Think and Grow Rich, on Conscience

This is from Think and Grow Rich, a self help classic by Napoleon Hill. I loved this book because although it does reference money it's much more philosophical and has some great insights. It was written in or around the end of the great depression which I found fascinating, a time when everyone was blaming the corporate leaders, Napoleon contradicts this and points out that the responsibility was also in the masses, and the way they thought about their situation.

I'm really interested in the idea of conscience, this excerpt talks about a lot of what I've been thinking about lately, but in a strange metaphorical way. I'm also reading the book, Blink which is about intuition that DP recommended, I'll post a review of that one I'm finished too.

Genius is developed through the sixth sense.
The reality of a “sixth sense” has been fairly well established. This sixth sense is “Creative Imagination.” The faculty of creative imagination is one, which the majority of people never use during an entire lifetime, and if ever used at all, it usually happens by mere accident. A relatively small number of people use, with deliberation and purpose of afterthought, the faculty of creative imagination. Those who use it voluntarily, and with understanding of its functions are genii.

The faculty of creative imagination is the direct link between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence. All so called revelations, referred to in the realm of religion, and discoveries of basic or new principles in the field of invention, take place through the faculty of creative imagination.

When ideas or concepts flash into one’s mind, through what is popularly called a “hunch,” they come from one or more of the following sources:-

1. Infinite Intelligence
2. One’s subconscious mind, wherein is stored every sense impression and thought impulse which ever reached the brain through any of the five senses.
3. From the mind of some other person who has just released the thought, or picture of the idea or concept, through conscious thought, or
4. From the other persons subconscious storehouse.

There are no other known sources from which “inspired” ideas or “hunches” may be received.

The creative imagination functions best when the mind is vibrating (due to some for of mind stimulation) at an exceedingly high rate. That is, when the mind is functioning at a rate of vibration higher tan that of ordinary, normal thought.

When the brain has been stimulated, through one or more of the ten mind stimulants, it has the effect of lifting the individual far above the horizon of ordinary thought, and permits him to envision distance, scope, and quality of thought not available on the lower plane, such as occupied while one is engaged in the solution of the problems of business and professional routine.

When lifted to this higher level of thought, through any form of mind stimulation, an individual occupies, relatively, the same position as one who has ascended in an aeroplane to a height from a height which he may see over and beyond the horizon line which limits his vision, while on the ground. Moreover while on this higher level of thought, the individual is not hampered or bound by any of the stimuli, which circumscribe and limit his vision while wrestling with the problems of gaining the three basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter. He is in a world of thought in which the ordinary, work a day thoughts have been as effectively removed as are the hills and valleys and other limitations of physical vision, when he rises in an aeroplane.

While on this exalted plane of thought, the creative faculty of the mind is given freedom for action. The way has been cleared for the sixth sense to function; it becomes receptive to ideas, which could not reach the individual under any other circumstances. The “sixth sense” is the faculty, which marks the difference between a genius and an ordinary individual.

The creative faculty becomes more alert and receptive to vibrations, originating outside the individual’s subconscious mind, the more this faculty is used, and the more the individual relies upon it, and makes demands upon it for thought impulses. This faculty can be cultivated and developed through use.

That which is known as one’s “conscience” operates entirely through the faculty of the sixth sense.

The great artists, writers musicians, and poets become great, because they acquire the habit of relying upon the still small voice” which speaks from within, through the faculty of creative imagination. It is a fact well known to people who have keen imaginations that their best ideas come through so called “hunches”.

There is a great orator who does not attain to greatness, until he closes his eyes and begins to rely entirely upon the faculty of creative imagination. When asked why he closed his eyes just before the climaxes of his oratory, he replied, “I do it because, then I speak through ideas which come to me from within”.

One of America’s best known financiers followed the habit of closing his eyes for two or three minutes before making a decision.

When asked why he did this he replied, “With my eyes closed, I am able to draw upon a source of superior intelligence.”

The late Dr. Elmer R. Gates, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, created more than 200 useful patents, many of them basic, through the process of cultivating and using the creative faculty. His method is both significant and interesting to one interested in attaining the state of genius, in which category Dr. Gates unquestionably belonged. Dr. Gates was one of the really great, though less publicised scientists of the world.

In his laboratory, he had what he called his “personal communication room.” It was practically sound proof, and so arranged that all light could be shut out. It was equipped with a small table, on which he kept a pad of writing paper. In front of the table on the wall, was an electric push button, which controlled the lights. When Dr. Gates desired to draw upon the forces available to his through his creative imagination, he would go to this room, seat himself at the table, shut off the lights and concentrate upon known factors of the invention on which he was working, remaining in that position until ideas began to “flash” into his mind in connection with the unknown factors of the invention.

On one occasion, ideas came so fast that he was forced to write for almost three hours. When the thoughts stopped flowing, and he examined his notes, he found that they contained a minute description of principles which had not a parallel among all the know data of the scientific world.

Moreover, the answer to his problem was intelligently presented in these notes. In this manner Dr. Gates completed over 200 patents, which had begun, but not completed, by half baked” brains. Evidence of this statement is in the United States Patent Office.

Dr. Gates earned his living by “sitting for ideas” for individuals and corporations. Some of the largest corporations in America paid him substantial fees, by the hour, for sitting for ideas.

The reasoning faculty is often faulty, because it is largely guided by one’s accumulated experience. Not all knowledge, which one accumulates through “experience”, is accurate. Ideas received through creative faculty are much more reliable, for the reason that they come from sources much more reliable that any which are available o the reasoning faculty of the mind.