How To Put The Subconscious Mind To Work
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The body requires certain life essentials--air, water and proper diet. All the affirmations and auto-suggestions in the world will not take the place of a glass of water or a few cubic feet of air. If physical troubles of any sort are due to the lack of these essentials no substitutes will suffice to keep the physical machinery oiled and steam generated within.

Diet is the fundamental factor in the cure of disease because it controls the action of living cells, and through metabolism or cell-changes it builds the body tissues and creates heat and energy.- Carl Bingesser, M. D.

One of the best books on Mind Healing right now, is "The Finger of God" by Thomas Parker Boyd. In this, Dr. Boyd says:

It is not an "accident" that an overuse of sweets over- load the body with heat energy and covers the face with pimples. It is not an "obsession of the devil" when one eats twenty or thirty per cent of his food allowance in proteins (meats, etc.) and finds his liver and kidneys diseased, and his body riled with rheumatic twinges. It is not a "mysterious dispensation of providence" that one who fills his body with pork and fats, finds his body cushioned with layers of useless and disfiguring blubber. It is not an "error of mortal mind" when one takes in fifteen hundred calories of food energy and uses up twenty- five hundred, that the body forces are depleted, its resistive powers weakened, and tuberculosis, cancer, and other destructive processes get foothold, and make headway. These are all legitimate results of a lack of intelligent thought application growing out of a state of consciousness which is out of harmony with the consciousness of the Absolute, and hence their building ideals and processes do not obey His laws of expression.

Paul Ellsworth does not deal in superlatives unless he actually means what he says. Harken to his punch:

I have known as many "Beefsteak drunks," and as many "bread and butter and potato fiends," as I have alcoholics or drug fiends; and I am stating that very moderately Toleration and sympathy; the earnest, humble, kindly desire to help others out of the same bog of sensualism and ignorance in which we have wallowed--your patient will not get far until he learns this lesson.

A noted specialist has said that not one person in ten thousand fully understands the necessity of giving regular daily attention to the life essentials--air, water and food, or realizes that his health absolutely depends upon their being supplied to him in a pure state and in ample quantity.

Taking these facts into consideration it must be evident to every thoughtful person (and this is most important to the mind cure aspirant) that whether mental troubles precede or follow declining physical health, a patient should take steps to correct both his physical and his thinking habits if he would improve his general health. For with an improvement in the nutrition of the brain and body, there must necessarily follow an improvement in the operations of the cerebral and bodily functions. Being thereafter in better mental and physical condition the subject will experience an increase in the control exercised by the conscious mind over the subconscious thoughts and actions.

Thus by combining right thinking with right living in general; by giving seasonable attention to fresh air, at work and in sleeping quarters, to abdominal breathing, to regular physical exercise and proper eating, the patient will be able to reap one hundred per cent returns from his affirmations. In order to live harmoniously and rightly it is evident to one whose mind is unwarped by prejudiced mental healing ideas that one must live simply and adjust oneself naturally to the requirements of one's whole being. When we live naturally, we live harmoniously. That is to say we’ve combine scientific living with scientific thinking.

Disregard of nature, over-taxation, or under development of our physical and mental powers, neglect of any of the laws of our mental or material being, may be evidenced in discord in mind or body.

We are living in a world where constant readjustment is required. For instance, our fore- fathers, whether on the New England farm or the rolling prairie, had no skyscrapers in which they imprisoned themselves all day, no stuffy apartment houses in which they slept a few hours at night without the necessary amount of good ozone. They did not have to adjust themselves to modern living so as to get fresh air. They had it--everywhere, all about them. Similarly with our and their eating habits. Before cook stoves were invented and cooking by gas and electricity was widely advertised, they ate a natural raw diet.

Thus they were as wise as nature herself, in adapting themselves to their environment, in adjusting themselves to the requirements of their situation. Should we not imitate them and in our day and generation be as wise as they!

"When this modern movement of mind cure was ushered in, it was such an innovation and such a change from the old methods of being healed by medical aid, that at first the mental science cults of various kinds, stripes and denominations rushed to great extremes. Their spokesmen averred that since everything was mind no concern need be given the physical body. It seems that even yet few understand that the simple natural living of one's life on the physical plane in its physical surroundings is necessary for a harmonious whole, and many continue to overlook the importance of having a scientific regimen for physical as well as for mental needs. It is not enough to think right, much as that is needed. To "think right," we must add ''eat right, breathe right, sleep right, rest right, relax right, exercise right."

However, I am hopeful that in a short time all mental healers, practitioners and teachers will emphasize the necessity and beauty of the balanced life; combining a scientific mental and physical regimen, to produce a harmonious whole.

There is but one unerring test of a full fledged psychologist. He is one whose maxim is right living, who preaches harmony on every plane. These, I believe, are the big desiderata; they are one and inseparable.

Strictly speaking, a raw, live diet without any meat is by far the best for most people. Some, however, have been so long accustomed to a mixed diet, including animal flesh that considerable time may have to elapse before it is possible for them to go without eating meat. The wise person who is desirous of obeying the call of nature, who wants to live in harmony with the digestive as well as spiritual laws, will be honest with himself in making up his daily diet.

There is considerable doubt in some quarters about the relative value attaching to foods but there is no escaping the fact that many good people are making themselves sick and others killing themselves from eating too much heat producing and energizing food, very often in bad combinations.

Surplus, or incompatible foods, generate in the stomach foul gases which are absorbed, enter the blood, poison the system and cause all kinds of diseases.

Apoplexy, burning fevers, splitting headaches, bilious vomiting, jaundice, diabetes, Bright's disease, painful diarrheas, sour belchings and profuse catarrhal discharges, are only a few examples of errors in diet.

These manifestations are like volcanic eruptions—they are explosive efforts of nature to spew out, cast off from the body, accumulated surplus and offending materials.

In some chronic, and in all acute or febrile diseases, all kinds of food should be stopped till they can be appropriated, nothing but water being allowed.

Most cases of constipation can be cured by suggestion--in fact the hour when the bowels will move can even be stated--but right eating will never produce or be followed by constipation. To help suggestion for regularity and elimination, suppose you stop eating the regular cooked diet and, for two or three days, substitute the juices of fruits--such as oranges, grapes and grapefruit --and a goodly portion of water. Supplement this diet by taking hot baths nightly and constipation will soon be a thing of the past.

Some forms of chronic headache are due to the lack of acids in the body which fruits and other forms of unfired or uncooked diet contain. These headaches can be healed by abstinence from cooked food and the substitution therefor of a raw or live diet regimen containing a liberal proportion of juices from oranges, grapefruits and grapes, together with plenty of water. Pure cider is splendid.

If a protracted chronic condition exists let the subject abstain for three days from solid food of all kinds, the diet to be only the juice of fruits mentioned above and plenty of water. If this course be followed the headaches may disappear never to return provided the live diet becomes a regular habit. In any event, three days on liquid food only, consisting of the juices of fruits, then a week of ordinary eating and another three day period of fruit juices, instead of the regular diet, will effect a cure. It certainly will if during this time the suggestion or auto-suggestion is used.

If one takes just a three-day lay off from heavy eating during which he will drink the juices of oranges, grapes, apples, grapefruit, or juices of any other fruits, twice a day, consuming as much of these juices and of fresh water as he possibly can, he will enjoy the three days immensely and when his partial fast is over, can adjust himself to almost any diet he desires.

"We most enthusiastically recommend this to anyone who, upon beginning the raw diet finds it difficult to keep wholly away from the mixed cooked foods. After this three-day partial fast he can then accommodate himself to the raw diet with ease and pleasure.

Drinking all of the juices of fruits one desires gives sufficient nourishment for the body. It is not an actual fast; it is merely giving the organs of nutrition a rest, while meantime supplying them with all the nourishment the body requires.

For people who want to take off flesh, this is a splendid method. Many persons make the mistake of reducing too quickly. Three days of eliminating all heavy foods from the diet while drinking nothing but juices of fruits, and plenty of fresh water will reduce the average person to a sufficient extent. Should you try this once and find you have not reduced enough you may repeat the program within a week.

To keep in the pink of digestive efficiency, live on raw diet, as we have outlined in volume three of this series, and, for at least one day a month, eliminate all other nourishment, save the juices of fruits, and three or four quarts of water. Better still, especially if you are inclined to corpulency, live for two days out of every thirty on nothing but the juices of fruits and water.

Everybody should take a seven-day fast at least once a year, meantime remembering there is a difference between starving and fasting. Plenty of fruit juices and water is fasting; nothing to eat may be starving.

Probably the race would be better off if all of us took a forty-day fast each year.

The need of the hour in care for the health is prevention--prevention in medicine, prevention in metaphysics and prevention in psychology. There are several doctors who write daily articles on health which are circulated among millions of people. Here is one tinctured with real common sense, and which is worth thousands of dollars to the American public--aye, millions.

I should like to have the readers of this series be given an illustration of the scientific methods of the freedom of thought and the genuine simplicity of a really great member of the medical profession.

I give verbatim Dr. Copeland's write-up on drinking water:

"Foodstuffs would be of no more use to the human body than stones or dirt if they were incapable of solution. Until they're dissolved they are valueless. All the bodily acts having to do with the reception of nourishment are associated with the necessity of dissolving food.

"First we chew the food thoroughly, thus mixing it with the saliva. Next we swallow it, so that the fluids of the stomach may act upon it. Then it passes into the intestines, where the bile and other juices attack it.

"As the food is thus prepared and dissolved, it is taken up by the body, furnishing the fuel and nourishment essential to life itself.

''The acids generated in the body require water for their making.

"About two-thirds of the weight of the human body is water. Like water outside the body, this will grow stale if not frequently changed. You cannot be healthy unless you supply yourself every day with an abundance of pure water. Make sure of the supply and then make free use of it for drinking and bathing purposes.

"There have been many arguments over the propriety of drinking water during meals. Forget all about these discussions and do not hesitate to drink at least one glassful at each meal. A second glass will do no harm.

"The best grounded objection to the free use of water at meal times is that many persons use water to soften the food instead of depending on the chewing and saliva.

"The starches require saliva in order to begin their digestion. The teeth are needed to give fineness to the food. Drink the water, but do not use it to rob the food of the necessary action of teeth and saliva.

"Every adult should take at least two quarts of water during every twenty-four hours."

The average diner at hotels and those who eat at railway stations in a hurry, consume three times as much as they need and yet feel "empty" a short time afterwards usually because they make use of some kind of liquid in washing down their food. A prolonged chewing of food is necessary to stimulate a flow of the digestive juices, and water is not a substitute for the juices. Drink plenty of water, preferably before meals, and not with meals, but be sure that you chew your food, and chew it, chew it, CHEW IT! Then chew it some more until it unconsciously and involuntary slips down the throat.

Masticate your food. Fletcherize!

Chew, chewing, and chewed will keep many a pale man from taking pink pills and will help many a "bucking" stomach to settle down and behave itself.

Elsewhere in our works we have presented the scientific outline for right eating. In addition to thoroughly masticating the food--Fletcherizing-- the teeth and gums should be maintained in healthy condition for only when the teeth are good grinders is mastication thorough and the saliva able to do its best work. The importance of healthy gums and sound teeth cannot be too much emphasized.

Hold firmly in your mind the particular thought which you would embody in yourself, during the time you are nourishing your body and at least an hour afterwards. This will liberate certain finer forces from the food and nourish particular brain-centers that you are building up. Do the same when walking in fresh air and when having physical exercise. This will deepen the thought-channels in the brain. Remember, at first there will be resistance from the lower brain-centers, but as the higher centers develop they will take absolute control. Go on. Stop not; you must build up a new brain in which the higher centers will control the lower ones and this process of brain-transformation has to be done; now that you know these things, and see the absolute necessity of setting about the task, it is no use getting impatient.

We can scarcely over emphasize the importance of maintaining a cheerful attitude at the table. To this end you should, especially in your own home, be surrounded, at meal time, with light colors -- for these conduce to raising the rate of your vibration--together with every other surrounding condition which serves to add cheerfulness, joy and happiness to the hour of partaking of life's essentials.

It is very important that you sip your liquids slowly, eat slowly and masticate your food very, very well. Be sure to Fletcherize.

If you make a habit of sipping your liquid, accustom yourself to carry meantime the mental attitude and the thought you want to take for the demonstration you are working on. Thus you will couple up your scientific eating with the habit of using your mind for your life's demonstrations.

Even if you are in good health, with every sip comes a reminder that it is time to take your autosuggestion treatment--your formula for demonstrating.

Therefore, it is most essential that you begin your meal in a spirit of cheerfulness with the right surroundings. As you sip your liquids take this thought:

I realize that whatever I eat becomes a part of my brain and body and whatever I do I do for the good of myself and others. Therefore, these life essentials make me well, whole, harmonious and complete in mind and body. These life essentials are making of me a human, spiritual magnet to attract unto me and mine the maximum amount of success, health and happiness.

Then you may use any affirmation or formula you desire for health, success, prosperity or happiness, any affirmation or formula calculated to crowd out stray, unfriendly suggestions which may be trying to manifest themselves.

In order to keep the health you have regained and to prevent ill health in the future, be sure that you take time at each meal to affirm, "I realize that everything I eat becomes a part of my brain and body and whatever I do I do for the good of myself and others. Therefore, these life essentials make me well, whole, harmonious and complete in mind and body. These life essentials are making of me a human, spiritual magnet to attract unto me and mine the maximum amount of success, health and happiness." Then also remember that this is a splendid time to "hold the thought" for anything for which you wish to demonstrate.

The subconscious mind works continuously whether man directs it or not. Therefore, it is very important that we assign definite work to the subconscious mind. By so doing we strengthen our control over the subconscious and secure from it far better response. It's on the same principle as that of the blacksmith having more muscle in the arm which swings the hammer.

As you drink water or other liquid (which should amount to two quarts a day), sip instead of gulping it, and with each mouthful take such a thought as this:

This water will increase the secretions m my body and will help to carry off waste material. It will promote the secretion of saliva and I will masticate every mouthful of food thoroughly. It will increase the quantity of gastric juice and my stomach will perform its work of digestion properly. It is to increase the quantity of pancreatic juice and the quantity of bile, and my bowels will complete the digestion of my food and turn it into good, red, rich blood.

My appetite is normal. I am eating like a healthy man and am obtaining as much strength from my food as any healthy man.

My kidneys and skin are working perfectly. I am bright, happy and cheerful. I am obtaining perfect health from the life essentials.

Physical strength is the basis of success and courage. The life essentials are building up my body and I am becoming strong and robust. I have physical strength and I have determination. I feel my courage increasing. I am strong, courageous and fearless now. I am a man amongst men and I know my physical strength and courage will carry me through anything successfully. By thinking these strong thoughts I feel stronger; my actions are stronger and my confidence in myself is increasing.

The good, rich blood I am making now is carrying health to every cell in my body. Health is my birthright. There is health all around me. I am eating it, drinking it, breathing it. I am healthy NOW.

This mouthful of water is also a reminder that I must "eat some air" and I shall now proceed to educate my lungs to breathe deeply by taking half a dozen deep breaths.

I shall take a moderate amount of exercise commensurate with my store of energy, but am making certain that I am appropriating more strength each day, from the life essentials, than I am expending. Thus I am banking on my energy. I feel better and stronger this moment.

Herbert A. Parkyn, M. D., who uses the above formulae, says:

That these or similar auto-suggestions taken frequently every day, with a liberal supply of the life essentials, will benefit any physical sufferer--I care not what his com- plaint. Rheumatism, sick headache, neuralgia, constipation, feebleness, certain forms of nervousness, failing eyesight, nasal catarrh, etc., are all symptoms of faulty circulation, and by following the self-treatment I have outlined, the cause of the symptoms disappears, the symptoms themselves soon follow the cause; consequently in employing the auto-suggestions it is not necessary to think of the various complaints. Think the thoughts that will bring general physical improvement and the symptoms will be overwhelmed in the irresistible march of health that will surely follow the health thoughts all though the body. Thought is a positive, dynamic force that takes form in action.

And finally, follow the admonition of Joseph Perry Green, when he says:

Next try and realize the Omnipresence of God. The word "God" really means Good. When you drink water bear in mind that Good or God washes and cleanses your body as it goes through your blood and through your flesh and that you love the Good or God in the water. The same way with your food. Good in your food is God on the material plane to nourish your material body. Recognize it, praise it and appropriate it in a mental digestive act. So likewise in your breathing. For 5 or 10 minutes while you are breathing, make yourself conscious of inhaling the Good or God in the atmosphere and that this Good or God enlivens and quickens your Life and increases the abundance in your Life.

After healing what? See that you eat proper food, take periods of rest each month from eating and think right as you eat.