The Mind and Its Divisions by Jerry L. Rothermel

Mind and Its Divisions

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The Mind and Its Divisions
by Jerry L. Rothermel

First, I would like you to know we're going to talk about mind. The mind is something to which most of us pay very little attention. Yet, in the Book of Genesis in the Bible it is presented that we are made in the likeness of our Creator. We don't find that our Creator is made in any physical form, so the closest description I understand is that our Creator would be creative intelligence. Therefore, mind would seem to be a tool for that creative intelligence.
I would like you to try an experiment using an extension of yourself — your hand — an extension of your mind. Now turn to the nearest person to you, take their hand, and as though you were telling yourself, say to that person, "I love you just because you are." Most people find this a hard thing to do. Do you know that most people never smile at someone they don't know? Smiling is an extension of the mind. It projects your mental attitude.
One time my father heard me using some fairly strong swear words and he told me, "That's a very strong way to express a weak mind." I didn't get reprimanded more than that; I was young. I thought he had a good idea: swearing was a strong way to express a weak mind. I don't use many swear words anymore, and haven't for a long time. That concept has always stayed with me. I'm a hillbilly from Southern Missouri and I may use "ain't" but I don't use offensive words because I don't think I'm a weak mind. I think I'm a strong mind. I use the tool of the mind as the extension of myself in many different ways.
You in turn will also use the extension of mind in many ways. For instance, a part of your mind will tell you you're hungry and you'll eat. A part of your mind will tell you you're in love so you'll find a mate. A part of your mind will tell you that you're cold. Now we're getting down to another extension of mind, and these are the senses — taste, touch, sound, sight and smell. All of these are extensions of mind. They reach out and touch certain vibrations so the mind can interpret what is being experienced.
I grew up in a religious family, and when I was fourteen years old I had asked my preacher so many strange questions that he said, "Jerry, there are some things that man isn't meant to know." That didn't make sense because he had told me that I was made in the likeness of my Creator, that I was a child of that Creator. I thought I should know the things my God knew since I knew the things my physical father knew. So I began going to the library and the little old lady who was the librarian would look at me as I told her I was there for more books. I could almost hear her saying, "Here comes that weird kid again."
Fourteen years and searching for self. It's very common now, but most of us weren't concerned with looking for self thirty five years ago. That doesn't make me unique. I was just hungry, starved to death. I wanted to know. So in this searching I found that there are three divisions of mind. The first and probably the finest division of mind is called the Superconscious mind, the second is the Subconscious, and the third is called the Conscious mind. The Conscious mind we are fairly familiar with, working with it every day through the senses. That's where we think we are in the physical.
I have also found seven minor divisions within the major divisions called levels of consciousness. The seventh level of consciousness also has a division, the conscious part and the unconscious part. I'm going to work backwards in talking about mind because I think you will be able to relate to it much easier in this manner.
First I want to talk about the conscious part of the Conscious mind. this is the part of mind where you know the things that are happening to you. For instance, you put something in your mouth to eat and you identify the flavor immediately. That's working with the Conscious mind because you have tasted that flavor before. When you get in your car, you turn the key and you drive. That's not the way you first drove. When you first began to drive you turned the key and gave your attention to everything required to make the automobile operate smoothly. You had to watch all buttons, people, stoplights and so on. Those are parts of the Conscious mind that you have made a part of yourself.
Now we come to the unconscious part of the Conscious mind. Here are stored all pieces of information not used daily, information of things not familiar to you.
For instance, as a child perhaps your parents said, "Don't go out in the dark by yourself, or the boogie man will get you." But they didn't explain about the boogie man, so within the unconscious part of the Conscious mind the information is stored that if you go out into the dark there is something that is going to get you. By taking it out of the unconscious mind and working with it in the conscious part of the Conscious mind, the fear will be released.
How can you do this? Take a lightbulb that's sending out rays of light, but you're so far away the rays don't touch you. If you move into the perimeter of light you know that outside that line there is darkness. If you walk into the dark, return, and nothing gets you, you begin to become familiar with the darkness. If you return time and time again, you eventually will begin to recognize that there is no boogie man. You can stop right there and say there's the truth, or you can search even farther, because mind is the tool of the thinker, and the thinker is you.
Most people never search farther than to relieve the symptoms of a pain. Fear has the most excruciating presentation of pain. There is no pill to relieve it, so fear continues to be the biggest killer of peace and contentment. Suppose the thinker, after finding that there is no need to fear the dark, searches even farther to find what caused the fear. He then must search within his mind to find the cause. He must think and reason and by doing this the thinker relieves the cause of the fear. With the cause being understood, darkness no longer presents a stimulus to the emotional body, and the thinker finds peace and contentment even when in darkness. The understanding is now stored in the conscious part of the Conscious mind and in repeated use of the new understanding, it becomes a part of the permanent memory in the Subconscious mind.
As you use the tool of the mind, you formulate ideas to reach understandings. With constant use of the Conscious mind to reason, you build a pathway within the brain structure. The first time you do something, you build a pathway within the brain structure. The first time you do something, you make a footprint in the brain structure of the proceedings that took place in the mind. When you do this activity over and over, a wide pathway is created so very little attention is needed to perform that activity. Like your driving — now you can turn the key and go with little conscious attention placed on the process; whereas, when you began your focalized attention was required. So within the conscious part of the Conscious mind are stored those activities which you do over and over, which you have made a part of yourself. Once you learn to ride a bicycle, once you learn how to drive, once you learn to walk, that pathway or memory remains within the brain. All the Conscious mind has to do is push the right computer button "walk", and the pathway to travel is brought to the board. As you walk, if something happens to deviate that pathway, that walking procedure will adjust itself for it is a part of the brain pattern. The brain is not the mind, the brain is a computer that stores information for the Conscious mind's use. So you build pathways in the brain for the Conscious mind to use.
All these levels are extensions of yourself, the real you, the thinker. The word man is a derivative of the word "manu" which means thinker. Within each of these divisions there is thinking, a reasoning process. The free choice takes place when you make decisions. All of this Conscious mind is within the physical level of consciousness or the seventh level.
Now we will focus on the Subconscious mind. I don't know whether you have been presented with the theory of reincarnation or rebirth, but we'll say if it makes sense and is true, then there would be a part of you that would store permanent memory. Let's explore that a bit. Why would we need a permanent memory? How else could you explain genius — the person who at age four writes music that spans centuries, or the great inventors, do Vinci, Bell, Ford — unless reincarnation does make sense.
If you are made in the likeness of our Creator, I don't think our Creator would make a single item to last as short a time as the personality does. Within nature we find nothing destroyed — changed but not destroyed. So we will say that reincarnation has a possibility, and if this is true then the Subconscious is that part of mind that would reincarn lifetime after lifetime. Each division of mind has a duty. The duty of the Subconscious mind is to store permanent memory of understood experiences. What's an understood experience? Something you've made such a part of yourself in the physical that it's like a third hand, it works for you not against you. Do you remember how a child begins to walk? They pull up, take a step or two and then fall. Now consider an older person who has made walking a part of themselves. They don't fall very often. It takes a deviation from that pathway to make them fall. So walking has been made a part of self and stored in the Subconscious memory bank.
The subconscious mind has a type of brain also. If reincarnation makes sense to you, would it not explain why I'm in a male body and the ladies are in a female body? That we choose these particular bodies and environment for things we need to learn to make this a whole self so it can mature.
Within the Subconscious mind we have four levels of consciousness. I've heard some people present that the body of the Subconscious mind is the soul; that the soul is the body for the Subconscious mind. Could be. A theory, but it makes sense. The very closest level to the Conscious mind is the emotional level. Emotion is felt not only in physical Conscious mind, but also in the Subconscious mind. If someone breaks a glass behind you as you're reading this, you first jump inside then the body reacts and you jump outside. If you're coming down in an elevator and the bottom gives way, you feel it. You feel yourself being pulled apart and yet you begin to work back down. The Subconscious bodies are pulled out of sync with the physical body. Do you begin to see the bodies that exist within the inner levels of consciousness?
If you're hit in the pit of the stomach, you become unconscious, or a least you lose the power of speech and the power of breath. Why? This area is called the solar plexus and we've found that this is the seat of the mind for both Conscious and Subconscious minds. If that place is disturbed in a sharp manner, the Conscious and Subconscious minds are thrown out of synchronization.
Within each level of consciousness, there is also a body. Do you know what an onion looks like? Layer after layer of substance. This is basically the way you're constructed. The physical body, the Conscious mind working with the brain to control the body, is the outside layer. If you'll notice it's the most diffused part of the mind. In other words the attention can be scattered farther. Take a look at the lightbulb. Very close to the lightbulb is the most intense part of light. As far as I can see, in Genesis Light is the first creation. I think that we are that Light. I think Light is our real essence of being. Notice the farther away you come from the lightbulb, the more the light diffuses. Less intensity of concentration is in the Conscious mind also.
The Conscious mind is rebuilt each lifetime. If this theory of reincarnation makes sense, then I'm going to present another theory to you — that the Subconscious mind reborn into another young physical body begins building information into the brain so the mind has something to utilize. The newborn baby, to place the first piece of information in mind, begins to cry. someone comes to make him dry and warm, and that's the first piece of information in the brain. that tiny mind thinks, "I got attention from making that crazy noise", and tries it again. then someone comes with a bottle, and the Conscious mind has its second piece of information. The brain stores the information. It continues to collect information for the Conscious mind to use, and when it reaches about fourteen years of age it has the Subconscious mind completely covered. And it's so smart and the parents are so stupid. Have you ever experienced that? You've all felt how smart you are, how much you know because by this time you have the Subconscious mind completely covered.
As a baby, you functioned from the Subconscious level of existence. that's how your heart kept beating, the breath kept coming into the lungs. These were the things in the Subconscious memory. this memory kept the physical body going until finally you began to consciously nourish it yourself.
So we have stored information in the Conscious mind and covered the Subconscious mind to the point where now you're an adult. You're twenty one years of age and you find out "I don't know anything."
You discover your parents became very smart in those last few years. You've gone through this, I know you have because you're no different than I am. This seems to be a pattern that all young minds go through. At twenty one you begin thinking there's more than just this physical existence. You have placed the Conscious mind's importance out of perspective so that the Subconscious mind is completely covered. Now it's time to begin focusing it back so you can use the Subconscious mind again.
We call that concentration. Giving your undivided attention to a single thing, just as you are while you're reading this. Anytime you can learn to focus your attention, place your undivided attention on a single thing at a time you're learning to concentrate. Once you develop your concentrative power, you can allow the Subconscious mind to work through you. There is communication between the Conscious and Subconscious minds.
Until that occurs, the communication takes place in the form of dreams. And dreaming is a language of its own. Each nationality has a language of its own; so it is with dreams. The Subconscious is a group of minds with a language of its own. Until that language is understood, communication only one way, only coming out. The Conscious brain has a difficult time trying to interpret what the Subconscious mind is saying. There is a part of the physical brain known as the pituitary gland. This gland not only interprets the energies as they flow from the Subconscious mind, but it also interprets the energy as it flows into the brain from the five senses.
During the night, the Subconscious mind reaches to the Conscious mind in the form of a dream. If you're a woman, your husband is reprimanding you in the dream. If you're a man, your wife is reprimanding you in the dream. This is the way the Subconscious mind communicates to the Conscious mind — in symbols.
The emotional level of consciousness is very close to the physical level of consciousness. The relationship can easily be explained with the honeycomb. the comb would be the Conscious level, and the emotional level would be the honey. They are interrelated. In the emotional level, or sixth level of consciousness, everything seems in reverse. Objects that are white to the physical eyes, to the emotional eyes will be black, red will be green and blue will be orange. In other words, they are almost exactly opposite. Dreams, in the sixth level will appear in a form of dusk light, as twilight seen with the physical eyes. The emotional level of consciousness is a barrier level of consciousness. To get into any of the other levels of consciousness that level must be brought under control.
The fifth level of consciousness is the very beginning of individual existence in the physical. Without that level of consciousness, we would be both male and female, for it is in this level of conscious that the separation of vibration takes place. At this point the identity is make either male or female, the color either red, green, or yellow. At that point all color vibrations are coming through at the same rate of speed, but at the beginning of the fifth level of consciousness the separation into individuality for the physical begins. At the beginning of the fifth level we find the beginning of heat and cold. To that point it is neither hot or cold, it is one vibration. When you're dreaming within that level, and looking at colors you'll find them very distinct and bright.
The third level of consciousness is probably the most important level to the individual. It's where all things begin for you as an individual. Each begins from a stimulus in the physical. You see an automobile traveling on the highway and you think, I really want that Cadillac. If this is a true desire, you'll hold your conscious attention on this car and you'll begin working toward obtaining it. But at that moment, you have planted a seed idea in that level of consciousness. Do you know that within each acorn, within each grain of wheat, is a complete idea of the mature plan. With the acorn is the trunk, the bark, the rings, the limbs, the leaves. All it needs to take shape is substance. Your ideas, thoughts, desires, and your fears and hatred are also planted here. They need substance also, that substance is your substance — mind substance.
If you'll remember in Genesis, God created man from the ground. This would be Subconscious mind substance.
The third level is comparable to our own atmosphere. In our atmosphere is moisture. It is continually there, but we never have a drop of rain until there is a speck of dust or a particle for that substance — moisture — to gather around. The same is true within mind. Nothing ever happens in the physical until you plant a seed idea within that third level of consciousness — the mental level. In that level of consciousness, a seed idea begins to attract and draw toward it mind substance, not only of yours, but of all other individuals whose desires will work in accordance to your own.
I've told you that each division of consciousness has a specific duty. The duty of the Conscious mind is to give understood experiences to the Subconscious mind. The duty of the Subconscious mind is to fulfill all Conscious desires. I've written a book titled You Really Can Have Anything You Desire and this is a true statement. There is nothing you cannot have if you truly desire, because if you desire a specific thing you can plant a complete idea in the third level and it will manifest in the physical exactly as you pictured it. the Subconscious mind will go to extreme lengths to fulfill all Conscious desires.
In the physical, there is distance between Conscious minds, but within Subconscious minds there is no space or distance. Within Subconscious existence all Subconscious minds are interlinked. It is known as the Universal mind and it works like the cells of the brain. Each understood experience is contained in one of these "cells". It works like the cells in the grey matter of the brain where experiences of the physical are stored. If understood, it is also in the Subconscious permanent memory to be drawn on anytime when attracted by a desire. So with the conscious desire, if a complete and detailed picture of the idea is created, anyone that has a like idea will be drawn together. You will be drawn to them, and they to you to benefit both. Mind substance all along is forming this idea, like the moisture as it falls and attracts more substance into a raindrop.
We have talked about five levels of consciousness, and those are the levels we continually use. When we first began I planted a complete idea in your third level of consciousness. I asked you to take the hand of the person nearest you and say, "I love you just because you are". Wouldn't that be a pleasant world? If when you are walking down the street, instead of frowning and wondering what the other person was going to do to you or take form you, wouldn't it be a positive expression if you could smile at that person? Wouldn't it be pleasant if when you meet someone and shake hands with them instead of thinking, "I don't really want to shake his hand," think, "I really love this person regardless of their sex. I love them just because they exist." Wouldn't that be a good feeling? If you plant that idea enough in the third level of consciousness, it will manifest out in the physical. You will find people walking around with smiles on their faces because "I love you just because you are" has begun to manifest in their physical existence.
Now, let's look at reincarnation again. If this is true, and I say if for your benefit, because I do not know if you have made this theory a part of yourself. For myself, it's not longer a belief, it's a way of life. My life is built around my next lifetime. The things I learn and do are forming and storing understood experiences in the Subconscious for the next lifetime so I can give more. The prophets of old took nothing, but they gave of themselves, their knowledge and ability. they gave because they wanted to give and asked nothing in return, using what was available to them.
The second level of consciousness is known as the causal level. That level is rarely used, and only those old prophets or those people in the physical right now who have the ability to give of themselves without the expectation of physical reimbursement, use this level. They are the ones who use this level the most. It's known as the causal consciousness because it's the beginning of individual man, or the Adam man, the beginning of physical man. the causal level is that space where you draw energy for your physical and sub-physical existence.
The first level of consciousness is entitled the Christ consciousness, the Buddha consciousness, the Cosmic consciousness. It doesn't matter what you choose to term it. It is the beginning of mind, and that's the most intense, vibrating part of yourself. With the awareness and the use of that level you find people like Moses, Jesus, Zarathustra; people who used that level of consciousness. That level of consciousness is not available to just anyone. It's a level you have to earn. To work within that level of consciousness, you must have brought all the other levels of consciousness under control. When I speak of control, I don't speak of a selfish control. I'm saying that you must first understand their expression of energy, how they express themselves and their function.
If you can understand how a speck of dust or a particle of anything can gather moisture becoming larger until it hits the earth, you can understand each level of consciousness. Because this is what we call the secret of life — a complete idea becoming a physical thing. If we're made in the likeness of our Creator, are we not also creators? I can tell you one thing that physical man creates that has not been created by God, and it's very simple — the Leghorn chicken. It was created to produce an abundance of eggs. The eating chicken, the turkey, the Hereford cow, the hybrid tomato, are all examples of taking wild, pre-created things and making a completely new idea functional in the physical.
You can learn to take mind substance and mold it into any form you desire. You can have complete and total control over your environment, over everything that exists within and around you. It takes time and understanding, and it takes work, practice. The third major division of mind, the Superconscious mind, has a complete and total separation from the other two divisions. As presented in Genesis it is the dome or firmament that separates the waters above the dome from the waters below. In the second chapter twenty second verse, it talks of man and woman. And it tells you that is why a man (Subconscious mind) leaves his mother and father (Superconscious mind) and clings to his wife (Conscious mind) and the two of them become one body. When the Conscious and Subconscious minds function with a single purpose, it is a marriage and it's made in what we call heaven, within the inner levels of consciousness. The Subconscious mind for a man is negative, receptive. The Conscious mind for a man is positive or aggressive. For a woman the Subconscious mind is positive or aggressive, the Conscious mind is negative or receptive. I think this is what Genesis is talking about when it presents Adam and Eve.
We've found that the quality of the Subconscious is pushing outward to the negative, then it comes across and becomes positive, then pushes down as negative, always in a continuum until it reaches the physical. This will give you the positive and negative factors of creation, the positive and negative factors of yourself. We find the qualities in the Superconscious mind to be both positive and negative and without dependency upon the Subconscious and Conscious minds. But the Subconscious and Conscious have dependency on the parents, the Superconscious mind.
The tenth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, says a river wells up in Eden and from there separates into four branches to water the earth. those four branches are the attention placed on these levels of consciousness so that there is life force in physical man.
Many people are curious about this study of mind, and often the seed ideas planted grow creating many question. The remainder of this book will be devoted to the types of questions most frequently posed.

Q&A

Q. In your point about reincarnation why is it necessary, if we accept the evidence of God being our Creator, for him to reincarn us if he created us in the first place?

I don't think it's our Creator reincarning us, but our decision to reincarn for the purpose of maturing. You see within the tree the sap goes down and up, winter and summer, it doesn't cease to exist. It merely becomes dormant for a while then blooms again, continually growing into a mature tree.

Q. But man reaches the epitome in death if you believe in God.

One time a young lady eleven years old was being explained basically what I'm explaining right now, and she said, "Mother, do you mean I have another chance? I didn't think I'd be good enough to get into heaven." That's a heavy burden for a child to carry. I throw it out as a theory for your consideration, but reincarnation has answered many questions for me. It answered the questions as to why I was born into a poor family and you into a rich, why I was male and you female, why I would have a crippled body, why I would be white and you black or yellow or red. I believe the Subconscious chooses the environment and parentage to become a mature self. When complete understanding is achieved, then there is compatibility with the Creator. Otherwise, I find no purpose for man.

Q Aren't there scriptures, since you've quoted form Genesis, of different people returning as other people?

Yes, a list of around sixty places in both the Old and New Testaments where reference is made to reincarnation in included in this book. I don't think there's any doubt that it is truth.

Q. What about picking up thought patterns from the past instead of reincarnation? Is that possible?

Yes, You can learn to do that right now. If you can remember in the conscious mind yesterday, last week, or a year ago, you can learn to take your memory back into the Subconscious mind. You have to first be able to focus your Conscious mind so you can get back to the Subconscious permanent memory.

Q. Several years ago I was in an automobile accident. While I was in the hospital I heard a telephone ring in my mind and heard my husband's conversation, although he was at home. The next day he came to visit and I asked him about the conversation. He didn't understand how I knew, and neither did I. But I do know that I was there.

Yes, and at that time you pushed the Conscious mind aside with medication given to you in the hospital. Once you can learn to quiet the conscious mind, you can learn to exist in each of these levels of consciousness. That's what you were doing. You were at one of these levels of consciousness. It doesn't matter which one, because you can receive communications from all levels of consciousness. Your desire to be at home was the connecting link between the telephone call and yourself.

Q. Do you believe that you keep your individual personal identity during incarnations?

Yes, because you are the sum total of all your past understood experiences. All of those things that you have made a part of your physical self becomes a part of this Subconscious permanent memory that you will project to others.

Q. What would be the point of reincarning if you lose your identity, your past experiences?

You don't lose the understood experiences, only those that you haven't learned. Have you ever known someone who got a divorce because they couldn't get along with their spouse. Very shortly they remarry. But you know, they generally marry someone with the same qualities of the one they just divorced and they find themselves in the same situations and conditions. Here's where reincarnation really makes sense to me. The Subconscious keeps placing the individual in a position to learn to be a whole functioning self to mature. So the physical person who got the divorce keeps placing himself in the position until he reaches an understanding of the association with that type of person.

Q. Will we have a choice of coming back, or will that be something we can't decide?

There is choice. But you will want to return so you can mature and become compatible with the Creator.

Q. What do you think the spirit is then?

This is the essence, or the first creation of Light.

Q. Does the spirit or soul repose somewhere else for a period of time?

I suppose it's because of conditioning that we look for God out there, but I think you'll find God quicker if you'll look within. So that place that you're talking about is within your own substance, your own self.

Q. What about souls or spirits who supposedly are waiting to return that speak through people. Does this mean the correct environment?

That makes some sense. But when you say out there, it really is inward.

Q. Do you believe that the spirit is God?

Yes, the God part within us. Without that there would be no physical existence. I think that's what Abraham worshipped — the living God. He recognized that part within.

Q. What about God being three in one — the Father, Son and Holy Ghost — and that He made us in his likeness? That would make us body, soul, and spirit. That gives us three realms to work with.

Consider this. The trinity that we're talking about is the plus or creative intelligence, the father; the minus or mind substance, the mother; and the child being both positive and negative would be Light. I present for your consideration that this is the trinity. Creative intelligence, receptive existence, and the results of the two. Isn't this what it takes to produce a child, the aggressive act of the male and the receptivity of the female, then the physical child? I find everything that happens in the Conscious mind is a place of practice so that we can apply it in a single purpose for a single awareness. As you practice concentration, that is what you're doing, learning to concentrate your Light, your awareness toward that Light within. I find the union between the Subconscious and the Conscious minds is the marriage made in heaven. And it is my understanding that this is the only place you can commit adultery. If you take your attention from your Subconscious mind, that's adultery. If you take your love from the Superconscious mind and place it out into the physical on a husband, wife, car, airplane, house, money, then you have another God before your God. Your God is the inner part of the Creator within you. All that I've told you is answerable in the Ten Commandments.

Q. In the realm of dreams, what about someone who refuses to dream because they only dream in black and white? They refuse to dream until they can dream in color. Is this possible?

Yes, it really is the desire to be reborn in spirit. Have you ever dreamed that you're running away from something and you realize you're going in slow motion? At that time you might have been dreaming in the emotional level of consciousness and your actions seem very slow. The real action, however, is fast. So when you project from one level of consciousness into the next, then you must also change your mental attitude.

Q. Are meditative states working through those levels?

We start by meditating at the Conscious level first, then in the second series of lessons offered by the School of Metaphysics, the focus is on the Subconscious. Not until the Adam series do we take you into the Superconscious level. It's a gradual moving deeper and deeper within.

Q. Can anyone function from the Superconscious?

Anyone can; few do. I don't think the quality of that level of consciousness is limited to a special few. Most of the attention for most people is placed out in the physical, therefore, they do not achieve the rewarding feeling of dwelling there.

Q. Do you consider the School of Metaphysics a religion?

No. You have to have dogmas to be a religion. We have only two rules: you do the exercises we recommend for concentrating and you not miss two classes in a row because you get too far behind. That's not enough to consider dogmatic. We don't consider ourselves a religion. We really are a School.

Q. Is it considered occult?

No. It's not occult because it's not kept secret. It's offered to anyone.

Q. Where are the Schools?

Throughout the Midwest. We never open a new school until people ask us to come. Originally our School began in Springfield, Missouri. That's the heart of the Bible belt and they have accepted us very well. They don't see us as a threat. We recommend students stay in their religion because we are not to take the place of the church. There is one thing I can guarantee, that as you go through the classes, you will learn more about yourself and your religion will become more real.

Q. How can you read the Akashic Record?

You learn to go between the fourth and fifth levels of consciousness. It's comparable to knowing the address of your library. If you can get there, and if you know how to select a book, you have your choice. It's much the same in reading the Record. But it takes practice.

Q. Who does the life readings?

Anyone at a certain point in the lessons can do them. There are individuals who have completed extensive training and are qualified to offer the Past Life Readings available to the public through the School.

Q. Who directs each School?

There are individuals at each location who have displayed responsibility and the desire to give of themselves to humanity. Individuals direct a School because they have a desire to be in that position. They have learned that the best way to gain wisdom is to teach others the knowledge they have. As they work in their studies they display that desire. We never give anyone anything. It's always there and they can take it, but we don't give them anything. The same is true with our lessons, they are there, available to anyone, but you have to come and take them.

Q. Is there healing involved in this?

Yes, we teach a type of mental healing also. It's not contact healing. It's strictly mental. We also do what is known as a health reading. That's going to the third level where the seed idea is planted to find the cause for the disorder. In healing, we also go to that level of consciousness to make suggestions in the mental attitude.

Q. Do you teach hypnosis or is that similar to this?

No. With hypnosis you're talking about the Conscious mind not being in control and not aware of what's taking place within the Subconscious mind. Anytime our students work in the inner levels they take their Conscious mind with them.

Q. Isn't that self-hypnosis?

No, because at a point in self-hypnosis you lose control. There's only a certain level you can take yourself to. They are in complete control at all times.

Q. What about drawing on other sources of material or information?

The reason we recommend other books is so the student can learn to make decisions. We want them to learn to be a whole functioning self. Unless they can be exposed to other ideas, how can they be sure the method we present is correct for them? that's why we have other books from various sources recommended during the classes.

Q. Do you consider yourself in competition with TM?

No, for instance we function on a donation basis only. We ask our students to make a weekly donation which pays for the printed lessons, brochures, newsletter, utilities, and building maintenance, etc. I don't think TM functions that way.

Q. What is your definition of meditation?

Listening.

Q. To God?

Yes, to thy Father, that inner Self.

Q. To me, meditation is prayer, prayer being communication with God.

If you and I are having a conversation, communicating, consider what is happening. As I talk to you I'm praying to you, but I've got to meditate or be quiet and listen when you speak. That's meditation. So to have a communication with your God it takes both prayer and meditation. It's listening expectantly.

Q. Does the School of Metaphysics teach how to be psychic?

Psychic is nothing more than using these inner parts of the mind and we teach how to use them. We find people talking about the sixth sense. What is the sixth sense? Is it strange and new? I don't believe so. I think the sixth sense is nothing more than taking touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing and focusing them into a single sense called knowing. Intuition — I think that is the sixth sense. Once you stop identifying with the individual parts and start identifying with the whole, then your intuition begins functioning. I don't have any special talent. You have the same capabilities. As long as you identify with touch, or taste, or sight, your attention will be scattered. When you begin to focus that attention then you form the sixth sense. We think humanity as a whole is in a progressive stage. Human man will be spiritual man. We think that we're in the fifth day of creation right now, and the sixth day of creation is spiritual man. I don't know if this makes sense, but we think that people like you, like the ones who come into our School, want to use the intuition so much that they are working from a stimulus in the physical and planting an idea in the third level. That will bring about spiritual man. That's part of spiritual man. We think this will basically take place during the next 1,500 years.

Q. How do you set that projection?

The sun goes through a cycle about every 2500 years. We're going out of the age of Pisces and coming into the age of Aquarius. The age of Pisces is known as the age of believing, the age of Aquarius is the age of knowing. Spiritual man will be a knower. The intuition will be functioning at that time. It will take some time for this to make the complete transition. We believe that it's in the process of taking place right now.

Q. Is it the Aquarian Age that's brought about an acceptance of things like Transcendental Meditation and mind control over the past twenty years?

Yes, the age started dovetailing in at the turn of the century. It will take until 2043 to complete the coming out of Pisces and into Aquarius. It is similar to being born on the cusp, in that one day you would cease to be a Pisces and the next day you would be an Aries. If you're born on that one particular day, you're born on the cusp and you have the influence of both signs. Basically, that's what we're into now. We're feeling the influence of believing but we're also feeling the influence of the knowing.

Q. So you think astrology has an effect on us?

I can see purpose in astrology, in understanding the influences of the stars. You can look at a tree and see energy coming out of that tree. You can look at people and see energy coming out of that person. We call that an aura. But everyone influences everyone else you come into contact with.

Q. Can you see auras?

Yes. You can learn to see them. As you view the planets moving, they are charted always returning to the same point, but there are no cams and gears to hold them in that orbit. So it has to be a pushing and pulling, an influence from other stars and planets that maintain this consistent pattern. That influence must in turn influence physical man. We see how the moon, being the closest to the earth, pulls the water. We call this effect tides. It also pulls the earth when the sun and moon are on the same side of the earth or even on direct opposite sides. At these times the moon will stretch the earth as much as twelve feet.

Q. Is the aura the light you see around a person?

Yes, part of the light seen is the impression left on the physical eye, but part of it is from the essence. Everything that you touch you leave a part of yourself there. It's energy you've used. Everyone has the aura around them. In the paintings of the saints you'll see this.

Q. Are auras different colors?

Sometimes, but not always. I have to really place my attention on that kind of mental attitude to see color. It will tell you the emotional and mental attitude of the individual at that moment. As you see others' auras, you have to remember that you're looking through your own aura. If you have the power to physically see, you have the power to mentally see also. It's a matter of placing your attention where you desire it. Anyone can learn if they'll follow instructions. I had a young man who just came back into the classes following a two year absence. I had to ask him to leave again because he wouldn't stop doing drugs. The drugs were interfering with his reasoning. We have no objections to a person doing drugs, but we won't waste our time trying to teach how to reach the inner levels and utilize full abilities if the student continually destroys what has been built by using drugs the night before.

Q. You're talking about marijuana?

Yes, or beer or wine. They interfere with the reasoning.

Q. What about cigarettes?

They work on a different thing. A cigarette does not interfere with the reasoning. Sleeping too much or staying in bed too long will defeat the purpose of study. Most people in the School will get five to six hours of sleep per night. It seems like very little sleep, but when you consider that most of the time spent in bed is in attempting to sleep, it's merely the most effective use of the time. You sleep in the shallow so long, it takes three to four hours to reach the deep stages of sleep. When you learn to concentrate, and focus your attention you learn to throw yourself in that deep sleep; therefore, five or six hours is an adequate time.

Q. Why is it necessary not to sleep for a longer period of time?

It interferes with the reasoning. You're not experiencing and that's the purpose of being in the physical. The purpose of experiencing is to place understood experiences in the Subconscious mind, so by excessive sleep you're taking away from that time of learning.

Q. One of the only fears I have not come to peace with is the fear of dying, or leaving the physical body. What would you suggest?

You can learn to astral project. that is leaving the body, thereby practicing dying. With this practice you will lose the fear of death. In each of the inner levels of consciousness you have a body that functions in that level. By learning how to transfer your consciousness to that body, you learn to astral project. That is what happens when you physically die.

Q. Isn't there a particular sound or vibration associated with astral projection?

Each of these bodies produce a sound. You can learn to produce the most beautiful sound you've ever heard. One you've never heard with your ears. But you must get all these bodies aligned — vibrating in unison. Once you hear that, there is no worry about death. We teach astral projection in two forms. The sixth level of consciousness is an outward projection. You can also function in the seventh level of consciousness while away from your physical body. The inward begins in the fifth, fourth, and third levels of consciousness. In learning how to remove your attention from the physical and place it on those inner levels of consciousness you learn how to die. We've had students who came into the classes just for that — just to learn how to die.
The mind is a beautiful tool to aid the soul progression of man, the thinker; however, like all tools that are not used, the mind can become rusty when not used. Mind also becomes weak from lack of exercise, the very act of thinking or exercising the mind. So each time you make a decision and you continue to watch the results of that decision, to its conclusion, you are exercising the mind. If you wait until you can make the correct decision, you are defeating the purpose of making the decision at all. There is nothing wrong in making a mistake. The wrong comes in making the same mistake over and over. Any decision made which proves incorrect can always be changed.
Man is a thinker. As long as he uses this capacity he has dignity and remains man. Only when you allow others to do your thinking, removing your responsibility to and for your Self, do you become dominated by the animal part of your existence.
I challenge you to make decisions, observe the results of each decision, and change or make new decisions where you find it necessary. You will make mistakes, but by observing the mistake and changing you will gain strength and wisdom. You will find peace and contentment in your new found security. From change come growth and maturity. No action is ever wasted in a directed change.