James Allen

With its theme that "mind is the master weaver," creating our
inner character and outer circumstances, As a Man Thinketh is
an in-depth exploration of the central idea of self-help writing.
James Allen's contribution was to take an assumption we all share—
that because we are not robots we therefore control our thoughts—and
reveal its fallacy. Because most of us believe that mind is separate from
matter, we think that thoughts can be hidden and made powerless; this
allows us to think one way and act another. However, Allen believed
that the unconscious mind generates as much action as the conscious
mind, and while we may be able to sustain the illusion of control
through the conscious mind alone, in reality we are continually faced
with a question: "Why cannot I make myself do this or achieve that?"
In noting that desire and will are sabotaged by the presence of thoughts
that do not accord with desire, Allen was led to the startling conclusion:
"We do not attract what we want, but what we are." Achievement happens
because you as a person embody the external achievement; you don't
"get" success but become it. There is no gap between mind and matter.
We are the sum of our thoughts
The logic of the book is unassailable: Noble thoughts make a noble person,
negative thoughts hammer out a miserable one. To a person mired in
negativity, the world looks as if it is made of confusion and fear. On the
other hand, Allen noted, when we curtail our negative and destructive
thoughts, "All the world softens towards us, and is ready to help us."
We attract not only what we love, but also what we fear. His explanation
for why this happens is simple: Those thoughts that receive our
attention, good or bad, go into the unconscious to become the fuel for
later events in the real world. As Emerson commented, "A person is
what he thinks about all day long."
Our circumstances are us
Part of the fame of Allen's book is its contention that "Circumstances
do not make a person, they reveal him." This seems an exceedingly
heartless comment, a justification for neglect of those in need, and a
rationalization of exploitation and abuse, of the superiority of those at
the top of the pile and the inferiority of those at the bottom.
This, however, would be a knee-jerk reaction to a subtle argument.
Each set of circumstances, however bad, offers a unique opportunity
for growth. If circumstances always determined the life and prospects
of people, then humanity would never have progressed. In fact, circumstances
seem to be designed to bring out the best in us, and if we make
the decision that we have been "wronged" then we are unlikely to
begin a conscious effort to escape from our situation. Nevertheless, as
any biographer knows, a person's early life and its conditions are often
the greatest gift to an individual.
The sobering aspect of Allen's book is that we have no one else to
blame for our present condition except ourselves. The upside is the possibilities
contained in knowing that everything is up to us; where before
we were experts in the array and fearsomeness of limitations, now we
become connoisseurs of what is possible.
Change your world by changing your mind
While Allen did not deny that poverty can happen to a person or a
people, what he tried to make clear is that defensive actions such as
blaming the perpetrator will only run the wheels further into the rut.
What measures us, what reveals us, is how we use those circumstances
as an aid or spur to progress. A successful person or community, in
short, is one who is most efficient at processing failure.
Allen observed, "Most of us are anxious to improve our circumstances,
but are unwilling to improve ourselves—and we therefore
remain bound." Prosperity and happiness cannot happen when the old
self is still stuck in its old ways. People are nearly always the unconscious
cause of their own lack of prosperity.
Tranquillity = success
The influence of Buddhism on Allen's thought is obvious in his emphasis
on "right thinking," but it is also apparent in his suggestion that
JAMES ALLEN
12
the best path to success is calmness of mind. People who are calm,
relaxed, and purposeful appear as if that is their natural state, but
nearly always it is the fruit of self-control.
These people have advanced knowledge of how thought works,
coming from years of literally "thinking about thought." According to
Allen, they have a magnet-like attraction because they are not swept up
by every little wind of happenstance. We turn to them because they are
masters of themselves. "Tempest-tossed" souls battle to gain success,
but success avoids the unstable.

Final comments
Some 100 years after its first publication, As a Man Thinketh continues
to get rave reviews from readers. The plain prose and absence of hype
are appealing within a genre that contains sensational claims and personalities,
and the fact that we know so little about the author makes
the work somehow more intriguing.
To bring its message to a wider audience, two updated versions of
the work that correct the gender specificity of the original have been
published: As You Think, edited by Marc Allen (no relation), and As a
Woman Thinketh, edited by Dorothy Hulst.