IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE

Over the last 18 months I have read extensively among the original New Thought authors, going back to the essays of Emerson, which I reread early last year and which one should go back to on a regular basis. Emerson said that 'Great men are those who see that spiritual is stronger than force, that thoughts rule the world' and that 'we live in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity.' The basic tenets of the New Thought movement are that: Infinite Intelligence or God is omnipotent and omnipresent. Spirit is the ultimate reality True human self-hood is divine – humans are spiritual beings Divinely attuned thought is a positive force for good Mental attitude is fundamental There is an emphasis on inner life and the creative power of thought, and it follows that right thinking has a healing effect. Life is seen in terms of light rather than sin and darkness, corresponding to a positive and optimistic outlook. Looking at my edition of In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine (1866-1958), I found that I had read it 25 years ago but had not applied any of its tenets in a practical sense. I also discovered that Trine's experience was quoted by William James in his Varieties of Religious Experience. James himself stated that 'The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.' This points to the primacy of the inner – of mind, consciousness and thought - while the outer realm is that of effect. Trine maintains that 'The great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all, that manifests itself in and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which all has come. If there is an individual life, there must of necessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. In essence, the life of God and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one ...but the degree is vastly different.' It follows that 'The great and central fact in human life, in your life and mine, is the coming into conscious realisation of our oneness with this Infinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. What does this mean? That we are recognising our true identity, that we are bringing our lives into harmony with the same great laws and forces as have all the prophets, seers and sages in the world's history.' Trine's book sold 2 million copies, a huge figure for a book at that time. This same insight can be found in the work of Thomas Troward (1847-1916), who was a circuit judge in Punjab, and had the opportunity of studying Indian religion over several decades. In his retirement, he painted and wrote books, the most famous of which is The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science from 1904. This is included in the compilation cited above. Troward's work is extraordinarily precise and profound, and requires close study, as his only pupil Genevieve Behrend discovered when she first bought the Edinburgh Lectures. Troward characterised the human mind as a centre of divine operation, which is always for expansion and fuller expression: 'The Centre of all Being is also the centre of our being. It is one-with-ourselves. Individuality is the necessary complement to Universal Spirit. The whole problem of life consists in finding the true relation of the individual to the Universal Originating Spirit. The great self-recognition is that of our relation to the Supreme Mind. That it is the generating centre and that we are distributing centres.' This self-recognition (Self-recognition) is a fundamental moment in human life when one realises that one's own consciousness is in fact the Universal Mind. This realisation sets up a circuit which can only come into being on an individual basis, like plugging into the mains. Troward comments that if God is incorporated, then we as individuals are the Inc. of God Inc.

For readers new to Troward, it might be best to start with The Hidden Power, where he clearly explains the nature of what he calls the Great Affirmation, namely the I Am, explaining it in terms of the experience of both Moses and Jesus. There is a remarkable chapter on the Bible and New Thought, which is elaborated in his other book Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning. When I read what he had to say about the symbolic relationship between the Father and the Son, between the universal and the individual, or 'the Father as Absolute, Originating, Undifferentiated Life, and the Son as the same Life differentiated into particular forms', it felt like scales were falling from my eyes as one realises more deeply the Infinite within ourselves, the same I AM that I am, the possibility of our personality expanding as we become aware of ever increasing degrees of Life in ourselves. Troward also rehabilitates desire, defining it as the mind seeking to manifest itself in some form which as yet exists only in thought. So desire is the principle of creation by means of growth, and growth always takes place on every plane as an expansion from the nucleus or centre outwards, whether this be a seed or an idea. Desire is creative power, of which Divine Love is the supreme expression. In this sense, wisdom is the desire to know more deeply.

I first came across Charles Haanel's Master Key System at a conference for aspiring Internet entrepreneurs at the O2 in October 2009. This was organised by Andrew Reynolds, who arranged for the entire proceeds of the event - over £700,000 - to be donated to the Make a Wish Foundation. It turned out that Andrew was on his uppers and out of work in 1997 when he found this book in a second-hand bookshop and read it at one sitting. This made him realise that he could create a very different future, so he wrote down some outrageous goals for five years thence, and by 2002 he had more than achieved them. He has gone on to make over £50 million in the intervening period and now spends a good deal of his time and money helping charities. This book started as a 24-part correspondence course in 1916, and is a brilliant explanation of the Oneness of Mind: 'There is one Principle or Consciousness pervading the entire universe. As this Consciousness is omnipresent it must be present within every individual; each individual must be a manifestation of that Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent Consciousness. Your consciousness is (therefore) identical with the Universal Consciousness, all mind is one mind. Each individual is the individualisation of the Universal, the Cosmic Mind. Each chapter consists of an introduction, a numbered exposition of the ideas, a mental exercise and a summary. I have never seen anything set out so clearly, and the book had an enormous influence on subsequent writers including Napoleon Hill (1883-1970).

A key turning point in Napoleon Hill's life was his meeting with the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1908. Carnegie was then the wealthiest man in the world and was busy building libraries and setting up foundations. He commissioned Hill to interview several hundred successful people that he knew in order to formulate the laws of success. He told him that this would take 20 years, and although he would benefit from the introductions to such people as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Graham Bell, Carnegie would not support him financially, so he would have to make his own way. The story of this encounter is quite riveting and can be found on a CD called The Science of Personal Achievement, which you can order on Amazon. The edition referenced above is the original 1925 one, which he sent to his correspondents. Most editions are the revised 1928 one, so I would strongly advise trying to get hold of this edition - readers can let me know if they have difficulties as I have a small stock and can order more.

This book is the origin of most subsequent work on success and personal development, and is absolutely essential reading. This particular edition is leather bound and has many inspiring quotations on single pages throughout the text. Hill's perspective on creative thought is identical with the above authors, and he identifies 15 key attributes: having a definite purpose, self-confidence, capacity for initiative and leadership, imagination, taking action, enthusiasm, self-control, the habit of performing more service and paid for, attractive personality, accurate thought, concentration, tolerance, resilience, cooperation and the Golden Rule. This is a book to be studied rather than casually read, and there are many practical suggestions throughout. It has rightly been deemed a classic and the earlier in one's life one reads it, the better - but it's never too late!

The cumulative effect of these and other books gives one a powerful creative perspective on life and enables one to understand the relationship between synchronicity and the law of attraction within the context of the Oneness of Universal Mind. One realises that everything around us is the outcome of creative thought, which is especially true of literature, art and architecture. The greatest buildings were once a thought in the architect's mind. I would welcome correspondence from those who would like to find out more, as I have a list of other books and access to more up-to-date audio material. The New Thought movement was eclipsed by behaviourism in the 1920s (it is ironic that Haanel wrote a book called The New Psychology in 1921) but I think it is now time for this outlook to be rediscovered and applied in the 21st century.