As to Meat Eating
The subject of diet is attracting more attention every day among metaphysicians. At one time, it was only necessary to quote, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," to dismiss the whole matter. But the revised Bible puts an entirely new face upon this familiar passage. It says, "Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink." It was a treatment for anxiety about God's providence that Jesus was giving and not an injunction to take no thought about food.
Food does have a part in body structure, and the Truth student must take this fact into account if he would demonstrate the higher, finer substance.
In years of experiment, I have tested the effect on mind and body of eating meat and of not eating meat and I feel that I am more competent to judge of the effects than one who theorizes about the question.
When I began the study of Truth, I was told that it made no difference what I ate if I was in the right thought. This seemed to prove true up to a certain point in my experience. While my spiritual development was confined to the conscious mind, there seemed no special need for food discrimination. But gradually a new phase set in. I found that I was having vibrations in the sympathetic nerve centers; the subconscious mind was being quickened, and I was becoming a conscious, vital battery. The vital currents gradually grew stronger and stronger until I could hardly control them. Appetite, passion, emotion were greatly increased. Then my prayers for guidance were answered and a system of communication set up with the higher realms of consciousness. I was shown that the food which entered
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the organism had to pass through a process of "regeneration" every day before it was in condition to be built into the new body in Christ. Just how to carry on this regenerative process in the various subconscious centers was also shown, and here is where I discerned the effects of food in body building.
The vitalizing element in food is contained in the cell, which may be termed a mind battery vibrating with intelligence, force, and substance. These elements are present in the living cell; dead cells are those from which intelligence and force have been withdrawn and in which only inanimate substance remains. Man appropriates these cells, and they become part of his consciousness according to his capacity to use them. Those who have not developed the capacity to regenerate the cells consciously get but a small part of their energies. Sufficient energy is extracted through the automatic functioning of the organism to build up and sustain a physical body for a few years, but the thread of life is frail and its texture coarse.
Personal experiment has proved to me that there is but very little change in the character of the food until it passes through the refining process called regeneration, a process by which, through spiritual meditation and affirmation, the I am is enabled to appropriate and bless for the use of the body the spiritual elements in man's food. But the process is not well sustained until man consciously works with the law and seeks daily regeneration and purification of all the cells in the organism. Then a system is established and the new body built up as designated by Jesus in the symbology of the New Testament.
With this understanding of body substance and of the physical and psychical process of body building, we can see the necessity of discrimination in choosing foods. If the
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cells of the food pass into the blood and glands essentially the same as they were when formed, it is highly important that their character be of the highest and purest.
The argument that life is destroyed in eating fruits and vegetables is frequently used to excuse the slaughter of animals having intelligence and affections. It is so farfetched that a moment's sincere thought ought to disclose its fallacy to anyone. The fruit and the vegetable have completed their life course and have apparently been prepared by a wise creator for food, as we are told in Gen. 1:29: "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed ... to you it shall be for food." Here is plainly indicated a vegetable and fruit diet for man. When these plant products are found spread upon nature's green-garnished tables everywhere, why should man dye his hands in the lifeblood of animals that resent the carnage and cry out and bellow in terror when his cruel knife is raised against them? This is in direct opposition to the divine law of freedom and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of all God's creatures. Man is today suffering in his body and mind the results of this transgressed law and he will continue to suffer until he observes in its fullest degree the command "Thou shalt not kill."
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Preceding Entry: The Household of Faith 296-300: The Interpretation of Visions
Following Entry: The Household of Faith 307-316: Index
