CHAPTER III

CHAPTER III
OBJECTIONS TO THE
LAW OF THOUGHT
SECTION 1
The law of thought in religions and in accidents.
he objections to the doctrine that man is the maker of his destiny are that men
have no choice in being created, and no choice concerning their destiny; and
that there is not more than one life on earth. Their experience would show that
justice is seldom meted out; that the good often suffer misfortune, and that the wicked
often prosper; that rewards and afflictions generally come to mankind without wise
dispensation; that the weak and poor are oppressed, and that the strong and rich can
get with impunity what they want; and that there is not an equal opportunity for all.
Another factor militating against the acceptance of the law of thought as destiny is the
belief in vicarious atonement. If individuals may be relieved of the consequences of
their sins by the sacrifice of another, there is no reason for a belief in justice.
The hope of eternal bliss in heaven, and the fear of eternal suffering in hell, as a
reward or punishment for the acts of one short life on earth, and based upon the mere
acceptance or rejection of a doctrine, dull the perception and stagger the
understanding. Predestination means that each doer is at birth arbitrarily created for
good or ill: a vessel for shame or honor. This idea, when believed without question,
enslaves the believers.
Those who accept an only God who, at will, dispenses blame or favor, raises or
puts down, and gives life or death; those who are satisfied with the explanation that
every event is the will of God or the ways of Providence, are, merely by holding such
beliefs, unable to apprehend the law of thought as destiny. Some people believe in
many gods, and others in a particular god, who will grant their wishes and condone
their sins if propitiated by offerings and supplications. People who believe that they
have such a god, do not want a law to which they cannot appeal for their selfish ends
and get a desired response.
No religion can dispense with the law of thought, as destiny: it is the basis of
moral law. No religion is without moral law; it must be in every religious system; and
in some form it is. Therefore the moral aspects of every religion are shared in some
degree by all. For this reason efforts have been successfully made to show the identity
of religions in fundamentals, their moral code being the bond between them. Each
religion, however, puts the administration of the moral law into the hands of that
particular God whose religion it is. His power is believed to be so great that he
himself is not bound by the moral law, being above it; hence the belief in the will of
God and the ways of Providence; hence also, in some persons, some doubt of the
management of that God, and eventually a belief in blind force and chance.
T
Another reason why some people may not wish to accept the law of thought as
destiny is that they do not grasp it. They know of no system of the Universe; they
know nothing of the nature of the gods, or of the parts which the gods play in
creating, maintaining and changing the physical world; they know little about the
nature of the doer and its connection with the gods. The failure of people to grasp
these points is due to the absence of a standard measure by which the nature and
relations of all matter and beings in the invisible worlds and their planes, and on the
visible physical plane, can be estimated. Owing to his weakness and selfishness, man
accepts force as that measure; his moral code therefore is practically that might is
right. Man sees in his God a magnified man; thus he is prevented from seeing a
system of thinking, without which he cannot have a key to the mysteries of the visible
plane.
No religion can dispense with the law of thought as destiny. Yet theological
doctrines are often incompatible with it. They make it appear in strange disguises,
stories and teachings that conceal the law. Nevertheless these are forms used by
Triune Selves to teach their doers as much of the law of thought as the doers can
acquire. The faith which holds to "ways of Providence," the "wrath of God" and
"original sin" to mention but these few, even as the skepticism which speaks of mere
chance and accident, is a station through which the doer passes while it is being
educated by the Light of the Intelligence.
The law of thought as destiny works in silence and is unseen. Its course is not
perceptible by the senses. Even its results on the physical plane attract no attention
unless they are unusual or unexpected. Then by some persons they are called
accidents, and are attributed to chance; by others, miracles or the will of God, and an
explanation is sought in religions. It is not generally understood that religion is the
relation between doers and the gods they have fashioned out of nature. The God or the
gods which men worship are nature gods. This fact is apparent from the symbols by
which they demand to be adored. These nature gods, however, are subject to complete
Triune Selves: they are created by the embodied doers of Triune Selves. Triune Selves
furnish to the embodied portions of their doers the means of accomplishing the
worship due to--and even the worship demanded by--the nature gods. The "divinity"
of each human, speaking within, is the thinker of his own Triune Self. Triune Selves
educate their doers, and use religions as a means of teaching. Thus the doer in a
human body is allowed to consider a personal God as its creator and source of power,
and as the administrator of justice according to a moral code. In so far as the God's
acts or omissions do not fall in with the moral code--the very code which is attributed
to the God--the doer believes in the "inscrutable ways of Providence".
Sometimes small parts of the law of thought are to be found in religions; but then
they are colored to fit in with the body of the theology. When the doer matures
sufficiently to see that it is sense-bound in a body which is personalized nature, and to
distinguish between the gods or God on the one hand, and, on the other, the Light it
receives from its Intelligence, then by that Light will the doer understand the innate
idea of justice, the real meanings of the "wrath of God" and of the doctrine of original
sin.
Accidents and chance are words used by persons who do not think clearly when
they attempt to account for certain happenings. Anyone who thinks must be
convinced that in a world as orderly as this there is no room for the words accident
and chance. Every natural science depends upon the recurrence of certain facts in a
certain order. A physical law means facts observed and the assurance of their
recurrence in orderly sequence. Such physical laws govern all physical actions, from
sowing to harvesting, from boiling water to sailing a vessel, from playing a fiddle to
the electrical transmission of sound and images by radio.
Can it be that there is no certainty of the orderly sequence of facts and events
when we search for moral law, for moral order? There is such a law, and it accounts
for so-called accidents: Everything existing on the physical plane is an exteriorization
of a thought which must be adjusted through the one who issued the thought, in
accordance with his responsibility and at the conjunction of time, condition and place.
SECTION 2
An accident is an exteriorization of a thought. Purpose of an accident.
Explanation of an accident. Accidents in history.
An "accident" is an event which happens to one or more persons or things
unexpectedly, without being foreseen and without intention. Therefore the accident
stands out from the general and foreseen order of events as unusual or separate. A socalled
accident is, like any other event on the physical plane, a thought in a certain
part of its course.
A thought is a being created by the Conscious Light and desire; and which, when
issued, has in it an aim, a potential design, and a balancing factor--which balancing
factor, like the needle of a compass, points to the final balance of the thought as a
whole. The thought endures until the balancing factor has brought about an
adjustment through the one who issued the thought. The balancing factor causes
exteriorizations as long as the thought endures. Whenever the thought, moving in its
courses, approaches the physical plane, it causes the one who issued it to be in place
for an exteriorization of that thought. An exteriorization can happen only when there
is a juncture of time, condition and place. The laws which control the exteriorization
do not always fit in with the intention and expectation of the persons concerned; and
the exteriorization is then called an accident. An accident is a perceived physical part
of a thought which is proceeding on its otherwise invisible course. The exteriorization
makes visible that part of the thought which touches the physical plane and is not yet
balanced. The demonstration is made on or through the person who is concerned in
the accident.
Accidents such as a personal injury, or a barn being struck by lightning, or an
occurrence which prevents one from embarking on a ship that is to be wrecked, come
only to those whose thoughts are thereby partially exteriorized to them. An accident
presents to the one to whom it happens something of his past, either distant or recent.
The accident is a part of one of his own thoughts that he has not balanced, and which
will endure and, from time to time, meet him face to face as a physical event, until he
has paid or received payment through the direct exteriorization of the design, learns
his lesson from that child of his mind and desire, and has satisfied his conscience.
Often accidents come to injure him, often to help him, and sometimes as protections.
The reasons why events happen to him in the form of accidents, in an
exceptional, unforeseen manner, are that a man would not do certain things to himself,
like breaking an arm, or that circumstances do not call for a commission of a crime
against him, that is, an intentional injury; or finally that the happening accidentally is
the easiest and most direct way to bring about the juncture of time, condition and
place for the exteriorization.
Further, there is in the happening of an accident a special call for attention. An
accident rather than an ordinary event, produces this, because the accident is unlooked
for, startling.
An accident is brought about in the ordinary course of the law of thought as
destiny. Every man has a vast number of thoughts cycling in his mental atmosphere
toward and away from exteriorization on the physical plane. The thoughts live on with
a tendency to exteriorize in the events which the balancing factor in each of them
requires and projects.
The thoughts begin and continue their cycles from the time a person issues them.
Whenever they approach the physical plane, they seek to exteriorize; but they are
often held back by the exteriorizations of his present design. When there is an
opportunity, be it ever so slight, the whole nature of the man seizes upon it and uses it
to precipitate an event which will bring about one of these exteriorizations. Every
thought, once it is issued, endures and appears cyclically, exteriorized as a physical
event. For that purpose, the one who issued the thought calls mentally or psychically
on other persons concerned with the thought, through their atmospheres. If a cycle of
one of those persons' thoughts coincides with a cycle of one of his own, this will
produce, unintentionally to the first one, the event which is called an accident.
Another manner in which accidents are brought about is by elementals, nature
units. They follow and are bound by a man's thought, and rush with it into his body as
an impulse, so that he unexpectedly performs an act which results in an accident to
him; he may, for instance, cut himself; or may fall in front of a fast moving car.
Another way in which elementals may act to precipitate a thought, is by producing an
occurrence without human intervention, as where fire burns a man, or a cinder gets
into his eye, or melting ice drops on him from a roof, or he finds articles of value. In
every instance his own thought, seeking exteriorization, is the means of precipitating
upon him the event which he calls an accident.
The purpose of an accident is to call one's attention to the thought of which it is
one of the exteriorizations. One to whom an accident happens can always, by
searching, find out something about that. Though the event may not reveal the whole
past to him, it may reveal that portion of the past which it is necessary for him to
know. If he tries to understand, he will learn, and he will learn more, if he is willing to
pay,--he must pay anyway. What he learns will bring him nearer to the adjustment.
Suppose two men are traveling in a mountainous country. By placing his foot on
an insecure stone, one of them slips and falls info a ravine. His companion goes to the
rescue, finds the mangled body below, among rocks; and close at hand he discovers,
cropping out from the side of the ravine, a vein of gold. The death of the one
impoverishes his family and causes failure to some with whom he was in business.
Because of that fall, the other discovers an ore deposit which becomes a source of
wealth. Such an occurrence is said to be an accident, bringing death to one, sorrow
and poverty to some, failure to others, and "good luck" to the comrade whose wealth
is gained by chance.
There is no accident or chance connected with such occurrences. Each of the
events is in accordance with the working out of the law as destiny, and is an
exteriorization of some thought, issued by the person affected, though beyond the
limits of perception.
The one who was killed was a man whose allotted time had run its course, though
his death could have occurred a little sooner or might have been postponed for a short
time. The manner of his death had been predetermined to be sudden. Further, it was
necessary, on account of his family and his business connections, that his relations to
them be severed abruptly. Therefore he suffered sudden death.
Whether the poverty awakens self-reliance in those who have been dependent on
the deceased and brings out traits which could not be seen while they were dependent
on another, or whether they become disheartened, give up to despair or become
paupers, rests largely upon the past of those concerned. Whether the one who
discovers the gold improves the opportunity of wealth to be honest, to better the
conditions of himself and others, to relieve suffering, or to support educational work;
or whether, on the other hand, he does none of these, but uses his wealth and the
power which it gives him for the oppression of others; or whether he becomes morally
corrupt and urges others to lives of dissipation, is all according to the law of thought,
and has been largely determined by previous thoughts of those concerned.
If the deceased had been more careful in the selection of his path, he might not
have fallen, though his death, as it was required by the law, would merely have been
postponed a short time. If his companion had not descended the perilous path in the
hope of rendering assistance, he would not have found the means by which he
acquired his wealth. Yet, even if fear should have kept him from going to the aid of
his comrade, he would only have deferred his prosperity, because wealth was to be his
as the result of his past thoughts and works. By not letting pass an opportunity which
duty presented, he hastened his prosperity.
It is injurious to speak of accident and chance as events happening without cause
and irrespective of law. Such unthinking use of the words fosters in people the belief
that they may act or fail to act, and not be held accountable. They come to believe that
things may happen to them without cause. So they may dull their moral conceptions.
They limit their views and reasoning to things on the physical plane; they trust to
chance, and are liable to become irresponsible.
Events which affect a few or many, or a race or a continent, or the whole world,
arrive to those whom they benefit or afflict according to the working of the law of
thought as destiny. To each individual are exteriorized some of his past thoughts. The
thoughts press for an opening for exteriorization. If there are many people whose
thoughts tend towards a similar event, they are gathered even from the ends of the
earth to bring about the so-called accidents. To everyone comes the advantage or loss
that exteriorizes some of his past thoughts.
Accidents which happen to a community, like a conflagration, cyclone,
inundation or pestilence, are likewise the exteriorizations of thoughts of those
affected. Under this head fall also the destruction of hamlets and cities, and the
devastation of countries, like the ruthless razing of Carthage, the sacking of Rome, the
plundering of the Spanish settlements by the buccaneers, or the conquest of Peru. In
these cases the "just" suffer with the "unjust". The "unjust" are the evil ones in the
present; the "just" are the unrighteous of the past. Such destinies have been made by
the action and inaction, the participation and indifference, of the inhabitants in times
such as those of the persecution of the Huguenots, or of the Netherlands by Alva, or
of the Quakers by the Puritans in New England. They will be brought together in the
course of time, and their thoughts will lead them to the place and time of the
exteriorization of those past thoughts. That place may be the same locality; or the
people may be brought together in another, and there live in prosperity or in trouble,
and share in the accidents of the final disaster.
The reckoning may be held up for a long time; but it is sure to come. The United
States of America was set apart by Intelligences to try out self-government by the
multitude, and so they have been led to success in their various wars, their political
institutions and their economic undertakings, notwithstanding the actions of the
people. In peace and in war, their escape from the natural consequences of their
selfishness and indifference is striking. But this protection and universal success,
which school histories and orators seem to take as a matter of course, may not last.
There must be an accounting for all that these people did tolerate and do in violation
of their great responsibility. The New England bigots, the Massachusetts slave traders,
the Southern slave drivers, the oppressors of the Indians, the political and other
corruptionists will at some time meet and suffer at the reckoning which is sure to
come.
In every life there are numerous events which are generally regarded as accidents.
Such events are, to mention a few: birth at a particular time into a certain country,
race, family and religion; birth into favorable or unfavorable conditions; birth into a
sound or a diseased body; birth with certain psychic tendencies and mental
endowments. Peoples' lives are largely made up of events which they cannot choose,
and which seem to be determined by accident. Among these are opportunities offered
to enter a trade, a business or a vocation; chance acquaintances who cause, prevent or
end associations in work or commerce; and conditions which lead to or hinder
marriage and friendship.
People, if they do not look upon events as happenings by chance, explain them as
the will of God and seek consolation in their religion.
SECTION 3
Religions. Gods. Their claims. The need of religions. The moral code.
Religions, which turn around personal gods, seem incompatible with the law of
thought as destiny. Some of their doctrines are particularly designed to settle inquiries
into the mysteries of the law by statements which must be accepted by faith and
without contradiction.
A religion is the relation between man and a God or gods, which he has helped to
fashion or maintain, largely for the purpose of getting comfort and protection. The
religion into which a man is born, or which he accepts during life, indicates the stage
of his development. The commands of the god whom he worships, the form of the
worship, the punishments threatened, and the rewards promised, show the particular
element of nature to which his doer is attuned.
Nature is the nature-matter in those parts of the spheres of fire, air, and water
which reach into the sphere of earth; a part of which earth sphere is the human
physical world in which is the visible universe, including the moon, sun, planets and
stars, (Fig. I-E). A part of the human world is personalized in the organs, systems and
senses in the human body. All these are made up of matter belonging to the four
elements. Each of the senses is a nature unit, doing service in a human body. The four
senses of seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling are the connections which relate the
doer in the human as a distinct entity, to nature as a whole through its four elements.
There is a constant pull, on the one hand, by each of the four elements of nature
on its particular sense in the human body, and, on the other hand, by nature on the
doer through the connection of the four senses with the doer-in-the-body. The senses
are the emissaries of nature: the messengers, agents, priests, through which nature
speaks to the doer. The pull is like a call from nature to man; it is experienced as a
feeling, an emotion, a sentiment, a longing. The human is overwhelmed by
uncertainty and the fear of powers against which he is helpless. He responds to that
call, and to his wish for comfort and protection, by worship. That worship must take
some form. The form is the religion of the particular human.
The human worships nature in terms of personality. The reason for this is that the
human identifies himself with his body, and so does not think of nature, power, love,
or intelligence, except as proceeding from a personality. Man cannot conceive of
anything without identity or form; therefore, when he wants to worship nature he
gives to nature form and identity. So he creates gods which are nature gods--
magnified men and women. His religion is the tie between him and his gods.
These nature gods cannot continue to exist without worship, for they need and
depend on human thought for nourishment. That is why they are continually crying
for and commanding worship. There are ceremonies and symbols with which they
demand to be adored; and certain places, temples and buildings for their worship. The
symbols appear in ornaments on, or in the very form of, vestments, temples, and
structures; or in dances or rites performed in these by worshippers.
The symbols represent chiefly procreation, food and punishment. Among such
religious symbols are, for the male deities, the sun and the rays of the sun; fire and
that which carries fire--as a torch or a candle; and for the goddesses, the earth, the
moon and water. Then there are directly the generative parts of the human body, and
the symbols which indicate them; as, for the male, the stem of a palm-tree, conifers, a
shaft, a pillar, a staff, an obelisk, an arrow, a lance, a sword, an erect serpent, a bull, a
goat and other animals. The female is represented by a woman holding a child; and by
a vessel, an arch, a grove, a door, a lozenge, a shell, a boat, a rose, a pomegranate, a
cow, a cat, and similar fertile animals. The parts of man are made to appear in the
conventional forms of the male triad, trefoil and bishop's crook; and the female
symbols are such things as the vesica pisces, a bowl, a goblet or an urn. These
symbols are used alone or jointly. The conventional forms appear in many
combinations, generally in cross or star forms, indicating junction.
Nature and the nature gods have no feeling and no desire in themselves; but they
feel and desire with human feelings and desires. They get these through human
bodies. That is not to say that these gods are subservient to man, or that they are
powerless. They are beings of splendor and of vast power: the force of nature is
behind them. They can and they do punish and reward. Their worshippers they reward
with the objects of the worship. They are as faithful to man as he is to them. They
reward a man or a people as far as they can. There is a limit to their powers; but they
can bestow strength and beauty of body, and health, possessions, worldly power,
success in undertakings, long life, and posterity. The gods do this as long as a man or
a people are faithful in worship and obedient to their commands. However, the power
of these gods is limited in a twofold way: by the worship of the people, and by the
boundaries set by the law of thought.