84/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE
Self-revelation transforms bodily conditions by removing the obstructing element of blind, personal control, and allowing the vital energies free exercise in their normal channels. When one realizes spiritual strength, health, and freedom, the bodily correspondences of those states must inevitably follow. The body is composed of atoms centers of force; force is the lowest aspect of Will, and Will is a phase of consciousness.
In the last analysis, every man’s relation to the material world is that of a superior center of consciousness to vastly inferior ones. The general structure of the body is largely determined by considerations beyond the control of human faculties in their ordinary range of exercise; for it conforms to long established, persistently cherished racial conceptions. Cells and organs exist as bodies within the body they constitute.
Each is endowed with specialized functions which it exercises, in conformity to the requirements of other members and organs of the body, quite independent of any conscious volition on the part of the individual in whose service their activities are enlisted, and upon whose authority their existence depends. But the ego King of this bodily realm has power to mold it anew, to quicken its activities and revitalize its processes by imparting life-giving qualities to the whole system.
The ego may assert its authority, and through the mind dominate the whole complex bodily structure, by polarizing the atoms of which it is composed until they entertain affinities conducive to harmonious and sympathetic growth. On the other hand, every inharmonious attitude of the mind exerts a blighting, devitalizing influence on the bodily system and, if persisted in, gives rise to expressions of disease and disintegration.
Sometimes even the mere suggestion of uncleanliness while one is eating, is sufficient to induce nausea. In such instances effect follows cause with great rapidity, and the relation subsisting between them is quite evident; but in deep-seated organic affections, where the disturbing suggestion operates subconsciously, and therefore more persistently,
progress is generally too slow, and the process too intricate, to be readily perceptible; so that it is often exceedingly difficult to trace physical effects back to their causes in the mental realm. Emotional suggestions are just as potent to affect organic, cellular, molecular and atomic conditions and relations within the body,
as they are to change the attitudes of individuals toward one another in the larger body of human society. Antagonism and agitation demoralize and dissipate the vital energies, and interfere with healthy functional activities; but love and peace promote vital and orderly relations by encouraging sympathetic and united action among the lower units of which the body is composed.