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Neville Goddard (1905-1972) offered a compelling explanation of the human condition and an intriguing and empowering path of self-discovery. Join your host Ed to explore from the ground up this most essential mystery: the human imagination.
[edited for clarity]
This is E4 How to Really Use Affirmations.
Affirmations are either a form of prayer, or prayer itself. Affirmations are a familiar technique. What I find in practice is that even if you can get them started, they don't necessarily sustain very well. They can degrade into “vain repetition”. The other thing is that they don't necessarily have the quality and depth of result that we're seeking.
This is a serial podcast, meaning that I'm trying to introduce the concepts in some sort of an ordered presentation. In E1, we looked at awareness of being, and gave what I consider to be an exercise for its genuine practice. We also gave a link to Neville's article called Fundamentals showing an essential exercise. We examined the idea of the primacy of mind; that is, the idea that the world at large, which seems to be without, is actually rooted within. That's E2. And in the last episode, E3, we looked at common difficulties in mental discipline or spiritual practice and suggested several solutions.
So with that introduction out of the way, let's turn our attention now to affirmations.
Keep in mind the goal that I have for today is to inject fresh energy, conviction, and effectiveness into our practice of affirmations or prayer.
1. The first point is to assert what the premise is of this whole idea of making affirmations. The premise is that we're following Neville's advice that somehow we have a divine nature, that we're intended to delve into that nature and to try to awaken. And along those lines, we can conceive of ourselves as self regulating, self developing self teaching. So that implies that somehow we have to engage with ourselves. We have to work within ourselves, and that's what affirmations are all about. It's not speaking to another person.
2. In the last episode, I talked about Neville's treatment of the subconscious, and I suggested that his discussion of it is quite brilliant. I want to continue on that theme a little bit right now. First of all, the conscious mind and the subconscious are not two entities, but it's actually one mind. So the result of thinking that way is that we're not going to be fighting ourselves. We're going to be working with ourselves, and what we want to do is engage in some sort of an exchange or to create a rapport with oneself.
The other term that Neville uses for the subconscious mind is the subjective mind. Now here's an important maxim that he sets out. He says, the subjective mind that is, the subconscious, is 100% susceptible to suggestion. It's not mitigated or qualified in any way. It's an absolute. The subjective mind -- the subconscious mind -- is 100% subject to suggestion, whether that suggestion be from the seeming external world, from some other source, or from within (our own suggestions to ourselves).
Now, that principle answers a multitude of questions, whether you're thinking about your own personal development, or whether you're thinking about what's happening in society at large, how populations behave, and so on. The implications, the ramifications of this principle are just so vast that it's impossible to overstate the importance of it. One reason for emphasizing this is that it sort of falls into this strange category of ideas or notions that we were vaguely familiar with, but whose import whose significance we didn't quite realize to the depths.
When you look into descriptions of the human condition (I'm speaking of the description of humanity given in the book In Search of the Miraculous, which I cited in E1) we start to see that this whole idea of suggestion and the control of the subconscious mind goes much deeper.
The only way to subject ourselves to the influences that we truly consciously deem to be desirable is to do the work that we're talking about in this whole podcast series.
I think the conclusion is logical. If we're seeking something called spiritual awakening, it has to start with stopping being subject to being controlled by [detrimental] influences unwittingly, unknowingly, and unconsciously.
Let's consider one other aspect of the subconscious or the subjective mind that Neville advises us about. And I think this is really fascinating. Maybe you're involved in social sciences or physical sciences, and you've looked into the idea of inductive versus deductive reasoning. I know I have, and I seem to it's sort of like statistics. You learned about that and you think you've got it, and then it comes around again, maybe six months later and you discover that you really haven't really internalized the idea. But I think with the way Neville explains this, it's going to stick.
Neville explains that the subjective mind, the subconscious mind, is deductive in its approach. It's deductive in its thinking process. And what does that mean? It accepts as true the fundamental premise. Whatever premise is suggested to it, it accepts it as true. So it's helpful to realize that, simultaneously, the subjective mind is 100% subject to suggestion; and secondly, that the subjective mind does not judge. It doesn't try to interpret the validity of the suggestion or the premise. It simply accepts the premise as true and then uses that as a general rule to set out and create its manifestation.
So the subconscious mind does not judge. It does not evaluate, but it relies on the conscious part of our nature, our conscious mind, our self remembering, self-aware being, to assess, to consider, to evaluate the validity of any particular suggestion. And once you do consciously and deliberately accept something as true, [once] you consent to it and accept it as true, then the subconscious accepts it into its realm and starts to work on it to bring the whole thing into being.
Keep in mind that if the conscious mind, the properly conscious mind is in abeyance, if you're not self remembering, if you're not in a state of possessing yourself psychologically, so to speak, then you will be influenced by whatever random influences come along. That's the nature of the subconscious mind. It simply takes the influences that come along, that are accepted as true (whether mechanically or deliberately) and then acts upon them to produce the reality. This is the whole mechanism, the whole principle of creation that Neville explains.
So if we realize that we are in a subconscious state most of the time, and only “click” into self remembering at odd moments (although more as we practice it), we can realize the reason for Neville's advice. I'm quoting: “What you must acquire, then, is a reflective control of the operation of the subconscious, that is, control of your ideas and feelings.” All right. That's not repression of ideas and feelings, but simply a vigilance, so that you don't dwell upon the negative.
Now, at the risk of repeating myself too much, what I want to do is repeat this point, because it's really fundamental. We don't want to be too harsh on ourselves, in the sense that, if we catch ourselves in negative states, if we catch ourselves, by observing negative thoughts, negative feelings, and so on, we don't want to be too harsh on ourselves and get caught up in guilt and self reproach. No, it's simply to catch yourself. Stop dwelling on the thing, and then move your mind to the right track of what you do want.
But let's realize that if we're really carrying out the exercise of self observation, as Neville recommended in that very first exercise back in E1, well, then we're going to see that habitually, we are merely passive. We are mechanical, we're robot-like in our daily activities, and so often we're just wholly subject to suggestion, both from the environment and suggestions coming from within. That's where these internal suggestions [enter in] -- that is, the beliefs and assumptions that are detrimental, that we might have learned from various social forces or institutions (that's what we discussed in E3). These suggestions coming from within are also being acted upon.
So you can think of being in the habitual [sleeping or hypnotic] state. This is what gives us, I think, the impression that the external world has its own independent existence. But now here's where everything turns around. The entire basis of affirmation -- this is the subject of our talk today, affirmation -- the entire basis of it is a reversal of mind.
We switch the polarity, or we switch the vector so to speak, and we stop being programmed and suggested to, and instead give the suggestion deliberately and consciously. We self-persuade. We intentionally influence the aspect of the mind that is open to directional ideas from the more conscious level. So we take our proper role in the mental economy. Then the subconscious will elaborate, in its own way, the ideas that we suggest to it, to bring to manifestation.
Think about this process for a while and accept it even provisionally, as a working hypothesis. Let's do that experimentally, and see if the mind will not be in a much better frame to go ahead with affirmations.
I appreciate your patience and hearing that repetition of the same idea. As Neville states in one of his lectures, new ideas require many reiterations, many restatements before they start to have some sort of currency of thought.
I'm going to give you a reference to one other source that you might find helpful. The author, Claude Bristol, wrote a book back in the 40s, I think. It was called The Magic of Believing, and I'll put a link in the show notes to that. The important thing about that book is that from his own report, he investigated many, perhaps thousands of different schools of thought and philosophies, and so on, and found that the one important thread that bound them all together -- that ran through them -- was the principle of belief. That is, a deep-seated belief. So here again, we get confirmation of this idea that whatever is accepted in a deep seated way as the true premise, that is the thing that the subconscious will actually take and act upon.
Well, let's go ahead now with some more about the nuances and the technique of affirmations.
3. Neville refers to mind and speech, and he gives a quote from the Hermetica that is first century mystical teaching, and it accords really with the advice given in scripture -- in Christian scripture -- mind and speech. So mind is the voice of God. It's the voice of the divine, and speech is the image of mind. Now here we consider speech in a special sense.
4. I think we're habituated to take speech, to take language, as something for granted, really, something that just arises naturally, seemingly in human beings. We don't marvel at its extraordinary complexity, and the fact that if we were to roll the dice and assign the laws of probability to the development of speech, the development of speech would have astronomical odds against its development.
And indeed, it was the linguist Chomsky who identified (as a grad student I understand) what he called deep structures. In other words, it's not a blank slate in a human being when they're born with regard to speech. No, there are deep structures that are already innate that could come to the fore as the child develops in his speech capability, that he could not possibly have learned through the environment.
So already we get the idea from science that there's something much more to speech than we would normally assign to it just considering mechanical laws of chance and chance evolution.
In quoting the Hermetica and Scripture, Neville points out that speech is actually creative in nature. It's magical. We don't treat speech with enough respect, in that we don't realize that when we say things, these are going to be creative impulses. Strictly speaking, we should not be creating the things that we that are undesirable by speaking in an irresponsible way.
So let's go back to this dual notion of mind and speech. Mind is the conscious intention. Speech is in many different forms.
5. But notice that if the intention is not there [in other words] your conscious mind is not there and you're simply doing it mechanically, then that is what is referred to as vain repetition, and it won't be effective.
6. Consequently, if we go to the mindset of being in the state of the wish fulfilled of the end already attained and make the speech affirmation, then we have mind and speech working together. And in that sense, we can use that line from Scripture where “my word will not return unto me void”. It's not going to go out and just be a nothing. It's actually going to go out and create the thing that I intended.
Now here I want to get into some nuances of technique.
7. If it is indeed the end result, that is the state that we have to appropriate the state of mind that would be ours. If our wish were fulfilled, then we can actually say, well, it's not the word, after all, it's not the speech that we're after. It's simply the state of mind, the pure meaning. And I think that's true. So if you can go to the end, go to the pure meaning that the speech would imply, then go there. But it's interesting that Neville points out that the translation of “the word”, which is in Greek logos, actually means “meaning”. It means “significance”. It doesn't necessarily mean a literal word., it means the actual significance or meaning behind the word.
8. Now I'll backtrack a little bit and say, speaking the actual word is not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing to just reach out, grab a hold of that affirmation the actual literal words and speak them. Why do I say that? Because sometimes you're in a state of mind where you just need to grab a hold of something. You need something to get you out of the negative state. So if you can just even use vain repetition for a minute or two, just get a hold of that affirmation, speak the words, and you'll find that that will lead you back into the proper state of mind so that the whole thing becomes effective.
9. Now, as you get into this, you'll find that it's interesting to contemplate short forms. Neville recommends composing one sentence that could even be reduced to certain keywords that trigger certain associations in your mind. On the other hand, you could elaborate and create a long form affirmation. It could be a whole wonderful description of the world as you see it. If your wish was fulfilled. Similarly, on the nuances of technique, keep in mind that speech involves the word that is thought about that is heard internally, the word that is written, the word that is read, the word that is spoken aloud, and the word that is listened to in your own audio recordings. All of these various forms of speech are valid and effective. Why? Because they point to the actual pure meaning that you intend.
10. Now, Neville treats Christian scripture not as secular history, but as psychological instructions. If you want a really good example of that, you could follow up on the link in the show notes that I'm putting to his chapter five from the book Awakened Imagination and the Search. And there he gives from the Book of James two or three really pertinent images that drive home this idea of speech being extraordinarily effective.
The two images that I'm referring to are first of all, the rudder of a ship. Although a rudder is a relatively small piece of wood with regard to the bulk of the entire ship, it is the rudder and its angle of orientation that will steer the ship in one direction or another. Similarly, the bit in the horse's mouth, although it's just a small piece of metal with regard to the entire bulk of the animal, it's the control of the bit that puts the horse in the right direction. That's the whole power of speech that he's referring to.
As Neville himself says, these are fantastic psychological instructions. I'll make one final point with regard to the nuances of technique connected with affirmations, and that is drawing from the same source that Neville was quoting. Don't be mere hears of these ideas. You have to put them into practice. Don't fall into the trap of merely listening. You have to stop the tape, stop the podcast, and actually go and start to build some independence of thought by practicing the ideas. So both sides of the coin are valid. That is, multiple listening to certain sources, certain podcasts lectures and so on --that's necessary to contemplate new ideas, to give them the chance for reiteration, restatement and so on. But at the same time, it's also necessary to put a stop to that, and deliberately go out on your own, and try to build a fresh habit. Try to establish the practice in your own mind.
Summary
Well, let's summarize what we covered in today's podcast episode.
The first point with respect to affirmations is that we are awakening, we're self-regulating, we're self-developing. So it's up to us to somehow engage with ourselves psychologically.
The second point is that the subconscious mind (and Neville's discussion of it in particular) is very important to look into. So we're talking about the unity of the subconscious with the unconscious, and the fact that the subconscious, the subjective mind, as he calls it, is 100% susceptible to suggestion, whether from within or from without. That means the practice of affirmation is to turn things around in the mental economy. Instead of being subject to influences, we're going to create the influences that are desirable.
The next point, make sure that affirmations are not devoid of conscious mind. You have to have conscious, deliberate intent to accompany the speech. And along with that is the idea that speech has a magical quality. It has a magical creative principle embedded in it.
Now keep in mind that the end goal is to reach the state of mind, to experience the pure meaning that would be yours if your wish were already fulfilled. That's the whole purpose of affirmations and words. Finally, to help you get there, take a look at Neville's review of the psychological instructions that are given in Scripture.
Finally, develop the habit of putting the ideas constantly into practice.