The Principle of Mentalism
- Everything IFS
- 2 days ago
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Updated: 2 days ago
Principle 1: The Principle of Mentalism
Journey Through the Law of Mind
“THE ALL is MIND; The Universe is Mental.” — The Kybalion (1908)
This is the first law — and the most difficult to accept.
It opens with two sentences that carry the weight of scripture and the clarity of a riddle. It declares that everything is Mind, and that what we call the universe is not matter, but mentality shaped and held by thought.
But not your thought. Not the flickers of judgment, desire, doubt, or narrative that come and go within the personal psyche. This is not the “manifest your parking space” strand of metaphysics. This is ontological. Foundational. Cosmic.
The Kybalion does not claim that you, as an individual thinker, are creating planets or particles through personal intention. It teaches that everything including the very capacity to think arises within a greater, originating Mind.
That Mind is called The All. And The All is not a being among beings. It is the uncreated source, the eternal ground out of which all things emerge.
Mentalism tells us:
The All does not live inside the universe. The universe lives inside The All.
Is This Non-Duality?
Yes… and no. It resonates with non-dual traditions — Advaita Vedanta, A Course in Miracles, Sufism, Mahayana Buddhism in rejecting the absolute reality of separateness. But Hermeticism does not dissolve form into illusion and stop there. It sees creation itself as meaningful, even if it is mental.
In A Course in Miracles, the world is often described as an error in perception a projection of fear. In The Kybalion, the world is more like a dream held intentionally a mental emanation governed by laws, rhythms, and purpose.
Rather than dismissing the universe as a mistake, Hermeticism treats it as a mental masterpiece something we may not fully grasp but that is neither random nor profane.
This distinction matters. It means your life is not an illusion to ignore. It is a symbol. a thought within a larger thought.
Then Why Does It All Hurt So Much?
If the universe is mental — if reality is Mind — why does it feel so solid? So painful? So cruel?
This is where a part often rises in protest.
A part that says:
“Don’t tell me this is just mind. I’ve buried people I love.”
“I’ve been abused, abandoned, silenced — that wasn’t a dream.”
“If this is all Mind, then what kind of mind would create this?”
This part deserves reverence.
Because Mentalism, when misunderstood, can feel like gaslighting.
It can sound like spiritual bypass:
“None of this is real — let it go.”
Or worse: “You created your own suffering.”
But that is not the law. That is distortion.
The Principle of Mentalism does not deny your pain .It simply opens a question:
If all of this pain is occurring within a field of Mind…what deeper Mind might be holding even this?
A Parts Work Reflection
If you take in this teaching — not agreeing, not believing, just being in its presence — what stirs?
Is there a skeptical part that tightens at mystical language?
A tender part that longs for the universe to be more than random atoms?
A grieving part that feels betrayed by any Mind that would allow suffering?
A curious part wondering what it means to exist inside a vast, living thought?
There is no right reaction.
Mentalism is not an argument. It is a mirror.
Whatever appears confusion, awe, resistance, relief is already included. Because all parts arise within Mind. Nothing is outside it. Not even the part that wishes it were.
Closing Thought
If this law is true, then even the hardest moments are not erased or ignored. They are seen.
Not by a distant deity, but by the very Mind from which you are formed.
And perhaps that is the deepest possibility of all:
You are not separate from the Source because you are already within It a thought held by the Eternal.
⭐ Continue the Journey Through the Seven Hermetic Principles
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