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Christian Healing
Lesson 4
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[Christian Healing]
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Lesson Four
The Formative Power of Thought
1. That the body is moved by thought is universally
accepted, but that thought is also the builder of the body
is not so widely admitted. We know that thought moves the
various members of the body, because we have constantly
before us manifestations of the close sympathy between
thought and act. Before I run, I think that I will run, and
my legs begin to move swiftly in imagination before I begin
the action outwardly. It was found by a system of
experiments made at Harvard University that the thought of
running causes the blood to rush into the legs. A man was
put flat on his back on a balanced beam, which was adjusted
so that the least bit of added weight at head or foot
registered on the index. When a perfect balance was
attained the man was given a problem in mathematics to
solve. Immediately the index showed increased weight at the
head, indicating that thought had called the blood there.
Then he was told to imagine that he was running, and the
index showed added weight shifting to the feet.
2. Here is proof that thought not only moves the external
members of the body, but that it controls the fluids
flowing within the body. If thought so readily moves the
blood from place to place, who shall say that it does not
move the nerve fluid, or that still more volatile
substance, the magnetic force that pervades all organisms?
We affirm that thought controls
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nerve forces and magnetic force, and that it not only moves
them but also forms and organizes their activities in the
body.
3. Medical authorities of the highest repute tell us that
certain organs of the body are self-renewing; that it is a
puzzle to them how these parts ever wear out. If you had a
sewing machine that constantly replaced the little
particles worn away by friction, would that machine ever be
destroyed? In health, man's body has this power of
replacing worn parts and when it is in harmony it never
wears out. The harmony referred to is self-adjustment to
the law of Being, to the law of divine nature, to the law
of God. It does not matter what you call this fundamental
principle underlying all life--the important thing is to
understand it, and to put yourself in harmony with it.
4. We have often been told that we should be healthy if we
conformed to the laws of nature, but no one has been able
to tell us just what those laws are. Some have said that
this conformity consists in eating the right kind of food,
or in drinking the right kind of water in the right sort of
way, or in breathing pure air and wearing suitable clothes.
We have done all these things, and there is yet something
lacking. It is quite evident that we have not, by observing
these external adjustments, gotten at the underlying
principle of nature. Nature works intelligently, and we
shall never be able to conform to her laws until we
approach her as we would a wise
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and loving mother, who, we know, gladly gives us what we
want when we use it wisely. Nature is not a blind force
working in darkness and ignorance. All her works indicate
intelligence--mind in action. This being true, we perceive
that we cannot conform to the laws of nature until we
recognize the Mind through which she works.
5. Those who have not thought about this proposition, those
who have not tried to know and understand the mental side
of life, are like men walking in broad daylight with their
eyes closed. The mind has eyes, and we can see (perceive)
the inner intelligence when we look with mind. But those
who look wholly with the physical eye are really
blind--having eyes, they see not. Man's salvation from sin,
sickness, pain, and death comes by his understanding and
conforming to the orderly Mind back of all existence. "Ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
6. Man is an epitome of Being. Psychology finds his soul
responding to all the emotions, sensations, and vibrations
of the sentient world about him, and spiritual science
discerns that his superconsciousness is inspired with all
the ideas fundamental in Divine Mind. Man, then, is the key
to God and the universe, and he may know all things by
studying his own constitution. Supreme in this constitution
is mind. Man must base all his researches on mind, because
mind is the starting point of every thought and act.
7. Some metaphysicians teach that man makes
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himself, others teach that God makes him, and still others
hold that the creative process is a co-operation between
God and man. The latter is proved true by those who have
had the deepest spiritual experiences. Jesus recognized
this dual creative process, as is shown in many statements
relative to His work and the Father's work. "My Father
worketh even until now, and I work." God creates in the
ideal, and man carries out in the manifest what God has
idealized. Jesus treats of this relation between the Father
and the Son in the 5th chapter of John: "The Son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for
what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in
like manner."
8. Thought is the creative power by which man builds a
mentality and a body of perfection. Man understandingly
uses his creative thought power by mentally perceiving the
right relation of ideas, "what he seeth the Father doing,"
as stated by Jesus. Thus we see the necessity not only for
thinking right thoughts, but also for having a right basis
for our thinking. We must think according to universal
Principle. The successful mathematician bases all his
calculations on the rules of mathematical science; so the
successful metaphysician bases his creative thinking on the
unlimited ideas of the one Mind. Christianity is a science
because it is governed by scientific principles of mind
action. These principles are really the foundation of all
the various sciences, but these sciences are secondary;
divine science is primary.
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9. The physical scientist deals with the electron, or
molecule, or cell, in his analysis of forms. He postulates
that atoms exist, but he has never seen one. He assumes
that the realm beyond the ken of physical perception is not
possible of investigation. The metaphysician, however,
delves into the realm where atoms, and molecules, and cells
are formed, and he not only sees how they are made, but he
acquires the ability to make them. He finds that they all
are dependent on ideas, and that by using right ideas he
can make manifest any form or shape that he may desire. For
example, what externally is named substance has its source
in a mental idea of form and shape. What is termed life has
its source in an idea of action. What is termed
intelligence has its source in an idea of knowing. All the
manifestations that we see about us are produced in the
same way; they have their source in some idea in mind, and
they can be formed and transformed at will by one who
understands and uses this mind power.
10. A study of the mind and its innumerable manifestations
reveals often a difference between a thing and the mind in
which the thing has its original impetus as an idea. Life
in Divine Mind is unlimited as an idea back of perpetual,
omnipresent action, but by man's thought it may be
subjected to many limitations. Substance in Divine Mind is
an idea of perfection in form, but man's thought usually
caricatures it. Intelligence in Divine Mind is all-knowing,
but man's thought has said that there is ignorance, so
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ignorance has been demonstrated. But we should not assume
that all manifestation is good because the originating idea
came from Divine Mind. All ideas have their foundation in
Divine Mind, but man has put the limitation of his negative
thought upon them, and sees them "in a mirror, darkly."
11. Applying this reasoning to individual consciousness, we
find just how man thinks his body into disease. Instead of
basing his thought on what is true in the absolute of
Being, he bases it on conditions as they appear in the
formed realm about him, and the result is bodily discord in
multitudinous shapes. Pervading all nature is a universal
thought substance that is more sensitive than the
phonographic record. The mechanical record receives and
preserves vibrations of sound, but the thought substance
does better than this; it transcribes not only all sounds,
but even the slightest vibration of thought.
12. The telephone system of a large city is a good
illustration of the manner in which thought works on the
organism. The nerves are the wires and the nerve fluids are
the electricity. The ganglionic aggregations throughout the
body are the substations. The presiding intelligence sends
its thought from the head; "Central," at the solar plexus,
receives the message and makes connection with the part of
the body designated. You think of your stomach; instantly
the connection is made with that center and the presiding
thought stationed there takes your message and carries it
into effect. If the message is,
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"You are weak," weakness is recorded. If you say, "You are
strong, vigorous, fearless, spiritual intelligence, life,
and substance," that message is transcribed and carried
into action.
13. Every part of the body is connected with the great
solar-plexus central station, which is very obedient in
carrying out instructions received from the presiding
intelligence in the head. There are several great
subcenters and innumerable minor centers in the organism.
These centers of thought are the formed ideas of mind that
have an affinity for one another, based upon the attractive
power of love, the binding factor of the organism. Physical
science calls this binding energy centripetal force, but
all forces of whatever character are fundamentally
spiritual, and they must be reduced to ideas, thoughts, and
words, in order to be understood.
14. All ideas pertaining to life expression have their
center of action in that part of the body called the
generative system; whatever thought we think or express in
words about life is immediately sent to this generative
ganglion and registered there. Not only are these thoughts
registered, but man has, by repeated thinking, built up an
ego, or identity, at that center. The dominant thought of
this identity is life action in its various phases. The
life center is divine, and should be thought about and used
in the purest, highest way. This will lead to the perfect
manifestation of life in the whole body. All thoughts about
the loss of life, or the weakness of life, or
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the impurity of life, should be persistently denied out of
mind, and we should make the strongest kind of affirmations
of what life is in God. In this way we connect the life
center with its spiritual source, and it is restored to
divine harmony.
15. A majority of the ills that afflict the body have their
origin in erroneous thoughts about life and in misuse of
the generative life function. In Genesis the life center is
compared to a tree--its roots are in the ground and its
branches reach up to the heavens. All the pleasant
sensations in the organism are produced by the forces
emanating from this center. Along the nerves, or branches,
the life center sends its currents of life to the very
extremities of the body, and even beyond, into the finer
ethers of the soul. The life center is spiritual, but its
vibrations are so subtle (serpentlike) that man is tempted
to eat its fruits, to consume in its pleasant sensations
the reserve forces of his organism. His indulgence unfrocks
him--takes away his robe of power and mastery and dominion
over the physical forces that environ him. Instead of
abiding at the center of his body and consciously ruling it
and the world of nature without him, he is cast out "from
the garden of Eden."
16. By a right understanding, and by using right thoughts
and words, man will regain the kingdom within him and will
be reinstated in the Garden of Eden. This process of man's
taking up power and dominion again is now being carried out
in all those
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who are seeking the righteousness of the Christ
consciousness. In this higher-thought realm, all ideas
pertaining to the life of man are in harmonious relation,
and when we ask in silent thought for this knowledge, our
mind is flooded with its light. We apprehend only according
to the receptivity, steadfastness, understanding, and
persistent faith of our mind. But we grow in faith and
understanding, and no matter how slowly we seem to be
progressing we should never be discouraged or give up.
Everyone is heir to this higher-thought consciousness, and
all must eventually attain it. When the beauty of this
spiritual realm is spread before us we should express
gratitude--give thanks to the great Soul of the universe.
When the astronomer Kepler realized the grandeur of the
laws that were revealed to him, he exclaimed: "O God, I am
thinking Thy thoughts after Thee."
AFFIRMATIONS FOR RIGHT THINKING
(To be used in connection with Lesson Four)
1. "As he thinketh within himself, so is he."
2. My heart is righteous toward God.
3. Where my thoughts are gathered together in my Christ
name, there I am in the midst of them.
4. I will think no evil, for Thou art always with me.
5. The thoughts of God are His angels: "He shall give his
angels charge concerning thee."
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6. "The thought of foolishness is sin."
7. "The thoughts of the righteous are just."
8. "Commit thy works unto Jehovah, and thy purposes shall
be established."
9. "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith
Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil."
10. "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!"
11. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know
my thoughts."
12. "Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ."
13. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these
things."
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[Christian Healing]
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