ange in belief. The sequence from which this results is as follows:--the
subjective mind is the creative faculty within us, and creates whatever the
objective mind impresses upon it; the objective mind, or intellect,
impresses its thought upon it; the thought is the expression of the belief;
hence whatever the subjective mind creates is the reproduction externally
of our beliefs. Accordingly our whole object is to change our beliefs, and
we cannot do this without some solid ground of conviction of the falsity of
our old beliefs and of the truth of our new ones, and this ground we find
in that law of causation which I have endeavoured to explain. The wrong
belief which externalizes as sickness is the belief that some secondary
cause, which is really only a condition, is a primary cause. The knowledge
of the law shows that there is only _one_ primary cause, and this is the
factor which in our own individuality we call subjective or sub-conscious
mind. For this reason I have insisted on the difference between placing an
idea in the sub-conscious mind, that is, on the plane of the absolute and
without reference to time and space, and placing the same idea in the
conscious intellectual mind which only perceives things as related to time
and space. Now the only conception you can have of_ yourself_ in the
absolute, or unconditioned, is as _purely living Spirit_, not hampered by
conditions of any sort, and therefore not subject to illness; and when this
idea is firmly impressed on the sub-conscious mind, it will externalize it.
The reason why this process is not always successful at the first attempt
is that all our life we have been holding the false belief in sickness as a
substantial entity in itself and thus being a primary cause, instead of
being merely a negative _condition_ resulting from the _obsence_ of a
primary cause; and a belief which has become ingrained from childhood
cannot be eradicated at a moment's notice. We often find, therefore, that
for some time after a treatment there is an improvement in the patient's
health, and then the old symptoms return. This is because the new belief in
his own creative faculty has not yet had time to penetrate down to the
innermost depths of the subconscious mind, but has only partially entered
it. Each succeeding treatment strengthens the sub-conscious mind in its
hold of the new belief until at last a permanent cure is effected. This is
the method of self-treatment based on the p