DUAL PERSONALITY
Question—My son seems to be obsessed by a dual personality. Do you believe in evil spirits and how do you interpret the many New Testament accounts of demoniac possession?
ANSWER—THERE ARE NO EVIL SPIRITS. There is one Spirit, and that is the All Harmonious Universal Essence. The demons spoken of in the Bible are just as much alive today as they ever were, only today we call them by another name. We speak of them as "BELIEFS in sin, sickness, poverty, etc." When Jesus cast 0ut the devils from Mary Magdalene, and healed the lunatic, and performed all the other acts of healing to his recorded credit, he was merely handling the mis-beliefs of the time scientifically. He did not try to convince the father of the lunatic that there were no such things as demons, but he "rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour" (Matthew 17). In other words, he handled the case as it was presented to him, thus maintaining a perfect mental harmony, recognizing ONLY the One Mind, the One Power, the One Life in the boy.
The answer to the second part of your question, then, lies in this: Demoniac possession, as depicted in the New Testament, is a picturing forth of the destructive effects of wrong thinking and believing. It stands diametrically opposed to the fact that "The image of the Father cannot be defaced nor can all the wit or the sham of man really obliterate this image." Jesus, in his healing ministry, realized and proved the truth of man's relationship to the Divine Perfection.
WHEN DOUBT PERSISTS
Question—What should be the treatment when doubt persists in lurking in the mind?
ANSWER—When doubt persists the treatment should definitely (page 76) repudiate this doubt. Doubt is a subjective state and is the result of false experiences and false conclusions regarding life and our relationship to the Spirit of Wholeness.
Thoughts are things and mental attitudes assume the characteristics of entities until they are seen in their true light. When we recognize any special doubt and consciously show ourselves why this particular doubt has no power, we dissolve it.
It may take both time and patience to dissolve certain doubts and fears but the reward is sure if the work is done scientifically. Allow the doubt to come into your conscious mind and then analyze it out of your mind. Do this until you see that there is no power in the d0ubt. It is neither person, place nor thing, has no power and cannot operate through you.
Assume the opposite attitude and claim all confidence in yourself and in what you are trying to do. Rise above the doubt into a clear atmosphere of receptivity and agreement with the good you seek to manifest or have manifested to you.
A good method is to drop all argument from the mind and allow the thought to enter a field of peace and poise. Having gained this point calmly turn to the disturbed idea and state that it cannot enter your mentality. Do not fight or oppose it but stand above it and declare that it has no power to operate through you
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