E-Books by Ernest Holmes

This manuscript is for the use of those students who have taken the Major Course given at the Institute of Religious Science, Los Angeles, California, and is to be used in connection with the textbook of the Institute, "The Science of Mind" since these lessons were given around the text in this book. No attempt has been made to correct the contents, which stands exactly as it was given in the class. Consequently, any variations or deviations should be overlooked.

Ernest Holmes first brought out his New Thought Terms and Their Meanings in 1942, citing the fact that new philosophies, new sciences, and new outlooks upon life make necessary a new terminology"; and he added: "New ideas are frequently misrepresented by the very terms used to express them."

There is a power within us

which is greater than any condition

we can ever contact.

It knows no obstruction, no obstacle.

It transcends all

because it is the final fact of creation,

the Almighty indwelling our own souls.

Ernest Holmes

All things and events are rooted in some coordinated and intelligent principle which we call "Divine."

Any name limits it.

God is in and through all life, the cause back of it, the effect in it, the power through it, the law sustaining it, the impulse projecting it, and the unity binding it together.

The system is a complete unity.

Our lives are rooted in this unity, and our relationship to it is instantaneous and mutual.

Our business is to convert failure into success; to transmute disease into life-giving wholeness; to neutralize the effects of fear and sorrow through an inner awareness of joy, peace, and love.

We are taking everything that does not belong to the great Reality and trading it in, as it were, for that which ought to be. We are swapping old ideas for new ones,

Ernest Holmes

This discussion of alcoholism has been written especially for those whose addiction is a definite escape mechanism. While this category of addiction is in the majority, of course, it is also recognized that there are many other reasons for alcoholism

Those who have been healed of alcoholism should be directed into some creative activity which gives them self-expression, the results of which compensate them for the apparent gratification they received through their addiction. It is generally accepted that some form of useful service to humanity, perhaps helping other sufferers, is one of the best possible ways of seeking permanent happiness.

E.H.

In this introductory lesson we must establish a fundamental truth, which is that "Life is what you make it." This may sound trite but it is basic to a course such as this, for in seeking truth, we must establish ourselves upon a foundation of intellectual honesty. If we shrink from facing facts, we flee to unreality and build upon an unsound foundation. As a result, the whole superstructure which we erect will be unsound.

The mystics, or those who were illumined, have all had an experience in common: They have seen the Cosmic Light. That is why it is said that they were illumined. They have all had much the same experience, whether it was Moses coming down from the mountain; whether it was Jesus after the resurrection; whether it was Saul on the return to Damascus; whether it was Plotinus, who, according to his pupils, had seven distinct periods of illumination.

The twenty essays in this volume have been selected from the published and unpublished works of the late Ernest Holmes whose spiritual philosophy, Science of Mind, has meant so much to many tens of thousands around the world. A variety of subjects are dealt with and there is inspiration and wisdom in all of them. They can serve as guides to discovering a richer, fuller experience of living. We do live in a spiritual universe and the Infinite Intelligence which creates and sustains all is ever accessible to the individual for guidance once he becomes aware of It.

Science of Mind Publication

Creative Mind is the first book Ernest Holmes wrote. It is a powerful book, bold in its simplicity, inspired in its clarity. First published in 1919, it has escorted many people out of despair and into a richer, fuller life, and has been a source of inspiration throughout the world for almost eighty years.

For too long we have been dividing ourselves as well as the universe in which we live into small unrelated segments. We have been so busy doing this that we have overlooked the fact that everything is part of one stupendous whole. We have separated the spirit from the mind, and the mind from the body. We have isolated living things from that which causes them to live. The stars and the atoms we consider apart from the purposive Creativity which creates and sustains them.

No longer is there any question or doubt but that prayer can change things. There is no aspect of life that it cannot affect. Through prayer, life can become a continuing experience of health, happiness, success, joy, and abundance.

The material in this book was originally given as a series of lectures by Dr. Ernest Holmes before leaders, practitioners and members of the Church of Religious Science, high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, at its first summer conference in 1953. We believe that the message of peace and love which they contain is one that millions of people in this hectic age will want to read and study. Hence this book.

Georgia C. Maxwell

We are born with complete freedom to think as we will. Yet out of that freedom we have for the most part placed ourselves in bondage to negative ideas which deprive us of the very life we desire to experience.

Most people feel that life is a continual struggle and that they are always on the losing side. Everything and everybody is against them and the stresses and strains of just being alive are almost more than they can endure. Such feelings arise from efforts to control their environment, conflicts with others and an apparent inability to get along even with themselves.

We are born with complete freedom to think as we will. Yet out of that freedom we have for the most part placed ourselves in bondage to negative ideas which deprive us of the very life we desire to experience.

There is an increasing interest in and awareness of the fact that man is at once spirit, mind, and body.

This is evidenced by the deep concern of scientists, religionists, and metaphysicians to more fully comprehend the spiritual nature of man.

Prayer, the desire to reach out to something greater than we are, has been common to every age. Instinctively, we feel that there is a higher Power, a greater Intelligence which responds to us. Somehow or other, we all feel an intimate relationship with It. Our minds reach out, with feeling and faith, to a Something that will respond to us; a Something which is always available.

In this book there is a vital answer to the demand many of us have been making upon the spiritual leadership of our times.

“Please,” we have been saying, “pass the ammunition.”

Because today we are in the midst of the greatest battle mankind has ever known. In this fight for world supremacy, we stand opposed to any power which declares that is without faith in any God at all.

There is a Power for good in the universe available to everyone and you can use it.

This book teaches you what this Power is, how it works, and how you can use it to help yourself and others. If you will accept the simplicity of its statements and follow the instruction given in the examples of how to use this Power, you will find yourself engaged in the greatest experiment of your life.