Part 1

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“THE BOOKS WITHOUT AN IF SERIES”

EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES

BY

F. W. SEARS, M.P.

AUTHOR OF

“How to Attract Success,” “Concentration—Its Mentology and Psychology,” “How We Create Ourselves,” “The Law of Cause and Effect,” “Reincarnation—Why, When, Where?” “Death—Then What?” “The Unpardonable Sin,” “The Law of Abundance,” “What Creates Environment,” “Our Judgment Days,” “The Resurrection of the Body,” “The Secret of Healing,” “The Risen Self,” “What is God?” “How to Give Treatments,” etc., etc.

CENTRE PUBLISHING CO. NEW YORK

L. N. FOWLER & CO. LONDON, ENG.

Copyright, 1916 F. W. SEARS, M.P. All rights reserved

PREFACE

“Everyday Experiences” are the simple relation of some of the many problems which students and patients have presented to me for solution, the remedy I have prescribed, and the results obtained.

_Knowing_ the “Law of Harmony” in its application to _all_ things, and _knowing_ the constructive results which will come to those who apply it in the living out of their daily life, these actual experiences are given to the world for the benefit of those who are ready and waiting for them.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

PAGE

HOW THE RENT WAS PAID 7

THE WORLD’S INJUSTICE 15

BETRAYING ONE’S CONFIDENCE 24

DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS 33

A BLESSED PRIVILEGE 40

THE TELEPHONE BELL 49

HOW THE RENT WAS PAID

She was about 25, well dressed, neat in appearance, rather good looking, quite intelligent, and a teacher of art. The distressed look upon her face when she entered my office showed that she was undergoing terrible suffering of some kind. She greeted me with the inquiry, “What in the world will I do, doctor?”

I told her the first thing she should do was to sit down, just get quiet a little and “let go,” then tell me all about it.

I talked with her about unimportant matters for a few minutes until I saw that she had grown somewhat calm and quiet in the harmonious atmosphere of my office and then asked her what her trouble was.

She said that it was money or rather the lack of it. I told her there was plenty of money in the world and a great abundance of it right here in New York. “Yes,” she said, “but I can’t get hold of it unless I pawn my diamond ring. I had to pawn one of them last month in order to pay my rent and will have to pawn my last one in order to pay my rent this month and then what shall I do?”

“Why pawn your ring now?” I asked.

“I haven’t pawned it yet,” she said, “but I will have to do so.”

“You may not as yet have gone through the physical act of taking your ring to the pawn shop and leaving it there,” I replied, “but you have pawned it already in your consciousness, your thought world, your imagination, and unless you at once stop pawning it there you will soon take it to the pawn shop. But should it be necessary for you to go to the pawn shop, why worry about it? Why not look upon your rings as cash in the bank, to be drawn upon when necessary. We sometimes draw our bank balance down to the last dollar but that does not worry us for we know we will deposit some more right away, and when we do KNOW it we always get the money to deposit. Why not take this same attitude towards the ring you have in pawn?”

“Again, this is only Friday and the first of the month does not come until next Monday,” I said. “Supposing you did not pay your rent on that day your landlord would not put you out for you have always been a good tenant and paid your rent heretofore. Even though he was to serve a dispossess notice on you you have five days in which to pay or move, so that you have at least a week from to-day, under the most unfavorable conditions, in which to get your rent money.”

“Yes,” she replied, “that is all very true but from whence is the money coming? I haven’t been doing any work lately and no one is paying out any money for my kind of work these days and I haven’t a cent in sight anywhere and no place I can go to get any, except by pawning my diamond ring, even if I had two months’ time instead of only a week.”

“It isn’t necessary for you to know from whence the money is coming,” I replied, “for that is the work of God—the great Universal Law. _Your_ work is to KNOW that God always attends to his part of the business and materializes things for us, both in body and environment, to accord with the vision or image we create and hold in our imagination and the harmonious or inharmonious energy we use in creating and holding it. God always does his part of the work whether we do ours consciously and intelligently or unconsciously and ignorantly. Just so long as you hold the image, thought or idea that you will have to pawn your ring, creating and holding this image, thought or idea in fear and trembling, then the only thing God can do for you is to work out that image in material form the same as he did for you last month. You actually had to pawn your ring then, and while you paid your rent, yet you are in even worse condition to-day than you were then. You can continue to do this same thing again this month and keep it up until there is nothing left for God to do for you but to continue materializing lack and inharmony for you in every way. Or by using this same Universal Law which has brought you lack, but changing your application of it by changing the image, thought, idea, vision with which you fill your imagination, you can attract the money to you with which to pay your rent, get it in a perfectly legitimate and constructive manner and not have to pawn your ring either, and by continuing to make the new application which I will teach you you can be in a much better position this time next month instead of a worse one as you now are.”

“Oh how can I do it, doctor,” she asked.

“Just FILL your thought world, your imagination, with the thought, idea, image, vision, that you have your rent money NOW, and keep it FILLED. Every time the thought of lack comes to you displace it at once with the affirmative statement of ‘I have the rent money NOW,’” I replied.

“How can I say ‘I have the rent money NOW,’ doctor,” she asked, “when I know it’s a lie, for I haven’t it?”

“My dear girl,” I said, “as long as you know you haven’t it; as long as you know it’s a lie, just so long will you continue to be without it, for God—the Universal Law—can only materialize for you according to your vision and the energy back of it, and he cannot furnish you with supply for your needs so long as you continue to create lack, fear, worry, anxiety, etc., in your consciousness, your imagination. When you learn to affirm that you have your rent money NOW with one-tenth the energy and creative power you use in affirming its lack, God will materialize it for you.”

“Well, doctor, I will try,” she said.

“That will not do,” I answered.

“I will do the best I can, then,” she said.

“That will not do,” again I answered.

“I will do it,” she said.

“Now I _am sure_ you will succeed,” I replied.

On the following Tuesday she came into my office with her face wreathed in smiles and, after greeting me, said, “Oh doctor, it is so wonderful. I hardly know how it was done, but it seemed as though every one in the world wanted to pay me money since I was here the other day, and I have collected enough money not only to pay my rent this month but was able to take my ring out of pawn to-day.”

THE WORLD’S INJUSTICE

She was of medium height and so thin she could scarcely make a respectable shadow. Her well worn but not shabby dress, and her flimsy jacket told a story of lack in environment which her peaked, bloodless face and emaciated body showed in the latter.

She had been a room clerk in one of New York City’s big skyscraper hotels. Worked twelve hours, then had six hours off; worked six hours and then had twelve hours off. This was her ceaseless grind of work day after day and night after night, with never a Sunday nor holiday off.

In the course of her work she was brought into contact with both guests of the hotel and the hotel employees. She was the meeting point, as it were, for the complaints, irritations and annoyances of the former and the excuses and counter-charges of the latter. Her position was not a sinecure by any means as you may well imagine.

She never had been very strong and after playing the “buffer” between guests and employees for a couple of years, her nervous system was so worn out that she decided to quit her position and obtain something not so hard or trying on her.

She succeeded in securing a position as demonstrator in a department store for some new invention where she worked only half of each day and received six dollars a week for her services.

She found that department store customers were not made of any different material than were hotel guests and the constant irritations which came up in her dealings with the public continued to wear on her over-wrought nervous system to such an extent that night after night she would go to her room without any dinner, throw herself on her couch without removing any of her clothing, not even her hat, and lie there all night long, too exhausted to undress and go to bed.

This condition had been going on for several months when she first came to see me.

I saw at once that her trouble was not with her work but in the way she had been doing it—the attitude she had taken towards the people, things, and conditions with which she contacted. She had been resenting and resisting the “injustice of the world,” of people and things. The great injustice which compelled her to labor when she was not able to work, and which only enabled her to eke out the barest kind of an existence; the injustice which prevented her from having friends, going to entertainments, dances, etc., and from enjoying life as did other girls. Her whole thought world was filled with a bitter and resentful condemnation and criticism of the “world’s injustice” to people in general and to herself in particular.

She never once realized, much less thought, that she herself had set all of the causes in motion which brought this condition into her life and that she was still setting the causes in motion which would continue it until she learned her lesson and her own power of creation.

When I told her this she would not believe it at first, it was such a new idea to her, but it set her to thinking and she came back a few days later and said she had decided to place herself entirely in my hands and would follow my instructions to the very last letter. There was no hope for her in any other way that she could see and so she had decided that my instructions could not produce any worse conditions for her than already existed while there was a promise of the possibility of something better.

I told her the first thing she was to do was to relax and “let go.” That she was so tense and resistant she repelled everything which was at all constructive and harmonious. With each breath she inhaled she was to make the following affirmation: “I am breathing in the Peace and Harmony of God’s Universe NOW.” Peace and Harmony are manifestations of the Universal energy the same as are heat, light, air, etc., and the more she could realize this Truth and so create the consciousness that she really was breathing in the Peace and Harmony, the more would she relate with and attract them to her.

It was necessary for her breathing and affirming to be done without strain, effort, or tenseness, as anything which required strain, effort or tenseness lost its value the moment this was begun. Her entire trouble was not so much in the work she had been doing but rather _in the way she had been doing it_, and when she developed the habit—the consciousness—of doing her work without resentment or resistance—that is without strain, effort or tenseness—did it because she loved it and it was a “blessed privilege” for her to do it—all her tired, nervous condition would disappear entirely and she would become strong, healthy and well.

This result would not be obtained in a day or two, or with only breathing and affirming a few times each day but that it would be necessary for her to “make a business” of it and breathe and affirm many times each day, do this just as often as she could possibly take the time to do it. She should devote as much time each morning and evening to the breathing and affirming as she could without getting the consciousness or feeling that it was work and that she had to do it, for that meant strain, effort and tenseness, but she should develop the _want to love to do it because it was the highest, greatest and best thing she knew how to do_; that she should keep on doing this without paying any attention to the results she obtained.

When we are all the time “looking for results” it shows a consciousness of doubt and fear, and it is this state of consciousness which always delays the materialization of constructive results because it makes for destructive ones.

During the day she was to take one or two deep breaths and make the affirmation as frequently as she could think of it, even when she was attending to a customer, and that in accordance with the persistency and harmony with which she followed these instructions would her old conditions disappear and more harmonious ones gradually take their place.

How well she followed these instructions is evidenced by the fact that in less than a month’s time she had a good appetite, enjoyed spending her evenings in social intercourse, slept well every night, and arose each morning full of life and ambition.

She began to see that what she had thought was the “world’s injustice” was only the effects of the causes which she herself had ignorantly and unconsciously set in motion through the destructive thoughts she had allowed to persist, and she learned through applying the lessons to her own life which I had taught her that there was no injustice in the Universal Law.

To-day she is a well woman and has a home of her own where she cares for those who, like herself of former years, need the instruction and care I gave to her.

BETRAYING ONE’S CONFIDENCE

“Once I betrayed the confidence of a very dear friend, afterward doing everything in my power to regain the friendship, love, and confidence, but the injury seemed too deep for forgiveness. Now what shall I do next?”

This is an inquiry which I recently received and contains a problem that affects many lives.

This man said that he did “everything in my power to regain the friendship, love, and confidence.” I have no doubt but what that is true in so far as his knowledge goes as to what was in his “power to do,” but he made the same mistake that the world always makes and that is he did all of his work in attempting to influence and control the other party.

Let us first understand that it is impossible for one person to either betray another’s confidence or injure him in any way. The careless and indifferent thinker will at once say that this is not true. I do not intend to argue the question, for my work is not to either proselyte or convert, but rather it is to teach, and so it does not make any difference to me as to whether any one agrees with me or not.

No one is asked to blindly accept any statement I may make, but the one who really wants to learn will accept “on probation” such statements as are not as yet truth to him, and then test them out for himself in every way he may wish until, through his own experience, he is able to see their truth and accept them because he has proved them for himself and not because I have made them.

It is true that we often _seem_ to betray another’s confidence or _seem_ to injure some one else, but we do not do this in reality, we only _seem_ to do it simply because we have not gone deeply enough into the study of life to understand the Law of Cause and Effect and the instruments which are used by God—the great Universal Law—in working out the effects of causes man sets in motion.

We can and do betray our own confidence and inflict serious injuries upon ourselves again and again, but _never_ upon another person.

When we study life deeply we see the great universal Law of Cause and Effect manifesting everywhere and we come to understand that this Law prevails throughout the Universe and that back of every _effect_, no matter how trivial and unimportant it may seem to us, lies the determining _cause_ which produced it. It is true that this _cause_ is too deeply hidden for the superficial and unsuspecting student to observe it but it is always there and can be found by the soul which has the _real want_ to discover it.

People and things are only instruments in the hands of God—the great Universal Law—to work out in the lives of those with whom they contact the effects of the causes they set in motion, and when we become convinced of this wonderful Truth we cease to blame others for any effect we may receive and neither do we blame ourselves for any effect which we, as the instrument, may give to others. Each life always does the best it knows how at the particular moment of the commission of any act. Many times afterward we see that we have made a mistake and are “sorry” for it, but it is another mistake to be “sorry.” When we see we have made a mistake and done what we say is the “wrong” thing, it is because we are in a different state of consciousness, one that is more harmonious and constructive and where we can see the bigger vision and larger ideal than the one we were in at the time the “wrong” act was committed. In the lesser state of consciousness we were in at the time the act was committed, that which we did was the best we knew how to do in that thought current.

It can therefore be readily seen that had our “know how” been better at that particular moment—that is had we been in a more harmonious and constructive state of consciousness, or mind, or thought current at that moment—we would not have committed the act.

Our work then is to so develop our human mind that we will create within ourselves such a harmonious and constructive state of consciousness as will cause our “know how” to at all times accord with our highest ideals.

Had the man who wrote me the inquiry at the beginning of this letter done this he would never have “betrayed the confidence” of his friend, for his “know how” would have accorded with his highest ideals and so prevented the betrayal when the opportunity arose. He then could not have been used as the destructive instrument in the life of his friend to betray the latter’s confidence.

While it is true that we are only instruments in the hands of God—the great Universal Law—to work out in the lives of those with whom we contact the effects of the causes they have set in motion, it is also true that we are not compelled to be blind, ignorant and destructive instruments, directed and propelled by a “fate” over which we have no control. It is for each life to determine whether it shall be a constructive or destructive instrument in the hands of the Universal Law. No one else can decide this question for us. We alone have the power of choice. We alone are responsible for the effect of our decision. We can make this decision consciously and intelligently or unconsciously and ignorantly. We can continue to manage our life “with eyes which do not see and ears which do not hear” as long as we may wish. We can remain both blind and ignorant of the effects of the causes we are momentarily setting in motion just as long as we desire. God—the great Universal Law—never steps in and interferes with our doing anything we may desire, no matter whether its effect on us is what we call “good” or “bad.” He always permits us to go on, knowing that “the cure of the thing is in the thing itself,” and that when we have reaped enough of the effects of the destructive causes we have set in motion we will open our eyes to the larger truth and learn that we alone were responsible for the cause.

I told this man the first thing he should do was to begin work upon himself so that his “know how” would better accord with his higher ideals more of the time. He should also quit “trying to regain the friendship, love and confidence” of the other person and regain his own “friendship, love and confidence” and that until he had done this he could not expect to have it from any one else. He should not even be sorry nor regret what he had done, because energy expressed as sorrow or regret was energy used destructively, and it was the destructive use of energy through the thoughts and emotions we allowed to persist which made us destructive instruments in the hands of the Universal Law and so made it possible, in his case, to _seem_ to betray the confidence of his friend.

It would have been impossible, however, for his friend’s confidence to have been betrayed had not such friend himself created the cause through his own inharmonious and destructive use of energy by his thoughts sometime prior to the act. That he was in no way responsible for his friend’s creation and that had he never lived his friend’s confidence would have been betrayed by some one else; his friend would not have escaped the betrayal. He was only responsible for the fact that he was such a destructive instrument that he could be used in this particular case. His work was to make his life so harmonious and constructive from now on that it would be impossible for the Universal Law to ever use him again as a destructive instrument.

This was the only way in which he could ever “forgive” himself and when this was accomplished he would not need to be “forgiven” by any one else for he would only attract to himself harmonious expressions from those with whom he contacted.

DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS

Many times I am asked as to what is meant by “developing a consciousness.”

To “develop a consciousness” of anything is to have knowledge of it; to understand it; to KNOW it, and to KNOW that one KNOWS it; to make union with it; to recognize our _oneness_ with it; to know that we and the thing desired are a part of each other.

Take for instance some one who has never been taught to sew. He has no knowledge of it and is therefore very clumsy and awkward in the handling of a needle and thread. By persistent training and application the intelligence in the cells of the fingers are taught what to do and when the “consciousness” of how to sew has been developed in them the fingers lose their clumsiness and become nimble and dexterous at the work.

The same is true in learning to play on the piano or other musical instrument; in using a typewriter, sewing machine, etc. In fact when we attempt to do anything for the first time we are always at a disadvantage simply because we have not “developed a consciousness” along that line and so do not recognize our oneness with it.

It is true that some persons learn to do a thing much more quickly than do others and so we have called them “smarter.” But this is a mistake for no one really possesses any more ability than does every other life; some, however, have made better use of their power than have others. This is true both as regards this present life as well as in former incarnations.

Should you who read this be one of those who have been discouraged in the past because you had to work so hard in order to learn how to do things, just remember that you have stored up in you all the great wonderful power of the Universe and can learn to express it harmoniously and constructively along any line you may desire.