Mental Science

Use in the book

III groups mental science with psychic phenomena, mental influence, and new-thought phenomena. Treatments, affirmations, and denials are described as imperfect formulas of an older art. The author claims to supply the underlying principle that these different practices lack.

X interprets their reported changes of state as shifts in polarity. XV similarly claims that the cultivation of an opposite quality is a psychological application of the same principle. The book's role is consequently that of a unifying key, not a complete catalogue of procedures.

Places to read

1. III Mental Transmutation · Block 10… “all that we call "psychic phenomena,"; "mental influence"; "mental science"; "new-thought phenomena," etc., operates along the same general lines, for there is but one principle involved, no matter by what name” …
2. III Mental Transmutation · Block 11… “formulas, more or less efficacious. The various "treatments," "affirmations," "denials" etc., of the schools of mental science are but formulas, often quite imperfect and unscientific, of The Hermetic Art. The majority” …
3. III Mental Transmutation · Block 12… “this, as many students and practitioners of modern mental science know, every material condition depending upon the minds of other people may be changed or transmuted in accordance with the earnest” …
4. X Polarity · Block 9… “the processes by which the various schools of Mental Science, etc., produce changes in the mental states of those following their teachings, may not readily understand the principle underlying many of” …
5. XV Hermetic Axioms · Block 7“This is one of the most important of the Hermetic Formulas. It is based upon true scientific principles. We have shown you that a mental state and its opposite were merely” …

In this edition

The capitalized label, lowercase instances, and new-thought wording are preserved. The name is not treated as a claim that every described practice meets a modern evidential standard.

Reading the argument

Calling a practice scientific in the source does not establish its method or results. Similar purposes or reports of change do not by themselves demonstrate a shared mechanism. The entry identifies the historical vocabulary without importing a current professional discipline under the same name.

Related texts

Dynamic Thought, especially XI-XVI, offers a signed contemporary comparison for the language of thought transmission, vital-mental energy, and practical influence. It is a primary context for the vocabulary used in III.⁶

Mental Science

“Mental Science” — 5 occurrences in 5 text blocks: III.10–12; X.9; XIV.19.

new-thought

“new-thought” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: III.10.

affirmations

“affirmations” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: III.11.

denials

“denials” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: III.11.