Man's supreme inheritance : $b Conscious guidance and control in relation to human evolution in civilizationAlexander, F. Matthias (Frederick Matthias)
Science
Man's supreme inheritance : $b Conscious guidance and control in relation to human evolution in civilization
To regain normal health and power in such cases, what I have called
“re-education” is absolutely imperative. This treatment begins, in
practically all cases, by instructions in the primary factors connected
with the eradication of erroneous preconceived ideas connected with bad
habits, and the simplest correct mental and physical co-ordination. The
displaced parts of the body must be restored to their proper positions
by re-education in a correct and controlled use of the muscular
mechanisms. In this process the blood is purified, the circulation is
gradually improved, and all the injurious accumulations are removed by
the internal massage which is part and parcel of the increased vital
activity from such re-education.
Thus the first stage in the eradication of bad habits and disorders is
reached when improved conditions of health are established. Nor must it
be forgotten that in this process of re-education a great object lesson
is given to the controlling mind. In the very breaking up of maleficent
co-ordinations or vicious circles which have become established, a new
impulse is given to certain intellectual functions which have been
thrown out of play. The reflex action which is setting up morbid
conditions can only be controlled and altered by a deliberate
realisation of the guiding process which is to be substituted, and these
new impulses to the conscious mind have, analogically, very much the
same effect as is produced on the body by the internal massage referred
to above. The old accumulations of subconscious thought are dispersed,
and room is made for new conceptions and realisations.
When the first stage is passed, it is just as easy at almost any time of
life to establish “good” habits (“good” that is, by the test of all our
experience and knowledge) as “bad” ones. Bad habits mean, in ninety-nine
per cent. of cases, that the person concerned has, often through
ignorance, pandered to and wilfully indulged certain sensations,
probably with little or no thought as to what evil results may accrue
from his concessions to the dominance of small pleasures. This careless
relaxation of reason, in the first instance, makes it doubly difficult
to assert command when the indulgence has become a habit. Sensation has
usurped the throne so feebly defended by reason, and sense, once it has
obtained power, is the most pitiless of autocrats. If we are to maintain
the succession that is our supreme inheritance, we must first break the
power of the usurper, and then re-establish our sovereign, no longer
dull and indifferent to the welfare of his kingdom, but active,
vigilant, and open-eyed to the evils which result from his old policy of
_laissez-faire_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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