How To Put The Subconscious Mind To Work
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The Subconscious is the most wonderful thing in the human mind, and perhaps in all the world we know; for it is the omnipotent part of man. A single illustration will suffice to show this transcendent quality.

Did you ever go to bed at night desiring to awaken at a certain hour in the morning! The time may be altogether different from your usual arising hour, but is it not a fact that whatever it is, you generally awaken exactly on the dot. It may be two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock, six o'clock, or any other o'clock; but in nine cases out of ten you open your eyes on time.

This involves an operation of the omniscient part of man. The subconscious mind knows everything though, of course, it must be properly directed. If you wish to awaken at five o'clock in the morning, and are not used to rising at that hour, your conscious mind gives a strong suggestion which the subconscious takes up, and as a result you actually do emerge from sleep at the right moment, though without visible or external cause. Notice the omniscient (all-knowing) part of this again. You do not have to take out your watch and say ''eight hours from now will be five o'clock Standard Time--I shall get up at five o'clock." No, it doesn't make any difference whether it is two hours or five hours, whether it is eight minutes or 800 minutes. At the appointed time you will awaken. Just pause a moment and see what this means.

You awaken at the appointed time, and there you are.

Travel westward, if you will, where the time changes. You go to bed saying to yourself that you will awaken at five o'clock in the morning. You are traveling by sleeper on a fast express. You go to bed by Eastern Time, and while crossing the land enter the belt of Central Time, which is an hour slower; yet you awaken at literally five o'clock--not four o'clock, the absolute hour which would have been five for you had you remained in the Eastern belt; but the actual five o'clock of the new region, which is the Eastern six o'clock. Marvelous are the understandings and workings of the subconscious mind!

Upon giving this illustration in my campaigns, I have often been asked with some perplexity how is it that, if the subconscious mind is the omniscient and divine part of man, this sensitive medium may take up wrong suggestions, such as fear, worry, doubt, sorrow, fright, lack, limitation or poverty. The answer is very simple. All life is orderly and scientific, and works according to certain rules and regulations of nature. The same omniscient spirit which is within man is also within the acorn and the tree. The principle of life is God-Power. The God-Power in the acorn makes the oak; in you, it makes the man.

There is a vast difference between the oak tree and man, just as there is a vast difference between the primitive savage and the great example of the divine in man as manifested by Jesus of Nazareth. All men have the divine in them. Jesus is the highest exemplification of this divinity but it would be absurd to say that because the primitive- man is not the Christ, the God spirit is not within him. In fact, Scripture tells us that man was made in the image of God--that is, that the spirit within man rather than the mere flesh of his body is the image. God spirit is in all living creatures, but is manifested differently according to the planes on which they live.

But to return to the question of my perplexed auditors--if the spirit of man is omniscient, why does his subconscious mind receive wrong impressions, and why must he make conscious suggestions for their correction? The answer is really very simple. You see the God power in the oak and know that the oak's growth is the result of what God and the law of the tree can do. Similarly, the God power in man can accomplish as much as man and God can do.

In other words, the omniscient part of man must work in accordance with the natural laws of life. The spirit as within man is obviously different from the pure spirit as emancipated from all earthly trammels. Of the one we may expect only inclinations toward complete divinity; the other is pure divinity itself.

The butterfly has only those same potentialities within it which were once encased by the lowly cocoon. The same God power was at work with the life in the cocoon, as that which is at work in the well developed butterfly; but for a while that now gorgeous and active spirit was limited and made outwardly dull by the sluggish primitiveness of the cocoon environment. So with man.

The spirit in man is for the time being limited by the flesh . . . the cocoon of man, if you please. The same God spirit which presides in the individual, handicapped as it may be by the fleshly tabernacle, will some time leave the body and go into another and higher sphere of development, as the butterfly leaves the cocoon. And in that higher plane, where there is no limitation of the flesh, what may the spirit not be able to do? It may travel to distant lands and return in an instant, as our radio vibrations are sent out and caught by the aerials which link in fellowship all the homes of America from Boston to San Francisco. The spirit of man, when freed from the cocoon of the flesh, may have as little limitation as the pure essence of God himself.

So one should not become discouraged by the seeming paradox involved in the necessity of suggestion to a subconscious mind which is omniscient and divine. We have to suggest, because that is the way in which the process happens to work. The way to catch radio broadcastings is to have your aerial, and gather in the vibrations.

There may be millions of Universal radios vibrating through the Universal ether, but if you have no aerial and cannot listen in you do not know what is taking place. You catch the message by having your aerial and your radio machine, and without these you can never get it. It is the way it is done, that is all.

So, if we would have the subconscious mind work for us, we must recognize the way nature intended it to work. While it is encased in the cocoon of the fleshly tabernacle, it is amenable to suggestion; and this is the only way we are going to get it to work at such a stage, because this is the present way that God intended it to work. While it is limited by the flesh, we must work in the fleshly way. When it is freed from the flesh who may dream or prophesy what laws it will own or what heights it can reach. We are here now, and the way to get the omniscient part of us to perform the wonders of omnipotence, is to work according to the laws which God has laid down.

Since the subconscious mind is both omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing), it knows everything which ought to be done for man's good; and if properly directed by suggestion will do it. It will find one's right environment, and lead one to his right vocation. It will select one's proper life mate, and attract abundance and happiness to him. Its omniscience gives it a thorough knowledge of man's cellular metabolism, glandular secretion, vascular, muscular and nervous activity, and indeed of all things pertaining to health and vitality; a knowledge which needs only the guidance of sincere and intelligent suggestion to make it the omnipotent corrective of every bodily inharmony.

In "Therapeutic Suggestion Applied," the author gives a splendid elucidation of the workings of the subconscious mind for health.

The objective mind is the mind which results from organization, and it may be regarded as the function of the brain. It is the mind with which we do business; the mind that operates through the five physical senses. It comes, develops with, matures, and finally declines and dies with the physical body. It controls, in a great measure, all voluntary motion. We call this the "brain mind." It is capable of reasoning both deductively and inductively.

The subjective mind is a distinct entity. It occupies the whole human body, and, when not opposed in any way, it has absolute control over all the functions, conditions and sensations of the body. While the objective mind has control over all of our voluntary functions and motions, the subjective mind controls all of the silent, involuntary and vegetative functions. Nutrition, waste, all secretions and excretions, the action of the heart in the circulation of the blood, the lungs in respiration or breathing, and all cell life, cell changes and development, are positively under the complete control of the subjective mind. This was the only mind animals had before the evolution of a brain; and it could not, nor can it yet, reason inductively, but its power of deductive reasoning is perfect. And more, it can see without the use of physical eyes. It perceives by intuition. It has the power to communicate with others without the aid of ordinary physical means. It can read the thoughts of others. It receives intelligence and transmits it to people at a distance. Distance offers no resistance against the successful missions of the subjective mind. We call this the "soul mind." It is the living soul.

Now, in proper, healthy or normal conditions of life, the objective mind and the subjective mind act in perfect harmony with each other. When this is the case healthy and happy conditions always prevail. But, unfortunately perhaps, these two minds are not always permitted to act in perfect harmony with each other; this brings mental disturbances, excites physical wrongs, functional and organic diseases.

Happily, by a knowledge of and a strict obedience to the laws of life, the objective and subjective minds can be kept in harmony with each other; and when they get out of harmony, and disease and pain result, they can be brought into harmony again and perfect conditions of health restored, all by suggestion. By suggestion, we say. Yes, by suggestion! Let the reader keep the following paragraph before him, and be careful to properly understand it, and he will readily see how suggestion controls physical conditions, and how we can command mind forces for the relief and cure of disease.

While the subjective mind possesses the power of intuitive perception, which enables it to perceive, independently of reason, experience or previous education, the laws that pertain to our physical and mental harmony--good health --it is entirely incapable of inductive reasoning, and is constantly amenable to the power of suggestion for either good or evil by the conscious mind of the individual him- self or that of another. Therefore, notwithstanding the subconscious mind has, when not opposed in any way, absolute control over all the functions and sensations of the body, and is entirely capable of preserving their harmonious and healthful manifestations, it is also true that improper suggestions from the objective mind of the person himself, or from some other person, may divert the action of the subjective mind, and sickness and death may result. On the other hand, in cases of sickness, proper suggestions made to the subjective mind of a patient, by his own objective mind, or by that of some other person, will as certainly result in healthful changes and complete relief from pain and disease.

Now, a careful study of the above paragraph will enable anyone to fully understand how physical changes may be wrought by mental influences; how pain may be relieved and disease controlled by proper suggestions. If the subconscious mind has full control over all our bodily functions, which is absolutely true, and if we can reach the subconscious mind by suggestion, which is also true, then all that is required in order to give relief and cure disease is for us to present suitable ideas to the minds of our patients--thoughts that will result in the relief and cure of disease and the correction of vices--and our work is accomplished.

J. D. Powers in "Mind Power Plus" follows the same line of reasoning, thus:

When doctors and psychologists speak of the effect of the mind on the body and the health of the body they are dealing with definite facts and with laws capable of scientific proof. For it is known now that the subconscious mind, which is at once the master of the body and the servant of consciousness, is the bridge between the body and the mind.

Or in other words the subconscious mind runs all the bodily machinery. You consciously eat your dinner, but fortunately for you, you have nothing to do with the digestion of it. An unseen chemist, who knows just what chemicals are needed for each kind of food, goes to work at once to convert the food you have given to him into a living body, into the building up of tissue, of muscle and nerve. So also your heart action is taken out of the control of your conscious mind and left to a mind that never sleeps, never tires, never goes off the job, never forgets for an instant, and you go to your work and lie down in perfect safety so far as the action of your heart is concerned. So also during the day and the night, year in and year out, the blood circulates in all parts of your body, your breathing apparatus never stops for an instant, the liver and the kidneys and the various glands of the body do their work under the eyes and the never-relaxing super- vision of this unseen, and, for the most part, unknown overseer.

Any physician will tell you that constant thought about any part of the body never fails to send an over-supply of blood to that part; and of course that means congestion and pain. By sending messages directly to an organ through the nerve centers or by changing the circulation, the subconscious director of our bodies can make any part of us misbehave in a number of ways. All it needs is a suggestion of an interfering thought about an organ, such as the heart or the stomach or the liver. Or all you need to do is to get worrying about yourself; that is the same thing, and gets the same results in ill health.

In other words, hands off--or rather, minds off. Don't get ideas that make you think about your body. The surest way to disarrange any function of the body is to think about it, especially to worry about it, to be pessimistic or blue about it. It is a stout heart that will not change its beat with a frequent finger on the pulse, and a hearty stomach that will not "act up" if you get to thinking about it or fretting about what you eat.

The medical profession has for a considerable time recognized that there is some hidden power in the human being which can effect a cure much more rapidly and permanently than any administered medicine.

Now let us see what more can be said in its favor. Dr. Mitchell Bruce writes :

“We are compelled to acknowledge a power of natural recovery inherent in the body--a similar statement has been made by writers on the principle of medicine in all ages. The body DOES possess a means and mechanism for modifying or neutralizing influences which it cannot directly overcome.”

I believe, that a natural power of prevention and repair of disorder and disease has as real and as active an existence within us as have the ordinary functions of the organs themselves.

"Every thoughtful practitioner," says Dr. Wilkinson, "will acknowledge that when his therapeutic reserves are exhausted by far the most reliable consultant is the VIS MEDICATRIX NATURAE. To ignore the fact that she has already been in charge of the case for days, when we first approach with our mixtures and tabloids, is at least a mistake in medical ethics."

"The VIS MEDICATRIX NATURAE," he also says, "is a power, a vital resistance to disease."

"Whatever other theories we hold, we must recognize the VIS MEDICATRIX NATURAE in some shape or other," says Professor O. W. Holmes.

"Je le pansay et Dieu le guarit ("I dressed the wound and God healed it") is written by Ambroise Pare on the walls of the Ecole de Medecine at Paris. "Nature is the physician of disease," says Hippocrates. "Reason dictates that disease is nothing else but Nature's endeavours to thrust forth with all her might the morbific matter for the health of the patient" (Sydenham). "This is more true of the symptoms than of the disease itself."

This power now is recognized and understood by modern science to reside within the subconscious mind. It is the subconscious mind itself.

Some medical authorities endeavour to explain it in this fashion:

It may be asked how the subconscious mind can affect and modify these vital functions? To illustrate very simply what we mean, it is a well-known physiological law that the vasomotor nervous system is greatly influenced by the emotions. Those having had experience in the use of suggestive therapeutics know that the psychic centers govern very largely the vasomotor nerves, and, consequently the circulation and the secretions. This is the reason why pills made of bread crumbs or other harmless substances, with suggestions, have been capable of causing diarrhea; this explains why disagreeable psychic sensations or depressing emotions are able to stop or poison the milk of a nursing mother. Herein is found also the explanation why a tumor increases rapidly in size if the patient is constantly preoccupied in thought with it, also with the naturally attending thoughts that depress. So, also is the concentration of the mind on a particular part of the body capable of modifying the flow of blood to that part.

While another school of science expresses it thus :

We would call your attention here, at this point, to the fact that the bases of Mind Cure, Mental Healing, Mental Therapeutics (or by whatever names the various systems of mental cure of disease may be called) undoubtedly are to be found in the fact that the vital functions and processes of the body are really performed by mind operating along subconscious lines--by the Subconscious, in fact. This being realized, it is seen plainly that Mental Healing (in each or all of its forms) is not a case of the power of Mind over Matter, but rather that of the influence of one phase of the mind over another phase—a case of "Mind over Mind," in fact.

And so it is possible for the body to originate, and the mind to recognize, sensations which are not actually present; for instance, cancer of the foot can produce severe pain for months; cancer, foot, and all, may be amputated, and yet the patient may keep on recognizing pain as coming from the foot--recognizing it as in the foot, for weeks after the diseased member has been buried in some distant field.

And so various sensations of feeling--itching, pricking, burning--as well as sounds and voices, and sights and objects, may be aroused in the brain, while in reality they have no existence--they are merely illusions, sense delusions, or mental hallucinations. Sensations can produce ideas, and it should also be borne in mind that ideas can produce sensations.

All our feelings possess a natural language or expression. The smile of joy, the puckered features in pain, the stare of astonishment, the quivering of fear, the tones and glance of tenderness, the frown of anger--are all united in seemingly inseparable association with the states of feeling which they indicate. If a feeling arises without its appropriate sign or accompaniment, we account for the failure either by voluntary suppression, or by the faintness of the excitement, there being a certain degree of intensity requisite visibly to affect the bodily organs.

The physical sense impressions become sensations and feelings in the brain; and feelings may be described as a translation of the more purely physical impressions into nervous sensations that can be recognized by the mind.

And so the fundamental basis of thought is found to be wholly physical, and the first step in thinking, conscious sensation, has its foundation in the special organs of sense connected with the body.

Yet again must medicine approach the great questions of life, growth and health; expounding them, through a leading authority, in such words as these:

It has often been a mystery how the body thrives so well with so little oversight or care on the part of its owner.

No machine could be constructed, nor could any combination of solids or liquids in organic compounds regulate, control, counteract, help, hinder or arrange for the continual succession of differing events, foods, surroundings and conditions which are constantly affecting the body. And yet, in the midst of this ever-changing and varying succession of influences, the body holds on its course of growth, health, nutrition and self-maintenance with the most marvelous constancy.

We perceive, of course, clearly, that the best of qualities, --regulation, control, etc., etc.--are all mental qualities, and at the same time it is equally clear that by no self- examination can we say that we consciously exercise any of these mental powers over the organic processes of our bodies. One would think, then, that the conclusion is sufficiently simple and obvious--that they must be used unconsciously; in other words, it is, and can be nothing else than, unconscious mental powers that control, guide and govern the functions and organs of the body. Consider, for instance, the marvelous increase of smooth muscle in the uterus at term, and also its no less marvelous subsequent involution; observe, too, the compensating muscular increase of a damaged heart until the balance is restored and then it ceases, as does growth at a fixed period; consider in detail the repair of a broken bone. These actions are not mere properties of matter; they demand, and are the result of, a controlling mind.

The circulation does not go round as most text-books would lead us to believe, as the result merely of the action of a system of elastic tubes, connected with a self-acting force-pump. It is such views as these that degrade physiology and obscure the marvels of the body. The circulation never flows for two minutes in the same manner. In an instant, miles of capillaries are closed or opened up according to the ever-varying body needs, of which, consciously, we are entirely unaware. The blood supply of each organ is not mechanical, but is carefully regulated from minute to minute in health exactly according to its needs and activities, and when this ever fails, we at once recognize it as disease, and call it congestion and so forth. The very heart-beat itself is never constant, but varies pro rata with the amount of exercise, activity of vital functions, of conditions of temperature, etc., and even of emotions and other direct mental feelings.

The whole reproductive system is obviously under the sway and guidance of more than blind material forces. In short, when thoroughly analyzed, the action and regulation of no system of the body can be satisfactorily explained, without postulating an unconscious mental element; which does, if allowed, satisfactorily explain all the phenomena.

Mind is the builder; mind is supreme; it is "the hidden power that rules."

It has been variously designated as "the vital principle," "the principle of life," "the soul," "the communal soul, "the unconscious mind," "the subconscious mind," "the subliminal consciousness," "the subjective mind," etc, the designation being governed by the point of view from which the subject is treated. But no one, be he materialist or spiritualist, denies its existence, or that it is endowed with an intelligence commensurate with the functions it performs in organic life. Philosophers may differ in their views as to its origin, or its ultimate destiny, or its psychological significance outside of the functions it performs in keeping the machinery of life in motion; but no one denies its existence, its intelligence, or its power over the functions, sensations, and conditions of the body.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As the subconscious thinks, it's owner's condition is or should be, so that physical condition actually becomes in time.

The subconscious mind is the most wonderful thing in man. The most wonderful of all things, but being sometimes misused, misguided and no end of suffering ensue. Just as the most excitable love sentimentalist may turn this sacred stream of love into the most loathsome and deadly river of poisonous hate, so can the "wrong use of the subconscious mind bring about most deleterious effects in the human body.

The most important thing for modern civilization is a proper understanding and operation of man's greatest gift--the Subconscious Mind.

The subconscious mind is everywhere, in every nook and corner, in every crevice and spot, in all space and in all time.

The subconscious mind is everywhere; the sub- conscious mind is the creative force of the universe, it is the eternal energy of God spirit.

The subconscious mind being everywhere, it is in every cell, every molecule, and every electron in the body of man. The tiniest "teentsie weentsie" particle of cell life in man contains the life of the subconscious; therefore, the subconscious mind is not only in the brain and in the head: it is everywhere, now and forever, in man and every living creature.

We must remember, in regard to this subconscious self, that we are just learning to use its powers. A hundred years ago, we had just as much electricity in earth and air as we have today. But we did not know how to use it. Now we do know how, and how marvelously we are using the power of electricity today! So with these powers of subconsciousness. We are beginning to understand and use them. We are just on the brink of further and fuller developments. But what we already know we must use in order to come to greater things.

These subconscious powers are largely latent forces. Many of us are using only a half or a third of our real equipment. We can call out the reserves of life--in these emergencies of depression or ill-health. We can release the pent-up energies for our bettering or restoration.

Dr. A. A. Lindsay, the famous suggestionist and author, in "Daily Life Psychology" offers the following suggestion:

That suggestion should be the key to the action of the subconscious, that phase of mind within the individual that performs automatically and, often to the individual's objective phase of mind, unconsciously, is as reasonable as for temperature to be the key to the action of water when it is to become slow in its ethereal vibration and congeal as ice or rapid in its particle vibration and expand and manifest steam.

A suggestion is an image, thought, idea or working pattern introduced in the subconscious; the subconscious takes the architectural plan and creates forms and images in every phase of one's being and life to fulfill the appointments of the picture pattern.

The subconscious controls the motions of every cell of the body and will order each one into the position called for in the picture held in the subconscious. The subconscious controls the chemistry, the composition of the cell's body and will change the ethereal vibration of the constituent elements of the cell chemistry to fulfill the picture in the subconscious. The subconscious controls every organ and does so by controlling each cell of the organ, therefore, organs and systems become that which the soul expectancy (subconscious expectancy) calls for.

The subconscious phase of mind in the individual is the phase that communicates telepathically to another sub- conscious phase of mind, therefore, when a working plan is present in a subconscious phase of mind calling for fulfillments in other persons, or by them, the results to the lives of the persons involved are due to the pictures and expectancies in the soul of the individual or individuals; suggestion is the key to all of the subjective phenomena that have their source in the subjective because the soul has all potency for the individual's purposes and that which it believes (expects) it creates.

Many things that are not true are made to influence the individual in all of the phases of his being as if they were true; a thing is not true just because one believes it, but believing it, he may make it so. One may receive an untrue diagnosis calling for disease of certain description which may not exist at the time; accepting the image as if it were true, the subconscious proceeds to make cell changes to fulfill the in harmony in the architectural plan, the untrue diagnosis. That is how thinking may make a thing true which under law would not be true, the law of health. One may be ill but becoming convinced that he has taken the remedy his subconscious acts upon the image and impulse of healing and restores harmony; that is how thinking will make a thing true. This is far from making one accept the delusion of being well while he is diseased.

So we see that the Subconscious Mind in its vital activities is constantly at work building up, repairing, growing, nourishing, supporting and regulating the body, doing its best to throw off abnormal conditions, and seeking to do the best it can when these conditions cannot be removed. With its source pure and unpolluted the stream of vitality flows on unhindered, but when the poison of fear thought, adverse suggestion and false belief is poured into the source or spring from which the stream rises, it follows that the waters of life will no longer be pure and clear. Let us notice the general direction of the vital activities of the Subconscious Mind.

The normal individual expends every day energy enough to raise one ton thirty-three hundred feet or thirty-three hundred foot tons of energy, and nine-tenths of this amount of power is used to carry on the functions of the body, digestion, circulation, elimination, and the remaining manifestations of life. This wonderful expenditure of energy is under the direction of the subconscious mind which controls these functions and which is ever on the alert hour after hour, day after day, as long as life continues.--Terry Walter, M. D., in "The Handbook of Life."

So we see it is very plain how the body is made sick by poisonous chemicalization and how the subconscious mind which has control of all of the bodily functions and is In every cell of the body, can in turn, when it is directed by the conscious mind, change the chemicalization from poison to health when the patient crowds out the old kinks, images and pictures and puts in their place new ones.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. IN THE BEGINNING CREATION IS TODAY. There never was a beginning and there never will be an ending. NOW is the beginning. TODAY IS THE DAY OF CREATION. It is going on today, a manifestation of God's spiritual power.

And finally, in "The Subconscious Power," by W. W. Atkinson and Edward E. Beals, this principle is further adduced:

Among the most fundamental activities of the Sub- conscious are those which are concerned with the vital processes of the physical body--the processes of life in the living organism. Although the fact is not generally recognized, it is an established scientific truth that the Sub- conscious controls, directs, institutes and conducts the vital processes of the body concerned with growth, nourishment and the general operation of the living organism.

The operation of the vital processes manifested in every organ of your body is conducted by the Subconscious.

Every organ, every part, even every cell, is under the control and direction of the Subconscious. The work of repair, replacement, digestion, assimilation and elimination, which is underway in your physical body, is per- formed by the Subconscious. In short, your entire vital activity is under the control and direction of your Subconscious, although your ordinary consciousness is not aware of this fact.

That all which is called Vital Force, the Healing Power of Nature, or the "Vis Medicatrix Naturae" is but a form, phase or aspect of subconscious mental action—of the work of the Subconscious--cannot be doubted even for a moment by those who have carefully investigated Nature's healing processes. These processes constitute what is known as "the curative efforts of Nature" or the "Vis Vita" by which terms is indicated that certain curative or restorative principle of Nature which is implanted in every living, organized body, and which is constantly operative for its repair, preservation, health and well- being. Instances of the effective work of this great natural principle are seen in the respective processes manifest in cases where a finger or toe is lost by the man. Here, as a prominent medical authority has said, "Nature, unaided, will repair and fashion a stump equal to one at the hands of an eminent surgeon."

The convertibility of physical forces and the correlation of these with the vital forces, and the intricacy of that nexus between mental and bodily activity which cannot be analyzed, all lead upward to one and the same conclusion --that the source of all power is Mind.

Bacon says: "Life is not force; it is combining power. It is the product and presence of Mind."