How to Stay Well
	The Metaphysical Process Of Cure <  Previous Contents Next  >

There is a belief among many that mental and spiritual healing is produced by some extraordinary or mysterious power, a power that is very difficult to obtain if one does not naturally possess it; but when we understand the power that heals, or the process of cure, we shall find that it is like all other great things, very simple.

All healing is the result of mental change, and the various systems of cure that are being employed are simply different methods for producing the same thing -mental change. The mental change, however, must be towards higher and finer states of thought, or the cure will not follow. And here we find the reason why spiritual and metaphysical systems of thought are usually very successful whenever they attempt the art of healing.

The same is true of the various systems of optimistic suggestion. Any suggestion that can produce an elevating change of mind will produce a cure whenever such a change is made, and this is true even though the system of suggestion employed may not be exactly scientific nor possess a complete understanding of the truth.

The beneficial results that come from going away for your health are produced through the same law -mental change. New scenes, new associations, new experiences, etc., produce new impressions upon the mind, and these, if deeply enjoyed, will change the mind.

When one expects to regain his health by going away, the results are usually better, because the change of mind produced will have health in view, and whatever the mind has in view it always tends to produce.

Our thoughts are created in the likeness of those ideas that are uppermost in consciousness; therefore, if health is the predominating purpose, the conditions of health will naturally be instilled into every thought. In some instances, however, a change of scenes does not produce a change of mind, the reason being that the person either lacks impressibility or the new scenes lack impressiveness.

The physician who sends his patients away for their health is simply giving them metaphysical treatment without the name. The real object is to get the patient away from his present state of mind, and anything that will accomplish this can produce a cure; but it is possible to get away from your present state of mind without taking a journey to some other country, and it is usually more convenient. Until recently people have depended upon a change of environment to produce a change of mind, but we are now learning to change our minds in any way that we like, regardless of the environments in which we may be placed.

We are beginning to become masters over ourselves, and we are learning to so live that external conditions will not control us any more. We have discovered that we can change our own minds whenever we like, and in any way that we like; also that mental changes produce physical changes, and that we may be completely transformed through the renewal of our minds.

The secret of all healing and all changes in body, mind or personality is thus revealed, and instead of being a mysterious power, is simplicity itself. It is not something far beyond our reach, but a power that we are using more or less daily simply the power to change the mind.

Since any change in the human system can be produced through the proper mental change, our leading purpose in this connection will consequently be to find the best methods for producing such changes, and we shall not have to search far nor wide to find the methods desired.

The first principle to learn is, that every mental change must be subconscious; that is, the change must be a change of the heart or no change in life will follow. The thought of the heart is the thought created in the subconscious, and as the subconscious thought is the only thought that produces effects in the system, we understand readily why the change must be subconscious.

Every idea or belief that is impressed upon the mind in deep feeling will enter the subconscious. Therefore, every effort to change the mind should be made in deep feeling. The fact that feeling plays such an important part in this respect, proves why impressionable minds respond the most readily to those systems of healing that are based on mental change.

It also explains why emotional and religious systems are so very successful in healing whenever they attempt this fine art. Emotional methods, however, do not always produce permanent results, while those results that come from deep metaphysical systems are nearly always permanent.

The best system of healing would consequently be a system wherein feeling and intellect were combined, where the emotional was employed to give speedy mental change, and the metaphysical employed to establish those changes permanently.

To produce mental change, three different factors may be employed; first, new impressions from without; second, new ideas formed through the usual intellectual process; and third, new states of consciousness. Those impressions that come from without will at times produce decided changes in the subconscious mind, though as a rule they simply divert attention so that you will not think about your ills.

This is important, however, because so long as you think deeply about your ailments you impress them more deeply upon the system and make matters worse. But when you stop thinking about the trouble, nature will have a chance to restore harmony and health without being interfered with.

When attempting to produce new ideas through your own independent thinking, it is well to remember that the most wholesome ideas are always those gained from thinking about the real, the absolute and the perfect; in other words, metaphysical thinking is the most wholesome, provided it is truly metaphysical and not speculative; and all metaphysical thinking will be true and wholesome that is based upon man's highest understanding of the ideal.

To produce a change in consciousness, various methods may be employed. Anything that touches the inner life, such as good music, words of inspiration, higher mental experiences, growth and ascension in soul life and similar mental attitudes, will produce new states of consciousness.

If the attention of the mind is centered upon health, while the change of consciousness is taking place, the mental change that follows will always have a tendency to produce better health. A change in consciousness is always the most decided change and should therefore be sought in preference to any of the others. And the reason is because such a change affects directly the real life and action of the mental forces; and these in turn affect the chemical life of the physical system.

A chemical change in the system is always required before health can be restored, and it is upon this principle that medicines aim to work; but it has been thoroughly demonstrated that the subconscious forces of the mind can produce chemical changes in the body with far greater rapidity and certainty than any drug taken into the system. And what is important, subconscious changes will be correct changes, while too often medicines produce the wrong chemical change, thus making matters worse.

In many instances medicines produce no chemical change in the system whatever, and there is no cure unless the patient has sufficient faith in the medicine; in that case the change is produced by faith, and it is well to remember in this connection that faith can produce any change in the system that is possible under natural law.

Of all states of the mind, that state usually described as faith is the deepest, the largest, the most penetrating and the most powerful. Since mental change is the real secret of healing, and since this change must be towards the higher, the finer and the interior nature of life, the greatest results in healing would naturally come from that mental process that always moves towards the ideal; and that is faith. Faith is that state of mind that always goes up into the higher and more perfect; in fact, it is not faith unless there is mental ascension into or towards the absolute.

Faith is a normal, upward mental change, and there is no upward mental change possible without faith, because every mental process that will have the power to produce an upward change must be inspired by faith. For this reason faith can never fail, because faith is an upward mental change, and every upward mental change will unfailingly produce a change for the better in the body.

When we have faith in anything we elevate the mind. No matter what it is we have faith in, the mere matter of having faith will elevate the mind. The elevating of the mind causes the renewal of the mind, and when we renew our minds we always change things for the better.

Every subconscious action of the mind is a cause; and when the mind is taken up into a new and more perfect state, all these causes will become better and more powerful because they will accordingly produce greater and better effects. When the mind is taken up the entire system is taken up and is taken out into the freedom of the more perfect. The same process tends to produce right mental states, and such mental states are always conducive to good health.

All wholesome impressions formed upon the subconscious will produce wholesome effects upon the system. And all ascending, enlarging and perfecting states of mind, if deeply felt, produce wholesome impressions upon the subconscious. This proves that faith can never fail, because faith is always ascending, always enlarging, always perfecting, and is always deeply felt. "As your faith is, so shall it be unto you," is a strong statement, but we know it to be absolutely true when we discover what faith really is, and what it has the power to do.

Faith invariably awakens the powers of the inner life, and those powers are higher and stronger than the ones that act in the external personality. Those powers, therefore, can accomplish more, and, what is well to remember, they can accomplish anything because they are unlimited. Failure, however, becomes impossible when unlimited powers are at hand, so, therefore, we realize again that faith can never fail.

It has been stated that the ascending change of mind is the secret of all healing, regardless of what the treatment might be, and as there are many ways to bring about such mental changes, our object must naturally be to find the best way; and we find the best way in faith. How to secure faith and how to employ faith will, therefore, become great questions in this study.

Faith comes from having faith in all things and at all times. There is nothing that develops so rapidly with use as faith, and the reason is because the attitude of faith is towards the larger, the higher and the superior at all times. To have faith and to exercise faith is to press on directly to greater things. It is therefore self-accumulative and self-developing, and demonstrates most positively the truth of the statement that to him that hath shall be given.

"I have faith," and "I have faith in faith," are statements that should be employed constantly, and the meaning of those statements should always be deeply felt. Whenever you think of faith or try to exercise faith turn your mind upon the great within, the boundless, and try to feel your consciousness entering into the seeming void with the assurance that it is all solid rock. If your faith has become well developed you will know through your own interior perceptions that whatever realm your consciousness may penetrate, it is only the real and the substantial that will be found. You then realize that you can go out anywhere in the vast mental world and always be on solid ground.

In the application of the laws of mental and spiritual healing the value of such a realization is simply unbounded, because those systems of healing depend very largely upon realizing the reality of the real. When disease is present the system is in confusion; therefore, if the mind can change into harmony by entering into the understanding of that which is ever real, right, perfect and absolutely good, the regaining of health must positively follow. While in the consciousness of absolute harmony we can know neither confusion nor disturbance of any kind, and we cannot be in a condition of ill health while we are in a state where all is well.

The great secret of healing, therefore, is to change the mind from a state of confusion, disorder and false action into a state where the absolutely good is realized to be real, omnipresent and eternal. It is leaving the stormtossed billows of perverted life and landing safely upon the solid rock of absolute truth. And here we should remember that it matters not where you may be upon this angry sea, faith will guide you safely, surely and speedily to the harbor of perfect peace.

To depend absolutely upon faith is of the highest importance, because faith cannot fail. We may fail, but faith never; and the reason why we fail is because we do not take advantage of the highest wisdom, the superior insight and those mightier powers that may be given to us through faith. In this connection we should fully realize that faith is not blind belief; belief may be blind, but faith sees everything. Faith is constantly ascending into more and more light, because faith is the mind growing into the light.

When you say that you take things on faith, you really mean that a superior insight has informed you that those things should be taken, and that it will be very profitable in some way for you to do so. When you are trying to help yourself or others, this taking of things on faith will prove to be the one perfect path to remarkable results.

Faith declares that all things are possible, and after making this statement faith proceeds to awaken those greater powers in your larger and higher life through which the mind may gain the capacity to do the very things that faith declared could be done. Faith knows that in the great within there is health in abundance; that the real man is always well and that there is sufficient power at hand to bring this perfect health into positive and tangible evidence in every part of the physical system. Faith not only knows this, but acts according to its convictions.

The result is, that what we took on faith we received through faith, and we found it to be very substantial, profoundly real and absolutely good. What we receive through faith is always good, because faith is the continuous ascension of the mind into the absolutely good. Faith may also be defined as the mind's ascension into absolute truth; therefore, the more faith we have the more of truth we shall understand; and it is the understanding of truth that brings complete emancipation.