Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Think Give
To reverse the scarcity posture of getting/having and stabilise a giving consciousness — experiencing oneself as an ‘inlet and outlet’ of an infinite source so that good flows through (not merely to) you, easing financial fear and prompting generous, value-creating action.
Think Give in 5 lines: Treat your job and money as channels, not your source — the source is infinite. Hold yourself as inlet and outlet: good flows through you, so keep the channel open by giving. Make “give” your default thought in work and relationships. Use a regular tithe as training wheels to build the giving consciousness, then let giving become spontaneous. Bless your bills (“thank you for the evidence of circulation”), drop scarcity talk, and rejoice at others’ good — within your real means.
What it is
In Spiritual Economics, Eric Butterworth reframed prosperity as a state of consciousness, not an amount of money. His core claim: “You are an inlet and an outlet of divine substance.
Your good does not come to you; it comes through you.” God — infinite substance — is the source; your job, paycheck, and the economy are merely channels. The practice that follows is the Law of Circulation: giving and receiving are two ends of one flow, so to prosper you cultivate the giving end.
Butterworth compressed the whole orientation into two words: “Think give, and you will receive.” This is an embodiment state practice because the work is to inhabit a different relationship to supply — to move from a grasping, scarcity self into a flowing, giving self — rather than to recite a formula or visualize an object.
The Method
Faithfully synthesised from Spiritual Economics:
- Relocate your source. Deliberately stop treating your job, salary, or “the economy” as your source; treat them as channels. Affirm that your source is the infinite substance “in which you live and move and have your being.” This is the foundational reframe — without it, the rest collapses back into fear.
- Take the posture of inlet and outlet. Hold the felt sense that good flows through you, not merely to you. Hoarding clogs the channel; giving keeps it open. The aim is a flow, not an accumulation.
- Think give — in work and relationship. Butterworth taught making “give” the default thought: think of your work as giving (what value, service, excellence can I pour in?) and every relationship as an opportunity to give. “The work in your job is the means by which you build a consciousness of giving.” Reorient daily activity from “what can I get” to “what can I give.”
- Give where you are spiritually fed. Practice deliberate giving — money, time, talent — to the people and places that genuinely uplift you. This is the disciplined exercise that trains the consciousness, not a transaction to buy a return.
- Use tithing as training wheels — then outgrow it. Butterworth’s distinctive teaching: a regular proportionate gift (the classic tenth) is “a technique for fulfilling the law of giving,” excellent for getting into a giving consciousness — “spiritual training wheels.” But it is not a law and not a substitute for the giving attitude. At some point the training wheel is released so giving becomes spontaneous, from love and free will.
- Bless your financial obligations. Rather than resenting bills, meet each one with gratitude — e.g. “Thank you for the evidence of circulation and provision” — affirming that money moving outward is the same flow that returns. This dissolves the contraction and resentment that, in his view, choke the channel.
- Celebrate others’ prosperity; refuse scarcity talk. Replace lack-language (“I can’t afford it,” “times are hard”) with the truth of abundance, and actively rejoice in others’ good rather than envying it — envy affirms lack, blessing affirms supply. (Sourcing note: “inlet and outlet of divine substance,” “your good… comes through you,” “Think give, and you will receive,” tithing as “training wheels,” “the work in your job is the means by which you build a consciousness of giving,” and the blessing-of-obligations practice are Butterworth’s, attributed. The numbered protocol is a faithful synthesis, not a reproduction of his text.)
Source & Lineage
Eric Butterworth (1916–2003), Unity minister and author, wrote Spiritual Economics as a modern New Thought classic on prosperity. The teaching descends directly from Charles Fillmore’s Prosperity and the Unity prosperity tradition, and from Emmet Fox; the “substance / source within” idea traces to Quimby and the broader New Thought metaphysics of an omnipresent divine substance.
The “give to receive / law of circulation” motif runs through Catherine Ponder and most prosperity New Thought.
The Traditions' versions
Charles Fillmore, Prosperity / Unity tithing — the direct parent teaching.
- Catherine Ponder’s prosperity laws — tithing and the “law of giving” as wealth practice.
- Emmet Fox prosperity teaching — “spiritual substance” as source.
- Biblical “give and it shall be given,” tithing (Malachi 3:10) — the scriptural root Butterworth reinterprets metaphysically.
- Gratitude/blessing practices — blessing what you have to “increase” it (also Ponder, Florence Scovel Shinn).
- Karmic dāna / generosity (Buddhism) — giving as the practice that loosens grasping and ripens wellbeing.
Common refinements
Giving to get. Butterworth’s whole point is that transactional giving (donate → expect a payout) keeps you in getting consciousness. Give to be a giver; release the return.
- Tithing as a magic tax. Treating the tenth as a law that “obligates” return misses his teaching — it’s training wheels, not a vending machine.
- Over-giving / financial recklessness. “Circulation” is not a licence to give past your means, neglect debts, or skip a budget. Generosity within wisdom.
- Spiritual bypass of real money problems. Affirming abundance must accompany — not replace — practical action: earning, budgeting, negotiating, getting advice.
- Forced positivity / denial. Refusing scarcity talk is useful; denying a genuine financial crisis is dangerous. Face facts and hold the constructive frame.