|
(A
Special Lecture given by Dr. Joseph Murphy at the Wilshire Ebell
Theatre, Los Angeles, California - 1971)
[click
here for Part 1)
A man said to me
recently, "My conscience is my guide." He was writing
vitriolic articles attacking a certain religious group. I
explained to him the working of his deeper mind. He realized that
his biases, hatreds, and superstitious patterns were planted in his
subconscious mind when he was young and that his mental conditioning was
the reason for his resentment, hostility, and antagonism toward other
religious groups.
Many people
have become victims of ruthless superstition and ignorant biases.
Following the voice of conscience has ruined the lives of many
people. One man I knew said, "I hear a voice inside me urging
me to kill my mother-in-law." The voice he heard was real
enough, like the voices and scenes you hear in your dreams. The
subconscious mind is always dramatizing the impressions we make upon
it. It is our Book of Life which keeps a record of all our
thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. I explained to him that his
constant hatred and resentment of his mother-in-law was murder in his
own heart and that his evil and destructive thoughts were constantly
sinking down into his mind and would eventually saturate the
subconscious with the idea of murder. The subconscious acts by
reacting, and the law of the subconscious is one of compulsion;
therefore, he would eventually commit the murder. The voices he
heard were those of his own subconscious talking back to him. My
explanation was the cure. He blessed and prayed for his
mother-in-law; they became good friends, and she calls him "my
son."
Those
who put thousands of Protestants to death in the days of the Spanish
Inquisition did so in the name of conscience. This conscience
represented religious hatred and bigotry. Scholars and
archaeologists have definite evidence that parents in ancient Babylon
stoned children to death because of some minor infraction of certain
laws and rules which they promulgated.
Many people walking the streets today are victims of neurotic
conscience. The patterns of conscience vary with different
religions, racial and social influences. You must learn to
differentiate between what you call conscience and the voice of
God. God always speaks in peace and never in confusion. The
voice of God is always constructive, harmonious, and peaceful. The
voice and intimations of the Divine are always life-ward, tending toward
the life more abundant. Whenever you have an urge to go against
the laws of life such as the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments, or
Paul's Epistle in the 13th chapter of Corinthians, you know very well it
cannot be the voice of Truth or God.
A young girl came to me stating that she had to wash her hands about 100
times a day and that she was always afraid of some infection. This
girl was a Catholic and her husband was of the Jewish faith. They
were quite happy together until she began receiving letters from her
mother that she had done great evil and added religious threats plus
moral condemnation. I explained to the girl that Love knows no
creed, race, or sectarian group. Love transcends all creeds.
Furthermore, she realized that no one could break up her marriage when
Love reigned supreme. She learned to laugh at herself for being so
upset. She understood why her mother was brainwashed with
religious taboos, prejudices, and strictures of all kinds, and that she
was writing from the standpoint of superstition, bias, and ignorance,
and not from the standpoint of God or Truth. In God there is no
Greek or Jew, no bond or free, no Catholic or Protestant, Hindu or
atheist. God has no religion and knows nothing about creeds,
dogmas, and man-made opinions. This young lady learned to pray and
imagined that she had a letter from her mother which was full of love,
kindness, and good will.
I told her the story of Orage, a disciple of P. D. Ouspensky, who taught
his students as follows: "Compose a letter written as from
our friend to yourself which would completely satisfy you if you
received it. Put into exact words what you would like your friend
to write or say to you."
Every night she would embrace her mother in her imagination and radiate
love, peace, an joy to her; then she would read the imaginary letter
from her mother which filled her soul with joy. She continued to
do this for about three weeks every night, and at the end of that time,
she received a letter from her mother apologizing for her previous
letters and containing almost the exact words which she had been
picturing, feeling and rejoicing each night.
In many parts of the world men have several wives; this is their
religious custom or tradition. Our Bible teaches that love is an
at-one-ment or a union of two souls seeking their way back to the heart
of reality. If an American or Englishman had several wives, his
conscience might destroy him because of his sense of guilt. A
woman in this country would not want to be one of several wives; she
would feel guilty and probably get seriously ill mentally and
physically.
"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye
hold the traditions of men ..."
In these few verses tersely put, we have the answer to the guilt
complexes of millions of supposedly religious and intelligent
people. Do the dead thoughts and doctrinal wrappings and trappings
of your parents and grandparents rule and govern you, or are you
controlled by God and His spiritual truths? Learn the great Law of
Life. God is Life, and this Life seeks expression through you as
beauty, harmony, joy, love, order, rhythm, and abundance. The
Kingdom of God is within you. Infinite Intelligence will lead and
guide you in all your ways when you turn to It and call upon It.
The morals of the people vary throughout the world and are of a
geographical nature. These are based on the mores and traditional
concepts of the particular country or race. The moral standards of
the various cultures are true only when they conform to the Principle of
Life which is forever seeking to express Itself through us as harmony,
health, peace, joy, symmetry, and the life more abundant.
It is the voice of conscience which caused the people 2,000 years ago to
say to Jesus that he should not heal on the Sabbath. These
thoughts, traditional beliefs are contrary to the laws of life and are
definitely evil and destructive. Do you say to your
children: "Your parents have the only truth for you; you must
believe what we say; you must never think for your self; you must accept
our dogma?" This is disastrous, utterly dictatorial and a
totalitarian attitude. It may well be the case that everything you
are teaching them is a lie, and they will grow up so conditioned that
when they violate any of these foolish and grotesque taboos which you
gave them, they will have guilt complexes and be seized with fear, and
then proceed to punish themselves.
There are women and men who live in hatred of one another and who are
hopelessly incompatible because they are afraid to get a divorce due to
religious beliefs. They are full of guilt and believe that God
should punish them. They are victims of early training and
superstitious dogma implanted in their minds by the bigoted propensities
of parents and others. They would rather live the lie than have
the decency to break up the lie. They say, "Whom God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder." God is Love, and if
Love does not unite the two hearts of the man and the woman, the
marriage is a mockery, a farce, a sham, and a masquerade.
Many people are full of guilt because they accept as right that which is
actually wrong. God condemns no one. God has already
forgiven you. Forgive your self. Change your thought and
keep it changed. Think on whatsoever things are true, just, noble,
and of good report. Think from the standpoint of the Golden Rule
and the Law of Love. Would you think of disobeying the principles
of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and engineering? Would you
build a wheel off center? Are you believing in antiquated, dead,
grotesque, ignorant superstitions and prejudices in the name of
religious beliefs, or have you made a serious inquiry into the workings
of your subconscious and conscious mind? The modern scientist has
to conform to natural law; he cannot change it. Your religion must
also conform to natural law. The result is con-science, with
knowing. The Law of Life is the law of health, happiness, peace,
order, beauty, right action, and abundance. Divine Order is
Heaven's first law.
"Remember you not the former things, neither consider things of
old." (Isaiah 43:18)
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before, press toward the mark for the
prize." (Philippians 3:12-14) "And enter into the
glorious liberty of the sons of God. <end>
And this completes
this expanded essay written by Dr. Murphy. Parts 1, 2 and 3, can
be found on the Archives page. Dr.
Murphy was radical for his time ... but then so was the Master Mind
Jesus ... and we must radically change our thinking so that we can put
the nonsense behind us ... and expect the best!
And
So It Is!
Letting
Love Use Me In Its Own Good Way,
Rev.
Bates
|
