Nature Cure
by
Henry Lindlahr

Part 7 out of 7



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!




 


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