atient's own knowledge of the
law of his being.

But "there is not in all men this knowledge," or at any rate not such a
full recognition of it as will enable them to give successful treatment to
themselves, and in these cases the intervention of the healer becomes
necessary. The only difference between the healer and the patient is that
the healer has learnt how to control the less self-conscious modes of the
spirit by the more self-conscious mode, while the patient has not yet
attained to this knowledge; and what the healer does is to substitute his
own objective or conscious mentality, which is will joined to intellect,
for that of the patient, and in this way to find entrance to his
sub-conscious mind and impress upon it the suggestion of perfect health.

The question then arises, how can the healer substitute his own conscious
mind for that of the patient? and the answer shows the practical
application of those very abstract principles which I have laid down in the
earlier sections. Our ordinary conception of ourselves is that of an
individual personality which ends where another personality begins, in
other words that the two personalities are entirely separate. This is an
error. There is no such hard and fast line of demarcation between
personalities, and the boundaries between one and another can be increased
or reduced in rigidity according to will, in fact they may be temporarily
removed so completely that, for the time being, the two personalities
become merged into one. Now the action which takes place between healer and
patient depends on this principle. The patient is asked by the healer to
put himself in a receptive mental attitude, which means that he is to
exercise his volition for the purpose of removing the barrier of his own
objective personality and thus affording entrance to the mental power of
the healer. On his side also the healer does the same thing, only with this
difference, that while the patient withdraws the barrier on his side with
the intention of admitting a flowing-in, the healer does so with the
intention of allowing a flowing-out: and thus by the joint action of the
two minds the barriers of both personalities are removed and the direction
of the flow of volition is determined, that is to say, it flows from the
healer as actively willing to give, towards the patient as passively
willing to receive, according to the universal law of Nature that the flow
must always be from the _plenum