Negative thoughts attract negative conditions, even if they do not actually create them, and it must be evident that there can be no real happiness until this destructive practice is discontinued;
Every sensible man and woman who has suffered from negative thinking in the form of worry, fear, suspicion or jealously has suffered from some form of bodily discomfort. It is reasonable to suppose then that they have tried to overcome such thoughts as have made such misery-producing consequences in their bodies usually by exercising will-power, and while they in many cases suppressed the external manifestation of their inner emotions, it has been at the cost, all too frequently, of setting up other negative conditions which have been just as injurious as if they had given them free reign.
Will-power has its limitation, hence, when the will would be something of itself, it is like a car with insufficient gas; it can go just so far and no farther. We cannot, for an instance, will ourselves to believe in the sphericity of the globe and thus assert the nothingness of the sunrise, but we can learn that the globe is a sphere, or nearly so, and by so learning we can prove to ourselves that the sphere revolves and the sun stands still. In such a matter the will does not enter at all, unless it is the determination to get at the facts in the case, but it is always this that we must get at if we would arrive at correct conclusions. “Knowledge is Power”, therefore it is the knowledge of our inserverable connection with the Source of all Being that is required, if we would live the affirmative life. The affirmation of Jesus, “I and the Father are one”, established a truth, which when grasped, makes for a power which nothing else in all the world can confer.
As the warmth and light of the sun are one with the sun and inseverable from it, so man in his true relation to the Infinite is one with the Infinite, as effect is one with the cause. This one-ness of man with his Maker is a truth, but unless we know this truth, it will be of little real use to us, for to be a thing and not to be aware of it, is the same as if we were not it.
Looking at ourselves from the standpoint of the material, merely, and knowing no other law than the material, we are subject to it with its penalties of general unhappiness.
The affirmative life requires that we admit, first of all, that anything that is really worthwhile is possible, and secondly that we go to work to prove this fact.
The demand for better conditions of mind, body and possession has not moved God to create a new supply for peace, power and plenty, it has simply opened the door of thought inward, so that man may see that the things he seeks are not external to himself but rather “within” him as God-implanted potentialities, to be worked out through intelligent affirmations of the eternal and demonstratable Good in his own nature.
Paul’s statement, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me,” is positive and scientific for it reveals the Source from which Paul is assured of support. Like his Master he knows that “of himself he can do nothing,” and this is necessary for everyone to know. Without the underlying spiritual substance of things, words and affirmations are like “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals”. The reason why results follow affirmations, when there is no knowledge of the underlying substance which gives them their own power, is due to the fact that this power is employed even when there is no consciousness of its being employed, on the same principle that one will get light by merely touching a button even when he knows nothing at all about electrical science.
Intelligent cooperation with the law is better for it is true mental healing, as it is true of all other things.
W John Murray – Mental Medicine
Every sensible man and woman who has suffered from negative thinking in the form of worry, fear, suspicion or jealously has suffered from some form of bodily discomfort. It is reasonable to suppose then that they have tried to overcome such thoughts as have made such misery-producing consequences in their bodies usually by exercising will-power, and while they in many cases suppressed the external manifestation of their inner emotions, it has been at the cost, all too frequently, of setting up other negative conditions which have been just as injurious as if they had given them free reign.
Will-power has its limitation, hence, when the will would be something of itself, it is like a car with insufficient gas; it can go just so far and no farther. We cannot, for an instance, will ourselves to believe in the sphericity of the globe and thus assert the nothingness of the sunrise, but we can learn that the globe is a sphere, or nearly so, and by so learning we can prove to ourselves that the sphere revolves and the sun stands still. In such a matter the will does not enter at all, unless it is the determination to get at the facts in the case, but it is always this that we must get at if we would arrive at correct conclusions. “Knowledge is Power”, therefore it is the knowledge of our inserverable connection with the Source of all Being that is required, if we would live the affirmative life. The affirmation of Jesus, “I and the Father are one”, established a truth, which when grasped, makes for a power which nothing else in all the world can confer.
As the warmth and light of the sun are one with the sun and inseverable from it, so man in his true relation to the Infinite is one with the Infinite, as effect is one with the cause. This one-ness of man with his Maker is a truth, but unless we know this truth, it will be of little real use to us, for to be a thing and not to be aware of it, is the same as if we were not it.
Looking at ourselves from the standpoint of the material, merely, and knowing no other law than the material, we are subject to it with its penalties of general unhappiness.
The affirmative life requires that we admit, first of all, that anything that is really worthwhile is possible, and secondly that we go to work to prove this fact.
The demand for better conditions of mind, body and possession has not moved God to create a new supply for peace, power and plenty, it has simply opened the door of thought inward, so that man may see that the things he seeks are not external to himself but rather “within” him as God-implanted potentialities, to be worked out through intelligent affirmations of the eternal and demonstratable Good in his own nature.
Paul’s statement, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me,” is positive and scientific for it reveals the Source from which Paul is assured of support. Like his Master he knows that “of himself he can do nothing,” and this is necessary for everyone to know. Without the underlying spiritual substance of things, words and affirmations are like “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals”. The reason why results follow affirmations, when there is no knowledge of the underlying substance which gives them their own power, is due to the fact that this power is employed even when there is no consciousness of its being employed, on the same principle that one will get light by merely touching a button even when he knows nothing at all about electrical science.
Intelligent cooperation with the law is better for it is true mental healing, as it is true of all other things.
W John Murray – Mental Medicine
