New Thought

Changing belief takes focus and commitment.

I was just listening to a talk from the New Thought mystic, Joel Goldsmith.

And he said, anybody can be a healer.

Anybody can be a healer.

unable longer to carry such a load snaps the link which connects it with the body the more impressionable you are to thought about you the more you are liable to be thus affected but you can train your mind to shut out this thought you can gradually train it to bar tightly this door to weakness and to keep open only the one to strength you can do this by cultivating the mood of drawing to yourself and keeping in the mood and current of thought coming of god or the supreme power for good impressionability or capacity to receive thought is source either of strength or weakness fine-grained sensitive highly developed minds to-day often carry the weakest bodies because through ignorance they are always inviting some of these currents of evil without any knowledge of their existence or the means of throwing them off they are ignorantly either courting or exposing themselves to such current improper individual association is one chief source of such exposure the finer feminine organization is more sensitive to every shade and ray of thought about it good or bad men absorbed in their business generate for a time a certain positiveness which throws off the fear current but this positiveness cannot always last women from this cause often suffer a thousandfold more in the privacy of their homes than men are aware of the average man defines it as woman's way and wonders why she is so full of nervousness vapors notions and ill health as you place your reliance on the infinite mind to bring you out of all these agencies for ill the mind in some way will bring many material aids to help you out that mind will suggest medicines and foods and surroundings and changes not only to help you temporarily but permanently so that when you are cured you are cured for all time a cheerful buoyant hopeful mind and no mind is cheerful hopeful and buoyant without being nearer the infinite than one that is depressed sour and gloomy be that mind of your doctor or your friend will help you to get out of the injurious thought current regard such mind as a help from the infinite but don't put your whole trust in that individual put the trust in the supreme power which has sent to you the individual as a temporary aid or crutch until your spiritual limbs are strong enough to bear you the more you get into the thought current coming from the infinite mind making yourself more and more a part of that mind exactly as you may become a part of any vein of low morbid unhealthy mind in opening yourself to that current the quicker you are freshened and renewed physically and mentally you become continually a newer being changes for the better come quicker and quicker your power increases to bring results you lose gradually all fear as it is proven more and more to you that when you are in the thought current of infinite good there is nothing to fear you realize more and more clearly that there is a great power and force which cares for you you are wonder struck at the fact that when your mind is set in the right direction all material things come to you with very little physical or external effort you wonder then at man's toiling and striving vagging himself out literally to death when from such excess of effort he actually drives from him the rounded-out good of health happiness and material prosperity all combined you will see in this demand for the highest good that you are growing to power greater than you ever dreamed of it will dawn on you that real life destined for the awakened few now and the many in the future is a dazzling dream a permanent realization that is happiness to exist a serenity and contentment without abatement a transition from pleasure to pleasure and from the great to the greater pleasure You find as you get more and more into the current of the infinite mind that exhausting toil is not required of you, but that when you commit yourself in trust to this current and let it bear you where it will, all things needful will come to you.

when you are getting into the right thought current you may for a time experience more of uneasiness physical and mental than ever this is because the new element acting on you makes you more sensitive to the presence of evil the new is driving the old out the new thought current searches and detects every little error in your mind before unnoticed and repels it this causes a struggle and mind and body are for a time unpleasantly affected by it it is like a house a cleaning a process usually involving a good deal of dust and disturbance the new spirit you call to you is cleaning your spiritual house there is no limit to the power of the thought current you can attract to you nor limit to the things that can be done through the individual by it in the future some people will draw so much of the higher quality of thought to them that by it they will accomplish what some would call miracles In this capacity of the human mind for drawing a thought current, ever increasing in fineness of quality and power, lies the secret of what has been called magic.

End of Chapter 3 Recording by Andrea Fiore CHAPTER IV.

ONE WAY TO CULTIVATE COURAGE courage and presence of mind mean the same thing presence of mind implies command of mind cowardice and lack of mental control mean about the same thing cowardice is rooted in hurry the habit of hurry or lack of repose all degrees of success are based on courage mental or physical all degrees of failure are based on timidity you can cultivate courage and increase it at every minute and hour of the day you can have the satisfaction of knowing that in everything you do you have accomplished two things namely the doing of the thing itself and by the manner of its doing adding eternally to yourself another atom of the quality of courage you can do this by the cultivation of deliberation deliberation of speech of walk of writing of eating deliberation in everything there is always a little bit of fear where there is a bit of hurry when you hurry to the train you are in fear that you may be left and with that comes fear of other possibilities consequent on your being left when you hurry to a party to the meeting of a person by appointment you are in fear of some ill or damage resulting from not being on time this habit of thought can through an unconscious training grow to such an extent as to pervade a person's mind at all times and places and bring on a fear of loss of some kind when there is absolutely no loss to be sustained for instance a person may hurry to catch a street car and act and feel as if a great loss would occur if he did not get on that particular car when there may be another close behind or at most two or three minutes waiting will bring it yet the fear of waiting those three minutes grows to a mountain in size and is in that person's mind a most disagreeable possibility through mere habit a similar condition of hurry may characterize that person's walking eating writing in short everything he does and will render it more and more difficult for such a person to act with coolness and deliberation the quality of mind or emotion underlying all this hurried mental condition and consequent hurried act is fear fear is but another name for lack of power to control our minds or in other words to control the kind of thought we think or put out it is this kind of unconscious mental training which is very common that begets a permanent condition of mind more and more liable to large and small panics at the least interruption or trivial disappointment it makes disappointments when none are necessary it is the ever-opening wedge letting in more and more the thought current of fear for if you so cultivate fear of one thing you are cultivating an increasing liability to fear in all things if you allow yourself to sit in fear for half an hour that the carriage may not call for you in time to get the boat or train you are much more liable to be seized with a series of little panics at every trivial occurrence or obstacle occurring on that particular journey in this way does this habit of mind enter into and is cultivated in the doing of so-called little things you are writing or sewing or engaged in the performance of some work which is intensely interesting to you and in which you do not like to be interrupted if sewing you reach for your scissors which have dropped on the floor you do this in a momentarily impatient mood and with a spasmodic jerky action your mind as the phrase runs is on your work you will not take it off your work while you are reaching for the scissors you are trying in mind to go on with your work and reach for the scissors at the same moment you make the movement of muscles and the action of the body momentarily disagreeable and irksome because you refuse for the second to put into that act the force which it demands when unconsciously you refuse to do this any acts will become irksome and disagreeable because there is not force enough let on to do the act with ease it is the endeavor to do it with a weak body you have the power of throwing your force instantly into any muscle so making the act easy and pleasant this capacity for turning on force on any part you will increases through cultivating it and you can do a great deal more and do it better through this cultivation deliberation for deliberation can be as quick as thought the more the mind is trained in that direction if you pick up a pin or tie a shoe-string in a hurry you do so not only because such act is irksome to you but because you fear it may deprive you momentarily of some bit of pleasure there you have again opened your mind to the thought current of fear fear of losing something the cultivation of courage commences in the cultivation of deliberation and so-called little acts like these deliberation and courage are as closely allied as fear and hurry if we do not learn to govern our force properly in the doing of the smallest act we shall find such government far less easy in the doing of all acts if we analyze what we fear we shall find that we are in mind trying to deal with too much at once of the thing feared there is only a relatively small amount to be dealt with now in any transaction in the doing of anything there is but one step to be taken at a time we need to place what force is necessary and no more on that one step when that is taken we can take the next the more we train our minds so to concentrate on the one step the more do we increase capacity for sending our force all in one given direction at once such force extends should be so used in the so-called minutest details of everyday life in this way deliberation and deliberate action become habitual and we are in a sense unconsciously making ourselves deliberate even as after long training in the opposite and wrong direction we are unconscious of putting on the hurried frame of mind timidity is often the result of looking at too many difficulties or terrors at once In material reality, we have to deal with but one at a time.

the truth that life does not end with death of the body makes slow progress in fixing itself firmly in our minds the kind of life a man may be living here at seventy does not end in the grave it continues straight on the old man as we call him here wakes up on the other side of life after losing his body an old man still if he is one of those old men who have outlived their day in generation who live in their physical past and look back on it with regret who have become too old to learn and think that they have got through with it all he will be just such an old man in the world of spirit There is no sudden transformation into youth on the death of a worn-out, decrepit body.

As the tree falls, so does it lie for a period, even in the hereafter.

but in this state he cannot stay forever he must grow not in age but youth to do this it is necessary not only that he should leave the old body but the old material mind that made that body his spirit throws off that mind when he gains a new body or is reincarnated and he throws it off because he loses the recollection of all past sad memories and regrets the man should in mind be always the boy the woman the girl you can as a man or woman be always boy or girl in spirit without being silly or losing real dignity you can have all the playfulness of youth with the wisdom of maturity to have a clear powerful mind you need not be an owl there may be for a period a certain use for us in going back to our more recent past lives and for a time living in them sometimes we are pushed back temporarily into old condition of mind some old experience in order to make us more alive than ever to the rags and tatters of errors and beliefs still clinging to us this may come of revisiting places and people from whom we have long been separated for a time during such visit old associations the moods connected with them and possibly old habits we thought long since cast off resume their sway we may become for a time absorbed and swallowed up in the old life we resume temporarily an old mind or mental condition that was formerly our permanent one in that place or association but after a little the new mind the new self into which we have grown during the long absence antagonizes the old it feels aversion and disgust for the narrow life the false beliefs and the dull monotonous purposeless lives about it it the spirit refuses to have anything to do with the old then comes a conflict between our two minds the old and the new which may temporarily result in physical sickness our old life or self rises as it were out of its grave and tries to fasten itself on the new and even rule the new the new self rejects the corpse with horror but through thus seeing the corpse it also sees fragments of the old self which unperceived have all along been adhering to the new we do not get rid of error in belief all at once and often unconsciously retain shreds of such belief when we imagine ourselves entirely rid of them these shreds are the remains of old thoughts and former mental conditions your new mind so awakened arises and pushes off what it finds left on it of the old this pushing off is accomplished by physical disturbance because your spirit puts all its force in rejecting these fragments of the former self as you might put all your physical strength in pushing off a snake our old errors in belief must be so pushed off before the new thoughts which come in as the old go out can have full sway if your spirit was contentedly and blindly carrying any scorpion of false belief you would tumble into the pit eventually as many now are so doing

when you live several years in any certain

the finer feminine organization is more sensitive to every shade and ray of thought about it good or bad men absorbed in their business generate for a time a certain positiveness which throws off the fear current but this positiveness cannot always last women from this cause often suffer a thousandfold more in the privacy of their homes than men are aware of the average man defines it as woman's way and wonders why she is so full of nervousness vapors notions and ill health as you place your reliance on the infinite mind to bring you out of all these agencies for ill the mind in some way will bring many material aids to help you out that mind will suggest medicines and foods and surroundings and changes not only to help you temporarily but permanently so that when you are cured you are cured for all time a cheerful buoyant hopeful mind and no mind is cheerful hopeful and buoyant without being nearer the infinite than one that is depressed sour and gloomy be that mind of your doctor or your friend will help you to get out of the injurious thought current regard such mind as a help from the infinite but don't put your whole trust in that individual put the trust in the supreme power which has sent to you the individual as a temporary aid or crutch until your spiritual limbs are strong enough to bear you the more you get into the thought current coming from the infinite mind making yourself more and more a part of that mind exactly as you may become a part of any vein of low morbid unhealthy mind in opening yourself to that current the quicker you are freshened and renewed physically and mentally you become continually a newer being changes for the better come quicker and quicker your power increases to bring results you lose gradually all fear as it is proven more and more to you that when you are in the thought current of infinite good there is nothing to fear you realize more and more clearly that there is a great power and force which cares for you you are wonder struck at the fact that when your mind is set in the right direction all material things come to you with very little physical or external effort you wonder then at man's toiling and striving vagging himself out literally to death when from such excess of effort he actually drives from him the rounded-out good of health happiness and material prosperity all combined you will see in this demand for the highest good that you are growing to power greater than you ever dreamed of it will dawn on you that real life destined for the awakened few now and the many in the future is a dazzling dream a permanent realization that is happiness to exist a serenity and contentment without abatement a transition from pleasure to pleasure and from the great to the greater pleasure You find as you get more and more into the current of the infinite mind that exhausting toil is not required of you, but that when you commit yourself in trust to this current and let it bear you where it will, all things needful will come to you.

when you are getting into the right thought current you may for a time experience more of uneasiness physical and mental than ever this is because the new element acting on you makes you more sensitive to the presence of evil the new is driving the old out The new thought current searches and detects every little error in your mind before unnoticed and repels it.

This causes a struggle, and mind and body are for a time unpleasantly affected by it.

It is like a house, a cleaning, a process usually involving a good deal of dust and disturbance.

the truth that life does not end with death of the body makes slow progress in fixing itself firmly in our minds the kind of life a man may be living here at seventy does not end in the grave it continues straight on The old man as we call him here wakes up on the other side of life after losing his body an old man still if He is one of those old men who have outlived their day in generation Who live in their physical past and look back on it with regret? Who have become too old to learn and think that they have got through with it all? he will be just such an old man in the world of spirit and There is no sudden transformation into youth on the death of a worn-out, decrepit body.

As the tree falls, so does it lie for a period, even in the hereafter.

but in this state he cannot stay forever he must grow not in age but youth to do this it is necessary not only that he should leave the old body but the old material mind that made that body his spirit throws off that mind when he gains a new body or is reincarnated and he throws it off because he loses the recollection of all past sad memories and regrets the man should in mind be always the boy the woman the girl you can as a man or woman be always boy or girl in spirit without being silly or losing real dignity you can have all the playfulness of youth with the wisdom of maturity to have a clear powerful mind you need not be an owl there may be for a period a certain use for us in going back to our more recent past lives and for a time living in them sometimes we are pushed back temporarily into old condition of mind some old experience in order to make us more alive than ever to the rags and tatters of errors and beliefs still clinging to us this may come of revisiting places and people from whom we have long been separated for a time during such visit old associations the moods connected with them and possibly old habits we thought long since cast off resume their sway we may become for a time absorbed and swallowed up in the old life we resume temporarily an old mind or mental condition that was formerly our permanent one in that place or association but after a little the new mind the new self into which we have grown during the long absence antagonizes the old it feels aversion and disgust for the narrow life the false beliefs and the dull monotonous purposeless lives about it it the spirit refuses to have anything to do with the old then comes a conflict between our two minds the old and the new which may temporarily result in physical sickness our old life or self rises as it were out of its grave and tries to fasten itself on the new and even rule the new the new self rejects the corpse with horror but through thus seeing the corpse it also sees fragments of the old self which unperceived have all along been adhering to the new we do not get rid of error in belief all at once and often unconsciously retain shreds of such belief when we imagine ourselves entirely rid of them these shreds are the remains of old thoughts and former mental conditions your new mind so awakened arises and pushes off what it finds left on it of the old this pushing off is accomplished by physical disturbance because your spirit puts all its force in rejecting these fragments of the former self as you might put all your physical strength in pushing off a snake our old errors in belief must be so pushed off before the new thoughts which come in as the old go out can have full sway if your spirit was contentedly and blindly carrying any scorpion of false belief you would tumble into the pit eventually as many now are so doing when you live several years in any certain house or town or locality you make a spiritual self belonging to that locality every house tree road or other object you have long been in the habit of seeing there has a part of that self in thought attached to it every person who knows you there has in his or her mind the self you make there and puts that self out when they meet or talk to you if you have had years before in that place the reputation of being weak or vacillating or impractical or intemperate and you return to the people who knew you as such although you may have changed for the better you are very liable in their thought and recollection of you to have this old self pushed back on you and as a result you may for a period feel very much like your former self you return to such a place after a long absence you have during that absence changed radically in belief you bring with you a different mind you are in reality a different person but the old you the old self of former years will rise from every familiar object to meet you it will come out of houses formerly inhabited by your friends though now tenanted by strangers you will find it in the village church the old schoolhouse the very rails and fence posts familiar to you long years before more than all it will come out of the recollection of people who only knew you for what you were say twenty years before every such person strengthens you with this image of your former self you talk with them on the plane of that previous life or self for the time being you ignore yourself as it now thinks and believes you put aside your newer self not wishing to intrude on your friends opinions which to them may be unpleasant or seem wild and visionary you meet perhaps twenty-five or thirty people who know you only as your former self and with all these you act out the old self and repress the new this for a time makes the old dead self very strong but you cannot keep this up you cannot warm the old corpse of yourself into life if you try to if you try to be and live your former self You will become depressed mentally, and very likely sick physically.

You may find yourself going into moods of mind peculiar to your former life, which you had thought had gone forever.

the finer feminine organization is more sensitive to every shade and ray of thought about it good or bad men absorbed in their business generate for a time a certain positiveness which throws off the fear current but this positiveness cannot always last women from this cause often suffer a thousandfold more in the privacy of their homes than men are aware of the average man defines it as woman's way and wonders why she is so full of nervousness vapors notions and ill health as you place your reliance on the infinite mind to bring you out of all these agencies for ill the mind in some way will bring many material aids to help you out that mind will suggest medicines and foods and surroundings and changes not only to help you temporarily but permanently so that when you are cured you are cured for all time a cheerful buoyant hopeful mind and no mind is cheerful hopeful and buoyant without being nearer the infinite than one that is depressed sour and gloomy be that mind of your doctor or your friend will help you to get out of the injurious thought current regard such mind as a help from the infinite but don't put your whole trust in that individual put the trust in the supreme power which has sent to you the individual as a temporary aid or crutch until your spiritual limbs are strong enough to bear you the more you get into the thought current coming from the infinite mind making yourself more and more a part of that mind exactly as you may become a part of any vein of low morbid unhealthy mind in opening yourself to that current the quicker you are freshened and renewed physically and mentally you become continually a newer being changes for the better come quicker and quicker your power increases to bring results you lose gradually all fear as it is proven more and more to you that when you are in the thought current of infinite good there is nothing to fear you realize more and more clearly that there is a great power and force which cares for you you are wonder struck at the fact that when your mind is set in the right direction all material things come to you with very little physical or external effort you wonder then at man's toiling and striving vagging himself out literally to death when from such excess of effort he actually drives from him the rounded-out good of health happiness and material prosperity all combined you will see in this demand for the highest good that you are growing to power greater than you ever dreamed of it will dawn on you that real life destined for the awakened few now and the many in the future is a dazzling dream a permanent realization that is happiness to exist a serenity and contentment without abatement a transition from pleasure to pleasure and from the great to the greater pleasure You find as you get more and more into the current of the infinite mind that exhausting toil is not required of you, but that when you commit yourself in trust to this current and let it bear you where it will, all things needful will come to you.

when you are getting into the right thought current you may for a time experience more of uneasiness physical and mental than ever this is because the new element acting on you makes you more sensitive to the presence of evil the new is driving the old out The new thought current searches and detects every little error in your mind before unnoticed and repels it.

This causes a struggle, and mind and body are for a time unpleasantly affected by it.

It is like a house, a cleaning, a process usually involving a good deal of dust and disturbance.

let a sunbeam enter through a shutter's crack and see the innumerable motes floating in it think of the myriads of these too minute to rank even as atoms that you cannot see all this is second-hand element which is breathed and absorbed into both body and spirit but trees and all natural things send out element full of life our bodies also are ever throwing off the skin matter that they can no longer use in the great city thousands on thousands of bodies are throwing out disused element too fine to rank even as dust it is thrown off by sick bodies and many are sick on their feet this we breathe we breathe each other over and over again this unseen cloud of matter pervading crowded cities is not life-sustaining it has in it a certain life as all things have life but it is not fit for man's growing life when we get eternal life health and unalloyed happiness The attitude of our minds will be entirely changed toward tree, bird, animal, and everything in nature.

We shall see that when we really love all these expressions of the infinite mind, tree, plant, bird, and animal, and leave them entirely alone, they will send out to us, in love, their part and quality of the infinite.

it will flow to us a new life and the source of a life of far greater power and happiness than the present one but how shall we live one asks unless we cut down the tree for fuel and lumber slay bird and beast for food do you think there is no other way of life than the one we live now do you think in the exalted and refined mental condition we call heaven that there will be killing of animals mutilation of trees and destruction of any expression of the supreme wisdom do you think we can grow into that higher and happier state of mind without knowledge of the laws by which only it can be attained as well expect to sail a ship around the world without knowledge of seamanship or navigation we are not to drift into heaven in the way a cask rolls down a hill we cannot cease immediately from the enslavement or slaughter of tree bird or animal nor from the eating of animal food so long as the body craves and relishes such food it should have it when the body is changed by our spirit and belief to finer elements the stomach and palate will reject meat of every description it will not abide the taste or smell of slaughtered creatures when the spirit settles these matters it does so definitely and forever man's error in the past has often been that of endeavoring to spiritualize or change himself of his own individual will into higher and finer conditions to this end he has enforced on himself and other fasts and penances and abstinences from pleasure which his nature craved he has never by such methods saved himself from sickness decay and physical death he has never by this method regenerated or renewed his body he has lost his body eventually even as the glutton and drunkard lost theirs the ascetic has not trusted in the supreme to raise him higher in the scale of being but in himself and his own endeavor this is one of the greatest sins because it cuts such a person off temporarily from the supreme and the life and the supreme will send when trusted there is no way out of any sin any excess any injurious habit but through an entire dependence on the supreme power to take away the gnawing the craving the desire peculiar to that habit otherwise the man may seem reformed outwardly but he is never reformed inwardly repression is not reform the bigot of every age and creed has been the person thinking he could of himself make himself an angel such belief makes the man stand still in his tracks the supreme is always saying come to me demand of me Find me in all created things, and I shall be ever sending you new thoughts, new ideas, new things, new element, which shall change your tastes, your appetites, which shall gradually take away grossness, eliminate gradually fierce, insatiate, lawless desire, and hurricane of passion, and bring you to pleasures you cannot now realize.

we shall see more and more clearly in time that when we get the higher finer and more enduring life to which we all must grow we shall have the greatest possible inducement to give the trees plants birds and animals and all other expressions of the infinite their lives and their fullest liberty we shall be compelled to love them what we really love we cannot abuse kill or enslave we cannot cage a bird for our own pleasure we do not cage the bird for its pleasure that is not the highest love for the bird the highest love for all things is for us a literal source of life the more things in the world of nature to which we can give the higher love the more of their natural love and life we shall get in return so as we grow refine and increase this power of recognizing and loving the bird the animal the insect or in other words the infinite in all things we shall receive a love a renewed life strength vigor cheer and inspiration from not only these but the falling snowflake the driving rain the cloud the sea the mountain and this will not be a mere sentiment but a great means for recuperating and strengthening the body for this strengthens the spirit with a strength which comes to stay and what strengthens the spirit must strengthen the body we cannot make of ourselves this capacity for so loving and drawing strength from all things It is our belonging, but it must be demanded of the supreme power.

The title of the talk today is Look a Fact in the Face, and the idea is to be able to look a fact in the face and know something better.

That comes up a lot as we're going through our studies of New Thought principles, and it's the key point in our training as practitioners, to be able to look a fact in the face and know something better.

And facts are there.

Facts are real.

Recording by Andrea Fiore Chapter 14 Mental Gender Students of psychology who have followed the modern trend of thought along the lines of mental phenomena, are struck by the persistence of the dual mind idea which has manifested itself so strongly during the past ten or fifteen years and which has given rise to a number of plausible theories regarding the nature and constitution of these two minds the late thomson j hudson attained great popularity in eighteen ninety three by advancing his well-known theory of the objective and subjective minds which he held existed in every individual other writers have attracted almost equal attention by the theories regarding the conscious and subconscious minds the voluntary and involuntary minds the active and passive minds etc etc the theories of the various writers differ from each other but there remains the underlying principle of the duality of mind the student of the hermetic philosophy is tempted to smile when he reads and hears of these many new theories regarding the duality of mind each school adhering tenaciously to its own pet theories and each claiming to have discovered the truth the student turns back the pages of occult history and away back in the dim beginnings of occult teachings he finds references to the ancient hermetic doctrine of the principle of gender on the mental plane the manifestation of mental gender examining further he finds that ancient philosophy took cognizance of the phenomenon of the dual mind and accounted for it by the theory of mental gender this idea of mental gender may be explained in a few words to students who are familiar with the modern theories just alluded to the masculine principle of mind corresponds to the so-called objective mind conscious mind voluntary mind active mind etc and the feminine principle of mind corresponds to the so-called subjective mind subconscious mind involuntary mind passive mind etc of course the hermetic teachings do not agree with the many modern theories regarding the nature of the two phases of mind nor does it admit many of the facts claimed for the two respective aspects some of the said theories and claims being very far-fetched and incapable of standing the test of experiment and demonstration we point to the phases of agreement merely for the purpose of helping the student to assimilate his previously acquired knowledge with the teachings of the hermetic philosophy students of hudson will notice the statement at the beginning of his second chapter of the law of psychic phenomena that the mystical jargon of the hermetic philosophers disclosed the same idea i e the duality of mind if dr hudson had taken the time and trouble to decipher a little of the mystic jargon of the hermetic philosophy he might have received much light upon the subject of the dual mind but then perhaps his most interesting work might not have been written let us now consider the hermetic teachings regarding mental gender the hermetic teachers impart their instruction regarding this subject by bidding their students examine the report of their consciousness regarding their self the students are bidden to turn their attention inward upon the self dwelling within each each student is led to see that his consciousness gives him first a report of the existence of his self the report is i am this at first seems to be the final words from the consciousness but a little further examination discloses the fact that this i am may be separated or split into two distinct parts or aspects which while working in unison and in conjunction yet nevertheless may be separated in consciousness While at first there seems to only be an I existing, a more careful and closer examination reveals the fact that there exists an I and a me.

These mental twins differ in characteristics and nature, and an examination of their nature and phenomena arising from the same will throw much light upon the many problems of mental influence.

let us begin with a consideration of the me which is usually mistaken for the i by the student until he presses the inquiry a little further back into the recesses of consciousness a man thinks of his self in its aspect of me as being composed of certain feelings tastes likes dislikes habits peculiar ties characteristics c all of which go to make up his personality or the self known to himself and others he knows that these emotions and feelings change are born and die away are subject to the principle of rhythm the principle of polarity which take him from one extreme of feeling to another he also thinks of the me as being certain knowledge gathered together in his mind and thus forming a part of himself this is the me of a man but we have proceeded too hastily the me of many men may be said to consist largely of their consciousness of the body in their physical appetites etc their consciousness being largely bound up with their bodily nature they practically live there some men even go so far as to regard their personal apparel as part of their me and actually seem to consider it as part of themselves a writer has humorously said that men consist of three parts soul body and clothes these clothes conscious people would lose their personality if divested of their clothing by savages upon the occasion of a shipwreck but even many who are not so closely bound up with the idea of personal raiment stick closely to the consciousness of their bodies being their me they cannot conceive of a self independent of the body their mind seems to them to be practically a something belonging to their body which in many cases it is indeed but as man rises in the scale of consciousness he is able to disentangle his me from his idea of body and is able to think of his body as belonging to the mental part of him but even then he is very apt to identify the me entirely with the mental states feelings etc which he feels to exist within him he is very apt to consider these internal states as identical with himself instead of their being simply things produced by some part of his mentality and existing within him of him and in him but still not himself he sees that he may change these internal states of feelings by all effort of will and that he may produce a feeling or state of an exactly opposite nature in the same way and yet the same me exists and so after a while he is able to set aside these various mental states emotions feelings habits qualities characteristics and other personal mental belongings he is able to set them aside in the not me collection of curiosities and encumbrances as well as valuable possessions this requires much mental concentration and power of mental analysis on the part of the student but still the task is possible for the advanced student and even those not so far advanced are able to see in the imagination how the process may be performed after these laying aside processes have been performed the student will find himself in conscious possession of a self which may be considered in its i and me dual aspects the me will be felt to be something mental in which thoughts ideas emotions feelings and other mental states may be produced it may be considered as the mental womb as the ancients styled it capable of generating mental offspring it reports to the consciousness as a me with latent powers of creation and generation of mental progeny of all sorts and kinds its powers of creative energy are felt to be enormous but still it seems to be conscious that it must receive some form of energy from either its i companion or else from some other i ere it is able to bring into being its mental creations this consciousness brings with it a realization of an enormous capacity for mental work and creative ability but the student soon finds that this is not all that he finds within his inner consciousness he finds that there exists a mental something which is able to will that the me act along creative certain lines and which is also able to stand aside and witness the mental creation this part of him he is taught to call his eye he is able to rest in its consciousness at will he finds there not a consciousness of an ability to generate and actively create in the sense of the gradual processes attendant upon mental operations but rather a sense and consciousness of an ability to project an energy from the i to the me a process of willing that the mental creation begin and proceed he also finds that the i is able to stand aside and witness the operation of the me's mental creation and generation there is dual aspect in the mind of every person the i represents the masculine principle of gender the me represents the feminine principle the i represents the aspect of being the me the aspect of becoming you will notice that the principle of correspondence operates on this plane just as it does the great plane upon which the creation of universes is performed these two are similar in kind although vastly different in degree as above so below as below so above these aspects of mind the masculine and feminine principles the i and the me considered in connection with the well-known mental and psychic phenomena give the master key to these dimly known regions of mental operation and manifestation the principle of mental gender gives the truth underlying the whole field of the phenomena of mental influence etc the tendency of the feminine principle is always in the direction of receiving impressions while the tendency of the masculine principle is always in the direction of giving out or expressing the feminine principle has a much more varied field of operation than has the masculine principle the feminine principle conducts the work of generating new thoughts concepts ideas including the work of the imagination the masculine principle contends itself with the work of the will in its varied phases and yet without the active aid of the will of the masculine principle the feminine principle is apt to rest content with generating mental images which are the result of impressions received from outside instead of producing original mental creations Persons who can give continued attention and thought to a subject actively employ both of the mental principles, the feminine in the work of the mental generation and the masculine will in stimulating and energizing the creative portion of the mind.

The majority of persons really employ the masculine principle but little and are content to live according to the thoughts and ideas instilled into the me.

from the eye of other minds but it is not our purpose to dwell upon this phase of the subject which may be studied from any good textbook upon psychology with the key that we have given you regarding mental gender the student of psychic phenomena is aware of the wonderful phenomena classified under the head of telepathy thought transference mental influence suggestion hypnotism etc many have sought for an explanation of these varied phases of the phenomena under the theories of the various dual mind teachers and in a measure they are right for there is clearly a manifestation of two different phases of mental activity but if such students will consider these dual minds in light of the hermetic teachings regarding vibrations and mental gender they will see that the long-sought key is at hand in the phenomena of telepathy it is seen how the vibratory energy of the masculine principle is projected toward the feminine principle of another person and the latter takes the seed thought and allows it to develop into maturity in the same way suggestion in hypnotism operates the masculine principle of a person giving the suggestions directs a stream of vibratory energy or will power toward the feminine principle of the other person and the latter accepting it makes it its own and acts and thinks accordingly an idea thus lodged in the mind of another person grows and develops and in time is regarded as the rightful mental offspring of the individual where it is in reality like the kaku egg placed in the sparrow's nest where it destroys the rightful offspring and makes itself at home the normal method is for the masculine and feminine principles in a person's mind to coordinate and act harmoniously in conjunction with each other but unfortunately the masculine principle in the average person is too lazy to act the display of will-power is too slight and the consequence is that such persons are ruled almost entirely by the minds and wills of other persons whom they allow to do their thinking and willing for them how few original thoughts or actions are performed by the average person are not the majority of persons mere shadows and echoes of others having stronger wills or minds than themselves the trouble is that the average person dwells almost altogether in his me consciousness and does not realize that he has such a thing as an i he is polarized in his feminine principle of mind the masculine principle in which is lodged by the will is allowed to remain inactive and not employed the strong men and women of the world invariably manifest the masculine principle of will and their strength depends materially upon this fact instead of living upon the impressions made upon their minds by others they dominate their own minds by their will obtaining the kind of mental images desired and moreover dominate the minds of others likewise in the same manner look at the strong people how they manage to implant their seed thoughts in the minds of the masses of the people thus causing the latter to think thoughts in accordance with the desires and wills of the strong individuals this is why the masses of people are such sheep-like creatures never originating in idea of their own nor using their own powers of mental activity the manifestation of mental gender may be noticed all around us in everyday life the magnetic persons are those who use the masculine principle in the way of impressing their ideas upon others the actor who makes people weep or cry as he wills is employing this principle and so is the successful orator statesman preacher writer or other people who are before the public attention the peculiar influence exerted by some people over others is due to the manifestation of mental gender along the vibrational lines above indicated in this principle lies the secret of personal magnetism personal influence fascination etc as well as the phenomena gradually grouped under the name of hypnotism the student who has familiarized himself with the phenomena generally spoken of as psychic will have discovered the important part played in the said phenomena by that force which science has styled suggestion by which term is meant the process or method whereby an idea is transferred to or impressed upon the mind of another causing the second mind to act in accordance therewith a correct understanding of suggestion is necessary in order to intelligently comprehend the varied psychical phenomena which suggestion underlies but still more is the knowledge of vibration and mental gender necessary for the student of suggestion for the whole principle of suggestion depends upon the principle of mental gender and vibration it is customary for the writers and teachers of suggestion to explain that it is the objective or voluntary mind which makes the mental impression or suggestion upon the subjective or involuntary mind but they do not describe the process or give us any analogy in nature whereby we may more readily comprehend the idea but if you will think of the matter in the light of the hermetic teachings you will be able to see that the energizing of the feminine principle by the vibratory energy of the masculine principle is in accordance to the universal laws of nature and that the natural world affords countless analogies whereby the principle may be understood in fact the hermetic teachings show that the very creation of the universe follows the same law and that in all creative manifestations upon the planes of the spiritual the mental and the physical there is always in operation this principle of gender this manifestation of the masculine and the feminine principles as above so below as below so above and more than this when the principle of mental gender is once grasped and understood the varied phenomena of psychology at once becomes capable of intelligent classification and study instead of being very much in the dark the principle works out in practice because it is based upon the immutable universal laws of life we shall not enter into an extended discussion of or description of the very phenomena of mental influence or psychic activity there are many books many of them quite good which have been written and published on this subject of late years the main facts stated in these various books are correct although the several writers have attempted to explain the phenomena by various pet theories of their own the student may acquaint himself with these matters and by using the theory of mental gender he will be able to bring order out of the chaos of conflicting theory and teachings and may moreover readily make himself a master of the subject if he be so inclined the purpose of this work is not to give an extended account of psychic phenomena but rather to give the student a master key whereby he may unlock the many doors leading into the parts of the temple of knowledge which he may wish to explore we feel that this is in consideration of the teachings of the caballion one may find an explanation which will serve to clear away many perplexing difficulties a key that will unlock many doors what is the use of going into detail regarding all of the many features of psychic phenomena and mental science provided we place in the hands of the student the means whereby he may acquaint himself fully regarding any phase of the subject which may interest him with the aid of the kybalion one may go through any occult library anew the old light from Egypt illuminating many dark pages and obscure subjects.