The Mental Equivalent (Written by Emmet Fox)

Well, this is different. Emmet opens the book by saying, "We are all supremely interested in one subject." I was expecting the next line to talk about money or some other kind of material success. 

I was wrong. 

He says, “Nothing means more than the search for God and the understanding of his nature,” and that, "We must practice seeing God everywhere, in everything, and in every person, despite any appearance to the contrary.” 

Emmet advises that we look past the suffering, fear and injustice that are so prevalent in the world today. The reason for this is that we create our world based on our mental pictures. If we want to live a world free of suffering and strife, then we must fill our minds with the beauty, happiness and prosperity we want to see. This is a mental world, and all things are created first in the mind. He says, "Whatever enters into your life is but the material expression of some belief in your own mind." 

He named this book The Mental Equivalent because he wants to ingrain this one principle into our minds. And he says that this is the most important thing to teach to children. 

 At first I was confused. What exactly is a mental equivalent? Is he talking about visualization?

In part, yes. But it’s actually deeper than that. The lesson is this: "For anything that you want in your life - a healthy body, a satisfactory vocation, friends, opportunities, and the understanding of God, you must first furnish a mental equivalent." If you want it to come, if you want to attract it to you, then you must create its mental equivalent. If you want it to go away, you must erase its mental equivalent in your mind.

Abraham Hicks would say, "Your attention to it calls it in. Whether you're saying yes to it or whether you're saying no to it, as long as you're thinking about it, you're attracting it. If you'd prefer to attract something else, then think about something else."

 Now the next statement is a difficult pill to swallow. Emmet says, "Everything happening in your city is the embodiment of mental equivalents held by its citizens. 

Everything happening in your country is the embodiment of mental equivalents held by the people of the country. Everything happening in the world is the embodiment of mental equivalents held by the populace of the world."

The news and the social media (propaganda machine) perpetuates fear and disharmony at every turn - all in the name of engagement - getting people to like and comment and insult each other, regardless of the end result. Likes are more important than the well-being of the people. 

Things will continue to decline because they're telling us it's more important and beneficial to be selfish and inconsiderate. We're being taught to only maximize the benefits for ourselves, even if we have to lie, cheat, steal and kill to do it. Even though the pie is big enough for all of us, we'd rather take everything for ourselves and watch everybody else starve.

Total madness, I tell you. But how do we change it?

Emmet says, "The secret to successful living is to build up the mental equivalent that you want, and to get rid of the mental equivalent that you do not want."

"You build in the mental equivalents by thinking quietly, constantly and persistently of the kind of thing you want, and by thinking that has two qualities: clearness or definiteness, and interest."

Vague thoughts produce vague results. Disinterested thoughts produce weak results. Make your thoughts clear and definite. Napoleon Hill writes a lot about definiteness of purpose. There must be something powerful about this habit of definiteness. 

I wonder what he means by thinking with interest. Is he talking about infusing feeling into your thoughts and visualizations? Let's read on to find out.

The feeling he's talking about is not necessarily excitement, but rather interest. Commit your heart to your work. Love the thing you do. Be interested in it. Enjoy doing it. Don't just chase money. Serve people. Give them good results. 

In order to get rid of the mental equivalents you don't want, all you need to do is starve them off your attention. Focus on the thing you want, not the thing you don't want. Michael Losier says, "Whenever you find yourself thinking in terms of ‘don't, not and no’, change that thought. Ask yourself a refocusing question, 'What do I want instead?'" For example, instead of saying, I don't want to be fat anymore. Ask yourself, "What do I want instead?" Answer: I want to be fit and healthy. So think about fitness and health, instead of thinking about fat. 

The only way to get rid of a thought you don't want is to replace it with a thought you do want. Don't dwell on negativity. Replace it with positivity.

Don't go too much into detail with your thoughts. It never happens exactly the way you want it. Have the basic idea and leave it at that. For example, it's okay to think about having a double storey house in a certain neighborhood. But don't pick a specific address or a specific house in that neighborhood. Leave some room for flexibility. Leave room for flexibility in the outcome you want – and leave room for flexibility in the way the manifestation will appear in your life.

Emmet says, "Love is the only way. You cannot be interested in a thing unless you love it. If you love it, it is filled with interest, energy, life, and it comes true."

Your life conditions demonstrate your most dominant thoughts. If you're unhappy about any condition in your life, change it by changing your thoughts. Test this mental equivalent theory and monitor the results. If your life improves, then you know it works. 

You have mental equivalents that serve you and mental equivalents that don't serve you. When you change your thought patterns around those that don't serve you, only then will you be able to change those conditions. Destroy the patterns of the things you don't want, and they will disappear. Build new patterns for the things you want, and then they will come to your life. 

The challenge is not changing the thought, but keeping it changed. It's easy to change your thoughts and feel good for a few minutes. But most people backslide into their old habits and wonder why this Law of Attraction manifestation stuff doesn't work. It's not about feeling good for a few minutes. It's about maintaining a dominant thought pattern, interest and feeling good about the thing you want. Spend as little time as possible thinking about the thing you fear. Spend the most time thinking positively about the thing you want. 

Emmet challenges you to select one problem that you wish to solve, or goal you wish to attain. Change your thoughts and keep them changed for a month and see how quickly things start to change in your favor. Don't keep searching for the changed result. Just change your thoughts and relax. Let the results come to you without you forcing it. 

When you pray, do not be tense or fearful. Pray with faith and trust that the provision of God is with you. Don't pray with the intention of making things happen by force. 

Break free from the prison of your mind by using your power of thought and belief. 

"Build a mental equivalent of freedom, of vibrant health, of true prosperity, of increasing understanding and achievement of God. Build it by thinking of it, having faith in it and acting the part, and the old limitation equivalent will gradually fade out."

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