Christian Mind Healing By Annie Rix Our Freedom and Power are Gauged by Our Knowledge. 1 LESSON I The Statement of Being GOD THE ALL IN ALL. The Preparation. The freest, and therefore the best attitude for learning, is receptivity and obedience, and, in order to bring the mind into a state of emptiness to truth, one must put aside preconceived ideas that conflict with the Absolute. The child-like attitude of humility and meekness can alone be led to the white light of Truth. Yet must this humility not turn to the beliefs and opinions of mortal mind, but to the indwelling Spirit, as its guide to immortal life and truth, as Jesus Christ instructs : “He [the Spirit] shall teach you all things, and bring all things, to your remembrance.”—John 14:26. This is “The Gospel,” or “Good News,” which reveals man’s divine and immortal nature, giving him that knowledge which, when put in practice, will heal disease, restore peace and establish prosperity. It consists of twelve lessons, six of which announce the principle, and six, the application of the principle to healing on the three planes, mind, body and estate. Each lesson, while whole and independent in itself, is a necessary part of the whole proposition, and each is dependent upon the first lesson, the “Statement of Being,” as the key to order, system and science. The earnest student of Truth should study the first lesson thoroughly, before taking up the second one, reading it several times and observing a few moments of silent meditation on the statement, “God the good is all there is, the only power and the only presence,” at the beginning and close of each lesson. If healing is desired, put your faith with definite, directing purpose on the living word- of God, found in this philosophy of life, and your intelligent asking will receive response in newness of body. Most important of all, make use of all the truth you receive and practice the presence of God within you, continuously, thus you cannot escape its benefit and blessing. This lesson is the foundation upon which our claim, of truth stands .and therefore consists of a direct, simple Statement of Being, both from the standpoint of God as principle and God as manifestation called Man. Truth the Foundation. Man, ignorant of his divinity, blindly groping in semi-darkness, is a child of uncontrolled desire, unrest, dissatisfaction and suffering. To such an one, life is a problem that furnishes no key for unraveling its mystery. Knowing no principle for conquering the cause of suffering, he is subject to every wind of adversity that blows. Truth affirms that man himself is the key to the situation, and as he turns to the light, he begins, in joy, to realize that knowledge of the Truth is freedom, while 2 ignorance of the Truth is the cause of all suffering. The clear light streaming freely through Jesus Christ affirmed: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth, shall make you free.” John 8:32. Our freedom and power then, are gauged by our knowledge; thus must we recognize the importance of knowing the whole truth if we would be wholly free; every thought, word, deed, experience, must pay its tax to simplify that complexity called desire, by throwing the light of truth in full force upon it. By this honest process, you will soon come to see that the thousands of desires in the multitudinous forms in which man has indulged, can be traced to their source in one desire common to all, that is! satisfaction. Fundamental to man is the demand for happiness and deep in the heart of Truth lies its substance. Happiness and Truth are one and inseparable, and for man to stand on this, premise will assure his advance along lines of success. A clear understanding and definition of Truth is necessary, wherein exists no mixture of human belief and opinion. Truth absolutely must be that which is, in contradistinction to that which merely appears to be so. It is the beginning, the end and the sum of all that is self-sustaining, unchangeable, self-creating and eternal. Being the primal fact and creative principle, it is changeless, since there is nothing into which it could change, itself being all in all. It is indivisible since it is wholeness and would cease to be the Truth were it subject to division. A relative truth is, properly speaking, only a fact, being subject to the laws governing the external world, such as time, place and conditions; controlled by appearances, and subject to change. The Great First Cause. Thinking people in all ages have recognized a. power back of creation, and have named it variously. No intelligent being will claim that form is self-creative or self- supporting, but on the contrary will recognize an invisible and common cause for all phenomena. This invisible cause, which is the foundation, or truth of all, and one in essence, power and quality, has sometimes been described as “First Great Cause,” “Force,” “Creative Energy,” “Fountain Head,” “Principle” or, by religionists, with some name signifying Deity, such as Brahm or God. All men believe in the existence of this creative power. An atheist never really existed. Those who claim to be such, merely oppose another’s idea of God, but will hold to their own. It is unconstitutional to deny God. If it were possible for man to do so, he would thereby affirmed God. Every doctrine of pure reasoning must stand upon this true foundation for unchanging support. The Three-Fold Benefits. Truth in its integrity, promises three blessings to man which include all others. If these are not resulting from man’s claim to Truth let him seek a better consciousness and conception of Truth; the difficulty lies in the man, not in the light. These signs are absolute satisfaction, perfect health and complete knowledge. As Truth holds three benefits for mankind, it also has a three-fold department in which to work, the first of which is the therapeutic, dealing with the healing of man’s body and his immunity from disease; the second is the ethical activity, describing the 3 moral nature of man, correcting his false desires and judgment, and harmonizing his relationship to his fellow-beings; the third department is religion, where in man learns of his true relationship to God and is thereby enabled to create a new and lasting covenant with Truth. These three are one, and will ever remain co-active. God Is In these lessons, we will deal with cause, for the nearer we get to it, the nearer we get to Truth. And we will continue to call this cause God, as the most comprehensive and freest name we can employ. Since time began, man has never ceased to ask these vital question: Who and what is God? Where is God? Who am I? What is my relationship to God? What is my work and for what am I bound? This lesson deals with these questions, taking as our starting point the axiom “God is.” An axiom is defined as a self-evident truth, wherein every science has its source. In music we accept the note “do” as the basis of all sound and back to which all sounds may be reduced, itself an integral of every combination of sounds; or in the science of numbers we accept the axiom “one” upon which rests the stupendous system of mathematics. The sacred books of the East affirm “At first Brahm,’” and our Bible opens with the statement, “In the beginning God.” The All-Good. Our second axiom is the recognition of the eternal goodness of God, that Being of absolute goodness and absolute power that is all in all. Thus we affirm that God is the all-good. All our deductions must now rest upon this foundation as all questions must be decided from this standpoint. Well we understand that the limitless cannot be described, or encompassed, by our limited language; but in order that the mind may swing free from its former limited conceptions of God, let us reason together concerning the nature of the “All-Good.” We perceive that the “All-Good” must be absolute and invariable, therefore proceed to question: What can be so good as to justly claim exact principle, unchanging law as its substance? That which will remain good forever, is and always has been good for all ages, for all nations and for all races at the same time. If we ask an outer evidence of the oneness and goodness of the Creator of this world, plenty is supplied in the wonderful display of nature, of the healing and constructive energies that spring from within, in the beauty and joy of the life- substance pervading all things; and in the science and integrity of its laws, governing and directing all unfoldment. The law of the “All- Good” is manifest, to eyes that see, everywhere. Get us now take one more step in order to see that this “All-Good” must include every quality of absolute good in the universe. What then is equal to God in goodness? Life is. Certainly not man’s idea of life, gathered largely from experience, and described as that period opening at birth and closing at death; but life as it is in true being, as the very principle in action, the energy back of all expression, that is good, everywhere, at all times, for all people. God Is Life and Love. 4 Reasoning by syllogism, if we accept a first and second premise as true, we are obliged to accept the conclusion which follows; therefore since God is good, and life is good, God is life and life is God. God in Jesus Christ exclaims: “I am the life.”— John 14:6. Love is good, absolutely good—not that imperfect idea of love that man has conceived, that is dimmed by selfishness and personality, but love as the protective, redeeming, spiritual quality, always uplifting and beautiful. God is good. Love is good, therefore Love is God, and, as John the inspired disciple of Jesus Christ exclaimed, “God is love.”—-1 John 4:16. God is Truth, Intelligence, Substance. Truth is good. Truth is that pure perception of being which brings absolute freedom and light. God is good; Truth is good, therefore God is Truth and Truth is God. Again Jesus Christ affirms, “I am the truth.”—John 14:6. Intelligence is good. Intelligence is that activity of mind that enables one to recognize, and thus apply, the Truth. Without intelligence, Truth would be inactive, abortive. “Things equal to the same things are equal to each other.” God is good; intelligence, or mind, is God, and God is intelligence or mind. Spirit is good—that reality penetrating and inter-penetrating every known thing from atom to star. Students of the inner life call it spirit, while students who mainly function in the outer world, name it substance. Spirit-substance, everywhere present, standing under and supporting all things, is good. God is good— Spirit is good. God is spirit and spirit is God. This being the understanding of Jesus Christ, he affirms : “God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” — John 4:24. God Is Omnipresence, Omnipotence and Omniscience. God is infinite goodness, therefore man enlarges his conception of perfection as he meditates upon the many, names of absolute good that he can apply to God, such as peace, power, joy, health, prosperity, and so forth, until he realizes that God is omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience,—all the power, presence and mind there is. MAN. The next question, “Who am I?” must find answer in the application of the above principles to man’s being. Man will then begin to know himself as God knows him, made in His own image and likeness, as it is also stated in the chapter on creation in the first book of Genesis. This scientific definition of man places him in God, as a spiritual, not a material, being and defines him “Good and very good.” Man is all that God is, co-equal and co-eternal with his Creator. His work is to manifest the goodness of God, to demonstrate the Truth. As divine man, he must demonstrate peace, not discord; joy, not sorrow; health, not sickness; prosperity, not 5 poverty; life, not death—until success crowns his efforts. This is the peace that ever puts to rest all restlessness and uncertainty, and makes him to realize that, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.”—Acts 17:28. PRACTICE Read thoughtfully the following “STATEMENT OF BEING” morning and evening, after which close the eyes and repeat silently what has been retained in memory: GOD There is one supreme Creator. There is one basis of life; Spirit. There is one governing law; Love. God, the Good, is Life, Love, Truth; Intelligence or Mind, Substance or Spirit; Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence. Man Is the creation of God, therefore good. Man is God in manifestation. Man, in true being, is the exact likeness of God, spiritual, free, holy, perfect. Man’s Work. Is to know, and to manifest, the ideas of Divine Mind; to demonstrate the Truth. His work then, is to demonstrate abundant life and overcome death, perfect health and overcome disease, absolute prosperity and overcome poverty, divine intelligence and overcome ignorance and suffering. 6 LESSON II Scientific Denial Intelligent Method. In our first lesson we see, through a process of right-reasoning, that God the All- Good, is life, love, truth, mind, spirit, health and strength. This is our proposition which must be proved through the intelligent use of method. The first step in the right direction is taken, when the faithful student seeks to understand scientific denial, and actively puts it in practice. Standing on our basis of the recognition of the Absolute Good, our vision becomes cleared, and we behold the far-reaching consequence of our premise. It is our joy and victory to deny power, presence and intelligence to that which, in its quality and nature, contradicts the1 omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God the Good. The mind will detach itself from its belief in, and service to evil, as it swings fearlessly and freely into seeing that love is God, so absolutely all-powerful and present, as to exclude all unlike itself. That which cannot be predicated of God is not reality. It is then scientific to affirm the good as real, and to deny all reality to evil. But One Power. Since it is impossible to have two powers present at the same time, in the same place, when one is the destruction of the other, divine discrimination will accept one and reject the other. In the realm of appearances evil seems to destroy the good, but this is only, a supposition based upon ignorance of the supremacy of the good. Let man intelligently co-operate with the All Good and every form of evil will disappear into the nothingness from whence it came, just as darkness has no .power to remain when light is introduced. Where does darkness go? Nowhere, being nothing but negation. Evil Defined. In this absolute denial of evil, we are standing true to the eternal light of Christianity, and one with the definition of evil, - found in the words of Jesus Christ: “He (the devil, or composite of evil) was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” 7 John 8:44. In this vital definition of evil we see plainly that all suffering is the result of believing a lie to be the truth, and in order to free ourselves from this delusion, we must affirm the lie, to be a lie. Just as when a person, in order to practice a joke on another, announces some great calamity; affirming, for instance, that his house has been destroyed by fire. The suffering resulting from this lie is as keen as though the disaster had actually occurred, and will continue until the one, deceived acquaints himself with the truth, at which time his suffering will cease. Thus has the whole race accepted disease, pain, poverty, sin and death, as realities, believing the lie to be the truth, and has 'thus supported falsity instead of truth. All the power, presence and intelligence evil seems to have, has been given by mail, and man alone can withdraw them. The Old Teaching. The old theology was only half equipped with power to conquer error, since, while affirming God to be omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, in practice it denied this supremacy, by fighting sin and warring and warning against evil. This belief in two powers and two presences in the world, good and, evil, and the consequent struggle between them, has caused untold suffering and discord to humanity; making imperative, strife, opposition and wrangling; resulting in crowded jails, hospitals, insane asylums, feeble-minded homes, etc. Deceived by his own false creations, at times mortal man points to these as monuments of intelligence and civilization, while at others he exclaims, “Is life worth living?” If such would begin to deny evil from the standpoint of the God-self, these blots on our fair earth would soon disappear, and life would1 become, wholesome and sweet. The First Commandment. The soul must become bold with the fearless denials of evil, taking its stand in the first Commandment, “Thou shaft have no other gods (powers) before me;” knowing the law, that what we believe in we serve, and in turn; are served by, as Paul says: “Know you not, that to whom ye yield yourselves, servants to obey, his servants ye are-to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness ?”—Romans 6:16. The obedience unto righteousness,, here referred: to, is perfect allegiance to Good as the only reality. 8 In order to receive the full blessing from the: statement “All is good,” it must include the other half of the circle, “There is no evil,” even as the affirmation “God is spirit” is perfected in the denial, “There is no matter.” Spirit and Matter. Spirit is that God-substance known as universal, indestructible, immutable, changeless presence, penetrating arid inter-penetrating everything; whereas matter, the false clothing man has given his ideas, is changeable, mutable and untrustworthy, an appearance built on the premise of two powers and substances. Thus when we foolishly define our minds, bodies, and health as material, we are limiting these to our definition of matter. No wonder then, that our minds seem but finite, our bodies diseased and our health uncertain. On the other hand, as we identify our life and body with spirit, changeless health, harmony and strength, will be established. The denial of materiality is the Sword of the Spirit, or Word of Truth, which acts as a quick deliverer to man, destroying the works of darkness and establishing those of God. Illustration of Healing. The writer has had many wonderful demonstrations from practicing, for the benefit and healing of others, the denial of materiality. Among these is the case of a man who had suffered everything for years through paralysis of his legs. He had spent a fortune on doctors, traveling for his health from Florida to California, visiting healing springs and finally, having exhausted all external ways and means for healing, like many another wayfarer, he applied for mental treatment. His recovery was not rapid, but nevertheless steady and sure. He was very faithful from the beginning, dragging himself by the help of his loyal wife and crutches, to the writer for daily treatments. These consisted mainly in a determined denial of materiality with a short affirmation of spiritual life to close each treatment. Thus for fully five' months with daily improvement, the work of full restoration went on. Great fear was shown in attempts to abandon the crutches. After they were given up, canes were substituted, and again, faith and fear made a stand in his mentality, and a battle-ground of his consciousness. This continued for some time until an incident exposed the fact that the cane only represented a state of mind. 9 He had gone on an errand for his wife, to purchase a number of groceries, and as he was absent longer than she expected, and being in a hurry for the purchases, she went, to the front door to look for him. He was then a half block distant from home and walking freely without the use of his cane. His wife, alarmed exclaimed at this, at which he dropped his bundles and sank to the ground. She ran to offer help, which he wisely refused, for he had suddenly seen that if he could go from his home over several blocks and back again without the cane, then, he could walk without it the balance of his life. From this on, he was perfectly free, learned to ride a bicycle and to jump on and off moving cars as freely as a boy. The Cleansing Power Denial acts as a cleansing agent, purifying, crossing out, and overcoming whatever is not of divine origin. It is the great clear- house of divine mind, yet some truth- teachers give no value to it, instructing our students in the use of affirmation only; but one should be skilled in the use of both mental activities. To argue that affirmation fulfills the law of demonstration, without denial, is as though a house-wife were to allow all the sun and air (affirmation) into her house that the doors and windows would admit, but never sweep, dust, or in any way clean it. Without this necessary denial how unsightly her home would become. The Baptism of Water. John the Baptist stands in relationship to truth as the word denial, that forerunner of Jesus Christ (affirmation), and comes to prepare the foundation of a perfect structure. His place of activity is the wilderness, which is represented in unregenerated humanity, as mentality full of possibility but devoid of order, system and science. His message is Repent, Repent! To repent means to turn away from, to turn your back on, to reverse your thinking by the process of denial, from believing in evil to faith in good. The symbol which represents his message is water, and Jesus Christ says: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. — John 3:5. To be born of water is denial and to be born of the spirit is affirmation. The two in perfect combination constitute the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. 10