CHAPTER II. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Before man can think in the Certain Way which will cause his diseases to
be healed, he must believe in certain truths which are here stated:--
All things are made from one Living Substance, which, in its original
state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.
While all visible things are made from It, yet this Substance, in its
first formless condition is in and through all the visible forms that It
has made. Its life is in All, and its intelligence is in All.
This Substance creates by thought, and its method is by taking the form
of that which it thinks about. The thought of a form held by this
substance causes it to assume that form; the thought of a motion causes
it to institute that motion. Forms are created by this substance in
moving itself into certain attitudes or positions. When Original
Substance wishes to create a given form, it thinks of the motions which
will produce that form. When it wishes to create a world, it thinks of
the motions, perhaps extending through ages, which will result in its
coming into the attitude and form of the world; and these motions are
made. When it wishes to create an oak tree, it thinks of the sequences
of movement, perhaps extending through ages, which will result in the
form of an oak tree; and these motions are made. The particular
sequences of motion by which differing forms should be produced were
established in the beginning; they are changeless. Certain motions
instituted in the Formless Substance will forever produce certain forms.
Man's body is formed from the Original Substance, and is the result of
certain motions, which first existed as thoughts of Original Substance.
The motions which produce, renew, and repair the body of man are called
functions, and these functions are of two classes: voluntary and
involuntary. The involuntary functions are under the control of the
Principle of Health in man, and are performed in a perfectly healthy
manner so long as man thinks in a certain way. The voluntary functions
of life are eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping. These, entirely
or in part, are under the direction of man's conscious mind; and he can
perform them in a perfectly healthy way if he will. If he does not
perform them in a healthy way, he cannot long be well. So we see that if
man thinks in a certain way, and eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps in a
corresponding way, he will be well.
The involuntary functions of man's life are under the direct control of
the Principle of Health, and so long as man thinks in a perfectly
healthy way, these functions are perfectly performed; for the action of
the Principle of Health is largely directed by man's conscious thought,
affecting his sub-conscious mind.
Man is a thinking center, capable of originating thought; and as he does
not know everything, he makes mistakes and thinks error. Not knowing
everything, he believes things to be true which are not true. Man holds
in his thought the idea of diseased and abnormal functioning and
conditions, and so perverts the action of the Principle of Health,
causing diseased and abnormal functioning and conditions within his own
body. In the Original Substance there are held only the thoughts of
perfect motion; perfect and healthy function; complete life. God never
thinks disease or imperfection. But for countless ages men have held
thoughts of disease, abnormality, old age, and death; and the perverted
functioning resulting from these thoughts has become a part of the
inheritance of the race. Our ancestors have, for many generations, held
imperfect ideas concerning human form and functioning; and we begin life
with racial sub-conscious impressions of imperfection and disease.
This is not natural, or a part of the plan of nature. The purpose of
nature can be nothing else than the perfection of life. This we see from
the very nature of life itself. It is the nature of life to continually
advance toward more perfect living; advancement is the inevitable result
of the very act of living. Increase is always the result of active
living; whatever lives must live more and more. The seed, lying in the
granary, has life, but it is not living. Put it into the soil and it
becomes active, and at once begins to gather to itself from the
surrounding substance, and to build a plant form. It will so cause
increase that a seed head will be produced containing thirty, sixty, or
a hundred seeds, each having as much life as the first.
Life, by living, increases.
Life cannot live without increasing, and the fundamental impulse of life
is to live. It is in response to this fundamental impulse that Original
Substance works, and creates. God must live; and he cannot live except
as he creates and increases. In multiplying forms, He is moving on to
live more.
The universe is a Great Advancing Life, and the purpose of nature is the
advancement of life toward perfection; toward perfect functioning. The
purpose of nature is perfect health.
The purpose of Nature, so far as man is concerned, is that he should be
continuously advancing into more life, and progressing toward perfect
life; and that he should live the most complete life possible in his
present sphere of action.
This must be so, because That which lives in man is seeking more life.
Give a little child a pencil and paper, and he begins to draw crude
figures; That which lives in him is trying to express Itself in art.
Give him a set of blocks, and he will try to build something; That which
lives in him is seeking expression in architecture. Seat him at a piano,
and he will try to draw harmony from the keys; That which lives in him
is trying to express Itself in music. That which lives in man is always
seeking to live more; and since man lives most when he is well, the
Principle of Nature in him can seek only health. The natural state of
man is a state of perfect health; and everything in him, and in nature,
tends toward health.
Sickness can have no place in the thought of Original Substance, for it
is by its own nature continually impelled toward the fullest and most
perfect life; therefore, toward health. Man, as he exists in the thought
of the Formless Substance, has perfect health. Disease, which is
abnormal or perverted function--motion imperfectly made, or made in the
direction of imperfect life--has no place in the thought of the Thinking
Stuff.
The Supreme Mind never thinks of disease. Disease was not created or
ordained by God, or sent forth from him. It is wholly a product of
separate consciousness; of the individual thought of man. God, the
Formless Substance, does not see disease, think disease, know disease,
or recognize disease. Disease is recognized only by the thought of man;
God thinks nothing but health.
From all the foregoing, we see that health is _a fact_ or TRUTH in the
original substance from which we are all formed; and that disease is
imperfect functioning, resulting from the imperfect thoughts of men,
past and present. If man's thoughts of himself had always been those of
perfect health, man could not possibly now be otherwise than perfectly
healthy.
Man in perfect health is the thought of Original Substance, and man in
imperfect health is the result of his own failure to think perfect
health, and to perform the voluntary functions of life in a healthy way.
We will here arrange in a syllabus the basic truths of the Science of
Being Well:--
_There is a Thinking Substance from which all things are made,
and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and
fills the interspaces of the universe. It is the life of All._
_The thought of a form in this Substance causes the form; the
thought of a motion produces the motion. In relation to man,
the thoughts of this Substance are always of perfect
functioning and perfect health._
_Man is a thinking center, capable of original thought; and his
thought has power over his own functioning. By thinking
imperfect thoughts he has caused imperfect and perverted
functioning; and by performing the voluntary functions of life
in a perverted manner, he has assisted in causing disease._
_If man will think only thoughts of perfect health, he can
cause within himself the functioning of perfect health; all the
Power of Life will be exerted to assist him. But this healthy
functioning will not continue unless man performs the external,
or voluntary, functions of living in a healthy manner._
_Man's first step must be to learn how to think perfect health;
and his second step to learn how to eat, drink, breathe, and
sleep in a perfectly healthy way. If man takes these two steps,
he will certainly become well, and remain so._
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