Natural Cure
- Chapter III -
What
is Life?
In our study of the cause and character of
disease
we must endeavor
to begin at the beginning, and that is with LIFE
itself, for the
processes of health, disease and cure are
manifestations of that
which we call life, vitality, life elements, etc.
While endeavoring to fathom the mystery of life we
soon realize,
however, that we are dealing with an ultimate which
no human mind is
capable of solving or explaining. We can study and
understand life
only in its manifestations, not in its origin and
real essence.
There are two prevalent, but widely differing,
conceptions of the
nature of life or vital force: the material and the
vital.
The former looks upon life or vital force with all
its physical,
mental and psychical phenomena as manifestations of
the electric,
magnetic and chemical activities of the
physical-material elements
composing the human organism. From this viewpoint,
life is a sort of
spontaneous combustion, or, as one scientist
expressed it, a
succession of fermentations.
This materialistic conception of life, however, has
already become
obsolete among the more advanced biologists as a
result of the
wonderful discoveries of modern science, which are
fast bridging the
chasm between the material and the spiritual realms
of being.
But medical science, as taught in the regular
schools, is still
dominated by the old, crude, mechanical conception
of vital force
and this, as we shall see, accounts for some of its
gravest errors
of theory and of practice.
The vital conception of life, on the other hand,
regards it as the
primary force of all forces, coming from the great
central source of
all power.
This force, which permeates, heats and animates the
entire created
universe, is the expression of the divine will, the
"logos," the
"word" of the great creative intelligence. It is
this divine energy
which sets in motion the whirls in the ether, the
electric
corpuscles and ions that make up the different atoms
and elements of
matter.
These corpuscles and ions are positive and negative
forms of
electricity. Electricity is a form of energy. It is
intelligent
energy; otherwise it could not move with that same
wonderful
precision in the electrons of the atoms as in the
suns and planets
of the sidereal universe.
This intelligent energy can have but one source: the
will and the
intelligence of the Creator; as Swedenborg expresses
it, "the great
central sun of the universe."
If this supreme intelligence should withdraw its
energy, the
electrical charges (forms of energy) and with it the
atoms,
elements, and the entire material universe would
disappear in the
flash of a moment.
From this it appears that crude matter, instead of
being the source
of life and of all its complicated mental and
spiritual phenomena
(which assumption, on the face of it, is absurd), is
only an
expression of the Life Force, itself a manifestation
of the great
creative intelligence which some call God, others
Nature, the
Oversoul, Brahma, Prana, etc., each one according to
his best
understanding.
It is this supreme power and intelligence, acting in
and through
every atom, molecule and cell in the human body,
which is the true
healer, the vis medicatrix nature, which always
endeavors to
repair, to heal and to restore the perfect type. All
that the
physician can do is to remove obstructions and to
establish normal
conditions within and around the patient, so that
the healer within
can do his work to the best advantage.
Here the Christian Scientist will say: "That is
exactly what we
claim. All is God, all is mind! There is no matter!
Our attitude
toward disease is based on these facts."
Well, what of it, Brother Scientist? Suppose, in the
final analysis,
matter is nothing but vibration, an expression of
Divine Mind and
Will. That, for all practical purposes, does not
justify me to deny
and to ignore its reality. Because I have an
"all-mind" body, is it
advisable for me to place myself in the way of an
"all-mind"
locomotive moving at the rate of sixty miles an
hour?
The question is not what matter is in
the final analysis, but how
matter affects us. We have to take it and treat it as we
find it. We
must be as obedient to the laws of matter as to those of
the higher
planes of being.
Life Is Vibratory
In the final analysis, all things in Nature, from a fleeting thought
or emotion to the hardest piece of diamond or platinum,
are modes of
motion or vibration. A few years ago physical science
assumed that
an atom was the smallest imaginable part of a given
element of
matter; that although infinitesimally small, it still
represented
solid matter. Now, in the light of better evidence, we
have good
reason to believe that there is no such thing as solid
matter: that
every atom is made up of charges of negative and positive
electricity acting in and upon an omnipresent ether; that
the
difference between an atom of iron and of hydrogen or any
other
element consists solely in the number of electrical
charges or
corpuscles it contains, and on the velocity with which
these vibrate
around one another.
Thus the atom, which was thought to be the ultimate
particle of
solid matter, is found to be a little universe in itself
in which
corpuscles of electricity rotate or vibrate around one
another like
the suns and planets in the sidereal universe. This
explains what we
mean when we say life and matter are vibratory.
As early as 1863 John Newlands discovered that when he
arranged the
elements of matter in the order of their atomic weight,
they
displayed the same relationship to one another as do the
tones in
the musical scale. Thus modern chemistry demonstrates the
verity of
the music of the spheres--another visionary concept of
ancient
mysticism. The individual atoms in themselves, as well as
all the
atoms of matter in their relationship to one another, are
constructed and arranged in exact correspondence with the
laws of
harmony. Therefore the entire sidereal universe is built
on the laws
of music.
That which is orderly, lawful, good, beautiful, natural,
healthy,
vibrates in unison with the harmonics of this great
"Diapason of
Nature"; in other words, it is in alignment with the
constructive
principle in Nature.
That which is disorderly, abnormal, ugly, unnatural,
unhealthy,
vibrates in discord with Nature's harmonics. It is in
alignment with
the destructive principle in Nature.
What we call "Inanimate Nature" is beautiful and orderly
because it
plays in tune with the score of the Symphony of Life. Man
alone can
play out of tune. This is his privilege, if he so chooses,
by virtue
of his freedom of choice and action.
We cam
now better understand the definitions of health and of
disease, given in
Chapter Two, "Catechism
of Nature Cure" as follows:
"Health
is normal and harmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on the physical, mental,
moral and spiritual planes of being, in conformity with
the constructive principle of Nature applied to individual
life."
"Disease
is abnormal or inharmonious vibration of the elements and
forces composing the human entity on one or more planes of
being, in conformity with the destructive principle of
Nature applied to individual life."
The
question naturally arising here is, "Normal or abnormal
vibration with what?" The answer is that the
vibratory conditions of the organism must be in harmony
with Nature's established harmonic relations in the
physical, mental, moral, spiritual and psychical realms of
human life and action.
What Is
an Established Harmonic Relation?
Let us
see whether we cannot make this clear by a simple.
If a watch is in good condition, in harmonious vibration,
its movement is so adjusted that it coincides exactly, in
point of time, with the rotations of our earth around its
axis. The established, regular movement of the earth
forms the basis of the established harmonic relationship
between the vibrations of a normal, healthy timepiece and
the revolutions of our planet. The watch has to
vibrate in unison with the harmonics of the planetary
universe in order to be normal, or in harmony.
In like
manner, everything that is normal, natural, healthy, good,
beautiful must vibrate in unison with its correlated
harmonics in Nature.
Obedience
the Only Salvation
Orthodox
medical science attributes disease largely to accidental
causes: to chance infection by disease taints, germs or
parasites; to drafts, chills, wet feet, etc.
The
religiously inclined frequently attribute disease and
other tribulations to the arbitrary rulings of an
inscrutable Providence.
Christian
Scientists tell us that sin, suffering, disease and all
other kinds of evil are only errors of mortal mind, or the
products of diseased imagination (though this is in itself
admits the existence of something abnormal or diseased).
Nature
Cure philosophy presents a rational concept of evil, its
cause and purpose, namely: that it is brought on by
violation of Nature's Laws; that it is corrective in its
purpose: that it can be overcome only by compliance with
the law. There is no suffering, disease or evil of
any kind anywhere unless the law has been transgressed
somewhere by someone.
These
transgressions of the law may be due to ignorance, to
indifference or to willfulness and viciousness. The
effects will always be commensurate with the causes.
The
science of natural living and healing shows clearly that
what we call disease is primarily Nature's effort to
eliminate morbid matter and to restore the normal
functions of the body; that the processes of disease are
just as orderly in their way as everything else in Nature;
that we must not check or suppress them, but cooperate
with them. Thus we learn, slowly and laboriously,
the all-important lesson that "obedience to the law" is
the only means of prevention of disease, and the only
cure.
The
Fundamental Law of Cure, the Law of Action and Reaction,
and the Law of Crises, as revealed by the Nature Cure
philosophy, impress upon us the truth that there is
nothing accidental or arbitrary in the processes of
health, disease and cure; that every changing condition is
either in harmony or in discord with the laws of our
being; that only by complete surrender and obedience to
the law can we attain and maintain perfect physical
health.
Self-Control, the Master's Key
Thus Nature Cure
brings home to us constantly and forcibly the inexorable
facts of natural law and the necessity of compliance with
the law. Herein lies its great educational value to the
individual and to the race.
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