March 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Basis for Mental Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

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

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

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

The Act of Incarnation

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

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

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

February 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."

January 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Spirit ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

The Definition of Spirit

"The nature of Being is a Unity, with three distinct attributes:  Spirit, Soul, and Body.

The definition of Spirit is:  "life or intelligence conceived of entire lay apart from physical embodiment.  It is vital essence, force, energy, as distinct from matter."

Probably the definition of "Spirit" is more easily understood, more readily accepted, than any other term used in describing Deity.  Jesus in talking with the woman of Samaria, explained:  "God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.". 

The nature of Being is a Unity, with three distinct attributes:  Spirit, Soul, and Body.

Spirit is the active and Self-Conscious Principle.  Spirit is First Cause or God - the Absolute Essence of all that is.  It is the great or Universal I AM.  Spirit is Conscious Mind and is the Power which knows Itself.  It is conscious Being.

The Spirit is Self-Propelling.  It is Absolute and All.  It is Self-Existent and has all life within Itself.  It is the Word and the Word is Volition.  It has choice because It is Volition.  It is Will because It chooses.  It is Free Spirit, because It knows nothing outside Itself, and therefore nothing different from Itself.

Spirit is the Father-Mother God, because It is the Principle of Unity back of all things.  The masculine and the feminine principles both come from the One.  Spirit is all Life, Truth, Universe that knows Itself.  The Spirit could know nothing outside Itself, that would be God and something else.  SPIRIT IS ALL - the Center and Circumference of everything that exists - both manifest and unmanifest.  It has no enemies, no differences, no otherness, no apartness, no separation from Itself.  It is Undivided, Complete and Perfect within Itself, having no opposites and no opposition.  It know s only Its own ability and since It is All, It cannot be hindered in any way, shape or manner.

It is impossible for a finite mind to comprehend such a complete Life and Power.  in moments of real inspiration, we realize, to a degree at least, that God is All - That which has within Itself all that really is - the Life in everything ant he Love through everything.  The One Presence and the One Infinite Person, Whom we call god or Spirit; within this One all live.

Its Nature

The fundamental premise upon which the philosophy of the Bible is developed is that Spirit is One, and that CREATION IS THE RESULT OF SPIRIT'S ONE MODE OF ACTION.

Perhaps the one point on which we are all agreed is that whatever the Nature of First Cause or Spirit, It is creative.  If this were not true, nothing could come into existence.  It is impossible to think of Creative Life expressing Itself other than in livingness.  Jesus undoubtedly meant just this, when he explained that he had come "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Another point on which we are all agreed as to the Nature of First Cause is, that It is harmonious.  If there were an element of inharmony, discord or decay anywhere in Its Nature, It would destroy Itself.

It has always been taught that the Soul of the Universe is that receptive medium into which the Spirit breathes forth the forms of Its thought.  It is subjective to the Spirit.  That which is subjective is always impersonal, neutral, plastic, passive and receptive.  Wherever we find subjective law, we shall find something that is compelled to receive that which is given it, and compelled to act upon it.  Consequently, the Soul of the Universe has been called "a blind force, not knowing, only doing."  It has been called "The Servant of the Eternal Spirit throughout the ages."  It is the medium of the thought, power and action of Spirit.

Spirit, the Changeless

Creation does not mean making something out of nothing.  Creation is the passing of Spirit into form and is eternally going on.  Spirit cannot change, for being All, there is nothing for It to change into.  This is self-evident.

It is necessary for us to understand that the only active Principle is Spirit...Self-Conscious, Self-Knowing Life...and that all else is subject to Its Will.  The Spirit is conscious of Its own Thought, Its own Desire, Its own manifest Action; and It is conscious that Its Desire is satisfied.  Consequently, It is conscious of that which It manifests; but It is not conscious of any effort or process in Its manifestation.

It is necessary that Soul and Body should exist because Spirit, without manifestation, would construct only a dream world, never coming to Self-Realization.  In order to express, there must be a medium through which Spirit manifests and there must be a manifestation, hence, Soul and Body.  The teaching of the great thinkers of all time is, that we live in a threefold Universe of Spirit, Soul and Body - of Intelligence, Substance and Form."