1. Divinity is the Universal Intelligence that thought, manifested, and animated all Creation according to unchanging perfect laws.

Mind and consciousness can never be separated. Where there is no consciousness, there is no mind. But even where certain qualities of mind do not exist, there yet can be mind. An organism, for example, may lack ego construct, that is, the awareness of self, and yet have mind. Where any characteristic of consciousness exists, there is an aspect of mind. If we reduce consciousness to the simplest function of which we have knowledge, we still find that quality of responsivity to which we have referred. It can be postulated that any attribute of consciousness is representative of mind. The extent of the mind may vary, of course, with the development of the organism. It is, then, a corollary that mind and consciousness are synonymous.

The question immediately before us is whether this hypothesis can be applied to Absolute Reality; is it also mind? The highest function of human mind is purpose. Such requires the attributes of reason, imagination and will, all of which are a higher order of the mental processes. Is, then, the Absolute purposeful, as theism and pantheism, for example, would have us believe? The end of purpose or its objective is always external to man. It is not entirely of him. Further, what a thing does by the necessity of its nature as an immanent quality is not purpose. The roots of plants will reach for water. The leaves of plants will turn toward the sun. But these are not examples of purposeful causes in their true sense. The motivation is part of the inherent nature of plants. The chemical elements and vitality which plants seek in the water and sunlight are already of the vital force, the essential quality, of their being. What a thing has to do in order to be is not real purpose. It is an automatism, whether there is an awareness of the act or not.

Purpose must manifest a self-consciousness to the extent that the ego appears deficient or lacking in some factor or condition that would heighten its satisfaction. It is then obvious that, where there is purpose and its related values, there must be a duality of the function of consciousness; there must be a realization of the ego and also an awareness of something seemingly apart from it. In purpose we see that the ego (the self) is endeavoring to expand itself by accretion. This process of assimilation by the ego takes from its environment that which it feels—or imagines—it needs or desires.

Excerpts above from The Conscious Interlude by Imperator Ralph M. Lewis

Briefly, the mystic is one who aspires to a personal union, or oneness, with the Absolute. This Absolute he may call either God, Cosmic, Universal Mind, Supreme Being, and so on. The acme of mystical attainment is Cosmic Consciousness. If we transpose the two words as consciousness of the Cosmic we then have a better understanding of the term. Simply, it consists of man having a consciousness of the Cosmic, the One of which all reality consists.
Excerpt from Mental Alchemy by Imperator Ralph M. Lewis