Reference
Master Key System Glossary: Haanel's Key Terms
Charles Haanel used a particular vocabulary, some of it borrowed from the psychology and physics of his day and some of it from the New Thought movement. This glossary explains the terms you will meet most often in The Master Key System. Where Haanel's own glossary, printed at the back of the 1919 edition, defines a word, we note it. Part numbers point to where the idea is developed.
A to D
Attention
The act of focusing the mind on one thing. Haanel calls attention or concentration probably the most important skill in mental development and compares it to a magnifying glass held still over one spot (Part Six).
Cerebro-spinal system
The brain, spinal cord and voluntary nerves. Haanel calls it the organ of the conscious, objective mind, linking us to the world through the senses (Parts One and Three).
Concentration
Holding thought steadily on a single object or purpose. Much of the course is training in concentration, beginning with sitting still and later focusing on a photograph or an imagined scene.
Conscious mind
The reasoning, choosing part of the mind that works through the five senses. Haanel calls it the seat of the will and the guardian of the subconscious (Part Two). Also called the objective mind.
Counter-suggestion
A positive idea, repeated often, used to replace a harmful one the subconscious has accepted. Haanel presents it as the way to change habits of thought (Part Two).
Differentiation
The process by which the one Universal becomes many particular forms. Haanel says the individual is the channel through which this happens (Part Three).
I to M
Idealization
The first of three creative steps Haanel names: forming a clear ideal of what you want, before visualizing it and seeing it take shape (Part Sixteen).
Inhibit
To hold back or suppress. In the second exercise the reader is asked to inhibit all thought, which shows how many thoughts constantly try to enter the mind (Part Two).
Law of abundance
The idea that nature provides plenty for everyone and that lack comes from being cut off from this supply in thought. Part Ten is devoted to it.
Law of attraction
Haanel's central law: your predominant mental attitude draws matching conditions and experiences into your life. He identifies it with the law of love (Parts Eight, Twelve and Fifteen). This is a belief, not a demonstrated natural law.
Law of growth
The principle that growth depends on letting go of what we cling to, the subject of Part Fifteen. Part Eighteen adds that we can receive only as we give.
Law of vibration
The idea that thought works as vibration and that the highest principle a person holds shapes their circumstances. Haanel discusses it in Part Seventeen, borrowing language from physics.
Master Key
Haanel's own glossary defines it as a key that opens many locks whose separate keys do not fit each other. In the course, it stands for the one principle he believes explains all success.
Mental Chemistry
The title of Haanel's 1922 book, which returns to the themes of The Master Key System, the creative power of thought and its effect on health and circumstances.
N to R
New Thought
The American spiritual movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that taught that mind is more basic than matter and that right thinking can change health and circumstances. Haanel wrote within it.
Objective mind
Another name for the conscious mind, the part that deals with outward objects. Haanel uses both terms.
Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
All powerful, all knowing and present everywhere. Haanel applies all three to Universal Mind and argues that each person shares these qualities in potential form (Part One).
Plastic mind substance
Haanel's phrase for the living substance he believes fills all space and takes shape according to thought. Plastic here means able to be moulded (Part One).
Predominant mental attitude
Your habitual, characteristic way of thinking, as opposed to occasional thoughts. Haanel says this, not a passing mood, is what the law of attraction responds to (Part Eight).
Psychological Chart
A self rating table printed at the start of the course. It opens with the claim that most of our mental power goes unused, a version of a popular myth about the brain.
Relaxation
The third exercise: sitting still, inhibiting thought and letting the muscles go loose to remove tension (Part Three).
S to W
The sitting exercise
The first practice in the course. The reader chooses a quiet room, sits upright without lounging and stays perfectly still for fifteen minutes to half an hour each day, aiming for control of the body (Part One). Later exercises build on it.
Solar plexus
A real network of nerves behind the stomach. Haanel calls it the organ of the subconscious mind and "the sun of the body," a centre that radiates energy (Part Three). The anatomy is real; its role as a mind is his belief.
Subconscious mind
The part of the mind that runs the body, stores memory and forms habit, working below awareness. Haanel also calls it subjective mind and believes it is joined to Universal Mind (Part Two).
Subjective mind
Another name for the subconscious mind, used throughout the course.
Sympathetic system
The nerves Haanel links to the subconscious, centred on the solar plexus. In modern anatomy the sympathetic nervous system is one branch of the autonomic system, which runs bodily functions automatically.
The New Psychology
The title of Haanel's 1924 book, a later statement of his ideas about mind and thought.
Universal Mind
The single conscious intelligence that Haanel believes fills the universe and is also its substance. His glossary defines it as "the life principle of every atom in existence." Each individual mind, he says, is an individualization of it.
Visualization
Forming clear, detailed mental images. Haanel calls it "the process of making mental images" and treats the image as the mould for future conditions (Part Seven).
Watchman at the gate
Haanel's image for the conscious mind guarding the subconscious against harmful suggestions, especially in moments of fear or anger (Part Two).
World within and world without
Haanel's pair of terms for inner life (thought, feeling, connection to Universal Mind) and outer life (circumstances). He teaches that the world without reflects the world within.