As my husband and I sat drinking our coffee this morning and thinking about the world right now, we had a conversation about how something can come from nothing, which was the topic of our talk at CSL Kaua`i yesterday.

Ernest Holmes wrote, “Creation does not mean making something out of nothing. Creation is the passing of Spirit into form and is eternally going on.” (83) In other words, there is a creative process that is continually going on, but what is this really all about.

I woke up this morning and actively and consciously began the creative process again. However, I was still thinking about what happened yesterday and what I should and shouldn’t have done. This colors my day. It directs my creative process, creating more of the same should and should nots of yesterday, until I stop the process and reverse it.

And then there is COVID19. It surely seemed to come from nothing. I thought about all the businesses on our Island, hotels and restaurants and tourist attractions that were thriving and had waiting lists as they worked to service the thousands upon thousands of tourists that came to our Island in a month. I thought about the airlines that carried those visitors here, and carried us back and forth, as we traveled to the Mainland and around the world.  All these businesses, were born out of ideas backed by belief and then of course action. They might not have consciously known they were using the creative process, but it was in action.

I can’t imagine that anyone could have conceived, as they were building these businesses and thriving that all could come to a halt with one pronouncement and lockdown. Our Island is a ghost town compared to what it was. As I gaze across the earth, we see this same effect in greater and lesser degrees all around.

However, I must ponder this idea of something coming from nothing. I must also pounder this idea that this pandemic is stretching on and forever and ever expanding with predicted resurges and continuing possible shutdowns. I know something else and I am going to share it.

To quote Rogers and Hammerstein’s lyrics from the Sound of Music, “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever will…,” I know that behind everything is something. Once upon a time and forever, there is Consciousness. It is the beginning of the creative process. It is Spirit. It is the Energy of potentiality and it lies within each of us, surrounds us, connects us, is us. There is nothing but Consciousness, birthing itself through numerous creations. In the Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes quotes the philosopher Plotinus, who wrote, “Nature is the great No Thing, yet it is not exactly nothing, because it is its business to receive the impress of Spirit.” Dr. Holmes says Plotinus called it undifferentiated substance, as a indeterminant thing having no mind of its own. Its Mind is always made up for it. This is the field of unlimited possibility. We are Consciousness and we are constantly impressing this nothingness that has never been touched by anything but our own beliefs and thoughts, collectively and individually. It modern science, it is called “The Field.”

If COVID19 came from this, and I do believe it did, then it can just as easily leave. I am not a materialist. I believe that Energy is aback of all creation and when I want to make a change I must go to field of energy – First Cause, the Field. Rev. Dr. Ernest Holmes once wrote “WE MAY CHANGE THE TREND OF CAUSATION WHICH HAS BEEN SET IN MOTION AT ANY TIME WE DECIDE TO DO SO.” He added the caps to emphasize that we must remember this.

Let me give you an example with a simple dollar bill, as I did in my talk. If you take it out and place it on the table it can do nothing. It is only potential and it takes someone picking it up and using it that will make it worth something. What I can do with it is unlimited. I can become a millionaire or I can say it is just a dollar and buy what I can. I get to choose. The Energy of First Cause lies within all of its creation. It finds avenues to express itself. I am one of those avenues; however, I must use it. The only way to use it is with my mind, my pure imagination.

“Things are ideas in form. What else could they be? There is nothing from which to make things except ideas. In the beginning, we behold nothing visible; there is only an Infinite Possibility, a limitless Imagination, a Consciousness, the only action of this Consciousness being ideas.” Ernest Holmes

I have proven this Principle with the use of Spiritual Mind Treatment for myself and for others who come to me. I can direct this field of unlimited potential. If this is true in one instance then it is true in all instances. I can use this Principle and apply it to anything. I am First Cause embodying ideas and releasing them into Law.

“It is the office of the will to determine that to which the imagination is to respond to.” The imagination is creative, the Will give it direction.” We are not talking about will power, but our ability to keep our imagination poised on those things we wish to experience.

So, what does this mean in regards to COVID19. Enough of us have gazed upon “evil” or “disease” long enough. We have made it real enough in our consciousness that it has projected itself into form. It is real as an effect is. Enough of us have imagined it; we have projected it outward into form. We have believed in it. We have used our will to hold it in place. However, as real as it is, it has a CAUSE and that CAUSE lies in the realm of Energy, of Spirit and it must be eradicated from that place. But, let me step back in case we get confused thinking we create specific diseases. We didn’t necessarily create something called COVID19; but we had thoughts that had to manifest in some way. If we look back before COVID19 appeared in our world, we might admit that our minds were not necessarily at-ease about a lot of things. The undifferentiated substance takes form as we believe. We live in a world that believes in disease.

One of the most obvious to me on this island is our dis-ease about tourists.  Since I arrived here seven years ago, I have heard the repeated longing for tourists to go away. And then, on globally, we’ve put a lot of emphasis on division and walls and borders. Locked away in our homes and behind the borders of our individual countries, we can see how this played out.  Everything is Consciousness and everything must be changed in Consciousness. These divisions must be healed in consciousness first.

As I listened to the news lately, I heard certain leaders speaking only in the world of form, trying to solve the problem from the world of form, trying to think ahead of the problem, but only from the world of form. This trying to figure it out from the world of form will only get us so far. Second guessing our decisions leaves us in confusion. If we have to wait for a vaccine, for example, to be able to regain our freedom in this world, we could be waiting a very long time. Although we might be able to fix matter from matter, it takes far too long. There are too many roadblocks, too many different opinions, too much trial and error. And, not just this, it is only dealing with the problem from the superficial level. The dilemma in Consciousness will return, it will reappear as something else. If we look back in history, even a short while back, we will see this is true. We must change our Consciousness for lasting changes.

Dr. Joe Dispenza writes about this, “If where you place your attention is where you place your energy, and all your attention is invested in this 3D reality, then you will have to play by the rules of Newtonian physics. Thus, if you have a tumor or a disease and you want to heal or change your life, because you’re matter trying to change matter, it’s going to take time. The more you believe you are your body—localized in space and time—the more you try, force, control, predict, manipulate, or do whatever it is you think you have to do in order to heal or change your life. … Instead,” he suggests, “focus on changing matter by changing the pattern in the field. Change the field, you change matter.

So, how do we change from the place of Pure Energy, the field? It is an individual journey and is based on a point Dr. Ernest Holmes made, “One alone in Consciousness with the Infinite constitutes a complete majority.” We are responsible as individuals within the collective to think anew, to begin to think upon that which we want to experience and stop looking at that which we do not want. We have to clean up our conversations and begin to dream again of the world we want to experience. We must be persistent in our thoughts and actions based upon love and kindness. We must stop pointing out at others in accusations and blame and take our own power back. We must use our will effectively for the good of all. What are you imagining today?

Am I saying we can imagine this all away? Perhaps, sit on our couch and have a glass of wine and dream of a better world? This will only take us so far. Once we have imagined what we desire, once we have dreamed it and tasted it and given gratitude for it, then we must move into action.

Perhaps I can use the example of our friend Robb Jones, who is an artist. One of his recent paintings was just bought by the State, a great honor. Robb had an idea of painting a certain piece of art. He imagined it, but that wouldn’t have been enough to bring him notice from the state. He needed to pick up his paintbrushes and paint and get to work.

Nothing comes from nothing, but it does come from something and that is our Consciousness. Choose today how your will think, how you will believe and how you will act in this field of Energy that we all inhabit. Each of us is responsible for our ripple, our use of All that Is. “What are you thinking?” is a good question to ask ourselves. Our thoughts will lead us to our beliefs and our beliefs can be changed. No leader can do this for us. We have the Power of choice and no one can take that from us.

We have to push ourselves further than we have gone before. I remember when we found the house we are in right now. When we walked in, we knew it was a bit beyond what we had imagined spending; however, something within us knew it was the right place. We knew that if we said yes to it, we would put a demand upon the Universe that it would have to meet, and it did. We started where we were and pushed ourselves a little further. I’ve been doing this with tithing lately. We give 10% of our income back out into the world where we are spiritually nourished. Lately, I’ve said, let’s give a little more, not because we are going to get something back, but because it is saying my God is bigger than whatever I presently conceive it to be and I’m going to prove it to myself. Spirit never lets me down. It is done unto me as I believe.

Dr. Ernest Holmes wrote, “The pent up energy of life, and the possibility of further human evolution, work through man’s imagination and will. The time is now. The place is where we are, and it is done unto us as we believe.”

I invite us all to find our place in the creative process, to begin using it, to take the first step back into First Cause, working from the undifferentiated substance, the Field, giving it the new impress of our thought. I invite us to not judge by appearances, but begin to create anew from unlimited possibility and to begin to live it as if it were already so. As Dr. Dispenza wrote, “If you want to have a different future, create it.” The only place to do this is to begin in Consciousness.

In Love and Light,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Spiritual Director, CSL Kaua`i, Licensed Minister, Spiritual Coach