Arthur Adolphus Lindsay - The Life Ideal, Scientific Prayer (1918)

7/30/2019 Arthur Adolphus Lindsay - The Life Ideal, Scientific Prayer (1918)

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CONTENTSLiving The LifeHdeal

Planting a PrayerTantrums are PrayersPsychology of the GoatJesus Taught a Scientific PrayerThe Silence

i Visions

A. A. LINDSAY, M. l5.

Published byA. A. LINDSAY PUBLISHING CO.

362-4-6 Locust St., Detroit, Mich.


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Copyright byA. A. LINDSAY. M. D.

1918

FEB 21 1918CI.A492374


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8 THE LIFE IDEALtion) that makes growth so impossiblewhen one has the habit of inharmony,the code of practice fixed after some se-lection which is not prompted by theideal.

I am convinced that down in the heartof everyone there is a preference fortruth, beauty, lovethe ideal, but sinceone finds he must overcome the currentof usual human practice if he wouldbe true, he consents to go against thetide of his own soul. There are no ac-tual losses attending where one refrainsfrom going with the usual; there areeternal losses and the height of ruinwhere one departs from his innate ideal.The individual who has the courage tofollow his own soul's inspirations andintuitions is so rare that the world woulddeify such a woman or man. One hasnot the courage usually because each istrying to live another's life and is hav-ing the pattern set by ideas instead ofhaving it created by the ideal. The ze-nith of courage has become attainedwhen one resolves and lives after the


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 9plans inspired of the creative intelligencewithin himself.

HINDRANCES TO LIVINGTHE IDEAL.It is no particular tribute to one's

strength if he does that which the massesof men do ; the self-approval is sufficientcompensation when one makes a way ofhis own; the loss of self respect whenfollowing the crowd is sufficient punish-ment for refuting nature's highest law,which is that each shall become an in-dividual.One who lives true to his ideal pre-sents to the world that which is originalfor there are no duplicates. The idealfor one person is not the ideal for an-other for there are as many shades totruth, beauty and goodness as there arehuman beings and for this very reasoneach one should become the manifesta-tion of his own innate manner. Onehindrance to one's fulfillment of his idealis that he is judged by the light of theidea in others. If he were judged by the


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10 THE LIFE IDEALlight of the ideal in others he would bethe victim of injustice for the highest inone differs in vital elements as much asdoes the sun differ from the moon.The self-appointed rulers over the dif-

ferent affairs of human life, the rulersof fashion, the rulers of manners, themakers of moral codes, and those whodictate the standards of arts (for musicand painting and sculpture and literaturevary as much from time to time as dothe patterns of automobiles) and those,who, calculating, fix the educationalstandards, all are formulators of ideasand they seldom describe an ideal.

There is as much difference betweenan idea and an ideal as there is betweena guess of the sense and reason depart-ment of the objective mind and the in-spiration of the innate intelligence whichknows without having to acquire. Thedepartment of truth, the intuitive phasewith the heritage of spirit which spon-taneously perceives, transcends all pos-sible knowing upon the part of intellect.An idea is a thought arrangement se-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 11lected with reference to sensation, volun-tarily formulated by the volitional de-partment of the human being; the idealis a picture originating in the highestspiritual phase of the individual, it is anelement of the kingdom of heaven withinthe person. That which is called for bythe picture of the perfect from thatsource should be worked into experience,should become objectified; that is thesource of the true architectural plan af-ter which one's life, if it is to be true,must be constructed.

Life is not a mass of something; lifeis the sum total of the elements or fac-tors of experience and there is a truthpicture, an ideal, which pertains to eachitem of life. Outside of some generalprinciples there is nothing commonamong mankind for the ideal for eachcalls for an individual mode of exhibit-ing even those subjects which, by name,may be present in all. A musician mayexpress music faithful to all the scienceof music and true to his individual ideal.Let another copy to the utmost and it


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12 THE LIFE IDEALwill not require a cultivated musician todisclose the fact that the faithful copy isnot music, a mere amateur will perceivethat. Yet the world of echoes will striveto imitate.That which is involved in the last ref-

erence above is true of each thing in ev-ery life. Because ideas have become theusual plans the world has become prim-arily made up of human beings who areimitators and domination (tyrants andsubjects) is consented to by the manyand the part of ideals amounts to a sub-ject for phantastic speech. The chiefhindrance to one's expression of theideal is the very loneliness of the situa-tion. The world is following ideas con-ceived of from without and neglectingthe attitudes and practice by which thepictures of the perfect can come beforethe consciousness of the individual to beapproved as working plans by the execu-tive department of the individual.To be ridiculed and scorned is theprice of daring to be one's self and fewthere are who have the commendable


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 13self-sufficiency to be true when it is thecustom to be false. To follow the trueGod when there are false gods withpopular following requires more inde-pendence than is usual. Then, if oneshould become a loyal follower of thetruth as it would be revealed to him fromwithin he is sure to become so originalthat he will project into the lives of hisfellows new ways ; he will become asaviour and saviour's are subject to cru-cifixion, or at least to persecution untilit is disclosed they cannot be annihilated,then the world accepts their teachings,declaring that it always knew the teach-ings were true. A man usually prefersto travel the beaten path ; he chooses thecommonplace rather than have the stand-ard, the individual innate ideals, becomethe rule of his action. To be originaland follow the guidance of the supremeself within is not popular, it is a solitaryway and that is the greatest hindranceto living the life true to the ideal. Butthere are many helpsthey overcomethe hindrances if we know certain psy-


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14 THe LIFE IDEALchological laws pertaining to the idealand the compensation for living after it.

HELPS TO LIVING THE IDEAL.That self-approval attending upon a

consciousness of being right is paymentenough to warrant a triumphant contactwith all the oppositions to the life ideal.For the larger part life is a dealing withpictures; pictures in memory throughrecollections, pictures in prophecythrough anticipation. Our contact withthings, themselves, is brief but we maylive in the pictures of the experiencesforever. The most awful feature is notin the moment in which the situation ispassing when it is a bad affair; the dis-mal picture it made while the experiencewas on, stamping an impression upon theplastic self comprised the chief disaster.The joy in a fleeting moment of objectifi-cation may be slight ; the joy in long an-ticipation of something altogether desir-able may hold one in ecstasy for a greatwhile and the delight in a retained im-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 15mortal picture which is subject to recallmay be of the heavenly degree and in-cessant.

I find in my professional observationspeople who are suffering more from arecollection of pain than from any or-ganic condition warranting pain. Thepower of an image is shown to be abso-lute on the side of ruin. Harboring thepicture in fear is a scientific basis of re-realizing the experience depicted in theimagery comprising the fear. This isscientific praying. Then, after the thinghas been experienced, the suffering onaccount of the impression it made inpicture form is much greater than theconscious suffering while the disasterwas on. Surely the potency of the im-age is equally great when there is a joy-ful anticipation followed by the brief pe-riod of experience involving mind, souland body, with the subsequent situationin which memory retains in its store-house the history of the joyful encount-er. The normal human being will rejoiceincessantly in pleasurable anticipations


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16 THE LIFE IDEALand happy recollections and this by noforce of will but it will be his spontane-ous attitude. I supply all of the abovefor the purpose of bringing ourselves toapproach the proper estimate of a pic-ture when it is impressed in the memoryphase of the soul or in its prophecyphase. If I succeed in that I will silenceany suggestion of limitation of potenciespertaining to the ideal when we declarethat the ideal is a picture, an image, athought in the innate phase of the soul.A man or woman should be, in thebody, in every form, texture, tint, chem-

istry, magnetism and function; expres-sion of countenance, the sparkle of theeye and the glow of the cheekeveryphysical appointment,' a materilizationand personification of the image of theindividual, the picture present in his de-partment of ideals. The physical beingof such a person would be in the imageof God, for the God within has suppliedthe image after which the body is built.The God within, the department ofideals, holds the picture of every in-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 17dividual item of character that should bemanifested in the habit or characterphase of the person ; one is not possessedof a body at conception except one cell.He has the potency of a complex bodywhich must be built. He is not bornwith character, he must build that. Hisphase of innate ideals is the source fromwhich the patterns must be received byhis consciousness and approved by thatvolitional phase before the elements ofcharacter can be individualized as thespiritual image of Godimages suppliedfrom the God within.The God within holds all of the pic-

tures of the innate ideals of which thelife of the human being, the individual,should become comprised. His relation-ships to his fellow-man, to the world'sflowers and all the rest of animate forms,every expression, indeed all things whichone should experience, manifest or at-tain are in image form present in the de-partment of innate ideals and for theindividual there is no other source from


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18 THE LIFE IDEALwhich his true pictures, architecturalplans, can be gained.

I am now looking to some of the helpsto living the ideal life; could I do morethan show that which the ideal contains ?Could one wish for higher attainmentthan the perfect for himself as an indi-vidual? Could one desire more joy thanthe potencies of joy present in his ownsoul? Can one wish for art that isgreater than the completest? Is it pos-sible to wish for a body superior in formand harmonies to that which is appointedby the God within?

I consider that I have supplied thesupremest help when I have shown thepotency of an image in any phase of thesoul, either its memory, prophecy or in-nate phase in which are held the picturesof the perfect upon every subject, theideals. At least I have supplied a mostvital aid when I show where one mustlook to find his individual working plans,which, being followed will make him andhis life ideal. In this exhibition I realizeI have told no one anything which he did


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 19not know previous to my description.Perhaps he did not know he knewper-haps he is benefited by knowing that onewho has no devotion except to discoverman and disclose man to himself, tes-tifies to its truth; everyone mayhave more confidence in his ownknowledge when his impressionshave become corroborated by one whogives his life to the subject. If my testi-mony helps one when I have borne wit-ness to the presence of truth in everyman I am sure I will become a benefac-tor indeed when I show the scientificformulas for gaining the practical rela-tionships to the department of deificknowledge and power; the seat of theideals. I am sure few teachers havebeen of service in this direction. I havebeen compelled to wonder why the lead-ers of men, the selfappointed teachers,have taught throughout the ages that ifa man is to be built into perfections hemust seek outside for the patterns; hemust pray for a special providence tosupply a pattern and force his life into


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20 THE LIFE IDEALfulfillment of the pattern. I have won-dered why a man must wait for favorif he is to become strong in body andcharacter or if he is to be guided bysomething greater than his intellect hemust look to an outside source. Man-kind is coming into its own very rapidlyand there is a liberating gospel that shallsatisfy everyone that he is right when heis looking within for pattern and powerpertaining to all of which he should be-come the manifestation.

I do not wish to convey the truthspertaining to how to live the life idealthrough the "thou shalt nots." Gainingand applying the truth in any mattercontradicts all that is false upon the sub-ject. Enthroning the ideal repudiates allthat is different and less. One has nooccasion to attack ugliness when one isgrowing beauty. One has no occasion tomake outcry against the artificial whenhe is living the natural and all true beau-ty is in the natural, not in any of its sub-stitutes and one is giving one's fellow-man too large a place when he would


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 21practice the artifice because it is a cus-tom.

But how wonderful is beautyI canagree with Maeterlink when he declaresthat beauty is the soul's foodit surelyperishes when there is not a supply andhow it does shrink either in the presenceof ugliness or the artificialities, the hy-pocrisies. One becomes like that aboutwhich he thinks a great dealmay wedwell in the ideal ; may we seek to knowits face, may we become familiar withall that is within that nearby kingdom ofheaven.


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JUatttmg a |JragrON S CIO US, intentionalformal praying does notneed attention at ourhands; the prayers issuedin the average life when the iudividual

is unaware of the fact that he is askingor commanding in the most scientificmanner should have the most carefulexamination. There are definite lawspertaining to prayer the same as thereare laws of sowing and gathering.Upon the subject of prayer we act

usually as if only the good things whichwe formally ask would become probablerealizations. We would be just as wisein thinking that since wheat is a mostdesirable product seeds of wire-grasswould not reproduce their kind if theyshould be thrown upon the earth. Thelaws of germination are just the samewhether the earth receives into its bosomthe grains of wheat sown intentionally or


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 23a burr that falls from the sleeve of one'scoat. The farmer knows this so wellthat that he is ever watchful to see thatno burrs mature on his land; he knowsthat with slight indulgence it would notbe very long until there would be nofood in the soil for wheat, it would allbe consumed by the weed.Everyone assumes a familiarity with

the subject of planting. The wife selectsfrom the seed catalogue the flowers shewould wish to see blooming in her yardand she plans the seeds knowing that shecan depend upon the development thatwill give her the color scheme she wouldwish fulfilled when the flowers areblooming. How fortunate she would beif she knew that the thoughts she formsin her meditations and the thoughts shehurls into picture form, are, when is-sued, real seeds and planted in the me-dium which will reproduce each thoughtin its own peculiar shading and will bewholesome and sweet like the orange ormay be as poisonous as the deadly night-shade. I am not using a figure of speech


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24 THE LIFE IDEALin this connection ; I am exhibiting paral-lels; there is no difference in the princi-ples involved in planting a seed of thecarnation and issuing a formulatedthought, coming to a conclusion, for thereproductive quality in both instances isthe same. It is the image with impulsein the carnation using a cell in materialform through which to objectify or ex-hibit to the world that which that pic-ture (image) calls for and it comes backto the credit of the carnationit keepsits classification since it was through thecarnation species that the image came.The house-wife plants the varieties shewishes, dependably certain of their faith-fulness to species and variety. The pinkseed is a thought and earth, temperature,moisture and chemistry aid in the ex-pression of the thought.The woman meditates or in an emo-tional manner thinks a thought, createsa picture, a picture accompanied with animpulse; her brain is the instrument ofher mind used in formulating this seed,her subconscious self, acting upon ether


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 25waves, plants in the souls of other beingsthe image and impulse (the seed). Shejust as certainly plants these seeds in herown soul or subconscious phase, there-fore, altogether she has the whole worldof mankind and perhaps the domesticanimals with which she is in rapportand probably the vegetable world withwhich she has contact, for her harvestfield. The earth helps to answer theprayer of the carnation seed, its prayerfor expression, the universe of cell lifeand intelligence may serve in giving backin kind but multiplied degree the repro-duction of the formulated thought of thehuman being and in the reproduction ex-hibit experience (facts) forms or thatwhich is essentially comprehended in thepicture created by the mind of the humanbeing. In the instance of the housewifeshe may be scientifically sure that she hasprovided for multiplied beauty, happi-ness, health, harmony, love or whatso-ever construction is described in herthought, to return to her from myriaddirections, when her thought is predomi-


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26 THE LIFE IDEALnately beautiful. It is quite as depend-able that fear, hatred, bitterness, abuse,falsehood, dishonesty or any other de-structive picturing will return in all mul-tiplicity, some a hundred fold, some athousand fold, but the harvest surely willbe after the kind of thoughts formulatedin meditation or emotionally reinforced.

Naturally, one wishes to have it ex-plained; how can these things be? Allthought results are fulfillments of pray-ers ; they occur under the science of pray-er. When a farmer sows seeds he ispraying for a harvest but the chief virtueis in the seed itself being a prayer. Ifthe farmer inadvertently drops a cockleburr he has complied with the science ofprayer as fully as when he intentionallydropped the grain of corn and each willproduce its kind (unless he destroys oneor the other before it reproduces).We used to be instructed that a prayeris a desire of the heart, uttered orthought. Through the modern modes ofpractical psychology it has become pos-sible to analyze prayer and of course we


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 27have come to realize that a fear of theheart has the same potency that a desireor hope possesses; that the same powerand intelligence answers in both in-stances. When one has desire and ex-pectation he directs the deific power with-in him constructively; when he is filledwith fear he has as much expectancy asone who hopes and his fearpicturingdirects the same deific power destructive-ly that works constructively when one'spictures call for blessing instead of theopposite.With the same certainty that the de-sirable grain of corn and the undesirablecockle burr referred to above will bothreproduce unless neutralized, sterilized,cancelled or the virility destroyed in someway so will the images planted in one'sown subconscious and in the souls ofothers reproduce and continue to do so,repeating the history periodically, unlesscounter suggestions are used to destroythe virility of the images, the seedthoughts. All planting is scientificallyprayingall thinking is planting. All


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28 THE LIFE IDEALforms and all experiences have theirsources in images and the human beinghas the power of selecting the images,choosing his prayers. He needs to chooseprayers to cancel every destructive pic-turing he has ever issued or that mayhave come into his soul through heredi-ty or telepathy from others or picturesof diseases or disasters or inharmoniesthat may have been experienced. All un-cancelled pictures in one's soul are mostpotent prayers and they will reproduceunder the law of soul expectancy, thatlaw by which the God within builds intoform that which is called for by the im-ages that have been consented to orchosen by the volition of the individual.


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tantrums wet iprsgersOCTOR, I think I musttell you about that which Iknow to be the cause ofmy suffering from inflamed

nerves. I have carried my sorrow, neverfeeling until today that any good couldcome to anyone through its discussion;and I do feel so humiliated over havingto talk about myself. After the thirdtreatment the pain disappeared and re-mained absent until my sorrow re-appeared, that which paralyzes my mind,takes all hope out of my soul and dis-eases my body."My sister and I have lived togetherfor several years, she being engaged inan art way and I in the practical life. Ihave no interest in life except to care forher and I would gladly give up my lifefor her pleasure or to save her in anymanner. I love her and I do not carefor anything else nor anyone else in any


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30 THE LIFE IDEALimportant degree. I decided that shewould become more contented if wemade a home for ourselves so I have pro-vided the home and have kept it up and,although attending to business, I do thework of the house. All of this would bea constant joy and I would grow strongif it were only to work for her and ourhome. The work would make no im-pression upon me harmfully. Some daysI leave home to go to my work withonly the clear horizon of happinesshowwell I feel and how successful I am onthose days, too! It does not seem thatit could ever become dark again butwhen I return home I may receive themost terrific tongue lashing from my sis-ter. The excuse she begins with may bewholly a trumped up thing, at most it willbe over some mere trifle of disappoint-ment for which she blames me and shemakes it a life and death matter beforeshe ceases talking about it ; then she con-nects the circumstance with all the thingsshe has made the excuse for abusing me,or at least goes over enough of them to


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 31agitate herself to the highest degree ofrage and abuse. I do not know whereshe gets the terms in which she cursesme ; all of her eloquence is applied in herterrific condemnation. Any self-defenseI make arouses her all the more and if Iwere to become angry at her injustice Iwould have occasion to fear for my life,so determined is she to overcome me. Iendeavor to repress all that I could sayin an outcry at so terrible a thing. WhenI am crushed to the earth and have todrag myself through the household ser-vice and finally retire, my grief keepsme awake until I fall asleep with a dazedbrain. Of course I see that such de-structive images which I hold previousto going to sleep is a scientific treat-ment/' (A scientific prayer, she couldhave said) "to send me into chronic sor-row and suffering and disease.

"It would make no difference if Iknew it would take my life I could notprevent the overwhelming grief at a sit-uation so wholly unjust in which theonly person in the world I care for is


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32 THE LIFE IDEALtreating me so badly. I awaken withinflamed nerves ; I do my morning workand go out to business all day at thework which requires me to walk a greatdeal and the pain is more awful than Ican describe. My sister may appearradiant and happy in a moment after shehas used her abusive words to my com-plete annihilation. After her explosionshe is perfectly happy but a thousandtimes I have apologized to her for doingthe things which she, herself, had done,not I. I would do anything in the worldfor peaceI would destroy my own lifeeasily only I know that could not bringher any advantage. I could forget theworst thing she ever did or said if shewould acknowledge she had done wrongand ask forgiveness but she never seemsto believe herself in the wrong, not evenafter she has had her outlet in hatefulattitudes. She continues to act as if Iwere to be pitied for having been thecause of so much suffering to her. ButI am so grateful for any change that Icomply with her demands and accept her


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 33favorable attitude toward herself, hop-ing to delay another attack as long as Ican. They never are absent a length oftime sufficient for me to gain in the in-terval so as to keep up an average ofhealth; I am losing and I hoped withyour aid to get ahead. You helped meto a few days of ease and I saw whata wonderful thing is peace and healthand I was making such good progress inmy business and I was foolish enoughto think nothing could ever happen to setme back again. I seem to forget howterrible the assault of injustice is; howterrible it is to hear my own sister usinglanguage of the vilest sort especiallythat degree of despair that I feel whenshe uses that language in blaming me. Icannot imagine what would have becomeof her if I had not taken care of her butif I had caused her complete ruin I couldnot be more condemned. Doctor, I wishto get well for her sake; what am I todo ? Your treatments could cure me butnot while I have these awful periods ofgrief. I feel that if I did not have the


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34 THE LIFE IDEALgriefs I would not need the treatmentand yet that it is an injustice to you andyour treatment to take it when I cannotlive consistent with the harmony youteach."

Well, my reader, what have you tosay? What is your solution of the prob-lem? "Why, I would just get right outof the life of such a wicked person,"says one. Would you do so? Perhapsyou who reply that way would not besituated to pass on a case like this at allfor I see you do not take account of thelaw by which this persecuted sister be-came the victim. You, the same as ev-ery other person, are a result. Yourbody, its form, state of health therein,your disposition, intellectuality and char-acter as well as all of your relationshipsare results. Results of what? Resultsof prayers. All images are scientificprayers, all images that become presentin the subconscious. This good womangrew up under the teaching that sacri-fice is the highest order of human life;she prayed while establishing her prin-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 35ciples of spontaneous sacrifice that shemight become the scape goatperhapsin the more modern language which byuse has ceased to be slang, the goat. Sheprayed that she might be repressed inthat which she could become and, there-fore, prayed that a life would become soselfish that it would dominate her andhelp repress herhelp her fulfill herspirit of sacrifice. If she believed inpenance she could not possibly passthrough more typical performance tothat end. The self annihilation of theascetic could not be greater. Everyonewho prays to become a victim is prayingfor another to become a victimizertwolives becoming destructive through aprayer lived, a prayer that is inspiredout of the best that is in the human be-ing; really inspired through the desireto serve but with the idea to serve atself loss.

I suppose you would not be a readerof my writings if you aid not have aninterest in them ro an extent that youdesire to know what I couH bring out of


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36 THE LIFE IDEALmy knowledge of practical psychologyin the nature of a solution of the prob-lem. I am sure it ;s a p :ychological mat-tera case of cause and effect in all re-spects. To change an effect one mustchange the cause. My reply to your im-mediate question, what is the cause? Thecause is prayer, imagethoughts. Eachkind of thought has its results; destruc-tive thought produces destruction, notpossible construction. Constructivethought cannot produce destruction.When one sees destruction he must besure that the working plan, image, pray-er, was destructive. The situation de-scribed is a destructive result. The vic-timize^ given to destructive tantrumswas well filled up with destructive pic-turings over which she became emotion-al. She planted destructive imagery inthe soul of her victim and had given thesuggestions so often under the third de-gree principle, with destruction, that theone who was abused had wondered ifshe were not mistaken in herself andreally was as bad as the tormentor de-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 37clared. She was on the eve of con-demning herself as she was condemnedin the imagery of the tyrannical sister.

Yes, the solution must consist inchanging the pictures, especially in themind and soul of the one who form-ulates the curses. Is this possible? Yes,but that which I say from practical ex-perience in this matter I would not haveoccasion to say in many things that arewholly wrong. I have hope of correc-tion in almost every wrong but I can-not assume much in these situations andI have had them to deal with where itwas a husband and wife, a brother andsister, parent and child, and even in in-stances of friends who had become sorelated that one would endure the cursesof the other and yet continue in his lifeand service. I reply, cure is possiblebut not probable. Impractical, mystical,phantastic people, those who are willingto affirm an untruth or an improbabilityare intolerant of my truthful statementthat correction in such instances is im-probable. Nothing of the desirable


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38 THE LIFE IDEALoccurs without aspiration nor exceedingthe degree of it; aspiration for correc-tion involves admission of a situationthat needs correction. One who hasabused and accused another the thous-ands of times that occur in the lives ofthose who have tantrums is egotistical,admits of no error in himself, managesalways to get the other person con-demned. Admitting no self inharmonyhe aspires for no correction for himself.Acknowledgement of need would be thevital part of a successful prayer for im-provement.

I noted carefully that the abusingsister did not repent afterward. To for-give, when asked, is constructive. Butto ask is constructive because it involvesacknowledgement of a need and a seek-ing after correction. That would becomea constructive prayer and if one sinnedagainst another seventy times seven andyet acknowledged the wrong and soughtforgiveness it would be constructive forboth persons. The egotist, the selfright-eous cannot comply with constructive


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 39prayer; they must change in dispositionfirst. I could have wished that I mightsay to this woman that if she endured,time would cure or that anything elsewould cure; I could say no such thingfor the law of attainment is throughaspiration and no one can ask in the rightspirit pertaining to an imperfection whileat the same time denying the imperfec-tion and charging all inharmony to an-other or others. There are many peo-ple who go through their lives withstunted, stultified characters becausetheir dominant quality is to put all blameon others for the inharmonies and whotry to steal the credit for themselves forthe good done by others. All suchpeople are living images, prayers, to be-come falsely blamed and to becomerobbed of whatsoever things they dopossess. Sooner or later their prayersbecome answered for they "will becomeconfused and invest where they shalllosesometimes invest that which is


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40 THE LIFE IDEALmore precious than money-wealth; in-vest their feelings.The only item of encouragement to

offer the distressed lady while she livedwith the sister was that through ourtelepathic communication with her sisterwe might create in her the impulse towish to realize her wrong modes andseek to correct them. To argue with herwould mean her renewal of reply thatshe was right and the other wrong; thiswould be a suggestion to herself to makeher still more the victim of her hallucina-tion of being right when she was alto-gether wrong. If we can convey astrong impulse to her soul to see thetruth and acknowledge to her own con-sciousness that she is in the wrong wemight then provide for the next im-portant feature, aspiration to becomeright.Have you noticed that all of the most

terrible things in life are things thatought not to be and would not be onlyfor some one's hardness, harshness,tyranny, egotism or self-righteousness?


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 41Calamities that come for which thereseems to be some reasonable excuse donot take hold of us with such destruc-tion as do things such as I have describedwhich are wholly due to injustice. Scien-tific prayer is fulfilled by those who areunjust, ultimately if not immediatelybringing into their experience the con-sistent results. In my analysis of theGadfly it was made evident that he whostings will be stung, and that more pain-fully than he could ever sting. One'sown soul answers in one's own life everycurse he feels relative to another."Curses, like chickens, come home toroost" was in writing books when weused to try to write after copy. Whydo curses come home to the individualand live in his life faithful to the imag-ery involved in the description when acurse is thought, whether uttered or not ?Because creating a thought is preparinga prayer and a prayer prepared is givento the God within to fulfill and the Godwithin is equipped with omnipotence sofar as the individual is concerned. The


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42 THE LIFE IDEALgood woman desired only her sister'shappiness, her blessing. Her good mo-tive could not prevent the reversing ofher chemistry from the normal when adestructive emotion filled her soultheimagery called, under the law of prayer,for the poisons to be created in her body,poisons that caused the nerves to becomeinflamed and her blood so charged withwrong chemistry that no cell of her bodycould receive the proper food. Thequestion of motive has little to do withresultsthe law is the law of prayer;if the imagery is destructive, neither mo-tive nor anything else can prevent de-struction occurring along the whole linein which the imagery applies. Con-structive imagery builds everyone andeverything which comes in contact withthe imagery. The law, first above allother laws to know and co-operate withis the law of prayerthe law of enter-taining in the subconscious a picture, athought.A husband had a form of disease thatcaused him to become delirious a period


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 43of time before his death. His wife wasdeeply impressed by that form of hissuffering and brooded over it a greatdeal. Six months after the husband'sdeath a girl was born. At the age ofthirty the daughter became violently in-sane. I am asked if there is any pos-sible connection between the mentalsituations of the two persons. It is en-tirely consistent that the mother andfather would have imparted the pre-natal imagery and impulse to this child.Stored in the subconscious of the childmay be many potent pictures either ofthe desirable or the unfortunate and thatis why I never fail to give every personwho comes under my' care in private orclass psycho-culture the repeated sugges-tion that every picture calling for anunhappy experience in disease or otherform shall become cancelled. A pictureis a prayer, a suggestion and the way toneutralize a picture is not through dosingwith a chemical but through the intro-duction of a counter prayer, suggestion.

All that can occur through heredity or


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44 THE LIFE IDEALpre-natal influence either would be thepassing over to the child's soul picturespossessed by the parents or ancestors.It might be true that the sister describedin the above has pictures from ancestrythat gave her the trend in her disposi-tion toward abusiveness of one whomight be serving her life in the mostimportant way. Law makes no allow-ance for the sourcelaw simply says,"You are entertaining pictures in yoursoul, prayers that call for fulfillment; ifyou retain the pictures I shall have tocontinue to bring you the same exper-iences." It is a fact that images createdfrom any source can become dissolved,made of no effect, therefore each one isresponsible for retaining virile pictureswhether he chose them originally or not.Under the laws of the silence and sug-gestion the pictures can be destroyed be-cause under the formulas direct com-mand will remove them from the handsof the Builder, the individual's own soul.All the prayers and wishing in the uni-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 45verse, directed elsewhere than to the seatof the control within the individual,would not remove a single pattern. Itis quite evident that I had access to thewrong sister in the instance given, so faras any effect upon the cause of conten-tion and unhappiness and disease is con-cerned. To reverse her trend, correcther disposition would provide for thecure of all the forms of inharmoniesin the lives of both sisters. Still no sug-gestions would count for any benefituntil confession of fault and personalaspiration became a voluntary attitude.

Everything desirable, even to heavenin all of its features is attainable throughprayer but growth depends as much uponelimination as upon nutrition. To elim-inate a fault requires the acknowledge-ment of the fault. Man is his ownmaker; he makes himself through prayerbecause by prayer he may remove allundesirable pictures and place within hisown soul the desirable pictures. Praywithout ceasing, but pray, as Jesus


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46 THE LIFE IDEALtaught, to the kingdom of heaven, theHighest within you.


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Ifegcfyniogg trt ti\t (goat|HE small boy was talking to

his cousin about a water-melon. The conversation wasoverheard by the larger boy,who, because he was of the same par

ents, was known as the boy's brother.The little fellow was suggesting that thecousin should take the melon from thepatch and hide it a-while, then if any-one made a fuss about the melon thesmall brother could say he did not knowwhere it was.The big brother took the case up for

trial at early candle lighting when thefather and mother and some more rel-atives were gathered as audience andspectators while the condemnation andsentence were passed upon the dishonesteight-year-old. The condemnation wasgreat at the time but the immediate pun-ishment was slight, the boy being sent tothe darkness.

There never came a time either in


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48 THE LIFE IDEALchildhood, youth or manhood in whichthe elder brother did not consider him-self the detective, witness, judge andjury to keep new miseries and condemna-tions over the younger. Had he notproved that the younger was dishonest,not to be trusted on a farm where therewas a ripe watermelon? And is it nottrue that he who will steal a penny inhis childhood would steal a million inhis adult stage?There is, so it is alleged, a scape-goat

in every family. The world loves ascape-goat, even appointing Jesus to beone for all the theological world. Ratherthan seem to create confusion betweenthis small boy and Jesus we would bestadopt the modern word which has passedfrom slang into acceptance in good so-cietythe younger lad and man was thegoat. The elder, self-righteous brothercommitted much more wrong than anyone boy's portion, but having obtainedthe conviction of the child on one occa-sion he was situated to make him thegoat on all others. The self-righteous


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 49one always went clear for he had waysof bringing appearancees to show him-self present in wrongs only as a guardianof his younger brother, who was so bad.In this family it was shown that it isscientifically dependable"to get a dogkilled, first give him a bad name."

I could add that from the history ofthis family a real sneak with the cow-ardice of the evesdropper with fondnessfor condemning others and the hypocrisyof the self-righteous may become aneverlasting factor of evil in the life ofone whom he selects for his victim.The little fellow, it seems, arrived inthe world to the great disappointmentof all who should have prepared a gra-cious welcome, therefore, there weremany forms of force working to appointhim the goat. He became necessary tothe elder brother, the coward, who en-joyed torturing the younger to the verypoint of death. He made the selectionof a poor cutting instrument which wasthe only reason that at ten years of agehe did not escape the world of affliction


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50 THE LIFE IDEALthrough his own hand. However, heserved the important purpose in hisbrother's life for the latter needed anoutlet for the meanness which no cir-cumstances except those of a "well reg-ulated" home could have provided.

Both became grown up but still re-mained in the same relationship. Whenbusiness matters developed in a form inwhich the senior had purchased muchmore merchandise than he could sell andwas heading for financial ruin, the goatarranged to get his notes taken and hisbrother's released. The ultimate con-demnation of the goat was as completeas when he planned to steal his ownwatermelon. The sneak (detective)could look in any old ash-barrel and findevidence to incriminate the brother andhe managed to do so upon every pointupon which the younger man had anyideals. His motives were impugned untilhe doubted his own sincere intentions inany matter and a thousand times he feltthat he would best accept his classifica-tion and become as bad as those who


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 51made his life and by their tyranny re-pressed all that was greatest within him.The psychology of relatives, when an-alyzed, exhibits the fact that almostevery life is directed to its great disad-vantage and limitation by the attitudesof the ones, closely related. The verylast liberation that comes to anyone, ifit comes, is liberation from the bad im-agery held over him by his relatives.

I have analyzed the above typical caseand, like you, my reader, I asked whatit could be that kept the boys and menin contactwhy did the younger onecontinue to be a goat? The short andtrue answer is, prayers held them bothin just what they were at all timesprayers that went in advance of thefacts and forms. The boy who was mis-judged was filled with pictures callingfor a sneak to remain in his lifeonewho would always keep him under suspi-cion. The elder brother was filled withpictures by which he must continue tocondemn unjustlyhe was also sendingprayers ahead which must ultimately


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52 THE LIFE IDEALcause him to be in a situation to be con-demned without cause ; he, too, must getinto a situation where one could hurthim more than he had ever hurt his vic-tim and also it must be a situation inwhich he was not earning such bad treat-ment from the source from which itcame. He had earned ithe had putout pictures calling for it but the agentof his affliction must not be warrantedin giving him the judgements and thepunishments. I am faithful to my sub-jectprayers are pictures stored in thesubconscious, the prayer answeringpower and every picture will be fulfilledunless it is destroyed by a counter sug-gestion.Time went on and the self-righteous

brother became confused in his plansand thought he was doing the best forhimself and such a noble deed for an-other, his sister, that he provided forher a nice home. Pretty soon she be-came dissatisfied and turned upon herbrother to pronounce him the chief fac-tor of destruction of all that was good


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 53in her and her life. Really he was pro-viding for her more than one could rea-sonably ask. Now he is the goathisprayers, pictures which had been storedaway while he was unjustly condemninghis brother are becoming fulfilled, paidup with usury. The meanness describedunder the title in this book, "TantrumsAre Prayers" which was attributed tothe victimized sister, was the quality ofhis sister's description of the brotherwho was trying his best to make her lifemost comfortable. His desperation be-came so great that he even appealed tohis younger brother, his oftimes goat,for a solution of the problem. By thistime the younger had had his "eye teeth*cut and had only one reply to makethe reply, "One's life is an incessantsowing and reaping; in one period theindividual realizes his pictures of a for-mer period. When those pictures, pray-ers are fulfilled then one merges intothe fulfillment of another series of pic-turings, for thoughts are seeds and theyare sown in the soul's field and they


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54 THE LIFE IDEALmust all grow unless their virility is de-stroyed. " The sister was issuing threats,prayers, pictures, thoughts, of gettingmarriedprayers that were seeds sownin her soul and in the soul of the brother.

She became married after this periodof mistaken emotions and false interpre-tations and accusations against her bro-ther. She was praying for a real formto come which would fulfill her mistakeninterpretation of the brother. As forher and her prayers, let it suffice to saythat she declared that the good, worth-while work of her life would be accomp-lished in developing self-mastery in herhusband who has tantrums and becomesangrier and more severe in his falseabuse of her than she ever was capableof becoming in regard to her brother.Scientific prayer, is my subject and Ihave not made a digression. What be-came of the brother, the one who createdthe goat, and then, himself, became thegoat? The outlook seems to be favor-able for him to remain a goat the restof his life. He fixed his affections on


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 55an idea, all of his hopes, centering allof his joys on one pictureand for himthe picture is not within the laws of cre-ation to become fulfilled. His sister'spictures of marriage grew like weeds inhis souleveryone knows what cockle-burrs, ragweeds, dogfennel, dandeliondo to wheat, corn or other desirableproducts; his stored pictures are cre-ating results after the order indicated.Liberation is not in prospect ; apparentlyhe has tied his hands for the rest of hislife. He has deceived himself all alongthe way as does everyone who becomesa ferret to seek out the evil of others.What one looks for in others is a scien-tific prayer to become like, one's self.Life is full of the greatest privilege thatthe Universe has to bestow ; the privilegeof making pictures, thinking thoughts,formulating prayers. We may reverseall trends by changing the pictures, an-nihilating the undesirable laying holdupon the desirable.


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|0 FEARLESS and sincerestudent will value any-thing Jesus was alleged tohave said unless it be con-

sistent with his predominating thoughtor with demonstrated truth. The onefact of the long period of time whichelapsed before his teachings were putinto any form for permanent preserva-tion would make the report unreliable.To whatever extent I shall at any time

give attention to any sayings of any partof the New or Old Testament it will beto preserve a truthnot because I thinkany writer therein originated a truth.I must be understood to believe com-pletely in the divinity of Jesus, for aman cannot reach individualization byany route except the God his Fatherroute.Man is spirit, therefore could not be

the offspring of matter, although hecould not manifest as an individual spiritwithout a material body or instrument.


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 57Not even an insane mind has been ableto form a conception of spirit separatefrom some sort of a body, ethereal orcoarser. I wish to be understood to be-lieve that Jesus meant what he said whenhe taught the universal brotherhood ofman and the common divinity in whichhe participated with all who should comeafter him.Many a church has not been built uponthe truths of the Bible, but upon dis-torted interpretations of it. It is a fail-ing institution with a disposition to dis-card, not the Bible, but its own teach-ings, with no tendency to approach thetruths in the book. Therefore it is forthe scientist to save the good that isin the Xew Testament.

I realize that when the disciples askedJesus what to say, he gave them a scien-itfic formula, which I take pleasure inexhibiting in its accuracy, to restore itto useto be prayed in spirit, not simplyin form as it has been in the past.The Father, the Creator of each body,

is the soul that is in that bodv, and the


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58 THE LIFE IDEALsame God that builds the body remainspresent within it to rule it, rebuild it andto answer to all that the individual is tobe or to have; this is the permanent in-dividual.

Let us follow this fact now. Whenthey asked Jesus to teach them a prayerlike John taught his disciples, Jesus saidto begin by saying ( he was teachingthe number) : "Our Father which art inheaven " Then they interrupted himand asked: "Where is heaven?" Towhich he replied: "the kingdom ofheaven cometh not with observation, itis within you."The Father or King or Creator that

is in this kingdom of heaven is thepower that he told them to address. Tostudy this with understanding we shouldthink what it is with which the discipleswere to make this prayer. You surelysee at once that it is the objective manthat is praying. Is it not plain that theinstruction is "When you pray, choosethese words?" Now, if one chooses, hedoes so with his conscious will or ob-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 59jectivehis intellectual department.Literally ,then, Jesus told them to praywith the outer, objective man to theFather which is in the Kingdom ofHeaven, which is within, and also taughtthem to believe that when they prayedthey would receive. Jesus had shownthem that the individual, prayer-answer-ing God is within. He had shown themabout the innate perfect knowledgewithin in all of the lessons he had taughtabout his fatherthat he and his fatherare one with the Comforter which isone of the provinces of the departmentof innate knowledge lessons whichtaught that the father and son and holyspirit or Comforter are one. Then, inorder to make the individual a unit bybringing external self and life into ac-cord with his inner self, he asks themto pray and to say: 'Our Father whichart in heaven, hallowed be thy name"a man should with his will reverence hisown soul'thy kingdom come, thy willbe done on earth as it is in heaven"a reasonable prayer in view of the fact


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60 THE LIFE IDEALthat the outer or sense standards andthe limited knowledge of the objectivereasoning mind and will could not choosefor the best nor know how to direct thelife. Therefore, the prayer to cause theobjective life to be of the same will thatis known by the department of innateknowledge, so that all the phases of one'slife will be under infinite guidance, isessential.

"Give us this day our daily bread" isa good form for two reasons ; one is thatit teaches the lesson of constant trustthat prevents us from looking ahead withanxiety, and the other is that if the in-nate department of the soul is believedin to an extent that it is even prayed toit will prompt all of the activities in busi-ness and breadwinning life; an attitudeand practice most needed by us today.

"Forgive us our trespasses as we for-give those who trespass against us"ifthere had been any doubt previous tothis sentence that this is the prayer ofthe voluntary part of the man it wouldbe decided here, when he says for one


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 61to forgive another, etc. In forgivingyou have to first bring your mind tochoose to forgive, and afterwards, inyour heart, you forgive.He says for his disciples to commandthat creative, controlling, supreme powerwithin to express the harmonies in theobjective, physical and intellectual manthat the intellectual man chooses to havein his relationship to his fellow man. Iwish to make this vital phase of thequestion plain, so I will say: Let it besupposed that one comes to a decisionto hate his fellow man, with cause orwithout. Hate is always just the same,it is on the destructive side (you do nothave to hate any one, just go away andhave nothing to do with him if he is notcongenial enough to be helped at yourhands). A hating attitude of the minddetermines the imagery to be held in themindit is law that the image held inthe mind shall be the design which thebuilding and organizing and reorganizingpower within shall follow. When thatcontrolling power exhibits hate in the


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62 THE LIFE IDEALbody, the individual is sick and his mindsoon ceases to think right.

It is equivalent to a command to thatpower within to curse one in every way,for that one to fill his mind with hateor condemnation. I have given the ex-act chemical and other constitutionalchanges attendant upon the unforgivingattitude in various books. Let it be thata man chooses to forgive another, thenin accord with his prayer his soul actsgenerously, constructively and harmoni-ously through and upon the individualin all of his phases. Even Jesus paid ev-ery tribute to the man's will. He al-ways showed that a man could have thatwhich he chose, but that if he chose notin accord with this father in the innerkingdom, that which he received wouldbe to his injury; that it would separatehim objectively from his innate self, hisdepartment of ideals. And he furthertaught that this separation constitutedhell, punishmentthat a rich man wouldseldom find this innate self because he,having his objective standards, would


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 63not seek the higher and seeking is theessential act upon the part of the con-scious mind in order to find the higher.Then Jesus said: "Lead us not into

temptation, but deliver us from evil."To see the meaning of this you will haveto follow me through the process bywhich one can make such an impressionupon his Father, his soul, his controllingdepartment, that that power could becaused to lead one to choose evil spon-taneously. In order that a man be afree agent he must be so related in hiswill to the building and executive powerwithin him that he can command thatpower to obey the will in its choice. Ifone could not will and cause the execu-tive department to follow his choosingthere would be no individualitywe aremade peculiar through our individual in-terpretations of life.

Then, since this is true, we choose away of thinking or we choose an action.We choose to do a thing and after sochoosing and so acting a few times wediscover that we do that thing in that


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64 THE LIFE IDEALway without thinkingwe do it spon-taneously. We do it involuntarily andunconsciously because we have by therepetition impressed the power withinthat that is our desire. Jesus said tothem that if they would pray in his way,in these words, that they could affectthis spontaneous department to give theirminds right inclinations and correct theimpressions to the contrary that had beenmade upon that plastic self."For thine is the kingdom and the

power and the glory, forever. ,,Scientifically speaking, if a man livesa constant acknowledgement that the in-

nate self is the everlasting individual,and that all superior power is inherentthere, this attitude unifies the individualin all of his phases, under the one king-dom of heaven, and such an individualwill surely say "thine is the Glory."

If you will read the whole teachingsof Jesus you will realize that this was theKingdom he came to establish on earth;to acquaint each man with his own in-nate, God self ; the instruction that would


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 65show the law of his own liberty. He didnot come to create a church; he formedno organizations. The church's interpre-tation that his teachings were to pointman to heaven as a place after death isfar from the truth and far more disas-trous than the interpretation that theJews and Romans put upon his teach-ings when they said he was trying to es-tablish a local government with himselfas the rulerwhich interpretation did, inaccord with his own oft repeated prophe-cy, result in his death.The plain and simple teachings of Je-sus will cause the development of char-acter. The distortion has robbed thebelieving man of his hope and his for-mula for development.

I commend to all men the prayerJesus taught his disciples, realizing thatit is the conscious man addressing theGod within, never to pray as a form only,but to believe and feel ; modify the wordsto meet any situation.


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HERE is a scientific form-ula for obtaining the Vis-ion, for receiving inspira-tion, the true and depend-

able guidance, instruction and comfort,direct from the department that has per-fect knowledge and power.That formula is comprehended in the

terms and practices and principles of theSilence.There is a heavenly quiet which can

be enjoyed and converted into multi-plied blessing by an adept, even if hewere in the midst of great anvils, fur-naces and forges of a riveting shop orsurrounded by a multitude of turbulentpeople. A quiet that he feels in all ofhis being when he commands it ; when hemay hear no other musical instrumentbut his own violin or piano, althougha score of instruments were operatingaround him, each following its own mel-ody.There are others who are completely


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 67stunned by sounds or movements or eventhoughts around them; those who cannot sit quietly or choose their own move-ments in the midst of a multitude, butrather fall into the confusion with oth-ers. Again, there are those who neverknow or feel the quiet even in the soli-tude of forest or desert or by the sideof still waters. Not feeling the quiet,they often make violent sounds to driveaway fear. I find there are as many va-rieties of attitudes toward quiet as thereare people, so I may as well desist fromdefining what mere quiet means to hu-man beings.There are many senses in which there

may be a quiet, none of which are inany way related to 'The Silence"to ex-plain this will enable many people to un-derstand why they do not receive theblessings that we claim scientifically pos-sible from certain practices under thetrue Silence.Many a man has followed a habit oftaking a little walk at the beginning orthe ending of the day or at midday who


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68 THE LIFE IDEALnever obtained any important result fromit; yet when Abraham Lincoln returnedto the White House after his walk heknew exactly what to do with referenceto the pending questions of that day.Many a man has sat back in his seatin a car, to all appearances asleep, al-though not asleep, who only obtained alittle physical rest and relaxation; Lin-coln under similar circumstances hadsomething at hand the following day,which he prepared in those moments onthe train, that so far exceeded in merit thespeech of Everett, the greatest orator ofthat period, that Lincoln's speech madethe people feel it would have been asacrilege to applayd, a speech that car-ried every man with the speaker to thecomplete annihilation of the prejudices.Lincoln had a miracle for every hour ofhis life to all except those who under-stand the powers of the Silence. Noman ever excelled him in the practicalknowledge that was needed in his fieldof action and yet he had not the educa-tion of school or college ; he had the edu-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 69cation of "The Silence." But if thous-ands of others have done the same things,apparently, that he did with reference toretreating from the stir of surroundings,yet could not solve problems, what wasthe secret of Lincoln's bringing so muchout of the principle and practice?

Lincoln was not one who went intotrances, nor did he ever think that he wasspoken to by a voice from the outside,so his ability to retire was a retirementto his inner self. His soul was his teach-er all through his life. Without know-ing it, perhaps, he scientifically appliedthe laws of the Silence. Lincoln's great-ness is not for you, but a greater great-ness for you is to be found in the samepractice, for it will be your individualunfoldment, and what is your own ismore to you than if you were a copy ofthe Savior of the world.To begin a formal practice of the

Methods of the Silence the universalprocedure, regardless of the form of theblessing you wish, is the preparation bypassivity.


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70 THE LIFE IDEALPassivity is a mental state as com-

plete in rest and ease as if you wereasleep, although the stage of passivity Iam describing is not sleep, but often isfollowed by sleep.

Passivity of the mind cannot be per-fect with any tension upon the body, ex-ternal or internal. The first step, there-fore, is to place the body in a place andposition where relaxation is possible.Will to let go. When you actually dropdown as a dead weight upon chair orcouch you put all of the voluntary partof you to rest and this is sufficiently sug-gestive to your involuntary mind to putall involuntary organs and structures torest, internal and external. Now let yourmind wander, indifferently, to many sub-jects, avoiding concentration of the mind,for that is activity, whereas you are nowseeking passivity.When the body is comfortable and re-laxed and the mind indifferent, passivityis not slow in coming to almost any one.You have in the above the lesson onpassivity which is scientific. Every one


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 71has brought ruin to himself when hemodified it. When they tell you to con-centrate your mind in this passivity youwill prevent all good results if you obeythem. Do you ask why? Because thepassivity is for the purpose of bringingyour objective self subject to impressionsthat come out of the subjective self; ofblending your conscious mind with thesoul so that you can receive its instruc-tions or the benefit of its healing power.You are making ready to carry yourprayer right to the power that cananswer it, and as long as your consciousmind remains actively fixed upon thething you wish your soul is not takinghold of the matter. You must objective-ly place your desires with your soul.

If I have made the ways of relaxationand passivity sufficiently plain to you, letus go back to something that you shoulddo before you become passive. I mightrefer you to Lincoln's practice to makethis clear. The national questions werebefore him to answer. With his ob-jective phase of mind, he reviewed all


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72 THE LIFE IDEALof the features of the matter and hesaw how vital the situation was and hewas intensely alive with the desire totake the proper actionhe aspired to dothe best thing. Then he said to himself"I will put this aside now and think ofsomething else and after awhile I willtake a walk down the highway and whenI come back I will take this up anddecide upon it." He did not meditateupon it while he was gone, but if it cameinto his mind he looked for a bird ortalked to the treeshis mind was in astate of abstraction sometimes hewould say: "Well, Til sleep over thisand tell you in the morning ;" that isthe same thing, there is aspiration, thereis a mental act of separating the oneidea from every other, which is concen-tration, and then there is a completetrust that you will know, after your rest,what to do. These steps are all pre-paratory and previous to the relaxationand passivity.Thousands of people have used this

formula with a desire to obtain a cer-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 73tain answerand they received an over-whelming impulse in the direction theywished. This shows that the power thatanswers in the practice of the Silenceis controllable by suggestion, even to anextent that it will give you just whatyou ask, even if it is untrue. Therefore,do not ask for a certain answer, but askfor the truth. Do not command yoursoul to concur in preconceived ideas, butask it to guide and instruct according toits will and perfect innate knowledge.Do you ask me what manner of thingsyou shall ask for, under the practice ofaspiration, forgetting and passivity? Iwould reply: Anything that is to affectin any way your mind, your body oryour character; that is to be expressedprimarily upon or through either, for,literally speaking, nothing affects onewithout affecting the three phases of theindividual. They are inseparable in thepresent form of our existence. It isthrough the principles of the Silence thatcure takes place, when it occurs, whetherthe scientific formula of the Silence is


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74 THE LIFE IDEALused or not. Healing is much morelikely to occur if the formula is used,for that is the best way to get actionupon the power that heals.

All who are informed upon the scien-tific formula for healing know that itis, as described above, under passivity;but instead of the patient himself tryingto concentrate upon the change he wishesand then forget it a second person giveshim the suggestions while he is passive.Do you, then, realize how I becameacquainted with the virtues of the Si-lence ?

It is no uncertain power with me whenhundreds of people afflicted with everyform of disease common in this countryare among those who have responded tosuggestions given under the principlestaught herein.Every undesirable habit has likewisedisappeared when treatments were givenin that form; insanity of manias as wellas general insanity has responded to thesame principle.

Self-consciousness and lack of self-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 75confidence, the two conditions that havestood in the way of success in morepeople and defeated the best hopes andpossibilities in business, education andart in more instances than all other bar-riers combined, have been completelycorrected in countless numbers by thepower and methods of Silence.

Referring to the beginning of the sub-ject, the formulas of the Silence, youwill recall that I said these forms wereproper to follow for a time. As a formalpractice deliberately prepared for, theycan be dropped after a time, becausethere is a law that at whatsoever youfix your standards, that occurs spontan-eously. The formal, daily practice is toimpress the soul that your will standardsare to act in accord with it. When youhave established the habit of turning themind aspiringly within, you will then atall times, regardless of noise or peopleor any other conceivable thing, fulfill thelaws of the Silence. This is activeSilence.The purpose of all formal practice is


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76 THE LIFE IDEALto reach the point where one does thething spontaneously, at least in principle.

Let it become the standard of the in-dividual that out of his soul shall pro-ceed the solution of his problems, thenin the midst of his speech the lawyeror the platform speaker will receive theinstructionwill speak the words out ofhis soul as literally as if he had aspired,forgotten and sat in the quiet for a halfof an hour. What we call subjectiveartists of any sort are those who havein some way come in touch with the soul.The accomplishment of this sort throughthe objective effort to learn the thing soperfectly that it can be done with ease,can be reduced to months by the formalpractice of appealing to the soul underthe laws of the Silence to impress theconsciousness or use the body to expressthe thing. Objectively to let go is themost difficult lesson to learn, but ifaspiration to do that with reference toanything is followed by the attitude orstandards of the Silence, mastery iseasy. Instead of living an attitude that


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 77we are learning something, bringing itin from the outside, let one conceive ofthe truth that the knowledge and powerare within ; that the soul shall, therefore,express it. Then remember that thesoul expresses itself upon the passiveprinciple, literally meaning that one ob-jectively becomes surrendered, becomesas a little child in the soul's hands.

After the high estimate has been putupon the practice of the methods of theSilence for the purpose of curing diseaseor habits and for the development ofphysical power or skill or for intellectualattainment and art culture, for theestablishment of poise and the increaseof harmony in many directions, still thereare untold blessings that mean more tosome of us than all of those and otherthings thus far mentioned.Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote:"Men seak retreats for themselves,

houses in the country, seashores andmountains, but this is altogether a markof the most common sort of men, for itis in thy power, whenever thou shalt


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78 THE LIFE IDEALchoose, to retire into thyself.""For nowhere either with more quietor more freedom from trouble does aman retire than into his own soul, par-ticularly when he has within him suchthoughts that by looking into them heis immediately in perfect tranquility;and I affirm that tranquility is nothingelse than the good ordering of the mind.Constantly, then, give thyself this re-treat, and renew thyself." Had the Em-peror given us a practical formula suchas is given in these pages what a bene-factor he would have been to all man-kind.So do I find, for the purposes he

mentions, the matchless value of theSilence, for that is the great Ocean ofLove, of God, in which one can immersehimself completely and find afterwardshis perceptions clear and his heart ateaseall anxiety, all doubt, all fear havedeparted. An indifference comes thatmakes one master over things, condi-tions and himself. The Silence is theHoly Ghost, the Comforter that Jesus


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 79said he would leave with his disciples.Not that he meant he might take it awaywith him if he chose, but that he hadtaught them to enter into the closet (thequiet) to pray and there meet theSilence; before departing he had re-vealed their God within to them, so theywere possessed of the Comforter, whoshould also teach them or interpret forthem.

If distress threatens to come, use myformula to find the retreat and see howquickly peace is again enthroned. I can-not exhaust this subject; I only wish toset you to thinking, for you will findthe individual need, always, if you useour psychology laws of the Silence.Then, there is the feature of real com-

panionship in the soul's own worldbywhich I mean not only the real com-panions, but the companions as theyreally are. You have to make everyallowance for the false or limited in theobjective expression of any one to lovehim as you wish to. Not that your com-panions are intentionally deceitful or


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80 THE LIFE IDEALlacking, but that it is impossible for theexterior to express all that the soul is.When I retire to my innermost self as Iteach herein I find my own as my ownreally is, and while I see others, too, asthey are, since they are not congenial tome they are not mine; and I bless themby letting them alone and then find myworld just as it is peopled upon the basisof the All-knowing, and they are per-fectly adjusted and adapted.Some readers will be disposed to pass

this over lightly, not to return to it untilthrough objective bad choosing theymeet with terrible disappointment insome one, then come back and seekremedy for their heartsickness. You willfind your remedy, but I wish to impressyou with a great meaning and value inthis world which your soul has peopledwith a choice based upon fitness. If onegrows it must be upon the principle ofunfoldment from within, yet we havediscovered that he grows upon what hebrings up to his consciousness, to hisrealization. The soul's food is in blend-


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 81ing with its ownnot only stimulation,but food, too, can be found in con-sciously communing with those subcon-sciously present.The unspeakable loneliness with which

men suffer can be removed when theysee this lesson that shows the approachto the Silence. Follow your own inclina-tions upon the subject of meeting andcommuning in your inner self with thosethat have departed; I am treating thesubject of companionship with your ownwhether present in body or miles fromyou. It makes little difference if youare present together in body, you stillhave to get into the depths of your soul,each does, to know the other. You neednot cast out of your objective life allwho cannot get into your soul life, butyou will be very fortunate indeed whenyour soul indicates who are the mem-bers of your real self and who can neverbecome so. Your chief disappointmentsin people come from an effort to take


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82 THE LIFE IDEALthem to your heart and companionshipin a manner for which they have noquality.


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ISIONS of a sublime sortare of frequent occurence inhuman affairs, but the indi-vidual usually has been so

overawed by the experience that he atonce set out to make it as mysterious tohimself and others as he could. He hasthought that some figure he called Godhad spoken from some remote corner orhigh place in the universe through sym-bol, and being an object of such highhonor, according to his interpretation, hemust compel other men to honor him bylooking up to him as had his God. So withmeaningless words and long dissertationhe has led himself and others away fromwhat would have been a very useful in-struction.Upon the subject of visions I will give

you the simple facts by which we notonly explain what they are, but how toobtain them.

I could not estimate their value if Iexhausted all language, for objective


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84 THE LIFE IDEALlanguage as such is limited to time,whereas the merit of visions belongs toall eternity.Heretofore when the question was

asked as to what a vision is and it wasanswered by saying: "A message fromGod," there was about as much explana-tion as is given to the child when heasks: "Where did baby come from?"and he is told that God gave it to them,or "Where did the flower come from?"and he is told that God made it. Thechild is entitled to the details, even ifin a sense the answer given is true (how-ever, it never was true in the sense ofthe individual who used it who said Godmade the child or flower under especialobservation from His seat on a thronefar away).We are constantly using the wordimage, to stand for all things not presentor in form, so we might not distinguishbetween a vision and an image of theordinary sort and source.

In an image, you have a mental picturein which you are aware that you gather


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 85the different elements to make up thewhole, as a mental selection. You maybegin with a picture of a horse uponwhich you can place in your imagedifferent individuals one after another.You may begin with a house and add itswindows and its doors and its roof andits paint and its chimneys, and a flag-staff, if you wish. You have created thething by the exercise of your objectivemind and you are fully aware that youhave no idea in connection with thisimage but that which is entirely withinthe range of your objective knowledge.A Vision appears before this samemind which you use in creating a picture,but it does not come by the process ofvoluntarily reaching out to obtain theelements to assemble the image. Youare possessed of a picture just as plainas the other one, but it is, for the timebeing, as if a power entirely outside ofyour mind had set the picture there,which you cannot change. In fact, whenyou have this picture, which we maycall the Vision, there is not a power of


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86 THE LIFE IDEALthe mind to add anything to it at thetime, nor take anything from it. If itis a house without a flagstaff, you can-not imagine what that particular housewould appear like with the flagstaff. Ifit is a vision of literal musical harmoniesof sound, you cannot imagine a modifica-tion of the tones.

Shall I tell you now where this picturecame from that was forced involuntarilyinto your consciousness ? It came up outof your own soul; it was there createdor there possessed and you have had thegood fortune to become so related, con-scious to sub-conscious, that the holdingsof that subjective self have been passedover your threshold of consciousnessand you saw something that God keepsin the inner storehouse. The Universehas all knowledge ; there is no knowledgethat is not possessed by the Universe;the Universe gives over to each indi-vidual member a complete and perfectknowledge in every form that in anyway pertains to that individual. Thepast, present and future of the individual


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 87hold interest for the human soul at alltimes, therefore they are k^own to it;the pattern which the individual couldfulfill is known at all times by the indi-vidualit is all stated when we say,complete and perfect knowledge, that inany way pertains to the individual, isheld by the human soulyou can regardit as that which the Universe gives himor that part which he fills in the Uni-verse ; it is a practical thought to us onlywhen we voluntarily conceive of it; thatall knowledge and all power and potencyfor the individual are ready and alwayswithin him.A Vision is a picture, preferably, anideal from God, the God that the innateself is.

All inner knowledge and power are tobe objectified or to be used in practicein the three phases, spiritual, mental andphysical of the man. The man is nottypical of the Universe until the sameprinciples of harmony prevail in hismental and physical processes that areinnate in the soul.


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88 THE LIFE IDEALThis comes only after voluntary aspi-

ration. To make aspiration fruitful wemust comply with the terms of the sub-jective, upon which it gives its knowl-edge and its power over to the outerconsciousness. When the objective de-partment of man becomes a unit withhis subjective he then blends with theUniversepulsates in unison with it.


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Stye fofoer tysi $lenl*AY after day, month aftermonth and session after ses-sion of medical study andlistening to lectures I

watched the manifestations, anatomical,physiological, botanical, of disease andhealing but from no source, while in thisstudy did there ever come any explana-tion of the power that produced the mar-vels. The surgeon would explain thatwe could clean up a wound and bring theparts together, then there would occurthe multiplication of cells with manyseries and varieties until presently unionwould take place; he never taught bywhat power these things occurred.The only manner in which any ever

approached the subject of the power wasin ridiculing the stage in medical historywhen they taught that spirits directedand controlled all the phenomena of dis-ease and to be healed required the placa-tion of the controlling spirits. You mayimagine one's disappointment at never


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90 THE LIFE IDEALreceiving any interpretation of the powerthat produces so large and varied a classof phenomena as that which is compre-hended in the elaborate study of medi-cine. Theologically speaking, they for-merely taught that all things are doneeither by God or the Devil; if this weretrue then one should disclose the rulesof action governing those competitivepowers so as to obtain the thing neededat their hands.Whenever a different mode, (so-called

new mode) of healing is championed itwould seem, from the claims, that no onewas ever ill who had become well againprevious to the launching of the "newmode." Our teaching upon this subjectis unique: We declare that there prob-ably was never a charm, nor drug, norman, nor theology, nor any other objectthat claimed to be a power to heal thathas not healing to its credit. Man hasalways been getting sick and getting wellagain and he has always used some modeof healing; his methods have variedfrom time to time for in one period


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SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 91there will be some prevailing method, atanother time the leading practice is quitedifferent.

I have not spoken to any one uponthe subject that has not told me of some-thing alleged to have healed personswhich I had not been informed uponand I never feel disposed to doubt theirtruthfulness for I know that anythingmay be used and coincident with its usethe individual will become healed andmany times he would not be healed hadnot the thing been used.

I am confident that had Moses nothave erected the brazen serpent on thepole and caused his people to look to-ward it for healing that many morewould have died from the bites of theserpents. I am credulous when the claimis made; that a king applied his greattoe over the seat of the disease in dis-orders of the spleen with healing as theresult. I believe Mesmer's efforts werefollowed by thousands of curesI knowthey ought to have cured thousands thathad been pronounced incurable at the


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92 THE LIFE IDEALhands of other medical men. I knowthat Braid with his hypnotic methodshould have cured many. I know fullyas well that the bones of the saints a

Documents

Arthur Adolphus Lindsay - The Life Ideal, Scientific Prayer (1918)