The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science

By Thomas Troward, Late Divisional Judge, Punjab, 1904

V. FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND - 1

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 experiment and from
a priori reasoning, we may say that where-ever we find creative power at
work there we are in the presence of subjective mind, whether it be working
on the grand scale of the cosmos, or on the miniature scale of the
individual. We may therefore lay it down as a principle that the universal
all-permeating intelligence, which has been considered in the second and
third sections, is purely subjective mind, and therefore follows the law of
subjective mind, namely that it is amenable to any suggestion, and will
carry out any suggestion that is impressed upon it to its most rigorously
logical consequences. The incalculable importance of this truth may not
perhaps strike the student at first sight, but a little consideration will
show him the enormous possibilities that are stored up in it, and in the
concluding section I shall briefly touch upon the very serious conclusions
resulting from it. For the present it will be sufficient to realize that
the subjective mind in ourselves is the same subjective mind which is at
work throughout the universe giving rise to the infinitude of natural forms
with which we are surrounded, and in like manner giving rise to ourselves
also. It may be called the supporter of our individuality; and we may
loosely speak of our individual subjective mind as our personal share in
the universal mind. This, of course, does not imply the splitting up of the
universal mind into fractions, and it is to avoid this error that I have
discussed the essential unity of spirit in the third section, but in order
to avoid too highly abstract conceptions in the present stage of the
student’s progress we may conveniently employ the idea of a personal share
in the universal subjective mind.

To realize our individual subjective mind in this manner will help us to
get over the great metaphysical difficulty which meets us in our endeavour
to make conscious use of first cause, in other words to create external
results by the power of our own thought. Ultimately there can be only one
first cause which is the universal mind, but because it is universal it
cannot, as universal, act on the plane of the individual and particular.
For it to do so would be for it to cease to be universal and therefore
cease to be the creative power which we wish to employ. On the other hand,
the fact that we are working for a specific definite object implies our
intention to use this universal power in application to a particular
purpose, and thus we find ourselves involved in the paradox of seeking to
make the universal act on the plane of the particular. We want to effect a
junction between the two extremes of the scale of Nature, the innermost
creative spirit and a particular external form. Between these two is a
great gulf, and the question is how is it to be bridged over. It is here,
then, that the conception of our individual subjective mind as our personal
share in the universal subjective mind affords the means of meeting the
difficulty, for on the one hand it is in immediate connection with the
universal mind, and on the other it is immediate connection with the
individual objective, or intellectual mind; and this in its turn is in
immediate connection with the world of externalization, which is
conditioned in time and space; and thus the relation between the subjective
and objective minds in the individual forms the bridge which is needed to
connect the two extremities of the scale.

The individual subjective mind may therefore be regarded as the organ of
the Absolute in precisely the same way that the objective mind is the organ
of the Relative, and it is in order to regulate our use of these two organs
that it is necessary to understand what the terms “absolute” and “relative”
actually mean. The absolute is that idea of a thing which contemplates it
as existing in itself and not in relation to something else, that is to
say, which contemplates the essence of it; and the relative is that idea of
a thing which contemplates it as related to other things, that is to say as
circumscribed by a certain environment. The absolute is the region of
causes, and the relative is the region of conditions; and hence, if we wish
to control conditions, this can only be done by our thought-power operating
on the plane of the absolute, which it can do only through the medium of
the subjective mind. The conscious use of the creative power of thought
consists in the attainment of the power of Thinking in the Absolute, and
this can only be attained by a clear conception of the interaction between
our different mental functions. For this purpose the student cannot too
strongly impress upon himself that subjective mind, on whatever scale, is
intensely sensitive to suggestion, and as creative power works accurately
to the externalization of that suggestion which is most deeply impressed
upon it. If then, we would take any idea out of the realm of the relative,
where it is limited and restricted by conditions imposed upon it through
surrounding circumstances, and transfer it to the realm of the absolute
where it is not thus limited, a right recognition of our mental
constitution will enable us to do this by a clearly defined method.