Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
153:1
To trample on the belief of sickness, and to regard
To trample on the belief of sickness, and to regard
yourself superior to it, is wise; but to fear sickness,
causes it, by acknowledging its supremacy over you.
If you possess Love, Wisdom, or Truth, you have Life,
that is superior to death, sickness, or sin, and you ought
to prove this fact by demonstration.
153:7
If thought is startled at the strong claims of the sci-
If thought is startled at the strong claims of the sci-
ence of being, and doubts them, are we not surprised
also, by the claims of evil? but admit them, although dis-
cord is unreal and Truth not as surprising or arbitrary
as error.
153:12
When sound is interpreted by personal sense, it is but
When sound is interpreted by personal sense, it is but
a belief that may be lost with a single change of opinion
regarding it, but where it exists in its Principle, we
hold it in Soul, and a self-conscious capacity undying.
The belief that the so-called dead speak audibly to the
living, gives a mental impression the same as other be-
liefs, and has no more reality than those. Sound is pro-
duced by mental impressions, and not by the action of
air on the mechanism of the ear. Hearing is not de-
pendent on matter, but depends either on belief or the
understanding. Those believing in "spirits," may pro-
duce to personal sense the impression of sound that has
the same reality to them as the more common modus
operandi has to others. It is mind alone that hears, and
mind that gives the impression of sound; and this is
proved by clairvoyance.
153:28
One individual believes he must use his hands to
One individual believes he must use his hands to
bring a rose in contact with the olfactories; and another,
equally sincere, believes legerdemain can do this; and
a third, that the so-called dead handle the rose for
him; but each one has produced this phenomenon
154:1
by his belief, and only because the method is more
by his belief, and only because the method is more
common to let limbs, lips, and ears express the mind's
volition, and sound to sense, other methods we call mir-
acles. As a man thinketh, so is he in error; but as a
man understandeth, so is he in Truth. A belief of sick-
ness, coming in contact with another belief of health, is
sometimes negatived, and the sick feel better, and this
is the only point of science that the mal-practitioner
adheres to. The supposed sensations of body are the
impressions of one's own mind, or that another mind
produces, in no case do they proceed from matter; at
length they may become a belief of inflammation, sup-
puration, paralysis, stiffness, etc.; but in no instance do
they originate in matter.
154:15
Again, one mind coming in contact with the grief of
Again, one mind coming in contact with the grief of
another is depressed, and a tear starts; now has not
mind in this instance produced an effect on the body,
upon the lachrymal glands? and not more readily, or
distinctly on the eyes, than an internal organ. Mind
produces diseased bones, and governs alone the entire
internal viscera, and this is the explanation of all disease.
The excellent author, John Young of Edinburgh, says,
"God is the father of minds, and of nothing else;"
surely this is the voice of Truth, crying in the wilder-
ness, prepare ye the way of moral science, even the reign
of Spirit over matter. Scourging Truth out of syna-
gogues will not hide it forever. The signs of to-day
point to the era when all that really is, will be under-
stood Spirit and its phenomena; and already the shadow
of this right hand rests upon the hour.
154:31
The inquiry should no longer be, can mind produce
The inquiry should no longer be, can mind produce
sounds, faces and forms? but what is the best method