“In considering the underlying and causative principles governing the two factors that give power, the one, the “Reason” or the intellect, and the other, the sentiment that we call “Religion”, we necessarily enter an unknown realm, for mind must study its cause—the stream must rise to its fountain.
Therefore, in order to study the causes underlying mental phenomena, we must reach out and inspire from the fountains of mind. We read that when Jesus was speaking to the people of his day who failed to understand the meaning of his words, he said to them, “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (John 8:47.) He here intimated the possibility of touching a sphere of mind lying beyond that which is normal to the human faculties.
And, after all these centuries of the growth and the development of the race and of the influence of the Christian Religion, have we not a right to believe that there is a large body of men and women in the world that have incorporated within themselves a quality of mind transcendently above the mere human mind, or, shall we say, the animal mind?
In view of these facts, we shall attempt to search into some of the fountains from which come those faculties ultiinating in what we term “Reason” and “Religion.” Because the realm is an unexplored one and there are no ready-made terms in which to express the thought, we ask our readers to help us by studying themselves introspectively.
To begin with the investigation of the reasoning faculties: Why is it that you cannot always use these faculties with equal facility? There are times when, strive as you may to reason out a problem, the mind does not seem to be in tune for its work. Under such circumstances we ask you to turn within and carefully to seek the cause there. Do you not find that there is some disturbance of the vital-currents? Can you reason to advantage when there are inharmonies and combative conditions that you are compelled to meet?
Combativeness and anger confuse the mind and prevent clear, logical reasoning. On the other hand, when surrounded by loving friends, kind thoughts, genial associations, your mind works freely and there is no trouble to reason clearly, positively, and correctly. Does not this at least suggest that there is something behind the phenomenon of what we call the reasoning mind? The sick man is not capable of deep reasoning. The man engaged in research and deep thought finds it necessary to keep the life-currents—the health and vigor of the body—in the best condition in order to do his best work.
Another suggestive fact is that intense concentration of thought and close reasoning, exhaust the body even more rapidly than physical labor. The thought seems to partake of and to use up the life of the body, suggesting that, in some way, mind is directly connected with life. Let us inquire into how we think, not into the methods applied to bring thought into form, but into that which precedes, the means by which we approach those activities which produce the actual thought.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 