The very act of being born made you a customer for Grace; forget the idea that someone is trying to sell you something you don't want to buy. Except that Spirit loves us boundlessly, it would not matter to Him one jot if earth's total population committed atomic mass suicide tomorrow. God has nothing to lose or to gain by it. His province is spiritual; our earth a tiny blob of matter.

Only earthlings can benefit from their contact with Him, with countless universal billions speeding to do His will, our homage is of little consequence. This is the love man cannot understand because he is incapable of returning such love.

Only the insanitary mess of mortal mind could attribute lesser motives to an Incorruptible Deity.

Furthermore, when an individual's combined total of experience has been mainly concentrated in one field, he is even less able to broaden his concepts and embrace new knowledge impartially because prior associations are so firmly embedded in experience. Unlocking these vaults of intellectual snobbery will require superhuman effort.

This explains the poor reception given to one of our most recent heavenly messengers, whose writings have benefited many, yet failed to reach many others. They were ignored by the philosophers and religious leaders who should have been among the first to flock to her feet and correlate her knowledge with their own narrow concepts because this woman lacked formal education. For that matter, it is doubtful that Jesus Christ could even read or write.

Again, here is a terrible consequence of allowing the animal mind to be pompous in its self-admiration, to lack humility. Again the principle, "What we don't understand, we'll reject," is manifested, exactly as happened with Our Lord and the Pharisees. Today man is no broader in vision, still seeing his preconceived ideas as superior, yet resorting to more subtle ways of expression.

The capacity to absorb knowledge is always impaired by lack of willingness to learn. The eager student can outpace all others by sheer tenacity. Such an event occurred towards the end of the nineteenth century, when the Master, in yet another step toward the fulfilment of His Plan, gave a glimpse of Truth to His beloved servant Mary Baker Eddy, The Church of Christ Scientist was conceived. To this most honoured pioneer, who beheld a facet of Wisdom previously unexplored, this chapter is gratefully dedicated.

For the inner power has among its benefits that which is commonly called "spiritual" or "faith" healing.

Obviously there is no room in a Garden of Eden for disease. Conquer flesh and disease is conquered. Cast off the error of misassociation and you have conquered all, have become as Jesus Christ; pure, fearless, incapable of any motive other than that which is acceptable to the Beloved.

We have tried to show how, from his first cry at birth, the struggle is waged within the human child; the forces of flesh against the force of spirit. How the parent who understands the problem can tip the balance of the scales and send the child forth with inner power, to spread his influence for good, thus serving The Maker, mankind, and himself to best advantage.

But what of the other child, whose parents in ignorance condemn their helpless mite to live his earthly life serving the animal? Though born with the same spiritual qualities as the upright child, his immature spirit battles against hopeless odds for recognition.

In loving its charge this little spirit takes unto itself the sins of the flesh. Paraphrase it how you will. It is as though the bright shinning new spirit becomes gradually bricked into a prison as mistakes piles upon mistakes; as the youth reaches out for material gains, the spiritual wattage gradually dims and weakens.

When the maze of error piles up to the point where the pre-conscious can no longer contain its guilt, in spite of every form of self-justification possible, it rids itself of this tortuous weight of complexes by pushing these thoughts way down deep into the recesses at the back of the mind known as the subconscious, where spirit is waiting, ever ready and willing to lighten the burden for its beloved assignee.

Even as our Redeemer demonstrated, in His Mercy, Spirit takes unto itself the sins of mankind.

Still man, never satisfied, continues to load the preconscious with more and more error, until, bogged down, the bewildered preconscious finally breaks down -- and science cries, "We will find new and better drugs to combat mental illness, fill our patients with forgetfulness, and tranquilizers; that'll cure 'em!"

Guilt is man's most deadly disease. Confession is a form of personal diagnosis, but unless made with complete honesty it is useless. Having sorted out your major faults, take a look at your fondest pleasures. Are they likely to cost others momentary unrest or unhappiness? If so, discard them. Then examine your fears. Fear is animal and certainly, when one is steeped in self-interest, there is much to fear: Pain, animal death, loss of virility, loneliness, financial reverses, and advancing years; or perhaps your fears centre around such things as floorboards squeaking at night, the wind blowing when you are alone in the house, darkness, the mist on the moor. These compose an atmosphere that some are taught to fear in childhood, and the fear is fostered by subtle association in films which hint of terror stalking through the night, and strengthen the illusion that there is such a thing as unnamed evil. Different upbringings create different fears, and each can be satisfactorily exploded when admitted, shared in consultation, and discussed in the minutest detail which allows complete rejection of every tiny preconscious thought upon which these fears are based and woven into such complex, intricate patterns.

Mental sanitization is the only way to health.

Confession illuminates carnal frailty; meditation strengthens the inner resources, and is aided by reading the proofs and logic of God's commandments, then further confirmed by the results of prayerful intercession. These result in faith in the power of Spirit to heal; to conquer flesh.

By faith alone shall He know and help thee. Love follows faith, and this combination cannot fail to produce results.

Failure in spiritual healing is brought about by the animal mind fretting with anxiety, unable to conquer fearful doubts because it is lacking in love or faith, thus preventing the free passage of inner power from the spiritual mind to the conscious when giving the conscious the necessary instructions for curing. Unless the animal mind completely forgets the problem it is quite safe to say the proper state of mental hygiene is lacking.

This explains why the healing is sometimes quick, but usually takes a little time. The delay is caused by the animal mind, never by the lack of spiritual power, as mankind would suggest.

This is especially true of those who have tried spiritual healing without results from motives of gain or curiosity. Steeped in self-interest, the five senses have been trained to see only what the animal mind wants to see, to hear only what ego wants to hear, are dulled with constant error; as a result, man's mind has lost the power to do that which it once could do for him.

If it is reclaimed, the carnal will recognize and welcome these facts. Given the opportunity for an interesting subject the animal is ever willing to learn and healing is one such subject; thus the animal will be quite content to give spirit complete change in these matters.

Had the poet Milton the insight to see that his blindness was not God's will, but rather nature's decree, and had he used this assurance to fight disease rather than accept it as inevitable, his sight would have been freely restored.

Lesser organisms are subject to the law of nature, even as is the human being dominated by the flesh. Our intention is to free mankind's intellect to the point where the spiritual mind controls the body and combats invaders.

Therefore, once again, be impressed with the fact that mental hygiene is dismally lacking even in the best of men. The individual who considers himself to be living a most completely balanced life, by the very fact that he sees himself thus, indicates that his mind is closed to further improvement, and shuts it off from the facilities available in the other 95.5 percent.

Analyze your percentage of free thought-process. If you can come up with an honest answer of four and one half percent then you stand a chance, having admitted narrow concepts and shown willing-ness to learn.

If, on the other hand, nothing can shake your conviction that you are just a wee bit superior in ethics or ideology, your chances of success in the development of inner power are diminished to the exact degree which you, yourself, place the restriction.

When Jesus stated that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. He was not exaggerating. The wealth to which He referred was not necessarily material.

Self-satisfaction, in all its varied manifestations, cripples spiritual advancement. The poor man finds it easier to admit his inadequacies, to look beyond momentary barriers and visualize a better life beyond, and to strive for self-improvement. He admits that, in comparison to His Maker, he is small enough to slip through the eye of a needle.

The man bloated with success, power, riches, or materialism, being unable to humble his visual image of self to this degree, "puffed up" with pomposity, can never hope to accomplish such a feat.

Yet such a task must be undertaken. If not on this planet, then elsewhere. It is preferable, surely, to cut yourself down to size in the comparative privacy of the chemical body than when standing naked before Infinity.

Picture a spiritually-guided nation which would be free of high national defense costs, penitentiary and civilian police expenditures, and with its national health budget drastically slashed, dedicated to humanitarianism and spiritual advancement, visualizing matters as they really are, with each citizen operating at maximum capacity in unity with his fellows.

The outstanding achievements of such a nation would have world-wide repercussions; the final picture emerges, showing all of earth's peoples mingling freely. Racialism, an old-fashioned word, popular in the dark ages of the twentieth century, would be eventually dropped from the dictionary as obsolete along with such other "oldies" as crime, discrimination, denomination, war, sloth and insanity.

The question is not, "Can it be done?"

The question is, "How long will it take?" The answer is up to the individual, and the degree of effort each is willing to put forth to achieve sanity to be passed down to posterity.

Examples of serious erroneous associations breaking down the animal mind are so pitifully common today that it is hard to choose one illustration more prevalent than another. Egomania is an unfailing wrecker; as is guilt; lack of directional guidance and uncontrolled lust, all bring untold pain to the sufferer and the others who are torn down by the self-seeker.

Trying to utilize one's own will power in such cases is futile. Total submission of the fleshy will to the will of spirit is the only hope in extreme cases. Will power is not even necessary when one leans upon the inner power for support.

Excessive drinking, smoking, and eating, common results of the pressures of inharmonious living and thinking, fade before truth. Faith alone will bridge the first chasm. Faith and sincerity are essential in preparing the carnal mind to accept guidance.

Infinite Mind knows of all the ailments of the flesh; knows just how they can be overcome. When error is cleared away through the procedures previously set forth, the spiritual mind has clear access to its brothers in heaven who want only to add their powers and assist their earthbound fellows spirits to overcome any enemies or lesser organisms with which the body might become entangled.

The preconscious learns to subdue itself when the conscious registers pain, allowing the spiritual mind to take over. This practice is not uncommon in eastern countries or, as the Christian Scientists explain it, the animal stops struggling and learns back on the inner resources, without the slightest doubt that the need will be met as every spiritual need is met by Him when the mind is unclouded.

What is the point in science's attempts to add twenty or thirty years to our lifespan, to prolong our reproductive years? The spectre of a population explosion already stares us in the face. When the advancing years sit heavily on the animal frame, the spiritually dominated are ready and eager to pass on to a higher plane of life, proud in the knowledge that on this earth they have done their best. The event of passing over is one of glorious ascension.

Matter will wear out and degenerate; dust will return to dust but the infinite spark will soar forward, no longer bound by material wrappings, exalting in its return to source.

The degree to which the body is governed by the mind is not always properly understood. Tampering with the communication system by the careless administration of drugs can have seriously adverse results.

Any chemical which acts on the brain must have side effects, for this complex organ is busy directing bodily function in many different ways. While to Mastermind, the carnal brain is as an open book, man has a long way to go to reach this ideal state of knowledge.

Infant deformity is one of the pathetic examples. While the mother's body is busy with the formation of her child, her mind is indirectly regulating its growth pattern. With a defective regulator, look what happened to the dinosaurs!

This is why spiritual regulation of body function is so much to be desired. Why let an amateur dabble when a specialist is at hand?

The inner power can not only absorb the future mother's discomfort, but if the woman is in close enough harmony with her mate, his spiritual mind can also absorb a share of the discomfort, sometimes passing this knowledge to the conscious mind, often without preconscious knowledge. Spiritual mental telepathy to this degree requires that each participant be closely in tune with the other.

Scorn superstition, yes; but don't overlook the grain of truth in which many "old wives' tales" originate. Always remember, the spiritual mind cannot be seen, nor can its powers be analyzed by mortal man.

Remember the days when grandmothers threw weird concoctions down the toilet in the complete belief that this ritual would cure warts? It worked, too, for some of them. It was effective because, with this action of the preconscious mind completed, the spiritual mind was then free to take over its healing work. This is faith.

How often did our Saviour say, "Thy faith hath made thee whole"?

This is precisely the effect shrines have on people of certain denominations. Faith is the whole secret.

Tap this unfailing source of strength. Bear in mind, though, that animal man is mortal, and in no way does the Master wish to detract from the excellent work done by the medical profession. Material science properly applied to matter works toward the good of humanity and full advantage should be taken of its resources for rapid success in certain types of sickness.

In cases of injury, use logic. It is obvious that one would hardly try to ignore a slashed artery, yet here again, mind control can quell pain and speed healing, and one with a well developed inner power would have no difficulty controlling such a wound without assistance. Above all, be sensible. Sometimes years of training may be required for complete physical protection by the spiritual mind, and certainly it is not something that can be accomplished overnight by all and sundry; it requires considerable insight on the part of the practitioner.

The spiritually guided doctor renders invaluable service in combining wisdom with scientific achievement. Physicians understand analytical procedures and the results of chemical reaction upon the flesh. In many cases, where surgery is required, this method of cure will bring faster results and alleviate unnecessary suffering.

In future generations, when spiritual regulation has been in effect since birth, healing will take place so quietly that symptoms of such sickness will hardly ever appear, having been nipped in the bud, so to speak. That's how simple life will become.

The very rudiments of spiritual healing can best be demonstrated by the case of two children out picking flowers in the field. Both get severely bitten by mosquitoes. The child with inner power, intent on his labour, doesn't even notice the bites.

The second child is totally distracted; he slaps and he scratches, the preconscious magnifying the discomfort.

When the children arrive home, the parents of the first child admire the gift of flowers, then perhaps offer the child a book to read, thus keeping the animal mind occupied while spirit goes to work.

The parents of the second child grasp their child's discomfort and rush to apply medical remedies, all of which tend to keep the fact of irritation uppermost in the lad's mind. "How are the bites feeling now?" they question. Keeping the physical mind agitated allows spirit no opportunity to act.

The second child is being taught to have faith in physical remedies, to magnify his physical ailments, and to accept exaggerated mental pain throughout its adult lifetime in all types of sickness of the flesh; he is being taught to panic at the first twinges of discomfort and go running for relief.

How many doctor's diagnoses today are justly filed under the heading of psychosomatic illness or are indirectly attributable to it?

Is it any wonder that so sincere a plea is made to parents to re-educate their thinking?

Healing by the inner power is factual, practical, and completely logical. Never lose sight of the fact. There is no relationship to superstition and mumbo-jumbo. This is the illusion that traps so many, that faint supercilious, know-it-all suspicion in the back of the mind that whispers, "I have never experienced this personally, so I doubt that it can be so, other-wise I'd be forced to admit my thinking could be mistaken, and of course that's impossible."

Dare to admit preconceived erroneous thinking and you are whole.