What Can Be Healed
by Dr. Ernest Holmes
What Can Be Healed?
What should we try to heal through spiritual treatment? If we were dealing only with the power of a thought, we should not expect to heal anything; but if we are dealing with a Universal Principle, why should we set any limit to Its power?
Since the Law of God is Infinite, from the spiritual viewpoint, there is no incurable disease, as opposed to a curable one. The Law knows nothing about disease; It only acts. The practitioner realizes that his word is the presence, power, and activity of Truth, which is in him, which is Almighty, which is God, “beside which there is none other.”
This word is the law unto the thing whereunto it is spoken, and has within itself the ability, the power, and the intelligence to execute itself, through the great Law of all life. This word being the spontaneous recognition of Living Spirit—Infinite, Ever-Present, and Active—is now made manifest in and through this person, or thing, about which the practitioner is thinking.
To Spirit there can be no incurable disease. The word “incurable” means not susceptible of being cured. The root definition of cured is “cared for.” If we say that a disease is incurable, we are saying that it is not sensitive to care. As long as any cell is alive it is sensitive to care, which means that as long as a person is alive, the cells of the body respond to care. Naturally, they are not being cured if they are not being properly cared for. We have already learned that disease is largely a state of mind, and we could hardly say that a state of mind is incurable, could we? We know that thought is constantly changing, forever taking on new ways of expression. It cannot possibly remain permanent. It has to change. Can we not, accordingly, change it to a better state instead of to a worse?
Materia medica is using the term “incurable” less and less frequently, for most disease in the field of medicine is being cured. Let us then free ourselves from the assumption that any disturbed state of thought need be permanent (“incurable”).
Suggestions for Treatments
In giving mental and spiritual treatments, it is better not to dwell too much on the negative, since we are liable to give it undue importance. To affirm the presence of God is better than to deny the presence of evil. However, if the presence of evil persists in making its appearance, it is sometimes well to deny it, to know it is neither person, place nor thing, that it does not belong to us, and that it cannot operate through or around us. It is neither cause, medium, nor effect. It is neither imagination, idea, nor reflection. It is neither visible nor invisible. It cannot emanate from God, and does not emanate from man. The devil is a myth, and heaven is lost merely for the lack of an idea of harmony. “Stand still and watch the sure salvation of the Lord.” This Lord is always an indwelling Presence. The individual “I” which is an incarnation of the Universal “I Am.”
A practitioner should think of his patient as a perfect entity, living in a perfect Universe, surrounded by perfect situations and governed by perfect Law. The entire Universe is devoted to his good. “All the Father hath is thine.” “Arise, O Son, and take.” This taking is better accomplished through an affirmative attitude of mind than by dwelling too much on the negative. “Behold!
Holmes, Ernest. The Science of Mind: The Definitive Edition (pp. 215-216). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.