Outwitting the Devil®: The Secret to Freedom and Success (Official Publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation)

by Napoleon Hill

“The world is in need of a practical, understandable philosophy of achievement, organized from the factual knowledge gained from the experience of men and women in the great university of life. In the entire field of philosophy I find nothing which even remotely resembles the sort of philosophy which I have in mind. We have few philosophers who are capable of teaching men and women the art of living. “It seems to me that here is an opportunity which should challenge an ambitious young man of your type; but ambition alone is not enough for this task which I have suggested. The one who undertakes it must have courage and tenacity. “The job will require at least twenty years of continuous effort, during which the one who undertakes it will have to earn his living from some other source, because this sort of research is never profitable at the outset, and generally those who have contributed to civilization through work of this nature have had to wait a hundred years or so after their own funerals to receive recognition for their labor.”

“My experience has taught me that a man is never quite so near success as when that which he calls ‘failure’ has overtaken him, for it is on occasions of this sort that he is forced to think. If he thinks accurately, and with persistence, he discovers that so-called failure usually is nothing more than a signal to re-arm himself with a new plan or purpose. Most real failures are due to limitations which men set up in their own minds. If they had the courage to go one step further, they would discover their error.”

I began to walk, and had gone seven or eight miles when I felt myself brought suddenly to a standstill. For several minutes I stood there as if I had been glued to my tracks. Everything around me went dark. I could hear the loud sound of some form of energy which was vibrating at a very high rate. Then my nerves became quiet, my muscles relaxed, and a great calmness came over me. The atmosphere began to clear, and as it did so, I received a command from within which came in the form of a thought, as near as I can describe it. The command was so clear and distinct that I could not misunderstand it. In substance it said, “The time has come for you to complete the philosophy of achievement which you began at Carnegie’s suggestion. Go back home at once and begin transferring the data you have gathered from your own mind to written manuscripts.” My “other self” had awakened.

“Your mission in life is to complete the world’s first philosophy of individual achievement. You have been trying in vain to escape your task, each effort having brought you failure. You are seeking happiness. Learn this lesson, once and forever, that you will find happiness only by helping others to find it! You have been a stubborn student. You had to be cured of your stubbornness through disappointment. Within a few years from now the whole world will start through an experience which will place millions of people in need of the philosophy which you have been directed to complete. Your big opportunity to find happiness by rendering useful service will have come. Go to work, and do not stop until you have completed and published the manuscripts which you have begun.”

Hill is paraphrasing from the poem “Invictus,” published in 1888 by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

For nearly half an hour this “other self” gave orders which I followed to the letter during the subsequent period of my stay in Philadelphia. The instructions were given through the medium of thoughts which presented themselves in my mind with such force that they were readily distinguishable from my ordinary self-created thoughts.

My instructions began in this fashion: “You are now completely in charge of your ‘other self.’ You are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body, as in fact two similar entities occupy the body of each living person on earth. “One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear. The other is motivated by and responds to the impulse of faith. For more than a year you have been driven, like a slave, by the fear entity. “Night before last the faith entity gained control over your physical body, and you are now motivated by that entity. For the sake of convenience you may call this faith entity your ‘other self.’ It knows no limitations, has no fears, and recognizes no such word as ‘impossible.’ “You were directed to select this environment of luxury, in a good hotel, as a means of discouraging the return to power of the fear entity. That fear-motivated ‘old self’ is not dead; it has merely been dethroned. And it will follow you around wherever you go, awaiting a favorable opportunity to step in and take charge of you again. It can gain control of you only through your thoughts. Remember this, and keep the doors to your mind tightly closed against all thoughts which seek to limit you in any manner whatsoever, and you will be safe.

“Now, let us get down to business. First of all you should know that the faith entity now in charge of your body performs no miracles, nor does it work in opposition to any of nature’s laws. As long as it is in charge of your body it will guide you when you call on it, through impulses of thought which it will place in your mind, in carrying out your plans through the most logical and convenient natural media available. “Above everything else, get this fact clearly fixed in your mind, that your ‘other self’ will not do your work for you; it will only guide you intelligently in achieving for yourself the objects of your desires.

“That will be all for the present. You will now begin to move of your own free will, precisely as you did before you discovered your ‘other self.’ Physically you are the same as you have always been; therefore, no one will recognize that any change has taken place in you.”

The time which I spent in seclusion in West Virginia was, by great odds, the most severe punishment of my life, but the experience brought blessings in the form of needed knowledge which more than offset the suffering which it cost me. These two results—the suffering and the knowledge gained from it—were inevitable. The law of compensation, which Emerson so clearly defined, made this result both natural and necessary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) explained the law of compensation in very clear terms: “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” In his journal dated January 8, 1826, he also wrote, “The whole of what we know is a system of compensations. Every defect in one manner is made up in another. Every suffering is rewarded; every sacrifice is made up; every debt is paid.”

Since becoming better acquainted with my “other self,” my way of praying is different from what it was before. I used to go to prayer only when facing difficulty. Now I go to prayer before difficulty overtakes me, when possible. I now pray, not for more of this world’s goods and greater blessings, but to be worthy of that which I already have. I find that this plan is better than the old one.

Everyone is capable of “wishing” for financial, material, or spiritual advantages, but the element of faith is the only sure power by which a wish may be translated into a belief, and a belief into reality.

And right here is an appropriate place at which to call attention to a real benefit which anyone may experience by deliberately using faith in focusing attention upon any form of constructive desire. The mind acts upon one’s dominating, or most pronounced desires. There is no escape from this fact. It is a fact indeed. “Be careful what you set your heart upon, for it surely shall be yours.”

The state of mind known as faith apparently opens to one the medium of a sixth sense through which one may communicate with sources of power and information far surpassing any available through the five physical senses. There comes to your aid, and to do your bidding, with the development of the sixth sense, a strange power which, let us assume, is a guardian angel who can open to you at all times the door to the Temple of Wisdom. The “sixth sense” comes as near to being a miracle as anything I have ever experienced, and it appears so perhaps because I do not understand the method by which this principle is operated.

In the book Three Feet from Gold my co-author and I discuss the Personal Success Equation that clearly reveals the importance of faith: ((P + T) x A x A) + F = Your Personal Success Equation Combining your Passion with your Talent and then seeking the right Association and taking the right Action are very important components for Success . . . but it is when you combine all those components with a strong Faith in yourself and your mission that you truly have Your Personal Success Equation.

Despite the fact I had understood the power of the Master Mind, I had neglected to appropriate and use this power. I had been laboring as a “lone wolf” instead of allying myself with other and superior minds.

Q That is a fine idea, Your Majesty. Start by telling me where you live. Then describe your physical appearance. A My physical appearance? Why, my dear Mr. Earthbound, I have no physical body. I would be handicapped by such an encumbrance as those in which you earthbound creatures live. I consist of negative energy, and I live in the minds of people who fear me. I also occupy one-half of every atom of physical matter and every unit of mental and physical energy. Perhaps you will better understand my nature if I tell you I am the negative portion of the atom.

Q You must have many tricks and devices by which you gain and hold control of the human mind. A To be sure, I employ tricks and devices to control human thought. My devices are clever ones too.

Go ahead and describe your clever tricks, Your Majesty. A One of my cleverest devices for mind control is fear. I plant the seed of fear in the minds of people, and as these seeds germinate and grow, through use, I control the space they occupy. The six most effective fears are the fear of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, and death.

Q Which of these six fears serves you most often, Your Majesty? A The first and the last-poverty and death! At one time or another during life I tighten my grip on all people through one or both of these. I plant these fears in the minds of people so deftly that they believe them to be their own creation. I accomplish this end by making people believe I am standing just beyond the entrance gate of the next life, waiting to claim them after death for eternal punishment. Of course I cannot punish anyone, except in that person’s own mind, through some form of fear-but fear of the thing which does not exist is just as useful to me as fear of that which does exist. All forms of fear extend the space I occupy in the human mind.

Q Your Majesty, will you explain how you gained this control over human beings? A The story is too long to be told in a few words. It began over a million years ago, when the first man began to think. Up to that time I had control over all mankind, but enemies of mine discovered the power of positive thought, placed it in the minds of men, and then began a battle on my part to remain in control. So far, I have done quite well by myself, having lost only 2 percent of the people to the opposition.

Tell me something more about the world in which you live. A I live wherever I choose. Time and space do not exist for me. I am a force best described to you as energy. My favorite physical dwelling place, as I have told you, is the minds of the earthbound. I control a part of the brain space of every human being. The amount of space I occupy in each individual’s mind depends upon how little and what sort of thinking that person does. As I have told you, I cannot entirely control any person who thinks.

Q Where did you acquire your power, and by what means do you add to it? A I add to my power by appropriating the mind-power of the earthbound, as they come through the gate at the time of death. Ninety-eight out of every 100 who come back to my plane from the earth plane are taken over by me and their mind-power is added to my being. I get all who come over with any form of fear. You see I am constantly at work, preparing the minds of people before death, so I can appropriate them when they come back to my plane.

Q Will you tell me how you go about your job of preparing human minds so you can control them? A I have countless ways of gaining control of human minds while they are still on the earth plane. My greatest weapon is poverty. I deliberately discourage people from accumulating material wealth because poverty discourages men from thinking and makes them easy prey for me. My next best friend is ill health. An unhealthy body discourages thinking. Then I have countless thousands of workers on earth who aid me in gaining control of human minds. I have these agents placed in every calling. They represent every race and creed, every religion.

Q Who are your greatest enemies on earth, Your Majesty? A All who inspire people to think and act on their own initiative are my enemies. Such men as Socrates, Confucius, Voltaire, Emerson, Thomas Paine, and Abraham Lincoln. And you are not doing me any good either.

Q You say you have corrupted the minds of the young people with liquor and cigarettes. I can understand how liquor might destroy the power of independent thought but do not see what cigarettes have to do with helping your cause. A You may not know it, but cigarettes break down the power of persistence; they destroy the power of endurance; they destroy the ability to concentrate; they deaden and undermine the imaginative faculty, and help in other ways to keep people from using their minds most effectively. Do you know I have millions of people, young and old, of both sexes, who smoke two packages of cigarettes a day? That means I have millions of people who are gradually destroying their power of resistance. One day I shall add to their habit of cigarette smoking other thought-destroying habits, until I shall have gained control of their minds. Habits come in pairs, triplets, and quadruplets. Any habit which weakens one’s will power invites a flock of its relatives to move in and take possession of the mind. The cigarette habit not only lowers the power of resistance and discourages persistence, but it invites looseness in other human relationships.

Q Your Majesty will please pardon my rudeness, but I would not be able to look myself in the face again if I did not tell you, here and now, that you are the damnedest fiend ever to be turned loose on innocent people. I always had the wrong conception of you. I thought you were kind enough to let people alone while they were living, that you merely tortured their souls after death. Now I learn, from your own brazen confession, that you destroy their right to freedom of thought and cause them to go through a living hell on earth. What do you have to say to that? A I get what I want by exercising self-control. It is not so good for my own business, but I suggest you emulate me instead of criticizing me. You call yourself a thinker, and you are. Otherwise you would never have forced this interview on me. But you will never be the sort of thinker that frightens me unless you gain and exercise greater control over your own emotions.

Q Let us get away from personalities. I came here to learn more about you, not to discuss myself. Please go ahead and tell me of the many tricks you have devised for gaining control of the human mind. What is your most powerful weapon just now? A That is a difficult question to answer. I have so many devices for entering human minds and controlling them that it is difficult to say which are the most powerful. Right at the moment I am trying to bring about another world war. My friends here in Washington are helping me to involve America in the war. If I can start the world to killing on a wholesale basis, I shall be able to put into operation my favorite device for mind control. It is what you may call mass fear. I used this device to bring about the other World War in 1914. I used it to bring about the economic depression in 1929, and if my opposition had not double-crossed me I would now be in possession of every man, woman, and child in the world. You can see for yourself how near I came to world domination—the thing I have been struggling to attain for thousands of years.

Q Yes, I see your point. Who wouldn’t? You are a very ingenious manipulator of the minds of people. Is your devilish business carried on only through people of high position and great influence? A Oh, no! I use the minds of people in all walks of life. As a matter of fact, I prefer the type of person who makes no pretense of thinking; I can manipulate that sort of person without difficulty. I could not control 98 percent of the people of the world if all people were skilled in thinking for themselves.

My greatest weapon over human beings consists of two secret principles by which I gain control of their minds. I will speak first of the principle of habit, through which I silently enter the minds of people. By operating through this principle, I establish (I wish I could avoid using this word) the habit of drifting. When a person begins to drift on any subject, he is headed straight toward the gates of what you earthbound call hell.

A I can best define the word “drift” by saying that people who think for themselves never drift, while those who do little or no thinking for themselves are drifters. A drifter is one who permits himself to be influenced and controlled by circumstances outside of his own mind. He would rather let me occupy his mind and do his thinking than go to the trouble of thinking for himself. A drifter is one who accepts whatever life throws in his way without making a protest or putting up a fight. He doesn’t know what he wants from life and spends all of his time getting just that. A drifter has lots of opinions, but they are not his own. Most of them are supplied by me. A drifter is one who is too lazy mentally to use his own brain. That is the reason I can take control of people’s thinking and plant my own ideas in their minds.

Q Yes. Go on and describe these two doors by which you enter and control the minds of human beings. A As I have stated, I help to bring people into your world with weak brains by giving to them, before birth, as many as possible of the weaknesses of their ancestors. You call this principle “physical heredity.” After people are born I make use of what you earthbound call “environment” as a means of controlling them. This is where the principle of habit enters. The mind is nothing more than the sum total of one’s habits! One by one I enter the mind and establish habits, which lead finally to my absolute domination of the mind.

Q I am catching on to your methods. Now let us go back to the habit of drifting. Tell us all about that habit since you say it is your cleverest trick in controlling the minds of people. A As I said before, I start people drifting during their youth. I induce them to drift through school without knowing what occupation they wish to follow in life. Here I catch the majority of people. Habits are related. Drift in one direction and soon you will be drifting in all directions. I also use environmental habits to give me a definite grip on my victims.

Q Never mind about me. Tell me all about this second best trick of yours with which you induce people to drift with you to hell. A My second best trick is not second at all. It is first! It is first because without it I never could gain control of the minds of the youths. Parents, schoolteachers, religious instructors, and many other adults unknowingly serve my purpose by helping me to destroy in children the habit of thinking for themselves. They go about their work in various ways, never suspecting what they are doing to the minds of children or the real cause of the children’s mistakes.

Q I can hardly believe you, Your Majesty. I have always believed that children’s best friends were those closest to them, their parents, their school teachers, and their religious instructors. Where would children go for dependable guidance if not to those who have charge of them? A That is where my cleverness comes in. There is the exact explanation of how I control 98 percent of the people of the world. I take possession of people during their youth, before they come into possession of their own minds, by using those who are in charge of them. I especially need the help of those who give children their religious instruction, because it is here that I break down independent thought and start people on the habit of drifting, by confusing their minds with unprovable ideas concerning a world of which they know nothing. It is here also that I plant in the minds of children the greatest of all fears—the fear of hell!

Q I understand your devilish nature! Now let us get back to further discussion of your methods of inducing people to drift to hell here on earth. From your confession I see that you take charge of children while their minds are young and pliable. Tell me more of how you use parents, teachers, and religious leaders to ensnare people into drifting. A One of my favorite tricks is to coordinate the efforts of parents and religious instructors so they work together in helping me to destroy the children’s power to think for themselves. I use many religious instructors to undermine the courage and power of independent thought of children, by teaching them to fear me; but I use parents to aid the religious leaders in this great work of mine.

Q It seems that you go out of your way to keep people from thinking? A Yes. Accurate thought is death to me. I cannot exist in the minds of those who think accurately. I do not mind people thinking as long as they think in terms of fear, discouragement, hopelessness, and destructiveness. When they begin to think in constructive terms of faith, courage, hope, and definiteness of purpose, they immediately become allies of my opposition and are therefore lost to me.

Q I was under the impression that the purpose of all schooling was to help children to think. A That may be the purpose of schooling, but the system in most of the schools of the world does not carry out the purpose. School children are taught not to develop and use their own minds, but to adopt and use the thoughts of others. This sort of schooling destroys the capacity for independent thought, except in a few rare cases where children rely so definitely upon their own will power that they refuse to allow others to do their thinking. Accurate thought is the business of my opposition, not mine!

Q Do I understand you to claim your method is so powerful your opposition cannot reclaim those whom you have permanently ensnared through drifting? A I claim just that! Do you think I would control so many people if my opposition could prevent me? Nothing can stop me from controlling people except people themselves. Nothing can stop me except the power of accurate thought. People who think accurately do not drift on any subject. They recognize the power of their own minds. Moreover, they take over that power and yield it to no person or influence.

Q Go ahead and tell me more of the methods by which you cause people to drift to hell with you! A I cause people to drift on every subject through which I can control independent thought and action. Take the subject of health, for example. I cause most people to eat too much food and the wrong sort of food. This leads to indigestion and destroys the power of accurate thought. If the public schools and the churches taught children more about proper eating, they would do my cause irreparable damage. Marriage: I cause men and women to drift into marriage without plan or purpose designed to convert the relationship into harmony. Here is one of my most effective methods of converting people into the habit of drifting. I cause married people to bicker and nag one another over money matters. I cause them to quarrel over the bringing up of their children. I engage them in unpleasant controversies over their intimate relationships and in disagreements over friends and social activities. I keep them so busy finding fault with one another that they never have time to do anything else long enough to break the habit of drifting. Occupation: I teach people to become drifters by causing them to drift out of school into the first job they can find, with no definite aim or purpose except to make a living. Through this trick I keep millions of people in fear of poverty all their lives. Through this fear I lead them slowly but surely onward until they reach the point beyond which no individu...

Laziness + Indifference = Procrastination = Drifting.

A Yes. All other creatures move in response to definite laws of nature. Man alone defies nature’s laws and drifts when he wills. Everything outside the minds of men is controlled by my opposition, by laws so definite that drifting is impossible. I control the minds of men solely because of their habit of drifting, which is only another way of saying that I control the minds of men only because they neglect or refuse to control and use their own minds.

Q Am I to understand from what you say that nations controlled by self-appointed dictators belong in your camp? A There are no self-appointed dictators. I appoint them all. Moreover, I manipulate them and direct them in their work. Nations run by my dictators know what they want and take it by force. Look what I have done through Mussolini in Italy! Look what I am doing through Hitler in Germany. Look what I am doing through Stalin in Russia. My dictators run those nations for me because the people have been subdued through the habit of drifting. My dictators do no drifting. That is why they rule for me the millions of people under their control.

Q Let us come back to the United States and learn something of what you are doing to convert people into the habit of drifting. A Right now I am paving the way for a dictatorship by sowing the seeds of fear and uncertainty in the minds of the people.

Q Through whom are you carrying on your work? A Mainly through the President. I am destroying his influence with the people by causing him to drift on the question of a working agreement between employers and their employees. If I can induce him to drift for another year, he will be so thoroughly discredited I can hand over the country to a dictator. If the President continues to drift, I will paralyze personal freedom in the United States just as I destroyed it in Spain, Italy, Germany, and England.

Q Go ahead and describe a typical drifter. Give your description point by point so I can recognize a drifter when I see him. A The first thing you will notice about a drifter is his total lack of a major purpose in life. He will be conspicuous by his lack of self-confidence. He will never accomplish anything requiring thought and effort. He spends all he earns and more too, if he can get credit. He will be sick or ailing from some real or imaginary cause, and calling to high heaven if he suffers the least physical pain. He will have little or no imagination. He will lack enthusiasm and initiative to begin anything he is not forced to undertake, and he will plainly express his weakness by taking the line of least resistance whenever he can do so. He will be ill-tempered and lacking in control over his emotions. His personality will be without magnetism and it will not attract other people. He will have opinions on everything but accurate knowledge of nothing. He may be jack of all trades but good at none. He will neglect to cooperate with those around him, even those on whom he must depend for food and shelter. He will make the same mistake over and over again, never profiting by failure. He will be narrow-minded and intolerant on all subjects, ready to crucify those who may disagree with him. He will expect everything of others but be willing to give little or nothing in return. He may begin many things but he will complete nothing. He will be loud in his condemnation of h...

Q You have given me a graphic description of the drifter. Please now describe the non-drifter so that I may recognize him on sight. A The first sign of a non-drifter is this: He is always engaged in doing something definite, through some well-organized plan which is definite. He has a major goal in life toward which he is always working, and many minor goals, all of which lead toward his central scheme. The tone of his voice, the quickness of his step, the sparkle in his eyes, the quickness of his decisions clearly mark him as a person who knows exactly what he wants and is determined to get it, no matter how long it may take or what price he must pay. If you ask him questions, he gives you direct answers and never falls back on evasions or resorts to subterfuge. He extends many favors to others, but accepts favors sparingly or not at all. He will be found up front whether he is playing a game or fighting a war. If he does not know the answers he will say so frankly. He has a good memory; never offers an alibi for his shortcomings. He never blames others for his mistakes no matter if they deserve the blame. He used to be known as a go-getter, but in modern times he is called a go-giver. You will find him running the biggest business in town, living on the best street, driving the best automobile, and making his presence felt wherever he happens to be. He is an inspiration to all who come into contact with his mind. The major distinguishing feature of the non-drifter is thi...

Q What brief message would you send to the typical drifter if you wished to cure him of this evil habit? A I would admonish him to wake up and give! Q Give what? A Some form of service useful to as many people as possible.

Q So the non-drifter is supposed to give, is he? A Yes, if he expects to get! And he must give before he gets!