Chapter One
THE MATERIAL MIND Vs. THE SPIRITUAL MIND
THERE belongs to every human being a higher self and a lower self--a self or mindof the spirit which has been growing for ages, and a self of the body, which is but athing of yesterday. The higher self is full of prompting idea, suggestion andaspiration. This it receives of the Supreme Power. All this the lower or animal selfregards as wild and visionary. The higher self argues possibilities and power for usgreater than men and women now possess and enjoy. The lower self says we canonly live and exist as men and women have lived and existed before us. The higherself craves freedom from the cumbrousness, the limitations, the pains anddisabilities of the body. The lower self says that we are born to them, born to ill,born to suffer, and must suffer as have so many before us. The higher self wants astandard for right and wrong of its own. The lower self says we must accept astandard made for us by others--by general and long-held opinion, belief andprejudice."To thine own self be true" is an oft-uttered adage. But to which self? The higher orlower?You have in a sense two minds--the mind of the body and the mind of the spirit.Spirit is a force and a mystery. All we know or may ever know of it is that it exists,and is ever working and producing all results in physical things seen of physicalsense and many more not so seen.What is seen, of any object, a tree, an animal, a stone, a man is only a part of thattree, animal, stone, or man. There is a force which for a time binds such objectstogether in the form you see them. That force is always acting on them to greateror lesser degree. It builds up the flower to its fullest maturity. Its cessation to acton the flower or tree causes what we call decay. It is constantly changing the shapeof all forms of what are called organized matter. An animal, a plant, a human beingare not in physical shape this month or this year what they will be next month ornext year.This ever-acting, ever-varying force, which lies behind and, in a sense, creates allforms of matter we call Spirit.