Atom-Smashing Power of Mind: Chapter 18

This is a metaphysical-Christian teaching essay by Charles Fillmore (1949), founder of the Unity School of Christianity, written in the New Thought tradition. Its central argument is that Jesus's Transfiguration on the mount was not a unique historical miracle but an archetypal spiritual process available to all humans — a pattern of consciousness-elevation that every person undergoes, or must undergo, on the path to "Christ consciousness." Fillmore contends that the real purpose of human existence is to attain a conscious realization of eternal life, not merely to believe in it, and that failing to achieve this realization means the soul — not just the body — perishes. A notably distinctive claim is that this process physically transfigures the body itself: the current material body is a "picture" of a latent "Lord's body" of pure Spirit, and sufficiently elevated spiritual consciousness will literally reorganize the body's cells around new centers, producing a luminous, imperishable form. Fillmore also warns against the common mistake of dwelling permanently in elevated spiritual states while neglecting the body and outer life, insisting on the essential unity of Spirit, soul, and body. The essay further argues that denying past and future in favor of an eternal present is the single most powerful accelerant of this transfiguring process, drawing on allegorical readings of Moses, Elijah, Peter, and Paul to support its interpretations.

Atom-Smashing Power of Mind: Chapter 18

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