ROSICRU Cl AN ORDER A M O R C TRADE MARK
Supplementary Monograph PRINTED
IN U . S . A.
T h e subject matter of this monograph must be understood by the reader or student of same, not to be the official Rosicrucian teachings. T h ese monographs constitute a series of supplementary studies provided by the Rosicrucian Order, A M O R C , both to mem bers and non-members, because they are not the secret, private teachings of the Order. T h e object of these supplementary monographs is to broaden the mind of the student by presenting him with the writings, opinions, and dissertations of authorities in various fields of human enterprise and endeavor. Therefore, it is quite probable that the reader will note at times in these supplementary monographs statements made which are inconsistent with the Rosicrucian teachings or view-point. But with the realization that they are merely supplem entary and that the Rosicrucian Organization is not endorsing or condoning them, one must take them merely for their prima facie value. Throughout the supplementary series the authors or translators of the subject will be given due credit whenever we have knowledge of their identity.
SUPREME TEMPLE, ROSICRUCIAN PARK, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
"C o nsecrated to truth and dedicated to every Rosicrucian"
SPECIAL SUBJECT
BA
LECTURE NUMBER
PHYSICAL LAWS OF BODILY HEALTH The physical body is "the holy temple of God." The more perfect its condition the better is the soul's chance to fulfill its duties and obligations, and to enjoy its rewards. No individual Ego can so well express itself thru a defective as thru a normally healthy instru ment . If there are physical or psychical means whereby we may in duce and sustain conditions of health and maintain the physical body at its highest point of perfection, it is our duty to inform ourselves and apply them. Judged by results, it is nature's intention for us to observe all laws that govern the health of the body. They are consistent with the Divine Plan with which we must cooperate. A doctor I know, tells his patients that they dig their graves with their teeth. Otherwise moral persons are immoral paters; they eat too often and too much at a sitting. Many could cut in halves the quantity consumed and be better citizens. Too much food makes a man spiritually heavy, inattentive, and interferes with his efficiency in work. People drink stimulants when their nerves are already overstimulated and eat sweets when they are too fat and in no condition to assimilate an additional amount. They eat to enjoy the pleasures of the palate after the body has reached the limit of its need and they live to reap the harvest of excess. It takes more courage and strength of character for most persons to deny themselves savory food and stimulating drink than to tell the truth. Self-indulgence is easy but damaging; self-control difficult but upbuilding. Anyone who moves his muscles seldom, or sits all day at his job, can not expect to remain limber unless— with daily regularity— he walks, or takes five or more minutes for strenuous exercise. Those occupied in sedentary labor should make the most of every change of position, stoop from the waist to pick up a paper, walk across the floor with elasticity and uplifted muscles, throw out the chest and hold up the head. I know a woman who stands on one foot while she puts her shoe on the other; the process of dressing and undressing provides varied opportunity for limbering up the body. There came to us as girls at home a dressmaker who sat bolt upright at her work; her chest and back were perfectly carried. In the early days of her business, she was once shocked to see herself in a mir ror bent over into a unsightly huddle. Sewing was to be her life work and she determined to learn to sew sitting erect. She did. Her fine appearance was entirely due to her own effort and strength of character. She ceased making herself a host for tuberculosis germs. Habit is a valuable friend when used for and not against us. Fresh air in the lungs is an important factor in health, and yet many refuse it when they could have it; all who will may get suffi cient oxygen into the system to supply its imperative need. Women who stay at home all day should open the door or window often and let in the fresh air. Or several times a day should put on a wrap and step out of doors where they can take ten breaths of fresh air, slowly inhaling and exhaling. Even those in crowded workshops can
~C~ Page Two refresh the physical body with the out-of-doors oxygenated air by breathing deeply when they do get outside. At least eight out of the twenty-four hours— the hours of sleep— *can be spent— except in the most extreme weather— as nearly as possible in the outside air, I have a sister who sleeps out of doors the year round* in winter she wears a cotton flannel garment, lies between cotton flannel sheets, and puts a flannel blanket under the mattress to keep out the cold. The comfortable is spread under an outside cover to retain the heat. In a cold climate within the room one may have windows all open to full capacity if the bed is arranged as described. The physical system needs oxygen, must have oxygen. This is a simple and effec tive way to get it in adequate quantities. An excessive amount of sleep— over nine for an adult in good health— is simply a habit, and tends to make him fat and slothful. And yet, there is a wide latitude in the way vitality holds out. It is a pity that every one who has lost his first freshness by noon cannot lie flat on his back for ten minutes in perfect mental and physical relaxation. It is especially Important for people of nervous tem perament 'or for quick, alert workers to take a halt for repose— all nature has her periods of rest for renewal of forces. She expends hers more evenly than man who should voluntarily and intelligently give time for her recuperative ministrations. It pays anyone— the more work to be done the better it pays-~to stop, relax, and rest. POWER OF' THOUGHT OVER THE PHYSICAL BODY Is the physical body affected by other than physical causes? If so, to what extent? What action other than physical may be taken to Improve one's health, to check or remove weakness, to prevent illness or disease? For years, Dr. Dubois of Berne, Switzerland, was sought by patients and by other doctors from all over the continent of Europe. One day a woman came to him after a long journey for relief from an increas ingly troublesome malady. The odor of flowers invariably made her faint. Everywhere she went, if she were near flowers she swooned— she was forced to become a recluse. At the second call, as she step ped forward to meet Dr. Dubois, she saw behind him an immense bouquet on the table beyond. She could scarely believe her eyes! But yes. It was true! She gave him a reproachful glance and crumpled up in a swoon. When she had recovered, the physician said to her, "Madam, you must come here and smell these flowers." Incredible! She could n't; she wouldn't. She demurred; It would make her faint again. He insisted that he could cure her only after his own method. She braced herself for the ordeal, leaned over and smelled the flowers— they were artificial! Always her thought had been powerful enough to interrupt momentarily the normal flow of blood thru her heart; then she had fainted. He could never have convinced her by telling her that she needed psychic al reeducation.
The following is in a physiology I once studied: "A Butcher was brought into a druggist's from the market place op posite, laboring under a terrible accident. The man, on trying to hook up a heavy piece of meat above his head, slipped, and the sharphook penetrated his arm so that he himself was suspended. On being examined, he was pale, almost pulseless, and expressed himself as suffering acute agony. The arm could not be moved without causing excessive ps.in; and in cutting off the sleeve he often cried out; yet when the arm was exposed, it was found quite uninjured, the hook only having traversed the sleeve of the coat." And the following is the doctor's observation: "The sensation here was perfectly real, but originated in the change in the brain and nerves, instead of the external senses." The sensation, the pain, was actual— not imaginary, we note. It was, however, a thought of great vitality— not lacerated flesh— that caused the excessive excitation of the nerves and brain. So-called "imaginary invalids" do not imagine that they are ill. They are ill. Their thoughts are forceful enough to give them real indigestion, real head-aches. The cause of their Illness is in the realm of thought and emotion.— not in the physical realm. It is a physical disability caused by their continuous thought habit. To change their state of health— in cooperation with the Great Plan— they must alter their habit of thought. CELLS The human body, we recall, is composed of cells— tiny forms, A cell is a cavity with cellular walls which separate it from other cells. These cell units together compose the bodily organs— as the heart, lungs, nerves, and glands. We have bone-cells, cartilege-cells, rnuscle-cells, and fat-cell s. In fact, even the skin is an organ made up of cells. Cell substance differs in each kind of cell; each has its duty to discharge, its special function to perform. Because it is endowed with the functions of sensation, nutrition, and reproduc tion, it can run its own affairs. It is a little organ by itself and yet it unites with others to compose the structure of all the bodily organs, as, for example, the organ of sight. In all these cells many modern authorities hold that there is a low type of con sciousness— ceil consciousness. As an individual, you are endowed with the sense of touch, and when you touch anything, you have a sensation; when a cell comes in con tact with an object outside itself, the cell is said to experience a sensation, perhaps, as the shadow of a superb flower is related to the blossom itself. It is supposed to be the suggestion of a sensa tion.
Sensation is of the utmost importance,for cells are short lived; if the cells of which an organ is composed die, the organ ceases to function. They "feel" and respond to the presence of nutritive ma terial brought to them in the plasma of the blood.. Among the millions of cells that go to make up the physical body, each— endowed, with the function of nutrition— each one, takes its food from the blood sup plied to It as the blood circulates thru the system. It does not take up that which it does not need, but takes the special sort of nutri tive material that it requires to rebuild and renew its particular cellular tissue. Two substances unite to make a new substance unlike either of them, as before said, and a chemical change takes place. If oxygen and hydrogen gases are placed, together In the right proportion and under the proper conditions, they unite to form water— wholly unlike oxygen or hydrogen. In the cell the material taken from blood is changed, chemically into those substances it needs for nutrition and reproduc tion. By virtue of this function of reproduction, then, the cell re produces itself— and this process is going on continually.
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