Little is known about Emma's personal history as she was a very private person. What we do know is gleaned from other peoples’ memories and stories, or from the archived writings we have been able to discover. She was born in 1849 on a farm outside of Killingsly, Connecticut, and passed on in the spring of 1925. She had a marvelous education and could read many of the classical texts in their own language. She found the Truth in all the religions she studied. She quotes all these teachings in her writings.
Still, Emma uses Jesus Christ as the main example in all her works and classes. Her use of bible quotes is one of her main ways to support her beliefs and teachings.
Emma coined the words Religious Science, Divine Science, and others that are used even today. Her works after the middle 1890s often use the word Science with various qualifiers. The word Science was prevalent in most of the metaphysical writings in the middle and late 1800s, as well as today. In the late 1800s all metaphysical study of healing was called Christian Science, a term developed by Phineas Quimby around 1850, until Mary Baker Eddy won the sole right to use the name. There were many names used after that. Many metaphysical organizations still use the word Science in their teachings.
Emma is really clear that matter is not the Reality of God. She expands on Mary Baker Eddy’s premise that God is the only reality and everything else is what there would be if God were not all. This concept is one of the hardest to really grasp as we live in the physical world and have a hard time believing this is not the true Reality.
Her writings are written in a poetic form and have a Victorian flavor. She uses many examples of demonstrations that have been experienced by historical figures, many of whom we do not know much about, today. She also uses many examples of the physical sciences of the day to convey her teachings and prove God is all there is.
Emma seldom named the source of her quotes and never used footnotes. She figured everyone knew the people and incidents she quoted. There are fewer of these in the Judgement Series, making this one of the easiest books of Emma’s teachings to understand. It seems like it was written at a level most people can understand. This is also the only book in which she tells the reader which books contain her basic teachings and which ones have the deeper teachings. She says her deeper teachings are in Esoteric Philosophy (WiseWoman Press will be publishing Esoteric Philosophy in the near future.)
All of Emma’s teachings are presented in 12 chapters, or lessons. Her first six lessons always deal with the human personality or ego. The last six lessons always deal with expressing in the world. The first chapter is always “the thing itself,” or God as all there is. The second chapter has to do with denying anything that is not the Truth of God. The third is affirming the Truth. Each succeeding chapter expands on the Truth that God is all. Her progression in the lessons is designed to have us train our personal mind to be the one with the universal Mind of God.
It is very hard to discern if the works attributed to her were actually written by her. Shorthand was widely used in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and many lecturers arranged for people to take down what they were saying, so most of the works we have may have been transcribed as she taught different classes. High Mysticism and Resumé were most likely her own writings, since she kept updating them until the early 1900s. She also wrote bible interpretation articles for the Chicago Inter-Ocean News, (which Wise Woman Press is in the process for collecting for future publication). These are the only other writings we can be sure were actually hers.
Each of her works is aimed at a different depth of understanding. The Judgment Series seems to be geared to understanding what she is teaching at the mental level. It is one of the easiest of her works to understand and to follow her particular line of reasoning. This book has never been in wide circulation and it is my hope it will open the door for more students to grasp her teachings.
May Emmas' books open you to a new understanding of the Truth that God is all there is and that, as she states, “there is Good for me and I ought to have it.”
by Michael Terranova
http://www.wisewomanpress.com/about_emma.htm
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Seven Elements of Reality
Although there are many opinions on who the actual founder of New Thought is, since the essence of the movement is rooted in the interpretation of Quimby's teachings, Quimby should be credited as the overall intellectual father of New Thought.MY THEORY: the trouble is in the mind, for the body is only the house for the mind to dwell in . . . If your mind has been deceived by some invisible enemy into a belief, you have put it into the form of a disease, with or without your knowledge. By my theory or truth I come in contact with your enemy and restore you to health and happiness.
-- volume 3, page 208 of Quimby's Complete Writings
Horatio W. Dresser, son of Annetta Julius Dresser, explained Quimby's ideas in a seven element list.
1. The omnipresent Wisdom, the warm, loving Father of us all, Creator of all the universe, whose works are good, whose substance is an invisible reality.
2. The real man, whose life is eternal in the invisible kingdom of God, whose senses are spiritual and function independently of matter.
3. The visible world, which Dr. Quimby once characterized as "the shadow of Wisdom's amusements"; that is, nature is only the outward projection or manifestation of an inward activity far more real and enduring.
4. Spiritual matter, or fine interpenetrating substance, directly responsive to thought and subconsciously embodying in the flesh the fears, beliefs, hopes, errors, and joys of the mind.
5. Disease is due to false reasoning in regard to sensations, which man unwittingly develops by impress-ing wrong thoughts and mental pictures upon the subconscious spiritual matter.
6. As disease is due to false reasoning, so health is due to knowledge of the truth. To remove disease permanently, it is necessary to know the cause, the error which led to it. "The explanation is the cure."
7. To know the truth about life is therefore the sovereign remedy for all ills. This truth Jesus came to declare. Jesus knew how he cured and Dr. Quimby, without taking any credit to himself as a discoverer, believed that he understood and practiced the same great truth or science.
PPQ- Excepts from Bio
He was given to repetition, and it was with difficulty that he could be induced to have a repeated sentence or word stricken out, as he would say, "If that idea is a good one and true, it will do no harm to have it in two or three times." He believed in the "hammering process" and of throwing an idea or truth at the reader till it would be finally firmly fixed in his mind.
The first article he wrote was entitled, "Mind is Spiritual Matter," and he thus explains what he means: He says: "I found that I could change the mind of my patient, and produce thereby a chemical change in the body.... The world makes mind intelligence. I put no intelligence in it, but make it subject to intelligence.... I call the power that governs the mind, spirit, in this piece, not using the word wisdom; but you will see that I recognize a wisdom superior to the word mind, for I always apply the word mind to matter, but never to the first cause."
In a circular to the sick, which he distributed while in Portland, he says that, "as my practice is unlike all other medical practice, it is necessary to say that I give no medicines and make no outward applications, but simply sit by the patient, tell him what he thinks is his disease, and my explanation is the cure. And if I succeed in correcting his errors, I change the fluids of the system, and establish the truth, or health. 'The Truth is the cure.'"
In an article over his own signature, published in the Portland Advertiser of February 13, 1862, he says:
"As you have given me the privilege of answering the article in your paper of the 11th inst., wherein you classed me with spiritualists, mesmerizers, clairvoyants, etc., I take this occasion to state where I differ from all classes of doctors, from the allopathic physician to the healing medium. All of these admit disease as an independent enemy of mankind.... Now I deny disease as a truth, but admit it as a deception, without any foundation, handed down from generation to generation, till the people believe it, and it has become a part of their lives.... My way of curing convinces him that he has been deceived; and, if I succeed the patient is cured. My mode is entirely original."
http://www.phineasquimby.com/biography.html
The first article he wrote was entitled, "Mind is Spiritual Matter," and he thus explains what he means: He says: "I found that I could change the mind of my patient, and produce thereby a chemical change in the body.... The world makes mind intelligence. I put no intelligence in it, but make it subject to intelligence.... I call the power that governs the mind, spirit, in this piece, not using the word wisdom; but you will see that I recognize a wisdom superior to the word mind, for I always apply the word mind to matter, but never to the first cause."
In a circular to the sick, which he distributed while in Portland, he says that, "as my practice is unlike all other medical practice, it is necessary to say that I give no medicines and make no outward applications, but simply sit by the patient, tell him what he thinks is his disease, and my explanation is the cure. And if I succeed in correcting his errors, I change the fluids of the system, and establish the truth, or health. 'The Truth is the cure.'"
In an article over his own signature, published in the Portland Advertiser of February 13, 1862, he says:
"As you have given me the privilege of answering the article in your paper of the 11th inst., wherein you classed me with spiritualists, mesmerizers, clairvoyants, etc., I take this occasion to state where I differ from all classes of doctors, from the allopathic physician to the healing medium. All of these admit disease as an independent enemy of mankind.... Now I deny disease as a truth, but admit it as a deception, without any foundation, handed down from generation to generation, till the people believe it, and it has become a part of their lives.... My way of curing convinces him that he has been deceived; and, if I succeed the patient is cured. My mode is entirely original."
http://www.phineasquimby.com/biography.html
Monday, September 6, 2010
Thought on Prosperity
"Your prosperity consciousness is not dependent on money; your flow of money is dependent upon your prosperity consciousness. As you are able to conceive of more, more will come into your life.
"The truth is, there is already a constant flow of money and abundance in our world, which surrounds us at all times and is ready to be tapped into. However, WE are the ones who are preventing it from reaching us, by our constant preoccupation with not having enough and our focus on lack.
"You can experience abundance at all times, no matter what the economy is doing, no matter what type of job you have, etc., by keeping your attention on HAVING abundance, rather than lacking it."
The Real question is: What are your doing WITH your money, not What are you doing FOR it. When you are doing FOR it, it is your master and you are its slave. Always with the mentality of constantly lacking and never having enough. A genuine inferiority complex substituting in the absence of truth and genuine self-esteem.
The rich are those who can give their last penny in charity to the poor, believing in the true faith that there is always more where that came from.
A functional definition of Gratitude is, "Doing what you can with what you got."
And in the Holy Qur`an it is stated, "and if you are grateful, I will give you more."
FOREWORD to Your Invisible Power by Genevieve Behrend. September 1921.
These pages have been written with purpose and hope that their suggestions may furnish you a key to open up the way to the attainment of your desires, and to explain that Fear should be entirely banished from your effort to obtain possession of the things you desire. This presupposes, of course, that your desire for possession is based upon your aspiration for greater liberty. For example, you feel that the possession of more money, lands or friends will make you happier, and your desire for possession of these things arises from a conviction that their possession will bring you liberty and happiness.
In your effort to possess you will discover that the thing you most and ultimately need is to "Be," always (not spasmodically) your best self - that self which understands that the mistakes of those you love are simply misunderstandings. Your feeling that greater possessions, no matter of what kind they may be, will, of themselves bring you contentment or happiness, is a misunderstanding. No person, place or thing can give you happiness. They may give you cause for happiness and a feeling of contentment, but the joy of Living comes from within. Therefore, it is here recommended, rather than otherwise, that you should make the effort to obtain the things which you feel will bring you joy, provided, as previously stated, that your desires are in accord with the joy of Living.
It is also desired, in this volume, to suggest the possibilities in store for all who make persistent effort to understand the Law of Visualization and make practical application of this knowledge on whatever plane he or she may be. The word "effort," as here employed, is not intended to convey the idea of strain. All study and meditation should be without strain or tension. It has been my endeavor to show that by starting at the beginning of the creative action or the mental picture, certain corresponding results are sure to follow. "While the laws of the Universe cannot be altered, they can be made to work under specific conditions, thereby producing results for individual advancement which cannot be obtained under the spontaneous working of the law provided by Nature."
However far the suggestions I have given you of the possibilities in store for you through visualizing may carry you beyond your past experience, they nowhere break the continuity of the law of cause and effect.
If through the suggestions here given anyone is brought to realize that their mind is a center through and in which "all power there is" is in operation, simply waiting to be given direction in the one and only way through which it can take specific action (and this means reaction in concrete or physical form), then the mission to which this book is dedicated has been fulfilled.
Try to remember that the picture you think, feel and see is reflected into the Universal Mind, and by the natural law of reciprocal action must return to you in either spiritual or physical form. Knowledge of this law of reciprocal action between the individual and the Universal Mind opens to you free access to all you may wish to possess or to be.
It must be steadfastly borne in mind that all this can only be true for the individual who recognizes that they derive their power to make an abiding mental picture from the All-Originating Universal Spirit of Life (God), and can be used constructively only so long as it is employed and retained in harmony with the Nature of the Spirit which originated it. To insure this there must be no inversion of the thought of the individual regarding their relationship to this Universal Originating Spirit which is that of a son or daughter, through which the parent mind acts and reacts.
Thus conditioned, whatever you think and feel yourself to be; the Creative Spirit of Life is bound to faithfully reproduce in a corresponding reaction. This is the great reason for picturing yourself and your affairs as you wish them to be as existing facts (though invisible to the physical eye), and live in your picture. An honest endeavor to do this, always recognizing that your own mind is a projection of the Originating Spirit, will prove to you that the best there is, is yours in all your ways.
Genevieve Behrend. September 1921.
"You can have it all if you set yourself free."
"The truth is, there is already a constant flow of money and abundance in our world, which surrounds us at all times and is ready to be tapped into. However, WE are the ones who are preventing it from reaching us, by our constant preoccupation with not having enough and our focus on lack.
"You can experience abundance at all times, no matter what the economy is doing, no matter what type of job you have, etc., by keeping your attention on HAVING abundance, rather than lacking it."
The Real question is: What are your doing WITH your money, not What are you doing FOR it. When you are doing FOR it, it is your master and you are its slave. Always with the mentality of constantly lacking and never having enough. A genuine inferiority complex substituting in the absence of truth and genuine self-esteem.
The rich are those who can give their last penny in charity to the poor, believing in the true faith that there is always more where that came from.
A functional definition of Gratitude is, "Doing what you can with what you got."
And in the Holy Qur`an it is stated, "and if you are grateful, I will give you more."
FOREWORD to Your Invisible Power by Genevieve Behrend. September 1921.
These pages have been written with purpose and hope that their suggestions may furnish you a key to open up the way to the attainment of your desires, and to explain that Fear should be entirely banished from your effort to obtain possession of the things you desire. This presupposes, of course, that your desire for possession is based upon your aspiration for greater liberty. For example, you feel that the possession of more money, lands or friends will make you happier, and your desire for possession of these things arises from a conviction that their possession will bring you liberty and happiness.
In your effort to possess you will discover that the thing you most and ultimately need is to "Be," always (not spasmodically) your best self - that self which understands that the mistakes of those you love are simply misunderstandings. Your feeling that greater possessions, no matter of what kind they may be, will, of themselves bring you contentment or happiness, is a misunderstanding. No person, place or thing can give you happiness. They may give you cause for happiness and a feeling of contentment, but the joy of Living comes from within. Therefore, it is here recommended, rather than otherwise, that you should make the effort to obtain the things which you feel will bring you joy, provided, as previously stated, that your desires are in accord with the joy of Living.
It is also desired, in this volume, to suggest the possibilities in store for all who make persistent effort to understand the Law of Visualization and make practical application of this knowledge on whatever plane he or she may be. The word "effort," as here employed, is not intended to convey the idea of strain. All study and meditation should be without strain or tension. It has been my endeavor to show that by starting at the beginning of the creative action or the mental picture, certain corresponding results are sure to follow. "While the laws of the Universe cannot be altered, they can be made to work under specific conditions, thereby producing results for individual advancement which cannot be obtained under the spontaneous working of the law provided by Nature."
However far the suggestions I have given you of the possibilities in store for you through visualizing may carry you beyond your past experience, they nowhere break the continuity of the law of cause and effect.
If through the suggestions here given anyone is brought to realize that their mind is a center through and in which "all power there is" is in operation, simply waiting to be given direction in the one and only way through which it can take specific action (and this means reaction in concrete or physical form), then the mission to which this book is dedicated has been fulfilled.
Try to remember that the picture you think, feel and see is reflected into the Universal Mind, and by the natural law of reciprocal action must return to you in either spiritual or physical form. Knowledge of this law of reciprocal action between the individual and the Universal Mind opens to you free access to all you may wish to possess or to be.
It must be steadfastly borne in mind that all this can only be true for the individual who recognizes that they derive their power to make an abiding mental picture from the All-Originating Universal Spirit of Life (God), and can be used constructively only so long as it is employed and retained in harmony with the Nature of the Spirit which originated it. To insure this there must be no inversion of the thought of the individual regarding their relationship to this Universal Originating Spirit which is that of a son or daughter, through which the parent mind acts and reacts.
Thus conditioned, whatever you think and feel yourself to be; the Creative Spirit of Life is bound to faithfully reproduce in a corresponding reaction. This is the great reason for picturing yourself and your affairs as you wish them to be as existing facts (though invisible to the physical eye), and live in your picture. An honest endeavor to do this, always recognizing that your own mind is a projection of the Originating Spirit, will prove to you that the best there is, is yours in all your ways.
Genevieve Behrend. September 1921.
"You can have it all if you set yourself free."
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