YOUR INVISIBLE POWER by By Genevieve Behrend (e book reader free .txt) 📕

the pleasure and privilege of meeting Mrs. Eddy personally. But it was impossible for me
to accept the fundamental teachings of Christian Science and make practical application of it.
When about to abandon the search for contentment and resign myself to resume a life of apparent amusement, a
friend invited me to visit the great Seer and Teacher, Abdul Baha. After my interview with this most wonderful
of men, my search for contentment began to take a change. He had told me that I would travel the world over
seeking the truth, and when I had found it would speak it out. The fulfillment of the statement of this Great Seer
then seemed to be impossible. But it carried a measure of encouragement, and at least indicated that my former
seeking had been in the wrong direction. I began in a feeble and groping way to find contentment within myself,
for had he not intimated that I should find the truth. That was the big thing, and about the only thing I remember
of our interview.
A few days later, upon visiting the office of a New Thought practitioner, my attention was attracted to a book on
his table entitled "The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science," by Thomas Troward. It interested me to see that
Troward was a retired Divisional judge from the Punjab, India. I purchased the book, thinking I would read it
through that evening. Many have endeavored to do the same thing, only to find, as I did, that the book must be
studied in order to be understood, and hundreds have decided, just as I did, to give it their undivided attention.
After finding this treasure book I went to the country for a few days, and while there studied the volume as
thoroughly as I could. It seemed extremely difficult, and I decided to purchase another book of Troward's, in the
hope that its study might not require so much of an effort. Upon inquiry I was told that a subsequent volume,
"The Dore Lectures," was much the simpler and better of the two books. When I procured it, I found that it must
also be studied. It took me weeks and months to get even a vague conception of the meaning of the first chapter
of Dore, which is entitled "Entering Into the Spirit of It." I mean by this that it took me months to enter into the
spirit of what I was reading.
But in the meantime a paragraph from page 26 arrested my attention, as seeming the greatest thing I had ever
read. I memorized it and endeavored with all my soul to enter into the spirit of Troward's words. The paragraph
reads: "My mind is a center of Divine operation. The Divine operation is always for expansion and fuller
expression, and this means the production of something beyond what has gone before, something entirely new,
not included in the past experience, though proceeding out of it by an orderly sequence of growth. Therefore,
since the Divine cannot change its inherent nature, it must operate in the same manner with me; consequently, in
my own special world, of which I am the center, it will move forward to produce new conditions, always in
advance of any that have gone before."
It took an effort on my part to memorize this paragraph, but in the endeavor toward this end the words seemed to
carry with them a certain stimulus. Each repetition of the paragraph made it easier for me to enter into the spirit
of it. The words expressed exactly what I had been seeking for. My one desire was for peace of mind. I found it
comforting to believe that the Divine operation in me could expand to fuller expression and produce more and
more contentment -in fact, a peace of mind and a degree of contentment greater than I had ever known. The
paragraph further inspired me with deep interest to feel that the life-spark in me could bring into my life
something entirely new. I did not wish to obliterate my past experience, but that was exactly what Troward said
it would not do. The Divine operation would not exclude my past experience, but proceeding out of them would
bring some new thing that would transcend anything that I had ever experienced before.
Meditation on these statements brought with it a certain joyous feeling. What a wonderful thing it would be if I
could accept and sincerely believe, beyond all doubt, that this one statement of Troward's was true. Surely the
Divine could not change its inherent nature, and since Divine life is operating in me, I must be Divinely
inhabited, and the Divine in me must operate just as it operates upon the Universal plane. This meant that my
whole world of circumstances, friends and conditions would ultimately become a world of contentment and
enjoyment of which "I am the center." This would all happen just as soon as I was able to control my mind and
thereby provide concrete center around which the Divine energies could play.
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Surely it was worth trying for. If Troward had found this truth, why not I? The idea held me to my task. Later I
determined to study with the man who had realized and given to the world so great a statement. It had lifted me
from my state of despondency. The immediate difficulty was the need for increased finances.
HOW I ATTRACTED TO MYSELF TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS
Chapter 9
In the laboratory of experience in which my newly revealed relation to Divine operation was to be tested, the
first problem was a financial one. My income was a stipulated one, quite enough for my everyday needs. But it
did not seem sufficient to enable me to go comfortably to England where Troward lived, and remain for an
indefinite period to study with so great a teacher as he must be. So before inquiring whether Troward took pupils
or whether I would be eligible in case he did, I began to use the paragraph I had memorized. Daily, in fact,
almost hourly, the words were in my mind: "My mind is a center of Divine operation, and Divine operation
means expansion into something better than has gone before."
From the Edinburgh Lectures I had read something about the Law of Attraction, and from the Chapter of
"Causes and Conditions" I had gleaned a vague idea of visualizing. So every night, before going to sleep, I made
a mental picture of the desired $20,000. Twenty $1,000 bills were counted over each night in my bedroom, and
then, with the idea of more emphatically impressing my mind with the fact that this twenty thousand dollars was
for the purpose of going to England and studying with Troward, I wrote out my picture, saw myself buying my
steamer ticket, walking up and down the ship's deck from New York to London, and, finally, saw myself
accepted as Troward's pupil.
This process was repeated every morning and every evening, always impressing more and more fully upon my
mind Troward's memorized statement: "My mind is a center of Divine operations." I endeavored to keep this
statement in the back part of my consciousness all the time with no thought in mind as how the money might be
obtained. Probably the reason why there was no thought of the avenues through which the money might reach
me was because I could not possibly imagine where the $20,000 would come from. So I simply held my thought
steady and let the power of attraction find its own ways and means.
One day while walking on the street, taking deep breathing exercises, the thought came: "My mind is surely a
center of Divine operation. If God fills all space, then God must be in my mind also; if I want this money to
study with Troward that I may know the truth of Life, then both the money and the truth must be mine, though I
am unable to feel or see the physical manifestations of either; still," I declared, "it must be mine."
While these reflections were going on in my mind, there seemed to come up from within me the thought: "I am
all the substance there is." Then, from another channel in my brain the answer seemed to come, "Of course, that's
it; everything must have its beginning in mind. The "I" the Idea, must be the only one and primary substance
there is, and this means money as well as everything else." My mind accepted this idea, and immediately all the
tension of mind and body was relaxed.
There was a feeling of absolute certainty of being in touch with all the power Life has to give. All thought of
money, teacher, or even my own personality, vanished in the great wave of joy which swept over my entire
being. I walked on and on with this feeling of joy steadily increasing and expanding until everything about me
seemed aglow with resplendent light. Every person I passed was illuminated as I was. All consciousness of
personality had disappeared, and in its place there came that great and almost overwhelming sense of joy and
contentment.
That night when I made my picture of the twenty thousand dollars it was with an entirely changed aspect. On
previous occasions, when making my mental picture, I had felt that I was waking up something within myself.
This time there was no sensation of effort. I simply counted over the twenty thousand dollars. Then, in a most
unexpected manner, from a source of which I had no consciousness at the time, there seemed to open a possible
avenue through which the money might reach me.
At first it took great effort not to be excited. It all seemed so wonderful, so glorious to be in touch with supply.
But had not Troward cautioned his readers to keep all excitement out of their minds in the first flush of
realization of union with Infinite supply, and to treat this fact as a perfectly natural result that had been reached
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through our demand? This was even more difficult for me than it was to hold the thought that "all the substance
there is, I am; I (idea) am the beginning of all form, visible or invisible."
Just as soon as there appeared a circumstance which indicated the direction through which the twenty thousand
dollars might come, I not only made a supreme effort to regard the indicated direction calmly as the first sprout
of the seed I had sown in the absolute, but left no stone unturned to follow up that direction by fulfilling my part.
By so doing one circumstance seemed naturally to lead to another, until, step-by-step, my desired twenty
thousand dollars was secured. To keep my mind poised and free from excitement was my greatest effort.
This first concrete fruition of my study of Mental Science as expounded by Troward's book had come by a
careful following of the methods he had outlined. In this connection, therefore, I can offer to the reader no better
gift than to quote Troward's book, "The Edinburgh Lectures," from which may be derived a complete idea of the
line of action I was endeavoring to follow. In the chapter on Causes and Conditions he says: "To get good results
we must properly understand our relation to the great impersonal power we are using. It is intelligent, and we are
intelligent, and the two intelligences must co-operate.
We must not fly in the face of the Law expecting it to do for us what it can only do through us; and we must
therefore use our intelligence with the knowledge that it is acting as the instrument of a greater intelligence; and
because we have this knowledge we may and should cease from all anxiety as to the final result.
In actual practice we must first form the ideal conception of