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Many discoveries, inventions and achievements are as a result of commitment and dogged
determination, improving or plaguerising existing prototypes and through what seems to be
almost a process of natural development.
Many though, have their origins in a form of inspired “infinite” intelligence that, although cannot
yet be explained to the satisfaction of man, nonetheless have their place in history.

Napoleon Hill was one of the most committed researchers in the field of human development. In
the early part of the twentieth century, he spent twenty years of his life tracking down and
conducting in depth interviews of 504 of the most successful people in he United States. He was
commissioned to do this by Andrew Carnegie, who pioneered the American steel industry and
was later responsible for the emergence of libraries. Mr Carnegie wanted Hill to discover what
traits were shared by each of these men and women, what common factors did each possess
that could be collectively responsible for so much success?

Among the people Hill researched were:

Henry Ford John D Rockefeller
Thomas Edison Alexander Graham Bell

William Wrigley jr Theodore Roosevelt

George Eastman F W Woolworth

Wilbur Wright
The full list reads like the “Who’s who” of the United States in the early part on the twentieth
century.

So what traits-in-common did all these remarkable people possess that contributed to each of
their success? Well, the full answer to that can be seen in Hills’ bestseller, “Think and Grow
Rich” (which incidentally has very little to do with riches).

For the purposes of this course, and in particular this session, the most significant trait that each
of them disclosed, was a belief in the existence of a higher level, super-conscious mind, a sixth
sense. That is, acceptance of the existence of a higher self, a source of intelligent inspiration
and communication beyond the constraints of our current traditional thinking.

The worlds’ greatest thinkers and most creative people have acknowledged the infinite power
and wonder of the super-conscious mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the philosopher and poet
called it the “over soul” saying “we lie in the lap of an immense intelligence that answers our
every need”, saying that when we receive insights from this source, we recognise them as
coming from a place far beyond ourselves and our own limited minds.

Napoleon Hill referred to it as “infinite intelligence,” the universal storehouse of all imagination
and creativity. He proposed that the ability to access this storehouse was the significant trait that
contributed to the success of the hundreds of people he interviewed through his years of
research.
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, rival of the famous Sigmund Freud, called it the
supra-conscious mind, declaring that it contained all the wisdom of the human race, past,
present and future. Whatever it is called, it provides the potential for limitless accomplishment.