be examined go through one of thesesheets and cross out all the wrong letters or figures. Time thisoperation. The man who does it in the quickest time and overlooksthe fewest errors, naturally ranks highest in speed and accuracyof work. [Sidenote: _Other Business Applications_] Look into your own business and you will undoubtedly find somedepartment, whether it be store decoration, office furnishing, window dressing, advertising, landscape work or architecture, inwhich a systematic application of a knowledge of sensory illusionswill produce good results. CHAPTER IV INWARDNESS OF ENVIRONMENT [Sidenote: _Factors of Success or Failure_] The aspect of the sense-perceptive process that deals with therelation of mind to environment is of greatest practical value. Look at this subject for a moment and you will see that the worldin which you live and work is a world of your own making. All thefactors of success or failure are factors of your own choosing andcreation. If there is anything in the world you feel sure of, it is that youcan depend upon the "evidence of your own senses, " eyes, ears, nose, etc. You rest serene in the conviction that your sensespicture the world to you exactly as it is. It is a common sayingthat "Seeing is believing. " [Sidenote: _Should Seeing Be Believing?_] Yet how can you be sure that any object in the external world isactually what your sense-perceptions report it to be? You have learned that a countless number of physical agencies mustintervene before your mind can receive an impression or messagethrough any of the senses. Under these conditions you cannot be sure that your impression ofa green lamp-shade, for instance, comes through the same sort ofetheric and cellular activities that convey a picture of the samelamp-shade to the brain of another. If the physical agencies throughwhich your sense-impressions of the lamp-shade filter are notidentical with the agencies through which they pass to the otherperson's brain, then your mental picture and his mental picturecannot be the same. You can never be sure that what both you andanother may describe as green may not create an entirely differentimpression in your mind from the impression it creates in his. Other facts add to your uncertainty. Thus, _the same stimulus_acting on _different organs_ of sense will produce _differentsensations_. A blow upon the eye will cause you to "see stars"; asimilar _blow_ upon the ear will cause you to _hear_ an explosivesound. In other words, the vibratory effect of a _touch_ on eyeor ear is the same as that of _light_ or _sound_ vibrations. [Sidenote: _Hearing the Lightning_] The notion you may form of any object in the outer world dependssolely upon what part of your brain happens to be connected withthat particular nerve-end that receives an impression from theobject. You _see_ the sun without being able to _hear_ it because the onlynerve-ends tuned to vibrate in harmony with the ether-waves set inaction by the sun are nerve-ends that are connected with the braincenter devoted to sight. "If, " says Professor James, "we couldsplice the outer extremities of our optic nerves to our ears, and those of our auditory nerves to our eyes, we should hear thelightning and see the thunder, see the symphony and hear theconductor's movements. " [Sidenote: _Importance of the Mental Make-Up_] In other words, the kind of impressions we receive from the worldabout us, the sort of mental pictures we form concerning it, in factthe character of the outer world, the nature of the environment inwhich our lives are cast--_all these things depend for each one ofus simply upon how he happens to be put together, simply upon hisindividual mental make-up_. There is another way of examining into the intervening agencies thatinfluence our mental conception of the material world about us. [Sidenote: _Unreality of "The Real"_] Look at the table or any other familiar object in the room in whichyou are sitting. Has it ever occurred to you that this object mayhave no existence apart from your mental impression of it? Have youever realized that no object ever has been or ever could be knownto exist unless there was an individual mind present to note itsexistence? If you have never given much thought to questions of this kind, you will be tempted to answer boldly that the table is obviously areality, that you have a direct intuitive knowledge of it, and thatyou can at once assure yourself of its existence by looking at itor touching it. You will conceive your perception of the table asa sort of projection of your mind comfortably enfolding the tablewithin itself. [Sidenote: _"Things" and their Mental Duplicates_] But perception is obviously only a state of mind. Can it, then, gooutside of the mind to meet the table or even "hover in midair likea bridge between the two"? If you perceive the table, must not yourperception of it exist wholly within your own mind? If, then, thetable has any existence outside of and apart from your perceptionof it, then the table and your mental image of the table are twoseparate and distinct things. In other words, you are on the horns of a dilemma. If you insistthat the table exists _outside_ of your mind, you must admit thatyour knowledge of it is not direct, immediate and intuitive, but_indirect_ and representative, because of intervening physicalagencies, and that the only thing directly known is the _mentalimpression_ of the table. On the other hand, if you insist that yourknowledge of the table is direct, immediate and intuitive you mustadmit that the table is only a mental image, a mental reality, if itis any sort of reality at all, and that it has no existence outsideof the mind. [Sidenote: _Effect of Closing One's Eyes_] You may easily convince yourself that the table you directlyperceive can be nothing other than a mental picture. How? Simplyclose your eyes. It has now ceased to exist. What has ceased toexist? The external table of wood and glue and bolts? By no means. Simply its mental duplicate. And by alternately opening and closingyour eyes, you can successively create and destroy this mentalduplicate. [Sidenote: _If Matter Were Annihilated_] Clearly, then, the table of which you are directly and immediatelyconscious when your eyes are open is always this _mental duplicate_, this aggregate of color, form, size and touch _impressions_; whilethe real table, the physical table, may be something other than theone of which you are directly aware. This other thing, this physicaltable, whatever it is, can never be directly known, if indeed it hasany existence, a fact that many distinguished philosophers have hadthe courage to deny. Imagine, then, for a moment that everything except mind shouldsuddenly cease to exist, but that your sense-perceptions--that isto say, your perception of sensory impressions--were to continue tofollow one another as before. Would not the physical world be foryou just exactly what it is today, and would you not have the samereasons for believing in its existence that you now have? [Sidenote: _If Mind Were Annihilated_] And, conversely, if the world of matter were to go on, but allmental images, all perception of sense-impressions, were to cometo an end, would not all matter be annihilated for you when yourperceptions ceased? _It is obvious that the world is not the same for all of us; butthat it is for each one of us simply the world of his individualperceptions. _ [Sidenote: _As Many Worlds as Minds_] The whole subject of sense-impressions, sensation and perceptionmay, therefore, be looked at from the standpoint of the mind as anactive influence, as well as from the standpoint of outside objectsas the exciting causes of sense-impressions. CHAPTER V ESSENTIAL LAW OF PRACTICAL SELF-MASTERY [Sidenote: _Option and Opportunity_] _External objects excite sensory impressions, but the perception ofthem is purely at the option of the mind. _ This is of the greatest practical importance. Consider itsconsequences. It means that sense-impressions and your perception ofthem are two very different things. It means that sense-impressionsmay throng in upon you as they will. They are the work of externalstimuli impressing themselves upon the sensorium as upon amechanical register. You are helpless to discriminate among them. You cannot accept some and exclude others. You are a perambulatingdry plate upon which outside objects produce their images. [Sidenote: _Prearranging Your Consciousness_] But, and this is a vital distinction, perception is an act of themind. It is initiated from within. It permits you to discriminateamong sensations in the sense that you may dwell upon some andignore 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 topredetermine what elements of passing sensory experience may be madethe basis of your conscious judgments and of your feelings andemotions. _ [Sidenote: _How to Definitely Selects its Elements_] Bear this in mind when you think of your environment and itssupposed influence upon your life. Remember that your environmentis no hard-and-fast thing, an aggregate of physical realities. Yourenvironment, so far as it affects your judgment and your conduct, is made up, not of physical realities, but of mental pictures. _Your environment is within you. _ Get this conclusion clearly inyour mind. Hold fast to the point of view that, _Environment, the environmentthat influences your conduct and your life, is not a chance massingof outward circumstances, but is the product of your own mind_. [Sidenote: _An Infallible Recipe for Self-Possession_] Think what this means to you. It means that by deliberatelyselecting for attention only those sense-impressions, those elementsof consciousness, that can serve your purpose, you can free yourselffrom all distractions and make peaceful progress in the midst ofturmoil. [Sidenote: _Using "Unseen Ear Protectors"_] "In the busiest part of New York, a broker occupied a desk in aroom with six other men who had many visitors constantly movingabout and talking. The gentleman was at first so sensitive todisturbances that he accomplished almost nothing during businesshours, and returned home every evening with a severe headache. Oneday a man of impressive personality and extremely calm demeanorentered the office, and noticing the agitated broker, smilinglysaid: 'I see that you are disturbed by the noise made by yourneighbors in the conduct of their affairs; pardon me if I leavewith you an infallible recipe for peace in the midst of commotion:_Hear only what you will to hear_. ' With this terse counsel hequietly bade the astonished listener adieu. After his visitorhad departed, the nervous man felt unaccountably calm, and wasconstrained to meditate upon his friend's advice, and no soonerdid he seek to put it into practical use than he learned for thefirst time that it was his rightful prerogative to use unseen earprotectors as well as to employ his ears. Six or seven weekselapsed before he saw his mysterious visitor again, and by thattime he had so successfully practiced the simple though forcefulinjunction, that he had reached a point in self-control where theBabel of tongues about him no longer reached his consciousness. " [Sidenote: _How to Avoid Worry, Melancholy_] Herein lies a remedy for worry, with its sleepless nights andkindred torments; for melancholy and despair, with their train ofphysical and financial disaster. How? Simply by shutting off the flow of disagreeable thoughts andsubstituting others that are pleasant and refreshing. You are master. You can change the setting of your mental stagefrom portentous gloom to sun-lit assurance. You can concentrate yourthought upon the useful, the helpful and the cheerful, ignore theuseless and annoying, and make your life a life of hope and joy, ofpromise and fulfilment. [Sidenote: _Putting Circumstances Under Foot_] You will not question the statement that what you do with your lifeis the combined result of heredity and environment. At the same timeyou doubtless possess a more or less hazy belief in the freedom ofyour own will. The chances are that in any previous reflections on this subject youhave magnified the influence of outside agencies and wondered justhow a man could make himself the master rather than the victim ofcircumstances. You now realize that your environment is an environment of thought, that your material universe is a thing your own making, and thatyou can mold it as you will simply by the intelligent control ofyour own thinking. [Sidenote: _Running Your Mental Factory_] In Book I. You learned that-- I. _All human achievement comes about through bodily activity. _ II. _All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by themind. _ In this volume you have added to these propositions a third, namely: III. _The mind is the instrument you must employ for theaccomplishment of any purpose. _ Acting on this third postulate, you have begun the considerationof primary mental operations with a view to evolving methods anddevices for the scientific and systematic employment of the mindin the attainment of success. You have concluded your study ofthe first of the two fundamental processes of the mind, theSense-Perceptive Process, and have learned to distinguish betweenseeing or hearing or feeling on the one hand and perceiving onthe other. [Sidenote: _Acquiring Mental Balance_] Realizing this distinction and applying it to your daily life, you can at once set to work to acquire mental poise and practicalself-mastery, the essence of personal efficiency. There never has been a moment in all your life when sense-impressionswere not pouring in upon you from every side, tending to disturband annoy you and interfere with your concentration and progress. Heretofore you have struggled blindly with these distractinginfluences, not knowing the elements with which you had to dealnor how to deal with them. [Sidenote: _Dissipating Mental Specters_] But the mask has been torn from the specter of distraction, andhereafter when irrelevant sights, sounds and other sensationsthreaten to interrupt your work, just stop a moment and consider. So far as you and your actual knowledge are concerned, nothingexists in substance and reality outside your mental picture of it. So far as you and your actual knowledge are concerned, all matteris simply thought, and you have never doubted your ability todismiss a thought. It is for you, then, here and now, to decidewhether you will harbor sensory pictures that impede your progressand allow them to harass and dominate you and interfere with theachievement of your ambition, or whether you will ignore theseintruders and thereby annihilate them. [Sidenote: _How to Control Your Destiny_] Success is a variable term. In the last analysis, it means simplygetting the thing that _you_ want to have. Whether you succeed or fail depends altogether upon your ownattitude toward the external facts of life. You have within you a living Force against which all the world ispowerless. You have only to know it and to learn how to use it. Learn the lesson of your own powers, the secret of controlling theselective and creative energy within you, and you can bring anyproject to the goal of accomplishment. In the closing volumes of this _Course_ we shall instruct you inpractical methods by which the selection of those elements ofexperience that are helpful may be made absolutely automatic. Transcriber's Note: Some illustrations have been moved from their original positions, so as to be nearer to their corresponding text, or for ease ofnavigation around paragraphs. Duplicate chapter headers have been removed from the text versionof this ebook and hidden in the HTML version. The word 'prearranging' appears both with and without a hyphen. This variance matches the original text.