" The ancient Hermetists had a principle, the First Principle they called it, that the universe itself was mental. They taught that All That Was existed purely as a thought in the Mind of God, or the All as they called it. Even we human beings with all our complexities had no substantial existence as matter, but were merely thoughts in the mind of our Creator, much like Micawber arising with his fellows from the mind of Dickens. The Hermetists claimed you could change the universe, or your own at any rate, by transmuting it mentally. "

― Steven Pressfield , The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life