“I
am the Lord thy God that healeth thee.”
“I
dress the wound, but God heals it.”—Written by
Ambrose Pare on the walls of the School of Medicine in Paris.
The
potencies in the drug-stores are weaklings in comparison
with the mighty life-giving, life-inspiring potencies which
live in the great within of ourselves. It is here we make
connection with the vital, creative, restorative power which
first created us, and which re-creates us, restores, repairs,
and heals us.
To
nothing else touching his life can the aphorism “As
a man thinketh in his heart so is he” be more fittingly
applied than to a man’s health.
Health
can be established only by thinking health, just as disease
is established by thinking disease. Just as you must think
success, expect it, visualize it, make your mind a huge
success magnet to attract it if you are to attain it, so
if you want to be healthy, you must think health, you must
expect it, you must visualize it, you must attract it by
making your mind a huge health magnet to attract more health,
abundant health. As long as physical defects, weaknesses,
or diseased conditions exist in the imagination, as long
as the mind is filled with visions of ill health the body
must correspond, because our bodies are but an extension
of our thoughts, our minds objectified.
Health
is based upon the ideal of the body’s perfection and
the absolute denial of disease, the denial of everything
but the ideal condition; upon the idea that only that which
is good for us can be real in the highest sense of the word;
that all physical discords are only the absence of harmony,
not the reality of our being, the truth of us. Health is
the everlasting reality; disease is the absence of reality.
It is only seeming.
In
proportion to the Physician’s ability to suggest perfect
soundness of body to his patient, to visualize him as physically
perfect; in proportion to his power to see and to impress
upon the mind of his patient the image of the ideal, instead
of that of the diseased, discordant, suffering individual,
will he be able to help him.
In
1866 Sir James Paget, who was then the most famous physician
in England, in speaking of a case which had baffled him
for a long time, told another physician that some day his
patient would disgrace the profession “by being juggled
out of her malady by some bold quack, who by mere force
of assertion will give her the will to heal or forget or
suppress all the turbulences of her marvelous system.”
Many
physicians admit that “quacks” often heal patients
when the regular physicians can do nothing for them. But
they do not realize the principle underneath this sort of
healing by the “quacks,” as they call them; that
is, the power of assertion, the establishing in the mind
of the patient the idea of his health, the wholeness of
his body.
Whether
we call him a quack, a healer, or a regular physician, he
will help his patient best by acting on this principle,
because the creative forces in the patient will all the
time be building into the tissue of his body the reality
of the perfect image, the image of the sound, robust being
which the physician projects into his mind.
A
great surgeon has told me that time and again he has performed
make-believe surgical operations upon patients who had dwelt
so long on the probability of disease in certain organs
that they had become obsessed with fear and developed some
of the symptoms of the disease.
In
such cases as this the surgeon goes through all the forms
of a regular operation. He puts the patient on the operating
table, puts him under an anesthetic, and will sometimes
scratch the skin so as to leave a little semblance of a
trace of an operation. Then he will put a surgical bandage
on the part and keep the patient in bed the usual time,
at the end of which he is quite well again and perfectly
normal.
Without
exception, he says, all the patients he has treated in this
way, whether for appendicitis or trouble in some other organ,
have been entirely cured of their obsession. Even in cases
where the patient had insisted that he had had persistent
pain for many months have entire cures been made by a make-believe
operation.
Nor
has this surgeon ever told his patients of the deception
he practiced, which he claims was perfectly justifiable,
because his great object was to help them get well with
the least possible risk or harm.
Another
surgeon in a large hospital says he has performed many such
mock operations on hysterical women, who imagined they had
some malignant growth or other cause for operation, after
all other efforts to convince them that there was really
nothing the matter with them had failed.
Among
other cases be cured in this way was that of a woman who
was convinced she had an internal tumor. She had been operated
upon four times previously and had a tumor removed. Having
received a severe shock from upsetting a lighted lamp, she
became hysterical, and possessed with the illusion that
she was again suffering from tumors and that the only thing
that would save her life was an operation. Not being able
to pacify her in any other way, the physician decided to
perform a mock operation.
The
patient was put on the operating table and given just enough
anesthetic to put her in a state of semi-consciousness.
She could bear and feel, but could not see. The surgeons
and nurses moved about the room quietly, gave hurried orders
to the attendants, and acted as though they were working
on a grave operation. They let ice water drip from a considerable
height upon the affected part for four or five minutes to
give the patient the idea of being swathed in bandages.
Later, she was taken home in an ambulance, and on awaking
found two trained nurses creeping about her room. When asked
if she could take a little sip of weak tea, she told the
nurse that she felt frightfully weak and languid. But on
being urged to make an effort, she succeeded in swallowing
a little of the tea. The patient remained in bed ten days,
after which her friends were allowed to see her and she
gradually recovered strength.
Although
there was no cutting whatever by the surgeon’s knife,
no real operation, this woman believed there had been, and
the conviction of the relief it had afforded neutralized
or destroyed the previous conviction that she was in a dangerous
condition, and that nothing but an operation could possibly
save her life.
A
still more interesting case reported by the same surgeon
was that of a young woman who kept moving her head from
side to side constantly, telling her physician that there
was a string in her head, pulling it this way and that.
He could not persuade her that this was only a delusion,
and finally sent her to a surgeon.
The
surgeon decided to pretend to operate upon her, and when
he told her that an operation was necessary, she clapped
her hands for joy. She told him that other physicians and
surgeons she had consulted only laughed at her and called
her foolish while all the time she knew there was a string
in her head and that she must be operated upon for its removal.
The surgeon put her under an anesthetic, cut off some of
her beautiful brown hair, and made a small skin incision,
so she would think that the operation had been performed.
Then
he took a section from an E string of a violin, soaked it
until it looked like a cord or tissue, and when the patient
recovered consciousness showed her this cord, saying he
had removed it from her head, and that the operation was
very successful. The girl immediately recovered. Nothing
else could have convinced her, the surgeon said, that her
head was not pulled constantly this way and that by a string,
and she could get no relief until she believed that the
string had been removed.
Now
this make-believe surgical treatment is based on the same
principle as the bread pill treatment, which has affected
so many cures. It is wholly mental, and the cure is a matter
of faith on the part of the patient, his belief in the efficacy
of the remedy.
We
all know that the benefits received from physicians and
medicines or drugs depend upon faith, the patient’s
expectancy of relief, his belief that he is going to be
cured. Destroy this faith and you kill the virtue of the
remedy. Physicians well know that when a sick man’s
faith and hope are gone there is very little chance for
his recovery. This is why they refrain as long as possible
from telling a patient that there is no chance for him,
because they know that this affects him as the death sentence
affects a condemned criminal. It takes away hope, and thus
destroys the only rallying force which can possibly tide
the patient over a crisis. Every physician knows that courage,
hope and expectation of a cure are powerful aids to healing.
He counts upon these to supplement his specific treatment.
Expectancy
of relief is literally of itself a powerful remedy. I have
in mind the case of a man who had been suffering for years
with a peculiar disease which no hospital treatment seemed
able to reach. His hope of recovery was beginning to weaken
when he heard of a foreign physician visiting this country
who had built up a great reputation in the successful treatment
of cases like his own. He read over and over in medical
journals and newspapers of the marvelous cures affected
by this physician until he had worked himself up into a
perfect frenzy of belief that he also would be cured if
he could only be treated by this wonder worker. Although
comparatively poor, the cost meant nothing to him if he
could only get relief from the torture he suffered. So great
was his confidence that he was going to get relief that
he mortgaged his home for every dollar he could get, and
sold nearly everything else he had in the world in order
to go to this great specialist.
When
he reached the town where the specialist was he was obliged
to remain some little time before he could meet him. But
so profound was the man’s faith in him that he was
practically cured before he saw him or began to take his
treatment. After an examination the specialist told him
he was sure to get well, and even before the man had his
prescription filled he felt complete relief from his trouble.
Just
think of the tremendous psychological advantage in this
case. The patient’s mind was in perfect condition for
receiving help from the doctor’s treatment. He didn’t
have a doubt but that he was going to be cured, and he was
cured—by his faith.
Many
people have undoubtedly been cured of disease by their great
faith in some worthless patent medicine. For a long time,
perhaps, they believed that if they could only get that
particular remedy they would be cured. Their expectancy
was so great, their hope so large, and their faith so powerful,
that when they realized the conditions which they believed
would make them well they got the benefit of their optimistic
thought.
For
example, I know a very poor man who suffered tortures for
many years with rheumatism. His joints and many parts of
his body were so fearfully swollen that he was not only
badly disfigured, but actually crippled. He had used all
sorts of cheap remedies recommended by friends, but without
any great hope or expectation of relief. But one day he
read a very graphic account of the near-miracles which had
been performed by some all-powerful patent remedy for rheumatism.
It was quite expensive; however, something like two dollars
a bottle, and two dollars was a small fortune to this poor
man who could not work. There was no one to help him out
but his wife, who earned their support by taking in washing,
going out cleaning occasionally and picking up a little
money in any way she could earn it. By dint of extra hard
work she managed to save the price of a bottle of the wonderful
remedy. For months the man had been dreaming about what
it would do for him. He pictured himself as growing stronger
and better after every spoonful from the precious bottle.
When at last his wife succeeded in getting the medicine
for him, it had precisely the effect he had pictured. What
he expected, what he had anticipated, actually happened.
Just think of a dead, inert drug which couldn’t move
itself even in a thousand years moving man, the mightiest
power in the universe!
The
virtue is not in the inert drug. The curative quality comes
from the person’s faith in it. Destroy faith in it
and you destroy the virtue of the remedy. There must be
faith in the physician or the sick person will get no benefit
from his treatment. Faith must accompany the drug, the prescription,
or it will be powerless and the cure will be in proportion
to the faith. If the patient’s mind is prejudiced in
the very least against the physician, or if he fights against
the remedy, this will counteract the influence that otherwise
might be beneficial. The diseased cells in any part of the
body can only be repaired by the creative energy, the life
force in the cells themselves, and this must be stimulated
by hope, faith, and expectancy of relief. It is powerfully
reinforced by faith in a certain physician or a certain
remedy.
We
have proof of this in the fact that the same remedy may
have a wonderful curative effect upon one patient who possesses
great faith in the physician and the remedy, while the same
thing will have no effect whatever upon another lacking
faith but having a similar constitution and temperament,
and suffering from exactly the same malady. In other words,
under exactly the same circumstances, the same remedy will
have a powerful affect when animated by faith while it will
have no affect whatever without faith.
While
there is no denying the fact that the majority of people
fill their medicine closets with all sorts of concoctions
that work havoc in mind and body, it would be suicidal to
condemn entirely the practice of medicine and the use of
drugs and other physical remedies as long as the vast mass
of the people believe in them, because their faith will
help them. If the fixed belief of the race is that certain
remedies will cure certain diseases, corresponding results
will temporarily follow their use, for the body conforms
to our faiths, our beliefs. But look back over medical history
and see what ridiculous remedies the race has believed in.
They had their day and perhaps served their purpose, but
because the progress of the world has taken us far away
from them, how superstitious and absurd they seem to us
today.
It
is not so long ago since thousands of men carried horse-chestnuts
in their pockets, or wore iron rings to rid themselves of
rheumatism. There have been hundreds of remedies for rheumatism,
each one of which had its vogue and then passed away. The
horse-chestnut and the iron ring enjoyed great popularity
in their day and furnished relief to many rheumatic sufferers.
Thousands of such devices which were once standard remedies
for certain diseases seem ridiculous today even to the most
ignorant. But when the faith of the people was fixed upon
the idea that the particular charm carried on the person,
or the inert drug put into the living organism, would re-create
a diseased cell, or restore lost tissue, certain advantages
naturally followed their faith.
The
history of medicine is largely a history of the rise and
decline of people’s faith in different remedies. Tens
of thousands of such remedies which have been used with
good results in medical practice in the past are now obsolete
because the faith of the physicians, the faith of the public
have gone out of them. They were effective while people’s
faith in them continued, but when the faith they had inspired
evaporated their virtue also evaporated. Everything depended
upon the reputation of the remedy, upon the belief in its
power.
A
similar thing is true of popular physicians. Sick people
want one of great reputation, one in whom everybody believes,
and it is almost a universal experience that patients feel
much better after the visit of such a physician, even before
he has written a prescription or they have taken any of
the medicine he advises. And every physician knows how common
it is for ignorant patients to feel very much better just
after taking a dose of prescribed medicine, long before
it could possibly have gotten into the circulation or physically
affected them. Physicians really owe their success largely
to people’s faith in them and their remedies.
Faith
is at the bottom of all cures, at the bottom of all achievements,
physical or mental.
Religious
history is full of examples of people who have been cured
of all sorts of diseases by going to famed miraculous springs,
by bathing in sacred waters, or streams supposed to have
great curative qualities.
A
friend of mine when traveling in India went to the Ganges
during a great pilgrimage, when multitudes of believers
had gathered on the banks of the sacred river to bathe in
its healing waters. He saw tens of thousands of these people,
afflicted with different diseases and some with open sores,
bathing at one time, and so close together that they could
scarcely move. The water was absolutely filthy, and dead
bodies were floating about in it, close to the bathers,
and the bathers were actually drinking the sacred water!
Many
of these poor wretches had come long distances on their
hands and knees, from which the skin was worn off. They
had looked forward so long to bathing in these sacred waters,
had undergone such terrible sufferings and privation in
order to reach them that they had built up a tremendous
faith in their efficacy. So profound was their belief in
their healing power that a great many of them were actually
cured by the very waters which carried in them the germs
of disease and death. Those waters which would have killed
people who lacked faith in their virtue cured many of these
poor ignorant, deluded pilgrims.
Our
great watering-places, famous health resorts, and healing
springs all have a similar history. The faith of the sufferers
in all such instances works the apparent miracles.
I
have witnessed the healing of numbers of sick people at
the church of St. Jean Baptiste, in New York, at the annual
novena of St. Anne. Here the agency which wrought the miracle
was supposed to be part of the wrist-bone of St. Anne. This
relic was brought from a Canadian church in 1892, and every
year since a novena in honor of St. Anne, which lasts for
nine days, is celebrated at the church of St. Jean Baptiste.
Throngs attend this novena, to receive the healing touch
of the sacred bone, which is encased in silver and glass.
All along the altar rails, inside of which is the shrine
of St. Anne, people crowd together kneeling, while a priest,
carrying the sacred relic, passes along and touches with
it the afflicted part of each one of the faithful as indicated
by the sufferer. This may be the head, the arm, the hand,
the eye, the ear, but, whatever the part, the priest touches
it quickly with the relic, at the same time uttering appropriate
prayers. Marvelous cures are seemingly affected by contact
with the relic, because this is the climax of the victims’
faith.
It
is well known that the incantations of the savages, the
ceremonies of the Indian medicine men, and all of the many
superstitious rites practiced by various peoples, have resulted
in quite a large percentage of cures.
All
of these things show that it is not the superstition, it
is not the ceremony, it is not the relic, it is not the
medicine, it is not the sacred water, but the faith that
does the cure. This is the principle in all methods of healing,
from those practiced by the lowest savage tribes to the
highest civilization. The faith of the sufferer is the chief
thing. Christ never said my faith, but thy faith hath made
thee whole.
Faith
in the shrine, faith in the remedy, in the superstition,
in the physician, in the surgeon; faith in the hospital,
faith in any and all methods of healing,—this is their
potent virtue.
The
Indian medicine man with all his grotesque and ridiculous
incantations cures perhaps quite as large a percentage of
diseases as does the average physician. Vast multitudes
of people whom no medicine or material remedy could help
have been cured at the various shrines which they sought
at tremendous sacrifice to themselves, because of their
profound faith, their absolute conviction that in this way
and in this way only, could they be cured.
Faith
is the sovereign remedy of the race. Faith is the builder,
the creator, the restorer of life. Without faith we can
do nothing. The Christ Himself constantly reminded His followers
that without faith they could do nothing. Even He could
do nothing for those who lacked faith. Does not the Bible
tell us that in His own country, “He did not many mighty
works there because of their unbelief”?
The
benefit received by those who appealed to Him was always
in proportion to their faith. It was always “According
to thy faith be it unto thee.” His words to the afflicted
who came to Him for relief were “Believe ye that I
can do this?” And when He had healed He claimed nothing
for Himself, it was always “Thy faith hath made thee
whole.” In other words, He was always trying to arouse
the faith of the people, trying to impress them with the
tremendous power of faith, faith in God and in themselves,
assuring them that faith, even as a grain of mustard seed
would enable them to do marvels.
Christ
never once referred to His own faith as to the quality which
would enable Him to perform His supposed miracles. It was
the faith of the people in His power to heal them that He
emphasized. And just think what Christ’s reputation
for healing meant to the simple people of Galilee, the reputation
of the Man who was performing such wonderful miracles—opening
the eyes of the blind, making the lame to walk, the dumb
to speak, the deaf to hear, curing the leper of his supposedly
incurable disease, and even raising the dead to life! Think
of what the rumors of such mighty doings would mean to such
simple folk! Why, their faith in Him was unbounded.
Think
of the mighty faith that moved people to let the sick down
through the roof of houses in order to get them near this
marvelous character? Is it any wonder that their diseases
fled at His touch, nay, at His word? In view of all this
does it seem strange, or unscientific that Christian Scientists,
Mental Scientists, Divine Scientists, and others, believing
in the power of God working through man, should perform
such miracles of healing and of ability increasing by pure
faith? And if the curative qualities of the remedies used
by physicians are so largely due to faith in them, which
physicians themselves acknowledge, why not leave out the
drug and apply only the healing faith? Why not depend wholly
upon faith, as Christ did, and as the mental healers do?
The
homeopaths made one jump from enormous doses to almost nothing,
with apparently the same results. The mental healers have
simply taken one more step. They are depending wholly upon
faith, and they seem to perform about as large a percentage
of cures as the regular medical profession. And, as a rule,
their cures are very much more permanent, because truth
eradicates the roots of the disease, which many physicians
now believe to be entirely mental.
Christ
never once referred to any other healing principle than
faith. It was always faith, and this is the principle on
which all mental healing is based. The success of the mental
healer depends upon his own faith and the faith which he
is able to arouse in the patient. If there is no faith there
is no cure. Some will say that many people are cured without
faith, even against their will; but the very fact that these
people seek treatment is proof that they do have faith or
they wouldn’t go to the healer. Of course the healer’s
faith has much to do with healing, but a real permanent
cure can only be affected through the faith of the sufferer.
The
healing principle is in the patient himself. The mental
healer does not heal his patient. ‘He merely arouses
the divinity, the healing principle in the sufferer. Whether
it is an allopath, a homeopath, or a mental healer who treats
you when you are sick, it is always the God force in you
that heals. It is the same force that created you and sustains
you, the force that comes to your rescue in all your troubles,
that same force which rushes to unite the broken bone, to
heal the cut or wound, to repair the crushed tissue, to
make you whole again. There is only one healing force and
that is the creative force.
We
hear a great deal about the healing principle of the divine
mind, but it is the divine mind in you, and not outside
of you, it is the divine principle inherent in your divine
nature that does the healing. It is the creative principle
which is everywhere in the great cosmic intelligence that
heals all your hurts and restores you to health. This is
the same creative principle which develops the germ in the
acorn and carries it up to the giant oak; that develops
a tiny germ into a beautiful full blown rose. It is this
creative principle which is everywhere present in the universe,
which inheres in every atom, which is, in fact, the reality
of every atom in the universe, for the reality of everything
is God.
The
reality of ourselves, the truth of our being is God, otherwise
we could not exist. It is no outside power which comes to
our rescue, sustains us, holds us up, and guides us. It
is the creative God power within us. This creative power
is inherent in every cell of your body, in every particle
of matter. This is the reality of us, the truth of our being.
We literally live and move and have our being in God.
A
realization of this truth, an ever-increasing consciousness
of our oneness with the Supreme Power will bring ever-increasing
peace and serenity of mind and health of body. An ever-increasing
sense of our cosmic consciousness will increase our mental
sense of well being, of security, of safety from all that
would injure us or destroy our happiness.
Someone
has said that “to think of the presence and power of
God as a healing life force, is to come in actual mental
contact with that presence. To continue this thought by
sturdy affirmation of healing truth will attune the mind
to harmony with that beneficent power, lifting it out of
the darkness and heaviness of mortal thinking into the brightness
and joy that is the result of thinking God’s thought
after Him.”
We
do not realize the power of thought, because we do not appreciate
the fact that we actually come in contact with whatever
we think about or contemplate. This contact is no less real
because it is mental; and it has power to influence the
body, as well as the mind.
Never
think of yourself as weak, diseased, sick, and deficient
in any faculty, in any function. Think of yourself as perfect
and immortal and your mind and body will tend to respond
to this demand for wholeness and completeness.
The
images of unfortunate symptoms, every sick or weak suggestion
harbored in the mind are fatal to the realization of the
ideal. Sick thoughts, weak, deficient thoughts, make a weak,
deficient body and a crippled mentality. Think wholeness,
think completeness regarding yourself. If you really believe
that you are made in your Maker’s image you cannot
think too magnificently of yourself.
No
matter how your body may seem to contradict this ideal of
yourself, persist in holding it, and the weaknesses, the
deficiencies and the discords which hinder your progress
will gradually give way to the dominance of the divine image
in you. The life processes within you will build the outward
manifestation of this sublime image of yourself, and you
will become normal, Godlike.
Many
people who do not understand the science of mental healing
think it is affirming what we know to be untrue, to persist
that we are all right, when our bodies are racked with pain
and we are really unable to work.
But
when we say we are well, even though we are suffering pain,
we mean that the reality of us is well, that the truth of
our being cannot be sick, cannot suffer, cannot know any
discord, because that is divine.
You
should always affirm the truth of your being, not its untruth,
its error. Affirming your spiritual ideal always and everywhere
will help you to grow into His likeness, into the likeness
of perfection, while the contemplation of disease, the habit
of looking at it as a reality, of regarding it as a truth,
will tear down all of your physical building, will keep
you constantly susceptible to disease.
You
cannot build up a strong resisting body when you are constantly
thinking of disease, concentrating on it, listening to its
affirmation. Deny everything that is wrong, everything that
is false, deny everything that is not God created and you
will be all right.
But
remember that merely denying is not destroying. You must
not, as many do, deny in such a way as to make a stronger
impression upon your mind of the thing you wish to get rid
of. While denying the reality of sickness you must keep
in mind the truth of its opposite, the spiritual ideal,
and the spiritual man, which is never sick and never can
be. Cling to the perfection ideal, the God ideal of yourself,
no matter how loudly the opposite may scream, how busy it
may be in asserting itself. The intelligence inherent in
every cell in the body builds according to the model presented
to it, and there is everything in holding up before the
mind the perfect pattern, the health pattern, the health
ideal.
Holding
the ideal of health in the mind is the most scientific way
of healing any physical discord or disease in any of the
bodily organs, because the community cells themselves in
any organ through their collective intelligence are powerfully
influenced by the messages which come from the central station
of the brain. These cells are very susceptible to encouragement
or discouragement. They respond quickly to hope or despair,
hence the tragedy of treating the body with discouragement.
All
forms of mental healing are based upon suggestion of the
divine ideal, and the healing is effective just in proportion
as the mind of the sufferer is kept saturated, whether by
autosuggestion or by daily help of the healer’s mind,
with the divine ideal, with the health principle of the
divine mind.
The
suggestion that health is the everlasting fact, and that
disease, sickness are counterfeits, the absence of reality,
is a healing force. Whatever form the mental healing process
takes it is holding the ideal of wholeness, completeness,
the thought that the sufferer is the child of divinity and
that his birthright is health and wholeness that does the
work.
When
I hold the ideal of perfect health I do not picture or visualize
the human side of myself. This may be a mere apology of
the divine side of myself. I hold the ideal of the divine
self, the perfect self, that part of me which was never
born and which will never die, that part of me which was
never sick or diseased, and which will never suffer defeat
or disaster. This is the triumphant side of my life, the
divine side, and this is the ideal which I shall always
cling to. I shall cling to it because this is the pattern
which I wish to build into my life, and I know that by holding
this divine pattern, tins divine ideal in my mind it will
be reproduced in my body.
On
the other hand, if I hold the ideal which corresponds to
the seemingly weak, defective or diseased part of myself,
this inferior ideal will be built into my life, and all
my standards will correspond to my lower ideal. If I constantly
think and say to myself “I am physically weak, I have
inherited unfortunate disease tendencies from my ancestors,
who died with consumption, with cancer, with stomach trouble,
with liver trouble or heart disease,” I shall tend
to realize these conditions.
You
can never establish health except by thinking and affirming
health principles. You must hold the health ideal. You must
constantly and vigorously assert, “I am health; I am
vigor; I have a robust constitution; I am power; I am perfect
physically; the Creator never handicapped me by passing
along to me the inherited weakness or disease tendency without
putting in me a force which is more than a match for it,
without giving me the ability to overcome my handicap. My
health is based upon the consciousness of the truth of my
being, the reality of me, the divine of me. It is based
upon what I have inherited from my Maker; and this knows
no disease, no weakness, no sickness, no deterioration,
and no death. What I have inherited from my Maker is immortal,
as He is immortal.”
The
famous Dr. Richard C. Cabot, of the Harvard Medical School
says that the medical environment is most unfavorable to
a patient’s recovery. Sick people, who are steeped
in the medical atmosphere, where they constantly hear the
talk of disease symptoms, find it very difficult to get
away from the sick thought. They are saturated with it when
the mind ought to be filled with just the opposite. They
should be in an atmosphere where everything around them
will suggest health, instead of sickness and disease.
Some
people unconsciously keep the body in a diseased condition
by dwelling on disease. I recently heard of a woman who
had been ill for a long time and who went to a mental healer
for advice. She said she wanted to tell him frankly that
although she had suffered a great deal, she didn’t
know whether or not it was God’s will that she should
get well, and she didn’t know whether it would be quite
right for her to take the chances of displeasing God by
taking steps to get well!
Among
other troubles, this woman had a tumor on her neck, and
she insisted that the healer should see how very bad it
was, for she said he couldn’t possibly help her unless
he knew all about it, her symptoms and all the details concerning
the tumor. She had dwelt upon her troubles and defects so
long that she was obsessed with them. She couldn’t
see or think of anything else.
When
she came for her first treatment the healer had ready a
large vase of beautiful California roses, which were about
the color of a natural, healthy pink skin. He told her to
sit down and look at them, to drink in beauty, and to think
about their perfection. To put her mind in a better condition
to receive a treatment he made her look at the roses for
a half hour. He told her that he didn’t want to hear
anything about her troubles, because a healer must see only
the person God made, the perfect, whole, complete being,
with strong, robust health, otherwise he could not help
anyone. He instructed her to hold the same thought; to hold
in mind only the ideal which her Creator had of her, not
to think of any blemish, weakness or disease.
The
woman obeyed instructions, and under the influence of this
dominant health thought, through the persistent holding
of the health ideal, her tumor gradually grew smaller, shriveled
up and all her troubles disappeared.
Such
healings support the fact that the body is but objectified
thought, and that when the thought is changed the body also
must change. The habit of always thinking of ourselves,
of every faculty and function, as complete, whole, as sublime,
glorious, would gradually revolutionize our lives.
The
time is rapidly coming when disease, sickness, will not
be mentioned in the home; When all physical defects and
weaknesses will be tabooed; when, instead of being saturated
with illness and disease thoughts, children’s lives
will be permeated with the health thought, the thought of
wholeness, of completeness, physical and mental vigor, beauty,
grace; when joy, gladness, optimism will take the place
of the old discouraged, sickness and disease thought and
conversation in the home.
In
the future we shall live up to the health ideal our Maker
designed for us, because we shall hold the right thought
about ourselves. Merely stopping our aches and pains and
curing disease is not enough. To be merely well is not achieving
the real health ideal. The man that God planned was intended
for a very different quality of health.
It
is the overflowing fountain, not the one that is half full
or just full, that makes the valley below green and glad.
It is abounding health, health that is bubbling over, superabundant
energy that counts. This is the health that makes mere living
a joy.
If
you charge your whole nature with the health ideal, if you
think health, dream health, talk health; if you believe
that you are going to be strong and healthy, because this
is your birthright, your very magnetism will be healing
to others. You will be a living illustration of the power
of divine mind over all sickness and disease.
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