86/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE

Our bodies, then, are reservoirs of expressive energy. They may be made either invaluable allies or obstinate opponents. We may surround ourselves with ” body-guards ” of willing friends or determined foes. If we cherish sentiments of ill-will, resentment, intolerance, ugliness, ” righteous indignation,” restlessness, discontent, fault-finding, self-condemnation or “the blues,” the psychical centers become so charged with the resultant of those emotions,

that they will surely react upon us, sooner or later. One may be suddenly seized and overpowered by a malady lurking in ambush in this bodily store- house of psychic forces, where he has long nurtured seeds of disease unawares.

But if he lives habitually in the positive atmosphere of the higher realms of consciousness, the psychical centers of his body become so permeated with vital and beneficent energy, that their reflex influence constantly tends to strengthen and confirm his very attitude. “To him that hath shall be given.”

Whatever we sow in emotion or thought, lives in both the lives of others and the psychical treasury of our own bodies; and in due season we shall reap its reaction. Every hateful thought returns like a boomerang to the sender; but friendly thoughts make for us congenial allies, within as well as outside of our bodies. The resultant of each thought is treasured within our bodily Kingdom, waiting to add its mite toward rendering our future happy or miserable.

When we relinquish our hold on the body, its individual particles having no longer a centralizing, attracting power to unite them and administer their affairs, disperse and seek other affinities. The different members and particles of which the body is composed are not parts of one’s self; nor is the individual man a part of the Universal Life;

but all members and all individuals are diversified expressions of the one life, reflections of the Principle of principles. The body presents a picture of health just so long as its particles are permeated with, and polarized by, the healthy, beneficent thought of its indwelling spiritual sovereign. When he loosens his hold on it, it degenerates into an ill-governed Kingdom,

in which internal dissensions and rebellions are rife; and, unless checked, they will eventually overthrow and expel their ruler. We need periodically to relax our grasp of the body, by resting and sleeping; otherwise habits of tension are acquired, which cause friction by undue restraint, and disturb the normal functional activities.