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Esoteric Healing - Chapter I - The Psychological Causes of Disease
B. Mental Fanaticism - The Dominance of Thought-forms

I would point out here that the diseases and difficulties which arise from what I have called wrong mental attitudes, fanaticisms and frustrated idealisms and thwarted hopes, fall into three categories, and a study of these will show you that, in the last analysis, they are not of mental origin at all, but primarily are the result of emotionalism entering in.

  1. Those incident to the imposed physical plane activity and work which find their incentive in these mental conditions. They lead, for instance, to furious activity and overwork, due to the determination not to be frustrated but to make the plan work. The result is frequently the breaking down of the nervous system, which could have been avoided had the mental condition been changed and right rhythm on the physical plane achieved. But it was the work of a physical nature which caused the trouble far more than the mental condition. [92]
  2. Those brought about by the state of rebellion which colors all the life, and the registering of violent emotional reactions. These may be based upon a mental realization of the Plan, for instance, plus a recognition that those plans are not materializing, owing often to the inadequacy of the physical equipment; but the basic cause of the disease is the emotional rebellion, and therefore not the mental condition. Bitterness, disgust, hatred and a sense of frustration can and do produce many of the prevalent toxic conditions and a state of general poisoning and ill health from which many people habitually suffer. Their vision is bigger than their accomplishment, and this causes emotional suffering. The cure for this condition is to be found in the simple word acceptance. This is not a negative state of settling down to a submissive non active life, but it is a positive acceptance (in thought and in practical expression) of a condition which seems at present unavoidable. This leads to an avoidance of the waste of time in attempting the impossible and to right effort to carry forward that which is possible.
  3. Those difficulties which are caused by the failure of the physical apparatus to measure up to the demands of the thought life of the individual. These are, naturally and usually, a part of the physical inheritance, and where this is the case there is normally nothing much to do, though where the aspiration is real and persistent, a great deal might be accomplished in bringing about improvement and laying the ground for better functioning in another life cycle.

It is necessary here that I should deal, as briefly as possible, with the problem of mental healing and with the teaching that all disease is the product of wrong thought. You are starting out to work, and I would have clear thinking on this point. The two problems which I have posited [93] are closely related. We could express them in the form of two questions:

  1. Is disease the result of thought?
  2. Can the power of thought produce healing effects when used by an individual or a group?

In view of the fact that many diseases are, as I have told you, latent in the very material of the planet itself, it is obvious that human thought is not responsible for disease. It antedates the arrival of humanity upon the planet. There is disease in the mineral world, in the vegetable kingdom, and also among animals, even in their wild states and in their natural habitat, uncontaminated by man. Hence, man cannot be held responsible for this, nor is it the result of human wrong thinking. It provides no answer to the question to say that it must therefore be due to the wrong thinking of the planetary Logos or of the solar Logos. This is only a begging of the question and an evasion of the issue.

I would here remind you of the two definitions of the causes of disease which I earlier gave. Let me call them to your careful attention:

  • "All disease is the result of inhibited soul life. This is true of all forms in all kingdoms."
  • "Disease is the product of and subject to three influences.
  • First, a man's past wherein he pays the price of ancient error.
  • Second, his inheritance wherein he shares with all mankind those tainted streams of energy which are of group origin.
  • Thirdly, he shares with all the natural forms that which the Lord of Life imposes on those forms.
  • Those three influences are called the Ancient Law of evil Sharing. This must give place some day to that new Law of Ancient Dominating Good. This law will be brought into activity by the spiritual will of man." [94]

If you analyze the four causes of disease here given, you will note that disease will eventually be controlled by the release of the soul in all forms, and that this will be done by the active use by man of his spiritual will. We could word this otherwise and say that when soul energy and the right use of the will (which in the individual is the reflection and the agent of the will energy of the soul) is released and rightly directed by the mind, then disease can be handled and brought eventually to an end. It is therefore by the imposition of a higher energy and of a higher rhythm upon the lower forces that disease can be controlled. Disease is therefore the result in the physical body of the failure to bring in these higher energies and rhythms, and that, in its turn, is dependent upon the point in evolution.

It is the dim sensing of this failure and the realization of these facts that has brought so many groups to believe in the cure of disease by thought power and to ascribe the appearance of disease to wrong thinking. But in reality, humanity must some day learn that it is only the higher consciousness of the soul, working through the mind, that can finally solve this difficult problem.

We cannot consequently affirm that disease, as a general rule, has any relation to thought. It is simply the misuse of the forces of the etheric, the astral and of the dense physical levels. The majority of people are helpless to do anything about it, as the forces which constitute the physical body, for instance, and which pass through and play upon it, are inherited from a very ancient past, are a constituent part of the environment and of the group life into which they are integrated and which they share with all their fellowmen. Such force-matter is colored with the results of ancient wrong rhythms, misused forces and inherited qualities. Soul energy, expressed through right thinking, can cure diseases to which man is prone. It is failure to think and to register [95] and express the higher states of consciousness which leads to wrong rhythms. Consequently, I repeat that disease is not the result of thought.
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