The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science - Thomas Troward
For the purpose, then, of getting into touch with our sub-conscious mind we
must endeavour to think of ourselves as pure being, as that entity which
interiorly supports the outward manifestation, and doing so we shall
realize that the essential quality of pure being must be good. It is in
itself _pure Life_, and as such cannot desire anything detrimental to pure
Life under whatever form manifested. Consequently the purer our intentions
the more readily we shall place ourself _en rapport_ with our subjective
entity; and _a fortiori_ the same applies to that Greater Sub-conscious
Mind of which our individual subjective mind is a particular manifestation.
In actual practice the process consists in first forming a clear conception
in the objective mind of the idea we wish to convey to the subjective mind:
then, when this has been firmly grasped, endeavour to lose sight of all
other facts connected with the external personality except the one in
question, and then mentally address the subjective mind as though it were
an independent entity and impress upon it what you want it to do or to
believe. Everyone must formulate his own way of working, but one method,
which is both simple and effective is to say to the subjective mind, "This
is what I want you to do; you will now step into my place and do it,
bringing all your powers and intelligence to bear, and considering yourself
to be none other than myself." Having done this return to the realization
of your own objective personality and leave the subjective mind to perform
its task in full confidence that, by the law of its nature, it will do so
if not hindered by a repetition of contrary messages from the objective
mind. This is not a mere fancy but a truth daily proved by the experience
of increasing numbers. The facts have not been fabricated to fit the
theory, but the theory has been built up by careful observation of the
facts; and since it has been shown both by theory and practice that such is
the law of the relation between subjective and objective mind, we find
ourselves face to face with a very momentous question. Is there any reason
why the laws which hold good of the individual subjective mind should not
hold good of the Universal Mind also? and the answer is that there is not.
As has been already shown the Universal Mind must, by its very
universality, be purely subjective, and what is the law of a part must also
be the law of the whole: the qualities of fire are the same whether the
centres of combustion be great or small, and therefore we may well conclude
these lectures by considering what will be the result if we apply what we
have learnt regarding the individual subjective mind to the Universal Mind.
We have learnt that the three great facts regarding subjective mind are its
creative power, its amenableness to suggestion, and its inability to work
by any other than the deductive method. This last is an exceedingly
important point, for it implies that the action of the subjective mind is
in no way limited by precedent. The inductive method works on principles
inferred from an already existing pattern, and therefore at the best only
produces the old thing in a new shape. But the deductive method works
according to the essence or spirit of the principle, and does not depend on
any previous concrete manifestation for its apprehension of it; and this
latter method of working must necessarily be that of the all-originating
Mind, for since there could be no prior existing pattern from which it
could learn the principles of construction, the want of a pattern would
have prevented its creating anything had its method been inductive instead
of deductive. Thus by the necessity of the case the Universal Mind must act
deductively, that is, according to the law which has been found true of
individual subjective mind. It is thus not bound by any precedent, which
means that its creative power is absolutely unlimited; and since it is
essentially subjective mind, and not objective mind, it is entirely
amenable to suggestion. Now it is an unavoidable inference from the
identity of the law governing subjective mind, whether in the individual or
the universal, that just as we can by suggestion impress a certain
character of personality upon the individual subjective mind, so we can,
and do, upon the Universal Mind; and it is for this reason that I have
drawn attention to the inherent personal _quality_ of pure spirit when
contemplated in its most interior plane. It becomes, therefore, the most
important of all considerations with what character we invest the Universal
Mind; for since our relation to it is _purely subjective_ it will
infallibly bear _to us_ exactly that character which we impress upon it; in
other words it will be to us exactly what we believe it to be. This is
simply a logical inference from the fact that, as subjective mind, our
primary relation to it can only be on the subjective plane, and indirectly
our objective relations must also spring from the same source. This is the
meaning of that remarkable passage twice repeated in the Bible, "With, the
pure thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show
thyself froward." (Ps. xviii., 26, and II. Sam. xxii., 27), for the context
makes it clear that these words are addressed to the Divine Being. The
spiritual kingdom is _within_ us, and as we realize it _there_ so it
becomes to us a reality. It is the unvarying law of the subjective life
that "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he," that is to say, his inward
subjective states are the only true reality, and what we call external
realities are only their objective correspondences. If we thoroughly
realize the truth that the Universal Mind must be to us exactly according
to our conception of it, and that this relation is not merely imaginary but
by the law of subjective mind must be to us an actual fact and the
foundation of all other facts, then it is impossible to over-estimate the
importance of the conception of the Universal Mind which we adopt. To the
uninstructed there is little or no choice: they form a conception in
accordance with the tradition they have received from others, and until
they have learnt to think for themselves, they have to abide by the results
of that tradition: for natural laws admit of no exceptions, and however
faulty the traditional idea may be, its acceptance will involve a
corresponding reaction upon the Universal Mind, which will in turn be
reflected into the conscious mind and external life of the individual. But
those who understand the law of the subject will have no one but themselves
to blame if they do not derive all possible benefits from it. The greatest
Teacher of Mental Science the world has ever seen has laid down
sufficiently plain rules for our guidance. With a knowledge of the subject
whose depth can be appreciated only by those who have themselves some
practical acquaintance with it, He bids His unlearned audiences, those
common people who heard Him gladly, picture to themselves the Universal
Mind as a benign Father, tenderly compassionate of all and sending the
common bounties of Nature alike on the evil and the good; but He also
pictured It as exercising a special and peculiar care over those who
recognize Its willingness to do so:--"the very hairs of your head are all
numbered," and "ye are of more value than many sparrows." Prayer was to be
made to the unseen Being, not with doubt or fear, but with the absolute
assurance of a certain answer, and no limit was to be set to its power or
willingness to work for us. But to those who did not thus realize it, the
Great Mind is necessarily the adversary who casts them into prison until
they have paid the uttermost farthing; and thus in all cases the Master
impressed upon his hearers the exact correspondence of the attitude of this
unseen Power towards _them_ with their own attitude towards _it_. Such
teaching was not a narrow anthropomorphism but the adaptation to the
intellectual capacity of the unlettered multitude of the very deepest
truths of what we now call Mental Science. And the basis of it all is the
cryptic personality of spirit hidden throughout the infinite of Nature
under every form of manifestation. As unalloyed Life and Intelligence it
_can_ be no other than good, it can entertain no intention of evil, and
thus all intentional evil must put us in opposition to it, and so deprive
us of the consciousness of its guidance and strengthening and thus leave us
to grope our own way and fight our own battle single-handed against the
universe, odds which at last will surely prove too great for us. But
remember that the opposition can never be on the part of the Universal
Mind, for in itself it is sub-conscious mind; and to suppose any active
opposition taken on its own initiative would be contrary to all we have
learnt as to the nature of sub-conscious mind whether in the individual or
the universal; the position of the Universal Mind towards us is always the
reflection of our own attitude. Therefore although the Bible is full of
threatening against those who persist in conscious opposition to the Divine
Law of Good, it is on the other hand full of promises of immediate and full
forgiveness to all who change, their attitude and desire to co-operate with
the Law of Good so far as they know it. The laws of Nature do not act
vindictively; and through all theological formularies and traditional
interpretations let us realize that what we are dealing with is the supreme
law of our own being; and it is on the basis of this natural law that we
find such declarations as that in Ezek. xviii., 22, which tells that if we
forsake our evil ways our past transgressions shall never again be
mentioned to us. We are dealing with the great principles of our subjective
being, and our misuse of them in the past can never make them change their
inherent law of action. If our method of using them in the past has brought
us sorrow, fear and trouble, we have only to fall back on the law that if
we reverse the cause the effects will be reversed also; and so what we have
to do is simply to reverse our mental attitude and then endeavour to act up
to the new one. The sincere endeavour to act up to our new mental attitude
is essential, for we cannot really think in one way and act in another; but
our repeated failures to fully act as we would wish must not discourage us.
It is the sincere intention that is the essential thing, and this will in
time release us from the bondage of habits which at present seem almost
insuperable.
The initial step, then, consists in determining to picture the Universal
Mind as the ideal of all we could wish it to be both to ourselves and to
others, together with the endeavour to reproduce this ideal, however
imperfectly, in our own life; and this step having been taken, we can then
cheerfully look upon it as our ever-present Friend, providing all good,
guarding from all danger, and guiding us with all counsel. Gradually as the
habit of thus regarding the Universal Mind grows upon us, we shall find
that in accordance with the laws we have been considering, it will become
more and more _personal_ to us, and in response to our desire its inherent
intelligence will make itself more and more clearly perceptible within as a
power of perceiving truth far beyond any statement of it that we could
formulate by merely intellectual investigation. Similarly if we think of it
as a great power devoted to supplying all our needs, we shall impress this
character also upon it, and by the law of subjective mind it will proceed
to enact the part of that special providence which we have credited it with
being; and if, beyond the general care of our concerns, we would draw to
ourselves some particular benefit, the same rule holds good of impressing
our desire upon the Universal Subjective Mind. And if we realize that above
and beyond all this we want something still greater and more enduring, the
building-up of character and unfolding of our powers so that we may expand
into fuller and yet fuller measures of joyous and joy-giving Life, still
the same rule holds good: convey to the Universal Mind the suggestion of
the desire, and by the law of relation between subjective and objective
mind this too will be fulfilled. And thus the deepest problems of
philosophy bring us back to the old statement of the Law:--Ask and ye shall
receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.
This is the summing-up of the natural law of the relation between us and
the Divine Mind. It is thus no vain boast that Mental Science can enable us
to make our lives what we will. We must start from where we are now, and by
rightly estimating our relation to the Divine Universal Mind we can
gradually grow into any conditions we desire, provided we first make
ourselves in habitual mental attitude the person who corresponds to those
conditions: for we can never get over the law of correspondence, and the
externalization will always be in accord with the internal principle that
gives rise to it. And to this law there is no limit. What it can do for us
to-day it can do to-morrow, and through all that procession of to-morrows
that loses itself in the dim vistas of eternity. Belief in limitation is
the one and only thing that causes limitation, because we thus impress
limitation upon the creative principle; and in proportion as we lay that
belief aside our boundaries will expand, and increasing life and more
abundant blessing will be ours.
But we must not ignore our responsibilities. Trained thought is far more
powerful than untrained, and therefore the more deeply we penetrate into
Mental Science the more carefully we must guard against all thoughts and
words expressive of even the most modified form of ill-will. Gossip,
tale-bearing, sneering laughter, are not in accord with the principles of
Mental Science; and similarly even our smallest thoughts of good carry with
them a seed of good which will assuredly bear fruit in due time. This is
not mere "goodie, goodie," but an important lesson in Mental Science, for
our subjective mind takes its colour from our settled mental habits, and an
occasional affirmation or denial will not be sufficient to change it; and
we must therefore cultivate that tone which we wish to see reproduced in
our conditions whether of body, mind, or circumstance.
In these lectures my purpose has been, not so much to give specific rules
of practice as to lay down the broad general principles of Mental Science
which will enable the student to form rules for himself. In every walk in
life, book knowledge is only a means to an end. Books can only direct us
where to look and what to look for, but we must do the finding _for
ourselves;_ therefore, if you have really grasped the principles of the
science, you will frame rules of your own which will give you better
results than any attempt to follow somebody else's method, which was
successful in their hands precisely because it was theirs. Never fear to be
yourself. If Mental Science does not teach you to be yourself it teaches
you nothing. Yourself, more yourself, and yet more yourself is what you
want; only with the knowledge that the true self includes the inner and
higher self which is always in immediate touch with the Great Divine Mind.
As Walt Whitman says:--"You are not all included between your hat and your
boots."
* * * * *
_The growing popularity of the Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science has led
me to add to the present edition three more sections on Body, Soul, and
Spirit, which it is hoped will prove useful by rendering the principles of
the interaction of these three factors somewhat clearer_.
XIV.
THE BODY.
Some students find it difficult to realize that mental action can produce
any real effect upon material substance; but if this is not possible there
is no such thing as Mental Science, the purpose of which is to produce
improved conditions both of body and environment, so that the ultimate
manifestation aimed at is always one of demonstration upon the plane of the
visible and concrete. Therefore to afford conviction of an actual
connection between the visible and the invisible, between the inner and the
outer, is one of the most important points in the course of our studies.
That such a connection must exist is proved by metaphysical argument in
answer to the question, "How did anything ever come into existence at all?"
And the whole creation, ourselves included, stands as evidence to this
great truth. But to many minds merely abstract argument is not completely
convincing, or at any rate it becomes more convincing if it is supported by
something of a more concrete nature; and for such readers I would give a
few hints as to the correspondence between the physical and the mental. The
subject covers a very wide area, and the limited space at my disposal will
only allow me to touch on a few suggestive points, still these may be
sufficient to show that the abstract argument has some corresponding facts
at the back of it.
One of the most convincing proofs I have seen is that afforded by the
"biometre," a little instrument invented by an eminent French scientist,
the late Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, which shows the action of what he calls the
"vital current." His theory is that this force, whatever its actual nature
may be, is universally present, and operates as a current of physical
vitality perpetually, flowing with more or less energy through every
physical organism, and which can, at any rate to some extent, be controlled
by the power of the human will. The theory in all its minutiae is
exceedingly elaborate, and has been described in detail in Dr. Baraduc's
published works. In a conversation I had with him about a year ago, he told
me he was writing another book which would throw further light on the
subject, but a few months later he passed over before it was presented to
the world. The fact, however, which I wish to put before the reader, is the
ocular demonstration of the connection between mind and matter, which an
experiment with the biometre affords.
The instrument consists of a bell glass, from the inside of which is
suspended a copper needle by a fine silken thread. The glass stands on a
wooden support, below which is a coil of copper wire, which, however, is
not connected with any battery or other apparatus, and merely serves to
condense the current. Below the needle, inside the glass, there is a
circular card divided into degrees to mark the action of the needle. Two of
these instruments are placed side by side, but in no way connected, and the
experimenter then holds out the fingers of both hands to within about an
inch of the glasses. According to the theory, the current enters at the
left hand, circulates through the body, and passes out at the right hand,
that is to say, there is an indrawing at the left and a giving-out at the
right, thus agreeing with Reichenbach's experiments on the polarity of the
human body.
I must confess that, although I had read Dr. Baraduc's book, "Les
Vibrations Humaines," I approached the instrument in a very sceptical frame
of mind; but I was soon convinced of my error. At first, holding a mental
attitude of entire relaxation, I found that the left-hand needle was
attracted through twenty degrees, while the right-hand needle, the one
affected by the out-going current, was repelled through ten degrees. After
allowing the instrument to return to its normal equilibrium I again
approached it with the purpose of seeing whether a change of mental
attitude would in the least modify the flow of current. This time I assumed
the strongest mental attitude I could with the intention of sending out a
flow through the right hand, and the result as compared with the previous
one was remarkable. The left-hand needle was now attracted only through ten
degrees, while the right-hand one was deflected through something over
thirty, thus clearly indicating the influence of the mental faculties in
modifying the action of the current. I may mention that the experiment was
made in the presence of two medical men who noted the movement of the
needles.
I will not here stop to discuss the question of what the actual
constitution of this current of vital energy may be--it is sufficient for
our present purpose that it is there, and the experiment I have described
brings us face to face with the fact of a correspondence between our own
mental attitude and the invisible forces of nature. Even if we say that
this current is some form of electricity, and that the variation of its
action is determined by changes in the polarization of the atoms of the
body, then this change of polarity is the result of mental action; so that
the quickening or retarding of the cosmic current is equally the result of
the mental attitude whether we suppose our mental force to act directly
upon the current itself or indirectly by inducing changes in the molecular
structure of the body. Whichever hypothesis we adopt the conclusion is the
same, namely, that the mind has power to open or close the door to
invisible forces in such a way that the result of the mental action becomes
apparent on the material plane.
Now, investigation shows that the physical body, is a mechanism specially
adapted for the transmutation of the inner or mental power into modes of
external activity. We know from medical science that the whole body is
traversed by a network of nerves which serve as the channels of
communication between the indwelling spiritual ego, which we call mind, and
the functions of the external organism. This nervous system is dual. One
system, known as the Sympathetic, is the channel for all those activities
which are not consciously directed by our volition, such as the operation
of the digestive organs, the repair of the daily wear and tear of the
tissues, and the like. The other system, known as the Voluntary or
Cerebro-spinal system, is the channel through which we receive conscious
perception from the physical senses and exercise control over the movements
of the body. This system has its centre in the brain, while the other has
its centre in a ganglionic mass at the back of the stomach known as the
solar plexus, and sometimes spoken of as the abdominal brain. The cerebro-
spinal system is the channel of our volitional or conscious mental action,
and the sympathetic system is the channel of that mental action which
unconsciously supports the vital functions of the body. Thus the cerebro-
spinal system is the organ of conscious mind and the sympathetic is that of
sub-conscious mind.
But the interaction of conscious and subconscious mind requires a similar
interaction between the corresponding systems of nerves, and one
conspicuous connection by which this is provided is the "vagus" nerve. This
nerve passes out of the cerebral region as a portion of the voluntary
system, and through it we control the vocal organs; then it passes onwards
to the thorax sending out branches to the heart and lungs; and finally,
passing through the diaphragm, it loses the outer coating which
distinguishes the nerves of the voluntary system and becomes identified
with those of the sympathetic system, so forming a connecting link between
the two and making the man physically a single entity.
Similarly different areas of the brain indicate, their connection with the
objective and subjective activities of the mind respectively, and speaking
in a general way we may assign the frontal portion of the brain to the
former and the posterior portion to the latter, while the intermediate
portion partakes of the character of both.
The intuitional faculty has its correspondence in this upper area of the
brain situated between the frontal and posterior portions, and
physiologically speaking, it is here that intuitive ideas find entrance.
These at first are more or less unformed and generalized in character, but
are nevertheless perceived by the conscious mind, otherwise we should not
be aware of them at all. Then the effort of nature is to bring these ideas
into more definite and usable shape, so the conscious mind lays hold of
them and induces a corresponding vibratory current in the voluntary system
of nerves, and this in turn induces a similar current in the involuntary
system, thus handing the idea over to the subjective mind. The vibratory
current which had first descended from the apex of the brain to the frontal
brain and thus through the voluntary system to the solar plexus is now
reversed and ascends from the solar plexus through the sympathetic system
to the posterior brain, this return current indicating the action of the
subjective mind.
If we were to remove the surface portion of the apex of the brain we should
find immediately below it the shining belt of brain substance called the
"corpus callosum." This is the point of union between the subjective and
objective, and as the current returns from the solar plexus to this point
it is restored to the objective portion of the brain in a fresh form which
it has acquired by the silent alchemy of the subjective mind. Thus the
conception which was at first only vaguely recognized is restored to the
objective mind in a definite and workable form, and then the objective
mind, acting through the frontal brain--the area of comparison and
analysis--proceeds to work upon a clearly perceived idea and to bring out
the potentialities that are latent in it.