New Thought Archives

Watch for the Answers As You Study

1. What is the Divine Science basis for healing?

2. Is Divine Science primarily a teaching or a healing profession?

3. When is it desirable to request the help of a practitioner?

4. What characterizes a well-trained practitioner?

5. In what way does the student work best with the practitioner?

Wholeness is the universal standard of being. Health is the outer evidence appearing in the body indicating that the law of wholeness is being complied with. Health is the normal state of the human body and it should require no effort for health to manifest, for the truth is that we live, move, and have our being in God, and God is absolute spiritual harmony and wholeness. Spirit is the source and substance of everything, hence Spirit is source and substance of the body. All is Spirit. The body is Spirit, perfect. Made of the changeless living substance, the body needs no healing when we as individuals constantly maintain our oneness with our Source. Health is liberated God-activity expressing through man.

Healing goes much deeper than the getting rid of a particular illness or complaint. It is a process of whole-making, a process which is always at work within us if we will but recognize it and cooperate with it. The total personality is involved true spiritual healing. It requires living in and from the basis of the Spirit of wholeness, in which the universe operates, if we are to maintain an abiding consciousness of health and strength.

Through the study of Divine Science we learn that the divine order, called the law of expression, proves that the One All is Creator, creative activity, and creation. The law of expression reveals body to be Spirit expressing, for spirit is the Creator, living soul and body its creation, hence there is one and the same Source for living soul and body; also one and the same Life, one and the same Substance, one and the same Nature. We have received perfect Life; it is our life. Perfect Substance is our substance, pure and changeless. Our life can never be endangered; our substance can never be injured. The REALITY of us never changes. We are to perceive, feel, and appreciate this.

Infinite Intelligence has brought forth every soul filled with the fullness of its nature. As we think of this truth, we open our thought to receive not more – we have already received all – but to understand more and more of the truth of what we are. All Truth is. Seeing and knowing it are necessary to our joy and satisfaction. The more we think of it the better we see and know it. Divine Science teaches us that our natural state is health, and to be conscious of Truth is to be conscious of health.

False thinking with its consequent emotional disturbances manifests discord in the body. Sickness arises from thinking based upon sense testimony; it appears when thought becomes separated or alienated from the truth of Life’s wholeness and it is then that perplexity, duality, and anxiety work their havoc in soul and body. When some outer condition dominates our thinking, we lose sight of our spiritual nature and invite unpleasant experiences.

Since a belief concerning the possibility of illness still generally predominates the thought of mankind, it is understandable that suggestions from the race mind subtly get into our own consciousness and we easily become susceptible to race experiences.

Personal factors such as emotional upsets, fears, anxieties, and worries come crowding in when we fail to hold steadfastly to the belief in the grand unity of life, and we become self-centered rather than Life-centered. All sickness is the result of some personal infraction of the law of Life. The Spirit of Life is universal health. Its action is involuntary in all creation. The personal factor is important because it must voluntarily choose to cooperate with the action of Spirit in order to partake of universal health.

Healing consists of getting back into the right relation to Life, the original creative order. The purpose of Divine Science is to teach the individual so to think and live that he is ever conscious of the Presence which is unfailingly surrounding him, permeating his very being, and is the truth of his substance. When this consciousness is attained, health will be evident. The clearer the light of understanding, the greater the certainty of health. Better far is it to see steadily and be healthy because we are health, than to believe that we can be healed. To be health is more desirable than a healing.

When there is a clear understanding that every soul is brought forth filled with the perfection of the divine nature, doubts, fears, and uncertainties can no longer be admitted in thought. The certainly of knowledge of truth develops faith; and faith sees that perfect life everywhere is health; that the one pure substance is all and is forever whole. It is to be clearly understood that in Divine Science there is no attempt to deny body, but that a change from a belief in sickness to the established consciousness that health is our inheritance will manifest a perfect body. When the omnipresence of God is understood in all its significance and accepted with full confidence there is healing, and health is established.

Healing is the God-nature of man becoming visible by means of the great divine law of expression, like producing like, or God’s perfect health manifesting in the visible as man’s health. Divine Science proposes to teach that only that healing is permanent which dispels ignorance by giving understanding of the truth of man’s being. Certainly its teaching shows that we are to declare that which God is, and then to realize that we are in our essential nature like Him. As often as we think of being health, we are laying hold of the understanding that will be realized as health of body. I am health before I begin to manifest it. From the understanding that I am health, bodily health can be realized. Being whole must be our realization. We unfold health eternal. The individual, as an expression of the universal Life, can be only what that Life is. The Infinite created us out of its own health; healing is the awareness of that health as our nature.

As the principle of mathematics is not responsible for a student’s mistake in working out his problem, so is Truth not answerable for man’s mistaken concept of life and the results of that mistake. His beliefs which produce inharmonious conditions are the results of his ignorance. He must erase them from memory, as a child would clear the blackboard and begin again. Understanding principle better, man will gain a truer answer to his problem, an answer which has always been known to Principle as true no matter what mistakes have been made by man.

The One Mind that is the only mind is forever the state of perfection. When we come into the knowledge and understanding of the perfect Mind we know that health is our reality. The order of the one perfect Mind teaches us to begin with the Mind of health, think the thoughts of health, not spasmodically, but constantly; then there can be no failure in the realization of health. When the law is understood and obeyed, failure is no more possible than is a mistake in mathematical work possible when one understands and follows its law. Think and speak health only, if you wish to realize it. Let the full meaning of omnipresence be realized and let man be known as the very substance of the Creator, the expression and manifestation of Spirit, perfect Health. Realize also that the substance of each individual is the substance of the Infinite and that its nature is not changed when it comes forth into individual expression.

What greater proof of wisdom could one possibly imagine than the law and order now manifesting n God’s world and system of worlds? You believe in God, now believe in yourself and do so in the selfsame way that you believe in Him. How can God be infinite, omnipresent, and all, and man differ from Him in his true nature? Man must be what God is, for he could not exist separate from the infinitude of Omnipresence! Now Man must gird up his loins with the Spirit of Truth and acknowledge the nature of his Being before he can prove that having eyes he sees and having ears he hears.

Divine Science believes that each student should get an understanding of the truth of himself; that he should do his own praying and bring himself into an expression of his own natural health. But until, through our study and clear comprehension, we come into an understanding of our oneness with the All, and come to know the reality of our health as something which is forever established for us by Life itself, we shall still experience only part time good health. We then must know that we are still hold on to an unreality in our beliefs and sensations rather than accepting the reality and limitless nature of our Being. Our feelings of sickness give evidence that our habitual prayer (fixed belief) has not been of faith or the prayer of understanding and thanksgiving. Our habit has not been to acknowledge Truth completely in all our ways. There is undoubtedly a wrong habitual subconscious condition to be corrected that we do not realize or which we seem unable to remove. Then it is that we may need to call upon someone who is firmly established in Truth to help us rise above our own false premises and false conclusions. A trained Divine Science practitioner devotes time and loving attention to this type of assistance.

A practitioner is one who is skilled I ignoring appearance and in seeing only the perfection of real Being. Consequently he is able to assist a student in knowing the truth more clearly. He knows that only health can be expressed by perfect Health. A practitioner understands that unfoldment into knowledge precedes the desired unfoldment into a health consciousness, therefore he is one who teaches the soul its true abiding place and leads it into recognition of perfect consciousness; he trains us to come to a realization of our unity with the Infinite, and when this is accepted we recognize our consequent wholeness, and permanent healing results.

The practitioner endeavors to follow the method used by Jesus in his healing works. Jesus called forth an expression of faith, or recognized it manifest by those he healed, before speaking the words of power. “They faith hath made thee whole.” Mark 5:34 “According to they faith be it unto you.” Matt 9:29 “Receive they sight: they faith hath saved thee.” Luke 18:42 Their faith substantiated by Jesus united their thought and consciousness. This was the means by which the power of the Spirit was realized and wholeness was manifested.

When we, for any reason, are unable to get a clear realization, then the practitioner realizes the truth of our health for us; he begins and ends with seeing our perfect Being. Not that thinking and speaking make health, but they declare health or perfection as the true nature of all, therefore of the student – his health is. There is no uncertainty about it. In this healing there cannot be thought transference, hypnotism, or mesmerism. The practitioner does not give his thought to another, but recognizes that the patient is one with the eternal wholeness. He sees “the fullness which filleth all.” He awakens the patient’s thought to this truth.

A practitioner teaches another to have a continuous recognition and praise of the omnipresence of the Spirit of Good on the conscious level, which causes the subconscious realm to be gradually purified and in this way trained to accept the life pattern of the Christ. Healing then is inevitable. He helps another by knowing him to be one with God even as all are. The power of healing is unlimited since it is the changeless divine Presence that is health. The power of the Lord, Law in action, is present to heal. When the real Being and Nature of man is given full acknowledgment, healing is accomplished. To know man’s Spirit, living soul, and body as living Substance, is to know his unity with the Eternal and to know the Infinite as all. Healing is that period when the erroneous concepts are being dismissed and the God-Nature comes into its own at the conscious and subconscious levels of the soul. Healing is a change from belief in sickness to a consciousness of health.

Faith in and cooperation with practitioner and the Truth of Life is the secret of success. As a child you had no fear when a loving, wise hand led you, when your mother said, “We must go now. We have stayed long enough.” The loving interest she had for you and you confidence in her, present a relationship that is eternal and universal. Put your confidence in your practitioner and trust your God in the same confident way. Do not try to control either, but instead move with them. Let God’s nature be your nature – it is, you know – and let it express in your thoughts, words, and deeds.

We cannot compel Life principle to come our way unless our way is its way. They who understand Divine Science know and have faith in omnipresent Spirit as intelligence and power. They know that Spirit speaks and creates within and unto itself. The invisible law works from within, out. The worker is invisible Spirit and the work is visible forms. We have faith that this Life with all its beauty, it health, its good of every sort is now in God, the never-failing Good, and that we have no existence that is not good. Let us realize momently that there is no power working in us but the power of Truth and it cannot work but for good. When the true scientific teaching is applied in faith it always heals.

The Divine Science practitioner’s method of procedure is to receive his patient as a student, and to perceive him or her to be pure Spirit-Substance, including both the invisible identity and visible form, perfect as Expresser and expression and in a state of ease and reset, for Life makes no effort to become life. The practitioner perceives that the holding of beliefs that are false to the nature of Being, is the dis-ease that is felt. The student needs to be taught that there is a permanent principle of health and all good which he is to recognize and express. Thus the practitioner’s remedy is Truth. He gives this Truth in the form of a lesson, correcting the student’s false belief in himself. Then by speaking the word of Spirit, he calls the attention of the student to true consciousness of Being, and Beings responds to its own words of Truth and the healing is done. There is but one healer, God the Good, operating through all for permanent relief.

If students do their part, let go of false beliefs and opinions, and embrace Truth, as taught by Divine Science, they will be healed. The sooner we accept the truth of our oneness with God, and ourselves as the expression of His perfect Being, the sooner will health be experienced. The complete acknowledgment and acceptance of Truth brings permanent healing. “No man can serve two master.” Matt. 6:24

The process of healing in Divine Science is the Christ method of healing. It is the divine expression of the Creator in the creature, Being expressing itself. Healing is accomplished by the word of Truth, all being the word of God. Healing means the expressing of all good – good health, good substance, intelligence, knowledge, and power. In the Christ method the healer speaks the Truth until he is conscious of universal Principle, the revelation of the perfect body. Healing, therefore, in Divine Science is truly revelation and illumination. Healing by the word of Truth is the one omnipresent, infinite Mind, or Holy Spirit, voicing its own nature, the truth of itself. It is essential that the body or form of this ever-present All be recognized as being a body of Life, Intelligence, Substance, and Power. There is nothing more potent for good results than right thinking; by it people are healed and their lives are thereby turned into paths of peace and plenty. Let your relaxation be complete, take no anxious care concerning yourself, use the truth you know and rely upon it, know that your consciousness of Truth is your freedom. Affirm it regardless of circumstances and events. It is not sufficient to know that the nature of man is the nature of God, self-existing and eternal, but it must be applied. We must conform to it in our words and our deeds. Truth is the remedy for all seeming dis-ease.

Divine Science illumines mankind with the truth of the unity of God and the oneness of man as Spirit, soul, and body. It thus proves that Jesus’ declaration, “I and the Father are one,” can be lawfully, scientifically and truthfully affirmed by everyone, and practically demonstrated and applied in all walks of life. This gives Divine Scientists opportunity to speak the word prayerfully and faithfully, that health, happiness, and prosperity may spring forth speedily and naturally.

The work of Divine Science is to teach and to demonstrate the truth of at-one-ment, God manifest in the flesh, and in all creation; and to demonstrate even immortality and eternal life.

STATEMENTS OF TRUTH

* The realization of eternal, changeless health is the only basis used by Divine Science for healing.
* External things do not affect the truth of Being. Jesus said: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24
* In Truth the body always stands as a holy temple of God, the Good; therefore, speak truth of it, affirm that it is eternal substance, living substance, God-Idea expressed.
* God is the wholeness of the universe, therefore, God is my wholeness.
* My wholeness comes froth into expression as my perfect body, the glorious Word of Life made flesh.
* I know that my God is my good and is a healing presence always with me and in me.
* The all-wise, all-loving, all-adjusting power of the Spirit is now working within and through me, releasing in me its enduring health and strength.
* God is the great constant in life and He is the health of His people.
* There is no power working in me but the power of Truth and it can work only for good.
* I, Being, include body. I AM one perfect whole.
* Man is just what God made him – good, whole, and entire – like God in nature.
* I turn to Spirit within me and mentally accept its creative order as including my true body. Thus I release the healing power that repairs and rebuilds the body temple.
* All may heal who think, speak, and act Truth, free from personal opinions and beliefs.
* If God were the author of sickness we could not demonstrate over it.
* I am in my Father’s kingdom, enjoying the power and glory of it. I am free here and now.
* He is ever with me, heals me.
* Refusal to believe in disease does not mean that it has no existence in appearance, but that there is not real or permanent cause for such appearance.
* Health is not made by thinking but is the eternal state of Being. By thinking we recognize this wholeness.
* Divine Science recognizes the body as pure Spirit, divine Idea.
* I accept the perfect body and bless its functional nature.

Questions For Review and Discussion

1. Write out your logical conclusion to support the statement, “God is the health of His people.”
2. Why is it more desirable to be health than to believe that a healing is possible?
3. Discuss the statement: “The clearer the light of understanding the greater the certainty of health.”
4. Is it a sign of weakness to ask for the help of a practitioner?
5. Reason this out in terms of health, “How can man be, yet no express what he is?”