July 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS

By Ernest Holmes

Abundance Is My Inheritance

"Abundance is mine.  I cannot be deprived of my supply.  The trees do not lack for leaves, nor do the flowers fail to bloom.  Am I not as important as they?  "Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin, yet...Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these."

I look at the lavish wastefulness of Nature and know that God intended me to be as abundantly supplied, with everything that makes for beauty, well-being, progressive living and happiness.  I, myself, am to blame when these "fruits of the Spirit" fail to appear.

Since I know the Truth of my being.  I will no longer hinder or retard my good from coming to me.  I will expect and accept all that I need to make life happy and worth while; for I am a child of the Spirit, and every attribute of It - every attribute of Good - is my inheritance.

Nothing but lack of faith can keep my good from me, for I am one with the Universal Essence of Life, or Spirit, and Its Substance will manifest in my experience as I believe.  No longer will I go for my good, carrying only a dipper to be filled.  This day, as I turn to the Father within, I bring "all the empty vessels" knowing they will be filled, and my abundance will become manifest."

Abundance Is My Inheritance

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 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."

July 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW of ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

Attraction of Personality

"Every business, every place, every person, every thing has a certain mental atmosphere of its own.   This atmosphere decides what is to be drawn to it.  For instance, you never a successful man who went around with an atmosphere of failure.  Successful people think about success.  A successful man is filled with that subtle something which permeates everything that he does with an atmosphere of confidence and strength.  The man who says of himself, "I have no personality with which to attract people," has been laboring under a delusion.  He needs to be disillusioned.  He must be shown that there is but One Person; this Person is manifested through every living soul.  It is THE Personality.  It is Complete.

The ones to whom we are most strongly attracted are not necessarily the ones who are the most beautiful physically, but are the ones from whom we receive that subtle emanation, "that something."  What is that something?  It is that which emanates from within.  It is the inner recognition of Reality.
Now we know, and knowing means using the Law in a constructive way, "I and my Father are one."  This is strength for the weak and life for all who believe.  We can so fill ourselves with the drawing power of attraction that it will become irresistible.  Nothing can hinder the man who knows that he is dealing with the One Power that creates all from Itself, moves all within Itself, and yet holds everything in its place.  One with the Infinite Mind.  One with the personality of God.  We should let this ring through our mind each day, many times each day, until we shall never again say, "I have no personality."  We have all Personality!"

July 14 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

Thought Atmosphere

"Spiritual mind healing is a result of the constructive use of a mental law, which the world is gradually beginning to understand.  Since we are thinking beings and cannot stop thinking, and since Creative Mind receives our thought and cannot stop creating, It must always be creating something for us.  What It will make depends wholly upon what we are thinking, and what we shall attract will depend upon that on which our thoughts dwell.

Thought can attract to us that which we first mentally embody, that  which has become a part of our mental makeup, a part of our inner understanding.  Every person is surrounded by a thought atmosphere.  This mental atmosphere is the direct result of his conscious and unconscious thought, which, in its turn,becomes the direct reason for, and cause of, that which comes into his life.  Thorough this power we are either attracting or repelling.  Like attracts like and it is also true that we may become attracted to something which is greater than our previous experience, by first embodying the atmosphere of our desire.

Taking as the starting point the idea that the essence of man's life is God, it follows that he uses the same creative process.  Everything originates in the One, comes form the same Source and returns again to It.  As God's thought makes worlds, and peoples them with living things, so our thought makes our world and peoples it with our experiences.  By the activity of our thought, things come into our life and we are limited only because we have not known the Truth.  We have thought that outside things controlled us, when all the time we have had that within which could have changed everything and given us freedom from bondage.

Everyone automatically attracts to himself just what he is, and we may set it down that wherever we are, however intolerable the situation may be, we are just where we belong.  There is no power in the universe but ourselves that can free us.  Someone may help us on the road to realization, but substantiality and permanence can come only through the consciousness of our own life and thought.  Man must bring himself to the place in mind where there is no misfortune, no calamity, no accident, no trouble, no confusion; where there is nothing but plenty, peace, power Life and Truth.  He should definitely, daily (using his own name) declare the Truth about himself, realizing that he is reflecting his statements into Consciousness and that they will be operated upon by It.

This is called, in mysticism, High Invocation; invoking the Divine Mind, implanting within It, seeds of thought relative to oneself.  And this is why some of the teachers of olden times used to instruct their pupils to cross their hands over their chests and say:  "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful me!" definitely teaching them that as they mentally held themselves, so they would be held.  "Act as though I am and I will be."

One of the ancient sayings is that "To the man who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible."  This sounds like a contradiction until one penetrates its inner meaning, for it is only when one completely practices inaction that he arrives at the point of the true actor, for he then realizes that the act and the actor are one and the same; that cause and effect are the same; which is simply a different way of saying:  "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  To reduce the whole thing to its simplest form, whatever one reflects into Mind tends to take form."

July 3 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS

By Ernest Holmes

When We Are Strong (John 5:19)

““The Son can do nothing of himself.”  We are strong only as we are in unity with good, which is God.  But the Father showeth the Son, that is, it is revealed to us, through the innermost parts of our being, that there is a complete unity, a perfect wholeness.  As this concept of unity takes place, it brings with it great authority.  The Father quickens the Son, the Son quickens whom he will.

Here is a lesson in the practical application of the Science of Mind.  As the subjective state of thought becomes unified with goodness and love, it automatically reflects these in whatsoever direction the thought goes.  The tendency of this inner thought sets the tendency of the outward life.

Let us make this plain.  IF ONE IS NOT ATTRACTING GOOD INTO HIS LIFE, THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH HIS UNCONSCIOUS THINKING.  The subjective state of his thought is wrong.  As the subjective state of his thought constitutes the sum total of his belief, it is his habitual attitude toward life and living.  This inner thought content is the sole medium between the Absolute and the relative, between causes and condition.

When this inner thought is clarified, that is, when it knows the truth, it will reinstate the outer man in peace, poise, health and happiness.  This inner thought becomes clarified as we unify with good; this is the inner quickening.  Following this is the outer quickening – the outward sign of the inner belief.

The Word of Power (John 5:26)

As the Father has life, so the son has life.  Again we have the teaching that there is but One Life, Mind or Spirit.  This Life is now our life, and manifests through us as we believe in It.  When our word is spoken in this consciousness of life, power and action, then our word IS life, power and action.

THE word has power only as it is one with power.  The word is a mold which decides what form the thought is to take as it assumes shape and becomes a part of our conditions.  Mental treatment is for the purpose of forming the word into such shapes and designs as are desirable for experience.

The word gives form to the unformed.  The greater the consciousness behind the word, the more power it will have.  Just words, without conviction, have no power, and just conviction without words, will never stir up latent energy.  There must be a combination of the two to make a complete thing.

We are surrounded by a spiritual consciousness and a mental law.  From combinations of these two, all things are made.  We unify with the spiritual consciousness as we become aware of it, we speak it into form as we believe in the power of our own word.  In treatment, there should be first a realization of power then a spoken word.  One generates, the other distributes.

The Meat Which Perisheth (John 6:27)

“Labour not for the meat which perisheth.”  Jesus knew that we need food to eat while in the flesh, so he could not be referring to literal food, but rather to that inner substance which is spiritual.

Starvation takes place on more than one plane.  More people are starved spiritually and intellectually than physically.  A full stomach will never appease an appetite for learning, nor can a loaf of bread satisfy the inner craving for reality.  The whole being needs to be fed – bread and meat for the body, knowledge and wisdom for the soul, atmosphere and consciousness for the Spirit.

We live on three planes at the same time.  To attempt to desert any one of these, to the cost of the others, is abnormal.  To live only on the physical plane is to become a brute.  To live on the intellectual plane alone, might produce a learned and a scientific man, but he would lack true perception.  To live only on the spiritual plane, might cause one to become a dreamer without any practical way of making his dreams come true.

The Three Planes of Life

Man is a threefold principle of life and action; he is spirit, soul and body.  From the Spirit he receives inspiration and guidance; in the soul he finds a perfect Law of life; and through the body he proves that he is a real individualization of the Invisible Principle.

Man’s mind should swing from inspiration to action, from contemplation to accomplishment, from prayer to performance.  This would be a well-balanced existence.  The Spirit fires the soul with energy and understanding; the soul, which is the subjective mentality, vitalizes the body and animates all that we do.

No greater mistake could be made than to think we must separate life from what it does.  We must unify and not divide.  The spirit must go forth into creation through law and action.  Life must enter living, and God must flow through man, if there is to be a real representation of the Divine through the human.

Let us feel that our purposes are animated and inspired from on high and then let us go forth and make our dream come true in human experience.  With an invisible  Intelligence to guide, and an immutable Law to direct, let us take our place in any legitimate activity, and thus cause our dreams to come to full fruition.”

June 24 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

"Why is it that Jesus could say to the paralyzed man, "Take up thy bed and walk"?  Because Jesus knew when he said this that the man would get up and walk.  HE NOT ONLY BELIEVED THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING TO RESPOND TO HIM BUT HE HAD AN EQUIVALENT OF ITS RESPONSE, which is just as necessary.

The Law is Infinite and Perfect but in order to make a demonstration WE MUST HAVE A MENTAL EQUIVALENT OF THE THING WE DESIRE.  A demonstration, like anything else in the objective life, is born out of a mental concept.  The mind is the fashioning factor, and according to its range, vision and positiveness, will be the circumstance or experience.  For example:  If one sees only unloveliness in others, it is because unloveliness is a strong element in himself.  The light he throws on others is generated in his own soul and he sees them as he chooses to see them.  He holds constantly in his mind a mental equivalent of unloveliness and creates unlovely reactions toward himself.  He is getting back what he is sending out.  If a man believes himself to be a failure and that it is useless for him to try to be anything else, he carries with him the mental equivalent of failure.  So he succeeds in being a failure according to law.  This is his demonstration.   Having a strong picture or mental concept, and holding to that equivalent regardless of circumstances or condition, we must sooner or later manifest according to the concept.

It follows, then, that the range of our possibilities at the present time does not extend far beyond the range of our present concepts.  As we bring ourselves to a greater vision, we induce a greater concept and thereby demonstrate more in our experience.  In this way there is a continuous growth and unfoldment taking place.  We do not expect to give a treatment today, for prosperity, and have a million dollars tomorrow.  But little by little we can unfold our consciousness, through the acquisition of greater and still greater mental equivalents, until at last we shall be made free.

The way to proceed is to begin right where we are.  It is not scientific to attempt to begin somewhere else.  One who understands the systematic use of the Law will understand that he is where he is because of what he is, but he will not say, "I must remain where I am, because of what I am."  Instead he will begin to disclaim what he appears to be.  As his statements release wrong subjective tendencies, providing in their place a correct concept of life and Reality, he will automatically be lifted out of his condition; impelling forces sweeping everything before them, will set him free, if he trusts in Spirit and the working of the Law.

Stay with the One and never deviate from It, never leave It for a moment.  Nothing else can equal this attitude.  TO DESERT THE TRUTH IN THE HOUR OF NEED IS TO PROVE THAT WE DO NOT KNOW THE TRUTH.  When things look the worst, that is the supreme moment to demonstrate, to ourselves, that there are no obstructions to the operation of Truth.  When things look the worst is the best time to work, the most satisfying time.  The person who can throw himself with a complete abandon into that Limitless Sea of Receptivity, having cut loose from all apparent moorings, is the one wo will always receive the greatest reward."

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."

February 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY ~ Ernest Holmes

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM The TEACHINGS of JESUS ~ Ernest Holmes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Religious Morbidities

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

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

Thought Retards or Quickens

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

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

February 19 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Limitless Medium ~ Ernest Holmes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ and Antichrist

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

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

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

February 10 ~ The Science of Mind

Form Within the Formless ~ Ernest Holmes

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

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

January 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How to Use It (Continued) ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Of all the people in the world, the ones who have come the nearest to touching the seamless garment of Truth have been the most sympathetic and the greatest lovers of the race.  Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up, ....(not dragged down) will draw all men unto me."  (John 12:32)

We are in the world and of it and it is good that it is so.  The world is all right when we view it correctly.  Who knows what would transpire if all men would speak the truth?  It has never yet been tried, but let not the mouth of the profane hinder those who would enter, thereby keeping them from entering.  The world has never yet followed the simple ethics of Jesus, yet it is loud in its proclamation that it is Christian.  This statement is not written in a spirit of controversy, it is one of conviction, and will make its appeal only to those who are convinced  "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still."

Let us return to the man who really wishes to demonstrate the supremacy of spiritual thought force over apparent material resistance.  Let us put his treatment in the first person - impersonating him for the purpose of clarity.

"I am a center in the Divine Mind, a point of God-conscious life, truth and action.  My affairs are divinely guided and guarded into right action, into correct results.  Everything I do, say or think, is stimulated by the Truth.  There is power in this word that I speak, because it is of the Truth and it is the Truth.  There is perfect and continuous right action in my life and my affairs.  All belief in wrong action is dispelled and made negative.  Right action alone has power and right action is power, and Power is God...the Living Spirit Almighty.  This Spirit animates everything that I do, say or think.  Ideas come to me daily and these ideas are divine ideas.  They direct me and sustain me without effort.  I am continuously directed.  I am compelled to do the right thing at the right time, to say the right word at the right time, to follow the right course at all times.

"All suggestion of age, poverty, limitation or unhappiness is uprooted from my mind and cannot gain entrance to my thought.  I am happy, well and filled with perfect Life.  I live in the Spirit of Truth and am conscious that the Spirit of Truth lives in me.  My word is the law unto its own manifestation, and will bring to me or cause me to be brought to its fulfillment.  There is no unbelief, no doubt, no uncertainty.  I know and I know that I know.  Let every thought of doubt vanish from my mind that I may know the Truth and the Truth may make me free."

The Truth is instantaneous in its demonstration, taking only such time in Its unfoldment as is inherent in the law of a logical and sequential evolution.  In this invisible law of unfoldment, we must come to trust, and although we do not see the way, we must believe that the way IS and IS OPERATIVE.  We must trust the Invisible, for It is the sole cause of that which is visible... "...things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."   (Heb. 11:3)

Healing and demonstration take place as our minds become attuned to the truth of Being.  There is no process of healing, but there is generally a process in healing.  This process is the time and effort which we undergo in our realizations of Truth.

The one who wishes scientifically to work out his problems, must daily take the time to meditate and mentally treat the condition, no matter what the apparent contradictions may be.  He is working silently in the Law and the Law will find an outlet through his faith in It.  This Law is the Law which puts the act into all action.  It is the invisible actor, working through us to will and to do.  As a result of right treatment, the mold formed in the subjective mind by the treatment makes possible a concrete manifestation.  The treatment is an intelligent Energy in the invisible world.  It is a spiritual entity, working through the Law of Mind, and it is an actual force now consciously directed.  Therefore, it must produce specific results.

This will not seem strange to those who have given thought to the subject.  As the primordial Word of the Creator is the only thing which explains creation, so every man's word - partaking of this original nature as it does - must reproduce the creative function in his life, at the level of his consciousness of One Life back of, in, and through all.

January 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How to Use It (Continued) ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We should be able to look a discordant fact in the face and deny its reality, since we know its seeming reality is borrowed from illusion, from "chaos and old night."  Our standard is one of perfection.  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"  (Matt. 5:48)  We should be able to look at a wrong condition with the knowledge that we can change it.  The realization that we have this ability must be gained by the application of our knowledge. 

The practice of the Science of Mind calls for a positive understanding of the Spirit of Truth; a willingness to let this inner Spirit guide us, with the conscious knowledge that "The law of the Lord is perfect."  (Psalms 19:7)  And we must believe this to be a fact.  IN SO FAR AS OUR THOUGHT IS IN ACCORD WITH THIS PERFECT LAW, IT WILL ACCOMPLISH AND NOTHING CAN HINDER IT.  "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,"  (Matt. 24:35) said the beautiful Jesus, as he strove to teach his disciples the immutability of the Law of Righteousness.

A practitioner uses thought definitely and for specific purposes, and the more definitely he uses the Law, the more directly will It respond to him.  A false fact is neither person, place nor thing to the one who uncovers it, and once uncovered it has no place in which to hide.  The illusion, seen and understood, is made negative in the experience of the one who suffered by it.  While it is true that wrong conditions exist, they could not remain unless there were someone to experience them.  Consequently, the experience must be in consciousness.  Change the consciousness and the false condition will disappear.  Conditions are not entities, we are entities.  Cannot that which is conscious cast out that which has no consciousness?  If we properly understood, we would be able to remove false conditions as easily as Jesus did.  He knew, but our faith is weak.  We must strengthen it and we can.

Let us analyze this:  One finds himself impoverished.   He wishes to change this condition.  He knows that it is not in accord with Ultimate Reality; that the Spirit imposes no limitations.  Therefore, he knows that his apparent limited condition has no rea law to support it; it is simply an experience of consciousness  He wishes a definite result in the opposite direction.  First, he realizes that the Law of Life is a Law of Liberty, of Freedom.  He now states that this Law of Liberty is flowing through him and into all his affairs. But the image of his limitation persists. Her is a definite contradiction of his statements of freedom.

Right here, he must stop and declare that these images of limitation are neither person, place nor thing; that they have no power, personality nor presence and no real law to support them.  He does not believe in them and they cannot operate through him.  He is free from their influence, forever.  He then begins to fill his thought with the idea of faith, the expectancy of good and the realization of plenty.  He senses, and mentally sees, right action in his life.  He puts his whole trust in the Law of good, and It becomes very real to him as he definitely speaks It into being - into his being and into the being of his affairs. He denies anything and everything that contradicts his realization of this truth.

At this point of realization, he meets a friend(?) who immediately begins a tale of woe about hard times, bad business condition, etc., and, should he listen to this "tale of the serpent," he might reverse his previous affirmations and make negative his former mental and spiritual concept!  This does not mean that he should refuse to hold conversation with people, for fear they will neutralize the position which he has taken in his mind, but that he should refuse mentally to accept the false position.  Then he can talk with anyone and not be disturbed.

The time will come when we will let our "conversation be in Heaven," and refuse to talk about, read or think about, those things that ought not to be.  But, someone will say, "Should we refuse to look at sickness, poverty and unhappiness"  This is not what we are discussing.  We will not refuse to help the helpless or lift up the fallen, but we will refuse to wallow in the mud because of our sympathies.  "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."  (Matt. 15:14)"

January 23 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Turn Entirely from the Condition ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

""Behold thou my face forevermore." "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."  That is, look up and not down. The reason a man has difficulty in throwing off some weakness of character - while believing in Spirit implicitly and having faith that he is going to overcome his limitation - is because he has not induced the necessary images in mind. If he had, he would have overcome his trouble. Thinking of his weakness keeps the image of it before him.  We cannot be too insistent on this all-important point:  in treating, we must TURN ENTIRELY AWAY FROM THE CONDITION.  Disease and limitation are neither person, place, nor thing.  Turn entirely from the condition, or limited situation, to its opposite, to the realization of health, happiness and harmony.  Spiritual treatment starts with Perfect God, Perfect Man, and Perfect Being, which statement consciously removes any belief which denies such manifestation.

Look Only at What You Want

Never look at that which you do not wish to experience.  No matter what the false condition may be, it must be refuted.  The proper kind of a denial is based upon the recognition that, in reality, there is no limitation, for Mind can as easily make a planet as an acorn. The Infinite knows no difference between a million dollars and a penny.  It only knows that IT IS.

It is the consciousness back of the word that forms the word.  Consciousness means the inner embodiment of an idea through the recognition of Truth and a direct relationship to the Divine.  The greatest teacher who ever lived was the most spiritual man, for the more universal and comprehensive the thought, the more Godlike it must become.

A good treatment is always filled with the recognition of the Presence of God, or Good.  This automatically wipes out any picture of undesirable conditions, for the Spirit of God is a law of elimination and obliteration to everything unlike Itself!  Even in what we term spiritual things, we are still dealing with the law of cause and effect, for God is Law.  The more exalted, the more heavenly, the more boundless, the more Godlike or Christlike the thought it, the more power it will have.  This is why the greatest teacher became the Savior.  A spiritual genius would have to be a  Savior.

Never Limit Your View of Life

Never limit your view of life by any past experience.  The possibility of life is inherent within the capacity to imagine what life is, backed by the power to produce this imagery, or Divine Imagination.  It is not a question of failing or succeeding. It is simply a question of sticking to an idea until it becomes a tangible reality.  The illusion is in the way we look at things.  We have looked at poverty, degradation and misery until they have assumed gigantic proportions. Now we must look at harmony, happiness, plenty, prosperity, peace and right action, until they appear.

When we are making a demonstration, we pay no attention to what happens in the objective world.  We interpret causes by conditions, only as we realize that a condition must partake of the nature of its cause.  If there appears to be confusion in the condition, then there must have been confusion in the thought back of it.  We pay no attention to the right subjective recognition.  The way scientifically to work out a problem is daily in thought to conceive of it as already being an accomplished fact in experience.  We realize the desire is already embodied in the Absolute.  We are dealing with nothing less than the Absolute - with REALITY.

During the process, many things may happen that appear to be destructive.  We may pass through good fortune and bad, but if we can come to the point where we are not disturbed by "things" we can have found the secret.  If, as Jesus said, we "judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment," remembering that "things which are seen are not made of things which do appear;" if, I repeat, we can judge in this manner, OUT OF ANY CHAOS WE CAN PRODUCE HARMONY."

January 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Perfect Universe ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We must seek to realize the spiritual Universe, regardless of any condition which appears, if we would embody the greatest good.  If the spiritual Universe were not perfect, It could not exist for a single moment. 

The Truth is Indivisible and Whole.  God is Complete and Perfect.  A Perfect Cause must produce a perfect effect.  Disregarding all evidence to the contrary, the student of Truth will maintain that he lives in a Perfect Universe and among people potentially perfect. He will regulate his thinking to meet this necessity and will refuse to believe in its opposite. At first he may be influenced by conditions, and he may appear to be weak, but as time goes on he will prove to himself that his position is a correct one, for that which appears imperfect will begin to slip from his experience.

To daily meditate on the Perfect Life, and to daily embody the Great Ideal, is a royal road to freedom, to that "peace which passeth understanding," and is happiness to the soul of man.  Let  us learn to see as God must, with a Perfect Vision.  Let us seek the good and the true and believe in them with our whole heart, even though every man we meet is filled with suffering, and limitation appears at all sides.  We cannot afford to believe in imperfection for a single second, to do so is to doubt God; it is to believe in a Power apart from God, to believe in another Creator.  Let us daily say to ourselves:  "Perfect God within me, Perfect Life within me, which is God, come forth into expression through me as that which I am; lead me ever into the paths of perfection and cause me to see only the Good."  By this practice, the soul will become illumined and will acquaint itself with God and be at peace.  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.""

January 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

No Mystery in Truth ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Faith in a certain specific statement has power consciously to oppose, neutralize, erase and obliterate the opposite mental attitude.  It is because of this fact that this study is a science that can definitely be used, and we must accept it as such.  The mystery with which most people surround the search for Truth, relative to this Principle, is not read out of It, but is read into It.

It stands to reason that if thought and faith, prayer, hope and appreciation are anything at all, they are definite; and if they are definite, they must be specific; if they are specific, then they unquestionably must accomplish their desire.

Hope a Subtle Illusion

Many people correctly begin their treatment in this manner:  "I know that the Principle of Intelligence within me will direct me, etc.," then they complete it with the thought:  "Well, I certainly hope it does."  This is entirely forgetting any definite statement, and is simply wondering if possibly some good will come along.  This is not a correct treatment, and is not the scientific use of this Principle.

Hope is good; it is better than despair, but it is a subtle illusion and is an unconscious compromise, and has no part in an effective mental treatment.  We should say to doubt:  "where did you come from, who is your father, etc....You have no place in my mind.  Get out!  I know that the faith within me now neutralizes ALL doubt."  This is the scientific use of a mental statement.  There must be no compromise with the consciousness.

We have discovered what the Principle is and How It Works, and now this is What It Does.  Specifically turn to that thought which tells us we do not know how to use It and repudiate the falsehood. The Principle that we have to demonstrate is perfect, and - in so far as we can compel the mind to perceive this perfection - so far it will automatically demonstrate.  Experience has proved this to be true.

We waste much time in arguing over things that cannot be answered.  When we have arrived at the ultimate, THAT IS THE ULTIMATE.  It is the way the Thing works.  Therefore, we have a right to say that there is a law involved, and that this Law executes the word.  We discover laws, find out how they work and then begin to use them.  Therefore, this question is answered, when we say it is the nature of thought and of the Creative Energy, and the nature of Being TO BE THIS WAY.  We would say that Law is an attribute of God.  God did not make Law; It co-exists with the Eternal. The Infinite Law and the Infinite Intelligence are but two sides of the Infinite Unity.  One balances the other and they are the great personal and impersonal principles in the universe.  Evolution is the out-working of the mechanical, and involution is the in-working of the conscious and the volitional.

No Limit to Thought

When we think, something happens to thought. The field through which thought operates is Infinite.  There is no reason to doubt it.  No matter how it is approached, to thought there can be no limit, so we will say that it is the nature of Being to react in this way.  Here and now, we are surrounded by, and immersed in, an Infinite Good. How much of this Infinite Good is ours?  ALL OF IT!  And how much of It may we have to use?  AS MUCH OF IT AS WE CAN EMBODY.

January 19 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Principle Re-stated ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"Let us restate our Principle.  We are surrounded by an Infinite Possibility.  It is Goodness, Life, Law and Reason.  In expressing Itself through us, It becomes more fully conscious of Its own being.  Therefore, It wishes to express through us.  As It passes into our being, It automatically becomes the law of our lives.  It can pass into expression through us only as we consciously allow It to do so.  Therefore, we should have faith in It, and Its desires and Its ability to do for us all that we shall ever need to have done.  Since It must pass through our consciousness to operate for us, we must be conscious that It is doing so.

The one who wishes to demonstrate some particular good must become conscious of this particular good, if he wishes to experience it.  Therefore, he must make his mind receptive to it and he must do this consciously.  There is no hocus-pocus in a mental treatment.  It is always definite, conscious, concrete and explicit.  We are dealing with Intelligence, and should deal with It intelligently.

There is no occult trick in giving scientific treatments.  It is just the reverse. Simplicity should mark our every effort and positivity should accompany all statements that we make into the law of Good.

The Secret Already Known

A treatment is a statement in the Law, embodying the concrete idea of our desires and accompanied by an unqualified faith that the Law works for us, as we work with It.  Let us waste no further time looking for the secret of success or the key to happiness.  Already the door is open and whosoever will may enter.

Undoubtedly, each of us is now demonstrating his concept of life, but trained through is far more powerful than untrained, and the one who give conscious power to his thought should be more careful what he thinks than the one who does not.  The more power one gives to his thought - the more completely he believes that his thought has power - the more power will it have.

Treatment Active, Not Passive

A treatment is an active thing.  When one gives a treatment, he is not sitting around, hoping that something may happen.  He ids definitely, constructively, actively stating, sensing, knowing some specific good.  This is in accord with the Principle which we seek to demonstrate.   If we give treatments without a definite motive in mind, the most we can accomplish will be to promote a salutary atmosphere.  A passive meditation will never produce an active demonstration, any more than an artist can paint a picture by sitting down with his paints but never using them.

The mind must conceive before the Creative Energy can produce; we must supply the avenue through which It can work.  It is ready and willing.  It is Its nature to spring into being through our thought and action.

In an iron foundry, the pig iron is thrown into a great furnace and melted.  That which was solid becomes liquid, and is then poured into molds which are fashioned in different shapes.  The iron itself neither knows nor  cares what particular form it takes, it is formless, ready to take any form supplied.  If we did not place it in the property molds, the liquid would assume no particular form.

This is the way it is in dealing with the subtle energy of Spirit, but the molds are made in our own subjective minds, through conscious and specific thought, purpose and direction.  We should be very careful not to think that because we make the mold, we must create the substance.  It already exists; It is part of the Life in which we live, a part of the Universal Energy.  Definite molds or concepts decide the shape which is to be created from the general liquid.  This should prove to us that there is a specific technique in mental treatment which we should not overlook.  If we wish a certain good, we must instill into our own minds a realization of this specific good and then - as this idea is the mold we place in mind - it will be filled by the substance necessary for the complete manifestation of this good in our lives.

Therefore, if a man is seeking to demonstrate, he must tell himself that he has faith in his power, in his ability, in the Principle, and in the certainty of the demonstration for which he works.  Faith, being a mental attitude, is according to law; and even though one doubts, he can overcome his doubts and create the desired faith, definitely.  If this were not so, only those who by nature have faith in God could ever hope to understand the Principle of the Science of Mind and Spirit, which is subject to certain, definite, immutable and impersonal laws.  However, even though faith is a necessary attitude, it is something that can always be established by explaining the theory and proving the Principle."

January 18 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Scientific Method ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

If we observe any scientific discovery, we shall see that this is the way it works.  Some man's mind discovers the law, or principle, governing the science; this is the way of Love, of personal volition, of choice - this is the spontaneous element in the universe.  Following this knowledge of the way the principle works - having discovered the operation of the Law - the spontaneous element now rests its case on immutable reactions inherent in the Law.  All science is based upon proven principles.

But we should not overlook the significant fact that it is the MIND which discovers and makes use of the mechanical law!  Is not this mind the Spirit in us?  We can never completely fathom the Infinite Mind:  we shall always be discovering new lands.  Consequently, evolution is an eternal unfoldment of the more yet to be.

Since it is the mind which must first come to see, know and understand - and since all future possibility for the race must first find an avenue of outlet through someone's mind - we shall do well to look to the mind for the answer to all our problems.

Undoubtedly we are surrounded by, and immersed in, a perfect Life:  a complete, normal, happy, sane, harmonious and peaceful existence.  But only as much of the Life as we embody will really become ours to use.  As much of this Life as we understand and embody will react as immutable law - the reaction of the mechanical to the volitional.  The concept is wonderful and fraught with tremendous significance.  In it is bound up our hopes and fears, our expectations, and our future and present realizations.

Since an understanding of any law must pass first through our conscious mind before we can make use of it, it follows that with all our getting, we should get understanding.  Should we wish to know a certain truth, we should state that this truth is already known in Mind and this statement will be true, but the Over-Mind must be accepted into our mind before we can understand It.  How, then, are we to accomplish the desired result?  By stating and feeling that our mind knows the truth about the thing we desire to know.  In this way we draw the Infinite Mind into our mentalities, for definite knowledge of some particular good.

Contains All Knowledge

The Universal Mind contains all knowledge. It is the potential ultimate of all things.  To It, all things are possible.  To us, as much is possible as we can conceive, according to law.  Should all the wisdom of the universe be poured over us, we should yet receive only that which we are ready to understand.  This is why some draw one type of knowledge and some another, and all from the same source - the Source of all knowledge.  The scientist discovers the principles of his science, the artist embodies the spirit of his art, the saint draws Christ into his being - all because they have courted the particular presence of some definite concept.  Each state of consciousness taps the same source, but has a different receptivity.  Each receives what he asks for, according to his ability to embody.  The Universal is Infinite; the possibility of differentiating is limitless.

Life always becomes to us the particular thing we need when we believe that It becomes to us that particular thing.  The understanding of this is the essence of simplicity.  As all numbers proceed from the fundamental unit, as all material forms are but different manifestations of one formless stuff, so all things proceed from that which is neither person, place nor thing, but is the essence of all things.

Our thought and conscious receptivity differentiate this Universal Possibility, by drawing It through our minds and causing It to flow into particular channels, through the conscious receptivity of our different faiths.  One state of consciousness will differentiate one kind of a result, another mental state a different manifestation.

Mental Work is Definite

Mental work is definite.  Each state of thought taps the same Principle, each uses the same Law, is inspired by the same Spirit, but each draws forth a different result.  Here is multiplicity proceeding from Unity.  This is what Emerson meant when he said that Unity passes into variety.

But, someone will ask, can we bring out both good and evil from the One Source?  Of course not.  The First Principle is goodness, and only in so far as our thought and action tend toward a constructive program, will it eventually succeed.  We cannot fight the Universe.  It refuses to be budged from Its course.  We can only go with It.

But there is ample latitude for personal expression.  How then, are we to know what is right and what is wrong?  We are not GOING to know; we already do know.  Every man knows right from wrong, in its broadest sense.

It should be considered right to live and to enjoy living.  To be well, happy, and to express freedom, is to be in accord with Divine Law and Wisdom. Here is latitude enough for the most expectant, and the most enthusiastic.

January 16 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Mental Laws ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"As we think of the medium of radio transmission in terms of law, so we should think of the Mental Medium in terms of law, for the Mental Medium must be the Law of mental action.  While we might think of It as the Mind of God, we could not think of It as the Spirit of God; for the Mental Medium is automatic, while the Spirit must be Self-Knowing. We could not call the Universal Medium of Mind "God" any more than we could call electricity "God."  The Universal Medium of Mind is but one of the many attributes of God, the avenue through which God operates as Law.

We should differentiate between Universal Mind and Universal Spirit. As we examine the Subjective, we find It to be both intelligent and conscious, without knowing that It is intelligent, and without being self-conscious.  All law must be subjective; the soil knows how to take a seed and make a plant from it; it does not know whether it is making a tomato or a potato. If this were not true of the laws of nature, we could not depend upon them, we should be confronted with caprice.  One of the most difficult problems to realize is that when we are dealing with the Law of Mind, we are dealing with an absolutely impersonal thing.  It knows how to create without knowing what It creates.  Therefore, we must distinguish between the Law of Mind and the Spirit which uses the Law.  The ancients taught that there is an Infinite Self-Knowing Spirit (one of the oldest sayings in the world is:  "Spirit is the Power that knows Itself.") in addition to which there is an Infinite Law which knows how to do but does not care what It does.  This Law is the Karmic Law of Buddha:  "The Law that binds the ignorant and frees the wise," as Anna Besant stated it.  It is the Cause and Effect of the West; but It is not to be confused with Kismet, which is fate, because Its tendency can be changed.

There is a Law in the Universe which operates in a certain way according to the tendency set in motion, and does so mathematically, inexorably.  We cannot destroy the Law but we can re-direct Its movement.  Just as we plant seeds and later decide we wish something else, we go out and uproot the first seeds and plant others in their place.  We are not thereby destroying the soil; we have simply determined to use it in a different way.  When we are dealing with Subjectivity, we are always dealing with that which is subject to the conscious volition. 

The conscious volition in the Universe is what is meant by the Spirit or Dog.  The Mental Medium, the Universal Subjectivity, the Law, is the doer of the Word!  Plotinus speaks of it as a doer but not a knower.  He called it a blind force, not knowing only doing.

This is the principle which we use in practice.  We should distinguish between conscious volition as Spirit, and the Subjective Law, which works  with intelligence but not self-conscious awareness.  When this is realized we shall no longer be superstitious about our use of the Law.  It has been difficult to get away from such a superstitious reaction, because of a theological rather than a scientific approach to the subject.  The Law we are discussing is simply a law of Nature, a force of Nature.  It happens to be a mental force, and an intelligent and creative one, like electricity, which will either light our house and cook our food or will electrocute us if we use it incorrectly.

The Threefold Nature of God

We find, then, as we study our own being we begin to deduce what the nature of God, or the Universal Being, is.  There is no way we can know God except by studying man.  Someone may say, "God reveals Himself;" yes, we think God reveals Himself to us, but only by revealing Himself through us.  We know about God only as we judge what God must be, by studying the nature of those things which we can somewhat analyze, plus that intuitive feeling we have of eternal verities.

If we study the true nature of man, then we shall have delved into the real nature of God, or First Cause, from which man springs.  As we have found that man is threefold in his nature, we must deduce that God is threefold in His Nature, i.e. that God is Spirit, or Self-Knowingness; God is Law and action; God is result or Body.  This is  the inner teaching of "The Trinity."  God, as Self-Knowing Spirit means the Divine Being Whom we have always thought of and believed in, the Being to Whom we have prayed and Whom we have adored.  God as Law means the way in which Spirit works, and Law in this sense would be the servant of the Spirit.  God as Body means the manifestation of the Spirit.

Trinity of Being

This trinity of being appears to run through all Nature and all life.  For instance, there is electricity, the way it works and its results, which is light or motive power.  There is the seed, the creative medium of the soil, and the plant. 

Turn it as we may, we are confronted with the necessity of a Trinity of Being.  Throughout the ages, this Trinity has been taught.  Every great religion and every great spiritual philosophy has taught this Trinity.  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the Christian Trinity.  It is the Thing, the Way It Works, and What It Does.  The Thing is Absolute Intelligence; the way It works, is Absolute Law; and What It does, is the result - manifestation.  The action of the Thing Itself is what the Bible calls "The Word."....Absolute Intelligence."