June 8 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Depend Upon Principle ~ Ernest Holmes

"Principle is the Power that made everything.  It is Absolute, It will not and cannot be denied.  The only thing that can deny God is yourself.

Do not think of disease as an entity, but as in impersonal thought-force.  In healing, you are separating the false from the true.  The work is definite and dynamic, and is consciously done, always with a clear purpose in mind.

If your own thought is clear, and you are able to realize the Presence of Spirit in your patient, your work will be effective.  Through the proper use of this great Subjective Law, you can impress a definite idea upon it, and if you, yourself, do not withdraw that idea, or neutralize it by an opposite one, the Law will bring it into manifestation.

What we need, then, is to learn the Law governing this Principle.  When you give a treatment, you are definitely setting a Universal Law in motion, which must not only accept what you say but the way in which you say it.  If your treatment is given with a sense of struggle, it will manifest in that way.  If it is given with a sense of peace, then it will manifest in a peaceful manner.

Remember that you need to assume no personal responsibility for the recovery of your patient, but you do have a definite obligation, which is to give the treatment...properly, clearly, fully, and conscientiously...when you have agreed to.  Back of all appearance to the contrary, it is your business to mentally see the spiritual perfection of your patient.

When you have occasion to treat yourself, call your own name, and proceed with the treatment as though you were treating someone else.  Or you may say, "I am thus and so..."

Disease will be healed, provided you get at its cause and remove it - and by getting at its cause, we mean getting at the mental cause - and provided the one for whom you are working is willing to surrender that cause.  You cannot heal anyone of his trouble, if it is the result of some mental attitude which he will not surrender.  In this case, find out what the mental attitude is and remove it, by showing the patient the right mental attitude.  It is the practitioner's duty to uncover false ideas of life, and replace them with the truth.  If this can be done before disease destroys the physical body, a healing will always follow."

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."