Section 10 - Part B:

Getting Ahead in the World 

You have probably realised before now that the purpose of this Course is to lead you into an INSPIRED life. It is the unfailing way by which you can be the things you want to be, possess the things you desire, and achieve the things you wish to achieve.  

There is so much error, ignorance and false knowledge in the human phase of Objective Mind that if you rely solely upon it as a guide to your decisions and actions, you are bound to meet with rebuffs, disappointments and failures. Even if you gather a good measure of possessions and achievements, they bring worries and anxieties which often make you wish that you could return to the simpler life, smaller possessions and fewer worries of happier days. All too often the bread of joy turns to bitter ashes on the lips of those who have won it.  

If your life is inspired by the higher wisdom and your acts are directed by it, not only do you get the things and conditions you desire, but you also get real happiness from them. Your life rounds out into fullness and completion, and you know how to use the things that come to you in such a way as to fill each day with real happiness. 

We have heard much about inspiration, and have often seen the results of it. For instance, we have heard of the inspired writings going to make up the sacred writings of different religions. In particular, we have heard of the inspired writings composing the Old and New Testaments. But until now we have not known what "inspiration" meant. We have supposed that God chose here and there a man or a woman through whom He would give certain truths to the human race. We have been required to accept these supposed inspired writings upon faith, being without any means of checking them up for possible inaccuracies. 

Now we know that instead of God having chosen the occasional man or woman, the occasional man or woman has chosen God. There is no miracle about inspiration. Whenever people have contacted the Source of Inspiration, they have become inspired. These contacts have usually been made more or less by chance, and from this came the belief that the inspired man or woman has been specially chosen as an instrument through which God would express Himself to the millions whose minds were not lighted by inspiration. 

An Example of Inspiration 

One remarkable and well-known instance of inspiration is to be found in the first chapter of the Bible, being the story of the creation of the earth and everything in it. Nobody knows who wrote that first chapter of Genesis. The writer, or some of the subsequent translators, were inaccurate as to time; but otherwise, the story is scientific and correct in detail. The seven "days" period of creation actually ran through many millions of years; and the chances are that the word in the original story which has been translated "day" was a word which meant "period" or "age" 

At the time when the first chapter of Genesis was written there were no such sciences as Geology, Archaeology, Biology, nor any other of the now common "ologies". The writer of the story of creation had no library to which he could refer. There was no human teacher to whom he could go for help or suggestions. His mind was functioning far beyond the last outposts of objective human knowledge, and was dealing with things which no human Objective Mind had ever witnessed, experienced or learned. Nevertheless, he told the story accurately, succinctly, simply, briefly and in proper order. He began at the point just after the earth had been torn from the sun, and when it was still "without form, and void". But he said "the spirit of God moved upon it" (verse 2).  

Beginning at that point he told the story very much as it was discussed in Lesson Seven of this Course. He described the cooled and solidified earth with a surface so smooth that the water completely covered its surface, the separation of the water from the dry land, the creation of vegetable life, the creation of animal life in the water, and the eventual coming forth of some forms of that life as birds, the creation of life on the land and, finally, the creation of man. All of these things he recounted in their proper time and order, just as we now know that they occurred (verses 2-31). 

The brain of the writer of this remarkable account was not touched by the finger of God, so as to equip him for the telling of the story. Nor was the story whispered into his ear by any angelic messenger. Through a course of life and thought which made his brain a perfect fluoroscopic reflection of the Universal Mind, he came into contact with the remembering phase of the Universal Mind, and so came into recollection of the processes of creation. He read the "Akashic Records" out of the Universal Mind, and it was one of the most amazingly accurate readings of all time. He did on a large scale what the automatic writer does when he unconsciously writes about things of which he has no personal knowledge.  

When the writer first saw the story of creation after he had written it, he probably had no recollection of it, and it may be that the bungled retelling of it in the second chapter of Genesis was his conscious objective effort to rationalise it and put it into such a form that the ignorant and superstitious masses of his time could understand it. Or perhaps the retelling of it was the work of other brains and hands. Anyway, the story is correctly and simply told in the first chapter, while the second chapter (including the famous story that Woman was made from one of Man's ribs) contains many errors. 

How to Find Inspiration  

It is not the main purpose of this Course to enable you to look into the remote past and remember everything that has ever happened. The purpose of the Course is to enable you, through methods and means available to everybody, to draw just deeply enough on the hidden wisdom so that you will be "inspired" to do, think and say the things necessary to give you happiness through the fulfilment of your desires.  

I realise that it is not practical for everyone to become a hypnotist or a hypnotic subject. I also realise that not everyone can become a medium. None of these things, however, is necessary. Nature has provided that at least once each day all human beings shall release their hold on the objective world, and drift back through the subjective realm into the creative realm of the Universal Mind. Once in every 24 hours, as a general rule, people drift back through the Realm of Telepathy, the Fountain of Wisdom, the Realm of Error, the dreaming phase and the prison-house of repressed desires, and finally come to rest and recreation in the bosom of God. Life could not long endure constant functioning among the jangling discords and false thinking of the objective realm; and so, the period of rest and repair called "sleep" has been provided.  

Most people in the process of going to sleep pass quickly through these different realms or phases of the Subjective Mind, without much recognition of them. In passing through the dreaming phase they experience fantastic dreams, some fragments of which they may remember after waking, but most of which never rise to objective recollection. In passing through the Fountain of Wisdom they may catch the solution of some problem and see the open road to the life of happiness they would like to live. But this is only a brief experience, and little or none of it is remembered after awakening. People often remember having found the solution to some perplexing problem in this process of going to sleep, but cannot remember what the solution was. Sometimes they work out inventions, compose a beautiful poem, or discern a method of life and action which would bring them abundance and happiness. After they awake, they only remember that they worked out these things; but what they were, they can't remember. We often hear people say: "Oh, I had such a wonderful dream last night, and I would give almost anything if I could remember it; but I can't even remember what it was about." 

Drawing on your Hidden Knowledge  

This same process of going to sleep may be used as a method of drawing upon your hidden knowledge for guidance in life's affairs and problems, so that you do not have to be a hypnotist, nor a medium. In fact, anyone who really and truly wants to get ahead in the world, be somebody, have something, achieve something and be happy, may use this method with assurance that it is even more effective than hypnotism, or mediumship.  

Again, it seems important to say that before you begin to use specific methods and formulae you should first realise that you are part of God. You should clear your mentality of the immoral passions of anger, hate, fear, jealousy and selfishness, and put in their places love, understanding, forgiveness and personal service. Assuming that you have already done this preliminary work, or that you will do it before proceeding further, I will now suggest to you some definite ways, means and formulae.  

In the first place, you should make up your mind to "dig in" just where you are - at least for the present. There is nothing in the idea that there are greener pastures on the other side of the hill. Anyway, the soil which produces greener pastures also produces more thorns, nettles and poisonous weeds. Opportunity is not localised in any particular place. Wherever there are human beings there are opportunities. 

Having made up your mind to stop where you are for the time being, you should next make a list of the things you want, putting the one you want most at the top of the list. Then you should set aside just a few minutes each day for thinking about the thing you want most – really THINKING about it and really WANTING it. Then you should realise that if you are to get that thing you must DO SOMEHING about it, and not sit waiting and hoping that it will fall into your lap. If you are to get it, you must think, say and do certain things, go to certain places and see certain people. But just what shall you think? What shall you do? Whom shall you see? If you had the correct answer to these questions, you would soon have the thing you want.  

You should continue to want, think and plan at every spare moment. You will then begin to tune in on the Fountain of Wisdom for guidance. Of course, in the remembering phase of yourself you know exactly what to think, what to do and whom to see, for in millions of other forms of yourself, both past and present, you have obtained the very thing you want many, many times. Therefore, it is again a problem of digging in this time digging into your own mentality for the necessary wisdom and guidance.

Use the Clock Formula  

I have referred to the clock formulae in previous Lessons. In your bedroom you should have a small rapidly-ticking clock with a clear and distinct tick. The clock should be placed far enough away from your bed so that you will have to pay close attention to it in order to hear its ticking. After you have gone to bed and are ready to go to sleep, you should again think of getting your desire as something to be DONE! Then you should realise that you are part of the one Universal Mind, and in its many individual forms it already has the very thing you want. Now, of course, you already know just what to do in order to get it - if only you could remember. To achieve this, begin repeating slowly and deliberately: "I remember how to do it - I remember how to do it." You should repeat this formula at least 20 times. You might find it helpful to time your repetitions by touching your fingers to your thumb, beginning with the little finger and proceeding to the index finger, which should be touched twice so as to make five repetitions while touching the fingers of one hand. Then you should shift to the other hand and go all over it again. When both hands have been used twice, the statement will have been repeated 20 times, and unless you are then drowsy, you should continue the repetition until you feel sleepy. When you become drowsy, you should stop, turn your attention to the little clock and imagine that it is continuing the repetition for you until you fall asleep.  

Imagining the ticking of the clock to be a repetition of the statement, "I remember how to do it" comes easily and quickly to most people, but a few have to practise a while before they become proficient. The idea is to time the thought so as to let each tick of the clock measure one syllable of it. In any case a little practice will make the clock speak right out with the statement, "I-re-mem-ber-how-to-do-it."  

If you are in a bedroom by yourself it is better actually to whisper the statement 20 times or more before turning attention to the clock; but this is not absolutely essential, and if you do share your bedroom with someone else you may just mentally repeat the statement as you touch your fingers.  

This method prevents the rapid passage of subjective functioning during the process of going to sleep, tending to produce a sufficiently long pause to allow a recollection of the steps to be taken in order to get the thing desired.  

New Ideas Spring into Your  

It should be cautioned that what you desire need not be expected as a present from some magical fairy. It will come in a much happier and more joyous way. You will soon find strange new ideas bobbing up in your mind - new ideas as to the ways of getting the thing you want. What is more, these ideas will seem to be just a part of your normal make-up. You may even have a feeling that you have been through the same experience before, and that you have previously obtained the thing you want by the ways and means occurring to you.  

These ways and means may not seem as easy and speedy as you would have preferred. But if you follow them up by acting upon them, you will find that they are easier and speedier than at first seemed possible. You may be sure that they are the very best ways and means for you to use. 

When you have obtained the first thing on your wanted list, you should go after the second thing in the same way. Or, if you are hardworking and faithful in carrying out these methods, the chances are that when the first thing is well on the way, the plans and prospects for getting the other things will begin to come into view, so that a number of them will be on the way at the same time. To begin with, however, all thought and effort should be centred on getting the one thing at the top of the list.  

Make a Mental Picture 

You should want physical things at close range; that is to say, you should thoroughly familiarise yourself with the physical characteristics of the things you want. If you want a car, you should decide just what kind you want, and then familiarise yourself with its general appearance. You should read and study advertisements and literature about that kind of car, observe them on the roads, and study them in the showrooms. You should practise closing your eyes for a moment and trying mentally to see the car before you.  

If you want a home for the first time, or a new and better one than you already have, you should study plans and pictures of homes. You should attempt to draw floor-plans of the home you desire, putting in all the small built-in details. You should visit places where new homes are being built, and visit desirable building lots that are offered for sale. And so on through the whole list of physical things you may want. This procedure will define and sharpen your desires, and will also gradually give the deeper phases of mind within you a mental image of the thing you want. You may get just about anything and everything you want if you want it badly enough, if you really plan to get it, if it is not in opposition to any natural law, and if you are prepared to pay for it by giving the same amount of service in return. This kind of intense wanting and planning to possess gradually draws on the aid and promptings of the inner wisdom in choosing the right things to do and say in order to get the things you desire.  

Some people can close their eyes and see clear mental pictures of whatever thing they have in mind. This "gift" is a great help in getting things. The making of clear mental pictures helps to drive the message in and to seek the aid of the inner wisdom; it brings forth a recollection of the things that should be said and done in order to get the thing mentally pictured. There is a law of attraction between an intense need of a thing and the thing itself.  

Another general formula which has been used with remarkable results by many Students also involves the use of the rapidly ticking clock in the bedroom. You first make as short a list as possible of the things you would have to do and possess in order to consider yourself "successful". Then after going to bed, you think or whisper: "Day by day, in every way, I am more and more successful." Continue repeating this assertion until you become drowsy, then turn your attention to the clock and go to sleep hearing its ticking say: "I am more and more successful - I am more and more successful." This formula keeps alive the thought of ever-increasing success after all other thoughts have faded out in the process of going to sleep, so isolating the thought of success and complying with the mental law that the isolated idea tends to realise itself in the life and affairs of those who isolate it. 

Take Action Now!  

The trouble is that too many people use this formula, and then stubbornly refuse to follow the suggestions of the inner wisdom that they DO certain things. It has produced such miraculous results for so many people that many mentally and physically lazy people feel that it may be used to get the things they want without any mental or physical work. As a matter of fact, there is no place nor reward for laziness in the whole great scheme of things. The scheme is a pulsating scheme of life and ACTION, in which those who think they can just sit and ask for all the things they want must always be failures until they recognise their errors and mend their ways. If you are willing to be ready and eager to do the things necessary to your success, I suggest that you use this last success formula for a week now and then, just as a general mental stimulant and tonic. 

If you have never achieved much nor accumulated much, I suggest that when you begin to get suggestions from the deeper phases of mind, they will probably relate to the doing of small things, for it will be necessary for you to begin where you are, and go forward from your present situation. These suggestions should be faithfully followed. You should do your best with what you have, with the full assurance that he who is faithful over a few things shall be made ruler over many things (Matt. xxv. 21). 

Too many people idly hope for bigger and better opportunities to do the big things, and neglect and overlook present smaller opportunities to do smaller things. It seems to them that their progress would be too slow and tedious if they began where they are to use their small opportunities. They never realise that they always have as big opportunities as they can use, and that if they will make the most of their small opportunities, larger opportunities will come in due course. In fact, they would be deeply offended if told this truth, and would insist that they could and would use the big opportunities if only luck would give them a chance. So, they fix their gaze on the distant mountain top, without thinking of the present step that leads towards it, and moan about the hard luck which refuses to let them reach the mountain top in one spectacular bound. m-ley don't know and refuse to learn that life is not a game of chance and luck, but a well-ordered sequence of causes and effects in which the fit go forward and grow, and the unfit stand still and decay.  

Advice for Sick People  

In order to have the abundant happiness which every normal human being craves one must have good health. And while this Course is not primarily a study of health and healing, I again want to offer a few words of counsel to those who are physically ill. In this age of medical science healing by metaphysical means is not so important as it was in past ages when nearly all diseases were fatal. But medical science has its limitations and can be greatly supported by practical psychology. 

Those who are ill should ponder the thought that their physical bodies are only shadows of the mental pictures standing behind them after which they are patterned, and that in the mental picture there is no disease nor imperfection. To the extent that their bodies are diseased, to just that extent do they fail to conform to the mental picture in the Universal Mind. There may be any number of past and present reasons for this failure of their bodies to reflect the perfect mental picture according to which they are built. Some of these causes may be physical, but some of them are often mental, and it is certain that the diseased condition can never be permanently cured until the mental causes are removed. It often happens that when the mental condition is remedied the physical causes and conditions magically disappear.  

If you are ill with some complaint, you should, after seeking medical advice, use some positive form of reminding yourself of the abundant health and physical perfection existing in the human pattern of the Universal Mind, and you should try to get that assertion of health and perfection through to the creative and constructive phase of mind.  

Every time you think of your ailment during the day you should mentally say: The real 'I' is perfect in all its parts, and from now on the physical shadow will be in perfect health." At night you should whisper or mentally repeat the same affirmation until you become drowsy, and then go to sleep hearing the ticking of the clock say: "I'm in perfect health - I'm in perfect health." This formula will, during the process of going to sleep, carry the healing suggestion back to the healing phase of the Universal Mind, and an improvement will soon be noted. In some cases there will be quick and complete healing. 

I am not suggesting that anyone should ignore or neglect modern medical science and the healing it can give, but the formula suggested here will greatly aid medical science, and may even succeed after medical science has failed.