one: I Am
free from the tyranny of second causes
I AM is that which, amid unnumbered forms is ever the same. This great discovery of cause reveals that, good or bad, man is actually the arbiter of his own fate, and that it is his concept of himself that determines the world in which he lives.
When you know that consciousness is the one and only reality - conceiving itself to be something good, bad, or indifferent, and becoming that which It conceived itself to be –
you are free from the tyranny of second causes, free from the belief that there are causes outside of your own mind that can affect your life.
two: Consciousness
you and your world are one
If your consciousness is the only reality, it must also be the only substance. Consequently, what appears to you as circumstances, conditions, and even material objects are really only the products of your own consciousness.
Nature, then, as a thing or a complex of things external to your mind, must be rejected. You and your environment cannot be regarded as existing separately. You and your world are one.
manifested by the arrangement of your mind
The world moves with motiveless necessity. By this is meant that it has no motive of its own, but is under the necessity of manifesting your concept. Consciousness is the arrangement of your mind, and your mind is always arranged in the image of all you believe and consent to as true.
Magnetism is not generated; it is displayed. Health, wealth, beauty, and genius are not created; they are only manifested by the arrangement of your mind - that is, by your concept of yourself [and your concept of yourself is all that you accept and consent to as true ].
What you consent to can only be discovered by an uncritical observation of your reactions to life. Your reactions reveal where you live psychologically; and where you live psychologically, determines how you live here in the outer visible world.
three: Assumption
a change of consciousness
Man's chief delusion is his conviction that there are causes other than his own state of consciousness. All that befalls a man — all that is done by him — all that comes from him — happens as a result of his state of consciousness.
A man's consciousness is all that he thinks and desires and loves, all that he believes is true and consents to. That is why a change of consciousness is necessary before you can change your outer world.
The first step in the renewing of the mind is desire. You must want to be different [and intend to be] before you can begin to change yourself. Then you must make your future dream a present fact. You do this by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled.
know a thing spiritually only by becoming it
The methods of mental and spiritual knowledge are entirely different. This is a point that is truly understood by probably not more than one person in a million.
You know a thing mentally by looking at it from the outside, by comparing it with other things, by analyzing it and defining it [by thinking of it];
whereas you can know a thing spiritually only by becoming it, [only by thinking from it]. You must be the thing itself and not merely talk about it or look at it.
absolute fidelity to the assumption
Therefore, to incarnate a new and greater value of yourself, you must assume that you already are what you want to be and then live by faith in this assumption — which is not yet incarnate in the body of your life —
in confidence that this new value or state of consciousness will become incarnated through your absolute fidelity to the assumption that you are that which you desire to be. This is what wholeness means, what integrity means.
what the rest of Nature does not possess — Imagination
There is no order in Nature corresponding to this willing submission of the self to the ideal beyond the self. Therefore, it is the height of folly to expect the incarnation of a new and greater concept of self to come about by natural evolutionary process.
That which requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect obviously cannot be effected without such a state of consciousness,
and in your ability to assume the feeling of a greater life, to assume a new concept of yourself, you possess what the rest of Nature does not possess — Imagination — the instrument by which you create your world.
