“The terms “inspiration” and “revelation” have been misapplied, and therefore need definition. Inspiration bears to revelation the relation of cause to effect. Inspiration is not necessarily the act of a human agent becoming a medium of expression for a being in the spirit-world, but it is a well-known phenomenon of everyday life. The act of recalling a thought we call “re-collection”, that is, we have had an experience and have forgotten it, a suggestion comes to our mind of something concerning this experience and we wish to recall it. The mind is at once concentrated upon the desired thought, every other thought intruding itself is repelled, and the mind—held in the attitude of desiring, reaching out for one definite thought—draws in, inspires the refined substance generated in the body and expressed through the brain at the time of the experience.
This wonderful formative-principle, active in all growth throughout the world, has its highest manifestation in the brain of man; and the subtle elements, generated in the body by past experience of thinking, are called again into the brain—recollected—and they are remembered. Every part of the occurrence is put together again, member to member, and the experience in all its original form and power stands out before the consciousness which recognizes that which is past.
In like manner, when the heart is sad from a sense of something to be known which is not known, the same faculty is called into activity and reaches out into the realm of Universal Mind to gather that which is desired. The sadness of heart produces a negative state in the inner consciousness, and intensifies desire. Under such circumstances the individual gathers from the unknown, and otherwise unknowable, the knowledge of which the soul feels the need. The knowledge thus inspired, when formed in the mind, becoming a vivid realization, is a phase of revelation.
Still another form of revelation is that received when God sees that a man needs knowledge of something of importance to himself or to the race. Under such circumstances—the inner attitude obtaining in the mind—angels from the world of souls are frequently sent to him with messages of truth and wisdom. But in order to receive the message, the man, as the great teacher said, must become as a little child—he must realize that he does not know and earnestly desire to know.
Because of this fact revelation from the spirit-world is always preceded by a condition which breaks down the selfish mentality, and produces in the individual an earnest, child-like desire to know and to do the right. This destroys, for the time being, all preconceived ideas; enabling the mind to be receptive and to listen. Then the messenger who is sent from on high, all unknown to the individual, draws near and unites his mentality with the mentality of the one to whom he is sent, thus causing him to know even as the messenger knows.
Therefore, in place of a command from a controlling mind, a loving unity is formed for the time and the man is treated as a “friend of God”, But fear of every kind, even fear of error, fear of what people may say, an undue appreciation of one’s own mental capacity, a disposition to criticize anything that may not agree with preconceived ideas—everything not in accordance with the thought of the messenger tends to repel him and to reject his message.
The education of the present day is such that even the most devout and earnest are afraid to receive revelation from God, and therefore the door is practically closed between God in the spirit-world and man in the material world. There are barriers set up against everything except physical experience, and, consequently, new and added revelation of spiritual truth cannot be received. Not only is the “trained mind” barred in every direction except in the direction of physical experience, but even here it must specialize; that is, restrict itself to a particular line of a very limited department of investigation. Thus the person atrophies by disuse every faculty of even the external mind, except those necessary to the very narrow line of activities to which he is confined.
To those familiar with the faculties of our great universities, the effect of this most absolute sacrifice of the individual to the cause of popular education is very evident. The broader intellectual interests are closed to its members, and, except in the department of their own work, they are to a decided degree mentally incapacitated. One can look into their faces and almost tell the line of specialization each has chosen.
Not only do our leading educators, but the majority of the men who lead in the research of the time, sacrifice themselves to the advancement of science. But it is well known that if a man is to attain marked success in any direction, he must focalize his whole mind upon that subject; results are reached in this way that can be obtained in no other.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 