Chapter 1 : How Your Mind Works
You have only one mind, but there are two phases or functions of that mind. In this chapter, I plan to make the distinctions clear and readily comprehensible. Each phase is characterized by its own phenomenon, which is peculiar to itself. Each of these minds is capable of independent action, but that still does not mean that you are endowed with two minds.
In this book you will learn to use both phases of your mind synchronously, harmoniously and peacefully, thereby bringing harmony, health and abundance into your life. The terms used to designate these two functions of your mind are as follows: the “objective mind” and the “subjective mind,” the “conscious” and the “subconscious mind.” Others designate the two states of consciousness as the “supraliminal” and the “subliminal,” after the old psychologists.
I have adopted the terms “conscious” and “subconscious” throughout this book. The objective, or conscious, mind takes cognizance of the objective world by means of the five objective senses, whereas the subconscious, or subjective, mind is that intelligence which manifests itself in all subjective states and conditions, as in dreams, visions of the night, solutions to problems, the source of inspiration, guidance, healing, etc. Your subconscious mind is the mind that takes care of all your vital organs when you are sound asleep. It takes charge of your breathing, the circulation of your blood, and sees to it that your heart and all the other essential functions of your body are operating perfectly. Y... See more
Chapter 1 : How Your Mind Works
You have only one mind, but there are two phases or functions of that mind. In this chapter, I plan to make the distinctions clear and readily comprehensible. Each phase is characterized by its own phenomenon, which is peculiar to itself. Each of these minds is capable of independent action, but that still does not mean that you are endowed with two minds.
In this book you will learn to use both phases of your mind synchronously, harmoniously and peacefully, thereby bringing harmony, health and abundance into your life. The terms used to designate these two functions of your mind are as follows: the “objective mind” and the “subjective mind,” the “conscious” and the “subconscious mind.” Others designate the two states of consciousness as the “supraliminal” and the “subliminal,” after the old psychologists.
I have adopted the terms “conscious” and “subconscious” throughout this book. The objective, or conscious, mind takes cognizance of the objective world by means of the five objective senses, whereas the subconscious, or subjective, mind is that intelligence which manifests itself in all subjective states and conditions, as in dreams, visions of the night, solutions to problems, the source of inspiration, guidance, healing, etc. Your subconscious mind is the mind that takes care of all your vital organs when you are sound asleep. It takes charge of your breathing, the circulation of your blood, and sees to it that your heart and all the other essential functions of your body are operating perfectly. Your conscious mind is your guide in your contact with the environment. You are constantly learning through your five senses by observation, experience and education.
Suggestions and Your Subconscious
Your subconscious mind is amenable to suggestions and it is controlled by suggestion. One of the corollaries of the law of suggestion is that your subconscious mind does not engage in inductive reasoning, which means that it does not institute a line of research by collecting facts, classifying them and estimating their relative evidential values. Its method of reasoning is purely deductive. This is true whether the premise is true or false. In other words, its deductions from a false premise are as logically correct as from a true one. Thus, if it is suggested to a hypnotized subject that he is a dog, he will immediately play that role and perform the acts of a dog, so far as it is physically possible to do so, while at the same time believing himself to be a dog.
In all probability, you have seen hypnotized subjects play the role of the type of character suggested to them by the operator or hypnotist, for the subject believes himself to be the actual personality suggested.
For instance, you could suggest to a hypnotized subject that he is President Roosevelt; and if at some time in the past he had heard President Roosevelt speak or address the nation, his own personality would be completely submerged under the influence of the suggestion. He would believe himself to be the late President Roosevelt.
Two Opposing Suggestions
You have the power to reject the suggestions of the other person. The suggestions of the other person have no power unless you accept them: then they become the movement of your own mind, or an auto-suggestion. For example, if you say to a businessman or a professional man who is full of confidence and faith in his ability and understanding and who believes in success and achievement that he is going to fail, he laughs at you or treats the suggestion with scorn or ridicule. Actually, your suggestion acted as a stimulus to his conviction of advancement, prosperity and a triumphant life. Your subconscious accepts the dominant of two ideas.
How She Handled the Suggestion of Seasickness
On one of our Seminars on the Sea, a woman suggested to a member of our group that she looked ill and pale and that perhaps the rough sea was making her ill. She was prepared, however, She knew how to handle it, so her rejoinder was: “I am here to have a wonderful time. I am going to roll with the waves and the rhythm of the deep. It is wonderful!” She neutralized the woman’s negative suggestion.
The negative suggestions of others, to be effective, must have a kindred spirit in you; a fear pattern must be in your subconscious; otherwise, it would have no effect. Always remember that you can tune in with the Infinite Presence and Power within you. When you are aligned with the Infinite, you will gradually build up an immunity to all harm and false suggestions.
Your Early Training
All of us, when we were young, malleable and highly impressionable, received suggestions regarding religious beliefs, opinions, superstitions, false beliefs and prejudices from our parents, uncles, aunts, clergymen, teachers and others.
All of us accepted the suggestions, beliefs, language, customs and traditions of our parents and environment. We had no other choice. We could not reject their suggestions and indoctrination, as we had not yet reached the point in our lives of discernment or the capacity to differentiate between that which is false and that which is true.
You were not born with any religious beliefs, fears, taboos or strictures of any kind. Like all of us, you were born helpless, ignorant and completely at the mercy of your parents or those entrusted with your care.
You were born with only two fears the fear of falling and the fear of noise both of which represent God’s alarm system in you to protect you. All other fears were given to you.
I suggest to people that they examine the origin of their beliefs, religious concepts, and fears and see if they contribute to their health, happiness and peace of mind. You can eradicate and expunge from your subconscious mind anything that was learned, acquired or copied by you in your youth. In other words, you can recondition or reprogram your subconscious mind along the lines of eternal verities, which are universal and belong to all men. These eternal truths are the same yesterday, today and forever.
How She Cleansed Her Mind
An elderly woman, a retired school teacher, explained to me how she had eradicated what she called her weird, grotesque, irrational, illogical and unscientific religious beliefs. She read a statement from one of the magazines, wherein Einstein said: “Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind.” She studied the religions of the world, including Unity and Religious Science, and read The Power of your Subconscious Mind. The latter book stopped her in her tracks. She said it rang a bell and she woke up from a long religious stupor.
Accordingly, she practiced the following prayer regularly and systematically, knowing that she would erase all false concepts of God from her deeper mind in the same way as you talk over a tape, automatically erasing the contents. The reconditioning of her subconscious mind was as follows: “Divine love fills my soul. Divine right action is mine. Divine harmony governs my life. Divine peace fills my soul. Divine beauty is mine. Divine joy fills my soul. I am Divinely guided in all ways. I am illumined from On High. I know and believe that God’s will for me is a greater measure of life, love, truth and beauty, something transcending my fondest dreams. I know that God loves me and cares for me.”
She formulated the above prayer after reading The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and other books. She knew that by reiterating these great truths, they would sink gradually into her subconscious mind and bring about a transformation.
The first thing she learned was that there is only One Power. There cannot be two, spiritually, scientifically, mathematically or any other way. There is no room for anything else when you realize that God is the Living Spirit Almighty and is omnipresent and omnipotent. If there were two powers, one would cancel out the other and there would be no order, design, proportion or symmetry. The world would be a chaos instead of a cosmos.
She also realized that all the good and evil she experienced were due to the way she used the One Power, which is whole and perfect in Itself. She woke up to the fact that she could use any power two ways and that good and evil were the movements of her own mind relative to the One Being, which is whole and perfect in Itself. She was a wise woman. She learned from her mistakes and corrected them, instituting new action upon the basis of new truths she has learned. She is now leading a happier and more peaceful experience.
How Can I Find Peace?
This was a question asked me recently at a club in Leisure World. A woman asked: “How can I find peace?
I read about rapes, murders, burglaries, gas shortages, and all the crooked deals in high places.” My answer to her was that changed attitudes change everything. I pointed out to her that single-handedly she could not change the world or prevent social upheavals, crime and man’s inhumanity to man, but she could tune in with the Infinite Presence frequently and affirm: “God’s peace fills my soul. The light of God shines in me.
I think, speak and act from the Divine Center within me.”
This, I added, is the one sure method to find peace in this changing world. There is no law that compels you to hate, resent or fear simply because of what politicians, circumstances or newspapers suggest. You can affirm: “God thinks, speaks and acts through me.”
Remember a simple truth of life: No man, circumstance, condition or broadcast takes your peace; you give it away by surrendering your own control over your thoughts, words, deeds and reactions. You are the boss; you are in charge of your own thoughts.
Wealth was in His Mind
Some weeks ago, I spent some time giving a series of lectures in the major cities of The Republic of South Africa. Dr. Reg Barrett lectures all over the Republic on the laws of mind, and he introduced me at the various seminars we conducted. After one of the lectures in Durban, a man chatted with me, saying: “You know, it is true. Wealth is first in the mind and then in the ground, the air, the sea, and everywhere.” He pointed out that his father and grandfather had come from England to seek their fortunes in South Africa.
His grandfather spent many months searching for gold and found nothing. He gave up, because he had no more money. His father, on the other hand, went over the same territory and in a few weeks found a gold vein which subsequently became one of the many famous gold mines in South Africa.
He said that his father was a very religious man and he constantly prayed that God would reveal to him where the gold was and lead him to green pastures and still waters. It is true the gold was in the earth, but the mental and spiritual wealth was in the mind of his father in the form of an implicit belief in Divine guidance and the truths of the 23rd Psalm. Apparently, from what I was told, his grandfather was tense, anxious and jealous because some of his friends had struck it rich and he hadn’t. This attitude caused a mental and spiritual blindness, so he could not see the gold under his feet.
Look Within
Do not look outside yourself for peace of mind, wealth, security or inner strength. The Divine Presence is within you the Supreme Intelligence which created all things and is All-Wise. No government, institution or person can bestow on you the quiet mind or inner peace.
Your subconscious mind is the seat of ha bit, and habits are built up in the same way you learned to walk, swim, dance, play the piano, type or drive a car. You repeated certain thought patterns and actions over and over, and after a certain length of time these patterns were implanted in your subconscious mind. Now you do these things automatically. You might call this second nature. The latter is simply the response of your deeper mind to your conscious choices and actions.
Frequently during the day, affirm: “ God’s river of peace saturates my mind and heart. I rest in the everlasting arms of wisdom, truth and beauty.” Make a habit of repeating this prayer. Repeat it over and over again, knowing what you are doing and why you are doing it. As you continue to affirm and reiterate these simple truths, you will become peaceful and harmonious, and you will contribute to the peace and serenity of all those around you.
Many say to me that they would love to find some hamlet, some town near the beaches, where they could find rest and comfort. Remember, you take your mind with you wherever you go. Actually, you meet yourself at all times. If the mind is in turmoil and you are anxious and worried, the beach or the mountain will not give you peace. You must choose peace.
Some people are unceasingly searching for a Shangri-La where all is bliss and harmony, a sort of Utopia, where all of us will share everything together and live harmoniously, peacefully and joyfully. You must remember, however, that you create your own Utopia. There is no such place except in the mind of man, who is in tune with the Infinite and who has found the peace that passeth understanding. The problems, challenges, difficulties and turmoil around us incite us to find that inner peace and also enable us to discover our Divinity and rise above the problems of the world.
You Can Change Yourself
Remember, you do not have a mystic wand enabling you to change the world, but you can change yourself by identifying yourself with the Infinite Presence and Power within you and constantly claiming harmony, peace, beauty, love, joy, right action and Divine law and order. As you make a habit of this, you will rise above the turbulence and chaos of the world mind, sometimes referred to as the race mind, law of averages, or mass mind.
Overcome the World
The world, in Biblical language, represents all the people in the world, some good, some bad. The mass mind, or law of averages, means the way four and a half billion people are thinking. Every day you read of wars, cruelty, crime, hate, jealousy, murder, race conflicts and religious struggles. You also read of the good and noble people who contribute to the peace of the world.
You cannot run away from the world or the mass mind. All of us are immersed in it because, subjectively, we are all one and the psychic sea impinges on all of us. That is why you should keep prayed up. Assume now, today, that Infinite Intelligence is guiding and directing you and that the power of the Infinite animates and sustains you. Radiate love, peace, and goodwill to all people and wish for them all the blessings of life.
This attitude will guarantee you success along all lines. Furthermore, you will be contributing to the welfare of all people everywhere. You can definitely move triumphantly through the maelstrom of this confused world into ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. Your inner assumptions, beliefs and convictions dictate and control all external actions.
You Can Transcend
A male nurse—a recent graduate got a responsible position in a nearby medical clinic. He came to me for consultation, saying that his nerves were jangled, the patients were half crazy, the phones were ringing all the time, and that he couldn’t take it any longer.
During the course of our conversation, it began to dawn on him that the people waiting in the clinic were sick mentally as well as physically and that, being a nurse, his job was to overcome the noise, confusion and complaints in that institution. I said to him that the irritations of the sick were a basic part of his work, that he must rise above these problems, and that if he were to run away, he would be going from the frying pan into the fire. I reiterated that he must meet his problems head on and grapple with them courageously; then he would overcome.
He listened, and at my suggestion began to affirm: “…None of these things move me… (Acts 20:24). I will overcome all vexations and difficulties.” He decided to remain in the clinic and discovered that his new attitude changed everything.
How He Changed His Life
I had an interesting conversation with a man in Johannesburg, who told me that at 45 years of age he was broke, dispirited, depressed and dejected because his business had failed and his wife had left him because she felt that he could not support her in the way to which she was accustomed.
The turning point in his life, however, came one evening when he attended a lecture on the laws of mind.
The first thing the speaker had said was. “Man is what he thinks all day long.” This made a profound impression upon him. The speaker added that this truth has been known for thousands of years, but that the rank and file of humanity overlook it or pay little or no attention to it.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he… (Proverbs 23:7). The heart is an old term for your subconscious mind. All the Bible is saying is that whatever you really think and feel to be true deep down in your heart will come forth and be expressed in all phases of your life. In other words, any thought, idea or concept emotionalized and felt as true will be brought forth by your subconscious as form, function, experience and event. All through the ages this has been the most outstanding discovery in man’s life.
This man began to make a habit of thinking of success, harmony, peace, goodwill, prosperity and right action. He busied his mind with these concepts and proceeded to prove them to himself. When thoughts of self-condemnation or self-criticism came to his mind, he said that he would immediately affirm: “Success is mine. Harmony is mine. Abundance is mine.” After some months of this altered mental attitude, he became a constructive thinker. He said he now has a business bringing him an income of over several million dollars a year in our money. He employs hundreds of people and shares his profits with them.
The Psalmist said:… I will set him on high. Because he hath known my name (Psalms 91:14). Name means nature, and the nature of Infinite Intelligence is to respond to you. In the third chapter of Exodus, the name is called I AM, or awareness, the function of thinking.
Dr. Reginald Barrett, one of the teachers in South Africa, said a very interesting thing to his audience, the essence of which was this: “If you had no mind you could not see me or hear me. You would have no sensation of the world around you. You could not taste, feel, or smell the fragrance of the flowers in your garden.” Your mind is basic to all living, and it gives life, substance and form to what you accept and believe to be true. Everything you look at came out of the invisible mind of man and of God.
Be Sure to Remember a Basic Truth
William James, the father of American psychology, stated that he felt the greatest discovery of the last one hundred years was the awareness of the powers of the subconscious mind. Dr. Phineas Quimby, who started healing people in 1847, pointed out in his experiments that. “If I really believed a thing, the effect would follow whether I was thinking of it or not.”
This is of great importance, because it applies to all of us and reveals that whatever has been deposited in our subconscious mind governs and controls us. In other words, your subconscious beliefs, assumptions and convictions dictate, control and direct all your conscious actions, whether you are thinking about them or not. Whatever is impressed in your subconscious mind, whether good or bad, will always be expressed on the screen of space. Your habitual thinking is gradually absorbed and recorded in your subconscious. There they become laws and beliefs which act automatically.
She was Allergic to Orange Juice
I had a long talk in Port Elizabeth with a young woman who said that she loved to drink orange juice, but that whenever she did, she would break out in a very disagreeable and irritating rash on her face and arms.
Her sister and brother, however, drank orange juice with impunity and seemed to thrive on it.
I explained to her that her allergic response undoubtedly went back to childhood, when she ate too many oranges and was told they are bad for her. I pointed out that that belief is now buried in her subconscious mind and predisposes her to a certain reaction, and that the absence of this belief in her brother and sister prevents a similar reaction. It was the subconscious assumption behind the allergic reaction which she had long forgotten.
I explained how she could overcome the problem by using the following prayer, which would recondition her subconscious and erase the fear of oranges: “God pronounced everything good. Whatever I eat or drink is transmuted into beauty, order, symmetry and proportion. I am harmonized and vitalized. I eat the bread of heaven and I drink the wine of joy. In my body I see order, peace, wholeness and beauty made manifest.
It is wonderful!” She was to write these truths by repetition into her subconscious mind so that gradually she would be freed from the false belief. She knew that the conscious mind controls the subconscious, and a few days ago I received a letter from her containing a picture of her drinking orange juice. Having discovered the power within herself, she has found a new sense of freedom and peace of mind.
