"Be still, and know that I am God" ~ V

Bits and bites from:
SPIRITUAL HEALTH AND HEALING
by
HORATIO W. DRESSER. Ph.D.
1922



INTEREST in spiritual healing has reached a point where it is no longer necessary to dwell on such elementary matters as the influence of fear and worry, the power of suggestion and the utilizing of the subconscious. These considerations are now taken for granted by those who believe that inner healing is more than mental. Suggestion is not regarded as decisive except by those who would ignore the spiritual life and limit healing to the sphere of psychology. For those of us who believe that the spiritual life is inseparable from true spiritual healing, the question of mental influences and mental methods is forever secondary. It ought rather to be a question of cultivating the mode of life which produces spiritual health. All our efforts should be constructive. Our clues should be drawn from the ideal, not through study of conditions which produce disease.
To be normal, to live in spiritual health is to be in accord with the universe: to think, will, live by the Divine order.

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Many writers have taught it in their favorite ways, since the time of P. P. Quimby, who was the first healer in our day to plead for a "Science of the Christ." This philosophy includes the idea of the Divine indwelling as the guiding principle of the inner life, of the spiritual world as the nearby source of real power; the idea that there is a heavenly purpose in our strivings, that the natural world is a theatre for the development of the soul. If different writers would express these introductory matters in various ways, all would agree that the endeavor to live by this higher wisdom is the great consideration.

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Since 1919, the remaining branches of the movement, save one, have been united in an effort to make the Christ the cardinal principle. It is now a question of looking forward to see what the movement will make of the Christ as its ideal.
Critics of New Thought and Christian Science in its various forms have pointed out that we are not "parts" of God, because God is one and indivisible; that man is not "life in itself," for God only is life in itself; that man is not "one with God," but may be conjoined with Him through responsiveness: hence that man's recipiency of life is measured by his love, not by his affirmation or thought. . . The whole outlook changes with the adoption of this higher point of view. We realize that the spiritual life has hardly begun, since it is rather a gift of the Spirit in us than the work of our efforts at self-control and efficiency in the use of thought. . . .

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To the average observer this new interest has meant little more than discovery of the power of thought and the hitherto concealed functions of the subconscious mind. We have all heard about suggestion by this time and have learned to make use of it in dealing with our fellow men. We know about the subconscious mind, and we take it into account when explaining experiences once attributed to mysterious forces outside the human personality. Whatever may be thought about mental healing as specific for all illnesses, we all acknowledge that our power over life has increased by the addition of this new interest. Here, however, the matter often ends, and the therapeutic movement is regarded as one more new cult assigned to its proper place.
The advocates of mental healing have been partly responsible for this. For much has been said and written about the utility of thought as a more direct way of securing success, as if success in material things were the chief end of life. Hence there has been a tendency to concentrate upon the psychology of success. The new interest could hardly mean more than this to people who had no genuine desire to alter their mode of life, who wanted to find a quicker way of being relieved of their ills while retaining most of their pleasures, habits and social occupations.

The entire self help movement including “Law of Attraction”. Charles Haanel selling a course for the price of a 1st class ticket on the Titanic. Wallace Wattles selling a dream. It continues.

Remember the “No money down” real estate courses of the 70’s. “Drop me off in any city with no money and I’ll buy property”. I remember attending a seminar by someone who made money selling ant farms in comics. He was selling his strategy.

Talk show hosts commonly propagate trends. “The Secret” had little to do with the Christ within but much ado about success. Abraham’s LofA about the universe are more about gimmee rather than the Christ within and a more spiritual way of life.

How do you know that you even have a “vibration”? This kind of magical thinking--”The Secret” and the Abraham-Hicks stuff on wanting--is pure ego. The Secret is trying to get what you want; The Work is wanting what you have, loving what is.

How would you know if you “choose your own reality” or not? Just because some “spiritual” writer says so? How does he know? How do you know that any such “entity” as Abraham is being channeled in the first place?

I’ve heard Tolle being interviewed on the radio over the internet and the hostess kept bringing up Law of Attraction and for the life of me I didn’t understand why.

How can you know that a “true soul”, “soul-mate” or “twin-soul” even exists. This is a very stressful thought, when you don't have a clue what or where such a thing as a “true soul”, “soul-mate” or “twin-soul” is.

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The simple truth is that all our illnesses, woes and vices are intimately related, and that really to be rid of one is to overcome all. It is not a question of gaining enough insight into the power of the human spirit to overcome a few maladies, and then disregard material things and laws as if they did not exist. The power of the spirit is not a half-way measure. It is not disclosed that we may do as we like. The real test of our spiritual faith is given us when we carry the spiritual life into every sphere of our natural and social interests. The power of our human spirit was given us to live by the Spirit. This Spirit has become manifest in this splendid world of space and time, objective in bodies and things, and the Spirit's manifestations are not to be ignored. Life is surrounded by conditions intended to call the human spirit into power.
Our souls need to be tested to the full, and the tests are distributed along the line of life that we may meet them one by one, through divine guidance, and gradually grow into supremacy.

When you truly understand Hopkins, Cramer, Brooks, Murphy, Fillmore or Holmes you know, by Faith, there is nothing to test. God, simply, IS.

Many of us arrive naturally enough at the point where prayer spontaneously takes expression on our lips, and we realize that the power of prayer has never reached its limits with us. There are many believers in the inward light as the direct witness of the Spirit, the true reason for worship.
There is a further step which seems almost as new, as if no one had the habit of prayer, none believed in the inward light or purity of heart. This step is into knowledge of the Inward Presence as power. It shows one how to enter into quickening Life through vivid realization of the love and the wisdom that are ours. It shows the way to a dynamic experience passing beyond mere meditation or worship.
Realization is more detailed than prayer as most men know prayer. It enlists ideals made vivid and held before the mind. It is concerned with specific needs, with the conviction that the life made concrete through concentration will begin at once to take effect. Such realization becomes possible when the mind gives itself to the belief that our human spirit is rightfully an instrument of God, heir to divine wisdom, an immediate participant in the Inward Presence.