The following
is extracted from the book 'The Master Key system' by Charles
F. Haanel
Thoughts
are spiritual seeds, which, when planted in the subconscious mind,
have a tendency to sprout and grow, but unfortunately the fruit
is frequently not to our liking.
The various forms of inflammation, paralysis, nervousness and
diseased conditions generally, are the manifestation of fear,
worry, care, anxiety, jealousy, hatred and similar thought.
The life processes are carried on by two distinct methods; first,
the taking up and making use of nutritive material necessary for
constructing cells; second, breaking down and excreting the waste
material.
All life is based upon these constructive and destructive activities,
and as food, water and air are the only requisites necessary for
the construction of cells, it would seem that the problem of prolonging
life indefinitely would not be a very difficult one.
However strange it may seem, it is the second or destructive activity
that is, with rare exception, the cause of all disease. The waste
material accumulates and saturates the tissues, which causes autointoxication.
This may be partial or general. In the first case the disturbance
will be local; in the second place it will affect the whole system.
The problem, then, before us in the healing of disease is to increase
the inflow and distribution of vital energy throughout the system,
and this can only be done by eliminating thoughts of fear, worry,
care, anxiety, jealousy, hatred, and every other destructive thought,
which tend to tear down and destroy the nerves and glands which
control the excretion and elimination of poisonous and waste matter.
"Nourishing foods and strengthening tonics" cannot bestow
life, because these are but secondary manifestations to life.
The primary manifestation of life and how you may get in touch
with it is explained below which I have the privilege of enclosing
herewith.
1.Knowledge is of priceless value,
because by applying knowledge we can make our future what we wish
it to be. When we realize that our present character, our present
environment, our present ability, our present physical condition
are all the result of past methods of thinking, we shall begin
to have some conception of the value of knowledge.
2. If the state of our health is not all that could be desired,
let us examine our method of thinking; let us remember that every
thought produces an impression on the mind;every impression is a seed which will sink into the subconscious
and form a tendency; the tendency will be to attract other
similar thoughts and before we know it we shall have a crop which
must be harvested.
3. If these thoughts contain disease germs, the harvest will be
sickness, decay, weakness, and failure; the question is, what
are we thinking, what are we creating, what is the harvest to
be?
4. If there is any physical condition
which it is necessary to change, the law governing visualization
will be found effective. Make a mental image of physical perfection,
hold it in the mind until it is absorbed by the consciousness.
Many have eliminated chronic ailments in a few weeks by this method,
and thousands have overcome and destroyed all manner of ordinary
physical disturbances by this method in a few days, sometimes
in a few minutes.
5. It is through
the law of vibration that the mind exercises this control over
the body. We know that every mental action is a vibration, and
we know that all form is simply a mode of motion, a rate of vibration.
Therefore, any given vibration immediately modifies every atom
in the body, every life cell is affected and an entire chemical
change is made in every group of life cells.
6. Everything in the Universe is
what it is by virtue of its rate of vibration. Change the rate
of vibration and you change the nature, quality and form.
The vast panorama of nature, both visible and invisible, is being
constantly changed by simply changing the rate of vibration, and
as thought is a vibration we can also exercise this power. We
can change the vibration and thus produce any condition which
we desire to manifest in our bodies.
7. We are all using this power every minute. The trouble is most
of us are using it unconsciously and thus producing undesirable
results. The problem is to use it intelligently and produce only
desirable results. This should not be difficult, because we all
have had sufficient experience to know what produces pleasant
vibration in the body, and we also know the causes which produce
the unpleasant and disagreeable sensations.
8. All that is necessary is to consult our own experience. When
our thought has been uplifted, progressive, constructive, courageous,
noble, kind or in any other way desirable, we have set in motion
vibrations which brought about certain results. When our thought
has been filled with envy, hatred, jealousy, criticism or any
of the other thousand and one forms of discord, certain vibrations
were set in motion which brought about certain other results of
a different nature, and each of these rates of vibration, if kept
up, crystallized in form. In the first case the result was mental,
moral and physical health, and in the second case discord, inharmony
and disease.
9. We can understand, then, something of the power which the mind
possesses over the body.
10. The objective mind has certain
effects on the body which are readily recognized. Someone
says something to you which strikes you as ludicrous and you laugh,
possibly until your whole body shakes, which shows that thought
has control over the muscles of your body; or someone says something
which excites your sympathy and your eyes fill with tears, which
shows that thought controls the glands of your body; or someone
says something which makes you angry and the blood mounts to your
cheek, which shows that thought controls the circulation of
your blood. But as these experiences are all the results of
the action of your objective mind over the body, the results are
of a temporary nature; they soon pass away and leave the situation
as it was before.
11. Let us see how the action of the subconscious mind over
the body differs. You receive a wound; thousands of cells
being the work of healing at once; in a few days or a few weeks
the work is complete. You may even break a bone. No surgeon on
earth can weld the parts together (I am not referring to the insertion
of rods or other devices to strengthen or replace bones). He may
set the bone for you, and the subjective mind will immediately
begin the process of welding the parts together, and in a short
time the bone is as solid as it ever was. You may swallow poison;
the subjective mind will immediately discover the danger and make
violent efforts to eliminate it. You may become infected with
a dangerous germ; the subjective will at once commence to build
a wall around the infected area and destroy the infection by absorbing
it in the white blood corpuscles which it supplies for the purpose.
12. These processes of the subconscious mind usually proceed without
our personal knowledge or direction, and so long as we do not
interfere the result is perfect, but, as these millions of repair
cells are all intelligent and respond to our thought, they are
often paralyzed and rendered impotent by our thoughts of fear,
doubt, and anxiety. They are like an army of workmen, ready to
start an important piece of work, but every time they get started
on the undertaking a strike is called, or plans changed, until
they finally get discouraged and give up.
13. The way to health is founded
on the law of vibration, which is the basis of all science,
and this law is brought into operation by the mind, the "world
within." It is a matter of individual effort and practice.
Our world of power is within; if we are wise we shall not waste
time and effort in trying to deal with effects as we find
them in the "world without," which is only an external,
a reflection.
14. We shall always find the cause in the "world within";
by changing the cause, we change the effect.
15. Every cell in your body
is intelligent and will respond to your direction. The cells
are all creators and will create the exact pattern which you give
them.
16. Therefore, when perfect images are placed before the subjective,
the creative energies will build a perfect body.
17. Brain cells are constructed in the same way. The quality of
the brain is governed by the state of mind, or mental attitude,
so that if undesirable mental attitudes are conveyed to the subjective
they will in turn be transferred to the body; we can therefore
readily see that if we wish the body to manifest health, strength
and vitality this must be the predominant thought.
18. We know then that every element of the human body is the result
of a rate of vibration
19. We know that mental action is a rate of vibration.
20. We know that a higher rate of vibration governs, modifies,
controls, changes, or destroys a lower rate of vibration.
21. We know that the rate of vibration is governed by the character
of brain cells, and finally,
22. We know how to create these brain cells; therefore,
23. We know how to make any physical change in the body we desire,
and having secured a working knowledge of the power of mind to
this extent, we have come to know that there is practically no
limitation which can be placed upon our ability to place ourselves
in harmony with natural law, which is omnipotent.
24. This influence or control over the body by mind is coming
to be more and more generally understood, and many physicians
are now giving the matter their earnest attention. Dr. Albert
T. Shofield, who has written several important books on the subject,
say, "The subject of mental therapeutics is still ignored
in medical works generally. In our physiologies no references
is made to the central controlling power that rules the body for
its good, and the power of the mind over the body is seldom spoken
of".
25. No doubt many physicians treat nervous diseases of functional
origin wisely and well, but what we contend is that the knowledge
they display was taught at no school, was learned from no book,
but it is intuitive and empirical.
26. This is
not as it should be. The power of mental therapeutics should be
the subject of careful, special and scientific teaching in every
medical school. We might pursue the subject of maltreatment, or
want of treatment, further in detail and describe the disastrous
results of neglected cases; but the task is an invidious one.
27. There can be no doubt that
few patients are aware how much they can do for themselves.
What the patient can do for himself, the forces he can set in
motion are as yet unknown. We are inclined to believe that they
are far greater than most imagine, and will undoubtedly be used
more and more. Mental therapeutics may be directed by the patient
himself to calming the mind in excitement, by arousing feelings
of joy, hope, faith, and love; by suggesting motives for exertion,
by regular mental work, by diverting the thoughts from the malady.
28. For your exercise this week concentrate on Tennyson's beautiful
lines "Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with
spirit can meet, Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than
hands and feet." Then try to realize that when you do "Speak
to Him" you are in touch with Omnipotence.
29. This realization and recognition of this
Omnipresent power will quickly destroy any and every form of sickness
or suffering and substitute harmony and perfection. Then remember
there are those who seem to think that sickness and suffering
are sent by God; if so, every physician, every surgeon and
every Red Cross nurse is defying the will of God and hospitals
and sanitariums are places of rebellion instead of houses of mercy.
Of course, this quickly reasons itself into an absurdity, but
there are many; who still cherish the idea.
30. Then let the thought rest on the fact that until recently
theology has been trying to teach an impossible Creator, one who
created beings capable of sinning and then allowed them to be
eternally punished for such sins. Of course the necessary outcome
of such extraordinary ignorance was to create fear instead of
love, and so, after two thousand years of this kind of propaganda,
Theology is now busily engaged in apologizing for Christendom.
31. You will then more readily
appreciate the ideal man, the man made in the image and likeness
of God, and you will more readily appreciate the all originating
Mind that forms, upholds, sustains, originates, and creates all
there is.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is,
and God the soul.
Opportunity follows perception, action follows inspiration, growth
follows knowledge, eminence flows progress. Always the spiritual
first, then the transformation into the infinite and illimitable
possibilities of achievement.
