I just experienced my first demonstration as an Intern Affirmative Prayer Practitioner! The case was a lost cell phone at a graduation ceremony in Houston Texas. The owner had walked everywhere, checked the lost and found, called the phone repeatedly with no results. The GPS tracking had apparently been deactivated too. After several hours, she had given up, called to report it stolen and stopped the service.
A big concern was that there were apps on the phone with passwords to banking and social media websites and that all her photos of her friends graduation that day were lost too.
We discussed the inherent goodness of people and how they usually return stolen property. We also discussed lessons that might be learned about password security and backups. Then we discussed what needed to be done until a new phone arrived. We recognized that there are actually lots of options and solutions to the challenges.
Before retiring for the night I connected with the Universal Subjective Mind (that we all share) and communicated that the phone is of no use now, as it is marked as stolen. The right thing to do is to return it. Not returning it will have very negative consequences due to the Law of Cause and Effect. In Christian terms, (this occurred in Texas and they are mostly conservative Christians there), it is a sin to steal and could send one hell. In any case, I knew that Divine Right Action would ensure that the phone would be returned to its owner for everyone’s highest good. I went to sleep in the knowledge that it would be returned.
At 4:00 am PST I received a text message from someone who had found the phone and was turning it in to the lost and found for pick up. I smiled with recognition of the demonstration of The Law of Mind, and was filled with deep gratitude and joy. I also learned that her partner had had a dream that night that the phone was returned—a vivid example of the power of the One Mind that we share.
For those not familiar with the principles of Science of Mind, I’m including some information from Thomas Troward’s Edinburgh Lectures. These Lectures were the resource that cemented my faith in spiritual healing.
I was not an easy convert because I’m very analytical and wary of things that “sound too good to be true.” I’m very grateful to all the teachers at The Center for Spiritual Living, Palm Desert who teach many classes each week. They are passionate about sharing The Truth. They prove it by “walking the talk,” and they insist that students challenge the teachings and come to their own conclusions about what is true. I’ve taken many classes and benefitted from the wisdom many writers but Thomas Troward “cinched the deal” for me.
Here are some excerpts from the chapter on Healing that explains how this demonstration (and healing) worked.
…there is not in all men this knowledge,” or at any rate not such a full recognition of it as will enable them to give successful treatment to themselves, and in these cases the intervention of the healer becomes necessary. The only difference between the healer and the patient is that the healer has learnt how to control the less self-conscious modes of the spirit by the more self-conscious mode, while the patient has not yet attained to this knowledge; and what the healer does is to substitute his own objective or conscious mentality, which is will joined to intellect, for that of the patient and in this way to find entrance to his sub-conscious mind and impress upon it the suggestion of perfect health.
The question then arises, how can the healer substitute his own conscious mind for that of the patient? And the answer shows the practical application of those very abstract principles which I have laid down in the earlier sections. Our ordinary conception of ourselves is that of an individual personality which ends where another personality begins, in other words that the two personalities are entirely separate. This is an error. There is no such hard and fast line of demarcation between personalities, and the boundaries between one and another can be increased or reduced in rigidity according to will, in fact they may be temporarily removed so completely that, for the time being, the two personalities become merged into one. Now the action which takes place between healer and patient depends on this principle. The patient is asked by the healer to put himself in a receptive mental attitude, which means that he is to exercise his volition for the purpose of removing the barrier of his own objective personality and thus affording entrance to the mental power of the healer. On his side also the healer does the same thing, only with this difference, that while the patient withdraws the barrier on his side with the intention of admitting a flowing-in, the healer does so with the intention of allowing a flowing-out; and thus by the joint action of the two minds the barriers of both personalities are removed and the direction of the flow of volition is determined, that is to say, it flows from the healer as actively willing to give, towards the patient as passively willing to receive, according to the universal law of Nature that the flow must always be from the plenum to the vacuum. This mutual removal of the external mental barrier between healer and patient is what is termed establishing a rapport between them, and here we find one most valuable practical application of the principle laid down earlier in this book, that pure spirit is present in its entirety at every point simultaneously. It is for this reason that as soon as the healer realized that the barriers of external personality between himself and his patient have been removed, he can then speak to the sub-conscious mind of the patient as though it were his own, for both being pure spirit the thought of their identity makes them identical, and both are concentrated into a single entity at a single point upon which the conscious mind of the healer can be brought to bear, according to the universal principle of the control of the subjective mind by the objective mind through suggestions.
And in the case of the loss of the cell phone, this is the practice that I used.
In this description I have contemplated the case where the patient is consciously co-operating with the healer, and it is in order to obtain this co-operation that the mental healer usually makes a point of instructing the patient in the broad principle of Mental Science, if he is not already acquainted with them. But this is not always advisable or possible. Sometimes the statement of principles opposed to existing prejudices arouses opposition, and any active antagonism on the patient’s part must tend to intensify the barrier of conscious personality which it is the healer’s first object to remove. In these cases nothing is so effective as absent treatment. If the student has grasped all that has been said on the subject of spirit and matter, he will see that in mental treatment time and space count for nothing, because the whole action takes place on a plane where these conditions do not obtain; and it is therefore quite immaterial whether the patient be in the immediate presence of the healer or in a distant country. Under these circumstances it is found by experience that one of the most effectual modes of mental healing is by treatment during sleep, because then the patient’s whole system is naturally in a state of relaxation which prevents him offering any conscious opposition to the treatment. And by the same rule the healer also is able to treat even more effectively during his own sleep than while waking. Before going to sleep he firmly impresses on his subjective mind that it is to convey curative suggestion to the subjective mind of the patient, and then, by the general principles of the relation between subjective and objective mind this suggestion is carried out during all the hours that the conscious individuality is wrapped in repose. This method is applicable to young children to whom the principles of the science cannot be explained; and also to persons at a distance; and indeed the only advantage gained by the personal meeting of the patient and healer is in the instruction that can be orally given, or when the patient is at that early stage of knowledge where the healer’s visible presence conveys the suggestion that something is being done which could not be done in his absence; otherwise the presence or absence of the patient are matters perfectly indifferent. The student must always recollect that the sub-conscious mind does not have to work through the intellect or conscious mind to produce its curative effects. It is part of the all-pervading creative force of Nature, while the intellect is not creative but distributive.
So now you know how it works—and you have a little taste of the writings of Thomas Troward!
P.S. ThomasTroward was a British Colonial Judge in India. He was a lifelong student of the Western Bible and the Holy Works of the East, and was a world-renowned metaphysician. Because he gave these lectures in 1904, his style is a little challenging, but when you read slowly, you can understand it perfectly. His logic and clarity are very compelling, and he was the single greatest influence on Ernest Holmes. Fully 25% of Holmes Book, The Science of Mind is based on Troward’s Edinburgh Lectures. All Science of Mind, Affirmative Prayer Practitioners take the course on Troward and I highly recommend it to you. It is offered every year at The Center for Spiritual Living, Palm Desert.