s of body as the contrary. Practically the process amounts to a
belief in our own power of life; and since this belief, if it be thoroughly
domiciled within us, will necessarily produce a correspondingly healthy
body, we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there are sound
and reasonable grounds for holding it. To afford a solid basis for this
conviction is the purpose of Mental Science.

V.

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.

An intelligent consideration of the phenomena of hypnotism will show us
that what we call the hypnotic state is the _normal_ state of the
subjective mind. It _always_ conceives of itself in accordance with some
suggestion conveyed to it, either consciously or unconsciously to the mode
of objective mind which governs it, and it gives rise to corresponding
external results. The abnormal nature of the conditions induced by
experimental hypnotism is in the removal of the normal control held by the
individual's own objective mind over his subjective mind and the
substitution of some other control for it, and thus we may say that the
normal characteristic of the subjective mind is its perpetual action in
accordance with some sort of suggestion. It becomes therefore a question of
the highest importance to determine in every case what the nature of the
suggestion shall be and from what source it shall proceed; but before
considering the sources of suggestion we must realize more fully the place
taken by subjective mind in the order of Nature.

If the student has followed what has been said regarding the presence of
intelligent spirit pervading all space and permeating all matter, he will
now have little difficulty in recognizing this all-pervading spirit as
universal subjective mind. That it cannot _as universal mind_ have the
qualities of objective mind is very obvious. The universal mind is the
creative power throughout Nature; and as the originating power it must
first give rise to the various _forms_ in which objective mind recognizes
its own individuality, before these individual minds can re-act upon it;
and hence, as pure spirit or _first cause_, it cannot possibly be anything
else than subjective mind; and the fact which has been abundantly proved by
experiment that the subjective mind is the builder of the body shows us
that the power of creating by growth from within is the essential
characteristic of the subjective mind. Hence, both from exper