Psychology and Achievement | Page 7

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 the meaning in words. And nine persons out of ten while groping for appropriate words will unconsciously describe a spiral in the air with the forefinger.
Swing a locket in front of you, holding the end of the chain with both hands. You will soon see that it will swing in harmony with your thoughts. If you think of a circle, it will swing around in a circle. If you think of the movement of a pendulum, the locket will swing back and forth.
These experiments not only illustrate the impelling energy of thought and its power to induce bodily action, but they indicate also that the bodily effects of mental action are not limited to bodily movements that are conscious and voluntary.
[Sidenote: Scope of Mind Power]
The fact is, every mental state whether you consider it as involving an act of the will or not, is followed some kind of bodily effect, and every bodily action is preceded by some distinct kind of mental activity. From the practical science point of view every thought