Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Master Mind: The Key to Mental Power, Development & Efficiency

Rate this book
Theron Q. Dumont was the pseudonym used by William Walker Atkinson, a highly prolific author and leader of the New Thought movement. Atkinson was one of the first authors to write about the law of attraction, or in other words that "like attracts like." Decades before Esther and Jerry Hick's "Money and the Law of Attraction" or Rhonda Byrnes "The Secret," he taught taught readers how to use the power of thought to attract wealth, health, happiness and success. In the timeless classic "The Master Mind" Atkinson teaches us that "Our world is very much what we choose to pay attention to." He gives us the tools we need to permanently rid ourselves of the slave mentality and become Master Minds in our own right.

"Man has it in his power to make of himself what he will to become his own mental creator, instead of allowing others to create his mentality for him. Too long has man bowed to environment and outer circumstances: he is now learning to be his own environment, by means of creating the same from within.

Have you decided whether you shall be the Master, or the mastered? There comes a time in the life of each one of us when this question must be answered the course chosen. It may be that this time has come to you in the reading of these lines. Are you ready to answer it, and to make the decision? Remember the question. It is this: 'Mastery or Servitude Which?'"

This book includes the full original text meticulously re-typeset and designed.

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1913

79 people are currently reading
323 people want to read

About the author

William Walker Atkinson

2,505 books399 followers
Pseudonyms: Theron Q. Dumont, Yogi Ramacharaka, Swami Bhakta Vishita & Swami Panchadasi

William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1932) was an attorney, merchant, publisher, and author, as well as an occultist and an American pioneer of the New Thought movement. He is also known to have been the author of the pseudonymous works attributed to Theron Q. Dumont, Swami Panchadasi and Yogi Ramacharaka and others.

Due in part to Atkinson's intense personal secrecy and extensive use of pseudonyms, he is now largely forgotten, despite having obtained mention in past editions of Who's Who in America, Religious Leaders of America, and several similar publications—and having written more than 100 books in the last 30 years of his life. His works have remained in print more or less continuously since 1900.

William Walker Atkinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1862, to William and Emma Atkinson. He began his working life as a grocer at 15 years old, probably helping his father. He married Margret Foster Black of Beverly, New Jersey, in October 1889, and they had two children. The first probably died young. The second later married and had two daughters.

Atkinson pursued a business career from 1882 onwards and in 1894 he was admitted as an attorney to the Bar of Pennsylvania. While he gained much material success in his profession as a lawyer, the stress and over-strain eventually took its toll, and during this time he experienced a complete physical and mental breakdown, and financial disaster. He looked for healing and in the late 1880s he found it with New Thought, later attributing the restoration of his health, mental vigor and material prosperity to the application of the principles of New Thought.

Some time after his healing, Atkinson began to write articles on the truths he felt he had discovered, which were then known as Mental Science. In 1889, an article by him entitled "A Mental Science Catechism," appeared in Charles Fillmore's new periodical, Modern Thought.

By the early 1890s Chicago had become a major centre for New Thought, mainly through the work of Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Atkinson decided to move there. Once in the city, he became an active promoter of the movement as an editor and author. He was responsible for publishing the magazines Suggestion (1900–1901), New Thought (1901–1905) and Advanced Thought (1906–1916).

In 1900 Atkinson worked as an associate editor of Suggestion, a New Thought Journal, and wrote his probable first book, Thought-Force in Business and Everyday Life, being a series of lessons in personal magnetism, psychic influence, thought-force, concentration, will-power, and practical mental science.

He then met Sydney Flower, a well-known New Thought publisher and businessman, and teamed up with him. In December, 1901 he assumed editorship of Flower's popular New Thought magazine, a post which he held until 1905. During these years he built for himself an enduring place in the hearts of its readers. Article after article flowed from his pen. Meanwhile he also founded his own Psychic Club and the so-called "Atkinson School of Mental Science". Both were located in the same building as Flower's Psychic Research and New Thought Publishing Company.

Atkinson was a past president of the International New Thought Alliance.

Throughout his subsequent career, Atkinson wrote and published under his own name and many pseudonyms. It is not known whether he ever acknowledged authorship of these pseudonymous works, but all of the supposedly independent authors whose writings are now credited to Atkinson were linked to one another by virtue of the fact that their works were released by a series of publishing houses with shared addresses and they also wrote for a series of magazines with a shared roster of authors. Atkinson was the editor of a

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
41 (51%)
4 stars
22 (27%)
3 stars
11 (13%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
6 (7%)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Kendrick Smith.
32 reviews1 follower
March 8, 2014
Master Mind by Theron Dumont is a phenomenal work that explains that life is about filling/playing one of two roles, master or slave. A master is one who creates his circumstances. Everyone has at one point or another been a subject of circumstance. However, a slave is one who is the continual victim of circumstances or continually being subjected to external impressions. Master Mind explains how the being of man is represented by a chariot and his Real Self represents the rein, the will: the steeds, the mental states of feeling, emotion, desire, imagination, and the rest. Unless the reigns be strong, they will not be sufficient to control the horses. Unless the charioteer be trained and vigilant, the horses will run away with the chariot and dash to pieces the driver in the general wreck. But controlled and mastered, the fiery steeds will lead forward to attainment and accomplishment, and at the same time will travel the road in safety. Master Mind reiterates and teaches the importance of mastering ones feelings, emotions, desires, thoughts, and most importantly the will. It explains the difference between voluntary and involuntary action. It also discusses the importance of attention and perception. The real question that it all boils down to is mastery or servitude, and if this is what you're currently asking yourself, then this is definitely the book for you. Man must be either the anvil or the hammer. Let each make his choice, and then complain not. Master Mind will definitely cause you to reevaluate all the activities that you face in your life and you how address/perform them. Thus said, if you are a hammer strike your fill, and if you are an anvil stand you still!
Profile Image for Jason Wicky Ong.
344 reviews5 followers
Want to read
January 26, 2021
I skimmed through the book. It was written more than 100 years ago. The texts were quite profound but not so engaging.

Some notes:
be aware
observe fish, big and small parts
mindmap
association, active recollection
imagination and its misuse
Pos Respect
Profile Image for Kendrick Smith.
32 reviews1 follower
February 8, 2016
Master Mind by Theron Dumont is a phenomenal work that explains that life is about filling/playing one of two roles, master or slave. A master is one who creates his circumstances. Everyone has at one point or another been a subject of circumstance. However, a slave is one who is the continual victim of circumstances or continually being subjected to external impressions. Master Mind explains how the being of man is represented by a chariot and his Real Self represents the rein, the will: the steeds, the mental states of feeling, emotion, desire, imagination, and the rest. Unless the reigns be strong, they will not be sufficient to control the horses. Unless the charioteer be trained and vigilant, the horses will run away with the chariot and dash to pieces the driver in the general wreck. But controlled and mastered, the fiery steeds will lead forward to attainment and accomplishment, and at the same time will travel the road in safety. Master Mind reiterates and teaches the importance of mastering ones feelings, emotions, desires, thoughts, and most importantly the will. It explains the difference between voluntary and involuntary action. It also discusses the importance of attention and perception. The real question that it all boils down to is mastery or servitude, and if this is what you're currently asking yourself, then this is definitely the book for you. Man must be either the anvil or the hammer. Let each make his choice, and then complain not. Master Mind will definitely cause you to reevaluate all the activities that you face in your life and how you address/perform them. Thus said, if you are a hammer strike your fill, and if you are an anvil stand you still!
Profile Image for Jason Wicky Ong.
344 reviews5 followers
January 25, 2021
I skimmed through the book. It was written more than 100 years ago. The texts were quite profound but not so engaging.

Some notes:
be aware
obse fish, small parts
mindmap
association, active recollection
imagination and its misuse
Pos Respect
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.