Page 187 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned
P. 187

It is inconceivable that such a network of intricate machinery should be in ex-
istence for the sole purpose of carrying on the physical functions incidental to
growth and maintenance of the physical body. Is it not likely that the same sys-
tem, which gives billions of brain cells the media for communication one with an-
other, provides, also the means of communication with other intangible forces?

After this book had been written, just before the manuscript went to the publish-
er, there appeared in the New York Times, an editorial showing that at least one
great University, and one intelligent investigator in the field of mental phenom-
ena, are carrying on an organized research through which conclusions have been
reached that parallel many of those described in this and the following chapter.
The editorial briefly analyzed the work carried on by Dr. Rhine, and his associates
at Duke University, viz:- "What is "Telepathy'?

"A month ago we cited on this page some of the remarkable results achieved
by Professor Rhine and his associates in Duke University from more than a hun-
dred thousand tests to determine the existence of "telepathy' and "clairvoyance.'
These results were summarized in the first two articles in Harpers Magazine. In
the second which has now appeared, the author, E. H. Wright, attempts to sum-
marize what has been learned, or what it seems reasonable to infer, regarding the
exact nature of these "extrasensory' modes of perception.

"The actual existence of telepathy and clairvoyance now seems to some scientists
enormously probable as the result of Rhine's experiments. Various percipients
were asked to name as many cards in a special pack as they could without look-
ing at them and without other sensory access to them. About a score of men and
women were discovered who could regularly name so many of the cards correctly
that "there was not one chance in many a million million of their having done
their feats by luck or accident.'

"But how did they do them? These powers, assuming that they exist, do not seem
to be sensory. There is no known organ for them. The experiments worked just
as well at distances of several hundred miles as they did in the same room. These
facts also dispose, in Mr. Wright's opinion, of the attempt to explain telepathy or

190

NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH

clairvoyance through any physical theory of radiation. All known forms of radiant
energy decline inversely as the square of the distance traversed. Telepathy and
clairvoyance do not. But they do vary through physical causes as our other mental
powers do.

Contrary to widespread opinion, they do not improve when the percipient is
asleep or half-asleep, but, on the contrary, when he is most wide-awake and alert.
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