The Science of Being Well By Wallace Delois Wattles --- 02 CHAPTER 2. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH

CHAPTER 2. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH

Before a man can think in the Certain Way which will cause his disease to be
healed, he must believe in certain truths which are here stated:
All things are made from one Living Substance, which, in its original state
permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. While all
visible things are made from It, yet this Substance, in its first formless
condition is in and through all the visible forms that It has made. Its life is in
All, and the intelligence is in All.
This substance creates by thought, and its method is by taking the form of
that which it thinks about. The thought of a form held by this substance
causes it to assume that form; the thought of a motion causes it to institute
that motion. Forms are created by this substance in moving itself into
certain attributes or positions. When Original Substance wishes to create a
given form, it thinks of the motions which will produce that form.
When it wishes to create a world, it thinks of the motions, perhaps
extending through ages, which will result in its coming into the attitude and
form of the world; and these motions are made. When it wishes to create an
oak tree, it thinks of the sequences of movement, perhaps extending
through ages, which will result in the form of an oak tree; and these motions
are made. The particular sequences of motion by which differing forms
should be produced were established in the beginning; they are changeless.
Certain motions instituted in the Formless Substance will forever produce
certain forms.
Man's body is formed from the Original Substance, and is the result of
certain motions, which first existed as thoughts of Original Substance. The
motions which produce, renew, and repair the body of man are called
functions, and these functions are of two classes: voluntary and involuntary.
The involuntary functions are under the control of the Principle of Health in
man, and are performed in a perfectly healthy manner so long as man thinks
in a certain way. The voluntary functions of life are eating, drinking,
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breathing, and sleeping. These, entirely or in part, are under the direction of
man's conscious mind; and he can perform them in a perfectly healthy way if
he will.
If he does not perform them in a healthy way, he cannot long be well. So we
see that if man thinks in a certain way, and eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps
in a corresponding way, he will be well.
The involuntary functions of a man's life are under the control of the
Principle of Health, and so long as man thinks in a perfectly healthy way,
these functions are perfectly performed; for the action of the Principle of
Health is largely directed by man's conscious thought, affecting his
subconscious mind.
Man is a thinking center, capable of originating thought; and as he does not
know everything, he makes mistakes and thinks error. Not knowing
everything, he believes things to be true which are not true. Man holds in his
thought the idea of diseased and abnormal functioning and conditions, and
so perverts the action of the Principle of Health, causing diseased and
abnormal functioning and conditions within his own body.
In the Original Substance there are held only thoughts of perfect motion;
perfect and healthy function; complete life. God never thinks disease or
imperfection. But for countless ages men have held thoughts of disease,
abnormality, old age, and death; and the perverted functioning resulting
from these thoughts has become a part of the inheritance of the race. Our
ancestors have, for many generations, held imperfect ideas concerning
human form and functioning; and we begin life with racial sub- conscious
impressions of imperfection and disease.
This is not natural, or a part of the plan of nature. The purpose of nature can
be nothing else than the perfection of life. This we see from the very nature
of life itself. It is the nature of life to continually advance toward more
perfect living; advancement is the inevitable result of the very act of living.
Increase is always the result of active living; whatever lives must live more
and more.
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The seed, lying in the granary, has life, but it is not living. Put it into the soil
and it becomes active, and at once begins to gather to itself from the
surrounding substance, and to build a plant form. It will so cause increase
that a seed head will be produced containing thirty, sixty, or a hundred
seeds, each having as much life as the first.
Life, by living, increases.
Life cannot live without increasing, and the fundamental impulse of life is to
live. It is in response to this fundamental impulse that Original Substance
works, and creates. God must live; and he cannot live except as he creates
and increases. In multiplying forms, He is moving on to live more.
The Universe is a Great Advancing Life, and the purpose of nature is the
advancement of life toward perfection; toward perfect functioning. The
purpose of nature is perfect health.
The purpose of nature, so far as man is concerned, is that he should be
continuously advancing into more life, and progressing toward perfect life;
and that he should live the most complete life possible in his present sphere
of action.
This must be so, because That which lives in man is seeking more life.
Give a little child a pencil and paper, and he begins to draw crude figures;
That which lives in him is trying to express Itself in art. Give him a set of
blocks, and he will try to build something; That which lives in him is seeking
expression in architecture. Seat him at a piano, and he will try to draw
harmony from the keys; That which lives in him is trying to express Itself in
music.
That which lives in man is always seeking to live more; and since man lives
most when he is well, the Principle of Nature in him can seek only health.
The natural state of man is a state of perfect health; and everything in him,
and in nature, tends toward health.
Sickness can have no place in the thought of Original Substance, for it is by
its own nature continually impelled toward the fullest and most perfect life;
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therefore, toward health. Man, as he exists in the thought of the Formless
Substance, has perfect health.
Disease, which is abnormal or perverted function - motion imperfectly made,
or made in the direction of imperfect life - has no place in the thought of the
Thinking Stuff.
The Supreme Mind never thinks of disease. Disease was not created or
ordained by God, or sent forth from him. It is wholly a product of separate
consciousness; of the individual thought of man. God, the Formless
Substance, does not see disease, think disease, know disease, or recognize
disease. Disease is recognized only by the thought of man; God thinks
nothing but health.
From all the foregoing, we see that health is a fact or TRUTH in the original
substance from which we are all formed; and that disease is imperfect
functioning, resulting from the imperfect thoughts of men, past and
present. If man's thoughts of himself had always been those of perfect
health, man could not possibly now be otherwise than perfectly healthy.
Man in perfect health is the thought of Original Substance, and man in
imperfect health is the result of his own failure to think perfect health, and
to perform the voluntary functions of life in a healthy way. We will here
arrange in a syllabus the basic truths of the Science of Being Well:
There is a Thinking Substance from which all things are made, and which, in
its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the
universe. It is the life of All. The thought of a form in this substance causes
the form; the thought of a motion produces the motion. In relation to man,
the thoughts of this Substance are always of perfect functioning and perfect
health.
Man is a thinking center, capable of original thought; and his thought has
power over his own functioning. By thinking imperfect thoughts he has
caused imperfect and perverted functioning; and by performing the
voluntary functions of life in a perverted manner, he has assisted in causing
disease.
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If man will think only thoughts of perfect health, he can cause within himself
the functioning of perfect health; and the Power of Life will be exerted to
assist him. But this healthy functioning will not continue unless man
performs the external, or voluntary, functions of living in a healthy manner.
Man's first step must be to learn how to think perfect health; and his second
step to learn how to eat, drink, breathe, and sleep in a perfectly healthy
way. If man takes these two steps, he will certainly become well, and remain
so.