Part Twenty-Two
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.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose
body nature is, and God the soul.
Opportunity follows perception, action follows
inspiration, growth follows knowledge, eminence flows progress.
Always the spiritual first, then the transformation into the
infinite and illimitable possibilities of achievement. |