The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science

With sufficient accuracy, and considered only from the point of view of outward appearances, this impression is no doubt correct. The general consensus of mankind is right in trusting the evidence of our senses, and any system which tells us that we are not to do so will never obtain a permanent footing in a sane and healthy community. There is nothing wrong in the evidence conveyed to a healthy mind by the senses of a healthy body; however, the point where error creeps in is when we come to judge the meaning of this testimony.

We are accustomed to judge only by external appearances and by certain limited meanings which we attach to words. But when we begin to inquire into the real meaning of our words and to analyze the causes which give rise to these appearances, we find our old notions gradually falling away from us. Eventually, we wake up to the fact that we are living in an entirely different world than the one we formerly recognized. The old, limited mode of thought has imperceptibly slipped away, and we discover that we have stepped out into a new order of things where all is liberty and life.

This is the work of an enlightened intelligence resulting from a persistent determination to discover what truth really is, irrespective of any preconceived notions from whatever source they are derived. It is the determination to think honestly for ourselves instead of endeavoring to get our thinking done for us. Let us then commence by inquiring what we—