November 13 ~ The Sciend of Mind in a Year

THE PRACTICE of SPIRITUAL MIND HEALING
Ernest Holmes

"No matter what the need may be, whether we call it physical disease, poverty, unhappiness, lack of opportunity, or need for love and friendship, we should conform the words in our treatment to meet the necessity of the case.  Because we are all members of one another, the word of the practitioner will rise through the consciousness of his patient into experience.  There is a law in physics which says that water will reach its own level by its own weight.  There is a law of metaphysics corresponding to it; consciousness will externalize at is own level, by its own recognition.  We may call this faith, we may call it embodiment, we may call it whatever we will, there is something in the Universe which responds and corresponds to our mental states.

Therefore, it is imperative that we turn from the relative, because TO VIEW LIMITATION IS TO IMPRESS IT UPON THE MIND, and accentuate the state of consciousness which produced it.  It is not always easy to turn from fear, from poverty and pain, and from the hurt of human existence, to that which is perfect.  But whoever can do this - and will train himself to do it - will be like the man healed of blindness.  He had little comprehension of how it had been done; he could only say:  "Whereas I was blind, now I see.""

October 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Streams of Consciousness

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

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

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

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

October 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Mental Atmospheres

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

September 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS from the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes

The Renewing of the Mind (Eph. 4:23, 24)
  "We are told to be renewed in mind by the Spirit and to put on the new man, which is created in true holiness.  The Science of Mind teaches how to accomplish this.  The mind is the creative factor within us, and when the mind takes its pattern after the Spirit, it automatically renews the outer man after true holiness or wholeness.

Whatever the mind holds to and firmly believes in, forms a new pattern of thought within its creative mold, as whatever thought is held in the mind tends to take outward form in new creations.  This is the secret - and the whole secret - of the creative law of mind.

Be Strong in the Lord (Eph. 6:10)

"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might."  To be strong in the Lord is to be sure of ourselves, because we are sure of the Principle of Life which manifests Itself through us.

We wrestle not against outward things but against inward ideas and beliefs.  The power of darkness is the power of false belief and superstition.  If a man can change his inner concept, his whole life will be changed.  All cause is from within, all effect is forever without.

Wickedness in High Places (Eph. 6:12)

Wickedness in high places means an inverted use of the law of righteousness, the misuse of the powers of the mind.  The mental law is neutral, plastic, receptive and creative.  There is a right and a wrong use of this law, just as there is a right and a wrong use of any other law.

The Armor of God (Eph. 6:12-18)

The armor of God is faith in the good, the enduring and the true.  Against such, there is no law.  That is, against Truth, nothing can stand.  The armor of God suggests protection to those who believe in and trust the law of Good.  With this armor - knit together by that thread of unity running through all, strong with the strength of the Almighty, burnished with clear vision and true estimates of life and Reality - we are safe.  We abide under the shadow of the everlasting truth.  With Moses, we can say, "underneath are the everlasting arms."

The breastplate of righteousness covers and gives sanctuary to the heart of hearts, the innermost soul of man.  The feet, shod with the gospel of peace, can travel and not become weary.  With Solomon we are happy when we find Wisdom, for "Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace."

And we take also "the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."  The positive thought of Truth is a shield against which nothing unlike Itself can stand.  In the Science of Mind, we learn that no thought of negation can enter a mind already filled with peace and faith.  The suggestion of limitations, fear and doubt cannot find entrance to that mental home where God is enthroned as the Supreme Guest. 

And the sword of the Spirit is the word of Truth.  This has also been called a two-edged sword, cleaving the false from the true, cutting its way across the path of confusion, uprooting the thistles and briars, clearing the way for Truth and beauty to flourish in the home of the soul.

The Word of God is not a battle hymn of righteousness, but a paean of praise, a psalm of beauty and a song of joy.  "If God be for us, who can be against us?""

September 3 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS from the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes

The Unity of Life (Eph. 4:1-7)

"The unity of the Spirit is kept through the bonds of peace.  Other than peace suggests confusion and separation.  The Spirit is a perfect unit and we harmonize with this unity when we maintain a state of peace in our minds.

"There is one body and one Spirit."  The entire creation is this body - the Body of God, who is One Spirit.  Within this one Body are all bodies; that is, within the one creation - which is the product of the One Spirit - are all bodies.

We have learned that all material forms come form one ultimate substance.  Any special body is some manifestation of this original stuff.  The original substance takes many forms; multiplicity, or many, within unity, or the One.

"One Lord, one faith, one baptism."  One Lord, who is the indwelling Christ, generic man or the universal Son.  There is but one faith, for faith is an affirmative mental attitude toward the universe; and one baptism, which is the realization that we are in the One Spirit.

"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."  It would be impossible to make a clearer statement of Truth:  One Life behind all that lives!  One, One, One...never two.  The unity of all life.  To learn this is to know a secret of the ages.

Here is a mystical saying:  God is in all, through all, and above all, which means that we partake of the One Life...It is all of us...but we are not all of this Life.  No man can exhaust the Divine Nature, but all live by, in, and through It.  It is in us but also around us - It is what we are but infinitely more than we are!  We shall ever ascend into a greater expression of this One, but we can never completely encompass It.  This is a glorious concept, and one which fills us with wonder at the majesty of our own being - forever hid with Christ in God."

August 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
By Ernest Holmes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

By Ernest Holmes

Attracting Friends

"In turning to the Law, realize that it is a Law of Reflection.  “Life is the mirror of king and slave.”  Emerson said:  “If you want a friend, be a friend.”  As the idea of friendship dawns upon the consicousness, the law of attraction produces friends, for one is the picture and the other is the thing.  This is the great teaching of involution and evolution, the thought involved and the result evolved.  One is the treatment and the other is the demonstration.  When we are dealing with Causation, we are dealing with that which has involved within Itself all effect, as it unfolds.  We may leave it to the Law to compel right action.  With this in mind let us go on to treatment.

Do we wish to attract friends?  We must begin to image ideal relationships, be they social or otherwise, to sense and feel the presence of friends; to enjoy them in our mentalities, not as an illusion but as a reality, not as a dream but as an experience; to declare that their presence is now here.  BUT WE MUST NEVER LOOK TO SEE IF THEY ARE HERE, BECAUSE THIS WOULD IMPLY DOUBT AND WOULD NEUTRALIZE OUR WORD.  We can attract the kind of friends we wish if we specfiically designate the kind, but we must never think of certain people, or that a particular individual must be one of the friends, for this would be hypnotic.  The idea will bring the right kind of friends.

In order to have this friendship enduring, true, really worth while and a thing of beauty, we should cultivate an attitude of friendship toward everybody and everything.  The one who has learned to love all people will find plenty of people who will return that love.  This is not mere sentiments, and it is more than a religious attitude of mind.  It is a deep, scientific fact, and one to which we should pay attention.  The reason is this:  As all is Mind, and we attract to us what we first become; until we learn to love, we are not sending out love vibrations, and not until we send out those vibrations, can we receive love in return.

When we find we are without friends, the thinking to do is at once to send our thought out to the whole world; send it full of love and affection.  Know that this thought will meet the desires of some other person who is wanting the same thing, and in some way the two will be drawn together.  Think of the whole world as your friend, but you must also be the friend of the whole world.  In this way, and with this simple practice, you will draw to you so many friends that the time will be too short to enjoy them all.   Refuse to see the negative side of anyone.  Refuse to let yourself misunderstand or be misunderstood.  Know that everyone wants you to have the best.  Affirm this wherever you go, and you will find things just as you wish them to be.

One of the first things to do, is to love everybody.  If you have not done this, begin to do so at once.  There is always more good than bad in people, and seeing the good tends to bring it forth.  Love is the grandest healing and drawing power on earth.  It is the very reason for our being, and that explains why it is that people should have something or someone to love. The life that has not loved has not lived, it is still dead.  Love is the sole impulse for creation, and the man who does not have love as the greatest incentive in his life, has never developed the real creative instinct.  No one can swing out into the Universal without love, for the whole Universe is based upon it.

“To him who hath loved much, much is forgiven.”  A man may have many shortcomings, but if he loves greatly much will be forgiven him.  People are dying for real human interest, for genuine friendship, for someone to tell them they are all right.  We always welcome the man who looks at the world as his friend and loves it.  And it is a law that the man who sees what he wants to see, regardless of what appears, will someday experience in the outer what he has so faithfully seen in the within.  From selfish reasons alone, if from no loftier reason, we cannot afford to find fault, to hate, or even to hold in mind anything against any living soul!  The God of love cannot hear the prayer of the one who fails to love.  In our meditation for friendship, let us make our unity with all people, with all life:

“God in me is unified with God in all.  This One is now drawing into my life all love and fellowship.  I am one with all people, with all things, with all life.  As I listen in the silence, the voice of all humanity speaks to me and answers the love that I hold out to it.

“The great love which I now feel for the world is the Love of God, and it is felt by all and comes back to me from all.  I understand all people and this understanding is reflected back to me from all.  I give friendship and therefore I have friends.  I help, therefore, I am helped.  I uplift, therefore, I am uplifted.  I am now surrounded by all love, all friendship, all companionship, all health, all happiness, all success.  I AM ONE WITH LIFE.  I wait in the silence while the great Spirit bears this message to the whole world.””

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 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

"Assume a case of treatment for prosperity.  Suppose one comes to you and says, "Business is bad.  There is no activity."  How are you going to treat him?  Are you going to treat activity, business, customers, conditions or what?  There is but one thing to treat, as far as the practitioner is concerned, and that is HIMSELF.  The practitioner treats himself, the reason being that his patient's mind and his own mind are in the One Mind.

There is but one activity, which is perfect.  Nothing has happened to it, nothing can cut if off, it is always operating.  There is no belief in inactivity.  What is this statement for?  To neutralize the belief in inactivity.  A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level in the objective world by its own weight; just as in physical science we know that water reaches its own level.  You must destroy the thoughts of inactivity.  Man cannot become either discouraged or afraid if he realizes that there is but One Mind which he may consciously use.  The real man knows no discouragement, cannot be afraid, and has no unbelief.  And he who knows of the power with which he is dealing and who plants a seed of thought in Subjectivity, knows that it will come up and bear fruit.

Bring out the idea of Substance.  Make consciousness perceive that Substance is Spirit, Spirit is God, and God is all there is.  Once you acquaint the consciousness with this idea, it is implanted in the Creative Power which is externalized in your life.

Continue to declare there were no mistakes, there are none and there never will be.  Say, "I represent the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  It is unerring, It never makes mistakes.  There are no mistakes in the Divine Plan for me.  There is no limitation, poverty, want nor lack.  I stand in the midst of eternal opportunity, which is forever presenting me with the evidence of its full expression.  I am joy, peace and happiness.  I am the spirit of joy within me.  I am the spirit of peace within me, of poise and of power.  I am the spirit of happiness within me.  I radiate Life; I am Life.  There is One Life and that Life is my life now."

It is not enough to say:  "There is One Life and that Life is God."  We must complete this statement by saying:  "That Life is my life now," because we must couple this Life with ours in order to express It.  We are not becoming this Life, but are now in and of this Life.  There is no other Life.  God is not becoming:  God IS.  God is not growing; God is complete.  God is not trying to find out something; God already knows.  Evolution is not the expression of a becoming God, but is simply one of the ways that a God Who already IS, expresses Himself; and as such it is the logical result of involution and is eternally going on.

For the man who believes that "business is bad"; for the one who thinks he has made many mistakes and will make more; for the man who sees nothing but inactivity about him, the following meditation might be used:

"I know I am now at the threshold of all good, wisdom and Truth.  All the good I can embody is now mine.  I have only to open the portals of my soul and accept that which is ready to express through me.

"I expect, fully and emphatically, the answer to my prayer today.  Right now do I possess this thing I so greatly desire.  I remove my fear of lack and negation, for it is the only barrier which stands in the way of my experience of good.  I alone can remove it, and I do remove it now.

"In this moment my good comes to me, enough to spare, to give and to share. I can never be exhausted, my good can never be depleted, because that Source from which my good comes is inexhaustible.

"Today, in this moment, the Law responds to my thought.  My word is one of affirmation, rising from the knowledge that the Good, the Enduring and the True are Eternalities in my experience.  I cannot be apart from that which is my good.  My good is assured me by God, the Indwelling Essence of my life.""

July 12 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS

By Ernest Holmes

I Accept the Fullness of My Own Divine Well-Being

Within myself is that which is perfect, that which is complete, that which is divine; that which was never born and cannot die; that which lives, which is God – the Eternal Reality.  Within myself is peace, poise, power, wholeness and happiness.  All the power that there is and all the presence that there is, and all the life that there is, is God – the Living Spirit Almighty – and this Divine and Living Spirit is within me.  It is Wholeness.  It is never weary.  It is never tired.  It is Life.  It is complete Peace.  It is never afraid; It is never confused.  It is always poised and peaceful.  It is always in a state of perfect equilibrium.

This is the truth about myself; there is no other self.  Every image of fear is erased from my mind, every sense of confusion leaves my thought.  My mind now entertains and reflects the Divine into everything which I do, say and think – into my body, into my affairs.  That divine within me is Wholeness, and my mind reflects this Wholeness into every organ, every function, every action, every reaction of my physical being, renewing it after the Perfect Pattern – the Christ within me.  Universal Substance reflects Itself, into my mind, into daily supply, so that everything I need each day is supplied.  Before the need, is the thing, and with the apparent need is met.  There is Something within me which goes before me and prepares the way wherever I go – making straight the way, making perfect the way, making immediate and instant, and permanent and harmonious, every situation.  Consequently, my mind reflects the fullness of that Divine Substance, which heals every sense of lack in my life.  Peace, poise, power, perfection, Living Spirit within me, is me, myself.

I Accept the Fullness of My Own Divine Well-Being

June 17 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
~ Ernest Holmes

Why People Become Fatigued

"Let a person say to himself, "I am overworked," and at once there will come up through his consciousness a belief in weariness.  People who are constantly complaining of being tired are hypnotized into this belief through the law of race suggestion.  An instance of this is the belief that one more than forty years of age is easily fatigued, cannot engage in strenuous exercise of any kind, and must work fewer hours each day.  This race suggestion has hypnotized the entire world.  Only a few people past forty dare to undertake new endeavors and engage in activities with the same enthusiasm they did at twenty-five.  At what we term middle-age, all too many complain of habitual fatigue.  Usually this is attributed to over-exertion, or general dissipation of the reserves, but frequently, when analyzed, the mental cause will be discovered as a deep-seated resistance to conditions which the patient has found himself unable to change.

Suppose someone had been bound by mental confusion, that desires had torn him and conflicts had entered into his life, what would have occurred?  He would have been continually dropping opposing thoughts into his mentality; and as the mental action - the friction - took place, it might produce a very tired body; and if over-chaotic, it might produce what is known as nervous prostration.  It would not, however, be the body that was sick, but a condition brought about through wrong thought.

Now, if subjective thought were a thing apart from us, if we did not have conscious access to it, we could not change it; but being the result of the way thought has worked, we can consciously change it.  If this were not true, mental healing would be impossible.

We can free ourselves from a feeling of approaching fatigue, by knowing that we have within us - always immediately available - an Infinite Strength.  As we allow the thought of this to enter our inner consciousness, we feel strong, vital, and equal to any emergency.  "Know ye not that ye are the temple of the living God?"  This power within you is the same that holds the planets in space.  The power back of your word is perfect law and is fulfilled and returned to you as your perfect strength."

May 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

Ernest Holmes

Oh, for a Tongue to Express

Oh, for a tongue to express the Wonders which the Thought reveals!

Oh, for some Word to comprehend the boundless idea!

Would that some Voice were sweet enough to sound the harmony of Life.

But Within, in that vast realm of thought where the Soul meets God, the Spirit knows.

I will listen for that Voice and It will tell me of Life, of Love and Unity.

Speak to me, Spirit.

O Soul of Mind, Look Out and See

O Soul of mine, look out and see; look up and know Thy freedom.

Be not cast down nor dismayed; be uplifted within me and exult, for Thy Salvation has come.

Behold the wonders of the Great Whole and the marvels of the Universe.

Look out and see Thy good.  It is not afar off, but is at hand.

Prepare Thyself to accept and believe; to know and live.

Let Life enter and live through Thee, Soul of mine, and rejoice that Thou hast vision so fair and so complete.

Rejoice that the Perfect Whole is so completely reflected through Thee.

My light has come.

April 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

When and What Is a Demonstration? ~ Ernest Holmes

"In the language of metaphysics, a "demonstration" is made when the thing is accomplished which the one treating desires to achieve...whether it be health, happiness, or abundance.  A demonstration is a manifestation.  It is prayer answered.  When the word of a practitioner takes form, this is a demonstration.  When desire is given a subjective mold and then becomes objectified in the life of the one for whom the practitioner is working, this is demonstration.  The practitioner, of course, gives thanks as he makes his demand on the Infinite, knowing that supply and demand are one, and that his request is instantly manifest on the invisible plane.  "Before they call, will I answer," is the divine promise.

We cannot demonstrate beyond our ability to mentally embody an idea.  The argument is between our experience, what the world believes, and what we are convinced is the Truth.

It should be understood that we can demonstrate in spite of ourselves - in spite of all weakness, in spite of all fear, in spite of all that is in us - because such is the power of Truth.  We wait only for our own awakened thought.  The Law is neither good nor bad.  Law is and responds.

The possibility of demonstrating does not depend upon environment, condition, location, personality or opportunity.  It depends solely upon our belief and our acceptance, and our willingness to comply with the Law through which all good comes.  The Universe will never deny us anything, unless we conceive that it is possible for us to think of something that is impossible for the Universe to produce!  Everyone who asks receives, according to his belief."

March 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

IMMORTALITY

Ernest Holmes

The Meaning of Immortality

"To most of us, immortality means that we shall persist after the experience of physical death, retaining a full recognition of ourselves, and having the ability to recognize others.  If our full capacities go with us beyond the grave, we must be able to think consciously, to will, to know and to be known, to communicate and to receive communications.  We must be able to see and be seen, to understand and to be understood.  In fact, if one is really to continue as a self-conscious personality beyond this life, he can do so only if he maintains a continuous stream of the same consciousness and self-knowingness that he now possesses.

Personal identity of course postulates memory, which binds into one sequence the old life and the new.  This means that man must carry with him - after the experience of physical death - a complete remembrance, for it is to this alone that we must look for the link which binds one event to another, making life a continuous stream of self-conscious expression.  To suppose that man can forget, and still maintain a self-conscious identity, is to suppose that one could cut off his entire past without destroying the logical sequence of personality.  Where is this faculty?  Cut a man into the smallest bits, analyze and dissect every atom of his physical being, and you will never find memory.  There is something about the personality which not only performs its functions, but also remembers what it has done, and which can anticipate future events.  What is it?  It is the thing we are talking about, the non-physical faculty of perception, the thing that knows...The Knower.  Individuality might remain without remembrance, but not so with personality for what we are is the result of what we have been, the result of what has gone before.

We are not content with the thought that immortality is merely the result of one's life and work, which he has left behind; for instance, that he immortalizes himself in his offspring - we still ask "What of the man?"  Man, then, if he is to have an immortality worthy of the name, must continue as he now is beyond the grave.  DEATH CANNOT ROB HIM OF ANYTHING IF HE BE IMMORTAL!"

March 18 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Success and Happiness ~ Ernest Holmes

"Success and happiness are ours when we deal with Absoluteness.  This is the attitude we should have.  What we need to know is the Truth.  This does not mean that we need not be active; of course we shall be active, but we need not compel things to happen.  Only remember we are surrounded by a Universal Subjectivity, a Subjective, Creative Consciousness, which is receptive, neutral, impersonal, always receiving the impress of our thought and which has no alternative other than to operate directly upon it, thus creating the things which we think.

Each one should realize that there is nothing in him which denies that which he desires.  Our unity with good is not established while there is anything in us which denies it.  People often say:  "How shall I know when I know?"  The very fact that one can ask this proves he does not know, for when he knows that he knows, he can prove his knowing by doing.

Thought sets definite forces in motion in Mind, relative to the individual who thinks.  For instance, I am known in consciousness as Ernest Holmes, for that is my name; and every claim made for me, which I accept, operates through avenues of mind-activity and returns to me as some condition.

A good demonstration is made when Truth, gathering Its own power, lifts one out of his environment; and until that time comes, he should stay where he is, in order that he may know when he has made a demonstration.  It is not a good demonstration if when we give our treatments we have to struggle just as before.  Principle is Absolute, and in so far as any individual can actually induce, within consciousness, upon Principle, a definite, concrete acceptance of his desire...it will manifest, even though every thought on earth had to change to compel it!  If it were a bit of information that was needed for the demonstration that only one person on earth knew - and that person was in the center of Africa - the information would be produced!"

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 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATION for Self-Help and Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"In these short meditations I have tried to set forth some ideas which my experiences in mental healing have given me.  I have found that a few brief statements, mentally affirmed, followed by a silent meditation, have been the most effective in the healing work.

Most of these meditation have been written in the first person in order that those using them may be able to do so just as the are written.

It is not claimed that there is any occult power in the words, but that words similar to these are effective in inducing a greater realization of life.

First, decide which meditation you wish to use; then become quiet and composed.  Then carefully read the meditation several times, phrase by phrase, endeavoring to realize the meaning of the words and trying to enter into the atmosphere of the thought.  After having done this, meditate upon the words, following that meditation until you feel a sense of realization."

Seeing the Perfect

My eyes behold the complete and perfect in all Creation, "In all, over all and through all."

I see the perfect; there is nothing else to see, and no suggestion of otherness can enter my thought.

I know only the perfect and the complete.

I am perfect and whole, now.

February 24 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SUMMARY of PART ONE:  The Nature of Being ~ Ernest Holmes

"There is a Universal Presence that acts as though It were intelligent, and we may assume that It is.  There is a Universal Intelligence acting as Law - we may also assume this to be true. There is a formless Stuff in the Universe, forever taking form, and forever changing its form - this we may accept as being self-evident.

We have every reason  to postulate a three-fold nature of the Universal Being, which we shall call Spirit, Soul, and Body.  We shall think of Spirit as the great Actor, Soul as the Medium of Its action, and Body the result of Its action.  We shall think of Spirit as the only Conscious Actor - the Power that knows Itself.  We shall think of Soul as a blind Force, obeying the Will of Spirit; and we shall think of Body as the effect of Spirit, working through Law to produce form.  We shall assume that neither Law, nor the Stuff from which form comes, has conscious intelligence, but must because of their nature be formed by the Word.  This simplifies the whole matter and enables us to see that in the entire Universe, One Power alone really acts - the Power of the Word of Spirit, God, or Universal Conscious Intelligence.

The evolution of man brings him arbitrarily to a place where true individuality functions.  From that day, a further evolution must be through his conscious co-operation with Reality.  All Nature waits on man's recognition of a co-operation with her laws, and is always ready to obey his will; but man must use Nature's forces in accordance with her law, and in co-operation with her purpose - which is goodness, truth, and beauty - if he wishes to attain self-mastery.

Man never creates; he discovers and uses.  Through this method all sciences are evolved.  We live in a Universe of Law, through which runs a spirit of self-knowing Intelligence.  "All's Love, yet all is Law," mused Robert Browning. 

The Law has done all it can automatically do for man.  It has evolved him to a point of individuality and must now let him alone to discover the secrets of life for himself.  Man is potentially perfect but free-will and self-choice cause him to appear imperfect.  In reality all he can destroy is some particular embodiment of himself.  The divine spark is always intact in potential man.

Man awakes to self-consciousness, finding himself already equipped with a mentality, a body and an environment.  Gradually he discovers one law of nature after another, until he conquers his environment through his knowledge of the nature of those laws. Everywhere he finds that nature does his bidding, in so far as he understands her laws and uses them along the lines of their inherent being.  He must first obey  nature and she will then obey him.

Man discovers his ability to think and realizes that from within there comes a reaction to his thought.  He can think consciously and mental law acts upon his thought; and his physical body is affected by his thinking.

He next discovers that he can think for others, causing corresponding action in and through their bodies.  In this way, he discovers a  mental medium through which thought operates.  He realizes himself to be a thinking center in a Universal Mind.

Man next discovers that his affairs are primarily a thing of thought, and that being able to think for others he can also aid in the control of their affairs. He now realizes that everything in the visible world is an EFFECT; that back of all effects are ideas which are the real Cause of these effects.  The Divine Ideas are perfect, but man's freedom of individuality causes them to appear imperfect. Through right thinking, he is able to uncover the appearance of imperfection and reveal the Perfect Idea.  "Behold, thou, my face forevermore."

February 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Subjectivity Never an Entity (continued) ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

When we give a treatment, that treatment is a spiritual entity in a subjective world, and it has ways and means and methods to project itself, which the conscious mind knows nothing of, and yet it is subject to the conscious thought!  Plotinus had a clear concept when he said:  "Nature is the great No Thing, yet It is not exactly nothing, because it is Its business to receive the impressions of Spirit."  He spoke of that which we call undifferentiated substance as an indeterminate thing having no mind of its own.  Its mind is always made up for it.

Most of this chapter has dealt with the Universal Soul, but in another chapter we shall discuss more fully the manner in which man re-enacts the Nature of God.