Rev. Joseph Murphy, Ph.D.
Excerpt from:
THIS IS IT: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
Church of Divine Science
Los Angeles, 3rd ed., 1948 Revised
It is often asked, “Why do we have dictators, despots and tyrants in the world?” These are extensions in space of the dictator complex present in the hearts and minds of all human beings. Instead of trying to force our opinions on others, we must learn how to change ourselves and we will change the world.
What is the world? The world is ourselves in agregation. Napoleon still lives, Ghenghis Khan still lives, as do Caesar and all others. They live in the consciousness of the race. Our boys and girls learn about them at their mother’s knees, at school and in college. They burn with resentment and rage at the apparent wrongs committed by these men. They read avidly of the crimes, atrocities, and acts of violence. These states are impressed on their subconscious minds. All of these moods, feelings and thoughts which are entertained become objectified as living realities. Moreover, these boys and girls suffer from nightmares, hysteria and various complexes because these moods of fear, hate, anger and resentment become the ghosts that walk the gloomy galleries of their minds.
Living in these states of mind–dwelling on dictators and tyrants, realizing that whatever is impressed in consciousness must be expressed in the world–man should not be surprised when these tyrants of the past are reborn into our society, because we actually call them forth. It is true in a sense, therefore, that Ghenghis Khan is reborn or reincarnated. He is an embodiment of the state of consciousness of the people, nation, race or world, whatever the case may be. The reader will see, that it is not a man who lived a thousand or two thousand years ago who is being reborn. It is a state of consciousness that is born again.
When a mother places a child on her knee; whispers in his ear that he is God walking the earth and tells him that he can do all that Jesus did, she is seeing her boy as God had planned. If the mother believes her statements, her belief will be automatically transferred to the child’s subjective consciousness, and he will become her ideal. “I was young, now I am old, yet never have I seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed beg bread.” If parents live the Law, if teachers teach the Law of life–the Truth of Being to the young; then their seed shall never beg bread. This means these children shall never become the beggars, outcasts, thieves and tyrants of the world. No, they shall fulfill the ideals of the parents. They must fulfill the prayer of the parents because true prayer is always answered.
If parents will impress their subjective minds with wonderful dreams for their boys and girls, then according to their belief, “will it be done unto them.” By changing our opinions, beliefs, ideas and ideals by teaching the youth of the nation who they really are, by showing them the way, the truth and the light, we can build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth; then we will prevent the rebirth of dictators, despots–former undesirable states of consciousness–which are perpetuated by prejudices, racial hatreds and fear of the unknown.
Let us teach children of the great accomplishments of the poets, artists, engineers, chemists, physicists, astronomers and others. Let them emulate these great men. There is so much for a child to learn about the great writers of the world and the giants of world literature, that the beautiful works of man cannot be exhausted in what is ordinarily called “a lifetime.” After he is taught good, the child will emulate good.
In reality we are all dreaming; when man fully awakens he knows that planets are thoughts, suns and moons are thoughts, and his own consciousness is the space which sustains them all. He begins to realize that the whole world is a thought. For example, he becomes aware of the fact that the body is not real, but it is a thought or idea held in consciousness. The body has no life apart from consciousness. He realizes that there is absolutely no reality to matter or the body of man; it is a group of ideas and opinions. Man gives life to ideas and opinions as long as he believes them. When he disbelieves the errors, these ideas have no life in them.
Man was never born and he will never die. There is no death. Death is an idea that exists in the minds of men. As long as man believes in death, he must witness and experience it. Man has no beginning and no end; he always was, just as God always was, is and shall be. “God and man are one.” “I am my Father are one.”
The man who is always quoting so-called authorities to prove the modern theories of reincarnation is himself without authority. He is still crying in the wilderness and calling other men masters and adepts. Call no man master. “Salute no man on the highway.” Salute the God within. The Kingdom of God is within, and if someone tells you it is “Lo here; lo there,” believe him not. The Kingdom of Heaven is within man.
Where is the Truth? It is within yourself. “Look within–search the Scriptures,” said Jesus. This means that all has been written in your subjective mind “from the foundation.” All knowledge is within; all wisdom is within; all beings that ever lived are within you now. You can project the likeness of any living being, past or present; for all men are states of consciousness–qualities of mind expressed. All moods, tones, qualities and vibrations are within you, because God is within and He cannot be divided–all is contained in the part. Christ cannot be divided, and Christ means consciousness. The subjective Self of man–the Christos or Christ-man, the so-called Jesus Christ or God-man knows all men are within himself. He knows that, objectively speaking, all beings are projections in space of himself–the One Man.
Are there not thousands of cases over the world of men who have completely lost their former identity and personality; assumed new lives; entered different professions, and in many cases even remarried? These men were victims of amnesia, or loss of memory concerning their former selves. They could not remember their former wives or children. They had no recollection of their former professions or occupations. They assumed a new role in life. They were changed men entirely, because they had changed their consciousness. There is only consciousness!
Let us stop quoting authorities on spiritual subjects. As long as we quote authorities, we cease to be THE authority. All power is given to us in Heaven and on earth. Let us use it. In the spiritual sense we are all victims of amnesia. We have forgotten who we really are, and we tell ourselves that we are worms of the dust.
Take, for example, a man who goes to sleep and when he awakens he has completely forgotten who he is, and gravitates to the slums. His social world becomes the slums. His friends, knowing what has happened, try to coax him back to his former status. Because of amnesia his former way of life is entirely blotted from his memory. He believes his place is in the slums; he only smiles at these old acquaintances whom he no longer knows. He accepts as true the role he now plays.
The day comes when his memory is restored and he awakens to his rightful status. With certainty and promptness he returns to the environment consonant with the dignity of his upbringing. He wonders why he is in the slums. What has transpired is all a dream, a dream of the unreality. “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph. 5:14). Let us awake to the Real and return to our Father’s house. “Every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Is. 55:1)
Man does not have to become a victim of amnesia in order to change his consciousness. He can read the 10th Chapter of Samuel, book I, and learn how he can be turned into another man. This is accomplished through prayer. Take the story of the boy born of lowly parents, in a manger, having all the handicaps socially and financially that any child could have at that period in history. It was said, “Can there anything good come out of Nazareth?” (St.John 1:46). The word “Nazareth” symbolizes to sprout or grow, and man should be ever watchful not to despise the day of small beginnings.
This boy Jesus walked the earth and imagined himself to be the perfect man, capable of seeing only perfection in everything. He felt the reality of the wish within him and it became a conviction. Having imagined the state he wished, and having felt the reality of the state imagined, all the necessary qualities for the fulfillment of that state came from within himself. They were always there, but they had to be recognized before they became manifest in the world of man. This boy did as Samuel said man should do, which was, “Go up into the Hill of God–thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place playing music, and thou shalt prophesy with them,–and shalt be turned into another man.” (Sa. 10:5)
The Hill is a high state of consciousness; the other prophets represent the eternal trinity employed in the creation of all things–consciousness, idea and the joyous feeling or conviction that it is done. The “feeling” is the conviction that unites consciousness desiring with the thing desired. The joy of answered prayer is the music of the three prophets. It is the inner silent knowing of the soul. Therefore, any man can turn his back completely on the past;–forget all the old beliefs and foolish ideas of the race mind; enter into the joyous thrill of being Jesus (saving consciousness) and do his work. If he remains faithful to this mood and sustains it, he will automatically develop all the qualities necessary to do “even greater work.”
The story of Jesus is a portrayal of what all men should be. It is a complete refutation of all age-old beliefs regarding man’s handicaps of race, national origin, environment and circumstance. All these things are as naught when man discovers who he really is; so let us keep our eyes on God. It is there, where man sees no obstacle. When he takes his eyes off God, or his good, he sees his limitations and obstacles. NOW is the day of salvation; let us see the light now; for God is the Eternal Now–since time is an illusion of the senses. The awakening takes place now.
We know that everything exists in the Infinite. There is nothing that any man can think of, no matter how fantastic, that does not already subsist in the Infinite. It may be said to exist when we acknowledge it or witness it. Nothing is made; nothing becomes; all is and all is God. We are wedded to the belief in time, so we conceive of ourselves conditioned by time. Yet the Bible tells us, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” (Ps. 90:4)
If time is a belief, which it really is, the common belief of reincarnation cannot be true. The theory tastes good and looks good, but let our prayer be: “lead us not into temptation.” God tempts no man, but our conscious mind and five senses are tempted to believe this false doctrine. It becomes a panacea assuaging our wounded pride or feeling of inferiority. Moreover, it causes us to turn back or tempts us to eat of it. “But in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” because we are eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree means world belief, power in other gods hence the breaking of the first Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.”
We must eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, which is man’s consciousness–God dwelling within him giving all power to Him. We “eat” of Him by taking part in a psychological feast of being a noble, dignified and Christ-like person. We must see the Christ in all men, sermons in stones and good in everything. When we do this, all other things shall be added unto us. Man’s life on this plane is like the several stanzas of a poem or the scenes of a play, because it really is the One Being dramatizing Himself as the many. Common sense is the most uncommon sense, because it is God’s or good sense. Wisdom or common sense teaches that illumination or the great awakening to our Godhead can happen here and now. “If it be not now, yet it will come; the readiness is all.”
In order to elucidate this point, take a solid, metallic substance and heat it. The temperature rises, but for a while it looks as if no change were taking place. However, the moment that degree of heat is reached, which denotes its melting point, it begins to liquify, thus changing its shape and seemingly its nature also. Likewise, water can be turned into steam which is invisible–pure steam cannot be seen. Water also becomes snow, ice and hail–all different rates of vibration of the one substance. When a liquid is changed into a gas, these changes are brought about by an increase in the rapidity of vibration of the constituent particles whether they are solid or liquid. The same applies to man. What is true on one plane is true on another, for God changes not. The rebirth comes to that man here and now–not in the after life. There is no transforming power in death. Man raises his rate of vibration by lifting himself up to a high state of awareness, by entering into the thrill of being that which he longs to be, and by feeling the joy of accomplishment.
Man is a porous being, plastic and pliable, capable of being moulded into any state he can imagine. He is nothing but “liquid light.” In the meditative mood he stills the mind, thereby immobilizing the senses by focusing his attention exclusively on the one ideal–only one. He suggests sleep to himself by feeling sleepy, being careful not to fall asleep, however; the mystic in meditation must always keep control. In this mood he knows, feels and sees himself as being bathed in a sea of liquid light. A flame or lights appear all around him and he knows that in this floating liquid state he can mould, fashion and shape all that he longs to be, to do and to possess.
In this state he contemplates the joy of the answered prayer. The feeling of accomplishment fills him, and he dwells on the reality of his desire for perhaps five minutes, two minutes or ten minutes. By constantly praying in this manner, there is an expansion of consciousness–it is like the heat that melts the solid. The day comes when man melts away all inhibitions, fears and doubts, and becomes the God man here and now. To such a man, physical laws and time disappear. This change may come in the twinkling of an eye like the volatilization of a liquid into a gas.
The reason the modern theory of reincarnation is popular is because man, using his five senses only, is like the five foolish virgins–he has no oil or wisdom in his lamps. He finds that this explanation gives him solace and tells him what he wants to hear. At the same time it seems to unfold many unexplained phenomena. Such acceptance retards spiritual progress, checks the awakening process and is a destructive, superstitious belief. The modern accepted belief in reincarnation is very old; as is the belief in purgatory, hell and the devil.
The Bible mentions reincarnation several times and some of these references are explained in this book. The Scripture informs us that Herod believed in reincarnation. Herod represents the world or the five-sense man, the man ignorant of spiritual laws who subscribes to tradition and family beliefs. A man who believes that John, Elias, or some prophet long since dead, is risen from the dead, is symbolized by Herod. What this type of man fails to see is that it is always God coming forth as a quality, tone, or mood of man himself.
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The worldly-minded man called Herod in the Bible, believes in a physical reincarnation, and he desires to see Jesus, or the Truth as told in the ninth chapter of Luke. However, the Truth student will readily see that such a man cannot see him, “as no man hath seen the Father.” The latter is always a subjective perception or feeling within man. Man awakens by degrees, slowly or quickly. On arising from bed in the morning, he rarely awakens all at once. It takes him a minute or so. The thermometer, however, does not skip any degrees. Before man fully awakens from his dream no necessary step in unfoldment will be omitted. All limitations and inhibitions will be dissolved.
The following article about the violinist Zimbalist appeared in “The New Yorker” some years ago: “Nobody told Zimbalist he was supposed to play the piano, too; during the final examinations in his eighteenth year, they handed him a Beethoven Sonata to be read at sight in the presence of the whole faculty. He had never touched a piano except to get his ‘A’. He sat down, however, got his breath and played. When he finished he was told to close the book and repeat the whole Sonata from memory. He did so. After a moment of silence the room broke unanimously into applause–an unheard-of demonstration.
The man of the world would not conceive of this as being possible. The power within man is capable of setting at naught all human beliefs and man-made laws. We must begin to take our attention away from the limited, human concept of ourselves; then we shall, like Mozart, compose music at six, statues at seven, and at the age of twelve we will confound the wise men of the world. Many cases are reported where cripples invalided for years leap and run in the presence of fires. In emergencies mothers lift automobiles to extricate their children. Where is this power? It is within themselves. Fires and emergencies are not needed to stir the gift within. Man can do this in the quiet of his own soul. We create in “silence.”
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