Vitvan Q&A on affirmations

These two questions stuck out to me.  They come from "A Textbook of The Sacred Science".

Q: Why is it not desirable to use affirmations and denials in healing or self-help?

A: One only affirms that of which he is not conscious or does not possess.  If one is already in the consciousness of a thing or state he does not affirm for it-he is naturally at rest in the consciousness of it.  Therefore, to affirm for a thing or condition is to admit one's lack of it.  This is liable to make one more conscious of his lack than of the positive and natural sense of having the desired thing or condition.  If the affirmation is liable to suggest the very thing one wishes to overcome, it is much better not to us it.  All affirmations suggest polar opposites.  The effectiveness of the affirmation, then, depends upon the degree and strength of concentration of the one using it.  If the person affirming is negative or weak in concentration the adverse suggestion of the affirmation will be stronger.  So with the use of denials; there is a very subtle adverse suggestion attached to their use.  For instance:  If a thing or condition does not exist, never did and never could exist, then one could never be conscious of it in a sufficient degree to deny it, by this very process it becomes a something, even if that something is only a hypothetical nothing.  In short, to name a thing or condition definitely enough to deny it, is to affirm or recognize its existence.  This naming or declaration of a something (even a hypothetical nothing) with sufficient intensity to deny it, is to affirm it.  If negative or weak in concentration, this adverse affirmation to the denial becomes a subtle suggestion.  The strongest suggestions upon one are always the unnoticed or unconscious subtle ones.

Q: Is there a more effective method in healing, or in improvement, than the use of affirmations and denials?

A: Yes, indeed.  In the School of the Sacred Science [Vitvan's first school], it is called the law of association.  It is state thus: One partakes of the quality of that which he associates.  IN the study of this book it has been learned that imagination is a faculty of the Ego, and is a very powerful instrument in achieving results.  If one will, by the help of imagination, closely and constantly associate himself with that which he would be, completely ignoring that which he does not wish to be or to manifest, he will eliminate those qualities from his consciousness, together with the corresponding matter in his mental, astral and physical bodies which he does not want; and will build into his consciousness the qualities, and into his bodies the corresponding matter, which he desires.  This is called elimination by substitution through the law of association.  To the real student, let it be said directly: 1. Do not affirm for that of which you are not now conscious of being and thereby associate yourself with that of which you are conscious of being and wish to overcome; 2. Do not deny that of which you are now conscious of being, but ignore it completely; and, with the aid of imagination, merge yourself with or in the state or quality you wish to manifest.  If you hold this, resisting every temptation to slip back into the old habit-activity of consciousness, you will soon partake of the qualities of your ideal and will manifest them.