IMAGINATION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 241, 25 September 1922, Page 7

IMAGINATION.

(Fruui a C<>rre>|iundent.) I remember reading somewhere that most of our troubles are caused by anticipating calamities that do not happen. A friend of mine told me an experience of his which aptly illustrates this thought. When a young man a dentist told him that it anything went wrong with one of his wisdom teeth, heaven help him. as most probably some of Ins jaw would come away with it. Denig tn a subjective state in the deatiMt’s chair, this idea took firm root, and in times of illness came back to worry him. In the course of time the tooth did give trouble, and had to come out. and. although the immediate anticipation was ot the worst, it came out without trouble and without pain. For over 30 years the owner had dreaded parting with his buried tooth, and the moral is obvious, both to the dentist and to the patient. If imagination can treat us in so scurvy a fashion, it goes to show that the opopsite results can be obtained by th© same method. Cowards die many deaths and suffer many hardships in the course of a lifetime, and what is a vowird but a man who allows a lively imagination to become Ins master. Nervous maladies can often be cured by the introduction of some absorbing interest into life, so that there is no time for the mind to imagine physical disorders. The latest books on auto-suggestion emphasise the great power of the imagination, but 1 believe that the safest method to adopt is to forget oneself in outside interests, and in so filling the mind with the opposite oi fear and hate that there is no need to tall back on definite auto-sugges-tion. We all notice the happiness of a real nurse, although there is no time in her life for ordinary amusements. In fact, speaking generally, all people who devote their lives to the service of their fellow men are happy. The men who have made their mark in history have imagined things, and then persistently and intelligently worked for their fulfilment. Imagination and persistent effort are the two qualifications needed for success. As man works for his fellows he appears to bet in touch with the beneficient forces of the Universe, and the joy of the higher world is able to affect both him and his surroundings. The great lesson that Coue and others like him are teaching is not so much that the health of the body responds to suggestion, hut that the entrance to the wonderful Universe lies within ourselves. Scientific knowledge is of the utmost value, and religion is now securing an unexpected ally in teaching that to the kingdom of reality there is but one door, and that a very narrow’ ene. There has always l>een an antagonism between the disciples of the “Within” and the “Without,” and ‘ we are now learning that it is in the unity of the two that we may achieve completeness and therefore power.