THE
SCIENCE OF
BEING WELL
BY
WALLACE D. WATTLES
PRICE, $1.00
PUBLISHED BY
ELIZABETH TOWNE
HOLYOKE, MASS.
1910
COPYRIGHT, SEPTEMBER, 1910
BY
WALLACE D. WATTLES
CONTENTS
|
| PAGE |
| Preface | 5 |
| I. | The Principle of Health | 9 |
| II. | The Foundation of Faith | 17 |
| III. | Life and Its Organisms | 27 |
| IV. | What to Think | 35 |
| V. | Faith | 46 |
| VI. | Use of the Will | 56 |
| VII. | Health from God | 65 |
| VIII. | Summary of the Mental Actions | 74 |
| IX. | When to Eat | 80 |
| X. | What to Eat | 89 |
| XI. | How to Eat | 99 |
| XII. | Hunger and Appetites | 108 |
| XIII. | In a Nutshell | 116 |
| XIV. | Breathing | 125 |
| XV. | Sleep | 133 |
| XVI. | Supplementary Instructions | 139 |
| XVII. | A Summary of the Science of Being Well | 151 |
[Pg 5]
FOREWORD BY OLIVIA SALTER.
Dear reader, It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to "The Science of Being Well" by W. D. Wattles. As we embark on this journey of holistic wellness on this beautiful Wednesday, August 16, 2023, I invite you to open your heart and mind to the transformative power of Wattles' timeless wisdom.
In an era where our physical and mental health have taken center stage, it is essential to explore the depths of our being and understand the fundamental principles that govern our well-being. Wattles, an enlightened thinker, presents us with a road map to unlock the secrets of a fulfilling and healthy life.
As we delve into the pages of this profound work, we discover that Wattles' teachings are not bound by time but rooted in the timeless truths of the human experience. He emphasizes that wellness is not merely the absence of illness but a harmonious integration of mind, body, and spirit.
One of the cornerstones of Wattles' philosophy is the recognition that we possess an inherent power to heal ourselves. Through the alignment of our thoughts, beliefs, and actions, we can tap into this reservoir of inner strength and manifest optimal health. Wattles reminds us that our bodies are not separate from our consciousness but intimately connected to it.
Furthermore, Wattles' holistic approach extends beyond the individual, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all living beings. He urges us to cultivate empathy, compassion, and a sense of unity with the world around us. By nurturing harmonious relationships, engaging in acts of kindness, and honoring the natural world, we contribute to the well-being of our collective consciousness.
As we contemplate these timeless principles, let us also embrace the unique challenges and opportunities that Wednesday, August 16, 2023, presents. Each day is an invitation to live fully and intentionally and to make choices that align with our well-being and purpose. Let us seize this day as an opportunity to recalibrate our lives and embrace a path of extraordinary vitality.
May "The Science of Being Well" serve as our guiding light, illuminating the path towards a healthier, more vibrant existence. May it inspire us to cultivate gratitude, practice self-care, and pursue our highest aspirations. Let us embark on this transformative journey together, united in our quest for well-being.
With the warmest regards, Olivia Salter.
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.[Pg 6]
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,[Pg 7]
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 con[Pg 8]flicting
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.
[Pg 9]
CHAPTER I.
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[Pg 10]
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[Pg 11]
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 state[Pg 12]ment,
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,[Pg 13]
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 astonish[Pg 14]ment
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.[Pg 15]
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.[Pg 16]
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.
[Pg 17]
CHAPTER II.
The Foundations of Faith.
Before man can think in the
Certain Way which will
cause his diseases to be
healed, he must believe in
certain truths which are
here stated:—
All things are made from one Living
Substance, which, in its original state,
permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces
of the universe. While all
visible things are made from It, yet this
Substance, in its first formless condition
is in and through all the visible forms
that It has made. Its life is in All, and
its intelligence is in All.
This Substance creates by thought,
and its method is by taking the form
of that which it thinks about. The
thought of a form held by this substance
causes it to assume that form; the[Pg 18]
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 cer[Pg 19]tain
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[Pg 20]
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[Pg 21]
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,[Pg 22]
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.[Pg 23]
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 func[Pg 24]tion—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[Pg 25]
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.
[Pg 26]
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.
[Pg 27]
CHAPTER III.
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[Pg 28]
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[Pg 29]
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 func[Pg 30]tioning
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[Pg 31]
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;[Pg 32]
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[Pg 33]
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.[Pg 34]
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.
[Pg 35]
CHAPTER IV.
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[Pg 36]
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[Pg 37]
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[Pg 38]
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.[Pg 39]
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[Pg 40]
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[Pg 41]
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 im[Pg 42]perfect
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.[Pg 43]
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-[Pg 44]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:—[Pg 45]
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.
[Pg 46]
CHAPTER V.
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,[Pg 47]
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[Pg 48]
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.[Pg 49]
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
[Pg 50]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[Pg 51]
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[Pg 52]
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[Pg 53]
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.[Pg 54]
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[Pg 55]
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.
[Pg 56]
CHAPTER VI.
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[Pg 57]
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
[Pg 58]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[Pg 59]
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[Pg 60]
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[Pg 61]
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[Pg 62]
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, weak[Pg 63]ness,
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.[Pg 64]
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.
[Pg 65]
CHAPTER VII.
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,[Pg 66]
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[Pg 67]
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[Pg 68]
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.[Pg 69]
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,[Pg 70]
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.[Pg 71]
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[Pg 72]
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,[Pg 73]
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.
[Pg 74]
CHAPTER VIII.
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[Pg 75]
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[Pg 76]
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[A]
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
[Pg 77]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 your[Pg 78]self
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[Pg 79]
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.
[Pg 80]
CHAPTER IX.
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[Pg 81]
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 caus[Pg 82]ing
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[Pg 83]
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[Pg 84]
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.[Pg 85]
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[Pg 86]
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[Pg 87]
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[Pg 88]
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.
[Pg 89]
CHAPTER X.
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 scien[Pg 90]tists
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[Pg 91]
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 re[Pg 92]sult
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[Pg 93]
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[Pg 94]
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.[Pg 95]
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[Pg 96]
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[Pg 97]
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 men[Pg 98]tally
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.
[Pg 99]
CHAPTER XI.
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[Pg 100]
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.[Pg 101]
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[Pg 102]
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[Pg 103]
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[Pg 104]
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[Pg 105]
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[Pg 106]
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[Pg 107]
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.
[Pg 108]
CHAPTER XII.
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 mouth[Pg 109]ful
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[Pg 110]
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 for[Pg 111]est
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[Pg 112]
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[Pg 113]
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[Pg 114]
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[Pg 115]
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.
[Pg 116]
CHAPTER XIII.
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[Pg 117]
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[Pg 118]
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,[Pg 119]
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[Pg 120]
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[Pg 121]
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[Pg 122]
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[Pg 123]
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[Pg 124]
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.
[Pg 125]
CHAPTER XIV.
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[Pg 126]
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[Pg 127]
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[Pg 128]
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[Pg 129]
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 exer[Pg 130]cises
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[Pg 131]
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[Pg 132]
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.
[Pg 133]
CHAPTER XV.
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[Pg 134]
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[Pg 135]
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[Pg 136]
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[Pg 137]
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[Pg 138]
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.
[Pg 139]
CHAPTER XVI.
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 rela[Pg 140]tions
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.[Pg 141]
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[Pg 142]
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[Pg 143]
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[Pg 144]
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[Pg 145]
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[Pg 146]
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[Pg 147]
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[Pg 148]
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,[Pg 149]
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[Pg 150]
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.
[Pg 151]
CHAPTER XVII.
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[Pg 152]
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,
[Pg 153]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[Pg 154]
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 Princi[Pg 155]ple
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.
THE SCIENCE OF BEING WELL
AND
GETTING RICH RIGHT
Is further elucidated in The Nautilus Magazine,
published monthly for the express purpose of Making
The Man And Woman Who Can Do What They Will
To Do. It abounds in practical ideas and in the bright
inspiration that impels you to use the ideas. Use it as
first aid!
The Nautilus teaches and inspires Health, Wealth,
and Happiness in all departments of life.
Wallace D. Wattles who wrote this book teaches
Constructive Science in every number of the magazine.
How to think so as to promote yourself in Health and
Success is what you want to know. He teaches it!
Elizabeth Towne and William E. Towne teach it, too.
They are the editors and owners of The Nautilus, and
their success is worth knowing about and learning
from.
There are many splendid contributors to The Nautilus—Ella
Wheeler Wilcox, Edwin Markham, Thomas
Drier, Adelaide Keen, Grace MacGowan Cooke, and
Florence Morse Kingsley among them. Get in touch
with Health and Success, and with Happy and Successful
people through The Nautilus.
There is a Family Counsel Department where Elizabeth
Towne answers personal problems for those who
ask. In the Success Department everybody is invited
to say his say, and prizes are given for best letters.
Don't miss Wallace D. Wattles' great new serial
story "As a Grain of Mustard Seed" which begins in
an early number of the magazine.
Send $1.00 for a year's subscription to The Nautilus,
with a copy of "Making The Man Who Can" and
"Marital Unrest: a New Remedy," both by Wallace
D. Wattles. Or, send 10 cents for a 3 months' trial,
and a copy of "Marital Unrest."
Do you want more books on Health and Success? Read Wallace D.
Wattles' "Science of Getting Rich," and Bruce McClelland's "Prosperity
Through Thought Force," to which Ella Wheeler Wilcox gave
nearly a page of space in the New York Journal; and read "Health
and Wealth from Within," by William E. Towne and "Practical
Methods for Self-Development" by Elizabeth Towne. Price of these
books, $1.00 each, all 4 for $3.50. And don't you want to read Wallace
D. Wattles' "New Science of Living and Healing," price 50 cents?
Address, ELIZABETH TOWNE,
DEPT. TH, HOLYOKE, MASS.
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