Foma

“ Back of all disease in the flesh lack of circulation, back of circulation is mental pressure, back of mental pressure is crooked is thinking, back of crooked thinking are false ideas of God, man, life, people, situations and things.
We are asked every day “How do the mental states affect the body, and how is it of possible for mind to be the author of disease flesh or environment?” The answer is easy: all mental states affect the breathing, and breath is primarily the source of circulation; without breath there would be no force from behind which would keep the blood flowing through the body. ”

“ Let the heart send the blood, thus thoroughly vitalized, bounding and rushing through all parts of the system, even to the ends of the fingers and toes, imparting health, energy, power, spontaneous action, to every muscle, nerve, the brain included. Let the digestion be perfect, Let food never trouble you. Let it fill up your person, make perfect chyle, perfect blood. Let, in short, all the vital organs be fully developed, be healthy, be vigorous, so that your supply of vitality is abundant, and a flow of healthy, happy feeling thrills throughout your whole frame. Disease keeps aloof. ”

“ But there are also the substances which the living body compounds or modifies for itself. It has been said that the organism is the receptacle and laboratory of poisons; in the state of emotion, the only one with which we are concerned at present, the function of this chemical process is manifested at every instant. We are always speaking of the weakening or the increase of the circulation of the blood; yet the emotional dispositions or modifications are connected, not only with variations of quantity, but also with those of quality in the blood (anæmia, aglobulia, malarial poisoning, etc.) ”

“ Your body is as material as the trunk of a tree that you gash, or the electric wire that you stretch, and it would suffer no more from tension or wounds than they do, were it not for mortal mind.
If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it Neuralgia, but I call it Illusion. If you believe that consumption is hereditary in your family, or may be induced by severe colds, you are liable to the development of that belief, in the form of what is termed pulmonary disease. ”

“ Here my guide sheltered me again, and desired me to look up; I did so, and could see, as before, the green gleam of the mighty curve sweeping over the upper ledge, and the fitful plunge of the water as the spray between us and it alternately gathered and disappeared. An eminent friend of mine often speaks to me of the mistake of those physicians who regard man's ailments as purely chemical, to be met by chemical remedies only. He contends for the psychological element of cure. By agreeable emotions, he says, nervous currents are liberated which stimulate blood, brain, and viscera. ”

“ From the irregularity of the circulation of the blood induced by prolonged grief, varied central phenomena in the nervous matter follow, and in persons who have passed middle life these phenomena are usually permanent if not progressive. They consist of organic feebleness extending to all the active organs of the body, and affecting specially the mental organism, A constant desire for rest, for avoidance of cares, for seclusion, mark this stage of disease, if so it may be called. ”

“ If we have not this proper control, the poisons are not eliminated and the supply of blood to the brain is vitiated.
Just as the body cannot perform its functions122 well if we are compelled to live upon tainted food, so the brain cannot do its work well if the blood—its food—is impure. Breathing which expands the diaphragm so purifies the blood as it passes through the lungs, that it becomes an important factor in maintaining health and poise in body and mind, which in their turn react upon the spirit. ”

“ LIV. Now he or she who dwells mainly in the brain is subject to enormous nervous waste: and the blood, charged with refuse brain and nerve-rust, rushes to the kidneys, and there unloads its bad freight; but all servants get tired, and so do the organs named; so that after a while they cease to drain and sift so perfectly as of yore; consequently the alkaline phosphates and urea are not all discharged, but a portion is poured back into the circulation, until finally every inch of the physical body is poisoned; and a healthy soul cannot healthfully act through poisoned nerves and tainted fluids. ”

“ A quantity of stimulus less than that mentioned above, and continued for some time, induces pain in the affected organ, as the pain of cold in the hands, when they are immersed in snow, is owing to a deficiency of the stimulation of heat. Hunger is a pain from the deficiency of the stimulation of food. Pain in the back at the commencement of ague-fits, and the head-achs which attend feeble people, are pains from defect of stimulus, and are hence relieved by opium, essential oils, spirit of wine. ”

“ Who is without hope? Now that I am diagnosing my illness and prescribing for myself, from time to time I hope that I am deceived by my own illness, that I am mistaken in regard to the albumen and the sugar I find, and in regard to my heart, and in regard to the swellings I have twice noticed in the mornings; when with the fervour of the hypochondriac I look through the textbooks of therapeutics and take a different medicine every day, I keep fancying that I shall hit upon something comforting. ”

“ The law of nature is that of steady growth. It can not admit of a daily, even though it be merely a functional, disturbance that weakens the digestion, that causes the heart to labor excessively, that prevents the perfect oxidation of the blood, that interferes with the assimilation, and that deranges the nervous system. ”

“ Indigestion makes us unquiet, therefore we must eat only wholesome food, and not too much of it, and we must eat it quietly. Poor breathing and poor blood makes us unquiet, therefore we should learn to expand our lungs to their full extent in the fresh air and give the blood plenty of oxygen. Breathing also has a direct effect on the circulation and the brain, and when we breathe quietly and rhythmically, we are quieting the movement of our blood as well as opening the channels so that it can flow without interruption. We are also quieting our brain and so our whole nervous system. ”

“ We all know that when our hand has been firmly squeezed, or when we have received a blow or contusion, the skin reddens at once. This change in the circulation is indispensable, for the more copious flow of blood to that part which has suffered an arrest of nutrition serves to renew the vital processes and to repair the damage caused by the injury. The same phenomena appear in the brain under psychic conditions. Emotion occasions greater energy in the chemical processes of the brain ”

“ On the contrary, it might cause anaemia, and its accompanists, such as neurasthenia, melancholia, fear, etc. Breathing in the right way will produce better blood, more nerve power, and last, but not least, a good humor. ”

“ Swallow a tablespoonful of laudanum or a few grains of arsenious acid every night: at first your physical conscience protests by every means in its power; nausea, gripes, gastric spasms, and nervous headaches warn you again and again; the struggle of the digestive organs against the fell intruder convulses your whole system. ”

“ When the blood rushes madly through the veins or languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these Mind circulates blood conditions disease. This is a misconception. Mortal mind is producing the propulsion or the blood languor, and we prove this to be so when by mental means the circulation is changed, and returns to that standard which mortal mind has decided upon as essential for health. Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never reduce inflammation scientifically, but the truth of being, whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring relief. ”

“ By various abuses, among which the habitual use of such agents as green tea is one, this fluid may be affected as to its quality, but it is more frequently disturbed as to equilibrium. This fluid being that which we have in common with spirits, a congestion found upon the masses of brain or nerve, connected with the interior sense, forms a surface unduly exposed, on which disembodied spirits may operate: communication is thus more or less effectually established. Between this brain circulation and the heart circulation there is an intimate sympathy. ”

“ In like manner that which is abundantly nourished increases; what is not sufficiently supplied shrinks; what is perfectly nourished preserves its health; what is not perfectly nourished falls into disease. The blood therefore, even as the soul, is to be regarded as the cause and author of youth and old age, of sleep and waking, and also of respiration. All the more and especially as the first instrument in natural things contains the internal moving cause within itself. ”

“ It suffices to increase or diminish in a slight degree the rapidity of the blood penetrating to the brain, in order to cause an immediate change of our 'ego.’ The equilibrium of the molecules in the organs where consciousness has its seat is greatly disturbed by causes which scarcely affect the functions of other parts of the body; because, in the brain, nutrition is more active, and the state of the substances composing it more unstable. ”

“ That an impression made upon the stomach by a medicinal agent, should be the means of exciting an action in the distant parts of the machine, will not appear extraordinary when we consider how universal a sympathy and control this central organ exercises over every function of the body; imbued with exquisite and diversified sensibilities,—subjected to the first and coarsest impressions of our various ingesta,—stretched occasionally to an enormous extent by the unrestricted indulgence of appetite,—disturbed by the passions,—exhausted by volition, and debilitated by intense thinking ”

“ Being hard put to it for breath, or afflicted with the asthma, or troubled with palpitation of the heart, or diarrhea, or spitting of blood, or a sinking down into consumption, are all disorders of this range of organs, and the languid faintness and feebleness occasioned thereby, will serve to illus­trate both their function and the effect of their feebleness or disease. ”

“ Life itself is dependent upon breathing. The Life Force enters the body with every breath we draw. Show me a man with well-developed, full-breathing lungs, and I will show you a man with good vitality.
Last but not least among the natural methods of treating the cell in chronic disease we mention the right mental and emotional attitude. Fear, anxiety and all kindred emotions congeal the nerve matter and thereby shut off the supply of nerve force. The cells and tissues starve and freeze. ”

“ When the mind is active and vigorous, and properly exercised in all its departments of feeling and affection as well as of intellect, the nervous influence which the brain produces is not only more abundant, but of a more healthful and invigorating quality. Hence the well-known preservative and restorative influence of cheerful dispositions and gratified activity of mind, and hence the depressing, morbid, and often fatal effects of corroding care, grief, and apprehension, on every organ of the body. ”

“ A few days later the anxious father writes to the young mother one of his curious medical homilies:
“I hope you are very quiet, and keep this well in mind, that although you are well, and feel yourself well, the body has to take on a new conformation, and the nervous system a new life. Only rest of brain, heart, and body, along with good nourishment, and its assimilation by regular undisturbed digestion, can restore the animal forces. ”

“ IX. HEALTH AND DISEASE.—DEATH AND DECAY. "Health is the vital principle of bliss."
THOMSON. "There are three wicks to the lamp of a man's life: brain, blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the other centers of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness." ”

“ It is in these upper convolutions of the brain, as we also know, that the will and the directing power are resident; so that in sleep the will is abolished and consciousness fades gradually away, as the blood is pressed out by the contraction of the arteries. So, also, the consciousness and the directing will may be abolished by altering the quality of the blood passing through the convolutions of the brain. We may introduce a volatile substance, such as chloroform, and its first effect will be to abolish consciousness and induce profound slumber and a blessed insensibility to pain. ”

“ Pleasure causes dilatation of the blood-vessels; the circulation, and consequently all the functions of secretion and assimilation are facilitated; the face is suffused with color, the gastric juice and the saliva are perceptible as that healthy appetite and that watering of the mouth which invite us to supply fresh nourishment to the body; all the tissues work actively to expel their toxins, and to assimilate fresh nourishment; the enlarged lungs store up large quantities of oxygen, which burn up all refuse, leaving no trace of poisonous germs. It is an injection of health. ”

“ For instance, it is well known that the soft gray organic substance which fills the brain and the nerve centres throughout the body, is made of Albumen, Water and Phosphate of Potash. Brain work or “nervous work” or worry breaks down and dissipates this gray substance, and it must be daily supplied in equal volume with the amount destroyed, else nervous prostration, with its numerous ramifications and horrors, surely follows. ”