Christian D. Larson - The Ideal Made Real: Or Applied Metaphysics for Beginners

The purpose of this work is to present practical methods through which anyone,the beginner in particular, may realize his ideals, cause his cherished dreams tocome true, and cause the visions of the soul to become tangible realities ineveryday life.

The best minds now believe that the ideal can be made real; that every lofty ideacan be applied in practical living, and that all that is beautiful on the heights ofexistence can be made permanent expressions in personal existence. And sopopular is this belief becoming that it is rapidly permeating the entire thought ofthe world. Accordingly, the demand for instructive knowledge on this subject,that is simple as well as scientific, is becoming almost universal.

This book has been written to supply that demand. However, it does not claim tobe complete; nor could any work on "The Ideal Made Real" possibly be complete,because the ideal world is limitless and the process of making real the ideal isendless. To know how to begin is the principal secret, and he who has learned thissecret may go on further and further, forever and forever, until he reaches themost sublime heights that endless existence has in store.

No attempt has been made to formulate the ideas, methods and principlespresented, into a definite system. In fact, the tendency to form a new system ofthinking or a new philosophy of life, has been purposely avoided. Closely definedsystems invariably become obstacles to advancement, and we are not concernedwith new philosophies of life. Our purpose is the living of a greater and a greaterlife, and in such a life all philosophies must constantly change.

In preparing the following pages, the object has been to take the beginner out ofthe limitations of the old into the boundlessness of the new; to emphasize the factthat the possibilities that are latent in the human mind are nothing less thanmarvelous, and that the way to turn those possibilities to practical use issufficiently simple for anyone to understand. But no method has been presentedthat will not tend to suggest new and better methods as required for furtheradvancement. The best ideas are those that inspire new ideas, better ideas, greaterideas. The most perfect science of life is that science that gives each individualthe power to create and recreate his own science as he ascends in the scale of life.

Great souls are developed only where minds are left free to employ the bestknown methods according to their own understanding and insight. And it is onlyas the soul grows greater and greater that the ideal can be made real. It isindividuality and originality that give each person the power to make his own lifeas he may wish it to be; but those two important factors do not flourish in definitesystems. There is no progress where the soul is placed in the hands of methods;true and continuous progress can he promoted only where all ideas, all methodsand all principles are placed in the hands of the soul.

We have selected the best ideas and the best methods known for making the idealreal, and through this work, will place them in your hands. We do not ask you tofollow these methods; we simply ask you to use them. You will then find them allto be practical; you will find that every one will work and produce the results youdesire. You will then, not only make real the ideal in your present sphere of life,but you will also develop within yourself that Greater Life, the power of whichhas no limit, the joy of which has no end.

To have ideals is not only simple but natural. It is just as natural for the mind toenter the ideal as it is to live. In fact, the ideal is an inseparable part of life; but tomake the ideal real in every part of life is a problem, the solution of whichappears to be anything but simple. To dream of the fair, the high, the beautiful,the perfect, the sublime, that everyone can do; but everyone has not learned howto make his dreams come true, nor realize in the practical world what he hasdiscerned in the transcendental world. The greatest philosophers and thinkers inhistory, with but few exceptions, have failed to apply their lofty ideas in practicalliving, not because they did not wish to but because they had not discovered thescientific relationship existing between the ideal world and the real world. Thegreatest thinker of the past century confessed that he did not know how to use inevery day life the remarkable laws and principles that he had discovered in theideal. He knew, however, that those laws and principles could be applied; that theideal could be made real, and he stated that he positively knew that others woulddiscover the law of realization, and that methods would be found in the nearfuture through which any ideal could be made real in practical life; and hisprophecy has come true.

To understand the scientific relationship that exists between the real and the ideal,the mind must have both the power of interior insight and the power of scientificanalysis, as well as the power of practical application; but we do not find, as arule, the prophet and the scientist in the same mind. The man who has visions andthe man who can do things do not usually dwell in the same personality;nevertheless, this is necessary. And every person can develop both the prophetand the scientist in himself. He can develop the power to see the ideal and alsothe power to make the ideal real. The large mind, the broad mind, the deep mind,the lofty mind, the properly developed mind can see both the outer and the innerside of things. Such a mind can see the ideal on high, and at the same timeunderstand how to make real, tangible and practical what he has seen. Theseeming gulf between the ideal and the real, between the soul's vision and thepower of practical action is being bridged in thousands of minds today, and it isthese minds who are gaining the power to make themselves and their own worldas beautiful as the visions of the prophet; but the ideal life and the world beautifulare not for the few only. Everybody should learn how to find that path that leadsfrom the imperfections of present conditions to the world of ideal conditions, theworld of which we have all so frequently dreamed.

The problem is what beginners are to do with the beautiful thoughts and thetempting promises that are being scattered so widely at the present time. Theaverage mind feels that the idealism of modern metaphysics has a substantialbasis. He feels intuitively that it is true, and he discerns through the perceptions ofhis own soul that all these things that are claimed for applied metaphysics arepossible. He inwardly knows that whatever the idealist declares can be done willbe done, but the problem is how. The demand for simple methods is one of thegreatest demands at the present time, methods that everyone can learn and thatwill enable any aspiring soul to begin at once to realize his ideals. Such methods,however, are easily formulated, and will be found in abundance on the followingpages. These methods are based upon eternal laws; they are as simple as themultiplication table and will produce results with the same unerring precision.