The hand of eternal progress is brushing the cobwebs from the corridors of time and is again revealing to the human race the mysteries of being. As there is "nothing new under the sun," the searchlight of Truth is bringing to light only what has been known to the few in all generations. The time has now come when the few must become the many. The whole world, from the least to the greatest, must know the Truth, so that man may understand the great laws that govern his life. He must learn to control his own destiny, to heal his own body and bring happiness to his own soul. Ignorance must vanish and understanding must be ushered in. Man is no longer to be governed by anything outside himself. Creeds, doctrines, churches, institutions, organizations, governments are all being changed to give place to the realization of the individual. There is a power in and through all that is working this great transformation. All that will not measure up to the standard must fall by its own weight; all that is in line with the Truth must still prosper. The time is at hand; we are in the greatest age of all history; we are in the age of the unifying of all people and all things into the "Ever Present One." "The temple not made with hands" is now being silently built by the emancipated souls of this planet.
The following is an attempt to explain what each soul must discover for himself, that he stands in the midst of an eternal creative power which presses itself around his own thought, and casts back to him glorified all that he thinks. If it awakens within the consciousness of one single individual the realization that the mind of the Universe (which is the only mind that there is) is his own mind; that the creative power of this mind is his also; that the manifestation of this mind is his own individuality; that the love and power and peace of this mind is within himself, it will not be written in vain. May it then do much in simplifying and bringing to light some of the deeper mysteries and meanings of life.
Ernest Shurtleff Holmes wrote these words on October 1, 1918 from his book Creative Mind and Success. A text which is very worth your time.
Holmes was an American New Thought writer, teacher, and leader. He was the founder of a Spiritual movement known as Religious Science, part of the greater New Thought movement, whose spiritual philosophy is known as "The Science of Mind."
Much like Neville Goddard, Holmes taught New Thought in a Christian context in his church, so hence the heaviness of the use of the word “God” here. It’s always nice to see someone who claims they are a Cristian actually embodying the teachings of Christianity. Which Holmes often did and is quite rare. Although, like everyone, he was not perfect, his legacy lives on in a beneficial way to many. Peeking at some of the online presence of those who
continue to share his writings, it’s all about truth, strength, contentment, healing, love, reason, proactivity, empowerment, joy, etc... It’s not about putting bible passages on sniper scopes, stoning women, anti-gay picketing, or putting up prison guard tower walls around Palestine like you see from de-spiritualized religious fundamentalists.
The primary teaching of New Thought is that physical form is created by a Universal Mind, or as Holmes would say, God, which manifests, or literally reflects, the dominant system of all living persons. In his book, the Science of Mind, Holmes described this force as:
There is a Universal Mind, Spirit, Intelligence, that is the origin of everything: It is First Cause. It is God. This Universal Life and Energy finds an outlet in and through all that is energized, and through everything that lives.
Holmes argued that human beings have access to the power of this Universal Mind by directing their thoughts, in particular, their contention about the present or the future. In his book, he described this as follows:
Experience has taught us that the subjective tendency of this intelligent Law of creative force may consciously be directed and definitively used. This is the greatest discovery of all time.
In his book, the Science of Mind, Holmes explains how it is possible to direct this power by controlling one's thoughts. A sustained belief in a particular outcome will invariably create that outcome. In other words, good events proceed from thoughts of good while evil events proceed from thoughts of evil. In the Science of Mind, Holmes emphasized the importance of focusing in the long term on the good:
Never look at that which you do not wish to experience. No matter what the false condition may be, it must be refuted. The proper kind of denial is based upon the recognition that, in reality, there is no limitation, for Mind can as easily make a planet as an acorn. The Infinite knows no difference between a million dollars and a penny. It only knows that IT IS.
In order to get results, Holmes emphasized that it was necessary to think one specific thought, with complete certainty. If one is continually thinking different thoughts, the Universal Mind will not have a dominant belief that it can manifest, or create, in the physical world. Holmes explained this idea as follows, in his book, Creative Mind:
So plastic is mind, so receptive, that the slightest thought makes an impression upon it. People who think many kinds of thought must expect to receive a confused manifestation in their lives. If a gardener plants a thousand kinds of seeds, he will get a thousand kinds of plants; it is the same in mind.
Man is surrounded by a great universal thought power which returns to him always just as he thinks. So plastic, so receptive is this mind, that it takes the slightest impression and moulds it into conditions. There are two things in man which his thought affects, his body and his environment. At all times he is given absolute control over these two things, and from the effect of his thought upon them he cannot hope to escape.
At first, being ignorant of this fact, he binds himself by a misuse of the laws of his being; but as he begins to see that he himself is responsible for all that comes to him on the path of life, he begins to control his thought, which in its turn acts on the universal substance to create for him a new world.
The great soul is learning more and more to dare to fling out into mind a divine idea of himself, and to see himself perfect and whole.
Wise words from over 100 years ago at the time of this recording. Even if much of new thought scientifically is proven to be bollocks, and that has yet to happen, it’s still great training for being a proactive glass half full person who looks on the bright side of life, treating all encounters and obstacles with the realizations of abundance in their life. For even if brining event into manifestation by causative thoughts is actually not the case, one is still a nicer person in the process, at very least.
Is new thought perfect? Of course not. One could criticize only focusing on good as being new agey with the ostrich sticking its head in the sand to hide. Shadow and negativity must be looked at, acknowledge and worked through. For knowledge of a problem is half the solution, and we learn more from the yin than we do the yang. In our own lives and in the aggregate. For example, a group of Christian dogmatists who completely refuse to acknowledge or even consider the anthropogenic aspects of climate change. Or individually, Holmes himself had said “I believe in the healing of the sick through the power of the Mind. I believe in the control of conditions through the power of the Mind.” So, can you simply heal stage four cancer by thinking it will be all good. Of course not. Or can you?
In the East, especially in China, it’s common for elders to not be told by their doctors that they have a terminal disease, for when the scientific modern medicine diagnosis is revealed to the patient, it’s become known culturally that the vast majority of the time the patient will die quicker. The 2019 film The Farewell is a story focused around this dynamic. Although quite controversial in China, one could say that there is a reason this practice has been adopted over the generations. Because it works, for faith and love are dominant positive thoughts while fear is a dominant negative thought. There are also visualization exercises one can do to help alleviate disease from the body. Visualizing darkness or blackness in the affected areas and re-occurringly meditating on seeing and feeling it be purged from within. That is way more esoterically powerful than sitting in your hospital room sulking staring out
the window in depression or anger or regret. In likelihood, it’s probably a multistage approach. Where diet and exercise also play crucial roles, combined with certain potential holistic or drug based applications also factoring in, with positive thoughts being another layer to the puzzle. But a key layer at that.
One final note here, especially important to note for the ladies. It’s very common when reading old texts to have them framed in the language of what at first glance seems to be male dominated language. Stating this “God” character as a male, always speaking of mankind as “man” and saying only “he” and never “she”. The Webster’s 1828 definition of man is Mankind; the human race; the whole species of human beings; beings distinguished from all other animals by the powers of reason and speech, as well as by their shape and dignified aspect. So this of course speaks to both women and men when saying man on equal footing. It’s not uncommon for actresses these days to actually prefer the title of actor. Which in the classic definition is gender neutral. There is a benefit to this thinking because it jettisons the misguided use of the etymology of the feminine spelled by adding additional letters to the masculine. Such as wo-man adding to man, or fe-male adding letters to male, or s-he adding letter to he. Implying the male came first and the woman came second. So the words mankind or man are intended to give originality to both simultaneously. What a beautiful thing.