FORETHOUGHT
All genuine Science is Idealism, which has its correlates in concrete verities; otherwise it is speculation and fancy.
Life is two-phased; it has the side of objective fact, and the mental imagery of fact, or what fact is supposed to be. Verifiable Science recognizes and never loses sight of these two sides.
We desire that the following lesson shall furnish its own commentary, and be so plain that it will carry its meaning on its face. We are not concerned about whether it “agrees” with this or that book or teaching. We have not sought to “reconcile” or be reconciled ; but, turning away from all desire in that respect, have undertaken to present the question of Scientific Mental Healing on its own merits, and through its sole, demonstrable basis. One question alone is admissible respecting the contents of the lesson:
Are they verifiably true?
We hope the reader who honors it with his attention will strive to determine this by a sincere study of the lesson itself, resting assured that if it be demonstrable Truth, it must necessarily coincide with its like everywhere, although it may seem to antagonize much popularly received as verity.
Demonstrable Science is its own authority. Fixed in this conclusion, the author submits his work to such canon.
ROBERT CASEY
“I tried to look upon this universal cloud” (the nebula out of which the Solar System was formed), “containing within itself the prediction of all that has 6ince occurred; I tried to imagine it as the seat of those forces whose action was to issue in solar and stellar systems, and all that they involve. Did that formless fog contain potentially the sadness with which I regarded the Matterhorn? Did the thought which now ran back to it simply return to its primeval hotne? If so, any definition” (of matter) “which omits life and thought must be inadequate, if not untrue.”—Professor Tyndall; “Musings on the Matterhorn.”
“The great harmony of the Universe issues from the mutual adjustment of its forces; the harmony of our Microcosm issues from the adjustment of its movements to the movements of the External. It is by Identification of ourselves—Body and Mind—with Nature that we truly live; all non-identification is error, disease and death.”—G. H. Lewes; “Problems of Life and Mind.”
“Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.”—Jesus; reported in John 8:32.
Reader, if you would heal and be healed, the secret is yours. Like hidden honey, it has been distilled from many flowers of thought, and patiently carried into the words before you. Dismiss from your Mind all mist, superstition and belief that the eternal truth is occult and hard to understand. Truth is the natural food of your being. It is all about you, and, better still, it is within you; is the very breath you breathe, and the life that flowers out in your consciousness and thinking.
Science is the Divine Messenger which now more distinctly than ever proclaims “Peace on Earth ; Good will toward Men.” It is the mission of Science to dispel illusion, strip the Truth of its concealing fogs and state it in plain, simple words.
Do not run or hurry. Read and think. This is a condensed message and it contains the central core of many verities. You will find a number of words printed in small capitals. When you do, refer to the glossary at the end of the lesson and fix their meanings clearly in your Mind. They are the definitions of Verified Realities, for which the capitalized words stand. Be very patient and thoughtful. The good you will realize depends entirely upon the spirit with which you pursue the instructions.
THE BASIS.
There is but One mind in the Universe, and evolution is its nature and law. Knowing and unknowing, it is active everywhere. All things and events are parts of its process, and thought cannot conceive a mote’s-length of space where it is not.
You, Reader, and every other human being are individual for the reason that your total existence is constituted of this One Mind. You are a person because you have a conscious, or knowing, feeling center of this Only Mind.
Illustrations.—There is a universal Electricity. It is one, and not divisible in the sense of being separable in any respect or portion from itself in dynamo or battery. These instruments simply focalize in themselves the One Electric Energy. It becomes manifest through arc lights, incandescent burners and motors; but Electricity is Universal and Indivisible.
In this illustration the One, Electric Element, represents the One, Universal Mind. The lights, batteries, dynamos and motors parallel the Conscious Centers in organized Beings. Each Conscious Center has for its individual Basis and Range the Total Mind.
How do we know that? By induction from clear and oft-repeated experiments. Mind-reading, hypnotism and telepathy, in late years studied with scientific care have revealed it to us. We shall refer to their demonstrations farther on.
The One Everywhere-present Verity is manifest as two polarities, variously called “matter and mind,” “Substance and spirit,” “Body and Soul,” “phenomenon and noumenon.”
Certain conditions of the Universal Reality are also known by different names: “Matter and force,” “Life and Death,” “Health and Disease.” It is likewise said to be “static and dynamic,” “potential and Active,” “Conscious and Unconscious.”
The Sum Total of this Omnipresent, “Static and Dynamic” Reality men have thought of abstractly and called by many names: “God,” “Nature,” “Brahm,” “Osiris,” “Jehovah,” “Manitou,” etc.
In this lesson “God” is The All—in which expression or formula we really get a scientific meaning for the words of Paul, that, as persons, “in ‘God’ we live and move and have our being.” Thus. Each Person, as a Conscious Expression of “The All,” is Divinity manifesting Itself in Thought, Feeling, Purpose and Will.
When each rises to the sublimest, truest recognition of what he is, of his real identity, he can discern the majesty of that ancient utterance: “I AM—and beside me there is none else.”
TESTIMONY
Have you ever noticed how often this marvelous conception has been regnant in Man? Jesus is reported as once having said: “At that day ye shall know that I Am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.”—John 14:20. Again, he plainly declared to Philip, who desired to see this vague “Father:” “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”—John 14:9.
It is said that the people tried to stone him because, “being a man, he made himself equal with God.” They simply did not have the exalted conception of existence Jesus had.
Paul echoes this glorious thought:
“It is ‘God’ that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.”—Philippians 2:13.
“There are diversities of operations, but it is the same ‘God’ which worketh all-in-aliy—I Corinthians 12:6. (Read the chapter.)
Through all history this grand idea of the Unity and Identity of That Which “is” has blossomed out in Human Thought. The devout Spinoza, the martyred Bruno, and the pious Schelling sounded the concert-pitch of Being ; and in later days, Emerson, Abbott and many others have soared to this august Transfiguration of Thought.
“God” is “The All is the present, working, Universal Reality. Is in every way potential and active as the Cosmic Verity. Upon this unshakable foundation Science must be built, and the teachings of this lesson are based. Mr. Lewes’ words, quoted in our first pages, are the keynote of genuine Power.
THE PROBLEM OF HEALING
I. — ITS STATEMENT
Man is a Conscious, Living, Thinking Being; the highest- known evolution of the “All.” His existence is manifest in two polar conditions: (a) A Physical Organism; (b) a Conscious Center-of-Mind. These two states are simply opposite poles of the Unit Substance of which the person is formed.
The physical pole must be studied first; the Conscious Center is evolved through the Physical, and unfolds into activity with it. (See Paul’s conception of this verifiable truth in I Corinthians 15:4445-47-)
The phenomena of Man’s Consciousness, Feeling, Thought and Will arise through the verity of a Substantial Organism, and must ever do so, since they are the dynamic pole of that reality.
The Human Body is composed of the One Varied Element of the All. Its formation begins with the uniting of atoms (which cannot be seen even with the most powerful microscope) to make cells that build upon and unite to themselves other atoms and cells in a manner determined by the impulse known as “heredity.” Finally the aggregate takes shape as a human embryo, fetus, babe and adult.
Do you, Reader, here ask what causes these first atoms and their succeeding accretions to unite? This only is now known : It is in the very nature and inherent force of the atoms themselves to behave so. What makes the magnet draw a needle with one end and drive it away with the other? Its magnetism? What is that? The only verifiable answer is that the attraction and repulsion are the distinct inherencies of the magnet. It shows these activities under the conditions, and they are what make it a magnet. “It is ‘God’ that work- eth.” These powers are “God’s” actions at the time, under the conditions. And these ways of “God’s” actions—called “modes of motion” in the All—are invariable throughout the universe from atoms to planets and stars. This polarity [do not fail to learn precisely what the word means’) is the dual form in which the All manifests itself, everywhere and always. Behind this fact no one can go. It Is; and trying “to go behind it” leaves no shadow of verifiable ground for thought. Upon whatever existence we look, whether active or static, we behold “God,” the All, in some sort of manifestation. Let us fix this fact firmly in Mind.
The human body is composed of many (at least sixteen are recognized) of the known physical elements, or “differentiated forms” of the All. These are builded into many organs, supported by a skeleton and united by a Nervous System whose fibers and filaments spread and ramify through every tissue, and culminate in that marvel called the Brain. When these myriad parts are in their normal, or “healthy,” state, the Man is an engine of force, strong in vitality, thought and consciousness. When the harmonious relation of his bodily parts is broken or disturbed, he is said to be sick or diseased ; and such abnormal states, if continued, end in death. Then the wondrous organism is decomposed, and its original elements are redistributed through the great Whole from which they were gathered by vital attraction.
“The Problem of Health and Healing” is, to preserve the harmonious, vital relationship of the organism, and reinstate it when it is disturbed by interfering agencies. This is the object of all healing art. In any Problem of Health or Healing, three factors are involved : {a) the Physical Body; (b) the Conscious Mind; (e) the One, Varied Element in which we live and upon which the Body depends.
In order to understand this problem, we must explain the sequence of growth in the Organism, and what is meant by “The Convertibility of Forces.”
The body begins with two cells which unite by virtue of their inherent attractions. These gather others which take their places by the same affinity. The power which unites them is called vitality : this is the primal force of all organism. Its first manifestation is that Polarity which causes the primordial cells to combine. Next it shows itself in the fact that a cell, once formed, will shrink and expand; this movement is called “contractility” Then this Vital Energy manifests itself in “sensation” or feeling; then it evolves into distinct local motion when the embryo “quickens,” or manifests its first signs of separate life.
All this time its constituent elements are focused in it, being drawn from the maternal blood, which, by placental connection, circulates through the awakening organism. At birth it is a miniature human being, and begins its personal existence. Instead of being vitalized by its mother’s blood, it now begins to eat and breathe for itself. Next the Vital energy rises into consciousness; at first dim, faint and feeble; but with growth this becomes clearer, and the babe begins to look intently at objects, especially a light. Then the Force evolves into emotions of pain or pleasure, which manifest themselves
in cries or smiles. After a time the Energy appears in Ideation, which is Mental representation of “sense-impressions.” Further along ideas, or mental pictures, begin to connect themselves, and thought is formed. At first thought is simple ; a mere grouping of two or three mental objects by sight. But as the being evolves, these pictures gathered through the senses remain potential as “memories,” and can be brought again before the mental eye, or knowing center. Then the child begins its abstract thinking, and this unfolds until we have such marvels as a Newton, Shakespeare or Herbert Spencer.
Now read the two following paragraphs until you fully understand them in all their words and meanings:
In this entire unfoldment we have traced the progress of one Divine Verity. Every step is a growth, or evolution out of the one preceding it. The Vital Energy has taken root, grown up, flowered out and borne its fruit. Each step is verifiably present in each human being now, and continually. There are the Original Vital contractility, sensation, locomotion, consciousness, emotion and thought.
Conversion is simply the turning or passing of one thing into another. “The Convertibility of Forces” is the capacity one form of Force has of becoming another; and in the steps we have just traced the process is plainly illustrated. Original Vitality is turned into contractility, that into sensation, that to motion, consciousness, ideation and thought. Let us illustrate it in other ways: The blacksmith eats dinner; what he eats is converted into tissue-cells, that become generating batteries of the Vital Energy, which, liberated again, is converted into the motion of his arm ; that into blows with his hammer upon iron, and each blow is transmuted into heat. Trace it anywhere; it is ever a chain, each succeeding link of which is forged out of the preceding one. What is this never-failing unfoldment? The activity of “God,” the All.
The following is a definition of “health” framed by a finely discriminating physician:
“Health is that condition of the Organism in which Active Vital Energy is normal in supply and distribution, so that each part duly performs its special function, and acts co-ordinately with all other parts.”
It has been well defined as “harmony of the functions.”
Disease is that negative condition of the organism in which Active Vital Energy is deficient in supply, or distribution, to one or more parts, so that their functions are imperfectly performed, and thereby the harmony of the whole is disturbed.
Briefly, it is disorder in the body.
The aim of the Healer or Health-preserver is: (a) To induce and maintain Active Vital Energy when it is generally deficient; (b) to converge and direct, if he can, this force when once generated, to any part or organ whose special supply is defective. How can this be done?
Two methods only claim our attention :
I.—THE ORDINARY, OR DRUG, METHOD
When an organ of the body is sluggish, the “doctor’’ gives a drug, which is expected to act mechanically or chemically, either directly or through the nervous centers controlling the organ, so as to excite the deficient vitality, and restore the proper function or peculiar “life” of that organ; and so, the harmony of the organism.
But long experience has taught the doubtfulness of medicinal effects; and recently one of the ablest physicians 1 know said to me with a fierce oath: “The eternal trouble with ‘medicine’ is that it always deals with ‘unknown quantities,’ and so is forever uncertain.” Another old and thoughtful practitioner remarked to me with a profound sigh : “As to merely medicinal or drug therauptics, it must be confessed that no one can predict with certainty what response any given organism will make, at any given time, to any given drug, in any given dose.”
I think it safe to say that the only verified science respecting drugs relates to the action of “antidotes.” This is the neutralization, or making harmless, of poison by administering something that combines with it to form a new and innocent compound in the stomach or tissue. And so far as medication follows this verified science, nothing is to be urged against it. But in competition with a system so confessedly dubious as that of the administration of drugs in general, we present:
II. —THE PSYCHIC METHOD
The Psychic Healer recognizes the fact and nature of the physical organism. He admits and abides by the Laws of mechanical and chemical action within the organism, as elsewhere; but adds a recognition of the more important Law of the “Convertibility of Forces” in the All. Upon these foundation principles he works. How.;
GENERAL STATEMENT
In the Organism, and The All prom which it draws its physical supply, there is an invariant quantity of active or potential Vital Energy. If a certain proportion of Vital Energy in the Organism flows into thought, one can increase the quantity of that Force convertible into other forms, by checking ideation—learning to cease thinking. This is the primal step, and the way it can be done is set forth in Exercise II.
Again; by intense thinking, Vital Energy in the higher brain, converted into thought of definite significance and purpose, can be discharged upon other organs of the operator’s body, there to appear in the form of Energy required for the restoration and support of that organ’s functions. Through the Laws of the propagation of Force, the operator can also transfer this energy produced or converted in himself, to enfeebled organs of another’s body; and this maybe done directly or through another’s induced thought.
DIRECTING VITAL ENERGY TO ABNORMAL PARTS.
In general, when there is sufficient Force accumulated it needs no special direction, but acts automatically. Yet this rule has well- defined exceptions, and such demand not only the arousing of dormant Vitality, but the exercise of intense, directive decree of Will.
Dr. William Hammond says that “expectant attention” has been known to produce tumors in parts upon which it was fixed. If this be true, who can rational^’ deny the converse cure of the tumor or other difficulty by a like agency? “It is a poor rule that will not work both ways.” The author of this lesson has several times demonstrated the virtue of the process in relieving various difficulties in his own person.
But as these fundamental principles are best illustrated in the practical Exercises we shall set forth, let us pause and try to conceive a general Idea of the whole process of Inductive Power.
In modern Electricity we hear much about “The Alternating Current.” It is the most efficient form of the Energy known, and is used in our arc-light systems. “The Alternating Current” is a most powerful, reversible wave-series of electricity, potent because of its infinitely rapid and intensified character. It is generated in brief as follows:
Imagine a circular, heavy iron frame as large as the front wheel of a common wagon. Inside the frame a series of heavy bar- magnets are arranged with alternating positive and negative poles pointing toward the center, like the spokes of a wheel. These magnets are wrapped with miles of insulated wire, which is connected with the lines leading to the numberless lights. In the center, like the hub of a wheel, nearly touching but separate from the spoke-like magnets, is fixed an iron roller which is called an “armature.” This armature is set in journals so that it can revolve between the converging poles of the magnets. Remember that the magnets which converge on this armature are arranged in alternate fashion, first a positive and then a negative pole, through the whole dozen or twenty used. The armature is composed of alternate bars of iron and brass, as if you should construct a round log ten inches in diameter with alternating strips of wood and clay. Thus, when the armature revolves, an iron and a brass strip are presented successively to the pole of each magnet.
When the engine is started, the speed of the armature reaches twelve or fifteen hundred revolutions per minute, and you can imagine how rapidly the successive strips of brass and iron are presented to each negative and positive pole in the concentric series. Well, every time an iron part passes before a magnetic pole, it induces in the wires encircling the magnet an electric flash ; and passing before a positive pole it sends the current in one direction, while passing before the negative, it reverses the current and flashes it in just the opposite direction. If there are ten magnets and the armature of ten iron strips revolves fifteen hundred times per minute, calculate how many times the current is alternated, or reversed, through the entire curcuit of lights ! The very momentum of any flash is something tremendous ; it is like the rush of water in pipes, and the shock when it is suddenly stopped. It is powerful by reason of its checked and reversed movement.
Well, Reader, this general principle of “alternation” is the inherent nature of all force manifestations. Energy is impulsive, or as Mr. Herbert Spencer puts it, “rhythmical.” It rises and falls like the tides ; it acts and reacts. There is a period of intense activity succeeded by comparative rest. This is the Divine Law of all Motion, and is particularly noticeable in bodily and mental dynamics. We call it “action and reaction and perceiving the fact, one of our pious hymn-writers said, measuredly :
“I’m sometimes up, and sometimes down ;
And yet I know I’m heaven-ward bound.’’
The principle of rhythm or alternation of physical force is well illustrated in the facts that we wake and sleep ; inspire and respire ; that we are at one time highly exalted, and, in the reaction, swing back into equilibrium or fall into depression.
The glory of human achievement has arisen from recognizing and taking advantage of this inherent law of the All ; and the truly scientific healer knows that it is the very foundation of his healing art. Consciousness itself, the sublimest transfiguration of the Eternal, Divine Energy, is markedly subject to the Alternating Law, and it is our imperative duty to drop sterile speculations, and learn its invariable “Mode of Motion.”
At times the “God-Force” of us swells to great intensity, and generates brilliant thinking and a sense of wondrous Vital Energy. This condition let us call its Positive Pole.
Then it subsides, or swings back into a condition of quiet serenity, or state of comparative repose. This is its Negative Pole. Between these two points stretch the great meridians of action.
Now the status of Vital Energy depends at all times upon its proper exercise. Knowing this invariant law, Professor Winship, at first a sickly, puny man, induced in his organism the ability to lift twenty-seven hundred pounds.
The natural demand for corresponding psychic exercise lies at the root of every form of prayer, service and religious ritual people employ. The higher nature requires development equally with the physical. “In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not,” says practical Paul. What is the meaning of this principle in cultivating Healing Might?
CONDITIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
We have intimated a method by which one may check the conversion of Vital Energy into Thought. When he does this, the Consciousness remains with a mere Sense of Being, only; a blank, which is the so-called Negative Pole of Life. This stoppage of thought is like the shutting down of a head-gate in a dam from which its waters are escaping. Through such a mental process the Vital Force is made to rise and gather in the organism like waters in a reservoir.
By some teachers this exercise has been called “Holding One’s Self in the Absolute.” It simply means that they loosen the attention from Ideas, or Thought-pictures, and maintain only a Uniform Sense of Being. The realization of Power this action awakens has just been explained. If you have ever seen a placer-miner’s “boom” in operation, you can form a conception both of this and its succeeding step of unfoldment. In a stream whose gravel contains gold, the workman builds a dam at some convenient point, in the center of which he fixes a gate which can suddenly be thrown open.
Flowing naturally over gravel and boulders, the stream washes them down very slowly. But when all is ready, the Miner shuts his gate and lets the reservoir above it fill. This done, he suddenly lifts the latches and throws the gate wide open. The gathered waters rush out with an energy which is marvelous, cut away banks, carry down huge boulders, and move the whole mass of gravel in the dry bed below, while the heavier gold sinks to the bedrock, or is carried to and settles in the riffles of his flume. With such an appliance one man can do in a few hours what it would take a hundred men several days to accomplish with their hands. The breaking of the dam above Johnstown was followed by just such a gigantic, appalling boom.
Well, when the student has “held himself in the Absolute” or Negative Pole of being for a time, he gathers by impulse of Will, all the Energy thus checked and stored, and sweeps to some clear, brief thought, and fastens the intensest attention upon it. He thinks it with every fiber and focuses upon it all the Energy he has been gathering. This is the Positive Pole of Being. Between it and the Negative, the alternating current of power plays; and by a sincere, steady practice of its method, the whole body is thrilled and overflowed with Divine Potency. It will spread a Life-glow from head to feet, and cause the organism to react marvelously.
The following personal experience of the author illustrates the practical effect of the “Alternating Current” upon ailments:
During the past Spring the epidemic known as “La Grippe” was prevalent in town. It remained for two or three months, and many suffered while a few died from its effects.
One raw day I was exposed for some time without sufficient clothing, and returned home sneezing, with a headache, a hacking cough, eyes watering, and a smart fever. They were the prevalent symptoms of “La Grippe.”
I went into a quiet room, sat in an easy chair, and relaxed myself thoroughly in the manner already explained. Thus having accumulated Vital Energy, I instantly plunged into intense consciousness, and, fixing attention upon the parts affected, sent two or three intense thought-waves over them. The burning pain, the headache and fever faded out as heat dies from the hand when it is laid against a cold window-pane. I arose from the chair without a single trace of the disorder which had attacked me. Other troubles, such as neuralgia, acidity of the stomach, and rheumatism have been treated in similar fashion and with uniform success.
Moderately Alternated, this practice is the best rest one can take ; it begets a healthy habit, and redeems all the powers. Others associated with me report the same results; and numbers treated, who have faithfully met the conditions of healing, have been speedily and completely cured. Day by day verification of the method is sought, and the outcome is excellent.
But what we need is practice in applying these thoughts. In order to place the simple, effective principle in the clearest possible light, we give a few lucid exercises by which Healing Power may be awakened and directed. They are few, but contain all the essentials of the secret. Let him who would “know the Truth ” and be made free by it, take these practices into his daily life. The first four are for treating one’s own conditions; the last, cover the known ground for general healing:
SELF-TREATMENT
- — A GENERAL EXERCISE FOR ACQUIRING AND KEEPING SELF-CONTROL.
- (A) Feeling “nervous,” “uneasy” or “depressed;” go where you can be in the silence and alone. Sit comfortably; loll; and persistently relax your undue tension. Relapse in a heap, and make the muscles soft and flabby. A little effort of will and practice enables you to do this very soon. Let your intent be that of volition alone ; put into it no motion or contraction of any part; do it by letting your muscular tension go.
“Let go” is a potent phrase. Drop things that burn you.
This relaxation is greatly aided by slow breathing. Very deliberately draw in as much air as the lungs will contain, hold it a little time, and then expel it in the same slow manner. Do not give thought to it, nor set your body in a distinct effort; but let it be done easily, and in a state simulating sleepiness.
Practice this exercise five or ten minutes at a sitting. (B) Try the foregoing exercise for some days without attempting to “hold a thought,” but sway easily away from thinking. After you have made it familiar, then do as follows:
Keeping the relaxed condition, inspire very slowly, and think deep inwardly the word “peace.” As you expel the depleted air and the body slowly settles down, change the word to “rest,” or reduce the mind to a blank. Do not merely repeat these words, but think the meaning of them, and yield yourself to their vibrations; they are the very harmonics of health.
The result of these two simple exercises on nervous unrest and depressed spirits is marvelous. Practice them patiently until they beget in you a tendency to perfect serenity. It is much better thus to “take time by the forelock,” and right any incipient form of disease than to let it develop into something serious.
II. —TO AROUSE AND INTENSIFY HEALING POWER.
You have doubtless heard much about “denying” sickness, and as the opposite of this, affirming that a patient “is perfectly sound and well.” Such ways of speaking about a case of sickness have created much objection and ridicule. To many who do not see the point involved in them they sound like insanity. What do they signify?
Well, Reader, they are mere mechanics, employed to divorce thought and attention from untoward conditions, and to generate or arouse the desirable vibration of Being. That is all. The)- are suggestive formulas by which thought and consciousness are wrenched from contemplation of abnormal conditions, and exalted above the sense of pain. They are not “lies” from the ideal side of the question, and it is here that they are employed. Among those who have constantly tried them, there is not the least doubt of their efficiency. I have often quickly banished acute pain by vehement denials anti volitional forbidding of it. But the magic is not in the mere words; it lies in what the words arouse, namely, a more vigorous Vital Wave.
and an Exaltation which alters the very condition out of which pain arises.
All formulas are such mechanics for inducing the action of this dormant Vitality which naturally rights bodily ailments. -I have seen persons who were at death’s door, persist in these vehement means, and fight with sublime courage a battle which was pronounced by doctors and skeptics as insane and criminal; and they won!
All honor to such heroes! By the law of “the survival of the fittest” they ought to live, and do. The wondrous power of Will, that highest evolution of the “God-of-us,” here asserts itself. Nothing is ever gained by “slumping” down, and throwing up the hands.
“THE ALTERNATING CURRENT.”
This is the Central Idea in all healing practice; look well to it. That which seems simple may prove profound.
THE NEGATIVE POLE.
Seek silence ; if possible, absolute stillness. Here sit in such a manner as to feel no strain or uneasiness to divert the attention. With eyes closed, breathe deeply and quietly, and learn to cease thinking. It will perhaps be the hardest task you have; but if you patiently persist in it you will conquer.
Unless you have experimented in this line you little realize what a maelstrom the brain is. A tempest of ideation rages in it. Nothing seems under control. Will, purpose and desire are whirled out of the way, and the swrarming mental-forms and fancies over-ride and fly away with all effort to govern them. Before the Conscious Center is an ever-revolving kaleidoscope; and, studying your thinking organs intently, you become aware of a ceaseless seething, and with the inner vision perceive the movements of a perpetual effervescence inside the skull. At times it will appear like a falling dust storm ; again it will sway side-wise as if moved by a breeze; but it never seems to end. Trying to locate the precise knowing-center, you will find it in the region of the eyes. Mere consciousness seems focalized, and striving to know it, it seems to converge smaller and smaller.
This perpetual “illusion” in the brain must be quelled.
In trying to cease thinking, do not undertake too much at once.
The Brooklyn Bridge began with a first hammer-stroke.
Breathe deeply and slowly, at the same time dropping all mental pictures. Turn the inner eye away from seeing; avoid it. Simply maintain the Sense oj Being, that Feeling which is its Base.
[N. B. This first exercise should be practiced from three to five seconds at a time; and should be increased very slowly. Haste will defeat you. Keep behind, and hold of your powers,
Do not imagine the mental-blank here induced is to render you “passive.” Far from it. Do not be “controlled.” The “Sense of Being’’ is the remainder after checking thought; and thus relieved of its transformations, it will intensify wondrously. Keep Consciousness of “I Am” vivid ; but as you inhale, try to draw it from the frontal region and center it in other parts of the brain.
As you gain self-control, learn to sink Conscious Attention anywhere within yourself. Do not be in the least discouraged by failures. “You must tread’the path.”
Having by sufficient practice reached the power to suspend thought while retaining vivid consciousness for ten or twenty seconds, then bring into play the next factor of the process.
Suddenly gather all your Energy, and with every fiber of Being plunge into a clear, brief thought, and absorb your total Force in its meaning. Here are a few excellent formulas:
I Am Life!
I Am Health!
I Am Love!
Use any one of these which pleases you. But remember, it is not a repetition of the mere words required, but thinking them with the utmost vigor, so that they rouse you as much as you were relaxed. Repeat the thought taken several times, occupying as many seconds as you remained conscious without thinking.
Lastly, after the most patient, intent practice of the two exercises separately, alternate them. First the Simple Consciousness; then the Polar Thought.
Back and forth, back and forth, increasing the time a few seconds at each sitting.
If you have never tried this process, you will find it a Divine Revelation of the very mechanics of “God,” the All, in begetting health and power.
SPECIAL-TREATMENT .
By this is meant the directing of healing energy to any particular organ or part.
To treat a specific trouble, sit in the silence, exercise yourself as indicated in alternating Conscious Blank with Polar Thought, and in the latter, fix the thought and will upon the organ or parts affected.* (* Note.—In treating yourself “hold the thought” or decree while breathing in. Reverse the process when treating others. There is tine opportunity for varied experiment here. Find for yourself the special exercise most effective in your case.)
Let every vibration and impulse decree the condition desired, and be bent upon its accomplishment.
“Expectant Attention,” which is only a modern name for “Faith,” has already made the understanding of this treatment easy. The very polarity of bodily cells can be altered and intensified by such dynamic energy. Illustrations are common in the deaths and recoveries which result from fright, shocks, good news, or something which changes the entire current of thinking. * ( * In this polar fluctuation of Vital Energy lies the explanation of the “idiopathic,” “germ” and “contagious” characters of diseases and liability to them. Many persons withstand all such influences, while others succumb even to the kear of infection. The bodily condition can be so maintained as to give neither soil nor polar attraction to “germs” ami “bacilli.” Infection simply argues a decline of Vital Energy ; an opening of the bodily tissue as soil for “germs” which in normal, bodily states find neither conditions nor possibility of life and ravage.)
As polar opposites, Body and Mind are mutually reactive. It is almost a common-place principle; upon it, form a clear mental- image or picture of the part treated as it would be in a healthy state, and learn to identify the part you would restore with the pattern.
If this step seems dubious or “smacks of quackery,” read Dr. Fredrik Bjornstrom’s “History and Present Development of Hypnotism’,’ especially that portion which relates to “Suggestion in Curing Disease.”
Read also the very clear report of “The London Society for Psychical Research,” 1883, and note whether or not the Mind is able to localize definitely its energies and thought-effects.
In Dr. Bjornstrom’s Work, instances are recorded where, at a distance of several miles, patients were reached and assisted by the Psychic Force of The All, directed by the operator. The proof this presents is that of One Mind, and the direct, mutual influence one Conscious Center has on another.* ( * ‘Hypnotism—Its History and Development,” by Fredrik Bjornstrom, M. D., Head Physician of the Stockholm Hospital, Professor of Psychiatry and late Royal Swedish Medical Councilor; authorized translation from the second Swedish edition by Baron Nils Posse, M. G., director of the Boston School of Gymnastics (double number). New York: Humboldt Publishing Company, 28 Layfayette Place.)
TREATING OTHERS.
The influence of one’s Conscious Center on his own body is universally conceded ; the healing of one by another through psychic force is much disputed. But the evidence of its actual operation is daily being accumulated. Tn Dr. Bjornstrom’s Work as just referred to, the fact seems established with scientific rigor.
The only premise upon which this psychic healing is conceivable is that of the Unity and Identity of Life, Mind or Being. Each Conscious, Dynamic Center is based in, and operates through, the entire mental substance.
In treating others, the Psychic Healer, possessing naturally, or having by the methods outlined aroused his healing powers, directs it to the patient by one of the three following processes, or by combinations of any or all of them :
- —Formulas and decrees, spoken directly to the patient.
- —“Laying on of hands,” with volitional decrees.
- —Silent thought and decree, exercised while absent from the patient, but at the same time holding him in mind and directing to him the Will as a telepathic power.
Remember always, however, that none of these methods mean anything, save as it implies the Original Vital Potency as a foundation and healing Energy. This is the Ultimate Force, aroused and communicated in every instance—The One Divine Dynamic of all Being.
The possibility of a transference and induction of this Force has been believed in through all man’s history. In a cure reported of Jesus it is said that “he felt virtue had gone out of him.” See Mark 5:30. It is the subtlest Energy we know anything about, and that it should be thus inductive all the analogous teachings of electrics and magnetics assure us. But the final guarantee of any method is the demonstrable success attending its employment. In Psychic Healing the operator must become a dynamo of power and thus be able to make his energy felt by the patient.
In the present development of the subject, the author frankly admits his preference for the present form of treatment, both by instruction, and the method commended by Jesus, “Laying on of Hands.”
To treat a patient, first key your own Consciousness to the concert-pitch of power as already indicated; then with or without personal contact with him, identify yourself with him, fix thought and will upon his difficulty, anti decree, or project by the ancient “I will. be thou whole,” the Energy of healing life through him. Let purpose and effort be convergent and direct.
By this process I have seen a case of Asthma of many years’ standing cured completely (not merely “relieved”) in less than five minutes without any personal contact of healer and patient. The same operator cured two cases of scarlet fever in a few minutes, and, when the patient comes in rational faith, does not fail.
THE PATIENTS PART.
The contents of this paragraph are profoundly significant. As a genera] rule, the hearty co-operation of the patient is a vital factor in the healing problem. Note how this is illustrated in healing reported to have been done by Christ. In the majority of cases spontaneous “faith,” or that begotten by the clear “science” of this Divine Power, is an indispensable condition on the part of patients. Easily to be affected by healing virtue, one must throw himself full- length into the current of power. W ho does not do this will defeat any effort. By surly obstinancy of temperament and skeptical refusal to fulfill conditions and strive to respond, the subject can render futile all attempts to reach his case. .
For this reason, as a general rule I treat no one who does not come and earnestly ask for help; and when I find the applicant hanging back and showing stupid indifference to his part, after he has had the conditions fully laid down, I cease to interfere with his personal preferences. The healer should recognize the personal right of a patient to be sick if he prefers it, and exhibits no determination to throw it off when instructed as to what he should do. We have no right to “take the chalk out of another’s hand” and work his problem if he has not appealed for help or given up his sullen indifference to the demonstrably right method.
Those who respect Jesus’ example cannot imagine him to have over-ridden the prejudice and self-sufficiency of anyone arbitrarily.
MAGNETISM AND HYPNOTISM.
Among some there is a foolish word-war over these topics. They who have got rid of one “devil” create another just as unwarranted out of these two exhibitions of Force. It is pitiable nonsense. There is but One Mind. Guage all thought by this verifiable postulate and fear nothing.
A few repudiate and denounce these forms of applied energy; yet not one of them knows a whit more about the real nature of that which he discusses than about any other “Mode of Motion.” Hypnotism is properly called “The Force of Suggestion.” What are books, sermons, songs or instructions of any kind but suggestive factors? We should put away childish fears. They are enfeebling and a remnant of our long-instilled superstitions.
All Power is Divine; is an inherency of the One and Only Mind, “beside which there is none else.” Anything which heals is divinely legitimate. Let us cast away silliness and nonsense.
“The kingdom of God is within you.” ‘it is ‘God’ that worketh in you.” “Perfect Love casteth out all fear.”
Reader, “know thy divine self;” “Quit you like a man; be strong!” That which moves in thee is the majesty of All Being.
THE THIRD FACTOR.
“THE ALL, IN WHICH WE LIVE, AND UPON WHICH THE BODY DEPENDS.”
Herbert Spencer defines the phenomenon of Life as “The continual adjustment of internal relations to external relations.” W e accept this definition, but add its converse as equally true—the adjustment of external to internal relations. And we insist upon the invariant significance of both propositions.
In our present state of evolution we have “Ideals of Power that bewilder and unbalance many. “Heaven is not reached by a single bound.” There may come a time when unfolded Man can exhibit independence of his natural conditions (such as pure air, light, food and drink); but until he is so developed, his sanity and bodily health must be conserved by recognizing “the law of him.”
Religious Science advocates no insane balderdash. It says that hygiene, proper food and cleanliness are natural and divine conditions of health and righteousness. Even the theological “God.” with all his claimed perfections, is pictured as subject to the conditions of his existence. “He cannot lie;” “cannot look upon sin;” “cannot be unjust,” etc. Yet there have been some non-discriminating teachers who tacitly repudiate all “material conditions,” as if by that name they had explained and done away with them.
To dyspeptic patients I have heard them say “eat anything;” yet they regarded opium, whisky, meat and a few other “trifles” as forbidden. Who does not discern the force of natural relations, and see that the glory of sanity springs from taking righteous advantage of them, is blind and cannot see afar off. On the hand, the finger is a useful member, but thrust into the eye it is out of place. “Let all things be done decently and in order!’
THE GENERAL LIFE.
He who would unfold his highest faculties must ever bear in Mind that “righteousness” alone can exalt him. Purity, serenity and “Love which seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh no account of evil,” are the prime factors of the Divinest Evolution. Train your Being in these things. Don’t indulge in sarcasm, bitterness, impatience, pettiness and anger toward any person. It unsettles the foundations of thought, and weakens the vibration of healing powers. Be kind, cheerful, loving and just. Try always to see the “good’ or “better part,” and in association with others, never forget the path of your own evolution. Under their stresses, temperaments and trials, men follow the line of the least resistance as a general rule. Study life from this higher point-of-view.
Give “righteousness” the benefit of every doubt; by doing so you are always on the safe side. When you hesitate long about an action, you are undermining yourself, and tottering about in such a manner as to weaken the will and moral sense. Be strong. A firm Mind and a sound Body are the dynamic centers of “‘God’s’ Kingdom.”
Above all things, cultivate Love. From crystal to Human Being it is the Divine Motive Force of Life. Live it; breathe it;think it, and seek to give it place in every action. Draw from Nature, from the skies, the earth and men what you give—Love and Power. Perpetually recognize your Unity and Identity with “God,” The All. This “Father” (Feeder) is your Eternal Supply—the rest of you.
AFTER THOUGHT.
Our study draws to a close. We have by no means tried to exhaust this topic, but have concentrated its vital truths into what has been written.
It has been our aim to eliminate the mist and superstition which serve only to dissipate Power. Many have healed without knowing the sequence of their energy. Art always precedes Science ; for Science is but a formulation and explanation of the rules of art, that it may thereby be conserved and become easy as possible.
That speculative “Idealism” which shuts its eyes to the Divine Verities of Objective Existence is a one-winged-bird. Be not confused by oracle or wordy claims. “Fruit,” not witless “faith,” is the test of power. Because they hope for “gift” and foreign supply, many forget the sublime words of Christ to those who were looking expectantly to “some other” source than “The All.” “The Kingdom of God is within you.”
“In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not.” Give your sin- cerest attention to the Divine Mechanics of Being, and ever remem- • • • her that “Now is the day of salvation.” “Work out your own deliver. . . ance; for it is God that worketh in you.”
HEALING NOTES.
“Gather up the fragments * * * that nothing may be lost.” Thought, Intuition and Verification; you must combine these. Remember that “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
“Let patience have her perfect work.”
“God” is Love. Then Love steadily and manifest the “God of you.
How shall we deal with broken limbs and dangerous wounds?
If unable to manage them yourself, employ a skillful surgeon; and when he has used his art, treat as already indicated.
Would you pay any attention to “diet?”
Always. The student is supposed to have “common sense,” and to have evolved beyond the swinish stage.
Shall we ever employ a “doctor?”
“Where the treasure is, there will the heart be, also.” Do as your highest faith demands; yet if you would cultivate your own Divine Power, bring it out and rely upon it. It is not necessary to fear any devil, much less make one of an honest physician.
Shall we ever use “medicine?”
In the sense of general drugs, no; better not. Food is a form of medicine used in the disease called hunger. Do you eat anti drink? Why?
If “medicine” is ever used, what is the special significance of the Psychic Method of Healing?
The natural, “short-cut.” Greater convenience. “The more excellent way.” Evolution of speedier, safer Power.
Shall we call “matter,” “evil” and “disease” lies?
First, justly define them—if you can. A lapse into nonsense will thereby be avoided. One condition is just as real as another. They are all matters of interpretation ; and we may fail at first to interpret things correctly, as constant revisions show. Understand what “polarity” means; it is necessary and universal. Whatever is, is. Anything which exists is not a lie.
What are “mortal mind,” and “mortal thought?”
There are no such things. There is one deathless Mind, and its vibrations, arising in Conscious Centers, are shaped into Ideas, which, properly related, make thought.
Shall we use “hypnotism?”
As “suggestion” of Truth, yes; as “black-magic,” no. Remember that what you do reacts upon yourself as well as the patient. “All things are lawful, but all are not expedient.”
Why do some heal from the first, and others reach it slowly?
Why did Mozart and Blind Tom perform marvelously upon the pianoforte from the first? (Read I Corinthians 15.)
Shall we “recognize failures?”
You can’t help yourself. They speak for themselves.
If we ever fail, what shall we do?
Above all things be honest. Admit that you did not get your problem; then “forgetting the things that are behind, press forward,” etc. Shall we use “formulas” in trying to heal?
Use any means that will awaken power; but always remember that they are mechanics only.
If unable to treat myself what shall I do ?
Call someone in whom you have confidence and put yourself unreservedly in his hands, following his directions.
Shall we treat everybody?
No! As a general rule treat only those who ask for your help. Interference will make some people tell you to mind your own business. (See Matthew 7:6.) “The servant is not above his Master.”
How shall I regard the Bible in this study?
Precisely as you do any other book. That in it which tallies with fact, accept; that which does not, reject. Make a fetich of nothing.
What is Intuition ?
Quick reasoning. Rapid seeing with the mind’s eye. It is worthless unless directly or inductively verified.
What is Mentality?
One’s Conscious Center. His peculiarity of Mind and thought.
What are the prime requisites for an earnest healer ?
(a) Common sense. (b) Freedom from cant and superstition. (c) Practice in the silence. (d) Love that “never faileth.” [e] Spirituality and a righteous life.
“If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful.”
The End