THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE REVIVAL MEETING
The old religious orgy known as the "revival" offers a favorable
opportunity to study the principle of mind chemistry known as Master
Mind.
It will be observed that music plays no small part in bringing about the
harmony essential to the blending of a group of minds in a revival
meeting. Without music the revival meeting would be a tame affair.
During revival services the leader of the meeting has no difficulty in
creating harmony in the minds of his devotees, but it is a well known
fact that this state of harmony lasts no longer than the presence of
the leader, after which the Master Mind he has temporarily created
disintegrates.
By arousing the emotional nature of his followers the revivalist has no difficulty, under the proper stage setting and with the embellishment of the right sort of music, in creating a Master Mind, which becomes noticeable to all who come in contact with it. The very air becomes charged with a positive, pleasing influence, which changes the entire chemistry of all, minds present.
The revivalist calls this energy "the Spirit of the Lord."
This author, through experiments conducted with a group of scientific
investigators and laymen (who were unaware of the nature of the
experiment), has created the same state of mind and the same
positive atmosphere without calling it the Spirit of the Lord.
On many occasions this author has witnessed the creation of the
same positive atmosphere in a group of men and women engaged in
the business of salesmanship, without calling it the Spirit of the Lord.
The author helped conduct a school of salesmanship for Harrison Parker, founder of the Co-operative Society, of Chicago, and, by the use of the same principle of mind chemistry which the revivalist calls the Spirit of the Lord, so transformed the nature of a group of 3,000 men and women (all of whom were without former sales experience) that they sold more than $10,000,000.00 worth of securities in less than nine months, and earned more than $1,000,000 for themselves.
It was found that the average person who joined this school would reach the zenith of his or her selling power within one week, after which it was necessary to revitalize the individual's brain through a group sales meeting. These sales meetings were conducted on very much the same order as are the modern revival meetings of the religionist, with much the same stage equipment, including music and "high-powered" speakers who exhorted the salespeople in very much the same manner as does the modern religious revivalist.