Saturday, January 29, 2011

Celestine Vision: COUNTDOWN TO THE TWELFTH INSIGHT

http://www.celestinevision.com/



Countdown to the 12th INSIGHT:
The Hour of Decision


http://www.thetwelfthinsight.com/

The whole world is discovering that all mankind is one and that the unity of man is real – not just an abstract idea.

Walter Russell (1871–1963) was an American polymath, known for his achievements in painting, sculpture, architecture, and for his unified theory in physics and cosmogony.
"...I always looked for the Cause behind things and didn't fritter away my time analyzing Effect. All knowledge exists as Cause. It is simple. It is limited to Light of Mind and the electric wave of motion which records God's thinking in matter."

"cosmic consciousness": the vivid sense of the universe as a living presence

Richard Maurice Bucke (1837 –1902), often called Maurice Bucke, was an important Canadian progressive psychiatrist in the late nineteenth century. An adventurer in his youth, he went on to study medicine, practice psychiatry in Ontario, and befriend a number of noted men of letters in Canada, the U.S., and England. In addition to writing and delivering professional papers, Bucke wrote three book-length studies: Man's Moral Nature, Walt Whitman, and – his best known work – Cosmic Consciousness, a classic in the modern study of mystical experience.

Friday, January 28, 2011

“There is Good for me and I ought to have it.”

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth."
Did you reject it as absurdity when you first heard it spoken that visible material objects have, indeed, no reality as matter, but that as spirit is omnipresent their only substance is spirit, and therefore there is no matter? But now you begin to understand it, do you not? This is Christ risen again in you, the hope of glory. Your hope begins to be quickened, does it not? You have an indefinable expectation of something good coming to you from seeing the point, do you not? This expectation will not fail you. Truth never fails to bring something good to the one who recognizes her. Christ is Truth. Did you feel exceeding indignation when the metaphysicians not only insisted upon the unreality of matter, but also declared that all evil performances are only a delusion of the mind?
If you put the idea away and refused positively to entertain it, or consider it at all, then you rolled the stone of unbelief against the place where you hid the idea in your mind.
But the mind is very mysteriously retentive where a truth is concerned. Some day you will find that that idea is as clear as crystal to you. It rises smiling and loving and living as ever. There is not a truth you have ever heard spoken but what it is now milling within you and preparing to appear to you again. This is the nature of Truth. Then there are more intense statements of Truth than that evil is a delusion and matter is non est.
Rev. Michael Terranova
WiseWomanPress.com

All of Emma Curtis Hopkins’s teachings are presented in 12 chapters, or lessons. Her first six lessons always deal with the human personality or ego. The last six lessons always deal with expressing in the world. The first chapter is always “the thing itself,” or God as all there is. The second chapter has to do with denying anything that is not the Truth of God. The third is affirming the Truth. Each succeeding chapter expands on the Truth that God is all. Her progression in the lessons is designed to have us train our personal mind to be the one with the universal Mind of God. http://www.wisewomanpress.com/about_emma.htm Why I was drawn to her after studying ACIM and noticing the similarities.

Michael Terranova is a student of the major religions of the world. He was one of the first spiritual practitioners at the Abundant Life Center in Vancouver, Washington. He holds ministerial degrees from "the “The Teaching of Intuitional Metaphysics” and “The Teaching of the Inner Christ.” He has been a minister since 1979. He was Ordained in 2009 by Rev. Marcia Sutton of the “Christ Church of Co-Creation” where he has studied the works of Emma Curtis Hopkins for over 15 years. He is a member of WiseWoman Press, who publish the works of Emma Curtis Hopkins. http://www.newthoughtcsl.org/node/1041

"Acres of Diamonds"


Russell Herman Conwell (1843 –1925) was an American Baptist minister, orator, philanthropist, lawyer, and writer.

He is best remembered as the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and for his inspirational lecture Acres of Diamonds. "Acres of Diamonds" originated as a speech which Conwell delivered over 6,000 times around the world. It was first published in 1890 by the John Y. Huber Company of Philadelphia.

The theme is developed by an introductory anecdote, told to Conwell by an Arab guide, about a man who wanted to find diamonds so badly that he sold his property and went off in futile search for them; the new owner of his home discovered that a rich diamond mine was located right there on the property.

Conwell elaborated on the theme through examples of success, genius, service, or other virtues involving ordinary Americans contemporary to his audience: "dig in your own back-yard!".

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

"You can change your life by altering your thoughts."



Eric Butterworth (1916-2003)
Popular "Unity" Minister, Author, Philosopher and Lecturer

He had the unique ability to simplify the most complex metaphysical teachings in simple terms of awareness. He was described as "The twentieth century Emerson."


"Go within in a time of silence and get a renewed awareness of God as your resource, and then go about your business affairs in the strong consciousness of the omnipresence of substance."
Born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1916, Eric attended Fresno State University and Capital University in Ohio, where he studied music. He began training for the ministry at Unity Village in Missouri during WWII. He left to join the army and as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps, trained medical personnel and also served as chaplain and counselor. After the war, he returned to his ministerial studies and graduated from Unity Ministerial School.
"Real life isn't made up of great success and great failure, but of an infinite number of levels of living in between. And true greatness depends more on inner overcomings than on outer achievements."
A scholar and educator, Eric established three powerful Unity ministries. Pittsburgh, Detroit and New York City.
"So, no matter what the difficulty, the loss, the financial adversity, if you are feeling negative, get busy pearling. By the "all things work together for good" principle, any experience of life can become the best thing that ever happened to you."
He wrote the book Discover the Power Within You. Eric Butterworth taught that God isn't "up there. He exists inside each one of us, and it's up to us to seek the divine within."
"When you begin to understand this life principle, you will know that there is a wellspring of life, substance, and intelligence within you, and that yours is the privilege at any time of giving way to its flow. This may lead to one of the most important realizations that will ever come to you: If ever there is a lack of any kind, whether it is a need for employment, or for money, or for guidance, or even for healing, something is blocking the flow. And the most effective remedy: Give!"

Autocoder



Went to the TechVibe Recruitment Event at the Waterloo Inn last night. Met knew people and someone I've talked to over the phone but never actually met. It was a nice event. I hope they have more of them.



I was reminded of an assignment years ago. I was working for a consulting firm and got an assignment at an insurance company to re-write a report program in PL1 that had been written in Autocoder. Of course I was their second choice. It seems the 1st choice walked in Monday, looked at the Autocoder manual and left. I went in Tuesday. Actually it was a subprogram called from another module.
There was a little concern as to whether I could do it, which was understandable considering the events from the previous day.





I read the manual, started falling asleep and asked for copies of the reports showing the control breaks. One Team Leader gave me two reports of about 500 pages to browse. The other gave me 4 pages. (She’s the one that became Project Manager when everyone jumped ship).
I verified the control breaks by the headings printed from Autocoder and checked the input file. It was sorted so it was merely writing a report and keeping track of totals. I had to run the missing report on my own but it was easy. So I coded it, tested it, tweaked the report format and implemented.

A few weeks later I got a call. The report wasn’t producing any output. So I went back. I checked the input files , yes there’s input. But no output. Well, after lunch I ran it again and there was output. Why, I didn’t know. The project leader wasn’t impressed. But since I had a few hours she asked me to help a co-op student. So I did. He’d inherited something and showed me what he was doing. I offered a few suggestions about corrections and asked for his specs. They were 1. Save this are. 2. Do this. 3. Restore this area.



Now the thing was he did 1. He did 2. But 3 was missing. And guess who’s program was called after that which ran with no data when 3 wasn’t done.
I was laughing. The project leader was relieved. He went into sales.

Monday, January 24, 2011

If you KNOW what you WANT you can HAVE IT


... man must cast out of himself everything that separates him from God. He must will to live the divine life, and he must rise above all moral temptations; he must forsake every course of action that is not in accord with his highest ideals.
He must reach the right viewpoint, recognizing that God is all, in all, and that there is nothing wrong. He must see that nature, society, government, and industry are perfect in their present stage, and advancing toward completion; and that all men and women everywhere are good and perfect. He must know that all is right with the world, and unite with God for the completion of the perfect work.
It is only as man sees God as the Great Advancing Presence in all, and good in all that he can rise to real greatness. Wallace D. Wattles: The Science Of Being Great[1911]

The mental reservoir of most people is like a leaky dam which we sometimes see in the country, where the greater part of the water flows out without going over the wheel and doing the work of the mill. The habit of mind-wandering, of worrying about this and that,
"Genius, that power which dazzles mortal eyes,
Is oft but Perseverance in disguise."
Many a man would have been a success had he connected his fragmentary efforts. Spasmodic, disconnected attempts, without concentration, uncontrolled by any fixed idea, will never bring success. It is continuity of purpose alone that achieves results. Orison Swett Marden: An Iron Will[1901]

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox.



What we need to do is to acquire a money consciousness. This may seem very material, but the true idea of money is not material--it is spiritual. We need to make our unity with it. We can never do this while we hold it away from us by thinking that we haven't it. Let us change the method and begin to make our unity with supply by daily declaring that all the Power in the Universe is daily bringing to us all that we can use. Feel the presence of supply. Know that it is yours now.

Make yourself feel that you now have, and to you shall be given. Work with yourself until there is nothing in you that doubts. Money can not be kept away from the man who understands that all is Mind, and that Divine Law governs his life.
Ernest S(hurtleff) Holmes: Creative Mind And Success[1919]

Sunday, January 23, 2011

THOUGHT IS POWER!

Recently, at my class, we tried an experiment, old to me, and yet then and there it burst upon my comprehension that in this experiment lay Power.“Five persons were concerned in it. One sat on a stool. Two stood at the side of the person at the knees, two behind the shoulders, all breathed in unison, and all raised their hands together, palms pressing together, all except index fingers closed. As their hands came up the fourth time, the fingers were placed under arms and knees and the person was lifted without any sense of weight. This was also done with a person lying down, and with a table. With a friend, I have lifted a heavy stone thus. I am sure that a few persons, by practice in breathing and moving in unison can in this way practically annihilate, In any given case, the law of gravity.”

The greatest gift that the nineteenth century gave the twentieth, was the demonstration that Thought is a Form of Energy. This is the greatest gift of all the centuries. It is
Man's Greatest Discovery and marks the beginning of the Psychic Era: the Dawn of the Millennium.
Today it is known, among thinkers and investigators, that Thought is Power. It is THE Power that controls all other Power. THOUGHT is POWER!
THOUGHT IS POWER!


Begin now to control SELF manifestations by controlling Thought, and by recognizing that it does the work. As you have used in the past other power, now use this. NEVER BEGIN TO DO A THING UNTIL YOU ARE READY. And you are not ready until, like the engine on the track, you are filled with Power. The hasty, the worried, the fearful, the irritable, the impatient, the doubtful, the fault-finding, are all like the engine that has punctures in the boilers, or has no fire. They are not ready. Get ready by first filling up with Thought. As in the experiment, breathe and think. Consider what to do; think of it; and breathe slowly, with this concentrated thought. All calm, patient, concentrated persons do this. All happy, healthful and successful persons do this. It is the secret of their success. Before they move
to do, they let the Thought fill them possess them. The Suggestion and the Affirmation must have time and opportunity to fill the organism with its power. This done, then this Power, this Thought, does the work. Think and breathe before you act! This is the Law of Power.

MAN'S GREATEST DISCOVERY.HENRY HARRISON BROWN1901





To MY READERS OF 2002.
What to me is Perception, to you is History.
The Century between us will shape into the sense-life of the race that which now has form only in Thought.
In that eternal world where we are one, I greet you.
You understand.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

THE SAYINGS OF LAO TZŬ [1906]


Lionel Giles (1875 - 1958) was a Victorian scholar, translator and the son of British diplomat and sinologist, Herbert Giles. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books. Lionel Giles is most notable for his 1910 translation of The Art of War by Sun Tzu and The Analects of Confucius.


Lionel Giles used the Wade-Giles Romanization method of translation, pioneered by his father, Herbert Giles. Like many Victorian-era sinologists, he was primarily interested in Chinese literature, which Victorians approached as a branch of classics. Victorian sinologists contributed greatly to problems of textual transmission of the classics.


THE SAYINGS OF LAO TZŬ [1906]
“The real value of the Tao Tê Ching lies not in such puerilities, but in its wealth of suggestive hints and pregnant phrases, each containing a world of thought in itself and capable of expansion into volumes.”

Practise inaction, occupy yourself with doing nothing.
Desire not to desire, and you will not value things difficult to obtain.
Learn not to learn, and you will revert to a condition which mankind in general has lost.
Leave all things to take their natural course, and do not interfere.

AMONG mankind, the recognition of beauty as such implies the idea of ugliness, and the recognition of good implies the idea of evil. There is the same mutual relation between existence and non-existence in the matter of creation; between difficulty and ease in the matter of accomplishing; between long and short in the matter of form; between high and low in the matter of elevation; between treble and bass in the matter of musical pitch; between before and after in the matter of priority.

The truest sayings are paradoxical.

Knowledge in harmony is called constant. Constant knowledge is called wisdom. * Increase of life is called felicity. The mind directing the body is called strength. (There must always be a due harmony between mind and body, neither of them being allowed to outstrip the other. Under such circumstances, the mental powers will be constant, invariable, always equally ready for use when called upon. And such a mental condition is what Lao Tzŭ here calls "wisdom")

Emma Curtis Hopkins quoted from the Tao.
The messages of the Tao, ACIM, the Vedas and Zend Avesta are similar.





Stephen Mitchell (b. 1943) is a poet, translator, scholar, anthologist and translator who has focused on drawing forth the central spiritual themes from much of the world's scripture. He is married to author Byron Katie. [http://www.thework.com/index.php]


. . . wishes are like magnifying glasses they enlarge and focus an intention that is already inside us." ~ Stephen Mitchell




He has adapted classics from languages he doesn't know, including Chinese (Tao Te Ching, The Second Book of the Tao), Sanskrit (Bhagavad Gita), and Akkadian or ancient Babylonian (Gilgamesh). His books link together ideas from Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity.

• Tao Te Ching, HarperCollins, 1988, hardcover ISBN 0-06-016001-2, paperback ISBN 0-06-016001-2, ISBN paperback P.S. edition 0-06-114266-2, pocket edition ISBN 0-06-081245-1, illustrated edition ISBN 0-71-121278-3
• The Second Book of the Tao, Penguin Press, 2009, ISBN 1-59-420203-2
• Gilgamesh: A New English Version, Free Press, 2004, ISBN 0-74-326169-0
• Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation, Harmony Books, 2002, ISBN 0-60-981034-0
• Real Power: Business Lessons from the Tao Te Ching (with James A. Autry), Riverhead Books, 1998, ISBN 1-57-322089-2

Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living, and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching looks at the basic predicament of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love; to child rearing, business, and ecology.

Stephen Mitchell’s bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.
http://www.stephenmitchellbooks.com/transAdapt/taoTeChing.html



Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.


Laozi (Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ; Wade–Giles: Lao Tzu; also Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tzu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Laosi, Lao Zi, Laocius, and other variations) was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, and best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching.

Clairvoyance V

Yet more from Quimby on Clairvoyance
Lecture Notes–Booklet V http://www.ppquimby.com/articles/booklet_5.htm
My subject [Lucius Burkmar] was placed in communication with a lady who directed him to her father's house, which he described with particularity, even noticing the closets and doors. And often giving a description of each member of the family, said there was an old lady sitting in the corner, with a pair of spectacles over her eyes and that she was knitting. The lady immediately wrote home and ascertained that at the time named by my subject, there was such an individual present in the room, answering to the description of my subject and that she was also knitting.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

"SUGGESTION" IS THAT WHICH CAUSES A SENSATION OR A THOUGHT.

"A SUGGESTION" IS ANYTHING USED WITH AN UNDERSTANDING OF ITS POWER TO PRODUCE A CERTAIN MENTAL RESULT WHEN ACCEPTED BY ANOTHER PERSON.

Henry Harrison Brown (1840-1918) was one of the elder statesmen of the New Thought movement in the early part of the 20th Century. He taught school; worked for newspapers; lectured in a variety of fields for 17 years and was a Unitarian minister for 7 years. He entered the work of mental healing and teaching in 1893. He thus knew that which he taught in his books.
Books include:


CONCENTRATION: THE ROAD TO SUCCESS.
HOW TO CONTROL FATE THROUGH SUGGESTION
NOT HYPNOTISM, BUT SUGGESTION
MAN'S GREATEST DISCOVERY
SELF-HEALING THROUGH SUGGESTION.
ORIGIN, HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT
DOLLARS WANT ME THE NEW ROAD TO OPULENCE
The Lord's Prayer: A Vision of Today
Success: How Won through Affirmation


Excerpts from
NOT HYPNOTISM, BUT SUGGESTION A Lesson in SOUL CULTURE
-BY HENRY HARRISON BROWN
[1902]

• Each person now, in ignorance of his power and of the laws of mind (and foremost among them is the Law of Suggestion), creates his body and his surroundings without being conscious of so doing, from his choice. Each day's conditions are the result of choices made without knowledge of results. These are common expressions: "If I had known more last year;" "Had I chosen differently;" "Had I forgiven;" "Had I bought or sold, how different my life would be." And one is condemned for his intemperance, his crime, his poverty, or his ignorance, "because he could do better," thus implying a belief, at least in a limited power of choice, and a limited responsibility for the conditions of life. Everyone realizes that his life would be very different today had he made a different decision on certain matters a year ago. Thus do we shape destiny according to our intelligence. This proves the point I wish to emphasize: each one, whether he is conscious of it or not, creates his own conditions of life.

• … some of the advertisements of the teachers and schools where the words, "secret power," "subtle power," and others are used to convey the idea that they have something mysterious and hidden and that the possession of this something will enable its possessor to influence any person to do his will, and will enable a graduate of their school to win everything he wishes in the battle of life. These claims are false. They mislead. NO such power exists. All persons may cultivate and attain all that is claimed for "Hypnotism" and "Personal Magnetism" by a simple application of this Law of Suggestion.

• Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy was, in her early career, a Spiritualist Medium. Dr. Quimby, of Maine, had, from his studies in Suggestion then called "Animal Magnetism," discovered that Disease is a belief. He developed a system of mental treatment. Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Baker, was a patient and a student under Dr. Quimby. This was her start. To the philosophy of Dr. Quimby, she applied an original Biblical interpretation. Rightly does she claim the name of "Christian Science" for the philosophy and Art founded upon her interpretation of the Bible. But she has no claim to originality in the Principle for the beginnings of this stream were, like that of Spiritualism, in the spring of Suggestion. Such movements, resulting in such blessing, affecting every avenue of modern thought and activity, are only prophecies of what shall be when Suggestion is generally understood.

Although this book was written in 1902 it is every bit as relevant NOW as it was then.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Clairvoyance IV

More from Quimby on Clairvoyance
Lecture Notes–Booklet III http://www.ppquimby.com/articles/booklet_3.htm

PPQ
I have frequently alluded to the capacities of mind, acting in its excited state, independent of matter. This can be clearly proved by a subject under the mesmeric influence. The mind is then present with all things and needs only to be directed and the object is before it. Distance and space are nothing, and therefore, no time is required to pass the mind from one object to another.
...


Quack remedies and Placebos

Many times before physicians had confronted the phenomenon of misplaced public trust validated by apparently successful cures. One of the more notable episodes involved a patented device called "Perkins Metallic Tractors." These little pins were advertised as curative for "topical diseases" from gout to rheumatism. Many discerning people, including George Washington, testified that the tractors worked. …

… well into the twentieth century, people continued to purchase extraordinary quantities of worthless nostrums--"Boyd's Batteries" and even "powdered unicorn's horn"--not merely because they were gullibly manipulated by quacks and cheats but because people believed that at least a few of these products, in some sense, really "worked." …

Perkins's Metallic tractors may have been exposed as fraudulent, but the public has repeatedly resisted the cautions of the medical establishment and continued over the years to "discover" the therapeutic power of similar kinds of objects. In this century, "Boyd's Batteries" and similar objects were worn around the neck to improve flagging energy and soothe various aches and pains … http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/emotions/self.html

Still goes on. I’ve seen sacred geometry jewelry demonstrated to work because of dowsing rods.
Not exactly stringent scientific testing.


Getting one’s self into harmony with this universe
We hear a great deal about getting one’s self into harmony with certain forces that are supposed to be moving through this universe.

We are told that there is a secret “flame” in our atmospheric ether which we can extract after a little practice and it will have an astonishing effect upon us.

We are told of elixirs that float and crackle all about us, which only a few on this round ball have ever caught any of, but they have been filled with extraordinary powers.

Those powers really all start from the soul principle in each of us, and it is what we ourselves have generated that we finally inhale as “flame,” “elixir vitae,” or “forces.”
Emma Curtis Hopkins
December 23, 1894

Beliefs are strange things. Is a belief a belief or is it knowledge?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Orison Swett Marden : "We make the world we live in and shape our own environment."


Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924) was an American writer associated with the New Thought Movement. He also held a degree in medicine, and was a successful hotel owner.

Born in New Hampshire, his mother died When he was 3, leaving Orison and his two sisters in the care of their father. When he was seven years old, his father died from injuries incurred while in the woods, and the children were shuttled from one guardian to another, with Orison working as a "hired boy" to earn his keep. Inspired by an early self-help book by the Scottish author Samuel Smiles, which he found in an attic, Marden set out to improve himself and his life circumstances. He persevered in advancing himself and graduated from Boston University in 1871. He later graduated from Harvard with an M.D. in 1881 and an LL.B. degree in 1882. He also studied at the Boston School of Oratory and Andover Theological Seminary.

Marden supported himself during his college years by working in a hotel and afterward by becoming the owner of several hotels and a resort. Financial reverses ended that career, and in 1893, he was again working as a hotel manager, in Chicago, during the time that the World's Columbian Exposition was attracting visitors to that city from all over the world. It was during this period that he began to write down his philosophical ideas, with the goal of inspiring others as he had been inspired by Samuel Smiles.

In addition to Smiles, Marden cited as influences on his thinking the works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom were influential forerunners of what, by the 1890s, was called the New Thought Movement.

Marden's first book, Pushing to the Front, published in 1894, had a phenomenal circulation. In 1897 he founded Success Magazine, which reached the enormous circulation, for that time, of nearly a half-million, meaning of course that it was read by from two to three million readers. This publication ran into financial difficulties and suspended publication in 1912. But once again, 1n 1918, he founded a new Success which was rapidly climing in circulation when death ended his career, in 1924. He was a regular contributor to Elizabeth Towne's New Thought magazine Nautilus during the first two decades of the 20th century.

His book titles express eloquently the outlook of cheerful optimism and confidence. His writings are definitely in the New Thought tradition. Marden believed that our thoughts influence our lives and our life circumstances. He said, "We make the world we live in and shape our own environment." Yet although he is best known for his books on financial success, he always emphasized that this would come as a result of cultivating one's personal development.
Whether consciously or not, Orison Swett Marden was a definite and highly influential figure in the outreach of New Thought ideas into the general culture of his time.


"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.
It is not in your environment;
it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others;
it is in yourself alone."

Taming the Mind.


Emma Curtis Hopkins emphasized taming the mind.

Thomas Troward
emphasized repeating the Lord's Prayer
when our minds wandered from our purpose.



Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.
Give us bread for our needs from day to day.
And forgive us our offences, as we have forgiven our offenders.
And do not let us enter into temptation, but deliver us from evil[1].
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
[1] Mathew(6,9:13) Wrong, wickedness, error.

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.
Give us bread for our needs every day.
And forgive us our sins,
for we have also forgiven all who have offended us.
And do not let us enter into temptation, but deliver us from error[2].
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
[2] Luke(11,2:4) Anything contrary to the Truth.

HOLY BIBLE
From the Ancient Eastern Text
George M. Lamsas's Translations
From the Aramaic of the
Peshitta



Dr. George M. Lamsa
(1892 – 1975) was an Assyrian scholar and author. He was born in Mar Bishu in what is now the extreme east of Turkey. A native Aramaic speaker, he translated the Aramaic Peshitta (literally "straight, simple, sincere or true") into English versions of the Old Testament and New Testament.

From the Mediterranean east into India the Peshitta is still the Bible of preference among Christians, though nearly all who use it speak Arabic,
or one of the tongues of South India.



Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is,
and think about God instead.
The Golden Key to Prayer
by Emmet Fox


Thursday, January 13, 2011

Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg: The Pseudoscience of Mayanism.


Abbé[1] Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814 – 1874) was a noted French writer, ethnographer, historian and archaeologist. He became a specialist in Mesoamerican studies, travelling extensively in the region. His writings, publications, and recovery of historical documents contributed much to knowledge of the region's languages, writing, history and culture, particularly those of the Maya and Aztec. However, his speculations concerning relationships between the ancient Maya and the lost continent of Atlantis inspired Ignatius L. Donnelly and encouraged the pseudo-science[2][3] of Mayanism.



As a youth he went to Ghent in the newly independent Belgian state to study theology and philosophy. He became interested in writing during his studies there, and in 1837 aged 23 he began contributing essays to a Parisian journal. His reputation as a notable young writer and intellectual continued to develop. He transferred his studies and residence to Rome, where in 1845 he was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood, at the age of 30.

In the autumn of 1845 he left Europe bound for the British colony of the Province of Canada, stopping over briefly in Boston on the way. Upon his arrival in Quebec City he began work as a professor of ecclesiastical history at the seminary (the Séminaire de Québec, founded in 1663).

From 1848 to 1863 he travelled extensively as a missionary in many parts of Mexico and Central America. In 1862 while searching through archives at the Royal Academy of History in Madrid for New World materials, he came across an abridged copy of a manuscript which had originally been written by the Spanish cleric Diego de Landa sometime around 1566. His main interest in the document, however, was a section in which de Landa reproduced what he called "an alphabet" of the as-yet undeciphered Maya hieroglyphics, the writing system of the ancient Maya civilization.

Brasseur began to write about Atlantis[4] in Grammaire de la langue quichée (1862). He suggested that the origins of European and Persian words could be traced to indigenous languages of the Americas and that the ancient cultures of the New and Old Worlds had been in constant contact with one another.

The combination of Brasseur de Bourbourg's interests in spiritualism and these speculations about connections between the ancient Maya and Atlantis laid the foundations for Mayanism[2].

In 1869–1870 Brasseur de Bourbourg published his analyses and interpretations of the content of the Troano codex in his work Manuscrit Troano, études sur le système graphique et la langue des Mayas. His his translation would later inspire Augustus Le Plongeon[5] and thus lay the basis for the speculation on the lost continent of Mu. The Name Mu actually goes back to Brasseur de Bourbourg.

In 1871 Brasseur de Bourbourg published his Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, a compendium of literature and sources associated with Mesoamerican studies.

His last article, "Chronologie historique des Mexicains" (1872) refers to the Codex Chimalpopoca and identifies four periods of world cataclysms that began about 10,500 BC and were the result of shifts in the Earth's axis (a concept related to pole shift theory).
His linguistic and archaeological fieldwork, as well as his diligent collection, discovery and republication of source materials, proved to be highly useful for subsequent Mesoamerican researchers and scholars.

The interpretations and theories he advanced mostly proved to be inaccurate.

[1] Abbé (from Latin abbas, in turn from Greek αββας = abbas father, from Aramaic abba) is the French word for abbot.

[2] Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status. Pseudoscience is often characterized by the use of vague, exaggerated or unprovable claims, an over-reliance on confirmation rather than rigorous attempts at refutation, a lack of openness to evaluation by other experts, and a general absence of systematic processes to rationally develop theories.

[3] Mayanism is a term used to refer to a non-codified eclectic collection of New Age beliefs, influenced in part by Pre-Columbian Maya mythology and some folk beliefs of the modern Maya peoples. Adherents of this belief system are not to be confused with Mayanists, scholars who research the historical Maya civilization.

[4] Atlantis (in Greek, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, "island of Atlas") is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias. In Plato's account, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune".
Scholars dispute whether and how much Plato's story or account was inspired by older traditions. Some scholars argue Plato drew upon memories of past events such as the Thera eruption or the Trojan War, while others insist that he took inspiration from contemporary events like the destruction of Helike in 373 BC or the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BC.

"It is only in modern times that people have taken the Atlantis story seriously; no one did so in antiquity". Alan Cameron, “Greek Mythography in the Roman World”, Oxford University Press (2004) p. 124


[5] Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908) was a photographer, antiquarian and amateur archaeologist. He studied the pre-Columbian ruins of America, particularly those of the Maya civilization on the northern Yucatán Peninsula. While his writings contain many eccentric notions that were discredited by later researchers, Le Plongeon left a lasting legacy in his photographs documenting the ancient ruins. He should also be regarded as one of the earliest proponents of Mayanism.

Le Plongeon's theories, an early form of alternative history, survive today in certain New Age beliefs that are derived from occult knowledge and Theosophy.



[6] Mu is the name of a hypothetical continent that allegedly existed in one of Earth's oceans, but disappeared at the dawn of human history.
The concept and the name were proposed by 19th century traveler and writer Augustus Le Plongeon, who claimed that several ancient civilizations, such as those of Egypt and Mesoamerica, were created by refugees from Mu — which he located in the Atlantic Ocean. This concept was popularized and expanded by James Churchward[8], who asserted that Mu was once located in the Pacific.
The existence of Mu was disputed already in Le Plongeon's time.
Today, scientists universally dismiss the concept of Mu (and of other lost continents like Lemuria[7]) as physically impossible, since a continent can neither sink nor be destroyed in the short period of time required by this premise. Moreover, the weight of all archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence is contrary to the claim that the ancient civilizations of the New and Old Worlds stemmed from a common ancestral civilization. Mu is today considered to be a fictional place.

[7] Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical "lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept's 19th century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories of plate tectonics. Although sunken continents do exist — like Zealandia in the Pacific and the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean — there is no known geological formation under the Indian or Pacific Oceans that corresponds to the hypothetical Lemuria.
Though Lemuria is no longer considered a valid scientific hypothesis, it has been adopted by writers involved in the occult, as well as some Tamil writers of India. Accounts of Lemuria differ, but all share a common belief that a continent existed in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as a result of a geological, often cataclysmic, change. There is no scientific evidence to support these claims.

[8] James Churchward (1851-1936) is best known as a British born occult writer.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Troward and Behrend: Healing


HEALING Now the only conception you can have of yourself in the absolute, or unconditioned, is as purely living Spirit, not hampered by conditions of any sort, and therefore not subject to illness; and when this idea is firmly impressed on the sub-conscious mind, it will externalize it. The reason why this process is not always successful at the first attempt is that all our life we have been holding the false belief in sickness as a substantial entity in itself and thus being a primary cause, instead of being merely a negative condition resulting from the absence of a primary cause; and a belief which has become ingrained from childhood cannot be eradicated at a moment's notice. We often find, therefore, that for some time after a treatment there is an improvement in the patient's health, and then the old symptoms return. This is because the new belief in his own creative faculty has not yet had time to penetrate down to the innermost depths of the subconscious mind, but has only partially entered it. Each succeeding treatment strengthens the subconscious mind in its hold of the new belief until at last a permanent cure is effected. This is the method of self-treatment based on the patient's own knowledge of the law of his being.

Our ordinary conception of ourselves is that of an individual personality which ends where another personality begins, in other words that the two personalities are entirely separate. This is an error. There is no such hard and fast line of demarcation between personalities, and the boundaries between one and another can be increased or reduced in rigidity according to will, in fact they may be temporarily removed so completely that, for the time being, the two personalities become merged into one.


THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE
THOMAS TROWARD
(1909)


The practitioner should have firmly fixed in mind the fact that there is but one mind and but one expression of this one mind although it fills all space with its numberless manifestations. This awareness removes the line of demarcation between patient and healer.

If one hopes to be of any help to a patient one must not give treatment for disease. That would surely intensify the disease! In giving a spiritual treatment the practitioner should utterly dismiss all thoughts of disease and of personality from the mind. To hold the thought on disease would mean MORE disease. Rather the healer should mentally see Life whole, free, at peace and in harmony through the power of the Radiant Christ within.

... Thought is unbelievably fast in its transmission and can span the earth instantly; and it does not lose any of its power in the transmission! In giving an absent treatment the healer should be positive that the thought sent forth reaches the recipient now and with infinite power.

In the Absolute the ONLY time there is the eternal now. To it there is no past; nor is there any future. To it there is only the present. if the practitioner holds the thought that the patient "will be all right," it will always be "will be" for the patient because the healer is postponing the healing until some future time, and there is no future known to the Spirit, as I have said. Did Jesus ever say to any of those who were healed by Him: "You will be healed. Arise and go"? No, not ever. Always He spoke to them in the present tense; always He told them something to this effect: "You ARE WHOLE! Go in Peace!"
HOW TO LIVE LIFE AND LOVE IT
Genevieve Behrend

How To Be and Have What You Want.

First, you should endeavor to learn to be as near the perfect reflection of your own idea of God as possible, in thought and action. It may seem impossible at first thought, to even approach such a goal, but reflection upon the thought that God made you out of Himself, because He wished to see and feel Himself in you, will help you to persevere. When you first began to learn to read, no doubt you felt in your childish way that it would be wonderful to read as well as the grown-ups could; you kept on trying and then you read. Perhaps you have a big desire which you would give your life to have fulfilled. In reality it is only necessary for you to give a few moments each day to earnest effort, in getting into the spirit of this idea of God and living in it every waking hour. Then endeavor to find the Spiritual Prototype for your desire. By this I mean inhibit all thought of the physical side of your desire.If you desire a true companion, close your mind entirely to all personality and physical being, and dwell in thought and feeling on the spirit of love and true comradeship, without reference to any physical person. The person is the instrument through which these particular qualities manifest, and not the qualities themselves, as we often learn too late.