November 19 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE PRACTICE of SPIRITUAL MIND HEALING

Ernest Holmes

"One should never allow himself to think of, or talk about, limitation or poverty.  Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.  The more spiritual the thought, the higher its manifestation.  Spiritual thought means an absolute belief in, and reliance upon, Truth.  This is both natural and normal.

All is Love and yet all is Law.  Love is the impelling force and Law executes the will of Love.  Man
is a center of God-Consciousness in the great Whole.  He cannot deface his real being, but may hinder the Whole from coming into a complete expression through his life.  Turning to the One with a complete abandonment and in absolute trust, he will find that he is already saved, healed and prospered."

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."

November 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE PRACTICE of SPIRITUAL HEALING
Ernest Holmes

"We must conceive of the Spirit, God, as governing, controlling and directing man's activity.  God is not a failure.  Therefore, we must resolutely turn away from every experience which has been negative, from every experience which has been a failure, and from every experience which denies God.  The mental and spiritual practitioner should deal with his field alone.  He is not opposed to the medical practitioner, he does not say, "I cannot treat this man if he takes a pill."  Unless the practitioner can prove that the man does not need to take a pill, the patient had better take it if it will benefit him.  There is nothing weird about the application of Truth.  We should not be superstitious in using the Law of Mind.  But the mental practitioner should remain in his own field, which is always the field of thought.

If one is working for a person who has "high blood pressure" or "low blood pressure," after a few treatments he might have his patient go back to his physician for a physical check-up.  "But," one may ask, "can I have spiritual treatment if I do this?"  This is a superstitious reaction and all superstition is ignorance.  If the mental and spiritual practitioner can restore normal blood pressure for his patient, a doctor who can weigh and measure it, can quickly ascertain if the work has been done.  When this is understood, the closest co-operation will be brought about between physician and metaphysician.  It is inevitable that the day shall come when they will understand each other.  They are working in two separate fields, which at the same time have a fundamental unity in one primal principle.  But the mental and spiritual practitioner works in the field of Mind alone."

November 8 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for SELF-HELP

By Ernest Holmes

I Fear No Evil

"I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."

I will not be afraid, for the All Good is constantly with me and is always near at hand to guide and comfort.

There is no evil in the Truth, and no power of darkness to hinder the Light from shining.

I will not be afraid, for there is One within Who protects and keeps me from all harm.

I fear no evil.

I Have Known, Always

I have always known the Truth, and no fear can keep my inner knowledge from me.

My wisdom from within comes forth into daily expression.

Knowledge from On High is given to me, and I shall always be led by the Spirit.

I know the Truth.

October 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

The Spirit of Prophecy

"We have explained how it is that the psychic vision can look into the past and see what has transpired - by reason of the fact that it is dealing with a field in which there is no past, no present and no future, but merely a continuation of being.  Because this is so, any incident which has transpired in the past is an active thing in the present, unless the vibration is neutralized, when it no longer has existence anywhere.

Just as it is true, apparently, that the incidents of the past continually rehearse themselves in the same manner that a picture hanging on the wall for the next ten thousand years (if nothing happens to it) will look just as it does now, so anyone contacting an previous incident, clairvoyantly, will see it as though it were now transpiring...not past.   This is the way in which clairvoyant vision operates.  The continuation of the past, through the present, into the future, is a movement of causation passing from cause to effect; and because the movement is first set in motion in a field of Mind which is purely subjective, both cause and effect will exist at any point during the sequence of this movement.  The clairvoyant vision, then, contacting it at any point - even before the final outcome - will see the final outcome.

There is nothing fatalistic about this. A thing can appear to be fatalistic without necessarily being so.  This we should understand, because the human mind in its ignorance has created great psychic laws for itself.  Therefore, if one has been told anything in the way of a prophecy which is negative, it should be directly refuted, because that negation exists in the realm of subjective causation...not spiritual causation."

October 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Cosmic Consciousness - Illumination (Continued)

"Illumination will come as man more and more realizes his Unity with the Whole, and as he constantly endeavors to let the Truth operate through him.  But since the Whole is at the point of the Inner Mentality, it will be here alone that he will contact It.  "Speak to Him, thou, for He hears."  Always in such degree as one has spiritual sense, he realizes universality in his own soul.  The great mystics have had that sense and have felt the possibility of an immediate communion with the Universal Spirit.  This essence has run through all theologies and has been the cause of much of their vitality.  Theology with all its weakness has been stronger in its strength than it has been weak in its weakness, because the vital elements in it have been greater than the devitalizing ones.  It would not have lived unless this were true.

The only God man knows is the God of his own Inner Life; he can know no other.  To assume that man can know a God outside himself is to assume that he can know something of which he cannot be conscious. This does not mean that man is God; it means that the only God that man knows is within, and the only life man has is from within. God is not external but is Indwelling, at the very center of man's life.  This is why Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is within and why He prayed:  "Our Father which art in Heaven."

The great mystics like Jesus have taught that as we enter into the One, the One enters into us and becomes us and is us.  They have taught the "Mystical Marriage," the union of the soul of man with the Soul of God, and the Unity of all Life.  The great mystics while sensing this Unity - the Universality of all things - have also sensed the individualization of Being and the individuality of Man as a Divine Reality.  Tagore, in seeking to explain this, says that the individual is immersed in, but not lost in, Nirvana, and he uses the illustration..."as an arrow is lost in its mark," still remaining an arrow.  The mysticism of Buddha did not teach the annihilation of the soul, but the eternality of an ever-expanding principle of the soul."

September 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT the MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Individuality

"The higher the sense of Truth, the greater will be the realization of the uniqueness of individual character and personality.  The real Self is God-given and cannot be denied.  It is the place where God comes to a point of Individualized and Personified Expression.  "I am the light of the world."

Individuality means self-choice, volition, conscious mind, personified Spirit, complete freedom and a Power to back up that freedom.  There could not be a mechanical or an unspontaneous individuality.  Individuality must be created in the image of Perfection and let alone to make this stupendous discovery for itself; it emerges from the Universal.  Psychology teaches the personification of this individuality, which is true as far as it goes, but metaphysics universalizes it by unifying it with the Whole.  There is a Universal nature of Man, inherent within him, which causes the manifestation of his personality.  The Spirit of God.

We have now discovered a unity with the Whole on the three sides of life, or from all three modes of expression.  We are one with the body of the physical world; One with the Creative Law of the Universe in the mental world; and One with the Spirit of God in the conscious world.

Could we ask or hope for more?  Would it be possible for more to be given?  We could not ask for more and no greater freedom could be given.  From now on we shall expand, grow and express only to the degree that we consciously cooperate with the Whole."

September 12 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

No Misrepresentations

No one can misdirect; none can mislead me.

I am free from the belief in all lies and untruths;

I know and speak only the Truth, and the Truth alone can be spoken to me.

I know the false and can understand the Real

I cannot be fooled nor misled; I am guided by Truth alone.

There is no lie nor liar.

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?""

August 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS

By Ernest Holmes

(The following meditation is printed just as it was given in class and group work.)

Perfect Intelligence Directs My Thought

We now let go of everything and enter into a state of peace.  We know the Spirit within us is God, the Living Spirit Almighty...that God Who is Infinite, Perfect and Complete, never needed anything, never had any trouble, never could destroy; the God Who never operated against Himself, Who never condemned Himself--the Spirit that fashions each of us from His own perfect Being.  "All in all, we know Thee, God, omnipresent, full and free; one with every pathway trod, our immortal destiny."

That Infinite Wholeness is perfect peace within us.  That Infinite Intelligence is working through us and our affairs; our thought is inspired, guided, governed and directed by Divine Wisdom.  That Infinite Wholeness is the circulation of ideas, of intelligence, wisdom, truth and life.  It is the elimination of every conception of confusion.  It is the assimilation of that which is whole, happy, perfect.  The Divine Intelligence is the government of our affairs.  Each has within himself this guide to truth, to reason, to beauty, to right action, to certainty and to peace.

Perfect Intelligence Directs My Thought

July 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
By Ernest Holmes

Constipation

"Never think a sick person is one who merely has a sick body.  If you do, you will find yourself treating the body.  Why should we not treat the body?  For the simple reason that the cause of the disease is not in the body.  The body is an effect and not a cause.  You must know that bodies and conditions never move, they are always moved upon.  A sick person is one who has a sick thought as well as  a sick body.

Constipation is often due to a belief in limitation or burden, and is mentally helped by knowing that there is no restriction, no inaction, no limited action, no bondage, no fear, no congestion.  Realize that all action is normal, harmonious and perfect.

Any thought which produces a mental tension - fear of lack, of trouble, of disease of all kinds, fear of loss of friends, or loss of position - is likely to manifest itself as constipation.  Any kind of fear thought retards the free action of the life forces, thus greatly interfering with the functions of the body.

In such cases a treatment for complete relaxation should be given.  It is well to know:  "Infinite Intelligence within me rules me, and controls and directs all of the organs of my body, so that they function perfectly according to their nature.  I am an open channel for good to flow in and through me, freely, generously, cheerfully."

Every thought of cruelty is disturbing to the entire body.  Solomon tells us that "he that is cruel, troubleth his own flesh," and every adverse thought is cruel.  Thoughts of peace and good will, a recognition of the unity of all men, will produce harmony, and bring about perfect elimination in the body.

It is necessary that we release all thoughts - as well as things - that clutter  up our lives.  We are reminded that there is something resembling the Divine in the intelligence and fearlessness of the organs of our body, in the way they take that which is necessary to their sustenance and well-being, and release that which is not needed.  If the organs of the body followed the average tactics of man in his acquisitive habits, if the lungs hoarded the air they take in, if the heart kept the fresh blood stored within its walls, refusing to allow it to circulate, if the stomach retained the food taken in for nourishment, what a static condition we would have!  But the very reverse is true.  Such perfect assimilation, elimination and circulation has never been equaled by man in anything he has invented.

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  The is a promise we have all proven, in a degree.  Could we but comprehend the full significance of spiritual substance, we should be forever freed from all congestive thoughts - selfishness, greed, undue acquisitiveness - all of which have been called the waste products of the mind.  Understanding this, it naturally follows we should be freed from their effects.

Very often the word of healing is spoken and does not appear to operate because hindered by some obstruction.  Some people are obstinate, resistant, stubborn, and they must be healed of these beliefs.  The practitioner must know that there is no resistance to Truth, and no thought anywhere which can prevent the consciousness from perceiving the Truth.  Whatever the false condition is, array mental argument against it.  Turn the thought over and over, until either by reason or by chance, you hit upon the thing that is wrong.  Anyone can help the sick who can get away from the effect long enough to perceive a different cause...a perfect cause, back of what appears to be an imperfect effect.

A thought of Love is always healing, and particularly so in the case of constipation.  If the practitioner has a full realization that Love fulfills all the laws of life - his life and the patient's life - that there are no restrictions, no burdens, no inhibitions in Love, which is the very life within, healing will follow.

If one would take time, once a day at least, to let go of all that is not true and lay hold of Reality; let go of doubt, distrust, worry, condemnation and fear, and lay hold of Life in Its expressions of beauty, truth and wholeness, his mental congestion would be healed.  Keep the mind and body open to the reception of Truth.  It is the static, fixed, inflexible outlook, which produces a tendency on the part of the body and its muscles and functions to become tense and underactive.  Hold steadfastly to the thought that all of life is in a state of eternal flow.  Relax your thought and allow the free flow of the Life Essence, in and through you, and your body will respond to Its healing activity.  Inaction will quickly disappear into its native nothingness, in the rhythm and harmony of all your bodily functions."

June 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM THE TEACHING OF JESUS
~ Ernest Holmes

The Father's House Always Open

"And so the son found everything in the Father's House just as he had left it.  Nothing had changed and he was made welcome to all the divine stores.  But he had to return to find joy and peace forevermore.  How wonderful is Reality!  While we may have seemed to be away from it, it has ever remained the same and is ever ready to reveal itself to us.  All we have to do is to go half way; that is, turn to it and it will turn to us.  The Truth known is instantly demonstrated; for the Truth is Changeless Reality and cannot come and go.  No matter how long we may have been away from Reality in our thought, It is always here, ready to spring forth, full-orbed, into expression.  No matter how long a room may have been darkened, the entrance of light instantly illuminates it.  What becomes of the darkness when the light enters?  Where did it come from and where does it go?

It is difficult to comprehend such an infinite possibility as an instantaneous reconciliation with the universe; we demonstrate this only in degrees, because our consciousness is not yet fitted to perceive the wholeness of complete perfection.

The Stay-at-Home Son

"Now his elder son was in the field:  and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.
"And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.  And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
"And he was angry and would not go in:  therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
"And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee...and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends...
"And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."

How human the stay-at-home son was, and what a theological attitude he took in regard to his younger brother!  He had not entered himself and he was not willing that anyone else should enter.  His real attitude was that God should condemn everything that he, himself, did not like or believe.  He was puffed  up with self-righteousness and personal conceit, filled with petty vanity, and fuming with anger over his brother's welcome home.  I expect that we meet him in ourselves nearly every day - in our personal experiences with other people - in our intolerant attitude and uncharitableness toward others who do not think as we think.  But God knows as little about self-righteousness as He knows about evil, for both are false; therefore, He said unto the elder son, "Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."  This implies that the elder son had missed the mark as well as the younger, for he had been living in the midst of plenty and had not recognized it.  He needed but to have asked and he would have received all that the father had.  Both sons were foolish but it is a question which was the more completely deluded.

The Application of the Story

But to bring this story down to our own experience -for it is a lesson for everyone for all time - we live in the midst of eternal good, but it can only be to us what we believe it to be.  We are at the mouth of the river, but we must let down our own buckets if we wish them to be filled with the pure waters of Reality.

We are surrounded by a Spirit of living Intelligence, and eternal givingness, love, goodness and power, that wishes to express Itself through us.  There is Divine Urge within, ever pushing us forward to the goal.  We are also surrounded by an immutable Law of cause and effect, and because of our divine individuality and the necessity of experience in order to come to a realization of what, and who, we are, we are subject to the causes which we have set in motion.  All is love and yet all is law.  Both love and law are perfect and we, as individuals, can experience only what we really believe and act upon."

June 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM THE TEACHINGS of JESUS
~Ernest Holmes

The Child-Like Faith (Matt. 18:3, 4, 5)

"Jesus tells us that the child-like mind is more receptive to Truth than the over-intellectual who demand too rational an explanation of those truths which must be accepted on faith alone. What man can explain why he lives?  The self-evident fact of living is the only explanation possible or necessary.  In the whole life, and through the entire teaching, of this marvelous man, we find a child-like faith in the universe and an implicit trust in the goodness of God.  Judging his work by its results, and its influence on succeeding ages, we are compelled to accept the fact that "Wisdom is justified of her children."

The Real Father and Son (Matt. 11:27)

"And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

What reasonable explanation can we find to this passage, unless we look for some hidden meaning behind these words of the great teacher?  God alone knows the real Son, forever hidden in the bosom of the Father.  To God, this idea of sonship must be pure, complete and perfect; divine, holy and indestructible.  With our present limited vision, we neither see nor know the real Son, but the Father within knows and understands.  "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."  God is revealed through the Son, and the Son reveals himself to other sons when he realizes that God is his life.  This implies a direct relationship between God and man.

If one would know God, he must penetrate deeply into his own nature, for here alone can he find Him.  If he would reveal God to his fellowmen, he must do so by living such a God-like life, that the Divine Essence flows through him to others.  The only way to know God is to be like Him; and while this may seem discouraging in our present state of evolution, we should remember that we have but started on an eternal ladder which ever spirals upward.

When Jesus said to come to him and find rest ("Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest...") did he mean that we should, or could, come unto his personality?  Of course not.  Jesus knew that his human personality would soon be dissolved in his divine individuality.  He knew that he was soon to leave this world and go on to a deeper realization of life, truth and beauty.

It is evident, then, that he was referring to his understanding of life, when he told all who are weary to come unto him and find rest.  Had he not already explained that God indwells every soul?  He was inviting people to penetrate more deeply into their own natures, if they would find peace and comfort.  This has ever been the lesson taught by the illumined that we find God only within ourselves, and God can work for us only by working through us.  God reveals Himself directly through the Son.  The Son reveals God, when he realizes that God is already within him.  This understanding would not produce an undue conceit, nor would it set man in the temple of god as God; but it would place a true estimate of value on the life of man.

The Power at the Heart of God

Peace is the power at the heart of God.  It is through the revelation of the self, to the self, that one understands life; that he approaches the power which is at the heart of God.  This comes through a recognition of the unity of the individual, with the Spirit back of, in, and through all.

The problem of philosophy is to unite the Infinite with the finite; to join the abstract with the concrete; to find a meeting place between the Absolute and the relative; to unify with the First Cause.   The same problem confronts religion and is, indeed, its whole purpose:  to unify man with God.  This is also true of science, but from a different angle.  Science seeks to join causes with effects, and by so doing make practical use of its knowledge.  Science is really spiritual, while philosophy leads to true religion.  Science is the handmaid of religion and philosophy."

June 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How Habits Are Acquired and Treated ~ Ernest Holmes

"What is a habit?  A habit is desire objectified - "the continuous character of one's thoughts and feelings" - desire for something that will give satisfaction.  At the root of all habit is one basic thing:  the desire to express life.  There is an urge to express in all people, and this urge, operating through the channels of Creative Mind, looses energy into action, and compels the individual to do something.  Back of all this desire is the impulse of Spirit to express.  In man, this impulse must express at the level of his consciousness.

"For each, for the joy of working and each in his separate star,

Shall paint the thing as he sees It, for the God of things as they are."

Some express themselves constructively and some destructively.  Suppose a man who has the liquor habit comes to you to be healed.  You would not treat that habit.  You would not pray for the man to be healed.  You would know that you are dealing with a man who has the desire to express life and who, for the moment, thinks he must express it in terms of intoxication.  He once thought this expressed reality to him.  He now knows that it does not, but he cannot with mere will-power stop it, for the habit appears to have taken complete possession of him.  (We might well remember always that unless we control thought, it will control us.)

In giving treatment, first recognize who and what this man is, saying something like this:  "This man is the full and complete expression of Truth, and as such he is free from any sense of limitation.  He is not bound by any sense of inferiority, which he needs to cover up, for he is a unique individuality, expressing all the attributes of God.  He is free from any delusion or fear of delusion.  He knows that the Spirit of Truth within him is complete and always satisfied.  He has no longing outside of the longing to express his own divinity, and he has the assurance that he shall be able to gratify this: 'Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness (right living) for they shall be filled.'  This thing which calls itself the liquor habit has no power over him and cannot operate through him.  By the power of this word which I am now speaking, this habit is completely destroyed and forever obliterated."  Then mentally see him free and harmoniously expressing life and happiness."

June 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Do Not Try to Go Beyond Your Understanding ~ Ernest Holmes

"Since our spiritual understanding is not sufficient to enable us to mentally set bones, we call in a surgeon; since we cannot walk on the water, we take a boat.  We can go only as far as our spiritual knowledge takes us.  Principle is Infinite, but we shall demonstrate Its power only at the level of our concept of It.  Every day we shall have made new discoveries - laws which have always existed but which have not as yet been utilized.

Do not let any one discourage or belittle your efforts by asking, "Why don't you walk on the water?  Jesus did."  Do not be sidetracked by any of these futile suggestions, these mental obstructions which an unbeliever would seek to throw in your path.  If we had the understanding which Jesus had, we would be able to walk on the water.  I am not at all confused by the fact that we do not do this today.  Someday one will come along who knows how to walk on or over the water.

We are probably on the verge of a great spiritual awakening.  People are so tired of looking for things where they do not exist, that they are going to more and more completely open their thought to the realization that Spirit is an active Presence.  But if we spend our entire time trying to find out why It does not work, we shall never find out how and why It does work.  Arguing is often a waste of time.  Somehow there must come to each individual an interior conviction, that we are One with the Universe, and that the Spirit flows through us at the lever of our recognition and embodiment of It.  For this is "the way, the truth and the life."

People say:  "I can't take off my glasses."  Then wear them but begin to make the declaration that there is One Perfect Vision seeing through you.  This the Truth.  If this statement becomes a subjective realization, you will be healed, will no longer need glasses.

If a plaster will relieve, use it.  If a pill does any good, take it, but gradually try to lead the thought from where it is into the higher realms of consciousness where the soul recognizes its own I-Am-ness.

Suppose one is unable to convince himself of the Truth of the statement which he makes, how is he going to bring himself to a place of belief?  By repeating his affirmation, dwelling on its meaning, meditating up on the spiritual significance of it, until the subjective state of his thinking becomes clarified.  This is the only reason for repeating treatments, for one treatment would heal if there were no subjective doubts.  Repeated treatments induce, within consciousness, a definite concept of an already established truth, even though the fact may not as yet have become objectified.  This is why mental healing is scientific.  There is no room for doubt in a treatment.

Realize that you treat with your understanding; by your own choice you decide to give a treatment, but the treatment becomes operative through the Law.  Never say:  "I am not good enough to treat."  In God there are no good, better or best.

Do not allow yourself to become superstitious, for you are dealing with a normal, natural law in the mental and spiritual world.  This law is just as real as any other known law.  Never say:  "I am not sure that I have enough power to treat."  You can never heal with this mental attitude, for that implies that you think you are doing the healing.  Rather, say:  "As I let fall the forms of my thought, they are operated upon by Principles in which I believe.  This is the law of God, the law of man, and the law of the Universe."  Never say, or think:  "This disease is hard to heal, while that presented yesterday was easy."  If you find yourself saying this, at once heal yourself.  Such a belief comes from the thought that we are dealing with a limited power, and that such power knows degrees of discomfort.  The truth is that there is but One Power and that Power knows only Perfection."

June 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Physical Perfection - Concluded ~ Ernest Holmes

What Can Be Healed?

"What should we try to heal through spiritual treatment?  If we were dealing only with the power of a thought, we should not expect to heal anything; but if we are dealing with a Universal Principle, why should we set any limit to Its power?

Since the Law of God is Infinite, from the spiritual viewpoint, there is no incurable disease, as opposed to a curable one.  The Law knows nothing about disease; It only acts.  The practitioner realizes that this word is the presence, power and activity of Truth, which is in him, which is Almighty, which is God, "beside which there is none other."

This word is the law unto the thing whereunto it is spoken, and has within itself the ability, the power, and the intelligence to execute itself, through the great Law of all life.  This word being the spontaneous recognition of Living Spirit - Infinite, Ever-Present, and Active - is now made manifest in and through this person, or thing, about which the practitioner is thinking.

To Spirit there can be no incurable disease.  The word "incurable" means not susceptible of being cured.  The root definition of cured is "cared for."  If we say that a disease is incurable, we are saying that it is not sensitive to care.   As long as any cell is alive it is sensitive to care, which means that as long as a person is alive, the cells of the body respond to care.  Naturally, they are not being cured if they are not being property cared for.  We have already learned that disease is largely a state of mind, and we could hardly say that a state of mind is incurable, could we?  We know that thought is constantly changing, forever taking on new ways of expression.  It cannot possibly remain permanent.  It has to change.  Can we not, accordingly, change it to a better state instead of to a worse?

Materia medica is using the term "incurable" less and less frequently, for most disease in the field of medicine is being cured.  Let us then free ourselves from the assumption that any disturbed state of thought need be permanent ("incurable")."

May 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

A Formula for Effective Prayer (Matt. 21:21, 22) ~ Ernest Holmes

"THE THINGS WE NEED, WE ARE TO ASK FOR - and WE ARE TO BELIEVE THAT WE RECEIVE THEM!  This plumbs the very depths of the metaphysical and psychological law of our being, and explains the possibility of an answer to our prayers.

When we pray we are to believe that we have.  We are surrounded by a universal law which is creative.  It moves from the thought to the thing.  Unless there is first an image, it cannot move, for there would be nothing for it to move toward.  Prayer, which is a mental act, must accept its own answer as an image in mind, before the divine energies can play upon it and make it productive.

As we must plant a seed before we can reap a harvest, so we must believe before our prayers can be answered.  Prayer should reach a point of acceptance, an unqualified and undisputed place of agreement.  Let us take the mental images of our desires to the bosom of the Creative Life, and here make them known by impressing them upon It with positive belief.  If we do this, our prayers will be answered.

But let us remember that true prayer is always universal.  There can be no good to us alone, only as that good is for all.  This does not mean that we are to refrain from asking what we desire, but that we should wish only for that which is good.  For instance, it is good to have a home; it is good for all people to have homes while here on earth; it is right to ask for one, but it would not be right to ask for one belonging to another.

If we wish to pray for a home, we should take the idea of a house with us into the silence and meditate upon its actual being.  We should believe that we have and own a home, but we should leave the idea free to fulfill itself, without any definite choosing of how, where, why or when.  In this way, we pray aright and when we so pray, we pray effectively.  God wills us to have everything.  As we express life, we fulfill God's law of abundance, but we do this only as we realize that there is good enough to go around - only as we know that all of God's gifts are given as freely and fully as the air and the sunshine...alike to all.

The Two Great Commandments (Matt. 22:36-41)

The two great commandments are to love God and our brother man.  On these hang all the law and the prophets.  Love is a complete unity with life, and we cannot enter this state unless we are in unity with all that lives, for all life is One.  To love God alone is not enough, for this would exclude our fellowman.  To love our fellowman alone is not sufficient, for this would be too limited a concept of God.

When we realize that God and man are One and not two, we shall love both.  We shall love man as an expression of God, and God as the Life Principle in all.

From this teaching, we are not to suppose that we are to love that in each other which does not savor of right, we are to love the right alone.  We are to look for God in each other and love this God, forgetting all else.  But would this compel us to accept from people that which is not good?  Of course not!  It is not necessary for one to make a doormat of himself in proving that God is love, for this would be like suffering for righteousness' sake, which is always a mistake.

We should be wise in the ways of the world, as well as imbued with Divine wisdom.  We are not to mistake a counterfeit for the real, nor accept every man's doctrine lest we disagree.  The Truth is positive but non-combative; It is sure of Itself, but never argumentative.  It loves sincerity and abhors deceit.  Above all else, the Truth is wise, It represents the All-seeing Eye, from which nothing can be hidden.  The student of Truth will receive all that comes in the name of the Lord, that is, all that is of the Truth; all else will fall by its own weight.

History Proves the Reality of Truth (Matt. 26:52)

As we glance over the pages of history, this saying of Jesus stands sure and true:  "...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."  Those nations who have risen by the sword have fallen among the ruins of their own false hopes.  History has proven that strife begets strife, that the way of the transgressor is hard.

In international strife, all nations are beaten, in so far as they have taken up the sword in hate, avarice or lust.  We do not recognize this apparent power which lasts for a day, for it is but a false gesture, defeating its own purpose as falseness ever must.

Jesus speaking from the viewpoint of Eternal Truth, said that all who take the sword shall perish with it.  THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THE BEST TO THE WORLD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BEST REMEMBERED BY IT, AND MOST LOVED THROUGHOUT THE AGES.  If we attempt to measure existence from this short span of life, it would not be explained, and we should find no real answer to life itself.  Hate begets hate and strife produces strife.  Love alone overcomes all and justifies the eternity of her dominion.

God Turns to Us as We Turn to Him (Luke 15)

The parable of the Prodigal Son constitutes one of the greatest spiritual lessons in the history of religious education.  It is an attempt, on the part of the Great Teacher, to show that God turns to us as we turn to Him; that there is a reciprocal action between the Universal and the individual mind; that the Spirit is ready to help us whenever we turn to It.

The greatest lesson we have to learn is the unity of Love and Law; the necessity of law in shaping a divine individuality and the necessity of experience in awakening to this divine individuality.

God is Love and God is Law; the Love of God is omnipresent and the Law of God is omnipresent.  The Love of God is the Divine givingness: the eternal outpouring of Spirit through Its creation.  The Law of God is the Law of Cause and Effect, which says that we can have only what we take.  Since this taking is a mental and spiritual (as well as physical) act, we can take only that to which we are receptive.  Jesus taught that it is done unto us as we really believe.  "The thought is ever father to the act.""

May 25 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Medium of Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"The thing to remember is, that THERE IS JUST ONE SUBJECTIVE MIND IN THE UNIVERSE.  This is a point that people often do not realize, and because they do not, they cannot see how a person may be treated without touching him, or that a person at a distance can be helped through absent treatment.  If there is but One Subjective Mind in the Universe (and we have already learned the meaning and nature of Subjective Mind:  It is the deductive, receptive, plastic, neutral, impersonal and creative, It is the Stuff from which all things are made) you can impress upon It a certain image of thought, or a certain process of realization, and you will get a result, for It is the Actor.

When we speak of every thought dropped into the Creative Medium, do we think of God's thought and man's thought as the same?  We think of each as thought; but, whereas man thinks both inductively and deductively, God thinks only deductively.

God is not conscious of matter as we know it.  God is conscious of form but not of size.  God is conscious of manifestation but not of space.  God is conscious of outline but not of limitation.  God is conscious in many forms, but not as division.

There is a great difference between conscious and unconscious thought for trained thought is far more powerful than untrained.  If this were not true, the thoughts of the metaphysical practitioner could not neutralize those which caused his patient to be sick.  Even a small amount of right thought puts to rout that which is wrong.

We have learned that Subjective Mind can deduce only, that It cannot of Itself initiate anything; but this does not mean that It is unintelligent.  We must be very careful not to labor under the delusion that because Subjective Mind cannot reason, It is unintelligent, for It is infinitely more intelligent than our present state of conscious mind, but is, nevertheless, controlled by it.

If our subjective consciousness were always clear, if it never received false impressions, the Spirit would always flow to the point of objectivity, and we would never make mistakes, would never be sick, poor or unhappy.

The Universe being deductive only, cannot refuse man anything.   The very force which makes us sick can heal us, the force which makes us poor can enrich us, and the power which makes us miserable can make us happy.  If this were not true, there would be a duality in the Universe and this is impossible.

You do not need to look for a law of health as opposed to a law of disease, for there is only One Law.  This gives a great sense of relief since it means that THERE IS NO POWER TO OPPOSE A TREATMENT.  We are bound by our very freedom, our free will binds us, but as free will creates the conditions which externally limits us, so it can uncreate or dissolve them.  Instead of saying, "Here is a sick man to heal, and I shall have to work hard on this case," we should realize that there is nothing but Spirit in the Universe and, therefore, say, "I am going to conceive of this man as being Spirit, and the same power which made him sick will heal him."

People often say:  "It must be a drain on one to treat so many people.  I should think the practitioner's will-power would become exhausted."  This is a misconception.  Our reference to "free will" means merely the matter of self-choosing, the matter of deciding what we shall think.  WILL-POWER HAS NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH MENTAL HEALING!  Its use would imply that the practitioner exercises a personal thought force over his patient.  This is a false suggestion, which is always some form of hypnotism.  Knowing our Oneness with God and the Creative Medium, Law, our treatments are free from any thought of control.

All thoughts of doubt concerning one's ability to heal, come from the belief that it is the personality and not the Law which does the healing.  Never say:  "I am not good enough to heal," or "I do not know enough to heal."  Know that you are dealing with the Law, It is the Actor.  Recognize all such arguments as some form of suggestion, and refuse to let them operate through you.  YOU CAN HEAL, but you must know that you can!  The day will come, and is rapidly approaching, when the entire world will believe the truth, because of the great neutralizing power which right thought is exercising upon the race consciousness.

The reason people do not get better results is that they do not understand that Principle works independently...the Truth demonstrates Itself!"

May 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Who Would Save His Life Shall Lose It ~ Ernest Holmes
(Based on Matt. 16:24-27) 

"This is another of those mystical sayings of Jesus which must be carefully considered before accepting it.  Does God demand that we give up everything if we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?  Of course not!  To suppose that God wills us to be limited, is to contradict the Divine Nature.  God's only will is to Be, and for all to Be, for God can conceive of man only as part of Himself.

It must be, then, that what we are to lose is the sense of living apart from Life.  We find ourselves in the Divine Idea, immersed in the Infinite Godhead, one with the Perfect Whole.  But should we think that we, of ourselves, without this relationship rightly established, can be, or can express, then we cut the cord that binds us to the main power line and lose what little power we have.

We are powerful only as we unite with Power.  We are weak when we desert this Power.  Not because God is jealous, but because this is the way things work.  The idea of a false renunciation - of the given up of all pleasure and benefits in this life - is not even suggested in the teachings of Jesus.  Self-effacement, the neglect of the body, the belief that we must be unhappy and poor in order to serve the Truth, all these are immature ideas which deny the divine birthright of the soul, the incarnated Spirit of the Most High within us.

When we are willing to lose a personal sense of responsibility; when we let go of the thought of isolation and claim a real unity with God, then we lose the personal and find the Universal.  But remember, as the greater always includes the lesser, so the Universal always includes the personal, which is a personification of Itself.

Man is to lose the small estimate of himself, the isolated person, and is to find the greater reality, the incarnated and real ego.  The image of the Father cannot be defaced nor can all the wit or the sham of man really obliterate this image.  The Eternal Light is God, and this Light illumines the pathway of the personal when there are no obstructions.

Who leans on the Truth, throwing all - with an undivided attention - on the scales of Reality, will find them balanced rightly, through the great law of compensation, which weighs and measures everything exactly as it is.

Fasting and Prayer ( Matt. 17:21)

We are not to suppose that the physical act of fasting, or the metaphysical act of prayer, can move the throne of grace to a kindness which is otherwise withheld.  God plays no favorites and the Law of the Universe cannot reverse Its own nature.  Fasting and prayer often do bring our thought closer to Reality, not because of the fasting or the prayer, but because they open up greater fields of receptivity in our minds.

If one wishes to embody an ideal and is willing to give up all else to attain it, then he is fasting and praying!  He is sublimating an old idea with a new and a better one. If he is willing to abstain from the old and cling to the new, then he is giving greater reality to the new, and in this way contacting the Law from a more affirmative angle.

A steadfast determination to attain some purpose, the letting go of all that opposes it, a complete reliance upon the Law of Good, and an unqualified trust in Spirit - this is true fasting and real prayer.

The scientist, in profound thought and meditation before his problem - deserting all to solve it - is praying a true prayer to the principle of his science.  The poet, waiting in the silence of his own soul for inspiration, is praying that he may invoke the spirit of poetry to his listening ear.  The sculptor, chiseling at his marble, contemplating the beauty to be brought forth, prays to his god of art; and the farmer, kneeling beside his cabbage patch, trusts in the natural Law of Good to bring his seed to harvest.

We live in a fasting and praying world, but often we do not read the signs aright.  We are too used to the outward sign to realize its inward significance.  The world is much better than it knows or feels itself to be.

Healing the Lunatic (Matt. 17:14-19)

What majesty and might do we see in the calm words of Jesus!  "Bring him hither to me."  No doubt is here, no sense of approaching failure, no lack of trust in the perfect Law which governs all.  "And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him."

Surely this lesson should teach us that evil is but an obsession and - from the standpoint of eternal Reality - a complete illusion.  Could we cast out evil from our thought if evil were a real entity or had actual power?  The answer is self-evident, we could not.  Evil flees before Reality and to the mind which knows it, evil is not."

May 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

Ernest Holmes

The Word of Power

My Word is a Word of Power, for I know that it is the Word of the Great God within me.

My Word shall accomplish and prosper, and shall do good unto all who call upon my name.

My Word is a tower of strength and cannot be denied.

It is complete and perfect here and now.

My Word is the Word of God.

My word is the word of God.

The Unassailable Truth and the Irresistible Word

The Truth within me is unassailable, and the Power of the Word is irresistible.

I can even now feel that my Word has gone forth with Power and Reality, and that it will accomplish that purpose for which it was created.

Limitless is its Power and wonderful are its works.

It can be nothing less than the Almighty working in and through me.

I will let this Word of the Spirit go forth from my mouth, and heal and bless the world.

It shall be as a strong tower unto all who call upon it.

The Truth is Complete and Perfect, and is within me now.

My Word is complete and perfect, now.