Spirit, Soul and Body (continued) ~ Ernest Holmes
"There can be no real enjoyment of life until we see that everything is animated by the Spirit, and as we see that things are thus animated, we are beholding the real Universe. The Essence of Reality is invisible, but the substance of the invisible is seen and heard, and is a part of the everyday life of all!
We find that on the subjective or soul side, man is subconscious; but subconscious does not mean unconscious. Subconscious merely means subjective to the conscious thought, compelled by reason of its subjectivity to receive what is put into it. It is Karmic Law, because it is the use we are making of Universal Subjectivity. Karma means the Law of Cause and Effect. Soul contains the memory because It is the receptacle for the seeds of our thought, and because It is the seat of memory it contains our inherited tendencies. It also contains the race-suggestion, for we are not dealing with a separated or isolated subjective mind, but with the One Subjective Mind - there is a vast difference between thinking of having three or four minds, and thinking of One Mind which we all use.
We treat of soul as being that part of our mental being which is subjective to the conscious mind. From this viewpoint, the individual soul is an effect and not a cause. This understanding of soul life is in accord with the deepest thought of the ages, and is a legitimate point of view in the light of recent investigations, in both the psychological and metaphysical fields.
The soul is the seat of memory, the mirror of mind in the individual. It is the creative power within us, creating from the patterns given it, and from the memories it contains. We gather soul, or subjective force, as we accumulate the right kind of experiences. The law of the soul is subject to the conscious spirit; tendencies set in motion in the soul, or subjective life, tend to produce their like in the objective world. From this is deduced the possibility of the healing power of the spoken word, operating thorough mental law, for the law of the mind is always subjective.
The soul, being the seat of memory, already contains a record of everything that has ever happened to us. These memories as a whole, constitute the subjective tendency of the individual life; this tendency can be changed through constant effort and a determined persistency of purpose. The soul life of all people merges, more or less, and this creates the soul life of the race - the collective subjectivity of all humanity - called by some the "collective unconscious." This "collective unconscious" contains a record of all human events that have ever transpired. We are all, more or less, subject to this collective thought, since it acts as a powerful race suggestion. The sum total of all erroneous human belief, binds until the individual mentally lifts himself above the law of averages into the higher law of Spiritual Individualism.
In studying man's relationship o the Universal, we have discovered how the spirit and soul of man are like the Spirit and Soul of the Universe. Let us now consider the idea of body. Body - effect, affairs, conditions, health, disease, destiny, riches, poverty, business, vocation, profession, results - any word which stands for the externalization of man's thought and endeavor, we class as a part of this body.
Man's outward life is a result of the subjective state of his thought. The thinker is conscious mind but when he thinks he lets fall the forms of his thought into Subjective Mind, which is the Universal Medium of all thought and action and, as a result of this, the Creative Medium at once sets to work to produce the thing outlined.
Plotinus, perhaps the greatest of the Neo-Platonic philosophers, in personifying Nature said: "I do not argue, I contemplate; and as I contemplate, I left fall the forms of my thought," this is the manner in which Nature creates - It contemplates. As a result of Its contemplation, It lets fall the seed of Its thought into the Universal Subjective which, being Law, produces the object thought about. We must expect to find - and it is exactly what we do find - the same principle reproduced in man. This means that whatever man thinks (whether it is what he calls good or bad) falls into this Universal Creative Medium, is accepted by It, is at once acted upon and unless neutralized tends to take objective form.
The objective man is body. By objective or physical man, we mean the man who is formed, who has flesh and blood. This physical man is in unity with all other physical or objective elements in the Universe, and in unity with the invisible Source from which they come. We analyze the body and find it is made of the same stuff from which a brick is made, not different in its essence, but different in its composition, its vibration. There is One Universal Substance whose business it is to take form in multiplicity.
We are told that matter is not a solid, stationary thing; but a constantly flowing formless substance, which is forever coming and going - "an etheric whirl of energy" it has been called. Whatever its nature is, it is as indestructible as God, as eternal as Timeless Being; nothing can be added to or taken from it. The bodies we now have were not with us a short time ago; we discard many of them on our path through this life; for the substance of which they are composed is in a constant state of flow - a flowing substance, taking the form that Mind gives it. How about the matter from which other things than the body are made? It is all the same - ONE SUBSTANCE in the Universe, taking different forms and shapes and becoming different things. Unity is expressed in multiplicity.
The last analysis of matter resolves it into a universal ether, and leaves nothing more than a stuff which may be operated upon; a force and energy, without volition, ready to become molded. In the theoretical beginning of creation, the world was "without form and void." There is no difference in the ultimate and minute particles which take innumerable forms - only a difference in the arrangement. Our bodies are One with the Whole Body of the Universe; seeds, plants, cabbages and kings are all made of the same substance. Minerals, solids, and liquids are made from this primordial Substance which is forever flowing into form and forever flowing out again into the void.
Nothing could give form to a formless stuff, which has no mind of its own, but some Intelligence operating through it. Here, then, we come back to the Word as the starting point of all Creation - God's Word in the Great Creation, the Great World, and man's word in the small world; One Spirit, One Mind, and One Substance. One Law, but many ideas, one Power but many ways of using It. One God, in Whom we all live, and One Law, which we all use. ONE, ONE, ONE!! No greater unity could be conceived than that which is already given.
So we find that man is one with the physical universe in which he lives. The physical universe has no self-determination; we find that man's physical body is a latent mass of matter. Our body is really one with the Body of God, with the physical universe, but body does not know it is body. If feet knew they were feet with the physical capacity to walk, they might be cut off and still be able to run down the street on an errand. IT IS ONE THING TO SAY THAT OUR FEET DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE FEET AND QUITE ANOTHER THING TO SAY THAT THEY ARE ILLUSIONS, yet all are agreed that they have no intelligence of their own. Of itself, the physical universe is an effect. So it is with the physical part of man which we call his body."
