What is Resurrection?

Troward teaches the resurrection of the body: physical matter still, but wholly subject to the indwelling spirit. Resurrection does not mean merely the resuscitation of the old body under the old conditions, nor an illusory spirit-shape. As Spirit is the Alpha of the Creative Process, solid material form is its Omega, so a life that stops short of the body is not yet complete. The body is built, as every body is, by the subconscious mind in harmony with the laws of Nature, and the power over it is used only to meet actual requirements, never to play psychic pranks. In the Doré Lectures he calls the principle of the Resurrection man's realization that the Spirit individualized in him is the Alpha of a new creation from his own center.

Many New Thought teachers place the emphasis on consciousness. For them resurrection is not a single historical event but an ongoing awakening of the individual to its true, divine nature, the 'death' of the old, limited self and the 'birth' of a new consciousness, reached through affirmation, visualization and faith. Neville Goddard speaks of it as a personal, mystical experience, a rising from the 'tomb' of limited belief and human conditioning into the realization of one's identity as God, and as the awakening to the 'wish fulfilled.'

Troward starts where the wider New Thought reading starts, with the recognition of the indwelling Spirit, and follows it into the body. In the chapter on the manifestation of the Life Principle he names three stages open to the spiritual ego in ourselves: to keep the body in perfect health, to renew it, eradicating the effects of old age, and to perpetuate the renewed body as long as the individual might desire. The difference between healing disease and this renewal, he says, is "only a difference of degree and not of kind." He reads the Bible the same way: death is not the will of God, Jesus said that those who live and believe on Him shall never die, and Paul wished not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon. "Death will some day cease to be," Troward writes, though for most of us the death of the body remains the more probable event, and those who pass over knowing the principle go "in sure and certain hope of a glorious Resurrection."

The term 'resurrection' comes from the Latin 'resurrectio,' meaning 'a rising again,' derived from 'resurgere,' 'to rise again.'

Practically, resurrection in New Thought is applied through a daily commitment to spiritual practices that elevate consciousness. This includes consistent meditation to connect with the divine self, affirmative prayer to declare desired states as already accomplished, and visualization to impress the subconscious mind with images of the 'wish fulfilled.' It involves consciously denying limiting beliefs and affirming one's inherent power and perfection. By repeatedly turning attention away from external problems and towards the inner spiritual truth, individuals 'resurrect' themselves from conditions of lack or illness into states of health, prosperity, and joy.

Troward's practice fixes attention on the principle rather than on any particular bodily shape. It begins by setting aside the race-belief that physical death is in all cases a necessary law of Nature, and the theological belief that it is the will of God, and by taking the Normal Standard of Personality, the Life, Love and Beauty of the Spirit, as one's own. The recognized principle of physical resurrection then becomes a clear line of auto-suggestion that both the objective and the subjective mind can accept. Its daily form is worship, reverent communion with the Innermost Spirit, carried on within ordinary life.

One misconception is that New Thought treats resurrection only as a metaphor. Many teachers do read it as a rebirth of consciousness, but Troward teaches the resurrection of the body as the completion of the Creative Process. A second is that his resurrection body is the old body brought back under the old conditions, or a ghostly spirit-shape; he rejects both. A third is that resurrection belongs only to a distant future. Troward does look to a culminating Resurrection, "that supreme event," but he also calls resurrection a principle that can be laid hold of now and worked out progressively, and physical regeneration itself, he says, is not necessarily "relegated to some far off future." A fourth is that it requires austerities or withdrawal from ordinary life. Troward notes that Enoch was the father of a large family, and that what is wanted is such a realization of the Universal Principle "that our commonest actions will be hallowed by the Divine Presence."