Part 23 (2/2)
Mental conditions to be heeded
Is it skilful or scientific surgery to take no heed of men- 159:12 tal conditions and to treat the patient as if she were so much mindless matter, and as if matter were the only factor to be consulted? Had these 159:15 unscientific surgeons understood metaphysics, they would have considered the woman's state of mind, and not have risked such treatment. They would either 159:18 have allayed her fear or would have performed the opera- tion without ether.
The sequel proved that this Lynn woman died from 159:21 effects produced by mortal mind, and not from the disease or the operation.
False source of knowledge
The medical schools would learn the state of man 159:24 from matter instead of from Mind. They examine the lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how much harmony, or health, matter is permit- 159:27 ting to matter, - how much pain or pleasure, action or stagnation, one form of matter is allowing another form of matter.
159:30 Ignorant of the fact that a man's belief produces dis- ease and all its symptoms, the ordinary physician is liable to increase disease with his own mind, when he 160:1 should address himself to the work of destroying it through the power of the divine Mind.
160:3 The systems of physics act against metaphysics, and _vice versa_. When mortals forsake the material for the spiritual basis of action, drugs lose their healing force, 160:6 for they have no innate power. Unsupported by the faith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomes powerless.
Obedient muscles
160:9 The motion of the arm is no more dependent upon the direction of mortal mind, than are the organic action and secretion of the viscera. When this so-called 160:12 mind quits the body, the heart becomes as tor- pid as the hand.
Anatomy and mind
Anatomy finds a necessity for nerves to convey the man- 160:15 date of mind to muscle and so cause action; but what does anatomy say when the cords contract and be- come immovable? Has mortal mind ceased 160:18 speaking to them, or has it bidden them to be impotent?
Can muscles, bones, blood, and nerves rebel against mind in one instance and not in another, and become cramped 160:21 despite the mental protest?
Unless muscles are self-acting at all times, they are never so, - never capable of acting contrary to mental 160:24 direction. If muscles can cease to act and become rigid of their own preference, - be deformed or symmetrical, as they please or as disease directs, - they must be self- 160:27 directing. Why then consult anatomy to learn how mor- tal mind governs muscle, if we are only to learn from anatomy that muscle is not so governed?
Mind over matter
160:30 Is man a material fungus without Mind to help him? Is a stiff joint or a contracted muscle as much a result of law as the supple and 161:1 elastic condition of the healthy limb, and is G.o.d the lawgiver?
161:3 You say, ”_I_ have burned my finger.” This is an exact statement, more exact than you suppose; for mor- tal mind, and not matter, burns it. Holy inspiration 161:6 has created states of mind which have been able to nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; 161:9 while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous combustion.
Restrictive regulations
In 1880, Ma.s.sachusetts put her foot on a proposed 161:12 tyrannical law, restricting the practice of medicine. If her sister States follow this example in har- mony with our Const.i.tution and Bill of Rights, 161:15 they will do less violence to that immortal sentiment of the Declaration, ”Man is endowed by his Maker with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 161:18 pursuit of happiness.”
The oppressive state statutes touching medicine re- mind one of the words of the famous Madame Roland, 161:21 as she knelt before a statue of Liberty, erected near the guillotine: ”Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!”
Metaphysics challenges physics
161:24 The ordinary pract.i.tioner, examining bodily symptoms, telling the patient that he is sick, and treating the case ac- cording to his physical diagnosis, would natu- 161:27 rally induce the very disease he is trying to cure, even if it were not already determined by mor- tal mind. Such unconscious mistakes would not occur, if 161:30 this old cla.s.s of philanthropists looked as deeply for cause and effect into mind as into matter. The physician agrees with his ”adversary quickly,” but upon different terms 162:1 than does the metaphysician; for the matter-physician agrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees 162:3 only with health and challenges disease.
Truth an alterative
Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science 162:6 acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu- mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores 162:9 carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.
Practical success
162:12 Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs the body, not in one instance, but in every instance. The indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without 162:15 the conditions of matter and also without the false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working out the rules of Science in practice, the author has re- 162:18 stored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been 162:21 elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. I have restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and 162:24 healthy organizations have been established where disease was organic. Christian Science heals organic disease as surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires 162:27 only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule.
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