The Entangled Universe

When years ago I bought my copy of “Think and Grow Rich” written by Napoleon Hill, one of the greatest self development authors of 19^th century, I barricaded in my room and started to read avid of knowledge. As hours passed by, and I was reaching the end of the book, I realized I was shouting out loud “What??”. “Does he speaks with ghosts?” I could not believe that at first, such a great author who inspired a generation of experts got motivated with….what? Talking to ghosts?

I thought it was better to give another read to that chapter, just to assess my understanding. I was not mistaken. Napoleon Hill told us that to get clarity of mind and inspiration, every evening imagined a meeting with some great persons of the past who best caught his consideration!

At that time it was not easy for me to understand the deep meaning of his words and his actions, but after some careful reasoning I realized the beauty of what he did.

He called this “Building character through autosuggestion“. He revived nine notable men, exactly like ghosts: Emerson, Paine, Edison, Darvin, Lincoln, Burbank, Napoleon, Ford, and Carnegie.

He added: …”Every night, over a long period of years, I held an imaginary council meeting with this group whom I called “My Invisible Counsellors”…

But what is really interesting is : …”I had a very definite purpose in indulging my imagination through these nightly meetings. My purpose was to rebuild my own character so it would represent a composite of the characters of my imaginary counsellors”…

He also accurately describes the main traits of these men, their prevalent postures, and the advices they gave him, each one using his different skills and geniality that made them famous to the world.

It might sounds weird, I admit. But let’s think about this with an open mind. He imagined these meetings with people from different backgrounds and abilities. He made his mind to process information through different filters, each one diverse but with an extremely successful way to analyze facts and to find solutions. With his imagination he forced his brain to operate in the way he wanted, building new beliefs based on the mind frame of his great predecessors.

It’s an interesting process. Think about a great figure of the past you particularly admire, about his character, about the way he or she perceived life. Try to make this find frame, the way of thinking yours, behaving like him/her. I think that first of all it can be funny, but there are greater benefits. It will help you to strengthen your character, just imagine to have the leadership of Alexander the Great or the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, their thinking pattern. It would be great isn’t?

I think that if Napoleon Hill did it, it would be worth give it a try ourselves, even just for fun.

So, tell me…who is your favourite ghost?

Here is the famous book