How to Become a Better Practitioner
Volume Two of the Extension Study Course in the Science of Mind
By Jeannette Quinn Bisbee
This July, the Science of Mind Archives restored and reprinted the first volume of the Science of Mind classic―Volume One, Extension Study Course in the Science of Mind. Now, hot off the press and just in time for the Christmas season comes the release of the second volume in that series. And, it is even better than the first!
This Home Study Course was first written in 1939, revised in 1953 and re-released in 1984 in a shortened and condensed version called Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life. But this longer, classic version is the best if you really want to study the Science of Mind. Our culture, our journalism, our intellectual study, and our education have all, at times, become “dummied-down.” If you are ever in an old bookstore and you can look at the textbooks for students in the early 20th century, you will see that how students were once taught. What they once read and learned were often more complex, detailed ideas and reasoning than we are prone to absorb in our “Twitter-Facebook-culture” that likes only brief sound bites, 2-minute videos, or 140-characters. So, the depth, complexity, and nuance of ideas can be lost. This 48-lesson series on Science of Mind really gives the reader and the student time to absorb the simple but vast ideas that are at the heart of Ernest Holmes and Religious Science.
If one of your goals is to become a better practitioner for yourself—and for your clients—Volume Two will really assist you in going ever deeper in your personal practice. One of the initial things that attract people to Science of Mind is how simple and how perfect our philosophy and teaching all seem. Most of us have felt that first rush of understanding, “I get this—everything is perception. All I have to do is JUST change my thinking and my life will change.” But, then doing this simple thing seems more difficult than we imagine. At times, we become discouraged. Holmes suggests how we become so entrenched in leading lives that give us little satisfaction and leave us feeling helpless:
“This Power is always creative, always receptive, always neutral, and always available, but we have come under the race belief that says that we may be lucky part of the time and unlucky part of the time; we are sick part of the time and well part of the time; we are happy part of the time and miserable part of the time, because these are the images of thought which exist. (See pg. 33, Volume Two, Extension Study Course in the Science of Mind.)”
And then this volume begins to concretely explain how to get out of this mental trap both personally and as a practitioner for clients seeking a spiritual healing. Holmes suggests:
“Let us suppose that we are surrounded by water, and that each time we think ice is formed. Let us think of all of our conditions as being like these different shapes of ice, the solidification of water which is liquid. Now let us consider our thoughts as the molds into which the liquid is poured that it may take form. Further, we know that the liquid must be poured into the mold, and because it has no choice it must take form. Thus, we see that the liquid is not the cause, the mold is not the cause, but the one who pours the liquid into the mold is the cause. In this way, each is the arbiter of his own fate, the creator of his own destiny. (See pg. 51-52, Volume Two, ESCSOM.)”
Toward the end of Volume Two, Holmes really pinpoints what may be blocking the success of a lot our treatments—why is it that more of us are not getting the fulfillment of complete demonstrations coming through with ease and grace, which each of us knows is the truth of this Principle. The answer may be the following:
“This is not an easy philosophy. It is the toughest that ever confronted the mind and the imagination of man. Many people may be under the mistaken concept that the metaphysical philosophy is attractive to people because it says God is always good and everything is all right; therefore, there is nothing to fear. This is far from the truth. What it says is this: Do you wish to be loved? Then stop hating. Do you want to be happy? Then be sure you are never the occasion for unhappiness in others. Do you wish to stop shedding tears? Then be sure that you are never the instrument which causes others to shed them. (See pg. 178, Volume Two, ESCSOM.)”
In this book, Ernest Holmes and Reginald Armor cover many practical concerns about how to demonstrate our ideals and deal with specific problems. These include the important differences between the doctor, the psychologist, and the metaphysician (all of whom have their role in life), how faith works on a practical level, psychosomatics, how to raise children correctly based on Science of Mind principles, the contagion of fear in modern life, and how to work with the condition of alcoholism/addiction.
Ministers teaching Foundations Classes who wish to assist students with a supplemental reading list should include this Extension Study Course at the head of the list. I just graduated and passed my practitioner panels this past summer, and I wish these volumes had been out at that time. They would have assisted me in understanding, at a far deeper level, what I was studying, and it would have supported me in really putting into words the principles that mean so much to my heart! I’m glad I have access to this course right now, so I can deepen my understanding and skills as new practitioner.
One other thing I really delight in as I use this Home Study Course is the comparison of all the great religious and metaphysical traditions of the worlds: Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism, Jainism, and Islam are examined and compared. Readers can truly and deeply understand that spiritual principle is and always has been a unified field that underlies mankind’s existence!
Holmes reminds the reader that even though this work appears deep and, at times, complex and complicated—it is, at heart, the only path that opens all the doors of life:
There is nothing complicated about this. We should stop thinking it is so difficult to get our thought straightened out, and begin to realize how easy it must be, for there is no mystery about it….And if we have been walking down a road that leads nowhere, where the trail runs out and stops, all we have to do is reverse our steps and remember the Power that took us down the wrong road can just as easily lead us down the right one. (See pg. 174, Volume Two, ESCSOM.)
So, why don’t you download this book or follow the link to order the printed volume into your library of Science of Mind texts? Open the doors in your own life. If each one of us expands our own daily life and spiritual practice, the expansion of peace, abundance, joy, and love are guaranteed for the entire planet!
Click on the link below to order Volulme 2, hard copy:
http://www.scienceofmindarchives.org/e-store/item/1058-extension-study-course-v2-hard-copy
Click on the link below to order Volume 2, in an eBook (PDF Format):
http://www.scienceofmindarchives.org/component/k2/item/1059-extension-study-course-volume-2
Jeannette Quinn Bisbee R.Sc.P has been published in Science of Mind magazine, and was an Insight Speaker at the 2013 Asilomar Convention. Her passion is the Archives, and she contributes this blog twice monthly highlighting for readers around the world the wonderful projects and items available in the Science of Mind Archives. She is currently involved in a book project based on material from the Archives and Science of Mind magazine.