DISSOLVING A FALSE BELIEF
Question—Please explain your method of dissolving a false belief.
ANSWER-A false belief is dissolved from the subjective by a repetition of the truth in its place. It is a right-about-face, a mental action in the opposite direction from the habitual one. A drop of clear water, repeatedly let fall into a bottle full of dirty water, will eventually show the bottle to be full of clear water. Repetition is the key.
A false belief, when recognized to be false, is displaced by a repetition of what you know to be true. Your first repetitions may seem to be more intellectual statements in which your emotions play no part, but if the statement is repeated often enough, with the sincere desire to believe it, the moment comes when the last resistance "lets go," as the last drop of muddy water was washed from the bottle. It takes time, patience, and a determination to win, but the result is highly worthy of the effort.
IRRITATION OF THE SKIN
Question—I have a very irritating condition of my skin, which has continued for several years. When I was a young girl I had a similar condition for five years. An analyst has traced the case and finds the periods of skin eruption to parallel two experiences in my life when I was much disturbed by people with whom I was forced to live. Could that have been the cause and can it be healed by Religious Science?
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ANSWER—We are taught that whatever is held in mind must come forth in form. If you have been irritated mentally, and have not been able to adjust yourself to the undesirable cause of the irritation, it is but natural that it should manifest objectively sooner or later. On the other hand, you may be unaware of the cause, it being so deeply covered in your subjective that it has not come to your consciousness. Criticism and inability to live with people, to adjust oneself to the many, brings about many disorders. A deep-seated resentment against persons or conditions will surely manifest itself in the form of some disagreeable physical reaction. The first step toward healing is one of honest self-analysis: What has been your habitual feeling toward the persons around you? Have you really tried to LET THEM LIVE AS THEY SEE FIT, while claiming the same freedom for yourself? Watch with unrelenting zeal that no unlovely thought enters your mental world to register its residence. When you take your firm stand, and declare that "None of these things move ME!" the undesirable conditions will drop away from you.
Treat thus:
"The center of my being is Understanding and Intelligence, and It knows how to sweeten my experiences. I charge It with this ameliorating power and give thanks that my word brings back to me the sweetness I speak into it. I am whole, sound and perfect, in thought, act and body. I am cleansed from every thought that is contrary to that of love and tolerance."
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