by Ernest L. Norman

Greetings, dear ones, in our study of the Pathway to the Stars, this lesson shall be overshadowed by an old Chinese philosopher called Kung Fu (Confucius).

There are other very advanced and illustrious personages who are in attendance. They wish to thank all of you for being faithful and tell you that they are most happy and grateful to be of some small service to you.

Now we shall continue along the pathway of investigation and preparation in the science of personal psychology. This lesson shall be called “Self Mastery”. Although it will be quite obvious to you that self-mastery cannot be attained in one lifetime, nor in a number of lifetimes, but resolves itself as part of our dimensional evolution through the numerous material and spiritual planes.

In our last lesson we investigated our present-day mental problems and quoting from statistics, these things were presented to you showing that while we have an advanced and highly developed scientific way of life, the American public as a whole is so concerned with this life that it should be enjoying a state of health and well-being. On looking behind the scenes, it is quite apparent that this is not so. We found that there are literally millions of people who are suffering from either mild or advanced forms of mental aberrations which might be considered either partially or wholly incurable. As individuals here, and to those in the future who might reach out in that future and help, it is quite obvious that we must try to prevent ourselves from being trapped in these quicksands and from sinking into this oblivion ourselves.

In our discourse last week it was pointed out that certain spiritual elements were strangely missing from our present-day psychology, and that man as a whole, has been somewhat denuded or robbed of his spiritual birthright.

It must not be inferred from these remarks that we would take our present psychiatry and toss it in the waste basket or through the open window; but we must bear in mind that it too, like many other things which are passing before us, is going through a certain stage of evolution. In fact, this is the entire concept of the Infinite’s Will and Infinite Intelligence—that everything moves. There is nothing stagnant or static. It must either progress or retrogress.

So it is with our present-day psychiatry which, like other things about us, is going through an evolution. While this science does not at the present time contain the necessary spiritual elements which would mean the salvation for many hundreds of thousands of people, yet in a future day, through this evolution, our existing psychiatry will be gradually modified. It will be added to and it will be changed in such a way that it will combine these necessary spiritual elements and ingredients.

We do not wish to infer that you should jump to any conclusions that we would revert back into the somewhat existing concepts of black magic, sorcery, witchcraft or to such other derelictions of truth which have existed in the past, or which are in existence today. Just as in any other science, there is a highly developed concept of obsessions and exorcisms which is necessary to control these subversive elements of spirit.

In planets such as Mars, or in some of the centers of UN.AR.I.U.S., as well as in some of the spiritual or astral worlds, there are certain scientific devices or machines which could be likened to a cross between an X-ray machine and a television set, wherein it is possible for psychiatrists or the doctors to actually see the individual who has some sort of a mental disturbance in the psychic centers.

Thus certain corrective therapies can be immediately applied which will cancel out these vortexes of negative energies in his psychic body. We can assure you that in the future years the earth scientist or psychiatrist will, in his proper time, possess such instrumentation and that this shall come about when he begins to realize that man is a spiritual or energy creation; and through the necessity of solving man’s difficulties will come this new knowledge and this new science.

To begin our own flight into the Spiritual Pathway of the Stars, it is imperative that we learn to recognize and to deal very factually with different mental and other derelictions in which we may be entangled. Using the nomenclature of the modern psychiatrist, we will attempt to give you something of a layman’s view of the present existing psychiatry. While some of you may know of these things, yet others who may read these lines do not know of what the basic structures of modern psychiatry consists. It is quite obvious, if we think for a moment, that if we are to be constructive and useful channels for the interpretation of Spiritual Truths which will benefit all mankind, then we must be a clear channel and free of various obstructive debris which we have accumulated through the numerous terrestrial reincarnations.

As a small lad, raised in the country in Utah, I very frequently saw, after the Spring thaws, the farmers who go out into the various fields, woods and canyons with their teams of horses and plows, their scrapers and their shovels and clean out the ditches and canals which brought the life-blood of the sparkling snow water which melted and ran down the canyons from above. As this valley was largely agricultural in nature, it was very necessary that this water should flow through these canals and ditches throughout the entire summer so that all of this debris which had accumulated through the winter season would have to be removed. The sticks, the mud, the leaves and various other things would be carefully cleaned from these canals and ditches.

This is exactly the same process which we must use with our minds. As we have gone through the numerous terrestrial dimensions, we have picked up, in a somewhat reactionary fashion, numerous thoughts, and various other patterns or interpretations of life which may have served their time and their purpose at the time of inception, but which have now become so much debris in our psychic body. It is for this purpose that we will bring to you, in this lesson, a way and means whereby you can begin to cleanse yourself of some of these negative psychic structures.

To understand our modern present-day psychiatry as it exists, we will begin with a statement which was issued in 1933 by the American Psychiatric Association, which listed twenty-two major classifications of advanced mental aberrations. They listed such conditions as paranoia, schizophrenia, dementia praecox, advanced senility and the balance of such conditions; their names can be found in any textbook on psychiatry.

This statement also listed about thirty-three more minor groups, such conditions as melancholia, hysteria, hypochondria and other such groups of mental aberrations. It is largely from these two groups and particularly from the first group where we find those unfortunate souls who are incarcerated in the numerous mental institutions throughout the country. It also goes without saying, that the mental health problem in the United States outweighs, outstrips, and exceeds any country in the world and that it is high time there was something done about these conditions.

If we are to salvage even a small portion of these more advanced mental derelictions, then we need a different psychiatry than now exists. According to a statement which was issued by a psychiatrist from the Menninger Institute over a television program, only one person in six who goes to some mental institution or clinic ever recovers from his condition. We are speaking of the less advanced conditions. This too makes it quite obvious that we should not only have a better psychiatry but that we should also, as individuals, be aware of these very subtle and insidious traps which are ever about us. It could be possible that we may already be on the road to one of these incurable conditions, so it is on this basis that we are presenting this text to you this evening.

In addition to the aforementioned two groups, we also have a third group. These are the sub-minor divisions which are called phobias. Modern psychiatry lists about 250 or 300 of these phobias. To name a few of these–claustrophobia, or the fear of being confined; acrophobia, or the fear of high places; hemophobia, the fear of blood; aquaphobia, the fear of water; and many others. Every individual, according to modern psychiatry, possesses anywhere from several to one hundred of these different phobias.

In recent years, as a result of consulting with various individuals in my experience and practice, I have come across numerous individuals who claim that they have no fears or phobias. According to their own statements they are perfectly well-balanced, normal people and without fears! But I have always found that if they are allowed to talk long enough they will admit to at least a half dozen strong and choice fears. So it can be said, by the direct token of all of these subversive elements within our psychic structures, that man is indeed his own worst enemy. This becomes increasingly apparent if he denies the existence of these things.

To begin our personal character development, means the elimination or at least the control of these numerous different phobias or fears which we have accumulated during our flight through time and space. It resolves itself primarily into a problem of self-mastery. Before we can understand the higher principles of spiritual psychiatry or a physical psychiatry that exists today, and in order to become clear channels for the Infinite Intelligence working through us, then we must remove the various debris and impedimenta which we have accumulated through our numerous evolutions.

In this situation honesty is always the best policy. If we do not give ourselves sufficient credence for the existence of these things, we can revolve and evolve back into these terrestrial dimensions until the time and place which knows no beginning or end; and we shall never come unto the end of all that until we become masters of ourselves.

This will answer for you a situation which may have occurred in your own life which frequently occurs with others who have gone through numerous negative, distorted concepts in their life and have arrived somewhere in a certain position whereby they begin to cry out to the superconscious and the God within for relief. They may have also become acutely aware and conscious of the numerous pressures in this civilized world about them.

The fact that the average person knows or at least is partially aware that he or she must obey anywhere from six to ten thousand different city, county, and state or federal laws, or that we may see Mrs. Jones riding about in a new Cadillac when we cannot afford one; or that we see here or there about us, distortions and conflicts with our own particular sense of right and justice. We may feel particularly incensed against the political systems which are in force at present. But whatever these pressures are which come from outside sources and seep into our mentality and into our psychic structures, they only add to and strengthen and fortify these previous existing structures of negativity.

Excerpt from The Infinite Concept Of Cosmic Creation

See Part II here.