Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Chapter 13
The Brain a Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought
The Twelfth Step toward Riches
MORE than twenty years ago, the author, working in
conjunction with the late Dr. Alexander Graham Bell,
and Dr. Elmer R. Gates, observed that every human
brain is both a broadcasting and receiving station
for the vibration of thought.
Through the medium of the ether, in a fashion similar
to that employed by the radio broadcasting principle,
every human brain is capable of picking up vibrations
of thought which are being released by other brains.
In connection with the statement in the preceding
paragraph, compare, and consider the description of
the Creative Imagination, as outlined in the chapter
on Imagination. The Creative Imagination is the
"receiving set" of the brain, which receives
thoughts, released by the brains of others. It is the
agency of communication between one's conscious, or
reasoning mind, and the four sources from which one
may receive thought stimuli.
When stimulated, or "stepped up" to a high rate of
vibration, the mind becomes more receptive to the
vibration of thought which reaches it through the
ether from outside sources. This "stepping up"
process takes place through the positive emotions, or
the negative emotions. Through the emotions, the
vibrations of thought may be increased.
Vibrations of an exceedingly high rate are the only
vibrations picked up and carried, by the ether, from
one brain to another. Thought is energy traveling at
an exceedingly high rate of vibration. Thought, which
has been modified or "stepped up" by any of the major
emotions, vibrates at a much higher rate than
ordinary thought, and it is this type of thought
which passes from one brain to another, through the
broadcasting machinery of the human brain.
The emotion of sex stands at the head of the list of
human emotions, as far as intensity and driving force
are concerned. The brain which has been stimulated by
the emotion of sex, vibrates at a much more rapid
rate than it does when that emotion is quiescent or absent.
The result of sex transmutation, is the increase of
the rate of vibration of thoughts to such a pitch
that the Creative Imagination becomes highly
receptive to ideas, which it picks up from the ether.
On the other hand, when the brain is vibrating at a
rapid rate, it not only attracts thoughts and ideas
released by other brains through the medium of the
ether, but it gives to one's own thoughts that
"feeling" which is essential before those thoughts
will be picked up and acted upon by one's
subconscious mind.
Thus, you will see that the broadcasting principle is
the factor through which you mix feeling, or emotion
with your thoughts and pass them on to your
subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is the "sending station" of the
brain, through which vibrations of thought are
broadcast. The Creative Imagination is the "receiving
set," through which the vibrations of thought are
picked up from the ether.
Along with the important factors of the subconscious
mind, and the faculty of the Creative Imagination,
which constitute the sending and receiving sets of
your mental broadcasting machinery, consider now the
principle of auto-suggestion, which is the medium by
which you may put into operation your "broadcasting"
station.
Through the instructions described in the chapter on
auto-suggestion, you were definitely informed of the
method by which DESIRE may be transmuted into its
monetary equivalent.
Operation of your mental "broadcasting" station is a
comparatively simple procedure. You have but three
principles to bear in mind, and to apply, when you
wish to use your broadcasting station—the
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND, CREATIVE IMAGINATION, and AUTOSUGGESTION.
The stimuli through which you put these
three principles into action have been described— the
procedure begins with DESIRE.
THE GREATEST FORCES ARE "INTANGIBLE"
The depression brought the world to the very borderline
of understanding of the forces which are
intangible and unseen. Through the ages which have
passed, man has depended too much upon his physical
senses, and has limited his knowledge to physical
things, which he could see, touch, weigh, and measure.
We are now entering the most marvelous of all ages—an
age which will teach us something of the intangible
forces of the world about us. Perhaps we shall learn,
as we pass through this age, that the "other self" is
more powerful than the physical self we see when we
look into a mirror.
Sometimes men speak lightly of the intangibles— the
things which they cannot perceive through any of
their five senses, and when we hear them, it should
remind us that all of us are controlled by forces
which are unseen and intangible.
The whole of mankind has not the power to cope with,
nor to control the intangible force wrapped up in the
rolling waves of the oceans. Man has not the capacity
to understand the intangible force of gravity, which
keeps this little earth suspended in mid-air, and
keeps man from falling from it, much less the power
to control that force. Man is entirely subservient to
the intangible force which comes with a thunder
storm, and he is just as helpless in the presence of
the intangible force of electricity— nay, he does not
even know what electricity is, where it comes from,
or what is its purpose!
Nor is this by any means the end of man's ignorance
in connection with things unseen and intangible. He
does not understand the intangible force (and
intelligence) wrapped up in the soil of the earth—
the force which provides him with every morsel of
food he eats, every article of clothing he wears,
every dollar he carries in his pockets.
THE DRAMATIC STORY OF THE BRAIN
Last, but not least, man, with all of his boasted
culture and education, understands little or nothing
of the intangible force (the greatest of all the
intangibles) of thought. He knows but little
concerning the physical brain, and its vast network
of intricate machinery through which the power of
thought is translated into its material equivalent,
but he is now entering an age which shall yield
enlightenment on the subject. Already men of science
have begun to turn their attention to the study of
this stupendous thing called a brain, and, while they
are still in the kindergarten stage of their studies,
they have uncovered enough knowledge to know that the
central switchboard of the human brain, the number of
lines which connect the brain cells one with another,
equal the figure one, followed by fifteen million ciphers.
"The figure is so stupendous," said Dr. C. Judson
Herrick, of the University of Chicago, "that
astronomical figures dealing with hundreds of
millions of light years, become insignificant by comparison.
It has been determined that there are from
10,000,000,000 to 14,000,000,000 nerve cells in the
human cerebral cortex, and we know that these are
arranged in definite patterns. These arrangements are
not haphazard. They are orderly. Recently developed
methods of electro-physiology draw off action
currents from very precisely located cells, or fibers
with micro-electrodes, amplify them with radio tubes,
and record potential differences to a millionth of a volt."
It is inconceivable that such a network of intricate
machinery should be in existence for the sole purpose
of carrying on the physical functions incidental to
growth and maintenance of the physical body. Is it
not likely that the same system, which gives billions
of brain cells the media for communication one with
another, provides, also the means of communication
with other intangible forces?
After this book had been written, just before the
manuscript went to the publisher, there appeared in
the New York Times, an editorial showing that at
least one great University, and one intelligent
investigator in the field of mental phenomena, are
carrying on an organized research through which
conclusions have been reached that parallel many of
those described in this and the following chapter.
The editorial briefly analyzed the work carried on by
Dr. Rhine, and his associates at Duke University,
viz:—"What is 'Telepathy'?
"A month ago we cited on this page some of the
remarkable results achieved by Professor Rhine and
his associates in Duke University from more than a
hundred thousand tests to determine the existence of
'telepathy' and 'clairvoyance.' These results were
summarized in the first two articles in Harpers
Magazine. In the second which has now appeared, the
author, E. H. Wright, attempts to summarize what has
been learned, or what it seems reasonable to infer,
regarding the exact nature of these 'extrasensory'
modes of perception.
"The actual existence of telepathy and clairvoyance
now seems to some scientists enormously probable as
the result of Rhine's experiments. Various
percipients were asked to name as many cards in a
special pack as they could without looking at them
and without other sensory access to them. About a
score of men and women were discovered who could
regularly name so many of the cards correctly that
'there was not one chance in many a million of their
having done their feats by luck or accident.'
"But how did they do them? These powers, assuming
that they exist, do not seem to be sensory. There is
no known organ for them. The experiments worked just
as well at distances of several hundred miles as they
did in the same room. These facts also dispose, in
Mr. Wright's opinion, of the attempt to explain
telepathy or clairvoyance through any physical theory
of radiation. All known forms of radiant energy
decline inversely as the square of the distance
traversed. Telepathy and clairvoyance do not. But
they do vary through physical causes as our other
mental powers do. Contrary to widespread opinion,
they do not improve when the percipient is asleep or
half-asleep, but, on the contrary, when he is most
wide-awake and alert. Rhine discovered that a
narcotic will invariably lower a percipient's score,
while a stimulant will always send it higher. The
most reliable performer apparently cannot make a good
score unless he tries to do his best.
"One conclusion that Wright draws with some
confidence is that telepathy and clairvoyance are
really one and the same gift. That is, the faculty
that 'sees' a card face down on a table seems to be
exactly the same one that 'reads' a thought residing
only in another mind. There are several grounds for
believing this. So far, for example, the two gifts
have been found in every person who enjoys either of
them. In every one so far the two have been of equal
vigor, almost exactly. Screens, walls, distances,
have no effect at all on either. Wright advances from
this conclusion to express what he puts forward as no
more than the mere 'hunch' that other extra-sensory
experiences, prophetic dreams, premonitions of
disaster, and the like, may also prove to be part of
the same faculty. The reader is not asked to accept
any of these conclusions unless he finds it
necessary, but the evidence that Rhine has piled up
must remain impressive."
In view of Dr. Rhine's announcement in connection
with the conditions under which the mind responds to
what he terms extra—sensory modes of perception, I
now feel privileged to add to his testimony by
stating that my associates and I have discovered what
we believe to be the ideal conditions under which the
mind can be stimulated so that the sixth sense
described in the next chapter, can be made to
function in a practical way.
The conditions to which I refer consist of a close
working alliance between myself and two members of my
staff. Through experimentation and practice, we have
discovered how to stimulate our minds (by applying
the principle used in connection with the "Invisible
Counselors" described in the next chapter) so that we
can, by a process of blending our three minds into
one, find the solution to a great variety of personal
problems which are submitted by my clients.
The procedure is very simple. We sit down at a
conference table, clearly state the nature of the
problem we have under consideration, then begin
discussing it. Each contributes whatever thoughts
that may occur. The strange thing about this method
of mind stimulation is that it places each
participant in communication with unknown sources of
knowledge definitely outside his own experience.
If you understand the principle described in the
chapter on the Master Mind, you of course recognize
the round-table procedure here described as being a
practical application of the Master Mind.
This method of mind stimulation, through harmonious
discussion of definite subjects, between three
people, illustrates the simplest and most practical
use of the Master Mind.
By adopting and following a similar plan any student
of this philosophy may come into possession of the
famous Carnegie formula briefly described in the
introduction. If it means nothing to you at this
time, mark this page and read it again after you have
finished the last chapter.
THE "depression" was a blessing in disguise.
It reduced the whole world to a new startingpoint
that gives every one a new opportunity.
Next page - Chapter 14
