Hi Friends —
In this post I want to share the most important lesson I have learned from Rev. Greg Neteler, founder and Senior Minister of Unity Church Universal, 9th and Tracy in Kansas City. And I want to share why it is important for our movement today. Finally, I want to point out how we, as a spiritual movement, get off track by ignoring this lesson.
What I have learned from Greg
What I have learned from Greg is how the healthy mind hears God speak. Here is a graphic Greg uses in his books and classes. The arrows show the flow of divine ideas into the human mind. Follow the arrows. Note that the normative flow of divine ideas is from Superconsciousness directly to subconsciousness. From there, our consciousness is informed by God. That is, our conscious mind is properly informed by God, first through Superconscious mind (Spirit), then through the subconscious mind.
All too often, however, the conscious mind intercepts the flow from Spirit to subconsciousness, inserting itself between Spirit and the depths of soul, taking charge and taking over, frustrating a normative spiritual process in an unhealthy way, leading to what is described by Charles Fillmore as the “great gulf fixed” between our present state and the attainment of our highest desire, our good (Keep a True Lent, Conscious Mind and Subconscious Mind).
Because the normative pathway for Truth into our soul is the subconscious, metaphysical understanding cannot really be learned from anyone else. No person can claim to be an authority for metaphysical truth. Emerson said it best:
“Meantime, whilst the doors of the temple stand open, night and day, before every man, and the oracles of this truth cease never, it is guarded by one stern condition; this, namely; it is an intuition. It cannot be received at second hand. Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or wholly reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing.” (Divinity School Address)
Where did Rev. Greg get this teaching and how did he convey it to me? He likely got it through Charles Fillmore’s Keep a True Lent, mentioned above, but he conveyed it to me by suggesting I study the Correspondence School lessons, which were Unity’s SEE program from 1912 through the mid-1970s.
In Lesson 4 of the Advanced Course, The Formative Power of Thought, paragraphs 8 through 17, we get a deep exploration of the human mind—Superconscious, conscious, and subconscious. We will be discussing this normative process of God speaking to our soul through Superconscious Mind then through subconscious mind on Tuesday at 11:30 Eastern time in our Fillmore Wings Discussion Group. You are welcome to join us.
Why is this important
It’s important because we learn how the adoption and practice of a structured spiritual teaching leads individuals and communities to unlimited spiritual freedom.
What the Fillmore teachings and the Correspondence School lessons offer is nothing less than a structured spiritual teaching, in this case a teaching about how God talks to human beings. The promise is that the structured teaching offers a pathway to unlimited freedom.
Structure leads to freedom? Really? Yes, it does. The structured teaching is the foundation. The unlimited freedom is the supplement. From the foundation of that structure we are free to explore supplements in our spiritual journey.
But, as Emerson cautioned, we have that freedom to explore only if the structured teaching is found true in us. We can never rely on instruction from another; we can never rely on a substitute for that which is our own. All metaphysical teaching is a provocation. The provocation is, as the lesson says, from God through Spirit and subconscious mind to conscious mind. That is our spiritual nutrition and no supplement can replace healthy nutrition.
How we have got off track as a spiritual movement
The problem is that, in many cases, the supplement has become the substitute for the foundational teaching. Metaphysically, this is nothing less than the conscious mind intercepting God given ideas from the Superconscious mind. Those who do so then encounter the “great gulf” in the human mind of which Charles Fillmore wrote, and they fill the void with an endless parade of off-the-shelf supplements. The supplement has become a substitute for the Fillmore teaching.
The problem is actually quite a bit deeper than becoming an off-the-shelf supplmental spiritual junkie. The conscious mind, having inserted itself between Superconscious mind and the subconsciousness, soon comes to believe it is itself the Superconsciousness. It is not long before the conscious mind convinces itself that “it’s all about me,” becomes nontheist, and insists that religion, like God, is something we no longer need in our spiritual journey.
Sunday, September 8, 2024
