Lesson No. 8 in The Pathway to Personal Power.

LESSON NO.8
THE PATHWAY TO PERSONAL POWER

“I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision... (Paul, Acts 26:19) BUILDING YOUR VISION INTO REALITY
This is your most impressive and unforgettable lesson, number eight, in which you are led many, many steps upward along the Pathway.
The purpose of this very deep and powerful lesson is to bring to you more fully the startling truth that not only are you endowed with latent (sleeping) talents, faculties and forces that know no bounds of possibility, but that working with you and at your conscious command is Universal Divine Mind. This Universal, Divine Mind is that invisible ocean of cosmic energy that touches your life on every hand, once you admit this truth into your conscious thinking, and from which you can draw personal power that will build reality into your vision (or picture) of your Heart’s Desire.
BRIEF REVIEW OF LESSONS SIX AND SEVEN
The central concepts of lesson six, you will remember, taught you how to realize and how to demonstrate in your own life, day by day, the ever increasing power of that Secret of the Ages which dwells within you, only awaiting development through your conscious recognition to bring your Heart’s Desire from the invisible.
Briefly, the high concept of lesson seven was to awaken you to a conscious awareness and realization that you have at your command an invisible dynamic force, sleeping talents and powers that will thoroughly trans-form your life into health, happiness and success once they are tuned into harmony with that Great Power-Station, Universal Divine Mind.
BUILDING YOUR VISION
Of course, the “vision” we refer to in the use of this word is your mental picture of your Heart’s Desire, that picture which reflects that, for which you most greatly long, which you most deeply desire and which to you represents Life’s highest attainment.
Within your reach and within the reach of every other man and woman is this vast reservoir of power await¬ing only their conscious demand to transform each life of suffering, failure and unhappiness into abounding health, abundant success and very real joyousness. As you recognize this tremendous truth and as your men¬tal awareness of the thought-vision of your Heart’s Desire draws Creative Power from Universal Divine Mind even now—this moment—which is surging through your mind, through your body and through the depths of your soul, to establish in your daily life the reality of your mental picture—your cherished vision
Pitiful and desolute indeed is the poverty and the hopeless lot of people who live without vision! People without even one mental picture of health, of happiness or of good fortune into which to build reality. How truly Solomon exclaimed in Holy Writ so long ago, “Where there is no vision (no mental picture), the people perish...” (Proverbs 29:18).

THE SUPREME BUILDS IN SILENCE
Throughout this course of lessons we shall continue to impress upon you the extreme importance of Silence in all your metaphysical exercises, your mental picturing and your progress along the secret Pathway to attain¬ment.
You will share the common experience of all our students, which is that the further you travel along this Pathway to inner enfoldment, the less talkative you will become.
Perhaps you will remember that in your early days, when you were very young, when you encountered a new truth, or some vision of endeavor that seemed great to you, came before your untrained eyes, your new-found enthusiasm made you feel that you just had to rush out and tell everybody you met all about it! Youth gives forth plenty of sure cures for all the ills of earth and is always prone to paint glowing pictures of future achievements and tells in many words of glorious conquests—to be. And then, by and by, Youth, staggering under the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, “ learns perhaps to be a bit less talkative!
Hence, the philosophy of these lessons teaches you the merits and the power of well-chosen silence. You have a great goal of achievement ahead, a self-chosen goal, your Great Desire, so you will find the greatest benefit in Silence, because the Supreme Intelligence builds in the Silence.
Let us explain that when you say; for instance, “I’m going to try to tell others, who are probably either unsympathetic or envious, all about your proposed plans, you are only releasing and scattering into thin air those precious energies which should be used in your metaphysical “work” and your concentration periods in The Silence.”
ESCAPE FROM REALITY SCATTERS ENERGY
Within every man and every, woman there are two very definite and very distinct urges or mental trends. First there is what we shall call the “regressive” urge, which is strong and also very subtle, usually so hidden that we are perhaps totally unconscious of this regressive urge, which always works to pull us back from true effort and from action.
This is, in reality, -a covert desire to escape from reality. Regression mentally recedes toward childhood’s dream-world of protection.,
The other and more conscious urge you will very readily recognize within yourself in your daily life—that is the urge to action, to self-expression, to meet and master your world and to enjoy your own wort while Destiny!
For example, the “confessional” of some religions is based entirely upon a thorough understanding of this hidden but almost universal longing to escape from reality. Technically this process, as illustrated by the “con¬fessional, is called the “catharsis,” which literally means, “throwing off.” In the confessional suppressed ener¬gies and emotions connected with thought-images of guilt, remorse, shame, defeat, failure, anxiety and fear are thrown off through words. The energies, freed from direct action by Ideas or Emotions in this process of “talking it out, “ EVAPORATE INTO THIN AIR! And in passing, it makes not the slightest difference to whom this “throw-off’” is made!
In this illustration there is a very great lesson for you, My Friend. The same law which applies to these dark and unpleasant wishes, images-and memories “thrown off ” in the confessional, applies equally to the attrac
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tive, the positive, the constructive powers of the Mind. Your Great Desire, your Great Destiny, your Life Plan—all , carry unexpressed energies and powerful drives which will be scattered to the four winds of heav¬en if you go about telling others all about your ambitions and your occult work, a complete “throwing off!
AVOIDING NEGATIVE VIBRATIONS
By keeping your own counsel, by keeping silent about your work, your plans and your progress you will eas¬ily avoid negative vibrations from others. These negative vibrations might-very possibly come from friends or even really close relatives, because the common mistake your daily associates usually make is in judging your future capacity by your past lack of success.
Remember, when none around you know anything about what you are working for or how you are bringing these miracles to pass in your life, you do not have to overcome their belief that “It can’t be done!”
Cherish your-vision in the Silence——conserve your energies for your attunement, for your mental exercis¬es and for your receptive periods of aloneness with Infinite Divine Mind.
A TIME FOR WORDS AND A TIME FOR SILENCE
There are times for words and there are times for silence. You will truly learn these times for yourself.
Let us consider this matter from another angle. You now have a great, a definite purpose in life, You have chosen to build reality into your Heart’s Desire. To this end, and under our direction, you are constantly, con¬tinuously visualizing. In doing this, you are painting a picture upon the inner planes of your own conscious¬ness AND upon the sublime, the invisible, the inmost plane, of Universal God - Mind. Sooner or later this inner picture will be reflected in outer, material FORM! Now, until you have this inner picture of yours sharply drawn, clearly defined and fully developed, any discussion of this picture or of this occult process with others will only tend to scatter and dissolve the results of your visualizing.
Only describe or discuss your inner picture with members whom you know will join wholeheartedly with you to help you materialize your vision.
“THOUGHTSARETHINGS...”
This is literally true. Thoughts are things. Each thought you think is a force, an energy, a power that is sent out from your brain in the form of waves of vibrations. These thought-vibrations have the power of awaken¬ing and attracting similar vibrations in that clearly vast storehouse of Infinite Supply that surrounds us every-where.
This Game condition is true of PEOPLE everywhere. All are either affected or controlled by these thought-waves, depending upon the power of the mental-vibrations you send out. You are a Mental Radio Station— but remember, so is every other man and woman in the world. All are SENDING and RECEIVING con¬stantly, rarely consciously but almost always without realizing that they are “on the air ”
So, you can readily see that the POSITIVE THINKER (the dynamic powerful mental radio) wins his or her Heart’s Desire, whereas people with negative minds liken themselves to failure because theirs is only wishful thinking sent out idly, fearfully and doubtingly.
For this reason we are teaching you-plainly, in these deeply instructive lessons, a complete knowledge of the basic, the fundamental laws of that phenomenon we call your Mental Radio and how to project your Desire-Thoughts by your trained Will and thus materialize your desire.