The progress made in teaching in the last fifty years is a worthwhile accomplishment in human endeavor. The pupil no longer tries to follow the long and tedious task of learning verbatim the thousands of books in history, civics, etc., but he is learning to associate needed facts with other correlated material. S/he is being prepared to associate with other people, maintaining better relations or at least a more tolerant mental attitude about their views than fifteen years ago upon leaving college.

The question of what is the process of study or learning is that each person is an individual and has their own profound understanding of how each can absorb the new knowledge, if one does really absorb anything at all and if anyone really understands what the learning process is, in this wonderful Mind of ours, or is it my personal mind? Perhaps it is ours; perhaps it is your mind and my mind and the God’s together. The subject of learning is deep and profound and it leaves room for erroneous moves -- because we, our neighbors, the community and the country are going to live with the result of our acts and mistakes.

Some might say it is a modern trend of things in general, but when one stops to think about learning it might be the methods have been changed -- which are methods of communication -- of the students, but really have the natural processes changed? Do we and our thinking function basically differ from that of fifteen years ago? Does our psychic part of the brain have a new and modern process, or is it the same as that of the Master Jesus when he was here? Did he have a better mind than you have, or was there something he did that we have not been taught to do? How was it that a twelve years of age, he knew things he had not been taught by anyone? He played as a child at games only, but with adult thinking. Perhaps there is something the dogmatist did not want us to learn - why?

We will speak of this later, but the prime function of association of objects and things is the same basic principle there as it was in primitive man -- although we have in this age, with an awakened psychic consciousness, a more evident function of this facility and thus do not rely on memory and just the things we have read or studied, whether we are conscious of it or not. These correlative methods of obtaining knowledge are most closely related to the true form of our nature and mean that which will function in accord with the Law of the vehicle we are now using -- this body and brain.

Varied and diverse reasons may be assigned to the basic cause for this improvement. In part it may be attributed to better facilities and better teaching material; better equipment is being used, also teaching is now no longer a "sissy" job but is respected socially, if not financially. The teacher is certainly not going to get rich on the present day income but as a whole we believe it is followed by those who love to teach and love people.

Let us say here that a student cannot go through school, even now, without working for it. There are many things which one could attribute to the consciousness necessary to have adequate communication between the teacher and student, for there must be a distinct consciousness on a certain level of exchange between these two in order that there be a good communication on the academic level of the projected material of any subject.

Taking all of these into consideration, we personally believe that back of all is a function and law of psychic force, and that other body which science has not fully accepted -- the Psychic Body of Man -- needs a great deal of study and observation on the part of our scientist, in all branches of science which may be related to our species. Although the ancients have for thousands of years accepted and taught its function with regard to health and the acquiring of knowledge through its function, modern people know little of this, the same as people know little of God or why God is here.

Let us see if we can discover it, this Law of control. At the commencement of the semester in school in autumn, the good student will observe that it usually takes some time, maybe ten days or so, before beign able to prepare any lessons to complete satisfaction. In fact, they seem anything but a part of oneself -- they are foreign to the whole personality -- there is not the least blending between the two. Even though one may make a good record in class, one knows one has been repeating information one has gathered -- not presenting knowledge which one has made a part of one's self. In a short time the blending begins -- lessons are more easily mastered and one has entered into friendly relationships with foreign surroundings and acquaintances. Would you say this is a natural result of careful study, and that is all? If a natural result, there must be a cause -- a Law. Within that law there may be volumes that ought to be lodged in our consciousness to make it an automatic part of ourselves.

Right here another fact is to be noted, that is, that orderly students have fixed hours each day in which to prepare each lesson. This is not a thing for study alone, but also for prayer which has been done for many ages past by many great sages. If we were to ask this or that one why he selected one hour for study as against some other hour, he probably would say he did not know the reason -- he would say he began the term that way and kept it up. Each student would feel that the plan he is following is best for him and this is undoubtedly so.

We talk too much about unconscious mental action. Even some of our writers do not seem to recognize that subconscious mental action is anything but unconscious action. It brings to us the highest intuitive knowledge. To distinguish between conscious and subconscious thought is to take a long step toward the attainment of the wisdom of the ancients. The student, in selecting the hour for the preparation of lessons, is usually directed by subconscious thought action. S/he always is, when s/he finds that hour especially congenial for the particular work assigned him. The psychic Law, we are trying to tell you embraces within itself both time and method, which in reality is form (meaning shape or pattern).

The pattern or shape is the procedure and idea, of how the student accepts that s/he is able to study, how the studying will be most easily done to relate the subject to him or her, for they are people of a distinct experience which no one else has ever had or ever will have, for they would have to become him or her. Therefore, his or hers are unusual experiences and they are unusual people, in that they are this particular reflection of the Great Creative Force now reflecting Itself in matter at this time, in this particular way. It is God reflecting in their experience.

In some cases the selection of the hour or time for work on any particular study may not be of serious importance. If the student comes to work with a heaviness, as though wearied before s/he starts, not much of anything can be of help, for s/he is tired. Best sit quietly, sit passive and accept strength and peace and harmony with the Universe first.

When refreshed and back to normal, no longer weary, then place in the mind the question as to the hour one should select for the task of studying assignments. Of course, it is necessary to first get one's self really quiet and then the steps are as follows:

1. Sit relaxed and at ease, not thinking of the next thing you are going to do when yoy have accomplished this, and you are not ready until you have released all physical feeling as much as possible.

2. Then ask your question and be sure you make it clear to yourself what question you are asking yourself -- do not slough it off as a thing you are already conscious of, just because you are asking the Higher Intelligence within (whom you probably have not consciously contacted before). Make the question clear.

3. Then take a clear clean mental cloth and wipes off your mind, so you have no thought or impressions left of anything. Then sit quietly, patiently, and the answer will come to you.

The hour selected rightly, let us remember that the Attainment of Knowledge is not a cramming process. We are not trying to learn how to use what is in books -- but what is already in the Universal Mind, there, here, everywhere. In other words, what we read will stimulate and bring to the surface the wisdom from within, from the Universal pool of wisdom and information in the Great Mind.

If the student has not been an investigator into the science of the seen and unseen, then I would suggest that one try this science of the Universe -- try this method and see that it works for your self. It would take more space here to adequately explain it and many of its ramifications than I have allotted to the entire book. But this little rule will work as it is.

There is one point to be clarified here: when you are reading any book of this nature, which relates to the person and progression, whenever you come across the word development, remember it is not development you seek but the unfolding of your memory: thus it is unfoldment. It is the unifying of one’s self with the basic force of the Universe. We are not talking about some great power or deity in some far off place.

We are talking of the basic power of everything -- the you, the me, the force of creation made manifest in and through the life force; the force behind the atom, and the thing that causes the atom bomb to be so destructive. Then, are you going to say, "God did this?" No, not the way you are thinking, but it was the power of God, released by us in a certain direction, which wreaks so much havoc, just as in so many other things we use the wrong thing or the wrong way, or we get ourselves in the way by not listening to the whole truth, and wants to have our own way.

No one adds a new power to mind, but simply brings to active realization the latent powers one has always possessed. Remember, this does not require you to be a saint, or wear a long white beard and long white robe. It does not mean that if you successfully use it and are successful in your experiment with this intelligence that you have become a Disciple of the Great Master, Jesus, or on that level of development. You can use it and still be the meanest person in town; it has nothing to do with whether you are good or bad, only you cannot be indifferent and use it.

Learning of the Power you posses is not a dry and uninteresting task. Far from it -- it is an exciting adventure. It is the new frontier for most people. It is a frontier of boundless, unlimited horizons with a new and beautiful world which was created many eons ago by the Great Creative Mind, God -- or whatever you wish to call it.

Let me repeat correctly, it is a frontier of boundaries unknown, with boundless opportunities unlimited horizons with a new and beautiful world. Let us stop here a moment. Why is it new and beautiful, this world; has it all changed? No, it has not changed at all, but perhaps your eyes have been opened and you now see it as it really is, see it with a new color and dimension. Also, maybe you are getting a glimpse of the real world that most people do not see.

Now let us proceed with the rest of the statement, "which was created many eons ago by the Great Creative Mind" -- was it eons ago or was it yesterday? Men get to be so important when they think of God.

Thirty years ago, if I had said, "I will have dinner in London with you tonight," your reply would have been, "Just who do you think you are? You know I cannot, it is too far." But you see, our concept of distance has changed, as well as time, for we can have dinner in London that same night.

It is true that time and space are a concept of ours. Time especially is a man-made concept; therefore, maybe it was only created yesterday and in the beautiful world that we are living in and moving through today.

First the student, by such work creates and cultivates an atmosphere of attractiveness and force, which will draw others.

Virgil, in The Huntress of the Sun, in mythology, expands imagination, linking mortals to immortals. The philosopher Cicero’s periods bewilder him with their masterly brilliance. He finds himself mentally watching for something beyond the petty seeking for the meaning of words and their grammatical relationship to each other. This puts our mind in condition to receive the vibrations from the either or memory of nature, which is in harmony with the atmosphere which the person has created, and personally accepted to bring the things s/he desired in his/ her life. The storehouse of nature and God possesses wealths of experience -- the student is seeking and possibly adding some concept thereto, thereby the expanding Universe, the ever moving Way.

However, let us leave the deeper facts for now. To point to the delight in study is what is promised. The student has selected the time to begin the work and understands that change is to be made as to those allotments. Next the studnet is to drop all thoughts of learning difficult tasks, or self-sacrifice about it -- giving these hours to the unfoldment of the power within. The creative act, wrongly called "work", is now the means of communication with the real selfhood, the real you. Its vibrative force is not at first known, but is soon conscious of its far reachingness, recognizing it to be infinite force. Instead of learning the lesson, all nature seems to have come to one's aid and one becomes absorbed in it -- not memorizing it.

The task above is not one of introducing a foreign substance into the receptacle called Mind. Now this absorbed information has become an integral part of self hood. One cannot lose it, and though memory has been a function to aid in grasping, the possibility of forgetting is not enable for an instant. Such an absorption of a lesson occasionally comes to any student without consciousness of it. But if the physical law of the atmosphere and vibration (fixed hours held solely for the special work and study each day are primary requisites) is kept faithfully, such an absorption or assimilation will delight the student and bring to him the joyousness of intelligent unfoldment; these times of effort were formerly many hours of toil.

Remember what Kahil Gibran said in his book The Prophet: "Your ears know in silence the secret of the days and nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart’s knowledge. You would know in words that which you have always known in thought. You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams."

Even after a successful period of procuring the knowledge on one subject, when you turn to the next one do not falter or fear, for the memory of nature is without depth, and all that is -- is there.

With true unfoldment of your real Self and real recognition of this mental unfoldment which this method will soon bring forth, there can be no possible lodgment of fears, for any fear which exists at the start must soon leave. Can you possibly realize and have proven to you that you are a part of the infinite Mind, and still fear the material world about you when in reality you see with your physical eyes so little?

Remember one thing, there are seven days a week, and when you are unfolding your inner intelligence the constant every repetition of this procedure is necessary, until it has become a part of your common functional mentality and you have become fully aware. Then you can turn to it whenever and wherever you might be -- in your study, or walking down the street. Do this seven days a week, so that you will get this pattern into your atmosphere, for the vibration of what you put into your atmosphere is what is going to make it possible for what is going to come out into your life. This will bring to your the oneness of life, your oneness with the Creator of all life -- wisdom of all things -- for of yourself you do nothing.

Contents | Chapter 5