Comparative and Critical Study of Mantrashastra

Author(s): Mohanlal Bhagwandas Jhaveri, K V Abhayankar
Publisher: Sarabhai Manilal Nawab

Page 13

INTRODUCTION
is a great Sin. In leaving the subject of magic I may here add that modern psychology aad its data afford remarkable corroboration of some other Indian beliefs such as that Thought is a Force, and that its operation is in a field of Consciousness which is wider than that of which the mind is ordinarily aware."-Shakti & Shakta: Chapter 111, 2nd Edition, pp. 57 to 59.
THOUGHT FORCE That Psychology nowadays considers that 'Thought' itself is 'Force'-a form of energy and that as stated above various physical results follow through concentrated attention and specially when it assumes emotive form, we shall substantiate by extracts from various works. In his work entitled “Thoughts are things", William Walker Atkinson, while generally showing that Thought is a form of energy quotes Prof. Ochorowicz: "Every living being is a dynamic focus. A dynamic focus tends ever to propagate the motion that is proper to it. Propagated motion becomes transformed according to the medium it traverses. Motion tends always to propagate itself. Therefore when we see work of any kind-mechanical, electrical, nervic, or psychic-disappear without visible effect, then, of two things, one happens, either a transmission or a transformation. Where does the first end, and where does the second begin ? In an identical medium there is only transmission. In a different medium there is transformation. You send an electric current through a thick wire. You have the current, but you do not perceive any other force. But cut that thick wire and connect the ends by means of a fine wire; the fine wire will grow hot; there will be a transformation of a part of the current into heat. Take a pretty strong current and interpose a wire still more resistant, or a very thin carbon rod. The carbon will emit light. A part of the current then is transformed into heat and light. This light acts in every direction around about, first visibly as light, then invisibly as heat and as electric current. Hold a magnet near it. If the magnet is weak and movable, in the form of a magnetic needle, the beam of light will cause it to deviate; if it is strong and immovable, it will in turn cause the beam of light to deviate. And all this from a distance, without contact, without special conductors. A process that is at once chemical, physical and psychical, goes on in a brain. A complex action of this kind is propagated through the gray matter, as waves are propagated in water. . . . Regarded on its physiological side, an idea is only a vibration, a vibration that is propagated, yet which does not pass out of a medium in which it can exist as such. It is propagated as far as other like vibra ions allow. It is propagated more widely if it assumes the character which