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The Man Who Could Not Lose - Davis
Here Is the Way to Reach the Man Inside You -Collier |
The Man Who Could Not Lose
Richard Harding Davis
65 pages
Here is the Way to Reach the Man Inside You
Robert Collier
12 pages
Charles Scribner's Sons
September 1911
My comments are not directed at the
The Man Who Could Not Lose by Richard Harding Davis, since after reading the commentary explaning the meaning behind it by Robert Collier titled
Here Is the Way to Reach the Man Inside You there was no desire to read the story itself.
Robert Collier is the author of
The Secret of the Ages, which is still in print in various formats and popular today. Collier's notion of how things work to the benefit of the person is a strange conglomeration of ideas that include a very twisted perception of Christian theology and something to be accessed in the subconscious mind that he calls Brownies. He summarizes in one sentence his materialistic premise for gaining wealth, "
All riches have their origin in the mind."
Collier interprets Scripture text by
eisegesis rather than
exegesis. In this respect, the benefit of the Christian student reading of a small amount of his manmade theology is for what I call
negative learning: Examine Scripture and compare what is real and true against this man's thought. I believe that Christian youth as young as middle school age will be able to understand that in no way does God's Word match Collier's ideas.
God can use tools like this to guide Christians to speak intelligently about Scripture truth. Christian riches and wealth are found in free grace and spiritual blessings. The abundant life is in the joy of knowing personally Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow... and all these things shall be added unto you.
This blog post is offered by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.
“Here
is the way to reach the man inside you."
by Robert Collier
The
Man Who Could Not Lose as written by Richard Harding Davis, is mere fiction, of
course. Well written and interesting,
but fiction. And yet-- if races were won solely on the speed and stamina of the
horses, it would be entirely possible to work out the results in just the way
outlined by Davis. Unfortunately, other factors frequently enter into every
betting game.
But
the idea behind the Davis’ story is entirely right. The way to contact with your subconscious mind,
the way to get the help of The Man Inside You in working out any problem, is
to:
First,
fill your mind with every bit of information regarding that problem that you
can lay your hands on.
Second,
pick out a chair or a lounge or bed where you can recline in perfect comfort,
where you can forget your body entirely.
Third,
let your mind to dwell upon the problem for a moment, not worrying, not
fretting, but placidly, and then turned it over to The Man Inside You. Say to
him—“This is your problem. You know the answer to everything. Work this out for
me!” And utterly relaxed, secure in the BELIEF--
nay, more, than belief-- the absolute KNOWLEDGE that your subconscious mind can
and will work out the answer for you. Drop off to sleep, if you can. At least,
drop into one of those half – sleepy, half – wakeful reveries that keep other
thoughts from obtruding upon your consciousness. When you awaken, you will have the answer.
Four.
What did ever thought, whatever problem you can get across to your subconscious mind at the moment of dropping
off to sleep, that Man Inside You, that Genie-of-your-Mind will work out for
you.
Of
course, not everyone can succeed in getting his thoughts across to the
subconscious at the first, or the second, or even the twentieth attempt. It is a nap that requires practice, like
every other. But to keep on trying and
you WILL do it. And when you do, the results are sure.
If
it is something that you want, VISUALIZE it first in your mind's eye, see it in
every possible detail, see yourself going through every move it will be
necessary for you to go through when your wish comes into being. Build up a complete story, step-by-step, just
as though you were acting it all out. Get from it every ounce of pleasure and
satisfaction that you can. Be thankful for this gift that has come to
you.
When
you waken, hold it all pleasantly in thought again for a few moments. Don't let doubts and fears creep in, but go
ahead, confidently, knowing that your wish is working itself out. None of this,
believe it-- and if there is nothing harmful in it, IT WILL WORK OUT!
“In
the Inner Consciousness of each of us,” quotes Dumont in “The Master Mind,” “there
are forces which act much the same as with countless tiny mental brownies or
helpers who are anxious and willing to assist us in our mental work, if we will
but have confidence and trust in them. This is a psychological truth expressed
in the terms of the old fairy tales. The process of calling into service these
Inner Consciousness helpers is similar to that which we constantly employ to
recall some forgotten fact or name. We find that we cannot recollect some
desired fact, date, or name, and instead of racking our brains with an
increased effort, we (if we have learned the secret) pass on the matter to the
Inner Consciousness with a silent command, ‘Recollect this name for me,’ and
then go on with our ordinary work. After a few minutes-- or it may be hours--
all of a sudden, pop! will come the missing name or fact before us-- flashed
from the planes of the Inner Consciousness, by the help of the kindly workers
or ‘brownies’ of those planes. The
experience is so common that we have ceased to wonder at it, and yet it is a
wonderful manifestation of the Inner Consciousness workings of the mind. Stop and think a moment, and you will see
that the missing word does not present itself accidentally, or ‘just because.’ There are
mental processes at work for your benefit, and when they have worked out the
problem for you they gleefully push it up from their plane on to the plane of
the outer consciousness where you may use it.
“We
know of no better way of illustrating the matter than by this fanciful gesture
of the ‘mental brownies,’ in connection with the illustration of the ‘subconscious
storehouse.’ If you would learn to take advantage
of the work of these Subconscious Brownies, we advise you to form a mental
picture of the Subconscious Storehouse in which is stored all sorts of
knowledge that you have placed there during your lifetime, as well as the
impressions that you have acquired by race inheritance-- racial memory, in
fact. The information stored away has often been placed in the storage rooms
without any regard for systematic storing, or arrangement, and when you wish to
find something that has been stored away their long time ago, the exact place
being forgotten, you are compelled to call to your assistance the little
brownies of the mind, which perform faithfully your mental command, ‘Recollect
this for me!’ These brownies are the
same little chaps that you charged with the task of waking you at four o'clock
tomorrow morning when you wish to catch an early train-- and they obeyed you
well in this work of the mental alarm-clock.
These same little chaps will also flash into your consciousness the
report’ I have an engagement at two o'clock with Jones’-- when looking at your
watch you will see that it is just a quarter before the hour of two, the time
of your engagement.
“Well
then, if you will examine carefully into a subject which you wish to master,
and will pass along the results of your observation to these Subconscious Brownies,
you will find that they will work the raw materials of thought into shape for
you in a comparatively short time. They
will arrange, analyze, systematize, collate, and arrange in consecutive order the
various details of information which you have passed on to them, and will add
thereto the various articles of similar information that they will find stored
away in the various recesses of your memory. In this way they will group
together various scattered bits of knowledge that you have forgotten. And,
right here, let us say to you that you never absolutely forget anything that
you have placed in your mind. You may be
unable to recollect certain things, but they are not lost-- sometime later
associative connection will be made with some other fact, and lo! the missing
idea will be found fitted nicely into its place in the larger idea-- the work
of our little brownies. Remember
Thompson's statement: ‘In view of having to wait for the results of these
unconscious processes, I have proved the habit of getting together material in
advance, and then leaving the mass to digest itself until I am ready to write
about it.’ This subconscious’ digestion’
is really the work of our little mental brownies.
“There are many
ways of setting the brownies to work. Nearly
everyone has had some experience, more or less, in the matter, although often
it is produced almost unconsciously, and without purpose and intent. Perhaps the best way for the average person--
or rather, the majority of persons-- to get the desired results is for one to
get as clear an idea of what one really wants to know-- as clear an idea or
mental image of the question you wished answered. Then after rolling it around in your mind--
mentally chewing it, as it were-- giving it a high degree of voluntary attention,
you can pass it on to your subconscious mentality with the mental command: ‘Attend
to this for me-- work out the answer!’ or some similar order. This command may be given silently or else
spoken out loud-- either will do. Speak to the Subconscious Mentality-- or its
little workers-- just as you would speak to persons in your employ, kindly but
firmly. Talk to the little workers, and
firmly commanded them to do your work. And
then forget all about the matter-- throw it off your conscious mind, and attend
to your other tasks. Then in due time
will come your answer-- flashed into your consciousness-- perhaps not until the
very minute that you must decide upon the matter, or need the information. You may give your brownies orders to report
as such and such a time-- just as you do when you tell them to awaken you at a
certain time in the morning so as to catch the early train, or just as they
remind you of the hour of your appointment, if you have them well-trained.”
“My
Brownies! God bless them!” said Robert
Louis Stevenson. “Who do one half of my work for me when I am fast asleep, and
in all human likelihood do the rest for me as well when I am awake and
foolishly suppose that I do it myself. I
had long been wanting to write a book on man's double being. For two days I went about racking my brains for a plot of
any sort, and on the second night I dreamt the scene in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
at the window; and a scene, afterword split in two, in which height, pursuit,
took the powder and underwent the change in the presence of his pursuer.”
Many
other famous writer has spoken in similar strain, and every man who has
problems to solve has had like experiences.
You know how, after you have studied a problem from all angles, it
sometimes seems worse jumbled then when you started on it? But leave it for awhile-- forget it-- and when you go back to it, you find your thoughts
clarified, the line of reasoning worked out, your problems solved for you.
Man's
principal business in life, as I see it, is to establish a contact with the Man
Inside”—call Him the “Brownies” of Stevenson, the Genii of the Arabian Nights,
or “The Father Within” that Jesus so often referred to. It is to acquire an understanding of this Power
that is within him. “Seek ye first he
Kingdom of God,” said Jesus, “and all those things shall be added unto you.” What is this “Kingdom of God”?
Jesus
tells us—“The Kingdom of God is within you.”
It is the “Father within” to which he gave the credit for all of His
wonderful works. It is the Mind—your part
of Universal Mind. “Seek first the
Kingdom of God.” Seek first an
understanding of this Power within you—learn to contact with it-- to use it—“
and all those things shall be added unto you.”
All
riches have their origin in mind. Wealth
is in ideas-- not money. Money is merely
the material medium of exchange for ideas.
The paper money in your pockets is in itself worth no more than so many
Russian rubles. It is the idea behind it
that gives it value. Factory buildings,
machinery, materials, are in themselves worthless without a manufacturing or a
selling idea behind them. How often you
see a factory fall to pieces, the machinery rest away, after the idea behind
them gives out. Factories, machines, are
simply the tools of the trade. It is the
idea behind them that makes them go.
So
don't go out a-seeking of wealth. Look
with a new for ideas! “The Kingdom of
God is within you.” Use it—Purposefully! Use your mind to THINK--constructively. Don't say you are thinking when all you are
doing is exercising your faculty of memory.
As Dumont says in “The Master Mind”—“They are simply allowing the stream
of memory to flow through their field of consciousness, while the Ego stands on
the banks and idly watches the passing waters of memory flow by. They called this ‘thinking’ while in reality
there is no process of Thought under way.”
They
are like the old mountaineers sitting in the shade alongside his cabin. Asked what he did to pass the long hours
away, he said—“Waal, sometimes I set and think; sometimes I just set.”
As
Dumont goes on to say, in quoting another writer: “When I use the word ‘thinking,’
I mean thinking with a purpose, within
and in view, thinking to solve a problem.
I mean the kind of thinking that is forced on us when we're deciding on
a course to pursue, on a life work you take up perhaps: the kind of thinking
that was forced upon us in our younger days when we had to find a solution to a
problem in mathematics, or when we tackled psychology in college. I do not mean ‘thinking’ in snatches, or holding
petty opinions on this subject and on that.
I mean thoughts on significant questions which lie outside the bounds of
your narrow personal welfare. This is
the kind of thinking which is now so rare-- so sadly needed!”
The
Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Thought, of Achievement, of Health, of
Happiness and Prosperity. “I came that
you might have life and have it more abundantly.” But you have got to seek it. You have got to do
more than ponder. You have got to think-- to think constructively-- to see
how you may discover new worlds, new methods, new needs, to send the “Man
Inside You” out after those things you cannot get for yourself.
And
remember, the greatest discoveries arise out of something which everybody has SEEN,
but only one man has NOTICED. The
biggest fortunes are made out of the opportunities which many men HAD, but only
one man SAW.
When
you become conscious, even to a limited degree, of your oneness with “The
Father Within You,” of your ability to call upon Him at will for anything you
may need, after you have done everything in your power and failed, it makes a
different man of you. Gone are the
fears. Gone are the worries. You know that your success, your health, your
happiness will be measured only by the degree to which you can impress the
fruition of your desires upon Mind. You
know that the “Man Inside You” will bring you anything you may rightfully need
That
knowledge is the Talisman of Napoleon-- the confident assurance that the
obstacle is not made which you cannot overcome, the odds not computed which you
cannot face.
“Happy is the
man that findeth wisdom,
and the man that
getteth understanding.
For the gaining
of it is better than the gaining of silver.
And the profit
thereof than fine gold.
She is more
precious than rubies:
And none of the
things thou canst desire are to be compared unto her.
Length of days
is in her right hand:
In her left hand
are riches and honor.
Her ways are
ways of pleasantness,
And all her
paths are peace.
She is a tree of
life to them that lay hold upon her.
And happy is
everyone that retaineth her.”
--Proverbs
Robert
Collier
