Life, 1911-06-08 · page 40 of 44
Life — June 8, 1911 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical attack on the "New Thought" movement, a late 19th/early 20th-century pseudo-spiritual trend claiming thoughts could physically reshape reality through "vibrations" and mental concentration. The article mockingly describes a fictional "Mental Life" subscription service (15 "mental dollars") promising subscribers would reach higher spiritual planes by concentrating on a character named "Gee Ime Mit" (likely a satirical name). The joke is the absurdity: the service claims wealthy industrialists like Carnegie and Morgan will suddenly become generous, politicians will write shorter messages, and divorce rates will plummet—all through mere thought transmission. The cartoons illustrate the ridiculousness: one shows a figure with a rooster (representing dawn/new era), another depicts "Pump's frozen, I guess"—mocking the movement's grandiose but nebulous claims. **The satire targets**: credulous wealthy Americans embracing pseudo-science, the movement's vague jargon ("subliminal self," "harmonic planes"), and its promise of effortless transformation—just wish hard enough.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE: ental Era Dawnin VIBRATORY SOURCES OF JOY, THROUGH THE MENTAL LIFE, GRADUALLY ALL. T is highly amusing to us to have people comment on the fact that the world is suddenly getting so much better. We knew all this so long ago that it is an old story with us. The coarse physical world is the very last to feel the effect of any movement. You think a thought first. It is vibrated outward. By and by it begins to be imanifested in the physical world. Then everybody (in that wo-ld) exclaims, “Here's something new!" Months ago the Mental Life had a restricted circulation of fifteen millions, which of course kept the number of those who were capable of entering into the joy life down to a narrow circle. This was due to the fact that we would not get any com- petent yogis. Why, some of the yi who applied for a position in our thought department didn’t have imaginary brains cnough to milk a mental reindeer. Gee Ime Mit had to work overtime himself, recording vibrations, But suddenly we discovered that we could increase the efficiency of this department wonderfully by searching for yogis in unexpected places. We picked up nearly a dozen of them in one week at Jamaica Plains, This led us to have a recording capacity that was practi- cally unlimited. We then threw open the subscription list, so that every- body could come in who wanted to, by subscribing fifteen mental dollars, All you had to do was to concentrate on Gee Ime Mit, and will the fifteen to go to him, and in a short time you began to receive the Mental Life. ‘This Mental Life, acting upon your subliminal self, put you at once on the first harmonic plane. Little by little you be came aware of your subliminal sclf—and the rest was eas’ Many of our subscribers are now enjoying the wonders of Prana, who, only a short year ago, were leading brainless lives sitting in clubs or automobiles. In the meantime, the effect of all this was indescribable. Carnegie began to give away his money recklessly. Mr. Morgan developed a con- science. Other things will come naturally and easily as soon as all the forces begin to work together. No noblemen will marry American girls. Reno will de- cline and fall. The Pump's frea0sN I guess. \ DEEPENING FOR Custom-House officers will vibrate only joy thoughts to all. Presidential messages will be cut down to six hundred words, or about the same number as the creation of the world was told in. After-dit silence. Hamilton Mabie will stop v cs’ Home Journal. The Century Magazine will no longer publish a humorous de- partment. In short, all the wrongs will be righted, and the world will enter into its own, Before this happens, however, there are a few more sub- scribers to come in yet, and we urge them to do this as early as possible. At present we are employing special agents, who do noth- ing but sit at home and vibrate invitations to subscribe to the Mental Life. Progress is necessarily slow, however, for the reason that everyone who subscribes must do so voluntarily. Then, again, we can only influence the sub- liminal self, and to those who are only on the plane of the coarse physical life, of course, no knowledge of their subliminal self is possible. The bright side is, however, that it takes so little effort to subscribe, An idle wish, an instant’s concentration, will often do the business; if not at once, it generally leads to another impulse, which comes later in greater strength, We are now looking for young, handsome and vivacious clairvoyants who are capable of leading a double life—we mean that they can go into a trance when necessary and yet who can also force themselves to enjoy some of the material things. We expect in this way through them to lead many into the first harmonic plane. We have just advanced ouradver- tising rates to three hundred dollars a page. Copy in- serted at any mo- ment. Borrow a million at once and take space. It will pay you to do it. No security re- quired. We lendany amount tothose who tariff will vanish, have subscribed. comicbooks.com