The Will, Its Nature, Power and Development E-Book

William Walker Atkinson

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Experience the life-changing power of William Walker Atkinson with this unforgettable book.

Leseprobe

The Will, Its Nature, Power and Development

William Walker Atkinson

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 – What is the Will?

There is no form of mental activity so universal in its visible manifestations as that which we call the Will. And, likewise, there is none so generally misunderstood and so little understood as the Will. When we come to consider the nature of the Will we find ourselves confronting a score of definitions, theories and beliefs. In fact, it almost may be said that to each and every individual the word “Will” has a different meaning, or a different shade of meaning. Ask yourself what you mean when you say “the Will;” then ask a few of your friends and associates, and see how widely varying are the answers and definitions. While we shall ever try to avoid philosophical hair-splitting, in this series of books on The New Psychology, nevertheless we find from time to time that we must come to some sort of clear understanding with our readers regarding the meaning of certain terms; and in order to do so we must analyze those terms and consider the views of the best authorities regarding them. And this course is especially needed in the case of the term before us—The Will. What is The Will?

Passing by the philosophical conceptions of Will, in the sense of a universal acting mind, as postulated by Schopenhauer, von Hartmann, Nietsche and others, and confining ourselves closely to the psychological acceptation of the term, let us consult the various authorities. A leading American dictionary defines “Will” as follows: “The determination or choice of one possessing authority; discretionary pleasure, command, decree;” also “Arbitrary power, disposal, or authority, absolute power to control determine or dispose,” also “Strong wish or inclination, desire, intention, disposition, pleasure;” also: “That which is strongly desired or wished for as ‘He had his will.’” The same authority gives the following note regarding the philosophical meaning of the term: “Though the word will has often been used, as it popularly is, in two senses—(I) the power of the mind which enables a person to choose between two courses of action; and (II) the actual exercise of that power—strict reasoners separate these meanings, calling the former will and the latter volition. Will in this limited sense is that mental power or faculty by which, of two or more objects of desire or courses of action presented to it, it chooses one, rejecting the other or others. To what extent this power of selection is arbitrary, or is the result of necessity, has been for ages a subject of controversy. The division of the mental powers which came down from antiquity, and was most generally adopted by the philosophers, were the powers belonging to the understanding, and those belonging to the will. Reid adopted it, although considering it not quite logical. “Under the will” he says, “we comprehend our active powers and all that lead to action or influence the mind to act, such as appetite, passions, affections.” Brown considered this classification as very illogical, considering that the will was not in any way opposed to the intellect, but exercised in the intellectual department an empire almost as wide as that which was allotted to itself. “We reason” he says, “and plan and invent, at least as voluntarily as we esteem or hate, or hope or fear. The term Active Powers used by Reid is a synonym for the Will.”

In order to see still further the confusing uses of this word, consider the definitions of the same authority of the term used as a verb: “To determine by an act of choice; to form a wish or volition; to exercise an act of the will; to desire, to wish; to be willing, to consent; to decide, to ordain; to form a volition of; to have an intention, purpose or desire of; to intend; to convey or express a command or authoritative instructions to; to direct; to order; to desire or wish to produce or cause; to be anxious for.” There are other special definitions which we have omitted, but we think that those quoted will enable you to form an idea of the confusion naturally resulting from the many and varied uses of the term, all of which usages are backed by good authority.

Baldwin’s “Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology” says of the Will: “The use of the term ‘Will’ is so varied that it is impossible to get from the history any exclusive meaning. Three usages hold their own for the reason that they are associated with the different points of view from which the subject is approached.” The same authority, accordingly, proceeds to consider the term from the viewpoint of these three respective usages, as follows: (I) The viewpoint of Conation, which term is defined as: “The theoretical elements of consciousness showing itself in tendencies, impulses, desires, and acts of Volition. Stated in its most general form, Conation is unrest. It exists when and so far as a present state of consciousness tends by its intrinsic nature to develop into something else.” (II) The viewpoint of an Intermediate State beginning with Conation and ending with Volition; or, “That Conative organization of which Volition is the terminus and end” (the word “end” being used in the sense of “completion”). (III) The viewpoint of Volition, which term is defined as: “The settlement by the mind of a psychic issue, the adoption of an end (or completion) leading to an act or action.”

After wandering around and about in the philosophical and psychological of attempts to define and analyze Will, the careful thinker manages to make his escape, and then, after considering that which he finds within himself answering to the name of Will, he comes to the conclusion that Will, as he finds it within himself, is composed of three phases or stages; viz.

The stage of “wanting to,” or “wishing to,” have a thing or do a thing;

The weighing of the “want to” and “not want to” regarding the thing; the balancing of that “want to” with other “want tos” which he also finds within himself; the deliberation of whether he is willing to “pay the price;” and the final decision resulting from this weighing and balancing; and finally

The Action arising from such “wanting to,” “weighing and balancing” and deciding.These three stages may be called (1) Desire-will; (2) Decisive Will; and (3) Action-Will. These terms are crude, but they express the three stages which are found in all manifestations of that which we call Will. We ask you to remember this classification.

The new school of philosophy, as represented by William James and others holding similar ideas, lays special stress upon the phases of will which we have called Action-Will. In their text-books the feature or phase of “Action” is emphasized. James says: “Desire, wish, will, are states of mind which everyone knows, and which no definition can make plainer. We desire to feel, to have, to do, all sorts of things which at the moment are not felt, had or done. If with the desire there goes a sense that attainment is not possible, we simply wish; but if we believe that the end is in our power, we will that the desired feeling, having, or doing, shall be real; and real it presently becomes, either immediately upon the willing or after certain preliminaries have been fulfilled….We know what it is to get out of bed on a freezing morning in a room without a fire, and how the very vital principle within us protests against the ordeal. Probably most persons have lain on certain mornings for an hour at a time unable to brace themselves to the resolve. We think how late we shall be, how the duties of the day will suffer; we say, ‘I must get up; this is ignominious’ etc., but still the warm couch feels too delicious, the cold outside too cruel, and the resolution faints away and postpones itself again and again just as it seemed on the verge of bursting the resistance and passing over into the decisive act. Now how do we ever get up under such circumstances? If I may generalize from my experience, we more often than not get up without any struggle or decision at all. We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs; we forget both the warmth and the cold; we fall into some reverie connected with the day’s life, in the course of which the idea flashes across us, ‘Hello! I must lie here no longer’—an idea which at that lucky instant awakens no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor effect. It was our acute consciousness of both the warmth and the cold during the period of struggle, which paralyzed our activity then and kept our idea of rising in the condition of wish and not of will. The moment these inhibitory ideas ceased, the original idea exerted its effects.”

Halleck, following the same trend of thought, says: “Will concerns itself with action. The student must keep that fact before him, no matter how complex the process seems….We shall see that the will is restricted to certain kinds of action. From the cradle to the grave, we are never passive recipients of anything; in other words we are never without the activity of will in the broadest sense of the term. How shall we distinguish between feeling and will? There is no more precise line of demarkation than exists between the Atlantic Ocean and Davis Strait. We saw, while studying sensation and perception, that the various mental powers worked in such unison that it was hard to separate them exactly from each other. The difficulty is especially great in separating feeling from will, because there so often seems to be no break between the two processes. We are aided in marking off these powers by two sets of experiences.

We sometimes experience feelings from which no marked action results. They evaporate, leaving no trace in the world of action.

We feel sorry for the poor or the sick, and leave our comfortable homes, perhaps on a stormy day, to go to help them. It is plain that there is an added element in the second experience. That element is Will, which was not obtrusively present in the first experience. The germ may have been there, but not the full flower. Whenever there is in emotion a motor element which tends to go out in action, that element is Will. When I feel angry and strike, or grateful and assist some one, the striking and assisting are the result of a peculiar, active power which we call Will. In some emotions the voluntary element may be so small as to baffle detection, but the germ is there.”

The New Psychology is an agreement with the above quoted school of academic psychology which holds that the essence of Will is in the Acting and Doing. Action is the reason for Will—it is its Ultimate Explanation.

Chapter II.- Desire Will.

We have seen that the first meaning of the term “the Will”—or the first phase of the manifestation of the Will—according to the viewpoint, is that which we have called Desire-Will. In one sense Desire is one of the meanings of Will; in another, it is one of the three phases or manifestations of the Will. Desire, like Will has many definitions. In the popular usage Desire means: “An emotion, eagerness, or excitement of the mind directed toward the attainment, enjoyment, or possession of some object from which pleasure, profit, or gratification is expected; an earnest wish, longing, or aspiration for a thing; lust, appetite, craving; wish, will or aspiration; etc.” Crabbe gives the following various shades of meanings of the synonyms of Desire: “The desire is imperious, it demands a gratification; the wish is less vehement, it consists of a strong inclination; longing is an impatient and continued species of desire; hankering is a desire for that which is set out of one’s reach; coveting is a desire for that which belongs to another, or what is in his power to grant; we desire or long for that which is near at hand, or within view; we wish for and covet that which is more remote, or less distinctly seen; we hanker after that which has been once enjoyed; a discontented person wishes for more than he has; he who is in a strange land longs to see his native country; vicious men hanker after the pleasures which are denied them; ambitious men covet honors, avaricious men covet riches.” These shades of meaning are but various phases of the “want to” feeling which is the essence of Desire. The word will is sometimes used to express Desire in its phase of wish, pleasure, etc., it being said that “he wills” to do or have a thing in the sense of “he wishes” to have or do the thing; or in the sense that “it pleases him” to have or do the thing. Likewise a very strong desire is often called “will,” probably because of its intensity and because the action of the will follows so closely upon the desire that the two seem to blend and become one. To outward appearances there is indeed very little distinction between a strong, ardent, active desire and the manifestation of the will, because the latter flows out in response to the former and seems to be a part of it rather than a resulting effect. It is often said of a person that “he has had his will,” meaning he has gratified his desire or “want to.”

But a close analysis will always distinguish the two phases of Desire-Will and Action-Will in all manifestations of Will, even if the intermediate phase, or Decisive-Will be not apparent. There must be always a “want to,” conscious, subconscious, or superconscious, before there is the response of Action. Desire and Will cannot be divorced in active manifestations of Will. It is true that one may feel Desire and not manifest the Action-Will, but one never releases the Action-Will without the existence of precedent Desire in some form or phase, direct or indirect, close or remote. This being so, we may see the importance of an understanding of, and control of, our Desires. If Desire is the great inciter of the Will, then if we control, rouse or restrain Desire, we have in our hands the mastery of Will.

Desire is precedent to every act of the Will; that is, Desire along either conscious, subconscious, or superconscious lines. Desire contains within itself two phases or stages, i. e., (1) the stage of feeling; and (2) the manifestation of the call upon the Will. In many cases Desire does not advance beyond the feeling stage—it contents itself with a more or less vague feeling or attraction toward the thing or object which aroused it, and it manifests little or no call upon the Will. In other cases the feeling excited blazes up so fiercely that the second phase, the phase of calling upon the Will to respond and bring about gratification and accomplishment, is vigorously manifested. This “feeling,” of course, is in the direction of “the attainment, enjoyment, or possession of some object from which pleasure, profit, or gratification is expected,” or else the reverse phase of “escape from, getting rid of, or striving away from, some object thought to be the possible, probable, or existing source of pain, discomfort, or dissatisfaction.” There must always be an object precedent to this feeling stage of Desire; that is, either an object calling forth the “want to” of possession, act, or attainment; or else an object from which one wishes to escape.

It is a paradox of psychology that while Desire arouses Will, yet Will may arouse Desire. That is, while the Desire-Will may and does call into activity the Action-Will, nevertheless the Decisive-Will may employ the Action-Will to direct and hold the attention upon some object until interest and consequent Desire is aroused in the mind. But, of course, even in this case there must be some form of precedent Desire inspiring the Intellect or Decisive-Will to so act. Interest and attention have a tendency to arouse Desire, and in that sense these mental acts may be considered as precedent conditions to desire, inasmuch as they hold up to Desire the objects calculated to arouse the feeling phase of the latter. Interest and attention may be aroused without the use of the Will of the individual, by the presentation of outside objects. But the Will may inhibit or destroy the attraction of the outer object; or, on the other hand, may encourage and develop it by directing the attention and thus arousing interest. There exist numerous instances of this action and reaction in the phenomena of Will.

We have spoken of subconscious and superconscious Desires. Subconscious Desire has several possible causes. Many of our subconscious desires are the result of heredity and race experience. We find many feelings arising from the depth of the subconsciousness which startle us by their unsuspecting presence and unexpected appearance. We have countless seed-desires in the great storehouse of the subconscious, which lie latent there awaiting the appearance of some object or circumstances which will revive the latent vigor within them, and which will start them forward toward the field of consciousness in their attempt to manifest the second stage of Desire—the stage of the call upon the Action-Will. Likewise we have many subconscious desires which have been placed in the subconscious storehouse by reason of our own experiences, and the suggestions we have received from others or from ourselves, as we have explained in the volume upon “Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion.” These desires also move forward toward possible manifestation, upon the appearance of some exciting object of circumstances. The greater portion of our desires arises below the field of consciousness, having lain latent in that great storehouse of desires, instinct, inclination and tendencies—the subconsciousness.

The only conscious desires we have are those which are in the field of consciousness by reason of the attraction and exciting influence of objects or circumstances which either cause us to “want to,” or else to “get-away-from.” In what has been called the superconscious region of the mind—that higher and greater field of mentation toward the unfoldment of whose faculties we are evolving— there are also many seeds of Desire, some of which occasionally drop down into the field of consciousness and there arouse strange feelings, and “want-to” or “get-away-from” calls upon the Will. We call these Intuitional Promptings and similar names, or even imagine that we are receiving suggestions from beings on a higher plane—but they really come from our own higher regions. We hesitate to speak regarding these things in this book, lest we be accused of trying to lead you into the field of transcendentalism, but a mention of them is necessary. These desires from the “above” regions of our minds are usually in the direction of a get-away-from or a let-it-alone feeling more or less strong. In many cases we will avoid dangerous actions and doings by heeding these warnings from the superconscious regions of our minds. When these feelings are of the “want-to” kind, it will be found, always that they are desires or inclinations toward objects or things high up in the scale and never in a downward direction. Desires from “above” always lead “up” never “down”—let this ever be the test by which you may know them; the touchstone to apply to intuitional promptings.

Desire being the first stage of Will, and precedent to the activities of the Will it is of importance that one should learn to encourage or discourage desires, according to their nature. Desires not conducive to the highest satisfaction, duty and attainment should be repressed. Desires conducive to that which is best should be encouraged. Desires may be encouraged by directing attention and interest upon the proper object, employing the imagination in this task. By dwelling upon the proper ideal holding the attention and interest firmly upon it, and aiding this by employing the imagination in the direction of furnishing the appropriate Mental Images, the appropriate desire may be kindled in activity and vigor; and if the process be continued it will pass readily into its second phase—that of the call upon the Action-Will. Desires may be discouraged or inhibited by directing the attention and interest (aided by the imagination) upon ideals diametrically opposed to those which you desire to restrain or kill out. Concentrate on the opposite—this is the rule of The New Psychology where it is found expedient to restrain, or inhibit mental states of any kind.

If you desire to increase and develop the Will along any particular lines, the first thing you should do is to build up your Desire for the attainment of the thing. You should use every possible effort to cultivate the appropriate Desire—to fan into a fierce blaze its spark which you find within yourself. You should dwell upon it, and encourage it in every way. To get the benefit of the Will, you must “want-to” and “want-to” earnestly, actively, vigorously, constantly, persistently—”want-to” in a degree that will demand a response of the Will, and which will brook no refusal. Such Desire is the heat which produces the steam of the Action-Will. Turn on your drafts and keep the fires of Desire fiercely burning, if you wish to keep on “a full head of steam” of Will.