Power of Mental Imagery by Warren Hilton
The provided text is an excerpt from Warren Hilton’s 1914 book, Power of Mental Imagery, detailing the role of mental imagery in psychology, memory, and practical life. The source outlines how imagination and recognition function as elements of the memory process and differentiates between various kinds of mental images, such as visual, auditory, and olfactory. Hilton emphasizes the practical application of understanding mental imagery, particularly in fields like pedagogy, advertising, and sales, using it as a key for influencing others and selecting a suitable calling. Furthermore, the text suggests ways to test and cultivate one’s own mental imagery and discusses the concept of creative imagination as a prerequisite for achievement in business and life.
Who May Benefit from the Book
- Business leaders and entrepreneurs
- Salespeople and advertisers
- Educators and pedagogues
- Individuals seeking self-cultivation of mental skills
- Students of applied psychology
Top 3 Key Insights
- Mental imagery includes all sensory experiences—sound, taste, smell, touch, and motion—not just visual pictures.
- Individuals vary dramatically in their sensory imagery strengths, impacting memory and requiring self-assessment.
- Creative imagination drives success and achievement by forming clear mental pictures of desired future results that compel action.
4 More Lessons and Takeaways
- Effective influence requires presenting facts realistically in multiple ways to prompt memory through diverse, varied images.
- Success in advertising hinges on using graphic, picturesque words that evoke positive sensory images to create desire.
- Matching your sensory imagery strengths (e.g., strong auditory images) to your profession is crucial for proper career selection.
- Mental pictures, if held intensely, tend to realize themselves, demanding careful thought selection before persistent action.
The Book in 1 Sentence
Mastering diverse mental imagery, from sight to feeling, is crucial for improving memory, influencing others, and achieving business success.
The Book Summary in 1 Minute
Power of Mental Imagery explores how our mental images—which encompass sight, sound, taste, touch, and motion—are essential for recognition and memory. A key discovery is the vast difference between individuals in their capacity to form vivid imagery, a fact often unknown to the person themselves. This knowledge is critical for influencing others; the central rule is to present facts in as many realistic ways as possible to create varied sensory clues that prompt memory. The book provides tests for readers to determine their specific strengths and weaknesses, noting that imagery can be cultivated through focused attention. Ultimately, the text argues that Creative Imagination—the process of rearranging past elements into new visions—is the prerequisite for material achievement, wealth creation, and business expansion. By creating a persistent, clear vision of success, one generates the impellent energy necessary to achieve the desired physical realization.
Chapter-wise Book Summary
Introduction
Power of Mental Imagery, authored by Warren Hilton, A.B., L.L.B., is the fifth volume in a series of twelve volumes focusing on the application of psychology to personal and business efficiency. This work examines the psychological operations of Recognition and Imagination, considering them both as essential parts of the memory process and as independent faculties with significant practical value. The book moves beyond abstract definition to explore the varied nature of mental images, how personal differences in imagery affect communication and career choice, and the vital role of creative thought in generating material success and business action.
Chapter I. IMAGINATION AND RECOGNITION
“It is the faculty of the mind by which we recognize remembered experiences as a part of our own past.”
Chapter I introduces Recognition and Imagination as the subjects of the book, following prior discussion of Retention and Recall. Both Recognition and Imagination involve mental images. Recognition is defined as the faculty that deals exclusively with mental images that replicate former experiences, providing the crucial sense of familiarity, ownership, and past tense that allows us to distinguish remembered experiences from current sense-perceptions. Imagination relates not only to the past, encompassing the outright re-imagery of past experiences, but also to the creation of new and original mental images by recombining elements drawn from old experiences.
Chapter Key Points
- Recognition distinguishes past mental experiences from present ones.
- Imagination is both the reproduction and recombination of past experiential elements.
- Mental images are fundamental to both Recognition and Imagination.
Chapter II. KINDS OF MENTAL IMAGES
“Mental images are representations of past mental experiences of any and every kind.”
This chapter expands the definition of “mental images,” clarifying that they are not limited to visual pictures but include representations of past sensations across all senses: sound (Auditory Imagery), taste, smell (Olfactory Imagery), feeling, pain, and motion (Muscular/Motor Imagery). The text emphasizes that there is the greatest possible difference in individuals regarding their ability to form distinct mental images in these various sensory fields. Some individuals may be strong visualizers but have difficulty recalling sounds, while others may be the opposite. Statistical investigations by researchers like Doctor Galton, Professor James, and Professor Scott confirmed this variability, noting that many educated people were astonished to learn that others possessed vivid mental imagery, a concept unknown to them. Examples illustrate the difference between good visualizers (who can clearly see printed pages) and poor visualizers (whose recollections are vague and hazy objects).
Chapter Key Points
- Mental images cover all sensory input (visual, auditory, taste, smell, muscular, tactual, heat/cold).
- Individuals vary widely in their ability to vividly reproduce different types of sensory experiences.
- Early psychological studies statistically confirmed these profound personal differences in imagery types.
Chapter III. HOW TO INFLUENCE OTHERS THROUGH MENTAL IMAGERY
“To the mind you are seeking to convince or educate, present your facts in as many different ways and as realistically as possible, so that there may be a variety of images, each serving as a clue to prompt the memory.”
The practical importance of individual differences in mental imagery is immense, particularly in fields requiring the implantation of knowledge or conviction. The practical rule for influencing others is to present facts in diverse, realistic ways to generate a variety of mental images that cue memory. In pedagogy, this means moving beyond simple text and maps to engage multiple senses (e.g., using relief maps or reintroducing oral spelling to use the eye, ear, hand, and vocal muscles). In selling goods, advertisements must appeal to the relevant senses; for a piano, this means calling up delightful auditory images, and for food, appealing directly to taste. Effective salesmanship and advertising rely exclusively on graphic, picturesque words that create distinct, attractive mental pictures, thereby generating desire. Furthermore, the book suggests that a key for selecting a calling is matching the profession to one’s strongest type of imagery; for example, a person with weak auditory images should not pursue music or sell phonographs.
Chapter Key Points
- To influence or educate, facts must be presented in varied, realistic ways to create multiple memory clues.
- Effective salesmanship relies on graphic words that create attractive sensory pictures and desire.
- Choosing a successful career requires aligning the job demands with one’s innate type of strong sense-imagery.
Chapter IV. HOW TO TEST YOUR MENTAL IMAGERY
“You will discover some personal peculiarities in yourself you never dreamed existed.”
Chapter IV provides a series of tests designed for readers to determine their reproductive imagination strengths and weaknesses by assessing the vividness—or life-like clearness—of their mental images. The tests are divided by sensory type: Visual Imagery questions ask about recalling the color and detail of a room or the appearance of words on a printed page; Auditory Imagery questions focus on mentally hearing sounds like a ringing door-bell or music; and questions cover Olfactory (smell), Gustatory (taste), Pain, Touch, Heat, and Cold imagery (e.g., imagining the taste of a lemon or the feeling of woolen underwear). Readers are encouraged to note their findings carefully, as these results reveal innate differences in ability. The chapter concludes by confirming that, to some extent, the power of forming mental images can be cultivated by two methods: (1) keeping the appropriate sense-organs in good condition, and (2) giving undivided attention to incoming sense-perceptions.
Chapter Key Points
- Testing focuses on the life-like clarity of mental images, not merely knowledge of the subject.
- Specific self-tests are provided for all major sensory types (sight, sound, taste, touch, etc.).
- The power of imagery can be cultivated by improving sense-organ health and focusing attention on perceptions.
Chapter V. THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION
“Nothing exists in all the world that had not a previous counterpart in the mind of him who designed it.”
This chapter addresses Creative Imagination, distinguishing it from mere reproductive memory. Creative Imagination is the process of taking elements from the past (as reproduced by memory) and rearranging them into new and original mental pictures—the creations of the inventive mind. This faculty is essential for success in every pursuit, not just the arts, and is vital for business success, financial imagination, and wealth creation. The chapter asserts that Mind is supreme, shaping and controlling matter; every concrete thing, from a factory to an office building, is the material realization of human thought or a promoter’s financial imagination. Achievement requires the business person to scheme, plan, devise, and foresee, creating a mental picture of future events as they wish them to be. The chapter outlines steps for using creative imagination to take radical business steps or improve a department, emphasizing the need to think “big thoughts” rather than small ones. Finally, the book stresses that while action is necessary, creative imagination begets action, because intense thought carries the inherent energy to effect its own physical realization.
Chapter Key Points
- Creative Imagination rearranges past elements into new, original concepts required for invention and success.
- All material realities, systems, and wealth are products of a thinking consciousness.
- Creative imagination and persistent, focused thought are prerequisites to action and material achievement.
Notable Quotes from the Book
- “The more sensory images we have of any object the better we know it.”
- “If you want to make a first impression lasting, make it vivid.”
- “The wealth of the world is but the sum total of the contributions of the creative thoughts of the successful men of all ages.”
- “The mind is like a rubber band—you can stretch it to fit almost anything, but it draws in to a small scope when you let go.”
- “Despair is the forerunner of disaster, and fear brings failure, because despair and fear are the emotional elements attendant upon thoughts of defeat.”
- “Mind, and mind alone, possesses the inscrutable power to create.”
- “Big things are only little things put together.”
- “Creative imagination, in a psychological and scientific sense, begets action.”
- “Every thought carries with it the impellent energy to effect its realization.”
- “You will perceive the reason for many innate differences of ability to do and to enjoy.”
About the Author
The author of Power of Mental Imagery is Warren Hilton, A.B., L.L.B.. Hilton is recognized as the Founder of the Society of Applied Psychology. This volume is presented as the fifth in a comprehensive series of twelve books dedicated to applying psychology to solve problems of personal and business efficiency. The work was copyrighted in 1914 and issued in 1920 under the auspices of The Literary Digest. Hilton’s contribution lies in translating psychological concepts, such as memory retention and the different types of sensory imagery, into practical principles for everyday application, particularly emphasizing the use of creative thought as the engine for financial and professional achievement.
How to Get the Most from the Books
Use the provided tests to determine your imagery strengths. Cultivate weak points by maintaining healthy sense-organs and concentrating attention on new perceptions.
Conclusion
Power of Mental Imagery successfully positions the understanding and mastery of mental images as a central tenet of personal and professional efficiency. Hilton clarifies that mental imagery involves all senses, stressing that awareness of one’s individual strengths (e.g., visual versus auditory recall) is vital for proper self-assessment and career alignment. The core practical message is that effective influence—whether in sales, advertising, or education—is achieved by creating vivid, multisensory experiences in the mind of the other person. Crucially, the book culminates in the concept of Creative Imagination, asserting that mind shapes all matter and that wealth and success are direct material realizations of persistent, focused thought. By envisioning success clearly, the individual activates the powerful link between thought and action, guaranteeing achievement.