How to Stay Well
	The Real Man Is Always Well <  Previous Contents Next  >

The real man is the soul or the individuality the "I Am"; and that part of man is always perfectly well; in fact, cannot possibly be otherwise than well, a statement that can be demonstrated to the scientifically exact. To know that this is true, and to know that you yourself are the real man -that something in human nature that is always perfectly well, is to know the truth -the truth that makes man free.

To the beginner in metaphysics and psychology the statement that the real man is well may appear to be without foundation, but it is a statement that can be readily demonstrated in a number of ways. It can be demonstrated by pure reason, psychological research, finer personal experience, the evidence of higher states of consciousness, and several other effective methods. Besides, it is a truth that has been proclaimed in every age by the highest and best minds that the race has produced.

The recognized foundation of this idea is found in the great truth that the real man, the spiritual man, the soul, the individuality, the "I Am," is created in the likeness of the Infinite; and as the Infinite of necessity always is well, the real man, created in the Divine Likeness, must also be well. Those, however, who do not accept the statement that man is created in the image of God, and who claim that we have no scientific evidence for the belief that the human individuality is always well, are requested to examine carefully that something in man that we speak of as the conscious "I Am."

If the conscious "I Am" were ever sick the very principle of human individuality would cease to be a principle, and, therefore, could not continue to maintain individuality. In other words, if that principle were sick, it would be out of harmony with natural law, and, therefore, would necessarily cease to be that factor that governs, controls and maintains conscious existence in man. Accordingly the human entity would literally go to pieces and all the elements and the forces of the human system would be in chaos. The fact, however, that individuality persists in sickness as well as in health proves that the individuality itself is always well, must necessarily be always well.

We can take man as we find him in the ordinary, visible, tangible sense, and, by examining him carefully according to the ordinary recognized scientific method, demonstrate conclusively that the foundation of his being, the soul, the real man, the conscious "I Am," is and must be always well.

In the first place, we will examine a person who enjoys perfect health and try to find why he enjoys perfect health. We shall find that he enjoys perfect health because all the faculties of his being are performing their functions properly; but why do they perform their functions properly under the circumstances?

Evidently because they are acting according to natural law. But what is a law, and where do laws come from? Laws are inherent in man, and the power to properly obey and comply with those laws is also inherent in man. Man is created with all the laws necessary to his welfare and growth. These laws are at the foundation of his being and constitute in themselves a state of absolute order; and what is health but a state of absolute order? We understand, therefore, that the cause of health is inherent in man, and, therefore, that something in man which contains the cause of health must necessarily always have perfect health.

We will now examine a person who is not enjoying perfect health and try to discover why he is not well. We shall find that he is not physically well because certain parts of his system are not performing their functions in harmony with natural law; but when we bring his system back into harmony with those laws, order is restored and perfect health regained.

We conclude, therefore, that there are two states of being in man. The one is produced by virtue of natural law being inherent in man, and by virtue of the fact that that state itself must necessarily continue in perpetual harmony with natural law. The other state is produced whenever any of the laws of nature are violated.

The first we call a state of perfect health, and it must of necessity be permanent, because a state that is produced by changeless law cannot come and go; it must always continue and always be what it naturally is. There is, therefore, within man a permanent state of health, and it is readily seen that that state pertains to what is called the real man, the real you or the self-conscious individuality.

When we study this idea further we find that fundamental existence is based upon certain laws. That existence is what it is, because certain laws are grouped together in a distinct and definite form of action, and this action must necessarily be changeless. If it were not changeless, the individual would not be himself all the time; part of the time he would be someone else.

But through individuality, as we all know, he continues uninterruptedly to be himself. We conclude, therefore, that those laws that work together to produce the individual, or, in other words, those laws that are used by the individual in maintaining continued individuality, must always continue in the same mode of action. That this mode of action always continues in a state of perpetual health is evident, because, to perpetuate the same individuality, that particular mode of action would have to act in harmony with the basic laws of life, and anything that continues to act in harmony with those laws will always be well.

We, therefore, conclude that fundamental existence is always in a state of health; and since the real man is the man that exists by virtue of fundamental existence, we also conclude that the real man is always in a state of perfect health.

Those who reason clearly will understand from the above that we speak the perfect truth when we declare that the real man is well. There are, however, a score of other lines of reason through which the same truth can be demonstrated if it were necessary. The most convincing evidence, however, on any subject is always that of personal experience, and we shall find that personal experience in connection with the subject under consideration, will demonstrate exactly that the real man is well.

To gain a better understanding of this part of the subject it is highly important to understand the real nature of the soul. When speaking of the soul we usually refer to it as something we possess instead of that something that actually is the possessor. We generally say "I have a soul," though the correct statement is "I am a soul." The cause of this mistake is found in the fact that the ordinary person is only conscious of the surface.

To him the outer man is the only real man, because he is not conscious of the deeper and more permanent principles of his being. He, therefore, thinks of the objective person as the true self and refers to what is distinct from the person, as something that is possessed by the person; but when the mind begins to expand, and consciousness becomes aware of the deeper and finer things in life, the discovery is made that the outer mind is not the basic mind, and that the person is not the real self.

The first discovery that is made through this mental growth is, that there is a subconscious mind, and if no further step is taken the conclusion is formed that the subconscious is the soul. There are many scientific minds today who have discovered the subconscious and believe they have found the soul, but they are mistaken. The subconscious is only the inner side of the personal mind and is, therefore, not any more a part of the soul than the outer mind. To find the soul, therefore, we must go beyond the subconscious into that state of consciousness that deals exclusively with the real, the permanent, the perfect and the absolute.

When you discover the soul, as you will through the cultivation of the finer states of thought and consciousness, states that are created in the likeness of the absolutely real, you will no longer say that you have a soul. You will then find that you yourself are the soul, and that the soul constitutes the sum-total of all the principles of individualized and permanent self-conscious being.

When you make this discovery you will no longer have to depend upon reason, logic, or the statements of others to prove that the real man is well. Your own consciousness will constantly reveal the fact to you, and you will know that the real man is well, just as clearly as you know that you exist. In fact, existence and wholeness will then become inseparable states. To be, and to be well, will become as one in your thought.

You will then have discovered through actual conscious experience that individual existence is impossible without perpetual health, and also that that part of you which is life must therefore be perfectly well at all times. As you grow in the consciousness of your own individual "I Am," this truth will become clearer and clearer, until finally every thought you think will be actually permeated with the realization that the real man is well, and that you are the real man.

Whether you are conscious or not of the fact that you are the soul, and that the soul or the real man is well, you can easily reason the matter out. Pure reason will convince you that there is something in man that is always well; and when you examine that something, you will find it to be your own individuality -the self-conscious "I Am' the real you.

The statement "As a man thinketh so is he" does not refer to the soul or to the self-conscious individuality. It refers solely to the personal man. The real man is created in the image of the Supreme, and is above thought, therefore cannot be changed by thought. The real man is the thinker, the creator of thought, and that which creates thought can neither be influenced nor changed by thought.

The personal man, however, being an expression of thought, can be changed or modified by thought in any way or at any time; though it is evident that all those changes and modifications can only take place within a certain sphere of action, and must take place through the laws that govern the real man in our present state of existence.

The different functions of the personal man are the products of race development, and race development is the product of change in thought, subconscious as well as conscious; therefore, every function in the human body is the result of ages of thought along a certain line. This can be readily demonstrated, and a complete exposition of this law would clear up a thousand mysteries. What the different functions of the personal man are to do, and how, are also matters that are determined by the lines of thought continued for long periods of time.

When certain habits of life or actions change, certain organs and faculties change their functions altogether; and it is changes of thought that produce changes in habits and actions.

When we come to the chemical life of the system we find that every mental state produces a certain chemical effect upon the body. When the mental state under consideration is weak, no susceptible change may occur, but when that state is strong and deeply felt, a decided chemical effect will positively take place. You may partake of the most wholesome food that can be prepared and yet turn the entire contents of the stomach at the time into poisonous elements simply by an intense fit of anger; and it is a well known fact, a fact that has been proven by scientific experiments, that worry and mental depression during meal time can cause the most digestible food to become wholly indigestible. To be afraid to eat certain things has a tendency to cause those very foods to become indigestible and injurious to the system in case they should be taken.

On the other hand, it has been proven that a cheerful, joyous mind entertained at meal time can change indigestible food into elements that the system can digest and assimilate with perfect ease. In fact, psychological experiments along this line have forced the conclusion that the mind can do almost anything with anything that is taken into the system; and also that the fear of any particular condition or effect will tend to produce that condition or effect.

The fear of any disease will tend to produce that disease in a measure; if not physically, then mentally. Entertaining fear of small-pox has been known to develop small-pox germs in a body that was thoroughly pure, healthful and wholesome, when there were no such germs in the vicinity. Other contagious diseases have been produced in the same way, proving that the actions of the mind can and do effect the chemical life of the body.

To expect health and to believe with a full faith that you are becoming well can, and in thousands of instances has, produced perfect health in cases that all physicians had given up. These are interesting facts, facts that are being demonstrated every day, and that every person can demonstrate through his own personal experience.

The better we understand mind and body the more clearly we understand that every condition in the body is the result of certain continued lines of thought, personal thought or race thought; but since each person can think his own thought, the race thought continues because it is not eliminated through the person's own original thought.

The effect of nature's elements and forces upon the human body depends largely upon the state of mind at the time. In a certain state of mind a draft of fresh air will produce a cold, while in another state no ill effects whatever will follow that particular cause.

But it is not only in the physical personality that these facts are noted. It can also be demonstrated that character is the direct result of certain lines of thought; and therefore character can be changed completely by producing a change of thought and mental action.

In recent years it has been discovered that anyone can increase his ability through the scientific application of mind and thought to his various talents and faculties; and that even rare genius may be developed in the same way is now accepted as strictly scientific.

The fact that character, mental capacity as well as the personal man, is the result of the way the individual thinks, the understanding of how to think and what to think becomes exceedingly important. What we think about anything depends upon understanding what we have of that particular thing. Therefore, to think correctly we must not only understand things; we must understand the process of thought. The principal cause of wrong thinking in this age is found in the ignorance of the nature of thought itself.

We may understand things in a general way, but we do not always understand thought or the effect that thought can produce upon things. The scientist may think correctly about every element in the universe, according to apparent facts, and yet be thinking detrimental thought a large part of the time; that is, he might be giving the same creative power of thought to the negatives in life as he does to the positives. The negatives and positives both exist and they have certain natures of their own.

We should understand these natures and think correctly about them at all times, for whenever we think about anything, we employ mental creative energy and thereby tend to create in our own minds a likeness of the things which we think about. For this reason the average person generally produces just as many weak qualities as strong ones. He permits his mind to create the weak as well as the strong.

There are metaphysicians who declare that it is wrong to even admit the existence of evil, that it is wrong thought to believe that evil has existence but this attitude, though seemingly helpful, is, nevertheless, detrimental. There are evils in the world, there are empty places in the world, and there are weak negative places all about us. To deny that they are here would be to delude ourselves, and delusion cannot give the perfect freedom.

It is not wrong to admit that evil exists and you will not necessarily create detrimental thought through such an admission; but it is wrong to permit your mind to create thought that is just like those evil or weak conditions that you have recognized. You can admit the existence of a thing without producing a picture of that particular thing in your own mind. If you have perfect control over your creative energies you can recognize the existence of all the negatives and wrongs in life and not produce a single one of them in your own mind, character or personality.

Right thinking consists in creative thought that is patterned after the good qualities of life. Wrong thinking consists in creating thought that is patterned after the perverted conditions in life. All creation of thought is in the subconscious, therefore you can think objectively as much as you like about the ills and wrongs of life; you will not reproduce those conditions in yourself if there is no subconscious action at the time.

In other words, what you think about or recognize will not be created in yourself, unless you permit your ideas or beliefs of those things to sink into your subconscious mind; and this you can prevent by refusing to give deep feeling to those ideas that you do not wish reproduced in yourself. Only those ideas or mental states that have deep feeling can enter the subconscious. This is a fact that is extremely important and should be observed most rigidly in every mental process.

From this law we learn that our thought is the result, not only of our understanding of things, but of our understanding of thought itself and its effect upon things. When we understand thought and the creative process of thought we learn to create only right thought, without having to deny the existence of anything that may exist. When we understand the effect of thought upon things we will know what thought to think under all sorts of circumstances and conditions, and thus produce the very effects we desire.

The personal man, all told, is the exact likeness of the sum-total of all our ideas, thoughts, beliefs, mental attitudes, mental states, our understanding of things, and our entire mental world. Our mental world is the exact likeness of our understanding, defining the term in the largest and broadest sense; and our understanding in itself, or in its real nature, is like the thing understood; in other words, when we understand a particular thing we reproduce in the mind all those elements that constitute the nature of that particular thing.

Therefore, since the real man is well, to understand or to be conscious of the real man, is to produce perfect health in the personal man. This is a fact that will be clearly understood when we remember the law, that whatever we become conscious of we will express in the personality. When we understand any particular thing we become conscious of its qualities, and, according to the law just mentioned, we will express those qualities in our own nature. When we understand the real man we become conscious of the qualities of perfect health, because the real man is always well, and, therefore, we will naturally express perfect health in our own personal system.

It is a well-known fact that the most stubborn disease will vanish immediately when consciousness fully realizes the great fact that the real man is always well; and it is being demonstrated more and more that those who live habitually in the realization of the fact that the real man is always well are always in good personal health. We should also realize in this connection that that attitude of mind that constantly recognizes the perfect wholeness of the human being, is an unfailing preventive of all kinds of human ills.

As previously stated, thought can do practically anything to the body or its conditions; and what the thought is to do will depend upon what it is in itself; therefore, a thought that is created in the likeness of health will be healthful and will convey health to the system, and when all thoughts are healthful the entire person will be made perfectly well, because every condition in the physical body is determined by the sum-total of our thoughts and mental states.

When your mind is filled with the conviction that the real man is well, and that you yourself are the real man, every thought will be thoroughly wholesome, elevating and upbuilding; and conditions of health, strength and wholeness must invariably come to the entire person. There is no darkness where there is light, and there can be no unhealthful thought in the mind that moves and lives in the full conscious realization of absolute health. Every thought is patterned after some impression; therefore, if all the impressions of mind convey the idea of perfect health of real being, every thought we think will be a power for health, and will give only health to the system.

Here we should remember that every thought is a vibration and that it sends its silent thrill throughout the entire system. Every thought you think will in this way impress every atom of your being with itself and with its own life and power, and will therefore carry its life and power to the minutest cell. It is therefore clearly evident that when we live and think in the understanding of the real man we will think only health producing thought, and thus produce complete and absolute health in every part of mind, body and personality.