In
Part Twenty-two you will find that thoughts are spiritual seeds, which, when
planted in the subconscious mind, have a tendency to sprout and grow, but
unfortunately the fruit is frequently not to our liking.
The
various forms of inflammation, paralysis, nervousness and diseased
conditions generally, are the manifestation of fear, worry, care, anxiety,
jealousy, hatred and similar thought.
The
life processes are carried on by two distinct methods; first, the taking up
and making use of nutritive material necessary for constructing cells;
second, breaking down and excreting the waste material.
All
life is based upon these constructive and destructive activities, and as
food, water and air are the only requisites necessary for the construction
of cells, it would seem that the problem of prolonging life indefinitely
would not be a very difficult one.
However strange it may seem, it is the second or destructive activity that
is, with rare exception, the cause of all disease. The waste material
accumulates and saturates the tissues, which causes autointoxication. This
may be partial or general. In the first case the disturbance will be local;
in the second place it will affect the whole system.
The
problem, then, before us in the healing of disease is to increase the inflow
and distribution of vital energy throughout the system, and this can only be
done by eliminating thoughts of fear, worry, care, anxiety, jealousy,
hatred, and every other destructive thought, which tend to tear down and
destroy the nerves and glands which control the excretion and elimination of
poisonous and waste matter.
"Nourishing foods and strengthening tonics" cannot bestow life, because
these are but secondary manifestations to life. The primary manifestation of
life and how you may get in touch with it is explained in the Part which I
have the privilege of enclosing herewith.
PART TWENTY-TWO
1.
Knowledge is of priceless value, because by applying knowledge we can make
our future what we wish it to be. When we realize that our present
character, our present environment, our present ability, our present
physical condition are all the result of past methods of thinking, we shall
begin to have some conception of the value of knowledge.
2. If
the state of our health is not all that could be desired, let us examine our
method of thinking; let us remember that every thought produces an
impression on the mind; every impression is a seed which will sink into the
subconscious and form a tendency; the tendency will be to attract other
similar thoughts and before we know it we shall have a crop which must be
harvested.
3. If
these thoughts contain disease germs, the harvest will be sickness, decay,
weakness, and failure; the question is, what are we thinking, what are we
creating, what is the harvest to be?
4. If
there is any physical condition which it is necessary to change, the law
governing visualization will be found effective. Make a mental image of
physical perfection, hold it in the mind until it is absorbed by the
consciousness. Many have eliminated chronic ailments in a few weeks by this
method, and thousands have overcome and destroyed all manner of ordinary
physical disturbances by this method in a few days, sometimes in a few
minutes.
5. It
is through the law of vibration that the mind exercises this control over
the body. We know that every mental action is a vibration, and we know that
all form is simply a mode of motion, a rate of vibration. Therefore, any
given vibration immediately modifies every atom in the body, every life cell
is affected and an entire chemical change is made in every group of life
cells.
6.
Everything in the Universe is what it is by virtue of its rate of vibration.
Change the rate of vibration and you change the nature, quality and form.
The vast panorama of nature, both visible and invisible, is being constantly
changed by simply changing the rate of vibration, and as thought is a
vibration we can also exercise this power. We can change the vibration and
thus produce any condition which we desire to manifest in our bodies.
7. We
are all using this power every minute. The trouble is most of us are using
it unconsciously and thus producing undesirable results. The problem is to
use it intelligently and produce only desirable results. This should not be
difficult, because we all have had sufficient experience to know what
produces pleasant vibration in the body, and we also know the causes which
produce the unpleasant and disagreeable sensations.
8. All
that is necessary is to consult our own experience. When our thought has
been uplifted, progressive, constructive, courageous, noble, kind or in any
other way desirable, we have set in motion vibrations which brought about
certain results. When our thought has been filled with envy, hatred,
jealousy, criticism or any of the other thousand and one forms of discord,
certain vibrations were set in motion which brought about certain other
results of a different nature, and each of these rates of vibration, if kept
up, crystallized in form. In the first case the result was mental, moral and
physical health, and in the second case discord, inharmony and disease.
9. We
can understand, then, something of the power which the mind possesses over
the body.
10.
The objective mind has certain effects on the body which are readily
recognized. Someone says something to you which strikes you as ludicrous and
you laugh, possibly until your whole body shakes, which shows that thought
has control over the muscles of your body; or someone says something which
excites your sympathy and your eyes fill with tears, which shows that
thought controls the glands of your body; or someone says something which
makes you angry and the blood mounts to your cheek, which shows that thought
controls the circulation of your blood. But as these experiences are all the
results of the action of your objective mind over the body, the results are
of a temporary nature; they soon pass away and leave the situation as it was
before.
11.
Let us see how the action of the subconscious mind over the body differs.
You receive a wound; thousands of cells being the work of healing at once;
in a few days or a few weeks the work is complete. You may even break a
bone. No surgeon on earth can weld the parts together (I am not referring to
the insertion of rods or other devices to strengthen or replace bones). He
may set the bone for you, and the subjective mind will immediately begin the
process of welding the parts together, and in a short time the bone is as
solid as it ever was. You may swallow poison; the subjective mind will
immediately discover the danger and make violent efforts to eliminate it.
You may become infected with a dangerous germ; the subjective will at once
commence to build a wall around the infected area and destroy the infection
by absorbing it in the white blood corpuscles which it supplies for the
purpose.
12.
These processes of the subconscious mind usually proceed without our
personal knowledge or direction, and so long as we do not interfere the
result is perfect, but, as these millions of repair cells are all
intelligent and respond to our thought, they are often paralyzed and
rendered impotent by our thoughts of fear, doubt, and anxiety. They are like
an army of workmen, ready to start an important piece of work, but every
time they get started on the undertaking a strike is called, or plans
changed, until they finally get discouraged and give up.
13.
The way to health is founded on the law of vibration, which is the basis of
all science, and this law is brought into operation by the mind, the "world
within." It is a matter of individual effort and practice. Our world of
power is within; if we are wise we shall not waste time and effort in trying
to deal with effects as we find them in the "world without," which is only
an external, a reflection.
14. We
shall always find the cause in the "world within"; by changing the cause, we
change the effect.
15.
Every cell in your body is intelligent and will respond to your direction.
The cells are all creators and will create the exact pattern which you give
them.
16.
Therefore, when perfect images are placed before the subjective, the
creative energies will build a perfect body.
17.
Brain cells are constructed in the same way. The quality of the brain is
governed by the state of mind, or mental attitude, so that if undesirable
mental attitudes are conveyed to the subjective they will in turn be
transferred to the body; we can therefore readily see that if we wish the
body to manifest health, strength and vitality this must be the predominant
thought.
18. We
know then that every element of the human body is the result of a rate of
vibration.
19. We
know that mental action is a rate of vibration.
20. We
know that a higher rate of vibration governs, modifies, controls, changes,
or destroys a lower rate of vibration.
21. We
know that the rate of vibration is governed by the character of brain cells,
and finally,
22. We
know how to create these brain cells; therefore,
23. We
know how to make any physical change in the body we desire, and having
secured a working knowledge of the power of mind to this extent, we have
come to know that there is practically no limitation which can be placed
upon our ability to place ourselves in harmony with natural law, which is
omnipotent.
24.
This influence or control over the body by mind is coming to be more and
more generally understood, and many physicians are now giving the matter
their earnest attention. Dr. Albert T. Shofield, who has written several
important books on the subject, say, "The subject of mental therapeutics is
still ignored in medical works generally. In our physiologies no references
is made to the central controlling power that rules the body for its good,
and the power of the mind over the body is seldom spoken of".
25. No
doubt many physicians treat nervous diseases of functional origin wisely and
well, but what we contend is that the knowledge they display was taught at
no school, was learned from no book, but it is intuitive and empirical.
26.
This is not as it should be. The power of mental therapeutics should be the
subject of careful, special and scientific teaching in every medical school.
We might pursue the subject of maltreatment, or want of treatment, further
in detail and describe the disastrous results of neglected cases; but the
task is an invidious one.
27.
There can be no doubt that few patients are aware how much they can do for
themselves. What the patient can do for himself, the forces he can set in
motion are as yet unknown. We are inclined to believe that they are far
greater than most imagine, and will undoubtedly be used more and more.
Mental therapeutics may be directed by the patient himself to calming the
mind in excitement, by arousing feelings of joy, hope, faith, and love; by
suggesting motives for exertion, by regular mental work, by diverting the
thoughts from the malady.
28.
For your exercise this week concentrate on Tennyson's beautiful lines "Speak
to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet, Closer is He
than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." Then try to realize that
when you do "Speak to Him" you are in touch with Omnipotence.
29.
This realization and recognition of this Omnipresent power will quickly
destroy any and every form of sickness or suffering and substitute harmony
and perfection. Then remember there are those who seem to think that
sickness and suffering are sent by God; if so, every physician, every
surgeon and every Red Cross nurse is defying the will of God and hospitals
and sanitariums are places of rebellion instead of houses of mercy. Of
course, this quickly reasons itself into an absurdity, but there are many;
who still cherish the idea.
30.
Then let the thought rest on the fact that until recently theology has been
trying to teach an impossible Creator, one who created beings capable of
sinning and then allowed them to be eternally punished for such sins. Of
course the necessary outcome of such extraordinary ignorance was to create
fear instead of love, and so, after two thousand years of this kind of
propaganda, Theology is now busily engaged in apologizing for Christendom.
31.
You will then more readily appreciate the ideal man, the man made in the
image and likeness of God, and you will more readily appreciate the all
originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains, originates, and creates all
there is. |
