The Text - Section 22
Concerning Happiness
BU 115:1, LC 7:172
There is one point of belief in which all men are agreed, viz: that the better a
person is, the happier he is. In this, as I said, all are agreed, and the only
question to be considered or argued is how shall we live so that our lives may be
good and happy. Parents differ from one another as to the manner of rearing
children. They do not all see alike, and each one has some peculiar belief in
regard to the right way in which the child should be brought up. They may all be
honest, yet some of them are deceived. Thus religious belief of parents has great
influence on the child for good or for evil, and they stand to their children as God
stands to them. If they believe that God requires obedience to his will as a duty
they owe him as their preserver and friend, then they want the same obedience
from their children. All kinds of religions are arbitrary and require submission to
its will. It is the natural working of the earthly man. He asks to be worshipped in
order that he may worship. In his ignorance, he invents some form of worship
and this to him is religion. Jesus had no religion, yet he worshipped not any one's
God but a truth, a science that he could feel and appreciate; that was his God,
but it is not the God of the present religious man. His God is one of power and
strength, a God that must be obeyed, a God that requires prayers and a strict
regard for his laws.
The whole sum of man's belief is this, that there are two worlds: one that we now
live in, and the other that we shall inhabit after death. For man believes that he
must die and that his body must decompose and return to the mother earth, while
his soul, if he has any, will return to the God who gave it. When men asked if
they will know their friends in the other world, they answer, O yes. Ask what the
soul is, and they say it is the spirit of a person. Can you see a spirit? O no. Can
the spirit return to earth? Well, we differ on that point; some persons think it can
while other persons think otherwise. Therefore some think their departed friends
are with them, while others think they are absent. They all agree however that we
must all die or something to the same effect, that we throw aside this body and
assume a spiritual body.
Now this same controversy existed in the days of Jesus, and many were the
questions put to him in order to learn what belief he entertained in regard to the
dead. Now I believe that I entertain the same ideas in regard to death as Jesus
did, and although to others it may be an opinion, I know that what I say is a truth.
Science is not matter but wisdom reduced to practice. Error is matter for it can be
destroyed. If I should tell you that you had committed an error in regard to a
certain business transaction whereby you had lost quite a sum of money, and I
make the error so plain to see that you believe it, there would be no effect on the
body or matter. If what I said did not contain something and it still produced an
effect, then it would seem that nothing can produce something; therefore that
which I called an error was something real, and I call it matter because it can be
changed. The mind can be changed and the ideas annihilated and still the mind
will exist. A house is built of stone, the house is matter therefore. Now you
destroy the house, but not the destruction of the matter, for the matter is eternal
and cannot be destroyed, though its combination may change. So it is with
beliefs which, like buildings, are made of matter. The belief may be destroyed but
the material remains and can be formed into other ideas, as is the case with any
other matter. Man's belief is all matter. His religion and ideas of disease are all
false beliefs, and the effects produced on his body are caused by them. Man's
creator is in him, and governs him, yet he is recognized only as a principle
without wisdom.
Assuming that man and his beliefs and all that we see of him are matter and can
be changed, I will endeavor to produce a man that is not made of matter, one
that you cannot see except through your belief, but whom nevertheless you will
admit. You will admit that there is such a thing as memory, yet memory cannot
be seen. You will also admit there are certain principles which we call science,
but you put no wisdom in them. Now it is just here that we differ. Jesus was a
man of matter, but Christ was from God or Wisdom, and no one will say that God
is matter or that he can be changed. Jesus' superiority over the natural man
came from some wisdom above opinions; therefore if you believe that his wisdom
came from God, you must admit that it existed before the birth of Jesus. If so,
what was it and what was its identity? It could not be seen, yet it was admitted.
We are told that it came into the world and the world knew it not. It came to its
own and its own received it not. Probably all will admit that this something was
intelligence. And if it was, and it is admitted that intelligence can come and go,
and yet not be seen, then it must have an identity, not of matter, but of something
else, something that cannot be destroyed; and it must be wisdom.
Wisdom must contain within itself all of man's knowledge and ideas and know
what is true and what is false, and yet be invisible to our belief. Yet it is the power
which governs all matter, whether in the form of man or beast. The world that
Jesus came from when he said he came from his father is not the Christian's
world but the world of wisdom. And when he came into this world, as it is called,
he did not mean this world of matter, called the globe, but the world of opinions
or the people's beliefs. Christ came from wisdom into error to teach the child of
science that we are held in bondage by the errors of religion, that this world was
not his home. For he had a house not made with hands or man's belief but by
wisdom, which is eternal, and that the temple or belief which held him must
crumble to pieces and be destroyed, the matter returning to matter to be subject
to wisdom. To convince the people of this was to teach a new science, and when
a person grows up and rids himself of error or opinions, then he lives in wisdom
and is no longer a man of matter.
I will give you my belief, for to you it is a belief, though to me it is a truth. I will
take a man giving him all the wisdom of the religious world and address myself to
him and show wherein we differ, yet he cannot see the difference, for having
eyes he sees not and ears but hears not and a heart but cannot understand. He
chooses opinions or darkness because he cannot bear the truth or light, for
science destroys error and sets the truth free. To make the difference between
our beliefs plain, it is necessary to set them down side by side. A religious man is
one who acknowledges himself to be flesh and blood but having a soul within him
which, after the body dissolves, goes to heaven. The soul is a belief to him but
the flesh and blood is a reality. I ask him to give me his ideas of the worlds. If I
understand him, he means by this world the material globe and all that is in it.
This constitutes the religious world. The other world to him is but a belief, while
this world is a substance, a truth. His belief is founded on the Bible.
He believes that God made this world before he made man, and then he placed
man in a literal garden wherein were all kinds of fruits and bade him eat of all
kinds but one, that man in this garden disobeyed God's commands and in
consequence lost his right to the other world and was banished from God's
presence. Seeing that man would not return to him of his own accord, God pitied
him and sent his own son Jesus Christ into the world to pardon all men on certain
conditions. Man of himself can do nothing. His salvation is not of works, lest they
should boast, but it is a free gift of God. And to obtain this gift man must forsake
father and mother, house and home and acknowledge before God on his bended
knees that he is unworthy to be called a Christian, that he has sinned against
God; and if he had his just deserts, he would be cast out of heaven forever. He
acknowledges that God is the embodiment of all benevolence, that his tender
mercies are over all his children and that not one hair of our heads can fall
without his notice. He believes that God has prepared a place for him and will
sometime send his angel to bear him to his home when he puts aside this earthly
body. I will not say that I have given the whole belief of the religious man, for I
have not, but these are some of the principal heads. But unless we comply with
all this and much more, God will cut us off from all his blessings and turn us over
to the evil one. This is a literal statement of the Christian's belief.
I find this truth in the words of Jesus, viz: My kingdom is not of this world. Jesus
then had a kingdom unlike man's, and my kingdom or theory is like that of Jesus,
as I understand it. Man's kingdom is in another world outside of this material
world, and Jesus came into this world and established his kingdom, but his
kingdom is not like that of the Christian. This world to the Christian means this
material globe, and Jesus' kingdom was in man's belief which was matter also.
Man was a literal substance and could be seen by the people. Christ or science
could not be seen except by those who had this science. One came by sight and
the other by feeling and sympathy. The good and wicked were all in this religious
world, while no unclean thing could enter the kingdom of Jesus.
The Christian is all the time trying to convert the wicked, while Jesus was trying
to destroy them. The Kingdom of Jesus and that of the people were so different
that Jesus could see no resemblance between them, and he destroyed the
kingdom of man in man to establish his own. He aimed to destroy the devil's
kingdom and that is what I am aiming at. Whenever he destroyed the kingdom of
man, he holds up his own, creating a new heaven and a new earth, as the old
heaven and earth had passed away. The fire shall run over all the earth, burning
up every root and stubble, from which shall rise a peculiar people that shall
worship God day and night.
I will now give my ideas of all this. This world is man's belief. The truth is the
science or true shepherd. This truth put in practice is that which takes away the
sins or errors of man, and the end of error is the end of the world. The
introduction of religion based on science is the commencement of the new world.
The science which shall devour our errors is the teaching of this great truth. The
sick are those who are bound in prison before the flood and the opening of the
prison doors is the understanding of this truth. Peter is the science that holds the
keys or theory. All that are loosed on earth by this truth are loosed in heaven or
in their belief. To preach Christ is to put heaven in practice, to liberate the poor
and sick who have been bound by the false ideas of the world. I know of no other
world than that which Jesus set up in man's heart, which meant the mind. He
never had any reference to this globe as a world. His two worlds were science
and error. He made but one for himself, and that was science. But man has
made another world from his beliefs and that was the world that he came into, in
order to cast out the children of the kingdom of error into a lake of fire. That is, he
enters man's belief and destroying all error, he establishes his kingdom of
science so that men shall come from the east and west, north and south and sit
down with wisdom. It is then that the children of error are cast out and that was
the end of the world. Then a new world begins and a new religion springs up
based on science. Under this religion, no man will say to another, Do what is
right, for all will do right because he will feel right in so doing.
1865
Happiness
BU 26:7, LC 6:62
We often hear people say that the object of religion is to make us happy. The
question then arises, What is happiness. This question cannot be decided by the
opinions of one man or a hundred, for it must embrace some wisdom higher than
man's opinion. If the author had no wisdom superior to the common belief of the
world and chose the word happiness merely to represent a quiet ignorant state,
then I have no objection to the common definition of it. But if it includes the
person that labors for the improvement of man and his development, then I say
the word is misapplied, for the results are as wide apart as virtue and vice. You
might as well apply the word virtue to the most vicious person on earth, as to
apply the word happiness to a man who seeks every opportunity to defraud and
get the advantage of his neighbor by every means in his power without laying
himself liable to the law.
Just see how the word is used. The little child when it is playing around like a
little puppy is called happy. Now if this is happiness, it is not wisdom. So if it is
desired rather than wisdom, then it is folly to be wise. Now let this state be called
quiet, and the word happiness be applied to the person who, by his labors, has
discovered some great truth that is for the benefit of man's condition and who
puts his wisdom into practice and receives something that he feels and knows
has enriched him both in health and wisdom and has raised him above the one
who is ignorant. Then he can say that wisdom is happiness and riches. Just the
same as the opposite man can say of the goods and money which he has
extorted from some ignorant person, as he sits down and counts it over and over
and exclaims, "How happy I am for what I have got." Now while he is rejoicing
over the ill-gotten gains, his neighbor is grieving over his losses and turns to the
other who has by his labor lifted up some poor, sick invalid, who had been
robbed by these land sharks out of their health and left on the cold icy hand of
the world to perish for want of the wisdom that might make them free. Now see
such a person suffering, robbed of the comforts of this life and praying that some
kind angel would come and feed them with the bread of life or explain to them the
great truth of nature which will set them free from sin and death.
Now see some one come and open the book of wisdom and read to them all their
griefs and pains and by the power of his wisdom destroy their beliefs or misery
and show them the true way. Then they will arise in their strength and might and
with the God of Wisdom which has set them free. Then the oppressed and the
redeemer can mingle together and their joy will reign, and that is happiness.
1865
Health and Disease
LC 7:117
Disease is that part of the mind that can be compared to a wilderness. It is full of
erroneous opinions and false ideas of all kinds and it opens a field for
speculators to explore. The medical faculty, spiritualism and all forms of religious
beliefs invite the people to enter under their false ideas; and when I sit by a sick
person, he tells me the story of his travels and his experience of the evils that
beset him in this wilderness, for it forms a great part of every person. The
scientific character is like the prodigal son. It desires to enter this land of mystery
to see what it can gain; therefore every person with ambition sets out for the
prize and alas! ninety-nine out of a hundred fail and are cast into prison. This is
the field for scientific investigation and as health is the thing most desired, to find
out how to keep it, and when lost how to restore it is the object of our journey into
this territory.
The question may be asked, What is health? I know of no better answer than
this. It is perfect wisdom and just as a man is wise, just so his wisdom is his
health; but as no man is perfectly wise, no man can have perfect health for
ignorance is disease, although not accompanied by pain. Pain is not disease
itself but is what follows disease. According to this theory, disease is a belief, and
when there is no fear there can be no pain; for pain is not the act but the reaction
of something which creates pain and therefore that must take place before the
reaction.
But says one, I never thought of pain till it came. Now if it came, something must
have started it. Therefore it must be an effect, whether it came from some place
or from ourselves. I take the ground that it is generated in ourselves and that it
must have a cause. Everyone knows that a person in his natural state is sensitive
to what is called pain and if his sensitiveness is destroyed he shows no signs of
pain. But to suppose his senses are destroyed because he feels no pain is not
correct. His senses may be detached from his body and attached to another idea
so that he is not sensitive to any effect on the body which in his natural state
would give him pain. This shows that pain is in the mind, like all trouble, though
the cause may be in the belief or the body.
For instance, suppose a tumor appears on the body. The person, feeling no
sensation or trouble from it, consults a physician who, after examining it, asks the
man if he has shooting pains and hot flashes. The man says, "No, why do you
ask the question?" The doctor replies that it looks to him like a cancer and then
explains the nature and symptoms of such a disease. In the course of an hour,
the man feels shooting pains, etc. Now where is the pain, in the tumor, or belief
in a cancer? I answer in the belief and as mind is matter a belief is also matter
governed by error. Error gives direction to the mind and a cancer is formed just
as far as the belief is received by the patient.
If man reasoned from another standard, different results would follow. Every
thought is a part of a person's identity, and if it contains a belief, he must suffer
the penalty of his acts, for to believe is to act. To illustrate. Suppose while I am
talking with you some one comes along and says the small pox is near here. The
one who is talking with me never had it, the thought instantly makes his belief in
disease and his liability to take it; therefore he is in danger, just as much as he is
exposed by his belief. I stand here. I believe that he, as well as the rest of
mankind, believes in the disease, but I know that God did not make the disease;
therefore being the invention of man, it cannot live where there is no belief.
Therefore, I am not affected. To me all disease stands in the same way and just
as I have analyzed them, I find that they are the invention of man and they can
be dissipated unless the impression is so strong that it is beyond the power of the
operator to explain it. Such a case is like the trial of an innocent man when all the
evidence is against him. It requires a skillful attorney to get such a case; but
when the evidence can be sifted so as to be questioned and destroyed, as it can
in nine cases out of ten, there is no danger of losing it.
We all have an influence over each other, and if we know how to direct it, the
effect will be just what we want; but if we are guided by a belief, the effect will be
just what we do not want when our belief is governed by fear, for our fear affects
a person instead of our belief. For instance, a person wishes to influence a
friend. If he is afraid that he shall not have the influence he wishes, his fears and
not his desire will affect the friend. Therefore it is necessary that man should
know himself, for every person is a machine, governed by the owner or some
one else. When controlled by wisdom it cannot go wrong, but when guided by
error, it cannot go right, for error is not wise, while wisdom is an element of itself,
and if our senses are in that, all is right, but if they are in error, discord and
misery follow.
To make it understood how we all stand toward each other, I will again compare
this wisdom, which is an element in common, to music. Every person possessing
it enjoys the pleasure that flows from a knowledge of it. This represents perfect
love not of matter. It is harmony without any other character. It is something
outside of every other feeling, having its whole happiness in the development of
mind; therefore it acts upon man, but ignorance takes it for passion. Then
misconstrued and unappreciated it becomes timid. Here is where a great mistake
is made. The man that is little above the brute knows no love superior or
separate from the brute, while there is a love that does not contain a particle of
the animal, the love of the beautiful and wise. This is not appreciated by man and
when it comes to him to lead him to a higher state, it is met by the brutal element
and a belief formed that it is passion. This cold reception causes a disease and
chills the element that flows from the purest fountain. The mistake lies in the false
idea of love. Man, being progressive, is not always to remain a brute. His reason
must elevate him from the brutal element and lead him to see and feel that the
purest love that one can have for another contains no passion nor any of the
brutal element. But man began to reason before he came out from the brute and
judged the world by his own standard. Therefore to the impure nothing is pure,
but those who have passed from the error of matter to the element of love, in
which everything lives, can see how it may be misrepresented. The love of
parents contains nothing spurious or animal, but let the parent or child be
deceived into a belief that they are strangers and then love is changed. Again, let
one know of his relation to the other and he in his wisdom discards the error of
belief, while the other still is under his brutal belief.
Where then is the brutal element? In the love or in the belief? I answer; in the
belief. Let all persons know this and they will understand themselves, and
knowing the animal element in the male and female will know their position and
safety. Then they will subdue the animal element and lead man into a higher
wisdom.
I say it without fear, that religious creeds are based upon this low order of animal
intelligence; but as the brutal element is pure, the effect of the belief depends on
the intelligence of the person in whom the animal prevails over science.
The reformation of Jesus was intended to separate man from the brutal element
that he might rise into that state where ignorance could not enter. This wisdom
then will be a light to lead man into the dark and give him power over all unclean
ideas and he will become a teacher to those in darkness in whom the light will
spring up. This is the light that Paul saw when the scale fell from his eyes. When
wisdom becomes common, everyone will use it to draw his friend out of this
world into science.
It may be asked if this will not break family ties and destroy marriage contracts?
Not at all, for their contracts will be carried into eternal wisdom, whereas they are
now made till death. They will then be made for eternity. But says one, If I have
got to live with my husband or my wife to all eternity, I shall not believe this
doctrine. Let me explain. No two persons are together unless they are agreed.
Therefore man and wife are not necessarily together, but most frequently are
separate and trying to come together; for as I have said, when two persons agree
on one thing, they are together. The difficulty in cases where persons think they
are not matched lies in the mutual misunderstanding of the parties. One wants to
lead or instruct the other or the one most advanced in wisdom wants the other to
share his happiness, while the other knows no happiness outside of this world
and cannot see beyond matter. Therefore, this party wishes to control the higher.
The higher being capable of receiving the lower wisdom, it becomes deceived by
opinions. Under this error it mingles with the lower element and both sink below
their level and misery is the result. But cultivate the scientific life and the lower
will become subject to the higher.
When two individuals set out on the road to wisdom they will develop each other
and their happiness will be one. Their labor will be no greater than to gather gold
without much toil. For this science opens such a field to the traveler that he cares
not to eat or sleep but his happiness is in investigating the regions that lie open
before him. He who enters this country must have a partner, for the whole
interest lies in overcoming opposition and developing each other. To be alone in
wisdom is like being alone on an island with no prospect of collecting jewels.
That which gives me the most satisfaction is to develop a mind capable of
improvement. It is like learning music. There is a faculty that gives the operator
the greatest happiness. This science is inexhaustible and the more you have, the
more you want and you will find this continually exciting you.
1865
How the Senses Are Deceived
BU 1:44, LC 6:65
Why is it that I run a greater risk of being misrepresented in regard to my mode of
curing than practitioners of other schools? I must be allowed to offer my own
explanation of this fact because if I were understood, I should not be in danger of
being misrepresented and condemned by the guilty. I stand alone, a target at
which all classes aim their poisonous darts, for I make war with every creed,
profession and idea that contains false reasoning. Every man's hand therefore is
against me, and I against every man's opinion.
Man's senses may be compared to a young virgin who has never been deceived
by the errors of the world. Popular errors are like a young prince who stands
ready to bestow his addresses upon all whom he can deceive. When he
approaches the virgin, he appears like an angel of light and wisdom. By soft
speech and imposing address, he wins the virgin mind to his belief. Having
become entangled in his web or false doctrines, she is carried away from her
home or state of innocence into the gulf of despair, there to live a miserable
existence or become a slave to fashion. In this state, a false theory holds out to
her all kinds of ideas and she becomes a slave to the world. Error favors the
utmost freedom in thought and conduct and offers all the allurements of pleasure
and enjoyment to the young. Each one is approached with some fascinating idea
with which he is carried away and to which he becomes wedded.
These are the ideas founded in man's wisdom and manifested through man. The
pure virgin ideas are also shadowed through the same medium, and each is
addressed by truth and or by error. Error in making up pretense of wisdom
assumes an air of wisdom. Wisdom, however, like charity, is not puffed up and it
is slighted by error. It is looked upon by the young as an old conservative. They
say to it, "Depart for a time while I enjoy the pleasure of error, and when I am
satisfied, I will call upon you." Wisdom is banished from the society of the world,
and error like a raging lion goes about devouring all whom it can. In the shape of
man it approaches the virgin mind and in musical tones commences paying his
addresses.
Finally overcome by his sophistry, she is now won to his opinion and is soon
wedded to his ideas and they two become one flesh. Her senses are attached to
the matter. What is his is hers and she is in all respects the partner and wife of
error. She is no longer a virgin but a wedded wife. The belief is the husband.
When a person is converted from one belief to another, she leaves her husband
and marries another. This was the case with the woman whom Jesus told that
she had truly said she had no husband, "for he whom thou now hast is not thy
husband." She had served religious beliefs and as each was destroyed by her
wisdom, she became a widow. Then she joined herself to another and became a
wife. These husbands were creeds, and the virgins were those who cared
nothing for religion and had no settled opinions about the future. The beliefs in
regard to another world were represented by men, for they were the embodiment
of man's opinion. The virgins were those who might be operated upon like the
virgin soil.
When Jesus sought to explain the truth, he compared it to a wedding and all who
could understand entered in. The ten virgins represented two classes: one
having wisdom outside of the natural senses and those who cannot believe
anything outside of these senses. When the truth came, they arose and trimmed
their lamps, but those who had no oil or understanding could not enter. Everyone
who has not risen above the natural man but is contented with being ignorant is a
foolish virgin, while those who try to understand are of the other class. Everyone
belongs to the former till he becomes wedded to a belief.
There is still another class. Those having professed to belong to a certain sect
and having united with it, after a while leave and join another one. These are
persons having committed adultery, for they are living with a new belief; therefore
they are to be stoned or turned out of the church. This explains the case of the
woman brought before Jesus as an adulterer. She had left the world's belief and
become interested in Jesus' truths. To the Jews she had committed adultery and
had been caught in advocating his truth. As she did not fully understand, she was
not lawfully married and her first husband or the church had claims upon her. The
Jews, therefore, thinking she deserved punishment, brought her to Jesus to see
what his judgment would be. When he heard their story he said, "Let him who is
guiltless cast the first stone." They all immediately left. and he asked her, Where
are thy accusers or thy fears that this is not the true light that lighteth everyone
that receiveth it? She replied, "No belief has any effect on me." And he said, "Go
thy way and believe in man's opinion no more."
This article was written from the impressions that came upon me while sitting by
a young lady who was afraid of dying and also was afraid of being blind. It may
seem strange to those in health how our belief affects us. The fact is there is
nothing of us but belief. It is the whole capital stock and trade of man. It is all that
can be and embraces all man has made or ever will make. Wisdom is the
scientific man who can destroy the works of the natural man. Disease is made by
the natural man's belief in some false idea. The young are the soil in which to
sow the seed of error. The error comes to the virgin mind and makes an
impression. The soil is disturbed and the mind listens or waits to be taught. If it is
misled, briars and thorns and troubles spring up in its path through life. These all
go to make the man of belief. Wisdom destroys these false ideas, purifies the soil
and brings the mind under a higher state of cultivation. This is the work of
science. When a person has made himself a body of sin and death, truth
destroys his death and attaches his senses to a body of life.
1865
On the Circulation of the Blood
BU 27:11, LC 9:99
Man's body, according to the chemist is composed chiefly of carbon, hydrogen
and nitrogen which are combustible, also oxygen from the air which unites with
the other three. This union produces heat. The oxygen of the air comes in
contact with the carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen of our bodies through the nose
and produces heat. The nose is so constructed, that the oxygen from the air
passes into that organ and comes in contact with the three other substances.
This produces heat in the blood. So as this blood receives a portion of the chyle
from the stomach it passes to the lungs and leaves a portion of the carbon in the
air cells. This is thrown off through the windpipe.
Now as the oxygen from the air is constantly forcing itself through the nose it is
very essential that we know the use of this organ and not be deceived by the
idea that the oxygen passes down the windpipe. For through this deception we
prevent the carbonic gases from passing out of the lungs.
The effect of the oxygen in the air or man's body is composed of carbon,
hydrogen and nitrogen. These are of a combustible nature. Now introduce
oxygen and this gives life to the blood. Now as the body stands in need of a
fourth element to produce caloric or heat, nature has constructed man in such a
way that without any effort on his part, this last element is supplied. As the air
contains the oxygen, the heat in the brain induces the oxygen to enter. So as the
nose is so constructed, the air passes in and deposits the oxygen with the three
other elements. This creates heat and eats up the impurities in the chyle that is
carried to the lungs to be purified for distribution to all parts of the body. So when
the blood enters the lungs it deposits the carbonic gas in the cells, to escape
through the windpipe, like smoke out of a chimney.
Now this escape called exhaling and inhaling is when the oxygen is received into
the blood or the other three elements through the nose. The idea that the blood
receives the oxygen through the windpipe is so absurd that it needs but little
explanation to satisfy any thinking person of its absurdity.
I shall show the bad effect on the body by this false theory. It is now a universal
belief that the air passes into the windpipe and enters the lungs. This false idea
misleads man and he falls into an error that has cost many a poor creature his
life. For they, by the power of their will, prevent the very carbonic gas from
passing out of the lungs, and it remains in the cells till it becomes so impure that
it produces tubercles and abrasions and death.
If man had never heard of such a theory he would have been far better off. What
advantage is it to man to know that the blood is carried from the heart to the
lungs by a process, that I will give, according to the medical science?
The left side of the heart contains the pure blood and the right side the impure
blood. The upper part of the heart receives the blood from the body and the
lungs; the lower part sends it out to the body and the lungs. The impure blood
from the body is brought by the veins to the upper right side of the heart, while
the pure blood from the lungs enters the upper side of the heart. The impure
blood passes from the upper right side of the heart to the lower right division and
then it is thrown into the lungs. Here it deposits the impurities or carbonic gas
that is thrown out of the windpipe. This process purifies the blood and then it is
fit. [unfinished]
1865
On Wisdom
BU 133:1, LC 6:54
Perfect wisdom embraces every idea in existence, and therefore every idea that
comes to the light through the senses existed before to wisdom. Every person
who was or ever will be existed as much before he ever came to our senses as
afterwards, the same as any mathematical problem or truth. Man's intelligence is
a truth that existed before he took form or was seen by the natural eye. Man's
body is only a machine and its senses are its medium to wisdom, the same as
science is the medium to wisdom. The real man is never seen by the natural
senses, but the real man makes himself known through science to his natural
senses, as a person who knows a fact can teach it to another. Wisdom or
knowledge he teaches through science, and he uses his senses to explain this
science, for his senses are all the medium the natural man knows.
The real man is God, or the First Cause. Every idea that man embraces comes
through his natural senses, but this real man is not seen, but is truth or wisdom.
The natural man may be compared to a checker board, and science and opinion
the players. Public opinion or common sense stands looking on and represents
spectators. The wisdom that is superior is that which sees and knows the
principle of the game. Now opinion makes a move and the natural man or
common sense says it cannot be bettered. But science sees the working of
opinion, and makes him move in such a way as to compel his opponent to
destroy himself, for he knows that opinion knows nothing as he should know it.
Every move of opinion suggests his opponent's move. So if one knows his game
and the other does not, the ignorant one is beaten every time. But if both are
ignorant they think they play a very scientific game. Now there are certain games
or arguments which men play called theories that have no foundation or basis,
and there is no way to test them because one is not the least above his neighbor
and neither can prove anything.
1865
The Reception of This Great Truth
BU 90:34, LC 9:154
I believe now that the time has nearly arrived when the people will be prepared to
receive a great truth that gives an impulse to their mind and sets them
investigating a subject which will open to their minds new and enlarged ideas of
themselves and show man what he is and how he makes himself what he is. It
has been said that to know himself is the greatest study of man, but I say to know
his error is greater than to know himself, for every person is to himself just what
he thinks he is; but to know his error is what ought to be his greatest study. For
the last 25 years I have been trying to find out what man is and at last have come
to know what he is not. To know that you exist is nothing, but to know what
disturbs you is of great value to everyone. The world has been developing itself,
and we look on and never think it is ourselves. Through our ignorance of wisdom,
we have made a man of straw and have given him life, intellect and a head in the
image of our own creation.
To this image we have given the idea man and certain capacities such as life and
death and have made him subject to evils such as disease and death. To this
man of straw, the words I have quoted are applied. This man of straw has been
trying to find himself out and in doing this has nearly destroyed or blotted out his
real existence. So in looking for this man, I found it was like the old lady looking
for her comb and finding it on her head. I found I was the very idea I was looking
for. Then I knew myself and found that what we call man is not man but merely a
shadow of error.
Wisdom is the true man and error the counterfeit, and when Wisdom governs
matter, all goes well; but when error directs, all goes wrong. So I shall assume
the old mode of calling man, as he is called, and make myself a principle outside
of man just as man makes all "laws of God," as he calls them, outside of himself.
So man admits he is not with God or a part of him. Therefore he belongs to this
world and expects to die and go to his God. So he lives all his life in bondage
through fear of death. Now this keeps him sick, and to avoid all these fears and
troubles that disturb his mind and make him sick, he invents all sorts of false
ideas and never thinks they are the cause of his misery. He invents all sorts of
disease to torment himself. Standing outside of these ideas I know that they are
the works of man because God or Wisdom has never made anything to torment
mankind. Error has created its own misery.
Having had 25 years of practice, I have seen the working of this evil on mankind,
how it has grown and increased till at the present time there is more misery from
disease than all of the evils put together, and every effort to arrest this evil only
makes it worse. Within the last seven years I have sat with more than twelve-
thousand different persons and have taken their feelings and know what they
believed their diseases were and how each person was affected, and I knew the
causes. Therefore I know what I say is true: that if there had never been a
physician in the world, there would not have been one-tenth of the suffering. It is
also true that religious creeds have made a very large class of persons
miserable; but religion, like all errors based on superstition, must give way to
science or wisdom. So as science progresses, religious creeds give way to a
higher intellectual belief and so superstition in regard to religion will die out as
men grow wise, for wisdom is all the religion that can stand and this is to know
ourselves not as a man but as part of Wisdom. But disease is making havoc
among all classes, and it seems as though there will never be an end of it unless
someone can step in and check this greatest of all evils.
I have been in the habit of sitting with patients separately and explaining the
disease and the cause, etc. till I have come to the conclusion that I can cure
persons that are sick if I am in their company, and the number only helps to
hasten the cure. I have no doubt that I can go to an audience of one-thousand
persons and cure more persons in one lecture than can be cured by all the
doctors in the state of Maine in the same time, for I know that one-half my
patients I do not see long enough to explain as much as I could in one lecture of
two hours. There are a great number of sick who are not sick enough to be
cured. Man's life and happiness in this enlightened world is dependent on
physicians who have made dollars and cents the cure. So if a man has not these
he must suffer. My object is to relieve man of some of his sufferings. I am sent for
to go to distant parts of the country and have always found a large class of poor,
sick persons not able to be cured, and so they must suffer. I want to relieve this
class who are not able to be cured, and also give directions to minds so that this
wisdom shall govern the man,
It will be necessary to say that I have no religious belief. My religion is my life,
and my life is the light of my wisdom that I have. So that my light is my eye, and if
my eye is the eye of truth, my body is light; but if my eye or wisdom is an opinion,
my body is full of darkness.
1865
Religion in Disease
BU 35:1, LC 6:70
The question is often asked why I talk about religion and quote Scripture while I
cure the sick. My answer is that sickness being what follows a belief and all
beliefs contain disease, the belief contains the evil which I must correct in order
to cure the patient; and as I do this a chemical change takes place in the mind.
Disease is an error for which the only remedy is truth. The fear of what will come
after death is the beginning of man's troubles, for he tries to get some evidence
that he will be happy and, fearing that he will never arrive at that state of
happiness, he is miserable. Another fear is the chance of losing his life which is
constantly multiplied as the medical faculty creates new diseases which, like the
locusts of Egypt, are in everything we eat and drink. What I shall try to show is
that these beliefs do really produce the very evil we are afraid of here.
We are taught to believe that if we pray we shall receive an answer to our prayer.
A superstitious person, believing this, is ready to believe he may be punished by
prayer for someone may pray that God may remove him. Each army prays that
God will direct the weapons that will slay their enemies. In Biblical times did not
God answer the prayer of those who wished to destroy their enemies and did
they not die? These facts prove that what we really believe may follow. We really
believe in disease and as we create what we believe, disease is the result of our
belief. People never seem to have thought of the fact that they are responsible to
themselves for their belief. Therefore, to analyze their beliefs is to know
themselves, which is the greatest study of man. All theories for the happiness of
man contain more misery than happiness, either directly or indirectly. Destroy the
beliefs of man and leave him where God left him to work out his own happiness
by his own wisdom. One-half of the diseases arise from a false belief in the Bible.
It may seem strange that the belief in the Bible affects us but it is so for every
belief affects us more or less and I now propose to show that diseases are the
effects of our belief directly or indirectly.
I will relate a case where the religious belief affected the patient and caused the
disease. The lady was aged. She was so lame and bound down that she could
hardly rise from her chair, and could take only a step by the aid of her crutches,
feeling so heavy that she dare not sleep. In this condition she had lived some
years, and all the happiness she had was in reading and thinking on the Bible.
She was a Calvinist Baptist and by her belief she had imprisoned her senses in a
creed so small and contracted that she could not stand upright or move ahead.
Here in this room of Calvin her senses were laid, wrapped in her creed; here she
was confused by the narrow limits of her own beliefs, yet in this room was Christ
or Science, trying to burst the bars and break through the bands and rise from
the dead.
She labored to be free from the bands and no one came to her relief. When she
would ask for an explanation of some passage the answer would be a stone, and
then she would hunger for the bread of life. At last in her misery she called upon
me and I found her as I have stated. I knew not what caused her trouble. She
thought it was from a fall, but this I knew was not the case. After explaining how
she felt, I told her her trouble was caused by a series of excitements from
studying upon what she could not reconcile. She thought upon religious subjects,
and not seeing the Scriptures clearly, her mind became cloudy and stagnated.
This showed itself on the body by her heavy and sluggish feeling which would
terminate in paralysis. She said she could not understand how her belief could
make her so numb. I explained this fact to her as follows.
I said to her, You will admit I have described your feelings. "Certainly," she
replied. What do you suppose Jesus meant by these words, "A little while I am
with you, then I go my way," and "You shall seek me and where I go ye cannot
come." Do you believe that he went to Heaven? "Yes," she replied. Now let me
tell you what I think he meant. I had told her before that in order to cure her I
must make a change in the fluids and produce a healthy circulation, for she by
her belief had produced a stagnation of her system. You have admitted that I
have told you your feelings. Then I was with you as Christ was with his disciples
in sympathy, and when I go my way I go into health and am not in sympathy with
your feelings. Therefore, where I go you cannot come, for you are in Calvin's
belief and I am in health.
This explanation produced an instantaneous sensation, and a change came over
her mind. This mortal put on immortality or health and she exclaimed in joy, "This
is a true answer to my thought." I continued explaining Scripture, as I shall
describe, and a complete change took place. She walked without her crutches.
Her case is so singular an example of my practice that I will give the substance of
my reasoning. It seemed as though all her feelings were in her belief, and if I
wished to give an idea of them, I would make a comparison from the Bible;
therefore, when I wished to convey the idea that I was with her, I took a passage
in the New Testament to explain my being with her and being away from her; she
was, as it were, dead in sin or error and to bring her to life or truth was to raise
her from the dead, for she believed that she never would be well till God had
raised her from the dead. I quoted the resurrection of Christ and applied it to her
own Christ or health, and produced a powerful effect upon her. I commenced in
this way.
Your belief is the sepulcher in which your wisdom is confined. The world is your
enemy. Your opinions and ideas are your garments, and the truth is the Holy
Ghost or angel which will roll away the stone and heal your grief. The God in you
will burst the bands of your creed and you will rise from the dead or your religious
belief into the truth. You will then walk into the sitting room and the friends will
start as though you were a spirit, and you will say, "Hath a spirit flesh and bones
as you see me have? Give me a chair." Then the friends will inquire where the
Christ is. The truth will say, "She has risen from her religious body of sin and
death and gone to meet her friends in Heaven." Then comes the false ideas, and
as they cannot see the truth, the body being changed to them is gone and they
report it stolen. You leave the body of belief and take that of science and rise into
health. This is the resurrection of the dead.
This with other explanations produced such an effect on the lady that she could
rise from her chair as quickly as any person of her age.
The natural world is full of figures that may illustrate man's belief. The silkworm
spins out his life and wrapping himself in his labor dies. The infidel and brutal
man reason but they do the same. The caterpillar is a good illustration of the
natural man groping in the dark, guided by a superior wisdom that prompts his
acts. When his days are numbered, wrapped in the mantle of this earth he lies
down to sleep the sleep of death; but the wisdom that brings forth the butterfly
also develops its science. In order that truth may come forth, error must be
destroyed; and science groping in darkness bursts into light and rises from the
dead as the butterfly, not the caterpillar.
All men have sinned or embraced beliefs so all must die to their belief. Disease is
a belief; health is in wisdom. So as man dies to his belief he lives in wisdom. My
theory is to destroy death or belief and bring life and wisdom into the world;
therefore, I come to the sick not to save their beliefs or life in disease but to
destroy it. And he that loses his belief for wisdom will find his health or life.
I will not give what I conceive to be the ideas of Jesus on the resurrection. I
address my words to the sick for I cannot make illustrations to the well, for they
are not affected by their belief. According to the Scriptures sin is a transgression
of the law. What law? It must be of God, for it says, "The soul that sinneth shall
surely die." So sin is death, and the law to which man is liable whose penalty is
death is God's law. Therefore, God is supposed to make laws to punish man for
his thought, for every idle word is to be accounted for. This law breeds countless
evils and it is the part of wisdom to correct it; for to believe that God is the author
of our evils is as absurd as to believe that he made the remedies and laws before
he made man. How often do you hear this remark: "There is a remedy for every
disease." When we ask what it is, we are referred to some root or herb, but no
hint is ever given that disease can be cured by the power of truth.
Did Jesus employ such remedies? On the contrary, had the sick whom he cured
tried them? He said: "My words are life eternal, and by my words I cure all
manner of diseases." If disease was a thing that required a chemical change,
Jesus must have been ignorant to undertake to talk to it. If the palsied limp was
the thing to be cured, why did he say to the owner, Stretch forth thy hand, and
immediately it was made whole? Why did he not apply some remedies to the
arm? The fact was that Jesus knew that the arm was not the cause but the effect,
and he addressed himself to the intelligence, and applied his wisdom to the
cause. He "spake as never a man spake," for he spoke to the cause, but when
man speaks he gives an opinion. All the acts of Jesus were based on truth, while
man acts from an opinion and chooses darkness rather than light, for the light of
truth will show him his error. He therefore shrinks from investigating his own
belief since he knows it cannot stand the test of science.
Truth and error both produce a chemical change in the mind, therefore it is folly
to apply an inanimate something to cure an inanimate disease, for neither
contains any intelligence. If a man's face is dirty and he is satisfied there is no
disease but if it troubles him, the trouble is in him and not in the dirt. To cure him
would be to tell him to wash. If the person believes he is cured, the water proves
that what was told him was true.
The war between my patients and myself is here. They make the dirt the disease.
I make the dirt the cause. They put intelligence in the dirt. I put intelligence in the
person. To cure him I must convince him that the dirt is nothing that need trouble
him, and that water will remove it. By knowing the truth they are able to remove
the cause. The doctors put the trouble in the dirt as though the trouble and the
dirt were one and the same. They never address the intelligence, but the
opinions, while the cause, being unintelligent like the dirt, affects the intelligence
and is reflected on the body.
1865
Science Is the Body of Wisdom
BU 35:13
[orig. untitled]
As in Adam or ignorance all men die, so in wisdom all men shall live, but every
man in his own order. Wisdom is first and then every man according to his own
understanding of it. Science being the body of wisdom, every man's science
shows the capacity of his intelligence. So as ignorance being the embodiment of
matter, just as the matter of body is dissolved by the science of wisdom, the
scientific man rises out of his matter or darkness and shines in his wisdom. This
is the change called by the natural man death, and so it is, but not the wisdom of
science but to error.
Man has two identities, as mechanical power: weight and velocity. And his
senses are attached to both. Wisdom being the first cause, as the weight or error
or natural man is forced on by wisdom through the scientific man, the weight is
destroyed by the velocity of progression and the scientific man finds himself out
of his errors and learns that the weight of error to him now is nothing but an idea
that he can use for his own convenience. Then he will see that wisdom and mind
are as separate as a steam engine is from the man who made it. But the man of
error puts life in the matter as though the engine and man were one and the
same and reasons as though, if there never had been a man there never could
have been an engine, any more than an engine could make a natural man. Both
are matter, but matter must go through changes before it becomes a medium for
the light of wisdom to form or create scientific truths and develop them by a
science.
For instance, all wisdom exists outside of any ideas. Matter being an idea, it must
be subject to wisdom. So science is the developing of matter according to the
principles of wisdom.
The natural man develops himself according to the principle of matter, but the
wisdom of the creator not being in matter, the natural man and brute are
governed by its own law or principle. But there is a higher and more excellent law
or principle that matter knows not of. This principle teaches the scientific man
that matter of all kinds and descriptions in the material world is subject to his
science or will and man himself as we see him is nothing but the shadow of an
idea that science can change at pleasure, just as a man knows himself. So the
death that we speak of is the enemy to progression, for it keeps matter in a gross
state and retards progression. It is the darkness that science has to wade
through. It is the cause of all the misery, for it acts on science as the cold winters
act upon the earth. It closes all the avenues of life or vegetation, till the heat of
summer bursts forth and life springs from the tomb. So error holds science in the
grave of death till the trumpet of wisdom sounds through the pores of matter and
quickens the soil and heats up the earth.
1865
Treatment of a Child
BU 144:1, LC 10:95
[orig. METHOD OF TREATMENT FOR A CHILD]
To show the effect of the will upon the mind of a child, I will state the case of one
about two years old who was brought to me to be treated for lameness. The
mother held the child in her lap and informed me that it was lame in its knee. This
was all the information I received from the mother; but when I sat by the child, I
experienced a queer feeling in the hip and groin but no bad feelings in the knee. I
told the mother that the lameness was in the hip, and that I would show her how
the child walked, and how it would walk were it lame in the knee. I then imitated
the walk of the child and also showed how it would walk were the lameness in
the knee, and after explaining the difference to her, the mother admitted I was
right.
I then informed her that to cure the child's lameness I must cure her (the mother)
of the disease which was in her senses, while the phenomenon was exhibited in
the child. She said the doctor told her the disease was in the knee and ordered it
splintered. But to splinter up the knee and keep it from bending would be to
encourage the trouble in the hip and make a cripple of the child. I was obliged to
explain away the doctor's opinion. When I succeeded in doing that, it changed
the mother's mind so much that when she put the child down, she could see that
her will guided its motion. This was so apparent to her that she could in some
measure counteract the wrong motion of the child. With my own wisdom attached
to the child's will, I soon changed its mind so that it walked much better. This is a
fair illustration of the ignorance of the medical faculty in regard to the sick, and it
is no wonder there are so many cripples in the world.
When this child was teething, it was very nervous which got its stomach out of
order, and its food helped to create a nervous heat which filled its stomach and
bowels. Now as the heat or gas passed through the colon, it pressed on the
veins and arteries in the groin till it destroyed their action and produced a state of
numbness in the groin, so that the child could not put its foot forward. So it would
drag it or throw its body forward bending the body at the hip instead of bending
the ankle, thus keeping the ankle stiff and bending the knee to save moving the
hip.
Now all these movements would follow from weakness in the groin and these
unnatural motions, by keeping the ankle stiff, created heat in the knee and
caused it to swell, and the doctor seeing the swelling thought the lameness must
be there. All these errors arise from a want of science on the part of the medical
faculty. The doctor's treatment only went to prove his theory and make a cripple
of the child.
The sooner people are aware that they are placing their lives in the hands of
quacks although "liberally educated" the sooner they will try to understand
themselves. The question arises, How can we understand ourselves?
Go back to the beginning and see what man was and how he differed from the
brute. Both were on the earth equally ignorant and of course each looked out for
himself. Both were equally exposed to the same climate and both got their living
as well as they could.
Now no one is foolish enough to believe that disease or its mode of treatment
was then in the world or that there was any language greatly superior to the
brute's instinct. All ate because they wanted food, not because anyone said eat
this or eat that.
This was the state of mankind when God breathed into him the breath of science.
He was a wilderness in which to introduce a higher principle of cultivation or
science to clear away the error.
1865
The Assassination of President Lincoln
BU 114:1, LC 7:102
The people are once more called upon to reflect upon the natural results of this
accursed rebellion against Freedom and Liberty. The assassination of President
Lincoln is nothing but the natural spasm or convulsion of a wicked rebellion which
is determined to destroy itself like an insane man, and all the evils arising are the
natural result of the disease. The murder of the President is the working of this
evil that has taken possession of man and has deluded the higher intelligence of
his soul and now the people are called to their several places of worship to pour
out their grief in behalf of the country's loss of one whom they loved and
respected. But how stand those who are under the cloud of suspicion? Do they
feel the sting of reproach that they, through their aid, have given countenance to
the wicked act? No. They drop a hypocritical tear and say, "Well the party is not
responsible for the act," but wisdom will hold them responsible and sooner or
later they will reap their reward. When the principle of freedom bursts forth, they
will see that individual acts are nothing but the natural result of principle and that
the principle is responsible for the individual acts whether right or wrong.
God is responsible for his acts and no man can point to any one act of wisdom
and say it is wrong. It is not for error to erect the standard as to what is right or
wrong, for wisdom proves itself. I will take the case in question, the death of the
President. In regard to Mr. Lincoln or Booth, as men, I have nothing to say; both
were mediums of a principle and each placed himself where he belonged. Mr.
Lincoln was the medium of the great principle of Freedom and Liberty, and this
cloud or influence has been carried along through darkness of slavery and the
sea of blood till he has reached the land of Liberty. Here was where the cloud
stopped and the cloud of error formed round the different parties and began to
burst forth and there collect its sundered fragments and cry for peace and
compromise.
In this vacuum of hesitation, slavery is never easy because its life is its
destruction and it always does the very thing it ought not to do for its own
defense, yet it does the very thing it ought in order to destroy its life. As the
President, being the medium of the people, had no motive to destroy individuals,
it hesitated to carry into the effect the law of error. But slavery does not reason; it
goes for "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," so it must do some; thing
and the worst thing it could do. So as all the elements were resting, as it were, on
their arms, this cursed serpent crawled up from its den and struck the deadly
blow at the President just at the time when he was the most popular with all the
world. What was killed by the murderers' blow, Liberty or Slavery? Let some give
the response, President Lincoln's body was not the body of the principle, and
although slavery may kill the body, yet when it has done that, it has done all it
can. But truth and Liberty cannot only kill the body or party of error but its very
soul, and can cast it into hell.
God holds man as well as nations and parties responsible for their acts and the
Democratic Party will be held responsible for the assassination of Mr. Lincoln,
and the Liberal Party will hold them responsible, not as individuals but as a party,
for Booth is nothing. Execute him and what do you destroy? Not the evil, for
another may do the same. Now make the principle responsible and then see who
will back it up. As long as the principle can strut around, it fears no danger, but
strike at the principle and then you will see signs of mincing and uneasiness in
the party. In this way, you destroy the evil and the effect will cease. This is what
is now on trial, whether the principle shall have an identity in this country or
whether it shall be destroyed. Slavery cannot find fault to be tried by its own laws.
It has defined treason and how it shall be punished. Now as they have through
their wicked acts laid themselves liable to the law, let President Johnson say to
this rebellion as Jesus said to the Jews, I come not to destroy the law but to fulfill
it and not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass till slavery and all its party shall be
destroyed, for their souls are all against the law of God and man and cast this
wicked generation of ideas into outer darkness. There will be a new heaven or
principle wherein all can worship at the altar of Liberty where one shall not say to
another, you shall not be free, but all shall have the privilege of freedom and the
right to worship God according to their own conscience.
April 1865
The assassination of President Lincoln brings forth some grave ideas in regard to
whether it was the design of God or solely the work of man. It is queer to hear the
adherents of both these doctrines argue about what neither know anything of,
except as their opinions, and I listen to find the point of the argument that they
wish to prove, but I only hear one tell what he believes and the other in turn gives
his ideas on the subject. One believed in fore-ordination and pointed to the Bible
as proof. The other discarded the idea that God had any hand in the matter at all
and left it altogether with man.
Differing with both, I will give my ideas which are based upon what I think every
candid person will admit. Freedom is opposed to slavery, this all will admit. Now
is freedom an element of intelligence or does it belong to our senses? Is it a truth
that exists as a principle, the same as mathematics? Is it not like confined steam
or anything that wants its liberty? Admit that liberty is wisdom as far as it goes
and you have one point to reason from. Suppose wisdom to be an element and
every act to come within its knowledge, so that nothing can transpire without its
knowledge. Suppose everything is within this atmosphere of wisdom, as your
body for instance, and if anything touches your body, your wisdom knows it.
Everything that is seen by the natural eye existed without wisdom before it
assumed a body. The chicken existed before it burst through the shell and had
an identity and showed life, though when it came out of the shell, it assumed a
new character. Now had the egg been destroyed before the chicken was
hatched, would the idea chicken be destroyed to wisdom? I say no.
You hold a bullet in your hand. If you let go of it, the bullet will drop. Now wisdom
knows that the bullet will fall and the holding of it one minute or more will not
change the law or truth which knows that it will fall. Just as you drop the ball,
someone catches it. Now is the law of gravitation changed? No, but you as a
being cannot see outside your senses, that is, that there is any wisdom
independent of what mankind knows and so you cannot see any wisdom outside
the bullet. And if you try to account for its falling, you only make it less clear. In
the fate of the President, men try to prove that he is alive after admitting that he
is dead. Now he is neither alive nor dead, but if he is dead, then wisdom is not
wisdom, for if you admit that the President had any wisdom and then assert that
he is dead, you contradict yourself. Let us look at it in another light.
I said freedom was an element of wisdom. No principle can make itself manifest
to man unless it assumes some form. Take the idea of gravitation. If there was
nothing to fall, you could not prove the principle, so Freedom must have some
medium by which to prove itself and so it works through man. Men may be
compared to checkers. Liberty represented by Lincoln and Slavery represented
by Davis are the players, and either Freedom or Slavery, the stakes. Every
person who has any great interest in the great game reflects himself on the
board. Now there is no intelligence in the checkers but the wisdom is in the
players. The President is the party representative of Freedom and as all loyal
persons are concentrated on him, it is not strange that he should play with
hesitation and caution lest he lose, for slavery is a keen player and a hard
element to contend with and often gains a point and then loses it.
At last Freedom gains the advantage and slavery has to yield. This excites the
public and brings on discussion and discordant feelings and everyone gives his
opinion and some one attacks the President and destroys the medium or body.
But he is not in the body but in the principle Freedom with the people and feels
the advantage gained over slavery and rejoices with the people as much as any
of us. Wisdom no longer requires that he should play the game but lets another
person assume the office while the President sits, looks on and enjoys the fruits
of his labor. I look upon the change that has taken place in that way. He has
finished his work and given up to another who will put the law in force on the
traitors. Not that he has lost anything, for I cannot think that he has.
I have no death but the death of error. Wisdom cannot die. Slavery he destroyed,
and he reigned till he had brought all the enemies of freedom under his feet and
the last enemy was slavery. Now he delivers up the keys to his successor that
his wisdom shall be all in all. Now the identity of Abraham Lincoln as a man was
his own, independent of the people, and the elements of Freedom and Slavery
were so evenly divided in him that he was sensitive to the outside impression of
each party or element, and had he professed more of either element, either of
slavery or freedom in him, it would have made matters worse. But the
combination of the two made him sensitive to all feelings of each element and he
was directed by the true element of freedom and justice which made every move
and saw the effect thereof. He was not a man of party but of principle. Now since
he has established the principle, it needs another element to gather up the grain
of his threshing and burn up the chaff, and that task has fallen into Andrew
Johnson's hands.
April 1865
The Honeymoon Spiritual Analysis of Man and Woman
BU 29:1, LC 6:182
Two principles show their practical working in the development of every individual
and reveal the progress of wisdom in man. The only true way to show the
operation of the higher and invisible intelligence that governs and controls the
affairs of the world is by illustration, using natural facts, such as are real to the
world, but revealing to the wise a higher development of truth not yet known as
such or accounted for. To bring to light the higher and unseen intelligence that
overrules the motives and actions of men and yet is unknown, I will use the
illustration of a play. Not that the author had the slightest idea of the wisdom that
governed him in writing the play, but seeing it, I take it to illustrate the higher truth
whence it proceeds.
Every principle of truth and every error assumes a character. Error is generally
master in the beginning but truth finally triumphs. Two characters are admitted in
the play but only one principle, that of the natural man. The spiritual is so mingled
with the natural that its separate existence is not recognized. For instance, love
and passion are so interwoven that the world knows only one, while there is as
decided a difference as between white and black. Every person is composed of
these elements and I will introduce the characters of the play to bring them out.
One represents progression, is a well educated, refined and intelligent
gentleman. The other, a lady, is aristocratic and overbearing. These two
characters are both in different degrees in the lady and gentleman and each is
governed by the one which predominates. Therefore several characters are
necessary to illustrate one individual. For every person is double, and to bring out
the perspective it takes four, for two are only shadows and they change as I shall
show.
All plays represent the various characters of one person. Therefore the two
characters in the play are really the conflicting and opposite qualities of one
individual. The gentleman is one whose finer feelings and intellectual culture
overbalances the lower passions of man. The lady is aristocratic so that her
higher qualities are subdued by an overbearing and haughty disposition. Money
is an emblem of wealth, so they must both be rich. With one, money is riches,
with the other, wisdom and virtue are riches and money is a secondary matter.
Thus they both hold a high position in society. One uses it to elevate the
intelligence, the other, the passions of the world. As these two minds meet, there
is a sympathetic attraction towards each other, but with no understanding. For
man does not know himself and there must be a discord when the time of life
commences. These two typify the development of man into a higher state. In
society, the man is superior to the woman, for she represents the scientific-
spiritual character, while the man represents the animal. These two do not
belong to one or the other exclusively, for man and woman are a compound of
them. But in the world, man is the superior. Yet in the play, their wisdom is
reversed, for the female in the man is the ruling wisdom, and the male in the
woman. Therefore when they sympathize, the male in the woman comes in
contact with the male in the man, and the female in the woman sympathizes with
the female in the man and they do not understand each other. To make it plainer,
I will call it animal and spiritual. The woman loves the man, that is, that part of the
woman in subjection to man sympathizes with the higher element in man. The
object is to subdue the male that governs the woman and bring it into subjection
to the higher wisdom, the female. The spiritual element in man sympathizes also
with the same in the woman. The two characters, (The Duke and Juliana) not
standing in relation to each other as the world would have them, could
sympathize but not harmonize, for their motives were different. At last they marry.
Marriage is to agree to a contract in this world.
If I tell a person a story and court him till he believes it, this is a spiritual marriage.
If I reason with a person till I convince him of a scientific truth, this is a scientific
marriage, sanctioned in heaven where no worldly passions can mar. This is
Christ's marriage and to this wedding every person is invited, yet some come
without the wedding garment. The marriage of the earthly man is to opinions and
that may change, but the great wedding of science is the true wedding, while the
other is a contract.
So man is all the time marrying and giving in marriage and getting divorced. To
return to the married couple, the man wished to develop his wife or subdue the
earthly man. The woman wanted to subdue the scientific man. So when they
began to act, they were like Paul when he said, When I would do good, evil is
present with me. To develop a person, it is necessary that he should contend
with an opposite. So the error in the woman made war with the science in the
man. But the truth prevailed, error was subdued, harmony was restored and they
became united in one living and true sympathy that knows no dictation.
Now as the female is superior to the male, this has all to be reversed by
introducing two more characters that are contained in the play, Leonora and
Rolando. Let the man or animal rule and the female is not known in his brutal
acts but lies in the soil of the man as a servant, secretly destroying the natural
man by her soft tones, speaking through the form of a man. The servant acted in
the spiritual element of the man, fostered and fed it in the wilderness till it grew
large enough to come forth. There it threw off the earthy garb and assumed the
scientific woman. The brutal man cowed down and the spiritual man came forth,
became wedded to the scientific woman and the natural man in both became
subject to the spiritual man. This is what every person goes through to arrive at
the spiritual world.
April 1865
The Evidence of Sight
BU 106:23, LC 9:304
I have tried to illustrate how we are deceived by the idea that wisdom based on
the sight of the natural eye is no stronger proof than what we believe from the
evidence through our other senses. Now this mistake causes our trouble, for
everything that we admit exists that can be changed suddenly or gradually, when
it is out of sight, the evidence of its existence diminishes just according to
circumstances or evidence.
I will illustrate. Suppose A and B see a person in a certain place. A leaves one
moment before B and A and B are sitting in an adjoining room. As A left the room
where the stranger sat before B, when A and B are in their room the evidence of
the stranger being gone to A may depend on what B says. So as A left before B,
B may deceive A because B left last. But suppose they don't agree. A says the
stranger must be in the room, for he had just sat down to eat and according to
the natural time of eating he must be there. So they argue and B tries to convince
A.
Now suppose a stranger is seen approaching the house and walks directly up to
your door and enters and you know that he knows nothing of what you are
disputing about and you say to the stranger I wish to ask you a question as to the
strength of evidence or testimony. The stranger feels the point in dispute and
says I know what you are disputing about. B says, What is it? (S) You are
disputing about a man you can't see. How do you know says A? (S) Because I
see the man eating supper in the dining room. (A) Can you describe the man? So
the stranger gives a description of the person and tells everything connected with
him which A and B know. Now is not this stronger evidence to A than B gave
him?
Then comes the question, how the stranger sees and he convinces you that
partition to his sight is no obstruction. So belief is a partition between true sight
and error. What a man sees with his eyes to him is light and what a man sees
through a belief is not positive. Now this is the way with the sick. They see
through a glass or partition or belief that is not certain and the doctor sees
through the same medium, so that the patient and doctor stand in relation to
each other as A and B reasoning about a man in the form or idea, pain, that
exists in the dark.
The doctor has no idea of the stranger only as the patient describes him so the
patient commences by telling how he appears, and he affects the side and he
goes on to describe, the doctor being more ignorant than the patient but by his
impudence and brass, pretends to tell who it is and where it is, in this or that
room, either the heart or lungs or pleura, etc.
Now if the patient believes, the belief makes him nervous and a result follows
and this is shown as the person that the doctor had described. This is called
disease. I come to the patient after the doctor leaves and I see the doctor's ideas
on the patient and I see how they have affected him and I say to him, You have
been told that this stranger that the doctor has described, which is not anything
but his mere opinion imagination is so and so and you received it as truth and the
effect that follows is the natural result of the deception. Now until man finds the
real point to reason from, he is not safe from all errors and superstitions that may
be heaped upon him.
We are too apt to believe our senses and not believe our sight. Now sight being
the stronger sense we often get deceived by belief and take belief for sight. A
man's senses is his judgment and what looks clear he receives as true. Now light
may come from truth or error so the light of the body is the eye and if the light is
single and confined to the idea, then it is light or true. But if the eye or light is
darkened by an obstruction or an opinion, then the body is full of doubt or
darkness.
Now I see these difficulties in every patient I sit with and I see how they are
deceived and cannot see the deception. And it is the hardest task I ever
performed to convince them how they are deceived. They think because they feel
so and so that they must have this or that disease.
Now the same error exists with the spiritualists. They see or hear something that
they cannot account for and of course it must be the spirits and when disputed
they say, If it is not spirits, what is it? Now the idea spirit, like the idea disease
has become a part of our very being. And the ideas are as real as our existence,
so that at any excitement that comes upon us we are ready to create a spirit or
disease, just according to the pattern given. And the spirit mediums and doctors
are just alike. Each deceives the masses by their beliefs and creates diseases
the same as spiritual phenomena.
Now it all arises from our belief in some invisible world that no one ever saw with
scientific eyes but we have been educated into a sort of superstitious belief and
have settled down to a reality that certain things exist. And because we see and
hear certain groans and sounds and pains and phenomena that we can't account
for, therefore they must be disease or spirits.
Now convince man or educate him up to the point of science so that he can see
that all men's bodies are as mortar or clay and any phenomena he is able to
understand he will create, if excited by fear. Then he will see that it is for every
person's happiness to test every teacher about what he knows not take his
opinion.
Let me give you a rule by which you can test a doctor and I will not give you a
rule that I am not willing to be tested by. Suppose you feel a little out of sorts and
call a physician. When he comes, say to him, I have sent for you to tell me what
is my trouble. This is the way Nebuchadnezzar did; he had magicians or doctors,
only he called his disease a dream. His magicians said, Tell me your symptoms
or dream and I will give you the interpretation of it. Just as the physicians say,
Tell me how you feel and I will give you the interpretation of disease. Now be as
wise as Nebuchadnezzar and say, My dreams or feelings have departed but tell
me how I felt. This they could not do any more than the magicians could so they
will answer as they did, You ask too much; there is no one that asks the doctor to
tell them their symptoms. The time had arrived when the wisest men had learned
that a man's opinion is not to be relied on as a truth. So when Nebuchadnezzar
made war, he ordered his officers to bring of the wisest men of the nation that
were well versed in science and in language so they might teach him the
Chaldean tongue. Now Daniel was one of the wise men and when
Nebuchadnezzar became sick and alarmed, like a dream, he had no confidence
in his magicians or sorcerers and he took this way to tell them. So when he
wished them to tell his symptoms or dream they could not do it so he passed a
decree.
Lawrence, July 15, 1865