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BECAUSE science reverses the positions of
personal sense, human reason acts slowly in accepting it, contesting every inch
of ground it occupies, while error, self-complacent and applauded, sneers at
the slow marches of Truth. Physiology is a name in our land. Institutions honor
it, and materia medica bows the knee, but notwithstanding this, it has not
improved mankind. We shall yet open our eyes to this fact in theodicy, that
depending on matter for what Intelligence is responsible, is a mistake with
grave consequences. The fundamental error of mortal man, is the belief that man
is matter, but theorizing from mushrooms up to brains, amounts to little in the
right direction, and much in the wrong. Classifying the different species of
man, mineral, vegetable, and animal, an egg is the author of the genus homo;
but we perceive no reason why man should begin thus sooner than in the more
primitive state of dust where Adam commenced. Brains are beneath the craniums
of animals; then to admit brains are man, furnishes a pretext for saying he was
once a monkey, which is met with the reply, if this be the case, he will again
be one, according to natural history.
What is man? brain, heart, or the entire human
structure? If he is one, or all of the component parts
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of his body, when you amputate a limb, you have
taken away a portion of man, and a surgeon destroys manhood, and worms are the
annihilators of man. But losing a limb or injuring structure, is sometimes the
quickener of manliness, and the unfortunate body presents more nobility than
the statuesque outline, and we find, "a man's a man, for a' that." Admitting
matter, blood, heart, brains, etc., and the five personal senses, man, we fail
to see how anatomy makes out the different species of brute and human, or
determines when man rises above his progenitors, for both possess these
constituent parts, and must, to some extent, be mortal man, if he is matter.
According to accepted theories, the genus homo ranges from dust to Deity, the
latter having its origin in matter, while the different varieties of man are
mineral, vegetable, and animal; but the spiritual is not a link in this chain
of so-called being, and is seen only as it disappears. If man was first dust,
he has passed through every form of matter, until he became man, and if the
material body is man, he is matter, and the dust that returns to dust. But this
is not man, the image and likeness of God, but a belief of Soul in sense, and
of Life in matter, that Wisdom consigned to annihilation. Anatomy makes man a
structural thing; physiology continues this definition, measuring his strength
by bones, sinews, etc., and his Life by material law. Phrenology makes him a
thief or Christian, according to the development of bumps on the cranium; but
not one of these define immortal man. The tendency of all true education is to
unfold the infinite resources of being, but to measure our capacities by the
size or weight of our brains, and limit
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our strength to the use of a muscle, holds Life
at the mercy of organization, and makes matter the status of Man.
Physiology is like fiction in which debauchery
is toned down to fascinate, and mankind are in danger of catching its
sentiment. The very opposite teachings of physiology, are all that will open
again the gates of paradise that beliefs have closed, and reach the
personification of Spirit, in which man is upright, pure, and free, having no
need to consult calendars or clouds to learn the probabilities of Life, or
brainology, to know how much of a man he is. Mistaking his origin and nature,
we call man both matter and Spirit; the latter sifted through the former, Soul
put through personal sense, carried on a nerve, and subject to ejection at the
hands of matter; the intellectual, moral, and spiritual, that exist as Soul
outside the body, subject to the body]
Unless civilization embraces heathenism, why
should man, in the nineteenth century, bow down to fleshbrush, flannel, bath,
diet, exercise, air, etc., when matter is not capable of doing for him what be
can do for himself? The idols of civilization are more fatal to health and
longevity than the idols of other forms of heathen homage; they certainly call
into action less faith than Buddhism in Intelligence governing man. The
Esquimaux restores health by incantations, as effectually as the modus operandi
of the schools.
Physiology is anti-Christian; it teaches us to
have other gods before "Me," the only Life of man. The good it claims is
positive evil, because it robs man of his birth-right from God. Truth governs
it not, and
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the inharmonious condition that calls for
physiology, is the result of physiology, or our beliefs of matter.
Did the teachings of Jesus comprehend the
economy of man, less than those of Graham or Cutter? They alone embrace the
Principle of man's harmony; but our theories do not. "He that believeth in me
shall not see death," contradicts, not only the systems of man, but points to
that which is self-sustaining and eternal The demands of God are wholly
spiritual, and reach the body only through Spirit that controls matter; there
are no physical laws; all are mental. The best interpreter of man's needs said,
,Take no thought for the body, what ye shall eat or what drink."
Putting on the full armor of physiology, obeying
to the letter, the so-called laws of health, statistics show, has not
diminished sickness, nor increased longevity; diseases have multiplied and
become more obstinate; their chronic forms more frequent; the acute more fatal
and death more sudden, since man-made theories have taken the place of
primitive Christianity.
Explaining man a physical being evolved from
matter, is a Pandora box opened on mankind, whereby hope escapes, and despair
alone remains. If matter laws prevent disease, what causes it? not the laws of
God, surely, for Christ, Truth, heals the sick, and Mugs to light immortality;
but not through obedience to physiology. Laws of matter are nothing more or
less than a belief of Intelligence and Life in matter, even the procuring cause
of disease, and God its cure. Not more sympathy exists between physiology and
Christianity, than God and Belial. Failing to recover through adherence to
materia medica, physiology and hygiene, the
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despairing invalid drops these, and turns in his
extremity -- sometimes to God, the dernier resort of mortal man, and one
in which he has even less trust than in drugs, air, exercise, etc., showing we
have other Gods before Me. The balance of power is given to matter, by every
theory of the schools, whereas Spirit at last asserts its mastery over man, and
holds the body harmonious and immortal.
To understand the Principle that embraces the
harmony of being, is beyond burnt offerings or sacrifices. If the recovery of
the sick is submitted to a personal God we shall reach no higher than faith;
understanding will be wanting, therefore man's existence as Soul instead of
sense, will not be comprehended. We comprehend Life in science or the harmony
of being, only as we deny personal sense. The relative claims we permit
Intelligence and matter, determines the harmony of our existence; our health,
longevity and Christianity. We cannot serve two masters, and must reach God
through science, and not with sense, or material law. The source of all Life
and perfection, we should not offset with drugs, laws of health, etc. When man
would be both good and- evil, he will grow no better, and the result of this
error will make him grow worse; so it is with an attempted compromise between
Spirit and matter. Even in healing the sick, to gain the advantages of Spirit,
we must lose our faith in matter.
The severest part of teaching or learning the
science of being, is to empty the mind of the thousand and one beliefs that war
against Truth; for you cannot fill a vessel already full. After laboring long
with the well or ill-stored mind, to shake its faith in matter, and give
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it a crumb of faith in God. viz., the capacity
of Spirit to make the body harmonious, we have thought yearningly of our
Master's love for little children, and understood how, "of such is the kingdom
of heaven."
We admit mind influences the body somewhat, but
conclude matter, blood, nerves, brain, etc., hold the balance of power; in
accordance with this belief, we continue the old routine, and this deprives us
of the available superiority of mind over matter. We cannot control our body,
mentally, with a negative position. Spirit works against matter, and vice
versa. They can no more unite in action than good and evil, and it is wise
not to take a halting, or half-way position on this subject, or think to work
equally with right and wrong. there is but one right way, and this we should
learn to-day, is Spirit and not matter. To govern the body scientifically, we
must admit only mind, and you will find it impossible to gain control over the
body on any other ground; a conservative position on this point, or faith
strongest in matter, will never do it.
If you manipulate your patients, you lean on
electricity more than Truth, and it is matter more than mind you employ to heal
the sick, while science teaches you success is on the side of Intelligence, and
that you only weaken your power with matter. It is useless to say you
manipulate patients, but lay no stress on this manipulation; then why do you do
it? We answer for you -- because you are not sufficiently spiritual to do
otherwise; and if this is so, why do you call it science, explained in this
work? If you are too material to understand the science of being, and rub the
head as a substitute for living Truth, adopting words and manip-
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ulation instead of good deeds, then you adhere
to error and flee to electricity because you have not science, and are afraid
to trust yourself to heal with your God-being. "Adam, where art thou?" is your
question here at every step. If you manipulate the sick, the more to satisfy
them that you are doing something for them, this is not necessary, for they are
generally satisfied when cured, and manipulation will retard your success.
"Where your treasure is there will your heart be also." Having more faith in
electricity than you have in your God-being, balances you on the side of
matter, and your power as a mesmerist will diminish your achievements in the
direction of science, and vice versa, and this should remind you where your
treasure is. Casting out error with Truth shows your real position in science.
The sensualist or dishonest man can never rely on Truth to heal the sick; they
must depend on personal sense, and their only power is mesmerism and
manipulation. Jesus cast out error and healed the sick, not with manipulations
or drugs, but his God-being.
Food, fatigue, or sleeplessness, you say may
cause distressed stomachs or aching heads, and then cudgel your brains to
reproduce in memory what you think hurts you, when your remedy lies in getting
the whole thing out of mind, for matter has no sensation and mind only can give
pain. To reduce inflammation, dissolve tumors, or cure organic disease, mind is
more potent than matter, and why not, since Intelligence is Life, and mind the
seat of feeling or sensation, the body has nothing to do with it. When we say
the stomach or head is disordered or pained, consider what art thou
that
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repliest to Spirit? can matter speak for itself,
or has it the issues of Life? Pain or pleasure belongs to mind alone. Matter
has no partnership with Spirit. The head cannot ache, but believing it does,
"as a man thinketh so is he." Mind is all that feels, that produces
action or impedes it; but, ignorant of this, or shrinking from its
responsibility, you throw the burden on matter, and lose conscious control over
your body. Adjust a balance, and a single weight removed from one of the scales
gives preponderance to the opposite one; so with body and mind; what you cast
into the scale of matter to weigh for or against health, you take away from
Intelligence, and its power to hold the balance against matter. Your belief
weighs against your health while it ought to weigh for it. When the body is
sick according to a belief of matter, you trust in drugs, laws of health and
matter to heal it, when you have got yourself into the difficulty through these
very beliefs of Intelligent matter. Disease is caused and cured by mind alone ;
matter never did it; this you do not understand now, but must before you are
immortal. To lay aside our God-being as of little use in sickness, seems
anomalous; to depend on matter then and put Truth aside for the hour of health,
is to learn it can not do as much for you then as in sickness.
Because materia medica and physiology say man is
sick and useless, suffering, or dying, in obedience to laws of God, are we to
believe this? despite his laws to the contrary are we to believe what Jesus
proved false? he surely did the will of the Father and healed sickness instead
of producing it. The demands of God relate to mind alone, but the claims of
physiology
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and what are termed laws of nature, rest upon
the body only. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate and capable of
producing most harmony? We cannot obey them both, for one works against the
other, and will be supreme in the affections. Spirit and matter are opposites,
and we cannot work from the standpoints of both; attempt it and we shall find
ourself cleaving to one and forsaking the other.
Heal your body with the science of being if you
can, adhering to the old regimen, taking drugs, or yielding your mental control
to laws of matter. Obedience to what you call material law, prevents obedience
to the spiritual law that enables you to handle deadly serpents unharmed, and
put matter under your feet. Like a barrister that would strengthen his plea,
introducing the text, "Wo unto you, lawyers, for you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against man; " you plead for recovery of God, and then abut out the aid
of Spirit through your material means; thus working against yourself, and
suffocating your own strength and ability. The plea for matter, medicine, laws
of health, etc., goes against the science of mind over matter, and vice
versa. There is this clause in the statue of Truth to which we call your
attention at such times, viz., that sin, sickness, and death are not governed
by laws of God. Error produces error, sin and sickness, for both are errors of
belief, and what causes disease cannot cure it, unless it be the homeopathic
dose where matter is destroyed and mind says this. Admitting sickness a
condition of matter over which God has no control, makes Omnipotence, on some
occasions, null and void. The law of Christ, Truth, finds all things possible
to Spirit;
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but the so-called laws of matter find Spirit of
no avail, and demand obedience to them, reversing the basis and economy of
being; to matter we deny the support of law; our beliefs of matter are not
correct, as Jesus clearly demonstrated healing the sick, raising the dead,
etc., contrary to them.
Can the agriculturist produce a crop without
first sowing the seed and awaiting its germination, according to laws of
nature? Yes; if as the Bible says, error caused man to till the ground, for in
this case, obedience to Truth, would remove this cause. God never made a
necessity for error, or a law to perpetuate it. The opposite of harmony are
supposed laws of nature, and by these you mean laws of God, therefore, it is
not in harmony with Truth to be well. As you would construe them, laws of
nature annul the law of Spirit; But the law of Christ demands man's entire
obedience, heart, Soul and strength, which admits no reservation, or obedience
to aught else, and we should have no other God. Truth is Strength, and error
weakness. Physiology is one of the fruits of the "tree of knowledge," that
said, I will open your eyes, and make you as Gods, but instead, closes them to
man's God-given dominion over earth. Christ, Truth, cast out physiology and
every law of health, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, etc.,
contrary to them. If these explanations dishonor the schools, they honor God,
and there is no other Truth to honor.
What we term laws of nature, are simply laws of
belief regarding matter, the premises whereof are error; therefore their
conclusions are such. The All-wise has made no laws regulating sickness, sin,
and death, these are
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errors, that Truth destroys. Belief produces the
results of belief, and the penalty it affixes will be as positive as the belief
that causes it ; therefore, our remedy lies in reaching the bottom of the
thing, in finding out the error or mind that produces the discord we see on the
body, and not to honor it with the title of law, and then yield obedience to
it. Truth, Life, and Love are the only demands that rest on man, and the only
laws that govern him. We say my hand hath done this; but what is the "my" in
this case, but mind, the universal cause whence proceedeth all harmony and
inharmony. Discord is not a thing, but a belief, and the action of our hand is
either produced by Intelligence or belief, by harmony or discord. The so-called
voluntary and involuntary action of the body is governed by mind, and not
matter. And, controlled by Intelligence, the body is governed by the Principle
of being, in which man is harmonious and immortal; but governed by man's
belief, it is discordant and mortal. Under extreme cold, heat, fatigue, etc.,
we say, the body suffers, but this is belief only, and not the Truth of being;
matter cannot suffer, mind alone suffers, and not because we have transgressed
a law of nature, matter, but a law of belief. Our proof is, that if you destroy
the belief in regard to the suffering, it disappears, and the effect of what
you term broken law, producing catarrhs, fevers, consumptions, etc., goes with
the belief. A lady whom we cured of consumption, breathed with great difficulty
when the wind was east; we sat silently by her side a few moments, and her
breath came gently, the inspirations becoming deep and natural; we then
requested her to look at
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the weather-vane; she saw it was due east; the
wind had not changed, but her difficult breathing had gone; therefore it was
not the wind that produced it, and our explanations broke this mental
hallucination, and she never suffered again from east winds. Here is testimony
on this point.
I was suffering from pulmonary difficulties,
pains in the chest, a hard and unremitting cough, hectic fever, and all those
fearful symptoms that made my case alarming. When I first saw Mrs. Glover, I
was reduced to such a state of debility as to be unable to walk any distance,
or to sit up but a portion of the day; to walk up stairs gave me great
suffering for breath. I had no appetite, and seemed surely going down the
victim of consumption. I had not received her attention but a short time, when
my bad symptoms disappeared, and I regained health. During this time, I rode
out in storms to visit her, and found the damp weather had no effect on me.
From my personal experience I am led to believe the science by which she not
only heals the sick, but explains the way to keep well, is deserving the
earnest attention of community; her cures are not the result of medicine,
mediumship, or mesmerism, but the application of a Principle that she
understands. James Ingham
East Stoughton, Mass.
Mortal man is divided into five points of
sensation, called personal sense; these five points constitute pleasure, pain,
sin, sickness, and death; what would be left of man at the mercy of personal
sense? Spirit is superior
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to matter, and the body that is ours,
should be under our control; settle the question then, which Shall be master,
Soul or body, but do not think to serve both, for you cannot. Soul, owns man
now and forever; let the owner of man then govern him, and the body will be
harmonious and eternal. Neither a blade of grass appears, nor a spray buddeth
within the vale, nor a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, nor a flower starts from
its cloistered cell, without the Principle of man, even that Intelligence which
the winds and sea obey, hath clone it; naught but universal Soul, that numbers
the very hairs of our head, and marks the sparrow's fall, can govern man. Sin,
sickness, and death are inharmonies; they are not identity, action, or being,
they are matter-beliefs, that appear and disappear, governed alone by mind, but
without the reality or support of law or Spirit. That God is the law of
discord, is morally impossible, or that Wisdom instituted penalties to Protect
US from what is without law, except to belief, is again impossible. Wisdom
never made matter to subdue Spirit; to say it did is like concluding it made
Hades to get ready for sinners; but there were so many sinners they had to make
their own Hells. God is too pure to behold iniquity, "in Him was Life," etc.;
and harmony never produced discord, or Life death. Goodness makes its own
heaven, sin its own hell, and belief its own sufferings. A dream seemeth a
reality while it lasts; a falsehood is true to those that believe it, and
sickness is real to such as have it, but mind and not the body is responsible
for it all. Pain and pleasure are mind, not matter; the body has no sensation
of its own. Discord is unreal, harmony is real; admitting
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the same reality to discord we do to harmony,
one has as high a claim on confidence and obedience as the other. If evil is as
real as good, error is as real and immortal as Truth. What we name diseased
action is discord, but harmony is the reality of being; hence the former is a
belief only, and not the Truth of being; if death is as real as Life,
immortality is a myth, and if pain is as real as the absence of pain, it will
be immortal, and harmony is not the order of being. Personal sense discords,
and is therefore a belief only; matter has no sensation; the action proceeding
from Soul is harmonious and eternal.
In Mohammedan belief, a pilgrimage to Mecca was
salutary to Save man's Soul, and in still another belief, inanimate matter is
able to save man; one is paganism, the other materia medica. Disease germinates
in unconscious mind, until it reaches what is termed conscious matter, or the
body, named personal sense, but there is no conscious matter; therefore disease
is mind still, named matter; thus the belief of sickness is developed as a
germ, rising above its soil, and we have a crop abundant or scanty, according
to the variety and strength of soil, the mind full of materia medica, laws of
health, physiology, etc. The diagnosis of disease helps more than most things
to cultivate the seeds of disease, causing them to take deeper root in the
patient's mind, 9.nd to spring up, bearing fruit "after its own kind." Doctors
deport themselves, generally, as if there was no law of mind ; at least, they
regard not this law, or they would sooner administer poison in matter than
mind. They fight disease with matter and admit it with mind, and this makes it
a certain thing.
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They propagate it mentally, and then consider a
thing of mind should be dosed with matter; but after all, 'tis faith in drugs,
etc., that cures, mind is their remedy at last.
Faith is all that ever made a drug remedy the
ailments of a man. Mortal mind is belief, the immortal is understanding, the
latter is Spirit, the former personal sense; we must learn to bold immortal and
mortal mind or belief separate. The cause and cure of disease is solely mental,
and to understand this renders mind less productive of disease, and able to
destroy it. Matter has neither action nor sensation of its own; mind moves the
body, and feels for it. We cannot retain the old positions diametrically
opposite to metaphysical science, and conquer disease with mind. And because
physics must eventually yield to metaphysics, it will keep the old schools
fighting science for the next century. Ignorance, superstition, or avarice will
shut the door on health and harmony not obtained through their systems. When
there were fewer doctors and less thought bestowed on sanitary subjects there
were better constitutions and less disease.
In olden times, who ever heard of a case of
dyspepsia; if one had chanced to appear it would have yielded at once to
benevolence, or hard work; people had little time then to be selfish, or to
think of their bodies, and for sickly after-dinner-talk. The exact amount of
labor the stomach could perform was not mapped out in mind by physiology;
therefore a man's belief was not a law to his digestive organs. The action of
mind on the body was more harmonious before the " tree of knowledge " had taken
deeper root in man's belief. The
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primitive privilege was to take no thought about
the bowels, or gastric juices, letting these act in obedience to Truth, instead
of error. A ghastly array of diseases was not constantly kept before the mind
by works on physiology, hygiene and materia medica; hence the greater longevity
and more harmony of man. Before these got the floor, dyspepsia, consumption,
spinal diseases, etc., were not heard of in all the land. The duties of man
were thought of, and the naturally undisturbed mechanism of man not interrupted
by sorrow, cares, or materia, medica, went on harmoniously. Damp atmospheres,
and freezing snows, empurpled the cheeks of our fore-fathers; but never reached
the refinement of inflaming bronchial tubes; they were as ignorant as Adam,
before informed by his wife, of bronchial tubes, or troches for bronchitis.
But, alas! the nineteenth century would load
with disease the very airs of paradise, and hunt mankind down with airs in
dress and airs of heaven. Metaphysics hold mind the only friend or foe to man,
and Truth destroying error, the great panacea. It is important to learn the
exact belief that has produced disease, if you would destroy it, unless your
spirituality is equal to this by holding a balance over matter; when you
destroy disease in mind it disappears on the body. A surgeon must hit the ulcer
with his lance to cure it, unless he is able to destroy it without the sharp
point; and you must reach the mind by argument, unless the Spirit reaches it
without speech. A strongly material, bigoted, or opinionated man yields more
slowly to scientific treatment than the more liberal and logical mind, but
the spiritual is more easily affected than either.
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Do you say, let an M.D. attend to the real
malady, and the metaphysician take up hysteria and imaginary disease? But facts
are stubborn things; we have found in healing the sick on the Principle herein
stated, severe and acute disease yields more readily than the chronic. This
method of healing is far from temporizing with disease, or unsafe in cases
difficult and dangerous; ignorance of science and the force of education, are
all that would lead to such a conclusion. A physician who understands the
science of being is the only one I would venture to conduct a dangerous or
difficult case. We had tried all others and failed to recover before learning
this "more excellent way." Many great and good men have passed away within the
two years we have been writing this work, that might have been saved by the
science of which it treats.
An accident once happening to us, would have
proved fatal, but for the Truth herein stated, that saved us; hundreds of cases
given over by materia medica, and the minor hosts of Esculapius, we have since
cured by it. Had we depended on materia medica, or used the means ordinarily
employed in such emergencies, or allowed the weight of our former beliefs
regarding structural and organic life, or the opinions expressed regarding the
fatal nature of our case, to balance the scale of Mind at the time the accident
occurred, we should have passed away, or survived only to be a hopeless invalid
and cripple. The Principle of science herein explained, saved us, and the
triumph we achieved over our body at that time made us stronger in the Truth,
and consequently more healthy ever since. A supreme moment, more than ordinary
circumstances,
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tests this science insomuch as it proves more
clearly than others the superiority of mind over matter, drugs, and material
law. Ignorance of the relations of mind to the body, and the superiority of the
former over the latter, are all that occasion skepticism regarding mental
pathology
A physician said to us, "I know mind affects the
body somewhat, and advise my patients to be hopeful and take less medicine, but
there are organic diseases that mind cannot affect." To this we replied, it is
poor logic that facts contradict; we have many cases on record of cures wrought
through mind alone, that materia medica had failed to reach. You admit death
has occurred from fright, and this proves every function of the body controlled
by mind; death covers the whole ground, it stops the action of brain, heart,
blood, lungs, etc., and if all organic action can be stopped by mind, it is
controlled by it, and can be cured also. Mind produces what is termed organic
disease, as directly as it does hysteria, and cures it as readily; the
demonstration we have given of this removes the question beyond cavil. We
predicate this science on proof, and have not more evidence of our existence,
than we have gained of the utter control mind holds over the entire
organization and functions of the body. Through mind alone we have cured
organic disease of the lungs, liver, heart, brains, bones, muscles, etc., that
defied physiology and materia medica to heal.
But to govern the body harmoniously with mind,
you must understand the science of being predicated on mind and not matter. Few
will admit that what is termed involuntary organic action is governed alone
by
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mind, or that mind unconsciously controls the
body, but man presents this phenomenon every moment, who comprehends not his
own being, for this proves ignorance of mind's action on the body. Supposing a
dose of poison be administered through mistake, and physician and patient are
looking for favorable results when the patient dies, -- did mind produce this?
As surely as if it bad been consciously done Mind is ever active, for action
signifies mind and the remote and predisposing thought furnishes a link to the
present, although what we term personal sense knows this not. Accordingly, the
thought that has risen above the verge of unconscious mind is the only one
recognized, but it has acted before, and effects have followed this action all
the same as when the thought became conscious. The mortal body, of matter, is
but a grosser strata of mortal mind.
When darkness is over the earth, personal sense
cannot say where the sun is, or that there is a sun; our antipodes must tell us
this, or we must learn it of science. Thus it is with mind; the very reverse of
what we are thinking at present, is often the remote cause or belief that has
produced the inharmony of the body, and we must learn this belief of its
opposite thought or the effect oil the body, or submit its character and
relations to science. We are willing to leave the explanation of light and its
effect on the earth, to science, and because sense takes no cognizance, a
portion of the twenty-four hours, of the sun, never say it has no effect on the
earth, or deny there is a sun, or that the earth borrows light and heat from
the run. No more should we deny the effect of mind on the body because the
belief that produces this effect is below the mental
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horizon, not having risen yet to recognition.
The valve of the heart, opening and closing for the blood, is not less obedient
to mind than our hands, that perform the offices of our will; but because mind
embraces one action consciously and not the other, we say the cause is physical
and not mental. Stop the action of mortal mind wholly, by what is termed death,
and every function of the body mortal ceases; proving organic action produced
by mind and not matter. Brains are totally ignorant of thoughts; matter has no
consciousness of its own, and its propelling power is mind; all mechanism is
controlled by mind.
Personal sense is a supposition that matter is
conscious, that brains are competent to say how much mind a man has; that
heart, lungs, stomach, etc., are capable of determining his harmony and
continuance. Soul is not heard in all this; the immortality of man is silenced
with utterances of mortality, Intelligence mute before non-Intelligence. This
personal sense is the source of sickness, sin and death; but there is no
personal sense ; matter has no Intelligence, and Soul is incapable of error.
Life goes on scientifically in Soul, undisturbed in its harmony, but personal
sense has no recognition of Soul or Truth. All discord is error, belief; the
Truth of being is harmony and understanding. Destroy the belief or error, and
the discord disappears.
The metaphysician understanding this, in case of
decaying lungs, destroys in the mind of his patient this belief and the Truth
of being and immortality of man assert themselves over the error and belief of
decomposition, and the lungs become sound and regain their original
proportions.
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Physiology has never explained Soul, and had
better not undertaken to explain body. Truth has no beginning, and therefore no
end. Life was, and is, and ever will be, for Life is God, and its idea was, and
is, and ever will be, and this idea is man, that Spirit has made, and matter
cannot unmake. Our body is as dead that ,we call living as ever it will be, and
when dead, as much alive as it ever was. Life is Spirit, not matter, and if you
understand the law of Spirit you understand bow to make the body immortal.
Physiology is like the drugs we say make man suffer because he took too little
of them; it causes sickness, and then to cure it we double the dose. "Take no
thought about the body what ye shall eat or what drink or wherewithal it shall
be clothed, and the body, or matter, will give you no intimation of its own
wants, for it has no requirements of its own. Happiness or misery belongs to
mind and not body; sensation is mind and not matter, and mesmerism proves this
when belief is seen to determine sensation.
Every new method of obtaining health has its
advocates, and when you get the consent of mind to this method as preferable to
others, the body will demand it and be benefited by it so long as this belief
lasts. You can educate a healthy horse to take cold without his blanket, but
the wild animal left to his instincts, snuffs the wind with delight. Epizootic
is an educated finery that a natural horse has not. The principle of being
reveals the immortality of man, on the basis of Spirit; but personal sense
defines him as matter, hence the mortality of this man.
We have discerned some diseases approaching,
weeks before they made their appearance on the body, and be
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cause they were latent things of mind before
they appeared as matter, that grosser strata of mind, and never in a single
instance, were mistaken in results. Again, during an aggravation of symptoms
that occur in the changes, or chemicalizations that sometimes alarm the
patient, we have seen the mental signs that assured us the danger was over, and
said to the patient, you are healed, sometimes to his discomfiture, when he was
incredulous of the fact, but it always proved as we foretold. We name this
merely to explain the mental, instead of physical origin of disease, therefore,
that rules of health, taking strong hold of the belief of the patient, beget
and foster disease, by keeping mind on this subject, fearing and trying to
avoid sickness. The faith reposed in drugs had better remain in one's self;
understanding the control mind holds over the body, we should have no faith in
matter. Science reveals the origin of disease wholly mental and not physical,
also that it is cured through mind and not matter. However much we trust the
drug, or medium through which this faith is exercised, it is the faith and not
the medium that heals the sick. The spirituality that enables us to read the
minds of patients, enables us to heal them also, for the action of Spirit on
matter is to restore the harmonious relations of mind and body. Healing the
sick through mind instead of matter, enables us to heal the absent as well as
the present. The spiritual capacity to apprehend thought, is reached only when
man is found not having on his own righteousness, which is the law, but the
righteousness which is of God. Science fits us to read the mind of the sick,
and heal them through mind; for having learned man
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is governed by Spirit that understands all
things, we know Spirit is that to which all things are possible. The approaches
to this great affluence of Truth that heals the sick, are made through the
footsteps of our Master. Christianity alone is its basis, and physiology, that
pins our trust to matter instead of God, its very opposite. Ignorant of the
footsteps and foundation of this science, the world may call it mesmerism,
trance, mediumship, electricity, etc., but not one of these in the least
express it, and whoever reaches the science of being in the high sense of its
sudden cures, learns it is by taking up the cross and following Christ. We are
scientific only as we let go material things, drugs, manipulations, etc., for
the spiritual, and leave all for Christ, trusting only Truth to heal the sick.
Our beliefs are not spiritual, they are from the hearing of the ear, from
personal sight and sense.
Spirit never believes in God because it
understands Him. Power is a belief of matter, a blind force, the offspring of
will and not Wisdom, of the mortal, and not the immortal mind, -- yea, of
error, and not Truth. The headlong cataract, the devouring flames, the
tempest's breath, the lightning and storm, together with all that is selfish,
dishonest, and impure, represent power. Might belongs to Spirit, the very
"winds are in His fists; " and, controlled by Spirit and not matter, they are
harmonious. Error is the prototype of will; and willing the sick to recover, or
man to do this or that, infringes on his rights; it is mesmerism capable of all
evil, instead of the science of being. Christ, Truth, stills the tempest and is
the "peace be still" to destructiveness or disease.
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To personal sense opposites affinitize; but not
so in science, the mind of Soul, where Truth never mingles with error or the
So-called mind of the body, and therefore is able to cast it out. Spirit is
Intelligence; matter is not; there is a mind of Soul, but not of body, of God,
but not man. The mind of Soul is the aroma of being, the atmosphere of
Intelligence thrown off by Spirit; but the so-called mind of man is the belief
that a pulpy substance under the skull contains mind, yea, that matter is
Intelligent, and this belief is false, the mocker of Intelligence, even error
calling itself Truth. This is the scientific statement of mortal man, but man
is immortal, therefore this is not man, but a belief anatomized metaphysically.
To classify Spirit and matter thus, that Spirit is distinct from matter but
must pass through it to be identified, is a mistake. The limitless would
destroy limits if it entered them, and Spirit cannot be limited. It is a dream
and illusion that Soul is in body and matter the medium of Spirit. We are not
aware it is a dream, the terrible nightmare, that makes suffering or enjoyment
just as the dream chances to run. We would prefer the suffering that makes one
willing to be aroused from this dream, to the pleasure that tends to hold
it.
We frequently heal the sick who are absent from
us, without the least consciousness of it on their part, except from their
recovery. Now reverse the case, and mathematically you prove that if mind
eschewing laws of health, dietics, physiology, etc., restores the sick, an
opposite mind crammed with physiology, etc., might make them sick. This proof
we gain of our body, for such mind causes us what are termed the physical
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sufferings that matter is powerless to do and
could not produce. Whenever we have taken charge of a practice to establish a
student, it was not necessary for us to see the patients to heal them; we could
do this without seeing them; if the student was not advanced spiritually, we
failed to benefit the sick so much in connection with him. Mind acts
mesmerically or scientifically; it is will in mesmerism, and Truth in Science,
that heals the sick. I can have no effect on the sick through manipulation, and
cannot affect them mesmerically. Cases of healing the sick without seeing them,
we record as proof of our statement. Mrs. Sarah Crosby, of Albion, Maine, sent
for our aid, in case of an injury to her eye. At the time of writing she was
hundreds of miles away, but after receiving her first letter, as soon as the
mail could bring it, we received another from her, of which the following is an
extract: --
"Since the accident to my eye, it has been so
exceedingly sensitive to the light, I have shaded it, unable to do any writing
or sewing of any note. The Sunday I mailed you a letter I suffered a great deal
with it; Monday it was painful until towards night, when it felt better;
Tuesday it was well, and I have not worn my shade over it since a week ago
Monday, and I have read, sewed, and written, and still all is well. Now you may
form your own conclusions. I told a friend the other day you had cured my eye,
or perhaps my fear of my eye, and it is so; though I am sure, for the life of
me,I cannot understand a word of what you tell me about the possibility of a
spirit like mine having power over a hundred and seventy pounds of live flesh
and blood to keep it in perfect trim."
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The following is a case of heart disease
described in a letter from a lady at New York.
"Please find inclosed a check for five hundred
dollars in reward for your services, that can never be repaid. The day you
received my husband's letter I became conscious, for the first time for
forty-eight hours; my servant brought my wrapper and I rose from bed and sat
up. The attack of the heart had lasted two days, and no one thinks I could have
survived but for the mysterious help I received from you. The enlargement of my
left side is all gone, and the M. D.'s pronounce me entirely rid of heart
disease. I have been afflicted with it from infancy, until it became organic
enlargement of the heart and dropsy of the chest. I was only waiting, and
almost longing, to die; but you have healed me; and yet how wonderful to think
of it, when we have never seen each other! We return to Europe next week. I
feel perfectly well. L. M. Armstrong."
Mr. R. O. Badgeley, of Ohio, wrote: -- "My
painful and swelled foot was restored at once on your receipt of my letter, and
that very day, I put on my boot and walked several miles." He had previously
written me, "A stick of timber has fallen from a building on the top of my
foot, crushing the bones somewhat."
A lady at Louisiana wrote: -- "Your wonderful
science is proved to me. I was a helpless sufferer six long years, confined to
my bed, unable to sit up one hour in the long, long twenty-four. All I know of
my cure is this; the day you received my letter I felt a change pass over me, I
sat up the whole afternoon, went to the table with my family at supper, and
have been growing better every day since; I call myself well. Jenny R.
Coffin."
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The following is from a lady in Lynn: "My little
son, one year and a half old, was a great sufferer from disease of the bowels,
until he was reduced to almost a skeleton, and growing worse constantly; could
take nothing but gruel, or some very simple nutriment. At that time the
physicians had given him up, saying they could do no more for him, but you came
in one morning, took him up from the cradle in your arms, kissed him, laid him
down again and went out, In less than an hour he called for his playthings, got
up and appeared quite well. All his symptoms changed at once. For months
previously nothing but blood and mucous had passed his bowels, but that very
day the evacuation was natural, and he has not suffered since from his
complaint, and it is more than two years since he was cured. Immediately after
you saw him, he ate all he wanted, and one thing was a quantity of cabbage just
before going to bed, from which he never suffered in the least. L. C. Edgecomb,
Lynn, Mass."
We were called to Mr. Clark, in Lynn, with hip
disease, saw him in the afternoon for the first time; his physicians had probed
the ulcer that day, and informed us the bone was carious; the patient had not
been up nor turned on his couch for months. On entering the house we were told
he was dying; his wife stood over him weeping. We stood at his bedside a
moment; he sank to sleep; woke presently, saying, "I feel like a new man, my
suffering is all gone." In a few hours he rose from his bed, dressed himself,
and that afternoon took supper with his family. The next day we saw him in the
yard, and have not seen him since, but are informed lie went to work in two
weeks, and is now
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well. Hundreds of similar cures might be named,
that we wrought contrary to what are termed laws of nature regulating disease
and recovery, but prefer you should learn the Principle of these cures and be
able to do your own work. Experience also has taught us the greater the moral
or spiritual distance between us and an individual, the more they persecute us;
as with individuals so with the general thought, those cures remote from the
comprehension of the age, have only afforded our enemies new opportunity for
detraction.
Theories admit the limbs are matter and moved by
mind, but the fact is, all is mind of different admissions and constructions.
Mind increases or retards action, causing sickness or health; but this is not
because of physical action. for it is effect and not cause. You say man cannot
exist with a headless trunk, or consumed lungs; but man was never for a moment
despoiled of his fair proportions; it is matter you are talking of, and not
man. Nerves have neither consciousness nor sensation; the body has no life;
Spirit is the only Life and Principle of man; but never for a moment enters
matter, or is destitute of its idea or man. Hearing is not because of the ear
or its mechanism ; if the construction of the ear or auditory nerve is
destroyed, man is not deaf. Intelligence is left, and hears, sees, etc.,
independent of matter or organization. The error or belief of Life in matter
should give place to this understanding of Spirit's indestructible faculties,
that cannot be lost, because they exist without the necessities of matter;
otherwise, they were mortal.
Again, a change of belief changes all the
reports of
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personal sense, and man sees, hears, etc.,
independent of the organs that you say determine the existence of these
faculties. If the mesmerized subject whom you call man, accepts the belief that
he sees, with closed eyes, or from the top of his head, or hears without sound,
such will be the case. To him sight is not confined necessarily to
organization, and is only what his belief says of a thing. Change his belief of
cold and heat, pleasure or pain, and cold is to him heat, and pleasure pain,
and vice versa. Here you perceive nerves bear a changed report
with a change of belief; therefore personal sense is not a standard, nor is
sensation dependent on organization; it is not matter, but mind that determines
sensation. Science reveals to spiritual understanding the body without
sensation, and man the reflex shadow of Soul, and Soul embracing all the
faculties of being, having no lack of emotion, speech, sight, or sound; and
possessing the consciousness of all things, its blessings are not at the
disposal of organization, that accident or disease can destroy. All being is
spiritual and not material, for this is the scientific statement of being, the
basis of immortality, and we shall all ultimately learn this. Nor can we begin
to understand Life a day too soon. Every theory opposed to this prolongs
sickness, sin and death, making that which is immortal in understanding, mortal
in belief. When the belief of Life and Intelligence in matter disappears, its
physical manifestation will cease, and mortal man return to dust, and why?
because be was simply a belief, and this belief an error, instead of the
reality of being; for man is not matter, and never dies. To prove the body
called mortal man error and not Truth, we
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have only to find it mortal. The belief of Life
and Intelligence in matter is destroyed; but Life and man, still are, and ever
will be.
Matter is not the medium through which Spirit
acts, or is manifested. Spirit is never individualized, and there is no medium
for it. Spirit is infinite, because it is Intelligence, what then can limit it?
Again, to Spirit Intelligence alone is Substance, and there is no matter. If
the body was intelligent, it could never return to dust, for mind dies not, and
Intelligence never developed from matter.
Physiology makes man both Spirit and matter; and
this error would make man mortal. if brains are mind matter is mind; and a
stone, a lesser degree of man. To admit Spirit is not in matter, and then say
it is manifested through it, contradicts facts, for matter manifests mortality
only, and Spirit is immortal; not a glimpse or manifestation of Spirit is
obtained through the erring or decaying. Spirit is positive to all things, and
if it passed through matter it would destroy it, or become negative to it.
Metaphysical science, dry and abstract though it appears, should not be
overlooked for the transient and mortal sense of things; health, harmony and
immortality are gained through spirituality only; and this will be understood
sooner or later. Truth has but, one department for its students, and but one
branch of education, viz., the science of being. Studying into the nature of
matter, that embraces sin, sickness and death, hath no real advantage; and
matter-laws of health lay the foundation of sickness. Knowledge embraces
neither Life nor Truth; but when we define the material with the spiritual, and
look from nature
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up to nature's God, learning is profitable.
Prof. Rudolph's astronomical explanations are of this sort. The researches and
experiences of our great minds are of the utmost importance, when given
thus.
Astronomy, Natural History, Chemistry, Music,
Mathematics, etc., as ideas of a Principle, are nine-stones in the pathway of
science; but when we attempt to put Principle into these ideas, we give them
the interpretations of personal sense, that mislead our conclusions. Let
spiritual sense give the last, because the highest explanation of all things,
and "the last shall become first, and will be final." If material man was
really man, when this body is destroyed man would be annihilated; identifying
man through matter you have no authority for saying, he lives after that is
destroyed. Education is all that develops sense, but it cannot develop Soul;
Casper Hauser, without this education, manifested less Intelligence than a
mouse, was unable to feed himself, even knew less than the lower species,
guided by instinct. The infant boy, incarcerated in a dungeon where neither
sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of an adult, was not a man, --
showing years make not men -- he was an infant still and a belief of Life in
matter, that proved itself neither Intelligence nor the idea of God, but in
reality nonentity. Thus mortal man for whom laws of health are conjured up from
the abyss of condemned "knowledge," is just this material nothingness, "dust to
dust;" therefore, what availeth it to plant him deeper in matter-belief, whence
he sprang and was accursed.
The least thought or said of physical structure,
laws of health, etc., the higher will become manhood and
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woman-hood, the fewer diseases appear, and less
harm be derived from change of climate, unwholesome diet, laying aside
flannels, severe mental labor, sedentary habits, heated rooms, and all the
et cetera of physiological rules based on man as a
structural thing, whose life is at the mercy of circumstance. The scriptural
warning against "knowledge " ought to be heeded, but it is not; the stronger
constitutions of our forefathers compared with this age, should furnish a hint,
but they do not; the difficulty lies in our nameless theories; sin, sickness,
and death, all over the land, are the fruits of the belief of Life and
Intelligence in matter.
The simple food our forefathers ate would not
cure dyspepsia to-day; with rules of health in the head and the most digestible
food in the stomach, there would be dyspeptics; the effeminate constitutions of
this period will never grow robust until the science of being takes the place
of materia medica, physiology, etc. The ignorance of our forefathers of the
knowledge that to-day walks to and fro in the earth, made them more hardy than
our physiologists, and more honest than our politicians. We by no means
deprecate learning, deep research, original thought, history, observation,
invention, science and understanding; it is the scheming barbarisms of
learning, the mere doctrine, theory, or nauseous fiction, we deplore. Novels,
remarkable only for exaggerated pictures of depravity, works on materia medica,
hygiene, or laws of health, remind you of Aesop's mountain in labor with a
mouse; introduce but a scandal and humbug and you please society. What I wish
to know is, if this taste be not a fault of our systems of thinking and
writing. All is mechanical; nature is suffocated;
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the core of mankind is not reached, and its
coverings thickly inlaid with foreign devices. Let us be individually what we
are; not swallowing camels for popularity, or mincing at gnats in the shape of
honest ideas, because they come from the Soul of man. If knowledge is power, it
is not Wisdom, but blind force, whose material origin is made known by losing
in time, what it gains in power.
To eschew error would usher in a new era,
pulling down the bars of sects, and the conventionalities of knowledge, would
build up spiritual foundations, whereby we take God into our experiences, and
become healthy and harmonious, noble men and women, instead of despairing
invalids and matter-automata. The less we have of personal sense, the more we
have of Soul; and the fewer laws material, the more longevity and spiritual
understanding. Learning all was vanity "in the flesh," made Solomon a wise man,
that before had been the fool of sense.
Ancient theories separated a personal Satan from
man by horns and hoofs; modern opinions compromise; eschewing his satanic
majesty in such proportions, they retain a sinful and mortal man, the opposite
of God's idea, at war with his Maker, and swaying his own destinies in defiance
of Him, yet supposed to have God dwelling in him! Whatever is sinful, sick, or
dying, is not man, but that which Paul described "without hope, and without God
in the world," and the psalmist said, was "a sleep, and dream that is told."
"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the
shadow of the Almighty." Relinquishing the belief of Intelligent matter, man
abides in
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Spirit and is harmonious; but this is a most
high, and most secret place to personal sense, that knows nothing about it.
When the relation between Soul and body, and God
and man is understood in science, we shall become harmonious mind and body, and
never until then.
If Life is affected in the least by exercise,
food, clothing, etc., God is discordant, the harmony of Spirit beclouded, and
Life at length put out. Physiology and materia medica, direct us not, as David
did, to God, "a present help in time of trouble," but change the tones of Life
to a minor key that flattens into discord, while the science of Life that
sharpens its sweet tones and conscious harmony into immortality, asks in vain
for a hearing. That "old things shall paw away and behold, all things shall
become new," I for one, anticipate with joy, willing, if need be, that Truth
shall cut off right hands and pluck out right eyes, in amputating error. We
perceive the "irresistible conflict " that awaits the ages when Truth shall
overturn the beliefs of man.
Let the science of Life be taught in our
institutions of learning and taken up by pulpit and press; give it but the
place of physiology and it would eradicate sickness, sin and death, in less
time than these have been increasing on the old systems and stereotyped plans
to beat them. Simply to understand the nothingness of error, saves a Don
Quixote warfare with windmills, and we gain the immortality and liberty of
being, by control over our bodies. Since man "hath sought out many inventions,"
he has not learned that knowledge can save him from the dire effects of
knowledge. Many a hopeless case of disease has been induced by a
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single post-mortem. examination, not because of
virus taken into the system, (one condition of blood is as harmless as another
if mind says so, but not otherwise,) it is some fatal belief that is admitted,
that does the harm. Mind alone affects the secretions of the body, gives
action, and increases or diminishes it; a simple blush or fright tells us this.
When the unconscious mental conception of disease takes place, its symptoms and
locality appear on the body the same as in optics, when the image is formed on
the retina that becomes visible to personal sense. The error of talking over
sickness and peering into the symptoms of disease to conjure up from the dark
depths of discord some new discovery, is little understood. When a physician
names an ailment, describing its Symptoms and their danger, he has committed an
unconscious offence against being, against his patient's happiness and liberty,
and will make a sure job for himself, if not a fatal one for his patient.
A lady was etherized and died while under its
effects, her physicians affirming it was not safe to perform the surgical
operation without ether. The case was brought to trial, the evidence found
conclusive, and the verdict returned that death was occasioned, not by the
ether, but her fear of taking it. Her sister testified the deceased protested
against inhaling the vapor, saying it would kill her, but after this, was
compelled by her physicians to inhale it. Had those surgeons understood the
action of mind on the body, they would have allayed her terror before
administering the ether, or much sooner have risked a severe surgical operation
than the effects of fear. Such ignorance, yea, cruelty, should arouse the
community; diplomas give no more
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claim to a dupe or a victim, than the assassin's
steel. Inert matter taken wholly into account, and mind disregarded! when the
sequel proved the patient died of mind instead of matter.
Books that would rule disease out of the mind
instead of impressing it more strongly on the belief, would abate sickness ten
per cent. in a short period. Instruct your patient that he is not an
involuntary subject of disease, but can resist it, and overcome it too, with
mind that is superior to matter. To understand their God-given dominion over
the body, would reassure and encourage the sick and impart healthy action to
the body. Knowing their mental power, they would meet sickness as fearlessly as
we encounter a swarm of insects that flee before us.
Science and personal sense are antagonists,
bearing very different reports of man, but demonstration proves science right
and personal sense wrong, and that mind instead of matter controls matter.
Doctors examine the body to ascertain the exact power matter is bringing to
bear on man to kill him, and render judgment accordingly. Giving all precedence
to discord, they poison the minds of patients with the belief they have no
defense, mentally, over their bodies, when the fact is, mind produces all
action, whether it be sickness or health. Reverse the case, and when the
symptoms of disease appear administer to the mind and not the body; teach the
patient that pain, swelling, ulceration, morbid or acute action, etc., appear
on the body only because they are mapped out in mind, for the latter transfers
its images to the body. Ask the patient what he thinks of the ailment; and what
his mind admits on the
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subject is what you must destroy in order to
relieve the obedient body of discord. Go to the fountain head to heal your
patient. But what a task! say you, to teach the present age mind's control over
the body. Admitting it changes the stand-point of old theories, turning them
upside down, and the sick may not understand your sayings at first, still they
will produce an effect on their minds, and this will affect their bodies. This
is the science of being, that Truth, brought to bear on error, begins to
destroy it. You will heal the sick with Truth despite the odds against you, and
inaugurate a perception of science that will be for "the healing of the
nation." You may be quite sure that not understanding your metaphysical process
of healing, your patients will have little faith in it until they feel its
beneficial effects, showing you their faith is not what heals them. Your
demonstration must be the only proof of what you say. The sick are sooner
restored by Truth than error, and through mind than matter. The mental cure is
higher proof of power, because it is made against fearful odds, even the weight
of universal opinion in favor of matter, and the preconceived views of your
patient working unconsciously against themselves and the metaphysical cure.
Physiology insists the body is diseased
independent of mind, and despite its protest; that its functions are
interrupted without the co-operation of mind, and that matter-laws control the
body. This error is quite as palpable to us, and will be to others at some
future day, as the rejected tenet of theology, that "all are lost who are not
elected to be saved."
The body is our servant, obedient not only to
mind in
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one instance, but in every case. The shocking
theory that man is governed all his days, and killed at last by his body. is
too absurd to last another century. Our press sends forth, unwittingly, many a
plague spot an the human family, in treatises on disease, hygiene, and
therapeutics; giving names for maladies and long explanations regarding them,
affects people like a Parisian name for a new dress; every one that can, will
have it. A minutely-described, long-syllabled name for disease has cost a man
all his earthly days of usefulness. What a price for knowledge! but not
exceeding its original market value, when God said, " In the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt die." A doctor's belief in disease harms his patients more
than calomel, morphine, ether, or the forceps; mind is more potent than matter.
A patient hears the doctor's verdict like a culprit his death-sentence. He may
seem calm under it, and to exercise fortitude worthy a better cause, or an
occasion more real, but he is not calm; fear is mastering the case and
developing the disease. The mind's power to harm the body, reversed in action,
would heal it, and the sick would triumph over the disease they resign
themselves to suffer on the ground of inevitableness. If mind can kill, as has
been proved, it has power to cure also. Ah! patient, or impatient sufferer, may
your eyes be opened to behold your way of escape from sickness; to this end we
have pledged our endeavors, and labored since God raised us up from hopeless
disease and unspeakable sufferings. The doctor is the artist that delineates in
mind most distinctly the image of disease, and causes belief to fill up his
outlines on the body. Possibly discus had appeared before
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you saw your doctor, but it could not be so
positive or defined as afterward; you must have felt the influence of his mind,
his belief in disease affected yours, even if be said nothing, and but for this
it might have gradually left your mind and you would have recovered.
We would not deny to physicians, as noble men
and women, great philanthropy of purpose; we only urge them to make their
endeavors more effectual by changing their basis of action from body to mind,
and from personal sense to science. If the science of being was familiar to
them as the edicts of the schools, blessings numberless would flow from such
high sources. In every case of disease, or of health, to heal the one or
preserve the other, the science of Life is all that is necessary. But the
various methods of healing have not been science, else disease would have
disappeared ere this remote period since Adam, error, first introduced it. The
so-called laws of health are not science, for the latter delivers man from
their penalty and destroys the law, establishing a higher law, even the
superiority of Soul over sense, and of Spirit over matter. It annuls the
oppressive bondage that our theories enforce on man. The law of God is opposed
to laws of matter, and entitled to more obedience and respect. His law is
Intelligence, that recognizes no higher law, and if this be not apparent to
more than myself. why appeal to God to restore the sick, when the so-called
laws of health are of no avail. God should control man at all times, and under
all circumstances; and controlled thus, he is harmonious and immortal.
Sickness, sin, or death will never trouble man, or the body controlled
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by Soul and not sense, Spirit and not matter. If
the law of Truth, Life and Love, produced sickness, no law of matter could
destroy it, and it were morally wrong to employ means acting against this
government; the law of God is the only admissible authority in the universe,
but this law pertains to mind and not matter. What, then, is left to physiology
but crossbones and skulls? Man will never be learned in harmony and immortality
until the error of physiology is destroyed by Spirit triumphing over
matter.
Because the muscles of a blacksmith's arm are
strongly developed, it does not follow that exercise did this, or that he whose
habits are sedentary must be fragile. If matter was the cause of action, and
muscles without mind used the anvil and smote the nail, such an inference might
be true; but muscles act in obedience to man, hence the fact that mind and not
matter enlarges and strengthens them only through the demand man makes on them,
and the corresponding power he supplies, and not because of
exercise or muscles, but the blacksmith is the strength of his arm.
Man moves his own body and develops it in
whatever direction mind determines; whether consciously or unconsciously, it
matters not. The feats of the gymnast are proofs that the latent powers of man
are unknown to him ; mind fixing on some achievement, makes its accomplishment
easy. Had Blondin believed he could not walk a rope over Niagara's abyss of
waters, to accomplish that feat would have been impossible; but, understanding
it could be done, be lost his fear and gave his muscles flexibility and power
that was attributed, perhaps, to a lubricating oil. When Homer sang
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of Grecian gods, how dark was Olympus compared
with Sinai. David expressed the science of being when he said, "Thou madest man
to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under
his feet."
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