Practical Demonstration Series No. 1
WE ARE entering an era of tremendous spiritual import to mankind, an era in which, as never before in history, there is being experienced in the lives of men universally and individually the desire for the Word to be made flesh—for the Truth of being to be rendered practical. This millennium of mental advancement, actually existing since the beginning of “time,” will continue until human sense is resurrected to the apprehension and understanding that individual being is Spirit—perfect, immortal, divine. Thus is the Word made manifest in the flesh, and Christ is glorified on earth.
In my larger books is presented the message of Truth in its inspirational aspect and more general application, while in this series of smaller booklets there will be introduced in a clear and practical way this Absolute message fitted to specific human needs. The Science of our divinity is understandable and applicable to every need, in every age and period. Absolute Science reveals a demonstrable way of salvation, and its practicability lies in the fact that it saves one from false beliefs. Indeed, this is the only salvation possible.
How is healing done by Absolute Science? Absolute Science does not deal with the body, nor with the conditions, but with the sense and thought of the individual. It does not demonstrate mind over matter nor mind over mind, but it demonstrates the control of Soul over sense, and of Science over ignorant belief. Absolute Science is the Christ, who restores to men their sense of perfection, bestowing upon them the sovereign power to think, act, and feel in accordance with the reality and permanence of their perfect being.
One improves his understanding of mathematics, music, or any other study, in order to continuously achieve right results, so should one improve his sense and understanding of his own life and being if he would control his body and his experience harmoniously. The application of Absolute Science to daily needs is simple if the student will earnestly consider some of the main essential points:
- He is not to attempt to change conditions, but on the contrary, he is to be “absent from the body.”
- He is to understand that the essential thing is to learn the truth about himself and then to apply this truth of his real self in a way which will automatically improve the body to sight and sense.
- He is to perceive that the body manifests his sense and belief of it and that all correction, improvement, and spiritualization therefore must take place in his sense and thought. Spiritual understanding controls material sense (sickness, sin, and discord), and as material belief is thus corrected, Spirit controls the body and the result is health and harmony.
The student is to perceive first of all WHAT is to be done, then secondly, HOW this is to he accomplished. When he understands that discordant conditions but picture forth his ignorant sense and thought, and that the understanding of one’s real being governs darkened sense as light controls darkness, then he is to discover How to pray, (or treat), so that he can successfully execute this spiritual authority.
Before taking up in detail the answer to the question what and how, let it be seen that the mind can be set right both consciously and unconsciously. One may take up a book, for instance, which presents Truth in a very inspirational and illuminating manner, and he may become so absorbed in the subject that his mind will be permeated with Light. Unconsciously he is lifted up and out of false views and his consciousness, now lighted by the Truth which he has absorbed, perceives that his body is free from the outpicturing called disease. He has been healed unconsciously while his mind, absent from his body, yielded to the spiritual reality. Thousands of people have been healed of all kinds of (so-called) physical disorders in this manner.
These very ones however, as well as countless others, seek the spiritual process whereby they will be delivered consciously; that is, they desire to know the what and how of Divine Mind-healing so that they may consciously utilize this healing power. It is as if one entered a dark room, and searching for the electric switch which would throw on the light, inadvertently presses his fingers upon it. Light then fills the room. Suppose however, that entering the dark room at another time one does not recall the position of the switch and searches diligently, but in vain. The first time he pressed the switch which turned on the light unconsciously, but did not learn its location, nor the Science of the operation, and now, because of his ignorance, he is held in darkness.
In metaphysical study, many who were held in great mental darkness have quite suddenly and unexpectedly come in contact with that which momentarily flashed a brilliant light into their consciousness; and quickly, (sometimes instantaneously), they were restored to health and harmony. But later, when they wished to turn this Light on consciously, they could not find the “switch,” or contact, and yearningly they searched hither and thither for that Something which they knew was somewhere at hand and ready to their touch.
Let us now take up the subject of that intelligent insight which shows one how to pray, (or to treat), so that this Light can be applied as scientifically and successfully to human problems as the understanding of mathematics can be applied scientifically and successfully to any mathematical proposition.
- Apprehend and understand your being as it really is. That is, perceive that your real being is the Absolute Truth itself. Take conscious possession of your wonderful, free, and glorious Self. Acknowledge it. Glorify it. Love it. Praise it. Do not believe that you have to attain perfection of Soul or its manifested form, but discern that being is always and eternally changeless, perfect, and immortal. What is required of you is that you should attain a perfect conception of your Self and your body; that you should see yourself as you actually are; that you become perfect in earth (in sense) as you are perfect in Heaven (reality); and that you prove your faith by your works.
- Correct your material belief with the right and true understanding. If the belief is that you are not free and whole and glorious then correct this erring belief with the understanding that you are divine, that you are changelessly perfect and ideal, that you are God-being, that you are not subject to untrue sense, for you function in Intelligence. If the belief is that you are in pain, or that you cannot see, or hear, or walk, or understand, then control this belief by understanding your spiritual, actual entity. Spiritual harmony and wholeness is yours changelessly and forever, and your certainty and confidence of this fact is the spiritual realization which controls the unreal, erring sense and results in your deliverance.
- Let it be clear to you that the body improves automatically as consciousness is spiritualized. It is this spiritualization of thought and sense which brings one in contact with the harmony and wholeness of being. Correct material beliefs (of fear, discord, etc.,) with the spiritual understanding, (the conception and realization that you are Spirit), and Spirit will sustain your faith and your claim.
In any line of study or endeavor it is lack of understanding which causes one to feel fearful and doubtful of attaining practical results, but as soon as clear understanding comes to the mind there comes also confidence, poise, and power. To study books which rightly acquaint one with the Science of his being tends to elevate him to the point where he feels the spiritual urge to put into practice this Science which he is studying. Of what value is any message if it does not rouse the mind to the desire to use the teaching? Of what value is any instruction if it is not practical—if one cannot bring it into his experience of daily living? If the study of perfect being and heavenly harmony does not enrich your earthly experience, of what value is it to you? None. A spiritual teaching without a corresponding practice has been termed “the error of the ages.” Let us not only speak the Word but also let that Word become flesh in us—become substantial in our daily living.
Suppose one were given a chest containing bags of gold and silver coins and a great amount of money in paper notes. Suppose he is living in an old shack for shelter, his furniture consisting of a cot, a chair, and a stove. He is cold, hungry and near to despair. Each day, however, he opens the chest of treasure, fingers the gold pieces and counts the value of the paper notes; he examines the dates and inscriptions as he piles up the coins and smoothes out the paper money. Then he places all back in the chest and returns to the cold, the hunger and despair. Do you see how he separates, his wealth from his daily experience? The fact that he has great possessions is of no practical value to him for he lives as though he had none at all. He can handle the gold, he can show it to others, but until he removes the mental wall separating his wealth from his daily experience it is of no present use to him.
Quite similar to this example might be that of one who has in his possession the Word, or instruction, of Truth. He reads it, he listens to it, he visions Heaven and perfect being, as free, glorious, and harmonious. But he lives in sickness, poverty, despair. Each day he handles the books—the Word of Truth; he enjoys the sound of the words, the pictures of heavenly health, harmony and glory. Then he closes the books and returns to his world of misery.
Now because he puts a wall between earth and Heaven, separating them in his thought, the Science of Heavenly harmony which he studies is of no present value to him. Because he separates humanity and divinity he is unable to practice his divinity. If one would but bring his gold into his daily living by using it he might live in comfort, warmth, and harmony. Likewise if the student will but “work out his own salvation” by letting the Word become substantial in his earthly experience, he will live in health, happiness, and immortality now and here. What feasible evidence have we that our treasure—the Science of perfect being, is of practical value unless we are experiencing increased health, wealth, and longevity? Thy Kingdom come, in earth as it is in Heaven, is the prayer and the claim of uncompromising vision.
Let no one believe that because he considers himself a student or a teacher of Absolute Science he must refrain from helping humanity in order not to compromise his vision. Contrariwise, let those of high, spiritual vision he the very ones to let their light shine through their works, so that over the face of the whole earth there will be flashed and exemplified the understanding and meaning of Jesus’ words, “Thy Kingdom come in earth,” (in consciousness).
How can the gold bless the miser unless he use it—and experience its value in his present existence? And how can the Science of Divinity bless mankind unless this Science is made practical in surmounting the earthly problems called worry, ignorance, sin, sickness, and death? Let this new era upon which we are entering be an era of practical Christianity, wherein the might and glory of spiritual vision delivers to us the demonstration which follows the utilization of the power of spiritual Light over darkened sense, and of Divine Science over false belief. Let this glorious Science of celestial being which we are visioning and studying be brought into daily living; then the race will be elevated, earth will be blessed, and the demonstration and proof of Heaven here at hand will be seen in the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, and our restoration to Paradise.
In my work Science of Ascension I have called attention to the coincidence of the caterpillar and butterfly. One entity. As the student grasps this illustration understandingly it will lead him to behold the coincidence of earth and Heaven, humanity and Divinity. Once this incomparable vision is attained, demonstration, (or the practice of one’s understanding), becomes simple and assured.
What causes the manifested form to change except the belief in mental and physical growth, of cause and effect? Take away these beliefs and here stands perfect man, (body), the image and likeness of God, (individual Self). Changeless and eternal there remains but the one being—the ideal Christ—in you and in me. To see and to accept this vision is to have the insight which is practical. If you have received sufficient instruction in the rules pertaining to music you can put that instruction into practice upon some particular instrument so that harmony, or music, may be brought forth. Herein lies the value of studying books which deliver insight. We read and meditate upon that which is Truth until we gain the vision; we then begin to practice that vision and the result is a more harmonious experience.
- Perceive unity and oneness. Cease separating the human being and the divine being; earth and Heaven. See that there is but one identity— God, Self, Soul, Life, Substance. Your understanding of this identity as one and all will result in the overthrow of your belief in separation, duality, and mortality, and you will commence to experience the harmony which you are.
- Grasp the importance of treatment. Treatment is the realization, or practice, of insight. Studying the rules of mathematics will not, alone, make you a good mathematician. It is also necessary that you use these rules, that you practice them in the solution of mathematical problems. The reading habit is not alone sufficient. After you read for a time, close the book and go over for yourself, silently or audibly, the points which impressed you. Write them out, too, if you wish. Tell these spiritual facts over and over to yourself in the manner in which you would impress upon a student’s mind the principle of any subject which you were teaching him.
- Insofar as is possible, live what you are thinking and believing as Truth. Take your clear, vivid ideas into your office, among your friends, into your home and wherever you are. It is seldom necessary, (or wise), to do this audibly; but sparkling eyes, vivacious manner, illumined consciousness, will work miracles in your daily contact with people. You will find that your acquaintances will have no desire to tell you about the unpleasant, disappointing incidents which they generally have ready to relate to other listeners. Remember light always dispels darkness. When once you grasp this fact firmly in consciousness you will entertain not a single doubt but that the light in your consciousness will automatically control any darkened sense which confronts you.
You will find it amazingly helpful to memorize passages which appeal to you as particularly applicable to your especial need. This helpful idea was in my mind when I published the book GEMS. Take some gems of thought and memorize them. You may find at first that it takes several days to memorize one simple paragraph, but as you continue it will become much easier, and you will greatly enjoy this pleasant practice. Each day go over the various verses or paragraphs which you have learned. Recite them aloud and emphasize to yourself their outstanding vision. They will become wonderful treasures to you, continually revealing to you more and more of their spiritual quality, and soon, whatever problem confronts you during the day, you will be able to shed upon it the light of your illumined consciousness. As logs can be kindled to give forth blaze and heat, so also can the flames of spiritual consciousness be lighted by song, recitation, and reiteration to give forth the peace and power, glory and harmony of the Life eternal.
Ascending in spiritual insight and its demonstration one soon comes face to face with higher revelations. It is only natural that in the study of this
Science of Life, as in the study of any lesser science, one’s vision enlarges continually and he becomes more proficient in the presentation of this Science, as well as in its practice. According to one’s illumination and insight is he able to explain the practice of Absolute Science.
Let it be known that Truth demands both our Understanding, (insight), and our demonstration, (practice). They are a unit in restoring the sense of one’s perfect being. To assume a position which places one’s self above the practice, or demonstration, (the Word made flesh), and to believe that perception, or insight, alone, without its accompanying image or expression, is sufficient to deliver salvation, is to follow but a part of Jesus’ teaching and example. Likewise, to adopt a form of practice which advances toward, rather than is founded upon, one’s immortality and perfection, is to misunderstand, the principle of Jesus’ advent on earth.
The Science of Christ is founded upon perfect being, and it was because Jesus SAW and DECLARED himself Truth, Life, Love, God, that he was able to demonstrate this fact. Unless one perceives his perfect absolute state as ALREADY established he has no principle to demonstrate. And unless one practices now and here his confidence in his perfect state, how shall he increasingly understand and prove it?
Thus insight enables one to set forth clearly the practice, or operation, of Truth on earth, and this is the coincidence wherein the real touches the unreal, and the Kingdom of Heaven is found to be right here on earth. The wide-awake individual is not deceived into separating the Word, (insight), from the flesh, (practice). He sees them as a unit, indivisible and inseparable. The Way must be seen before it can be followed and the Word must be practiced if one is to embody the Word made flesh.
Jesus, “the Author and Finisher of our Faith,” heralded the Way in his words: “Ye must be born again.” The human mind, which is a compound of right and wrong conception, must be purged and illumined by the fire of insight. Since that which separates us from our original perfection is only a mental veil, that is, the mind’s misconception of life and existence, this mind must be quickened, purified as by fire, until nothing is left which needs correction. This insight enables one to rise to his nativity in Spirit, and culminates in the practice of his realization of perfection.
Today the world is showing tremendous spiritual advancement inasmuch as the mind, both individually and collectively, is growing out of materialistic reasoning to a spiritual concept of life. This growth will continue until ALL mistaken beliefs yield to enlightened understanding, and the Word, rising to its zenith of demonstration, becomes flesh.
The “flesh” of the Word is not the familiar mortal—mundane, corruptible, but the flesh of the Word shines as the sun, and is as incomparably glorious as the light of day.
“I am not come to destroy but to fulfill,” said the great Demonstrator of eternal life. Our method is not to approach so-called objective evil as though we would destroy it with mental might; contrariwise, we lift up the human mind through parable, instruction, and demonstration until it is willing to relinquish false views and erring beliefs for the fulfillment of actual understanding. We refocus the vision and take it from destruction and place it upon fulfillment. We take it from ignorance and place it upon Intelligence. We take it from death, darkness, despair and place it upon life, light, and love. We would waken those who slumber in mortal sense and painful dreams to make their happy departure from their limited view of matter to an illumined perception of Spirit. The progression of sense, insight, demonstration, to the point of viewing Perfection face to face constitutes a glorious joy and an increasingly marvelous wonder.
Impersonal Truth is the divine alterative which lifts consciousness to a wider and a higher foundation from which it may yield to the glorious harmony of immortal, immaculate being. The Science of Christ neutralizes wrong beliefs with divine ideas; and prayer or treatment based upon Reality brings emancipation to the mind, the only deliverance needful or possible.
The problem of being can be solved in no other way than that which Jesus taught:
1. The awakening of human sense to spiritual understanding.
2. The ever-present power of this understanding to control all the conditions of man and his world.
The human mind is not to be destroyed through any mental process or method, but instead is to escape from itself by relinquishing material beliefs for spiritual perception. Thus will error disappear and divine Intelligence reign supreme. Nor is the human body to be destroyed by any mental method or process. On the contrary the human body is to be restored to health and harmony, and through the spiritualization of consciousness, the body is to be absolved from death and the grave.
The signs of the times disclose the need of simplifying abstractions that the practice of divine Science may keep pace with the spiritual revelation. The individual need that the Word be made flesh is as imperative today as it was two thousand years ago. “Be ye therefore perfect” is the urge of divine order. Perfection of being is not required, for the reason that being is already unchangingly and immortally perfect; we are to attain, however, the conscious realization of our perfection—a mind in harmony with the truth of being, wholly attuned to the Science of our Reality. Certain it is that this attainment of spiritual understanding, and of its divine operation, obliterates the sense and belief of imperfection, letting Truth assert supremacy.
Science treatment is the scientific operation of Intelligence, or divine Principle, aiding one to attain a mind in harmony with Truth. Treatment comprises the realization and declaration of one’s established perfection and the denial and rejection of any seemingly contrary evidence. When a false sense of things seems to be transmitted by mind to the body, one’s first effort should be to look away from the condition to the Principle of one’s being. Discerning clearly and with understanding the glory and immutability of Being, the student brings this fact with conscious intelligence before him, thereby correcting the tendency of the mental mechanism to entertain false belief:
False belief, or illusion, is all that has to be met and overthrown, hence the necessity and importance of true belief or understanding. As light dispels darkness, so understanding, (true belief), dispels false belief. A ten- dollar paper note has real substance back of it while a counterfeit note of an equal marked value represents no substance whatsoever. If some one gives you a genuine ten-dollar bill you know what it represents. Now, have this same faith and confidence in the declarations of Truth. When you recite words which declare divine ideas, realize that they represent the actual Truth, that they have true Substance back of them; hence they are allpowerful, and all-enlightening. See clearly that there is nothing to treat but the belief, for actually and forever you are immune from all error, since you are the Light, the Truth, the God-being. Knowledge and recognition such as this automatically corrects the untrue belief which, being corrected, ceases to exist.
Realizing and declaring the truth about the false belief, which is that you, divine being, glorious and omnipotent, are not subject to illusion and erring sense, ultimates in the cessation of that false belief. What power has darkness over light? None. Let the consciousness of this fact give you courage to insist upon the supreme power which is rightfully yours. Never attack the body nor the conditions of the body by your thought; but have instead the spiritual vision and insight which enables you to understand that a shadow, representation, or expression, is always dependent upon something else. Therefore, let vision be placed upon the coincidence of God and man, Self and body.
If one finds that he is carrying in his wallet a ten-dollar bill which is soiled or torn he is at liberty to take this bill to the bank and have it redeemed; that is, he may obtain a perfectly fresh new bill. The value of the gold back of the note remains unchanged whether the paper representative has a perfect appearance or an imperfect appearance, and at any time the paper note may be redeemed.
Back of the expression—body—is the perfect, changeless Substance— the reality of one’s being. Therefore if to appearance the body seems inharmonious or unnatural it can always be restored or redeemed through Spiritual insight, since the value back of the body remains forever unchanged. Always one is entitled to a perfectly harmonious body, for it is expression, manifestation only; and back of the expression rests the changelessly perfect and immutable Substance. Jesus restored the body to its normal action and raised the self-same Lazarus. Thus is the Word made flesh, and Divinity—Christ—is manifested on earth. The parables and the demonstrations of Jesus were always in direct application to human needs. Christ is with us and here in our presence today as we imbibe the Spirit of his divine Science and so repeat his works.
The human belief about form and body will be spiritualized in proportion as the glorified sense of Substance and Being takes possession of consciousness. It is not necessary that one make a great effort to exclude erring thought, or thoughts out of harmony with divine Reality, for if he will but bring his desire to the eternal Source and drink there from of its genuine and true ideas, by the power of insight, he will at once commence to experience a fuller and more harmonious state.
Scientific treatment removes the veil of deception from our vision; hereby divinity reaches humanity, and the individual being, through Christ, rises to his true estate. As consciousness escapes from sense to Soul, and mankind learns the way out of sickness, sin, and death into the beauty and wonder of glorified being, the perfect embodiment of man and the universe will become visible to all. Absolute Science is raising mankind from a material, unillumined sense of life to the spiritually-illumined understanding and the practical demonstration of sublime being.
To say that there is no sickness and then in imagination to see sickness, or experience it, is not demonstration. When Jesus commanded, “Lazarus, come forth!” Lazarus did not appear to his spiritual vision only but he appeared also to his sight and sense. In Fragments of a Lost Gospel one reads, relative to the appearing of Heaven on earth, “When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside.” What can be the interpretation of this statement unless it be that Heaven must come to our sight as well as to our inner vision? It is quite easy for the simple, loving heart to perceive the spiritual state of being, but let not vision stop here, for we are told that the Kingdom is to come on earth. The Word is made flesh among mankind only when the Truth of being is brought to sense and sight. Insight, (the within), and practice, (the without), are a unit when rightly understood and exercised.
In perceiving and claiming our God-being, and our perfect body, let it not be imagined that this is some far-off state or event, but let it be known that this state of perfection is a present possibility. “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.” Now and here, to sense and sight, shall I behold the harmony and glory of my being. Let us remember the following established facts in the Science of Being, and let us utilize them in our daily experience:
- There is one Mind only. This means that the mind of Jesus, of you, and of me, is this one divine Intelligence. This Mind is rightly called the divine Mind—meaning the right and true Intelligence. The mental mechanism called the human mind or mentality is but a term given to the human sense of Divine Reality. As the human sense, or mental mechanism, is enlightened and spiritualized it will cease to have appearance, for all sense will be swallowed up by the reality and omnipresence of Truth, Life, and Love. As insight acts upon the mind, the latter relinquishes its erring views for spiritual perception, and the divine Mind is found to be ALL.
- There is one Life only. Science reveals the fact that all life is one and the same substance. This substance is Reality, God. Each individual entity has an individual sense of life, but Life itself is indivisible. As we glimpse and hold this glorified vision—perfect Life and its perfect ideal manifestation—we partake of what is called effortless achievement. Spontaneously we rise into newness, freshness, and fairness of life and being.
- There is one Being only. Being is infinitely individualized, yet eternally one. Your being, my being, is the one Being, God, hence, it cannot be sick, fearful, ignorant, or in lack. Lifting sense and vision to claim and utilize one’s divine heritage and one’s irresistible identity results in the automatic transformation and transfiguration of the body. Body is transformed by thought, and thought is transformed by vision. When vision beholds the allness and oneness of Mind, Life, Being, the individual then leaves the unreal, material basis of life for the spiritual and actual Reality, and proves that the Word is made flesh.
Remember that an illusion is a mental state entirely. The right viewpoint is not that a physical inharmony appears as the result of mental illusion, but rather it is an illusion that there it a physical inharmony! The so- called physical body is perfect in proportion to one’s concept of the spiritual body; in fact, the so-called human body is the spiritual body as it appears to sense and sight, and is not separate from Spirit any more than a hand in the mirror is separate from the hand outside the mirror. The hand in the mirror is not an objective thing, but is a perfect outpicturing of the hand before the mirror. Likewise the human body is not actually an objective thing, (as though it existed alone), but is an outpicturing of one’s sense of Reality and Substance, transmitted by feeling and belief. That the body is material is but a false, human belief; that the body is spiritual is a true, divine conception.
Science will destroy all delusions regarding the body in proportion as man ceases to view and accept ideas of separation, duality, and relativity. The belief that the body is human, that it is subject to inharmony, discord, and annihilation is but mental illusion, for were the mind in harmony with Truth the body would appear to sight and sense as indestructible and glorious.
When Jesus wakened Lazarus from the illusion of death the appearance called death in the body vanished simultaneously, proving that both Lazarus and his body were just as much alive when they appeared dead, to sense and sight, as they ever were. The sense of sickness, sin, and death is an illusion, for being is ALWAYS whole, perfect and immortal; and that which breaks an illusion or dream is Science, Insight, Christ-vision. Jesus came to rescue mankind from the illusion that the body is material and subject to limitation and destruction. He came to save men from false sense. Since sin, sickness, death, exist only as false sense and false belief, then this delusion is all that needs to be dispelled. Perfect individual being and its perfect manifested form have no beginning or ending, and they are here at hand, to be discerned in proportion as one consents to learn and accept the spiritual Science of ascension.
Insight perceives that the veil or illusion is not over, or on, the manifested form like a mist over a mountain, but the veil is a delusion over consciousness, distorting the vision to report sickness instead of health; lack instead of abundance; death instead of life. In divine Science we do not have to remove sickness, sin, and death from the manifested form or body, for they are not there.
In the metaphysical field today there appears to be a division among teachers and students regarding the meaning and understanding of what is called the “Absolute” presentation and the “relative” presentation of Metaphysics. This is due to a mistake in the individual’s own consciousness. It would seem as though he believed that he was expected to make a choice as to which presentation of Truth he would accept and practice—the Absolute or the relative. We hear it said, “I have crossed out all the relative statements in my books, as I wish to contact only the
Absolute.” Yet another will say, “The Absolute is too high for me. I want something practical, something which I can use right in my every-day experience.”
Dear friends, let us look deeply into this very apparent problem of today. Suppose that the Bible were written wholly from the Absolute standpoint, telling us only about Heaven, reality, and perfection, never mentioning such words as trouble, loss, lack, need, healing, deliverance. Then of course, we would never be told of the prophets and their mastery over sickness, lack, sin, disease, and death; nor would we be told about Jesus and his healing work. We would read nothing of his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; nothing pertaining to deliverance from sin, sickness, and death. What would there he left? Certainly nothing that would help anyone out of the dream of human existence. One of insight, therefore, does not suggest at this stage of our enlightenment such a thing as letting go everything pertaining to healing, deliverance, resurrection, and ascension, and holding only to statements of absolute Truth. This notion would be quite as foolish as to attempt to “strain out gnats and swallow camels.”
How could the “Word” have ever become “flesh” had not Jesus appeared in human form? Of what value to mankind would Jesus’ teaching have ever been had he never listened to the reports of sin, lack, limitation, and death from the people about him? Had he ignored all references to discord, disease, and the need of salvation, deliverance, and redemption? Had he never allowed himself to be crucified and entombed?
Of what use or benefit would the sun be to the world if it could be separated from its heat and light? Just as foolish, illogical, and supercilious is it to talk of the “Absolute” as though it had no relation to human needs. One might as well attempt to solve a mathematical problem by concerning himself only with the rules and principles, never using figures or lines, as to concern himself only with ideas of Heaven and reality and never refer them in any way to their application to human experience. As mathematical rules and principles guide and promote the solution of mathematical problems so does the Absolute presentation encompass and overshadow human experience.
Let it be clearly seen and understood that the truly helpful metaphysical teaching does not deal exclusively with the changeless wholeness of God, man, and the universe; nor does it deal exclusively with the healing of the sick and sinful human conditions. The truly helpful and Christianly scientific instruction presents the Absolute and the relative as one whole. The question is not whether one chooses to accept the Absolute statements of metaphysics, or if he chooses to believe the relative statements of metaphysics. The arresting question is: Do you perceive the unity and coincidence of the Absolute presentation and its practical demonstration?
What but the perception of the oneness and the coincidence of the Divine and the human can put light into your heart, wings to your feet, satisfaction within your understanding? To consider the Absolute teaching as aloof and superior to our human steps of progression, and our final ascension above all illusion and false sense, is to misunderstand the Word that is made flesh, and is to deprive ourselves of the glorious power to impress humanity with the example of Christian metaphysics in operation.
One who wrote and published the first text hook in this country on Metaphysics, and whose knowledge of that Science permeates all modern metaphysics, did not hesitate to portray in her text books the way from sense to Soul as a way of advanced beliefs leading to spiritual understanding. In fact, it is only through these improved beliefs that the mind is gently led to relinquish its human sense for spiritual understanding. As there is no separation between the steps of a stairway and the stairway, as neither could exist without the other, so, when rightly viewed, there is no disconnection between the Absolute presentation and the relative statements. Neither exists without the other.
Many students have been confused in thought by reason of certain passages in the Bible, and also in certain metaphysical books, which apparently contradict each other. For instance, one adopting the Absolute view exclusively, without its relative statements, might wonder how God can heal when there is nothing in the nature of God which can function to the necessity for healing. And one might wonder how the divine Mind could care for the human body when there is no human body.
Spiritual evidence begins to appear through improved belief. That God cares for the human body, and supplies all human need, is an improved belief, because accepting this, the student has advanced from belief that God ignores sickness, or has no control over it. It is not Absolute truth that God or Truth heals sickness and supplies us with material things; but it is an improved belief, and it is through this door that one advances to higher perceptions. When the belief of sickness opens to the better belief that divine Love cares for the body as it does for the lily, this better belief finally merges into the higher spiritual understanding.
This reconciliation is not to take place externally, but inwardly. Consciousness or sense is to be reconciled to Truth. The snake in the rope requires no reconciliation with the rope for the snake has no objective formation. That which is illusion has no objectification, while the form- creation which is the manifestation of Spirit is omnipresent and indestructible. The lion is not to be destroyed, but the lion is to remain a lion and lie down with the lamb. The serpent is not to be destroyed but is to be proven harmless. Poison is not to be found in all creation, for there is no such idea in Consciousness.
Illusion is wholly in the mind and is never objectified. Sick beliefs do not actually objectify themselves any more than one’s belief that he sees a snake objectifies a snake. So-called disease is not an external or objectified thing at all. One with insight understands that he is under illusion when he is seeing or feeling what is not so. Perhaps you have heard the story of the woman who was deluded into thinking that her arm was covered with feathers. You can plainly see that the feathers were not an error or an illusion, nor were they externalizing any wrong belief in her mind. No outpictured feathers could be destroyed on her arm for the reason that no feathers were there. An illusion isn’t seen, felt, heard, or experienced! An illusion is the mind’s misconception of a genuine fact. To perceive this with the fire of insight is to free yourself instantly from any delusion.
After one perceives that disease is mental instead of physical, the next improvement in his belief should be the perception that there can be no actual outpicturing of a mental illusion. This is an advanced vision, but one can take it if he understands it. As this exalted fact penetrates and fills the mind it consumes all else as with fire, leaving the mind clear as crystal or as unrippled as a placid lake. Following this view the Word (Christ-vision) becomes flesh.
Now we have been told that Paul proved the viper to be harmless. Vipers had been harmless always, yet through false belief many people had died because of their bite. Paul’s demonstration was not in destroying the viper’s power to cause death, but in proving that the viper was entirely inoffensive. It is never destruction, but always perception, that is real demonstration. “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain” … “They shall handle serpents … they shall drink any deadly thing”—what difference does it make?
Daniel was sufficiently illumined to see and to prove that the lions were peaceable—always had been and always would be. It made no difference how many lions were thrown into the den. And the three Hebrew lads who were placed into the fiery furnace proved the flames to be utterly harmless; in fact, not even the smell of smoke could be detected upon their clothing. Thus it is plain that the human consciousness, through improved beliefs, faith, and understanding, rises higher and higher until Reality is accepted, and individual being is found perfect and immortal. But until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes insight and illumination, one does not clearly perceive the plan of Life, nor comprehend how the Word becomes flesh.
Improved belief, faith, and understanding, inspire, illumine, and liberate the mind, gently turning it from illusion and false mental states, and aiding it to discern the divine idea and to be “swallowed up” in spiritual Consciousness. Behold the Way! Behold the Light! Behold the Science of the Word made flesh!
While the steps leading to the consciousness of perception are indispensable, one may still advance rapidly if insight and illumination increasingly overshadow him. Jesus’ demonstrations, providing the proof of one’s perfection here and at hand, and of the harmlessness of illusion, were nearly always instantaneous. His consciousness, always flooded and illumined with the spiritual idea, responded at once to this divine activity. Instantaneous healing will become more and more in evidence as one’s insight increases and his nature manifests more and more of the Christ.
Seeing the nothingness or harmlessness of mental illusion enables one to function in the reality of health and wholeness as established and at hand. To perceive the actuality of perfect individual being, and its perfect manifested form, dispels illusion and delivers one instantly to the Light. One uses reason and argument, therefore, until ascending in consciousness, he can demonstrate with Insight (Spirit) alone.
In studying books dealing with the Truth one should avoid familiarizing oneself with the words alone, thereby shutting off the continuous enfoldment of the inspired ideas which are represented by them. The moment that these are pinned down to familiar forms of statements no matter how beloved such words may be, in that moment the statements cease to reveal the wealth of understanding and insight which lies hidden within them. Continual tuning of the consciousness is necessary in order to keep it fresh, keenly alive, and mindful of progressive spiritual ideas. The understanding which a person possesses at the moment of reading is never the finished product, for insight and understanding are infinite. There arc always fresh discoveries to be made in studying Jesus’ words, or in any book presenting inspirational ideas.
One reason why many do not advance more rapidly in understanding and in demonstration is because they feed too constantly upon the same understanding of certain spiritual ideas, instead of realizing that the quality of a spiritual idea is infinite. There is never anything final in words representing The Infinite. How could there be? As the divine idea is infinite in quality so also in the words which clothe the idea may be found continuous inspiration and revelation of Truth.
Now, one individualizes as much power, dominion, and glory as he apprehends and realizes. In proportion as one’s consciousness is harmonized with divine Reality does he individualize infinite Power and infinite Glory. It is not what one says which heals, nor is it what one does. It is what one is that heals. This does not mean what one is Absolutely (for in the Absolute sense there is no inharmony or need), but it means the Truth which one individualizes or appropriates. If being the Truth were sufficient there would be no appearance of discord anywhere, for it is certain that we are Truth. But the point is—how much of Truth and Reality are we individualizing, or appropriating, to sense and sight?
It is perception and acceptance that individual being is boundless, unconditioned Spirit which enables one to individualize this reality, and which delivers to him the mastery over mental experience. Beholding the changeless, ideal Being and the changeless, ideal expression as a unit, one begins at once to execute dominion over human states and conditions. Thus it can be said that one continually lives in the light of his own glory— the glory which he individualizes—and in the light of his own power and immortality.
In proportion as one assimilates divine Science does he bring forth its fruits. Since power is infinite, then actually no problem can be too difficult for the power which one may summon to master it. When the mind is raised to the point of illumination then demonstration is swift and certain. Acting in the consciousness that one is whole and perfect, that his health is permanent and abiding, he transcends human belief and experience and becomes a law unto himself.
Redemption and restoration do not take place actually, or in Spirit, for individual reality is forever changeless and perfect, but redemption and restoration take place in thought and sense; that is, one consciously and joyously takes possession of that which he is—brings his actual being into full and complete realization. When humanity attains the right concept of its divinity the spiritual and the mental will be harmonized; Truth will reign supreme and Heaven will be viewed as here on earth.
Have faith, therefore, in your divine being. Have faith also in the divine processes of redemption and restoration. Faith and love bring you into immediate contact with your actual health, harmony, and immortality. As your vision, faith, love, and understanding progress, so also will health and harmony increase in your experience. This expansion of vision allows the Light to radiate through all your affairs. You now see that you are not expected or required to create health and harmony, but you are expected and required to recognize and prove this health and harmony to be the permanent, established fact of your being. From this transcendental height of Self-illumination one perceives that both his soul and its manifested form are Spirit, for they are a unit. The perfect, permanent immortal form, (man), forever existing to Spirit, and the perfect, individual being, (God), are inseparable and indivisible.
The Path of Ascension is open to all alike. But just as looking upon a fountain of cool sparkling water will not quench one’s thirst, so it is necessary that one should drink of the Living Fountain imbibing true ideas of Reality in order to promote Self-realization. Life itself does not lack peace, joy, harmony, or any good thing; and as one reads, assimilates, and embodies the Science of his divinity, his mind is laborlessly liberated from its sense of bondage and limitation. Suffering often times spiritualizes thought, yet at-one-ment and ascension can be experienced through vision and revelation, and so, “in this more excellent way,” be brought into practice. Thus does the Word—Christ—become flesh, a certainty within reach of all individual consciousness, now and here.
Jesus while in human form, established to sense and sight the Truth which he presented. He set before the world the PROOF that there is no power whatsoever in sin, sickness, death, bondage, and limitation. This Word, having been made flesh, still dwells among us, coming to us eternally in demonstration. In proportion as we accept this Christ in our minds and hearts, individually proving his words and his acts to be universal and ever-operative, do we partake of his glory, his power, his resurrection, and his ascension.
Hereby we are changed from glory to glory, and hereby do we find that as in him so in us the Word has been made flesh.