TWO METHODS OF MENTAL WORKING.

By FL Rawson
The value of my professional investigation into mental healing is not to prove that all disease is mental - the leading medical authorities are now coming to that conclusion; nor is it to prove that matter appears and disappears in accordance with one's thoughts - the scientific reasons for this are given in my book, Life Understood from a Scientific and Religious Point of View, which is practically my report. Its principal value lies in proving the difference between the right and wrong methods of mental working, as before long all intelligent, open-minded people will be mental workers.
There is a hard-and-fast line drawn between the two methods of mental working, between the right and the wrong method of prayer. Jesus pointed out the difference more than once.

THE RIGHT METHOD
If, when you are mentally working, you are thinking of reality, that is, of God, of heaven - the real world - of the Christ or of the spiritual man, you are helping your patient, yourself and the world. This is "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" **(2 Corinthians 10: 5). No one can tell beforehand what will happen, but, unquestionably, good for everyone concerned always takes place, more or less, according to the clearness and persistence of your thought.

THE WRONG METHOD
If, on the contrary, you are thinking of the material man or the material world - whatever you are thinking about them, unless you are denying their reality, which means denying their permanence - you are harming your patient, harming yourself, and doing no good to the world. Of course, anyone who wills strongly enough, can apparently bring about changes in the material world, but this is not true healing, for when by strong, determined thinking, or will-power, you try to bring about what you think is good, you can neither destroy the evil thoughts nor purify the so-called human mind. The result is that trouble of some kind always returns about three months afterwards. Reliance on Truth and Love, that is, God, alone results in health being manifest, through the mist of matter thinning. The healing then is perfect and permanent, whether of disease, sin, or any of the many troubles that make this world a veritable Hell to so many.

How to Gain a Working Knowledge of God.
When I started my investigation I came to the conclusion that I ought, whenever I had a moment or two to spare, to have something definite to realize, and I made up my mind on these occasions to think of God as Love. Then, when my love towards my fellowman seemed to have advanced more than my knowledge of Truth, I changed this realization to that of God as Truth. Later on, every day I used to think of God in all the main views as Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, cause, intelligence, substance, and Principle, the Principle of good, which includes its idea. I now know that Cause ought not to have been included, as it is a synonym of God, not an aspect, or quality, as the other names are.

Later, I put each of these headings on a separate piece of paper, and then tried to find all the qualities and attributes of God that I could, putting each of them down under what I thought was the proper heading. Each day I went through these, starting by thinking of heaven, and then trying to realize what each one of them meant. At one time I had on a blank bit of paper about forty qualities and attributes that I could not place under the proper heading, and not more than twenty under anyone heading; but, as my knowledge of God grew, so I was able gradually to place each of these qualities and attributes under its proper heading.

I did this every day for over three years. By that time I had over two hundred and twenty qualities and attributes, and it took me about three quarters of an hour each day to go through them. Not only had I then been able to place the whole of the forty qualities and attributes under their proper headings, but whenever I found a new one I could at once place it in its proper place. Finding no new attribute or quality for three months, I took this as the sign that I had worked in this way long enough, and ceased.

I was once told that in treatment I would find the realization of God as Principle most effective. Trying this, so as to see whether the statement was correct, the next day an instantaneous result was obtained by merely losing all thought of the material trouble and simply trying to realize God as Principle as clearly as possible. Proving in this way that God was Principle, the love for God that I had seemed instantly to vanish. As I went on, however, obtaining a better understanding of God, my love for God gradually returned, until, in about three months, I had a far greater love for God than I had ever had before.

Being trained as a scientific man, my method of treatment is what may be called" cut and dried"; that is to say, I rely upon the flat denial of the existence of the evil, with all the insistence at my command, followed by as clear a realization as possible of the exact opposite.