Part Thirteen - Study Questions with Answers

121. What is the method by which natural philosophers obtain and apply their knowledge?
     To observe individual facts carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at their command, before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
122. How may we be certain that this method is correct?
     By allowing a democratic impartiality to take heed of and preserve welcome facts.
123. What class of facts are esteemed most highly?
     Those which cannot be accounted for by the usual daily observation of life.
124. Upon what is this principle founded?
     Upon reason and experience.
125. What does it create?
     Rationality, logic and science.
126. How have these laws been discovered?
     By a generalization of facts which are uncommon, rare, strange and form the exception.
127. How may we account for much of the strange and heretofore unexplainable phenomena which is constantly taking place?
     By the creative power of thought.
128. Why is this so?
     Because when we learn of a fact we can be sure that it is the result of a certain definite cause and that this cause will operate with constant precision.
129. What is the result of this knowledge?
     It will explain the cause of every possible condition, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
130. How will our best interest be conserved?
     By a recognition of the fact that a knowledge of the creative nature of thought puts us in touch with Infinite power.

Part Thirteen - Page 2

6. The method of Bacon has seized the spirit and aim of the great philosophers of Greece and carried them into effect by the new means of observation which another age offered; thus gradually revealing a wondrous field of knowledge in the infinite space of astronomy, in the microscopic egg of embryology, and the dim age of geology; disclosing an order of the pulse which the logic of Aristotle could only have revealed, and analyzing into formerly unknown elements the material combinations which no dialectic of the scholastics could force apart.
7. It has lengthened life; it has brought healing; it has ensured health; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to the mariner; it has spanned great rivers with bridges of form unknown to our ancestors; it has guided the thunderbolt from heaven to earth; it has lighted up night with the splendor of day; it has extended the range of human vision; it has multiplied the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated motion; it has brought us closer; it has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all dispatch of business; it has enabled people to descend into the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the recesses of the earth.
8. This then is the true nature and scope of induction. But the greater the success which people have achieved in the inductive science, the more does the whole tenor of their teachings and example impress us with the necessity of observing carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at our command the individual facts before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
9. To ascertain the bearing of the spark drawn from the electric machine under every variety of circumstances, that we thus may be emboldened with Franklin to address, in the form of a kite, the question to the cloud about the nature of the lightning. To assure ourselves of the manner in which bodies fall with the exactness of a Galileo, that with Newton we may dare to ask the moon about the force that fastens it to the earth.

Part Thirteen - Page 1

1. It has been the tendency, and, as might be proved, a necessity for science to seek the explanation of everyday facts by a generalization of those others which are less frequent and form the exception. Thus does the eruption of the volcano manifest the heat which is continually at work in the interior of the earth and to which the latter owes much of its configuration.
2. Thus does the lightning reveal a subtle power constantly busy to produce changes in the inorganic world, and, as dead languages now seldom heard were once ruling among the nations, so does a giant tooth in Siberia, or a fossil in the depth of the earth, bear record of the evolution of past ages, and thereby explains to us the origin of the hills and valleys which we inhabit today.
3. In this way a generalization of facts which are rare, strange, or form the exception, has been the magnetic needle guiding to all the discoveries of inductive science.
4. This method is founded upon reason and experience and thereby created rationality, logic and science.
5. It is almost four-hundred years since Lord Bacon recommended this method of study, to which the civilized nations owe the greater part of their prosperity and the more valuable part of their knowledge; filling the mind with broad understanding, nominated theories, as effectually as possible; calling the attention of people from heaven to earth more successfully by surprising experiments and by the most enticing demonstration of their intelligence; educating the inventive faculties more powerfully by the near prospect of useful discoveries thrown open to all, and by talk of bringing to light the innate laws of our mind.

Part Eleven - Study Question with Answers

101. What is inductive reasoning?
     The process of the objective mind by which we compare a number of separate instances with each other until we see the common factor which gives rise to them all.
102. What has this method of studying accomplished?
     It has resulted in the discovery of a reign of law which has marked an epoch in human progress.
103. What is it that guides and determines action?
     It is need, want and desire which in the largest sense induce, guide and determine action.
104. What is the formula for the perfect solution of every individual situation?
     We are to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled; its accomplishment will then follow.
105. What great Teachers advocated it?
     Plato, Esther Hicks.
106. What is the result of this thought process?
     We are thinking on the plane of the absolute and planting a seed, which if left alone will germinate into fruition.
107. Why is it scientifically exact?
     Because it is Natural Law.
108. What is Faith?
     Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
109. What is the Law of Attraction?
     The Law by which Faith is brought into manifestation.
110. What importance do you attach to an understanding of this law?
     It has created the elements of law, reason, certitude and truth.

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20. We are thus thinking on the plane of the absolute and creating with total freedom and are planting a seed which, if left alone, will finally germinate into external fruition.
21. To review: Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective mind, by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all. We see people in some civilized countries on the globe, securing results by some process which they do seem to understand themselves, and to which they usually attach some degree of understanding. Our reason is given to us for the purpose of ascertaining the law by which these results are accomplished.
22. The operation of this thought process is seen in those fortunate natures that possess everything easily, who have an easy conscience because they always act correctly, and can always conduct themselves with tact, learn everything easily, complete everything they begin with a happy knack, live in eternal harmony with themselves, commending what they do, and ever experiencing ease and relaxation.
23. The fruit of this thought is, as it were, a gift of the universe, but a gift which some realize, appreciate, and understand. The recognition of the marvelous power which is possessed by the mind under proper conditions and the fact that this power can be utilized, directed, and made available for the solution of every human situation is of transcendental importance.
24. All truth is the same, whether stated in modern scientific terms or in the language of ancient times. There are bold souls who realize that the very completeness of truth requires various statement --that only multiple human formula will show every side of it.
25. Changing emphasis, new language, novel interpretations, exceptional perspectives, are evidence that the truth is being apprehended in new relations to human needs, and is becoming more generally understood.

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13. If Plato could have witnessed the pictures executed by the sun with the assistance of the photographer, or a hundred similar illustrations of what people do by induction, he would perhaps have been reminded of the intellectual midwifery of his master and, in his own mind might have arisen the vision of a land where all manual, mechanical labor and repetition is assigned to the power of nature, where our wants are satisfied by purely mental operations set in motion by the will, and where the supply is created by the demand.
14. However distant that land may appear, induction has taught people to make strides toward it and has surrounded them with benefits which are, at the same time, rewards for past fidelity and incentives for more assiduous devotion.
15. It is also an aid in concentrating and strengthening our faculties for the remaining part, giving perfect solution for individual as well as universal situations, by the mere operations of mind in the purest form.
16. Here we find a method, the spirit of which is, to believe that what is sought has been accomplished, in order to accomplish it.
17. A method, bequeathed upon us by the same Plato who, outside of this sphere, could never find how the ideas became realities.
18. This conception is also elaborated by Esther Hicks in her Abraham correspondences.
19. We are first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled, its accomplishment will then follow. This is a concise direction for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing on the Universal subjective mind, the particular thing which we desire as an already existing fact.

Part Eleven - Page 2

8. It is our privilege to become conscious of the principle and act in accordance with it. Cuvier sees a tooth belonging to an extinct race of animals. This tooth wants a body for the performance of its function, and it defines the peculiar body it stands in need of with such precision that Cuvier is able to reconstruct the frame of this animal.
9. Perturbations are observed in the motion of Uranus. Leverrier needs another planet at a certain place to keep the solar system in order, and Neptune appears in the place and hour appointed.
10. The instinctive wants of the animal and the intellectual wants of Cuvier, the wants of nature and of the mind of Leverrier were alike, and thus the results; here the thoughts of an existence, there an existence. A well-defined lawful want, therefore, furnishes the reason for the more complex operations of nature.
11. Having recorded correctly the answers furnished by nature and stretched our senses with the growing science over nature's surface; having joined hands with the levers that move the earth; we become conscious of such a close, varied and deep contact with the world without, that our wants and purposes become no less identified with the harmonious operations of this vast organization, than the life, liberty, and happiness of the citizen is identified with the existence of their government.
12. As the interests of the individual are protected by the arms of the country, added to their own; and their needs may depend upon certain supply in the degree that they are felt more universally and steadily; in the same manner does conscious citizenship in the Republic of nature secure us from the annoyances of subordinate agents by alliance with superior powers; and by appeal to the fundamental laws of resistance or inducement offered to mechanical or chemical agents, distribute the labor to be performed between them and people to the best advantage of the inventor.

Part Eleven - Page 1

1. Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective mind by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.
2. Induction proceeds by comparison of facts; it is this method of studying nature which has resulted in the discovery of a reign of law which has marked an epoch in human progress.
3. It is the dividing line between superstition and intelligence; it has created the elements of law, reason,certitude and truth in people's lives.
4. It is the "Watchman at the Gate" mentioned in a former lesson.
5. When, by virtue of this principle, the world to which the senses were accustomed had been revolutionized; when the sun had been arrested in its course, the apparently flat earth had been shaped into a ball and set whirling around it; when the inert matter had been resolved into active elements, and the universe presented itself wherever we directed the telescope and microscope, full of force, motion and life; we are constrained to ask by what possible means the delicate forms of organization in the midst of it are kept in order and repair.
6. Like poles and like forces repel themselves or remain impenetrable to each other, and this cause seems in general sufficient to assign a proper place and distance to stars, people and forces. As people of different virtues enter into partnership, so do opposite poles attract each other, elements that have no property in common like acids and gases cling to each other in preference and a general exchange is kept up between the surplus and the demand.
7. As the eye seeks and receives satisfaction from colors complementary to those which are given, so does need, want and desire, in the largest sense, induce, guide and determine action.