What Do We Mean by Mental Equivalents?
by Dr. Ernest Holmes
Prayer does something to the mind of the one praying. It does not do anything to God. The Eternal Gift is always made. The Gift of God is the Nature of God, the Eternal Givingness. God cannot help making the gift, because GOD IS THE GIFT. We do not have to pray God to be God. God is God. Jesus revealed the nature of the Divine Being by his personal embodiment of the Divine Nature. He said, “As ye believe, it shall be done unto you.”
The whole teaching of Jesus was based on the theory that we are surrounded by an intelligent Law, which does unto each as he believes. He implied the necessity of faith, conviction, and acceptance. That is, it must be measured out to us according to our own measuring. We must not only believe, we must know that our belief measures the extent and degree of our blessing. If our belief is limited only a little can come to us, because that is as we believe. We call this the law of mental equivalents. How much life can any man experience? As much as he can embody. There is nothing fatalistic about this. We are so constituted that we can continuously increase our embodiment. We grow in grace, as it were. We grow in power and theoretically there should be no limit to that growth. But right today we can expect to demonstrate or to have our prayers answered according to our belief and the embodiment of that belief.
Lowell said, “The gift without the giver is bare,” and it is just as true that there can be no gift without a receiver. It is said, “To as many as received him, to them gave he the power.” We seek to uncover the science of prayer: the essence of the Spirit embodied in it. We find that the essence of the power of prayer is faith and acceptance. In addition to the law of faith and acceptance, the law of mental equivalents must be considered. These are the two great laws with which we have to deal and we shall never get away from either. If prayer has been answered, it is not because God has been moved to answer one man and not another, but because one man more than another has moved himself into a right relationship with the Spirit or the Principle of Being—whichever one chooses to call It.
Faith, then, touches a Principle which responds, we may be certain of this. We should have more faith than we do rather than less, nor is it foolish to cultivate faith. ALL PRAYERS WILL BE ANSWERED WHEN WE PRAY ARIGHT. The first necessity is faith. Faith! But someone may exclaim, “This is what has always been taught, this is nothing new!” Correct, we have nothing new. We simply have a new approach to an old truth, a more intelligent, a more systematic way of consciously arriving at faith. This is what treatment is for.
Why is it that Jesus could say to the paralyzed man, “Take up thy bed and walk”? Because Jesus knew when he said this that the man would get up and walk. HE NOT ONLY BELIEVED THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING TO RESPOND TO HIM BUT HE HAD AN EQUIVALENT OF ITS RESPONSE, which is just as necessary.
The Law is Infinite and Perfect but in order to make a demonstration WE MUST HAVE A MENTAL EQUIVALENT OF THE THING WE DESIRE. A demonstration, like anything else in the objective life, is born out of a mental concept. The mind is the fashioning factor, and according to its range, vision and positiveness, will be the circumstance or experience. For example: If one sees only unloveliness in others, it is because unloveliness is a strong element in himself. The light he throws on others is generated in his own soul and he sees them as he chooses to see them. He holds constantly in his mind a mental equivalent of unloveliness and creates unlovely reactions toward himself. He is getting back what he is sending out. If a man believes himself to be a failure and that it is useless for him to try to be anything else, he carries with him the mental equivalent of failure. So he succeeds in being a failure according to law. This is his demonstration. Having a strong picture or mental concept, and holding to that equivalent regardless of circumstances or conditions, we must sooner or later manifest according to the concept.
It follows, then, that the range of our possibilities at the present time does not extend far beyond the range of our present concepts. As we bring ourselves to a greater vision, we induce a greater concept and thereby demonstrate more inour experience. In this way there is a continuous growth and unfoldment taking place. We do not expect to give a treatment today, for prosperity, and have a million dollars tomorrow. But little by little we can unfold our consciousness, through the acquisition of greater and still greater mental equivalents, until at last we shall be made free.
The way to proceed is to begin right where we are. It is not scientific to attempt to begin somewhere else. One who understands the systematic use of the Law will understand that he is where he is because of what he is, but he will not say, “I must remain where I am, because of what I am.” Instead he will begin to disclaim what he appears to be. As his statements release wrong subjective tendencies, providing in their place a correct concept of life and Reality, he will automatically be lifted out of his condition; impelling forces sweeping everything before them, will set him free, if he trusts in Spirit and the working of the Law.
Stay with the One and never deviate from It, never leave It for a moment. Nothing else can equal this attitude. TO DESERT THE TRUTH IN THE HOUR OF NEED IS TO PROVE THAT WE DO NOT KNOW THE TRUTH. When things look the worst, that is the supreme moment to demonstrate, to ourselves, that there are no obstructions to the operation of Truth. When things look the worst is the best time to work, the most satisfying time. The person who can throw himself with a complete abandon into that Limitless Sea of Receptivity, having cut loose from all apparent moorings, is the one who will always receive the greatest reward.
Holmes, Ernest. The Science of Mind: The Definitive Edition (pp. 280-283). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition