Part I—"The Soul of Pelmanism"

The newly enrolled student is at the outset invited to become acquainted with the soul of Pelmanism. He learns the Pelman attitude to life, especially in relation to thought and action. He is made to feel the need of being born again. And, in consequence, he develops an eager desire for an early entrance into the kingdom of the mind.  The inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the untrained mind will then give place to a thoroughly Pelmanized brain.

You will not be the same man or woman to-morrow that you are to-day. That, indeed, is about the only thing certain concerning the ever-changing entity, You. You will be different. And upon the accumulation of 365 such minute differences will depend what you will be this time next year.

Part II—Your Purpose in Life: How to Achieve It

People who succeed in Business, Trade, the Professions, Art, Literature, Scholarship, Public Life—are people who work on right lines. They know what they want, they want it intensely, and they know how to get it. Furthermore, they are always pressing forward towards the particular goal of their ambitions. To succeed in life you must have a definite aim.

You must cut out the habit of drifting. The dreamer who is always dreaming and never "doing" will drift into a backwater and become a failure. How to decide upon a definite object and how to follow the most direct course to your goal is shown. It enables you to feel that you are making progress every day.

Part III—The Will to Conquer: By Effort and Auto-Suggestion

There is a great deal of erroneous teaching on the subject of Will Power. The part of the Pelman Course—based on over forty years’ experience—gives the right teaching. After mastering Part III you feel you can never turn back. Doubts and forebodings disappear.

This part shows you how to develop the Strong Will that drives through all obstacles, and overcomes all difficulties. It shows you how you can control yourself and how to utilize the power of Auto- Suggestion for your own personal development.

Part IV—Concentration and Mental Control: The Remedy for Mind-Wandering

Can you focus your attention on any subject whenever you like, for as long as you like and in spite of surrounding distractions? If not, this part of the Course will show you how to develop that most important faculty. It shows you how to cure yourself of that habit of mind- wandering which wastes so much time, and endangers the success of so many important enterprises.

Thus it enables you to work more quickly and to do better work than those who have never received this valuable training. And it also enables you to solve difficult problems and to act promptly at a critical moment.

Part V—The Science & Art of Self-Realization

Your powers, your talents especially, your hopes and fears, your mistakes, your good fortune—anything that concerns yourself is of high interest to you. It could not be otherwise. Part V is an effort to put you into communication with your true self, also to show you how that self can be more fully realized; for this realization is success in its best form.

Happiness can come in no other way; for if the inward self is dis- contented because its desires for mental and spiritual power have been denied, the more accumulation of material things affords no permanent satisfaction. All this lies behind the counsel given in Part V.

Part VI—Your Subconscious Life

Our minds are like icebergs, which show only a small portion of their mass above the water’s level. The great bulk is below—out of sight. Our consciousness is but a part of our mental life. Deep down is the life which we call Subconscious or Unconscious, and its immense importance is now realized.

It affects your ideas, your attitude to the world, your income, and your happiness—as this part of the Course shows you in a most fascinating and interesting way.

Part VII—Driving Out The Inferiority Complex

The term Inferiority Complex is not always correctly understood; it is confused with a feeling of inferiority due to the individual’s bodily defects, or to comparison and contrast with the abilities, the status, and the resources of other people. But the unhappy results of the feeling inside, in its subtle forms, are never in doubt.

The function of Part VII is to assist in self-interpretation, and then to resolve the inner conflict; for until the inner life is working as a unity, happiness is greatly hindered and normal progress is hardly possible. Cases are quoted; some briefly, others at length; so as to render the subject easy of comprehension.

The student is shown how to sublimate such inferiority feelings as may possess him permanently or occasionally; the fears, humiliations, and other distresses which haunt him are abolished by the incoming of another feeling to which the weaker feelings are bound to give place.

Part VIII—Self-Expression and Personality: The Road to Popularity

Everybody desires to possess Personality. It is an invaluable possession in every walk of life. Essentially, personality is self- realization in the best sense of the term, and in Part VIII you are given the latest and best treatment of the subject. You are shown how to realize yourself in a rational manner.

This part of the Course brings out the unconscious element in character, both mental and moral, and goes a long way to solve the secret of Popularity. An attractive Personality has powers, both financial and social, which know no standard of measurement.

Its possession in business frequently means the difference between the success and the failure of important negotiations. This part of the Course shows you how to develop that self-confidence which wins the confidence of others. It dissipates the miasma of self-distrust; that self-distrust of an irrational kind which so often manifests itself in tongue-tiedness, tremor, stuttering, forgetfulness at critical moments.

Pelmanism makes your mind Positive instead of Negative so that your personality enables you to win the prize where others have received only rebuffs. People will say, "There’s a man who is bound to succeed," and this very belief, which you unconsciously inspire in others, helps you to advance far more quickly than you would do if you relied solely upon your unaided efforts.

Some people succeed almost exclusively through intellectual ability and technical equipment. But if they possessed Personality as well they could secure even greater triumphs.

Part IX—Good Judgment in Business and Affairs

It is astonishing to discover the small place given to judgment in the list of qualities for success in executive positions, or in general affairs. One would have thought that so important an ability could not be denied a place near the head of the list. Yet its position is still inconspicuous, and for no ascertainable reason. The Pelman Course remedies this defect by gathering together in separate teachings into this lesson—Part IX.

Obviously a man of good judgment who knows how to decide an issue, and when to act, is vastly superior to the man who hesitates because he cannot make up his mind, and who fails to act because he does not know how.

There are authorities who believe that good judgment cannot be communicated from one person to another. In a sense this is true. In another it is false. Good judgment has its facts, its conditions, and its history; and these can be studied scientifically with such effect that the willing learner may acquire the art of developing his own powers in that direction. Part IX is Pelmanism’s contribution to this educative process.

Part X—The Scientific Method: or How to Handle Your Facts

The Art of Thinking is not one process, but the outcome of many. It calls for a knowledge of Facts and demands the study of words and their uses. This part of the Course shows you how to fix upon your facts, how to classify them, and how to reason from them and reach the right conclusions.

As a consequence, it greatly improves your Judgment. Follow care- fully Part X, and others will look upon you as "level-headed"; one whose advise and judgment is sought, respected, and followed.

Part XI—The Money Brain: An Enquiry Into Its Qualities

The seeming magic with which some men have made money has always aroused curiosity as to the nature and origin of this ability—if ability it is; for critics are not wanting who declare that the conjuncture of events is mainly responsible for the accumulation of wealth in notable instances.

On the other hand, there is evidence which more than suggests the presence of a definite financial and commercial aptitude. In Part XI this question is discussed as far as the limits will allow; and you will be glad of the opportunity to compare your own mental qualities with the list enumerated as belonging to the Money Brain. You will also be interested in ways and means of developing these qualities.

Part XII—Creating New Ideas—Studies in Imagination and Originality

Originality is the great need of the day, and it is power that can be nurtured. This part of the Course shows you how to cultivate it. It shows you how to originate valuable ideas—ideas for improving your business, for advancing in your profession, and for literary or social purposes. Many Pelmanists say that the worth of the "ideas" that have come to them as a result of working through Part XII has repaid the cost of the Course over and over again.

Part XIII—The World of People and Things: How to Know Them

The training of the senses plays an important part in the development of Efficiency and of Culture. It is through the eye and ear, for example, that we obtain most of the knowledge we possess, and a poor memory is frequently the result of imperfectly trained senses. There is an "eye" memory and there is an "ear" memory, and both should be trained.

Lack of observation leads to inefficiency, and trained senses are essential if one is to lead a full and successful life. To concentrate upon the book of nature, and the great works of the sculptor, the author, and the composer, broadens and enriches the mind.  This part of the Course shows you how to acquire a highly cultivated mind.

Part XIV—The Use and Abuse of Reading: How to Organize Your Mental Life

A Pelmanist, if he has to earn an income, believes in earning an increasing income. Nevertheless, he is not a Scrooge; he is able to discuss ideas and keep in touch with the latest thought. Idealism has its claims, and this section shows you how to cultivate the more reflective side of life. The wisdom of the ages, the history of the world, the fun and the tragedy of human life, all find their way eventually into the printed page.

Part XV—Pelmanism in Action

The whole of the course is brought into rapid review in these pages. This is accomplished by the method of selecting vital and important truths from the proceeding fourteen booklets, such as the great need of adjusting the inner world of mind to the outer world of fact, or, to phrase it differently, the facts of the mind in relation to the facts outside. This gives mind the supreme position.

Purpose, conquest, unity of aim and working, sensibility, science, expression, personality—these and many more are re-considered and newly emphasized. New sections are presented on mental and moral rhythms, and on the need of living in and for the Whole.

As a concluding lesson it gathers together the student’s previous impressions—so far as this is possible—and fuses them into a living dynamic. The Course does not abolish struggle, but it impairs abiding power to overcome difficulties and press forward to the goal of Self-realization.