The Science of Being Well By Wallace Delois Wattles --- 03 CHAPTER 3. LIFE AND ITS ORGANISMS

CHAPTER 3. LIFE AND ITS ORGANISMS

The human body is the abiding place of an energy which renews it when
worn; which eliminates waste or poisonous matter, and which repairs the
body when broken or injured. This energy we call life. Life is not generated
or produced within the body; it produces the body.
The seed which has been kept in the storehouse for years will grow when
planted in the soil; it will produce a plant. But the life in the plant is not
generated by its growing; it is the life which makes the plant grow.
The performance of function does not cause life; it is life which causes
function to be performed. Life is first; function is afterward.
It is life which distinguishes organic from inorganic matter, but it is not
produced after the organization of matter.
Life is the principle or force which causes organization; it builds organisms.
It is a principle or force inherent in Original Substance; all life is One.
This Life Principle of the All is the Principle of Health in man, and becomes
constructively active whenever man thinks in a certain way. Whoever,
therefore, thinks in this Certain Way will surely have perfect health if his
external functioning is in conformity with his thought. But the external
functioning must conform to the thought; man cannot hope to be well by
thinking health, if he eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps like a sick man.
The universal Life Principle then, is the Principle of Health in man. It is one
with original substance. There is one Original Substance from which all
things are made; this substance is alive, and its life is the Principle of Life of
the universe. This Substance has created from itself all the forms of organic
life by thinking them, or by thinking the motions and functions which
produce them.
Original Substance thinks only health, because It knows all truth; there is no
truth which is not known in the Formless, which is All, and in all. It not only
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knows all truth, but it has all power; its vital power is the source of all the
energy there is. A conscious life which knows all truth and which has all
power cannot go wrong or perform function imperfectly; knowing all, it
knows, too much to go wrong, and so the Formless cannot be diseased or
think disease.
Man is a form of this original substance, and has a separate consciousness of
his own; but his consciousness is limited, and therefore imperfect. By reason
of his limited knowledge man can and does think wrongly, and so he causes
perverted and imperfect functioning in his own body.
Man has not known too much to go wrong. The diseased or imperfect
functioning may not instantly result from an imperfect thought, but it is
bound to come if the thought becomes habitual. Any thought continuously
held by man tends to the establishment of the corresponding condition in
his body.
Also, man has failed to learn how to perform the voluntary functions of his
life in a healthy way. He does not know when, what, and how to eat; he
knows little about breathing, and less about sleep.
He does all these things in a wrong way, and under wrong conditions; and
this because he has neglected to follow the only sure guide to the
knowledge of life. He has tried to live by logic rather than by instinct; he has
made living a matter of art, and not of nature. And he has gone wrong.
His only remedy is to begin to go right; and this he can surely do. It is the
work of this book to teach the whole truth, so that the man who reads it
shall know too much to go wrong.
The thoughts of disease produce the forms of disease. Man must learn to
think health; and being Original Substance which takes the form of its
thoughts, he will become the form of health and manifest perfect health in
all his functioning.
The people who were healed by touching the bones of the saint were really
healed by thinking in a certain way, and not by any power emanating from
the relics. There is no healing power in the bones of dead men, whether they
be those of saint or sinner.
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The people who were healed by the doses of either the allopath or the
homeopath were also really healed by thinking in a certain way; there is no
drug which has within itself the power to heal disease.
The people who have been healed by prayers and affirmations were also
healed by thinking in a certain way; there is no curative power in strings of
words.
All the sick who have been healed, by whatsoever "system," have thought in
a certain way; and a little examination will show us what this way is.
The two essentials of the Way are Faith, and a Personal Application of the
Faith.
The people who touched the saint's bones had faith; and so great was their
faith that in the instant they touched the relics they SEVERED ALL MENTAL
RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND MENTALLY UNIFIED THEMSELVES WITH
HEALTH.
This change of mind was accompanied by an intense devotional FEELING
which penetrated to the deepest recesses of their souls, and so aroused the
Principle of Health to powerful action. By faith they claimed that they were
healed, or appropriated health to themselves; and in full faith they ceased to
think of themselves in connection with disease and thought of themselves
only in connection with health.
These are the two essentials to thinking in the Certain Way which will make
you well: first, claim or appropriate health by faith; and second, sever all
mental relations with disease, and enter into mental relations with health.
That which we make ourselves, mentally, we become physically; and that
with which we unite ourselves mentally we become unified with physically.
If your thought always relates you to disease, then your thought becomes a
fixed power to cause disease within you; and if your thought always relates
you to health, then your thought becomes a fixed power exerted to keep
you well.
In the case of the people who are healed by medicines, the result is obtained
in the same way. They have consciously or unconsciously, sufficient faith in
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the means used to cause them to sever mental relations with disease and
enter into mental relations with health.
Faith may be unconscious. It is possible for us to have a subconscious or
inbred faith in things like medicine, in which we do not believe to any extent
objectively; and this sub-conscious faith may be quite sufficient to quicken
the Principle of Health into constructive activity. Many who have little
conscious faith are healed in this way; while many others who have great
faith in the means are not healed because they do not make any personal
application to themselves; their faith is general, but not specific for their
own cases.
In the Science of Being Well we have two main points to consider: First, how
to think with faith; and second, how to so apply the thought to ourselves as
to quicken the Principle of Health into constructive activity. We begin by
learning What to Think.