CONSCIOUSNESS

CHAPTER VI

4. Consciousness is man’s state of It is the capacity of the mind to know and its knowing determines his capacities along all lines. Man may be aware of that which is true or he may develop in his mind a sense of awareness that has the semblance of reality but which is entirely false. The truth or falsity of his estate is, therefore, dependent upon his state of awareness or his consciousness.
5. Consciousness must be that which represents the highest attributes. It must be related to all high attributes. We carry our consciousness to God consciousness wherein we are aware of all things including ourselves in the highest state. That is the state where we see through all conditions and all circumstances. As the Masters say, the veil is then completely removed—the veil that hitherto seemed to exist between the mortal or physical and Spirit. There is no limitation here. The mortal and physical conceptions are abandoned completely for the true
6. This spiritual consciousness does not exclude sense activity. True sense activity is included in the highest consciousness always. Sense activity in its rightful function is true spiritual The senses—so-called—act in a limited manner only when not under the right determining influence. When activated by the Spiritual facts the senses function properly and are then said to be opened.
7. The question is often asked in what state of consciousness is the individual when in Trance is only a partial expression of sense activity. We might just as well carry our consciousness to the true activity or completion always and, when this partial expression becomes one with true activity, we are never in trance and we are never under any destructive hypnotic condition.
8. This same fact applies to what we commonly classify as subdivisions of consciousness. One should not attempt to classify consciousness for it cannot be subdivided. It is ONE consciousness and in that state we cannot think in terms of divisions or separations. The subdivisions are illusions, the same as illusionary trance. They are so subtle that they can be very deceptive to one who is not using higher discrimination. It is so much easier to see it all as One. The subdivisions originated with man. Man saw the subdivisions as attributes when they are really not such at all.
9. The thought of most teachers is possibly for clarity in conveying the message but it is better for them always to make it One thing. Simplicity in the end is always the greatest The trouble with subdivisions is that they are almost always considered as attributes. It is better to keep our eye fixed on One. We get into negative conditions through using the subdivisions. They are nearly always symbolic and most of our symbols represent the subdivisions of consciousness. That is another reason why symbols no longer suffice. It is well known today that we have worked through symbolism. As the Masters say, we are in the pure light of day in consciousness. It becomes far simpler to have that consciousness, the complete Light, as our aim without any subdivisions whatever.
10. Take the matter of eating, digesting, assimilating, and the rebuilding of the body through the conversion of food into energy, muscle, bone, blood, teeth, hair, et cetera. Imagine that you worked out a theory that each one of these is a separate function to be dealt with individually and that you had to determine with each meal just what portion of your food would be handled through each one of these particular functions and just when each would function in turn. How could you escape confusion? The fact is, you recognize it as one process with many phases and each one of these phases is a self-operative process within a single system. In a normal physical state there is not a single phase of the entire system that functions independently but every one of the various phases is but the working out of the single
11. The body is only a symbol of the soul or the man who lives within the body. That is, the body is a symbol of the workings of consciousness. To protect and determine that which enters into consciousness, which is through the control of one’s attention, the entire system of consciousness is self-operative as a single system. There is not conscious, subconscious, superconscious but just one radiant living consciousness of This is the state of complete freedom from symbols and therefore from hypnosis.
12. Some people become so interested in the psychic sense or the lower phases of consciousness that a complete earth life is given over to it to the extent that the true consciousness cannot manifest. The best solution is to simply let go of it and become one with the Whole. This is what Paul inferred when he said, “reckon ye yourself to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God.” The difference is in clear knowing and influenced Clear vision is what clairvoyance intends to convey but the commonly accepted meaning of clairvoyance is partial or clouded viewing—seeing only in part.
13. There can be certain relative phenomena brought into existence through clairvoyance and clairaudience, as practiced, or any of the five divisions of consciousness but they can never be or lead to the Whole. You see, they may become false and under a manifestation of these conditions we may get a false concept completely, which I usually refer to as a negative concept. When we stand one with the whole we cannot be either negative or false. It should be clear knowing of Truth itself. We cannot reach that state of Knowing or that One Consciousness through mediumship or any other form of All are distinctly detrimental to spiritual unfoldment.
14. In that high sense all senses become One. They all become One in perfect coordination. Our senses coordinate absolutely and every part and cell of our bodies coordinate and vibrate in unison. One great trouble with these other conditions is that we are likely to have one member of the body vibrating in the wrong field and then the new cells do not attach themselves properly to the organ to which they belong. Each cell that is created represents the organ to which it will attach itself. If one cell gets out of the vibratory field in which it belongs it may attach itself to the wrong organ and then you have a discordant
15. This discord is often extremely intensified by the various occult methods of concentration upon the physical centers or organs. This practice only superimposes a hypnotic state more definitely into the manifest form and greater confusion results. In the first place, hypnosis is only a function of a partial consciousness, or a specialized consciousness in some particular form or direction. Therefore, the more diversified the field and departmental the consciousness, the more hypnotic it becomes. And to willfully work in subdivisions and phases of consciousness would be the most definitely hypnotic in influence. The attention should always be directed into the whole, into complete oneness, and then the distribution of vibratory energy is carried on through the mechanism of consciousness just as it is in the body. Then there is perfect synchronization or harmony throughout the entire organism.
16. The idea of an inner and an outer consciousness is also a phase of hypnosis for the theory imposes a sense of separation or division. There is in reality not an inner and an outer consciousness nor a personal consciousness and a universal one. When the Self becomes conscious in the outer it is only one attitude of consciousness and it is complete in every way and it is ONE in and with universal consciousness. I and my Father are
17. We are then not conscious of an inner for the inner and outer are one. The whole is always evident. If we see and project our vision or our Ideal, it is for that complete The Masters call that being of “sound mind,” or completely sound in consciousness. It is perfectly sound and whole. The body is perfectly sound and perfectly whole as well. The Knower and the thing known become One. Paul included that in his writings but it was never included in the translations. We can become the known as well as the Knower if we will complete the two and bring them together. The trouble is that we make a separation when in reality none exists.
18. The practice of denial as an effective means of liberation into this perfect state should also be intelligently considered in this light. Denial is supposed to erase from the mind or blot out of consciousness, hence out of man’s being, an experience or process that is not true or that is seemingly opposed to his perfect state of completion or But is the ordinary use of denial as practiced in our metaphysics an efficient means in bringing about this liberation? If the denial, as it is commonly used, produces the desired result, then well and good but, if not, let us find out what is back of it and what is the efficient practice involved.
19. Let us take a specific case of denial in its relationship to what is commonly considered the law of heredity. Denial is in no sense necessary. It has a tendency always to plunge one further into illusion because the denial keeps the mind fixed upon the condition and it is thereby more likely to intensify that condition. The mind naturally enlarges upon that condition toward which it is directed. The purpose is that the condition be eliminated entirely and, in order for this to be brought about, it must be put out of consideration altogether. It is not to be
20. In reality there is no law of heredity. It is only a manifestation. It is not necessary to deny something that does not exist. You will find it far better to put perfection in the place of denial. You will get quicker results. Usually a denial holds it closer to the individual, whereas, by putting Perfection in the place of the denial, you realize that condition far more quickly. And it does not matter what the condition is. It has been shown by repeated experiments that it is far better to simply release the condition. Free it entirely through non-attention. Dismiss it. That was evidently Jesus’ meaning when He said, “loose him and let him ”
21. There is neither race nor family heredity for the one presupposes the other. People may look alike but this is always because of some former close relationship or similarity of past experience and environment. There is an apparent chromosomatic condition that shows processes of evolution running parallel but these processes are not in reality parallel processes or parallel evolutionary conditions. They do, of course, run parallel with the human race as well as with the animal kingdom but not with the same frequency by any means. It is a well known fact today that every frequency of the human body is above that of the animal frequency. The transmission of the acquired characteristics can be influenced through the thought but it can also be set aside through the reversal of
22. It is a state of mind that causes the characteristics of form and similarity in form is due to the similarity of mental and emotional experiences of individuals in a group. Two people, not much alike in the beginning, through long association with each other and enduring the same general mental and emotional reactions ultimately develop similar A man and a woman living together over a period of years, if they have sympathetic interests and mutual emotional reactions, begin to look alike. This is a reproduction of similar mental states.
23. Medical science today is quite reversing its former opinions regarding hereditary When Jesus healed the epileptic the disciples wanted to know whether the man or his parents had sinned. This was His direct answer: “Neither this man nor his parents have sinned, unless you see the sin.” It was only sin because of the thought of the parents or those surrounding him. In reality, the only sin connected with the condition was the sin of erroneous thinking.
24. The so-called law of Karma comes under the same category. It can be proved today that there is no debt of Karma, that the Soul does not bring any of this through. Spiritual understanding takes no account of Karmic conditions or any imperfect condition. It is as foolish as to say that one must correct his mistakes in mathematics before he can study the rule. The fact is that the mistake is erased of itself when one applies himself to the One’s access to the rule is always direct no matter what his mistakes are and once the rule is known and followed there are no false results.
25. The leading and better Universities in India and, particularly, Dr. Bose of Calcutta University are making the statement today that there would be no appearance of what we call heredity if people would drop it out of their thought Even with the plant heredity may be shown but it can be corrected by the thought of the people surrounding that plant.

23. That which is commonly accepted as inherited insanity is only a condition fastened upon the victims by other people. They are in parallel groups. It is an attraction and not an Instead of accepting this theory of heredity, Paul’s idea that we have an inheritance from God that is immutable and cannot be changed should be substituted. This is the effective denial of race heredity—the substitution of the true for the false, leaving the false entirely outside the range of our consideration. God has nothing to do with things that obsess the human mind and we, as sons of God, need not have.
24. Jesus said to call no man on earth your father for one is your Father which is in Heaven. This, then, is man’s true line of inheritance and to get out of his mind these intervening mental processes he has but to return to the foundation fact of his being. In the beginning God created—that is, the beginning of all creation is in God. That does not refer to time but to fact. With nothing in his thought between himself and his beginning there could be no other line of inheritance for nothing would have access to his being from any other source. Thought is always the determining factor and by returning always to his beginning, God, man always inherits through his own mind that which is FROM his
25. In the second chapter of Genesis we have a wrong translation that has done much toward our erroneous idea of sin and the matter of inheritance. It does not mean that man sinned and thereby became mortal and this mortality was handed on down to the rest of us. It did not intend to convey that the sin reversed man’s nature but that the sin itself could have been reversed, that it could have been corrected. At that time it merely meant an error could be corrected. Jesus taught the remission of sin rather than its perpetuation with consequent Mistakes can be REVERSED is the teaching.
26. All the so-called human laws, or mental laws, belong in this category. They are all mistakes in that they do not define the true governing law of the Universe and all things But they can be set aside at any time. They are denied by merely rejecting them in favor of the true law. Bose has proved that conclusively. He states that all so-called laws of heredity are only manifestations brought about by the thoughts of men and can be set completely aside at any time.
27. First, however, we must become one with the Christ Self. It takes a Christ consciousness to set these laws aside just as it takes true knowledge to set aside false This Christ state must first be attained, or unfolded and, once in this state, there is, of course, nothing else.
28. Hypnosis may spring from two conditions, a partial state of consciousness or a false state of consciousness. A partial state of consciousness admits of certain capabilities and one feels limited or unable to go beyond that which his consciousness indicates. All restraint, or the sense of inability to accomplish, is only a state of partial hypnosis. The false state of consciousness is the notion that certain things are true which are not true at This is a state of complete ignorance or reality. It is a mental state built up of impressions that are entirely false, states of consciousness built up regarding something—if it can be so stated—that does not exist at all or, on the other hand, a set of impressions that are entirely false regarding a thing that in itself is entirely true.
29. This might be illustrated with the notion once held by man that the earth is flat. The hypnotic result was that men were held with certain restricted zones of activity, fearing to go beyond these restricted areas lest they should fall off the edges of the earth. That idea seems completely silly now that we know the earth is It was round all the time but the people were as limited in their activity as if the earth itself had actually been flat with a great chasm spreading beyond these edges. Adventurers who had another notion about the earth dared to venture beyond the limitations in which others lived and they sailed out across the chasm without any difficulty so far as they were concerned.
    To them the chasm did not exist nor did it exist in fact. However, the others knew they would fall into it. The manner in which the condition was met was not in overcoming the chasm for there was no such thing. It was simply a matter of sailing out beyond the limitations of opinions and it was found that no actual limitation existed at all. This is exactly the manner in which the Masters meet every situation. “What appears exists not at all,” they say. They are not hypnotized by the opinions held by the race nor conditions as they appear to the race, for they know Reality. Their determination is in the realm of facts and they traverse time and space just as Columbus sailed across the edges of the earth. There were no edges to the earth and there is no time or space to the Master. They are all illusions just as the flat earth with its edges was an illusion.

30. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” as it is translated. In reality He said “Get thee behind me, limitation,” for there is no such thing. He put it out of the range of His consideration and conduct for in his illumined state there were no such things. He saw through the hypnotic spell, the veil in the temple, and lived wholly in
31. In sleep the consciousness becomes completely universal. It becomes Knowing, with all attributes alert. That is why we can often do in our sleep what we cannot do when We submerge it because of our outer activities during the day. We go on in a great hurry during the day so that we become completely exhausted when night comes and our consciousness immediately floods back to the All-knowing condition, though we do not know it. We are not conscious of what is taking place. We should be just as conscious as in our so-called waking condition. Sleep allows that complete consciousness to come into function.
32. That is why psychoanalysis lays such stress on the dream state as being superior to the waking state when used rationally and in its right order. But the two—the sleeping and waking states—should be exactly the same. If we would turn our thoughts to this higher consciousness we would be in that realm always. We would KNOW. The dream is more of a clairvoyant state of a very low order unless we do turn our minds to a higher condition or knowing state. If we do this our dreams are true always and are not something that has not actually happened to us at all. Dreams ordinarily are a mixture of the earthly and the higher experiences. If our thoughts were always of that higher condition, our dreams would correspond. Our days would be concluded the moment we went to sleep.
33. Some times when a man is up against a stone wall, so to speak, due to serious problems which he cannot seem to solve, his state of exhaustion appears to quiet the outer and very often the solution comes through. He has merely carried on the false practices of living until he has contracted his being as far as he can. It is just the same as if he had gone to sleep. The cessation of activity through exhaustion causes his mind to let go of the condition and then the solution came through.
34. The method of relaxation which the Masters use is to let go completely of any outer condition and always project their thoughts to a perfect activity. The physical, emotional, and mental must be stilled by directing the attention
35. The difference between the ordinary dream and a nightmare is that in the nightmare you have the psychic phenomena in evidence becoming connected with an outer activity and always thus permitting anything to come in, the same as in psychism or mesmeric influence. I have seen people hypnotized and they were not themselves at all. They would act like monkeys or go about barking like dogs. This is quite similar to the nightmare.

36. When you are in the nightmare, it is possible to come out of it if you will think of what you would think if you were in the waking stage. A patient has been known to cure himself entirely of extreme cases of nightmare by thinking while experiencing the nightmare, “Just what would I do if I were in the waking state?” He would have accomplished the same result more quickly had he thought what he would do were he in a perfect state of spiritual consciousness and would have raised himself nearer to that If he would ask himself what he would accomplish if he could see directly through to the Spiritual, it would become much simpler and more beneficial because it would be permanent. The breaking up of a nightmare becomes automatic if just before you go to sleep you declare that you are one with perfection. It has no chance to enter when you are in this state.
37. This same practice can be applied equally to the so-called waking state. All negative conditions and difficult problems can be corrected and solved every time by this You will find it very practical to ask yourself, when faced with problems or apparent negative conditions, what you would do if you were in Spiritual Consciousness. Get rid of the complexities of earthly living in this way. It is really just as simple as that.
38. To “be still and know that I am God” covers the case perfectly for that is the completion of it all. And that other phrase, “God is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silent before God and rejoice,” is equally applicable. And again, “In everlasting Joy all things have their ”
39. Joy is the very highest state. It is the exaltation of Soul as physical pleasure is the exaltation of the body. But it is the true emotional state of man, born from his inner release into the truth of his being. It is only when we get out of that condition of Joy and Harmony that we begin to get separated from the Highest. You are going to hear a great deal of that talk in the coming years in all theological It is quite remarkable how that is now being brought about and how this change is manifesting even in the teaching of children to become harmonious and to let the turmoil around them go on as it pleases without becoming a part of it.
40. The moment you train children to react to constructive ideals and band together to promote harmony, developing the mass instinct in this way, you are destroying the very root of all unhappiness, misery, want, and war in the Our past method has been to develop the sense of strife. The moment that someone acted in a manner that aroused any resentment or resistance everyone else began to take on the same attitude and in this way we have been trained to develop the sense of strife. Only by reversing the process and getting back to the true state will we find our perfect social structure coming into the world.

FOR THE TEACHER

Paragraphs 1 and 2. To grow from the present state of awareness of himself as a material being and into the consciousness that he is a spiritual being contains the full secret of man’s attainment. It is a structural change in consciousness that is to be considered, for all the other changes which he has striven to effect are dependent upon it. It is merely a matter of being able to discern the difference between truth and falsity, between right knowledge and ignorance. To be aware of oneself as a spiritual being, offspring of an infinite spiritual system and one with all the powers and capacities within that spiritual system, is the very essence of attainment.

Paragraph 3. An awakened state does not do away with the outer man nor his so-called sense activities. They are lifted up and become outlets for his illumination instead of inlets for limited or false information.

Paragraph 4. Self-control and self-expression is the law of life and not the subjecting of oneself to control by outside forces or even by partial knowledge.

Paragraphs 5,6,7, and 8. The consciousness becomes clouded always in partial actions of the mechanism of awareness. To be only partially aware in any so-called phase of the mind is not complete consciousness. The new psychology recognizes that the mind is and functions as a unit—that it is one process and not made up of many functions and processes. Consciousness is the function of the spiritual man, just as eating, digesting, assimilating are functions of his body, and the physical is but an outward replica of the spiritual. That is why the outer is always called the symbol.

Paragraphs 9 and 10. Pure knowing and pure being are the result of clairvoyance or clear vision, vision which sees through to the spiritual fact as it exists in the Divine Principle. “And he lifted his eyes unto heaven” is the practice that awakens pure vision or clear sight. What is commonly called clairvoyance is but the extension of the physical sense to see the movement of human ideas in the mental or psychic ethers. Only the radiance of Truth itself is the object of clear vision.

Paragraphs 11 and 12. To impose one idea upon the body in substitution for another, or to attempt with the mind to awaken bodily centers, is the most intense form of hypnosis for it is the willful imposition of thought and becomes most binding. Did you ever notice how a living sense of joy functions equally and automatically over your entire being? No part of your being had to be stimulated to that state of joy. Imagine how long it would take you to become joyous if you had to proceed to concentrate upon each part of your body to awaken it to the state of joy and then proceed with each body center in this way until you finally became happy. Mental processes do not produce spirituality nor do they awaken the physical centers. Spiritual awakening immediately pervades the entire being of man and when the I is lifted up the entire man is lifted up with it.

Paragraphs 13 and 14 may be handled as above, with further development if desired.

Paragraphs 15 and 16. Denial is not a matter of dealing directly with negation but is the practice of ignoring it. The first function of the mind is attention and whatever occupies the attention develops through the mental process. Therefore, denial is putting the thing out of the range of consciousness. “Get thee behind me Satan” is putting all negation out of the realm of consideration. It is not even to be dealt with for it is but a shadow. Light is that which dispels the shadow and knowledge dispels ignorance.

Paragraphs 17, 18. 19, 20. All the so-called laws of the material world are only attempts to define the rule of behaviorism in the material system. But matter is not bound in obedience to any such laws but is always escaping beyond the so-called bounds of these laws and obeying something superior. The ultimate governing principle of matter is Spirit for all the Universe is a spiritual system. Heredity, so-called, is not the result of a law at all but is the result of imposition of false states of mind into the process of life. Heredity, so-called, is not a law but the result of counter-action to law. The law of the Spirit of Life is the true governing principle.

Paragraph 21. Karma is likewise the result of counter-action to the law of the spirit of life. The fruits of the law are deliverance, illumination, perfection. Only so long as this law is kept from the individual consciousness is there even a semblance of Karma or the effect of some other influence. Overcoming Karma is not a matter of mastering and overcoming the results of our mistakes but correcting the mistakes. That is brought about through understanding and obeying the true law.

Paragraphs 22, 23 and 24 establish man’s heritage as coming from the One Source, and not from the channels through which he passes. The stream is the flow of water descending from its source, and not the banks between which it flows. It gathers water from its source but only mud from its banks.

Paragraphs 25, 26 and 27. The law of the spirit does not move to punish sin but to release man from the effects of his mistakes. The wrong procedure is to be corrected, not that man is supposed to endure the results of his error. Man’s nature cannot be reversed for he always remains a spiritual being. He can only reverse his notion of himself. Instead of doing this, he should reverse his mistaken idea that he is a material being and retain the truth that he is a spiritual being created in the image and likeness of God.

Paragraphs 28 and 29. All consciousness that is limiting is hypnotic to that degree. Man is a free, omnipotent being, given power and dominion over all things from the beginning.

The only limiting influence is the limitation of his own consciousness. To free the consciousness is to free the man.

Paragraph 30 is the continuation of the same idea.

The balance of the lesson is to emphasize that the important thing is to learn, whether when asleep or awake, to bridge this gap in consciousness wherein dwells all sense of human limitation. So long as we keep ourselves open at any point to anything less than the highest our nature is circumscribed just to that extent. One may just as well receive pure consciousness direct from the Source, as to receive partial knowledge from lesser planes.

Why be always seeking the lesser when the greater is more easily available? Why not train ourselves and our children in the knowledge of realities and let the limitations and ignorance of the world alone?

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