The Divine Consciousness has manifested as the Cosmic Mind (Intelligence) to produce all creation, all matter, including our bodies. It is actually God’s consciousness, flowing like a river from God the Father into our bodies, that manifests in us as mind. Truly man is made in God’s image; and he has within him the power to use mind—a manifestation of the Divine Consciousness—in the same way that God does. Man’s thought therefore can change matter; man can create thought patterns and manifest them as physical realities. The degree to which this is possible is in direct ratio to the degree of attunement between man and his Creator. The greater the attunement, the more perfectly does the mind of man manifest the power of the Divine Consciousness.

The Structure of the Mind

    Mind has two component parts: the chitta or mind-stuff, the fine material of God’s consciousness out of which the mind has been manufactured; and the vrittis or waves in the mind-stuff. These waves are caused by the pranic energy or life force in the body, which is a manifestation of the Cosmic Energy of God.
    Control of these waves or movements of the mind, is necessary to the formulation of the right thought patterns for success in any endeavor. The state of the mind is either organized or unorganized. Unorganized mind is swayed by passions and emotions. Organized mind has the power of reasoning, or inference; but it is not sure unless reinforced by God’s consciousness and will, which direct the life force; and then the mind operates in a better way. Let us take the illustration of a group of workmen. They can work in an unorganized way, governed by whims and misdirected emotions of the various members. Or they can work in an organized way under the intelligent direction of the one who is in charge of them. When they work in this organized way, the result is greater effectiveness. An organized mind is especially necessary in meditation; unless the thought processes are controlled, the mind is kept in a state of unrest, and intuition does not flow. Since it is only through the intuition of the soul that we can have God-contact, which is the purpose of meditation, the importance of controlling the flux of the mind-stuff is obvious. The way to right action and right success in every phase of living is to seek God-contact in meditation. Then, through the soul’s conscious contact with God, the pattern in the mind-stuff is made right, and the life force or power of God within us is directed by God to flow through the pattern and thus materialize it.
     The power of the mind lies in the waves in the mind-stuff, in the movement produced by the pranic energy which is one with God’s great Cosmic Energy. Our consciousness, our attitude of mind, forms a pattern of thought. Our will directs the pranic energy to materialize the pattern. It is analogous to what we see in the movies: The film corresponds to the pattern created by thought; the light from the projector corresponds to the pranic energy that makes the pattern manifest. When the wisdom born of God-contact saturates our consciousness, and our will is one with God’s wisdom-guided will, the pattern is bound to be right, and therefore its projection or materialization in matter will also be right.
    That is what Saint Paul meant when he said, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). When Jesus fed the multitude of five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, he was sending God’s pranic energy into the thought pattern of abundant food, and the abundance materialized, with “twelve baskets remaining.” It was mind under the influence of Christ Consciousness that was directing Jesus; the same can and must direct us. If we are to change as we desire, we have to see that our mind is the same—that is, tuned in to the Christ Consciousness—as the mind that was in Jesus.

A Strong Mind Is Necessary

    Such a mind is a strong mind; it must be strong in order to change matter. It has been said that thoughts are things; when thought patterns created in a strong mind are reinforced by soul consciousness and inherent Divine Will, the life force does bring them into materialization. They take on a form, produced from a mental pattern. Strong thought can materialize anything. The strength of a thought is determined by our control of the pranic energy, the power of God in us. We can cultivate the power of mind to a point where, reinforced by God-contact, it can do anything, even overcome the effects of poisons.
    It is of course to be remembered that a strong mind contacting evil forces can also change matter; for evil forces can and do use pranic energy just as God does. But God’s power is greater than all other power, stronger than all evil forces.
     We can understand more clearly the power of a strong, organized mind from a few examples. When Paramahansa Yogananda was a boy he produced a boil on his arm through the power of will and words spoken with deep concentration, an incident he relates in his Autobiography. Professor William James, the eminent psychologist, states that blisters have been produced by the power of mind, as well as tumors and similar aberrations. In such cases, the prana is directed to flow through a particular thought pattern that is not in keeping with the natural harmony of God’s creative activity, but rather with the inharmonious nature of satanic, evil, manifestations. This is possible because of God’s gift to man of free will to form either good or evil thought patterns, which ultimately must materialize as physical realities through the law of cause and effect, or karma. Mind produced it and by the same power it can be removed. Thus it is not always God-guided wisdom that produces the thought pattern, nor God-guided life force that materializes it; sometimes it is the satanic force. The law works in the same way in either case. Whatever is produced by the power of mind under the influence of Satan can also be changed, and done away with, by that same power of mind under the direction of wisdom gained through God-contact.

Formation of Mental Pattern Prevented

    The following personal experience shows that a strong mind can even prevent the formation in another person’s mind of a pattern that would have caused an undesirable change in matter: One day several years ago Paramahansaji and I had just arrived at Mt. Washington in his automobile. He left the car and went on ahead. As I was getting out, the car door was accidentally shut on my middle, ring, and little fingers, up to the second joints. This automobile was of a vintage when it would have been impossible to catch one’s fingers in a car door without crushing them. Mine were flattened to the actual shape of the door jamb; the physical pain was excruciating. But there was also great mental pain, for I was quite sure it meant hospitalization, which would prevent my returning next day to Boston as I had planned.
     The Master, who was by this time inside the building, was immediately informed of my predicament. From that instant there was a wall placed between my consciousness and the injured hand. When I momentarily passed mentally through that wall, I felt the injury extremely; so I was perfectly willing to remain behind the wall! There was a little fear in my mind that someone would come in contact with my hand, so I held it across my chest inside my coat; and that was all I did. That evening a party of us were to attend a performance at the Hollywood Bowl; so complete was the Master’s care, I was able to go right along with them. The next day I had breakfast and dinner with the Master, but he paid no attention to my trouble. I was satisfied to leave it that way, and say nothing. That evening I left by train for the East, still without referring to the injury; that wall around my consciousness was still there. The following morning at breakfast I had courage enough to look at my hand. The fingers were normal in shape and size. All that remained of the injury was a little blue discoloration on two of the fingers; there was no discomfiture. This was an instance of almost instantaneous healing of matter. The Master’s strong mind, contacting God’s power, had prevented the pattern of injury from being accepted by my mind. Thus I was saved from much difficulty and pain. Mind coupled with God’s consciousness and power can do anything. It has produced our bodies, therefore it can change our bodies.

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