Chapter V
ESSENTIAL LAW OF PRACTICAL SELF-MASTERY
Option and Opportunity
External objects excite sensory impressions, but the perception of them is purely at the option of the mind.
This is of the greatest practical importance. Consider its consequences. It means that sense-impressions and your perception of them are two very different things. It means that sense-impressions may throng in upon you as they will. They are the work of external stimuli impressing themselves upon
the sensorium as upon a mechanical register. You are helpless to discriminate among them. You cannot accept some and exclude others. You are a perambulating dry plate upon which outside objects produce their images.
Prearranging Your Consciousness