It may be asked: if mentalism is a true doctrine then why are we not able to alter physical things, such as our fleshly bodies, for instance, merely by exercising our thought upon them? We have to answer that it is the creative activity which gave rise to these things, and it is admittedly no less a mental activity than introspection, remembrance, and reverie, but whereas the latter occur in the individual conscious mind, the former occurs independently of us in the cosmic subconscious mind; and that the miracles which do unquestionably occur occasionally are primarily performed by the cosmic will and only secondarily because the necessary conditions of intense concentration or utter self-surrender have been successfully provided. In short, man's creative power is only a semi-independent one.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 3 : The Individual and World Mind > # 90
