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.
