Surely the greatest blessing of life is health. Without it, nothing else matters very much. With good health, every other blessing is greatly enhanced.
As I counsel people about their various problems, I am convinced that our thinking directly affects our health. Many people who are in poor health, due to worry over financial problems, find it almost uncanny how fast their health improves as their financial situation improves.
A fine businessman, who had enjoyed good health for a number of years, faced serious financial setbacks in his business. Soon he developed gastric ulcers that later were found to be malignant, making several operations necessary. He is now on the way to complete recovery, which his doctors assure is possible. His wife recently stated, however, that every time he incurs a financial loss, he must return to bed. But when he receives good news about his financial affairs, his spirit soars, and he enjoys normal well-being.
The study of modern psychosomatics is surely a wonderful step forward in helping people to realize how strongly their mental states influence the condition of their bodies.
Prosperous Thinking Is Healthy Thinking
We have shown earlier that you are prosperous to the degree that you are experiencing peace, health, and plenty in your world. In other chapters we have discussed techniques for developing prosperous thinking, so as to assure peace of mind and financial success. Now let us consider prosperous attitudes which will enhance your health. Prosperous thinking is victorious, harmonious, uplifted thinking. A prosperous thinker knows how to free himself of hostilities, resentments, criticisms, and irritated emotions. A prosperous thinker aims toward balanced, normal thinking which reflects his “will to win.” Often, it is mental depression and a feeling of defeat which causes ill health.
A lady recently claimed that for the past year she had had a lingering cold. Summer or winter, it held on. She was beginning to wonder if she did not have something more than a common cold, for this one was all too “common”! Her physician assured her, however, that he could find nothing organically wrong to explain the cold.
Since there apparently was something irritating this little lady, something probably of long duration, I asked her to recall various events in her life prior to the appearance of this cold. After a few minutes’ conversation, she stated that she had held a line job which she enjoyed. Without warning and without consulting her, her employer transferred her to another department, where she found the work distasteful, even irritating. Because she feared losing her job (because of her age) if she protested, she endured the transfer with all the discord that went with it in the new department among bickering fellow-workers. This added to her intense inner resentment and rebellion. Little wonder that inner irritation had manifested as a deep-seated cold which had persisted.
I suggested she begin working within her own thinking to overcome a feeling of hopelessness, helplessness, and defeat, and to adopt a victorious, winning attitude by daily using these ideas: Divine love and wisdom go before me, making easy and successful my way in this situation. The divine solution now quickly and easily appears. I am now guided, healed, prospered and blessed! For several days she fed her mind these ideas, gaining a sense of peace which she had not had during the past year. Just as she was considering approaching her employer to explain her dissatisfaction and to request a transfer, an interesting thing happened: a notice was placed on the bulletin board, inviting the employees who desired transfers to see the manager, since he was considering making some changes. Here was her opportunity to declare her desires, which were granted. As her inner feelings were harmonized, she realized that her cold, which had been steadily dissolving, soon completely disappeared!
Inharinoniousness Causes Ill Health
Truly, where there is a condition of ill health, there is a situation where the ill person has been subjected to internal discord of mind, body or affairs. Prosperous thinking, expressed as harmonious thinking, helps to produce harmony of body as well as in one’s relationships and environment.
A pre-school-age child was afflicted with hemorrhoids. His doctor felt that this condition was unusual for a child of his years. He quietly studied the home situation to discover if any inharmony there might be linked with this physical condition. It was soon revealed that the child’s mother knew nothing of the power of attitudes to affect one’s health. She constantly insisted at each meal that this little boy empty his plate, regardless of how he felt or the state of his appetite. This child happened to be an individual who dared to “have a mind of his own.” In several instances, he refused to eat. Thinking it her duty, his mother took him away from the table and spanked him. Such had been a daily event in his young life. It was astonishing that this child had not developed a condition more serious than hemorrhoids.
After the mother agreed to become more harmonious and less stringent in her demands upon this child, the medical treatment began to render favorable results.
Bickering, quarreling, or general confusion in one’s daily atmosphere are reflected in the health of those involved. The body is a very sensitive instrument, plastic to the thoughts, emotions, and words which are expressed through it and to it.
Healthy Thinking Is an Ancient Art
There is nothing “new-fangled” about the truths now being uncovered which reveal how strongly thoughts and feelings control the body. Had the ancient Babylonian sciences come down to us intact, our civilization might be even more advanced than it is. Not only did the Babylonians use strange stones of ore for curing cancer, but they were also experts in the use of psychosomatics, various mental techniques, even in hypnotism. It is believed that Abraham, who resided in the Babylonian city of Ur, learned of their treatment by psychosomatics and brought it to the Jews, who effectively used it through the centuries. In any event, the writers of the Bible seemed to understand that disease was caused by wrong thought and wrong feeling, for their writings surely reflect that teaching.
Moses pointed out the definite power of right attitudes and emotional responses for health, and the power of wrong ones for ill health. Miriam, his sister, criticized him for marrying into another race. (Numbers 12: 1) Because of her critical attitude, the Bible implies that Miriam contracted leprosy, and was healed only by means of Moses’ prayer. (Numbers 12)
In another Bible story, we find that a wrong attitude killed King Asa, one of the kings of Judah. He did not believe in the possibility of spiritual healing and when his feet became seriously diseased, he died. (II Chronicles 16: 13) Elisha and Elijah both healed through mental and spiritual methods.
Even witch doctors of primitive cultures realized the need for changing their patients’ attitudes in order to heal them. In an effort to attract their patients’ attention, they wore masks, spoke incantations, danced, and performed in other ways which seem strange to us today. They believed that if those seeking healing would redirect their minds away from their problems, healing would result.
Attitudes Can Heal
Recently a housewife described her improved health after her attitudes changed:
For twelve years I had a chronic gall bladder condition which was very painful most of the time. For over a year I had had bursitis also, which was getting progressively worse. My husband and I both prayed about my health. We tried all types of medical treatment, but all to no avail, for the pain persisted.
I was beginning to wonder how much longer I could go on. Then we learned about a series of prosperity lectures in our area. After hearing one lecture, which was on prosperity and not on healing, I understood better how to think victoriously. I began to realize that somehow the pain in my body could still be dispelled. For the first time in mouths, both my husband and I felt uplifted and inspired. And then it happened! Within one week from the time we heard that lecture, my gall bladder condition disappeared and the bursitis pain was also completely healed. I am thanking God daily for the uplifted attitudes which opened the way for healing to manifest in my body.
This lady and her husband continue to attend the lectures, and she remains healthy and happy.
In other instance, a woman broke her arm. Though it had mended nicely, it remained so stiff and painful that she was unable to drive to prosperity lectures, so she hired a young man to chauffeur her. A week later, this woman joyously appeared for the second lecture, stating that the painful stiffness had left her that week, after she had dared to think definitely about success and prosperity as her divine right. All week she had been driving her car. She came alone to other lectures after that, free from all pain. She learned that prosperous thinking expands one’s whole being, with new, unlimited good, including the area of health.
An Emotional Cause of Cancer
All about us we see the need for transforming negative emotions, if we wish to be healthy, or to regain health. Cancer has been referred to in recent times as a “hate disease.” Those who contract it often carry their hates secretly, so that the average person never suspects the emotional turmoil though which some cancer patients are passing.
Once I talked with a “self-made” man who had worked hard to get to the top. He finally made it, and he was greatly admired and respected by hundreds of people. His financial achievements, his contributions in time and talent to the many civic organizations of his community, and his dedicated church work had won him wide acclaim.
At the apex of his career, he was informed that he had cancer. Operations extended his life for several years. Toward the end of this period, he talked with me about his condition. At first glance, it would seem that a cruel fate had struck him down in his prime. But closer acquaintance revealed that he had been married several times; that each marriage had ended in divorce, following bitter hostility; and that he detested his present wife. If she was as bad as he claimed, humanly he seemed to have reasons for his feelings, since she had made his life miserable.
Because of his business success, he felt that divorce or even a separation would be detrimental to his career. So he continued living with her in a state of abject misery, year in and year out. Furthermore, as often happens in such situations, he had turned to another woman for the love and understanding he felt he was not receiving from his wife. This other woman was a business executive who was widowed and lonely. As their love affair developed, this woman became so frustrated at not being able to become his wife that her own health declined. Along with a series of health problems that developed, she sought emotional release through drink and drugs. She became so confused that her mind, in due time, no longer functioned clearly, and she lost a series of fine positions.
The only person who seemed relatively unaffected in this triangle was the hated wife. Through it all she remained calm. She did not seem to take on the hate or emotional turmoil of her husband or of the “other woman.” In the long run she was the only victorious one.
Her husband stated to me that he could not forgive her or his previous wives for the unhappiness they brought into his life. He refused to attempt any of the methods of healing mentioned in this chapter, or to invoke the methods of healing through forgiveness. I noticed that when he spoke of his wife, he seemed to exude an invisible poison. It was as though the very atmosphere in the room became heavy with venomous hate. He continued hating her and finally had to return to the hospital for another operation, which proved to be his last. His final conscious words were a curse upon his wife. His hate actually killed him.
The “other woman” did not attend his funeral, enduring her grief alone. Upon the death of her husband, the wife was not only free of his hate, but she also inherited his fortune. At last, she was not only a free woman but a very rich one; she did not hesitate to enjoy her wealth. Within a year she had happily remarried, assured of financial security and true love. By refusing to “hate back,” this woman was the only one of the three involved in this situation who came through it victoriously.
Forgiveness Heals
If you are out of harmony with anyone; if you have been caused unhappiness in the past for which you are still holding a grudge; if you feel you have been unjustly treated in financial or private matters; if you feel that some loss has robbed you of the happiness that should have been yours by divine right; if you feel strongly about unhappy childhood and family experiences–you may have every human reason for your feelings, and for continuing to nurse them. You may be able to justify those feelings in a thousand ways. But like the man in this story; like the “other woman,” you mainly hurt yourself by doing so. Your health, prosperity, happiness, and peace of mind can and will be destroyed if you continue to harbor negative emotions.
If you now are in a state of ill health, there is something, somebody or some memory you need to forgive and release from your feelings forever. Perhaps you are not consciously aware of what it is. But your subconscious mind, which is the storehouse of your feelings, emotions, and memories, knows what it is. It will respond with release and healing when you give yourself treatments in forgiveness, as recommended later in this chapter. Philosophers and sages of all times have tried to point out that man’s health is controlled by his attitudes toward himself and others. Hippocrates, the 4th century Greek physician, wrote:
“Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise our pleasures, laughters, and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and fears.” Plato declared, “If the head and the body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul.” The Psalmist warned, Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself it tendeth only to evil-doing (Psalms 37).
Wise old Solomon surely realized the power of thought and feeling on the body when he advised, A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. (Prov. 15:13) Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones. (Prov. 16:24) The light of eyes rejoiceth the heart, and good tidings make the bones fat. (Prov. 15:30 E.R.V.) Perhaps Solomon’s best psychosomatic advice was this: A cheerful heart causeth good healing. But a broken spirit drieth up the bones. (Prov. 17:22 E.R.V.)
Happiness Heals
Truly a spirit that is broken, discouraged, or subject to depressed conditions usually gets a physical reaction. I once knew a child who for several years was in a home situation filled with bickering and fault-finding. This child suffered from one ailment after another. Finally his life situation changed, and he was placed in a quiet, harmonious atmosphere. Immediately, his ailments diminished, and he became so healthy thereafter that he never contracted any of the usual childhood diseases.
I know of a family who learned of the power of thought for health or illness. The parents agreed never to speak of negative subjects before the children, never to discuss illness, lack, hard times or troubles of any kind. They made it a point to converse on happy subjects in the home. It became a habit and they became a happy, healthy, close-knit family. This family was free of ill health, and they became very prosperous. Their children grew up without having any childhood diseases. They also developed happy, self-confident dispositions and all married happily. Today, they are enjoying successful lives, even as their parents do.
The bookshelves are now crowded with many fine books by authorities in all phases of the healing arts who point out the importance of healthy, happy emotions for a healthy body.
Therapy for Female Trouble
Often we hear about various types of female troubles that afflict many women. In almost every case, the woman with such troubles is also experiencing great emotional unrest, suffering in secret about problems at home or in her work, which she feels that she cannot discuss. A schoolteacher recently wrote of how her monthly menstrual periods stopped after she was upset by her school principal, whom she felt was a tyrant. Through affirmative prayer, she began to hold to the thought that “divine love and justice” would produce a change. Meanwhile, her physician could not locate any physical reason for her difficulties, but he gave her shots to help her thought this strained period. In a short time, when her school principal received a transfer to another school, she began to relax and enjoy her work again, and her menstrual periods again became normal.
A housewife had been informed by her physician that she was sterile, after she had taken prolonged treatments to induce conception. Though she and her husband had long wanted children, she finally confessed to me that she had secretly feared the pain and discomfort of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth. She realized that her fear had probably prevented conception. When they investigated the possibilities of adopting a baby, for a number of reasons they decided to wait.
For the first time in years, she and her husband stopped fretting because theirs was a childless home. Instead, they decided to lead as happy and normal a life as possible, and to help care for homeless children in their area from time to time, such as during the holiday season. After the tension about not having children left her, the wife did have a baby in the tenth year of her marriage.
The wonderful part about using mental and spiritual methods for physical health is that it makes the work of your personal physician much easier. He is better able to aid you when your attitudes and emotions are constructive, and often much more than just a physical healing takes place.
The First Step in Healing
Forgiveness is the foundation of healing. Every one of us should use the simple method of forgiveness every day to effect reconciliation and harmony with others. Thereby we bring forth physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing.
Instead of attempting to painfully analyze your health problems from a psychosomatic standpoint; instead of trying to probe into the mental and emotional reasons for the various health, financial or human relations problems in your life, simply declare: I fully and freely forgive. I loose and let go. I let go and let God’s love do its perfect work in me, through me, for me. I let go and let God’s love do its perfect work in the conscious, subconscious and superconscious activities of my mind, body and affairs. I give thanks that peace, health, plenty and happiness now reign supreme in me and in my world. If you have hostilities toward others, daily declare this forgiveness treatment for them.
I know of two different cases where young women were afflicted with paralysis after entertaining intense bitterness toward their former husbands who had divorced them. In both cases, these young women regained use of their limbs, after they began daily to practice forgiveness. To forgive does not mean that you have to “bow and scrape” to those whom you feel have wronged you. You need make no outer contact with those involved, unless an occasion arises that demands it. Instead, you can know that they will feel your mental and emotional forgiveness, and they will release any animosity toward you, when you forgive and release your grudging hold upon them. This is a simple, private, soul-cleansing and body-healing process.
After you begin to daily affirm forgiveness, should you begin to think about people or situations from your past which were distasteful to you, do not be disturbed. Instead of wondering why they have come into your conscious thought again, just know that they are subconsciously receiving your forgiveness. Continue to affirm forgiveness for them, and in due time everything will become quiet and peaceful concerning them. As you get your own feeling of peace, you can know the forgiveness process has done its perfect work, leaving you free of any thought of ill will. When you ever think of that person or experience, it will be with a sense of peace.
How to Lose Weight
I once knew a wealthy woman who had tried desperately to lose weight. Several times she obtained stringent diets from specialists at various hospitals. But once she lost weight she could not maintain it. Finally she wrote of her frustration about weight, wondering why she could not maintain a reduced weight. From personal friendship with her, I knew that she and her husband traveled all over the world; that they had a spacious country estate, filled with interesting objects collected in their travels. Her husband had often complained that these things cluttered the house, so that it was necessary to keep a staff of servants to care for their possessions. This woman had stored many other possessions in the cellar, in addition to crowding all their closets.
I suggested that she prayerfully consider the vacuum idea (as discussed in Chapter 3) and ask for divine guidance concerning what she should release from her emotions and perhaps from her life, in order to lose weight and remain slender. In meditation, thereafter, she realized that she had long been holding unforgiving thoughts toward a relative who had caused her much distress. She began to daily declare forgiveness, release, and freedom in that connection.
She also got the feeling that she should heed her husband’s request to clear the house of objects which were admittedly congesting the atmosphere. She cleared out closets, cellar and storage areas, called in the Salvation Army, and passed on unused items that could do good where they were needed. Her husband was elated. She said that the very act of release gave her a sense of freedom and peace that she had not known in years. Interestingly enough, she thereafter went on another diet and has been able to maintain a loss in weight ever since. She now states that it was the acts of forgiveness, release and a literal, as well as a mental, housecleaning that brought forth her desires.
The Second Step in Healing
There is nothing strange, mysterious, or “new-fangled” about affirmative thought and prayer in connection with healing. The Hindus, Japanese, Chinese and many other nations still use various methods for applying sacred words to alleviate ills. Throughout the Bible, many references are made to words and their creative power for good. The creation story began with the spoken affirmation, Let there be . . . and there was. (Gen. 1) The writer of Proverbs might have been speaking of the power of words for healing when he wrote, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Prov. 18:21)
There has long been a belief in the religious world that there was somewhere a “lost word of power” which, when found and uttered, would set all things right. The Jews believed that this lost word was veiled in the name “YHVH,” which is Hebrew for the word the Lord. They felt that its correct pronunciation is no longer known to man. They claimed that the “lost word” was once known to their priesthood. When correctly used, it caused the power of God to become manifest, so that mighty works were accomplished quickly.
Any good word or phrase that gives peace, satisfaction and that arouses a positive, harmonious response in one’s thoughts and feelings, is equivalent to the ‘lost word” which the Jews sought. That lost word of power can come alive through constructive attitudes and affirmative prayer statements. A teenager, learning of the power of words to produce good results, decided to test its power on a cold which she felt coming on. Over and over she declared, “God is my health, I can’t be sick. God is my strength, unfailing, quick!” The cold never materialized.
The Lord’s Prayer Has Healing Power
A woman once traveled a long distance to visit a noted spiritual healer concerning a chronic condition that had caused her much suffering. She was surprised, upon coming into the healer’s presence, to be invited to join in praying over and over the Lord’s Prayer. At the conclusion of their prayer session, the healer then told the woman to return to her home and to use the Lord’s Prayer many times daily, explaining that it was the greatest healing prayer of all. Feeling a little skeptical of such a simple healing method, she followed instructions. In a few weeks her ailment vanished, and it has not reappeared.
A schoolteacher, hearing of the healing power of the Lord’s Prayer, found occasion to prove it when she was pronounced ill with pneumonia. She sought healing through prescribed drugs, but the pneumonia persisted. One Friday she was informed that there was no substitute teacher available to take her place on the following Monday, when she was scheduled to begin teaching a new, specialized course, for which people would be coming from near and far. It was then that she began affirming over and over the Lord’s Prayer. As she persisted, by Sunday the fever had vanished, and she was feeling stronger. As she continued declaring the Lord’s Prayer, she was able to begin teaching as scheduled on Monday, and her strength returned quickly.
The Lord’s Prayer is a powerful healing treatment because it is basically a series of strong, powerful affirmative statements, in which one claims the power, substance, guidance, and goodness of God. Affirmation is not only an ancient healing art, but also a modem, scientific healing technique as well. Scientists now declare that the body as well as the universe is filled with innate intelligence. By taking a statement filled with good words and declaring it over and over, man gains conscious attention of the innate intelligence ever active in the subconscious functions of the body. As man continues to speak good words, that innate intelligence is stepped up in its power to respond with conscious as well as subconscious positive results. The body, including our physical affairs, is the obedient servant of the mind, and is plastic to our thoughts and words. When our thoughts and words are uplifting, they are life-giving to our physical world.
Griping Can Make You Sick
Griping can make you sick, and negative words and feelings can cause all manner of disease. I once knew a secretary and housewife who was a constant griper. She disliked her mother-in-law, who was forced for economic reasons to live with her and her husband. She griped about this, about the weather, the world, especially about her boss. Griping was constant with her, and she repeatedly complained about how bad she felt. She spent hundreds of dollars on medical treatments, on medicines, vitamins, and chiropractic treatments in an effort to be free of the aches and pains that plagued her. As she continued to gripe about everything and everybody, her circle of friends dwindled, her boss refused to give her a raise, and her mother-in-law caused her great anguish. Griping made her sick, and kept her that way. When she was offered the method of affirmative thought and prayer for healing, she scoffed at it, declaring it to be too simple to work. She continues to get a negative result through continued negative thought, a mental method that seems simple enough to work effectively for her!
Your Prayers for Another’s Healing Have Power
Perhaps you know someone you would like to assist in solving a healing need, but you hesitate to mention it to them, because you feel they might not agree. In that event, begin declaring affirmations for them or ask some prayer group or trusted friend to join you in praying for them. A mother recently proved the power of this for her daughter, who is a successful public relations executive. The daughter suffered a nervous breakdown, after her marriage failed. Though she had received the best medical and psychiatric treatment, she still remained in a state of deep depression.
The daughter long insisted that she had no interest in religion, and she had no faith in the power of prayer for healing. When nothing else seemed to bring healing, the mother asked a group which uses affirmative prayer to pray for her daughter. Within a few days, her daughter arose from bed for the fist time in weeks. Soon she was back at work, although she continued with psychiatric treatments for a time.
Soon she was feeling in command of her world again. She decided to accept a new job involving much more responsibility, in addition to offering her several thousand dollars more annual income. Only at this victorious point was this young woman informed by her mother that prayers had been offered for her healing. Realizing that they surely had led to the turning point in her condition, this young lady executive began using affirmative prayers for her continued health, success and happiness and for some of her business associates and friends as well, with great inner satisfaction.
This book is filled with affirmative prayers and the results they have brought countless people in all walks of life, producing new peace, health and plenty. Be sure, however, to re-study the chapter entitled “The Prosperity Law of Command” in connection with healing through affirmation.
The Third Step in Healing
Mentally picture yourself or the one who seeks healing as completely strong and well. As stated in the chapter, “The Prosperity Law of Imaging,” mental images make the conditions of our minds, bodies, and affairs, but it is up to us to deliberately make the mental images of our lives as we wish them to be. Otherwise, we get a distorted result from holding distorted pictures in the mind.
Particularly is imaging powerful for healing. By forming pictures in your mind of the results you desire, and by holding to that mental picture, you are releasing your faith to go to work in a simple but supreme way to produce wondrous results. A housewife recently related how she used the imaging power of her mind to deliberately produce healing. She had suffered a severe knee infection which, after many weeks, continued to be swollen, infected, and very painful. Unable to gain assurance from others as to its healing prospects, this woman decided to invoke her imaging power, to gain the faith that healing was still possible.
Every day she began sitting quietly for a time and directing her attention not to the swollen knee, but to the one that was healthy and whole. She would place her hand on the healthy knee, give thanks for the health of it, and get a strong mental picture of that knee before her mind. Daily she continued this exercise. When anyone asked about her knee, she conveyed the image of healing to their minds by always replying that her knee was healing nicely. At this point, it was strictly an affirmative prayer, a statement of faith.
For several days, there seemed no change in her knee, but this woman dared to persevere in holding her mental image. One morning after weeks of pain and swelling, she awakened to find that overnight the swelling had disappeared, the knee had lost all appearance of abnormality, and was again its proper size. Upon closer inspection, it was as though the skin in that area had been pricked in many places and the infected substance had simply escaped! Her husband, a successful businessman, substantiated her experience to me. They both spoke of how delighted her physician was when he examined her knee that morning, for he assured them they had witnessed a miracle!
Make a Wheel of Fortune for Health
If you wish a more definite and tangible method for using your imaging power for healing, I suggest you use the “wheel of fortune” method outlined in Chapter 5.
A doctor once asked me to visit one of his patients who was paralyzed on one side and who had not walked for several years. He said that unless her hope could be restored, there was nothing more he could do as a doctor to help her. She had been reading various inspirational books on the power of thoughts, and he felt that she would be receptive to suggestions along that line to effect her healing.
On my first visit, I found her in bed, depressed, discouraged, despairing of complete healing. I told her about the gigantic power of mental images for healing, and suggested that she immediately get busy making a wheel of fortune for her health, which she did. On the wheel of fortune, she placed numerous pictures clipped from magazines, which showed people walking, walking, walking! She placed this wheel of fortune where she could view it for hours every day. I also suggested she employ the forgiveness prayer method mentioned earlier in this chapter.
All these things she seemed glad to follow. When I visited her a month later, she was sitting up in a chair! She had to be put in the chair and taken from it, but she was sitting up. As she continued to image and affirm wholeness, it was as though all the forces of heaven and earth began to work for her to help make it so. A neighbor, who was overseas with her husband, mailed a check to this young woman, suggesting that she use it for physical therapy treatments, which would surely be another step in her healing. A chiropractor, who had treated her in the past, dropped by to see her. He said that he would like to treat her regularly, without charge, in order to ascertain how effective chiropractics would be in such health problems.
Another neighbor promised that when she was ready to begin using a wheelchair, he would purchase one for her; another offered to pay for braces for her feet and ankles, when she had reached that stage. Gradually, as she continued looking at the pictures of people walking on her wheel of fortune, she grew stronger. Finally, another neighbor built a ramp down the porch of her house to the yard, so that she might be wheeled out into the sun and fresh air. At my last contact with this young woman, she was beginning to take a few steps on her own! That is the healing power of the imagination, when invoked constructively and definitely toward a desired result of health.
Reduce Through Mental Images
The imaging method is effective in every phase of health. A businessman who also had been on all types of diets, and had given up, finally heard of the imaging power of the mind for healing. He realized then that, although he had dieted stringently, he had continued to hold the image of himself as overweight; and that his mental image had continued to produce the very thing he did not want.
He then clipped pictures of healthy, vigorous, slender businessmen from magazines, placed them in his bedside table. He would quietly look at these pictures, filling his mind with definite images just before retiring. He also taped a couple of these pictures on small file cards and carried them in his wallet, looking at them during the day. Through this process, he lost 40 pounds while dieting, with a minimum of effort or self-discipline, and since he has lost more. He now resembles those pictures he still carries in his wallet.
How to Stop Smoking
I have known several businessmen who used the imaging method to stop smoking. A salesman, a doctor, and a business executive recently stated that it proved to be the easiest habit they had ever overcome. Their method was simple and delightful. They did not stop smoking or even try to. Instead, they simply formed mental images of how bad their cigarettes tasted, and of how they finally could not smoke them at all. They could hold this mental image of a bad-tasting cigarette whenever they lighted one. It took several weeks for the mental image to begin taking effect, but it did. Their cigarettes became distasteful, and soon they began to lose the desire to smoke. Within about six weeks, all desire had left and in each instance, they still had half a pack of cigarettes on hand, which they then threw away. They told no one of their desire to stop smoking or of the method they were using. In that way, no one was able to break down the mental images they were holding; or to attempt to talk them out of using such a simple method.
This Method Effective for Overcoming Alcoholism
I have known a number of people who used the imaging method to help bring forth healing in their loved ones. Several people, both men and women, have mentioned recently how they dared to image sobriety in their marriage partners who seemed to have become hopeless alcoholics. As they persisted in imaging them as healed, they gradually improved and finally were free of the desire for intoxicants.
I had lunch recently with one such couple. A few years ago, the husband was considered a “has-been,” but he is now a successful business executive and one of the most poised, peaceful and charming men I have ever met. He said to me, as the subject was discussed:
I knew all the time my wife was ‘up to something’ in trying to effect my healing, but I didn’t know what she was doing, and since it was proving painless for me, I did not care what her method was. I got to feeling so much better that I only hoped she would keep on until I was completely well again. Thank heaven, she did!
His wife had formed the mental image of a sober, happy, prosperous, victorious husband and she held to that mental image day in and day out, month in and month out. Her husband is today the wonderful man she imaged!
Thus, along with the usual methods for obtaining and then maintaining good health, adopt the techniques and methods suggested in this chapter. Let them prove their power for you! For this purpose I would like to share with you a favorite affirmation for health: I give thanks that I am the ever-renewing, the ever-unfolding expression of infinite life, health, and energy. For wholeness in mind, body and affairs, which is truly health personified, I suggest: I am the radiant child of God. My mind, body and affairs now express his radiant perfection! Truly, as you adopt: prosperous thinking for health, it can and shall be so, and your healing shall spring forth speedily. (Isaiah 58: 8)