The Power of the Mind

In New Thought we often talk about the power of the mind. Sometimes we even talk about the magnifying power of the mind.

Recently, I had an experience that really brought this home for me. On Halloween night I went trick-or-treating with my daughter, Therese, and several other children and parents from Spiritual Life Center. We had a great time, and many of the houses we visited were so beautifully decorated in Halloween themes.

The Halloween night weather in Sacramento was much milder than most of my Halloween experiences back East. In Sacramento on this night I was not even wearing a coat, while back East for many of my Halloween nights I was in a winter’s coat. At some of the houses people were sitting around beautiful outdoor pit fires, but it seemed like the pit fires were more for aesthetics and camaraderie than for heat.

Finally, the kids wanted to go back to one of the trick-or-treater’s homes and exchange candy. “I’ll give you a Snickers for a bag of Skittles,” one of the kids smiled.

At long last, it was time to go home, and we gave our hugs, good nights, and thank yous. Therese and I went out to our car. It was dark and I expected a curb with a 90° angle. However, the curb was one of those rounded constructions.

I fell off the curb and landed smack hard on the pavement. Fortunately, it was just my left knee that slammed into the road and my head did not touch the pavement. That was on Friday night, and by Saturday my left leg and knee were really swollen and I was in a great deal of pain.

I went to the Emergency Room and they took a good number of x-rays. They thought that I had not broken any bones, but I could have done a lot of soft tissue damage. They gave me crutches and something called an immobilizer. Ironically, with the immobilizer, I had more mobility.

So here comes Sunday and we have two services at SLC. I knew I would not do well getting up and down the stairs several times during the course of the services. Both theologically and metaphysically I believe that the minister should not be up on the platform for the entire service. I know that in some churches they do it that way, but I want to emphasize that we all have a direct link to God, and it is not through the minister!

The SLC community was just wonderful and they put two chairs up on the platform for Rev. Deborah and I. My leg was in pain — real pain. I prayed before the start of the services that I would be able to get through both of them. My leg was throbbing and my nerve cells were sending a ton of pain signals to my brain.

In times like this, I go back to one of my all-time favorite lines in the Bible. It is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through [Spirit] that strengthens me.”

The services started. The music was just wonderful and powerful. It was such a treat to be up on the platform and to see all of you that Sunday. You were singing, clapping, and really getting into the joy of the Spirit. One woman was twirling like a Sufi and several other people were dancing. Combining the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. services, there were 192 people at SLC that Sunday.

The services just flowed beautifully! When it came time for me to give the message, I did it sitting down in a chair and I was able to do it without any notes. The Prayer for Protection was powerful and the singing of The Peace Song was over the top.

After the service, many of you came up to speak with me, to hug me, and to wish me well. I was so touched that so many of you asked what you could do to help me during this health challenge.

Finally, we came to the end of the 11 a.m. service and most of the people had filed out to the courtyard for fellowship. It was only then that I realized that for the last 3 hours I had literally felt no pain whatsoever in my left leg. It was only then, after most everybody had left, that I started feeling the throbbing and pain again.

I am certain that my nervous system was sending numerous pain signals during the course of those two Sunday services. But somehow my mind had taken all of those pain signals and sent them out to the parking lot.

I know it is a bumper sticker, but it is a very powerful New Thought bumper sticker: “Change your thinking and you change your life.” I was amazed that my mind was able to shut out all of the pain and throbbing for those 3 hours.

I remember seeing a documentary about Arthur Fiedler, the late director of the Boston Pops. Before he went on stage, he looked like he was on death’s door. But when he walked on stage and started conducting the music, he almost looked like a young man in his prime, full of vigor. At the end of the concert, and after he had taken several curtain calls, Arthur Fiedler walked off backstage, and he once again looked like a man on death’s door.

The placebo effect is, of course, the phenomenon where a person experiences real improvements in their symptoms after receiving a treatment that has no medical properties because they expect or believe it will work.

I have been very interested in research about placebo effects over the years because I think that they do demonstrate the power of mind/body interactions. Many researchers in a wide range of studies have been able to demonstrate the statistically significant power of placebo effects.

I believe that most often what we see in life is multi-determined, and not caused by a single variable. As many of you know, I was an economist before my call to ministry. I often go back to the wise British economist Alfred Marshall, who died in 1924. He often was asked what caused an economic phenomenon: Was it supply or was it demand.”

Marshall would answer that it was not just either supply or demand. Rather it was the interaction between supply and demand that caused the economic results that we are seeing in the real world.

Similarly, I don’t believe that it is just mind that causes everything. Rather it is mind interacting with other variables that results in our experiences and what we see. But the mind is a key and extremely powerful variable. It is also the variable that we can change and alter, while many of the other variables we cannot directly change or alter.

I also have been very interested in recent research about neuroplasticity. Our minds appear to have wonderful properties to reprogram and reroute our mental workings in the face of many injuries and traumas.

You know for so long science and religion seemed to be in conflict. I so treasure the fact that Charles Fillmore, the cofounder of the Unity movement, was both a lover of science and a lover of spirituality.

Albert Einstein said that, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

I am so grateful to live in an age where I believe that both science and religion/spirituality will be unlocking more of the wonderful powers of the mind.

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On another note, I have learned that Christmas Angels have been visiting SLC's courtyard on Sundays. These Angels have been engaged in random acts of giving.

I hear that you can join these Angels by creating some fun little gifts that you can randomly pass out in the courtyard during the coming month. 

A homemade note 

A special homemade ornament 

A little piece of nature that you found 

I carefully wrapped piece of candy or homemade cookie 

A gift card. 

Join the Christmas Angels and bring some random acts of giving to the SLC courtyard and randomly hand them out to people.  Once you handed out a random act of giving if you're led by Spirit encourage the recipient to do the same.

Many blessings,

Rev. Rick