Let's talk about mental concentration. I want you to go to India for a few minutes. See that old man sitting down in that mass of filth looking at the tip of the second finger of his left hand? He doesn't move much; in fact, about one movement a week is what he allows himself.

No. I don't know how long that old image has been sitting there among the filth and flies: maybe two or three years; perhaps more, perhaps less.

You want to know what that freak of nature is doing? He is a professional mental concentration expert in full blast.

Maybe you have often thought that you would like to be able to concentrate, and to concentrate so con-centratedly that no other influence in the world would exist as far as you were concerned except the object on which you were concentrating.

There, right before you, is a good specimen of that sort of mental concentration.

You ask what that man can be thinking about?

He's not thinking about anything, of course! You can't think when you act in that way.

That strange bit of humanity whom you see sitting there amid his filth and flies, apparently concentrating very concentratedly on the tip of his finger with all of the mental concentration that his concentrator is capable of concentrating, is not really concentrating at all. He is simply in a state of complete mental vacuity; a form of self hypnosis.

There is about as much mental concentration activity going on in the consciousness of that individual as there is in the tail of a tortoise.

Mental concentration activity means what the term implies; it doesn't mean mental torpidity. If anyone wants to specialize in mental torpidity, then he ought to call his business by the right name.

Take one last good look at that strange specimen of skin and bones sitting over there, and for evermore discard the idea that he, you, or anyone else, can ever succeed in persistently thinking of any one thing to the exclusion of everything else—without dropping off into a state of self hypnosis or into actual slumber.

I wanted you to take a good look at a professional concentrator working full-time at his job, so that you could better understand what mental concentration is, by witnessing an illustration of what it is not.

In order for mental concentration to be maintained, one of two conditions must exist. There must either be kept passing before the mental vision a continuous stream of ideas in the form of a panorama, or else the mental eye itself must keep moving from object to object.

If you go to a movie and see an interesting film, you are experiencing a certain form of mental concentration. Of course, that sort of concentration is easy; and the more interesting the picture the easier it is to concentrate upon it—or, to be more exact, the easier it is for the mind to be held by the passing stimuli.

If you go for a joy ride through some fine scenery your attention is similarly concentrating. As the head is turned in the direction of the changing scene the mind is being entertained.

You must remember that no matter whether the mind "sits down," so to speak, and has its stimulations brought to it, or goes forth of its own accord to hunt them out, the outcome is much the same.

One of two conditions must always exist, however, if a state of abstraction is to be avoided—either the mental consciousness must have fresh scenes continually brought to it, or else the consciousness must persistently follow fresh scenes.

The very act of keeping awake depends on this change in mental stimulations.

As far as the much-misunderstood attitude of mental concentration is concerned, the person who sits down and indulges in a fantastic reverie or day-dream is concentrating just as strongly as the person who is reading and thoroughly grasping some book on an extremely technical subject. The difference between these two cases is that in the one instance the mind is permitting itself to be entertained by a mental picture-show, while in the other it is being led about by intellectually applied attention from one scene to another. In the one case the attention is carried along by the inner mental influences, while in the other the attention is doing the directing.

The attention must for ever keep on the move; and if you won't move it designedly—well, it is going to keep on moving anyway.

When the attention comes to a dead stop, we either go to sleep or go into a state of hypnosis—like that of the old Hindu fakir.

You can compare the conscious attention to a powerful force, like a big animal, that is ever on the move, which enables you to accomplish things: a force that you have either to direct or be directed by.

In a picture-show (both of the movie type and the day-dreaming variety) we are following this great animal; in reading technical books or studying a subject we are leading it.

When you once come to understand the temperamental qualities of this great mental concentration power you can do anything that you want with it. You will be able to lead it by the nose anywhere you like, when you like, and as you like. All that you have to do to keep this great attention-power animal contented and usefully engaged, is to blindfold it a little; not to let it see too much at a time.

Just put a pair of blinkers over that big docile creature's eyes so that he can't see round too many corners of interest at one time, and you will find yourself the keeper of a most useful and manageable animal.

Have these blinkers so constructed that your big attention-power can see clearly within a very small radius; say within a few feet of its front toes at the most. Then watch that great animal make the best of its opportunities. It won't bother about anything but those blades of intellectual fodder that are growing before its feet. And all that you have to do in order to make that powerful friend go where you wish is just to pull one blinker up a little in one direction or the other, so that a little more intellectual fodder is revealed to its vision; then that big chap will move on to the new patch of mental pasturage as calmly and contentedly as if it were a baby.

The attention knack is one of the most important things on earth; for, when once you have understood this little trick (for trick it is and nothing else), you can make it do anything that you desire.

You can't carry an elephant on your back; but if you will only carry a few nice buns in your pocket the big brute will follow you—until your buns give out. Moral: always carry lots of interest "buns" in your pocket. Talk about sticking to you through thick and thin; you will not be able to shake off that big friend of yours by any possible means.

Don't imagine you haven't any mental concentration power; the chances are that you have quite as much as anybody else; maybe more. The only trouble with you is probably that you haven't understood the little blinker trick.

The secret of mental concentration is to confine the attention to a comparatively small radius of interest, and to move on to a fresh circle when the intellectual fodder in the first browsing patch has become exhausted.

It is no harder to follow a plan like this than it is to permit the attention to keep on jumping the fence, and wandering off into adjacent pastures.

All that the attention requires in the way of fodder is the necessary amount of interest; and even if that faculty is allowed to jump fences and to browse at large, it will not be any better off. If it has acquired the bad habit of jumping fences it is probably because it has never known for what a fence exists.

I ask you to concentrate your mind on the idea "house." What do you do?

You cannot think of house as a mere abstract idea, for if you did you would soon be playing second fiddle to that old Hindu fakir, whom you saw at the fringe of the jungle sitting amidst a cloud of flies.

To concentrate means to do something; so when you concentrate on the idea "house", you must not only do something, but must also keep on doing so. The moment that you stop doing something with an end in view you will start doing something else aimlessly.

The first thing that you will do when you start concentrating on the idea of house will be to divide that big pasturage of ideas into smaller patches of interest; then to "browse around" in one of these little areas until everything of value within it has been absorbed and digested, and then to move on to the next patch of interest-fodder.

In the idea "house" we can have one little interest patch that will embrace the masonry-work, another the woodwork, another the metal-work, another the decorative features, and so on.

We could start off with many more little browsing patches if we wanted to; but the four which we have set out will be sufficient for the purpose of illustration.

We will start to browse first in the little masonry patch. Here we have stonework, brickwork, concrete-work, and plastering to consider; and if we wanted to go over all these features we would have more fodder than that big mental concentration power animal could cope with. He would be surfeited, in fact; so we will curtail the browsing patch a little more.

We will select the idea of brickwork, and for a time restrain all our fodder-interest within that considerably restricted area; we shall then have all of the mental pasturage necessary to keep that big intellectual animal of ours contented for a while.

Letting our attention browse around within this brickwork interest-patch we can consider the various sorts of bricks, qualities, appearances, durability, cost, point of shipment, date of delivery, respective quantities, terms of payment, character of firms engaged in this business, labor, cost, experiences, and similar considerations.

We shall commence to browse in this comparatively restricted brickwork area, before finding that we can have all the interest-fodder that our mental concentration power can get away with if we confine the mental browsing to an even smaller radius; and so for a few moments we shall simply move around in a little sphere of interest which contains the ideas relating to character of firms engaged in this business.

In this little interest-patch we now begin to allow that big attention-force of ours to feed; and it is just as contented as ever. It is as contented as ever because there is still ample interest-fodder close up to its nose.

We now look up bricks, brickmakers, brick-factories, brick-merchants, brick-agents in the telephone directory, as well as every classification in which the word brick appears.

Talk about interest-fodder!—we have all the material that we want. In fact, we are as busy as ever, and just as interested as we were in the large "meadow" of interest relating to masonry; and our mental concentration power is as satisfied as ever. It is following us along like Mary's little lamb.

In this little interest-patch relating to brickmakers, brick-merchants, brick-agents, etc., we now move around, letting this big attention-animal of ours sniff this idea, then that, then the other one, and thus make the rounds of interest; and it is quite as contented to nibble at a bunch of mental material relating to brick-agencies or brick-factories as it would be to roam wild over a whole countryside of ideas. It can do only one thing at a time anyway; and, just as long as that one thing is provided, nothing more is necessary.

By the time that the attention has browsed over the brick-merchant interest-patch, you will find that you have so narrowed things down that you have been scientifically concentrating—and without knowing it. And all that you have to do in order to concentrate scientifically is to move around in one interest-patch until the interest-fodder has been all consumed, and then to move on to another patch.

The brick-merchant interest-patch belongs to the larger "pasturage" of brickwork, to which you can now return and select another little fodder area in which to browse—say, that of labor costs.

Here you have to get into touch with contractors and labor conditions; the availability of labor for this sort of work, the cost, and the general respective considerations. And, after your attention-power has browsed over this interest-patch, you move on to the next—say, that of delivery facilities; and after that you move on to the next patch—say, that of shipment conditions, or terms of payment, etc.

Thus you go from one little interest-patch to another, until you have covered all the ground within the larger "pasturage" of brickwork. Then you go over to the big interest "meadow" of stonework; split up that big "acreage" into smaller "fields," such as manufactured stone, cut stone, granite, sandstone, cobble, etc., each and every one of which will contain quite enough  interest-fodder  to  keep  that  big  mental concentration power of yours browsing for a while; and just as soon as one patch is eaten out, simply move on to the next.

Earlier I said: "The secret of mental concentration is to confine the attention to a comparatively small radius of interest." From that point down to the present it has taken me about half an hour of composition. In doing this my attention started off from the idea of house, and thence to more restricted attention-patches. I could go on and write another hour, or even two, on this same subject; but it is not necessary. I wanted to illustrate an idea, and I am trusting that I have said enough to accomplish this purpose.

Now, while I was writing the foregoing my mental concentration power was browsing in those very fodder-patches which I was describing; the result being that for the half-hour in question I was not thinking of anything except the topics that I was describing. In other words, I was scientifically concentrating; which is only a high-falutin way of saying that I put my finger-tips on the nose of that big, docile, and even affectionate brute of an attention-power of mine, and simply indicated, by the slightest of pressure, just where I wanted it to go.

That is all that there is in mental concentration.

If I tried to think of the abstract idea house, I might succeed in doing so—for two and a quarter seconds. A really first-class, fly-blown, Hindu fakir might manage with good luck to do so for two and a half seconds, after which he would go off into a hypnotic stupor.

As for myself, that mental concentration power of mine would tug away at its leading-string for a moment or so, and then, if I did not lead it to some fresh pickings, well, it would give a little snort, blunder through that fence which I tried to put round it, and go off on its own little browsing trip.

As I have no aspirations to be a Hindu fakir, and want to take all the advantage I can of this great mental concentration power which I have, which you have, and which practically everyone has, I don't try to pull off any such mental abstraction stunts. On the contrary, I do my best to be really chummy with that great attention-power of mine; with the result that we get along splendidly together.

I am always keeping my eyes open for fresh browsing patches for that great ally of mine to feed on, and just as soon as I see the last patch of interest-fodder disappearing down that concentrating machine of my big friend, I gently stroke its nose and, with just the lightest of touches, indicate the next direction in which I wish it to go, and everything immediately becomes as desired.

Since I found out how to get along with this big power the world has become a different affair altogether to me. In our power to accomplish things we are largely what we feel we are, and can mostly do what we feel we can do.

Mental concentration consists simply in doing one thing at a time, but doing that one thing in a designed and orderly manner. It is as simple in principle and as easy to accomplish as it would be to clear out a drawer of rubbish, to sort out the various items in their respective piles, and then to store them away in their rightful places.

If, therefore, you happen to be one of the misguided individuals who has been brooding over a mental concentration inability, you can readjust your mental perspective; and do it now. If you have gone to sleep on the back of that big power of yours, and have allowed it to browse just where it liked, and as it liked, that is your fault, and not the fault of the power.

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