allowing them to run their natural course in harmony with the fundamental law of Nature Cure, which states that every acute disease is the result of a cleansing and healing effort of Nature. People will refrain from the suppressive drug treatment under the influence of metaphysical teachings, which appeal to the miracle-loving element in their nature, when they cannot be convinced by common sense Nature Cure reasoning.
Thus metaphysicians assist Nature indirectly by noninterference and directly by soothing fear and worry, by instilling faith, hope and confidence. Frequently they also aid Nature by prohibiting the use of tobacco, alcohol and pork, and by regulating otherwise the life and habits of their followers.
Let us consider the problem from another point of view. Let us assume, for argument’s sake, that the average person passes in the course of a lifetime through a dozen different diseases. He recovers from eleven of these, no matter what the treatment. It is only the twelfth to which he succumbs. Yet, whosoever happened to treat the first eleven diseases claims to have cured them and, perhaps, to have saved the patient’s life when, as a matter of fact, he recovered very often in spite of the treatment and not because of it.
These explanations account for the seemingly miraculous results of metaphysical healing. If healers and Christian Scientists were to explain their cures by the laws and principles of Nature Cure philosophy, mystery and miracle would be taken out of their business.
“Faith Without Works” Is Dangerous
To believe that God or Nature will overcome the natural effects of our ignorance, laziness and viciousness by wonders, signs and metaphysics, or to deny the existence of sickness, sin and suffering, must lead inevitably to intellectual and moral stagnation and degeneration. I am a thorough and consistent optimist and New Thought enthusiast, but I do not overlook the fact that in this, as in everything else, there lurks always the danger of overdoing and of exaggerating virtue into fault.
The greatest danger of this revulsion from old-time pessimism to modern optimism lies in the fact that the Higher Thought enthusiast may cut from under his feet the solid ground of reality; that he may become a dreamer instead of a thinker and doer; and that he may mistake selfish, emotional sentimentalism for practical charity and altruism.
This unhealthy “all-is-good, there-is-no-evil” emotionalism leads only too often to weakening of personal effort, a deadening of the sense of individual responsibility and thereby to mental and moral atrophy; for any of our voluntary functions, capacities and powers which we fail to exercise will in time become benumbed and paralyzed. Unprejudiced observers who come in close contact with metaphysicians cannot help perceiving the pernicious effect of their subtle sophistries on reason and character.
A chronic invalid who had been under the treatment of a faith healer for several years exclaimed, when we gave her our various instructions for dieting, bathing, breathing exercises, etc.: “How glad I am that you give me something to do! I fear I have been imposing too long on the goodness of the Lord, expecting Him to do my work for me.” Often afterwards, while recovering from lifelong ailments, she expressed her happiness and contentment in that she herself was doing something which in her opinion was rational and helpful because it assisted Nature’s healing efforts.
We believe firmly and fully in the influence of mind over matter, in the fact that vibrations of the physical plane by continuity create corresponding vibrations on the mental and psychical planes and vice versa. We know that, in accordance with this law, anything which affects the mind or the moral life of a person affects also his physical condition; but instead of hypnotizing the minds of our patients by law-defying, reason-and will-benumbing dogmas and formulas, we strengthen and harmonize their mental vibrations by appealing to reason, by teaching and explaining natural laws instead of obscuring and denying them.
The more intelligent the patient, the more amenable he will be to such normal suggestions based on scientific truth and on the dictates of reason and common sense.
While nonresistance to Nature’s healing efforts is better than suppression by drugs or the knife, there is something more helpful and rational than the negative attitude toward disease on the physical plane assumed by metaphysical healing cults. That “something” is intelligent cooperation with Nature’s cleansing and healing efforts.
Where the Old School fails by sins of commission, the Faith Schools fail by sins of omission. Many patients are sacrificed daily through fanatical inactivity, when their lives might be saved by a wet pack or a cold sponge bath, by an internal bath, rational diet, judicious fasting, scientific manipulation or some other simple yet powerful remedy of natural healing. To permit a patient to perish in a burning fever, depending solely upon the efficacy of prayers, formulas and mental attitude, when wet packs and cold sponging would in a few minutes reduce the temperature below the danger point, is manslaughter, even though it be done in the name of religion.
Incidents like the following are common in our practice: A little girl in the neighborhood of our institution was taken with diphtheria. The mother, an ardent Christian Scientist, called in several healers of her cult, but the child grew worse from day to day, until the false membranes in the throat began to choke her to death.
A boarder in the house, who was a follower of Nature Cure, finally induced the mother to call upon us for advice by threatening to notify the City Health Department. Within an hour after the application of the whole-body packs and the cold ablutions, the blood was sufficiently drawn away from the local congestion in the throat into the surface of the body, so that the child breathed easily and freely, and from then on made a splendid recovery.
Another instance: A man had been suffering from sciatic rheumatism for fifteen years. He had swallowed poisonous drugs to no avail. For several years he had been under Mental Science treatment, but the suffering had grown more intense.
When he applied to us for help, we found that the right hip bone (the innominate) had slipped upward and backward. A few manipulative treatments replaced the bone where it belonged, and the sciatic rheumatism was cured.
In this case, the combined concentration and prayers of all the metaphysical healers on earth would not have succeeded in replacing the dislocated hip bone, which required the full strength of a trained manipulator.
Metaphysicians could not have accomplished this feat any more than they could have moved, by their mental efforts, a hundred-pound weight from one place to another. Mechanical lesions of that kind (and there are many of them) require mechanical treatment.
Another factor which makes converts to metaphysical healing cults by the hundreds and thousands is the get-rich-quick instinct in human nature, the desire to get something for nothing, or with as little effort as possible. Herein lies the seductive pull of old-time drugging and of modern metaphysics. “It does not matter how you live; when you get into trouble, a bottle of medicine or a metaphysical formula will make it all right.” That sounds very easy and promising, but the trouble is–it does not always work.
Our forefathers were too pessimistic; higher thought enthusiasts are often too optimistic. While the former poisoned their lives and paralyzed their God-given faculties and powers by dismal dread of hell’s fire and damnation, our modern healers and Scientists have drifted to the other extreme. They tell us there is no sin, no pain, no suffering. If that be true, there is also no action and reaction, no Law of Compensation, no personal responsibility, no need of self-control, self-help or personal effort.
The ideal of the faith healer is the ideal of the animal. The animal trusts implicitly, it has absolute faith; guided by instinct, God, or Nature, it follows the promptings of its appetites and passions without worrying about right or wrong. It acts today as it did ten thousand years ago.
In man, reason has taken the place of instinct; we must think and manage for ourselves. We are free and responsible moral agents. If we deny this, we deny the very foundations of equity, justice and right. It behooves us to use the talents which God has given us, to study the laws of our being and to comply with them to the best of our ability, so that enlightened reason may take the place of animal instinct and guide us to physical, mental and moral perfection.
Chapter XXXIV
The Difference Between Functional and Organic Disease
Much confusion concerning the curability of chronic diseases by the various methods of treatment arises because people do not understand the difference between functional and organic chronic disease.
For instance, there is a close resemblance between pseudo-and true locomotor ataxy. Often it is difficult to distinguish functional lung trouble from the organic type of the disease. In our practice, several cases of mental derangement which had been diagnosed as true paresis proved to be of the functional type and under natural treatment recovered rapidly.
Functional diseases may present a very serious appearance and may be labeled with awe-inspiring Greek or Latin names, and yet yield readily to natural methods of living and treatment.
In diseases of an organic nature, however, right living and self-treatment are usually not sufficient to obtain satisfactory results. In such cases all forms of active and passive treatment must be applied, and even then it is frequently difficult and sometimes impossible to produce a cure.
Chronic diseases of a functional nature develop when an otherwise healthy organism becomes saturated and clogged with food and drug poisons to such an extent that these encumbrances interfere with the free circuation of the blood and nerve currents, and with the normal functions of the cells, organs and tissues of the body.
Such cases resemble a watch which is losing time because its works are filled with dust. All that such a waste-encumbered watch or body needs, in order to restore normal functions, is a good cleaning. Pure food diet, fasting, systematic exercise, deep breathing, cold bathing and the right mental attitude are usually sufficient to perform this physical housecleaning and to restore perfect health.
Functional disorders yield readily to the various forms of metaphysical treatment. Remove such patients from the weakening and destructive effects of poisonous drugs and of surgical operations, supplant fear and worry by courage and faith, and the results often seem miraculous to those who do not understand the power of the purifying and stimulating influence of clean living and of the right mental attitude.
In diseases of the organic type, however, good results are not so easily achieved. A body affected by organic disease resembles a watch whose mechanism has been injured and partly destroyed by rust and corrosive acids. If such be the case, cleaning and oiling alone will not be sufficient to put the timepiece in good working order. The watchmaker has to replace the damaged parts.
This is easy enough in the case of the watch, but it is not so easily accomplished in the human body. Besides, in many instances the corroding acids are the very medicines which were given to cure the disease and the injury and destruction of vital parts and organs is only too often the direct or indirect result of surgical operations.
The watchmaker may remove those parts of the watch which are suffering from organic trouble, and replace them by new ones. This the surgeon cannot do. He can extirpate, but he cannot replace. Operative treatment leaves the organism forever after in a mutilated and therefore unbalanced condition, and often prevents and frustrates Nature’s cleansing and healing crises.
The Limitations of Metaphysical Healing
In the writings of metaphysical healers we often meet the assertion that they can cure organic diseases as easily and quickly as functional ailments. If they understood better the difference between functional and organic disorders as explained in the foregoing pages, they would not make such deceptive and extravagant claims. They would then realize the natural limitations of meta-physical healing.
I do not underestimate the great value of mental, metaphysical and spiritual healing methods. Of these I shall speak more fully in subsequent chapters. But I do claim that we can and should aid Nature’s healing efforts not only by the right mental attitude and the prayer of faith, but also by natural living and many different methods of physical treatment.
Mental attitude alone will not clean the watch. To concentrate on the work of housecleaning without using broom, soap and water is not sufficient. Reason and common sense teach us that the removal of physical, material encumbrances can be, to say the least, accelerated by the use of physical or physiological agents. Anyone who has observed or himself experienced the efficacy of natural diet, cold-water treatment, massage and osteopathy in dealing with the morbid accumulations in the system will never again underestimate the practical value of these “brooms.”
In our study of the nature and purpose of acute diseases we have found that Nature tries to purify the system from its morbid encumbrances through inflammatory, febrile processes (acute diseases) and that these cleansing efforts of Nature are generally prevented, checked and suppressed by allopathic methods of medical and surgical treatment, and thus changed into chronic disease conditions.
The metaphysical healers do away with these suppressive methods of treatment and allow Nature’s acute cleansing and healing efforts to run their natural course. Thus they profit by the fundamental laws of cure without understanding them. The acute disease, whose very existence they deny, is in reality the cure.
Furthermore, rational mental and metaphysical treatment supports Nature’s efforts actively by supplanting the weakening and paralyzing fear vibrations with relaxing and invigorating vibrations of hope, confidence and faith in the supremacy of Nature’s healing forces. Under these favorable conditions, the organism will arouse itself to the purifying and constructive healing crises (the chemicalizations of Christian Science) and through these eliminate the morbid encumbrances and restore normal structure and functions.
While functional disorders, in nearly every case, yield readily enough to the natural methods of living and of treatment and to the right mental attitude, it is different with organic diseases.
When waste matter, ptomaines or poisonous alkaloids and acids produced in the body as a result of wrong diet and other violations of Nature’s laws have brought about destruction and corrosion in vital parts and organs–when dislocations and subluxations of bony structures, or new growths and accumulations in the forms of tumors, stones or gravel obstruct the blood vessels and nerve currents, shut off the supply of the vital fluids and thus cause malnutrition and gradual decay of the tissues–when, in addition to this, the organism has been poisoned or mutilated by drugs and surgical operations, then its purification and repair becomes a tedious and difficult task.
Not only must the mechanism of the body be cleansed and freed from obstructive and destructive materials, but the injured parts must be repaired, morbid growths and abnormal formations dissolved and eliminated and lesions in the bony structures corrected by manipulative treatment.
In organic diseases, the vitality is usually so low and destruction so great that the organism cannot arouse itself to self-help. Even the cessation of suppressive treatment and the stimulating influence of mental and metaphysical therapeutics are not sufficient to bring about the reconstructive healing crises. This can only be accomplished by the combined influences of all the natural methods of living and of treatment.
It is in cases like these that metaphysical healing and hygienic living find their limitations. Such organic defects require systematic treatment by all the methods, active and passive, which the best Nature Cure sanitariums can furnish. It may be slow and laborious work to obtain satisfactory results, and if the vitality is too low or the destruction of vital parts and organs has too far advanced, even the best and most complete combination of natural methods of treatment may fail to produce a cure.
However, this can be determined only by a fair trial of the natural methods. The forces of Nature are ever ready to react to persistent, systematic effort in the right direction and when there is enough vitality to keep alive there is likely to be enough to purify and reconstruct the organism and in time to bring about improvement and cure.
This, then, explains why, in the organic types of diseases, metaphysical methods of treatment alone are insufficient. At least one-half of the patients that come to the Nature Cure physician have faithfully tried these methods without avail, but the failures are easily excused by lack of faith, wrong mental attitude or something wrong with the patient or his surroundings.
In our experience with patients who had formerly tried metaphysical methods of healing faithfully, but without results, we sometimes come face to face with a curious and amusing phase of human nature. As our patients improve under the natural regimen and treatment, they gradually return to their first love and ascribe the good effects of natural treatment to a better understanding of “the Science.” As health and strength return, they say: “Formerly I did not know just how to apply the Science, but now I know, and that is why I am growing better.”
I suppose this form of self-deception which we have frequently observed is due to the fact that people feel flattered by the idea that Providence has taken a special interest in their case and cured them by miraculous intervention. It is so much more interesting to be cured by some occult principle than by diet and cold water.
Undoubtedly it is this miracle-loving element in human nature that makes metaphysical healing so much more popular than plain, commonsense Nature Cure.
Not long ago Professor Munsterberg investigated the claims of Christian Scientists that they were constantly curing diseases of the organic type. He reported his findings in a series of articles in McClure’s Magazine (1908), stating that he inquired personally into one hundred cases said to have been cured by Christian Science and found that ninety-two of them had been of the functional type, while eight were claimed to have been organic, but that in no instance could this be proved beyond doubt.
Chapter XXXV
The Two-fold Attitude of Mind and Soul
The following is an extract from a letter sent to me by a reader of my articles in ~The Nature Cure Magazine.~
“Sometimes you say we must rely on our own personal efforts and at other times you teach dependence upon a higher power. This, to me, is contradictory and confusing. I cannot understand how, consistently, we can do both at the same time. Which is right? Is it best to rely upon our own power and our personal efforts or upon the ‘Higher Power’?”
Similar inquiries have come from other friends. I shall now endeavor to answer these and other questions.
There is nothing contradictory or incompatible in the teachings of the Nature Cure philosophy concerning the physical and metaphysical methods of treating human ailments. Both the independent and the dependent attitudes of mind and soul are good and true and may be entertained at the same time. It is necessary for us to rely on our own personal efforts in carrying out the dictates of reason and of common sense. But this need not prevent us from praying for and confidently expecting a larger inflow of vital power and intuitional discernment from the Source of all intelligence and power in the innermost parts of our being.
This two-fold attitude of mind and soul is justified not only by reason and intuition, but also by the anatomical structure of the human organism and its physiological and psychological faculties, capacities and powers.
The activities of the human organism are governed by two different systems of nerves, the sympathetic and the motor. The sympathetic nervous system is the conveyor of vital force to the organs and cells of the body. Just what this vital force is and where it ultimately comes from, we do not know. It is a manifestation of that which we call God, Nature, Life, the Higher Power or the Divine Within.
Heart action, the circulation of the blood, respiration, digestion, assimilation of food, elimination and all other involuntary activities and functions of the human organism are controlled by means of the sympathetic nervous system. The nature of the controlling force itself is not known to us. We do know that it is supremely powerful, intelligent and benevolent.
The more we study the anatomy, physiology and psychology of the human organism, the more we wonder at its marvelous complexity and ingenuity of structure and function. Every moment there are enacted in our bodies innumerable mechanical, chemical and psychological miracles. Who, or what, performs these miracles? We do not know. Yet every moment of our lives depends upon the infinite care and wisdom of this unknown intelligence and power.
Why, then, should we not trust the One so faithful? Why should we not ask aid from One so powerful? Why not seek enlightenment from One who is so wise and so benevolent?
However, not all of the human entity is dependent upon a controlling power, nor are all its functions involuntary. Within the house prepared by the Divine Intelligence, there dwells a sovereign in his own right and by his own might. He is endowed with freedom of desire, of choice and of action. He creates in his brain the nerve centers which control the voluntary activities of the body and from these brain centers he sends his commands through the fibers of the motor nerves to the voluntary muscles and makes them do his bidding; some he commands to walk, others to laugh, to eat, to speak, etc.
This independent principle in man we call the ego, the individual intelligence. It imagines, desires, reasons, plans and works out, by the power of free will and independent choice, its own salvation or destruction, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. By means of the motor nervous system, this thinker and doer directs and controls from the headquarters in the brain all the voluntary functions, capacities and powers of the human organism.
This part of the human entity can evolve and progress only through its own conscious and voluntary personal efforts.
In this, Man differs from the animal creation. The animal is able to take care of itself shortly after birth. It inherits, already fully developed, those brain centers for the control of the bodily functions which the newborn human must develop slowly and laboriously through patient and persistent effort in the course of many years.
Of voluntary capacities and powers the newborn infant possesses little more than the simplest unicellular animalcule, that is, about all it can do is to scent and swallow food. Its cerebral hemispheres are as yet blank slates, to be inscribed gradually by its conscious and voluntary exertions. Before it can think, reason, speak, walk or do anything else, it must first develop in its brain special centers for each and every one of these voluntary faculties and functions.
Through these persistent personal efforts, reason, will and self-control are gradually evolved and developed; while the animal, being hereditarily endowed with the faculties and functions necessary for the maintenance of life, has no occasion for the development of the higher faculties and powers and therefore remains an irresponsible automaton, which cannot be held accountable for its actions.
To recapitulate: Freedom of choice and of action distinguish the human from the animal. In the animal kingdom, reasoning power and freedom of action move in the narrow limits of heredity and instinct, while Man, through his own personal efforts, is capable of unlimited development physically, mentally, morally and spiritually, both here and hereafter. We say physically advisedly, for in the spiritual realms, in the life after death, the physical (spiritual-material) body also is capable of deterioration or of ever greater refinement and beautification.
Through the right use of his voluntary faculties, capacities and powers, Man is enabled to become the master of himself and of his destiny.
Thus we find that the human organism consists of two distinct parts or departments, the one acting independently of the ego and deriving its motive force from an unknown source and the other under the conscious and voluntary control of the ego.
This two-fold nature of the human entity justifies the two-fold attitude of mind and soul, on the one hand the prayerful and faithful dependence upon that mysterious power which flows into us and controls us through the sympathetic nervous system and on the other hand the conscious and voluntary dominion over the various faculties, capacities and powers with which Nature has endowed us.
It is our privilege and our duty to maintain both attitudes, the dependent as well as the independent. The desire and the will to plan, to choose and to perform are ours, but for the power to execute we are dependent upon a Higher Source.
Chapter XXXVI
The Symphony of Life
Human life appears to me as a great orchestra in which we are the players. The great composition to be performed is the “Symphony of Life,” its infinitude of dissonances and melodies blending into one colossal tone picture of harmony and grandeur. We players must study the laws of music and the score of the Great Symphony and we must practice diligently and persistently, until we can play our part unerringly in harmony with the concepts of the Great Composer. At the same time we must learn to keep our instrument, the body, in the best possible condition; for the greatest artist, endowed with a profound knowledge of the laws of music and possessed of the most perfect technique, cannot produce musical and harmonious sounds from an instrument with strings relaxed or overtense, or with its body filled with rubbish.
The artist must learn that the instrument, its material, its construction and its care are just as subject to law as the harmonics of the score.
In the final analysis, everything is vibration acting in and on the universal ethers, which are held to be the primordial substance. Possibly the ethers themselves are modes of vibration.
That which is constructive is harmonious vibration. That which is destructive is inharmonious or discordant vibration.
Against this it may be urged that devolution has its harmonics as well as evolution, that every symphony is made up of dissonances as well as of harmonies. To this I answer: “Unadulterated harmony may, solely for lack of change, become monotonous; but discords alone never create melody, harmony, health or happiness.”
As the artist seeks vibratory harmony between his instrument and the harmonics of the universe of sound, so the health-seeker must endeavor to establish vibratory unison between the material elements of his body and Nature’s harmonics of health in the physical universe.
The atoms and molecules in the wood and strings of the violin, as well as the sounds produced from them, are modes of motion or vibration. In order to bring forth musical and harmonious notes, the vibratory conditions of the physical elements of the violin must be in harmonious vibratory relationship with Nature’s harmonics in the universe of sound.
The elements and forces composing the human body are also vibratory in their nature, the same as the material elements of the violin. They also must be kept in a certain well-balanced chemical combination, mechanical adjustment and physical refinement before they can vibrate in unison with Nature’s harmonics in the physical universe and thus produce the harmonies of health and strength and beauty.
If our instrument is out of tune, or if we ignorantly or willfully insist on playing in our own way, regardless of the score, we create discords not only for ourselves, but also for our fellow artists in the great orchestra of life.
Sin, disease, suffering and evil are nothing but discords, produced by the ignorance, indifference or malice of the players. Therefore we cannot attribute the discords of life to the Great Composer. They are of our own making and will last as long as we refuse to learn our parts and to play them in tune with the Great Score. For in this way only can we ever hope to master the art and science of right living and to enjoy the harmonies of peace, self-content and happiness.
Chapter XXXVII
The Three-fold Constitution of Man
The following diagram and accompanying explanations will serve to illustrate “Three Planes of Being,” the corresponding “Three-fold Constitution of man,” and their analogy tothe artist and his instrument.
The Three-fold Constitution of Man
~Planes of Being~
~Three-fold Constitution of Man~
~Analogy~
Psychical or Moral
Soul
Music, Laws of Harmony
Mental
Mind
Player
Material
Bodies
(Physical and Spiritual)
Violin
Man lives and functions on three distinct planes of being: the physical-material and spiritual-material, the mental and the soul (psychical or moral) planes.
He may be diseased upon any one or more of these planes. The true physician must look for causes of disease and for methods of treatment upon all three planes of being.
The purely materialistic physician concentrates all his study and effort upon the physical-material plane of being. To him, mental, spiritual, psychical, and moral phenomena are merely chemical and physiological actions and reactions of brain and nerve substance. He has nothing but contempt and derision for the man who believes in or knows of a spiritual body or a soul.
He is like an artist who says: “My violin is all there is to music. The musician’s art consists in keeping his instrument in good condition. Technique and the laws of harmony are a matter of imagination and of superstitious belief.”
On the other hand, mental healers, Christian Scientists and faith healers concentrate all their efforts upon either the mental or the soul plane, frequently making no distinction between the two. In the treatment of disease, they ignore the conditions and needs of the physical body, and some of them even deny its existence.
These metaphysicians are like the artist who devotes all his time and energy to the study and practice of technique, counterpoint and harmony, neglecting his instrument and taking no heed whether its mechanism is out of order or its interior filled with rubbish. His knowledge of the laws of harmonics and his execution may be ever so perfect; but with his instrument out of tune and out of order he will produce discords instead of harmony.
The true artist realizes that MIND, the player, must study SOUL, the harmonics; and that the mind must also have its instrument, the BODY, in perfect condition in order to interpret perfectly and artistically the harmonies of the symphony of life. Likewise, the Nature Cure physician will look for causes of disease and for means of cure upon the material, mental and psychical planes of being.
Thus will higher civilization and greater knowledge lead back to the natural simplicity of primitive races, where physician and priest are one.
After all, physical health is the best possible basis for the attainment of mental, moral and spiritual health. All building begins with the foundation. We do not first suspend the steeple in the air and then build the church under it. So also, the building of the temple of human character should begin by laying the foundation in physical health.
We have known people who had attained high intellectual, moral and spiritual development and then suffered utter shipwreck physically, mentally and in every other way, because ignorantly they had violated the laws of their physical nature.
There are others who believe that the possession of occult knowledge and the achievement of mastership confer absolute control over Nature’s forces and phenomena on the physical plane. These people believe that a man is not a master if he does not miraculously heal all manner of disease and raise the dead.
If such things were possible, they would overthrow the Laws of Cause and Effect and of Compensation. They would abolish the basic principles of morality and constructive spirituality. If it is possible in one case to heal disease and to overcome death through the fiat of the will of a master, then it must be possible in all cases. If so, then we can ignore the existence of Nature’s laws, indulge our appetites and passions to the fullest extent, and when the natural results of our transgressions overtake us, we can go to a healer or master and have our diseases instantly and painlessly removed, like a bad tooth.
I say this with all due reverence for, and faith in, the efficacy of true prayer and with full knowledge of the healing power of therapeutic faith, but I do not believe that God, or Nature, or a master or metaphysical formulas can or will make good in a miraculous way for the inevitable results of our transgressions of the natural laws that govern our being.
If such miraculous healing were possible and of common occurrence, what occasion would there be for the exercise of reason, will and self-control? What would become of the scientific basis of morality and constructive spirituality?
All this leads us to the following conclusions:
“If there is in operation a constructive principle of Nature on the ethical, moral and spiritual planes of being, with which we must align ourselves and to which we must conform our conscious and voluntary activities in order to achieve self-completion, self-content, individual completion and happiness, then this constructive principle must be in operation also in our physical bodies and in their corelated physical, mental and emotional activities. If the constructive principle is active in the physical as well as in the moral and spiritual realms, then the established harmonic relationship of the physical to the constructive law of its being must constitute the morality of the physical; and from this it follows that the achievement of health on the physical plane is as much under our conscious and voluntary control as the working out of our individual salvation on the higher planes of life.”
To recapitulate:
First, our well-being on all planes and in all relationships of life depends upon the existence, recognition and practical application of the great fundamental laws and principles just explained.
Second: Physical health, as well as moral health, is of our own making. We are personally responsible not only for our own physical and mental health, but we are also morally responsible for the hereditary tendencies of our offspring toward health or disease.
Third: The attainment of physical health through compliance with Nature’s laws is just as much a part of the Great Work as our ethical, moral and psychical development.
The Unity and Continuity of the Law
That which we call God, Nature, the Creator or the Universal Intelligence is the great central cause of all things and the vibratory activities produced by or proceeding from this central or primary cause continue through all spheres of life, in like manner as the light waves of the sun, moon and fixed stars penetrate through the intervening spheres of life to our plane of earth. Therefore all powers, forces, laws and principles which manifest on our plane proceed and continue from the innermost Divine to the most external plane in physical nature. This explains the continuity, stability and correspondence on all planes of being of that which we call Natural Law. In other words, “Natural Law is the established harmonic relationship of effects and phenomena to their causes and of all particular causes to the one great primary cause of all things.”
Chapter XXXVIII
Mental Therapeutics
The new psychology and the science of mental and spiritual healing teach us that the lower principles in Man stand or should stand under the dominion of the higher. The physical body, with its material elements, is dominated and guided by the mind. The mind is inspired through the inner consciousness, which is an attribute of the soul. The soul of man is in communion with the Oversoul, which is the Source of all life and all intelligence animating the universe.
Wherever this natural order is reversed, there is discord or disease. Too many people think and act as though the physical body is all in all, as though it is the only thing worth caring for and thinking about. They exaggerate the importance of the physical and become its abject slaves.
The physical body is the lowest and least intelligent of the different principles making up the human entity. Yet people allow their minds and their souls to become dominated and terrified by the sensations of the physical body.
When the servants in the house control and terrify the master, when the master becomes their slave and they can do with him as they please, there cannot be order and harmony in that house.
We must expect the same results when the lower principles in Man lord it over the higher. When physical weakness, illness and pain fill the mind with fear and dismay, reason becomes clouded, the will atrophied and self-control is lost.
Every thought and every emotion has its direct effect upon the physical constituents of the body. The mental and emotional vibrations become physical vibrations and structures. Discord in the mind is translated into physical disease in the body, while the harmonies of hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness, love and altruism create in the organism the corresponding health vibrations.
Have you ever noticed how the written or printed notes of a tone piece or the perforations on the paper music roll of an automatic player are arranged in symmetrical and geometrical figures and groups? Dry sand strewn on the top of a piano on which harmonious tone combinations are produced shows a tendency to arrange itself in symmetrical patterns.
In this you have a visual illustration of the translation of harmonious sound vibrations, which express the harmonics of the soul’s emotions, into correspondingly harmonious arrangements and configurations in the physical material of the paper roll.
A jumble of discords of sound, if reproduced on a music roll, would present a chaotic jumble of perforations.
Thus the purely mental and emotional is translated into its corresponding discords or harmonies in the physical.
As the perforations on the paper music roll arrange themselves either symmetrically or without symmetry and order, in strict accordance with the harmonies or discords of the composition, so the atoms, molecules and cells in the physical body group themselves in normal or abnormal structures of health or of disease in exact correspondence with the harmonious or the discordant vibrations conveyed to them from the mental and emotional planes.
Another Illustration: Two violins, as they leave the shop of the maker, are exactly alike in material, structure and quality of tone. One of the two instruments is constantly used by beginners and persons incapable of producing pure notes. The other passes into the hands of an artist who understands how to use the instrument to the best advantage and who draws from it only musical tones that are true in pitch and quality.
After a few years, compare the two violins again. You will find that the one used by the tyros in music has deteriorated in its musical qualities, while the one in the hands of the artist has greatly improved in quality and purity of tone. What is the reason? The atoms and molecules in the wood of the two instruments have grouped themselves according to the discords or the harmonies that have been produced from them.
If this rearrangement of atoms is possible in dead wood, how much easier must be this adjustment of atoms, molecules and cells to discordant or harmonious vibratory influence in the living, plastic and fluidic human organism!
What harmony is to music, hope, faith, cheerfulness, happiness, sympathy, love and altruism are to the vibratory conditions of the human entity. These emotions are in alignment with the constructive principle in Nature. They harmonize the physical vibrations, relax the tissues and open them wide to the inflow of the life force.
Swedenborg truly says: “The warmth of life is the heat of the divine love permeating and animating the universe.” The more we possess of hope, faith, love and their kindred emotions, the more we open ourselves to the inflow and action of the vital energies. The good-natured, cheerful, sympathetic person is more alive than the crabbed, morose or selfish individual.
It has been proved over and over again by everyday experience that mental and emotional conditions positively affect the chemical composition of the tissues and secretions of the body. The destructive emotions of fear, worry, anger, jealousy, revengefulness, envy, etc., actually poison the fluids and tissues of the body. The bite of an angry man may cause blood-poisoning and prove as fatal as the bite of a mad dog. Sudden fear, anger or any other destructive emotion in the nursing mother may cause illness or even death of the infant.
In psychological laboratories it has been found by scientifically conducted experiments that under the influence of destructive mental and emotional conditions, the secretions and excretions of the body show an increase of morbid and poisonous elements.
Selfishness, fear and worry contract and congeal the blood vessels, the nerve fibers, and the other channels through which the life forces are conveyed from the innermost source of life to different parts and organs of the physical body. The flow of the life currents is impeded and diminished. Such are the actual physiological effects of fear, anxiety and egotism on the physical organism.
A man under the influence of great fear and one exposed to freezing present the same outward appearance. In both cases death may result through the congealing of the tissues and the shutting out of the life currents. The person afflicted with the worry habit may not die suddenly like the one overcome by great and sudden fear. Nevertheless, the fear and worry vibrations maintained constantly will surely obstruct and diminish the inflow of the life force, lower the vitality and therewith the resistance to the encroachment of influences inimical to the health of the organism.
The cells in the body are negative, or, at least, they should be negative to the positive mind. The relationship of the mind to the cell should be like that of hypnotist to subject. If the mind could not exert such absolute control over the cells and cell groups, it would be impossible for us to walk, talk, write, dodge danger, etc., with almost automatic ease.
The cells are not able to reason upon the truth or untruth of the suggestions conveyed to them from the mind. They accept its promptings unqualifiedly and act accordingly.
Thus, if the mind constantly thinks of, say, the stomach as being in a badly diseased condition, unable to do its work properly, the mental images of weakness and disease with their accompanying fear vibrations are telegraphed over the efferent nerves to the cells of the stomach and these become more and more weakened and diseased through the destructive vibrations sent to them from the mind.
I often advise my patients to procure a book on anatomy and physiology and to study and keep constantly before their mind’s eye the normal structure and functions of a healthy stomach or liver or whatever organ may be involved in any particular case.
Positive Affirmations
This explains why affirmations of health are justified in the face of disease. The health conditions must be first established in the mind before they can be conveyed to and impressed upon the cells.
The well-being of the human body as a whole depends upon the health of the billions of minute cells which compose it. These cells are so small that they have to be magnified several hundred times under a powerful microscope before we can see them. Yet they are independent living beings which grow, assimilate food, multiply and die like the big cell, Man.
These little cells are congregated in communities which form the organs and tissues of the body and in these communities they carry on the complicated activities of citizens living in a large city. Some are carriers, bringing food materials to the tissues and organs or conveying waste and morbid matter to the excretory channels of the body. Other cells manufacture chemical substances, such as sugar, fats, ferments, hormones etc., for the production of which man requires complicated factories. Still others act as policemen and soldiers which protect the commonwealth against bacteria, parasites and other hostile invaders.
The marvelous work performed by these little organisms, as well as observations made in the dissecting room and under the microscope, strongly indicate that these cells are endowed with some sort of individual intelligence. They do their work without our aid or conscious volition. But, nevertheless, they are greatly influenced by the varying conditions of the mind. While their activities seem to be controlled through the sympathetic nervous system, they stand in direct telegraphic communication with headquarters in the brain and every impulse of the mind is conveyed to them.
If there be dismay and confusion in the mind, this condition is telegraphically conveyed over the nerve trunks and filaments to every cell in the body, and as a result these little workers and soldiers become panic-stricken and incapable of rightly performing their manifold duties.
The cell system of the body resembles a vast army. The mind is the general at the head of it. The cells are the soldiers, divided into groups for special work.
Much of the work of an army is carried on through different well-established departments, as the commissariat, the hospital service, the scouts and pickets, etc. Though the life and the activities of the army are so well regulated that they seem automatic, nevertheless much depends upon the commander.
The vital processes of the human organism, digestion, assimilation, elimination, respiration, the circulation of the blood, etc., are going on without our volition, whether we be awake or asleep. These involuntary activities are impelled by the sympathetic nervous system, while the voluntary functions of the body are controlled through the motor [voluntary] nervous system. This division, however, is not a sharp one, and the two departments frequently overlap one another.
The sympathetic nervous system resembles the commissarial department of the army, which attends to the material welfare of the soldiers, while the motor nervous system, with headquarters in the brain, corresponds to the commander with his executive staff, the nerve centers in the spinal cord and other parts of the body being the subordinate officers in the field.
While the physical well-being of the army depends upon the almost automatic work of its different departments, its mind and soul is the man commanding it. He determines the spirit, the energy and the efficiency of the vast organization.
If the commander-in-chief lacks insight, force and determination, the discipline of the army will be lax and its efficiency greatly impaired. If he is a craven, without faith in himself and in the cause he represents, his lack of courage, his doubt and indecision will communicate themselves to the whole army, resulting in discouragement and defeat.
The most successful commanders have been those who were possessed of absolute confidence in themselves and in the efficiency of their army, who in the face of gravest danger and discouraging situations pressed on to the predetermined goal with dogged courage and resolution. Determination and pertinacity of this kind create the magnetic power which imparts itself to every individual soldier in the army and makes him a willing subject, even unto death, to the will of his commander.
When the plague was invading Napoleon’s army, that great general entered the hospitals where the victims of the plague were lying, took them by the hand and conversed with them. He did this to overcome the fear in the hearts of his soldiers, and thus to protect them against the dread disease. He said: “A man whose will can conquer the world, can conquer the plague.”
To my mind, this was one of the greatest deeds of the Corsican. At a time when “New Thought” was practically unknown, the genius of this man had grasped its principles and was making them factors in his apparent success. “Apparent” because, while we admire his genius, we deplore the ends to which he applied his wonderful powers.
At times when the battle seemed lost, Napoleon would go to the front where the danger was greatest; and by the mere sight of him the hard-pressed soldiers under his command were inspired to super-human effort and final victory.
As long as the glamour of invincibility surrounded him, Napoleon was invincible, because he infused into his soldiers a faith and courage which nothing could withstand. But when the cunning of the Russian broke his power and decimated his ranks on the ice-bound steppes, the hypnotic spell was broken also. Friends and enemies alike recognized that, after all, he was but a man, subject to chance and circumstance; and from that time on he was vulnerable and suffered defeat after defeat.
The power of the mind over the physical body and its involuntary functions (the functions which are regulated and controlled through the sympathetic nervous system) may be illustrated by the demonstrated facts of hypnotism. Through the exertion of his own imagination and his will-power, the hypnotist can so dominate the brain and through the brain the physical body of his subject, as to influence not only the sensory functions, but also heart action and respiration. By the power of his will the hypnotist is able to retard or accelerate pulse and respiration, and even to subdue the heart beat so that it becomes hardly perceptible.
If it is possible thus to control by the power of will the vital functions in the body of another person, it must be possible also to control these functions in our own bodies. Many a Hindu fakir and yogi have developed this power of the mind over the physical body to a marvelous extent.
Here lies the true domain of mental therapeutics. We can learn to dominate and regulate the vital activities and the life currents in our bodies so that they will do their work intelligently and serenely even under the stress of illness or of danger. We can, by the power of will, direct the vital currents to those parts and organs which need them most and we can relieve congested areas by equalizing the circulation, by drawing from the surplus of blood and nerve currents and distributing the vital fluids over other parts of the body.
We must be careful, however, to use our higher powers in conformity with Nature’s intent; that is, we must not endeavor to suppress Nature’s cleansing and healing efforts. It is possible to do this by the power of will as well as with ice bags and drugs.
Mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, we must work with Nature, not against her. When we understand the fundamental laws of disease and cure, we cannot well do otherwise.
Chapter XXXIX
HOW SHALL WE PRAY?
Shall we say: “Father, give me this Father, do for me that!”? Or shall we say: “Behold, I am perfect! Imperfection, sin and suffering are only errors of mortal mind!”?
Or shall we pray: “Father, give me of Thy strength that I may live in harmony with Thy law, for thus only will all good come to me!”?
The first way is to beg, the second, to steal, the third, to earn by honest effort.
“Father, give me this!”–“Father do for me that!” Thus prayed our fathers, not understanding the great law of compensation, the law of giving and receiving, which demands that we give an equivalent for everything we receive. To receive without giving is to beg.
The lily, in return for the nourishment it receives from the soil and the sun, gives its beauty and fragrance. The birds of the air give a return for their sustenance by their songs, their beauty of plumage, and by destroying worms and insects, the enemies of plants and men. Every living thing gives an equivalent for its existence in some way or other.
With Man, the fulfillment of the law of service and of compensation becomes conscious and voluntary, and his self-respect refuses to take without giving.
“Behold, I am perfect! Imperfection, sin, and suffering are only errors of mortal mind!” Such is the prayer of certain metaphysical healers.
To assume the possession of goodness and perfection without an earnest effort to develop and to deserve these qualities, means to steal the glory of the only Perfect One. The assumption of present perfection precludes the necessity of striving and laboring for its attainment. If I am already all goodness, all love, all wisdom, and all power, what remains for me to strive for?
Herein lies the danger of metaphysical idealism. While it may dispel pessimism, fear, and anxiety, it inevitably weakens the will power and the capacity for self-help and personal effort.
The ideal of the metaphysician is the ideal of the animal. The animal does not worry about right or wrong, nor, with few exceptions, does it make provision for the future. Its care and forethought extend only to the next meal. But this perfect, ideal, passive trust in Nature’s bounty causes the animal to remain animal and prevents its rising above the narrow limitations of habit and instinct.
The inherent faculties, capacities, and powers of the human soul can be developed only by effort and use. The savage, living in the most favored regions of the earth, depending for his sustenance in perfect faith and trust on Nature’s never-failing bounty, has remained savage. Through ages he has risen but little above the level of the beasts that perish.
The great law of use ordains that those faculties and powers which we do not develop remain in abeyance, and that those which we possess weaken and atrophy if we fail to exercise them.
The Master, Jesus, emphasized this law of use in many of his parables and sayings.
“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”
What does this mean? Those who have the desire and the will to work out their own salvation, acquire greater knowledge and power in exact proportion to their well-directed efforts; but those who have neither the desire nor the will to help themselves, lose their natural endowments and the possibilities and opportunities which these would have conferred upon them.
The anatomy and physiology of the human brain reveal the fact that for every voluntary faculty, capacity, and power of body, mind, and soul which we wish to develop, we have to create new cells and centers in the brain. In this respect, Nature gives us no more and no less than we deserve and work for. If we “try to cheat” by usurping the perfection and the power which we have not honestly earned and developed, then sometime, somewhere we shall have to “square the balance.”
The Right Way to Pray
After all, the only true prayer is personal effort and self-help. This does not mean that we should not invoke the help of the Higher Powers, of those who have gone before us, of the Great Friends and Invisible Helpers, and of the Great Father, the giver of all life, all wisdom, and all power. But we should pray for strength to do our work, not to have it done for us. The wise parent will not do for the child the home tasks assigned him at school. Neither will the powers on high or the Great Friends perform our allotted tasks for us.
This life is a school for personal effort. If it were not so, life would be meaningless. From the cradle to the grave, our days are one continuous effort to learn, to acquire, to overcome difficulties. Only in this way can we develop our latent faculties, capacities, and powers. These cannot be developed by having our tasks done for us, nor by assuming that we already know and possess everything.
The athlete must do his own training. No one else can do it for him. The assumption of superiority over his opponent will riot develop his suppleness of body and strength of muscle. To be sure, faith and courage are essential to–victory, but they must be backed by careful and persistent training. Vainglorious boasting alone will not win the contest.
So in the battle of life, the more faith we have in God, in the Great Friends, and in our own powers, the wider do we open ourselves to the inflow of wisdom and strength from all that is good and true and powerful in the universe. But through persistent and welldirected effort alone can we control the powers and fashion the materials which Nature has so lavishly bestowed upon us.
The creative will, actuated by desire and enlightened by reason, brings order and harmony out of chaotic forces and materials. And yet certain metaphysicians tell us that we ourselves must do nothing to overcome weakness, sin, and suffering, that we must depend entirely upon the efficiency of metaphysical formulas, that the deity and the powers of Nature are jealous of our personal efforts, that we must not try to help ourselves lest we forfeit their good will.
Is it not blasphemous to assume that God would blame us and withhold his aid because we dared to use the faculties, capacities, and powers with which he has endowed us? You say, “Nobody is foolish enough to claim such things.” But this is the teaching of a powerful healing-cult. Its members are forbidden, on penalty of expulsion, to use in the treatment of human ailments the most innocent natural remedies. The giving of an enema, or the common-sense regulation of diet are regarded as sufficient to nullify the power of their metaphysical formulas and to prevent the working of Nature’s healing forces.
One of our patients who had been under such treatment until she was in a dying condition, told us afterwards that her bowels often did not move for a week, and that, when she complained to her “healer” about this condition and asked permission to take an enema, he answered her: “Pay no attention. The Lord is taking care of that in some other way.”
The man who said this had been a prominent allopathic physician before he turned “healer.” He, too, like so many others ignorant of Nature’s simple laws, had swung from one extreme to the other, from allopathic overdoing to metaphysical underdoing. In this instance, the Lord “took care” of the patient’s bowels until she was taken down with a severe attack of appendicitis and peritonitis.
Amidst all the extremes, Nature Cure points the common-sense middle way. Basing its teachings and its practices on a clear understanding of the laws of health, disease, and cure, it refrains from suppressing acute diseases with poisonous drugs or the knife, realizing that they are in reality Nature’s cleansing and healing efforts. Neither does it sit idly by and expect the Lord, or metaphysical formulas, or the medicine bottle and the knife, to do our work and to make good for our violations of Nature’s laws.
Understanding the Law, Nature Cure believes in cooperating with the law; in giving the Lord a helping hand. It teaches that “God helps him who helps himself,” that He will not become angry and refuse His help if His children use rightly the reason, the willpower, and the self-control with which he has endowed them, so that they may achieve their own salvation.
Nature Cure from beginning to end is one grand, true prayer. It teaches The Law on all planes of being, the physical, the mental, the moral, and the spiritual; and it insists that the only way to attain perfect health of body, mind, and soul is to comply with the law to the best of our ability. When we do that, we place ourselves in allgnment with the constructive principle in Nature, and in exact proportion to our intelligent and voluntary co-operation with the laws of our being, all good things will come to us.
Therefore we pray: “Father, give me of Thy strength that I may live in harmony with Thy law, for thus only will all good come to me.”
Chapter XL
Scientific Relaxation and Normal Suggestion
Under the strain of work-a-day hurry and worry, your nerve vibrations are apt to become more and more intense and excited. They run away with you until, as the saying goes, “you are flying all to pieces.”
A good illustration of this condition of the nervous system may be found in a team of horses shying at some object in their path. The driver, panic-stricken, has dropped the reins, the frightened horses have taken the bits between their teeth and are dashing headlong down the road, until their master regains control, checks the animals in their maddened course, and compels them to resume their ordinary pace.
So the high-strung, oversensitive individual must gain control over his nervous system and must subdue his runaway mental and emotional activities into restful, harmonious vibrations.
This is done by insuring sufficient rest and sleep under the right conditions and by practicing scientific relaxation at all times.
The “nervous” person gets easily excited. Comparatively little things will cause an outbreak of intense irritation or emotional hyperactivity.
Usually, the victim of unbalanced nerves is of the high-strung, sensitive type, naturally inclining to more rapid vibrations on all planes, capable of greater achievement than the stolid, heavy, slow-vibrating person who doesn’t know that he has any nerves, but he is also in greater danger of mental and emotional overstrain and physical depletion as a result of the excessive and uncontrolled expenditure of life force and nervous energy.
Relaxation while Working
At first glance this expression may seem paradoxical, but experience will teach that it is not only possible, but absolutely necessary that we perform our work in a relaxed and serene condition of body and mind. The most strenuous physical or mental labor will then not cause as much exhaustion as light work done in a state of nervous tension, irritability, fretfulness or worry.
Relaxation while working necessitates planning and system. Most nervous breakdowns result not so much from overwork as from the vitality wasted through lack of orderly procedure. Therefore, take some time to plan and arrange your work and form the habit of doing certain things that have to be done every day as nearly as possible in the same way (making sure that it is the right way) and at the same time of the day. Such orderly system will soon become habitual and result in saving much valuable time and energy.
Always cultivate a serene and cheerful attitude of mind and soul, taking whatever comes as part of the day’s work, doing your best under the circumstances, but absolutely refusing to worry and fret about anything. Do not cross a bridge before you get to it, and do not waste time regretting something that cannot be undone.
Relaxation while Sitting
Sit upright in a comfortable chair without strain or tension, spine and head erect, the legs forming right angles with the thighs (the chair should be neither too high nor too low), feet resting firmly upon the floor, toes pointing slightly outward, the forearms resting lightly upon the legs with the hands upon the knees. This must be accomplished without effort, for effort means tension.
Dismiss all thoughts of hurry, care, worry or fear and dwell upon the following thoughts:
“I am now completely relaxed in body and mind. I am receptive to Nature’s harmonious and invigorating vibrations–they dispel the discordant and destructive vibrations of hurry, worry, fear and anger. New life, new health, new strength are entering into me with every breath, pervading my whole being.”
Repeat these thoughts mentally, or, if it helps you, say them aloud several times, quietly and forcefully, impressing them deeply upon your inner consciousness.
After practicing relaxation in this manner, lie down for a few minutes’ rest–if circumstances permit–or practice rhythmical breathing (see Chapter Twenty-Eight). Then return to your work and endeavor to maintain a calm, trustful, controlled attitude of mind.
If you are inclined to be irritable, suspicious, jealous, fault-finding, envious, etc., dwell on the following thought pictures:
“I am now fully relaxed, at rest and at peace. The world is an echo. If I send forth irritable, suspicious, hateful thought vibrations, the like will return to me from other minds. I shall think such thoughts no longer. God is love, love is harmony, happiness, heaven. The more I send forth Love, the more I am like God; the more of love will God and men return to me; the more shall I realize true happiness, true health, true strength and true success.”
Relaxation Before Going to Sleep
When ready to go to sleep, lie flat on your back, so that as nearly as possible every part of the spine touches the bed, extend the arms along the sides of the body, hands turned upward, palms open, every muscle relaxed. Dismiss all thoughts of work, annoyance or anxiety. Say to yourself: “I am now going to sleep soundly and peacefully. I am master of my body, my mind and my soul. Nothing evil shall disturb me. At …. A. M., neither earlier nor later, I shall awaken rested and refreshed, strong in body and mind. I shall meet tomorrow’s tasks and duties promptly and serenely.”
Simple as this formula may seem, it has helped cure many a case of persistent insomnia and nervous prostration. Having thus set your mental alarm clock, with a few times, practice you will be able to wake up, without being called, at the appointed time and to demonstrate to yourself the power of your mind over your body.
The quality of your sleep and its effect upon your system depend on the character of the mental and psychic vibrations carried into it. If you harbor thoughts of passion, worry or fear, these destructive thought vibrations will disturb your slumbers and you will awaken in the morning weak and tired. If, however, you repeat mentally a formula such as the above, suggesting harmonious, constructive thoughts, until you lose consciousness, you will carry into your slumbers vibrations of rest, health and strength, producing corresponding effects upon the physical organism.
After a perfectly relaxed condition of body and mind has been attained, it is not necessary to remain lying on the back. Any position of the body may then be assumed which seems most restful.
My patients frequently ask what position of the body is best during sleep. It is not good to lie continuously in any one position. This tends to cause unsymmetrical development of the different parts of the body and to affect unfavorably the functions of various organs. It is best to change occasionally from one position to another, as bodily comfort seems to indicate and require.
Many persons fret and worry if sleep does not come as quickly as desired. They picture to themselves in darkest colors the dire results of wakefulness. Such a state of mind makes sleep impossible. If persisted in, it will inevitably lead to chronic insomnia.
Instead of indulging in hurtful worry, say to yourself: “I do not care whether I sleep or not! Though I do not sleep, I am lying here perfectly relaxed, at rest and at peace. I am strengthened and rested by remaining in a state of peaceful relaxation.”
However, the “I do not care” must be actually meant and felt, must not be merely a mechanical repetition of words.
Nothing is more conducive to sleep, even under the most trying circumstances, than such an “I-don’t-care” attitude of mind. Try it, and the chances are that just because you do not care, you will fall fast asleep.
Chapter XLI
Conclusion
Our critics say: “If Nature Cure is all that you claim for it, why is it not more generally accepted by the medical profession and the public?”
The greatest drawback to spreading the Nature Cure idea is the necessity of self-control which it imposes. If our cures of so-called incurable diseases could be made without asking the patients to change their habits of living, without the demand of effort on their own part, Nature Cure sanitariums could not be built fast enough in this country.
No matter how marvelous the results of the natural methods–when investigators learn that the treatment necessitates the control of indiscriminate appetite and self-indulgence and the persistent practice of natural living and all that this involves, they exclaim: “The natural regimen may be all right, but who can live up to it? You are asking the impossible. You are looking for a perfection which does not exist. Your directions call for an amount of willpower and self-control which nobody possesses.”
Fortunately, however, this is not true. Human nature is good enough and strong enough to comply with Nature’s laws. Furthermore, the natural ways must be the most pleasant in the end or Nature is a fraud and a cheat. True enjoyment of life and happiness are impossible without perfect physical, mental and moral health and these depend upon natural living and natural treatment of human ailments.
Strengthening of Will-Power and Self-Control
If I were asked the question: “What do you consider the greatest benefit to be derived from the Nature Cure regimen?” I should answer: “The strengthening of willpower and self-control.”
This is the very purpose of life. Upon it depends all further achievement. Self-control is the master’s key to all higher development on the mental, moral and spiritual planes of being; but before we can exercise it on the higher planes, we must have learned to apply it on the lower plane, in the management and control of our physical appetites and habits. When we have learned to control these, higher development will come easy.
A good method for strengthening the willpower is autosuggestion. The most opportune moments in the twenty-four hours of the day for practicing this mental magic are those before dropping to sleep. At this time there is the least disturbance and interference from outside influences, the mind is most passive and susceptible to suggestion and impressions made under these favorable conditions upon the “phonograph records” of the subconscious mind are the most lasting and the most powerful to control physical, mental and moral activities.
When thoroughly relaxed, at rest and at peace, say to yourself: “Whatever duties confront me tomorrow, I shall execute them promptly, without wavering or hesitation. I shall not give in to this bad habit which has been controlling me. I shall do that only of which reason and conscience approve.”
In order to be more specific and systematic and to obtain results more surely and quickly, concentrate upon one weakness at a time. When that has been overcome, take up another one, until in this way you have attained perfect control over your thoughts, feelings and actions.
Suppose you have acquired the habit of remaining in bed and dozing after your mental alarm clock has given its signal to arise and you dread the effort of going through your morning exercises and ablutions. Then, the night before, impress upon the subconscious mind deeply and firmly the following suggestions: “Tomorrow morning, on awakening, I shall jump out of bed without hesitation and go through my morning exercises with zest and vigor.”
Or, suppose you are subject to the fear and worry habit. Say to yourself: “Tomorrow or any time thereafter when depressing, gloomy thoughts threaten to control me, I shall overcome them with thoughts of hope and faith, and with absolute confidence in the Divine power of the will within me to overcome and to achieve.”
In this manner you may give the subconscious mind suggestions and impressions for overcoming bad habits and for establishing and strengthening good habits.
If a serious problem is confronting you, and you are unable to solve it to your satisfaction, think upon it just before you are dropping off to sleep and confidently demand that the right solution come to you during the hours of rest. The inner consciousness is always awake. It is the watchman who awakens you at the appointed time in the morning. It will work upon your problem while your physical brain is asleep. In this lies the psychological justification for the popular phrase: “Before I decide the matter I’ll sleep over it.”
In the practice of mental magic, as in everything else, success depends upon patience and perseverance. It would be entirely useless to go through these mental drills occasionally and in a desultory fashion; but if persisted in faithfully and intelligently, they will prove truly magical in their effects upon the development of willpower and self-control, and on these depend the mastery of conditions within and without, the conquest of fate and destiny. PAIN’S SOLILOQUY
By C. J. Buell, President Minnesota Health League
I
I am Pain–most people hate me,
Think me cruel, call me heartless,
Study ways to bribe and fool me,
Try by every means to slay me,
Dope themselves with anaesthetics,
Fill themselves with patent nostrums,
Call the doctor with his poisons,
Seek the Christian Science healer,
Beat the tom-tom of the savage,
Build the altar, burn the incense,
Seek to sate the wrath of devils,
Pray to saints, and Gods, and angels;
Not to cure the ills within them,
Not to cleanse and purify them,
Just to calm the pain that hurts them,
Just to-kill the guide that warns them.
II
Pain am I, but when you know me,
When you once have learned my secret,
How I come to help and bless you,
Warn you, guide you, teach and lead you
When you know my loving nature,
How at first I gently twinge you,
Lightly twinge you as a warning,
Hoping thus, by kind reminder,
You will bear my voice and listen–
Sure am I that when you know me,
You will gladly then embrace me,
Call me friend and give me welcome,
Call me friend and ask my message.
III
This the message I would bring you,
This the reason for my visits,
This the warning I would give you,
This the secret I would teach you:
When you learn to live as Nature
In her great and boundless mercy,
In her tender, loving kindness,
In her wisdom and her goodness
Meant that men should live and labor,
When you learn to shun the by-ways
Leading off to vicious habits,
When you learn to keep your body
Strong and clean and pure and active,
Give it work in right proportion,
Give it air, and food, and water,
Fit to build its every member,
Fit to nourish every function,
When you teach your mind and spirit
Pure and noble thoughts to harbor,
Drive out fear, and hate, and malice,
Cherish love and kindly motive,
When you learn these things I’ve told you,
~When you know them, when you do them,
~Then I will depart and leave you,
Then no more will Pain be needed.
IV
This is, then, the truth I bring you,
That I hurt you but to warn you,
Not to harm you but to heal you,
That I come to guide and teach you.
I am God’s most blessed angel,
Sent to point the way to virtue,
Sent to teach the noblest manhood,
Sent to fill the mind with wisdom,
Sent to rouse the soul to action.
V
Love me, trust me, heed my message;
I will bring you peace and bless you!