TEACHERS' MEETING AUG. 25, 1919
Mr. flharles Fillmore:	Vie have a general understanding of the subject of centers
and we should not go into it without going into it from the universal.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	I	do	not	understand	just	what	Mr.	Fillmore	means	by	a body center.
The nerve ganglia are to me .physical organs through which the centers of being manifest power. In concentrating on the centers I would like to know whether he means that we form a mental image of the physical center like we concentrate on the hand, or how.
It seems to me when we talk on body centers that it is a physical thing we concentrate on rather than on the mental power or capacity manifesting through that body center, if we want to call it such.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	The	very	foundation	of	our	doctrine	is	that man has a real
spiritual body and this physical body is, it might be said, a center, the result of sense consciousness of the body, and the object of our use of these centers is to translate that idea of physicality into spirituality, consequently we concentrate upon
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the idea of a spiritual body and as a spiritual center of consciousness working through the physical, but we should always hold in mind that it is the idea of life that has produced the life organ,and the work of the spiritually minded man is to translate that organ into its true spiritual office,and we must do that by holding it is spiritual life and the manifesting spiritual life, and that all the nerves and all the cells of activity are now impregnated with spiritual ideas, they are lifted up, set into spiritual activity through the idea of a spiritual body and a spiritual life function in that body, and in that way we come into the spiritual consciousness above,and this should be done with every idea that enters into the body. In that way we shall put on the Christ body.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	Then	when	you	speak of centers you speak of centers in the
spiritual body and not the physical body?
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	Yes, in the spiritual body that through man's consciousness
are manifesting in a physical way.
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Mr. Hoschoeur:	Then the point in our teaching is first to lead our pupil into
an understanding of the body as a spiritual body and understand that when we are speaking of the body it is a spiritual thing and not a physical thing, spiritual power in the body.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	Yes,	but the so-called carnal mind has conceived the
body to be physical and has conceived it as a physical manifestation of life and these physical ideas are built up in a material body. Well that material body is founded on material ideas and in order to transmute it and translate it we must deal with those ideas in their special relation. We will never translate the body by simply holding that it is spiritual, because we do not get in touch with it in its physical relation.
Mrs. Fillmore:	We	really redeem it from its ignorance, the ignorant idea of it.
Mr. Ingraham:	That	is going into all the world and preaching the gospel.
Mr. Fillmore:	Yes.
Mr. Lynch:	In	treating	the	centers	we	do	not treat the physical, but the spiritual.
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Mr. Charles Fillmore:	Yes,	the	spiritual body and spiritual ideas. The reason
for working on centers is to get in immediate touch with the focal point through
which ideas work. You know in the heart is the center of expressing all the ideas
that the mind can conceive of. If you want to get at the central activity in our
consciousness, why locate yourself about the heart and there the ideas or thoughts of
love are the thickest and most active and strongest and come in touch with them there,
(reflex action)
while if you deal with the subject in a general way it is only by sympathetic^reflect! on you get it.
Mr. I^mch:	I	confused	our	method	with	the Easten. method that deal particularly
with the nerve plexuses. We realize that in the body is the cardiac plexus which is associated with the physical organ,and all ideas of love that man can conceive are stored up in that plexus, and the only way to redeem them is by redeeming the organ. Having made an organ, having made a plexus itself it is the power in the manifest world,
and we have to go right to that center and redeem it. I thought that was much our own method here.
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Mr. Charles Fillmord:	It	is	in	a	way.	I	think we hold more rigidly to the
spiritual reality of all things, and the Hindus do that also. They have a regular system of affirmations and denials, fixing the center of attention on the pineal gland, and the anus for elimination, and keep a current going. They can levitate by getting this current of affirmation and denial to levitate; they can go up and down on a rope.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	Is	it	not	well	to	teach	our	pupils	to	avoid	centering	on the
organ or center in the physical body? That is putting the mind on the outside of the
idea through which it expresses and limiting it from expanding as we want it -to be, and
the thought rests entirely upon the invisible idea or center which corresponds in the
spiritual body to what is known as the heart or the heart region in the physical body,
but the center is in the invisible spiritual body, so we must let our attention dwell
on that, giving no attention to the physical manifestation. If we let our attention
dwell on the physical we have stopped on the outside of the center and are limiting the
channel through which the center manifests. If we can just get them to see clearly that they are not to fix their attention on the physical organ it would be all right.
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Mr. Ingraham:	In	the	illustration	of	teaching	the	child	certain things we do
not concentrate on that child as a physical being, although we are appealing to the intelligence of the child, and when it has received the idea you would impart to it, the body which surrounds the intelligence takes it up and carries it-out.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	In concentrating upon these centers they are all accelerated
in their activity. If you concentrate upon the heart center, the love activity will begin to manifest and it will manifest along the mortal lines, there will be quickened that desire for personal love. Now the lessons in Truth, the truth about it, the Spirit will guide one in the handling of that. That is where a great many people fall down in concentrating on the love center. It quickens that center and the next thing is to express itself along old fleshly lines, and there again one must know that that is an activity that is to be lifted up. You have opened up the way, now let the Spirit do its perfect work. It is novtf through outer expression you have got to speak the word and keep on speaking to the cells that have been charged with the earthly thought.
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They are nob flesh or mortal, but spirit and set free through the great universal Spirit and in that way they are transformed, transmuted.
Mr. Ingraham:	I think the life of Jesus Christ possibly affords the clearest
step in the logic of this thing. We know that he spent a certain period of study, after the completion of this study he called his disciples, and after his disciples had been educated up to this standard to a certain point,at least, he told them then to go forth and preach the gospel, and it seems to me there is the whole thing in three logical steps. The first step would be the discovery and development of the Christ consciousness in man, or the awakening of the spiritual I am. When the spiritual I am is awakened then it must have the support of these twelve disciples. These twelve disciples must be taught, or these twelve powers in man must be taught their spiritual’ significance. • In other words, I must learn the difference between faith in the physical standard and faith in the spiritual standard. The function of faith from a physical point of view to a spiritual point of view was a spiritual faith. After I have sufficienl
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ly trained, after my faith faculty has been sufficiently trained to the Qhrist. standard then it has a message for its part of the world and it should carry that message of faith to whatever point in consciousness is necessary for it to carry,and I think the same with every faculty, and I think this question of love and of life that we have been discussing is where we have fallen down. If we call that disciple. Love, first into the spiritual I am, be sure,of course,that we have awakened that spiritual I am, then make a thorough investigation in our meditation, in our whole system of research and prayer until we have a clear realization of what constitutes spiritual love, then when this consciousness of spiritual love is attained, then we can safely go into the world and preach the gospel because we have the gospbl to preach.
I think the mistake that is made so much is that people try to preach the gospel of love to their bodies before they have the gospel, therefore they teach the thing they have only in the mortal, and intensify the old ideas. Before a faculty oan impress its
spiritual message upon the cellular structure through which it works,it oust be imbued
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with the spiritual idea, so there seems to me to be three logical steps. First, the awakening of the spiritual I am; second, teaching the faculties their spiritual function, then carrying that spiritual function through until it is expressed in the physical according to its spiritual standard.
Mrs. Newman:	It	seems	to	be	perfectly	clear	to	students, perhaps, who have been
here in attendance for some time, teachers who have been able to make long and deep
dtudy in the subject, but where you have strangers coming into the class for one day or
two days, it can't be done in that length of time. And if an individual comes in and
hears the subject of centers spoken of in one subject they think they know all about it,
and can handle the whole thing. People told me heee in the Summer School about centers
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more than I ever dreamed of, people^had come in from the outside,and I thought I had studied centers. It is situations like that that we ought to nave a better understanding of. The real students are going to keep at it until they find out, but a lot of people do not keep at it until they find out.
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Mr. Charles Fillmore:	The	whole	human family is in that condition, all studying
centers and coming into disaster, most of them.
Mrs. Fillmore:	The Harvard students found you could determine the flow of blood
by concentration. The subject was put upon a table and when a muscle was made to bend they found the blood whnt to that part, and when a problem was put to him the blood was caused to go to the head and the head tipped the balance down, and when he was made to think about the use of his feet that part of the body went down. They saw that wherever the concentration was directed there the circulation went. Now with the understanding of this kind of concentration we get a clue to the understanding of the centers of consciousness. We must redeem them from the old and carry a circulation with new blood and new life in them,until and I think that is what the concentration means in that we do not have to think about a center or locate it, but the idea of life. There has never been anything so misunderstood as our life organs and how to get them out of the old ideas and into the new, the impetus of the new ideas, that is the way to
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bring in the new, but it is not the physical really, but the concentration brings the new circulation and equalizes the circulation. That is how we learn to live in the temple, in the whole temple. "Let the earth keep silence." Learn how to let the law be working equally in all parts of the temple; then we have a pain in one part which shows we have not distributed this consciousness aright, and it takes only a moment to handle that by touching a button someway,and liberating the eeneeieusfteee congested circulation and letting it flow through th* temple. Wonderful are these channels when we understand they are not physical, but spiritual. It is wonderful how these channels have been built up for the life to work through, and this idea lifts us above the mortal conception. We see what God is doing, how his ideas are expressing themselves, and it takes away all this wrong idea, this lustful idea of life, this misconceived idea of what we are, and that redemption ought to come even before a child is born.
It ought to come in the teaching of children, because in this liberating idea of life,
in the-what shall I say? life as an animal activity? Why we are doing a wrong thing.
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We have got to put with it the idea of Spirit, the master ifend taking hold, the One who has created and has this idea of placing everything just as it should be, an intelligent conception of life and its function.
Mrs. Newman:	Are	we to confine ourselves to the development of the spiritual
body to the neglect of the physical body, or-----
Mrs. Fillmore:	We	do not have two bodies. We are the temple of the living God.
We must quit having so many bodies.
Mrs. Newman:	This	is the point at issue. Shall we hold for the physical body
when we work on spiritual centers?
Mr. Ingraham:	Hold	to the spiritual body.
Mr. Lynch:	When	we	want to talk to these cells we want to think of them, but how
are we going to think of them? Are they physical, if we are in that development? or spiritual? Becaiise I felt that from an unpleasant experience I had I thought the whole thing was wrong and did not begin to get hold of my body until this teaching was
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corroborated -with Eastern teaching. Love,~if we look upon that in a pure spiritual sense we will radiate this kind of love. Surely no one in this teaching would develop if for material gain. You would not think of love in a physical sense; it would become spiritual.
Mrs. Newman:	People	will	ask, "What do you mean by spiritual body?"
There is but one manifestation, the spiritual.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	It	is man's concept of the man in being. God created man
and he created a body for him. What kind of a body? Well, it must have been a spiritual body. And where is that body? It id here, it is the only tangible reality, but man must regain consciousness and how does he do that? By expressing ideas. The first man, Adam, and his partner went along all right until the activity of life which is a very pleasant activity, got his attention and it was so pleasant and-they that he and Eve both fell into sensation, that is, they wanted to go to the picture show all the time, and the result was building in the body centers a false state of activity. It was
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pleasant to the eye, and Eve was the first one who fell.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	It seems we are entirely in accord with the idea of Being and
body centers, but the question raised by Mrs. Newman is how are we going to present this subject to those coming in our classes. Are we just going to give a lesson on it in connection with the idea of the truth of Being and not give it enough flesh and blood to awaken these cells or make it very plain to those who want to know about the body centers that we speak of, centers of the spiritual body? And before they can safely work upon those centers they must have come into a clear understanding of the nature of Being and then take them under instruction for si* months, a year or two or three years,if necessary, until they do get that idea of themselves as Spirit and away from the idea of themselves as spirit, flesh, and blood. There is the only point if we take up this instruction. If, for instance, in the Summer School people come in who have had no instruction to speak of on the body centers, then should we attempt to instruct them about quickening the body? Should we not give them preliminary
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lessons and training and through that acquire the ability to see them for what they are and have become spiritualized enough to safely, intelligently use their powers, or throw this instruction in the highest stage and let them go out and take the chances of getting the bad result? It has always seemed to me this concentrati rg on centers is the highest instruction, the highest practise, and should not be given to beginners. They should be made to understand if they want to use these higher powers that they should make the necessary preparation. When we put our children into school and they begin the study of mathematics they take up the elementary steps before they go into geometry, and we should follow the same plan in this and leave the mathematics of the truth in its advanced stages until they have the ability to practise the mathematics of the first steps. Until the proper instruction has been given in purification, and until people are pure minded enough to know themselves as spiritual beings, this definite instruction about awakening body centers should not be given. If we do this, we have established a propdr plan, but if we are to hold that all they need is just a
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little preliminary instruction and a few points given to them, then that is a teaching
plan,and let the teachers be led of the Spirit, and if they don’t believe in it they
don't need to. I would like to understand when we should give this instruction, when
a pupiib is supposed to be ready. The Spirit will lead us whether to give it in the
beginning or last, and if it appeals to us it di ould be reserved until the last finish-
not
ing instruction, that is, the leading of the Spirit is/Xto throw it outright in the very beginning.	.	'
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	I	asked	the	Spirit once about that and it said, "Teach the
truth."
Mr. Hoschoeur:	That	is a very good point, but does that mean the intelligence to
teach it as it should be presented, does that mean that we have to teach the finishing truth to the beginner? In mathematics do we have to teach geometry in the beginning of it? To teach truth are we not to do it in a truthful way, that is, in a perfectly logical way by teaching the preliminary first, and the advanced next, and the finishing
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work last? Can wo teach truth in any other way?
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	In	teaching truth I have never yet taught a class in
which I made the concentration on the centers prominent. I touch upon it here and there to show its relation, but always dwell upon the spiritual man and try to bring out the thought and keep it prominent in the mind of all the students that they must con^ centrate upon the Spirit first, that they must be sure of their ground in Spirit, and then the secondary, the concentration upon the centers will come naturally almost. No,
I don't think that we should really give, in our present stage of unfoldment, classes that make a specific thing of concentrating upon the centers. I have never felt that I was ready for that and have never taught it.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	Is	it	wise to arouse a class by mentioning centers?
Mr. Charles Fillmore: Yes, it stirs up a whole lot of activities in one that are hard to deal with, but I do not see any other redemption for the body. I know that I am redeeming my body and ,as I have often said, I am having a hell of a time, but I know
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it is the only way and I know that I am going to accomplish it.
Mr. Hoschoeur: I do not like to talk so much, hut one other thing sticks in my mind. It appeals to me in this way. In my own experience just to the extent that I have mind control lave I been able to handle these powers of being and I know I did not get it except by arduous practise in mind control, and I feel that the beginner is not able to concentrate until he is able to control his mind. Because he does not have command of his mind his attention wavers between different things. Now the point is, should we not give the pupil actual training in mind control through concentration, then purification through mind control in the body, so when he gets to the point where he wants to awaken these centers he can control his mind and keep out stray thoughts of the race consciousness; in other words, first prepare the pupil by fundamental mind training until he has mind training as well as he can have it,until he begins work on the centers. You take the Eastern schools and they all do that. They never teach those things until they have mind control. Take the average one who comes to Unity. He does
not have mind control.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	^hen	work	them	into	mind	control.
Mr. Ingraham: That is one of the prominent points taught here.
Mr. Hoschoeur: We say that , but they do not have it. We teach it, but they don’t practise it.
Mr. Ingraham:	Isn’t	that	the	practise	of	the School here?
Mrs. Newman:	Isn’t	that	the	question?
Mr. Hoschoeur:	The	pupil	was	taught	before being prepared. I perfectly admit that
I have no fault to find with the Unity teaching, but the degree of teaching them the
higher knowledge before having the lower knowledge. Until I had a measure of mind
control I was not fit to handle that, like Mr. Lynch. Mind control is fundamental, unless
snd^when you have practised it until you have control,you are not able to go on with it.
Mr. Ingraham:	The	thing	you	are	arguing	for is this thing we have stood for all
along. My experience here is that from my ten years ■ here that that very thing you are
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arguing fb r is continually being emphasized here.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	VJhat experience do they have but what is given through the Silence?
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	In all the iessons in the Summer School only one teacher
took up the centers; all the others taught the absolute truth.	N
Mr. Hoschoeur:	That	is	the	theory, but now the practical application of the
Principle. Until the mind oan see it, until the mind is given to see how necessary that it have the control, that is the point.
Mi. Ingraham:	All	this	time	there	have	been	classes on this subject.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	That	is	the	limit of our practise.
Mr. Ingraham:	They	have	been graded classes in concentration, not on centers.
Mr. Lowell Fillmore:	It	seems that people coming here from out of town, they may
have been reading Unity for one month, two, three, or four monthe or ten years and they may have put the teachings into practise to a greater or less degree, and others in a year may put more into practise than others in ten years. In fact, I have seen people
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at it for a’good many years, reading Unity for a good many years, and think them to all appearances just as susceptible as all other people. I knew of a lady who said the weather affected her so that she felt like crying, and I heard others saying the most absurd things and suppose we all do, but it shows we have not the control of our minds to match up with the truth, and because a person has read Unity for teryears is no sign they have mind control, or because they have attended a lot of classes, but if we had some kind of sorting process, if there was some way of determining when they were ready to take up this subject is the point.
Mr. Hoschoeur:	I	have known people who worked in the Silence for ten years and
did not have mind control, and I have yet to find one who can keep his mind on truth statements for three minutes in succession. Mind control gives ability to master attention and keep attention where we want it.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	Who is going to judge these students?
Mr. Ingraham:	When	the	Spirit	of	Truth	is come he will guide you into all truth.
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and when it comes to the more intricate application of these I believe we should follow the leading.
Mr. Hbschoeur:	If	we	are	teachers of the truth the Spirit of truth will lead us
to present the subject in an entirely harmonious manner and just how it should be and the degree, and it will enable us to prepare our pupils for definite concentration.
You can easily tell by a very simple little exercise.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	I	saw in the beginning of my study of Christian Science
something deeper than it. What is the meaning of these disciples? There must have been something deeper than mere history. I kept digging in it until I found they referred to centers of consciousness and those centers were really personalities.
John is a real live being in the heart of man. He thinks along his line. ' And the discriminative faculty. How could you carry on your digestive power and have food carried to the different parts of the body unless there was an intelligent man there doing it? That man is there. And so it was shown to me all these men were alive in me.
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and I must do certain things and, like Jesus Christ, teach them, tell them the truth, then when they know the truth I would not have to baptize my body with the Spirit. Jesus said he did not fcaptize; his disciples baptized. And when he fed the multitude he charged the cells of their bodies with the substance of the loaves and fishes. He telephoned just as I telephone down town. Speak to your oenters and the work will be done.
So you can see that we have a real scienoe when you get into the activity of these central ideas in us, and we will all come to it in time. I don't know that I would want to teach people in the present consciousness all about it, because, as you say, it would go beyond their comprehension, but it is the foundation of the coming man. I don't think that idea of centers is a good thought, because it don't mean enough , it is too limited in its character.
Mr. Ingraham: I suggest that we take another word to take its place.
Mr. Hoschoeur: It was suggested to use the powers of being.
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	Or	spiritual	identity.
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Mrs, Newman:	Why	not	call them just what Jesus did, disciples?
Mr. Charles Fillmore:	Yes, that is good, too.
Closing thought by Mr. Whitney: "Now unto him thit is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen."(Jude 24,25 Am. Rev. Version.)