October 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

The Spirit of Prophecy (Continued)

"To repeat this in a clearer way, perhaps:  Subjective Mind can deduce only; It has no power of initiative or self-choice, and is compelled by Its very nature to retain all the suggestions which It receives.  The best illustration of this is in the creative soil, in which the gardener plants his seed.  The soil does not argue nor deny, but goes to work on the seed and begins to create a plant which will represent the type of manifestation inherent, as idea, in the seed; from a cucumber seed, we get cucumbers, and from a cabbage seed, we get cabbages.  Always the law maintains the individuality of the seed as it creates the plant; never does it contradict the right of the seed to be what it really is.  Involved within the seed is the idea of the plant, as are also those lesser ideas which are to act as a medium between the seed and the plant.  Involved within the seed are both cause and effect, but the seed must first be placed within the creative soil if we wish to see the plant.  In the creative soil (or in the seed) the full and perfect idea of the plant must exist as a completed thing, else it could never be brought into manifestation.  The idea of the full-grown plant must exist somewhere in the seed and soil, if it is ever going to materialize.

This teaches us a lesson in subjectivity.  Thoughts going into the subjective are like seeds; they act through the creative medium of Mind and must have, within themselves, the full power to develop and to express; but how could they express unless they were already known to Mind?  THEY COULD NOT, so Mind must view the thought as already completed in the thing; and Mind must also contain the avenue through which the idea is to be expressed.  EVERY THOUGHT SETS THE FULFILLMENT OF ITS DESIRE IN MOTION IN MIND, AND MIND SEES THE THING AS ALREADY DONE!"

October 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

The Spirit of Prophecy

"We have explained how it is that the psychic vision can look into the past and see what has transpired - by reason of the fact that it is dealing with a field in which there is no past, no present and no future, but merely a continuation of being.  Because this is so, any incident which has transpired in the past is an active thing in the present, unless the vibration is neutralized, when it no longer has existence anywhere.

Just as it is true, apparently, that the incidents of the past continually rehearse themselves in the same manner that a picture hanging on the wall for the next ten thousand years (if nothing happens to it) will look just as it does now, so anyone contacting an previous incident, clairvoyantly, will see it as though it were now transpiring...not past.   This is the way in which clairvoyant vision operates.  The continuation of the past, through the present, into the future, is a movement of causation passing from cause to effect; and because the movement is first set in motion in a field of Mind which is purely subjective, both cause and effect will exist at any point during the sequence of this movement.  The clairvoyant vision, then, contacting it at any point - even before the final outcome - will see the final outcome.

There is nothing fatalistic about this. A thing can appear to be fatalistic without necessarily being so.  This we should understand, because the human mind in its ignorance has created great psychic laws for itself.  Therefore, if one has been told anything in the way of a prophecy which is negative, it should be directly refuted, because that negation exists in the realm of subjective causation...not spiritual causation."

October 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Streams of Consciousness

"Each being an individual entity in Mind is known by the name he bears, and by the vibration which he emanates; for while we are all in One Mind or Spirit, each has a separate and individualized personality.

According to the Unity of Mind, thought is everywhere present, and so long as it persists it will remain present.  What is known in one place, may be known in all places.  Time, space and obstructions are unknown to Mind and thought.  It follows, that anyone tuning into our thought, will enter into our stream of consciousness, no matter where we are and no matter where he may be.  If we still persist after the body shall have suffered physical death (and we are convinced that we shall) this law must still hold good, for past and present are one and the same in Mind.  Time is only the measure of an experience, and space, of itself, is not apart from, but is in, Mind. 

A psychic can enter the stream of thought of anyone whose vibration he can mentally contact, be that person in the flesh or out of it; and since we are all psychic - all having a soul element - we are all doubtless communicating with each other to the degree that we sympathetically vibrate toward each other.  We do not all have the ability to objectify psychic impressions and ordinarily they never come to the surface.  However, they are there just the same.  This is why we often feel uneasy in the presence of certain people, or when we mentally contact some condition and are aware of a disturbed inner feeling, without any apparent reason.

There are many normal psychics who can, while in a perfectly objective state, read people's thoughts and perform many other wonderful feats of the mind.  This is normal and no harm can come from it.  It is, indeed, one of Nature's ways of working and is most interesting.  Any psychic power which can be used while in a normal state of mind is harmless and helpful; by this we mean one that can be used while one is in a conscious state."

October 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Tuning in on Thought

"Thought-transference, or telepathy, is such a commonly known fact that it is not our purpose to do other than discuss it briefly.  However, there are some facts which might be overlooked unless we give them careful attention.  The main fact to emphasize is that mental telepathy would not be possible, unless there were a medium through which it could operate.  This medium is Universal Mind, and it is through this medium, or avenue, that all thought-transference, or mental telepathy, takes place.

Telepathy is the act of reading subjective thought, or of receiving conscious thought from another without audible words being spoken.  But there must be a mental tuning in, so to speak, just as there must be in radio.  We are surrounded by all sorts of vibrations and if we wish to catch any of them distinctly, we must tune in.  Even then, there is a great deal of interference and we do not always get the messages clearly.  We often get the wrong ones and sometimes many of the vibrations come together and seem to be nothing but a lot of noises, without any particular reason for being.  It is only when the instrument is property adjusted to some individual vibration that a clear message may be received.

This is true of mental telepathy, which is the transmission of thought; the receiver must tune in.  It does not follow, however, that the sender knows that this is taking place, any more than a radio speaker knows how many are tuning in to hear his address.  In other words, one might pick up on thoughts just as he picks up radio messages.  Some have the ability to tune in on thought and read it more or less accurately.  These people we call psychics, but all people are really psychic, since all have a soul or subjective mind.  What we really mean is that a psychic, or medium, is one who has the ability to objectify that which is subjective - to bring to the surface of conscious thought that which lies below the threshold of the outer mind.  The medium reads the book of remembrance and it is marvelous how far-reaching this book may be.  Whatever may have happened at any time on this plane remains within its subjective atmosphere as a memory picture of the experiences of those who have lived here.  These pictures, or vibrations, may be clearly discerned by those who can read them.

Since the Universal Subjectivity is a Unity it follows that all of these pictures exist at any and every point within It.  Consequently, we may contact at the point of our own subjective mind (which is a point in Universal Subjective Mind) every incident which has ever transpired on this planet.  We might even see a picture which was enacted two thousand years ago in some Roman arena, for the atmosphere contains such pictures.

Each person in his objective state is a distinct and individualized center in Universal Mind, but in his subjective state (in his stream of consciousness, or at his rate of vibration) each is Universal, because of the Indivisibility of Mind.  Wherever and whenever any individual contacts another upon the subjective side of life, if he is a psychic (if he objectifies subjectivity) he may see a thought form of that person, but it does not necessarily follow that he would really be seeing the person.

We need not be astonished when a psychic gives us the complete history of our family, even to reciting the things that engaged the attention of our ancestors while they were on earth.  The psychic is merely reading form the subjective remembrance."

October 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Mental Atmospheres

"Each person has a mental atmosphere which is the result of all that he has thought, said and done, and consciously or unconsciously perceived.  The mental atmosphere is very real, and is that subtle influence which constitutes the power of personal attraction, for personal attraction has but little to do with looks.  It goes much deeper and is almost entirely subjective.  This will explain our likes and dislikes for those with whom we come in daily contact.  We meet some only to turn away without a word, while others we are at once drawn toward, and without any apparent reason.  This is the result of their mental atmosphere or thought vibration.  No matter what the lips may be saying, the inner thought outspeaks them, and the unspoken word often carries more weight than the spoken."

October 25 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

Born of Eternal Day

Child of All Good, you are born of Eternal Day.

There is no evening of the Soul, for it shall live forever.

It is Deathless and Perfect, Complete and One with the Ever-lasting.

No thought of tomorrow can disturb the calm of him who knows that Life is one Eternal Day.

No fear can enter where Love reigns, and Reason keeps faith with Hope.

The thoughts of the tomorrows and the yesterdays are swallowed up in the great realization of the Perfect Here and the Complete Now.

Today I completely accept my wholeness.

I Arise and Go Forth

I arise and go forth into the Dawn of the New Day, filled with faith and assurance in the All Good.

I arise, I arise, I sing with joy!

I proclaim the One Life:  "In all and through all."

I arise, I arise, I shout with gladness that is within me.

I declare this day to be Complete, Perfect and Eternal.

I respond to Life.

October 24 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

The Quick Answer

My answer comes quickly and surely back to me from On High.

My answer will not fail me, for the Law of the Universe is the Power through which it comes.

I shall not doubt nor fear, for the answer is swift and certain.

My answer comes.

A Song of Joy

There is a Song upon my lips today; it sings of the glad heart and the happy ways of Life.

I will listen to my song, for it carols to me the glad tidings of Great Joy, of Love and Life.

It tells me of the Wondrous Journey of the Soul and the Boundless Life in which my life is hid.

I am filled with joy.

October 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of THE SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Race-Suggestion

"Race-suggestion is a very real thing, and each individual carries around with him (and has written into his mentality) many impressions which he never consciously thought of or experienced.  When we realize that the individual's subjectivity is his use of the One Subjective Mind, we shall see that a subjective unity is maintained between all people, and that individual mentalities who are in sympathetic vibration with each other, more or less mingle and receive suggestions from each other.  This is the meaning of mental influence, which is indeed a very real thing.

Just as each person, place or thing has a subjective atmosphere or remembrance, so each town, city or nation has its individual atmosphere.  Some towns are bustling with life and action while others seem dead.  Some are filled with a spirit of culture, while others are filled with a spirit of commerce.  This is the result of the mentalities of those who live in such places.  Just as a city has its atmosphere, so does an entire nation.  The combined thought of those who inhabit a nation creates a national consciousness which we speak of as the psychology of that people.

Subjective Mind, being Universal, the history of the race is written in the mental atmosphere of the globe on which we live.  That is, everything which has ever happened on this planet has left its imprint on the walls of time; and could we walk down their corridors and read the writings, we should be reading the race history.  This should seem simple when we realize that the vibrations of the human voice can be preserved on the receptive phonograph disc, or the sound film, and reproduced at will.  If we were to impress one of these discs, or a strip of the sound film, and lay it away for years (properly protecting it) it would still reproduce these vibrations.  It is not difficult, then, to understand how the walls of time may be hung with the pictures of human events, and how one who sees these pictures may read race history.  There is a tendency, on the part of all of us, to reproduce the accumulated subjective experiences of the human race."

October 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

The Subjective Mind

"We have already seen that what we call the soul is really the subjective part of us.  We wish to look a little further into some of the phenomena of the soul.

We do not have two minds, but we do have a dual aspect of mentality in what we call the objective and subjective states of consciousness.  The objective mind is that part of the mentality which functions consciously.  It is the part of us which is self-knowing and without it we would not be self-conscious entities.  Our conscious mind is the place where we consciously live and are aware that we are living.  This is Spirit.

Our subjective mind is our mental emanation in Universal Subjectivity.  It is our individual use of mental law.  We certainly do not wish to deviate from that which psychology teaches about the mind of man in its conscious, subconscious, or subjective states.  We merely wish to add this:  the reason we have a subjective mind is that Subjectivity existed in the Universe prior to our use of It; and where we use It, It forms around us a subjective personification of ourselves, which is a result of the action and the reaction of our thought.

The subjective mind is the seat of memory and contains a remembrance of everything that has ever happened to the outer man.  It also contains the family and race characteristics.  It retains these memories, in a certain sense, as mental pictures.  The subjective mind might be compared to a picture gallery, upon whose walls are hung the pictures of all the people whom the individual has ever known, and all the incidents which he has ever experienced."

October 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Cosmic Consciousness ~ Illumination (Concluded)

"In moments of deepest realization, the great mystics have sensed that One Life flows through all, and that all are some part of that Life.  They have also seen Substance, a fine, white, brilliant stuff, forever falling into everything; a Substance indestructible and eternal.  It is at such times of complete realization that they have been blinded by the LIGHT of which we have been speaking.

Remember, all of this takes place in a perfectly normal state of mind and has nothing whatever to do with the psychic state.  It is not an illusion but a reality; and it is during these periods that real revelations come.  Perhaps a good illustration would be to suppose a large group of people in a room together, but unaware of each other's presence; each is busy with his own personal affairs, suddenly the room is illuminated for a second and they all see each other.  Afterwards they try to tell what they saw.  In flashes of illumination, the inspired have seen into the very center of Reality, and have brought back with them a picture of what they saw and felt.  Briefly, these have been their conclusions:  they have been firmly convinced of immortality...immortality NOW, not to be achieved at some future date; individuality, God as personal to the individual; the inevitable overcoming of all evil by good.

Therefore, they have taught that in such degree as one's concept of God is sufficient, evil disappears.  How are we going to make this practical, other than feeling this in our meditation for practical work, for healing, for demonstration?  This is what we mean by a method, a procedure a technique and a realization:  that accompanying the method and technique should always come as much of the realization as we can generate at that time.  In the method and the technique, something is said.  This is a moving thing, but when we reach that other place - illumination - nothing is said...something is FELT."

October 19 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Cosmic Consciousness ~ Illumination (Continued)

"The highest mental practice is to listen to this Inner Voice and to declare Its Presence.  The greater a man's consciousness of this Indwelling I AM, the more fully he will live.  This will never lead to illusion, but will always lead to Reality.  All great souls have known this and have constantly striven to let the Mind of God express through their mentalities.  "The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works."  This was the declaration of the great Master, and it should be ours also; not a limited sense of life but a limitless one.

It is impossible to put into words or into print what a mystic sometimes sees, and it is as difficult to believe - to realize that it is so - as it is to put it into words.  But there is a certain inner sense which, at times, sees Reality in a flash which illuminates the whole being with a great flood of light.  This too, might seem an illusion unless the testimony were complete, but every mystic has had this experience...some in a greater degree than others.  Jesus was the greatest of all the mystics and, once at least, after a period of illumination, his face was so bright that his followers could not look upon it.  All mystics have seen this Cosmic Light.  This is why it is said they were illumined.  They have all had the same experience, whether it was Moses coming down from the mountain, Jesus after the resurrection, Saul on his return to Damascus, Emerson walking across the Common in Concord - where suddenly he became conscious of this light - or Whitman who refers to it as that which "stuck its forked tongue" into his being as he lay on the grass, or whether it was Edward Carpenter who, after leaving Whitman and looking up, thought all of New York City was in flames.  This light the great artists have sensed so completely that they have depicted it as a halo around the heads of saints, an atmosphere of light.

Bucke points out that the illumination of all mystics has been accompanied by a great light.  He feels that Emerson walked on the verge of this light for many years - and more continuously than most people - but did not have quite as definite an experience of its fullness as some others; but that he had what we might term a greater continuation of what we shall call a lesser light.

It is interesting that LIGHT should come with an expansion of consciousness.  "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not."  We all, in varying degrees, enter into this sense - into this illumination - all people have sensed that Truth is Light.  If a spiritual treatment could be seen (and a spiritual treatment merely means the mind unifying with Good) it would be seen as a pathway of light.  This light is not created.  It is not a psychological explosion; it is something which pre-exists.  It is useless to try to visualize it or to make it appear.  It is not a trick of concentration.  "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not by observation.""

October 18 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

The Circle of Protection

I draw around me a circle of love and protection.

No harm can enter nor find place within that charmed circle of life and love, 

for it represents God's Loving Care and Eternal Watchfulness.

I will rest within me now, and I will speak comfort to my Soul and 

tell It of all the wonders of Its life, safe from the din of strife and fear.

I am protected from On High.

October 17 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

Power to Live

I have the power to live the life of good.

My power is from On High, it cannot be taken from me;

It will not leave me desolate.

Power flows through me and is in me, and

I can now feel and sense it.

The Power to live is in me and it cannot desert me.

It is my power and is continually present.

I am the power to live.

The Circle of Love

A circle of love is drawn around me and mine, and all.

No harm can enter that Sacred Circle, for it is the Love of God.

It is a complete protection from all evil.

"I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."

There is no evil and no harm.

I am free from all sense of fear.

Love surrounds and protects me.

October 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Cosmic Consciousness - Illumination (Continued)

"Illumination will come as man more and more realizes his Unity with the Whole, and as he constantly endeavors to let the Truth operate through him.  But since the Whole is at the point of the Inner Mentality, it will be here alone that he will contact It.  "Speak to Him, thou, for He hears."  Always in such degree as one has spiritual sense, he realizes universality in his own soul.  The great mystics have had that sense and have felt the possibility of an immediate communion with the Universal Spirit.  This essence has run through all theologies and has been the cause of much of their vitality.  Theology with all its weakness has been stronger in its strength than it has been weak in its weakness, because the vital elements in it have been greater than the devitalizing ones.  It would not have lived unless this were true.

The only God man knows is the God of his own Inner Life; he can know no other.  To assume that man can know a God outside himself is to assume that he can know something of which he cannot be conscious. This does not mean that man is God; it means that the only God that man knows is within, and the only life man has is from within. God is not external but is Indwelling, at the very center of man's life.  This is why Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is within and why He prayed:  "Our Father which art in Heaven."

The great mystics like Jesus have taught that as we enter into the One, the One enters into us and becomes us and is us.  They have taught the "Mystical Marriage," the union of the soul of man with the Soul of God, and the Unity of all Life.  The great mystics while sensing this Unity - the Universality of all things - have also sensed the individualization of Being and the individuality of Man as a Divine Reality.  Tagore, in seeking to explain this, says that the individual is immersed in, but not lost in, Nirvana, and he uses the illustration..."as an arrow is lost in its mark," still remaining an arrow.  The mysticism of Buddha did not teach the annihilation of the soul, but the eternality of an ever-expanding principle of the soul."

October 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Cosmic Consciousness - Illumination (Continued)

"The intelligence in an animal which directs its actions and tells it where to go to find food and shelter, we call instinct.  It is really Omniscience in the animal.  The same quality, more highly developed, makes a conscious appearance in man and is what we call intuition.  Intuition is God in man, revealing to him the Realities of Being; and just as instinct guides the animal, so would intuition guide man, if he would allow it to do so.

Here again we must be careful not to mistake a psychic impression for an intuitive one.  Psychic impressions may control; intuition remains in the background and waits for recognition.  "Behold I stand at the door and knock."

All arbitrary control of man must have stopped as soon as he came to a point of self-knowingness.  From this point, he must discover himself; but intuition, which is nothing less than God in man, silently awaits his recognition and co-operation.  The Spirit is  always with us if we would but sense Its Presence.  Mystics have felt this wonderful Power working from within; and have responded to It; and as certain evidence that they were not laboring under delusions, THEY HAVE ALL SENSED THE SAME THING.  Had the impressions been psychic only, each would have seen and sensed a different thing, for each would merely have been seeing through the darkness of his own subjective mentality.

Cosmic Consciousness is not a mystery, it is the Self-Knowingness of God through man.  The more complete the operation of that Power, the more complete is man's conscious mentality, for the illumined do not become less, but more, themselves.  The greater the consciousness of God, the more complete must be the realization of the True Self - the Divine Reality."

October 14 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

No Harm Shall Befall You

No harm shall befall you, my friend, for a Divine Presence attends your way 

and guards you into The All Good.

Loving kindness awaits you at every turn of Life's road.

Guidance is yours along the pathway of experience,

And an Infallible Power protects you.

God, Himself, and no other is your Keeper.

I proclaim this for you.

October 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Cosmic Consciousness - Illumination

"Dr. Bucke defines Cosmic Consciousness as:  "One's consciousness of his unity with the Whole."  The mystic intuitively perceives Truth, and often without any process of reasoning - immediately is aware, with what Swedenborg called a sort of "interior awareness," a spiritual sense.

There can and does descend into our minds - embody and personify in our person - a Divinity, a Unity, the Spirit of God, the direct incarnation of the Original Thing, in us - the mystical presentation of Christ.

Dean Inge, perhaps the best thinker in the Anglican Church of today, tells us that Plotinus had seven distinct periods of cosmic consciousness, in which state he was so completely unified with the Universe that he became One with It.  His spiritual philosophy was a result of these experiences.  Plotinus, you will recall, was one of the greatest of the Neo-Platonic Philosophers.

Dr. Buck, the author of that most rational book, "Cosmic Consciousness," cites many instances of known and authentic records of people who have had definite Cosmic experiences.  In his scientific approach to this subject, he calls attention to the necessity of distinguishing between psychic revelations and Cosmic Consciousness.

Reports of the experiences of most psychics are contradictory.  While on the other hand, the experiences of those who have entered into Cosmic Consciousness - over a period of thousands of years - tell us an identical story, once we get the key to their language - all tell the same story of Reality.  The psychic may or may not be true; the spiritual is always true. The psychic realm is the realm of the subconscious, or relative first cause.   The spiritual is the realm of First Cause.  Therefore, we may read Buddha, Jesus, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Swedenborg, Emerson, Whitman, Browning or any of the other great mystics, no matter in what age they have lived, and we shall find the same Ultimate.  By reading the writings of most psychics, we enter confusion; therefore, we must understand clearly this vital difference between psychism and mysticism.  One may or may not be true; the other is always true."

October 12 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution (Concluded)

"Evolution, then, is not a thing in itself; it is an effect.  Behind all objective form, there is a subjective likeness which exactly balances and is the prototype of the form.  The thing involved perfectly balances the thing evolving from it.  Evolution is the time and the process through which Spirit unfolds!  In so far as any individual understands this mental Law, he is able to use it.  We must learn how It works and comply with the way It works.  Always, It is an obedient servant.  As a man sows, so also shall he reap.  Involution and evolution, the thought and the thing, the Word and the Law, the purpose and the execution...this is the sequence.

While there is liberty in the evolving principle, it is always in accord with certain fundamental laws of necessity.  It seems as though behind evolution there is an irresistible pressure, compelling more, better, higher and greater things.  For instance, if we study the evolution of locomotion, from the rising of man from the clod, we see him riding upon a horse, in a cart, in a wagon, and so on to the automobile and the airplane.   What is this but the evolution of locomotion, the unfolding through man's mind of the possibility of travel?  If we watch the evolution of travel by water, we find the same thing from the raft to modern ships.

What is the inevitable end of locomotion?  Could it be other than that we shall ultimately do away with ever visible means of transportation?  When we shall have unified with Omnipresence, we shall be omnipresent.

When we shall have arrived at a sufficient understanding,  our thought will take us where we wish to be.  When we know enough, we shall be able to pass on to another plane and come back again, if we wish to do so.  When we know enough to multiply the loaves and fishes, we shall do so.  When we know enough to walk on the water, we shall be able to do that and it will all be in accordance with natural law in a spiritual world."

October 11 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

Infinite Life Within

Infinite Life within me, which is God, guard Thou my feet and keep Thou my way.

Let me not stray from Thee, but compel me to do thy will.

I am guarded and governed by an Infinite Intelligence and an Omnipotent Power.

No mistakes can be made and none ever have been made.

An unerring judgment operates through me and I am led 

by the Spirit of Truth into all Good and into all Peace and Happiness.

Infinite Life within me.

My Feet Shall Not Falter

My feet shall not falter, for they are kept upon the path of Life 

through the Power of the Eternal Spirit.

This Spirit is my spirit now.

Guide Thou my feet; compel my way; direct my paths and keep me in Thy Presence.

My feet are guarded and I am guided into The All Good.

He guides my feet.

October 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

The Way Is Made Clear Before Me

The Way is made clear before me; I do not falter nor fall.

The Way of the Spirit is my Way, and I am compelled to walk in it.

My feet are kept on the Path of Perfect Life.

The Way is prepared before me, and that Way is a Path of Peace, of Fulfillment and Joy.

The Way is bright with the light of Love and Kindness.

The Way I tread is a pleasant and happy one.

I see the Way and I walk in it.

October 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution (Continued)

"Evolution is a principle which, though invisible, finds manifestation in every form of life.  It is the logical or necessary outcome of Universal Intelligence of Spirit; but evolution is an effect of Intelligence and not its cause.  Evolution can only follow involution.  Involution is the idea, while evolution is the unfoldment of the idea.  INVOLUTION PRECEDES EVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION FOLLOWS WITH MECHANICAL PRECISION, PROPELLED BY AN IMMUTABLE LAW...the Law of Cause and Effect.

God is Universal Intelligence or Spirit.  The only way Intelligence can move is by an interior movement.  God must move within God, if God is ALL.  He moves within and upon Himself.  It is evident that the movement back of the objective world must be a subjective movement - a movement of consciousness.  It is necessary , then, that whatever movement takes place, it MUST take place within and upon the One; and it follows that whatever is created, is created out of this One.

God moves upon God.  This is the starting point of Creation.  Every time one conceives an idea, it is God expressing Himself.  He is eternally knowing, and eternally known through everyone.  It is God's nature to know and there is an emotional craving, or desire for expression, inherent in the Universe.  There is a Universal Law obeying the Will of Spirit.   This is the Law through which that which is involved, evolves.   We, as conscious Spirit, set a Universal Law in motion which makes things from ideas.  The Spirit INVOLVES the Law EVOLVES.  The Law does not know that It is evolving; it is Its nature to evolve and this nature is mechanical."

October 8 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution (Continued)

"To repeat:  The aim of evolution is to produce a man who, at the objective point of his own self-determination, may completely manifest the inner life of the Spirit.  Even the Spirit does not seek to control us.  It lets us alone to discover ourselves.  The most precious thing a man possesses is his own individuality; indeed, this is the only thing he really has, or is.  For one instant to allow any outside influence to enter or control this individuality is a crime against his real self.

In the bible we read:  "Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is."  Even though this process of evolution is still taking place - has not stopped and perhaps never will stop because we shall forever unfold - even in this state of incompletion, "NOW are we the sons of God."  As we more completely evolve, we shall see the Christ appear and "when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is," being transformed from glory to glory, by reason of that Divine Urge within each one of us.  Even now the Divine Reality is accomplished in Infinite Mind.  Within each one of us is an indestructible, an eternal, God-intended man, a perfect Being...our perfect being.

Always the idea of perfected man must have been in the Divine Mind; involved within the cause is its effect.  And in the Mind of the Eternal, man must be perfect.  God is perfect Mind and cannot conceive imperfect ideas, hence the idea of man as held in the Mind of God, must be a perfect idea.  The perfect man is the only man God knows!

Man, being an individual, may do as he wills with himself- as Browning said, he may desecrate but he can never lose his life.  The Spirit ever has a witness within us and the God-intended man already knows that he is One with the Whole; that Nature is comprised of One ultimate Power, using many instruments and having many avenues of expression.  The time has come in our evolution when we should awaken to the recognition that behind each one stands the Eternal Mind - that each has complete access to It; that each may come to It for inspiration and revelation - and that surrounding all is a Divine Law obeying the dictates of this Eternal Mind."

October 7 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

The Secret Way

There is a Secret Way of the Soul which all may know.

It is the Way of Peace and Love.

This Secret Way leads into places of joy

And into the house of good.

It is the Way of the Spirit, and all may enter who will.

I tread the Secret Way of good, the Path of Peace,

And I enter into "The Secret Place of the Most High."

The Secret Place of The Most High is within me.

October 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution

"The Universe, both visible and invisible, is a Spiritual System.  Man is a part of this Spiritual Order, so indivisibly united with It that the entire Cosmos is (or may be) reflected in his mind!  Evolution is the awakening of the soul to a recognition of its unity with the Whole.  Material evolution is an effect, not a cause.  This reverses the popular belief, declaring that evolution is the result of intelligence, rather than intelligence being the result of evolution!

The aim of evolution is to produce a man, who at the point of his objective thought may completely manifest the whole idea of life, may bring Unity to the point of particularization, finding nothing in the Law to oppose It.  The man Jesus became the Christ through a complete realization of the Unity of Spirit and the Absoluteness of His word.  His physical and spiritual faculties, His objective and subjective mind, were completely poised and perfectly balanced.

It is evident if this realization took place in any other individual, his word would be manifested likewise.  Because behind the word is Universal Soul, Omnipotent Law.  The Spirit is Limitless, but can only be to us what we believe It to be.  Why must we believe It is?  Because, UNTIL WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS, WE ARE BELIEVING THAT IT IS NOT!  It is all a matter of belief, but belief is scientifically induced into a subjective state, through conscious endeavor."

October 5 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Ultimate Salvation for All (Conclusion)

"There cannot be a Law in the Universe which demands evil, lack, limitation, and the experience of unhappiness, to provide shades to magnify Its glory.  Therefore, the mystics have taught that evil has only the power to destroy itself; that it is not God-ordained.  From the viewpoint of reality, it is an illusion, but they have not denied it as an experience.  It is an experience all have had.  The great have not failed to recognize the appearance of evil, but they have separated the appearance from the reality.  They have done away with evil as a cosmic entity - NO DEVIL, NO HELL, NO TORMENT, NO DAMNATION outside of one's own state of thought, NO PUNISHMENT outside of that self-inflicted, through ignorance; and NO SALVATION OUTSIDE OF CONSCIOUS CO-OPERATION WITH THE INFINITE.  Heaven and Hell are states of consciousness."

October 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

The Shining Path

The Pathway of Life shines before me unto the Perfect Day.

I walk the pathway of the Soul to the gate of Good.

I enter into the fulfillment of my desires.

Nothing need be added to and nothing can be taken from the All Good 

which is forever expressing Itself in me.

Daily shall I receive Its great blessings and my Soul shall rejoice forevermore.

I am now entered into my good.

The Things I need Come to Me

Whatever I need comes to me from the All Good.

Divine Intelligence working through me always knows just what I need 

and always supplies it when I need it.

This Law is unfailing and sure, and cannot be broken.

I receive my Good daily as I go along the pathway of Life, 

and I cannot be robbed of my birthright to freedom and happiness.

I receive my Good.

October 3 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

The Seal of Approval

The Seal of approval is upon me, and I am not condemned by the thought or the act of man.

I will fear no evil, for I know that the great Judge of all controls my every act.

Let every fear of man be removed from me and let the Silence of my soul bear witness to the truth.

God approves of me.

October 2 - The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Ultimate Salvation for All (Continued)

"In mental healing, the spiritual practitioner should sense everyone as a Divine Being, thus causing an awakening of the Divinity which is latent in all people.  The spiritual awakening should never be divorced from the mental act, which is to awaken the mind to the realization of Spirit.  The Universe is now a spiritual system.  The problem of evil does not enter into this contemplation.  This does not mean that we can keep on doing evil.  It is a personal and not a cosmic problem and disappears when we no longer contemplate it.

Our individualized Universe is forever complete, yet forever completing Itself, in order that every experience may teach us to transcend some previous one, in ever ascending cycles, upward bound.  This is the true meaning of misfortune or vicissitude or suffering, which is never a thing in itself.  Our recognition of Truth is Its pronouncement of Itself, and when a man says "I am," it is God proclaiming His own Being.  Emerson said he was often conscious of Jove nodding to Jove from behind our backs.

For a practical application, suppose one is treating a person who is low in vitality.  The practitioner must recognize not low vitality but Real vitality, recognizing the I-Amness, the All-Powerfulness, God.  IN SUCH DEGREE AS WE CONTEMPLATE THE SPIRIT OF LIVINGNESS, IT BECOMES MANIFEST.  A clear idea of livingness personifies itself as physical vitality.  Thus our recognition of It becomes Its recognition of us at the level of  our recognition of It.

There is a great difference in our reaction when we believe that evil is an entity and when we understand that we merely have the possibility of experiencing it.  The Universe does not demand suffering!  Suffering is man-made, through ignorance.  It will continue until man learns how to make it negative in his experience.  Someday we shall decide that we have had enough suffering."

October 1 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes 

Ultimate Salvation for All

"The mystics have taught that there is but One Ultimate Reality; and that this Ultimate Reality is here NOW, if we could but see It.  The great mystics have been illumined.  They have seen through the veil of matter and perceived the Spiritual Universe.  They have taught that the Kingdom of God is now present, and NEEDS BUT TO BE REALIZED!  And they have apparently sensed that this Kingdom is within.

One of the most illuminating things which mysticism has revealed is that evil is not an ultimate reality, it is simply an experience of the soul on its journey toward Reality.  Evil is not an entity, but an experience on the pathway of self-unfoldment.  It is not a thing of itself but simply a misuse of power.  It will disappear when we stop looking at, or indulging in, it.  We cannot stop believing in it as long as we indulge in it, so the mystic has always taught the race to turn from evil and do good.

Furthermore, the mystics have taught the ultimate salvation of all people and the immortality of every soul.  Indeed, they have taught that IMMORTALITY IS HERE AND NOW, IF WE WOULD BE AWAKE TO THE FACT.  "Beloved, now are we the sons of God."  Since each soul is some part of the Whole, it is impossible that any soul can be lost!  "God is not the God of the dead but of the living."  Damnation has been as foreign to the thought of the mystic as any concept of evil must be to the Mind of God.

The great mystics taught that man should have no burdens, and would have none if he turned to the 'one."  "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."  As Jesus knew that it would be impossible for all men to come to Him as a Personality, He must have meant that we should come into His understanding of Life and Reality.  Some day we shall learn to lay our burdens on the altar of Love, that they may be consumed by the fire of faith in the Living Spirit.  Man would have no burdens if he kept this "High Watch toward The One" - if he always turned to God."