GENERALLY speaking, the less the average person merely talks about health, the better it is for his health. Not only is health a normal condition, but it is a duty not only to attain but to maintain it. If human beings only knew and only obeyed the simple laws of nature, universal health would follow and the Health Millennium would be here.
Those more or less altruistically engaged in searching for, and studying methods to lessen unnecessary human sufferings, are compelled daily to witness the majority of their fellow-men unknowingly committing grievous sins against Mother Nature. They do this as if their very lives actually depended upon the success of their very efforts, altogether unconscious, however, of the fact that they are really jeopardizing and ruining their future health.
Imagine the immediate good resulting to untold millions, were the energies that are now so wastefully and positively harmfully expended, directed instead into the natural path of least resistance - the road to normal health!
Imagine how many more useful and happy years would be immediately added to their lives!
Imagine how much more they would really enjoy life to its fullest extent!
How many of us, or rather how few of us, realize what Life really is? Unfortunately, this ecstasy of living, is reserved for and limited only to those comparatively fortunate few who enjoy normal health - your birthright!
This is a most instructive chart. Here we see some of the girl students who had come to my studio at a time when they were sadly in need of body developing to continue their profession. Each of the persons on this page are professional singers, actors and dancers. I took them in hand and after three months of my corrective system of exercising, they showed the perfect form and posture seen above. Here we have concrete examples of the benefits derived from my method.
While recognizing that our modern system is to a greater or lesser degree responsible for present health ills, we shall not here attempt to indicate specifically wherein the fault lies. Suffice it to say, that the majority of our so-called intelligent men and women are so utterly and helplessly ignorant of the really simple laws of nature, that in their pitiful searching for normal health and happiness, one invariably finds them needlessly and heedlessly wandering about aimlessly and hopelessly. They meander through the valleys of quackery pointing ever downward to suffering, misery and death, instead of climbing to the very pinnacle of the mountain crests of common sense which lead to normal health, happiness and life.
Were the ailing "traveler" in life not lured by these mirages of false hopes, is it not logical to assume that he would ignore them entirely and courageously about-face and wend his way in the opposite direction? But who is there to warn him against these "mirages" and guide him to the "oasis" of normal health knowledge? These deplorable conditions cannot be attributed either to a want of understanding of natural laws, or their practical and beneficial application to the alleviation and cure of the ills of humanity - an understanding that really corrects causes rather than merely treats symptoms.
Never in history have more "time" and "money" been expended to attain normal physical perfection than in the present era! Never before have vain cravings for normal health been more justified than today!
Great military victories, moral triumphs, scientific achievements and industrial progress are indelibly engraved in the memory of men!
Business men, both during and after the war, were so busily engaged in piling up fortunes, that they entirely neglected to devote the necessary time to safeguard their health. Only too late did it finally dawn upon them that in the acquirement of their material fortunes, they, at the same time, carelessly and unthinkingly sacrificed the priceless jewel of their mental happiness, crowned with its physical setting of normal health, which they had so wantonly dissipated. Moreover, they also noted that their relatives and friends, who had followed "The Easiest Way" to fortune so-called, were continually complaining about the state of their poor health. They saw them pass the remainder of their shortened and spoiled lives, either in constant physical pain or in mental suffering, or both. In many cases they saw them die in the prime of life.
The mistreated body, mindful of its past neglect, eventually exacts its repayment in full with interest in the form of leaving business men their fortunes to contemplate, but denying them the benefits and enjoyments that accrue to other men of wealth blessed with normal health. The bitter lesson has been learned - but too late!
While business men now fully realize that "Everyone Is the Architect of His Own Happiness," they also learn that happiness is primarily dependent upon normal health and not per se upon the mere attainment of social position or monetary wealth. They have learned from practical experience.
Was it not natural to expect that under these inviting circumstances, so-called health specialists, common quacks, proprietors of patent medicines and manufacturers of various forms of mechanical apparatus - lamps, rollers, massaging belts, rowing machines, nostrums, serum and other injections, should, through their advertisements - lure the weaklings? Each quack assures the public that his is the ONLY method of quickly restoring one's health, and he bends his mercenary energies toward reaping the bountiful harvest awaiting him from the lure of the unfortunates, in the form of payments of unwarranted sums for treatments, remedies and services. Such treatments not only fail to accomplish the results desired, but in many cases actually do more harm than good, always, however, the good benefiting only the advertisers at the expense of his innocent victims.
What does this nonsense accomplish? It extracts money from the public without corresponding benefit to the public and for good measure, more often than not, adds to their suffering and misery.
It is very doubtful, indeed, whether a really sane and intelligent person would even think of attempting to prove that any of these many highly recommended "cures" accomplish one iota toward improving the health of anyone, much less effecting a cure.
Pardon this thought - But is it not idiotic, figuratively speaking, to permit one's self to be led around by one's nose by these wholly mercenary, unscrupulous and irresponsible exploiters, who, through their misleading advertisements, fake references and unconscionable methods, prey upon the blind credulity of the public? Think it over, you saps!
Hocus Pocus is hocus pocus by any other name!
Under ideal (true) conditions, not only the general public, but physicians as well, will enjoy normal life.
Looking into the future, it is thrilling to those enjoying normal health, in the interest of suffering humanity, to think of the time when through legislative enactment, it will be compulsory for those advocating cures, to demonstrate the efficiency of their methods as reflected in their own physical condition and health.
I stand ready for such test. My method has been proved satisfactory in every detail. My course can stand the acid test before the most critical experts.
Here we see the correct and incorrect way to stand. Note the posture in each. On top we see three poses, front, side and back. Note the perfect body. Below we have the author posing first, in (A) the Macfadden Hollow Back incorrect posture; (B) the average incorrect posture of an athlete who is broad-shouldered and muscle-bound; (C) the usual position of ninety-five percent of persons, showing protruded stomach (and double curvature of the spine in both lumbar region and the neck.
