Chapter XI W. John Murray
THE HEALING INTENTION
Mental Medicine
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1923.
[165] According to Fichte in his “Destination of Man,” the will (intention) is the effective cause, the living principle of the world of spirit (mind), as motion is of the world of sense (matter). “I stand between two opposite worlds; the one visible, in which the act alone avails, the other invisible and incomprehensible, acted on only by the will (intention). I am an active force in both these worlds. My will (intention) embraces both. The will (intention) is in itself a constituent part of the transcendental world. By my free determination I change and set in motion something in this transcendental world, and my energy gives birth to an effect that is new, permanent, and imperishable.”
The reason why I have inserted the word [166] “intention” after the word “will”, is in order to distinguish the word “will” from the popular use of it, as when one speaks of a stubborn person as the willful or self-willed person.
Then again the word “intention” implies a mental picture of a specific act to be performed, as when we say, “It is my intention to go home.” We have a mental picture of ourselves doing so, and enjoying the comfort thereof, and this without any strain, as is the case in the exercise of what we call an effort of the will. A good intention is an inner consent of the mind to do something worthwhile without noise or ostentation, and always this intention sees the thing intended as completed in mind and only requiring the element of time to complete it in matter or the world of sense.
Back of every good intention there is the omnipotence of Good itself, just as behind every effort to secure light, physical or material, there is light only awaiting our intention [167] to possess ourselves of it and utilize it.
In another place Fichte says, “Every virtuous resolution (intention) influences the omnipotent will, or mind, (if I may be allowed to use such an expression) not in consequence of a momentary approval, but of an everlasting Law of His being.” The response of electricity to the turning of the switch is not due to momentary approval, but to the everlasting law of its nature, or being. I think, when we once understand that responses to prayer are not due to “momentary approval,” but to the action of Universal Mind to our particular good intentions, we shall have more faith in our affirmations of health and wholeness, than we ever had when we begged for blessings.
When Fichte says, “By my free determination (or affirmation) I set in motion something in this transcendental world” (of mind), he is merely in advance of Haanel in “Mental Chemistry,” who says, “Radio-activity consists in setting in motion certain [168] electric vibrations, which, after passing through the ether, record themselves on a distant receiver. The whole system depends on the intangible substance known as ether. It is a substance invisible, colorless, odorless, inconceivably rarefied, which fills all space.”
What ether is to the physical world, mind is to the mental world, and who shall say where one begins and the other ends, or whether they are not the same substance under different names? If, through radioactivity, form can be generated in the formless ether, why should not the intentional activity of specific thinking generate form in the formless Universal Mind?
Speaking along the same lines from a different point of view Troward says, in his “Edinburgh Lectures” concerning the impersonality of the Universal Mind, “It has no intention, because it is impersonal. 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 [169] 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 fulfillment. 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 the test in every case 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 individual force, and it will no more oppose us by [170] specific plans of its own than will steam or electricity.”
Knowing that the universal tendency of water is to flow down, we provide such channels as will tend to give such specific direction to it as will insure irrigation for our lands, and water supply for our homes. Knowing now, in a more scientific way than we have ever known before, that it is the tendency of the Universal Mind to flow down into individual minds in terms of “life-givingness” all we have to do is to provide such channels of thoughts as will tend to give such direction to Universal Mind as will insure health and happiness.
Whenever it is our intention to heal ourselves or others by applied psychology, or the power of directed thought, this intention sets into motion the force or energy necessary to the production of this result. It first acts in and on the Universal Mind, as certain electric vibrations act in the ether through which they pass, into personal experience in the form of that particular blessing we seek.
[171] If we are working for ourselves, we can make our affirmations aloud, so that two senses will be effected at the same time; or we can work in Silence making such affirmations as will be conveyed to the subconscious mind, which will give back to us through the mediating principle, messenger, or go-between, the finished product of our mental picture, as when a photograph is developed in the dark room. If we are working with healing intention for another, it is preferable at first to approach him through silent affirmation in order to avoid unnecessary argument and unconscious opposition, which is apt to occur until one becomes familiar with the laws governing psychology.
As the patient improves he will naturally become more receptive to the new idea, after which the work will be more in the nature of teaching than of healing, for if a student is properly taught he can heal himself.
If we comprehend the principles laid down in what has been written so far, we are in a position to know that Thought is the most [172] active force in the universe, for it is by means of Thought that all other forces are caused to serve the highest interests of man. “Thought speaks, and the will responds.” Jesus thinks, and then says, “Take up thy bed and walk,” and the will of the palsied man responds to this command, and what we call a cure is established. It is merely that the will of one has responded to the thought of the other, and the combination is a process of mental chemistry which is no more to be marveled at than that water should be the natural outcome of a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Is it a miracle that two invisible gases should, when combined, result in visible water? Why then consider it a miracle, or an impossibility for the two invisible gases of thought and intention, or will, when brought together, to result in such a combination as shows forth in physical healing?
Mr. Coue’ is right when he says that imagination is superior to will. The will alone is like an untrained animal, but under the [173] direction of the imagination and pure thought, it becomes combined with these in the production of visible manifestations of invisible substances. When man is no longer at the mercy of what he calls his strong will, so that when he would do good he finds his will taking the other direction, he will guide his will as he now guides his horse or his motor car.
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