The Science of Being Well By Wallace Delois Wattles --- 05 CHAPTER 5. FAITH

CHAPTER 5. FAITH

The Principle of Health is moved by Faith; nothing else can call it into action,
and only Faith can enable you to relate yourself to health, and sever your
relation with disease, in your thoughts.
You will continue to think of disease unless you have faith in health. If you
do not have faith you will doubt; if you doubt, you will fear; and if you fear,
you will relate yourself in mind to that which you fear.
If you fear disease, you will think of yourself in connection with disease; and
that will produce within yourself the form and motions of disease. Just as
Original Substance creates from itself the forms of its thoughts, so your
mind-body, which is original substance, takes the form and motion of
whatever you think about. If you fear disease, dread disease, have doubts
about your safety from disease, or if you even contemplate disease, you will
connect yourself with it and create its forms and motions within you.
Let me enlarge somewhat upon this point. The potency, or creative power,
of a thought is given to it by the faith that is in it.
Thoughts which contain no faith create no forms.
The Formless Substance, which knows all truth and therefore thinks only
truth, has perfect faith in every thought, because it thinks only truth; and so
all its thoughts create.
But if you will imagine a thought in Formless Substance in which there was
no faith, you will see that such a thought could not cause the Substance to
move or take form.
Keep in mind the fact that only those thoughts which are conceived in faith
have creative energy. Only those thoughts which have faith with them are
able to change function, or to quicken the Principle of Health into activity.
If you do not have faith in health, you will certainly have faith in disease. If
you do not have faith in health, it will do for you no good to think about
21
health, for your thoughts will have no potency, and will cause no change for
the better in your conditions.
If you do not have faith in health, I repeat, you will have faith in disease; and
if, under such conditions, you think about health for ten hours a day, and
think about disease for only a few minutes, the disease thought will control
your condition because it will have the potency of faith, while the health
thought will not. Your mind-body will take on the form and motions of
disease and retain them, because your health thought will not have
sufficient dynamic force to change form or motion.
In order to practice the Science of Being Well, you must have complete faith
in health.
Faith begins in belief; and we now come to the question: What must you
believe in order to have faith in health?
You must believe that there is more health-power than disease-power in
both yourself and the environment; and you cannot help believing this if you
consider the facts:
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.
The thought of a form, in this Substance, produces the form; the thought of
a motion institutes the motion. In relation to man, the thoughts of Original
Substance are always of perfect health and perfect functioning. This
Substance, within and without man, always exerts its power toward health.
Man is a thinking center, capable of original thought. He has a mind-body of
Original Substance permeating a physical body; and the functioning of his
physical body is determined by the FAITH of his mind- body. If a man thinks
with faith of the functioning of health, he will cause his internal functions to
be performed in a healthy manner, provided that he performs the external
functions in a corresponding manner. But if a man thinks, with faith, of
disease, or of the power of disease, he will cause his internal functioning to
be the functioning of disease.
22
The Original Intelligent Substance is in man, moving toward health; and it is
pressing upon him from every side. Man lives, moves, and has his being in
the limitless ocean of health-power; and he uses this power according to his
faith. If he appropriates it and applies it to himself it is all his; and if he
unifies himself with it by unquestioning faith, he cannot fail to attain health,
for the power of this Substance is all the power there is.
A belief in the above statements is a foundation for faith in health. If you
believe them, you believe that health is the natural state of man, and that
man lives in the midst of Universal Health; that all the power of nature
makes for health, and that health is possible to all, and can surely be
attained by all. You will believe that the power of health in the universe is
ten thousand times greater than that of disease; in fact, that disease has no
power whatever, being only the result of perverted thought and faith.
And if you believe that health is possible to you, and that it may surely be
attained by you, and that you know exactly what to do in order to attain it,
you will have faith in health. You will have this faith and knowledge if you
read this book through with care and determine to believe in and practice its
teachings.
It is not merely the possession of faith, but the personal application of faith
which works healing. You must claim health in the beginning, and form a
conception of health, and, as far as may be, of yourself as a perfectly healthy
person; and then, by faith, you must claim that you ARE REALIZING this
conception.
Do not assert with faith that you are going to get well; assert with faith that
you ARE well.
Having faith in health, and applying it to yourself, means having faith that
you are healthy; and the first step in this is to claim that it is the truth.
Mentally take the attitude of being well, and do not say anything or do
anything which contradicts this attitude. Never speak a word or assume a
physical attitude which does not harmonize with the claim: "I am perfectly
well."
23
When you walk, go out with a brisk step, and with your chest thrown out
and your head held up; watch that at all times your physical actions and
attitudes are those of a healthy person. When you find that you have
relapsed into the attitude of weakness or disease, change instantly;
straighten up; think of health and power. Refuse to consider yourself as
other than a perfectly healthy person.
One great aid - perhaps the greatest aid - in applying your faith you will find
in the exercise of gratitude.
Whenever you think of yourself, or of your advancing condition, give thanks
to the Great Intelligent Substance for the perfect health you are enjoying.
Remember that, as Swedenborg taught, there is a continual inflow of life
from the Supreme, which is received by all created things according to their
forms; and by man according to his faith.
Health from God is continually being urged upon you; and when you think of
this, lift up your mind reverently to Him, and give thanks that you have been
led to the Truth and into perfect health of mind and body. Be, all the time, in
a grateful frame of mind, and let gratitude be evident in your speech.
Gratitude will help you to own and control your own field of thought.
Whenever the thought of disease is presented to you, instantly claim health,
and thank God for the perfect health you have. Do this so that there shall be
no room in your mind for a thought of ill. Every thought connected in any
way with ill health is unwelcome, and you can close the door of your mind in
its face by asserting that you are well, and by reverently thanking God that it
is so. Soon the old thoughts will return no more.
Gratitude has a twofold effect; it strengthens your own faith, and it brings
you into close and harmonious relations with the Supreme. You believe that
there is one Intelligent Substance from which all life and all power come;
you believe that you receive your own life from this substance; and you
relate yourself closely to It by feeling continuous gratitude. It is easy to see
that the more closely you relate yourself to the Source of Life the more
readily you may receive life from it; and it is easy also to see that your
relation to It is a matter of mental attitude.
24
We cannot come into physical relationship with God, for God is mind-stuff
and we also are mind-stuff; our relation with Him must therefore be a mind
relation. It is plain, then, that the man who feels deep and hearty gratitude
will live in closer touch with God than the man who never looks to Him in
thankfulness. The ungrateful or unthankful mind really denies that it
receives at all, and so cuts its connection with the Supreme. The grateful
mind is always looking toward the Supreme, and is always open to receive
from it; and it will receive continually.
The Principle of Health in man receives its vital power from the Principle of
Life in the universe; and man relates himself to the Principle of Life by faith
in health, and by gratitude for the health he receives.
Man may cultivate both faith and gratitude by the proper use of his will.