PRACTICAL MENTAL INFLUENCE/PART 9
CHAPTER 9
INFLUENCING
"EN MASSE"
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 of "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 that 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 or 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 or 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 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, 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 willpower through the picture on
the slide. Without the rays of the will there will be no picture projected, no
matter how beautifully the imagination has pictured it. Thoughts pictured in mental
images and then vitalized by the force of the desire and will tend to objectify
themselves into material beings. That is the whole thing in a nutshell.
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