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Jesus Christ Heals
Chapter 3
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[Jesus Christ Heals]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Chapter III
Realization Precedes Manifestation
GOD'S MAN is hale, whole, hearty. This is Truth. A
spiritual realization is a realization of Truth. A
spiritual realization of health is the result of holding in
consciousness a statement of health until the logic of the
mind is satisfied and man receives the assurance that the
fulfillment in the physical must follow. In other words, by
realizing a healing prayer man lays hold of the principle
of health itself and the whole consciousness is illumined;
he perceives principle working out his health problems for
him.
However when man lays hold of the principle of wholeness,
he finds that he is automatically working with God and that
much new power is added. He realizes: "My Father worketh
even until now, and I work." After man has applied his mind
diligently for a season, he exhausts his resources or
powers of realization for the time being and rests from all
his work; but his accumulated thought energy is completed
or fulfilled in a higher realm, and he has a double
assurance that health must become manifest.
Jesus understood and demonstrated this law perfectly. He
was so much at one with the principle of health that He
needed only to say, "Thy faith hath made thee whole" or
"Lazarus, come forth,"
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in order to bring into evidence the perfect demonstration.
Realization means at-one-ment, completion, perfection,
wholeness, repose, resting in God. A realization of health
brings to the consciousness an inner knowing that the
divine law has been fulfilled in thought and act. Then as
man lays hold of the in-dwelling Christ he is raised out of
the Adam or dark consciousness into the Christ
consciousness. This at-one-ment with God brings a lasting
joy that cannot be taken away.
God-Mind rests in a perpetual realization of health, and
that which seems to be sickness does not exist in Truth.
When man becomes so much at one with God-Mind that he
abides in the consciousness of health he enters the eternal
peace in which he knows that "it is finished."
In order to understand God-Mind we need to study our own
mind. The more we analyze the processes of the mind the
more plainly the mind with its mental "compounds" appears
as the source of health and of all other things. In the
realms of dense matter intelligence may be so faint as to
have lost all contact with Mind. Yet the poet sings about
there being "sermons in stones." Again science announces
that life is present in and is disintegrating the solid
rocks and the whole earth groans and creaks in her struggle
with inertia. So if we want to know the secrets of health
and how right thinking forms the perfect body, we must go
to the mind and trace step by step the movements that
transform
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ideas of health into light, electrons, atoms, molecules,
cells, tissues, and finally into the perfect physical
organism.
Although there is almost universal skepticism with
reference to the mind's ability to know consciously how
relative substance is formed, there are those who have made
contact with the thought processes and can apply them in
transforming the cells and tissues of their own body. The
almost insurmountable obstacle to explaining to others how
this is accomplished is the paucity of language. The mind
functions in ways that are so strange and unbelievable that
the pioneers on this frontier of metaphysics choose as a
rule to remain silent.
Jesus is the outstanding pioneer in this realm where the
health-producing processes of cells are released and imbued
with supermind vitality.
He spent years in becoming acquainted with His body and
freeing its cells from the material bondage to which the
race thought had bound them.
Yet He gave no scientific explanation of the purifying
through which He put His body to transform it before Peter,
James, and John, as stated in Luke 9:29: "And as he was
praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and
his raiment became white and dazzling." Modern
metaphysicians do not excuse their ignorance by claiming
that this and many other instances in which Jesus showed
mastery over His body were miracles. Scientific Christians
regard as mortal superstition the prevalent view that
miracles are the abrogation by God of His laws
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and are performed as a sort of legerdemain to attract and
astonish the people. The marvelous things that Jesus did we
can do when we understand the law. "The works that I do
shall he do also; and greater" still holds good.
Much that is attributed to the subconscious, strictly
speaking, springs from the all-knowing or spiritual Mind.
When we cannot intellectually account for our knowledge we
assume the subconscious to be its source. Yet we should
know that the subconscious is the storehouse of past
knowledge and past experiences. So it knows only what has
filtered through the conscious mind. It cannot therefore be
the source of knowledge except through reflection or
memory. This memory of what man has passed through in the
aeons of his experience is often called intuition; it is
the instinct of the animal soul.
The world today looks up to science; that is, it does not
accept or believe anything unless it can be demonstrated by
well-known universal laws. There are no known laws
governing religion that can be scientifically explained;
hence it is not acceptable to the scientific mind. But
there is a technique for molding thought stuff by means of
the mind, and metaphysicians follow it in their scientific
thinking and in healing. The metaphysician handles
omnipresent Spirit life and substance very much as the
electrician handles electricity. Energy is locked up in all
this life and substance and its release enables the
metaphysician to utilize it in demonstrating health and in
achieving success.
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All the chemical elements adhere to their particular form
and endeavor to retain it. Electricity is supposed to be a
universal invisible energy whose unity can be broken up by
the whirl of a dynamo. The electronic units exert all the
force of their nature in a pull to regain their original
status. Thus the power generated by a dynamo is gained from
the force exerted by the electrical units in their rush to
establish their primal equipoise.
Only a certain percentage of this energy is utilized
because of the pull of the electrical units to get back
home to their mother principle. The dissipation of energy
is one of the great problems of the engineer. The loss of
electricity in transmission is so great that only a small
part of the original current reaches its destination.
We exist right in the midst of forces that would yield us
power to do all our work if we knew how to conserve and
properly utilize their energies. This is not only true of
our use of the many elements in the natural world all about
us but especially of our utilization of the energy
generated by our minds. If we could utilize this dissipated
energy constructively it would restore the body, illumine
the mind, and establish us in a lasting consciousness of
dominion and mastery.
With every thought there is a radiation of energy. If a
person is untrained in thinking and lets his mind express
all kinds of thoughts without control, he not only uses up
his thought stuff but fails also to accomplish any helpful
result.
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Conservation of thought stuff is essential to right
thinking. Right thinking is using the mind to bring about
right ends idealized by the thinker. All the elements
necessary to the restoration of health exist in the higher
dimensions of the mind. Through concentration and
conservation of thought force man regains the consciousness
of health in his mind, and health then becomes manifest in
his body.
Laws fixed by infinite Mind automatically accomplish
whatever man desires when he becomes obedient to the inner
guide. Concentration, one-pointed attention, forms a mental
magnet in the mind to which thought substance rushes like
iron filings to a loadstone. Then follows confidence or
faith in one's ability to accomplish the desired end.
According to the Scriptures this is the law by which the
universe was brought into manifestation. In the 11th
chapter of Hebrews it is written: "By faith we understand
that the worlds have been framed by the word of God."
Modern science by its most daring proponents is launching
out into the deeps of the invisible and describing in
detail the electrical processes that ultimate in the atom
and its aggregations in visible things. In substance they
tell us that when points of light gather about a certain
nucleus an atom is created, and from this a cell, and cell
aggregations make tissues and these merge into the realm of
things.
Here we have the scientific explanation and the Christian
metaphysician's formula for making the
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invisible visible. The greatest of all physicists cannot
tell what electricity is. Even Edison said he was ignorant
of its real nature. Some find it sometimes acting very much
like mind and have so stated. The head of the General
Electric research department was asked by a reporter to
give him a definition of electricity. The professor replied
that to his mind electricity was like what the Christians
describe as faith.
The scientific metaphysician fixes his attention powerfully
on the consummation of a certain idea until he has a
realization, which means that the idea has nucleated a
certain amount of thought substance. When this realization
is had the metaphysician rests "from all his work." Through
faith and work he has fulfilled the law of mind and he
rests in the conviction that his ideal of health will
appear in manifestation in due season.
To a metaphysician realization is the conviction that a
person gets when he has persistently concentrated his
attention on an ideal until he feels assured of the
fulfillment of that ideal. Elohim God pronounced His
spiritual creation "very good"; then rested from all His
work. There was as yet no manifestation, "no herb of the
field had yet sprung up," and "there was not a man to till
the ground"; yet the planning Mind had the realization that
the spiritual law had been fulfilled and that it should
rest from all its works.
That all things visible are held in place by a force
invisible is the conviction of the majority of logical
thinkers. In other words, everything is ensouled.
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When we understand that the soul has consciousness, that it
thinks, we have the explanation of many mysterious
phenomena. Some 150 years ago Franz Mesmer announced in
Germany that under certain conditions he could induce a
magnetic sleep in persons and control their minds. His
demonstrations attracted the attention of doctors and
mental scientists the world over. In this day the system is
practiced under the name of hypnotism. It is full of
pitfalls for both operator and patient because its tendency
is to weaken the positive control that the mind should
always exercise over its own brain structure. However it is
one of the many proofs that the mind can produce conditions
in the mental world that ultimate in the material world. A
great physical scientist stated recently that it may be
that the gods that determine our fates are our own minds
working on our brain cells and through them on the world
about us. This is very close to the Truth.
Every Christian metaphysician knows that back of the
personal mind there is a great creative Mind that also
recreates. This creative Mind has been named and described
by men all down the ages. God-Mind not only can restore and
heal but can establish us in the consciousness of permanent
health. Do not allow your conception of God to be
handicapped by what men have said about Him.
"There is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding."
Let the Spirit of God in you reveal to you His true
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character. God was never sick a day; He is the source of
life and health and joy. God wills that we express His
"image" and "likeness," in which we were created.
The prayer for realization attains its consummation when
with concentrated spiritual attention one has affirmed that
God Spirit is present, that with all His power He is
bringing to pass the perfect health desired, and that all
is well. When your thoughts radiate with the speed of
spiritual light, they blend with creative Mind (called by
Jesus "heaven"), and the thing you have asked for will be
done. Jesus told Peter that whatever he bound (affirmed) in
earth would be bound in heaven and whatever he loosed
(denied) in earth would be loosed in heaven. Peter had
unbounded faith in Jesus (who represents spiritual man).
When any man has unbounded faith in spiritual power his
words, uttered in the limitations of matter, are flashed to
heaven (creative Mind) and they accomplish whatever he puts
into them. The fulfillment of this spoken word in the world
of activities may take moments, hours, days, years,
centuries; Jesus said that the Father only knew when these
things would come to pass. Do not think because you do not
get an instant response to your prayers that they are not
answered. Every sincere desire and every effectual prayer
for health that has ascended to heaven (creative Mind) is
fulfilled, and will be made manifest whenever material
limitations permit. Shakespeare had an inkling of this law
of the relation
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of thoughts and words when he wrote,
"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
The kingdom of heaven (the heavens) so often referred to by
Jesus and described by Him as very near to us is far more
accessible and is more often contacted by us than we
imagine. Not only those who pray but those who persistently
concentrate their thoughts on mathematics, music, or
philosophies based in principle, are often rewarded with
the marvelous intuitions of genius. These persons
apparently break into a realm where no effort is required
to gain the answer to their questions. The mathematical
genius is called a prodigy. He solves instantly the most
complex mathematical problem, yet cannot explain how he
does it. He simply knows the answer, often before the
statement of the problem has been completed.
Henri Poincare in his book "Science and Method" says that
his discoveries in mathematics came to him in flashes after
he had spent long periods of study and concentration on the
subject. Concentrated attention of the mind on an idea of
any kind is equal to prayer and will make available the
spiritual principle that is its source in proportion to the
intensity and continuity of the mental effort. Anyone can
attain spiritual understanding and become conscious of the
light who will persistently pray for it. "He that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him." The emphasis here is on the
word "diligently."
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The mind is the seat of perfection, not only of health but
also of talents like music, art, writing, and the like. The
idea of health and the idea of music are interblended, for
instance. Music is a great aid to the healing force.
Musical and health ideas interblend, and their
establishment in order produces this kingdom of the heavens.
Our spiritual realizations produce that silent shuttle of
thought which, working in and through cell and nerve,
weaves into one harmonious whole mind and body and is
expressed as health and wealth and genius.
The musical genius says he hears the music in a flash and
is often at his wit's end to transcribe it fast enough.
Many an immortal poem and prose work as well has been
flashed from the mind of the author without any apparent
effort on his part. But if all the prayers and mind efforts
of literary geniuses were inquired into, it would be found
that there had been heroic mental effort somewhere at some
time. So it is with healing. The realization of perfection
takes root in the soul and may come forth in a flash as
perfect health. We should not confine ourselves to the
present life of the individual but go into previous
incarnations in which the work was done that made the
genius in this incarnation.
Professor Einstein was considered the greatest mathematical
genius of our time. The scientific world does not connect
his insight into scientific principles with his religious
life, but he freely stated that he worshiped God. He said:
"The voice of God
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is from within. Something within me tells me what I must do
every day." For him God is as valid as a scientific
argument. On the subject of spiritual realization he once
said:
"Every man knows that in his work he does best and
accomplishes most when he has attained a proficiency that
enables him to work intuitively. That is, there are things
that we come to know so well that we do not know how we
know them. Perhaps we live best and do things best when we
are not too conscious of how and why we do them."
The supreme realization of man is his unity with God. Jesus
had this realization and proclaimed it before there was any
manifestation. When He told His followers, "I and the
Father are one" and "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father," they demanded that He show them the Father. They
could not then understand that He had spiritually united
with creative Mind. Men in our day are having this
realization in a more universal way than ever before in the
history of the race, and they are affirming it in the face
of ridicule and condemnation. When this inner consciousness
is attained by any man the foundation has been laid of the
Peter church or temple that is man's immortal body, which
will never pass away.
Metaphysically realization is expectancy objectified. The
mind conceives a proposition and then marshals all its
forces to make that conception a reality in the objective
world. All things material are first thought pictures,
carved by the imagination
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from omnipresent thought substance. Shakespeare in "Much
Ado about Nothing" brings out the idea as follows:
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination,
And every lovely organ of her life,
Shall come appareled in more precious habit,
More moving-delicate and full of life
Into the eye and prospect of his soul.
This realm of realization is so real to the mind that it
requires a trained metaphysician to detect the difference
between its creations and the manifest realm of things. We
all have a body in the ether that is the counterpart of the
physical. It is through this psychic body that we have
sensation in the physical. It is possible to think of the
psychic body and cultivate its sensations until it appears
as real as the physical. Many persons have done this until
they have formed a psychic world consciousness and they are
often unable to separate it from the physical. They search
materially for the treasures they see psychically. To them
the realm of thought forms is the finality of creation
instead of the mental pictures of that which is about to
appear.
The trained metaphysician is no stranger to this picture
gallery of the mind and he is not deceived into believing
that it is any more than a mental reflection. One who
enters the realm of spiritual ideas does not allow his
consciousness to become confused with the mind pictures
that flash into psychic sight. They are part of the process
of making ideas manifest. When a Christian healer realizes
that his
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treatment has firmly formed the picture of health, he
relaxes his decrees and statements of Truth and trusts the
divine law to make health manifest.
Paul urges in many of his writings that we have the Mind of
Christ: that we let Christ be formed in us. This has
usually been taken to mean that we are to imitate Christ.
This is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far
enough. To follow Jesus Christ in the regeneration or new
birth we must fulfill the law of body building, which is a
reconstruction of the corrupt cells: "This corruptible must
put on in-corruption." To accomplish this and make the body
conform to His perfect body we must see Him as He is in His
perfect body. This perfect body exists as an ideal body in
us all. By mentally concentrating on this perfect body and
focusing all our powers on it as the vital life of the
physical a transformation will begin that will finally
raise the physical to divine stature. Paul points the way
in II Corinthians:
"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
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[Jesus Christ Heals]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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