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Christian Healing
Lesson 5
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[Christian Healing]
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Lesson Five
How to Control Thought
1. Each thought of mind is an identity that has a central
ego. By this we mean that every thought has a center around
which all its elements revolve and to which it is obedient
when no higher power is in evidence. Thoughts are capable
of expressing themselves--they think. Man thinks, and he
thinks into his thoughts all that he is; hence man's
thoughts must be endowed with a secondary power of thought.
2. There is, however, a difference between the original
thinking and the secondary thought. One has its animating
center in Spirit; the other, in thought. One is Son of God;
the other is son of man.
3. The one essential fact to understand is that there can
be no manifestation without intelligence as a fundamental
factor or constituent part. Every form in the universe,
every function, all action, all substance--all these have a
thinking part that is receptive to and controllable by man.
Material science has observed that every molecule has three
things: intelligence, substance, and action. It knows where
it wants to go, it has form, and it moves.
4. This intelligent principle in all things is the key to
the metaphysician's work. He does not concern himself with
the action and reaction of the chemistry of matter, nor
does he need to know all the intricate laws of electricity
and magnetism in order to get the very highest use of them.
They are
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susceptible to thought through the knowing factor in their
construction, and to this susceptibility he appeals. It is
through this all-pervading intelligence that man exercises
his highest dominion. The scriptural statement of man's
power and dominion over all things is true only when his
power and dominion are estimated mentally and spiritually.
5. It is the testimony of all philosophers that everything
is in a state of construction or destruction. These two
states are all-pervading, and they are apparently essential
in building the universe. The metaphysician discerns the
cause of these two movements to be the "yes" and the "no"
of mind. These dual attributes of mind are in evidence
everywhere, but they are not understood by those who
observe only form instead of Spirit. The positive and
negative poles of the magnet are states of mental
affirmation and denial. In acid and alkali, in sour and
sweet, chemistry is proclaiming "yes" and "no." Day and
night, heat and cold, sunshine and shadow, intelligence and
ignorance, good and evil, saint and sinner, all are the
reflections of mental affirmations and denials. The
constructive or destructive factor in all manifestation is
"yes" or "no."
6. It is found that, by the use of these mind forces, man
can dissolve things by denying their existence, and that he
can build them up by affirming their presence. This is a
simple statement, but when it is applied in all the
intricate thought forms of the universe it becomes complex.
The law of mental
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denial and affirmation will prove its truth to all those
who persistently make use of it.
7. The power of the mind to build or destroy is exemplified
most strikingly in the human body. Whatever we affirm as
true of us manifests itself in due season somewhere in the
organism. Whatever we deny is taken away, when the law has
had time to work itself out.
8. The body is made of cells; some in a radiant state, some
crystallized into form. The crystallizing of these radiant
thought forms is the result of affirmations in man's mind
that his body is material instead of spiritual. The
affirmative state of mind is a binding, holding process; it
involves all thoughts and all thought manifestations that
come within its scope. If man affirms his unity with the
life, substance, and intelligence of God, he lays hold of
these spiritual qualities; if he affirms the reality of
matter and of the physical body he forms a material picture
that works itself out in flesh.
9. Affirmations do not have to be made in set terms, such
as, "I affirm my body to be spiritual"; the general trend
of the mind, the sum total of thought in all its aspects,
aggregates the affirmations that fix and crystallize
thoughts into forms. The universal desire and striving of
men and women for material possessions is the strongest
kind of affirmation, affecting both mind and body in a
marked degree. Stomach troubles and constipation seem to be
common complaints with those who are financially
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grasping. The tense state of mind that this affirmation
sets up extends throughout the body; all the muscles,
nerves, and organs become fixed and almost immovable. This
was forcibly illustrated in a certain banker, who was so
grasping that his right hand closed rigidly, so that he
could not open it. Again, a set ambition and intense desire
to excel in some chosen field of work will produce like
results. A dominating will fixed in any direction is a form
of affirmation, and it affects the life action in the body
organism according to its intensity. Congestion, stiffness,
rigidity, may all be traced to excessive affirmation.
10. The metaphysical remedy for this selfish state of mind
is denial. Jesus said that man must "Deny himself . . . and
follow me." The "me" here referred to is the higher self,
the Christ, and the "himself" is personality. Denial is a
putting away of the mental error and an entering into
conscious relaxation of both mind and body. The healer does
not tell the patient that constipation is caused by
grasping, stingy states of mind. Instead, he mentally
denies these habits and holds the patient open and
receptive to the great unselfish Mind of the universe.
People do not realize how they are bound by their
selfishness, and it is not wise to tell them openly, until
they understand the difference between their real being and
the mortal personality.
11. Where the "no" phase of mind is too much in evidence,
the whole consciousness is in relaxation. This excessive
negation makes the thought indefinite
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and vacillating, the body weak and flabby. Prolapsus,
dropsy, certain forms of kidney complaints, nearly all
relaxations in body and functions, are the result of the "I
can't" state of mind. For example, if a businessman who for
years had been intent on money-making should meet with a
large loss and mourn over it, he would have kidney trouble
of some kind. He would believe that he had lost his
substance, and a void-thought would begin its dissipation
of the voiding cells of his body. One who has been very
ambitious for the attainment of some office or position,
and who has been defeated in that ambition, will usually
let go the positive mental pole and drop to the negative.
The result is bodily weakness somewhere. We speak of such
people as having "lost their grip." This is exactly what
they have done--their mental relaxation has loosened their
grasp upon the organism, and it is in a condition of
dissolution. Physicians have marveled that so many public
men have diabetes and heart disease. It is because, through
defeat, they have dropped from success to discouragement.
The failure state of mind throws the whole organism into a
panic, and its functions are weakened in their life action.
Instead of the tonic of aspiration and hope, there is the
enervation of discouragement and despair.
12. These are conditions that come to those who trust in
the arm of flesh. When the mind of man is set on high, he
never gives up or allows defeat to thwart his righteous
ambitions. His thought is not
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set on selfish attainment, consequently he does not develop
a mental vacuum when he meets with loss. To one in
spiritual understanding there is no loss. The going and
coming of material and intellectual things are but changes
in the panorama of life. Changes are constantly taking
place and will continue so long as we live in the
consciousness of duality, the "yes" and "no" state of
existence, which is mortality.
13. The object of man's existence is to demonstrate the
Truth of Being. This demonstration takes place through
experience; but there are two ways of working out
experience. The first is by knowing the law of every
process, and the second is by blindly testing the process
without understanding the law.
14. The human race made a choice when a certain stage of
discretion was attained. An illustration of this statement
is the allegory of the Garden of Eden. Adam represents
generic man. In his early stages he was under the law of
divine knowing--the Lord God was his guide and instructor;
he made no mistakes, but lived consciously in divine
understanding.
15. All experience develops personal identity--the
consciousness of the powers of Being in the self. This is
the bringing forth of free will, which is inherent in all.
In the course of his demonstrations of Being, man arrives
at the place where he feels his own ability, and he knows
that he can exercise it without restraint. "Satan" is the
personal mind that
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tempts man to try experience without knowledge. In divine
illumination man does not consciously enter into that dual
condition typified by "the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil." Good is all; evil is that which might be if man
forsook his guiding light. In the serene mind of God there
is no duality, no good-and-bad, no
understanding-and-ignorance. The brilliancy of all-knowing
Mind dissolves all shadows, all negations.
16. It is man's privilege to abide in the light, to know
how to work out the problem of existence as accurately as
the mathematician who follows, without deviation, the rules
of his science. The Lord admonishes the unfolding Adam not
to "eat"--not to incorporate into his consciousness the
knowledge of duality, good and evil. But, like the child
who refuses to take the advice of one who knows, man falls
into indulgence of the sense of pleasure and excess. The
reaction of sense indulgence is pain. Through these
experiences, man comes into a consciousness of an opposite
to the good. The dual mentality naturally sets up positive
and negative forces in his mind, and these opposing forces
are reflected into his body. The commotion is so great that
the soul is forced out of its temple--man is put out of the
garden, and in time forgets his former Edenic state.
17. Some metaphysicians argue that eating the fruit of the
tree of knowledge was a necessary step in man's evolution;
that by experience we learn all truth, and that without
experience we should always
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remain infants. Herein is the difference between the
practical Christian and other men: the one seeks the
guiding light of Spirit in all his ways, while the other
ignores that light and works out his character as did Adam,
in the sweat of his face. Hard experiences come into our
lives because we do not know the law of harmonious
thinking. If we think that evil exists as a power in the
world, that it is working in our lives and in the lives of
those about us, we make it an active force, and it appears
to be all that we imagine it. The poet truly discerned that
"there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
so."
18. Some metaphysicians claim that it is not wise to make
denials; that affirmation includes all the mental movement
necessary to man's perfect development. This position would
be tenable if we had built up our consciousness according
to divine law. The student who has carried his mathematical
problem forward without making an error does not find it
necessary to erase. But if he sees where he has made a
wrong computation, what then? Nothing but an erasure,
followed by a right computation, will bring the correct
answer. We have all fallen short of divine ideals; we must
cross out our errors and insert Truth, until our character
is brought up to the Jesus Christ standard.
19. Repentance is a form of denial. The forgiveness of sin
is an erasure of mortal thought from consciousness. The joy
that comes to the converted Christian results from the
inflow of divine love,
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which occurs after the mind has been cleansed by denial of
sin. This is a real experience, which may be repeated again
and again by one who understands the law of Holy Spirit
baptism, until the whole man is sanctified and freed from
sin. Christians think of the joyous exaltation that marked
their conversion as a special sign from the Lord in
recognition of their change of heart. They look back upon
it as an experience that comes but once in a lifetime. But
metaphysicians who have studied the law of mind, who have
practiced denials and affirmations as a science, find that
they can throw themselves into this ecstatic state at will.
20. The personal self is the ego around which revolve all
thoughts that bind us to error. We cannot cross all out at
once, but little by little we cast out the specific
thoughts that have accumulated and built up the false state
of consciousness termed Judas. In the life of Jesus, Judas
represents the false ego that error thought has generated.
This "son of perdition" is so interwoven into the
consciousness that to kill him at one fell swoop would
destroy the mental entity, so he must be counted as one of
the twelve, even while we know that he "hath a devil."
21. In the symbology of Jesus' life, Judas is represented
as the treasurer; he "had the bag." This means that this
ego has possession of the sex, or life, center in the
organism and is using it for its own selfish ends. Judas
was a "thief." The selfish use of the life and vitality of
the organism for the gratification
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of sense pleasure robs the higher nature, and the spiritual
man is not built up. This is the betrayal of Christ, and it
is constantly taking place in those who live to fleshly,
selfish ends.
22. A time comes, however, when Judas must be eliminated
from consciousness. The agony of mind and the final
crucifixion of Jesus represent the crossing out wholly of
the false ego, Judas.
"I die daily," said Paul. The "I" that dies daily is
personal consciousness, formed of fear, ignorance, disease,
the lust for material possessions, pride, anger, and the
legion of demons that cluster about the personal ego. The
only Savior of this one is Christ, the spiritual ego, the
superconsciousness. We cannot, in our own strength, solve
the great, self-purifying problem, but by giving ourselves
wholly to Christ and constantly denying the demands of the
personal self, we grow into the divine image. This is the
process by which we "awake, with beholding thy form."
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Cleansing And Purifying Statements
(To be used in connection with Lesson Five)
1. God is good, and God is all, therefore I refuse to
believe in the reality of evil in any of its forms.
2. God is life, and God is all; therefore I refuse to
believe in the reality of loss of life, or death.
3. God is power and strength, and God is all; therefore I
refuse to believe in inefficiency and weakness.
4. I am in authority. I say to this thought, "Go, and he
goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh." (Read Mt.
8:5-13.)
5. God is wisdom, and God is all! therefore I refuse to
believe in ignorance.
6. God is spiritual substance, and God is all; therefore
there is no reality in the limitations of matter.
7. God is inexhaustible resource, and God is all; therefore
I refuse to believe in the reality of lack or poverty.
8. God is love, and God is all; therefore I refuse to
believe in hate or revenge.
9. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and
he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city."
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[Christian Healing]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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