The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel --- 21 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

It is my privilege to enclose Part Twenty-One. In paragraph 7 you will find that
one of the secrets of success, one of the methods of organizing victory, one of the
accomplishments of the Master Mind is to think big thoughts.
In paragraph 8 you will find that everything which we hold in our consciousness
for any length of time becomes impressed upon our subconsciousness and so becomes a pattern which the creative energy will wave into our life and environment. This is the
secret of the wonderful power of prayer.
We know that the universe is governed by law; that for every effect there must be
a cause, and that the same cause, under the same conditions, will invariably produce the
same effect.
Consequently, if prayer has ever been answered, it will always be answered, if the
proper conditions are complied with. This must necessarily be true; otherwise the
universe would be a chaos instead of a cosmos. The answer to prayer is therefore subject
to law, and this law is definite, exact and scientific, just as are the laws governing
gravitation and electricity. An understanding of this law takes the foundation of
Christianity out of the realm of superstition and credulity and places it upon the firm
rock of scientific understanding.
But, unfortunately, there are comparatively few persons who know how to pray.
They understand that there are laws governing electricity, mathematics, and chemistry,
but, for some inexplicable reason, it never seems to occur to them that there are also
spiritual laws, and that these laws are also definite, scientific, exact, and operate with
immutable precision.

PART TWENTY-ONE

1. The real secret of power is consciousness of power. The Universal Mind is
unconditional; therefore, the more conscious we become of our unity with this mind, the
less conscious we shall become of conditions and limitations, and as we become
emancipated or freed from conditions we come into a realization of the unconditional.
We have become free!
2. As soon as we become conscious of the inexhaustible power in the world within,
we begin to draw on this power and apply and develop the greater possibilities which
this discernment has realized, because whatever we become conscious of, is invariably
manifested in the objective world, is brought forth into tangible expression.
3. This is because the Infinite Mind, which is the source from which all things
proceed, is one and indivisible, and each individual is a channel whereby this Eternal
Energy is being manifested. Our ability to think is our ability to act upon this Universal
Substance, and what we think is what is created or produced in the objective world.
4. The result of this discovery is nothing less than marvelous, and means that mind is
extraordinary in quality, limitless in quantity, and contains possibilities without number.
To become conscious of this power is to become a "live wire"; it has the same effect as
placing an ordinary wire in contact with a wire that is charged. The Universal is the live
wire. It carries power sufficient to meet every situation which may arise in the life of
every individual. When the individual mind touches the Universal Mind it receives all
the power it requires. This is the world within. All science recognizes the reality of this
world, and all power is contingent upon our recognition of this world.
5. The ability to eliminate imperfect conditions depends upon mental action, and
mental action depends upon consciousness of power; therefore, the more conscious we
become of our unity with the source of all power, the greater will be our power to
control and master every condition.
6. Large ideas have a tendency to eliminate all smaller ideas so that it is well to hold
ideas large enough to counteract and destroy all small or undesirable tendencies. This
will remove innumerable petty and annoying obstacles from your path. You also become
conscious of a larger world of thought, thereby increasing your mental capacity as well
as placing yourself in position to accomplish something of value.
7. This is one of the secrets of success, one of the methods of organizing victory, one
of the accomplishments of the Master-Mind. He thinks big thoughts. The creative
energies of mind find no more difficulty in handling large situations, than small ones.
Mind is just as much present in the Infinitely large as in the Infinitely small.
8. When we realize these facts concerning mind we understand how we may bring
ourselves any condition by creating the corresponding conditions in our consciousness,
because everything which is held for any length of time in the consciousness, eventually becomes impressed upon the subconscious and thus becomes a pattern which the
creative energy will wave into the life and environment of the individual.
9. In this way conditions are produced and we find that our lives are simply the
reflection of our predominant thoughts, our mental attitude; we see then that the science
of correct thinking is the one science, that it includes all other sciences.
10. From this science we learn that every thought creates an impression on the brain,
that these impressions create mental tendencies, and these tendencies create character,
ability and purpose, and that the combined action of character, ability and purpose
determines the experiences with which we shall meet in life.
11. These experiences come to us through the Law of Attraction; through the action of
this law we meet in the world without the experiences which correspond to our world
within.
12. The predominant thought or the mental attitude is the magnet, and the law is that
"like attracts like", consequently the mental attitude will invariably attract such
conditions as correspond to its nature.
13. This mental attitude is our personality and is composed of the thoughts which we
have been creating in our own mind; therefore, if we wish a change in conditions all that
is necessary is to change our thought; this will in turn change our mental attitude, which
will in turn change our personality, which will in turn change the persons, things and
conditions, or, the experiences with which we meet in life.
14. It is, however, no easy matter to change the mental attitude, but by persistent
effort it may be accomplished; the mental attitude is patterned after the mental pictures
which have been photographed on the brain; if you do not like the pictures, destroy the
negatives and create new pictures; this is the art of visualization.
15. As soon as you have done this you will begin to attract new things, and the new
things will correspond to the new pictures. To do this: impress on the mind a perfect
picture of the desire which you wish to have objectified and continue to hold the picture
in mind until results are obtained.
16. If the desire is one which requires determination, ability, talent, courage, power or
any other spiritual power, these are necessary essentials for your picture; build them in;
they are the vital part of the picture; they are the feeling which combines with thought
and creates the irresistible magnetic power which draws the things you require to you.
They give your picture life, and life means growth, and as soon as it beings to grow, the
result is practically assured.
17. Do not hesitate to aspire to the highest possible attainments in anything you may
undertake, for the mind forces are ever ready to lend themselves to a purposeful will in
the effort to crystallize its highest aspirations into acts, accomplishments, and events.
18. An illustration of how these mind forces operate is suggested by the method in
which all our habits are formed. We do a thing, then do it again, and again, and again,
until it becomes easy and perhaps almost automatic; and the same rule applies in
breaking any and all bad habits; we stop doing a thing, and then avoid it again, and again
until we are entirely free from it; and if we do fail now and then, we should by no means
lose hope, for the law is absolute and invincible and gives us credit for every effort and
every success, even though our efforts and successes are perhaps intermittent.
19. There is no limit to what this law can do for you; dare to believe in your own idea;
remember that Nature is plastic to the ideal; think of the ideal as an already
accomplished fact.
20. The real battle of life is one of ideas; it is being fought out by the few against the
many; on the one side is the constructive and creative thought, on the other side the
destructive and negative thought; the creative thought is dominated by an ideal, the
passive thought is dominated by appearances. On both sides are men of science, men of letters, and men of affairs.
21. On the creative side are men who spend their time in laboratories, or over
microscopes and telescopes, side by side with the men who dominate the commercial,
political, and scientific world; on the negative side or men who spend their time
investigating law and precedent, men who mistake theology for religion, statesmen who
mistake might for right, and all the millions who seem to prefer precedent to progress,
who are eternally looking backward instead of forward, who see only the world without,
but know nothing of the world within.
22. In the last analysis there are but these two classes; all men will have to take their
place on one side or the other; they will have to go forward, or go back; there is no
standing still in a world where all is motion; it is this attempt to stand still that gives
sanction and force to arbitrary and unequal codes of law.
23. That we are in a period of transition is evidenced by the unrest which is
everywhere apparent. The complaint of humanity is as a roll of heaven's artillery, commencing with low and threatening notes and increasing until the sound is sent from
cloud to cloud, and the lightning splits the air and earth.
24. The sentries who patrol the most advanced outposts of the Industrial, Political,
and Religious world are calling anxiously to each other. What of the night? The danger
and insecurity of the position they occupy and attempt to hold is becoming more
apparent every hour. The dawn of a new era necessarily declares that the existing order
of things cannot much longer be.
25. The issue between the old regime and the new, the crux of the social problem, is
entirely a question of conviction in the minds of the people as to the nature of the
Universe. When they realize that the transcendent force of spirit or mind of the Cosmos
is within each individual, it will be possible to frame laws that shall consider the liberties
and rights of the many instead of the privileges of the few.
26. As long as the people regard the Cosmic power as a power non-human and alien
to humanity, so long will it be comparatively easy for a supposed privileged class to rule
by Divine right in spite of every protest of social sentiment. The real interest of
democracy is therefore to exalt, emancipate and recognize the divinity of the human
spirit. To recognize that all power is from within. That no human being has any more
power than any other human being, except such as may willingly be delegated to him.
The old regime would have us believe that the law was superior to the law-makers;
herein is the gist of the social crime of every form of privilege and personal inequality,
the institutionalizing of the fatalistic doctrine of Divine election.
27. The Divine Mind is the Universal Mind; it makes no exceptions, it plays no
favorites; it does not act through sheer caprice or from anger, jealousy or wrath; neither
can it be flattered, cajoled or moved by sympathy or petition to supply man with some
need which he thinks necessary for his happiness or even his existence. The Divine
Mind makes no exceptions to favor any individual; but when the individual understands
and realizes his Unity with the Universal principle he will appear to be favored because
he will have found the source of all health, all wealth, and all power.
28. For your exercise this week, concentrate on the Truth. Try to realize that the Truth
shall make you free, that is, nothing can permanently stand in the way of your perfect
success when you learn to apply the scientifically correct thought methods and
principles. Realize that you are externalizing in your environment your inherent soul
potencies. Realize that the Silence offers an ever-available and almost unlimited
opportunity for awakening the highest conception of Truth. Try to comprehend that
Omnipotence itself is absolute silence, all else is change, activity, limitation. Silent thought concentration is therefore the true method of reaching, awakening, and then
expressing the wonderful potential power of the world within.

Part Twenty-One - Study Questions

201. What is the real secret of power?

202. What is the source of this power?

203. How is this power being manifested?

204. How may we connect with this Omnipotence?

205. What is the result of this discovery?

206. How, then, may we eliminate imperfect conditions?

207. What is one of the distinctive characteristics of the Master Mind?

208. How do experiences come to us?

209. How is this law brought into operation?

210. What is the issue between the old regime and the new?