Excerpts from
  Perfect Health:
The Highest Curative Power in Man

by
Christian D. Larson





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Book Description
"When the mind is in the truth it reflects only what is in the truth; the body will thus be filled, through and through, with perfect health; the personal man will express the strength, the life and the purity of the real man, and all that is beautiful and ideal in the within will manifest
itself more and more in the without." So states Christian D. Larson in this very hard to find book from the early 20th Century.

Chapter 1

THE principle upon which the higher form of healing is based is found in the statement that man is created in the image and likeness of God. The spiritual man is the real man, and the spiritual man is as God is—eternally perfect and whole through and through. To know this truth is to know the truth that makes man free, and this truth can be known by every mind that will enter into the conscious realization of the spirit of truth. The intellectual under-standing does not produce the knowing of truth; to know the truth, the spiritual understanding becomes necessary. The intellectual under­standing looks upon truth from with-out and thus learns to comprehend the outer form of truth; the spiritual understanding enters into the very spirit of truth and thus gains the power, not only to know the truth itself, but also to know everything that exists within the wonderful world of truth.

There is a world of eternal truth where everything is as wonderful, as beautiful and as perfect as the truth itself; and there is a world of mere appearance where everything is passing, and where nothing is real. To live in the world of appear­ance is to pass through what seems to be real; to live in the world of truth is to dwell forever in that which is real. In the world of appearance we find pain, sick­ness, evil and death; and we must of necessity pass through those things so long as we continue to pass through the world of appear-ance. To continue to pass through the world of darkness is to continue to pass through the darkness itself. But in the world of truth, we find neither sickness nor pain, sorrow nor death; those things cannot exist in the world of truth; therefore, we shall be absolutely free from those things so long as we live in the world of truth. And to know the truth, that is, to enter into the consciousness of the spirit of truth, is to enter the world of truth.

To live in the world of truth is to live in the conscious possession of everything that exists in that world; and in that world everything is a perfect and as beau­tiful as when it first appeared from the creative hand divine. To live in the world of truth is to be free from those things that are not of the truth, and only those things are of the truth that are perfect as God is perfect. Therefore, in the world of truth there can be no sickness, because sickness is not perfect as God is perfect. Sickness can never enter the world of truth, but to enter the world of truth is to eliminate from the human system every trace of sickness that we ever thought we knew. Enter into the truth—into the very spirit of truth, and you are healed absolutely. You are every whit whole. Your emancipation is perfect and complete.

There are many ways to temporary health and limited degrees of freedom; but to enter the truth—the spirit of truth—the world of truth, is to gain that health that is as perfect and as endless as the truth itself, and that freedom that is as universal and as limitless as the truth itself. Therefore, we can find no better way to freedom, no higher path to health. To those who can understand all other paths are useless, all other methods vain. To follow other paths is to find but fragments; to enter the truth is to find the whole. The truth contains everything that is good for man; it is needless to seek elsewhere; but that which is not good for man cannot be found in the truth.

To enter into the truth the simple secret is to seek the spirit of truth. So long as we seek the mere mental form of truth, consciousness will dwell on the outside of truth; and no matter how much truth we may see, we shall continue to live in the world of untruth. But when we seek the spirit of truth—that divine something that exists within all truth, we enter consciously into the truth, and will therefore be filled and surrounded by the life of truth. We shall, accordingly, live the truth, and to live the truth is to give to life every-thing that is contained in the truth. Everything that pertains to the true being of man is thus expressed in every element throughout the entire being of man; and as perfect health is eternal in the true being of man, perfect health will likewise become eternal in every part of man. So long as we live the truth, that is, live consciously in the world of truth, not a fibre in the physical body can ever be sick, and not a single adverse mental condi­tion can exist within us for a moment.

We are conscious in every atom in the body, and what enters into consciousness will therefore enter into every atom in the body. When we are in the spirit of truth we are conscious of absolute health; abso­lute health will thus enter into our conscious­ness—into every part of our conscious-ness, which means that absolute health will enter into every atom in the body, because con­sciousness extends to every atom in the body. To be conscious of absolute health is to possess and express absolute health in every part of cons-ciousness, and accordingly, in every part of the body, for every part of the body exists within the field of conscious-ness. In like manner, to live the truth is to live the truth in every atom in the body, and thus give, to every atom in the body, the elements of true being, one of which is absolute health. We conclude, therefore, that so long as we are in the truth and are conscious of true being, it is not necessary to give thought to the body. And what is more, to think of the body as being distinct from true being is to hinder the mind from gaining complete consciousness of true being.

To think of true being as being one part of man and the physical body as being the other part, is to recognize two distinct entities in man, one of which is perfect and the other of which is imperfect; but no house that is divided against itself can stand; therefore, so long as we think of the physical body as being a separate and imperfect entity, we are not in the truth, and ills in abundance will appear in the personal life. In the truth there is no thought of imperf-ection and no thought of separation. In the truth, the being of man is one, and that one is perfect. The physical body is not looked upon as a thing apart, or as a something that can get sick; but is looked upon as a reflection of divine being, and is therefore thought of as having the same perfection as divine being.

The real man is well, always was and always will be, because the real man is created in the image of God. But the body is not separated from the real man; the body is a reflection of the real and is therefore similar to the real man in all things. If the body seems to be imperfect the cause is found in the mind which is the mirror. When the reflection differs from that which is reflected, the mirror does not reflect properly; and the remedy lies, not in trying to modify the reflection, but in trying to remove the defects from the mirror. Do something to make the mirror reflect properly and the reflection will be the exact likeness of that reality that is being reflected. And here we find the secret to the highest healing—the com­plete emancipation of man.

The true being of man is perfect, and the mind is the mirror reflecting the per­fection of true being. This reflection appears in the form of the visible personality, but it may not always appear in the exact like­ness of true being. When the personality does not manifest the qualities of true being, we try to change the personality; we try to modify personal conditions by acting upon those conditions themselves, regardless of the cause of those conditions; in brief, we try to "doctor" the effect while permitting the cause to remain undisturbed. The result is a number of confused systems of healing, all of which aim to give relief or emanci­pation, but none of which can remove the cause. The only good they can possibly do is to stay the actions of the effects tem­porarily so that man may have occasional periods of peace. Beyond this they can­not go; therefore, man will not find real emancipation until he learns how to remove the cause; and the cause is to be found in the mirror. Remove the defects from the mirror and the reflection will be the exact likeness of the reality standing before the mirror. When the mind properly reflects the real man, the personal man will express the perfection of true being; the personal in man will manifest the real in man, and the real in man is created in the image of God.

Chapter 2

WE have three factors to consider: viz., the real man, the mirror and the reflection, otherwise termed the visible personality. The real man is always well, and lives perpetually in complete emancipation; therefore, the per­sonal man, being a direct reflection of the real man, should also have perpetual health and emancipation. But this is not always so, and the reason why is that the mind—the mirror—does not properly reflect the real man. If the mind was so constructed that it would reflect perfectly the true being of man, the personal man would always be as perfect, as wholesome and as divine as the real man, and neither sickness nor weak­ness nor any evil whatever could possibly exist in the personal life of man any more. His life would be from above, and from above only, and his emancipation would be complete.

When the mind knows the truth, and actually lives in the consciousness of the spirit of truth, it becomes a perfect mirror and, in consequence, will perfectly reflect the true being of man. The defects in the mirror are composed simply of beliefs that are untrue; these beliefs turn aside some of the rays of light from the divine spirit within, and the reflection is distorted. Thus we have imperfect condit-ions in the per­sonality. When all false beliefs are removed from the mind, there are no defects any more in the mirror, and the reflection will be perfect. To remove false beliefs from the mind, the simple secret is to enter the truth—the spirit of truth. To know the truth is to make the mental mirror clean and thus cause every ray of divine light to be re­flected fully and perfectly. The life, the health, the purity, the power and the wis­dom of the within will thus appear in personal form in the without.

We know the truth when our minds reflect the truth; that is what it means to know the truth; but our minds will not properly reflect the truth unless the mental mirror is clean. Perfection means full expression, and the personal man will be a full expression of the true being of man when the mental mirror is so clean that all of true being is reflected. However, when there are "spots" on the mirror, the reflection will not be com­plete; some of the rays of the spirit within will be lacking, and it is this lack that con­stitutes the original cause of every ill that appears in personal existence. When every atom in the personality is full with life and wholeness from within, there can be neither disease nor weakness in any part of the physical body; and this fullness invariably appears in the personality when the mind reflects the whole of true being. When the mirror reflects perfectly, the reflection will manifest every-thing that exists in that which is being reflected. Nothing will be lacking, and that which appears will be just as perfect, just as beautiful and just as true as that which is. The seeming will be the exact likeness of the real, but these two will be one. The reflection does not exist apart from the real; therefore we must never think of the reflection as real. We must never think of the body as real; it is simply a reflection of the real; and when the mental mirror reflects properly, the physical reflection will be just as beautiful and just as wholesome as the spiritual reality.

When the true being of man is perfectly reflected in personal existence, the Word becomes flesh, and the tangible elements of the body become external pictures of the divine idea within—the spiritual idea of absolute truth. Accordingly, materiality, grossness and physical ills must disappear, because those conditions are simply the result of confused reflections. When the mind reflects the wholeness of the spirit, the body becomes as pure, as clean, as refined and as beautiful as the spirit; and likewise, as strong as the spirit. The life, the power and the divinity that is within will manifest in the without, and as the spiritual man is so will the visible man be also.

To try to heal the body is therefore not only unnecessary, but is actually an ob­stacle in the way of healing. Emanci-pation comes to the body only when the fullness of the spirit of truth finds expression in the body, but before the body can receive the expression of truth the mind must know the spirit of truth. The reflection becomes true to the real when the mirror becomes true to its own function. When the mental mirror reflects the perfection of true being the body will express, in every atom, the perfection of true being. But so long as we are trying to heal the body by simply dealing with effects as we find them in the body, we will not give our attention to those causes that exist beyond the body. So long as we devote all our efforts towards trying to remove defects from the reflection, we will do nothing to remove defects from the mirror. It is the defects in the mirror that cause the defects in the reflection; it is untrue states in the mind that produce untrue conditions in the body; therefore, no attention need be given to the healing of the body; such efforts will profit nothing. Do not think of the body, because it is only a reflection and not a reality; give your attention to the mind; make the mental mirror clean; remove the false and the foreign from its surface so that it may become perfectly clear in every part. And you do this by immersing the mental mirror in the crystal waters of the spirit of truth. In brief, enter the spirit of truth, and your mind will become as pure as the spirit of truth. Thus you may clearly see and perfectly know the truth; all your thoughts will reflect the truth, and your visible being will be the expression of truth. Outer being will become a true reflection of true being, and you will realize in personal existence what you have learned to know in spiritual existence.

What we think of as disease is simply a broken reflection, and not a reality in itself. But this broken reflection cannot be reset; it must be removed completely and give place to a true reflection; and the true reflection appears when the mirror is made clean. The reason why the mental mirror is not always clean is found in the fact that the mind can be impressed from without. Everything that enters through the senses will impress the mind, and if consciousness is not selective, many impressions will be formed that are not in accord with absolute truth. Such im­pressions will become "foreign material" as it were, upon the glass of the mirror, and will hinder true reflection. But we must not close the mind to the world of sense; we are here to manifest the real, and to do so the within must act upon the without; we must be conscious of the without and susceptible to all that is taking place in the external world. However, we should look upon life, not from the viewpoint of the valley, but from the view-point of the mountain top.

When we look upon life through the limitations of the personal vision, we do not see things as they are, and accordingly those impressions that come from without are not true; but when we look upon life through the vision of the spirit and from the heights of absolute truth, we see all things as they are; the mind is thus impressed with the truth, both from within and from without. No "foreign material" is permitted to gather upon the mirror because all the im­pressions that enter the mind are rays from the omnipresent light of universal truth; and rays of light will not produce "spots" upon any mirror. When we see all things as they are, the mind receives nothing but truth from any source. We can open the mind fully to the world of physical sense as well as the world of spiritual sense; only rays from the light of truth will come upon the mental mirror; and that mirror will reflect only the truth through every part of body, mind and soul.

To reduce physical substance to its last analysis is to discover that the physical body is not solid. It appears to be solid, because those elements of which it is com­posed vibrate at a rate that produces a sensa­tion that we interpret as tangible; and that sensation serves a true purpose in our present sphere of existence, but the sensation of a thing and the thing itself are not the same. When we think of the body as solid we not only school ourselves to believe that the physical can only with difficulty be changed or modified by the mind, but we also form the habit of viewing the body as "material" And whenever we think of anything as "material" we cause "materiality" to gather over the glass of the mental mirror. Thus we hinder the true reflection of perfect being, and bring upon ourselves conditions that are incomplete, misdirected, adverse, imperfect and untrue. But when we think of the body, not as solid matter, but as spirit made visible, every thought that we form of the body will be a spiritual thought, and such thoughts invariably convey the health, the wholeness, the power and the life of the spirit.

When we realize that all physical con­ditions are reflections of mental states, and realize that we can create all our men­tal states in the exact likeness of absolute truth, we elevate the mind to the lofty position of absolute supremacy over the body. We take our place as complete masters of our own personalities and every­thing that personal existence may contain; and when we place ourselves in the position of mastership we begin to exercise master­ship. He who realizes that he is master of his life, will gain the power to master his life. When we know that all physical con­ditions are reflections from the mental mirror within, we are no longer in bondage to con­ditions; we know that we can reflect what we like, and therefore produce any physical condition that we like. Simply to know this great truth is to take the mind out of bond­age into freedom, and when the mind is free from adverse conditions the body will be free from those conditions also. The mind that is free from adverse conditions will not reflect such conditions; and your mind becomes absolutely free from all conditions the moment you realize or inwardly know that you can reflect any condition that you may desire.

When you know that you can walk you are not in bondage to the thought that you cannot walk, because there can be no such thought in your mind. Likewise, when you know that you can fill your body with the power of absolute health, you are no longer in bondage to disease. When you know that you have the power to do what you wish to do, it is not possible for you to think that you do not have that power. You cannot feel the absence of something when you feel the presence of that something. When you know that you are true being, it is not possible for you to think that there is anything wrong or untrue in your being; and so long as you do not think that there is anything wrong in your being, no wrong can possibly exist in your being. To think the whole truth is to reflect the whole truth, and when the whole truth is reflected in your life there will not be any room for false' conditions in your life. You will be perfect and whole through and through.

When you realize that your true being is perfect and whole in all things, and that your visible personality is simply a reflec­tion of what you think of your true being, your atti-tude towards both the without and the within is in perfect accord with absolute truth. You have placed yourself in perfect harmony with the true order of things, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and you may henceforth give full expression to the true in every part of your being. You realize that your personality is completely in your own hands, because he who controls the source of light may determine the measure of light that is to be given. All obstacles to a complete mastery of the outer life has been removed through your realization of the great truth that you can bring forth any measure desired of the inner life. And you find that your greatest purpose is to gain a more and more perfect realization of true being so that you can reflect in the personal man all that has existence in the wholeness, the perfection and the divinity of the real man.


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