Doubt Makes Its Appearance
Chance (?) Saves My Life
The Most Dramatic Moment of My Life
My "Other Self Takes Command
I Receive Strange "Orders" from a Strange Source
"You are now completely in charge of your 'other self.' You
are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body, as in
fact two similar entities occupy the body of each living person
on earth.
"One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the
impulse of fear. The other is motivated by and responds to the
impulse of faith. For more than a year you have been driven,
like a slave, by the fear entity.
"You were directed to select this environment of luxury, in
a good hotel, as a means of discouraging the return to power
of the fear entity. That fear-motivated 'old self is not dead;
it has merely been dethroned. And it will follow you around
wherever you go, awaiting a favorable opportunity to step in
and take charge of you again. It can gain control of you only
through your thoughts. Remember this, and keep the doors
to your mind tightly closed against all thoughts which seek to
limit you in any manner whatsoever, and you will be safe.
"Above everything else, get this fact clearly fixed in your
mind, that your 'other self will not do your work for you; it
will only guide you intelligently in achieving for yourself the
objects of your desires.
The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn
My "Other Self Makes Good
"Failure": A Blessing in Disguise
Faith Has a New Meaning to Me
The Value of Giving Before Trying to Get
A New Way to Pray
Faith Is the Beginning of All Great Achievement
The state of mind known as faith apparently opens to one
the medium of a sixth sense through which one may commu-
nicate with sources of power and information far surpassing
any available through the five physical senses. There comes to
your aid, and to do your bidding, with the development of the
sixth sense, a strange power which, let us assume, is a guardian
angel who can open to you at all times the door to the Temple
of Wisdom. The "sixth sense" comes as near to being a miracle
as anything I have ever experienced, and it appears so perhaps
because I do not understand the method by which this prin-
ciple is operated.
Here Begins the Interview with the Devil
You should know I control 98 percent of the people of your
world. Do you not think that entitles me to rate as royalty?
My physical appearance? Why, my dear Mr. Earthbound,
I have no physical body. I would be handicapped by such an
encumbrance as those in which you earthbound creatures live.
I consist of negative energy, and I live in the minds of people
who fear me. I also occupy one-half of every atom of physical
matter and every unit of mental and physical energy. Perhaps
you will better understand my nature if I tell you I am the nega-
tive portion of the atom.
My opposition controls positive thought. I control neg-
ative thought.
One of my cleverest devices for mind control is fear. I plant
the seed of fear in the minds of people, and as these seeds ger-
minate and grow, through use, I control the space they occupy.
The six most effective fears are the fear of poverty, criticism, ill
health, loss of love, old age, and death.
The first and the last— poverty and death! At one time or
another during life I tighten my grip on all people through one
or both of these. I plant these fears in the minds of people so
deftly that they believe them to be their own creation. I accom-
plish this end by making people believe I am standing just
beyond the entrance gate of the next life, waiting to claim them
after death for eternal punishment. Of course I cannot punish
anyone, except in that person's own mind, through some form
of fear— but fear of the thing which does not exist is just as
useful to me as fear of that which does exist. All forms of fear
extend the space I occupy in the human mind
The story is too long to be told in a few words. It began
over a million years ago, when the first man began to think.
Up to that time I had control over all mankind, but enemies of
mine discovered the power of positive thought, placed it in the
minds of men, and then began a battle on my part to remain
in control. So far, I have done quite well by myself, having lost
only 2 percent of the people to the opposition.
I take it from your answer that men who think are your
enemies. Is that right?
A It is not right, but it is correct.
I live wherever I choose. Time and space do not exist for
me. I am a force best described to you as energy. My favorite
physical dwelling place, as I have told you, is the minds of the
earthbound. I control a part of the brain space of every human
being. The amount of space I occupy in each individual's mind
depends upon how little and what sort of thinking that person
does. As I have told you, I cannot entirely control any person
who thinks.
I have countless ways of gaining control of human minds
while they are still on the earth plane. My greatest weapon
is poverty. I deliberately discourage people from accumu-
lating material wealth because poverty discourages men from
thinking and makes them easy prey for me. My next best friend
is ill health. An unhealthy body discourages thinking. Then
I have countless thousands of workers on earth who aid me in
gaining control of human minds. I have these agents placed in
every calling. They represent every race and creed, every religion.
Q Who are your greatest enemies on earth, Your Majesty?
A All who inspire people to think and act on their own initia-
tive are my enemies. Such men as Socrates, Confucius, Voltaire,
Emerson, Thomas Paine, and Abraham Lincoln. And you are
not doing me any good either.
I use the minds of people in all walks of life. As a
matter of fact, I prefer the type of person who makes no pre-
tense of thinking; I can manipulate that sort of person without
difficulty. I could not control 98 percent of the people of the
world if all people were skilled in thinking for themselves.
I can best define the word "drift" by saying that people who
think for themselves never drift, while those who do little or no
thinking for themselves are drifters. A drifter is one who per-
mits himself to be influenced and controlled by circumstances
outside of his own mind. He would rather let me occupy his
mind and do his thinking than go to the trouble of thinking
for himself. A drifter is one who accepts whatever life throws
in his way without making a protest or putting up a fight. He
doesn't know what he wants from life and spends all of his
time getting just that. A drifter has lots of opinions, but they
are not his own. Most of them are supplied by me.
A drifter is one who is too lazy mentally to use his own
brain. That is the reason I can take control of people's thinking
and plant my own ideas in their minds.
I enter the minds of
people through thoughts which they believe to be their own.
Those most useful to me are fear, superstition, avarice, greed,
lust, revenge, anger, vanity, and plain laziness. Through one or
more of these I can enter any mind, at any age, but I get my best
results when I take charge of a mind while it is young, before its
owner has learned how to close any of these nine doors. Then I
can set up habits which keep the doors ajar forever.
My second best trick is not second at all. It is first! It is first
because without it I never could gain control of the minds of
the youths. Parents, schoolteachers, religious instructors, and
many other adults unknowingly serve my purpose by helping
me to destroy in children the habit of thinking for themselves.
They go about their work in various ways, never suspecting
what they are doing to the minds of children or the real cause
of the children's mistakes.
That is where my cleverness comes in. There is the exact
explanation of how I control 98 percent of the people of the
world. I take possession of people during their youth, before
they come into possession of their own minds, by using those
who are in charge of them. I especially need the help of those
who give children their religious instruction, because it is here
that I break down independent thought and start people on
the habit of drifting, by confusing their minds with unprov-
able ideas concerning a world of which they know nothing. It is
here also that I plant in the minds of children the greatest of all
fears— the fear of hell!
One of my favorite tricks is to coordinate the efforts of par-
ents and religious instructors so they work together in helping
me to destroy the children's power to think for themselves. I
use many religious instructors to undermine the courage and
power of independent thought of children, by teaching them
to fear me; but I use parents to aid the religious leaders in this
great work of mine.
I cause the
parents to teach their children to believe as the parents do
in connection with religion, politics, marriage, and other
important subjects. In this way, as you can see, when I gain con-
trol of the mind of a person I can easily perpetuate the control
by causing that person to help me fasten it upon the minds of
his offspring.
Accurate thought is death to me. I cannot exist in the
minds of those who think accurately. I do not mind people
thinking as long as they think in terms of fear, discouragement,
hopelessness, and destructiveness. When they begin to think in
constructive terms of faith, courage, hope, and definiteness of
purpose, they immediately become allies of my opposition and
are therefore lost to me.
Schoolteachers help me gain control of the minds of chil-
dren not so much by what they teach the children as because of
what they do not teach them. The entire public school system
is so administered that it helps my cause by teaching children
almost everything except how to use their own minds and
think independently. I live in fear that someday some coura-
geous person will reverse the present system of school teaching
and deal my cause a death blow by allowing the students to
become the instructors, using those who now serve as teachers
only as guides to help the children establish ways and means
of developing their own minds from within. When that time
comes, the schoolteachers will no longer belong to my staff.
the system in
most of the schools of the world does not carry out the pur-
pose. School children are taught not to develop and use their
own minds, but to adopt and use the thoughts of others.
This sort of schooling destroys the capacity for independent
thought, except in a few rare cases where children rely so defi-
nitely upon their own will power that they refuse to allow
others to do their thinking. Accurate thought is the business of
my opposition, not mine!
When religious instructors try to teach
children the virtues of my opposition, they generally do so
by frightening them with my name. That is all I ask of them.
I kindle the flame of fear into proportions which destroy the
child's power to think accurately. In the public schools the
teachers further my cause by keeping the children so busy
cramming non-essential information into their minds they
have no opportunity to think accurately or to analyze correcdy
the things their instructors teach them.
Drifting is only one of my tricks through which I
take over the power of independent thought. Before a drifter
becomes my permanent property, I must lead him on and
ensnare him with another trick.
Nothing can stop me except the power of accurate thought.
People who think accurately do not drift on any subject. They
recognize the power of their own minds. Moreover, they take
over that power and yield it to no person or influence.
I cause people to drift on every subject through which I
can control independent thought and action. Take the subject
of health, for example. I cause most people to eat too much
food and the wrong sort of food. This leads to indigestion and
destroys the power of accurate thought. If the public schools
and the churches taught children more about proper eating,
they would do my cause irreparable damage.
Marriage: I cause men and women to drift into marriage
without plan or purpose designed to convert the relationship
into harmony. Here is one of my most effective methods of
converting people into the habit of drifting. I cause married
people to bicker and nag one another over money matters. I
cause them to quarrel over the bringing up of their children.
I engage them in unpleasant controversies over their intimate
relationships and in disagreements over friends and social
activities. I keep them so busy finding fault with one another
that they never have time to do anything else long enough to
break the habit of drifting.
Savings: I cause people to spend freely and to save sparingly or
not at all, until I take complete control of them through their
fear of poverty.
Environment: I cause people to drift into inharmonious and
unpleasant environments in the home, in their places of occupa-
tion, in their relationship with relatives and acquaintances, and
to remain there until I claim them through the habit of drifting.
Dominating Thoughts: I cause people to drift into the habit of
thinking negative thoughts. This leads to negative acts and
involves people in controversies and fills their minds with
fears, thus paving the way for me to enter and control their
minds. When I move in, I do so by appealing to people through
negative thoughts which they believe to be their own. I plant
the seeds of negative thought in the minds of people through
the pulpit, the newspapers, the moving pictures, the radio,
and all other popular methods of appeal to the mind. I cause
people to allow me to do their thinking for them because they
are too lazy and too indifferent to think for themselves.
Any habit which causes one to procras-
tinate—to put off reaching a definite decision— leads to the
habit of drifting.
There are no self-appointed dictators. I appoint them all.
Moreover, I manipulate them and direct them in their work.
Nations run by my dictators know what they want and take it
by force. Look what I have done through Mussolini in Italy!
Look what I am doing through Hitler in Germany. Look what
I am doing through Stalin in Russia. My dictators run those
nations for me because the people have been subdued through
the habit of drifting. My dictators do no drifting. That is why
they rule for me the millions of people under their control.
The first sign of a non-drifter is this: He is always engaged
in doing something definite, through some well-organized
plan which is definite. He has a major goal in life toward which
he is always working, and many minor goals, all of which lead
toward his central scheme.
The tone of his voice, the quickness of his step, the sparkle in
his eyes, the quickness of his decisions clearly mark him as a
person who knows exactly what he wants and is determined
to get it, no matter how long it may take or what price he
must pay.
If you ask him questions, he gives you direct answers and
never falls back on evasions or resorts to subterfuge.
He extends many favors to others, but accepts favors
sparingly or not at all.
He will be found up front whether he is playing a game or
fighting a war.
If he does not know the answers he will say so frankly.
He has a good memory; never offers an alibi for his
shortcomings.
He never blames others for his mistakes no matter if they
deserve the blame.
He used to be known as a go-getter, but in modern times he
is called a go-giver. You will find him running the biggest
business in town, living on the best street, driving the best
automobile, and making his presence felt wherever he
happens to be.
He is an inspiration to all who come into contact with
his mind.
The major distinguishing feature of the non-drifter is this:
He has a mind of his own and uses it for all purposes.
Q What brief message would you send to the typical drifter if
you wished to cure him of this evil habit?
A I would admonish him to wake up and give !
Q Give what?
A Some form of service useful to as many people as possible.
Q So the non-drifter is supposed to give, is he?
A Yes, if he expects to get! And he must give before he gets!
Q Some people doubt that you exist.
A I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Those who
are ready to be converted from the habit of drifting will rec-
ognize the authenticity of this interview by its soundness of
counsel. The others are not worth the trouble it would take to
convert them.
You fear the opposition
of no individual because you know it will be short, but you
do fear truth. You fear truth and nothing else, for the reason
it is slowly but definitely giving human beings freedom from
all manner of fear. Without the weapon of fear you would be
helpless and entirely unable to control any human being! Is
that true or false?
A I have no alternative but to admit that what you say is true.
A I am powerless to influence or control you because you
have found the secret approach to my kingdom. You know that
I exist only in the minds of people who have fears. You know
that I control only the drifters who neglect to use their own
minds. You know that my hell is here on earth and not in the
world that comes after death. And you know also that drifters
supply all the fire I use in my hell. You know that I am a prin-
ciple or form of energy which expresses the negative side of
matter and energy, and that I am not a person with a forked
tongue and a spiked tail You have become my master because
you have mastered all your fears. Lastly, you know that you can
release all of my earthbound victims whom you contact, and
this definite knowledge is the blow with which you will deal me
the greatest damage.
I cannot control you because you have discovered your
own mind and you have taken charge of it. There now, Mr.
Earthbound, that confession should feed your vanity to the
bursting point.
Man alive! Flattery is one of my most useful
weapons. With this deadly instrument I slay the big ones and
the little ones.
A Flattery is a bait of incomparable value to all who wish
to gain control over others. It has powerful pulling qualities
because it operates through two of the most common human
weaknesses: vanity and egotism. There is a certain amount of
vanity and egotism in everyone. In some people these qualities
are so pronounced they literally serve as a rope by which one
may be bound. The best of all ropes is flattery.
Flattery is the chief bait through which men seduce women.
Sometimes— in fact, frequently— women use the same bait to
gain control of men, especially men who cannot be mastered
through sex appeal. I teach its use to both men and women.
Flattery is the chief bait with which my agents weave their way
into the confidence of people from whom they procure infor-
mation needed to carry on warfare.
Wherever anyone stops to feed his vanity on flattery, I move
in and begin to build another drifter. Non-drifters are not
easily flattered. I inspire people to use flattery in every human
relationship where its use is possible because those who are
influenced by it become easy victims of the drifting habit.
Q Can you control anyone who is amenable to flattery?
A Very easily. As I have already told you, flattery is of major
importance in alluring people into the habit of drifting.
Q At what age are people most susceptible to flattery?
A Age has nothing to do with one's susceptibility to flattery.
People respond to it, in one way or another, from the time they
become conscious of their own existence until they die.
Q Through what motive can women be most easily flattered?
A Their vanity. Tell a woman she is pretty or that she wears
clothes well.
Q What motive is most effective in harpooning men?
A Egotism, with a capital E! Tell a man he has a strong
Herculean body or that he is a great business tycoon, and he
will purr like a cat and smile like an opossum! After that you
know what happens.
Two out of every hundred have their egotism so
thoroughly under control that even an expert flatterer couldn't
get under their skins with a double-edged butcher knife.
A One of my most effective tricks is known to you as propa-
ganda. This is the instrument of greatest value to me in setting
people to murdering one another under the guise of war.
The cleverness of this trick consists mainly of the subtlety
with which I use it.
I mix propaganda with the news of the world. I have it
taught in public and private schools. I see that it finds its way
into the pulpit. I color moving pictures with it I see that it
enters every home where there is a radio. I inject it into bill-
board, newspaper, and radio advertising. I spread it in every
place of business where people work. I use it to fill the divorce
courts and I make it serve to destroy business and industry.
It is my chief instrument for starting runs on banks. My
propagandists cover the world so thoroughly that I can start
epidemics of disease, turn loose the dogs of war, or throw busi-
ness into a panic at will.
A Propaganda is any device, plan, or method by which people
can be influenced without knowing that they are being influ-
enced, or the source of the influence.
Propaganda is used in business for the purpose of discour-
aging competition. Employers use it to gain advantage over
their employees. The employees retaliate by using it to gain
advantage over their employers. In fact, it is used so universally
and through such a smooth and beautiful streamlined tech-
nique that it looks harmless even when it is detected.
A Yes! Millions of my boys are preparing Americans to
become Hitlerized My best boys are working through poli-
tics and labor organization. We intend to take over the country
with ballots instead of bullets. Americans are so sensitive they
would never stand the shock of seeing their form of govern-
ment changed with the aid of machine guns and tank cars.
So our propaganda boys are serving them a diet they will
swallow, by stirring up strife between employers and employees
and turning the government against business and industry.
When propaganda has done its work thoroughly, one of my boys
will move in as dictator and the Nine Old Men on your Supreme
Court with their silly notions of the Constitution will move out!
Everyone will be given a job or fed from the government treasury.
When men's bellies are filled, they drift freely with one who does
the filling. Hungry men get out from under control.
A What is fear of the Devil except propaganda? You have not
observed my technique very carefully or you would have seen
that I am the world's greatest propagandist! I never attain an
end by direct, open means which I can achieve through subter-
fuge and subtlety. What do you suppose I am using, when I plant
negative ideas in the minds of men and gain control of them
through what they believe to be their own ideas? What would
you call that except the cleverest of all forms of propaganda?
If the individual's greatest weak-
ness is the desire for money, I begin to dangle coins before him,
figuratively speaking. I intensify his desire and induce him
to go after money. Then when he gets near it I snatch it away
from him.
This is an old trick of mine. After the trick has been
repeated a few times, the poor fellow gives in and quits. Then I
take over a little more space in his mind and fill it with the fear
of poverty. That is one of my best mind-fillers.
I take over the space by filling it with something
which serves my purpose just as well. If my victim converts his
desire for money into large sums, I start over-feeding him with
the things he can buy with it. For example, I cause him to stuff
himself with rich foods. This slows down his thinking capacity,
endangers his heart, and starts him on the road to drifting.
Then I pester him with intestinal poisoning through the
surplus food he eats. That also slows down his thinking and
gives him a nasty disposition.
If the victim is a male I can usually snare him through his
sex appetite. Over-indulgence in sex starts more men to drifting
toward failure than all other causes combined.
A Protection against drifting lies within easy reach of every
human being who has a normal body and a sound mind. The
self-defense can be applied through these simple methods:
1. Do your own thinking on all occasions. The fact that
human beings are given complete control over nothing
save the power to think their own thoughts is laden with
significance.
2. Decide definitely what you want from life; then create
a plan for attaining it and be willing to sacrifice everything
else, if necessary, rather than accept permanent defeat.
3. Analyze temporary defeat, no matter of what nature
or cause, and extract from it the seed of an equivalent
advantage.
4. Be willing to render useful service equivalent to the value
of all material things you demand of life, and render the ser-
vice first.
5. Recognize that your brain is a receiving set that can be
attuned to receive communications from the universal store-
house of Infinite Intelligence, to help you transmute your
desires into their physical equivalent.
6. Recognize that your greatest asset is time, the only thing
except the power of thought which you own outright, and
the one thing which can be shaped into whatever material
things you want. Budget your time so none of it is wasted.
7. Recognize the truth that fear generally is a filler with
which the Devil occupies the unused portion of your mind.
It is only a state of mind which you can control by filling the
space it occupies with faith in your ability to make life pro-
vide you with whatever you demand of it.
8. When you pray, do not beg! Demand what you want and
insist upon getting exactly that, with no substitutes.
9. Recognize that life is a cruel taskmaster and that either
you master it or it masters you. There is no half-way or com-
promising point. Never accept from life anything you do not
want. If that which you do not want is temporarily forced
upon you, you can refuse, in your own mind, to accept it and
it will make way for the thing you do want.
10. Lastly, remember that your dominating thoughts attract,
through a definite law of nature, by the shortest and most
convenient route, their physical counterpart. Be careful what
your thoughts dwell upon.
Q What human fear best serves your purpose?
A The fear of death.
Q Why is the fear of death your favorite weapon?
A Because no one knows, and by the very nature of the laws
of the universe, no one can prove definitely what happens after
death. This uncertainty frightens people out of their wits.
People who give over their minds to fear— any sort of fear-
neglect to use their minds and begin to drift. Eventually they
drift into the whirlpool of hypnotic rhythm from which they
may never escape.
Q Then you do not mind what religious leaders think or say
of you when they speak of death?
A Not as long as they say something! If the churches should
stop talking about me, my cause would receive a severe setback.
Every attack made against me fixes the fear of me in the minds
of all who are influenced by it. You see, opposition is the thing
that keeps some people from drifting! Providing they do not
yield to it.
Q Since you claim the churches help instead of hindering
your cause, tell me what would give you cause to worry?
A My only worry is that someday a real thinker may appear
on earth.
Q What would happen if a thinker did appear?
A You ask me what would happen? I'll tell you what would
happen. People would learn the greatest of all truths— that the
time they spend in fearing something would, if reversed, give
them all they want in the material world and save them from
me after death. Isn't that worth thinking about?
Q What is keeping such a thinker from appearing in
the world?
A Fear of criticism! It may interest you to know that the fear
of criticism is the only effective weapon I have with which to
whip you. If you were not afraid to publish this confession
after you wring it from me, I would lose my earthly kingdom.
A When you found a great love in the woman of your choice,
I lost my grip on you.
Q So you are going to accuse me of hiding behind a woman's
skirts, are you?
A No, not hiding. I wouldn't put it that way. I would say you
have learned how to give yourself a solid background with the
embellishment of a woman's mind.
Q The woman's skirt has nothing to do with it then?
A No, but her brain does. When you and your wife began
to combine your two brains, through your habit of "Master
Minding" every day, you stumbled upon the secret power with
which you forced me into this confession.
I could flatter you if I had you alone, but I cannot flatter
you while you have the use of your wife's mind.
Q I am beginning to catch on to something important. I am
beginning to understand what was meant by the writer of that
passage in the Bible which says substantially, "When two or
more meet together and ask for anything in My name, it shall
be granted." It is true, then, that two minds are better than one.
A It is not only true, it is necessary before anyone can con-
tinuously contact the great storehouse of Infinite Intelligence
wherein is stored all that is, all that ever was, and all that can
ever be.
A No, not exactly. You are where you are and what you are
because of your thoughts and your deeds.
A Emphatically no. Circumstances which people do not
understand are classified under the heading of luck. Back of
every reality is a cause. Often the cause is so far removed from
the effect that the circumstance can be explained only by attrib-
uting it to the operation of luck. Nature knows no such law as
luck. It is a man-made hypothesis with which he explains away
things he does not understand. The terms "luck" and "miracle"
are twin sisters. Neither of them has any real existence except in
the imaginations of people. Both are used to explain that which
people do not understand. Remember this: everything having a
real existence is capable of proof. Keep this one truth in mind
and you will become a sounder thinker.
A All deeds follow thoughts. There can be no deeds without
their having first been patterned in thought. Moreover, all
thoughts have a tendency to clothe themselves in their phys-
ical counterpart. One's dominating thoughts, that is, the
thoughts one mixes with the emotions, desire, hope, faith,
fear, hate, greed, enthusiasm, not only have a tendency to
clothe themselves in their physical equivalent, but they are
bound to do so.
A I operate wherever there is something I can control and
appropriate. I have already told you I am the negative portion
of the electron of matter.
• I am the explosion in lightning.
• I am the pain in disease and physical suffering.
• I am the unseen general in warfare.
• I am the unknown commissioner of poverty and famine.
• I am the executioner extraordinaire at death.
• I am the inspirer of lust after the flesh.
• I am the creator of jealousy and envy and greed.
• I am the instigator of fear.
• I am the genius who converts the achievements of men
of science into instruments of death.
• I am the destroyer of harmony in all manner of human
relationships.
• I am the antithesis of justice.
• I am the driving force in all immorality.
• I am the stalemate of all good.
• I am anxiety, suspense, superstition, and insanity.
• I am the destroyer of hope and faith.
• I am the inspirer of destructive gossip and scandal.
• I am the discourager of free and independent thought.
• In brief, I am the creator of all forms of human
misery, the instigator of discouragement and
disappointment.
Q In other words, you control people by making nega-
tive thinking and destructive deeds pleasing to them. Is that
correct?
Q Why don't you take over the churches and use them out-
right in your cause?
A Do you think I am a fool? Who would keep alive the fear
of the Devil if I subdued the churches? Who would serve as a
decoy to attract the attention of people while I manipulate
their minds if I did not have some agency through which to
sow the seeds of fear and doubt? The cleverest thing I do is to
use the allies of my opposition to keep the fear of hell burning
in the minds of people. As long as people fear something, no
matter what, I will keep a grip on them.
A Yes. That is precisely the major difference between indi-
viduals. The person who thinks in terms of power, success,
opulence, sets up a rhythm which attracts these desirable pos-
sessions. The person who thinks in terms of misery, failure,
defeat, discouragement, and poverty attracts these undesirable
influences. This explains why both success and failure are the
result of habit. Habit establishes one's rhythm of thought, and
that rhythm attracts the object of one's dominating thoughts.
Q Hypnotic rhythm is something resembling a magnet which
attracts things for which it has a magnetic affinity. Is that
correct?
A Yes, that is correct. That is why the poverty-stricken herd
themselves into the same communities. It explains that old
saying, "Misery loves company." It also explains why people
who begin to succeed in any undertaking find that success mul-
tiplies, with less effort, as time goes on.
All successful people use hypnotic rhythm, either con-
sciously or unconsciously, by expecting and demanding suc-
cess. The demand becomes a habit, hypnotic rhythm takes over
the habit, and the law of harmonious attraction translates it
into its physical equivalent.
Q In other words, if I know what I want from life, demand
it and back my demand by a willingness to pay life's price for
what I want, and refuse to accept any substitutes, the law of
hypnotic rhythm takes over my desire and helps, by natural
and logical means, to transmute it into its physical counter-
part. Is that true?
A That describes the way the law works.
We have learned, beyond the question of doubt, that
anyone who adopts definiteness of purpose as a policy and uses
it in all of his daily experiences cannot be induced to form the
habit of drifting. Without the aid of the drifting habit you are
powerless to attract people through promises. Is this correct?
A I couldn't have stated the truth more clearly myself.
Imitation becomes a fixed habit. Naturally the child imi-
tates, first of all, its parents! Then it begins to imitate its other
relatives and daily associates, including its religious instructors
and schoolteachers.
The imitation extends not merely to physical expression,
but also to thought expression. If a child's parents fear me and
express that fear within range of the child's hearing, the child
picks up the fear through the habit of imitation and stores it
away as a part of its subconscious stock of beliefs.
If the child's religious instructor expresses any form of
fear of me (and they all do, in one form or another), that fear is
added to the similar fear passed to the child by its parents, and
the two forms of negative limitation are stored away in the sub-
conscious mind to be drawn upon and used by me later in life.
In a similar way the child learns, by imitation, to limit its
power of thought by filling its mind with envy, hatred, greed,
lust, revenge, and all the other negative impulses of thought
which destroy all possibility of definiteness.
Meanwhile I move in and induce the child to drift until I
bind its mind through hypnotic rhythm.
A I prefer to claim them before they come into possession
of their own minds. Once any person learns the power of his
own thoughts, he becomes positive and difficult to subdue. As
a matter of fact, I cannot control any human being who dis-
covers and uses the principle of definiteness.
Q Is the habit of definiteness a permanent protection against
your control?
A No, not by any means. Definiteness closes the door of one's
mind to me only as long as that person follows the principle as
a matter of policy. Once any person hesitates, procrastinates, or
becomes indefinite about anything, he is just one step removed
from my control.
Give me control over a person's fears and tell me what he
loves most and you may as well mark that person down as my
slave. Both love and fear are emotional forces of such stupen-
dous potency that either may completely set aside the power of
will and the power of reason. Without will and reason there is
nothing left to support definiteness of purpose.
A First, let me correct that old saying that all marriages are
made in heaven. I know of some which were made on my side
of the fence. Minds which do not harmonize should never be
forced to remain together in marriage or any other relationship.
Friction and all forms of discord between minds lead inevitably
to the habit of drifting, and of course to indefiniteness.
A "Duty" is one of the most abused and misunderstood
words in existence. The first duty of every human being is to
himself. Every person owes himself the duty of finding how
to live a full and happy life. Beyond this, if one has time and
energy not needed in the fulfillment of his own desires, one
may assume responsibility for helping others.
A There is nothing inconsistent about it. The majority of
people who pray go to prayer only after everything else fails
them. Naturally they go with their minds filled with fear that
the prayers will not be answered. Well, their fears are realized.
The person who goes to prayer with definiteness of purpose
and faith in the attainment of that purpose puts into motion
the laws of nature which transmute one's dominating desires
into their physical equivalent. That is all there is to prayer.
One form of prayer is negative and brings only nega-
tive results. One form is positive and brings definite, positive
results. Could anything be more simple?
Nature's law is, "Know what you want, adapt yourself to my
laws, and you shall have it."
Q Why don't you take over Omnipotence and manage the
whole works in your own way?
A You might as well ask why the negative portion of the elec-
tron doesn't take over the positive portion and run the entire
works. The answer is that both the positive and the negative
charges of energy are necessary to the existence of the elec-
tron. One is balanced equally against the other, stalemated, as
it were.
So it is with what you call Omnipotence and I. We repre-
sent the positive and the negative forces of the entire system of
universes, and we are equally balanced one against the other.
If this power of balance were shifted the slightest degree,
the whole system of universes would become quickly reduced
to a mass of inert matter. Now you know why I cannot take
over the whole show and run it my way.
Q Then the doctrine of predestination is sound. People are
born to success or failure, misery or happiness, to be good or
bad, and they have nothing to do with this nor can they modify
their natures. Is that your claim?
A Emphatically not! Every human being has a wide range
of choice in both his thoughts and his deeds. Every human
being can use his brain for the reception and the expression of
positive thoughts or he can use it for the expression of nega-
tive thoughts. His choice in this important matter shapes his
entire life.
Q From what you have said I gather the idea that human
beings have more freedom of expression than either you or
your opposition. Is that correct?
A That is true. Omnipotence and I are bound by immutable
laws of nature. We cannot express ourselves in any manner not
conforming to these laws.
Q Then it is true that man has rights and privileges not avail-
able to either Omnipotence or the Devil. Is that the truth?
A Yes, that is true, but you might well have added that man
has not yet fully awakened to the realization of this potential
power. Man still regards himself as something resembling the
worms in the dust, when in reality he has more power than all
other living things combined.
Q Definiteness of purpose seems to be a panacea for all evils
of man.
A Not that perhaps, but you may be sure no one ever will
become self-determining without it.
A For the reason that there is no definite plan or purpose
behind any of the school curricula! Children are sent to school
to make credits and to learn how to memorize, not to learn
what they want of life.
Q I deduce from all you say that neither the schools nor
the churches prepare the youths of the world with a practical
working knowledge of their own minds. Is anything of more
importance to a human being than an understanding of the
forces and circumstances which influence his own mind?
A The only thing of enduring value to any human being is
a working knowledge of his own mind. The churches do not
permit a person to inquire into the possibilities of his own
mind, and the schools do not recognize that such a thing as a
mind exists.
Q Aren't you a little hard on the schools and the churches?
A No, I am merely describing them as they are, without bias
or prejudice.
Q Aren't the schools and the churches your bitter enemies?
A Their leaders may think they are, but I am impressed only
by facts. The truth is this, if you must know it: the churches
are my most helpful allies and the schools run the churches a
close second.
Q On what specific or general grounds do you make this
claim?
A On the grounds that both the churches and the schools
help me to convert people to the habit of drifting.
Q Do you realize that your charge is substantially a sweeping
indictment of the two institutions of major importance which
have been responsible for civilization, in its present form?
A Do I realize it? Man alive, I gloat over it. If the schools and
churches had taught people how to think for themselves, where
would I be, now?
Q This confession of yours will disillusion millions of people
whose only hope for salvation is in their churches. Isn't that
a cruel thing to do to them? Wouldn't most people be better
off living in the bliss of ignorance than to know the truth
about you?
A What do you mean by the term "salvation"? From what are
people being saved? The only form of enduring salvation that
is worth a green fig to any human being is that which comes
from recognition of the power of his own mind. Ignorance and
fear are the only enemies from which men need salvation.
Q You seem to hold nothing sacred.
A You are wrong. I hold sacred the one thing which is my
master— the one thing I fear.
Q What is that?
A The power of independent thought backed by definiteness
of purpose.
Q Then you do not have many people to fear?
A Only two out of every 100 to be exact. I control all others.
Q Is that all that is wrong with the system?
A No, that is only the beginning. Another major weakness of
the school system is that it does not establish in the minds of
children either the importance of definiteness of purpose or
make any attempt to teach youths how to be definite about
anything.
The major object of all schooling is to force the students to
cram their memories with facts instead of teaching them how
to organize and make practical use of facts.
This cramming system centers the attention of students
on the accumulation of "credits" but overlooks the important
question of how to use knowledge in the practical affairs of life.
This system turns out graduates whose names are inscribed
upon parchment certificates, but whose minds are empty of
self-determination. The school system got off to a bad start
at the beginning. The schools began as institutions of "higher
learning," operated entirely for the select few whose wealth and
family entitled them to education.
Thus the entire school system was evolved by beginning at
the top and working back down to the bottom. It is no wonder
the system neglects to teach children the importance of defi-
niteness of purpose when the system, itself, has literally evolved
through indefiniteness.
Q Describe the changes needed just as they come to you.
A You are forcing me to commit an act of treason against
myself, but here it is:
Reverse the present system by giving children the privilege
of leading in their school work instead of following orthodox
rules designed only to impart abstract knowledge. Let
instructors serve as students and let the students serve
as instructors.
As far as possible, organize all school work into definite
methods through which the student can learn by doing, and
direct the class work so that every student engages in some
form of practical labor connected with the daily problems
of life.
Ideas are the beginning of all human achievement. Teach
all students how to recognize practical ideas that may be of
benefit in helping them acquire whatever they demand of life.
Teach the students how to budget and use time, and above
all teach the truth that time is the greatest asset available to
human beings and the cheapest.
Teach the student the basic motives by which all people are
influenced and show how to use these motives in acquiring
the necessities and the luxuries of life.
Teach children what to eat, how much to eat, and what is the
relationship between proper eating and sound health.
Teach children the true nature and function of the emotion
of sex, and above all, teach them that it can be transmuted
into a driving force capable of lifting one to great heights
of achievement.
Teach children to be definite in all things, beginning with the
choice of a definite major purpose in life!
Teach children the nature of and possibilities for good and
evil in the principle of habit, using as illustrations with
which to dramatize the subject the everyday experiences of
children and adults.
Teach children how habits become fixed through the law of
hypnotic rhythm, and influence them to adopt, while in the
lower grades, habits that will lead to independent thought!
Teach children the difference between temporary defeat
and failure, and show them how to search for the seed of an
equivalent advantage which comes with every defeat.
Teach children to express their own thoughts fearlessly and
to accept or reject, at will, all ideas of others, reserving to
themselves, always, the privilege of relying upon their
own judgment.
Teach children to reach decisions promptly and to change
them, if at all, slowly and with reluctance, and never without a
definite reason.
Teach children that the human brain is the instrument with
which one receives, from the great storehouse of nature, the
energy which is specialized into definite thoughts; that the
brain does not think, but serves as an instrument for the
interpretation of stimuli which cause thought.
Teach children the value of harmony in their own minds and
that this is attainable only through self-control.
Teach children the nature and the value of self-control.
Teach children that there is a law of increasing returns which
can be and should be put into operation, as a matter of habit,
by rendering always more service and better service than is
expected of them.
Teach children the true nature of the Golden Rule, and above
all show them that through the operation of this principle,
everything they do to and for another they do also to and
for themselves.
Teach children not to have opinions unless they are formed
from facts or beliefs which may reasonably be accepted as facts.
Teach children that cigarettes, liquor, narcotics, and over-
indulgence in sex destroy the power of will and lead to the habit
of drifting. Do not forbid these evils— just explain them.
Teach children the danger of believing anything merely
because their parents, religious instructors, or someone else
says it is so.
Teach children to face facts, whether they are pleasant or
unpleasant, without resorting to subterfuge or offering alibis.
Teach children to encourage the use of their sixth sense
through which ideas present themselves in their minds from
unknown sources, and to examine all such ideas carefully.
Teach children the full import of the law of compensation as it
was interpreted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and show them how
the law works in the small, everyday affairs of life.
Teach children that definiteness of purpose, backed by definite
plans persistently and continuously applied, is the most
efficacious form of prayer available to human beings.
Teach children that the space they occupy in the world is
measured definitely by the quality and quantity of useful
service they render the world.
Teach children there is no problem which does not have an
appropriate solution and that the solution often may be found
in the circumstance creating the problem.
Teach children that their only real limitations are those which
they set up or permit others to establish in their own minds.
Teach them that man can achieve whatever man can conceive
and believe!
Teach children that all schoolhouses and all textbooks
are elementary implements which may be helpful in the
development of their minds, but that the only school of
real value is the great University of Life wherein one has the
privilege of learning from experience.
Teach children to be true to themselves at all times and, since
they cannot please everybody, therefore to do a good job of
pleasing themselves.
Q That is an imposing list, but it seems conspicuous by
the fact it ignores practically every subject now taught in the
public schools. Was that intended?
A Yes. You asked for a list of suggested changes in public
school curricula which would benefit children— well, that is
what you got.
Q Some of the changes you suggest are so unorthodox they
would shock most of the educators of today, wouldn't they?
A Most of the educators of today need to be shocked. A good
sound shock often helps the brain that has been atrophied
by habit.
Q Would the changes you suggest for the public schools give
children immunity against the habit of drifting?
A Yes, that is one of the results the changes would bring, but
there are others too.
Q How could the suggested changes be forced into the public
school system? You know, of course, it is as difficult to get a
new idea into an educator's brain as it is to interest a religious
leader in modifying religion so it will help people to get more
from life.
A The quickest and surest way to force practical ideas into
the public schools is to first introduce the ideas through pri-
vate schools and establish such a demand for their use that
public school officials will be compelled to employ them.
Q Name some of the common forms of sin.
A It is a sin to overeat because that leads to ill health
and misery.
It is a sin to over-indulge in sex because that breaks down
one's will power and leads to the habit of drifting.
It is a sin to permit one's mind to be dominated by nega-
tive thoughts of envy, greed, fear, hatred, intolerance, vanity,
self-pity, or discouragement, because these states of mind lead
to the habit of drifting.
It is a sin to cheat, lie, and steal, because these habits
destroy self-respect, subdue one's conscience, and lead to
unhappiness.
It is a sin to remain in ignorance because that leads to pov-
erty and loss of self-reliance.
It is a sin to accept from life anything one does not
want because that indicates an unpardonable neglect to use
the mind.
Q Is it a sin for one to drift through life, without definite aim,
plan, or purpose?
A Yes, because this habit leads to poverty and destroys the
privilege of self-determination. It also deprives one of the
privilege of using his own mind as a medium of contact with
Infinite Intelligence.
Q Are you the chief inspirer of sin?
A Yes! It is my business to gain control of the minds of people
in every way possible.
Q Can you control the mind of a person who commits no
sin?
A I cannot, because that person never permits his mind to be
dominated by any form of negative thought. I cannot enter the
mind of one who never sins, let alone control it.
Q What is the commonest and most destructive of all sins?
A Fear and ignorance.
Q Have you nothing else to add to the list?
A There is nothing else to be added.
Q What is faith?
A It is a state of mind wherein one recognizes and uses the
power of positive thought as a medium by which one contacts
and draws upon the universal store of Infinite Intelligence at will.
Q In other words, faith is the absence of all forms of negative
thought. Is that the idea?
A Yes, that is another way of describing it.
Q Has a drifter the capacity to use faith?
A He may have the capacity but he does not use it. Everyone
has the potential power to clear his mind of all negative
thoughts and thereby avail himself of the power of faith.
Q Stating the matter in another way, faith is definiteness of
purpose backed by belief in the attainment of the object of
that purpose. Is that correct?
A That's the idea, exacdy.
People who eat wisely and keep their body sewers clean
handicap me because a clean body sewer generally means a
sound body and a brain that functions properly.
People who eat wisely and keep their body sewers clean
handicap me because a clean body sewer generally means a
sound body and a brain that functions properly.
Imagine— if your imagination can be stretched that far-
how any human being could move with definiteness of purpose
with his body sewer filled with enough poison to kill a hundred
people if it were injected into their bloodstream directly.
Q And all this trouble is the result of lack of control over the
physical appetite for food?
A Well, if you wish to be absolutely correct you should say
that improper eating is responsible for the majority of the ills
of the body, and practically all headaches.
If you want proof of this, select 100 people suffering with
headaches and give each of them a thorough washing out
of their body sewer systems with a high enema, and observe
that no fewer than ninety-five of the headaches will disappear
within a few minutes after their sewers have been cleaned.
Q From all you say about the intestinal tract, I gather the
impression that mastery over the physical appetite for food
means also mastery over the habit of neglecting to keep the
intestines clean?
A Yes, that is true. It is just as important to eliminate the
waste matter of the body and the unused portions of food
as it is to take the right amount and the correct combinations
of food.
Q I never thought of auto-intoxication as being one of your
devices of control over people, and I am utterly shocked to
know how many people are victims of this subtle enemy. Let's
hear what you have to say of the other two appetites.
A Well, take the desire for sex expression. Now there is a
force with which I master the weak and the strong, the old and
the young, the ignorant and the wise. In fact, I master all who
neglect to master sex!
Q Do I understand you to imply there is a relationship
between sex and poverty?
A Yes, where sex is not under definite control. If allowed to
run its natural course, sex will quickly lead one into the habit
of drifting.
Q Is there any relationship between sex and leadership?
A Yes, all great leaders in every walk of life are highly sexed,
but they follow the habit of controlling their sex desires,
switching them into a driving force behind their occupation.
Q Is the habit of over-indulgence in sex as dangerous as the
habit of taking narcotics or liquor?
A There is no difference between these habits. Both lead to
hypnotic control, through the habit of drifting!
Q Just what damage is there in over-indulgence of sex?
A The greatest damage is that it depletes the source of man's
greatest driving force, and wastes, without adequate compensa-
tion, man's creative energy.
It dissipates energy needed by nature to maintain physical
health. Sex is nature's most useful therapeutic force.
It depletes the magnetic energy which is the source of an
attractive, pleasing personality.
It removes the sparkle from one's eyes and sets up discord
in the tone of one's voice.
It destroys enthusiasm, subdues ambition, and leads inevi-
tably to the habit of drifting on all subjects.
Q I would like for you to answer my question in another way
by telling me what beneficial ends the emotion of sex may be
made to attain, if mastered and transmuted.
A Controlled sex supplies the magnetic force that attracts
people to one another. It is the most important factor of a
pleasing personality.
It gives quality to the tone of voice and enables one to
convey through the voice any feeling desired.
It serves, as nothing else can serve, to give motive-power to
one's desires.
It keeps the nervous system charged with the energy needed
to carry on the work of maintaining the body.
It sharpens the imagination and enables one to create
useful ideas.
It gives quickness and definiteness to one's physical and
mental movements.
It gives one persistence and perseverance in the pursuit of
one's major purpose in life.
It is a great antidote for all fear.
It gives one immunity against discouragement.
It helps to master laziness and procrastination.
It gives one physical and mental endurance while under-
going any form of opposition or defeat.
It gives one the fighting qualities necessary under all cir-
cumstances for self-defense.
In brief, it makes winners and not quitters!
Wise men keep their plans to themselves and refrain from
expressing uninvited opinions. This prevents others from
appropriating their ideas and makes it difficult for others to
interfere with their plans.
Failure brings a climax in which one has the privilege of
clearing his mind of fear and making a new start in another
direction. Failure proves conclusively that something is wrong
with one's aims or the plans by which the object of these aims
is sought. Failure is the dead end of the habit-path one has
been following, and when it is reached it forces one to leave
that path and take up another, thereby creating a new rhythm.
But failure does more than this. It gives an individual an
opportunity to test himself wherein he may learn how much
will power he possesses. Failure also forces people to learn
many truths they would never discover without it. Failure often
leads an individual to an understanding of the power of self-
discipline without which no one could turn back after having
once been the victim of hypnotic rhythm.
Study the lives of all people who achieve outstanding
success in any calling and observe, with profit, that their suc-
cess is usually in exact ratio to their experiences of defeat
before succeeding.
A Yes, I mean just that. Definiteness of purpose plus defi-
niteness of plan by which the purpose is to be achieved gener-
ally succeeds, no matter how weak the plan may be. The major
difference between a sound and an unsound plan is that the
sound plan, if definitely applied, may be carried out more
quickly than an unsound plan.
The cause was born on July 4, 1776, when fifty-six men
signed a document which destroyed my chances of control-
ling the nation. You know that document as the Declaration
of Independence. Had it not been for the influence of that
damnable document, I would now have a dictator running the
country and I would stop this right to free speech and indepen-
dent thought that is threatening my rule on earth.