It is good to greet you this Sunday morning after our wonderful rain as we gather for an hour of devotion and meditation. I have a subject of particular importance, vital significance, for our meditation this morning, and in one sense it may take more the form of a Class lecture than our usual Sunday morning Service. But it is of such vital importance to each and every one that I wish to consider it with you this morning. And as we recognize that importance in relationship to our spiritual lives, I am sure there will be an opportunity of blessing for each and every one. Let us have a moment of devotion.
Our Gracious Lord and King, we thank Thee for the holy joy we have of letting Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, that we may receive into manifestation the evidences of Thy Kingdom on earth, thAt Thy dominion may be made manifest, and that all who will respond of every race and color and creed may be blessed in this hour and always, to Thy Glory and to the blessing of the children of men. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever, in the Christ. Aum-en.
The Master emphasized many times, in many ways, the importance of the heart or the feeling realm. And there is no statement in holy scripture more significant than His words, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The privilege of seeing God in manifest action on earth is the greatest and highest goal to which any of us may aspire. And to the degree to which we let ourselves be dedicated to that fulfilment on earth, we have the responsibility of letting our hearts become pure.
In recent meditations we have given this subject considerable attention, and in our meditations last evening we had an opportunity to make a new approach to this subject, and there is one aspect of it which has not been adequately realized here, or anywhere. I have given a great deal of meditation to the possible ways by which this particular aspect might be deeply realized in relationship to ourselves. We realize, to start with, that it is necessary that we have the right goal, that we let go of those things which would seem to produce self-aggrandizement, self-satisfaction, those things that are self-centered, and, letting go into the Divine Pattern, permit ourselves to be coordinated in the body of those who are letting themselves come to point in relationship to God, not scattered cells moving this way and that but a unified body through which God can act and be seen in action on earth.
One of the problems we have in relationship to spiritual development comes under the factor of what it takes to turn the individual from his goal, what it takes to cause an individual to go off on a tangent, what it takes to stop forward movement. Whatever it is that has the power to stop the individual in that forward movement is the individual’s god, and a false god, to which he gives allegiance, so that he never comes to the point of truly worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth. Many human beings are subject to a process of being stopped without realizing the fundamental reason. This comes in the range of what we speak of as human weakness, or human failure, to allow the fulfilment which is possible to us an opportunity of manifestation in our lives.
This morning I would like to read to you a little from a certain book. This book is dealing with hypnotism, and I wish to clarify the point as it stands in relationship to hypnotism, so that you can see that what we are doing is the opposite of hypnotism. But when we read and consider that which is basic to hypnotism. I trust we will have a sufficient comprehension of that which is involved so that we can see the contrast and see that which is required of us if we would permit the Divine fulfillment to appear in our lives. In this book we have the basic outline of the approach to hypnotism, or the process of establishing hypnotism. I am going to read only the first few pages in order to form the basis of our meditation this morning. This book is by George H. Esterbrook, and is a text on the subject of hypnotism, an authority on this subject.
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“This unconscious mind is much nearer the surface in some people than in others. While the average reader thinks of hypnotism only in terms of the deepest stage of somnambulism, there are actually many degrees of the trance. Only one person in every five has the unconscious so accessible that the conscious can be correctly unseated and the operator deal directly with the unconscious.” Now, here we are coming into the range of the factors which are of particular importance in our meditation this morning. Now you notice this statement, “This unconscious mind is much nearer the surface in some people than in others.” Now, I would put that another way; “With some people the conscious mind is not nearly as strong as a governing aspect of being as it is in others.”
“Yet we find evidences of true hypnotic phenomena in almost everybody.” Now, there is another factor. To whatever degree any human being is subject to any unreal thing he is in actual fact, whether he likes to face it or not, hypnotized. Every unreal thought pattern, attitude, function in any way whatsoever, is in actual fact a result of hypnotism. Not the ordinary processes of hypnotism perhaps, but it is still hypnotism. Now here we see some very interesting things.
“Susceptibility to hypnosis seems to depend on certain personality traits which we do not know and cannot influence.” Now, I would challenge that statement: “Susceptibility to hypnosis seems to depend on certain personality traits which we do not know and cannot influence.” I say that we do know, and that we can influence, those personality traits. And what is it that fundamentally you are learning here? You are learning how to develop those traits of personality which permit you to remain free from the hypnotic suggestions of the unreal world around you. Every human being who comes out of the outer world pattern and begins to move toward spiritual enlightenment is subject to the hypnotic influence of suggestions that have been firmly established in the subconscious mind by reason of association, experience, teaching etc, and the individual learns to believe these things that have been suggested to him merely on the basis of the fact that they have been suggested, not on the basis of his intelligent conscious mind determining for himself whether or not they are the truth, merely on the basis of the fact that they have been suggested since babyhood.
Every distortion in the human being in relationship to his emotional realm, his mental processes, and virtually all physical conditions have been induced by this pattern of hypnosis which has been brought about by the repeated suggestion of false ideas until these things have produced hallucinations in the individual—he believes things that are not true. He has a concept of things that do not belong to the pattern of his life. And he has not used his conscious mind as the guardian angel with respect to that which is going into his subconscious mind. And wherever the human being is asked to relax the function of the conscious mind in relationship to the operator, or whatever he may be called, reaching into the subconscious and supposedly doing something in the subconscious, you are playing with hypnosis that produces false effects and dangerous, damaging effects.
Here you have found that, every step of the way, your conscious mind has been challenged to think, to actually think, to disregard the prejudices of old, to disregard the concepts that may have been established in you because of various repetitions from, out of the past, various processes of suggestion to which you have been subject, so that your conscious mini may learn to be strong and a true guardian angel of that which enters the subconscious realm. And once you begin to have a strong guardian angel, your conscious mind, you can take care of the hallucinations that remain without all the falderal and fiddle dee dee that many people attempt to utilize in supposedly clearing the subconscious mind. But let us continue. We do know the personality traits and we can influence them, we can develop them.
“In all these early stages of hypnotism we notice a curious lethargy, an unwillingness on the subject's part to exert himself.” Now, I have noticed that in human beings who were supposedly functioning on a perfectly sane and normal basis, but were actually under the hypnotic conviction that they could not do something about certain limitations within themselves, and it was nothing but hypnosis, self-induced or induced by acquiescence to circumstance. “In all these early stages of hypnotism, we notice a curious lethargy, an unwillingness on the subject's part to exert himself. Very frequently, when we dare the subject to open his eyes, bend his arm or stand up, he makes no effort whatsoever.” Now, those are the people that never get anywhere spiritually. They are too easily stopped. They are too quick to say, “I can't. What's the use.”
“If we question him afterward, we find that he heard the challenge, was certain that he could move the muscles in question if he wished to, but he just could not be bothered to try.” Hypnosis, ladies and gentlemen. And once you begin to realize the degree to which you have been subject to hypnosis induced one way or another in your past pattern of life, you begin to see that you have not under that state been a free moral agent, and that it is time to learn to come out from under the hypnotic influences of all these unreal patterns.
That is my business, to help people out of these hypnotic spells into which they have fallen. It can be done. It is quite easily done if the individual wants to. But if he is subject to this lethargy and does not want to be bothered, he will seek to find some other way that he deems to be easier, some idea or concept or belief or pattern of life which will presumably let him do what he wants to do without making the effort to do what he thinks he does not want to do, or thinks he cannot do. He remains a slave to the hypnotic spell that he has received into his own mind and heart from some unreal source.
“This must be listed as one of the earliest and best signs of success in inducing the hypnotic trance.” Notice that. The individual in question could have done something if he had wished to, but he just could not be bothered to try. He was feeling quite comfortable and wished to remain so. Now, is not that a picture of humanity in the general sense? Thoroughly hypnotized with respect to their concepts of their own limitations. They may readily admit they have hallucinations or limitations emotionally or otherwise, but that is the way they are and they want to find a way out that does not require that they exert any effort, that does not require them to stand up and be men and women. And we see it all around us. And it is not all cleared away from some who are within the sound of my voice. Now, that state, that wishy-washy acquiescence, the desire merely to be comfortable, is listed as one of the earliest and best signs of success in inducing the hypnotic trance. Now, did you ever feel that sign working in yourself, moving toward the hypnotic trance of death?
Now, until the conscious mind has become a true guardian angel at the gate of the subconscious mind and heart, it is utterly and absolutely impossible to secure a state of purity of heart. It is not by lessening the force, the stamina, of the conscious mind that we are going to achieve anything lasting and worthwhile. It is by strengthening the conscious mind, teaching it to think, teaching it to be what it ought to be, teaching it to be selective with respect to that which is allowed to control, be visually perceived, heard, felt, vibrationally perceived in feeling, so that there is a selective process at work, a conscious, intelligent, selective process that is carried on, on the basis of the recognition of Truth, the acceptance of an orientation point of Truth, something that is valid, that the human being has recognized as such, and to which he can orient himself in all the procedures of his life.
Until we begin to realize that it is not by trying to go into the subconscious in clearing something out in order to let the individual attain a state of semblance to balance or normality, we are going to be subject to a lot of hallucinations and false concepts and beliefs which make it seem that there is some sort of shortcut to the ideal state, or to the state of self-fulfillment, when such is not the case. There is no shortcut, and anyone who suggests a shortcut is either himself deluded or is deliberately deluding another. It is a delusion and an hallucination. There is no such thing. Millions of people down through the ages have thought they could find a shortcut and have destroyed themselves in the effort. It does not work.
It is true that there is the necessity of a pure heart, but if we are going to have a pure heart there must be a guardian of that heart, there must be a control with respect to what is going into it and what is allowed to come out of it in the positive expression of life. And as long as the conscious mind has not learned to think, has not learned to persevere, has not learned to hold steady in the face of difficulties or opposition or problems that may arise, pressures that may appear, there is going to be a giving way of the guardian angel that simply lets any concept or belief or idea flood down into the subconscious mind. And there will be impurities, mixtures and hallucinations.
It is not, as some have supposed, merely a matter of clearing the subconscious, or the unconscious, or whatever it may be called. It is a matter of establishing a conscious understanding of the Truth and developing those personality characteristics which make for a stable mind that is governed by the Truth, not governed by feelings or beliefs or prejudices, anything that has not passed the test of Truth itself. There can be tests with respect to so-called love that will still allow hallucinations. You can say, “Well, I test everything on the basis of love, or love for God, and if it passes that test it is all right.” Oh no, it is not. You can sincerely and earnestly think you test things on that basis and be subject to delusions. The only test that can be depended upon is the Truth.
As the Master put it, “And ye shall know the truth,” and knowing the Truth with the conscious mind will make you free, free from the controls and influences of the impurities out of the subconscious mind, or subjection to the hypnotic influences of the unreal world around you. One of the most difficult problems we have in ministry is to get people to reach a point where they will admit and face the fact that they have been under this hypnotic spell that has come out of the unreal world, that makes them think that they have such and such a limitation and that they cannot do anything about it, or that produces this lethargic attitude. All they want is to be comfortable and they do not want to be bothered. The comfort of their beliefs and their concepts and their prejudices—they do not want to give it up. It is too comfortable. They have accepted partial hypnosis and they like it.
Now, until a person reaches a point where he does not accept the degree to which he has allowed himself to be hypnotized, until he is ready to reject it, until he is willing to be uncomfortable to change it, we cannot get anywhere. That is why I have emphasized over and over again this point of honesty. The dishonest person will sell his own birthright for a mess of being comfortable with his own concepts and ideas and beliefs and hallucinations. Blessed ones, until we begin to see that every limitation, every hallucination—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually—has a relationship to some hypnotic influence from out of the realm of the unreal, we cannot achieve adequately that which is our goal. And you cannot achieve it by trying to go into the subconscious mind and change it around.
We use spiritual psychiatry, which has for its first purpose the development of the conscious mind in its ability to think, to inspire that conscious mind to a point where it will not accept any idea merely because it is advanced, merely because I say it or anyone else says it. That idea must be subject to the tests of Truth. If it passes, we accept it; if it does not, we reject it, regardless of anything else, regardless of personal comfort or desire, regardless of anything. Because until we are true to the Truth, we certainly cannot be true to God, true to ourselves or to anyone else. And if we accept a limited state of life as an adequate goal, we are betraying God's trust in us, betraying our responsibilities to others.
If any human being decides that he or she wants to work out the pattern of life fulfilment on the basis of his own concepts and beliefs and desires, that individual is on a tangent that leads to nothingness—not to purity of heart but to a state where the heart becomes more and more a quagmire of impurities, until finally all so-called effort to clear it out ceases. The human being decides to be comfortable with his limitations, to accept them, to live with them. Blessed ones, these are the things that must be realized if there is to be the development of stability in mind and heart which permits us to be true instruments for the working of God's spirit on earth: the rejection of the hypnotic influences which we have received from out of the world, the idea that you can't.
One of the worst hypnotic lies that has been projected into the consciousness of man is that God's power cannot manifest today, that the power of God as Jesus Christ revealed it cannot manifest in us. That is an overall hypnotic concept of the devil that has been projected into the consciousness of men and women, and they have accepted it, and it makes them reject the possibility of letting God's power actually manifest in their own lives in any real sense, with respect to healing of body or mind or heart, or the living of life. And one of these hypnotic suggestions that comes out of the world is that if you work to find the fulfilment of yourself, live your own life, do the best you can, be as honest as you can, as sincere as you can, but just finding your own personal fulfilment, that that is a good goal. It is not. It is a lie, a damnable, contemptible lie.
Until we begin to realize that it is only as a unit, as coordinated members of one body, that we can let the power of God work through us, we will be trying to achieve something on an individual basis that cannot be achieved. It is on a basis of true togetherness, true unification, true centering, that we achieve the purpose, so that there is agreement on earth, as the Master emphasized. Then we will find that the power of God is well able to do all things necessary in us and through us.
But remember that until you have reached the point where you have a conscious mind that is ready and able and willing to stand as a strong guardian angel, you cannot achieve your goal. When your mind becomes oriented in the Truth, regardless of what you feel within yourself or around you or anything else, when your mind is ready to stand steady to the Truth regardless of anything—a mind that will not give up, that will not quit, that will not become lethargic, regardless of anything in pressure or uncomfortable situation—then you begin to have a guardian angel which will make it possible to begin the process of purifying your heart. And it will be very easy to do, very simple, not the long, hard, difficult process that so many people imagine that it is.
But trying to do that first is utterly useless, because the impurities will keep coming in as fast or faster than you can clear them out. Once you have the guardian angel of the conscious mind centered in Truth, you have a basis of keeping out that which does not belong in the subconscious, and then the spirit of God can work through you to clear the subconscious mind and heart so that you too may begin to know the joy of having a pure heart and clean hands.
“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” Or as the Master put it, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” They shall see God in action in their own lives and in the lives of others. They shall see God in action in circumstance and environment. They shall see God in action in the affairs of men. And they shall recognize that there is no obstacle, no situation, no condition so great, so difficult, that it cannot be overcome by the power of God at work in the lives of the children of men.
And so we might well ask the question, “What does it take to stop us?”—you, anyone. Give me the point of quitting in any individual and I will tell you how much that individual is worth from the standpoint of the power of God on earth. If he has any quitting point he is not worth very much—that is the point. If he will quit under any pressure of life circumstance he is not worth very much. For it is the individual who has the stamina, the nobility, the dedication that will stand regardless of anything, the individual who has a conscious mind that is oriented to the Truth regardless of what he feels inside himself or around him or somewhere else, who stays true to the Truth. And the Truth makes him free, free of subjection to all these hypnotic spells and influences that are in the world all around us.
Human beings are in the habit of becoming subject to those hypnotic influences. That is the value of advertising. That is the terrible potentiality in television, and it is present in radio, newspapers and everything else. Until you learn to have a guardian angel of a conscious mind that cannot be controlled by anything but the Truth, you are in danger of being subject to the hypnotic spells of the unreal world and you will never be a true, noble man or woman. So let us remember the Master's words, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Then you can begin to share that state of the blessed whose heart is pure, that you may begin to see God here and now on earth.
Our Gracious LORD, I thank Thee for these blessed ones here gathered and for all who are with us in spirit, that all Thy children everywhere may arise as one body and so yield to Thy control in Truth that all the unreal patterns of life may be cast out and that each and every one who so responds may be made free to live the glorious life of liberty, in the Christ. Aum-en.
