The student who is familiar with the processes by which the various
schools of Mental Science, etc., produce changes in the mental states of
those following their teachings, may not readily understand the
principle underlying many of these changes. When, however, the Principle
of Polarity is once grasped, and it is seen that the mental changes are
occasioned by a change of polarity-a sliding along the same scale-the
hatter is readily understood. The change is not in the nature of a
transmutation of one thing into another thing entirely different-but is
merely a change of degree in the same things, a vastly important
difference. For instance, borrowing an analogy from the Physical Plane,
it is impossible to change Heat into Sharpness, Loudness, Highness,
etc., but Heat may readily be transmuted into Cold, simply by lowering
the vibrations. In the same way Hate and Love are mutually transmutable;
so are Fear and Courage. But Fear cannot be transformed into Love, nor
can Courage be transmuted into Hate. The mental states belong to
innumerable classes, each class of which has its opposite poles, along
which transmutation is possible.

The student will readily recognize that in the mental states, as well as
in the phenomena of the Physical Plane, the two poles may be classified
as Positive and Negative, respectively. Thus Love is Positive to Hate;
Courage to Fear; Activity to Non-Activity, etc., etc. And it will also
be noticed that even to those unfamiliar with the Principle of
Vibration, the Positive pole seems to be of a higher degree than the
Negative, and readily dominates it. The tendency of Nature is in the
direction of the dominant activity of the Positive pole.

In addition to the changing of the poles of one's own mental states by
the operation of the art of Polarization, the phenomena of Mental
Influence, in its manifold phases, shows us that the principle may be