November 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
Ernest Holmes

Treating Insomnia

"Insomnia is the result of a disturbed mental condition, either conscious or subconscious.  Sometimes this arises from shock, grief, or anxiety, though often it is merely an inability to let go of the affairs of the day.  Perfect trust in God within is the secret of relaxation, rest and renewal..  The following is one treatment for insomnia:

"The Spirit within me is in perfect rest.  The center of my being is quiet and poised.  I let my inner spirit fill my whole being with peace and stillness.  With this word, I now relax in body and mind.  I let the Divine Tranquility fill me.

"My mind now releases all sense of burden or strain.  Nothing can hurt or disturb my spiritual self.  I am free and safe.  All plans and ideas can wait until later.  The Divine Wisdom works through me and I am protected from mistakes.  My mind is quiet, calm, and deeply still.  All tension is released and the great inner peace flows out through every nerve.  My body rests in the still silence of the Spirit.  I bless my body and my mind, for they are good and worthy of my love.

"The great blessing of the Spirit pours through me now and protects me in all my ways.  My good is around and with me so that I am secure and safe.  The loving presence of Spirit is with me now and forever, so that I am divinely protected.  I let go of all problems and know that Spirit is with me.  The great quietness and calm of the Universal Love is within me.  I am richly blessed.

"Rest permeates my mind and body with its healing presence.  I do not try to make anything happen, I accept restful sleep.  Restfulness pervades my room and my bed.  I let the Spirit take care of the Universe and my affairs, while I release all responsibility and sleep.  The all-powerful Mind of the Indwelling Christ within me dissolves all sense of wakefulness and I am at peace.""

July 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY

By Ernest Holmes

“We attract to ourselves the objective form of our subjective embodiments.  Law knows how to make things out of ideas.  We do not consciously know how It does this; nor do we know how corned beef and cabbage are turned into flesh and bone, but they are and we have been so accustomed to the thought that they are, that we have implicit faith that they will continue to be.  Should we doubt this phenomenon we should be thought [strange].  When we believe in the Law of Mind in the same way we shall be surprised at the results we receive.

Thoughts of lack, poverty and limitation contain within themselves the conditions necessary to produce lack, poverty and limitation.  Remember that we are not dealing with two powers, but with one, ever presenting Itself in varying guises.  “To the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; to the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.”  It will become to us what we are to It.  The Law knows us only as we first know ourselves.  We make up Its mind because Its mind is subjective.  The Spirit controls the Law.  This is the great mystery, the limitless wonder of the universe – that, which out of nothing, can make something.  But Its nothing is really the Substance of every something.

Because all people have believed in lack a law of human thought has been made which binds the race.  Limitation is the result of an ignorant use of the Law.  Every advance in any science proves this to be true.  The real Law is one of freedom.  By that freedom we bind ourselves until we learn how to change the thought and by so doing to change the limitation into freedom.  The two are merely a different use of the One Law.

Limitation is a condensation of the idea of want.  Mind accepts this idea as though it were true and then makes it true in our experience.  It is not always easy to see this nor is it easy to rise above it, but it can be done and we should begin at once to control our thought patterns in such a way that they will produce plenty instead of lack.

The Law of Mind is not selective.  That is, It is receptive without caring what It receives.  It is creative without caring what It creates.  It knows how to do without consciously knowing that It is doing or what It is doing.  It seems strange that the first thing to realize is that there could be such a Law in the universe.  But on second thought we find that all natural laws are of a like character, no natural law is ever selective of itself.  This is why we must realize that the Spirit Itself is more than any or all laws as we understand them.  Conscious mind controls the Law of Mind.  The Law of Mind is sensitive but not conscious from the standpoint of having any selective quality.  Selectivity is the office of the conscious mind while creativeness is the office of the Inner Mind.

Thoughts of lack manifest as limitation.  Thoughts of abundance manifest as success and happiness.  Failure and success are but two ends of one stick.  All conditions and every circumstance is of the nature of effects and can in no way limit Mind unless we take them as a fresh starting point for a creative pattern.  The thought that any given condition is a thing of itself tends to make it appear to be a thing of itself.  Reverse the thought and the condition tends to become reversed.

The Law can know no conditions as such.  It knows form but not size.  Outline is real but limitation is unreal to Mind.  In the Absolute nothing depends on anything but ideas.  Ideas are form, condition, circumstance, cause and effect, and everything that happens between cause and effect.  This is what a treatment is.  It is a thing of itself if we know that it is.  It is what we know it to be.

“Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Fear is the great enemy of man.  But fear is a mental attitude and as such can be converted into something else.  Fear is the reverse mental attitude to faith, and is a result of the lack of faith.  Fear brings limitation and lack in its wake and destroys the happiness and possibility of a greater degree of livingness to those who suffer from it.

Fear blocks the more complete givingness of the Spirit to Its highest form of manifestation on this planet, which is mankind.  Fear arises from that mental attitude which limits the possibility and the willingness of Spirit to give us the good we so greatly desire.  There is nothing wrong in the desire for self-expression.  God is more completely expressed through the man who lives largely than through the one who lives meagerly.

Fear is a belief in limitation, a denial that the Divine is the Center and the Source of all good.  We must do all in our power to overcome it.  “Perfect love casts out fear;” that is, confidence overcomes the depression of doubt.  Mental depression can produce physical and financial depression.  The psychology of economic cycles proves this.  In the midst of plenty humanity lives in want, because of fear.   To overcome fear is the greatest adventure of the mind of man.”

July 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW of ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

No Failures

"If one appears to have failed, he should realize that there are no failures in the Universe.  He should completely erase the idea of failure by stating that there are no failures.  If one believes that he failed last year, he will be likely to fail again this year, unless the false thought is erased.  Break down everything except the recognition of the One Perfect Power, which is not contingent upon any place, person, condition, time of year, or anything but Itself.  A demonstration is made when it comes straight through from the Truth.  The one who wishes to make a demonstration must clear up his own subjective atmosphere, the reason being that he may be objectively making statements which his subjective thought may be denying.  In this way, we often neutralize our word as fast as it is spoken.

When Jesus said:  "Resist not," He meant that non-recognition of evil is the only way to avoid it.  This is true according to the law of cause and effect, for what we persist in recognizing we persist in holding in place.  That which we refuse to recognize, we neutralize, and it is no longer there so far as we are concerned.

So we erase any idea of failure.  Now here is where it looks as if one were not telling the truth to himself, but he is declaring the truth about the Spirit that indwells him.  THIS SPIRIT NEVER FAILS.  Affirm this until it is a very part of your being:  "This word blots out from the book of my remembrance any sense of lack, limitation, want, or fear of failure.  There is no failure, no person to fail.  Failure is neither person, place nor thing.  It is a false thought and has no truth in it.  It is a belief in lack and there is no lack.  It is a belief in a limitation which does not exist.

Your word, which is one with the Infinite Life, has been spoken in calm trust.  It will be taken up at once and it will be oeprated on.  Perfect is the pattern and perfect will be the result.  Your word is now establishing it forever.  See this, feel it, know it.  You are now encompassed by perfect life, by infinite activity, by all power, by all guidance.  The Power of the Spirit is supplying you with all good, It is filling you with life and love.

Thought is very subtle and sometimes when you are making such an affirmation, arguments will rise against it.  Stop at once and meet those arguments.  Refuse to accept them.  We speak into our words the intellingence which we are, and backed by that greater Intelligence of the Universal Mind, our word becomes a law unto the thing for which it is spoken.  There goes forth from this word the Power of the Infinite.

Suppose one were treating his business and something within him should say:  "There are too many people in this business," he should handle the thought of competition at once.  Declare:  "There is no competition and no monopoly in my experience."

Treatment is a thing of itself; it is an entity of Infinite Intelligence, Life and Action, and nothing can hinder its operation but unbelief or a lack of adequate mental equivalents.  "They could not enter in because of unbelief," and because they "limited the Holy One of Israel."

Never depend upon people or say that things must come from this or that source.  It makes no difference where things come from.  SAY THAT THEY ARE, and let them come from where they may, and then if something occurs which points to a place for them to come from, it is correct to say:  "If this is the place, then there is nothing which can hinder."

Nothing moves but Mind.  God makes things through the direct act of becoming the things which He creates.  This is what we do, for our thought becomes the thing thought of.  The thought and the thing are one in reality.  WHAT A MAN HAS AND WHAT HE IS, IS THE RESULT OF THE SUBJECTIVE STATE OF HIS THOUGHT.  Keep on subjectifying thought until the balance of consciousness is on the affirmative side, and nothing can hinder it from demonstrating.  This is the inevitable for this is the way the Law operates.  A good meditation for Opportuniity is the following:

"My opportunities are unlimited.  There is a Divine Urge to express.  It permeates me and fills all space and all people.  All of my affairs are in Its hands.  To It are clearly visible the best ways, methods and means for my greater expression.  I leave my affairs in the hands of this principle, and I co-operate with It.

"Today the possibilities of my experience are unlimited.  The Spirit flows through me, inspiring me and sustaining that inspiration.  I have ability and talent and I am busy using them.  This talent is divinely sustained and marketed under a Universal plan of right action.

"Life lies open to me - rich, full, abudnant.  My thought, which is my key to life, opens all doors for me.  I am one with Infinity, Divinity.  I realize this unity.  I proceed on my way as one who knows that God goes with him into an eternal day of infinite privilege.  I have only to open the portals of my soul and accept that which is ready to express through me.  Today I fling these portals wide; today I am the instrument through which life flows.""

July 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW of ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

Attracting Success (continued)

"We live in Mind an It can return to us only what we think into It.  No matter what we do, Law will always obtain.  If we are thinking of ourselves as poor and needy, then Mind has no choice but to return what we have thought into It.  "It is done unto you as you believe."  Thoughts of failure, limitation or poverty are negative and must be counted out of our lives for all time.  God has given us a Power and we must use It.  We can do more toward saving the world by proving this law than all that charity has ever given to it.

Remember God is the silent Power behind all things, always ready to pour into our experience that which we need.  We must have a receptive and positive faith in the evidence of things not seen with the physical eye but which are eternal in the heavens.  All is Mind, and we must provide a receptive avenue for It, as It passes out through us into the outer expression of our affairs.   If we allow the world's opinion to control our thinking, then that will be our demonstration!  If, on the other hand, we rise superior to the world, we shall create a new pattern.

It is quite necessary, then, that the successful business man should keep his mind on thoughts of happiness, which produce cheerfulness instead of depression.  He should radiate joy and should be filled with faith, hope and expectancy.  These cheerful, hopeful attitudes of mind are indispensable to the one who really wants to do things in life.  Declare your freedom.  Know that no matter what others may say, think or do, you are a success now, and nothing can hinder you from accomplishing your good.  All the power of the universe is with you.  Feel it, know it, and then act as though it were true.

Begin to blot out, one by one, all false beliefs - all ideas that man is limited, poor or miserable.  Refuse to think of failure or to doubt your own power.  See only what you wish to experience and look at nothing else.  We are relieved of all thought of clinging to anybody or anything.  Cannot the Great Principle of Life create for us all that we need?  The Universe is inexhaustible; It is limitless, it knows no bounds and has no confines.  We are not depending on a reed shaken by the wind, but on the Principle of Life Itself, for all that we have or ever shall need.  It is not some power, or a great power, it is ALL POWER.  All we have to do is to believe, never wavering, no matter what happens.  As we do this, we shall find that things are steadily coming our way and that they are coming without that awful effort which destroys the peace of mind of the majority of the race.  We know that there can be no failure in God's Mind, and this Mind is the Power on which we are depending."

July 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

"Spiritual knowing is correct mental treating.  Love is the impulsion of mental treatment.  A consciousness of the Divine Presence in the one we are seeking to help is necessary, for we must provide different mental equivalents for healing than those which create disease.

If the manifest universe is the outward form of the thought of Spirit; if it is a result of the Self-Knowingness of God, and if we are of like nature to the Supreme Mind, then it follows that in giving mental treatment we are going through a mental process of self-knowing.  Consequently, only that kind of treatment will be effective that knows it will be effective.  This is the true meaning of faith for faith is not a foolish fancy, it is a dynamic fact.

The treatment will find an outward correspondence in the objective world which will exactly equal its inward conviction, when it is given, plus the necessity of its finding mental acceptance by the one for whom it is given.  The more we think this over the more rational it will appear to be.

Faith in God is such a complete conviction that the Spirit will make the gift, that there is no longer any subjective contradiction.  This faith can exist only in such degree as the conviction is in line with Reality.  We cannot believe that any law of the Universe will ever change its own nature because we desire it to do so.  AS WE COME INTO THE SPIRITUAL REALM - which is a perfectly natural and normal realm - WE HAVE TO COME INTO IT IN ITS OWN NATURE.  It is a unity.  There must be nothing vicious in it.  Remember what Jesus said?  "Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift."  Why?  Because we cannot enter into peace while we are in a state of confusion.  It cannot be done.  We cannot manifest love when we have a mental equivalent of hate in our hearts and minds."

June 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
By Ernest Holmes

"Conscious thought is the starting point of every new creation.  Trained thought is far more powerful than untrained since the admission that thought is power gives it added power.  This is one of the great secrets of Mental Science.  Conscious thought is the starting point.  The Subjective Law knows only to obey.  It can do nothing else.  It has no will of Its own.  We impress our will upon It.  We do not will, as though we were using an arbitrary force, we impress It.  We should be careful to differentiate between these two attitudes of mind.

The idea of a successful life will create success.  This idea will find objective form in the outer world of the one who holds to it with conviction.  It must first become established in the conscious mind.  It will then transmit itself into a subjective embodiment and when this happens success will become habitual.

If one does not know exactly what he wishes to do he should treat himself for general success in whatever he attempts to do.  He must treat himself for guidance into the knowledge of that which would be best for him to do, remembering that the Inner Mind knows infinitely more than the intellect.  It knows how to take ideas and form objective circumstances around them.  Naturally the sooner we know just what we wish to do the quicker we shall create the mental images that are definite and the Creative Mind can more quickly set to work to carry out our plans for us.

The objective mind alone may consciously decide what is to happen.  All subjective decisions are merely conclusions built on already accepted premises, ideas or thought patterns.  The conscious mind may change these thought patterns and thereby cause a different flow of energy and intelligence toward the objective of its desires.  The Spirit alone has the power of real self-expression and true volition.  This is why we call the conscious part of mind, the Spirit of man; the conscious Mind of the Universe, the Spirit of God.

Remember that when you use your subjective mind you are using the Creative Power of the Universe.  For the two are really one.  There is but One Mind, whether It be individual or Universal.  Remember also that Mind in its conscious state is Spirit, whether we think of It as in man or in God, that is, whether we think of It as individual or Universal.  Mind in its unconscious or subjective state is the Law of cause and effect.  The Law of cause and effect of Itself is not an entity but is the way that we use the great Law of all life.  From this viewpoint any particular effect may be changed by altering our thought relationship to the fundamental Law which gives rise to lesser causes and effects.  This we cannot do while we look only to that which is limited or already in form.  We DEAL WITH THE FORMLESS.

We must consciously know that we can use creative power. The more complete such acceptance on our part, the more completely we shall be able to use this power for definite purposes.  We should develop a conscious conviction of our ability to know and to understand the way that the mind works.  We shall not be able to do this while we listen to those who deny us, or themselves, the privileges we wish to enjoy.  No one ever yet found a living soul in a dead body or learned that affirmations of life and health will become beneficial by denying any power to them.

If, at times, we doubt our ability to  use the law, we should again remind ourselves that it is not I but the Spirit of the Father in me who doeth the work.  This will straighten our thought and place us again on the road of faith and understanding.  WE MUST BELIEVE.  WE MUST LEARN HOW TO BELIEVE.  WE SHOULD TREAT OURSELVES UNTIL WE DO BELIEVE.  No one every started at the top.  Let us be happy to begin right where we are and grow."

June 25 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
By Ernest Holmes


Treating Lung Trouble

"The spiritual idea of lung itself is universal and perfect, nothing has ever happened to it.  It was, is, and ever will be - perfect.  But man, through the creative medium of his thought, has caused an appearance of disease in the lung.  Back of all such trouble is a consuming passion, an unexpressed emotion, a strong desire.  Healing will take place to the degree that the practitioner neutralizes this belief and perceives the presence of a perfect lung.

The practitioner realizes there is a perfect body, perfect being, perfect God, perfect man, perfect expression, perfect bronchial tubes, perfect trachea, perfect lungs!  The practitioner, if he would heal, must elevate his own thought.  The word he speaks is law, it is power; it knows itself to be what it is.  It is the law unto the case.  He is now conscious that the word he speaks will neutralize and entirely destroy the false thought and condition.  He says:  "There is one body; this body is the Body of God, and is Perfect; It is never depleted, Its vitality is never lowered.  There is no wasting away, nor burning up of substance, for substance is eternal, changeless and perfect.  This Body is the body of my patient right now."

He continues until he covers what, in his own thought, appears to be the mental cause of the false condition.  If he does this day after day, the patient will be relieved, though the practitioner never thinks of his patient, other than that the word of Truth is being spoken for him.  He never wonders whether his word is taking effect, because he speaks into Intelligence and lets It act.

Human life is the incarnation of God in man.  With every indrawn breath, we breathe in life, and with every outgoing breath, we give it forth.  The lungs are constantly renewed by every respiration.  With every new inspiration of renewed thought we appropriate something of God.  With every out-pouring of life, expressed in faith and good deeds, we are expressing God.  When we associate our breathing with the very Life and Light of God, nothing can retard the flow of life through us.  A good meditation for practitioner or patient, who has any fear of lung trouble, is:

'The One Infinite Life and Substance is the only Life and Substance in existence; and this Life and this Substance is my Life now.  I express through a spiritual body, which is and must continue to be, perfect.  There is no wasting or destruction of any part, for that which is Eternal can never be non-existent.  Any tissues that appear to be impaired are now renewed by the very Life of God, which is flowing in and through me.

"I erase from my consciousness the belief that the tissues of my body can be impaired, inflamed or destroyed.  Joyfully, peacefully, trustingly, confidently, I give my body - every tissue, atom, and function - over to the Spirit of Life, which in Its perfection does now renew and rebuild me, even out of Itself.  That Substance out of which my body is created is Spiritual, and is maintained by the all-powerful Essence of Spirit.'"

June 23 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

What Do We Mean by Mental Equivalents?

"Prayer does something to the mind of the one praying.  It does not do anything to God.  The eternal Gift is always made.  The Gift of God is the Nature of God, the Eternal Givingness.  God cannot help making the gift, because GOD IS THE GIFT.  We do not have to pray God to be God.  God is God.  Jesus revealed the nature of the Divine Being by his personal embodiment of the Divine Nature.  He said, "As ye believe, it shall be done unto you."

The whole teaching of Jesus was based on the theory that we are surrounded by an intelligent Law, which does unto each as he believes.  He implied the necessity of faith, conviction, and acceptance.  That is, it must be measured out to us according to our own measuring.  We must not only believe, we must know that our belief measures the extent and degree of our blessing.  If our belief is limited only a little can come to us, because that is as we believe.  We call this the law of mental equivalents.  How much life can any man experience?  As much as he can embody.  There is nothing fatalistic about this.  We are so constituted that we can continuously increase our embodiment.  We grow in grace, as it were.  We grow in power and theoretically there should be no limit to that growth.  But right today we can expect to demonstrate or to have our prayers answered according to our belief and the embodiment of that belief.

Lowell said, "The gift without the giver is bare," and it is just as true that there can be no gift without a receiver.  It is said, "To as many as received him, to them gave he the power."  We seek to uncover the science of prayer:  the essence of the Spirit embodied in it.  We find that the essence of the power of prayer is faith and acceptance.  In addition to the law of faith and acceptance, the law of mental equivalents must be considered.  These are the two great laws with which we have to deal and we shall never get away from either.  If prayer has been answered, it is not because God has been moved to answer one man and not another, but because one man more than another has moved himself into a right relationship with the Spirit or the Principle of Being - whichever one chooses to call It.

Faith, then, touches a Principle which responds, we may be certain of this.  We should have more faith than we do rather than less, nor is it foolish to cultivate faith.  ALL PRAYERS WILL BE ANSWERED WHEN WE PRAY ARIGHT.  The first necessity is faith.  Faith!  But someone may exclaim, "This is what has always been taught, this is nothing new!"  Correct, we have nothing new.  We simply have a new approach to an old truth, a more intelligent, a more systematic way of consciously arriving at faith.  This is what treatment is for."

June 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Do Not Try to Go Beyond Your Understanding ~ Ernest Holmes

"Since our spiritual understanding is not sufficient to enable us to mentally set bones, we call in a surgeon; since we cannot walk on the water, we take a boat.  We can go only as far as our spiritual knowledge takes us.  Principle is Infinite, but we shall demonstrate Its power only at the level of our concept of It.  Every day we shall have made new discoveries - laws which have always existed but which have not as yet been utilized.

Do not let any one discourage or belittle your efforts by asking, "Why don't you walk on the water?  Jesus did."  Do not be sidetracked by any of these futile suggestions, these mental obstructions which an unbeliever would seek to throw in your path.  If we had the understanding which Jesus had, we would be able to walk on the water.  I am not at all confused by the fact that we do not do this today.  Someday one will come along who knows how to walk on or over the water.

We are probably on the verge of a great spiritual awakening.  People are so tired of looking for things where they do not exist, that they are going to more and more completely open their thought to the realization that Spirit is an active Presence.  But if we spend our entire time trying to find out why It does not work, we shall never find out how and why It does work.  Arguing is often a waste of time.  Somehow there must come to each individual an interior conviction, that we are One with the Universe, and that the Spirit flows through us at the lever of our recognition and embodiment of It.  For this is "the way, the truth and the life."

People say:  "I can't take off my glasses."  Then wear them but begin to make the declaration that there is One Perfect Vision seeing through you.  This the Truth.  If this statement becomes a subjective realization, you will be healed, will no longer need glasses.

If a plaster will relieve, use it.  If a pill does any good, take it, but gradually try to lead the thought from where it is into the higher realms of consciousness where the soul recognizes its own I-Am-ness.

Suppose one is unable to convince himself of the Truth of the statement which he makes, how is he going to bring himself to a place of belief?  By repeating his affirmation, dwelling on its meaning, meditating up on the spiritual significance of it, until the subjective state of his thinking becomes clarified.  This is the only reason for repeating treatments, for one treatment would heal if there were no subjective doubts.  Repeated treatments induce, within consciousness, a definite concept of an already established truth, even though the fact may not as yet have become objectified.  This is why mental healing is scientific.  There is no room for doubt in a treatment.

Realize that you treat with your understanding; by your own choice you decide to give a treatment, but the treatment becomes operative through the Law.  Never say:  "I am not good enough to treat."  In God there are no good, better or best.

Do not allow yourself to become superstitious, for you are dealing with a normal, natural law in the mental and spiritual world.  This law is just as real as any other known law.  Never say:  "I am not sure that I have enough power to treat."  You can never heal with this mental attitude, for that implies that you think you are doing the healing.  Rather, say:  "As I let fall the forms of my thought, they are operated upon by Principles in which I believe.  This is the law of God, the law of man, and the law of the Universe."  Never say, or think:  "This disease is hard to heal, while that presented yesterday was easy."  If you find yourself saying this, at once heal yourself.  Such a belief comes from the thought that we are dealing with a limited power, and that such power knows degrees of discomfort.  The truth is that there is but One Power and that Power knows only Perfection."

June 3 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Suggestions for Treatments ~ Ernest Holmes

"In giving mental and spiritual treatments, it is better not to dwell too much on the negative, since we are liable to give it undue importance.  To affirm the presence of God is better than to deny the presence of evil.  However, if the presence of evil persists in making its appearance, it is sometimes well to deny it, to know it is neither person, place nor thing, that it does not belong to us, and that it cannot operate through or around us.  It is neither cause, medium, nor effect.  It is neither imagination, idea, nor reflection.  It is neither visible nor invisible.  It cannot emanate from God, and does not emanate from man.  The devil is a myth, and heaven is lost merely for the lack of an idea of harmony.  "Stand still and watch the sure salvation of the Lord."  This Lord Is always an indwelling Presence.  The individual "I" which is an incarnation of the Universal "I Am."

A practitioner should think of his patient as a perfect entity, living in a perfect Universe, surrounded by perfect situations and governed by perfect Law.  The entire Universe is devoted to his good.  "All the Father hath is thine."  "Arise, O Son, and take."  This taking is better accomplished through an affirmative attitude of  mind than by dwelling too much on the negative.  "Behold!  The kingdom of heaven is at hand," but this kingdom must be recognized.  The recognition is a mental act.  We must know that the All-Powerful Spirit is ever available and ever equal to the healing of any discordant condition of body, mind or affairs, but we must never look outside of ourselves to find this Spirit, since It is indwelling.  What we really do is to look within our own consciousness, and "pray to the Father who is in secret and the Father who seeth in secret, shall reward us openly."  The sincere practitioner will be sure his own thought is clear, that his own faith is equal to the demands made upon it.  Above all else he must be careful not to be caught in the negative stream of consciousness.  Jesus could not have raised Lazarus from among those who were believed to be dead if he had been afraid to "roll away the stone," nor if he had listened to the wailing of those about him.  To be spiritually minded is to enter that tranquil atmosphere of pure thought, that "Heavenly Consciousness" which is "the secret place of the Most High" in man.

In beginning a series of treatments for any person, we start with the idea of Perfect God, Perfect Man, and Perfect Being.  In every case it is well to begin by the removal of doubt and fear, to assure ourselves that the one whom we are seeking to help is complete and perfect, harmonious and whole.  Next we must conform our arguments, statements and realizations so that they may measure up to this high ideal.

It is easy to believe that God is perfect.  We must also believe that the spiritual man is perfect, and since it is difficult to believe that the objective man is perfect, we must confine our statements to a realization of the spiritual perfection of man.  In such degree as our realization becomes a subjective embodiment, the objective healing will automatically take place.  We know the background of human thought is, to a great extent, one of negation, a denial of an harmonious and spiritual Universe; consequently, our outlook on life must be transformed by the renewing of the mind, and even when the results are not immediately forthcoming, we must still maintain a calm serenity of thought.  We must relight the torch of our imagination by "fire caught from heaven."  We must remain faithful to this vision for a realization of the Presence of God is the secret power of our work.

The following examples are not to be considered dogmatic; they are merely suggested ways by which one may do effective work.   The practitioner must realize that all power is given unto him.  He must believe that man is spiritual and he must be certain that his statements about the spiritual man will find a corresponding outlet in the physical man.  However, he is very careful never to treat the physical man, but to think of man's entire being as spiritual, and if man's entire being is spiritual, then his physical being must reflect spiritual ideas.  The practitioner supplies these spiritual ideas and lets the Law of Mind do the rest.  To begin the treatment by a silent assurance that man, being spiritual, is exempt from negation, is a correct starting point.  Infinite Love harmonizes man's entire being.  The healing currents of Life flow through him, taking away every negative thought and manifestation, and adjusting his whole physical being to the idea of Divine Harmony."

June 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Physical Perfection - Concluded ~ Ernest Holmes

What Can Be Healed?

"What should we try to heal through spiritual treatment?  If we were dealing only with the power of a thought, we should not expect to heal anything; but if we are dealing with a Universal Principle, why should we set any limit to Its power?

Since the Law of God is Infinite, from the spiritual viewpoint, there is no incurable disease, as opposed to a curable one.  The Law knows nothing about disease; It only acts.  The practitioner realizes that this word is the presence, power and activity of Truth, which is in him, which is Almighty, which is God, "beside which there is none other."

This word is the law unto the thing whereunto it is spoken, and has within itself the ability, the power, and the intelligence to execute itself, through the great Law of all life.  This word being the spontaneous recognition of Living Spirit - Infinite, Ever-Present, and Active - is now made manifest in and through this person, or thing, about which the practitioner is thinking.

To Spirit there can be no incurable disease.  The word "incurable" means not susceptible of being cured.  The root definition of cured is "cared for."  If we say that a disease is incurable, we are saying that it is not sensitive to care.   As long as any cell is alive it is sensitive to care, which means that as long as a person is alive, the cells of the body respond to care.  Naturally, they are not being cured if they are not being property cared for.  We have already learned that disease is largely a state of mind, and we could hardly say that a state of mind is incurable, could we?  We know that thought is constantly changing, forever taking on new ways of expression.  It cannot possibly remain permanent.  It has to change.  Can we not, accordingly, change it to a better state instead of to a worse?

Materia medica is using the term "incurable" less and less frequently, for most disease in the field of medicine is being cured.  Let us then free ourselves from the assumption that any disturbed state of thought need be permanent ("incurable")."

June 1 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Summary of Part Two:  Spiritual Mind Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

First Division:  Ideation

A recognition of the Power, and the thought and purpose back of mind healing.

"The possibility of spiritual mind healing, changing environment, controlling conditions, etc., through the power of right thinking, rests entirely upon the theory that we are surrounded by a Universal Mind, which reacts to our thought - and always according to Law.

Spiritual Man is Perfect, but his individual use of Life and Law enables him to cover a perfect idea with an apparently imperfect cloak.

Sickness is not a spiritual Reality; it is an experience - an effect and not a cause.  The body, devoid of mentality, could neither know nor experience sensation; it is entirely an effect.  The body of man is made from the same undifferentiated Spiritual Substance from which all Creation is formed.

Man comes into objectivity with the tendency of the race already subjectified within him, through race-suggestion.  The race experiences sickness and limitation, and this suggestion is more or less operative through all people.  It works through the subjective race thought and operates through the individual.

Man need not consciously think negation in order to produce physical disturbance, but the physical correspondent is a logical outcome of what he thinks.  Thus we see not only how important it is to entertain right thoughts, but also the necessity for having a constructive basis for our thinking.

We find that prayer is essential to happiness, for righteous prayer sets the law of the Spirit of life in motion for our good.  Prayer is essential to the conscious well-being of the soul.  Prayer has stimulated countless millions to higher thoughts and better lives.  Prayer is its own answer.  Before our prayer is framed in words the possibility of its answer already exists.

We find that faith in God is a spiritual quality of the mind; and an understanding faith is based on Immutable Principle.  Its action is higher than that of the intellect, because it is born of intuition.

One should have faith in himself, faith in his fellowman, in the Universe, and in God.  Our mind must be steady in its conviction that our life is some part of God, and that the Spirit is incarnated in us.  "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen."

A spiritual practitioner is one who recognizes man as a Spiritual Reality.  Since there is but One Mind, the practitioner makes this recognition within his own mind.  Through the medium of the One Mind, his statements rise to objective conditions in his patient, according to his belief and the patient's receptivity.  Healing is accomplished through the act of setting Subjective Law in motion.  The more spiritual or Godlike the mentality of the practitioner, the more powerful the treatment.

A mental treatment begins and ends within the thought of the practitioner, because he is in the same Mind in which his patient lives.  Treatment is the act of inducing right concepts on the subjective side of life.

Absent and present treatments are the same, for there is no absence in the One Presence.  So far as the practitioner is concerned, there is no difference between an absent and a present treatment.  He needs only to know whom he wishes to help, realizing that in the field of Mind and Spirit there is no apartness, and then he speaks the word for the other person, in full confidence that the Law will operate upon it.  He is not concerned where the person is whom he desires to help, or what he may be doing at that particular time.  He is concerned only with his own thought relative to his person, endeavoring to bring out in his own mind the realization that this person is a spiritual entity, governed by a perfect Law, directed by positive Intelligence, and animated by Divine Life, Love, and Law.

There is no personal responsibility in healing.  We should not feel that we put the power into the word.  The practitioner directs the Power and lets It work.  One does not hold thought in mental healing; he looses thought.  A practitioner does not try to suggest, hypnotize or mentally influence; he simply seeks to know that man is now a spiritual being, and he holds to that belief no matter what the appearance may be.  Right mental treatment does not tire the one giving the treatment.

Personal magnetism has nothing to do with mental healing.  The whole basis of the possibility of mental healing rests upon the premise that we all live in One Creative Mind which reacts to our belief.  It is as though there were a Universal Ear, listening to and hearing everything that we say, feel or think, and reacting to it.

Healing is not a process but a revelation; for the revealing of the perfect man always heals.  The process, if there is one, is the time and thought that it takes to arrive at the correct understanding of man's perfect state in Spirit.

Anyone can heal who believes that he can, and who will take the time to set that belief in motion through the Law.  To daily see the perfect man, and to daily declare for his objective appearance, is correct mental practice and will heal.

A treatment recognizes that all is Mind, and that everything is mental.  It dissolves all disease into thought; neutralizes the false thought and recognizes the true.  Nothing can stop it from operating except a lack of faith in the reality of Truth and man's ability to use It.

In giving mental treatment, the practitioner first realizes his own being as spiritual; he then recognizes the spiritual state of his patient's being; then he attacks the false claim and brings the evidence of Truth to bear against it, thinking in such a manner as to completely destroy the false claim and realize the Truth.  In such degree as this acknowledgment is complete, petition is transmuted into acceptance, and the mind actually feels that the object of its desire is already an accomplished fact.

The greatest good that can come to anyone is the forming within him of an absolute certainty of himself, and of his relationship to the Universe, forever removing the sense of heaven as being outside himself.

Such an understanding teaches us that there can never come a time when we shall stop progressing; that age is an illusion, that limitation is a mistake, that unhappiness is ignorance.  This understanding will rob man of his loneliness and give him a sense of security which knows no fear, a peace without which no life can be happy, a poise which is founded on this peace, and a power which is the result of the union of peace with poise."

May 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Seeing Perfection ~ Ernest Holmes

"When Jesus said to the man, "Stretch forth thine hand," he undoubtedly saw a perfect hand!  If everything is mental, and if Jesus saw an imperfect hand instead of a perfect one, no good would have resulted, according to the law of cause and effect. A practitioner does not treat a sick man, he deals only with the idea, a spiritual man; otherwise, he would enter into the vibration of suffering and might himself experience the result of such vibration.  From what we know, Jesus must have seen only the perfect hand.  Even though he might have recognized the false condition, as far as his word of healing was concerned, it must have been a recognition of perfection...else it could not have healed.

Healing is not creating a perfect idea or a perfect body; it is revealing an idea which is already perfect.  Healing is not a process, it is a revelation, through the thought of the practitioner to the thought of the patient.  There may be a process in healing, but not a process of healing.  The process in healing is the mental work and the time it takes the practitioner to convince himself of the perfectness of his patient; and the length of time it takes the patient to realize this perfectness.

Back of what we call the human body, there must be a Divine Body.  It is not necessary to visualize this spiritual body, but we should sense body as a spiritual idea, that the flow and circulation of life through it is complete.  It is not inhibited...not congested.

It is necessary that the practitioner believe in a perfect body.  He cannot realize this unless he has already become convinced that the perfect body IS there.  If he has come to this conclusion, he must not deny it.  There is a perfect heart and a perfect idea of heart, a perfect head and a perfect idea of a head, perfect lungs and a perfect idea of lungs.  The practitioner must realize that back of the appearance is the Reality, and it is his business to uncover this Reality.  He does this through a process of obliterating false thought.  He must deny false conclusions, bring out the evidence of perfection, and produce the healing.  Disease is a fact but not a truth; it is an experience but not a spiritual reality.

We must transcend the appearance, even though we admit it as a fact.  We are not so cold-blooded as to say to a person with pain that there is no such thing as pain.  That is not our idea or purpose.  We admit the fact.  IT IS QUITE A DIFFERENT THING TO ADMIT ITS NECESSITY.  We admit that there is unhappiness, but it would be unthinkable to admit that one has to be unhappy.  Can it be true that there could be a Universal necessity for unhappiness.  IT CANNOT.  And the time will come when no one will be unhappy!  I do not know when it will come.  I am not going to wait for it to come, but it is certain that such a time will arrive; and it will come to you and to me NOW in such degree as we will let it come.  We shall be able to let it come in such degree as we are able to convince our consciousness that it is there, and when it finally does come, we shall find that it was always there!

Disease, accordingly, is a fact but not a truth.  It is not an eternal verity.  It was a fact in human experience for ages that people did not broadcast over a radio, but it was not a truth that they could not.  It was not a divine Reality, because had they known how to manufacture a radio and talk over it, they could have broadcast in any age.  So we must try to see and sense that always, back of the appearance, PERFECTION IS."

May 25 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Medium of Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"The thing to remember is, that THERE IS JUST ONE SUBJECTIVE MIND IN THE UNIVERSE.  This is a point that people often do not realize, and because they do not, they cannot see how a person may be treated without touching him, or that a person at a distance can be helped through absent treatment.  If there is but One Subjective Mind in the Universe (and we have already learned the meaning and nature of Subjective Mind:  It is the deductive, receptive, plastic, neutral, impersonal and creative, It is the Stuff from which all things are made) you can impress upon It a certain image of thought, or a certain process of realization, and you will get a result, for It is the Actor.

When we speak of every thought dropped into the Creative Medium, do we think of God's thought and man's thought as the same?  We think of each as thought; but, whereas man thinks both inductively and deductively, God thinks only deductively.

God is not conscious of matter as we know it.  God is conscious of form but not of size.  God is conscious of manifestation but not of space.  God is conscious of outline but not of limitation.  God is conscious in many forms, but not as division.

There is a great difference between conscious and unconscious thought for trained thought is far more powerful than untrained.  If this were not true, the thoughts of the metaphysical practitioner could not neutralize those which caused his patient to be sick.  Even a small amount of right thought puts to rout that which is wrong.

We have learned that Subjective Mind can deduce only, that It cannot of Itself initiate anything; but this does not mean that It is unintelligent.  We must be very careful not to labor under the delusion that because Subjective Mind cannot reason, It is unintelligent, for It is infinitely more intelligent than our present state of conscious mind, but is, nevertheless, controlled by it.

If our subjective consciousness were always clear, if it never received false impressions, the Spirit would always flow to the point of objectivity, and we would never make mistakes, would never be sick, poor or unhappy.

The Universe being deductive only, cannot refuse man anything.   The very force which makes us sick can heal us, the force which makes us poor can enrich us, and the power which makes us miserable can make us happy.  If this were not true, there would be a duality in the Universe and this is impossible.

You do not need to look for a law of health as opposed to a law of disease, for there is only One Law.  This gives a great sense of relief since it means that THERE IS NO POWER TO OPPOSE A TREATMENT.  We are bound by our very freedom, our free will binds us, but as free will creates the conditions which externally limits us, so it can uncreate or dissolve them.  Instead of saying, "Here is a sick man to heal, and I shall have to work hard on this case," we should realize that there is nothing but Spirit in the Universe and, therefore, say, "I am going to conceive of this man as being Spirit, and the same power which made him sick will heal him."

People often say:  "It must be a drain on one to treat so many people.  I should think the practitioner's will-power would become exhausted."  This is a misconception.  Our reference to "free will" means merely the matter of self-choosing, the matter of deciding what we shall think.  WILL-POWER HAS NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH MENTAL HEALING!  Its use would imply that the practitioner exercises a personal thought force over his patient.  This is a false suggestion, which is always some form of hypnotism.  Knowing our Oneness with God and the Creative Medium, Law, our treatments are free from any thought of control.

All thoughts of doubt concerning one's ability to heal, come from the belief that it is the personality and not the Law which does the healing.  Never say:  "I am not good enough to heal," or "I do not know enough to heal."  Know that you are dealing with the Law, It is the Actor.  Recognize all such arguments as some form of suggestion, and refuse to let them operate through you.  YOU CAN HEAL, but you must know that you can!  The day will come, and is rapidly approaching, when the entire world will believe the truth, because of the great neutralizing power which right thought is exercising upon the race consciousness.

The reason people do not get better results is that they do not understand that Principle works independently...the Truth demonstrates Itself!"

May 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Healing is Clear Thinking (continued) ~ Ernest Holmes

"Right thought, constantly poured into consciousness, will eventually purify it.  Discord might be likened to a bottle of impure water; healing might be likened to the process of dropping pure water into the bottle, a drop at a time, until the whole is clean and pure.  Someone might ask why the bottle could not be turned upside down and at once drain out all the impurities.  Sometimes this happens but not often.  Meanwhile, a drop at a time will finally eliminate the impurities and produce a healing.

In treating, go beyond the disease and supply a spiritual consciousness.  A treatment is not complete without a great realization of Life and Love, of God and Perfection, of Truth and Wisdom, of Power and Reality.  Sense the Divine Presence in and through the patient at all times.

Whether we say that thought goes out, or that it is operated upon by Principle makes little difference.  It is very evident that until a thought is created, there is no operation.  It is evident that THINKING SETS CAUSATION IN MOTION.  Whether the word used heals, or simply sets the law in motion, really is of small import.

The practitioner is in the same Mind in which his patient lives; consequently, since each is in the One Mind, the patient is sick in the same medium and in a certain sense in the same Mind in which the practitioner lives; and because this Mind is Indivisible, the practitioner can, in his own mentality, reach the thought which causes the patient to be sick.  Whether we say he sends out a thought, or that he simply realizes a thought, makes no difference.  The simplest way is to say that the practitioner realizes, within himself, upon the One Mind, through the One Medium, in the One Law.

The practitioner realizes a certain truth for his patient within himself.  Therefore, he sets the Law in motion for his patient.  (The operation of this Law may be thought of in the same way we think of the law whereby water reaches its own level by its own weight.)  The practitioner knows WITHIN HIMSELF, and this self-knowingness rises into the consciousness of his patient.  It is like planting a seed in the ground, the practitioner sows the seed and the Creative Mind produces the plant.  Does the soil operate on the seed, or does the seed operate on the soil?  We do not know, but we do know that when a seed is put into the ground, the law pertaining to growth operates and a plant is produced, and that unless a seed is planted, no plant will be produced.

In practice, we make no attempt to send thoughts to our patients!  We know there is but One Mind.  We will say that "A" represents one who is sick and desires help.  "B" represents a practitioner.  "B" thinks into Mind; and whether we say that he is thinking within himself or somewhere else does not matter, he is always thinking into Mind, because he is in Mind!  But one might say, "The patient thinks into his own subjective mind."  Yes, if you wish to designate it as his subjective mind, but his subjective mind is only his atmosphere in the One Mind.  We must understand this very clearly, else someday there will be a wall between our thought and its ability to heal some person who happens to be at a physical distance.

Both the patient and the practitioner think into the common Mind.  Therefore, when a patient comes to a practitioner for healing, the practitioner does not try to hypnotize him, nor suggest anything to him.  He declares the Truth about the patient.  To the degree that the practitioner brings his own consciousness to a true recognition of perfection - provided there is a subjective receptivity in the thought of the patient - that man will be helped.

The practitioner does not try to hold a thought nor to send out a thought.   He simply tries to convince himself of the perfection of his patient.  The practitioner does not try to make his word operate through his patient, but only attempts to know the Truth of what he states.  The patient must be receptive to the Truth, then the Truth will heal him.  The practitioner is dealing with Universal Law, backed by omnipotent Power, which is Divine Principle.  This is what Jesus meant when he said:  "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

Every time we think, we are thinking into a receptive plastic Substance, which receives the impress of our thought.  When we stop to realize how subtle thoughts are, how unconsciously we think negation, how easy it is to get "down and out" mentally, we shall see that each is perpetuating his own condition.  This is why people go from bad to worse or from success to a greater success.

Only as we gradually, definitely, and intelligently take true ideas and build them into the structure of our own thought, can there come the desired reaction.  In mental treatment, the practitioner deals solely with ideas, and treats neither bodies nor conditions.  He never manipulates, nor should he lay hands on his patient...He does not care where the patient is when he is treating him, or what he may be doing.  The practitioner's work begins and ends within his own consciousness.  This should be constantly borne in mind."

May 19 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Healing is Clear Thinking ~ Ernest Holmes

"Scientific mental healing is the result of clear thinking and logical reasoning, which presents itself to consciousness and is acted upon by Mind.  It is a systematic process of reasoning, which unearths the mental cause or idea underlying disease, and presents the Truth about man's being.

For instance, say to yourself:  "God is all there is.  There is only One Life."  When you are treating, if there is any slight point which is not clear, do not continue with the treatment.  Stop at once, go back to your analysis of Ultimate Reality and build your whole argument upon It, in order to get a clear consciousness.

Repeat:  "God is All.  There is but One Power, Intelligence and Consciousness in the Universe, but One Presence.  This One Presence cannot change into but Itself.  It is Changeless, and It is my life now, It is in me now."  Claim that no form of race-suggestion, belief in limitation, subjective idea of limitation, thought of karma, fatalism, theology or hell, horoscope, or any other false belief, has power.  Accept none of them.  If you have ever believed in them, if you have ever believed that the stars govern you, or that your environment governs you, or that your opportunities govern you, recognize this as an hypnotic condition into which you have fallen, and deny every one of them until there is no longer anything in you that believes in them.

This is a good way to clear your consciousness.  We can readily see what it does:  it induces a clear concept of Reality, which must reproduce Itself.  This process of clear thinking, if carried out every day, will heal.

When you are giving a treatment, you are thinking.  You are meeting, opposing, neutralizing, erasing and obliterating suppression, fear, doubt, failure, morbid emotion and sense of loss - whatever the trouble may be.  Every time your thought hits fairly and squarely, it erases just as definitely as one would erase a chalk line.  Such is the mystery of the appearance and the disappearance of thought."

May 18 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Disease Is Not Always Due to Conscious Thought ~ Ernest Holmes

"Diseases which are mental in their origin must arise from some inner state of consciousness.  While most disease must first have a subjective cause, this subjective cause (nine times out of ten) is not conscious in the thought of the person who suffers from it, but is perhaps largely the result of certain combinations of thinking.

So while it is true that disease has a prototype in subjective mind, it is also true that the individual who suffers from the disease, frequently has never thought he was going to have that particular kind of trouble.

But this does not alter the fact that every disease which comes up through subjectivity, and appears in the body, must come through mind.

How to Heal

In our work, we treat man, not as a physical body, neither do we treat the disease as belonging to him, the reason being that if we do, we cannot subsequently free him from it.  We do not think of the disease as being connected with him or a part of him.  The practitioner seeks to realize man as perfect, not needing to be healed of anything.  This is nothing less than the realization of the Presence and the Power of God, or Spirit, as Man's Life, as the only life there is, as complete and perfect in him right now.

First recognize your own perfection then build up the same recognition for your patient.  You are then ready to directly attack the thought that binds him, recognizing that your word destroys it, and stating that it does.  You may then take into account and specifically mention everything that needs to be changed, every so-called broken law or false thought.  Then finish your treatment with a realization of peace, remaining for a few moments in silent recognition that your work is done, complete and perfect.

The work must not be thought of as hard.  When we know that there is but One Mind, we shall realize that this work could not be difficult or laborious.   Mental treatment is a direct statement of belief into Mind, coupled with a realization that the work is already an accomplished fact.  The spiritual man needs no healing, health is an omnipresent reality, and when the obstructions that hinder healing are removed, it will be found that health was there all the time.  So in your work, do not feel that you must heal anyone.  Your only responsibility is to uncover the Truth.

Never say:  "Here is a patient whom I must heal," for if you think of him from this viewpoint, how are you going to heal him?  If you mentally see a sick man, he will remain mentally sick.  We cannot heal successfully while we recognize sickness as a reality to the Spirit.  In spiritual healing by this method, no one believes in disease, it  has no action nor reaction, it has neither cause nor effect, it has no law to support it and no one through whom it can operate.  There is no one to talk with about it, and no one to believe in it.  While we maintain that disease is primarily a thing of thought, we do not deny the actuality of its experience nor the suffering it causes, instead we seek to heal it, and we co-operate with all, no matter what method they are using to relieve distress.

You have nothing to do with the patient's thought as a personality, for as your own thought clears, he will be helped.  First eliminate doubt and fear from your own thought; realize that your patient is a Divine Being, and that your word is the law unto the thing unto which it is spoken.  This is what gave Jesus His power:  "For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.""