Chapter II - Imposition and Demonstration
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The prophets did anciently what the worshippers of
The prophets did anciently what the worshippers of
Baal failed to do, yet in some instances, artifice and the
faith of belief feigned the work of Wisdom. Necro-
mancy and legerdemain are the inventions of man that
originate in brains, or the so-called mind of matter,
while science is the mind of God; one proceeds from
Soul and the other from sense. The beliefs of man
manifest error only; but this is sometimes called a phe-
nomenon of Truth, that proceeds from "spirits"; the
phenomena of Principle are outside of matter, and not
in the least dependent on person. Mesmerism and me-
diumship are dependent wholly on belief or the so-called
person of man. Mind evolves images of thought, and
these are the apparitions seen by the so-called medium;
it is not more mysterious, only because it is less com-
mon, for us to see, than to feel a thought. To feel the
grief of another's mind is not unusual, but we think, to
see the mind's images of departed friends, is to see them
in reality; here are two equal senses, seeing and feeling,
that we separate in power. There are those that feel
another's pain as quickly as their own; the sick may
not have touched them, or spoken on the subject, and
yet they feel their pains and can tell their locality, and
this because of sympathy the same as yawning is pro-
duced. Seeing belongs no less to personal sense, or
belief, than feeling; then why more difficult to see a
thought than to feel it? Education alone determines
the difference, and in reality it is not more marvellous.
Haunted houses, unusual noises, voices, apparitions,
dark-seances, etc., are tricks produced by tricksters; else
they are images and sounds evolved by mind on this
plane. The mind of Soul embraces all that is real and
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immortal, and the so-called mind of body which we
immortal, and the so-called mind of body which we
name the mind of man, embraces all that is unreal and
mortal.
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Truth proceeds from Spirit; error from the material
Truth proceeds from Spirit; error from the material
body. The mind of Soul, Spirit, is science giving only
the idea of Truth; but the so-called mind of body, or
man, is belief giving false appearances. Because there
is no mind of man, that is, no material mind, thoughts
said to emanate from body or brain are delusions. How
may we determine the ideas of Truth from belief? By
learning their origin; thoughts from the Soul are ideas,
and from the brain beliefs; the former proceed from
spiritual sense, are not substance, and are harmonious;
the latter are the product of personal sense, and are
supposed substance at one time, and spirit at another,
and are inharmonious; the former are understanding,
the latter, beliefs begotten of error. To love our
neighbor as ourself is an idea from Soul, yea, from
Wisdom, Love and Truth; and this idea personal sense
cannot see, feel, or understand, but spiritual sense
can; "the carnal mind cannot discern spiritual things."
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Matter is but a grosser strata of mortal mind, wherein
Matter is but a grosser strata of mortal mind, wherein
one belief introduces and destroys another in Darwinian
process. As before stated, Spirit is Intelligence, whereas
the basis of matter is belief; the former is science, the
latter mesmerism. The body that is mortal is an indi-
vidualized belief that germinates, grows and decays,
"dust unto dust," and mortal man is just this belief;
even a phenomenon of mesmerism, an error construing
man matter. Excite the organ of veneration or the
religious tone of this belief, and it manifests the most
profound adoration; but change the action to an oppo-