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Science of Being Well by Wallace D. Wattles
Preface
This volume is the second of a series, the
first of which is "THE SCIENCE OF GETTING
RICH." As that book is intended solely for
those who want money, so this is for those
who want health, and who want a practical
guide and handbook, not a philosophical treatise.
It is an instructor in the use of the universal
Principle of Life, and my effort has been
to explain the way in so plain and simple
a fashion that the reader, though he may have
given no previous study to New Thought or
metaphysics, may readily follow it to perfect
health. While retaining all essentials, I
have carefully eliminated all non-essentials;
I have used no technical, abstruse, or difficult
language, and have kept the one point in view
at all times.
As its title asserts, the book deals with
science, not speculation. The monistic theory
of the universe—the theory that matter,
mind, consciousness, and life are all manifestations
of one Substance—is now accepted by most
thinkers; and if you accept this theory, you
cannot deny the logical conclusions you will
find herein. Best of all, the methods of thought
and action prescribed have been tested by
the author in his own case, and in the case
of hundreds of others during twelve years
of practice, with continuous and unfailing
success. I can say of the Science of Being
Well that it works; and that wherever its
laws are complied with, it can no more fail
to work than the science of geometry can fail
to work. If the tissues of your body have
not been so destroyed that continued life
is impossible, you can get well; and if you
will think and act in a Certain Way, you will
get well.
If the reader wishes to fully understand the
monistic theory of the cosmos, he is recommended
to read Hegel and Emerson; to read also "The
Eternal News," a pamphlet by J. J. Brown,
300 Cathcart Road, Govanhill, Glasgow, Scotland.
Some enlightenment may also be found in a
series of articles by the author, which were
published in The Nautilus, Holyoke, Mass.,
during the year 1909, under the title, "What
Is Truth?"
Those who wish more detailed information as
to the performance of the voluntary functions—eating,
drinking, breathing, and sleeping—may read
"New Science of Living and Healing," "Letters
to a Woman's Husband," and "The Constructive
Use of Foods," booklets by W. D. Wattles,
which may be obtained from the publishers
of this book. I would also recommend the writings
of Horace Fletcher, and of Edward Hooker Dewey.
Read all these, if you like, as a sort of
buttress to your faith; but let me warn you
against making the mistake of studying many
conflicting theories, and practicing, at the
same time, parts of several different "systems";
for if you get well, it must be by giving
your WHOLE MIND to the right way of thinking
and living. Remember that the SCIENCE OF BEING
WELL claims to be a complete and sufficient
guide in every particular. Concentrate upon
the way of thinking and acting it prescribes,
and follow it in every detail, and you will
get well; or if you are already well, you
will remain so. Trusting that you will go
on until the priceless blessing of perfect
health is yours, I remain,
Very truly yours,
Wallace D. Wattles.
End of preface.
Chapter 1 — The Principle of Health
In the personal application of the Science
of Being Well, as in that of the Science of
Getting Rich, certain fundamental truths must
be known in the beginning, and accepted without
question. Some of these truths we state here:—
The perfectly natural performance of function
constitutes health; and the perfectly natural
performance of function results from the natural
action of the Principle of Life. There is
a Principle of Life in the universe; it is
the One Living Substance from which all things
are made. This Living Substance permeates,
penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the
universe; it is in and through all things,
like a very refined and diffusible ether.
All life comes from it; its life is all the
life there is.
Man is a form of this Living Substance, and
has within him a Principle of Health. (The
word Principle is used as meaning source.)
The Principle of Health in man, when in full
constructive activity, causes all the voluntary
functions of his life to be perfectly performed.
It is the Principle of Health in man which
really works all healing, no matter what "system"
or "remedy" is employed; and this Principle
of Health is brought into Constructive Activity
by thinking in a Certain Way.
I proceed now to prove this last statement.
We all know that cures are wrought by all
the different, and often opposite, methods
employed in the various branches of the healing
art. The allopath, who gives a strong dose
of a counter-poison, cures his patient; and
the homeopath, who gives a diminutive dose
of the poison most similar to that of the
disease, also cures it. If allopathy ever
cured any given disease, it is certain that
homeopathy never cured that disease; and if
homeopathy ever cured an ailment, allopathy
could not possibly cure that ailment. The
two systems are radically opposite in theory
and practice; and yet both "cure" most diseases.
And even the remedies used by physicians in
any one school are not the same. Go with a
case of indigestion to half a dozen doctors,
and compare their prescriptions; it is more
than likely that none of the ingredients of
any one of them will be in the others. Must
we not conclude that their patients are healed
by a Principle of Health within themselves,
and not by something in the varying "remedies"?
Not only this, but we find the same ailments
cured by the osteopath with manipulations
of the spine; by the faith healer with prayer,
by the food scientist with bills of fare,
by the Christian Scientist with a formulated
creed statement, by the mental scientist with
affirmation, and by the hygienists with differing
plans of living. What conclusion can we come
to in the face of all these facts but that
there is a Principle of Health which is the
same in all people, and which really accomplishes
all the cures; and that there is something
in all the "systems" which, under favorable
conditions, arouses the Principle of Health
to action? That is, medicines, manipulations,
prayers, bills of fare, affirmations, and
hygienic practices cure whenever they cause
the Principle of Health to become active;
and fail whenever they do not cause it to
become active. Does not all this indicate
that the results depend upon the way the patient
thinks about the remedy, rather than upon
the ingredients in the prescription?
There is an old story which furnishes so good
an illustration on this point that I will
give it here. It is said that in the middle
ages, the bones of a saint, kept in one of
the monasteries, were working miracles of
healing; on certain days a great crowd of
the afflicted gathered to touch the relics,
and all who did so were healed. On the eve
of one of these occasions, some sacrilegious
rascal gained access to the case in which
the wonder-working relics were kept and stole
the bones; and in the morning, with the usual
crowd of sufferers waiting at the gates, the
fathers found themselves shorn of the source
of the miracle-working power. They resolved
to keep the matter quiet, hoping that by doing
so they might find the thief and recover their
treasures; and hastening to the cellar of
the convent they dug up the bones of a murderer,
who had been buried there many years before.
These they placed in the case, intending to
make some plausible excuse for the failure
of the saint to perform his usual miracles
on that day; and then they let in the waiting
assemblage of the sick and infirm. To the
intense astonishment of those in the secret,
the bones of the malefactor proved as efficacious
as those of the saint; and the healing went
on as before. One of the fathers is said to
have left a history of the occurrence, in
which he confessed that, in his judgment,
the healing power had been in the people themselves
all the time, and never in the bones at all.
Whether the story is true or not, the conclusion
applies to all the cures wrought by all the
systems. The Power that Heals is in the patient
himself; and whether it shall become active
or not does not depend upon the physical or
mental means used, but upon the way the patient
thinks about these means. There is a Universal
Principle of Life, as Jesus taught; a great
spiritual Healing Power; and there is a Principle
of Health in man which is related to this
Healing Power. This is dormant or active,
according to the way a man thinks. He can
always quicken it into activity by thinking
in a Certain Way.
Your getting well does not depend upon the
adoption of some system, or the finding of
some remedy; people with your identical ailments
have been healed by all systems and all remedies.
It does not depend upon climate; some people
are well and others are sick in all climates.
It does not depend upon avocation, unless
in case of those who work under poisonous
conditions; people are well in all trades
and professions. Your getting well depends
upon your beginning to think—and act—in
a Certain Way.
The way a man thinks about things is determined
by what he believes about them. His thoughts
are determined by his faith, and the results
depend upon his making a personal application
of his faith. If a man has faith in the efficacy
of a medicine, and is able to apply that faith
to himself, that medicine will certainly cause
him to be cured; but though his faith be great,
he will not be cured unless he applies it
to himself. Many sick people have faith for
others but none for themselves. So, if he
has faith in a system of diet, and can personally
apply that faith, it will cure him; and if
he has faith in prayers and affirmations and
personally applies his faith, prayers and
affirmations will cure him. Faith, personally
applied, cures; and no matter how great the
faith or how persistent the thought, it will
not cure without personal application. The
Science of Being Well, then, includes the
two fields of thought and action. To be well
it is not enough that man should merely think
in a Certain Way; he must apply his thought
to himself, and he must express and externalize
it in his outward life by acting in the same
way that he thinks.
End of chapter 1.
Chapter 2 — 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.
End of chapter 2.
Chapter 3 — Life and Its Organisms
The human body is the abiding place of an
energy which renews it when worn; which eliminates
waste or poisonous matter, and which repairs
the body when broken or injured. This energy
we call life. Life is not generated or produced
within the body; it produces the body.
The seed which has been kept in the storehouse
for years will grow when planted in the soil;
it will produce a plant. But the life in the
plant is not generated by its growing; it
is the life which makes the plant grow.
The performance of function does not cause
life; it is life which causes function to
be performed. Life is first; function afterward.
It is life which distinguishes organic from
inorganic matter, but it is not produced after
the organization of matter.
Life is the principle or force which causes
organization; it builds organisms.
It is a principle or force inherent in Original
Substance; all life is One.
This Life Principle of the All is the Principle
of Health in man, and becomes constructively
active whenever man thinks in a certain way.
Whoever, therefore, thinks in this Certain
Way will surely have perfect health if his
external functioning is in conformity with
his thought. But the external functioning
must conform to the thought; man cannot hope
to be well by thinking health, if he eats,
drinks, breathes, and sleeps like a sick man.
The universal Life Principle, then, is the
Principle of Health in man. It is one with
original substance. There is one Original
Substance from which all things are made;
this substance is alive, and its life is the
Principle of Life of the universe. This Substance
has created from itself all the forms of organic
life by thinking them, or by thinking the
motions and functions which produce them.
Original Substance thinks only health, because
It knows all truth; there is no truth which
is not known in the Formless, which is All,
and in all. It not only knows all truth, but
it has all power; its vital power is the source
of all the energy there is. A conscious life
which knows all truth and which has all power
cannot go wrong or perform function imperfectly;
knowing all, it knows, too much to go wrong,
and so the Formless cannot be diseased or
think disease.
Man is a form of this original substance,
and has a separate consciousness of his own;
but his consciousness is limited, and therefore
imperfect. By reason of his limited knowledge
man can and does think wrongly, and so he
causes perverted and imperfect functioning
in his own body. Man has not known too much
to go wrong. The diseased or imperfect functioning
may not instantly result from an imperfect
thought, but it is bound to come if the thought
becomes habitual. Any thought continuously
held by man tends to the establishment of
the corresponding condition in his body.
Also, man has failed to learn how to perform
the voluntary functions of his life in a healthy
way. He does not know when, what, and how
to eat; he knows little about breathing, and
less about sleep. He does all these things
in a wrong way, and under wrong conditions;
and this because he has neglected to follow
the only sure guide to the knowledge of life.
He has tried to live by logic rather than
by instinct; he has made living a matter of
art, and not of nature. And he has gone wrong.
His only remedy is to begin to go right; and
this he can surely do. It is the work of this
book to teach the whole truth, so that the
man who reads it shall know too much to go
wrong.
The thoughts of disease produce the forms
of disease. Man must learn to think health;
and being Original Substance which takes the
form of its thoughts, he will become the form
of health and manifest perfect health in all
his functioning. The people who were healed
by touching the bones of the saint were really
healed by thinking in a certain way, and not
by any power emanating from the relics. There
is no healing power in the bones of dead men,
whether they be those of saint or sinner.
The people who were healed by the doses of
either the allopath or the homeopath were
also really healed by thinking in a certain
way; there is no drug which has within itself
the power to heal disease.
The people who have been healed by prayers
and affirmations were also healed by thinking
in a certain way; there is no curative power
in strings of words.
All the sick who have been healed, by whatsoever
"system," have thought in a certain way; and
a little examination will show us what this
way is.
The two essentials of the Way are Faith, and
a Personal Application of the Faith.
The people who touched the saint's bones had
faith; and so great was their faith that in
the instant they touched the relics they SEVERED
ALL MENTAL RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND MENTALLY
UNIFIED THEMSELVES WITH HEALTH.
This change of mind was accompanied by an
intense devotional FEELING which penetrated
to the deepest recesses of their souls, and
so aroused the Principle of Health to powerful
action. By faith they claimed that they were
healed, or appropriated health to themselves;
and in full faith they ceased to think of
themselves in connection with disease and
thought of themselves only in connection with
health.
These are the two essentials to thinking in
the Certain Way which will make you well:
first, claim or appropriate health by faith;
and, second, sever all mental relations with
disease, and enter into mental relations with
health. That which we make ourselves, mentally,
we become physically; and that with which
we unite ourselves mentally we become unified
with physically. If your thought always relates
you to disease, then your thought becomes
a fixed power to cause disease within you;
and if your thought always relates you to
health, then your thought becomes a fixed
power exerted to keep you well.
In the case of the people who are healed by
medicines, the result is obtained in the same
way. They have, consciously or unconsciously,
sufficient faith in the means used to cause
them to sever mental relations with disease
and enter into mental relations with health.
Faith may be unconscious. It is possible for
us to have a sub-conscious or inbred faith
in things like medicine, in which we do not
believe to any extent objectively; and this
sub-conscious faith may be quite sufficient
to quicken the Principle of Health into constructive
activity. Many who have little conscious faith
are healed in this way; while many others
who have great faith in the means are not
healed because they do not make the personal
application to themselves; their faith is
general, but not specific for their own cases.
In the Science of Being Well we have two main
points to consider: first, how to think with
faith; and, second, how to so apply the thought
to ourselves as to quicken the Principle of
Health into constructive activity. We begin
by learning What to Think.
End of chapter 3.
Chapter 4 — What to Think
In order to sever all mental relations with
disease, you must enter into mental relations
with health, making the process positive not
negative; one of assumption, not of rejection.
You are to receive or appropriate health rather
than to reject and deny disease. Denying disease
accomplishes next to nothing; it does little
good to cast out the devil and leave the house
vacant, for he will presently return with
others worse than himself. When you enter
into full and constant mental relations with
health, you must of necessity cease all relationship
with disease. The first step in the Science
of Being Well is, then, to enter into complete
thought connection with health.
The best way to do this is to form a mental
image or picture of yourself as being well,
imagining a perfectly strong and healthy body;
and to spend sufficient time in contemplating
this image to make it your habitual thought
of yourself.
This is not so easy as it sounds; it necessitates
the taking of considerable time for meditation,
and not all persons have the imaging faculty
well enough developed to form a distinct mental
picture of themselves in a perfect or idealized
body. It is much easier, as in "The Science
of Getting Rich," to form a mental image of
the things one wants to have; for we have
seen these things, or their counterparts,
and know how they look; we can picture them
very easily from memory. But we have never
seen ourselves in a perfect body, and a clear
mental image is hard to form.
It is not necessary or essential, however,
to have a clear mental image of yourself as
you wish to be; it is only essential to form
a CONCEPTION of perfect health, and to relate
yourself to it. This Conception of Health
is not a mental picture of a particular thing;
it is an understanding of health, and carries
with it the idea of perfect functioning in
every part and organ.
You may TRY to picture yourself as perfect
in physique; that helps; and you MUST think
of yourself as doing everything in the manner
of a perfectly strong and healthy person.
You can picture yourself as walking down the
street with an erect body and a vigorous stride;
you can picture yourself as doing your day's
work easily and with surplus vigor, never
tired or weak; you can picture in your mind
how all things would be done by a person full
of health and power, and you can make yourself
the central figure in the picture, doing things
in just that way. Never think of the ways
in which weak or sickly people do things;
always think of the way strong people do things.
Spend your leisure time in thinking about
the Strong Way, until you have a good conception
of it; and always think of yourself in connection
with the Strong Way of Doing Things. That
is what I mean by having a Conception of Health.
In order to establish perfect functioning
in every part, man does not have to study
anatomy or physiology, so that he can form
a mental image of each separate organ and
address himself to it. He does not have to
"treat" his liver, his kidneys, his stomach,
or his heart. There is one Principle of Health
in man, which has control over all the involuntary
functions of his life; and the thought of
perfect health, impressed upon this Principle,
will reach each part and organ. Man's liver
is not controlled by a liver-principle, his
stomach by a digestive principle, and so on;
the Principle of Health is One.
The less you go into the detailed study of
physiology, the better for you. Our knowledge
of this science is very imperfect, and leads
to imperfect thought. Imperfect thought causes
imperfect functioning, which is disease. Let
me illustrate: Until quite recently, physiology
fixed ten days as the extreme limit of man's
endurance without food; it was considered
that only in exceptional cases could he survive
a longer fast. So the impression became universally
disseminated that one who was deprived of
food must die in from five to ten days; and
numbers of people, when cut off from food
by shipwreck, accident, or famine, did die
within this period. But the performances of
Dr. Tanner, the forty-day faster, and the
writings of Dr. Dewey and others on the fasting
cure, together with the experiments of numberless
people who have fasted from forty to sixty
days, have shown that man's ability to live
without food is vastly greater than had been
supposed. Any person, properly educated, can
fast from twenty to forty days with little
loss in weight, and often with no apparent
loss of strength at all. The people who starved
to death in ten days or less did so because
they believed that death was inevitable; an
erroneous physiology had given them a wrong
thought about themselves. When a man is deprived
of food he will die in from ten to fifty days,
according to the way he has been taught; or,
in other words, according to the way he thinks
about it. So you see that an erroneous physiology
can work very mischievous results.
No Science of Being Well can be founded on
current physiology; it is not sufficiently
exact in its knowledge. With all its pretensions,
comparatively little is really known as to
the interior workings and processes of the
body. It is not known just how food is digested;
it is not known just what part food plays,
if any, in the generation of force. It is
not known exactly what the liver, spleen,
and pancreas are for, or what part their secretions
play in the chemistry of assimilation. On
all these and most other points we theorize,
but we do not really know. When man begins
to study physiology, he enters the domain
of theory and disputation; he comes among
conflicting opinions, and he is bound to form
mistaken ideas concerning himself. These mistaken
ideas lead to the thinking of wrong thoughts,
and this leads to perverted functioning and
disease. All that the most perfect knowledge
of physiology could do for man would be to
enable him to think only thoughts of perfect
health, and to eat, drink, breathe, and sleep
in a perfectly healthy way; and this, as we
shall show, he can do without studying physiology
at all.
This, for the most part, is true of all hygiene.
There are certain fundamental propositions
which we should know; and these will be explained
in later chapters, but aside from these propositions,
ignore physiology and hygiene. They tend to
fill your mind with thoughts of imperfect
conditions, and these thoughts will produce
the imperfect conditions in your own body.
You cannot study any "science" which recognizes
disease, if you are to think nothing but health.
Drop all investigation as to your present
condition, its causes, or possible results,
and set yourself to the work of forming a
conception of health.
Think about health and the possibilities of
health; of the work that may be done and the
pleasures that may be enjoyed in a condition
of perfect health. Then make this conception
your guide in thinking of yourself; refuse
to entertain for an instant any thought of
yourself which is not in harmony with it.
When any idea of disease or imperfect functioning
enters your mind, cast it out instantly by
calling up a thought which is in harmony with
the Conception of Health.
Think of yourself at all times as realizing
conception; as being a strong and perfectly
healthy personage; and do not harbor a contrary
thought.
KNOW that as you think of yourself in unity
with this conception, the Original Substance
which permeates and fills the tissues of your
body is taking form according to the thought;
and know that this Intelligent Substance or
mind stuff will cause function to be performed
in such a way that your body will be rebuilt
with perfectly healthy cells.
The Intelligent Substance, from which all
things are made, permeates and penetrates
all things; and so it is in and through your
body. It moves according to its thoughts;
and so if you hold only the thoughts of perfectly
healthy function, it will cause the movements
of perfectly healthy function within you.
Hold with persistence to the thought of perfect
health in relation to yourself; do not permit
yourself to think in any other way. Hold this
thought with perfect faith that it is the
fact, the truth. It is the truth so far as
your mental body is concerned. You have a
mind-body and a physical body; the mind-body
takes form just as you think of yourself,
and any thought which you hold continuously
is made visible by the transformation of the
physical body into its image. Implanting the
thought of perfect functioning in the mind-body
will, in due time, cause perfect functioning
in the physical body.
The transformation of the physical body into
the image of the ideal held by the mind-body
is not accomplished instantaneously; we cannot
transfigure our physical bodies at will as
Jesus did. In the creation and recreation
of forms, Substance moves along the fixed
lines of growth it has established; and the
impression upon it of the health thought causes
the healthy body to be built cell by cell.
Holding only thoughts of perfect health will
ultimately cause perfect functioning; and
perfect functioning will in due time produce
a perfectly healthy body. It may be as well
to condense this chapter into a syllabus:—
Your physical body is permeated and fitted
with an Intelligent Substance, which forms
a body of mind-stuff. This mind-stuff controls
the functioning of your physical body. A thought
of disease or of imperfect function, impressed
upon the mind-stuff, causes disease or imperfect
functioning in the physical body. If you are
diseased, it is because wrong thoughts have
made impressions on this mind-stuff; these
may have been either your own thoughts or
those of your parents; we begin life with
many sub-conscious impressions, both right
and wrong. But the natural tendency of all
mind is toward health, and if no thoughts
are held in the conscious mind save those
of health, all internal functioning will come
to be performed in a perfectly healthy manner.
The Power of Nature within you is sufficient
to overcome all hereditary impressions, and
if you will learn to control your thoughts,
so that you shall think only those of health,
and if you will perform the voluntary functions
of life in a perfectly healthy way, you can
certainly be well.
End of chapter 4.
Chapter 5 — Faith
The Principle of Health is moved by Faith;
nothing else can call it into action, and
only faith can enable you to relate yourself
to health, and sever your relation with disease,
in your thoughts.
You will continue to think of disease unless
you have faith in health. If you do not have
faith you will doubt; if you doubt, you will
fear; and if you fear, you will relate yourself
in mind to that which you fear.
If you fear disease, you will think of yourself
in connection with disease; and that will
produce within yourself the form and motions
of disease. Just as Original Substance creates
from itself the forms of its thoughts, so
your mind-body, which is original substance,
takes the form and motion of whatever you
think about. If you fear disease, dread disease,
have doubts about your safety from disease,
or if you even contemplate disease, you will
connect yourself with it and create its forms
and motions within you.
Let me enlarge somewhat upon this point. The
potency, or creative power, of a thought is
given to it by the faith that is in it.
Thoughts which contain no faith create no
forms.
The Formless Substance, which knows all truth
and therefore thinks only truth, has perfect
faith in every thought, because it thinks
only truth; and so all its thoughts create.
But if you will imagine a thought in Formless
Substance in which there was no faith, you
will see that such a thought could not cause
the Substance to move or take form.
Keep in mind the fact that only those thoughts
which are conceived in faith have creative
energy. Only those thoughts which have faith
with them are able to change function, or
to quicken the Principle of Health into activity.
If you do not have faith in health, you will
certainly have faith in disease. If you do
not have faith in health, it will do you no
good to think about health, for your thoughts
will have no potency, and will cause no change
for the better in your conditions. If you
do not have faith in health, I repeat, you
will have faith in disease; and if, under
such conditions, you think about health for
ten hours a day, and think about disease for
only a few minutes, the disease thought will
control your condition because it will have
the potency of faith, while the health thought
will not. Your mind-body will take on the
form and motions of disease and retain them,
because your health thought will not have
sufficient dynamic force to change form or
motion.
In order to practice the Science of Being
Well, you must have complete faith in health.
Faith begins in belief; and we now come to
the question: What must you believe in order
to have faith in health?
You must believe that there is more health-power
than disease-power in both yourself and your
environment; and you cannot help believing
this if you consider the facts. These are
the facts:—
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.
The thought of a form, in this Substance,
produces the form; the thought of a motion
institutes the motion. In relation to man,
the thoughts of Original Substance are always
of perfect health and perfect functioning.
This Substance, within and without man, always
exerts its power toward health.
Man is a thinking center, capable of original
thought. He has a mind-body of Original Substance
permeating a physical body; and the functioning
of his physical body is determined by the
FAITH of his mind-body. If man thinks with
faith of the functioning of health, he will
cause his internal functions to be performed
in a healthy manner, provided that he performs
the external functions in a corresponding
manner. But if man thinks, with faith, of
disease, or of the power of disease, he will
cause his internal functioning to be the functioning
of disease.
The Original Intelligent Substance is in man,
moving toward health; and it is pressing upon
him from every side. Man lives, moves, and
has his being in a limitless ocean of health-power;
and he uses this power according to his faith.
If he appropriates it and applies it to himself
it is all his; and if he unifies himself with
it by unquestioning faith, he cannot fail
to attain health, for the power of this Substance
is all the power there is.
A belief in the above statements is a foundation
for faith in health. If you believe them,
you believe that health is the natural state
of man, and that man lives in the midst of
Universal Health; that all the power of nature
makes for health, and that health is possible
to all, and can surely be attained by all.
You will believe that the power of health
in the universe is ten thousand times greater
than that of disease; in fact, that disease
has no power whatever, being only the result
of perverted thought and faith. And if you
believe that health is possible to you, and
that it may surely be attained by you, and
that you know exactly what to do in order
to attain it, you will have faith in health.
You will have this faith and knowledge if
you read this book through with care and determine
to believe in and practice its teachings.
It is not merely the possession of faith,
but the personal application of faith which
works healing. You must claim health in the
beginning, and form a conception of health,
and, as far as may be, of yourself as a perfectly
healthy person; and then, by faith, you must
claim that you ARE REALIZING this conception.
Do not assert with faith that you are going
to get well; assert with faith that you ARE
well.
Having faith in health, and applying it to
yourself, means having faith that you are
healthy; and the first step in this is to
claim that it is the truth.
Mentally take the attitude of being well,
and do not say anything or do anything which
contradicts this attitude. Never speak a word
or assume a physical attitude which does not
harmonize with the claim: "I am perfectly
well." When you walk, go with a brisk step,
and with your chest thrown out and your head
held up; watch that at all times your physical
actions and attitudes are those of a healthy
person. When you find that you have relapsed
into the attitude of weakness or disease,
change instantly; straighten up; think of
health and power. Refuse to consider yourself
as other than a perfectly healthy person.
One great aid—perhaps the greatest aid—in
applying your faith you will find in the exercise
of gratitude.
Whenever you think of yourself, or of your
advancing condition, give thanks to the Great
Intelligent Substance for the perfect health
you are enjoying.
Remember that, as Swedenborg taught, there
is a continual inflow of life from the Supreme,
which is received by all created things according
to their forms; and by man according to his
faith. Health from God is continually being
urged upon you; and when you think of this,
lift up your mind reverently to Him, and give
thanks that you have been led to the Truth
and into perfect health of mind and body.
Be, all the time, in a grateful frame of mind,
and let gratitude be evident in your speech.
Gratitude will help you to own and control
your own field of thought.
Whenever the thought of disease is presented
to you, instantly claim health, and thank
God for the perfect health you have. Do this
so that there shall be no room in your mind
for a thought of ill. Every thought connected
in any way with ill health is unwelcome, and
you can close the door of your mind in its
face by asserting that you are well, and by
reverently thanking God that it is so. Soon
the old thoughts will return no more.
Gratitude has a twofold effect; it strengthens
your own faith, and it brings you into close
and harmonious relations with the Supreme.
You believe that there is one Intelligent
Substance from which all life and all power
come; you believe that you receive your own
life from this substance; and you relate yourself
closely to It by feeling continuous gratitude.
It is easy to see that the more closely you
relate yourself to the Source of Life the
more readily you may receive life from it;
and it is easy also to see that your relation
to It is a matter of mental attitude. We cannot
come into physical relationship with God,
for God is mind-stuff and we also are mind-stuff;
our relation with Him must therefore be a
mind relation. It is plain, then, that the
man who feels deep and hearty gratitude will
live in closer touch with God than the man
who never looks up to Him in thankfulness.
The ungrateful or unthankful mind really denies
that it receives at all, and so cuts its connection
with the Supreme. The grateful mind is always
looking toward the Supreme, and is always
open to receive from it; and it will receive
continually.
The Principle of Health in man receives its
vital power from the Principle of Life in
the universe; and man relates himself to the
Principle of Life by faith in health, and
by gratitude for the health he receives.
Man may cultivate both faith and gratitude
by the proper use of his will.
End of chapter 5.
Chapter 6—Use of the Will
In the practice of the Science of Being Well
the will is not used to compel yourself to
go when you are not really able to go, or
to do things when you are not physically strong
enough to do them. You do not direct your
will upon your physical body or try to compel
the proper performance of internal function
by will power.
You direct the will upon the mind, and use
it in determining what you shall believe,
what you shall think, and to what you shall
give your attention.
The will should never be used upon any person
or thing external to you, and it should never
be used upon your own body. The sole legitimate
use of the will is in determining to what
you shall give your attention, and what you
shall think about the things to which your
attention is given.
All belief begins in the will to believe.
You cannot always and instantly believe what
you will to believe; but you can always will
to believe what you want to believe. You want
to believe truth about health, and you can
will to do so. The statements you have been
reading in this book are the truth about health,
and you can will to believe them; this must
be your first step toward getting well.
These are the statements you must will to
believe:—
That there is a Thinking Substance from which
all things are made, and that man receives
the Principle of Health, which is his life,
from this Substance.
That man himself is Thinking Substance; a
mind-body, permeating a physical body, and
that as man's thoughts are, so will the functioning
of his physical body be.
That if man will think only thoughts of perfect
health, he must and will cause the internal
and involuntary functioning of his body to
be the functioning of health, provided that
his external and voluntary functioning and
attitude are in accordance with his thoughts.
When you will to believe these statements,
you must also begin to act upon them. You
cannot long retain a belief unless you act
upon it; you cannot increase a belief until
it becomes faith unless you act upon it; and
you certainly cannot expect to reap benefits
in any way from a belief so long as you act
as if the opposite were true. You cannot long
have faith in health if you continue to act
like a sick person. If you continue to act
like a sick person, you cannot help continuing
to think of yourself as a sick person; and
if you continue to think of yourself as a
sick person, you will continue to be a sick
person.
The first step toward acting externally like
a well person is to begin to act internally
like a well person. Form your conception of
perfect health, and get into the way of thinking
about perfect health until it begins to have
a definite meaning to you. Picture yourself
as doing the things a strong and healthy person
would do, and have faith that you can and
will do those things in that way; continue
this until you have a vivid CONCEPTION of
health, and what it means to you. When I speak
in this book of a conception of health, I
mean a conception that carries with it the
idea of the way a healthy person looks and
does things. Think of yourself in connection
with health until you form a conception of
how you would live, appear, act, and do things
as a perfectly healthy person. Think about
yourself in connection with health until you
conceive of yourself, in imagination, as always
doing everything in the manner of a well person;
until the thought of health conveys the idea
of what health means to you. As I have said
in a former chapter, you may not be able to
form a clear mental image of yourself in perfect
health, but you can form a conception of yourself
as acting like a healthy person.
Form this conception, and then think only
thoughts of perfect health in relation to
yourself, and, so far as may be possible,
in relation to others. When a thought of sickness
or disease is presented to you, reject it;
do not let it get into your mind; do not entertain
or consider it at all. Meet it by thinking
health; by thinking that you are well, and
by being sincerely grateful for the health
you are receiving. Whenever suggestions of
disease are coming thick and fast upon you,
and you are in a "tight place," fall back
upon the exercise of gratitude. Connect yourself
with the Supreme; give thanks to God for the
perfect health He gives you, and you will
soon find yourself able to control your thoughts,
and to think what you want to think. In times
of doubt, trial, and temptation, the exercise
of gratitude is always a sheet anchor which
will prevent you from being swept away. Remember
that the great essential thing is to SEVER
ALL MENTAL RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND TO
ENTER INTO FULL MENTAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HEALTH.
This is the KEY to all mental healing; it
is the whole thing. Here we see the secret
of the great success of Christian Science;
more than any other formulated system of practice,
it insists that its converts shall sever relations
with disease, and relate themselves fully
with health. The healing power of Christian
Science is not in its theological formulæ,
nor in its denial of matter; but in the fact
that it induces the sick to ignore disease
as an unreal thing and accept health by faith
as a reality. Its failures are made because
its practitioners, while thinking in the Certain
Way, do not eat, drink, breathe, and sleep
in the same way.
While there is no healing power in the repetition
of strings of words, yet it is a very convenient
thing to have the central thoughts so formulated
that you can repeat them readily, so that
you can use them as affirmations whenever
you are surrounded by an environment which
gives you adverse suggestions. When those
around you begin to talk of sickness and death,
close your ears and mentally assert something
like the following:—
There is One Substance, and I am that Substance.
That Substance is eternal, and it is Life;
I am that Substance, and I am Eternal Life.
That Substance knows no disease; I am that
Substance, and I am Health.
Exercise your will power in choosing only
those thoughts which are thoughts of health,
and arrange your environment so that it shall
suggest thoughts of health. Do not have about
you books, pictures, or other things which
suggest death, disease, deformity, weakness,
or age; have only those which convey the ideas
of health, power, joy, vitality, and youth.
When you are confronted with a book, or anything
else which suggests disease, do not give it
your attention. Think of your conception of
health, and your gratitude, and affirm as
above; use your will power to fix your attention
upon thoughts of health. In a future chapter
I shall touch upon this point again; what
I wish to make plain here is that you must
think only health, recognize only health,
and give your attention only to health; and
that you must control thought, recognition,
and attention by the use of your will.
Do not try to use your will to compel the
healthy performance of function within you.
The Principle of Health will attend to that,
if you give your attention only to thoughts
of health.
Do not try to exert your will upon the Formless
to compel It to give you more vitality or
power; it is already placing all the power
there is at your service.
You do not have to use your will to conquer
adverse conditions, or to subdue unfriendly
forces; there are no unfriendly forces; there
is only One Force, and that force is friendly
to you; it is a force which makes for health.
Everything in the universe wants you to be
well; you have absolutely nothing to overcome
but your own habit of thinking in a certain
way about disease, and you can do this only
by forming a habit of thinking in another
Certain Way about health.
Man can cause all the internal functions of
his body to be performed in a perfectly healthy
manner by continuously thinking in a Certain
Way, and by performing the external functions
in a certain way.
He can think in this Certain Way by controlling
his attention, and he can control his attention
by the use of his will.
He can decide what things he will think about.
End of chapter 6.
Chapter 7 — Health from God
I will give a chapter here to explaining how
man may receive health from the Supreme. By
the Supreme I mean the Thinking Substance
from which all things are made, and which
is in all and through all, seeking more complete
expression and fuller life. This Intelligent
Substance, in a perfectly fluid state, permeates
and penetrates all things, and is in touch
with all minds. It is the source of all energy
and power, and constitutes the "inflow" of
life which Swedenborg saw, vitalizing all
things. It is working to one definite end,
and for the fulfillment of one purpose; and
that purpose is the advancement of life toward
the complete expression of Mind. When man
harmonizes himself with this Intelligence,
it can and will give him health and wisdom.
When man holds steadily to the purpose to
live more abundantly, he comes into harmony
with this Supreme Intelligence.
The purpose of the Supreme Intelligence is
the most Abundant Life for all; the purpose
of this Supreme Intelligence for you is that
you should live more abundantly. If, then,
your own purpose is to live more abundantly,
you are unified with the Supreme; you are
working with It, and it must work with you.
But as the Supreme Intelligence is in all,
if you harmonize with it you must harmonize
with all; and you must desire more abundant
life for all as well as for yourself. Two
great benefits come to you from being in harmony
with the Supreme Intelligence.
First, you will receive wisdom. By wisdom
I do not mean knowledge of facts so much as
ability to perceive and understand facts,
and to judge soundly and act rightly in all
matters relating to life. Wisdom is the power
to perceive truth, and the ability to make
the best use of the knowledge of truth. It
is the power to perceive at once the best
end to aim at, and the means best adapted
to attain that end. With wisdom comes poise,
and the power to think rightly; to control
and guide your thoughts, and to avoid the
difficulties which come from wrong thinking.
With wisdom you will be able to select the
right courses for your particular needs, and
to so govern yourself in all ways as to secure
the best results. You will know how to do
what you want to do. You can readily see that
wisdom must be an essential attribute of the
Supreme Intelligence, since That which knows
all truth must be wise; and you can also see
that just in proportion as you harmonize and
unify your mind with that Intelligence you
will have wisdom.
But I repeat that since this Intelligence
is All, and in all, you can enter into Its
wisdom only by harmonizing with all. If there
is anything in your desires or your purpose
which will bring oppression to any, or work
injustice to, or cause lack of life for any,
you cannot receive wisdom from the Supreme.
Furthermore, your purpose for your own self
must be the best.
Man can live in three general ways: for the
gratification of his body, for that of his
intellect, or for that of his soul. The first
is accomplished by satisfying the desires
for food, drink, and those other things which
give enjoyable physical sensations. The second
is accomplished by doing those things which
cause pleasant mental sensations, such as
gratifying the desire for knowledge or those
for fine clothing, fame, power, and so on.
The third is accomplished by giving way to
the instincts of unselfish love and altruism.
Man lives most wisely and completely when
he functions most perfectly along all of these
lines, without excess in any of them. The
man who lives swinishly, for the body alone,
is unwise and out of harmony with God; that
man who lives solely for the cold enjoyments
of the intellect, though he be absolutely
moral, is unwise and out of harmony with God;
and the man who lives wholly for the practice
of altruism, and who throws himself away for
others, is as unwise and as far from harmony
with God as those who go to excess in other
ways.
To come into full harmony with the Supreme,
you must purpose to LIVE; to live to the utmost
of your capabilities in body, mind, and soul.
This must mean the full exercise of function
in all the different ways, but without excess;
for excess in one causes deficiency in the
others. Behind your desire for health is your
own desire for more abundant life; and behind
that is the desire of the Formless Intelligence
to live more fully in you. So, as you advance
toward perfect health, hold steadily to the
purpose to attain complete life, physical,
mental, and spiritual; to advance in all ways,
and in every way to live more; if you hold
this purpose you will be given wisdom. "He
that willeth to do the will of the Father
shall KNOW," said Jesus. Wisdom is the most
desirable gift that can come to man, for it
makes him rightly self-governing.
But wisdom is not all you may receive from
the Supreme Intelligence; you may receive
physical energy, vitality, life force. The
energy of the Formless Substance is unlimited,
and permeates everything; you are already
receiving or appropriating to yourself this
energy in an automatic and instinctive way,
but you can do so to a far greater degree
if you set about it intelligently. The measure
of a man's strength is not what God is willing
to give him, but what he, himself, has the
will and the intelligence to appropriate to
himself. God gives you all there is; your
only question is how much to take of the unlimited
supply.
Professor James has pointed out that there
is apparently no limit to the powers of men;
and this is simply because man's power comes
from the inexhaustible reservoir of the Supreme.
The runner who has reached the stage of exhaustion,
when his physical power seems entirely gone,
by running on in a Certain Way may receive
his "second wind"; his strength is renewed
in a seemingly miraculous fashion, and he
can go on indefinitely. And by continuing
in the Certain Way, he may receive a third,
fourth, and fifth "wind"; we do not know where
the limit is, or how far it may be possible
to extend it. The conditions are that the
runner must have absolute faith that the strength
will come; that he must think steadily of
strength, and have perfect confidence that
he has it, and that he must continue to run
on. If he admits a doubt into his mind, he
falls exhausted, and if he stops running to
wait for the accession of strength, it will
never come. His faith in strength, his faith
that he can keep on running, his unwavering
purpose to keep on running, and his action
in keeping on seem to connect him to the source
of energy in such a way as to bring him a
new supply.
In a very similar manner, the sick person
who has unquestioning faith in health, whose
purpose brings him into harmony with the source,
and who performs the voluntary functions of
life in a certain way, will receive vital
energy sufficient for all his needs, and for
the healing of all his diseases. God, who
seeks to live and express himself fully in
man, delights to give man all that is needed
for the most abundant life. Action and reaction
are equal, and when you desire to live more,
if you are in mental harmony with the Supreme,
the forces which make for life begin to concentrate
about you and upon you. The One Life begins
to move toward you, and your environment becomes
surcharged with it. Then, if you appropriate
it by faith, it is yours. "Ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Your
Father giveth not his spirit by measure; he
delights to give good gifts to you.
End of chapter 7.
Chapter 8 — Summary of the Mental Actions
Let me now summarize the mental actions and
attitudes necessary to the practice of the
Science of Being Well: first, you believe
that 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. This Substance
is the Life of All, and is seeking to express
more life in all. It is the Principle of Life
of the universe, and the Principle of Health
in man.
Man is a form of this Substance, and draws
his vitality from it; he is a mind-body of
original substance, permeating a physical
body, and the thoughts of his mind-body control
the functioning of his physical body. If man
thinks no thoughts save those of perfect health,
the functions of his physical body will be
performed in a manner of perfect health.
If you would consciously relate yourself to
the All-Health, your purpose must be to live
fully on every plane of your being. You must
want all that there is in life for body, mind,
and soul; and this will bring you into harmony
with all the life there is. The person who
is in conscious and intelligent harmony with
All will receive a continuous inflow of vital
power from the Supreme Life; and this inflow
is prevented by angry, selfish or antagonistic
mental attitudes. If you are against any part,
you have severed relations with all; you will
receive life, but only instinctively and automatically;
not intelligently and purposefully. You can
see that if you are mentally antagonistic
to any part, you cannot be in complete harmony
with the Whole; therefore, as Jesus directed,
be reconciled to everybody and everything
before you offer worship.
Want for everybody all that you want for yourself.
The reader is recommended to read what we
have said in a former work (The Science of
Getting Rich) concerning the Competitive mind
and the Creative mind. It is very doubtful
whether one who has lost health can completely
regain it so long as he remains in the competitive
mind.
Being on the Creative or Good-Will plane in
mind, the next step is to form a conception
of yourself as in perfect health, and to hold
no thoughts which are not in full harmony
with this conception. Have FAITH that if you
think only thoughts of health you will establish
in your physical body the functioning of health;
and use your will to determine that you will
think only thoughts of health. Never think
of yourself as sick, or as likely to be sick;
never think of sickness in connection with
yourself at all. And, as far as may be, shut
out of your mind all thoughts of sickness
in connection with others. Surround yourself
as much as possible with the things which
suggest the ideas of strength and health.
Have faith in health, and accept health as
an actual present fact in your life. Claim
health as a blessing bestowed upon you by
the Supreme Life, and be deeply grateful at
all times. Claim the blessing by faith; know
that it is yours, and never admit a contrary
thought to your mind.
Use your will-power to withhold your attention
from every appearance of disease in yourself
and others; do not study disease, think about
it, nor speak of it. At all times, when the
thought of disease is thrust upon you, move
forward into the mental position of prayerful
gratitude for your perfect health.
The mental actions necessary to being well
may now be summed up in a single sentence:
Form a conception of yourself in perfect health,
and think only those thoughts which are in
harmony with that conception.
That, with faith and gratitude, and the purpose
to really live, covers all the requirements.
It is not necessary to take mental exercises
of any kind, except as described in Chapter
VI, or to do wearying "stunts" in the way
of affirmations, and so on. It is not necessary
to concentrate the mind on the affected parts;
it is far better not to think of any part
as affected. It is not necessary to "treat"
yourself by auto-suggestion, or to have others
treat you in any way whatever. The power that
heals is the Principle of Health within you;
and to call this Principle into Constructive
Action it is only necessary, having harmonized
yourself with the All-Mind, to claim by FAITH
the All-Health; and to hold that claim until
it is physically manifested in all the functions
of your body.
In order to hold this mental attitude of faith,
gratitude, and health, however, your external
acts must be only those of health. You cannot
long hold the internal attitude of a well
person if you continue to perform the external
acts of a sick person. It is essential not
only that your every thought should be a thought
of health, but that your every act should
be an act of health, performed in a healthy
manner. If you will make every thought a thought
of health, and every conscious act an act
of health, it must infallibly follow that
every internal and unconscious function shall
come to be healthy; for all the power of life
is being continually exerted toward health.
We shall next consider how you may make every
act an act of health.
End of chapter 8.
Chapter 9 — When to Eat
You cannot build and maintain a perfectly
healthy body by mental action alone, or by
the performance of the unconscious or involuntary
functions alone. There are certain actions,
more or less voluntary, which have a direct
and immediate relation with the continuance
of life itself; these are eating, drinking,
breathing, and sleeping. No matter what man's
thought or mental attitude may be, he cannot
live unless he eats, drinks, breathes, and
sleeps; and, moreover, he cannot be well if
he eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps in an
unnatural or wrong manner. It is therefore
vitally important that you should learn the
right way to perform these voluntary functions,
and I shall proceed to show you this way,
beginning with the matter of eating, which
is most important.
There has been a vast amount of controversy
as to when to eat, what to eat, how to eat,
and how much to eat; and all this controversy
is unnecessary, for the Right Way is very
easy to find. You have only to consider the
Law which governs all attainment, whether
of health, wealth, power, or happiness; and
that law is that you must do what you can
do now, where you are now; do every separate
act in the most perfect manner possible, and
put the power of faith into every action.
The processes of digestion and assimilation
are under the supervision and control of an
inner division of man's mentality, which is
generally called the sub-conscious mind; and
I shall use that term here in order to be
understood. The sub-conscious mind is in charge
of all the functions and processes of life;
and when more food is needed by the body,
it makes the fact known by causing a sensation
called hunger. Whenever food is needed, and
can be used, there is hunger; and whenever
there is hunger it is time to eat. When there
is no hunger it is unnatural and wrong to
eat, no matter how great may APPEAR to be
the need for food. Even if you are in a condition
of apparent starvation, with great emaciation,
if there is no hunger you may know that FOOD
CANNOT BE USED, and it will be unnatural and
wrong for you to eat. Though you have not
eaten for days, weeks, or months, if you have
no hunger you may be perfectly sure that food
cannot be used, and will probably not be used
if taken. Whenever food is needed, if there
is power to digest and assimilate it, so that
it can be normally used, the sub-conscious
mind will announce the fact by a decided hunger.
Food, taken when there is no hunger, will
sometimes be digested and assimilated, because
Nature makes a special effort to perform the
task which is thrust upon her against her
will; but if food be habitually taken when
there is no hunger, the digestive power is
at last destroyed, and numberless evils caused.
If the foregoing be true—and it is indisputably
so—it is a self-evident proposition that
the natural time, and the healthy time, to
eat is when one is hungry; and that it is
never a natural or a healthy action to eat
when one is not hungry. You see, then, that
it is an easy matter to scientifically settle
the question when to eat. ALWAYS eat when
you are hungry; and NEVER eat when you are
not hungry. This is obedience to nature, which
is obedience to God.
We must not fail, however, to make clear the
distinction between hunger and appetite. Hunger
is the call of the sub-conscious mind for
more material to be used in repairing and
renewing the body, and in keeping up the internal
heat; and hunger is never felt unless there
is need for more material, and unless there
is power to digest it when taken into the
stomach. Appetite is a desire for the gratification
of sensation. The drunkard has an appetite
for liquor, but he cannot have a hunger for
it. A normally fed person cannot have a hunger
for candy or sweets; the desire for these
things is an appetite. You cannot hunger for
tea, coffee, spiced foods, or for the various
taste-tempting devices of the skilled cook;
if you desire these things, it is with appetite,
not with hunger. Hunger is nature's call for
material to be used in building new cells,
and nature never calls for anything which
may not be legitimately used for this purpose.
Appetite is often largely a matter of habit;
if one eats or drinks at a certain hour, and
especially if one takes sweetened or spiced
and stimulating foods, the desire comes regularly
at the same hour; but this habitual desire
for food should never be mistaken for hunger.
Hunger does not appear at specified times.
It only comes when work or exercise has destroyed
sufficient tissue to make the taking in of
new raw material a necessity.
For instance, if a person has been sufficiently
fed on the preceding day, it is impossible
that he should feel a genuine hunger on arising
from refreshing sleep. In sleep the body is
recharged with vital power, and the assimilation
of the food which has been taken during the
day is completed; the system has no need for
food immediately after sleep, unless the person
went to his rest in a state of starvation.
With a system of feeding, which is even a
reasonable approach to a natural one, no one
can have a real hunger for an early morning
breakfast. There is no such thing possible
as a normal or genuine hunger immediately
after arising from sound sleep. The early
morning breakfast is always taken to gratify
appetite, never to satisfy hunger. No matter
who you are, or what your condition is; no
matter how hard you work, or how much you
are exposed, unless you go to your bed starved,
you cannot arise from your bed hungry.
Hunger is not caused by sleep, but by work.
And it does not matter who you are, or what
your condition, or how hard or easy your work,
the so-called no-breakfast plan is the right
plan for you. It is the right plan for everybody,
because it is based on the universal law that
hunger never comes until it is EARNED.
I am aware that a protest against this will
come from the large number of people who "enjoy"
their breakfasts; whose breakfast is their
"best meal"; who believe that their work is
so hard that they cannot "get through the
forenoon on an empty stomach," and so on.
But all their arguments fall down before the
facts. They enjoy their breakfast as the toper
enjoys his morning dram, because it gratifies
a habitual appetite and not because it supplies
a natural want. It is their best meal for
the same reason that his morning dram is the
toper's best drink. And they CAN get along
without it, because millions of people, of
every trade and profession, DO get along without
it, and are vastly better for doing so. If
you are to live according to the Science of
Being Well, you must NEVER EAT UNTIL YOU HAVE
AN EARNED HUNGER.
But if I do not eat on arising in the morning,
when shall I take my first meal?
In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred twelve
o'clock, noon, is early enough; and it is
generally the most convenient time. If you
are doing heavy work, you will get by noon
a hunger sufficient to justify a good-sized
meal; and if your work is light, you will
probably still have hunger enough for a moderate
meal. The best general rule or law that can
be laid down is that you should eat your first
meal of the day at noon, if you are hungry;
and if you are not hungry, wait until you
become so.
And when shall I eat my second meal?
Not at all, unless you are hungry for it;
and that with a genuine earned hunger. If
you do get hungry for a second meal, eat at
the most convenient time; but do not eat until
you have a really earned hunger. The reader
who wishes to fully inform himself as to the
reasons for this way of arranging the mealtimes
will find the best books thereon cited in
the preface to this work. From the foregoing,
however, you can easily see that the Science
of Being Well readily answers the question:
When, and how often shall I eat? The answer
is: Eat when you have an earned hunger; and
never eat at any other time.
End of chapter 9.
Chapter 10 — What To Eat
The current sciences of medicine and hygiene
have made no progress toward answering the
question, What shall I eat? The contests between
the vegetarians and the meat eaters, the cooked
food advocates, raw food advocates, and various
other "schools" of theorists, seem to be interminable;
and from the mountains of evidence and argument
piled up for and against each special theory,
it is plain that if we depend on these scientists
we shall never know what is the natural food
of man. Turning away from the whole controversy,
then, we will ask the question of nature herself,
and we shall find that she has not left us
without an answer.
Most of the errors of dietary scientists grow
out of a false premise as to the natural state
of man. It is assumed that civilization and
mental development are unnatural things; that
the man who lives in a modern house, in city
or country, and who works in modern trade
or industry for his living is leading an unnatural
life, and is in an unnatural environment;
that the only "natural" man is a naked savage,
and that the farther we get from the savage
the farther we are from nature. This is wrong.
The man who has all that art and science can
give him is leading the most natural life,
because he is living most completely in all
his faculties. The dweller in a well-appointed
city flat, with modern conveniences and good
ventilation, is living a far more naturally
human life than the Australian savage who
lives in a hollow tree or a hole in the ground.
That Great Intelligence, which is in all and
through all, has in reality practically settled
the question as to what we shall eat. In ordering
the affairs of nature, It has decided that
man's food shall be according to the zone
in which he lives. In the frigid regions of
the far North, fuel foods are required. The
development of brain is not large, nor is
the life severe in its labor-tax on muscle;
and so the Esquimaux live largely on the blubber
and fat of aquatic animals. No other diet
is possible to them; they could not get fruits,
nuts, or vegetables even if they were disposed
to eat them; and they could not live on them
in that climate if they could get them. So,
notwithstanding the arguments of the vegetarians,
the Esquimaux will continue to live on animal
fats.
On the other hand, as we come toward the tropics,
we find fuel foods less required; and we find
the people naturally inclining toward a vegetarian
diet. Millions live on rice and fruits; and
the food regimen of an Esquimaux village,
if followed upon the equator, would result
in speedy death. A "natural" diet for the
equatorial regions would be very far from
being a natural diet near the North Pole;
and the people of either zone, if not interfered
with by medical or dietary "scientists," will
be guided by the All Intelligence, which seeks
the fullest life in all, to feed themselves
in the best way for the promotion of perfect
health. In general, you can see that God,
working in nature and in the evolution of
human society and customs, has answered your
question as to what you shall eat; and I advise
you to take His answer in preference to that
of any man.
In the temperate zone the largest demands
are made on man in spirit, mind, and body;
and here we find the greatest variety of foods
provided by nature. And it is really quite
useless and superfluous to theorize on the
question what the masses shall eat, for they
have no choice; they must eat the foods which
are staple products of the zone in which they
live. It is impossible to supply all the people
with a nut-and-fruit or raw food diet; and
the fact that it is impossible is proof positive
that these are not the foods intended by nature,
for nature, being formed for the advancement
of life, has not made the obtaining of the
means of life an impossibility. So, I say,
the question, What shall I eat? has been answered
for you. Eat wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley,
buckwheat; eat vegetables; eat meats, eat
fruits, eat the things that are eaten by the
masses of the people around the world, for
in this matter the voice of the people is
the voice of God. They have been led, generally,
to the selection of certain foods; and they
have been led, generally, to prepare these
foods in generally similar ways; and you may
depend upon it that in general they have the
right foods and are preparing them in the
right way. In these matters the race has been
under the guidance of God. The list of foods
in common use is a long one, and you must
select therefrom according to your individual
taste; if you do, you will find that you have
an infallible guide, as shown in the next
two chapters.
If you do not eat until you have an EARNED
hunger, you will not find your taste demanding
unnatural or unhealthy foods. The woodchopper,
who has swung his axe continuously from seven
in the morning until noon does not come in
clamoring for cream puffs and confectionery;
he wants pork and beans, or beefsteak and
potatoes, or corn bread and cabbage; he asks
for the plain solids. Offer to crack him a
few walnuts and give him a plate of lettuce,
and you will be met with huge disdain; those
things are not natural foods for a workingman.
And if they are not natural foods for a workingman,
they are not for any other man; for work hunger
is the only real hunger, and requires the
same materials to satisfy it, whether it be
in woodchopper or banker, in man, woman or
child.
It is a mistake to suppose that food must
be selected with anxious care to fit the vocation
of the person who eats. It is not true that
the woodchopper requires "heavy" or "solid"
foods and the bookkeeper "light" foods. If
you are a bookkeeper, or other brain worker,
and do not eat until you have an EARNED hunger,
you will want exactly the same foods that
the woodchopper wants. Your body is made of
exactly the same elements as that of the woodchopper,
and requires the same materials for cell-building;
why, then, feed him on ham and eggs and corn
bread and you on crackers and toast? True,
most of his waste is of muscle, while most
of yours is of brain and nerve tissue; but
it is also true that the woodchopper's diet
contains all the requisites for brain and
nerve building in far better proportions than
they are found in most "light" foods. The
world's best brain work has been done on the
fare of the working people. The world's greatest
thinkers have invariably lived on the plain
solid foods common among the masses.
Let the bookkeeper wait until he has an earned
hunger before he eats; and then, if he wants
ham, eggs, and corn bread, by all means let
him eat them; but let him remember that he
does not need one-twentieth of the amount
necessary for the woodchopper. It is not eating
"hearty" foods which gives the brain worker
indigestion; it is eating as much as would
be needed by a muscle worker. Indigestion
is never caused by eating to satisfy hunger;
it is always caused by eating to gratify appetite.
If you eat in the manner prescribed in the
next chapter, your taste will soon become
so natural that you will never WANT anything
that you cannot eat with impunity; and you
can drop the whole anxious question of what
to eat from your mind forever, and simply
eat what you want. Indeed, that is the only
way to do if you are to think no thoughts
but those of health; for you cannot think
health so long as you are in continual doubt
and uncertainty as to whether you are getting
the right bills of fare.
"Take no thought what ye shall eat," said
Jesus, and he spoke wisely. The foods found
on the table of any ordinary middle-class
or working class family will nourish your
body perfectly if you eat at the right times
and in the right way. If you want meat, eat
it; and if you do not want it, do not eat
it, and do not suppose that you must find
some special substitute for it. You can live
perfectly well on what is left on any table
after the meat has been removed.
It is not necessary to worry about a "varied"
diet, so as to get in all the necessary elements.
The Chinese and Hindus build very good bodies
and excellent brains on a diet of few variations,
rice making almost the whole of it. The Scotch
are physically and mentally strong on oatmeal
cakes; and the Irishman is husky of body and
brilliant of mind on potatoes and pork. The
wheat berry contains practically all that
is necessary for the building of brain and
body; and a man can live very well on a monodiet
of navy beans.
Form a conception of perfect health for yourself,
and do not hold any thought which is not a
thought of health.
NEVER eat until you have an EARNED HUNGER.
Remember that it will not hurt you in the
least to go hungry for a short time; but it
will surely hurt you to eat when you are not
hungry.
Do not give the least thought to what you
should or should not eat; simply eat what
is set before you, selecting that which pleases
your taste most. In other words, eat what
you want. This you can do with perfect results
if you eat in the right way; and how to do
this will be explained in the next chapter.
End of chapter 10.
Chapter 11 — How to Eat
It is a settled fact that man naturally chews
his food. The few faddists who maintain that
we should bolt our nourishment, after the
manner of the dog and others of the lower
animals, can no longer get a hearing; we know
that we should chew our food. And if it is
natural that we should chew our food, the
more thoroughly we chew it the more completely
natural the process must be. If you will chew
every mouthful to a liquid, you need not be
in the least concerned as to what you shall
eat, for you can get sufficient nourishment
out of any ordinary food.
Whether or not this chewing shall be an irksome
and laborious task or a most enjoyable process,
depends upon the mental attitude in which
you come to the table.
If your mind and attitude are on other things,
or if you are anxious or worried about business
or domestic affairs, you will find it almost
impossible to eat without bolting more or
less of your food. You must learn to live
so scientifically that you will have no business
or domestic cares to worry about; this you
can do, and you can also learn to give your
undivided attention to the act of eating while
at the table.
When you eat, do so with an eye single to
the purpose of getting all the enjoyment you
can from that meal; dismiss everything else
from your mind, and do not let anything take
your attention from the food and its taste
until your meal is finished. Be cheerfully
confident, for if you follow these instructions
you may KNOW that the food you eat is exactly
the right food, and that it will "agree" with
you to perfection.
Sit down to the table with confident cheerfulness,
and take a moderate portion of the food; take
whatever thing looks most desirable to you.
Do not select some food because you think
it will be good for you; select that which
will taste good to you. If you are to get
well and stay well, you must drop the idea
of doing things because they are good for
your health, and do things because you want
to do them. Select the food you want most;
gratefully give thanks to God that you have
learned how to eat it in such a way that digestion
shall be perfect; and take a moderate mouthful
of it.
Do not fix your attention on the act of chewing;
fix it on the TASTE of the food; and taste
and enjoy it until it is reduced to a liquid
state and passes down your throat by involuntary
swallowing. No matter how long it takes, do
not think of the time. Think of the taste.
Do not allow your eyes to wander over the
table, speculating as to what you shall eat
next; do not worry for fear there is not enough,
and that you will not get your share of everything.
Do not anticipate the taste of the next thing;
keep your mind centered on the taste of what
you have in your mouth. And that is all of
it.
Scientific and healthful eating is a delightful
process after you have learned how to do it,
and after you have overcome the bad old habit
of gobbling down your food unchewed. It is
best not to have too much conversation going
on while eating; be cheerful, but not talkative;
do the talking afterward.
In most cases, some use of the will is required
to form the habit of correct eating. The bolting
habit is an unnatural one, and is without
doubt mostly the result of fear. Fear that
we will be robbed of our food; fear that we
will not get our share of the good things;
fear that we will lose precious time—these
are the causes of haste. Then there is anticipation
of the dainties that are to come for dessert,
and the consequent desire to get at them as
quickly as possible; and there is mental abstraction,
or thinking of other matters while eating.
All these must be overcome.
When you find that your mind is wandering,
call a halt; think for a moment of the food,
and of how good it tastes; of the perfect
digestion and assimilation that are going
to follow the meal, and begin again. Begin
again and again, though you must do so twenty
times in the course of a single meal; and
again and again, though you must do so every
meal for weeks and months. It is perfectly
certain that you CAN form the "Fletcher habit"
if you persevere; and when you have formed
it, you will experience a healthful pleasure
you have never known.
This is a vital point, and I must not leave
it until I have thoroughly impressed it upon
your mind. Given the right materials, perfectly
prepared, the Principle of Health will positively
build you a perfectly healthy body; and you
cannot prepare the materials perfectly in
any other way that the one I am describing.
If you are to have perfect health, you MUST
eat in just this way; you can, and the doing
of it is only a matter of a little perseverance.
What use for you to talk of mental control
unless you will govern yourself in so simple
a matter as ceasing to bolt your food? What
use to talk of concentration unless you can
keep your mind on the act of eating for so
short a space as fifteen or twenty minutes,
especially with all the pleasures of taste
to help you? Go on, and conquer. In a few
weeks, or months, as the case may be, you
will find the habit of scientific eating becoming
fixed; and soon you will be in so splendid
a condition, mentally and physically, that
nothing would induce you to return to the
bad old way.
We have seen that if man will think only thoughts
of perfect health, his internal functions
will be performed in a healthy manner; and
we have seen that in order to think thoughts
of health, man must perform the voluntary
functions in a healthy manner. The most important
of the voluntary functions is that of eating;
and we see, so far, no especial difficulty
in eating in a perfectly healthy way. I will
here summarize the instructions as to when
to eat, what to eat, and how to eat, with
the reasons therefor:—
NEVER eat until you have an EARNED hunger,
no matter how long you go without food. This
is based on the fact that whenever food is
needed in the system, if there is power to
digest it, the sub-conscious mind announces
the need by the sensation of hunger. Learn
to distinguish between genuine hunger and
the gnawing and craving sensations caused
by unnatural appetite. Hunger is never a disagreeable
feeling, accompanied by weakness, faintness,
or gnawing feelings at the stomach; it is
a pleasant, anticipatory desire for food,
and is felt mostly in the mouth and throat.
It does not come at certain hours or at stated
intervals; it only comes when the sub-conscious
mind is ready to receive, digest, and assimilate
food.
Eat whatever foods you want, making your selection
from the staples in general use in the zone
in which you live. The Supreme Intelligence
has guided man to the selection of these foods,
and they are the right ones for all. I am
referring, of course, to the foods which are
taken to satisfy hunger, not to those which
have been contrived merely to gratify appetite
or perverted taste. The instinct which has
guided the masses of men to make use of the
great staples of food to satisfy their hunger
is a divine one. God has made no mistake;
if you eat these foods you will not go wrong.
Eat your food with cheerful confidence, and
get all the pleasure that is to be had from
the taste of every mouthful. Chew each morsel
to a liquid, keeping your attention fixed
on the enjoyment of the process. This is the
only way to eat in a perfectly complete and
successful manner; and when anything is done
in a completely successful manner, the general
result cannot be a failure. In the attainment
of health, the law is the same as in the attainment
of riches; if you make each act a success
in itself, the sum of all your acts must be
a success. When you eat in the mental attitude
I have described, and in the manner I have
described, nothing can be added to the process;
it is done in a perfect manner, and it is
successfully done. And if eating is successfully
done, digestion, assimilation, and the building
of a healthy body are successfully begun.
We next take up the question of the quantity
of food required.
End of chapter 11.
Chapter 12 — Hunger and Appetites
It is very easy to find the correct answer
to the question, How much shall I eat? You
are never to eat until you have an earned
hunger, and you are to stop eating the instant
you BEGIN to feel that your hunger is abating.
Never gorge yourself; never eat to repletion.
When you begin to feel that your hunger is
satisfied, know that you have enough; for
until you have enough, you will continue to
feel the sensation of hunger. If you eat as
directed in the last chapter, it is probable
that you will begin to feel satisfied before
you have taken half your usual amount; but
stop there, all the same. No matter how delightfully
attractive the dessert, or how tempting the
pie or pudding, do not eat a mouthful of it
if you find that your hunger has been in the
least degree assuaged by the other foods you
have taken.
Whatever you eat after your hunger begins
to abate is taken to gratify taste and appetite,
not hunger and is not called for by nature
at all. It is therefore excess; mere debauchery,
and it cannot fail to work mischief.
This is a point you will need to watch with
nice discrimination, for the habit of eating
purely for sensual gratification is very deeply
rooted with most of us. The usual "dessert"
of sweet and tempting foods is prepared solely
with a view to inducing people to eat after
hunger has been satisfied; and all the effects
are evil. It is not that pie and cake are
unwholesome foods; they are usually perfectly
wholesome if eaten to satisfy hunger, and
NOT to gratify appetite. If you want pie,
cake, pastry or puddings, it is better to
begin your meal with them, finishing with
the plainer and less tasty foods. You will
find, however, that if you eat as directed
in the preceding chapters, the plainest food
will soon come to taste like kingly fare to
you; for your sense of taste, like all your
other senses, will become so acute with the
general improvement in your condition that
you will find new delights in common things.
No glutton ever enjoyed a meal like the man
who eats for hunger only, who gets the most
out of every mouthful, and who stops on the
instant that he feels the edge taken from
his hunger. The first intimation that hunger
is abating is the signal from the sub-conscious
mind that it is time to quit.
The average person who takes up this plan
of living will be greatly surprised to learn
how little food is really required to keep
the body in perfect condition. The amount
depends upon 
the work; upon how much muscular exercise
is taken, and upon the extent to which the
person is exposed to cold. The woodchopper
who goes into the forest in the winter time
and swings his axe all day can eat two full
meals; but the brain worker who sits all day
on a chair, in a warm room, does not need
one third and often not one tenth as much.
Most woodchoppers eat two or three times as
much, and most brain workers from three to
ten times as much as nature calls for; and
the elimination of this vast amount of surplus
rubbish from their systems is a tax on vital
power which in time depletes their energy
and leaves them an easy prey to so-called
disease. Get all possible enjoyment out of
the taste of your food, but never eat anything
merely because it tastes good; and on the
instant that you feel that your hunger is
less keen, stop eating.
If you will consider for a moment, you will
see that there is positively no other way
for you to settle these various food questions
than by adopting the plan here laid down for
you. As to the proper time to eat, there is
no other way to decide than to say that you
should eat whenever you have an EARNED HUNGER.
It is a self-evident proposition that that
is the right time to eat, and that any other
is a wrong time to eat. As to what to eat,
the Eternal Wisdom has decided that the masses
of men shall eat the staple products of the
zones in which they live. The staple foods
of your particular zone are the right foods
for you; and the Eternal Wisdom, working in
and through the minds of the masses of men,
has taught them how best to prepare these
foods by cooking and otherwise. And as to
how to eat, you know that you must chew your
food; and if it must be chewed, then reason
tells us that the more thorough and perfect
the operation the better.
I repeat that success in anything is attained
by making each separate act a success in itself.
If you make each action, however small and
unimportant, a thoroughly successful action,
your day's work as a whole cannot result in
failure. If you make the actions of each day
successful, the sum total of your life cannot
be failure. A great success is the result
of doing a large number of little things,
and doing each one in a perfectly successful
way. If every thought is a healthy thought,
and if every action of your life is performed
in a healthy way, you must soon attain to
perfect health. It is impossible to devise
a way in which you can perform the act of
eating more successfully, and in a manner
more in accord with the laws of life, than
by chewing every mouthful to a liquid, enjoying
the taste fully, and keeping a cheerful confidence
the while. Nothing can be added to make the
process more successful; while if anything
be subtracted, the process will not be a completely
healthy one.
In the matter of how much to eat, you will
also see that there could be no other guide
so natural, so safe, and so reliable as the
one I have prescribed—to stop eating on
the instant you feel that your hunger begins
to abate. The sub-conscious mind may be trusted
with implicit reliance to inform us when food
is needed; and it may be trusted as implicitly
to inform us when the need has been supplied.
If ALL food is eaten for hunger, and NO food
is taken merely to gratify taste, you will
never eat too much; and if you eat whenever
you have an EARNED hunger, you will always
eat enough. By reading carefully the summing
up in the following chapter, you will see
that the requirements for eating in a perfectly
healthy way are really very few and simple.
The matter of drinking in a natural way may
be dismissed here with a very few words. If
you wish to be exactly and rigidly scientific,
drink nothing but water; drink only when you
are thirsty; drink whenever you are thirsty,
and stop as soon as you feel that your thirst
begins to abate. But if you are living rightly
in regard to eating, it will not be necessary
to practice asceticism or great self-denial
in the matter of drinking. You can take an
occasional cup of weak coffee without harm;
you can, to a reasonable extent, follow the
customs of those around you. Do not get the
soda fountain habit; do not drink merely to
tickle your palate with sweet liquids; be
sure that you take a drink of water whenever
you feel thirst. Never be too lazy, too indifferent,
or too busy to get a drink of water when you
feel the least thirst; if you obey this rule,
you will have little inclination to take strange
and unnatural drinks. Drink only to satisfy
thirst; drink whenever you feel thirst; and
stop drinking as soon as you feel thirst abating.
That is the perfectly healthy way to supply
the body with the necessary fluid material
for its internal processes.
End of chapter 12.
Chapter 13 — In a Nutshell
There is a Cosmic Life which permeates, penetrates,
and fills the interspaces of the universe,
being in and through all things. This Life
is not merely a vibration, or form of energy;
it is a Living Substance. All things are made
from it; it is All, and in all.
This Substance thinks, and it assumes the
form of that which it thinks about. The thought
of a form, in this substance, creates the
form; the thought of a motion institutes the
motion. The visible universe, with all its
forms and motions, exists because it is in
the thought of Original Substance.
Man is a form of Original Substance, and can
think original thoughts; and within himself,
man's thoughts have controlling or formative
power. The thought of a condition produces
that condition; the thought of a motion institutes
that motion. So long as man thinks of the
conditions and motions of disease, so long
will the conditions and motions of disease
exist within him. If man will think only of
perfect health, the Principle of Health within
him will maintain normal conditions.
To be well, man must form a conception of
perfect health, and hold thoughts harmonious
with that conception as regards himself and
all things. He must think only of healthy
conditions and functioning; he must not permit
a thought of unhealthy or abnormal conditions
or functioning to find lodgment in his mind
at any time.
In order to think only of healthy conditions
and functioning, man must perform the voluntary
acts of life in a perfectly healthy way. He
cannot think perfect health so long as he
knows that he is living in a wrong or unhealthy
way; or even so long as he has doubts as to
whether or not he is living in a healthy way.
Man cannot think thoughts of perfect health
while his voluntary functions are performed
in the manner of one who is sick. The voluntary
functions of life are eating, drinking, breathing,
and sleeping. When man thinks only of healthy
conditions and functioning, and performs these
externals in a perfectly healthy manner, he
must have perfect health.
In eating, man must learn to be guided by
his hunger. He must distinguish between hunger
and appetite, and between hunger and the cravings
of habit; he must NEVER eat unless he feels
an EARNED HUNGER. He must learn that genuine
hunger is never present after natural sleep,
and that the demand for an early morning meal
is purely a matter of habit and appetite;
and he must not begin his day by eating in
violation of natural law. He must wait until
he has an Earned Hunger, which, in most cases,
will make his first meal come at about the
noon hour. No matter what his condition, vocation,
or circumstances, he must make it his rule
not to eat until he has an EARNED HUNGER;
and he may remember that it is far better
to fast for several hours after he has become
hungry than to eat before he begins to feel
hunger. It will not hurt you to go hungry
for a few hours, even though you are working
hard; but it will hurt you to fill your stomach
when you are not hungry, whether you are working
or not. If you never eat until you have an
Earned Hunger, you may be certain that in
so far as the time of eating is concerned,
you are proceeding in a perfectly healthy
way. This is a self-evident proposition.
As to what he shall eat, man must be guided
by that Intelligence which has arranged that
the people of any given portion of the earth's
surface must live on the staple products of
the zone which they inhabit. Have faith in
God, and ignore "food science" of every kind.
Do not pay the slightest attention to the
controversies as to the relative merits of
cooked and raw foods; of vegetables and meats;
or as to your need for carbohydrates and proteins.
Eat only when you have an earned hunger, and
then take the common foods of the masses of
the people in the zone in which you live,
and have perfect confidence that the results
will be good. They will be. Do not seek for
luxuries, or for things imported or fixed
up to tempt the taste; stick to the plain
solids; and when these do not "taste good,"
fast until they do. Do not seek for "light"
foods; for easily digestible, or "healthy"
foods; eat what the farmers and workingmen
eat. Then you will be functioning in a perfectly
healthy manner, so far as what to eat is concerned.
I repeat, if you have no hunger or taste for
the plain foods, do not eat at all; wait until
hunger comes. Go without eating until the
plainest food tastes good to you; and then
begin your meal with what you like best.
In deciding how to eat, man must be guided
by reason. We can see that the abnormal states
of hurry and worry produced by wrong thinking
about business and similar things have led
us to form the habit of eating too fast, and
chewing too little. Reason tells us that food
should be chewed, and that the more thoroughly
it is chewed the better it is prepared for
the chemistry of digestion. Furthermore, we
can see that the man who eats slowly and chews
his food to a liquid, keeping his mind on
the process and giving it his undivided attention,
will enjoy more of the pleasure of taste than
he who bolts his food with his mind on something
else. To eat in a perfectly healthy manner,
man must concentrate his attention on the
act, with cheerful enjoyment and confidence;
he must taste his food, and he must reduce
each mouthful to a liquid before swallowing
it. The foregoing instructions, if followed,
make the function of eating completely perfect;
nothing can be added as to what, when, and
how.
In the matter of how much to eat, man must
be guided by the same inward intelligence,
or Principle of Health, which tells him when
food is wanted. He must stop eating in the
moment that he feels hunger abating; he must
not eat beyond this point to gratify taste.
If he ceases to eat in the instant that the
inward demand for food ceases, he will never
overeat; and the function of supplying the
body with food will be performed in a perfectly
healthy manner.
The matter of eating naturally is a very simple
one; there is nothing in all the foregoing
that cannot be easily practiced by any one.
This method, put in practice, will infallibly
result in perfect digestion and assimilation;
and all anxiety and careful thought concerning
the matter can at once be dropped from the
mind. Whenever you have an earned hunger,
eat with thankfulness what is set before you,
chewing each mouthful to a liquid, and stopping
when you feel the edge taken from your hunger.
The importance of the mental attitude is sufficient
to justify an additional word. While you are
eating, as at all other times, think only
of healthy conditions and normal functioning.
Enjoy what you eat; if you carry on a conversation
at the table, talk of the goodness of the
food, and of the pleasure it is giving you.
Never mention that you dislike this or that;
speak only of those things which you like.
Never discuss the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness
of foods; never mention or think of unwholesomeness
at all. If there is anything on the table
for which you do not care, pass it by in silence,
or with a word of commendation; never criticise
or object to anything. Eat your food with
gladness and with singleness of heart, praising
God and giving thanks. Let your watchword
be perseverance; whenever you fall into the
old way of hasty eating, or of wrong thought
and speech, bring yourself up short and begin
again.
It is of the most vital importance to you
that you should be a self-controlling and
self-directing person; and you can never hope
to become so unless you can master yourself
in so simple and fundamental a matter as the
manner and method of your eating. If you cannot
control yourself in this, you cannot control
yourself in anything that will be worth while.
On the other hand, if you carry out the foregoing
instructions, you may rest in the assurance
that in so far as right thinking and right
eating are concerned you are living in a perfectly
scientific way; and you may also be assured
that if you practice what is prescribed in
the following chapters you will quickly build
your body into a condition of perfect health.
End of chapter 13.
Chapter 14 — Breathing
The function of breathing is a vital one,
and it immediately concerns the continuance
of life. We can live many hours without sleeping,
and many days without eating or drinking,
but only a few minutes without breathing.
The act of breathing is involuntary, but the
manner of it, and the provision of the proper
conditions for its healthy performance, falls
within the scope of volition. Man will continue
to breathe involuntarily, but he can voluntarily
determine what he shall breathe, and how deeply
and thoroughly he shall breathe; and he can,
of his own volition, keep the physical mechanism
in condition for the perfect performance of
the function.
It is essential, if you wish to breathe in
a perfectly healthy way, that the physical
machinery used in the act should be kept in
good condition. You must keep your spine moderately
straight, and the muscles of your chest must
be flexible and free in action. You cannot
breathe in the right way if your shoulders
are greatly stooped forward and your chest
hollow and rigid. Sitting or standing at work
in a slightly stooping position tends to produce
hollow chest; so does lifting heavy weights—or
light weights.
The tendency of work, of almost all kinds,
is to pull the shoulders forward, curve the
spine, and flatten the chest; and if the chest
is greatly flattened, full and deep breathing
becomes impossible, and perfect health is
out of the question.
Various gymnastic exercises have been devised
to counteract the effect of stooping while
at work; such as hanging by the hands from
a swing or trapeze bar, or sitting on a chair
with the feet under some heavy article of
furniture and bending backward until the head
touches the floor, and so on. All these are
good enough in their way, but very few people
will follow them long enough and regularly
enough to accomplish any real gain in physique.
The taking of "health exercises" of any kind
is burdensome and unnecessary; there is a
more natural, simpler, and much better way.
This better way is to keep yourself straight,
and to breathe deeply. Let your mental conception
of yourself be that you are a perfectly straight
person, and whenever the matter comes to your
mind, be sure that you instantly expand your
chest, throw back your shoulders, and "straighten
up." Whenever you do this, slowly draw in
your breath until you fill your lungs to their
utmost capacity; "crowd in" all the air you
possibly can; and while holding it for an
instant in the lungs, throw your shoulders
still further back, and stretch your chest;
at the same time try to pull your spine forward
between the shoulders. Then let the air go
easily.
This is the one great exercise for keeping
the chest full, flexible, and in good condition.
Straighten up; fill your lungs FULL; stretch
your chest and straighten your spine, and
exhale easily. And this exercise you must
repeat, in season and out of season, at all
times and in all places, until you form a
habit of doing it; you can easily do so. Whenever
you step out of doors into the fresh, pure
air, BREATHE. When you are at work, and think
of yourself and your position, BREATHE. When
you are in company, and are reminded of the
matter, BREATHE. When you are awake in the
night, BREATHE. No matter where you are or
what you are doing, whenever the idea comes
to your mind, straighten up and BREATHE. If
you walk to and from your work, take the exercise
all the way; it will soon become a delight
to you; you will keep it up, not for the sake
of health, but as a matter of pleasure.
Do not consider this a "health exercise";
never take health exercises, or do gymnastics
to make you well. To do so is to recognize
sickness as a present fact or as a possibility,
which is precisely what you must not do. The
people who are always taking exercises for
their health are always thinking about being
sick. It ought to be a matter of pride with
you to keep your spine straight and strong;
as much so as it is to keep your face clean.
Keep your spine straight, and your chest full
and flexible for the same reason that you
keep your hands clean and your nails manicured;
because it is slovenly to do otherwise. Do
it without a thought of sickness, present
or possible. You must either be crooked and
unsightly, or you must be straight; and if
you are straight your breathing will take
care of itself. You will find the matter of
health exercises referred to again in a future
chapter.
It is essential, however, that you should
breathe AIR. It appears to be the intention
of nature that the lungs should receive air
containing its regular percentage of oxygen,
and not greatly contaminated by other gases,
or by filth of any kind. Do not allow yourself
to think that you are compelled to live or
work where the air is not fit to breathe.
If your house cannot be properly ventilated,
move; and if you are employed where the air
is bad, get another job; you can, by practicing
the methods given in the preceding volume
of this series—"THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH."
If no one would consent to work in bad air,
employers would speedily see to it that all
work rooms were properly ventilated. The worst
air is that from which the oxygen has been
exhausted by breathing; as that of churches
and theaters where crowds of people congregate,
and the outlet and supply of air are poor.
Next to this is air containing other gases
than oxygen and hydrogen—sewer gas, and
the effluvium from decaying things. Air that
is heavily charged with dust or particles
of organic matter may be endured better than
any of these. Small particles of organic matter
other than food are generally thrown off from
the lungs; but gases go into the blood.
I speak advisedly when I say "other than food."
Air is largely a food. It is the most thoroughly
alive thing we take into the body. Every breath
carries in millions of microbes, many of which
are assimilated. The odors from earth, grass,
tree, flower, plant, and from cooking foods
are foods in themselves; they are minute particles
of the substances from which they come, and
are often so attenuated that they pass directly
from the lungs into the blood, and are assimilated
without digestion. And the atmosphere is permeated
with the One Original Substance, which is
life itself. Consciously recognize this whenever
you think of your breathing, and think that
you are breathing in life; you really are,
and conscious recognition helps the process.
See to it that you do not breathe air containing
poisonous gases, and that you do not rebreathe
the air which has been used by yourself or
others.
That is all there is to the matter of breathing
correctly. Keep your spine straight and your
chest flexible, and breathe pure air, recognizing
with thankfulness the fact that you breathe
in the Eternal Life. That is not difficult;
and beyond these things give little thought
to your breathing except to thank God that
you have learned how to do it perfectly.
End of chapter 14.
Chapter 15 — Sleep
Vital power is renewed in sleep. Every living
thing sleeps; men, animals, reptiles, fish,
and insects sleep, and even plants have regular
periods of slumber. And this is because it
is in sleep that we come into such contact
with the Principle of Life in nature that
our own lives may be renewed. It is in sleep
that the brain of man is recharged with vital
energy, and the Principle of Health within
him is given new strength. It is of the first
importance, then, that we should sleep in
a natural, normal, and perfectly healthy manner.
Studying sleep, we note that the breathing
is much deeper, and more forcible and rhythmic
than in the waking state. Much more air is
inspired when asleep than when awake, and
this tells us that the Principle of Health
requires large quantities of some element
in the atmosphere for the process of renewal.
If you would surround sleep with natural conditions,
then, the first step is to see that you have
an unlimited supply of fresh and pure air
to breathe. Physicians have found that sleeping
in the pure air of out-of-doors is very efficacious
in the treatment of pulmonary troubles; and,
taken in connection with the Way of Living
and Thinking prescribed in this book, you
will find that it is just as efficacious in
curing every other sort of trouble. Do not
take any half-way measures in this matter
of securing pure air while you sleep. Ventilate
your bedroom thoroughly; so thoroughly that
it will be practically the same as sleeping
out of doors. Have a door or window open wide;
have one open on each side of the room, if
possible. If you cannot have a good draught
of air across the room, pull the head of your
bed close to the open window, so that the
air from without may come fully into your
face. No matter how cold or unpleasant the
weather, have a window open, and open wide;
and try to get a circulation of pure air through
the room. Pile on the bedclothes, if necessary,
to keep you warm; but have an unlimited supply
of fresh air from out of doors. This is the
first great requisite for healthy sleep.
The brain and nerve centers cannot be thoroughly
vitalized if you sleep in "dead" or stagnant
air; you must have the living atmosphere,
vital with nature's Principle of Life. I repeat,
do not make any compromise in this matter;
ventilate your sleeping room completely, and
see that there is a circulation of outdoor
air through it while you sleep. You are not
sleeping in a perfectly healthy way if you
shut the doors and windows of your sleeping
room, whether in winter or summer. Have fresh
air. If you are where there is no fresh air,
move. If your bedroom cannot be ventilated,
get into another house.
Next in importance is the mental attitude
in which you go to sleep. It is well to sleep
intelligently, purposefully, knowing what
you do it for. Lie down thinking that sleep
is an infallible vitalizer, and go to sleep
with a confident faith that your strength
is to be renewed; that you will awake full
of vitality and health. Put purpose into your
sleep as you do into your eating; give the
matter your attention for a few minutes, as
you go to rest. Do not seek your couch with
a discouraged or depressed feeling; go there
joyously, to be made whole. Do not forget
the exercise of gratitude in going to sleep;
before you close your eyes, give thanks to
God for having shown you the way to perfect
health, and go to sleep with this grateful
thought uppermost in your mind. A bedtime
prayer of thanksgiving is a mighty good thing;
it puts the Principle of Health within you
into communication with its source, from which
it is to receive new power while you are in
the silence of unconsciousness.
You may see that the requirements for perfectly
healthy sleep are not difficult. First, to
see that you breathe pure air from out of
doors while you sleep; and, second, to put
the Within into touch with the Living Substance
by a few minutes of grateful meditation as
you go to bed. Observe these requirements,
go to sleep in a thankful and confident frame
of mind, and all will be well. If you have
insomnia, do not let it worry you. While you
lie awake, form your conception of health;
meditate with thankfulness on the abundant
life which is yours, breathe, and feel perfectly
confident that you will sleep in due time;
and you will. Insomnia, like every other ailment,
must give way before the Principle of Health
aroused to full constructive activity by the
course of thought and action herein described.
The reader will now comprehend that it is
not at all burdensome or disagreeable to perform
the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly
healthy way. The perfectly healthy way is
the easiest, simplest, most natural, and most
pleasant way. The cultivation of health is
not a work of art, difficulty, or strenuous
labor. You have only to lay aside artificial
observances of every kind, and eat, drink,
breathe, and sleep in the most natural and
delightful way; and if you do this, thinking
health and only health, you will certainly
be well.
End of chapter 15.
Chapter 16 — Supplementary Instructions
In forming a conception of health, it is necessary
to think of the manner in which you would
live and work if you were perfectly well and
very strong; to imagine yourself doing things
in the way of a perfectly well and very strong
person, until you have a fairly good conception
of what you would be if you were well. Then
take a mental and physical attitude in harmony
with this conception; and do not depart from
this attitude. You must unify yourself in
thought with the thing you desire; and whatever
state or condition you unify with yourself
in thought will soon become unified with you
in body. The scientific way is to sever relations
with everything you do not want, and to enter
into relations with everything you do want.
Form a conception of perfect health, and relate
yourself to this conception in word, act,
and attitude.
Guard your speech; make every word harmonize
with the conception of perfect health. Never
complain; never say things like these: "I
did not sleep well last night;" "I have a
pain in my side;" "I do not feel at all well
to-day," and so on. Say "I am looking forward
to a good night's sleep to-night;" "I can
see that I progress rapidly," and things of
similar meaning. In so far as everything which
is connected with disease is concerned, your
way is to forget it; and in so far as everything
which is connected with health is concerned,
your way is to unify yourself with it in thought
and speech.
This is the whole thing in a nutshell: make
yourself one with Health in thought, word,
and action; and do not connect yourself with
sickness either by thought, word, or action.
Do not read "Doctor Books" or medical literature,
or the literature of those whose theories
conflict with those herein set forth; to do
so will certainly undermine your faith in
the Way of Living upon which you have entered,
and cause you to again come into mental relations
with disease. This book really gives you all
that is required; nothing essential has been
omitted, and practically all the superfluous
has been eliminated. The Science of Being
Well is an exact science, like arithmetic;
nothing can be added to the fundamental principles,
and if anything be taken from them, a failure
will result. If you follow strictly the way
of living prescribed in this book, you will
be well; and you certainly CAN follow this
way, both in thought and action.
Relate not only yourself, but so far as possible
all others, in your thoughts, to perfect health.
Do not sympathize with people when they complain,
or even when they are sick and suffering.
Turn their thoughts into a constructive channel
if you can; do all you can for their relief,
but do it with the health thought in your
mind. Do not let people tell their woes and
catalogue their symptoms to you; turn the
conversation to some other subject, or excuse
yourself and go. Better be considered an unfeeling
person than to have the disease thought forced
upon you. When you are in company of people
whose conversational stock-in-trade is sickness
and kindred matters, ignore what they say
and fall to offering a mental prayer of gratitude
for your perfect health; and if that does
not enable you to shut out their thoughts,
say good-by and leave them. No matter what
they think or say; politeness does not require
you to permit yourself to be poisoned by diseased
or perverted thought. When we have a few more
hundreds of thousands of enlightened thinkers
who will not stay where people complain and
talk sickness, the world will advance rapidly
toward health. When you let people talk to
you of sickness, you assist them to increase
and multiply sickness.
What shall I do when I am in pain? Can one
be in actual physical suffering and still
think only thoughts of health?
Yes. Do not resist pain; recognize that it
is a good thing. Pain is caused by an effort
of the Principle of Health to overcome some
unnatural condition; this you must know and
feel. When you have a pain, think that a process
of healing is going on in the affected part,
and mentally assist and co-operate with it.
Put yourself in full mental harmony with the
power which is causing the pain; assist it;
help it along. Do not hesitate, when necessary,
to use hot fomentations and similar means
to further the good work which is going on.
If the pain is severe, lie down and give your
mind to the work of quietly and easily co-operating
with the force which is at work for your good.
This is the time to exercise gratitude and
faith; be thankful for the power of health
which is causing the pain, and be certain
that the pain will cease as soon as the good
work is done. Fix your thoughts, with confidence,
on the Principle of Health which is making
such conditions within you that pain will
soon be unnecessary. You will be surprised
to find how easily you can conquer pain; and
after you have lived for a time in this Scientific
Way, pains and aches will be things unknown
to you.
What shall I do when I am too weak for my
work? Shall I drive myself beyond my strength,
trusting in God to support me? Shall I go
on, like the runner, expecting a "second wind"?
No; better not. When you begin to live in
this Way, you will probably not be of normal
strength; and you will gradually pass from
a low physical condition to a higher one.
If you relate yourself mentally with health
and strength, and perform the voluntary functions
of life in a perfectly healthy manner, your
strength will increase from day to day; but
for a time you may have days when your strength
is insufficient for the work you would like
to do. At such times rest, and exercise gratitude.
Recognize the fact that your strength is growing
rapidly, and feel a deep thankfulness to the
Living One from whom it comes. Spend an hour
of weakness in thanksgiving and rest, with
full faith that great strength is at hand;
and then get up and go on again. While you
rest do not think of your present weakness;
think of the strength that is coming.
Never, at any time, allow yourself to think
that you are giving way to weakness; when
you rest, as when you go to sleep, fix your
mind on the Principle of Health which is building
you into complete strength.
What shall I do about that great bugaboo which
scares millions of people to death every year—Constipation?
Do nothing. Read Horace Fletcher on "The A
B Z or Our Own Nutrition," and get the full
force of his explanation of the fact that
when you live on this scientific plan you
need not, and indeed cannot, have an evacuation
of the bowels every day; and that an operation
in from once in three days to once in two
weeks is quite sufficient for perfect health.
The gross feeders who eat from three to ten
times as much as can be utilized in their
systems have a great amount of waste to eliminate;
but if you live in the manner we have described
it will be otherwise with you.
If you eat only when you have an EARNED HUNGER,
and chew every mouthful to a liquid, and if
you stop eating the instant you BEGIN to be
conscious of an abatement of your hunger,
you will so perfectly prepare your food for
digestion and assimilation that practically
all of it will be taken up by the absorbents;
and there will be little—almost nothing—remaining
in the bowels to be excreted. If you are able
to entirely banish from your memory all that
you have read in "doctor books" and patent
medicine advertisements concerning constipation,
you need give the matter no further thought
at all. The Principle of Health will take
care of it.
But if your mind has been filled with fear-thought
in regard to constipation, it may be well
in the beginning for you to occasionally flush
the colon with warm water. There is not the
least need of doing it, except to make the
process of your mental emancipation from fear
a little easier; it may be worth while for
that. And as soon as you see that you are
making good progress, and that you have cut
down your quantity of food, and are really
eating in the Scientific Way, dismiss constipation
from your mind forever; you have nothing more
to do with it. Put your trust in that Principle
within you which has the power to give you
perfect health; relate It by your reverent
gratitude to the Principle of Life which is
All Power, and go on your way rejoicing.
What about exercise?
Every one is the better for a little all-round
use of the muscles every day; and the best
way to get this is to do it by engaging in
some form of play or amusement. Get your exercise
in the natural way; as recreation, not as
a forced stunt for health's sake alone. Ride
a horse or a bicycle; play tennis or tenpins,
or toss a ball. Have some avocation like gardening
in which you can spend an hour every day with
pleasure and profit; there are a thousand
ways in which you can get exercise enough
to keep your body supple and your circulation
good, and yet not fall into the rut of "exercising
for your health." Exercise for fun or profit;
exercise because you are too healthy to sit
still, and not because you wish to become
healthy, or to remain so.
Are long continued fasts necessary?
Seldom, if ever. The Principle of Health does
not often require twenty, thirty, or forty
days to get ready for action; under normal
conditions, hunger will come in much less
time. In most long fasts, the reason hunger
does not come sooner is because it has been
inhibited by the patient himself. He begins
the fast with the FEAR if not actually with
the hope that it will be many days before
hunger comes; the literature he has read on
the subject has prepared him to expect a long
fast, and he is grimly determined to go to
a finish, let the time be as long as it will.
And the sub-conscious mind, under the influence
of powerful and positive suggestion, suspends
hunger.
When, for any reason, nature takes away your
hunger, go cheerfully on with your usual work,
and do not eat until she gives it back. No
matter if it is two, three, ten days, or longer;
you may be perfectly sure that when it is
time for you to eat you will be hungry; and
if you are cheerfully confident and keep your
faith in health, you will suffer from no weakness
or discomfort caused by abstinence. When you
are not hungry, you will feel stronger, happier,
and more comfortable if you do not eat than
you will if you do eat; no matter how long
the fast. And if you live in the scientific
way described in this book, you will never
have to take long fasts; you will seldom miss
a meal, and you will enjoy your meals more
than ever before in your life. Get an earned
hunger before you eat; and whenever you get
an earned hunger, eat.
End of chapter 16.
Chapter 17 — A Summary of the Science of Being
Well
Health is perfectly natural functioning, normal
living. There is a Principle of Life in the
universe; it is the Living Substance, from
which all things are made. This Living Substance
permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces
of the universe. In its invisible state it
is in and through all forms; and yet all forms
are made of it. To illustrate: Suppose that
a very fine and highly diffusible aqueous
vapor should permeate and penetrate a block
of ice. The ice is formed from living water,
and is living water in form; while the vapor
is also living water, unformed, permeating
a form made from itself. This illustration
will explain how Living Substance permeates
all forms made from It; all life comes from
It; it is all the life there is.
This Universal Substance is a thinking substance,
and takes the form of its thought. The thought
of a form, held by it, creates the form; and
the thought of a motion causes the motion.
It cannot help thinking, and so is forever
creating; and it must move on toward fuller
and more complete expression of itself. This
means toward more complete life and more perfect
functioning; and that means toward perfect
health.
The power of the living substance must always
be exerted toward perfect health; it is a
force in all things making for perfect functioning.
All things are permeated by a power which
makes for health.
Man can relate himself to this power, and
ally himself with it; he can also separate
himself from it in his thoughts.
Man is a form of this Living Substance, and
has within him a Principle of Health. This
Principle of Health, when in full constructive
activity, causes all the involuntary functions
of man's body to be perfectly performed.
Man is a thinking substance, permeating a
visible body, and the processes of his body
are controlled by his thought.
When man thinks only thoughts of perfect health,
the internal processes of his body will be
those of perfect health. Man's first step
toward perfect health must be to form a conception
of himself as perfectly healthy, and as doing
all things in the way and manner of a perfectly
healthy person. Having formed this conception,
he must relate himself to it in all his thoughts,
and sever all thought relations with disease
and weakness.
If he does this, and thinks his thoughts of
health with positive FAITH, man will cause
the Principle of Health within him to become
constructively active, and to heal all his
diseases. He can receive additional power
from the universal Principle of Life by faith,
and he can acquire faith by looking to this
Principle of Life with reverent gratitude
for the health it gives him. If man will consciously
accept the health which is being continually
given to him by the Living Substance, and
if he will be duly grateful therefor, he will
develop faith.
Man cannot think only thoughts of perfect
health unless he performs the voluntary functions
of life in a perfectly healthy manner. These
voluntary functions are eating, drinking,
breathing, and sleeping. If man thinks only
thoughts of health, has faith in health, and
eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps in a perfectly
healthy way, he must have perfect health.
Health is the result of thinking and acting
in a Certain Way; and if a sick man begins
to think and act in this Way, the Principle
of Health within him will come into constructive
activity and heal all his diseases. This Principle
of Heath is the same in all, and is related
to the Life Principle of the universe; it
is able to heal every disease, and will come
into activity whenever man thinks and acts
in accordance with the Science of Being Well.
Therefore, every man can attain to perfect
health.
End of chapter 17.
End of Science of Being Well by Wallace D.
Wattles. Recording by Jill Preston.
