CHAPTER V

Mind Consciousness

The third stage in human unfolding is Mind Consciousness, which is the stage that follows sense conscious­ness. It is the stage represented by world geniuses.

The average man considers geniuses to be specially born. They are not specially born, however. They are like other men except that they are farther unfolded spiritually. Mind Consciousness has always belonged to man since the beginning. The human race does not acquire new qualities. It reveals existent ones as it un­folds. Nothing is ever added to man from without. What­ever man becomes, physically, intellectually or spiritually, unfolds from within. Even after millions of years of his unfolding, all that appears was in the first cells of his beginning. Nature does not evolve. It eternally unfolds and refolds.

All idea is eternally existent. The man-idea is a part of the One Whole Idea of Creation. It is complete as IDEA but its manifestation in time and space is divided into timed recordings in space. Likewise, all knowledge exists in the Soul-seed of all mankind. The genius dis­covers this fact from much aloneness--much meditation--much communion with Nature. He discovers that knowledge comes in flashes of inspiration as he desires it. When he expresses his desire by inner thinking it unfolds within his Consciousness, and he recognizes it. He realizes that he has always known it.

The genius knows that knowledge is limited to un­changing cause and cannot be acquired through fleeting effects of ever-changing matter, unless translated back to cause by inner thinking. Effects of motion are observed by the senses but the senses cannot acquire knowledge. The senses can record and repeat effects but cannot know that which they record and repeat. Knowing, therefore, that knowledge is a quality of Mind only, and cannot be sensed, and also knowing that creative energy has its existence in Mind only, geniuses acquire power to command material bodies from within their own Conscious­ness. The more they become aware of their own centering Consciousness, from which their knowledge and power is extended, the more they become aware of their divinity and Oneness with God. Increasing God-awareness gradu­ally brings the ecstasy of the God-Mind and full aware­ness that God is forever working with them, as they work with Him to give masterliness to their creations. Works thus created endure forever. No work of man is enduring unless created in the ecstasy of God-awareness which char­acterizes all geniuses. All works of man, which are but the recordings and repeatings of sensed observations and memories, are but transient and fleeting. God is not in them. Man's senses alone are in them. They are Soulless. They do not inspire, for inspiration is not in them.

Men who have reached that high state of Conscious­ness know their destiny from early childhood. They are in full control of their destiny and would not compromise for all the wealth in the world. Once they have found the treasures of heaven within themselves they would die penniless rather than sully their creations. To them it would be an exchange of immortality for a mirage.

Every genius is aware of his exalted position as a divinely inspired messenger to those who are seeking the Light. Those thousands whom he inspires are exalted to greater and still greater heights. The human race is thus enriched by each inspired messenger to man who speaks to man in God's inspired language. It is through such messengers that culture comes into the world to slowly uplift it to its higher stages. As culture increases in man his ability to become inspired multiplies. The ascension of any man to great heights is dependent upon his ability to become reinspired by the inspired messages brought to him by world geniuses. Mind multiplies his power to uplift mankind to higher cultural levels when he is engaged in peaceful pursuits which promote friend­liness. When he is engaged in warlike pursuits and unfair business practices which promote enmities, human prog­ress ceases. It reverses toward decadence.

An increasing number of geniuses have come into the world since the beginning of the 14th century, but their number has not exceeded one hundred during the six centuries of world progress which so suddenly ended in the year of 1914. When the world becomes decadent it crucifies genius. Lack of recognition and patronage prevents genius from giving its priceless treasures to the world. In addition many lose all opportunity of enriching the world by being compelled to kill men instead of serve them. The measure in which inspiration is with­drawn from men is the measure in which spiritual de­cadence takes whole civilizations back toward their pri­macy.

God will work with men who desire to work with Him, but He will not work for men beyond their own desire. Decadence is more conspicuous in the great masses who have not advanced to the point where they have the slightest awareness of that spiritual state of Mind which inspiration is. There are countless millions of these un­inspired, unillumined human units who are still deeply barbarian.

There are many, many thousands, however, who have developed the inner vision and the inner ears, which in­spiration unfolds in every man. These many thousands are the fruit of the few who have made them inwardly see and hear those concepts of imaginings, and the voices which arise from Nature's silences, that are beyond the range of physical perception. These are the ones who will save the race, if it is to be saved, but their numbers are one to one thousand, or even less. They are the few cul­tured ones who love a symphony concert and would suffer at a prize fight, against the countless thousands who love the prize fight, and would suffer at a symphony concert. These are the ones who are keeping the Christian spirit alive in the world by leading man in the direction of the kingdom of heaven, which man may find only through inner inspired thinking.

Inner thinking men seek aloneness in the forests and far reaches in Nature, away from the noises of man's activities. They thus insulate themselves from their own body desires and from all sounds which are not the rhythmic pulsations of Nature. Such aloneness leads to deep meditation and silent prayer. Aloneness invites close communion with God. He who thus seeks God will find Him. He will know Him by seeing His Light with inner vision, hearing His Voice coming out of Nature's silences in the rhythms of its heartbeat, and feeling the ecstasy of His love nature upon which His universe is based. In such great aloneness of man with God, all that is evil in primate man disappears into its own dark.

The great masters could not possibly interpret God's rhythmic language if even the slightest trace of evil touched their thinking. Likewise, no man can listen with his Soul to the rhythmic symphonies of the great masters and think evil while so listening. Herein lies the great power of music in conserving and multiplying the Chris­tian spirit among men. Music is the greatest of all the powers used by man to bring about the state of Universal Brotherhood, which is primarily essential for a Chris­tian civilization. Painting is the next great power for in­ducing inspiration which leads to inner thinking.

These statements are so liable to challenge by the un­thinking, that it is necessary to recall that painting and music, such as we know them in our day, were unknown until the 12th and 15th centuries respectively. The spir­itual nature of either music or painting could not unfold while the memory and love of bloodshed was so strong in the race that the greatest pleasures of its men, women and children, were gladiatorial killings and the rending of humans by lions.

Inner spiritual thinking had begun during the Hel­lenic age and evidenced its effect in the beauty of archi­tecture and sculpture, but by the time Jesus was born there had been four hundred years of decadence in which bloodshed became the greatest pleasure. While the hu­man race was in such a primate stage it could not com­prehend God's rhythmic language. His cosmic language could only be comprehended and interpreted by those who were seeking the kingdom of heaven by inner spirit­ual thinking. This stage of human unfolding had never been reached until Leonardo and Raphael gave the world their interpretations of Nature's rhythms in the art of painting.

Perhaps it has not occurred to humanity at large that Leonardo and Raphael were the strongest force in re­awakening the Christian spirit. The Church of that day spoke to men in a language which had no meaning to them. They had no opportunity for comprehension, for Latin words conveyed no meaning to them whatsoever. Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and many others spoke to the people of that day in God's language of color rhythms and forms which they did understand. Even the most lowly peasant could understand The Last Supper, or the Madonna and Child interpretations of numerous followers of Leonardo. Jesus became alive and real to them. The apostles and other figures, which to them were holy, rose before their eyes and filled them with a new hope. Every home became a religious shrine. Jesus and their blessed Virgin were in their very presence. Religious fervor rose to great heights as a reality in those days of seeming hopelessness. Paintings gave reality to their re­ligion.

The spirit of man unfolded to some extent, even though religion was more emotional and ritual than wor­ship. Pagan legend and superstition joined their powers with ignorant man's love of the supernatural to retard its growth. Spiritual man grew, however, against even that resistance, for even religious emotionalism led to desire, and desire for closer contact with God led to prayer, and prayer induced inner thinking. The words of the spiritual teachers of that day were full of fear and evil. The spirit­ual words of the divine messengers who spoke to people in form, color and electrical rhythms, had no fear or evil in them. Fear and evil have no existence in Nature.

It is impossible to estimate the value of painting and music to the spiritual unfoldment of man. When one realizes that less than one hundred men transformed thousands upon thousands of barbarian stage men into the realms of spiritual consciousness, it should help one to realize the value of every genius to the world. One Bee­thoven or one Leonardo is worth more in material value to mankind than the value of all the gold and real estate in the world, yet mankind crucifies genius today as he crucified Love 2,000 years ago. It is imperative that you more fully understand why there is such an incalculable power in the masterpieces of world-geniuses to transform men from sensuality to spirituality. It is equally impera­tive that you fully understand what is meant by "God's language", which you know as inspiration.

All down through man's long ages God has spoken to man. His Silent Voice spoke to him first as instinct, then as intuition, and then by inspiration. Inspiration is the language of rhythms which the genius as fully under­stands as other people understand the language of words. The final, or ultimate means of communication between man and God is the language of Light that comes to Christ Conscious man. Chap. VII--Christ Consciousness, further describes this final stage of unfolding.

World geniuses who talk to God through inspiration hear only the rhythms of Nature. These rhythms are in harmony with the universal heartbeat. They are the one-two rhythms of the electric pulsations of God's thinking. They are in tune with every action-reaction of Nature. That is what is meant by being "in tune with the In­finite". There are no unbalanced or split rhythms in spiritual Nature, such as those which sensual man makes, use of for body excitation. The rhythms and attunement of falling waters, or the whisperings of soft winds in meadows, or the mighty pounding of the surf on seashore sands are in tune with the inbreathings-outbreathings of this planet or the beating of every living heart in the uni­verse. These are the rhythms which the great masters in­terpret to uplift and inspire to spiritual ecstasy. These rhythms make one forget body because they synchronize with body pulsations. For that reason they do not cause physical sensation.

Outer thinkers desire sensual rhythms which do not synchronize with body pulsations. Excitation can come to bodies only by changing the rhythm and tempo of their heartbeat. The moment the tempo of a heartbeat is slowed down in any musical rhythm, it slows down the heartbeat of the listener. That is why a baby goes to sleep when the mother croons a soothing lullaby. The power that music has within its rhythms and tempos to affect life, is inconceivable. The rhythms and tempos of the great world geniuses uplift the whole world toward its high heavens and causes those whom it can touch to seek the kingdom of heaven which centers them. Like­wise, the discordant and split rhythms that are not in tune with Nature and the heartbeat of man multiply the sen­sations which the purely physical man seeks as entertain­ment for his body.

However, the one-two-three balanced rhythm of the waltz focuses attention upon the body by combining both the spiritual and physical emotions. The third beat, which characterizes the waltz, is in perfect balance with the two, and creates the desire for happy movement of balanced rhythms which combine the physical with the spiritual. Beyond that three in musical rhythms one can­not go without splitting one or all of them. The greater the departure from the balanced rhythms of Nature to the syncopated rhythms of man's desire for physical sensation, the greater the possibility of spiritual suppression in favor of physical degradation.

The power of music to degrade as well as to uplift is well exemplified in the jazz rhythms and tempos which shriek out their degrading power in raucous sounds that violate Nature's rhythms, as the sounds of a busy factory violate its peaceful countryside environment. Sensual men do not appreciate the music which deeply inspires inner thinking men. They have not sufficiently unfolded as yet to understand it. The power of spiritually inspired music is so great, however, that many thousands are gradually being transformed by oft repeated renditions.

Classical records are being distributed by the hundreds of thousands, and their effect is one of the most hopeful signs of the times, as well as being one of the greatest demonstrations of the power of music to transform sen­sual thinkers to spiritual thinkers. The greatest passion of every genius is to give to all the world treasures of heaven that have been given to him. A Beethoven, Mo­zart, Leonardo or Tennyson could not possibly withhold his treasures unto himself. Having become aware of their Oneness with their Creator, who gives freely of all He has, and without motive, they also must give freely and without motive.

The reward motive which is so characteristic of those who are sense-dominated, does not exist in Nature. Giv­ing, in Nature, creates a vacuum that can be filled only by a balanced regiving. Giving, in Nature, is the first half of every electric cycle. It is an impossibility in Na­ture for one half of an electric cycle to remain uncom­pleted. It must complete itself. It cannot do otherwise. It must void itself by its own balancing counterpart. No one can give, therefore, without a cosmic certainty of being equally regiven. For that reason the reward motive in Nature is not a part of God's plan.

For the same reason it is very difficult for the genius to live in a material world. He must live, however. He must bargain with those who would buy from him. He must sell that which is his greatest happiness to give. It is against his very nature to be compelled to do that. It sickens his very Soul, for he is fully aware that he has been born ahead of his time and is compelled to live al­ways in two worlds. His great recompense, however, is the fact that he can always escape from the outer world of material things and live in his own inner world of the spirit where he can commune with God to his heart's content and forget all things else, especially his body.

Judged by material standards the genius is an imprac­tical dreamer, a subnormal who lacks the ability to make money as normal folks do. As children they are usually low in their marks, for the educational plan of this age stultifies genius by "educating" the brain instead of un­folding the Mind. Thomas Edison was sent home from school with a note from the teacher advising his mother to put him in a school for subnormals. The practice of schools has been to develop a civilization which has learned to remember and repeat instead of unfolding their imaginative faculties by teaching them to think and know.

The intelligence test for high scholarship marks is based upon how many questions one can answer. To at­tain great heights in that respect one has to have a pho­tographic memory which outward-sensed thinkers readily develop. It is impossible, however, for anyone to have a photographic Mind. That is why a genius is often con­sidered stupid in school. A great many children are utterly ruined by this process. They may really be the brightest children in the school with strong creative abil­ities that a few years of suppression of their creative facul­ties ruin for world purposes.

Information is not knowledge. It is of no importance whatsoever that one should remember the date of Caesar's death or the date of the Battle of Waterloo. One might be able to answer every question in the encyclopedia and yet have no knowledge. A student who received a low intelli­gence rating because he could not remember the name of the river which flowed into the Caspian Sea, and the capital of Finland, might be consoled by the probability that Shakespeare or Dickens might also not be able to answer these questions. Under such a memory system the boys who have the greatest initiative, imagination and resourcefulness could be judged the most stupid, while the plodder with a photographic memory and no initia­tive could be judged the brightest.

Information might be likened to food which will nour­ish a body when it has been digested and enters the blood stream. Information can lead to knowledge when digested through reasoning and Mind-thinking, but as long as it is only brain-recording it is of no value to creative ex­pression. To remember and repeat, through experimentation, reasoning and assembling other brain recordings of observed effects, does not constitute knowledge. It but indicates cleverness. This highly technical world of many skills is very much more the result of great cleverness in the assembling of observed effects of motion than it is the result of knowledge.

When the world begins to acquire knowledge it will show the effects of it in human relations instead of chemi­cal and metallurgical relations. The human race has not yet acquired sufficient knowledge to know the law which makes it possible for man to live with man--or to know the relation of woman to man. It is too concerned with the application of the many physical laws to the relation of physical matter to give thought to God's one and only law that governs spiritual relations.

World desire for knowing what holds the atom together has only an economical and material basis. Such knowl­edge "would be worth untold millions" in new machines and comforts for man. That is the basis of world desire for knowledge. It has only a money value. Its spiritual value has not yet entered into human consciousness. For that very reason God will not let man have that knowl­edge, and man will never find it while he seeks in the wrong direction. Actually the answer is right before man's eyes but he does not recognize it while his eyes have outer vision alone. When inner vision comes through in­ner thinking he will then recognize it in all its simplicity. All who have arrived at the Cosmic Mind state know what holds the atom together, and they do not need cyclotrons to tell them that secret of the invisible universe. Knowledge of CAUSE can never be acquired from motion. It can be acquired only from the Source of motion.

"Empirical knowledge" is a term used as a name for the results of sensed observation. Knowledge cannot be gained through the senses, for the senses are unable to see the true picture of any effect of motion whatsoever. No effect in Nature is what it seems to be. A three-dimensional objective universe is as much of an illusion as a cinema is an illusion. Truth and reality cannot be de­duced from a simulation of truth and reality. This uni­verse of motion is but a cosmic cinema projected upon the screen of space from its light Source in thinking Mind. Its reality is at its Source, and not in the projected image.

The most imaginative years of life are between the ages of three and fourteen. During those years whatever is creative in a child should be developed and encouraged. Instead of "cramming" for examinations, where questions are to be asked, children should be encouraged to take an hour's walk, either in the woods, or through a store, or around a city block, then asked to write an essay on what they saw, or what their thoughts were. A creative educa­tion should be based upon doing things which cause the children to think and know, rather than to remember and repeat. During school years the main object should be to develop creative expression by stimulating the imagi­nation. That is helpful in awakening that spark of genius which is in everyone, for creative expression compels in­ner thinking. A small percentage of time should be spent in giving them the essentials for that expression, such as simple mathematics, grammar, spelling and geography. Every other study, such as history or languages, one should get by reading during subsequent years.

It would be better for the new generation if all history study could be withdrawn from the schools. It is all writ­ten upon a war basis and the glorification of the desire in pagan man to kill his fellow man. History, as written for schools, is a war to war inventory. Its motive is to promote hero worship of world-killers. The motive upon which history should be written, if its purpose is to en­lighten the human race instead of degrading it, is to teach the lessons of agony that wars have given to man. They should be lessons which demonstrate that war does not pay, as some of our crime lessons demonstrate that crime does not pay.

We had a long period of crime movies which promoted and increased crime and juvenile delinquency because it glorified the criminal. Burglars, killers and outlaws were characterized as heroes. The effect upon the world's in­crease in crime and youth delinquency was so noticeable that the entire motive had to be changed to act as a lesson for crime determent. All history study should be rewritten upon this basis.

Drawing, painting, sculpture and music should be a part of every child's education. Children always love to draw. Desire for drawing and painting develops in early childhood. It should be encouraged in every way. Like­wise, the music of the great masters should not only be heard, but analyzed until thoroughly understood in comparison with the split rhythms of sensualism.

The principle of "educating" the senses, instead of un­folding the treasures of the Mind in creative expression, is not only very hurtful to the individual but is hurtful to the effort of keeping the Christian spirit alive, and multi­plying it throughout the land. Every accentuation of sen­suous thinking lessens the desire for spiritual expression and increases all of the qualities which the human race must eliminate in order to progress towards its goal. To spend valuable years in thus stultifying and smothering that spark of divinity, which must some day be illumined into activity for every man, is a great and tragic pity.

My husband, who has achieved masterliness in all of the five fine arts, besides making invaluable contributions to science, often says that the most fortunate happening of his life was being taken out of school at nine. He fully knew his destiny at seven years of age, as practically all geniuses do.

SUMMARY

Jesus said: "Seek ye the kingdom of heaven within you." The genius has come very close to having reached that center which Jesus had, Himself, completely found.

When this stage in human unfolding has been reached by enough of the human race to dominate its transactions, one with another, wars will be impossible. Material values are the basis of all wars. The genius stage of unfolding places no value whatsoever upon material things. Greed and acquisitiveness is not in it. The sense of evil is not in it. It would be impossible and unthinkable for a Beethoven or Sibelius to even think the inharmonies which are necessary to wage war.

The only way to hold a civilization together is to bring a cosmic harmony into it through transactions based upon love. It is impossible to hold it together as a workable organization in any other way. We have now reached the point in this man-made world where hate, suspicion and greed are sitting at conference tables to bargain with each other. The more they bargain the greater the necessity for increased armament.

Those who sit at the bargaining tables are men the con­querors, and fathers of conquerors. Women, the mothers and peacemakers, are not with their men at the conference tables. There will never be peace on earth and good will toward man, until fatherhood and mother­hood sit together as world-fatherhood and motherhood to extend loving service to one another. Such unbalance is a violation of God's one inviolate law which no earthly power can set aside and survive, as man is now so futilely trying to do. Perhaps it is that woman is the only hope of saving this civilization!

CHAPTER VI

Cosmic Consciousness

The fourth stage of human unfoldment, of sensual man to spiritual man, is the high stage of Cosmic Conscious­ness. This stage is as far ahead of the genius stage as the genius is ahead of the barbarian. It is difficult for those who have not yet reached the genius stage to comprehend that stage, but it is possible for everyone to recognize that it is existent because the works of the great Cosmic gen­iuses are evident everywhere. Everyone knows that there really are superhuman people like Michelangelo, Brahms or Mozart even though they know that they, themselves, are not like them. Likewise, there have been about a hun­dred great geniuses whose works are so conspicuously in evidence that there is no question that a much higher state of mentality is possible than the average men­tality.

The state of Cosmic Consciousness was first referred to in India as "The Brahmic Bliss." It was also referred to as "Nirvana," meaning the ultimate goal of mankind in which all identity is lost in the universal Identity. The New Testament referred to it as being "in the Spirit" and as "the Anointing." It is also referred to as "the state of ecstasy." Cosmic Consciousness is so rare, however, that there have probably not been more than fifteen com­pletely illumined examples in all history. By that I mean those who have had the experience of complete severance of sensation from Consciousness, followed by long pe­riods, rather than those who had but momentary flashes and found themselves in a state of some confusion.

Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke¹ is the greatest authority upon Cosmic Consciousness. His own personal illumina­tion lasted but a few seconds but so completely trans­formed him that he devoted the rest of his life to the study of other cases, and in writing a book which is of inestima­ble value to those who are seeking to awaken their own spiritual awareness. The symptoms he describes will en­able one to recognize those symptoms of awakening genius or Cosmic Consciousness, which they may have experi­enced but do not comprehend. Dr. Bucke lists about forty cases, and erringly includes Jesus among these. Jesus is the only one who has ever reached the highest stage of divine awareness, Christ Consciousness, which will be de­scribed next.

Cosmic Consciousness utterly transforms those who have already reached the high stage of the genius into an incredible greater stage of spiritual Mind-existence. Some of these cases have actually bridged the genius stage, or passed through it, without knowing it. When Cosmic Consciousness consumes one with its illumination of Soul-Mind, it comes very suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, and without being suspected. There are no indications of it, nor can it be induced by anybody, no matter how familiar one becomes with its reality.

Full and sudden Cosmic illumination is attended with a flash of Cosmic Light which is invisible to everyone ex­cept the recipient of it. The New Testament describes Paul's spiritual illumination into Cosmic Consciousness:

_______

¹ Cosmic Consciousness, by Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke. E. P. Dutton Company, New York. Quotations from this book will appear in this chapter and be indicated by an asterisk.

"He became as one transformed". He was transformed be­cause from that moment he was as different a mentality as the mentality of a full-grown man exceeds the mental­ity of a child.

What happens is that the doors to "the kingdom of heaven" seem to open suddenly, and all the glory of God's Light of all-knowledge and all-power become revealed. The recipient becomes transformed with knowledge of his absolute unity with God. He at once begins to think with God and know His thoughts as being his own. He suddenly becomes fully aware that the Voice which he first heard millions of years ago as instinct, then as intui­tion, then as inspiration, is God's Voice and his own, as ONE. There is no longer any mystery about it, no vague­ness, no yearning to pierce the impenetrable. He has pierced it. He has found that center of stillness which his Soul is. He can now knowingly say: I and my Father are ONE, for he has become that One. This is what is meant by revelations. It is knowledge which has been cosmically revealed.

The explanation of the flash of light which accom­panies all cases of complete Cosmic Consciousness, is caused by a short circuit that severs the two centers of sensation in the two lobes of the brain from the seat of Con­sciousness. Such a flash occurs also at the instant of death. It has been photographed many times.

One distinctive feature of Cosmic Consciousness is that everyone who experiences it states the same things. They all experience a tremendous state of ecstasy, which is the God Nature--a deep conviction of Love and the Oneness of God and man--and the idea of evil and death entirely disappears into their complete knowledge of immortality and eternal life. Whatever a Cosmic Conscious mystic writes is fully understood by any other mystic. No matter how different the words may be, their sense is universal. Their language is alike but it is strange to all but those of high culture or great spiritual unfolding.

For better understanding of these divine ones among men I will quote characteristic sayings of the eight most highly illumined ones. The first known case is the writer of the Bhaga Vad Gita. No one knows who he was but his immortal words have already outlived thousands of years and will endure as long as man endures. The following quotations sing their own glory in the unmistakable language of the divine mystic:

"Another Sun gleams there; another Moon;

Another Light,--not Dusk, nor Dawn, nor Noon--

Which they who once behold return no more;

They have attained My rest, life's utmost boon." (Chap. XV)

* * * *

"Fain would I see, as thou Thyself declar'st it, Sovereign Lord, the likeness of Thy Form wholly revealed. O Thou Divinest One, if this can be, if I may bear the sight, make Thyself visible, Lord of all prayers. Show me Thy very self, Eternal God.

"Behold! this is the Universe!--Look! what is live and dead I gather all in one in Me! Gaze, as thy lips have said, on God ETERNAL, VERY GOD! See Me! see what thou prayest.

"Thou can'st not!--nor with human eyes ever mayest! There­fore I give thee sense divine. Have other eyes, new light! And look, this is My glory, unveiled to mortal sight". (Chap. XI)

* * * *

"Of many thousand mortals, one, perchance,

Striveth for Truth; and of these few that strive--

Nay, and rise high,--one only--here and there­--

Knoweth Me as I am, the very Truth". (Chap. VII)

* * * *

"For in this world Being is twofold; the Divided, one;

The Undivided, one. All things that live

Are 'the Divided'. That which sits apart,

The Undivided". (Chap. XV)

* * * *

Gautama, known as The Buddha, was the second known case of Cosmic Consciousness. He lived about five hundred years before Jesus came, and his life has affected the Orient as deeply as the life of Jesus affected the Oc­cident. He was the son of a very rich landowner and lived in great luxury at the time the "supernatural light" de­scended upon him. He left all this, and his wife and son, to live alone in the wilderness for a long time. He then began to teach men to seek eternal peace within them­selves through much meditation, aloneness and complete renunciation of worldly matters.

Like all who are illumined, The Buddha gained all his real knowledge from within himself. He decried the kind of so-called knowledge of the schools as superficial, if not useless. This point is well illustrated in his story of a youth who returned from school with much ego after twelve years of classical studies: "The boy's father said to him, *Svetaketu, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well read, and so stern, my dear, have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear that which cannot be heard, by which we perceive that which cannot be perceived, by which we know that which cannot be known"?

This quotation is proof that The Buddha passed through the genius stage without having known it, or if he did know it, no historian has ever understood that fact sufficiently to record it. Perhaps the essence of his experi­ence is in the following words: * "That one (the self), though never stirring, is swifter than thought. The senses never reached it, it walked before them. Though stand­ing still, it overtakes the others who are running. The moving spirit bestows powers upon it. It stirs and it stirs not. It is far and likewise near. It is inside of all this and it is outside of all this.

"And he who beholds all beings in the self and the self in all beings, he never turns away from it. When to a man who understands, the self has become all things, what sor­row, what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity"?

When the teachings of all mystics are thoroughly com­prehended there could be but one religion, for the teach­ings are one. There can be no fault in any religion which seeks to know God. The fault lies only in the inability of man to see God, know God and be God. The human race must unfold in orderly stages. Comprehension will come to all men, but man himself can hasten it by deeply desir­ing it, and by deeply seeking within himself for it through much meditation and wordless prayer.

Plotinus and Mohammed were born into the world during the twelve centuries of Dark Ages. It is more than probable that Dante also was Illuminate. It is claimed that he was, but I am not sufficiently convinced of that fact to include him.

Plotinus was born in A.D. 204 and lived seventy years. He discarded all that is called scholarship, meaning that so-called knowledge which the senses record upon human brains as memory impressions. It is important that the present generations of men should understand his exalted point of view, for the modern system of creating scholars is the superficial one of accumulating information concerning effects of motion, upon the assumption that such information is knowledge. In that sense we have no scholars which have been school-made. If we have scholars they are Self-made. Plotinus uses the word "appearances" in the sense which we use the word "information." I quote him:

* "External objects present us only with appearances. Concerning them, therefore, we may be said to possess opinion rather than knowledge.

"Our question lies with the ideal reality that exists be­hind appearance. How does the Mind perceive these ideals? Are they without us, and is the reason, like sensa­tion, occupied with objects external to itself?

"What certainty would we then have--what assurance that our perception was infallible? The object perceived would be a something different from the mind perceiving it. We should have then an image instead of reality.

"It would be monstrous to believe for a moment that the mind was unable to perceive ideal truth exactly as it is, and that we had not certainty and real knowledge con­cerning the world of intelligence.

"It follows, therefore, that this region of truth is not to be investigated as a thing external to us, and so im­perfectly known. It is within us. Here the objects we contemplate and that which contemplates are identical--both are thought.

"The subject cannot surely know an object different from itself. It is the agreement of the mind with itself.

"Consciousness, therefore, is the sole basis of certainty. The mind is its own witness. Reason sees in itself that which is above itself as its source; and again that which is below itself is still itself once more".

How very different is this language to that which is familiar to our schools and scholars who applaud the brilliance of the student who can remember and repeat more events and incidents than another student. Observe also that Plotinus told man to seek Truth within him, as Jesus did.

Consider the knowledge of Plotinus herein expressed. He is asked: "How can we know the Infinite"?

* "I answer, not by reason. It is the office of reason to distinguish and define. The Infinite, therefore, cannot be ranked among its objects. You can only apprehend the Infinite by a faculty superior to reason, by entering into a state in which you are your finite self no longer--in which the divine essence is communicated to you. This is ecstasy (Cosmic Consciousness). It is the liberation of your mind from its finite consciousness".

Mohammed is one of the great Illumined. Three great religions grew out of the words of three great mystics. The religions are all different but the words and teachings are the same. Moslemism is in practice totally different from either Christianity or Buddhism, but that is the fault of its practice, not of its principle. This could also be said about Christianity and Buddhism.

Those who would compare the teachings of Moham­med, Jesus and The Buddha would find not one whit of difference in essence, also if the words of all these three are compared with those of Francis Bacon (Shakespeare), Walt Whitman, Jacob Behmen, Balzac or John Yepes, they would all be the same in essence, even though the words differ. Mohammed used the word "Paradise" in the same sense that Jesus used the words "Kingdom of God," and The Buddha used the word "Nirvana." Mohammed said: * "This is the day of eternity. Enter into it in peace", which parallels the words of Jesus: "The kingdom of God is within you". John Yepes said: * "God is always in man, and very commonly the soul is aware of His presence. It is as if he slept in the soul. If he wakes up only once in a man's whole life the experience of that moment affects the whole life".

Another modern mystic who has transformed millions of lives and turned their eyes to the Light is Baha'u'lláh, the founder of a great religious movement known as the Baha'i Faith, although he was not listed in Dr. Bucke's classic work as an Illuminate.

The unfolding of physical man to spiritual man always comes through the revelations of Cosmic Messengers who have been illumined with higher knowledge by becoming wholly Mind for even a brief period, but always enough to transform the world through their own transformation. A study of the ascent of man will reveal that each upward step has been caused by the advent of a Cosmic Mes­senger who periodically appears among men with new knowledge which has been revealed to him for that pur­pose. It will also reveal the fact that when any man of higher knowledge and ideals than the average of his day comes into the world he is persecuted, ridiculed, im­prisoned, tortured and even crucified by the uncompre­hending multitudes. The greater the message and Mes­senger, the greater the torture. These Messengers who transform the world with new knowledge always meet with great personal suffering for their priceless gifts. The inventor, the pioneers in new ways and methods, the genius in the fine arts or any man who dares to depart from traditional thinking, always meet with ridicule in various measures and forms until the value of his gift to the world is recognized.

Jesus died on the cross. Leonardo died in poverty. Galileo was tortured. Copernicus was spurned and ridiculed. Bacon was forced to hide his identity in Shakespeare. Spinoza constantly feared arrest. Whitman was despised and his books banned. Mozart, Liszt, Chopin and Schumann were hireling entertainers for the rich. Even Goodyear, in our day, suffered untold agonies for his gift of vulcanized rubber which revolutionized transporta­tion. The many always oppress the few. It is difficult for Love and for knowledge to come into the world. Crucifixion always awaits Love. Knowledge is always launched upon the sea of ignorance. That is why the journey of man is so long, so hard, and so slow.

In Baha'u'lláh is an exemplification of this trait of human nature, for he was tortured and imprisoned in chains for years in a filthy black dungeon, with thieves and murderers, until he was near death. Many of his fol­lowers were imprisoned with him and executed, yet the cosmic ecstasy of an eternally happy man remained with him through his far greater sufferings than even a cruci­fixion.

Bahá'u'lláh's writings and teachings are the same in essence as those of all other Illuminati. They vary only in their wording, but not in their meaning. Where Jesus uses the word "within," Baha'u'lláh uses the word "in­sight". Both have the same meaning, however. In describ­ing the revelations of mystics he said: "Without words we speak, we communicate, we converse with God and hear the answer".

It is universal in all mystics to as frankly say they talk with God as it is for one man to say he talked with an­other. No greater evidence of Bahá'u'lláh's great understanding of the God-presence in man could be found than the following extract from his teachings: "It is said that Moses in the wilderness heard the voice of God. But that wilderness, that holy land was his own heart. All of us, when we attain to a true spiritual condition, can hear the voice of God speaking to us in that wilderness".

Bahá'u'lláh thoroughly comprehended the perma­nently ecstatic state of God's Mind to such an extent that nothing could affect his own eternal state of happiness and the contemplation of beauty and harmony which exists in all of God's Creation. Even while suffering great agony of body in prison he refused to deviate from the principle which he taught, to the effect that nothing ill could hap­pen to a man if he is happy. Take note of the fact that he said that while undergoing great physical suffering.

He said: "Afflictions and troubles are due to the state of not being content with what God has ordained for you. If one submits himself to God he is happy". By this he means that whatever may be your destiny while work­ing with God, that you must submit to, for that is your Glory.

When asked where happiness comes from he answered: "Because all existing things move according to my wish; therefore I do not do anything contrary to my desire; thus I have no sorrow.

"There is no doubt that all beings move by the will of God, and I have given up my own will, desiring the will of God. Thus my will becomes the will of God, for there is nothing of myself. All are moving by his will, yet they are moving by my will. In this case I am very happy".

The purity, the friendliness and happiness of his teach­ings cannot but ennoble anyone who tries to fathom their depths. The Bahá'i Faith which he founded is without doctrine and completely tolerant of all religions and faiths, and expresses the desire for that day of unity when there will be but one religion. In all his teachings tolerance for things which men do and say is conspicuous. His attitude is that man does not know what he is doing when he does evil things, for he is but on his way to knowing. That is the same attitude expressed by Jesus when He said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

He condemned nobody, even while expressing his re­gret that others teach, or practice, anything which was contrary to God's law, as he so plainly did in admonishing St. Paul for his disapproval of marriage and for prophesy­ing that sects would arise which would be celibate. Bahá'u'lláh laid this fault down to superstition and ignorance of God's law.

His tolerance extended to even his prophecies about the coming of other Messengers who would come with new knowledge suited to their day and age, and specifically foretold of a scientific revelation.

The Bahá'i Faith is world-wide and its followers give evidence of the inspiring nature of its teachings by their exemplary lives and actions.

All who have reached the Cosmic Conscious stage have attained full God-awareness. They not only know God, but they unhesitatingly state their Oneness with Him. Jesus not only said: "I and My Father are One", but said that every man is One with Him and with God when he knows that he is. All Cosmic messengers have said that same thing, in essence if not in the same words. The only difference between any man and Jesus, or The Buddha, or Shakespeare, or Paderewski, is divine awareness. Noth­ing else. Every Cosmic Conscious messenger very plainly tells you that, but few believe it because few comprehend it. Long ages of outward thinking have unfitted them for comprehending it. A very few years of inward, meditative thinking will give one greater God-awareness than cen­turies of outward thinking.

For another example of the similarity of Cosmic think­ers, compare these words of Jacob Behman: * "Spiritual knowledge cannot be communicated from one intellect to another, but must be sought for in the spirit of God"--with Walt Whitman who says:           * "Wisdom is of the soul; it cannot be passed from one having it to another not having it". Behman also wrote: * "The gate was opened to me that in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at a university, . . .".

All of them are in full agreement that those who are illumined into Cosmic Consciousness are given a pro­found wisdom--or knowledge--of the very essence of God which can never be acquired from books, or schools, or any outside source whatsoever. Likewise, all Cosmic Mystics have said in essence: "God is Love--and I am Love", and that all men are one brotherhood and also: "I am all men". Walt Whitman, Francis Bacon (Shake­speare) and Mary Baker Eddy, are the three greatest mystics of the late centuries. Their works are fairly satu­rated with the idea of love, unity, brotherhood of man and spiritual identity.

Whitman says: * "And I know that the hand of God is the elder hand of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own. And that all men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers, And that a kelson² of creation is love".

In describing the "supernatural" flash of light which always accompanies full illumination, Whitman says:

_______

² Kelson, or keelson, is the foundation upon which a ship is built.

* "As in a swoon, one instant,

Another sun, ineffable full-dazzles me,

And all the orbs I knew, and brighter, unknown orbs;

One instant of the future land, Heaven's land".

How much these words are like those in the Bhaga Vad Gita, written thousands of years ago!

No words could more forcibly express the emptiness of the world of material values which seems to be the first aim of those who have made this world what it is, than these of Whitman:

* "Hast never come to thee an hour,

A sudden gleam divine, precipitating, bursting

all these bubbles, fashions wealth?

These eager business aims--books, politics,

arts, armours,

To utter nothingness".

Mary Baker Eddy was the only woman who has been known to have reached that spiritual stage of Cosmic Consciousness. With Walt Whitman, she was the most recent. Her name was not included in Dr. Bucke's list of Immortals who had arrived at the stage of Cosmic Consciousness, but it should have been. Mrs. Eddy ex­perienced her first Cosmic illumination when she was twelve years old. She did not know what it meant at that time. No one who has that experience ever does at the time it happens, for it is so rare that few know about it, also it is entirely unanticipated. She describes it as fol­lows: "and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me." She was in a fever at the time and the fever suddenly disappeared. That is also characteristic of the transformation which takes place during an illumination. She also said that "other incidents of an extraordinary nature" occurred at the time. This same experience of Cosmic il­lumination again occurred when she was forty-five. She was seriously ill at the time, but again she was restored to normalcy during that short period of ecstasy which al­ways accompanies the illumination.

As in all other cases of Cosmic Consciousness she was given the knowledge that all Mind is one, which she calls "divine Mind,--that the body is not the person--that there is no life, truth or intelligence in matter--and that there is no evil nor death in Nature". Such revelations coming under such conditions are full and complete evidence of her Cosmic illumination. Further evidence of it lies in the words and manner of her teachings which she imparted to others.

She very clearly denied that sin existed in Nature and explained it as a belief in man's mortal mind--meaning the senses. She also taught what all Cosmic Illuminates know, that Jesus came to save mankind from a belief in sin, and not that He came to save man from sin. She called world attention to the fact that Jesus never used the word "sin" with the connotation of evil which men give to it. Jesus used the word in the sense of experience, as He used it in the case of the man with the palsy, to whom He said: "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee".

Mrs. Eddy also firmly states that God, the Creator, created only that which was good--and that truth and goodness are one--therefore nothing real could be exist­ent which is not good--and manifests truth in Him. Nothing is more convincing evidence of her right to be included in the very immortals who have been illumined with the Light of God's Mind than the following extracts from her teachings: "Man is not a material habitation of the Soul: he is himself spiritual.--Man is idea, the image of love: He is not physique. . . . Man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal: that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence nor creative power of his own, but re­flects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker. . . . Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death".

Such Cosmic knowledge does not come from earthly teachings. They are not in any of man's books, nor were they taught to her by the church which she attended. Cosmic knowledge comes to earth only through divine messengers who have known the Oneness with the One Mind of this universe. Such knowledge comes only to one in billions of humans. Mary Baker Eddy may never have heard of Cosmic Consciousness, so rare it is, but she frankly declared that: "I won my way to absolute con­clusions through divine revelations, reason and demon­stration". That is what Cosmic Consciousness is.

My husband's entire scientific knowledge came that way. In May of 1921 he had no knowledge whatsoever of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, electricity nor the construction of matter. He did not care to know them for his desires were in the fine arts.

In one timeless flash he became master of all the sciences and knew as much in that one flash as he knows now. In 1926 he gave his first gift to the scientific world in The Russell Charts of the Elements which completed the incomplete and incorrect Mendeléef Charts. In this first of many contributions, he charted and announced the existence of urium and uridium, and the four other transuranium elements which made atomic fission possi­ble, also deuterium and tritrium and the other four hydro­gen isotopes, which made the H-bomb and heavy water possible. The world does not know urium and uridium by these names, however, for many years later when sci­ence verified their existence they renamed these two ele­ments plutonium and neptunium.

His contributions since then have been many but the cosmogony which God gave him is so unlike the tradi­tionally accepted one that it may be many years before its value may be recognized.

All that I have ever known was revealed to me cosmi­cally in the same manner. I also did not receive the formal education of the schools. That is why our combined knowledge, forcibly presented, may enlighten enough of those who are ready for it, to save the world in this eleventh hour of its danger. Neither my husband's knowl­edge nor mine ever came from books or schools, however. It was cosmically inspired. Knowledge has never come into the world in any other way.

Circumstances forced me into a great aloneness in my youth and these were my rich years, my formative years, which finally culminated in my own illumining in two great periods. These two periods so utterly transformed me that a greater power of Self-expression came to me than I had ever known. I found that whatever I desired to do I could do. And that is what you would find if you sought within your Self for knowledge and power as we have.

It is important that I tell you some of the facts regard­ing the way we received all of our knowledge in order that you may acquire cosmic knowledge if you so desire. All Illuminates will tell you the same thing. Down through the ages they have said that all knowledge could be ob­tained only from within--that the kingdom of heaven was within--that all else will be added unto him who seeks it from within. The whole purpose of this book is to point the way to all knowledge and power for you. To attain it you have to acquire the power to think in­wardly instead of to sense outwardly.

Begin early in life to do that. Do not wait until tradi­tion and materialism insulates your Soul by building a wall around it. That is why I felt impelled to break away from the treadmill of tradition in my childhood. I was as certain of my destiny and purpose at three years of age as I am now. My education came from looking into the hearts of the people of all the world and of Nature. It was my good fortune to be able to travel extensively in Asia and Africa as well as the English-speaking continents. I made a great discovery in so doing, which will be helpful to you if you apply it. I found that greater knowing comes from the silences of what people do not say than from what they do say. It is that way in Nature. The silences reach the Soul with their deep meanings while sounds must be translated from sensed awareness to Mind intelligence. The silent words from the hearts of all men told me that all mankind is essentially GOOD. All are seeking happiness and love. There is no evil in the search for love, so there can be no evil in a balanced universe which is all GOOD.

Our present-day world is not conducive to the search for love. Its human relations are based upon outer sens­ing. When they are based upon inner thinking our human relations basis must change, for mankind will then have learned that what he does to others he is doing to himself.

A new language with its own meaning has come into the world from its illumined ones. The genius can hear Nature's rhythms with his inner ears, and see its spectrum harmonies with inner eyes, but the Cosmic being can clearly comprehend the construction of matter and the workings of electric polarization as it divides and multiplies gravity into the contracted matter of suns and divides it to create space. In less time than it takes to write this description, one who knows nothing of the universe, knows all of it. In that brief flash he becomes master chemist and knows the stars of heaven beyond all men. The explanation of this fact is simple. When man's Mind and God's become one, their thinking is one. They do not become synchronized as two but are one. That which heretofore seemed to pulse within them separately, pulses universally. The Illuminate suddenly becomes "in tune with the Infinite". He instantly becomes the Thinker and Knower instead of being an extension of the Thinker and Knower.

God's Mind thinks in octave thought-waves. Every creative thought is electrically divided into octave thought-waves which require four efforts to create matter into living bodies and four more efforts to void those bodies. Every action and reaction in Nature repeats this simple life-death principle. There is no exception to it throughout the universe. Every incoming-outgoing breath repeats it, every sound repeats it, and the pulsing of the stars repeats it. Within that simple principle lies all knowledge, for in it is all CAUSE which can be known, and all effect which can be comprehended. Its simplicity is instantly recognized by the highly spiritual inward thinker who is enabled to strip it of its complexity by mak­ing it stand still and be only one, instead of many billions in one second.

To the Cosmic Thinker who can make the universe stand still and void time, Creation unfolds from the Soul of idea to create form. All forms are thought-forms which appear, disappear and reappear forever. When one sees forms unfold from seed, and refold into seed, one sees all there is to see and to know. There is nothing else to know, for Mind is the seed of Creation from which all forms unfold from zero of invisibility to become visible for a time, before refolding into invisible Mind.

That is all there is to all philosophy, all sciences and all mathematics. Certain great Illuminati, whom no one has ever known, left messages in great stone pyramids for future man to decipher, and to tell them of their exist­ence, long ages ago. These illumined ones knew as­tronomy and mathematics beyond perhaps even our day. They could not have acquired this knowledge from books for there were no books or universities. The measure­ments of these pyramids prove that they not only could measure the diameter of the earth, with great precision, but a hundred other astronomical and mathematical measurements proved vast knowledge in other directions. They gave strong evidence of possessing an extrasensory perception, such as our civilization has not yet attained.

In one of these pyramids events three thousand years ahead are accurately foretold. Knowing Cause these an­cient mystics could deduce the effects which must follow. These few must have founded some brotherhood through which they kept their knowledge alive, for the same principles and measurements are repeated in part in Tibet and the civilizations which lie buried one upon another in the Andes and Central America.

CONCLUSION

These men of great knowledge acquired their knowl­edge from somewhere other than universities and books, for there were neither universities nor books in their day.

According to modern educational standards all their vast knowledge would be denied them and considered of no avail because it was not acquired through the legitimate channels, which means through the senses.

Today's intellectual world denies that knowledge can be spiritually acquired through revelation and inspira­tion, which means by talking to God. The lesson mankind should learn, through the lives of the greatest men who have ever lived on this planet, is that knowledge can only be acquired through the inner spirit of man and not through his body, or through matter, or through motion. Knowledge comes from within, not from without. The men who have been the world's most priceless treasures probably never attended school, or if they did they were not counted as the most brilliant students.

Whether or not such men as Bacon, Buddha, Beetho­ven, Leonardo, Jesus, Tennyson or Schumann ever at­tended school, it is most certain that the great knowledge these divine messengers gave to the world was not a part of any school curriculum. Their knowledge came from the spiritual fountains of themselves. They had found the kingdom of heaven and all that heaven had to give was "added unto them".

The great lesson for each man to learn from the lives and works of these immortals is that each man's own im­mortality can be found only by inner thinking, and deep meditation, and deep, wordless spiritual prayer from the heart, and not from the lips. The only way the Silent Voice can become audible to man is through inner ears. The only way man can vision God is through inner eyes. That is the only way man can knowingly work with God and God with man to produce enduring things. It is the only way that God, the Creator, can be manifested in Man, the Creator.

Likewise, the only way there can be a spiritual birth in the world is through spiritual thinking which estab­lishes values based upon man rather than matter. The greatest motive for world-crime lies in greed to obtain money. For this he sells his Soul by crucifying love and human values. When man learns that man is man's greatest asset he will serve his fellowman instead of killing him as he does now for material values. Crime will dis­appear when the motive for crime disappears, and peace will come when love appears.