February 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY ~ Ernest Holmes

"The subjective mind of man is part of the Universal Subjective Mind of God.  It is the place where every man individualizes himself on the subjective side of life.  It is his use of the Law of Cause and Effect.  It is his use of the Law of Karma.  It is the Law of the Whole, now individualized as a law of the apparent part.  It may produce either freedom or bondage according to the way that it is used.  Man's use of the Universal Law makes it appear as thought his subjective mind were an entity of itself.  It never is, however, and this is one of the main points we should remember.  It is not separated from the Universal, but is, in a certain sense, the property of the individual in the Universal.  God and man are One, but God is greater than man.  The Whole is greater than Its parts.

The Universal Subjectivity is Mind in an abstract and formless state.  That is, it is a potential energy and a latent power, which means that It is unformed, but always ready to take form.  It is Mind and Substance in an unformed or uncreated state of being.  It is ready to become molded into creativeness.  It is unexpressed Mind.  It waits to be called into form or expression.  It exists in its original state, invisible but potential with all possible form.  A creative, universal energy waiting to be used, to be operated upon.  Willing, but having no volition of Its own.  Ready, but having no initiative.  Formless, but ready to take form.

Mind in Its subjective state is Universal.  Mind in Its subjective state cannot act until It is set in motion by mind in a conscious state.  Therefore Universal Subjective Mind is a doer and not a self-conscious knower.  It knows how to do but It does not have any conscious knowledge that It is doing.  Man calls It forth into expression.

In Universal Mind is contained the essence of everything that ever was, is or shall be.  The seen and the unseen are in It and governed by It.  It is the sole and only Creative Agency in the universe and all other apparent creative agencies are It working in different ways.  Things exist in the Universal Mind as ideas.  Ideas take form and become things in the concrete or the visible world.  Thought calls things forth from the universal into expression.

The correct understanding that Mind in Its unformed state can be called forth into individual use is key to all proper mental and spiritual work from a practical viewpoint.  To know that we are surrounded by such a creativeness is not enough, however, we must use this knowledge for definite purposes if we expect to make conscious use of the law for personal self-expression.  In this limitless Medium the potential of all our desires exists in an unformed state.  The Unformed is ready to take form, but having no intention of Its own, because It is not self-knowing, form must be imposed upon It.  Form is imposed upon It by the self-knowing mind of God and of man.  Man in the little world. God in the Great World.

The invisible essence of Mind is Substance.  That is, an unformed stuff, an energy.  It is energy plus intelligence.  Intelligence is conscious energy working upon unformed substance in accord with law.  When man makes a demand upon himself or demand upon the Universe which flows through the self, he is making a demand upon Original Mind and Original Energy.  Thus his demand causes Original Mind and Energy to produce certain specific things for him.  Thus is a new creation produced by the same Creative Force or energy that produces all things.  The Mind that man uses to conceive new ideas is the Original Mind of God.  There are not two minds but One.  The Universal and the individual are one in Essence.  Any apparent difference is in degree only."

February 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM The TEACHINGS of JESUS ~ Ernest Holmes

Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged (Matt. 7:1)

""Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."  This statement could come only from one who had a deep insight into the universal law of Cause and Effect, which balances everything, and sees that in the long run, everyone receives his just due.  This law Emerson called the "High Chancellor of God."  The law of cause and effect is the law of perfect balance, of logical sequence and of inevitable consequence.  Whatever a man sows, he must reap.

The law of cause and effect is immutable, and every man's action produces an effect in his life, which he must ultimately experience, unless he transcends the law already set in motion.  Such a concept supposes that we are surrounded by a Universal Law, which is entirely impartial, and which returns to the thinker the logical effect of his actions. Man, being a free agent in this law - whether consciously or in ignorance - is continually setting it in motion to some definite end.  Therefore it is true, unalterably true, that he must reap as he has sown!

This means that life must return to us the manifestation of our motives, thoughts and desires - whether these motives, thoughts and desires were intended for ourselves or others.  It means that the thought of judgment, criticism and condemnation must, in time, operate against the one who sets it in motion!  It is doubtless necessary to the well-being of society that our civil laws be enforced, else in our present state of evolution, there would be no protection from those who seek to destroy society; but personal condemnation can be entirely eliminated.

Ultimately we shall see that the Universe rests on the shoulders of Love; that God is Love; and that all the errors of man  are the result of ignorance of his own true nature.  The happy outlook on life is always constructive; the understanding heart is filled with sympathy and helpfulness toward all.  An evolved soul judges no one, condemns no one, but realizes that all are on the road of experience, seeking the same goal, and that each must ultimately find his home in Heaven.

In the long run, nothing judges us but the immutable Law of Cause and Effect.  Whoever deserves punishment will receive it, and whoever merits reward will find that it is brought by the hand of the Almighty and delivered to him.  There is a direct law responding to condemnation and a direct law responding to praise and appreciation.  It is, of course, the same law used in different ways.

There is a Law, common to all people, which responds to every man's belief in life, at the level of that belief.  No man can be happy who lives in a continuous state of condemnation of people, conditions and things.  We must learn to praise and not condemn.

Religious Morbidities

Those who have made a study of soul analysis are aware that poisonous secretions in the body are often the result of religious morbidities.  The time has come to break the bondage of these false impressions.  We are free souls, free spirits, and because this is true, our thought has creative power, and since it has this power, we must carefully choose what we are to think, for everything moves in circles.

We do not say there is no evil experience.  We say, evil is not an entity, but a misuse of a power, which of itself is good.  We shall never know the nature of good by dissecting the nature of evil.

Thought Retards or Quickens

Everything our thought rests upon is either retarded or quickened by the power of that thought.  Everyone is a law unto himself, under the great law of cause and effect governing all things.

When we constructively praise and creatively bless, life abounds with love, peace and joy.  Let goodness shine forth.  Let us learn to see that everyone is an evolving Christ.  Let us so live and think that we may retire at night in peace, knowing that no harm can come to the soul; that we may rise in the morning renewed in body and in mind, with a brighter outlook, a happier expectation and a clearer joy, looking upon all with love, condemning none and blessing even those who seek to injure us.  Let us learn to be perfect, even as that Divine Being, residing in the heart of all and overshadowing Eternity, must also be perfect."

February 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATION for Self-Help and Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"In these short meditations I have tried to set forth some ideas which my experiences in mental healing have given me.  I have found that a few brief statements, mentally affirmed, followed by a silent meditation, have been the most effective in the healing work.

Most of these meditation have been written in the first person in order that those using them may be able to do so just as the are written.

It is not claimed that there is any occult power in the words, but that words similar to these are effective in inducing a greater realization of life.

First, decide which meditation you wish to use; then become quiet and composed.  Then carefully read the meditation several times, phrase by phrase, endeavoring to realize the meaning of the words and trying to enter into the atmosphere of the thought.  After having done this, meditate upon the words, following that meditation until you feel a sense of realization."

Seeing the Perfect

My eyes behold the complete and perfect in all Creation, "In all, over all and through all."

I see the perfect; there is nothing else to see, and no suggestion of otherness can enter my thought.

I know only the perfect and the complete.

I am perfect and whole, now.

February 25 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE NATURE of BEING (continued) ~ Ernest Holmes

"Man's idea of Deity evolves with his other ideas. After a belief in many gods, he comes to realize there is One Mind and One Spirit back of all manifestation.  One Spirit, or Self-Conscious Life, acting through the medium of One Mind or Subjective Law, producing many manifestations. Multiplicity comes from Unity without breaking up the Unity of the Whole.

Spirit is Self-Knowing, but Law is automatic and obeys the Will of Spirit, having no alternative other than to obey.  Like all law, the Law of Mind is an impersonal force, and because of Its nature It is compelled to act.

Soul and Universal Subjective Mind have the same meaning, and are the Creative Medium of all thought and action.  Soul is also the Substance of Spirit, the unformed Stuff, from which all forms are evolved.

Spirit, acting upon Soul, produces Creation.  Spirit, Soul and Substance intersphere each other, each being omnipresent.  Creation takes place within Spirit, and is the result of the contemplation or the self-knowingness of Spirit.  Creation is eternally going on; change is always taking place within that which is Changeless.  forms appear and disappear in a Medium which of Itself is formless.

Spirit thinks or knows within Itself, and, as a result of this inner action, Creation manifests.  Creation is the play of Life upon Itself, through Divine Self-Imagination.  Spirit must create in order to be expressed.  Spirit, Life, Soul, Substance, Law and Unity are all Co-Existent and Co-Eternal with each other.  The only thing that changes is form.  Spirit makes things out of Itself by becoming the thing It makes.  There is no effort in the process.

Conscious Mind and Spirit have the same meaning:  that part of Reality which is Self-Knowing.

Subconscious and Subjective Mind, Soul and Mental Medium, Universal Subjectivity and Law, all have the same meaning:  that part of Reality which acts as Law.

Body, Creation, or the manifest universe, is the result of Spirit acting through Law.  Body, Creation, or the manifest Universe is a result of the Knowingness of Spirit.

Spirit alone is Self-Conscious.  Law and manifestation are automatic reactions to Spirit.

Soul, or Subjective Mind, Substance or unformed Stuff, and Conscious Spirit permeate all things and all people.  There is an Intelligence acting through everything, and everything responds to this Intelligence.

It cannot be too plainly stated that Spirit, or Conscious Intelligence, is the only Self-Assertive Principle in the Universe.  "Spirit is the Power that knows Itself," and is the only Power that is self-knowing, everything else is subject to Spirit.  The sole and only operation of Spirit is through Its Word, acting as Law through Substance, producing Creation."

February 24 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SUMMARY of PART ONE:  The Nature of Being ~ Ernest Holmes

"There is a Universal Presence that acts as though It were intelligent, and we may assume that It is.  There is a Universal Intelligence acting as Law - we may also assume this to be true. There is a formless Stuff in the Universe, forever taking form, and forever changing its form - this we may accept as being self-evident.

We have every reason  to postulate a three-fold nature of the Universal Being, which we shall call Spirit, Soul, and Body.  We shall think of Spirit as the great Actor, Soul as the Medium of Its action, and Body the result of Its action.  We shall think of Spirit as the only Conscious Actor - the Power that knows Itself.  We shall think of Soul as a blind Force, obeying the Will of Spirit; and we shall think of Body as the effect of Spirit, working through Law to produce form.  We shall assume that neither Law, nor the Stuff from which form comes, has conscious intelligence, but must because of their nature be formed by the Word.  This simplifies the whole matter and enables us to see that in the entire Universe, One Power alone really acts - the Power of the Word of Spirit, God, or Universal Conscious Intelligence.

The evolution of man brings him arbitrarily to a place where true individuality functions.  From that day, a further evolution must be through his conscious co-operation with Reality.  All Nature waits on man's recognition of a co-operation with her laws, and is always ready to obey his will; but man must use Nature's forces in accordance with her law, and in co-operation with her purpose - which is goodness, truth, and beauty - if he wishes to attain self-mastery.

Man never creates; he discovers and uses.  Through this method all sciences are evolved.  We live in a Universe of Law, through which runs a spirit of self-knowing Intelligence.  "All's Love, yet all is Law," mused Robert Browning. 

The Law has done all it can automatically do for man.  It has evolved him to a point of individuality and must now let him alone to discover the secrets of life for himself.  Man is potentially perfect but free-will and self-choice cause him to appear imperfect.  In reality all he can destroy is some particular embodiment of himself.  The divine spark is always intact in potential man.

Man awakes to self-consciousness, finding himself already equipped with a mentality, a body and an environment.  Gradually he discovers one law of nature after another, until he conquers his environment through his knowledge of the nature of those laws. Everywhere he finds that nature does his bidding, in so far as he understands her laws and uses them along the lines of their inherent being.  He must first obey  nature and she will then obey him.

Man discovers his ability to think and realizes that from within there comes a reaction to his thought.  He can think consciously and mental law acts upon his thought; and his physical body is affected by his thinking.

He next discovers that he can think for others, causing corresponding action in and through their bodies.  In this way, he discovers a  mental medium through which thought operates.  He realizes himself to be a thinking center in a Universal Mind.

Man next discovers that his affairs are primarily a thing of thought, and that being able to think for others he can also aid in the control of their affairs. He now realizes that everything in the visible world is an EFFECT; that back of all effects are ideas which are the real Cause of these effects.  The Divine Ideas are perfect, but man's freedom of individuality causes them to appear imperfect. Through right thinking, he is able to uncover the appearance of imperfection and reveal the Perfect Idea.  "Behold, thou, my face forevermore."

February 23 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Oneness with All Law ~ Ernest Holmes  

"When we know our Oneness with God and Law, what a great burden is removed.  Any sense of opposition is removed from the consciousness which perceives Unity.  That which we call OUR subjective mind is but a point in Universal Mind where our personality maintains its individualized expression of Spirit.  If we think of ourselves as being separated from the Universe, we shall be limited by this thought, for it is a belief in separation from God which binds and limits.  WE ARE BOUND BY NOTHING EXCEPT BELIEF.  "They could not enter in because of their unbelief, and because they limited the Holy One of Israel."

There is but One Mind.  Here is the point:  everything we experience, touch, taste, handle and smell - environment, bodies, conditions, money, happiness, friends  - all are effects.  Is it clear that the infinite and limitless possibilities of that One of which man is a part, depend in man's expression, upon his own concept?  If he is a point of personality in Limitless Mind, which he is; and if all his life must be drawn from this One Mind, which it must be, there cannot be anything else, can there?  And if there is nothing else, if there is nothing to move save Mind - and if man is a thinking center in Mind- nothing is going to happen TO him that does not happen THROUGH him, whether it be the result of his own erroneous conclusions, those of his grandfather, or those of the race to which he belongs!  This is not in any sense fatalistic, for WE MAY CHANGE THE TREND OF CAUSATION WHICH IAS BEEN SET IN MOTION AT ANY TIME WE DECIDE TO DO SO.

Everything comes from Intelligence.  There is nothing but Unity; there is nothing but freedom; there is nothing but completeness; there is nothing but Totality. Begin at the beginning and reason this out, time after time, until all doubt disappears. It is necessary that each one do this for himself.

Such is the power of right thinking that it cancels and erases everything unlike itself.  It answers every question, solves all problems, is the solution to every difficulty.  It is like the sunlight of Eternal Truth bursting through the clouds of obscurity and bathing all life in a celestial glory.  It is the Absolute with which we are dealing and nothing less."

February 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Subjective Law ~ Ernest Holmes

"We should grasp the idea of Universal Subjectivity, the Potentiality of all things, the Divine Creative Medium.  This is the Principle through which we are to demonstrate the healing of the body or of condition; and It acts accurately and mathematically, because It is the Law of Cause and Effect.

When we think, we think from conscious intelligence, or Spirit.  The thought then becomes subjectified; it goes into the subconscious mind.  What is man's subconscious mind?  It is his atmosphere or mental center in Universal Subjectivity.  It is held in our philosophy that there is no such thing as your subjective mind and my subjective mind, meaning two, for this would be duality.  But there is such a thing as the subjective state of my thought and of your thought in Mind.  This should be seen clearly, for here is where psychology and metaphysics separate, where their interpretations differ.

When we think, we think into a Universal Creative Medium, a receptive and plastic medium which surrounds us on all sides, which permeates and flows through us.  When we think, we must and do think into and upon It, since It is omnipresent. 

As each subjectifies a consciousness about himself, he is surrounding himself with a mental atmosphere; and nothing can enter this except through the avenues of his own thought.  But this thought might be conscious or unconscious.  In most cases it is unconscious.  However, the student of metaphysics is learning to consciously control the stream of thought that he allows to enter his inner and creative mentality.

The Result of Our Own Thinking

Thought is an inner movement, which is largely the result of one's perception of life and his reaction to it.  Every time this movement takes place it takes place within Mind, upon Cause, according to Law.  We are dealing with the same Power that molds the planets and all that is upon them, and the limit of our ability to use this Power is not in Principle, but in our understanding of It!

We are dealing with a neutral, creative Power, just as we would be in the case of electricity or any other natural force.  It is on a higher plane for It is the Power of Intelligence.  Our thought, in its externalization, will reach its own level, just as water reaches its own level by its own weight and without effort.  This is in line with the necessity for the Universe, in order to be at all, must be Self-Existent.  By the Self-Existence of the Universe is meant a Universe which is Its own reason for being; a Universe which exists by virtue of Itself being All.

Each one of us today is the result of the use he has made of the Law, either consciously or unconsciously.  As soon as we realize this we shall see that what we are now (or what we now have and experience) is the result of what we have thought; and the answer to what we shall be is contained in what we are now thinking, FOR WE CAN CHANGE OUR THINKING!

Man thinks, and supposes that he lets go of those thoughts,...that he is finished with them; but such is not the case, for thought becomes subjectified in the Mind like a seed planted in the soil, and , unless neutralized, it stays there and determines the attraction and repulsion in the experience of the one thinking.  There is a constant action on the subjective side of life; and it is the unconscious process which decides what is going to happen in the outer experience.  Whatever we think, act, believe in, feel, visualize, vision, image, read and talk about - in fact all processes which affect or impress us at all - are going into the subjective state of our thought, which is our individualized use of the Universal Mind.  Whatever goes into the subjective state of our thought tends to return again as some condition.  So we, and we alone, control our destiny.

Law is Mind in Action

There is One Infinite Life acting through Law, and this Law is mental.   Law is Mind in action.  We are surrounded by an Infinite, subconscious, impersonal, neutral, plastic and ever-present Thinking Stuff, from which all things come, and which, in Its Original State, permeates and penetrates all things.

By impressing our thought upon this Substance, we can cause It to produce for us that which we think. Impressing our thought upon It is not an external act, for when we impress our thought upon ourselves, we are thinking into It. This is because of the Unity of all Mind.

Jesus said:  "As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."  Knowing the nature of Law, He did not say:  "It is done unto you as you wish."  He announced the universality of the Law when he called it a Law of Belief.

The Destructive Use of the Law

Someone may say, "I cannot imagine God not caring."  I cannot either, but we are dealing with Law.  Does the law of electricity care whether it cooks the dinner or burns the house?  Whether it electrocutes a criminal or warms a saint?  Of course, it does not.  Does the Urge which impels people to express, care whether a man kneels in ecstasy or lies drunk in the gutter?  We are dealing with Law, and it follows that since we are dealing with Law, It will ultimately bring back to us the result of the forces which we set in motion through It.

Consequently, no person who is enlightened would seek to use this Law destructively, for he would know that, sooner or later, the very power set in motion by himself would ultimately destroy him.  "All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." The Spirit of Christ is the spirit which constructively uses the Law.  The spirit of antichrist is the destructive use of the Law. The Spirit of Christ, being in line with the Cosmic Life, will always transcend, neutralize, destroy, and utterly obliterate the spirit of the Antichrist.  Finally, only the Spirit of Christ can succeed."

February 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATION

by Ernest Holmes

No Obstructions

There are no obstructions to Life's Path;

no hindrance to man's endeavors.

Let my Word be the Law of elimination to all thought of hindrance or delay.

And let the thing that I speak come forth into manifestation at once.

I behold it and see that it is even now done, complete and perfect.

February 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Unity ~ Ernest Holmes

"Our teaching is that man actually has a body; that he actually has a subjective life and that he actually is a spirit.  Body, soul, and spirit represent a point where individuality is accentuated in Universality.  It is only through this conception that we can arrive at a consciousness of the Unity of the Whole.  In other words, if I have one mind and you have one mind and God has another Mind...three separate minds...I cannot talk with you and you cannot talk with God.  If your mind and my mind were not the same mind, we would have no way by which to communicate with each other.  Thus we are forced to the conclusion that there is but One Mind.  Each individual, however, is a unique variation in the Universe; no two people are alike and yet all people are rooted in that which is identical. 

We recognize, then, in man's self-knowing mind his Unity with the Whole; for while a drop of water is not the ocean, yet it does contain within itself all the attributes of the limitless deep.  Man's self-knowing mind is the instrument which perceives Reality and cognizes or realizes Truth. All illumination, inspiration, and realization must come through the self-knowing mind in order to manifest in man.  Vision, intuition and revelation proclaim themselves through man's self-knowing  mind; and the saints and sages, the Saviours and Christs, the prophets and seers, the wise and learned have all consciously perceived and proclaimed this fact.

Every evidence of human experience, all acts of kindness and mercy, have interpreted themselves through man's self-knowing mind.  All that we consciously know, say or think, feel or believe, hope or long for, fear or doubt, is some reaction of the self-knowing mind. Subjective memories we have, and unexpressed emotions we feel, but to the self-knowing mind alone comes realization. Without this capacity to consciously know, man would not exist as an expressed being; and so far as we are concerned, would not exist at all.  The self-knowing mind of man proclaims itself in every thought, deed or act, and is truly the only guarantee of his divinity. It is his unity with the Whole, or God on the conscious side of life, and is an absolute guarantee that he is a center of God-consciousness in this vast Whole.

We will say, then, that in Spirit man is One with God.  But what of the great Law of the Universe?  If we are really One with the Whole, we must be One with the Law of the Whole, as well as One with the Spirit.  Again psychology has determined the fact to be more than fancy. The characteristics of the subconscious mind of man determine his Subjective Unity with the Universe of Life, Law and Action.

In the subjective mind of man we find a law obeying his word, the servant of his spirit, the mental law of his being, the creative factor within him.  This is our individual use of that greater Subjective Mind of the Universe, which is the seat of all law and action. Marvelous as this concept may be, it is none the less true that man has at his disposal in what he calls his subjective mind, a power which is Limitless.  Man's thought becomes the law of his life, through the one great Law of all Life. There are not two subjective minds; there is but One Subjective Mind, and what we call our subjective mind is really the use we are making of this One Law. 

Each individual maintains his identity in Law, through his personal use of Law, and each is drawing from Life what he thinks into it.  To learn how to think is to learn how to live.  Man, by thinking, can bring into his experience whatever he desires if he thinks correctly.  This is not done by holding thoughts, but by knowing the Truth. There is a vast difference, a difference which too few realize.

Modern science tends toward a teaching of Unity; tends to resolve the material universe into a physical universe, and the physical universe into energy. The tendency of modern thought is to return, by the route of inductive science, to the great spiritual deductions of the ages - that All is One.  But men are still puzzled, trying to reconcile the world of multiplicity - the objective world of many things - to their belief in the final necessity of Unity.  Every great spiritual teacher has known that God is One - not two. they have also known that evil exists in the world - what we mean by evil is apparent limitation - poverty, sickness, death and what we call sin, which is nothing more than a mistake.

How are we going to reconcile suffering and lack with the Goodness of God?  The difficulty is solved when we realize that all creation is an effect.  It is real enough - as real as it is supposed to be.  As you look about you, the mountain is a mountain, and the molehill is a molehill, the dust storm is a dust storm; but they are all effects.  As you enter your garden and observe the bamboo tree, the grape fruit, and the many other variations of form, you see each is rooted in the one creative soil, and each is individualizing out of this creative soil that which is unique. The type maintains its integrity always.

We observe in creation an atomic intelligence, then a simple consciousness; after which comes a personal consciousness, then a Cosmic consciousness.  These variations of consciousness are definitely defined and accepted by most investigators. As we watch the transition from the atomic to the simple intelligence, from the simple to the personal from the personal to the Cosmic, we find that we are merely going up a scale of Unity.  The Spirit is not something apart from matter so-called, but is something working through matter; the potential possibility of what we call the highest and the lowest is inherent in everything.  They are not different things. They are the same thing functioning at different levels. "It is neither Lo here nor Lo there, for behold the Kingdom of God is within."

There are different mental depths and heights fro which we may look out upon life; from whatever level we look, that which we see comes back to us  by an invariable law of attraction.  That which we look upon is real while we look at it.  We arrive at a consciousness of Unity only in such degree as we see that what we are lookin FOR , we are looking WITH, and looking AT. Heaven is lost merely for the lack of a perception of harmony.  Hell is the phantom abode of our morbid imaginations.  Heaven and Hell are states of consciousness."

February 19 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Limitless Medium ~ Ernest Holmes

"When we realize that in dealing with our own individuality, we are dealing with Self-Conscious Mind, and when we realize that in dealing with subjective mind, we are dealing with a Universal Subjectivity, we shall come to understand that we have a Creative Intelligence at our disposal, compared with which the united intelligence of the human race is as nothing.  The Universal Subjective Mind, being entirely receptive to our thought, is compelled by Its very nature, to accept that thought and act upon it no matter what the thought may be.

Since we are dealing with an Infinite Power, which knows only Its own ability to do, and since It can objectify any idea impressed upon It, there can be no limit to what It can or would do for us, other than the limit of our inward embodiment.  Limitation is not in Principle nor in Law, but only in the individual use we make of Principle.  Our individual use of It can only equal our individual capacity to understand It, to embody It. We cannot demonstrate beyond our ability to provide a mental equivalent of our desire.

Subjectivity is entirely receptive and neutral as we have learned, and It can take our thoughts only the way we think them - It has no alternative.  If I say, "I am unhappy," and continue to say it, the subconscious mind says, "Yes, you are unhappy," and keeps me unhappy as long as I say it, for thoughts are things, and an active thought will provide an active condition for good or evil.

Suppose one has thought poverty year after year, he has thereby personified a law which continues to perpetuate this condition.  If the thought is not erased the condition will remain.  A law has been set in motion which says "I am poor," and sees to it that this is so.  This is at first an auto-suggestion, then it becomes an unconscious memory, working day and night.  This is what decides how the Law of Attraction works for us, because the laws of attraction and repulsion are entirely subjective.  Our use of them may be conscious to start with, but it becomes subconscious as soon as used. 

Suppose I do not say I am poor, but that I came into the world with an unconscious  thought of poverty.  So long as this thought remains, I am likely to remain poor.  I may not understand the Law, but it will be working all the time.  We come into this world with a subjective tendency toward conditions, but we must not forget that we are also dealing with a subjective tendency toward ultimate good, because in spite of all conditions, the race believes more in good than in evil; otherwise it would not continue to exist.  This is the eternal hope and sense of our life.

The encouraging message in all of this is, no matter what may be in the subjective state of our thought, the conscious state can change it; this is what treatment does.  How can this be done?  Through the most direct method imaginable:  by consciously knowing that there is no inherited tendency toward limitation, no race suggestion operating through subjectivity, nothing in, around or through us that believes in or accepts limitation in any way, shape, manner or form.  We do not stop here, this is only half the treatment.  The conscious state must now provide a higher contemplation, a spiritual realization, which says:  "I partake of the nature and bounty of the All Good and I am now surrounded by everything which makes life worth while."  The Universal Medium at once changes Its thought (because Its thought is deductive only) and says:  "Yes, I am all these things in you," and immediately begins the work of bringing such conditions to pass. Whatever is held in consciousness until it becomes a apart of the subjective  side of thought, tends to take place in the world of affairs.  The reason that we do not demonstrate more easily is that the subjective state of our thought is too often neutralized by the objective state, though often this is an unconscious process of thought. 

Whatever our subconscious mind holds long enough, is bound to be produced in our external affairs.  Our subconscious Mind is the Medium in which we all live and move an have our being on the subjective side of life - our atmosphere in Universal Subjectivity - the Medium through which all intercommunication takes place on every plane. 

It follows from what we have said, that any suggestion held in Creative Mind would produce its logical result, no matter what such suggestion might be.  If it were a suggestion of good, it would construct, for this is a neutral field.

Christ and Antichrist

The Spirit of Christ means that mentality which recognizes the Law and uses It for constructive purposes only.  The spirit of antichrist means the spirit of the individual who understanding the Law, uses It destructively.  The meaning of the Flood or Deluge (which is recorded in every sacred scripture we have ever heard of or read) is that a race of people once lived upon the earth who came to understand the psychic or subjective Law as being the servant of the Spirit. They understood themselves to be Spirit, but they did not understand the harmonious Unity of Spirit.  They had arrived at an intellectual concept of the Law - a very clearly defined mental concept - but that knowledge was not used for constructive purposes. They used the Law destructively, and what happened?  The confusion which took place in the psychic world (or the psychic atmosphere of this planet) caused its physical correspondence in the form of a Deluge or the Flood.

There have been many controversies about the use and misuse of the Power of Mind.  Some claim that we cannot misuse this Power, since there is but One Mind and It cannot act against Itself.  MIND CANNOT ACT AGAINST ITSELF; AND ANY PERSON WHO KNOWS THIS, and KNOWS THERE IS  NO HUMAN MIND TO DESTROY, IS IMMUNE FROM MALPRACTICE.

We need have no fear of the misuse of this Law, if we protect ourselves by the realization that there is but One Ultimate Reality, for "against such there is no law."  We recognize Subconscious Mind as the Great Servant of our thought, the Medium through which all treatment operates; and this Universal Subjective Mind we contact within ourselves and nowhere else!  Being omnipresent, It is in us; our use of It we call our subjective mind, but of Itself It is Universal."

February 18 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Spirit, Soul and Body (continued) ~ Ernest Holmes

"There can be no real enjoyment of life until we see that everything is animated by the Spirit, and as we see that things are thus animated, we are beholding the real Universe. The Essence of Reality is invisible, but the substance of the invisible is seen and heard, and is a part of the everyday life of all!

We find that on the subjective or soul side, man is subconscious; but subconscious does not mean unconscious.  Subconscious merely means subjective to the conscious thought, compelled by reason of its subjectivity to receive what is put into it. It is Karmic Law, because it is the use we are making of Universal Subjectivity.  Karma means the Law of Cause and Effect.  Soul contains the memory because It is the receptacle for the seeds of our thought, and because It is the seat of memory it contains our inherited tendencies. It also contains the race-suggestion, for we are not dealing with a separated or isolated subjective mind, but with the One Subjective Mind - there is a vast difference between thinking of having three or four minds, and thinking of One Mind which we all use.

We treat of soul as being that part of our mental being which is subjective to the conscious mind.  From this viewpoint, the individual soul is an effect and not a cause.  This understanding of soul life is in accord with the deepest thought of the ages, and is a legitimate point of view in the light of recent investigations, in both the psychological and metaphysical fields.

The soul is the seat of memory, the mirror of mind in the individual. It is the creative power within us, creating from the patterns given it, and from the memories it contains.  We gather soul, or subjective force, as we accumulate the right kind of experiences.  The law of the soul is subject to the conscious spirit; tendencies set in motion in the soul, or subjective life, tend to produce their like in the objective world. From this is deduced the possibility of the healing power of the spoken word, operating thorough mental law, for the law of the mind is always subjective.

The soul, being the seat of memory, already contains a record of everything that has ever happened to us.  These memories as a whole, constitute the subjective tendency of the individual life; this tendency can be changed through constant effort and a determined persistency of purpose. The soul life of all people merges, more or less, and this creates the soul life of the race - the collective subjectivity of all humanity - called by some the "collective unconscious."  This "collective unconscious" contains a record of all human events that have ever transpired.  We are all, more or less, subject to this collective thought, since it acts as a powerful race suggestion.   The sum total of all erroneous human belief, binds until the individual mentally lifts himself above the law of averages into the higher law of Spiritual Individualism.

In studying man's relationship o the Universal, we have discovered how the spirit and soul of man are like the Spirit and Soul of the Universe.  Let us now consider the idea of body.  Body - effect, affairs, conditions, health, disease, destiny, riches, poverty, business, vocation, profession, results - any word which stands for the externalization of man's thought and endeavor, we class as a part of this body.

Man's outward life is a result of the subjective state of his thought. The thinker is conscious mind but when he thinks he lets fall the forms of his thought into Subjective Mind, which is the Universal Medium of all thought and action and, as a result of this, the Creative Medium at once sets to work to produce the thing outlined.

Plotinus, perhaps the greatest of the Neo-Platonic philosophers, in personifying Nature said:  "I do not argue, I contemplate; and as I contemplate, I left fall the forms of my thought," this is the manner in which Nature creates - It contemplates.  As a result of Its contemplation, It lets fall the seed of Its thought into the Universal Subjective which, being Law, produces the object thought about.  We must expect to find - and it is exactly what we do find - the same principle reproduced in man.  This means that whatever man thinks (whether it is what he calls good or bad) falls into this Universal Creative Medium, is accepted by It, is at once acted upon and unless neutralized tends to take objective form.

The objective man is body.  By objective or physical man, we mean the man who is formed, who has flesh and blood.  This physical man is in unity with all other physical or objective elements in the Universe, and in unity with the invisible Source from which they come. We analyze the body and find it is made of the same stuff from which a brick is made, not different in its essence, but different in its composition, its vibration.  There is One Universal Substance whose business it is to take form in multiplicity.

We are told that matter is not a solid, stationary thing; but a constantly flowing formless substance, which is forever coming and going - "an etheric whirl of energy" it has been called.  Whatever its nature is, it is as indestructible as God, as eternal as Timeless Being; nothing can be added to or taken from it.  The bodies we now have were not with us a short time ago; we discard many of them on our path through this life; for the substance of which they are composed is in a constant state of flow - a flowing substance, taking the form that Mind gives it.  How about the matter from which other things than the body are made?  It is all the same - ONE SUBSTANCE in the Universe, taking different forms and shapes and becoming different things.  Unity is expressed in multiplicity.

The last analysis of matter resolves it into a universal ether, and leaves nothing more than a stuff which may be operated upon; a force and energy, without volition, ready to become molded.  In the theoretical beginning of creation, the world was "without form and void."  There is no difference in the ultimate and minute particles which take innumerable forms - only a difference in the arrangement.  Our bodies are One with the Whole Body of the Universe; seeds, plants, cabbages and kings are all made of the same substance.  Minerals, solids, and liquids are made from this primordial Substance which is forever flowing into form and forever flowing out again into the void. 

Nothing could give form to a formless stuff, which has no mind of its own, but some Intelligence operating through it.  Here, then, we come back to the Word as the starting point of all Creation - God's Word in the Great Creation, the Great World, and man's word in the small world; One Spirit, One Mind, and One Substance.  One Law, but many ideas, one Power but many ways of using It.  One God, in Whom we all live, and One Law, which we all use.  ONE, ONE, ONE!!  No greater unity could be conceived than that which is already given.

So we find that man is one with the physical universe in which he lives.  The physical universe has no self-determination; we find that man's physical body is a latent mass of matter.  Our body is really one with the Body of God, with the physical universe, but body does not know it is body.  If feet knew they were feet with the physical capacity to walk, they might be cut off and still be able to run down the street on an errand.  IT IS ONE THING TO SAY THAT OUR FEET DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE FEET AND QUITE ANOTHER THING TO SAY THAT THEY ARE ILLUSIONS, yet all are agreed that they have no intelligence of their own.  Of itself, the physical universe is an effect.  So it is with the physical part of man which we call his body."

February 17 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Punishment and Reward ~ Ernest Holmes

"Before we leave this subject of bondage and freedom, we wish to make clear that there is no sin but a mistake, and no punishment but an inevitable consequence.  Wrong doing must be punished, for the Law of Cause and Effect must be eternally operative. Right acts are rewarded in the same manner.

We do not say that man cannot sin; what we say is, that he does sin - or make mistakes - and he is thereby automatically punished AS LONG AS HE CONTINUES TO MAKE MISTAKES; but bondage is not real to the Universe and sin is not real to God. This does not mean that we can do whatever we wish, with disregard for the consequences; nor does the fact that we are punished for our mistakes mean that there is an evil power in the Universe; it does mean that there is an immutable Law of Cause and Effect running through everything. We are not punished for our sins but by them.  Sin is its own punishment and righteousness is its own reward!

The age-long discussion of the problem of evil will never be answered until we realize that evil is not a thing of itself.  It is simply a misuse of the Law of Freedom.  The problem of evil will be met only to the degree that we cease doing evil and do good, for the evil will disappear when we no longer indulge in it.  When the whole world sees the right and does it; then, and not until then, will the problem of evil be solved for the entire race.

Spirit, Soul, and Body

It is necessary that we understand the Unity of all life, the Unity of God and man on all three planes.  We have studied Universal Spirit; Universal Subjectivity, which is called the Soul of the Universe, and Universal Spirit in manifestation, which is called the physical Universe, or the Body of God.

Studying man, we find that his body - like the physical Universe - devoid of mind or intelligence, has no volition.  It may be permeated with intelligence, but it is not intelligent.  It is one with the Body of God, the physical universe.

What did we learn about the Soul of the Universe?  Remember the qualities that were discussed under the head of Subjectivity, and you will find all of them depicted in what is called the subjective nature of man; for our subconscious or subjective mind reproduces all of the attributes belonging to Universal Subjective Mind.  When we turn to the spirit of man, we find that it is one with the Spirit of God, i.e., man is a self-conscious, thinking, choosing center of individualized intelligence, or God-Consciousness, in the great Whole.

So we find that man is one with everything physical in the physical world; one with the Soul of the Universe in the subjective world; and one with the Spirit of God in the conscious world.  Through that which we call our objective or conscious mind, comes what we know of God and Life.  The objective, or conscious mind is the spiritual mind for which we have been looking, but it is not fully developed.  If this were not so, there would be no mind with which to look.  The objective mind must be the spiritual mind of man, since it is the only thing about him which knows that he has life and is conscious of itself!

The whole of Spirit is potentially focused in our individual objective consciousness, but we have not yet evolved to a realization of this, except in a slight degree.  We approach and contact the Larger Spirit through our own spirit or conscious mind.  The doorway to the Absolute stands open at the center of our intuitive perception. We enter the Absolute through that which appears to be finite, because the finite must be drawn from the Infinite.  This Spirit which animates us is the same Spirit which animates all life and everything that lives. Emerson said that we animate what we see and see what we animate, the reason for this being that only as we truly see can the Divine Harmony be reflected through us and animate that which is seen.

The spirit of man is equipped with decision, will, choice, volition, intellect and purpose.  It is the microcosm within the Macrocosm, which means the little world within the big world.  It is also called the image of God; it is Sonship, the Sonship of the Father; it is Emmanuel or God with us; it is the Christ or Logos, which means the Word, it can reason both inductively and deductively.

The spirit of man seems to have an external and in internal perception.  Its external perception is by appearance; its internal, through intuition. Appearances would limit the future possibility of man to the uses he has already made of Life, and thus circumscribe the Infinite, hence we are told to judge righteously and not by appearances.  Plotinus tells us that there are three ways by which we gather knowledge:  through science, through opinion, and through intuition or illumination.  These channels represent spiritual capacities since each is an avenue leading to self-knowingness, and self-knowingness is the very nature and essence of Spirit.  Science is spirit inducing Its own laws.  Intuition is Spirit knowing Itself. Opinion is our estimate of Reality.  All are spiritual faculties and should be so considered in the study of this Science.  The race is growing into a broader divinity, from age to age, as more and more of Reality opens before its onward march in its eternal progress.

We should think of our spirit as being some part of the Universal Spirit, and of our minds as open to the Divine Influx.  As any specific knowledge must come  from the center of all knowledge, it follows that whenever and wherever the mind of man is open to the Divine Influx, it will receive instruction directly from the center and source of All.  Science, invention, art, literature, philosophy and religion, have one common center from which, through experience, is drawn all knowledge.

We should neither separate Spirit from matter...physical form from that which gives form...nor Life from living.  To supposed that one must retire from the world to be spiritual is one of the greatest possible mistakes.  This is directly opposed to the self-evident truth that Spirit enjoys Itself only in Its own works, which is Its self-manifestation  We enter into the Spirit of Life only as we enter into the spirit of living."

February 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Freedom or Bondage ~ Ernest Holmes

"We, therefore, arrive at the conclusion that while bondage is an experience, there is a Reality to which bondage is not real.  To that Reality bondage is not even an illusion or hallucination; there is a part of us that is never fooled.  That is why, in the midst of the greatest trial, death, or any human suffering, something rises from within and says with Job:  "Though I die, yet shall I live."

Freedom of will means the ability to do, say, and think as one wishes; to express life as one personally desires, to be able merely to think and dream of freedom would not be liberty. A prisoner under a life sentence can do that.  To imagine, without the power to manifest such imagination, would be to remain in a dream world which would never come to self-realization; this is not the world in which man lives at all, for man's world is one of self-expression, even though this expression appears to limit him.

We are in an Infinite Mind and Infinite Mind is also in us.  It is by this Mind that we think.  This Mind is eternal therefore, we are eternal.  This Mind is complete, therefore, we are spiritually complete, thought we do not appear to be so.  This does not alter the fact that potential man is just as perfect as is the inherent God.  As Jesus said:  "Fear no, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom;" if it is the Father's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom we should learn how to receive and use It.

A freedom under compulsion would amount to the worst kind of bondage.  The Bible says:  "If there had been any law whereby this freedom could be compelled, then verily by the law would that freedom have been given."  If there had been a way by which the Divine Creative Principle could have compelled man to suddenly appear on the scene of experience full-orbed with all his freedom - and still be an individual- then verily by the law would this have been done.  But even God could not do this. The only way God can evolve a spontaneous individual is to let him alone and allow him to awaken to himself.  "Behold I stand at the door and knock..."

So man must be created with the possibility of limitless freedom and let alone to discover himself.  On the road to self-discovery he must be subject to the Law of Reality, and if in ignorance he violates this Law, he must thereby suffer.  This is not, however, because any Divine decree ordains suffering but simply because it is the necessity of the case.  God never intended man to suffer.  Suffering may be salutary in that it leads us to a place where we learn that it is unnecessary!  We shall cease to suffer as we more and more comply with the Laws of the Universe, all suffering is the result of some infringement of these Laws. It is a solace to the mind when we come to understand that all human limitation, from the standpoint of the Divinity within us, is unnecessary.  We recognize that we experience pain, but how could there bean eternal reality to pain?  If this were true, we would have a suffering Universe, a suffering God, an agonizing Deity, all of which seem untrue, unreal and impossible.

We must know definitely and consistently that the Universe is for us and not against us.  But someone will say "The Universe is not for us, look at the evil, the limitation, lack and physical pain and anguish of the human race."  We shall have to learn that evil is neither person, place nor thing of itself, but is an experience which we are allowed to have - because of our divine individuality - until through negative experiences we learn to use the Law affirmatively, to cooperate with It, and thus to enjoy Its full benefits, for the true Law is a Law of Liberty and not of bondage.  The Universe is fool-proof.  It does say we can have what we can take, while at the same time we must expect toe experience the logical result of our thought and act, be it good or what we call evil.

The meaning of freedom implies the possibility of suffering, because if we are free we are free only by virtue of the possibility of choosing more than one course of action as an experience.  There is no freedom or happiness, as a spontaneous individuality, unless there can be a temporary restriction of bondage and unhappiness through the wrong use of freedom.  (All things are possible to the Infinite, but the Infinite forever remains true to Its own nature and never contradicts Itself.)

If man takes his images of thought only from his previous experiences, then he continues in the bondage which those previous experiences create.  If we talk about discord, we shall become more discordant.  The more the world arms for war, the more certain it is that there will be war. People who spend all their time talking about their unhappiness become more unhappy.  Jesus understood these great laws of cause and effect in the Universe, which work sometimes with apparent slowness but always with sureness.  Eventually we shall understand that all human bondage is an invention of ignorance."

February 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MAN'S RELATIONSHIP to the SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE ~ Ernest Holmes

Man Re-enacts the Nature of God

Whatever is true of the Universe as a Whole must also be true of the individual as some part of this Whole.  Man is evolved from the Universe as a self-conscious, thinking center of Living Spirit, and as such he must, in his nature and being, reproduce the Universe.

If we realize that God is "Triune" and that man is a spiritual likeness of God we shall see that the whole scheme of Life, and the whole nature of the Divine Being, is reenacted through man.  This, of course, does not mean that man is God.  It means that in his small world of individual expression, his nature is identical with God's.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, "As the Father hath life within Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life within himself."  This refers to the inherent Life, real Life.  That is the only life God could have.  We must expect to find in man, therefore, the same inherent attributes that we find in the Universe from which he springs.  A single drop of water is not the whole ocean, but it does contain within itself the same qualities and attributes.

Man is made out of and from Life.  As effect must partake of the nature of its cause, so man must partake of the Divine Nature from which he springs.  We did not create our nature; We cannot change its inherent reality; we are what we are and we use this nature for better or for worse.  Being what we are there are certain responsibilities that go with our natures - certain obligations; if our thought is creative and if we have selectivity - that is, volition and choice - and if we are unfolding to a discovery of our true nature, which must already be perfect, then the obligation and responsibility of this nature could impose freedom or bondage upon us temporarily, but our bondage cannot be real from the standpoint of the Absolute.

The World Has Learned All It Should Through Suffering

The Science of Mind and Spirit, makes a tremendous claim when it states that the individual should be free from the bondage of sickness, poverty and unhappiness.  It does, however, carefully set forth the conditions under which freedom operates and the laws governing Life, stating in no uncertain terms that unless man understands these conditions and obeys these laws, he will not receive full benefit from its teachings.

The world is beginning to realize that it has learned all it should through suffering and pain.  Surely there can be no Intelligence in the Universe that wishes man to be sick, suffer pain, be unhappy and end in oblivion.  Surely if God or Universal Intelligence is imbued with goodness, then It could not ordain that man should ultimately be other than a perfect expression of Life.

We have shown that man's nature is the same as God's Nature; we should have no intellectual difficulty in realizing that an Infinite Intelligence could not make an automatic individuality, and this explains why man suffers on his road to self-discovery.  His suffering is not God-ordained, because he creates his own experience as he becomes individualized.  By individuality is mean self-choice, volition, conscious mind, personified Spirit, complete freedom, and a POWER TO BACK UP THAT FREEDOM.  We cannot imagine a mechanical or unspontaneous individuality; to be real and free, individuality must be created in the image of Perfection and let alone to make the great discover for itself.

February 14 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATION

Love to the World

Ernest Holmes

My Love goes out to everyone in the world;

I do not exclude anything, for I love all Nature and everything that is.

My Love warms and lightens everything that it touches, and it goes out into all places.

the Love flowing through me is a Power to all who come into contact with it, and all feel and know that I love.

Love within me is Complete and Perfect.

February 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Immortality ~ Ernest Holmes

Suppose we should be able to view the world, not as we do now from one plane but from ten different planes, what would happen?  We should certainly see ten times as much as we do now.  The present hypothesis of science is, that ether is more solid than matter; and this means that there could be a form within the very form that one's body now occupies in space; there might be innumerable bodies each within the other; and each would be just as real as the one we now think we occupy.  The Universe as we see it is not even a fractional part of the Universe that actually is, "Eye hath not seen...etc..." because it sees only on one plane and only in part.

From the standpoint of immortality we may have a body within a body to infinity.  When this physical body is rendered useless and is no longer a fit instrument through which to function, another one may be already there!

The physical disappearance of Jesus after his Resurrection was the result of the spiritualization of his consciousness.  This so quickened his mentality that his body disintegrated, and his followers could not see him because he was on another plane.  Planes are not places; they are states of consciousness.

Is it apparent that Spirit can know nothing outside Itself; that whatever the Spirit knows must be a definite mental image, concept or idea, in the Consciousness of the Spirit?  Is it clear that as the Self-Consciousness of Spirit knows within Itself, It knows upon Itself as Law?

Is it clear that the Law can never say "I will not," but can only act as instructed?  And is it clear that as the Spirit lets fall the form of Its thoughts into the Soul or Subjectivity of the Universe, these thoughts must manifest as things?  As Form? As Body?

A Divine Mental Picture

As we look at the many millions of forms all of different shape and color, and yet know that they all come from One Stuff, are we not compelled to accept the fact that there is a specific cause, or concrete mental image back of every idea or thing, a Divine Mental Picture?  in the subjective world, there must be a correspondent of everything in the objective world; and since the subjective world is a receptive or plastic substance, this correspondence can find its initial starting point only in real Intelligence.  Therefore, Intelligence is the ultimate creative agency of the Universe!

February 12 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Unity and Multiplicity ~ Ernest Holmes

"The stuff out of which our human bodies are made is the same etheric substance from which all things are made. The One Mind conceives all things.  From Unity - which is the One, back of all things, through the One Law, which is the Medium of all action - multiplicity is manifested, but the many never contradict the Unity of the whole.  When we realize that we are dealing with an Infinite Intelligence, and with an Infinite Law within this Intelligence, we see that no limit should be placed upon the Creative Principle.

Could we understand Absolute Causation, we should perceive It to be pure Intelligence operating through perfect Law, and producing effects which live and have their being, not by virtue of an isolated life buy by reason of a Universal Unity which permeates all things.  We should then see that the world of multiplicity is deep-rooted in a Universe of Unity; that nothing happens by chance; that we live under a government of Law - from the vast planetary system to a garden of roses; from the Archangel (the Christ), to the saint and the sinner; through good an in what is called evil.  Thorough cosmic activities and in human destinies, we behold the vast objective panorama of invisible, but adequate, subjective causes.

We should not separate Life from living, Spirit from matter, nor Divine Principle from a Universal Creation.  God is "All in all."  That is, God IS, and is in everything.  The gardener finds a divine idea concealed in the seed; loosed into action this idea produces a plant.  The geologist finds the imprint of invisible forces in the rock.  The evolutionist reads the history of cosmic activities on this planet, as he deciphers the unfolding of an Intelligent Life Force carrying creation forward to its consummation point here, which is the production of self-conscious life.  The scientist finds an energy concealed in the atom, and the spiritual genius discloses an intuitive knowledge, which can be accounted for only on the theory that we lie in "the lap of an Infinite Intelligence."

So close is the union of creation with the Creator, that it is impossible to say where one begins and the other leaves off.  Emerson tells us that nature is Spirit reduced to Its greatest thinness; and Spinoza says that Mind and matter are the same thing; while Jesus proclaimed that the very words which he spoke were Spirit and were life.  Robert Browning writes of the spark which we may desecrate, but never quite lose, and he further announces that all are gods, "though in the germ."  Wordsworth sings that Heaven is that native home of all mankind, and Tennyson exclaims that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams, while Shakespeare perceived sermons in stones and good in everything.

We are on the verge of disclosing a spiritual Universe, and will ultimately conclude that what we call the physical universe is a spontaneous emergence, through evolution of inner forces which cannot be explained, but which must be accepted.  How, then, can we doubt that the very mind which we now use is the Intelligent Principle from which all life draws its power to be and its intelligence to express?

The furtherance of evolution depends upon our ability to sense a unity with Nature and her forces.  When the knowledge of this unity comes alike to all, the tread of armies will cease and the bugle call will echo the soft notes of brotherly love."

February 11 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Cause and Effect ~ Ernest Holmes

"Effect is that which did not make itself but must have a power back of it, causing it to be.  All manifestation, all body, is effect, and is subject to its cause!

The Creator is greater than His creation.  Everything we see, touch, taste, feel, hear or grasp with the physical senses, is an effect.  "Things which are seen are not made of things which do appear."  What we see comes from that which we do not see.

If self-knowingness is in Spirit, and if the Law which executes the volition of Spirit is entirely subconscious, or subjective to the Will of Spirit, it follows that both cause and effect are spiritual!  Involved within the idea which the Spirit drops into the Creative Medium, is everything necessary to bring this idea into form.  Spirit never thinks of methods or processes, for that which the Spirit involves must evolve!  The contemplation of Spirit, the Self-Knowingness of God, produces involution.  Evolution is the passing of thought into manifestation.

To put it another way:  All is Infinite Being and all is eternally becoming.  Infinite Being is Infinite Knowingness; as the result of this Infinite Knowingnesss, there is an Infinite Becomingness or Creation. The Infinite Knowingness produces what is called involution through the self-contemplation of Spirit.  As the result of this contemplation - the Word of the Bible - Creation is made manifest.  This is evolution.

Evolution is the process, the way, the time, and the experience that transpires as Thought - or Intelligence, or Idea, or Contemplation - passes from abstract Being into concrete expression.  Consequently, evolution is an effect of intelligence and not the cause of it!  EVOLUTION IS NOT CREATING INTELLIGENCE; INTELLIGENCE IS PROJECTING EVOLUTION.  We do not deny the theory of evolution; we affirm its cause to be Intelligence, operating as Consciousness and Law."

February 10 ~ The Science of Mind

Form Within the Formless ~ Ernest Holmes

"Our physical body is like other physical manifestations.  The idea of body is an image derived from the fountain of all ideas.  The form is a materialization from the Substance of all forms.  All bodies are made out of the same stuff. This one stuff is an inanimate and infinite stuff, and is equally distributed in the universe - much like the modern idea of the ether of space - and IT IS THE NATURE OF THIS STUFFF TO TAKE FORM!  Therefore, form is entirely in the realm of effect.  Form comes and goes but it is not self-knowing.  Form is within the formless.  Form is not an illusion, even when it is the form of disease; it then represents a false conclusion, but is as real as it is supposed to be.  If the formless did not take form Spirit would never arrive at self-realization. 

The Formless takes form in what we call "time."  "Time is a sequence of events in a unitary wholeness;" it is recollection, attention, and anticipation - past, present, and future - simply the measure of experience.  Of course time is real, but never a thing of itself.  If the Timeless did not manifest in what we call time, it would never come to self-fruition.  Therefore we have form and time, and what we call space, which is never a thing of itself but the possibility of outline.  If there were not such outline we would walk through each other without recognition.  Form is real as form but is not self-conscious, it is subjective to the power that created it.  Forms come and go but the Power back of them is Changeless.  Form is temporary but Mind is eternal."

February 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

That Which Changes ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We have learned that Spirit is the Absolute Being, that It is the only thing in the universe which has self-knowingness, volition, choice or will.  The Soul is the servant of the Spirit and has no choice and no purpose other than to execute the purpose given It.  The Spirit of the Universe cannot change; begin ALL, there is nothing for It to change into.  The Soul of the Universe must obey the Will of the Spirit.  THE BODY OF THE UNIVERSE CANNOT HELP CHANGING!  This is what constitutes the eternal activity of Spirit within Itself; the Spirit passing into form - creation eternally going on.  Since Spirit must be manifest in order to be conscious, there must be a way in which It manifests and there must be a manifestation.  So we have Soul and Body.  Body, the manifestation and Soul, the Way, or Law by which It manifests."

February 8 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

BODY ~ Ernest Holmes

Definition

The Universe has been called the Great Trinity, or Triune Unity of Spirit, Soul and Body - the Body being the result, the effect, the objectification of Spirit.  Soul is the immaterial, plastic and receptive Medium.  It is primordial or Cosmic Stuff, unmanifest form.  Body is the result of Spirit working through Soul or Law.  THE ENTIRE MANIFESTATION OF SPIRIT, BOTH VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, IS THE BODY OF GOD. There is One Body of the Universe.  Within this One Body is included all lesser bodies.

Body means the entire manifestation of Spirit on all planes.  "In my father's house are many mansions," said Jesus.  We do not, of course, see all these mansions.  Science has revealed to us that many exist which we do not see and revelation has shown that the Universe is Infinite..."For we know in part, and we prophesy in part."

The word "body" as used in the Science of Mind means all objective manifestations of the invisible Principle of Life.  The body is distinguished from the idea, in that the body is seen while the idea is invisible.  The physical universe is the Body of God - the invisible Principle of all life.  Our physical being is the body of the unseen man.  Behind the objective form of the rose is the idea that projects the rose.

Body is always an effect, never a cause.  Body expresses intelligence, its apparent intelligence being lent by the consciousness which permeates it.  We would not say that consciousness is in the body, but rather that body is in consciousness!  If one is unconscious he has neither pain nor fear.  Pain and fear are in consciousness, but consciousness so completely envelopes the body that it appears to be intelligent.

Perhaps the human body is an exact counterpart of an invisible body which is non-material as we now understand matter and physical form.  The physical body is evolved for the purpose of allowing consciousness to function on this plane.  The body is necessary to this plane, since only through a physical body can we properly function here.  When the body is no longer a fit instrument the soul deserts it and continues to function on another plane.

To say that the body is unreal is a mistake.  It is real but is an effect, not an entity.  It may yet be proven that the mind completely controls the body, and that the body is but a reflection of the mind.  In no way would this contradict the reality of the body nor the experience of pain and sickness, but it might help in an understanding of these experiences.  While we may affirm that the body is not a thing of itself, we cannot say there is no body.  The simplest way to think of body is to realize that it is the objective manifestation of a subjective mind and consciousness; and if we are to be well and happy, not only the body but the mind also must be peaceful and harmonious.

Psychology has shown that physical (or subjective) disturbances produce physical reactions in the body.  If the body is to be permanently well, the soul or subjective life must be in poise, the mind peaceful and happy.  It may be considered as a general rule that when the soul is poised in true spiritual realization the body will be normal and healthy.  This is the purpose of mental healing, whether it be approached from the psychological or metaphysical angle.  Psychology and metaphysics are but two ends of the same thing.  So we treat the body as a legitimate effect, controlled by the soul life.

February 7 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help and Healing ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"In these short meditations I have tried to set forth some ideas which my experiences in mental healing have given me.  I have found that a few brief statements, mentally affirmed, followed by a silent meditation, have been most effective in the healing work.

Most of these meditations have been written in the first person in order that those using them may be able to do so just as they are written.

It is not claimed that there is any occult power in the words, but that words similar to these are effective in inducing a greater realization of life.

First, decide which meditation you wish to use; then become quiet and composed.  Then carefully read the meditation several times, phrase by phrase, endeavoring to realize the meaning of the words and trying to enter into the atmosphere of the thought.  After having done this, meditate upon the words, following that meditation until  you feel a sense of realization."

My Profession

My profession is the Activity of the Great Mind working through me.

As such It is a Divine Activity and is constantly in touch with Reality.

I am inspired in my work from On High with lofty ideals, And my thought is illumined by the All-Knowing One.

February 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Subjectivity Never an Entity (continued) ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

When we give a treatment, that treatment is a spiritual entity in a subjective world, and it has ways and means and methods to project itself, which the conscious mind knows nothing of, and yet it is subject to the conscious thought!  Plotinus had a clear concept when he said:  "Nature is the great No Thing, yet It is not exactly nothing, because it is Its business to receive the impressions of Spirit."  He spoke of that which we call undifferentiated substance as an indeterminate thing having no mind of its own.  Its mind is always made up for it.

Most of this chapter has dealt with the Universal Soul, but in another chapter we shall discuss more fully the manner in which man re-enacts the Nature of God.

February 5 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Soul Reasons Deductively ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Before we leave this subject of Soul, we should understand perfectly that it is impossible to divide Mind. We speak of the conscious and the subjective; the self-conscious and the unconscious, and the terms are confusing unless we remember that consciousness is always a unity.  We arbitrarily divide the different activities of consciousness in order that we may discuss how thought works.

There are two ways of reasoning , the inductive and the deductive method.  Inductive reasoning is an inquiry into the truth; it is a process of analysis.  Deductive reasoning follows an already established premise. It is from the whole to the part.

Since inductive reasoning is an analysis, an inquiry into Truth, it follows that God can only reason deductively, since God is Truth.  That which is Infinite does not have to inquire into the Truth.  Consequently, there can be no inductive reasoning either in the Spirit or the Soul of the Universe.  There can be no inductive reasoning in Spirit, because It already knows all things.  There can be no inductive reasoning in the Soul of the Universe, because It is the Creative Medium, and if It could reason inductively, It could reject certain thoughts because It could analyze; and Soul or Subjectivity can never reject.  It is bound by Its own Nature to accept.  It is impersonal and neither knows nor cares who uses It. It is formless, having no mind of Its own.  It has been called the Universal Feminine or the Holy Womb of Nature, because It is receptive and creative.  It is Karmic Law because It is subjective to the Self-Knowing Mind.  It is the medium of the law of cause and effect, of all race suggestion. 

If a convicted felon in a prison garden were to plant pink roses, the soil would produce just as lovely flowers for him as for the most beautiful picture star.  All that would be necessary in either case would be a compliance with the Law regarding the planting of roses.  So, the Soul is without conscious consciousness, but is conscious in relationship to the impressions It has received (whether they be Truth or only belief) and with mathematical certainty and precision, backed by the law of Its own being, it proceeds to execute the ideas given It.  Thus it is plainly seen that the Soul can only reason deductively.

Subjectivity Never an Entity

The Subconscious, or Subjective, is never an entity, although It acts as though It were.  The Creative Medium is a medium only, never a person.  It is necessary that we understand this, because one of the first things a practitioner has to do is to separate the belief from the believer. From the standpoint of the spiritual man, disease, poverty, unhappiness and misery, are neither person, place nor thing.

February 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How Can Spirit Create? ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"No one has ever plumbed the depths of either the conscious or the subjective life.  In both directions we reach out to Infinity, and, since we cannot encompass Infinity, we shall always be expanding and always enlarging our capacity to know and to experience.  We do not need to ask why these things are so.  There can be no reason given as to why  the Truth is true.  How can Spirit of Itself create a new form?  I do not know.  As Newton said, the fact that we are able to announce the mystery is the mystery.  We do not say to the physicist who has studied and photographed the atom "WHY does it act as it does?"  He knows no more about the reason for its action than we do.  All that he knows is, that he has learned something of the way the laws of its nature operate.  We do not create laws and principles, but discover and make use of them.  Let us accept this position relative to the laws of Mind an Spirit and see what we can do with them, rather than how we may contradict their existence."

February 3 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How We Use the Creative Principle ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

If, through the Law, thought is creative, we cannot say that one thought will create while another will not.  We must admit that all though is creative, according to the impulse, emotion or conviction behind the thought. Our theory is that the medium is a Universal, simultaneous Presence and in this Presence all live; and that whatever is known at one point in It is known at all points, instantly!  So if we, practicing this Principle in Los Angeles, declare the truth about some John Smith who lives in New York (or at any other place in the world) the speaking of his name draws the Law into the vibration of his personality, his individuality.  Mentally, physically, spiritually, he is now in It.  We have, so to speak, tuned into the keynote of his being  This being is also at the center of our being, therefore, the mental work is done in our being, for him; but it must, and does, operate through Law.  This Law is subjective.

Mind and Ether

In an interesting article by Sir Oliver Lodge (in which he writes about ether and the laws of the physical universe) he says that no two physical particles really touch each other, no two electrons.  They are all divided from each other by a space which is relative to the space between the planetary bodies, and they never once touch each other, throughout their existence, other than through the medium of this ether.  Lodge calls the ether "the cement of matter."  His theory is that just as the laws of attraction and repulsion, gravitation, adhesion and cohesion, operate through the ether, so there must be a Universal Mind that operates upon the ether, or upon Mind; or that Mind must operate upon mind, through the medium of the ether; or perhaps the ether is Mind?  His conclusion is that Mind and ether interact.

We think of the ether of Mind as a Universal Subjectivity, the Soul of the Universe.  Just as the ether of space is a medium for physical action, so this Universal Subjectivity is the medium for mental action.  Anything that has ever been thought at any time in the history of man, exists today in a subjective state in Universal Mind.  When we get into the field of Mind, there is no past, present or future.  They merge into one medium.

February 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOUL ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Creative Medium

"We have spoken of the threefold Nature of Reality or God- the Trinity of Being- as Spirit, Soul and Body:  Conscious Intelligence, Subjective Law, and Form.  This threefold unity of Reality has been taught by most of the great spiritual philosophies and religions that have been given to the world.

We are using the word "Soul" in the sense of a Universal Soul, or Medium, through which Spirit operates.  It is the Holy Ghost, or third Person of the Chistian Trinity.  Like the creative soil, in which seeds are planted and from which plant life comes, the Soul of the Universe is the Creative Medium into which the Word of Spirit falls and from which Creation arises.

We should not, however, think of Soul and Spirit as separate from each other.  They are really two parts or aspects of the same thing, each being Self-Existent and Co-Eternal with the other.  The term Subjective Mind is used in speaking of the Univeral Soul, rather than the term Subconscious Mind, to avoid the impression that subjective means unconscious.  MIND NEVER COULD BE UNCONSCIOUS!  The Soul is subjective to Spirit, receives impressions from Spirit.  The Subjective Mind which we call Soul, is not a knower in the sense that Spirit is, i.e., It is not Self-Conscious.  It knows only to do without knowing why It does.  It is a doer or executor of the will of the Spirit and has no choice of Its own.  It is the business of Soul to reflect the images that Spirit casts into It.

Subjective Intelligence

The Soul is immaterial as we think of matter, but It is the Substance of Spirit and perhaps we could use the expression, "the matter of Spirit."  As all matter in the physical world is supposed finally to resolve into the ether form which it came, we may think of the Substance of Soul as we think of the ether of science, and realize that all form finally becomes Soul-Stuff again.

Perhaps the simplest way would be to think of It as the last and final analysis of matter.  (We continue to use this word in the face of the knowledge that scientists, in theory, have already done away with matter.)  We know that matter comes from somewhere, and the teaching is that Soul-Stuff is the source from which it comes.  We must, however, distinguish Soul-Stuff from Soul.  Soul is Subjective Intelligence, the Principle just beneath Spirit; for, while Soul may not have the conscious Intelligence to choose, It certainly has the Intelligence to execute the desire of Spirit.  IT IS NEVER IN ANY SENSE UNCONSCIOUS.  The Soul of the Universe is next in Principle to Spirit and is the servant of Spirit.  The term "Soul-Stuff" refers to the primordial or undifferentiated Substance from which all things are made.

While the Soul may not choose, having no self-consciousness of Its own, yet It has an Intelligence which is infinite, compared to the intelligence which we exhibit.  For instance, the combined intelligence of the race could not create the life of a plant, yet the Intelligence in the creative soil of the earth will produce as many for us as we ask, when we plant the seed of that which we wish to have created.

The same principle holds good in that greater Creative Medium of the Spirit, which we call the Soul of the Universe.  It has the Intelligence and Power to produce, but no choice as to what It is to produce.  Having no conscious mind of Its own, It receives all ideas given It, and tends to create a form around them.  If It could choose, It could reject, and this is as impossible as for the soil to say, "You must not plant spinach this year, you must plant cauliflower."  We can imagine what consternation would prevail throughout the world if just once the soil failed to function according to the law of its nature.  We need not be disturbed by such a fear.  It is bound to accept and to act.  It does not argue but at once begins to create a likeness of the pattern given it.  If we say "petunias," right back to us it says "petunias," and begins immediately the business of producing them.  Being a neutral, creative medium which knows neither good nor bad, it is conscious only of its own ability to do.  This is why some of the earlier philosophers referred to the Universal Soul, or Creative Medium, as a "blind force, not knowing, only doing."  This we know to be true of the nature of all law.  We are not discussing the Nature of the Spirit.  We are talking about Law.

Law

It must be apparent by now that the Creative Medium of Spirit is the great Mental Law of the Universe.  It is the Law, obeying the Will of the Spirit; It is the Universal Law of Mind.  All law is Mind in action.  Soul is the Medium through which all Law and all Power operate.  Being subjective, It cannot analyze, dissect or deny.  Because of Its Nature, It must always accept.  The Karmic Law, which means the Law of Cause and Effect, works through the medium of the Universal Soul, which is the Creative Principle of Nature and the Law of Spirit.

Let us bear in mind that neither Spirit nor the Soul of the Universe were ever created.  Each is eternal. Because this impartial, impersonal Soul is the medium through which Spirit works, and because It is a "blind force not knowing, only doing," It was called by the ancients "Maya," from which arose the teachings of the illusions of the mind - the mirror of the mind.

What is termed Subjective Mind, as the average person comprehends it, has no existence.  In reality, there is no such thing as your subject mind and my subjective mind.  If our subjective minds were isolated and things of themselves, we would be so completely separated that there would be no means by which we could communicate with each other. The next great bridge that psychology must cross is a recognition that what is called your subjective mind and my subjective mind is merely the place where Universal Subjectivity, the Creative Medium Itself, reacts to our personal use of It.

Within us, then, there is a creative field which we call subjective mind, and around us there is a field which we call Universal subjectivity.  One is Universal, the other individual, but in reality they are one.  There is One mental Law in the Universe and where we use It, It becomes our law, because we have individualized It.  It is impossible to plumb the depths of the individual mind, because it is not really individual but individualized.

Behind or within the individualized point is the Universal, which has no limits.  In this concept alone lies the possibility of an endless and an eternal expansion.  Everyone is Universal on the subjective side of life and individual only at the point of conscious perception.  We use the power of the Universal Mind every time we think!"