Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an
415:1 excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor-
tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a
415:3 cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the
eternal God, good. Sin, disease, and death
have no foundations in Truth. Inflamation as a mor-
415:6 tal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system,
because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or halts
when it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the in-
415:9 dividual looks upon some object which he dreads. In-
flammation never appears in a part which mortal thought
does not reach. That is why opiates relieve inflammation.
415:12 They quiet the thought by inducing stupefaction and by
resorting to matter instead of to Mind. Opiates do not
remove the pain in any scientific sense. They only ren-
415:15 der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can master
an erroneous belief.
Truth calms the thought
Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re-
415:18 tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or
flushed cheek. In the same way thought in-
creases or diminishes the secretions, the action
415:21 of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The mus-
cles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by
thought, represent the action of all the organs of the hu-
415:24 man system, including brain and viscera. To remove
the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct
mortal mind with immortal Truth.
Effects of etherization
415:27 Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis-
appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbs
will vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the
415:30 whole frame will sink from sight along with
surrounding objects, leaving the pain standing forth as
distinctly as a mountain-peak, as if it were a separate
416:1 bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. This
process shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam-
416:3 mation is not suppressed; and the belief of pain will
presently return, unless the mental image occasioning
the pain be removed by recognizing the truth of being.
Sedatives valueless
416:6 A hypodermic injection of morphine is administered
to a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui-
etly asleep. To him there is no longer any
416:9 pain. Yet any physician - allopathic, homoe-
opathic, botanic, eclectic - will tell you that the trouble-
some material cause is unremoved, and that when the
416:12 soporific influence of the opium is exhausted, the pa-
tient will find himself in the same pain, unless the belief
which occasions the pain has meanwhile been changed.
416:15 Where is the pain while the patient sleeps?
The so-called physical ego
The material body, which you call /me/, is mortal mind,
and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body,
416:18 which has originated from this material sense
and been developed according to it, is mate-
rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in
416:21 mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when the
mortal has resigned his body to dust, the body is no
longer the parent, even in appearance.
Evil thought depletes