An electrician, for example, does not pray and wait for the electric energy to make up its mind to serve him. He learns first hand the laws of conduction and transmission in order to know how to cooperate with the law that governs electric energy. After gaining this knowledge, he can go ahead and set up the machinery which provides the means to generate and direct the power. Then he can snap in a switch and
operate giant machines, create heat, set in motion countless other devices, or flood a room with light. He can do this, not once or twice, but as many times as he chooses, so long as he does not disturb the mechanics or violate the law governing the energy. The same principle holds true in all other sciences, including the science of mind.
There is a scientific way of thinking about everything, a true and a right way that
prevents the needless waste of mental energy and produces the desired results on all
occasions. As explained, all things and events, all experiences and conditions of life, are
results. All results, however, will vary in quality and in quantity in accordance with the
degree of knowledge possessed and in the measure of the mind’s activity.
The quality of the results produced by the individual thinker may be good, bad,
or indifferent, as may be determined by conscious direction and choice, or lack of such;
some results being harmonious and favorable, while others are discordant and
unfavorable, or there may be a medley of the whole. It is absolutely essential to give
intelligent direction to the creative powers of the mind to obtain the best and largest
results in our particular sphere of active expression. In fact, it is highly important, from
the standpoint of usefulness and common duty, that we should endeavor to understand
the mind and its workings, and learn how to cultivate and develop those processes of
thinking that will give us mastery over life and its conditions.
Thinking is a perpetual process. It is a creative function of life that is ever going
on. We are engaged in it and are producing results of some kind every hour and day
that we live, registering within ourselves the exact effects of all our thinking. While we
cannot stop thinking, we possess the supreme privilege of being able to determine the
sort of results it is desired to experience by regulating the form and quality of our
thought.
