Imagination

    Download PDF of 3026-24-864-imagination

In the development of the faculties we come today to one that has a great deal to do with our lives, and yet which we give very little credit to. That is the imagination.

We have been told when we go off to day dream or imagine various things that it is merely our imagination, and this attitude and estimate of the imagination has so belittled it that we do not get at the actual power of the imagination in our lives. But that which can produce such wonderful results in frivolous way must, if it were treated seriously, be of great force and value in the development of character.

As we study the imagination in this life and also look into the Scriptures we find out it has been developed by a great process of the past. We see that it is something worthwhile and that we should estimate it at its real value and as we do this, we find that it is being used the world over by everybody and yet not always wisely.

The reason of the great flood that came upon the earth during the time of Noah was that men had used their imagination for evil. And this pointer taken literally has its explanation metaphysically.

No doubt the work of our imagination in wrong ways—ignorant ways—does produce in us a great flood of erroneous thoughts, produce an atmosphere that if we allow it to go on finally submerges us in the evils of materiality. We get way-down into the waters of life—the negations without the sunshine. All the real power of the Spirit has an equalizing element. We should know how to rise out of these waters of sense consciousness. The natural has been compared in his mental capacity to a pool in which he lives on the surface, but way down in the depths are great unknown elements of various kinds and the deep currents playing in the Gulf Stream and a thousand different conditions exist down near the subconscious of man that he knows very little about. Now in the Scriptures the subconscious is called the heart. Jesus said, “For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings.” It is out of this heart of man that come all these evils. How did they get there? We find that every conscious thought sinks into the subconscious.

Out of the fullness of the heart the mountains open and out of the good man good conditions or good things proceed and out of the evil heart evil conditions proceed. So we find that our good thoughts, our thoughts of love, our thoughts of peace and friendliness and power and all those things that we count good, sink back into the subconscious . We have there a happy, sunny, character who comes over the discords of life.

We wonder why some people are always happy when they are surrounded by unhappy conditions. They have thought at sometime about the good. They have been kind and have done good, and it has become part of the subconscious. We wonder why some people are so much more open for the Truth. They seem just ready for the spiritual truth. It is because they have stored up in their subconscious mind the truth they have received and the light—yet, they haven’t fulfilled the promises. They had received the light but they hadn’t demonstrated it in its fullness. But it was there in its entirety. We carry from one incarnation to another all the good and all the evil. The question is how to get into different, new, surroundings—how to take the evil from this great depth of the subconsciousness and clarify them. Now it is gotten through a union of the subconscious and the imagination. This plays a very important part because it is the formative power. It is Divine Mind, an elemental force of which we form our bodies. How do we do that? I would say that all these faculties of the Mind work by imagination. If you want your imagination to work perfectly you must use it. These faculties all co-operate with the work. But what gives form and shape to your picture, if you are an artist? The artist sees it in his mind. So we are using the great universal figures—all the substance of the infinite mind. We are told that we live in this universal substance and we select from it the red and blue and the different colors and we are constantly through our imagination building the mind, in man. Building the perfect man or the imperfect man out of perfect substance.

The infinite mind perfects. It puts life and love into our productions or pictures. Love draws things from the universal, but what gives it the form? Imagination. As you see in your mind so you become.

Now some people see things when their eyes are closed. They are simply the pictures of the imagination without the projection of intelligence. They are little pictures like motion pictures—those old-style pictures that were silent and couldn’t express themselves fully. No two people saw motion pictures just the same. We imagine things to be so and so. So in everything we do, we project this imagination power Paul brings that out. We are changed from glory to glory, or we are changed from character to character by the Spirit of the Lord. In our mind and that Spirit is the Christ Mind. But every idea you bring into your conscious mind must first be formed in your mind. You may get an idea of Christ perfection but it is an abstract conception included in your mind unless you incorporate it and that incorporation is belief in God as the Father and that you are his perfect manifestation. Then you incorporate that and it ingrains itself in your very organism. Every cell seems to be lifted up and raised to this consciousness. That is why we should constantly think of ourselves as perfect, we should all visualize ourselves as God’s perfect manifestation. If you want an automobile you should visualize it and keep on visualizing it and sooner or you will get an automobile. You bring into manifestation that which your eyes see. We come under a law of bringing into our lives through our imaginations. How the imagination works in ways that are always beyond description and yet we find them working in our conscious mind. If we had the faith to hold on to the pictures we see they would finally manifest themselves. We think that is just my imagination, but if you really had that faith you would make the substance which would become obedient to you.

You get down into your subconscious and you find that you see the condition of your conscious through your dreams. You get guidance from God in your dreams and all dreams are divine; for example, the dreams of Solomon. Solomon wanted from the bottom of his heart to be a good kind. He realized that he was not very wise and he asked Jehovah that he might be made wise. Most of us would have asked for riches or fame. The Lord told him in a dream that he would have both riches and honor if he would follow the imagining power of the mind, centering on wisdom.

Solomon had nine billions of dollars—nine times more than the richest man in America. How did he get it? By asking God to guide him into wisdom. They were the result of his wisdom.

We can be guided in the handling of external conditions just as he was guided in handling his nation. We should not attach ourselves to the things of the world. Some dreams come to us that we do not always understand. We need the understanding principle of imagination. Some of the disciples of Jesus Christ changed his name. These changes in the names of the Bible characters indicate changes in consciousness. He was in his natural state. He saw him clairvoyant. When that change came he was called Bartholomew. We should be aware of what is called clairvoyant discerning power of the psychic. There is a higher knowledge. That is knowing. Get it within yourself. And when Joseph got that immediately he interpreted Pharoah’s dream. Through the interpretation of that dream Joseph became Prime Minister of Egypt.

Now it is very evident that Herbert Hoover is a Quaker and that Quakers can go into the silence. Some people think that if they stay in the silence for five or ten minutes they are doing a remarkable thing. We are very active people and are not trained along this line. We need to get into this inner spiritual mind and stay there for five or six hours. It is said that some in India stay in the silence for six months at a time. We must remember that we have evidence everywhere in our letters and in our religion of this infinite mind.

Watch your dreams. See what the effect is on your mind and body. You will find that this is a great avenue in which God talks to man. Sometimes you will get that great inner urge and again you will get it in a hunch. Now today we are talking about dreams. Joseph 41.

You might give me instances in the Bible of this power of God’s communion with man in his dreams and in his imagination. Sometimes we clothe these with our own conceptions. That is why we are holding forth supply and support. Jesus warned against anxiety or doubts about the supply. Doubtful thoughts, fear thoughts, we know how they disturb our lives, blacks up this free flowing of substance. We must be open and receptive. We not only get wisdom in handling finances but we get hold of the real fundamentals. God is our banker and he can do well if we use this faculty to mold in the “Give us this day our daily bread” subconscious. We see how important it is to realize that this flow of the infinite is unfailing. This power of the imagination affects our health also. Many of the ailments we suffer are the result of ideas that have come into the conscious mind and we try to put them away. There is no doubt that the great majority of ills are the result of mistakes in our thoughts or states of mind.

The eyes are affected by disturbing thoughts—the thinking of wrong thoughts.