Original Text Lesson

Lesson One From the Original Text

The purpose of the Science of Mind is to discover the Truth, for the Truth frees us from our own error thinking, and enables us to see in a new way. We begin to see through the mist of illusion to the eternal and changeless Reality.

We do not have to discover any new truth; the Truth is already there. The Truth is that there is a unity of all life, a unity of the physical, mental and the spiritual and that we may discover it. We start with certain assumptions:

1. We assume that God is.

2. We assume unity. God is and that God is all there is.

3. We assume that we are made in the image and likeness of God.

4. We assume that, as we become more enlightened, we discover that God is in us, through us and as us.

This does not mean Science of Mind is "the Truth." Science of Mind is a pathway to the Truth.

We Are Unique, Free, Individualizations Of Spirit.
Because We Are Free, We Must Find The Truth Of Our Freedom For Ourselves.

We have the most noble conception of God, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent and we also have the most noble conception of humanity. First, we are unique and individual. Second, we are spontaneous and free. We are free to discover our innate being, our innate essence that has been given to us since the beginning of time. But, because we are free, we must find the truth of our freedom for ourselves. There is within us, an inner voice that tells us two immortal truths. All is Love, yet all is Law. Let us go forward and explore both the loving Presence of God, and the Impersonal Law of the universe. Let us explore the diversity within the unity of the One.

The Evolution Of Self-Consciousness Is The Discovery Of What The "I Am" Means.

We believe in evolution and evolution in consciousness. The seed of desire for growth and expansion has been placed in us from the beginning of time. As life evolved in consciousness, we moved from simple consciousness to self-consciousness. As soon as we became self-conscious, we begin to discover our true nature.

There are two kinds of evolutionary processes, mechanical evolution and evolution involving self-consciousness. The will of Spirit pushed life into self-consciousness. This push in the beginning was mechanical in nature. But as we developed self-consciousness, we found that we could influence the mechanical evolutionary process through freedom of choice. Thomas Troward called this second type of evolution, "The Personal Factor." There are natural and spiritual laws that have always been present, waiting for our discovery of them. When we said, "I AM," we catapulted ourselves from the kingdom of simple consciousness to the level of self-consciousness. But, " I am WHAT?" The evolution of self-consciousness is the discovery of what "I AM "means. "I AM that I AM." At first we thought the "I AM" was self-centered power. We thought that it was us against nature. We saw ourselves as victims, combating the forces of the universe. But the more we harnessed nature, the more dissatisfied we became. There must be something more. This "I AM" must be something more than a small isolated self. We searched for answers in the world.

'Look Within, Know Thyself'

But, we only heard the cries of desperation, "Why death? Why sorry? Why suffering?" We tried to penetrate nature and the universe for answers. But no answers came. And then we heard it, the still, small voice within us which said, "Look within, know thyself." We knew that we could think. But we did not know where our thinking came from. At first, we thought it came from our physical body, and then we realized that this was a fundamental error, an error that believed that mind proceeds from matter. This mistake is a result of reasoning from the effect and not from cause. There must be a cause. There must be an intelligence that controls and creates the effect. There must be a thinking that transcends the body, that is more than the body. We knew that the body could have no life of its own without some form of consciousness behind it. And then, we realized, "We are not our bodies. Our consciousness precedes our body." And when we realized that our thoughts came from our consciousness and not our body, we then began to wonder for the first time if we have the ability to consciously decide what we will think.

We Have The Ability To Consciously Decide What We Will Think

As we begin to observe our own mind and our own behavior we noticed that there is another part of our mind that will think for us if we allow it to. We begin to notice a kind of automatic thinking, almost like a separate and automatic mind. So, we arrived at the conclusion that we have two minds. We labeled them our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. As soon as we discovered that we have two minds, we began to closely watch how these two minds work in conjunction with each other. We think, We are aware. We can consciously choose what we wish to think. But there is another part of us that processes our thinking and stores what we have thought. So we have two minds: a conscious mind, the thinker, and the subconscious mind, the storehouse. Instead of two minds, perhaps they are actually only two aspects of our one mind.

We Have Two Aspects Of The One Mind; A Conscious Mind, The

Thinker, And The Subconscious Mind, The Storehouse.

As we grow in consciousness we begin to realize that perhaps we do not have separate individual minds. Perhaps we are using One Great Mind in an individual way. Thus, we are interconnected with all people in this One Great Mind. This leads to all sorts of questions. Is our destiny controlled by this One Great Mind and if so, Who is the Great Controller? Or maybe we control our own destiny by our own thoughts. Is there a universal law that acts on our thoughts; is there a Law of Mind? Are our thoughts creative, and if so, how does this creative process take place? Does our thinking actually create the conditions in our lives? If we change the way we think, if we turn our thoughts to the positive and to the good, by changing our thoughts, can we change our lives for the better? We began to reason as follows: "It is not just my thought, but the thought of other people on the planet that can affect the way that I live.

If other people's thoughts affect me, then my thoughts can affect others. And, if this is true, there must be a common mind through which all thought operates, a common medium, a universal mind." "If my thoughts are stored in this universal mind, and if the thoughts of all other people are stored in this same mind, that means that the thoughts of the entire planet can affect me and my thoughts can also affect the planet."

We now arrive at that place in consciousness where we are ready to explore these profound ideas. We are ready to take responsibility to discover just exactly how this mind works and how it is interconnected with all other minds. We are open to the possibility that we can control our affairs by right thinking, that it is possible to bring into our existence the things we wish to enjoy by correct thinking. We know that others may not believe this is possible. Many may think it is foolish, while others may say it is too good to be true. But our purpose is to explore the ramifications of a Universal Mind with those who are open. If there is, within each of us, a power of mind that can completely change our lives, our environment and heal our bodies we wish to know how to use it. We are determined, we are ready to explore. We are ready to learn the truth about the Law of Mind and how to use it.