Selected Materials from Book - The Secret of Ages by Robert Collier

The Secret of Ages by Robert Collier February 13, 2008

The understanding to the materials uncovered in this book will help you to derive the contents of many other books.

The Secret of the Ages is first published in 1925 under the title The Book of Life, revised to its current title in 1926. There are several key ideas in this book which I will outline. However no simple brevity can manifest and replace the astonishing discoveries as reading it yourself.

CREATIVE FORCE

The secret of the ages and the world’s greatest discovery is that everyman has the “Creative Force” within them. The power of this force is to allow us to meet every changing condition and “the whole purpose of existence is GROWTH.” “In all Nature, to ease to grow is to perish.”

THE MIND

The second key idea is “For man’s mind is a triplicity, the conscious mind, the subconscious, and the subliminal or super conscious mind.” The path of influence is linear. The higher or more potent part of mind is a supply source for and reached via the lower one. The conscious mind guide your thought and daily life, it draws from unconscious for everything it wishes to recall. Your unconscious look after all of your vital processing including the conditions of your conscious mind and is a seat of memory where every thought or impression we ever had are registered here forever. The ultimate force of your mind is the super conscious mind, which is more of a spiritual, more vague but almighty powerful where can yield strength during exceptional times. There is a fourth and exterior “mind” the Universal Mind, which guides the world, whether we call it a spiritual entity or mother nature, we cannot deny its existence as we witness its miracles.

Emerson, “There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal Mind, is party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.”

Because everything we think are registered and unfiltered to the unconscious mind (the unconscious mind does judge conscious thought, it simply registers.) therefore the most important province of your conscious mind is to center your thought on the thing you want. Due to this hierarchy of influence, it is important to learn to control your thought. This is the basis as shown in many books the most important characteristic to success, the desire.

Baudouin: “To be ambitious for wealth and yet always expecting to be poor; to be always doubting your ability to get what you long for, is like trying to reach east by traveling west. There is no philosophy which will help a man to succeed when he is always doubting his ability to do so, and thus attracting failure.”

Dr. Terry Walter: “All during our waking hours the conscious mind, through five senses, acts as constant feeder to the subconscious; the senses are the temporal source of supply for the content of the soul mind; therefore, it is most important that we know and realize definitely and explicitly that every time we think a thought or feel an emotion, we are adding to the content of this powerful mind, good or bad.”

DESIRE

Again and again, the book ponds on the notion that the need to imprint your most desirables wanting. The author remind us it is the most important thing to take away from this book, “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.”

“Don’t plan the seed of your desire in your subconscious mind and then go out the next morning and tear it up with doubts and fears. Nourish it by holding in thought the thing you desire, by believing in it, visualizing it, SEEING it as an accomplished act. “

EMPLOY THE UNCONSCIOUS

There are many time when we wake up in a morning, we come to a solution that were long for answer. The unconscious mind is much more potent where it occupies about 99% of brain power compare to 1% of daily use on the conscious counterpart. The ability to tap into this power can be omnipotent. To let the “Man Inside You” work, we need to fill the mind with every bit of information regarding the problem, be physically comfortable and forget your body (meditate), then dwell upon the problem, not worrying, not fretting but placidly. Psychologists have discovered that the best time to make suggestion to your sub mind is just before going to sleep.

Professor Brand Blanshard of Yale gave 5 steps necessary to set the subconscious to work on a definite problem. 1. Specify your problem consciously. 2. Mobilize at the outset the resources you already have, carry your conscious suggestions as far as you can. 3. Take time don’t hurry. 4. Seize the intimation of the unconscious when they come. 5. Don’t confuse unconscious thinking with worry.

LAW OF SUPPLY

“The essence of this law is that you must think abundance, see abundance, feel abundance, believe abundance. Let no thought of limitation enter your mind.”

LAW OF ATTRATION

Jesus, “Whosoever shall be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will the chiefest, shall be servant of all.” The great must serve and he who serve the most shall be greatest. This principle applies everywhere as in money. If you can make more money for others, in process you will inevitably make more for yourself. “We get as we give – but we must give first.”

“If you have brains, use them. If you have skill, apply it. The world must profit by it, and therefore you.”

EMOTION

“Everything in this universe is made up of energy. That energy manifests itself in three different states – solid, liquid, and vapor.” When you want to change any solid manifests itself, there are two ways, carve or break or burn off parts and break up the whole mass through vapor or liquefy. Since we cannot carve our flesh to alter states, we liquefy it through emotions. “The heat of a strong emotion is the only power that will resolve the cells of your body into a higher potential. This is why when athletes are focused, they feel they are “in the zone” and able to bring unexpected performance. Same is true for the temporary superhuman strength when we try to doing something physical to save our loved ones. Same is true to what people call spiritual healing.

AGE AND HEALTH

“Age is not matter of years. It is state of mind.” As our body continues to regenerate cells why do we grow old? Old cells die, new cell grow every day, every hour, every minutes. Upon this fact, we should be immortals. However, as we continue to fear diseases, take medicines to alleviate the symptoms, it replaces the job for your subconscious. Now it retires and your body ages and relies on the external substances, like medicine.

“Take to the regular use of drugs or other methods of eliminating the waste matter from the body, and your Master Chemist will figure that your conscious mind has taken over this duty from him – and he will leave it thereafter to your conscious mind.”

Thoughts and Illness, “You believe that disease is necessary, that you have to expect a certain amount of it. You hear of it every day, and subconsciously at least you are constantly in fear of it. And through that very fear you create it, when if you would spend that same amount of time thinking and believing in the necessity of HEALTH, you would never need to know disease.”

“The cause of much sickness is fear. You image some disease in your thought, and your body proceeds to build upon this model that you hold before it.”

CIRCLE OF COMPETENCE

There were many World-Class who had occupation other what took them to fame. There were out of their circle of competence. However, after alter their state, they excelled. Andrew Carnegie started as bobbin boy and highest ambition was to be a telegraph operator. Michael Faraday started as preacher. Bell was a professor of elocution. Others include Morse, Dunlop, Gillette, Eastman, Ingersoll, Harriman, Gary.

“Until circumstance forced them out of their wrong places, they got nowhere. As soon as they found their right niches, they went forward with giant strides.”

“The best thing that can happen to any of us is to fail and be thrown out of these tasks for which we are not fitted. If we can hold the faith, we will eventually find the jobs for which we are fitted. And then we will show the world!”

OTHERS

”something like 60% of the factors producing success or failure lie outside a man’s conscious efforts”

Shakespeare, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“Nine tenth at least of all torment of life is from mental torment.”

“The basis of all success in business – to focus on one thing and do that thing well.”

“Religion is a fine thing to keep the common people satisfied!”

“The thing that counts is not the amount of your balance at the Bank, but what others THINK of you, the IMAGE you have created in your own and in other’s mind.”

“Money is a reward of service, and service is an outer expression of love.”

“It is the death-blow to the development of originality of strength of character; and without these no man can be a leader.”

“Remember that perhaps that the biggest danger is in the procrastination resulting from your indecision.”