Chapter 17 – How to Use Your Subconscious Mind for Forgiveness
Life plays no favorites. God is Life, and this Life Principle is flowing through you this
moment. God loves to express Himself as harmony, peace, beauty, joy, and abundance
through you. This is called the will of God or the tendency of Life.
If you set up resistance in your mind to the flow of Life through you, this emotional
congestion will get snarled up in your subconscious mind and cause all kinds of negative
conditions. God has nothing to do with unhappy or chaotic conditions in the world.
Man’s negative and destructive thinking brings about all these conditions. Therefore, it is
silly to blame God for your trouble or sickness.
Many persons habitually set up mental resistance to the flow of Life by accusing and
reproaching God for the sin, sickness, and suffering of mankind. Others cast the blame on
God for their pains, aches, and loss of loved ones, personal tragedies, and accidents. They
are angry at God, and they believe He is responsible for their misery.
As long as people entertain such negative concepts about God, they will experience the
automatic negative reactions from their subconscious minds. Actually, such people do not
know that they are punishing themselves. They must see the truth, find release, and give
up all condemnation, resentment, and anger against anyone or any power outside
themselves. Otherwise, they cannot go forward into a healthy, happy, or creative activity.
The minute these people entertain a God of love in their minds and hearts, and when
they believe that God is their Loving Father who watches over them, cares for them,
guides them, sustains and strengthens them, this concept and belief about God or the Life
Principle will be accepted by their subconscious mind, and they will find themselves
blessed in countless ways.
Life always forgives you
Life forgives you when you cut your finger. The subconscious intelligence within you
sets about immediately to repair it. New cells build bridges over the cut. Should you take
some tainted food by error, Life forgives you and causes you to regurgitate it in order to
preserve you. If you burn your hand, the Life Principle reduces the edema and
congestion, and gives you new skin, tissue, and cells. Life holds no grudges against you,
and it is always forgiving you. Life brings you back to health, vitality, harmony, and
peace, if you cooperate by thinking in harmony with nature. Negative, hurtful memories,
bitterness, and ill will clutter up and impede the free flow of the Life Principle in you.
How he banished that feeling of guilt (forgiveness)
I knew a man who worked every night until about one o’clock in the morning. He paid no
attention to his two boys or his wife. He was always too busy working hard. He thought
people should pat him on the back because he was working so arduously and persistently
past midnight every night. He had a blood pressure of over two hundred and was full of
guilt. Unconsciously, he proceeded to punish himself by hard work and he completely
ignored his children. A normal man does not do that. He is interested in his boys and in
their development. He does not shut his wife out of his world.
Learn to Forgive by using self hypnosis as you learn to love yourself
I explained to him why he was working so arduously, “There is something eating you
inside, otherwise, you would not act this way. You are punishing yourself, and you have
to learn to forgive yourself.” He did have a deep sense of guilt. It was toward a brother.
I explained to him that God was not punishing him, but that he was punishing himself.
For example, if you misuse the laws of life, you will suffer accordingly. If you put your
hand on a naked charged wire, you will get burned. The forces of nature are not evil; it is
your use of them that determines whether they have a good or evil effect. Electricity is
not evil; it depends on how you use it, whether to burn down a structure or light up a
home. The only sin is ignorance of the law, and the only punishment is the automatic
reaction of man’s misuse of the law.
If you misuse the principle of chemistry, you may blow up the office or the factory. If
you strike your hand on a board, you may cause your hand to bleed. The board is not for
that purpose. Its purpose may be to lean upon or to support your feet.
This man realized that God does not condemn or punish anyone, and that all his suffering
was due to the reaction of his subconscious mind to his own negative and destructive
thinking. He had cheated his brother at one time, and the brother had now passed on.
Still, he was full of remorse and guilt.
I asked him, “Would you cheat your brother now?” He said, “No.” “Did you feel you
were justified at the time?” His reply was, “Yes.” “But, you would not do it now?” He
added, “No, I am helping others to know how to live.” I added the following comment,
“You have a greater reason and understanding now. Forgiveness is to forgive yourself.
Forgiveness is getting your thoughts in line with the divine law of harmony. Self
condemnation is called hell (bondage and restriction); forgiveness is called heaven
(harmony and peace).”
The burden of guilt and self condemnation was lifted from his mind, and he had a
complete healing. The doctor tested his blood pressure, and it had become normal. The
explanation was the cure.
A murderer learned to forgive himself (forgiveness)
A man who murdered his brother in Europe visited me many years ago. He was suffering
from great mental anguish and torture believing that God must punish him. He explained
that his brother had been having an affair with his wife, and that he had shot him on the
spur of the moment. This had happened about fifteen years previous to his interview with
me. In the meantime, this man had married an American girl and had been blessed with
three lovely children. He was in a position where he helped many people, and he was a
transformed man.
My explanation to him was that physically and psychologically he was not the same man
who shot his brother, since scientists inform us that every cell of our bodies changes
every eleven months. Moreover, mentally and spiritually he was a new man. He was now
full of love and good will for humanity. The “old” man who committed the crime fifteen
years before was mentally and spiritually dead. Actually, he was condemning an innocent
man!
This explanation had a profound effect upon him, and he said it was as if a great weight
had been lifted from his mind. He realized the significance of the following truth in the
Bible: Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ISAIAH 1:18.
Criticism cannot hurt you without your consent
A schoolteacher told me that one of her associates criticized a speech she had given,
saying to her that she spoke too fast, she swallowed some of her words, she couldn’t be
heard, her diction was poor, and her speech ineffective. This teacher was furious and full
of resentment toward her critic.
She admitted to me that the criticisms were just. Her first reaction was really childish,
and she agreed that the letter was really a blessing and a marvelous corrective. She
proceeded immediately to supplement her deficiencies in her speech by enrolling in a
course in public speaking at City College. She wrote and thanked the writer of the note
for her interest, expressing appreciation for her conclusions and findings, which enabled
the teacher to correct the matter at once.
How to be compassionate
Suppose none of the things mentioned in the letter had been true of the teacher. The latter
would have realized that her class material had upset the prejudices, superstitions, or
narrow sectarian beliefs of the writer of the note, and that a psychologically ill person
was simply pouring forth her resentment because a psychological boil had been hurt.
To understand this fact is to be compassionate. The next logical step would be to pray for
the other person’s peace, harmony, and understanding. You cannot be hurt when you
know that you are master of your thoughts, reactions, and emotions. Emotions follow
thoughts, and you have the power to reject all thoughts, which may disturb or upset you.
Left at the altar (forgiveness)
Some years ago I visited a church to perform a marriage ceremony. The young man did
not appear, and at the end of two hours, the bride-to-be shed a few tears, and then said to
me, “I prayed for divine guidance. This might be the answer for He never faileth.”
That was her reaction—faith in God and all things good. She had no bitterness in her
heart because as she said, “It must not have been right action because my prayer was for
right action for both of us.” Someone else having a similar experience would have gone
into a tantrum, have had an emotional fit, required sedation, and perhaps needed
hospitalization. Tune in with the infinite intelligence within your subconscious depths,
trusting the answer in the same way that you trusted your mother when she held you in
her arms. This is how you can acquire poise and mental and emotional health.
It is wrong to marry. Sex is evil and I am evil (forgiveness)
Some time ago, I talked to a young lady aged twenty-two. She was taught that it was a sin
to dance, to play cards, to swim, and to go out with men. She was threatened by her
mother who told her she would burn eternally in hellfire if she disobeyed her will and her
religious teachings. This girl wore a black dress and black stockings. She wore no rouge,
lipstick, or any form of makeup because her mother said that these things were sinful.
Her mother told her that all men were evil, and that sex was of the devil and simply
diabolic debauchery.
This girl had to learn how to forgive herself, as she was full of guilt. To forgive means to
give for. She had to give up all these false beliefs for the truths of life and a new estimate
of herself. When she went out with young men in the office where she worked, she had a
deep sense of guilt and thought that God would punish her. Several eligible young men
proposed to her, but she said to me, “It is wrong to marry. Sex is evil and I am evil.” This
was her conscience or early conditioning speaking. She came to me once weekly for
about ten weeks, and I taught her the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind
as set forth in this book. This young girl gradually came to see that she had been
completely brainwashed, mesmerized, and conditioned by an ignorant, superstitious,
bigoted, and frustrated mother. She broke away completely from her family and started to
live a wonderful life.
At my suggestion she dressed up and had her hair attended to. She took lessons in
dancing from a man, and she also took driving lessons. She learned to swim, play cards,
and had a number of dates. She began to love He. She prayed for a divine companion by
claiming that Infinite Spirit would attract to her a man who harmonized with her
thoroughly. Eventually this came to pass. As she left my office one evening, there was a
man waiting to see me and I casually introduced them. They are now married and
harmonize with each other perfectly.
Forgiveness is necessary for healing
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any . . . MARK 11:25.
Forgiveness of others is essential to mental peace and radiant health. You must forgive
everyone who has ever hurt you if you want perfect health and happiness. Forgive
yourself by getting your thoughts in harmony with divine law and order. You cannot
really forgive yourself completely until you have forgiven others first. To refuse to
forgive yourself is nothing more or less than spiritual pride or ignorance.
In the psychosomatic field of medicine today, it is being constantly stressed that
resentment, condemnation of others, remorse, and hostility are behind a host of maladies
ranging from arthritis to cardiac disease. They point out that these sick people, who were
hurt, mistreated, deceived, or injured, were full of resentment and hatred for those who
hurt them. This caused inflamed and festering wounds in their subconscious minds. There
is only one remedy. They have to cut out and discard their hurts, and the one and only
sure way is by forgiveness.
Forgiveness is love in action
The essential ingredient in the art of forgiveness is the willingness to forgive. If you
sincerely desire to forgive the other, you are fifty-one percent over the hurdle. I feel sure
you know that to forgive the other does not necessarily mean that you like him or want to
associate with him. You cannot be compelled to like someone, neither can a government
legislate good will, love, peace, or tolerance. It is quite impossible to like people because
someone in Washington issues an edict to that effect. We can, however, love people
without liking them. The Bible says, Love ye one another. This, anyone can do who
really wants to do it. Love means that you wish for the other health, happiness, peace,
joy, and all the blessings of life. There is only one prerequisite, and that is sincerity. You
are not being magnanimous when you forgive, you are really being selfish, because what
you wish for the other, you are actually wishing for yourself. The reason is that you are
thinking it and you are feeling it. As you think and feel, so are you. Could anything be
simpler than that?
Technique of forgiveness (forgiveness)
The following is a simple method, which works wonders in your life as you practice it:
Quiet your mind, relax, and let go. Think of God and His love for you, and then affirm,
“I fully and freely forgive (mention the name of the offender); I release him mentally and
spiritually. I completely forgive everything connected with the matter in question. I am
free, and he/she is free. It is a marvelous feeling. It is my day of general amnesty. I
release anybody and everybody who has ever hurt me, and I wish for each and everyone
health, happiness, peace, and all the blessings of life. I do this freely, joyously, and
lovingly, and whenever I think of the person or persons who hurt me, I say, ‘I have
released you, and all the blessings of life are yours.’ I am free and you are free. It is wonderful!”
The great secret of true forgiveness is that once you have forgiven the person, it is
unnecessary to repeat the prayer. Whenever the person comes to your mind, or the
particular hurt happens to enter your mind, wish the delinquent well, and say, “Peace be
to you.” Do this as often as the thought enters your mind. You will find that after a few
days the thought of the person or experience will return less and less often, until it fades
into nothingness.
The acid test for forgiveness
There is an acid test for gold. There is also an acid test for forgiveness. If I should tell
you something wonderful about someone who has wronged you, cheated you, or
defrauded you, and you sizzled at hearing the good news about this person, the roots of
hatred would still be in your subconscious mind, playing havoc with you.
Let us suppose you had a painful abscess on your jaw a year ago, and you told me about
it. I would casually ask you if you had any pain now. You would automatically say, “Of
course not, I have a memory of it but no pain.” That is the whole story. You may have a
memory of the incident but no sting or hurt any more. This is the acid test, and you must
meet it psychologically and spiritually, otherwise, you are simply deceiving yourself and
not practicing the true art of forgiveness.
To understand all is to forgive all
When man understands the creative law of his own mind, he ceases to blame other people
and conditions for making or marring his life. He knows that his own thoughts and
feelings create his destiny. Furthermore, he is aware that externals are not the causes and
conditioners of his life and his experiences. To think that others can mar your happiness
that you are the football of a cruel fate that you must oppose and fight others for a
living— all these and others like them are untenable when you understand that thoughts
are things. The Bible says the same thing. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
PROVERBS 23:7.
Summary of your aids to forgiveness
1. God, or Life, is no respecter of persons. Life plays no favorites. Life, or God, seems to
favor you when you align yourself with the principle of harmony, health, joy, and peace.
2. God, or Life, never sends disease, sickness, accident, or suffering. We bring these
things on ourselves by our own negative destructive thinking based upon the law as we
sow, so shall we reap.
3. Your concept of God is the most important thing in your life. If you really believe in a
God of love, your subconscious mind will respond in countless blessings to you. Believe
in a God of love.
4. Life, or God, holds no grudge against you. Life never condemns you. Life heals a
severe cut on your hand. Life forgives you if you burn your finger. It reduces the edema
and restores the part to wholeness and perfection.
5. Your guilt complex is a false concept of God and Life. God, or Life, does not punish or
judge you. You do this to yourself by your false beliefs, negative thinking, and self
condemnation.
6. God, or Life, does not condemn or punish you. The forces of nature are not evil. The
effect of their use depends on how you use the power within you. You can use electricity
to kill someone or to light the house. You can use water to drown a child, or quench his
thirst. Good and evil come right back to the thought and purpose in man’s own mind.
7. God, or Life, never punishes. Man punishes himself by his false concepts of God, Life,
and the Universe. His thoughts are creative, and he creates his own misery.
8. If another criticizes you, and these faults are within you, rejoice, give thanks, and
appreciate the comments. This gives you the opportunity to correct the particular fault.
9. You cannot be hurt by criticism when you know that you are master of your thoughts,
reactions, and emotions. This gives you the opportunity to pray and bless the other,
thereby blessing yourself.
10. When you pray for guidance and right action, take what comes. Realize it is good and
very good. Then there is no cause for self-pity, criticism, or hatred.
11. There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. There is no evil in sex, the
desire for food, wealth, or true expression. It depends on how you use these urges,
desires, or aspirations. Your desire for food can be met without killing someone for a loaf
of bread.
12. Resentment, hatred, ill will, and hostility are behind a host of maladies. Forgive
yourself and everybody else by pouring out love, life, joy, and good will to all those who
have hurt you. Continue until such time as you meet them in your mind and you are at
peace with them.
13. To forgive is to give something for. Give love, peace, joy, wisdom, and all the
blessings of life to the other, until there is no sting left in your mind. This is really the
acid test of forgiveness.
14. Let us suppose you had an abscess in your jaw about a year ago. It was very painful.
Ask yourself if it is painful now. The answer is in the negative. Likewise, if someone has
hurt you, lied about and vilified you, and said all manner of evil about you, is your
thought of that person negative? Do you sizzle when he or she comes into your mind? If
so, the roots of hatred are still there, playing havoc with you and your good. The only
way is to wither them with love by wishing for the person all the blessings of life, until
you can meet the person in your mind, and you can sincerely react with a benediction of
peace and good will. This is the meaning of forgive until seventy times seven.
Suggested Hypnosis Downloads:
Learn to Forgive
How to Forgive Yourself
Overcome Divorce Bitterness
Next Chapter >>> Removing Mental Blocks
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