CHAPTER 4
T his lesson brings us to a discussion of one of the most important major principles of psychology, the law of retaliation, as follows:
The human mind resembles mother earth in that it will reproduce, in kind, that which is planted in it through the five physical senses. The preponderance of tendency upon the part of the mind is to ‘‘retaliate in kind,’’ reciprocating all acts of kindness and resenting all acts of injustice and unkindness. Whether acting through the principle of suggestion or auto-suggestion, the mind directs muscular
action that harmonizes with the sensory impressions it receives; therefore, if you would have me ‘‘retaliate in kind,’’ you can do so by placing in my mind the sensory impressions or suggestions out of which you wish me to create the necessary appropriate muscular action. Injure or displease me, and like a flash, my mind will direct
appropriate muscular action, ‘‘retaliating in kind.’’
In studying the law of retaliation, we are carried, to an extent, into what we might call the field of unknown mental phenomena—the field of physics. The phenomena discovered in this great field have not been reduced to a science, but again, let us bear in mind the fact that this shall not hinder us from making practical use of certain principles which we have discovered in this field, even though we cannot trace these principles back to first cause. One of these principles is that which we have stated above as our fourth general principle of psychology, namely, ‘‘like attracts like.’’
No scientist has ever satisfactorily explained this principle, but the fact still remains that it is a known principle; therefore, just as we make intelligent use of electricity without knowing what it is, let us also make intelligent use of the principles of retaliation.
It is an encouraging sign to see that modern writers are giving their attention more and more to the study of the law of retaliation. Some of them call it one thing, and some call it another, but all of them
seem to agree on the chief fundamental of the principle as follows:
‘‘Like attracts like!’’
The latest writer to turn her attention to this subject is Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. Her article follows:
‘‘There seems to be a mental law to the effect that whatever generally occupies the mind is almost
certain to take form in the objective. Each of us proves that in his own experience dozens of times.
‘‘For instance, you may come across a word you are not familiar with. To the best of your knowledge,
you have never heard it nor seen it before, and yet after your discovery of it, you will encounter it
again and again.
‘‘This fact has recently come to me in an odd sort of a way. I have been doing a great deal of reading and research on a subject which has interested me and, yet, which would certainly never be classed as live news matter. I do not remember ever having seen it mentioned in any current publication, but since I have been familiarizing myself with it, I have clipped a large number of articles treating of one phase or another of it from various magazines and newspapers.
‘‘You can easily follow the workings of this law, whatever it is, down to the smallest details. ‘‘A friend came to see me a day or two ago and stood transfixed upon the threshold of my sitting room.
‘‘ ‘Flowers!’ she exclaimed. ‘Roses?’
‘‘There was such horror in her tones that I thought she was reproving me for buying anything but
thrift stamps. She explained, however, that she was suffering from rose cold, which afflicts those who are subject to it at the same time each year, just as hay fever does.
‘‘ ‘It comes in June,’ she said, ‘when the roses are blooming, and even a whiff of their fragrance will
set me sneezing for twenty minutes.’ ‘‘ ‘It’s rather a rare disease, isn’t it?’ I asked after I had whisked my flowers out of sight. ‘‘ ‘Not at all,’ she replied. ‘Very common. Every other person I meet has it.’
‘‘Now, I meet just as many people as she does during the day, perhaps more, and yet with the exception of herself, I know no one who suffers from this malady.
‘‘Again, why is it that, if we find our thoughts turning persistently to some particular person, we are very apt to hear from him or meet him within a short time? We may not have given him a thought for months or years, and yet ‘behold his shadow on the floor.’
‘‘I know there are various explanations for these phenomena, but none of them is entirely satisfactory. The effect, however, is as if we, unconsciously to ourselves, sent out wireless messages into the universe and received the responses. Like seeks like. ‘‘May not this account for the fact that people with grievances are always well supplied with material for fresh ones, that the mournful people have
plenty to mourn about, that the most dreadful of pests, the man or woman with a chip on their shoulder, invariably arouses a burning desire in the breast of the meek and innocent by stander to
knock it off?
‘‘We all know people who are just naturally lucky. ‘‘Everything seems to come their way. They don’t
have to climb trees and laboriously pick the fruit off the branches. They merely stretch out a hand, and the plums fall into it. ‘‘I heard a woman complaining of the inequalities of fate recently and comparing her lot with that of an acquaintance.
‘‘ ‘Just look at her,’ she said. ‘Here I have worked and worried and schemed and contrived for years.
Anything that I get comes by the hardest kind of effort and usually after a thousand disappointments. But she, while not half so clever as I, nor so diligent a worker, is yet a sort of a magnet attracting to herself the good things which fly past me. There’s no such thing as justice.’
‘‘But she affirmed the justice of the law even while she denied it. I know the lucky woman as well as I knew the unlucky one. The difference between the two was that one was always expecting the worst
and preparing for it, and the other looked forward to agreeable and pleasant things. She took them as a matter of course and made them welcome. It was always the top o’ the morning to her.
‘‘There are days which are well known to all of us when everything goes wrong. There is certainly no
malign power that is trying to thwart us and make us miserable, although it is often easier to believe so than to understand why one disturbing circumstance should follow another from early morn to dewy.’’
One does not have to be a master of psychology to accept the truth of Mrs. Woodrow Wilson’s article—it is a truth which we have all experienced, yet it is a truth to which most of us have attached little or no significance.
It is in no spirit of irreverence that I place prayer, that mighty worker of miracles, in the great field of unknown phenomena. I am a firm believer in prayer! It has worked wonders for me, yet I know nothing whatsoever as to the first cause to which we appeal through prayer. I know this, however: that through consistent, persistent effort, prayer will break down all obstacles and force the seemingly
unfathomable problems to give up their secrets!
For four years, I prayed persistently for the truth that was wrapped up in what appeared to be an impenetrable secret in another’s heart. The information I wanted was known to only one other person. The very nature of the information almost necessitated its being held inviolable forever. At about the end of the fourth year, I carried my prayers a step further than I had ever done before—I determined that I would shut my eyes and behold a picture of the exact information that I wanted. Strange as it may seem, I had hardly closed my eyes before the outlines of the picture began to trace themselves in my consciousness, and within two or three minutes, I had my answer!
It seemed so strange to me that, at first, I believed what I had seen was nothing but a hallucination, but I did not have to wait long before I knew better. The next day, I met the person in whose heart the
secret was locked, and I was told by that person that for four years some strange force had been tugging at her heart strings, trying to induce her to tell me a story which she said she now wished to relate. In that story was the information that I wanted and for which I had prayed for four years!
Some would tell us that Divine Power produced this remarkable result, while others would be inclined to explain it through mental telepathy. My own opinion is that every thought vibration on the
subject which was produced in my mind, at the time of prayer, was registered in the subconscious mind of the other person, having traveled through the ethereal air currents just as vibrations sent by a
wireless outfit traveled from one instrument to another, and that these thought vibrations finally caused the alchemic change to take place in her mind which resulted in her decision to give me the
information I wanted. Mind you, I said that I believe this is what took place—as to the original cause which made possible the transmission of thought through the open air, I venture no suggestions!
On another occasion, which is an extreme in the other direction, I accomplished a remarkable result through prayer in less than a minute and a half. An important business transaction was under way, I had made an offer, and it had been turned down coldly. The person to whom the offer was made stepped out of his office for not longer than a minute and a half. While he was gone, I sent out a
message through what we call prayer, in which I asked for a reversal of his ultimatum. He came back in and announced, without my saying a word, that he had changed his mind and would accept my offer.
Before getting away from the subject of ‘‘unknown phenomena,’’ permit me to once more remind you that this course of scientific instruction has no connection whatsoever with any religious faith,
and whenever we refer, directly or indirectly, to any subject connected with religion, we do so for purpose of comparison only. Millions of people have found happiness and contentment through the great unknown phenomenon which we call prayer. I have no desire to cause anyone to change his or her belief in prayer.
To the contrary, I would do all possible to strengthen that belief! Neither have I any intention whatsoever of reducing prayer to a purely scientific phenomenon. Whether our prayers produce such
wonderful results, as we know they do, through the principle of autosuggestion or through the influence of outside Divine forces over which we have no control is of but little importance. We are apt to pray with more faith and persistence by directing our prayers to the Divine source, and this, within itself, would warrant our refraining from adopting the scientific principle of auto-suggestion as an explanation of the great phenomenon of prayer.
Late one afternoon, I was sitting at my desk waiting for Mrs. Hill to join me. The office force had gone, and I was the only person in the room. I leaned over and rested my face on my hands, covering my eyes with the ends of my fingers. Mind you, I was not asleep, for I had not been in that position more than thirty seconds. Then a strange thing happened. It was almost time for Mrs. Hill to arrive. I heard her scream! I saw her knocked down by an automobile. I saw a policeman lift her up from the pavement and place her on the sidewalk. I saw the blood on her face.
I opened my eyes and looked around. I could not have been dreaming because I was not asleep. Soon I heard Mrs. Hill’s footsteps. She was excited and almost out of breath. Sure enough, she had been
almost run down by an automobile at the very spot where I saw her. She did scream, and the policeman did pull her back on the sidewalk, just as I had seen him do. And, as near as we could estimate, all of this happened at the very moment when I saw it, sitting at my desk with my eyes closed, a block away from the actual scene!
In the state of Illinois, near the city of Chicago, a few years ago, a farmer left his home one morning and started toward his fields to work. He had gone but a short distance when he experienced a strange feeling that impelled him to arbitrarily return to the house. He paid no attention to it at first, but it became stronger and more insistent. Finally, he could go no further, so he turned and started toward the house. The nearer he got, the faster he wanted to walk until he finally started to run. When he got inside the house, he found his daughter lying on the floor with her throat cut. Her assailant had gone but a few seconds before his arrival.
What caused these strange phenomena, we do not know, unless it was mental telepathy. These two cases are cited because both of them are authentic. I could cite more than a dozen similar cases which
would have a strong tendency to prove the existence of mental telepathy through which thoughts actually pass from one mind to another just as the vibration passes from one instrument to another
through wireless telegraphy. Of course these minds must be harmoniously attuned to each other, just as the wireless instruments must be properly attuned, or the thoughts will not register.
These examples of what we might term unknown phenomena are mentioned in connection with this lesson for the reason that we want you to stop and consider what the possibilities are for making
practical use of the law of retaliation, which operates directly through the five physical senses. We do not have to depend upon unknown phenomena or mental telepathy, which are but slightly understood at this time; we can reach and influence the human mind directly through the law of retaliation and the principle of suggestion. Suggestion is the medium through which we reach the mind of another, and the law of retaliation is the principle through which we plant in that mind the seed that we wish to see take root and grow.
You know what retaliate means!
In the sense that we are using it here, it means to ‘‘return like for like,’’ and not merely to avenge or to seek revenge, as is commonly meant by the use of this word. If I do you an injury, you retaliate at first opportunity. If I say unjust things about you, you will retaliate in kind, even in greater measure!
On the other hand, if I do you a favor, you will reciprocate even in greater measure if possible. Thus, we are following the impulse of our nature, through the ‘‘law of retaliation’’!
Through the proper use of this law, I can get you to do whatever I wish you to do. If I wish you to dislike me and to lend your influence toward damaging me, I can accomplish this result by inflicting upon you the sort of treatment that I want you to inflict upon me through retaliation.
If I wish your respect, your friendship, and your cooperation, I can get these by extending to you my friendship and cooperation. On these statements, I know that we are together. You can compare these statements with your own experience, and you will see how beautifully they harmonize. How often have you heard the remark, ‘‘What a wonderful personality that person has.’’ How often have you met people whose personalities you coveted?
The man who attracts you to him through his pleasing personality is merely making use of the law of harmonious attraction or the law of retaliation, both of which, when analyzed, mean that ‘‘like attracts
like.’’ If you will study, understand, and make intelligent use of the law of retaliation, you will be an efficient and successful salesman. When you have mastered this simple law and learned how to use it, you will have learned all that can be learned about salesmanship.
The first, and probably the most important, step to be taken in mastering this law is to cultivate complete self-control. You must learn to take all sorts of punishment and abuse without retaliating in
kind. This self-control is a part of the price you must pay for mastery of the law of retaliation. When an angry person starts in to vilify and abuse you, justly or unjustly, just remember that if you retaliate in a like manner, you are being drawn down to that person’s mental level; therefore, that person is dominating you!
On the other hand, if you refuse to become angry, if you retain your self-composure and remain calm and serene, you retain all your ordinary faculties through which to reason. You take the other fellow
by surprise. You retaliate with a weapon with the use of which he is unfamiliar; consequently, you easily dominate him. Like attracts like! There’s no denying this! Literally speaking, every person with whom you come in contact is a mental looking glass in which you may see a perfect reflection of your own mental attitude.
As an example of direct application of the law of retaliation, let us cite an experience that I recently had with my two small boys, Napoleon Junior and James.
We were on our way to the park to feed the birds and squirrels. Napoleon Junior had bought a bag of peanuts, and James had bought a box of Crackerjack. James took a notion to sample the peanuts. Without asking permission, he reached over and made a grab for the bag. He missed, and Napoleon Junior ‘‘retaliated’’ with his left fist, which landed rather briskly on James’ jaw.
I said to James, ‘‘Now, see here, son, you didn’t go about getting those peanuts in the right manner. Let me show you how to get them.’’ It all happened so quickly that I hadn’t the slightest idea when
I spoke what I was going to suggest to James, but I sparred for time to analyze the occurrence and work out a better way, if possible, than that adopted by him.
Then I thought of the experiments we had been making in connection with the law of retaliation, so I said to James, ‘‘Open your box of Crackerjack and offer your little brother some and see what happens.’’ After considerable coaxing, I persuaded him to do this. Then a remarkable thing happened—a happening out of which I learned my greatest lesson in salesmanship! Before Napoleon Junior would touch the Crackerjack, he insisted on pouring some of his peanuts into James’ overcoat pocket. He ‘‘retaliated in kind’’! Out of this simple experiment with two small boys, I learned more about
the art of managing them than I could have learned in any other manner. Incidentally, my boys are beginning to learn how to manipulate this law of retaliation, which saves them many a physical combat.
None of us have advanced far beyond Napoleon Junior and James as far as the operation and influence of the law of retaliation is concerned. We are all just grown-up children and easily influenced through this principle.The habit of ‘‘retaliating in kind’’ is so universally practiced among us that we can properly call this habit the law of retaliation. If a person presents us with a gift, we never feel satisfied until we have ‘‘retaliated’’ with something as good as or better than that which we received. If a person speaks well of us, we increase our admiration for that person, and we ‘‘retaliate’’ in return!
Through the principle of retaliation, we can actually convert our enemies into loyal friends. If you have an enemy whom you wish to convert into a friend, you can prove the truth of this statement if you will forget that dangerous millstone hanging around your neck which we call ‘‘pride’’ (stubbornness). Make a habit of speaking to this enemy with unusual cordiality. Go out of your way to favor him in every manner possible. He may seem immovable at first, but gradually, he will
give way to your influence and ‘‘retaliate in kind’’! The hottest coals of fire ever heaped upon the head of one who has wronged you are the coals of human kindness.
‘‘One morning in August, 1863, a young clergyman was called out of bed in a hotel at Lawrence, Kansas. The man who called him was one of Quantrell’s guerrillas, and he wanted him to hurry downstairs and be shot. All over the border that morning, people were being murdered. A band of raiders had ridden in early to perpetrate the Lawrence massacre.
‘‘The guerrilla who called the clergyman was impatient. The latter, when fully awake, was horrified by what he saw going on through his window. As he came downstairs, the guerrilla demanded his watch and money and then wanted to know if he was an abolitionist. The clergyman was trembling. But he decided that if he was to die then and there, it would not be with a lie on his lips. So he said that he was, and followed up the admission with a remark that immediately turned the whole affair into another channel.
‘‘He and the guerrilla sat down on the porch, while people were being killed through the town, and had a long talk. It lasted until the raiders were ready to leave. When the clergyman’s guerrilla mounted to join his confederates, he was strictly on the defensive. He handed back the New Englander’s valuables, apologized for disturbing him, and asked to be thought well of.
‘‘That clergyman lived many years after the Lawrence massacre. What did he say to the guerrilla? What was there in his personality that led the latter to sit down and talk? What did they talk about?
‘‘ ‘Are you a Yankee abolitionist?’ the guerrilla had asked. ‘Yes, I am,’ was the reply, ‘and you know
very well that you ought to be ashamed of what you’re doing.’
‘‘This drew the matter directly to a moral issue. It brought the guerrilla up roundly. The clergyman
was only a stripling beside this seasoned border ruffian. But he threw a burden of moral proof onto
the raider, and in a moment, the latter was trying to demonstrate that he might be a better fellow than
circumstances would seem to indicate.
‘‘After waking this New Englander to kill him on account of his politics, he spent twenty minutes on
the witness stand trying to prove an alibi. He went into his personal history at length. He explained
matters from the time when he had been a tough little kid who wouldn’t say his prayers, and became
quite sentimental in recalling how one thing had led to another, and that to something worse, until—
well, here he was, and ‘a might bad business to be in, pardner.’ His last request in riding away was, ‘Now, pardner, don’t think too hard of me, will you?’ ’’
From The Lawrence Massacre by a Band of Missouri Ruffians Under Quantrell, by J. S. Boughton and Richard Cordley The New England clergyman made use of the law of retaliation, whether he knew it at that time or not. Imagine what would have happened had he come downstairs with a revolver in his hand and started to meet physical force with physical force!
But he didn’t do this! He mastered the guerrilla because he fought him with a force that was unknown to the brigand. Why is it that when once a man begins to make money, the whole world seems to beat a pathway to his door? Take any person that you know who enjoys financial success, and he will tell you that he is being constantly sought, and that opportunities to make money are constantly being urged upon him!
‘‘To him that hath shall be given, but to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath’’ (Matthew 25:29). This quotation from the Bible used to seem ridiculous to me, yet how true it is when reduced to its concrete meaning. Yes, ‘‘to him that hath shall be given’’! If he ‘‘hath’’ failure, lack of self confidence, hatred, or lack of self-control, to him shall these qualities be given in still greater abundance! But, if he ‘‘hath’’ success, self confidence, self-control, patience, and persistence, to him shall these qualities be increased!
Sometimes it may be necessary to meet force with force until we overpower our opponent or adversary, but while he is down is a splendid time to complete the ‘‘retaliation’’ by taking him by the hand and showing him a better way to settle disputes. Like attracts like! Germany sought to bathe her sword in human blood, in ruthless escapade of conquest. As a result, she has drawn the ‘‘retaliation in kind’’ of most of the civilized world. It is for you to decide what you want your fellowmen to do, and it is for you to get them to do it through the law of retaliation!
‘‘The Divine economy is automatic and very simple: we receive only that which we give.’’ How true it is that ‘‘we receive only that which we give’’! It is not that which we wish for that comes back to us, but that which we give. I implore you to make use of this law, not alone for material gain, but, better still, for the attainment of happiness and good will toward men. This, after all, is the only real success for which to strive.
Summary
In this lesson, we have learned a great principle—probably the most important major principle of psychology! We have learned that our thoughts and actions toward others resemble an electric magnet
which attracts to us the same sort of thought and the same sort of action that we, ourselves, create.
We have learned that ‘‘like attracts like,’’ whether in thought or in expression of thought through bodily action. We have learned that the human mind responds in kind to whatever thought impressions it receives. We have learned that the human mind resembles mother earth in that it will reproduce a crop of muscular action which corresponds, in kind, to the sensory impressions planted in it. We have learned that kindness begets kindness, and unkindness and injustice beget unkindness and injustice.
We have learned that our actions toward others, whether of kindness or unkindness, justice or injustice, come back to us in even larger measure!We have learned that the human mind responds
in kind to all sensory impressions it receives; therefore, we know what we must do to influence any desired action upon the part of another. We have learned that ‘‘pride’’ and ‘‘stubbornness’’ must be brushed away before we can make use of the law of retaliation in a constructive way. We have not learned what the law of retaliation is, but we have learned how it works and what it will do; therefore, it only remains for us to make intelligent use of this great principle.
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