Page 167 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

One of the most successful men in America owes most of his success to the influ-
ence of a very charming young woman, who has served as his source of inspira-
tion for more than twelve years.

Everyone knows the man to whom this reference is made, but not everyone knows
the REAL SOURCE of his achievements.

History is not lacking in examples of men who attained to the status of genii, as
the result of the use of artificial mind stimulants in the form of alcohol and nar-

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

cotics. Edgar Allen Poe wrote the "Raven" while under the influence of liquor,
"dreaming dreams that mortal never dared to dream before." James Whitcomb
Riley did his best writing while under the influence of alcohol. Perhaps it was thus
he saw "the ordered intermingling of the real and the dream, the mill above the
river, and the mist above the stream." Robert Burns wrote best when intoxicated,
"For Auld Lang Syne, my dear, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for Auld Lang
Syne." But let it be remembered that many such men have destroyed themselves
in the end. Nature has prepared her own potions with which men may safely
stimulate their minds so they vibrate on a plane that enables them to tune in to
fine and rare thoughts which come from-no man knows where! No satisfactory
substitute for Nature's stimulants has ever been found.

It is a fact well known to psychologists that there is a very close relationship be-
tween sex desires and spiritual urges-a fact which accounts for the peculiar be-
havior of people who participate in the orgies known as religious "revivals," com-
mon among the primitive types.

The world is ruled, and the destiny of civilization is established, by the human
emotions. People are influenced in their actions, not by reason so much as by
"feelings." The creative faculty of the mind is set into action entirely by emotions,
and not by cold reason. The most powerful of all human emotions is that of sex.
There are other mind stimulants, some of which have been listed, but no one of
them, nor all of them combined, can equal the driving power of sex.

A mind stimulant is any influence which will either temporarily, or permanently,
increase the vibrations of thought. The ten major stimulants, described, are those
most commonly resorted to.

Through these sources one may commune with Infinite Intelligence, or enter, at
will, the storehouse of the subconscious mind, either one's own, or that of another
person, a procedure which is all there is of genius.