Series 1 - Lesson 6 - Annotation 3
What is consciousness? What is its importance in demonstration?
3. The word "conscious" applies primarily to that which is felt as within one's self. When we speak of having a "consciousness" of some state it means that we feel as well as think on that subject. One may have a "consciousness of poverty" or a "consciousness of prosperity"; a "consciousness of ill health" or a "consciousness of health." (See How I Used Truth Lesson 1 Annotation 4, on "consciousness.")
When we speak of "man's consciousness" we mean the totality of his thinking and feeling -- his mind, or his soul. Mind is, and wherever there is any kind of feeling there consciousness exists. Consciousness is made up of desires, sensations, emotions, thoughts, feelings, perceptions -- any soul quality. It is a stream of thought or current of "inner" life; man thinks and man feels, and the result is consciousness, or the total states of mind in the soul.
It is not possible to bring forth any demonstration without "consciousness." Our lesson material states, "Consciousness and demonstration are related as cause and effect. Consciousness is cause, and demonstration is effect." The cause must have both thinking and feeling in order to produce, or as Annotation number One states, "to point out," "to show." Therefore, we may say that "consciousness" has a vital place in demonstration. One may long for healing, success, prosperity, harmony, but until he feels that these blessings are his by divine right he has no "consciousness" of them to act as the cause that can demonstrate or bring them forth in his life.
"If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 18:19).
The "two of you" may be construed as the mind and the heart -- the thinking and the feeling abilities in man. The ideas of God must find complete and harmonious reception in man's whole consciousness. In the natural man the intellect (thinking faculty) decides what shall enter man's consciousness; so it is imperative that the intellect, the thinking power, accept Truth. It has the power to accept or to reject. But intellectual acceptance is not sufficient, as the intellect is only part of this process. The intellect prepares the way by affirming Truth until the heart or subconscious phase of mind (feeling faculty) accepts the word of Truth so that the greater One, the Christ, who is the "fire ... from heaven" (Rev. 13:13 A.V.) descends to lift the whole man into a harmonious unit. Really to know is to have blended these two processes of mind, thinking and feeling. It is this, plus the divine fire of the Christ zeal, that leads to demonstration of all the desired blessings of life -- the ultimate of which is demonstration of eternal life.
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Preceding Entry: What is the "great demonstration"?
Following Entry: What is the Absolute?
