Chapter 12 — THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

G od-like journaling can uplift the consciousness of the entire Universe.

You may feel this is an incredible claim, and I don’t want to sug­gest that you put on rose-colored glasses and be a Pollyanna. I want you to put on God’s eyeglasses and see through those in­stead! I will explain a metaphysical idea that you may not have heard of, but once you recognize its validity, your point of refer­ence and therefore your world will shift. Here it is: There exists a collective consciousness or a race consciousness.

Consider this passage from the book, Creative Mind and Success by Ernest Holmes:

"RACE CONSCIOUSNESS"

"ONE of the things which greatly hinders us from demonstrat­ing a greater degree of prosperity we may call race thought or race consciousness. This is the result of all that the race has thought or believed. We are immersed in it, and those who are receptive to it are controlled by it. All thought seeks ex­pression along the lines of least resistance. When we become negative or fearful we attract that kind of thought and con­dition. We must be sure of ourselves; we must be positive; we must not be aggressive, but absolutely sure and poised within. Negative people are always picking up negative conditions; they get into trouble easily: Persons who are positive draw positive things; they are always successful. Few people real­ize that the law of thought is the great reality; that thoughts produce things. When we come to understand this power of thought, we will carefully watch our thinking to see that no thought enters that we should not want made into a thing.

"We can guard our minds by knowing that no negative thought can enter; we can daily practice by saying that no race thought of limitation can enter the mind; that Spirit forms itself around us and protects us from all fear and from all lim­itation. Let us clothe ourselves in the great realization that all power is ours and that nothing else can enter; let us fill the atmosphere of our homes and places of business with streams of positive thought. Other people will feel this and will like to be near us and enter into the things that we enter into. In this way we shall be continually drawing only the best."

Take the above concept into your heart and determine if it is true. If you consider the cause of your belief system, you may trace it back to the race consciousness of your parents and fam­ily. They were likewise influenced by the race consciousness of their generation, and their upbringing.

If you were born in the Bronx, New York, adopted shortly after birth, and raised at the Royal Palace in the United Kingdom, you would be subject to a different consciousness from where you were born. As youngsters we often have no control over what portion of the race consciousness we are subject to; but as we grow older we can recognize mind conditioning and make new choices about what to believe. This is such a valuable skill.

The truth about God can never change, whether you are in India, China, or Australia. Likewise, the laws of God and the laws of the Universe apply everywhere on the planet. Race con­sciousness, also known as collective consciousness, is a very real thing but not necessarily a true thing. It only becomes true if you believe it! It exists on a micro scale – in your immediate thoughts and experiences (your individual mind), your intimate relationships, friendships, or work circles, and extends out onto the macro scale – entire societies or countries, and even the en­tire society of the Earth.

If you doubt this, I urge you to take an honest (and I mean totally honest!) look at your life’s circumstances. Examine the good and the bad, and determine if you can trace a responsi­ble root cause or belief. We have all heard the saying, "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." A belief in that will make it true for you. But a deeper look declares another truth: some­one growing up in a wealthy environment would likely have compatible subconscious beliefs about wealth that would pro­duce wealth in kind. A person growing up in a poor environment would have that poverty mentality (or mental equivalent) which would likewise produce poverty in kind. These circumstances do not guarantee wealth or poverty, but they make those conditions more likely, due to a belief in them. If you were to identify an unwanted belief as operating in your life and you wished to change it, you must first do so with your consciousness, before any measurable or permanent change can be experienced.

I encourage you to examine your journal entries for false be­liefs that come from the race consciousness. These beliefs can be strong and difficult to remove from your consciousness – but they don’t have to be. If you decide to believe something different, whatever you remove will no longer apply to you. It’s very simple.

Ernest Holmes goes on to say:

"The Universal Mind contains all knowledge. To it all things are possible."

Here are some additional quotes from Ernest Holmes that point to the importance of our thoughts – written or otherwise. Ernest Holmes liked to say,

"Can you afford the consequences of the way you are think­ing?"

"The way we think is the way we act, and the way we act is what happens. Law in the universe lets you have what you want – disaster or delight."

"Love, Law, and Loyalty are all the organization we need. The only question we need to ask is this: Do we in our thought, attitude, and the way we live bear witness to the living truth that God is all there is? Make that a policy. That’s all the creed you’ll ever need."

"One individual with God is a totality, is a completeness, One opinion consistent with the Truth is not a positive statement but an absolute fact. One announcement from the mind that knows will set the world on fire."

"Healing is the discovery of the Divinity within."

"In metaphysical practice we arrive at this conviction through a process of thinking. The process itself is not the conviction; it is the road that leads to it. The student must be willing to subject the mind to self-training until there comes into his thinking a clear realization of the truth which intuition, feel­ing, and intellect must or may proclaim."

These quotes sum up the entire nature of journaling like God: God is omnipresent and omnipotent, and our minds are a mys­terious creative part of it. Spirit is at our core. Faith in God through our words, written or otherwise, is a powerful force.