Your Forces and How to Use Them summary

Man holds energies too many to count, and some of them are limitless in power. Larson opens with the poet's line about a million energies in man and finds more practical truth in it than first appears. Since modern psychology began the new science of human thought and action, lives in every quarter show what a more intelligent use of these forces can do, and Larson finds in them the first signs of a new and superior race. Beneath the surface of mental substance and vital energy man is so wonderfully made that no statement about the "more" in him can be too strong. The reader is therefore asked not to judge strong statements but to understand and apply the powers they describe. The foreword closes with the pledge "Promise Yourself": a set of resolutions toward peace of mind, optimism, generosity toward the success of others, and faith that the whole world stands with the one who is true to the best within.

The ego, the "I Am," is the ruling principle in man. It is the center and source of individuality, and it originates every thought and action. The will can govern a person's forces only as far as that person is conscious of the "I Am" as the self. Larson opens by promising a practical study of every power in human nature. He sets out three ways of analyzing man: as ego, consciousness and form; as body, mind and soul; and as individuality and personality. The rest of the work follows the third. He then teaches the reader to recognize the "I Am" in every act, to affirm it in silence, and to isolate it for a few moments each day, so that the reader acts from the throne of his being and not from the lower story of mind or body. The "I Am" knows in three ways: simple consciousness when it looks out upon life, self consciousness when it looks upon its own position, and cosmic consciousness when it looks up into the vastness of real life. Larson reverses the common idea of body, mind and soul. The soul is the man himself, with the ego as its central principle, and the personality is the visible means through which that individuality is expressed. He closes with a call to strength: take your place on the mountain tops of the strength you already have, and do not come down in adversity.

We govern our forces only when we stand above mind and body, in the individuality, the invisible man whose center is the "I Am." Larson teaches that a strong, positive individuality controls the ship of life, while a weak one drifts with environment. He gives methods for building it: give the "I Am" its lofty place, hold the masterful attitude, make every desire and thought positive, picture the ideal individuality and grow toward it, and recognize the greater man within. The personality, the visible man, is the instrument of these forces, as the piano is the musician's, and it must be refined so that finer powers can find expression. Larson then maps the three fields of mental action: the conscious, the subconscious and the superconscious, the source of inspiration and the highest forces, which must still be brought down into practical action. Every force is governed through its psychological field, the realm of undercurrents where all causes act, and whoever directs those currents determines results. The chapter closes on the law that happiness comes from being much and doing much together, in a life that always moves forward.

Mind is the ruling power in the world and in man himself. Every other faculty follows the action of the mind, and the "I Am" stands as the power behind the throne. Larson sets out three essentials for the right use of this power. First, direct every mental action constantly toward one definite goal, held clearly before the mind's eye every minute and aimed as high as possible. Second, make every mental action positive: calm, full, controlled, with strength stored up until the moment of action. Third, make every mental action constructive, filled with a steady building desire and a definite, unhurried ambition. A positive mind is a stream that gathers volume from a hundred tributaries. A negative mind splits into a hundred shallow streams. Larson then names the misuses that waste power: domineering attitudes, trying to control others or to work on circumstances by mental pressure, retaliation, and every destructive emotion. The true way to better circumstances is to become better oneself, because like attracts like, and taking an active interest in the success of everybody enlarges one's own. Those who fail drift because their minds are negative, non-constructive or aimless, though they are often rich in dormant possibilities. Whoever takes control of his own mind already holds the interior riches that count him among "them that hath." The chapter closes by turning to the full use of mind, which reaches into the limitless subconscious self, the bigger man on the inside who is greater than any obstacle.

Mental action has real power only when it reaches the undercurrents of the mind, and those undercurrents move through the subconscious. Larson teaches that there is one mind with two phases: the conscious is the upper side, and the subconscious is a finer force that fills every atom of the personality the way water fills a sponge. The subconscious governs circulation, digestion, repair, habit, second nature and heredity, and it does whatever it has been trained to do. Weakness, inherited ailments and even old age at seventy are the fruit of misdirected training across generations, and right training can replace them with strength, ability and youth. Everything placed in the subconscious grows, so the bad grows worse and the good grows better. Larson therefore urges the reader never to give in to tiredness, sickness or depression, and he shows that in the sickroom a patient's refusal to give in throws the full power of mind on the side of life. To direct the subconscious, desire what you want deeply and persistently over months and years. The person who does this uses the whole mind instead of a small corner of it.

The subconscious responds to the impressions, desires, expectations and directions of the conscious mind, but only when the conscious actually touches it at the moment the direction is given. Larson teaches the reader to bring this about by feeling conscious action pass through the whole interior system in a state of calm, deep poise. He applies the law to health first: picture perfect health, feel its meaning, and let that feeling sink into every atom of the body. He then shows that the subconscious builds as well as removes. Its best work comes from a desire for more and more, a steady increase from where one stands, never a fixed amount. Undesired habits are not to be fought, because whatever is dwelt upon is developed further, so the reader builds up the good and lets the lesser fall away. Larson goes on to the arousing of ability and capacity, the deep power that answers an urgent "must," undivided concentration on one ambition, and the practice of "sleeping over" new plans, when ideas carried into sleep are turned over from every side. Practice, faith, calm and patience make the subconscious steadily more responsive, since its capacity is limitless. The chapter closes with "The Path to Greater Things," a short series of maxims on dreaming the ideal, believing, and acting as if every expectation were coming true.

Not every thought has power. Objective thought, the surface work of the intellect in reasoning, study and recollection, leaves mind and body largely untouched. Subjective thought, the thought of the heart that carries deep feeling and moves through the mental undercurrents, is always a force and works for or against us according to its nature. Because any thought may sink into these deeper realms, Larson calls for scientific thinking: thought that is right, held with a definite aim, and made subjective so that the whole power of mind works toward what we desire. He shows how common sayings such as "That's always the way," "The older I get" and "I can never do anything right" train the mind toward the very conditions they name, and he gives better expressions to put in their place. He sets out three essentials, constructive mental attitudes, constructive mental imagery and constructive mental action, and shows that the mind follows the leadership of its most prominent mental picture. Talents and bodily organs flourish under encouragement and decline under depression, as two men of equal ability do when one is praised and the other kept down. Feeling is the hardest part of thought to govern, so adverse feeling must be stopped at its beginning. The chapter closes with short maxims on growth and self-creation through thought.

Man is as he thinks, but he is not what he thinks he is. Larson separates the living law of creative thought from the empty habit of forming opinions about oneself. Only subjective thought, the thought of the heart that acts in the subconscious, shapes personality, character and destiny. A statement about the personal self stays on the surface, among effects, and changes nothing below. Larson works the law through youth, health, brilliancy, beauty and goodness. In each case, calling oneself young, well, brilliant, beautiful or good does nothing, and it often breeds vanity or self-righteousness that pulls a person down. What builds the quality is thought that carries the quality itself, drawn from an ever larger conception of absolute life, worth and goodness. The way into such thought is to forget the limited personal self and enter mentally into the greatness and splendor of all things. Since a person's thinking is in his own hands, he can become what he wants to become. Larson closes with change as the greatest remedy: real change is always internal, and the daily renewal of mind brings health, happiness, freedom and abundance.

Man grows into the likeness of what he thinks of most, and he thinks most of what he loves best. Larson calls this the basic law of change. Thought is the original cause of every habit, quality and physical condition, and a face held in one mood for months shows that mood to anyone who looks. Most people use the law blindly. They follow the suggestions of their surroundings, so they plant a flower one day and hoe it up for a weed the next. To change only for the better, the love nature has to be trained to love only what lies above one's present stage. That means loving the ideal, the true and the beautiful in every person rather than the ordinary or the outward appearance. Pleasures shape a person the same way, because what we thoroughly enjoy we deeply love. Larson asks for warm, ardent feeling that is turned inward toward the highest a person has glimpsed. Love that is misdirected pulls people and nations down, and love that is turned upward lifts the whole of life. Knowing how to love is therefore the principal essential. The chapter closes with short maxims on feeling, self-belief and perseverance.

Thought is a building force, not a compelling one. Larson opens by setting aside the belief that thought can dominate things and force fate to come our way. Such force puts the mind out of harmony with itself and its surroundings, wears itself out in the act of compelling, and in the end loses whatever it gathered. Used to build, the power of thought has practically no limit. The law behind the title follows from this: he who thinks he can develops the power that can. When a man thinks he can do a thing, his mind acts on the faculties the work requires, and life, nourishment and energy gather there until those faculties grow equal to the task. Larson illustrates this with invention, music, art, literature and business. Every faculty is present in every mind, active or latent. It is wise to begin with the talents that already show strength, while also preparing a greater work for the days ahead. The thought must be held in deep earnest, with invincible determination and the feeling that brings all the powers of being into united action. The chapter closes with short counsels: a failure to get the lesser shows that we deserve the greater, a day without visible action may be a day of accumulation, and desire joined with faith becomes invincible when we know what we want and keep on wanting it.

Desire has two functions. It gives every force in the human system something definite to do, and it goes straight into the faculty that has the natural power to produce what is wanted. Larson follows a man who needs more money. His desire grows until it stirs every atom of his being, and his sluggish financial faculties fill with living energy. They then grow keener and more capable, and new ideas and plans follow. The same law brings friends to one who desires friendship, because a person becomes like what he desires and like attracts like. It also raises the literary or business faculties of one who desires success in that work. Most wishes fail because they are shallow and occasional. Desire works only when it is persistent, continuous, deep and whole-souled. It must also hold to its chosen line, since wanting one thing today and another tomorrow means failure. Larson asks the reader to know clearly what he wants, to aim high within his own inherent capacity, and to desire his own remaking so that he becomes equal to the ideal he seeks. Wishing hard enough is not strain. It is depth and fullness of desire, made subconscious by being deeply felt and joined to the thought of the faculties through which it must work. The chapter closes by setting the optimist, who adds fuel to the fires of his ability, against the pessimist, who lives in a fog.

Concentration is the master key to achievement, because all failure comes from scattering the forces of mind and all success from gathering them on the one thing being done now. Larson pictures the average mind as a wheel of twenty steam pipes, where the engine receives only a twentieth of the power until the other channels are closed. Fixing the eyes on a spot on the wall does not build this power, since that draws the mind toward the surface. Concentration grows from two practices joined together: deepening all thought and feeling into the subjective field, and seeking the most interesting point of view in any subject. Larson then turns to suggestion. Everything we meet suggests something, and most people are ruled by the suggestions of their surroundings. The remedy is to answer every adverse suggestion with a wholesome one, until the mind is so full of good thoughts that nothing else can enter. A suggestion is only a vehicle, however, and it takes effect only when the mind feels the living idea it carries. This is the power back of suggestion. It explains why one speaker convinces and another fails with the same words: the first talks through his proposition, the second only about it. The chapter closes with a daily affirmation of growth, faith and service.

The will is the attribute of the "I Am" that initiates, directs and controls, and no force in the human system can be used well unless the will directs it. Larson lists its many functions and singles out the most neglected one: the power to push any faculty up to its highest point of efficiency. A strong will is deep, calm and persistent, never domineering, and every mental and spiritual giant in history has had one. Most people use only a fraction of their ability because their will is too weak to carry intention into action. The governing law is simple: whatever lays the will aside weakens it. Larson names the causes of weakness as alcohol, whose effect passes down the generations, psychical excess, emotional excess, mental dependence on others and intemperance in anything. He traces the decline of great nations to a falling number of great men and women. Weakness of will leads to moral downfall and to wasted ability. The remedy is practice: will everything with your whole self, take every feeling and desire in hand and turn it toward higher expression, think and act whole-heartedly, and root the will deep in the subconscious, in the "I Am" that lives in absolute self-mastery.

A great mind is built by the individual's own life, thought and action, not handed down from ancestors, and anyone who applies the art of mind building can build one. Larson first clears away two obstacles. The first is the belief that we can never rise above our heredity: every line of greatness had to begin with someone, and it may as well begin with us now. The second is the belief that the average person has nothing in him. In truth every mind holds the same possibilities, and a genius sleeps in each one. Once these obstacles are gone, the building rests on two essentials. The first is scope. Love, sympathy, friendship, purpose and desire are each made universal, so that the mind works on the verge of the limitless, and every goal is held as too large to be measured. The second is brilliancy. The vibrations of thought are raised as high and fine as possible, the superior is dwelt upon in all things, and the system's creative energy is kept and transmuted into finer mental elements. Larson closes with a charge to remove the sting, the whine and the sigh from speech and heart, since they shrink the soul that would be great.

Every element of life is good in itself, and every ill in human existence comes from the misdirection of what is good. Larson traces misdirection to two causes, ignorance and lack of character. Against ignorance, the strong must lead the weak toward understanding and independence rather than keep them dependent, since even good advice needs understanding to be applied. Yet most who go wrong know better, and here the cause is weak character, for it is character that directs the action of the mind. Larson lists the marks of a weak character: being swayed against one's will, criticism, worry, fear, temper, and plans that change with every circumstance. A strong character turns every energy to good account, keeps to its purpose, and draws circumstances into its own current until a tiny rivulet becomes a mighty stream. Character means the right use of all the laws of life, mental as well as moral. The one who keeps moral laws but breaks mental laws wastes half his energy, and so does the one who keeps mental laws but breaks moral laws. True character makes every force in the human system a building force. The chapter closes with short sayings on kindness, ideals, faith in others, and bringing new life to those who look unwell.

Character is the proper direction and proper use of every force and element in the human system, so that each part fulfills the purpose for which it was created. Larson gives a simple and complete ethic: whatever promotes growth and advancement is right, and whatever retards it is wrong. Character rests on two essentials, to know the right and to desire the right. The intellect grasps the right at first, but developed character feels it inwardly and is never mistaken. The desire for the right grows by thinking of the right with deep feeling, because desire follows our strongest thought. Lesser desires are never destroyed. They are transmuted, and the way to do it is to cultivate a greater desire along the same line, not to resist the lesser one. Larson then teaches the practice. Hold a complete mental picture of right action, persist in every undertaking until its end, and take absolute perfection as the ideal, since no mind rises higher than its ideals. Inherited traits are subconscious and yield when they are forgotten and their opposites are impressed on the subconscious, above all before sleep. Justice gives each element its proper place and virtue turns each element to proper use. Virtue means right use, never suppression, and energy that cannot be spent in one channel is drawn into mind to build faculties and powers. The aim is a character both strong and beautiful, from which the superior man comes.

The human system is a living dynamo, and Nature generates far more creative energy than normal functioning requires. Often more than half of it is surplus, and most of that goes to waste. Larson teaches that every kind of creative energy can be transmuted into every other, so that what is idle in one channel can be turned into the faculty where the work is being done. Transmutation is one of Nature's simplest and most constant processes. It explains why the absorbed inventor forgets food, and why a habit starves once attention is given wholly to an opposite desire. Larson sets out three purposes for the surplus: to promote one's work and talents, to strengthen the mind, and to turn reproductive energy into talent and genius. He gives three essentials for doing it. First, think constantly that the energy flows where you have chosen. Second, desire this deeply and calmly. Third, place the mind in the psychological field, the deeper, finer life felt in music or strong emotion, and concentrate there on the chosen part. Simple experiments with the hand and the digestion show that the power is real. The same stored and harmoniously circulating energy is personal magnetism. It never acts by influencing others. It heightens everything the individual is and does, and it is cultivated through poise, rhythmic movement, self-control and the holding of energy within. The chapter closes with brief counsels on speaking only of the good.

Every spoken word carries an inner life force that sets up a tendency somewhere in mind, body or character, and the creative energies of the system then build whatever that tendency points toward. Larson teaches that this force is strongest when a word is deeply felt, and that tone, motive and idea decide whether it builds or tears down. He goes through the common sayings of daily speech, the remarks about terrible weather, being tired, nervous, getting old, hard luck, hard days and food that disagrees, and shows each one to be both harmful and untrue, because the strength of the Supreme never fails and nothing in a person truly ages. He then applies the same law to conversation. Reminding friends or children of their faults only strengthens those faults, and warnings draw the mind into the very thing it is warned against. The way to help is to turn attention so fully toward the better that the old fault is forgotten. Larson closes by naming the marks of a master mind and showing that imagination, the creative faculty, must be kept lofty and constructive if greater things are to be built.

Imagination makes the pattern that every creative force of mind and personality follows. Whatever we picture becomes the model our energies build upon, so Larson teaches that we must picture success and the greater self and never failure or fear. He gives three steps. First, decide exactly what you want in surroundings, friends and work. Second, live in that picture during every spare moment. Third, set desire, will and every other power to work making the prediction come true. A second use of imagination follows: it lets the mind choose its own thought at all times, and this is the mark of the master mind. The average mind takes its desires from the impressions of its surroundings, so it drifts, ends up misplaced and remains in the hands of fate. The master mind turns every impression into an original and higher idea and so makes environment its servant. Larson holds that suggestion is a necessary part of life. The task is to use suggestion wisely, never to follow it blindly. The chapter closes with short counsels on loyalty to the ideal, on faith, and on the greatness contained in the whole of man.

The greatest forces in man are the hidden ones, the finer or higher forces, and though their nature lies beyond analysis, their action can be known and directed. Larson shows that the larger part of the mind is unconscious, and that every conscious thought, desire or effort felt deeply enough enters that field, grows there according to its nature, and returns weeks or months later with its results. Character, faculties, talents and plans are built in this way, by sowing and reaping, and feeling is the means by which the finer forces are directed. Character must come first, because it alone gives the other powers constructive direction. The higher forces act through sublime states of consciousness, which every person of real worth enters often. Larson then names the finer forces one by one: enthusiasm, appreciation, gratitude, aspiration, ambition, the ideal, vision, love and faith. Each lifts the mind and draws out what lies latent within it. A closing meditation on the poet's line "With all thy faults I love thee still" shows that for every shortcoming in man there are a thousand admirable qualities.

The greatest power in man is the power to discern what really exists within him. No limit has been found to anything in human nature, and everything in it holds a latent capacity for perpetual development. Larson holds that the power to see this depth comes before every other power, because it opens the door to all the rest. The average person stays weak because he takes the surface of his life for the whole, and so the great powers beneath lie dormant, never called into action. Failure has the same root: a man who knows there is more in him than he has yet applied will not give up, and so he succeeds. Whatever we become conscious of, we tend to bring forth. Consciousness is the door between the outer life and the great within, and it opens only to what we recognize. Larson compares the great within to a live wire that charges the mind as soon as it touches it, and he closes by calling every person to choose power and greatness and to rise into the greater now.