If the universe exists at all, or seems to exist, it must proceed in some way from the All, it must be a creation of the All. But as something can never come from nothing, from what could the All have created it? Some philosophers have answered this question by saying that the All created the universe from Itself, from the being and substance of the All that is. But this will not do, for the All cannot be subtracted from, nor divided, as we have seen, and then again if this be so, would not each particle in the universe be aware of its being the All, the All could not lose its knowledge of itself, nor actually become an atom, or blind force, or lowly living thing.
Some men, indeed, realizing that the All is indeed all, and also recognizing that they, the men, existed, have jumped to the conclusion that they and the All were identical, and they have filled the air with shouts of “I am God,” to the amusement of the multitude and the sorrow of sages. The claim of the corpuscle that: “I am mankind!” would be modest in comparison.
But, what indeed is the universe, if it be not the All, not yet created by the All having separated itself into fragments? What else can it be– of what else can it be made? This is the great question. Let us examine it carefully. We find here that the Principle of Correspondence comes to our aid here. The old Hermetic axiom As above so below may be pressed into service at this point. Let us endeavor to get a glimpse of the workings on higher planes by examining those on our own. The Principle of Correspondence must apply to this as well as to other problems.
Let us see! On his own plane of being, how does mankind create? Well, first, he may create by making something out of outside materials. But this will not do, for there are no materials outside of the All with which it may create. Well, then, secondly, mankind pro-creates or reproduces his kind by the process of begetting, which is self-multiplication accomplished by transferring a portion of his substance to his offspring. But this will not do, because the All cannot transfer or subtract a portion of itself, nor can it reproduce or multiply itself, in the first place there would be a taking away, and in the second case a multiplication or addition to the All, both thoughts being an absurdity. Is there no third way in which mankind creates? Yes, there is: he creates mentally! And in so doing he uses no outside materials, nor does he reproduce himself, and yet his Spirit pervades the Mental Creation.
Following the Principle of Correspondence, we are justified in considering that the All creates the universe mentally, in a manner akin to the process whereby mankind creates mental images. And, here is where the report of reason tallies precisely with the report of the illumined, as shown by their teachings and writings. Such are the teachings of wise men and women. Such was the teaching of Hermes.
The All can create in no other way except mentally, without either using material (and there is none to use), or else reproducing itself (which is also impossible). There is no escape from this conclusion of the reason, which, as we have said, agrees with the highest teachings of the illumined. Just as you, student, may create a universe of your own in your mentality, so does the All create universes in its own mentality. But your universe is the mental creation of a finite mind, whereas that of the All is the creation of an infinite. The two are similar in kind, but infinitely different in degree. We shall examine more closely into the process of creation and manifestation as we proceed. But this is the point to fix in your minds at this stage: The universe, and all it contains, is a mental creation of the All. Verily indeed, all is mind!
– The Kybalion