_That man himself is Thinking Substance; a mind-body, permeating a physical body, and that as man"s thoughts are, so will the functioning of his physical body be._
_That if man will think only thoughts of perfect health, he must and will cause the internal and involuntary functioning of his body to be the functioning of health, provided that his external and voluntary functioning and att.i.tude are in accordance with his thoughts._
When you will to believe these statements, you must also begin to act upon them. You cannot long retain a belief unless you act upon it; you cannot increase a belief until it becomes faith unless you act upon it; and you certainly cannot expect to reap benefits in any way from a belief so long as you act as if the opposite were true. You cannot long have faith in health if you continue to act like a sick person. If you continue to act like a sick person, you cannot help continuing to think of yourself as a sick person; and if you continue to think of yourself as a sick person, you will continue to be a sick person.
The first step toward acting externally like a well person is to begin to act internally like a well person. Form your conception of perfect health, and get into the way of thinking about perfect health until it begins to have a definite meaning to you. Picture yourself as doing the things a strong and healthy person would do, and have faith that you can and will do those things in that way; continue this until you have a vivid CONCEPTION of health, and what it means to you. When I speak in this book of a conception of health, I mean a conception that carries with it the idea of the way a healthy person looks and does things.
Think of yourself in connection with health until you form a conception of how you would live, appear, act, and do things as a perfectly healthy person. Think about yourself in connection with health until you conceive of yourself, in imagination, as always doing everything in the manner of a well person; until the thought of health conveys the idea of what health means to you. As I have said in a former chapter, you may not be able to form a clear mental image of yourself in perfect health, but you can form a conception of yourself as acting like a healthy person.
Form this conception, and then think only thoughts of perfect health in relation to yourself, and, so far as may be possible, in relation to others. When a thought of sickness or disease is presented to you, reject it; do not let it get into your mind; do not entertain or consider it at all. Meet it by thinking health; by thinking that you are well, and by being sincerely grateful for the health you are receiving.
Whenever suggestions of disease are coming thick and fast upon you, and you are in a "tight place," fall back upon the exercise of grat.i.tude.
Connect yourself with the Supreme; give thanks to G.o.d for the perfect health He gives you, and you will soon find yourself able to control your thoughts, and to think what you want to think. In times of doubt, trial, and temptation, the exercise of grat.i.tude is always a sheet anchor which will prevent you from being swept away. Remember that the great essential thing is to SEVER ALL MENTAL RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND TO ENTER INTO FULL MENTAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HEALTH. This is the KEY to all mental healing; it is the whole thing. Here we see the secret of the great success of Christian Science; more than any other formulated system of practice, it insists that its converts shall sever relations with disease, and relate themselves fully with health. The healing power of Christian Science is not in its theological formulae, nor in its denial of matter; but in the fact that it induces the sick to ignore disease as an unreal thing and accept health by faith as a reality. Its failures are made because its pract.i.tioners, while thinking in the Certain Way, do not eat, drink, breathe, and sleep in the same way.
While there is no healing power in the repet.i.tion of strings of words, yet it is a very convenient thing to have the central thoughts so formulated that you can repeat them readily, so that you can use them as affirmations whenever you are surrounded by an environment which gives you adverse suggestions. When those around you begin to talk of sickness and death, close your ears and mentally a.s.sert something like the following:--
_There is One Substance, and I am that Substance._
_That Substance is eternal, and it is Life; I am that Substance, and I am Eternal Life._
_That Substance knows no disease; I am that Substance, and I am Health._
Exercise your will power in choosing only those thoughts which are thoughts of health, and arrange your environment so that it shall suggest thoughts of health. Do not have about you books, pictures, or other things which suggest death, disease, deformity, weakness, or age; have only those which convey the ideas of health, power, joy, vitality, and youth. When you are confronted with a book, or anything else which suggests disease, do not give it your attention. Think of your conception of health, and your grat.i.tude, and affirm as above; use your will power to fix your attention upon thoughts of health. In a future chapter I shall touch upon this point again; what I wish to make plain here is that you must think only health, recognize only health, and give your attention only to health; and that you must control thought, recognition, and attention by the use of your will.
Do not try to use your will to compel the healthy performance of function within you. The Principle of Health will attend to that, if you give your attention only to thoughts of health.
Do not try to exert your will upon the Formless to compel It to give you more vitality or power; it is already placing all the power there is at your service.
You do not have to use your will to conquer adverse conditions, or to subdue unfriendly forces; there are no unfriendly forces; there is only One Force, and that force is friendly to you; it is a force which makes for health.
Everything in the universe wants you to be well; you have absolutely nothing to overcome but your own habit of thinking in a certain way about disease, and you can do this only by forming a habit of thinking in another Certain Way about health.
Man can cause all the internal functions of his body to be performed in a perfectly healthy manner by continuously thinking in a Certain Way, and by performing the external functions in a certain way.
He can think in this Certain Way by controlling his attention, and he can control his attention by the use of his will.
He can decide what things he will think about.
CHAPTER VII.
HEALTH FROM G.o.d.
I will give a chapter here to explaining how man may receive health from the Supreme. By the Supreme I mean the Thinking Substance from which all things are made, and which is in all and through all, seeking more complete expression and fuller life. This Intelligent Substance, in a perfectly fluid state, permeates and penetrates all things, and is in touch with all minds. It is the source of all energy and power, and const.i.tutes the "inflow" of life which Swedenborg saw, vitalizing all things. It is working to one definite end, and for the fulfillment of one purpose; and that purpose is the advancement of life toward the complete expression of Mind. When man harmonizes himself with this Intelligence, it can and will give him health and wisdom. When man holds steadily to the purpose to live more abundantly, he comes into harmony with this Supreme Intelligence.
The purpose of the Supreme Intelligence is the most Abundant Life for all; the purpose of this Supreme Intelligence for you is that you should live more abundantly. If, then, your own purpose is to live more abundantly, you are unified with the Supreme; you are working with It, and it must work with you. But as the Supreme Intelligence is in all, _if you harmonize with it you must harmonize with all; and you must desire more abundant life for all as well as for yourself_. Two great benefits come to you from being in harmony with the Supreme Intelligence.
First, you will receive wisdom. By wisdom I do not mean knowledge of facts so much as ability to perceive and understand facts, and to judge soundly and act rightly in all matters relating to life. Wisdom is the power to perceive truth, and the ability to make the best use of the knowledge of truth. It is the power to perceive at once the best end to aim at, and the means best adapted to attain that end. With wisdom comes poise, and the power to think rightly; to control and guide your thoughts, and to avoid the difficulties which come from wrong thinking.
With wisdom you will be able to select the right courses for your particular needs, and to so govern yourself in all ways as to secure the best results. You will know how to do what you want to do. You can readily see that wisdom must be an essential attribute of the Supreme Intelligence, since That which knows all truth must be wise; and you can also see that just in proportion as you harmonize and unify your mind with that Intelligence you will have wisdom.
But I repeat that since this Intelligence is All, and in all, you can enter into Its wisdom only by harmonizing with all. If there is anything in your desires or your purpose which will bring oppression to any, or work injustice to, or cause lack of life for any, you cannot receive wisdom from the Supreme. Furthermore, your purpose for your own self must be the best.
Man can live in three general ways: for the gratification of his body, for that of his intellect, or for that of his soul. The first is accomplished by satisfying the desires for food, drink, and those other things which give enjoyable physical sensations. The second is accomplished by doing those things which cause pleasant mental sensations, such as gratifying the desire for knowledge or those for fine clothing, fame, power, and so on. The third is accomplished by giving way to the instincts of unselfish love and altruism. Man lives most wisely and completely when he functions most perfectly along all of these lines, without excess in any of them. The man who lives swinishly, for the body alone, is unwise and out of harmony with G.o.d; that man who lives solely for the cold enjoyments of the intellect, though he be absolutely moral, is unwise and out of harmony with G.o.d; and the man who lives wholly for the practice of altruism, and who throws himself away for others, is as unwise and as far from harmony with G.o.d as those who go to excess in other ways.
To come into full harmony with the Supreme, you must purpose to LIVE; to live to the utmost of your capabilities in body, mind, and soul. This must mean the full exercise of function in all the different ways, but without excess; for excess in one causes deficiency in the others.
Behind your desire for health is your own desire for more abundant life; and behind that is the desire of the Formless Intelligence to live more fully in you. So, as you advance toward perfect health, hold steadily to the purpose to attain complete life, physical, mental, and spiritual; to advance in all ways, and in every way to live more; if you hold this purpose you will be given wisdom. "He that willeth to do the will of the Father shall KNOW," said Jesus. Wisdom is the most desirable gift that can come to man, for it makes him rightly self-governing.
But wisdom is not all you may receive from the Supreme Intelligence; you may receive physical energy, vitality, life force. The energy of the Formless Substance is unlimited, and permeates everything; you are already receiving or appropriating to yourself this energy in an automatic and instinctive way, but you can do so to a far greater degree if you set about it intelligently. The measure of a man"s strength is not what G.o.d is willing to give him, but what he, himself, has the will and the intelligence to appropriate to himself. G.o.d gives you all there is; your only question is how much to take of the unlimited supply.
Professor James has pointed out that there is apparently no limit to the powers of men; and this is simply because man"s power comes from the inexhaustible reservoir of the Supreme. The runner who has reached the stage of exhaustion, when his physical power seems entirely gone, by running on in a Certain Way may receive his "second wind"; his strength is renewed in a seemingly miraculous fashion, and he can go on indefinitely. And by continuing in the Certain Way, he may receive a third, fourth, and fifth "wind"; we do not know where the limit is, or how far it may be possible to extend it. The conditions are that the runner must have absolute faith that the strength will come; that he must think steadily of strength, and have perfect confidence that he has it, and that he must continue to run on. If he admits a doubt into his mind, he falls exhausted, and if he stops running to wait for the accession of strength, it will never come. His faith in strength, his faith that he _can_ keep on running, his unwavering purpose _to_ keep on running, and his action _in_ keeping on seem to connect him to the source of energy in such a way as to bring him a new supply.
In a very similar manner, the sick person who has unquestioning faith in health, whose purpose brings him into harmony with the source, and who performs the voluntary functions of life in a certain way, will receive vital energy sufficient for all his needs, and for the healing of all his diseases. G.o.d, who seeks to live and express himself fully in man, delights to give man all that is needed for the most abundant life.
Action and reaction are equal, and when you desire to live more, if you are in mental harmony with the Supreme, the forces which make for life begin to concentrate about you and upon you. The One Life begins to move toward you, and your environment becomes surcharged with it. Then, if you appropriate it by faith, it is yours. "Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Your Father giveth not his spirit by measure; he delights to give good gifts to you.
CHAPTER VIII.
SUMMARY OF THE MENTAL ACTIONS.
Let me now summarize the mental actions and att.i.tudes necessary to the practice of the Science of Being Well: first, you believe that there is a Thinking Substance, from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the inters.p.a.ces of the universe. This Substance is the Life of All, and is seeking to express more life in all. It is the Principle of Life of the universe, and the Principle of Health in man.
Man is a form of this Substance, and draws his vitality from it; he is a mind-body of original substance, permeating a physical body, and the thoughts of his mind-body control the functioning of his physical body.
If man thinks no thoughts save those of perfect health, the functions of his physical body will be performed in a manner of perfect health.
If you would consciously relate yourself to the All-Health, your purpose must be to live fully on every plane of your being. You must want all that there is in life for body, mind, and soul; and this will bring you into harmony with all the life there is. The person who is in conscious and intelligent harmony with All will receive a continuous inflow of vital power from the Supreme Life; and this inflow is prevented by angry, selfish or antagonistic mental att.i.tudes. If you are against any part, you have severed relations with all; you will receive life, but only instinctively and automatically; not intelligently and purposefully. You can see that if you are mentally antagonistic to any part, you cannot be in complete harmony with the Whole; therefore, as Jesus directed, be reconciled to everybody and everything before you offer worship.
_Want for everybody all that you want for yourself._
The reader is recommended to read what we have said in a former work[A]
concerning the Compet.i.tive mind and the Creative mind. It is very doubtful whether one who has lost health can completely regain it so long as he remains in the compet.i.tive mind.
[A] The Science of Getting Rich.
Being on the Creative or Good-Will plane in mind, the next step is to form a conception of yourself as in perfect health, and to hold no thoughts which are not in full harmony with this conception. Have FAITH that if you think only thoughts of health you will establish in your physical body the functioning of health; and use your will to determine that you will think only thoughts of health. Never think of yourself as sick, or as likely to be sick; never think of sickness in connection with yourself at all. And, as far as may be, shut out of your mind all thoughts of sickness in connection with others. Surround yourself as much as possible with the things which suggest the ideas of strength and health.
Have faith in health, and accept health as an actual present fact in your life. Claim health as a blessing bestowed upon you by the Supreme Life, and be deeply grateful at all times. Claim the blessing by faith; know that it is yours, and never admit a contrary thought to your mind.
Use your will-power to withhold your attention from every appearance of disease in yourself and others; do not study disease, think about it, nor speak of it. At all times, when the thought of disease is thrust upon you, move forward into the mental position of prayerful grat.i.tude for your perfect health.
The mental actions necessary to being well may now be summed up in a single sentence: Form a conception of yourself in perfect health, and think only those thoughts which are in harmony with that conception.
That, with faith and grat.i.tude, and the purpose to really live, covers all the requirements. It is not necessary to take mental exercises of any kind, except as described in Chapter VI, or to do wearying "stunts"
in the way of affirmations, and so on. It is not necessary to concentrate the mind on the affected parts; it is far better not to think of any part as affected. It is not necessary to "treat" yourself by auto-suggestion, or to have others treat you in any way whatever. The power that heals is the Principle of Health within you; and to call this Principle into Constructive Action it is only necessary, having harmonized yourself with the All-Mind, to claim by FAITH the All-Health; and to hold that claim until it is physically manifested in all the functions of your body.