Dr. Richard Cabot, one of America’s leading physicians in that era stated that
75% of all illnesses cure themselves, most without anyone’s even finding out
that they were present. "No scientific man, he said, uses the word incurable
because there is no reason to use it. Incurable simply means that the cure has
not yet been discovered." Another New Thought doctor stated that all true
healing is spiritual healing and that drugs did not heal because the approach
was too materialistic. This was 1926!
From the number of healings reported each week, we can conclude that our Unity
pioneers knew the teachings of Jesus not as theory, but as practical
principles, which applied with faith, produced the same results that Jesus
got. How many times did Jesus say that faith has made you well?
Our pioneers knew that the body is affected by thoughts and emotions, and that
until the awareness of the source of healing is established in mind, it will
not manifest in body and affairs. Imelda Shanklin wrote in a 1926 Weekly Unity
article, "When a word of Truth is spoken with conviction of its power it
starts on its journey from the center of life with us out into the world of
manifestation. In pushing outward it sends before it the thoughts and
attitudes that have been lodged in mind and drives out darkness that it may
radiate the glory of the Infinite."
What is healing? The root word holos means wholeness. From the same
root is derived holy, holistic and health. Healing is opening to God’s
presence and experiencing the Truth of our being as wholeness. All healing is
accompanied by a growth in consciousness of the wholeness that we already are.
Spiritual healing is a cocreative process. Cocreative means that God has a
role and we have a role. God’s part was done in the beginning when man was
created whole, made in the image and after the likeness of God. Wholeness is
the reason that healing can occur at all. Our part is to culture an awareness
of that wholeness. An awareness of wholeness invested with faith brings it
forth into expression.
Jesus, the man, did not heal anyone, nor did he ever take credit for the
healings that are attributed to him. It is the Christ within that does the
work. The title of Charles Fillmore’s book Jesus Christ Heals, is
present tense. It is not Jesus Christ Healed. The same Christ consciousness
that Jesus expressed so fully exists as the source of healing within each
individual and can be accessed more easily today because Jesus paved the way
for us.
Jesus is not a mediator, but a model to follow. He made a shift in
consciousness so profound that it opened up a pathway into the spiritual
dimension. In the concluding chapter of Jesus Christ Heals, Charles
Fillmore credits Jesus with reestablishing the direct connection with God that
gives us access to his consciousness. He writes, "Jesus Christ released the
electric atoms in his body and formed a conduit in the ether through which
divine life is again flowing to the inhabitants of this planet."
With the rise of the holistic health movement in this New Age, one would think
there would be healings by the thousands. Yet, many today still believe that
spiritual healing stopped with Jesus and the apostles, and that today we must
look for material remedies. The Truth has not changed. The Christ within us as
the source of healing potential is still there awaiting our recognition. The
teachings of Jesus and the message of Unity based on those teachings have not
changed. What is needed is a reminder that the faith of our Unity pioneers was
based on disciplined spiritual practice. As Charles Fillmore wrote in the
Twelve Powers of Man, "You cannot live and grow on the reflected light of
Jesus of Nazareth. The only begotten Son of God must come forth in you as it
did in Jesus." Eric Butterworth once said that Unity was the toughest religion
because we had to take responsibility for the conditions of our lives.
Jesus taught his disciples to put God first. He taught them the practice of
the silence, "going into the inner chamber and closing the door and praying to
the Father in secret." He taught them to pray affirmatively, believing that
they had received.
The Fillmores practiced the silence, not for a few minutes but for many hours
each day as Jesus himself did. They prayed affirmatively. I have seen
affirmations, handwritten in grease pencil by Charles Fillmore in the
archives. Myrtle made a daily practice of the I am statements of Jesus; she
especially liked "I am the resurrection and the life," knowing that it is the
Christ within that reenlivens what has died in us. Both of them used the Bible
and a metaphysical interpretation of it as a spiritual tool, and they taught
other Truth students to do the same.
By culturing an awareness of the Christ through spiritual discipline, our
Unity pioneers fulfilled the promise of Jesus and did the works that he did.
When Jesus was called to do healing work, the disciples who sometimes
accompanied him were Peter, James, and John. Metaphysically, they represent
three faculties of mind that figure most prominently in the healing process,
namely, faith, judgment, and love. Our pioneers had the faith that perceives
wholeness, no matter what condition exists in the body, and affirmed that
wholeness with boldness and authority. In giving credit to God for their
healings, they were demonstrating righteous judgment, seeing themselves not as
victims, but as divine instruments, manifesting through adversity the glory of
God. Through the spiritual faculty of love they were able to be a
compassionate healing presence for themselves and others. We honor our
heritage by living up to the high standard, the Jesus Christ standard, that
our pioneers set for us.