Part 7 · Train Your Imagination on a Friend · points 16–21 of 31 in this Part
Ideals only — leave circumstances alone
Don't picture the debt. Picture the freedom.
6 numbered points · 2 study questions · 3 min read
Don't picture the debt. Picture the freedom.
Study questions for this sublevel
Haanel put a review question at the end of every part. Answer out loud first — the recall is what moves it into memory.
65. How are they obtained?
Each repeated action renders the image more accurate than the former one.
66. How is the material for the construction of your mental image secured?
By millions of mental workers. Brain cells they are called.
Haanel's own words — points 16–21
Quoted exactly from The Master Key System (1912, public domain). The translation above is ours; this is his.
In addition to these millions of mental workers, you have billions of mental workers in the body, every one of which is endowed with sufficient intelligence to understand and act upon any message or suggestion given. These cells are all busy creating and recreating the body, but, in addition to this, they are endowed with psychic activity whereby they can attract to themselves the substance necessary for perfect development.
They do this by the same law and in the same manner that every form of life attracts to itself the necessary material for growth. The oak, the rose, the lily, all require certain material for their most perfect expression and they secure it by silent demand, the Law of Attraction, the most certain way for you to secure what you require for your most complete development.
Make the Mental Image. Make it clear, distinct, perfect. Hold it firmly. The ways and means will develop. Supply will follow the demand. You will be led to do the right thing at the right time and in the right way. Earnest Desire will bring about Confident Expectation, and this in turn must be reinforced by Firm Demand. These three cannot fail to bring about Attainment, because the Earnest Desire is the feeling, the Confident Expectation is the thought, and the Firm Demand is the will, and, as we have seen, feeling gives vitality to thought and the will holds it steadily until the law of Growth brings it into manifestation.
Is it not wonderful that man has such tremendous power within himself, such transcendental faculties concerning which he had no conception? Is it not strange that we have always been taught to look for strength and power "without?" We have been taught to look everywhere but "within" and whenever this power manifested in our lives we were told that it was something supernatural.
There are many who have come to an understanding of this wonderful power, and who make serious and conscientious efforts to realize health, power and other conditions, and seem to fail. They do not seem able to bring the Law into operation. The difficulty in nearly every case is that they are dealing with externals. They want money, power, health and abundance, but they fail to realize that these are effects and can come only when the cause is found.
Those who will give no attention to the world without will seek only to ascertain the truth, will look only for wisdom, will find that this wisdom will unfold and disclose the source of all power, that it will manifest in thought and purpose which will create the external conditions desired. This truth will find expression in noble purpose and courageous action.
Put it to work
The Friend Visualisation (Part Seven)
Same seat, relaxed body, quiet mind.
See all stepsGuided stillness timer
The sit is the whole foundation of the course: still body, watched breath, no phone. Pick five minutes if fifteen feels like a hill.
Open the timerKeep going
Imagination is a muscle, not a mood