HOW TO HEAL ONESELF & OTHERS. William Walker Atkinson
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up in their work and which have died; this debris is finally consumed in the crematory of the lungs, and thrown off as carbonic acid gas by the breath. Some of these cells force their way through the wall of the arteries and veins, and through the various tissues of the body, when upon hurried calls for repair work.
In the blood currents there are also other kinds of cells than those just mentioned. For instance, there are the police cells and the army cells which have been previously mentioned. These very important cells partrol the system and arrest or combat the germs and bacteria which are dangerous to the health of the body.The policeman cell meeting one of these disorderly bacterial characters, enmeshes or entangles it so that it cannot escape. He then proceeds to devour it, providing that it is not too large and strong for him;in the latter case he summons other policemen cells to his assistance, and between them they carry the intruder to some part of the body where it may be thrown out of the system. Boils and pimples are manifestations of this ejecting process on the part of these cells.
Other cells are laboratory chemists, and extract from the food the elements needed to manufacture the important juices of the system, such as the gastric juice, pancreatic juices, saliva, bile, etc. Not only do these cells select such elements, but they also actually combine them in the proper proportions for the required chemical work.
But perhaps the busiest classes of cells, and the most numerous, are those whose work it is to continually build up and keep in repair the body as a whole. You must remember that the body is constantly undergoing change; constantly breaking down cells; constantly repairing the damaged places with new cells. Our bodies, in all of their parts, are being continuously made over. All of the work of this kind, whether it be the growth of new hair or finger nails, or the slower processes of other parts of the body, is performed by these minute workers, the cells.
Perhaps as typical, and as interesting an example of this work of the cells, is that of the healing of a wound. Let us consider this, in order that we may have a clear idea of the character and wonderful nature of the work performed by the cells. Here is the process:
First, the body is discovered to be wounded by some outside force. The tissues, and often the glands, muscles and nerves are severed. The would begins to bleed, and its sides separate. The nerves carry the report of trouble to the brain, and there is sent out a hurry-up call for help at once. The cells rush to the scene of the trouble, like firemen called to a fire; or like the repair wagon called to the scene of a breakdown on the trolley-car line. While they are reaching the scene, the flowing blood washes away the dirt which otherwise might cause infection; the blood finally coagulating and forming a protecting substance resembling glue, which afterward develops into a scab.
The repair cells arriving on the scene at once start to work connecting the tissues by bringing together the sides of the wound, and knitting the tissue-cells together. And here is manifested an almost unbelievable degree of "mind." The cells of the tissues, blood-vessels, etc., on both sides of the wound begin to reproduce themselves with marvellous rapidity, each cell growing and separating itself into two, and these into two, and so on, until there is sufficient material created to do the repair work. These new cells increasing in number reach forward from each side of the wound, until finally meeting they connect with their fellows of the other side. But here note the wonder of the process. The connective-tissue cells connect with the connective-tissue cells on the other side; the blood-vessel cells connect with their own kind on the other side; the nerve cells do likewise; until finally there is a complete bridge built, each various parts of each side being connected with the same kind of parts on the other side.
After this internal repair work is completed, and the connections properly made, then the skin cells start to work and build a· new skin over the healed wound. The whole process shows purpositive action, co-ordinated effort, and an undoubted presence of mental direction. It is useless for materialists to speak of mechanical and chemical laws as an explanation of such vital processes as these. The most skeptical observer, if he is honest with himself, is forced to admit that there is manifested the activities of living, thinking, minute creatures, co-ordinated and regulated; directed and guided, by some mental center higher than themselves. It is impossible to doubt this, any more than one would doubt that the work of the bees in the hive is a vital, mental manifestation. It is not enough to call it "instinctive"-for instinct itself is but a name given to one phase of vital, mental activity.
A clear understanding of the mental activities of the cells will go far toward giving us a key to the secret of mental healing.
LESSON IV
MIND IN THE CELLS
In the preceding lesson we have seen the wonderful work performed by the cells of which the human body is composed. Can there be any doubt that these cells are alive and have mind within them? Any other supposition would be ridiculous. The single cells found in the lower stages of animal and vegetable life, which perform even less complicated and complex actions are regarded as living, thinking creatures; then there can be no reason for denying life and mind to these cells which compose the human body, and which constitute a great co-operative community.
Biology teaches us that every living thing is possessed of sufficient mind to enable it to perform its tasks, and adjust itself to its environment. Even the tiny cells are possessed of sufficient mind to enable them to preserve their lives, perform their work, and reproduce their species. The cells in the human body have sufficient mind to enable them to seek, select, and absorb their own food, and to move from one place to another in search for it when necessary. Moreover, they have mind enough to enable them to perform the complicated work referred to in the preceding lesson. The intelligence shown in the work of the red blood cells is wonderful, and is an undoubted proof of the existence of a high degree of mind in such cells. And the other work performed by the other cells, such as the secretion of fluids, the selection of mineral matter needed for building up bone, hair, and nails, is scarcely less wonderful.
Eminent biologists have conducted careful investigations of the life-activities of these cells, and have discovered some very important facts regarding them. For instance, it is discovered that the cells manifest rudimentary memory, which enables them to profit by experience in the direction of avoiding the recurrence of some unpleasant happening. They show their likes and dislikes very plainly; and they exhibit the tendency to acquire habits. Some investigators insist that they even show evidence of purpositive preparation for future action, and act in anticipation of such future necessity.
Binet, the eminent psychologist, in his important work entitled "The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms," says: "We shall not regard it as strange, perhaps, to find so complete a psychology in the history of the lower organisms, when we call to mind that, agreeably to the ideas of evolution now accepted, a higher animal is nothing more than a colony of protozoans. Every one of the cells composing such an animal has retained its primitive properties, giving them a higher degree of perfection by division of labor and by selection. The epithelial cells that secrete the nails and hair are organisms perfected with reference to the secretion of protective parts. Similarly, the cells of the brain are organisms that have been perfected with reference to psychical attributes."
But the mind in the cells is more than merely the particular manifestation of mind in each particular cell. There is also found a sympathetic and co-ordinated mental activity existing between all the individual cells of the body. There is found what has been found a "group mind" of certain groups of cells; and an "organ mind" of the various groups composing an organ of the body; and these in turn are grouped together in what we have called the Corporeal Mind, which is the great group mind of the cells of the entire body. Just how these cells co-ordinate and co-operate in this way is unknown to science, but there seems to exist ~ high form of telepathic communication between them, of which we get a hint in the psychology of human crowds, in which there is found a "contagion of thought" between the various members thereof.
The cells possess mind not only for their own ends, but also mind which combining with like mind in other cells acts for the ends of the groups of cells, and then the larger groups, and finally the complete group