7 THE LAW OF IMAGINATION

That there is a law whereby we grow like whatever we hold in mind is but little known.

This law governs every person and is in constant operation.

Its effects can be seen on every hand by those who are not blind to its existence.

There is a time in infancy when the mind is purely hereditary. It is undeveloped in its subconsciousness - a clean phonograph cylinder, as it were, ready to receive its first impression. The parents have given it potentiality and hereditary proclivities, and the first notice it takes of anything puts on the first impression. Thereafter every time it takes notice of an object, a thought, an animal, additional impressions are added, while the thought atmosphere in which it lives is unceasingly writing upon it. Thus the individuality is formed without the conscious effort of the child.

At maturity there may be much undesirable matter recorded. Fear and indecision may be a part. To put additional impressions in a lasting way on to the cylinder it is necessary to first remove the existing matter. If the possessor concentrates his attention to the period in life prior to the first impression, he sees in imagination that period of life. It has a tendency to produce a condition similar to the one at that period. Persistently imagining will remove all early teachings and the effect of early surroundings, enabling the character to be formed by conscious direction as the owner wills.

Every thought now makes a new impression. Let him see the symbol of the thought before him and the cylinder receives an impression; similar thoughts produce deeper impressions.

Holding in mind the kind of person one desires to become builds the necessary elements into the cylinder or subconsciousness and he grows into that kind of a personality.

The jocular saying, "Think you are rich and you are rich," which the opponents of Christian Science so often use, if changed to read "Think of yourself as being rich and you will grow rich" would, if backed up by the essential force of character and energy, contain some truth.

On the other hand, force, wisdom and energy will bring results without the power of imagination, which can best be employed in building those qualities into the intellect.

The following article was clipped from a Chicago, IL., newspaper and speaks for itself: -

VIVID IMAGINATION KILLS A WOMAN

SHE THOUGHT SHE HAD BEEN POISONED, AND THIS SO AFFECTED THE ACTION OF HER HEART THAT SHE DIED.

“CHICAGO, Tuesday. - "Not poisoned, but dead because she thought she had been poisoned," was the singular verdict pronounced by Coroner's Physician Springer today, after performing an autopsy on the body of Virginia Jackson, an aged negro woman and former slave. "This old lady thought she had been poisoned," said Dr. Springer, "and it affected her heart to such an extent that it killed her. "

A neighbor gave Mrs. Jackson a bottle containing a brownish liquid. Evidently, say the police, the woman jumped to the conclusion, on feeling ill immediately after she had tasted of the contents of the bottle, that she had been poisoned.”

It was not the effect of the imagination on the heart that killed her. It was the severing of the spiritual chord that binds body and soul.

No, I am not a spiritualist!

The most marked effect of these early impressions is that the child when grown will resist any change. He believes anything with which he has been inoculated without regard to reason or truth. Knowing nothing of a higher mind, he rejects every aspiration whether advanced by his own soul or by another's.

The less the parents know the more firm is the conviction of the child in all their characteristics.

To induct a new and better mind he must first unlearn all he has been taught excepting whatever amount of courage, decision, etc., they might have had, and then build upon a new foundation.

By way of digression let us observe that old superstitions, the religion of our fathers, is clung to by some minds after their reason and their intuitive sense of the eternal fitness of things loudly proclaim its absurdity They cannot wholly remove the impressions of their strict training in youth even when those teachings are known to be false.

Sit by the fireside alone in the evening and imagine the word courage before you. Look at it. Spell it. Think of it. Let it sink deeply into your mind. Read your Bible and you will learn more about the power of imagination. You grow into the conditions you image before you. Imagine yourself an ideal man as nearly as you can conceive of perfection, not as regards your face or form, but as regards being a whole-souled, honest, earnest, steadfast personality; broad enough to see good in all religions, all nations, all individuals; big enough to think without excitement of owning thousands of dollars, lands, carriages and horses. Hold this ideal in your mind; then think of it often, and be not impatient as to results.

This law is not only true as to man, but to all life. Spotted buildings and fences cause an increase in the number of spotted cattle on the farm.

If this method is too intricate, let it rest for a time, but keep up your autosuggestions. Use these first, last and every day for developing any quality or element in which you may be deficient.