Phineas Parkhurst Quimby

tecnh

WHAT IS MAN?

August 1862

What is "man?"

There is a great difference of opinion in regard to this question.

For my part - I believe that every substance throws a shadow.

Now is man the substance - or the shadow?

I contend that what the world calls "man" is not the substance of man, but the shadow - and if he is the shadow - what is the substance?

Wisdom is "solid" - and man is the shadow.

Then how it is that the substance - shadow has a form?

~ By the design of Wisdom.

"God"
is the name
of the Great Wisdom
that decides and governs all things
through the medium called "mind"
which becomes the shadow.

Wisdom (or God)
speaks the idea
and it takes form
according to direction.

Man is the plant (or tree)
created in this medium.

So as it grows
it receives its Light
from the Great Father of All -
Wisdom.

As this Life enters the plant (or shadow) called "man"
it becomes the Son of God.

The original
Child of God
is perfect,
but its shadow is
- to the child -
matter.

So the matter (or mind) called "man"
is the tree (or plant) that receives the Life.

This Life is the real man -
the shadow is the medium (or mind)
and that is the changeable idea (or tree) called "mind."

Man - or the Son of God (or Wisdom)
is not seen in the shadow
no more than God is seen,
but the whole creation
speaks His name
and shows His power.

So all created things (or shadows)
show by their motion and act
that there is an intelligence
that governs and directs them.

"Man" is the name of that wisdom
that directs all the acts of the human species
and also which governs and directs the brute creation
beyond what is natural.

The natural brute is like the natural fruit...
the cultivated brute is the effect of man...
the natural man (or savage)
is like the natural fruit...
the cultivated man
is the developing
of the original seed -
the Scientific Man (or God).

The grafted fruit (or ideas)
is the development of the Scientific Man.

Life is not intelligence
but is the ocean in which Wisdom lives.

Matter (or mind) is the shadow of life
so as Wisdom is in life
it speaks ideas into existence.

It shadows forth life and knowledge
but not Wisdom,
for Wisdom is the substance
and knowledge the shadow.

So a man of wisdom
and a man of knowledge
have two separate identities.

The sick man
is the effect of knowledge
or opinion -
and to cure him
is to destroy his opinion.

It may be said a child has no opinion -
and yet it has a disease....

A disease and an opinion
are one and the same,
for they are both in the mind -
and neither contains any wisdom,
for wisdom destroys both.

It is true that you cannot see
the effect of an opinion
on the body
always,
neither can you see
a "disease"
as it is called,
at first,
but after a while
you see the phenomena.

This is the way with an opinion.

There are certain "facts"
as they are called,
that are true
and everyone
will admit them as such.

A certain poison - arsenic
is admitted to be a poisonous substance.

Who made it poison?
It must be God (or Wisdom).

If the wisdom of man
is a part of God -
can it not make a poison
by a certain direction of the mind?

For mind is the substance
Wisdom works in.

Mind is matter -
and all kind of matter
is the result of Wisdom,
and if man knows himself
he is capable of making matter
from the invisible mind.

Everyone knows
that stones
are found
in the bladder.

So the mind of man
contains all the elements
of the vegetable
and animal
kingdoms,
so these
must be
under the same control
that man's body is.

teloV