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A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga618
have most conscious thought pass through their mind—necessarily do most
mental work. Every new idea planted in a real thinker’s mind grows when he
is least conscious of it.”
Maudsley says: “It would go hard with mankind indeed, if they must act
wittingly before they acted at all. Men, without knowing why, follow a course
for which good reasons exist. Nay, more. The practical instincts of mankind
often work beneficially in actual contradiction to their professed doctrines.”
The same writer says: “The best thoughts of an author are the unwilled
thoughts which surprise himself; and the poet, under the influence of
creative activity, is, so far as consciousness is concerned, being dictated to.”
A writer in an English magazine says: “When waiting on a pier for a
steamer, I went on to the first, which was the wrong one. I came back and
waited, losing my boat, which was at another part of the pier, on account
of the unconscious assumption I had made, that this was the only place to
wait for the steamer. I saw a man enter a room, and leave by another door.
Shortly after, I saw another man exactly like him do the same. It was the same
man; but I said it must be his twin brother, in the unconscious assumption
that there was no exit for the first man but by the way he came (that by
returning).”
Maudsley says: “The firmest resolve or purpose sometimes vanishes
issueless when it comes to the brink of an act, while the true will, which
determines perhaps a different act, springs up suddenly out of the depths
of the unconscious nature, surprising and overcoming the conscious.”
Schofield says: “Our unconscious influence is the projection of our
unconscious mind and personality unconsciously over others. This acts
unconsciously on their unconscious centers, producing effects in character
and conduct, recognized in consciousness. For instance, the entrance of
a good man into a room where foul language is used, will unconsciously
modify and purify the tone of the whole room. Our minds cast shadows of
which we are as unconscious as those cast by our bodies, but which affect for
good or evil all who unconsciously pass within their range. This is a matter of