Some Call it Inspiration

WHEN Edison sat through lonely nights as a telegraphist in a small mountain town, and listened to the ideas tumble up from within him, he discovered a great secret.

In his own words he said, ‘I became aware of messages or directions coming clearly into my mind as I sat through the long nights, and began the work I was directed to do’.

contact with your inner self

Apart from the individuals who acclaim this inner voice of wisdom, all the great religions of the past and present teach that such a contact with one’s inner self is the essence of a true religious life.

In the world of today, practical psychology has discovered the reason why such methods work. The subconscious, with its enormous memory of facts and experience, its ability to synthesise the same and re-present it, along with its subtle contact with other minds and the one Great Mind, is a source of inspiration and factual knowledge without equal.

In the ancient world, seeking contact with the subconscious and superconscious was called meditation. In the ancient schools of the Essenes, of the Therapeuti, of Pythagoras, and of Eleusis, each student was taught methods of finding this Inner Voice. It was felt that this was important above all other considerations of life; and whatever activity a man followed, this would always be a strength.

preparations for meditation

When the question has been etched into the thoughts and feelings, it then has to be dismissed. A passive effort has to be made to become unthinking, so that we can become aware of the ideas, feelings, or realisations arising from within. It is exactly the type of mental attitude we take when carefully listening to a barely audible sound that we are seeking to analyse. In this case it is not a listening to something outside you, but a listening to your inner response to the question. Sometimes it helps to get on with something else but leaving the door open to impressions connected with the quesiton. It is exactly the same as when you cannot remember someone’s name. Searching actively for it often gets in teh way. Relaxing and getting on with soemthing else allows it to surface.

the problem of the broken guitar

A friend recently tried this method over a practical question. His guitar had been knocked over and broken. On taking it to several musical instrument shops, he was told that to repair it would cost at least forty or more pounds. As he was saving hard to be married, this was more than he could reasonably afford at the time.

No matter which way he looked at it, it seemed as though the guitar would have to remain broken. Yet he badly wanted it repaired, so he decided to try the method of meditation we had been discussing a few days earlier. He went through the whole procedure religiously, and sat for minute after minute with an expectant waiting. Yet for all his effort, nothing happened and, believing the whole experiment a failure, he decided to give in to what seemed inevitable. But at that very moment a name flashed into his mind, and in that same instant, he intuitively knew that his problem was solved.

The name was that of an old instrument maker who owned a shop where my friend had lived in his childhood. He had completely forgotten about the man until that very minute. Being only a few miles away from the shop he went there immediately.

The old man, on examining the guitar, and being asked how much the repair would be, replied: ‘Oh, about five pounds, no more!’

telepathy and the book seller

The amazing thing about such information from this source is that it often links us up with other people in a manner difficult to explain.

At one period in my life I ran a book business. Not being able to stock every book of the type in which I specialised, there were naturally many titles which deserved space on my shelves.

At the time I had just read the book, There Is a River by Thomas Sugrue. It was a biography of Edgar Cayce, and it impressed me so much I wanted to stock it. So after several days I decided to write to the Association of Researh and Enlightenment who publish books about the work of Cayce.

following our hunches

Many people try to explain away such experience and others like it, but they still remain important fact in the life and work of many people. Even if we like to call it coincidence, by following the advice of one’s ‘hunches,’ such coincidences can be brought about more often. I only know that, through following this particular prompting, a facet was added to my business that was highly rewarding in ways of service and finance.

There are plenty of theories to explain such events. Psychology, New Thought, psychiatry, religion, and mysticism, all have their own particular level of explanation. Such explanations are interesting, but most important of all is the fact that the principle works. It works not only in the quietness of a cloistered life, but also in the push and shove of modern business, in the competitive atmosphere of today’s industry, and in the hard and fast demands of twentieth century technology.

In regard to the latter, we have the example of Dr. George Washington Carver. Recognised as one of the great American scientists, he devoted his energies to a regeneration of agriculture in southern United States. He discovered three hundred new uses for the peanut, and one hundred and fifty for the sweet potato. From these, he synthesised many products for home and industry. Besides Edison, an organisation offered him enormous sums of money to join them, but he declined in order to devote himself to these other problems.

Because of the unusual manner in which his discoveries were made, Dr. Carver was often called ‘the man who talks to flowers.’ See his biography in George Washington Carver.

how our hidden nature is manifest

Yet from the host of modern men and women who hold converse with their hidden nature, we see that the utterances of this nature can make themselves known to us in innumerable ways. It may be just an idea, a hunch, or an urge. It may come to us as a sudden realisation or intuition. In this case it seems as if we suddenly know a fact or series of facts without the laborious effort of reason and

deduction. With some people it is neither a voice, an idea, nor a realisation. Rather, it is as if they see it in picture form, like a vivid waking dream.

The subconscious, the inner self, or whatever we like to call it, has strange means of gathering its information. It is like a mental radio, and picks up impressions from a multitude of sources. The question is not whether our unconscious self has this remarkable type of awareness, but how we may bring the results of it to our attention. Learning to listen to our hunches and inspirations and to take them seriously, is the most obvious answer.

See: Using Your Intuition.