The effect of violation of Nature's Laws on the physical human organism are:

Lowered vitality. Abnormal composition of blood and lymph.

Acc.u.mulation of waste matter, morbid materials and poisons.

These conditions are identical with disease, because they tend to lower, hinder or inhibit normal function (harmonious vibration) and because they engender and promote destruction of living tissues.

(9) What Is Acute Disease?

What is commonly called acute disease is in reality the result of Nature's efforts to eliminate from the organism waste matter, foreign matter and poisons, and to repair injury to living tissues.

In other words, every so-called acute disease is the result of a cleansing and healing effort of Nature. The real disease is lowered vitality, abnormal composition of the vital fluids (blood and lymph) and the resulting acc.u.mulation of waste materials and poisons.

(10) What Is Chronic Disease?

Chronic disease is a condition of the organism in which lowered vibration (lowered vitality), due to the acc.u.mulation of waste matter and poisons, with the consequent destruction of vital parts and organs, has progressed to such an extent that Nature's constructive and healing forces are no longer able to react against the disease conditions by acute corrective efforts (healing crises).

Chronic disease is a condition of the organismin which the morbid enc.u.mbrances have gained the ascendancy and prevent acute reaction (healing crises) on the part of the constructive forces of Nature.

Chronic disease is the inability of the organism to react by acute efforts or healing crises against const.i.tutional disease conditions.

(11) What Is a Healing Crisis?

A healing crisis is an acute reaction, resulting from the ascendancy of Nature's healing forces over disease conditions. Its tendency is toward recovery, and it is, therefore, in conformity with Nature's constructive principle.

(12) Are All Acute Reactions Healing Crises?

No, there are healing crises and disease crises.

(13) What Is a Disease Crisis?

A disease crisis is an acute reaction resulting from the ascendancy of disease conditions over the healing forces of the organism. Its tendency is toward fatal termination, and it is, therefore, in conformity with Nature's destructive principle

(14) What Is Cure?

Cure is the readjustment of the human organism from abnormal to normal conditions and functions.

(15) What Methods of Cure Are in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?

Those methods which:

Establish normal surroundings and natural habits of life in accord with Nature's Laws. Economize vital force. Build up the blood on a natural basis, that is, supply the blood with its natural const.i.tuents in right proportions. Promote the elimination of waste matter and poisons without in any way injuring the human body.

Arouse the individual in the highest possible degree to the consciousness of personal accountability and the necessity of intelligent personal effort and self-help.

(16) Are Medicines in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?

Medicines are in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature insofar as they, in themselves, are not injurious and destructive to the human organism and insofar as they act as tissue foods and promote the neutralization and elimination of morbid matter and poisons.

(17) Are Poisonous Drugs and Promiscuous Surgical Operations in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?

Poisonous drugs and promiscuous operations are not usually in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature, because:

They suppress acute diseases or reactions (crises), the cleaning and healing efforts of Nature. They are in themselves harmful and destructive to human life. Such treatment fosters the belief that drugs and surgical operations can be subst.i.tuted for obedience to Nature's Laws and for personal effort and self-help.

(18) Is Metaphysical Healing in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?

Metaphysical systems of healing are in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature insofar as:

They do not interfere with or suppress Nature's healing efforts.

They awaken hope and confidence (therapeutic faith) and increase the inflow of vital force into the organism.

They are not in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature in so far as:

They fail to a.s.sist Nature's healing efforts. They ignore, obscure and deny the laws of Nature and defy the dictates of reason and common sense. They subst.i.tute, in the treatment of disease, a blind, dogmatic belief in the wonder-working power of metaphysical formulas and prayer for intelligent cooperation with Nature's constructive forces for personal effort and self-help. They weaken the consciousness of personal responsibility.

(19) Is Nature Cure in Conformity with the Constructive Principle in Nature?

Nature Cure is in conformity with the constructive principle in Nature because:

It teaches that the primary cause of weakness and disease is disobedience to the laws of Nature. It arouses the individual to the study of natural laws and demonstrates the necessity of strict compliance with these laws. It strengthens the consciousness of personal responsibility of the individual for his own status of health and for the hereditary conditions, traits and tendencies of his off-spring. It encourages personal effort and self-help. It adapts surroundings and habits of life to natural laws. It a.s.sists Nature's cleansing and healing efforts by simple natural means and methods of treatment which are in no wise harmful or destructive to health and life, and which are within the reach of everyone.

(20) What Are the Natural Methods of Living and of Treatment?

Return to Nature by the regulation of eating, drinking, breathing, bathing, dressing, working, resting, thinking, the moral life, s.e.xual and social activities, etc., on a normal and natural basis.

Elementary remedies, such as water, air, light, earth cures, magnetism, electricity, etc. Chemical remedies, such as scientific food selection and combination, specific nutritional augmentation with natural food concentrates, homeopathic medicines, simple herb extracts and the vitochemical remedies. Mechanical remedies, such as corrective gymnastics, ma.s.sage, magnetic treatment, chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation and, when indicated, surgery. Mental and spiritual remedies, such as scientific relaxation, normal suggestion, constructive thought, the prayer of faith, etc.

Chapter III

What Is Life?

In our study of the cause and character of disease we must endeavor to begin at the beginning, and that is with LIFE itself, for the processes of health, disease and cure are manifestations of that which we call life, vitality, life elements, etc.

While endeavoring to fathom the mystery of life we soon realize, however, that we are dealing with an ultimate which no human mind is capable of solving or explaining. We can study and understand life only in its manifestations, not in its origin and real essence.

There are two prevalent, but widely differing, conceptions of the nature of life or vital force: the material and the vital.

The former looks upon life or vital force with all its physical, mental and psychical phenomena as manifestations of the electric, magnetic and chemical activities of the physical-material elements composing the human organism. From this viewpoint, life is a sort of spontaneous combustion, or, as one scientist expressed it, a succession of fermentations.

This materialistic conception of life, however, has already become obsolete among the more advanced biologists as a result of the wonderful discoveries of modern science, which are fast bridging the chasm between the material and the spiritual realms of being.

But medical science, as taught in the regular schools, is still dominated by the old, crude, mechanical conception of vital force and this, as we shall see, accounts for some of its gravest errors of theory and of practice.

The vital conception of life, on the other hand, regards it as the primary force of all forces, coming from the great central source of all power.

This force, which permeates, heats and animates the entire created universe, is the expression of the divine will, the "logos," the "word" of the great creative intelligence. It is this divine energy which sets in motion the whirls in the ether, the electric corpuscles and ions that make up the different atoms and elements of matter.

These corpuscles and ions are positive and negative forms of electricity. Electricity is a form of energy. It is intelligent energy; otherwise it could not move with that same wonderful precision in the electrons of the atoms as in the suns and planets of the sidereal universe.

This intelligent energy can have but one source: the will and the intelligence of the Creator; as Swedenborg expresses it, "the great central sun of the universe."