Thoughts Are Things. This item is unavailable.Thoughts Are Things

THERE belongs to every human being a higher self and a lower self-a self or mind of the spirit which has been growing for ages, and a self of the body, which is but a thing of yesterday. The higher self is full of prompting idea, suggestion and aspiration. This it receives of the Supreme Power. All this the lower or animal self regards as wild and visionary. The higher self argues possibilities and power for us greater than men and women now possess and enjoy. The lower self says we can only live and exist as men and women have lived and existed before us. The higher self craves freedom from the cumbrousness, the limitations, the pains and disabilities of the body. The lower self says that we are born to them, born to ill, born to suffer, and must suffer as have so many before us. The higher self wants a standard for right and wrong of its own. The lower self says we must accept a standard made for us by others-by general and long-held opinion, belief and prejudice.

Prentice Mulford was born in Sag Harbor, New York and, in 1856, sailed to California where he would spend the next 16 years. During this time, Mulford spent several years in mining towns, trying to find his fortune in gold, copper, or silver. After leaving the mining life, Mulford ran for a position on the California State Assembly in Sacramento. Although he was nominated, he ultimately lost the election. He returned to San Francisco and began writing for a weekly newspaper, The Golden Era. Mulford spent five years as a writer and editor for various papers and was named by many San Franciscans a "Bohemian," for his disregard for money. Mulford states in his autobiography, "poverty argued for us possession of more brains" He became known for his humorous style of writing and vivid descriptions of both mining life as well as life at sea. In 1872, Mulford returned to New York City, where he became known as a comic lecturer, author of poems and essays, and a columnist for [The New York Daily Graphic] from 1875-1881. Mulford was also instrumental in the founding of the popular philosophy, New Thought, along with other notable writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Mulford's book, Thoughts are Things served as a guide to this new belief system and is still popular today.