Controlling Thought

[Ref. journal #7]

Having been put in an isolated cell, and on just realising he is now being accused of treason by the Japanese in WW11 John describes his experience in this way:

"I fell to my knees and prayed to God to be spared the experience of execution, promising I would live my life to serve him.  Hope and a feeling of God's presence came as this prayer brought an immediate and clear direction.  As if someone had spoken the words there came a command “Control thought”. 

There was no doubt in my mind but that this instruction came from God! This message was fully in accord with Jesus' teaching,  "...when you pray enter into your closet and when you have shut the door pray to your father in secret and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly." Matt 6:6.

Also from his Bible companion book he had learned that we must shut the door of our consciousness against evil suggestions in order that it may be open to the Word of God. He writes:

“in short I saw that controlling my thoughts meant praying and praying that wasn't just asking God to do something for me but praying that meant thinking truly deeply spiritually.  From that moment on fearful suggestions resentful suggestions hateful suggestions were barred from my consciousness when they came and they came daily, hourly and sometimes moment by moment.  I absolutely refused to let them in. As these mental suggestions were kept out divine thoughts began to flow into my consciousness. With a rusty old nail I scratched the letters CT on the wall of my cell as a constant reminder to control thought.  This thorough thinking had an immediate effect upon me physically as well as mentally. My body felt little discomfort though there was only the stone floor or the wooden table to sleep or sit on and the temperature varied from extreme heat during the day to the cold experiences in tropical mountain regions at night.

The greatest wonder to me at that time was how is it possible that God would help me for I considered myself such a sinner although I had accepted that God is loving I had not yet grasped the meaning of what St John says that "God is love."

However through my new front thinking a more spiritual sense of life was beginning to dawn on me! The battle was no longer with people and circumstances but with a false of thinking which was constantly being corrected and defeated.  By true thinking the sense of time was eliminated. These weren't long days dragging on and endless uncertainty and unhappiness but rather periods filled with new glimpses of what Life really is that life is God and man individually expresses this divine Life.

Oh yes my mental struggle is where it time severe especially when I let the grimness of my empty cell, the bars on the window and the occasional sounds of wailing impress themselves on me. Nevertheless it was daily becoming more apparent to me that my real life was not in or dependent on a physical body now at the mercy of adverts or cruel circumstances. This life I saw could not be destroyed. I glimpsed the truth of the Biblical statement that in him that is “in God we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

Gradually a deep sense of peace and calm assurance descended on me I remembered another comforting Bible statement such as the one from Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you.” Wasn't this what controlling thought and keeping out false thoughts was all about having our mind stayed on God?

Then came parts of that beautiful 23rd Psalm affirming trust in God's providence. How many people in distress have pondered these words 

“The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want he makes with me to lie down in green pastures he leads me beside the still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anointed my head with oil my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever".

He says that in his companion book to the Bible he'd read that this sense of a secure "house" was the consciouness of divine love forever comforting me! 

And the healing thought from Mrs Eddy's books that we should remember that we cannot be brought into any condition be it ever so severe where Love has not been before us and where its tender lesson is not waiting for us all! Therefore we should not despair, nor even murmur for that which seeks to save, to heal us and to deliver us, will guide us if we seek this guidance.

He said that more and more he began to see how thought dedicated to God, good gives a wonderful sense of being protected by a power far higher and greater than any human power on Earth.

At the end of the book he describes how he was able to utilize his new way of thinking to develop new business prospects. 

John H. Wyndham writes of this experience in The Ultimate Freedom [available on amazon.com]