Controlling One’s Environment

by Richard Kieninger

In order to qualify for the First Degree of Brotherhood, an aspirant must demonstrate a significant degree of conscious control over his environment. Having no negative karma, a Brother is no longer buffeted by the seeming winds of chance. He is aware of the Law of Cause and Effect and carefully considers what actions he will set into motion. Another factor in his ability to consciously control his environment is his knowledge of the process of Mental Precipitation.

Precipitation Is the Ability to Create in Your Environment Any Condition or Thing

Which You Can Visualize and Concentrate Upon.

Every Ego has the ability to precipitate and uses it to some degree. The Angels used it to mentally create our physical world. Christ used it to turn water into wine, and you use it in your everyday activities such as driving or preparing dinner. Have you noticed how at times you drive smoothly and efficiently to work, while at other times you seem to be caught by every red light and slowed by the erratic driving of others? Or how some dinners are a delight to all your senses while others are just a time to eat? If you will examine the thoughts you had before and during the incident that you are considering, you will probably see a relation between your thoughts or attitudes and the resulting conditions. Everything that you now have in your life, from the shirt on your back to the air that you breathe, was at one time merely a thought in the Mind of some individual. By following the process mental of precipitation, these ideas were eventually brought into form.

Have you ever wondered why people who are forever talking about the state of their health end up being sick more often than those people who think good health is simply the natural state of being? How many people have you seen who are always complaining about how life is just a hard uphill struggle, always lacking money due to doctor bills, car repairs and a thousand other expenses? On the other hand, we all know people upon whom life seems to smile. Money and good fortune seem to follow them. They are cheerful and confident in all that they say and do. They know life will be good to them. Both types of people are simply precipitating, either consciously or unaware, the situations which they are in.

As the character of your thoughts changes, so does your environment. For the aspirant, this presents a two-fold challenge: one, to raise the level of your thoughts so that they become more and more positive; and, two, to consciously bring into your environment what you desire by applying the process of precipitation.

In order to raise the level of your thoughts, you must be aware of what you are thinking and constantly evaluate whether or not these thoughts are worthy of your attention. All too many people daydream and drift in their thinking. They start out thinking about one thing and end up thinking about another. For example, you may start out considering what you can do next Saturday night. The possibility of a movie comes to mind evoking pleasant memories as you consider movies you have seen. You begin to judge these movies on the excellence of the acting and your attention turns to “Judgment at Nuremberg.” Then remembering the scenes of the concentration camps, you consider the horror and degradation of them. So the nature of your thoughts has changed from positive to negative. By now you may be quite depressed. Why? Is it because you did not direct your Mind? Only you control what you think! If your thoughts range to negative directions, it is because you do not stop them. If your environment is going to reflect beauty and peace and prosperity, then you must fill your Mind with thoughts of these things.

If you feel that you have developed the habit of negative thinking and find it hard to simply change your thoughts to a more positive subject, then before you go on, make a list of positive ideas and subjects which you enjoy thinking about. Keep this list handy along with a book or two containing beautiful thoughts that you find uplifting. When you recognize that you are thinking negatively and cannot come up with anything positive on which to focus your attention, then use your list or book. It is most important that you break the “habit” of negative thinking, and you should feel free to use any and all helpful methods.

Although the uplifting of your thoughts should be your goal throughout each day, at least five minutes a day should be allotted for developing your ability to precipitate. The first requirement for precipitation is a strong desire to do something. Without this desire, you will not invest the amount of energy needed to bring your precipitation into existence. It is axiomatic that the more fervently you desire something, the more energy you are willing to put forth to bring your desire into existence. If you wish for something once, and never think of it again nor do anything to bring it into existence, nothing is likely to happen.

The next step in the process of precipitation is to form a mental picture of what you wish to precipitate. This picture should be as detailed and complete as possible. Be especially careful to visualize accurately, for your desire will manifest as you picture it. If the object of your precipitation is a material thing which you intend to make rather than purchase, visualize it in the various stages of its creation as well as the finished product. It is also important to include in your visualization the picture of you enjoying the object or condition you are precipitating.

After having visualized your desire, devote at least five minutes a day to mental concentration upon the desired object—think about it, visualize it, and give some thought to what can be done to make it a reality. In addition to this specific period of thought, the more passing thoughts you devote to your visualization throughout the day, the sooner your desire will materialize.

A Mind trained to intense concentration can form a physical object by purely mental means. For example, a Master can visualize a chair, as explained in The Ultimate Frontier, and in a matter of several minutes of intense concentration can form a precisely detailed etheric pattern of His visualization, to which He can then mentally attract physical atoms to clothe the pattern. Thus from His visualization has proceeded a complete chair by wholly mental means.

At this time you cannot expect to begin precipitating objects out of the ethers solely by mental means. Rather you should do everything in your power that is necessary to help bring into your environment the desired condition or object. In attempting to secure a job, one cannot sit in his living room thinking about it and waiting for the phone to ring. He must read the want ads, go on job interviews or in some way make contact with a person who might hire him. Note that even these things involve purposeful mental activity, and this stimulates the Universe to connect you with what you really want even though it may come from an unexpected quarter. The job you want may be encouraged to appear in the want ads because you and your future employer have need of each other.

It is important to maintain a cheerful, confident attitude concerning the outcome of your precipitation. In other words, think positively. Know that what you are doing will bring about the results you wish to achieve; for this will enhance the attainment of your precipitation. If you hope that precipitation will work, but fear it will not, you put forth conflicting energies which defeat the materialization you desire. Your fears (negative thoughts) will cancel your desires (positive thoughts). Remember, it is just as possible to precipitate in a negative direction as in a positive one. Mankind’s prolonged tendency to think fearfully and hatefully makes his negative precipitations preponderant and more rapidly effective.

Until your precipitation is a reality, do not talk about it. Have you ever noticed how often when you tell another what you are planning to do, something comes up which cancels your plan? When you talk about your precipitation, you dissipate the energy which you have been building up. We can liken precipitation to a pressure cooker. As the heat increases in the pressure cooker, the steam pressure builds up. The combination of the pressure and the heat cook the food much faster than heat alone. In the same way, the pressure of mental energy which accumulates as a result of your thoughts and the pattern you have created on the Etheric Plane precipitate your desire faster than the pattern alone. Of course, some communication with another may be essential to the materialization of your objective. In this case, you must talk about your plans to those who will make it a reality.

The steps to precipitation may be summarized as follows:

1. Intense desire

2. Visualization

3. Concentration

4. Action

5. Positive attitude

6. Silence

To gradually acclimate yourself to the feeling of success, choose simple things to precipitate at first, and each day devote some time to carrying out your precipitation.

Karma

The status of a man’s karmic “account” has a strong bearing on his success at bringing his desires into physical reality. If one does not have the accumulated karmic credits sufficient to compensate for the benefit obtained through mental attraction or precipitation, that benefit will soon be forfeited. Nevertheless, Egos of powerful will can often retain a precipitated acquisition even without the credits to secure it, but this results in the accrual of karmic indebtedness because he is enjoying the possession of a thing for which he has not sufficiently compensated. Precipitation through mental attraction is a marvelous, God-given ability which should not be abused. To employ the laws of precipitation without taking into proper consideration the laws of karma can be disappointing. The following is a discussion of the laws of karma.

In all of Nature there is no such thing as something for nothing! Every man, corporation, and nation must compensate fully for accrued profits and benefits. If one acquires more than he has rightfully earned, he assumes a karmic debt. If one is cheated or robbed of that which is rightfully his or if he has done good works and has never sought to gain where he has not earned, he received a corresponding karmic credit.

The word karma comes from the Sanskrit language and means “carry-over.” That is because karmic accounts are ignored on the Astral Plane. If a man’s karmic debits and credits have not been balanced out by the time of his transition, that is, death of the physical vehicle, they are “carried-over” until the next incarnation. The analogy of an accounting system with credits on one side of the ledger and debits on the other can be applied to explain the nature of karma. The terms “karmic accountancy,” “karmic credits,” and “karmic debits” will be used in this essay to simplify an understanding of the concept.

It should always be remembered that karma relates solely to the world of action. A negative thought may be the forerunner of a negative action with karmic implications; but if the thought is never translated into action, no karma results. One’s thoughts, however, do have power and can influence the minds of others. If you think ill of someone and this person is affected by it, negative karma is incurred. However, if the thought has no ill effect, no negative karma results.

Karmic credits can be earned through the performance of excess service to others rendered unselfishly. One’s good works should always be carried out as unobtrusively as possible, for a person detracts from the amount of credit due him if he seeks compensation through appreciation or praise. The art of doing good works requires a fine knowledge of ultimate ramifications, for what may seem a good deed may actually not be for the greatest good of the person for whom it was intended to be. To give money to a panhandler increases his karmic indebtedness because he has received something for nothing. The giver of the money in this case has contributed to the karmic indebtedness of another Ego and so must suffer an equivalent karmic debt for his act. Charity given to one who won’t make his own way in the world, even though he is able, only compounds the loafer’s indebtedness. Charity to those truly in need is blessed, yet, all recipients of alms have the karmic debt to repay when they recover from their trouble. If charity cases hadn’t had an accumulation of karmic debts in the first place, misfortune would never have befallen them. Since most of us cannot know the exact status of our own long-range karmic accounts, it is wise to use utmost discrimination in every word and act. No one can afford a karmic debt.

Karmic debts are incurred as the result of “sin”—that is, any human thought or action the eventual result of which is not for the greatest good of all the persons affected, including yourself. Karmic debits can be offset by karmic credits so that a person can atone for his crime by good works. Essentially, atonement is a matter of restitution, repentance, and determination to do works which are designed to equalize the indebtedness one seeks to offset. The workings of karma do not always wait until subsequent incarnations but can be almost instantaneous.

If a man has done good works all his life and has never sought to gain where he has not earned but then cheats a customer or accidentally destroys a neighbor’s property, he may conceivably have no net karmic debt for his crime if he had previously accumulated sufficient karmic credits which could be used to equalize the account. All hurts and damages must be accounted for karmically even if the original intent was to be helpful or if they occurred as a result of ignorance or foolishness.

There are three different categories of karma—physical, emotional and economic. The following is an example of each, both the positive and the negative side.

PHYSICAL:

Positive—The helpful ministrations of a physician.

Negative—Murder or bodily injury.

EMOTIONAL:

Positive—Being a loving father to your children.

Negative—Treating one’s family carelessly or cruelly.

ECONOMIC:

Positive—Tithing to a worthy cause.

Negative—Theft or embezzlement.

Generally speaking, compensation for negative karma of a certain category is made through the return of negative circumstances, or the canceling of karmic credits in the same category.

One must not make the mistake of attributing all misfortune to the out-working of karma. A person’s karma may be all good, but the Ego might still choose a body of a despised race in order to help uplift that people; or he might choose a crippled body to learn humility. It is not always correct to assume that an individual’s hardships are due to karmic indebtedness; just the opposite is not altogether unlikely.

You may also experience less-than-desirable circumstances because of negative attitudes because your ways of thinking determine your environment to a large extent. This is cause and effect. Suspected karma should never be used as an excuse for one’s condition in life.

Also, you must never come to feel that serving others for the purpose of gaining karmic credits is a hypocritical gesture; for through improving your own circumstances by gaining karmic credits, you assist in the general uplift of mankind. If every individual operated on the basis of seeking to gain positive karma through excess service to others rather than seeking to advance himself through acquisitiveness and greed, the condition of man would be much different from what it is today. The Nation of God will be composed entirely of persons who seek to serve others first before fulfilling their own desires, for they shall know the joy that accompanies service and understand the importance of their “treasures in heaven.” (Matt. 6:20)

Karma is intended to serve as a teaching device. God established the Universal Law that governs such things, and it is up to man to discern God’s Law and guide himself accordingly to avoid future suffering and to work in harmony with the Universe. Every action instituted by an Ego puts into motion a reaction of equal value which will return to that Ego. Good returns as good; evil returns as evil. This is the Echo Effect that is operative throughout the Universe. God and His Laws exist whether man believes in them or not, and the wise man enjoys the serenity inherent in conscious conformance with them. To discern God’s Laws, and then live in accordance with them, is to do “God’s Will.”

There is much in the world to attract our attention away from God’s purpose; there is much to distract us from our own inner urgings. So it is necessary to recognize in ourselves what we truly want to experience in life. St. Paul said it very well to the Philippians—and he said it in a time when man was every bit as troubled and brutalized, tangled in the webs of purposelessness and conflict as we are today. Paul said, “All that is true; all that is noble; all that is just and pure; all that is lovable and gracious; whatsoever is excellent and admirable—fill all your thoughts with these things.”

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