Maintaining Health | Page 5

of cases, what to expect if instructions are
followed. He can say positively that there will be no relapses and no
complications.
How different is this from the unsatisfactory practice of conventional
medicine! However, most physicians refuse to accept the valuable
teachings which are offered to them freely, and one of the reasons is
that the natural healers do not present their knowledge in scientific
form. The knowledge is scientific but it is simple. Such objection does
not come with good grace from a profession practicing an art. Life is
but a tiny part science, mixed with much art.
The true scientist in the healing art is he who can take an invalid and by
the use of the means at his command bring him back to health, not in an
accidental manner, but in such a knowing way that he can predict the
outcome. In serious cases the natural healer of intelligence and
experience can do this twenty times where the man who relies on drugs
does it once. The physicians who prescribe drugs are ever on the
look-out for complications and relapses, and they have many of them.
The natural healers know that under proper treatment neither
complications nor relapses can occur, unless the disease has already
advanced so far that the vital powers are exhausted before treatment is
begun, and this is generally not the case. In this book many of the
medical fallacies of today, both professional and lay, will be touched
upon in a kindly spirit of helpfulness and ideas that contain more truth
will be offered in their place. The truth is the best knowledge we have
today, according to our understanding. It is not fixed, for it may be
replaced by something better tomorrow. However, one fundamental

truth regarding health will never change, namely, that it is necessary to
conform to the laws of nature, or in other words, the laws of our being,
in order to retain it.
No one can cover the field of health completely, for though it is very
simple, it is as big as life. The most helpful parts of this book will be
those which point the way for each individual to understand his relation
to what we call nature, and hence help to enable him to gain a better
understanding of himself.
By natural living is not meant the discarding of the graces of
civilization and roaming about in adamic costume, living on the foods
as they are found in forest and field, without preparation. What is
meant is the adjustment of each person to his environment, or the
environment to the person, until harmony or balance is established,
which means health.
One of the most difficult things about teaching health is that it is so
very simple. People look for something mysterious. When told that
good old mother nature is the only healer, they are incredulous, for they
have been taught that doctors cure. When informed that they do not
need medicine and that outside treatment is unnecessary, they find it
difficult to believe, for disease has always called for treatment of some
kind in the hands of the medical profession. When further told that they
have to help themselves by living so that they will not put any obstacles
in the way of normal functioning of their bodies, they think that the
physician who thinks and talks that way must be a crank, and many
seek help where they are told that they can obtain health from pills,
powders and potions or from various inoculations and injections.
To live in health is so simple that any intelligent person can master the
art and furthermore regain lost health in the average case, without any
help from professional healers. There is plenty knowledge and all that
is needed is a discriminating mind to find the truth and then exercise
enough will power to live it. If a good healer is at hand, it is cheaper to
pay his fee for personal advice than to try to evolve into health without
aid, but if it is a burden to pay the price, get the knowledge and practice
it and health will return in most cases. The vast majority of people

suffering from chronic ills which are considered incurable can get well
by living properly.
The more capable and frank the healer is, the less treatment will be
administered. Minute examinations and frequent treatment serve to
make the patient believe that he is getting a great deal for his money.
Advice is what the healer has to sell, and if it is correct, it is precious.
The patient should not object to paying a reasonable fee, for what he
learns is good for life. People gladly pay for prescriptions or drugs. The
latter are injurious if taken in sufficient quantity