Ralph Waldo Trine's In Tune With The Infinite - 1897 - ラルフ・ウォルドー・トライン - 04
Chapter 6 - Fullness Of Life - Bodily Health And Vigor
GOD is the Spirit of Infinite Life. If we are partakers of this life and have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine inflow, it means more, so far to its divine inflow, it means more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we may at first think. For very clearly, the life of this Infinite Spirit, from its very nature, can admit of no disease, and if this is true, no disease can exist in the body where it freely enters, through which it freely flows.
Let us recognize at the outset that, so far as the physical life is concerned, all life is from within outwards. There is an immutable law which says: 'As within, so without, cause, effect.' In other words, the thought forces, the various mental states and the emotions, all have in time their effects upon the physical body.
Someone says, 'I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effects of the mmd upon the body, but I don't know that I place very much confidence in this.' Don't you? Someone brings you sudden news. You grow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint. It is, however, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted to you. A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, something that seems very unkind. You are hurt by it as we say. You have been enjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone. But what was said entered into and affected you through the channel of your mind.
Look! Yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over the slightest obstruction in the path. Why is it? Simply that he is weak-minded, an idiot. In other words, a falling state of mind is productive of a falling condition of the body. To be sure-minded is to be sure footed. To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step.
Again, a sudden emergency arises. You stand trembling and weak with fear. Why are you powerless to move? Why do you tremble? And yet you believe that the mind has but little influence upon the body. You are for a moment dominated by a fit of anger. For a few hours afterwards you complain of a violent headache. And still you do not seem to realize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body.
A day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking of worry. 'My father is greatly given to worry,' he said. 'Your father is not a healthy man' I said. 'He is not strong, vigorous, robust, and active.' I then went on to describe to him more fully his father's condition and the troubles which afflicted him. He looked at me in surprise and said, 'Why, you do not know my father?' 'No,' I replied. 'How then can you describe so accurately the disease with which he is afflicted?' 'You have just told me that your father is greatly given to worry. When you told me this you indicated to me cause. In describing your father's condition I simply connected with the cause its own peculiar effects.'
Fear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body, so that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner. Hope and tranquility open the channels of the body, so that the life forces go bounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get a foothold.
Not long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble. My friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister the most kindly relations did not exist. He listened attentively to her delineation of her troubles, and then, looking her squarely in the face, in a firm but kindly tone, said: 'Forgive your sister.' The woman looked at him in surprise and said: 'I can't forgive my sister' 'Very well, then,' he replied, 'keep the stiffness of your joints and your kindred rheumatic troubles.'
A few weeks later he saw her again. With a light step she came toward him and said I took your advice. I saw my sister and forgave her. We have become good friends again, and I don't know how it is, but somehow or other from the very day, as I remember, that we became reconciled, my troubles seemed to grow less and today there is not a trace of the old difficulties left, and really, my sister and I have become such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without one another.' Again we have effect following cause.
We have several well-authenticated cases of the following nature. A mother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion of anger, and the child at her breast has died within an hour's time, so poisoned became the mother's milk by virtue of the poisonous secretions of the system while under the domination of this fit of anger. In other cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions.
The following experiment has been tried a number of times by a well-known scientist. Several men have been put into a heated room. Each man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion of some kind, one by an intense passion of anger, and others by different other passions. The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration from the body of each of these men, and by means of a careful chemical analysis he has been able to determine the particular passion by which each has been dominated. Practically the same results revealed themselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men.
Says a noted American author, an able graduate of a great medical school and one who has studied deeply into the forces that build the body and the forces that tear it down: 'The mind is the natural protector of the body..... Every thought tends to reproduce itself, and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice of all sorts, produce scrofula and leprosy in the soul, which reproduces them in the body. Anger changes the chemical properties of the saliva to a poison dangerous to life. It is well known that sudden and violent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, but have caused death and insanity.
It has been discovered by scientists that there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudation of a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration, and the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemical analysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought into contact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color. It is well known that fear has killed thousands of victims, while, on the other hand, courage is a great invigorator.
Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child. Rarey, the celebrated horse-tamer, said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse of a horse ten beats in a minute. If this is true of a beast, what can we say of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child? Strong mental emotion often causes vomiting. Extreme anger or fright may produce jaundice. A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and death. Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mental agony has wrecked a life. Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant care and corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity. Sick thoughts and discordant moods are the natural atmosphere of disease, and crime is engendered and thrives in the miasma of the mind.
From all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstrating today that the various mental states, emotions, and passions have their various peculiar effects upon the body, and each induces in turn, if indulged in to any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease, and these in time become chronic.
Just a word or two in regard to their mode of operation. If a person is dominated for a moment by, say, a passion of anger, there is set up in the physical organism what we might justly term a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring, or rather of corroding, the normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so that instead of performing their natural functions they become poisonous and destructive. And if this goes on to any great extent by virtue of their cumulative influences they give rise to a particular form of disease, which in turn becomes chronic. So the emotion opposite to this, that of kindliness, love, benevolence, goodwill, tends to stimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all the bodily secretions. All the channels of the body seem free and open, the life forces go bounding through them. And these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will in time counteract the poisonous and disease-giving effects of their opposites.
A physician goes to see a patient. He gives no medicine this morning. Yet the very fact of his going makes the patient better. He has carried with him the spirit of health, he has carried brightness of tone and disposition, he has carried hope into the sick chamber, he has left it there. In fact, the very hope and good cheer he has carried with him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influence upon the mind of the patient, and this mental condition imparted by the physician has in turn its effects upon the patient's body, and so through the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goes on.
Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
Supports the mind, supports the body, too.
Hence the most vital movement mortals feel
Is hope, the balm and life-blood of the soul.
We sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another, 'I always feel better when you come.' There is a deep scientific reason underlying the statement. 'The tongue of the wise is health.' The power of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a most wonderful and interesting field of study. Most wonderful and powerful forces can be set into operation through this agency. One of the world's most noted scientists, recognized everywhere as one of the most eminent anatomists living, tells us that he has proved from laboratory experiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed, made over, within a period of less than one year, and that some portions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks.
'Do you mean to say,' I hear it asked, 'that the body can be changed from a diseased to a healthy condition through the operation of the interior forces?' Most certainly, and more, this is the natural method of cure. The method that has as its work the application of drugs, medicines and external agencies is the artificial method. The only thing that any drug or any medicine can do is to remove obstructions, that the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work. The real healing process must be performed by the operation of the life forces within.
A surgeon and physician of worldwide fame recently made to his medical associates the following declaration: 'For generations past the most important influence that plays upon nutrition, the life principle itself, has remained an unconsidered element in the medical profession, and the almost exclusive drift of its studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the action of matter over mind.
This has seriously interfered with the evolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently the psychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary or comparatively undeveloped state. But the light of the nineteenth century has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken in the direction of the hidden forces of nature. Doctors are now compelled to join the ranks of students in psychology and follow their patrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics. There is no time for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation. He who lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement.'
I am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are now considering there has been a great deal of foolishness during recent years. Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done; but this says nothing against, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the great underlying laws themselves. The same has been true of the early days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy or religion the world has ever known. But as time has passed, these foolish, absurd things have fallen away, and the great eternal principles have stood out ever more and more clearly defined.
I know personally of many cases where an entire and permanent cure has been effected, in some within a remarkably short period of time, through the operation of these forces. Some of them are cases that had been entirely given up by the regular practice, materia medica. We have numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connection with all religions. And why should not the power of effecting such cures exist among us today? The power does exist, and it will be actualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great laws that were recognized in times past.
One person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing of another, but this almost invariably implies co-operation on the part of the one who is thus treated. In the cures that Christ performed He almost always needed the co-operation of the one who appealed to Him. His question almost invariably was, 'Dost thou believe?' He thus stimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured. If one is in a very weak condition, or if their nervous system is exhausted, or if their mind through the influence of the disease is not so strong in its workings, it may be well for them for a time to seek the aid and co-operation of another. But it would be far better for such a one could they bring themselves to a vital realization of the omnipotence of their own interior powers.
One may cure another but to be permanently healed one must do it themselves. In this way another may be most valuable as a teacher by bringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within, but in every case, in order to have a permanent cure, the work of the self is necessary. Christ's words were almost invariably -Go, and sin no more, or, Thy sins are forgiven thee, thus pointing out the one eternal and never-changing fact that all disease and its consequent suffering is the direct or the indirect result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally, or unintentionally.
Suffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues, sin not necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophical sense, though many times in the sense of both. The moment the violation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with the law, the cause of the suffering ceases, and though there may be residing within the cumulative effects of past violation, the cause is removed, and consequently there can be no more effects in the form of additions, and even the diseased condition that has been induced from past violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces are set into activity.
There is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring one into harmony with the laws under which we live than this vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Spirit, which is the life of all life. In this there can be no disease, and nothing will more readily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulated there, or in other words, the disease that resides there, than this full realization and the complete opening of one's self to this divine inflow. 'I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live.'
The moment a person realizes their oneness with the Infinite Spirit they recognize themselves as a spiritual being, and no longer as a mere physical material being. They then no longer make the mistake of regarding themselves as body, subject to ills and diseases, but realize the fact that they are spirit, spirit now as much as they ever will or can be, and that they are the builder and so the master of the body, the house in which they live, and the moment they thus recognize their power as master they cease in any way to allow it the mastery over them.
They no longer fear the elements or any of the forces that they now in ignorance allow to take hold of and affect the body. The moment they realize their own supremacy, instead of fearing them as they did when they were out of harmony with them, they learn to love them. They thus come into harmony with them, or rather, they so order them that they come into harmony with them. He who formerly was the slave has now become the master. The moment we come to love a thing it no longer carries harm for us.
There are almost countless numbers today, weak and suffering in body, who would become strong and healthy if they would only give God an opportunity to do His work. To such I would say, Don't shut out the divine inflow. Do anything else rather than this. Open yourselves to it. Invite it. In the degree that you open yourselves to It, its inflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital that the old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven out before it. 'My words are life to them that find them, and wealth to all their flesh.'
There is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has been flowing for many days. The dirt has gradually collected on its sides and bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy water flows through it. Change this. Open the trough to a swift-flowing stream of clear, crystal water, and in a very little while even the very dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carried away. The trough will be entirely cleansed. It will present in aspect of beauty and no longer an aspect of ugliness. And more, the water that now courses through it will be of value, it will be an agent of refreshment, of health and of strength to those who use it.
Yes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with the infinite Spirit of Life, and thus actualize your latent possibilities and powers, you will exchange disease for ease, inharmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. And in the degree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health and strength in yourself, will you carry it to all with whom you come into contact, for we must remember that health is contagious as well as disease.
I hear it asked, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the practical application of these truths, so that one can hold themselves in the enjoyment of perfect bodily health, and more, that one may heal themselves of any existing disease? In reply, let it be said that the chief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlying principle, and that each individual must make their own application, one person cannot well make this for another.
First let it be said that the very fact of one's holding the thought of perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in time be more or less productive of the effect of perfect health. Then speaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself, from its very nature, it is clear that more can be accomplished through the process of realization than through the process of affirmation though for some affirmation may be a help, an aid to realization.
In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your oneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow do you set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical body into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realize that this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no disease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you by realizing your oneness with it you can so open yourself to its more abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions and effects will respond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly or more tardily, depending entirely upon yourself.
There have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully to this realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent. The degree of intensity always eliminates in like degree the element of time. It must, however, be a calm, quiet, and expectant intensity, rather than an intensity that is fearing, disturbed, and non-expectant. Then there are others who have come to this realization by degrees. Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a practice somewhat after the following nature: With a mind at peace, and with a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own interior self, holding the thought -I am one with the Infinite Spirit of Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, a spiritual being, can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, in which disease has got a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing tide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and coursing through my body, and the healing process is going on.
Realize this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warm glow imparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing process is going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many people greatly desire a certain thing, but expect something else. They have greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence remain ill.
If one will give themselves to this meditation, realization, treatment, or whatever term it may seem best to us, at stated times, as often as they may choose, and then continually bold themselves in the same attitude of mind, thus allowing the force to work continually, they will be surprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of disease and inharmony for health and harmony. There is no particular reason, however, for this surprise, for in this way they are simply allowing the Omnipotent Power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately in any case.
If there is a local difficulty, and one wants to open this particular portion, in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, one can hold this particular portion in thought, for to fix the thought in this way upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases the flow of the life forces in that portion. It must always be borne in mind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished, effects will not permanently cease until causes have been removed. In other words, as long as there is the violation of law, so long disease and suffering will result.
This realization that we are considering will have an influence not only where there is a diseased condition of the body, but even where there is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life, vigor, and power.
We have had many cases, in all times and in all countries, of healing through the operation of the interior forces, entirely independent of external agencies. Various have been the methods or rather, various have been the names applied to them, but the great law underlying all is one and the same, and the same today. When the Master sent His followers forth, His injunction to them was to heal the sick and the afflicted, as well as to teach the people. The early Church fathers had the power of healing, in short, it was a part of their work.
And why should we not have the power today, just as they had it then? Are the laws at all different? Identically the same. Why, then? Simply because, with a few rare exceptions here and there, we are unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vital spirit and power. It is the letter that killeth, it is the spirit that giveth life and power. Every soul who becomes so individualized that they break through the mere letter and enter into the real vital spirit will have the power, as have all who have gone before, and when they do, they will also be the means of imparting it to others, for they will be one who will move and who will speak with authority.
We are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, as time passes, that practically all disease, with its consequent suffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states and conditions. The mental attitude we take toward anything determines to a greater or less extent its effects upon us. If we fear it, or if we antagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or even disastrous effects upon us. If we come into harmony with it by quietly recognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in the degree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will it carry with it no injury for us.
No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it will be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter.
We, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, by virtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of every description.
Do I fear a draught? There is nothing in the draught, a little purifying current of God's pure air, to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold, perhaps an illness. The draught can affect me only in the degree that I myself make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect me. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draught is not cause, nor does it carry cause with it. Two persons are sitting in the same draught. The one is injuriously affected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but they rather enjoy it. The one is a creature of circumstances, they fear the draught, cringe before it, continually think of the harm it is doing them.
In other words, they open every avenue for it to enter and take hold of them, and so it, harmless and beneficent in itself, brings to them exactly what they have empowered it to bring. The other recognizes themselves as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. They are not concerned about the draught. They put themselves into harmony with it, make themselves positive to it, and instead of experiencing any discomfort, they enjoy it, and in addition to its doing them a service by bringing the pure fresh air from without to them, it does them the additional service of hardening them even more to any future conditions of a like nature. But if the draught was cause, it would bring the same results to both. The fact that it does not, shows that it is not a cause, but a condition, and it brings to each, effects which correspond to the conditions it finds within each.
Poor draught! How many thousands, nay millions of times it is made the scapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their own weaknesses square in the face, and who instead of becoming imperial masters remain cringing slaves. Think of it, what it means. A man created in the image of the eternal God, sharer of His life and power, born to have dominion, fearing, shaking, cringing before a little draught of pure life-giving air. But scapegoats are convenient things, even if the only thing they do for us is aid us in our constant efforts at self-delusion.
The best way to disarm a draught of the bad effects it has been accustomed to bring one, is first to bring about a pure and healthy set of conditions within, then, to change one's mental attitude toward it. Recognize the fact that of itself it has no power, it has only the power you invest it with. Thus you will put yourself into harmony with it, and will no longer sit in fear of it. Then sit in a draught a few times and get hardened to it, as everyone, by going at it judiciously, can readily do. 'But suppose one is in delicate health, or especially subject to draughts?' Then be simply a little judicious at first, don't seek the strongest that can be found, especially if you do not as yet in your own mind feel equal to it, for if you do not, it signifies that you still fear it. That supreme regulator of all life, good common sense, must be used here, as elsewhere.
If we are born to have dominion, and that we are is demonstrated by the fact that some have attained to it -and what one has done, soon or late all can do -then it is not necessary that we live under the domination of any physical agent. In the degree that we recognize our own interior powers, then are we rulers and able to dictate; in the degree that we fail to recognize them, we are slaves, and are dictated to. We build whatever we find within us, we attract whatever comes to us, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law is spiritual law.
The whole of human life is cause and effect, there is no such thing in it as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe. Are we not satisfied with whatever comes into our lives? The thing to do, then, is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we create and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causes at work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, for there will come exactly what we cause to come.
続きます。
Chapter 6 - Fullness Of Life - Bodily Health And Vigor
GOD is the Spirit of Infinite Life. If we are partakers of this life and have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine inflow, it means more, so far to its divine inflow, it means more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we may at first think. For very clearly, the life of this Infinite Spirit, from its very nature, can admit of no disease, and if this is true, no disease can exist in the body where it freely enters, through which it freely flows.
Let us recognize at the outset that, so far as the physical life is concerned, all life is from within outwards. There is an immutable law which says: 'As within, so without, cause, effect.' In other words, the thought forces, the various mental states and the emotions, all have in time their effects upon the physical body.
Someone says, 'I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effects of the mmd upon the body, but I don't know that I place very much confidence in this.' Don't you? Someone brings you sudden news. You grow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint. It is, however, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted to you. A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, something that seems very unkind. You are hurt by it as we say. You have been enjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone. But what was said entered into and affected you through the channel of your mind.
Look! Yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over the slightest obstruction in the path. Why is it? Simply that he is weak-minded, an idiot. In other words, a falling state of mind is productive of a falling condition of the body. To be sure-minded is to be sure footed. To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step.
Again, a sudden emergency arises. You stand trembling and weak with fear. Why are you powerless to move? Why do you tremble? And yet you believe that the mind has but little influence upon the body. You are for a moment dominated by a fit of anger. For a few hours afterwards you complain of a violent headache. And still you do not seem to realize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body.
A day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking of worry. 'My father is greatly given to worry,' he said. 'Your father is not a healthy man' I said. 'He is not strong, vigorous, robust, and active.' I then went on to describe to him more fully his father's condition and the troubles which afflicted him. He looked at me in surprise and said, 'Why, you do not know my father?' 'No,' I replied. 'How then can you describe so accurately the disease with which he is afflicted?' 'You have just told me that your father is greatly given to worry. When you told me this you indicated to me cause. In describing your father's condition I simply connected with the cause its own peculiar effects.'
Fear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body, so that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner. Hope and tranquility open the channels of the body, so that the life forces go bounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get a foothold.
Not long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble. My friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister the most kindly relations did not exist. He listened attentively to her delineation of her troubles, and then, looking her squarely in the face, in a firm but kindly tone, said: 'Forgive your sister.' The woman looked at him in surprise and said: 'I can't forgive my sister' 'Very well, then,' he replied, 'keep the stiffness of your joints and your kindred rheumatic troubles.'
A few weeks later he saw her again. With a light step she came toward him and said I took your advice. I saw my sister and forgave her. We have become good friends again, and I don't know how it is, but somehow or other from the very day, as I remember, that we became reconciled, my troubles seemed to grow less and today there is not a trace of the old difficulties left, and really, my sister and I have become such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without one another.' Again we have effect following cause.
We have several well-authenticated cases of the following nature. A mother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion of anger, and the child at her breast has died within an hour's time, so poisoned became the mother's milk by virtue of the poisonous secretions of the system while under the domination of this fit of anger. In other cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions.
The following experiment has been tried a number of times by a well-known scientist. Several men have been put into a heated room. Each man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion of some kind, one by an intense passion of anger, and others by different other passions. The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration from the body of each of these men, and by means of a careful chemical analysis he has been able to determine the particular passion by which each has been dominated. Practically the same results revealed themselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men.
Says a noted American author, an able graduate of a great medical school and one who has studied deeply into the forces that build the body and the forces that tear it down: 'The mind is the natural protector of the body..... Every thought tends to reproduce itself, and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice of all sorts, produce scrofula and leprosy in the soul, which reproduces them in the body. Anger changes the chemical properties of the saliva to a poison dangerous to life. It is well known that sudden and violent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, but have caused death and insanity.
It has been discovered by scientists that there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudation of a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration, and the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemical analysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought into contact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color. It is well known that fear has killed thousands of victims, while, on the other hand, courage is a great invigorator.
Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child. Rarey, the celebrated horse-tamer, said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse of a horse ten beats in a minute. If this is true of a beast, what can we say of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child? Strong mental emotion often causes vomiting. Extreme anger or fright may produce jaundice. A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and death. Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mental agony has wrecked a life. Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant care and corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity. Sick thoughts and discordant moods are the natural atmosphere of disease, and crime is engendered and thrives in the miasma of the mind.
From all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstrating today that the various mental states, emotions, and passions have their various peculiar effects upon the body, and each induces in turn, if indulged in to any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease, and these in time become chronic.
Just a word or two in regard to their mode of operation. If a person is dominated for a moment by, say, a passion of anger, there is set up in the physical organism what we might justly term a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring, or rather of corroding, the normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so that instead of performing their natural functions they become poisonous and destructive. And if this goes on to any great extent by virtue of their cumulative influences they give rise to a particular form of disease, which in turn becomes chronic. So the emotion opposite to this, that of kindliness, love, benevolence, goodwill, tends to stimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all the bodily secretions. All the channels of the body seem free and open, the life forces go bounding through them. And these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will in time counteract the poisonous and disease-giving effects of their opposites.
A physician goes to see a patient. He gives no medicine this morning. Yet the very fact of his going makes the patient better. He has carried with him the spirit of health, he has carried brightness of tone and disposition, he has carried hope into the sick chamber, he has left it there. In fact, the very hope and good cheer he has carried with him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influence upon the mind of the patient, and this mental condition imparted by the physician has in turn its effects upon the patient's body, and so through the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goes on.
Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
Supports the mind, supports the body, too.
Hence the most vital movement mortals feel
Is hope, the balm and life-blood of the soul.
We sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another, 'I always feel better when you come.' There is a deep scientific reason underlying the statement. 'The tongue of the wise is health.' The power of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a most wonderful and interesting field of study. Most wonderful and powerful forces can be set into operation through this agency. One of the world's most noted scientists, recognized everywhere as one of the most eminent anatomists living, tells us that he has proved from laboratory experiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed, made over, within a period of less than one year, and that some portions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks.
'Do you mean to say,' I hear it asked, 'that the body can be changed from a diseased to a healthy condition through the operation of the interior forces?' Most certainly, and more, this is the natural method of cure. The method that has as its work the application of drugs, medicines and external agencies is the artificial method. The only thing that any drug or any medicine can do is to remove obstructions, that the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work. The real healing process must be performed by the operation of the life forces within.
A surgeon and physician of worldwide fame recently made to his medical associates the following declaration: 'For generations past the most important influence that plays upon nutrition, the life principle itself, has remained an unconsidered element in the medical profession, and the almost exclusive drift of its studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the action of matter over mind.
This has seriously interfered with the evolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently the psychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary or comparatively undeveloped state. But the light of the nineteenth century has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken in the direction of the hidden forces of nature. Doctors are now compelled to join the ranks of students in psychology and follow their patrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics. There is no time for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation. He who lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement.'
I am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are now considering there has been a great deal of foolishness during recent years. Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done; but this says nothing against, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the great underlying laws themselves. The same has been true of the early days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy or religion the world has ever known. But as time has passed, these foolish, absurd things have fallen away, and the great eternal principles have stood out ever more and more clearly defined.
I know personally of many cases where an entire and permanent cure has been effected, in some within a remarkably short period of time, through the operation of these forces. Some of them are cases that had been entirely given up by the regular practice, materia medica. We have numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connection with all religions. And why should not the power of effecting such cures exist among us today? The power does exist, and it will be actualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great laws that were recognized in times past.
One person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing of another, but this almost invariably implies co-operation on the part of the one who is thus treated. In the cures that Christ performed He almost always needed the co-operation of the one who appealed to Him. His question almost invariably was, 'Dost thou believe?' He thus stimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured. If one is in a very weak condition, or if their nervous system is exhausted, or if their mind through the influence of the disease is not so strong in its workings, it may be well for them for a time to seek the aid and co-operation of another. But it would be far better for such a one could they bring themselves to a vital realization of the omnipotence of their own interior powers.
One may cure another but to be permanently healed one must do it themselves. In this way another may be most valuable as a teacher by bringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within, but in every case, in order to have a permanent cure, the work of the self is necessary. Christ's words were almost invariably -Go, and sin no more, or, Thy sins are forgiven thee, thus pointing out the one eternal and never-changing fact that all disease and its consequent suffering is the direct or the indirect result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally, or unintentionally.
Suffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues, sin not necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophical sense, though many times in the sense of both. The moment the violation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with the law, the cause of the suffering ceases, and though there may be residing within the cumulative effects of past violation, the cause is removed, and consequently there can be no more effects in the form of additions, and even the diseased condition that has been induced from past violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces are set into activity.
There is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring one into harmony with the laws under which we live than this vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Spirit, which is the life of all life. In this there can be no disease, and nothing will more readily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulated there, or in other words, the disease that resides there, than this full realization and the complete opening of one's self to this divine inflow. 'I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live.'
The moment a person realizes their oneness with the Infinite Spirit they recognize themselves as a spiritual being, and no longer as a mere physical material being. They then no longer make the mistake of regarding themselves as body, subject to ills and diseases, but realize the fact that they are spirit, spirit now as much as they ever will or can be, and that they are the builder and so the master of the body, the house in which they live, and the moment they thus recognize their power as master they cease in any way to allow it the mastery over them.
They no longer fear the elements or any of the forces that they now in ignorance allow to take hold of and affect the body. The moment they realize their own supremacy, instead of fearing them as they did when they were out of harmony with them, they learn to love them. They thus come into harmony with them, or rather, they so order them that they come into harmony with them. He who formerly was the slave has now become the master. The moment we come to love a thing it no longer carries harm for us.
There are almost countless numbers today, weak and suffering in body, who would become strong and healthy if they would only give God an opportunity to do His work. To such I would say, Don't shut out the divine inflow. Do anything else rather than this. Open yourselves to it. Invite it. In the degree that you open yourselves to It, its inflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital that the old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven out before it. 'My words are life to them that find them, and wealth to all their flesh.'
There is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has been flowing for many days. The dirt has gradually collected on its sides and bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy water flows through it. Change this. Open the trough to a swift-flowing stream of clear, crystal water, and in a very little while even the very dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carried away. The trough will be entirely cleansed. It will present in aspect of beauty and no longer an aspect of ugliness. And more, the water that now courses through it will be of value, it will be an agent of refreshment, of health and of strength to those who use it.
Yes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with the infinite Spirit of Life, and thus actualize your latent possibilities and powers, you will exchange disease for ease, inharmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. And in the degree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health and strength in yourself, will you carry it to all with whom you come into contact, for we must remember that health is contagious as well as disease.
I hear it asked, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the practical application of these truths, so that one can hold themselves in the enjoyment of perfect bodily health, and more, that one may heal themselves of any existing disease? In reply, let it be said that the chief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlying principle, and that each individual must make their own application, one person cannot well make this for another.
First let it be said that the very fact of one's holding the thought of perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in time be more or less productive of the effect of perfect health. Then speaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself, from its very nature, it is clear that more can be accomplished through the process of realization than through the process of affirmation though for some affirmation may be a help, an aid to realization.
In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your oneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow do you set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical body into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realize that this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no disease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you by realizing your oneness with it you can so open yourself to its more abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions and effects will respond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly or more tardily, depending entirely upon yourself.
There have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully to this realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent. The degree of intensity always eliminates in like degree the element of time. It must, however, be a calm, quiet, and expectant intensity, rather than an intensity that is fearing, disturbed, and non-expectant. Then there are others who have come to this realization by degrees. Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a practice somewhat after the following nature: With a mind at peace, and with a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own interior self, holding the thought -I am one with the Infinite Spirit of Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, a spiritual being, can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, in which disease has got a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing tide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and coursing through my body, and the healing process is going on.
Realize this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warm glow imparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing process is going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many people greatly desire a certain thing, but expect something else. They have greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence remain ill.
If one will give themselves to this meditation, realization, treatment, or whatever term it may seem best to us, at stated times, as often as they may choose, and then continually bold themselves in the same attitude of mind, thus allowing the force to work continually, they will be surprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of disease and inharmony for health and harmony. There is no particular reason, however, for this surprise, for in this way they are simply allowing the Omnipotent Power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately in any case.
If there is a local difficulty, and one wants to open this particular portion, in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, one can hold this particular portion in thought, for to fix the thought in this way upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases the flow of the life forces in that portion. It must always be borne in mind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished, effects will not permanently cease until causes have been removed. In other words, as long as there is the violation of law, so long disease and suffering will result.
This realization that we are considering will have an influence not only where there is a diseased condition of the body, but even where there is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life, vigor, and power.
We have had many cases, in all times and in all countries, of healing through the operation of the interior forces, entirely independent of external agencies. Various have been the methods or rather, various have been the names applied to them, but the great law underlying all is one and the same, and the same today. When the Master sent His followers forth, His injunction to them was to heal the sick and the afflicted, as well as to teach the people. The early Church fathers had the power of healing, in short, it was a part of their work.
And why should we not have the power today, just as they had it then? Are the laws at all different? Identically the same. Why, then? Simply because, with a few rare exceptions here and there, we are unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vital spirit and power. It is the letter that killeth, it is the spirit that giveth life and power. Every soul who becomes so individualized that they break through the mere letter and enter into the real vital spirit will have the power, as have all who have gone before, and when they do, they will also be the means of imparting it to others, for they will be one who will move and who will speak with authority.
We are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, as time passes, that practically all disease, with its consequent suffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states and conditions. The mental attitude we take toward anything determines to a greater or less extent its effects upon us. If we fear it, or if we antagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or even disastrous effects upon us. If we come into harmony with it by quietly recognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in the degree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will it carry with it no injury for us.
No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it will be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter.
We, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, by virtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of every description.
Do I fear a draught? There is nothing in the draught, a little purifying current of God's pure air, to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold, perhaps an illness. The draught can affect me only in the degree that I myself make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect me. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draught is not cause, nor does it carry cause with it. Two persons are sitting in the same draught. The one is injuriously affected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but they rather enjoy it. The one is a creature of circumstances, they fear the draught, cringe before it, continually think of the harm it is doing them.
In other words, they open every avenue for it to enter and take hold of them, and so it, harmless and beneficent in itself, brings to them exactly what they have empowered it to bring. The other recognizes themselves as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. They are not concerned about the draught. They put themselves into harmony with it, make themselves positive to it, and instead of experiencing any discomfort, they enjoy it, and in addition to its doing them a service by bringing the pure fresh air from without to them, it does them the additional service of hardening them even more to any future conditions of a like nature. But if the draught was cause, it would bring the same results to both. The fact that it does not, shows that it is not a cause, but a condition, and it brings to each, effects which correspond to the conditions it finds within each.
Poor draught! How many thousands, nay millions of times it is made the scapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their own weaknesses square in the face, and who instead of becoming imperial masters remain cringing slaves. Think of it, what it means. A man created in the image of the eternal God, sharer of His life and power, born to have dominion, fearing, shaking, cringing before a little draught of pure life-giving air. But scapegoats are convenient things, even if the only thing they do for us is aid us in our constant efforts at self-delusion.
The best way to disarm a draught of the bad effects it has been accustomed to bring one, is first to bring about a pure and healthy set of conditions within, then, to change one's mental attitude toward it. Recognize the fact that of itself it has no power, it has only the power you invest it with. Thus you will put yourself into harmony with it, and will no longer sit in fear of it. Then sit in a draught a few times and get hardened to it, as everyone, by going at it judiciously, can readily do. 'But suppose one is in delicate health, or especially subject to draughts?' Then be simply a little judicious at first, don't seek the strongest that can be found, especially if you do not as yet in your own mind feel equal to it, for if you do not, it signifies that you still fear it. That supreme regulator of all life, good common sense, must be used here, as elsewhere.
If we are born to have dominion, and that we are is demonstrated by the fact that some have attained to it -and what one has done, soon or late all can do -then it is not necessary that we live under the domination of any physical agent. In the degree that we recognize our own interior powers, then are we rulers and able to dictate; in the degree that we fail to recognize them, we are slaves, and are dictated to. We build whatever we find within us, we attract whatever comes to us, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law is spiritual law.
The whole of human life is cause and effect, there is no such thing in it as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe. Are we not satisfied with whatever comes into our lives? The thing to do, then, is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we create and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causes at work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, for there will come exactly what we cause to come.
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