"Desire Power"

“Desire is the very essence of Man, from which necessarily flow all those things which tend to preserve him.”

—Spinoza.

I

EMOTIVE POWER

Desire Power is one of the many phases of Personal Power — of that Personal Power which flows into and through the individual from that great source of the All-Power of All-Things which in this instruction is known as POWER.

You do not create your own Personal Power of any kind, though you may modify it, adapt it, develop it, and direct it.  POWER, the source of All-Power, has always existed and will always exist.  You generate Personal Power by drawing upon the great Source and Fount of All-Power; by opening your natural channels to its inflow; and by supplying it with the proper physical and mental mechan­ism by means of which it is enabled to express and manifest itself efficiently.

There are not, in reality, many distinct kinds of Personal Power — though there are many forms and phases of its expression and manifestations.  Just as, by means of being supplied with the appropriate apparatus, Electricity is transformed into light, heat, energy, motive-power, telegraphic power, telephonic power, and “wireless message” power, so is your Per­sonal Power transformed into mental power and physical power; into thinking power, feel­ing power, and willing power; by reason of the various channels of expression and manifesta­tion supplied to it.

Personal Power manifests along the lines of mental activity in three great forms, viz., along the respective channels of (1) Feeling, (2) Thinking, and (3) Willing.  These three chan­nels, however, are not absolutely set apart and separated from each other, but, on the contrary, have many intersecting and connecting lines or channels of intercommunication; their activities are closely coordinated.  According­ly, in practically all instances of mental activ­ity, we find the coordination and blending of the activity of these great phases of mental activity.

Desire is the highest wave of the waters of Feeling or Emotion.  Feeling is “the agreeable or disagreeable phase of a mental state.”  Emo­tion is a complex form of Feeling, into which is blended the element of the representative ideas of memory or imagination.  Desire is the strong urge or pressure of Emotion toward an idea or object which promises emotional sat­isfaction and content; or away from an idea or object which threatens emotional dissatisfaction or discontent.  If the emotional urge becomes sufficiently strong, the Desire develops a conational activity, i.e., an activity tending toward will-action along the lines of the satis­faction and gratification of the Desire.  On one side, Desire arises from Emotion; on the other side, Desire evolves into Conation — and Cona­tion is the elementary active phase of Will.

Before you can expect to understand the na­ture of Desire, its laws, the principles of its development and application, you must first know something of the general form of mental activity of which it is the highest and most active phase, i.e., the mental activity known as Emotion.

Emotion is defined as: “An excitement of the feelings, whether pleasant or unpleasant”; Feeling being “the agreeable or disagreeable side of any mental state,” Feeling may be described as “a simple emotional state”;  and Emotion may be described as “a complex state of Feeling” — the difference is a matter of de­gree and not of kind.  Emotion, however, has Idea blended with it — memories of previous ex­periences supplied by recollection or instinct (the latter reporting race-memories).  Feeling (simple) may arise from a purely physical cause, and no definite Idea may be involved in it.  But Emotion (complex) necessitates the presence and influence of representative Idea to direct it and to continue it beyond the stage of simple Feeling.

A leading teacher of psychology illustrated this distinction to his pupils by directing their attention to the analogy of the junction of the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri rivers.  He pictured the Missouri as a stream of Repre­sentative Ideas, and the Upper Mississippi as a stream of simple Feeling arising from sense-impressions.  The two streams meet; their waters join and, blending, compose the complex Lower Mississippi of Emotion now flowing to the Gulf of Desire and Will. The teacher, however, always cautioned his pupils to remember that this illustration was used merely for convenience: for Feeling and Idea are never so far apart (before the junction) in the mind as are the waters of the two rivers.

The highest activities of Feeling and Emo­tion are known as Affection and Desire, respectively.

Affection is defined as: “An emotional draw­ing of the mind toward any person or thing, which does not necessarily depart even when that person or thing is absent.”  In its latent state, Affection may be termed a “disposition or tendency toward a person or thing,”  In its active state, Affection may manifest as Pas­sion, especially in the presence of its object.  The term is usually employed to denote the state of emotional feeling toward persons, but it is also properly employed in connection with anything capable of exciting regard.  Affec­tion, likewise, has its negative aspect; in such aspect the tendency or disposition is that of drawing-away-from, instead of drawing-to­ward, the object or person arousing the emotional feeling.  Positive Affection arises from Attraction; Negative Affection arises from Re­pulsion.  Affection, then, is seen to be com­posed of the following two elements, viz., (1) the Emotional Feeling, and (2) the tendency or disposition to be attracted toward (or re­pelled from) the object arousing the emotional feeling.

Desire is a more complex, and a more active phase of Emotional Feeling than is Affection.  Desire combines and includes the element of Affection, but it goes beyond the latter. It may be defined as: “The strong wish or inclina­tion to attain, secure, reach, or to retain, hold, and own, the object which has attracted it; or to get away from, escape or be free from, the object which has repelled it,”  Desire always reaches out to the object of Positive Affec­tion, or withdraws from the object of Negative Affection.  Affection simply is attracted toward or repelled by its objects; Desire takes up the task where Affection drops it, and then wishes to lay hold upon the object, to possess it or attain it, or (in its negative aspect) to avoid or escape from that object.  Affection (in its positive phase) loves the object; Desire (in its positive phase) not only loves it but also “wants” it and is not satisfied without its attainment or possession.  Note this distinction, for it is important in the application of the fundamental principle involved in Desire.

The power inherent in Emotion is indicated by the term designating it.  The term “Emo­tion”  is derived from the Latin term “emotio,” meaning “a moving out.”  The latter term, in turn, was derived from the Latin prefix “e,” meaning “out,” and the verb “moveo,” mean­ing “to move.”  The essence and spirit of the term, as indicated by its origin, is that of ^“movement,^” motion, activity.  It is signifi­cant that the same Latin verb “moveo” which supplies us with our English term ^“Emotion,^” also supplies us with our English term “Mo­tion.”  Both terms mean “to move”; the “e” in ^“Emotion^” specially indicating “outward motion; to move outward.”  So that Motion and Emotion are seen to be closely connected in origin and meaning.  Motive Power and Emotive Power are but forms and phases of the same thing, at the last analysis — some philosophers, indeed, claiming that they are one in essential principle.

Too many persons have fallen into the habit of undervaluing Emotion, and of rather being inclined to apologize for its presence and manifestation in and by themselves.  They seek to give it a subordinate place in the Trinity of Mind, and to exalt above it the coordinated elements of Thinking and Willing, respective­ly.  This, principally because the term “emo­tional” has been attached to and associated with certain unattractive phases of emotional activity; as for instance, the sickly sentimental­ity, maudlin sentiment, the “slushy gushing”  and the neurotic hysterical hyper-emotionality manifested by certain persons who are regard­ed as being “quite emotional.”  The abnormal has been mistaken for the normal — the morbid, for the natural and healthy state.

Emotion includes not only some of the rich­est and most noble elements of our mental and spiritual natures, but also much that is of the most practical pragmatic value in our everyday work and activity.  Not only does it manifest its presence in those experiences and activities which we usually include in the category of “the things of the soul,” but it also is found to play a quite important part in the activities of the intellect and of the will.  In fact, Emotion illustrates the aptness of the term, E-motion, by imparting motion and activity to both in­tellect and will.  The promise implicit in its name is fulfilled in its actual accomplishment.

Emotion includes in its category that which thrills the heart of man, and which causes him to manifest the fine forces of affection, love and friendship.  It contains within its realm the desires which urge him forward on the path of life, and which direct his vision to the ban­ner of Victory placed far ahead over the por­tals of the future.  Emotion lies much closer to the heart and nearer to the springs of hu­man action than does Intellect, great as are the achievements of the latter; and it plays a high­ly important part in the determination of the character of the individual.  While we extol the virtues of Intellect, let us not ignore or undervalue those of Emotion.  Man does not live by Intellect alone; Emotion must be pres­ent to add spirit and soul to the body of Per­sonal Power.

Man has a heart as well as a head.  In fact, the heart plays a greater part than does the head in the actions of mankind as a whole.  Rob human action of the inspiration of the heart, and you have left but a cold mechanical product.  Remove Emotion from human life, and you will have taken away the source of its greatest beauties and charm.  The Man of Personal Power has Intellect, Emotion, and Will well balanced — this constitutes the Bal­ance of Poise and Power.  Intellect is not to be undervalued; Will is to be viewed with respect and admiration; but Emotion is seen to be the essence of the life and soul of the other two elements, and of the individual as a whole.  Well says the old adage: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

But, more to the point, at least in the case of the practical men of the world who may read these words, is the fact that in Emotion is to be found a practical phase of Personal Power — a force or energy which enables men to at­tain, to accomplish, to succeed, to do things worth while.  It is one of the tragedies of our modern educational system that, while the greatest attention is devoted to training “the head,” training “the heart” is practically neglected.  It is generally considered quite practical and according to common sense to train and cultivate the intellect; but usually even to hint at the desirability of training and cultivating the emotions lays one open to the charge of being “impractical and visionary.”  It is only when persons are shown the impor­tant part played by Emotion in all the activ­ities of Intellect and Will, that they will even seriously listen to suggestions that Emotion should be accorded attention in the educational field.

Yet, as all psychologists know, the Intellect is influenced, swayed, directed and often en­tirely controlled by Emotion.  Many of man’s greatest intellectual triumphs have resulted from tie motive power supplied by Emotion.  Moreover, the Will has its very roots embedded in Emotion; the motives which move the Will to action are always found to arise from Emo­tion.  These are not mere general or careless statements made to strengthen the argument; on the contrary, they express the cold, hard facts of scientific psychology.  The fact that such statements may be new to you is but another proof of the public neglect of this im­portant subject.

Ribot, in the following statement, ably sets forth the conclusions of those philosophers, psychologists and physiologists who maintain that Emotional Feeling is the most fundamen­tal aspect of the life of all conscious creatures, and that it underlies the phase of Intellect in the scale of evolutionary development; that, in fact, it constitutes the very kernel of Life and Mind as these are found to be manifested in living forms.  He says:

“Concerning the place of the Feelings in the total psychic life, I wish to say that that place is first.  The Feelings appearing first, it is clear that they cannot be derived, and are not a mode or function of Intellect, since they exist by themselves and are irreducible: thus stated the question is simple and quite evident.  The physiological evidence in favor of the priority of the Feelings need only to be recalled; it all centres in one point: organic vegetative life always and everywhere appears before animal life; physiologists constantly repeat that the animal is grafted on the vegetable which precedes him.

“Organic life is directly expressed by the needs and appetites, which are the stuff of the affective life.  The myriads of animals are only bundles of needs, their psychology consisting in the search for food, in defense, in propaga­tion; but even closed in as they are from the outside world, desire in them is not less intense.  Even in man, foetal life, and that of the first months after birth, is much the same; almost made up of satisfied or unsatisfied wants, and consequently of pleasures and pains.  From the purely physiological point of view, Intellect appears not as mistress, but as servant.

“The psychological evidence is not difficult to supply, and indeed it has already been pre­sented by Schopenhauer in so brilliant and complete a manner that it would be a bold task to present it afresh.  For Schopenhauer, ‘to Will’ is to desire, to aspire, to flee, to hope, to fear, to love, to hate: in a word, all that directly constitutes our good and our ill, our pleasure and our pain.  Will (in the sense indicated by Schopenhauer) is universal.  The basis of con­sciousness in every animal is Desire.  This fundamental fact is translated into the impulse to preserve life and well-being, and to propa­gate.  This foundation is common to polyp and to man.  The differences between animals are due to a difference in knowledge; as we de­scend in the series, intelligence becomes weak­er and more imperfect, but there is no similar degradation in Desire.  The smallest insect wills what it desires as fully as does man.

“Desire-Will is always equal to itself.  It is fundamental.  It is a fact anterior to all intel­ligence and independent of it.  It is the basis of character: ‘the man is hidden in the heart and not in the head.’  Its power is sovereign.  It is not Reason which uses Desire, but Desire which uses Reason to reach its ends.  Under the influence of intense Desire, the Intellect sometimes rises to a degree of vigor of which none would believe it capable.  Desire, love, fear, render the most obtuse understanding lucid.  Desire, guided by experience, rests upon proved pleasure and pain, seeking one and avoiding the other.  Impulse is the primordial fact in the life of the feelings.  Spinoza sums up the whole spirit of the question in his passage: ‘Desire is the very essence of man, from which necessarily flow all those things which tend to preserve him’.”

Indeed, philosophers have even dared to speculate that just as Desire-Feeling is the essence and kernel of the life of the individual, so a Cosmic Desire-Feeling must be postulated as being the very essence and kernel of the Cosmos — of All-Nature; in all of her mani­festations and forms of expression, inorganic as well as organic.  Along this same line are those metaphysical conceptions of the Infinite Power, or Infinite Being, as necessarily having Desire-Feeling as its attribute; for, otherwise, it is asked, how may we conceive of the Infin­ite ever having begun its manifestation and expression of the created world?  Say certain metaphysicians: “The Infinite must have felt that Creation was ‘desirable,’ else it would never have created anything at all.”  Such speculation, however, is outside of our field here; we have mentioned it merely to illustrate how fundamental is the idea, and how it ever asserts its power in man’s philosophical think­ing.

Emotion, then, is perceived to be the great incentive to individual motion and action in human life, at least.  It is no longer to be re­garded as a merely internal, subjective mental state.  On the contrary, it is seen to be the internal phase of a mental activity striving to express itself in outward and external activity.  Emotion is well called E_^-Motion.  Emotion is an incentive to action — to mental and physical motion.  Emotion strives ever to express itself in action.  On its lower side, it blends into certain forms of Sensation; on its upper side, it blends into Will.

Emotion is not that manifestation or expres­sion of fanciful, sentimental, neurotic, hysteri­cal feelings or impulses — something to be apologized for by the person manifesting it.  Emotion is no more to be gauged by the neurotic, hysterical, hyper-emotionality miscalled “emotion,” than is Intellect to be gauged by the fantastic so-called “reasoning” of the inmate of a lunatic asylum, or that of the many “out patients of Bedlam” whom we meet in everyday life.  Neither Emotion nor Intellect is to be gauged by the perverted forms of these great mental activities.

Men are accustomed to speak of Intellect as the most potent of the powers of the mind; but they reckon ill who leave out Emotion.  Descartes said: “I think; therefore, I am!”  But Feeling is even more fundamental than is Thought; and men say with even greater cer­tainty, “I Feel; therefore, I am!”  Likewise, we are in the habit of quoting with satisfaction the aphorism: “As a man thinketh, so is he”; but we fail to remember that the actual words of the aphorism are, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  Here, “thinketh in his heart,” really means “feeleth in his heart”  — for “the heart”  is the familiar figurative term employed to denote the seat of Feeling, just as “the head” is employed to denote the seat of Thinking.  So, at the last, then, our favorite aphorism is seen to read, “As a man feeleth in his heart, so is he.”

We are here not endeavoring to exalt Emo­tion over Thought and Will, but are merely seeking to restore to its place in the Trinity of Mind a most important element of the Mental Power of Man which many persons have become accustomed to overlook and neglect.  Or, changing the figure of speech, we may say that in Emotion we have that cornerstone of the Temple of Mental Power which has been re­jected by many of the modern builders.  Without the element of Emotive Power there can be no Motive Power in the human mind.