Chapter VII - Physiology
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you saw your doctor, but it could not be so positive
you saw your doctor, but it could not be so positive
or defined as afterward; you must have felt the influ-
ence of his mind, his belief in disease affected yours,
even if he said nothing, and but for this it might
have gradually left your mind and you would have
recovered.
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We would not deny to physicians, as noble men and
We would not deny to physicians, as noble men and
women, great philanthropy of purpose; we only urge
them to make their endeavors more effectual by chang-
ing their basis of action from body to mind, and from
personal sense to science. If the science of being was
familiar to them as the edicts of the schools, blessings
numberless would flow from such high sources. In
every case of disease, or of health, to heal the one or
preserve the other, the science of Life is all that is
necessary. But the various methods of healing have
not been science, else disease would have disappeared
ere this remote period since Adam, error, first introduced
it. The so-called laws of health are not science, for the
latter delivers man from their penalty and destroys the
law, establishing a higher law, even the superiority of
Soul over sense, and of Spirit over matter. It annuls
the oppressive bondage that our theories enforce on
man. The law of God is opposed to laws of matter,
and entitled to more obedience and respect. His law
is Intelligence, that recognizes no higher law, and if
this be not apparent to more than myself, why appeal
to God to restore the sick, when the so-called laws of
health are of no avail. God should control man at all
times, and under all circumstances; and controlled
thus, he is harmonious and immortal. Sickness, sin, or
death will never trouble man, or the body controlled
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by Soul and not sense, Spirit and not matter. If the
by Soul and not sense, Spirit and not matter. If the
law of Truth, Life and Love, produced sickness, no law
of matter could destroy it, and it were morally wrong
to employ means acting against this government; the
law of God is the only admissible authority in the uni-
verse, but this law pertains to mind and not matter.
What, then, is left to physiology but crossbones and
skulls? Man will never be learned in harmony and
immortality until the error of physiology is destroyed
by Spirit triumphing over matter.
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Because the muscles of a blacksmith's arm are strongly
Because the muscles of a blacksmith's arm are strongly
developed, it does not follow that exercise did this, or
that he whose habits are sedentary must be fragile. If
matter was the cause of action, and muscles without
mind used the anvil and smote the nail, such an infer-
ence might be true; but muscles act in obedience to
man, hence the fact that mind and not matter enlarges
and strengthens them only through the demand man
makes on them, and the corresponding power he sup-
plies, and not because of exercise or muscles, but the
blacksmith is the strength of his arm.
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Man moves his own body and develops it in whatever
Man moves his own body and develops it in whatever
direction mind determines; whether consciously or
unconsciously, it matters not. The feats of the gymnast
are proofs that the latent powers of man are unknown
to him; mind fixing on some achievement, makes its
accomplishment easy. Had Blondin believed he could
not walk a rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, to ac-
complish that feat would have been impossible; but,
understanding it could be done, he lost his fear and
gave his muscles flexibility and power that was attrib-
uted, perhaps, to a lubricating oil. When Homer sang