WEALTH

1 September 2005

By: Ali Ismail

E-mail: aliismail_uk@yahoo.co.uk

Telephone: 0778-842 5262


THINKING INTO WEALTH IS POSSIBLE



Coming into money is thought to be a psychological process





Many experts agree that our cognitions can attract what we desire in worldly life


A classic of economic science is the Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall published in 1890, when the similarly titled Principles of Psychology by William James came out.

Marshall described us as ‘the lower races of mankind’ and stated that frequently our sole major accomplishment is the ability to drive hard bargains. James wrote that some races and their accompanying cultures cannot adjust to the ‘research mentality’ and gifted his readers with a graphic account of a correspondence between a Turkish Qu’adi (a judge in Sharia law) and a European statistician by way of example.

Both those authors were writing in pre-politically correct (PC) times and no publisher who wants to stay in business would send for printing anything couched in those terms today.

One current criticism of us is the accusation that we are unable to generate wealth without being ‘sponsored’ or made protégés of by outside interests who can do so and who throw us towing ropes, as it were. Think of Western involvement in Arabian oil and Moroccan phosphate.

A young Bangladeshi man told me as we were walking together from a multi-level marketing meeting in 1991: “You know, we can’t generate wealth. All we can do is live off what the white people produce.” I was shocked speechless.

There is another side to the question to be pointed out – a bright side. Many relevant experts agree that everybody has the capacity to generate wealth and become rich and that everyone, bar nobody, is invited to the feast.

This is such a vast and provocative subject that it would require multi-volume books, not a newspaper article. I am circumventing that by addressing only a few stars from the many constellations in this particular sky.

That multi-level marketing company from whose meeting we were walking used to hold pep talks in which members gave their audiences their views about how to get things done.

One of them told us how his life had changed after he bought and read an inspirational publication entitled Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. At that time I was cheesed off with multi-level marketing and registered the words but did nothing. Years later, I bought and read the work.

Before going into what Hill wrote it may be appropriate to bring up Hill’s implicit basis for his assertions which are that everything we do is done under the directions of our brains, spinal cords and peripheral nervous systems which are parts of our bodies, so much so that an assessment of a person’s physique reveals what his brain is like and how it functions. Our brains are biological electro-chemical masses, which run on electricity, approximately 10 watts of current. Electrical currents generate magnetic fields and magnetic fields arguably attract and repulse some but not all external entities.

Hill makes a monumental assertion at the start of his little book. He states: ‘Thoughts are Things’. In other words, our thoughts are not just incorporeal abstractions but ‘things’ just like motorcars, saucepans and computers. Thoughts, he says, are what get us what we want.

Those who attend mosques where the imams are into inter-personal counselling may have received this advice: “Take care what you ask Allah for because you might get it.” Joan of Ark said: “Help yourself and God will help you.” Hill states that extremely high levels of desire attract what we are craving.

People whose jobs are counselling the unemployed have remarked that the person who stays in the unemployment statistics for long periods of time is likely to be someone who simply ‘wants to get a job’. The man whose will is focused to some particular end frequently gets what he wants because of his laser-like and focused desire. The man who does not just ‘want to get a job’ but is determined to work at, say, ICI, often and against all the odds gets what he wants – a job at ICI. Such a volition applies outside the field of job-hunting too. A man who has a vague desire to “get married or hitched up to anyone because somebody is better than nobody” is likely to remain a bachelor, carefree or otherwise, for a long time. Another man who has a strong desire to marry one girl in particular and nobody else frequently gets married to her despite the obstacles.

On the subject of wealth, Hill gives us a vivid description of how desire by itself gets one little girl what she wants. A man called RU Darby, when young, visited his uncle at his mill. This is what happened in Hill’s own words:

‘Quietly, the door was opened, and a small colored (sic) child, the daughter of a tenant walked in and took her place by the door. The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, “What do you want?”

‘Meekly, the child replied, “My mammy say send her fifty cents.”

‘ “I’ll not do it,” the uncle retorted, “now you run on home.”

“Yas sah,” the child replied. But she did not move.

‘The uncle went ahead with his work, so busily engaged that he did not pay enough attention to the child to observe that she did not leave. When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, “I told you to go on home! Now go, or I’ll take a switch to you.”

‘The little girl said, “Yas sah,” but she did not budge.

‘The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an expression on his face that indicated trouble.

‘Darby held his breath. He was certain he was about to witness an assault. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper. When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, “My mammy’s gotta have that fifty cents!”

‘The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on the floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her.

‘The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered. After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had just taken’.

I cannot put it more explicitly than that.

Another engine, which generates wealth and much besides, according to Hill, is imagination. This might surprise some of our readers. Are we not always told to stop daydreaming and to get on with our work? Do we not belong to cultures where the factual is held high above the fanciful, where our children do not read fairy tales and where non-utilitarian activities are frowned upon as “living in a world of your own” and “wool-gathering”? Some counsellors opine that the trouble is that we do not daydream enough. Perhaps willpower is our fuel and imagination is our mental engine.

Several major achievements of Mankind began as daydreams. Archimedes was having a bath when he discovered specific gravity. Newton was relaxing under an apple tree when he discovered general gravity. Wagner received inspirations from stroking pieces of silk. By and large, Europeans seem to excel us, at present, in ‘divergent’ thinking while we excel them in ‘convergent’ thinking. They are better at breaking ground but once the discoveries are made Orientals are better at harnessing them and putting them to use. The British invented transistors but the Japanese manufacture them.

Specifically, Hill states that there are two types of imagination: First there stands, he says, ‘synthetic’ imagination. This kind of imagination re-mixes old memories – previous perceptions – into new forms and is the foundation of most petty inventions. Thinking of a new flavour of soup in a food factory is an example. The other kind, he believes, is ‘creative’ imagination. From this it is thought major discoveries are made. Religious and spirit-minded individuals consider that the source of ‘creative’ imagination is Infinite Intelligence, which may be the Creator himself, or something outside Mankind into which rare individuals can plug with unfathomable results.

One anonymous poet quoted by Hill put it thus:


If you think you are beaten you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will –
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!


The final method, which I would like to engage your attention, gentle reader, is the principle of ‘Zakat’ or tithing. Now, the Holy Qu’ran states that every true Muslim should tithe 2.5 percent of his earnings to the poor even if he is poor himself.

The Torah commanded the ancient Israelites to tithe 10 percent of their incomes to the priests who were the Levites among them. Strict Christian fundamentalists tithe that much from their gross incomes. Bearing in mind the requirements of taxation authorities, many Christian and Jewish religious leaders give their flocks the choices of tithing one percent, two percent, five percent or the full 10 percent of their pre-taxation incomes to their churches or synagogues.

Catherine Ponder, a Christian pastor and inspirational writer, has stated that she has received more mail about tithing than on any other subject. She describes tithing “The Ancient Law of Prosperity.”

Put simply, the tither donates to a good priest. The priest prays for the spiritual and temporal salvation of the tither and benefits follow. The priest then tithes to another party from his tithes. The Holy Qu’ran states: ‘That person is not a perfect Muslim who eateth his fill and leaveth his neighbours hungry’. Most tithing is ‘healing tithing’ which addresses distress; the remainder is ‘creative tithing’ which funds outreach programmes.

With self-improvement methods, one should pick and choose. Stephen Gillespie of Mysteries in Covent Garden, London said: “I think they are a good catalyst where people can go deeper into themselves. One can get more involved. You have to be selective.”

Autosuggestion can and does work.

We left the Introspective East and flew to the Material West by jet aircraft to prosper. Let us therefore master the laws of prosperity just as we master the Highway Code before we drive. Will you permit my words to change your personal magnetic field?

THE END