Book. -Ly S£j 
 
 Oopyr$itlN°_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT CEPOSm 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 Living The LifeHdeal 
 
 Planting a Prayer 
 
 Tantrums are Prayers 
 
 Psychology of the Goat 
 
 Jesus Taught a Scientific Prayer 
 
 The Silence 
 
 i Visions 
 
 A. A. LINDSAY, M. l5. 
 
 Published by 
 
 A. A. LINDSAY PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 362-4-6 Locust St., Detroit, Mich. 
 
5 2, 
 
 Copyright by 
 
 A. A. LINDSAY. M. D. 
 
 1918 
 
 FEB 21 1918 
 
 ©CI.A492374 
 
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 ^ 
 
 WILL LIVE my ideal life." 
 You, who have spoken those 
 words gave description to the 
 I most musical and poetic 
 thought that can come to the human 
 mind. The thought must go before the 
 act; thought and word are well on the 
 way to the act and with the repetition 
 of the voluntary thought, word and act, 
 there comes the character realization — 
 the spontaneity or automatism is estab- 
 lished. When living the ideal has be- 
 come the standard it is not probable that 
 one will become dispossessed of the 
 mode, therefore life in all of its phases 
 and affairs becomes adapted to that reg- 
 ulation calling for the highest harmony. 
 It is the law of standards (auto-sugges- 
 
8 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 tion) that makes growth so impossible 
 when one has the habit of inharmony, 
 the code of practice fixed after some se- 
 lection which is not prompted by the 
 ideal. 
 
 I am convinced that down in the heart 
 of everyone there is a preference for 
 truth, beauty, love — the ideal, but since 
 one finds he must overcome the current 
 of usual human practice if he would 
 be true, he consents to go against the 
 tide of his own soul. There are no ac- 
 tual losses attending where one refrains 
 from going with the usual; there are 
 eternal losses and the height of ruin 
 where one departs from his innate ideal. 
 The individual who has the courage to 
 follow his own soul's inspirations and 
 intuitions is so rare that the world would 
 deify such a woman or man. One has 
 not the courage usually because each is 
 trying to live another's life and is hav- 
 ing the pattern set by ideas instead of 
 having it created by the ideal. The ze- 
 nith of courage has become attained 
 when one resolves and lives after the 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 9 
 
 plans inspired of the creative intelligence 
 within himself. 
 
 HINDRANCES TO LIVING 
 THE IDEAL. 
 
 It is no particular tribute to one's 
 strength if he does that which the masses 
 of men do ; the self-approval is sufficient 
 compensation when one makes a way of 
 his own; the loss of self respect when 
 following the crowd is sufficient punish- 
 ment for refuting nature's highest law, 
 which is that each shall become an in- 
 dividual. 
 
 One who lives true to his ideal pre- 
 sents to the world that which is original 
 for there are no duplicates. The ideal 
 for one person is not the ideal for an- 
 other for there are as many shades to 
 truth, beauty and goodness as there are 
 human beings and for this very reason 
 each one should become the manifesta- 
 tion of his own innate manner. One 
 hindrance to one's fulfillment of his ideal 
 is that he is judged by the light of the 
 idea in others. If he were judged by the 
 
10 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 light of the ideal in others he would be 
 the victim of injustice for the highest in 
 one differs in vital elements as much as 
 does the sun differ from the moon. 
 
 The self-appointed rulers over the dif- 
 ferent affairs of human life, the rulers 
 of fashion, the rulers of manners, the 
 makers of moral codes, and those who 
 dictate the standards of arts (for music 
 and painting and sculpture and literature 
 vary as much from time to time as do 
 the patterns of automobiles) and those, 
 who, calculating, fix the educational 
 standards, all are formulators of ideas 
 and they seldom describe an ideal. 
 
 There is as much difference between 
 an idea and an ideal as there is between 
 a guess of the sense and reason depart- 
 ment of the objective mind and the in- 
 spiration of the innate intelligence which 
 knows without having to acquire. The 
 department of truth, the intuitive phase 
 with the heritage of spirit which spon- 
 taneously perceives, transcends all pos- 
 sible knowing upon the part of intellect. 
 An idea is a thought arrangement se- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 11 
 
 lected with reference to sensation, volun- 
 tarily formulated by the volitional de- 
 partment of the human being; the ideal 
 is a picture originating in the highest 
 spiritual phase of the individual, it is an 
 element of the kingdom of heaven within 
 the person. That which is called for by 
 the picture of the perfect from that 
 source should be worked into experience, 
 should become objectified; that is the 
 source of the true architectural plan af- 
 ter which one's life, if it is to be true, 
 must be constructed. 
 
 Life is not a mass of something; life 
 is the sum total of the elements or fac- 
 tors of experience and there is a truth 
 picture, an ideal, which pertains to each 
 item of life. Outside of some general 
 principles there is nothing common 
 among mankind for the ideal for each 
 calls for an individual mode of exhibit- 
 ing even those subjects which, by name, 
 may be present in all. A musician may 
 express music faithful to all the science 
 of music and true to his individual ideal. 
 Let another copy to the utmost and it 
 
12 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 will not require a cultivated musician to 
 disclose the fact that the faithful copy is 
 not music, a mere amateur will perceive 
 that. Yet the world of echoes will strive 
 to imitate. 
 
 That which is involved in the last ref- 
 erence above is true of each thing in ev- 
 ery life. Because ideas have become the 
 usual plans the world has become prim- 
 arily made up of human beings who are 
 imitators and domination (tyrants and 
 subjects) is consented to by the many 
 and the part of ideals amounts to a sub- 
 ject for phantastic speech. The chief 
 hindrance to one's expression of the 
 ideal is the very loneliness of the situa- 
 tion. The world is following ideas con- 
 ceived of from without and neglecting 
 the attitudes and practice by which the 
 pictures of the perfect can come before 
 the consciousness of the individual to be 
 approved as working plans by the execu- 
 tive department of the individual. 
 
 To be ridiculed and scorned is the 
 price of daring to be one's self and few 
 there are who have the commendable 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 13 
 
 self-sufficiency to be true when it is the 
 custom to be false. To follow the true 
 God when there are false gods with 
 popular following requires more inde- 
 pendence than is usual. Then, if one 
 should become a loyal follower of the 
 truth as it would be revealed to him from 
 within he is sure to become so original 
 that he will project into the lives of his 
 fellows new ways ; he will become a 
 saviour and saviour's are subject to cru- 
 cifixion, or at least to persecution until 
 it is disclosed they cannot be annihilated, 
 then the world accepts their teachings, 
 declaring that it always knew the teach- 
 ings were true. A man usually prefers 
 to travel the beaten path ; he chooses the 
 commonplace rather than have the stand- 
 ard, the individual innate ideals, become 
 the rule of his action. To be original 
 and follow the guidance of the supreme 
 self within is not popular, it is a solitary 
 way and that is the greatest hindrance 
 to living the life true to the ideal. But 
 there are many helps — they overcome 
 the hindrances if we know certain psy- 
 
14 THe LIFE IDEAL 
 
 chological laws pertaining to the ideal 
 and the compensation for living after it. 
 
 HELPS TO LIVING THE IDEAL. 
 
 That self -approval attending upon a 
 consciousness of being right is payment 
 enough to warrant a triumphant contact 
 with all the oppositions to the life ideal. 
 For the larger part life is a dealing with 
 pictures; pictures in memory through 
 recollections, pictures in prophecy 
 through anticipation. Our contact with 
 things, themselves, is brief but we may 
 live in the pictures of the experiences 
 forever. The most awful feature is not 
 in the moment in which the situation is 
 passing when it is a bad affair; the dis- 
 mal picture it made while the experience 
 was on, stamping an impression upon the 
 plastic self comprised the chief disaster. 
 The joy in a fleeting moment of objectifi- 
 cation may be slight ; the joy in long an- 
 ticipation of something altogether desir- 
 able may hold one in ecstasy for a great 
 while and the delight in a retained im- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 15 
 
 mortal picture which is subject to recall 
 may be of the heavenly degree and in- 
 cessant. 
 
 I find in my professional observations 
 people who are suffering more from a 
 recollection of pain than from any or- 
 ganic condition warranting pain. The 
 power of an image is shown to be abso- 
 lute on the side of ruin. Harboring the 
 picture in fear is a scientific basis of re- 
 realizing the experience depicted in the 
 imagery comprising the fear. This is 
 scientific praying. Then, after the thing 
 has been experienced, the suffering on 
 account of the impression it made in 
 picture form is much greater than the 
 conscious suffering while the disaster 
 was on. Surely the potency of the im- 
 age is equally great when there is a joy- 
 ful anticipation followed by the brief pe- 
 riod of experience involving mind, soul 
 and body, with the subsequent situation 
 in which memory retains in its store- 
 house the history of the joyful encount- 
 er. The normal human being will rejoice 
 incessantly in pleasurable anticipations 
 
16 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 and happy recollections and this by no 
 force of will but it will be his spontane- 
 ous attitude. I supply all of the above 
 for the purpose of bringing ourselves to 
 approach the proper estimate of a pic- 
 ture when it is impressed in the memory 
 phase of the soul or in its prophecy 
 phase. If I succeed in that I will silence 
 any suggestion of limitation of potencies 
 pertaining to the ideal when we declare 
 that the ideal is a picture, an image, a 
 thought in the innate phase of the soul. 
 
 A man or woman should be, in the 
 body, in every form, texture, tint, chem- 
 istry, magnetism and function; expres- 
 sion of countenance, the sparkle of the 
 eye and the glow of the cheek — every 
 physical appointment,' a materilization 
 and personification of the image of the 
 individual, the picture present in his de- 
 partment of ideals. The physical being 
 of such a person would be in the image 
 of God, for the God within has supplied 
 the image after which the body is built. 
 
 The God within, the department of 
 ideals, holds the picture of every in- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 17 
 
 dividual item of character that should be 
 manifested in the habit or character 
 phase of the person ; one is not possessed 
 of a body at conception except one cell. 
 He has the potency of a complex body 
 which must be built. He is not born 
 with character, he must build that. His 
 phase of innate ideals is the source from 
 which the patterns must be received by 
 his consciousness and approved by that 
 volitional phase before the elements of 
 character can be individualized as the 
 spiritual image of God — images supplied 
 from the God within. 
 
 The God within holds all of the pic- 
 tures of the innate ideals of which the 
 life of the human being, the individual, 
 should become comprised. His relation- 
 ships to his fellow-man, to the world's 
 flowers and all the rest of animate forms, 
 every expression, indeed all things which 
 one should experience, manifest or at- 
 tain are in image form present in the de- 
 partment of innate ideals and for the 
 individual there is no other source from 
 
18 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 which his true pictures, architectural 
 plans, can be gained. 
 
 I am now looking to some of the helps 
 to living the ideal life; could I do more 
 than show that which the ideal contains ? 
 Could one wish for higher attainment 
 than the perfect for himself as an indi- 
 vidual? Could one desire more joy than 
 the potencies of joy present in his own 
 soul? Can one wish for art that is 
 greater than the completest? Is it pos- 
 sible to wish for a body superior in form 
 and harmonies to that which is appointed 
 by the God within? 
 
 I consider that I have supplied the 
 supremest help when I have shown the 
 potency of an image in any phase of the 
 soul, either its memory, prophecy or in- 
 nate phase in which are held the pictures 
 of the perfect upon every subject, the 
 ideals. At least I have supplied a most 
 vital aid when I show where one must 
 look to find his individual working plans, 
 which, being followed will make him and 
 his life ideal. In this exhibition I realize 
 I have told no one anything which he did 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 19 
 
 not know previous to my description. 
 Perhaps he did not know he knew — per- 
 haps he is benefited by knowing that one 
 who has no devotion except to discover 
 man and disclose man to himself, tes- 
 tifies to its truth; everyone may 
 have more confidence in his own 
 knowledge when his impressions 
 have become corroborated by one who 
 gives his life to the subject. If my testi- 
 mony helps one when I have borne wit- 
 ness to the presence of truth in every 
 man I am sure I will become a benefac- 
 tor indeed when I show the scientific 
 formulas for gaining the practical rela- 
 tionships to the department of deific 
 knowledge and power; the seat of the 
 ideals. I am sure few teachers have 
 been of service in this direction. I have 
 been compelled to wonder why the lead- 
 ers of men, the self —appointed teachers, 
 have taught throughout the ages that if 
 a man is to be built into perfections he 
 must seek outside for the patterns; he 
 must pray for a special providence to 
 supply a pattern and force his life into 
 
20 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 fulfillment of the pattern. I have won- 
 dered why a man must wait for favor 
 if he is to become strong in body and 
 character or if he is to be guided by 
 something greater than his intellect he 
 must look to an outside source. Man- 
 kind is coming into its own very rapidly 
 and there is a liberating gospel that shall 
 satisfy everyone that he is right when he 
 is looking within for pattern and power 
 pertaining to all of which he should be- 
 come the manifestation. 
 
 I do not wish to convey the truths 
 pertaining to how to live the life ideal 
 through the "thou shalt nots." Gaining 
 and applying the truth in any matter 
 contradicts all that is false upon the sub- 
 ject. Enthroning the ideal repudiates all 
 that is different and less. One has no 
 occasion to attack ugliness when one is 
 growing beauty. One has no occasion to 
 make outcry against the artificial when 
 he is living the natural and all true beau- 
 ty is in the natural, not in any of its sub- 
 stitutes and one is giving one's fellow- 
 man too large a place when he would 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 21 
 
 practice the artifice because it is a cus- 
 tom. 
 
 But how wonderful is beauty — I can 
 agree with Maeterlink when he declares 
 that beauty is the soul's food — it surely 
 perishes when there is not a supply and 
 how it does shrink either in the presence 
 of ugliness or the artificialities, the hy- 
 pocrisies. One becomes like that about 
 which he thinks a great deal — may we 
 dwell in the ideal ; may we seek to know 
 its face, may we become familiar with 
 all that is within that nearby kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
JUatttmg a |Jrag£r 
 
 ON S CIO US, intentional 
 formal praying does not 
 need attention at our 
 hands; the prayers issued 
 in the average life when the iudividual 
 is unaware of the fact that he is asking 
 or commanding in the most scientific 
 manner should have the most careful 
 examination. There are definite laws 
 pertaining to prayer the same as there 
 are laws of sowing and gathering. 
 
 Upon the subject of prayer we act 
 usually as if only the good things which 
 we formally ask would become probable 
 realizations. We would be just as wise 
 in thinking that since wheat is a most 
 desirable product seeds of wire-grass 
 would not reproduce their kind if they 
 should be thrown upon the earth. The 
 laws of germination are just the same 
 whether the earth receives into its bosom 
 the grains of wheat sown intentionally or 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 23 
 
 a burr that falls from the sleeve of one's 
 coat. The farmer knows this so well 
 that that he is ever watchful to see that 
 no burrs mature on his land; he knows 
 that with slight indulgence it would not 
 be very long until there would be no 
 food in the soil for wheat, it would all 
 be consumed by the weed. 
 
 Everyone assumes a familiarity with 
 the subject of planting. The wife selects 
 from the seed catalogue the flowers she 
 would wish to see blooming in her yard 
 and she plans the seeds knowing that she 
 can depend upon the development that 
 will give her the color scheme she would 
 wish fulfilled when the flowers are 
 blooming. How fortunate she would be 
 if she knew that the thoughts she forms 
 in her meditations and the thoughts she 
 hurls into picture form, are, when is- 
 sued, real seeds and planted in the me- 
 dium which will reproduce each thought 
 in its own peculiar shading and will be 
 wholesome and sweet like the orange or 
 may be as poisonous as the deadly night- 
 shade. I am not using a figure of speech 
 
24 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 in this connection ; I am exhibiting paral- 
 lels; there is no difference in the princi- 
 ples involved in planting a seed of the 
 carnation and issuing a formulated 
 thought, coming to a conclusion, for the 
 reproductive quality in both instances is 
 the same. It is the image with impulse 
 in the carnation using a cell in material 
 form through which to objectify or ex- 
 hibit to the world that which that pic- 
 ture (image) calls for and it comes back 
 to the credit of the carnation — it keeps 
 its classification since it was through the 
 carnation species that the image came. 
 The house-wife plants the varieties she 
 wishes, dependably certain of their faith- 
 fulness to species and variety. The pink 
 seed is a thought and earth, temperature, 
 moisture and chemistry aid in the ex- 
 pression of the thought. 
 
 The woman meditates or in an emo- 
 tional manner thinks a thought, creates 
 a picture, a picture accompanied with an 
 impulse; her brain is the instrument of 
 her mind used in formulating this seed, 
 her subconscious self, acting upon ether 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 25 
 
 waves, plants in the souls of other beings 
 the image and impulse (the seed). She 
 just as certainly plants these seeds in her 
 own soul or subconscious phase, there- 
 fore, altogether she has the whole world 
 of mankind and perhaps the domestic 
 animals with which she is in rapport 
 and probably the vegetable world with 
 which she has contact, for her harvest 
 field. The earth helps to answer the 
 prayer of the carnation seed, its prayer 
 for expression, the universe of cell life 
 and intelligence may serve in giving back 
 in kind but multiplied degree the repro- 
 duction of the formulated thought of the 
 human being and in the reproduction ex- 
 hibit experience (facts) forms or that 
 which is essentially comprehended in the 
 picture created by the mind of the human 
 being. In the instance of the housewife 
 she may be scientifically sure that she has 
 provided for multiplied beauty, happi- 
 ness, health, harmony, love or whatso- 
 ever construction is described in her 
 thought, to return to her from myriad 
 directions, when her thought is predomi- 
 
26 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 nately beautiful. It is quite as depend- 
 able that fear, hatred, bitterness, abuse, 
 falsehood, dishonesty or any other de- 
 structive picturing will return in all mul- 
 tiplicity, some a hundred fold, some a 
 thousand fold, but the harvest surely will 
 be after the kind of thoughts formulated 
 in meditation or emotionally reinforced. 
 
 Naturally, one wishes to have it ex- 
 plained; how can these things be? All 
 thought results are fulfillments of pray- 
 ers ; they occur under the science of pray- 
 er. When a farmer sows seeds he is 
 praying for a harvest but the chief virtue 
 is in the seed itself being a prayer. If 
 the farmer inadvertently drops a cockle 
 burr he has complied with the science of 
 prayer as fully as when he intentionally 
 dropped the grain of corn and each will 
 produce its kind (unless he destroys one 
 or the other before it reproduces). 
 
 We used to be instructed that a prayer 
 is a desire of the heart, uttered or 
 thought. Through the modern modes of 
 practical psychology it has become pos- 
 sible to analyze prayer and of course we 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 27 
 
 have come to realize that a fear of the 
 heart has the same potency that a desire 
 or hope possesses; that the same power 
 and intelligence answers in both in- 
 stances. When one has desire and ex- 
 pectation he directs the deific power with- 
 in him constructively; when he is filled 
 with fear he has as much expectancy as 
 one who hopes and his fear — picturing 
 directs the same deific power destructive- 
 ly that works constructively when one's 
 pictures call for blessing instead of the 
 opposite. 
 
 With the same certainty that the de- 
 sirable grain of corn and the undesirable 
 cockle burr referred to above will both 
 reproduce unless neutralized, sterilized, 
 cancelled or the virility destroyed in some 
 way so will the images planted in one's 
 own subconscious and in the souls of 
 others reproduce and continue to do so, 
 repeating the history periodically, unless 
 counter suggestions are used to destroy 
 the virility of the images, the seed 
 thoughts. All planting is scientifically 
 praying — all thinking is planting. All 
 
28 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 forms and all experiences have their 
 sources in images and the human being 
 has the power of selecting the images, 
 choosing his prayers. He needs to choose 
 prayers to cancel every destructive pic- 
 turing he has ever issued or that may 
 have come into his soul through heredi- 
 ty or telepathy from others or pictures 
 of diseases or disasters or inharmonies 
 that may have been experienced. All un- 
 cancelled pictures in one's soul are most 
 potent prayers and they will reproduce 
 under the law of soul expectancy, that 
 law by which the God within builds into 
 form that which is called for by the im- 
 ages that have been consented to or 
 chosen by the volition of the individual. 
 
tantrums wet iprsgers 
 
 OCTOR, I think I must 
 tell you about that which I 
 know to be the cause of 
 my suffering from inflamed 
 nerves. I have carried my sorrow, never 
 feeling until today that any good could 
 come to anyone through its discussion; 
 and I do feel so humiliated over having 
 to talk about myself. After the third 
 treatment the pain disappeared and re- 
 mained absent until my sorrow re- 
 appeared, that which paralyzes my mind, 
 takes all hope out of my soul and dis- 
 eases my body. 
 
 "My sister and I have lived together 
 for several years, she being engaged in 
 an art way and I in the practical life. I 
 have no interest in life except to care for 
 her and I would gladly give up my life 
 for her pleasure or to save her in any 
 manner. I love her and I do not care 
 for anything else nor anyone else in any 
 
30 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 important degree. I decided that she 
 would become more contented if we 
 made a home for ourselves so I have pro- 
 vided the home and have kept it up and, 
 although attending to business, I do the 
 work of the house. All of this would be 
 a constant joy and I would grow strong 
 if it were only to work for her and our 
 home. The work would make no im- 
 pression upon me harmfully. Some days 
 I leave home to go to my work with 
 only the clear horizon of happiness — how 
 well I feel and how successful I am on 
 those days, too! It does not seem that 
 it could ever become dark again but 
 when I return home I may receive the 
 most terrific tongue lashing from my sis- 
 ter. The excuse she begins with may be 
 wholly a trumped up thing, at most it will 
 be over some mere trifle of disappoint- 
 ment for which she blames me and she 
 makes it a life and death matter before 
 she ceases talking about it ; then she con- 
 nects the circumstance with all the things 
 she has made the excuse for abusing me, 
 or at least goes over enough of them to 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 31 
 
 agitate herself to the highest degree of 
 rage and abuse. I do not know where 
 she gets the terms in which she curses 
 me ; all of her eloquence is applied in her 
 terrific condemnation. Any self-defense 
 I make arouses her all the more and if I 
 were to become angry at her injustice I 
 would have occasion to fear for my life, 
 so determined is she to overcome me. I 
 endeavor to repress all that I could say 
 in an outcry at so terrible a thing. When 
 I am crushed to the earth and have to 
 drag myself through the household ser- 
 vice and finally retire, my grief keeps 
 me awake until I fall asleep with a dazed 
 brain. Of course I see that such de- 
 structive images which I hold previous 
 to going to sleep is a scientific treat- 
 ment/' (A scientific prayer, she could 
 have said) "to send me into chronic sor- 
 row and suffering and disease. 
 
 "It would make no difference if I 
 knew it would take my life I could not 
 prevent the overwhelming grief at a sit- 
 uation so wholly unjust in which the 
 only person in the world I care for is 
 
32 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 treating me so badly. I awaken with 
 inflamed nerves ; I do my morning work 
 and go out to business all day at the 
 work which requires me to walk a great 
 deal and the pain is more awful than I 
 can describe. My sister may appear 
 radiant and happy in a moment after she 
 has used her abusive words to my com- 
 plete annihilation. After her explosion 
 she is perfectly happy but a thousand 
 times I have apologized to her for doing 
 the things which she, herself, had done, 
 not I. I would do anything in the world 
 for peace — I would destroy my own life 
 easily only I know that could not bring 
 her any advantage. I could forget the 
 worst thing she ever did or said if she 
 would acknowledge she had done wrong 
 and ask forgiveness but she never seems 
 to believe herself in the wrong, not even 
 after she has had her outlet in hateful 
 attitudes. She continues to act as if I 
 were to be pitied for having been the 
 cause of so much suffering to her. But 
 I am so grateful for any change that I 
 comply with her demands and accept her 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 33 
 
 favorable attitude toward herself, hop- 
 ing to delay another attack as long as I 
 can. They never are absent a length of 
 time sufficient for me to gain in the in- 
 terval so as to keep up an average of 
 health; I am losing and I hoped with 
 your aid to get ahead. You helped me 
 to a few days of ease and I saw what 
 a wonderful thing is peace and health 
 and I was making such good progress in 
 my business and I was foolish enough 
 to think nothing could ever happen to set 
 me back again. I seem to forget how 
 terrible the assault of injustice is; how 
 terrible it is to hear my own sister using 
 language of the vilest sort especially 
 that degree of despair that I feel when 
 she uses that language in blaming me. I 
 cannot imagine what would have become 
 of her if I had not taken care of her but 
 if I had caused her complete ruin I could 
 not be more condemned. Doctor, I wish 
 to get well for her sake; what am I to 
 do ? Your treatments could cure me but 
 not while I have these awful periods of 
 grief. I feel that if I did not have the 
 
34 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 griefs I would not need the treatment 
 and yet that it is an injustice to you and 
 your treatment to take it when I cannot 
 live consistent with the harmony you 
 teach." 
 
 Well, my reader, what have you to 
 say? What is your solution of the prob- 
 lem? "Why, I would just get right out 
 of the life of such a wicked person," 
 says one. Would you do so? Perhaps 
 you who reply that way would not be 
 situated to pass on a case like this at all 
 for I see you do not take account of the 
 law by which this persecuted sister be- 
 came the victim. You, the same as ev- 
 ery other person, are a result. Your 
 body, its form, state of health therein, 
 your disposition, intellectuality and char- 
 acter as well as all of your relationships 
 are results. Results of what? Results 
 of prayers. All images are scientific 
 prayers, all images that become present 
 in the subconscious. This good woman 
 grew up under the teaching that sacri- 
 fice is the highest order of human life; 
 she prayed while establishing her prin- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 35 
 
 ciples of spontaneous sacrifice that she 
 might become the scape goat — perhaps 
 in the more modern language which by 
 use has ceased to be slang, the goat. She 
 prayed that she might be repressed in 
 that which she could become and, there- 
 fore, prayed that a life would become so 
 selfish that it would dominate her and 
 help repress her — help her fulfill her 
 spirit of sacrifice. If she believed in 
 penance she could not possibly pass 
 through more typical performance to 
 that end. The self annihilation of the 
 ascetic could not be greater. Everyone 
 who prays to become a victim is praying 
 for another to become a victimizer — two 
 lives becoming destructive through a 
 prayer lived, a prayer that is inspired 
 out of the best that is in the human be- 
 ing; really inspired through the desire 
 to serve but with the idea to serve at 
 self loss. 
 
 I suppose you would not be a reader 
 of my writings if you aid not have an 
 interest in them ro an extent that you 
 desire to know what I couH bring out of 
 
36 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 my knowledge of practical psychology 
 in the nature of a solution of the prob- 
 lem. I am sure it ; s a p :ychological mat- 
 ter — a case of cause and effect in all re- 
 spects. To change an effect one must 
 change the cause. My reply to your im- 
 mediate question, what is the cause? The 
 cause is prayer, image — thoughts. Each 
 kind of thought has its results; destruc- 
 tive thought produces destruction, not 
 possible construction. Constructive 
 thought cannot produce destruction. 
 When one sees destruction he must be 
 sure that the working plan, image, pray- 
 er, was destructive. The situation de- 
 scribed is a destructive result. The vic- 
 timize^ given to destructive tantrums 
 was well filled up with destructive pic- 
 turings over which she became emotion- 
 al. She planted destructive imagery in 
 the soul of her victim and had given the 
 suggestions so often under the third de- 
 gree principle, with destruction, that the 
 one who was abused had wondered if 
 she were not mistaken in herself and 
 really was as bad as the tormentor de- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 37 
 
 clared. She was on the eve of con- 
 demning herself as she was condemned 
 in the imagery of the tyrannical sister. 
 Yes, the solution must consist in 
 changing the pictures, especially in the 
 mind and soul of the one who form- 
 ulates the curses. Is this possible? Yes, 
 but that which I say from practical ex- 
 perience in this matter I would not have 
 occasion to say in many things that are 
 wholly wrong. I have hope of correc- 
 tion in almost every wrong but I can- 
 not assume much in these situations and 
 I have had them to deal with where it 
 was a husband and wife, a brother and 
 sister, parent and child, and even in in- 
 stances of friends who had become so 
 related that one would endure the curses 
 of the other and yet continue in his life 
 and service. I reply, cure is possible 
 but not probable. Impractical, mystical, 
 phantastic people, those who are willing 
 to affirm an untruth or an improbability 
 are intolerant of my truthful statement 
 that correction in such instances is im- 
 probable. Nothing of the desirable 
 
38 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 occurs without aspiration nor exceeding 
 the degree of it; aspiration for correc- 
 tion involves admission of a situation 
 that needs correction. One who has 
 abused and accused another the thous- 
 ands of times that occur in the lives of 
 those who have tantrums is egotistical, 
 admits of no error in himself, manages 
 always to get the other person con- 
 demned. Admitting no self inharmony 
 he aspires for no correction for himself. 
 Acknowledgement of need would be the 
 vital part of a successful prayer for im- 
 provement. 
 
 I noted carefully that the abusing 
 sister did not repent afterward. To for- 
 give, when asked, is constructive. But 
 to ask is constructive because it involves 
 acknowledgement of a need and a seek- 
 ing after correction. That would become 
 a constructive prayer and if one sinned 
 against another seventy times seven and 
 yet acknowledged the wrong and sought 
 forgiveness it would be constructive for 
 both persons. The egotist, the selfright- 
 eous cannot comply with constructive 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 39 
 
 prayer; they must change in disposition 
 first. I could have wished that I might 
 say to this woman that if she endured, 
 time would cure or that anything else 
 would cure; I could say no such thing 
 for the law of attainment is through 
 aspiration and no one can ask in the right 
 spirit pertaining to an imperfection while 
 at the same time denying the imperfec- 
 tion and charging all inharmony to an- 
 other or others. There are many peo- 
 ple who go through their lives with 
 stunted, stultified characters because 
 their dominant quality is to put all blame 
 on others for the inharmonies and who 
 try to steal the credit for themselves for 
 the good done by others. All such 
 people are living images, prayers, to be- 
 come falsely blamed and to become 
 robbed of whatsoever things they do 
 possess. Sooner or later their prayers 
 become answered for they "will become 
 confused and invest where they shall 
 lose — sometimes invest that which is 
 
40 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 more precious than money-wealth; in- 
 vest their feelings. 
 
 The only item of encouragement to 
 offer the distressed lady while she lived 
 with the sister was that through our 
 telepathic communication with her sister 
 we might create in her the impulse to 
 wish to realize her wrong modes and 
 seek to correct them. To argue with her 
 would mean her renewal of reply that 
 she was right and the other wrong; this 
 would be a suggestion to herself to make 
 her still more the victim of her hallucina- 
 tion of being right when she was alto- 
 gether wrong. If we can convey a 
 strong impulse to her soul to see the 
 truth and acknowledge to her own con- 
 sciousness that she is in the wrong we 
 might then provide for the next im- 
 portant feature, aspiration to become 
 right. 
 
 Have you noticed that all of the most 
 terrible things in life are things that 
 ought not to be and would not be only 
 for some one's hardness, harshness, 
 tyranny, egotism or self-righteousness? 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 41 
 
 Calamities that come for which there 
 seems to be some reasonable excuse do 
 not take hold of us with such destruc- 
 tion as do things such as I have described 
 which are wholly due to injustice. Scien- 
 tific prayer is fulfilled by those who are 
 unjust, ultimately if not immediately 
 bringing into their experience the con- 
 sistent results. In my analysis of the 
 Gadfly it was made evident that he who 
 stings will be stung, and that more pain- 
 fully than he could ever sting. One's 
 own soul answers in one's own life every 
 curse he feels relative to another. 
 "Curses, like chickens, come home to 
 roost" was in writing books when we 
 used to try to write after copy. Why 
 do curses come home to the individual 
 and live in his life faithful to the imag- 
 ery involved in the description when a 
 curse is thought, whether uttered or not ? 
 Because creating a thought is preparing 
 a prayer and a prayer prepared is given 
 to the God within to fulfill and the God 
 within is equipped with omnipotence so 
 far as the individual is concerned. The 
 
42 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 good woman desired only her sister's 
 happiness, her blessing. Her good mo- 
 tive could not prevent the reversing of 
 her chemistry from the normal when a 
 destructive emotion filled her soul — the 
 imagery called, under the law of prayer, 
 for the poisons to be created in her body, 
 poisons that caused the nerves to become 
 inflamed and her blood so charged with 
 wrong chemistry that no cell of her body 
 could receive the proper food. The 
 question of motive has little to do with 
 results — the law is the law of prayer; 
 if the imagery is destructive, neither mo- 
 tive nor anything else can prevent de- 
 struction occurring along the whole line 
 in which the imagery applies. Con- 
 structive imagery builds everyone and 
 everything which comes in contact with 
 the imagery. The law, first above all 
 other laws to know and co-operate with 
 is the law of prayer — the law of enter- 
 taining in the subconscious a picture, a 
 thought. 
 
 A husband had a form of disease that 
 caused him to become delirious a period 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 43 
 
 of time before his death. His wife was 
 deeply impressed by that form of his 
 suffering and brooded over it a great 
 deal. Six months after the husband's 
 death a girl was born. At the age of 
 thirty the daughter became violently in- 
 sane. I am asked if there is any pos- 
 sible connection between the mental 
 situations of the two persons. It is en- 
 tirely consistent that the mother and 
 father would have imparted the pre- 
 natal imagery and impulse to this child. 
 Stored in the subconscious of the child 
 may be many potent pictures either of 
 the desirable or the unfortunate and that 
 is why I never fail to give every person 
 who comes under my' care in private or 
 class psycho-culture the repeated sugges- 
 tion that every picture calling for an 
 unhappy experience in disease or other 
 form shall become cancelled. A picture 
 is a prayer, a suggestion and the way to 
 neutralize a picture is not through dosing 
 with a chemical but through the intro- 
 duction of a counter prayer, suggestion. 
 All that can occur through heredity or 
 
44 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 pre-natal influence either would be the 
 passing over to the child's soul pictures 
 possessed by the parents or ancestors. 
 It might be true that the sister described 
 in the above has pictures from ancestry 
 that gave her the trend in her disposi- 
 tion toward abusiveness of one who 
 might be serving her life in the most 
 important way. Law makes no allow- 
 ance for the source — law simply says, 
 "You are entertaining pictures in your 
 soul, prayers that call for fulfillment; if 
 you retain the pictures I shall have to 
 continue to bring you the same exper- 
 iences. " It is a fact that images created 
 from any source can become dissolved, 
 made of no effect, therefore each one is 
 responsible for retaining virile pictures 
 whether he chose them originally or not. 
 Under the laws of the silence and sug- 
 gestion the pictures can be destroyed be- 
 cause under the formulas direct com- 
 mand will remove them from the hands 
 of the Builder, the individual's own soul. 
 All the prayers and wishing in the uni- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 45 
 
 verse, directed elsewhere than to the seat 
 of the control within the individual, 
 would not remove a single pattern. It 
 is quite evident that I had access to the 
 wrong sister in the instance given, so far 
 as any effect upon the cause of conten- 
 tion and unhappiness and disease is con- 
 cerned. To reverse her trend, correct 
 her disposition would provide for the 
 cure of all the forms of inharmonies 
 in the lives of both sisters. Still no sug- 
 gestions would count for any benefit 
 until confession of fault and personal 
 aspiration became a voluntary attitude. 
 
 Everything desirable, even to heaven 
 in all of its features is attainable through 
 prayer but growth depends as much upon 
 elimination as upon nutrition. To elim- 
 inate a fault requires the acknowledge- 
 ment of the fault. Man is his own 
 maker; he makes himself through prayer 
 because by prayer he may remove all 
 undesirable pictures and place within his 
 own soul the desirable pictures. Pray 
 without ceasing, but pray, as Jesus 
 
46 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 taught, to the kingdom of heaven, the 
 Highest within you. 
 
Ifegcfyniogg trt ti\t (goat 
 
 | HE small boy was talking to 
 his cousin about a water- 
 melon. The conversation was 
 overheard by the larger boy, 
 who, because he was of the same par 
 ents, was known as the boy's brother. 
 The little fellow was suggesting that the 
 cousin should take the melon from the 
 patch and hide it a-while, then if any- 
 one made a fuss about the melon the 
 small brother could say he did not know 
 where it was. 
 
 The big brother took the case up for 
 trial at early candle lighting when the 
 father and mother and some more rel- 
 atives were gathered as audience and 
 spectators while the condemnation and 
 sentence were passed upon the dishonest 
 eight-year-old. The condemnation was 
 great at the time but the immediate pun- 
 ishment was slight, the boy being sent to 
 the darkness. 
 
 There never came a time either in 
 
48 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 childhood, youth or manhood in which 
 the elder brother did not consider him- 
 self the detective, witness, judge and 
 jury to keep new miseries and condemna- 
 tions over the younger. Had he not 
 proved that the younger was dishonest, 
 not to be trusted on a farm where there 
 was a ripe watermelon? And is it not 
 true that he who will steal a penny in 
 his childhood would steal a million in 
 his adult stage? 
 
 There is, so it is alleged, a scape-goat 
 in every family. The world loves a 
 scape-goat, even appointing Jesus to be 
 one for all the theological world. Rather 
 than seem to create confusion between 
 this small boy and Jesus we would best 
 adopt the modern word which has passed 
 from slang into acceptance in good so- 
 ciety — the younger lad and man was the 
 goat. The elder, self-righteous brother 
 committed much more wrong than any 
 one boy's portion, but having obtained 
 the conviction of the child on one occa- 
 sion he was situated to make him the 
 goat on all others. The self-righteous 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 49 
 
 one always went clear for he had ways 
 of bringing appearancees to show him- 
 self present in wrongs only as a guardian 
 of his younger brother, who was so bad. 
 In this family it was shown that it is 
 scientifically dependable — "to get a dog 
 killed, first give him a bad name." 
 
 I could add that from the history of 
 this family a real sneak with the cow- 
 ardice of the evesdropper with fondness 
 for condemning others and the hypocrisy 
 of the self-righteous may become an 
 everlasting factor of evil in the life of 
 one whom he selects for his victim. 
 
 The little fellow, it seems, arrived in 
 the world to the great disappointment 
 of all who should have prepared a gra- 
 cious welcome, therefore, there were 
 many forms of force working to appoint 
 him the goat. He became necessary to 
 the elder brother, the coward, who en- 
 joyed torturing the younger to the very 
 point of death. He made the selection 
 of a poor cutting instrument which was 
 the only reason that at ten years of age 
 he did not escape the world of affliction 
 
50 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 through his own hand. However, he 
 served the important purpose in his 
 brother's life for the latter needed an 
 outlet for the meanness which no cir- 
 cumstances except those of a "well reg- 
 ulated" home could have provided. 
 
 Both became grown up but still re- 
 mained in the same relationship. When 
 business matters developed in a form in 
 which the senior had purchased much 
 more merchandise than he could sell and 
 was heading for financial ruin, the goat 
 arranged to get his notes taken and his 
 brother's released. The ultimate con- 
 demnation of the goat was as complete 
 as when he planned to steal his own 
 watermelon. The sneak (detective) 
 could look in any old ash-barrel and find 
 evidence to incriminate the brother and 
 he managed to do so upon every point 
 upon which the younger man had any 
 ideals. His motives were impugned until 
 he doubted his own sincere intentions in 
 any matter and a thousand times he felt 
 that he would best accept his classifica- 
 tion and become as bad as those who 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 51 
 
 made his life and by their tyranny re- 
 pressed all that was greatest within him. 
 The psychology of relatives, when an- 
 alyzed, exhibits the fact that almost 
 every life is directed to its great disad- 
 vantage and limitation by the attitudes 
 of the ones, closely related. The very 
 last liberation that comes to anyone, if 
 it comes, is liberation from the bad im- 
 agery held over him by his relatives. 
 
 I have analyzed the above typical case 
 and, like you, my reader, I asked what 
 it could be that kept the boys and men 
 in contact — why did the younger one 
 continue to be a goat? The short and 
 true answer is, prayers held them both 
 in just what they were at all times — 
 prayers that went in advance of the 
 facts and forms. The boy who was mis- 
 judged was filled with pictures calling 
 for a sneak to remain in his life — one 
 who would always keep him under suspi- 
 cion. The elder brother was filled with 
 pictures by which he must continue to 
 condemn unjustly — he was also sending 
 prayers ahead which must ultimately 
 
52 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 cause him to be in a situation to be con- 
 demned without cause ; he, too, must get 
 into a situation where one could hurt 
 him more than he had ever hurt his vic- 
 tim and also it must be a situation in 
 which he was not earning such bad treat- 
 ment from the source from which it 
 came. He had earned it — he had put 
 out pictures calling for it but the agent 
 of his affliction must not be warranted 
 in giving him the judgements and the 
 punishments. I am faithful to my sub- 
 ject — prayers are pictures stored in the 
 subconscious, the prayer answering 
 power and every picture will be fulfilled 
 unless it is destroyed by a counter sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 Time went on and the self-righteous 
 brother became confused in his plans 
 and thought he was doing the best for 
 himself and such a noble deed for an- 
 other, his sister, that he provided for 
 her a nice home. Pretty soon she be- 
 came dissatisfied and turned upon her 
 brother to pronounce him the chief fac- 
 tor of destruction of all that was good 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 53 
 
 in her and her life. Really he was pro- 
 viding for her more than one could rea- 
 sonably ask. Now he is the goat — his 
 prayers, pictures which had been stored 
 away while he was unjustly condemning 
 his brother are becoming fulfilled, paid 
 up with usury. The meanness described 
 under the title in this book, "Tantrums 
 Are Prayers" which was attributed to 
 the victimized sister, was the quality of 
 his sister's description of the brother 
 who was trying his best to make her life 
 most comfortable. His desperation be- 
 came so great that he even appealed to 
 his younger brother, his oftimes goat, 
 for a solution of the problem. By this 
 time the younger had had his "eye teeth* 
 cut and had only one reply to make — 
 the reply, "One's life is an incessant 
 sowing and reaping; in one period the 
 individual realizes his pictures of a for- 
 mer period. When those pictures, pray- 
 ers are fulfilled then one merges into 
 the fulfillment of another series of pic- 
 turings, for thoughts are seeds and they 
 are sown in the soul's field and they 
 
54 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 must all grow unless their virility is de- 
 stroyed. " The sister was issuing threats, 
 prayers, pictures, thoughts, of getting 
 married — prayers that were seeds sown 
 in her soul and in the soul of the brother. 
 She became married after this period 
 of mistaken emotions and false interpre- 
 tations and accusations against her bro- 
 ther. She was praying for a real form 
 to come which would fulfill her mistaken 
 interpretation of the brother. As for 
 her and her prayers, let it suffice to say 
 that she declared that the good, worth- 
 while work of her life would be accomp- 
 lished in developing self-mastery in her 
 husband who has tantrums and becomes 
 angrier and more severe in his false 
 abuse of her than she ever was capable 
 of becoming in regard to her brother. 
 Scientific prayer, is my subject and I 
 have not made a digression. What be- 
 came of the brother, the one who created 
 the goat, and then, himself, became the 
 goat? The outlook seems to be favor- 
 able for him to remain a goat the rest 
 of his life. He fixed his affections on 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 55 
 
 an idea, all of his hopes, centering all 
 of his joys on one picture — and for him 
 the picture is not within the laws of cre- 
 ation to become fulfilled. His sister's 
 pictures of marriage grew like weeds in 
 his soul — everyone knows what cockle- 
 burrs, ragweeds, dogfennel, dandelion 
 do to wheat, corn or other desirable 
 products; his stored pictures are cre- 
 ating results after the order indicated. 
 Liberation is not in prospect ; apparently 
 he has tied his hands for the rest of his 
 life. He has deceived himself all along 
 the way as does everyone who becomes 
 a ferret to seek out the evil of others. 
 What one looks for in others is a scien- 
 tific prayer to become like, one's self. 
 Life is full of the greatest privilege that 
 the Universe has to bestow ; the privilege 
 of making pictures, thinking thoughts, 
 formulating prayers. We may reverse 
 all trends by changing the pictures, an- 
 nihilating the undesirable laying hold 
 upon the desirable. 
 
|0 FEARLESS and sincere 
 student will value any- 
 thing Jesus was alleged to 
 have said unless it be con- 
 sistent with his predominating thought 
 or with demonstrated truth. The one 
 fact of the long period of time which 
 elapsed before his teachings were put 
 into any form for permanent preserva- 
 tion would make the report unreliable. 
 
 To whatever extent I shall at any time 
 give attention to any sayings of any part 
 of the New or Old Testament it will be 
 to preserve a truth — not because I think 
 any writer therein originated a truth. 
 I must be understood to believe com- 
 pletely in the divinity of Jesus, for a 
 man cannot reach individualization by 
 any route except the God his Father 
 route. 
 
 Man is spirit, therefore could not be 
 the offspring of matter, although he 
 could not manifest as an individual spirit 
 without a material body or instrument. 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 57 
 
 Not even an insane mind has been able 
 to form a conception of spirit separate 
 from some sort of a body, ethereal or 
 coarser. I wish to be understood to be- 
 lieve that Jesus meant what he said when 
 he taught the universal brotherhood of 
 man and the common divinity in which 
 he participated with all who should come 
 after him. 
 
 Many a church has not been built upon 
 the truths of the Bible, but upon dis- 
 torted interpretations of it. It is a fail- 
 ing institution with a disposition to dis- 
 card, not the Bible, but its own teach- 
 ings, with no tendency to approach the 
 truths in the book. Therefore it is for 
 the scientist to save the good that is 
 in the Xew Testament. 
 
 I realize that when the disciples asked 
 Jesus what to say, he gave them a scien- 
 itfic formula, which I take pleasure in 
 exhibiting in its accuracy, to restore it 
 to use — to be prayed in spirit, not simply 
 in form as it has been in the past. 
 
 The Father, the Creator of each body, 
 is the soul that is in that bodv, and the 
 
58 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 same God that builds the body remains 
 present within it to rule it, rebuild it and 
 to answer to all that the individual is to 
 be or to have; this is the permanent in- 
 dividual. 
 
 Let us follow this fact now. When 
 they asked Jesus to teach them a prayer 
 like John taught his disciples, Jesus said 
 to begin by saying ( he was teaching 
 the number) : "Our Father which art in 
 
 heaven " Then they interrupted him 
 
 and asked: "Where is heaven?" To 
 which he replied: " — the kingdom of 
 heaven cometh not with observation, it 
 is within you." 
 
 The Father or King or Creator that 
 is in this kingdom of heaven is the 
 power that he told them to address. To 
 study this with understanding we should 
 think what it is with which the disciples 
 were to make this prayer. You surely 
 see at once that it is the objective man 
 that is praying. Is it not plain that the 
 instruction is "When you pray, choose 
 these words?" Now, if one chooses, he 
 does so with his conscious will or ob- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 59 
 
 jective — his intellectual department. 
 
 Literally ,then, Jesus told them to pray 
 with the outer, objective man to the 
 Father which is in the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, which is within, and also taught 
 them to believe that when they prayed 
 they would receive. Jesus had shown 
 them that the individual, prayer-answer- 
 ing God is within. He had shown them 
 about the innate perfect knowledge 
 within in all of the lessons he had taught 
 about his father — that he and his father 
 are one with the Comforter which is 
 one of the provinces of the department 
 of innate knowledge — lessons which 
 taught that the father and son and holy 
 spirit or Comforter are one. Then, in 
 order to make the individual a unit by 
 bringing external self and life into ac- 
 cord with his inner self, he asks them 
 to pray and to say: 'Our Father which 
 art in heaven, hallowed be thy name" — 
 a man should with his will reverence his 
 own soul — 'thy kingdom come, thy will 
 be done on earth as it is in heaven" — 
 a reasonable prayer in view of the fact 
 
60 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 that the outer or sense standards and 
 the limited knowledge of the objective 
 reasoning mind and will could not choose 
 for the best nor know how to direct the 
 life. Therefore, the prayer to cause the 
 objective life to be of the same will that 
 is known by the department of innate 
 knowledge, so that all the phases of one's 
 life will be under infinite guidance, is 
 essential. 
 
 "Give us this day our daily bread" is 
 a good form for two reasons ; one is that 
 it teaches the lesson of constant trust 
 that prevents us from looking ahead with 
 anxiety, and the other is that if the in- 
 nate department of the soul is believed 
 in to an extent that it is even prayed to 
 it will prompt all of the activities in busi- 
 ness and breadwinning life; an attitude 
 and practice most needed by us today. 
 
 "Forgive us our trespasses as we for- 
 give those who trespass against us" — if 
 there had been any doubt previous to 
 this sentence that this is the prayer of 
 the voluntary part of the man it would 
 be decided here, when he says for one 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 61 
 
 to forgive another, etc. In forgiving 
 you have to first bring your mind to 
 choose to forgive, and afterwards, in 
 your heart, you forgive. 
 
 He says for his disciples to command 
 that creative, controlling, supreme power 
 within to express the harmonies in the 
 objective, physical and intellectual man 
 that the intellectual man chooses to have 
 in his relationship to his fellow man. I 
 wish to make this vital phase of the 
 question plain, so I will say: Let it be 
 supposed that one comes to a decision 
 to hate his fellow man, with cause or 
 without. Hate is always just the same, 
 it is on the destructive side (you do not 
 have to hate any one, just go away and 
 have nothing to do with him if he is not 
 congenial enough to be helped at your 
 hands). A hating attitude of the mind 
 determines the imagery to be held in the 
 mind — it is law that the image held in 
 the mind shall be the design which the 
 building and organizing and reorganizing 
 power within shall follow. When that 
 controlling power exhibits hate in the 
 
62 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 body, the individual is sick and his mind 
 soon ceases to think right. 
 
 It is equivalent to a command to that 
 power within to curse one in every way, 
 for that one to fill his mind with hate 
 or condemnation. I have given the ex- 
 act chemical and other constitutional 
 changes attendant upon the unforgiving 
 attitude in various books. Let it be that 
 a man chooses to forgive another, then 
 in accord with his prayer his soul acts 
 generously, constructively and harmoni- 
 ously through and upon the individual 
 in all of his phases. Even Jesus paid ev- 
 ery tribute to the man's will. He al- 
 ways showed that a man could have that 
 which he chose, but that if he chose not 
 in accord with this father in the inner 
 kingdom, that which he received would 
 be to his injury; that it would separate 
 him objectively from his innate self, his 
 department of ideals. And he further 
 taught that this separation constituted 
 hell, punishment — that a rich man would 
 seldom find this innate self because he, 
 having his objective standards, would 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 63 
 
 not seek the higher and seeking is the 
 essential act upon the part of the con- 
 scious mind in order to find the higher. 
 
 Then Jesus said: "Lead us not into 
 temptation, but deliver us from evil." 
 To see the meaning of this you will have 
 to follow me through the process by 
 which one can make such an impression 
 upon his Father, his soul, his controlling 
 department, that that power could be 
 caused to lead one to choose evil spon- 
 taneously. In order that a man be a 
 free agent he must be so related in his 
 will to the building and executive power 
 within him that he can command that 
 power to obey the will in its choice. If 
 one could not will and cause the execu- 
 tive department to follow his choosing 
 there would be no individuality — we are 
 made peculiar through our individual in- 
 terpretations of life. 
 
 Then, since this is true, we choose a 
 way of thinking or we choose an action. 
 We choose to do a thing and after so 
 choosing and so acting a few times we 
 discover that we do that thing in that 
 
64 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 way without thinking — we do it spon- 
 taneously. We do it involuntarily and 
 unconsciously because we have by the 
 repetition impressed the power within 
 that that is our desire. Jesus said to 
 them that if they would pray in his way, 
 in these words, that they could affect 
 this spontaneous department to give their 
 minds right inclinations and correct the 
 impressions to the contrary that had been 
 made upon that plastic self. 
 
 "For thine is the kingdom and the 
 power and the glory, forever. ,, 
 
 Scientifically speaking, if a man lives 
 a constant acknowledgement that the in- 
 nate self is the everlasting individual, 
 and that all superior power is inherent 
 there, this attitude unifies the individual 
 in all of his phases, under the one king- 
 dom of heaven, and such an individual 
 will surely say "thine is the Glory." 
 
 If you will read the whole teachings 
 of Jesus you will realize that this was the 
 Kingdom he came to establish on earth; 
 to acquaint each man with his own in- 
 nate, God self ; the instruction that would 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 65 
 
 show the law of his own liberty. He did 
 not come to create a church; he formed 
 no organizations. The church's interpre- 
 tation that his teachings were to point 
 man to heaven as a place after death is 
 far from the truth and far more disas- 
 trous than the interpretation that the 
 Jews and Romans put upon his teach- 
 ings when they said he was trying to es- 
 tablish a local government with himself 
 as the ruler — which interpretation did, in 
 accord with his own oft repeated prophe- 
 cy, result in his death. 
 
 The plain and simple teachings of Je- 
 sus will cause the development of char- 
 acter. The distortion has robbed the 
 believing man of his hope and his for- 
 mula for development. 
 
 I commend to all men the prayer 
 Jesus taught his disciples, realizing that 
 it is the conscious man addressing the 
 God within, never to pray as a form only, 
 but to believe and feel ; modify the words 
 to meet any situation. 
 
HERE is a scientific form- 
 ula for obtaining the Vis- 
 ion, for receiving inspira- 
 tion, the true and depend- 
 able guidance, instruction and comfort, 
 direct from the department that has per- 
 fect knowledge and power. 
 
 That formula is comprehended in the 
 terms and practices and principles of the 
 Silence. 
 
 There is a heavenly quiet which can 
 be enjoyed and converted into multi- 
 plied blessing by an adept, even if he 
 were in the midst of great anvils, fur- 
 naces and forges of a riveting shop or 
 surrounded by a multitude of turbulent 
 people. A quiet that he feels in all of 
 his being when he commands it ; when he 
 may hear no other musical instrument 
 but his own violin or piano, although 
 a score of instruments were operating 
 around him, each following its own mel- 
 ody. 
 
 There are others who are completely 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 67 
 
 stunned by sounds or movements or even 
 thoughts around them; those who can 
 not sit quietly or choose their own move- 
 ments in the midst of a multitude, but 
 rather fall into the confusion with oth- 
 ers. Again, there are those who never 
 know or feel the quiet even in the soli- 
 tude of forest or desert or by the side 
 of still waters. Not feeling the quiet, 
 they often make violent sounds to drive 
 away fear. I find there are as many va- 
 rieties of attitudes toward quiet as there 
 are people, so I may as well desist from 
 defining what mere quiet means to hu- 
 man beings. 
 
 There are many senses in which there 
 may be a quiet, none of which are in 
 any way related to 'The Silence" — to ex- 
 plain this will enable many people to un- 
 derstand why they do not receive the 
 blessings that we claim scientifically pos- 
 sible from certain practices under the 
 true Silence. 
 
 Many a man has followed a habit of 
 taking a little walk at the beginning or 
 the ending of the day or at midday who 
 
68 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 never obtained any important result from 
 it; yet when Abraham Lincoln returned 
 to the White House after his walk he 
 knew exactly what to do with reference 
 to the pending questions of that day. 
 Many a man has sat back in his seat 
 in a car, to all appearances asleep, al- 
 though not asleep, who only obtained a 
 little physical rest and relaxation; Lin- 
 coln under similar circumstances had 
 something at hand the following day, 
 which he prepared in those moments on 
 the train, that so far exceeded in merit the 
 speech of Everett, the greatest orator of 
 that period, that Lincoln's speech made 
 the people feel it would have been a 
 sacrilege to applayd, a speech that car- 
 ried every man with the speaker to the 
 complete annihilation of the prejudices. 
 Lincoln had a miracle for every hour of 
 his life to all except those who under- 
 stand the powers of the Silence. No 
 man ever excelled him in the practical 
 knowledge that was needed in his field 
 of action and yet he had not the educa- 
 tion of school or college ; he had the edu- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 69 
 
 cation of "The Silence." But if thous- 
 ands of others have done the same things, 
 apparently, that he did with reference to 
 retreating from the stir of surroundings, 
 yet could not solve problems, what was 
 the secret of Lincoln's bringing so much 
 out of the principle and practice? 
 
 Lincoln was not one who went into 
 trances, nor did he ever think that he was 
 spoken to by a voice from the outside, 
 so his ability to retire was a retirement 
 to his inner self. His soul was his teach- 
 er all through his life. Without know- 
 ing it, perhaps, he scientifically applied 
 the laws of the Silence. Lincoln's great- 
 ness is not for you, but a greater great- 
 ness for you is to be found in the same 
 practice, for it will be your individual 
 unfoldment, and what is your own is 
 more to you than if you were a copy of 
 the Savior of the world. 
 
 To begin a formal practice of the 
 Methods of the Silence the universal 
 procedure, regardless of the form of the 
 blessing you wish, is the preparation by 
 passivity. 
 
70 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 Passivity is a mental state as com- 
 plete in rest and ease as if you were 
 asleep, although the stage of passivity I 
 am describing is not sleep, but often is 
 followed by sleep. 
 
 Passivity of the mind cannot be per- 
 fect with any tension upon the body, ex- 
 ternal or internal. The first step, there- 
 fore, is to place the body in a place and 
 position where relaxation is possible. 
 Will to let go. When you actually drop 
 down as a dead weight upon chair or 
 couch you put all of the voluntary part 
 of you to rest and this is sufficiently sug- 
 gestive to your involuntary mind to put 
 all involuntary organs and structures to 
 rest, internal and external. Now let your 
 mind wander, indifferently, to many sub- 
 jects, avoiding concentration of the mind, 
 for that is activity, whereas you are now 
 seeking passivity. 
 
 When the body is comfortable and re- 
 laxed and the mind indifferent, passivity 
 is not slow in coming to almost any one. 
 
 You have in the above the lesson on 
 passivity which is scientific. Every one 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 71 
 
 has brought ruin to himself when he 
 modified it. When they tell you to con- 
 centrate your mind in this passivity you 
 will prevent all good results if you obey 
 them. Do you ask why? Because the 
 passivity is for the purpose of bringing 
 your objective self subject to impressions 
 that come out of the subjective self; of 
 blending your conscious mind with the 
 soul so that you can receive its instruc- 
 tions or the benefit of its healing power. 
 You are making ready to carry your 
 prayer right to the power that can 
 answer it, and as long as your conscious 
 mind remains actively fixed upon the 
 thing you wish your soul is not taking 
 hold of the matter. You must objective- 
 ly place your desires with your soul. 
 
 If I have made the ways of relaxation 
 and passivity sufficiently plain to you, let 
 us go back to something that you should 
 do before you become passive. I might 
 refer you to Lincoln's practice to make 
 this clear. The national questions were 
 before him to answer. With his ob- 
 jective phase of mind, he reviewed all 
 
72 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 of the features of the matter and he 
 saw how vital the situation was and he 
 was intensely alive with the desire to 
 take the proper action — he aspired to do 
 the best thing. Then he said to himself : 
 "I will put this aside now and think of 
 something else and after awhile I will 
 take a walk down the highway and when 
 I come back I will take this up and 
 decide upon it." He did not meditate 
 upon it while he was gone, but if it came 
 into his mind he looked for a bird or 
 talked to the trees — his mind was in a 
 state of abstraction — sometimes he 
 would say: "Well, Til sleep over this 
 and tell you in the morning ;" that is 
 the same thing, there is aspiration, there 
 is a mental act of separating the one 
 idea from every other, which is concen- 
 tration, and then there is a complete 
 trust that you will know, after your rest, 
 what to do. These steps are all pre- 
 paratory and previous to the relaxation 
 and passivity. 
 
 Thousands of people have used this 
 formula with a desire to obtain a cer- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 73 
 
 tain answer — and they received an over- 
 whelming impulse in the direction they 
 wished. This shows that the power that 
 answers in the practice of the Silence 
 is controllable by suggestion, even to an 
 extent that it will give you just what 
 you ask, even if it is untrue. Therefore, 
 do not ask for a certain answer, but ask 
 for the truth. Do not command your 
 soul to concur in preconceived ideas, but 
 ask it to guide and instruct according to 
 its will and perfect innate knowledge. 
 
 Do you ask me what manner of things 
 you shall ask for, under the practice of 
 aspiration, forgetting and passivity? I 
 would reply: Anything that is to affect 
 in any way your mind, your body or 
 your character; that is to be expressed 
 primarily upon or through either, for, 
 literally speaking, nothing affects one 
 without affecting the three phases of the 
 individual. They are inseparable in the 
 present form of our existence. It is 
 through the principles of the Silence that 
 cure takes place, when it occurs, whether 
 the scientific formula of the Silence is 
 
74 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 used or not. Healing is much more 
 likely to occur if the formula is used, 
 for that is the best way to get action 
 upon the power that heals. 
 
 All who are informed upon the scien- 
 tific formula for healing know that it 
 is, as described above, under passivity; 
 but instead of the patient himself trying 
 to concentrate upon the change he wishes 
 and then forget it a second person gives 
 him the suggestions while he is passive. 
 Do you, then, realize how I became 
 acquainted with the virtues of the Si- 
 lence ? 
 
 It is no uncertain power with me when 
 hundreds of people afflicted with every 
 form of disease common in this country 
 are among those who have responded to 
 suggestions given under the principles 
 taught herein. 
 
 Every undesirable habit has likewise 
 disappeared when treatments were given 
 in that form; insanity of manias as well 
 as general insanity has responded to the 
 same principle. 
 
 Self-consciousness and lack of self- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 75 
 
 confidence, the two conditions that have 
 stood in the way of success in more 
 people and defeated the best hopes and 
 possibilities in business, education and 
 art in more instances than all other bar- 
 riers combined, have been completely 
 corrected in countless numbers by the 
 power and methods of Silence. 
 
 Referring to the beginning of the sub- 
 ject, the formulas of the Silence, you 
 will recall that I said these forms were 
 proper to follow for a time. As a formal 
 practice deliberately prepared for, they 
 can be dropped after a time, because 
 there is a law that at whatsoever you 
 fix your standards, that occurs spontan- 
 eously. The formal, daily practice is to 
 impress the soul that your will standards 
 are to act in accord with it. When you 
 have established the habit of turning the 
 mind aspiringly within, you will then at 
 all times, regardless of noise or people 
 or any other conceivable thing, fulfill the 
 laws of the Silence. This is active 
 Silence. 
 
 The purpose of all formal practice is 
 
76 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 to reach the point where one does the 
 thing spontaneously, at least in principle. 
 Let it become the standard of the in- 
 dividual that out of his soul shall pro- 
 ceed the solution of his problems, then 
 in the midst of his speech the lawyer 
 or the platform speaker will receive the 
 instruction — will speak the words out of 
 his soul as literally as if he had aspired, 
 forgotten and sat in the quiet for a half 
 of an hour. What we call subjective 
 artists of any sort are those who have 
 in some way come in touch with the soul. 
 The accomplishment of this sort through 
 the objective effort to learn the thing so 
 perfectly that it can be done with ease, 
 can be reduced to months by the formal 
 practice of appealing to the soul under 
 the laws of the Silence to impress the 
 consciousness or use the body to express 
 the thing. Objectively to let go is the 
 most difficult lesson to learn, but if 
 aspiration to do that with reference to 
 anything is followed by the attitude or 
 standards of the Silence, mastery is 
 easy. Instead of living an attitude that 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 77 
 
 we are learning something, bringing it 
 in from the outside, let one conceive of 
 the truth that the knowledge and power 
 are within ; that the soul shall, therefore, 
 express it. Then remember that the 
 soul expresses itself upon the passive 
 principle, literally meaning that one ob- 
 jectively becomes surrendered, becomes 
 as a little child in the soul's hands. 
 
 After the high estimate has been put 
 upon the practice of the methods of the 
 Silence for the purpose of curing disease 
 or habits and for the development of 
 physical power or skill or for intellectual 
 attainment and art culture, for the 
 establishment of poise and the increase 
 of harmony in many directions, still there 
 are untold blessings that mean more to 
 some of us than all of those and other 
 things thus far mentioned. 
 
 Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote: 
 "Men seak retreats for themselves, 
 houses in the country, seashores and 
 mountains, but this is altogether a mark 
 of the most common sort of men, for it 
 is in thy power, whenever thou shalt 
 
78 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 choose, to retire into thyself." 
 
 "For nowhere either with more quiet 
 or more freedom from trouble does a 
 man retire than into his own soul, par- 
 ticularly when he has within him such 
 thoughts that by looking into them he 
 is immediately in perfect tranquility; 
 and I affirm that tranquility is nothing 
 else than the good ordering of the mind. 
 Constantly, then, give thyself this re- 
 treat, and renew thyself." Had the Em- 
 peror given us a practical formula such 
 as is given in these pages what a bene- 
 factor he would have been to all man- 
 kind. 
 
 So do I find, for the purposes he 
 mentions, the matchless value of the 
 Silence, for that is the great Ocean of 
 Love, of God, in which one can immerse 
 himself completely and find afterwards 
 his perceptions clear and his heart at 
 ease — all anxiety, all doubt, all fear have 
 departed. An indifference comes that 
 makes one master over things, condi- 
 tions and himself. The Silence is the 
 Holy Ghost, the Comforter that Jesus 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 79 
 
 said he would leave with his disciples. 
 Not that he meant he might take it away 
 with him if he chose, but that he had 
 taught them to enter into the closet (the 
 quiet) to pray and there meet the 
 Silence; before departing he had re- 
 vealed their God within to them, so they 
 were possessed of the Comforter, who 
 should also teach them or interpret for 
 them. 
 
 If distress threatens to come, use my 
 formula to find the retreat and see how 
 quickly peace is again enthroned. I can- 
 not exhaust this subject; I only wish to 
 set you to thinking, for you will find 
 the individual need, always, if you use 
 our psychology laws of the Silence. 
 
 Then, there is the feature of real com- 
 panionship in the soul's own world — by 
 which I mean not only the real com- 
 panions, but the companions as they 
 really are. You have to make every 
 allowance for the false or limited in the 
 objective expression of any one to love 
 him as you wish to. Not that your com- 
 panions are intentionally deceitful or 
 
80 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 lacking, but that it is impossible for the 
 exterior to express all that the soul is. 
 When I retire to my innermost self as I 
 teach herein I find my own as my own 
 really is, and while I see others, too, as 
 they are, since they are not congenial to 
 me they are not mine; and I bless them 
 by letting them alone and then find my 
 world just as it is peopled upon the basis 
 of the All-knowing, and they are per- 
 fectly adjusted and adapted. 
 
 Some readers will be disposed to pass 
 this over lightly, not to return to it until 
 through objective bad choosing they 
 meet with terrible disappointment in 
 some one, then come back and seek 
 remedy for their heartsickness. You will 
 find your remedy, but I wish to impress 
 you with a great meaning and value in 
 this world which your soul has peopled 
 with a choice based upon fitness. If one 
 grows it must be upon the principle of 
 unfoldment from within, yet we have 
 discovered that he grows upon what he 
 brings up to his consciousness, to his 
 realization. The soul's food is in blend- 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 81 
 
 ing with its own — not only stimulation, 
 but food, too, can be found in con- 
 sciously communing with those subcon- 
 sciously present. 
 
 The unspeakable loneliness with which 
 men suffer can be removed when they 
 see this lesson that shows the approach 
 to the Silence. Follow your own inclina- 
 tions upon the subject of meeting and 
 communing in your inner self with those 
 that have departed; I am treating the 
 subject of companionship with your own 
 whether present in body or miles from 
 you. It makes little difference if you 
 are present together in body, you still 
 have to get into the depths of your soul, 
 each does, to know the other. You need 
 not cast out of your objective life all 
 who cannot get into your soul life, but 
 you will be very fortunate indeed when 
 your soul indicates who are the mem- 
 bers of your real self and who can never 
 become so. Your chief disappointments 
 in people come from an effort to take 
 
82 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 them to your heart and companionship 
 in a manner for which they have no 
 quality. 
 
ISIONS of a sublime sort 
 are of frequent occurence in 
 human affairs, but the indi- 
 vidual usually has been so 
 overawed by the experience that he at 
 once set out to make it as mysterious to 
 himself and others as he could. He has 
 thought that some figure he called God 
 had spoken from some remote corner or 
 high place in the universe through sym- 
 bol, and being an object of such high 
 honor, according to his interpretation, he 
 must compel other men to honor him by 
 looking up to him as had his God. So with 
 meaningless words and long dissertation 
 he has led himself and others away from 
 what would have been a very useful in- 
 struction. 
 
 Upon the subject of visions I will give 
 you the simple facts by which we not 
 only explain what they are, but how to 
 obtain them. 
 
 I could not estimate their value if I 
 exhausted all language, for objective 
 
84 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 language as such is limited to time, 
 whereas the merit of visions belongs to 
 all eternity. 
 
 Heretofore when the question was 
 asked as to what a vision is and it was 
 answered by saying: "A message from 
 God," there was about as much explana- 
 tion as is given to the child when he 
 asks: "Where did baby come from?" 
 and he is told that God gave it to them, 
 or "Where did the flower come from?" 
 and he is told that God made it. The 
 child is entitled to the details, even if 
 in a sense the answer given is true (how- 
 ever, it never was true in the sense of 
 the individual who used it who said God 
 made the child or flower under especial 
 observation from His seat on a throne 
 far away). 
 
 We are constantly using the word 
 image, to stand for all things not present 
 or in form, so we might not distinguish 
 between a vision and an image of the 
 ordinary sort and source. 
 
 In an image, you have a mental picture 
 in which you are aware that you gather 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 85 
 
 the different elements to make up the 
 whole, as a mental selection. You may 
 begin with a picture of a horse upon 
 which you can place in your image 
 different individuals one after another. 
 You may begin with a house and add its 
 windows and its doors and its roof and 
 its paint and its chimneys, and a flag- 
 staff, if you wish. You have created the 
 thing by the exercise of your objective 
 mind and you are fully aware that you 
 have no idea in connection with this 
 image but that which is entirely within 
 the range of your objective knowledge. 
 A Vision appears before this same 
 mind which you use in creating a picture, 
 but it does not come by the process of 
 voluntarily reaching out to obtain the 
 elements to assemble the image. You 
 are possessed of a picture just as plain 
 as the other one, but it is, for the time 
 being, as if a power entirely outside of 
 your mind had set the picture there, 
 which you cannot change. In fact, when 
 you have this picture, which we may 
 call the Vision, there is not a power of 
 
86 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 the mind to add anything to it at the 
 time, nor take anything from it. If it 
 is a house without a flagstaff, you can- 
 not imagine what that particular house 
 would appear like with the flagstaff. If 
 it is a vision of literal musical harmonies 
 of sound, you cannot imagine a modifica- 
 tion of the tones. 
 
 Shall I tell you now where this picture 
 came from that was forced involuntarily 
 into your consciousness ? It came up out 
 of your own soul; it was there created 
 or there possessed and you have had the 
 good fortune to become so related, con- 
 scious to sub-conscious, that the holdings 
 of that subjective self have been passed 
 over your threshold of consciousness 
 and you saw something that God keeps 
 in the inner storehouse. The Universe 
 has all knowledge ; there is no knowledge 
 that is not possessed by the Universe; 
 the Universe gives over to each indi- 
 vidual member a complete and perfect 
 knowledge in every form that in any 
 way pertains to that individual. The 
 past, present and future of the individual 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 87 
 
 hold interest for the human soul at all 
 times, therefore they are k^own to it; 
 the pattern which the individual could 
 fulfill is known at all times by the indi- 
 vidual — it is all stated when we say, 
 complete and perfect knowledge, that in 
 any way pertains to the individual, is 
 held by the human soul — you can regard 
 it as that which the Universe gives him 
 or that part which he fills in the Uni- 
 verse ; it is a practical thought to us only 
 when we voluntarily conceive of it; that 
 all knowledge and all power and potency 
 for the individual are ready and always 
 within him. 
 
 A Vision is a picture, preferably, an 
 ideal from God, the God that the innate 
 self is. 
 
 All inner knowledge and power are to 
 be objectified or to be used in practice 
 in the three phases, spiritual, mental and 
 physical of the man. The man is not 
 typical of the Universe until the same 
 principles of harmony prevail in his 
 mental and physical processes that are 
 innate in the soul. 
 
88 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 This comes only after voluntary aspi- 
 ration. To make aspiration fruitful we 
 must comply with the terms of the sub- 
 jective, upon which it gives its knowl- 
 edge and its power over to the outer 
 consciousness. When the objective de- 
 partment of man becomes a unit with 
 his subjective he then blends with the 
 Universe — pulsates in unison with it. 
 
Stye fofoer tysi $lenl* 
 
 AY after day, month after 
 month and session after ses- 
 sion of medical study and 
 listening to lectures I 
 watched the manifestations, anatomical, 
 physiological, botanical, of disease and 
 healing but from no source, while in this 
 study did there ever come any explana- 
 tion of the power that produced the mar- 
 vels. The surgeon would explain that 
 we could clean up a wound and bring the 
 parts together, then there would occur 
 the multiplication of cells with many 
 series and varieties until presently union 
 would take place; he never taught by 
 what power these things occurred. 
 
 The only manner in which any ever 
 approached the subject of the power was 
 in ridiculing the stage in medical history 
 when they taught that spirits directed 
 and controlled all the phenomena of dis- 
 ease and to be healed required the placa- 
 tion of the controlling spirits. You may 
 imagine one's disappointment at never 
 
90 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 receiving any interpretation of the power 
 that produces so large and varied a class 
 of phenomena as that which is compre- 
 hended in the elaborate study of medi- 
 cine. Theologically speaking, they for- 
 merely taught that all things are done 
 either by God or the Devil; if this were 
 true then one should disclose the rules 
 of action governing those competitive 
 powers so as to obtain the thing needed 
 at their hands. 
 
 Whenever a different mode, (so-called 
 new mode) of healing is championed it 
 would seem, from the claims, that no one 
 was ever ill who had become well again 
 previous to the launching of the "new 
 mode." Our teaching upon this subject 
 is unique: We declare that there prob- 
 ably was never a charm, nor drug, nor 
 man, nor theology, nor any other object 
 that claimed to be a power to heal that 
 has not healing to its credit. Man has 
 always been getting sick and getting well 
 again and he has always used some mode 
 of healing; his methods have varied 
 from time to time for in one period 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 91 
 
 there will be some prevailing method, at 
 another time the leading practice is quite 
 different. 
 
 I have not spoken to any one upon 
 the subject that has not told me of some- 
 thing alleged to have healed persons 
 which I had not been informed upon 
 and I never feel disposed to doubt their 
 truthfulness for I know that anything 
 may be used and coincident with its use 
 the individual will become healed and 
 many times he would not be healed had 
 not the thing been used. 
 
 I am confident that had Moses not 
 have erected the brazen serpent on the 
 pole and caused his people to look to- 
 ward it for healing that many more 
 would have died from the bites of the 
 serpents. I am credulous when the claim 
 is made; that a king applied his great 
 toe over the seat of the disease in dis- 
 orders of the spleen with healing as the 
 result. I believe Mesmer's efforts were 
 followed by thousands of cures — I know 
 they ought to have cured thousands that 
 had been pronounced incurable at the 
 
92 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 hands of other medical men. I know 
 that Braid with his hypnotic method 
 should have cured many. I know fully 
 as well that the bones of the saints and 
 the laying on of hands and the ashes or 
 dust of the bones of the saints and the 
 holy oils and the springs have thousands 
 of genuine cures to their credit. 
 
 The various schools of medicine, al- 
 though extreme opposites in their meth- 
 ods, are all successfull in that they give 
 their treatment and cure often follows ; 
 and one school is just as successful as 
 the other when one has an equal oppor- 
 tunity with the other. I wish to bear 
 witness positively that thousands of 
 cures have taken place in recent years 
 when a theological formula was used in 
 the treatment. 
 
 I wonder if there is anyone of the 
 present day who would say there was 
 any efficacy in the brazen serpent, in 
 Mesmer's magnetism, in Braid's hyno- 
 tism, in the bones, dust or ashes of saints 
 or the oils, or the hands laid on, in the 
 thousands of forms of charms, or the 
 
SCIENTIFIC PRAYER 93 
 
 varied prescriptions or the theological 
 formulas — that any of these things are 
 themselves, the Power that heals ? They 
 will all have to go into the same class 
 in their relationship to healing for they 
 all have cures which have attended upon 
 their administration. In the light of the 
 present day knowledge of the Power 
 that heals, they are, in the actual sense, 
 related to healing as by coincidence the 
 application of the accepted method is 
 made and at the same time the patient 
 recovers. 
 
 The conclusion of the psychologist or 
 any one else who examines the history 
 of healing is this : The Power that heals 
 is within the individual who needs to be 
 healed; the practical psychologist has 
 disclosed that this power is a form of 
 intelligence, is not the outer form of 
 consciousness but is subconscious pre- 
 ferably called the soul. All manner of 
 things have been taken at a suggestion 
 value and have caused the soul to heal 
 because suggestion is the key to the 
 soul's action; any suggestion, charm, 
 
94 THE LIFE IDEAL 
 
 drug or theology that can be received as 
 a suggestion sufficient to create expect- 
 ancy in the soul can provide for the 
 mental attitude involved in healing. 
 
 None of the methods, above described, 
 are attended by healing in one-half of 
 the instances, so are far from being 
 scientific. 
 
 Only that method which provides for 
 access to the soul to convey suggestion 
 and create expectancy can ever become 
 scientific. 
 
 Suggestions given to one who is in a 
 passive state create soul expectancy. 
 The Power that built the body, the soul, 
 must heal it. 
 
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