Complete Introductory Course in the Science of Mind
Let Ernest Holmes Be Your Teacher This Summer
By Jeannette Quinn Bisbee
It’s officially summertime. No more books. No more classes. Time off.
Hmm. But, what if you are in the mood to learn something? What if you want to take some free time and go a little deeper into Science of Mind? What if you live far away from a Center for Spiritual Living, or from the Holmes Institute, or remote from a teaching chapter or a Science of Mind study group? Is there some way to go a little deeper, to learn a little more, and, most importantly, to have Ernest Holmes as your ultimate teacher while you delve deeper into Science of Mind.
There’s a way! You, or even you and a few friends, can download The Complete Introductory Course in Science of Mind using the link provided below. “This course of 24 lessons prepared by Ernest Holmes and Frederick Bailes provides a thorough foundation for advanced study in the field of Metaphysics and Mental Science. This was reproduced as A Series of 12 Introductory Lessons on How to Use the Power for Good.”
Frederick Bailes, the co-author of this course, was among the most important teachers in the Religious Science movement. He served as the Assistant Dean of the Religious Science Institute in Los Angeles. He, like Ernest Holmes, discovered Thomas Troward’s writings when he was visiting a friend in England. Frederick Bailes hit upon a method to use these scientific, spiritual principles formulated by Troward—the idea that there is a Law in the Universe that can be activated by mental reasoning to help change situations and conditions. Bailes ‘treated’ a medical condition, diabetes, which threatened to end his very life. Utilizing Troward’s ‘mental ideas’ led to Bailes’ complete recovery from diabetes—long before insulin was ever discovered. Born in New Zealand, trained as a doctor in London, Frederick Bailes, after his remarkable healing and wishing to dedicate his life to mental healing, moved to the United States and eventually established a Science of Mind church in Long Beach, California and, later, in Santa Barbara, California.
This little book by Ernest Holmes and Frederick Bailes breaks the main principles of Science of Mind down and streamlines them into twenty-four small lessons that comprise the main ideas contained in the main textbook, The Science of Mind. In this “Introductory Course,” the lessons use examples and ideas from real life, concentrate a little less on the intellectual ideas and discussions that Ernest Holmes loved (but can make the main textbook hard to read at times), and examines more practical methods of using spiritual principle. Each lesson features a principle or central idea of Science of Mind, discusses it in comfortable, approachable terms, ends the reading with a simple meditation, and then concludes with a few questions over the ideas and the correct answers to those questions. This is a great review and self-study course of Science of Mind principles, definitions, and examples from two famed masters!
The use of real-life illustrations throughout the lessons really help illuminate important ideas one must keep in mind as they put their study into action and choose to treat real-situations. In Lesson Six, Holmes and Bailes give the reader this marvelous guide to being exact in treatment and in prayer:
A prayer must include within itself EVERYTHING that we want the answer to contain. We must remember that the Law does not reason. It does not put in extra things that we forgot or take out things that we did not notice were harmful. It takes EXACTLY what we put in our mental equivalent, and this alone is what it creates. Some time ago, a lady told us that all her life she had wanted a home with beautiful grounds. She came into a California city and treated that she would demonstrate just such a home. Within two months she found exactly what she wanted, at a bargain price: fourteen rooms, acres of grounds in lawn, flowers and fruit trees, rambling old stables with servants’ quarters above them and all in the most delightful setting. But she had never thought of putting into her prayer the idea of sufficient income to take care of all this. The water bill alone was sufficient to stagger her. And before many months she gave up the effort and moved out. The Law of Mind will give us just as much as we include in our directions to it, no more and no less.
Lesson by lesson, Holmes and Bailes build from the basic principles exactly how to use these ideas in the student’s daily life, and then how to take these principles, practice with them, and become a spiritual practitioner helping others to understand these core concepts. In these lessons, a tone of simplicity and joy makes it easy to implement the ideas into daily life. Here, these two masters tell practitioners to embrace treatment and trust in one’s intuition:
You pay no attention to the case history, as though it were a condition of itself. You may use denials. You may use affirmations and realization. You may repeat thoughts which come to you or which you have heard and believed in. Mentally you may pray, sing, dance or exult. Follow your own lead ….
So, why don’t you follow your own lead? Open your journal or call up a friend or two and work through these twenty-four lessons over the next few weeks. Read the lessons, go deep into the meditations, write down your answers to the questions, check your answers—then see what this summer brings as you master spiritual principle at an even deeper level. You can CHOOSE to change your life, and it can start today….
I know you’ll have a great summer!
Click on the link below to download this eBook for only $12
Jeannette Quinn Bisbee is currently in the Online Spiritual Practitioner Program and will graduate in 2013. She loves the archives because she has recently moved to Canada where there are not any Centers for Spiritual Living nearby. She is, also, currently involved in a couple of book projects related to Science of Mind and looks forward to sharing more “posts” on the Science of Mind Archives and Library.