Are you willing to become a genius?

BY MARY-ELIZABETH HARMON
Founding Mother, Chard & Stripes

I’ve never believed in the devil or bought the mainstream story on Jesus.

Not that I would have said so publicly before 2009, though, which is when I found some courage hanging around fellow heretics in a New Thought church. Still, more than 12 years later, I felt some anxiety breaking from popular thinking and publishing The Chard & Stripes Declaration of Prosperity.

But today, I read it (which you can do here) and wonder what I was so scared about, which is a feeling that helped me decide to open up about other things I’ve been nervous to say.

[A genius] is a pioneer and a leader.

CHARLES FILLMORE
The Revealing Word

So, the New Thought story about Jesus is one that I could swallow:

He came to show us, not save us.

Show us what, exactly?

How to save our own damned selves without anyone spilling blood—plus making heaven on earth—by putting God / Love / Christ Consciousness / Higher Intelligence into action.

Or you could say…

Jesus modeled how to be a genius.

Born in 1854, Charles Fillmore was a leading theologian who greatly shaped today’s New Thought movement. With his wife Myrtle, he co-founded Unity (formerly Unity Church), which self-describes as “for people who might call themselves spiritual but not religious.”

Here’s how Fillmore defines “genius” in the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary (The Revealing Word):

“One who lets Spirit within him speak out, regardless of how different the utterances may be from those persons who pose as authorities.

He has absolute faith in his spiritual revelations and fearlessly proclaims them.

He is a pioneer and a leader.

He listens to his own inner voice and has faith in his God-given ability.”

Regardless of your preferred pronoun, …

Are you willing to become a genius?

I get it if you’re not because your views could get you crucified. On the other hand, biting our tongues out of fear plays right into the hands of actors who profit from things going crazy.

And there’s too much tongue biting happening already, particularly in politics.

The devil, I learned in a Unity church, is life LIVED backwards. And living backwards is what’s we’re doing by fighting ill effects instead of curing the only cause: fearful thinking.

Each of us adds to the thinking that causes world events—As within, so without.

And our thinking fuels how we feel, which fuels our behaviors.

And our behaviors—conscious and unconscious—drive our outcomes.

And our outcomes reinforce our thinking unless something changes our minds.

A genius helps others heal fearful thinking and feeling.

Neville Goddard was a genius whose utterances differed GREATLY from spiritual leaders of his time and even today. In his book Feeling is the Secret, he teaches that the conscious generates ideas that impress on the subconscious, which powers them to life for better or worse.

He continues:

Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious. Therefore, the man who does not control his feeling may easily impress the subconscious with undesirable states.

It’s like Jesus said, the meek—unprovokable / not easily purturbed people—shall inherit the earth.

Or perhaps Neville’s words will stick better in your brain:

A change in feeling is a change in destiny.

And that’s true on a personal, national, or global level.

So don’t let anyone berate you for not feeling the “right” emotions, like I let people berate me for not feeling angry enough about race matters in America.

What we FEEL is true comes true.

Luckily, we can master the way we feel by mastering the way we think.

I feel that I create my reality and am the only one who needs to change to change my life.

If you feel, however, that change starts outside yourself and you must be an anti-racist, prepare for a destiny fighting racism. Ditto for anything you feel you must fight.

Like Jesus said, those who live by the sword die by the sword.

Instead of fighting, use intolerable things to form a vision of the life and world you want, and try to FEEL what it would feel like so your subconscious can accept it as fact and steer you to make it happen. That’s not ignoring or condoning injustices, it’s simply not handing them your destiny on a platter.

As benign as this message is, I would have once been too scared to write it. But when 2020 struck and all hell broke loose, I decided to start voicing what was stirring in my soul to give heaven a chance.

Are you willing to become a genius and join me?

P.S. Last week, I said it’s past time to for us to demonstrate leading with love. To be clear, a genius = a love leader, the opposite of fearmongering kids of God trapped in fear themselves.