13 ORTHOBIOSIS

Virgil says: “Happy is he who has found the cause of things.”

It was Metchnikoff who tried, after his investigations into the physical, to apply ethics to life, so that life might be lived to the full, which is the true wisdom. He called this condition orthobiosis. He held that the end of science is to rid the world of its scourges, through hygiene and other measures of prophylaxis.

Our manner of life, says Mm. Metchnikoff, transcribing her husband’s idea, will have to be modified and directed according to rational and scientific date if we are to run through the normal cycle of life--orthobiosis. The pursuit of that goal will ever influence the basis of morals. Orthobiosis cannot be accessible to all until knowledge, rectitude and solidarity increase among men, and until social conditions are kinder.

Like all faculties, faith has a center through which it functions--the pineal gland. Faith is therefore physical, just as disease may be spiritual; spirit and body are but parts of a glorious whole. The cure of disease requires the use of Cosmic Force; and who shall say that that force--whether we call it God, Nature, Oversoul, Brahma, Vis Medicatrix Naturae, Prana, Logos, Divine Will does not manifest itself through material means, as well as spiritual?

“Plato,” Dr. Butler tells us, “said that man is a plant rooted in heaven, and we agree to this, that he is also rooted in the earth.” In fact, man may be said to have two origins, one earthly and physical, the other spiritual, though the former originates in the latter-so that ultimately the origin is one. . . .

Man is an organism. De Quincey defines an organism as a group of parts which act upon the whole, the whole in turn acting upon all parts. This is simple and true.

“It is paradoxical that mind, though a principal and usually a determining part of a human organism’s actions and reactions, has by formal medicine been disregarded as a primary cause in pretty much all of those bodily disorders which are not produced by contagion. But of late years autointoxication and disturbances of the ductless glands have come into increased consideration. Their operations are being gradually traced to origins beyond the physical body, and definitely located in states of mind. These states are coming within the scope of diagnostics; enlightened medical art brings them under treatment.”

Recognition of the influence of mind upon the body was recognized even of old, as far back as Hippocrates, and probably anterior to him. Mondeville, in the 14th century, approved of the custom of reciting certain verses of the psalms when taking medicine; nor was he averse to pilgrimages undertaken in search of health--he held that no harm could be done, while the potentialities of good were great. The value of the physical exercise in going on a pilgrimage, usually on foot, with most of the time spent in the open air, need scarcely be pointed out. Many a cure of lethargy and obesity in the middle ages and after owed its efficacy to the insistence of famous physicians that the patients, no matter how wealthy or high-born, were to come from their dwellings on foot, in all humility, refusing to extend treatment otherwise.

Ignatius of Loyola is credited with saying: “Do everything you can with the idea that everything depends on you, and then hope for results just as if everything depended on God.”

It will be found that the sanest, most catholic and liberal exponents of each school of healing generously admit the value of other schools and the limitations of their own. The responsible healer of the future, who truly respects his honorable calling, will employ all beneficial, constructive agencies at the disposal of science. Thus, we have an eminent occultist saying:

“In cases of misplacement, dislocation, or broken bones, the quickest way to obtain relief is to send for a competent physician or anatomist and have an adjustment made of the injured member or organ. In cases of disruptions of blood-vessels or muscles, a surgeon’s aid should be immediately sought; not because mind is unable to cure any or all of these cases, but because of the fact that at the present time, even among educated people, mind is many times impotent through misuse or non-use. Mental treatment should follow these physical treatments in order to obviate unnecessary suffering and to obtain rapid recovery.”

We can not do better than to quote, Sir William Osler, Bt., M. D., F. R. Sx.:

“The salvation of science lies in a recognition of a new philosophy--the scientia scientiarum of which Plato speaks: ‘Now when all these studies reach the point of intercommunion and connection with one another and come to be considered in their mutual affinities, then, I think, and not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value.’” “The Old Humanities and the New Science.”

Scientists assume that there is one substance only, and therefore their deduced science is the science of that substance, and none other; and yet they are confronted with the fact that their one substance is differentiated, and that when they come to the finest degree thereof, as for instance bioplasm, we are brought face to face with the operation of higher laws than they are familiar with, or can adequately explain.

Many scientists, however, with a broader view, are beginning to glimpse a “fourth dimension,” and recognize the fact that there may be degrees of matter which are utterly beyond their chemical tests and microscopic lens.

But a new day is dawning, the telephone, the telegraph and the wireless are now coming into general use and it is now possible to make use of every avenue of information and knowledge. It is therefore but a question of time when the sick will have the benefit of all that is known in the art of healing.

The physician frequently loses his patient because he refuses to recognize the spiritual nature of the patient, and that because of his spiritual nature there are certain fundamental laws governing in the spiritual world, and that these laws continue to operate whether he recognizes them or not, and the metaphysician frequently loses his patient because he refuses to recognize that the body of the patient is the material manifestation of the spirit within, and that the condition of the body is but an expression of the spirit.

But all this iconoclasm is but the result of a certain conservatism which is both human and natural. With the wisdom which the years are bringing there will soon be no one who cannot see that the germ is not only the cause of disease but the result of disease, that bacteria is the result of impure water not the cause of impure water, and so with everything else.

What we can see, handle or touch are never causes, but always effects, and if it is our purpose to simply substitute one form of distress for another we shall continue to deal with effects and effects only, but if it is our purpose to bring about a remedy, we shall seek the cause by which alone every effect is brought into existence, and this cause will never be found in the world of effects.

In the new era, abnormal, mental and emotional conditions will be immediately detected and corrected. Tissue in process of destruction will be eliminated or reconstructed by the constructive methods at the disposal of the physician. Abnormal lesions will be corrected by manipulative treatment, but above and beyond all of this will be the primary and essential idea, the idea upon which all results will depend and that is that no inharmonious or destructive thought shall be allowed to reach the patient, that every thought for him or about him shall be constructive, for every physician, every nurse, every attendant, every relative will eventually come to know that thoughts are spiritual things, which are ever seeking manifestation, and that as soon as they find fertile soil they begin to germinate.

Not all thoughts find expression in the objective world and especially in the health and environment of the patient. This is because not all patients are responsive, but when the patient finds that these invisible guests come laden with precious gifts, they will be given a royal welcome. This welcome will be subconscious because the thoughts of others are received subconsciously.

The conscious mind receives thought only through the organs of perception, which are its method of contact with the objective world; which are the five senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.

Subconscious thought is received by any organ of the body affected and think of the mechanism which has been provided and which can and does objectify the thought received. First the millions of cell chemists ready and waiting to carry out all instructions received. Next the complete system of communication, consisting of the vast sympathetic nervous system reaching every fibre of the being and ready to respond to the slightest emotion of joy or fear, of hope or despair, of courage or impotence.

Next the complete manufacturing plant consisting of a series of glands wherein are manufactured all the secretions necessary for the use of the chemists in carrying out the instructions which have been given.

Then there is the complete digestive tract wherein food, water and air are converted into blood, bone, skin, hair and nails.

Then there is the supply department which constantly sends a supply of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Ether into every part of the being, and the wonder of it all is that this Ether holds in solution everything necessary for the use of the chemist, for the Ether holds in pure form, and food, water, and air in the secondary form every element necessary for the use of the chemist in the production of a perfect man.

Why then do not these chemists produce a perfect specimen of manhood? The reply is simple, the prescriptions which consist of thoughts received by the subconscious call for nothing of the kind, in fact, they usually call for exactly the reverse.

The subconscious is also provided with a complete equipment for the elimination of waste and useless material as well as a complete repair department. In addition to this there is a complete system of wireless whereby it is connected with every other subconscious entity in existence.

We are not usually conscious of the operation of this wireless, but the same thing is true concerning the operation of the Marconi System. There may be messages of all kinds all about us, but unless we make use of an amplifier, we receive no message, and so with our subconscious wireless. Unless we try to co-ordinate the conscious and the subconscious we fail to realize that the subconscious is constantly receiving messages of some kind and just as constantly objectifying the messages in our life and environment.

This then is the mechanism devised and planned by the Creator, Himself, and it has been placed under the supervision of the subconscious instead of the conscious mind, but let us not forget that the subconscious mind with all of its wonderful mechanism can be controlled and dominated by the conscious mind when it becomes attuned to the Universal Mind, where all that is, or ever was, or ever shall be is held in solution waiting to come forth and manifest in form.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music, and rings itself all day through; and thou shalt make of it a dance, a dirge or a life march, as thou wilt.

-Carlyle.