Psychology and Achievement | Page 7

[Sidenote: Thoughts Treated as Causes]
But the materialist, too, may in accordance with his speculative theory
continue to insist that brain-action is the "originating cause" of mental

life; yet if the facts show that certain thoughts are invariably followed
by certain bodily activities, the materialist may without violence to his
theories agree to the great practical value of treating these thoughts as
immediate causes, no matter what the history of creation may have
been.
Whatever the brand of your materialism or your religious belief, you
can join us in accepting this practical-science point of view as a
common platform upon which to approach our second fundamental
proposition, that "all bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed
by the mind."
[Sidenote: Scientific Method with Practical Problems]
Ignoring all religious and metaphysical questions, we have, then, to ask
ourselves merely: Can the mind be relied upon to bring about or stop
or in any manner influence bodily action? And if it can, what is the
extent of the mind's influence?
In answering these questions we shall follow the method of the
practical scientist, whose method is invariably the same whatever the
problem he is investigating.
This method involves two steps: first, the collection and classification
of facts; second, the deduction from those facts of general principles.
[Sidenote: Uses of Scientific Laws]
The scientist first gathers together the greatest possible array of
experiential facts and classifies these facts into sequences--that is to say,
he gathers together as many instances as he can find in which one given
fact follows directly upon the happening of another given fact.
Having done this, he next formulates in broad general terms the
common principle that he finds embodied in these many similar
sequences.
Such a formula, if there are facts enough to establish it, is what is

known as a scientific law. Its value to the world lies in this, that
whenever the given fact shall again occur our knowledge of the
scientific law will enable us to predict with certainty just what events
will follow the occurrence of that fact.
First, then, let us marshal our facts tending to prove that bodily
activities are caused by the mind.

INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
CHAPTER IV
INTROSPECTIVE EVIDENCE OF MENTAL MASTERY
[Sidenote: Doing the Thing You Want to Do]
The first and most conspicuous evidential fact is voluntary bodily
action; that is to say, bodily action resulting from the exercise of the
conscious will.
[Sidenote: Source of Power of Will]
If you will a bodily movement and that movement immediately follows,
you are certainly justified in concluding that your mind has caused the
bodily movement. Every conscious, voluntary movement that you
make, and you are making thousands of them every hour, is a distinct
example of mind activity causing bodily action. In fact, the very will to
make any bodily movement is itself nothing more nor less than a
mental state.
The will to do a thing is simply the belief, the conviction, that the
appropriate bodily movement is about to occur. The whole scientific
world is agreed on this.
For example, in order to bend your forefinger do you first think it over,
then deliberately put forth some special form of energy? Not at all: The
very thought of bending the finger, if unhindered by conflicting ideas,

is enough to bend it.
[Sidenote: Impellent Energy of Thought]
Note this general law: The idea of any bodily action tends to produce
the action.
This conception of thought as impellent--that is to say, as impelling
bodily activity--is of absolutely fundamental importance. The following
simple experiments will illustrate its working.
Ask a number of persons to think successively of the letters "B," "O,"
and "Q." They are not to pronounce the letters, but simply to think hard
about the sound of each letter.
[Sidenote: Bodily effects of Mental States]
Now, as they think of these letters, one after the other, watch closely
and you will see their lips move in readiness to pronounce them. There
may be some whose lip-movements you will be unable to detect. If so,
it will be because your eye is not quick enough or keen enough to
follow them in every case.
Have a friend blindfold you and then stand behind you with his hands
on your shoulders. While in this position ask him to concentrate his
mind upon some object in another part of the house. Yield yourself to
the slightest pressure of his hands or arms and you will soon come to
the object of which he has been thinking. If he is unfamiliar with the
impelling energy of thought, he will charge the result to mind-reading.
[Sidenote: Illustrative Experiments]
The same law is illustrated by a familiar catch. Ask a friend to define
the word "spiral." He will find it difficult to express