New Thought Archives

[347] The directions for patients in lesson nineteen would seem very difficult to follow, and they are difficult. No patient ever follows them to any degree of perfectness at first, but by frequent readings, or by oral instruction to the same effect, he will by degrees begin to drop the burning consciousness of his disease that he has carried so long and so laboriously. The treatments help the patient to a comprehension of the directions. They shape his mind in conformity with them, and presently he is able to do a good deal for himself simply by following the directions. He will find his disease less frequently in his thought. He will find himself entering into the thoughts of others more, and will begin to be enlightened of the awful load of himself that he has carried so long. And so by degrees all thoughts of the disease will slip from his mind, and when they have slipped from his mind they have slipped from his body also, for body and mind are one.

On the subject of thought-lifting I want to say a few more words. I must make this matter plainer, for I am sure that few persons have ever thought much about it. I must give some illustrations that will make it clear. A woman is troubled, let us say, and she retires to her chamber and prays. After praying most earnestly for a time she comes into the belief that God has heard her prayer and granted her request. Then she is happy and contented, and goes about her business again in perfect rest and trustfulness.

Let us examine her attitude of thought during the prayer. Let us observe, first of all, that her eyes are raised and her face turned upward. This attitude indicates the lifting of her thoughts above the position ordinarily occupied by them. They have ascended into a clear place above her head–it seems to her–but in reality they have only ascended into that upper chamber of the brain that I call the ideal. Here in this upper chamber the atmosphere is very clear, and she loses sight of the trouble that invaded the lower realm of her mentality. Up here there is a sense of power that impresses her greatly and destroys her fear. She believes in it, and is reassured and happy.

This is all there is to prayer. Prayer is aspiration, or desire. When aspiration, or desire, becomes strong enough it ascends by virtue of its nature, or by natural law, just as cream ascends to the top of milk. It comes up to the air; to the free space above; to a more unconfined realm. This is part of the law of evolution. The finer comes up through the coarser to take its place in the more unconfined space in the higher realm.

Thus aspiration ascended from the everyday brain of the woman to the idealistic brain, where it saw that there was no hindrance to its actualization. This seeing was the spoken word, or the statement of its creation. Now, the woman would not have clothed her aspiration with belief but for the fact that she had been taught [348] that God was all powerful. Her faith was firmly established in this belief. It was not to be shaken, and it actually did clothe her aspiration, or prayer, and make it a tangible reality that brought her the comfort and rest she was seeking.

It was her belief in the power that did this. It would have made no difference if her belief had been placed upon some wooden god of heathendom, or on the crucifix which plays so important a part in the Catholic religion. It was her belief in the power that wrought the change in her feelings which she called an answer to her prayer, and which really was an answer to her prayer.

The power was there. She had ascended in her own intelligence to the abode of power; namely, the idealistic faculties–those faculties that have been evolved from our everyday faculties according to the nature of the law, by which the finest, the most unfettered substances arise to the top.

The power was her own. But if one had attempted to make her believe this, the whole effect would have been lost. She had been brought up in the belief of her own helplessness; in the belief that all the strength she could have was through the grace of the God in whose power she had the most unswerving confidence. And so an apparent miracle was wrought. The great God had stooped from his throne to answer the cry of one of his helpless children.

That the power-house from which the woman drew the answer to her prayer, or demand, was in her own brain is proved by daily occurrences of the same kind in heathen countries where similar miracles are performed by wooden gods. The belief in the power, no matter where the power comes from, is all that is necessary to clothe the aspiration, or demand. Belief is the clothing power of desire. As the desire is of the individual, so is the power that gratifies it. The power lies in the strata of unfettered thought which belongs to the idealistic brain.

Here is another instance of ascending into this upper brain. I knew a woman who was very sickly and suffered intensely. She bought medicine when she could, and with it deadened her pain. At times she could not get the medicine, and her pain was unendurable until she discovered that there was a realm of thought into which she could ascend where she ceased to be conscious of the pain. She told me that night after night she lifted her thoughts into this high place entirely out of reach of the pain in her body. This was before I had ever heard of Mental Science.

Another woman in childbirth had been in hard labor for nearly two days, when it was discovered that the presentation was wrong. A second doctor had to be sent for, and as he was away from home it soon became known that he would not come for twenty-four hours. This announcement was enough to kill the patient, and would probably have done so, only in the shock of her despair her spirit, that poised itself for escape from the tortured body, was suddenly arrested in this high place in the brain, and instantly became conscious that there was rest there and freedom from suffering. She assured me that while abiding in this high place in her thought–which she did for one whole day and night until the doctor came and promptly relieved her–she was perfectly conscious of the immense muscular power exerted in the effort of her body to bring the child into the world, and knew that the pains were going on with terrific force, but she did not feel them. She was above the region of thought where there is any consciousness of pain, and yet she was in her own body all the time.

I have told of these instances to show the student that this high place of human intelligence exists, and that by ascension into it we are able to speak the word that clothes with power. It needs thought and study to enable us to get a full understanding of this fact, but when we do get an understanding [349] of it there comes to us the self-trust that makes gods of every one of us.

One more point on the subject of practical healing, and I will pass on toward the conclusion of the twentieth lesson, which completes the regular course.

It has been considered necessary in absent healing for the healer and patient to set a certain hour for the treatment, in which they may meet each other in thought. In order to do this there must be a consideration of difference in time, owing to difference in locality. Of course in this arrangement there is a chance for mistakes to occur, and mistakes have occurred; so many of them, in fact, as to prove that there is no need of fixing a certain time in which to meet each other in thought, because whether the time is fixed or not the healing goes steadily on just the same. This led me to learn all I know about the wonderful possibilities of thought. I found that if I sent a thought to a patient and the patient was not listening for it, it would wait until such time as she chanced to turn her thought toward me, when it would enter her sphere of thought and make its impression; the impression I intended it should make.

At other times I have occasionally forgotten to treat a patient at the hour agreed upon, when a strange unrest would take possession of me; just as one in trying to think of something else is disturbed by the babble, babble, babble of a child, and wishes it would hush; and all of a sudden the name of my patient, whom I was neglecting, would flash into my mind, and I would know that the disturbing influence had been the patient’s thought that was coming to me at that hour. Now, I did not understand a word of the patient’s thought, but I felt its presence distinctly, and knew what it meant. The thought was present with me waiting to claim my attention. If the patient’s thought could do this with me, then my thought would do the same with her. I made a long series of experiments with this thing, from which I learned the palpable character of thought when charged with a purpose, and the tenacity with which it held to the purpose and performed it, even to the most minute particulars.

I permit a patient to tell me all the particulars of her disease, and I would rather she would do this than not, because it is a relief to her mind. It is virtually giving her disease away, or freeing herself from it.

Self-trust, based upon self-knowledge, is the basis of all healing power. The more you know yourself the more you will trust yourself, for the more you will become acquainted with your own greatness, your own power to create.

The more you know and trust yourself, and the more you prize your own power, the stronger the magnet you will become, and the more will you be able to draw from the external world the things and conditions related to your desires, through the unerring process of the Law.

The man who possesses the most powerful self-hood attracts to himself the most good. And his power to attract good is not limited to those elements by which his character is built up in such force and strength, but he also attracts from the world of visible things just what he desires.

It is only in proportion as his character is built in strength that he has the power to attract things to himself, such as friends, wealth, and honors.

As a man can only increase in real power by increasing in goodness, or a belief in good, it is therefore impossible for him to become a dangerous person in this way, as seems to be the general idea. No man gains in strength by believing in so-called evil influence. The reason for this ought to be apparent to every student who has accompanied me thus far in these lessons. All beliefs in evil influences, and in every form of disease, are simply so many negations of good. Now, to deny good does not nullify [350] good, but only blinds the person who denies it to the sight of it; this is all.

To illustrate: People may believe in evil as much as they please, and may attempt to heap what they term an evil influence on me. Suppose that I too believe in evil influences and thus make a mental admission of their power over me. I then take the consequences of my belief in evil and begin to show it forth, for a man shows forth, for the time being, just what he believes whether truth or error.

But suppose, on the other hand, that I know the law; I then laugh at the futility of their attempts, and go on believing in good and showing forth its power. All beliefs in evil and disease are based on fear, and their effects are psychological on people; that is, the belief being thrown on a person, and then not standing in the stronghold of self, is like a mirror that reflects or shows forth the beliefs thrown upon it; and so for the time being he appears to be diseased, or evil.

It has occurred to me that the student may think I am saying very little about disease and its cure in these lessons.

It is because I know to a certainty that–in the light of absolute truth–there is no disease, that I do not say more about it. It is merely a false belief. If you have the belief, then the cure for you is to convince you that your belief is not true. This is the only cure there is for you. You are purely, so far as your exterior is concerned, an intellectual statement. You have accepted the statement of yourself almost unquestioningly from others. You are dissatisfied with the statement and want a better one. You cannot have a better one until you see wherein your present statement is mistaken. As soon as you see this you will be well. Disease is ignorance of your own power. If you can remain on the everyday plane of your development and perceive your mistake, well and good. If you cannot do this, and there are very few who can, then you must raise your thoughts to the ideal sphere, and from this high place correct your statement, denying the existence of evil and affirming the good, and recognizing your own individuality as an exponent of the good only; and thus strengthen yourself as a human magnet until you feel yourself invulnerable in power.

You have never thought of yourself as a magnet, and have probably connected the idea of magnetism with mesmerism and have been frightened by the bare thought of it. But you are a magnet; and when I say this I mean that you have a something within yourself that is forever true to you. It is always with you, and always holding the fort against foreign invasion. And yet this inner stronghold you have been taught to look upon with suspicion, and have tried to lay it down or yield it up as a sacrifice to your mis-educated conscience.

Now, the steadfastness with which you stand true to this inner fort, this something that is always with you, this spirit, or will, marks your power as a magnet. And the more you recognize this inner power, this magnetic force or will, the more you come within the line of the Law of Attraction and the more you are able to draw to yourself such good as you may desire.

Right being is right seeing. It is the seeing from the highest point of our intellects, and this is the idealistic point. In this lofty place you do not demand health, it is already yours. All things desirable are yours, and all you ask for is greater faith in yourself; greater self-trust. It is from this place that you will see how all things you desire can come to you. Your words will be like these: “I am under the Law of Attraction, for there is no other law. I am a magnet, and it is the nature of a magnet to attract. Under a consciousness of the Law it can do nothing else. But what do I want to attract? That which will build me up in a greater knowledge of my own strength; this is what I want [351] to attract every hour. Perhaps my ignorance is so great that I cannot name what I want. It makes no difference; I want just that which shall make me more and still more conscious of my own strength. Whatever this may be, it is correlated to my desire, or will, and my intelligence standing shoulder to shoulder with my desire makes me a perfect unit, and therefore an irresistible magnet. I will get what I want.”

Take your position as a citizen of the universe with latent powers that correlate you to every external thing–including the thousand unexplored atmospheric forces–and make your demand for that which will develop you to much greater strength and power than you have ever known.

Nature teaches us of powers not yet recognized in ourselves. The grub develops into a butterfly; but a man whose growth embraces both grub and butterfly has so far failed to recognize any such power in himself. Many of the flying insects transgress every known law of physics in their flying. The “bumblebee” is too heavy for his small wings to bear up his weight in the air; the law of physics has demonstrated this fact; and yet he flies. And the reason of his flying is because he is destitute of reason. He flies because he wants to, and does not know that he cannot. Thus he disproves the law of physics and establishes the fact that desire and faith are supreme over them. He is ignorant of the so-called laws of physical causation–a belief in which has kept us slaves to the “has been” for so many ages.

We can never make much advancement in the new road we are now traveling until we cease to believe in what is termed the impossible. So long as we believe that there is anything impossible that our desires project we will stand right where we are; right in these same old tracks where our forefathers have stood since the dawn of reason. We must pull up stakes and away. Nature has been trying to give us hints on this subject always. She calls to us constantly by all her myriad voices: “Go on, go on, or else die.” She will not permit us to stand still. The whole tendency of life is to still further development into still greater uses than the generations behind us knew anything about. “Learn a thing and leave it,” cries this stern and busy old mother. “Do not stand to con over the lesson you know, but hasten on to the studying of the next one. There shall be no standing still in my world. Hurry up or hurry out.”

The reason we die is because there is no use of living after we know all we mean to learn; and as there is no use of anything in life but use, the law of life itself hangs on this principle. Do not imagine that this sentence excludes the idea of beauty. In the refinement of the race the expression or manifestation of beauty through every form of art is going to be the highest of all uses. Our lives are here in the world of effects; and the whole intention of existence is to establish ourselves firmly here by bringing our wills forward and upward into our ideal personalities. Then these personalities will become living human wills; and that will grow in strength through use and intelligent recognition of their power until we shall be such wonderful creatures as we can form no present conception of.

Do you imagine that these lessons are for no other purpose than to patch up your decaying bodies and make them a little more comfortable until death shall release you from them? They are not written for this purpose at all, though no doubt very many students who purchase them will be satisfied with this result, and leave the greater and nobler results to be accomplished by that earnest few who are content with nothing but the very highest and best. They will be to each student just as much or as little as he demands; but my intention in writing them is to have them meet the highest possible demand. As the highest includes all below it, the lessons are [352] therefore adapted to the needs of each student.

I, for one, am not satisfied to let “well enough” alone. This time-honored synonym of mediocrity will never content me. I must get out of the old ruts of thought and action and strike a blow for the emancipation of myself and others; emancipation from the deadly ignorance that holds us to the negative pole of being, where we are the slaves of our own fear, and where life is a burden and a terror instead of the unfettered and beautiful thing it ought to be.

Disease and poverty and all those conditions you dislike so much are founded on fear. Every condition to be found in the negative pole of life is based on fear, and without fear it could not possibly exist.

To be fearless is to be where no adverse thing can touch you; where disease cannot affect you, nor poverty cast a shadow over you.

To cross from the negative to the positive pole of life is to pass from beliefs in disease and death to a knowledge of the fact that there is no disease nor death; and this can only be done by getting rid of fear. And we shall never get rid of fear until we do stand erect and alone in conscious enjoyment of the situation.

To be able to stand alone with the consciousness of the power involved in so doing, will be the crowning act of the magnet man. He will then be born into the positive pole of life where his career of self-ownership will begin, and where he can send out his thoughts and they will bring him what he wants. He will be a magnet revolving about other magnets as powerful as he is; for many men and women must come into this strength and knowledge before the ideal society is here; and the ideal society is one of man’s indispensable necessities. “Ye are the temple of the living God.” Not the temples, but the temple. Society must be composed of units, each of which is a perfect whole, else there will be no true reciprocal interchange.

By the expression”perfect whole” I do not mean that man in coming into the position I have described will cease growing. I mean that he will then be individualized. He will be a true individual standing in the mastership of his own faculties, and in this respect drawn apart from the influence of other men, and capable of living the life indicated by his peculiar genius. He will no longer be in that indefinite frame of mind where he and thousands of others can be pressed into the same mold, thus helping to swell that “mush of concession,” the great bulk of humanity, but not adding to the number of real men in the world. Once individualized in the way I have described in the foregoing pages he will only be perfect in the sense of being in the right condition to begin his endless career of development all through the ages of eternity. He will be perfect as a magnet, and will thus have power to acquire whatever his desires or will may call for.

Hoping that each of my students will keep firmly and hopefully at the work of unfolding his own faculties, and trusting that these lessons may assist him in becoming a tower of strength in the world. I close, with loving faith in the genius and patient endeavor of every one of them.