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then be in reality only this particular self; there would be no world, only this one person's subjective states; for there could not be two omnipotent powers.

To transfer the centre of power from the physical world to the mental is not by any means to try to prove it to be any less real or less the gift of the Spirit. We must continually guard against confusion between the term "thought," used in a finite, personal sense; and the term "consciousness," employed to designate the condition of life in general. Consciousness is our total experience from infancy onwards, the connection between the self, the world, and the Supreme Spirit. It is at once the world as made known and the reactions of the soul on the world, including perception, emotion, will, the rational process, desire, and the like. It is the general whole, known in childhood as a confused mass, in which various related parts are gradually noted, considered, and classified.

Thought, regarded as meditation upon this general whole, which is progressively discovered,  is of course dependent, limited. It represents, symbolises, imitates, understands by contrast,  comparison, and seizes upon certain phases of  consciousness which it chooses to be concerned with for a time, while all else is permitted to fall into the background. It thus abstracts, it is