The Spiritual Meaning of Freedom

Ever since the dawn of civilization, ever since the first humans began to grasp the significant fact that they were individual beings in a universe that seemed to be more or less hostile to them, the entire search of the human mind, its whole endeavor, has been to get free from evil, from bondage and the shackles of lack, want, fear, superstition, uncertainty, pain, disease, poverty and fear of the hereafter.

And because of this, human systems exist — organized philosophies spring up, sciences develop, educational systems are conducted, collective security is sought after and religions are formulated to allay the fear of humankind relative to the soul.
The great demand in the world today is for a sense of security, freedom and liberty. But we must be certain that we do not swap one image of bondage for another. …
We desire freedom. We do not like evil, we do not like pain, we do not like poverty, we do not like unhappiness. Why should we? None of us likes to go to bed and worry all night. God does not impose it on us. Why do we do it? Because we sense freedom, we sense liberty, we sense God, yet out here in the objective world we experience limitation. …
If we want freedom, we must understand that freedom can never come by the imposition of a will of the minority over the majority. It is born finally — and only is such degree as some system is devised whereby individuals are allowed complete freedom so long as they do not, in their freedom, impose bondage on someone else.
I believe that the true spirit of democracy is a spiritual conception where there is freedom, liberty without license and a flexibility that makes evolution possible on the foundation of freedom.

— From a talk given by Dr. Ernest Holmes on July 4, 1937, excerpted from the July 2018 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine.