Christian Science and World-control

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In the United States, in the 1870's, there was a minor explosion of religious cults. Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Theosophy, and other borderline religious microminorities got started during this time.

Christian Science was started by a woman named Mary Eddy. She had always been a rather sickly woman, and so, was always subconsciously scanning the world for healing-methods. One day, while reading the Christian Scriptures ("New Testament"), she imagined herself to be the recipient of a brand-new "revelation." Her "great" revelation was that sickness existed only because people believed in it!

Christian Science became the "mother" of later spin-off groups such as Unity. They often make the same mistake that Eddy made. This error is very alluring and attractive. It takes the great truth that the cosmos is Mind-created, and twists it into the illusion that the world is created by the conscious mind.

The truth is, the world is dreamed up by a very deep, and collective, level of the Unconscious Mind. The conscious mind exists to study, understand, and know the world; it makes decisions that create karma. But the conscious mind-- the part of the mind of which we are aware-- was never designed to create. It has no creative power in the world. At times, it can affect the brainbody system, but even here, its power is limited. It neither creates, nor controls creation.

Here's an experiment: Try, with all your might, to change the color of one single hair on your own head. Under normal circumstances, simply changing the color of a tiny hair, on your own head, is quite beyond the "power" of the conscious mind. Why? For all practical purposes, all the Power, creative or otherwise, lies in the Unconscious, often very deeply. The conscious mind is left with zero creative "power."

But it is much more "sexy" or exciting to believe that you consciously control the world. If you just say the right affirmations, prayers, or formulas, you can do, oryou can have, anything! But the conscious mind, being only a choice-maker or decision-maker, is remarkably feeble when it tries to control the world.

Psychologists say that, when very young (before age five), we all start out in a state of mind called "magical thinking." That is the illusion that our conscious thoughts change the world. Most healthy people outgrow this by age ten or so. But some do not.

Is believing in this being "childlike," as Jesus recommended? No, for in his original teaching, Jesus said that we must be like a "nursing infant." ("Little child" is a mistranslation.) So, to be like a "nursing infant," we must live totally without control. This is the life of pure faith or trust. The nursing infant is at total peace, for she does not try to control things or events. To return to this state of non-control is the very opposite of the "conscious mind is God" illusion!

Throughout the centuries, none of the enlightened masters, teachers, sages, or luminaries ever taught that the conscious mind controlled the world. And they were far from ignorant; they did not teach it because it is an untruth.

It is terrifying to face the realistic fact that we are helpless-- unless we cultivate a deep trust (like the infant with its mother) in the Power (Tao) that does regulate the cosmos and everything in it. Then, returning to trust, we can return to peace. In the West, this is the special state of mind called "faith." Faith-- not control-- is the goal of wisdom, of enlightenment.
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