william atkinson

    According to Atkinson, there are eight metaphysical elements to success: the individual, spiritedness, latent powers, soul-force, the power of desire, the law of attraction, personal magnetism, and attractive personality. There are three parts of the individual: the physical body, the vital energy, and the mind. The vital energy is independent of the body and vitalizes, energizes, and animates it. The mind is that which the I uses in order to know. Latent powers are the second wind that exists within the individual, i.e. the ability to stick to the task when one is about to give up.  It is difficult to tell what causes this second wind, but it seems to be an opening up of the reserve stores of vital energy; all people have the ability to tap into these latent powers and accomplish wonders.  Enthusiasm is an imaginative zeal or interest, or a lively manifestation of joy, and is really a force coming from the inner part of a person’s mind or soul. Without a certain amount of enthusiasm, a person cannot achieve success. Few people acknowledge the importance of enthusiasm. You cannot accomplish tasks unless you show a degree of interest in them and that is what enthusiasm is, i.e. inspired interest. The law of attraction is the universal principle in both the physical and mental realm in which all things are attracted toward each other to the degree in which they are alike and repulsed from each other to the degree that they are unlike. This happens in the physical world where certain electrons attract each other causing them to combine into atoms, which attract and repulse each other to form matter. The law of attraction on the mental plane is similar since we bring things to ourselves in accordance to our desire demand and will. Personal magnetism is the ability to bring other people into a mood sympathetic to that of the magnetic person. This is similar to what occurs with magnets, although this occurs on the mental plane, i.e. the person sends vibrations which are caught by the other people. One should have enthusiasm and earnestness to conduct personal magnetism and the more lively and contagious the better.  Every person should make his personality as pleasing and attractive as he is able to do. One should always be cheerful even if they are actually in a bad mood for a number of reasons: (a) it induces a more buoyant and positive state of mind in oneself, (b) it attracts cheerful persons to oneself through the law of attraction, and (c) it presents an attractive personality to other people.

   Atkinson’s work is taken both from Indian influences and Western influences. In particular, I believe that Atkinson was clearly indirectly influenced by Fichte. When you look at Indian philosophy, you see more extreme a posteriori interactions between the subject and the physical world than in the West, although there are certain a posteriori interactions in the West as well. In particular the law of Attraction has similarities to Jainism and Hinduism. In particular, the word law is borrowed directly from Hindu thought. Atkinson accepts a dualism equipped with a scientific antirealism, in which large portions of science can be neglected; the dualism allows less paradox in a number of places than an idealism. Finally, Atkinson takes influence from occultism which attempts to reconcile science with philosophy and mysticism. Atkinson takes a mystical starting point in the law of attraction, but this is done in many places in Eastern philosophy. Atkinsons positing of the vital energy might seem a bit crackpot, but it is a good idea since sometimes you need to posit a metaphysical entity in order to make sense of things better than through the sciences. I am not sure if the sciences give an explanation for second wind, as some people are capable of having it and others are not, and this seems to go beyond what explainable through empirical methods. If there is a scientific explanation, it does not have the same effect as the metaphysical explanation since according to Atkinson’s explanation, the second wind has an enormous amount of ability and this can only be verified a posteriori. If it does, the metaphysical explanation captures the same material as the scientific explanation and gets the job done the same since the effect transcends the physical.

     According to Atkinson, it is of much value to learn how to concentrate. One should not become discouraged when attempting to concentrate, for it is much easier to concentrate on something counterproductive than something productive. The person who achieves success is usually the person who works hard. The untrained mind suffers from a lack of regulation and us subject to impulse and emotion. Whatever you think up becomes true if you stay con-centrated on it. Therefore, most people who achieve success deserve it. If you be-lieve you have success, the thought vibration will draw you to success. Let the troubles of life come since you will always prevail, and always maintain an unfaltering belief in your success. Through concentrated thought, you can ac-complish whatever you want. Every movement in the intellect corresponds to a movement in the brain. Therefore, it is important to exercise to improve concentration. Everybody does not have a perfectly developed will, but there are a number of things a person can do to overcome weakness of will- they are the following: 1. If a desire arises that is no good, use your will -power to kill out the desire 2. Don’t be slow in making decisions, as it is much easier not to something than to do something. 3. Attempt to make quicker decisions in your daily affairs at periodic intervals. 4. Make a definite plan and don’t give up until you accomplish your end. Concentration can overcome bad habits. The more often you repeat a good habit, the more it becomes embedded in your nature. Habits can be formed because every mental event in the brain can be thrown into imbalance. One should remember the following maxims: 1. Train your brain to function at an optimal level through exercise, 2. Don’t play with fire by forming bad habits. 3. Never allow an exception to occur until the new habit is securely grounded. Concentrate on courage. A lack of courage creates mental and moral difficulties. Form the habit of never thinking something unfavorable about yourself or another person. There are a number of exercises that the person can attempt throughout the day to improve concentration. 1. Sit in a chair and see how still you can sit. 2. Before you go to sleep. Put a glass of water near your bed and look at it to concentrate on its calm state. Then picture yourself in this calm state to go to sleep. 3. When you take a walk and pass a garden, concentrate on the smell, as this increases concentration. 4. If you learn something about another person and you desire to tell som-eone, keep it to yourself, as this will control your will. Etc.

     Atkinson is, among other things, making the metaphysics explicit in what is common to the person’s intuition when they are trying to visualize something into existence. Indeed, Reasoning is a combination of empiricism and rationality. Very often people heuristically think, I bet I am going just think this up and it is going to become true, and this heuristic process in which the subject disregards empiricism and believes that he will be able to think something into his life is captured and made explicit in the metaphysics and taken as a genuine ontological claim. Thus he is capturing the rationalistic process that occurs with visualizing action. We must remember that this is best seen as a metaphysical doctrine in which the mental ether leaves the mind and interact with the physical world to change it which goes beyond what is captured through the scientific tests involving brainwaves. That is why it is best to view the brainwaves as interference patterns between the mental ether and the physical world.

     Many people find the claim in the law of attraction in which if you do not find the law of attraction working then it is because you are not focusing your thoughts enough on positive thoughts difficult to handle and this results in a paradoxical situation where people are trying to get it to work and it is not working. This is really use of self-reference in which if it is working, you are not trying hard enough. We must remember that the law of attraction is an idealism which is not empirically verifiable. However, I believe this is valid use of self-reference as there is scientific support for the law of attraction (although I do not believe this proves it) as well as the a posteriori evidence found directly by Atkinson, so Atkinson believes you can have genuine ontological knowledge of the law of attraction.  I do not believe the law of attraction can be reduced to language and it improves cognition to think this way whether it is true or not, signifying a good idealism. The individual can simply reject the law of attraction if it is not working.