Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Entering the Silence
Withdraw into inner stillness — ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ — to rest in and commune with the indwelling Presence, and to listen inwardly for guidance and a felt sense of wholeness.
Sit quietly each day. “Be still, and know that I am God.” Let the mind grow calm, turn within to the indwelling Presence, listen and rest until you feel it real, affirm the Presence in the stillness, then return to the day carrying it.
What it is
Divine Science’s meditative practice of “the Silence”: a daily withdrawal from outer activity into inner stillness in order to rest in, and commune with, the indwelling Presence of God. For Nona Brooks the watchword is the Psalm she returned to constantly — “Be still, and know that I am God.” The Silence is not blanking the mind for its own sake but quieting the surface so the practitioner can listen inwardly, feel the Presence as real, and receive a settled sense of guidance, love, or health.
It is also the first phase of Divine Science healing treatment, in which one grows still enough to feel the truth of what is being affirmed.
The Method
- Withdraw and settle. At a regular time each day, leave off outer activity, sit quietly, and let the body and breath grow calm.
- Be still. Hold the keynote — “Be still, and know that I am God” — and let mental chatter subside into quiet, receptive attention.
- Turn within to the Presence. Direct attention to the indwelling God, the one omnipresent Good, rather than to problems or appearances.
- Listen and feel. Rest in the stillness and listen inwardly — for Brooks, to “the Christ Mind” — staying until the Presence is felt, until you “feel the truth” of your unity with it.
- Affirm in the quiet. In that stillness affirm God’s Presence and deny what is unlike it, holding the realization (this is the silent phase that flows into Divine Science treatment).
- Return carrying it. Come back into the day keeping the consciousness of the Presence, “making each thought and act true, loving, and powerful.” (Sourcing note: “Be still, and know that I am God” is the Psalm 46:10 keynote Brooks used; quoted phrases are from her Short Lessons in Divine Science. The step sequence is attributed paraphrase, not a numbered list in the original.)
Source & Lineage
Nona Lovell Brooks (1861–1945) co-founded Divine Science in Denver. “The Silence” is a shared New Thought inheritance (Quimby, Hopkins, Cramer, Trine); Brooks’s framing is distinctive in tying it tightly to omnipresence — the Silence is where one comes to feel the ever-present God affirmed in Divine Science. Compare other “silence” methods: (Seton’s concentration form).
Common refinements
Striving for a “result.” Brooks’s Silence is restful and receptive, not an effort to extract an experience; forcing it defeats the calm.
- Mistaking it for thinking. It is listening and resting, not working through problems analytically.
- Skipping the feeling. Brooks stresses staying until the Presence is felt, not merely until the words have been said.
- No carry-over. The stillness is meant to season the whole day; ending the sit should not end the consciousness of the Presence.