The advanced student of occultism knows that each and every one of us is really a creator of his own circumstances, environment and conditions, to a great extent.  Each of us is able to so modify our mental activities as to bring about such changes in our environment and surroundings as to actually re-create them.  The things accomplished by successful men are really but materializations of that which they have previously held in their mental vision.  Everything is first created on the psychic plane, and then manifested in the physical world.  All the great works of man, the great bridges, great buildings, tunnels, machinery, cities, railroads, canals, works of art, musical compositions, etc., first existed in the mind of their creators, and were then afterward materialized in physical form and shape.  And, so you see we are proceeding with our work of mental creations whenever we think and make mental images.  This, however, is no new teaching.  It is as old as the race of mankind.  Over twenty-five hundred years ago, Buddha said to his disciples:  “All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts.”

I would be telling you but half the story did I not warn you that strong Fear may play the part ordinarily filled by Desire in the production of the psychic phenomena of materialization of mental pictures.  Strange as it may appear at first, a strong fear that a thing will come to pass will act much the same as a strong desire that the happening will occur.  Consequently, many persons by continually dwelling upon the thing that they fear may happen to them, actually attract that thing to them, just as if they had actually desired and wished for it.  I cannot go into occult technicalities in explaining this strange fact; but the gist of the secret may be said to consist in the fact that the person clearly and vividly pictures in his mind the thing that he fears may happen to him.  He thus creates a strong mental-picture or image of it, which sets into forces the attractive power of psychic influence and draws the feared thing into material reality.  As Job said:  “The thing that I feared hath come upon me.”  The moral of this is, of course, that persons should learn to stamp out fear and mental images of things feared.  Instead, they should make strong positive mental denials of the things that they may find themselves fearing.  They should deny the reality of the feared thing, and assert positively their own superiority to the thing, and their power to overcome it.

A great religious cult has sprung into existence which makes a leading doctrine of this ability to materialize the things which one desires, and to deny out of existence undesirable things.  Many persons who have witnessed the wonderful success of some of the followers of this cult or organization, have been puzzled to account for the same on scientific and rational grounds.  A little understanding of fundamental occult and psychic principles, as given in these lessons, will show the “why and wherefore” of these strange and wonderful manifestations.  In this connection you must remember that the combined thought of the thousands of persons composing this cult or organization undoubtedly gives additional psychic force to the mental affirmations and denials of the individual member thereof.