Letter of Transmittal
Physical science is responsible for the marvelous age of invention in which we are now living, but spiritual science is now setting out on a career whose possibilities no one can foretell.
Spiritual science has heretofore been the football of the uneducated, the superstitious, the mystical, but men are now interested in definite methods and demonstrated facts only.
We have come to know that thinking is a spiritual process, that vision and imagination precede action and event — that the day of the dreamer has come. The following lines by Mr. Herbert Kaufman are interesting in this connection.
“They are the architects of greatness, their vision lies within their souls, they peer beyond the veils and mists of doubt and pierce the walls of unborn Time. The belted wheel, the trail of steel, the churning screw, are shuttles in the loom on which they weave their magic tapestries. Makers of Empire, they have fought for bigger things than crowns and higher seats than thrones. Your homes are set upon the land a dreamer found. The pictures on its walls are visions from a dreamer’s soul.
“They are the chosen few — the blazers of the way. Walls crumble and Empires fall, the tidal wave sweeps from the sea and tears a fortress from its rocks. The rotting nations drop from off Time’s bough, and only things the dreamers make live on.”
Week Thirteen which is enclosed herewith tells why the dreams of the dreamer come true. It explains the law of causation by which dreamers, inventors, authors, and financiers, bring about the realization of their desires. It explains the law by which the thing pictured upon our mind eventually becomes our own.
Week Thirteen: The Dreams of the Dreamer
- It has been the tendency and, as might be proved, a necessity for science to seek the explanation of everyday facts by a generalization of those others which are less frequent and form the exception. Thus does the eruption of the volcano manifest the heat which is continually at work in the interior of the earth and to which the latter owes much of her configuration.
- Thus does the lightning reveal a subtle power constantly busy to produce changes in the inorganic world, and as dead languages now seldom heard were once ruling among the nations, so does a giant tooth in Siberia or a fossil in the depth of the earth, not only bear record of the evolution of past ages, but thereby explains to us the origin of the hills and valleys which we inhabit today.
- In this way a generalization of facts which are rare, strange, or form the exception, has been the magnetic needle guiding to all the discoveries of inductive science.
- This method is founded upon reason and experience and thereby destroyed superstition, precedent, and conventionality.
- It is more than two hundred years since Lord Bacon recommended this method of study, to which the civilized nations owe the greater part of their prosperity and the more valuable part of their knowledge; purging the mind from narrow prejudices and denominated theories more effectually than by the keenest irony; calling the attention of men from heaven to earth more successfully by surprising experiments than by the most forcible demonstrations of their ignorance; educating the inventive faculties more powerfully by the near prospect of useful discoveries thrown open to all, than by talk of bringing to light the innate laws of our mind.
- The method of Bacon has seized the spirit and aim of the great philosophers of Greece and carried them into effect by the new means of observation which another age offered, thus gradually revealing a wondrous field of knowledge in the infinite space of astronomy, in the microscopic egg of embryology, and the dim age of geology; disclosing an order of the pulse which the logic of Aristotle could never have unveiled and analyzing into formerly unknown elements the material combinations which no dialectic of the scholastics could force apart.
- It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished diseases; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to the mariner; it has spanned great rivers with bridges of form unknown to our fathers; it has guided the thunderbolt from heaven to earth; it has lighted up night with the splendor of day; it has extended the range of human vision; it has multiplied the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated motion; it has annihilated distance; it has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all dispatch of business; it has enabled men to descend into the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the earth.
- This then is the true nature and scope of induction. But the greater the success which men have achieved in the inductive science, the more does the whole tenor of their teachings and example impress us with the necessity of observing carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at our command the individual facts before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
- To ascertain the bearing of the spark drawn from the electric machine under every variety of circumstances, that we thus may be emboldened with Franklin to address, in the form of a kite, the question to the cloud about the nature of the lightning. To assure ourselves of the manner in which bodies fall with the exactness of a Galileo. That with Newton we may dare to ask the moon about the force that fastens it to the earth.
- In short, by the value we set upon truth, by our hope in a steady and universal progress, not to permit a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or mutilate unwelcome facts, but to rear the superstructure of science upon the broad and unchangeable basis of full attention paid to the most isolated as well as the most frequent phenomena.
- An ever-increasing material may be collected by observation, but the accumulated facts are of very different value for the explanation of nature, and as we esteem most highly those useful qualities of men which are of the rarest occurrence, so does natural philosophy sift the facts and attach a preeminent importance to that striking class which cannot be accounted for by the usual and daily observation of life.
- If then, we find that certain persons seem to possess unusual power, what are we to conclude? First, we may say it is not so — which is simply an acknowledgment of our lack of information because every honest investigator admits that there are many strange and heretofore unaccountable phenomena constantly taking place. Those, however, who become acquainted with the creative power of thought will no longer consider them unaccountable.
- Second, we may say that they are the result of supernatural interference, but a scientific understanding of Natural Laws will convince us that there is nothing supernatural. Every phenomenon is the result of an accurate definite cause, and the cause is an immutable law or principle, which operates with invariable precision whether the law is put into operation consciously or unconsciously.
- Third, we may say that we are on “forbidden ground,” that there are some things which we should not know. This objection was used against every advance in human knowledge. Every individual who ever advanced a new idea, whether a Columbus, a Darwin, a Galileo, a Fulton, or an Emerson, was subjected to ridicule or persecution; so that this objection should receive no serious consideration; but, on the contrary, we should carefully consider every fact which is brought to our attention; by doing this we will more readily ascertain the law upon which it is based.
- It will be found that the creative power of thought will explain every possible condition or experience, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
- Thought will bring about conditions in correspondence with the predominant mental attitude. Therefore, if we fear disaster, as fear is a powerful form of thought, disaster will be the certain result of our thinking. It is this form of thought which frequently sweeps away the result of many years of toil and effort.
- If we think of some form of material wealth, we may secure it. By concentrated thought the required conditions will be brought about and the proper effort put forth, which will result in bringing about the circumstances necessary to realize our desires; but we often find that when we secure the things we thought we wanted, they do not have the effect we expected. That is, the satisfaction is only temporary, or possibly is the reverse of what we expected.
- What, then, is the proper method of procedure? What are we to think in order to secure what we really desire? What you and I desire, what we all desire, what every one is seeking, is Happiness and Harmony. If we can be truly happy we shall have everything the world can give. If we are happy ourselves we can make others happy.
- But we cannot be happy unless we have health, strength, congenial friends, pleasant environment, and sufficient supply not only to take care of our necessities but to provide for those comforts and luxuries to which we are entitled.
- The old orthodox way of thinking was to be “a worm,” to be satisfied with our portion whatever it is; but the modern idea is to know that we are entitled to the best of everything, that the “Father and I are one” and that the “Father” is the Universal Mind, the Creator, the Original Substance from which all things proceed.
- Now admitting that this is all true in theory, and it has been taught for two thousand years, and is the essence of every system of Philosophy or Religion, how are we to make it practical in our lives? How are we to get the actual, tangible results here and now?
- In the first place, we must put our knowledge into practice. Nothing can be accomplished in any other way. The athlete may read books and lessons on physical training all his life, but unless he begins to give out strength by actual work he will never receive any strength; he will eventually get exactly what he gives; but he will have to give it first. It is exactly the same with us; we will get exactly what we give, but we shall have to give it first. It will then return to us many fold, and the giving is simply a mental process, because thoughts are causes and conditions are effects; therefore in giving thoughts of courage, inspiration, health, or help of any kind we are setting causes in motion which will bring about their effect.
- Thought is a spiritual activity and is therefore creative. But make no mistake: Thought will create nothing unless it is consciously, systematically, and constructively directed; and herein is the difference between idle thinking, which is simply a dissipation of effort and constructive thinking, which means practically unlimited achievement.
- We have found that everything we get comes to us by the Law of Attraction. A happy thought cannot exist in an unhappy consciousness; therefore the consciousness must change and, as the consciousness changes, all conditions necessary to meet the changed consciousness must gradually change in order to meet the requirements of the new situation.
- In creating a Mental Image or an Ideal, we are projecting a thought into the Universal Substance from which all things are created. This Universal Substance is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient. Are we to inform the Omniscient as to the proper channel to be used to materialize our demand? Can the finite advise the Infinite? This is the cause of failure — of every failure. We recognize the Omnipresence of the Universal Substance, but we fail to appreciate the fact that this substance is not only Omnipresent, but is Omnipotent and Omniscient, and consequently will set causes in motion concerning which we may be entirely ignorant.
- We can best conserve our interests by recognizing the Infinite Power and Infinite Wisdom of the Universal Mind, and in this way become a channel whereby the Infinite can bring about the realization of our desire. This means that recognition brings about realization. Therefore for your exercise this week make use of the principle. Recognize the fact that you are a part of the whole, and that a part must be the same in kind and quality as the whole; the only difference there can possibly be is in degree.
- When this tremendous fact begins to permeate your consciousness, when you really come into a realization of the fact that you, not your body, but the Ego, the “I,” the spirit which thinks, is an integral part of the great whole, that it is the same in substance, in quality, in kind, that the Creator could create nothing different from Himself, you will also be able to say, “The Father and I are one” and you will come into an understanding of the beauty, the grandeur, the transcendental opportunities which have been placed at your disposal.
Increase in me that wisdom Which discovers my truest interest, Strengthen my resolution To perform that which wisdom dictates. — Franklin
Questions & Answers for Week Thirteen
What is the method by which natural philosophers obtain and apply their knowledge?
To observe individual facts carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at their command, before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
How may we be certain that this method is correct?
By not permitting a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or mutilate unwelcome facts.
What class of facts are esteemed most highly?
Those which cannot be accounted for by the usual daily observations of life.
Upon what is this principle founded?
Upon reason and experience.
What does it destroy?
Superstition, precedent, and conventionality.
How have these laws been discovered?
By a generalization of facts which are uncommon, rare, strange, and form the exception.
How may we account for much of the strange and heretofore unexplainable phenomena which is constantly taking place?
By the creative power of thought.
Why is this so?
Because when we learn of a fact we can be sure that it is the result of a certain definite cause and that this cause will operate with invariable precision.
What is the result of this knowledge?
It will explain the cause of every possible condition, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
How will our best interest be conserved?
By a recognition of the fact that a knowledge of the creative nature of thought puts us in touch with Infinite power.