How to Stay Well
	The Use Of Spiritual Power <  Previous Contents Next  >

We must eliminate the idea that the metaphysical process requires hard work and strenuous effort on our part. We must also eliminate the idea that the cure is performed by the exercise of personal power. The higher spiritual forces coming into personal expression perform all of this work; but our personal selves do not produce those forces; neither will hard personal work bring them into evidence. It is the consciousness of the spiritual side of life that produces true emancipation and the absolute health and wholeness we have in view; and this is natural because the spiritual alone contains absolute wholeness. That which is not health and wholeness cannot produce health and wholeness, but since spirit is health and wholeness, perfect health and wholeness must manifest wherever the power of the spiritual is expressed.

It can truthfully be said that the spirit is at hand waiting at the gate of every mind. All that is required of us is to open, and the spirit will come in, filling the entire mansion of man with its peace, its power, its healing and its light. But to open the door for the spirit to enter does not require hard work, agonizing prayers, nor efforts that tear both mind and body, as so many of our personal efforts do. To place ourselves in the consciousness of the spiritual attitude is the secret of the highest and the most perfect form of healing, and when we place ourselves in that attitude we shall find that peace, health, freedom and power will inevitably come; because the spirit is peace, the spirit is health, the spirit is freedom, and the spirit is power.

When you are in the spirit of health you cannot be sick; and to be in the real life of the spirit is to be in the spirit of health, because spirit is health. When you are in freedom you cannot be in bondage; and to be in the spirit is to be in freedom, because everything that is in the spirit must necessarily enjoy absolute freedom.

When we try to help others with these higher powers, we frequently begin as if it were hard work.

We think that we have to do this personally. We forget that it is the spirit and the spirit alone that has the real power. Our work is to place the matter in the hands of Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Power, Infinite Love; and we do this, not through hard personal efforts, but through pure spiritual faith.

It is not the will of the Infinite that any one should suffer pain or distress of any kind, but it is the will of the Infinite that all should be in the perfect freedom of spirit and truth. It is the will of the Infinite that everybody should be well now; therefore, whoever is placed in the hands of the Infinite now will be healed this very hour.

In this connection we may ask if we are not already in God's care, since we live and move and have our being in His spirit; and what more, then, can we do to place ourselves in His hands? To answer this question, we will simply say that we are in the spirit of the Infinite now, but we do not all know it; and we must know the truth before the truth can make us free. To place ourselves in the hands of the Supreme, is to enter consciously into divine presence, so that we do not simply believe in God, but also feel the life and the power of His spirit in every fiber of our being. Where the spirit is felt, there peace, health and power will also be felt, because where the spirit is felt, there the spirit is; and where the spirit is, there peace and power are also. When you enter the spirit you feel that what you desire to have done is being done, and it is being done by a power that can do all things.

When you actually and sincerely believe that healing and emancipation is taking place in your system, you open the door for the spirit to enter; and when the spirit comes in, the spirit will do at once whatever we desire to have done. While the spirit is at work, we are simply to be silent and receive, that the power of the spirit may take full possession and make us every whit whole. Whatever we desire the power of the spirit to do, that the spirit will now proceed to do, provided we do not interfere; but we do interfere with that work whenever we think about it, or whenever we become strenuous, trying to push the power.

To leave all things in the hands of the Supreme is to leave all things in those hands that will do things right, and that will do just what is best for us. What the Supreme thinks is best for us will give us far more good than anything that we could have planned for ourselves. And here we should remember that the Supreme does not think it is best for us to be sick or in trouble. God thinks it is best for us to be as He is, and He knows neither sickness, nor pain, nor sorrow. Therefore, when you place yourself absolutely in divine hands, you will positively regain perfect health and wholeness.

Many a parent thinks, "If I place my sick child in the hands of God and ask His will to be done, He may desire to take my child away"; but do not believe this for a moment. God wants you to have your child. He does not wish to give you sorrow; and if you are perfectly willing, He will heal your child so that both your child and your joy may remain. But you must be perfectly willing and have no doubt. We all have the privilege to live our own lives so that not even the Infinite will interfere with our individuality; and in order to enjoy this privilege it is necessary that we remain here for a long time and continue in health and freedom during that entire period.

In this connection we should remember that we do not have to leave the body in order to go to God. God does not have to take us out of the body to take us to Himself, because He is everywhere.

We may go to God and be with Him absolutely and completely while still living in the visible form. When we understand this, we realize how absurd it is to believe that God wants to take us away from our grieving friends in order to have us to Himself. The truth is, God does not wish to deprive any one of anything, and His way will never give sorrow to a living creature.

The Infinite is radiant with supreme joy, and it is His will that we should be as He is; but as we are individualized beings, we of course have our own will in all these matters. Nevertheless, the sooner we combine our will with Infinite will, the sooner we shall have freedom and gain possession of the highest and best that life can give. When we take this step, we soon discover that the ways of pleasantness and the paths of peace are found only when we place ourselves unreservedly in His hands, and open the door for the spirit to come in and make all things right.

To clearly discern this conception of the Infinite is of extreme importance if we would heal with the power of the spirit, because the more completely we enter the spirit, the greater is the power of the spirit in us; and when the spirit is strong in us, then it is that we reach that state where our prayers are extremely beneficial. Every word of truth that we speak while in this power has healing on its wings; and every just desire that we may express at such times will surely be fulfilled.

When the spiritual physician is confronted with threatening failure, there is a tendency to become anxious, and the belief that harder work is required will almost invariably arise; but such beliefs should be put away at once. It is not harder work on our part that is required; it is more faith in the power of the spirit that should be sought; and that faith is never disturbed by appearances, but remains beautifully calm, because it knows.

It is the power of the spirit that gives health and emancipation. We are the instruments through which that power is to find expression, therefore we should place ourselves in that high, silent, spiritual state through which the unbounded power of the spirit may find full and free expression.

Our anxiety is always a hindrance. Our intense personal effort takes us out of the hands of the spirit, and we cease to be instruments of its power. In this way failure is usually the result, though remarkable demonstrations of healing could easily have been attained. When we know that the power of the spirit is always at hand, always ready to do anything that we may wish to have done; when we know that the power of the spirit is limitless and can do all things; and when we know that it is the will of God that all should be healed now, what have we to fear or to be anxious about? What more do we need than this sublime truth to give us unbounded faith? And as our faith is, so shall it be; therefore when our faith is unbounded every prayer will be answered, every desire will be fulfilled.

When we are in this perfect faith we find the real secret. We discover that it is the power of the spirit that heals; that the spirit will heal whenever we enter into the spirit; and that we enter into the spirit whenever we pass through the door of pure spiritual faith and place ourselves absolutely in the hands of Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Power, Infinite Love.

To become a good spiritual physician, or to apply the spiritual powers within us in gaining and maintaining health, there are several fundamental essentials to which we should give our fullest attention. These are peace, love, faith, spiritual consciousness, and the understanding of truth. To cultivate these five essentials to the very highest possible degree, is to gain possession of that something within us that will not only give us the power to realize and express the power of the spirit, but will also give us the power to help others in the same way.

The necessity of perfect peace is evident, because without such a peace we cannot enter into the deeper realization of truth and life. The disturbed mind dwells on the surface and has little or no knowledge of absolute reality, therefore cannot understand that something within that is perfect and well at all times. What we realize in the within we express in the without. For this reason, everything that is necessary to our realization of the perfect health within must be fully supplied; and peace is one of these essentials.

A metaphysical treatment should never begin until we have become absolutely still in mind and thought, though this stillness must not simply be a passive stillness. It must be a state wherein you feel very still and very strong. When you feel that the power within is awakened in peace, you are ready to begin. During the treatment, the same peaceful attitude should be maintained, and the feeling of a strong calm should permeate all thought and effort.

The attitude of real peace is one that can be cultivated to a very high degree, because it does not consist in simply being quiet. It is a living peace, and since life is boundless this living peace can be deepened, and deepened for an indefinite period; and the greater the peace the greater the power when the power is surely awakened, because to enter that peace that is a living peace is to enter the higher life and the greater power of the spirit.

Before we can help any one through spiritual and metaphysical means, we must realize a spiritual oneness between ourselves and those whom we desire to help. We must enter their world, so to speak, and must feel that we are in perfect touch with their inner and true selves. We must be able to spiritually touch the perfect life within them before we can awaken that life, and it is the awakening of that life that we have in view. The perfect life within is health and wholeness, therefore when the inner life, the life more abundant, takes possession of the person, every phase of sickness or pain must vanish.

To enter into spiritual oneness with another mind, or to produce perfect oneness between the outer life and the inner life in ourselves, love is the secret, because love is spiritual unity. No one can heal to any extent, or realize the power of the spirit in himself, unless he loves much; loves everybody, and loves with the whole heart and soul. But in this connection we must remember that pure spiritual love is not in any way related to ordinary sympathy. Ordinary sympathy sympathizes with sickness and distress, and enters into the world of discord and pain, thereby making evil more real than it previously seemed to be. This, however, is never done through real spiritual love. This love sympathizes with the divine in man, and this makes the divine seem more real and far stronger than it ever seemed before. The result is that the true and the perfect side of man is recognized and accepted as real.

When man recognizes the divinity within, he admits divine qualities into his consciousness; and whatever is admitted into consciousness is expressed in the person. Consequently, by recognizing the divine that is within us, all that is true, all that is real, all that is wholesome, and all that is perfect in the soul of man will be brought forth into actual, tangible expression. The new life thus enters the body, and as this new life is health, all disease must vanish. When health comes, disease is no more; and health does come whenever the inner life is awakened and expressed.

The mission of true spiritual love is therefore very high, and what is more, it is indispensable to this great work. You cannot heal any one without entering into a spiritual unity with that one's soul life; and this unity is attained only through pure spiritual love. The love that we speak of is impersonal, a love that can love every creature without effort, and regardless of appearance or present conditions of life. The person, therefore, who has such a love, is a perpetual benediction to everybody, and could heal at any time by simply wishing to do so.

The necessity of faith in this connection is so evident that nothing need be said as to why we must have faith in order to heal; but a great deal could be said and should be said concerning the real meaning of faith. Faith is not a mere belief, but a gift. It is a high state of mind that transcends all limitations and discerns the real, the perfect and the good everywhere. Faith knows that all things are possible, because it has the power to see and understand the limitless life and power that is working in man and all about man.

Faith makes all things possible because it awakens the greater, the larger and the superior in man. No one can fail who has faith, because faith gives to the mind all the wisdom and all the power that is necessary to realize the object in view. Faith has constantly greater things in store, and keeps the mind on the verge of higher revelations and more beautiful experiences every day. To have faith is to live on the heights, and to constantly ascend to greater heights. When faith comes, all despair; all discouragement and all disappointments disappear for all time. No dark conditions can remain after faith has taken possession, because faith positively proves to the mind that all things are possible, that we can accomplish what we have undertaken, that destiny is in our own hands, and that the future is just as bright as we may desire to make it.

In metaphysical and spiritual healing, faith is not disturbed about threatening symptoms, because it knows that there is a power at hand that can put to flight all kinds of symptoms and diseases at once. In this conviction faith works, consequently it cannot fail. Faith sees the real man and knows that the real man is well, therefore there is nothing to fear, nothing to cause anxiety or unrest. What we inwardly know, that we become conscious of; and what we become conscious of, that we express in mind and body. Therefore, to know that the real man is well, is to bring the health and the power of the real man into the personal man; and since faith does know that the real man is well, any one who has faith will accordingly be healed through faith.

Spiritual consciousness is the consciousness of the soul, the divine in man, or that which is created in the image of God. The value of this consciousness, not only in the work of healing and emancipation, but in all important or higher attainments, as well as the further development of man, becomes very evident when we realize that it is only those things that we become conscious of that find expression through us.

The great truth that man is created in the image and likeness of the Infinite, is the foundation of pure spiritual metaphysics; and from this great truth we conclude that man is in reality what God is. Not that man is equal with God, because God is infinite while man is individualized; but the same attributes and qualities that exist in the Infinite exist also in man -the real man. To be conscious of the real man, and to know and feel that you yourself are the real man, is to have spiritual consciousness.

You are spiritually conscious when you know that you are a spiritual being. Many people believe that they have souls; others believe that they are souls; but this is not sufficient. You should actually feel that you are a soul; and this feeling should be based upon actual conscious realization. When you know that you are a spiritual being; when you know that you are created in the likeness of God; when you know that you are living in a spiritual world; when you know that you are one with the Infinite, and that you are in your real being perfect, good, true and absolutely whole, as God is, then you have attained spiritual consciousness. This consciousness is not mere intellect, but a realization that is felt and known without the aid of ordinary intellectual processes. It is not something that is arrived at through logical reason, but comes as a special illumination to the mind that has been developed up to that necessary state.

When you become fully conscious of your spiritual nature, you enter into the wholeness, the life, the peace and the power of the mind. You no longer live in conditions of discord, sickness, weakness or confusion. You have entered the perfect world which permeates everything, and have appropriated all the high states of the perfect world. To believe in the spirit, and to be conscious of the spirit, are two wholly different states of mind. Many depend upon the former, and depend in vain. It is the latter that we must secure.

To be conscious of the spirit is to be in the spirit; and to be in the spirit is to be in peace, health and power, because the spirit is peace, health and power. When you attain spiritual consciousness, you know that you are one with the Infinite, and to know this is surely the greatest thing in the world. To know that you live, and move, and have your being in the Supreme; that you are so near to God that God is closer than breathing; to know that you are inseparable from God; and that you shall never, never be separated from His life or presence, but continue to be one with Him through all eternity -to know this is to know that which is greater than all other things in the world. It is a thought too beautiful for tongue to ever describe, and many believe this thought because it is so very beautiful; but when you enter spiritual consciousness you will absolutely know that this thought is the truth; and that realization alone should be sufficient to inspire every mind to seek the spiritual heights this very day.

The value of spiritual consciousness in healing is found in its power to illumine the mind with the light of real truth, and thus reveal man to himself. The average man looks upon the body and calls that himself. He looks upon the beliefs and the opinions that he has inherited and calls them his light and his understanding. The result is the blind leading the blind, mental illusions and false beliefs creating more illusions and false beliefs, and thus perpetuating discord, sickness and failure.

When spiritual consciousness comes, man discovers that he is not the body or the mind, but that he is an eternal soul, a spiritual being, the exact likeness of the Infinite. He discovers that he is neither sick, nor weak, nor depraved, but that he has in the reality of his being the purity of God, the health of God, the power of God, the light of God. He finds that though he is manifesting himself in a visible universe, he is actually living in a spiritual universe; and he learns that this spiritual universe is the kingdom of heaven that is within everybody and within everything. In other words, it is God's own true world, where all is well -always well.

When man discovers that he is actually living now in a spiritual world where everything is perfect and absolutely good, he realizes that everything must be well with him; and this is the truth that can make him free. When man becomes conscious of the great truth that all is well with him now because he is the image of God, and is living in God's world, where all is well, the counteracting evidences of the senses must be dealt with. The real and the seeming frequently contradict each other. At any rate, they seem to do so; and to establish perfect peace throughout the system, harmony between the without and the within must be secured.

This requires a clear understanding of truth, both spiritual and intellectual, because what is true to spiritual consciousness must be true to objective reason; and it will be true to objective reason when the mind can see truth so clearly that a perfect and immediate discrimination between the true and the false is made possible. When we see the truth clearly, the light of truth so fills the mind that there is no room for darkness. Even reason becomes illumined, accepting conclusively what the spirit has to reveal.

One of the greatest essentials in securing emancipation for the personal man is to be able to prove to the senses and the outer mind that the real man is well, because as soon as the outer man receives this truth there will be nothing to perpetuate disease. Disease and discord can live in the human system only so long as we continue to recognize their existence. Disease does not exist by itself or from itself. It is an effect; and the underlying cause of disease is the belief that man is a material being, subject to all kinds of ills.

Therefore when it is demonstrated through the intellect, and to every phase of consciousness, that man is a spiritual being, and that he is always absolutely well, the outer mind will no longer create false beliefs; and when false beliefs cease to be, the effect of false belief, that is, disease, must also cease to be.

False beliefs, created by the outer mind, are the causes of the conditions of disease that fill the body; consequently, when the outer mind discerns the truth, that the real man is well, false beliefs about man will no longer be created. The result is that the cause of disease is taken away, and therefore the disease itself must of necessity disappear also.

It has been said that the senses must be blinded if we are to see pure spiritual truth, and that reason must be held in abeyance when we try to comprehend the reality of the spirit; but this is not true. The physical senses can be trained to work in harmony with the spiritual senses and reason can be educated to corroborate the revelations of spiritual consciousness.

The universe is one with many parts but within each part we find spirit -pure, perfect eternal spirit. The being of man is one with many parts and all parts are necessary to each other, and each part has a spiritual basis. When all the faculties of man are trained to function properly, they will all work together to demonstrate the one truth. The spiritual faculties will recognize the physical side of all things, and the physical faculties will be able to demonstrate the reality of the spiritual side of all things. This is the true harmony of being, when all parts of being work together for the larger life and the greater good.

The senses should not work against the spirit; neither should we imagine that the senses are nothing in the eyes of the spirit. When the senses refuse to recognize the spirit they are not properly trained; and that reason that cannot logically demonstrate the existence of the spirit lacks true cultivation.

In the understanding of the truth, therefore, three things are implied: First, to know the real, that which is eternal and absolutely perfect; second, to know the nature and the exact purpose of the temporal; and third, to know the law through which the within and the without may work as one for the greater good of man.

To combine these three essentials in the understanding of truth may seem to be an undertaking too large for the average mind; but it is very simple, and when it is accomplished, man's entire world is illumined. Everything becomes clear, for he can see things as they are. To see things as they are in themselves is to know the truth; and to know the truth is to gain freedom, harmony, health and peace.

To simplify the understanding of truth we should base all thought upon the statement that man is a spiritual being, created in the likeness of the Infinite, and that every part of the mind and body of man is created for the purpose of perpetually unfolding the divine qualities and attributes that are inherent in the spirit of man. By realizing that man himself is perfect, absolutely good, and every way whole, all thought will be the thought of truth, and will produce only true conditions in the life of man.

By trying to unite all the senses and faculties, physical and spiritual, upon the one purpose of building a larger life, complete harmony will be established throughout the human entity, and the within and the without will become as one. The result will not only be perfect health and wholeness to body and mind, but also the unfolding of a greater and more beautiful soul.