By Bruce Manuel
A friend mentions that she never goes out alone at night, because she hears and reads about so much crime that clearly no one is safe, particularly a petite female who lacks the strength to scare off or fight off a would-be attacker.
What does a student of Metaphysical Science say or do? Well, students of this science learn that the picture of man and the universe presented by the five senses — a picture where crime appears to be as prevalent and as powerful as integrity — is a fleeting concept, an imperfect apprehension of Being. So first, the student is likely to listen for and acknowledge spontaneous, intuitive ideas from within himself or herself.
Margaret Laird notes in the Foreword of her book “We Are the World We Walk Through” that Metaphysical Science is “that … ‘with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold,’ and not about what the material senses behold. … The individual who lives insightfully, Mindfully, lives ideas and evolves an ego-image as identity capable of affecting the whole society. In this selfconscious living, the individual is his own law and authority” (pp. xviii-xix).
Man experiences reality as consciousness, the “reflection,” to use Biblical language, of the I Am, the Ego or Being historically called God and increasingly recognized as Divine All-Presence, or Mind, evidencing Itself as man and the universe. Mrs. Laird, who was a metaphysical teacher, writer and founder of the Institute of Metaphysical Science, encapsulated the idea in the sentence, “We are the world we walk through.”
Any sensory picture or “view” indicating that this world — my universe — is crime-ridden, unsafe, insecure is actually a concept, or imperfect apprehension, of the omnipresence of Love and omni-action of Principle as law. Such a picture does just one thing: It presents an opportunity to be Science by acknowledging the omnipotence of Love in the universe generated as my selfawareness — as “the conscious infinitude of existence,” to borrow words from Mary Baker Eddy, a metaphysical teacher of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose ideas Mrs. Laird studied and tested throughout her lifetime.
As this Science, or awareness, I understand that safety has nothing to do with human notions of strength, luck, timing or protective measures such as alarm systems, police or prisons. And I know that security, or an apparent lack of it, isn’t related to scarcity, depravity, addiction or twisted human character, even if the “view” should indicate that it is. Reality, imperfectly seen, may look this way, but that is not the way it is.
My awareness, or universe, is the reflection of the infinite abundance of Love and the rock-solid reliability of Truth, in which no lack or lawlessness ever can be found. Spirit is limitless substance; this understanding is the very essence of security. Awareness of Spirit as all is freedom, making man fearless, trusting, confident, fully endowed and completely safe. My self-conscious being as the action of omnipotent Principle, Love and Spirit makes my universe secure and ensures abundance for all. No want, nothing to steal. With this awareness as my being, I am not tempted to deplore the “picture” I see involving my friend, obsess over it, tinker with it, or try to fix it in any respect. It’s just a picture.
Neither do I have any desire to outline how this instantaneously regenerating picture ought to look. It needn’t appear to be a new “neighborhood watch” where my friend lives, or her relocation to a different place, or a karate Black Belt moving in next door, or her deciding to venture out alone at night to prove she is unafraid. . Confident that my universe — generated by the infinite, ever evolving Being unseen by the senses — encompasses no victim or potential victim, no criminal or crime, I am willing to let the picture look just as it looks, because the picture is not causative. And I can go forward rejoicing.
What I am led to say to my friend will be right for the moment, but the solution rests in the acknowledgement of true security, experienced in the only way it can be, as my consciousness: Godman- universe.
