Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
190:1
drank, it produced violent retchings. Thus we passed
drank, it produced violent retchings. Thus we passed
most of our early years, as many can attest, in hunger,
pain, weakness, and starvation. At length we learned
that while fasting increased the desire for food, it
spared none of the sufferings occasioned by partaking
of it, and what to do next, having already exhausted
the medicine men, was a question. After years of suf-
fering, when we made up our mind to die, our doctors
kindly assuring us this was our only alternative, our
eyes were suddenly opened, and we learned suffering
is self-imposed, a belief, and not Truth. That God
never made man sick; and all our fasting for penance
or health, is not acceptable to Wisdom, because it is not
the science of being, in which Soul governs sense. Thus
Truth, opening our eyes, relieved our stomach, also,
and enabled us to eat without suffering, giving God
thanks; but we never afterwards enjoyed food as we
expected to, if ever we were a freed slave, to eat with-
out a master; for the new-born understanding that
food could not hurt us, brought with it another point,
viz., that it did not help us as we had anticipated it
would before our changed views on this subject; food
had less power over us for evil or for good than when
we consulted matter before Spirit, and believed in pains
and pleasures of personal sense. As a natural result,
we took less thought about "What we should eat or
what drink," and, fasting or feasting, consulted less
our stomach and our food, arguing against their claims
continually, and in this manner despoiled them of their
power over us to give pleasure or pain, and recovered
strength and flesh rapidly, enjoying health and harmony
that we never before had done.
191:1
The belief that fasting or feasting enables man to
The belief that fasting or feasting enables man to
grow better, morally or physically, is one of the fruits
of the "tree of knowledge," against which Wisdom
warned man, and of which we had partaken in sad ex-
perience; believing for many years, we lived only by the
strictest adherence to dietetics and physiology. During
this time we also learned a dyspeptic is very far from
the image and likeness of God, from having "domin-
ion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, or beasts
of the field"; therefore, that God never made one;
while the Graham system, hygiene, physiology, ma-
teria medica, etc., did, and contrary to His commands.
Then it was we promised God to spend our coming
years for the sick and suffering; to unmask this error
of belief that matter rules man. Our cure for dyspep-
sia was, to learn the science of being, and "eat what
was set before us, asking no questions for conscience'
sake;" yea, to consult matter less, and God more.
When we govern our bodies by the understanding of
this great Truth, that Spirit forms its own conditions
of body, we shall be perfectly harmonious; we should
not hold the body a seat of pain or pleasure, but be
able to dictate terms to it, even as to a muscle that we
admit is dependent on mind for its action. But to
attain this government over the body requires more
instruction and explanation than we have space for in
this book; we always advance slowly with students,
requiring them to digest one part of the science before
giving out another, and so on. We hear it said, "I go
into the open air daily to overcome a predisposition
to take cold; and yet I have continual colds." Yes,
and you will not listen to the explanation that frees