Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Troward's Mental Science
Impress the subconscious (‘subjective mind’) with a clear, calm, confident conception of the desired good, then trust the creative law of growth to externalize it — the conscious (‘objective’) mind supplying the idea and the steady feeling, the subjective mind doing the unseen work.
Decide clearly what you intend (objective mind). Then, in calm, settled confidence, dwell on it as already accomplished — impressing it on the subjective mind with quiet conviction, not strain. Trust the law of growth and stop digging up the seed. Hold the expectant attitude between sittings and act on the intuitions that come.
What it is
Thomas Troward — a retired British colonial judge whose Edinburgh and Dore lectures gave New Thought its most rigorous philosophical spine — taught a precise model of two minds and one law.
The objective (conscious) mind reasons, selects, and initiates; the subjective (subconscious) mind does not argue but accepts whatever is impressed upon it and, being continuous with “Universal Mind,” sets the creative law of growth to work to externalize it.
The practice, then, is to impress the subjective mind with a clear, calm, confidently-held conception of the desired good — and then leave it to grow, exactly as a seed grows once planted. Where Neville’s “living in the end” foregrounds vivid sensory feeling, Troward foregrounds calm intellectual conviction and the law-like inevitability of growth.
The Method
- Form a clear conception with the objective mind. Decide definitely what you intend. The objective mind’s job is selection and direction: “the subjective mind. reasons only deductively” — it builds out whatever premise you hand it, so the premise must be clear and good.
- Impress it on the subjective mind — calmly, with feeling-conviction. Dwell on the desired state as an accomplished fact, in a settled, peaceful confidence. Troward stresses quiet expectancy over excited willing: “we must use our thought. in a calm certainty that the Law will do the work.” Strain and anxiety impress the opposite.
- Trust the Law of Growth — do not dig up the seed. “We do not require to make the law operate. the law is there.” Having impressed the idea, withdraw conscious interference; the subjective mind, joined to Universal Mind, “knows how” to bring the corresponding conditions. Constant doubting re-impression destroys the work.
- Maintain the mental attitude. Hold the general expectant, affirmative attitude between sittings; “the maintenance of this attitude” is what keeps the creative process unobstructed.
- Act on intuition as it arises. The subjective mind returns guidance as hunches and openings; follow them. Troward’s law works through natural means, not by magic shortcut. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are from the Edinburgh Lectures; the numbered structure is an attributed paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Thomas Troward (1847–1916) served as a Divisional Judge in the Punjab, India, before retiring to study and lecture. His Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science (1904) and Dore Lectures (1909) deeply influenced Ernest Holmes (Religious Science) and Neville Goddard, who credited Troward as a foundational teacher.
Common refinements
Willing instead of trusting. Troward is emphatic: effortful, anxious willing impresses doubt. The attitude is calm certainty, like trusting a seed to grow.
- Digging up the seed. Re-opening the question — “is it working?” — re-impresses lack. Plant once, hold the attitude, leave it.
- Vague conception. The deductive subjective mind builds out exactly what it’s given; a blurry premise yields a blurry result.
- Passivity. “Trust the Law” does not mean refuse action; it means act from expectancy, following intuition.