The Lightbulb Tale

The following story should help underscore this great truth about your infinite source of supply. Visualize, if you will, a poor couple who have spent their entire lives living in the “backwaters” of civilization. Then imagine them suddenly transported to a small village where, to their astonishment, they discover that their new home is being lighted by “electricity.” Since they have had no previous experience with that force—in fact they have never even seen an electric light before, they are completely mesmerized by the little eight candlepower electric bulbs which light their home. Several months pass by and eventually the couple start to regard the light-bulbs as an accepted facet of modern life.

However, one day a smooth-talking salesman appears at their door, telling them their eight candlepower electric bulbs are no longer adequate for their needs. He tells them they should buy the new sixty candle-powered bulbs which have just “come on the market.” Since the couple has now become slightly more adventuresome, they agree to let the salesman demonstrate his “newfangled” product. As soon as the new bulb is plugged in and the electricity turned on, the couple becomes transfixed once again; for not only does the new bulb emit a light, it actually illuminates the entire room.

Never in their wildest fantasies had the couple ever imagined that the source of the new flood of illumination had been there all the time. Nor had they realized this enormously increased light could originate from the same current which fed their little eight candlepower bulb. It’s strange! We smile at the naiveté demonstrated by this poor couple, but the truth is, most of us are even less aware of our own power, than this couple was of the power of electric current. For like the couple in the story, we never even dream that the infinite current which surrounds us could flood our lives with a light more magnificent than the most powerful light bulb ever devised. We never grasp the simple truth that all we need to do to improve our results is to plug a larger, more prosperous idea into the infinite current of life. Instead, most of us strangle our supply with energy-impoverished thoughts of doubt and fear, which entirely cutoff the inflow of prosperity. I want to exhort you, therefore, to resolve to change your habitual pattern of thinking now. That’s right, change it now, and remember, the stream of plenty always flows towards the open, expectant mind.

You must understand you already have in substance, if not in physical form, everything necessary to produce prosperity in your material world. The two determining factors for you to attain the results you want are:
1) desire, and
2) expectation.
Up to this point you might have been living the way the masses live their entire lives, simply because you are harboring the false assumption that desire is the only thing which you need to reach your goal. But you must understand, if your desire is not combined with the expectation that you will receive what you desire, you will find yourself continually frustrated and disappointed whenever you begin working toward any kind of material goal. When you cast your mind back over the experiences of your own life, you will soon realize that whenever you did reach a desired goal, you not only desired that goal but you actually expected to attain it as well. Let me repeat—desire without expectation is nothing more than wishful thinking and as we have already pointed out, since the vast majority of people wish positive but expect negative, they seldom attain what they are after. In his magnificent book The Science of Getting Rich, the author, Wallace D. Wattles, gave us an excellent definition of “desire.”

He said: “Desire is the effort of the unexpressed possibility within seeking expression without through your action.” In other words, your ideal, dream or goal—this wealth you wish to see materialize—can only become a desire once it has been properly planted in the subconscious mind. However, once your desire has been firmly established, it is the expectant attitude which ensures that your goal or dream is not uprooted or replaced by any opposing or competing ideas. In an effort to help you kindle this expectant attitude toward “real wealth,” let us journey together through some of the preceding chapters in this book. As you will remember, we began by discussing “money.” We attempted to understand the “true nature” of money and we arrived at the conclusion it is a “useful, obedient servant.” However, like all servants, we learned it is useful to us only when it is being employed. Therefore, we concluded, money must always be kept working or otherwise circulating.

For if it is not, as we have already mentioned, it will become as useless as old newspapers stashed away in an attic. Next, we explored the idea relating to exactly “how much money you want.” You become aware of the fact it is necessary to be very specific about how much money you need, to provide the things you want, to live in the style you choose. Once this figure had been decided upon, we then examined the importance of building the image of ourselves already in possession of this wealth, on the screen of our conscious mind. We also talked briefly about the manner in which images are formed and the role they play in our lives. Then we examined the idea of “consciousness” and how it was imperative to develop the prosperity which we seek in our mind first, before we can ever attain it in our bankbooks. We learned how we had to bathe our subconscious minds in a concept of prosperity and how we had to see wealth as being already in our possession. In the chapter “Let Go And Let God,” we became aware we were co-creators. We became aware of how we had, in our conscious mind, the ability to choose any thoughts we wanted, to build any images which we chose to build.

We then learned how we could turn that image over to our subconscious mind (the spiritual center of our being, and that part of us which takes any idea or image we give to it, then willingly accepts it and instantly begins to move it into physical form in our world). We discovered that when we truly understand this creative process of life and our role in it expectation becomes a natural mind-set, regardless of how things might appear in our outside world or what others might be saying to us. We were told this absolute and unshakeable faith or belief in the fact that our images are moved into form, is essential if we are to become successful in our lives. We also gained an awareness that all of this will happen once we begin to see ourselves as nonphysical entities encased in physical bodies. Once we realize our bodies are nothing other than the physical manifestation of our nonphysical selves, we will understand they are obedient servants of our mind, and they move and have their being according to the vibratory rate of our minds. You must reach the stage in your mental development where you don’t just believe that your image of material wealth will manifest in form, but you actually know it will. It is at that point you will begin to expect to receive the physical expression of your image of wealth. No one and no thing will be able to cause you to see in your mind anything but that.

Always remember, the truth is not always in the appearance of things. An elderly, wealthy gentleman being interviewed by a newspaper reporter was asked at what point he became successful. His answer was, “I was successful when I was sleeping on a park bench because I knew where I was and I knew where I was going.” At this juncture in the book, you know where you are and you know where you are going. So expect to get there! Your desire is the motorpower which will move you in the direction of your dream and expectation is the attractive force that will move your dream in your direction. So see yourself moving toward the wealth you visualize and see the wealth you visualize being attracted to you. Know that you will come in contact with the wealth that is moving to you, and at the right time. No one knows what period of time must elapse, so don’t become impatient if it doesn’t materialize “overnight.” All we know for sure is a certain period of time must elapse and the period of time which your image must take to materialize is governed by the law of gender. The law of gender decrees there is a gestation or incubation period for the manifestation of all seeds, and, make no mistake about it, the image of wealth you chose to build on the screen of your conscious mind and then turned over to your subconscious mind is a seed; and it is growing into physical form, in the most fertile field of which you could ever conceive.

It is not necessary, at this point, for anyone else to see this new wealth. It is not even necessary for anyone else to believe you will receive it. The only thing necessary is that you see it and you believe it. You see, the premise that Napoleon Hill built his life’s work on is absolutely true—anything the mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve. Expressed another way, “As a person thinketh in their heart, so are they.” (The early Greeks referred to the subconscious mind as the heart.) Note that your subconscious mind can no more change or alter your image, than an ordinary mirror can reflect back to you an image different than the object you are holding in front of it. But remember, as you think so are you, does not mean as you tell people you think or as you would wish the world to believe you think; it means your innermost thoughts, which only you control, know the truth. That is what you expect, so that is what you attract and that is what you will ultimately receive! Through studying the power of your subconscious mind, or studying in depth the power or modus operandi of Spirit, it will become easier and easier for you to come to expect the good you desire. For all things are possible in Spirit, because in its original state, Spirit is a sensitive, unseen, creative substance whose sole purpose is expansion and fuller expression; in other words, “growth.”

However, spirit or creative substance, can only reproduce, expand and express itself in a greater way in accordance with the limitation placed upon the instrument through which it expresses itself. Since Spirit is flowing to and through you, you are the instrument. Therefore, the image or the ideas you hold in your mind dictate the limits which are placed on the spiritual power flowing to and through you. In this respect, you may be compared to the light bulb the elderly couple had in their home. You are an instrument through which spirit flows, just as a light bulb is an instrument through which electricity flows. When the old couple plugged in the eight candlepower bulbs, the electricity was limited in its expression by the power of the bulb. However, when the salesman plugged in the 60 candlepower bulb, the electricity was free to express itself to a greater degree, and yet even then it was limited by the form through which it flowed; namely, the new bulb. A 100 candlepower bulb would have permitted an even greater expression, and so on and so on. Therefore, if you held an image of poverty, that is what you will have seen expressed in your results or your material world. However, since you are now holding an image of prosperity, that is the image you will see expressed in your material world. The nonphysical creative substance, which is Spirit, flows to and through the seed and expresses itself in its polar opposite, physical form. As we have discussed on previous pages, the modus operandi of Spirit is law and, of course the law of attraction is a cause, and growth or expansion is the effect. So keep visualizing yourself as a perfectly endowed spiritual instrument without limitations of any kind.

For if you do, you will find it easy—in fact natural—to expect the good you desire. You will understand that doubt simply obstructs the unfoldment of your desire, so when you continually originate images of doubt, you know you will never see the materialization of the image you desire. Only the reproductive creative spirit of life knows what you think, until your thoughts become physical facts and materialize in your body or your affairs. Then everyone with whom you come in contact may know, because the intelligent energy rewards you openly by reproducing your thoughts in physical form.