Life Supreme — Page 104
LIFE SUPREME cure lay only in the mind's belief. 107. Two doctors carried out the following experiment to test the effects of imaginative thought. After several normal medicines had been given to patients in a ward the doctors suddenly had them informed that in error they had been given an emetic (medicine to cause vomiting) instead of their correct medicine. Within a short time many of the patients were vomiting. . There is the well known case of a condemned prisoner who was told that he would be executed by being bled to death. He was blindfolded, pricked, and informed that blood had started to flow. Warm water was trickled down his arm which he could hear dripping into a bowl on floor. The conversation of those present convinced the prisoner that he was becoming weaker from the loss of blood and it was not long before he died. This is a classic instance of the power of the mind over the body. . These are but a few of numerous illustrations which could be cited demonstrating the power of the mind over the body. . THE ETHERIC BODY. Since time immemorial there has been held the belief, based on personal experience, that in addition to the physical body man possesses a more subtle body which has the capacity of projecting itself out of the body. It is often referred to as the astral body. It is not the soul but rather it is the vehicle of the soul. . The etheric body withdraws from the physical body during sleep and unconscious conditions. It can also withdraw during wakefulness and semi-consciousness. These withdrawls are involuntary and spontaneous though some persons are able to project at will. . As the etheric body is the inner vehicle of the soul, it is natuaral to suppose that the soul accompanies it on those occasions when it is detached from the physical body. The Holy Quran teaches that while the soul is taken from the body at the time of death it is also taken during sleep: "Allah takes away the souls of human beings at the time of death and during the sleep of those also that are not dead. And then He retains those against which He has decreed death, and sends back the others till an appointed term. In that are surely signs for a people who reflect. 23 (39:43)