November 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE PRACTICE of SPIRITUAL MIND HEALING
Ernest Holmes

"Does it make any difference whether or not the patient is taking medicine? Not at all.  If it gives him any relief, he should have it.  We need all the relief we can get.  The patient is healed when he no longer needs medicine.  Some think they dishonor God when they take a pill.  This is superstition.  Discard these thoughts and give your entire attention to realizing perfection for your patient.

Healing is not accomplished through will power but by knowing the Truth.  This Truth is that the Spiritual Man is already Perfect, no matter what the appearance may be.  "Holding thoughts" has nothing to do with this form of treatment.  If you find when you begin to give a treatment that the process gives you a headache, know that you are doing your work on the mental plane and not through spiritual realization.  A treatment should leave the practitioner in better condition than before he gave it; otherwise, it is not a good treatment.

One might ask:  "Is all mental disease a thought held in the conscious mind of the patient?"  No, not necessarily.  It may be a subconscious thought, or it may be the result of many thoughts, which brought together produce a definite result.  Combinations of thought unite to produce definite effects.

Limitation and poverty are not things, but are the results of restricted ways of thinking.  We are surrounded by a Subjective Intelligence, which receives the impress of our thought and acts upon it.  This natural Law in the Mental World is neither good nor bad.  It can only be said of It that IT IS, and that we may consciously use It.  The Law is a law of reflection; for Life is a mirror, reflecting to us as conditions the images of our thinking.  Whatever one thinks tends to take form and become a part of his experience.  The Medium of all thought is the Universal Mind, acting as Law.  Law is always impersonal, neutral, receptive and reactive."

August 5 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
By Ernest Holmes

Asthma and Hay Fever

"Many medical men believe that "nervous persons, and those whose work is largely mental, are most often attacked by hay fever, and that hay fever attacks only those who are predisposed to it."  The general acceptance is that it is the result of an undue sensitiveness of the nostrils to the pollen of certain flowers or plants, or even the hairs of certain animals.

We should know that the claim of hay fever has no power over us, that we are inspired and directed by Infinite Mind, and that perfect discrimination and judgment are established in us.  In treating oneself, declare that every day you are capable of expressing the greater possibilities which are your divine inheritance; that you are busy expressing good and have not time for any fear thoughts of asthma and hay fever.

Know that you alone are the door-keeper to the "Temple of the Holy Ghost," your body.  You have the power to say what shall enter there.  No false thing can enter there while you are recognizing your Oneness with Infinite Life.  The pollen which you have thought irritated you is made from the very same Substance from which you are made.  You are sending out only thoughts of peace, love and joy, and no irritating thought or thing can come back to annoy or obstruct the perfect functioning of every organ of your body.  The passages of  your mind are open only to the inflow and outflow of good.  You are sensitive only to good, dwelling in the higher altitudes of consciousness, understanding Life in Its spiritual purpose, experiencing exhilaration, vitalization, and exaltation.

It is written that the breath of God animates creation, with the living presence of a pure divinity.  What breath are we breathing other than this true breath, unrestricted, flowing through channels of pure receptivity, from the Infinite Intelligence and the perfect Life of God?  Let your thought dwell, not on breath nor lack of breath, but on that which breathes.  Sense the freedom of this God-Life, flowing in and through you.  You did not create the Original Substance out of which your body was formed.  God Himself made your body, to be used as His Self-Expression.  This channel must be perfect.  With good-natured flexibility, free your thought from any sense of anxiety or strain, or indecision, or deep-seated worry and concern, knowing that you have only to keep your thought steady and clear, fixed upon the potential perfection of the Universe in which we live.  When you have lifted your consciousness in this manner, use this meditation:

"My entire body is now a receptive channel for the operation of God-Life.  My thought is pure, relaxed and peaceful.  My breathing is not obstructed (asthma) my thought is not sensitive to any discordant or disagreeable sentiment (hay fever), as Mind could not entertain a disagreeable sentiment.  I breathe in the eternal Life Essence.  By this breath I am purified and made strong.  I am freed from the belief in anything unlike Perfection.""

May 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Seeing Perfection ~ Ernest Holmes

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Spiritual Mind Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"Never forget that Conscious Mind is the only Actor in the Universe and in man; that the unconscious or subjective mind is compelled - by reason of its nature - to accept.  It can never reject.  The body is an effect, with no intelligence of its own.  We can now see that a mental treatment is a real, tangible, specific operation, working in perfect accord with known law.

When a practitioner treats anyone, he does not just hope that his patient will get well, he does not ask that the patient may be healed, he does not simply desire that he may be healed; he convinces his own mind that the patient is perfect - a definite piece of mental work, bringing out in his own consciousness (in his own self-contemplative, conscious mind) an understanding that the patient is healed and is perfect.

Treatment is the act, the art, and the science of inducing thought within the mentality of the one treating, which thought shall perceive that the body of the patient is a Divine, Spiritual and Perfect Idea.  Treatment does not necessarily treat every organ of the body specifically, but it does declare the body to be harmonious, and that every specific idea in it is harmonious.  It then pays especial attention to what appears as the physical disorder.

As a result of this treatment, Subjective Mind - which is Universal and Omnipresent - accepts the images of the practitioner's thinking, and reflects them in the direction he specifies...to his patient.

The practitioner is not trying to send out a thought, hold a thought, or suggest a thought.  The practitioner is trying to realize the state of perfection of the patient.  We must be certain that we differentiate between suggestion (which is all right as far as it goes, but limited)  and real metaphysical healing.  In metaphysical healing, we are conscious that we are dealing with a Universal Principle or Law, which takes the impress of our thought and acts upon it.  We are dealing with Something that cannot, and does not argue.  We are directing It for definite purposes, telling It to do certain things, which It does.  This is what occurs when we give a treatment.

We leave the field of materia medica to do its own work.  Our work is done entirely in the field of mind.  Without controversy, we work side by side with any doctor the patient may desire - we, in the field of mind, the physician in his own field.  If this is persisted in over a period of years, the two fields will be brought closer together.  This will be one of the greatest steps ever undertaken in the curative art.

When one begins treatment for another, there is sometimes a great sense of personal responsibility.  The practitioner, through sympathy, may feel a sense of doubt and burden, but always this is built upon the idea that he, himself, has to accomplish the results!  Should this occur, the practitioner should begin at once to treat himself against this thought, for as long as he has it there is a barrier to healing.  Why?  Because, when you sift that sense of responsibility down to its last analysis, it is a belief that you cannot heal!  Do not give in to that belief - not even for a second - because it is nothing but a thought which says you cannot heal.  Nothing but a thought is saying, or could be saying it, and since it is only a thought which says it, it is only a thought which can unsay it.  Declare:  "My word has the power to heal," and you will find the doubt slipping away.

The practitioner must treat himself to know that the word he speaks is entirely independent, even of himself.  If we walk out on the roof of a high building and drop a chair over the side, it will fall to the ground.  There is a law which draws it there, we are not responsible for the law, we do not have to make the chair hit the ground.  In like manner, if this treatment is through the medium of a Law on the subjective side of life, it is our business to give the treatment:  it is the business of the Law to execute it.

However, as practitioners, we do have an obligation - to treat a case if we take it.  If someone says to you casually, "hold a good thought for me today," you should reply:  "Do you mean you wish me to give you a treatment, to take a definite time - thirty minutes, more or less - and do specific mental work for you?  Is that what you wish?"  People unfamiliar with this work may still be under the impression that the word done consists of "Holding a good thought."

People must come to realize that treatment is a specific thing.  Each case is specific, and no two can be treated entirely alike.  One is dishonest if he contracts to take a larger number of cases than he has time to intelligently treat."

May 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Seeing Eye (Matt. 13:16) ~ Ernest Holmes

""Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear."  What is it the eye should see and the ear hear?  Do not all people's eyes see and their ears hear?  No.  But few, indeed, when looking, see, or listening, hear.

We are to see that Spirit creates all things by the power of Its own word, and that we are spiritual beings.  We are to hear that inner voice of Truth, which is ever proclaiming the freedom of all life, the eternal unity of God with man.  It is useless for those who have never experienced this inner seeing or hearing to deny its reality.  A man might as well say there is no meadow because he has never seen one.  The world needs spiritual experience, as it needs bread and butter.  Men need spiritual convictions as they need meat and drink.  And with spiritual convictions come all else.  To those who have, shall be given.

The Kingdom and the Mustard Seed (Matt. 13:31, 32)

"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed."  From a knowledge of mental action, we know that a constructive idea, planted or buried in the subjective mind, tends to grow into a real condition.  Jesus could not have chosen a more comprehensive way to illustrate this point.

The Kingdom is Like Leaven (Matt.13:33)

"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven."  We know that thoughts planted in mind have the power to chemicalize opposing ideas, and leaven the whole lump of subjectivity.  In this way, ideas gradually permeate the mind and influence all thought and action.  If the idea is of heaven, it will certainly bring about a heavenly state."

January 17 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

What It Does ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We should approach the study of this Science rationally, never expecting to drive any benefits from it that its Principle does not contain.  For while it is true that we are immersed in an Infinite Intelligence, a Mind that knows all things, it is also true that this Intelligence can acquaint us with Its ideas only as we are able and willing to receive them.  The Divine Mind is Infinite.  It contains all knowledge and wisdom, but, before It can reveal Its secrets, It must have an outlet.  This outlet we shall be compelled to supply through our own receptive mentalities.

All invention, art, literature, government, law and wisdom that has come to the race has been given to it through those who have deeply penetrated the secrets of nature and the mind of God.

Perhaps the simplest way to state the proposition is to say that we are surrounded by a Mind, or Intelligence, that knows everything; that the potential knowledge of all things exists in this Mind; that the abstract essence of beauty, truth and wisdom co-exist in the Mind of the Universe; that we also exist in It and may draw from It.  BUT WHAT WE DRAW FROM IT WE MUST DRAW THROUGH THE CHANNEL OF OUR OWN  MINDS.  A unity must be established, and a conscious connection must be made, before we can derive the benefits which the greater Mind is willing to reveal or impart to us.

The Spirit can give us only what we can take; It imparts of Itself only as we partake of Its nature.  It can tell us only what we can understand.  The Infinite Knowingness becomes our wisdom only in such degree as we embody Its Intelligence.  It has been said that we can know God only in so far as we can become God.  This is a far-reaching thought and should be carefully scrutinized.  It is to be taken figuratively and not too literally, for we cannot really become God, but we can and do partake of the Divine Nature, and the Universal does personify Itself through man in varying degrees, according to man's receptivity to It.

The Universe Impersonal

The Universe is impersonal.  It gives alike to all.  It is no respecter of persons.  It values each alike.  Its nature is to impart, ours to receive.  When we stand in the light, we cast a shadow across the pathway of our own experience.  Emerson advises that we get our bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits.

A Riddle of Simplicity

It is a beautiful and true thought to realize that every man stands in the shadow of a mighty Mind, a pure Intelligence, and a Divine givingness!  Not alone unto the great comes the soft tread of the Unseen Guest.  The arrogant have not perceived the simplicity of faith, but the pure in heart see God.  The farmer has seen the Heavenly Host in his fields.  The child has frolicked with Him at play.  The mother has clasped Him to her breast and the fond lover has seen Him in the eyes of his beloved.  We look too far away for Reality.

The intelligence by and through which we perceive that there is a Spiritual Presence and an Infinite Mind in the Universe, constitutes our receptivity to It, and decides Its flow through us.  We have made a riddle out of simplicity; therefore, we have not read the sermons written in stones, nor interpreted the light of love running through life.

To return to a sane simplicity is one of the first and most important things to do.  All men receive some light, and this light is always the same light.  There is one nature diffused throughout all nature; One God incarnated in all peoples.

The Divine Incarnation is inherent in our nature.  We are immersed in an Infinite Knowingness.  the question is, how much of this Realty are we going to express in our own lives?  The direct approach is always the best and the most effective.  In so far as any man has spoken the truth, he has proclaimed God -- it matters not what his particular approach may have been.  The scientist and the philosopher, the priest and the professor, the humanitarian and the empire builder, all have caught some gleam of the eternal glory and each has spoken, in his own tongue, that language which is of itself Universal.

Let us do away with a ponderosity of thought and approach the thing simply and quietly. It is the nature of the Universe to give us what we are able to take.  It cannot give us more.  It has given all, we have not yet accepted the greater gift.

Spiritual wisdom says that God manifests through everything and is incarnated in all men; that all is Divinity and that Nature herself is the body of God. The mechanical laws of nature are set and immutable, but the spontaneous recognition of these laws gives us the power to bring them into practical use in everyday life and experience.

Here we have a dual unity; law and order, spontaneous choice, volition, conscious action, and automatic reaction.  The laws of the universe are to be trusted but we must come to understand them before we can use them.  Once understood, any law is available and is impersonally responsive to each and all alike.

Love Rules Through Law

In an intelligent study of the teachings of the Science of Mind, we come to understand that all is Love and yet all is Law.  Love rules through Law.  Love is the Divine Givingness; Law is the Way.  Love is spontaneous; Law is impersonal.  We should study the nature of Reality with this in mind, and in this way we shall avoid two grave mistakes:  either viewing life as made up only of mechanical laws, or viewing it as made up only of spontaneous actions, irrespective of law and order.

As we gain the broader viewpoint, we shall see that Life must contain two fundamental characteristics.  We shall see that there is an Infinite Spirit, operating through an Infinite and Immutable Law.  In this, Cosmos, and not chaos, finds an eternal existence in Reality.  Love points the way and Law makes the way possible."

January 11 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Way It Works by Ernest Holmes ~ The Science of Mind

The Science of Mind is not a special revelation of any individual; it is, rather, the culmination of all revelations. We take the good wherever we find it, making it our own in so far as we understand it.  The realization that Good is Universal, and that as much good as any individual is able to incorporate in his life is his to use, is what constitutes the Science of Mind and Spirit. 

We have discussed the nature of The Thing as being Universal Energy, Mind, Intelligence, Spirit - finding conscious and individualized centers of expression through us - and that man's intelligence is this Universal Mind, functioning at the level of man's concept of It.  This is the essence of the whole teaching.

Universal Mind, or Spirit, Is God

There is a Universal Mind, Spirit, Intelligence, that is the origin of everything:  It is First Cause.  It is God.  This Universal Life and Energy finds an outlet in and through all that is energized, and through everything that lives.  There is One Life back of everything that lives.  There is One Energy back of all that is energized.  This Energy is in everything.  There is One Spirit back of all expression.  That is the meaning of that mystical saying:  "In Him we live, and move, and have our being."  (Acts 17:28)

The life which we live is the Universal Life expressing through us, else how could we live.  Our thought and emotion is the use we make - consciously or unconsciously - of this original creative Thing that is the Cause of everything.  Therefore, we shall say that the mind, spirit and intelligence which we find in ourselves is as much of this original, creative God as we understand.  That this is not robbing God is a self-evident fact.  Since we are, then we are real and actual and have existence; and since we can reduce all that is to a fundamental unit, we find that we have this proposition:

There is Spirit - or this Invisible Cause - and nothing, out of which all things are to be made.  Now, Spirit plus nothing leaves Spirit only.  Hence there is One Original Cause and nothing, out of which we are made.  In other words, we are made from this Thing.  That is why we are called the "son of God." 

We now know that this is what we are - because we could not be anything else - but we do not know how much of this we are!  When we see It as It is, then, we shall see ourselves as we are.  We can only see It by looking at It through our own eyes.  Hence, we shall find a better God when we shall have arrived at a higher standard for man.  If God is to interpret Himself to man, He must interpret Himself through man.  And the Spirit can make no gift that we do not accept.

The Seed of Perfection is Hidden Within

This Original Life is Infinite.  It is good.  It is filled with peace.  It is the essence of purity.  It is the ultimate of intelligence.  It is power.  It is Law.  It is Life.  It is in us.  In that inner sanctuary of our own nature, hidden perhaps from objective gaze, "nestles the seed, perfection."

In our ignorance of the truth, we have misused the highest power we possess.  And so great is this power - so complete is our freedom in it, so absolute the domain of law through it - that the misuse of this power has brought upon us the very conditions from which we suffer.  We are bound because we are first free; the power which appears to bind us is the only power in the universe which can free us.  This is why Jesus summed up His whole philosophy in this simple statement:  "It is done unto you as you believe."  The great Teacher looked so deeply into Nature, that She revealed Her fundamental simplicity to him.  That "Believe" and that "as" symbolize heaven and hell.  And so we suffer, not because suffering is imposed upon us, but because we are ignorant of our true nature.

January 7 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Limitless Power at Man's Disposal ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"Marvelous as the concept may be, it is non the less true that man has at his disposal - in what he calls his Subjective Mind - a power that seems to be Limitless.  THIS IS BECAUSE HE IS ONE WITH THE WHOLE ON THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE OF LIFE!  Man's thought, falling into his subjective mind, merges with the Universal Subjective Mind, and becomes the law of his life, through the one great law of all life.

There are not two subjective minds.  There is but one Subjective Mind, and what we call our subjective mind is really the use we are making of the One Law.  Each individual maintains his identity in Law, through his personal use of It. And each is drawing from Life what he thinks into It!

To learn how to think is to learn how to live, for our thoughts go into a medium that is Infinite in Its ability to do and to be.  Man, by thinking, can bring into his experience whatsoever he desires-if he thinks correctly, and becomes a living embodiment of his thoughts.  This is not done by holding thoughts but by knowing the Truth.

Within us, then, there is a creative field, which we call the subjective mind; around us there is a creative field which we call Subjective.  One is universal and the other is individual, but in reality they are one.  THERE IS ONE MENTAL LAW IN THE UNIVERSE, AND WHERE WE USE IT, IT BECOMES OUR LAW BECAUSE WE HAVE INDIVIDUALIZED IT.  It is impossible to plumb the depths of the individual mind, because the individual mind is really not individual but is individualized.  Behind the individual is the Universal, which has no limits.  In this concept alone lies the possibility of eternal and endless expansion.  Everyone is Universal on the subjective side of life, and individual only at the point of conscious perception.  The riddle is solved, and we all use the creative power of the Universal Mind every time we use our own mind.

All Thought is Creative

Since this is true, it follows that we cannot say that one thought is creative while another is not.  We must say that all thought is creative, according to the nature, impulse, emotion or conviction behind the thought.  Thought creates a mold in the Subjective, in which the idea is accepted and poured, and sets power in motion in accordance with the thought.  Ignorance of this excuses no one from its effects, for we are dealing with Law and not whimsical fancy.

The conscious mind is superior to the subjective and may consciously use it, Great as the subconscious is, its tendency is set in motion by the conscious thought, and in this possibility lies the path to freedom.  The Karmic Law is not kismet.  It is not fate but cause and effect. It is a taskmaster to the unwise; a servant to the wise.

The Road to Freedom is Not Mysterious

Experience has taught us that the subjective tendency of this intelligent Law of creative force may consciously be directed and definitely used.  This is the greatest discovery of all time. There is no mystery here, but a profound fact and a demonstrable one.  The road to freedom lies, not through mysteries or occult performances, but through the intelligent use of Nature's forces and laws.  the Law of Mind is a natural law in the spiritual world.

But what do we mean by the spiritual world?  We mean the world of conscious intelligence.  The Subjective is a world of Law and of mechanical order; in our lives, it is largely a reaction, an effect, a way.  IT IS NEVER A PERSON THOUGH IT OFTEN APPEARS TO ACT AS THOUGH IT WERE ONE.  Right here, many are completely misled, mistaking subjective impulses for actual personalities.  This, however, is a field of investigation not fully to be considered here.

The simplest way to state the proposition is to say that we have a conscious mind that operates within a subjective field, which is creative.  The conscious mind is Spirit, the subjective mind is Law.  One is a complement of the other and no real individuality could be expressed without a combination of both.

No man has ever plumbed the depths of either the conscious or the subjective life.  In both directions, we reach out to Infinity, and since we cannot encompass Infinity, we shall always be expanding and always enlarging our capacity to know and to experience.

We need not ask why these things are so.  There can be no reason given as to why the Truth is true.  We do not create laws and principles, but discover and make use of them.  Let us accept this position relative to the laws of Mind and Spirit, and see what we can do with them-rather than how we may contradict the inevitable.  Our mind and spirit is our echo of the "Eternal Thing" Itself, and the sooner we discover this fact, the sooner we shall be made free and happy.  The Universe is filled with Spirit and filled with Law.  One reacts to the other.  We are Spirit and we are Law.  The law of our life reacts to our spiritual or material concepts, and builds and re-builds according to our beliefs and faith.

Learning to Trust Will Make Us Happy

All men seek some relationship to the Universal Mind, the Over-Soul, or the Eternal Spirit, which we call God.  And Life reveals itself to whoever is receptive to it.  That we are living in a spiritual Universe, which includes the material or physical universe, has been a conclusion of the deepest thinkers of every age.  That this spiritual Universe must be one of pure Intelligence and perfect Life, dominated by Love, by Reason and by the power to create, seems an inevitable conclusion.

There is a Power in the Universe that honors our faith in It; there is a Law in the Universe which exacts the "utter-most farthing."  We all wish to feel that the power behind everything is good, as well as creative, an Eternal and Changeless Intelligence, in which man lives and moves and has his being.  Intuitively, we sense that every man, in his native state, is some part or manifestation of this Eternal Principle; and that the entire problem of limitation, evil, suffering, and uncertainty is not God-ordained, but is the result of ignorance.  It has been written that the Truth shall make us free, provided we know the Truth, and we note that the evolution of man's consciousness brings with it the acquisition of new powers and higher possibilities. 

We find ourselves torn by confusion, by conflict, by affirmation and denial, by emotion congested by fear, congealed by pride.  We are afraid of the Universe in which we live, suspicious of people around us, uncertain of the salvation of our own souls.  All these things negatively react and cause physical disorders.

Nature seems to await our comprehension of her and, since she is governed by immutable laws - the ignorance of which excuses no man from their effects - the bondage of humanity must be a result of our ignorance of the true nature of Reality.  The storehouse of Nature may be filled with good, but this good is locked to the ignorant.  The key to this door is held in the mind of Intelligence, working accordance with Universal Law. Through experience, man learns what is really good and satisfying, what is truly worthwhile.  As his intelligence increases, and his capacity to understand the subtle laws of Nature grows, he will gradually be set free.  As he learns the Truth, the Truth will automatically free him.

When we learn to trust the Universe, we shall be happy, prosperous and well.  We must learn to come under that Divine Government, and accept the fact that Nature's table is ever filled.  Never was there a Cosmic famine.  "The finite alone has wrought and suffered, the Infinite lies stretched in smiling repose."  God is always God.  No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation, may be, there is always a something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. We may stumble, butt always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.

Divine Nature Is in Every Man

This is The Thing Itself.  Briefly, let us recapitulate.  There is that within every individual which partakes of the nature of the Universal Wholeness and - in so far as it operates - is God.  That is the meaning of the word Emmanuel, the meaning of the word Christ.  There is that within us which partakes of the nature of the Divine Being, and since it partakes of the nature of the Divine Being, we are divine.  It reacts to us according to our belief in It; and it is an immutable Law, subject to the use of the least among us; no respecter of persons, It cannot be bound. Our Soul will never change or violate its own nature; all the denying of it will never change it; all the affirming of it will never make it any more than it is. But since it is what it is, and works in the way that it works, it appears to each through his belief.  It is done unto each of us as we believe.

We will say, then, that in spirit, man is One with God.  But what of the great Law of the Universe?  If we are really One with the Whole, we must be One with the Law of the Whole, as well as One with the Spirit of the Whole.

If we try to find something difficult to grasp, then we shall never grasp it, because we shall always think of it as being incomprehensible.  The mind which we discover within us is the Mind that governs everything.  This is The Thing Itself, and we should recognize its simplicity.

January 5 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

The Universe Never Plays Favorites by Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We are so used to the thought that if we mix certain colors we get certain other colors, that we do not realize we are dealing with a principle.  We know that whoever blends those particular colors will get the same result, but we do not know why; THE WISEST MAN LIVING DOES NOT KNOW WHY!  We do not have to stretch our credulity any more in metaphysics.

We think of metaphysics, perhaps, as something that only the most profound thinkers have known about, but we should remember that we also are thinkers.  The profound thought of all ages has stood in awe of Life itself, realizing that here is a power and potentiality, the highest possibilities of which the human intellect cannot fathom.

Universal principles are never respecters of persons; the Universe has no favorites. Therefore, it is written:  "and let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."  (Rev. 22:17)


Nothing Supernatural about the Study of Life

Let us then approach the Science of Mind - the Science of Spiritual Psychology - with awe, but not with fear; with truly a humble thought, but not with a sense that we are unworthy.  Let us approach it normally, happily, willing to accept, glad to experiment, hoping and believing that as the result of our efforts we shall each derive a great good - a sound understanding of the natural laws of Life, as they apply to the individual and his relationship to the whole universal scheme of things.

This is the simple meaning of true metaphysical teaching, the study of Life and the nature of the Law, governed and directed by thought; always conscious that we live in a spiritual Universe; that God is in, through, around and for us.  There is nothing supernatural about the study of Life from the metaphysical viewpoint.  That which today seems to us supernatural, after it is thoroughly understood, will be found spontaneously natural.

We all know that many have been healed of physical disease through prayer.  Let us analyze this.  Why are some healed through prayer while others are not?  Can we believe that there is a God who picks out some man and says, "I will honor your prayer, but I do not think so much of Mr. So and So"?  It is superstitious to believe that God will answer the prayer of one above another.  Jesus said that God "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."  (Matt. 5:45)

Since some people have been healed through prayer, while others have not, the answer is NOT that God has responded to some and not to others, but that some have responded to God more than others.  Their prayer (their thought) has responded by corresponding.  The answer to prayer is in the prayer.  But what is a prayer?  A prayer is a movement of thought, within the mind of the one praying, along a definite line of meditation; that is, for a specific purpose.

What is the mind?  No man living knows.  We know a great deal about the mind, but not what it is.  By mind, we mean consciousness.  We are now using it.  We cannot locate mind in the body, for, while the body is a necessary vehicle for consciousness while we are here, it is not consciousness.  We cannot isolate mind.  All we know about it is not what it is, but what it does, and the greatest philosopher who ever lived knows no more than this...except that he may tell us more of how it works.

January 4 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

The Thing Itself - Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We all look forward to the day when science and religion shall walk hand in hand through the visible to the invisible.  Science knows nothing of opinion, but recognizes a government of law whose principles are universal.  Yet any scientist who refuses to accept intangible values has no adequate basis for the values which he has already discovered.  Revelation must keep faith with reason, and religion with law - while intuition is ever spreading its wings for greater flights - and science must justify faith in the invisible.

To suppose that the Creative Intelligence of the Universe would create man in bondage and leave him bound would be to dishonor the Creative Power which we call God.  To suppose that God could make man as an individual, without leaving him to discover himself, would be to suppose an impossibility. Individuality must be spontaneous; it can never be automatic.  The seed of freedom must be planted in the innermost being of man, but, like the Prodigal Son, man must make the great discovery for himself.

We see abundance in the Universe. We cannot count the grains of sand on a  single beach.  The earth contains untold riches, and the very air is vibrant with power.  Why, then, is man weak, poor and afraid?  The Science of Mind deals with these questions.  The Divine Plan is one of Freedom; bondage is not God-ordained.  Freedom is the birthright of every living soul.  All instinctively feel this.  The Truth points to freedom, under Law.  Thus the inherent nature of man is forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom.  We do well to listen to this Inner Voice, for it tells us of a life wonderful in its scope; of a love beyond our fondest dreams; of a freedom which the soul craves.

But the great Love of the Universe must be One with the great law of Its Own Being, and we approach Love through the Law. This, then, is the teaching:  Love and Law.  As the love of God is perfect, so the law of God is also is perfect.  We must understand both.

Whatever the nature of any principle may be - in so far as it is understood by anyone - it may be understood by all who take the time to investigate.  This does not require an unusual degree of intelligence, but, rather, a practical application of what we now know in order that we may increase our knowledge.  The study of the Science of Mind is a study of First Cause, Spirit, Mind, or that invisible Essence, that ultimate Stuff and Intelligence from which everything comes, the Power back of creation - the Thing Itself.

We accept this "thing" and believe in It.  What we desire is to know more about It, and how to use It.  From proof alone, we know we are dealing with a definite principle. If one (through the conscious use of his knowledge) can produce a certain result, he must know with what he is dealing.

It may seem as though, in dealing with metaphysics, we are dealing with something that is too abstract.  But what is tangible other than results?  Principles are forever hidden from our eyes.  We accept the deductions of science in so far as they are provided, and we recognize that they are built upon immutable, but invisible principles."

January 3 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Removing the Complex

Suppose someone is constantly saying:  "Everything is all wrong in the world.  People are wrong, things are wrong, conditions are wrong.  All is sickness and unhappiness.  Nothing seems worth while."  You as a practitioner* must not be disturbed by this complaint.  It is your business to remove this complex, for these inner emotions create outer conditions, in and through the body, and are responsible for a great deal of sickness in the world.

Treatment straightens out consciousness by clear thinking.  When the inner consciousness agrees with the Truth, then - and not until then - a demonstration takes place.  Specifically go over the thoughts which are wrong and use the power of your word to heal them.

"Medical practice takes into consideration the thoughts back of disease, and many eminent physicians probe deeply into the "complex," the "obsession," or the "defense mechanism," disclosed by the thought of the patient, which resulted in blindness, deafness, mutism, etc.

In spiritual mind healing, we recognize that cause is never material or physical.  There is only One First Cause.  But it is often necessary for the practitioner to diagnose the thought of his patient; in fact, this is an important point in healing.  This is psycho-analysis (from psyche, or soul).  Psycho-analysis is the analysis of the soul or subjective mind.  Its teaching is that within the soul, or subjective mind, all the seeds of our thoughts fall, and that most of man's physical troubles are caused by some inner conflict.  The conscious mind, desiring certain things which it cannot have, sends into the subjective thought opposing desires which conflict with each other and mentally tear or bind; and as they manifest in the body, they produce disease.  It is claimed that seventy percent of all diseases are the result of suppressed emotions.  These emotions are not necessarily sex emotions, but may be any suppressed desires.

It is probable that when Jesus forgave the man his sins, he realized that the man had a complex of condemnation within himself. The sense of condemnation within himself.  The sense of condemnation which the race holds about itself weights it down, and it must be removed.  This explains why Jesus said: "Thy sins be forgiven thee."  It is feeling that hurts.  It has been said:  "Life is a comedy to him who thinks, a tragedy to him who feels."

We recognize that everything is in Mind and that nothing moves but Mind.  That Intelligence is back of everything, acting through a thought force which is concrete, definite and real.  The reason people do not realize that mental healing is possible is that they do not understand the meaning of Causation, they do not realize that Intelligence is back of all things, that there is but One Fundamental Intelligence in the Universe, and that the individual is simply a point where this One Mind manifests as person.  Disease must come through Mind, in order to operate through us.  There is but One Subjective Mind in the Universe, and we are always thinking into It.

The practitioner talks with his patient, explains to him the Law of Mind, teaches him the way, diagnoses his thought, points out to him that certain mental attitudes produce certain physical results, teaches him how to be harmonious in his thinking, how to be at peace, how to trust and believe in the Good.  In other words, the practitioner lifts him up mentally and spiritually, and supports his thought until he can stand alone.

A practitioner must be filled with the spirit of Divine Compassion.  He must have a deep, underlying sense of unity and sympathy, else he will do but little good; but he/she must not have sympathy with the disease.  The only guarantee of our Divinity is in its expression through our humanity.  Consequently, an enlightened soul understands the meaning of sympathy and exercises it, but not morbidly."

*The term "practitioner" refers to students and people who practice the teaching of this science, and those individuals who have formally licensed through Centers for Spiritual Living.  www.csl.org

Note regarding capitalization in the text: Dr. Holmes, throughout the text, has utilized capitalization as a reverent indication of the divine qualities in all of life.   For example, "Divine Compassion" is a quality, a state of being, that is expressed from that one source of all life....that has many names: God, Buddha, Allah, Yahweh, Father, Mother, Great Mother, Supreme Being, Consciousness.