cordance with the aggregate of
suggestion impressed upon it by the conscious mind, and if this suggestion
is that of perfect harmony with the physical laws of the planet then a
corresponding building by the sub-conscious mind will take place, a process
which, so far from implying any effort, consists rather in a restful sense
of unity with Nature.[4]

And if to this sense of union with the Soul of Nature, that Universal
Sub-conscious Mind which holds in the cosmos the same place that the
sub-conscious mind does in ourselves--if to this there be superadded a
sense of union with the All-creating Spirit from which the Soul of Nature
flows, then through the medium of the individual's sub-conscious mind such
specialized effects can be produced in his body as to transcend our past
experiences without in any way violating the order of the universe. The Old
Law was the manifestation of the Principle of Life working under
constricted conditions: the New Law is the manifestation of the same
Principle working under expanding conditions. Thus it is that though God
never changes we are said to "increase with the increase of God."

CHAPTER V

THE PERSONAL FACTOR

I have already pointed out that the presence of a single all-embracing
Cosmic Mind is an absolute necessity for the existence of any creation
whatever, for the reason that if each individual mind were an entirely
separate center of perception, not linked to all other minds by a common
ground of underlying mentality independent of all individual action, then
no two persons would see the same thing at the same time, in fact no two
individuals would be conscious of living in the same world. If this were
the case there would be no common standard to which to refer our
sensations; and, indeed, coming into existence with no consciousness of
environment except such as we could form by our own unaided thought, and
having by the hypothesis no standard by which to form our thoughts, we
could not form the conception of any environment at all, and consequently
could have no recognition of our own existence. The confusion of thought
involved even in the attempt to state such a condition shows it to be
perfectly inconceivable, for the simple reason that it is
self-contradictory and self-destructive. On this account it is clear that
our own existence and that of the world around us necessarily implies the
presence of a Universal Mind acting on certain _fixed lines of its own_