be unfavorable, unfavorable results must of course follow; vitality, nevertheless, doing the best it can under the circumstances to preserve the normal state of the body. Disease, we propose to show, is not antagonistic to vital action, but the opposite, a remedial effort, _or vital action on the defensive_. It is not a downward tendency, nor the result of a downward tendency on the part of a living organism, but is itself an upward or self-preservative tendency, the result of disobedience to natural laws. _It is simply abnormal action, because of abnormal conditions._" In considering the above revolutionary statement of Dr. Murphy, we must remember that "vitality" or "vital force" is simply the action of the Subconscious Mind operating through the sympathetic system, the organ-minds, and the cell-minds. _All vital energy, at the last is mental energy._ And, we must also remember that the "abnormal conditions" which Dr. Murphy speaks of as being the cause of "abnormal action" or disease, are not confined alone to physical or material conditions, but also to abnormal mental conditions, such as fear-thought, adverse suggestions, improper use of the imagination, etc. As we have seen in the preceding chapters, the causes of disease may be mental as well as material or physical. The Subconscious Mind in its vital activities is constantly at work building up, repairing, growing, nourishing, supporting and regulating the body, doing its best to throw off abnormal conditions, and seeking to do the best it can when these conditions cannot be removed. With its source pure and unpolluted the stream of vitality flows on unhindered, but when the poison of fear-thought, adverse suggestion and false belief is poured into the source or spring from which the stream rises, it follows that the waters of life will no longer be pure and clear. Let us notice the general direction of the vital activities of the Subconscious Mind.