I have long been a student of Science of Mind founder, Ernest Holmes. Over the long span of his career, with writings covering the period of 1918-1960, he has frequently displayed a deeply mystical side to his teachings. However, I recently came across some writings of his that IMHO take that mystical side to a whole new level. That’s what I want to share with you today.
Tiny Bit of Background
I currently serve on the board of the Science of Mind Archives and Library Foundation. I am in the midst of a volunteer project to inventory and categorize a massive amount of material by Holmes. During the span of his career, he wrote books and magazine articles, gave talks and lectures, conducted numerous classes, put together home study courses and recorded radio shows, TV shows and phonography records. The quantity of his output is massive. Our goal through the Archives is to make all of this available to everyone and we are continously releasing new content on the website.
One such item that we put out this past week was a document that combined a 12-part series published in Science of Mind magazine during the period of June 1939 through May 1940 entitled “The God Within You”. Here is a link to the document (requires nominal cost or free with archive membership/subscription).
Outside of the magazine issues, I’m not sure if this was ever published within a book. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has as many of his longer form pieces did find there way into print in the latter half of the last century. Many usually came out as short books listed as being part of the “Miscellaneous Writings of Ernest Holmes” series. However, as of this writing, I have not located any book with this content in it. [If anyone knows if these writings were published in book form, let me know and I will update this here.]
Writing from the Head, Writing from the Heart
In reading the “The God Within You”, one of the things that struck me was the shift in Holmes’ “voice” as he moved through the articles. It reminded me of other writers who in mid-piece change from the explaining of some idea “of the Divine” to expressing some idea “as the Divine”. Some of philosopher Ken Wilber’s work can do this quite nicely. Yes, Wilber is almost the ultimate in intellectual writers, but some of his most beautiful prose is when he makes the shift to writing from the heart. It also reminds me of some of the better writings of Neale Donald Walsch in his “Conversations with God” books where he bounces between “human questioner” to “loving spiritual responder”. Holmes, too, makes such a similar transition so sweetly in this series.
The first seven parts are a good overview of basic concepts of the Science of Mind and New Thought. Such concepts can be quite “heady” or intellectual in their presentation. These parts move through a description of how the life that is within you is God (or Spirit or whatever name you wish to give It) and that this Life has certain aspects to it. These characteristics of God include the Divine Mind, the Law (or creative force) and the Power that comes from our containing such characteristics. It then moves into seeing this Power as an internal “Friend” that is always with you, that serves to maintain your health and to bring you peace. All of this comes with an encouragement to shift our thinking to so as to better use this power in the manifestations of the life we desire.
Then as Holmes moves into the final five sections, on comes the shift in his writing. Immediately we notice that he begins to write from the standpoint of this internal “Friend”. The voice references itself as the “I Am”, a term frequently used in metaphysical writings to represent the “God Within”, the “Christ Consciousness” that we all contain, the Presence in us in “which we live, move and have our being”. As Holmes makes this shift, his writings move from the head to the heart. There is a palpable shift in the focus of the piece from “explaining concepts” to us and into allowing ourselves to feel the Love of the Divine as always there in support of us. The language in the final sections are some of the most beautiful mystical writings of Holmes I have encountered.
At this point, I simply wish to step aside and share some quotes from the final parts of “The God Within You”. I encourage you to get a copy of it and read all of it for yourself!
Mystical Words of Ernest Holmes
“I AM WITHIN you is the Master of your destiny because I create all destinies. But the real Master whom you seek and the Teacher for whom you look, is I Am, the Eternal Presence of your own Self. Thus there is no mediator between you and Myself but your own thought, for Christ, the mediator, is I Am in you. This I Am has been revealed to you in innumerable ways through the inspired writings of the ages. Each inspiration has been a proclamation that I Am is in the midst of you. I Am the writer, the inspirer and the thing written about. I Am, then, the Creator of history, the One who experiences it.”
“I Am your Master, your Teacher, your Friend within you because I Am within you is the only Presence there is. I create innumerable centers of My Consciousness, personified as people, yet I Am is the thread of a unity running through all, binding all back to Myself.”
“I Am then, the Christ dwelling at the center of every soul. Human yet Divine, Infinite yet flowing through that which is apparently finite, unmanifest yet forever manifesting Myself, birthless and deathless yet forever being born, timeless, I Am yet forever creating time. And you, the expression of Myself, appear to be separated from Me merely because you are a unique personification of Myself. For I Am that personality which you are and which all people are.”
“I Am the Power which has bound you to your false belief. I Am the Presence which alone can give you freedom, for bondage and freedom are one and the same thing. I Am, who live in the midst of your being, can project one as easily as the other. Bondage does not bind Me, it merely expresses Me and that which you call your bondage is really My freedom misused. I have come to awaken you from this sense of limitation, to proclaim to you the eternal days of God-abundance. I have come to acquaint your mind with the truth, to convert your soul by reason, inspiration and illumination, to the realization that I Am is all there is, beside which there is none other.”
“The illusion which you suffer and the grief you bear are not because you are separated from Me but because you do not realize that you are forever united with Me, for I Am at the center of your being and being that which you are, I Am forever personifying Myself in you.”
“I Am not little in one place and big in another. I Am not good in one place and evil in another. I Am above big and little, good and evil, just as I transcend time and space, yet I Am in you, creating what you call time and space, sickness and health, happiness and misery, good and evil and when you awake to the realization of that which I Am in the midst of you, from the very substance of impoverishment you will enrich yourself. Sitting in the presence of confusion you will be at peace, where the fires of hell burn not, for they are consumed by a greater passion. They are extinguished by the reversal of your own thought, for “Behold, I Am in the midst of you” creates heaven and hell, condemns and saves, gives birth to Adam and Christ, is the seeker and that which is sought after. Behold, I Am the See-er and the thing seen.”
“I Am the One who projects My imagination upon the screen of your experience and the images of My thought are manifest throughout all creation. Indeed creation is nothing other than an image of My thought. But you are not an image of My thought. You are My thought, for you and I are One, not two. You are My thought personified and through you alone do I, the Timeless, enter into time, I, the Formless take form, I, the Impersonal, become personal.”
“At times you have felt My Presence and been urged on, though blindly. By some divine intuition, by some inner whispering of your soul, by some light upon your path, you have progressed. I Am that light that urge, that whisper, that voice and yet I Am not apart from you, for I Am you and your voice is My voice personified.”
“I Am the love, you are the beloved. I Am the abstract, you are the concrete. I Am the impersonal, you are the personal. There is no you outside Me and yet there are infinite yous, for you as an individual are but one unique manifestation of My Being, because My Being is in all people.”
“I, the Universal Self, multiply my Self-expression countlessly through My individual Selves. The souls of you and of all, the imperishable part of all, are different manifestations, unique expressions of Myself. The understanding of this is the key to the mystery of life which alone may unlock the hidden treasures of My Being, this consciousness of Oneness, this knowledge that the Universal I Am is also the individual I, this recognition that “the highest God and the innermost God is One God.” To know this is to know the Truth which makes you free.”
Blessings,
Mark Gilbert