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diff --git a/10390-h/10390-h.htm b/10390-h/10390-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..100a7e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10390-h/10390-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2890 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, by Thomas Troward</title> + <style type="text/css"> + + body + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + p + {text-align: justify;} + + blockquote + {text-align: justify;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 + {text-align: center;} + + hr + {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + hr.full + {width: 100%;} + + html>body hr + {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + + hr.full + {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full + {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + + pre + {font-size: 0.7em; color: #000; background-color: #FFF;} + + .poetry + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 0%; + text-align: left;} + + .footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em;} + + .index + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: center;} + + .figure + {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; + text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;} + .figure img + {border: none;} + + span.rightnote + {position: absolute; left: 92%; right: 1%; + font-size: 0.7em; border-bottom: solid 1px;} + + span.leftnote + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 92%; + font-size: 0.7em; border-bottom: solid 1px;} + + span.linenum + {float:right; + text-align: right; font-size: 0.7em;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10390 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, by +Thomas Troward</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> + +<h1><i>The</i></h1> <h1>EDINBURGH LECTURES</h1> <h1>ON MENTAL SCIENCE</h1> + +<h2>BY</h2> <h1>THOMAS TROWARD</h1> <h2>LATE DIVISIONAL JUDGE, PUNJAB</h2> + +<h3>1909</h3> + + +<hr /> + +<p>THE WRITER AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS LITTLE VOLUME TO HIS WIFE</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h1>FOREWORD.</h1> + + +<p>This book contains the substance of a course of lectures recently given +by the writer in the Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh. Its purpose is to +indicate the <i>Natural Principles</i> governing the relation between +Mental Action and Material Conditions, and thus to afford the student an +intelligible starting-point for the practical study of the subject.</p> + +<p>T.T.</p> + +<p>March, 1904.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1>CONTENTS.</h1> + + +<p>I.--<a href="#chap1">SPIRIT AND MATTER.</a></p> + +<p>II.--<a href="#chap2">THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE CONTROLS THE +LOWER</a></p> + +<p>III.--<a href="#chap3">THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT</a></p> + +<p>IV.--<a href="#chap4">SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND</a></p> + +<p>V.--<a href="#chap5">FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND +OBJECTIVE MIND</a></p> + +<p>VI.--<a href="#chap6">THE LAW OF GROWTH</a></p> + +<p>VII.--<a href="#chap7">RECEPTIVITY.</a></p> + +<p>VIII.--<a href="#chap8">RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND +INDIVIDUAL MINDS</a></p> + +<p>IX.--<a href="#chap9">CAUSES AND CONDITIONS</a></p> + +<p>X.--<a href="#chap10">INTUITION</a></p> + +<p>XI.--<a href="#chap11">HEALING</a></p> + +<p>XII.--<a href="#chap12">THE WILL</a></p> + +<p>XIII.--<a href="#chap13">IN TOUCH WITH SUBCONSCIOUS MIND</a></p> + +<p>XIV.--<a href="#chap14">THE BODY</a></p> + +<p>XV.--<a href="#chap15">THE SOUL</a></p> + +<p>XVI.--<a href="#chap16">THE SPIRIT</a></p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap1">I.</a></h1> + +<h2>SPIRIT AND MATTER.</h2> + + +<p>In commencing a course of lectures on Mental Science, it is somewhat +difficult for the lecturer to fix upon the best method of opening the +subject. It can be approached from many sides, each with some peculiar +advantage of its own; but, after careful deliberation, it appears to me +that, for the purpose of the present course, no better starting-point could +be selected than the relation between Spirit and Matter. I select this +starting-point because the distinction--or what we believe to be +such--between them is one with which we are so familiar that I can safely +assume its recognition by everybody; and I may, therefore, at once state +this distinction by using the adjectives which we habitually apply as +expressing the natural opposition between the two--<i>living</i> spirit and +<i>dead</i> matter. These terms express our current impression of the +opposition between spirit and matter with sufficient accuracy, and +considered only from the point of view of outward appearances this +impression is no doubt correct. The general consensus of mankind is right +in trusting the evidence of our senses, and any system which tells us that +we are not to do so will never obtain a permanent footing in a sane and +healthy community. There is nothing wrong in the evidence conveyed to a +healthy mind by the senses of a healthy body, but the point where error +creeps in is when we come to judge of the meaning of this testimony. We are +accustomed to judge only by external appearances and by certain limited +significances which we attach to words; but when we begin to enquire into +the real meaning of our words and to analyse the causes which give rise to +the appearances, we find our old notions gradually falling off from us, +until at last we wake up to the fact that we are living in an entirely +different world to that we formerly recognized. The old limited mode of +thought has imperceptibly slipped away, and we discover that we have +stepped out into a new order of things where all is liberty and life. This +is the work of an enlightened intelligence resulting from persistent +determination to discover what truth really is irrespective of any +preconceived notions from whatever source derived, the determination to +think honestly for ourselves instead of endeavouring to get our thinking +done for us. Let us then commence by enquiring what we really mean by the +livingness which we attribute to spirit and the deadness which we attribute +to matter.</p> + +<p>At first we may be disposed to say that livingness consists in the power +of motion and deadness in its absence; but a little enquiry into the most +recent researches of science will soon show us that this distinction does +not go deep enough. It is now one of the fully-established facts of +physical science that no atom of what we call "dead matter" is without +motion. On the table before me lies a solid lump of steel, but in the light +of up-to-date science I know that the atoms of that seemingly inert mass +are vibrating with the most intense energy, continually dashing hither and +thither, impinging upon and rebounding from one another, or circling round +like miniature solar systems, with a ceaseless rapidity whose complex +activity is enough to bewilder the imagination. The mass, as a mass, may +lie inert upon the table; but so far from being destitute of the element of +motion it is the abode of the never-tiring energy moving the particles with +a swiftness to which the speed of an express train is as nothing. It is, +therefore, not the mere fact of motion that is at the root of the +distinction which we draw instinctively between spirit and matter; we must +go deeper than that. The solution of the problem will never be found by +comparing Life with what we call deadness, and the reason for this will +become apparent later on; but the true key is to be found by comparing one +degree of livingness with another. There is, of course, one sense in which +the quality of livingness does not admit of degrees; but there is another +sense in which it is entirely a question of degree. We have no doubt as to +the livingness of a plant, but we realize that it is something very +different from the livingness of an animal. Again, what average boy would +not prefer a fox-terrier to a goldfish for a pet? Or, again, why is it that +the boy himself is an advance upon the dog? The plant, the fish, the dog, +and the boy are all equally <i>alive</i>; but there is a difference in the +quality of their livingness about which no one can have any doubt, and no +one would hesitate to say that this difference is in the degree of +intelligence. In whatever way we turn the subject we shall always find that +what we call the "livingness" of any individual life is ultimately measured +by its intelligence. It is the possession of greater intelligence that +places the animal higher in the scale of being than the plant, the man +higher than the animal, the intellectual man higher than the savage. The +increased intelligence calls into activity modes of motion of a higher +order corresponding to itself. The higher the intelligence, the more +completely the mode of motion is under its control: and as we descend in +the scale of intelligence, the descent is marked by a corresponding +increase in <i>automatic</i> motion not subject to the control of a +self-conscious intelligence. This descent is gradual from the expanded +self-recognition of the highest human personality to that lowest order of +visible forms which we speak of as "things," and from which +self-recognition is entirely absent.</p> + +<p>We see, then, that the livingness of Life consists in intelligence--in +other words, in the power of Thought; and we may therefore say that the +distinctive quality of spirit is Thought, and, as the opposite to this, we +may say that the distinctive quality of matter is Form. We cannot conceive +of matter without form. Some form there must be, even though invisible to +the physical eye; for matter, to be matter at all, must occupy space, and +to occupy any particular space necessarily implies a corresponding form. +For these reasons we may lay it down as a fundamental proposition that the +distinctive quality of spirit is Thought and the distinctive quality of +matter is Form. This is a radical distinction from which important +consequences follow, and should, therefore, be carefully noted by the +student.</p> + +<p>Form implies extension in space and also limitation within certain +boundaries. Thought implies neither. When, therefore, we think of Life as +existing in any particular <i>form</i> we associate it with the idea of +extension in space, so that an elephant may be said to consist of a vastly +larger amount of living substance than a mouse. But if we think of Life as +the fact of livingness we do not associate it with any idea of extension, +and we at once realize that the mouse is quite as much alive as the +elephant, notwithstanding the difference in size. The important point of +this distinction is that if we can conceive of anything as entirely devoid +of the element of extension in space, it must be present in its entire +totality anywhere and everywhere--that is to say, at every point of space +simultaneously. The scientific definition of time is that it is the period +occupied by a body in passing from one given point in space to another, +and, therefore, according to this definition, when there is no space there +can be no time; and hence that conception of spirit which realizes it as +devoid of the element of space must realize it as being devoid of the +element of time also; and we therefore find that the conception of spirit +as pure Thought, and not as concrete Form, is the conception of it as +subsisting perfectly independently of the elements of time and space. From +this it follows that if the idea of anything is conceived as existing on +this level it can only represent that thing as being actually present here +and now. In this view of things nothing can be remote from us either in +time or space: either the idea is entirely dissipated or it exists as an +actual present entity, and not as something that <i>shall</i> be in the +future, for where there is no sequence in time there can be no future. +Similarly where there is no space there can be no conception of anything as +being at a distance from us. When the elements of time and space are +eliminated all our ideas of things must necessarily be as subsisting in a +universal here and an everlasting now. This is, no doubt, a highly abstract +conception, but I would ask the student to endeavour to grasp it +thoroughly, since it is of vital importance in the practical application of +Mental Science, as will appear further on.</p> + +<p>The opposite conception is that of things expressing themselves through +conditions of time and space and thus establishing a variety of +<i>relations</i> to other things, as of bulk, distance, and direction, or +of sequence in time. These two conceptions are respectively the conception +of the abstract and the concrete, of the unconditioned and the conditioned, +of the absolute and the relative. They are not opposed to each other in the +sense of incompatibility, but are each the complement of the other, and the +only reality is in the combination of the two. The error of the extreme +idealist is in endeavouring to realize the absolute without the relative, +and the error of the extreme materialist is in endeavouring to realize the +relative without the absolute. On the one side the mistake is in trying to +realize an inside without an outside, and on the other in trying to realize +an outside without an inside; both are necessary to the formation of a +substantial entity.</p> + + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap2">II.</a></h1> + +<h2>THE HIGHER MODE OF INTELLIGENCE CONTROLS THE LOWER.</h2> + + +<p>We have seen that the descent from personality, as we know it in +ourselves, to matter, as we know it under what we call inanimate forms, is +a gradual descent in the scale of intelligence from that mode of being +which is able to realize its own will-power as a capacity for originating +new trains of causation to that mode of being which is incapable of +recognizing itself at all. The higher the grade of life, the higher the +intelligence; from which it follows that the supreme principle of Life must +also be the ultimate principle of intelligence. This is clearly +demonstrated by the grand natural order of the universe. In the light of +modern science the principle of evolution is familiar to us all, and the +accurate adjustment existing between all parts of the cosmic scheme is too +self-evident to need insisting upon. Every advance in science consists in +discovering new subtleties of connection in this magnificent universal +order, which already exists and only needs our recognition to bring it into +practical use. If, then, the highest work of the greatest minds consists in +nothing else than the recognition of an already existing order, there is no +getting away from the conclusion that a paramount intelligence must be +inherent in the Life-Principle, which manifests itself <i>as</i> this +order; and thus we see that there must be a great cosmic intelligence +underlying the totality of things.</p> + +<p>The physical history of our planet shows us first an incandescent nebula +dispersed over vast infinitudes of space; later this condenses into a +central sun surrounded by a family of glowing planets hardly yet +consolidated from the plastic primordial matter; then succeed untold +millenniums of slow geological formation; an earth peopled by the lowest +forms of life, whether vegetable or animal; from which crude beginnings a +majestic, unceasing, unhurried, forward movement brings things stage by +stage to the condition in which we know them now. Looking at this steady +progression it is clear that, however we may conceive the nature of the +evolutionary principle, it unerringly provides for the continual advance of +the race. But it does this by creating such numbers of each kind that, +after allowing a wide margin for all possible accidents to individuals, the +race shall still continue:--</p> + +<blockquote> +"So careful of the type it seems<br /> +So careless of the single life."<br /> +</blockquote> + +<p>In short, we may say that the cosmic intelligence works by a Law of +Averages which allows a wide margin of accident and failure to the +individual.</p> + +<p>But the progress towards higher intelligence is always in the direction +of narrowing down this margin of accident and taking the individual more +and more out of the law of averages, and substituting the law of individual +selection. In ordinary scientific language this is the survival of the +fittest. The reproduction of fish is on a scale that would choke the sea +with them if every individual survived; but the margin of destruction is +correspondingly enormous, and thus the law of averages simply keeps up the +normal proportion of the race. But at the other end of the scale, +reproduction is by no means thus enormously in excess of survival. True, +there is ample margin of accident and disease cutting off numbers of human +beings before they have gone through the average duration of life, but +still it is on a very different scale from the premature destruction of +hundreds of thousands as against the survival of one. It may, therefore, be +taken as an established fact that in proportion as intelligence advances +the individual ceases to be subject to a mere law of averages and has a +continually increasing power of controlling the conditions of his own +survival.</p> + +<p>We see, therefore, that there is a marked distinction between the cosmic +intelligence and the individual intelligence, and that the factor which +differentiates the latter from the former is the presence of +<i>individual</i> volition. Now the business of Mental Science is to +ascertain the relation of this individual power of volition to the great +cosmic law which provides for the maintenance and advancement of the race; +and the point to be carefully noted is that the power of individual +volition is itself the outcome of the cosmic evolutionary principle at the +point where it reaches its highest level. The effort of Nature has always +been upwards from the time when only the lowest forms of life peopled the +globe, and it has now culminated in the production of a being with a mind +capable of abstract reasoning and a brain fitted to be the physical +instrument of such a mind. At this stage the all-creating Life-principle +reproduces itself in a form capable of recognizing the working of the +evolutionary law, and the unity and continuity of purpose running through +the whole progression until now indicates, beyond a doubt, that the place +of such a being in the universal scheme must be to introduce the operation +of that factor which, up to this point, has been, conspicuous by its +absence--the factor, namely, of intelligent individual volition. The +evolution which has brought us up to this standpoint has worked by a cosmic +law of averages; it has been a process in which the individual himself has +not taken a conscious part. But because he is what he is, and leads the van +of the evolutionary procession, if man is to evolve further, it can now +only be by his own conscious co-operation with the law which has brought +him up to the standpoint where he is able to realize that such a law +exists. His evolution in the future must be by conscious participation in +the great work, and this can only be effected by his own individual +intelligence and effort. It is a process of intelligent growth. No one else +can grow for us: we must each grow for ourselves; and this intelligent +growth consists in our increasing recognition of the universal law, which +has brought us as far as we have yet got, and of our own individual +relation to that law, based upon the fact that we ourselves are the most +advanced product of it. It is a great maxim that Nature obeys us precisely +in proportion as we first obey Nature. Let the electrician try to go +counter to the principle that electricity must always pass from a higher to +a lower potential and he will effect nothing; but let him submit in all +things to this one fundamental law, and he can make whatever particular +applications of electrical power he will.</p> + +<p>These considerations show us that what differentiates the higher from +the lower degree of intelligence is the recognition of its own self-hood, +and the more intelligent that recognition is, the greater will be the +power. The lower degree of self-recognition is that which only realizes +itself as an entity separate from all other entities, as the <i>ego</i> +distinguished from the <i>non-ego</i>. But the higher degree of +self-recognition is that which, realizing its own spiritual nature, sees in +all other forms, not so much the <i>non-ego</i>, or that which is not +itself, as the <i>alter-ego</i>, or that which is itself in a different +mode of expression. Now, it is this higher degree of self-recognition that +is the power by which the Mental Scientist produces his results. For this +reason it is imperative that he should clearly understand the difference +between Form and Being; that the one is the mode of the relative and, the +mark of subjection to conditions, and that the other is the truth of the +absolute and is that which controls conditions.</p> + +<p>Now this higher recognition of self as an individualization of pure +spirit must of necessity control all modes of spirit which have not yet +reached the same level of self-recognition. These lower modes of spirit are +in bondage to the law of their own being because they do not know the law; +and, therefore, the individual who has attained to this knowledge can +control them through that law. But to understand this we must inquire a +little further into the nature of spirit. I have already shown that the +grand scale of adaptation and adjustment of all parts of the cosmic scheme +to one another exhibits the presence <i>somewhere</i> of a marvellous +intelligence, underlying the whole, and the question is, where is this +intelligence to be found? Ultimately we can only conceive of it as inherent +in some primordial substance which is the root of all those grosser modes +of matter which are known to us, whether visible to the physical eye, or +necessarily inferred by science from their perceptible effects. It is that +power which, in every species and in every individual, becomes that which +that species or individual is; and thus we can only conceive of it as a +self-forming intelligence inherent in the ultimate substance of which each +thing is a particular manifestation. That this primordial substance must be +considered as self-forming by an inherent intelligence abiding in itself +becomes evident from the fact that intelligence is the essential quality of +spirit; and if we were to conceive of the primordial substance as something +apart from spirit, then we should have to postulate some other power which +is neither spirit nor matter, and originates both; but this is only putting +the idea of a self-evolving power a step further back and asserting the +production of a lower grade of undifferentiated spirit by a higher, which +is both a purely gratuitous assumption and a contradiction of any idea we +can form of undifferentiated spirit at all. However far back, therefore, we +may relegate the original starting-point, we cannot avoid the conclusion +that, at that point, spirit contains the primary substance in itself, which +brings us back to the common statement that it made everything out of +nothing. We thus find two factors to the making of all things, Spirit +and--Nothing; and the addition of Nothing to Spirit leaves <i>only</i> +spirit: x + 0 = x.</p> + +<p>From these considerations we see that the ultimate foundation of every +form of matter is spirit, and hence that a universal intelligence subsists +throughout Nature inherent in every one of its manifestations. But this +cryptic intelligence does not belong to the particular <i>form</i> +excepting in the measure in which it is physically fitted for its +concentration into self-recognizing individuality: it lies hidden in that +primordial substance of which the visible form is a grosser manifestation. +This primordial substance is a philosophical necessity, and we can only +picture it to ourselves as something infinitely finer than the atoms which +are themselves a philosophical inference of physical science: still, for +want of a better word, we may conveniently speak of this primary +intelligence inherent in the very substance of things as the Atomic +Intelligence. The term may, perhaps, be open to some objections, but it +will serve our present purpose as distinguishing <i>this</i> mode of +spirit's intelligence from that of the opposite pole, or Individual +Intelligence. This distinction should be carefully noted because it is by +the response of the atomic intelligence to the individual intelligence that +thought-power is able to produce results on the material plane, as in the +cure of disease by mental treatment, and the like. Intelligence manifests +itself by responsiveness, and the whole action of the cosmic mind in +bringing the evolutionary process from its first beginnings up to its +present human stage is nothing else but a continual intelligent response to +the demand which each stage in the progress has made for an adjustment +between itself and its environment. Since, then, we have recognized the +presence of a universal intelligence permeating all things, we must also +recognize a corresponding responsiveness hidden deep down in their nature +and ready to be called into action when appealed to. All mental treatment +depends on this responsiveness of spirit in its lower degrees to higher +degrees of itself. It is here that the difference between the mental +scientist and the uninstructed person comes in; the former knows of this +responsiveness and makes use of it, and the latter cannot use it because he +does not know it.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap3">III</a></h1> + +<h2>THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.</h2> + + +<p>We have now paved the way for understanding what is meant by "the unity +of the spirit." In the first conception of spirit as the underlying origin +of all things we see a universal substance which, at this stage, is not +differentiated into any specific forms. This is not a question of some +bygone time, but subsists at every moment of all time in the +<i>innermost</i> nature of all being; and when we see this, we see that the +division between one specific form and another has below it a deep +essential unity, which acts as the supporter of all the several forms of +individuality arising out of it. And as our thought penetrates deeper into +the nature of this all-producing spiritual substance we see that it cannot +be limited to any one portion of space, but must be limitless as space +itself, and that the idea of any portion of space where it is not is +inconceivable. It is one of those intuitive perceptions from which the +human mind can never get away that this primordial, all-generating living +spirit must be commensurate with infinitude, and we can therefore never +think of it otherwise than as universal or infinite. Now it is a +mathematical truth that the infinite must be a unity. You cannot have two +infinites, for then neither would be infinite, each would be limited by the +other, nor can you split the infinite up into fractions. The infinite is +mathematically essential unity. This is a point on which too much stress +cannot be laid, for there follow from it the most important consequences. +Unity, as such, can be neither multiplied nor divided, for either operation +destroys the unity. By multiplying, we produce a plurality of units of the +same scale as the original; and by dividing, we produce a plurality of +units of a smaller scale; and a plurality of units is not unity but +multiplicity. Therefore if we would penetrate below the outward nature of +the individual to that innermost principle of his being from which his +individuality takes its rise, we can do so only by passing beyond the +conception of individual existence into that of the unity of universal +being. This may appear to be a merely philosophical abstraction, but the +student who would produce practical results must realize that these +abstract generalizations are the foundation of the practical work he is +going to do.</p> + +<p>Now the great fact to be recognized about a unity is that, +<i>because</i> it is a single unit, wherever it is at all the <i>whole</i> +of it must be. The moment we allow our mind to wander off to the idea of +extension in space and say that one part of the unit is here and another +there, we have descended from the idea of unity into that of parts or +fractions of a single unit, which is to pass into the idea of a +multiplicity of smaller units, and in that case we are dealing with the +relative, or the relation subsisting between two or more entities which are +therefore <i>limited by each other</i>, and so have passed out of the +region of simple unity which is the absolute. It is, therefore, a +mathematical necessity that, because the originating Life-principle is +infinite, it is a single unit, and consequently, wherever it is at all, the +<i>whole</i> of it must be present. But because it is <i>infinite</i>, or +limitless, it is everywhere, and therefore it follows that the <i>whole</i> +of spirit must be present at every point in space at the same moment. +Spirit is thus omnipresent <i>in its entirety</i>, and it is accordingly +logically correct that at every moment of time <i>all</i> spirit is +concentrated at any point in space that we may choose to fix our thought +upon. This is the fundamental fact of all being, and it is for this reason +that I have prepared the way for it by laying down the relation between +spirit and matter as that between idea and form, on the one hand the +absolute from which the elements of time and space are entirely absent, and +on the other the relative which is entirely dependent on those elements. +This great fact is that pure spirit continually subsists in the absolute, +whether in a corporeal body or not; and from it all the phenomena of being +flow, whether on the mental plane or the physical. The knowledge of this +fact regarding spirit is the basis of all conscious spiritual operation, +and therefore in proportion to our increasing recognition of it our power +of producing outward visible results by the action of our thought will +grow. The whole is greater than its part, and therefore, if, by our +recognition of this unity, we can concentrate <i>all</i> spirit into any +given point at any moment, we thereby include any individualization of it +that we may wish to deal with. The practical importance of this conclusion +is too obvious to need enlarging upon.</p> + +<p>Pure spirit is the Life-principle considered apart from the matrix in +which it takes relation to time and space in a particular form. In this +aspect it is pure intelligence undifferentiated into individuality. As pure +intelligence it is infinite responsiveness and susceptibility. As devoid of +relation to time and space it is devoid of individual personality. It is, +therefore, in this aspect a purely impersonal element upon which, by reason +of its inherent intelligence and susceptibility, we can impress any +recognition of personality that we will. These are the great facts that the +mental scientist works with, and the student will do well to ponder deeply +on their significance and on the responsibilities which their realization +must necessarily carry with it.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap4">IV.</a></h1> + +<h2>SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.</h2> + + +<p>Up to this point it has been necessary to lay the foundations of the +science by the statement of highly abstract general principles which we +have reached by purely metaphysical reasoning. We now pass on to the +consideration of certain natural laws which have been established by a long +series of experiments and observations, the full meaning and importance of +which will become clear when we see their application to the general +principles which have hitherto occupied our attention. The phenomena of +hypnosis are now so fully recognized as established scientific facts that +it is quite superfluous to discuss the question of their credibility. Two +great medical schools have been founded upon them, and in some countries +they have become the subject of special legislation. The question before us +at the present day is, not as to the credibility of the facts, but as to +the proper inferences to be drawn from them, and a correct apprehension of +these inferences is one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist, +for it confirms the conclusions of purely <i>a priori</i> reasoning by an +array of experimental instances which places the correctness of those +conclusions beyond doubt.</p> + +<p>The great truth which the science of hypnotism has brought to light is +the dual nature of the human mind. Much conflict exists between different +writers as to whether this duality results from the presence of two +actually separate minds in the one man, or in the action of the same mind +in the employment of different functions. This is one of those distinctions +without a difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance to the +opening out of truth. A man must be a single individuality to be a man at +all, and, so, the net result is the same whether we conceive of his varied +modes of mental action as proceeding from a set of separate minds strung, +so to speak, on the thread of his one individuality and each adapted to a +particular use, or as varied functions of a single mind: in either case we +are dealing with a single individuality, and how we may picture the +wheel-work of the mental mechanism is merely a question of what picture +will bring the nature of its action home to us most clearly. Therefore, as +a matter of convenience, I shall in these lectures speak of this dual +action as though it proceeded from two minds, an outer and an inner, and +the inner mind we will call the subjective mind and the outer the +objective, by which names the distinction is most frequently indicated in +the literature of the subject.</p> + +<p>A long series of careful experiments by highly-trained observers, some +of them men of world-wide reputation, has fully established certain +remarkable differences between the action of the subjective and that of the +objective mind which may be briefly stated as follows. The subjective mind +is only able to reason <i>deductively</i> and not inductively, while the +objective mind can do both. Deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which +shows why a third proposition must necessarily result if two others are +assumed, but which does not help us to determine whether the two initial +statements are true or not. To determine this is the province of inductive +reasoning which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of +facts. The relation of the two modes of reasoning is that, first by +observing a sufficient number of instances, we inductively reach the +conclusion that a certain principle is of general application, and then we +enter upon the deductive process by assuming the truth of this principle +and determining what result must follow in a particular case on the +hypothesis of its truth. Thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the +assumption of the correctness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with +which it sets out: it is not concerned with the truth or falsity of those +suppositions, but only with the question as to what results must +necessarily follow supposing them to be true. Inductive reasoning; on the +other hand, is the process by which we compare a number of separate +instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise +to them all. Induction proceeds by the comparison of facts, and deduction +by the application of universal principles. Now it is the deductive method +only which is followed by the subjective mind. Innumerable experiments on +persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subjective mind is +utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison which are +necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion, however +false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly logical in +deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every suggestion to +the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it.</p> + +<p>As a consequence of this it follows that the subjective mind is entirely +under the control of the objective mind. With the utmost fidelity it +reproduces and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective +mind impresses upon it; and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be +impressed on the subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well +as by that of its own individuality. This is a most important point, for it +is on this amenability to suggestion by the thought of another that all the +phenomena of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy and the like, +depend. Under the control of the practised hypnotist the very personality +of the subject becomes changed for the time being; he believes himself to +be whatever the operator tells him he is: he is a swimmer breasting the +waves, a bird flying in the air, a soldier in the tumult of battle, an +Indian stealthily tracking his victim: in short, for the time being, he +identifies himself with any personality that is impressed upon him by the +will of the operator, and acts the part with inimitable accuracy. But the +experiments of hypnotism go further than this, and show the existence in +the subjective mind of powers far transcending any exercised by the +objective mind through the medium of the physical senses; powers of +thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, and the like, +all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is brought into the +higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experimental proof of the existence +in ourselves of transcendental faculties the full development and conscious +control of which would place us in a perfectly new sphere of life.</p> + +<p>But it should be noted that the control must be <i>our own</i> and not +that of any external intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it.</p> + +<p>But perhaps the most important fact which hypnotic experiments have +demonstrated is that the subjective mind is the builder of the body. The +subjective entity in the patient is able to diagnose the character of the +disease from which he is suffering and to point out suitable remedies, +indicating a physiological knowledge exceeding that of the most highly +trained physicians, and also a knowledge of the correspondences between +diseased conditions of the bodily organs and the material remedies which +can afford relief. And from this it is but a step further to those numerous +instances in which it entirely dispenses with the use of material remedies +and itself works directly on the organism, so that complete restoration to +health follows as the result of the suggestions of perfect soundness made +by the operator to the patient while in the hypnotic state.</p> + +<p>Now these are facts fully established by hundreds of experiments +conducted by a variety of investigators in different parts of the world, +and from them we may draw two inferences of the highest importance: one, +that the subjective mind is in itself absolutely impersonal, and the other +that it is the builder of the body, or in other words it is the creative +power in the individual. That it is impersonal in itself is shown by its +readiness to assume any personality the hypnotist chooses to impress upon +it; and the unavoidable inference is that its realization of personality +proceeds from its association with the particular objective mind of its own +individuality. Whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it, +that personality it assumes and acts up to; and since it is the builder of +the body it will build up a body in correspondence with the personality +thus impressed upon it. These two laws of the subjective mind form the +foundation of the axiom that our body represents the aggregate of our +beliefs. If our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts of +influences beyond our control, and that this, that, or the other symptom +shows that such an uncontrollable influence is at work upon us, then this +belief is impressed upon the subjective mind, which by the law of its +nature accepts it without question and proceeds to fashion bodily +conditions in accordance with this belief. Again, if our fixed belief is +that certain material remedies are the only means of cure, then we find in +this belief the foundation of all medicine. There is nothing unsound in the +theory of medicine; it is the strictly logical correspondence with the +measure of knowledge which those who rely on it are as yet able to +assimilate, and it acts accurately in accordance with their belief that in +a large number of cases medicine will do good, but also in many instances +it fails. Therefore, for those who have not yet reached a more interior +perception of the law of Nature, the healing agency of medicine is a most +valuable aid to the alleviation of physical maladies. The error to be +combated is not the belief that, in its own way, medicine is capable of +doing good, but the belief that there is no higher or better way.</p> + +<p>Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the subjective mind is +the builder of the body, and that the body is subject to no influences +except those which reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have +to do is to impress <i>this</i> upon the subjective mind and habitually +think of it as a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually +renovating the body by building in strong and healthy material, in the most +complete independence of any influences of any sort, save those of our own +desire impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought. When once +we fully grasp these considerations we shall see that it is just as easy to +externalize healthy conditions of body as the contrary. Practically the +process amounts to a belief in our own power of life; and since this +belief, if it be thoroughly domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a +correspondingly healthy body, we should spare no pains to convince +ourselves that there are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it. To +afford a solid basis for this conviction is the purpose of Mental +Science.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap5">V.</a></h1> + +<h2>FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.</h2> + + +<p>An intelligent consideration of the phenomena of hypnotism will show us +that what we call the hypnotic state is the <i>normal</i> state of the +subjective mind. It <i>always</i> conceives of itself in accordance with +some suggestion conveyed to it, either consciously or unconsciously to the +mode of objective mind which governs it, and it gives rise to corresponding +external results. The abnormal nature of the conditions induced by +experimental hypnotism is in the removal of the normal control held by the +individual's own objective mind over his subjective mind and the +substitution of some other control for it, and thus we may say that the +normal characteristic of the subjective mind is its perpetual action in +accordance with some sort of suggestion. It becomes therefore a question of +the highest importance to determine in every case what the nature of the +suggestion shall be and from what source it shall proceed; but before +considering the sources of suggestion we must realize more fully the place +taken by subjective mind in the order of Nature.</p> + +<p>If the student has followed what has been said regarding the presence of +intelligent spirit pervading all space and permeating all matter, he will +now have little difficulty in recognizing this all-pervading spirit as +universal subjective mind. That it cannot <i>as universal mind</i> have the +qualities of objective mind is very obvious. The universal mind is the +creative power throughout Nature; and as the originating power it must +first give rise to the various <i>forms</i> in which objective mind +recognizes its own individuality, before these individual minds can re-act +upon it; and hence, as pure spirit or <i>first cause</i>, it cannot +possibly be anything else than subjective mind; and the fact which has been +abundantly proved by experiment that the subjective mind is the builder of +the body shows us that the power of creating by growth from within is the +essential characteristic of the subjective mind. Hence, both from +experiment and from <i>a priori</i> reasoning, we may say that where-ever +we find creative power at work there we are in the presence of subjective +mind, whether it be working on the grand scale of the cosmos, or on the +miniature scale of the individual. We may therefore lay it down as a +principle that the universal all-permeating intelligence, which has been +considered in the second and third sections, is purely subjective mind, and +therefore follows the law of subjective mind, namely that it is amenable to +any suggestion, and will carry out any suggestion that is impressed upon it +to its most rigorously logical consequences. The incalculable importance of +this truth may not perhaps strike the student at first sight, but a little +consideration will show him the enormous possibilities that are stored up +in it, and in the concluding section I shall briefly touch upon the very +serious conclusions resulting from it. For the present it will be +sufficient to realize that the subjective mind in ourselves is <i>the +same</i> subjective mind which is at work throughout the universe giving +rise to the infinitude of natural forms with which we are surrounded, and +in like manner giving rise <i>to ourselves also</i>. It may be called the +supporter of our individuality; and we may loosely speak of our individual +subjective mind as our personal share in the universal mind. This, of +course, does not imply the splitting up of the universal mind into +fractions, and it is to avoid this error that I have discussed the +essential unity of spirit in the third section, but in order to avoid too +highly abstract conceptions in the present stage of the student's progress +we may conveniently employ the idea of a personal share in the universal +subjective mind.</p> + +<p>To realize our individual subjective mind in this manner will help us to +get over the great metaphysical difficulty which meets us in our endeavour +to make conscious use of first cause, in other words to create external +results by the power of our own thought. Ultimately there can be only one +first cause which is the universal mind, but because it is universal it +cannot, <i>as universal</i>, act on the plane of the individual and +particular. For it to do so would be for it to cease to be universal and +therefore cease to be the creative power which we wish to employ. On the +other hand, the fact that we are working for a specific definite object +implies our intention to use this universal power in application to a +particular purpose, and thus we find ourselves involved in the paradox of +seeking to make the universal act on the plane of the particular. We want +to effect a junction between the two extremes of the scale of Nature, the +innermost creative spirit and a particular external form. Between these two +is a great gulf, and the question is how is it to be bridged over. It is +here, then, that the conception of our individual subjective mind as our +personal share in the universal subjective mind affords the means of +meeting the difficulty, for on the one hand it is in immediate connection +with the universal mind, and on the other it is immediate connection with +the individual objective, or intellectual mind; and this in its turn is in +immediate connection with the world of externalization, which is +conditioned in time and space; and thus the relation between the subjective +and objective minds in the individual forms the bridge which is needed to +connect the two extremities of the scale.</p> + +<p>The individual subjective mind may therefore be regarded as the organ of +the Absolute in precisely the same way that the objective mind is the organ +of the Relative, and it is in order to regulate our use of these two organs +that it is necessary to understand what the terms "absolute" and "relative" +actually mean. The absolute is that idea of a thing which contemplates it +as existing <i>in itself</i> and not in relation to something else, that is +to say, which contemplates the essence of it; and the relative is that idea +of a thing which contemplates it as related to other things, that is to say +as circumscribed by a certain environment. The absolute is the region of +causes, and the relative is the region of conditions; and hence, if we wish +to control conditions, this can only be done by our thought-power operating +on the plane of the absolute, which it can do only through the medium of +the subjective mind. The conscious use of the creative power of thought +consists in the attainment of the power of Thinking in the Absolute, and +this can only be attained by a clear conception of the interaction between +our different mental functions. For this purpose the student cannot too +strongly impress upon himself that subjective mind, on whatever scale, is +intensely sensitive to suggestion, and as creative power works accurately +to the externalization of that suggestion which is most deeply impressed +upon it. If then, we would take any idea out of the realm of the relative, +where it is limited and restricted by conditions imposed upon it through +surrounding circumstances, and transfer it to the realm of the absolute +where it is not thus limited, a right recognition of our mental +constitution will enable us to do this by a clearly defined method.</p> + +<p>The object of our desire is necessarily first conceived by us as bearing +some relation to existing circumstances, which may, or may not, appear +favourable to it; and what we want to do is to eliminate the element of +contingency and attain something which is certain in itself. To do this is +to work upon the plane of the absolute, and for this purpose we must +endeavour to impress upon our subjective mind the idea of that which we +desire quite apart from any conditions. This separation from the elements +of condition implies the elimination of the idea of <i>time</i>, and +consequently we must think of the thing as already in actual existence. +Unless we do this we are not consciously operating upon the plane of the +absolute, and are therefore not employing the creative power of our +thought. The simplest practical method of gaining the habit of thinking in +this manner is to conceive the existence in the spiritual world of a +spiritual prototype of every existing thing, which becomes the root of the +corresponding external existence. If we thus habituate ourselves to look on +the spiritual prototype as the essential being of the thing, and the +material form as the growth of this prototype into outward expression, then +we shall see that the initial step to the production of any external fact +must be the creation of its spiritual prototype. This prototype, being +purely spiritual, can only be formed by the operation of <i>thought</i>, +and in order to have substance on the spiritual plane it <i>must</i> be +thought of as actually existing there. This conception has been elaborated +by Plato in his doctrine of archetypal ideas, and by Swedenborg in his +doctrine of correspondences; and a still greater teacher has said "All +things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye <i>have</i> received +them, and ye <i>shall</i> receive them." (Mark xi. 24, R.V.) The difference +of the tenses in this passage is remarkable. The speaker bids us first to +believe that our desire <i>has</i> already been fulfilled, that it is a +thing already accomplished, and then its accomplishment <i>will</i> follow +as a thing in the future. This is nothing else than a concise direction for +making use of the creative power of thought by impressing upon the +universal subjective mind the particular thing which we desire as an +already existing fact. In following this direction we are thinking on the +plane of the absolute and eliminating from our minds all consideration of +conditions, which imply limitation and the possibility of adverse +contingencies; and we are thus planting a seed which, if left undisturbed, +will infallibly germinate into external fruition.</p> + +<p>By thus making intelligent use of our subjective mind, we, so to speak, +create a <i>nucleus</i>, which is no sooner created than it begins to +exercise an attractive force, drawing to itself material of a like +character with its own, and if this process is allowed to go on +undisturbed, it will continue until an external form corresponding to the +nature of the nucleus comes out into manifestation on the plane of the +objective and relative. This is the universal method of Nature on every +plane. Some of the most advanced thinkers in modern physical science, in +the endeavour to probe the great mystery of the first origin of the world, +have postulated the formation of what they call "vortex rings" formed from +an infinitely fine primordial substance. They tell us that if such a ring +be once formed on the minutest scale and set rotating, then, since it would +be moving in pure ether and subject to no friction, it must according to +all known laws of physics be indestructible and its motion perpetual. Let +two such rings approach each other, and by the law of attraction, they +would coalesce into a whole, and so on until manifested matter as we +apprehend it with our external senses, is at last formed. Of course no one +has ever seen these rings with the physical eye. They are one of those +abstractions which result if we follow out the observed law of physics and +the unavoidable sequences of mathematics to their necessary consequences. +We cannot account for the things that we <i>can</i> see unless we assume +the existence of other things which we <i>cannot</i>; and the "vortex +theory" is one of these assumptions. This theory has not been put forward +by mental scientists but by purely physical scientists as the ultimate +conclusion to which their researches have led them, and this conclusion is +that all the innumerable forms of Nature have their origin in the +infinitely minute nucleus of the vortex ring, by whatever means the vortex +ring may have received its initial impulse, a question with which physical +science, as such, is not concerned.</p> + +<p>As the vortex theory accounts for the formation of the inorganic world, +so does biology account for the formation of the living organism. That also +has its origin in a primary nucleus which, as soon as it is established, +operates as a centre of attraction for the formation of all those physical +organs of which the perfect individual is composed. The science of +embryology shows that this rule holds good without exception throughout the +whole range of the animal world, including man; and botany shows the same +principle at work throughout the vegetable world. All branches of physical +science demonstrate the fact that every completed manifestation, of +whatever kind and on whatever scale, is started by the establishment of a +nucleus, infinitely small but endowed with an unquenchable energy of +attraction, causing it to steadily increase in power and definiteness of +purpose, until the process of growth is completed and the matured form +stands out as an accomplished fact. Now if this be the universal method of +Nature, there is nothing unnatural in supposing that it must begin its +operation at a stage further back than the formation of the material +nucleus. As soon as that is called into being it begins to operate by the +law of attraction on the material plane; but what is the force which +originates the material nucleus? Let a recent work on physical science give +us the answer; "In its ultimate essence, energy may be incomprehensible by +us except as an exhibition of the direct operation of that which we call +Mind or Will." The quotation is from a course of lectures on "Waves in +Water, Air and Æther," delivered in 1902, at the Royal Institution, +by J. A. Fleming. Here, then, is the testimony of physical science that the +originating energy is Mind or Will; and we are, therefore, not only making +a logical deduction from certain unavoidable intuitions of the human mind, +but are also following on the lines of the most advanced physical science, +when we say that the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed +to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions +necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form. Now the only +action of Mind is Thought; and it is for this reason that by our thoughts +we create corresponding external conditions, because we thereby create the +nucleus which attracts to itself its own correspondences in due order until +the finished work is manifested on the external plane. This is according to +the strictly scientific conception of the universal law of growth; and we +may therefore briefly sum up the whole argument by saying that our thought +of anything forms a spiritual prototype of it, thus constituting a nucleus +or centre of attraction for all conditions necessary to its eventual +externalization by a law of growth inherent in the prototype itself.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap6">VI.</a></h1> + +<h2>THE LAW OF GROWTH.</h2> + + +<p>A CORRECT understanding of the law of growth is of the highest +importance to the student of Mental Science. The great fact to be realized +regarding Nature is that it is natural. We may pervert the order of Nature, +but it will prevail in the long run, returning, as Horace says, by the back +door even though we drive it out with a pitchfork; and the beginning, the +middle, and the end of the law of Nature is the principle of growth from a +vitality inherent in the entity itself. If we realize this from the outset +we shall not undo our own work by endeavouring to <i>force</i> things to +become that which by their own nature they are not. For this reason when +the Bible says that "he who believeth shall not make haste," it is +enunciating a great natural principle that success, depends on our using, +and not opposing, the universal law of growth. No doubt the greater the +vitality we put into the germ, which we have agreed to call the spiritual +prototype, the quicker it will germinate; but this is simply because by a +more realizing conception we put more growing-power into the seed than we +do by a feebler conception. Our mistakes always eventually resolve +themselves into distrusting the law of growth. Either we fancy we can +hasten it by some exertion of our own from <i>without</i>, and are thus led +into hurry and anxiety, not to say sometimes into the employment, of +grievously wrong methods; or else we give up all hope and so deny the +germinating power of the seed we have planted. The result in either case is +the same, for in either case we are in effect forming a fresh spiritual +prototype of an opposite character to our desire, which therefore +neutralizes the one first formed, and disintegrates it and usurps its +place. The law is always the same, that our Thought forms a spiritual +prototype which, if left undisturbed, will reproduce itself in external +circumstances; the only difference is in the sort of prototype we form, and +thus evil is brought to us by precisely the same law as good.</p> + +<p>These considerations will greatly simplify our ideas of life. We have no +longer to consider two forces, but only one, as being the cause of all +things; the difference between good and evil resulting simply from the +direction in which this force is made to flow. It is a universal law that +if we reverse the action of a cause we at the same time reverse the effect. +With the same apparatus we can commence by mechanical motion which will +generate electricity, or we can commence with electricity which will +generate mechanical motion; or to take a simple arithmetical instance: if +10/2 = 5, then 10/5 = 2; and therefore if we once recognize the power of +thought to produce any results at all, we shall see that the law by which +negative thought produces negative results is the same by which positive +thought produces positive results. Therefore all our distrust of the law of +growth, whether shown in the anxious endeavour to bring pressure to bear +from without, or in allowing despair to take the place of cheerful +expectation, is reversing the action of the original cause and consequently +reversing the nature of the results. It is for this reason that the Bible, +which is the most deeply occult of all books, continually lays so much +stress upon the efficiency of faith and the destructive influence of +unbelief; and in like manner, all books on every branch of spiritual +science emphatically warn us against the admission of doubt or fear. They +are the inversion of the principle which builds up, and they are therefore +the principle which pulls down; but the Law itself never changes, and it is +on the unchangeableness of the law that all Mental Science is founded. We +are accustomed to realize the unchangeableness of natural law in our every +day life, and it should therefore not be difficult to realize that the same +unchangeableness of law which obtains on the visible side of nature obtains +on the invisible side as well. The variable factor is, not the law, but our +own volition; and it is by combining this variable factor with the +invariable one that we can produce the various results we desire. The +principle of growth is that of inherent vitality in the seed itself, and +the operations of the gardener have their exact analogue in Mental Science. +We do not <i>put</i> the self-expansive vitality into the seed, but we must +sow it, and we may also, so to speak, water it by quiet concentrated +contemplation of our desire as an actually accomplished fact. But we must +carefully remove from such contemplation any idea of a strenuous effort on +our part to <i>make</i> the seed grow. Its efficacy is in helping to keep +out those negative thoughts of doubt which would plant tares among our +wheat, and therefore, instead of anything of effort, such contemplation +should be accompanied by a feeling of pleasure and restfulness in +foreseeing the certain accomplishment of our desires. This is that making +our requests known to God <i>with thanksgiving</i> which St. Paul +recommends, and it has its reason in that perfect wholeness of the Law of +Being which only needs our recognition of it to be used by us to any extent +we wish.</p> + +<p>Some people possess the power of visualization, or making mental +pictures of things, in a greater degree than others, and by such this +faculty may advantageously be employed to facilitate their realization of +the working of the Law. But those who do not possess this faculty in any +marked degree, need not be discouraged by their want of it, for +visualization is not the only way of realizing that the law is at work on +the invisible plane. Those whose mental bias is towards physical science +should realize this Law of Growth as the creative force throughout all +nature; and those who have a mathematical turn of mind may reflect that all +solids are generated from the movement of a point, which, as our old friend +Euclid tells us, is that which has no parts nor magnitude, and is therefore +as complete an abstraction as any spiritual nucleus could be. To use the +apostolic words, we are dealing with the substance of things not seen, and +we have to attain that habit of mind by which we shall see its reality and +feel that we are mentally manipulating the only substance there ultimately +is, and of which all visible things are only different modes. We must +therefore regard our mental creations as spiritual realities and then +implicitly trust the Law of Growth to do the rest.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap7">VII.</a></h1> + +<h2>RECEPTIVITY.</h2> + + +<p>In order to lay the foundations for practical work, the student must +endeavour to get a clear conception of what is meant by the intelligence of +undifferentiated spirit. We want to grasp the idea of intelligence apart +from individuality, an idea which is rather apt to elude us until we grow +accustomed to it. It is the failure to realize this quality of spirit that +has given rise to all the theological errors that have brought bitterness +into the world and has been prominent amongst the causes which have +retarded the true development of mankind. To accurately convey this +conception in words, is perhaps, impossible, and to attempt definition is +to introduce that very idea of limitation which is our object to avoid. It +is a matter of feeling rather than of definition; yet some endeavour must +be made to indicate the direction in which we must feel for this great +truth if we are to find it. The idea is that of realizing personality +without that selfhood which differentiates one individual from another. "I +am not that other because I am myself"--this is the definition of +individual selfhood; but it necessarily imparts the idea of limitation, +because the recognition of any other individuality at once affirms a point +at which our own individuality ceases and the other begins. Now this mode +of recognition cannot be attributed to the Universal Mind. For it to +recognize a point where itself ceased and something else began would be to +recognize itself as <i>not</i> universal; for the meaning of universality +is the including of <i>all</i> things, and therefore for this intelligence +to recognize anything as being <i>outside itself</i> would be a denial of +its own being. We may therefore say without hesitation that, whatever may +be the nature of its intelligence, it must be entirely devoid of the +element of self-recognition <i>as an individual personality</i> on any +scale whatever. Seen in this light it is at once clear that the originating +all-pervading Spirit is the grand impersonal principle of Life which gives +rise to all the particular manifestations of Nature. Its absolute +impersonalness, in the sense of the entire absence of any consciousness of +<i>individual</i> selfhood, is a point on which it is impossible to insist +too strongly. The attributing of an impossible individuality to the +Universal Mind is one of the two grand errors which we find sapping the +foundations of religion and philosophy in all ages. The other consists in +rushing to the opposite extreme and denying the quality of personal +intelligence to the Universal Mind. The answer to this error remains, as of +old, in the simple question, "He that made the eye shall He not see? He +that planted the ear shall He not hear?"--or to use a popular proverb, "You +cannot get out of a bag more than there is in it;" and consequently the +fact that we ourselves are centres of personal intelligence is proof that +the infinite, from which these centres are concentrated, must be infinite +intelligence, and thus we cannot avoid attributing to it the two factors +which constitute personality, namely, intelligence and volition. We are +therefore brought to the conclusion that this universally diffused essence, +which we might think of as a sort of spiritual protoplasm, must possess all +the qualities of personality without that conscious recognition of self +which constitutes separate individuality: and since the word "personality" +has became so associated in our ordinary talk with the idea of +"individuality" it will perhaps be better to coin a new word, and speak of +the personalness of the Universal Mind as indicating its personal +<i>quality</i>, apart from individuality. We must realize that this +universal spirit permeates all space and all manifested substance, just as +physical scientists tell us that the ether does, and that wherever it is, +there it must carry with it all that it is in its own being; and we shall +then see that we are in the midst of an ocean of undifferentiated yet +intelligent Life, above, below, and all around, and permeating ourselves +both mentally and corporeally, and all other beings as well.</p> + +<p>Gradually as we come to realize the truth of this statement, our eyes +will begin to open to its immense significance. It means that all Nature is +pervaded by an interior personalness, infinite in its potentialities of +intelligence, responsiveness, and power of expression, and only waiting to +be called into activity by our recognition of it. By the terms of its +nature it can respond to us only as we recognize it. If we are at that +intellectual level where we can see nothing but chance governing the world, +then this underlying universal mind will present to us nothing but a +fortuitous confluence of forces without any intelligible order. If we are +sufficiently advanced to see that such a confluence could only produce a +chaos, and not a cosmos, then our conceptions expand to the idea of +universal Law, and we find <i>this</i> to be the nature of the +all-underlying principle. We have made an immense advance from the realm of +mere accident into a world where there are definite principles on which we +can calculate with certainty <i>when we know them</i>. But here is the +crucial point. The laws of the universe are there, but we are ignorant of +them, and only through experience gained by repeated failures can we get +any insight into the laws with which we have to deal. How painful each step +and how slow the progress! Æons upon æons would not suffice to +grasp all the laws of the universe in their totality, not in the visible +world only, but also in the world of the unseen; each failure to know the +true law implies suffering arising from our ignorant breach of it; and +thus, since Nature is infinite, we are met by the paradox that we must in +some way contrive to compass the knowledge of the infinite with our +individual intelligence, and we must perform a pilgrimage along an +unceasing Via Dolorosa beneath the lash of the inexorable Law until we find +the solution to the problem. But it will be asked, May we not go on until +at last we attain the possession of all knowledge? People do not realize +what is meant by "the infinite," or they would not ask such questions. The +infinite is that which is limitless and exhaustless. Imagine the vastest +capacity you will, and having filled it with the infinite, what remains of +the infinite is just as infinite as before. To the mathematician this may +be put very clearly. Raise <i>x</i> to any power you will, and however vast +may be the disparity between it and the lower powers of <i>x</i>, both are +equally incommensurate with <i>x<sup>n</sup>.</i> The universal reign of Law is a +magnificent truth; it is one of the two great pillars of the universe +symbolized by the two pillars that stood at the entrance to Solomon's +temple: it is Jachin, but Jachin must be equilibriated by Boaz.</p> + +<p>It is an enduring truth, which can never be altered, that every +infraction of the Law of Nature must carry its punitive consequences with +it. We can never get beyond the range of cause and effect. There is no +escaping from the law of punishment, except by knowledge. If we know a law +of Nature and work with it, we shall find it our unfailing friend, ever +ready to serve us, and never rebuking us for past failures; but if we +ignorantly or wilfully transgress it, it is our implacable enemy, until we +again become obedient to it; and therefore the only redemption from +perpetual pain and servitude is by a self-expansion which can grasp +infinitude itself. How is this to be accomplished? By our progress to that +kind and degree of intelligence by which we realize the inherent +<i>personalness</i> of the divine all-pervading Life, which is at once the +Law and the Substance of all that is. Well said the Jewish rabbis of old, +"The Law is a Person." When we once realize that the universal Life and the +universal Law are one with the universal Personalness, then we have +established the pillar Boaz as the needed complement to Jachin; and when we +find the common point in which these two unite, we have raised the Royal +Arch through which we may triumphantly enter the Temple. We must dissociate +the Universal Personalness from every conception of individuality. The +universal can never be the individual: that would be a contradiction in +terms. But because the universal personalness is the root of all individual +personalities, it finds its highest expression in response to those who +realize its personal nature. And it is this recognition that solves the +seemingly insoluble paradox. The only way to attain that knowledge of the +Infinite Law which will change the Via Dolorosa into the Path of Joy is to +embody in ourselves a <i>principle</i> of knowledge commensurate with the +infinitude of that which is to be known; and this is accomplished by +realizing that, infinite as the law itself, is a universal Intelligence in +the midst of which we float as in a living ocean. Intelligence without +individual personality, but which, in producing us, concentrates itself +into the personal individualities which we are. What should be the relation +of such an intelligence towards us? Not one of favouritism: not any more +than the Law can it respect one person above another, for itself is the +root and support for each alike. Not one of refusal to our advances; for +without individuality it can have no personal object of its own to conflict +with ours; and since it is itself the origin of all individual +intelligence, it cannot be shut off by inability to understand. By the very +terms of its being, therefore, this infinite, underlying, all-producing +Mind must be ready immediately to respond to all who realize their true +relation to it. As the very principle of Life itself it must be infinitely +susceptible to feeling, and consequently it will reproduce with absolute +accuracy whatever conception of itself we impress upon it; and hence if we +realize the human mind as that stage in the evolution of the cosmic order +at which an individuality has arisen capable of expressing, not merely the +livingness, but also the personalness of the universal underlying spirit, +then we see that its most perfect mode of self-expression must be by +identifying itself with these individual personalities.</p> + +<p>The identification is, of course, limited by the measure of the +individual intelligence, meaning, not merely the intellectual perception of +the sequence of cause and effect, but also that indescribable reciprocity +of <i>feeling</i> by which we instinctively recognize something in another +making them akin to ourselves; and so it is that when we intelligently +realize that the innermost principle of being, must by reason of its +universality, have a common nature with our own, then we have solved the +paradox of universal knowledge, for we have realized our identity of being +with the Universal Mind, which is commensurate with the Universal Law. Thus +we arrive at the truth of St. John's statement, "Ye know all things," only +this knowledge is primarily on the spiritual plane. It is not brought out +into intellectual statement whether needed or not; for it is not in itself +the specific knowledge of particular facts, but it is the undifferentiated +principle of knowledge which we may differentiate in any direction that we +choose. This is a philosophical necessity of the case, for though the +action of the individual mind consists in differentiating the universal +into particular applications, to differentiate the <i>whole</i> universal +would be a contradiction in terms; and so, because we cannot exhaust the +infinite, our possession of it must consist in our power to differentiate +it as the occasion may require, the only limit being that which we +ourselves assign to the manifestation.</p> + +<p>In this way, then, the recognition of the community of +<i>personality</i> between ourselves and the universal undifferentiated +Spirit, which is the root and substance of all things, solves the question +of our release from the iron grasp of an inflexible Law, not by abrogating +the Law, which would mean the annihilation of all things, but by producing +in us an intelligence equal in affinity with the universal Law itself, and +thus enabling us to apprehend and meet the requirements of the Law in each +particular as it arises. In this way the Cosmic Intelligence becomes +individualized, and the individual intelligence becomes universalized; the +two became one, and in proportion as this unity is realized and acted on, +it will be found that the Law, which gives rise to all outward conditions, +whether of body or of circumstances, becomes more and more clearly +understood, and can therefore be more freely made use of, so that by +steady, intelligent endeavour to unfold upon these lines we may reach +degrees of power to which it is impossible to assign any limits. The +student who would understand the rationale of the unfoldment of his own +possibilities must make no mistake here. He must realize that the whole +process is that of bringing the universal within the grasp of the +individual by raising the individual to the level of the universal and not +vice-versa. It is a mathematical truism that you cannot contract the +infinite, and that you <i>can</i> expand the individual; and it is +precisely on these lines that evolution works. The laws of nature cannot be +altered in the least degree; but we can come into such a realization of our +own relation to the universal principle of Law that underlies them as to be +able to press all particular laws, whether of the visible or invisible side +of Nature, into our service and so find ourselves masters of the situation. +This is to be accomplished by knowledge; and the only knowledge which will +effect this purpose in all its measureless immensity is the knowledge of +the personal element in Universal Spirit in its reciprocity to our own +personality. Our recognition of this Spirit must therefore be twofold, as +the principle of necessary sequence, order or Law, and also as the +principle of Intelligence, responsive to our own recognition of it.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap8">VIII.</a></h1> + +<h2>RECIPROCAL ACTION OF THE UNIVERSAL AND INDIVIDUAL MINDS.</h2> + + +<p>It must be admitted that the foregoing considerations bring us to the +borders of theological speculation, but the student must bear in mind that +as a Mental Scientist it is his business to regard even the most exalted +spiritual phenomena from a purely scientific standpoint, which is that of +the working of a universal natural Law. If he thus simply deals with the +facts as he finds them, there is little doubt that the true meaning of many +theological statements will become clear to him: but he will do well to lay +it down as a general rule that it is not necessary either to the use or +understanding of any law, whether on the personal or the impersonal side of +Nature, that we should give a theological explanation of it: although, +therefore, the personal quality inherent in the universal underlying +spirit, which is present in all things, cannot be too strongly insisted +upon, we must remember that in dealing with it we are still dealing with a +purely natural power which reappears at every point with protean variety of +form, whether as person, animal, or thing. In each case what it becomes to +any individual is exactly measured by that individual's recognition of it. +To each and all it bears the relation of supporter of the race, and where +the individual development is incapable of realizing anything more, this is +the limit of the relation; but as the individual's power of recognition +expands, he finds a reciprocal expansion on the part of this intelligent +power which gradually develops into the consciousness of intimate +companionship between the individualized mind and the unindividualized +source of it.</p> + +<p>Now this is exactly the relation which, on ordinary scientific +principles, we should expect to find between the individual and the cosmic +mind, on the supposition that the cosmic mind is subjective mind, and for +reasons already given we can regard it in no other light. As subjective +mind it must reproduce exactly the conception of itself which the objective +mind of the individual, acting through his own subjective mind, impresses +upon it; and at the same time as creative mind, it builds up external facts +in correspondence with this conception. "Quot homines tot sententiæ": +each one externalizes in his outward circumstances precisely his idea of +the Universal Mind; and the man who realizes that by the natural law of +mind he can bring the Universal Mind into perfectly reciprocal action with +its own, will on the one hand make it a source of infinite instruction, and +on the other a source of infinite power. He will thus wisely alternate the +personal and impersonal aspects respectively between his individual mind +and the Universal Mind; when he is seeking for guidance or strength he will +regard his own mind as the impersonal element which is to <i>receive +personality</i> from the superior wisdom and force of the Greater Mind; and +when, on the other hand, he is to give out the stores thus accumulated, he +must reverse the position and consider his own mind as the personal +element, and the Universal Mind as the impersonal, which he can therefore +<i>direct</i> with certainty by impressing his own personal desire upon it. +We need not be staggered at the greatness of this conclusion, for it +follows necessarily from the natural relation between the subjective and +the objective minds; and the only question is whether we will limit our +view to the lower level of the latter, or expand it so as to take in the +limitless possibilities which the subjective mind presents to us.</p> + +<p>I have dealt with this question at some length because it affords the +key to two very important subjects, the Law of Supply and the nature of +Intuition. Students often find it easier to understand how the mind can +influence the body with which it is so intimately associated, than how it +can influence circumstances. If the operation of thought-power were +confined exclusively to the individual mind this difficulty might arise; +but if there is one lesson the student of Mental Science should take to +heart more than another, it is that the action of thought-power is not +limited to a circumscribed individuality. What the individual does is to +<i>give direction</i> to something which is unlimited, to call into action +a force infinitely greater than his own, which because it is in itself +impersonal though intelligent, will receive the impress of his personality, +and can therefore make its influence felt far beyond the limits which bound +the individual's objective perception of the circumstances with which he +has to deal. It is for this reason that I lay so much stress on the +combination of two apparent opposites in the Universal Mind, the union of +intelligence with impersonality. The intelligence not only enables it to +receive the impress of our thought, but also causes it to devise exactly +the right <i>means</i> for bringing it into accomplishment. This is only +the logical result of the hypothesis that we are dealing with infinite +Intelligence which is also infinite Life. Life means Power, and infinite +life therefore means limitless power; and limitless power moved by +limitless intelligence cannot be conceived of as ever stopping short of the +accomplishment of its object; therefore, given the <i>intention</i> on the +part of the Universal Mind, there can be no doubt as to its ultimate +accomplishment. Then comes the question of intention. How do we know what +the intention of the Universal Mind may be? Here comes in the element of +impersonality. It has <i>no intention</i>, because it is <i>impersonal</i>. +As I have already said, the Universal mind works by a law of averages for +the advancement of the race, and is in no way concerned with the particular +wishes of the individual. If his wishes are in line with the forward +movement of the everlasting principle, there is nowhere in Nature any power +to restrict him in their fulfilment. If they are opposed to the general +forward movement, then they will bring him into collision with it, and it +will crush him. From the relation between them it results that the same +principle which shows itself in the individual mind as Will, becomes in the +universal mind a Law of Tendency; and the direction of this tendency must +always be to life-givingness, because the universal mind is the +undifferentiated Life-spirit of the universe. Therefore in every case the +test is whether our particular intention is in this same lifeward +direction: and if it is, then we may be absolutely certain that there is no +intention on the part of the Universal Mind to thwart the intention of our +own individual mind; we are dealing with a purely impersonal force, and it +will no more oppose us by specific plans of its own than will steam or +electricity. Combining then, these two aspects of the Universal Mind, its +utter impersonality and its perfect intelligence, we find precisely the +sort of natural force we are in want of, something which will undertake +whatever we put into its hands without asking questions or bargaining for +terms, and which, having undertaken our business, will bring to bear on it +an intelligence to which the united knowledge of the whole human race is as +nothing, and a power equal to this intelligence. I may be using a rough and +ready mode of expression, but my object is to bring home to the student the +nature of the power he can employ and the method of employing it, and I may +therefore state the whole position thus:--Your object is not to run the +whole cosmos, but to draw particular benefits, physical, mental, moral, or +financial into your own or someone else's life. From this individual point +of view the universal creative power has no mind of its own, and therefore +you can make up its mind for it. When its mind is thus made up for it, it +never abrogates its place as the creative power, but at once sets to work +co carry out the purpose for which it has thus been concentrated; and +unless this concentration is dissipated by the same agency (yourself) which +first produced it, it will work on by the law of growth to complete +manifestation on the outward plane.</p> + +<p>In dealing with this great impersonal intelligence, we are dealing with +the infinite, and we must fully realize infinitude as that which touches +all points, and if it does, there should be no difficulty in understanding +that this intelligence can draw together the means requisite for its +purpose even from the ends of the world; and therefore, realizing the Law +according to which the result can be produced, we must resolutely put aside +all questioning as to the specific means which will be employed in any +case. To question this is to sow that very seed of doubt which it is our +first object to eradicate, and our intellectual endeavour should therefore +be directed, not to the attempt to foretell the various secondary causes +which will eventually combine to produce the desired result, laying down +beforehand what particular causes should be necessary, and from what +quarter they should come; but we should direct our intellectual endeavour +to seeing more clearly the rationale of the general law by which trains of +secondary causes are set in motion. Employed in the former way our +intellect becomes the greatest hindrance to our success, for it only helps +to increase our doubts, since it is trying to grasp particulars which, at +the time are entirely outside its circle of vision; but employed in the +latter it affords the most material aid in maintaining that nucleus without +which there is no centre from which the principle of growth can assert +itself. The intellect can only deduce consequences from facts which it is +able to state, and consequently cannot deduce any assurance from facts of +whose existence it cannot yet have any knowledge through the medium of the +outward senses; but for the same reason it can realize the existence of a +<i>Law</i> by which the as yet unmanifested circumstances may be brought +into manifestation. Thus used in its right order, the intellect becomes the +handmaid of that more interior power within us which manipulates the unseen +substance of all things, and which we may call relative first cause.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap9">IX.</a></h1> + +<h2>CAUSES AND CONDITIONS.</h2> + + +<p>The expression "<i>relative</i> first cause" has been used in the last +section to distinguish the action of the creative principle in the +<i>individual</i> mind from Universal First Cause on the one hand and from +secondary causes on the other. As it exists in <i>us</i>, primary causation +is the power to initiate a train of causation directed to an individual +purpose. As the power of initiating a fresh sequence of cause and effect it +is first cause, and as referring to an individual purpose it is relative, +and it may therefore be spoken of as relative first cause, or the power of +primary causation manifested by the individual. The understanding and use +of this power is the whole object of Mental Science, and it is therefore +necessary that the student should clearly see the relation between causes +and conditions. A simple illustration will go further for this purpose than +any elaborate explanation. If a lighted candle is brought into a room the +room becomes illuminated, and if the candle is taken away it becomes dark +again. Now the illumination and the darkness are both conditions, the one +positive resulting from the presence of the light, and the other negative +resulting from its absence: from this simple example we therefore see that +every positive condition has an exactly opposite negative condition +corresponding to it, and that this correspondence results from their being +related to the <i>same cause</i>, the one positively and the other +negatively; and hence we may lay down the rule that all positive conditions +result from the active presence of a certain cause, and all negative +conditions from the absence of such a cause. A condition, whether positive +or negative, is never <i>primary</i> cause, and the <i>primary</i> cause of +any series can never be negative, for negation is the condition which +arises from the absence of active causation. This should be thoroughly +understood as it is the philosophic basis of all those "denials" which play +so important a, part in Mental Science, and which may be summed up in the +statement that evil being negative, or privation of good, has no +substantive existence in itself. Conditions, however, whether positive or +negative, are no sooner called into existence than they become causes in +their turn and produce further conditions, and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>, +thus giving rise to the whole train of secondary causes. So long as we +judge only from the information conveyed to us by the outward senses, we +are working on the plane of secondary causation and see nothing but a +succession of conditions, forming part of an endless train of antecedent +conditions coming out of the past and stretching away into the future, and +from this point of view we are under the rule of an iron destiny from which +there seems no possibility of escape. This is because the outward senses +are only capable of dealing with the relations which one mode of limitation +bears to another, for they are the instruments by which we take cognizance +of the relative and the conditioned. Now the only way of escape is by +rising out of the region of secondary causes into that of primary +causation, where the originating energy is to be found before it has yet +passed into manifestation as a condition. This region is to be found +<i>within ourselves</i>; it is the region of pure ideas; and it is for this +reason that I have laid stress on the two aspects of spirit as pure thought +and manifested form. The thought-image or ideal pattern of a thing is the +<i>first cause</i> relatively to that thing; it is the substance of that +thing untrammelled, by any antecedent conditions.</p> + +<p>If we realize that all visible things <i>must</i> have their origin in +spirit, then the whole creation around us is the standing evidence that the +starting-point of all things is in thought-images or ideas, for no other +action than the formation of such images can be conceived of spirit prior +to its manifestation in matter. If, then, this is spirit's modus operandi +for self-expression, we have only to transfer this conception from the +scale of cosmic spirit working on the plane of the universal to that of +individualized spirit working on the plane of the particular, to see that +the formation of an ideal image by means of our thought is setting first +cause in motion with regard to this specific object. There is no difference +in kind between the operation of first cause in the universal and in the +particular, the difference is only a difference of scale, but the power +itself is identical. We must therefore always be very clear as to whether +we are <i>consciously</i> using first cause or not. Note the word +"consciously" because, whether consciously or unconsciously, we are always +using first cause; and it was for this reason I emphasized the fact that +the Universal Mind is purely subjective and therefore bound by the laws +which apply to subjective mind on whatever scale. Hence we are +<i>always</i> impressing some sort of ideas upon it, whether we are aware +of the fact or not, and all our existing limitations result from our having +habitually impressed upon it that idea of limitation which we have imbibed +by restricting all possibility to the region of secondary causes. But now +when investigation has shown us that conditions are never causes in +<i>themselves</i>, but only the subsequent links of a chain started on the +plane of the pure ideal, what we have to do is to reverse our method of +thinking and regard the ideal as the real, and the outward manifestation as +a mere reflection which must change with every change of the object which +casts it. For these reasons it is essential to know whether we are +consciously making use of first cause with a definite purpose or not, and +the criterion is this. If we regard the fulfilment of our purpose as +contingent upon any <i>circumstances</i>, past, present, or future, we are +not making use of first cause; we have descended to the level of secondary +causation, which is the region of doubts, fears, and limitations, all of +which we are impressing upon the universal subjective mind with the +inevitable result that it will build up corresponding external conditions. +But if we realize that the region of secondary causes is the region of mere +reflections we shall not think of our purpose as contingent on any +conditions whatever, but shall know that by forming the idea of it in the +absolute, and maintaining that idea, we have shaped the first cause into +the desired form and can await the result with cheerful expectancy.</p> + +<p>It is here that we find the importance of realizing spirit's +independence of time and space. An ideal, as such, cannot be formed in the +future. It must either be formed here and now or not be formed at all; and +it is for this reason that every teacher, who has ever spoken with due +knowledge of the subject, has impressed upon his followers the necessity of +picturing to themselves the fulfilment of their desires as <i>already +accomplished</i> on the spiritual plane, as the indispensable condition of +fulfilment in the visible and concrete.</p> + +<p>When this is properly understood, any anxious thought as to the +<i>means</i> to be employed in the accomplishment of our purposes is seen +to be quite unnecessary. If the end is already secured, then it follows +that all the steps leading to it are secured also. The means will pass into +the smaller circle of our conscious activities day by day in due order, and +then we have to work upon them, not with fear, doubt, or feverish +excitement, but calmly and joyously, because we <i>know</i> that the end is +already secured, and that our reasonable use of such means as present +themselves in the desired direction is, only one portion of a much larger +co-ordinated movement, the final result of which admits of no doubt. Mental +Science does not offer a premium to idleness, but it takes, all work out of +the region of anxiety and toil by assuring the worker of the success of his +labour, if not in the precise form he anticipated, then in some other still +better suited to his requirements. But suppose, when we reach a point where +some momentous decision has to be made, we happen to decide wrongly? On the +hypothesis that the end is already secured you cannot decide wrongly. Your +right decision is as much one of the necessary steps in the accomplishment +of the end as any of the other conditions leading up to it, and therefore, +while being careful to avoid rash action, we may make sure that the same +Law which is controlling the rest of the circumstances in the right +direction will influence our judgment in that direction also. To get good +results we must properly understand our relation to the great impersonal +power we are using. It is intelligent and we are intelligent, and the two +intelligences must co-operate. We must not fly in the face of the Law by +expecting it to do <i>for</i> us what it can only do <i>through</i> us; and +we must therefore use our intelligence with the knowledge that it is acting +<i>as the instrument of a greater intelligence</i>; and because we have +this knowledge we may, and should, cease from all anxiety as to the final +result. In actual practice we must first form the ideal conception of our +object with the definite intention of impressing it upon the universal +mind--it is this intention which takes such thought out of the region of +mere casual fancies--and then affirm that our knowledge of the Law is +sufficient reason for a calm expectation of a corresponding result, and +that therefore all necessary conditions will come to us in due order. We +can then turn to the affairs of our daily life with the calm assurance that +the initial conditions are either there already or will soon come into +view. If we do not at once see them, let us rest content with the knowledge +that the spiritual prototype is already in existence and wait till some +circumstance pointing in the desired direction begins to show itself. It +may be a very small circumstance, but it is the direction and not the +magnitude which is to be taken into consideration. As soon as we see it we +should regard it as the first sprouting of the seed we have sown in the +Absolute, and do calmly, and without excitement, whatever the circumstances +may seem to require, and then later on we shall see that this doing will in +turn lead to further circumstances in the same direction until we find +ourselves conducted step by step to the accomplishment of our object. In +this way the understanding of the great principle of the Law of Supply +will, by repeated experiences, deliver us more and more completely out of +the region of anxious thought and toilsome labour and bring us into a new +world where the useful employment of all our powers, whether mental or +physical, will only be an unfolding of our individuality upon the lines of +its own nature, and therefore a perpetual source of health and happiness; a +sufficient inducement, surely, to the careful study of the laws governing +the relation between the individual and the Universal Mind.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap10">X.</a></h1> + +<h2>INTUITION.</h2> + + +<p>We have seen that the subjective mind is amenable to suggestion by the +objective mind; but there is also an action of the subjective mind upon the +objective. The individual's subjective mind is his own innermost self, and +its first care is the maintenance of the individuality of which it is the +foundation; and since it is pure spirit it has its continual existence in +that plane of being where all things subsist in the universal here and the +everlasting now, and consequently can, inform the lower mind of things +removed from its ken either by distance or futurity. As the absence of the +conditions of time and space must logically concentrate all things into a +present focus, we can assign no limit to the subjective mind's power of +perception, and therefore the question arises, why does it not keep the +objective mind continually informed on all points? And the answer is that +it would do so if the objective mind were sufficiently trained to recognize +the indications given, and to effect this training is one of the purposes +of Mental Science. When once we recognize the position of the subjective +mind as the supporter of the whole individuality we cannot doubt that much +of what we take to be the spontaneous movement of the objective mind has +its origin in the subjective mind prompting the objective mind in the right +direction without our being consciously aware of it. But at times when the +urgency of the case seems to demand it, or when, for some reason yet +unknown, the objective mind is for a while more closely <i>en rapport</i> +with the subjective mind, the interior voice is heard strongly and +persistently; and when this is the case we do well to pay heed to it. Want +of space forbids me to give examples, but doubtless such will not be +wanting in the reader's experience.</p> + +<p>The importance of understanding and following the intuition cannot be +exaggerated, but I candidly admit the great practical difficulty of keeping +the happy mean between the disregard of the interior voice and allowing +ourselves to be run away with by groundless fancies. The best guide is the +knowledge that comes of personal experience which gradually leads to the +acquisition of a sort of inward sense of touch that enables us to +distinguish the true from the false, and which appears to grow with the +sincere desire for truth and with the recognition of the spirit as its +source. The only general principles the writer can deduce from his own +experience are that when, in spite of all appearances pointing in the +direction of a certain line of conduct, there is still a persistent +<i>feeling</i> that it should not be followed, in the majority of instances +it will be found that the argument of the objective mind, however correct +on the facts objectively known, was deficient from ignorance of facts which +could not be objectively known at the time, but which were known to the +intuitive faculty. Another principle is that our <i>very first</i> +impression of feeling on any subject is generally correct. Before the +objective mind has begun to argue on the subject it is like the surface of +a smooth lake which clearly reflects the light from above; but as soon as +it begins to argue from outside appearances these also throw their +reflections upon its surface, so that the original image becomes blurred +and is no longer recognizable. This first conception is very speedily lost, +and it should therefore be carefully observed and registered in the memory +with a view to testing the various arguments which will subsequently arise +on the objective plane. It is however impossible to reduce so interior an +action as that of the intuition to the form of hard and fast rules, and +beyond carefully noting particular cases as they occur, probably the best +plan for the student will be to include the whole subject of intuition in +the general principle of the Law of Attraction, especially if he sees how +this law interacts with that personal quality of universal spirit of which +we have already spoken.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap11">XI.</a></h1> + +<h2>HEALING.</h2> + + +<p>The subject of healing has been elaborately treated by many writers and +fully deserves all the attention that has been given to it, but the object +of these lectures is rather to ground the student in those general +principles on which <i>all</i> conscious use of the creative power of +thought is based, than to lay down formal rules for specific applications +of it. I will therefore examine the broad principles which appear to be +common to the various methods of mental healing which are in use, each of +which derives its efficacy, not from the peculiarity of the method, but +from it being such a method as allows the higher laws of Nature to come +into play. Now the principle universally laid down by all mental healers, +in whatever various terms they may explain it, is that the basis of all +healing is a change in belief. The sequence from which this results is as +follows:--the subjective mind is the creative faculty within us, and +creates whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; the objective mind, +or intellect, impresses its thought upon it; the thought is the expression +of the belief; hence whatever the subjective mind creates is the +reproduction externally of our beliefs. Accordingly our whole object is to +change our beliefs, and we cannot do this without some solid ground of +conviction of the falsity of our old beliefs and of the truth of our new +ones, and this ground we find in that law of causation which I have +endeavoured to explain. The wrong belief which externalizes as sickness is +the belief that some secondary cause, which is really only a condition, is +a primary cause. The knowledge of the law shows that there is only +<i>one</i> primary cause, and this is the factor which in our own +individuality we call subjective or sub-conscious mind. For this reason I +have insisted on the difference between placing an idea in the +sub-conscious mind, that is, on the plane of the absolute and without +reference to time and space, and placing the same idea in the conscious +intellectual mind which only perceives things as related to time and space. +Now the only conception you can have of<i> yourself</i> in the absolute, or +unconditioned, is as <i>purely living Spirit</i>, not hampered by +conditions of any sort, and therefore not subject to illness; and when this +idea is firmly impressed on the sub-conscious mind, it will externalize it. +The reason why this process is not always successful at the first attempt +is that all our life we have been holding the false belief in sickness as a +substantial entity in itself and thus being a primary cause, instead of +being merely a negative <i>condition</i> resulting from the <i>obsence</i> +of a primary cause; and a belief which has become ingrained from childhood +cannot be eradicated at a moment's notice. We often find, therefore, that +for some time after a treatment there is an improvement in the patient's +health, and then the old symptoms return. This is because the new belief in +his own creative faculty has not yet had time to penetrate down to the +innermost depths of the subconscious mind, but has only partially entered +it. Each succeeding treatment strengthens the sub-conscious mind in its +hold of the new belief until at last a permanent cure is effected. This is +the method of self-treatment based on the patient's own knowledge of the +law of his being.</p> + +<p>But "there is not in all men this knowledge," or at any rate not such a +full recognition of it as will enable them to give successful treatment to +themselves, and in these cases the intervention of the healer becomes +necessary. The only difference between the healer and the patient is that +the healer has learnt how to control the less self-conscious modes of the +spirit by the more self-conscious mode, while the patient has not yet +attained to this knowledge; and what the healer does is to substitute his +own objective or conscious mentality, which is will joined to intellect, +for that of the patient, and in this way to find entrance to his +sub-conscious mind and impress upon it the suggestion of perfect +health.</p> + +<p>The question then arises, how can the healer substitute his own +conscious mind for that of the patient? and the answer shows the practical +application of those very abstract principles which I have laid down in the +earlier sections. Our ordinary conception of ourselves is that of an +individual personality which ends where another personality begins, in +other words that the two personalities are entirely separate. This is an +error. There is no such hard and fast line of demarcation between +personalities, and the boundaries between one and another can be increased +or reduced in rigidity according to will, in fact they may be temporarily +removed so completely that, for the time being, the two personalities +become merged into one. Now the action which takes place between healer and +patient depends on this principle. The patient is asked by the healer to +put himself in a receptive mental attitude, which means that he is to +exercise his volition for the purpose of removing the barrier of his own +objective personality and thus affording entrance to the mental power of +the healer. On his side also the healer does the same thing, only with this +difference, that while the patient withdraws the barrier on his side with +the intention of admitting a flowing-in, the healer does so with the +intention of allowing a flowing-out: and thus by the joint action of the +two minds the barriers of both personalities are removed and the direction +of the flow of volition is determined, that is to say, it flows from the +healer as actively willing to give, towards the patient as passively +willing to receive, according to the universal law of Nature that the flow +must always be from the <i>plenum</i> to the <i>vacuum</i>. This mutual +removal of the external mental barrier between healer and patient is what +is termed establishing a <i>rapport</i> between them, and here we find one +most valuable practical application of the principle laid down earlier in +this book, that pure spirit is present in its entirety at every point +simultaneously. It is for this reason that as soon as the healer realizes +that the barriers of external personality between himself and his patient +have been removed, he can then speak to the sub-conscious mind of the +patient as though it were his own, for both being pure spirit the +<i>thought</i> of their identity <i>makes</i> them identical, and both are +concentrated into a single entity at a single point upon which the +conscious mind of the healer can be brought to bear, according to the +universal principle of the control of the subjective mind by the objective +mind through suggestion. It is for this reason I have insisted on the +distinction between <i>pure</i> spirit, or spirit conceived of apart from +extension in any matrix and the conception of it as so extended. If we +concentrate our mind upon the diseased condition of the patient we are +thinking of him as a separate personality, and are not fixing our mind upon +that conception of him as pure spirit which will afford us effectual entry +to his springs of being. We must therefore withdraw our thought from the +contemplation of symptoms, and indeed from his corporeal personality +altogether, and must think of him as a purely spiritual individuality, and +as such entirely free from subjection to any conditions, and consequently +as voluntarily externalizing the conditions most expressive of the vitality +and intelligence which pure spirit is. Thinking of him thus, we then make +mental affirmation that he shall build up outwardly the correspondence of +that perfect vitality which he knows himself to be inwardly; and this +suggestion being impressed by the healer's conscious thought, while the +patient's conscious thought is at the same time impressing the fact that he +is receiving the active thought of the healer, the result is that the +patient's sub-conscious mind becomes thoroughly imbued with the recognition +of its own life-giving power, and according to the recognized law of +subjective mentality proceeds to work out this suggestion into external +manifestation, and thus health is substituted for sickness.</p> + +<p>It must be understood that the purpose of the process here described is +to strengthen the subject's individuality, not to dominate it. To use it +for domination is <i>inversion</i>, bringing its appropriate penalty to the +operator.</p> + +<p>In this description I have contemplated the case where the patient is +consciously co-operating with the healer, and it is in order to obtain this +co-operation that the mental healer usually makes a point of instructing +the patient in the broad principles of Mental Science, if he is not already +acquainted with them. But this is not always advisable or possible. +Sometimes the statement of principles opposed to existing prejudices +arouses opposition, and any active antagonism on the patient's part must +tend to intensify the barrier of conscious personality which it is the +healer's first object to remove. In these cases nothing is so effective as +<i>absent treatment</i>. If the student has grasped all that has been said +on the subject of spirit and matter, he will see that in mental treatment +time and space count for nothing, because the whole action takes place on a +plane where these conditions do not obtain; and it is therefore quite +immaterial whether the patient be in the immediate presence of the healer +or in a distant country. Under these circumstances it is found by +experience that one of the most effectual modes of mental healing is by +treatment during sleep, because then the patient's whole system is +naturally in a state of relaxation which prevents him offering any +conscious opposition to the treatment. And by the same rule the healer also +is able to treat even more effectively during his own sleep than while +waking. Before going to sleep he firmly impresses on his subjective mind +that it is to convey curative suggestion to the subjective mind of the +patient, and then, by the general principles of the relation between +subjective and objective mind this suggestion is carried out during all the +hours that the conscious individuality is wrapped in repose. This method is +applicable to young children to whom the principles of the science cannot +be explained; and also to persons at a distance: and indeed the only +advantage gained by the personal meeting of the patient and healer is in +the instruction that can be orally given, or when the patient is at that +early stage of knowledge where the healer's visible presence conveys the +suggestion that something is then being done which could not be done in his +absence; otherwise the presence or absence of the patient are matters +perfectly indifferent. The student must always recollect that the +sub-conscious mind does not have to work <i>through</i> the intellect or +conscious mind to produce its curative effects. It is part of the +all-pervading creative force of Nature, while the intellect is not creative +but distributive.</p> + +<p>From mental healing it is but a step to telepathy, clairvoyance and +other, kindred manifestations of transcendental power which, are from time +to time exhibited by the subjective entity and which follow laws as +accurate as those which govern what we are accustomed to consider our more +normal faculties; but these subjects do not properly fall within the scope +of a book whose purpose is to lay down the broad principles which underlie +<i>all</i> spiritual phenomena. Until these are clearly understood the +student cannot profitably attempt the detailed study of the more interior +powers; for to do so without a firm foundation of knowledge and some +experience in its practical application would only be to expose himself to +unknown dangers, and would be contrary to the scientific principle that the +advance into the unknown can only be made from the standpoint of the known, +otherwise we only come into a confused region of guess-work without any +clearly defined principles for our guidance.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap12">XII.</a></h1> + +<h2>THE WILL.</h2> + + +<p>The Will is of such primary importance that the student should be on his +guard against any mistake as to the position which it holds in the mental +economy. Many writers and teachers insist on will-power as though that were +the creative faculty. No doubt intense will-power can evolve certain +external results, but like all other methods of compulsion it lacks the +permanency of natural growth. The appearances, forms, and conditions +produced by mere intensity of will-power will only hang together so long as +the compelling force continues; but let it be exhausted or withdrawn, and +the elements thus forced into unnatural combination will at once fly back +to their proper affinities; the form created by compulsion never had the +germ of vitality <i>in itself</i> and is therefore dissipated as soon as +the external energy which supported it is withdrawn. The mistake is in +attributing the creative power to the will, or perhaps I should say in +attributing the creative power to ourselves at all. The truth is that man +never creates anything. His function is, not to create, but to combine and +distribute that which is already in being, and what we call our creations +are new combinations of already existing material, whether mental or +corporeal. This is amply demonstrated in the physical sciences. No one +speaks of creating energy, but only of transforming one form of energy into +another; and if we realize this as a universal principle, we shall see that +on the mental plane as well as on the physical we never create energy but +only provide the conditions by which the energy already existing in one +mode can exhibit itself in another: therefore what, relatively to man, we +call his creative power, is that receptive attitude of expectancy which, so +to say, makes a mould into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated +substance can flow and take the desired form. The will has much the same +place in our mental machinery that the tool-holder has in a power-lathe: it +is not the power, but it keeps the mental faculties in that position +relatively to the power which enables it to do the desired work. If, using +the word in its widest sense, we may say that the imagination is the +creative function, we may call the will the centralizing principle. Its +function is to keep the imagination centred in the right direction. We are +aiming at consciously controlling our mental powers instead of letting them +hurry us hither and thither in a purposeless manner, and we must therefore +understand the relation of these powers to each other for the production of +external results. First the whole train of causation is started by some +emotion which gives rise to a desire; next the judgment determines whether +we shall externalize this desire or not; then the desire having been +approved by the judgment, the will comes forward and directs the +imagination to form the necessary spiritual prototype; and the imagination +thus centred on a particular object creates the spiritual nucleus, which in +its turn acts as a centre round which the forces of attraction begin to +work, and continue to operate until, by the law of growth, the concrete +result becomes perceptible to our external senses.</p> + +<p>The business of the will, then, is to retain the various faculties of +our mind in that position where they are really doing the work we wish, and +this position may be generalized into the three following attitudes; either +we wish to act upon something, or be acted on by it, or to maintain a +neutral position; in other words we either intend to project a force, or +receive a force or keep a position of inactivity relatively to some +particular object. Now the judgment determines which of these three +positions we shall take up, the consciously active, the consciously +receptive, or the consciously neutral; and then the function of the will is +simply to maintain the position we have determined upon; and if we maintain +any given mental attitude we may reckon with all certainty on the law of +attraction drawing us to those correspondences which exteriorly symbolize +the attitude in question. This is very different from the semi-animal +screwing-up of the nervous forces which, with some people, stands for +will-power. It implies no strain on the nervous system and is consequently +not followed by any sense of exhaustion. The will-power, when transferred +from the region of the lower mentality to the spiritual plane, becomes +simply a calm and peaceful determination to retain a certain mental +attitude in spite of all temptations to the contrary, knowing that by doing +so the desired result will certainly appear.</p> + +<p>The training of the will and its transference from the lower to the +higher plane of our nature are among the first objects of Mental Science. +The man is summed up in his will. Whatever he does by his own will is his +own act; whatever he does without the consent of his will is not his own +act but that of the power by which his will was coerced; but we must +recognize that, on the mental plane, no other individuality can obtain +control over our will unless we first allow it to do so; and it is for this +reason that all legitimate use of Mental Science is towards the +strengthening of the will, whether in ourselves or others, and bringing it +under the control of an enlightened reason. When the will realizes its +power to deal with first cause it is no longer necessary for the operator +to state to himself <i>in extenso</i> all the philosophy of its action +every time he wishes to use it, but, knowing that the trained will is a +tremendous spiritual force acting on the plane of first cause, he simply +expresses his desire with the intention of operating on that plane, and +knows that the desire thus expressed will in due time externalize itself as +concrete fact. He now sees that the point which really demands his earnest +attention is not whether he possesses the power of externalizing any +results he chooses, but of learning to choose wisely what results to +produce. For let us not suppose that even the highest powers will take us +out of the law of cause and effect. We can never set any cause in motion +without calling forth those effects which it already contains in embryo and +which will again become causes in their turn, thus producing a series which +must continue to flow on until it is cut short by bringing into operation a +cause of an opposite character to the one which originated it. Thus we +shall find the field for the exercise of our intelligence continually +expanding with the expansion of our powers; for, granted a good intention, +we shall always wish to contemplate the results of our action as far as our +intelligence will permit. We may not be able to see very far, but there is +one safe general principle to be gained from what has already been said +about causes and conditions, which is that the whole sequence always +partakes of the same character as the initial cause: if that character is +negative, that is, destitute of any desire to externalize kindness, +cheerfulness, strength, beauty or some other sort of good, this negative +quality will make itself felt all down the line; but if the opposite +affirmative character is in the original motive, then it will reproduce its +kind in forms of love, joy, strength and beauty with unerring precision. +Before setting out, therefore, to produce new conditions by the exercise of +our thought-power we should weigh carefully what further results they are +likely to lead to; and here, again, we shall find an ample field for the +training of our will, in learning to acquire that self-control which will +enable us to postpone an inferior present satisfaction to a greater +prospective good.</p> + +<p>These considerations naturally lead us to the subject of concentration. +I have just now pointed out that all duly controlled mental action consists +in holding the mind in one of three attitudes; but there is a fourth mental +condition, which is that of letting our mental functions run on without our +will directing them to any definite purpose. It is on this word +<i>purpose</i> that we must fix our whole attention; and instead of +dissipating our energies, we must follow an intelligent method of +concentration. The, word means being gathered up at a centre, and the +centre of anything is that point in which all its forces are equally +balanced. To concentrate therefore means first to bring our minds into a +condition of equilibrium which will enable us to consciously direct the +flow of spirit to a definitely recognized purpose, and then carefully to +guard our thoughts from inducing a flow in the opposite direction. We must +always bear in mind that we are dealing with a wonderful <i>potential</i> +energy which is not yet differentiated into any particular mode, and that +by the action of our mind we can differentiate it into any specific mode of +activity that we will; and by keeping our thought fixed on the fact that +the inflow of this energy <i>is</i> taking place and that by our mental +attitude we <i>are</i> determining its direction, we shall gradually +realize a corresponding externalization. Proper concentration, therefore, +does not consist of strenuous effort which exhausts the nervous system and +defeats its own object by suggesting the consciousness of an adverse force +to be fought against, and thus creating the adverse circumstances we dread; +but in shutting out all thoughts of a kind that would disperse the +spiritual nucleus we are forming and dwelling cheerfully on the knowledge +that, because the law is certain in its action, our desire is certain of +accomplishment. The other great principle to be remembered is that +concentration is for the purpose of determining the <i>quality</i> we are +going to give to the previously undifferentiated energy rather than to +arrange the <i>specific circumstances</i> of its manifestation. <i>That</i> +is the work of the creative energy itself, which will build up its own +forms of expression quite naturally if we allow it, thus saving us a great +deal of needless anxiety. What we really want is expansion in a certain +direction, whether of health, wealth, or what not: and so long as we get +this, what does it matter whether it reaches us through some channel which +we thought we could reckon upon or through some other whose existence we +had not suspected. It is the fact that we are concentrating energy of a +particular kind for a particular purpose that we should fix our minds upon, +and not look upon any specific details as essential to the accomplishment +of our object.</p> + +<p>These are the two golden rules regarding concentration; but we must not +suppose that because we have to be on our guard against idle drifting there +is to be no such thing as repose; on the contrary it is during periods of +repose that we accumulate strength for action; but repose does not mean a +state of purposelessness. As pure spirit the subjective mind never rests: +it is only the objective mind in its connection with the physical body that +needs rest; and though there are no doubt times when the greatest possible +rest is to be obtained by stopping the action, of our conscious thought +altogether, the more generally advisable method is by changing the +direction of the thought and, instead of centering it upon something we +intend to <i>do</i>, letting it dwell quietly upon what we <i>are</i>. This +direction of thought might, of course, develop into the deepest +philosophical speculation, but it is not necessary that we should be always +either consciously projecting our forces to produce some external effect or +working out the details of some metaphysical problem; but we may simply +realize ourselves as part of the universal livingness and thus gain a quiet +centralization, which, though maintained by a conscious act of the +volition, is the very essence of rest. From this standpoint we see that all +is Life and all is Good, and that Nature, from her clearly visible surface +to her most arcane depths, is one vast storehouse of life and good entirely +devoted to our individual use. We have the key to all her treasures, and we +can now apply our knowledge of the law of being without entering into all +those details which are only needed for purposes of study, and doing so we +find it results in our having acquired the consciousness of our <i>oneness +with the whole</i>. This is the great secret: and when we have once +fathomed it we can enjoy our possession of the whole, or of any part of it, +because by our recognition we have made it, and can increasingly make it, +our own. Whatever most appeals to us at any particular time or place is +that mode of the universal living spirit with which at that moment we are +most in touch, and realizing this, we shall draw from it streams of vital +energy which will make the very sensation of livingness a joy and will +radiate from us as a sphere of vibration that can deflect all injurious +suggestion on whatever plane. We may not have literary, artistic, or +scientific skill to present to others the results of our communings with +Nature, but the joy of this sympathetic indrawing will nevertheless produce +a corresponding outflow manifesting itself in the happier look and kindlier +mien of him who thus realizes his oneness with every aspect of the whole. +He realizes--and this is the great point in that attitude of mind which is +not directed to any specific external object--that, for himself, he is, and +always must be the centre of all this galaxy of Life, and thus he +contemplates himself as seated at the centre of infinitude, not an +infinitude of blank space, but pulsating with living being, in all of which +he knows that the true essence is nothing but good. This is the very +opposite to a selfish self-centredness; it, is the centre where we find +that we both receive from all and flow out to all. Apart from this +principle of circulation there is no true life, and if we contemplate our +central position only as affording us greater advantages for in-taking, we +have missed the whole point of our studies by missing the real nature of +the Life-principle, which is action and re-action. If we would have life +enter into us, we ourselves must enter into life--enter into the spirit of +it, just as we must enter into the spirit of a book or a game to enjoy it. +There can be no action at a centre only. There must be a perpetual flowing +out towards the circumference, and thence back again to the centre to +maintain a vital activity; otherwise collapse must ensue either from +anaemia or congestion. But if we realize the reciprocal nature of the vital +pulsation, and that the outflowing consists in the habit of mind which +gives itself to the good it sees in others, rather than in any specific +actions, then we shall find that the cultivation of this disposition will +provide innumerable avenues for the universal livingness to flow through +us, whether as giving or receiving, which we had never before suspected: +and this action and re-action will so build up our own vitality that each +day will find us more thoroughly alive than any that had preceded it. This, +then, is the attitude of repose in which we may enjoy all the beauties of +science, literature and art or may peacefully commune with the spirit of +nature without the aid of any third mind to act as its interpreter, which +is still a purposeful attitude although not directed to a specific object: +we have not allowed the will to relax its control, but have merely altered +its direction; so that for action and repose alike we find that our +strength lies in our recognition of the unity of the spirit and of +ourselves as individual concentrations of it.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap13">XIII.</a></h1> + +<h2>IN TOUCH WITH SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND.</h2> + + +<p>The preceding pages have made the student in some measure aware of the +immense importance of our dealings with the sub-conscious mind. Our +relation to it, whether on the scale of the individual or the universal, is +the key to all that we are or ever can be. In its unrecognized working it +is the spring of all that we can call the automatic action of mind and +body, and on the universal scale it is the silent power of evolution +gradually working onwards to that "divine event, to which the whole +creation moves"; and by our conscious recognition of it we make it, +relatively to ourselves, all that we believe it to be. The closer our +<i>rapport</i> with it becomes, the more what we have hitherto considered +automatic action, whether in our bodies or our circumstances, will pass +under our control, until at last we shall control our whole individual +world. Since, then, this is the stupendous issue involved, the question how +we are to put ourselves practically in touch with the sub-conscious mind is +a very important one. Now the clue which gives us the right direction is to +be found in the <i>impersonal</i> quality of sub-conscious mind of which I +have spoken. Not impersonal as lacking the <i>elements</i> of personality; +nor even, in the case of individual subjective mind, as lacking the sense +of individuality; but impersonal in the sense of not recognizing the +particular external relations which appear to the objective mind to +constitute its personality, and having a realization of itself quite +independent of them. If, then, we would come in touch with it we must meet +it on its own ground. It can see things only from the deductive standpoint, +and therefore cannot take note of the inductive standpoint from which we +construct the idea of our external personality; and accordingly if we would +put ourselves in touch with it, we cannot do so by bringing it down to the +level of the external and non-essential but only by rising to its own level +on the plane of the interior and essential. How can this be done? Let two +well-known writers answer. Rudyard Kipling tells us in his story of "Kim" +how the boy used at times to lose his sense of personality by repeating to +himself the question, <i>Who</i> is Kim? Gradually his personality would +seem to fade and he would experience a feeling of passing into a grander +and a wider life, in which the boy Kim was unknown, while his own conscious +individuality remained, only exalted and expanded to an inconceivable +extent; and in Tennyson's life by his son we are told that at times the +poet had a similar experience. We come into touch with the absolute exactly +in proportion as we withdraw ourselves from the relative: they vary +inversely to each other.</p> + +<p>For the purpose, then, of getting into touch with our sub-conscious mind +we must endeavour to think of ourselves as pure being, as that entity which +interiorly supports the outward manifestation, and doing so we shall +realize that the essential quality of pure being must be good. It is in +itself <i>pure Life</i>, and as such cannot desire anything detrimental to +pure Life under whatever form manifested. Consequently the purer our +intentions the more readily we shall place ourself <i>en rapport</i> with +our subjective entity; and <i>a fortiori</i> the same applies to that +Greater Sub-conscious Mind of which our individual subjective mind is a +particular manifestation. In actual practice the process consists in first +forming a clear conception in the objective mind of the idea we wish to +convey to the subjective mind: then, when this has been firmly grasped, +endeavour to lose sight of all other facts connected with the external +personality except the one in question, and then mentally address the +subjective mind as though it were an independent entity and impress upon it +what you want it to do or to believe. Everyone must formulate his own way +of working, but one method, which is both simple and effective is to say to +the subjective mind, "This is what I want you to do; you will now step into +my place and do it, bringing all your powers and intelligence to bear, and +considering yourself to be none other than myself." Having done this return +to the realization of your own objective personality and leave the +subjective mind to perform its task in full confidence that, by the law of +its nature, it will do so if not hindered by a repetition of contrary +messages from the objective mind. This is not a mere fancy but a truth +daily proved by the experience of increasing numbers. The facts have not +been fabricated to fit the theory, but the theory has been built up by +careful observation of the facts; and since it has been shown both by +theory and practice that such is the law of the relation between subjective +and objective mind, we find ourselves face to face with a very momentous +question. Is there any reason why the laws which hold good of the +individual subjective mind should not hold good of the Universal Mind also? +and the answer is that there is not. As has been already shown the +Universal Mind must, by its very universality, be purely subjective, and +what is the law of a part must also be the law of the whole: the qualities +of fire are the same whether the centres of combustion be great or small, +and therefore we may well conclude these lectures by considering what will +be the result if we apply what we have learnt regarding the individual +subjective mind to the Universal Mind.</p> + +<p>We have learnt that the three great facts regarding subjective mind are +its creative power, its amenableness to suggestion, and its inability to +work by any other than the deductive method. This last is an exceedingly +important point, for it implies that the action of the subjective mind is +in no way limited by precedent. The inductive method works on principles +inferred from an already existing pattern, and therefore at the best only +produces the old thing in a new shape. But the deductive method works +according to the essence or spirit of the principle, and does not depend on +any previous concrete manifestation for its apprehension of it; and this +latter method of working must necessarily be that of the all-originating +Mind, for since there could be no prior existing pattern from which it +could learn the principles of construction, the want of a pattern would +have prevented its creating anything had its method been inductive instead +of deductive. Thus by the necessity of the case the Universal Mind must act +deductively, that is, according to the law which has been found true of +individual subjective mind. It is thus not bound by any precedent, which +means that its creative power is absolutely unlimited; and since it is +essentially subjective mind, and not objective mind, it is entirely +amenable to suggestion. Now it is an unavoidable inference from the +identity of the law governing subjective mind, whether in the individual or +the universal, that just as we can by suggestion impress a certain +character of personality upon the individual subjective mind, so we can, +and do, upon the Universal Mind; and it is for this reason that I have +drawn attention to the inherent personal <i>quality</i> of pure spirit when +contemplated in its most interior plane. It becomes, therefore, the most +important of all considerations with what character we invest the Universal +Mind; for since our relation to it is <i>purely subjective</i> it will +infallibly bear <i>to us</i> exactly that character which we impress upon +it; in other words it will be to us exactly what we believe it to be. This +is simply a logical inference from the fact that, as subjective mind, our +primary relation to it can only be on the subjective plane, and indirectly +our objective relations must also spring from the same source. This is the +meaning of that remarkable passage twice repeated in the Bible, "With, the +pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show +thyself froward." (Ps. xviii., 26, and II. Sam. xxii., 27), for the context +makes it clear that these words are addressed to the Divine Being. The +spiritual kingdom is <i>within</i> us, and as we realize it <i>there</i> so +it becomes to us a reality. It is the unvarying law of the subjective life +that "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he," that is to say, his inward +subjective states are the only true reality, and what we call external +realities are only their objective correspondences. If we thoroughly +realize the truth that the Universal Mind must be to us exactly according +to our conception of it, and that this relation is not merely imaginary but +by the law of subjective mind must be to us an actual fact and the +foundation of all other facts, then it is impossible to over-estimate the +importance of the conception of the Universal Mind which we adopt. To the +uninstructed there is little or no choice: they form a conception in +accordance with the tradition they have received from others, and until +they have learnt to think for themselves, they have to abide by the results +of that tradition: for natural laws admit of no exceptions, and however +faulty the traditional idea may be, its acceptance will involve a +corresponding reaction upon the Universal Mind, which will in turn be +reflected into the conscious mind and external life of the individual. But +those who understand the law of the subject will have no one but themselves +to blame if they do not derive all possible benefits from it. The greatest +Teacher of Mental Science the world has ever seen has laid down +sufficiently plain rules for our guidance. With a knowledge of the subject +whose depth can be appreciated only by those who have themselves some +practical acquaintance with it, He bids His unlearned audiences, those +common people who heard Him gladly, picture to themselves the Universal +Mind as a benign Father, tenderly compassionate of all and sending the +common bounties of Nature alike on the evil and the good; but He also +pictured It as exercising a special and peculiar care over those who +recognize Its willingness to do so:--"the very hairs of your head are all +numbered," and "ye are of more value than many sparrows." Prayer was to be +made to the unseen Being, not with doubt or fear, but with the absolute +assurance of a certain answer, and no limit was to be set to its power or +willingness to work for us. But to those who did not thus realize it, the +Great Mind is necessarily the adversary who casts them into prison until +they have paid the uttermost farthing; and thus in all cases the Master +impressed upon his hearers the exact correspondence of the attitude of this +unseen Power towards <i>them</i> with their own attitude towards <i>it</i>. +Such teaching was not a narrow anthropomorphism but the adaptation to the +intellectual capacity of the unlettered multitude of the very deepest +truths of what we now call Mental Science. And the basis of it all is the +cryptic personality of spirit hidden throughout the infinite of Nature +under every form of manifestation. As unalloyed Life and Intelligence it +<i>can</i> be no other than good, it can entertain no intention of evil, +and thus all intentional evil must put us in opposition to it, and so +deprive us of the consciousness of its guidance and strengthening and thus +leave us to grope our own way and fight our own battle single-handed +against the universe, odds which at last will surely prove too great for +us. But remember that the opposition can never be on the part of the +Universal Mind, for in itself it is sub-conscious mind; and to suppose any +active opposition taken on its own initiative would be contrary to all we +have learnt as to the nature of sub-conscious mind whether in the +individual or the universal; the position of the Universal Mind towards us +is always the reflection of our own attitude. Therefore although the Bible +is full of threatening against those who persist in conscious opposition to +the Divine Law of Good, it is on the other hand full of promises of +immediate and full forgiveness to all who change, their attitude and desire +to co-operate with the Law of Good so far as they know it. The laws of +Nature do not act vindictively; and through all theological formularies and +traditional interpretations let us realize that what we are dealing with is +the supreme law of our own being; and it is on the basis of this natural +law that we find such declarations as that in Ezek. xviii., 22, which tells +that if we forsake our evil ways our past transgressions shall never again +be mentioned to us. We are dealing with the great principles of our +subjective being, and our misuse of them in the past can never make them +change their inherent law of action. If our method of using them in the +past has brought us sorrow, fear and trouble, we have only to fall back on +the law that if we reverse the cause the effects will be reversed also; and +so what we have to do is simply to reverse our mental attitude and then +endeavour to act up to the new one. The sincere endeavour to act up to our +new mental attitude is essential, for we cannot really think in one way and +act in another; but our repeated failures to fully act as we would wish +must not discourage us. It is the sincere intention that is the essential +thing, and this will in time release us from the bondage of habits which at +present seem almost insuperable.</p> + +<p>The initial step, then, consists in determining to picture the Universal +Mind as the ideal of all we could wish it to be both to ourselves and to +others, together with the endeavour to reproduce this ideal, however +imperfectly, in our own life; and this step having been taken, we can then +cheerfully look upon it as our ever-present Friend, providing all good, +guarding from all danger, and guiding us with all counsel. Gradually as the +habit of thus regarding the Universal Mind grows upon us, we shall find +that in accordance with the laws we have been considering, it will become +more and more <i>personal</i> to us, and in response to our desire its +inherent intelligence will make itself more and more clearly perceptible +within as a power of perceiving truth far beyond any statement of it that +we could formulate by merely intellectual investigation. Similarly if we +think of it as a great power devoted to supplying all our needs, we shall +impress this character also upon it, and by the law of subjective mind it +will proceed to enact the part of that special providence which we have +credited it with being; and if, beyond the general care of our concerns, we +would draw to ourselves some particular benefit, the same rule holds good +of impressing our desire upon the Universal Subjective Mind. And if we +realize that above and beyond all this we want something still greater and +more enduring, the building-up of character and unfolding of our powers so +that we may expand into fuller and yet fuller measures of joyous and +joy-giving Life, still the same rule holds good: convey to the Universal +Mind the suggestion of the desire, and by the law of relation between +subjective and objective mind this too will be fulfilled. And thus the +deepest problems of philosophy bring us back to the old statement of the +Law:--Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall +be opened unto you. This is the summing-up of the natural law of the +relation between us and the Divine Mind. It is thus no vain boast that +Mental Science can enable us to make our lives what we will. We must start +from where we are now, and by rightly estimating our relation to the Divine +Universal Mind we can gradually grow into any conditions we desire, +provided we first make ourselves in habitual mental attitude the person who +corresponds to those conditions: for we can never get over the law of +correspondence, and the externalization will always be in accord with the +internal principle that gives rise to it. And to this law there is no +limit. What it can do for us to-day it can do to-morrow, and through all +that procession of to-morrows that loses itself in the dim vistas of +eternity. Belief in limitation is the one and only thing that causes +limitation, because we thus impress limitation upon the creative principle; +and in proportion as we lay that belief aside our boundaries will expand, +and increasing life and more abundant blessing will be ours.</p> + +<p>But we must not ignore our responsibilities. Trained thought is far more +powerful than untrained, and therefore the more deeply we penetrate into +Mental Science the more carefully we must guard against all thoughts and +words expressive of even the most modified form of ill-will. Gossip, +tale-bearing, sneering laughter, are not in accord with the principles of +Mental Science; and similarly even our smallest thoughts of good carry with +them a seed of good which will assuredly bear fruit in due time. This is +not mere "goodie, goodie," but an important lesson in Mental Science, for +our subjective mind takes its colour from our settled mental habits, and an +occasional affirmation or denial will not be sufficient to change it; and +we must therefore cultivate that tone which we wish to see reproduced in +our conditions whether of body, mind, or circumstance.</p> + +<p>In these lectures my purpose has been, not so much to give specific +rules of practice as to lay down the broad general principles of Mental +Science which will enable the student to form rules for himself. In every +walk in life, book knowledge is only a means to an end. Books can only +direct us where to look and what to look for, but we must do the finding +<i>for ourselves;</i> therefore, if you have really grasped the principles +of the science, you will frame rules of your own which will give you better +results than any attempt to follow somebody else's method, which was +successful in their hands precisely because it was theirs. Never fear to be +yourself. If Mental Science does not teach you to be yourself it teaches +you nothing. Yourself, more yourself, and yet more yourself is what you +want; only with the knowledge that the true self includes the inner and +higher self which is always in immediate touch with the Great Divine +Mind.</p> + +<p>As Walt Whitman says:--"You are not all included between your hat and +your boots."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><i>The growing popularity of the Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science +has led me to add to the present edition three more sections on Body, Soul, +and Spirit, which it is hoped will prove useful by rendering the principles +of the interaction of these three factors somewhat clearer</i>.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap14">XIV.</a></h1> + +<h2>THE BODY.</h2> + + +<p>Some students find it difficult to realize that mental action can +produce any real effect upon material substance; but if this is not +possible there is no such thing as Mental Science, the purpose of which is +to produce improved conditions both of body and environment, so that the +ultimate manifestation aimed at is always one of demonstration upon the +plane of the visible and concrete. Therefore to afford conviction of an +actual connection between the visible and the invisible, between the inner +and the outer, is one of the most important points in the course of our +studies.</p> + +<p>That such a connection must exist is proved by metaphysical argument in +answer to the question, "How did anything ever come into existence at all?" +And the whole creation, ourselves included, stands as evidence to this +great truth. But to many minds merely abstract argument is not completely +convincing, or at any rate it becomes more convincing if it is supported by +something of a more concrete nature; and for such readers I would give a +few hints as to the correspondence between the physical and the mental. The +subject covers a very wide area, and the limited space at my disposal will +only allow me to touch on a few suggestive points, still these may be +sufficient to show that the abstract argument has some corresponding facts +at the back of it.</p> + +<p>One of the most convincing proofs I have seen is that afforded by the +"biometre," a little instrument invented by an eminent French scientist, +the late Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, which shows the action of what he calls the +"vital current." His theory is that this force, whatever its actual nature +may be, is universally present, and operates as a current of physical +vitality perpetually, flowing with more or less energy through every +physical organism, and which can, at any rate to some extent, be controlled +by the power of the human will. The theory in all its minutiae is +exceedingly elaborate, and has been described in detail in Dr. Baraduc's +published works. In a conversation I had with him about a year ago, he told +me he was writing another book which would throw further light on the +subject, but a few months later he passed over before it was presented to +the world. The fact, however, which I wish to put before the reader, is the +ocular demonstration of the connection between mind and matter, which an +experiment with the biometre affords.</p> + +<p>The instrument consists of a bell glass, from the inside of which is +suspended a copper needle by a fine silken thread. The glass stands on a +wooden support, below which is a coil of copper wire, which, however, is +not connected with any battery or other apparatus, and merely serves to +condense the current. Below the needle, inside the glass, there is a +circular card divided into degrees to mark the action of the needle. Two of +these instruments are placed side by side, but in no way connected, and the +experimenter then holds out the fingers of both hands to within about an +inch of the glasses. According to the theory, the current enters at the +left hand, circulates through the body, and passes out at the right hand, +that is to say, there is an indrawing at the left and a giving-out at the +right, thus agreeing with Reichenbach's experiments on the polarity of the +human body.</p> + +<p>I must confess that, although I had read Dr. Baraduc's book, "Les +Vibrations Humaines," I approached the instrument in a very sceptical frame +of mind; but I was soon convinced of my error. At first, holding a mental +attitude of entire relaxation, I found that the left-hand needle was +attracted through twenty degrees, while the right-hand needle, the one +affected by the out-going current, was repelled through ten degrees. After +allowing the instrument to return to its normal equilibrium I again +approached it with the purpose of seeing whether a change of mental +attitude would in the least modify the flow of current. This time I assumed +the strongest mental attitude I could with the intention of sending out a +flow through the right hand, and the result as compared with the previous +one was remarkable. The left-hand needle was now attracted only through ten +degrees, while the right-hand one was deflected through something over +thirty, thus clearly indicating the influence of the mental faculties in +modifying the action of the current. I may mention that the experiment was +made in the presence of two medical men who noted the movement of the +needles.</p> + +<p>I will not here stop to discuss the question of what the actual +constitution of this current of vital energy may be--it is sufficient for +our present purpose that it is there, and the experiment I have described +brings us face to face with the fact of a correspondence between our own +mental attitude and the invisible forces of nature. Even if we say that +this current is some form of electricity, and that the variation of its +action is determined by changes in the polarization of the atoms of the +body, then this change of polarity is the result of mental action; so that +the quickening or retarding of the cosmic current is equally the result of +the mental attitude whether we suppose our mental force to act directly +upon the current itself or indirectly by inducing changes in the molecular +structure of the body. Whichever hypothesis we adopt the conclusion is the +same, namely, that the mind has power to open or close the door to +invisible forces in such a way that the result of the mental action becomes +apparent on the material plane.</p> + +<p>Now, investigation shows that the physical body, is a mechanism +specially adapted for the transmutation of the inner or mental power into +modes of external activity. We know from medical science that the whole +body is traversed by a network of nerves which serve as the channels of +communication between the indwelling spiritual ego, which we call mind, and +the functions of the external organism. This nervous system is dual. One +system, known as the Sympathetic, is the channel for all those activities +which are not consciously directed by our volition, such as the operation +of the digestive organs, the repair of the daily wear and tear of the +tissues, and the like. The other system, known as the Voluntary or +Cerebro-spinal system, is the channel through which we receive conscious +perception from the physical senses and exercise control over the movements +of the body. This system has its centre in the brain, while the other has +its centre in a ganglionic mass at the back of the stomach known as the +solar plexus, and sometimes spoken of as the abdominal brain. The +cerebro-spinal system is the channel of our volitional or conscious mental +action, and the sympathetic system is the channel of that mental action +which unconsciously supports the vital functions of the body. Thus the +cerebro-spinal system is the organ of conscious mind and the sympathetic is +that of sub-conscious mind.</p> + +<p>But the interaction of conscious and subconscious mind requires a +similar interaction between the corresponding systems of nerves, and one +conspicuous connection by which this is provided is the "vagus" nerve. This +nerve passes out of the cerebral region as a portion of the voluntary +system, and through it we control the vocal organs; then it passes onwards +to the thorax sending out branches to the heart and lungs; and finally, +passing through the diaphragm, it loses the outer coating which +distinguishes the nerves of the voluntary system and becomes identified +with those of the sympathetic system, so forming a connecting link between +the two and making the man physically a single entity.</p> + +<p>Similarly different areas of the brain indicate, their connection with +the objective and subjective activities of the mind respectively, and +speaking in a general way we may assign the frontal portion of the brain to +the former and the posterior portion to the latter, while the intermediate +portion partakes of the character of both.</p> + +<p>The intuitional faculty has its correspondence in this upper area of the +brain situated between the frontal and posterior portions, and +physiologically speaking, it is here that intuitive ideas find entrance. +These at first are more or less unformed and generalized in character, but +are nevertheless perceived by the conscious mind, otherwise we should not +be aware of them at all. Then the effort of nature is to bring these ideas +into more definite and usable shape, so the conscious mind lays hold of +them and induces a corresponding vibratory current in the voluntary system +of nerves, and this in turn induces a similar current in the involuntary +system, thus handing the idea over to the subjective mind. The vibratory +current which had first descended from the apex of the brain to the frontal +brain and thus through the voluntary system to the solar plexus is now +reversed and ascends from the solar plexus through the sympathetic system +to the posterior brain, this return current indicating the action of the +subjective mind.</p> + +<p>If we were to remove the surface portion of the apex of the brain we +should find immediately below it the shining belt of brain substance called +the "corpus callosum." This is the point of union between the subjective +and objective, and as the current returns from the solar plexus to this +point it is restored to the objective portion of the brain in a fresh form +which it has acquired by the silent alchemy of the subjective mind. Thus +the conception which was at first only vaguely recognized is restored to +the objective mind in a definite and workable form, and then the objective +mind, acting through the frontal brain--the area of comparison and +analysis--proceeds to work upon a clearly perceived idea and to bring out +the potentialities that are latent in it.</p> + +<p>It must of course be borne in mind that I am here speaking of the mental +ego in that, mode of its existence with which we are most familiar, that is +as clothed in flesh, though there may be much to say as to other modes of +its activity. But for our daily life we have to consider ourselves as we +are in that aspect of life, and from this point of view the physiological +correspondence of the body to the action of the mind is an important item; +and therefore, although we must always remember that the origin of ideas is +purely mental, we must not forget that on the physical plane every mental +action implies a corresponding molecular action in the brain and in the +two-fold nervous system.</p> + +<p>If, as the old Elizabethan poet says, "the soul is form, and doth the +body make," then it is clear that the physical organism must be a +mechanical arrangement as specially adapted for the use of the soul's +powers as a steam-engine is for the power of steam; and it is the +recognition of this reciprocity between the two that is the basis of all +spiritual or mental healing, and therefore the study of this mechanical +adaptation is an important branch of Mental Science. Only we must not +forget that it is the effect and not the cause.</p> + +<p>At the same time it is important to remember that such a thing as +reversal of the relation between cause and effect is possible, just as the +same apparatus may be made to generate mechanical power by the application +of electricity, or to generate electricity by the application of mechanical +power. And the importance of this principle consists in this. There is +always a tendency for actions which were at first voluntary to become +automatic, that is, to pass from the region of conscious mind into that of +subconscious mind, and to acquire a permanent domicile there. Professor +Elmer Gates, of Washington, has demonstrated this physiologically in his +studies of brain formation. He tells us that every thought produces a +slight molecular change in the substance of the brain, and the repetition +of the same sort of thought causes a repetition of the same molecular +action until at last a veritable channel is formed in the brain substance, +which can only be eradicated by a reverse process of thought. In this way +"grooves of thought" are very literal things, and when once established the +vibrations of the cosmic currents flow automatically through them and thus +react upon the mind by a process the reverse of that by which our voluntary +and intentional in-drawing from the invisible is affected. In this way are +formed what we call "habits," and hence the importance of controlling our +thinking and guarding it against undesirable ideas.</p> + +<p>But on the other hand this reactionary process may be used to confirm +good and life-giving modes of thought, so that by a knowledge of its laws +we may enlist even the physical body itself in the building up of that +perfectly whole personality, the attainment of which is the aim and object +of our studies.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap15">XV.</a></h1> + +<h2>THE SOUL.</h2> + + +<p>Having now obtained a glimpse of the adaptation of the physical organism +to the action of the mind we must next realize that the mind itself is an +organism which is in like manner adapted to the action of a still higher +power, only here the adaptation is one of mental faculty. As with other +invisible forces all we can know of the mind is by observing what it does, +but with this difference, that since we ourselves <i>are</i> this mind, our +observation is an interior observation of states of consciousness. In this +way we recognize certain faculties of our mind, the working order of which +I have considered at page 84; but the point to which I would now draw +attention is that these faculties always work under the influence of +something which stimulates them, and this stimulus may come either from +without through the external senses, or from within by the consciousness of +something not perceptible on the physical plane. Now the recognition of +these interior sources of stimulus to our mental faculties, is an important +branch of Mental Science, because the mental action thus set up works just +as accurately through the physical correspondences as those which start +from the recognition of external facts, and therefore the control and right +direction of these inner perceptions is a matter of the first moment.</p> + +<p>The faculties most immediately concerned are the intuition and the +imagination, but it is at first difficult to see how the intuition, which +is entirely spontaneous, can be brought under the control of the will. Of +course, the spontaneousness of the intuition cannot in any way be +interfered with, for if it ceased to act spontaneously it would cease to be +the intuition. Its province is, as it were, to capture ideas from the +infinite and present them to the mind to be dealt with at its discretion. +In our mental constitution the intuition is the point of origination and, +therefore, for it to cease to act spontaneously would be for it to cease to +act at all. But the experience of a long succession of observers shows that +the intuition can be trained so as to acquire increased sensitiveness in +some, particular direction, and the choice of the <i>general direction</i> +is determined by the will of the individual.</p> + +<p>It will be found that the intuition works most readily in respect to +those subjects which most habitually occupy our thought; and according to +the physiological correspondences which we have been considering this might +be accounted for on the physical plane by the formation of brain-channels +specially adapted for the induction in the molecular system of vibrations +corresponding to the particular class of ideas in question. But of course +we must remember that the ideas themselves are not caused by the molecular +changes but on the contrary are the cause of them; and it is in this +translation of thought action into physical action that we are brought face +to face with the eternal mystery of the descent of spirit into matter; and +that though we may trace matter through successive degrees of refinement +till it becomes what, in comparison with those denser modes that are most +familiar, we might call a spiritual substance, yet at the end of it it is +not the intelligent thinking principle itself. The criterion is in the word +"vibrations." However delicately etheric the substance its movement +commences by the vibration of its particles, and a vibration is a wave +having a certain length, amplitude, and periodicity, that is to say, +something which can exist only in terms of space and time; and as soon as +we are dealing with anything capable of the conception of measurement we +may be quite certain that we are not dealing with Spirit but only with one +of its vehicles. Therefore although we may push our analysis of matter +further and ever further back--and on this line there is a great deal of +knowledge to be gained--we shall find that the point at which spiritual +power or thought-force is translated into etheric or atomic vibration will +always elude us. Therefore we must not attribute the origination of ideas +to molecular displacement in the brain, though, by the reaction of the +physical upon the mental which I have spoken of above, the formation of +thought-channels in the grey matter of the brain may tend to facilitate the +reception of certain ideas. Some people are actually conscious of the +action of the upper portion of the brain during the influx of an intuition, +the sensation being that of a sort of expansion in that brain area, which +might be compared to the opening of a valve or door; but all attempts to +induce the inflow of intuitive ideas by the physiological expedient of +trying to open this valve by the exercise of the will should be discouraged +as likely to prove injurious to the brain. I believe some Oriental systems +advocate this method, but we may well trust the mind to regulate the action +of its physical channels in a manner suitable to its own requirements, +instead of trying to manipulate the mind by the unnatural forcing of its +mechanical instrument. In all our studies on these lines we must remember +that development is always by perfectly natural growth and is not brought +about by unduly straining any portion of the system.</p> + +<p>The fact, however, remains that the intuition works most freely in that +direction in which we most habitually concentrate our thought; and in +practice it will be found that the best way to cultivate the intuition in +any particular direction is to meditate upon the <i>abstract principles</i> +of that particular class of subjects rather than only to consider +particular cases. Perhaps the reason is that particular cases have to do +with specific phenomena, that is with the law working under certain +limiting conditions, whereas the <i>principles</i> of the law are not +limited by local conditions, and so habitual meditation on <i>them</i> sets +our intuition free to range in an infinitude where the conception of +antecedent conditions does not limit it. Anyway, whatever may be the +theoretical explanation, you will find that the clear grasp of abstract +principles in any direction has a wonderfully quickening effect upon the +intuition in that particular direction.</p> + +<p>The importance of recognizing our power of thus giving direction to the +intuition cannot be exaggerated, for if the mind is attuned to sympathy +with the highest phases of spirit this power opens the door to limitless +possibilities of knowledge. In its highest workings intuition becomes +inspiration, and certain great records of fundamental truths and supreme +mysteries which have come down to us from thousands of generations +bequeathed by deep thinkers of old can only be accounted for on the +supposition that their earnest thought on the Originating Spirit, coupled +with a reverent worship of It, opened the door, through their intuitive +faculty, to the most sublime inspirations regarding the supreme truths of +the universe both with respect to the evolution of the cosmos and to the +evolution of the individual. Among such records explanatory of the supreme +mysteries three stand out pre-eminent, all bearing witness to the same ONE +Truth, and each throwing light upon the other; and these three are the +Bible, the Great Pyramid, and the Pack of Cards--a curious combination some +will think, but I hope in another volume of this series to be able to +justify my present statement. I allude to these three records here because +the unity of principle which they exhibit, notwithstanding their wide +divergence of method, affords a standing proof that the direction taken by +the intuition is largely determined by the will of the individual opening +the mind in that particular direction.</p> + +<p>Very closely allied to the intuition is the faculty of imagination. This +does not mean mere fancies, which we dismiss without further consideration, +but our power of forming mental images upon which we dwell. These, as I +have said in the earlier part of this book, form a nucleus which, on its +own plane, calls into action the universal Law of Attraction, thus giving +rise to the principle of Growth. The relation of the intuition to the +imagination is that the intuition grasps an idea from the Great Universal +Mind, in which all things subsist as <i>potentials</i>, and presents it to +the imagination in its essence rather than in a definite form, and then our +image-building faculty gives it a clear and definite form which it presents +before the mental vision, and which we then vivify by letting our thought +dwell upon it, thus infusing our own personality into it, and so providing +that personal element through which the specific action of the universal +law relatively to the particular individual always takes place.<sup><a +href="#fn1" name="rfn1">[1]</a></sup> Whether our thought shall be allowed +thus to dwell upon a particular mental image depends on our own will, and +our exercise of our will depends on our belief in our power to use it so as +to disperse or consolidate a given mental image; and finally our belief in +our power to do this depends on our recognition of our relation to God, Who +is the source of all power; for it is an invariable truth that our life +will take its whole form, tone, and color from our conception of God, +whether that conception be positive or negative, and the sequence by which +it does so is that now given.</p> + +<p>In this way, then, our intuition is related to our imagination, and this +relation has its physiological correspondence in the circulus of molecular +vibrations I have described above, which, having its commencement in the +higher or "ideal" portion of the brain flows through the voluntary nervous +system, the physical channel of objective mind, returning through the +sympathetic system, the physical channel of subjective mind, thus +completing the circuit and being then restored to the frontal brain, where +it is consciously modelled into clear-cut forms suited to a specific +purpose.</p> + +<p>In all this the power of the will as regulating the action both of the +intuition and the imagination must never be lost sight of, for without such +a central controlling power we should lose all sense of individuality; and +hence the ultimate aim of the evolutionary process is to evolve individual +wills actuated by such beneficence and enlightenment as shall make them +fitting vehicles for the outflowing of the Supreme Spirit, which has +hitherto created cosmically, and can now carry on the creative process to +its highest stages only through conscious union with the individual; for +this is the only possible solution of the great problem, How can the +Universal Mind act in all its fulness upon the plane of the individual and +particular?</p> + +<p>This is the ultimate of evolution, and the successful evolution of the +individual depends on his recognizing this ultimate and working towards it; +and therefore this should be the great end of our studies. There is a +correspondence in the constitution of the body to the faculties of the +soul, and there is a similar correspondence in the faculties of the soul to +the power of the All-originating Spirit; and as in all other adaptations of +specific vehicles so also here, we can never correctly understand the +nature of the vehicle and use it rightly until we realize the nature of the +power for the working of which it is specially adapted. Let us, then, in +conclusion briefly consider the nature of that power.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name="chap16">XVI.</a></h1> + +<h2>THE SPIRIT.</h2> + + +<p>What must the Supreme All-originating Spirit be in itself? That is the +question before us. Let us start with one fact regarding it about which we +cannot have any possible doubt--it is <i>creative</i>. If it were not +creative nothing could come into existence; therefore we know that its +purpose, or Law of Tendency, must be to bring individual lives into +existence and to surround them with a suitable environment. Now a power +which has this for its inherent nature must be a kindly power. The Spirit +of Life seeking expression in individual lives can have no other intention +towards them than "that they might have life, and that they might have it +more abundantly." To suppose the opposite would be a contradiction in +terms. It would be to suppose the Eternal Principle of Life acting against +itself, expressing itself as the reverse of what it is, in which case it +would not be expressing itself but expressing its opposite; so that it is +impossible to conceive of the Spirit of Life acting otherwise than to the +increase of life. This is as yet only imperfectly apparent by reason of our +imperfect apprehension of the position, and our consequent want of +conscious unity with the ONE Eternal Life. As our consciousness of unity +becomes more perfect so will the life-givingness of the Spirit become more +apparent. But in the realm of principles the purely Affirmative and +Life-giving nature of the All-originating Spirit is an unavoidable +conclusion. Now by what name can we call such an inherent desire to add to +the fulness of any individual life--that is, to make it stronger, brighter, +and happier? If this is not Love, then I do not know what else it is; and +so we are philosophically led to the conclusion that Love is the prime +moving power of the Creating Spirit.</p> + +<p>But expression is impossible without Form. What Form, then, should Love +give to the vehicles of its expression? By the hypothesis of the case it +could not find self-expression in forms that were hateful or repugnant to +it--therefore the only logical correlative of Love is Beauty. Beauty is not +yet universally manifested for the same reason that Life is not, namely, +lack of recognition of its Principle; but, that the principle of Beauty is +inherent in the Eternal Mind is demonstrated by all that is beautiful in +the world in which we live.</p> + +<p>These considerations show us that the inherent nature of the Spirit must +consist in the eternal interaction of Love and Beauty as the Active and +Passive polarity of Being. Then this is the Power for the working of which +our soul faculties are specially adapted. And when this purpose of the +adaptation is recognized we begin to get some insight into the way in which +our intuition, imagination, and will should be exercized. By training our +thought to habitually dwell upon this dual-unity of the Originating Forces +of Love and Beauty the intuition is rendered more and more sensitive to +ideas emanating from this supreme source, and the imagining faculty is +trained in the formation of images corresponding to such ideas; while on +the physical side the molecular structure of the brain and body becomes +more and more perfectly adjusted to the generating of vibratory currents +tending to the outward manifestation of the Originating Principle. Thus the +whole man is brought into unison with himself and with the Supreme Source +of Life, so that, in the words of St. Paul, he is being day by day renewed +after the image of Him that created him.</p> + +<p>Our more immediately personal recognition of the All-originating Love +and Beauty will thus flow out as peace of mind, health of body, discretion +in the management of our affairs, and power in the carrying out of our +undertakings; and as we advance to a wider conception of the working of the +Spirit of Love and Beauty in its infinite possibilities, so our intuition +will find a wider scope and our field of activity will expand along with +it--in a word we shall discover that our individuality is growing, and that +we are becoming more truly ourselves than we ever were before.</p> + +<p>The question of the specific lines on which the individual may be most +perfectly trained into such recognition of his true relation to the +All-embracing Spirit of Life is therefore of supreme importance, but it is +also of such magnitude that even to briefly sketch its broad outlines would +require a volume to itself, and I will therefore not attempt to enter upon +it here, my present purpose being only to offer some hints of the +principles underlying that wonderful three-fold unity of Body, Soul, and +Spirit which we all know ourselves to be.</p> + +<p>We are as yet only at the commencement of the path which leads to the +realization of this unity in the full development of all its powers, but +others have trodden the way before us, from whose experiences we may learn; +and not least among these was the illustrious founder of the Most Christian +Fraternity of the Rosicrucians. This master-mind, setting out in his youth +with the intention of going to Jerusalem, changed the order of his journey +and first sojourned for three years in the symbolical city of Damcar, in +the mystical country of Arabia, then for about a year in the mystical +country of Egypt, and then for two years in the mystical country of Fez. +Then, having during these six years learned all that was to be acquired in +those countries, he returned to his native land of Germany, where, on the +basis of the knowledge he had thus gained, he founded the Fraternity R.C., +for whose instruction he wrote the mystical books M. and T. Then, when he +realized that his work in its present stage was accomplished, he of his own +free will laid aside the physical body, not, it is recorded, by decay, or +disease, or ordinary death, but by the express direction of the Spirit of +Life, summing up all his knowledge in the words,</p> + +<blockquote> +"Jesus mihi omnia."<br /> +</blockquote> + +<p>And now his followers await the coming of "the Artist Elias," who shall +bring the Magnum Opus to its completion.</p> + +<blockquote> +"Let him that readeth understand."<br /> +</blockquote> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1>FOOTNOTES</h1> + + + +<p><a href="#rfn1" name="fn1">1.</a> See my "Doré Lectures."</p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10390 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |