Corrective Thinking
By Lucille Cedercrans
Lesson 8
In our last lesson we discussed the tonal quality of the voice and how it reveals the degree of harmony or discord the individual is manifesting.
We also considered sound and the general effect it has upon substance. We mentioned the fact that sound can be consciously utilized to create a desired condition, but we did not go into detail about this.
In this lesson I shall go into detail on this subject and not only entertain a concept which is new to most of you, but learn how to put it to practical use in your daily life and affairs.
Consider first the effect of music upon our modern civilization. Many individuals have the preconceived idea that music evolves out of our present culture, but this is not so. Music, as a whole, is one of the instruments which produce a culture and which molds a civilization into certain patterns.
You will remember that back in Lesson Three I told you that the mind has a dual function which, when utilized in a certain manner, gives it a third function. The mind is a receiving and sending set. When the emotions are used to tune the mind in on the right frequency, it is used to pick up thoughts which have not been given concrete form by the world of men. These thoughts lie out of reach of average human experience and are called abstractions. When man is able to tune in on them and receive them, he clothes them in concrete mind substance, and gives them form. Thus an abstraction becomes a beautiful piece of music, or literature, or a beautiful painting, etc. This is the creative function of the mind which is that third function arising out of the ability to receive thought and reproject it. In this case it is projected as creative art, onto the physical plane. Thus a thoughtform is materialized as a physical form.
These abstractions which creative artists bring down as music, art, literature, inventions, etc., play an important part in the building of a civilization. They steer humanity, so to speak, into certain types of experience which are felt by all men.
Music has its effect primarily upon the emotions of the race. It brings them an emotional awareness of relationships which they would be unable to reach without it. For instance, the man who cannot sing or play music or compose it, can still reach the feeling tone of certain relationships by hearing music. A young couple always have what they call their "tune" or "song", and this is because that particular piece of music crystallized in their feelings, of which they were only partially aware. It is no accident that so many young people realize that they are in love while dancing to a particular melody, or while hearing it on the radio, etc.
The man who sings, while he possibly cannot compose music, can reach that feeling tone the composer knew, by singing it; so we see that the composer actually brings an abstration down into concrete form for others to know. He is serving the race, sometimes without even realizing that he does so.
Listen to different kinds of music and analyze its effect upon you, paying particular attention to that which you have not heard before. What type of experience is it designed to produce? What effect does it have upon the masses who hear it?
Then realize that in the same manner in which the composer received the abstraction and gave it concrete form, you too can utilize sound to create a desired condition in your environment.
First decide upon the effect you wish to create and why. Are you motivated by selfish desire or out of a desire to help another? If you wish to bring a condition of peace to the troubled emotions of someone close to you and you are sure it is being done out of a real desire to help them,, then do the following:
Think of the individual with love and understanding. Take him into your heart and feel the peace you would have him know.
Then with your mind, reach out to God for the right words to say to him, or the right thoughts to send him.
When you feel you have them, speak them, or think them, and on a wave of Love sent toward him, speak aloud the words, "So Be It".
Try this for awhile without any physical contact with the brother you are helping. Whenever you speak about him, do so with the thought of the help you are giving and the feeling of Love you have for him, and then watch the tonal quality of your voice. You will note a definite change in it and that change will have its effect upon the condition.