A new toxin--The microbes in the thoughts we think--The new
anti-toxin--Thoughts may poison--Fear causes paralysis--Hate causes
insanity--Fear and Hate have killed their thousands--Gates'
experiments--How to overcome the poison of bad-thinking.
In these days of toxin and anti-toxin--of poison in sausages, oysters,
canned beef, ice cream--of anti-toxin serums (that often are more
deadly than the original toxin) for the prevention and cure of
tuberculosis, leprosy, pneumonia, typhoid fever, tetanus, bubonic
plague, diphtheria, and the rest of the list, it requires courage to
call the attention of the public to a new "toxin," even if at the same
time we furnish an anti-toxin that "anti-toxicates."
We shudder at the thought of microbes and bacilli--and thereby attract
them to us; we filter our drinking water, after boiling all the life
out of it; we develop into microbe hunters, and see poison in
everything we wear, eat, drink or breathe. But we overlook the
microbes in the thoughts we think. We encourage the enterprising
doctor in his giddy chase after the nimble dollar, as he produces
anti-toxin serums to order. The poor, broken-down cart horse is worked
overtime in producing filthy pus and serum for the serum-maniac to
inject into our circulation. But we overlook the pure, harmless,
powerful anti-toxin obtained fresh from the cells of the brain--Right
Thinking.
That Thoughts may poison, is a well-proven fact. Depressing thoughts
interfere with the cerebral circulation, impairing the nutrition of
the cells and nerve centers. The result is that the organs and tissues
manifest lost or impaired function--loss of general nutrition
follows--and a break-down is inevitable. Fear, worry, anger, envy,
jealousy, and other negative thoughts, reflect themselves most
disastrously in the human system. Fear has paralyzed nerve centers,
and turned the hair white over night. A mother's milk has been
poisoned by a fit of anger. Fear and Hate--father and son--have
produced insanity, idiocy, paralysis, cholerina, jaundice, sudden
decay of teeth, fatal anaemia, skin diseases, erysipelas, and eczema.
Epidemics owe their rapid spread and heavy death rate to Fear and
Ignorance. Epidemics may kill their dozens--Fear kills its thousands.
All the brood of negative, fearful, selfish, hateful thoughts manifest
themselves in physical conditions. Stigmata or marks upon the body,
caused by fear or desire, are quite common in the annals of medical
science and psychology.
Professor Gates, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in
his investigation of the effect of mental states upon the body, found
that irascible, malevolent and depressing emotions generated in the
system injurious compounds, some of which were extremely poisonous;
he also found that agreeable, happy emotions, generated chemical
compounds of nutritious value, which stimulated the cells to
manufacture energy. He says: "Bad and unpleasant feelings create
harmful chemical products in the body which are physically injurious.
Good, pleasant, benevolent feelings create beneficial chemical
products which are physically healthful. These products _may be
detected by chemical analysis_ in the perspiration and secretions
of the individual. More than forty of the good, and as many of the
bad, have been detected. Suppose half a dozen men in a room. One
feels depressed, another remorseful, another ill-tempered, another
jealous, another cheerful, another benevolent. Samples of their
perspiration are placed in the hands of the psycho-physicist. Under
his examination they reveal all these emotional conditions distinctly
and unmistakably." Remember, this is not "the airy fancy of some
enthusiastic Mental Scientist," but is the testimony of a leading
scientific investigator in the laboratories of the Smithsonian
Institution, one of the best known scientific institutions of the
world. "Chemical analysis," mind you--not "transcendental imaginings."
Now I have said enough about the toxin and some little about the
anti-toxin of the Mind. I might go on for hours, stating example
after example; illustration after illustration, but the tale would
be just the same. Now what are you going to do about it? Are you
going to keep on poisoning yourself and those around you with vile,
malignant thoughts reeking with the miasmatic effluvia of Hate--emitting
the noxious exhalation of Fear and Worry? Or will you cease being a
psychic pest-house, and begin to fumigate and disinfect your Mind?
And after getting rid of all the microbes of Fear and Worry and the
bacilli of Hate, Jealousy and Envy, open wide the windows of the Mind
and admit the bright Sunshine of Love, and the bracing air of
Confidence and Fearlessness.
Come, friends, let us get out of this habit of poisoning the air
with Fear, Worry and Hate Thought. Let us join the ranks of the
Don't Worry company--the Fearless brigade--the invincible, conquering
army of Love. Let us be bright, cheerful and happy--the other things
are not worth while. Let us be Confident, Expectant, Hopeful and
Fearless--these things are winners. Let us be filled with Love for all
men--and we will find that Life is one sweet song. Love, Faith and
Fearlessness, are the ingredients of Life's great Anti-Toxin. Try it
and be blessed.