The Process of thought

The process of thought, if people consider it all, is generally believed to be a purely private matter having a momentary bearing on themselves alone. They are apt to be completely unaware of the complicate ramifications and consequences of even the most seemingly insignificant thoughts formed in their minds

Thought force is the most powerful means of obtaining knowledge. If it is concentrated upon a subject, it will burn its way through any obstacle and solve the problem. If the requisite amount of thought force is brought to bear, there is nothing that is beyond power of human comprehension. So long as we scatter it, thought force is of little use to us, but as soon as we are prepared to take the trouble necessary to harness it, all knowledge is ours. Since thought is our principal power, we must learn to have absolute control of it, so that what we produce is not illusion induced by outside conditions, but true imagination generate by the spirit form within.

We speak of thoughts as being conceived by the mind, but just as both father and mother are necessary in the generation of a child, so also are both idea and mind necessary before a thought can be conceived. Ideas are generated by a human ego in the spirit-substance of the inner worlds. This idea is projected upon the receptive mind, giving birth to a thought. Thus when each idea clothes itself in a form made of mind-stuff, it is then a thought, as visible to the inner vision of a sufficiently developed clairvoyant as a child is to its parent. Thus we see that ideas are embryonic thoughts, nuclei of spirit-substance from the inner worlds. Improperly conceived in a diseased mind they become vagaries and delusions, but when gestated in a sound mind and formed into rational thoughts they are the basis of all material, moral, and mental progress.

To illustrate the importance of thought, let us mention that all that is in this world which has been made by the hand of man is crystalliesed thought: the chairs upon which we sit, the houses in which we live, the various conveniences we use all these were once a thought in the mind of man. If it had not been fro that thought, the thing would never have appeared. In similar manner, the trees, flowers, mountains, and seas are the crystallized thought forms of the nature forces.

In this world we are compelled to investigate and study a thing before we know about it. However, occult investigators who have been able to function in one of the spiritual worlds, called the World of Thought, find that is different there. When we wish to know about any particular thing there, we turn our attention to it and the thing speaks to us, as it were. The sound it emits at once gives a luminous comprehensive of every phase of its nature. We attain to a realization of its past history; the whole story of its unfoldment is laid bare and we seem to have lived through all of those experiences together with the thing we are investigating. All this information, however, flows in upon us with enormous rapidity in a moment, so that it has neither beginning nor end.

Many people contend that we have a right to think what we will, and that wicked thoughts, if not translated into wicked deeds, are not harmful. This is far from true, and the power of wicked thoughts, just as the power of good and beneficent thoughts, is great indeed. Through the course of centuries, for instance, man’s evil thoughts of fear and hatred crystallize into what we know as bacilli. The bacilli of infectious disease are particularly the embodiments of fear and hate, and, therefore, they are also vanquished by the opposite force – courage. If we enter the presence of a person infected with contagious disease in fear and trembling, we must assuredly draw to ourselves the poisonous microbes. If, on the other had, we approach that person in a perfectly fearless attitude; we shall escape the infection, particularly if we are prompted by love.

If a tuning fork I struck and another tuning form of the same pitch is in the vicinity, the second once will ring in concert with the first. Likewise, when we thing a thought and another person in our environment has been thinking along the same line, our thoughts coalesce with his and strengthen him for good or evil, according to the nature of the thought.

If we always think right, we shall always act right No man can think love to his fellow men, or can scheme about how to help them spiritualty, mentally, or physically without also acting out these thoughts. If we cultivate such thoughts, we shall soon find sunshine spreading around us; we shall find that people will meet us in the same spirit that we send out. If, we see meanness and smallness in the people whom we meet, it would be well to ascertain if we ourselves are not causing such qualities to emanate from us. The man who is mean and small himself radiates these qualities and whoever he meets will appear mean to him because his thoughts will have caused something of identical pitch in the other person to vibrate.

On the other hand, if we cultivate a serene attitude and thoughts that are free from covetousness and are frankly honest and helpful, we shall call out the best in other people. Therefore let us realise that it is not until we have cultivated the better qualities in ourselves that we can expect to find them in others. We are thus most certainly responsible for our thoughts. We are indeed our brothers keepers, for as we think when we meet them, so do we appear to them and they reflect our attitude. If we want to obtain help to cultivate better qualities, then let us seek the company of people who are already good, for their attitude of mind will be of immense help to us in calling forth our own finer qualities.