<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></SPAN>CHAPTER III.</h2>
<h2><span class="smcap">Life and Its Organisms.</span></h2>
<p>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;
<i>it produces the body</i>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The performance of function does not
cause life; it is life which causes function
to be performed. Life is first; function
afterward.</p>
<p>It is life which distinguishes organic<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 28]</span>
from inorganic matter, but it is not produced
after the organization of matter.</p>
<p>Life is the principle or force which
causes organization; it builds organisms.</p>
<p>It is a principle or force inherent in
Original Substance; all life is One.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 29]</span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 30]</span>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 31]</span>
truth, so that the man who reads it shall
know too much to go wrong.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The people who have been healed by
prayers and affirmations were also
healed by thinking in a certain way;<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 32]</span>
there is no curative power in strings of
words.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><i>The two essentials of the Way are
Faith, and a Personal Application of
the Faith.</i></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 33]</span>
and thought of themselves only in connection
with health.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 34]</span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 35]</span></p>
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