Thomas Parker Boyd – The Christ Science of Being

7/28/2019 Thomas Parker Boyd – The Christ Science of Being

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Thomas Parker Boyd – The Christ Science of Being

A Twelve Part Lecture Series

Thomas Parker Boyd, D.D., PhD.

Lesson 1. Introduction

The purpose of these lessons is to unfold the Science of Being, to develop a rational philosophy of living, and to teach a technique in the fine art of living, the synthesis of which will produce greaterhuman efficiency.

Humanity’s progress up from animalism began when we started to think. Thinking brought us aknowledge of the value and use of arms in securing food and defending themselves against enemies,

either animal or human. It brought us the secret of making a fire, which added greatly to comfort andprotection, and the satisfaction of cooked food. It led us up to the classification of vocal sounds andthence to language. The next step was the discovery of symbols of speech and the development of therecords of sayings and doings. Thus, humanity moved forward in the discovery and development of allthe symbols of the arts, sciences and philosophies of life. It must be plain, therefore, that to discoverthe powers of mind and the laws of their use will enable us to develop far beyond our presentattainment.

As great as our development was under the old empirical methods of art and philosophy, we began touse a safe and certain method with the unfoldment of the modern scientific method, which seeks todeal with the phenomena of life as facts, discovering the laws of their existence, building a rationalphilosophy, and to develop life as a fine art. Science concerns itself solely with facts, the methods of their operation, and formulates certain hypotheses that explain any general class of facts to which they

pertain. When science discovers new facts unexplained by the theory, they either abandon or adaptthe theory to include and explain the new discoveries.

All operations of nature proceed by definite forms of action called laws. Under these laws they explainall the happenings of existence. If anything ever happened, it did so under the operation of law, andtherefore may happen again. If it does not so happen, one or two inferences are sure, we have notfound the law by which it occurs, or else it never happened in the first place. Science applies thisgeneral principle in dealing with the forces and processes of nature, but it is equally pertinent indealing with the mental powers and activities, and in seeking an explanation of those powers of lifeassociated with spiritual things. Science treats such problems as longevity and general efficiency of living by offering a rational program of diet, hygiene, breathing, exercise, rest, diversion of tasks, therelation of heat and cold, light and darkness, color and harmony, sound and silence, and otherelements found in life’s circumstances.

Science seeks to understand the mind through a study and classification of its actions and processes todefine the various functions of mind clearly, its field of operation, and the outcome of its action. They classify certain activities of mind as objective, concerning external things, such as the reports of thefive senses, and the ideas that come in through our contacts with the world about us. It also handlesreports from indefinite sources, such as the subjective phases of mind from which "hunches" and various prompts arise, and other reports coming through the intuitive powers in moments of visionand inspiration.

Science has concerned itself with that great realm of consciousness in which so many factors of mentallife arise without our being conscious of their source. The scientific method has boldly invaded this vast undetermined realm, and classified certain of its activities as subconscious activity. Subconsciousactivities include the experiences that rise in dream life, and experiences that are accountable only onthe hypothesis of telepathy. This subconsciousness has charge of the functional activities andprocesses of the body, so that we often call it the "organic mind." This realm of subconsciousness



contains a great storehouse of memories and impressions of experiences, which include thoseexperiences that arise in human life, and those that could have risen only in some ancestral life livedout in the animal world. Science explains the strange anomaly of irrational animal impulses, risingand becoming dominant in rational and spiritual beings, by hypothesizing that they are accumulatedmemories of other existences, not inherent in mind itself.

Inevitably science must deal with those high potencies of mind that we call spiritual. Human history abounds with incidents in which a higher form of knowing is apparent. Science is left to posit theproposition of an essentially Divine Mind, or superconsciousness, which includes ways of knowingand powers of action do not fall within the other classifications. The language of this superconsciousknower is not "I think, therefore I am," but "I am, therefore I know." In this realm of knowing, timeand spacial relationships do not exist; all places are here; all time is now, and what is now in thesuperconscious knower may be very many years distant in the objective experience.

The scientific method recognizes that "nothing comes out of nothing." Some antecedent cause existsfor every effect, some antecedent source for all the issues of life. No life is in substance withoutantecedent life. Any mind, power, motion, or anything else in a manifested experience has its sourcein a being of adequate causation. Here science invades a realm previously held sacred in philosophicalspeculation, and proceeds to investigate Being, or the Is-ness of all existence. Since life, mind,

intelligence, substance and principle are all manifested in the facts science is constantly dealing with,it grounds the final hypothesis that God is the "undifferentiated" of which all the forms of existenceare "differentiations."

Humanity’s origin is in God, despite the accidents, incidents or processes by which we have come toour present development, and science holds before us a hope that life, which through ignorance of itssource, its nature, its relationships, and its destiny has been well nigh intolerable, will becometolerable and delightful through this newfound knowledge. The ancient specters of fear that havehaunted our imagination are fading. In this new synthesis of philosophy and art, with science as itspredominant and determining factor, our confidence is rising to live free of the ills of body and mind,and to attain to heights of experience and achievement long prophesied.

The ancients had a proverb that "Ignorance is the cardinal sin." It has at least been responsible formost of the ills of life. Under the regime of ignorance, life is a constant readjustment of outercircumstances. Under scientific knowing, life is an evolution of potential and inherent qualities of life,truth, goodness and love from within.

At last we are about to abandon the Christmas tree theory of life that we hang everything on from theoutside. We are ready to grasp and put the peach tree theory into operation, that the processes of thetree life itself produce the results of living. There are no accidents in science, neither are there any miracles; everything is done by law and order. A tree never loses its essential tree nature – from itsfirst sprout, with every new limb that it grows, and with every leaf that it flaunts to the wind, the treestructure is always present.

We may hold an acorn in our hand and scientifically prophesy and declare the oak that will be. When

the oak arrives, it has nothing that was not essentially present in the acorn. We behold the germ of divinity in man, and prophesy the godlike being who is inherently present. The acorn must have thestimulus of light and heat, moisture and the magnetic forces of the earth, and so must the essentialdivinity in us have the stimulus of truth, illumination, inspiration and love to bring it to full fruition.

Science beholds a basic substance that can never be any less nor more, whose infinite manifestationmay constantly change, appear or disappear, yet nothing is lost. Life itself does not begin or end, forlife forever is. Therefore, we discover a scientific basis for our hope of immortality.

There is only One Life and its manifold individual expressions, none of which can ever lose theirexistence. "God only hath immortality," so every personal expression of Him is immortal. A new conception of human relationship arises upon this finding. An axiom says that "the whole of anythingis equal to the sum of all its parts." It is equally true that each part has all of the qualities of the whole.

It therefore follows that the human brotherhood, about which the poets have sung, has a scientific basis in the universal divinity of human life. We must love our own or violate the first law of our



existence. To "love thy neighbor as thyself," rests upon a scientific truth, rather than on a formalannouncement by an authoritative teacher, for this kingdom of humanity, divinely born, must be asharmonious and cohesive as any earthly kingdom, which when divided against itself will fall. Science proclaims a world governed by law, not only in the general order of things but in all itsparticular occurrences. That law is not a blind, purposeless grind of fate, but is another way of saying

that everything moves by orderly procedure.

Nature’s laws are God’s habits of action. Their regularity of operation caused one inspired seer todescribe the Governor of the Universe as "without variableness or shadow of turning." This brings oneintelligent force into view, operating infallibly for good, every living thing conforms to its laws of expression. The violation of those laws turns this power from its channel of constructive working, andit works the ills of life. We discern the remedial nature of this law in the old time injunction, "Cease todo evil and learn to do well."

The same reign of law operates constructively or otherwise in the realm of mental life. An ancient seerdeclared that the downfall of Israel was due to an undirected imagination. Another ancient sagedeclared that his own growth and the glory of his nation were found in the formula, "My imaginationis stayed on perfection." Jesus declared that all of the ills of life flowed out of an unbridledimagination, and so he gave the injunction "Keep thy imagination with all diligence, for out of it arethe issues of life." Another inspired seer, after listing the constructive ideas of truth, said with allpossible emphasis, "Think on these things."

These considerations invite the following conclusions: Some whim or caprice of some essentially human being, whom we may cajole, bribe or otherwise influence to act other than in his owndetermined way, does not govern life. The power that governs, the laws by which we govern, and theagency by which these forces operate, are all within us. If life holds any unsolved problem, any goodnot attained, or any unfulfilled desire, this failure is a call to apply scientific method to every fact,question, relationship, and experience of life. To achieve health, happiness, success or any otherearthly good, we must view the facts with unbiased mind and act rationally.

We cannot live to ourselves; we cannot die to ourselves; we cannot fail to ourselves; neither can wesucceed to ourselves. Our life is forever bound up in the unity of all life, whose enigma we can unravelonly on the principle of harmony in all life’s expressions. We must find harmony with the source of life, with our fellows, with ourselves, between ourselves and our body, between our conscious andunconscious activities. For when the kingdom of harmony, or heaven, is established within us, then allthe outgoings of our life are harmonious, and all needed things rise spontaneously into our hand andexperience.

Lesson 2. That Something

The pacemakers in the world of achievement have risen among all peoples, have all found thatsomething within, and driven by its impelling force, have taken their place among the Masters of life. Among these children of genius, one said to his astounded followers, "have the faith of God" – thediscernment that within you is the power to achieve, and the authority to awaken and direct it unto allachievement. Unlike most of those who have towered above their fellows, he declared that they coulddo the same things he did and even greater works. He invariably pointed out that it was something within, which we have in every age called faith.

The whole thought in this lesson is directed to securing physical health, but the principle operates with equal effectiveness in every field of human experience. We will unfold this as the lessons proceed.

We define faith as a state of consciousness rather than an action mind. It is the perception of reality as

opposed to appearance. It is the discernment that the thing we hope for is now real, while the thing wesee may be very unreal. Our clearness of perception therefore determines the measure of faith.



Health of body or circumstances is the expression of states of consciousness, the registry of ourperceptions of reality in material form. If one is out of health, his consciousness has lapsed from astate that registers perfect health into one whose logical expression is disease. We need to restore sucha variable mental state to a state of stability, which will not need healing but will keep the body inhealth. These lessons are intended to lead people consciously to realize the powers of life so that they will not need healing, but will abide in perfect health.

We base the statements in these lessons on the metaphysical principle that everything is primarily mind, and that a previous state of mind determines all manifestations. We assume, as truth, that agiven state of mental action will definitely express in bodily conditions. Inversely, we assume from the bodily conditions that we may formulate a diagnosis of the previous states of mind.

A definite correspondence exists between a given power, an attribute of mind, and some organ of the body in which it registers its acts, and states. The universally observed influence of the love life uponthe physical heart illustrates this. Every human being who has experienced the "grand passion" has been aware of the sense of well-being in the physical heart.

Many people have found that their variant states of emotions apart from love – such as fear, anger, jealousy, envy, etc. – have registered irregularity in heart action, high or low blood pressure and other wrong conditions arising from abnormal heart action. In other words, all right action of the love liferegisters in the normal heart action, while all wrong emotional stages tend to disturb. Various teachersin different schools of thought have worked out these correspondences, which are valuable, both inpractical work and in getting a clear understanding that our physical condition definitely relates to ourmental and emotional states.

A person has mental and emotional dyspepsia before he has its physical expression in the materialcorrespondent stomach. A woman, suffering from stomach complaints, said that she had wanderedfrom one extreme to another, and was finally a vegetarian. She had wrestled with many cardinal ideasin her mind, none of which she had ever digested and incorporated into her conscious realization of truth. Bringing her to a clear statement of the truth, which underlies all these varying beliefs, wasnecessary. With that predigested mental aliment, she could get rid of the turmoil of her mind, and as a

result to get normal action of its physical correspondent – the stomach.

Attaining and maintaining that high state of consciousness, which results in perfect harmoniousaction among all the body’s organs, is not easy. Ignorance of the nature of life and power of the mindhampers it, and the false belief that material form and experiences are the real thing, while those of the mind and spirit are imaginary. Ages of evolution have so deeply implanted a materiality of consciousness in us – and we have so strongly fortified it by our own experiences of wrong teachingand wrong thinking – that its elimination, while sometimes appearing to happen as an act, really resolves itself into a process. Most of us do not achieve it in a day, but gradually attain it during many years of study and opening the mind in the Truth of Being. Four hundred years of bondage in Egypt soimpregnated Israel’s consciousness with Egyptian ideals and beliefs that while it took but forty days toget Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus, it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel.

In every age, illumined men and women have risen far above their fellows in knowledge of the Truthof Being and how to realize it. Yet they were compelled to adapt their statements and methods to theirpeople’s ability to receive it. In studying their works, certain flashes of absolute truth and its unlimitedaction and results appear, but mostly they adapted to the consciousness of their people. A steady evolution of consciousness appears, in which health of mind and emotions is fixed enough to registerin physical well being.

Such a moment of illumination appears in the statement, "I am the Lord who heals thee." Mosesunderstood it in his experience in the wilderness, when he heard the "I AM" speaking first from the burning bush and later from within himself. Moses, at least, knew that the Lord who healed him andthe Lord within him were the same. Understanding this, he thrust his hand into his bosom and it cameout white with leprosy. At the command of the voice he put his hand into his bosom the second timeand his hand came forth clean. Moses could not communicate this high realization of the Truth of

Being to his people, but had to adapt it to their understanding. The voice of the human consciousness



in that day is similar to ours. They said "Speak thou to God and let God speak to thee and then speak thou to us, but let not God speak to us, lest we die."

From Moses’ accommodation to human frailty and its inability to bear the full light of the truth, wehave developed a graduated system of material and mental crutches on which people pathetically limptheir way through life. As time and centuries of experience pass, we have apparently distinctly

improved the character of these adjustments. We pass through all the stages of fetishism, materialagencies, and mental suggestions, steadily evolving into a state of consciousness where we discardmethods and crutches, as such.

Elisha, a great spiritual healer, illustrates this principle of accommodation. The Shunamite woman’sson had died of sunstroke, was laid out in the upper room, and they carried word to Elisha. He sent hisservant with instructions to take his staff and lay it on the dead child, but it failed to bring the boy back to life. Only when he went in person, stretched himself upon the child and breathed into hismouth, did the child sneeze seven times and awake. The slightest use of the imagination sees Elishausing artificial respiration and bringing the boy back to life.

Naaman the Syrian, who was a leper, heard of the great healer in the land of Israel. He took his family on the long journey, and servants, gold, silver and garments sufficient to load twenty camels with hislove-offering for his healing. Please keep your eye on that twenty camels loaded with a love-offering!He brought a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel. He first approached the King, becausehe thought that if anyone in Israel had any power to heal, it would be the king. However, the kingpromptly disillusioned him, and he discovered that the healer was a humble nonprofessional, living ina hut somewhere in the suburbs.

Going there, he sent word announcing his arrival, and was shocked when the humble man instead of coming out to see him and "striking up and down with his hands," sent word to go and wash in theJordan seven times to cleanse his leprosy. Imagine the affront to a royal person, being told to takeseven baths in one day, especially in the muddy old Jordan, when the rivers of Arbana and Parphar inhis own land were clear and pure. If he had to bathe, he vowed he would bathe in them, but hisprivileged old servant pointed out that healer had conditioned the promise of healing on bathing in

the Jordan. When Naaman completed the sev en ablutions, the Jordan’s waters cleansed him. In thisnarrative, the principle of suggestion clearly begins to emerge.

Daniel, another great spiritual healer, when called upon to minister to the king, prescribed for hisnervousness, liver and stomach trouble, that he live in the open air, on a vegetable diet, and walk onall fours. This tale recognizes the value of fresh air, simple food, and of vigorous physical exercise, asexhibited in the "Nebuchadnezzar Walk."

Jesus sent the ten lepers to "show themselves to the priests," the quarantine officers of that day, anddirected them to take an offering for their healing, as prescribed by the law of Moses. The record statesthat they were cleansed as they went. We can find no more perfect illustration of the use of suggestion. To heal the blind man, Jesus anointed his eyes with a paste made of clay and spittle. Picture the sticky

nature of that clay! As we realize the vigorous stimulation that washing off the dried clay would give,the suggestion working – that when he had washed, he would see – linked with the identity andpersonality of the Master calling to his spiritual perceptions, we see the gradual emergence of theultimate healing powers in mind and spirit. The same evolution is apparent in the Master ’s healing work until in the records of his later experience we see an illustration of the healing consciousness inits full glory, in such cases as the nobleman’s son, to whom he said, "Go thy way, thy son lives."

This is the ideal, not only for one person to attain, but for all. To one of limited faith or perception of reality, accommodation is necessary, but when consciousness has evolved to a realization of itsoneness with God, sickness disappears. That something is the realization that I can, the indomitablepurpose, I shall, and the patience and persistence to carry on. For him who has the faith to see, thecourage to command the powers of life, and purpose to carry on, has found "that something," whichmakes all things possible of attainment.



Lesson 3. The Great Within

All life processes are from within. Life is based on the heart of things rather than on their periphery. Accretions gather from the outside in material affairs, but in the world of life and mind, everything isfrom within. "The kingdom is within." The center of all action and achievement is the ego – the self. Whatever that self holds within its consciousness of being, moves outward into expression. Health, asan inner state, expresses in the body. Prosperity, or riches of consciousness, move out into abundanceof the symbols of prosperity. We project inner harmony in our outer relations in life. The purposes of this lesson are to show the nature and location of the power that works, and to find and state thecauses that set it into action. While we emphasize physical healing, the principle applies equally tohealing any other conditions in human life.

"Thy faith hath healed thee." The Great Healer, Jesus, here announces that the healing power lies inthe patient himself, and rises into action in response to a state of consciousness called faith. He uses various terms to designate it, but whether faith, belief, or trust, it all returns to the idea to "Have the

Faith of God." When we have the same consciousness concerning health as God, who knows nosickness, claims of disease fade away.

The healer must have this faith to aid in healing, to raise the sick person’s faith to healing power. When the surprised disciples saw the Master heal an epileptic where they had failed, he told them they couldn’t because they didn’t believe they could. All interpreters have steadily misapplied what he saidnext: "This kind does not go out, except by fasting and prayer." Fasting and prayer may help somehealers, but in such a disease as epilepsy, the injunction applies specifically to the patient . Nine-tenths of such afflictions arise out of some disturbance to the digestive tract, coupled with a wrongstate of mind.

Failure to recognize this affliction’s dual nature accounts for the general failure to heal it. The doctormay easily remove [or medicate] the material cause, but the seizures continue unless the mind is also

freed of the sway of wrong thinking. The mental scientist may easily free the mind from the obsessingidea that attends this disease, but the attacks return unless the patient removes the physical condition.

A seventeen-year-old young woman, afflicted with Grand Mal epilepsy, followed a series of fasts: Oneday strict fast followed by a day of rest and light diet, then a two-day fast and a two-day rest followed by a three-day fast, drinking only water, following by a light diet, eliminating all such solids as meats.This dietary plan was to be permanent. We prayed with her and taught her to pray correctly by holding and thinking the thoughts of God in some such words as "The Lord Thy God, in the midst of thee, heals thee." She returned in thirty days to report that she had complete freedom from thetrouble. She was afterward married, became the mother of six children, and has never had a return of the trouble.

The use of means, which by the furthest stretch of the imagination could not have any healing virtue inthem, has healed innumerable people. One man, who after using every medical agency and method, was cured of hemorrhoids by carrying a horsechestnut in his pocket. One can easily see that the bulky form in his pocket kept his mind steadily filled with the idea and purpose of a cure.

Two physicians in a California city, who are highly trained in medical science, illustrate the point. Oneof them would starve if he did not augment his income by raising chickens, for no other apparentreason than that he has never inspired the community’s confidence that if they sent for him when sick,they would get well. The other one is busy almost night and day because he has called out that attitudeof mind in the community concerning him. More than one person has told me that having called him,they felt so much better before he arrived that they felt ashamed to have sent for him. This incidentdoes not belittle the skill of the medical men, but it does magnify the power of the patient’s state of consciousness as a healing factor.

An Old Testament story illustrates the whole question of the medical doctor’s relation to the powerthat heals: "Asa the king was sick unto death and in his sickness he did not turn unto the Lord his God



but had recourse under the physicians." The next sentence laconically announces the result, "And Asathe King was gathered unto his fathers." This may be a joke on the doctors, but in fact the joke was on Asa. Anyone who calls on the doctors and does not also call strongly upon the Lord is apt to findhimself in the same condition as Asa.

We must ascribe relative values to various healing agencies. The Power that heals is God alone, though

the physician and the practitioner of any mental science or form of religion may be the agents of arousing that state of consciousness that calls the healing forces into action and directs them tosecuring results.

A parishioner approached a minister asking if he would pray the Lord to heal her, to which hedefinitely consented. She said, "You believe the Lord heals in answer to prayer don’t you?" Heanswered, "Yes, I believe he does," but qualified it by adding, "I believe He uses doctors and hospitalsand medicines as His means of cure." She asked, "Don’t you believe that God heals in answer to prayeras in the days of Jesus and the apostles?" He answered, "No, the miracles of healing ceased. They ceased because they are intended to cease, and we know they were intended to cease from the fact thatthey did cease."

The joker hidden in that little bit of logic, caused the Christian church to forfeit her healing power andcommission sixteen centuries ago. The parishioner went to a practitioner of mental science, who did believe in God’s power to heal and had the skill to help her raise her consciousness to that highspiritual perception of reality in which the healing power becomes operative.

Kissing the bones of saints has cured thousands of people. The whole approach rests on thesuperstitious idea that the living person’s healing virtues still abide with their bones. This has somesupport in an Old Testament story: A dead man was brought to life, after being tossed into the cavethat held the bones of the dead healer, Elisha. However, the fact of the healing can have no possible basis except in the power of the patient’s consciousness, which his attitude of belief arouses.

Looking at the "holy coat," which is kept in a glass case in the Cathedral at Treves, has healed otherthousands. They say that this is the seamless coat the Savior wore on the last day of his earth life. It is

significant that there are three of these coats in existence – all certified by ecclesiastical authorities asthe original coat. Two at least of them are false and probably the third one is, but they all work themiracle of a cure when the person who is beholding them holds the right state of mind.

The famous shrine at Lourdes began its career when a child beheld a vision of angels at the spring.The local people immediately assumed that the spring had some healing virtue. They drank of its waters, bathed in them and were healed. Word spread until people have gone from every land in the world to drink and bathe and have been healed.

Medicine has shed real light upon the nature of this healing. They scientifically reviewed the healing work done at the springs. First they examined the water and found that it had neither chemical normedicinal qualities – it was just plain water. They examined each patient, made as careful a diagnosisas their science enabled them to do, and let the patients drink and bathe. They examined those who

declared themselves cured, and in a given period found eight thousand absolute cures, as far as theirscience could determine. A significant highlight their finding was that only a few of these cases were what we call functional diseases, while the vast majority were organic diseases, which involved theintegrity of the structures of the body. The doctors did not claim to account for the healing. Thechurch in charge of the Shrine has modestly suggested that God must surely do the healing since noother apparent healing virtue is present. We may make certain deductions in summarizing these incidents. First, there is but one HealingPower – God. Both healer and patient must call that healing power into action through the attitude of the mind we popularly call "faith." The doctor, minister or practitioner is effective in proportion to hisor her ability to raise the patient’s consciousness to the realization of those high spiritual forces that we find only in "God within us."



Lesson 4. The Word of Power

Personality distinguishes us from our animal predecessors. This is purely mental, unrelated to thehuman form. It is the power to know, to feel and to choose. Character is the result of the interaction of powers of mind.

Personality’s activities issue outwardly as words and acts. Thought forms the image, feeling furnishesthe motive power, will directs the action in the process. We include all this in thinking. We think, wecall what we think by name, and we become what we think. The character of our thought and themeaning of our words determine what we are. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," and we may change it to say, "I am what I have thought."

When we change our thinking and our words, we set a creative process in motion that changes ouroutward conditions. I think, therefore the Logos is. I speak the word and "the Logos is made flesh."Practice speaking and thinking what you want to be until it becomes your habit to speak and think what you want to be. Then you will be what you want to be.

"Thy son lives." We cannot do better than to have one lesson with the greatest healer of the ages, Jesusof Nazareth. A certain nobleman came to him and said, "Lord, my son is sick unto death. Come downand heal him." And Jesus said to him, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." Thenobleman answered, "Lord, come down and heal him ere he die." And Jesus said unto him, "Go thy way, thy son lives." The nobleman believed what Jesus said and went his way. The servants came outto meet him and told him the boy was well. The father inquired about the time he began to mend, andthey said "a certain time yesterday." And he knew that it was the same hour the Master had said, "Thy son lives." The first prominent idea in this story is that the nobleman recognized that the healing force was in some way connected with the personality of the Healer. We clearly discern the value of personality.

Truth is given to the world by being made known to a personality, and through the consciousness of

that personality, given to men. The measure of any person’s worth is to find his greatest idea, whichhis personality multiplies and projects. The order of knowing is, the message of a personalintelligence, to personal intelligence, through personal intelligence. A strong personality, such as thatof Jesus of Nazareth, which was in the likeness of the Divine Personality, is the secret of all trueachievement. The greatest healers are those of the strongest personalities, furnishing a channel for thehealing truth.

The nobleman recognized that the real power that healed was behind this man. There is only onehealing power. No physician ever healed anybody, nor does any wise doctor claim to have done so.Too often he gets results where he has least reason to expect them, and too often fails when medicalscience should have healed his patient. The average doctor recognizes clearly that he is only the agentof some healing power, which he discusses in Latin and speaks of the "vis medicatrix naturae" or thehealing power of nature.

No mental scientist, divine scientist, or adherent of any new thought school ever healed anyone. They do not claim to heal, but gladly recognize that they are but the instruments of healing power. Thisstatement need embarrass none of us when the great Healer himself tells us that he did not healanyone. "Of my own self I can do nothing; the Father in me does the works, speaks the words. I, by thefinger of God, cast out devils." This clearly distinguishes between those powers within us that arepurely human and those that are clearly divine.

When the superconscious in the healer sets the dominant rate of vibration, he is in the state to speak the word, "Thy son lives," and know that it is so. When the healer can raise the patient’ssuperconscious to function on the high plane of Divine Reality, the patient is in the state of consciousness to hear, "go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee." Let us get this clearly. God is the only

healer. There are not two powers or two healers, but just one.



The nobleman made a common mistake. He thought Jesus had to "come down." Jesus knew that boy was in the presence of healing power a day’s journey away, just as much as if he were in the presenceof the Healer. The heresy of a localized God is almost universal. No special relations bind God. Thereis no coming down nor up, no coming in nor out. God is in the rear of the church as much as He is inthe front of it, as much outside as inside, as much inside humanity as He is outside. God is evenly present everywhere.

"The time shall come and now is" said Jesus, "when neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem" – the two holy places of that day – "shall men call upon him, but wherever they shall call upon him inspirit, he will be found." Jesus clearly recognized God’s Omnipresence, and of the power within every person to contact God without any temple or priest or sacrament, or other intermediary.

John saw a symbol of a new civilization that would come to the world to fulfill Jesus’ word – theHeavenly city coming down from God. The first striking statement is, "There was no more sorrow norcrying, and God shall wipe away the tears from all faces." One day, when we see the truth and life asthey are, we shall lay aside the garments of mourning and know that our friends live. The second mark is, "The inhabitants there shall never say, I am sick." We are slowly coming to the place where we areashamed to say, "I am sick," or to boast of "enjoying poor health," as they did in other generations.

A healthy body is one of the first recommendations of a person’s religion. The greatest heresy of theages has been that it was the will of God for people to be sick. Jesus called it the power of Satan, andcame to deliver us from it, which he wouldn’t have done if sickness had been the will of God. Lots of people wouldn’t go on a vacation that would take them out of touch with their doctor! That sort of bondage is one step removed from addiction. If they could only grasp the even presence of God, they would know that they have the healer along with them always.

The next mark of this new civilization was, "I saw no sorcerers there." They translate the word"sorcerer" from the Greek word "pharmakos," meaning pharmacist or druggist. The old-timesorcerer’s shop with its red lights in front was a sign of danger. The modern drugstore is largely a bewildering array of patent drugs, remedies, cosmetics and toiletries.

Next John says, "I saw no temple there." Looks bad for the parsons, but it isn’t as revolutionary as itseems. The time will never come when we will discard the value of people gathering with a commoninterest, but the time will pass when we must go to a temple or any other sacred place to find God, for we can find Him with equal facility everywhere.

The final significant mark was, "There was no more death." The undertakers’ trust is going to crashsomeday. Maybe it will be like Enoch, who "walked with God and was not, for God took him." Maybelike Moses, who did not have the attention of an official undertaker. Maybe like Elijah, who ascendedin a chariot like unto fire. Maybe like Jesus, who discovered that he had power to lay down his body and take it up again. It does not mean immortality in the body, but it does hint at a final mastery overmaterial substance, which has held the world in bondage. The knowledge and practice of theOmnipresence of God will cause this wonderful state of humanity. One woman said that it would"scare her to death to think that God was with her all the time." Yet God is literally right with you

every moment. When Jesus said, "thy son lives," he spoke a great truth. God works, and His work is instantaneousand complete. He isn’t going to heal. He heals. The healer’s great task is to bring the patient’sconsciousness up to realize that God’s work is done in him now. The patient must turn his attentionfrom the body to see spiritual reality, the Spiritual Substance of Being in which he also is complete.Raising the consciousness to realize that God’s healing work is always complete often requires time,study, and repeated treatments. The human mind finds it so difficult to know that God works. Wehave to know it by our inner perception before we know it with our objective mind.

This instance is a splendid example of speaking the right word. Too many people talk about, "my poor back," etc., when they should say, "Oh, wonderful and glorious me, made in the image of God, anddwelling forever in the midst of perfect health." We malpractice not only on ourselves, but on others.

For instance, when someone tells us that a friend has cancer, we begin to picture them as standing with one foot in the grave. No space or separation exists in mind, and every thought and spoken word



registers in their consciousness. If we realized this, we would find time each day to speak health forthem, and peace to the world. The word, rightly spoken, is just as powerful, no matter the distance between patient and healer. One learns to speak the word with power by steadily practicing until it becomes the habit to speak only in most positive and constructive form.

"The nobleman believed the word Jesus spoke." Faith here is not an outward assent to a statement,

but an inner perception of the reality of the truth spoken. Many people have been healed who didn’tobjectively believe what was taught them. Others have failed to be healed who avowed the fullest belief in all that was said. This is a common experience of all healers. It points out the nature of the faith thatsaves and heals.

The power that heals is ever one and the same. God heals. He is present in each of us with all health.The recognition of this fact and the acceptance of the truth, spoken or thought, brings to pass theexpression of inner reality in outer form.

Lesson 5. Methods of the Master

No study of mental and spiritual powers would convince us of their efficiency, or be complete withoutanalyzing how Jesus the Christ applied them. Apart from all questions as to the nature and origin of his unique personality, he stands as the peerless Master of teachers and healers, in a past wheremental and spiritual titans formed the "skyline" of human leadership. The hallmark his supremacy includes his perfect realization of universal truth, his effective use of its power to help humanity, thesanity and practical character of his interpretations of truth, and in a method that is clearly scientificin their application.

"He healed them every one." The principles of the healing works of Jesus are few and invariable. Themethods he employed are numerous and varied. The sum of the healing principles is, "God is theHealer: God in you does the work. Faith, the perception of this spiritual reality, sets the healing forces

at work. Desire and purpose direct the action of the healing power." Yet when we study his methods,they seem to depend on the time, place and the individual.

"He laid hands on them and healed them." This was one of his favorite methods, as shown by how often he used it. It specially suits people whose state of mind requires some material help to realizethat something is being done for them. Many people have supposed that some healing virtue went outfrom him and healed them. Undoubtedly this was an element, for one cannot contact others eitherphysically or mentally with the purpose to help them without having, "Power to go out" of him.However, it means nothing more than priming an old pump and starting it to work on its own.

The laying on of hands concentrates the attention on the place to be healed. You will find it difficult toclose your eyes and try to visualize a point on your arm between the elbow and shoulder. If you touch any spot, you direct the attention of the mind and the whole nervous system (the instrument of mindthat furnishes the channels through which mental impulses travel to any part of the body), to thatpoint of contact. So, when Jesus would open a blind man’s eyes, he touched them, and spoke the word.He touched the deaf person’s ears, and they were opened. The method is still effective with many people. Moreover, when you treat yourself, you will often find that to touch the place of pain, andspeak the words, "be still," will bring relief when just speaking and thinking the truth fails.

"He made a paste of clay and spittle and anointed the blind man’s eyes and told him to go wash in thepool of Siloam." Let no one think that Judaean clay had any more virtue than does "Denver Mud," with a longer name. Yet visualize the climate’s quick -drying power, the blind man’s long trip throughnarrow streets, the steep pathway down to the pool, his effort to wash that sticky ointment off, withoutsoap or towel. Imagine how tremendously it would stimulate the circulation, how powerfully he wouldconcentrate attention on his eyes, how his subconscious worked on Jesus’ suggestion that he wouldsee when he had done all this. Above all, imagine his faith in the authority of him who had prescribedall these activities. The working of his faith, bolstered by these other factor, healed him.



"Go show yourself to the priests," etc. This is one of the clearest uses of suggestion to be foundanywhere. The priests were the quarantine officers of that day. They were experts in the discernmentof signs of leprosy. Jesus also told the ten lepers to make an offering for their healing as prescribed by the law. Imagine ten men, covered with leprosy, told to report to the health officers, and take along anoffering for their healing before they had any sign of their healing. They started, "and as they wentthey were cleansed." All they had to go on was the mental picture of themselves being able to pass

inspection. They went because of their faith in him. "He took him by the hand and led him apart." This illustrates the Master’s recognition of the crowd’spsychology. It was probably a very difficult case, and the multitude was saying, "Well, here’s one hecan’t heal," and sure enough he couldn’t with that mental atmosphere surrounding him. Yet when hetook him apart from the crowd, Jesus could rid his mind of their adverse mental atmosphere, and hehealed him.

Every healer has often found it wise to separate the patient from others, particularly his immediaterelatives. Let Mary and John come in together; Mary is wondering what John is thinking, John isasking mentally what Mary is thinking, and the lack of concentration often disturbs the healer. They form a triangle, which defeats the purpose of the interview. Patient confidentiality is essential, for any audience intimidates healer and patient, and inhibits the process. Often the relatives’ anxiety operates

as fear and defeats the effort of the healer to turn the mind of the patient away from himself and hisclaims, to behold spiritual reality clearly. Most healers find better results when they require thepatients to attend three or more instructions before receiving any formal healing treatment. Mosthealers follow this as Jesus did, for the reasons above given.

"I see men as trees walking." We have now the case of a blind man who received only partial relief, andhad a second treatment before his sight came clear. The limitation does not lie in the power that heals, but in the difficulty of raising the patient’s consciousness from materiality to a clear perception of thespiritual nature and unlimited power of God, who heals. The work of the Spirit is instantaneous.However, its manifestation is often gradual, depending entirely on the patient’s ability to obey theinjunction, "Look unto Me and be ye saved" or healed. Others often challenge healers about why they have to treat people repeatedly, while Jesus healedthem at one treatment. The challenge assumes a great deal. It is not at all certain that Jesus instantly healed all who came to him. Nor is it certain that he treated them only once. The gospel record isadmittedly fragmentary and brief. Healers characteristically mention their most striking cases, andsomeone else records them. Most people understand that. People seldom record their failures, butcelebrate their victories. Asserting that he instantly healed all who came to him is dubious. TheGospels record that in one or two places "He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief." "Look on us." This incident in the third chapter of the Acts, gives a very powerful sidelight on the variety of the methods of the great healer. The paralytic, lying at the beautiful gate asking alms, askedan alms of Peter and John. If he had known that they were preachers, he wouldn’t have done it. ThenPeter, with John, fastened his eyes on him and said to him (the confession of the ministry of all ages),"Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

rise up and walk." He did.

Not only the power arose in him in response to the wonder-working name, but something else, whichmost readers overlook. They looked each other in the eye. What Peter said rode down throughthe pupil of the eye, past all the sentinels of the paralytic’s objective mind, landed in his innerconsciousness, the storehouse of limitless healing power, and he rose and walked. A psychologicalprinciple is involved here. You cannot look in another’s eye, let him do the talking, and avoid beinginfluenced by what he says. This principle accounts for why most of us have bought all sorts of uselessgadgets from sales agents. It accounts for many people taking a partner who didn’t suit, but they couldn’t see straight while holding hands and looking in the eyes of another.

The disciples learned the method from Jesus, who also practiced it. They all used it for healing. Peterused it on Simon Magus, and Paul used it on Elymas the sorcerer. People use it for all sorts of

purposes today, good or bad. When other methods fail, this one will succeed. If you find that youraffirmations do not seem to work, look steadily into your eyes in the mirror, make your affirmations,



and you will get results. When you become aware that another is looking at you with unblinking eyes, you can avoid his influence by fixing your attention on any facial feature out of harmony, look steadily at it and you will find the means to avoid the power of the eye.

"The last state of that man was worse than the first." This is clearly a case of a relapse of one whomJesus had healed. It appears that he had a relapse because he did not fill his heart and hands with high

purpose and useful service. Nothing is so fatal to progress as the idea that we have attained. Allsuccess is relative. All effects are but potential causes. The most powerful statement will lose its power by constant repetition unless we have a new perception of its meaning. The mightiest affirmation willlose its vibrating power and become a "sounding brass" unless we have a growing consciousness of itstruth.

Herein lies the cause of many people’s relapse after they have been healed. It is a common saying thatif God heals, the patient will stay healed. Let us not forget that God is the only healer. He has healedanyone who has ever been healed. We do not criticize the doctor because his patient gets sick afterward, through failure to keep the laws of health. Most doctors owe their "practice" to the fact thatpatients will need of their services again. The truth is that healing will occur and will continue whilethey maintain the right state of consciousness.

"Stretch forth thy hand." Jesus commanded this man to do what he had been unable to do for a long while. The incident suggests several valuable ideas. First it seems that Jesus was seeing and speakingconcerning the spiritual and real arm, which was perfectly whole. His word and vision enabled theman to see also the reality and to act upon it. It suggests that faith is sometimes a passive andreceptive attitude and at other times upon an active and positive effort. Some of us, who have been waiting for it to be done for us, need to make some effort. Others, who have worked so hard that they have not given the Almighty Power in them a chance to work, need to "be still, and know the Lord."Finally it tells the power of the spoken word. When we have used all other methods, the truth remainsthat the word of truth, spoken with full perception of its reality, is the great healing method of Jesus.Even when he used other methods and agencies, speaking the word is usually present. "Forever thy word is settled in heaven." To see it and speak it is to set free the utmost healing power.

"Judas carried the bag." People often claim that Jesus never charged or received anything for hishealing work. It is a very short-sighted statement. Judas carried the bag that held the thank-offeringsof people whom Jesus healed by his ministry. Tradition has it that some people, who followed himfrom place to place, helped freely so that they could go on with their work. The person who receiveshealing without making compensation in some form violates a fundamental law of truth, and will findthe healing benefit temporary.

"See that you tell no one," Jesus instructed one man. In another case, he told the healed man to show what great things the Lord had done for him. Everything depends on the patient himself, and how much he talks about his cure. Some psychological factor enters the proposition of testimonials. Toomany of us have knocked on wood when boasting about a healing miracle, not to have realized this. Inthese two gospel incidents, which are exactly opposite, the explanation lies in the fact that one of them was a man of strong convictions, not easily influenced by others’ opinions. He might go and proclaim

it from the housetops without any reaction. The other was susceptible to others, who would say, "Oh,this is all imagination or enthusiasm. It won’t last." So Jesus told him to go and tell no one until hehad become confirmed in his new state of consciousness, and its resultant health.

Doubtless the Master used many other methods with these, but these are sufficient to show hediscerned the variations in personality, and adapted the method to the patient’s ability to receive thetruth. He who holds most firmly to the one changeless principle that God alone heals, and trusts thespirit of inner illumination to guide him in applying it to the current case, will effect the largestpercentage of cures. We may define a cure as one in which the patient gets well and stays well.



Lesson 6. Life Understood

Years ago a prominent teacher wrote a book called "Life Understood." Something was wrong with hisunderstanding of life, as evidenced by the fact that he passed out right in his prime. We cannot canclaim to understand life unless our understanding covers all life’s relationships. It is wonderful toenvision the Central Source of Life, but it is very shortsighted to suppose that the movements of life inits great Eternal Source will apply to its individual manifestations. The law of life in the spiritual worldgives inspiration and power in living a spiritual life. Another set of laws, which we must know andkeep to find life’s greatest good, confronts us when we must live that spiritual life in a material body.The purpose of this lesson is to reveal the Source of Life and man’s relationship to it. More importantthan knowing the laws of the Spirit is adjusting how we apply those laws to material conditions. Thegreat Teacher and his follower, Paul, sought to reveal the Source of Life and man’s relationship to it,and this lesson is a study of some of their many statements.

"The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus." This phrase defines a state of consciousness in which weguarantee our freedom without involving us in a maze of observances and regulations. The fearcomplex in human consciousness has impelled us to build strongholds, to surround ourselves withfences, and to bolster our faith with formulas, rather than to discover that freedom is found in theSpirit within.

The spirit of life in Christ Jesus caused him to smash every tradition of his time. He did conform to theobservances of the day, but was always interpreting them so that a new order of things must arise. Hepaid the necessary respect to the Roman rulers, while planting certain principles of human freedom inthe heart of his hearers, which would forever smash the tyranny of the empire. He healed themultitudes who came to him, but was busy raising their consciousness to a level where sickness doesnot invade, and where no one needs healers.

He aided in adjusting the disharmonies of life, but always proclaimed a state of inward harmony from which all outward things would automatically fall into harmonious relations. He doubtless gave

material aid to those in need, but laid emphasis on an inner state of consciousness so rich andabundant that its possessor would find his own irresistibly drawn to him. Paul called this attitude of mind "the law of the Spirit of Life." We can clearly see what it was by studying what the Master saidabout his relation to God, to man and to himself. Among these significant sayings we call attention tothe following:

"Before Abraham was, I am" is a bold statement that life does not begin with birth nor end with death.It expresses the manner of the existence of God Himself. The same sentence is the history of humanity. It carries life back – past all ancestries, either human or animal – to its rise in the Absolute.Our life never begins and never ends. We are always, because we were always – inseparable with theone Life. The real life in us was in the beginning with God. Undifferentiated and inseparable, we took part in all life of Being. We were in the One Mind that planned the world. We took part in the thought,the spoken word, and the work of becoming the material world. Whatever our variations in individual

expression, in a real sense we are one with the Life of God and with all the other lives being livedaround us.

Had the early church caught this significance of Jesus’ teaching, it would have seen the stamp of inherent divinity in us and would not have needed to resort to the story of the virgin birth. Jesusattached no importance to such an explanation of himself, which is clear from the fact that neither henor his disciples ever referred to it. When Peter declared the Master’s divinity, Jesus assured him thatit did not depend on any story of unusual birth, but upon a spiritual perception of Truth.

If Peter had some spiritual faculty by which he could perceive the divinity of humanity, it is self-evident that every other human being has the same power of discovery. The Master became consciousof who and what he was, Peter also became aware of it, and millions in all ages have found the sametruth of their oneness with God and of their inherent divinity. This clearly shows that the Law of theSpirit of Life is attainable by every human being.



"The Son of Man has Life within himself." This, integrated with "The Father in me does the works,"clearly shows that each of us is an individual expression of the one Life. An inexhaustible reservoir of life lies within and around us, which rises in ever increasing volume of power as we recognize it andfurnish a channel of expression. Once or twice Jesus prayed before he invoked this power, explainingthat it was not to get the power, but to point out to them the source of it. As for him, he needed only tospeak and to have it done. Nor do we need so much to ask for power, as to recognize the reality of that

we are instruments of power, which is ready to work when we speak the word. The consciousness of oneness with God, who is life, ends the idea of separateness, which is death.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." When we rest our mind ononeness with the All-Life, then the powers of health, peace and plenty, and all that is worthwhile inlife, are available within us, awaiting only recognition and direction.

"The son of man – ascended into heaven – came down from heaven – is in heaven." Jesus announcedthis remarkable paradox about himself while he was living and functioning as a human amonghumans. It is the declaration that a person’s life is founded in the realities of consciousness ratherthan in the reports of circumstances. Think of the valuable time we have wasted in singing of "theSweet Bye and Bye" when we should have been singing, "in the sweet now and now." Heaven is hereand waiting for everyone to discover it. If we do not have heaven within us, we are apt to be

disappointed when we start looking for one yonder. We take our heaven along with us, and by parity of reasoning, lots of folks take the other place or state along with them. Heaven is a state of consciousness. It is inner harmony with God. It is inner harmony between the various functions of themind, conscious, subconscious and superconscious. It is harmony between mind and body. It isharmony between the various functions of body. It is harmony with our environment. We must evolveheaven in our humanity because it is involved in our divinity.

"The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." The Jews had some thirty-eight regulations for Sabbathobservance, one being that a person taken ill on the Sabbath should not send for a doctor until thenext day. That might still be a wise observance. Jesus smashed every obsolete traditional observancethey had. Nine-tenths of the laws on our statute books today were obsolete before they passed them,and most of the others were soon after they became laws. Many man-made laws are fences that havehedged human action. Steadily the fences around human consciousness are coming down. We are

beginning to see that a law within us safeguards our action at every step: The son of man is lord also of the Sabbath. This law, written within everyone, gives us freedom from ecclesiastical and other fences when followed. Until we find true freedom through the Spirit, the fences are still necessary to our welfare.

These and other statements of Jesus are the Magna Charta of the human soul in its right to a state of consciousness that means freedom from sin, sickness, disharmony and poverty. Moreover, they show the methods for such an attainment, and the fact that they do work when faithfully practiced certifiesthem. These statements can have but one interpretation, which is that all that we can ever be inmanifestation is potentially within us: Life, health, harmony, peace and abundance are within.Expressing them is a process of development or growth, and all growth results from an outer stimuluson an inner germ of life. A full-grown tree expresses what was potentially in the seed. Our experience,character and the fruits of our life are all the results of outer stimuli on an inner essence of life, whichheld all these things in solution. The kingdom is within man, the king is within, and the government of life is within.

The law of life, as interpreted by Christ Jesus, made all life contingent on such laws as cause andeffect, action and reaction. The results of living do not depend on some external authority, but on how we set the direction of life from within. Some law of expression governs every process of life: Likeproduces like, "men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles." The law of action and reactionguarantees that every wrong thought and word and act will bring back its own kind to him who thinksor does it. In fact, this is the underwriting of every law that gives it authority. In reality, the principalincentive in the operation of the great commandments of the decalogue, is that keeping them or violating them reacts immediately and directly. He who disregards authority soon looks in vain forsome authority for protection. He who steals finds himself beset with the efforts of others to take away

what he has; he who lies eventually finds himself unable to trust others or even to believe in himself.



The great Teacher emphasized this principle of action and reaction when he said that we were toforgive "till seventy times seven." When we forgive others, we find ourselves also filled with the spiritof forgiveness for ourselves. This law plainly works in the everyday activities of life. To think and feelsuch emotions as anger, fear, envy, jealousy, and all that brood of hurtful emotions is to invite theirdire results within ourselves inevitably. We cannot possibly lend ourselves to thoughts of sickness,disease and weakness without their reaction registering upon us. The inspired disciple, after

mentioning the great constructive truths of justice, honesty, etc., supremely emphasized "thinkingthese things."

We keep the laws of health by understanding and conforming to their application in our daily habits of life. We must practice eating, drinking, bathing, breathing, exercise, rest, and diversions with thesame regard for law as our thinking or spiritual activities. It is essential for our well-being that weshould know the laws of the body and keep them, for ignorance of the law of physical well-being will work its ill results as surely as the willful violation of them. The things we have done hurt us, as well by the things we have left undone. We must be as diligent in governing our physical relations as we are incontrolling our mental operations or directing our spiritual aspirations, for we live well only inobedience to law.

Lesson 7. The Morale of Well-being

Some people get sick without any conscious act on their part to cause the sickness. They get well again without making any special effort to do so. Others get sick because of a recognized violation of somelaw, and they get well because they use every means and available agency. Others fail to get wellalthough they use every means. We are apt to ask why they too did not get results.

The Canaanite woman came to Jesus for her daughter and persisted in her plea until finally he said,"Be it unto thee as thou wilt." She had faith enough. She had done her best in coming to him andasking, but she persisted until she got results. In other words, the patient’s morale makes for successor failure. During the world war [WW I] we spent almost as much to build the morale of the armedforces as we did on their equipment and maintenance, Many physicians find their best efforts negated

by the lack of health morale in the patient or the family. Many practitioners of mental science havefailed, although using the most approved methods and statements, because they have failed to buildup the patient’s morale.

An intelligent purpose and strong enthusiasm to carry on, whatever the field of action, is the basis of morale. We have to find motive for getting well, for motive is the essential impelling power behind any action of will. We do not act volitionally unless a goal that we value exists to be attained. This does notmean that will power heals. It does not, but it is the steering gear that keeps the car in the middle of the road. It is the essential directing agent that constantly points all the healing power to a given end.

Of what practical value is hydroelectric power unless it we intelligently direct it so that its powerachieves needful results? What is the result when the river floods the levees and runs undirected as itsmomentum directs? The undirected powers within us may as easily work our ruin as our welfare.Samson, without intelligent direction, could use his great power to put the enemy to confusion atonce, but later he pulled the temple down on his own head.

The imagination plays a mighty part in our success or failure by the pictures it paints, which thecreative mimicry works out into form. We must direct imagination must in the picture-making business, or we get the wrong pictures and the wrong results.

The will to be well consists in thinking the things that make for health and doing the things that attendhealth. If we allow our mind to dwell on sickness and the reports of disease and disharmony, we arenot apt to stay well long. Neither do we stay well long if we violate the common sense laws of life indiet and other ways. Few people think about it in any orderly way until they have lost health, then they become frantic to find it. The devil told the truth when he remarked about Job, "Skin for skin, yea all

that a man hath will he give for his health." Our very earnestness becomes anxiety and we defeat ourown desire.



The will to be well is the very first thing in regaining health. We do not do anything with intelligentpurpose unless we can gain a worthwhile goal. Then we will find and use the means to the end. Thegreatest problem in restoring health is to find a motive sufficiently strong to direct our will and anchorour purpose to a line of action that will emancipate us.

We will not do and keep on doing what we should do for health unless we can find a strong motive for

action. Strangely enough, motive is always grounded in self-interest. What is the thing, and in what way will it further my purposes? That is the appeal that health or any other proposition must make before we take effective action. Even when we are engaged in what we suppose is the most unselfishact, we are at least instinctively aware that it is going to react upon us for good. This however, isconstructive selfishness, while he whose act is to do the other fellow for his own ends in practicingdestructive selfishness. It is written of the noblest of human characters that, "for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame," etc. Two most encouraging facts emerge regarding the will. First, will power grows by exercising itconsciously. Every undertaking we resolutely carry out strengthens the will. Direct the attention tosomething you see so intently that you do not hear, and soon you can go to sleep in a boiler factory.Second, affirming a strong will reacts upon the will to improve it steadily. These exercises are valuable because they enable you to turn your attention from the undesirable thoughts that arise. You can

minimize pain and other ill reports by turning your attention to other things. When you can do this, you have built the consciousness that you are able also to direct all your life forces to achieve whatever you want to achieve.

The will is purely mental in character. The popular idea that a prominent chin, set of the head orcontraction of muscles indicates will, is not well founded. Some who have the most royal wills do notshow the silent but mighty power that dominates any situation, and gives its possessor a poise andmasterfulness not to be denied. One must carefully discriminate between will and stubbornness. A royal will can adjust to any situation, and make needed concessions, but it never loses its finalobjective. It becomes a state of consciousness that expects to reach its end and does so.

When we apply this to health, it is the will to be well. It is the consciousness that it is the Will of God

for us to be well, and therefore it is ours and nothing can turn the mind from the vision of aboundinghealth. It is the perception that the inherent powers to produce health are unlimited, but are our very own and are at our command. It is accepting the sovereignty of our will over all the actions of mind or body, and responsibility for the results. It is knowing that, having set all the creative powers to work,they are busy every moment bringing us to the realization we desire.

All motived action must also have an altruistic quality. If we want to get well for the sake of being well, we have started right, but we augment the health impulse by having an altruistic motive. If we desireto be well also to serve, we greatly increase the power of the healing current that flows in and throughus. This altruistic factor is not arbitrary, fixed by human wisdom, but is born of the knower within, which is forever one with the Infinite Knower. All action is but part of the Universal Action. We work, but God also works in us. In other words, the doer in us does not operate apart from the Infinite Doer. We cannot develop a true philosophy of work nor the joy of work, which is a large factor in our morale,

until we realize this fact.

We must know that the body works, yet only as the instrument of mind, and the inner knower worksthrough the mind. The inner knower works as desire, the eternal urge to express. Mind gives thisdesire form, and the results of action are impression and expression.

If we live with the emphasis on the inner knower, we come to know that we do not work so much asGod works in us to will and to do. We know that what we do cannot fail. If we work with our attentionon results alone, we are forever torn with disappointments and failures, or burn our energies in theglow of success. If we live with the emphasis on action alone, life becomes a turmoil of toil and action.So the only true living is in conscious unity with the Great Knower and Doer.

We must never forget that all action reacts upon the actor. The nature of the reaction depends on the

character of the action. "Men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles."



The world is a stage and we are all actors. We are all playing a part in the great drama of life, and thepart is one we have chosen. We do not know that we chose it, but we did and we chose it because it was the part best for us to play. Maybe we think we should like to have another’s part, or we will quit because we do not get the spotlight, or make a spectacular success of the one we play. You are notconcerned with the applause, but with the part you play as it stands in relation to the wholepresentation. Be content therefore to play your part and let the results be what they may.

While these principles of living apply here especially to health, they are equally true of anything we areundertaking to express. Our business, or social or domestic or economical relationships all rest fortheir highest success in the recognition and use of these elements of the philosophy of living.

Upon them the will to be well, the will to be happy, or to be prosperous or to be anything else, willenable us to achieve in the fullest measure.

Lesson 8. Life’s Picture Gallery

Imagination plays a mighty part in all achievement. It is forever present in all relationships of life.

Love is largely imagination. At least it rests upon what our imagination attributes to its object. Whileimagination clothes the object of affection with all perfection, then love continues to be the grandpassion.

Religion depends upon the imagination for most of its practical working power. It must construct ourideas of God and our ideals of action and relationship with Him. Nor is imagination less useful in any other field of human expression. We never learn to listen toanother until we cease to dwell upon the words and see the pictures that they intend the words toconvey. The words we forget, but if we catch the pictures, we can recall them when we will. The greatTeacher often used the imaginative faculty when he set forth the principles of the kingdom. Hishearers were mostly objective in their mental operations. They could not grasp the idea of

expansiveness, but they could picture a mustard seed growing into a plant. They could not grasp thepervasiveness of truth, but they could picture leaven reaching every particle of the lump. Most of usremember the illustrations long after we have forgotten what he intended them to illustrate. Train your imagination.

"My imagination is stayed on perfection," is the formula the Psalmist used to account for the rise andglory of ancient Israel. Another seer of that ancient people accounted for their downfall by the wronguse of the "Chambers of Imagery." The two taken together furnish a basis for the idea that the pictures we allow our imagination to form make or mar our life.

All manifestation begins in the desire to express. It is at first an urge, unformed but imperious, whichthe imagination forms a mental picture of what the expression shall be. When this picture is complete,creative mimicry that endows all life, at once rises into action. It begins to gather and correlate the

unseen substance of being into a material expression of the picture formed in the imagination.

Like every other power and activity of mind, we may direct imagination by the will or allow it to run wild and form all sorts of hurtful images. For no matter what the picture may be, the creative mimicry at once begins to work it out into expression. In a previous lesson, we emphasized the will to be well.The sovereignty of each individual life is guaranteed, in that each life has the power to direct all itsforces and processes.

We impress the subconscious often with such a vivid picture of ill health, poverty, disharmony oranother wrong condition that does not yield at once to the few moments we can find for "going intothe Silence" and affirming better things. We can estimate our slim chances of being well if we spendfifteen minutes actively picturing health, but spend the remaining fifteen waking hours with deep-seated pictures sickness or another ill. We dignify these firmly implanted pictures with the namehereditary impressions, or complexes. No matter what their source, they will not leave until wereplace them by directing the picturing power and creative mimicry of what we want to be.



One woman said that she was all right while she could keep affirming her well-being, but the momentshe had to do other tasks, the old trouble returned. The picture gallery works not so much in consciousaction as in unconscious power. We must impress on the subconscious that it works whether weconsciously thought of it or not, and that it holds only and always the picture of perfect well-being. Wemust picture this idea: The Divine Order is now established in me, to fill our mind with thepicture of what that means, the infallible and orderly processes of growth. We must know that the

same invariable power is working in us every moment whether we are thinking about it or not. Whenour thoughts return to the question of our welfare, we must immediately reaffirm the statement andlet the picture arise in mind. A college graduate became a newspaper reporter. He served for a long time as a "hack" writer, andreceived poor pay. Finally he held a consultation with himself in his closed room, and decided to stay there until he found out why his mind didn’t work to raise his income. After a day in the silence of hisroom, this phrase suddenly arose in his mind: "Cold, keen-edged with wisdom." It kept right on sayingitself repeatedly without any effort on his part. In fact he couldn’t stop it. After an hour, he said,"maybe I have been waiting for this." Later he wrote a feature on an arson fire in such a way that thenext day the editor doubled his wages. Promotion followed quickly, and with wise investments heretired financially independent. His picture gallery raised him out of inefficiency and poverty to thehighest achievement.

One person’s power to picture is more vivid than another’s. Yet even the person with a poorly developed imagination can develop it by judicious practice. Try looking at the simplest object as achair, book or landscape until you frame a good image of it. Then shut your eyes and try to reconstructit. Better still, take a pencil and draw an outline of it. Try picturing the faces of your friends. Take thesentence, "The nerves of my body are the channels through which the living powers of the spirit areflowing to every part of my body," and picture that as happening inside you. Such practices will soongive you a demonstration of the power of imagination to help you.

Picture your real self as the spiritual being you are. God has made you in the image of God, and thisimage holds all the qualities of the Divine Original. Whatever is in the Original is potentially in you. You are the embodiment of all the principles of Divine Being. Because you live and move in perfectlife, abide in Being, who is perfect health, you live, move and have your being in perfect health. Then

picture the fact that your body is an expression of this perfect self. Draw the picture as the Psalmistdid when he said, "Thou sawest mine unformed substance before I was fashioned in my mother’s womb." In other words, look beyond the material substance of expression to the spiritual substance of expression of Perfect Being. You can picture a perfect body. You do not try to make it work, just do thepicturing and something within you will do the work. Use this prayer: "Oh, Lord, the Great Healer, who didst touch the eyes of the blind and they saw, theears of the deaf and they heard, the tongue of the dumb and they spoke, healing the halt, the lame, themaimed, the woman bent double, the one with the issues of blood, cleansing the lepers, casting outdevils, healing all manner of sickness and disease, and didst give thy servants authority and powerover all human ills, touch thy servant with the Finger of God, that the living power of the Spirit may rise up in him and make him well and whole, in the name of the Lord."

The purpose of the prayer is not only to evoke a reaction to the wonder-working name, but to causethe person desiring to be healed to form a picture of the highest healing potency any of us can know. As this picture of the healing Christ arises in the imagination, the Christ Light within arises and makesthe picture true to them, by at once setting up the healing process.

Whether it is health, prosperity, harmony, or achievement in any form you desire, adopt the old seer’sformula, "My imagination is stayed on Perfection." Do not see a picture of partial health or success, but build the mental picture of the completed work. "Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better" is a very poor sort of picture, but to see yourself perfect and complete in spiritual reality now sets all the forces to cause the material expression of the picture speedily.

The great Teacher emphasized on the power of imagination when he enjoined his followers, "Keep thy

imagination with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Thus he showed that it is the fountainfrom which flow all our ills and all our good. When he would teach them the true nature of prayer, he



Often the complex expresses in material ways, such as blindness, deafness, dumbness, loss of memory, paralysis, epilepsy, tumors, false growths, and in fact imitations of almost every diseaseknown to man. No matter what form it may take, if they can discover and bring the hidden cause tothe light, they dissolve its power, the mind reacts back to normal, and the difficulty disappears, oftenso suddenly as to seem like a miracle. We often achieve this result by presenting the truth in a way that brings wonderful inner illumination, which dissolves the complex and sets the patient free almost

instantly.

The methods of tracing these hindrances back to their cause are simple enough. The commonest oneis to pronounce certain words or ask questions. By studying the hesitation, confusion, or thepromptness of the reaction, we learn whether that particular thing has been involved. Sometimes weuse the method of elimination, going in turn over the patient’s personal, religious, social, business anddomestic life until the quest narrows down to the source of the trouble. Sometimes the method may bepurely psychic and consist in getting in such harmonious contact with the patient’s mind that thecause of the trouble arises spontaneously up into the mind of the practitioner. Whatever method wemay use, this much may be counted on as certain – if we find the cause and bring it to consciousattention, the cure starts at once, and is often instantaneous. Other times it will take time to fully work out.

Some methods of self analysis are very effective, but most people get relief better and quicker throughthe assistance of some wise analyst. Many people find relief through the confessional, which enablesthem to get the benefit of a general housecleaning without reference to its scientific features.

Nearly everybody has some of these complexes hidden away, which never give them unusual trouble because, thanks to the general spread of the knowledge of right thinking through New Thoughtagencies, they keep their minds directed to the positive constructive ideas of life. Also those whomhigh spiritual realization inspires are apt to pass through life without much trouble from these hiddentie-ups. They may at times feel the conflict and wonder who shall deliver them, only, to turn to God who gives them the victory. The great demonstration is not in healing a growth or a physical ill, but in attaining that state of

consciousness that keeps one in perfect health through right thinking. Moments will arise when someimage of wrong conditions will strive to hold the attention and be adopted as a part of our lifeexperiences. The same general principle of analyzing the claim will usually cause it to dissolve, whilefighting or denying it may give it power to persist. After taking the claim apart and knowing that it isfounded on experiences that are not yours, refuse to admit it as part of your own life, or to have any claim to your attention. Insist on the perfect command of all the powers and functions of your life.Declare that your body can act only as you direct its action. Lesson 11. Freedom Through the Truth

The Great Teacher told his hearers that they would find freedom through knowledge of the truth. Noother way exists. Any other apparent effect is temporary. It will not last. One may find relief fromalmost any type of magical performance or fetish, but it lacks an abiding foundation. Only theknowledge of the truth can make the relief permanent. Our greatest difficulties are related to our wrong beliefs. Our beliefs furnish entertainment anddiversion, but are usually of little practical value. The patient’s false beliefs form the supreme barrierevery healer meets, in dealing with a patient. Our conscious mind is full of them. Our subconsciousmind is laden with beliefs formed in the days of our dense ignorance of life. Some of them may beright, but most of them are wrong. We are so accustomed to thinking them that analyzing them neveroccurs to us, but until we do, we continue to live in bondage.

We may believe anything true or untrue, good or bad, but we can know only the truth. We may socover up the truth we know with the rubbish that we believe, that we continue in bondage. Freedom

can come only through knowing the truth back of our beliefs.



We may believe or not, the story of the Gadarene demoniacs: It will not affect our life. We may believeor not, the story of the withering of the fig tree, but since we cannot wither one, it will affect our livinglittle if any at all. We may believe with equal fervor that humanity came from a clod or a monkey, butour notion of either will not affect our life unless we know the truth: Despite either theory of method,our Origin is in God. Our real concern is in knowing how far we have come from the monkey or theclod, up toward the angels and toward God.

Holding one belief we may believe that the other threatens to overthrow the government of God, butthe truth is that either belief has not affected the government of God the least. The belief in a God,made in man’s image, ruling by whim and caprice in the skies, has recorded its effects in humanhistory for countless ages. "The gods write their names on the faces of their worshipers." In other words, we take on the qualities of what we worship. Worship of a god of vengeance can only result inthe long train of cruelty and savagery that has marked the trail of humanity. We find the truth thatfrees us from such a condition in the fact of God’s even presence, and our identity with Him in all acts,relationships and functions.

The belief that "man is conceived in sin and born in iniquity" has furnished the basis for most of humanity’s wickedness. The old adage that "in Adam’s fall we sinned all," has been the dirge for thefailure of most lives. Total depravity is a fatal foundation from which to presage humanity’s uplifting.

The truth of the inherent spiritual riches of the divine nature in us can offer a reasonable hope for ourfinal realization of God.

The "immaculate conception" is a sample of a false belief. It implies that the only one who could livelife as it should be is one who differs radically in nature from the rest of us. How could a good and justGod expect any of us to do what we do not have the essential power to do? The truth is that everyone isa case of immaculate conception for God is the only life there is, and that life is expressed andtransmitted by Him, and "not the will of the flesh nor the will of man." Thousands do not wishchildren, yet they arrive. Others wish them and they do not come. Another belief arose as a necessary correlative to immaculate conception, namely the idea of vicariousatonement, whose working principle is that one man may touch a hot stove and another feel the burn,

and suffer its effects. This belief has furnished the basis of the most influential bondage in religioushistory. The truth is that the atonement is an eternal fact, which the life and teaching of Jesus madeknown and effective. Vicarious atonement has not made us at one with God, for we are that eternally, but it makes us conscious of the fact. These are merely samples of the false beliefs that have held the world in bondage.

The final test of truth comes when one reads a book or hears a lecture, and something within says, "Ihave known that all my life. That is me." The truth is not something that we think, but something that we are. The language of the conscious thinker is "I believe this or that." The language of thesuperconscious knower within is, "I know – I am." We believe because we think, we know because weare. When Pilate asked Jesus that immortal question, "What is truth?" he received an equally immortal answer: "Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice." He meant that the truth in anyoneanswers to the truth expressing itself in the life of another or his words. What I am recognizes its own,

and rises up to greet it.

Ages of human sickness and suffering have so impressed themselves upon our conscious andsubconscious memories that when the images of sickness, suffering, poverty or discord rise before us,an answering voice within is ready to accept them as true. we may be so completely clouded with thesefalse beliefs that only a very powerful presentation of the truth that "God is Health"’ can penetrate themist of matter, and reach the superconscious knower, so that he may rise and answer, "God in me isHealth. That is me."

A woman, who had been suffering with pleurisy for years, sat in a meeting where we opened with asilence using the thought, "The Lord my God in the midst of me heals me." She said afterward that theclear picture of that truth gave her immediate and permanent relief. Sometimes a single powerfulstatement of truth will give instant relief, while others must repeat it often daily for many days until

the inner knower can see the perfect image of himself and in an answer rise up into power.



The healer inside and the healer outside is the same. The clear recognition of this fact sets all thehealing powers in motion, so that "all power in heaven and earth (mind and body) are consciously his," to direct to any desired end. The material or mental form of the Christ outside calls forth ananswering movement of the Christ inside, and we heal all manners of sickness and disease.Consequently they describe faith as "the giving of substance to the thing we hope for." Truth insideanswers to truth outside and healing follows as effect follows cause.

The hidden soul of the heart is all power, wisdom, truth and all else that pertains to Being, and itspeaks the language, "I know because I am." We know all because we are at one with all, but our outerconscious "me" does not know that we know. The practical value of what we know, but do notconsciously realize, is lost to us and we live in the bondage of ignorance. To seek and find this lostsomething and make us know that it is all within us, was the work of the Great Teacher. He did so withthe expansive idea of the mustard seed, with the pervasive idea of the leaven, and by the directpersonal command, "Be open, take up thy bed and walk, Lazarus come forth." Whatever he did andhowever he did it, his purpose was plainly to free everyone by making us know the inherent riches of the Divine Nature in human life.

For generations, they directly opposed the work of education to the meaning of the word. Educationconsisted of putting something into the students’ minds, with the notion that maybe sometime they

could use some of these stored up fragments. At last we are turned to the true method of drawing out what is within the students, using the textbooks and teachers as a sort of stimulus to awaken and callout what is already in them. When we, as students, know our powers and can put them into action at will, we are educated, no matter whether we find it in the stimulus of books, teachers, schools or indaily contacts with life.

One numbing belief, commonly held, is that any achievement is an end in itself. The popular idea is "if I can solve this problem, I will ask nothing more." It rests upon the fallacy that life can ever continuein any state of inertia. We solve one problem to enable us to tackle something else. We heal onedisease, only to find something else that needs healing. Thus, we fully perceive the truth that when wefully emancipate ourselves through truth, it sets us free from all disabilities, by enabling us to meetthem when and as they arise.

A child’s greatest enem y may be arithmetic, but after long and hard wrestling, they master it. Schoolthen promotes them to study algebra. When they finished that, they promote them to study geometry,trigonometry, and calculus. At commencement, educators tell us, "You haven’t f inished. You have justgotten ready to commence to solve the real problem of life," and so it has proved. The problem was tofind and know ourselves. As we unfold this knowledge, freedom manifests. This is the rule for allhumanity.

We start believing that God above us does the work, and at last we know that it is God within us who works. We start with the belief that truth is something we must learn, only to find at last that truth issomething that we are, which is waiting to rise into full power in consciousness. We start with the belief that heaven was a place of peace in the great beyond, only to find that it is in the great withinhere and now. We started with the notion that health was something that somebody else could give us,

only to find that health is already ours – a never changing fact awaiting our recognition.

We started by believing that Christ was a man who lived some two thousand years ago, to whom welook backward and to whom we look forward, only to find that "Christ is within us the hope of glory,"giving us illumination of consciousness. Thus, we may know that the elements of every good of Lifeand Being are in us, manifesting in us, to us, through us, and as us.

Lesson 12. Elements of a Powerful Personality

All auto repair companies have a "trouble shooter" whose business it is to find the mysterious causesof inefficiency. It’s poor psychology to look for trouble, but since it is bound to arise, it is good

business to know how and where to look for the causes of failure, and to discover the elements of success. This calls for expert knowledge. If we cannot find either for ourselves, we need to call for helpfrom someone who knows.



A psychological "trouble shooter" covers a great field of action in toning up the human machine. Hestarts with your physical body to see if the "knocks" you feel have a physical cause. He studies yourmental action in all its phases of conscious, subconscious, and superconscious, and delves into themoral and ethical principles that color the motives of action. He bases all his work on the assumptionthat mind has something to do with the case.

He looks first at your "gas," the quantity and quality, to see if your mind is filled with right ideas and whether you have arranged them in such form and order to use them effectively. Nothing so clogs your wheels of progress as many undigested ideas. They may be religious, social, economic or otherwise, but unless you can get them into working form, they slow the progress.

If the piston rods are worn and "leak," you do not get the high pressure of purpose and persistence for"high performance." Enthusiasm for your work, no matter what it is, will furnish the fire and powerfor accomplishment. You may not like the job, but you can at least be enthusiastic about doing it and better than anyone else does. That, by the way, is the quickest way to graduate from an undesirableposition. A faulty carburetor means that you are not a "good mixer." The volume of your success depends onhow many people you can induce to work with you, and the quality of your success depends largely onhow well you can get along with those who must work with you for your larger success. "Everybody likes me," is a good idea to keep in mind to fix this trouble.

When your "steering gear" is out of alignment, you do not go where you should. Being on the left sideof the road when you should be on the right is dangerous. Tighten up your will power so that you candirect all your forces and activities, by affirming a strong will, then make it strong by using it. If the spark plugs are gummed up, you are missing fire at critical moments. Cultivate readiness.Practice the habit of immediate reaction to any situation, or to any idea presented. Success dependson firing on all cylinders, whether you are a two or a twelve-cylinder machine.

"Carbon" in your mental cylinders and a faulty cooling system will cause you "overheat" from lack of

self-control. Since you rarely have a chance to explain why you are stirred up, and have lessopportunity to undo the bad effects, cleaning out impatience envy and other carbon is better. Learn tokeep calm no matter what the provocation might be to "losing your " temper. A cracked cylinder is impaired health. If so, set that expert "technician," the subconscious mind, to work to renovate and rebuild your body. Tell it exactly what you want done and insist that it be donepromptly and right. The metabolism renews the substance of every cell of your body every ninemonths, so that you may logically demand a new body in that time or less. Success depends primarily upon physical fitness. Heart power and stomach power can put almost anything across. Get somesensible advice on diet. Develop a set of exercises to use every day of the year. Drink plenty of water.Breathe deeply. Get eight hours of sound sleep. Learn how to play and to work. Enjoy good health andeverybody will enjoy it with you. Enjoy poor health and you will be lonesome. You must have health,energy, virility and endurance to be physically fit to do your work.

Now, look over your mental capacities and see if they are at their highest efficiency. The principalones are:

Perception means looking at things with your mind as well as with your eyes. A thing that reports to your senses in one way will often report to your mind in an entirely different way. Learn to look at athing until you can see over it, under it, around it, through it, and have a vision of it. In other words,perceive the reality back of the appearance. Alertness means mentally sharp ears. How we say many words determines their meaning. The word"yes" may mean half a dozen things, if you learn to pay attention to the inflection of the speaker’s voice. Accuracy is the habit and result of taking pains to do, think, and say things correctly.



Punctuality is a mental habit not possessed by most people. Many folk who would spurn a dishonestaction will pilfer all sorts of time by being late. If you have three hands – a right hand, a left hand anda "little behind hand," amputate the latter. Be on the spot on the dot of time.

Memory gives you access to the vast storehouse of experience. Improve your memory by carefulattention to the lesson on memory included in this series. Imagination is the power by which you picture the success of your undertaking. Never let it runundirected. Never let your imagination dwell on pictures of failure. Keep it forever building stately mansions of success. Concentration directs all your powers to the task in hand, and turns it away from all other things,and shuts out the "static." Adaptability enables you to adjust to new and unexpected conditions. Instant readjustment is thegreatest qualit y in success. The Persian Empire fell because once having said a thing, they couldn’tchange. Their persistence is commendable, but their failure was inevitable. Stability is the power to "stay put." It makes you dependable. It grows every time you stick to yourpurpose. It develops the habit of "being there" when occasion puts out its finger for you. Determination is that resolute state of mind that holds to its objective no matter what diversionsarise. It is the "center" of your army of qualities and unless it holds the battle is lost.

Tact is the skill to find a way of relieving the pressure, easing tension, smoothing ruffled feelings,turning away wrath and disarming injustice and criticism. Diplomacy is mental maneuvering for an advantageous position. It is finding a way out of animpossible situation. With it in good working order, one need never despair under any adversecircumstances. Judgment is the wise forecasting the outcome of any project. It is, "I told you so," brought toefficiency. It rests upon one’s own experiences, the experiences of others, and the working facts in thecase. Check your judgments and see how well they are fulfilled.

Certain heart qualities are present in a powerful personality. The emotions furnish the motive forcefor all achievement. Never try to suppress or kill them, but direct, divert, develop and control them.They are present in everyone in some degree, and you may develop them as to give you perfectemotional equipment: Ambition furnishes you with motive power to carry on to complete success. Hopefulness is a mental anchor out to future success, which sees the invisible and beholds it asreality, and moves forward until we bring it into expression. Enthusiasm kindles all the fires of energy, keeps them at a flood t ide and storms many a difficultsituation, It grows out of your sense of your real worth, the value of your goods, the needs of anotherand your desire to serve. Self-confidence rests upon your realization of your ability. The best way to get rid of inferiority complexes and to build your self-confidence is to declare for you every good quality you see in others,and to concede to others every excellence you find in yourself. Cheerfulness keeps smiling, faces the sun, lives on the sunny side of the street, keeps the corners of the mouth up, says the kindly word, is glad to be alive, knows that things are coming my way, and

delights in the "cheering up" business.



Courage grows out of optimism and self-confidence. The courageous heart says, "no matter what itis, it can be done, and I can do it and I will do it." Persistence never stops pressing toward achievement, never loses sight of the vision, and knows nosuch word as "quit." Patience enables you to play the waiting game, waiting for mental processes to be completed inothers and for the gathering of the material factors out of which you build your temple of success. Earnestness keeps you from lagging, and inspires the other fellow with the idea that you believe in yourself and your proposition. Frankness brings you out into the open, puts all the cards on the tab1e, and dispels the idea fromothers that you are acting from some ulterior motive. Expressiveness gives music to your voice, a light to your eye, a grace to your movement, and acharm to your personality. Humor saves a bad situation with a good story or a bright saying. Keep the "fun stop" in your organ well tuned but do not play it too much, they may otherwise deem you a "comedian." No reputation isso hard to live up to, or to live down. Loyalty to the best in yourself and to others, and to your understanding is a large factor in thecharacter stuff called integrity. Love to others is the oil that makes all the wheels of human relationship go. It gives all confidence, for you cannot fear what you love. It reacts upon you, for you cannot help others without helping yourself.

Study all these qualities in yourself. Make a fair estimate of what you have of each of them. Build themup by practice in them. They are mighty factors in a powerful personality.

Certain ethical qualities are essential to success. Applied to the business of life, we express them asfollows: The needs of others are as real as your own, and your business is to serve them and you. Youclaim right intentions for yourself, and you must concede them to others and look for them. You meanto be truthful and honest and you look for these qualities in others. You are of good moral character,and you expect to find the same in others. At least you attribute it to them until you find out otherwise. You are dependable and so you must think they are. You love your special work because it enables youto serve others while you serve yourself.

Spiritual qualities, while mentioned last, are really first. The higher powers of personality areunattainable apart from them. They are as follows: Idealism enables you to see the higher purposes and ends of life, and to cherish unselfish desires. Itis the imagining power by which you construct the picture of a finished and glorious success. A goodmotto to hold is found in the words of an ancient seer, "My imagination is stayed on perfection." Vision enables you to see the larger outcome of your work. It keeps you from looking narrowly at life.It enables you to see the oak in the acorn, the full-grown stalk of corn in every grain, the divinity inevery man, and a new beginning in every end. Faith is confidence in your ideals and visions. It enables you to hold to the thing you hope for asreality, until it takes on material substance and form. Desire to serve brings you the secret formula of genius, "I am among you as one who serves." Yourevery quality is embedded the obligation to serve.



Intuition is the power to see the realities of any situation. It gives you the unerring ability to discernanother’s need and how to supply it. It enables you to approach his curiosity and excite his self-interest in your proposition. This is the key to human nature.

This is an outline of every essential element of a powerful personality, from an attractive physicalappearance, to the highest qualities of mind and character, and you can safely neglect none of them.

"Decree in thy heart and declare with thy lips," the steady growth of all these qualities. The thoughtreacts upon them, the spoken affirmation reacts upon them, and the purposeful use of them reactsupon them. Thus you may hope to develop them until you may take your place among the masters of life and achievement.

Lesson 13. Overcoming by Right Thinking

Special problems arise in the minds of students, for which they must find a solution. We present fiveof these problems, which are common ones and for which many have failed to find the answer. Onemay have read many books and studied with many teachers and still not have found the clue to themaze. We give these to suggest to the student a good method for meeting the various perplexities that

arise when we begin to adventure in the truth.

While we must deal with every case as an individual one, human ills of body fall into certainclassifications, just as we may classify their mental ills. Likewise, their spiritual difficulties havecertain points of similarity. These help us to diagnose the difficulty and to predict the outcome. After we find that a case belongs in a certain class, it retains its personal characteristics, and the treatmentmust take on an individual character, adapting the truth to the patient’s ability to receive it. In other words, a wise physician changes his remedy when he finds that the standard one does not do the work.Likewise, an intelligent truth teacher does not use the same formula for every case, but adapts thestatement of truth to the patient’s understanding. "I have used all kinds of formulas and they do not work for me." Maybe they have put too muchconfidence in the formula without glimpsing what lies behind it. As if a formula itself could doanything! Yet formulas are invaluable. The human mind has been accustomed to their use. All oursongs and prayers are just so many formulas by which we seek to express our desires and ouremotions. Yet our prayer may easily become a "sounding brass" because the soul of him who prays isnot in the words. The song may be but a "tinkling cymbal" because the soul of the singer does notmake it a chariot in which it rides out into the unseen and gives glory to God.

So much of our praying is with the apparent idea of informing the Lord what we need, when we havethe highest authority that "He knows the things we need before we ask Him." Much of it is done withthe idea of persuading him to give us something that He might not otherwise give us. This in the faceof the fact that the same high authority assures us that "God is not a man that He should change," and"He hath freely given us all things." From this it seems that praying is purely subjective in its effects,in that it does not bring things to us, but brings us to the realization that anything we need is already ours and has been ours always.

So, the true way to pray is to take some formula – some word of God, which has unfolded in your ownheart or that of someone else, and holding it steadily in mind seek to reach its secret meaning. Takethis one: the Divine Order Is Now Established in Me, and get yourself into the heart of it. Picture outhow the same divine order keeps the planets moving so surely that an astronomer can tell where any one of them will be at a given moment in a thousand years. See that same order brings the seasons, theprocesses of growth, and in myriad ways moving with unfailing certainty and regularity. Then picturethe same order working in you and producing health or whatever it is you wish. Don’t try to make it work, but let it work by getting your consciousness open to its work.

"I do not seem to grasp spiritual truth. " The shadow of materiality is upon us so strongly that we oftenmistake it for reality. We are apt to term those things "real" that we can weigh, measure, and

otherwise contact with the senses. In fact, all such things are unreal while the reality remains unseenor otherwise sensed. The sense and the objective reason declare the reality of the seen, while spiritualperception and the divine reason, declare the reality of the unseen. We read that "Moses through faith



will end, and right ones will take their place. You may take your stand on this rock of truth and buildfor yourself more stately mansions.

When we know the law, we can hold an acorn in our hand, and see and declare the full-grown oak,knowing that as the working forces in the case are set into action, the result is sure. We can hold agrain of corn in our hand and declare the harvest that is now a potential fact. You may hold firmly the

picture of health in your mind and declare the perfect health that is potentially within you, and know that it must come into manifestation. Hold the picture of harmony in mind and declare the perfectharmony that will surely appear in your relationships. Hold the picture of abundance and declare theriches that shall inevitably come about in your affairs.

This is the law and it works. It is like the doctor’s medicine, it won’t do you any good unless you takeit. Law is far more reliable than his medicine, for it cannot fail to work if you use it aright. Lesson 14. How to Create a Reliable Memory

Not one word of what we have ever learned, heard or seen has dropped through the fine net of

memory and been lost. You have it all, and under right conditions could recall it perfectly. However, you do not consciously realize this. Many tests have shown that we register even the most casualhappenings, and may recall them into consciousness if we knew how to tune in on the records where we register them.

A memory that will answer to any demand we make upon it is invaluable. Knowing the simplemethods we may use to develop the power of recalling past facts when we want them will be worthwhile, and to forget them when we do not want to recall them. The following is the substance of all memory lessons ever put forth, and if practiced will make the memory 100 percent efficient.

Most of us have a memory neither better nor worse than ordinary. The cardinal factor in memory isattention. We recall easily what we strongly direct to the perceiving power of the mind. One passes a

thousand persons on the street and remembers only the crooked nose, the hideous deformity, orunusual clothing. In other words, our attention is strongly drawn to these and impresses a clear andpermanent memory image on the mind. To be sure, this sort of attention is unconscious, but what wedo unconsciously we may do consciously and of intention. When we strongly direct the attention to aface, a name or an object, we has taken the first step in developing a good memory. A moment’s reflection shows that the reason for the attention being attracted to the above cases, is thecontrast of the unusual with the ordinary. This gives the key to memory by association such assimilarity of sound, form, like and unlike, whole and part, etc. Another method of training the memory is to relate the elusive idea or name with something that wenever forget. For example, Mt. Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan, is as many feet high as thereare months and days in the year. In other words, 12 months and 365 days, which you never forget,

gives you a perpetual check on the height of this mountain, 12,365 feet. Take, for example, the heightof Pike’s Peak, 14,147 feet. A glance at the figures reveals two groups of two figures that are identical, while the last one is just half of either 4 group, and is itself the perfect number, 7. Let the question of the height of Pike’s Peak be raised and the first idea will rise at once, as follows: The last figure is theperfect number, 7. There are two groups of twice seven, or two fourteens, so that the number rises up with practically no effort, 14,147.

Repetition is a powerful element in memory training. People say, "I remember your face, but cannotrecall your name." We look at a face often, even on a casual meeting, and fill the mind with many visual images of the face, while we hear the name once and often do not catch it distinctly. If we had asmany auditory images of the name as we have visual images of the face, we should recall one as easily as we do the other. You can do this by first making sure that you have the name correctly, then use itfrequently in your first conversation, as "Yes, Mr. Bodell," or "What is your opinion, Mr. Bodell?" etc.

If a name or face or idea eludes you, repeat it until you can’t recall anything else in its stead.



Memory has a valuable quality similar to photography. We develop it by looking steadily at an objectuntil we deeply impress every detail on the mind. Practice standing before a store window, and let your eye rest for a moment on each object in it. Then leave and see how many items you can recall. Walk down the street and take notice of everything and everybody you see. When you return, describethe people and things you have seen. While reading, stop at the end of a sentence and try to state it in your own or the author’s words. Use the same methods on the paragraphs and pages. This sort of drill

will develop a strong photographic memory.

The underlying principle in all these methods is attention. A carpenter, in driving a nail, gives it a tapto start, then a smashing blow to drive it home. Similarly, strongly directing attention drives home amemory image. Memory is most receptive when the mind and physical vitality are freshest, because we can set the impressions deepest. When physical vitality is depleted, and attention flags, thememory images are not so clear and we do not recall them easily.

Memory is conscious, subconscious and superconscious, and while the best objective, consciousmemory is faulty, the subconscious/superconscious memory is perfect. [We create subconscious mindin this incarnation, but superconscious is our eternal direct link to Universal Mind.] It has a screen sofine that no object or attention can ever drop through or be lost. For instance, after we have tried in vain to recall some idea, we turn the attention to something else, and suddenly the desired idea will

arise into objective consciousness. Memory is specially sensitive to suggestion. "I have a poor memory" or "I am losing my memory,"tends to wreck the best memory, while "I have a perfect memory" or "I recall anything I want toremember," will increasingly strengthen the memory.

A good memory is priceless and anyone may have one by applying the above principles and practicingthe methods suggested. By such simple practices you can soon bring your memory up to an efficiency that will not need any props. A good forgettery is invaluable. Being able to forget the thing you do not wish to recall is as necessary as to remember the thing you wish to use. Here the key is also attention. You remember by directing the attention to the thing you wish to remember, you forget by turning theattention away from the thing you want to forget, to something else. A good memory recalls the things

we want and forgets the things we do not want.

More information about Thomas Parker Boyd can be found here.

http://miriams-well.org/boyd/index.html




Thomas Parker Boyd – The Christ Science of Being

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