Unseen Guides by Dr. Napoleon Hill

After I had met with one failure after another, and each time was tempted to desert or neglect my major mission in life, I began to notice that the effects of each failure were immediately wiped out the moment I got back on the track and began to carry out my mission. This happened so often that it could not be explained away as a mere coincidence.

From personal experiences, I know there are friendly Guides available to everyone who will recognize them and accept their services. In order to avail oneself of the services of these unseen Guides, two things are necessary: first, one must express gratitude for their services; second, one must follow their guidance to the letter. Neglect in this respect will bring sure, if not always swift, disaster. Perhaps this may explain why some people meet with disasters, the cause of which they cannot understand; disasters which they do not believe to be the results of any fault on their part.

For many years I was so sensitive concerning the unseen Guides, whose presence I had felt, that I carefully avoided all references to them, in both my writings and in public lectures. Then, one day in a conversation with Elmer R. Gates, a distinguished scientist and inventor, I was overwhelmed with joy when I learned that he not only had discovered the presence of unseen Guides, but he had formed a working alliance with them which enabled him to perfect more inventions and procure more patents than had ever been granted to the great inventor, Thomas A. Edison.

From that day on I began to make inquiries of the hundreds of successful men who collaborated with me in the organization of the Science of Success, and discovered that each of them had received guidance from unknown sources, although many of them were reluctant to admit this discovery. My experience with men in the upper brackets of personal achievements has been that they prefer to accredit their success to their individual superiority.

Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford, Luther Burbank, Andrew Carnegie, Elmer R. Gates, and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell went to great lengths in their descriptions of their experiences with unseen Guides, although some of these men did not refer to these invisible sources of aid as “guides.” Dr. Bell, in particular, believed the invisible source of aid was nothing but a direct contact with Infinite Intelligence, brought about by the individual’s stimulation of his own mind through a burning desire for the attainment of definite objectives.

Thorough the guidance of unseen forces, Madame Marie Curie was directed to the revelation of the secret and the source of supply of radium, although she did not know in advance where to begin looking for the radium, or what it would look like if she found it.

Thomas A. Edison had an interesting view as to the nature and source of the invisible forces which he used so freely in his work of research in the field of invention. He believed that all thoughts released by all people at all times are picked up and become a part of the ether, where they remain forever, just as they were released by the individuals; that anyone may tune in and contact these previously released thoughts by conditioning the mind, through definiteness and clearness of purpose, to contact any desired type of thoughts which may be related to that purpose. For example, Mr. Edison discovered that when he concentrated his thoughts upon an idea he wished to perfect, he could “tune in” and pick up from the great reservoir of the boundless ether thoughts related to that idea which had been previously released by others who had thought along the same line.

Mr. Edison called attention to the fact that water runs in course, through rivers and streams, renders a great variety of services to mankind, and returns finally to the oceans from which it came, there to become a part of the main body of water, where it is cleansed and made ready to begin its journey all over again. This coming and going of water, without diminishing or increasing its quantity, has a definite parallel in the energy of thought.

Mr. Edison believed that the energy with which we think is a projected portion of Infinite Intelligence; that this Intelligence becomes specialized into myriad ideas and concepts through the brain of man, and when thoughts are released they return, like the water returns to the oceans, to the great reservoir from whence the energy came, and are there filed and classified so that all related thoughts are arranged together.

Source: You Can Work Your Own Miracles Fawcett Columbine Book. Copyright 1971. Pgs. 45, 46, & 47.