Chapter - Index
CHAPTER 13
- THE BRAIN
A BROADCASTING AND RECEIVING STATION
FOR THOUGHT
The Twelfth Step toward Riches
MORE than twenty years ago, the author, working in conjunction
with the late Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, and Dr. Elmer R. Gates,
observed that every human brain is both a broadcasting and receiving
station for the vibration of thought.
Through the medium of the ether, in a fashion similar to that
employed by the radio broadcasting principle, every human brain
is capable of picking up vibrations of thought which are being released
by other brains.
In connection with the statement in the preceding paragraph,
compare, and consider the description of the Creative Imagination,
as outlined in the chapter on Imagination. The Creative Imagination
is the "receiving set" of the brain, which receives thoughts,
released by the brains of others. It is the agency of communication
between one's conscious, or reasoning mind, and the four sources
from which one may receive thought stimuli.
When stimulated, or "stepped up" to a high rate of
vibration, the mind becomes more receptive to the vibration of thought
which reaches it through the ether from outside sources. This "stepping
up" process takes place through the positive emotions, or the
negative emotions. Through the emotions, the vibrations of thought
may be increased.
Vibrations of an exceedingly high rate are the only vibrations
picked up and carried, by the ether, from one brain to another.
Thought is energy travelling at an exceedingly high rate of vibration.
Thought, which has been modified or "stepped up" by any
of the major emotions, vibrates at a much higher rate than ordinary
thought, and it is this type of thought which passes from one brain
to another, through the broadcasting machinery of the human brain.
The emotion of sex stands at the head of the list of human emotions,
as far as intensity and driving force are concerned. The brain which
has been stimulated by the emotion of sex, vibrates at a much more
rapid rate than it does when that emotion is quiescent or absent.
The result of sex transmutation, is the increase of the rate
of vibration of thoughts to such a pitch that the Creative Imagination
becomes highly receptive to ideas, which it picks up from the ether.
On the other hand, when the brain is vibrating at a rapid rate,
it not only attracts thoughts and ideas released by other brains
through the medium of the ether, but it gives to one's own thoughts
that "feeling" which is essential before those thoughts
will be picked up and acted upon by one's subconscious mind.
Thus, you will see that the broadcasting principle is the factor
through which you mix feeling, or emotion with your thoughts and
pass them on to your subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is the "sending station" of the
brain, through which vibrations of thought are broadcast. The Creative
Imagination is the "receiving set," through which the
vibrations of thought are picked up from the ether.
Along with the important factors of the subconscious mind, and
the faculty of the Creative Imagination, which constitute the sending
and receiving sets of your mental broadcasting machinery, consider
now the principle of auto-suggestion, which is the medium by which
you may put into operation your "broadcasting" station.
Through the instructions described in the chapter on auto-suggestion,
you were definitely informed of the method by which DESIRE may be
transmuted into its monetary equivalent.
Operation of your mental "broadcasting" station is
a comparatively simple procedure. You have but three principles
to bear in mind, and to apply, when you wish to use your broadcasting
station--the SUBCONSCIOUS MIND, CREATIVE IMAGINATION, and AUTO-SUGGESTION.
The stimuli through which you put these three principles into action
have been described--the procedure begins with DESIRE.
THE GREATEST FORCES ARE "INTANGIBLE"
The depression brought the world to the very border-line of understanding
of the forces which are intangible and unseen. Through the ages
which have passed, man has depended too much upon his physical senses,
and has limited his knowledge to physical things, which he could
see, touch, weigh, and measure.
We are now entering the most marvelous of all ages--an
age which will teach us something of the intangible forces of the
world about us. Perhaps we shall learn, as we pass through this
age, that the 'other self" is more powerful than the physical
self we see when we look into a mirror.
Sometimes men speak lightly of the intangibles--the things which
they cannot perceive through any of their five senses, and when
we hear them, it should remind us that all of us are controlled
by forces which are unseen and intangible.
The whole of mankind has not the power to cope with, nor to control
the intangible force wrapped up in the rolling waves of the oceans.
Man has not the capacity to understand the intangible force of gravity,
which keeps this little earth suspended in mid-air, and keeps man
from falling from it, much less the power to control that force.
Man is entirely subservient to the intangible force which comes
with a thunder storm, and he is just as helpless in the presence
of the intangible force of electricity--nay, he does not even know
what electricity is, where it comes from, or what is its purpose!
Nor is this by any means the end of man's ignorance in connection
with things unseen and intangible. He does not understand the intangible
force (and intelligence) wrapped up in the soil of the earth--the
force which provides him with every morsel of food he eats, every
article of clothing he wears, every dollar he carries in his pockets.
THE DRAMATIC STORY OF THE BRAIN
Last, but not least, man, with all of his boasted culture and
education, understands little or nothing of the intangible force
(the greatest of all the intangibles) of thought. He knows
but little concerning the physical brain, and its vast network of
intricate machinery through which the power of thought is translated
into its material equivalent, but he is now entering an age which
shall yield enlightenment on the subject. Already men of science
have begun to turn their attention to the study of this stupendous
thing called a brain, and, while they are still in the kindergarten
stage of their studies, they have uncovered enough knowledge to
know that the central switchboard of the human brain, the number
of lines which connect the brain cells one with another, equal the
figure one, followed by fifteen million ciphers.
"The figure is so stupendous," said Dr. C. Judson Herrick,
of the University of Chicago, "that astronomical figures dealing
with hundreds of millions of light years, become insignificant by
comparison. . . . It has been determined that there are from 10,000,000,000
to 14,000,000,000 nerve cells in the human cerebral cortex, and
we know that these are arranged in definite patterns. These arrangements
are not haphazard. They are orderly. Recently developed methods
of electro-physiology draw off action currents from very precisely
located cells, or fibers with micro-electrodes, amplify them with
radio tubes, and record potential differences to a millionth of
a volt."
It is inconceivable that such a network of intricate machinery
should be in existence for the sole purpose of carrying on the physical
functions incidental to growth and maintenance of the physical body.
Is it not likely that the same system, which gives billions of brain
cells the media for communication one with another, provides, also
the means of communication with other intangible forces?
After this book had been written, just before the manuscript
went to the publisher, there appeared in the New York Times, an
editorial showing that at least one great University, and one intelligent
investigator in the field of mental phenomena, are carrying on an
organized research through which conclusions have been reached that
parallel many of those described in this and the following chapter.
The editorial briefly analyzed the work carried on by Dr. Rhine,
and his associates at Duke University, viz:--
"What is 'Telepathy'?
"A month ago we cited on this page some of the remarkable
results achieved by Professor Rhine and his associates in Duke University
from more than a hundred thousand tests to determine the existence
of 'telepathy' and 'clairvoyance.' These results
were summarized in the first two articles in Harpers Magazine. In
the second which has now appeared, the author, E. H. Wright, attempts
to summarize what has been learned, or what it seems reasonable
to infer, regarding the exact nature of these 'extrasensory'
modes of perception.
"The actual existence of telepathy and clairvoyance now
seems to some scientists enormously probable as the result of Rhine's
experiments. Various percipients were asked to name as many cards
in a special pack as they could without looking at them and without
other sensory access to them. About a score of men and women were
discovered who could regularly name so many of the cards correctly
that 'there was not one chance in many a million million of
their having done their feats by luck or accident.'
"But how did they do them? These powers, assuming that they
exist, do not seem to be sensory. There is no known organ for them.
The experiments worked just as well at distances of several hundred
miles as they did in the same room. These facts also dispose, in
Mr. Wright's opinion, of the attempt to explain telepathy or
clairvoyance through any physical theory of radiation. All known
forms of radiant energy decline inversely as the square of the distance
traversed. Telepathy and clairvoyance do not. But they do vary through
physical causes as our other mental powers do. Contrary to widespread
opinion, they do not improve when the percipient is asleep or half-asleep,
but, on the contrary, when he is most wide-awake and alert. Rhine
discovered that a narcotic will invariably lower a percipient's
score, while a stimulant will always send it higher. The most reliable
performer apparently cannot make a good score unless he tries to
do his best.
"One conclusion that Wright draws with some confidence is
that telepathy and clairvoyance are really one and the same gift.
That is, the faculty that 'sees' a card face down on a table
seems to be exactly the same one that 'reads' a thought
residing only in another mind. There are several grounds for believing
this. So far, for example, the two gifts have been found in every
person who enjoys either of them. In every one so far the two have
been of equal vigor, almost exactly. Screens, walls, distances,
have no effect at all on either. Wright advances from this conclusion
to express what he puts forward as no more than the mere 'hunch'
that other extra-sensory experiences, prophetic dreams, premonitions
of disaster, and the like, may also prove to be part of the same
faculty. The reader is not asked to accept any of these conclusions
unless he finds it necessary, but the evidence that Rhine has piled
up must remain impressive."
In view of Dr. Rhine's announcement in connection with the
conditions under which the mind responds to what he terms "extra-sensory"
modes of perception, I now feel privileged to add to his testimony
by stating that my associates and I have discovered what we believe
to be the ideal conditions under which the mind can be stimulated
so that the sixth sense described in the next chapter, can be made
to function in a practical way.
The conditions to which I refer consist of a close working alliance
between myself and two members of my staff. Through experimentation
and practice, we have discovered how to stimulate our minds (by
applying the principle used in connection with the "Invisible
Counselors" described in the next chapter) so that we can,
by a process of blending our three minds into one, find the solution
to a great variety of personal problems which are submitted by my
clients.
The procedure is very simple. We sit down at a conference table,
clearly state the nature of the problem we have under consideration,
then begin discussing it. Each contributes whatever thoughts that
may occur. The strange thing about this method of mind stimulation
is that it places each participant in communication with unknown
sources of knowledge definitely outside his own experience.
If you understand the principle described in the chapter on the
Master Mind, you of course recognize the round-table procedure here
described as being a practical application of the Master Mind.
This method of mind stimulation, through harmonious discussion
of definite subjects, between three people, illustrates the simplest
and most practical use of the Master Mind.
By adopting and following a similar plan any student of this
philosophy may come into possession of the famous Carnegie formula
briefly described in the introduction. If it means nothing to
you at this time, mark this page and read it again after you have
finished the last chapter.
THE "depression" was a blessing in disguise.
It reduced the whole world to a new starting point that
gives every one a new opportunity.
|
Attribution: THINK and GROW RICH ©
1938, published 1938, by THE RALSTON SOCIETY, Meriden, Conn.
This text is in the public domain in the United States by the
terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it was
published between 1923 and 1964 inclusive, and not renewed at
the US Copyright office in a timely fashion. These files may
be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice
of attribution is left intact in all copies. This electronic
edition is not sponsored or endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated
with Napoleon Hill, his family and heirs, the Napoleon Hill
Foundation, the Ralston Society, or any past or present publishers
of this book. This is not a complete reproduction of the 1937/38
edition. The preface and the chapters have been reformatted
for this online version. While we have taken every precaution
to ensure accuracy, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the
text.