A Surprise Law of Healing

The last frontier of medicine is the body-mind connection.

How much easier of a job medical doctors would have if they started incorporating this aspect!

Many years ago, as a result of stress, I had developed what the medical doctors called a “pre-ulcer condition,” which was basically a made-up name that indicated that the doctor didn’t have a clue as to what the cause was.

This was a painful condition that caused me to spend hours in the bathroom doubled over with gas pains.  The doctor put me on the wonder drug at the time, Tagamet.  The symptoms disappeared — for one week.  When they came back, I went back to the doctor, who told me, “We’ll have to double the dose.”  I walked out of there and threw away the rest of the pills.  Luckily, a co-worker told me about aloe vera juice, which worked better than the magnesium drinks I had been guzzling.

Still, I had to continue to treat, though a swig of the aloe vera juice would quell the symptoms for a while.

Then I came across the article that I got permission to publish below.  I did the exercises described in the article in the evening and literally the next day the pains were gone.

Only years later did I realize that the author of this article, Catherine Ponder, is also the author of a book that held a life-changing lesson for me, “The Prosperity Secret of the Ages.”  But that is the subject of a future blog post.

I hope you get something from the article.  If you’re not comfortable with the word “God,” please insert a word that resonates with you (for example, “my higher self,” or “The Force”).

ooo O ooo

A SURPRISE LAW OF HEALING

by Catherine Ponder

 A puzzled lady said to a friend, “I cannot understand it.  I have the nicest neighbor who is dying of cancer.  It seems so unfair, because this is one of the kindest, gentlest people I know.”

The friend replied, “She may seem kind and gentle, but if she is dying of cancer, then there is some old negative emotion that is literally consuming the cells of her body.  There is probably someone she hates.”

When the puzzled visitor replied, “No, that cannot be,” she was advised: “‘Search no further and you will find there is something or someone this person needs to forgive.  Always where there is a health problem, there is a forgiveness problem.”

Later the mystery was cleared up.  The one in doubt reported:  ‘You were right.  I learned quite by accident that this neighbor has a relative whom she violently hates.  They have not spoken in thirty years.”

Though Jesus pointed it out twenty centuries ago (Luke: 5), the surprise law of healing is still a surprise to most people.  It is the law of forgiveness.

It is an immutable mental and spritual law that when there is a health problem, there is a forgiveness problem.  You must forgive if you want to be permanently healed.  When you bypass forgiveness, you bypass health.

The surprise is in how many people try to find their way back to health without first cleansing their emotions of the cause of their diseases.  Health cannot be accepted by a body that is filled with the poisons generated by unforgiveness.

The nature of cancer may indicate some secret resentment or bitterness.  Though one has been outwardly sweet and submissive, she has been inwardly grieved, hurt, intolerant and severely critical.  As in all forms of disease, unwise living habits are usually indicated, too.  That is the blessing of learning how to think right.  As you employ proper thinking, you unconsciously relate it to proper rest, diet, exercise and other health habits.

The act of forgiveness dissolves the negative attitudes and memories that are lodged in the conscious and subconscious levels of your mind.  Since your mind is located right within your body, your thoughts and emotions occupy space in your cells, bloodstream and organs of your physical being.  Unless a mental and emotional cleansing takes place, such negative emotions fasten your health problems to you.

In spite of advances in scientific and medical research, no pill has yet been created that can cause a sick person to do the first thing she should do, metaphysically, toward gaining permanent health — forgive.

Yet there is nothing unpleasant or embarrassing about the act of forgiveness.  To forgive does not mean that you have to bow and scrape to those whom you feel have offended you.  To forgive literally means to “give up” that which you should not have held on to in the first place!  To forgive means to “replace” the ill feeling, to gain a sense of peace and harmony again.

In most instances, you need make no outer contact with those involved in your forgiveness act, unless an occasion arises that demands it.  If such an occasion does arise, it will be a part of the healing process.  As you change your attitudes toward others, they will unconsciously respond by changing their attitudes toward you.

Your first act of forgiveness may not bring the changed attitude and peace that you seek, though it will bring improvement.  You did not build up those resentments with one strong negative thought.  Neither will one strong positive thought sweep them all away.  Sometimes you have to persist.

You may not even be aware of what or whom you need to forgive in the past or present.  It is not necessary that you know, although often it will be revealed to you, as you invoke forgiveness.  The only requirement is that you willingly speak words of forgiveness, and let those words do their cleansing work.

There is a simple way you can practice forgiveness:  Daily meditate upon and speak forth these words:  “All that has offended me, I forgive.  Whatever has made me bitter, resentful, unhappy, I forgive.  Within and without, I forgive.  Things past, things present, things future, I forgive.”

One woman learned of the healing law of forgiveness, and began to use it, hoping for improvement of her health.  For an entire year she daily decreed:  “I fully and freely forgive.  I loose and let go.  I let go and let God do His perfect work of healing in my mind, body and affairs.”

When a long-standing health problem faded away, her doctor said it was a miracle.  She said it was the miracle of forgiveness.  At the end of that year, she also received another miracle — a large inheritance — from one of the people she had just spent a year forgiving!

Resentment, condemnation, anger, the desire to “get even” or to see someone punished or hurt, are things that rot your soul and tear down your health.  You must forgive injuries and hurts of the past and present, not so much for the other person’s sake, as for your own.

One Day She Realized That the Lump in Her Breast Was Gone

Hurt or hate of any kind scars the soul and works on illness in the flesh.  The illness will not be fully healed while you continue to remain unforgiving.

A woman discovered a lump in her breast.  Instead of frantically rushing out to negatively discuss it with others, she decided to analyze the situation mentally and pray for guidance.

She realized that a hard condition in the body indicates a corresponding hard condition in the mind.  She thought, “What hard thoughts of resentment, condemnation, unforgiveness, am I holding?  What or whom do I need to forgive?”

Since the answer did not come immediately, she continued every day to meditate and ask:  “What hard attitudes do I need to release and give up, in order to be forgiven this condition?”  In meditation one day she found herself thinking about her husband and a woman with whom he had been involved five years previously.  She realized in that meditation period that she still held hard thoughts about that distressing period.

For the “other woman” she decreed:  “I freely forgive you.  I loose you and let you go.  It is done.  It is finished forever.”

For her husband she mentally said:  “I freely forgive you.  You are now a faithful, loving husband, and we have a wonderful marriage.  Only good has come from that experience.”

She declared those words of forgiveness in her daily meditation time for several weeks.  One day she realized that the lump in her breast was gone; she never knew when it disappeared.

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel.  Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.

It is easier to forgive those you are inclined to condemn, resent, even hate, when you remember this:

They have not really failed nor disappointed you.  They have not even let you down.  They may have stumbled while crossing your pathway.  But, in reality, they cannot keep your good from you.

Often people try to shrug off the need for forgiveness:  “That is not my problem.  I have nothing to forgive.”

If you have a problem, you have something to forgive.  If you experience pain, you have a need to forgive.  If you find yourself in unpleasant circumstances, you have a need to forgive.  If you find yourself in debt, you have a need to forgive.  Where there is suffering, unhappiness, lack, confusion or misery of any sort, there is a need to forgive.

There is an old proverb:  “He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”

When your good is delayed, that is the time to forgive.  Often everything stands still, and there is a deadlock, until forgiveness is released into the situation by you.

Forgiveness begins with the one who recognizes the offense.  When you get the offense out of your own heart, you have forgiven.

A young couple had long sought to adopt a child.  They were a healthy, happy, prosperous, intelligent couple; yet adoption agencies constantly turned them down.  It was a baffling problem.

One day the wife learned that when your good is delayed it indicates a need for forgiveness.  As she began to daily practice forgiveness, decreeing:  “I fully and freely forgive anyone or anything that needs forgiveness in my past or present,” old hurts, resentments, grudges, prejudices and unhappy memories came to her attention.  To each she said, “I forgive you and release you.”  A sense of peace was established.

Later she learned of an out-of-town adoption agency with which she had had no previous communication.  Contact with them led to the adoption of a lovely baby.  Forgiveness can sweep aside all that has delayed you in your race toward good.

If you dare to forgive, you will gain control of the situation.  You may not have had any prior power to solve the problem.  But suddenly there will be a change.  The situation will begin to shift and rearrange itself.  You will find a solution appearing.  The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good.  No good thing can be withheld from the forgiving state of mind.

A Healing Formula

Along with forgiving others, it is also necessary to forgive yourself.  Self-condemnation leads to dire results in matters of health and finances.  Are you unforgiving of your circumstances?  An unhappy childhood?  The loss of or neglect by parents?  The loss of some material blessing?  Do you blame your losses, ill health or other problems on God, instead of realizing the problems are self-inflicted?

Charles Fillmore, the Kansas City businessman who cofounded the Unity movement, while experiencing a dramatic healing, once gave a healing formula that has inspired millions.  He described it as a sure remedy:

Here is a mental treatment that Fillmore said is guaranteed to cure every ill:  Sit for half an hour every night and mentally forgive everyone against whom you have any ill will or antipathy.  If you fear or if you are prejudiced against even an animal, mentally ask forgiveness of it and send it thoughts of love.  If you have accused anyone, if you have criticized or gossiped about anyone, withdraw your words by asking that person, in the silence, to forgive you.  If you have had a falling out with friends or relatives, do everything in your power to end the separation.  See all things and all persons as they really are — pure Spirit — and send them your strongest thoughts of love.  Do not go to bed any night feeling that you have any enemy in the world.

A housewife had large painful lumps under both arms.  She feared a medical examination, realizing it would probably produce an incurable diagnosis and a major operation.  Her meditation for healing was of no avail even though she had learned of the healing law of forgiveness, and spoke words of forgiveness toward others.  But when she began to speak words of forgiveness for others toward her, something dramatic occurred.  The lumps under her arms, with their attendant swelling and pain, began to subside, and finally disappeared.

You have the power to deliberately speak words that will cause others to forgive you.

A fine statement to use for the forgiveness of others toward you, is this:

“I am now forgiven by everything and everyone of the past and present that needs to forgive me.  I am now positively forgiven by everyone.”

You can be assured that:

Forgiveness is all powerful.

Forgiveness can heal your ills.

Forgiveness can make the weak strong.

Forgiveness can make the cowardly courageous.

Forgiveness can make the ignorant wise.

Forgiveness can make the mournful happy.

Forgiveness can unblock whatever has stood between you and your good.

Let it.

 

Excerpted from THE DYNAMIC LAWS OF HEALING by Catherine Ponder.  Copyright 1966 by Catherine Ponder.  Reprinted by permission of DeVorss & Co., P.O. Box 1389, Camarillo, CA 93011-1389 (http://www.devorss.com).