Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
Collier's 'Open Sesame!' of Life
In a moment of urgent need, stop questioning whether it can be done, concentrate wholly on the need without doubt or fear, and call confidently on the inner ‘Life Principle’ to supply the strength or solution — trusting it as an ever-present reserve.
At the moment of real need, stop asking whether it can be done. Throw all your thought and energy on the one thing — never doubting, never fearing — and call confidently on the inner “Life Principle,” certain it answers most when the need is greatest. Train this expectant stance daily so it’s there when you need it.
What it is
“The ‘Open Sesame!’ of Life” is the title of an early section of The Secret of the Ages (Vol. I), and it names Collier’s practice of the magic-word claim of supply: in a moment of need you stop asking whether it can be done, throw your whole concentrated thought on the need without doubt or fear, and call confidently on the inner “Life Principle” to meet it.
The “Open Sesame” is faith itself — the relaxed, Napoleonic certainty “that this invincible ‘Life Principle’ is behind your every act,” which (Collier claims) “never yet has failed in anything it has undertaken.” It is less a procedure than a stance: expectant, undoubting, reaching for a reserve he says responds most readily exactly when the need is greatest.
The Method
- Recognise the need — and that the power answers most at need. “The greater your need, the more readily will it respond to your call… wherever there is poverty or hardship or sickness or despair, there is this servant of your mind, ready and willing to help, asking only that you call upon him.”
- Drop the question of whether it’s possible. Collier’s illustration: two boys lifting a log off their brother — “they never stopped to question whether or not it could be done. They saw only the urgent need.”
- Concentrate all thought and energy on the one thing — without doubt or fear. “They concentrated all their thought, all their energy on that one thing — never doubting, never fearing — and the genie which is in all of us, waiting only for such a call, answered their summons.”
- Call confidently, in the certainty it cannot fail. “Knowing that you have working with you a force which never yet has failed… you can go ahead in the confident knowledge that it will not fail in your case either.” This is “the Napoleonic feeling of power.”
- Cultivate the stance daily, so it’s there at need. “Ally your conscious self with that sleeping giant within you, rouse him daily to the task, and those ‘superhuman’ deeds will become your ordinary, everyday accomplishments.” (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are verbatim from “The ‘Open Sesame!’ of Life”; the step list is a faithful paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Robert Collier, The Secret of the Ages (1926), Vol. I. The “Life Principle” / inner reserve drew on New Thought’s “Power within” (Trine’s In Tune with the Infinite) and on James’s writing about energy reserves, which Collier cites elsewhere.
Common refinements
Hesitating / hedging. The whole move is undoubting concentration; half-faith (“one little hop,” in his swimming analogy) gets half-results.
- Reading “never fails” as a safety guarantee. It isn’t. Don’t let the stance override judgment about real danger (the log-lift worked; a reckless act may not).
- Waiting for crisis only. Collier says rouse it daily so the confidence is trained, not summoned cold.
- Straining instead of trusting. It’s confident release into the reserve, not gritted effort.