July, 2005 
It seems as though we were born to be superstitious, because we all inherit the legacy of the entire race mind. Freud, the first man to chart the unconscious, said that neurotic thought patterns will repeat themselves with monotonous regularity throughout life unless they are changed. He was referring to what he called the unconscious and what we call the subjective state of our thought.
While there has been a great deal of controversy about Freud's life and teaching, one thing is certain: It would be impossible to write an adequate book on psychology today without its being profoundly influenced by his discoveries. We are not concerned with his philosophy of life from a spiritual viewpoint, but only with the scientific discoveries that he undoubtedly made and which caused psychological research to be recharted to conform to new patterns.
When Freud said that we are prone to repeat morbid thought patterns he was right. But Jung, his able contemporary, added to this the thought that we are subject to the influence of what he called
the collective unconscious, which means the sum total of all human emotions from time immemorial.
There was a time when theology taught that there was a devil, a hell, a limbo, a purgatory, and a paradise. Because ages on end believed this, it created a pattern in the collective unconscious which influenced everyone. They were born with this idea, and as a matter of fact this theory has never yet been entirely cleared up. There are countless thousands who still adhere to this superstition.
At one time it was thought that it would be impossible to cultivate the desert and waste places, and make them productive. The thought was that it was unnatural, and so it could not be done. But some person had the courage to go ahead and make the attempt, and he was successful because he was complying with the laws of nature.
Common sense and science must be applied to religious and spiritual things as to everything else, for we can no longer monotonously repeat “Thus saith the Lord” because of certain proclamations of some of the early prophets. We must analyze their statements to see whether they are speaking from Divine patterns or from the inertia of human thought patterns which they had unconsciously inherited.
True religion, true science, and true common sense should go hand in hand, together with that other subtle something which is the essence of feeling—that which is beyond words.
It is not always easy in a world of confusion, superstition, and unbelief to maintain an independent position in one’s own thought, a position based on the plain common sense that Jesus had, that Life cannot produce death, that the Universe holds nothing against us, that the gift of Heaven is eternally made but still must be received. Science is helping us to receive this gift. All the comforts and the good that have come to modern life through science are not contradictions of nature, but rather they are affirmations of the limitless resources of life.
The very fact that two blades of grass can be made to grow where only one grew is an affirmation that the Universe Itself did not limit the growth, it waited for someone to perceive its possibility. Poverty will one day be wiped from the face of the earth, not because God will some day decide that He is ready to change conditions, but because man, cooperating with God, with nature, and with law, will proclaim an abundance that already existed.
War will cease, not when God decides this for us, but when enough people know that it is no longer desirable, and steadfastly maintain their position. From communion with Spirit man will come to perceive the deeper Reality, the broader sharing in human experience.
So disease will one day be wiped from the face of the earth as science, sense, and the philosophy of Spiritual Truth take the place of ignorance, superstition, fear, and confusion.
You are a forerunner in this field, breaking down barriers of race consciousness, the accumulated effects of misconceptions, and the morbid fears of the universe in which we live. When science, common sense, and a right philosophy combine, the half-gods will have to go.
There is no point in waiting for this consummation in human affairs, for we cannot change the thought of the whole world overnight. But, fortunately, we can change our reactions to it, and build a strong and impregnable barrier in our own consciousness against everything that denies the Supreme Good.
In actual practice we should daily say: I am not bound by the superstitions of the race. I no longer fear God or the Universe in which I live. I have implicit confidence in the Supreme Good, and I permit It to flow through me and to bless everything I contact.
Little by little there will be added to our own unconscious or subjective reactions a new body of thought, which ultimately will be projected and expanded into the Universal Mind. We shall not only be freeing ourselves but we shall be helping to free the whole human race from the bondage of fear, ignorance, superstition, and thoughts based on what the past has brought forth. The past is dead. •
Excerpted from Living the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes, published by DeVorss and Company.
|
