What is Causation? It is that from which all things come. Behind every effect there is a mental cause. We are the mental cause. It is our thoughts, our beliefs, our actions. We can also reset that mental cause in any moment. Ernest Holmes wrote, “We can change the trend of causation in any moment that we decide to do so.”

Deciding to change the trend of mental causation obviously happens in the mental field. We live in a mental Universe. It doesn’t happen in the world of matter. I bring this to our current experience with COVID 19. We can mentally experience COVID19 in any way that we decide to do so and no one has to agree or disagree with us. “One alone with the Infinite constitutes a complete majority.” The decision we make will definitely influence our experience in the world of matter. What does this mean? It means that we know what we know and no one has to agree with us. And, what we know will be our experience.

I watched the film “Harriet” last night for the second time. If you are not familiar with it, it is about the great woman, Harriet Tubman, who freed slaves by means of the underground railroad. She was courageous, relentless and depended on Spiritual Thought Force to accomplish her tasks. At one point, when asked about how she did what she did so fearlessly, she said, she listened, didn’t question, but just acted. In Science of Mind, we would call this acting from an already established premise. She knew what she knew and didn’t argue with Truth. That was her default setting that allowed her to reset her mental causation anytime she needed to.

I wonder truly if she was ever scared, and how many times she had to reset her thought to stay on track with what she was called to do with her life. When we study her path, we see a person who could have gone on to live her freedom (she had already escaped slavery), but chose to go back and help others.

I’m thinking about her now because I’m sure even now there are those who think she is an abomination and should not have freed those slaves, who are still in the mindset of the slave owners of that time. These people might even think that what Harriet did was a horrible thing. This is what we are fighting today. The default consciousness that has not budged and is fighting like crazy to hang on to its default setting.

What about us? Do we have a default setting that we return to again and again? One that is good and true and strong and loving? Or is it the opposite, something that doesn’t serve you or the world.

You know on a computer when you are changing something and it asks you do you want this to be your default setting? It’s a change from what you are used to. “No,” you say. Keep it the way it was. You don’t want the change. It’s easier, its more comfortable to stay the same.

Change requires discomfort and moving into a new mind means letting go of the mindset that no longer serves. It’s not going to feel comfortable to move out of a comfort zone. I think the world of form and all those who honor matter over Spirit, depend on us to do the same. They rely on us so they can be comfortable in their mindset. Haven’t you noticed when you change or make a decision about your life that moves you in a different direction that you sometimes lose the friends and people that were once so in agreement with you – the old you.

I see a lot of this happening right now for many people. I see a wave of change that is moving us all in different directions and we are deciding in every moment if we want to go back to our default setting or create a new default setting, and move into something new. It takes faith. It takes trust. It takes being so certain about what you believe that you don’t care about dying for it. Harriet believed that risking everything for the freedom of her people was more important than dying. She proved this with her acts.

Our lives were pretty comfortable before COVID19. We were moving through life. Yes, we complained about this and that, and we had our money problems and our relationship issues and our likes and dislikes; but we were comfortable. We never imagined something like this could happen to us, that we would be walking around with masks on, that this strange disease would suddenly alter our world, cut off our freedom to just get on a plane and go where we want to go. We never imagined it consciously and yet it is here. That’s the way evolution works. If it is not consciously lived, the subjective world presents something that was brewing underneath, brings it forward so that we have to move forward. I believe that is what happened with the coming of COVID 19. It has forced us to evolve.  

I talk to COVID 19 and ask, “What do you want of me?” My default setting tells me that God is all there is. Every time, I come up against something that doesn’t look God-ish or seems the opposite of what I believe, it asks me “Do you want this to be your default setting.” In this case, it would be fear. I answer is “No.”

God is all there is. I am God. I am built for these times and I have everything within me to maneuver through these times. I have a calling to move myself and others across the bridge of duality to Unity. I can’t do that when I am so easily swept off my track by appearances. It’s hard to get away from them, too. Everywhere I look and everything I hear is trying to tell me the opposite. I don’t want to be blind-sided or to spiritually bypass either. I want to, as Dr. Ernest Holmes would say, “look at that discordant fact in the face and know that I can change it.”

Here’s how it works. I stay fluid, in the moment with my default setting in place. I don’t get fooled by every piece of information that tempts me to change my default setting. Instead I use my default setting to walk through the experience and reset my course when necessary.

Let me give you an example. It’s current. Right now, we are being required to wear masks, to socially distance, to halt our Sundays as usual here at CSL Kaua`i and make other changes that could be hindering to our Center’s growth; but only if I believe that. I must reset. My default setting says that God is all there is and that I have a mission to cross the bridge from duality to Unity. I can’t give that up just because things are a little rough right now, just because it is inconvenient or seems limiting. However, if every day, I continue to move as my true self through these experiences and still stay true to my mission, I become flexible and fluid in the middle of something that could seem limiting. I change my course, but I don’t lose my default setting. I am knowing who I am and what I have to do and I am simply moving through it with Truth. So I reject a new default setting of fear and limitation and stick with what I know.

I know that I am Consciousness and it is my Consciousness that will guide me through it. I will be led to the right experiences, like-minded people who will give me encouragement when I need it, who will be waiting with a helping hand if things get tough. I remember Harriet Tubman had helpers along the way, strategically planted to be in just the right place when she would need to move from one place to the other. They would recognize each other by a secret look or phrase or code. She trusted that these people would be there where she needed them. And, yet sometimes, if she was prompted by her default setting, she would completely turn in the other direction and by doing so escape the snares of being rigid.

We have this same help system. It’s called our Intuition. It’s here right inside of us. It is a guide. It tells us when to go left or when to go right. It tells us when to agree with what we hear or know something else. It knows what is fake news and what is Truth. It is God in us knowing Itself. It will never let us down.

I have a little help tool that I am learning from one of my helpers along the way, Gregg Braden. It is his form of heart/brain coherence. I can ask my heart in any moment and it will answer me, quietly and firmly, instantaneously. I can practice this technique so much so that eventually I won’t need the technique, but it will be innate and first nature. The answers will come without even asking.

So, if you would like to join me, think of something right now that you want an answer for? Now, close your eyes. This helps you to move your attention to within. Now put your hand on your heart and begin to slow your breathing down. Five counts in, hold, Five counts out, hold. Repeat. Now imagine that breath is coming from your heart, breathing in and out from your heart space. Now, that is not enough. To really land there, bring up an emotion such as gratitude, appreciation, caring, compassion.

Now in this space, ask your heart your question, beginning with “My heart…? It might be something like “My heart what is mine to do?” The answer will be quiet, short and positive.

Now open your eyes. If you didn’t get an answer, be patient, you just need a little practice. Work on it. Remember your answers will be short and positive. Your heart is not going to scold you. It is your love place, your true self, your Namaste.

My father used to tell me that we were spoiled here in the U.S., he lived through Hitler/Mussolini Italy and World War II. He wouldn’t be saying that today. We are living through challenging times that call for us to have tools and a default setting. The only resetting we should do is when we forget our default setting and need to come back to it. We are going to need that default setting and we are going to need the tools for resetting. We have them all within us and we have people to help us along the way.

Harriet Tubman inspired me to be firmer in my mindset of Truth, to remember my calling, and to stay true to my default setting no matter appearances. Perhaps it is what the scientific world called “mirror neurons.” I saw what Harriet did and I chose in that moment of watching the film to believe I was made of the same stuff and could act similarly now.

I invite you to explore your own default setting and to decide if it is serving you during this time of challenge and change.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita