METAPHYSICIANS are frequently asked by students and patients, “What is thought?” This apparently simple question is now, as it has been through all the ages, the unanswered enigma. The ablest minds, the strongest individuals, the most religious men and women of the different stages of the world’s civilization and unfoldment, have grappled with the problem of thought, and tried in some way, through reasoning, thinking, inspiration, deduction, induction, and the various methods employed by man in striving to comprehend a proposition, to reach a satisfactory solution of this greatest of all questions; to satisfy, or in some way appease the longing of the individual (even though the explanation were not sufficient for the world in general) for a partial answer, at least, of “What is thought?”
From the earliest periods of human existence, successively down through the more and more enlightened stratas of human social and mental growth and formation, eddying through such brains as Aristotle, Plato, and the greatest philosophers of the Roman and Greek supremacy; swirling here and there in the current of human unfoldment and enlightenment; retarded for a time by the greatest minds of Germany and France, who tried to stem the tide of the ever-increasing momentum of that unanswered question which seemed to men, at all times and periods, to shield from the race the discovery of the Absolute, it has been transmitted to us. The adepts of ancient India have been struggling with this all-absorbing question for thousands of years, teaching their pupils that thought is the cause of all things. Over some of the temples of Egypt, now in ruins or buried by the sands of centuries, have been found the inscription, “Know thyself,” which was considered the ultimate of all existence. Those fortunate enough to possess the means could, for an exorbitant sum, purchase a little book from the scribes, which merely contained the information that a knowledge of self, obtained through introspection, was all important for the future blessedness of the soul, and should be attained at any cost.
Then we come to the period of the alchemists, those materialists who believed that by melting the baser metals and throwing their thoughts into the crucible, the character of the substance could be changed through the vibrations of the thought put into the molten mass. Science today has discovered that all matter is in reality only an inconceivable number of molecules, vibrating at different rates of speed, attracted and held together by gravitation, by an invisible substance or fluid, or by electricity; that the only difference in the composition of metals is a difference in the rate of the vibration of the molecules, much the same as the difference in colors is thought to be merely a difference in their rate of vibration.
Thus it will be seen that science of the present day is working along the same lines as did the old philosophers who were striving to invent or find the Philosophers’ Stone, or, through the power of thought cast upon the crucible of molten metal, to change the rate of vibration of the molecules, and thereby transform lead and iron and the less valuable substances, into silver and gold, or the precious ones. The universal opinion of that period of mysticism and alchemy was that the thought of love, under certain conditions, would bring about the much desired result— producing gold, which was the seeming ultimate of all human chemical and analytical attainments.
Then, through the long centuries, we come down to the investigators of the present time, and view almost with astonishment the recognition which is given the power of thought in the world of effects today. Doctors, surgeons, scientists, horticulturists—in fact, all of the professional and scientific men—admit that there is a reality, an effect producing power in thought. Physicians tell us to “think pleasant thoughts, laugh and be merry, and forget what ails you as much as you can, and give nature a chance to do her work.” Surgeons have seen tumors vanish like snow on a hot plate, before the touch of the metaphysician. Burbank, the plant wizard, is constantly producing new and ever-changing varieties in plant life through, so he claims, the power of thought—speaking to the plants and caressing and loving them.
But all of these different professions and sciences are merely dealing with effect, and they do not go back of the effect to search for the cause. They employ an effect to produce an effect, and thus all their researches are made in the realm of materiality. Great and wonderful strides have been made in the field of electricity; but electricity is admittedly but an effect of an undiscovered cause, and though men know how to use it and make it serve humanity in thousands of different ways, they do not attempt to give it any other definition than “A power in nature, often styled the electric fluid . . . ,” or some other ambiguous or indefinite nomenclature. Then, after the definition, comes an explanation of what it will do, the uses to which it can be put, or in other words, again enumerating the effects produced by this incomprehensible element.
But in and through all the turmoil of the world’s progress, in the silent hours of the night, often in the midst of a desert—more often in the midst of the city’s busy cares, and hustled along by the surging throng—the metaphysician has quietly gone his way, dealing with the real cause of thought. We say “cause of thought,” for thought itself is an effect and not a cause. Those who have been in the silence of their own souls, or who have been present at a meeting of people who were spiritually minded, have seen the different colors of thought—for thoughts have color —flashed upon the screen of the mind in hazy, colored, cloud-like formations, moving sometimes with the rapidity of the changes of a kaleidoscopic formation. Such observers have seen the colors of the feelings of those about them surge upon the mentality, varying from the deep spiritual purple, through the variation of orange, red, green and the faint shades of the love color, pink. Here were portrayed the multitudinous thoughts, the actions of the minds of others; and yet, the thought seen telepathically, as it were, was but the result of a cause, and was therefore an effect, a creation of a cause.
The metaphysician knows that “thoughts are things,” and at this point we wish to turn to Webster—that practical materialist—and confirm what we believe, teach and know to be the fact. The Unabridged Dictionary makes the following statement: “Thought is a creation of the mind, having a distinct existence from the mind that created it.” In other words, this great thinker recognizes that thought is not a passing shadow, to again be resolved into nothing as soon as created, but is a creation of the mind, “separate and apart” and entirely distinct from it; a thing, a tangible, comprehensible existing formation, capable of being used, utilized and disposed of as man sees fit. Man, therefore, is the dispenser of what he, in thought, creates. He is the creator or master of what he desires. He is his own source of supply and demand—manufacturer, dealer and consumer. If thought is the fashioner of environment, and can man create whatsoever in thought he will, then the conclusion inevitably follows that man is the creator of his environment, or the ruler of his universe.
Knowing this, we also know that there are certain laws which must be complied with in the realm of thought. Students of mind know that the thought thus created is capable of being absorbed by the subconscious mind, and is then a part of the stored up resource of the mind which often acts unbidden. They have recognized, therefore, that it is of the utmost importance to keep the thoughts of the highest character—thoughts which are constructive, upbuilding, uplifting and creative, instead of detrimental, vice inspiring, degenerating, and hence destructive. The habit of thinking rightly is therefore cultivated with all diligence, and when that is once established in the mind, the law of production keeps on producing constructive thoughts, and the subconscious is gradually cleansed of its darkness.
Taking thoughts as things, we at once come to the conclusion that there is a creative power behind them which is not so apparent to us. There is only the one Creative Power —the All-pervading Mind—God! It is, therefore, evident that right thinking is an inspiration, or direct communion with the Universal Mind of God, or, as it might be expressed, a desire in the soul of man to think rightly. This is the highest form of thought—thinking God’s thoughts after him. This might be termed appropriating a part of the everywhere-present Mind, and utilizing and comprehending it—making it manifest to ourselves. This is accomplished when we have stilled the subconscious or mortal thought, and have gained such control over ourselves that we can sit in the absolute silence and desire the One Great Mind to think with us, through us and for us.
To make the explanation more clear, the process might be likened to the condensation of steam. Steam is— so the science of physics tells us—a colorless, invisible substance, imperceptible to the eye of man. What we ordinarily call steam is condensed steam, or particles of water or fog ready to precipitated and assembled in the form of a fluid. God is the Great Invisible Mind—the pure, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, invisible principle of the universe, pervading everything that is. When the mind of man tries to conceive of this Great Mind, the process is much like the passing of steam into the condenser—the impulse or desire of the Great Mind, and which in turn gives an impulse or desire to the lesser mind of man, and we have a semi-liquidation, or thought, which thought, through association, suggestion, or what not, is the cause of a further “liquifaction,” and we have that material form which is described by Webster as a “thing.”
Hence, most of the thoughts we think are the result of a “double-distilled” thought process, the “waters over the face of the universe,” the condensation of the divine essence of thought, or divine impulse, into a thought which causes the upheaval, the recurrence of thoughts which we have heretofore dropped into the subconscious—not the result of a direct connection with divine thought essence, which we receive in all its purity only through going to the fountain head direct.
But man, when he goes into the silence, does not have to let the process go on into the second thought stage. He is entitled, through his divine heritage, to appropriate the original desire of the Infinite Mind, and identify himself with the great ocean of thought which never becomes contaminated by human feeling, thought, emotion, aspirations or ambitions, but which, through the centuries, motionless, unchangeable, lying in perfect poise in, behind and through everything that is, is yearning to be recognized and appropriated and trusted for guidance by its children. Thus man, in the silence, becomes, as it were, a spigot of the great cask of Divine Mind, from which he can appropriate, through a recognition of the all-supply, whatsoever he chooses. In the perfect silence he is a creator—he desires that the Great Mind shall desire through him, and thus he identifies himself with the impulse which creates the thought of the Divine Mind, thereby making an at-one-ment with the source of all creation, not its effects.
This conscious identity with the source, through the silence, is a constant, living denial of the things which retard, hinder and obscure our perception of things divine, which cannot find expression because of the jumbled mass of human thoughts lodged in the subconscious mind. Through this divine affirmation, or recognition of the divine origin of all things, the subconscious and conscious minds are cleansed and purified, and filled with the thoughts which comply with the Divine Law. This is a subconscious and conscious unity with Divine Mind, and the body reflects that which is within; it glows with the light of the inner man; it out-pictures health, happiness, joy, satisfaction in all things, and creates a yearning for the perfection which it knows it had in the beginning. It begins to understand and comprehend its inherent ability to live and express the spiritual nature which is within, and to live through all eternity, as is its right, because of its sonship with the Father of all.
When that relation with the Divine Mind is established, then will man receive first-hand the cause and not the recognition of its effect—the desire of the Almighty, and not the creation of that desire. The unity will be so firm and close that the inspiration of the source will be the thought of the creation, with no intervening obstructions between divine thought and human action. Then will the body be filled with light, and be spiritualized. Then will every need be instantaneously supplied by a thought; then will man be lifted up, even as the “Son of Man” was glorified, and become one with the great Sea of Life, which throbs and thrills, and seeks expression through all that is. Then, acting immediately and directly on the impulse or thought of the Great Mind, each son will perform his work unfalteringly and unwaivingly, and will know that the Great One has spoken to him. Then will be brought about the consummation of all human ideals—the binding together of all humanity by one great tie of love, under the reign of eternal harmony and divine order. Conflicting human interests will be blended into one absorbing desire to serve the whole, and human passions and evil desires will melt away and be forever lost in a great universal holy brotherhood. Then shall man be restored to the Garden of Eden.
Turn not thine eyes upon the backward way.
Let us look forward into sunny days;
Welcome with joyous heart the victory,
Forget what it has cost thee.—Schiller.
One sunbeam shot across a cloudy day
Can brighten all the drear expanse of skies;
One living smile can make a dreary way
A path to paradise.—Clinton Scollard.
The End