Passing from the past to the present age, we see in greater use than ever this wonderful Mind-Power. No longer the property of the few, the information has filtered out among the masses, through various sources, and we see the force in use on all sides. Often, the persons using it have not the true knowledge of its real nature, and such persons often involve themselves in a terrible whirlpool of effects by reason of a selfish and base employment of this power. Many are playing with this force like children playing with dynamite.

It is one of the purposes of this book to call the attention of such people to the nature of the force they are employing, and the possible, nay, probable, results of a misuse of it. Not that they are punished for such misuse, but rather by reason of it. Black magicians are invariably caught in the meshes of their own nets - are entangled in the psychic machinery of their own manufacture - and are blown up by their own psychic high explosives.

In concluding this little consideration of the subject, I would call the attention of the student to the fact that now, for the first time in the history of the world, Mind-Power is being employed for furthering commercial aims and ends. Mental treatments for wealth and success are commonly known and advertised; instructions in the use of suggestion for commercial purposes are furnished both personally, and in correspondence courses; the laws and principles are explained, partially, at least, in books written for the instruction of those selling or advertising goods, and otherwise soliciting the patronage of the public.

It is true that the few strong men in business life have always made use of this force, consciously or unconsciously, but never before has it been taught generally as a part of a business education. It has been reserved for America to recognize the force, and to boldly apply it in this way, i. e., to the making of dollars. And other countries are fast falling in line. And in view of this fact, is it not time that those who know of the real nature, principles, and laws of this force should give to the world their knowledge, that the race may know with what they are dealing - and may be enabled to extract the good from it by proper use, and, seeing the evil possibilities of improper use, may avoid such prostitution of one of nature's greatest forces.

Many students of the occult have sought to keep from the general public a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the great law of nature underlying the phenomena of Mind-Power. They have claimed that it was "dangerous" for people generally to know that such a force existed and could be used. They have held that such knowledge should be carefully guarded by the few, and that its very existence should be denied to the many.

This may have been good reasoning in the earlier days of the world, when the masses were grossly ignorant, and when the only knowledge was locked up in the minds of the caste of priests and other leaders of the race. But the argument no longer applies, for the general intelligence of the race has refused to allow any locked doors in the Temple of Knowledge, and has insisted that all doors be thrown open to them. The result has been that a considerable body of occult knowledge has been opened to the gaze of the public, and they are clamoring for more. Much of the knowledge possessed by the public regarding Mind-Power is but quasi-knowledge - half-truths - and the time has come when the whole truth should be taught.

The time has arrived when the public should be made acquainted with the great force underlying the phenomena of Mind-Power. People should be instructed regarding this force; its laws and operation; its intelligent and proper use, with directions designed to protect people against its improper use against them, on the part of others - this latter a most important matter in these days of occult and psychic investigation on the part of the public, and the attempted base and selfish uses to which some are putting the occult mental forces of Nature.

It is too late to deny or ignore the existence of the mighty mental force in Nature that underlies the various forms of phenomena that go to form the outward phase of Mind-Power, good and bad. Too much has been witnessed by the public concerning these matters for them to be hushed by the old cry, "There's nothing in it but imagination." On the one hand they have witnessed the various "treatments" of the healers, tending toward the cure of disease, the attainment of success, etc. And on the other, they have heard whispers of "adverse treatments," etc., and have heard of, or read, the various courses of instruction in hypnotism, mesmerism, etc., etc., and have seen evidences of the good and bad effects of what has been called "suggestion," in all of its forms. And they are beginning to real-ze that all of these things, differing as they may seem, have a common root in some one natural force. And they are demanding, like the man from Missouri, to "be shown." And they have a right to demand this. The race has always recognized the existence of a mighty force of Nature which man has employed, consciously or unconsciously, in the direction of in-fluencing his fellow men; other forms of life, and even the so-called lifeless things around him. In the earlier days this use of the force was called 'magic" (black and white); mystical art; divine power; miracle; fascination; charming; enchantment; wonder-working; necromancy, etc., and in its more base and evil uses, black art; witchcraft; sorcery; voodooism, etc. For it must he remembered that this great force of nature is capable of base as well as of noble use.

Like any other great natural force - like electricity; the power of explosives; steam; the X-rays; radium, etc. - this great force is capable of the highest and most beneficial uses by man when property applied and is also capable of being applied to the most harmful purposes. Different as are the results arising from the varying applications, the force is the same in each case. The forces of Nature are not possessed of a sense of good and evil - their function and purpose is to act in obedience to the laws of their nature without regard to the question of good and evil to those by whom, or against whom, they are employed. This may seem like a terrible thing, but a moment's thought will satisfy you that it is true of all natural forces, and the question of good and evil, and its reward or punishment, belongs to another plane of life.