THE

WORD

JULY 1915

MOMENTS WITH FRIENDS

What is disease and what connection have bacteria with it?

Disease of the body is a condition in which the constitution of the tissues of one or more organs of the body is abnormal to such a degree that the function of the organ or organs is impaired or the function of one organ is thrown out of the normal relation to another or other organs. The result is that the elements in nature are no longer in harmonious connection with the human elemental—that is, with the co-ordinative, formative principle of the body.

Disease is caused by improper eating, drinking, breathing, acting and improper thinking. A disease is an obstruction to the normal working of elementals which compose and work the organs of the physical body.

Bacteria are fungi, microscopic plants, mostly of rod-like, lance-like, rope-like shapes. Bacteria are said to be the cause of many infectious diseases and of non-contagious, constitutional diseases as well.

While bacteria have much to do with diseases, bacteria are not the causes of disease. Bacteria develop as soon as conditions for their multiplication are provided, and these conditions are brought about by improper thinking, acting, breathing, eating and drinking. Bacteria in quantities sufficient to produce disease cannot exist where man has not furnished them a fertile ground for their propagation in his body. Generally, almost uniformly, putrefaction and fermentation in the digestive and excretory systems are primary producing causes of conditions under which bacteria find favorable lodgment and development.

What is cancer and can it be cured, and if it can be cured, what is the cure?

Cancer is the name given to a set of malignant new growths in the human body, which develop at the expense of the surrounding normal tissue, and usually prove fatal. Cancer is one of the diseases which are on the increase with the progress of civilization. Civilization breeds diseases, notwithstanding preventative measures and curative treatments which subjugate forms of disease which were prevalent in the past. The nearer the life of human beings is to the animal and natural mode of living the fewer will be the diseases; but the higher bred the body and the farther removed from its simple conditions, the more susceptible will it be to diseases. With the advance of time, forms of disease develop which were before unknown, and diseases which occurred occasionally become more frequent. The higher the development of mind the more susceptible to disease will the body be under the same or like physical conditions. In the nineties of the last century a new disease, known then as la grippe, made its appearance and spread rapidly over large portions of the civilized part of the world. In a similar manner cases of cancer are said to be on the increase.

There is a cancer cell that is physical. There are many of these in every human, but usually they are later developed, and so they remain unnoticed. There is further a cancer germ, and that is not physical, but is astral. The germ is usually present in the astral body, but it is latent; that is, it does not cause the development of the cancer cell. Certain conditions are required for the activity and multiplication of the cancer germ. Two of these conditions which are frequently in evidence are the condition of the matured physical body, which is characteristic of the age of forty years and upward, and a mental state best illustrated by fear. Therefore, fear and the age of about forty favor the production of cancer germs and so development and multiplication of the cancer cells.

Cancer can be cured and has been cured. An answer to this question and a treatment of cancer was outlined in “Moments with Friends” in the issue of The Word, September, 1910, Vol. XI., No.6.

A Friend [H. W. Percival]