Chapter 4: The Dynamics of Thought

1The soul is a being of light—2that provides every atom and cell of the body with life-giving rays. 3The soul is endowed with an inexhaustible supply of radium.

4Thoughts emanate from the soul and are transmitted to the brain along radiant fibrous tissue connected to the nervous system. 5From the brain, thoughts are relayed by spontaneous electricity to other brains, not necessarily on earth.

6A composer who hears a melody may get it from Sirius or Jupiter.

7The functioning of thought acts on the living parts of which the body is constituted. 8Depending on a person’s disposition, it could enervate or invigorate any vital organ.

9Let this be your disposition: gratitude, joy, love. N.B. 10Breath sunlight in flowers and trees. 11Paracelsus: The secret of long life.

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ECHOES & NOTES

Chapter 4: The Dynamics of Thought

4.1: The soul is a being of light…

Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where did you come from?’ say to them, ‘We came from the light, the place where the light came into being of its own accord and established [itself] and became manifest through their image.’” (Gospel of Thomas [c50/200] Logion 50 in NHLiE [1977] 1990: 132)

4.2: …that provides every atom and cell of the body with life-giving rays.

The individual cell may be looked upon as the torch bearer of animate life. It passes on from generation to generation the latent fires of God—the vitality of all living beings, with an unbroken ancestry reaching back to the time when life first appeared on this planet. (Spalding [1924/1937] 1964: 1.28-9)

4.3: The soul is endowed with an inexhaustible supply of radium.

My mind is so full of joy and happiness that I am amazed my soul stays in my body. There is so much heat in my soul that this material fire seems cool by comparison, rather than to be giving out heat; it seems to have gone out, rather than to be still burning. (Catherine of Siena [1347-80] 1988, Life 167 in A Little Book of Women Mystics 1995: 63-4)

4.4: Thoughts emanate from the soul and are transmitted to the brain along radiant fibrous tissue connected to the nervous system.

Your brain is a grand receiver of electrical thought frequencies, with different parts designed to receive, house, and amplify the different frequencies of thought. The different parts have different potentials to house and electrify thought, depending upon the density of water in its cellular walls. Some parts are capable of housing and amplifying only the higher thought frequencies; other parts house and amplify only the lower frequencies of thought. Your brain does not create thought, contrary to popular belief. It simply allows thought to enter into it from consciousness flow. (Ramtha 1986: 172)

Thought is a living force, and just as for one who has knowledge, thought is present as a direct expression of what is seen in the spirit, so the imparting of this expression acts in the one to whom it is communicated as a germ that brings forth from itself the fruit of knowledge. (Steiner [1922] 1971: 154-5)

The physical brain is a relay station, translating emotional, mental, and spiritual events and information into neuro-electrochemical events and information. Neurochemicals and associated brain processes are simply chemical selectors for various states of consciousness. All states of consciousness exist independently of the physical body. The relay station works in both directions: spiritual, mental, or emotional states trigger neurochemical events in the brain (physical consciousness) and neurochemical stimulation (e.g., through drugs) open access to specific states of emotion, thought, or spiritual awareness. Contemporary physics has proven very clearly that solid physical matter is an illusion and that all is energy only. Therefore, to say that the solid physical brain is the mind, is a mistake. While the brain appears to be solid, it is not—it is energy appearing solid, but is not solid—it is energy only. The mind is also energy that interacts with the appearance of a brain. (Steven Lumiére, energyreality.com)

4.5: From the brain, thoughts are relayed by spontaneous electricity to other brains, not necessarily on earth.

The brain has the quality of receiving and recording the vibrations of any object that the eye conveys to it. The vibrations of the lights and shades and colours are all recorded. It also has the quality of reproducing these vibrations and projecting them out again, this time through the inner vision; then we again see the picture the eye has conveyed. (Spalding [1927] 1972: 2. 60-1)

4.6: A composer who hears a melody may get it from Sirius or Jupiter.

The idea that musical inspiration originates from a star or a planet is mystifying, as science considers all stars, as well as the planets in our solar system, uninhabitable by the standards governing biological life on earth. That aesthetically inspiring vibrations—archetypal ideas, melodies, images, impression, visions—may be transmitted to earth from these two very distant biologically hostile bodies therefore presumes the vibrant permeation of creative non-physical intelligence throughout the universe. Sirius is a symbol of the fixed will in the higher mind, which the soul must attain to before it can be liberated from the lower nature and become conscious on higher planes. The planet Jupiter again symbolizes the Self in its directive function on the higher mental plane, as the positive function of Buddhi. (Gaskell op cit: 226; 581)

4.7: The functioning of thought acts on the living parts of which the body is constituted.

Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal man possesses this body, and he makes it harmonious or discordant according to the images of thought impressed upon it. You should embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes the body discordant and diseased in proportion as ignorance, fear, or human will governs mortals. (Eddy [1875] 1994: 208-9)4.8:

4.8: Depending on a person’s disposition, it could enervate or invigorate any vital organ.

It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness. (ACIM Lesson 190.5 [1975] 1996: W361)4.9:

4.9: Let this be your disposition: gratitude, joy, love.

Be calm, be true, be quiet. I watch over you. Rest in My Love. Joy in the very Beauty of Holiness. Deliverance is here for you, but Thankfulness and Joy open the gates. Try in all things to be very glad, very happy, very thankful. It is not to quiet resignation I give my blessings, but to joyful acceptance and anticipation. Laughter is the outward expression of joy. That is why I urge upon you Love and Laughter. (God Calling [1935/1950] 1986: 1.81)

4.10: Breath sunlight in flowers and trees.

From the sunlight, sky and hiddennesses of boundless space, power will be renewed continuously. Everything in nature will assist the resolute soul. (VM [2010] 19:8-9)4.11:

4.11: Paracelsus: The secret of long life

Paracelsus was born near Zürich, Switzerland in 1493. He studied alchemy and occult texts from ancient Egypt and Greece. As alchemist, he applied himself to the transmutation of the soul rather than to the alchemical goal of base metal into gold. De vita longa is devoted mainly to the conditions under which longevity, which in Paracelsus’ opinion extends up to a thousand years or more, can be attained. (cf. Jung [1942/1967] 1983: 134-6, 148)