Book Description
Here is a book that gives the essence of Claude Bristol's philosophy. Bristol tells us that there is nothing new in this book, although it may be new to you. These are the secrets used by Moses, Alexander The Great, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Washington, Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Edison, F.D.Roosevelt, Gandhi and countless others. Originally written in 1953, this book gives easy to follow instructions on how to use the force within you to obtain without. This mind stuff works. Give it a try. Use TNT to explode your success!

For those of you who seek to learn and make progress, I gently lay this message in your laps. I do so without the slightest fear but that it will turn your world entirely up­side down—bringing you health, wealth, success and hap­piness, provided you understand and accept it.

Remember, TNT is a dangerously high explosive; so when you gather it closely, handle it carefully. Down through the centuries its power has destroyed those who sought to misuse it Therefore exercise great caution that it is used only for good.

This power can be proved by the teachings of the Bible, certain well-established laws of physics, and, last but not least, just plain common sense. Read and deter­mine for yourself whether or not the proofs I offer stand by themselves.

Some of you may see only the spiritual side, others recognize the scientific truths, and still others may accept it as just a practical operating device to put you on the road to success. No matter: many know the truth, and for you who will open your minds the light will pour in with dazzling white brilliancy.

I'm indebted to an old friend of mine, an expert on X-ray and electrical high frequency apparatus, who, when I was a boy experimenting with electricity, called to my attention the first bit of powerful TNT in my pocket. Then I didn't know what it was and didn't understand, but fortunately it has remained there all through the years.

As I look back, I realize why he didn't force me to understand what it was. He believed in me, and knew that when I was ready to accept it, I would. It's taken nearly thirty years, during which time I sought up and down the highways, looking, seeking and searching for "that something"—the secret—TNT.

All the time there was some in my pocket, mine for the mere reaching. However, I've got a firm grip on it now, and I will divide it graciously, knowing that if used wisely it will blow away all obstacles and straighten out the road on which you've been wanting to travel all your life.

Why are you blocked?

For many years I was a newspaper man, frequently behind the scenes. I met great men and women, inter­viewed famous people. Naturally, I studied them and tried to understand what peculiar qualities they possessed that placed them above the others. But their secret evaded me.

Then came the First World War and I wondered why others made progress while I seemed to be blocked in my own ambitions. The war did teach me, however, that I could sleep in the mud, eat moldy bread and live to laugh about it. This is part of my T N T, so remember what I learned. It helped me to give Old Man Fear a solar-plexus blow, and I believe it will help you.

Hoping to find a royal road to fortune, I read hun­dreds of the so-called "success" books, but they took me nowhere. I did the same with books on philosophy, psy­chology, and still the great secret kept just a jump ahead of me. I joined secret fraternal organiz-ations, hoping that I might find that which I sought. However, just like the bit of TNT in my pocket, the secret was in every book, in the great orders, everywhere, in fact, right under my very nose, but something kept me from it.

You will have to determine for yourself what keeps you from it if you don't get it from TNT. It's there. If you don't find it in the printed word, look between the lines—as I've done my best to present it to you.

Are you afraid?

Following the war, I became a member of a coast-wide investment banking organization, and during the years I cherished quite a dream—as did thousands of others in all lines of business—only to discover that the air castles which I built were on an unstable foundation.

That cataclysmic happening which turned the world upside down financially obliterated my air castles en­tirely, and I became afraid. I got lost in the fog. Every­where I turned, something fell in on me.

As an executive of the organization, my responsibilities multiplied. Our business, owing to the economic changes which were taking place in the world, faced a crisis. Many people, failing to under-stand the catastrophe which had overtaken business everywhere, were critical. All of this brought worry and many sleepless nights. I found myself dreading to go to work, fearing that each day would bring added misery.

The weeks went on and conditions got worse and worse. I was baffled. Several times I talked about getting out of the business; and one day, in the latter part of June, 1931, I made up my mind to leave. I mentioned this to one of the women with whom I had been associ­ated in business for several years and saw nothing but reproach in her eyes

That night I tried to sleep. Again, I found it impos­sible. I paced the floor for hours—when at about 3:30 in the morning I suddenly stopped and sat down. I was face to face with myself. I could follow the inclination to run and leave the others to carry on by themselves, or I could stay and do my share; a duty which I knew was mine.

I caught myself saying, almost aloud:

    "Right is right. It's always been right. It can't be otherwise." This was something I had been taught since infancy.

Suddenly there appeared to be an unfoldment!

Out of the air!

Out of the air came a voice saying:

     "What have you been looking for all these years? What were you taught? What did you learn? Where have you been? Where are you going?"

I jumped to my feet, crying: "I know it. I've got it now. It's the secret. That's what they tried to teach me. It is the Royal Secret, too!"

Something told me that I would find those identical words in a book which had been given me many years be­fore and which I had tried to read, failed to understand and had put aside. It was written by a great man, Albert Pike, a mystic, a poet and a scholar. Pulling it from the shelf, feverishly I ran through the pages. The words were there and I understood immediately.

Open your mind

I now had the key. I could see a broad smooth high­way and at the end of that highway, a perfect flood of gorgeously beautiful radiance:

    "That's the road you are on now. What a simpleton you have been! They tried to teach you, they tried to help you and you kept your mind closed—thinking that you alone could find the road and stay on it."

I was nearly overcome with the sheer joy of it all. My fears, my worries had disappeared. I smiled. I knew that I was right and that everything would be right for me from then on. I slept like a baby.

There was a different atmosphere in the office that day. The oppressive black clouds which hung over us be­gan to fade away. I told the woman—she with the re­proachful eyes—what had happened, and she smiled a knowing smile. She helped me get back on the track, and I can never repay her.

As one learned man said: "All of us are born with the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, and with the ability to achieve, but some of us must run head-on into a stone wall, smash ourselves to bits before we really know what it's all about."

I hit the wall with a terrific crash and it was the greatest thing, the finest thing, that ever happened to me.

Many, noting the transformation, asked for an ex­planation. I told some of my closest friends. Knowing it will help, I give it to all of you.

Tap-Tap-Tap!

Take a little at a time. Like a little drop of water, tap—tap—tap, TNT will wear away your old fears and doubts and prejudices, making room for new ideas, new concepts, new truths.

Tap-tap-tap: it is opportunity knocking at the door of your mind. Open up your mind and let this knowledge in.

From the day I decided to pass on this charge of TNT to others, it has been put to use by thousands of individuals, firms and organizations. In addition, I have talked and lectured, in person and over the radio, to many additional thousands; and I am very happy to say that, without exception, phenomenal results have been obtained by those who have understood and applied the principles and mechanics outlined herein.

Tap-Tap-Tap!

You may get it all at once, or it may take you a little time to prepare your mind so that the power you've al­ways had can work through you. But don't work at it too hard, don't try to force it. Be assured, the power is there and you can learn to use it.

At the time my awakening came, the morale of our whole organization was at its lowest ebb. Everyone was discouraged. Afraid. By the very necessity of things, we had to do an about-face.

Right is right

My job was doing everything I could to help the other fellow because I knew it was right. At first I was perplexed as to the methods I should employ to help others, but I used my own system in calling upon the sub­conscious, and the inner voice said that I should talk to them.

Some were skeptical, but I said to myself: "I can prove that I am right!" And during the week that fol­lowed I spent every waking hour reviewing the books that I had studied through the years. Naturally, the Bible came first; then followed studies in Yogism, the philoso­phies of the old Greek and Roman masters and of the later-day teachers and students. Again I deliberated over the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, reread Thomson Jay Hudson's Law of Psychic Phenomena and another book, The Gist of It, written by a brilliant physician, Haydon Rochester. Once more, I studied my books on physics, electricity, and those on the vibrations of light, and dis­covered that not only was I right, as I knew I would be, but that peculiarly the same general basic principles ran through them all. I reread numerous books on psychol­ogy and found the same story everywhere. Subsequently I quoted excerpts, and lo and behold, things began to move!

Where is your niche?

As I looked about me I made the significant obser­vation that men and women who use this power are showmen, or to use the words of my newspaper days, headliners, those who hit the front page. Something causes them to toss away the bushel basket under which they hide their heads, and they rise above the common place.

Not that you may ever want to become a headliner in this sense, but you will surely agree that such people who have developed the power within to the nth degree have become headliners, or they would never have got­ten their niche in the hall of fame. It doesn't follow that they are newspaper publicity-seekers, because some of them are very reticent—and possibly by their very reti­cence are showmen. (Page Greta Garbo!) Others adopt certain peculiarities or use certain devices to make them stand out from their fellow men. Some wear an efficacious smile (Dwight D. Eisenhower, for one!), others scowl (John L. Lewis!), some command attention by critical barbs at peoples and customs (George Bernard Shaw!), and still others have a certain charm of manner (Eleanor Roosevelt). Long hair (many musicians and conductors such as Leopold Stokowski), whiskers and sideburns (the Smith Brothers!), monocles (Charles Coburn) play their part. Flowing robes and distinctive dress are worn by others (Mark Twain and his famous white suits!). The showmanship of some is evidenced by red neckties, others by spats, affected manners, and some even by their num­ber of marriages and divorces (such as Tommy Manville!)

The world takes note of the unorthodox, the unconventional, the uninhibited individuals, and most headliners come under these classifications. They are dif­ferent in some one or more particulars. Some deliberately flaunt and dramatize their differences. Others are not concerned with what people think about them. They are too busy being themselves and doing what they want in life, whether or not it is making right use of their power of TNT.

Many master the art of oratory, the science of war­fare, banking, statesmanship, politics, the arts; but all of them stand out in the full glare of the spotlight—as headliners.

The number is legion. I mention a few of those of history and today: Demosthenes, Nero, Julius Caesar, Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Cleopatra, Balzac, de Maupassant, Sir Isaac Newton, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamil­ton, Bismarck, Alexander Graham Bell, General Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Cecil Rhodes, P. T. Barnum, Clemenceau, Lord Kitchener, Woodrow Wilson, Sir Thomas Lipton, Mussolini, Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Lenin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles E. Hughes, Lloyd George, Mahatma Gandhi, Will Rogers, Douglas Fairbanks, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John Bur­roughs, Charles Lindbergh, Alfred E. Smith, Jane Addams, George Washington Carver, Al Jolson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marion Anderson, Ralph Bunche, Harry Tru­man, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ezio Pinza, Bernard Baruch, Jimmy Stewart, Jane Froman, Cecil B. DeMille, Albert Einstein and Dr. Albert Schweit­zer.

You could go on and on, each name calling to mind a personality, living or dead, who has been unique in expression and achieve-ment. Such individuals have been and are found in every walk of life. It will always be so, as their use of the power within elevates them to the top in their profession or endeavor.

You will note the inclusion of such names as Nero, Julius Caesar, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Lenin in this list. They were all brilliant in their way, and attained their positions of great power through use of "that some­thing" within—but they trampled humanity in the dust doing it. As history evaluates them, it must weigh the evil they have done against the good. You can become a headliner by using this inner power wrongly as well as rightly. That's why it's so wonderful and so dangerous at the same time! That's why you must learn how to control it, in a way helpful to you and to others—and (if you become a headliner), to the world!

Gandhi used this power, I am sure, and I think he was perhaps the greatest headliner of modern times. You can find many pictures showing him in the civilized garb of present-day man, but in his later years he kept his hair cropped short, wore only a loincloth and a pair of huge spectacles. I have no right to say that Gandhi affected this attire for any specific purpose, but I believe he did it with the realization that this appearance helped focus the world's attention upon himself for India's cause.

I make no attempt to explain why those who use this power are showmen. But you'll notice, as you begin to exercise this power in your own life, that it will make you stand out among your friends and loved ones. They will immediately detect a difference in you, the way you ex­press yourself, the way you act. This doesn't mean that you will be showing off or trying to attract attention. It just means that you are starting, for the first time, per­haps, to be really yourself, to take advantage of the op­portunities that are all about you, to cut loose from your old hidebound ideas and limitations, and to claim that which is rightfully yours—which you might have attained long ago, had you understood how to release the power of TNT in your life.

Remember: you can't be a shrinking violet and win any recognition or respect for yourself in this world.

"A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and place it under a bushel...."

    Again:

"The great truths of life become known only to those who are prepared to accept them...."

Thousands who used the power within for evil brought on their own destruction. Look back through history and you can pick these men and women out for yourself.

We get out of life exactly what we put into it—no more, no less. This is an old truism, but it cannot be emphasized enough. When we put in good thoughts, con­structive efforts, and do good, then we receive like in re­turn, for

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"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

What is "that something"—the TNT that rocks the earth? The power within every and any individual which he has to use, if he is to amount to anything in life.

Have you figured it out yet? It's you, your real self, the hidden power of your own inner mind, released un­der purposeful control, and directed to serve you in the meeting of any experience, the removal of any obstacle and the overcoming of any condition, economic, physical, mental or spiritual.

Picture the force!

It is the explosive force of a mental picture of what you want in life, given by you to your subconscious, touched off by faith in yourself and faith in God.

Whatever you picture, within reason, can come true in your life if you have sufficient faith in the power within!

That's your TNT—a mental image of what you want and the faith that you can and will get it!

It's as simple as that: so simple that millions of men and women won't believe it, won't take the time to learn about this power, would rather go on beating their heads against stone walls of willful blindness, ignorance and stubbornness, and keep on creating all manner of misery, economic loss and ill health for themselves through wrong thinking.

Remember, I stumbled along for thirty years with a bit of TNT in my pocket. All I had to do was reach for it, and I had hold of a power which could have saved me worlds of grief. But I knew more than the happy, success­ful men and women around me who were using this power and who were inviting me to share it. I thought I could do it all myself, that this success business was largely luck, that you couldn't depend on faith or any God Power. I was exposed to this truth, time and time again, but it didn't take. I had vaccinated myself against it by my skeptical, scoffing attitude.

Let's hope you don't get as sick of life and as despon­dent and despairing as I was before you clean out the pockets of your mind and find the TNT that's waiting for you there.

What's that? You say you've come across a detonat­ing cap already? Good! Get it set. Put out the caution signals. Proceed carefully and prepare yourself for the first explosion in your consciousness which is going to blast away your wrong thinking and open up a new path­way that will change the course of your entire life—for the better!