Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick
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We admit man is immortal, – our only evidence of this,
We admit man is immortal, – our only evidence of this,
however, we gain from his harmony; discord, sickness
or death never begat this conclusion. Immortality was
never demonstrated to personal sense; but apprehend-
ing in the least, Soul and science, no man doubts his
eternal existence. Physical effects proceed from mental
causes; the belief we can move our hand moves it, and
the belief we cannot do this renders it impossible dur-
ing this state of mind. Palsy is a belief that attacks
mind, and holds a limb inactive independent of the
mind's consent, but the fact that a limb is moved only
with mind proves the opposite, namely, that mind ren-
ders it also immovable. Medical works fill the mind
with images of disease that are liable sooner or later
to be re-produced on the body. The consent of mind
must first be given that palsy is practical, then the cir-
cumstance said to produce it, and the result follows
you have it developed.
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Ossification, or any abnormal formation of bone, is pro-
Ossification, or any abnormal formation of bone, is pro-
duced by mind alone; for a bone never grew independent
of mind, and the cause producing this can remove it.
What the physician and others determine is fatal in a
case, and above all what the patient believes regarding
this, is the only obstacle in the way of the recovery.
A condition of matter must first have been a condition
of mind; hence to destroy the former we must begin
with the latter, and when the cause is removed its effects
disappear. We will suppose two parallel cases of bone
disease, both produced similarly and attended by the
same symptoms; for one we employ a surgeon, and for
the other a scientist. The surgeon, believing matter
forms its own conditions, entertains doubts or fears in
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regard to the case, and his state of mind is communicated
regard to the case, and his state of mind is communicated
to the patient, whether verbally or otherwise. While
we vainly suppose the sick feel the effects only of
thoughts expressed, they feel more surely the unex-
pressed fear, doubt, or anxiety, inasmuch as it is more
intense. The scientist, understanding how mind alone
forms every condition of matter, gives courage and
strength to the patient while imparting to his under-
standing the Truth of being that destroys error, and
restores the limb without stiffness, displacement, or
unnatural formations; whereas the surgeon's similar
case will terminate, if not fatally, in some unnatural
condition of the joint. Understanding the cause of dis-
ease wholly mental, a scientist will never for a moment
admit general opinions regarding it, or take physical
symptoms into account, except as mental conditions or
beliefs to be destroyed through mind.
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Personal sense and science clash, of course, in this
Personal sense and science clash, of course, in this
statement, for they are opposites and without affinity,
and this quarrel will wax warmer until it is over, and
sense yields to science. Pride, ignorance, prejudice or
passion will close the door on science until future cen-
turies open it wide to man, and he regains the harmony
of being. If Life and Intelligence depend on organiza-
tion, man is material; and stop the functions of the body,
or let the body be spiritual, and man is annihilated; and
there must be a new creation of man. If Life escapes
from matter it is not Spirit, and must return again to
matter, in which case there is no spiritual existence. If
material existence is real, the spiritual is unreal, and
vice versa; if Life is matter, or in matter, it cannot con-
tinue outside of matter; and material decomposition