Christian Science has taken up this great truth of mentalism. For this it must be praised and respected. But, in important ways, it has also misunderstood and misapplied it. Moreover, it is not enough simply to make the affirmation, "Divine Mind is the only reality." It is also necessary to adopt the practical course of self-discipline and mental re-education which will enable one to realize this truth.    (#20435)

The progress of Christian Science students and the success of the movement itself does, however, afford some encouragement, some hope that mentalism will not be entirely a voice in the wilderness but will also find a few receptive hearers.    (#20436)

Although we have ventured to disagree with Christian Science on a number of points, we recognize the valuable truths it certainly contains. Our criticisms do not despoil its genuine merits, and there are many--enough to overbalance the account in its favour. Despite all difference of view, it is propagating the foundational doctrine of mentalism in the world of theory, as it is inculcating the casting out of negatives in the world of thinking.    (#20441)

"Astronomy, optics, acoustics, and hydraulics are all at war with the testimony of the physical senses. This fact intimates that the laws of science are mental, not material," wrote Mary Baker Eddy. This shows her acceptance of Mentalism as the basis of her teaching.    (#20443)

The Christian Science Church achieved success not at all because it taught mentalism, which is too hard and too subtle for most to grasp, but for two reasons. First, it gave visible results in the healing of sick people. If some of the cases were quite trivial, others were spectacular. Second, it taught a practical method of not letting the ego's "mortal mind" manage its own affairs (since it is so faulty and so limited) but of turning them over or surrendering them to the Overself for management. This is similar to the Ramana Maharshi's story of a passenger in a railway carriage who was advised to put his parcel down from his shoulder and let the train carry it.    (#20444)

With her faulty mental development, it was not surprising that Mrs. Eddy's version of mentalism was equally faulty--and not the same as philosophy's. In denying disease she perforce denied the body--a procedure which even philosophy dares not do. In making man God's idea but refusing to make the universe God's idea too, she showed her lamentable self-contradiction. In dismissing the world as illusion but failing to see that she ought to explain the origin of this illusion, her attempts to explain the origin of matter, sickness, evil, and error as beliefs of mortal mind, which was nothing, became pointless.    (#20455)

Nothing could be more certain than the fact that not a single person in historic times has conquered death, that not a single irrefutable record exists of that tremendous event. Yet, in the nineteenth century, when science established its world-wide celebrity and dominance, a woman arose in America and established a religion which spread rapidly and asserted that it had found the way to eliminate death! The founder herself died, and not one of her followers has yet succeeded. In spite of such grandiose failure, this woman-prophet also propounded a second astonishing tenet, which is remarkably true, that of mentalism. And this despite the fact that she used the only basis she was capable of using--a religio-metaphysic one alone rather than what would be called a strictly scientific one.    (#20480)

That is not to say, however, that there are not strange faculties lying latent in the human mind. On the contrary, because mentalism is a fact in Nature, most successful yogis discover that some extraordinary faculties automatically arise in them. They offer a fascinating field of exploration to a properly trained competent investigator who has not only mastered the subject in a rational manner, and knows enough of the dangers and risks attending it, not only disciplined his mind and desires through the scientific, metaphysical, and yogic courses, but also consciously brought his ego within the framework of universal being. But amateurs who invade this field through motives of mere curiosity or immoral exploitation sooner or later discover that it becomes a region either of sheer time-wasting or else of grave danger. Even the best of men will find his way through this field with the utmost difficulty, while for most dilettanti it is an undertaking which is usually foredoomed to failure. In any case these powers not only are hard to get but may prove dangerous when gotten.    (#20905)

Clairvoyance and Telepathy

Clairvoyance is that abnormal awareness which enables one to know a fact or perceive a scene which ordinarily could not be known or perceived at all. Such a state may or may not be accompanied by reverie. It may operate in time, as when past or future are read. It may operate in space, as when scenes or persons in some remote city or land are seen. Its mildest form is the sensing of someone's presence; its fullest form is vivid vision.

The scientific rationale of both clairvoyance and telepathy will now be exposed and from this it will be seen how superstitious are many occult theories on the one hand and how materialistic are many sceptical theories on the other hand. What happens in the case of clairvoyance is that the act of concentration, whether voluntary or involuntary, induces an activity in the subliminal mind which in turn presents the result of this activity as an impression of the scene or person concentrated on. This subconscious impression is then made to appear to the waking consciousness as a mental image. In the practical technique, attentive concentration is usually followed by the shutting down of waking consciousness, thus inducing a dreamlike state. It is in such a state, resembling half-trance, that most occult powers, visions, and so on usually become active.

If it be asked how it is possible to become aware of distant scenes and far-off persons, unuttered thoughts and the projection of personal atmospheres, the answer is that quite obviously there must exist some connecting medium between both seer and seen, sender and receiver. And mentalism asserts that this medium is and can be none other than the same mind whose universal existence makes us all percipients of the world-show and recipients of the divine World-Idea.

These strange phenomena are possible because one man's mind is connected with another and all form part of a unitary whole. None exists in isolation. There is an inclusive mind which subsists beneath them all, a thread-Mind which runs through all minds. When we work out the implications of these cases we find that they suggest a larger mind whose limits we cannot trace. Each individual mind is like a bubble on the surface of a lake. The water in the lake brings all the separate minds into connection with one another. There is not only an individual subconsciousness but also a collective and comprehensive subliminal mind, a cosmic consciousness.

The deeper layers of the mind in which one man abides are indissolubly the same as the deeper layers of the mind in which his neighbour abides. Thus the link among all the finite egos of mankind cannot from its very nature be cut. This ultimate unity of the unconscious renders possible a reasonable explanation of those mysterious happenings called telepathy, occultism, prevision, and clairvoyance. Whoever can succeed in withdrawing his attention from the surface consciousness--however involuntarily or momentarily--to that substratum which underlies it, will naturally find in himself the possibility of closer touch with other finite minds irrespective of the distance between their bodies.

All genuine occult happenings find their basis in the fact that Mind is the single and supreme principle of the world and that all things are primarily mental things. All those strange happenings like clairvoyance, second-sight, premonitions, and telepathy testify also that the existence of this mind is free from space-time limitations. When we understand that Mind is itself a reality apart from the fleshly brain, we can also understand why telepathy between two persons is perfectly possible. When we perceive that time and space are not absolutes but forms of mental experience, we can also perceive why reading the past, foretelling the future, and seeing something far distant from the body are likewise possible.    (#21175)

The rigours of ego-crushing must be mitigated, the truths of mentalism must be diluted, if the multitude is to be reached. This is why popular religions are born.    (#21573)

We must take a higher position than ordinary religion offers and come face to face with the mystery that is Mentalism. The nonbeing of the universe, the nonduality even of the soul may be too mathematical a conclusion for our finite minds; but that this matterless world and all that happens in it is like a dream is something to be received and remembered at all times. We are important only to ourselves, not to God. All our whining and praying, chanting and praising, gathering together and imagining that this or that duty is required of us is mere theatre-play: Mind makes it all. In this discovery we roll up the stage and return to the paradox of what we really are--Consciousness!    (#21980)

Mentalism says we can make sense of our experiences only if we apply to them, and to our understanding of them, the double standpoint: Immediate and Ultimate, or Appearance and Reality, or Relative and Absolute. The ordinary, normal point of view takes the world as the five senses find it--that is, as it appears to be. This is easy for everyone to understand and accept. But the deepest possible examination and analysis by philosophic intelligence, as well as the highest possible insight of mystic experience, presents a totally different result: The One, That which IS, has undergone no change at all.    (#23697)

(a) "The one without a second" reappears in the universe as "no two things alike." (b) Nonduality, not two, means mentalism; the world is my idea, in my consciousness, hence not separate from me. There are not two--me plus world.    (#23712)

We hear from the East that the world is unreal and that the ego is unreal, or that the world does not exist and that the ego does not exist. It is here that semantics as developed by Western minds may perhaps be of some service in clarifying confused thinking leading to confused statements. The body is a part of the world. Do we or do we not dwell in a body? If we do not then we should stop feeding it and stop taking it to the physician when it gets sick. Yet even those people who make such extraordinary statements do continue to eat, to fall sick, and to visit a doctor. Surely that disposes immediately of the question whether or not the body exists. In the same way and by the same pattern of reasoning we can discover that the world also exists. What then has led these Indian teachers to proclaim otherwise? Here we begin to intrude upon the field of mentalism and as a necessary part of the key to mentalism we must turn to the dream state. If we dream of a world around us and of a body in which we live in this dream world and of other bodies of other persons moving in it, the Indians say that these dream persons and this dream world is seen to be non-existent when we wake up and hence they deny its reality. But the experience did happen, so let us scrutinize it. There was no such thing as this world, true, but something was there; what was there? Thoughts. All this world and all these persons about whom we dream pass through consciousness as thoughts, so the thoughts were there. Whether we consider dream or hallucination, the pictures are there in the person's mind; they exist there, but they exist there only as mental creations. But when we say they are merely mental creations, we are bringing in an attempt to judge them, to judge their nature, what they really are. The statement that they are unreal is therefore a judgement and is acceptable only on the basis of a particular standpoint, the standpoint of the observer who is outside the dream, outside the hallucination. It is not acceptable on the basis of the person who is having the experience at that moment. Thus we see that the existence of the ego, the body, and the world need not be denied; it is there, it is part of our experience, but what we have to do is to examine it more closely and attempt a judgement of its nature. And this judgement does not alter the fact that they are being experienced. This is a fact of our own, of everyone's experience, including the highest sage, only the sage and the common man each has his own judgement from his point of view, from his knowledge. In all these topics we can see how much easier it is to pick our way if we adopt the attitude which was proclaimed in The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga that there is a double viewpoint and a double standard in this teaching in order that we may be clear about our experiences and about our ideas and not get them mixed up. These two standpoints, the immediate and the ultimate, the common and the philosophic, are absolutely necessary in all talk and study about such metaphysical topics. Otherwise we get lost in mere verbiage, words, words, words.    (#23752)

Materialism is compelled to hold that there is only one uniform time. Mentalism holds that there are different kinds of time, not only for different kinds of beings but even for one and the same being.    (#23982)

If the investigation of time made in depth by intelligence shows the real essence of it to be an eternal Now, so a similar investigation of space shows its real essence to be an eternal Here. Both these results are also to be reached in actual experience sharply and clearly in meditation in depth. But where are they? The answer is given briefly and precisely by mentalism: they are in consciousness.    (#24018)

As we try to think away all the objects which space contains, we must not forget to think away the light with which we unconsciously fill all space. We shall find if we succeed in this admittedly difficult exercise, that space itself will then disappear. Thus the common belief in space as a kind of vast vessel containing everything, as depending on and being determined by the distances between two or more objects and the relative positions occupied by these objects, is hardly a correct one. Both "inside" and "outside" are merely relative terms. All this again is because, as mentalism declares, space is really the idea which we subconsciously impose on. Hence, when for a few brief moments the mind transcends its creations and returns to itself in mystical abstraction, we lose the feeling of the "outsideness" of things and the world fades into being our own unreal dream. This happens because, as mentalism has already taught us, space is needed by the mind to contain its images, to measure its forms, and therefore mind accordingly makes it. Now the same considerations apply to time, for if we think away all the objects which have their life in the past present or future, there will be no time left to flow onwards. There will be no independent thing called time. Nevertheless, the mind is not left in a wholly negative state after this is done. Whatever we may possibly experience or know in the external world must necessarily be experienced or known under the forms of space and time; to be at all, they have to be as they are. But these forms are variable and changeable, relative and dependent. Therefore these events or things are not themselves eternal and enduring realities. Space and time are ways in which we experience existence; they are not things in themselves.    (#24020)

The relativity theory brings space and time together as having no existence independent of each other. Mentalism explains why this is so. They are both inherent in one and the same thing--imagination; they are two ways in which the creative aspect of mind functions simultaneously.    (#24021)

The English novelist Graham Greene says that he several times had dreams of happenings which later were realized. What does this mean? Its simplest meaning must obviously be that the present and the future are already joined together. The second meaning must be that since the present quickly becomes the past, the past and the future are also joined together. The total meaning must be that time is a single unbroken line. In metaphysics this can be called eternal duration, and in metempsychosis this explains how actions done now are echoed back in a later birth. For us humans, mentalism puts past, present, and future within the mind and their separateness from each other within illusion. From this illusion we can be set free only by experiencing and knowing the timeless, which must not be confused with eternal duration. The timeless transcends the past, present, and future. What we experience now in the present is abstracted from the whole of experience, the totality, but the abstraction is illusory. The reality which we give to the present and deny to past and future is again within us, within the mind, but it is within the deepest layer of the mind and that deepest layer is connected with timelessness, for that is the reality in us.    (#24061)

The simple name "philosophy" is an old one and it is enough for this teaching. Mentalism is its metaphysical branch, mental quiet is its mystical practice, and the Overself is the ultimate Consciousness of man.    (#24362)