THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HEALING
Creation primarily and ultimately is a harmonious whole. There is nothing new under the sun but Creation (or what already is in the invisible) is forever appearing. The finishing of Creation is an individual work and cannot be delegated to another, for each one of us has to work out his own salvation. To become consciously at one with our source is to finish creation, and for this came we into the world. The Great Deep of Being is the undiscovered country which existent soul is to study and explore. It is to become acquainted with God through knowing more and more of spiritual man which is the Image of God. Every Individuality in his relation to God is that One Man, or true Being, for God is no respecter of persons, and has endowed all alike. To gain self-conscious immortality is the purpose of every soul. We are immortal new, but we must prove it to ourselves, self consciously.
In Being, we are whole and perfect now. We were created perfect, spiritual, harmonious, whole, but this does not suffice for in addition we are yet to be made whole, and with this making, we have everything to do. The same power that created us makes us as well. With the creating we have nothing to do, but the making power implies volitional action on our part, so in view of its office in the divine economy, it is a most important factor. We qualify embodiment by our volitional use of the “Power to think” and are therefore responsible for the kind of bodies we build, and environment we make.
Soul is to grow in knowledge of the Lord which means that it is to gain more positive knowledge of who and what it is, whence it came, why it is here, and whither it is bound. True healing deals with these vital queries for it teaches the soul the Truth of its Being, and thus sheds light upon the path from earth to heaven. In considering the subject of healing, the question naturally arises, “What is it that is to be healed?”
At first glance, it would, seem that if man was created whole and perfect there could be no occasion for healing. As we follow the sequence out from God, however, wo find that there is a lawful factor in creation which needs to he ministered unto by the Great Physician because it is sin-sick. The factor, the sixth in divine order is living soul which is the user of the power to think.
Because of its youth and lack of knowledge the imaginations of its heart are evil. It is an infant soul, and in its natural ignorance has formed a false conclusion as to who and what it is, and its relation to its Source. This wrong sense of self, while not a wilful error, results in undesirable conditions just the same, for it is a law that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7), and Law, as we know, is unchanging, impersonal, and therefore no respecter of persons. To entertain the “worm of the dust” idea is to doom one’s self to sin-sickness and a whole brood of undesirable, unprofitable states, both mental and physical, for soul and its embodiment are so closely interwoven that what goes on in the mentality is bound to be mirrored in the body, and eventually shadowed forth on the plane of person.
Dis-ease is simply lack of ease, which is the abnormal state of living soul. This term covers a wide expanse of inharmonious conditions of body and environment. Disease is the result of sin, which leads to the ignorant misuse of the thinking power. It is fleeting because it originated in the infant soul, and has no Everlasting Arms beneath it. Clearly, it is not of God, but instead is the natural outgrowth of the dust man’s sense about himself, and because of its earthly origin necessarily comes to an end, or ultimates in its “native nothingness.” The things that are of the earth are earthy, they come and go which shows that they are not created while the spiritual entities that emanate from God or First Cause are as changeless as their Principle. They are not affected by anything in the outer, but are the same yesterday, today and evermore.
[TruthUnity note: The previous lesson said it is not sinful to explore good and evil. Here the writer says sin originates from our mistaken sense of who and what we are, causing ignorant misuse of our thinking power and leading to inharmonious conditions of body and environment.]
All causation is mental, so the suffering that seems to be in the body is really in the realm of mentality. There is no life, substance, intelligence, sensation in matter or shape, so it cannot think, and therefore cannot feel. It is only the canvas whereon our thinking (good or otherwise) is reflected.
Healing does not deal with this shadow body, or the reflection upon it, but directs its rectifying power to the user of shape, or the thinker back of appearances. The effect or bodily disease disappears when the disturbing cause has been removed.
The expression of Thought Force is the Word. The Word is the Creative Power of the Universe. The soul is the user of the Word. We must distinguish between the activity of the Word, or more properly speaking, the activity of the Power to Think, and the soul’s exercise of it. Thought force is ceaselessly active, and is a tremendous power for weal or woe, according to the way we use it, for it is qualified by our exercise of it, — good in itself, but varies according to our use of it or attitude toward it. The shape is a perfect barometer that registers our consciousness of who and what we are. Through beliefs and mere opinions, shadows are cast upon it, for which it is not responsible, being perfect in itself, but is a means to an end. When conditions of inharmony shadow the form, the healer or practitioner sees them as shadows or powerless nonentities, and in this way robs them of their seeming power, and finally utterly dispels them.
Thought is both constructive and destructive. The same force that brings disease will, if rightly applied, produce peace of mind and a healthy body, for it can both tear down and build up or repair. We do not at any time or under any circumstance have to give up the body, but simply need to let go of our false sense of the mask that hides it.
True healing implies regeneration, or being born again, for it means cleansing the soul of its sense of sinfulness and freeing it from self-imposed limitations, it means soul awakening, or rousing out of the Adam sleep. It means to purge the consciousness of everything unlike its Source, and replace the foreign intrusions and alien influences, with the true Self Idea which is too pure to behold iniquity, and does not cognise disease, discord or any negative state.
Disease arises from a sense of separateness, and consequent inharmony between the “sense man” and God’s Man. The power of choice belongs to our Real Being, but the exercise of it, to the human soul, and when soul chooses to give up its own willing or turn to the Lord, the mental conflict ceases, and peace and ease possess the soul; just so long as there is warring within or conflict between the human and divine, the without will shadow forth turmoil because it is the nature of Thought to embody.
Error in premise, compels error in conclusion, so error in our Self Idea compels mistakes throughout the problem of existence. In order to truly heal the sin-sick soul, the axe must be laid at the root of the tree, for healing is radical and can never be accomplished until the original error belief belonging to the infant Adam has been uprooted and cast out.
The shape is the means by which the invisible becomes apparent. The exact status of our underworld is mirrored forth in bodily conditions, reflected upon person, so that he who runs may read in our inmost thoughts.
We may learn to direct our thinking by calling in our straying thoughts and disciplining them so that they will not run riot, but will go only where they are sent. The price of “right thinking” is eternal vigilance. We must let go of the non-essentials or material things and lay hold of the spiritual verities that make for our eternal welfare and insure peace of mind, and health of body.
The image making power, must be watched, for it is also an image breaker. It is responsible for the image or picture of self in our mental slide upon which so much depends, for it determines what likeness it shall bear. Man’s heart is not evil, but the soul tendencies, impulses, and imaginations are not always according to the Truth of Being. Surely if error-thinking can make us sick, right thinking is evidently the remedy which will restore the soul and redeem the body. Paul says that through the renewing of the mind, the body is transformed. He knew the truth of Being and emphasized the law that outward renewal can come, only through a change in our innermost thinking. In Being we are now the full, complete, entire Expression of Harmony Itself and are therefore a complete, harmonious Whole, even now, no matter how we feel or appear.
Mind and its manifestation are one in reality, but this unity must be ratified by existent soul before we get the full benefit of the one-ness. Healing implies conscious unity of Being, soul and body with God. Tney are all bound together, by the Law of Cause and effect, whether we realize it or not, but healing comes only through conscious recognition and realization of this God-ordained relatedness. It is the Truth we know for ourselves that makes us free, that which we have made our own through embodiment that heals the sin-sick soul. Healing is both revolutionary and evolutionary. It deals with the “inward parts”, renews, regenerates, rejuvenates, and reforms, supplanting old error impulses and instincts with new, true tendencies, while curing is simply “lapping off the branches” and leaving the roots to send forth more sprouts after its kind.
The body at every state and stage of unfoldment continues to represent the status of the soul, as the latter is cleansed and purified of error beliefs, so the body takes on a corresponding hue, and shadows forth Health, Strength, and other signs of betterment.
It is the quickened, aspiring soul that suffers. The one in the Adam sleep, joined to his idol of clay, is for a time content with what it finds on the sense plane, but because of the initial Impulse or God-Push, back of every soul, there comes a day when its eyes are opened to the Truth and it begins to aspire to better things. With this awakening, comes the time of reaping past error-sowing. Soul comes to Itself and cries out for that which heals, and finds in its search after Truth that “Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal” (Thomas Moore 1779-1852).
The work of prevention of disease is of far more importance than the mere mitigation or temporary repression of mental and physical abnormalities. The latter is good, as far as it goes, but is limited in action by its natare, and does not reach the root of disease which is deep seated.
Curing deals with conditions and thus falls short of the mark, for the real Cause lies back of symptoms, and can on]y be fathomed by one who understands the deep things of God. A novice may relieve physical suffering, or modify unpleasant environment, but in order to eradicate the cause, root and branch, the old picture of self must be taken out of the mental slide, and a new, true, likeness put in its place. In this way, the outer responds in bettered conditions, for it is only a reflection of the soul that is using shape, and is in no-wise responsible for what is registered upon it.
It is not enough to cover over the old pictures with the new, but the former (or likeness of the sense self) must be obliterated or destroyed, lest in an unguarded moment it rise up and confront us again, making our last estate, worse than the first.
Healing is radical because it deals with the root of the matter, and because of its thorough, incisive methods. No form of error can withstand or survive its advances. The Fire of Divine Love (which is the Power that heals) consumes to its “native nothingness” the chaff and stubble of materiality, and enriches the soul by its mellowing, fructifying power. The Divine Power and Presence is within and all about us, awaiting recognition and appropriation which shows that we have to eat, digest, assimilate or make it our own by volitional action on our part.
Belief belongs to the “Intellectual faculty” and understanding to “Spiritual Perception,” which is a higher faculty. The former may effect mere cures, but it takes understanding faith to heal or make whole. It is the key to the “New Birth” and so without self-understanding there can be no true healing.
The Divine Son is wrapped up in the human consciousness, and must be brought forth through the right use of the thinking power. The begotten son is the savior of the world, or the mediator between mankind and its Lord. Making whole is the prerogative of the illumined or enlightened soul, for its is the lawful work of him who has come into a conscious realization of the Truth of Being.
Healing is a gradual process in consciousness, an orderly unfoldment of divine possibilities; Curing is the power of the mind to control or check conditions for a time. Healing is a preventive measure and removes liability to dis-ease and mis-fortune, and all negative states, mental and physical. As said above, healing is both evolutionary and revolutionary in its action, for it deals with the innermost thinking and changing motives, ideals, impulses and establishes thought tendencies which in the nature of things are bound to ultimate in changed conditions in body and environment. Healing according to the Science of Being according to Law and the “Law of the Lord” is perfect, converting the soul. It is the soul, or user of the power to think that is sick, -- sin or lack of self-knowledge is the cause. So clearly an understanding of the Truth of being is the antidote, or only effective remedy that can be administered. It is the logical panacea for human ills, for it not only gives us a greater realization our unity with God, but a better understanding of our true relation to the world of shapes. Perfect soul must precede perfect body. As soul grows in self-consciousness, it realizes this, and comes to see that nothing in the external can either help or harm it, but that its Redeemer and Protector is within, and its help must come from on high.
Naturally, the soul is open to impressions, both from its human and slide, but it has the power to sift, and is free to entertain the suggestions that are in accord with Principle or co-operate with those contrary to the God-like, just as it chooses. If it allies itself with the things of Spirit, healing ensues, and the door is closed on dis-ease and disaster.
By volitional surrender, to the Higher Self, the human soul becomes master of the lower natures, and positive to the suggestions of the sense man. By identifying itself with God’s man, it becomes a magnet to draw itself, all good, that is to draw to itself all good, spiritual and temporal, for it is healed of the old limited sense of self and shows forth in person bodily conditions and environments, what it is in Being.
To be relieved of discomfort today, and have it return tomorrow or next week, is far from satisfactory. What we want is a method of healing that will keep one well by removing liability to disease as well as relieving present inharmeny. This is exactly what we may claim for the Healing Truth of the Science of Being when rightly understood and faithfully applied. To be relieved from the ills of tne flesh or even the sense of pain temporarily is indeed cause for rejoicing, but the aim of these lessons in Truth is to uproot from the consciousness permanently all the sense of sin, weakness, fear, worry, dread, failure, old age, and everything that tends to keep the soul earth-bound, and limit it in health, happiness, or in any way hinder its spiritual ongoing.
AFFIRMATIONS TO BE USED WITH THIS LESSON!
Better than he knew spake the poet when he said, “Earth hath no sorrow Heaven cannot heal.”
The Lord in the midst of thee is Mighty.
“He is thy strength and thy deliverance.”
“He is a present Help in time of need. He is the Health of thy countenance.”
“He healeth all thy diseases.”
“Be still and know, be still and trust, be still and expect.”
“My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expect!on is from Him only.”
“Be still and know that God the Father in us is our unfailing, ever-present, bountiful supply of all good, spiritual and all good temporal.”
“The Holy Spirit abiding within us is our All-Sufficiency in all things, and gives us. his children, not according to our needs, but according to His Riches and therefore, is our Bountiful Supply.”
The term “healing” is far reaching. It deals with the innermost recesses of the soul. Its purpose is to bring forth the best in us and establish a normal state of soul, body, environment and affairs. Mere intellectual belief is not sufficient in true healing, but to bring to full fruition the God-like possibilities it requires the usa of all the faculties. True healing begins in the soul, but its effects are felt all along the line, and its results show forth in health of mind, body, and environment, and affairs, the latter are the “signs that follow.” All good is added unto us when we seek first the things tnat are spiritual.
Freedom is man’s Divine right, yet through the misuse of this great boon, he brings upon himself limitations of every nane and nature. He trembles before bugboars of his own making. He gives evil a power that does not inhere in it, and reaps accordingly.
