Dynamics of Prayer

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

Intentionality by faith claims, along with other spiritual traditions and forms of Intentionality, that we are co-creators of our reality.  Jesus said to a man “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (The Gospel According to Mark 2:23-24)  In the Dhammapada we read where the Buddha is reported to have said: “We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.”  Baha’u’llah points out: “All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition. Your own acts testify to this truth.” (Gleanings: 149)  But, again the difference between intentionality by reason and imagination and intentionality by faith, lies mostly in an emphasis upon who is doing what.  

Reason and imagination state that humans are the intenders, cooperating with the universe, the unconscious, or some nebulous Universal Mind, in the sense of giving it work to do, namely, to realize a clearly visualized desire.  Intentionality by faith, however, lays the emphasis upon the work of divine power.  We ask the divine to confirm or realize our desire. What is the difference, one might ask?  It seems the same process, cooperation with greater powers.  But here is the difference that makes the difference.

If we conceive and name the greater power the unconscious, or Universal Mind, or simply the universe, we are actually "cooperating" with a product of our own thought and imagination, not with a power completely independent of us.  In this case, we are the creators, and we put our faith in something that we created, or do not really know in itself, but name it.  This is, for me, the wrong way around; for whatever we may say about it, we have "unconsciously" put ourselves in the place of God, but a god who can not realize his own desire.  It is contradictory--at least to me.  Because we are powerful beings--remember the universe is folded within each of us--many intentions can be realized this way.  But Intentionality by faith, as I think of it, has a definite and independent Power in mind to put one's intention.  It is not a power that we conceive and name, but a power that conceives us!

The Universal Mind for Baha’is is the Mind of the Manifestation of God.  Baha’u’llah wrote: “If the wayfarer's goal be the dwelling of the Praiseworthy One (Mahmud), this is the station of primal reason which is known as the Prophet and the Most Great Pillar.  Here reason signifieth the divine, universal mind, whose sovereignty enlighteneth all created things—nor doth it refer to every feeble brain.” (The Four Valleys:52)  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “But the universal divine mind, which is beyond nature, is the bounty of the Preexistent Power. This universal mind is divine; it embraces existing realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God. It is a conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research….This divine intellectual power is the special attribute of the Holy Manifestations and the Dawning-places of prophethood; a ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, and a portion and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations.” (Some Answered Questions: 218)

The power of real faith was stated by Jesus: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (The Gospel According to Matthew 17:19-20)  But it is not us that is moving the mountain, but our faith that God may do it.  On the relation between faith and human reason, George Townshend wrote: “'Abdu'l-Bahá once said that Reason was the throne of faith; in another place he likened Reason to a great mirror looking into the heavens but reflecting no image because it was in darkness. Faith, he said, was like sunlight which enabled the mirror to see and to reflect all the heavenly truths that lie before it. These symbols express exactly the Christian and the Bahá'í view of Reason and Faith, but not the view of traditional orthodoxy which is a purely human concept.” (Christ and Baha'u'llah: 53)

            There is no doubt that, regardless of which form of Intentionality that we prefer or use, we are far more powerful than many believe that we are.  I believe that our greatest power comes from cooperation, using reason, imagination, and faith, with the divine intent.  If we are in harmony with the Will of God as expressed in His Revelation, we can be assured of untold power coming to our assistance.  How powerful can we become?  The promise of Baha’u’llah on the increased creative power that accrues to any individual engaged in spiritual transformation has been the leading quote for most of the posts on Intentionality.  O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be. (The Four Valleys: 63)

            That is a powerful promise, and its realization is via the key word “obey.”  This does not mean a blind and slavish conformity to whatever is in scripture or to what self-appointed interpreters of such scripture say that It says.  It means, I think, to obey—a word meaning “to hear facing forward”—His way of looking at and relating to the world and the Divine.  No better primer of intentionality by faith, of how cooperating with divine intention works, can be found than Shoghi Effendi’s The Dynamics of Prayer.  His instructions on how to solve problems and meet challenges were recorded in Ruth Moffatt’s pilgrim’s notes:

First Step. - Pray and meditate about it. Use the prayers of the Manifestations as they have the greatest power. Then remain in the silence of contemplation for a few minutes.

Second Step. - Arrive at a decision and hold this. This decision is usually born during the contemplation. It may seem almost impossible of accomplishment but if it seems to be as answer to a prayer or a way of solving the problem, then immediately take the next step.

Third Step. - Have determination to carry the decision through.  Many fail here. The decision, budding into determination, is blighted and instead becomes a wish or a vague longing. When determination is born, immediately take the next step.  

Fourth Step. - Have faith and confidence that the power will flow through you, the right way will appear, the door will open, the right thought, the right message, the right principle or the right book will be given you. Have confidence, and the right thing will come to your need. Then, as you rise from prayer, take at once the fifth step.

Fifth Step. - Then, he said, lastly, ACT; Act as though it had all been answered. Then act with tireless, ceaseless energy. And as you act, you, yourself, will become a magnet, which will attract more power to your being, until you become an unobstructed channel for the Divine power to flow through you. Many pray but do not remain for the last half of the first step. Some who meditate arrive at a decision, but fail to hold it. Few have the determination to carry the decision through, still fewer have the confidence that the right thing will come to their need. But how many remember to act as though it had all been answered? How true are those words -"Greater than the prayer is the spirit in which it is uttered" and greater than the way it is uttered is the spirit in which it is carried out. (Principles of Baha’i Administration: A Compilation: 90-91)

            Next post will sum up this long exploration of Intentionality.

The Need of Neediness

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

To understand what is meant by the need of neediness we need to navigate through the Scylla and Charybdis of two seemingly contradictory statements: “I created thee rich, why hast thou brought thyself down to poverty” (Arabic Hidden Words #11, 13), and “All are but poor and needy.” (Bahá’í Prayers: 99)  How can immensely rich souls be, nonetheless, poor and needy? 

All Intentionality works through choice—i.e. we intend something.  It assumes taking one direction over another at that moment.  It presupposes a goal.  In terms of life-choices and moral direction, the choice is between materiality and spirituality.  This choice is often made on the basis of where we believe we can find wealth and security, without or within. 

Spiritually, we are created rich in potentials; a talisman with a whole universe of riches enfolded within.  When Baha’u’llah says that human souls are poor and needy, He does not refer to any inherent lack of spiritual riches, but that we are poor and in need of spiritual knowledge and understanding to bring these forth. A diamond buried in the earth is only potential wealth.  It must be mined, cut and polished for that potential to be made actual.  To provide humanity with that knowledge and the drive to acquire it is why the Manifestations come.  The soul is a mine rich in gems: rich, that is, in all save God.  This is the need of neediness. 

We are a supreme talisman that can attract all things in creation.  We can do this because, as the Bab wrote: “Verily hath God created within thyself the similitude of all that He hath fashioned in creation, that thou mayest not be veiled from any effulgence.”  (Gate of the Heart: 43) This is the basis, I believe, behind the proponents of Intentionality saying that whatever we wish to have manifest can be so.  They also warn, do not wish FOR anything, because that is a condition of emptiness and separation, and this will actually negate the Intention.  If you already possess it, why do you believe that you don’t?  We must be the thing we desire.  If we want it to rain, we do not pray for rain, but pray rain.  To pray for something is to acknowledge that one does not already have it.  But if the universe is folded within thee, then everything in creation is already part of you.  It is a matter of manifesting it.  The Universe, or the Universal Mind, or the unconscious is supposed to carry out the commands of the Intention. (We’ll look at these terms in the next post)  The intender believes that this will happen.  Saint Augustine wrote: “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

We are a talisman that attracts God only when we are empty, even temporarily, of attachment to that first condition.  When we are detached from all save God we may say: “I testify at this moment to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth.” 

Though “the universe is folded within thee”, we are in need of the divine Spirit.  Remember Jesus statement in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (King James Bible, Matthew 5:3)  Spiritual transformation starts when we become aware that we are created poor only in God.  Perhaps this is the valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness.  But through this realization we are transformed into the rich, for we inherit all things!  In this light, ‘Abdu’l-Baha remarks: “Do all ye can to become wholly weary of self, and bind yourselves to that Countenance of Splendours; and once ye have reached such heights of servitude, ye will find, gathered within your shadow, all created things.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 76)

Baha’u’llah stated this paradoxical relation in The Hidden Words; “Yet to be poor in all save God is a wondrous gift, belittle not the value thereof, for in the end it will make thee rich in God, and thus thou shalt know the meaning of the utterance, "In truth ye are the poor," and the holy words, "God is the all-possessing," shall even as the true morn break forth gloriously resplendent upon the horizon of the lover's heart, and abide secure on the throne of wealth.” (The Persian Hidden Words #51) 

Too, though we are a supreme talisman we are that only as the likeness of the true Supreme Talisman.  To be spiritually magnetized so that the inner virtues lying in potentia may be activated, the soul must enter the charged field of the Word of God “inasmuch as these holy verses are the most potent elixir, the greatest and mightiest talisman,” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 200) and enter into relation with one of God’s Messengers, for the Prophet of God “is in truth the Supreme Talisman and is endowed with supernatural powers.” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab:45)  

Thus 'Abdu'l-Baha issues this quiet instruction: “These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of these perfections may appear, but they are unstable and ephemeral; they are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.” (Some Answered Questions, p. 79-80)

I said that we should not wish for anything, because that is a condition of emptiness and separation from the world, and this will actually negate the Intention.  We must, rather, be the thing we desire.  Now what could that mean?  Well, actually, we have all experienced that condition. It is the condition of children.  Thus, to work, Intentionality must also have a strong element of play.  We often miss this part, because we live in a culture obsessed with wringing an external result from everything we do.  But Intentionality is not simply about pulling the rabbit of realization out of the hat of desire.  A fixation on making everything productive and rational cuts us off from the world of the spontaneous that is home to other knowledge.  In fact, regardless of such seemingly positively reinforcing statements that speak to holding and focusing intention, such as “being intent upon something”, “fixing one’s purpose”, and “one must be persistent”, we should also manifest what psychologists call “flow.”  When Intentionality becomes over-conscious and over-serious it becomes WORK.  Intentionality is the creative process, and play is its foundation.

Play is not external or extrinsic. It's not about the end but the experience. It is highly imaginative and thus obeys the imagination’s creative principle, namely, “Let this be.”  Healing prayers, it has been suggested, work best when the one praying asks the “universe” to allow a sick person to heal.  The prayer that anxiously demands healing, that tries to force the “universe” to obey one’s prayer is childish, not child-like, and is likely to get some pushback from that beneficent universe.  We want to cooperate, not command.  What we don't realize, though, is that it's precisely its intrinsic aspect that allows play to tap a more meaningful place that satisfies core needs and reveals the authentic person.  Play is often who we really are.  

Intention by Faith

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

Intentionality by faith is cooperating with divine intention and purpose.  In the Taoist teachings we find statements like: “He who conforms to the course of the Tao, following the natural process of Heaven and earth, finds it easy to manage the world.” (from Huai Nan Tzu an early Taoist philosopher).  From the Hindu tradition: “The chariot of the gods is yoked for the world of heaven, the chariot of man for wherever his intention is fixed; the fire is the chariot of the gods.” (The Hindu Vedas, Yajar Veda—Kanda V)

            The same kinds of statements are found in the scriptures of the religions of the western world.  However, here there is a definite reliance on and cooperation with greater than human power, a calling upon It for assistance.  That is, the western religious philosophy of creative intention cooperates with what reason, which works with whatever creative possibilities are left to this realm of being, would call the unknowable to accomplish the seeming impossible.  Intentionality through faith works more in the realm of divine not human possibility.  Belief in higher spiritual powers enters more into the picture, because to its Revealers all things are possible with God.  There is less doubt and more faith.

For example, as far back as the Book of Job we can see this principle at work: “Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.  Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.” (The Book of Job 22:27-28)

           In the New Testament, the creative power of faith by connection with the Divine is more explicitly stated.  Jesus said: “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall receive them” (The Book of Mark 11:24)  And: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (The Book of Matthew 17:19-20)  And: “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” (The Gospel According to Luke 17:5-6)

         In this same light, an Islamic tradition (Hadith) states: “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘The reward of deeds depends upon the intention and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended.” 

Thus both traditions speak of the power of cooperative intention, provided that the intention is pure (which, for me, does not mean without ethical blemish, but unadulterated by a mix of intentions, or for some secret purpose), and one believes that it will come to pass if one holds it and arranges one’s life to receive it.  The eastern tradition emphasizes the human element in the cooperation.  The western tradition more explicitly points out the divine side.

‘Abdu’l-Baha made this promise which brings the two traditions together: “I say unto you that any one who will rise up in the Cause of God at this time shall be filled with the spirit of God, and that He will send His hosts from heaven to help you, and that nothing shall be impossible to you if you have faith…As ye have faith so shall your powers and blessings be. This is the standard; this is the standard; this is the standard.” (Baha’i Scriptures: 503)  In the same vein Christ said to two blind men who came to Him for healing: “According to your faith be it unto you.” (The Book of Matthew 9:29)

True faith is never blind belief in things that authority says, or to accept something without investigation.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá defines faith as, “first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.” (Baha’i World Faith: 383)  Faith is one of humanity’s most powerful ways of obtaining knowledge.  As I argue in my book, Renewing the Sacred, seeing the world in faith is to construct an epistemology of spiritual discovery.  Intentionality described as the exercise of human imaginative power uses the power of visualization, a metaphor of vision.  Intentionality by faith uses the metaphor of hearing, because the full divine intention can never be visualized. It is too complex, perhaps infinitely so.  But we can “hear” its effects, so to speak.  Just because things are not seen or visualizable, does not mean they are not knowable, that they don’t present themselves via their effects, as the breeze does the approaching storm.  The whole Judeo-Christian religious tradition, founded on what Matthew Arnold called the Hebraic consciousness, is based on faith as a certain kind of hearing.  One knows by faith that something invisible exists.  This knowing induces the search for a vision of it, or, more appropriately, that the thing known by faith will reveal itself so it may be seen by vision.  But it is a grave mistake to confuse one’s blindness to something with the nonexistence of that thing.

So, Saint Paul calls faith “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (The Book of Hebrews 11:1)   He also says that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (The Book of Romans 10:17)  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá echoes St. Paul when He says that “the voice of God hath made thine ears to hear.” (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. V.1:132)  If faith comes by hearing, the person of faith is first a receptive listener.  We often think of mental activity as the production of ideas and images, but this is true in its active phase.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells us: “Bahá’u’lláh says there is a sign (from God) in every phenomenon: the sign of the intellect is contemplation and the sign of contemplation is silence, because it is impossible for a man to do two things at the same time–he cannot both speak and meditate.” (Paris Talks: 174)  Bahá’u’lláh reinforces this when He says: “Know thou that the ear of man hath been created that it may hearken unto the Divine Voice on this Day that hath been mentioned in all the Books, Scriptures, and Tablets.” (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 2)

But we don’t hear that Voice and thus have little or no faith.  We don’t hear the Voice because: “The accumulations of vain fancy have obstructed men’s ears and stopped them from hearing the Voice of God.” (The Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh: 240-241)  The “proper education” that gives faith is grounded in hearing the Word of God.  But how do we know that what we hear is the voice of God and not some subjective prompting?

Ponder the following extraordinary statements from Bahá’u’lláh: “A servant is drawn unto Me in prayer until I answer him, and when I have answered him, I become the ear wherewith he heareth.” (The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys: 22)  And: “Thy hearing is My hearing, hear thou therewith.  Thy sight is My sight, do thou see therewith, that in thine inmost soul thou mayest testify unto My exalted sanctity, and I within Myself may bear witness unto an exalted station for thee.” (The Hidden Words: 44 Arabic)

Thus God enables us to hear and understand His Word, for He is “standing within us” in some manner as the very agent of perception, addressing Himself, as it were: the Divine addressing the divinity that is our higher self.  Strange as this may sound, it helps in understanding this point if we remember that: “he hath known God who hath known himself.”

Most discussion of Intentionality advise do not think negative thoughts or feel that one is empty or in need, because that is what the universe, or the unconscious, or Universal Mind will give back to you, these “powers” being more reflectors than guides.  But Intentionality by faith requires the intender to feel needy, or, rather both full and needy at the same time.  We will explore that next.

INTENTIONALITY VII: Intention by Imagination

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

I have said that there are two main kinds or methods of intentionality, by reason and by faith.  Till now I have mostly concentrated upon intentionality by reason, collectively through science and art, and individually via the use of the powers of human invention.  Individual intentionality may, perhaps, be considered a kind of third sort of intentionality, one between reason and faith.  There is a strong element of imagination or the power of visualization in the individual kind of intentionality, a creative process closely akin to what I have called formal causality.  Formal causality is a direct mode of creation by imprint of character.  The greatest wielders of this power are the Manifestations Who say, “Be and it is”.  Other causes are the interplay of efficient causes as mediate modes, one of which is human persistent intention.  This is the power to change captured in the phrase, “Be and it shall be."

All intentionality is to effect some change that is the realization or manifestation of desire.  This is possible because indeterminism is inherent in systems at all levels of complexity.  Nonetheless, it is also true to say that as one moves from the purely spiritual toward the physical, which is the realm of being, indeterminacy crystallizes into greater determinacy, so there is less possibility of change because things are already completely formed.  Intentionality works at the levels or interstices of indeterminacy, i.e unmanifested possibility.  So before we swing over to the other pole and look more deeply at intentionality by faith, let us examine this power of visualization.    

            Revelation, according to the Bahá’í Teachings, is the supreme creative power in the cosmos.  It holds within it all possibilities of creation.  Revelation is also progressive.  Hence it not only continually creates new phenomena, but also unveils new laws for this.  That means, if revelation is progressive, and not fixed, and if it effects even the natural world, (Baha’u’llah, for example, wrote: “The breeze of the bounty of the King of creation hath caused even the physical earth to be changed, were ye to ponder in your hearts the mysteries of divine Revelation.” Kitab-i-Iqan: 47), then the laws of nature are, too, not eternally fixed.  They may be evolving along with Nature.

Some scientists are coming to this same conclusion.  Such study comes under the heading “evolutionary cosmology”—the universe itself as an emergent reality.  Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, for example, writes: “…in the context of evolutionary cosmology, the Spirit underlies the onward flow of energy and the expansive impulse of the universe; the Word is in the patterns of activity and meaning expressed through fields….Thus the energy and fields of the evolutionary cosmos have a common source, a unity.  And not just a unity but a conscious unity.” (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature: 198)  That phrase “not just a unity but a conscious unity” is a pretty good description of Revelation.

Many who have studied and practiced intentionality say that the best way to obtain what one wants is through reflection, visualization and fixity of purpose within a tranquil but highly energized and focused state of mind.  This particular strand of intentionality usually has strong ties with eastern thought.  There is no better summary of the steps of this process from the human side than this passage from The Great Learning of Confucian thought: “The way of the Great Learning consists in the clarification of originally clear perceptions, in the love of mankind, and in resting in the highest excellence.  If one understands this resting, then only does one have fixity of purpose.  If one has fixity of purpose, then only can one succeed in being tranquil.  If one is tranquil, then only can one succeed in finding peace.  If one has peace, then only is one able to reflect.  Only after reflection can one succeed in obtaining what one wishes.” (Richard Wilhelm, Confucius and Confucianism. 162.)

Also in eastern thought we get the idea of there being One Mind creating and coordinating the universe through universal relationships and laws.  Hence in Buddhist thought we can read: “All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but One Mind, besides which nothing exists.  This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible…for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces, and comparisons.  Only awake to the One Mind.” (Zen master Huang Po, quoted in The Tao of Physics)  Human beings can tap into the creative power of this One Mind, and so the Buddha is reported to have said: ‘We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.” (Dhammapada)

Much of the modern literature on Intentionality through visualization also uses the idea of Universal Mind, a thought also returning to mainstream science.  For example, Deepak Chopra writes: “The universal Mind choreographs everything that is happening in billions of galaxies with elegant precision and unfaltering intelligence.  Its intelligence is ultimate and supreme, and it permeastes every fiber of existence; from the smallest to the largest, from the atom to the cosmos.  Everything that is alive is an expression of this intelligence.” (The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: 105)

The other line of development of this tradition of thought also goes back to ancient wisdom, usually to foundations in the Hermetic tradition, which is the foundation of all the alchemical traditions over the world.  The Hermetic tradition emphasizes the interaction between the One Mind and the One Thing, universal thought and primal matter.  Often in modern Intentionality there is a confluence of the two streams of thought, as researchers and others look to find support for their powerful intuitions.  Of course, the two most prominent and popular examples of this fusion are What the Bleep do we Know? and The Secret.  In this light we can also read, for example: Charles Haanel, The Master Key System; Claude M. Bristol, The Magic of Believing; Robert Collier, The Secret of the Ages; James Allen, As a Man Thinketh; Gregg Braden, Secrets of Lost Mode of Prayer; Wallace Wattles, The Science of Success; Lynne McTaggart, The Field and The Intention Experiment; Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich.  Others team up with quantum physicists or at least use their ideas and experiments.

These writers say that by cooperating with “the universe” or the universal Mind one can realize intention, for the primal matter still has infinite possibilities of manifestation.  Too, they often will conflate the unconscious mind of the individual with the universal mind, or at least say that the human unconscious has access to, or is in some way connected with, this Universal Mind.  One cooperates by visualizing a desired outcome and then giving the universal Mind, or one’s own unconscious, this image to bring about in the manifest world. 

Their message is that thoughts are causes, material effects are outcomes.  You can change effects by changing causes.  Robert Collier, for example, says: “The keynote of successful visualization is this: See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.” (The Secret of the Ages: 87)   Wallace Wattles, one of the founders of this movement, stated: “Man can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the things he thinks about to be created.” (The Science of Success: 30)  And Napoleon Hill: “From the great storehouse of the ether, the human mind is constantly attracting vibrations that harmonize with that which dominates the mind.” (Think and Grow Rich: 51)

The quotes themselves could fill several posts, but I think the idea is clear.  Humans possess powerful creative energies that can influence, through directed thought and imagination (i.e. Intentionality) the material world, especially if people use or cooperate with the unconscious mind, the universe, or the Universal Mind.  But there exists, I believe, and even more powerful means of Intentionality.  That is the subject of the next post.