Surely Thane Attended Thomas Troward’s classes by Heather C. Williams, H.W.,M.
My Teacher, Thane, was a great teacher. He taught a variety of classes in the art of thinking spiritually...which is the art of identifying with your True Self. He created tools for students to use in their own daily lives to help them realign their thoughts with Universal Principles. Thane was not just a great teacher — he was a master storyteller, and he loved to tell jokes that got everyone laughing.
I met Thane in San Francisco. It was at the end of his Cosmic Intention Therapy Class at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel (September 1970), when I walked up to him, with tears in my eyes, and I hugged him. I knew he was the Gurdjieff Teacher I was searching for. Now, for the last 50 years, I have been using his tools, Translation and Releasing the Hidden Splendour, to help me confront many problems (with money, relationships, and employment) and to open my mind to the unpredictable GOOD that lives deep within or behind every appearance.
Three valuable statements by Thane are in my book, Drawing as a Sacred Activity.
Think with your heart and feel with your mind.
Learn to live back and forth between matter space and mind space.
Confidence in your old self is lost just before you accept your new self. Instead of trying to build up confidence in the old self — be willing to plow under the partial, separate self and be planted with the seeds of your far greater Essential Self.
So why am I writing about Thane and Thomas Troward? Well, the other day, I found a little hardbound book in my personal library — The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science by Thomas Troward. I don’t remember where it came from or how I got it. But when I took it off the shelf and sat down and began reading it, I felt so happy!
Troward has a wonderful ability to clarify in words what Thane was teaching about how the Universal Principles of LIFE govern the relationship between Mental Action (mind) and Material Conditions (body). The Science of Mind is Troward’s legacy, and Thane had great respect for the Science of Mind. In fact, Ernest Holmes (founder of Science of Mind) called Thane the “Teacher of Teachers”. Thane surely must have attended Thomas Troward’s classes in England. In Thane’s Translation Class you learn a syllogistic tool of “deductive reasoning.” Troward clearly explains that deductive reasoning is how you apply Universal Principles.
In Chapter One, titled Spirit and Matter, he says:“The work of an enlightened intelligence results from a persistent determination to discover what truth really is...to think honestly for ourselves instead of endeavouring to get our thinking done for us.” Hmmm. This, to me, is what democracy is all about. We are people in a democracy and we have to think for ourselves! Thane described the tool, TRANSLATION, as “Straight Thinking in the Abstract.” I highly recommend that you get Thomas Troward’s book. Enjoy!