In a paper read by Charles M. Barrows of Boston before the Society of Psychical Research in London in 1897, and which appeared in Part XXX, Vol. XII, of the proceedings of that society, he clearly demonstrated that by the use of suggestion as a remedial agent, he had overcome chronic cases (a majority of them considered hopeless by eminent physicians) of deafness, sprains, rheumatism, neuralgia, abnormal growths, etc. This remarkable paper concludes with:

"What if it should appear that this subliminal agent is simply one intelligent actor filling the universe with its presence as the ether fills space, the common inspirer of all mankind? By what authority is it assumed that this wizard self resident in one man is related to the selves of other men merely as, in the language of theology, one personal soul is related to the rest? Are we sure that this transcendent energy is parted into numberless distinct entities, one for each human being? Should we plunge into a darker mystery, were we to compare this subliminal agent or self to a skilled musician presiding over many pipes and keys, and playing through each what music he will? Imagine each human being one of millions of animate organs, through whose mind and body one unified, all pervasive, immaterial self blows with the breath of energy to make the varied music we call life. If this were true, then would the subliminal self be a universal fountain of energy, and each man an outlet of the stream; each man's personal self would be contained in it, and thus made one with the other; and with a slight change, we might adapt the quotation: 'In that deep force, the last fact behind which analysis cannot go, all psychical and bodily effects find their common origin.'"

In my own demonstrating along the lines of overcoming drudgery in work and converting it into joy and delight, I began with myself. It came in my way in the business of my profession to familiarize myself with Spanish, after I was forty years of age. I had taken a superficial course in the language covering a space of six months in my senior year in college, and naturally but little impression of that had remained. Just before taking a trip to a Spanish country, I would crowd all I could of this work in a few weeks and carry books to continue the study on my journey. I found the task grievous. Later I learned to apply suggestion to my work, as herein set forth, and lo! a toil became a joy, and the result thereafter was surprising progress from week to week. My ears as well as my eyes seemed to rejoice to perform their respective functions to aid in the accomplishment of this self-imposed task. Again I applied like suggestions to various forms of work that come to one in active life, and later I applied it to that which forms the humdrum of life, and I learned the wide application of this fruitful force. During these years I made tests as I might among friends, following the same repeatedly to happy conclusions. I then read history from a new standpoint, and its pages I found full of examples where even suggestion had awakened powers undreamed of in those that rose to the galaxy of geniuses.

We have sometimes called these effects the power of a word or the power of a thought. For a moment let us revel in the unknown - the speculative, as we inquire after the real cause of this magic force. Of ourselves it is, but not wholly within ourselves. Of the infinite energy of the universe it is, we may say; but that at once provokes the question, what is the infinite energy of the universe? It is past complete comprehension, it seems, with our present unfoldment. Do not let us argue that it is beyond the grasp of the human mind, for that limit has never been reached. Man's development has long been restrained by studying his seeming limitations. When we find a new force in nature that can be made useful, whether it be electricity, telepathy or suggestion, let us learn how to use it for our good. Let us leave definitions to those who make dictionaries. Be it ours to prove the wide application and use of these forces, and the lexicographer will learn later how to define them. Belief in the continuity of life is fast reconciling man to accept progression now and evermore as endless evolution. With our finding joy in all work, we waken to some of the greatest delights of existence. We give our selfhoods wider opportunities to unfold. We find new chords in the harp of life's harmony which we may strike, and these vibrations will reach and thrill other hearts than ours, bringing to them as to us new joy in living.

"Man is a centre, as it were, and he is attracting all the powers of the universe towards himself, and in this centre is fusing them all and ejecting them again in a big current. That centre is the real man, the almighty, the omniscient, and he draws the whole universe towards him; good, or bad, misery or happiness, all turning towards him, clinging round him, and out of them he fashions the tremendous power called character and throws it outwards. As he has the power of drawing in anything, so he has the power of throwing it out." - From Karma Yoga of Swami Vivekananda.

Somewhere in Memory's cabinet all we have ever studied, or read, or seen, or thought is held (perhaps I should say guarded); but to find these mental treasures when we would - that is the problem.