Section 8 - Part A:

 The Human Mind 

We have seen that in the beginning there was nothing in the universe but the Creative Intelligence. No suns, no worlds; nothing but the immensities of apparently empty space, with the Universal Mind pulsating through it. In all that vast empty universe there was no human mind, no animal mind, no plant mind — no mind at all but the Universal Creative Mind. 

We have seen that even now the whole universe is filled with the Universal Creative Mind; and yet within that one Universal Mind there seem to be other and smaller minds. John Smith seems to have one mind; Bill Jones seems to have another mind. John's dog seems to have another feebler mind; and the beans growing in Bill's garden, and reaching their full length towards a pole set for them, seem to have still feebler minds. As it was in the beginning, so is it now and ever shall be. There is but one Mind in all the universe, and that one Mind is the Universal Creative Mind; and individual minds, whether human, animal or vegetable, are just so many reactions of different individuals to the radiating force of the one Universal Mind. 

I said in Lesson Seven of this Course that the human brain and nervous system might be compared to a radio receiving set, with the Universal Mind acting as a complex broadcast. If we follow that illustration a little further, we realise that some radio receiving sets are better than others; that some are in good order, and that some are out of order. Some reproduce the distant broadcast with remarkable fidelity, while others whistle, squeak and hum. So, it is with different human minds, except that no human brain and nervous system have yet been evolved that even approach a full and accurate reception of the broadcast of the Universal Mind. However, we are progressing. Each generation, on the average, is a little better tuned than the preceding generation. Now, too, we have come into a knowledge of the ways and means of consciously and intelligently co-operating in our attunement so that from now on men and women who co-operate in this way will run ahead of the masses and become masters of their own destinies and inspired teachers and leaders of men. 

While tuning into the Universal Mind is achieved by the response of the brain and nervous system to the universal broadcast, it may be enormously helped or hindered by the fixed mental attitudes of the individual human being. In other words, our attunement depends largely upon what we think — and how we think it. Certain thoughts and mental attitudes allow us to tune in better, while certain other thoughts and mental attitudes "detune" us. Morality is a science, and not a list of things to be done and not to be done. This science of morality is based upon the fact that certain thoughts and mental attitudes are highly refining and constructive, and that certain other thoughts and mental attitudes are grossly coarsening and destructive.  

The Great Natural Law of Morality  

What little I have said so far about morality may give you a glimpse of the freedom of thought and action which awaits those who come into a knowledge of the great natural law of morality. Those who discover this knowledge will become more or less a law unto themselves and largely make their own moral codes. But do not jump to the conclusion that they will become immoral and debauched, for under the natural law of morality the moral standards are sublimely high, though they are different from the usual standards. This gives much more liberty of thought and action, and brings much greater happiness.  

In Part B of both this Lesson and Lesson Nine the subject of morality will be discussed in more detail, with a view to enabling you to avoid those thoughts and mental attitudes that put you out of tune with the Universal Mind, and to cultivate those thoughts and mental attitudes which put you in tune with it and attract to you everything you desire. For the present we will proceed to a further consideration of the human mind in its different forms.  

While there is only one Mind in all the vast universe, that Mind shows in many different ways. Even in the individual human being it appears in three different ways or phases. First, there is the objective phase of the human mind which at birth knows nothing and remembers nothing. Second, there is the subjective phase of the human mind which at birth possesses an intuitive and deeply buried knowledge and recollection of all that the race has ever learned or experienced. Third, there is the subconscious phase of the human mind which at birth possesses all the wisdom of the Universal Creative Mind that the brain and nervous system can hold.  

This does not mean that these three phases of mind are separated from the Universal Mind and deposited in the human being. It simply means that each human being is like three radio sets built into one single unit in the form of a brain and nervous system, and that each of these three sets is tuned to a different phase of the universal broadcast which we call the Universal Mind. It should be clearly remembered that none of these three phases of mind is confined to the individual. They are all universal in their scope, and the brain and nervous system of the individual are merely the instruments through which they express themselves.  

In the X-ray laboratory there is a plate or panel of material which has within it no power to give off light. It is called a fluoroscope. The X-rays themselves are invisible, but when they are beamed on to the fluoroscope, they cause it to shine with a blue light. So, it is with the Universal Creative Mind and the brain and nervous system of the individual human being. If we let the Universal Mind be compared to the X-rays, and let the individual brain and nervous system be compared to the fluoroscope, we have a fair idea of the working of the mind in the individual. If there were no X-rays the fluoroscope would not shine. If there were no Universal Mind the human brain and nervous system would be dead and mindless. The individual human mind is merely the fluoroscopic reflection of the Universal Creative Mind. 

How the Universal Mind Creates the Human Body  

It is necessary at this point to consider how the Universal Mind creates the human body and builds within it a brain and nervous system through which it works its wonders.  

When the male and female reproductive cells come together, they form a new cell which is something entirely different from what either of them was before they blended together. Before they combine neither of them can take nourishment, nor grow, nor reproduce its kind. They can live for only a brief time, and then they die and disintegrate. Yet when they blend together they form a new kind of cell which the biologist calls an "embryonic cell". This new cell can absorb nourishment from its surroundings, and grow in size. Then it splits into two smaller cells which also absorb nourishment, grow and again split into two cells.

Therefore, the multiplication of new cells is 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and so on by geometrical progression. So, there are soon enormous numbers of cells, all enclosed in a tiny capsule of soft membrane.  

The capsules of new cells so formed are of such material and refinement that they are tuned to the human phase of the Universal Mind. In the human phase of the Universal Mind are two complete sets of plans and specifications for human beings — one set of plans and specifications for male beings, and another set of plans and specifications for female beings. These plans and specifications are definite and detailed; they are in effect mental pictures. Every bone and cartilage, every vein and artery, every organ and nerve, all these things are included in the mental picture to the smallest detail; and these detailed plans and specifications are pulsating through the universe in the human phase of the Universal Mind.  

A Psycho-Plastic Process  

The embryonic cells in the little capsule are so composed and constructed as to be not only tuned to the human phase of the Universal Mind, but also to be psycho-plastic to the mental plans and specifications carried by that phase of the Universal Mind.  

Therefore, in just a few days from the time of conception an examination of the cells in the capsule shows that some of them are changing their form and colour. In one end of the capsule a cluster of the cells is changing to a milky greyish colour. This cluster of grey cells is the beginning of the brain. In a very short- time the grey cells send out a vine or runner, which is the beginning of the spinal cord and the nervous system. Other embryonic cells become liver-cells, lung-cells, kidney-cells, bone-cells, and so on through the formation of all the different kinds of cells of which the human body is composed. So, the new body continues to grow and mature until it is ready to be born into independent life. The whole process, from the union of the two cells to the maturity of the adult body, is a psycho-plastic process by which physical matter is built into the form of the mental plans in the human phase of the Universal Mind.  

Because the Universal Mind is both male and female in its nature, and because it contains mental plans for both the male and female body, for the first six weeks or so of its development the embryo is both male and female, and both sets of sex-organs are equally developed. Then either the male or female phase of the Universal Mind gains the ascendancy, so that one set of sex-organs goes forward in its development, while the other set of sex-organs shrinks into insignificance. Once the sex is determined the new human being is destined to reveal the mentality of the phase of the Universal Mind which gains the ascendancy and determines his sex. The male shows the male phase of the Universal Mind, and the female reveals the female phase of the Universal Mind. The male human mind is an example of the Father-Principle and the female human mind replicates the Mother-Principle. They are each imperfect halves of a perfect whole, and are constantly striving for completion and perfection through marriage and other forms of permanent mating.  

Evolutionary Changes  

The plans and specifications of the human body carried in the human phase of the Universal Mind have gradually undergone evolutionary changes, as human beings gradually improved and evolved into different racial types. This was necessary in order to suit the plans and specifications to the material to be moulded and evolve human bodies adapted to different climatic conditions. These racial differences may be called sub-phases of the human phase of the Universal Mind. The white man is the response of a certain kind of material to one sub-phase. The black man is the response of a slightly different kind of material to another sub-phase; and so on. The fundamental principles of all these phases are the same, however, the only difference being variations of shape and colour.  

Let us again return to the fundamental proposition that there is but one Mind in all the universe, and that what seem to be different minds in different individuals are merely reflections of the one Mind through the brains and nervous systems of those individuals. Let us remember, also, that in the Universal Mind there are many phases and sub-phases. We have seen that three of these phases are revealed in each human being as the Objective Mind, the Subjective Mind, and the Subconscious Mind.

We will now consider these three phases of mind in order, and discuss ways and means of using the powers of each phase so as to get the maximum amount of happiness out of life that is possible to us within the limitations imposed by natural laws. 

In the beginning the Universal Creative Mind had no necessity to reason or to think. It KNEW without thinking, and ACTED without reasoning. It had no individuality. It was merely a Universal Mind - a force without substance. Then it wished to express itself individually, in the forms of suns and planets, and in the myriad forms of life. One of its designs was finally to evolve an individual expression of itself which would be self-conscious, and able to profit from experience, and to use that experience as a basis upon which to reason from cause to effect.  

The Small Beginnings of Reason  

So, in due course it evolved Man, and gave him a brain set in tune with three of its own phases, one of which contained the small beginnings of reason. It also gave him the five physical senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, through the use of which he could sense the other individualised things around him, see their relations to each other, and reason about the things sensed and observed. The power to reason was at first only a very weak spark, just a trifling improvement over the animals, but it gradually grew with use, and gradually built up the frontal portions of the brain which are used in reasoning. In other words, the Universal Mind was seeking self-improvement and self-evolution by assuming individualised and localised forms through which it could experience individual existence and develop the faculty of reason. Incidentally, it DESIRED that these individualised forms should be expressions of itself, and WILLED that they should be so. So, we see desire and will as a part of the mental equipment of every normal human being, and they are urgent motive forces behind all human plans and activities.  

Having equipped the individual human expressions of itself with the power to observe, to reason, to desire and to will, the long forward march began and still continues, with a slow but sure improvement as the centuries roll on.  

Here I must urge you to cultivate these functions of Desire and Will in order to work out your own happiness and success. Make a careful mental list of the things and conditions you desire, placing the one thing or condition you wish the most at the top of the list. Fix your attention on that particular thing or condition you want. This fixation should, as in other instances, exclude every other thought. Then will, with all your power of willing, that the thing or condition you long for shall be your very own. During this process you should hold fast to the realisation that the Subconscious Mind is able to fulfil your desire to the limit. The final step is to assert this certainty by saying: 'The thing or condition I have the wish and the will to have, is waiting to be claimed, and in due course I shall have it". The words of this affirmation need not be literally repeated. All that they imply may be mentally realised in a single flash of thought.  

This is the beginning of real success, real happiness, real progress. Too many human lives are purposeless and drifting. Too many people are just hanging around waiting for something to turn up, with no fixed desire or will to do anything. Nothing worthwhile ever turns up in such purposeless lives; and because they have no honest-to-goodness desire for anything, and consequently no hard-and-fast will to get anything, they never amount to much, never have much and never accomplish much. Don't be afraid to want things, nor to will to get them. Desire and Will are two of your most powerful weapons in winning the fight for happiness; make full use of them.  

The Subjective Mind - a Storehouse of Memories  

The objective or reasoning phase of mind could not always carry a record of the things it sensed and observed. No one could constantly remember all life's experiences and observations. So, it was necessary to provide a storehouse in which these memories could be filed away. The provision of this storehouse brought into play another phase of the Universal Mind known as the subjective phase of mind, or the Subjective Mind. This subjective phase of mind is much deeper and more complex than the objective or reasoning phase of mind, with many important and interesting departments; but just at this moment we are interested in only one of its departments, namely, its storehouse of memories. In this storehouse everything in the way of past experience is preserved. Nothing is ever forgotten - though most things are so carelessly stored that they seem to be lost. 

Years ago, you may have read a story in which you were deeply interested, or listened carefully to a good lecture or speech. Today you can call to mind only the important parts of it. As a matter of fact, however, it is all there in the storehouse of the Subjective Mind – every word of it. If you could remember everything you had ever seen, or heard, or read, or experienced, you would be wise and learned far beyond even the wisest of people. Instead of this happy condition, however, most people have poor memories even for recent things. They have so long jumbled things in the storehouse of memory that even the things that have recently gone into it are mixed and jumbled and not readily available for use. 

The Remembering Phase of the Universal Mind 

There is also a great deal more in the storehouse of memory than the observations and experiences of one individual life; for, remember, it is a part of the human phase of the Universal Mind - the remembering phase - so that it contains the memories of all the things ever observed or experienced by all the human beings who have lived in the world. These racial memories are deeply buried beneath the mass of recollections accumulated during the individual's life; but they are all there in the back rooms and cellars of the storehouse of memory. Ways and means have already been evolved by which at least some of them can be brought into recollection, so as to allow people to know things they have never learned and remember things they have never experienced. There is nothing new in the world; all kinds of "inspiration", in literature, in religion, in music and in art, are just so many instances in which individuals have made chance contacts with this rich store of knowledge and experience contained in the remembering phase of the Universal Mind. When we come to consider definite ways and means of applying these truths so as to set you on your way to a more abundant life, we will give more attention to this wonderful storehouse of memories and to the methods of drawing upon it. Among other benefits, these methods will brighten and sharpen even the dullest memory, so as to make it accurate and active.  

In the subjective phase of mind is also the prison-house in which we lock away unpleasant memories, along with the desires and tendencies that we consider wrong or immoral. These imprisoned memories, desires and tendencies group themselves together to form the various "complexes" of which we have heard so much in recent years; the most common and most harmful of these complexes is the "inferiority complex", which is a deep-lying feeling that one is somehow below the average in talents and ability, and which lays the foundation for ill-advised action, poor judgment, disappointment and failure. In Lesson Four we have given fuller consideration to this prison-house, and to the practical ways and means of liberating its undesirable prisoners, so freeing the mind of much of the vague fear and dread with which many people are plagued. Just at the present time we are merely passing along in a general review of all phases of the mind, so as to complete our general idea of it in its entirety.  

The Evil "Devil Phase" of the Mind  

Before passing on in our brief glimpse of the human mind, we should say that in the subjective phase of mind is also the "Realm of Error", into which the truth has never penetrated, and which is the source of all the false beliefs, superstitions, dark suspicions and hate that have ever afflicted the world. It lies just below the remembering phase of the Subjective Mind, and just above the dreaming phase. Some people may have the idea that the devil is an individual with horns, cloven hoofs and spear-tipped tail, but this picture of a devil in the form of a person is just as erroneous as is the idea of a God in the form of a person. The devil is a part or phase of the Universal Mind which is in every human being, and under certain conditions it appears in human life. It is held in check by the objective or reasoning mind so long as that mind is functioning properly through the frontal portions of the brain, but when that proper functioning is interfered with by alcoholic poisoning, or by disease, the "devil-phase" of the mind begins to crop up.  

The great mass of evil things we think and say about people that are untrue are mere whisperings from the Realm of Error. If these false whisperings could be removed from the mind of the whole race, what a wonderfully different and happier world we would live in! Mutual understanding, confidence and love would take the place of misunderstanding, suspicion and hate. If even the minds of husbands and wives could be freed from these whisperings in their thoughts about each other, divorces and unhappy marriages would be so scarce that the "divorce mills" would close for want of business. As a matter of fact, the Realm of Error shows itself in all human activities, influencing human beliefs and determining human actions. We are constantly acting upon false knowledge and proceeding in accordance with false beliefs. The result is that many people mess up their lives and affairs. How galling is this tendency to error and falsehood! How glorious is the liberty which comes to one who knows the truth! "If ye continue in my word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John viii. 31-32).  

We will now go on still further to consider the human Subconscious Mind and discuss more methods by which you can consciously direct it so as to have the advantage of its wisdom and power in getting more of the things necessary to your happiness.