HOW TO HEAL ONESELF & OTHERS. William Walker Atkinson
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persons accept suggestions concerning their physical condition, because of this fancied resemblance to something else, which they otherwise would have refused to notice.
An important law of suggestion is this: Suggestion gains force by repetition. The first suggestion may make but little impression; but the same suggestion repeated frequently makes a deeper impression by each repetition; until finally the idea is firmly impressed upon the Subconcious Mind of the person.
We shall not consider the important results of suggestion in general, for we are concerned merely with those which produce physical effects. When the Subconscious Mind accepts suggested ideas relating to physical conditions, functioning, health, etc., it at once passes the idea over to that phase, aspect, or department of its activities that we have called the Corporeal Mind. The Corporeal Mind then proceeds to manifest into reality and physical form and function the idea so placed within it, and which it accepts as truth in absence of opposing ideas.
In this way many persons have developed conditions of disease from purely mental causes, and many have died from the logical development of such diseases. Many persons are made ill from fear and suggestions of contagion and infection. Many persons acquire disease by reason of vivid pictures placed in their minds through reading newspaper descriptions of disease, patent medicine advertisements, etc. It is a fact known to all officials of the medical schools that students frequently "take on" all the symptoms of the diseases they are studying about in their text-books.
And, likewise, the law works with equal force in the opposite direction. For all the cures made by the faith-healers, prayer-curists, divine healers, and other practitioners of the same kind; and by the practitioners of mental therapeutics, ods of applying the power of the mind to cure physical ills; are really based upon this fundamental principle. This may seem strange to the student when first stated; but a careful examination of the facts of the case will bring to him such an overwhelming proof of its correctness, that it will seem strange to him that anyone can doubt it.
Remember, though, that Therapeutic Suggestion means simply the indirect placing of an idea in the Subconscious Mind in such a way that it in action, form, and functioning by that phase of the Subconscious Mind known as the Corporeal Mind, which has control of the functions and activities of the physical body.
III
THE CELLS OF THE BODY
The student of physiology and of psychology cannot expect to have a sound base and foundation for his structure of knowledge unless he becomes thoroughly familiar with the nature and character of the cells of which the entire human body is composed.
The corporeal cells are those very minute elementary structures of which the organic tissues are composed. By tissues is meant the elementary materials, varying in structure and function, which compose the bodily organs, members, and parts. And, consequently, the cell is the physical base of the activity of the Corporeal Mind. So, from the position of both physiology and of psychology the cell is the logical subject of the beginning of study and investigation.
The corporeal cells are very minute; in fact, they are microscopic. From them are built up the muscles, tissues, nerves, blood, bones, hair, and nails. From the hardest enamel of the tooth to the most delicate and soft tissue of the mucous membrane, the human body is found to be composed of cells. And these cells are, for all practical purposes of comparison, identical with the single cells which exists as independent entities or living creatures in the lowest forms of the life scale. SO that, at the last, every human body is in reality a great community of cells, grouped and associated, co-ordinated and combined for co-operative work and functioning, yet each a separate living organism.
Each of these cells is nucleated, that is to say it has as it center a nucleus which is the most vital point of its being. The nucleus of the cell is its central life-spot; which may be compared to the yolk of an egg. It is more complex than the general substance of the cell, and seems to contain within itself the essence of the life and being of the cell. The cells reproduce themselves by growth and division; they are born, perform their tasks, give birth to other cells, and then die.
The cells preserve a certain degree of individuality and separateness, though their work is performed by reason of their tendency to combine with other cells into groups, and these into still larger groups, and so on; a constant relation being maintained between the members of each group, and so on until all the cells in the body are considered as a great group connected in all of its parts and divisions.
And now let us take a glance at the work performed by these wonderful little bits of living substance, in their various groupings and association with each other. Physiology recognizes about forty different kinds of cells, yet all belong to the one great family of cells. Their differences are merely such adaptations to function, work and purpose as we might expect; the differentiation having resulted in the course of organic evolution.
For instance, we find the great family of muscle-cells, which are adapted to their work of contracting the muscles which they compose. Then there are the connective-tissue cells which join together and form the tough fibrous tissue which binds together and protects the various parts of the organism. Then again, we find the bone cells which select, arrange, and set in place the lime material of which the bony parts of the body is composed. Then we find the several group of cells which select and place in position the silicate mineral substances which are needed to form the nails, the hair, and other similar parts of the body. Then there are the gland cells which work industriously to secrete the fluids needed in digestion and similar vital processes. Then we discover the very active family of blood cells the members of which work to build up and repair the various parts of the system, and to do the scavenger work of carrying off the debris of the system to be burned-up by the oxygen in the lungs. And, passing over many equally important families of cells, we finally come to the family of brain and nerve cells, the work of which renders possible all feeling, thinking and acting of the human being.
The cell families of the body are like a great cooperative community, each cell and each group of cells performing its own work in the community, each acting for its own good, and the good of its particular group, and at the same time for the good of the entire body of cells. You must here remember that the body exists only as a body of cells—a great co-operative community of cells. It is not sufficient to say and think that "the body has cells," but rather that" the body is a collection of cells," or even "the cells are formed into a body of cells."
Some of the cells are on the active line, while others are held in reserve to be called upon in case of sudden need. Some are stationary, while others remain stationary until called into motion, and a third general class is always moving about; of this moving-about class some make regular trips, while others are rovers and free adventurers, like tramp ships sailing from port to port without making regular trips, between ports.
Some of the cells carry burdens of material from place to place—building materials needed by certain stationary cells performing building work. Other cells perform scavenger work, and gather up the garbage of the system. Other cells perform police work, and arrest intruders in the system, often actually locking them up by building a wall around them. Other cells form the army which repels the microbes and germs of disease which have invaded the system. The graph wire, joining hands (so to speak) and passing along the message from one end of the line to another.
The number of cells in the human body is countless. A faint idea of their almost infinite number may be formed by considering the fact that in each cubic inch of blood there are over 75,000,000,000 (seventy-five thousand million) of the red-blood cells alone, not taking into consideration the millions of other kinds of cells.
The red blood cells travel along in the blood flowing through the arteries and veins; first taking up a supply of oxygen from the lungs, and carrying it through the arteries to the various parts of the body, where they deliver it to the cells requiring it for vital processes. Then, starting on their return journey through the veins, they gather up the waste products of the system, such as the broken down cells which have been used