William Walker Atkinson - Dynamic Thought: Or the Law of Vibrant Energy

This is a queer book. It is a marriage of the Ancient Occult Teachingsto the latest and most advanced conceptions of Modern Sciencean oddunion, for the parties thereto are of entirely different temperaments.The marriage might be expected to result disastrously, were it not forthe fact that a connecting link has been found that gives them a bond ofcommon interest. No two people may truly love each other, unless theyalso love something in commonthe more they love in common, the greaterwill be their love for each other. And, let us trust that this willprove true in this marriage of Occultism and Science, celebrated in thisbook.

The Occultists usually get at the "facts," first, but they manage toevolve such outrageous theories to explain the facts, that the worldwill have none of their wares, and turns to Science for something"reasonable." Science, proceeding along different lines, at first deniesthese "facts" of the Occultists, not finding them accounted for by anyof her existing theories; but, later on, when the "facts" have beenfinally thrust under her eyes, after repeated attempts and failures, shesays, "Oh, yes, of course!" and proceeds to evolve a new theory, weldingit with other scientific hypotheses, and after attaching a new labelthereto, she proudly exhibits the thing as "the latest discovery ofModern Science"and smiles indulgently, or indignantly, when the theoryof the old Occultists is mentioned, saying, "Quite a different thing, weassure you!" And yet, in all justice, be it said, Science usuallyproceeds to find much better "proofs" to fit the "facts" of Occultism,than did the Occultists themselves. The Occultist "sees things," but isa poor hand at "proofs"while the Scientist is great on "proofs," butso often, and so long, fails to see many things patent to the Occultistwho is able to "look within" himself, but who is then unable topositively and scientifically "prove" the facts. This is easilyexplainedthe Occultist's information comes from "within," while theScientist's comes from withoutand "proofs" belong to the "without"side of Mentation. And this is why the Occultists so often make such abungle regarding "proofs" and the Scientist fails to see "facts" thatare staring the Occultist in the face.

The whole history of Occultism and Science proves the above. Take thephenomenon called "Mesmerism" for instanceit was an old story with theOccultists, who had been for years aware of it, theoretically andpractically. Mesmer brought it into general prominence, and Sciencelaughed at it and at Mesmer's "fluid" theory, and called him a charlatanand imposter. Years afterwards, Braid, an English surgeon, discoveredthat some of the facts of "Mesmerism" were true, and he announced hisdiscovery in a scientific manner, and lo! his views were accepted, andthe thing was called "Hypnotism," poor old Mesmer being forgotten,because of his theory. Then, after a number of years, certain otheraspects of the phenomenon were discovered, and scientifically relabelled"Suggestion," and the re-naming was supposed to "explain" the entiresubject, the learned ones now saying, "Pooh, 'tis nothing but'Suggestion,'" as if that explained the matter. But so far, they haveonly accepted certain phases of this form of Dynamic Thoughtfor thatis what it is, and there are many other phases of which they do notdream.

And the same is true of the Occult Teaching that there is "Life inEverythingthe Universe is Alive." For years, this idea was hooted at,and we had learned scientific discourses upon "dead Matter," "inertsubstance," etc. But, only within the past decadeyes, within the lastfive years, has Science discovered that there was Life in Everything,and that even in the Atom of mineral and chemical substance, there wasto be found evidence of Mind. And Science is beginning to plume itselfon its "recent discovery," and to account for it by a new theory, whichis "quite a different thing, we assure you," from the old Occult Theory.

And the same will prove true in the case of the Occult Teaching of anUniversal Mind, or Cosmic Mind. Science and Philosophy have long laughedat this, but even now their foremost investigators have come to theborders of a new country, and are gasping in amazement at what they seebeyond its bordersthey are now talking about "Life and Mind in theEther"and before long they will discard their paradoxical, absurd,hypothetical Ether, and say, "We are bathed in an Ocean of Mind"onlythey will insist that this "Ocean of Mind" is, somehow, a "secretion ofMatter"something oozing out from the pores of Matter, perhaps.

But Science is doing valuable work in the direction of investigation andexperiment, and in this way is proving the principal occult teachingsin a way impossible to the Occultists themselves.

So, you see that both Occultism and Science have their own work todoand neither can do the work of the other. Just now Science iscoquetting with the question of "Thought Transmission," etc., at whichshe has for so long sneered and laughed. By and by she will accept thefacts, and then proceed to prove them by a series of careful andconclusive experiments, and will then announce the result, solemnly, as"a triumph of Science."

And so, in this book you will find a marriage of the old OccultTeachings and Modern Scientific Researches and Investigation. And thetwo are bound together with that bond forged by the writer of thebookheated in the oven of his mind, and hammered into shape with his"untrained" thoughta crude, clumsy thing, but it serves its purposeathing called "The Theory of Dynamic Thought."

And so, this is what this Theory isa "tie that binds." How you willlike it depends upon yourself. For himself, the writer does not hesitateto say that he is pleased with his handiwork, rude, and clumsy though itmay be. He believes that he has made a thing that will stand wear andtear, and that though it be not beautifully finished, it "will serve,"and "be useful." And that is the main thing, after all. And, then,perhaps, some may see beauty in the very crudeness of the thingmay seethat it bears the loving mark of the hammer that beat it into shapemayrecognize that over it has passed the caress of the hand that madeitand in that seeing there may come the recognition of a beauty thatis beyond "prettiness."

William Walker Atkinson.

Los Angeles, California, February 16, 1906.

"A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jelly-fish and a saurian,
And caves where the cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty,
And a face turned from the clod,
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God."

"Like tides on a crescent sea-beach,
When the moon is new and thin,
Into our hearts high yearnings
Come welling and surging in,
Come from the mystic ocean
Whose rim no foot has trod,