You can easily protect yourself against highway robbers, because the law
provides organized cooperation for your benefit, but the "seventh basic evil" is more
difficult to master, because it strikes when you are not aware of its presence,
when you are asleep, and while you are awake. Moreover, its weapon is
intangible, because it consists of merely—a STATE OF MIND. This evil is also
dangerous because it strikes in as many different forms as there are human
experiences. Sometimes it enters the mind through the well-meant words of one's
own relatives. At other times, it bores from within, through one's own mental attitude.
Always it is as deadly as poison, even though it may not kill as quickly.
How TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST NEGATIVE INFLUENCESTo protect yourself against negative influences, whether of your own making, or the
result of the activities of negative people around you, recognize that you have a
WILL-POWER, and put it into constant use, until it builds a wall of immunity against
negative influences in your own mind.
Recognize the fact that you, and every other human being, are, by nature, lazy,
indifferent, and susceptible to all suggestions which harmonize with your weaknesses.
Recognize that you are, by nature, susceptible to all the six basic fears, and set