divine order the will acts upon the body center from within; in the average person this action is through reflection from without. In practice we live outside our body instead of within it. This gives us a very slender hold upon it, and it is in consequence weak and likely to slip away from us on very slight pretexts.
21. Man should constantly affirm: I AM, and I will manifest, the perfection of the Mind within me. The first part of the statement is abstract Truth; the second part is concrete identification of man with this Truth. We must learn the law of expression from the abstract to the concrete--from the formless to the formed. Every idea makes a structure after its own image and likeness, and all such ideas and structures are grouped and associated according to their offices.
22. All ideas pertaining to power group themselves about structures impregnated with power. Such ideas are not attracted to ideas of love. Love has its group, and it builds its structures in a place apart. We have observed certain of the manifest centers in our body; we have recognized and named them as the seat of emotions, as the expression of characteristics supposed to exist in the soul. Love is universally recognized as expressing itself through the heart, and intelligence as expressing itself through the head.
23. In the study of Mind and Spirit, these inner centers of consciousness are concentrated on until they respond to the I will and become obedient to it. By this method man finds that he can control and direct every body function and perpetuate it.
24. This is the "regeneration" of the New Testament, a process of body refinement to the point of physical immortality. Jesus called this estate "the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory."
"I AM" REALIZATIONS
(To be used in connection with Lesson Three)
1. "I AM THAT I AM."
2. I am identity demonstrated.
3. I AM THAT I AM, and there is no other besides me.
4. I am one with Almightiness.
5. I am the substance of Being made manifest.
6. I am formed in the perfection of the divine-idea man, Christ Jesus.
7. My body is not material; it is spiritual and perfect in all its being.
8. Centered and established in the one Mind, I am not disturbed by the falsities without me.
9. My identity is in God, and my work is to establish His kingdom within me.
10. I can do nothing of myself, "but the Father abiding in me does his works."
11. I am striving in all my thoughts and ways to make the image and likeness of God manifest in me.
12. My "life is hid with Christ in God."
Lesson Four
The Formative Power of Thought
1. That the body is moved by thought is universally accepted, but that thought is also the builder of the body is not so widely admitted. We know that thought moves the various members of the body, because we have constantly before us manifestations of the close sympathy between thought and act. Before I run, I think that I will run, and my legs begin to move swiftly in imagination before I begin the action outwardly. It was found by a system of experiments made at Harvard University that the thought of running causes the blood to rush into the legs. A man was put flat on his back on a balanced beam, which was adjusted so that the least bit of added weight at head or foot registered on the index. When a perfect balance was attained the man was given a problem in mathematics to solve. Immediately the index showed increased weight at the head, indicating that thought had called the blood there. Then he was told to imagine that he was running, and the index showed added weight shifting to the feet.
2. Here is proof that thought not only moves the external members of the body, but that it controls the fluids flowing within the body. If thought so readily moves the blood from place to place, who shall say that it does not move the nerve fluid, or that still more volatile substance, the magnetic force that pervades all organisms? We affirm that thought controls nerve forces and magnetic force, and that it not only moves them but also forms and organizes their activities in the body.
3. Medical authorities of the highest repute tell us that certain organs of the body are self-renewing; that it is a puzzle to them how these parts ever wear out. If you had a sewing machine that constantly replaced the little particles worn away by friction, would that machine ever be destroyed? In health, man's body has this power of replacing worn parts and when it is in harmony it never wears out. The harmony referred to is self adjustment to the law of Being, to the law of divine nature, to the law of God. It does not matter what you call this fundamental principle underlying all life--the important thing is to understand it, and to put yourself in harmony with it.
4. We have often been told that we should be healthy if we conformed to the laws of nature, but no one has been able to tell us just what those laws are. Some have said that this conformity consists in eating the right kind of food, or in drinking the right kind of water in the right sort of way, or in breathing pure air and wearing suitable clothes. We have done all these things, and there is yet something lacking. It is quite evident that we have not, by observing these external adjustments, gotten at the underlying principle of nature. Nature works intelligently, and we shall never be able to conform to her laws until we approach her as we would a wise and loving mother, who, we know, gladly gives us what we want when we use it wisely. Nature is not a blind force working in darkness and ignorance. All her works indicate intelligence--mind in action. This being true, we perceive that we cannot conform to the laws of nature until we recognize the Mind through which she works.
5. Those who have not thought about this proposition, those who have not tried to know and understand the mental side of life, are like men walking in broad daylight with their eyes closed. The mind has eyes, and we can see (perceive) the inner intelligence when we look with mind. But those who look wholly with the physical eye are really blind--having eyes, they see not. Man's salvation from sin, sickness, pain, and death comes by his understanding and conforming to the orderly Mind back of all existence. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
6. Man is an epitome of Being. Psychology finds his soul responding to all the emotions, sensations, and vibrations of the sentient world about him, and spiritual science discerns that his superconsciousness is inspired with all the ideas fundamental in Divine Mind. Man, then, is the key to God and the universe, and he may know all things by studying his own constitution. Supreme in this constitution is mind. Man must base all his researches on mind, because mind is the starting point of every thought and act.
7. Some metaphysicians teach that man makes himself, others teach that God makes him, and still others hold that the creative process is a co-operation between God and man. The latter is proved true by those who have had the deepest spiritual experiences. Jesus recognized this dual creative process, as is shown in many statements relative to His work and the Father's work. "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." God creates in the ideal, and man carries out in the manifest what God has idealized. Jesus treats of this relation between the Father and the Son in the 5th chapter of John: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner."
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