Chapter 2.X – The Real Power of the Mind

March 1, 2021

Our minds are so powerful that it would take only a little right-mindedness to know why fear occurs. This is a good thing because “nobody remains fully aware of (the real power of the mind) all the time.” (1:3) This would require constant thought watching and that is impossible in this world.

In order to acquire a little right-thinking there are facts about our minds that we need to “realize, and realize fully at least some of the time.” (1:5)

·       The mind is a very powerful force and never loses its creative force. (2:1)

·       It never sleeps. Every instant it is making or creating, and always as you will. (2:2-3)

·       Thought and belief combine into a power surge which can literally move mountains. (4:3)

·       All destructive thinking is dangerous. (5:5)

·       There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level. (7:1-2)

When we are not thinking right, we have a “lack of awareness of thought power.” (3:1) We say things like “it’s just an idle thought” clearly in opposition to the fact that there are no idle thoughts. This phrase affirms our belief that our thoughts are caused by outside ourselves instead of being the cause of what we see outside ourselves.

We deny the power of our thoughts because we “are literally afraid of them.” (4:6) We believe our thoughts have no effect and therefore exert no control.

We are supported in this depreciation of power in our language and by therapists who help “’free the patient (with a death wish) by persuading him that he can think whatever he wants without any real effect at all.” (5:2) But as we saw in the last section this scenario sets up the problem of behaviour-will conflict. When there is a death wish—the wish to kill or be killed—that is submerged in order to behave in a different way there is more consistent behaviour but great strain.

Depreciating the power of our thoughts seems to reduce the guilt we feel but it also reduces the effect of our mind. The inefficiencies we build in order to combat the misuse of our wishes sets up the whole mental illness loop we saw in the beginning of chapter 2. This is also why Jesus cannot release us from fear. If he intervened, he would be teaching us that our thoughts are indeed ineffectual. We need to understand that our thoughts are the cause and they are powerful enough to produce all of the effects we see and experience in this world. We need to understand that our thinking is not right, and that our minds are powerful enough to change our thoughts in order to produce a different experience. If Jesus wiped out our fear, we would learn that our thoughts have no power. Instead Jesus is reminding us to guard our thoughts and regain miraculous thinking as needed.

 “All miracle workers have to be trained that way.” (10:1)  

The manual for Teachers echoes this injunction:

“All through their training, every day and hour, and even every minute and second, must God’s teachers learn to recognize the forms of magic and perceive their meaninglessness.” (M-16.11:9)  

This training will teach us to become vigilant to every thought that is miscreating. To become right-minded we need to use the habit pattern we have learned. First, we become aware of any emotion that falls under the heading of fear and name it as fear, remember that fear has occurred because of our own lack of love toward someone, this also means we are miscreating and denying the power of our thoughts.

Our thoughts are so powerful we can choose miracles or fear. We need to take this training Jesus is giving us and put it to use seriously. We have displaced the fear of the power of our thoughts onto God, Jesus, [ourselves] and practically everyone [we] know at one time or another” so that we now fear them as the destructive power. “This can only be because you have miscreated all of us and believe in what you made.” (12:1,2) This means we have replaced God’s creation with our own version of the truth. When we become aware of our fear, we need to remind ourselves to use our new habit pattern consistently and choose miracles.

Suggested Practice:

I will guard my thoughts so I remain right-minded for the miracles when Jesus needs me to give.