By William W Atkinson (1908)
In our last chapter we considered the manifestation of Mental
Influence at a distance in so far as was concerned the influencing
of one or more persons by another. There is another phase of the
subject that must not be overlooked, and that is the influencing
of large numbers of people by some active, strong projector of
Mental Influence. This form of the manifestation of the power is
known as "Mental Influencing En Masse" � "En Masse," of course,
means "in a body" � or "in a crowd," and Mental Influencing En
Masse means the use of the influence in the phase of exerting a
strong attracting or directing power to the mind or "the crowd,"
or rather, "the public," or a large number of people.
This form of the use of the power is that consciously or
unconsciously exerted by the great leaders of men in the fields of
statesmanship, politics, business, finance or military life. You
will at once recall a number of the so � called "great men" of
history from ancient times down to our own times who seemed to
exert a wonderfully, almost miraculous, effect upon the minds of
the people, causing men to see things through the eyes of the
strong man, and making of all instruments to carry out the ideals,
will or desires of these great masters of Mental Influence. And on
a smaller scale are the majority of the successful people who
depend upon public support. In fact, this influence in some degree
is used by nearly all who succeed in any form of business or
profession, in which success calls for the attraction of other
people toward the occupation of the person in question. This may
seem like a strange thought to many, but occultists know it as the
truth, notwithstanding.
The most common form of Influencing En Masse is the lesser degree
manifestation, along unconscious lines, manifested by a majority
of people by reason of their desire for the success of certain
things. By desire we do not mean the mere "wanting" or "wishing"
state of mind, but rather than eager longing, craving, demanding
mental state that evinces a hungry reaching out for the desired
thing. You will notice that the men and women who "get things" are
generally those who are possessed of a strong, burning desire for
the things in question, which prompts them to be more of less
aggressive in the search for satisfaction of the desire possessing
them. These people are constantly sending out strong waves of
thought�vibrations, which has a drawing, attracting influence upon
all with whom they come in contact, and tending to draw such
persons toward the center of attraction, which is, of course, the
mind of the person sending out such thoughts. And in the same way
a person possessed of a strong Fear of a thing will send out
similar attracting waves, which have a tendency to attract or draw
to him the people calculated to bring about the materialization of
the thing feared. This may sound paradoxical, but the secret lies
in the fact that in both the case of Desire and Fear the mind
forms the Mental Image, which tends to become materialized. Fear,
after all, is a form of "expectation," which, alas! Too often
tends to materialize it. "The thing that I have feared, hath come
upon me," says Job, and in that saying he has stated the
experience of the race. The way to fight things you may fear is to
create a burning desire for the opposite thing.
Other persons who have either studied the principles of Mental
Influence, or else have stumbled upon certain facts concerning the
same, improve upon this elementary form of Influencing En Masse
just mentioned. They send out the Thought�Waves consciously and
deliberately, erecting the mental image, and holding strongly to
it, so that in time their sweeps of mental currents reach further
and further away and bring a greater number of people under the
influence and into the field of attraction. They "treat" the
public "en masse" by holding the strong mental picture of that
which they desire, and then sending out strong thought�currents of
desire in all directions, willing that those coming within their
radius shall be attracted toward the ideas expressed in the Mental
Image projected in all directions.
The constant dwelling upon some special object of subject, by men
who have developed concentration, strong wills and fixity of
purpose has the effect of sending out from the mind of that person
great circles, constantly widening, of Thought � Waves, which
sweep ever outward like waves in a pond caused by dropping in a
stone. These waves reach and affect a great number of people, and
will render them at least "interested" in the object or subject
thought of, and the indifference has been overcome. Other appeals
to the minds of these people will be far more likely to reach them
than otherwise, for "interest" is the first step toward attention,
and attention is another step toward action.
Of course, there are very many people sending out circles of
Thought � Waves, and these currents come in contact with each
other and tend to neutralize each. But now and then a particularly
strong man will send out waves that will persist even after
meeting other currents, and will reach the minds of the public in
spite of the opposition. These thought � currents have the
personality of the sender, and reflect the character of his will,
be it strong or weak. The Mental Influence sent out by a strong
business man in a town will soon make itself felt in a subtle
manner, and the store becomes a center of attractive influence,
although the public does no understand just why. In the same way
some lawyers spring into public favor, although not possessing
greater ability than their legal brethren. And popular preachers
make their influence felt in a community in similar ways, although
often they are not conscious of just what force they are using,
their only knowledge being that they have a feeling of inward
strength and an attractive influence over people, and at the same
time a burning ardent desire to draw people their way, and a
strong will to back it up with. And these are just the mental
qualities that create and manifest the strongest kind of Mental
Influence. And, besides, these people almost invariably "know just
what they want" � there is no mere vague "wishing" about them �
they make a clear mental picture of the things that they wish to
bring about, and then they bend every effort toward materializing
the picture. Everything they do towards accomplishing their ends
gives an additional impetus to their constantly widening and
constantly strengthening circle of power and influence.
Some masters of this art of influencing the public create a mental
picture of themselves sending out great volumes of Thought�Waves
for a time, and then afterward mentally imparting a rotary motion
to the waves, until at last they form a mental whirlpool rushing
round and round and always sucking in toward the center. An effort
of this kind acts on the mental plane just as a physical whirlpool
acts on the physical plane, that is it draws into its power all
that comes in contact with its force. This is one of the most
powerful forms of Influencing En Masse, and is used with great
effect by many of the "strong men" of this age, who have
acquainted themselves fully with the secrets of the ancient
occultists. Ancient Occultism and Modern Finance seem far apart,
but they are really working together to further the interests of
some of these powerful minds of the day � and the public is paying
the bill.
You will readily see from what has been said that an individual
who has cultivated the faculty of concentration and has acquired
the art of creating sharp, clear, strong mental images, and who
when engaged in an undertaking will so charge his mind with the
idea of success, will be bound to become an attracting center. And
if such an individual will keep his mental picture ever in his
mind, even though it may be in the background of his mind, when he
is attending to the details and planning of his affairs � if he
will give his mental picture a prominent place in his mental
gallery, taking a frequent glance at it, and using his will upon
it to create new scenes of actual success, he will create for
himself a center of radiating thought that will surely be felt by
those coming within its field of influence.
Such a man frequently "sees" people coming to him and his
enterprises and falling in line with his plans. He mentally "sees"
money flowing in to his, and all of his plans working out right.
In short, he mentally imagines each step of his plans a little
ahead of the time for their execution and he concentrates forcibly
and earnestly upon them. It is astonishing to witness how events,
people, circumstances and things seem to move in place in actual
life as if urged by some mighty power to serve to materialize the
conditions so imaged in the mind of the man. But, understood,
there has got to be active mental effort behind the imaging.
Daydreamers do not materialize thought - they merely dissipate
energy. The man who converts thought in activity and material
being, throws energy into the task and puts forth his will�power
through the picture on the slide. With the rays of the will there
will be no picture projected, no matter how beautifully the
imagination has pictured it. Thought pictured in mental images and
them vitalized by the force of the desire and will tend to
objectify themselves into material beings. That is the whole thing
in a nutshell.
10. The Need of the Knowledge
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