of the psychic laws, and have used them more or less unconsciously and without understanding the real reason of the happening.  They found out that certain mental states and certain mental pictures tended to produce certain results—­that they “worked out”—­and so they continued them.  Some of these men think of the whole thing as something supernatural, and get to believe that they are being helped by some supernatural power; whereas, they are simply operating under a universal psychic law of cause and effect.

In America a number of teachers and writers have devoted much attention to this phase of the general subject of psychic influence.  Cults have been formed upon this general basis, the main idea of their followers being that of attracting financial and other success by means of this phase of psychic force.  One of the leading writers along this line, says:  “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 centre.  And if such an individual will keep his mental picture ever in his mind, even though it 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 centre of radiating thought that will surely be felt by those coming within its field of influence.

“Such a man frequently ’sees people as coming to him and his enterprises, and as falling in line with his plans.  He mentally ‘sees’ money flowing in to him, 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, understand, there must be active mental effort behind the imaging.  Day dreamers 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 willpower through the pictured image.  Without the rays of the will there will be no picture projected, no matter how beautifully the imagination has projected it.  Thought pictured in mental images, and then vitalized by the force of the desire, and will, tend to objectify themselves into material being.”