by George Creel

President of The Pelman Institute of America

New York City, New York

Popular Science, December 1919.

PELMANISM is the biggest thing that has come to the United States in many a year. With a record of 400,000 successes in England, this famous course in mind training has been Americanized at last, and is now operated by Americans in America for American men and women.

Pelmanism is neither an experiment nor a theory. For twenty years it has been teaching people:

1. how to think,
2. how to use fully the senses of which they are conscious, and
3. how to discover and train the senses of which they have been unconscious.

Pelmanism is merely:

• the science of thinking,
• the science of putting right thought into successful action, and
• the science of that "mental team play" that is the one true source of efficiency, the one master key that opens all doors to advancement.

I first heard of Pelmanism during a recent visit in London. Its matter filled pages in every paper and magazine and wherever one went there was talk of Pelmanism. "Are you a Pelmanist?" was a common question.

It was T.P. O’Connor who satisfied my curiosity and gave me facts. By 1918 alone there were 400,000 Pelmanists, figuring in every walk and condition of life. Lords and ladies of high degree, clerks and cooks, Members of Parliament, laborers, clergymen and actors, farmers, lawyers, doctors, coal miners, soldiers and sailors, even generals and admirals, were Pelmanizing and heads of great business houses were actually enrolling their entire staffs in the interests of larger efficiency.

The famous General Sir F. Maurice, describing it as a "system of mind drill based on scientific principles," urged its adoption by the army. General Sir Robert Baden-Powell and Admiral Lord Beresford endorsed it over their signatures. In France, Flanders and Italy over 100,000 soldiers of the (British) empire were taking Pelmanism in order to fit themselves for return to civil life, and many members of the American Expeditionary Force were following this example.

Well-known writers like Jerome K. Jerome, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Max Pemberton, the Baroness Orczy and E.F. Benson were writing columns in interpretation of Pelmanism. Great editors like Sir William Robertson Nicoll and educators such as Sir James Yoxall were going so far as to suggest its inclusion in the British educational system.

As a matter of fact, the thing had all the force and sweep of a religion. It went deep into life, far down beneath all surface emotions, and bedded its roots in the very centres of individual being. It was an astonishing phenomenon, virtually compelling my interest, and I agreed gladly when certain members of (British) Parliament offered to take me to Pelman House.

A growing enthusiasm led me to study the plan in detail, and it is out of the deepest conviction that I make these flat statements:—

1. Pelmanism can, and does, develop and strengthen such qualities as will power, concentration, ambition, self-reliance, judgment and memory.
2. Pelmanism can, and does, substitute "I will" for "I wish" by curing mind wandering and wool gathering.

Viewed historically, Pelmanism is a study in intelligent growth. Twenty years ago it was a simple memory training system.

The founder of Pelmanism had an idea. He went to the leading psychologists of England, and also to those of America, and said:

"I have a good memory system. I think I may say that it is the best. But it occurs to me that there is small point in memory unless there’s a mind behind it. You gentlemen teach the science of the mind. But you teach it only to those who come to you. And few come, for psychology is looked upon as "highbrow."

"Why can’t we popularize it? Why can’t we make people train their minds just as they train their bodies? Why can’t you put all that you have to teach into a series of simple, understandable Lessons that can be grasped by the average man with an average education?"

And the eminent professors did it! Pelmanism to-day is the one known course in applied psychology, the one course that builds as a physical instructor builds muscle. It teaches:—

1. how to build personality,
2. how to build character, and
3. how to strengthen individuality.

Instead of training memory alone, or will-power alone, or reasoning power alone, it recognizes the absolute interdependency of these powers and trains them together.

It is not, however, an educational machine for grinding out standardized brains, for it realizes that there are wide differences in the minds and problems of men. It develops individual mentality to its highest power.

The course comes in twelve lessons—twelve "Little Grey Books." They are sent one at a time and the student fills out work sheets that are gone over, with pen and ink, by a staff of trained instructors. There is nothing arduous about the course, and it offers no great difficulties, but it does require application. Pelmanism has got to be worked at.

There is no "magic" or mystery about it. It is not "learned in one evening."

You can take a pill for a sluggish liver but all the patent medicines in the world can’t help a sluggish mind. Pelmanism is not a "pill system." It proceeds upon the scientific theory that there is no law in nature that condemns the human mind to permanent limitations. It develops the mental faculties by regular exercise, just as the athlete develops his muscles.

Brains are not evolved by miracles. Just as the arms stay weak or grow flabby, when not used, so does an unexercised mind stay weak or grow flabby.

Pelmanism is the science of Get There—getting there quickly, surely, finely! Not for men alone; but for women as well.

Women in commercial pursuits have the same problems to overcome as men. Women in the home are operating a business, a highly specialized, complex business, requiring every ounce of judgment, energy, self-reliance and quick decision that it is to develop.

I will say deliberately, and with the deepest conviction, that Pelmanism will do what it promises to do.

Talk of quick and large salary raises suggest quackery, but with my own eyes I saw bundles of letters telling how Pelmanism had increased earning capacities from 20 to 200 per cent. With my own ears I heard the testimony of employers to this effect. Why not? Increased efficiency is worth more than money. Aroused ambition, heightened energies, refuse to let a man rest content with "well enough."

But, Pelmanism is bigger than that. There’s more to it than the making of money. It makes for a richer and more wholesome and more interesting life.

One may utilize Pelmanism as a means of achieving some immediate purpose—financial, social, educational or cultural—but the advantages of the training touch life and living at every point.

(Signed)  George Creel

The end.

Remember, What matters most in your life is YOU and what you do with your life.

Pelmanism is an authoritative message to taking Action—the Pelman Course reveals, in simple terms, that all action in life is preceded by THOUGHT.

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