We live in a funny world – an odd society. If you put up a sign that said “Experience Heaven - $300” You’d get a rush of curious people. They’d be looking for the drug you were selling, or the getaway condo in the mountains, or the pyramid scheme. They would pay $300, but if you say “Heaven on Earth – no charge – just change your thinking!” they’ll turn away muttering, and sooner or later someone will say, “I know it was too good to be true.” And if you asked for some commitment in return, you wouldn’t see the people for dust.
Our world – our society – is going to change. Just watch. Grassroots movements are building now in what is being called "The Shift".
So let’s say I want to be committed to Heaven on Earth. What do I need to do? Well, you have to change your thinking. Only your thinking stands in the way, right now. It is one of those things, like happiness, that if you think you have it, why then…. you have it!
The tool that New Thought offers you for changing your thinking is a method of prayer called Spiritual Mind Treatment. Developed (or rather discovered) by Ernest Holmes, Treatment is a type of prayer that contains certain steps for us to follow in moving our mind, from a consciousness of the world… to a consciousness of the Spirit of God.
We see treatment modeled for us in many places in the Bible. The form of treatment is obeyed in the Psalms of David; it is mirrored perfectly in the Lord’s prayer. In the words of Jesus, it is reflected many times. And yet it is never set down as a prescription; examples are many, but instructions are lacking. It is there, but with no explanation.
Ernest Holmes provided us with those instructions, in his textbook The Science of Mind. Courses in the Science of Mind take people through the theory, and the ‘formula’ for prayer. But you could get the basic information just by reading, as many people do.
Why isn't reading a book enough?
What you can’t get by reading is the group practice in doing treatment; the mutual support, the interactive learning that moves it from a neat, emotionless exercise to a process that you will undertake with deep conviction. Participating in classes moves it from your head to your heart, if you let it. It is one thing to follow a series of steps by rote; it is quite another to express your faith through feeling, and it is the feeling that represents a real change of mind and heart.
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