November 17 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE PRACTICE of SPIRITUAL MIND HEALING

Ernest Holmes

 

“A sense of separation from good causes us to feel restricted, while a sense of our Unity with GOOD changes the currents of Causation and brings a happier condition into the experience.  Everything in the physical universe is an effect, and exists only by virtue of some invisible cause.  Man’s individuality enables him to make such use of the Law as he desires.  He is bound, not by limitation but by limited thought.  The same power which binds him will free him when he understands the Law to be one of liberty and not of bondage.  The power within man can free him from all distasteful conditions if the Law governing this power is properly understood and utilized.

The Law of Mind, which is the Medium of all action, is a law of perfect balance:  the objective world perfectly balances the images within the subjective world.  Water will reach its own level by its own weight, and according to the same law, consciousness will externalize at its own level by its own weight.  Cause and effect are but two sides of the same thing, one being an image in mind and the other the objective condition.  Here is the invariable rule for knowing how to treat.  We can judge the subjective concept only by its objective effect.  If everything a man does leads to confusion, we should treat to know that he is poised.  The spirit is not confused over anything.  If everything a man does turns out to be a failure, we must know that the Spirit within him cannot conceive failure.  What we put into the treatment will come out of it.  More than we appear to put into it can come out of it, but not a different type.  If I plant a watermelon seed, I will get watermelons but I will get a number of melons, and they will have a lot of seeds which can produce more melons, so the thought is MULTIPLICITY but never DIVISION.  Treatment is a definite, conscious, concrete thing.  There is intention in a treatment and there should be a definite acceptance.”

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."

August 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
By Ernest Holmes

"Hardening of the arteries should be treated by thoughts of love.  A  knowledge that body is controlled by mind and need not grow old will help eliminate the fear of this condition, which race-suggestion says comes to many people with what is called "old age."  Treat to know that Love is stronger than any other force in the Universe, and that steadily and rhythmically the Life of God is pulsing through your body.  Persistently know the truth that God's Life flows ceaselessly out through your life and back to Him, where it is renewed, purified and refreshed; and that the pulsing power of divine Love propels it.

Suppose someone comes to you who has high blood pressure.  You wish to treat to remove this sense.  Your work will be recognized as effective if, after you have done your work, he can be examined and his blood pressure is found to be normal.

Take the idea of high blood pressure, or nervous pressure and all that goes with it, and transpose it for the spiritual sense that there is a divine circulation, it is the Spirit that is circulating through this person.  There is nothing to inhibit It, there is nothing to accelerate It; It is always perfect circulation, there is no thought of fear or congestion.  Undoubtedly the condition exists, as an experience, but as a mental practitioner, you are not dealing with objective symptoms but with thought alone.

If the circulatory system seems inadequate, then the practitioner should realize that his patient's circulation is equalized in Spirit, that Divine Life and Energy flow freely to every part of his being, cleansing, revitalizing , and restoring him to complete wholeness.  There is one circulation, which is the Spirit flowing through man.  There are no degenerative processes in the Spirit.

You sense this person as a being Divine, the Spirit indwells him.  There is no man outside of God.  The more convinced a practitioner is of this, the more certain he is that there now is a divine and uninhibited circulation, and that the blood pressure is normal in the experience of the one whom he is treating - the more definite will be the results.

In every case, the mental practitioner proceeds on the assumption that Spirit is already in his patient.  He thinks of Spirit back of the fact:  the Spirit of perfect circulation, uninhibited - that thing which must automatically eliminate everything that does not belong to that person.  Nothing can impoverish that flow; nothing can increase or diminish that pressure.

For any irregularities of the blood, the following simple meditation might be used:

"My existence is a harmonious progression, that of a son of God entering fully into conscious sonship.  My career through life is a joyous, happy expression, a daily expansion into realms of life and living.  My life in God is ageless, deathless, abiding.  I now surrender every personal doubt, fear or hard feeling that would retard the perfect flow of life through me.  There is no obstruction, no barrier in my mind, veins or affairs.  I am harmonious, peaceful, free and unafraid."

July 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW of ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

Attracting Success

"We mean by demonstration, bringing into our experience something which we had not experienced before; bringing it in as the result of conscious thought; and unless it is possible to do this, our whole science is a mistake and a delusion.  Unless there is a Divine Principle, Universal Soul or Subjectivity, or Medium, which, of Itself - without any help or assistance - can produce things, and will, then there is nothing in this teaching.  But there is a Divine Principle; and what It does for us It must do through us.  Our part in the demonstration is to set the word in motion, thus compelling, through the Law of Subjectivity, the result or manifestation. 

The subjective state of a man's thought decides what is going to happen to him in his objective experience.   The subjective state of his thought is the sum total of his thinking and knowing. It is the medium between the relative and the Absolute, between the Limitless and the conditioned.  Whatever is involved in it, will evolve.  Therefore, when there is no longer anything in our mentality which denies our word, a demonstration will be made; nothing can stop it, for the Law is Absolute.

We should approach the Law normally and naturally and with a sense of ease.  There is nothing peculiar or weird about it.  It is a natural Law, working in a normal way, and must be thought of in this light.  We should come to consider the Law and the Spirit as friends and think of them as such.  In this way we shall gradually go from good to more good and from peace to greater peace.  This is the natural unfoldment of Reality through man.  We should EXPECT THE BEST, and so live that the best may become a part of our experience.

Suppose one wishes more activity in his business, more success.  Every day he should see his place filled with people.  See them looking at and finding pleasure in his merchandise; see them comparing prices and realizing that he is offering good values; see them delighted with the service he is giving; see them cheerful, beaming, expansive, as they enjoy the atmosphere of his place; see the uplift which the spirit of his good-will gives them.  Make a mental picture of it all.  We are dealing with Intelligence, and we should recognize the Power we are working with - realizing our Oneness with It - and then we should ask for what we wish and take it.

If we were treating for activity in a store we owned in Boston, we should not be treating someone in Kalamazoo for the mumps and expect that the store would demonstrate more success.   WE MUST BE SPECIFIC IN WHAT WE DO, while at the same time never outlining how it shall be done.  Remember we are dealing with Intelligence.   IT IS GOING TO EVOLVE OUR CONCEPT EXACTLY AS WE INVOLVE IT.  If one could take a picture of his objective circumstances and a picture of his subjective mentality, he would find them to be identical, for one is the cause of the other.  One is the image and the other is the reflection of that image.

So our success in business, the activity which we generate through the operation of the Law, depends upon our ability to conceive.  At all times, we are either drawing things to us or pushing them away.  In the average individual, this process goes on without his knowing it, but ignorance of the law does not change its result.  "What," someone will say, "do you think that I thought failure or wanted to fail?"  Of course not.  Perhaps you thought that failure might come, maybe you even feared it would come, or in some other way gave it entrance to your mind."

March 5 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Thought Force ~ Ernest Holmes

"Thought force is a movement of consciousness in a field of mechanical but intelligent Law.  The movement of consciousness upon itself creates a motion or vibration upon Substance, the force of which is equal to the embodiment of the thought set in motion.  For everything that happens in the objective world, there must be something in the subjective world which perfectly balances it.

Let us suppose, for illustration, that the Universe is nothing but water, permeated by an Infinite Intelligence.  Imagine that every time this Intelligence moves, or thinks, ice is formed in the water, exactly corresponding to the thought.  We might have countless pieces of ice of different form, color and size, but these pieces of ice would still be water!  If we could heat the entire mass, it would melt, and all forms would again become fluid.  Nothing would have changed except form.  The physical universe is spirit in form.

First is Intelligence; then the Word, the idea, the image, the concept; then the movement toward the thing. Thought is an actual working power.  Otherwise, there would be nothing by which the Universe could be governed.

The Atmosphere of Our Thinking

We are all immersed in the atmosphere of our own thinking, which is the direct result of all we have ever said, thought or done.  This decides what is to take place in our lives.  Thought attracts what is like itself and repels what is unlike.  We are drawn toward those things which we mentally image.  Most of the inner processes of our thought have been unconscious, but when we understand the Law, we learn to consciously embody what we wish, and think of this only, and then we are drawn silently toward it.

The emphasis on true mental healing is insistently on God, the One Mind, the One Soul, the One Being, ever-present and ever-available; and on man's ability and right to make himself receptive to this healing Presence - a realization of the essential divinity of our own nature, and the truth that no evil can live in this Presence.  We must unify ourselves with the great Whole.  The man who dares to fling his thought out into Universal Intelligence, with the assurance of one who realizes his divine nature and its relation to the Universe - and dares to claim all there is - will find an ever-creative good at hand to aid him.  God will honor his request.  To the soul that knows its own divinity, all else must gravitate.  Let us, then, enlarge our thought processes and dare to think in Universal terms.  Let us dare to believe that every constructive word is invincible!"

March 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Basis for Mental Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"Much in this field is as yet obscure and imperfectly understood, for the scientific study of the mind is still in its infancy; but the fact that a misuse of mental and spiritual laws is at the root of many unhappy conditions incident to the physical life stands out clear and sharp.

The first principle fundamental to the understanding of the operation of thought is, that we are surrounded by an Infinite Intelligence.  The possibility of healing physical disease, changing environment, attracting friends and demonstrating supply through the power of right thinking, rests entirely on the theory that we are surrounded by an Infinite Mind, which reacts to our thought according to Law.

We comprehend the meaning of Infinite Intelligence only in a small degree, but because we are spiritual beings, we do sense the presence of an Intelligence which is beyond human comprehension - an Intelligence which is great enough to encompass the past, to understand the present, and to be Father of the future.  It is the Cause of everything that has been, and is that out of which must unfold everything that is to be.  Our own intelligence is one of Its activities and is of like nature to It.

The Act of Incarnation

At the level of our self-comprehension, we know and understand the nature of God.  This self-knowing, which is God-knowing, has the possibility of an eternal expansion. As individual intelligence, we communicate with each other - are able to respond to each other - and in so doing we establish the fact that intelligence responds to intelligence.  This same law must hold good, whether we think of finite intelligence responding to finite intelligence, or Infinite Intelligence responding to finite intelligence - for intelligence is the same in ESSENCE wherever we find it.  We may conclude that Infinite Intelligence responds to us by the very necessity of being true to Its own Nature.

But how does It respond?  It can respond only by corresponding, which means that the Infinite Intelligence responds to us by a direct impartation of Itself through us.  "The highest God and the innermost God is One God."  So with Jesus we may say:  "The Father and I are One."  Whatever intelligence we possess is some degree of the One Intelligence, which we call God.

The Infinite Mind, then, imparts Itself to the finite, through the act of incarnation.  The progress of the human race is a result of that process whereby Intelligence passes, by successive degrees of incarnation, through evolution, into the human mind."

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 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 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 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."

January 31 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Metaphysics and Physics ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

The laws of Mind, or spirit, are not different from the laws of chemistry and physics.  Metaphysics begins where physics leaves off.  Everything is movement; everything we can take hold of and analyze, all things in the physical world or the world of form are in a certain rate of vibration and are an effect.  This is the result of "an Infinite Thinker thinking mathematically."

To reduce this proposition to the practical life of the individual, our belief is that anything the mind thinks, it can unthink.  If, therefore, by the law of cause and effect we have produced unpleasant conditions, we should be able by this same law to produce an entirely different effect.

Another principle which is fundamental to our practice is, that not only what is set in motion can be changed; but that the Truth known is demonstrated.  The knowledge of Truth and its demonstration is both simultaneous and instantaneous.  Since we are dealing with that which is Limitless, knowing no big and no little, the possibility of our demonstration rests not in the Principle, but in our acknowledgment of, and embodiment in it, of the ideas we desire experienced!  The saying of "peace" will not produce peace unless back of the word is a realization of the meaning of peace.  So in the simplicity of our own language, we try to convince ourselves of the reality of that for which we are treating, knowing that in such degree as we have an embodiment of the idea, it is thrown into a mechanical field and must operate.

"Spirit is the Power that knows Itself."  Whatever that power within us is that knows itself, constitutes the part of us which is spirit or spiritual.  To be self-conscious, is to be a spiritual entity.  Mind, in Its self-conscious form, cannot be differentiated from Spirit.  Mind, in Its subjective or subconscious state, is the Law of Spirit.  Man is a spirit while God is The Spirit.  Man is an individual, while God is the Universal, but since the individual comes from and is in the Universal, it follows that man is a little world within himself.  This is what Jesus meant when he said that man has inherent life within himself.  The meaning of inherent life is real life...creative life.

No limit can be placed upon the spirit of man.  It merges with the Universal Spirit for the two are really One.  God is in us as we are in God - the same essence, the degree apparently different.  The one finite and  the other Infinite, and since the Infinite cannot come from the finite, it follows that the finite must come from the Infinite - a little circle within the big circle. 

Metaphysically, we recognize the Universal Spirit as the Source of all life and inspiration; an Infinite Self-Knowingness, which we grasp only in part but which is ever available, since the Infinite is omnipresent.  The mind of man is an extension of the Eternal Mind or Spirit, and his evolution is the unfolding of this everlasting Mind or Spirit through his thought.

Only One Mind

There is no such thing as your mind, my mind and God's Mind.  There is only Mind, in which we all "live and move and have our being."

Things are ideas in form.  What else could they be?  There is nothing from which to make things except ideas.  In the beginning, we behold nothing visible; there is only an Infinite Possibility, a Limitless Imagination, a Consciousness - the only action of this Consciousness being Idea.

That  which we call our subjective mind is, in reality, our identity in Infinite Mind.  It is the result  of our mental attitudes. It is our mental atmosphere, or center, in Universal Subjective Mind, in which are retained all of the images, impressions, inherited tendencies and race suggestions.  We see then that our subjective mind is the medium through which experiences come to us.

There is One First Cause - Spirit, Soul and Body - Cause, Medium, and Effect; the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Not three gods, but the Triune Nature of the One God, the One Cause.  We think of Spirit as Absolute, Self-Conscious Intelligence.  We think of Soul as receptive to Intelligence and the Intelligence as always acting upon It.  Spirit and Soul inter-sphere each other and both have omnipresence.  The Spirit of the Universe permeates the Soul of the Universe, forever impregnating It with ideas.  The Soul of the Universe is the "Holy Womb of Nature," producing the forms which appear in the manifest universe.

The Body of the Universe is the result of the thought of Spirit, operating through the medium of soul  The Father is Absolute, Positive Intelligence; the Son is the Offspring of the Father; the Holy ghost is "The Servant of the Eternal Spirit throughout the ages."  Spirit is Absolute Intelligence, operating through the Soul of Receptive Intelligence, impregnating It with "the Divine Ideas."

The "Personalness" of God

We should think of God, not only as Principle, forever pushing forward into expression; but as Infinite Person.  In other words, if we merely think of an abstract Principle, and a mathematical Law of Cause and Effect, we shall lose all warmth and color.  We should be very careful in abstracting the Principle not to forget the Essence.

There is something in the human mind that desires to think of God or Spirit as Person.  Anything which has been in the human mind since time began - anything we are unable to erase from the human mind as a deep urge - arises out of Reality.

Let us not forget that there is inherent necessity for warmth and color.  The Universe is more than an inexorable Law of Cause and Effect.  PERSONALITY CANNOT EMERGE FROM A PRINCIPLE WHICH DOES NOT CONTAIN THE INHERENT POSSIBILITY OF PERSONALITY.  In each one of us, to each one of us, through each one of us, something is personalized and that which is personalized is personal to its own personification!  Spiritual evolution should make the Infinite not more distant; but more intimate.

January 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Where Do We Get Our Mental Impressions?  Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"The paramount problem of philosophy now as in the past, is, how and from whence do we get our mental impressions?  Kant says:  We are able to perceive an object because it awakens an intuitive perception within us.  How could it awaken an intuitive perception within us, unless the medium which created the object already existed within us?  The intuitive perception was not the result of perceiving the object, but was itself the cause of the object perceived!  This is what Emerson would have us understand when he says "There is one mind common to all individual men."

That which is apparently outside can become known to the individual through intuition, because the perception and the perceiver must be in one and the same Mind.  No object can appear to exist in the objective world unless there is first a subjective world to perceive the object.  There is no object on the outside of Reality; but Reality must be an Infinite Perceiver or an Infinite Mind....One Mind common to all men.

The Bible says:  "In Him we live  and move and have our being."...."Him"...."It"....or "God."  Jesus said Reality is not in the mountain, nor afar off, but within us.  So without trying to define, without making any attempts to explain, we make the simple statement:  "Mind is."  Mind is, and Mind is both Universal and individual, i.e., It is not only Universal and abstract, It is also individual and concrete.  The Mind which is personified is the same Mind which is Universal.

This is the perception that Buddha, Jesus and other great spiritual leaders had.  They understood that the Universe has to be One in order to be at all.  Jesus saw it, when he said in substance:  If I cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, that is a house divided against itself, which cannot stand; and he also said, "Who hath seen me hath seen the Father."  Jesus had arrived at a perception of Oneness.

Images of thought, although they appear to arise from without, actually arise from the objective side of that which is a part of a subjective within.  In order that Nature may be coherent and come into self-expression, there must be an objective, a manifest world; but that which is physically outside of us still exists in the same medium in which we have our being, and the intelligence by which we perceive it is the SAME INTELLIGENCE THAT CREATED IT.  Therefore, while it is objectively separate, it is subjectively unified.  Our images of thought arise from within a medium in which both the one who sees, and that which is seen, exist in a state of inner unity.  God exists in everything.  God exists in me, and because God exists in me, I am able to recognize other beings in whom God exists.  Spirit is the medium through which I am conscious of myself, of others, and of my environment.

Reading Thought

Recognizing that we are surrounded by a Universal Mind, it does not seem strange that certain people should  sense our thoughts even when we are not aware of the fact, because thought operates through a medium which is Universal....always present.

It is almost certain that between friends there is at all times a silent communication, a sort of unconscious mental conversation, going on.  When this arises to the surface of the conscious intelligence, it is called mental telepathy.  This communication with others is going on all the time, whether the conscious mind is aware of it or not.  These impressions are more or less vague and seldom come to the surface.  They are there, nevertheless, and are gradually building into our mentalities impressions and forms of thought that are unconsciously and silently perceived.

This all leads to the conclusion that what we call our subjective mind is really the use that we, as individuals, make of a Universal Subjectivity. Just as radio message are operative through a universal medium, so our thoughts are operative through a Universal Medium."

January 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MIND...The Greatest Discovery ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Nature Waits on Man's Self-Recognition

"Nothing is more apparent than that man, as he now appears, is the result of evolution.  But in order to evolve, he had to have a Principle from which to unfold.  Since man is intelligent, he must have evolved from an Intelligent Cause.

In studying the order of man's evolution, it seems certain that it was necessary - from the time that he was brought to a point of self-choice--that he be left alone to discover his true nature. If man is endowed with the attributes of self-choice and free will, he must be allowed to make this great discovery for himself.  Even God could not make a mechanical individual.  Consider any of Nature's forces, they must have existed always, but, so far as man is concerned, they exist to be used only after he has discovered them and learned how to make use of them.  Electricity was a reality in the universe when Moses led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but neither Moses nor any of his followers knew anything about it.  This is true of all natural laws; they have always existed but only when understood may they be used.  In this way, Life waits upon man's discovery of natural laws, his discovery of  himself, and his discovery of his relationship to the great Whole.

The principle of any science is invisible, theoretical, as is our idea of Spirit. No one has seen God; no one has seen Life; what we have seen is the manifestation of Life.  No one has seen Intelligence; we experience It.  No one has ever seen Causation; we see what It does, we deal with Its effects.  We cannot see Beauty.  The artist feels beauty and depicts it as best he can, and the result of his effort is what we call the beautiful  The mathematician solves a problem, but the problem is not the Principle of Mathematics; the solution of the  problem is an effect or a result of the application of the principle.  We do not see Life, we experience living.  Causation is invisible.

The First Great Discovery

The first great discovery man  made was that he could think.  This was the day when he first said "I am."  This marked his first day of personal attainment.  From that day, man became individual and had to make all further progress himself.  from that day, there was no compulsory evolution; he had to work in conscious union with Life.

The basis from which man is evolving is Infinite.  Behind him is the Great Unknown but not the great unknowable.  As the result of the discovery that he could think, plan and execute, man has built up a great civilization; he has perceived that Nature works through him in order to work for him.  He has harnessed electricity, compelled steam to do his bidding, conquered the air, built cities, made the desert to bloom, and has thrown the lines of his commerce around the globe.  Indeed, he has seemed to possess the earth during this process, even though little attention has been given to that still, small voice which said:  "Man, know thyself." 

The Greatest Discovery of All Time...Mind

Man's first discovery of his ability to think was taken as a matter of fact.  He had always been able to think.  It was proof that he existed; it gave him the ability to know his needs and to supply them.  It appeared to be an automatic thing; it came with him and would doubtless die when he died.  The brain seemed to be the organ of thought, and of course, when death stilled the brain it would no longer operate.

However, a day came when some wise man claimed that it was not the brain that does the thinking, for if the brain could think it would keep on thinking when removed from the body; yet without a brain a man could not think which proved that something behind the brain used it as an instrument.  Man does think, so behind the brain there must be a thinker.  But where is the thinker?  We do not see him.  Have we a right to say there is a thinker, when we have never seen him?  Yes, for the proof of this reality is the evidence of his thought.  Back of the organism is the thinker and the doer - the Mind.  This was the greatest discovery of all time for it mean that  the body without the thinker could not function.  At first, man did not perceive this and thought only of his body as self-operating, but when he discovered this was not the case, he found that he could consciously think and decide, and that something happened to his thoughts after he thought them; they went somewhere and returned to him as  memory."

January 9 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Describing the Infinite by Ernest Holmes ~ "The Science of Mind"

"Any account of Creation however brief implies, first of all, a Universal Intelligence which is omniscient, all-knowing.  We call this Intelligence God.  In philosophy, the word Reality is used. In science, the word Principle.  The Reality of philosophy, the Principle of science and the God of religion all have much the same meaning - the nature of the Universe in which we live.  We describe It as God, Spirit, Reality, Truth - Absolute Intelligence.

Absolute Intelligence

We believe in an Absolute Intelligence because such an intelligence is manifest throughout the universe in which we live.  Wherever we look we see It at work, whether it be the intelligence in the atom or the convolution of thought operating through the brain of a Socrates or an Einstein.  Consequently, we state our First Principle as an Absolute Intelligence.  It is impossible for thought - whether it be philosophic, scientific or religious (and these are the founts from which we gather knowledge) - to deny such Intelligence. 

We believe in an Absolute Intelligence and an Absolute Consciousness.  We are in the universe and we are conscious, so we have reason to believe that consciousness exists.

Creation means the giving of form to the Substance of Mind or Spirit.  Spirit being All and Only, there is nothing for It to change into but Itself.  Therefore, It is the Changeless, within which must take place all change or manifestation of Itself.  The Infinite of Itself is Formless but within It are contained all the forms which give expression to Its consciousness.  Spirit is the Limitless within which is all space.  Spirit is Timeless, within which is all time.  Creation and experience are eternally going on, but any particular experience is measured by time and has a beginning and an end.

In the beginning of any creative series there is Absolute Intelligence alone, pure Spirit, all-inclusive, everywhere, infinite.  This All-Spirit could not have the impulse to move unless It were conscious.  Therefore, "Spirit is the Power that knows Itself."  The account of Creation, which says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," does not refer to a time when there was no creation, but rather to the process of an eternal creation, which is a continual manifestation of Spirit.  An eternal creation is proved by the fact that we must suppose Spirit to be Conscious Intelligence, and there can be no Conscious Intelligence unless It is conscious of something!  Spirit is conscious and must be conscious of something.  Therefore, It must always create. What a glorious concept is such an idea of an Eternal Creative Principle.  There is no stagnation in spirit, nor should there be any in our idea of spirituality.  To be spiritual is to create!  The Spirit is alive, conscious, aware and active.

A Deep Inquiry

If we were to examine the basic principles of the religions of the world, we would find a great similarity.  Each points to One central Life, from Whose Self-Existence all draw their livingness, and without which nothing could exist.  The Christian Religion gives more value to the individual life than do most others. That is why it has made such an appeal to the more vital races of the world.  In  many respects, the Christian Bible is the greatest book ever written, and does truly point a way to eternal values.  But it is only ONE explanation and cannot be considered the ONLY light on religion, for there are may others whose combined teachings weave the story of Truth into a complete and unified pattern.

The deep thinkers of antiquity, as well as the philosophers of all ages, have meditated long and earnestly upon the nature of the Divine Being.  Knowing that there could be but One Ultimate Reality back of all things, they have pondered deeply as to the nature of that Reality, and it is significant that most of the great thinkers have arrived at similar conclusions."

January 8 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

"In the Beginning, God!"  Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

(Blogger's Note: For the purposes of this writing, the pronoun He, Him has been changed to It when referring to "God")

The Beginning

We wish to discover what to believe in, why we believe in it, and why such a belief is reasonable; and in so far as possible to enter into the nature of the invisible Cause of this manifest life of ours.  We wish to discover how this Cause works; Its relationship to us and our relationship to It, and how we may use this knowledge.  The world is tired of mysteries, does not understand symbols, and longs for Reality.  What is Reality, where may It be found and how used?  These are some of the questions one should like to have answered.

"In the beginning, God!" In the beginning, Spirit or Intelligence only.  No manifest universe!  No system of planets!  No visible form, nothing but the Life Principle.  God, the Spirit, had not yet moved upon the waters.  Then this All-Being moved or began to create.  Where did Spirit move?  Upon what did It move?  From whence came Its pattern?  What means or power did It employ?  Through what agencies did It work?  In short, out of what is the world, ourselves included, made?  How did we and all other physical manifestations come into being?

If we suppose Spirit to be the Life Principle running through all manifestation, the Cause of all, then we must supposed that It has Substance within Itself.  It is Self-Existent Consciousness, and also Self-Existent Substance.  SPIRIT MAKES THINGS OUT OF ITSELF THROUGH SOME INNER ACT UPON ITSELF.  This inner act must, of course, be an ace of consciousness, of self-perception, of self-knowingness.  What God knows IS.  This has been called the Word of God and the Self-Contemplation of God.

The Story of Creation Simplified

Without repeating the well-known account (rather accounts, for there are two) of Creation, as given in the Bible, let us say that someone - generally thought to have been Moses - in expounding his idea of how Creation came into being, put his thoughts into the form of an allegory or symbolic story.  Let us restate this story, in our own words, and see what we shall have:

God (meaning the Supreme Spirit or Intelligence of the Universe) was conscious of Itself, prior to the creation of any special world system. Being thus conscious, and desiring to manifest in form, It did so manifest through the power of It's Word, which is Law.  God is not only pure Spirit or Intelligence, It is Universe through the power of It's word).  Hence, when It speaks, It's Word becomes Law.  The Law must obey.  The Law is mechanical, the Word is spontaneous.  God cannot speak a word which contradicts It's own nature.

Since God is pure Intelligence and endless Being, It is always creating.  It is It's nature to create but being All It must act within Itself.

The World of God, spoken within Itself, sets the Law (which is also in Itself) in motion.  The result is Creation.  The Word is the mold, which acting through Law produces form.  As there are many words so there are many forms, each distinct and each an individualized idea of God.

Since the Word of God is permanent, when It speaks, that Word is equipped to perpetuate Itself, even as the seed contains within itself all that is necessary for the reproduction of its kind.  It does not become another kind, for this would produce confusion and the Divine Mind is never confused.

God made the mechanical universe, the plant and animal life, but this did not satisfy It, for It wished to create a being who could respond to and understand It.  So It created a being who had real life within itself.

It could do this only by imparting It's own nature to this being whom It called man.  It must make man in Its own image and likeness.  Man must be created out of the stuff of Eternity, if he is to have real being.  Humanity must partake of the nature of Divinity if it is to have real life.  So God made man from the essence of Itself and clothed this subtle essence with definite form.

And God said within Itself something after this fashion:  "If I wish to have a man who is a real being, I must give him self-choice.  He must be spontaneous, not automatic.  He must have dominion over everything I have created and he shall have all things to enjoy, for his life must be full and complete if he is to express My nature."

So God gave man dominion over all earthly things.  Man was not given the power to govern the universe, but he was given the power to have dominion.

And God viewing all that It had created saw that it was good, "very good."  How could it be otherwise since It had created it?  How could God, being Goodness, see other than good?

This, briefly, is the story of Creation.  The reader need not be startled by this rather human narrative.  Remember we are putting into human language a story which can only be imagined.  Let us see how much of this may have meaning for us - how much of it we may prove.