Section 1 - Part A:

The three phases of mind 

Our first aim will be to get a composite or bird's-eye view of your entire mind, and then separately to explore and understand all of its phases. We will consider the Objective Mind, with which you reason, think, desire and will. This phase lies immediately in the foreground of your mentality and, since you are already fairly familiar with it, we will not linger there very long. 

Next, we will explore your Subjective Mind, with which you are not so familiar. There we shall find the material of which your dreams are made; the storeroom in which all memories of your past life are stored and classified; and the prison-house where all the passions, fears, longings, desires and tendencies that you have ever tried to put out of your life are shackled and caged, but still active. 

Then we will pass along to the realm of your Subconscious Mind, which planned and built your body before ever you had evolved a reasoning mind, and which still sustains and repairs it. Here we shall find the centre of communication from which all the involuntary processes of your body are directed – such processes, for instance, as digestion, assimilation, elimination, and the manufacture of the various glandular secretions. The subconscious is a wonderful phase of your mind, about which you probably know almost nothing. It thinks things into existence; in fact, it does all its work by the sheer power of its thought. And it knows a wonderful lot more than how to build, repair and operate a body. Before we reach the end of the journey you will be taught how to communicate with it at will, and how to invoke its marvellous wisdom and power, not only for the establishment of health, but for the acquirement of other things that you desire. 

All three phases of mind are manifestations - a sign of something existing or happening - within you of the universal creative Mind, from which your subconscious Mind in particular derives its wonderful creative wisdom and power. Here, too, you will find the tie that binds you to every other living thing, and get a glimpse of your possibilities and powers which will dazzle your reason and stagger your imagination. 

The journey must be made in friendship. I want you to feel that I am your friend and your guide, and that I know the way better than you know it. I want you also to understand that there is no power inherent in me that is not inherent in you; and before we come to the end of tire way I trust that you will realise, as I realise now, that we two are mentally one, our minds being merely separate out-cropping’s or manifestations of one great universal Mind or Over-Soul from which all creation springs. 

Our journey will be divided into twenty-four Parts or twelve Lessons complete with self-assessing Test Questions and Model Answers. At the end of each part you can pause to take stock of what you have learned by answering the Test Questions which belong to it. Give some thought to your mistakes, and if you made too many mistakes, study the Lesson again. 

You are also at liberty to submit any problem relating to the course under the terms of our free Personal consultation service. you have my assurance that these problems will be treated with the utmost confidence, and that you will receive full and frank advice concerning them. To the trained psychologist the problems that break human hearts, wreck human lives and destroy business prospects are usually not very difficult to solve.

Practical Psychology for Everyone 

It is not essential that you should have previously studied the subject of Practical Psychology, nor that you should have had a good education. In preparing this course of work and study I have constantly strived to adapt it to the understanding, needs and education of just ordinary men and women such as we meet every day in the streets, in the factories, in the various services, in offices and business houses, in the churches and in the homes. while the Lessons embrace the cardinal principles - ones which are considered to be the most important - of many scientific discoveries touching the marvellous possibilities of the human mind, they contain no technical terms, and may be readily understood and put into practice by anyone who is able to read and write ordinary everyday English. Moreover, if you should chance to find any points that are not clear to you, they will all be cleared up in the course of the work, by the Model Answers to the Test Questions, and by the Personal Consultation Service if required. 

I am making this explanation just here because I want you to understand, at the very beginning, that you are not starting a difficult task, nor one that requires any special qualifications. 

Happiness and success can be yours 

You are now entering upon one of the most important undertakings of your life. You are not satisfied with your present conditions and circumstances, otherwise you would never have come so far in your search for something better. You are searching for a happiness that you have not yet found. You are tired of half-health, partial success, loneliness, doubt, worry, dread and unhappiness. Something within you urges you on to do big things, to be well, to be happy; in spite of all your doubts and fears you feel that you possess the ability to do and to be all these things, if only you could bring that ability to the surface and put it to work. That something within you which urges you on is the real 'I" of your personality. It is timeless and deathless, abundantly able and wilfing to bring you into a splendid realisation of your hopes and desires. You probably do not know what that something within you is, but in response to its urge you have come out from the unthinking crowd, and in your quest of more abundant life and happiness you have come at last to Realization. 

Once you have found the way you seek, it will lead you on to a higher, nobler and more abundant life. 

Your first work will be to learn. You cannot expect to put the truth into practice until you have learned it. But I will from time to time give you some practical work to do in answering the Test Questions, and in doing that work you will very soon begin to get practical results. 

If you are of a religious turn of mind, be assured that Practical Psychology is not a religion, nor does it seek to stand in the place of religion. It is a fact, however, that in a course of this nature it is not possible to avoid the discussion of religion completely, and we shall not attempt to do so. 

The teachings here before you are not merely my own deductions; they are based upon the exact findings and elaborate experiments of the greatest scientists, physicians and psychologists in the world. Moreover, they have been put to the test of practical application by thousands of ordinary men and women, and they actually work - not merely in a few isolated cases, but in nearly every case in which they are honestly and intelligently applied. 

Application of the methods 

If you are not well, our first practical work will be in the application of certain methods of Practical Psychology.

• We will take up your business problems. If you are not succeeding as you wish, we will find the cause, apply the proper remedies, and set your feet upon the highway to supreme success. 

• You will learn a simple method of training your memory so that you can quickly remember names, faces, facts, data, incidents - in fact, much of all you have ever seen, heard or read: for the things you seem to have forgotten are only mislaid in your mental storehouse, and in the course of this work that storehouse will be set in order. 

• We will take up the fascinating subject of Psycho-Analysis, examine its fundamental principles, and find a simple method whereby you may in a large measure obtain its benefits without going to a Psycho-Analyst.

• We will go into a full discussion of love, learning what it really is, and how any normal person may enjoy the supreme happiness of a perfect relationship.

If you have come to the years of middle age or beyond, I can imagine you saying: "If I were younger, I might accomplish all these things, but some of them are beyond the ability of one at my time of life.' 

But, in taking up this work you are going back to begin life anew. Your next birthday cake should have only one candle on it. If you have years to shed, prepare to shed them now, for they will not go very far with you on this journey. The cells of your flesh and bones are constantly renewing themselves by reproduction, and you will learn how to direct your Subconscious Mind in its body-building work. 

I fully realise that I am here holding out lavish hopes. Even more, I realise that you may consider them extravagant beyond the possibility of fulfilment, and conclude that in holding them out to you I prove myself to be recklessly irresponsible. My answer to this possible attitude of mind on your part is just this: Every one of these hopes, except that pertaining to renewed youth, has been fulfilled in the lives of my students. In fact, my files are teeming with reports of their fulfilment. And while no aged person has yet fully regained his youth, a good number of them report that they feel much younger, and that their friends comment upon their rejuvenated appearance. This system of thought and life is still young, so that no one has had time fully to rejuvenate himself or herself; but, viewing the matter in the light of what has already been achieved, I dare hope for some remarkable accomplishments in this branch of the work in future. 

Your doubts and disbeliefs are just so many dead carcasses chained to you and holding you back from the triumphs and rewards that are yours by right of birth. Break loose from them, bury them, and let us be away upon our journey. 

Your - indwelling “I” 

Human beings have always believed that they were something else besides the common and cheap materials of which their bodies are composed. A human body of average weight is composed of about enough lime to whitewash a chicken-coop; enough phosphorus to make about three dozen boxes of matches; enough sulphur for a packet of sulphur tablets: enough iron to make three small nails; enough carbon, oxygen and hydrogen to make a few gallons of carbonated water; also a few traces of other cheap and common materials. The total of all these substances is worth only a few pennies. 

Human beings in all ages have refused to believe that those few cheap mineral substances and gases constituted the sum-total of their existence. They have regarded the physical body as being one of their physical possessions, and themselves as something apart from that body. Men and women everywhere constantly use the words 'my hands', "my feet", "my head", "my body", and so on, indicating an inner conviction that the physical body is merely one of their possessions. 

As to the exact nature of the real "I" which possesses and occupies the physical body, there have been many conflicting and changing views. 

Thousands of years have been devoted to the problem of defining this indwelling and possessing "I": but very little progress has been made. 

Men and women have also long been convinced that if they could find out just what the indwelling and possessing "I' within them really is, and its relationship to the great Creative Source, they would solve all of their other problems, and rise to new levels of peace, love, success and happiness. They have instinctively recognised the great truth that so long as they remain in ignorance of their real nature, and of their relationship to the Source of Creation and Life, they will make blunders of thought and action which will bring down upon them disappointment, worry, failure, heartache, sickness and sorrow. 

The truth about your real nature 

And, of course, men and women have also realised that if they could learn the truth about their real nature, and about their relation to the Source of Creation and Life, they would know how to think, act, and live, in order to get the things, they desire, to be what they want to be, and to accomplish the things they wish to accomplish. 

The great masses of men and women are in dense ignorance as to who and what they really are, where they came from, what they are here for, where they are going when they leave here, and what they should do in order to get themselves the happiness they crave while they are here. They are surrounded by mysteries they cannot understand. They are kicked around by forces over which they have no control. They are constantly violating powerful unknown mental and spiritual laws, the penalties of which violations are failure, disappointment and unhappiness. Darkness lies behind them, darkness ahead of them. The fickle and uncertain light which shines about them as they pass through this life leads them into pitfalls, and into byways beset with the thorns and nettles of sickness, disappointment, failure and misery. 

For human beings passing through life in ignorance of their real nature, and of the mental and spiritual laws which govern that nature, the only guiding ray of light is Hope; and at last, it turns out to be a light that fails. In early life they set forth with great expectations. They believe that they will accomplish big things, and have all that is necessary for their happiness. They believe that they will be eminently successful in their chosen work, that they will be respected and honoured, and that their lives will be blessed and enriched by the happiness of perfect relationships. The very thought of death is hideous and terrible - life holds so many charms! 

They soon learn, however, that their guiding light of hope is not infallible. They begin to encounter disappointments. Their plans begin to miscarry. The things that they thought would bring happiness bring only misery. But the light of hope still shines tauntingly ahead, as though it would say: "It is better farther on. 'And so they bind up the wounds and bruises of their disappointments and failures, and push on - only to encounter additional failures and disappointments. 

So, they continue until the evening comes - and the light of hope begins to flicker and fade into the darkness which lies at the end of life as well as at its beginning. Then the thought of death is no longer so hideous and terrible. They look back upon life with sadness and regret. Alas for the fine things they wished to accomplish! Alas for the comfortable abundance they hoped to possess! Alas for the honour they planned to gather unto themselves! Alas and alack for love! They realise that they have followed a false light, which has led them to miss life's real opportunities. It dawns upon them that in some unknown way they have violated the mental and spiritual laws of success and happiness. And it is now too late to try to begin all over again. So, they drift sullenly and complainingly down into the darkness, hoping that beyond the darkness there may be another realm of true light where they may profit by their mistakes and find the happiness which this present life has denied them. 

If only the people in general could know the liberating truth, how this gloomy picture of human life would be changed! in the twelve Lessons of this Course a new revelation of the liberating truth will be given. The purpose for which man and woman were created will be revealed and the plans for their lives and final destiny discussed. The hidden forces upon which they may draw for getting the things and conditions they want will be described, and the ways and means by which they may draw on these hidden forces will be given in detail. The reason for the creation of a world of life divided into male and female, and the plan and purpose of sex from both the physical plane and the spiritual plane - all of these things, and many more equally as vital and fascinating, will be told in language as simple as that used in this first lesson. 

Hidden Treasures 

You have hidden within you unknown and unused treasures! 

There was once a desolate stretch of barren and unproductive sand. Many people had walked over it, plodding wearily along, seeking a better and more inviting place. Then one day a man paused to dig into the barren sand - and discovered one of the world's richest deposits of gold! 

On the surface you may seem barren - nothing but sand and rocks. But beneath the surface there is a mine of far greater value than the gold that lay under the barren sand. You may not realise that this vast wealth is buried within you; but it is - waiting for you to find and use it. 

Others passing by may think you uninteresting. And maybe you are - on the surface. You yourself may think that you are commonplace. It may be that you have sometimes secretly said to yourself something like this: "I am dull and unattractive. I have no force of character. I have no personal charm. I have no money-making ability. I can do nothing excellently. I see this genius play the violin, that one sing, another build, and another amass money, speak eloquently or write charmingly. But my gifts are trifling. As compared with these other talented, charming and successful people, I am just a "nobody'- an utter failure. A is beautiful, B is strong, C is learned, D is talented. But I - well, I sometimes wonder if I was not overlooked when talents were being distributed." 

If you have ever thought these unlovely things about yourself, don't think them anymore. They are not true. Deep down within you are strange and marvellous treasures. Among those treasures are success, charm of Personality, Love and Happiness. Maybe you have never found these treasures, but they are there - within you. And they will stay there unused until you die if you don't find them. They will not rise to the surface of their own accord. It may be that you have already found a part of the treasures of your "soul-mine', but you have not found all of them. Even the greatest, best and happiest men and women have only scratched the surface. 

In you is Power. Power to make your life what you want it to be; power to get the things and conditions necessary to your happiness; power to achieve the things you wish to achieve; power to climb to the place among men and women that you want to occupy. This power lies deep' You may never have touched this rich vein of the mine within you' But it is there, and you can draw upon it and use it. 

In you is Beauty. Every human soul is beautiful - somewhere. Down there within you are loveliness, charm, sparkling personality, a wonderful order and beauty. This treasure of "Spiritual Beauty" and Charm is worth seeking and cultivating. 

In you is wisdom. In fact, there is real wisdom inside yourself and it can be put to work in your life and affairs. Wisdom to guide your every thought, plan, act and word, so that you will obtain and achieve the things that will make you happy. The Great Intelligence which pervades the universe has planted a part of its Wisdom in your soul. Buried in your soul there is also the crystallised wisdom of all the generations that have gone before you. You can find the gems of this wisdom, sparkling like diamonds, if you will only seek them' 

In you is Goodness. The granite rocks of rugged goodness underlie every human soul. Unless you have already found this treasure you are poor indeed. In you are Peace, Contentment, Righteousness and Loyalty' 

In you are charm, Force, Riches, Passion and Joy. They, too, are parts of that wonderful thing that men call "Personality"' They, too, are treasures that the Great Intelligence has put into your "soul-mine"' You are now starting out to find this mass of wealth hidden within you - to bring all these treasures to the surface in your life - to achieve for yourself the things and conditions necessary to your happiness and success. 

This Wonderful Way 

But at the entrance to the Way we seek we come to a barrier which is purely mental, and which can be passed only by mental means. This wonderful Way is sometimes found by those who ignorantly stumble upon it. But for the great masses of humanity, it is true that if one knows nothing about the Way, one will never find it. We must first realise that there is such a Way, learn something of its nature and then seek it intelligently. These are all mental processes and require some knowledge of the human mind. 

In the rest of this first part of - lesson one of the course - I shall talk to you about the human mind, and about the mental processes of finding the Way of More Abundant Life. 

I come to you with wide experience in these things. Many thousands of men and women have come to me in search of the way of More Abundant Life. The great majority of them did the work, found the way, and gained the rewards. Many of these thousands were just average men and women, with Just average human problems - and they succeeded in happily solving their problems and getting the things and conditions they desired. Many others of them came to me as nervous wrecks, mental wrecks, financial wrecks - and by learning and using my simple teachings they succeeded in transforming their lives, and winning health, success, love and happiness. I know these are hackneyed and overworked words. But they still mean a wonderful lot in human lives. consider, for instance, that word "success' - the most hackneyed and overworked of them all. Think what it means to human beings to plan and strive and fail, over and over again, until their hearts are heavy and their spirit broken - and then to find the way to be what they want to be, to possess the things they desire and to accomplish the things they wish to accomplish! 

It has been my great privilege to know of many such wonderful experiences. And to one who has actually experienced this miracle of happiness the word "success' does not seem so hackneyed and overworked. The same thing might be said of all the other words I have used to describe the freeing of men and women from failure, disappointment and unhappiness. 

The Mind in its Entirety 

The individual human mind is composed of three parts or phases: the objective Mind, the subjective Mind and the subconscious Mind. 

If we let a circle represent the entire mind, it may be divided into three sections like the diagram shown on the facing page. 

The actual divisions are not as clear-cut as this diagram indicates. The objective Mind gradually shades off into the Subjective, and the Subjective gradually shades off into the Subconscious, in somewhat the same way that the colours of the rainbow blend into each other at their edges. 

Diagram roughly tells the truth, and we shall have occasion to refer to it again.

The Objective Mind 

Let us first consider briefly the Objective Mind. It is the phase of mind in which we consciously function in our daily lives. It is the only phase of mind with which the average man and woman are at all familiar. It is the mind with which we perceive and reason. It can function only through the frontal portions of the brain. In fact, it is composed entirely of perceptions that we have received through one or more of the five senses and of deductions based upon these perceptions. 

We see, therefore, that the Objective Mind is a rather limited mind, being confined in the scope of its actual knowledge to the things that can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, or felt. And a moment's reflection will demonstrate that it is a somewhat inefficient and unreliable mind. 

No two persons perceive things exactly alike; no two reason exactly alike; no two make the same deductions: and no two reach the same conclusions. The human brain reflects the Objective Mind in as many different ways as there are different people in the world. 

No two people make the same perceptions of the same event or thing. There is a motor accident in the street, with a dozen people looking straight at it. In court they will all tell different stories of what happened - some of these stories being so conflicting that they cannot all be even substantially true. This does not mean that some or all of the witnesses are lying. It means merely that what happened was differently perceived by their Objective Minds. 

If we pause to reflect that the sum-total of our acquired knowledge is largely composed of perceptions of what our senses have experienced, and of evidence coming to us from others whose minds are no more reliable than our own, we may be appalled at how small our actual knowledge is. You may not be surprised, therefore, when I tell you that a large part of your objective knowledge is false knowledge; that many of the things you believe are untrue; and that the world is full of wonderful things of which you know nothing at all. The great majority of people are constantly acting upon this false knowledge and these false beliefs, and the result is that they are constantly experiencing failure, half-success and disappointment. The Cognitive Insight System leads the student to the Source of Knowledge and helps him to put his life and affairs under the direction and guidance of that Source. 

But the Objective Mind, frail and inaccurate though it may be, is nevertheless, the helmsman of the ship of your destiny. 

It contains the faculties of Attention| Reason | Desire | Will and Perception |; and these more than atone for all its short comings. 

• The first faculty is Attention, which you bring into play when you are trying to solve a difficult problem or to memorise something. The Test Questions at the end of each Lesson are designed, among other things, to polish it and make it more valuable. You will need it in your later work. 

• The second is Reason, which will enable you to make choices and decisions, and which the Test Questions are also designed to educate.  

• The third is Desire, which is as fickle as the opal, but possessed of a dynamic power which urges us on to accomplish things. 

• The fourth is Will which, as you will learn later, is a changeable gem, sometimes of good omen and sometimes of bad, and requiring very careful handling.  

• The fifth is Perception. Perception is the awareness of something impinging upon our sense organs. Colours, the notes of a melody, a choice wine, a handshake, the smell of a perfume, are examples of perception. A perception does not exactly reproduce what is perceived, but it is affected by individual peculiarities of the person who perceives it. A witness giving evidence in court does not narrate what really happened, but what he or she perceived to happen. Discrepancies in the accounts of witnesses of an accident are due to their previous experience of similar situations and their attitude towards the present one.

We have now seen that the Objective Mind pays attention to a certain thing: reasons out that thing; desires that thing; wills to possess or accomplish that thing; and perceives the thing it desires. 

These five faculties - Attention, Reason, Desire, Will and Perception - are the only attributes of the Objective Mind that will be of any value to us in the work we are undertaking here, and the methods of their employment will be fully considered at other points farther along.

The Subjective Mind 

Next below the Objective Mind lies the Subjective Mind. At its upper border it blends with the objective Mind and takes part of its nature. This leads to the formation of an intermediate "twilight zone", which lies between the two phases. 

The subjective Mind is the most interesting of all the mental phases, because it is so complex, so versatile, and prone to do so many unexpected things. 

Psychologists have sometimes likened the subjective Mind to the lower storey of a two-storey house, and have compared the objective Mind to the upper storey of the same house. In our everyday lives and affairs, we live in the upper storey. We usually try to make it a place of decency, refinement and noble thoughts. There we have our education, music, art, social contacts, religion, charity, loyalty, obedience to law and the conventions of society, and all the other things that occupy the Objective Minds of civilised men and women. 

But the fact that we normally live in the upper storey of our mental house does not mean that there is no lower storey. A motley and disreputable gang occupies the lower storey. Most of us get glimpses of these lower-floor dwellers once in a while. Of course, we don't want to see them, nor hear them, nor have anything whatever to do with them. And we have placed a burly watchman on the stairs to keep them from coming up on the first floor. This watchman is a faculty of the lower stratum of the objective Mind, and is technically known as the psychic censor. He is the same mental person who is sometimes known as Conscience. When we say that one's conscience is dead, we mean that the watchman on the stairs has ceased to function, and the disreputable crew from the lower floor swarms up and takes charge of the first floor. 

The Objective Mind knows nothing but what it learns after birth. At birth its book of knowledge is a blank book. But not so with the Subjective Mind. At birth its book of knowledge is full of wisdom, written in its own sign-language, and dealing with events in a far remote past. The newly hatched chick is desperately afraid of large birds flying through the air, and of small animals creeping along the ground, because its ancestors often saw swift and terrible death thus come upon their parents. Most horses are afraid of domestic cats, because at one time the horse was small and the cat was large, and the big cats were especially fond of the flesh of the little horses. 

The Subjective Mind is also the dream-mind, and your dreams deal not with your future but with your past. Week-old babies, who have never had any terrifying experience of their own, often awake screaming with fright, perhaps because in their dreams they are living through some terrifying experience of one of their ancestors. You may question this statement that dreams deal with the past and not with the future. You may know of some dream that "came true'. An idea produced by a dream may realise itself; under proper conditions, just as any other idea may so realise itself; and the mystery and superstition clustering about dreams tend to produce just the proper conditions for this realisation. Farther along in this Course you will be taught how to make ideas realise themselves intelligently in your body and in your affairs, but this is a matter that cannot be dealt with now. My purpose in referring to the subject at this stage is to explain a statement that otherwise might seem to you to be untrue. 

But even in its wisdom, the Subjective Mind is still a child - a hardened little Tom Thumb who has witnessed the long struggle of humanity towards a higher, nobler and happier life, without realising what it was all about - a wizened little brat who often looks with disdain and pity upon the foibles and shams with which men and women sometimes try to construct a veneer of civilization. 

The language of the Subjective Mind, like that of the Subconscious Mind, is, as indicated before, one of mental images, and the employment of these mental images is, in its correct sense and derivation, Imagination. By exercising the faculty of Imagination, the artist paints a picture of something that never existed, and the author writes an entrancing story about people who never lived and events that never happened. This is called creative Imagination, and I want to say in passing that Imagination may be used in the creation of many other and more substantial things than pictures and stories. of this I shall have something to say a little later.  

If you refer to the "Mind" diagram You will notice that the Subjective Mind lies between the objective and Subconscious Minds, thus separating them. Turn back to the diagram and get this firmly fixed in your memory. It is important. At a later stage of your work, it will shed a flood of light upon many things that you have not understood up to now, and will greatly help you to progress. 

The subconscious mind

It is my purpose now to take you to the basement of your mental house and to give you some kind of a brief introduction to the one who lives there. I want you to realise that the Dweller in the basement was there before your body was formed. It came on the scene with the plans and specifications when your body was just a single cell, formed from the union of a male and female cell; and from that beginning until now it has made and kept your body what it has been and is to-day you have done and thought many things that hindered it in its work; but it has been constantly working. It occupies a part of your brain which you cannot normally use, and has an elaborate system of nerves which it uses as telephone lines, over which you cannot normally send a message. 

And the Dweller in the basement works without hammer, saw, chisel, or tools of any kind, but silently by the sheer power of its creative thought. It makes a mental image of the thing or condition it desires; sends the message. ”Let it be”; and it is.  

Remember this: You can communicate your desires to the Dweller in the basement in such a way as to enlist its wonderful wisdom and power in getting the things and conditions you desire.  

This cannot be done in any slipshod way; otherwise nearly everybody would have everything they desire. But it can be done by anyone of just average intelligence who will comply with the simple conditions. 

There are many formulae for communicating with the subconscious Mind, but the value of any one of them depends upon whether or not it embraces the scientific principle of isolating and sending over a single thought. Any formula which does not accomplish this scientific result is worse than useless. The dwellers on the lower floor of the mind catch any idea composed of a chain of two or more thoughts and dress it up in the fanciful symbolism of which dreams are made, so that it never reaches the Subconscious Mind, and may come back into the objective Mind as an urge to do something foolish and harmful. 'Hunches" are usually of this nature, and those who act upon them usually act to their detriment. 

A simple formula that brings results 

The science underlying true suggestion may be stated very simply: the isolated idea tends to realise itself in the life and affairs of those who isolate it. An isolated idea is an idea occupying the mind to the exclusion of every other idea. But it is much easier to talk about isolating an idea than it is actually to isolate it. It can be done, however, if you know how and go about it in a business-like way. one of the most powerfully effective methods of isolating an idea involves listening to the ticking of a clock while going to sleep. 

If you suffer from any minor bodily complaint, begin by putting a rapidly ticking clock in your bedroom. A cheap alarm clock is as good as any. After you have retired for the night, make yourself comfortable, and go over your body mentally, taking out all the little muscular kinks, until you are thoroughly relaxed. Then whisper these words over and over again, repeating each word slowly and deliberately: 

"Hour by hour, and day by day, I'm getting well in every way”. 

A few minutes of this exercise will make you drowsy. Then turn your attention to the clock, and go to sleep hearing its ticking say: "I'm getting well in every way - I'm getting well in every way". Let each tick of the clock measure a word of the thought. If you suffer from insomnia, go to sleep hearing the ticking of the clock say: "I'll sleep all night - I'll sleep all night". If your burden of years is getting heavy, go to sleep hearing the ticking of the clock say: "I'm growing younger all the time - I'm growing younger all the time. 

This simple formula, if used accurately just as described, brings marvellous results. It is helpful in practically all cases, and in many cases it brings astonishing results. The whispering part of it is in rhyme because it is more effective in that form. In this exercise you should be careful never to frame any assertion that includes an element of either will or desire. For instance, never say: "I am determined to get well", nor "I want to get well'. Nor should you at this stage of your progress assert any present complete healing. For instance, you should not say: "I am well". 

If you let the element of will, desire or assertion get into your affirmation, you will fail to get the results you want. Therefore, make your assertions speak of steady improvement, with the idea that success will come in the future. 

Listen to the clock, and weave its ticking into the assertion you have chosen, until you fall asleep. This process will carry the idea of the asserted improvement over into the Subconscious Mind, and it will immediately begin making the assertion a reality. 

If you do not know the cause of your trouble, the words "in every way contained in the formula will give the Subconscious Mind its clue, and it will discover the cause. If within a few days after beginning this exercise you feel a strong inclination to consult your doctor, by all means follow its guidance and do so. This little exercise is simple and rudimentary, but you will soon observe marked results. If you are afflicted with some trifling ailment, I suggest that you treat it first, as it will readily respond, and this success will inspire a more helpful confidence in you.  

I have here attempted to introduce you to your own mind, and to tell you something about the real and really wonderful you. I want you to read, re-read and study carefully all I have written, until you get a clear and fixed understanding of each of the three different phases of your mind. Then you will be ready for the definite work which is prescribed in this first part of Lesson one, and definite methods and formulae which will be prescribed in subsequent parts of the course, beginning with part B of lesson one, and including, in another subsequent part, the success formula, by the use of which so many people have obtained such astonishing results.

You know your own particular problem. You know what great desire still remains unsatisfied in your heart. I can vaguely sense the disappointments and heartaches that have come to you in the past. I can dimly envisage the happy things of which you have dreamed, and which never came true. But this much I know: your wonderful mind is the real you, binding you with ties, functionally and psychologically, to all humanity and forming the real foundation for the brotherhood of man. I know also that the trinity of mind is a unity of mind - that the Objective, Subjective and Subconscious Minds are mere outcrops of the Universal Mind, embracing all sensate life and moving towards the perfection of a glorious plan which we can only vaguely comprehend. 

The real you is not only timeless and deathless, but also abundantly able to make your life what you want it to be. I hope that I have succeeded in giving you a glimpse of your real and wonderful self, and that you will have confidence enough to induce yourself to use the simple formulae prescribed in this and subsequent parts of this course. These formulae are not experiments. They have been put to the test of actual use many times, and they have enabled many other men and women to get the very things and conditions you need in order to make your Me what you want it to be.