The Effect of Thought on Health

The Effect of Thought on Health

MUCH has been said on this topic by psychologists, psychiatrists and religious thinkers, and because it is such an important issue, it bears another look. If there is a relationship between thought and health, as research and academic studies show, it becomes imperative to identify what type of thought is beneficial or predisposes to good health.

  Many make a case for positive thinking, some advocate mental manipulation, while others recommend imagination; however one fail safe way of thinking that always leads to good health is spiritual thinking — thought which has its basis in God; thought rooted in the divine rather than in the human, material and mortal, with God, rather than brain as its source. Leaving the brain out of the basis of thought may sound radical, but that does not make it an impossibility.

  Recently, a highly educated man visited his sister in hospital. His healthcare routine involved regularly using the best equipment available to measure and monitor what he termed his vital health statistics.  That day, he left home feeling well. He experienced no untoward symptoms that would suggest ill health. While waiting to see his sister in the hospital, he decided he might as well check his blood pressure. The reading came back high. Immediately he began to feel unwell. A couple of days later, still feeling ill, he mentioned this development in his health and the circumstances surrounding it, in a discussion with one who studies spirituality and health. His attention was drawn to the effect his thought and his health. He was encouraged to think of himself as spiritual rather than material, and base thoughts about his health on God, rather than on the readings of a machine. Immediately the nagging symptoms vanished. Even the measuring machines now proved normalcy.

  There is nothing strange about this healing, if spirituality is understood. Christ Jesus healed this way. Knowing the truth about health — what God knows about it — has been found to set individuals free from disease. In Science and Health with key to the Scriptures, Christian healer, Mary Baker Eddy, explains Jesus’ healings thus: ‘Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man, the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.’ Eddy employs the word ‘science’ to indicate spiritual understanding or God’s law.

  Many in Nigeria and around the world are proving the efficacious effect of spiritually based thinking on health, just as the Nigerian gentleman did recently. Such thought is based on God. It acknowledges that man is God’s likeness, not material, but spiritually perfect. Eddy recommends holding thought steadfastly to the spiritual sense of being, because she found from her healing experience, that good health results proportionably as God based thinking occupy thought.

  Holding thought steadfastly to good in a manner that brings about spiritual understanding — starting from the premise of spiritual man, results in better health.

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