The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science

By Thomas Troward, Late Divisional Judge, Punjab, 1904

XIII. IN TOUCH WITH SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND - 1

The preceding pages have made the student in some measure aware of the
immense importance of our dealings with the sub-conscious mind. Our
relation to it, whether on the scale of the individual or the universal, is
the key to all that we are or ever can be. In its unrecognized working it
is the spring of all that we can call the automatic action of mind and
body, and on the universal scale it is the silent power of evolution
gradually working onwards to that “divine event, to which the whole
creation moves”; and by our conscious recognition of it we make it,
relatively to ourselves, all that we believe it to be. The closer our
rapport with it becomes, the more what we have hitherto considered
automatic action, whether in our bodies or our circumstances, will pass
under our control, until at last we shall control our whole individual
world. Since, then, this is the stupendous issue involved, the question how
we are to put ourselves practically in touch with the sub-conscious mind is
a very important one. Now the clue which gives us the right direction is to
be found in the impersonal quality of sub-conscious mind of which I have
spoken. Not impersonal as lacking the elements of personality; nor even,
in the case of individual subjective mind, as lacking the sense of
individuality; but impersonal in the sense of not recognizing the
particular external relations which appear to the objective mind to
constitute its personality, and having a realization of itself quite
independent of them. If, then, we would come in touch with it we must meet
it on its own ground. It can see things only from the deductive standpoint,
and therefore cannot take note of the inductive standpoint from which we
construct the idea of our external personality; and accordingly if we would
put ourselves in touch with it, we cannot do so by bringing it down to the
level of the external and non-essential but only by rising to its own level
on the plane of the interior and essential. How can this be done? Let two
well-known writers answer. Rudyard Kipling tells us in his story of “Kim”
how the boy used at times to lose his sense of personality by repeating to
himself the question, Who is Kim? Gradually his personality would seem to
fade and he would experience a feeling of passing into a grander and a
wider life, in which the boy Kim was unknown, while his own conscious
individuality remained, only exalted and expanded to an inconceivable
extent; and in Tennyson’s life by his son we are told that at times the
poet had a similar experience. We come into touch with the absolute exactly
in proportion as we withdraw ourselves from the relative: they vary
inversely to each other.

For the purpose, then, of getting into touch with our sub-conscious mind we
must endeavour to think of ourselves as pure being, as that entity which
interiorly supports the outward manifestation, and doing so we shall
realize that the essential quality of pure being must be good. It is in
itself pure Life, and as such cannot desire anything detrimental to pure
Life under whatever form manifested. Consequently the purer our intentions
the more readily we shall place ourself en rapport with our subjective
entity; and a fortiori the same applies to that Greater Sub-conscious
Mind of which our individual subjective mind is a particular manifestation.
In actual practice the process consists in first forming a clear conception
in the objective mind of the idea we wish to convey to the subjective mind:
then, when this has been firmly grasped, endeavour to lose sight of all
other facts connected with the external personality except the one in
question, and then mentally address the subjective mind as though it were
an independent entity and impress upon it what you want it to do or to
believe. Everyone must formulate his own way of working, but one method,
which is both simple and effective is to say to the subjective mind, “This
is what I want you to do; you will now step into my place and do it,
bringing all your powers and intelligence to bear, and considering yourself
to be none other than myself.” Having done this return to the realization
of your own objective personality and leave the subjective mind to perform
its task in full confidence that, by the law of its nature, it will do so
if not hindered by a repetition of contrary messages from the objective
mind. This is not a mere fancy but a truth daily proved by the experience
of increasing numbers. The facts have not been fabricated to fit the
theory, but the theory has been built up by careful observation of the
facts; and since it has been shown both by theory and practice that such is
the law of the relation between subjective and objective mind, we find
ourselves face to face with a very momentous question. Is there any reason
why the laws which hold good of the individual subjective mind should not
hold good of the Universal Mind also? and the answer is that there is not.
As has been already shown the Universal Mind must, by its very
universality, be purely subjective, and what is the law of a part must also
be the law of the whole: the qualities of fire are the same whether the
centres of combustion be great or small, and therefore we may well conclude
these lectures by considering what will be the result if we apply what we
have learnt regarding the individual subjective mind to the Universal Mind.

We have learnt that the three great facts regarding subjective mind are its
creative power, its amenableness to suggestion, and its inability to work
by any other than the deductive method. This last is an exceedingly
important point, for it implies that the action of the subjective mind is
in no way limited by precedent. The inductive method works on principles
inferred from an already existing pattern, and therefore at the best only
produces the old thing in a new shape. But the deductive method works
according to the essence or spirit of the principle, and does not depend on
any previous concrete manifestation for its apprehension of it; and this
latter method of working must necessarily be that of the all-originating
Mind, for since there could be no prior existing pattern from which it
could learn the principles of construction, the want of a pattern would
have prevented its creating anything had its method been inductive instead
of deductive. Thus by the necessity of the case the Universal Mind must act
deductively, that is, according to the law which has been found true of
individual subjective mind. It is thus not bound by any precedent, which
means that its creative power is absolutely unlimited; and since it is
essentially subjective mind, and not objective mind, it is entirely
amenable to suggestion.