KYBALION: The Principle of Mentalism

Everything IFS
2 days ago
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Principle 1: The Principle of Mentalism

A 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 gravity of scripture and the opacity of myth .It declares that everything is Mind, and that what we call the universe is not material, but mental shaped and held by a field of thought. But not your thought. Not the flickers of judgment, desire, doubt, and story that come and go in your personal psyche.

This isn’t the “manifest your parking space” kind of teaching. This is ontological. Foundational. Cosmic. The Kybalion isn’t claiming you, as a lone ego, are thinking planets into place. It says that all things — including your ability to think — arise within a deeper, pre-personal Mind. That Mind is called The All. And The All is not a being among beings .It is the uncreated origin — the sacred loom from which all experience is woven.

The law tells us:

The All does not exist inside the universe. The universe exists inside The All.

That’s the crux of the Principle of Mentalism. Everything substance, sorrow, star, skin is an expression of Mind. Pause here. Notice what shifts in your breath as you sit with that. Even if the shift is nothing, even if the breath stays still that too belongs.

Is This Non-Duality?

In some ways, yes. The idea that all form is thought within a singular field resonates deeply with non-dual traditions — Advaita Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, even A Course in Miracles.

But here’s where Hermeticism diverges:

In Advaita, the world is often seen as Maya — illusion, misperception, something to be dissolved.
In ACIM, the world is a perceptual error born of separation — an unreal projection from a fractured mind.
But in Hermeticism?

The world is a dream, yes. But a meaningful one.

Mentalism does not suggest the world is a mistake .It suggests the world is a curriculum — a lawful emanation of Mind, not ego. Creation is not a glitch. It is intentional. To live is not to be trapped in error. It is to be held in a dream with structure, a vibration with rhythm, a story with purpose.

That distinction matters.Because it means your pain is not discarded.It’s witnessed.It’s part of the unfolding mental tapestry.

Then Why Does It All Hurt So Much?

If the universe is mental…Why does it feel so solid? So cruel? So irreversibly real?

This is where a part may rise in protest.

A part that says: “Don’t tell me this is just mind. I’ve buried people I love.” “I’ve been abused, betrayed, silenced that wasn’t a dream.” “If this is all Mind, then what kind of mind would create this?” That part is sacred. Because Mentalism, when misunderstood, can sound like gaslighting. Or spiritual bypass. Or worse, like blame. The distortion says: “You created your suffering with your thoughts.”“It’s not real, so let it go.”

But that is not the Law. That is misinterpretation.

The true Law of Mentalism never asks you to dismiss your pain. It asks you to wonder, softly: If all of this is occurring inside a field of Mind…then what deeper Mind might be holding even this?

Not as explanation .Not as justification. But as a lens of inclusion. Even agony. Even grief. Even your resistance all of it arises inside The All.

A Parts Work Reflection

If you let this teaching rest against you — not for agreement, not for belief, but simply presence — what stirs?

Is there a skeptical part who rejects the whole idea?
A wounded part that feels abandoned by any “mind” that would allow this world?
A curious part wondering how this shifts your relationship to reality?
A longing part that aches for meaning in a painful existence?

Let each part breathe. Let none be silenced.

You don’t need to resolve anything today. You don’t need to believe this. Just let your system be in the room with it.

Because even your confusion belongs. Even your doubt is part of the field.

Closing Thought

If this law is true, then your life is not an accident. Your thoughts are not noise. Your emotions are not static.

They are waves within a sea that is also Mind.

And perhaps the most sacred possibility is this:

You are not separate from the Source, because you are already within It. Not as a mistake. Not as a punishment. But as a thought… held by the Eternal. And the Eternal does not forget what It holds. 🕯️

⭐ Continue the Journey Through the Seven Hermetic Principles