is open
to receive it. What is disease? A mental spectre, which to material
vision has terrible proportions. A kingly tyrant, crowned by our own
beliefs. It has exactly that power which our fears, theories, and
acceptances have conferred upon it. It is not an objective entity, but
our sensuous beliefs have galvanized it into life. "As a man thinketh,
so is he." Realism to us may be conferred upon the most absolute
non-entity, if we give it large thought space, and fear it. As a
condition, disease is existent; but not as a God-created entity, in
and of itself. It appears veritable to us, because we have
unconsciously identified the Ego with the body.

The material standpoint is false. We are immaterial; not bodies, but
spirits--even here and now. Having lost spiritual consciousness, we
practically,--though not theoretically,--feel that we are bodies. To
grasp our divine selfhood and steadily hold it, disarms fear and all
its allies, and promotes recuperation and harmony. When the intrinsic
man dethrones the false and sensuous claimant, and asserts his divine
birthright of wholeness [holiness] the body as a correspondence falls
into line and gradually expresses health on its own plane. Normally
and logically, that which is higher should rule the lower. The body,
instead of being the unrelenting despot, then becomes the docile and
useful servant. In its subordinate position, where it rightfully
belongs, it grows beautiful and harmonious. Men live mainly in their
bodily sensations. Such living, though apparently real, is a false
sense of life. There is a profound significance in the scriptural
injunction, "Take no thought for your body." The dyspeptic thinks of
his stomach, and the more he has it in mind the more abnormally
sensitive it becomes. The sound man has no knowledge of such an organ,
except as a matter of theory. The body, when watched, petted, and
idolized, soon assumes the character of a usurper and tyrant.
Retribution is sure and inherent under such conditions.

A change of environment often cures, simply because novelty diverts
thought which before has been centered upon the body. The improvement,
however, is often credited to better climate, water, or air. Human
pride seeks for its causation without rather than within. Secondary
causation is really effect, though not often so diagnosed. The draft
occasions the cold, but it gets its deadly qualities from cumulative
belief and fear. Who has not seen persons i