Mentalism

Use in the book

II introduces the doctrine as the master-key to energy, power, and matter. III explicitly asks what would follow if it were assumed true: mental transmutation could then be described as changing conditions of the universe itself. IV-V supply the proposed account of the source and its mental creation.

VI places limits on the practical inference. Finite beings remain subject to the laws of their level, and mentalism does not make the world an idle dream. VII distinguishes the infinite mind from each finite mind. XV returns to the opening axiom after explaining the methods that are supposed to follow from it.

Places to read

1. II The Seven Hermetic Principles · Block 6“"THE ALL IS MIND; The Universe is Mental."—The Kybalion.”
2. II The Seven Hermetic Principles · Block 7… “the phenomenal world or universe is simply a Mental Creation of THE ALL, subject to the Laws of Created Things, and that the universe, as a whole, and in its parts” …
3. III Mental Transmutation · Block 6… “the Seven Hermetic Principles is the Principle of Mentalism, the axiom of which is "THE ALL is Mind; the Universe is Mental," which means that the Underlying Reality of the Universe” …
4. V The Mental Universe · Block 1“"The Universe is Mental—held in the Mind of THE ALL."—The Kybalion.”
5. VI The Divine Paradox · Block 13“The Hermetic Principle of Mentalism, while explaining the true nature of the Universe upon the principle that all is Mental, does not change the scientific conceptions of the Universe, Life, or” …
6. XV Hermetic Axioms · Block 19“"THE ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental."—The Kybalion.”

In this edition

Mentalism names the doctrine; mental is a much broader adjective and is counted separately in the concordance. Mental is not silently modernized to psychological.

Reading the argument

Three claims require separate attention: that experience includes mental activity, that ultimate reality is mental, and that a person's thought can directly govern external events. The book connects them, but an observation supporting the first does not automatically establish the other two.

Related texts

Atkinson's Dynamic Thought, I-II and XI, similarly joins universal mind, force, and the dependence of finite things. The signed 1906 text is a contemporary comparison for the vocabulary, rather than proof that the seven principles reproduce an ancient scheme.¹

Mentalism

“Mentalism” — 10 occurrences in 10 text blocks: II.3, 5, 7; III.6, 8, 14; VI.13–16.

Mental

“Mental” — 242 occurrences in 105 text blocks: Intro.7; I.9; II.6–7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 25; III.1, 3–14; IV.3; V.1, 6–8, 11–12, 14–15; VI.4–5, 8–9, 11–15; VII.3–6, 9, 11–13; VIII.4–5, 15–16, 19–20, 25–27, 30–31; IX.9–11; X.3, 7–12; XI.2–3, 6–8, 11; XII.11; XIII.11; XIV.1–2, 4, 7–19; XV.2, 4–7, 9, 11–12, 14, 17–19.