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 _en rapport_ 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.
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
_feeling_ 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 _very first_ 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.
XI.
HEALING.
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 _all_ 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 _one_ 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_ yourself_ in the
absolute, or unconditioned, is as _purely living Spirit_, 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 _condition_ resulting from the _obsence_ 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.
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.
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 _plenum_ to the _vacuum_. This mutual removal of
the external mental barrier between healer and patient is what is termed
establishing a _rapport_ 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 _thought_ of their identity _makes_
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 _pure_ 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.
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 _inversion_, bringing its appropriate penalty to the
operator.
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
_absent treatment_. 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 _through_ 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.
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 _all_
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.
XII.
THE WILL.
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 _in itself_ 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.
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.
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 _in
extenso_ 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.