Hello, Friends – This email is the second week of something new – a once-a-week email on Friday written by regular participants in our Fillmore Wings Study Program. Today we have reflections by two people who facilitate Fillmore Wings classes of their own – Marty Keller, who leads a Sunday morning program, and Dara Bermick who leads individual classes on Monday evening. If you do not wish to receive these Friday emails, scroll down to the bottom of this email and click on “Change your subscriptions to our newsletters.” That will open a box where you can change Subscribe/Unsubscribe to the Fillmore Wings Newsletter and other newsletters we send out. – Mark
Realizing Spirit—with Patience, Faith, and Discipline
In today’s study group, we reviewed paragraphs 22, 23, and 24 of Lesson 11, “Denials and Affirmations.”
These three paragraphs encompass, I believe, everything a Truth student needs to understand how what Emilie Cady calls “realization of Spirit” comes about in human beings. They show us quite concretely both how to change our thoughts and how to abide with ourselves while this process goes to work within.
Not until an idea is firmly fixed in the subconscious does it become a habit of mind, a producing mental law for us. Only by repeated affirmations of it, by persistence in thinking about it, does the idea become so firmly fixed as to become an activity of faith.
This appreciation for the role of the subconscious mind in making our faith in the Truth a living reality is often missing from Unity teachings. But without it we often find ourselves mired in frustration and doubt, as the reprogramming of the subconscious mind into alignment with the superconscious Mind of God takes time.
Myrtle Fillmore taught us this important fact in her work to heal her mind and body of her belief in the power of tuberculosis.
Her insight that she was a child of God and therefore did not inherit sickness was necessary but not sufficient for the manifestation of its revelation. She, as do we all, had to do the work. She chose to enter into the Silence every day and praise her body, make amends for her previous beliefs, and revel in the truth of health and wholeness. This she did every day for two years—some seven hundred twenty or more days—without concrete evidence of a physical response.
Her faith in the Truth lifted her over whatever doubts, fears, and frustrations she must have felt as symptoms of the illness persisted. Somehow her faith helped her see that “error race thoughts are not displaced immediately when the conscious phase of mind accepts a new thought of Truth, even though the new thought seems to be fully accepted by the reasoning mind.”
Each affirmation was not an attempt to persuade God but rather an invitation for her own subconscious mind to come into harmony with the Truth she had already glimpsed.
Human beings are conceived with the desire to bond with one another and ultimately with God. The human beings with whom we bond at birth bring us their flaws and erroneous beliefs along with their love and affection. This bonding is neurological as well as spiritual. This is how we learn to believe that we are caught in what Dr. Cady calls “bondage to the flesh and to the things of the flesh.” And this belief is continuously reinforced in the subconscious mind until the day we are graced to encounter Truth.
Our Wayshower Jesus the Christ taught us the way out, and our Unity founders showed us how. Myrtle embodied faith, patience, diligence, and discipline. Regardless of appearances she did her work, denying the old belief in illness and affirming the new belief in the health and vitality that were already hers by virtue of her life in God Mind.
Today’s lesson makes this process plain.
The first step in doing away with the appearance of error is to deny the belief in its reality. This denial, made in the understanding of the truth that the body is essentially spiritual, will reach the subconscious, break up the error states of mind, and make way for the new state of consciousness which is to be built by affirming that the entire man—spirit, soul, body—is spiritual.
All our separation from God is merely a belief in the impossible. We cannot be outside of God, but we can believe that we are. Consciousness is the issue.
To me, this suggests something larger.
There appears to be an evolutionary purpose to the way the world works. Perhaps there is a reason why we are born and raised to believe ourselves in bondage to the flesh and the things of the flesh. Maybe it makes sense that shifting this belief takes work, patience, and self-compassion.
I don’t pretend to know what that reason is, nor do I need to. It’s enough to know that we are designed to realize Spirit—to make Spirit real in our felt experience—once we choose to do so.
In the conclusion of his powerful and moving book New Seeds of Contemplation, the American mystic Thomas Merton wrote,
What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as “play” is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.
So with God’s help let us do the work, affirm the Truth of our being on a daily basis, patiently and resolutely reprogram our subconscious mind, and joyfully play in God’s garden.
How do you want to dance today?
–Marty Keller
Friday, July 3, 2026
Adding Faith To the Practice of Affirmations
In this Lesson 11 on Affirmations and Denials, paragraph 22, Charles Fillmore writes, “Faith is primarily a spiritual principle, but a consciousness of faith is the accumulation of many affirmations.”
It seems, then, that we use affirmations to replace denied error thoughts with true thoughts about ourselves. We understand that since infancy we have accumulated beliefs about ourselves and the world, and these beliefs can affect both our mental and physical well-being. Once we awaken to Spiritual Truth, it is recommended that we begin to remove misleading thinking that may be reflected in challenging or unhappy outer conditions in our lives.
Here, however, Fillmore adds the element of Faith to the practice of affirmations. Does it not make good sense to bring Faith into this process? One metaphysical interpretation of faith states: “Faith working in spiritual substance accomplishes all things. This is the faith that co-operates with creative law. When faith is exercised deep in spiritual consciousness, it finds its abode; and under divine law, without variation or disappointment, it brings results that are seemingly miraculous.” (MBD)
Do not be discouraged if a new belief does not immediately replace old patterns of thinking. It may have taken a lifetime to develop these limiting beliefs, and it may take many repetitions of affirmations to transform them. This understanding is supported by Dr. Rev. Jane Simmons, who writes in her book, You Can’t Sleep Through Your Awakening: “We are often not responding to present circumstances, but rather to old unconscious programming that has become hardwired into our brains.”
It seems, therefore, that affirmations, when joined with Faith and repeated consistently, build the foundation for a new understanding and a firm belief in what we truly are. Be gentle, loving, and kind with yourself as you bring forth these changes in consciousness. As your mind is renewed, you allow the magnificent, powerful, and loving presence that you truly are to shine forth.
In reality, God is forever in process of movement within us so that He may manifest Himself—all Good—more fully through us. Our affirming, backed by faith, is the link that connects our conscious human need with His power and supply. — Emilie Cady, Lessons in Truth, Affirmations
–Dara Bermick, LUT
Friday, July 3, 2026
Return to Fillmore Wings Newsletters
Hello, again, one more thing – Right now we have three ongoing Fillmore Wings groups meeting and another scheduled to start next month. YOU ARE WELCOME to join any or all of them. THERE IS NO PREREQUESITE for entering a class. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE, but we ask you to identify your name in the Zoom session and try to turn on video if possible. To join in, go the Events page for days and times; look for these classes:
- Sundays–Unity Correspondence Course with Marty Keller and Capital City Unity
- Mondays (starting July 13)–Fillmore Correspondence School Christ, The Only Begotten of the Father with Dara Bermick, LUT
- Tuesdays–Fillmore Wings Study Program with Rev. Mark Hicks
- Fridays–Fillmore Fridays with Rev. Melissa Hill Greenbaum
